Let's open our Bibles, if you
would, to begin our service. Romans chapter nine. Romans the
ninth chapter. We'll begin our reading in verse
nine. And this is the word of promise.
At this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. And not
only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by
our father Isaac, for the children, being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say
then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid, 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's not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy. and whom he will, he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, why
doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall
the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made
me thus? Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and
another unto dishonor? What if God willing to show his
wrath and to make his power known endured with much long suffering,
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction and that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy,
which he had a for prepared under glory, even us whom he has called
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. As he saith
in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people. and her beloved, which was not
beloved. And it shall come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my people,
there shall they be called the children of the living God. Isn't that a blessing? All right,
let's stand together as Shawn leads us in singing our call
to worship. Come, let us join our cheerful
songs with angels round the throne. Ten thousand, thousand are their
tones. exalted thus. Worthy the Lamb, our lips reply,
for He was slain for us. us is worthy to receive honor
and power divine and blessings more than we can give, be Lord
forever. Okay, if you would turn in your
handle to song number 204 and we'll sing turn your eyes upon
Jesus. Oh soul, are you weary at trouble? There's life for a look at the
Savior, and life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. and the things of earth will
grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Through death into life everlasting,
He passed and we follow Him there. Over us in no more hath dominion,
For more than conquerors we are. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look
full in His wonderful face, And the kings of earth will grow
strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace. His word shall not fail you,
He promised. Believe Him and all will be well. Then go to a world that is dying
His perfect salvation to tell. Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look
full in His wonderful face that the things of earth will
grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Turn, if you will, to 1 Corinthians
4. 1 Corinthians 4, our pastors read
as we read verses 1 through 7. Let a man so account of us as
of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of
God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found
faithful. But with me, it is a very small
thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. Yea, I judge not mine own self.
For I know nothing by myself. Yet I'm not hereby justified.
But he that judges me is the Lord. Excuse me, I read that
wrong. I was afraid I was going to do
that. For I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified. But he hath judged me, but he
that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore, judge nothing before
the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to light
the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels
of the hearts. And then shall every man have
praise of God. And these things, brethren, I
have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for
your sakes, that 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? May the Lord bless his word. Our Heavenly Father, we come
to you this morning in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. For his sake and through his
merit, we come to thee. to your throne of mercy. Lord,
we're thankful that you've brought us to this place this morning.
We pray, Lord, that you would leave us not alone, but that
you would send your spirit to be among us. That truly this
morning, two or three here have been gathered in your name and
that you would Send your spirit and anoint your word to hearing
ears, Lord, and receiving hearts. Lord, speak to the new man. Speak to our hearts. Father, we ask that you leave
our pastor not alone, but that you give him a word from thee
to feed your sheep. Father, what we pray for ourselves
here, we pray for congregations throughout the world that, Lord,
we don't know of them, but thou knowest. And we pray that you
would bless wherever men stand to proclaim the word of our Lord
Jesus Christ, to preach the Christ of the Bible, to preach salvation
for sinners, Lord, leave them not alone, but bless. Call your
sheep. Lord, we pray that you would
continue to bless this local assembly, that you would cause
your word to go out from here for many, many years to come,
that you would bless our community through it, that you would call
your sheep into this fold, that we might worship thee together.
Father, we Pray that you would give us not
pride of grace. Lord, you've revealed yourself
to us. You've given us a faithful pastor. You've given us the word of truth. Father, we pray that we would
not glory in what we know, what's been revealed to us. Lord, but
that we should glory in Christ. The person, work, sacrifice,
substitutionary work of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be all
the glory forever. Lord, we're thankful for what
you've given us, but we know it's not of ourselves. We know
it's for Christ's sake. We pray, Lord, that you would
Bless us for Christ's sake, in his name,
amen. All right, keep your Bibles open
there to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. That will serve as our text
this morning. I titled the message, Who Maketh
Thee to Differ? Obviously I took my title from
verse seven where Paul says, who maketh thee to differ from
another? Now the obvious and short answer
to that question is God, isn't it? God is the one who makes
the difference. He always is the one that makes
the difference in everything, spiritually and physically both.
