First Corinthians chapter four
tonight. It's good to be here with you
tonight. It's good to see some good friends. Brother Daniel
Parks from Louisville, Kentucky, and Brother Marvin and Linda
from West Virginia. Blessing to see y'all. I thought
we might just have a conference to start tonight and go on through
Sunday. And I haven't decided against
it just yet. But it is good to have them here
with us. And I thought about when we were
singing that song in Kentucky and West Virginia and wherever
God's people are, in Tennessee, Texas, we're all gathered in
the same place, aren't we? There is a place where spirits
blend and where friend holds fellowship with friend. We're
gathered around that mercy seed. worship in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is our mercy seat. God said, I'll meet with you
there where the broken law is covered, where the blood is sprinkled.
And it's such a privilege to meet there. And it's a privilege
to meet there with His people. It's a blessing. In chapter 4
of 1 Corinthians, we'll look at verse 7. And we'll look at
a lot of other scripture, but we'll focus primarily on that
one verse tonight. This won't be a complex message. It won't be something that we
have to stretch whatever intellectual abilities the Lord has blessed
us with, great or small. We won't have to think real hard on this as far
as it being a complicated thing. Listen to the verse. It's very
simple, very plain. 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 hadst not received it? What a
question. It's a series of questions, and
this is nothing more or less than a divinely inspired argument
against all boasting in men, all glorying in the flesh." You
know the context of this verse because we've studied it for
some time. If this verse be truly given its due consideration,
if the answer to it, if the answer to these questions from the Word
of God were believed with all of our hearts, Our worst enemy
would be slain in its tracks and God would receive the honor
and glory that's due under his name at all times. Our worst
enemy is the one that robbed us of perfect fellowship with
God in the beginning and would rob us now of the joy and fellowship
of God that's enjoyed in Christ Jesus in this world. And you know the enemy of which
I speak, pride. And let me hasten to add that
this thing called pride is not some abstract quality that men
possess. It's what we are. We are proud, would-be, wanna-be
gods. And this is the monster that
Paul seeks to slay with this letter to these Corinthian believers. He said in chapter four, verse
six, the previous verse that we looked at, he said, I've written
these things to you and I've addressed you the way that I
have, that you might learn in us not to think of men above
that which is written. How are we to know how to think
of men except by that which is written? Don't think above. Why would he warn us against
that? Because it is our constant tendency to do that very thing. To think of ourselves above that
which God has written concerning us. And that no one of you be
puffed up for one against another. In chapter 3, verse 21, he said
this, in summary of all that he had written before, therefore,
let no man glory in men. So we see Paul's object in writing
this letter. And what a way to drive this
truth home by asking these very searching, very plain, straightforward,
but very deeply searching questions. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? And what do you have that you
didn't receive? Now, if you did receive it, why
do you glory? as if you didn't receive it,
as if you had it of yourself, as if you were born with it,
as if it's some quality that you possess in and of yourself.
Why do you glory? Why do you glory? It was the
suggestion, you shall be as gods, that won our hearts in the Garden
of Eden. You shall be as gods. If the
very name and title, God, indicates and establishes authority, and
it does, doesn't it? God. The very name indicates
and establishes His preeminence, His sovereignty, His authority,
His supremacy. And if that be the case, then
can there possibly be a greater crime against Him than to challenge
that authority, that sovereignty, That supremacy, that preeminence. It was this same pride that inspired
the first murder. Cain had but one thing against
Abel, that God accepted Abel in his offering and not Cain.
In Romans 8, 7, we read that the carnal mind is enmity against
God. That word enmity means hatred,
for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can
be. That word subject means submissive. The reason we are enmity against
God by nature is that to our deluded, depraved minds, he is
a rival God to ourselves. This is why we said of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we will not have this man to reign over us. He
can heal us of our diseases. He can teach us some good things.
