Brother, I just read there in
Psalm 135, Praise ye the Lord. Is that what you want to do? If you are
a child of God, you will. Job said, The Lord hath given. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
He said, The Lord has given and the Lord taketh away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. The Lord had to give something.
We're thankful for everything the Lord's given us. And we're
thankful for what He takes away from us on this earth. And you
know what we see through that? Through seeing Him give us things
on this earth. Temple things. Things don't really
mean nothing, does it? It's all going to burn. It's
all going to go away. And the things He takes away
from us in this earth. Do you know what we see if we're
His? He's given us Christ's righteousness. And He's taken away our sin.
Our guilt. When we're brought to there,
blessed be the name of the Lord. Boy, we'll praise Him then, won't
we? We're just saying that a shelter in a time of storm. He is. He's our shelter always, but
we see Him when it's in a time of storm. We see Him in a time
of storm. We can understand something,
but we don't really grasp it. until we experience it. I've
got a real heavy, thick coat at the house and for the last
14 months it's hung in my closet and I ain't needed it. And I'm
thankful I didn't need it. And I knew that jacket kept me
warm. It was about negative two the other day and windy. Ice
coming in sideways. And I put that jacket on and
that jacket kept me warm. I understood it warmed me and
then I experienced it warming me. I hope we can see that tonight.
What the Lord sends to us, what He gives us and what He takes
away from us in this world makes us look to Christ and makes us
experience His sufficient grace. So many times I've heard a preacher
or a pastor bring a message after a horrible trial and I wonder,
does the Lord just bless them more or am I paying attention? Probably a little bit of both.
Listen a little more intently. Oh, I wonder if I have something
special this time. I told you all before, a few
weeks ago, when we got out of Romans 11, got out of Ephesians
3, and started how we walk in this world, I prayed for a humble
spirit. That's the spirit we must have for these gifts that
the Lord gives us. to walk in a way that honors
Him in this world. And I said, Lord, make me humble.
And I thought it began then. It wasn't just a day or two later.
It was one after another. Some for my brethren, and a couple
different trials for me and my family. And I thought this was
it. The Lord's humbled me. Boy, I didn't know what's coming. He keeps bringing us down. all
the way down to Christ's feet. He's the only one we see. As
Paul told the church in Ephesus, he said, He exceedingly, exceeding
abundantly more than I thought or I asked. Graciously. And I saw Him at the end of it.
And I can tell you with confidence, not with an understanding, I
can tell you with experience, trials are gracious. That's the Lord being gracious
to His people when He sends them a trial. We don't think so, but
that's an act of grace towards His people, an act of love. And
there's so many believers right now in heavy, heavy trials. And our gracious, loving Father
sent them to us on purpose. On purpose. And it's for our
good. And we'll be thankful at the end. I promise. Let's turn
over to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Listen to Brother Luke's message.
He touched on Numbers 21 there where the children of Israel
were bitten by those serpents. And you know what they asked
Moses? They said, Moses, you pray to God that these serpents
be taken away from us. Was the serpents taken away from
them? The Lord sent a brazen serpent. Paul prays here. 2nd Corinthians
says He's prayed three times that this thorn in His flesh
would be taken away from Him. Lord, I have a thorn, I have
a serpent in this flesh, take it away. And the Lord didn't.
He didn't take those serpents around those children of Israel
out in the wilderness, and He didn't take it out of Paul. And
there's many times I've prayed for thorns in my flesh to be
taken away, and they haven't been. They haven't been. But
what was needed was given. Why did Paul have this thorn
in his flesh? He begins there in chapter 12,
in verse 2, he said, I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years
ago, he's speaking of himself, whether in the body I cannot
tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth. Such
a one caught up to the third heaven, and I knew such a man.
He knew him well. He didn't understand, he experienced. He knew well enough to tell these
brethren. whether in the body or out of
the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth, how that he was caught
up into paradise and heard unspeakable words which is not lawful." It's
not possible, that's what the word means, for a man to utter. Paul was called up to that third
heaven. I've dwelled on that a lot the last week and a half.
It's not lawful for us to speak of these things. It's not possible
for us to speak of these things. To be in the presence of Christ,
to be without sin, to see our Redeemer face to face, to worship
Him as He deserves to be worshipped, be with our brethren that are
just like us, made just like Christ, without sin. We can't
even enter into that. It's not lawful. It's not possible
for us to think on these things. Why? We're in this body of death.