You know, whether you're short or tall, God made the difference. Whether you're white or black,
whether you have some talents or don't have any talents, God's
the one that gave them to you, or God's the one that didn't
give them to you. And this is, I mean, I don't want to say especially
true, but it is at least equally true spiritually, isn't it? But
you have to point this out. I feel like that God's the one
who makes the difference spiritually, because I found that men are
willing for God to make the difference physically, for God to make me
tall or short or fast or slow or, you know, whatever. but they don't want God to be
the one to make the difference spiritually, they wanna do that
themselves, and that's just not so. Now, before we get into our
text, look back at Exodus chapter 11. The Lord gave us such a good
picture of this, that the Lord is the one who always makes the
difference. Exodus chapter 11, here's the
first time the word difference is used in scripture. Exodus
11 verse four, And Moses said, thus saith the
Lord, about midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt and
all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die from the firstborn
of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even under the firstborn
of the maid servant that is behind the mill and all the firstborn
of beast. And there should be a great cry
throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was never like
it, nor shall be like it anymore. But against the children of Israel,
So not a dog move his tongue. Dogs aren't even going to bark
against the children of Israel, against man or beast. And here's
why God's going to do that. That you may know how that the
Lord does put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. You know, and then you think
about what led up to this, the plagues of Egypt, the Lord made
a difference, didn't he? People ought to have seen an
obvious difference between the children of Israel and the, and
the, Egyptians. But boy, this night of the Passover,
the Lord made a difference. There's a bunch of people who
are sorrowing and heartbroken and a bunch of people who are
rejoicing. Who made the difference between the two? God did, didn't
he? There's some people who are dead
and some people who are living. Who made the difference? God
made the difference. There's some people whose hearts
were hardened. and some people who hadn't been given a soft,
tender heart. Their hearts were softened because
of what God had done this night of the Passover. They understood
the blood on the door. They understood the blood of
the lamb. They saw Christ in this and their heart was softened.
But some people's heart was hardened. Who made the difference? God
made the difference. God made the difference. It's
not that the children of Israel, they descended from Abraham,
so they're better inherently than the Egyptians. They're equally
sinful, equally rotten, equally deserving of death. But what
made the difference? The Lord made the difference.
Now, look back in 1 Corinthians chapter four. Now that's the
great picture given to us in the Old Testament of God making
a difference between his people and the heathen, between the
believer and the unbeliever. Now Paul's talking about the
fulfillment of that picture, spiritually, in the salvation
of God's elect. Now you know the story of the
church at Corinth. God had greatly blessed that
congregation with gifts and with preachers and different things,
and they'd been glorying in those gifts. God had showered his grace
upon those people And they had pride of grace, just like Rodin
prayed a minute ago. They were filled with pride after
all these gifts that God had given them. And they looked down
their noses at other congregations. Oh, they're not as blessed as
we are. They're a smaller congregation.
They don't have many gifts. They don't have people speaking
in tongues and working miracles. They don't have as many preachers
as we do. Why, it must be because we're
better and they're worse. They're taking the credit for
it. If those other congregations
had the same faith we did, why, Lord bless them, like they did
us. And not only did it cause them
to look down their noses at other congregations, it was causing
strife with each other too. Paul says there at the end of
verse six, you're puffed up one against another. It's causing
division and conflict between the members of that congregation
too. Now, like I said, there's no doubt. The Lord had blessed
the church of Corinth. He blessed them with preachers.
He blessed them with understanding of the scripture. He blessed
them mightily. But it wasn't because of any good found in
the Corinthian believers. It was just because God would.
It's just because of his mercy and grace that he determined
to bless them in ways that he did not bless other congregations.
It was because of God's goodness, not their goodness. And I can
show you that if you look back at Romans chapter three. It had
to be, all the blessings that they received and how great that
this congregation had become, it had to be because of God's
grace. It had to be because there's no difference between any son
of Adam. No difference in us by nature. Romans 3 verse 9. What then? Are we better than
they? No, in no wise, in no way are
we better than they, for we have before proved, both Jews and
Gentiles, that they're all under sin. As it's written, there's
none righteous. No, not one. There's none that
understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all, a whole human race are gone out of the way
and they are together become unprofitable. There's none that
do with good. No, not one. And verse 23 says,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's
no difference in us by nature, is there? We're all completely
lost in sin. We're all defiled by sin. We've all gone away from God. We've all gone after our own
way. There's no difference in any of us by nature, believer
and unbeliever alike. There's no difference. Now, there
are differences between the saved and the lost, aren't there? I
mean, some are saved, some are lost. Some are found, some are
still lost. Some are righteous, some are
unrighteous. Some have spiritual life, others are spiritually
dead. Some have faith, some do not
have faith. There's a difference between a believer and unbeliever.
