I'm looking at I Corinthians
chapter 4, if you'd like to join me. I've been intending for some
time to speak from verse 7, so I'm going to read that for text,
I Corinthians 4, 7. For who distinguisheth thee? Who maketh thee to differ from
another? And what do you have that you
did not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it,
why do you glory? Why is your heart lifted up with
pride, as if thou hadst not received it? Now, in order that we may
keep this verse in its proper setting and context, and that
we might see its first meaning, I invite you to go back with
me to verse 1 of chapter 4, verse 1. And the Apostle Paul, writing
to the church at Corinth, says here, let a man so account of
us, consider us. He's talking about himself and
Silas and these other men, Timothy and other preachers who were
with him. when he communicated with this church. He said, I
want you to account of us as of the ministers of Christ and
stewards of the mystery of God. Now, here's two names he gives
to preachers. And we're not talking about all
preachers. We're talking about the true
preachers of the gospel of the grace of God. That's who we're
talking about. And that's who Paul's talking
about. If you look for a moment over in the book of Philippians,
I want to show you something over here. We had this in our
Sunday school class recently in Philippians chapter 1, in
Philippians chapter 1. The Apostle Paul says in Philippians
chapter 1, now he was in prison when he wrote this epistle to
the Philippians, and he says in chapter 1 verse 13, My bonds are my chains. My chains in Christ are manifest
in all the palace and in all other places. And many of the
brethren in the Lord, many preachers, many preachers in the Lord wax
confident by my bonds. In other words, they get some
confidence through my trial and through my suffering. They're
encouraged, and they're encouraged to more boldly speak the word
of God without fear. In other words, we go through
a trial, a difficult trial, and if we behave in that trial like
we ought to for the glory of Christ, it encourages others
who come along behind us. In other words, if some loved
one in your family dies and you give a good witness, you hold
up well under it, you remember the Lord gave and the Lord has
taken away, and it's the Lord, let him do what he will. and
you bear up well, and you witness a good confession, and you hold
your shoulders erect, and you sorrow not as those who have
no hope, then when your friend comes along and loses his loved
one, then you've encouraged him. Same thing in a sickness. Some
of you have been through some great trials in sickness, and
people have come to see you. And when they've come away from
your bedside, they've said to me, well, I went down there to
comfort that person, and he comforted me, or she comforted me. And
the way they're going through that trial has encouraged me
greatly and strengthened my faith in Christ. Now Paul is saying
that here. He's saying, I'm in jail. I'm in jail. I'm in bonds. And some of my
preacher brethren out there are being encouraged by my trial,
encouraged by my bonds. And they're waxing bold to preach
the gospel without fear. They're standing, proclaiming
the grace of God. Verse 15, some indeed preach
Christ even at ending. and strive. In other words, this
is what he's saying. He's saying, now Paul was well
used of God. He was blessed of God. Paul wrote
about 13 of the 27 books in the New Testament under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. Paul founded churches. Paul traveled
all over the world, preached the gospel. He was greatly used
of God. He was an apostle, one of the 12. He saved Judas. He took Judas' place. Well, the
disciples cast lots to see who would take his place, but the
Lord didn't say that Matthias was an apostle, but he did say
Paul was. And Paul was an apostle, and some fellows were jealous
of him. Now, that's just human nature. Nobody ever stamped all
jealousy out of your heart, even if you are a believer. Some fellows
were envious of Paul and jealous of him. They were jealous of
God's blessings on him. They were glad he was in jail.
And he said they preached Christ out of envy and strife. And read
on, and he said, some of good will, and then he said in verse
16, some preached Christ of contention. Contention. What were they contending
over? Now, this wasn't contention over
the gospel. Now, you remember this all the
way through these verses. These men preached Christ. These
men preached Christ. They preached the Christ of eternal
glory, they preached the Christ of elective grace, they preached
the Christ of incarnation, they preached the Christ of substitution,
they preached the Christ of perfect righteousness, they preached
the Christ of burial resurrection and ascension, and Christ the
only mediator, or Paul wouldn't have rejoiced in their ministry.
