1 Corinthians chapter 4, we'll
look at the first nine verses. 1 Corinthians chapter 4, starting
in verse 1, 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 am I not thereby justified. But he that judges 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 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 you did receive it, why do you glory as if you
had not received it? You are full, now you are rich. You have reigned as kings without
us. I would to God you did reign, that we also might reign with
you. For I think that God has set forth us the apostles last,
as it were appointed to death. For we are made a spectacle unto
the world, to angels and to men." Now, the Corinthian church is
just one issue after another. And the issue that Paul is dealing
with in the first several chapters is their pride. They were boasting,
and, I'm of Apollos, and I'm of Paul, and I'm of, see, I'm
of these, they were, and that's why he said, you know, to not
think of men above that which is written, that no one of you
be puffed up for one against another. And pride is, pride
will kill a church as quick as anything. It'll kill a church. And what we're gonna look at
is basically just one phrase which the Apostle Paul uses to
deflate any ego at the Corinthian church. Because they were bragging. And then later on in Corinthians,
they were bragging about their gifts. You know, I've got this
gift. I've got that gift. That's why the central chapter,
faith, hope and love, the greatest of these is love. If you don't
have love, you don't have anything. You're just meeting But he's
hoping, and he didn't give up on them, I mean, I'd be frustrated,
especially Paul, I'm going somewhere else, but he wrote two large
letters to them. So Paul's desire is by the Holy
Spirit's enabling to turn pride into humility, to turn their
crowing into silence, their self-boasting into God-honoring reverence for
Jesus Christ. And we all need to be reminded
and exhorted to give God the glory in every situation. Because pride comes to us so
naturally and it is so easy for us to fall into. The phrase that
I want us to look at is found in verse 7. It's the first phrase. For who makes you to differ? Period. Who makes you to differ? Now, the marginal reading of
maketh thee is distinguishes. Who distinguishes thee? Did you
do it yourself by your own prowess, your own intellect, by your money,
your bank account? Have you done these things? Well,
we'll look at that a little bit later. But Paul says, who made you to differ? It's
like the believers without excuse. Everything he does, which Paul
says we live, move, and have our being because God. As we look deep within these
words, may our heart overflow with thankfulness, gratitude, and loving praise
to our sovereign God. Who makes thee to differ? We have to be reminded of this
in every situation, station, circumstance in our life. When I was a kid, I would wonder,
why did I have these parents? Why was I born in this country?
All these different things. Turn with me, if you will. We're
going to look at a few verses. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 8. in everything, by Him all things
consist." We heard that this morning in Bible class. So, whether
I talk about where you were born, or your parents, any of these
things, I can still go back to this verse and say, who makes
thee to differ? Who makes thee to differ? Deuteronomy
chapter 8, and look at verse 18. This is the Old Testament, "...but
thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, For it is He that giveth
thee power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant,
which He sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day." Our Lord
God gave us the power, the mental capacity to sift through numbers
maybe faster than the other person in the other cubicle. Or maybe
you inherited it. That would be interesting. You
had nothing to do with that. It is God that gives the power
to get wealth. Psalms chapter 75. Psalms 75.
I've seen the day when We would just be thankful, Melinda
and I would be thankful if we could just go buy an extra pair
of shoes. Psalm 75, verse 5, 6, and 7. Lift up now your horn on high. Speak not with a stiff neck.
For promotion comes neither from the east, nor from the west,
nor from the south, but God. You doing well at your job? You may be the son or daughter
of somebody important in Jackson and so you got that job by that.
