Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Our father, we. Give you the thanks. For all
your many gifts. We thank you most of all. For
the gift of your darling son. Who loved us and gave himself
for us? We are so unworthy in and of
ourself to even call on your name. And it's only because of
the Lord Jesus Christ that we are able, being made willing
in the day of your power. Father, forgive us of our sins.
Help us this day to behold you in all your glory. Help us to worship you. give
us ears to hear and eyes to see. And Lord, we ask all this in
your name, amen. Second Corinthians chapter 12,
we will begin reading in verse one. It is not expedient for me doubtless
to glory. I will come to visions and revelations
of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ about
14 years ago, whether in the body, I cannot tell, or whether
out of the body, I cannot tell, only God knoweth. Such a one
called up to the third heaven, and I knew such a man, whether
in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth, how
that he was called up into paradise and heard unspeakable words,
which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such a one will
I glory, yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. 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 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. And for this thing, I besought
the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 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 my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake. But when I am weak, then am I
strong. The title of the lesson is sufficient
grace. Our Lord appeared to Paul on
the Damascus road opened his blinded eyes, regenerated him,
and gave him a new nature, and revealed himself to him in grace
and mercy." Here we see in our text, he speaks of these revelations,
the revelations of his grace, and he speaks of it in such a
way that he doesn't speak as of himself. He speaks in a third
person. He said, I knew a man in Christ. about 14 years ago. When this happened, we don't
know. Everybody likes to speculate when it happened or what it happened.
That's not important. What is important is the one
who revealed himself to him, opened his eyes. He said, I was
called up into the third heavens. And he didn't say what I heard,
I mean what I saw, but he said things that I heard that even
I can't even describe them. You imagine If we can even imagine
this morning the things that Paul heard when he was called
up into paradise and to keep it to yourself for 14 years. You couldn't have waited to have
told somebody. Isn't that how we are? That's how I've been.
And to think about this and to ponder these things that he was
allowed to see and to hear. You know what that is? That's
grace in itself. If you know anything, have saw
anything of the glory and the righteousness of Christ, that's
grace, my friend. That's grace. That's grace. John, in the book of Revelation,
when John was on the Isle of Patmos, he said, I was in the Spirit
on the Lord's Day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet
saying, I am Alpha and Omega. heard that voice. And if you're a believer this
morning, by grace, you have heard his voice. To really relate to any passage
of scripture, I think that we have some way, by God's grace,
have to enter into that passage. And you say, well, how in the
world can I enter in? I've never been called up to
the third heavens. I've never come close to hearing
the things that Paul has heard. If he's given you ears to hear
and eyes to see, you're a blessed man, a blessed man. Listen, you understand things.
that the world has no idea. We talk of things this morning,
we're going to speak of him, and they have no idea who we're
talking about. It says in 2 Corinthians 2 verse
9, but as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither
have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed them unto
us. by his Spirit. For the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what
man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which
is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the
Spirit of God. Now we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we may know the things that are freely given unto us of God. You know these things. You know
these things. Blessed are your eyes for they
see, and your ears for they hear. Can you describe it? You can't
describe it either. The only way anyone else knows
what you're talking about is they've heard themselves, and
they have saw, and they've entered. You can't describe it. You talk
to men about God and about Christ and his perfect righteousness,
and they look at you like with a blank gaze over their eyes.
They go, what are you talking about? They don't understand. But the question is, why do you
understand? Who made you to differ? The only
way you can explain it is grace. Grace. Say, well, I wished I
knew more, and I do wish I knew more. But what you do know is
sufficient grace. People say, well, how much does
a man have to know? He has to know sufficiently enough.
And when you know Christ, he's sufficient. Our Lord turned and looked at
the disciples one day. He'd been out preaching the gospel,
doing miracles, healing the sick, raising the dead. And he said,
whom do men say that I am? Now, he knew what the religious
people were saying. The religious people said he's
son of the devil. They said he's a winebibber,
he's a whiner. That's what they were saying about him. He said,
but what do the common people say about me? They said, well,
some say that you're Elijah or that you're John the Baptist
that's risen from the dead. But he said, okay, now whom do
you say that I am? Whom do you say that I, the son
of man, am? And Peter, That fisherman looked at him and said, thou
art the Christ, the son of the living God. And he said, flesh and blood
didn't teach you that, but my father hath revealed it unto
you by his spirit. That's why anybody knows. That's
why any man understands. It is a revelation. It's a revelation. You know, you have loved ones
that are lost and don't know God, and you try to talk to them,
and you wish you could show them and get them to understand, and
they just can't understand, and they will never understand until
God gives them a revelation. We may not have been called to
the third heaven, but when you see Him, that's all the glory. It's in
Him. Why would God in his grace reveal
himself to us? Why? Why would he single out
Bethel Baptist Church? Why would he single out you?