They preached Christ, they preached the glory of Christ, they preached
the gospel of Christ, they preached the gospel of grace, or Paul
wouldn't have rejoiced in it, Because he said, let any man
who preaches any other gospel be under the curse of God. And
even if they did have these childish characteristics of envy and jealousy
and contention and strife and all these things, Paul said,
I still rejoice in their ministry. I rejoice that they're preaching
Christ. They were contending over probably prophecy and different
things like that. And then he says in verse 17,
they preach Christ of love. Some of them do, knowing I'm
set for the defense of the gospel. So what I'm doing the same thing
Paul's doing there in Philippians. He's talking about the true ministers
of Christ, even those who are not matured and those who are
not as strong in the faith as they ought to be, those that
will mature and so forth, even those that are plagued with these
undesirable traits. He said, I rejoice that they're
preaching Christ. So what I'm saying here in chapter
4, verse 1, when we talk about the ministers of Christ, I'm
talking about the true ministers of Christ. And as a two-fold
description here, they're called ministers of Christ, servants
of Christ. Now, there's a sense in which
the preacher is a servant of the people. Paul said that. He said, we preach not ourselves.
We preach Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servants,
for Christ's sake. But truly, the preacher of the
gospel, the true minister of Christ, is not a servant of the
church. He's a servant of his master.
He's a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. His allegiance is to
Christ. He gets his authority from Christ. And the true servant of Christ
will not be influenced by the will of the people. Paul said
this one time, he said, if I seek to please men, I'm not the servant
of Christ. You can't be both. In other words,
no man can have two masters. He can have a lot of friends.
He can have a wealth of friends, but he can't have one Lord. One
master. Now that's so. One master. And
we can have friends, and we can show ourselves to be friendly.
He that would have friends must show himself to be friendly.
And we can have many people whom we love, but there's just one
to whom we bow the knee. There's just one from whom we
receive our orders. And that's what Christ is talking
about when he said, He that cometh to me, let him hate his mother,
father, brothers, sister, husband, and wife. Our Lord never encouraged
anybody to hate anyone. But he's simply saying this.
Now watch this. This is what he's saying. Paul
was sold out to Christ. He said, I'm a bond slave of
Jesus Christ, a willing, loving bond slave. There's a difference
in a slave and a bond slave. A man can be a slave and be held
against his will. He can be forced to labor. But
a bond slave is a person who's not forced to labor. He's there
willingly and lovingly because he chooses to be there. He's
the bond slave of his master. And Paul said, I'm the bond slave
of Jesus Christ. I'm the servant of Jesus Christ.
And this is what our Lord's saying about mother, father, husband,
wife. And you better get hold of that. When it comes down,
just like me standing here in the pulpit, And I love my wife
and daughter and son, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, my family. And I
love this church family. I love these precious men, some
of these charter members that have stood there through the
years, that have backed me and supported this ministry. I love
them. I'm thankful for them. And all of you who come this
way to worship God, who make our television program possible,
and our tape ministry, and for me to travel. But now when it
comes time to preach the word, And I've got to preach man's
total inability and depravity. Whether it wounds your soul or
what, I've got to preach it. And you say, well, you need to
yield to the people. No, sir, not when it comes to
that. And they say you preach election, folks will get mad.
Well, that's all right. If my brother gets mad or my
sister gets mad or my best friend gets mad or who gets mad, I don't
want God mad. Now, that's what we're talking
about. And a wife says to her husband, well, if you loved me,
you just wouldn't go to church. If you loved me, you wouldn't
follow this. You'd go somewhere else. You'd
do something else. I love you, but I love Christ
ten times more. And when it comes down between
you and Christ, you just have to go now. That's all there is
to it. You just have to go. And if that
looks like hate, if that looks like whatever it looks like,
it doesn't matter, but no man can have two masters. And no
man can be a true preacher of the gospel whose master is not
Jesus Christ, and who is not a willing, loving servant, whatever
it cost him. If he loses every friend he's
got, every supporter he's got, if he loses every, all the followers
he's got, That's all right. That's all right. And he's not
only a servant of Christ, but he's a steward. He's a steward. Now, you know what a steward
is? I'll tell you a definition of a steward. A steward is not
a fellow that... My father-in-law was a member
of the Methodist Church one time. There may be some Methodists
here, but that's all right. Baptists about as wrong as you all are.
But they had some stewards in the church, and the steward's
job was to go around and collect the pledges. And you join the
church, you know, and sign a card, and they come along, knock on
the door, collect the pledges. Well, that's not a steward. That's
not a steward. You know what a steward is? A
steward is a person. We're called stewards of the
mysteries of God. What is the mysteries of God?