We're in this sinful body. That's all we know. Our greatest
imagination on these things isn't even a drop in the ocean. It's
not possible for us to understand that. And Paul got to see it.
Paul was took up there. He saw this. And he had abundant
revelations given to him. So much understanding. So much
wisdom. So much knowledge of Christ. Almost unlike any man that ever
walked. He'd seen so much, had so much to tell, and an ability
to explain it to them. And the Lord gave him a thorn
in his flesh. He says in verse 6, 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 he heareth of me.
For those around him Those that heard Paul, those that looked
at Paul in his physical body, they heard him preach to them.
For their sakes, Paul was given this thorn. And he says in verse
7, And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance
of the revelations, through all these things I have experienced. Well, that would be something,
wouldn't it? To experience what we have to come after this world
is over. After we close our eyes in death.
What an experience. And for those around Paul and
for Paul himself, lest I should be exalted above measure. Through
the abundance of the revelation there was given to me a thorn
in the flesh, the measure of Satan to buffet me. Lest I should
be exalted above measure. Lest I think of this as something
I did. Lest I think it's something I
earned or I'm just so special that this great thing happened
to me. a messenger of Satan was in his
side to buffet him. For this thing I have assault
the Lord thrice that it might depart from me." Three times
Paul begged the Lord earnestly, earnestly, take this from me.
And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee. During a trial for a believer,
whether it's a temporal trial A temporary trial or a lifelong
trial. Whether it's a leaky roof or
you just have a nerve pain from birth that won't stop. You have
some type of hereditary disease that won't let go of you. When
we are brought low enough to look only to Christ, we're given
rest, we're given comfort, and we're given peace. And we know
that His grace is sufficient for us. It's sufficient. And that's during the trial.
That's while it's taking place, in the heart of it, in the heat
of it. He comes to us, and we're just crushed, weeping, no energy
left in you, and you see Him. And He says, My grace is sufficient
for thee. After that trial's over, once
there's some calluses on those scars, Our wounds have healed. Then we're taught the lesson
of that trial that He sent us. We're still looking to that same
Jesus, the same one whose grace was sufficient during the trial.
After the trial, we're still looking to Him. But we're matured
a little bit. We come through that trial. And
once it's not as painful, we're made to see that Christ's strength
His mercy, His grace, His love towards us gave us that trial
in the first place. And that's exactly what brought
us through it. His grace is sufficient. What's that mean? It's exactly
what we needed. It's sufficient. It's not lacking.
It's not missing something and we got to make up the difference.
He gave us enough to get the ball rolling and now we got to
keep it rolling. That's not what that word means.
It's sufficient. And it's not overly given. It's like you take
a young child and drop him off in a candy store. Eat what you
want. Well, they're going to come out
of the belly aching. That's not overly given. It's precise. It's exact. And it's wise, what
He gives us. His grace is sufficient. It's
appropriate. And I'm not talking to everybody
that's alive. This ain't people driving up
down the road. This ain't everybody walking
up down the street. I can't go around and comfort people and
say, Christ's grace is sufficient for you. It's for His people. That was clearly laid out to
you on last Sunday. They're in Ephesians 1, just
as plain as the nose on my face. God the Father purposed to save
a people. The Son purchased those people
with His blood. He lived for them. He died for
them and He rose again for them. And the Holy Spirit comes to
us, gives us life, gives us a new heart, gives us ears to make
us see Christ. We see our sin that we were convicted
of sin. We see His righteousness and
we know we're convicted, convinced, assured that all judgments took
place. It's all been satisfied. He satisfied
it all, every jot and tittle. Anything that's required of a
sinner to be saved and to be in the presence of God, Christ
did it for His people. He abounds towards us. And you
know who that's to? That's to you, Bob. To me. He did that for me. for His people. Individually
the Spirit comes to us. You who believe. Why do we need
these trials in our lives? Couldn't the Lord just come in
and just made everything hunky-dory? Just one day come to us and that's
it. Life's just peachy, smooth sailing. Health and wealth. He could have,
couldn't He? He could have done that, but
it wasn't wise to. He gives us these trials, sends
us these pains, these afflictions, these tribulations to show us,
to prove to us that His grace is sufficient. You think He knows
His grace is sufficient? It's His grace. Of course He
does. We are made to know that. There in Deuteronomy 8, it says,
to prove to thee, to prove to thee, What's proven to me? My faith? His faith's proven to me. My
strength? His strength's proven to me.
His grace is proven to me. And all these things were sent
by God. It said there in Deuteronomy 8.15, He brought Israel through
the serpents that were there and the scorpions. Who sent the
serpents? He did. The Lord sent the serpents,
didn't He? And He said, I brought you through
those. Well, that was a trial He sent so He could bring them
through. We see our weakness. We see our
fallen nature. And we see that second Adam,
Christ our King, looking to Him alone. There in the garden, it
wasn't just that Adam fell. Adam fell. Sin was imputed to
me. I was born of Him. It was imparted
to me and I acted on it. The second breath touched these
lungs. I lied from the womb to come
into this world. But it wasn't just that Adam
fell, was it? That's bad enough. I fell in the garden. I mean,
this becomes personal. Sometimes the Lord sends trials
to a congregation, to all believers throughout a nation. But more
often than not, they come to us individually, don't they?
He comes to where we live, and He meets us. He makes us see
our weakness, our fallen nature. I've said this before in foolishness,
but the Lord doesn't give you more than you can handle. Boy,
that is not the truth. That's a bold-faced lie. That
ain't nothing He can give me I can handle. We can't handle anything apart
from His sufficient grace. Without the grace of Christ working
in us, we can't even breathe our next breath, much less handle
that war that's going on inside of me, that battle between those
two natures. It's raging, whether I'm sitting
by myself on a beach somewhere not talking to nobody, or I'm
up here talking to you, that warfare going on, that trial
that's forever living within me. His grace is sufficient for
that. So turn over there to Romans
chapter 5. You that have an interest in
these things, you that the Lord has done a heart work in, we
rejoice in the Lord of our salvation. How thankful we are. He saved
us. He purchased us. He preserves
us. That's something to be thankful
of. That's something to rejoice in. Be happy with. That holy
God we sinned against, we're made one with. Atonement was
made. Oh, how to be thankful. But knowing
this, knowing this knowledge of salvation is in Christ alone,
looking to Him, seeing what He's done for us, how fast I get comfortable. How fast I get lukewarm. I'm
complacent. What a shame. What a sin against
God for me to be such a way. Why would I do that? That's my
nature isn't it? Brother Clay sent me a thing
a couple weeks ago and then I heard him use this illustration and
I thought only a child of God could look at something silly
and see how corrupt they are in it. But he had a video of
somebody had a beaver inside of a home. And it was Christmas
time and they were grabbing presents and wrapping paper and taking
it to the tub. They were trying to build a dam in the bathtub. Why would it do that? That's
its nature. What's my nature in this flesh, in this body standing
right here, this dirt made of atom? To run from God. To hide from Him. We're brought
once more to see our weakness, our sinful flesh, and then to
have our pure minds stirred up. We keep running to that bathtub
like a beaver, don't we? And then the Lord comes to us
in a trial and He stirs up our pure minds and makes us trust
Christ alone once again, to go back to that first love we had. That matures us in faith. That
grows us in experience and understanding. It says in Romans 5 verse 1,
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by
faith into his grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. He saved his people. Boy, we
rejoice. Verse 3, And not only so, but
we glory in tribulation also. In those hardships, in that pain,
that suffering. Not the tribulation itself, not
the trial itself, but in Christ who sent the trial. The one who
sent the tribulation to us. Knowing that tribulation worketh
patience. All these trials will be brought
again, wait on the Lord. And patience, experience. We've
waited on Him last time. We're going to have to wait on
Him this time. And guess what's going to happen
the next trial that the Lord sends our way? We're going to
have to wait on the Lord, ain't we? We start experiencing that. That gives us a little bit of
relief when it first starts coming, doesn't it? The trial first shows
up to us. And patience, experience, and
experience hope. Hope. See, those trials just
exposes our weakness. Shows us what we are. What we're
able to do, which is nothing. And we're made to rest all of
our hope in our Savior that saved us. Rest in Him who laid down
His life for us. Who suffered our greatest trial
already for us. The wrath of God. What we earned. What we deserved. In our room
instead. He suffered that. I'm required
to die. Do you know that? In Psalm 116
it says, precious is the death of his saints. That's not plural. It's not precious is each deaths
of all his saints. There's one death. One death
that's pleasing to the Lord. It's precious to the Father.
That's for me, that's for you, for each one of his people, and
that's the death of his son. That propitiation, that satisfactory
blood sacrifice. If we consider that the Lord
saved us from eternal damnation, the eternal wrath of God that
we've earned, do you think He'll keep us through a trial that
He sent? When we're given that incorruptible
seed that trusts our Redeemer, we will not be made ashamed in
Him. When we're given that hope, We
have that patience and experience and then the hope to look only
to Christ. We're not gonna be ashamed. He won't be found a failure.
Look here in verse five. And hope maketh not ashamed because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us. For when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. We need
trials to ever remind us that the love of God is what saved
us. The love of God convicted us of the sin that we are. The
love of God convicted us that Christ is the only righteousness
He will accept. And the love of God just warmed
our souls in the knowledge that all that judgment's been fulfilled
in Him. He's completed everything. Look here in 2 Corinthians 13. Christ's work in and for His
people. And His faith given to us is
our eternal life. And it will be proven to you
and I who are called by Him, to His children. He's going to
prove it to us. 2 Corinthians 13, verse 4. For though He was
crucified through weakness, how was He weak? He was made a man
just like me. He was made a human, wasn't He?
born of a woman, and he bore the full wrath of God as that
man. Yet he liveth by the power of
God, for we also are weak in him for Christ's glory and for
our good, for our sakes. We're alive in him, but we're
weak in this flesh so that we can see his power working in
us. But we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.
Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith. Prove your own
selves. Boy, it'd be hard to get down
to brass tacks. You want somebody to pray? Put
them in a life or death situation. Bring them down to their knees.
You want them to examine their faith? Do the same thing. Dangle
them over the edge of a cliff. Examine yourselves. How's your
faith? When it comes down to it, I don't
have any. I don't have any. Where's your strength? I don't
have any. There's nothing in me. My faith's not of me. It's the faith of Christ in me.
Any strength I have, any power I have to take my next breath
is not of me. It's of Christ living in me and working in me.
It says there, know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ
is in you, except ye be reprobates? Prove it. He has to be in me. If I have life, it has to be
in Him. Every time I examine myself, I just see my lack of
strength, and I see my need of His sufficient grace. And we
need to see that. We need to have that experience.
We need to start getting little use to it, because trials are
going to come. He said there in John 16, 33, these things
have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace in
the world, ye shall have tribulation. Not you probably will, not you
might have some, you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. How can I be of good cheer over
that? Hard times are coming. It's not about a Great Depression.
It's going to be in here. It's coming. Why would I be of
good cheer? I have overcome the world. Our Redeemer's overcome
the trial. He's overcome the tribulation,
overcome the world for His people. He overcame that law by fulfilling
it. He overcame sin by being made sin. He overcame death by
raising again from that grave. He's overcome the world because
he sits at the right hand of his Father, ruling and reigning
all things. James said, count it all joy
when a trial comes, because you're going to be reminded by being
brought through that trial that the trial of this world has been
overcome. We see this one little trial,
and we say, well, everything else has been overcome. He overcome
this trial, he overcome the world. The law, sin, death, the grave
has all been overcome by Christ. And the trial is what brings
us in remembrance of that. Brings us to remember that. What
a blessing. That's a gift, isn't it? We have all this treasure, this
knowledge of His excellency in earthen vessels. In this old
clay pot right here. He gave it to us. Why would He
put it in this? In this broke down vessel, this
clay pot, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. That sounds like He's proven
it to us, doesn't it? He's proven to us. We're not able, He is.
We're troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We're perplexed,
but not despaired. Persecuted, but not forsaken.
We're cast down, but we're not destroyed. And we're always bearing
about in the body, in this body right here, the dying of the
Lord Jesus. I have a rough day. I mean, something
hard comes to me. And I think everybody's picking
on me. How'd they pick on my Lord? Boy,
it's nothing, is it? And I think of this body that
aches, pains I have that won't go away. How much did he hurt
and suffer in his body? And if it's real bad, if it's
a real bad pain, a real bad emotional distress, I think he bore the
wrath of God for me. We're brought back to remember
that first love, and we're renewed day by day. Day by day. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4,
while we look not at things which are unseen, which are seen. When
are we renewed day by day? While we look not at things which
are seen. We're not renewed when we're
looking around us or when we're looking at this world. We're
renewed when we look at things which are unseen. When we look
in. What a gift of hope. Each of
these things allow us to see in the flesh that our eternal
hope is secure. When today is secured, when He's
secured today, I'm reminded again, our eternal hope is secure in
Him. That's what Paul had this thorn
in the flesh to remind him of. Christ is all. Christ is our
security. He's our hope. Those three Hebrew
children, that's what they're reminded of. They got thrown
in that fire, Nebuchadnezzar cast them in there. They understood
what was to come. They had an understanding of
it, but they experienced it through that trial. You think they trusted
Christ a little more when they came out of them flames? They
didn't smell like smoke? They trusted Him before. They
trusted Him a little more then, didn't they? Noah believed in
the Lord. He trusted Him. Believed in His
grace, His sustaining power. But whenever those rains started
coming, When he was sealed in that ark and that ark started
floating up, he experienced it more. Job knew those things. I'll take a side note. People
argue over when Job was saved. In Job 1 it said he was a man
that feared God and eschewed evil. That's good enough for
me. I don't know when Job was saved. I know God said he feared
God and eschewed evil. But he said the Lord's given
and the Lord's taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
He feared God before, but now he's experienced it. A little
bit closer to Him. In our lives, many times we're
given the sufficient grace to bear through a trial whenever
we want to go home. I might be speaking for myself
only. There's been some trials I've sent. I said, Lord, take
me now. I have dying grace. I'm ready to go home now. Take me out of this world. And
you know what he did? He gave me the sufficient grace
to live, to keep on breathing. He gave that to us. And I imagine,
I imagine, when that day comes and it's time to go home, and
I think, Lord, let me stay here a little longer. I've got children and hopefully
grandbabies and everything else to look after. Lord, keep me
here a little bit longer. He'll give the sufficient grace
to die. He'll give dying grace, same
as He gives living grace, every day. Paul said, I'm crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, this will
not now, and the same one is to come, I live by the faith
of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. It's
not my faith that does it. It's the faith of Him, His faith,
His strength, and His grace that gets us through. He performed everything for us.
He trusted the Father fully. He obeyed the law perfectly.
He was the fruit of the Spirit. Everything that we hope and desire
to walk in this world and live towards our brethren, towards
all mankind, to have dwelling in us, He was in perfection fully. And he also suffered. He endured
pain. He endured affliction. And he
said, remember the word what I said unto you, the servant
is not greater than his Lord. If they persecuted me, they will
persecute you. That's physical trials, emotional
trials, any trial we can go through. That's what this world has to
offer for us. Nothing but sadness and pain
and regret and anxiety. And we're made to know that.
It's proven to us. Through these trials, we trust
the Lord more, we honor Him more, and we desire to be more obedient.
More obedient in thanksgiving. More obedient in praise. More
obedient in our walk in this world. I want to be kinder. I want to love more. I want to
be more merciful to my brethren. And we're taught through those,
He's faithful. and His grace is sufficient.
Now back in our text here in 2 Corinthians 12, it says in verse 7, lest I should
be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelation,
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 have assault 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 and reproaches and necessities and persecutions
and distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, Then, I'm
strong. When I'm made weak, when I'm
made to look to Him, that's when you're really strong. That's
what Paul prayed for those in Ephesians and Ephesus. He said,
I pray that the Lord strengthen your inner man. I told y'all
about A.D. Mews praying. That man said,
pray for, the Lord gives me wisdom. He said, Lord be hard on this
young man. He said, what are you doing? He said, that's how
you get it. I want to know that the Lord's grace is sufficient."
Well, he's going to prove that to us. It's going to be a bumpy
road. But he's with us the whole way. He's sent to trial, and
we'll be looking to Him and glorifying Him at the end of it. John Bunyan
wrote this about his 12 years in prison. He said, I never had
in all my life so great an insight into the Word of God as now,
insomuch that I have often said were it lawful. Were it lawful,
I could pray for greater trouble for the greater comfort's sake.
As we age in this life, in what 40 short years I've been on this
earth, I've learned when a trial comes, I'll see Christ at the
end of it. And then I forget. And I say,
woe is me, and I cry and I hurt. I look all around me, and then
I'm brought to look to Him. He was faithful. His grace was
sufficient. When we see Christ, we're made
to look to Him and see His grace is sufficient for all these temporal
things that we go through on this earth. Then we're reminded
once again that especially for our eternal salvation, that eternal
trial we have, He'll bring us through that. His grace is sufficient. And what comfort and what peace
is experienced when we know that, when we look to Him. Amen. That's pretty good.