That last congregational song
that we sung, that last verse says, the bride
eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face. I will
not gaze at glory, but on my king of grace. Not at the crown
he giveth, but on his pierced hand. The lamb is all the glory
of Emmanuel. What a God, what grace, what
mercy. Turn with me in your Bible to
2 Corinthians chapter 12. I've enjoyed tremendously the
time that we've had together. I've thought about y'all for a long
time. I know there's a lot of you I've never had the opportunity
to meet, and I've enjoyed being able to just sit down and just
fellowship around our Lord. Here in 2 Corinthians chapter
12, we'll be looking at verses 1 through 10. The title of the message is Sufficient
Grace. The Apostle Paul was just like
you and me. He was a sinner, dead in trespasses
and in sins, and God in his mercy and grace stopped him on that
Damascus road and revealed Christ to him, opened his blinded eyes
and set him free. He wrote at least half, 14 of
the books of the New Testament, and still just a man, just like
you and me. I think sometimes the reason
I said that, I think there's many times we forget that. They
were men subject to like passions just like we are. They have the
same flesh. that you have and I have. They
do, wasn't exempt. But I'll tell you this, those
that our Lord loves, he rebukes and he chastens and he will not
leave you alone. If he ever leaves you alone,
you're in a mess, a mess. And I pray that God this morning
would comfort our hearts. I think one of the greatest ways
we find comfort is when we read the scriptures is when God enables
you to enter in what that scripture says. As he opened the scriptures
to our heart, you've been there and you know what it's like to
be in that cold, dark grave and God called your name and called
you out personally. And you know how that it's God
that keeps you and you don't keep yourself. You see how God,
it ain't just reading the scripture, it's when God enables you to
enter in by experience what grace really is. You can talk about
grace, but oh, when God reveals to you his grace, and his grace
is always sufficient grace. Whatever you need this morning,
it's sufficient grace. It is completely, totally sufficient. So here in these verses it says,
Because it is not expedient for me, doubtless to glory, I will
come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in
Christ about 14 years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell, or
whether out of the body I cannot tell, only God knoweth. Such
a one called up to the third heaven, and I knew such a man,
whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, God
knoweth. how that he was called up into
paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful
for a man to even utter. Of such a one will I glory, yet
of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. For though
I would desire the glory, I shall not be a fool, 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. 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. For this thing I will assault
the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. He said unto
me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made
perfect in weakness, Most gladly, therefore, with our rather glory
in mine infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon
me. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions
and distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I
strong. We see here, Paul relates this
experience that he had how that he said that God called him up
to the third heavens. We have the heavens where our
atmosphere is, we have the second heaven where the stars and the
moon and the sun is, and then we know where the third heaven
is. Where God Almighty, the Son of God dwells, that's Emmanuel's
land, and where the saints of God, when they leave this world,
go to be with our Lord. You know what he said to the
thief on the cross? Today thou shalt be with me. in paradise. So really, paradise
is anywhere Christ is. But you say, well, how can I
enter into that? I've never been called up to
the third heavens. I've never been called up into
paradise. If God Almighty has been pleased
to reveal His Son to you, you've seen His glory. You saw things
that most men will never see. Our Lord said many prophets and
righteous men have desired to see the things that you see,
and they have not saw them, but you see them. You see them. God has allowed you, as he did
Paul, to see things that it's hard to describe. When we talk
about grace, it's hard to describe and to define grace. We tried
last night to talk about repentance. Define repentance. You know what
I'm saying? You say, but I know what it is.
I can't explain it. How? God has made himself known
to you. Paul said, I saw things. Can't even utter them. Can't even explain it. It's like
it's a great mystery, and it is. And he said, I've saw these
things. I've saw him. Saw him. It says, but we speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained
before the world and to our glory. which none of the princesses
of this world knew. For had they known what they
were doing, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But it is written, I hath not
seen, ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. We behold
things that the world cannot even comprehend or understand. Isn't that right? If you're a
believer, you can enter into this. If you're not, you can't
enter into it. You know, you say, I've been
there, I see, I understand. It's just in some small measure.
We see through a glass darkly, but thank God we see. I look
through a lattice, it's just a lattice, but I see. And I can
tell you this, what I see, I want to see more. Don't you? I want to see more. But God hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit. Salvation's a revelation. He
said that's the apostles and disciples. One day he said, well,
whom do men say that I am? They said, well, some say you're
Elijah, some believe you're John the Baptist risen from the dead.
But he said, whom do you say that I am? And Peter said, that
old dumb fisherman said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God. He said, flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you. Peter saw what a lot of people
didn't see. And what I'm saying this morning,
if you're a believer, you see a lot of things. You see the
main thing. You see him. You see who the treasurer is.
