Seeking once again the Lord's
help to grant me the words to speak to you this evening. I'd
like to draw your attention to the chapter that we read together,
2 Corinthians chapter 12, and the text you'll find in verse
9. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my
strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in mine infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Those who were here this morning
will remember that we looked at being strong in the Lord and
I quoted this verse that Paul is speaking of this evening.
that God's strength is perfected in the weakness of his people.
The text this morning, finally, my brethren be strong in the
Lord and in the power of his might and there are those times
aren't there in the Christian experience when we are brought
to that low state and our only hope is to rest upon God and
to rest upon his strength and as we press on day by day We
wonder how we will continue. The next day is looming and we
wonder how we will get through but we commit our way unto the
Lord. We trust also in him and we find
that he grants that sufficient strength. day by day and as we
look back over those periods of trial and those periods of
difficulty we often wonder how we passed through and we have
to confess that it is only by the Lord's strength that we were
enabled to to press through and to to walk out the pathway that
he had given us to walk and there are many reasons why the Lord
brings us into trials and difficulties but ultimately it is to glorify
himself It is to do the believer good. The scripture tells us
that all things work together for good to those who love God
and are called according to his purposes. That is everything
that Christ brings into the life of a Christian works together
for their ultimate good, their sanctification, their discipline
and that their life may shine to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we look at the life of
the Apostle Paul, he confesses that the Lord did something to
him the Lord gave him a messenger of Satan to buffet him, the Lord
gave him a thorn in the flesh for a specific reason and that
reason was to stop him from becoming exalted above measure, to stop
him from becoming exceedingly proud by the abundance of the
revelations that were given to him that those experiences that
he had could cause him to be elevated in pride, could cause
other people also to elevate him to a higher degree than what
he should be elevated and so God gives to him a thorn in the
flesh to stop him from becoming proud and so there was a need
God thought and God thought that Paul needed a thorn. he needed a messenger of Satan
to buffet him. And even though that experience
caused the apostle to pray and ask the Lord to remove it, the
Lord said, no. And his answer is, no, my grace
is sufficient for thee and my strength is made perfect in weakness. And we see the apostle's response
To that, no. He says, OK, well, most gladly
then. I will rather glory in mine infirmities
that the power of Christ may rest upon me. He realized that
what God was doing to him was of a benefit to him. He realized
that if the answer was yes I will remove then he would lose out. He realized that he needed the
thorn. He realized that having the thorn there God would abundantly
bless him, that his grace would be enough and that in his weakness
Christ would be greater glorified or greatly seen. And so there
was a need for this thorn and if we are honest with ourselves
as believers, all believers have a thorn, all believers have a
weakness or have a tendency or a besetting sin that has been
left there to constantly act like a messenger of satan to
buffet us, to wear us down to stop us from becoming proud,
to thinking that we are the best Christian that ever there was,
there is this nagging voice that declares to you, you are not,
you do this, you think that, you have done this and so there's
that constant pressing of the thorn to remind us that you're
a sinner, and you still need Christ as much as today as you
did yesterday and for there is that constant realisation that
you are not as good as we think we are and so there's that constant
reminder my grace is enough for you and my strength is made perfect
in weakness. Throughout the Bible the thorn
is spoken of as the consequence of sin. We know when Adam and
Eve were first created in the Garden of Eden, there was no
thorns. There was no thistles in the
garden. It was all flowers and trees
that benefited them. It was good for them. They didn't
scratch themselves or hurt themselves. and even in their own lives there
was no thorns in the flesh, there was no messengers of Satan to
buffet them and to hinder them. They lived in that fellowship
with God in a beautiful garden that was glorious in that holy
condition yet when they sinned against God, God cursed the ground
for man's sake and the scripture tells us that thorns also and
thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eat the
herb of the field and in the sweat of thy face shalt thou
eat bread till thou shalt return to the ground for out of it thou
was taken for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return and
so because of sin because of Adam the scripture says because
Adam hearkened unto the voice of his wife cursed is the ground
for thy sake and it will bring forth those thorns and thistles. So it was because of sin In the
book of Numbers you'll remember that as the children of Israel
went through the wilderness and then across the river Jordan
and into the promised land they were told to utterly destroy
all the nations that were there. But they failed to do what God
told them to do and so God tells them I'm going to leave that
remnant. I'm going to leave them in the
land. and in Numbers 33 he tells them but if you will not, verse
55, but if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land
from before you then it shall come to pass that those which
ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, thorns in
your sides and shall vex you in the land wherein you dwell.
