Turn, if you would, to 2nd Corinthians
chapter 12. We will read verses 1 to 10,
where we read about Paul's thorn in the flesh. It's what Paul
says, and then what the Lord says to
him, which is more important for us to look at. The name of
the message is completely sufficient. completely sufficient. And I'd like us to remember this
as God's promised children, born again by the Holy Spirit of God
and washed in the precious blood of Christ. No matter what we
go through in this life, Christ is completely sufficient for
us. No matter what comes our way,
He is completely sufficient. He's our help in life and He's
our help in death. He's our help at all times. He's
completely sufficient. Let's start in verse 1 of 2 Corinthians
chapter 12 and we'll go to verse 10. It is not expedient for me to
doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations
of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ about
above 14 years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether
out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth, such a one caught
up to the third heaven. Now, notice Paul's humility. He is the one that he's speaking
of. But he doesn't want to draw attention to himself, does he?
Just like every gospel preacher. And I knew such a man, whether
in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth, how
that he was caught up in the paradise and heard unspeakable
words for which it's not lawful for a man to utter. Caught up
in the paradise. Now don't be fooled by these
foolish books written about men dying and supposedly seeing the
light and all that stuff. This is real right here. This is real right here. Because
all those stories used to tell you about how they come back
and now they want to live a life not for Christ, but a good life. Paul, we will see, will bring
a focus back to God, back to Christ. He said, I heard unspeakable
words, which it's not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one will I glory,
yet of myself I will not glory. but in my infirmities." Hear
glory in the Lord, but he won't glory in himself. For though I would desire to
glory, I shall not be a fool. He realizes that there's nothing
for us to glory about. Even him being caught up to the
third heaven. He says, it's not for me to glory
about. For I will say the truth, but
now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which
he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And lest I should
be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations. So note, he saw these things,
these things were revealed to him, and God's keeping them low,
isn't he? He said, lest I should be exalted.
Do you imagine the people would have followed him if he had started
talking about this stuff? Oh, let's go hear Paul. But see,
Paul didn't want people just to hear Paul. Paul wanted to
preach Christ to them. That was his whole motivation.
He's a saved man now. And all he wants to do is preach
Christ and him crucified. lest I should be exalted above
measure through the abundance of the revelation that was given
to me of thorn in the flesh. Messenger of Satan, above me,
lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought
the Lord thrice, three times, that it might depart from me.
Three times he asked the Lord to take this away. What did the Lord say to him?
And he said, my grace is sufficient for thee. That's true of every one of us,
isn't it? God's grace is sufficient for us. For my strength is made perfect
in weakness. Why are we so weak all the time? Because it manifests the strength
of God in our lives. His strength, see, when we're
weak, he is strong. Right? Think of this. Think of
it in light of this. What does God show us when he
saves us? He shows we're bankrupt. Sinners
can't save ourselves. We're utterly unable to save
ourselves. That's being weak, isn't it?
Right? And in our weakness, here's the
Savior. Here's the Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who died for sinners. shed his precious, precious blood. In our weakness, we can't save
ourselves, but there's one who can save us. He'll save us to the uttermost,
can't he? Doesn't matter how black our past is, doesn't matter
how dark all them sins were, doesn't matter how dark, oh,
so dark! He can save us. In our uttermost
time of weakness, he is strong. He's strong. And He is, isn't He? He done
something for us that's impossible for man. He saved us from all
our sins. Oh my. Most gladly therefore
I will glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. He's going to glory in what He's
going through because it's God who's going to give Him the strength
to get through it. Right? I didn't know Sister Novak, but I heard that the Lord manifest
His strength when she was going through cancer, and that she
was a testimony for the Lord. And you know, it's the same for
every believer. It's the same for every believer.
I look at Dan and Kathy, what they're going through right now,
and I just see the Lord giving them strength and grace to make
it through it. Each of us have went through
things in various times of our lives, and in the eight years
I've been here, I've seen various of you go through different things,
and God's given you strength to go through them all. Isn't
that amazing? Never leaving you, never forsaking
you, always having a hold upon you. And in our weakness, He's strong. He's strong. Because look what he says here.