It's the gospel of God. The gospel of God. The gospel's
called a mystery. Great is the mystery of Godliness.
Christ was manifest in the flesh, seen of the angels, justified
by the Spirit, believed only in the world, believed by the
Gentile. That's the mysteries of the gospel. The mystery of
God's mercy to the Gentile and the mystery of Christ's relationship
with His church and all these mysteries, that's the gospel.
We're stewards of the mysteries of God. All right, a steward
is a person put in charge. put in charge of the affairs
of an estate. Now, suppose I was a wealthy
man and I had a great estate, many acres, and I had horses
and cattle and pigs and cows and farmlands and people who
worked farming and had a nice home and all these things. I had a faithful steward and
I put him in charge. I put him in charge of my cattle,
my animals, I put him in charge of my state, I put him in charge
of the grounds, I put him in charge of the silverware, put
him in charge of the household and those that work for me, and
I go away and I leave it in the hands of my steward. That's what
a steward is. He's in charge. He's been placed
by the master in charge of the affairs of an estate. And I and
every servant of Christ, every minister of the gospel, every
true minister of the gospel, we have been entrusted with the
responsibility of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, what a responsibility. Let me show you that in 1 Timothy
1. In 1 Timothy 1, this is what Paul said. Now watch this. He
said in 1 Timothy 1, verse 11, according to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God, and that's better interpreted, the gospel
of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who enabled me, he counted me faithful, he put me in the ministry,
he put me in the ministry and he committed to my trust, in
my care, in my keeping, the responsibility of his glorious gospel. What
a responsibility. Let me show you another verse
in 1 Thessalonians 2. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 2,
listen to this. You know, entering the ministry
is not just getting up in the pulpit and telling what you know,
and preaching a sermon, and passing a church, and visiting the sick,
and marrying the young people, and burying the dead. It's to
have committed to your trust the precious, glorious gospel
of the Son of God put in your hands. That's right, in the hands
of man. In 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 4.
But as, and he said, verse 3, our exhortation was not of deceit,
or of uncleanness, nor in guile, but as we were allowed of God
to be put in trust. And you know what something put
in trust is, don't you? It's something put in a safe
keeping. It's put in the care arm, a trust. And he said we
have been trusted with the gospel. We've been trusted with the gospel,
even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tries our hearts. We've been trusted with the gospel.
And I dare not compromise it. I dare not, because verse 2 says,
1 Corinthians 4, look at it. We're servants of Christ, we're
stewards of the mysteries of God, of the gospel, and it's
required, it's required of a steward. That what? It's required of a
steward that he be active? Well, yes. That he hold the office? Well, he does hold the office.
That he produce results? No, sir. There's one requirement
of a steward. He be faithful. Faithful. That he be faithful. Oh, my. Faithfulness to the God. Faithfulness
to the souls of men. Faithfulness to the glory of
God. Faithfulness. That's it. Faithful. Faithful in his study, faithful
in his preparation, faithful in the delivery of his sermon,
faithful in boldness and courage to declare what God lays on his
heart, but faithful. Now look at verse 3. Stay in
our context, verse 3. But with me, Paul wasn't a hard
man. Paul was a tender man. You read
his writing. He was a tender man. But where
this gospel of the grace of God was concerned, there was just
no compromise. There was just no meeting people
halfway. He just took his stand on the gospel. And even when
it came to rebuking his friend Peter, he withstood him to the
face because he was to be blamed. He was compromising the gospel.
You all know the story there in the book of Galatians. He
said, I had to do it. Paul would not compromise. He
wasn't a hard man. But he said, verse 3, with me,
it's a small thing, a very small thing, that I should be judged
of you. of any man's judgment. I judge not my own self." You
say, what's he talking about there? Here's what he's talking
about. He said, it matters not to me what you think of my ministry. That's exactly what... You see,
when you judge something, you're measuring it, or you're being
critical, or looking at it with a critical eye, or expressing
your opinion. You're saying, I judge this to
be thus and so. And Paul said, with me, It matters
very little that I should be judged of you, what you think
of my ministry, how you assess my ministry. It means nothing
to me, or for that matter, how anybody judges my ministry. He
said, I don't stand or fall by your judgment or even my own. I had a minister in my home just
a few days ago. And he was depressed and discouraged
about the way things were going. He kept putting himself down.