You see him. Why? God hath made it known unto
you. Revealed unto us by a spirit.
For the spirit, the spirit of God, searcheth all things, yea,
the deep things. But the natural man receives
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. The preaching of the gospel is
to this world, it's foolishness. They say, that's outdated. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. So you see, as a believer, how
we can enter into this, we see it. And every time I come to
God's Word, sometimes I get frustrated. I know He's there, and I look,
and I try to read from other men, and I'm going, I know He's
there, and you just keep looking and looking. Let me tell you,
till God opens this book, it's a closed book to all of us. If
you ever see anything, God teaches you They shall be all told of
God. I have families, friends, they
don't understand. You try to talk to them, you
can't. Now they'll talk to you about religion. But a believer
wants to talk about one thing. That's their Lord. Nothing else
doesn't matter. I know we get off, you know,
we talk about politics. We don't want to talk about politics.
And we come here this morning for one reason. One reason only,
and that's talk about Him. Isn't that right? And the world
doesn't understand. But what's amazing, why do you
understand? Why you? Why do you understand? We have been blessed to have
the gospel revealed to us. Oh, we're blessed, blessed, blessed. Our Lord blessed Paul. Everything
Paul knew, God told him. God revealed it to him. God made
it known to him. But there was a danger in all
this. He said in verse seven, lest I should be exalted above
measure through the abundance of the revelation. What is the
danger? What is our biggest danger this
morning from what God has given us and what God has done for
us? I'll tell you what it is. It's being lifted up. with damnable,
self-righteous pride. You say, well, I'm exempt from
that. Oh, no, you're not. He that thinks he stands, take
he lest he fall. Isn't that it? Don't you deal with pride? Boy,
I do. I hate it. Hate it. It's there. And Paul said, lest
I be should be exalted above measure. Paul was human. We can become proud. We're a
chosen people. We're a redeemed people. We are
a highly favored. It said about Mary, she's highly
favored of the Lord. Why would God favor us? Why would
he? We know it's grace. We can get proud of race. We
can get proud of face, how we look. And we can even get proud
of grace. Pride, it's like the law in the
gospel, like pride and grace are totally opposites, totally
opposites. But this old flesh, we all know
this scripture, 1 Corinthians 4, 7, who makes you, who makes
you, who makes you, who makes you to differ? who makes you to differ from
anybody else. Brother Fortner preached a glorious
message on that very topic last weekend, who makes you to differ. And as he was preaching that
message, I couldn't help but to think about my own life, not
trying to be too personal. But I have a sister. She's very
dear to me. And she was like a brother to
me, because I had no brothers. She's about 15 months older than
I am. When we were little, we played
together. We fought together. But she, for the last probably
seven or eight years, is in a nursing home, 56 years old. Had two beautiful children. They
took those children from her when the children were just small.
And all she has, to amount to anything, you could probably
put it in a big garbage bag. And last Sunday, I was able to
have my children and my grandchildren with me. And what makes me to
differ? You see what I'm saying? Raised
in the same family, same mom and daddy. What makes me to differ? What
makes you to differ? Why ain't you a raven maniac?
Why ain't you living in the gutter somewhere? Grace, who makes you to differ? What
hast thou that thou didst receive? Now, if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if you didn't receive it? Boy, I'll
figure that out. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. John the Baptist, filled with the Holy Spirit from
his mother's womb, the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
they came to him one day, and they said, John, who are you?
He said, I'm just a voice crying in the wilderness. He must increase
and I must decrease. Why did God set John apart? What made him to differ? Grace
made him to differ. Or Darwin Pruitt say one time,
he said, our Lord hung between two thieves. And God eventually
showed mercy to this man. Today you'll be with me in paradise.
And this man went to hell. What made the difference? The
man in the middle made the difference. That's us. Who makes you? We have to be reminded of that.
We forget. We forget. We forget where God
brought us from. That's why God many times remind
us. He said, you remember the pit from which you were dug.
Your father was a Moabite and your mother was an Amorite. They
were idolaters. That's where you came from. Go
back to Eden. Look where our parents was at.
Bunch of rebels. Everybody studies their genealogy
and I guess they're hoping they'll find somebody who was a king
or a prince or something. What if you found a harlot? Boy,
you wouldn't be too proud of that now, would you? That's our
genealogy. That's us. But don't we forget? We forget. It doesn't matter who you are.
