I did choose thee. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyvert. Verse I would like to preach
from this morning is found in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 7. Let me read it to you. Paul says
to the church at Corinth, 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 yet glory, as if thou hadst not received it? I've
entitled this message, Discriminating Grace. Now that title ought to
catch our attention. What do you mean by discriminating
grace? Because discrimination is not
a good thing. Why would you say discriminating
grace? Now one of the greatest evils
of the human race is discrimination. one group or one person oppressing
another group or another person believing they have a superiority
over that group or person and they have the right to use that
kind of behavior toward them. I think one of the most glaring
examples would be Hitler in the last century. He believed the
Aryan race to be a superior race, and he felt it his moral responsibility
to make a pure race and to destroy, for instance, the Jews, which
he did and tried to do. He hated people who he thought
were inferior to him. Think about this nation that
we're living in. 159 years ago, there was slavery. we enslaved people. All of us have had to deal at
one time or another with somebody treating us unfairly or giving
someone else favoritism because of something about them, or perhaps
you have demonstrated an unjust favoritism towards someone and
discrimination against somebody else. People are given favoritism
because of their appearance. People are given favoritism because
of their sex. People are given favoritism because
of their age. That's discrimination. Everyone
deals with it. It's a part of the fallen human
nature and it is evil. That's all you can call it. It's
evil. But there's one kind of discrimination
that's good. That's the one spoken of in our
text. When it says with regard to God,
Who maketh thee to differ? If you're a believer, who maketh
thee to differ from another? Who distinguishes you? Who discriminates with you? That's what the word actually
means. Now, this is spoken of God, His discriminating grace. And let me tell you why this
is a good thing. If there were no discriminating grace, no one
would be saved. I would be in hell, you would
be in hell, and there would be no hope for anybody if God treated
all men fairly and gave them what they justly deserve. If he did that to me, I would
be in hell. If he did that to you, you will
be in hell. Thank God he does discriminate. There would be no salvation did
he not discriminate. Now, in our text, in the previous
verse, he said to the church at Corinth, you're puffed up
for one against another. You've got a swollen, inflated
attitude. And in the church at Corinth,
there were factions and divisions. One said, I'm of Paul. Another
said, I'm of Apollos. Another said, I'm of Cephas or
Peter. And then the real pious one said, well, I don't follow
any man. I'm of Christ. And because of these divisions
within the church, you had some puffed up against the other.
And whenever people have an inflated view of themselves, and we all
have it, I'm not pointing at someone. The biggest problem
I have is the inflated view of myself. It's that that causes
all the problems I have. But whenever you have one group
having a thought of superiority over another group, you're always
going to have some form of discrimination. I have no doubt that when Paul
quoted this passage of scripture, who makes you to differ from
another? And what do you have that you didn't receive? He was
thinking of what the Lord said in Exodus chapter 11. Listen
to this scripture. This is the Lord speaking to
Egypt. This is the time of the 10 plagues. And he says in verse
seven of Exodus chapter 11, but, let me start in verse six. And
there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as
there was none like it, nor shall be like it anymore. He's talking
about when he comes through to judge the firstborn. But against
any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue,
against man or beast, that you may know how that the Lord doth
put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel." Now, the
Israelites were just as sinful as the Egyptians. It's not like
they were morally better. They were all equally sinful,
but the Lord put a difference between Israel and the Egyptians. The Lord discriminated. He gave
Israel his favor, and he did not give the Egyptians his favor. The Lord made the difference. Now, the initial difference was
that Israel was enslaved. to Egypt. They were building
the pyramids. The Egyptians were living in
the brick homes that the Israelites built as slaves. There was a
difference. But how things changed. When the land of Egypt was covered
with frogs, There were frogs in your bed.
There were frogs in your cabinet. When you ate dinner, there were
frogs on the table. Frogs everywhere. Can you imagine
how miserable that would be? But do you know there was not
one frog in the land of Goshen where the Israelites were living?