Why would he single out anybody? Our Lord said in Matthew 11,
25, and at that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, Lord
of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes,
even so, Father, for it seemed good in thy sight. All things
are delivered unto me and my Father, and no man knoweth the
Son, but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. God
help us never to get over the wonder. of his grace, the wonder
of it. This whole book that we call
our Bible, from Genesis 1 through the book of Revelation 22 is
a complete book. It is a revelation of Jesus Christ. It's all about him. You look at a passage, what are
you to look for? You look for him. And if you
see him, you see the meaning of that text. And if you don't
see him, you've missed the meaning of the text. Missed it. You see what I'm saying? But
what's amazing is we understand. How little we understand, but
what little we do. We thank God for it. The year Paul said he was called
up to the third heaven, saw things that he couldn't even describe. And he said, lest I should be
exalted above measure. You say, could Paul be filled
with pride? Oh, yeah. You mean to say this
morning, preacher, that I can be filled with pride? Oh, yeah.
I guess one of the worst things we deal with is damnable pride,
and I don't think there's anything more opposite to grace than pride. that it's not by anything we've
done. It's not by our learning. It's
not by our figuring things out. It's not by our merits. Grace puts us in the dust. If
it lifts you up and causes you to think that it's by something
you've done, that's not grace. That's not grace. Paul said,
lest I should be lifted up with pride. He said, seven things
doth the Lord hate, and the first one he mentions, he said, is
a proud look. Peter, the one that said, thou
art the Christ, the son of the living God, stands and says one
day, our Lord said, some one of you is gonna deny me. Peter
said, it's not me. He said, everybody else may,
but I won't. And our Lord said, Peter, Satan
hath desired you, that he may sift you like wheat, and I'm
going to let him." He says, before the cock crows in the morning,
you're going to deny three times that you even know who I am. Someone said, I can't remember
who I got this from, they said, we can get proud of face, As
I thought about that, I thought about Absalom. We've been studying
through the book of David and Absalom. It talks about Absalom
and his long hair. It said he was so proud of his
hair, he cut it once a year and weighed it and told everybody
how much it weighed. That's pride of face. We can get pride of grace, I
mean of race. Paul was proud before he was
converted that he was a Benjamite, wasn't he? He said, I'm of the
tribe of Benjamin. And they even called him Saul,
and they probably named him after the first king, King Saul. He
said, I'm from this tribe. And if we're not careful, we
can become proud of grace. You see what I'm saying? He says in 1 Peter 5, and Peter
could speak from experience. I know that he wrote by inspiration
of the Spirit, but he knew this by personal experience. God resists
the proud and he gives grace to the humble. He resists the
proud and gives grace to the humble. James says, humble yourselves
in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. Now I don't
understand what all that means. Because in and of yourself, you
cannot, I don't care how much you try, you can't humble yourself.
The more you try to humble yourself, the prouder you'll become. People
used to quote this verse in religion. I think they used to quote it
before they had revivals. They said, if you'll humble yourself
before God and call on his name and seek his face, he'll hear
from heaven and he'll send rain. You show me one man who can humble
himself. Show me one. It's impossible. Isn't it? It's impossible. It's so contrary
to our nature. What is impossible with me and
is possible with God. If you're ever humbled, God will
do it. He will do it. He will do it. He kills and he makes alive. He wounds and then he, that's
what he's doing. Oh, he's on his, he's headed
to Damascus, and if he finds any Christians, he's gonna kill
every one of them. Till God stopped him in his path.
