So let's turn in our Bibles to
these verses that June has left for us to have as a cause to
contemplate, her to contemplate, the work of her Saviour in her
life, and for us to be once again just reminded of the wonder of
salvation, the wonder of what it is to know God, which is eternal
life, to know Him in His true character. The verses, as I said
earlier, are in 2 Corinthians 12, verses 9 and 10. And he said unto me, And wouldn't
this be a marvellous thing, what a glorious thing, if everyone
that was here today and everyone that was listening in heard these
words as words from God Almighty to you personally. 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. I take pleasure in my infirmities,
in reproaches, in necessities, in persecution, in distresses,
for Christ's sake, for, or because, when I am weak, then am I strong. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we pray that you would grant us the grace to hear you speak,
the grace to believe what you say when you speak, the grace
to see you, Heavenly Father, through the eyes of faith. reigning
and glorious and supreme. The grace to see your eternal
and infinite love for our sister June. The wonder of grace, Heavenly
Father, to see her as she is now. You declare her to be all
beautiful within when she's here. She's all beautiful all over
now, Heavenly Father. Praise that you might grant us
the grace to be able to enter into something
of the rejoicing that she has now in the presence of the Saviour,
our Lord Jesus Christ. Lift him up before us, our Father,
and cause us to just be granted the grace of childlike faith. to him, holds to him, adores
him, and rests our weary heads on his heart. For those of you who knew June
and were loved by her, you had no doubt that she loved you.
She had the most remarkable capacity to love the unlovable. She had
the most remarkable capacity to reach out to people who were left in one way or another
disturbed and distressed by this world. I'm just so thankful that
these are the parting words that she's left for us. My grace, my grace, my grace,
says our Lord Jesus Christ, is right now Right now, you need
grace to believe. You need grace to hear God speaking.
You need grace, and I need grace, to preach. It's all of grace,
isn't it? It's all of the grace of our
God. My grace, says the Lord Jesus
Christ, is right now, right now, sufficient for the, for particular
people in this world, the recipients of God's grace. for my strength
is made perfect in weakness. One of the extraordinary things
about June is she, when I did get emotional, and I try not
to get emotional because I'm not very good at it, she used
to enjoy it when I got emotional. So I'm glad that I've actually
managed to write out some of these notes. I don't want us
to spend a lot of time looking at the reason for this, and we
may do in weeks to come, because it's an extraordinary description
of a man of God amongst a religious world. which was in a Christian
religious world, which was boasting in its abilities and boasting
in its triumphs and boasting in the work of men and the power
of men and the experiences of men. And Paul writes to these
people that he loved in Corinth and he is caused to talk about
these remarkable experiences. But I want us to just read these
verses and I'll just make a few comments and some of them I think
are extraordinarily significant for us, but I just want to spend
some time on those few words. He says in verse 1, it's not
expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions
and revelations of the Lord. Paul speaks then, I knew a man
in Christ. What a glorious description of
all of God's children. I knew a man in Christ. I was put in Christ by God the
Father from before the foundation of the world. All of God's children
are in Christ. I knew a man in Christ about
14 years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell, whether out
of the body I cannot tell, God knows. And such a one was caught
up into the third heaven. So there are three heavens in
Jewish understanding of things, isn't it? There's the heaven
where the birds are flying, there's the heaven where the stars are
shining, and there's the heaven where God reigns in glory. So that's the third heaven. He
was taken into heaven. He was taught the Gospel directly
by God Almighty himself personally, which is why he needed no man
to verify it. And why he does go to all of
this trouble to reveal who he is, because if you believe Paul,
you believe God. You disbelieve Paul, you disbelieve
God. It's as plain and simple as that.
You argue with Paul, you're arguing with God Almighty. Anyway, I
knew such a man, God knows, and he was caught up into paradise
and heard unspeakable words which is not lawful for man to utter. People talk about going to heaven.
The one sure sign that someone has been there is that they can't
say anything about it. So as soon as anyone ever says
anything about being in heaven, you know they haven't been there.
It's as simple as that. That's what he's saying. Unspeakable words. Will I glory? Now listen to it. He's talking about the man in
Christ is the one he glories in. And then he goes on to say,
Yet of myself I will not glory. So is Paul a schizophrenic or
is he just telling us what the scriptures say absolutely and
plainly? In our flesh we are nothing but
Adam. In our flesh we remain nothing but Adam. And it might
get adjusted and polished in all sorts of ways and I'm thankful
for so much of that, but nevertheless Adam just remains Adam. But he
boasts, he'll glory in the one that's in Christ, the one that
is taken into heaven. And it's a glorious picture,
isn't it? When you're taken into heaven, this flesh stays behind.