And there's differences amongst believers. Every believer bears
the fruit of the spirit, but some more than others. Some are
more loving, some are more forgiving, some are more generous. There's
differences between believers in the gifts that some have. But who made that difference?
So that's the question we're looking at this morning. Who
made that difference? God did. God did. So first I
want us to look at this. How is it that believers and
unbelievers differ? Now there's a difference between
a believer and unbeliever. There's no difference in us by
nature, but there is a difference between a believer and an unbeliever. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? There has to be a difference
or else Paul wouldn't ask that question. Who made them differ? Well, God did. God, the father
in his electing love made a difference. He chose some to save out of
Adam's fallen race and he chose to pass by others. As we read
there in Romans nine to start the service, the Lord made some
vessels of honor. He made some vessels of dishonor
in that his right half not the pot or power over the clay, In
electing love, the Father made a difference. Then in redeeming
love, God the Son made a difference. Oh, what a difference it is to
be in Christ and outside of Christ. The Son came to save a people,
a specific people. All those people that the Father
gave him to save in eternity, The son came to save him. He
didn't come to try to save somebody. He didn't come to save as many
as might would accept him. He came to save, the angel said,
his people. Those people that belonged to
him, because the father gave them to him. He came to save
his people from their sin. And my how he did it. You think
of what it cost the son to redeem his people from their sin. Shawnee
had to love him. I mean, you wouldn't do this
for somebody that you don't love. He humiliated himself. The Prince
of Glory. I mean, this is, John said when
he saw heaven, he said, it doesn't need a sun, because Christ the
Lamb is the light of it. The light of glory. The Prince
of Glory. The glory of glory. The one who
makes heaven glory hid his glory, covered his glory in a human
body. and limited himself to a human
body. He suffered the humiliation of
lowering himself. No one has ever gone lower than
the Son of God being made flesh, except for the Son of God being
made sin. And he suffered all of that,
being made under his own law, keeping his own law to redeem
his people from their sin. Knowing what it would cost him,
knowing the terrible, terrible, terrible suffering of body and
soul, when he made his soul an offering for sin, knowing what
it would cost him, he went to the cross willingly. They didn't
tie him up and drag him there. He went willingly. You know why? Because he loves his people.
And he went there to cleanse them from all of their sin. I
mean, how offensive. Must it have been for the son
of God to endure that mock trial and have those people lie on
him? How offensive was that? How offensive
was it to the son of God to be stripped naked, nailed to a tree,
and hung between heaven and earth for everybody to mock while he
suffered and died? Mm-mm-mm. But he did it to redeem
his people because he loved them. Oh, he loves his people. Greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. Here's how you know God loves his people. He sent
his son to be the propitiation, the sin covering by shedding
his blood to cover their sin, the blood of his sacrifice and
wash them white as snow. It's the love of the son that
makes a difference between the believer and unbeliever, isn't
it? Then it's the regenerating love
of God the Holy Spirit that makes a difference. The Holy Spirit,
the Lord said, blows where he listeth. He goes where he wills
and he gives life to one and passes the other one by. It's
all because of the gift of God the Holy Spirit. Now there's
a big difference between life and death, isn't there? I mean,
there's a huge difference between life and death. Who made the
difference? It wasn't me making the decision
for Jesus. It was the Holy Spirit giving life just because he would. You think of the difference between
a believer and unbeliever, it's because of the love of God. It's
because God has let you know him. He's let you know him. Now I freely admit to you, I
do not know everything there is to know about God. Different
events happen and somebody, You ask, what do you think the Lord's
doing here? I have absolutely no idea. None whatsoever. I mean, what
God's doing, it's so far above my pay grade. I don't know everything
there is to know about God, but by God's grace, you know what?
