me to 2nd Corinthians chapter
2. 2nd Corinthians chapter 2. Got several names that we need
to pray for, several people. Daryl, Joyce, Larry Chris, Robin
who's helping him. So let's bow our hearts together
and pray. Amen. Now, Here in 2 Corinthians
2, I want to start reading in verse 14 down to verse 5 of chapter
3. Now thanks be unto God, which
always causes us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the
savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto
God a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved, and in
them that perish. To the one we are the savour
of death unto death. and to the other the savor of
life unto life. And who is sufficient for these
things? For we are not as many which
corrupt or deal deceitfully with the word of God, but as their
sincerity. But as of God, in the sight of
God, speak we in Christ or of Christ. Do we begin again to
commend ourselves, or need we, as some others, epistles of condemnation
to you, or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle,
written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Forasmuch
as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ,
ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit
of the living God, not in tables of stone, like the law was, but
in fleshly tables of the heart. And such trust have we through
Christ to God, not that we are sufficient to think anything
of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. Back up here in chapter
2, And Paul talked about all the wonderful things that we
had in Christ. Yeah, we know. I'm sorry I didn't
tell you sooner. Sometimes I get ahead of myself
and everybody else. Better to be ahead than behind.
Most of the time, that's what I am. But it says there, you're
talking about what a saver we are. There's people that are
saved. We're the saver of life unto life to them. To them that
are perishing, we are the saver of death, the smell of death
to them, to them that are dead. And then he said in the last
part of verse 16 here of chapter 2, And who is sufficient for
these things? Who is sufficient for these things? And that's what I want to talk
about. Who is sufficient? Who is sufficient for these things? The things of the gospel, the
things of Christ, the things of the truth, the things of the
Word of God that we don't use it deceitfully. We don't corrupt
it. We don't change it. We take it
as it is. But let me preface my message
this evening by saying this, that being a Christian, being
a believer, not just in profession, but to actually be a Christian,
actually be a believer, is not an easy task. Paul says that
we enter into, as God sees from His work, we cease from ours
and enter into His rest. But the next verse says this,
therefore we labor to enter into that rest. Now he says, we enter
into a rest, cease from our works, and then we labor to enter into
that rest. There's nothing wrong with the
rest. You know where the problem's at? It's with us. With us. That's why we have to labor at
it. That's why we have to labor at it. But being a Christian,
it's something that once you make your profession, and God
does something for you. You know, after we believers,
three or four months, we all of a sudden find out that everything's
not gonna be roses. the rest of our way. And it's
not an easy task to be a believer and do it day in and day out
with things that goes on. Let me give you the first reason
why. We have the flesh to contend with. We have this old flesh,
this old fallen nature. And Paul said it like this, I
know that is in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. And Paul talked here about having
afflictions, having sorrows, and having suffering. Beloved
that's what God's called us to most of the time of our time
on this earth is sorrows Paul said he had sorrow upon sorrow
and he calls us to sorrows. He calls us to tribulations tribulations
tribulations worketh periods tribulations just means trials
that's what it means and he calls us to suffer and as we suffer
in this world we fill up the body of Christ and And so we
have this flesh to contend with. That's why it's not so easy.
And then we have the world to contend with. The world out here.
And all the things that come from the world. All the news. all the social things, all the
social, what do they call it now, social media, they got all
the social media, we got television, we got magazines and newspapers,
and we have those. This world breaks in on us whether
we break in on it or not, it breaks in on us. and we have
the world to contend with and our Lord Jesus Christ says in
the world you're going to have tribulation you're going to have
it you're going to have it but be a good cheer i've overcome
the world because i have you will too and then not only have
the world to contend with but we have an inclination towards
the world our feet are still on this earth and we still live
in this world our feet still on the earth and we bear the
image of that first man Adam who is earthy. And I'm telling
you something, now you may not feel this way, and you may not
believe this about yourself, but here I am after all these
years, my old fallen nature, my Adamic nature, the Donny Bell
that was born, years and years and years ago, is got no better
in the flesh than he ever was. I'm no better than I ever was.