It doesn't matter whether you're here when the last trump sounds. This flesh, this flesh doesn't
go into heaven as it is. But I will glory in my infirmities. Verse 6. 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 what 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. People want to
speculate about what that is. It's irrelevant. If you read
on the rest of the context, it's irrelevant. You can get thorns
in your flesh. Our flesh is always going to
be a thorn to the spirit of man anyway. It's irrelevant because
the whole purpose of it is that he's not boasting in anything
to do with his flesh and this thorn was given him, God gave
it to him, Satan was permitted by God to do it. And then verse
8, this comes to our passage, For this thing I besought the
Lord thrice, three times, that it might depart from me. So there
he was. There he was, an apostle, afflicted
in so many ways and you can read the rest of the story of his
troubles and the struggles that he's had and the greatest struggle
he ever had in all of his life was the struggle for the churches
because he loved them so much and he loved the Lord of the
churches and he was distressed about the struggles that came
upon the churches. So in the midst of all of this,
Paul With this thorn in the flesh, for this thing I besought the
Lord thrice that it might depart from me. So that is the context
of these glorious words that come from the lips of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'm not taking it away. I'm not
taking it away. You'll have infirmities. You'll
have infirmities and I'm not taking them away. these glorious words. My grace
is sufficient for thee. My grace is sufficient for thee. Don't you love the Lord's description
of grace here, isn't it? He says it's my grace. He owns
it. He is grace itself. It's his
to give, it's his to apply, it's for his glory. It's his grace,
isn't it? It's my grace. If you're ever
going to receive the grace of God, you're going to receive
it from the very hand of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. It's
good for us to define grace again, isn't it? Again and again we
need to define grace. And why don't we just go to the
bookends of grace in the Old Testament and we'll see a great
picture of what grace is. God in Genesis chapter 6 verse
5, God saw, this is what God sees when he looks down from
heaven on humanity, God saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually. Does that describe you? It describes
Noah in the text of scripture here. This is Noah. This is Noah
and Noah's family and all those that were entering into the ark.
But given all of that, verse 8, Noah found grace. And where's grace found? In the
eyes of the Lord. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. So grace is given to people who
are and match the description of those described in Genesis
chapter 6 verse 5, isn't it? The wickedness of man is great
in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart is only evil, and that continually. So grace comes to
sinners. Turn with me to Zechariah, the
second to last book of the Old Testament, just before Matthew,
Malachi, and here we have a glorious description. of what happens
when grace is revealed. He says in verse 10, I will pour
out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and of supplications. The Father is the Father of all
grace. The glorious Redeemer is the object and purpose of
all grace, that he would be glorified and the Spirit is the Spirit
of grace. And what happens when the Spirit of grace comes? Zechariah
12.10, what happens when the Spirit of grace comes? What happens
in conversion? What happens when God comes to
someone who is described in Genesis chapter 6 verse 5. They shall look upon me whom
they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth
for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one
that is in bitterness for his firstborn. And that day, verse 13, chapter
1, and that day there shall be a fountain open under the house
of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. There's a fountain open, there's
a grace, there's a fountain of grace open. So God's grace, firstly
God's grace. necessarily assumes that men
are sinners. They are so great a sinner, so
great a sinners are we, that nothing other than the eternal
electing grace of God the Father and nothing other than the eternal
redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and nothing other than
the Spirit of grace coming to us to reveal those glorious,
glorious attributes of God as his word declares, nothing other
Nothing other. So our grace, our grace is blood-bought
grace, our grace necessarily comes to sinners. So the grace
of God, we speak about it often and we call our church in a byline
a sovereign grace church because there is no grace apart from
sovereign grace. All of God's grace is absolutely
sovereign grace. All of God's grace is always
electing grace. So unless people are preaching
election and electing grace, they're not preaching the grace
of God. There's a remnant chosen of God according to the election
of grace. God's grace is always saving
grace. God's grace always saves. God's grace is always effectual
grace. It's not an offered grace, it's
a factual grace. Our God is called El Shaddai,
God All-Sufficient. God's grace is discriminating
grace. We saw that last week in Exodus
33. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. We're celebrating here the grace
of God. We have been privileged to be
witnesses to the grace of God, the grace of God coming and saving,
the grace of God calling his child to himself, the grace of
God revealing his eternal, infinite love for his child, his dearly
loved child. And he says, she's just all beautiful.
There's not a spot in her. She's not a spot in her. She's
perfect. She's always been perfect in his sight. She is the recipient. And God, I pray, speaks to you
and says that his grace is sufficient for you. See, grace is never
earned. And grace is never merited. Grace never looks to what is
inside the object of grace because there's nothing there. We've
just seen that in Genesis 6, verse 5. It comes as a pure gift
of God. Salvation is the gift of God. Grace is the gift of God. It comes to those like Saul on
the road to Damascus who are completely unaware of their need
of it until it comes. That's why that spirit of grace
is to be poured out upon chosen sinners and then they'll cry.
Then they'll cry. It is never ever based merits. It cannot be because there are
no merits for it to be based on. Therefore it can never be
lost by demerits, no matter how obnoxious they might be to our
flesh and how distressing to others around and how unjustified
from a human point of view in any way whatsoever. It cannot
be earned and it cannot be lost. It's eternal grace, it is sovereign
grace, it is electing grace, it is saving grace, it's my grace. This is the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Don't you love the next word,
is. Child of God, what a glorious word that is. Is, right now,
right now, and always is. Every child of God loves that
word is. I need his grace right now. You
need his grace right now. You'll need his grace this afternoon.
You'll need his grace tomorrow morning. You'll need his grace
every step of the way. His grace carries his people
through the trials of this world. My grace, my grace is, is sufficient. I do love looking up the words.
And I trust you don't mind me looking up the words, because
I enjoy looking up the words. I love what the words say. Sufficient
sounds like a really nice word, isn't it? Sufficient. It's enough.
Completely satisfying, isn't it? It says, to be possessed
with unfailing strength. Don't you love that? The grace
of God. Possessed. It's to be enough. It's often translated to be satisfied. God rests in his love, brothers
and sisters. God is content. Just enough,
it suffices, doesn't it? Just sufficient, just sufficient. Sufficient unto the day of the
troubles of today, aren't they? But sufficient unto today is
the grace that God provides today. It's enough. Don't you love that
story of Jacob coming back to meet Esau and he throws out all
of these trinkets and divides all of his people up? Because
he has so much and he gets to meet Esau and Esau says, I don't
need all this, I have enough. And Jacob says, I have enough. When Esau said, I have enough,
he said, I have a whole lot. I am a very, very wealthy man,
thank you very much, and I don't need a few extra sheep and goats
and cattle. When Jacob says, I have enough, he means I have
absolutely everything, which is exactly where it is for the
child of God. We have enough, we have sufficient.
We have everything in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have absolutely
everything. Such is the sufficiency of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And sufficient grace is effectual
grace, isn't it? Grace is not an offer. Grace
is not common. Grace saves. Grace reveals the
Lord Jesus Christ who is grace. It's sufficient, sufficient. It's so sufficient, isn't it?
It's sufficient. The grace is sufficient for life
before we come to salvation. June heard us quote so, so many
times, 2 Timothy 1 verse 9, 2 Timothy. I'm in the wrong book.
2 Timothy. God who has saved us. We suffer
afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God. So those
afflictions that we suffer are according to God. They're not
outside of God's absolute sovereign hand in our lives. Who hath saved
us hath completed. completed activity with an ongoing
effect in the lives of all of his people. He hath saved us
and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, not
according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus. This is the only grace
there is. This is the grace that June wanted us to talk about
today. It was given us in Christ Jesus. Paul's talking about a
man, a man in Christ. And Christ comes to that man
in Christ and says, my grace is sufficient for you. It was
given us in Christ Jesus, there is no grace outside of the Lord
Jesus Christ. For those who are in the Lord
Jesus Christ, there is all sufficient grace. For those who are outside
of the Lord Jesus, there is none. It was given us in Christ Jesus,
when? You know the answer, don't you?
before the world began. How secure, how secure is the
child of God, how sufficient is the child of God in the race
of God. It's sovereign grace. It's grace
before we're saved. It's grace before we, sorry,
it's grace before we came into this world. It's grace when we
do come into this world. It's the grace that keeps us
before we're saved. It's the grace that saves us.
It's the grace that keeps us saved. It's the grace that perseveres,
causes us to persevere because we're preserved in the gracious
one until the end, aren't we? And it's grace that carries us.
into the glorious arms of our great God and Redeemer. God is able, 2 Corinthians 9.8,
God is able. to make all grace abound. I love that word, abound, isn't
it? It's lovely to think that that grace is not just sitting
there, isn't it? It's lovely to think that this grace is abounding
to us. It's running toward us all the
time, it's coming toward us. Abound toward you that you, always
having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good
work. Sufficient grace. Because there
was a sufficient saviour, there was a sufficient surety in that
eternal covenant of grace before the foundation of the world.
And God the Father gave June and a multitude, a multitude
beyond number, he gave them as a precious gift. Imagine that
gift in the holiness of the Trinity, God gave a bride to his son. And the son looked upon that
bride as a gift from a holy God. What were his thoughts at that
time? How glorious is she? She's come from God Almighty.
And at that moment, the God, our triune God, entered into
an eternal covenant in grace. And God the Father said, from
this moment forth, I can and will only ever looked to my son
for everything I require of every single one of them. I've covenanted. I've covenanted to be their surety. I've covenanted to be their redeemer. I've covenanted to be their righteousness. I've covenanted to shed my life's
blood for them. I've covenanted to go to death
and hell for them. I've covenanted to keep the law
for them. I've covenanted to love God with all my heart, soul,
mind and strength. I've covenanted to love my fellow
man. I've covenanted all these extraordinary promises. And he in that covenant said in the
body of his flesh because they're one with his body in the body
of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight. Brothers and sisters, there's
only one side that ever matters. There's only one side that matters.
It's his side, isn't it? In his sight. He's satisfied. He's sufficient because our God
is satisfied. He's satisfied. My grace is sufficient,
and I love what it says, for thee, for thee. For you, my bride, for you, those
certain women that Simon spoke about earlier, for you, in the
midst of your travail, for you, my grace is sufficient. And that
poor woman, for 12 years bleeding, that poor woman, she crawls through
that crowd and she wasn't supposed to be even in that crowd. She
was unclean and she crawls through that crowd and she said, if I
can just touch the hem of his garment. He says, you're clean. Father,
Lord, if you will, you can make me clean, says the leper who
comes. And the Lord Jesus Christ touched
him. Two things happened. Either the
Lord Jesus Christ became unclean or the leprosy is gone perfectly
in a touch. You're clean, he says, you're
clean to the word that I've spoken to you. For thee, my grace is
sufficient for thee. For my strength is made perfect
in weakness. My power, my power is made perfect
in weakness. in your weakness. Now he became
weak, don't we? No one ever became as weak as
the Lord Jesus Christ. No one ever. Listen to what it
says, isn't it? He made himself of no reputation,
took upon him the form of a certain that was made in the likeness
of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. He was weak, and as he is, so
are his people. remarkable strength, wasn't it?
He took upon him the nature of his brethren, and he suffered
all the weakness of human flesh with sin excluded. He never sinned. He never sinned in thought and
word and deed. He was given into the hands of
men's will. He gave his back to the smiters
and his cheeks to those who plucked out his beard. He was made weak. He was made weak. His children
in this world, in his church, seem extraordinarily weak. The
most weak thing in all of Southampton is the gathering of this little
group. A few days ago, the most weakest
thing that you could see was June lying there on that bed
of languishing. And God says, I make the bed.
I make the bed. She wasn't alone. She wasn't
alone. The world saw weakness and God
saw glory. God saw beauty. Oh, for the grace to be weak
in His presence, to be weak in His arms, to have that childlike
faith that clings to Him. My strength, says our Saviour,
is made perfect in your weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I boast. Is that your gladness? It's such
an extraordinary passage of Scripture, isn't it? I'll gladly, I'll glory,
I'll boast, I'll have confidence in my infirmities, in my weaknesses,
that the power of Christ The power of Christ may rest upon
me. The power of Christ, all authority
is given to him on heaven. He sits on the throne of this
universe. He has all the power to make the sufficiency of his
grace be fulfilled precisely as he ordains in each of his
people. Not a moment were we outside of His love and taken
from His hands. He has the power. He has the
power. Father, I will. June rejoiced
to contemplate again and again and again the extraordinary union
of the Lord Jesus Christ with His people. He says in John 24, Father, I
will. that they also whom thou hast
given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory
which thou hast given me. For thou lovest me before the
foundation of the world, O righteous Father. The world has not known
thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou
hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, the character
of God, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them. I'll gladly boast in my infirmities,
my afflictions, my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may
rest. May rest means to pitch a tent
over I just love the pictures of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ in his relation with his dearly
beloved bride. Sufficient grace. Sufficient
to accomplish all of His purposes, isn't it? When He says, I will,
it's done, brothers and sisters. It was finished from the foundation
of the world. It's sufficient, isn't it, to pardon every sinner. It's sufficient to bring new
life. It's sufficient as our sanctification,
our holiness before God. It's sufficient to preserve us.
