I please God to bless us together
this morning as we meditate in his holy word. Let's turn to
the second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, the twelfth
chapter, and we'll read verse seven. The second epistle of
Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 12, I'm reading verse seven.
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance
of the revelations There was given to me a thorn in the flesh,
the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted
above measure. We should be very thankful that
the word of God gives us so many instances of his leading and
his direction to the people of God. And therefore, as we read
God's Word, to realize that the Word of God is written to suit
every case. All of his people will find,
as they read the Word of God, something to encourage them,
perhaps something to correct them, something to instruct them. And we're thankful therefore
that the Word of God does give us very clearly the personal
experiences, the spiritual experiences of the saints of God. And this
chapter that we read here, the 12th chapter of the 2nd Corinthians,
gives us a little insight into the spiritual life of the Apostle
Paul. And as we read such an account,
it is evident that there is a balance in the life of the true Christian.
And that balance means that the Lord shows us ourselves and shows
us himself. And there needs to be that balance.
And there must be that balance. Because unless we know and are
shown ourselves, we will never realise our need of himself and
we shall never therefore desire or recognise himself unless we
know our need. We must always bear that in mind
in our spiritual life. There are the two sides. There is the continual warfare,
the battle, between our old nature and our new nature. And that
will always exist until we pass out of time into eternity. So we should therefore be thankful
that we have an account here which indicates to us the life
of a Christian. Now of course the apostle was
wonderfully blessed and no one probably apart from the Apostle,
in this way was blessed with this personal experience, as
he tells us, that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable
words, which is not lawful for a man to utter. He itemises here
that one instance on that occasion, but of course there were many
other times when the Apostle was blessed. when the apostle
was instructed and we can think perhaps the early days of his
conversion when he went into Arabia for those three years
and no doubt there was very much instruction for him at that time
especially as we know he was able to write the epistle to
the Hebrews which gives us a wonderful insight into the Old Testament
ceremonies and directs us through the Old Testament to Christ And
so the Apostle was blessed. And he tells us, for though I
would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool, for I will say
the truth. But now I forbear, lest any man
should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that
he heareth of me. And just a word here which is
necessary to make, and that's this. The Apostle here, when
he speaks about this wonderful revelation, he directs us to
the third person. He doesn't actually say that
this was him. He tells us there was a man in
Christ above 14 years ago. He's directing us to that situation. But it was very clear, of course,
that in other references that we read in his epistles, it was
to him personally. We may ask, well, why does he
do it that way? He does it that way to remove
pride. And it's a good thing, therefore,
sometimes, perhaps if we recall an instance, to speak of it in
the third person, so that people don't automatically perhaps pat
us on the back and say that was a wonderful experience. It's
good therefore to speak in this way so that the glory goes to
God. And clearly that's what the Apostle
desired, that the glory should go to God. And that must be so,
mustn't it? In all of our lives, those things
that the Lord does for us is for the honour and glory of God.
It's for our encouragement, it's for our help, for the strengthening
of our faith, but ultimately it is for the honour and glory
of God. Let us never lose sight of that
truth. And so the Apostle then, having
told us of the wonderful blessing that he had, then comes down
to tell us, unless I should be exalted above measure, the Lord
produces the balance. He does in our lives today. and
lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance
of revelations. We may not perhaps be blessed
with the abundance of revelations, but if the Lord has blessed us
at all, there will always be a balance in effect. There was
given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet
me. And he tells us the reason, lest
I should be exalted above measure. Well it's a good thing for you
and me to recognise then in our spiritual life the Lord deals
with us in love to our souls and he gives us those things
which are necessary in blessing and then also the things are
necessary to keep us perhaps on an even keel. And here the
apostle tells us that he was given this thorn the flesh. He was given it. He didn't just
go and pick it up. God gave it to him. It's the
kind of thing that the Apostle didn't like and we're not told
of course what it was. It's just an illustration of
a thorn in the flesh and it's spoken in that way so that you
and I can understand in measure what it means. I'm sure all of
us from our children here to the oldest person realizes that
if we get a thorn in our flesh it's painful and we want to get
it removed we don't want it to remain there sometimes it's not
easy to remove thorns and sometimes it does remain there for a while
and we're very conscious of it especially if it's in our hand
or our foot something which we're using all the time. It is very
painful and we're reminded of it. And so here is the illustration
that the Apostle gives us. There was given to me a thorn
in the flesh. Now we're not told whether it
was a physical thorn or whether it was a spiritual thorn. I tend to think that it probably
was a spiritual thorn because he's speaking of the spiritual
revelation that he had, and such a thorn may be painful to bear. And you may say, well, perhaps
you ought to illustrate to me what it means to have a thorn
in the flesh in a spiritual way. Well, the Lord knows how to deal
with us. And it may be the people that
we perhaps come in contact with. They may be a thorn in the flesh. because of their attitude toward
us, because of the things they speak to us, and they may be
often spoken, and they may be very irksome and very painful. And we have to find, yes, the
Lord has given us this particular path to walk in. The Lord does
give us a path to walk in, and he gives us a path to walk in
which produces honour and glory to him. And in order therefore
to keep us on a level keel, as it were, we do find that God
gives us then a thorn in the flesh. The apostle goes on to
say, well, what was it? It was the messenger of Satan
to buffet him. And to be buffeted means to be
pushed around. Now that's not very pleasant,
is it? To be pushed around. Sometimes
God gives us a thorn in the flesh which effectively pushes us around. And we have to face this again
and again. And we're not allowed to forget
about it. And what does it do? Well, I
know what it does. In the blessed work of the Holy
Spirit, it causes us to pray. It caused the Apostle to pray. And the Apostle prayed that this
thorn might be removed from him. That's not unreasonable, is it?