Therefore I take pleasures in my affirmatives and reproaches
and necessities and persecutions in distress. See, he's saying
all these things are affirmatives. You're getting persecuted for
your faith? That's hard. You're in distress? You're in
distress about the things of this world? Oh my. I take pleasure in infirmities
and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distresses
for Christ's sake for when I'm weak. And how are we not constantly
showing that we're weak? Why do we wake up in the morning
and go, oh Lord, please help me today. Please help me today. Give me
strength and grace to get through the day. I see you all smiling because
we all do the same thing, don't we? Help me, Lord. Help me today. Because we know we're weak, but
we know who's strong, don't we? We know who's strong. Now, one
of the great doctrines of scripture is the claim that the Lord Jesus
Christ is completely sufficient for all matters of life and godliness. To sum it up, He is all that
a sinner needs. Not just for our salvation, but
in life in general too, right? Do we not need Him every day? Every day we need Him. Every
day. every minute, every second. He's all that a sinner needs.
And we're told by Paul, again by inspiration of the Holy Spirit
of God, and I just love this in Colossians 2.10, and ye are
complete in Christ. Well, if we're complete in Him,
then He's all our sufficiency, isn't He? Then He's completely
sufficient in all things for us, in life and in godliness.
He's everything we need. And that's why we preachers get
up and preach every week that Christ is the only savior of
sinners. He's the only one sufficient to save sinners. He's the only
one who God will accept. And God accepts all who are in
Him by faith. Again, that's God-given faith,
right? By the power of God and the Holy Spirit that He gives
us when we're regenerated, when we're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. And Christ said, ye must be born again. You must
be born again. And that's by the power of God.
Again, in our weakness, we can't regenerate ourselves, we can't
make ourselves born again, right? But in our weakness, He's strong. He's strong, beloved. He is able. Let's always remember that. Christ
is able. He's able to do that which is
impossible for man, is possible for God. Oh, it's wonderful. Now, the English word for sufficient
is defined as enough to meet the needs of a situation or a
proposed end. A situation or a proposed end. Do you know our steps are ordered
by the Lord? Do you know that our days are
numbered? I found out someone, Vicki and
I know, they were diagnosed with terminal cancer this week. But you know we're all terminal? We just don't think about it,
do we? Do you know every one of us in this room is terminal? And I'm not downplaying anything
when people get that from the doctor, but every one of us is. All of us have a date with death
that none of us can change. It's appointed on a man once
to die, right? When is that day? I don't know. You don't know,
but who knows? God knows. And that's the day
when we will breathe our last breath. Jane told me, he says,
I take such comfort in knowing that Kathy didn't live a second
longer than was ordained by God. And that he took her home at
the exact time that was ordained by God to take her home. And
that'll be the same for every one of us who believe. See, we don't think that way,
do we? We don't think that way. Natural man certainly doesn't
think that there's an appointment with death because they don't
want to hear that at all. Now, do we wake up in the morning?
I find myself doing this. Thank you, Lord, for another
day on earth. I need you to give me strength. I need you to give
me grace. Because I can't do it on my own.
Right? But where do we long to be? How do you think Paul felt after
being caught up in the third heaven? No wonder he said, I
have a desire to depart, but to be with you is expedient.
No wonder he said that. He'd been caught up in the third
heaven. He's seen what's waiting for us. He said there's things,
it's not even lawful for me to speak about what's up there. You know why? Because he couldn't
even explain it. I have not seen or heard the things that God
had prepared for those that love him. For those, again, who are
called according to his purpose, as we know from Romans. We don't
even have a clue. Think of the most beautiful thing.
We went and visited Niagara Falls a few weeks ago. My goodness,
it's amazing. And to think that that water
just keeps getting recycled by God. Right? Evaporates, comes
back as rain, goes back into the water, comes back over the
falls. Just continuously. And from that falls, there's
a bunch of power done that powers New York City. Just from the force of that.