We are all nothings and nobodies. I've told the folks at our church
more than once, we are all zeros with the edges knocked off. And
that describes us. Now some of you may think you're
a 10 or an 11 or you're just a zero. You know what Tim, I
heard Tim James say one time, you know you see people in the
Olympics and they give out the gold medal and they give out
the silver medal and they give out the bronze medal. You know
what the silver medal is? It's the consolation prize for
losers. And we're all losers. I'm not
telling you anything new, I'm just reminding us. That's who
we are. If God has given you a gift to
stand before a group of men and expound God's Word, God gives
you the gift. That's right. And it's a gift. It's not a talent. It's not learned. It's given. It's given. If you believe, God gave you
faith. If you continue to believe, God
gives you faith. I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.
Our greatest danger is being lifted up with pride, because
he said, lest I should be exalted above measure. Pride goeth before
a fall. God hates a proud look. He resists
the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. We can even boast
of our trials. Nobody's ever went through what
I went through. Isn't that us having it so bad? We can even boast of our so-called
faithfulness. Who put you where you are? Why were you born in the vicinity
of Ashland, Kentucky? Why? Why was I not born in some
third world country? Isn't that it? You did not decide
who your parents would be. You had no choice in it. Why
are you sitting here this morning? Why are you not somewhere else? Everything you have, God gave
you. We seek what God has revealed
to us. And unless we be exalted above
measure, God's gonna do something. He will give us a thorn in the
flesh. So preacher, let's just skip
that part. You see what I'm talking about now? Can you enter into
this? And when you say, when you even,
you read that verse or have it mentioned, something comes to
your mind, doesn't it? Something comes to your mind.
Paul said this first thing, it was given. It was given to me. Whatever that is that comes to
your mind, whatever it is, God gave it. That's grace. He gave it. It's not an accident. It happened on purpose. And he
gave it. Why? To keep you from being lifted
up with pride. You see the picture? What was given, he said, a thorn. You know that the thorn is a
picture of the result of the fall. thorns and thistles. We know what, nobody knows what
Paul's thorn was. Everybody likes to speculate,
though. Some say, well, it was his eye problems. Some believe
it was hearing problems. And as I was reading and studying,
Spurgeon said he read from somebody said he, they said it was gout.
Well, Spurgeon really liked that because Spurgeon had gout. You
know, if you've got arthritis, you say, well, you'd like to
find out that his thorn in the flesh was arthritis. No, wouldn't you?
That's how we are. But God didn't see fit to show
us. Because everybody, everybody deals with some type of thorn.
Don't you? It may be back problems. It may
be arthritis. And since January, mine just
happens to be sugar. You see what I'm saying? It was
a thorn. No one knew what this thorn was,
but Paul knew what it was. What is a thorn? It's just a
splinter. It's very small. It's not usually fatal. I've
had, I've got one in my finger, and if you want to see in a little
bit, I'll show you just the first of last week. And I left it in
there. I thought, well, it'll eventually come out. It ain't that bad.
No, it didn't go away. And it began to fester. Then I tried
to get it out with my knife, and that was a mistake. I had
to get a pen and get it out. And you know, you can still see
where it was. It was pretty small. I'm not going to die from it.
I hope I don't. But when you get a thorn, I remember
one time years ago, I was loading a truck. And I went like this
down about the bottom of the truck bed. And when I did, I
caught an oak splinter and drove that thing underneath my fingernail.
I had to go to the emergency room and they had to scrape my
fingernail and pull that. Now that's a thorn. Nothing else
didn't matter. I wasn't concerned about eating
or anything else. That thorn made me forget everything
else. And it made Paul forget all the
revelations and everything. The only thing he's focused about
is that thorn. You see what I'm saying? The
thorn. It's very sharp. It irritates. It festers. It's very secret. No one may never see it. No one
ought to know anything about it, but you know it. I wrote
this down. It's very real. It's real. And they're very common. Me and
Sandy was just out working in the yard. And the next day I
noticed, well, where did I pick that up? It's very common because
we live in a world of thorns. You rub up against them every
day. There will be a thorn in your
flesh every day you live because we live in a world of thorns. Everybody is exposed to them.
And we don't have anything different from anybody else. We just all
have our thorns. But Paul said it was a thorn
in the flesh. He didn't say it was in the spirit. It was in the flesh. And that
word flesh here is the same word in Romans 7 when he said, in
my flesh dwells no good thing. And it's your flesh. It's your
flesh. You've still got flesh. You have
to deal with this flesh. Your flesh is dying. Your flesh
is getting older. And the older you get, the more
problems you have. Isn't it? It's not improving. It's not getting better. My dad
was a diabetic. My sister was a diabetic. And
I thought, well, it'll just skip me. No, it didn't. in the flesh. He said here, the last part of
verse seven, giving me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of
Satan to buffet me. Do you mean, is this what I think
it means? that God would allow and give
this messenger of Satan to Paul to, like a thorn in the flesh,
to just irritate his flesh, I think that's what it's saying. You
remember, the devil is still God's devil. He is bound by God's
chain and he can only do what God allows him to do. Everything
that's happening in this world is happening on purpose. Everything
happening in your life and in my life is happening on purpose. What'd he say? Have you considered
my servant Job? He said there's an unlock him
in all the earth. And he allowed Satan to take every one of his
children, everything he had, the means of making money, everything
in one day. Didn't he? And then he'd come
back and he'd say, well, have you considered my servant Joe?