And what he did, he humbled him. He humbled him. God will not permit his people
to trust in their flesh. God will not let us go. And he
said, lest I be exalted above measure. What did he do? What
did God do in grace? What's God gonna do in grace
to keep Paul from being so exalted above measure? What's he gonna
do? He's gonna give him something. And every time God gives something,
which is a gift, that's grace. It's not earned, it's given.
What did God give him? He gave him a thorn. You say,
where's the grace in that? That's what he gave him, and
Paul knew that he gave it to him. He knew where it came from. He knew why he had it. It was given unto me a thorn
in the flesh. Just like everyone tries to figure
out, if you read most commentaries, when Paul had his vision and
what happened and where he was at and all this. Most try to
figure out what was Paul's thorn. I believe if God had really wanted
us to know, he would have told us. And I think anything else
is nothing but speculating. It could have been our problem.
It could have been a lot of things. As I was reading along these
lines, it was kind of humorous when I read behind Spurgeon.
Spurgeon read behind somebody, and he was trying to find out
what the thorn was, and Spurgeon said some guy said it could have
been gout. A Spurgeon like that, you know why? He had gout. If you had some ailment and you
read it and said, well, I'm glad he had what I had. It was common
to all men. We all deal with these things. It could have been any, many,
a lot of things, but he said it was a thorn in the flesh,
not in the spirit, in the flesh. It was something that was irritating
to his flesh. The word flesh here is the same
word that is used in Romans 7 where he said, in my flesh, in my flesh
dwells no good thing. So he had a thorn in the flesh and God gave it to him. When we think of a thorn, the
first thing that most of the time comes to our mind is the
curse. In Genesis 3, 18, after Adam
and Eve sinned, it said, thorns also, and thistles shall it bring
forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto
the ground. For out of it, out of the ground
was thou taken, for dust thou art, and dust thou shalt return.
As long as we live in this world, As long as we live and dwell
in this flesh, we're going to have to deal with thorns in the
flesh. Contrary to popular opinion,
when God saves you, he don't eradicate your flesh. I tried to preach a couple of
weeks ago where if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature.
That word means he's a new creation. And when you create something,
you make something from nothing. But when you make something,
you make something that's already there. I can take a piece of
wood that's already there and put it in a planer and make a
cabinet from it, but I can't create wood. God, when He creates
something, He makes something that wasn't there to start with.
He makes something from nothing. And that's what you are. You
are nothing. He said, preacher, preach me
some grace. You're nothing. Till you see that you're nothing,
you'll never appreciate grace. You never will. Isn't that it? Because the whole time we think
we're something. We think our flesh is something. What is a thorn? You've seen
thorns on roses. Usually thorns are very small.
Usually they are very sharp. I remember a while back, Sandy
had, she was abusing me and had me out in the flower garden working.
And when we got inside, my finger got hurtin' just a little bit,
and what it was, I'd picked up a thorn and hadn't even realized
it. You couldn't even hardly even see it without a magnifying
glass, and I thought, oh, I'll get that out later. Well, in
two or three days, it didn't get, the thorn didn't get any
bigger, but boy, the fester did. And by then, I was ready to get
rid of it. See, it was very small, you would have never saw it,
but I knew it was there. It irritated me. It's very painful
to the flesh. Whatever Paul's thorn was, it
irritated him. It was painful, it afflicted
him. When he went to bed, it was there.
When he got up, it was there. When he woke up in the middle
of the night, it's still there. Usually they're not fatal. We
think they are. Usually they're very annoying. But it says there is no temptation
taking you but that which is common to man. Doug, we all get
them. We live in a world of thorns.
We live in a body that's cursed. Our bodies are dying, getting
older. more feeble every day. As long as we live in this world,
we're going to have to deal with these thorns. Let me read, give you a couple
scriptures. You remember the children of Israel when they
came into Canaan? And God told him to drive out
all those tribes that was there. They was the Jebusites, the Canaanites,
the Hivites, all those tribes. He said in Numbers 33 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 you
let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes and thorns in your
sides. Do you know Jerusalem, the city
of peace? It says in Judges 1 verse 21,
the Jebusites, one of those tribes, dwelt with the children of Benjamin
in Jerusalem until the day that David drove them out. Benjamin and the Jebusites dwell
in the same town. Do you think those Jebusites
were thorns in the flesh to the Benjamites? Exactly they were. That can picture your flesh,
the old man and the new man, and it can picture just living
in this world. And you know, when David finally
takes over Jerusalem and sets up his throne and sets up Zion,
you know what them Jebusites said? You ain't coming in here,
David. You know, next verse you read,
and David took it. You know what your flesh says?