He kept saying, well, I'm not this, and I'm not that, and I'm
not there. Then I guess I'm far as I'll
ever go, and I can preach as well as I'll ever be able to.
He just kept on. He was judging his ministry. And this is what
Paul is saying here. He's saying, with me, it doesn't
matter what you think of my ministry, or what anybody else thinks of
my ministry, or even what I think of it. Or even, that's what he
said, I judge not my own self. For I know nothing, verse 4,
listen, by myself, yet am I not hereby justified, but he that
judges me is the Lord. Now that's a little confusing
there. Verse 3, this is what Paul is saying. He said, I'm
a servant of Christ. I'm a steward. I've been trusted.
God's put in my hands. the most infinitely valuable
possession, his gospel. God's trusted me with the glory
and the gospel of his son, the mysteries of his kingdom, and
I'm going to be faithful. It's required of a steward that
he be faithful. Whatever it cost him, I'm going
to be faithful in presenting who God is, what happened to
man in the fall, the distance between God and man. and the
only mediator and only reconciler and only righteousness the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'm gonna be faithful. And what
you think of my ministry matters very little. What they think
out there, what any man thinks. How they judge my ministry, the
success or failure of it, whatever. He said, I don't even judge it
myself. And this is what he says in verse 4 now. I know nothing
against myself. That's what he's saying. I know
nothing by myself. If you read the Amplified, one
or the other, he says, I know nothing against myself. He says,
as far as I know, I am preaching the truth. As far as I know,
I am declaring the gospel. I am a faithful minister of Jesus
Christ. As far as I know, that's true.
Yet I'm not justified by that. That doesn't justify me. The
fact that I know nothing against myself, the fact that I believe
I'm preaching the gospel, this doesn't justify me. What you
think of me doesn't justify me. What I think of me doesn't justify
me. What does matter? What the Lord
thinks. See that in verse 4, the last
line? He that judgeth, he that justifieth is the Lord. That's what counts. What do you
think of this message? Not as very little. I may walk
out of here, and I usually do. I walk out saying, well, I'd
like to try that again. I'd like to preach that again.
That's such a failure. It really doesn't matter. The
only thing that matters is what he thinks of the message. It's
his message, his word, his church, his people, his husbandry, his
vineyard, his farm, his world. It's all his. And what we think,
it's of no significance at all. No significance at all. So he
says in verse 4, I know nothing against myself. But did I change? I believe I'm preaching the gospel.
But that doesn't justify me. And you can't justify me. Nobody
else's thoughts can justify me. He that judges me is the Lord.
So, look at verse 5. Therefore, if a man's preaching
the gospel, if he's declaring the truth of God, withhold your
criticism. Withhold your assessment, withhold
your judgment till the Lord comes, till the Lord comes. Therefore
judge nothing before what time? The time when everything will
be revealed by His judgment. That's when it all will be made
clear. Therefore, judge nothing before the time comes. Withhold
your assessment. Now remember, somebody says,
see, that tells you not to get on those Armenian free willers
and Catholics and people that worship idols. We're talking
about true ministers of Christ. You've got to expose idolatry. Paul did. Christ did. He warned
about false prophets. He warned about them. We're talking
about true ministers. Therefore, judge nothing before
the time. Withhold your criticism and your
assessment until the Lord comes, until the Lord comes, and he
will bring to light, he will bring to light the hidden things.
He will bring all things to light. What hidden things? Well, a man's
mouth and words are not hidden. His doctrine is not hidden. His
methods are not hidden. They're all not. His motive. That's what God's going to bring
to light. All of our religious activities, our prancing around
and parading and processionals and our organizing and our whoop-de-doo
and our all these things and our teaching and our service
and all these things, just withhold your judgment. Just hold her
right there. The Lord's coming. The Lord's
coming. He went away, the song said,
but not to stay. He's coming back again. And with
him will come judgment. It's not ours to do. It's not
ours to decide. I'm glad for that. But when he
comes back, when the Lord comes, he's going to bring to light
the things that we never have been able to see. And that is
the aims, and motives, and true objective of people who said,
we preached in your name, and taught in your name, and gave
in your name, and did many wonderful work. He's going to bring, and
also those that did preach in his name, he's going to bring
to light all those aims, and motives, and purposes of the
heart, and those things that were not glorifying, those things
that were hidden from you and me. Then he said, listen. you make manifest the counsels
of the hearts." Boy, that'd be an awful scene, wouldn't it? He's going to make manifest the
counsels of the heart. All of that that we didn't see,
that a man didn't say, and a woman didn't say, but that which they
felt. And then, and then, look at verse
5, the last line. shall every man have praise of
God." Every true minister of Christ is going to have the praise
of God. You've been faithful in few things,
I make you ruler over many. See how that flows? That's it.