I hope that that new man is being renewed every day. But this outward
man, I tell you what, he's as bad as he ever was. And he's
a sorry fella to have to contend with. He's a sorry, sorry man
to deal with. He's sorry for me to deal with.
He's sorry for anybody Shirley to deal with. He's sorry for
you all have to deal with. He's a sorry, sorry man. And
then here's another thing that causes not being easy to be a
believer. We have Satan, not only we have
the flesh, not only we have the world, but we have Satan to contend
with. Look what Paul said here in verse
11 of chapter 2. He said, less Satan should get
an advantage of us for we're not ignorant of his devices.
You know, Satan goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom
he may devour. And he said, when we forgive
somebody, when something's going on, we must forgive them, lest
Satan get an advantage over us. And he accuses us and holds and
condemns us and finds fault with us. And I tell you what, I do
know this, that we're no match for him. We are no match for
him. You know, look over here in chapter
11 of 2 Corinthians. Look over here in chapter 11.
He overthrew our first parents when they were still unfallen.
He deceived them. And he's had 6,000 years of experience
dealing with people like us. He's not interested in them people
out in the world. He's interested only in believers
and only in fighting truth. Every place you find him in the
scriptures, he is dealing with God and those who believe God. It's always you find him in the
spiritual realm. And look what he says here in
2 Corinthians 11, 1. Would to God you would bear with
me a little in my folly and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous
over you with godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. So your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ, the singularity
that's in Christ. So I tell you, we're no match
for him. We're no match for him. So as I've dealt with these three
things here and mentioned them, How foolish it is for anyone
to think that they can be a Christian, be a believer, by their own strength,
by their own will, by their own ability. People say, oh, when
I make a change, you can mark it down, I'm going to live it.
If I decide to be a Christian, you better mark it down, I'm
going to be a good one. I'm not going to be a hypocrite
like the rest of them up there. Well, I tell you what, all they
got to do is just join us. I mean, it wouldn't make a bit
of difference, would it? But all that means is I've got three
or four things I want to deal with talking about who is sufficient
for these things. Who is sufficient? Who is sufficient
to tell of God's blessed glory? Who's sufficient to tell the
glory of God? Who's sufficient for that? Moses
couldn't describe it. Moses couldn't tell it out. When
he asked God to show me his glory, you know what God said? You can't
see it all, Moses. You ain't able, you don't have
the ability to see it. He said, I'll tell you what you
do. He said, I'm going to have to hide you over here in this rock.
And you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to cause my back
parts to go in front of you. You can't see me as I really
am. Because if you see me as I am,
you couldn't bear it, Moses. And so Moses couldn't tell out
the glory of God. He had to be hid from it. And
when God came into Egypt, and Moses said, when he was said,
now you told me to go down and tell Pharaoh to let my people
go. He said, who am I going to tell them that sent me? He said,
you just tell them that I am, that I am sent you. God himself
said, you just tell them I am, that I am. And, O beloved Abraham,
when God spoke to him, showed him a little of His glory, he
fell on his face. And Paul, when he was on the
Damascus road, and the glory of God shone round about him,
it blinded him. So I ask you, who is sufficient
to tell out the glory of God? O listen, what is it to tell
the glory of His power? God's power, the power to create,
that God just speaks a word, just speaks a word, and things
happen. Speaks a word, and light is.
Speaks a word, and life becomes life. Speaks a word, and the
heavens are there. Speaks a word, and the stars
are there. Just speaks who can tell of the glory of His power.
not only to create, but to govern. Who can tell of God's power in
governing this world? The ordinary affairs of every
man on this earth. If he just think about him dealing
with our affairs, I can't govern my own affairs. So God takes
over my affairs, takes over my life. And He governs things for
me and keeps me from things and guides me into things that I
wouldn't do, except He didn't govern me. didn't govern me.
So he governs this world. Jeremiah said it like this, that
he raises up kings and sets down kings. Raises up nations and
he sets down nations. All you got to do is look in
history. Look at the Greek Empire. Down there now they're bankrupt.