If we have a difficult situation in our lives, which is very trying,
very trying to us, and we may have prayed. We may have prayed
many times perhaps, much more than three times, and believing
that the Lord would remove it. And it hasn't happened. And it
hasn't happened. And we may think, well, why is
this? I prayed, and I prayed, and I
prayed, still I have it, this thorn in the flesh. Well, Paul
had it, and Paul could not remove it, and Paul was not allowed
to remove it, and God did not remove it. And that may be difficult to
understand sometimes. But we come back to this realization
that God deals with us in love to our souls. And he knows what
we need. We may not like it. We may wish
our life was a bit different. We may wish we had perhaps an
easier path without any thorn in our flesh. Well, the apostle
had to prove that this thorn was of a benefit to him. Now, what does that show? It
shows to us what it showed to the apostle, what the Lord spoke
to him. This is what it shows to us.
As the Lord said, my grace is sufficient for thee. Now, there's
no greater blessing than to receive God's grace,
which is His unmerited favour, the favour to your soul and the
favour to my soul. And to realise that if you and
I receive His grace, that is far more important than having
a thorn in the flesh removed. And to benefit from this wonderful
favour. Because the Apostle goes on in
this account to direct us to nothing less than the Lord Jesus
Christ. And if the Lord gives us a thorn
in the flesh which makes us flee to Christ, if it brings us into
union with Christ, then you see we have cause to praise and to
thank God that he in his mercy toward us has brought us into
a path like this where we've been given a thorn in the flesh. The apostle tells us it was the
messenger of Satan to buffet him. The messenger of Satan of
course is very painful. because it touches our heart,
touches that which is spiritual. And the devil, my friends, will
do all he can to keep us away from the things of God. And this
thorn in the flesh may appear to be like that, but you say,
what does it do then? It drives us to Christ. And what
did the apostle prove? The Lord said to him, the Lord
was in it. It's good to know when the Lord's
in these things and he's dealing with us, the sons and daughters
of the most high God. He's not leaving us to wander
on in a foot in a hell. He's dealing with us in love
to our souls. And so he says, my grace is sufficient
for thee for my strength. not our strength. My strength
is made perfect in weakness. The Lord tells us He weakens
our strength in the way. We may have been relying on our
own abilities, on our own strength, and it's very easy to do that. We look to ourselves and we think,
well I can deal with this and the Lord show me this and the
Lord show me that and therefore I'm in a strong position and
we may perhaps despise other people. We may despise people
who perhaps don't appear as confident as we perhaps think we are. The
Lord deals with us. Here he dealt with the apostle
and he said for my strength is made perfect in weakness. You see, when you and I are strong
ourselves, we don't rely on the Saviour, do we? We don't pray
to the Saviour. We're satisfied with our religion. We're satisfied with what we're
doing. And we think what we're doing
is good and right. Well, are we giving the Lord
God the honour and glory? The answer is probably no. And
so what happens? The Lord sends this thorn in
the flesh in whatever form that may be, and you and I know what
that means to us in our particular individual case. My greatest
sufficiency, my strength is made perfect in weakness. So what does that show us? It shows we are weakened. As we look at ourselves, we have
to prove that we are Weaken ourselves. We're not strong as we thought
we were in actual fact. We're relying on our flesh We're
relying on our ability and that doesn't bring glory to God and
so the Lord weakens our strength in the way and He tells us for
my strength is made perfect in weakness And that's a difficult
and a hard lesson to learn We don't always learn it immediately
do we? Perhaps we have this thorn for quite a while before we understand
the reason for it, the purpose of it. And the purpose is to
bring us down. Bring us down in our own estimation. It's a good place to be brought
down in our own estimation. Because when you and I are low,
In our own estimation, when we're low down, there's not very far
to fall, is there? And you and I are very strong
in our own strength. We may be high and lofty, and
then you see the fall is painful. We fall a long way. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. Well I wonder if we know what
it's like to be made weak in ourselves. That means then we
have to look out of ourselves. We can't rely on ourselves. Again
we prove, no man can keep alive his own soul. We may perhaps
have thought we could. We may have thought, well this
is quite easy and the Lord's blessed me and now I can walk
this way and I can do these things. We find we're walking in our
own strength. And that's why the Lord tells
us, for my strength, his strength. The Lord brings us to rely upon
his strength. The Lord brings us to seek for
his help, for his direction, for his guidance, so that we
can say, with the psalmist, he brought them forth, he led them
forth by the right way. They might go to a city of habitation.
