If you take your Bibles and turn
with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. I've entitled this message, All-Sufficient
Grace and Strength. All-Sufficient Grace and Strength. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. We'll
begin our reading in verse 6. The Apostle says, 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 me
above that which he seeth me to be, and that which he heareth
of me. 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. For this thing
I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. But he said unto me, My grace
is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weak. 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 persecution,
in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I
strong. Now in this particular passage
of scripture, the apostle here just before our text describes
the great blessing that he had received of God. Now the apostle
Paul was surely one of the most blessed men of God that ever
lived. The apostle Paul had great blessings.
He was given such grace to be an apostle. Think of that. He was an apostle of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he says of himself that he
was one born out of due season. He was not with the first apostles,
but yet after Christ had died and rose again, he was called
of Christ. What a blessing that was. What
a blessing. You remember, he was not always
an apostle, but a blasphemer, a man that hated Christ and persecuted
the church. Remember when he was called of
God, he was on his way to persecute the church. He had no desire
to believe. He had no will to believe Christ
and Christ met him. Christ stopped him. What a blessing. He was madly rushing to hell
and Christ interceded and saved him. It was God who made him
a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and not only that, a
minister of the Gentiles. What a privilege that was he
had, that he was a minister of the gospel to the Gentiles. And
here in this text we see that the apostle was not only given
to be an apostle, he was not only given to be saved, he was
not only given to be a minister of the Gentiles, He had a divine
revelation. He said, whether in the body
or out of the body, I don't know. I don't understand this. He said,
I was caught up into the third heaven. That's the end of verse
two. He said he was caught up in the
third heaven. And in verse four, he said how he was caught up
in the paradise. A man who was on the earth, whether
in the body or out, we don't know how this happened, but he
was caught up into heaven itself. And he heard things there. He
heard things. You imagine hearing what it is
in heaven. And he said, I can't even repeat
it. It's not lawful for me to repeat what was spoken there. And so he had these great blessings,
but because of such graces, and privileges given to him of God.
Notice what God gave him in return for all of the blessings, all
of the privileges, all of the honors he had. Look what he said
in verse seven, unless I should be exalted above measure to the
abundance of revelations that were given to me. Listen, a thorn
in the flesh was given to him, a messenger of Satan lest I should
be exalted above measure. Believer in Christ, let me first
of all ask you this. Have you considered, have you
considered what great blessings you've received? I want you for
a minute to consider The apostle received great blessings. Now,
no, we're not made apostles. We've not been exalted to heaven.
We've not had the same revelations as was given to the apostle Paul.
We don't have the same office or the same power or the same
boldness. But I'll tell you this, it doesn't
matter if you're a babe in Christ or a superior elder believer,
you are all beneficiaries of the blessings of God. Great blessings,
consider this. Consider where we were. Consider the ruined nature of
man that all of our race, all of man by nature, was neither
willing nor able to come to God. Can you imagine a more helpless
picture than being dead? Is there a more helpless state? I mean, the scripture pictures
man as blind, pictures a man as lame, pictures a man as lambrus,
but what is more helpless than dead? And yet that's what God
pictures our nature as. We are dead, dead in trespasses
and sins. We're dead. Can you not look
at then at the millions upon millions of people who are now
walking on the face of this earth and all of those billions and
billions of people who have passed on already? And yet, out of all
of these, by the grace of God, you were given life. Spiritual life. Spiritual life. You were given faith. Behold
all the men and women who were more noble than you. How many
were more noble? How many had more wisdom than
you? How many were more intelligent
than you? How many more had the many more
earthly things and more influential than you? How many more were zealous than
you in religion? How many have done more great
works than you? And yet, God saw fit to give
you faith. Is that not a great blessing?
God saw fit to give you? The most popular religion, the
most popular heresy in this world is free will works religion.
of which many of us had our conversation. Many of you were lost in that
and steeped in that worse religion. You were duped. You were deceived
and willingly deceived. We all had this conversation,
but God, who is rich in mercy, appointed a time that he would
save. Consider the blessing of that.
