60-some years in a little town
called Bath, England, in the southeastern part of the continent. And at Jay's death, he said that
he'd give two or three dozen of the preachers coming out of
seminary with master's degrees and doctor's degrees. He said,
I'd give two or three dozen of them for just one more William
Jay. And that's how about that song. We've got a lot of ground
to cover this morning. There might not be enough time
to try. All right, this is our reading.
We're going to do our songs in just a minute. I want you to
open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. And this is home base. This is our text that comes out
of the statement we're about to read. But our reading passage
will not come out of 1 Corinthians, but rather it will come out of
a different passage of Scripture in our Bibles. 1 Corinthians
Chapter 4. Ah, yeah, I guess I need to turn. 1 Corinthians 4-7. This is not a new statement to
us and we often use it to illustrate other things in the Bible and
sometimes put it on by itself. But this is our text this morning.
Our text is three questions all arising out of this one statement
in 1 Corinthians 4-7. The first one is who, and that
one is all capital letters. Triune God. Who makes you to
differ? And that has an unbelievable
amount of application. Who makes you to differ from
another, which is italicized, therefore is not in the original.
You can leave it or take it out. And second question, what have
you that you did not receive? And the third one begins, now
if you did receive it, why do you glory or boast as if you
had not received it? Now we live at a point in time
when religion has become so degenerate. that people can believe anything
and belong to any Baptist church in this whole county. It makes
no difference what you believe, whether you believe the truth
or not, because the truth has fallen on hard times. And it's
rarely found in our day where a congregation or meeting around
nobody but Christ, not themselves, not what we do, not what we don't
do. It's not about those things.
It's not about doing. doing is a deadly thing as the
hymn. Let me read this once more. For who makes you to differ from
another? And what do you have that you
did not receive? And if we received it, why do
we boast as if we had not received it? Alright, my next scripture
and the only scripture for reading this morning apart from that
verse is Matthew Chapter 25. Here again, this is not new.
But what this chapter says in just a short space of verses
would destroy the average Baptist congregation in this country.
Just the statements that are made in the Bible, single- Now
the reason we come to this passage for reading It sheds a great
deal of light on that statement in 1 Corinthians 4. We're going
to begin in Matthew 25 at verse 31. I can't do much more than just
read this or I'll be already shot in my time and I don't want
to do that. Matthew 25, 31. When the Son
of Man shall come in His glory, the
second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, when the Son of Man shall
come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him. Then shall
He sit upon the throne of His glory. Well, where is He now? Oh, He's sitting on the same
throne. But this is judgment day. Wherever Christ is, don't
ever forget this, wherever He is, He's still on His throne,
no matter where He is. He's still King of kings and
Lord of lords. And before Him shall be gathered
all nations from every generation, from every period of time on
the face. All of Adam's descendants will
be gathered together on that day. And it says, and he shall
separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep
from the goats. Those are two key words now,
sheep and goats. And sheep is the plural of sheep
as well as the singular. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats Now, if you know much about the
Bible, you already know that the right hand is the first. Verse 34, then shall the King,
our Lord Jesus Christ, the King, He shall say unto them on His
right hand, who is that? The sheep. Here's what He says
to them, come You blessed of my father
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world." Then prepared before creation ever took place. And
here's the basis that our Lord makes this statement concerning
his sheep. For I was hungry and you gave
me no food. I'm sorry, I was hungry and you
gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me
drink. I was a stranger and you took
me in. Naked and you clothed me. I was
sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came
unto me. Then shall the righteous... Now
here is the Lord Jesus putting words on the tongue of His sheep. Here's what we say. Then shall
the righteous answer Him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry
and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see
you a stranger and took you in, or naked and he clothed you?
Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come unto you?
And the king shall answer and say unto them, Amen, verily I
say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the
least of these my brethren, and please note that there is no
comma before the word my brethren. Therefore, he's talking about
this deed being done for somebody's brother, which is a favored term
in our Bibles to mean fellow believers. He said, you've done
it unto me. Verse 41, we have another group
now, and mind you, there are but two. Nothing else is mentioned
except sheep and goats. I'll come back to that when I
start. Verse 41, then shall He say unto
them on His left hand, depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil at His angels. I was hungry and You gave me
no food. I was thirsty and You gave me no drink. I was a stranger
and You took me not in, naked, and You clothed me not, sick
and in prison, and You visited me not. Now what's this response? What did the sheep say when the
Lord told them what all they should do? Lord, we don't remember
doing those things. We're not counting them. We're
not trying to keep track of them. We don't turn in a report every
week saying I visited the sick here and there. That's us trying
to live on our works. That's what religion has to use
when people are not converted because there's no impetus inside
themselves to cause them to want to do these things. But here's
a totally different situation now with the goats. Then shall they answer him saying,
Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked
or sick or in prison and did not, when did we not minister
unto you? Now this is blatant, absolute
blasphemy to stand before Christ on judgment day and tell him
what all we've done for him. The believer is thinking only
about something else. Verse 45, Then shall our Lord
answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you did
it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me. And these, the goats, shall go
away into everlasting punishment. Judgment is over. the sentence
is pronounced. But the righteous... Returning
to 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 7, let me shorten my questions. Three questions. The first one
is who? This is the Lord God Almighty,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Who makes me This can cover a
lot of ground. It covers the world of nature,
the world of providence, and the world... And it is God who
makes us who and what we are. Where we're born, who our parents
are, what our ancestry is, what nation we live in, all of these
things God has determined since old eternity. It's His divine
purpose. Wherever I'm born is where I'm
supposed to be born, and wherever I live is where I'm supposed
to live. Who makes me to differ from God? And what do I have that wasn't
given to me? Food, grace, mercy, the gospel. Now, if we did receive them,
why do we want to act like we haven't received them? Now these
three questions are gospel questions if there's ever been a gospel
question. It's one that needs to be addressed to our generation.
Oh, that we could get our message out even further than it now
goes. I know nothing about a computer
or the internet, but I understand that there's some places on there
you can find stuff. But you can't think about somebody
else when you're standing face All right, let's put us a marker,
if you've not already done so, at 1 Corinthians, and we jump
back to the Gospel of John. Here's what I'm trying to do.
I want to show you that Matthew 25 is no isolated passage of
Scripture. In John chapter 10, we'll read
here in just a moment, and I've shortened it to just a few verses. and not read the whole chapter
because I know I'd never finish it and it'd be time to go. Let
me summarize what we're trying to say and what this Word of
God unfolds before our eyes. Not just Matthew 25, 1 Corinthians
4, and now John chapter 11, but a host of other scriptures to
tell us in no uncertain terms that the whole human race is
divided into just two categories. That is, sheep and goats. No
other division. You can't be in one group and
then in another. You are what you are and what
God has purposed us to be. Those who are God's elect And
those who are reprobates are separate. In God's mind, they
always have been. In our mind, we only know what
we actually experience. So we may think that somebody
is a sheep and they turn out to be a goat. But don't miss
this. They've always been sheep. There
ain't never been goats. Ephesians 4 about verse 6 says,
maybe it's verse 7, because you are sons, God has sent forth
His Spirit into your hearts. Let's see if that's what it is.
I'll turn to it. And if you don't want to, it
won't hurt my feelings one bit. I've already found it. Verse
6, Galatians chapter 4. And because you are sons, Well,
how long have they been sons? Since eternity. Eternity. Forever. Well, how long are they
going to be sons? Forever. Because you are sons,
God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your heart, crying,
Abba, Father. Daddy, daddy. Now why did he
choose that particular person? Because they're already sons
of God in eternal election. God chose them. And by the Holy
Spirit and the preaching of the gospel, they're discovered and
brought to light. So this distinction between men
was made by God in eternity. The elect of God will never become
reprobates and reprobates can never become sheep. Between the two, sheep and goats,
between the two, there is a great gulf fixed. Remember what in
the parable that our Lord gives in the gospel, what Abraham said
to the man who died and his brothers were still alive on earth and
he found out that he was in eternal torments and he pled with Abraham
to send them a messenger from, you know, from the dead and they
would hear. And what did Abraham say? If they hear not Moses and
the prophets, they won't hear though one rose from the dead.
My soul, the gospel does talk about somebody that rose from
the dead, doesn't it? The blessed son of God himself. David writes
it this way in Psalm 115, verse 1, I think, maybe 1 and 2. Not
unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto your name give glory. See, none of it belongs to us
and it all belongs to him. All right, let's work on John
chapter 10 for a minute. Now, I'm just selecting verses.
It'd be nice if you could read that chapter sometime today.
Who makes you to differ? Let's start with verse 11. Now,
this is our Savior talking about himself as the good shepherd
and talking about his sheep who belong to the shepherd. Verse
11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life
for the sheep. Now look at it closely and it
doesn't say and goats. If that were true, if Christ
died for everybody without exception, then His death is meaningless
unless every last one of them are going to heaven or already
there. to say that He died for everybody
and is trying to save everybody is to castigate the deity of
our Lord Jesus Christ, to make His work absolutely worthless. Now, words cannot be plainer,
and I confess that for about the first 30 years of my life,
I read that verse just like I wanted it to sound. Christ died for
everybody, but by my own choice, you know, the power of my own
will, I became a disciple of Christ. I found out I was lost
and that was a lie. I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Verses 14 to 16. I am the good shepherd and know
my sheep. And they know me, am known of
mine. Verse 15, as the Father knows
me, even so know I the Father. And I lay down my life for the
sheep. And now he says, and other sheep
I have which are not of this fold. Talking here about Gentile
believers and not Jewish believers. though all of them put together
make up spiritual Israel. Other sheep I have which are
not of this foal, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my
voice. Not I hope they'll hear my voice,
they shall hear my voice. And there shall be one foal and
one shepherd." One foal and one shepherd. Down to verse 24. The Jews to whom our Savior is
speaking in John chapter 10 are getting a little antsy and their
tempers are beginning to ball just a little bit. Verse 24,
then came the Jews round about him and said unto him, how long
do you make us to doubt? Charging Christ with being responsible
for their doubting. If you be the Christ, tell us
plainly. And you go back and see what's
just in the first nine chapters of the Gospel of John, and you
talk about plain language. We'll blame anybody but us. Verse 25, Jesus answered them,
I told you and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. But you believe not, because
you are not of My sheep." Whoa! The reason you don't believe
is because... Is that what he said? That's absolutely what
he said. Now try taking that to the Baptist
church down the road and you'll bring the house down and you'll
be in... I've been there and done that,
I know. Believe not, because you are not of My sheep. As I
said unto you, my sheep, the voice that spoke all creation
into me, it's the voice that said in John 18 to all those
soldiers, 500 plus men that came to the Garden of Gethsemane to
arrest Him, He said, who are you looking for? And they said,
Jesus of Nazareth. And He said, I am. And they all
fell backward to the ground. My sheep hear My voice, and I
know them, and they follow. And I give unto them, to His
sheep, and they shall never perish." In that sense, we might be afraid
of many things, but you can't leave this world until your divine
appointment arrives. And if we're His children today,
we'll be We're his sheep now, we'll always be his sheep. All
right, that's who makes you to differ. Second question out of
1 Corinthians 4-7 is, what do you have that you did not receive? Let's turn to the book of Romans
chapter 9. Chapter 9, Romans chapter 9. What do you have? Now look at
your Bible closely and see if it has a verse and a number by
it. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, Esau have I hated. Now people hate this verse. We all do by nature. We don't
like what it says. Preachers will tell you God cannot
hate Well, I just tell you, I can shut that argument up in short
order. It's all over the Scriptures. God is angry with the wicked
every time. Even the plowing of the wicked
is an abomination to God. So let's don't use this silly
notion that God has to be all love. If He's all love and has
no justice, then he can't be God. Every single divine attribute
must honor and glorify God, and it does. I'm not going to tell
you where I'm fixing to read you a statement from, but I'll
tell you and then I'll tell you where to find it. Here's how God operates. Mercy
and God cannot show mercy at the expense of what is true.
This statement suggests, though it didn't really take place,
that in the business of saving sinners, that God's attributes
were at cross purposes with each other. So here is a statement
of reconciliation A reconciliation that truly never had to happen
because God honored all of his attributes in the saving of his
people. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Where on earth did this take
place? On Calvary's tree. the death of our Savior, the
shedding of His blood, answered the justice of God with absolute
certainty, and paid the debt of every last single one of His
people, died for the sins of all His sheep, of all time past,
present, future. So when we come to this statement
in verse 13 of Romans 9, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I
If you truly understand who God is and who we are, then you have
trouble understanding how God could love Jacob, why He didn't
hate both of these boys. But as far as human beings go,
most everybody agrees that Esau was a much finer man than Jacob. Jacob was a plumb scoundrel.
He could steal and look you straight in the face and smile, but God
cured him. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. One more question. I've got more
time than I thought, good gracious. Third question out of 1 Corinthians
4, why do we glory or boast as if we had not received it? You remember in Luke chapter
18, there's a parable by our Lord having to do with the publican.
and the Pharisee, or the Pharisee and the publican maybe is the
way to say it because in the little short parable, the Pharisee
comes up first. And he comes into the temple
and he begins to talk to the Lord. He already spies that publican
over there way behind the back bench. And in his heart and mind,
he just, Lord, I thank You that I've not done this and that and
the other. Lord, I've given tithes of all
I possess. I even tithe the money that comes
from a herb garden. I fast twice a week. And what
does our Savior say? That man went down to his house.
But here's this poor publican, a Roman tax collector, but a
Jew. He was not liked by many people.
He would not so much as lift his eyes up to heaven. He said,
Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. Now, I didn't say this. The Savior
said, this man went down to his house, what? What's the word? Justified, holy and righteous
in God's sight. With the robe of Christ's righteousness
on, we're as holy as the Holy One Himself, perfectly perfectly
righteous. That's the same garment that
was given to those that attended that wedding feast in Matthew
chapter 22. All right, one more scripture.
Y'all have been such good listeners that you might even get out early
today. My hands are shaking. Here it
is, Ephesians chapter 1, I'm sorry. Here's another example and illustration
just as that hymn that we sang to this same verse, verse 6 in
Ephesians 1, that forbids our boast except as we boast in ourselves. I want to read you verses 3 through
6. And let me remind you that in
the first chapter of Ephesians, From the third verse, just a
second, from the third verse to verse 23, there are not but
three sentences. You only find three periods. The first one ends, starting
at verse 3 now, I'm not counting the introduction. Starting at
verse 3, we find our first period at the end of verse 6. So we're
going to read a whole sentence. All right, verse 3, blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed
us, the Father has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ, colon. Two periods, one on top
of the other, okay? According, here's how he did
this. Here's how this works. According
as he, God the Father, has chosen us, that's election. You know,
it's like Psalm 65, 4, blessed is the man whom God chooses and
causes to approach unto himself. That's the only way we can come.
According as he's chosen us in him, Chosen us in Christ before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame. Boy, we've got to be in somebody
besides in ourselves, don't we? We've got to be in Christ. Then
it says, in love. Now some people say the in love
goes with verse 4 and some want to put it in front of verse 5.
It doesn't matter to me which way you want it. Verse 5, having
predestinated. Oh my, God's grace is predestined. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption, that's what we were reading about in Galatians
4, 6. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.
And that brings us to verse 6. And that's a common at the end
of verse 5. to the praise of the glory of God's grace, wherein
He has made us, the sheep, accepted in Him. What Christ did, we did. He kept the law of God perfectly.
We never kept it perfectly and can't do so now for that matter.
But our Savior sure did. Let's see, the closing song is
in your bulletin.