Why? God discriminated. That is His discriminating, distinguishing
grace. When the dust was changed to
lice in Egypt, can you imagine how miserable that was to be
covered with lice, both man and beast? But if you went into Goshen,
where the Israelites lived, there was no lice at all. Why? Because God made a difference. Now before he sent the swarms
of flies, God said to Pharaoh, I put a division between my people
and thy people. And thus the land was corrupted
by swarms of flies. Now I don't know of anything
I despise more than flies. Can you imagine being covered
all the time, 24 hours a day with flies? There was not a fly in the land
of Goshen. Why? Because the Lord put a division
between the two. The Lord discriminated and gave
the Israelites his favor, and he did not give the Egyptians
his favor. When boils covered man and beast
in Egypt, there were no boils. on the children of Israel. Why?
God made a difference. When God destroyed all the livestock
of Egypt, Pharaoh sent into Goshen to see if any of the livestock
of the Israelites were dead, and there wasn't one. Because God made a distinction. God made a difference. God discriminated. I want us to think of that word.
That's a powerful word that lets us know what's being said. discriminating
grace. When hail was sent into Egypt
and everybody had to take cover and if anybody was out in the
field, either livestock, people that were killed, not a drop
of hail fell in the land of Goshen. Why? God distinguished when the
locusts came and ate everything, green thing in Egypt, they didn't
enter in the land of Goshen. Why? The Lord made a distinction. When God cast darkness over the
land of Egypt, even darkness that might be felt, and people
were afraid to even get up in the thick darkness, it was light
in the land of Goshen. Why? Because the Lord made a
difference. Back to Paul's question, who
maketh thee to differ? And what do you have that you
didn't receive? Now, let's consider the vast
difference there is between a believer and an unbeliever. Now, before
I get into what the difference is, we've got to consider this,
that by nature there is no difference. One is not better than the other.
One is not more righteous than the other. One doesn't work harder
than the other. You know, the Scripture actually
says, there's no difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. You take the most moral man you
know and the most immoral man you know, and before a holy God,
there's no difference. They're equally sinful, equally
deserving the wrath of God. Now, that's what the Bible teaches.
Somebody says, I don't agree with that. Well, it doesn't matter.
It's still what the Bible teaches. There's no difference. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. You see, God sees
the motive. God sees the heart. Between men,
there's no difference. And if I'm saved, and if you're
not, I still have a sinful nature that's just as bad as yours,
that's never become better, it's never improved. Now I got a new
nature that restrains the old by the grace of God, but I still
have the same sinful nature that I was born with. Somebody says
I'm getting better and better and better and more holy and
less sinful. No, I don't believe that for
a second. You have a sinful nature that never gets better. We have
that in common. Every believer and unbeliever
alike has this thing called the carnal mind, the human nature. Now, believers give it a different
nature, and I'm thankful for that, but what a difference there
is between the believer and the unbeliever. One is loved by God. The other is not loved by God. Someone says, give me a scripture
for that. Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Thou hatest
all workers of iniquity." God made that difference. The believer
had his salvation determined before he was ever born. Let
me go back on that scripture with regard to Jacob and Esau
for the children, talking about Jacob and Esau 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's written. Jacob,
this is God speaking, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. There's such a distinction in
the sense that a believer has spiritual life. An unbeliever's
dead in sins. Now the believer at one time
was nothing more than dead in sins, but he was born from above,
born of God. And he's given a new nature that
the unbeliever does not have. A nature that loves God. The
believer has no love for God. A nature that believes the gospel.
The unbeliever does not believe the gospel. He may be religious,
but he does not believe the gospel. of believers in a continual state
of repentance. The unbeliever sees no need of
repentance. One is holy, the believer. The
unbeliever is not holy. There are different desires.
One desires only to be found in Christ. The other desires
everything else. There are different motives.