And that wasn't the Israelites way, that was God's way. And
that, my friend, is not your way and my way. It's God's way. Don't be surprised, therefore,
if you and I find ourselves having a thorn in the flesh to keep
us, keep us down, to be reminded of our weakness, to be reminded
of our foolishness, relying on ourselves. No, God deals with
us in love to ourselves. And the apostle then, having
told us this situation, having explained that God had wonderfully
blessed him, given him wonderful revelations, and now he'd given
him this thorn in the flesh to keep him down, that he might
not rely on his strength, what does the Lord then say? What
does the Apostle then say? He changes his tune, doesn't
he really? Now he says, rather than seeking for this thorn to
be removed, he now changes and says, most gladly therefore would
I rather glory in my infirmities. But there was a reason for that.
It's not a question just of glory in his infirmities. Some people
do glory in ill health and they're very proud of it and they like
to walk along telling everybody about it. Well the apostle wasn't
like that. He said most gladly therefore
will I rather glory in my infirmities and the reason was that the power
of Christ may rest upon me. The Apostle's concern was that
he might know Christ and him crucified. That was the Apostle's
great desire. And you see, if the Lord is dealing
with us in love to our souls and giving us, don't forget,
God gives us this thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan
to buffet us. And again, the words are very
clear. It means that it's not just a little prick here and
there. We're continually reminded of it. We're buffeted. Buffeted
by it. And yet, you see, the Apostle
says, most gladly. Most gladly. Why does he say
that? Because he was a recipient of
God's grace. Because he was a recipient of
God's goodness toward him. Because he realized that God
was dealing with him. taking him in hand as one of
his children, dealing with his soul most gladly. Therefore will I rather glory
in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
Well, it's good isn't it just to think of that in our own lives. Do we glory in those things which
have made us weak, do we glory in the goodness of God which
has brought us in humble submission to the will of God. How easily it is in our lives
that we think and we act, we've got a plan and we want God to
work to that plan, but no, God's got a plan, and you and I will
work to that plan. We should always remember that
God is on the throne. And sometimes we may think, well,
this plan is a good plan I've got, and I can pray that it will
come to pass. And I can pray that God will
bless me in it. But it may not be in accordance with God's will. And again, it may be that if
you and I analyse it carefully, we'll find that if it came to
pass, who would receive the honour and glory? Would it be our God? Would Christ be exalted? Or would
we claim some of the praise? Now when the Lord deals with
us and humbles us and makes us weak, we then realise that we've
been relying on ourselves. that we've been looking to ourselves,
that we might have some honour and glory. There might be a good
result, as we thought, but it wouldn't be a good result really
for us in our spiritual life. And so we have this very clear
account here of the apostles, the Lord's dealing with the apostle,
to make him conformable unto his image. Therefore, in our
life on this earth, we should not expect to sail through life
without a thorn in the flesh, in one way or another. We should
not think that we're going to somehow escape. We tend to perhaps
think so, and it may be that we haven't realised that we do
have a thorn in the flesh. We may not realise that this
problem, this situation which I have to face continually, and
I wish it wasn't there, and we try and rid ourselves of it.
But when the Lord comes and puts his finger on us and says, that's
your thorn in the flesh. That's what God has given you.
And it may be very different to the
person next to us. It's that which God has given.
He gives us a thorn in the flesh to bring us down to this position. Sometimes it takes some time
for the Holy Spirit to direct us to understand that the Lord
has given us this thorn in the flesh. And when that occurs,
when the Holy Spirit shows us it's his goodness to us, and
it's his work, then our tune changes. Like it did here. Because the Apostle was then
able to say, most gladly. It's good, isn't it, when we
read words like this which are very clear. difficulty in understanding
what the apostle means. And he says, therefore, most
gladly. He now latched onto it. He appreciated the need for it. And now he says, most gladly,
therefore, would I rather glory in my infirmities that the power
of Christ may rest upon me. And so he realized that God had
brought him into this condition in order that the power of Christ
might rest upon him. It wasn't the proud apostle,
was it? There wasn't the proud sort of
Tarsus, marching from village to village, condemning people
to prison for their faith in Christ. It wasn't the proud apostle,
was it? No, the Lord had come. the Lord
had brought about an amazing change. And that amazing change,
of course, was when the Lord met with him on that Damascus
road. And that's when he began to walk
the true light, life of a Christian. But you see, the apostle walked
with God in his life. And his concern was to live ever
nearer to Christ, to know more and more of Christ. That was
his great concern, his great desire. And my friends, we have
the Apostle Paul's life and his desires before us in the Word
of God to encourage you and me today. There is, sadly, a great
lack of desires like this. We become, because of the material
world in which we live today, very worldly-minded, very easily
distracted to things which do not profit. Do not profit. And we think we can get away
with it, we think it's all right. Well, what a good thing it is
when the Lord gives us grace to understand that therefore
the Lord has brought something into our life to perhaps stop
us. Stop us. I wonder if this morning
we can look back in our lives, or perhaps know our life today.
The Lord has brought things into our life which we didn't want and we can't get rid of, but the Lord is now showing us
that it's his work, he's given us this thorn in the flesh. the messengers, Satan, the buffalos.
And you should realise of course that the old devil is pretty
merciless in the way he attacks us. Merciless in the way that
he plies his ways into our heart and tells us, well of course,
if you're like that, you can carry on in it, enjoy it, and
then you see what he'll say, Of course, you can't be a true
Christian. You wouldn't be like that. He's merciless in his attacks. My friends, he does everything
if he can to turn us away from God. But the Lord graciously
uses such things to bring us to Christ. To bring us to the
Lord. Yes, the apostle was brought
to the Lord, wasn't he, at Damascus Road. My friends, God's people
are brought back to him and corrected when he brings his love into
their hearts. And so the Apostle tells us,
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that
the power of Christ may dwell my rest upon me. Be upon him,
the power of Christ. And if you and I are blessed
with the power of Christ really means that we understand something
of his amazing love, his amazing goodness, his wonderful mercy
toward us in giving us faith to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is the power of Christ resting
upon us. The power of Christ, my friends,
resting upon us influences us and guides us and keeps us and brings us into
fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the Apostle says
that the power of Christ may rest upon me. And he says, therefore,
therefore, remember it emanates from this thorn in the flesh.
Therefore, I take pleasure. I take pleasure. What grace there
was given to the apostle. The Lord has said, my grace is
sufficient for thee. And this is the grace that the
Apostle was given, so that he was able to view things in a
very different way. He was able to come and say,
and we need to ponder this because it's an amazing situation. Therefore, he says, I take pleasure
in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses, he doesn't stop there for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I
strong. He'd realised the great blessing
of being brought into this path so that his faith might be increased
and so that he enjoyed fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. So if we're strong in ourselves,
we won't need a saviour. We'll be going on our own strength. When the Lord brings us down,
he brings us down by these thorns in the flesh. And as I've said,
there's a variety of ways, and I won't go into a list Because
it's personal to all of us and the Lord will know, you will
know how the Lord's dealing with you. Or how he has dealt with you. Sometimes
it may be good if we just, as it were, sit down. You know, David, in his life,
he came and sat before the Lord. When he had a need to know what
to do, he came and sat before the Lord. And if perhaps you
and I have a thought in the flesh and the Lord's now shown us,
well, this is my doing, I brought it upon you for your benefit,
for your goodness, so that you might be more dependent upon
me than on yourself, to come down and to realise, yes, this
is the Lord's work. This is the Lord's purpose for
me. and to be submissive to that
purpose. And so the Apostle then is able
to give us this list, isn't he? And don't forget he's also got
pleasure, and the whole reason for Christ's sake, pleasure in
infirmities. Well, again that can be weakness