Who gave that person over you the desire to like you? Who makes us to differ? We like to think it's that we
do a good job and we should do a good job. We should be the
best worker as a believer anywhere around. But even that promotion
comes from God. Look at the finish of verse 7,
but God is the judge. He puts down one and sets up
another. And Job says whether he does
it to a nation or a man only. 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12 verses 4 through
12. Now there are diversities of
gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of
administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities
of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in
all. But the ministration of the Spirit
is given to every man to profit everybody." For to one is given
by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge
by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to
another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another
the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning
of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another
the interpretation of tongues, but all these worketh that one
and the self-same spirit dividing every man severally as God wills. For the body is one, hath many
members, and all members of that one body. Being many are one
body, so also Christ." Differing gifts. Differing gifts. Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17 and verse 28. For in Him we live,
move, and have our being. And look back at verse 25 of
Acts 17. God is neither worshipped with
men's hands as though He needed anything, seeing He gives to
all life and breath and all things." That pretty well covers about
everything, doesn't it? Back to our text. So to these
boastful believers, Paul was saying, who makes you to differ? Who makes me to differ? Who makes thee to differ? I'm going to go through several
thoughts. in our human abilities, who and what and how we are. Are we healthy? Are we crippled? I've known several
believers who were crippled. They were still believers. They
didn't talk much about their disabilities because they realized
God is gracious. How about blind? Blind Bartimaeus? How about persons
who has 20-20 vision? How about those who appear to
be more intellectual than others or are you just average or below
average? Wealthy or poor, or poor, or
poor? Let us answer according to the
Scripture. Let us submit humbly to Him in His all-wise providence. Turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter
3. The latter part of verse 18,
Samuel told Eli everything that he had heard. And what did Eli
say? A man of God. It is the Lord.
Let him do what seemeth him good. Eli is about at the end of his
ministry. The end comes for all of us unless he takes us in a
whirlwind. Who makes us to differ? Who makes us to differ? The country,
as I said, that we've been placed or been born in. What a blessing
to be born in this country. It's rich in natural resources. It's rich in food, production
of food, electricity, and water. Well, it's not arid. Turn to Amos chapter 4. Amos chapter 4. Well, it's just
because we live... Hold on. Who makes thee to differ? Amos chapter 4 and verse 7. It's the Lord speaking to Amos,
I also have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet
three months to the harvest, I caused it to rain upon one
city, and caused it not to rain upon another city. One piece
was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not, withered. I, the Lord, do all these things. Who maketh us to differ? Yes,
this country has and is being abused. I'm afraid it's being
abused by believers and unbelievers. We take it for granted. If you ever get time, look at
Acts chapter 16. And we must bless God that the
Holy Spirit stopped Paul from going east, it says, into Asia. And thereby, The Gospel came
to the West. Look at our history. This didn't
happen by chance, it didn't happen by luck, but by the solitary
grace of God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Gospel
went forth. And we're sitting here right
now. We're able to sit here right now. Who caused the forefathers
to separate church and state? I talked to Angus Fisher. Actually,
we don't have international call, but we figured we could do face
or whatever. All of a sudden, my phone's ringing.
And it's like, Angus, well, he said he got in trouble from his
wife. It cost so much because he was
calling, but it was free. We talked for a long time. They are under such a horrible
lockdown. They can't meet. They can only
walk outside for a little bit of time. He said, it is horrible. They haven't met for a month.
And he said, this is not what the Lord said when we gathered
together. He said, I don't like doing it.
It's a blessing to have sermon audio. It's a blessing to have
these, but it's not the same. It isn't the same. And there's other places, other
countries that are that way. The church will get fined $15,000
if they're caught meeting and each individual $5,000. They try to do that here. That's
right. They try to do that here. Whether they're Armenian or Calvinistic,
it doesn't matter to me, but out in California, you've heard
the story. McCarty out there, it's about the same fines. It was $50,000. They met and
they said, we're going to meet. The government, they call it
government overreach. You can call it whatever you want, but
it's horrible. They sued the state, won $600,000. So some of the governors are
starting to back off. Now, until this gets changed,
and it could be coming, our Constitution, and people want to rip it up
and burn it. But why are we here? Why are we here? Who makes us to differ? The grace
of God. May we stand in the grace of
God. Thirdly, who makes us to differ?
Our upbringing, our parents. Some of us here had godly parents.