Can't be anything else. Can't be anything else. We're
looking for the truth, we'll find it. Our Lord said this,
he said, if any man will to do God's will, he'll know his will.
He'll know it well. In verse 6, Paul said, and these
things, brethren, I have in a figure. And these things, he says, what
I've written about true ministers, what I've written about the servants
of Christ, what I've written about the stewards of God, he
said, I've transferred to myself, I applied to myself an apollos. I applied them to us for your
sake. I applied all these things to ourselves that you may learn.
that you may learn in us and from us and from our example,
listen, that you may learn not to think of men, not to think
of men above yourselves or your preachers. Not to think of me
and above that which is written." Written where? In God's Word.
Man at his best state is vanity. There's none good, no, not one.
There's none righteous. There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all gone astray. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way. God looked down and
saw that the imagination of the hearts of man is continually
evil. Don't think of any person above that which is written about
us. If there's any good in us, it's Christ and not us. Don't
exalt the flesh, because when you do, look at the last line.
Somebody's going to get puffed up. That you may learn not to think
of men. Preachers are just men, deacons
are men, elders are men, singers are men, and women, you see,
this is all, we're just all flesh. Thank God he uses the flesh,
that no one of you be puffed up one against another. We don't
get proud and haughty and lifted up, and that's when he comes
to verse 7. For who maketh thee to differ? Now, my friends, pride is an
inherent sin, and it's a sin of all people. Unfortunately,
there's nobody without it, not a soul here, not a soul here
without it. It dwells in some form in every
heart. And it's an abomination to God.
I'm going to read you just a few scriptures. Let's turn, if you
will, if you turn with me, Psalm 101. Let's just read a few scriptures
about Psalm 101, verse 5. Psalm 101, verse 5. Whoso privately or privately
slandereth his neighbor, him will I cut off. Him that hath
a high look and a proud heart will not I suffer." See, out
on our bulletin board, the sign says, God resisted the proud.
God resisted the proud. Turn to Proverbs 6. Proverbs 6, verse 16. God said, These six things doth
the Lord hate. Yes, seven are abomination unto
him, an abomination in the first one name. You know, you'd think
that when you talk about what God hates, the first thing you'd
name would be murder. They'd take in somebody's life,
or rape, or kidnapping, or some vicious, terrible thing like
that. But he said God hates a proud look. A proud look. God hates a proud look. Here's
another verse, Proverbs 16, 18. Proverbs 16, 18. I'm not saying,
I'm not putting significance on the fact that a proud look
is listed first in that category of things that God hates. I'm
just saying he did list it first. And then in chapter 16 of Proverbs
verse 18, pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit
before the fall. And my friends, pride is a foolish
sin. Let me bring you a few notes
that I jotted down here. I want to move along quickly
and get to this last point, but pride is a foolish sin. It doesn't
have one foundation or cause to exist. Just pride. I don't care whether it's pride
of place, somebody said, or pride of race, or pride of face, or
pride of grace. Pride has no reason to exist
in any of them. It has no cause. There's a thousand
arguments to show the absurdity of pride. First one is this,
listen. Creation. How creation strikes
at pride. With all of man's discoveries,
now you think about this, with all of our discoveries and inventions,
we've never invented one thing essential to life. Now you think
about that. See if I'm not right. The man's
made guns to kill, and he's made automobiles to maim, and airplanes
to crash, and wars to devastate, and he's made all these things,
you know, bombs to blow people up. He's figured out new ways
of serving food and all that sort of thing, but I'm talking,
now listen to, I'm talking about man has never brought forth or
created one thing essential to life. Now what are the essentials?
