In 2 Corinthians 12, verse 1,
Paul begins, It is not expedient for me, doubtless, to glory.
I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. Now, you remember,
he's still continuing his answer to the charges of the false prophets
there in Corinth that had come up against him. And he says,
It's not expedient for me to glory. And that's true. It's never becoming of us. to boast about our gifts or our
blessings, the things that the Lord's given us. But remember,
for Paul here, it's necessary. It's not really expedient, but
it is necessary for the good of the church and for the glory
of God. Because the true glory of God is only seen in the preaching
of Christ in the face of Jesus Christ. And it's important that
the distinction be made between the true prophet of God and these
false prophets and these visions and revelations of the Lord were
signs or evidences that Paul is God's messenger. God spoke
to him and gave him these things. Now, in the last chapter, this
is somewhat different than what Paul was talking about last week.
In the last chapter, Paul talked about the hardships that he faced
for the gospel sake. And those things, we looked at
this last week, were good indicators that he really was preaching
the gospel, the gospel of free grace, because the flesh hates
that message. The flesh hates the gospel of
the preaching of Christ alone, and Paul suffered for it. So
that was a very good indication he was God's servant. But now
he switches to, I don't know if we call those good things
or blessings, revelations and visions of the Lord that he had.
We won't take the time to look at all of them, but you remember
when Paul was converted on the road to Damascus, he had a vision. of the Lord. The Lord spoke to
him, said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, who are
you, Lord? He said, I'm Jesus, whom thou
persecutest. He had a vision of the Lord.
Then sometime later, he had a vision of the man from Macedonia telling
him, come over here and preach to us. And then when Paul was
in Corinth, he was going to leave and Paul had a vision of the
Lord. And the Lord said, no, you stay here and preach. I have
much sheep. in this town. Those things he
had are visions from the Lord. And those things happen. He had
those visions, but he said, it's not expedient for me to speak
of these things because it stirs up pride. Now, it's necessary
that Paul point these things out because they're proof of
his apostleship. But it's such a shame that Paul
is forced to deal with these matters because I'll tell you
what it is. This is just a waste of time.
Because I tell you what's expedient. It's the preaching of Christ.
What's expedient for us is to hear the preaching of Christ.
Paul says, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. This
is expedient. Woe is unto me if I don't preach
it. And I'll tell you another reason that speaking about these
visions is not expedient. They won't do us any spiritual
good. Peter said, I had saw this vision, I had the revelation
there on the Mount of Transfiguration, but we have a more sure word
of prophecy. Visions don't reveal Christ,
do they? Now, in Paul's day, you know, he revealed himself
to Paul, but the word wasn't completed. Then today we have
the completed word of God. This is the complete word of
God given to men. Today, the Lord's not revealed
in visions. He's revealed in the word. The
Word is Christ. So that's why it's so important
that we preach the Word. We're not born again from visions,
are we? We're born again from the incorruptible seed, the Word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. So we preach the Word.
These visions, it's not expedient for us to know about these visions.
What's expedient is that we hear of Christ. Now, verse 2, he goes
on, he says, I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago. Whether in the body, I cannot
tell. 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. Whether in the body or out of
the body, I cannot tell. God knoweth." Now Paul's speaking
here of himself in the third person out of humility. He's
trying to draw the attention away from himself here. And he
says, I knew a man in Christ. And the emphasis on that ought
not be on the man. It ought to be in Christ. That's the key right there. Every
blessing that we have is in Christ. Everything we have is for Christ's
sake. It's in Christ. That's the key.
And this man who is in Christ was taken up to the third heaven.
Now, the first heaven is the air above us where the birds
fly. The second heaven is outer space where the planets are all
in their orbits and the stars and so forth. And beyond that
is the third heaven, where our glorified Lord sits enthroned
in glory. Paul says in verse four, that
third heaven is paradise. And I know this, I don't know
much about that place, but I do know this. Paradise is where
Christ is. That's where he is. Because what
does our Lord tell that thief on the cross? Today shalt thou
be with me in paradise. That's wherever Christ is, that's
paradise. And he sits enthroned in the
third heaven. And this man in Christ, the Apostle Paul, was
taken there to paradise. Now Adam, he was in a paradise
of sorts, Eden, but he sinned and was thrust out of that paradise.