Look at the Roman Empire. They're almost bankrupt. Look
at Babylon. It don't even exist. And one
of these days, America, if God lets the world stand long enough,
they'll say, well, that was just, that was just, that was just
United States of America. Oh, the greatest hope of mankind. Where'd he go? Where'd he go?
What happened? And then who can tell of his power, the glory
of his power to save sinners like a sinner. Moby read it Sunday
night. He sat there and said, would
you see the glory of God? Martha, Mary, would you see the
glory of God? And he just spoke a man's name
and told him to live, and he lived. Who can tell of the glory
of His power to create and to govern and to save? And this
is what's so wondrous to me, that you can't tell out the glory
that He not only saved us, but He is always saving us. You know
why we must always be saved? Because of who we are and our
weaknesses and our inability. We have to always be saved. And
all who can tell of the glory of His righteousness, who can
tell of the glory of His justice, that God justly laid our sins
on His own blessed Son, and charged our sins to His account, and
then judged Him for those sins. so that our sins would be punished
justly, and then He turns around and saves us, and He does it
in such a just way that He gets all the glory, Christ got all
the punishment, and we get all the grace. Who can tell of the
glory of His justice? Who can tell of the glory of
His wisdom? The wisdom that went in to the
salvation of His people. The wisdom that went in to saving
them. The wisdom that went in to choosing
them. The wisdom of Him creating His Word. The wisdom of Him keeping
us day in and day out. The wisdom of whom He chooses
to save and whom He chooses to pass by. Oh, and who can tell
the glory of His mercy, the glory of His grace? And how about the
glory of his love? How glorious is God's love? He
said, you know what? I've loved you. I've loved you. Well, how long, Lord? With an
everlasting love and with chords, chords, chords of loving kindness,
I read you out and put them chords on your heart. Put them on your
soul. And I drew you, and I drew you,
and I drew you, and you're mine. Oh, to tell out the glory of
God. To tell out the glory of God.
Who's sufficient for it? Let me give you another thing.
Who's sufficient to tell the glory of God? Who's sufficient
to tell how fallen, how lost, how sinful man is? Who can describe man? as he really
is. Who's sufficient to describe
how sinful a man is? How fallen a man is? How sinful
he is? How can he do that? Look over
here at 2 Corinthians 4, 6. You know, God made man upright,
but you know what he did? He sought out many inventions.
You know the first thing he invented? The first thing he invented,
anybody want to know guess what it is? The first thing he invented
After he fell, he invented his own covering to cover up his
nakedness before God. That's the first invention man
came up with. A fig leaf. A fig leaf. And no matter whatever
how a man tries to cover his sin from then on, that's all
it amounts to. He'll cover it up with free will. He'll cover
it up with works. He'll cover it up with law. He'll
cover it up with doing the best I can. He'll cover it up with,
oh, I've got the best intentions. Or he'll cover it up with God's
too merciful to send anybody to hell. He may cover it up that
God loves me. I mean, I know I'm not perfect,
but he loves me. And I know I'm not perfect, but
I'm not as sinful as some people say I am. They may cover it up.
But look what he said here in 2 Corinthians 4, 6, for God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. When was, you
know, in Genesis 1, it says darkness was upon the face of the deep.
You know what God said? Let there be light. Darkness was in our hearts. Darkness
was in our minds. Darkness, and we lived it, we
loved darkness. The light shined in darkness
and the darkness comprehended it not. But He shined and He
took that light and He commanded to shine. Where did He shine
it at this time? In our hearts. What for? To give us the knowledge of who? Jesus Christ and His glory. Where at? In His blessed person.
Oh my. Oh man made himself, God made
men upright. And I tell you, here's the thing
that's the matter with him. He didn't just get crippled and
he needs a crutch. He isn't just sick, He's dead
in trespasses and sins. He's not to be pitied. I look
at my grandchildren, you all look at yours, and you think
about your children, your grandchildren, and you think they're pitiful.
And they may be pitiful in a lot of ways, but I tell you one thing,
God ain't gonna pity them, He's gonna blame them. And they're
to be blamed. Because they know of the gospel. They know of a place where it's
preached. And they will not come and listen to it. And oh, God
will send the truth. And you know what man will do?