in our body, it can be weakness in our mind, it can be the infirmity
of our mind as we Understand what the Apostle said when he
said, O wretched man, that I am. And when he told us the good
that I would, I do not, and the evil that I would not, that I
do. That's the infirmity. The infirmity of our flesh. And it may be a real burden. And it may be a thorn in the
flesh. A thorn in the flesh. But you
see, he takes pleasure because He realised the blessing of it
was to bring him closer to Christ. We don't always recognise that
immediately. But as the Lord deals with us,
as it were, takes us aside and instructs us. He says, I take pleasure in infirmities,
in reproaches. Reproaches for Christ's sake. And my friends, reproaches for
Christ's sake are painful. Because what it means is that
people misjudge us. They make statements. And they
reproach us. They don't know what is in our
heart. They don't know why we perhaps
say things and do things. And therefore we have to take
reproaches. And what is that? brings us into
a condition. The Saviour was reproached. You see, all these points really
bring us closer to Christ. And in our right mind, and when
I say that I mean our spiritual mind, I mean our new mind, our
born-again nature, it realises that what is occurring is all
for our spiritual good. And that means our eternal good. And when you and I have a right
sight of eternity, we'll realise how good it is the Lord is not
leaving us and not forsaken us. And so we are willing therefore
to bear reproach for his sake. Yes, a thorn in the flesh perhaps. You may think, why do I have
to do this? Why do I have to pass through this? to bring us closer to Christ.
And that's why the Apostle says, most gladly. That's why the Apostle
says, I take pleasure. Because of the gracious effect. And so he says, in necessities. Yes, those things which were
needful for him. God gives us and does those things
for us which are needful. Don't forget, there is really
but one thing needful. Yes, to know Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. In necessities, in persecutions. We don't like being persecuted,
do we? The Apostle says, I take pleasure
in being persecuted. Well, it was clear in the Apostle's
life, he didn't hide his religion. No, he didn't pretend to be what
he was not. He lived his religion. And Omer,
you and I live our religion. And if we do, there will be persecution. And if there is persecution,
Can we take pleasure in it, realizing that we are suffering for his
sake, as he suffered for us? Persecutions, distresses. You may be distressed. Always
come back then to these glorious words, for Christ's sake. And so he says, having spoken
like this, For when I am weak, then am I strong. What a lesson
to learn, isn't it? What a good God we have, who
gives us, therefore, this thorn in the flesh to bring us to this
condition, so that we're able to say, yes, when I am weak,
then am I strong. Strong in the Lord. What a blessing
that is. There's our trust, no longer
in self, in our God, casting all our care then upon him, all
our care, for he careth for us. Well, this is a short account,
but it's a wonderful account to direct us to the Lord's dealings
with the Apostle Paul. And why is it recorded? So that
you and I might be encouraged in our pathway, as we walk through
this earth. Let us not think, therefore,
that somehow we're going to walk a different path. A path laid
down in the Word of God, numerously, in various ways, is to direct
us, to encourage us. The Lord is dealing with us as
sons and daughters of the Most High God, and He it is who gives
us, like He did Paul, that was given to Him. thorn in the flesh
and so there may be to you and me to bring us to this position
that although we may have prayed that it might be removed it hasn't
been we realize the need for it the need for it the necessity
of it the necessity of it to keep us in our in a weak condition
in our own heart in our own view not looking to our strengths
but looking out of ourselves to the Saviour. There's the support
you need. There's all the strength you
need. There's all the help you need. And so may we all be found
looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.
It's a good thing, isn't it, to come into that position. And the Apostle Peter in his
experience was able to direct us to the great truth of God
and he tells us and he'd experienced it for in the second chapter
the first epistle 20th verse for what glory is it if when
you be buffeted for your faults you should take it patiently
but if when you do well and suffer for it you take it patiently
this acceptable with God. That's the path. And so he goes
on to say, the Apostle tells us, for even here unto were ye
called, the Apostle was called to this position, Peter was called
to this position, the Church of God are called to this position.
For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps,
who did no sin. Neither was guile found in his
mouth. When he was reviled, revile not again. When he suffered,
he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously,
who his own self bear our sins. in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness,
by whose stripes ye were healed." It's very humbling, isn't it,
to think that Almighty God should have lived that perfect life
and suffered so much so that you and I might be healed from
all our sins and receive that great and glorious gift eternal
life. So this morning we'll be able
to examine ourselves to see whether we have a thorn in the flesh
and what the effect of it is and if it's working together
for our eternal good in which case we can thank God. Amen.