Such is the depraved nature of
man that we all naturally cherish, nurture, cling to, and promote
in ourselves, in one another, and in our children, that which
is most abhorrent to God, that which is most certain to bring
us to ruin at last. The evil I'm talking about is
the original sin of the universe. The persistent sin of our race. The most abominable of all evils. That which in the sight of God
is more abhorrent than anything. The sin with which I do battle
every day, every waking hour. Pride. pride. Oh, what a horrible monster
raging in our souls. It was pride that lifted Lucifer
up in the beginning. Pride that swelled Adam's head
until at last he plunged himself and his race into death and darkness
and damnation. It is pride that rises constantly
like an ugly weed in our hearts. There is nothing in this world
more difficult to deal with, nothing more common, nothing
more ruinous. Men sometimes like to pretend
humility, but there is no such thing as a truly humble man in
this world. And that which men look at and
call humility is just a show of pride calling attention to
itself. It is pride that hardens the
heart. It is pride that keeps sinners from coming to Christ. The wicked, we read in Psalm
10, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after
God. God is not in all his thoughts
because he is pride. Nothing but pride causes a person
to reject God's Word. I know men offer lots of excuses
by which they justify or attempt to justify their unbelief. This
is not scientific, this is not accepted, this, this, this. The
fact is the revelation of God, the written Word of God, Just
the written word of God is so plainly and clearly given the
stamp of divine inspiration that it cannot be in any way rejected
with regard to its history, with regard to its statements concerning
science or anything else, but men despise it just because of
pride. Nothing else. The root, the cause
of all carnal strife, all division, all whisperings, all backbiting,
all slander is pride. Pride that constantly shows itself
in envy and jealousy. Pride is the great deceiver of
men. It makes people mean-spirited,
cruel, behaving in self-righteous barbarism toward one another
under the guise of doing God's service. Be warned, be warned,
O my soul, pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit
before a fall. Turn with me, if you will, to
1 Corinthians chapter 4. If God will enable me I want
to speak to you as plainly and as clearly and as abasingly as
I possibly can about God's distinguishing grace. God commands His prophets saying,
comfort you, comfort you, my people, saith the Lord. And the
prophet says, what shall I cry? He said, tell them two things.
Tell them two things. Behold your God. and all flesh
is grass. I want you to behold God in his
glorious grace. And I want you to know that you
and I are nothing but withering, useless, insignificant grass. 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse
7 Look at these three questions. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? If thou didst receive it, why
dost thou as if thou hast not received it. Now these three
questions raised before us by the Spirit of God may and should
be applied to everything in the life of human beings by which
one person differs from another. All natural differences, all
of them. of God's making. Physical appearances are not
just the result of genetics passed along from one generation to
the other. If that were the case, all of us would look like our
fathers from one generation to another. Our appearance is arranged
and determined by God Almighty. And yet we take such pride in
our appearance. I plead guilty. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? Mental abilities. Oh, how we glory in our achievements. All it takes for God to take
the smartest fellow here and make him an imbecile. is just
take just a little bit of iodine out of you and put a little bit
more in you. That's all. That's all. And we love to cherish
our moral distinctions. If God Almighty has in His providence
kept you from behaving like you really want to, there's nothing
for you to brag about. Nothing. Differences among preachers. Oh, my. What pride. Arrogance. There is among preachers,
and those who follow them, because of their gifts, their abilities,
their usefulness, the place where they pastor envy and jealousy. That ought not be. God's servants are not in competition
with each other. God gifts men, I have absolutely
no question, I'm confident you don't either, I have absolutely
no question, that God Almighty gifted me specifically to minister
in this place, in this generation. Not to minister somewhere else,
not to pastor somewhere else, not to pastor in other people,
but your pastor, ministering to you. And he gathers such as
he would have to hear the gospel in this place. And Brother Todd
over in Lexington, same thing, same thing. Brother Gene Harmon
out in California, Brother Bob Harmon out in Hocumba, California,
same thing. All according to God's purpose. God gifts one man to be used
in this way and another to be used in that way, and it doesn't
matter. It doesn't matter. And God's
the one who does it. And there are differences between
believers and unbelievers. Differences between God's elect
and the reprobate. Differences between you and the
damned. Differences between you and most
of your family. Most of your friends. And the difference is the difference
God made. That's all. That's all. Let's look at these questions
together and pray God will inscribe the answers to them on our hearts.