There you were walking along with your ruined condition and
all the while without your knowledge or consent. Man's always talking
about consent. God needs your consent. God needs
your willingness. No, all the while you were unwilling,
God had appointed a time that He would come and save you. What
a blessing. What a great privilege that is
that He would come and give you faith in Christ. Says, for by grace you are saved
through faith. And that, what? That what? Faith. That faith is not of yourself,
friends. It's not a free will. Faith is
not a product of free will. True faith is willing, but faith
is not a product of will, it's a product of grace. For by grace
you are saved through faith, and that, not of yourself. But
what is it? It's a gift of God. Your faith
that you possess right now is a gift of God, a gift, and not
of works. Why? Lest any man should boast. For we are His skilled craftsmanship,
His workmanship, created, you get that? Created in Christ Jesus
under good works, so that we, like Paul, have been blessed.
You realize that there is nothing Paul will have in heaven that
I won't. There's nothing that Paul will have in heaven that
you won't. Why? Because we have what Christ
purchased, what Christ bought, what Christ has accomplished. And so what Paul has been blessed
with of God, so have we. We have been blessed. We have
been chosen and loved of the Father. We have been loved and
redeemed by Christ the Son, and now, by the grace of God, it
is manifested, the love of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit,
by giving you life and faith. John said, Behold what manner
of love. Wouldn't it just be reasonable
for us to just behold a minute? Meditate on it. Consider what
manner of love, what kind of love is it? Because it's not
any love we've ever known. It's not any earthly love that
you can ever have. It's something that only God
can. What manner of love is this? That the Father hath bestowed
upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the
world loatheth us not, because it knew him not beloved. Paul puts it like this, as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, as many as are born again by
the Spirit of God, as many as are led to faith in Christ by
the Spirit of God through the preaching of the Gospel, they
are what? The sons of God. The sons of
God. And you've not received again
the bondage a spirit of bondage again, the fear you've not received
again the law, you've not been saved by the law, put in bondage
by the law, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby
we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit itself bears witness
with our spirit, what? That we are children of God.
And if children, then what? What the blessing then, consider
the blessing then, then heirs. And not just heirs, you know,
it's just one thing to be an heir, isn't it? There's, you
know, you might get a grandpa die and he might leave you a
whole broken watch. You might be an heir, but you
only get a watch. It ain't working. What kind of
heir is that? No, it's not just an heir. He
said you're an heir of who? Of God. And listen, joint heir
with Jesus Christ. In other words, whatever he gets,
you get. Whatever he's an heir of, you're
an heir of. Have you considered what blessings?
Brethren, consider that. That we are the sons of God. That we are in union with the
Lord Jesus Christ. And being in union with Christ,
you are in union with God. One with God. Consider. We've been justified
by God. You got that? I don't care what
men say about me. What does God say about you?
You know what he said? Justify. That's what God said. So what does it matter what men?
Paul said that, is it? Who is he? Who can lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Why? God justifies you. So what
does it matter if they lay anything to your charge? If God justifies
you. Who cares even what your conscience
says? If God justifies you. Our sins have not only been justified
by God, but our sins have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. We have been sealed with the
Holy Spirit of promise. Therefore, Paul says, if God
be for you, who can be against you? ever living to make intercession
for you, then what's the conclusion of that? Who shall separate you
from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus? Consider this.
Your sins have been removed. And the conclusion then is that
nothing on heaven and earth, nothing in time or eternity,
nothing done by us or by men or by angels or by devils can
ever, ever separate you from the love of God. that's in Christ
Jesus. Yet, believer, though we have
such great benefits. Are those not great benefits?
Is that not something that you can just take in and think about
and mull over and find refreshment in? These benefits that Paul
had, we have. Blessings we have. Our God. But yet, we have these blessings
and though we have great benefits, such as spiritual grace poured
out on us without measure, seeing all things, all things work together
for good to those who love God, to those who are secure in Christ
Jesus, yet we still are not fully, perfectly what God has ordained
we should be. Have you seen that? Go look in
the mirror. If you haven't found it, go look
in the mirror. ordained us to be. We've not
even felt what God has ordained us to be. What has He ordained you to be?