But we will not be our king. In what character did we mock
and kill the Son of God? As king, we put a reed in his
hand as a mock scepter. We put a purple robe upon his
bloody back. And we put a crown of wicked
thorns upon the brow of the Son of God. And we scornfully, with
all of the vile contempt in our hearts, bowed the knee and cried
out before him, Hail, the King of the Jews, in utter disdain
for his authority. His authority. Do you see this
terrible aspect of yourself? Do we see this in our own wicked
hearts? We know that man is proud. What
about you? What about me? Paul said, Who
maketh thee to differ? He brings it home to the individual
heart. Who maketh thee? What do you
think of when you think of the word God? As we said, that name brings
some truths to mind, doesn't it? God. King David could have
described God in a thousand different ways. when he was inquired of
regarding his god but here's the way he did describe him in
psalm 115 verse 1 David writes not unto us oh lord not unto
us but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake wherefore should the heathen say where is now their god you
want to know where my god is our god is in the heavens he
hath done whatsoever he hath pleased Is that your God? How would you characterize God?
Does not His very name speak of and set forth His sovereignty
and His glorious preeminence? Do you know what David just described
there in that psalm? He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased. Free will. That's what free will
is. Whatever you desire to do, you
can do it. Nothing can stop you. It's described
in another place in Daniel 4 and verse 35. All the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. And He, God Almighty, doeth according
to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. And that's what we have a problem
with, isn't it, as creatures of the flesh. He can do what
He wants to up there. But when he starts meddling in
our affairs, that's when we have a problem with it, when we take
issue. When he starts controlling us,
then we say, oh, that makes us puppets. That can't be right.
But no, he doeth according to his will among the inhabitants
of the earth. And none can stay his hand or
say unto him, what are you doing? When somebody's doing something
that we don't want him to do, that's what we say, what are
you doing? Stop that. Nobody can say that to God, although
we would presume to do so. Do you imagine that it's a coincidence
that at the very spearhead of man's rebellion against God is
the insistence that man has a free will? This is the very definition
of God. He is the free will in this universe. He does whatsoever He pleases.
We name our church as Free Will Church for crying out loud. That's
the spearhead of our rebellion against the God who is the free
will of this universe. Even in your household, not everybody
can do what they want to do. Somebody's going to have to get
their way and somebody's going to have to submit. Isn't that
right? Much less in God's universe. So who is it? Who's going to
have their way? Will it be you or will it be God? That's the
enmity. That's the question. That's the
issue. that's got to be settled here. The scriptures are crystal
clear that we're in bondage to sin and Satan. We're slaves to
our own depravity and to the devil that exploits that depravity. Christ said he couldn't do anything.
He didn't have anything in me. But he got something in us, doesn't
he? And he exploits that. And we follow him by nature. This question of Paul's, and
indeed God's question here in this verse, it rings forth, doesn't
it, in all that we do, in all of our thinking, in all of our
worship, in all of our daily life. Why dost thou glory? Why dost thou glory? Why dost
thou glory, O vain man? Why do you glory in the natural
blessings that God has been pleased to bestow upon you? Why do I
do that? Why do we say in our hearts,
my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth?
Turn to Deuteronomy 8 in verse 10. With me please. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 8. In verse ten, God says to his
creatures, When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt
bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given
thee. Beware that thou forget not the
Lord thy God in not keeping his commandments and his judgments
and his statutes which I command thee this day. Lest when thou
hast eaten and art full, and has built goodly houses and dwelt
therein." That describes us. We're full of good things, aren't
we? And we've built goodly houses, and we live in them, and we enjoy
them. But beware, he said, beware lest that when this is the case
and when your herds and our flocks multiply, we've got a good job,
security, a good income that we rely upon, savings that we
can depend on being there if we come into need, and thy silver
and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied,
then beware, lest thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget
the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of
Egypt from the house of bondage, who led thee through that great
and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions
and drought, where there was no water, who brought thee forth
water out of the rock of Flint, who fed thee in the wilderness
and with manna, which thy fathers knew not." You see all the spiritual
application here. That rock was Christ, that manna.
He said, I'm the bread that came down from heaven. We're rich
and fat in spiritual things too, aren't we? And we're going to
talk about that in a moment. But the material blessings that
God has blessed us with, we're so prone to be lifted up in pride
and to glory in those things, aren't we? And He fed you in
the wilderness with manna, verse 16, which thy fathers knew not,
that He might humble thee, and that He might prove thee to do
thee good at thy latter end. And thou say in thine heart,
My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord
thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth." Everything that we have. Why
does one man make more money than another? Because he's more
skilled? Because he's smarter? It is God that giveth thee power
to get wealth. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? that he may establish his covenant
which he swear unto thy fathers as it is this day." It all has
to do with his covenant with his people, doesn't it? Everything
works to that end. Why do you glory in the good
providence of God? Why do I do that in which God
has been favorable to me all of my life? I remind myself of
Gomer who praised the wicked men that used her. She praised
them for those good things that Hosea, her husband, had left
on her doorstep. And she said, look what my lovers
left for me. When it was her loving husband,
in spite of all of her mistreatment of him, who had left those things
there for her, those good things to eat and to wear. And just
like that, we attribute the good favor of God to this world and
ultimately to ourselves. We say things like fortune has
smiled upon me and I've been very lucky. And then, of course,
we like everybody to know what our real philosophy is. We make
our own luck. We're glorying in ourselves,
aren't we? Why? Why dost thou glory? And above
all, why in this world do we glory in those spiritual blessings
with which God Almighty hath so highly and freely favored
us in Christ. Do you know some things? Do you know some things? Oh,
how easy, how much of a tendency we have to cast a condescending
eye upon those who are ignorant of spiritual things, ignorant
of the truth of Christ, and how quick we are to adopt an I know
more than you attitude. We want to debate and argue so
that we can put on display for everyone to see just how much
more we know than everybody else. How is it that we know anything?
1 John 5 20. We know that the Son of God has
come and has given us an understanding. He gave it to us. That we may know Him that is
true. Do you know Him? What do you have that you didn't
receive? And if you received it, why dost thou glory?" Luke 24, 44, he said unto them,
These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with
you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written
in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me. He opened the word of God and
he said, My disciples, my brethren, my friends, Moses wrote of me,
all of the prophets, the Psalms, All of this is concerning Me
and what I did for you on that cross." And then, He opened their
understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. If He doesn't do that for us
tonight, every one of us will sit here like a pile of rocks.
And we'll get just as much from the Word of God as a pile of
rocks would get, apart from His grace. May the Savior meet with us and
make us to differ. Make us to differ from those
who have no ears to hear. And let all arguing and debating
cease. And we who have some understanding
from God Almighty, may He give us the grace to just tell what
we know simply and without contempt or pride. and let him that hath
ears to hear, hear by God's grace." Do you have faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ? Do you believe on the Son of
God? Where did that come from? Did you exercise your faith?
What is your faith? Can your faith save you? Did
you know that all of the arguments and debates regarding free will
and God's sovereignty boil down really to this question? Where
does faith come from? I've been through it with people.
And it always comes down to that. We can argue back and forth for
three or four hours. And everybody, you know, using
scripture to support their argument. But it always comes down to that.
Did I exercise faith? Is faith something that I am
inherently able to lay hold of Christ with? Is that a flower
that grows in the garden of the human heart by nature? Or did
God plant it there? Did God give me faith as a free
gift of His grace? That's the question it will boil
down to. Where does faith come from? It is either a quality
of natural man that can be exercised by free will, or it is the free,
sovereign gift of God Almighty. Ephesians 2, 4. Turn there with
me. I know you're familiar with this passage of Scripture, but
look at the clear teaching here. Ephesians 2 and verse 4. Paul begins this chapter by speaking
to believers and saying, use just like everybody else. use
children by nature the children of wrath even as others and not
any difference in you than them not but God who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us there's the difference
right there who make it be to differ for his great love wherewith
he loved us even when we were dead in sins just like everybody
else was dead in sins but he quickened us he's made a difference
He quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you saved,
and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. I don't see anything here at
all about anything that I did, do you? That in the ages to come, here's
why He did it, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding
riches of His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. is for his glory. If he doesn't
get glory out of saving you, he's not going to save you. Or
me. For by grace are you saved through
faith. God's almighty, sovereign, free,
electing grace. We know what grace is. It's the
free, unmerited, positively demerited favor of God Almighty. And He saves us by that grace,
and He does it through faith, through us believing on Christ.
Well, there's the difference. Some of us believe and some don't.
Ah, but that's not of yourselves. That's the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should... What? What are we talking about
tonight? Pride. Pride. We are determined. We are masters
at differentiating ourselves from others. But here's the question
from God, who made you different from everybody else? Not of works,
lest any man should do what we're so good at, boast. For we are his workmanship created. What did this earth have to do
with its creation? created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. If I ever do anything that in any form or fashion or
any sense can be called good, it's because God said before
this world was that I do it. In Galatians 5.22, but the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith. If you have any goodness in you,
it came from God. And if you have faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, it came from God. The fruit of the Spirit
is faith. Hebrews 12, 2, looking unto Jesus,
looking unto the object of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ,
but He's also something else with regard to our faith. He's
the author of it. And He's the finisher of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God." That word, author, there. Christ is the author of
my faith. What does that mean? Well, the
word comes from the root word, arche, which means this, specifically,
that by which anything begins to be. Can that be any clearer? My faith began to be because
Christ willed it. That by which anything begins
to be, the origin, the active cause. Looking unto Jesus, the
origin, the active cause of my faith. Who for the joy that was
set before Him endured the cross for this sinner. And then he
went up to glory and sat down on the throne of God as my representative. Is that what happened with you?
Then what do we do in glory in anything at any time? What are
we doing? Why dost thou glory? What if
you ask the thief on the cross this question, who maketh thee
to differ from another? What do you suppose his answer
would be? Can you picture with me for a moment this remarkable,
amazing scene? The Son of God is hanging upon
a wooden cross on this earth, and His blood is flowing down
into the dirt. And as He hangs there, Him who
is life comes to the hour of death. He has come to the place
where He's able to say, of the monumental, eternal work that
the Father gave Him to do, it is finished. This is the scene
that we're talking about now. And as He hangs there in the
purpose of the sovereign God who arranged this event meticulously
in every detail, this event around which every other event, however
great or small in human history, revolves. He, by the sovereign
ordination and orchestration of God, hangs between two thieves,
one on his left hand and one on his right hand. And we're
told in the Word of God that everything that man did on that
day was only what God's hand and counsel had determined before
to be done. Everything. Acts 4, 28. 700 years before Pontius Pilate ordered
that the Lord Jesus Christ be hanged between these two malefactors
The Prophet Isaiah said by the inspiration of God Almighty who
rules all things after the counsel of his own will He shall be numbered
with the transgressors Now these two thieves picture them they're
hanging With the master hanging in the in between them They were
both outwardly very wicked, notoriously wicked men. They were crucified
equally distant from the Lord of glory, the Savior of sinners. Both were under the same outward
influences of suffering, of fear, and of pain. Both saw and heard
everything that the Lord Jesus Christ did and said from that
cross. Every move that he made, every
expression on his face, every sound of his voice, they had
a front row seat to it. Both of them did. Both were on
the very doorstep of eternity in an urgent need of the mercy
of God. One of them died cursing and
reviling the Lamb of God, mocking him, expressing his utter hatred
and disdain for the Savior. He died with a curse on his lips
for the Master. The other repented of his wickedness,
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, pleaded for mercy, Lord remember
me. And from that day until right
now as we sit here, he's with Christ in paradise. Mr. Thief, who causeth thee to differ
from another? Go to the pool of Bethesda, where
all of the masses of the diseased and handicapped lay around waiting
for the stirring of the water. And go to that man who Christ
came to, passing by all the others that were there, and said unto
him, Will thou be made whole? And even when he was ignorant
yet of the one of whom It was that spoke with him and he insisted
that his only hope was the stirring of the water in that pool even
in spite of that ignorance and foolishness Christ said to him
you rise up and Take up your bed and walk and as that man
is walking away from that scene and walking through all of the
others that are laying there and Passing by all of them with
his bed in his arms Tell him to look at those that are still
laying there and ask him this question Who maketh thee to differ
from another? And who's more qualified to ask
this question than Saul of Tarsus? Who maketh thee to differ? Now call the Apostle Paul, whom
the Lord Jesus Christ met, arrested, broke, and commissioned on the
road to Damascus. Saul wasn't going to the Sunday
go-to-meeting house. He wasn't walking down an aisle
to make a decision. He was going on his way to persecute
the Lord Jesus Christ by making havoc of his church. And he's the one, instead of
Christ destroying him and throwing him in hell where he belongs,
The Lord Jesus Christ broke him. He goaded him like a stubborn
mule is goaded to make it worth anything. To make it do anything
worthwhile, you've got to goad it. And he said to that man,
is it hard for you to kick against the goads? He broke him. That proud man arrested him and
stood a thorn in him in hell where he belonged, where he would've
been the first one to admit that he belonged. He sent him to Ananias
who said, Saul, God has chosen you. He chose you that he might
reveal his will to you and that he might introduce you to his
son. And you're going to be his witness.
You're not going to go kill his witnesses anymore. You're going
to go to Damascus and be his witness. Saul, Saul, who maketh
thee to differ from another?" Do you know what grace is? I'm
talking about grace now. I'm not talking about God making
something available for everybody. I'm talking about the unmerited,
demerited, unsought, undeserved favor of God Almighty. I'm talking
about Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That's the
kind of grace I'm talking about. Do you know what that is? Then
why do you glory? Why do I glory in this flesh
yet? May God kill it in us. And that's
the end to which Paul wrote this letter to these Corinthians.
And he said, let no man therefore glory in men. He made himself
an example, didn't he? He said, I've used myself and
Apollos to show you that you should not think more highly
of men than God has taught you to think. What has God taught
us about men? Worms, leprous, vile, grasshoppers
that have been weighed in the balances and found wanting were
like the small dust of the balance that doesn't even have any weight
worthy of consideration. We're of no value. Even when
we've done everything that God has told us to do, we're unprofitable
servants. Don't think of yourself any more
highly than that. Than what God has told you. And
that's why he wrote this letter to these Corinthian believers.
Because they were like you and me. They gloried in the flesh. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? And what do you have that you didn't get from God?
Can you think of anything? Physical? Spiritual? And if there's
anything other than that, can you think of anything that God
didn't give you? Other than your sin? If you got it from God, then
why do you glory as if you didn't get it from God? What a question. Let's bow in prayer. Lord, thank you for all of your
multiplied blessings unto us, your people. And Lord, we do
pray that you would keep us from this horrible tendency of our
flesh to glory in that which was given to us freely by you.
It's our nature to rob you of your glory. And though we know
we cannot diminish your glory, yet it doesn't excuse the wickedness
of our hearts. that would receive freely from
God and then boast in this flesh. Bless us, Lord, and forgive us
in Christ. Help us to give all glory and
attribute all glory unto the precious Son of God, who's worthy
of all glory. It is the Lord Jesus that makes
us to differ. It is his grace and love and
favor You said, Lord, that not even
a dog would move its tongue against your people, that this world
might know that you've made a difference between us and this world. Thank
you, Lord. A thousand fall at our left hand
and 10,000 at our right, but the plague doesn't come near
to us because you've loved us and favored us. Help us to thank
you. right now and throughout all
eternity for that great distinguishing grace. In Christ's precious name
we pray. Amen.