He'll receive a lie. He'll turn the truth into a lie.
I'm going to show you something in Isaiah 44. Look in Isaiah
44 with me. Isaiah 44. Look what he says over here. 44 and verse
20. Oh, God will send the truth and
man will receive a lie. And you know what total depravity
means? That's the first T in TULIP.
And total depravity doesn't mean a man is as bad as he can be.
It means he's as bad off in the sight of God as he can be. There's
lots of folks that we know that they go to work every day. They
love their families. They take care of their families.
They don't use foul language that, you know, we see all these
people that as the world calls them, they're good. And then
there's people that they go as far down as a human being can
possibly go. Parents kill their own children. Children shoot their own parents.
Get it down as bad as you can go. But here's the thing. Every
man outside of Christ is as bad off in the sight of God as he
can be. That's what deprive it to me.
And look what he said here in Isaiah 44, 20. Here's what a man does. He feeds
on ashes. Why in the world would anybody
want to eat ashes? He's got good food to eat. Bread from heaven. Water from heaven. And he eats
ashes. A deceived heart turned him aside.
That's why he's eating ashes. That he cannot deceive his, deliver
his soul nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand? He's
so deceived that he don't know he got that lie in his right
hand. And he eats ashes. Instead of
trusting Christ and eating Christ. And oh beloved, how can, how
in the world did man, oh how, who can tell out, who's sufficient
to tell how awful a man is? How did man get in such an awful
condition? Well, there's two things that
the old timers called original sin and actual sin. And original
sin is what we inherited from our father red. Adam, by one
man, sin entered into the world. Death passed upon all men, and
that all have sinned." Where did we sin at in Adam? That's
original sin. We was born with that, and then,
beloved, and this original sin starts there. And you know when
they ate the fruit, it was sinful because God's the one that forbid
it. It showed that man was unwilling to subject his will unconditionally
to the will of God. And so, and then you have not
only original sin, but because we have that original sin, shapen
in iniquity and conceived in sin, then we will commit actual
sins. We have sins that we commit.
We, you know what, when he said in Mark 7, 21, For out of the
heart, you know what the first thing he says proceeds out of
the heart? The first thing is evil thoughts. Evil thoughts
about who? God? Christ? Scriptures? Yourselves? The world? I mean,
listen. That's evil thoughts. A man can't
think of a good thought outside of Christ. It's impossible for
him to. And this sinful rebellious that
we had with this original sin, it affected and then infected
our intellect. It infected our will. It affected
our affections. The intellect, how it was affected,
you know what it did to our intellect when we fell in our original
sin? It affected us with pride and
unbelief. Oh, listen. If God don't keep
the flesh beat down, we're the proudest people on the face of
the earth. It's natural for us to be proud. Oh, I'm proud of
that. I'm so proud of what I did. I'm so proud of what I accomplished.
And then it affected our unbelief. How could we not believe God?
And the will, it affected and infected our will. What does
the scripture say? We desire to be like God. Go be our own God, be our own
savior. And then our affections. Oh my,
this is an awful thing about the human race. Who's sufficient
to tell these things? But who, our affections, our
heart, our loves and that. We have an unholy satisfaction
in eating forbidden fruit. The scriptures tells us that
stolen waters are what? Sweet. Stolen waters are sweet. Oh my. And then we have our actual
sins. There's not a soul in this building
that has any children or any grandchildren or anybody that
you know that you didn't have to teach them to sin. We was
up there, we was staying with some folks at College Grove.
They got a little boy and a little girl. You didn't have to teach
either one of them how to say no. They automatically, that's
one of the first words they learned, say no. Sit down and eat, no. Go to bed, no. Change clothes,
no. That's the first thing they learned.
You never teach them to lie. But who did that? It wasn't me.
Well, who did it then? I don't see anybody restaurant.
I don't know who. It wasn't me. That's the way we are. Children
are like that. That's just the way we are. You
don't have to teach a man how to hate. You don't have to teach
him how to be proud. You don't have to teach him to
lie. You don't have to teach him self-righteousness. You don't
have to teach him unbelief. You don't have to teach him malice.