One does what he does for the glory of God. The other does
not have that motive. One performs good works. Every
believer does. Every unbeliever is reprobate
concerning good works. One has ears to hear. The other
doesn't. With regard to providence, the
believer has everything working together for his good. Romans
8, 28. The unbeliever has nothing working
together for his good, but everything is working together for his final
destruction. Look at the difference in their
view of the world. The believer hates the world. And I don't mean this in a wicked
way. I mean, he hates the world that
has no love for God. The world's maxims, the world's
way. The unbeliever loves the world. When it comes to time
to die, look at the difference. The believer has a hope in Christ.
He can rejoice in judgment, knowing that Christ is his righteousness
before God, and his sin has been taken care of. The unbeliever
does not have that hope. Look at the difference between
the two in eternity. The believer spends eternity
in heaven, beholding the face of Christ, perfectly conformed
to his image. The unbeliever spends eternity
in hell. Who made the difference? It wasn't
because the believer was better. It's because God discriminated
and gave him grace. Salvation is of the Lord. Now that's the scriptural teaching.
If somebody doesn't like it, I'm sorry, a believer does because
a believer knows that the only reason he is saved is because
God saved him. Can you say amen to that? God
saved me. He did it all. Who made you to
differ even in the distinctions between men? You know, our Constitution
says all men are created equal. That's just not so. They're not
created equal. Now, all men have a right to fair treatment. I
wouldn't disagree with that at all, but all men are not created
equal. There are some men that are born much more intelligent
than others. There are some that are more
physically gifted the way they're born than others. What about
being born into a situation of wealth as opposed to a situation
of poverty? Who made that difference? God
did. If you're blessed to be educated
and somebody else is not, who made the difference? God did. He made the difference in every
respect. Maybe you were given a home where
parents cared about you and wanted you to succeed and raise you
right. Somebody else is brought up in
a home where the parents just don't have that wisdom or that
understanding and they really don't care. Who made that difference? Somebody says, well, now I've
worked for what I've got. I've got a work ethic and I've
worked hard for what I have. Where'd you get that worth at?
ethic. Who made you to differ? In everything, God makes people
to differ. What do you have that you didn't
receive? What do you have that wasn't given to you? Now, if
you received it, Paul says, why do you glory? Why do you act
like, I got this because of my hard work, or because of how
good I am, or because of my efforts? No. That is an evil attitude. That's pride. Pride is so delusional. What do you have that you did
not receive? Now, if you received it, if it
was given to you freely as the gracious act of God, where God
made a difference, You're only at, thank you, Lord, why me? Why would you do that for me?
Why are you so gracious and merciful toward me? Now, think of the
spiritual differences. I've talked just for a couple
of moments about the natural differences between men. What
about the spiritual differences? Oh, how God makes the difference. Now listen to me real carefully.
If you're saved, Oh, I hope you are. I hope I am. I believe I
am. I hope you are. If you are, you know why you
are? God made a difference. God discriminated. God chose you before time began
an eternal election. Ephesians 1 verse 4 says, "...according
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world."
Now, in this thing of election, this is not God looking down
through the telescope of time and seeing whether or not you
believe, and when he sees you believe, he says, okay, I'll elect that
person. That's blasphemous. No, this is his sovereign choice
of his people. If you are saved, God made the
difference, not you. It's not because of your will
or because of some decision you made or because of some work
you performed. God made the difference. He gave you to His Son before
time began, and Christ Jesus the Lord agreed to bear full
responsibility for your salvation. When Christ became a surety of
his people, God looked to Christ for everything he expected of
them. Now this is God's discriminating,
distinguishing grace. God made the difference. If you're saved, it's because
Jesus Christ came into this world with you in him. His life and his death was not
some kind of generic, he's living for everybody and dying for everybody.
It doesn't work that way at all. When Jesus Christ lived and kept
the law, if you're a believer, he did it for you. And if you're
in him, that means his obedience is your personal obedience before
God. God made a difference with you.
When Christ died, oh, listen to me. Most of what goes on under
the name of Christianity says that Jesus Christ died for all
men without exception and made the salvation of all men potential
and available. If you'll just do your part,
there's not a drop of truth to that. When Jesus Christ died,
he died for the elect, his sheep, and he accomplished their salvation. He didn't simply make them savable,
he saved them. When He said, it is finished,
everybody He died for, their salvation was accomplished. Signed, sealed, delivered, sure. If Christ died for you, you don't
run the risk of the Hasbrood or the possibility of it being
anything but saved. That's how powerful His death
is. If your sins are paid for, it's
because He sovereignly paid for them and put them away. Oh, Christ
made the difference. God the Father made the difference
in eternal election. Christ made the difference in
redemption when He redeemed you and put away your sins. God the
Holy Spirit makes the difference in regeneration. When He birthed
you into the kingdom, you were dead in sins. I was dead in sins.
Dead men can't believe and dead men can't repent. He's dead. He's going to go to hell unless
God does something for him. What did God the Holy Spirit
do? He birthed you and He gave you life. He gave you a new nature,
a spiritual nature. He gave you spiritual life that
you didn't have before. He made the difference. There's
a reason you believe. He gave you that faith. There's
a reason you repent. He gave you that repentance.
God makes the difference. Now, what do you have that you did
not receive? I don't have anything I didn't
receive, naturally or spiritually. I mean, the Lord put me in the
home, he put me in. He put me in this nation that
he put me in, where I had these, I could have been born somewhere
else that didn't have these privileges. The Lord made the difference
naturally, and most especially, the Lord made the difference
spiritually. What do I have that I didn't
receive? No, I received it. He said, freely you've received. God chose me. before time began. He made a discriminating choice.
He chose me. He passed by somebody else, but
He chose me. I wouldn't be saved were that
not the case. Jesus Christ kept the law for
me and gave me His obedience. He took my sin and it became
his own. And he paid for that sin and
put it away. And what proved he put it away
is God raised him from the dead. And by that act of his resurrection,
God said, I'm satisfied with what he did. And I'm satisfied
with everybody he did it for. God, the Holy Spirit gave me
life. That's why I believe. That's
why I persevere. I've seen so many people over
the years fall away. They seem to begin, but they
fall away. Why is it that I haven't fallen away up to this point?
Because I'm kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. That's why God has preserved
me. God has kept me. The Lord has made the difference. What do you have that you didn't
receive? Not a thing. Then Paul asked
this question. Now, if you received it, why
would you glory? Why would you take credit for
it? Why would you take credit for that which goes to God only,
as if you didn't receive it, but you earned it? Thank God
for discriminating grace. Now, I want to close with this
thought. God's discriminating grace doesn't keep people from
being saved who otherwise would have been saved. God's discriminating
grace saves people who would have most surely otherwise been
damned. This doesn't keep anybody out
of the kingdom of heaven. Nobody needs to think, well,
I want to be saved, but I'm afraid I'm not somebody he's going to
save. Listen to this scripture. Romans
10 verse 13 says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord, shall be saved." Now that is not contrary to discriminating
grace, but I love this word, whosoever. I'm a whosoever. Are you a whosoever? Do you fit
into that demographic? Are you a whosoever? Whosoever
shall call On the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, there's the important word,
the name of the Lord. That's who He is. You're calling upon
who He is to save you. Save me by your grace. Save me
by your holiness. Save me by your sovereignty.
Save me by your justice. Save me by your love. Save me
by Christ. You're calling on His name. Whosoever
shall call, Lord, save me. That's what calling is. Lord,
save me. By the grace of God, you can
pray that right now. Lord, save me. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And if you're saved, you're going
to know it's because the Lord saved you. You didn't save yourself. You didn't help in this thing.
He did it all, and you will love it that way. Thank God for His
discriminating grace. We have this message on DVD and
CD. If you call the church, we'll
send you one. Or look on our website, and you can find the
message on our website. This is Todd Nyberg. that God
will be pleased to make Himself known to you. Amen.