It's sufficient when we're in need. It's sufficient when we're
healthy. It's sufficient when we're sick. It's sufficient in
life, it's sufficient in death, it's sufficient in the day of
judgment, our God, isn't it? It's sufficient to present us
faultless before the presence of our God forever. When we're
weak, when we're weak, it's a quotation in a sense from Joel 3.10, let
the weak say, I am strong. Are you weak? weak and their weakness is a
blessing from God is a blessing from God let the weak say I am
strong I'm weak in myself and I'm strong in the Lord Jesus
Christ. I have no strength to obey the
law of God. I have no strength to work anything
that even looks like holiness and satisfies God in any way.
But Christ is my atonement. Christ is my life before God. I have no strength to obey the
law of God, and Christ obeyed it for me. I'm strong in Him.
I have no strength to give myself life, but Christ is my life. I have no strength to draw near
to God, but Christ is the way of access to the Father. I have
no strength in myself. Christ has done it all. I am
weak, and every aspect of my weakness causes me to look to
Christ alone for mercy. Why was June made so often to
point us who knew her to the Lord Jesus and rejoice in His
smile? at how glorious he was because
she'd been made weak. She'd been made dependent upon
me, upon him. My weakness forces me to look
to Christ alone for mercy and grace. My weakness causes me
to look to Christ alone as a saviour. I need a saviour. I need a saviour. I need a redeemer. I need someone
who's sufficient, whose grace is sufficient for me in all the
trials of this world, in the cares of this world. I need someone to carry me over Jordan, carry
me into the arms of heaven, because there's no strength in us. at
all. My grace is sufficient. My grace. Wouldn't it be a mercy
from our God if he said that to us? Made us to know what grace
was. Made us to know our need of grace.
Made us to see that his grace And Lord, please, cause those
to be words that we rejoice in. My grace, my grace is sufficient
for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we thank you for the wonder of redeeming love, and we thank
you for the grace that you've shown us and shown our dear sister
that grace that's come from the very throne of grace and we come
to the throne of grace because Heavenly Father, we're in need
and you cause us. We thank you that we are told
to come with boldness to the throne of grace in our time of
need and Heavenly Father, we thank you for the need. We thank
you for the weakness that causes us to call out to you and we
thank you Heavenly Father for the glorious promise that all
of your grace is perfectly sufficient for the trials of this life.
Your grace is sufficient to reveal who you are in your word. Your grace is sufficient to make
this word, the words that we read, the words that we hear,
spirit and life to us, Heavenly Father, that when we read those
glorious promises, that I am the resurrection and the life,
He who lives and believes in me will never die, O our Father. What glorious promises, but we
need your grace to make them real and true for us. We thank
you, Heavenly Father, for grace in this life, and we thank you,
Heavenly Father, for the fruit of that grace that now is evident
before the throne of God. O our Father, we thank you again
for your mercy upon us. We thank you again for revealing
your Son and revealing your Son in us. And we thank you most
of all, our Heavenly Father, for sending your dearly beloved
child into our lives. For us to be ministered to by
her because of your grace in her life, Heavenly Father, and
may you cause us to live for the glory of your dear and precious
Son. who loved us, loved us and washed
us in his blood and presents us now. And we're in him, Heavenly
Father. never to be separated, never
ever to be separated from our dear sister and from her Lord. Oh, our Father, we pray for your
mercy upon us and we pray for your love to abound toward us,
Heavenly Father, that we might know your care and your protection
of us. Once again, Heavenly Father,
we thank you for the dear and precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ which has washed us so clean. We thank you, Heavenly
Father, for that effectual blood that brings and brings them through all of
the trials of this world and brings them into glory, to be
with you forever and ever, Heavenly Father, world without end. Help
us, Heavenly Father, just to have the grace of faith, to have
the joy and peace of believing, believing you at this time. For
we pray in Jesus' name and for his glory. Amen.