I know him. I know him. I know his character. I know how he saves sinners. I know him. I can, by God's grace,
honestly say with the Apostle Paul, I know whom I have believed. Chip, I know him. That's why
I trust him. Because by God's grace, he's
revealed him, so I know him. John said in 1 John 2 verse 3,
hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. Now what's his commandment? It's
to believe on the name of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. If
I know God, I believe him. God made that difference. There's
all kinds of people that don't know God. They don't know anything
about the character of God. They think God's like some old
grandpa up in heaven, or they think God's like them somehow.
You know God's not like you, and we're thankful, aren't we?
But why do you know that and they don't? It's because God's
been pleased to reveal himself, that's why. God's people, here's
a difference between the believer and unbeliever. God's people
love the word of God. They love it. People in false
religion, they've got to use the writings of men. They've
got to use all these things, you know, to read and study because
they can't open and read and study God's Word because they
don't know what it says. But also, it holds no interest to
them. God's people love God's Word. They love to read God's
Word. They love to have God's Word
open and preached to them. Thus saith the Lord. A believer
loves that. An unbeliever finds no interest
in it. What made the difference? God did, didn't it? You understand
God's word. Now I know that there's lots
of things that we don't really understand about God's word,
but yet every believer understands God's word. I understand that
it all speaks of Christ. And when somebody takes God's
Word and glorifies Christ from it, I say, oh, that's what that's
saying. I see. Yes, my spirit's bearing
witness with his spirit. It's God's Word. He applies that
to the hearts of his people. God's Word speaks to the heart
of God's children. God's Word feeds and instructs
God's children. It comforts them and strengthens
them. It blesses their hearts. You know, especially, I use the
example of Wednesday night, because people got to gather together
out of the world. You've been out in the world
all day, and your feet are dirty. And you drag yourself in here
thinking, I may as well not go. I'm too tired. I'm too beat down
by the world. I'm not going to hear anything. but you drag yourself in here
anyway and the words open and preach to you and you find your
heart is strengthened and comforted and fed. It wouldn't happen for
the unbeliever. Who made the difference? God
did when he gave you a new heart, didn't he? He made the difference.
Here's another big difference between the believer and unbeliever.
If you're a believer, all Things. All things. Things that we know
about, things that we don't know about. Things that we understand,
things that we don't understand. Things that we like, things that
we don't like. All things are working together
for your good. It's going to be painful for
the time, but I promise you this. When we awake in Christ's likeness
and glory, and we look back on our life, we're gonna see all
things, indeed, work together for good. Whatever it takes, whatever the
Lord has to do to take me from where I am in this sinful, wretched
body of flesh, and to cause me to awake in glory,
in Christ-likeness, Whatever it takes to go from here to there,
that's good. That work together for good.
Not so to the unbeliever. Not so. Now God has given these
things only to his people. Only to his people. The Lord
simply did not choose to give these things to unbelievers.
In his wisdom, in his justice, he passed them by. God didn't give them to angels.
You think of the angels. They are such greater, more glorious
creatures than we are. I mean, these angels are in the
presence of God Almighty. And from what we read, a third
of that heavenly host fell, followed Lucifer and his rebellion and
fell, cast out of heaven. Reserved in chains, darkness
until the day of judgment. God didn't send them a redeemer.
God didn't send the Holy Spirit to them to give them life. He didn't send a preacher to
them that they might hear the gospel and be given faith in
Christ. There's no representative for angels. God did not take
on him the nature of angels. He took on him our nature. The
nature of men to be the representative of sinful men and to give them
redemption in Christ. God did not choose to give that
to the angels. But he has given these things
to his elect and made them different from every other creature in
his creation. I think about that and I'm awestruck. I'm awestruck. I feel foolish
even trying to talk about it. You just can't, you can't preach
the glory of this high enough, can you? God made the difference. All right, here's the second
thing. What is it that believers have
received from God? Paul says, who maketh thee to
differ from another? And what hast thou, and what
hast thou that thou didst not receive it? What do you have
that you didn't receive from God? Not one blessed thing. Not one blessed thing. You know,
a person say, well, you know, I went out and worked for that.