They prayed over us, you and me. They sought the Lord to call
and save us, call us to the Redeemer. They prayed that God's will would
be done as He sees fit. Others had parents that loved
us, but were not at all religious. And others had to fend for themselves
or worse. Who makes thee to differ? Fourthly, He brought His Word. Somehow,
someday, somewhere He crossed your path with the Gospel and
with the Word, the unerring, infallible Word of God. He brought
the Bible, He separated us unto His Gospel and to salvation.
I look at my own life, and I was brought up religious, but I never
read the Bible. Not until college. Matter of
fact, the churches I went to, nobody brought their Bible. You
did responsive readings. What a blessing to have God's
Word. Which, like I say, a lot of us
abuse. We have multiple Bibles. Deuteronomy 8. Deuteronomy 8
and verse 2. Thou shalt remember all the way
which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness,
to humble thee, to prove thee, and to know what was in your
heart, whether we'd serve Him or not." That's what He did.
We didn't realize it in our rebel days in high school or college
or grade school, we didn't realize it, but God was working His way
in our lives so that He would cross our paths Zacchaeus come down. He led us, it says in Deuteronomy
8, we perhaps didn't know. He humbled us, which always accompanies
salvation. He proved us so we would know
ourselves and our sin, and we would know Him, that we would
follow Him. And it says He revealed our hearts to us. The sinful,
self-absorbed, proud heart. and He would cause us one day
to flee from wrath to come and to fall into the loving arms
of Christ. Did we do that by our free will? No. Did we do
that by our intellect? No. Did we choose what family
to be born into? Did we choose what country to
live in? No, no, no. Who maketh thee to
differ. Look back in amazement, brethren,
and humility. God came our way and called us
by His grace and enlightened us by His mercy. Paul says, when it pleased God,
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in Galatians 1 verse 15. That can be said,
that must be said by every one of us. Our friends, I've heard
you talk, I've had friends, you've had friends growing up, some
of them are religious, some of them are not religious, some
of them say they're atheists, whatever. How come they don't
care? about God. How come they don't
care about the Gospel? Where are they at this morning? They didn't find a way of peace.
They found contentment in the vanities of this world. Who makes us to differ? Well, we still sin and are often
seen so cold. If the Lord has us, He will never
let us go. I should, you should, we should
blush a thousand times since the Lord has saved us. Because
we're so cold of heart. We're so slow to believe all
the prophets have spoken. We're so lax in worship. We may
be here, but our mind's somewhere else. It's the same with me. You'd think I'd be hearing the
hymns, you know, Nathan's singing, everybody's singing, in my mind,
I'm thinking of something else. We're so infrequent at our closet,
praying, giving thanks and alms are given to the Lord. Our mind
is taken up with the cares of this world, yet bless His holy
name, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Is that
us? Who made us to differ? The grace of God in Christ. Grace, you see, is tied to, it's
tied in with our glorious Redeemer. He came to save the vilest, the
chief of sinners. Therefore I have hope for you
and for me. So because He makes us to differ,
Let us in every situation of our day, at every turn, every
waking thought, think upon Him who loved us and gave Himself
for us. The just for the unjust, the
righteous one for the unrighteous many, So is there Bauman Gilead? Yes, there is Bauman Gilead,
and his name is the Prince of Peace, the Mighty God, the Wonderful
Counselor, the Lord Jesus Christ. In closing, let's turn to Ezekiel
chapter 16. Ezekiel 16. Verses 62 and 63. God says, And I will establish
my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord,
that thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open
thy mouth any more because of our shame. when I am pacified
towards Thee for all that Thou hast done, saith the Lord." Every
time we look within, oftentimes it's sin. It's sin and sin and
more sin. But the blessed thing is that
He, by His free, unerring grace, established His covenant with
us. And thereby we know that He is
the Lord, and He indeed, and only He has made us to differ.
Who makes us to differ? God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. And therefore, to God be the
glory. Nathan, would you close us?