Who maketh thee to differ from another? The fact is there is
a sense in which God's elect do not differ from other people
at all, and we know it. We've been chosen by God our
Father, redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ our Savior,
called by the blessed Holy Spirit of promise, saved by God's adorable
grace, sanctified and justified in Jesus Christ. But the people
of God in this world Are sinners still? I know it. I think it was Brother
Darkin who, when he was in the preacher school with Ashland,
went out in Ohio and preached for somebody. I saw him on his
way to work at the prom. I forgot what he was. And he
said the preacher, you correct me if I'm wrong, had upbraided
him for referring to him as a sinner. I'm a saint. Not a sinner anymore. Not God's people. Not God's people. We know ourselves sinners still. You see, grace does not eradicate
our old natural heart. Our old Adamic nature. In fact,
grace doesn't even change it. God rules it. God's abusing. One day God, by His grace, will
destroy this body and flesh. But grace doesn't change it. In every believer's heart, there
is an increasing awareness of the depravity and corruption
that's in us. When I was a young believer,
I guess the most shocking thing I ever learned about myself was
that I hadn't changed. It like to have killed me. It
like to have killed me. I thought sure. I thought sure. I knew that I wouldn't be made
perfect, but I thought sure I would have gotten over being the evil
that I am by nature, and shockingly found out it's not so. There
is in my heart and yours, and proceeding from my heart and
yours, evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts,
false witness, blasphemy. Now either that's true or the
son of God's a liar. Take your pick. That's what he
said. And the believer knows it's true.
You see, all our life we were taught and we've loved by nature
to deal with evil outside ourselves. As if somehow evil is just what
we do. And if we can somehow cap this
sense pool so that it doesn't constantly erupt in ungodly behavior. If somehow we can put a lid on
this thing and hold it down to some measure, then now we've
achieved this thing called righteousness. And so we walk about in self-righteousness
whenever we think we've conquered this thing or that in outward
behavior. And then suddenly, God makes
us to see the evil's not out yonder. The evil's not even in
what we say or do, though that may be evil. The evil's in what
we are, and think, and imagine, and wouldn't dare speak to anybody. Well, I've said some horrible
things in my day. horrible things. And I've done
some horrible things. But I've never begun to express
openly the evil that I know is in me. And the same is true of
you. The fact is I am every day made
increasingly aware of the depth of my depravity and the corruption
of my heart. And I know I haven't even begun
to discover it. You and I, who experience God's
grace, understand that even the best deeds we perform, that which the prophet calls
our righteousnesses, That's the good things. That's the good
things. That's what we're doing now,
trying to worship God. That's the good things. That's
behaving like we ought to. Our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags before God. Utter corruption. The fact is,
I have sinned. I do sin. I am sinning. But the worst of it is this.
I am seeing. When I would do good, evil is
present with me. So I cannot do the things that
I would. All that I am, all that I do,
is seeing. Let me see if I can make this
clear. Unless I'm deceived, There's nothing in all this world
more delightful to me than being able to pray. Prayer. I'm not talking about saying
words. I'm not talking about keeping
a time of prayer. I'm talking about praying. Spending time
in sweet communion with God Almighty. pouring out my heart to Him,
communing with Him. And there's nothing I find more
difficult. Nothing. There's absolutely nothing
in this world I desire like I desire to believe God. to live by faith. And nothing is more troublesome
to me than my unbelief. Nothing in the world I want more
than I want to worship Christ, to walk with Him in sweet communion. and nothing further from my reach. There's nothing that I strive
after, like I strive to attain conformity to Christ in thought,
in word, and in deed. I want to be like Him. And the more I strive to attain
conformity to him, the more distant the goal is. In fact, I'm a man at war with
myself. The flesh lusting against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. So I cannot do the
things I want. John Newton, who wrote Amazing
Grace, How Sweet the Sound, The Savior Wrecks Like Me, and many
other great hymns, expressed what I'm trying to say to you
in these words. If I pray or hear or read, sin is mixed with
all I do. You that love the Lord indeed,
tell me, is it thus with you? Yet I mourn my stubborn will,
find my sin, a grief and thrall. Would I grieve for what I feel
if I did not love at all? The fact is, without question,
believers in great measure do not differ
at all from unbelievers. Not at all. The fact is, An unbeliever may
live a whole lot better than you do. Behave a great deal more
uprightly than you do. Control himself from the evil
that's in him better than you do. So brother Don, you can't
say that to people. I can, because it's fact. And you know it. You know it. The religious world doesn't know
it, but you do. Yet having said that, our text clearly states
that God's sense are indeed different. He says, who maketh thee to differ
from another. So there is a sense in which
believers do differ from others. We've undergone a marvelous change
by grace. And I think this needs to be
stressed. Stressed to you and stressed in our day. Turn to
1 Corinthians chapter 6. know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves or mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the
kingdom of God. And such What's the word? Were. Not are, were. Some of you. This is where you
were when God found you. This is what you were when God
called you by His grace. Such were some of you. But now,
ye are washed. But ye are sanctified. But ye
are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit
of our God. We've been washed from our sins
by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. That means our record
is gone. All the evil we have committed,
God has blotted out and put away by the sacrifice of his Son.