Yeah, you did. Of course you did. But who gave
you the ability to do it? Who gave you the ability to,
you know, to go work a job or to, you know, whatever? I used
to know a fellow. I played a lot of basketball
when I was a young fellow in high school and so forth. And
there was a fellow that, he went to Portsmouth High School, our
greatest rival. And I like to play basketball.
And I went in the summertime, played basketball with this guy.
This guy was playing a completely different game than me. I mean, whew. And I just thought,
well, you know, The Lord's given him the ability to, you know,
jump this high off the ground and hand-eye coordination. He
can shoot the ball from anywhere. And he told me, he said, you
know, we were just these bitter rivals and we became friends
later. He told me, he said, you know, I went out and worked at
that six, seven hours a day. You know what I did to him? I stood just and jumped up and
down, up and down, up and down, up and down, until I could jump
higher. I mean, I shot 1,000 basketballs a day until I learned
to shoot. I worked at that. That's true.
But who gave you the ability to do that? I mean, you just
apply that to any difference in anybody. But especially between,
now we're talking about the difference between a believer and an unbeliever.
Those that have faith, those that don't. Those that have life,
those that don't. What is it you've received spiritually?
Everything. Everything God requires of me,
he's given me. I haven't produced one thing.
Every believer has received the electing, saving, calling, regenerating,
keeping grace of God. We have received grace, grace. John said, 1 John 1 verse 16,
and of his fullness, have we all received grace for grace. And that word for should be translated
because, because it's grace because of grace. It's grace heaped upon
grace. Now, grace, grace is receiving
something that you do not deserve. Then by definition, you can't
earn it, can you? You can't deserve grace. It's
impossible. It's impossible to earn something
that you don't deserve. God must give us grace freely,
even though we don't deserve it. And believers receive grace,
receive grace from God because of the Lord Jesus Christ, because
he is full of grace. because of His fullness. We receive
full, free grace. Grace to save, grace to regenerate,
grace to call, grace to keep, grace to glorify. It's all found
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ of His
fullness is enough to give grace to every believer from one man. That's where we received it from.
Every believer's received sight. Now we're born spiritually blind,
aren't we? But we've received sight. We weren't educated into
sight. We received sight. It's not LASIK
surgery where God takes what's already there and improves it
so that we see. The flesh never sees. But one
time I was blind. And now I see. Our Lord told
the disciples of John the Baptist, Matthew 11, verse five, He said,
you tell him the blind receive their sight. The lame walk, the
lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear. The dead are raised
up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them. The Lord
told them, you go tell John the Baptist that, because this is
the evidence that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. He's coming,
doing what was promised of him in the Old Testament scripture.
He came to give sight to his people, spiritual sight. Now, how do I know if God's given
me sight? Well, if God's given me sight, tell you what I see.
I see myself. I see that I'm the sinner. It's not you all are sinners.
I've told you this so many times. I've grown up Calvinist. I've
always believed in the total depravity of man. Always I believed
that. I believe that you all are totally
depraved. That's what I believed when I
was blind. When God gave me sight, I'm totally depraved. I'm the
problem. I am the sinner. God's given
me sight, so I see my need. I need Christ. I need him. And that's why I love when somebody
preaches Christ to me, because I need him. I see the sufficiency
of Christ. He's all that I need. It's not Christ plus my profession.
plus my worst plight, Christ, plus my good Christian living,
I need Christ. He's all I need. He's all I need
to stand accepted before the Father. When God gives me sight,
now I see. what the big deal is all about.
Why are these people so thrilled in hearing this gospel, which
is this exact same thing over and over and over and over and
over and over and over again, just from a different text? How are
they so thrilled to hear the same thing all over again? Now I see what the big deal's
about. It's the glory of Christ. I understand. God's, I've received
sight. Every believer's received. the
salvation of our souls. We didn't earn it. We didn't
deserve it. We got it as a blessing from the Lord. David said Psalm
24 verse five, he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and
righteousness from the God of his salvation. We receive salvation
from the God of our salvation because of the God who chose
us because of the God who became a man and suffered and died to
earn it for us. Because of God, the Holy Spirit,
who came and put it in us. It's because of God we're saved. We're saved from the wrath of
God. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. There's no condemnation, there's
no wrath left, because Christ suffered it for us. We're saved
from the controlling power of sin. Now, we still sin. You can say, well, I don't want
to sin, but I still do sin. I say, I'm not gonna do that.
