It's been a very full week and as I mentioned about my dad being in the hospital and being with him the last few days staying the night with him and everything and yeah, they're really bad first night and looks like my Sister said he had a pretty rough night last night. So keep him in your prayers if you would but Trying to look to see what the Lord might want me to speak about this morning and kind of directed my thoughts. And as I mentioned, that song we just sang. Has been the theme of my. Life here for quite awhile, but. He's kind of directed my thoughts here to the 12th chapter, 2nd Corinthians. And. I want to start reading in. Verse seven, Paul writing here about himself, he said, and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelation there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Now, I'm just gonna deal with those verses there this morning, if the Lord will help me. This is one of the things that I think about often, and I also think this goes along with and it ties in with our study that we've been looking at over the last several weeks in Romans 7, Romans 8, and Ecclesiastes, about us being vanity of vanities, about us being in this flesh, no good thing. And here Paul is saying that the Lord has sent to him a messenger of Satan to buffet him.

Now, just at the outset of this, I know that there's a lot of speculation about what this storm is that was in Paul's flesh. Some say that Paul had some bad eyesight. Some say that Paul had some bad hearing. Some say that it was the Judaizers that followed Paul around and everywhere that Paul went and preached, they came behind Paul and tried to upbraid everything that Paul had preached at those churches. And then some say that it was literally uh satan coming and and disturbing paul just like he did with joe i don't know and i'm not gonna you know act like i know uh i don't even know if i even have a thought about it at one time i went along with the crowd said it was his blindness but i don't know that to be true and i can't say that so i don't know

but it doesn't don't really matter in my opinion uh It doesn't really matter what that thorn in the flesh is because the thorn in the flesh, whether it be directly from Satan himself coming and directing some sort of a physical attack or a physical oppression upon me, or whether it's God's hand directly, of course, we know all things are directed by God's hand, even Satan buffeting us. God's direct hand coming upon me in chastisement, whatever the case might be, whether it's an abnormality in my body and in my flesh, whether it's a besetting sin, that was another thing that I've heard is that Paul was talking about the underlying sins that he still deals with, the sins that he still battles with and everything.

Whatever those are, whatever it is, It's common to all of us. As we learned last week, there's nothing new under the sun. We all experience these things. We all are going to go through these times of buffeting. We're going to go through these times of sufferings and trial. And Paul was no different than anybody else.

Now, in context here, Paul's talking about that the Lord had given him this specifically so that he might not exalt in himself because of the visions that he had seen. If you remember, above this in the direct context here in Romans 12, Paul had seen a vision. He had been translated into the third heaven and saw a vision. Okay.

And so whether or not Paul had had multiple revelations like this before, we know that Paul isn't, this is the kind of the weird thing. I'm not exactly for sure if this vision that he's talking about right here, Is him talking about his Damascus Road experience? Whenever he saw Christ standing in heaven, whenever he saw Christ, is this the experience that he's talking about? I don't know. Is this a separate experience from that? I don't know. If anybody knows, has a little more biblical light than I do and everything, I'd be glad to hear it.

But if it is that, then this is where Christ showed Paul how he was, and from that day forward, we know that Paul considered everything else as done. He said, whenever Christ revealed himself in me, and I believe he revealed himself in Paul, maybe the same time that he revealed himself to Paul on that road to Damascus, but Paul said, whenever Christ revealed himself in me, he said, all this stuff that I thought was for good and everything that I was doing, He said, I count that now as done. All my righteous efforts from now on, all I can see them as, as vanity of vanities, as the writer Solomon wrote last week, or Solomon wrote and we read last week.

So Paul here is talking about this vision. Lest I exalt myself because I've seen this vision. He brings up the fact that he's the apostle in this chapter. lest I exalt myself because I am an apostle. Remember there was a time to the Corinthians that he had to defend himself as the apostle and everything. And he had to say some boastful things about himself to defend himself as an apostle. And he's had to do that in other places in scripture. to the Galatians. He had to boast about himself as an apostle being called of God, not being taught by any man that Christ himself taught Paul. He didn't go confer with Peter and John and James or anybody else up in Jerusalem, that he got divine direct revelation from Jesus Christ and was given apostleship by the direct command of Christ.