And you look at that and it's so beautiful. How beautiful is
our God? How amazing are the things that
we can't even imagine that are waiting for us in glory. I have
not seen nor heard. Can't even enter into our imagination. And so Paul, Paul, Paul was privy
to some of this and he couldn't even talk about it. Couldn't
even talk about it. Now the English word for sufficient
again is defined as enough to meet the needs of a situation
or a proposed end. And we see in verse 9 the words
of our Lord to Paul saying, my grace is sufficient for thee.
Now every believer can take that to heart, right? That God's grace
is sufficient for us. We don't need anything else but
Christ. Really. He's sufficient for us. The Greek word for sufficient
here is defined as to be possessed of unfailing strength. The Lord's telling us, you're
weak, but I have unfailing strength.
My grace is unfailing, Paul. What comfort that can bring you
and I, right? Think of all the stuff. We're
seeing stuff in this world that we never even imagined in the
last 10 years. I've been here for 25 years now. And I'm seeing stuff that I didn't
even enter into my imagination that would be happening. And if it wasn't for God, I'd
be pulling out what hair I got left. Right? But God's unfailing strength
is mine, is yours, beloved. Let us lean on that. Let us rest
in that. Because in my weakness, I say,
oh my goodness, what's going on? But the Lord's in perfect
control, isn't he? Everything's happened according
to his will and purpose. And remember this, too. God's
preachers don't ever set no dates, right? We know the Lord's coming.
And I always say this, every day we're getting closer, we're
a day closer. Today we're a day closer to the Lord coming back,
right? We know that for sure, we're
a day closer today. Every time my birthday rolls
around, I'm a year closer. I'm a year closer. Oh my, it's
wonderful. So think of that. One to be possessed
of unfailing strength. And again, that comes from our
great God. He's Jehovah, right? He's God. And it says to be strong,
to suffice, to be enough. If we have God, He's enough.
If we have Christ, He's enough. Because salvation's in Christ,
strength's in Christ, right? Forgiveness of all our sins is
in Christ. Oh my. And then to be satisfied
and to be contented. So we're to be content with God's
grace. Because it's more than sufficient
for our needs, isn't it? In Christ, our blessings are
pressed down, overflowing in Christ. We don't even know the many blessings
that fall upon us all through the day. Because we're just going
about our day. We're just going about our day. Oh my, and yet he's watching
over us. We got a mama robin and a papa
robin and four little babies. One of them, the big one, fell
out of the nest yesterday. Tried to fly over into the bush.
Where'd mama go? Whoosh! Right to that little
baby. Think of how much God watches
our every single move. How much his eyes of love are
upon us. His heart of mercy is upon us.
Watching over us. Sees every tear that falls from
our eyes. Every cry. Even sometimes we're
so broken, we can't even speak. And yet he hears the cries of
our heart. My, oh my. What a great loving
father. This Greek word is translated
eight times in scripture. It's only used eight times. Four
times it's translated as content. Two times, this is in the New
Testament, it's translated as sufficient. One time it's translated
enough. Always grace is enough, right?
and one time as suffices. Now, we're sinners by nature.
We're sinners by nature, by choice. We have a great need. We have
a great need that we cannot supply it, and that's we're sinners. We can't save ourselves, can
we? We can't save ourselves. What do we need? We need forgiveness,
and yet we're bankrupt. We can't provide anything from
our own hands or by our works that would cause God to forgive
us of all our sins. Nothing. So what does God in
his mercy and his grace do? He sends his Son. He sends his
Son. Sent. Remember we went through
John 17? Sent. Sent by God. Sent by the Father. He came down
from heaven. The Word of God. Sent by God. And we need a perfect righteousness.
He established that. The law demands perfect obedience.
He did it in our place. We're unacceptable to God in
our natural state. He closed us in his righteousness. Perfect righteousness. The sinless
one did all this for sinners. For his promised children. We
found that in Galatians this morning. For his promised children. Oh, this great need is supplied
not by anything we do, not by any works which we do. We can't
gain favor with God by anything we do. We're born into a helpless
state of sinnership, aren't we? And there's no way, no remedy
by our own works to get us out of that situation. But there's
hope for the hopeless. Oh, there's hope for the hopeless.
Turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 19. There's hope for
the hopeless. Oh, the Lord's speaking to a
rich man here. And he went away sad after the
Lord talked to him. You know why? Because he had
been confronted with his own inability to save himself. Oh my. Look at this. Then said Jesus
unto his disciples, verse 23, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
And again, I say unto you, it's easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the
kingdom of God. When his disciples heard it,
they were exceedingly amazed, saying, who then can be saved?
Who can be saved then? Who? See, when man finds out
about our inability, we say, then how can we be saved? Praise God for the next verse.
Look at this. But Jesus beheld them and said
unto them, with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
Isn't that wonderful? And who's the one speaking to
them? The very one who's going to redeem their souls. See, right away they came to
the conclusion, who can be saved then? They're pricked by the Holy Spirit
of God, right? Who can be saved then? Who speaks to them then? None other than the balm of Gilead
himself, the Messiah. He says, with man it's impossible,
but with God all things are possible. That's the words of the God-man,
beloved. The words of the God-man. He
knew exactly why he was here. to redeem his people from their
sins. Turn, if you would, now to 2
Peter. 2 Peter chapter 1. Our great God has given us Christ who's all
we need. He's all sufficient for us. In
His grace and His mercy provided, And in his covenant of grace,
Christ covenanted that he would come to this world to redeem
his people from their sins. Look at this in 2 Peter chapter
1. Christ is sufficient for all
means, all matters of life and godliness. Simon Peter, a servant
and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like
precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and
our Savior, Jesus Christ. So right away we see who he's
writing to, right? He's writing to those who have
obtained like precious faith. That faith has one center, and
that's Christ Jesus our Lord, right? One object, that's Christ. And look at this too. who have
obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness
of God." Who's the righteousness of God? Jehovah's Akinnew, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord our righteousness. Isn't that wonderful? And our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace. Grace always comes before peace. You notice that in the epistles?
No grace, no peace. Grace always precedes peace.
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through, how? Through
the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Do you not find you
have more peace the more you grow in the Lord Jesus Christ,
the more you hear the gospel? Do you not feel that you have
more peace in this world? That's the Holy Spirit grow in
us, beloved. Look at this, whose power is
it by? According as his divine power hath given unto us all
things that pertain, look at this, unto life and godliness.
All things that pertain through our life and for godliness. Who's that? That's Christ. Through the knowledge of him
that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises. that by these ye might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust. And besides this, given all diligence,
add to your faith virtue, and to virtue, knowledge, and to
knowledge, temperance, and to temperance, patience, and to
patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly
kindness, charity, which is love. Look at that. all from the Holy
Spirit of God. Again in Colossians chapter 2
verses 9 and 10, I'll read it. It says, for in him dwells all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That's in Christ. And in verse
10 says, and ye are complete in him. And ye are complete in
him, which is the head of all principality and power. He's
the head. We're the body. He receives all the preeminence.
He's the sufficient one. He's the one who's completely
sufficient no matter what we go through in life. In all things
we saw there which pertain to life and godliness, right? It's
Christ. It's Christ in Him alone. Let's go back to 2 Corinthians
and read verse 9 again. He's asked the Lord to remove
his thorn in the flesh three times, and our Lord answers him
this again. And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for
thee. It's all you need. It's all you need. It's all you need. For my strength
is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest
upon me. When Paul was given a special messenger of Satan
to buffet him and beat him down in the flesh, he asked the Lord
Jesus Christ for immediate relief. Instead of removing the thorn
of the flesh in his infinite wisdom, the Lord in his infinite
wisdom instructed and encouraged Paul that his grace was sufficient. It was enough. It was enough. It was enough to sustain him
while he dealt with this thorn in the flesh. It says, my grace
is sufficient for you. We all have thorns in the flesh,
don't we? And our Lord tells us, my grace
is sufficient for you. Think of this. Grace to overcome
all my sins? Grace and mercy to overcome them
all? How can His grace not be sufficient
for me in all things? Covered in the precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, all because of His grace and His
mercy? Where God doesn't even remember our sins, they're so
taken away by Christ that God says, I don't even remember them
anymore? What mercy? What grace, no wonder
he tells Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. This is going to pass,
Paul. This thorn in the flesh is going
to pass. But my grace is everlasting. It's all sufficient. My. Now, for us to read that, We don't always feel that way,
do we? We sometimes murmur. We sometimes
mumble. But let us come back here in
those times, because really, in those times, we're extremely
weak. Let us come back here and read the words that our Lord
said to Paul, my grace is sufficient It's made perfect in your weakness. What depths of love, what depths
of mercy we see here. This is true for all of the Lord's
people. We sometimes think when we're
going through something, how am I going to survive this? How
am I going to get through this? But has not our Lord time and
time and time again proven that His grace is sufficient for us?
He has, hasn't He? I can't tell you how many mountains
of despair have been in front of me in my walk in the Lord.
And He's made them a mohill. And I can look back and go, why
did I get so worked up about that? You ever heard that? Why? The flesh, the flesh, the
flesh, right? It's always the flesh. Oh my,
my grace is sufficient. Think of this, his grace was
sufficient to choose us unto salvation in Christ. Out of all the sea of humanity,
When God looked down through time, as they say, well, God
looked down through time and saw who would choose Him. No.
God looked down through time and saw a sea of humanity dead
in trespasses and sins. In His mercy and grace, He chose
us in Christ. His grace was sufficient to do
that, wasn't it? Oh, my. His grace is sufficient
to save us by His almighty power. Scripture says, but we believe
that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be
saved, even so as they. God's sheep will be saved the
same way we're saved, by grace, through faith in Christ Jesus
our Lord. And do you know what else His
grace is sufficient to do? To keep us from falling. How
many times have our faith been in the dust before the Lord?
And we're begging them to forgive us for our sins, even after we're
saved. He says, my child, my grace is sufficient for you. You're forgiven. Oh, my. His grace is sufficient
in all times. Scripture says this, now unto
Him that is able to keep you from falling. Jude's writing to believers.
Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling. If He
didn't keep us, what would happen? We'd fall a thousand times a
day. Right? I'm being honest. I know I would.
If His grace wasn't sufficient to keep me, I'd be Every day, just falling down.
Couldn't keep myself. But he says this, now unto him
that is able to keep you from falling. Now that's a universal
epistle. This is to the church of God.
Unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present
you, you and I, beloved, you and I, sinners to the core, to
present us faultless. In the Greek, that's without
blame. Without blame. We're the ones done the sinning.
Without blame. Before the presence of His glory
with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory
and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. So I tell you, surely His grace
is sufficient to sustain us. and to comfort us and to bless
us in all times trial, right? All times. What's being bought here is the
all-sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ, the complete sufficiency
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul summed it up when he said,
Christ is our all in all. That's what he is to every believer,
right? He's everything. He's everything to us. It's wonderful. Christ is enough. He's more than
enough. The Lord's salvation and strength
is perfect. It's perfect. There's nothing
to be added to it. It's absolutely perfect. It's
complete at all times. And His strength is especially
manifested. His grace is especially manifested
in our times of weakness. It's manifested to us. And what does he tell us to do?
This is wonderful. What does he tell us to do? He
doesn't say, oh, you guys blew it again. Right? You know what's amazing? He says,
through the pen of Paul, let us therefore come boldly to the
throne of grace. that we may obtain grace and
mercy to help in time of need. That's love. That's mercy. That's grace. And we do go to his throne, don't
we? We do. We do say, oh, Father. You're so wonderful to me, you're
so merciful to me. You keep me. You save me. So much so that
you don't remember my sins no more. It's all through the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then we glorify God, don't
we? Praise you, Lord Jesus, for the wonderful things you've done.
Praise you, Holy Spirit of God, for regenerating us. Praise you,
Father, for choosing us. My. And it doesn't take long. That adoration's just flowing
from our hearts, isn't it? And when we're weak and we approach
the throne of God, you know what he does? He strengthens us. With his strength. Because we're
so weak. Oh, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. And he's the all-sufficient Savior
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he daily gives his people
grace and strength. Daily we receive grace and strength.
We don't even know it. And we receive it. And then we realize and appreciate
this the most because we know and confess our own weakness,
our frailties, our inabilities, our sinfulness. And look at verse
10, what Paul, immediately following our verse, he's resigned himself
to the sovereignty of God. In 2 Corinthians 12, verse 10,
he's resigned himself to the sovereignty of God, knowing by
God's grace that Christ is all sufficient for his needs in his
life and in his death. He says, therefore, I take pleasure
in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distress for Christ's sake. For when I'm weak, and I'll tell
you what, that's all the time for us, isn't it? Then I'm strong. When we're weak, He's strong. He's strong. So the Lord is telling Paul here,
my grace is all sufficient. My grace is completely sufficient.
Now where's his grace found? in Christ. He's the conduit,
right? To which God's mercy and grace
flows to we sinners. It all comes through Him. It
all comes through Christ Jesus to God's people. And we know
Christ is all-sufficient. Remember in John 15, he says,
I'm the vine and you're the branches? Turn there if you would, John
chapter 15. We're gonna look at verse 5.
He's telling people, he's telling God's people, he's saying, he
says, I'm the vine, you're the branches. But look what he says in verse
5. This is incredible, what he says here. I was talking to a
friend of mine this week about this. Look at this. Verse 5, I'm the vine. John 15, 5. I'm the vine, ye
are the branches. Now we know that branches can't
live. You cut a branch off a tree,
what happens to it? It dies, right? I'm the vine, ye are the branches.
He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit. And look at the last part of this verse. And think
of what the Lord said to Paul when he said, my grace is sufficient
for you. Look at this. For without me, you can do nothing. Can't save ourselves. Can't pay
the price for our sins. Can't live a perfect life before
God. Can't establish a righteousness
on our own. Right? You can't work a pardon or work
the forgiveness of our sins. Without me, you can do nothing. He's everything for the believer.
He's everything for us. Christ Jesus is everything. That's why we say that's not
all I need. That's Christ. Is He not all we need? In Christ
we have the forgiveness of all our sins. So there's not one
left that God looks at and says, you're guilty. Not one. Covered in the blood. In Christ
we're justified. We can actually stand before
God, clothed in the righteousness of Christ. He's our righteousness. So we have all the forgiveness
of our sins. We now can be in the presence of God. And it all comes through Him.
He's the only one. And it's by His shed blood that
that eternal covenant, that everlasting covenant of grace was ratified,
right? And He redeems, purchases our
souls with His blood. See, you take away Christ, we
have none of that, do we? That's why you must believe on
Christ, to be saved. You must. Salvation's in no other. Only in Christ and Christ alone.
Neither is there salvation in any other. None. The Philippian jailer said, what
must I do to be saved? Paul said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Believe on Christ. Oh my. There's three things expressed
here in John chapter 15 verse 5. The first is Christ himself
is the vine. He's the fountain, the spring,
the source of life. And we're the branches. And think
of this too as we look at this here. There's no existence, there's
no eternal life outside of Christ. None. There's no life, there's
no power, there's no existence apart from Him for the believer
to be saved. Without Him, we have and can
do absolutely nothing to save ourselves. And then number two,
believers are truly one with Christ. Look at the unity that's
in this verse. I am the vine, you are the branches. All life comes through that vine,
right? and flows to the branches. All of it. And when we look at a tree or
a vine with branches, they're one. They're one. You cut off a branch,
as I said earlier, from a tree, And there's no life. There's
no life. No life at all. This is why, too, there's such
unity in the body of Christ with our head. This is why when Saul
was persecuting Christians and he was stopped on the road to
Damascus, the Lord said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Think of this, he's the head,
we're the body, right? If someone was saying, I'm gonna
chop your finger off, your head is gonna go, that's my finger,
right? That's part of your body. The head would feel it, wouldn't
it? We are so united with Christ, so united with him, that when
Paul was persecuting Christians, Paul was persecuting Christ. And we have a figure right before
us in our own lives. Like I said, someone takes my
finger off, my head's going to know it's gone and it's going
to send nerve things down to my, right? And I'm going to be
screaming, right? Because that's part of my body.
We're one with Christ. He's the head and we're the body.
Isn't that amazing? And number three, those branches
which abide in Christ will bring forth fruit. We don't have to
manufacture fruit. It's called the fruit of the
spirit, not the fruit of our doings. See, I see fruit in you
who are the Lord's people. You probably don't see it in
yourselves, and I don't see it in myself, but others will see
it in us. Henry said that, and it's so
true. We don't see any growth in ourselves, and we're not supposed
to, because then we'd boast about it. But others see it. Others see
it, beloved. And it all comes from the Holy
Spirit of God. It's His working. It's by His
power. And let us consider who the Lord
Jesus Christ is. He's the Word of God incarnate. He's the vine, we're the branches.
And just in that picture we see His all-sufficiency, don't we?
Because a branch can't live without the vine. And he says, I'm divine. He's given them a picture they
can understand. He's given us a picture that we see all over.
I look at my trees and I see it. The trees on the lawn. I
look at those trees and I'm like, there it is right there before
me. That trunk, the big old maple tree, I love those. That trunk
and all them branches. They'd have no life if it wasn't
for that trunk. Where all the nutrients, right? The roots go
out, pull on all those nutrients. Christ is that vine. He's that
trunk. We're just a bunch of branches. And without Him, we
can do nothing. Nothing. Oh, He's so good to
us, beloved. He's so good to us. He's all-sufficient. He's the salvation of His people.
He's our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification. And there's
no hope for a sinner outside of Christ. And we know that now
as God's people, don't we? We've been taught that, that
there's no hope outside of Christ. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold
from your vain conversations received by the tradition from
your fathers, but with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily
was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but now manifest
in these last times for you. That's Peter writing to God's
people, who by him do believe in God. It's by Christ we believe
in God. It's not by our works. It's not
by anything we do. Christ sent the Holy Spirit,
didn't he? He says, I'm going to send you a comforter. And he regenerates us, doesn't
he? We're born again by his power. And then what does the Holy Spirit
do? He teaches us the things of Christ. Oh, it's wonderful. Glory be to the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. My, it's absolutely wonderful. And our God is so complete, so
perfect, there's no other God before him. None. There's no
other God. All those gods that people made
and still make to this day, they're nothing but stone, or brick,
or wood, and they can't do nothing. They got ears that can't hear.
They got mouths that can't speak. They gotta be carried by their,
you know, they move from one house to another. Gotta take
the idols with us, put them up here. Right? They become burdensome, the scripture
says, to the beasts that have to carry them. And they're nothing
but dumb idols. They can't do anything. But praise
be to God. God's revealed himself to us,
and he tells us, God himself tells us, God in the flesh says,
I'm the vine and you're the branches, and without me, you can do nothing.
Praise be to God, we're in him. Praise be to God, he saved us
by his mercy and by his grace. And the scripture says, who by
him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave
him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Do you
know our faith and hope is in God? Christ is God. Our faith
and hope is not in mere man. It's not in a man in a grave.
He's risen. He's God. Our hope is God. Our faith is in God. The Lord
Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the sent one of God. And to think
that he says, my grace is sufficient for you. Oh, we say, yes, Lord. It's all
sufficient. It's completely sufficient. My,
think of this too. Here we go. In Genesis, he's the promised
seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would crush the serpent's
head. In Exodus, he's the great I Am. He's pictured in the Passover
lamb as the Lord says, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you.
Oh, in Leviticus, he's pictured as the high priest, the sacrifice,
and the scapegoat. In Numbers, he's typified in
the brazen serpent, and all who look to him are saved. He's also
pictured as the water of life, when the water flowed from the
rock. In Deuteronomy, he's the Messiah,
the prophet, like Moses. In Joshua, he's the captain of
our salvation, the captain of the Lord's host. In Judges, he's
a judge and lawgiver, being typified in the judges. For he's the true
judge of the living and the dead. In Ruth, he's pictured as the
kinsman-redeemer, typified in Boaz, who is the only true kinsman-redeemer
of Ruth. He is called the Lord, our shepherd
in Psalms, our high tower, our strength, and our defense. He's
called our bridegroom in the Song of Solomon. In Isaiah, he's brought forth
as the suffering Savior. The suffering servant. He's a
man of souls and acquainted with grief. Suffering on Calvary's
cross in our room and place is our great substitute. He's called,
also in the book of Isaiah, the Holy One of Israel. The God of
the whole earth. Emmanuel, God with us. The Prince
of Peace. Wonderful. Counselor. The Mighty
God. The Everlasting Father. Oh, let
these titles in the Old Testament bring peace to our souls, beloved.
In the New Testament, He's called the Son of David, the King of
the Jews, the Son of God. In Mark, He's called the Holy
One of God, King of Israel. In Luke, He's called the Horn
of our Salvation, which designates His strength and His almighty
power. He's also called the Consolation
of Israel, which is the comfort of Israel. Oh, my. In the book of John, our great
savior is called the only begotten son who's full of grace and truth. He's called the lamb of God.
He's the sinless and spotless lamb of God. He's also called
in the book of John, the bread of life, the light of the world,
the great I am, the door of the sheep, the good shepherd, the
resurrection and the life and the way, the truth and the life.
Oh, how we see in these titles our great need in His complete
sufficiency. In the Book of Acts, He's called
the Prince of Life, the Judge of the Living and the Dead, the
Just One, and the Hope of Israel. Is Christ your hope? Is He your
hope? Oh, He's the hope of His people,
isn't He? He's the hope of His people. In Timothy, He's called
the Blessed and Only Potentate, the King of Kings, and the Lord
of Lords. In 1 John, He's called the believer's
advocate with the Father, the Word Incarnate, the One who is
eternal life to His people. Oh, what is He to the believer?
The Scriptures declare how He's all-sufficient for us. He alone
is our peace, our hope, our life. And for the believer, he is the
only living and true way. He's the root and offspring of
David. He's the bright and morning star. He's the faithful and true one,
and he's the fairest of 10,000 to our souls. He's the author
and the finisher of our faith. He's the captain of our salvation. Oh, he's our high priest. He's
the Lord Almighty. He's the righteous servant. He's
the redeemer of his people. He's the son of God, the son
of man, the door to heaven. He's a sovereign Lord over all
things visible and invisible. He's prophet, priest, and king
of his people. He's our Sabbath, and only in
him do we find rest. He is the Lord, our righteousness. As the scripture declares, he's
the chief shepherd, the lion of the tribe of Judah. He is
a rock of our salvation. He's the ancient of days. Therefore, the believer is secure
in him. He is our counselor. He's our
comforter. He's the promised Messiah. He's
the great I am. And all these titles. we see
that He's completely sufficient for anything in our lives, in
all forms of life and godliness. Therefore, we who are weak and
weary, trusting in Christ, let us never forget that our Savior
is God Almighty. That's who He is. He's God Almighty. And it is He who gave His life
for us. And it is He who will keep us
by his almighty power, and it is he who will take us home one
day to be with him forever. Christ, in Christ alone, is the
all-sufficient Savior of sinners. Amen. Heavenly Father, thank
you for the wondrous titles of our great God and King, the Lord
Jesus Christ, your Son, who you sent from heaven. Oh, fully God
and fully man who redeemed us, came to save your people from
their sins. And oh, Lord, we who are your
people rejoice. We say, praise your mighty name.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lord God, for your mercy and
your grace. And we have learned and are still
learning that your grace is sufficient for us. In all these titles,
Lord Jesus, we see your complete sufficiency. in all times for
us through our life and in our death. And one day, one day, One day we will see you face
to face, and we'll praise you forever, Lord, for the great
things that you've done for us. Thank you, Father, for your mercy
and grace. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your
mercy and grace. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for your
mercy and grace. We love you only because you
first loved us. In Jesus' name, amen.