But in Christ, the man in Christ is brought back into paradise
to be with Christ, to behold him where he is. And Paul says,
I went there. Now, whether it was in this body
or whether it was out of the body in the spirit, I don't know.
Only God knows. The only thing he knew was he
was in Christ. That's the way he went there
in Christ. He says, God knows this was a
supernatural event or a vision that took divine power. This
doesn't happen every day. This was a revelation of Christ
to God's servant. You know, Gil says maybe the
Lord gave him this revelation to see Things that are to come
to see. None of us know what our eternal
home looks like. We don't know anything about
it really. Maybe, Gil said, Paul saw that, so he'd be willing
to suffer. So many things that he suffered
for Christ's sake. Could be, I don't know, but God
knows. But what is really interesting
to me was, Paul says, this happened about 14 years ago. And this
is the first he's telling about it. Now if that happened to us
today, We wouldn't wait till Sunday morning when we all gathered
together. We wouldn't wait till Wednesday when everybody's here
to start telling people. We wouldn't even start calling
people on the phone. Because if you call people on
the phone, you can only tell them one at a time. We'd put it on Facebook
or Twitter or something so everybody could know at one time. And we
wouldn't wait a second to tell that this happened to us. The
Apostle Paul waited 14 years to tell it. Now that's quite
a bit different than these false prophets you see on TV. Anytime
I've ever seen it, and I haven't, you know, I don't watch them
a lot, but when I've seen them on TV, their visions always happen
last night. Or, you know, this week or something.
Paul had this vision 14 years ago. He hadn't gone around broadcasting
it because his ministry was not built on visions, was it? His
ministry was built on preaching Christ. And the only reason he's
telling it now is he's telling in the defense of his preaching
of Christ, that he truly is preaching Christ. That's the only reason
he's telling it. Now, verse four, he says, here's what this vision
was. He was caught up in the paradise
and heard unspeakable words, which is not lawful for a man
to utter. Now, Paul doesn't tell us anything about what he saw,
does he? I'm sure what he saw had to be
just spectacular, more than we can understand. The only thing
he tells us is the things that he heard were not lawful for
a man to speak. Now, he doesn't mean it's illegal
or he was prohibited from, you know, by law or whatever, from
telling what he heard. He says it's impossible. That's
what that word unlawful means. It's impossible for a man to
speak or understand the things that he heard. Because when Paul
was there, he heard heavenly language. He heard heavenly praise
that's sung by perfect people in the presence of Almighty God.
Now, man in the flesh can't understand that language. We can't sing
that language while we're in this flesh, not till we're changed
in the resurrection. A human being is not capable
of understanding that language that's sung in the presence of
our Lord any more than a dog is capable of understanding not
just the intricacies, but any level of math or science or something
like that. That dog is not capable of communicating
on that level. You know, they might be able
to understand come or sit or something, but they can't understand
2 plus 2. I mean, they just can't understand that. And we can't,
we're the same way. We can't understand, can't comprehend
that language. And this exposes people who say
how they died. And they crossed over, whatever
it is they say they do, and then they come back and tell us the
things that they saw and heard. No, they didn't. It's not possible
that a man can tell those things, Paul says. And we can't speak
that heavenly language yet. But I'll tell you what we can
do. By God's grace, we can speak
the revealed Word of God. By God's grace and by the help
of the Holy Spirit, we can understand some of the revealed Word of
God. Well, then let's focus on what
God's given us now. Let's worry about that life then. God's given us more than enough
to handle in this life. Let's deal with, let's speak
about the things that we know that God's given us in this life,
and we'll worry about the next life and the next life, okay?