He, to be conformed to the image of His Son. That's what you were
predestinated for, to be conformed to the image of His Son. John
said in that, Behold what manner of love God has shed upon us
that we are the sons of God. He said, It doth not yet appear
what we shall be. Now we know what we shall be
when He comes. We're gonna be like Him. But
until then it does not appear, does it? What we shall be. Why? Because we still have this
old man of sin. We still have this old man, this
body of death, wrapped around our neck. Paul said, who shall
deliver me from this body of death? Now you know that that
is an illustration, an allusion to the Roman punishment of tying
the corpse around a criminal. and he was to walk until the
corpse rotted off. That's exactly how the believer
feels every day. We have a corpse we would ascend
into glory, but this corpse is pulling us to the earth. So even so, believer, though
we are loved and blessed of God above all men, we still must
be great blessing to ascend into
heaven, but God understood his need, his need of something. He said this, lest I should be
exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelation. We like Paul, we see the grace
of God and the more it shines upon us and the benefits of his
love, and perfect redemption in Christ, the new man shouts
for glory, the new man shouts with joy, the new man praises
God and seeks to glorify God. But all the benefits of our salvation,
make no mistake, the flesh will always be lurking to steal glory. The more we understand about
the doctrine of grace, the more the inner man rejoices. But the
more the inner man rejoices, the more the outer man seeks
to rob and steal some of that glory for himself. Now you know this fella. I want
you to keep in your minds eye a poor child of God. A man who's
greatly blessed of God. He once was a man that set a
great example of faith. He was once, he loved God and
was used in the service of God. And then in a moment of weakness,
a moment of weakness, this brethren, this man committed adultery. What was the root of his commission
of adultery was simply this, pride. Pride. Scripture says pride goeth before
what? When this believer was exposed,
like all believers, he was evased and he wept when he was chastened
of God. He was cast out and mocked. God even sent a man to ridicule
him and spit on him. You know who that man was? It
was David. David, a man after God's own
heart, because of pride, because of pride, He fell into great
sin, great sin. You see, David was exalted. David
had peace around him, around Israel. There was a warfare out
there, but he didn't know anything about it. He was way back in
the kingdom and he looked on top of his roof and he said,
look at all that I've got. And then he saw her. Pride was in his heart. So, what blessings that we have,
we ought to be very cautious about pride. Therefore, you sons
of God, if any man thinketh he stand what? Take heed, lest he
fall. Believer, grace is never, never
intended to lift you up. Grace is always Grace, when it is taught right,
will always abase us. It will always do that. The scripture
says, who maketh thee to differ from another? You that have all
the blessings of God, who made you to differ? Who made you to differ? What
hast thou that is not received? And if you received it by grace,
Why do you glory as though you did not receive it? Do you glory
in your faith? Do you glory in your love? Do you glory in your works? No.
Why? Because we received it by grace
and not by merit. Believer, look now at what we
were by nature. We were no different than anyone
else. We were just as dead, just as blind, and just as hopeless
and helpless. to save ourselves as any other
son of Adam. So then who made us to differ?
Why have we received all of these blessings? Why were we made to receive the
grace and love and salvation of God while millions continue madly
rushing to hell? There is no merit in us. Nothing in us can move God to
do these things for us. Nothing in ourselves that
would move God to call us to life and faith in Christ. There
was no merit for our redemption. There was no merit or strength
in us for our calling. And there is no strength in keeping
ourselves in the faith. We have no strength in ourselves. Now those who've never experienced
the grace of God, they speak ill of this gospel. They say,
well, if one is saved by free grace, then surely they're going
to go ahead and sin. You ever heard that mess? You
ever heard that garbage? Said, well, if you don't put
law on people, then they're just going to go out there and sin.
Oh, that's not what mine. teaches us at all. Paul said
that in Romans 6, what shall we say? That shall we continue
in sin? That grace may abound? God forbid you should say such
a thing. Why? We're dead to sin. In Christ
we've been dead to sin. How can we live any longer in
sin? That's not what grace teaches us, is it? Grace does not teach
us pride. Grace does not move us to sin.