Moreover it shall come to pass that I shall do unto you as I
thought to do unto them. And so that the Canaanites and
the Hittites and all of the other nations that were left there
by the people of God, they became a means by which God would vex
and trouble the children of Israel. He says they will be pricks in
your eyes. and thorns in your sides. And if we are honest with
ourselves as believers you will confess that within us there
is still that remnant of sin which remains. and that battle
as we looked at this morning day by day, that remnant of sin
which acts like pricks in our eyes and thorns in our side and
that remnant of sin we desire to be holy, we desire to follow
the Lord Jesus Christ wholly and completely. And yet there
is that indwelling sin which vexes us and troubles us and
is a thorn in our side. And we ask the Lord, Lord, please
cleanse me and wash away this sin. Help me to overcome this
sin. It's become such a burden and
such a difficulty and it vexes me so much. Please enable me
to overcome it. And it's like he doesn't hear
the prayer. but he says my grace is sufficient
for you, my strength is perfected in weakness
and often that sin is left there to trouble you and to vex you,
to cause you to draw closer to the Lord Jesus Christ instead
of drifting off in self-confidence and pride. That sin remains there
until the Lord Jesus sees fit that you overcome it by the help
of his Holy Spirit. And so Paul, in verse 7, he knows
the reason why this thing has come into his life. And I wonder
if we know the reasons why things come into our lives. What is
the reason why Christ has brought this thing into our life? Is
it because of of sin? Is it because that the abundance
of the revelation that has been given to you, that he's given
you something to hold you down, given you something to suppress
your pride, to stop you from being exalted above measure? And he says lest I should be
exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations
there was given to me a thorn in the flesh to stop him from
becoming excessively proud. As I looked up that word in the
Greek it is the exalted above measure through the abundance
of the revelations. This exalted above measure is
one word and it means excessively proud. God knew that what the
apostle had experienced in the spiritual realm had the ability
to elevate him and to make him proud and so he gives him something
to humble him and it's very interesting the lengths that God goes to
stop his people from becoming excessively proud. Think of Gideon. Gideon in the book of Judges
we know was a man filled with fear. He was hiding behind the well
crushing his flower and the angel appears to him and he commissions
him to go forth and to make an army and to defeat the Midianites. And there is that vast army that
is presented before the Lord. And the Lord says that that army
needs to be reduced. It is too many. And the reason
why the Lord wants the army to be reduced is because he doesn't
want them to be proud. He doesn't want them to boast
in their own strength, in their own ability as an army, but he
wants himself to be seen. Judges chapter 7 it says then
Jerubbabel who is Gideon and all the people that were with
him rose up early and pitched beside the well of Herod so that
the hosts of the Midianites were on the north side of them by
the hill of Moriah in the valley. And the Lord said unto Gideon,
The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the
Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against
me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. And so to stop them from being
proud, the Lord reduced the army to 300 men. And the only reason
is, is so that Israel would not be proud, that they would not
be exalted above measure and that God would be seen and the
victory would be declared to be God's victory. And it's very
interesting, isn't it, that there is one sin or one of the many
sins that God hates. one of them it is pride and that
is why he goes to such lengths to remove human pride from salvation
that it is all of grace and not of works lest any man should
boast and even in the lives of a Christian he goes to extreme
lengths to humble them and to bring them down to stop them
from being self-elevated, self-confident and to to suppress the image
of Christ in them and so in the book of Proverbs it tells us
there that pride is a sin that God hates. Proverbs 6 in verse
16 it says these six things doth the Lord hate yea seven are an
abomination unto him a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands
that shed innocent blood, and heart that devised wicked imaginations,
feet that be swift in running to mischief, and false witnesses
that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among the brethren. And so there is a list there
of things that God finds an abomination. And one of those is a proud look,
that is someone who thinks much of themselves, self-confident,
they are vain. And so in the lives of the Lord's
people, he brings thorns and trials to humble them and to
bring them down so that pride is eradicated, that self-confidence
and that self-ability is not seen, that they are humbled before
a mighty God. And even his own apostle, the
apostle Paul, he felt fit to give him a thorn in the flesh
for the specific purpose that he would not be exalted above
measure and that he might bestow upon him a greater measure of
grace and that God's strength would be seen in his life and
in his ministry. And so the thorn, it is left
in and it's left in for a greater dependence upon God for his strength. And so weakness brings the need
of dependence. If you look at our lives as Christians,
how often it is that you look back and you see a reason for
a trial. You see that you were confident. You see that you drifted away
from dependence upon God. You drifted away from prayer.