And so with those things, Paul was saying, lest I exalt myself above measure, the Lord sent Satan to buffet me, sent a thorn to my side.

Brethren, sometimes I think, and as I mentioned a while ago, and for those that's watching and listening, we just got done singing a hymn that pretty much was based upon these passages and As I mentioned to the church, I said, you know, this is something that I felt for quite a while because a lot of times whenever a man is up here standing and preaching or if he has a YouTube page or a Facebook page or a thing like that, we can get caught up in how much people are following us, how much people are listening to us, how many people are responding to us. If you're one of the guys that's getting monetized by your stuff, how much money your thing is being brought out, all these things that are material, temporal things, can easily begin to bolster the pride and the ego and the arrogance of those men. And just in general, any man that stands and preaches before anybody, there is always this sense of pride and arrogance that can always, it doesn't take much to light that fire either. And they begin to lord it over the Lord's children. And I think Paul is talking about some of these things here that the Lord continuously through the life of Paul kept him humble.

Number one, because obviously we know Paul's natural state in Adam. If we look before the Damascus Road, that state that Paul was in is a man who is a go-getter. He is a very religious man. He is not one that just sits on his laurel. He was up getting out, getting with it to serve God, to do this, to do all the things that he does. And listen, he was all about taking charge and doing what needed to be done. And he had no qualms boasting about himself, about who he was. And he obviously thought that way because he told us, hey, I was the Pharisee among Pharisees in his mind. I was keeping the law better than all my equals. That's how his thought process was before Christ was revealed to him.

So I think Paul is saying here that look, because of the tendency of my flesh to be swelled with pride and arrogance and ego and look to glorify myself, God has kept me in a state with this thorn in my flesh And I've asked that to be removed over and over and over and over again, and the Lord hasn't seemed to be doing well. It says thrice here. And the Lord hasn't seemed to have done that. If you look there, he mentions infirmities. Well, that could be anything that's happening to our body, right? In our infirmities, in our sicknesses, in our weaknesses, right? That's what infirmities mean. It says in reproaches. It says in necessities. Well, we don't use that word necessities much anymore, but that, and that, that word necessities, that means things that are needed. The things that we need. All of our needs and persecutions and distresses. Those are the things that, that, that is he is experiencing. infirmities and all these things.

And so God sends those things to us to remove us from self and pride and to bring us to look on Christ Jesus. And that's what he said here. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure, unless I should be exalted, and the two words that got me, above measure.

See, all of us like to be exalted. If we're honest, we all like to be exalted. We all like to be patted on the back. Preacher, that was a good sermon today, preacher. That was really well. Or, you know, hey, brother, you delivered that in such a way that was the most oratory sermon you've ever preached. My, what a great song you sung or whatever, you know. We like to be patted on the back and we like to be exalted. That's just human nature. We like to be rewarded. We like to do something and be rewarded from it.

Isn't that the very essence of self-righteousness? Isn't that the very essence of what everything is all about going back to the Garden of Eden? You can be as God. You can do something that is equal to and accepted by what God can do and what God will accept. That's all they want to do. Satan said, you can be as God. Oh, well, I don't need God then. I can be as God. So I don't need God.

Self-righteousness says, well, I don't need to depend. I can just appropriate and get after it. Appropriate the means and get after it. I can let God do this or I can let God do that. I can let God be the God in me and then I will do all these great wonderful things. I can get out there and obey the law and I can get out there and help people and whatever you wanna fill in that little blank, and God is going to accept that. God's gonna smile on that. God's going to count that as something of value, and I will be rewarded because of my work for God. My work by my hands, and God's gonna accept that.