Grace abases us and exalts Christ. That's what grace teaches. I'll
show it to you. Go to Titus. Go to Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2 and look at verse
11. It says, For the grace of God that
bringeth salvation hath appeared to all And what is this? Teaching us,
here's what the grace of God teaches us, that denying ungodliness
and worldly lust, how should we live? We should live soberly,
righteously, and godly when? Right now. Right now, that's
what grace teaches us. We should live soberly, godly
in this present world. In other words, live without
any pride whatsoever. That's what it is, soberly, isn't
it? You better think soberly who you are and who God is. To
live righteously is to live by faith in Christ. That's where
my righteousness is. To live godly in this present
world is to live without pride. How do we do that? Here it is,
looking for that blessed hope. That's how you do it, by faith.
Looking for that blessed hope in the glorious appearing of
our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. We live by faith, the
just shall live by faith. That's what grace teaches. Grace teaches us that Christ
gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity
and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.
Oh, what manner of love the Father bestowed upon us. Isn't that
something to consider? Your privileges, your grace,
the grace of God that he's bestowed upon you. should not cause us
to glory but in Christ. We should glory only in Christ. Now secondly, consider this thorn. He said, lest I should be exalted
above measure through the abundance of revelation, what? There was
given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet
me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Thorn in the flesh. Now, some speculate as to what
this is. I don't want to speculate. I
don't know. Some think it has to do with physical sickness,
loss of eyesight, loss of his ability to speak. Some think
it's a spiritual thing. Remember, how he must have felt
concerning what he did to the church. Consider what he did
to the church and persecuted the church. That was a great
thing. They don't know what it is. And I think the word of God
is silent on this so that we may apply this to ourselves. Believer, do you have a thorn
in the flesh? Has there been given you a thorn
in the flesh? Are you overcome with sickness?
Are you afflicted by the pains of the body? or despair? Does your past sins
overwhelm your conscience with guilt and shame? Has Satan been
allowed to assault your soul on every part? Has Satan come in and taken the
malady, the grief, the pain and beat you to death with it? Beat
you down. Then this messenger of Satan,
either a man, a devil, whichever it is, comes and causes you to
feel the condemnation of your sin and assault your soul. Do
you have a thorn in the flesh tonight? Is this your case? This was Paul's
case. Now you listen, he was given
a thorn in the flesh. And listen, if you have a thorn
in the flesh tonight, I want you to understand this, it was
given. The same God who gave you grace also gave you this
thorn. He gave you this thorn. And believer,
let us cause, let us see the cause then of our affliction.
I want you to understand why you've been given this thorn. Why God has brought this chastisement. What is the cause? That's what
Paul said, lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the
revelation of God. That's why you've been given
this thorn. Lest you should be exalted. Lest I should be exalted
above measure. These thorns are given. They're
particular thorns for us. Have you thought of that? If
you had no trouble whatsoever in this world, what sort of people
would we be? How would we act? If God wouldn't chasten and correct
us and prevent us from our sins of pride, what kind of proud,
arrogant people would we be? Look at the saints of old and
see that God constantly exposed their sin. Aren't you grateful
for that in the Scriptures? That God took these great men
of faith and He opened their lives. He displayed all of their
vital things. Why did He do that? He painted
them warts and all, didn't He? so He can show us that, look,
we're the same. We're the same. God constantly
chastened them so that they should not faint. That's what we're
being chastened for. That we should not faint. Not
to make you faint, but that you should not be exalted to pride,
which would cause you to move away from Christ and depend upon
yourself. Are you pressed down by the omnipotent hand of God? Are you made to bow and cleave
to the dust, pleading for mercy and strength just to continue
another day? Now listen, believers, if you're
not there yet, you will be. You will be. Now we may pray as Paul did,
and I want you to understand that. If you've got a thorn in
the flesh, there's nothing preventing you from praying to be relieved. Nothing preventing you. Matter
of fact, that's what Paul did. Look at verse 8. For this thing,
I have besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from
me. Lord, save me. How many times
have we said that? Lord, deliver me. Lord, help
me. Lord, comfort me. Lord, deliver
me from this messenger of Satan sent to buffet me. Over in Psalm 77, David had that
same problem. He said, I cried unto the Lord,
listen, with my voice. That's one thing, we cry a lot
in secret, don't we? A lot of times we just cry out
in our head. And God hears that, but there's
a point where you just can't hold it in anymore and you gotta
use your voice. David was there. He cried out to the Lord with
my voice. He said it twice. And you know
what? He gave hearing to me. He, by faith, understood God
heard him. And he said, in the day of my
trouble, I sought the Lord. My sore ran into the night and
ceased not. My soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God and was troubled. I complained and my spirit was
overwhelmed. I don't know what Is that isolated? Do you suppose that just David
felt that way? Do you suppose David cried unto
the Lord in this and his sore alone ran into the night? Or
do you have any experience in this at all? You are believers.