Those are the things we want to be saved from. That's, every
one of us can identify with everyone. So who's sufficient to tell these
things? Oh my, my, my, my. And oh, let me give you another
one. Who's sufficient not only to tell the glory of God, tell
how fallen, how sinful man is, but who's sufficient to tell
of the redemption of sinners by the Lord Jesus Christ. Who's
sufficient to tell about the good shepherd giving his life
for his sheep? Huh? Oh my, laying down his life
for his sheep. Who's sufficient to tell of the
redemption of sinners? And here's the first thing we
have to start with. Who it is that does the redeeming?
Who the redeemer is? Who's sufficient to tell out
Christ and the price he paid? The glory of his blessed person?
the preciousness of his blood, the satisfaction he gave to God,
oh my, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sin. being justified freely by His
blood through the Redemption. The payment price in the Redemption
means paying a debt, paying something that's owed, and Christ paid
our debt. And He's the Son of God. He was God manifest in the flesh. He was holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. You follow him around everywhere
he went and all you seen was holiness and holiness and holiness
and perfection sinlessness kindness love and compassion and grace
and mercy and pity That's who our Redeemer is and then the
price he paid. Oh the price he paid You start
thinking about yourself. Just think of yourself. Don't
think anybody else. How much did it cost Christ to
redeem you, pay for you, and put away your sin, and pay the
price to bring you to God? He entered in Watts into the
holy place with what? His own blood. Entered into the
holy place with his own blood. And when he came back out, God
accepted that blood. He said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. And the blood before the Lord,
and He entered into that holy place once with His own blood. And when He came back out, He
had eternal redemption for us. His blood was so powerful, so
precious, so vicarious, so powerful, such of a worth that God would
take His blood for a multitude that no man could number and
for a multitude of sins of every sinner whom Christ died for from
Adam to the last soul on this earth. Now that's redemption.
That's redemption. Oh my. You know, Gomer. Everybody knows the story of
Gomer. God told Gomer, said, you go take your wife. Told Hosea,
said, you go take your wife. And this wife's name was Gomer.
Well, Gomer decided she didn't want to live with Hosea. So she
went out and she started taking up with different men. But Hosea'd
get up, you know, and he'd take and set some corn by the door.
He'd set some oil by the door. He said some money, he took care
of her, even though she was with other men, with other lovers.
He'd take everything that she needed back to the door and set
it outside. Well, she got old. She got old and used up, and
she went on the market. She went on the auction block.
What do I get for this woman? What do I get for her? And you
know the only one that bid on her, the only one that wanted
her, the only one that would pay the price was Hosea, a buyer. And you know what he did? He
took that back home with him. And that's what Christ did. We
was just a bunch of gomers. Christ took care of us all the
days of our lives, and then we was on that auction. they're
used up. I know it. They're sorry. I know
it. They're useless. I know it. They went after so
many lovers. I know it. But I'll take them
home with me. Oh my. All right. Let me hurry up and
tell you this. Who's sufficient to tell the redemption of sinners?
Who's sufficient? To tell of a regeneration of
a sinner. To tell how a sinner is born again. Billy Graham wrote
a book on how to be born again. You know our Lord Jesus didn't
even tell us how to be born again. He said it just had to happen.
He said, except ye be born again, you can't see the kingdom of
God. Except you be born of water and the spirit, you can't enter
into the kingdom. And old Nicodemus and he's like
everywhere, all the rest of us. Well, how in the world is this
gonna happen? What do I have to do to be born
again? Do I need to go to an altar? Do I need to mix my faith
with the blood of Christ? Do I need to make a decision?
Do I need to make a move? Do I need to cooperate with God?
No, our Lord Jesus Christ said, except a man be born from above. Born of above. Born by the Spirit. And the spirit, he said, the
spirit's like the wind, it blows where it wants to. And beloved,
and what a mystery, being born again, not of corruptible seed,
but incorruptible, by the word of God. What a mystery the new
birth is. What a mystery. And yet, it's
a fact. You know, when God regenerates
a man, puts life in him, here's the thing. Here's the thing.