You drifted away from the word. You drifted away from fellowship. And so God brings something into
your life to bring a 90 degree turn, to bring you back to himself.
And you can see the reason why he has done it. because you became
lukewarm or you became cold or we became self-dependent and
proud and then he promises that his grace is sufficient for us
and so weakness brings a need for dependence and you think
of a blind person They are obviously unable to see. They are dependent
upon either a stick or somebody else to lead them. And so that
disability that they have causes them to be dependent upon somebody
else. A lame person also. They are
dependent upon others. That need that they have causes
them to lean upon and to trust in somebody else for their strength. so that is what God does, he
brings about a need in our life that causes us to rest upon him
and causes us to lean harder upon him and Paul needed to rely
more Or maybe the Lord knew previously that if he left him without a
thorn, he would drift off or be exalted above measure. And
so he lays that thorn, that messenger of Satan to buffet him, that
need that he had to cause him to lean heavier in dependence
upon Christ for grace and Christ for strength. And so to remove the thorn would
do more harm than good. The Bible tells us that we don't
know what we should pray for. We look at things as they are
that are in front of us and nobody likes pain and nobody likes difficulty. No one likes hardship and often
we pray to be delivered from the trials, delivered from the
hardships and the uncertainties. We ask the thorns to be removed
and sometimes the Lord does bring us through but sometimes he causes
us to continue in those trials. because he knows best. The scripture
tells us he knows the things that we have need of. We don't
know what we should pray for but he knows what is right and
good for us and so to remove the thorn from Paul's life would
be detrimental to his spiritual walk as a believer and so Christ
knew the benefit of leaving the thorn in. And God knows the benefit
of leaving the thorn in our lives. He knows that removing it would
be detrimental to our spiritual walk, our closeness with him. And so he leaves it there. I
was trying to think of an illustration as to why you would leave a thorn
in a certain place. And I remembered the boys in
Kenya. The boys in Kenya would play
with old footballs and the valves that you used to pump them up
would be broken. And so after pumping them up
they would snap a thorn off and they would jab it into the valve,
the hole. and leave it in there. And so
the thorn was beneficial to the ball because it held all of the
air in. And if you pulled the thorn out,
then the ball would go down. It would be detrimental to the
game of football and to the ball itself. And so it was left in
for a purpose, for a good reason. And so God leaves the thorns
in the lives of his people for a good reason. And sometimes
that reason is only known to him. ultimately it's for the
good and the spiritual benefit of that individual. The thorn
caused Paul pain, caused him discomfort and ultimately that
discomfort and that longing to have it removed stirred him to
prayer. And how often it is isn't it
in our lives when things are good Prayer life slips away but
when the thorn is there, when it is pressed, prayer starts. Difficulty comes, we're back
to the throne of grace. A trial comes in the family and
we're back to the throne of grace. When everything goes smooth we
drift off, we become self-confident and God presses the thorn again
and back we go to the throne of grace and we We live that
constant cycle of self-confidence and then drawing back and then
going away and then coming back. And the Lord is so patient with
his people. And so the thorn caused pain
which caused him to cry for help. There's a book actually written,
The Blessing of Pain. It was written by a missionary,
a man, I think he was in India, who worked with the lepers. And
the lepers would, obviously they would lose the feelings in their
feet and hands, and they would end up losing their fingertips
and losing their hands, losing their toes, losing their feet,
losing their legs, because they didn't have any pain. And so
pain is a blessing and pain and discomfort drives us to the throne
of grace that we may obtain that strength to enable us to continue
and to persevere. And so the thorn also caused
him to look to God in dependence. He knew that God has given me
this thorn. and God has allowed Satan to
buffet me. God is able to help me in this
difficulty. And so the thorn caused him to
be dependent upon God and his prayer was heard. But it was
not the answer that he imagined, but he was content with the answer
that the Lord gave for him. His grace was sufficient. God's grace, his undeserved love,
his merciful kindness towards his people. We do not deserve
grace. It is given to us freely, something
that we don't deserve. And so his prayer was heard. And so the Lord gave the thorn
and the Lord leaves the thorn in place. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
is the wise physician, the doctor of the soul but also he knows
how to deal with our dispositions and our bodies and he knows what
is needful for every single Christian. What thorn is beneficial to me
is not beneficial to you and every case is completely different
and he deals with every single person in a unique manner that
he may bring them to that desired position that he wants them to
be in. If any of you have ever been
to the osteopath you've had a bad back or bad leg you want to know
that they know what to do. They'll put you in a certain
position they'll put their hand in a certain place and then they
will press down and there will be that that crack and the job's done. The Lord
Jesus Christ knows exactly where to place the thorn in our lives
to have the desired effect and that effect is to bring us to
dependence upon him. He knows what specific part of
our life that needs to have a thorn in it and then he presses it
there and he puts it there and he leaves it there until it has
had the desired effect that he wants. It brings about that right
result. And so the Apostle Paul had a
thorn to bring about the right result in his life to stop him
from being exalted above measure. And he was brought to see his
own weakness and dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ. If that thorn was taken away, I
could say that he would have lost a greater blessing. See if God had said, OK, I'll
take it. He would never have received
that wonderful promise that my grace is enough, my grace is
sufficient for thee, for my strength is perfected in weakness. And
so it was left there for a purpose and ultimately for Paul to know
his dependence upon the Lord. And in our own lives Is it not
weakness that originally drove us to the Lord Jesus Christ? Did our sin not become as a thorn
to us Did it not become something to burden us and to discomfort
us and to cause us sorrow and pain and sadness? And did not
that sorrow and pain and sadness drive us to the Lord Jesus Christ
in sorrow, asking for forgiveness? And that thorn, did he not remove
it? For that's what he does. He removes
the thorn of sin. He says that thy sins which are
many, they're all forgiven. And that thorn is removed and
his grace is sufficient for the sins of his people. No matter
how sinful you are, the grace of Christ is sufficient to cleanse
you from all of your sin. so it was weakness that drove
you to the Lord Jesus Christ and his love is sufficient to
cover you and his sacrifice is enough to cleanse you from all
of your sin. In the gospel according to Luke
we have the parable of the prodigal son Luke 15 from verse 13. After the young man had run away,
taken his inheritance and gone off to a far country, he spent
all of his money on a riotous living, living to satisfy his
flesh, satisfying his desires and then he becomes to a position
of being in want. and he took his journey went
into a far country and wasted his money on riotous living and
when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in the land and
he began to be in want and he joined himself to a citizen of
that country and he fed the pigs and then he realizes that at
his father's house there is food and enough to spare. But the
thorn that entered into his life was that he began to be in want. the Lord pressed this thorn into
his life and he came into a position of want, realising that nothing
could satisfy him, he was bankrupt, he was lost and his only hope
was to go to the Father and the Father would remove that thorn
and satisfy and receive him. And the scripture tells us there
is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner
that repents. And so it is that weakness. He
was brought to the position of weakness. That thorn that was
placed in his life humbled him and he desired to have that removed. So he goes to the father. isn't that not how the Lord deals
with everyone who he will bring to himself? The thorn of being
in want, the thorn of not being satisfied, the thorn of sin, And that pain and that sorrow
drives them to the Lord Jesus Christ and he is abundantly able
to save. And so what a wonderful thorn
we can say that is. A blessed thorn. the thorn that
drives us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that weakness then continues
in the life of the believer. That thorn that drove us to Christ,
although it's removed, yet its remnants remain and it continues
to be pressed and it continues to make us weak and dependent
upon the Lord. And so we continue to go to him
and we continue to receive the same words. My grace is sufficient. It's enough for you. And my strength
is perfected in your week day by day in the Christian walk. His grace will help you. It's
sufficient to enable you to continue to persevere. we looked at this
morning in Peter, kept by the power of God. His grace will
help. It will support you and strengthen
you in your Christian journey. It will carry you on in your
Christian journey to the promised land. If you think of a ship
sailing upon the ocean, it needs the wind to bring it to its desired
haven and God's grace is sufficient. to blow you along your desired
haven, to bring you ultimately to heaven at last. His grace
is sufficient for his strength. My strength is made perfect in
your weakness. And so don't look then at your
weakness, don't look at your inability, don't look at your
sin, because Christ is enough. And as the apostle says, I will
glory then in my infirmities. Those parts of life that I'm
weak, I'm going to glory in the power of Christ. And in those
troubles, I mean, infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions,
in distresses, for Christ's sake, he says, when I am weak, then
am I strong. That when those external Difficulties
cause us to be oppressed and weak. It is then that we receive
the strength and the power of God to enable us to persevere.
He says, when I am weak, then am I strong. And the last thought
that I had was when did Shajah, Meshach and Abednego meet with
the angel? They met with him in the fire.
When they were in the fire, in the heat of the furnace, it is
then that the angel, who is like the Son of Man, the Son of God,
meets with them. In Daniel chapter 3 and verse
25, he answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose walking
in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt. And the form
of the fourth is like the Son of God. It was in the furnace,
in the fire that the form of the fourth was like the Son of
God. There he was with them in the midst of the trouble, in
the midst of the heat of the fiery furnace. And so it is with
the Lord's people that is in the midst of the fire that his
grace is sufficient. It is the midst of the fire that
his strength is made perfect in weakness. It's in the midst
of the battle that he comes and he assists and he appears for
his people. For when I am weak Then am I
strong. My grace is enough. It's enough
for your sin and it's enough for your pathway to life. His strength is made perfect
in your weakness. You have no ability. Your ability
is in Christ. You have no strength. Your strength
is in Christ. You have no power. Your power
is in Christ. Then glory in your infirmities
for when we are weak then we are strong. Amen. Closing hymn. This evening's
hymn number 1007, The Christian Warfare. Stand up, my soul, shake
off thy fears, and gird the gospel armour on. March to the gates
of endless joy, where thy great Captain Saviour's gone. Hymn
number 1007 to the tune 439. Take off thy fears, and guard
the gospel of the Lord. March to the gates of endless
joy, where thy preceptive Saviour falls. Thy sin, Jesus, thy cause, Thou
tellest in our evacuation. The weapons of victorious grace
shall slay thy sins Press forward to the heavenly
gains. May peace and joy ensign our
aim, Earth rich with food for God's sake. Almighty God, we thank thee for
thy word that thou hast given to us and for the way in which
thou art able to prove to us that thy grace is
sufficient, that thou art able to deal with us, to stop us from
being exalted above measure. And we pray, Lord, that thou
help us then day by day to rest upon thy word, to receive that
strength sufficient for each day and help us to be content
with the pathway that thou hast called us to walk and not to
rebel or to fight against thee. We ask that thou be with us now
as we depart from each other. Do help us as we go out into
the world, tomorrow and Lord we pray that we may be brought
back on Wednesday according to thy will for a time of prayer. Now may the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father with the fellowship
and the communion of the Holy Spirit rest and abide with us
each now and for evermore. Amen.