Have you been vexed and troubled? Are you beat to the ground and
brought to the dust of the earth by your afflictions? your thorn too painful. And I'll
tell you this, you should cry to God. You should cry to him. You should seek his face and
you should ask for deliverance. And you know what? He may deliver
you. He may deliver you. He may in
a moment cause whatever it is to be gone. How many times does
that happen to us, believer? It happens to us. There are many
times we have cried unto God and immediately that thing was
gone. We're delivered. He may deliver
your life from the sword, like he did David. He may even part
the Red Sea, as he did for the Israelites, and they walked through
on dry ground. That shows me this, God is able
to deliver us, isn't he? He is able to deliver thee. He
is able to deliver thee. I know that, don't you? By faith,
we know that. And when we cry, I know this,
he hears me. He hears me. But that's not the troubling
thing, is it? The troubling thing is when He
delays. When He delays. What if God tarries? What if He will not deliver you
from the fire of affliction? Have we no record of this? I tell you, I don't know if Paul
was ever delivered from this. Matter of fact, there's nowhere
in Scripture that tells me he was. You know, Lazarus was like that,
that poor man who sat at the beggar, that beggar Lazarus that
sat at the gate. You know what? The only relief
he had from his thorn was dogs licking his sores. And he was not delivered from
his thorn until he went to heaven. How many do we read of this?
You know, Paul wrote of those in Hebrews. He said, others had
trial of cruel mockings and scourges and moreover bonds and imprisonment.
They were stoned. They were sawn asunder. They
were tempted. They were slain. They wondered
about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted and
listen, tormented. I'll tell you this, sometimes
God does not deliver his people from these thorns. Believer, what if God wills that
we suffer this affliction the rest of our days? The question then is, how can
you endure such a thing? How can we endure the thorns? How can we endure the afflictions
the rest of our days on this earth? How can we rejoice in
the pain and sufferings that God has given to us? Well, the
Lord Jesus Christ himself answers. I don't think if anybody else
answered, I don't think I could endure. But Christ gives us the
answer. Look what he said to Paul in
verse 9. He said this unto me, when he would not deliver me
from the thorn of the flesh, he said this to me, for my strength is made perfect
in weakness. My grace is sufficient for thee. O suffering, afflicted saint,
here is the answer that you need to calm your soul, the answer
you need to strengthen your heart and give you all the confidence
to sustain your faith in Christ through the fires of affliction.
Here it is, my grace, Jesus said. My grace is sufficient for thee. So if the grace of Jesus Christ
is sufficient for strength and endurance, let us then remember
the grace of God. Let us remember the grace of
God. Old David in Psalm 77, I just quoted a minute ago, in Psalm
77 verse 11, this was his remedy. This was his remedy for his affliction.
He said this, I will remember the words of the Lord. So tonight,
in your affliction, I want you to remember the sufficiency of
God's grace. The sufficiency of God's grace
in saving. Remember God's grace in His salvation. Let us remember
the all-sufficient grace of Christ. First of all, remember it was
the all-sufficient grace of God that chose you. It was the all-sufficient grace
of God who purposed to save you. Purposed to save you. How is it that you were quickened
to faith in Christ while others have not believed? Even because God has given you
spiritual blessings in Christ before the foundation of the
world. Remember that grace. Remember the grace of God that
gave you all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. Remember that God If not by the value of your person,
God chose you by His grace and put you in union with His Son. There is a sufficient grace that
should cause you to endure the thorns that are given to you
in the flesh. It is to know this that God chose
you. God purposed your salvation and
put you in union with his son. Jesus said this, you have not
chosen me, but what? I have chosen you. Is that not
sufficient enough for you? Is that not sufficient grace?