A man won't believe until he's given life. A man won't call
on God until he's given life. A man can't believe until God
gives him life. A baby's living in a mother's
womb. She's living off the mother. And when that baby comes out,
the first thing it does is cry. And that's what we do when God
gives us life. And it's a mystery. What a mysterious
thing. We don't know how he does it.
We don't know when the wind blows. It may blow on this side of the
building and not a bit on that side. It may blow on one person
and not another person feel its presence. And when it blows,
it blows that seed, takes that seed of God and puts it in a
man's heart. And that seed that comes in a
man's heart, it's there. The seed is sown on good ground. And what happens when that life
comes into a soul? The first thing it does, it starts
looking to the one who gave it the life. That's the first thing
he does. It's that baby, the first thing
he does, he looks to mama. Mama takes and looks at it and
she's just enthralled with it. Oh, this is the greatest thing.
Oh, this is unbelievable. Well, that's what happens to
us when God gives us that life and we look to Christ. We just
stand in awe and wonder, how come I didn't believe before?
I believe now. How come I'd never seen this
before? I see it now. Why didn't I come to Christ before?
I'm coming now. Why didn't I ever hear this before?
I hear it now. That's because life is given.
Life is given. And if any man be in Christ,
what does he say? He's a new creature, new creation. That means God brings into a
new man. He gives him new motives. He
gives him new life. He gives him new love. It's Christ
in you. That's the hope of glory. And
the life we now live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved us and gave himself for us. And then not
only that, in this mystery of who's sufficient to tell of this
regeneration, this new birth, when God saves a man and he regenerates
a man and he starts seeking God and coming and walking in the
gospel, he walks not only to give a new life, but he walks
in a new life. He walks in newness of life.
What new life does he walk in? He didn't know God before, now
he does. He walks before God, not worrying about what he, he
has now the ability to know God. He has the ability to look to
God. He has the ability to trust God.
He has the ability to talk to God, to love God. And he, the
sin that he was delighted in, now he said, oh, God saved me
from it, make me have hated and abhor it. Oh, who's sufficient
for these things? I'm gonna show you who he is.
I'm gonna show you who he is. Back over here in second. Corinthians
chapter 3. Let me show you who is sufficient
for these things. Paul said, who's sufficient for
these things? Look what he says down in verse 5 of chapter 3.
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything of
ourselves, but listen to this, our sufficiency is of God. Our sufficiency is of God. And
look what it says over here in verse 20 of chapter 1. Oh, here's where our sufficiency's
at. 1 Corinthians 1.20, for all the promises of God in him are
yea, and in him amen. unto the glory of God by us and
look what else it were our sufficiency said now he verse 21 now he which
establishes us makes us stand us with you in Christ and hath
anointed us is God God did that and look what else he did who
hath also sealed us put a seal on us The seal of God, stand
sure, has also sealed us and give us the earnest, the presence
of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and in ourselves. Who's sufficient
for these things? Paul said, we're not sufficient
in ourselves. We don't know, we know we ain't
got no sufficiency in ourselves. But we know whose sufficiency
is our sufficiency is of. It's of God. The promises are
in Christ. God gave us his spirit in Christ.
Oh, my. I've been doing this for years
and years and years and all the way all day long and all the
way to church tonight. I said, these poor people are
going to have to deal with me tonight. That's why I mean, who's
sufficient for these things? God help us. Help me. Our Father, O Father, in the
blessed, precious, holy, glorious name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
thank you for your word. We know that we have no sufficiency
in ourselves. We don't even think there's sufficiency
in ourselves. We know that there's not, so
our sufficiency is of you. And our Father, we pray that
you'd bless the word to the hearts, the minds, the wills, the affections
of these people gathered out here tonight. Father, again,
we pray for those we mentioned, Larry, Robin, Daryl, Joyce. Please bless them, encourage
them, strengthen them. And Lord, we love them. Pray
your greatest and most blessed and glorious blessings upon them.
And we ask it in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen.