I trust everyone slept well last
night. A short night for most of us,
but I pray the Lord will be pleased to bless the services this morning. I was thinking that those of
you from the frozen tundra can contact your family members and
let them know it's gotten cold enough here, almost cold enough,
to perhaps turn the air conditioning off. We open your Bibles with me to
Isaiah 64, please. Isaiah 64. This is our hope this morning. We read this as a prayer. that thou wouldst rend the heavens,
that thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might flow
down at thy presence. As when the melting fire burneth,
the fire causeth the water to boil, to make thy name known
to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence. When thou didst terrible things
which we look not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down
at thy presence. Or since the beginning of the
world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither
have the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for
him that waited for him. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth
and worketh righteousness. Those that remember thee in thy
ways, behold, thou art wroth, for we have sinned. And in those
is continuance, and we shall be saved. But we are all as an unclean
thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We all do
fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.
And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth
up himself to take hold of thee, For thou hast hid thy face from
us, and thou hast consumed us because of our iniquities. But
now, O Lord, thou art our Father, we are the clay, and thou our
potter, and we all are the work of thy hand. Let's pray together. Our merciful and gracious heavenly
father, we come before thy throne of grace, pleading thy dear son,
our savior, our sin bearer, our advocate. And we ask, Lord, that
you'd be pleased now for his name's sake to have mercy upon
us, that you would cause the Lord Jesus Christ to be lifted
up in our hearts. We might set our affections on
things above, where Christ is seated at Thy right hand. Lord,
we pray for the power of Your Holy Spirit to bring salvation
to our souls. We ask it in Christ's name and
for His sake. Amen. Brother Tom is going to
come. Number 42. Let's stand together.
Number 42 in the hardback hymnal. All hail the power of Jesus'
name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all. Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all. Ye chosen seed of Israel's race,
ye ransomed from the fall. Hail Him who saves you by His
grace, and crown Him Lord of all. Hail Him who saved you by
His grace, and crown Him Lord of all. Let every kindred, every
tribe, On this terrestrial ball. To Him, O Majesty, ascribe, And
crown Him Lord of all. To him all majesty ascribe, And
crown him Lord of all. O that with yonder sacred throne
we at his feet may fall, we'll join the everlasting song and
crown him Lord of all. Lord of all, we'll join the everlasting
song and crown him Lord of all. Remain standing, and we're going
to sing hymn number 23 from your Spiral hymn book. We'll have
special music after that, and we can be seated then. Number 23 from the Spiral Handbook. Pass me not, O gracious Father,
sinful, wretched though I be. Though you might in truth condemn
me, let your mercy fall on me. Love of God so everlasting, Blood
of Christ so rich and free, Grace of God so strong and saving,
Magnify them all in me. Pass me not, O blessed Savior. Let me hear your gracious call. I'm a guilty, helpless sinner. ? Savior, at your feet I fall
? Love of God so everlasting ? Blood of Christ so rich and
free ? Grace of God so strong and saving ? Magnify them all
in me Pass me not, O mighty spirit. You can cause the dead to live. Speak the word of saving power. Give me faith and make me live. Love of God so everlasting. Blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and saving,
magnify them all in me. Pass me not a poor lost sinner,
you will, you can save me. Reach down with your hand of
mercy, saving others, Lord, save me. Love of God so everlasting,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and saving,
magnify them all in me. Please be seated. Pam Murphy
and Matt Vincent are going to bring special music now. This passing world is done When
has sunk yon glaring sun When I stand with Christ in glory Looking for life's finished story. And what shall I fool, regardless
of how much I owe? When I hear the wicked call On
the rocks and hills to fall When I see them start and shrink On
the fiery day loot break, Then, Lord, shall I fully know I'm
not human. Hallelujah! I stand before the throne. beauty not my own. When I see thee as thou art,
love thee with unshinning heart. Then, Lord, shall I fully know
but not learn how not my own. When the praise of heaven are
heard, ? Loud as thunders to be heard
? ? Loud as many waters' noise ? ? Sweetest voice, melodious
voice ? ? Then what shall I fully know but not to ask? ? Chosen not for good in need Way
and up from wrath to glee Hidden in the Savior's blood By the
Spirit sanctified Teach me, Lord, on earth to show for my love
how much I love. Our congregation has been wanting
to have Clay Curtis come down and preach for us for some time,
and we were able to work it out this weekend, and so thankful.