He said, skin for skin, a man to give everything has got to
save his own flesh. And now he says, OK, you can
touch his flesh, but you can't kill him. If he had to put the
stipulations, let me tell you, as good as I'm standing here,
he'd have killed him. He would have killed him. And he covered
his body in boils. And it was a gift. Isn't that right? It was a gift. You remember what he said about
Peter? Peter said, Lord, everybody else
might deny you, but not me. Everybody else might depart from
him. He said, I love you, Lord. I love you more than the rest
of them. Peter was one of the inner circle, Peter, James, and
John. He was on the tremount of transfiguration. He was with
our Lord in the garden, only a stone froze cast when our Lord
was praying. And our Lord said, Peter, Satan
has desired to have you, that he may sift you like wheat. You
ever seen somebody sift wheat? When we used to get flour, you
have to sift it, because it had all these impurities in it. And
boy, that's us. And he said, Satan has desired
that he may sift you like wheat. And I'm going to let him. But I've prayed for you, Peter.
that your faith don't fail. And this same Peter that said,
I won't deny you, just over a little while later, is cussing and a
swearing saying, I do not know who he is. He said, the messenger of Satan
to buffet me. Everywhere I can see the definition
of that word means to strike with a man's closed fist. It
said, then they did spit in his face and they buffeted him and
others smote him with the palms of their hand. That's talking
about our Lord. Buffeted every day, just struck,
just afflicted. Our Lord will even use Satan
and his messengers to accomplish his purpose. He that hath begun
a good work in you will perform it into the day of Jesus Christ.
You said, preacher, I thought you said the title of this message
was sufficient grace. It is sufficient grace. So God gave him this thorn. What
was the effects of this thorn? What did this do? Paul said,
I'll assault the Lord three times. It caused him to pray. Most of our praying is nothing
more than just uttering empty words. Now let's just be honest.
You get lonely and you try to pray and before you know it,
you're going to sleep. Ain't that right? Try to pray and your
mind's just somewhere a thousand miles away. But this bothered
Paul so much, he prayed three times. You know what it did?
You know what this thorn did? I'll tell you what it did. It
drove him to the mercy seat. And that's grace. We could get
lifted up with pride and God reminds us of who we are and
we still have that same rotten flesh. We can do the same thing
that Peter did, only worse. That's right. But drove him. When we reach
our emptiness, when we reach the end of our rope, that's when
we cry. In Psalms 107, he said, he commands
the stormy winds to arise and the ships just casting up and
down. And when we come to our wits
end, then we cry. It served this purpose. And you know what it did? It
humbled him. God don't have any trouble humbling
you. He can empty you, strip you, and when he shows you all
over again your flesh, you say like Paul, oh wretched man that
I am. Oh wretched not that I was, but
I am. He also said, brethren, if any
man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest I also
be tempted. You may be the next one to follow. You see somebody, maybe they
slip out, maybe gone for a few weeks, and I knew it wasn't real.
That may be you. That may be you. That word restore is the same
word that's used when you go to a doctor and you break your
arm and he restores it. He puts it back in place. I've
had a few broke bones. I can tell you, if I have a bone
set, I want somebody that has a little bit of compassion. I
don't want somebody to just grab that thing and jerk on it. Restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness. When we are weak, you will sympathize
with those who are weak. Weak. Now we see the power of
His grace. The thorn has done its job. He
bows to the will of God. What did he pray for? He said,
take it away. Take it, take, pull that thorn
out. Like I said, that one, that I
got under my fingernail, I'd have hated for that doctor to
come back and say, I just want to tell you, you're going to
have to leave it in there. So every time you look at it,
you've got to think about it. You got to be reminded of it.
Have you ever been, does God ever remind you of some things? And just look at it. He prayed
that God would take it away. And God answered his prayer.