You're not taking this over. And you know what the king says?
I'm coming in. And he took it. You know what
salvation is? Your whole flesh resists him.
But grace is he comes and he takes over and he sets up rain. Anything less than that's not
salvation. Not salvation. Psalm 11, chapter 2, verse 1,
I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys. As the lily
amongst thorns, so is my love among the daughters. He told
about, in that great love book of Hosea, that harlot going after
her lovers, you know what he said to her? Therefore behold,
I will hedge up thy way with thorns and make a wall that she
shall not find her paths. You know what it says about our
Lord? They clothed him with purple
and plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head. Jesus
was crowned with thorns Our Lord is preeminent in all things,
especially in suffering, and he is preeminent in grace and
glory. We have a thorn in the flesh.
He was crowned with thorns. Why? To redeem his people as
their substitute. So he said, lest you be exalted
above measure. God has given you, if you're
his, God has given you a thorn in the flesh. Then he says, it's
a messenger of Satan to buffet me. You know what the word buffet
means? It means to take your fist and
strike a man in the face. Would you like for a man to walk
up and buffet you, strike you in the face? You know what it says about our
Lord? I've just told you and read to you that He was crowned
with thorns. Here's what He said. Here's what they did to our Lord. When He took our sin upon Him
to die in our place, and some began to spit on Him, walked
right up to Him, cleared their throat, and spit in His face, and to cover His face, and to
buffet him and say unto him, prophesy. And the servants did
strike him with the palms of their hands. He suffered for
his people. So when you are buffeted, he
knows exactly what that's like. That's grace. When you go through
something, you want to talk to somebody that's been through
it, don't you? Somebody that can relate to what you're feeling
and what you're going through. He does. He does. He says, for as much then in
Hebrews 2, 14, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same. Why? That through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not
on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of
Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high
priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliations for
the sins of his people. For in that he himself hath suffered,
hath what? Suffered being tempted, he is
able also to suffer them that are tempted. You read, it says that when he
was tempted for 40 days in the wilderness, it says the angels
came and ministered unto him. When he was in the garden, prayed
in such agony, the angels came and ministered unto him. I don't
understand that. He's 100% God and he's 100% man. Explain it. I can't. He's not
half God and half man. He's 100% both. It says when he was going through
Samaria to meet that woman, he said, I must needs go through
Samaria. And when he came to the well, he said he sat down
on the well. Why did he sit down? He was weary from his journey.
Do you ever get weary? He suffered. messenger Satan to buffet you. You remember this, that Satan,
he's God's devil. He can only go as far as God
allows him, just like he told Peter. He said, Peter, Satan
hath desired you that he may sift you just like wheat, and
I'm gonna let him. He said, have you considered
my servant Job? Know what he said? But he can only go so far. He
may afflict you mentally, in your mind. But you know, he said, why does
God do this? Why did God give Paul a thorn in the flesh? this
messenger of Satan to buffet him, to buffet him. I'll tell
you why. Here's the grace to drive him to the feet of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. That's it. It says in Psalms 107, He describes us like a ship out
on the water. And here comes this storm beating
against that ship. It casts to and fro, said it
staggers like a drunk man. And when he comes to his wits
end, then he cried unto the Lord. Then he cried unto the Lord. What did this do? It caused Paul
to pray. He prayed three times. He said, God, would you take
away this thorn? Would you take away this thing
that's given me so much pain, so much trouble? He prayed three
times. What does that make you think
of? It reminds me of our Lord when he was in the garden. He prayed three times, prayed
the same prayer three times. And what did he pray? If it be
possible, take away this cup from me. What was in that cup? Suffering, what was in that cup?
I believe it was your sin. Take this cup away from me. Take
it away. If there be any other way, take
it away. And what did he say? Not my will. Not my will, but
thine be done. How did God answer Paul? He didn't say, okay, Paul, I'll
take it away. That's what Paul wanted. That's what we'd like. But what did he say? I'm leaving
it right there. Years ago, I was unloading trucks
working for UPS. I went down like this right at
the bottom of a trailer, and when I did, I drove a splinter
almost all the way up to my cuticle. You talk about something hurting.