Clay, appreciate you coming. Melinda, the kids, and several
members of their church came down from New Jersey, so we're
very happy that you all are here. And I look forward to the message,
Clay. I do want to say something. His
tablet was up here earlier, and it was going crazy. And that's
why I don't preach from a tablet. Because I'm afraid something
like that will happen. We have a lot of wireless equipment in
this building. I don't know if you have a Wi-Fi on that thing,
but you might want to turn it off. I don't know if the signals
are. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay.
All right. Come on. Greg's sentiments too. We're
glad to be with you and glad to be here in South Jersey. I'm thankful for your pastor.
I'm very thankful for him. Everywhere I've gone and heard
him preach, I've been blessed by the message. So I know you're
blessed to have him, to hear the gospel each week from him.
If you will, turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians
chapter 11. Our subject this morning is the
glory of God's people. And if you were putting those
little parentheses after the title, I suppose you could put
glorying in our infirmities, glorying in Christ. The Apostle Paul here, he has
been writing to the church at Corinth and he is dealing with
these false preachers who were glorying in their flesh and they
were turning believers back to their flesh. And so Paul says
in 2 Corinthians 11, 18, He says, seeing that many glory after
the flesh, I will glory also. But the way Paul is going to
glory after the flesh is not the way these men were glowing
after the flesh. What did Paul glory in when it
came to his flesh? He tells us three different times.
In verse 30, 2 Corinthians 11, 30, he says, if I must needs
glory, I will glory of the things which
concern mine infirmities." And what he's saying is, I'll glory
in my total weakness, in the absolute inability of my flesh. Look down at 2 Corinthians 12,
5. In the second part there, right after the colon, he says,
of myself, I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. in my
weakness." And then again he says it and he tells us why he
gloried in the weakness of his flesh. And he tells us who he
gloried in as he gloried in the weakness of his flesh. He says
down in 2 Corinthians 12, 9, The Lord said unto me, My grace
is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in your
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. I take pleasure in my total inability
and my complete and thorough weakness. Why? For when I am
weak, then I am strong. Believers glory in the weakness
of our flesh. We actually glory that we have
no ability. And as we do so, we glory that
Christ is all our strength. He's all our strength. Now, when
we were dead in our flesh, when we were unregenerate dead sinners,
we did what all unregenerate dead sinners do, whether we were
outside of religion or in religion. and especially in religion. This
is what unregenerate people do. We glory only in our flesh. Go back with me to chapter 11
verse 22. These false preachers were slandering
Paul and they were glorying in their flesh and this is what
they were glorying in. Paul says, Are they Hebrews?
He says, So am I. He said, Are they Israelites?
So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham?
So am I. See, this was glorying in their
flesh. They were saying, We're Hebrew. We're the Israel. We're spiritual Israel. We're
the seed of Abraham. And they were glorying in the
fact that they were natural sons of Abraham. It doesn't matter
who your mother or your father is. That doesn't make us a child
of God. That doesn't make us God's elect,
depending on who our mother and our father is. God said clearly
in Romans 9, They're not all Israel that are of Israel. The
Israel of God are made up of the children of promise, the
elect of God. But Paul didn't glory in these
things anymore. Go to Philippians chapter 3.
Now, by the grace of God, Paul once gloried in those things,
but not anymore. Look at Philippians 3 and verse
3. He says, we are the circumcision. We're the truth. Israel of God. We are the true seed of Abraham.
We are true Hebrews. And here are the three characteristics
of the true seed of Abraham. God's elect. We worship God in
the Spirit. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. Paul says, Though I might also
have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh he
hath wherein he might trust in the flesh, I more circumcise
the eighth day. of the stock of Israel, of the
tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Is touching the
law a Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church? Touching
the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what
things were gained to me? I count loss for Christ, that
I might I count all things lost for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of
all things. And I count them but dumb, he said, that I might
win Christ, be found in him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law. We're never looking to our flesh,
never looking to anything we've done. We can't look to any law
of obedience. We don't have any. I'm not looking
to my righteousness, which is of the law, he says. But that
righteousness which is through the faith of Christ, through
Christ doing, through Christ dying, the righteousness which
is of God. Christ is the righteousness of
God. Christ is the righteousness provided by God, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. That I might know him in the
power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings
being made conformable unto his death. Paul said, by any means
necessary that Christ is pleased to use. I'm ready to experience
the fellowship of his suffering, be made conformable unto his
death, experience the power of his resurrection that I might
attain, cross over that threshold to the resurrection of glory,
be with Christ in glory. Now, by God's grace, who do we
glory in? Now by God's grace, we see ourselves
as we are. And when we glory concerning
our flesh, we're glorying in our nothingness. We're glorying
now that we have no strength whatsoever. Now I want you to
see this. In verse 23, go back to 2 Corinthians
11, 23. Paul says, are they ministers
of Christ? I speak as a fool, I am more. But we're going to see here that
these false preachers, just like they were saying, I'm a Hebrew,
and I'm a child of Abraham, and I'm born of the political Israel,
and all those things, they were using those things to commend
themselves as ministers of Christ. You see this every day. You hear
this every day, men trying to use fleshly things to commend
themselves to the people. Now, look what Paul says here
when he speaks of what he's going to glory in. that shows the mark
that he's a minister of Christ. He says in verse 23, in labors
more abundant. Now remember what Paul said back
in 1 Corinthians 15.10. He's not glorying in himself
right here. Back in 1 Corinthians 15.10,
Paul said, I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but
the grace of God, which was with me. And that's what he's showing
right here. He said, in stripes above measure,
in prisons more frequent, in deaths often. You know what all
those things have in common? They show his utter weakness.
They show his utter insufficiency for this work. They show that
he's entirely dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Read on.
Of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice
was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned. Thrice I suffered
shipwreck, a night and a day I've been in the deep. In journeyings
often, in dangers of waters, dangers of robbers, perils by
my own countrymen, perils by the heathen, perils in the city,
perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false
brethren. In weariness and painfulness,
in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often,
in cold and nakedness. All those things show that Paul
had no reason to glory in his flesh. He had no strength in
his flesh. These things show his insufficiency.
These things show he's entirely dependent upon Christ. And there's
another mark here, even more than those, that show how dependent
he is upon Christ. He says in verse 28, besides
those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily,
the care of all the churches." He said, who, what brother or
sister is weak and I'm not weak? Who's offended and I bear not?
What's Paul saying by all of this? What's he mean by all of
this that he's saying right here? He said, he said, seeing men
are glorying in the flesh, I'm going to glory in my flesh. But
then he says this, verse 30, here's what he's saying, if I
must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my
absolute total inability. You want to talk about flesh?
I'm going to talk about flesh, Paul said. I'm going to talk
about my strength and my ability. I have absolutely none. Absolutely none. And he said,
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed
forevermore, knoweth that I lie not. Whereas we once gloried
in our flesh, that's all we gloried in, that's all we trusted in.
Our will, our works, what we had done by the grace of God,
repentance is him turning us from ourselves and making us
cast all our care on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's all our strength
and our only strength. He's saying here in this what
he said back in 2 Corinthians 3, not that we're sufficient
of ourselves to think anything of ourselves. And that doesn't
apply only to the minister. That applies to all of us, brethren.
Not that we're sufficient to think anything of ourselves,
but our sufficiency is of God. Now he gives two examples to
illustrate just how insufficient, how weak he is in the flesh,
and how dependent he is on the strength of Christ. And the first
example is the very first persecution he ever encountered when Christ
converted him on the road to Damascus, right after that. This
is the first persecution he encountered. He said in verse 32, in Damascus,
the governor under Artaus, the king, kept the city of the Damascus
with a garrison desirous to apprehend me. and through a window in a
basket was I let down by the wall and escaped his hand." Now
this is the difference that the grace of God makes. You just
picture Paul when he was Saul of Tarsus and he's on his way
to Damascus. Remember Paul said we're the
circumcision who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ
Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. When he was Saul
of Tarsus on the way to Damascus, He was worshiping in his flesh.
He was rejoicing in his flesh. And he had all confidence in
his flesh. And he was in no way dependent
upon the Lord Jesus Christ whatsoever. He hated Christ. He was on his
way to arrest and have put to death those who confessed Christ.
That's what he was going to do. And that governor, he's talking
about, was waiting on him to get there with open arms. Because
Paul had letters. His thing was official. Paul
was going there and was fixing to take those pestering Christians
and put them to death. And that governor was welcoming
him with open arms to come to Damascus. But then, as the Apostle
Paul, after Christ arrested him, When he got to Damascus and he
told that governor the good news about Christ, he was ready to
kill him. He was ready to kill him. He
put a garrison around that city, blockaded that city so that none
could get in or out so that he could find Paul and kill Paul.
And Paul was ridiculed and humbled and brought down to where he
had no sufficiency in his flesh whatsoever. He couldn't do anything
about this. and he was made to totally depend
upon the grace of God, and Christ proved his grace sufficient.
He provided him a basket and some brethren that led him down
out of a window, down the wall, and delivered him out of the
king's hand. You see the difference? He went into that city, toward
that city, and came out of that city totally different than the
way he went toward that city. Then he gives another example
here. Oh, and let me say this. I believe chapter 12 verse 1
goes with that. I believe what Paul is saying
here in verse 1 is he's saying this is the answer then to all
that. It's not profitable. It's not expedient for me without
a doubt to glory in any ability in me. This is what he learned
from his first persecution. It's not profitable for me to
glory in anything about me. And then He gives us another illustration
here, and he tells us this. He shows that when he was carried
up into the third heaven, he says there in verse 1, I'll come
to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ
above 14 years ago. Now this was probably when he
was stoned and left for dead at Lystra. We don't really know,
but that's probably when this was. But here's the point of
the matter. Whenever this was, what he's
saying here is he was at a point where he was as weak and as without
strength as a man could possibly be. He didn't know if he was
alive or dead when this happened. He said there, whether in the
body I cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell.
But while as yet he had no strength in his flesh, Christ caught him
up. to the third heaven. He strengthened
him and lifted him up to the third heaven. He says, and he
repeats it, 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 into paradise and heard unspeakable words which is not lawful for
a man to utter. Now here's his point right here.
Here's the point that he's making, verse 5. He's speaking about
himself here. He says, of such a one will I
glory. Our glory in one without strength
in my flesh and yet when I was without strength Christ strengthened
me and lifted me up. That's the point that he's making
here about being lifted up. He said yet of myself I will
not glory but in mine infirmities. I know something about the lesson
Paul was taught when he first went to Damascus. You know something
about this too. I remember back in the 80s when
the Lord first converted me and called me and taught me the doctrine
of depravity. I understood the doctrine of
depravity. I believed what the Holy Spirit had taught me. I
didn't choose God. I couldn't choose God. He chose
me by His free grace and eternity in Christ. I could not justify
myself from the law. Christ came and He by His precious
blood justified me. I could not do that and I couldn't
bring myself to believe on Christ the Lord the Lord Jesus prayed
the father who sent the Holy Spirit and by the irresistible
grace of the Holy Spirit by his power he gave me life and gave
me faith to believe on Christ and I believe this and I understood
this I thought and believe God and cast all my care on Christ.
But I went. I was excited. I was joyful.
And you know this. You've experienced this, I'm
sure. I went right away going to tell my friends this good
news. Just like Paul went to that king and going to tell him
the good news. And I thought by my persuasive arguments and
by showing in the scriptures, it's right there in the scriptures.
Do you remember that when you first started seeing the gospel?
And I can remember reading that commentary of Brother Henry's.
And I would read that commentary and I'd look in the scripture
and I'd just, it's right there. How can you not see that? Why
did I not see that? It's right there. And I thought
I can convince my friends of this. And I found out real quick
I couldn't convince my friends of it and they wouldn't rejoice
in it like I did. And some of my friends had such
enmity against Christ that they would have killed me if they
could have. And they didn't want anything else to do with me.
Some of them unfriended me. And back then it was a little
different than it is now. But the Lord proved His grace
sufficient. The Lord proved He's never forsaken me. He's a friend
that sticks closer to the brother. And He's given me many more true
friends than all my brothers and sisters in Christ. So just
like Paul gave that first example, I've seen that. I understand
that. And as far as this second example goes, this is the glory
of God's people. He says there, Of such a one
will I glory. I'll glory in a man who, as far
as I know, I was dead. I had no strength. I had no ability
to do anything. And while I was without strength,
Christ raised me and lifted me up to the third heaven. That's
our story. That's our gospel. When I was
dead in sins, when I was under the curse of the law and had
no strength to do anything about it whatsoever, when we were yet without strength.
In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. God committed his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. While we had no strength, while
we were dead, like Paul, and then I was dead in trespasses
and sins. Even after what Christ had done
for me, I came into this world, 1969, I was conceived in sin,
and February 10th, 1970, I was born speaking lies. and went astray from the womb.
And I couldn't bring myself to believe on Christ. I had no spiritual
discernment, and I couldn't give myself spiritual discernment,
and neither could any other man give me spiritual discernment.
But God, who's rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith
He loved us, even while we were dead in sin, by grace are you
saved. He quickened us together with
Christ, and He raised us up together with Christ, and He made us And
He made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ. And all this
time since, you know what He's been doing? He's been showing
the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us through
Christ Jesus. And now that I'm a believer,
well now surely you've got some strength. Do we have any strength
as believers? Every now and then the Lord lets
us see it, doesn't He? He lets us fall flat on our face to see
it. We don't have any strength as believers. I can't keep myself in the faith,
I can't keep myself believing the Lord, but I'm kept by the
power of God through faith under salvation ready to be revealed. This is our hope, brethren. We
don't have any strength, and we glory in it. We're glad to
tell sinners we don't have any strength. But why would Paul
do that? Why would he say, this is the
only one I'm on glory in, a man who has absolutely no strength,
who's totally dependent upon Christ to raise me up. Why would
Paul tell sinners that? I recall one of the brethren
came up from a church down south of where we are, and he'd been
in this church that was teaching progressive sanctification, and
he came up and he told me that he's with us now he meets with
us now and he told me that uh... the preacher there told him when
they go out to try to witness to people don't even mention
sin don't even mention your inability at all what are you gonna how
are you gonna how are you gonna tell anybody would there even
be a hospital or a doctor if if there was no sickness if nobody
was sick and needed a physician how are you gonna point people
to the physician if you don't talk to them about being needy
and being sick. Why would Paul say this to sinners
about himself, that he had no strength whatsoever? Look here
in 2 Corinthians 12, 6. He says, for though I would desire
the glory, if I was going to glory, he said, I shall not be
a fool, for I will say the truth. 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 me to be." What were
they hearing Paul to be at Corinth? Those false preachers were going
around saying his bodily presence is weak and his speech is contemptible.
What did they see in Paul when he came and preached to them?
He said in 1 Corinthians, I was with you in fear and trembling
and in weakness. And he said, and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. I didn't come in
excellency of speech. Paul said, I don't want you to
hear anything above that about me. I don't want you to see anything
above that about me. That's why I'm not going to glory
in me. Why? That your faith might stand in
the power of God and not in men. That's why. You ever notice our
Lord Jesus, he told us, he said, don't glory in your almsgiving,
don't glory, don't stand in before men and pray, don't do any of
these things before men. That's exactly what churches
advertise to try to get people to come to their congregation.
All their ministries, all their humanitarian deeds, all their
prayer meetings they have, and all these, all the things Christ
said don't do before men. Why do you say don't do them
before men? We don't want anybody's faith to stand in us. We want
them to stand in Christ, in his power, in the glory of the Holy
Spirit. And Paul said here, and I will
say the truth, when the Lord saves us, when he gives you a
new heart, Paul said he makes us renounce the hidden things
of dishonesty. I like that first verse. He says,
seeing how we receive mercy. How do you receive mercy? I received
it by somebody telling me the truth. I received it by somebody
that wasn't dishonest, by God using a man that preached the
truth according to God's Word to me. And Paul said, seeing
as how we've received mercy, we faint not, we've renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty. Not walking in craftiness, not
handling the Word of God deceitfully, but commending ourselves to every
man's conscience with what? The truth. The truth. in the sight of God, preaching
the truth of God's word. So Paul said, if I'm going to
glory, I'm going to tell the truth. I'm going to tell you
that in me is no strength, and in you is no strength. And I'm
going to tell you the truth. All our strength is Christ. from
beginning to end. He's the author and the finisher.
He's the Alpha and the Omega. That means He's the beginning
of salvation, He's everything in salvation, and He's the end
of salvation. And He's going to be the one
we glory in all eternity for our salvation. When Paul said
Christ is all, he meant Christ is all. When Jonah learned the
salvation is of the Lord, It's not plus anything or minus anything.
Salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. Now lastly,
the Lord gives us four things. He teaches us four things that
brings His people to glory in Christ in every trial. And each
trial He brings us through, these are four things that Christ brings
us to glory in right here. One, we glory in Christ's power
to keep us humble. He says there in verse 7, lest
I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the
revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh. What's
that thorn in the flesh? It's right here in the next phrase. The messenger of Satan to buffet
me. The word messenger means angel. He gave me Satan to buffet
me. He gave me Satan to buffet me.
I never connected the trials that Paul suffered in chapter
11 with chapter 12 and Satan being this thorn that the Lord
gave to allow Satan to sift Paul. I never connected those trials
together right here, but in the context, he hasn't changed the
subject. He's still talking about the
same thing he was talking about in chapter 12. You see, Christ permitted
Satan to use the Jews and the Romans to lash Paul in his flesh
eight different times. Christ permitted Satan to send
a hurricane to shipwreck Paul, just like he permitted Satan
to send a storm and killed all Job's children. Christ permitted Satan to use
religious men to stone Paul at Lystra, and Christ raised him
up, strengthened him. and worse than all of the suffering
that he endured in those trials, Christ permitted Satan to send
messengers of Satan into Khorin. And that caused the greatest
suffering of all because here brethren that Paul thought were
true brethren that betrayed Paul and were being led away by these
false preachers. And you can ask your pastors
That beat Paul black and blue in his heart more than any of
those other sufferings did. You minister, you labor, you
pray for people and somebody just one day acts like they don't
know you and acts like they never heard a word you said. You think
like the Lord, Philip, I've been with you this long, you just
now know me, you don't know me yet. And that hurt Paul, that
was a thorn to Paul what Satan did there But this was only for
Paul's good. This was a gift. It said it was
given to me. This was only for Paul's good.
He says there, lest I should be exalted above measure. No chastening is pleasant. It's
absolutely not pleasant while it's happening. When you're going
through a trial, that's not pleasant at all. But afterwards, you began
to see better and better what the Lord was doing. and how he
was bringing you down and humbling you and keeping you broken and
contrite in your flesh. And when he does that, that's
some peaceable fruit, to know that Christ has the power to
keep us broken and contrite. I need that. I'm proud. I'm proud. I got two ugly twin brothers
with me all the time, pride and self-righteousness, and I need
to be brought down. Well, the second thing is we
glory in Christ because through the trial He brings us to His
throne of grace. He says there in verse 8, For
this thing I have besought the Lord thrice. That means continually. I've gone back and back and back
every time I go to the Lord that it might depart from me. When
I see Paul at the throne of grace, when I see him there begging
for this thing to depart from him, I think about the Lord Jesus
Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane when he prayed and said, Lord,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Christ, our Lord,
has experienced the obedience that he's going to bring his
child to experience. That's what Hebrews tells us.
He's experienced it. He's a faithful and merciful
high priest to us because he's been right where his people are
as a man. And as the servant of God serving for his people,
he experienced what it was like to be absolutely, totally dependent
upon His Father. He's the perfect believer. He's the perfect servant of God. And He was serving for His people
with His people in Him. And He knows what it is to cast
all His care on the Father and for the Father to send an angel
and strengthen Him. He knows what it is. Christ is
preeminent in everything. He's preeminent as the servant
of God, and he's preeminent in knowing what it is, in knowing
that the grace of God is sufficient. And so our Lord knows how to
bring us to his throne of grace. And scripture says, in that he
himself has suffered being tempted, he's able to succor them that
are in need. He knows how to comfort us. And
so when we suffer, you know what our first impulse is? Our first
impulse we come into the trial is to run to our brethren and
talk to our brethren, or run to the pastor and talk to the
pastor. And your brethren are there for you. I'm here for you.
Your pastors are here for you. But I'll tell you what I'm going
to tell you if you come to me. I'm going to tell you what the
end of the trial, what the trial was given for, the end purpose.
Go to Christ. Go to His throne. Scripture says
we have not a high priest. We cannot be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities, but it was in all points tempted
like as we are yet without sin. So let us come boldly to His
throne of grace. Let us come with confidence assured
that He'll receive us and that we'll find grace to help in time
of need. So we're thankful in all of this
that He teaches us. He teaches us first of all that
He's able to keep us humble. He's able to keep you broken
and contrite. And two, He's able to bring you to His throne of
grace. And thirdly, with glory in Christ because of His grace.
He said in verse 9, He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for
thee. My grace is sufficient for thee. The Lord answers our
prayer, but He doesn't answer it the way we think He's going
to answer it or the way we would want Him to answer it. He doesn't
have to remove the trial. And it's not the trial that we
need to have removed. The trial's not the problem.
Our flesh is the problem. Brother John preached it last
night. You're it. I'm in. That's our problem. And He gives
us grace to teach us His grace is sufficient for us. When you
get a thorn in your finger and it burns and it's hurting, you
hold that finger and you dot over that finger and you doctor
that finger and care for that finger like you don't have another
member in your body. And that's what Christ does.
When He puts His child in the trial, He cares for us like we're
the only member in the body. When we focus on one of our children,
we got to put the others on the back burner, not the Lord. He
can focus on every one of us at the same time like we're the
only one he's got. And his grace is sufficient.
Providentially, his grace is sufficient to teach us that whatever
he needs to do, if he needs to send a basket and let us down
a window in a basket, his grace is sufficient. His grace was
sufficient to choose us. It was sufficient to redeem us.
It was sufficient to quicken us. It was sufficient to keep
us and preserve us. It's sufficient to bring us home
to glory with Him so that none will be lost and we'll be made
every wit like Christ. So His grace is sufficient. So
He says to you personally, believer, He says, I'm not going to take
away the trial. I gave it to you to humble you.
I gave it to you to bring you to my throne of grace and to
show you My grace is sufficient. You know, Lord saved me and ever
since then, there have been a few trials here and there, you know,
through my life. And in every one of them, the
thing he's always taught me, providentially his grace is sufficient. He's taught me in his word his
grace is sufficient. He's taught me in his heart,
in my heart his grace is sufficient. His grace is sufficient. Paul
told Timothy, persecutions and afflictions came unto me at Antioch
and at Lystra, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. And
so Paul said, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens
me. Now that's true, brethren. I
know that from the first day God saved me till now. I wouldn't
be standing here if that wasn't so. I test it every day, I guarantee
you that. And Lord proves to me His grace
is sufficient. Here's the last thing. By these
trials, the Lord teaches us to glory in our weakness and to
glory in Christ our strength. Christ taught Paul this over
and over and over again. In each one of these trials that
Paul went through, in each one of these things he listed there
in chapter 11 that he suffered, Paul was taught this, verse 9. Christ taught him, My strength
is made perfect in your weakness. And Paul I'll remind you this
too. You know where Paul's at when
he's writing this letter? He's in prison. He's in prison. And he said this, Most gladly
therefore will I rather, rather than glory in my flesh and in
myself and my strength, most gladly therefore will I rather
glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest
upon me. Therefore I take pleasure and
infirmities and necessities and persecutions, distresses for
Christ's sake. You know, if you tell somebody
that, they're going to look at you like you're absolutely crazy.