That he chose you? The scripture says in Deuteronomy
7, He said, For thou art a people unto the Lord thy God, and he
hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself. out of all
the people of the earth. And he said, listen, because
the Lord, not because you were the greatest, not because you
were the best, you were the least. Here's why he chose you. He said,
but because the Lord had loved you and because he would keep
an oath that he had made and sworn to your fathers. You see,
because God made a covenant of grace with himself for you, he
chose you. purpose, your salvation. Behold the greatness of God's
sovereign election. Don't you know without election
there would be no salvation? Any religion that does not believe
in election doesn't believe in salvation. They believe salvation
is by what man does. Election tells us salvation is
by grace. So remember that when you are
troubled. Remember this, it was God who chose you. out of sovereign
mercy. Second of all, remember, it was
the sufficient grace of Christ that redeemed you. The sufficiency
of the blood of Christ. How sufficient was the blood
of Christ? How sufficient? Behold, the eternal Son of God
was set up from eternity by the Father to save you. Go over to Proverbs real fast.
Proverbs 8. Look and behold the Lord Jesus
Christ here in this passage of Scripture. Proverbs 8 and verse
22. The Scripture says the Lord possessed
me in the beginning of His way. That word possessed could mean
begot. The Lord begot me. We're talking
about the only begotten, the eternally begotten Son of God
before His works of old. Not only was I begotten from
everlasting, the eternally begotten Son, but also what? I was set
up. He was made to be Christ. This
is talking about his office of Savior, of surety. When was he
set up? From the beginning or wherever
the earth was. Look at verse 30, then. When's
then? From the beginning. From the
beginning? Then was I by him as one brought
up with him. I was daily his delight, rejoicing
always before him. And listen what he was doing.
God rejoiced in Christ, and Christ rejoiced being before him. But
listen, Christ said rejoicing in the inhabitable part of the
earth, and my delights were with the sons of men. You see what
Christ said about you? He said my delight was you. God
delighted in me, and I delighted in you, delighted to do what? To save you. Do you realize Christ did not
come begrudgingly, but willingly? Consider the sufficient grace
of this, that God set Him up to be the Savior. It says this,
that according as He had chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy without blame before
Him, in love, having predestined us on the adoption of children,
Listen, by Jesus Christ to himself. Believers, see that our Lord
Jesus Christ was deliberately willing to be your Savior. He was willing. He was purposed
to be your Savior. He said, I come to lay down my
life. No man takes my life. You realize
that? No man took his life. He laid
it down willingly. The Word was made flesh, not
to be our example, not to sympathize with us, but to save us. So call His name Jesus, for He
shall save His people from their sins. This One who was chosen
to redeem us, I want you to understand this in the midst of your thorn.
that your salvation has nothing to do with you. It is in no way, get this, in
no way dependent upon you. It has always been dependent
upon Christ. Listen to what Isaiah 9 verse
6, For unto us a child is born, this is speaking of His humanity,
Unto us a son is given. See, he was already a son. Eternally
the Son of God was given. And listen, the government shall
be upon his shoulders. What does that mean? The responsibility
of saving you is on the shoulders of Christ alone. He bears the
total weight and responsibility. That's what a surety is, isn't
it? When Judah said, I'll be surety for the latter. He said,
I will bear the blame if I bring him not again. That's what Christ
says to you and me. Is this not sufficient? I don't
know if he loves me. What are you basing that on?
How you feel? How many cars you have? If your
house is paid, if you've got money, what are you basing this
love on? This love was sufficient in that He died for your sins. There's the manifestation of
the love of God, is that He sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. As He was made flesh, He came
into the world, and you know what? He was mocked. He was ridiculed. He suffered like no man suffered. He was rejected and despised
of men. And when He was crucified, hanging
on the tree, it was then that God made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin. Why? That you and I should be
made the righteousness of God in Him. This was His purpose,
friend. And you know what? I want you
to see this. His grace was so sufficient and in His death so
sufficient that God was forever satisfied. God was forever satisfied. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
12. This man, unlike those high priests
that couldn't sit down, this man, after he had offered one
sacrifice for sins, forever, forever sat down. Why? He said it is finished.