When all along, God only accepts the work of Christ Jesus. His is the only work that God has accepted. He's not going to accept any works at our hands. And so Paul here is saying, lest I be exalted above measure. Well, what's the measure? That was my question when I read that. What is the measure, Paul? Can I be exalted some? Just don't exalt me above more than I deserve. Well, what is the, how much exaltation do we deserve? There's the root of it, right? What is the exaltation that we deserve? Paul, how much exaltation should you get? Brother Larry, how much exaltation should we get? Zero. Matter of fact, we've seen that back in Paul's seventh chapter of Romans. He said, whenever I tried to do something that I might be exalted in, I found that evil was with me. The good that I would, I did not do. Right? So there is no exaltation of us, period.

Number one, because there is nothing that we can be exalted for. Number two, any exaltation that we might do is always gonna fall short of God's glory, and therefore the measure is zero. You will not be exalted above zero. You will be exalted zero. Whenever we stand before the Lord, and however this shakes out, whether we stand before him in judgment with the rest of the world, and he goes through all of our deeds, good and bad, and what all they've done, and everything, We still are not gonna be rewarded for any good deeds we did. The only reward that we are going to receive is the reward of Christ. He will stand before us and all of our works, all of our deeds, everything that was of sin, Christ has said, my blood has done that. anything that is of the Spirit, Christ is gonna say, I did that. That is my work in them. They are my workmanship. I did this. We have no grounds to boast.

So the measure that Paul, and he may have not been explicitly meaning that here, but inevitably through the doctrine of Christ and through the doctrine that Paul preached, to all the churches, was that in me dwelleth no good thing. Therefore, the bar for my exaltation is zero. If I'm exalted above zero, then that's more than I should be exalted, because all of my righteousness are filthy rags. At least I should be exalted, and lest I should be exalted above measure, Through the abundance of the revelations, there was given me a thorn. How many of us have been given a thorn? How many of us have been given something? Brother, I can tell you, you know, there's besetting sins that I have, that I've prayed most of my life as a Christian, that the Lord would remove those from me, and he still never has. And I know that probably some people listening or watching or whatever like this says, well, you just need to stop it. Just quit. Don't do it. You have to, you know, you have to die to yourself or you have to, you know, you have to not give provision for the flesh. Do you not think I know those things? You think I want to do those things in the inner man? Absolutely not. Now the outer man, obviously he wants to do them, but that's what he, keeps getting enticed to do, right? But do you think I'm not, we don't know those things. We know those things. We know the admonitions of scripture to not make provision for the flesh. How do you do that?

Hey, I've tried to remove myself from things that are tempting to me, but somehow it still comes around again. I try to remove myself from situations that might cause whatever to happen. But somehow it still comes around again. Somewhere else.

Brethren, we cannot stop our sinfulness. But here's the main thing. We cannot stop God's hand in bringing these things to us for our good. We can't stop them. They are God's predestinating decree and purpose, not only for himself, but for his people. He has purposed a purpose that will not be thwarted, and he has purposed something for each one of his children to go through.

That's what we talked about last week and the weeks before. that he has subjected us to vanity, and he has seasons to everything there is a season. And he has caused us and put us in a habitation of where we live, the influences that we are around, the vanity that we are subjected to, and each little individual temptations that come through those vanities. And he is the one that allows that temptation is the one that allows those hardships. He's the one that allows, if you'll let me, the verse 10 there, the infirmities, the reproaches, the necessities, the persecutions, the distresses, he allows that because he has a purpose in those.

Brother Larry spoke about Joseph some this week. God had a purpose in Joseph going through that hardship that Joseph had. That was hardship and it was sin, wasn't it? It was sinful for what his brothers did. It was sinful for what happened to Joseph whenever Potiphar's wife lied about him, right? It was sinful for all of that that took place. That was all sin. Those people are guilty of that sin. Joseph experienced the hardship because of that sin.

But God's purpose from before the foundation of the world was that Joseph would go through that. And because it was God's purpose for Joseph to go through that, it was God's purpose that those men would do that to Joseph, that Potiphar's wife would do that to Joseph, that Potiphar would do what he would do to Joseph, and that Joseph would experience some time in prison hardships, necessities, infirmities, reproaches, persecutions, distresses.