How can you take pleasure in any of that stuff? Well, of course,
he wasn't some kind of, you know, whatever the name for it is.
It takes pleasure in those kinds of things, but here's what he
took pleasure in, when I'm weak in myself, then I'm strong in
Christ. That's where His pleasure was
in those things. It's one thing to know Christ has the power
and the sufficiency and all His grace is sufficient. It's one
thing to know it and to know that we're totally insufficient
and totally weak. It's one thing to know it in
doctrine. It's another thing to experience it and to know it
by experience. And Christ has the power to bring
each one of His children to know it fully in doctrine and experience. And that's the power Paul talked
about when he said, I want to know him and the power of his
resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering. That's the
power he's talking about. What is that? What's the power
of his resurrection? God's so satisfied with Christ
and the finished work of redemption that he's accomplished. He raised
Christ to his right hand and gave him all power in heaven
and on earth as the God-man. He had that power as God, but
now he's got that power as the God-man. We have a man who's
God, seated at God's right hand, who knows everything we're going
through. And God's given him the glory as the head over all
things to the church to fill all in all. Who filled these
pews? He did. Who filled your heart
today? He did. Who filled your heart
last night? He did. He fills all in all. and he's
the one who has the power to do that. He said this, let me
read this to you. He said, though he was crucified through
weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. We also are weak
in him, but we shall live by the power of God exercised toward
us. That's how we're going to live.
You know the impotent man at the gate called Beautiful? This
is a beautiful illustration of this. Peter comes there and he
preaches the gospel and he looks at this man, impotent, that can't
walk. Talk about weakness now. This man can't walk. He can't
even stand up. Peter tells him to arise and
walk. And this man got up. He got up. He stood up and walked.
Never walked. Got up and was walking. And when
they came around, Peter said, let me tell you how this happened.
He said this. Christ's name, through faith
in his name, hath made this man strong, whom you see and know.
Oh, see there, so it's my faith. My faith's got to be strong to
do this. Let me finish. Yea, the faith which is by Christ
hath made, which has been given him this perfect soundness in
the presence of you all. That's what happened to us at
Regeneration. That's what happens to us every time we're in a trial,
every time we fall, every time... And when we die, we come into
a day when we're going to be more weak than we've ever been.
And we're going to close our eyes in complete and total weakness. And we're going to find out we
were just that weak from the beginning, all the time. And
we're going to find out Christ was our only strength the whole
time. The whole time. You see, brethren, don't you
see how opposite the grace and knowledge when he grows you in
grace and knowledge of him. Don't you see how opposite that
is to this thing men call progressive sanctification? Those false preachers,
boy, they were glorying that they were getting more and more
holy and they were getting more and more sanctified and they
were keeping the law more and more and putting away their sin
more and more. While Christ made Paul really
grow in grace and knowledge of him. And Paul more and more said,
I am totally, thoroughly helpless to do one thing. And Christ is
all my strength. That's true growth. I pray now
God grow us like that. Amen. That's liberty. God's not looking to me for anything.
Thank you, Clay. No flesh should glory in his
presence. According as it is written, he that glorieth, let
him glory in the Lord. The gospel's for the poor and
the needy. The poor are those who have nothing.
The needy are those who can do nothing. Do you fit the qualification? That's who Christ came to save.
Let's stand together. Tom's gonna come lead us in number
14. Is that right, Tom? No, 226.
Oh, 226, okay, all right. Number 226, let's stand. Number 226, if you need a break,
now's the time. We'll have special music after
this congregational hymn. Number 226, my Savior. I am not skilled to understand
what God hath willed, what God hath planned. I only know at
his right hand is one who is my Savior. I take him at his word indeed. Christ died for sinners.