I had to go to the emergency room. They had to numb it, and
they took a file and scraped through that nail to pull that
out. Oh, it'll make you sweat bullets.
I mean, you think, just imagine that, how much that would hurt. And the doctor come in and say,
Mike, I'm going to have to leave it in there. You get the picture. Paul, I'm not taking it away. I gave it to you. I gave it to
you on purpose. And I'm going to leave it there.
But I want you to know something. My grace is sufficient. Isn't that what he told him?
My grace is sufficient. You know what the word sufficient
means? It means satisfactory. It means it's enough. As I thought
about those two words, you know, there was a couple of illustrations
come to my mind. I thought about Elijah when he
went to the widow's house. And she said, I've got a little
bit of flour in the barrel. and I've got a little bit of
oil in a cruise, and it was enough money. The barrel wasn't full,
but it was sufficient. Let me tell you this, whatever
you need, His grace is enough to meet your need. According
to your day, Whatever your day is, you may have a good day today
and a bad day tomorrow, whatever your day is, so shall his strength
be. My grace is sufficient for my
strength, his strength is made perfect in weakness, not your
strength. Say, I can't handle it. I know
you can't handle it. He knows you can't handle it. You say, well, why doesn't he
take it away? He'll give you grace that's sufficient. That is when he teaches you what
sufficient grace is. When Elijah was over by the brook,
how did God take care of him? He caused ravens, unclean ravens,
which eat dead animals, he caused them animals to bring Elijah
food. And he was there by the brook,
and he drank water by the brook, and the brook dried up. And God
said, you go up there to that widow's house, and I'm gonna
take care of you. Then the prophet that came after
Elijah was Elisha. Memory goes to the woman's house
and her husband died and left a big debt and she said, how
am I gonna pay the debt? He said, go get you a bunch of
empty vessels. And you bring them empty vessels
and they took them in the house. He said, you go in the house
with your son and you start taking the oil that you've got and start
pouring it in those empty vessels. You know how much oil they was?
to fill every empty vessel. You said, how much were they?
They was enough. You said, is there any more empty
vessels? There's no more. And it said, when it filled the
last vessel, the old stayed. And what that was, that was sufficient. He'll save every elect child
of God. has sufficient grace. Our trials make us conscious
of our weakness. When we are weak in ourselves,
then are we strong. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3,
5, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything
of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. Let me remind you that whatever
you face or will face, he'll send things in your life that
is just specifically designed, Doug, just for you. And it will
be sufficient grace. As I thought about this, I thought
about this song by John Newton. The same one that wrote Amazing
Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Also
wrote that great hymn, Tis a Point I Long to Know, often it brings
me anxious thought. Am I his or am I not? Do I know
him or do I not? He also wrote this song. I ask
the Lord that I might grow in faith and love and every grace. might more of His salvation know,
and seek more earnestly His face. T'was He who taught me thus to
pray, and He I trust has answered my prayer. But it has been in
such a way. How did He answer that prayer?
I wanted more grace, I wanted to know more of His salvation,
I wanted to seek His face more. Well, how did He answer the prayer?
It has been in such a way that almost drove me to despair. I hoped that in some favored
hour, at once He'd answer my request. And by His loved constraining
power, that He'd subdue my sins and give me rest. If we could
all have a request this morning, take away my bent toward sinning. He said, I hope that in some
favored hour, well someday I hope, maybe I'll find some rest. Not
in this world. That he would subdue my sins
and give me rest. Instead of this, he made me feel
the hidden evils of my heart. And let the angry powers of hell
assault my soul in every part. Yea, more with his own hand he
seemed, intent to aggravate my woe, crossed all my fair designs
I schemed, cast out my feelings and laid me low. Lord, why is
this? I trembling cried. Will thou
pursue thy worm in death? Tis is the way, the Lord replied. I answer prayer for grace and
faith. These inward trials I employ
from self and pride to set thee free and break thy schemes of
earthly joy. And here it is, that thou mayest
seek thine all in me. May God teach us to look to him
for all things. Because in him, in him alone
is all sufficient grace. Amen.