Why? Why did Joseph have to experience that? Joseph had to experience that for the good of all of Israel. So that all of Israel would be blessed, Joseph had to suffer all the persecutions for his people. Do you ever think about that? Do you remember before Moses, before Isaac, before Joseph, God said to Abraham, I'm gonna send your people into Egypt and they'll be there for 400 years. They'll be oppressed, but I'll bring them out.

Joseph had to go through that so that those people could be brought out But see, they had to go into Egypt first. They had to go into Egypt before they could be brought out of Egypt. And Joseph was the way that they went into Egypt. Joseph was set up and in being set up over all of Egypt, he was able to bring his father and his brothers all into Egypt and his people into Egypt so that they could be cared for. And the Lord began to multiply them in Egypt."

Now, brethren, that was purposed by God, predestinated by God. And even God himself said, through Joseph, what you meant for evil, God reconstructed it, turned it around, and somehow found a way to make it good. Is that what Joseph said? No, he didn't say that. He didn't say God repurposed all that. You know what he said? He said, God, you meant that for evil. God meant that for good. God meant what for good? All of that evil, all that sin, and all of Joseph's infirmities, reproaches, necessities, all those things. He meant that for good.

Paul, why are you going through all these things? Because God has purposed it for your good. Brother Larry, why are you going through all the purposes that God has purposed for you for your good? Lori, why are you going through all the things that you're going through? God has purposed it for your good. Michael, Rosette, child of grace, wherever you are, lest we be exalted above measure through the abundance that God has given to us. The Lord has given us a thorn in the flesh.

But God doesn't just leave us there, brother. He doesn't just leave us there in despair. Look at verse nine. He says, my grace is sufficient for thee. Now, I want to just pause there, because sometimes we can read over these things so quick that we lose sight of what's being said here. First and foremost, it's always God's grace that's sufficient. Your work is not sufficient. Your abilities, your trying, your trying to achieve your manipulation to get out of or get out from under. This is something that the Lord really dealt with me about several years ago whenever I was studying about prayer and things like that.

We are always so quick to pray people out of problems. When God is bringing them under those problems to glorify them, to bring them to an understanding more of Christ. And we're quick to get them out there. And that's why through all that, I've learned, you know, Lord, we would love to see them healed, or we'd love to see them brought out from underneath all this stuff, but not as we will, but as you will, if it's your will to make them sick.

I'll never remember some of the looks that I got one time whenever I prayed for somebody who asked if they would, you know, would you pray for me? Cause I'm, you know, really sick. And I said, Lord, if it's your will that they be healed, you know, we ask that you would give that to them, but if not, give them grace through it. It was like, well, what do you mean if it's God's will? I mean, you don't want, pray God, take this away from me. Well, I don't want to pray that because God may be bringing you to a greater glory of understanding and knowledge of his son through that. Why would I want you removed out of that?

You know, my grace is sufficient for thee. And what that means, brother, is that the Lord's providence, the Lord's dealings with you, the Lord's purpose for all of that is sufficient. Now, should the Lord end your life through one of these things? His grace was still sufficient for you. He is still worthy to be praised through all of it. See, a lot of people would want to curse God and die like Job's wife. Oh, the oppression is so hard. Why don't you just curse God and die? But guess what? The Lord proved that when sovereign grace in faith is given to a child of grace, that can't happen. A child of grace can no more get rid of faith than they can create themselves. When God gives somebody faith, it is his faith that he gives. And that faith will be exercised in measure as he appropriates. And whenever he does appropriate it, you being his workmanship, cannot stop the exercising of that faith, the exaltation of Christ that comes through it, the worship that comes to him because of it. Listen, you will do as God has directed. Every one of us has. And if he doesn't extend that grace and mercy, we will experience the hardships of our life. We will experience the depths of our sin and our inability and our depravity. We will experience that.

But brethren, the Lord always gives grace to his children so that in that, it may not be right away, but somewhere in that, the Lord brings us to see the sweetness of it because it shows us more of who Christ is. And that's why Paul said here, my strength, or the Lord says here, my strength is made perfect in weakness.

That doesn't mean that the Lord was lacking in strength, that he has to do that to prove his strength. No, he does that to show his strength, but he don't have to prove his strength to anybody. And his strength isn't lacking, meaning that as I do this, now my strength is perfect. No, that means mature. My strength is brought to fruition in your weakness. So you would never really know how much my strength.

Job did not know how much the Lord's strength in preservation was until he brought Job to the very brink of death. Job in all accounts should have really, like his wife said, give up and died. I mean, God took his children. God took every bit of riches that he had and he was very wealthy. And God took his whole family, except for his wife? And then God took his health. Can you imagine being covered from head to toe in boils, sores? Haven't y'all ever got a burn and got a blister and that thing blistered up? And then whenever it popped, how irritating and how it hurt? Can you imagine that being covered, your head to toe? and not in the niceties and the civilization like we live in, Job lived back then where there wasn't a place to go get a lot of health care. No, he just had to deal with it. Matter of fact, I believe, was it Job the one that he had scraped him with a clay pot or something? Scraped all them bulls with clay pots. Can you imagine how infected they probably got?

But what did Job learn? Through all those things, Job's faith never did waver. Job's faith was always there, but it wasn't because Job was strong. It was because God had given him true faith and that faith didn't die whenever he was persecuted, whenever he was put under trial. That was the very thing that Satan said to God. If you remove all the things that you put a hedge around Job with, if you remove all those things, that guy is going to curse you and he's going to turn away from you and he will not serve you. But yet what was the proof? When God says, whenever I give faith to somebody, nothing can diminish that. Now I can take them through some hardships, all right. I can take them through some trials and I can let them feel no faith for a little while, but it's never gonna die. I will preserve them to the end.

And that's why God said that my grace is sufficient. It's enough for you knowing that God in his love and grace towards us will keep us despite what he brings us through. Despite those hardships and his strength is shown to be perfect whenever we are in our weakness. And Paul says, most gladly, therefore, in light of God being shown perfect in his strength, whenever I am made weak, therefore, gladly, I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. So what he's saying here is he says, hey, I have learned to rejoice in the hardships that come to me because whenever that does, the faith of Christ is made evident by God's work in me, keeping me preserved, keeping me persevering in the faith.

And brethren, those aren't things that we just let God do. If God wants to strike you down, he's gonna strike you down. If God wants to raise you up and let you see some form of high mountaintop, he will. If you have much faith one day, that's because of God, not because you let him. If you don't have very much, it's because you didn't let God, God didn't give it to you. You can't stop God from pouring out his grace and his mercy. You can't stop God from giving you The gifts that he has already before the foundation of the world predestinated to give you You can't stop those They're irresistible

Paul says therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and in necessities and persecutions and distresses for christ's sake Why am I doing this? I'm suffering these things for christ's sake why because in my infirmities Christ is made strong. Just as whenever he said in my weaknesses, Christ is made strong in the hardships of my life, Christ is made strong. Why? Because Christ is seen as the one preserving me. But in the end, it also brings me to a deeper and fuller and. And more perfect understanding. And love. for my savior, my dependence upon him.

Lord, if it be not you that keeps me. See, he prayed that the Lord would remove it. But instead of removing it, the Lord give him all that he needed and brought him through that. It didn't it didn't be it didn't take him to his demise. It didn't ruin him. And it didn't cause him to leave the faith. His grace was sufficient in every trial clear up to the point when Paul Was killed. His grace was sufficient for him. And whenever they killed Paul, guess what? God's grace didn't end there. Because God's grace continued to bring Paul right into his presence.

That's why Paul said. Back when we read it a couple of weeks ago. You don't have to turn there off. Turn there real quick when Paul says. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? He said, for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

My grace is sufficient for the brother and sister in Christ. Listen, all of us are experiencing and will experience hardships in this life. And I know some of you are going through many things. Some of you listening and watching. I know some of you personally, and I know you're going through things. Listen, God's grace is sufficient for us. He will not leave you helpless. He will not leave you hopeless. by His Spirit. He may bring us down to the depths, but He will always cause us to persevere. He will always cause us preservation in the faith. He will never leave us nor forsake us.

See, some think because we go through these infirmities and reproaches that God has forsaken us. Job, it looked like God had forsaken Job. but God had not forsaken Job. Matter of fact, in love, God was showing Jacob more of who he was. Jacob, Job, was showing Job more of who he was. So brethren, I know it's hard to say this, but take joy in your infirmities because the Lord is teaching you and growing you in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

May God give us the attitude and the character that through these trials that we might exalt our Lord Jesus Christ so that others might see and know and hear that though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Though he may kill me, I'm still gonna worship him.

That wasn't a deep hearted, pull myself up by my bootstraps, resolve of Job. No, that was the evidenced faith that God had put in Job. Job said those words, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Job said that because God's faith was in him. Because if God's faith wasn't in him, Job would have said, gloom, despair and agony on me, curse God and die. And he would have. He may have even hanged himself. He may have run himself off a cliff. He may have run himself through with the sword. Who knows what would have happened?

But guess what? That wasn't God's purpose. God predestinated something else. God predestinated that Job would experience the faith of Christ through all of his trials. And at the end, he saw a glimpse. I am nothing. And what I have spoken and what I have said, I have said in ignorance. Now I see and now I hear. Now I know that God can do anything. That God can do whatever he wants. And that I have spoken and I repent in dust and ashes.

See, God brings us through these so that we might not exalt ourself above measure. When we begin to think that we are owed something or that God has put more on us than we deserve, What do we normally go to? Lord, look at all the good things that I've done for you. How can you bring me through this? Well, look at all the years that I've stood and preached to your people. Look at all the years that I've given money to the church. Look at all the years that I've served and woke up in the middle of the night to pray with somebody who was sick. Look at all of this and all of that and all of these things that I have done for you. And now you're bringing me through this. Why should I even have to go through this? Shouldn't my, deeds make me exempt from your strong hand.

Lest I be exalted above measure, the Lord has given me a thorn in my flesh. May we not despise the thorn in the flesh, brethren. It may be truly the grace of God, which is sufficient for us.

Right, anybody got anything that you'd like to add or say, comment on? Questions? Directions or rebukes? Anybody want to throw a tomato at me? Kind of one of those, I know it's true, preacher, but I don't like to hear it. It's hard to hear.

Our Lord is good, even in trials. All right, let's pray. Lord, thank you again for your mercy and grace that you've given us in Christ. And thank you again for all that you are to your people. We thank you, Father, that your grace is truly sufficient for us, although many times we don't understand or realize that. And most times we definitely don't vocalize that. But Father, we do thank you. Through the things that you bring us through in this life, if it will let us see Christ more, we pray that you would, by grace, bring us through those things. May we not ever elevate ourselves above what we're worth, which is zero, which is nothing. This outward man is worth enough to turn back to dust and to be gone forever. But Father, we thank you that we have eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. that you've prepared a place for us to inhabit whenever our souls leave this earth, that we might be in your presence forever without sin, without the tribulations and the trials of this life. That our faith will end in sight, and we will see you as you are, and we will truly know ourselves and see ourselves as we are.

Thank you, Father, for all that you've done, and thank you for these people that you've brought together Father, many of them are going through hardships now. Going through things in their life. We know that you're not unaware of those things because you brought them on.

But Father, may you give us grace. May you help us. May you be with each one of us and help us to help each other. To be of encouragement to be there for each other whenever they have need. To love each other more, love you more.

Father, we can't do that in our flesh. We need you by your spirit to allow us to experience those things and for you to work in us, willing to do your good pleasure. We are a needy people, Lord, but you are a gracious God. So we look to you and we hope in you and we exalt and honor and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his name that we pray, amen.