2 Corinthians chapter 12, and
our text will be found in verse 9. The text will be found in
verse 9. In the title of the message this
morning, the sufficiency of grace. The sufficiency of grace. Christ
said, My grace is sufficient for thee. My grace is sufficient
for thee." Now, in this text of Scripture, the Apostle Paul
here recounts to us of an experience that he had by the gift of God. And that was, he was ascended
to the third heaven. He was ascended into the very
paradise of God. Alone, as far as we know, this
is the only account of one to ascend and to hear such great
things other than the Apostle John in his whole book of the
Revelation. The Apostle Paul ascended and
had a great and glorious experience. He says, although I've had this
experience, he says, I don't long to glory in it. He says,
I don't want a glory in it. Although my flesh longs to glory,
Paul says, I myself refuse to glory. He said, I refuse to become
a fool. Look at that in verse 6. For although
I would desire to glory. You see that? He says, I desire
to glory. That's in us to glory. He says,
I shall not become a fool. I shall not become a fool." He said, I don't want men to
think more of me than I am. He said, I am this, I am a sinner
saved by grace and nothing more. Although I had the experience
that no other man at this time had experienced, he says, although
I long to glory in my flesh, I won't become a fool. And I
won't allow men to think more of me than I am." As a matter
of fact, in verse 11, he says, I am nothing. He says, I'm nothing. And in verse 7, he talks about
how God had prevented him from such glorying by sending a messenger
of Satan to beat him or to buffet him so that he would not be exalted
above measure. And here we have the Apostle
Paul suffering at the hand of God. And he prays to God. He is moved
to pray. And he asked the Lord three times,
let this thing depart from me. No answer. Let this thing depart
from me. No answer. He said it the third
time, Lord, allow this to depart from me. And here is the Lord's
answer to a suffering apostle, to one of the men who is not,
Paul said, I'm not behind in the chiefest of the gifts of
the apostles. This man wrote most of the New
Testament that we have before us, and yet he suffered at the
hand of God. And notice the response of Christ,
My grace is sufficient for you. We who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ as our Savior and Lord, we who have been given spiritual
life like the Apostle Paul, have seen many wonderful things, haven't
we? We've experienced wonderful things in this life. If you are
a believer in Christ, you've experienced the resurrection
of your soul. Is that not a wonderful thing?
How many times has the Lord been engaged with us and we feel as
though we are exalted to heaven itself? We feel that His presence
is right before us. We feel like we could just reach
out at any moment and He would just be standing there. Have
you ever felt that? I have. I love those experiences
that God gives us, those little tokens of grace that He bestows
upon us in this life. Paul said, I had fainted, had
not not seen goodness in the land of the living. And man,
sometimes I'm about to faint and there he goes. Goodness.
He comes in like a wave. And we feel as though we're on
top of the mountain. And the Word of God is so rich
to us. And it blesses us beyond measure. And we understand it and we say,
Yes! Amen! I love it! Don't you love
those times? I do. I love those times. Those times of grace. What happens
after that though? You have to go back out there,
don't you? You have to go away from your prayer closet and you
have to be engaged with the world again. And you start looking
around at people. And you find out they've not
experienced anything like you have. You look at the religious
people of this age who are deceived to think that their will or their
works are going to save them. You look at them and you see
them lost in their sins. And here you are having experienced
a wonderful experience of God. Are we not then tempted to glory
in our experience? If you say no, then you are above
the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul says, I wanted
to glory. I did. In my flesh dwelleth no
good thing. And it desires to glory in itself. That's why Paul separated himself
here. He said, I knew a man. You see,
there's two men. Paul makes that distinction.
We feel like we at times are tempted to glory in our experience,
tempted to the pride of grace. Believer, let us recognize that
if we glory in our experience of grace, which God has given
us, we have become fools, fools to glory in such experiences. We are fools to allow men and
even ourselves to exalt ourselves above measure. Believers in all
these, we are tempted to the pride of self-glory. We're all tempted. Every one
of us are. I remember hearing of a man stepping
out of the pulpit and the man said, that was the greatest message
I'd ever heard. And the preacher said, yes, Satan
told me that two seconds before you did. That's right. We are tempted to glory in our
experiences. All of us are. But God sent Paul
this, a messenger of Satan, to buffet him and to beat him. Now
what this was, we don't know. But I suspect it is the messenger
of Satan to our conscience. How many times has our conscience
beat us? But whatever it was, it was an
infirmity. It was tough. But when, but even this. Let
us know that it was the means that God used to quell His rebellion
of His sinful nature. Believer, there is nothing that
comes to us that is not of the hand of our Father and is not
for our good, especially our infirmities. We think that our
experiences of grace are for our good, and the infirmities
aren't. No. The infirmities are more valuable
than the experiences of grace that we experience. The mountaintop
experiences, the infirmities are altogether more important,
more useful, more useful. It is by God, our God daily. Reminds us of our need of Jesus
Christ. How does God remind us of this?
Not so much by our glorying but by our infirmities by our hurts
and by our pains How dreadful is it to God when
the dust and ashes rise up in pride How dreadful There is nothing
worse than the pride of grace, my friends. Nothing worse. No
sin worse than the pride of grace. Hawker says this, Oh, how precious
Christ is when the enemy comes in like a flood. Oh, who knows the infinite value
of Christ but one who feels his utterly lost estate without Him. How can we know the value of
Christ but by our infirmities, by our weaknesses? Believer,
are you attacked by your infirmities, by your weaknesses, by your sin,
by your flesh? Do you at times feel the rebellion
of your sinful nature rising up within you? Pride and arrogance. I do. I confess, it is in me
as I know it is in you. If this comes, then my friends,
let us turn to Jesus Christ, who at first has delivered us
from the power of darkness and translated us into His kingdom
of light. Let us turn to Christ. Paul asked
three times for relief. You see the infirmity that God
sent Paul, it drove him to Christ. And that's what the infirmities
of the flesh do to us when God sends a messenger of Satan to
beat us. What does that do? It drives
us to Christ. It drives us to Christ. Many times we feel abandoned.
Paul asked three times, how many times have you asked for something?
And nothing happened. Many times we do that and feel
abandoned. We feel forsaken of God. But
I want you this morning, if you feel forsaken of God, believer,
if you feel as though He is not answering you, hear the answer
of Christ to all our infirmities. To every infirmity that you may
experience, my grace is enough for you. It's sufficient. That's
all you need. You don't need anything else.
You alone need the grace of God in Christ. Christ said, My grace
is sufficient for every hurt, for every trial, for every temptation,
for every experience in our life. Let us see the grace of God is
sufficient for us. Believer, let us remember the
grace of God by definition is what? Unmerited favor. Unmerited favor
is the grace of God. It is favor with God that is
unmerited. His goodness and His mercy upon
you were unmerited. When God began, that is, that God, out of His own free
and sovereign grace, determined to show you favor. Friends, there is nothing in
you that will ever be worthy of grace. Nothing. There is nothing that you have
done or that you ever will do to earn this grace. We must recognize that even our
faith does not merit grace. Faith does not merit grace. When we came to Christ by faith,
we know that this is not the cause of grace, but rather the
effect. Faith is just the effect of something God had for you
before. You ever see the leaves blowing
on a tree? I was watching out my window when I was preparing
this message and I saw the wind blowing the tree. And I thought
of cause and effect. The leaves did not cause the
wind to move. And my friends, it was the wind
that caused the leaves to move. And so it is with faith and grace.
Grace is what we are given before we have faith. Scripture says
the Spirit, like the wind, bloweth where it listeth. You can't hear
where it's coming and where it's going, but you can see the effect.
What is the effect? Faith. The effect of grace is
faith. And so I pray this morning, I
want us to see three things about the sufficiency of God's grace.
Three things that should comfort every believer's heart this morning.
Three things about the grace of God that show us the sufficiency
of it. First of all, the sufficiency
of its duration. The duration of grace. Second
of all, the direction of grace. And third, the destination of
grace. First of all, the sufficiency
of the duration of grace. Let me ask you this, when did
God have grace on you? When did God begin to show you
favor? We that believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and I'm talking to just believers here, Because I know
that people can understand, there are a lot of people here that
have been raised up in this gospel message of grace, and a lot of
you have heard about grace all your life, and you acknowledge
it. You understand it. But I'll tell you what, unless
a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, you cannot say
that God has grace on you. Remember, the effect of grace
is faith. You must believe in order for
these things to comfort your soul. There is no comfort of
God's grace if you have not believed. But this is to us who have believed. This is sufficiency for us who
have come to Christ. Now many think, That faith starts
grace, that if a man comes to faith, it is by it's then that
the grace of God begins. But that's not so when great
when we come to Christ by faith, it only displays the grace of
God in Christ. It only reveals something that
was already done and accomplished and is now applied. That's all
it does. It manifested. The Scripture
says, for by grace you are saved. Notice it says not by faith you
are saved, by grace you are saved. But always through faith. Always through faith. In Mark
chapter 10, the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking to that rich young ruler,
when He said that, give up all you have and follow Me, and the
rich young ruler went away. And Jesus says it is easier for
a camel to go through an eye of a needle. You see an eye of
a needle ever see a camel put the picture together. Every child
can put a picture of this together. Can you put a camel through an
eye of a needle? No, it's impossible. And that's right. Faith with
men is impossible. It's impossible. But with God. All things are possible. Even
giving us faith is possible with God. God is the one that gives
us faith to believe. Faith comes from God to the salvation
of the soul of sinners. And this comes to us by the manifold
grace of God. The grace of Christ, my friend,
is sufficient for us because it did not begin in faith. It
began in eternity. That's when God had grace on
you. Is that not sufficient? If that's
not sufficient, I don't know what is. God had grace on you
before you were you. That's amazing. That's why we call it amazing
grace. God had mercy. Do you realize
that grace is an essential attribute of God? Grace is an essential
attribute of God just as much as His holiness is, and His justice,
and His righteousness. You see, grace is essential with
God. In other words, grace is not
just in Himself, it is Himself. Grace is God. God is grace. And in God is fullness of grace.
And because of that, it is eternally so. And God manifests His grace upon
the creatures, His creatures, by electing some to salvation. This is how God manifests His
grace to His creatures. He manifested by electing some
to grace. God, 2 Thessalonians 2.13, God,
when, from the beginning, hath chosen you to salvation. Believer, cast your eyes upon
the eternal grace of Christ, who is full of grace. Do you
need grace? See the grace of God in Christ
as it was from all eternity. It is the grace of Christ from
all eternity and it shall endure to all eternity. What's the duration of grace?
When did grace begin and when will grace end? It never began
and it will never end. That's how long God will have
grace on you. Is that not sufficient? That's sufficient, my friends.
It's sufficient for its duration. And this grace, we know it so
because He made with us an everlasting covenant. When did an everlasting
covenant begin? If it began somewhere, it's not
really everlasting, is it? Eternal. God made an eternal
covenant. And this is the covenant we recognize
in Jeremiah 32 when he said, I will not depart from you to
do you good. And on top of that, you won't
depart from me. Isn't that something? Oh, my heart prone to wonder. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave
the God I love. And yet the God of all eternity
says, You'll never leave me. because I'll never leave you."
I'll never leave you. What's the duration of His grace?
It's forever. Is not His grace, my believer
friend, sufficient today as it was when you first experienced
it? Is this not Fresh to your soul
this morning. It is to mine. His grace is eternal
and it will never stop. When we've been there 10,000
years, bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing His
praise as when we first begun. My friends, His grace started
way in eternity and it shall never end. There's the duration
of His grace and it's sufficient. Second of all, the direction
of His grace. The direction of His grace. You see, because God
from all eternity would be gracious, He said, I will be gracious to
whom I will be gracious." Because God determined to be gracious
upon some, He also determined the means by which He would make
that grace effectual. In other words, how many times
have we determined to do something and never been able to do it?
I determined I'm going to do this, and I have set everything
for this, And sure enough, something comes along, blows like the wind,
and sure enough, what we thought we wanted to do, we don't do
anymore. What you determined to do doesn't really mean a whole
lot if you can't do it. You see, God not only determined
to have grace on you, He did. Have grace on you. He did. He manifested. He showed it to
us. He revealed it to us. He revealed
it to us. Now, grace, the grace of God
towards His chosen. You see, it could not be sufficient
if it contradicted any of other God's attributes. If God's grace
for you affected His justice, then He could not have grace
on you. Now, right? He cannot, at the
expense of his justice, love you. You see, all of the attributes
of God must be satisfied in order for God to shed his grace on
us. God cannot, at the expense of
his justice, have grace. And then this means of grace.
This object of grace is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is how God can be just and justify us. This is how it is. This is the means that God has
chosen. Believers, the grace of God is found only in Jesus
Christ by faith. And when we found it the first
time by grace, we found it all sufficient, didn't we? And it's
sufficient in its direction. What I mean by that, it's sufficient
in its direction toward God. And it's sufficient in its direction
toward you. It's sufficient in both directions.
First of all, it's sufficient toward God. We see that there
was no way that God could accept us as we were. Isn't that right?
Is that not true? Do you think for any length of
time that God would accept you based on what you've done or
who you are. Scriptures are clear. And we
bow to the Word of God that says there's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. But God in His grace sent His
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh so that His grace would
be sufficient to satisfy His glory. Satisfy His justice. He sent Christ to be the federal
head of His elect so that God could be glorified. You see, that's what we failed
in. We failed to glorify God. We failed to honor His law. And
God cannot accept us because we failed. We missed the mark. But Jesus Christ, God sent His
Son to hit the mark. And he did it. He did it. He
satisfied God and glorified God. The Father sent him. And what
was the Father's word to Christ? This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. I am well pleased. The Father
sent him by grace to suffer the penalty of our sins. You see, God could not let our
sins slide. You and I let people slide all
the time. Why? Because we're just as wicked
as they are. We let them go. God couldn't let us go. His justice
demanded to be satisfied. And so therefore, to satisfy
His own justice so that He might have grace on you, He sent His
Son to die in your place, in your stead, to pay the redemption
price. And my friends, Jesus Christ
freely by His grace took our sins that were imputed to Him
by God, so much so they became His. And He died for our sins. And God, to show He was satisfied
with him, raised him from the dead and exalted him to the right
hand of the Father." God said, for me, it's enough. And therefore, if it's enough
for God, should it not be enough for us? Should it not be enough? Should it not be sufficient that
Christ died and He rose again from the dead? Is that not sufficient
for us? Oh, my friends, it is more than
sufficient. The Scripture says, He shall
save them to the uttermost that come to God by Him. You come
to God by Christ, He will save you to the uttermost. Why? His
grace is sufficient. His grace is sufficient toward
us and toward God. Is our souls troubled? Have we
been buffeted by our own conscience? By our own flesh have the trials
of pride risen up in our soul. And let us see it is sufficient
for God, it is sufficient for us. Jesus Christ said himself,
it is finished. What is left for you to do? What
is left for us to do? We're always running around like
a bunch of ants. You people used to say you run
around like a chicken with our head cut off. My friends, there are duties
that we must perform in the Christian walk, I understand. But my friends,
none of these things merit grace. God says, I've already supplied
it. I've already shown you it. I've already satisfied myself
for you. What's left for you to do but
rest in me? My grace is sufficient for you.
My grace is sufficient for you. He is all of our hope, all of
our joy, all of our peace. And my friends, the Lord is not
slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering. Do you
need a long-suffering Savior? Oh, yes. Guess what? He's long-suffering. He's sufficient. He's sufficient for you. And number three, the destination
of the grace of Christ is sufficient. Believer, right now, all things
are moving at the hand of Christ our Savior. I was watching outside,
I just went outside and those little helicopter things on the
ground, those little leaves, I watched those this morning
and I saw how the wind just shifted them one direction. And the wind
shifted them the other direction. And the wind shifted them the
other direction. That's exactly how Christ is doing men today.
He is moving them as He pleases. Why? What's the purpose? He's doing it for you. He's doing it for you. He is
moving all things according to His grace. Ephesians 1, 9-10
says, "...having made known unto us the mystery of His will according
to His good pleasure, which He hath purposed in Himself, that
the dispensation of the fullness of times, that He might gather
together in one all things in Christ." You see what God is
doing right now is He is gathering. He's gathering. Right now we're
in a harvest time and God is gathering His children unto Himself
by the preaching of the gospel. And one day, my friends, He shall
call all His people by His grace to Himself. This is what He's doing everything
for. The only reason this world spins is because God hasn't called
all of His elect yet. There are still people out there.
There are still His children on the face of this earth that
must be called by the Gospel. And when the last one is called,
my friends, we shall receive the destination of our grace,
the grace of God for us. We shall receive it and be brought
into the presence of God. God by His grace has made known
to us all of these things so that we might be gathered to
Himself. And so whatsoever comes to pass in time is working according
to His grace to bring us to eternal life and glory. Let me ask this. Will there be anyone to whom
the grace of God is given that won't be there? If God has given you grace, if
He's shown grace to you and you've had faith in Christ, will you
be absent from the table that God has prepared for you from
eternity? Absolutely not. Then why, my
friends, are we not content with such things as we have? Let me not speak of the sovereignty
of God and then complain of my lot in life." My friends, I have
an eternal home and this is not it. This is not it. Praise God, this is not my destination. We have a home, my friends, that's
not made of earth and brick and mortar, but it is made by the
eternal hand of God and He has prepared it for us. Shall He
not bring us to Himself? Is there anything that will stop
Him? Is there any circumstance or trouble that is not for Your
good and His glory to bring us to Himself? Therefore, Paul said,
I will gladly rejoice in my infirmities. Why? Because grace, grace, grace
is sufficient for me. Is it sufficient for you? Is
God's grace sufficient for you? It's sufficient in its duration.
It's sufficient in its destination. It's sufficient to God and sufficient
for your soul to bring you to glory. Let us therefore be content
to have His grace if He takes everything else." If you have grace and nothing
else, my friend, you have more than the richest man on the face
of this earth. You have the grace of Christ.
It is sufficient. I pray God will bless this to
our hearts this morning. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.