Well, the sun that warms us, and gives light to the world
and sustains life. It had nothing to do with that.
The earth upon which we live, God made that. We had nothing
to do with it. The trees, you say we plant the vegetables.
Therefore you planted the first one. The trees, the vegetables,
the fruits, God causes them all to grow. And I'll tell you this,
you plant your corn, God will raise it. He withholds his rains,
you won't have any. You said, I water it with a hose,
he'll dry up your river. That's right. Not one thing essential to life.
The rain and the water that gives life, that's from God. The air
that we breathe. You say we got clothes, you didn't
need them till you fell. I'm telling you that you can't
name, Joe, one thing essential to life, one blessed thing that
man brought forth. God brought it all. He made the
garden and put man in it. everything we fooled with. We
can take credit, let me tell you something, we can take credit
for everything that's evil. Everything in this world that's
evil, the sin that damns us, the hate that divides us, the
wars that devastate us, the guns that kill us, the jealousy, envy,
lust, theft, murder, every bit of that came out of our hearts.
And if you can be proud of that, you go right ahead. But Almighty
God can take the credit and the glory for everything good. Every
good gift and perfect gift comes from God. And I'll tell you this,
we need to be not proud, but ashamed. We've messed up God's
world. And the only way that He can
straighten it out is to destroy us and remake it. And destroy
everything we've touched. God's going to destroy everything
that sin has touched. He's going to make a new heaven
and a new earth. And He's not going to get a committee of Baptist
deacons together to do it. preachers either, or an association
of preachers. That'd foul it up. He's gonna
make it as it pleases him. Let me tell you this, I'll tell
you another argument against pride. Creation and life and
death. Man has never produced life in
any form. No sir, not in any form. He may
transplant a heart from this one to that one, all these things,
but life's got to be there first. God Almighty's got to create
the life. And I'll tell you, the average lifespan is still
just what God said it would be, 70 years. He said 2,000 years
ago, it would be 3 scored 10. Ask the insurance man, what is
it now? 72. And that's where it's going
to stay. It's exactly where it's going
to stay. Turn to Job 14. This is another thing written out
there on our bulletin board. It's Job 14, verse 5. Listen, man's days are determined. Man's days are determined. The
number of his months are with God. God has appointed his bounds. He cannot pass. That ought to
tear our pride all to pieces. Here's another thing. Let me
give you this. Here's another argument against pride. Creation,
life and death, heaven and hell. Let me ask you a question. If a man spends eternity in heaven,
by whose work will he spend it there? By whose will? Not by
his own, but by the will of God, by the grace of God. That's right,
if a man spends eternity in hell, it'll be his own responsibility.
But if he spends eternity in the presence of God, it'll be
by the grace of God. They asked our Lord Jesus Christ,
they said, who? Who then can be saved? He said,
with men, it's impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. So let's go back to our text
and see what we can do personally, applying it to ourselves. Four
questions, and I'll close with these four questions. Who maketh
thee to differ? Who? It didn't say what, it said
who. It didn't say what makes you different, the environment
or heredity, it said who makes you different. Who makes you
to differ? Now let me ask you something.
Some people are born in free lands and some in slavery. Some
people are born male and some female. Some people are born
wealthy and some poor. Some people are born healthy
and some frail and sickly. Some people live long, some die
young. Some people hear the gospel, some don't. Some people are regenerated
and some are not. Who makes the difference, Paul?
God does. That's right. I am the Lord. I change not. I am the Lord. That's what he says. I could
give you so many scriptures, I don't have the time tonight,
but Moses wrote this, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
God made the difference. And whatever there is about us
tonight that has any spiritual value, God gave it. Who maketh thee to differ? God
makes the difference. God makes the difference. Now
here's the next question. It's a what? That's questions
of who. Who makes a difference? The next
question is of what. What do you have? Well, I jotted
down some things. Physically, I have eyes and ears
and the power to think. I can see. I can walk. I can
talk. I have life. I have liberty and
what we call the pursuit of happiness. I have strength and health. I
have those things physically. Materially, I have food, clothing,
and shelter. I have family, friends, and countless
blessings. Spiritually, I have Christ, who
is my wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
I can say the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not walk. He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul." I have these things. I have a
hope of eternal life. I have forgiveness of sin. I
have those things. What hast thou? All right, notice
the next question. How did you get it? What hast
thou that thou didst not receive? I received it. That's where I
got it. Turn to James 1. I didn't create it. I didn't
bring it to pass. Received it What do you have? What do you have? I listed what
I have. Where did you get it? How did you get it? I got it
from God James 1 17 every good gift and every you see it John
James 1 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift every one
of this from above Our Lord said a man can receive nothing except
it be given him from above. I Paul said, I am what I am by
the grace of God. You believe that? I know that's
so. God planned my redemption. Christ purchased my redemption.