Not the removal of the thorn, but the assurance of the sufficiency
of his grace. has sufficient grace. He said in verse 9, And he said unto me, My grace, whose grace is it? God says it's my grace. My grace
is sufficient for thee. For my strength is made perfect
in weakness. According to your day, whatever
your day is, so shall his strength be. Your days are different. Some days you're up here and
the next day you're maybe in the dirt. Whatever your day is,
so shall his strength be. You know what David said? David
was chased by King Saul. living in the woods, living in
the cave of Durham. You know what Jonathan did? Jonathan
went and found David and strengthened his hand in his God. You ever had Christ come to you
and just strengthen you? My grace is sufficient for thee,
my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore,
will I glory in mine affirmaties, not in my revelations, that the
power of Christ may rest upon me. When it describes the glory
of God on that mercy seat, how does it describe it? He said,
that is my rest. Isn't that what he said? That's
where I'll dwell, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Weak, frail vessels. Peter, James, and John were just
unlearned and ignorant men, but when they saw them preaching
the gospel and the boldness, what made these men bold? I tell
you what, he had strengthened them and they took knowledge
that they had been with Christ. It's not your strength. Boy,
I've been there and said, boy, I just need to be a little strong.
Well, you ain't strong. You're as weak as branch water.
Let's just be honest. When you're weak, then are you
strong. He said, I take pleasure in infirmities
and reproaches. Moses saw the reproach of Christ
greater than the riches of Egypt in necessities, in persecutions. Do you like to be persecuted?
Everywhere Paul went, he was driven, hated, despised, rejected. The only reason he mentions this
here in chapter 12, they said, Paul, you're not an apostle.
Everywhere he went, they said, you're not an apostle. You didn't
see the Lord Jesus Christ in his glory. Oh, yeah, he did.
Oh, yeah, he did. And he said, and I do all this
for Christ's sake. But when I am weak, I am strong. When Paul first came to Corinth,
he said, I want to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and
him crucified. And he said, I was with you in
weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And any man who God
has ever called understands his weakness, his fear, and his trembling,
who is sufficient for these things? Why, that your faith may rest
in the power of God, not in the wisdom of men. We're nothing. We're nothing. Every time any
man stands, God could let him fall flat on his face. And many times, many, many, many
times he does to teach us it's not us, it's about him. It's
about him. Distress, trials, heartaches
will reveal the true nature of a person. Sometimes troubles
make men hard and bitter. Sometimes a man in poverty, he
can become envious. Sometimes trials make men self-justifiers,
and sometimes trials make us rebellious. And only God's grace
can cause us to bow to Him. Only grace can cause us to submit
to Him, and glory, glory in these trials, whatever you want. Really, I deserve worse than
this. I can tell you, when God visits
a people, it's no small thing. You know, you see them build
these ships, and they say, boy, ain't that a beautiful ship?
You say, boy, I think it'd endure a whole lot. You don't know if
it'd endure anything until you put it in the storm. When you put it in the storm,
God reveals to ye, God knows, God knows, he reveals to you
and reveals to us what it's made of. Job's wife said, why don't you
just curse God and die? Would that not be a thorn? His
friends came to him, physicians of no value, and said, Job, it's
because you got sin in your life. Here's grace. that we not receive
good at the hands of the Lord and not receive evil. The Lord
gave, the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. It is well, it is well with my
soul. What makes the difference? Sufficient
grace makes the Remember that he who sent Paul's
thorn for his good once wore a crown of thorns himself for
the salvation of his people. His grace is sufficient. That
same grace, now listen to me now, get this, that same grace
that gave you the thorn will give you grace to endure it. I ran across this song a while
back, and I just think it sums this up. We've all sung by John
Newton, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch
like me. A man write a song like that,
he's seen grace. He's experienced grace. Which
memory also wrote a song, tis a point I long to know. Often
it brings me anxious thought. Am I his or am I not? I want
to read to you another one he wrote. He said, I asked the Lord
that I might grow in faith and love and every grace. Have we
not prayed that? Might more of his salvation know
and seek more earnestly his face? T'was he who taught me thus to
pray, and he I trust has answered prayer. But it has been in such
a way as almost drove me to despair. I hope that in some favored hour, at once he'd
answer my request. And by his love's constraining
power, so do my sins and give me rest. Instead of this, Instead of this, he made me feel
the hidden evils of my heart and let the angry powers of hell
assault my soul in every part. Yea, more with his own hand he
seemed intent to aggravate my woe, crossed all my fair designs
I schemed, cast out my feelings and laid me low. Lord, why is
this? I trembled and cried. Would thou
pursue thy worm to death? Is this the way? The Lord replied,
I answer prayer for grace and faith. These inward trials I
employ from self and pride to set thee free and break thy schemes
of earthly joy. that thou may seek thine own
in me." I think that sums up sufficient grace.