And then I do it. So it doesn't feel like I'm safe
from the power of sin. Well, you're safe from the power
of sin in this way. Do you remember a day that you wanted to believe
Christ and couldn't? You could not believe. You could
not see. You could not rest in Christ.
I don't care how hard you tried, you couldn't do it. It was the
controlling power of sin that stopped you. Now you believe
Christ and you can't not believe him. You can't quit believing
him. You're delivered from the controlling power of sin. There's
a new sheriff in town. Every believer has received that.
Every believer has received the word of God in us. By the new birth, we've been
made partakers of the divine nature. You've received Christ
himself in you, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ has
made you his tabernacle. He dwells in you. James 1 verse
21 says, wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity
of naughtiness and receive, receive with meekness the engrafted word. the word that God puts in you,
which is able to save your souls. What James is talking about there
is the seed of the word of God that the Holy Spirit plants in
your heart to give life. A new nature, a nature that loves
God, a nature that believes God, a nature that looks to Him. You've
received that. You didn't earn it. You didn't
put it in yourself. You received it. Every believer
has received instruction from the word of God. Look back at
Proverbs chapter one. It's the word of God that instructs
the believer, instructs us in righteousness and instructs us
in every way. Proverbs one, verse one. The Proverbs of Solomon, the
son of David, king of Israel. to know wisdom and instruction,
to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of
wisdom, justice and judgment and equity, to give subtlety
to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. Now
a wise man will hear and will increase learning and a man of
understanding shall attain unto wise counsel. Now why is it that
you're wise enough to hear and be instructed by the word of
God? You received it. You received it, that's why.
John said, a man can receive nothing except to be given him
from heaven. And God gives his people everything
that he requires. Everything. Every believer has
been given the gift of repentance. Acts 5 verse 31 says, him hath
God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and savior for
to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins.
God has given his people, every last one of them, the gift of
repentance. Now what is repentance? It's
a turning. It's a radical change of mind,
180 degree turn, to turn to God, to turn to Christ, and turn away
from our idols. Every believer has turned to
Christ, to look to him, to trust him, because God's given us the
gift of repentance. Every believer's been given the
faith in Christ. And we didn't earn it. We didn't
conjure that up. We didn't make ourself believe.
We don't believe because we're smarter than somebody else. God
gave us faith in Christ. He didn't ask us if we wanted
it. He just gave it. He just gave it. By grace are
you saved through faith. And that's not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God. And what a gift. What a wonderful
gift faith in Christ is. That faith lets you lay hold
on Christ. That faith makes you pleasing
to God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Somebody that does not have faith
cannot please God. But you have faith, please God,
because you look to his son, because you trust his son. Who made the difference? It's
what God gave, isn't it? God made the difference. Look
at Luke chapter 18. Many believers will often think,
you know, I've sacrificed a lot here. I've sacrificed a lot to
follow Christ. I've, not only have I given up
all, you know, my glory and my credit and, you know, to trust
Christ, I've given him my money and my time and efforts and all
these things. I've sacrificed a lot. Well,
look at Luke 18 verse 28. Then Peter said, look, we've
left all and followed thee. What Peter's asking is what are
we gonna get? We've left all and followed, what are you gonna
give us? And he said unto them, verily I say unto you, there
is no man that hath left house or parents or brethren or wife
or children for the kingdom of God's sake who shall not receive
manifold more in this present time and in the world to come,
life everlasting. You don't, don't you, just don't
even worry about not giving God. Don't think, well, if I give
this, I'm not gonna be, God's gonna bless you in this world.
He said in this world, he'll provide. But spiritually, oh,
he's gonna give life everlasting. Life everlasting. Don't look
at this now as an investment. Think, well, I'm gonna give a
lot, and then God's gonna give me life everlasting. That's investing.
That's words. God's gonna give it to us. We're
gonna receive it freely. because the Lord Jesus Christ
suffered and died for us. Everything that a believer has,
we've received as a gift, haven't we? A gift of God's grace. We didn't deserve one of them. All right, so here's the third
thing. How should I react to this? How should I react? God
made the difference. Everything I have, God gave me.
If somebody else doesn't have it, it's because God didn't give
it to them. what God, by His mercy and grace, decided to do,
then what should my reaction be? You know the only way that
I can be different than the way I was born in Adam is if God
makes me different. Isn't that right? The only way
that I can have anything that God requires of me is if God
gives it to me as a free gift of His grace. Then here's my
reaction. I'm gonna beg God to save me.
It's God's to give, that I'm gonna beg God, I'm gonna fall
down his feet, I'm gonna beg God to save me. Lord, would you
give me these gifts? Lord, give me repentance. Turn me to Christ. I love what
David said, turn me and I'll be turned. Lord, turn me, give
me repentance. Lord, give me faith. Give me
faith to trust Christ. Give me the fruit of the spirit.
Give me love and joy and peace and long suffering. Make me forgiving. Make me a help and encouragement
to God's people. Let me bear the fruit of the
spirit. You know, my reaction is first of all, to beg God.
And second of all, humility. I mean, God made the difference. Anything I have, God had to give
it to me or else I wouldn't have it. that my reaction is humility,
humility before God. And isn't that the only right
attitude for a person to have? Humility before God. How is it that I have humility
before God? By living like, by living my
everyday life like I am truly, totally dependent on the Lord
for everything. Not acting all high and mighty
like, well, I got this because I did something so good. It's
living truly dependent on God for everything. Thirdly, my reaction
is this. Humility before men. Humility
before God and humility before men. To truly believe I am less
than the least of all saints. Humility before men is seen not
being so critical. Not being just so nitpicky, you
know, at every little thing somebody does. And not being harsh. Not being harsh. Let's not be
harsh with each other. There's enough harshness out
there. We're not going to treat each
other harsh here. Be forgiving. Be understanding. Be gentle and
meek. Be mindful of others who are
in need and give to them from your abundance to help them.
It's all God's anyway, isn't it? If you have it, God gave
it to you. Use it to help somebody else. That's living in humility
before men. And lastly, my reaction is this.
Be thankful. Be thankful. Being thankful is the hallmark
of every believer. It has to be. If everything you
have you received is a free gift from God, we have to be thankful. Paul said in 1 Thessalonians
5 verse 11, in everything give thanks for this is the will of
God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Give thanks, be thankful. One of the things I hate the
most about myself is finding that I'm ungrateful and unthankful
when the littlest thing goes wrong. After all God's already given
me. I hate that in myself. Be thankful. I believe we'll
be more thankful if we remember God's gonna make a difference.
And everything we have, God gave us and whatever it is he's given
us, it's enough. It's enough. All right, I hope the Lord bless
that to you. Let's bow before him together in prayer. Our God, we thank you. How we
thank you for your electing, distinguishing grace. How we
thank you for your redeeming grace that the Lord Jesus Christ
suffered and died to put away all of the sin of all of his
people. How we thank you for your life-giving
grace. We would not have life if the
Holy Spirit didn't come give it to us. Father, we're so thankful. Oh, how we thank you. Father,
we pray that you would continue to provide for us, that you continue
to bless your word to our hearts, that you'd make us a help and
encouragement to one another, not be a stumbling block to one
another. Cause us together to look to
Christ our Savior, to trust him and him alone and be a thankful
people. Oh, you blessed us so greatly,
Father. cause us to be a thankful people.
For it's in Christ's name, for his sake we pray, amen. All right,
Sean. Okay, turning your hymnals to
song number 359, and stand as we sing, My Faith Looks Up to
Thee. My faith looks up to Thee, Thou
Lamb of Calvary. Let my prayer take all my sin
away. Oh, let me from this day behold May Thy rich grace impart Strength
to my fainting heart, My zeal inspire. As Thou hast died for
me, O may my love to Thee You're warm and changeless, be a living
fire. While life's dark days I tread,
and griefs around me spread, Wipe sorrows, tears away, Nor
let me ever stray from Thee aside. When ends life's transient dream,
When death's cold swallow Oh, bear me safe above a ransomed
soul.