The Holy Spirit applied my redemption. All that I have, I have received.
I'm just a recipient of God's favors and God's benefits and
God's blessings. Now here comes the fourth question.
1 Corinthians 4, 7. Are you with me? Who made you
to differ? I'm sitting here in the 13th
Street Baptist Church and over yonder in the middle of Africa
are some people sitting around a fire and they're chanting and
they're saying all manner of evil, devilish things and they're
trying to drive out the evil spirits and the cannibals and
all these things. Who made the difference, Doc? I've heard the gospel of God's
grace. I was in what they call free will, fleshly Arminianism,
trying to see how many folks I could get down the aisle. And
one day in 1950, God, by his grace, sent the gospel to my
ears and gave me a heart to receive it. Who made the difference?
God did. God did. And I have a confidence and a
faith in Christ and a love for Christ and the grace of Christ. I received all that. All right,
the next question comes in, why do you glory? Why do you glory? Why is your heart lifted up in
pride? Why, why, why, why? Why would any person glory any
strength and look down on weak people? I'll tell you this, it's
just like you can drive by a big mansion out yonder somewhere
And that thing be beautiful, the yards cut, and the flowers
blooming, the trees pruned, and all these things, most beautiful,
most beautiful state in town. But inside that house, the devil
reigns, and evil, and hate, and all these greed, and all these
things. So that pretty house houses an evil relationship,
or an evil situation. And you may pass by a little
old run-down shanty. I know one down in Tachibachin,
Mexico. You wouldn't even spend a night
in it. Got a dirt floor and a grass root. And the only place it sleeps
is in a hammock. And the only place it eats is
on a box. But I tell you, you drive by and look at that place,
inside there is love. Old John and Fondella. Inside
there is grace and Christ. Sitting in there singing Rock
of Ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in the..."
So the outside can't tell you a whole lot about what's inside.
You'd stop at that big mansion, probably ruin your life. But
if you stop in that little old mud hut, it might save your soul.
But we can't tell, see, we see the outside. So you see this
beautiful, beautiful woman or man, so strong and beautiful
and all these things, they might have the very devil living in
that house. You see some crippled, broken, frail, old, and ugly
person on the outside, but on the inside, the most beautiful
person in town lives there. You can't tell. So why do you
glow in your strength? Why do you glow in your wisdom
and mock the fool? Why do you glow in your riches
and shun the poor? Why do you glow in your beauty
and laugh at ugliness? Why do you glow in your grace
and judge the sinful? Why do you glow in your gifts?
Why oh why? Whatever blessed thing you got,
God gave you. Most amazing thing in the world.
Turn to one last scripture. Jeremiah chapter 9. I don't know
why. Why we do. Why we should be divided. Jeremiah chapter 9. Why our hearts
should be lifted up. It was grace that taught my heart
to fear. Grace my fears relieved. How
precious did that grace appear, the power I first believed. Through
many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come, just grace
that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home."
And here he said in Jeremiah 9, 23, Thus saith the Lord, Let
not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man
glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches,
let him glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me. am the Lord, which exercise lovingkindness,
judgment, righteousness in the earth, and in these things."
And what things, Lord, do you delight? I delight in lovingkindness,
I delight in righteousness, I delight in judgment. That's what I delight
in, saith the Lord. Well, we have some things to
rejoice in glory about, but it's all in Him. not in us. I hope that's a blessing. Our
Father, make your Word to be as a fire, as a hammer, as a
light in our souls tonight. Lord, we would have these graces
of the believer, joy, faith, love, gentleness, kindness, temperance,
patience, humility. We would fall low at thy feet,
crowns we cast at his feet, and crown him King of kings and Lord
of lords. What we have, we have received. And bless the word, and use it
for your glory. In Christ's name we pray, amen.