Now we are sanctified by the Spirit of God, given a new nature. In regeneration, God the Holy
Spirit has put something righteous in us. It's called that which
is born of God, a holy seed, Christ in you, partakers of the
divine nature. He's given us something that
was not there before called righteousness. Righteousness was imputed to
us in justification, and it is imparted to us in the new birth,
so that the believer is given a new heart, and a new will,
and a new nature. And we are justified, made righteous
by divine imputation. Now Paul mentions justification
last, not because it is accomplished last, but because it is experienced
and known last. You know nothing about being
justified by the blood of Christ at Calvary, justified before
God, until God the Holy Spirit comes and sanctifies you by his
grace in the new birth, regenerating you, giving you that which is
called the new birth, and giving you faith in Christ. And now,
being washed and sanctified and justified, Paul says, therefore
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Now, I realize Paul is there
in 1 Corinthians 5 dealing with the matter of our reconciliation
to God. Someone recently talking to him said, is that talking
about reconciliation or regeneration? And I said, yes. Yes, God's made all things new
in this sense. He put a new nature in me. Grace
changes a man's life. A person can change his way of
life without grace. That's no difficulty. That's
no difficulty. You can do that. You can quit
drinking, you can quit smoking dope, you can quit smoking, you
can quit eating potato chips, quit eating greasy food. You
can change your way of life. All you got to do is walk through
bad enough. But you cannot experience the grace of God to bring salvation
and not experience a change of life. A change of life that causes
you to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. George Whitefield used to speak
about the coal miners in Scotland when God was pleased to save
them. Back years ago they used to keep donkeys down in the mines
and used them. They kept them down there all
the time. They said the donkeys knew the difference in their
masters. They even treated their mining donkeys different. God's
people experience a changed life in God's grace. Now I stress
this because I hear folks say character and conduct are insignificant. As long as you believe in Jesus,
it's alright no matter what you do or how you live. Such teaching
is utterly contrary to the plainest revelation of Holy Scripture.
You were the servants of sin. But now being justified from
sin, you have become the servants of righteousness. Believers have
a new master. We voluntarily bow to Jesus Christ
the Lord as our master. Our lives are ruled, motivated,
and inspired by a new motive. Isn't it so? We want to glorify
our Redeemer. We want to honor our God. We
want to magnify our Savior. Believers live now in righteousness
by faith in Christ. Every person in this world who
is born of God has the grace of the Spirit in him. Turn to
Galatians chapter 5. Galatians 5. Let me show you. Verse 22. The fruit, not fruits,
fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is one
marvelous cluster of grace. Cluster of grace. Cluster of
the new wine of grace. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace. That's talking about what God
the Holy Spirit produces in us with reference to God. We who
hated God, and found nothing of God to give
us joy, and had no peace with God, now look into Christ, love
Him, and rejoice in Him, and have
peace with God. The fruit of the Spirit is longsuffering,
gentleness, and goodness, goodness toward one another. We who by
nature are impatient and hard and mean-spirited, being born
of God's grace, by God's spirit, deal with other human beings
now with patience, gentle forbearance, seeking to do them good, not
evil. And believers now, have something
in them that they didn't have before. It's called faith. Something
that makes them faithful. And meekness, understanding who
we are before God, and temperance, control from within. living as
kings, made kings by grace, ruling our passions so that now we walk
in this world and live in this world by faith. And this is how
Paul puts it. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. Believers. live trusting Christ,
trusting Him in His redemptive work, trusting Him in His providential
rule, trusting His goodness and faithfulness, trusting His intercession. That's the character of grace. Now, trust Him as we ought. But trust Him. Yes. Believers love each other. Love
God, love His people. If any man love not his brother
whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
Love as we ought? No. No. But love one another? Yes, believers
do. Believers do. This is not what
believers ought to be. I'm not telling you what you
ought to strive to make yourself be. I'm telling you what grace
makes folks be. Believers are men and women who
have been and are continually taught of God to live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world. Now, that's a
plain description of the facts. There's a very real sense in
which believers do not differ from others. And yet believers
are made to differ. Here's the question. Who makes
the thief to differ from another? Turn to Philippians 2. Verse 13. You see it? who maketh thee to
differ from another. It is God which worketh in you,
both to will and to do of his good pleasure. It is written, the Lord doth
put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. God by his grace has distinguished
you from all of Adam's fallen race. God, by his grace, continually
puts a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. He made the distinction before
the world was in eternal election. When you read 2 Thessalonians
You read about the Antichrist and the delusion of free will,
works, religion, and the damnation of the world under the judgment
of God. Don't ever forget that Paul is, throughout that chapter,
leading up to this point. But God, from the beginning,
chosen you. What is it that keeps you from
yet being numbered among them? God chose you. chose you to salvation,
unto salvation, through the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth, and now has given you a good hope through grace. When
the Lord Jesus Christ died at Calvary, He made a distinction. He did not die for, did not intend
to redeem, did not try to redeem all men, but rather He redeemed
His people. As the scriptures put it, out
of every nation and kindred and tribe and tongue. What makes
you different from somebody else? The Son of God loved you. Gave himself for you. That's
all. That's all. And in free sovereign
grace, God the Holy Spirit comes at the appointed time of love.
and called you, effectually giving you life and faith in Jesus Christ,
separating you from family and friends, separating you from
the rest of the world, calling you out, calling you out by irresistible
grace, causing you to believe. And to this day, we still have
distinctions, even among believers. Sometimes a brother falls, a sister falls. We were talking sort of jokingly
in the back about this business of church discipline. Churches
love to do it. We love it. Man, we love to get
on top of somebody and choke them to death. That's our nature. It's called pride. It's called pride. What do you do with a fallen
brother? You with your spiritual, restore such a one. in the spirit of meekness, considering
thyself, remembering who you are and what you are, lest thou
also be tempted." Oh, yeah. We want a pure church. Well,
get out. I'm dead serious. This is a house
of sinners saved by free grace. And there's nothing any human
being ever did or might do that Don Fortner and Bob Duff wouldn't
do in a heartbeat if God just left us to ourselves. Nothing. Nothing. And if God doesn't leave
us to ourselves, The difference is God working
in you. That's all. We saw it recently with Peter,
didn't we? Peter was told by the Master. David the Master told him plainly. He said, now Peter, before the
sun rises tomorrow morning, and just in case you might misunderstand
me, Before the sun rises, the rooster is going to crow two
times. And before he crows two times, you're going to deny me
three times. And Peter said, not me. Not me. Ron Wood might, and Larry Criss
might, but not John Horton. No! Not me. Not me. I'll go with you to death and
to judgment. And so the master is arrested. And this man, who
with a fisherman's knife, takes on a band of Roman soldiers.
Now he's in the garden, out of his judgment hall, warming himself
by the fire, and he's in the wrong crowd. And the Lord Jesus
has put him in Satan's sieve. But that's alright. Nothing's
going to fall through the sieve except the stuff you want to
get rid of anyway. And Peter is standing there, and a maid
comes up. I think I know you. You're one
of those disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. It's not me! I don't
know him. About an hour, another one came
up and said, you're one of his. Peter said, I don't know him.
You don't know what you're talking about. And just as he did, rooster
crowed. Can you imagine how terrified
he must have been? Can you imagine how he was shaken in his soul? And you know what he did, David?
Went right off in the downward spiral. Surely this calling of
the rooster will remind him what the Master said, and he will
not go off. He will unless God stops him. He will unless God stops him.
You too. A little while later another
one comes and says you're one of his. Your speech betrays you. You're Galilean. And Peter cussed
and denied publicly in the presence of the master That confession
which he had distinguished himself with when the Master said, Who
do you say I am? He said, Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And here Peter says, I don't
know that man. Rooster crowed. The Master looked
up here. And it went out and wept bitterly.
Nothing changed it. Because I'm going back fishing.
What's it take to recover such a man? The very same grace that
called him in the beginning. Immutable, indestructible, everlasting,
irresistible grace. And so the Lord Jesus goes to
meet Peter in marvelous free grace and fetches
him home. Grace and grace alone makes the
difference. And in the resurrection, I see multitudes standing before the
bar of God. All the nations and peoples of
the world. Over here on his right hand are
some folks he calls his sheep. They stand there while he looks
at these on his left and says, Depart ye cursed into everlasting
fire. And he says, Come ye blessed
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. What's the difference? Blessed
and holy is he who is born of God. through that part in the
first resurrection, on such, the second death has no power. Free grace, free grace, free
grace alone, distinguishing free grace makes the difference. What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? Nothing. Nothing. I don't know anything
God didn't teach me. I don't possess anything God
didn't give me. Nothing. Now, if thou didst receive
it, why do you strut like a peacock
popping your suspenders in pride and arrogance as if you had not
received it? God forgive me. God forgive me. God forgive me. Amen.