It was finished. The work of salvation was accomplished,
henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool,
because God hath been highly exalted in him, giving him a
name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow and every tongue should swear to the glory of
God. For by his one offering he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now listen, is his
blood sufficient? Are you worried about being condemned? If you're so troubled about being
condemned, it's because you're looking at the wrong offering. The only offering that's sufficient
is His blood. And if God was satisfied with
it, why aren't you? Remember His grace. It's sufficient
because His blood was sufficient. He removed our sins as far as
the East is from the West, so have He removed our transgression
from us. And what's the result of this? The result of this,
you're justified. You're sanctified. You have the
righteousness of God. I like this, one of my favorite
passages of Jeremiah 50 in verse 20. It says, in those days at
that time, said the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought
for and there shall be the sins of Judah, and they shall
not be found. Why? For I will pardon whom I
reserve. Those that I have chosen, those
that Christ redeemed, I will pardon them, and they shall have
no sin. That's what His sufficient blood
has accomplished. And not only was His election
of grace sufficient, not only was His redemption of grace sufficient,
but wasn't His calling sufficient? His calling. His calling was
sufficient. Where did He find you? When Christ found you, where
did He find you? He found you dead. He found you like that
infant polluted in His own blood. He found you without strength.
He found you without life. He found you without sight. He
found you in a waste, howling wilderness. He found you in the
desert of your sins. He found you ruined and unwilling
to come to God. But in the day of His power,
what? You were made willing. Are you
willing now? You who believe, are you willing?
That's a silly question, isn't it? It's just foolish to even
think of that. Are you willing? Well, of course
we are. Of course we are. Now, who did that? You or God? Religion tells you you did it.
I'm going to tell you what, that's not sufficient. What's sufficient
is the grace of His calling. That's sufficient because that
alone gives life and true faith in Christ. If you've not been
called to Him, that calling His calling gets the job done.
That's what it is. Effectual calling. That's what
it means. It gets the job done. He actually gives life through
the power of His Spirit and faith in Christ. You know, I'm talking to a man
about the gospel and it's exciting when people are
troubled. It just is. When somebody's troubled, when
they actually see what they believed is a lie, I know the first thing
they try to do is defend it, but if it's God calling, they
won't be able to. And when God calls, He gets the
job done and they throw away that garbage they grew up with
and what they do, they embrace Him and flee to Him. Now that's sufficient grace. The scripture says this, for
God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined
in our heart. Now how, when God commanded light, he said let
there be light and what? There was light. And when God
commands the light to shine out of darkness in your heart, it shines. And you live and you
believe in Christ. But not only this, He's sufficient
in the grace of His election. Remember that, He chose you.
He's sufficient in His redemption. Christ's blood forever put away
your sin. He's sufficient in calling you
and giving you a new heart and giving you life and giving you
faith in Christ. But what's more than this, His
grace is sufficient to bring you glory. Because that's what's
troubling you right now, isn't it? Am I gonna make it? in the
thorn in the flesh, this is what is most vexing. Am I going to
make it? Well, was his election sufficient
enough for you to make it? If he purposed you to be saved,
will you be saved? You bet. Would Christ redeem
you? Did he actually put away your
sin? Was it sufficient? Yes, I believe
it was sufficient. Was his calling sufficient to
give you life and faith? Well, I believe yes. It was sufficient. Get this, he that hath performed a good
work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. He that
hath begun a good work. Has he begun a good work in you?
And you listen to this, he is sufficient to finish it. Listen,
you're not sufficient to finish it. And the reason we are so
troubled is that we are is made perfect, made perfectly
manifest when in your weakness. Now you understand why you have
the thorn? To manifest your weakness. He said this, Baal and Nebo stoop,
those old false gods, they were carried about on these oxen that
were so big and so heavy, and they had to carry these gods.
And then these gods got so heavy that the oxen began to bow down. They couldn't even bear the weight
of those gods. And God says, I'm not a god like
that that needs to be carried by you. I'm a god that carries you. Don't you know that if I make
it to glory, it's because He carried me? And the only way to find any
comfort with these thorns in the flesh is this, to realize
He is sufficient. His grace is sufficient. May God give us grace to glory
in our affirmatives. That we would remember His grace
of election, remember His grace of redemption, remember His calling,
remember His sufficient grace to keep. Peter said that didn't
he? He said that we are kept by the power of God under salvation
ready to be revealed. That's sufficient grace. And
that's sufficient strength.