Now, verse 5, Paul says, Of such a one will I glory, yet of myself
I will not glory, but of mine infirmities. Now, Paul experienced
this vision, but he wasn't about to glory in himself. Now, he's
thankful. He's thankful for the revelation
of Christ that he had, but he knew in himself he's still nothing. And he says, if I'm going to
glory, what I'm going to glory in is my infirmities and my weaknesses
and the things that I've suffered for Christ's sake, those things
that he talked about in last week's chapter. And at the end
of the lesson here, we'll see more of why it is that he's going
to glory in his infirmities and his weaknesses. But you know,
you always want to make all these verses and the things that we
look at applicable to us. We have so much to be thankful
for. This group, we have a believer
has so much to be thankful for. We've been washed in the blood
of Christ. We've been given eternal life. The Lord's given us pastors and
teachers. He's given us some understanding
of his word. He's blessed us with spiritual
growth. I look out over the people that are here. I see families
that the Lord's blessed for generations. Just unbelievable His mercy and
grace to us. He's given us a comfortable place
to worship in freedom. We take that for granted because
we've never known anything different. The early church would have said
this is a wonderful blessing that we can put a sign out front
and tell everybody just exactly what it is we're doing. They
were hiding to worship the Lord. We worship in freedom and publicly. We have so much to be thankful
for. Well, let's learn from the example
of the Apostle Paul. Be thankful, but don't be puffed
up. We got nothing to be proud of.
Everything we have, the Lord gave us. All the glory belongs
to the Lord. He gave them. These are gifts
that he gave us, and we're thankful for them, but we're not going
to glory in them. Now, verse six, Paul says, For though I
would desire to glory, I should 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. Now,
this is true humility. Here's why Paul says, I'm not
going to boast about this experience. If I did have a mind to boast
about this experience, I'd be telling the truth. Now, these
false prophets wouldn't be telling the truth if they conjured up,
you know, some story similar to this. They wouldn't be telling
the truth. But if I tell you about this experience, I'm telling
the truth. But I'm not going to boast about it because one
of two things would happen. People would either think I'm
a fool bragging on myself or worse yet, they think of me more
highly than they ought to think of me. They put me on a pedestal
where I don't belong. And here's a real good lesson
for us. You know, there are things that
the Lord's blessed us with that we could, I don't know, brag
might not be the right word, but say about ourselves that
are true. The Lord's given us these gifts. This morning I was
going over my notes and I thought about so many of you. I could
brag on you and things I'd say about you would be true. Absolutely
true. Things I'd brag on you that the
Lord's given you. How gracious he's made you, the
attitude that he's given you, it's just, it's wonderful. These things that God's given
us that we've received by grace. Now they're true. But maybe we
again ought to follow the example of the apostle and forbear speaking
about those things. Solomon said, don't brag on yourself.
Let somebody else, you know, someone else's tongue brag on
you. Forbear speaking about these things now. So we can spend our
time speaking of Christ. That's what our time, especially
right here, is given to. Preaching of Christ. Speaking
of Him. And this vision of Paul's. Now
you think about it. He heard things. It's not possible
for him to speak. If he couldn't tell the things
he heard, what about the things that he saw? That vision was
something else, wasn't it? Spectacular. I'm telling you
the truth, that vision pales in comparison to what we can
speak of Christ from the Word. Isn't that right? That vision
that Paul had was glorious, but it's not nearly as glorious as
our Lord Jesus Christ. That vision that Paul had, the
things that he heard, pales in comparison to the love of Christ
for his people. His willingness to sacrifice
himself for our sins pales in comparison. That vision Paul
had? Spectacular. Not nearly as spectacular
as the mercy and grace of Christ. Not nearly. That vision that
Paul had? Breathtaking. Not nearly as breathtaking
if we really think about the life that we've been given in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Tales in comparison. Let's forbear
speaking about these things speak about the things that are most
glorious, our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, verse 7, he says, And lest
I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the
revelations, there is given to me a thorn in the flesh, the
messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted
above measure. Now, pride is a horrible thing. And even the Apostle Paul couldn't
get rid of pride as long as he was in the flesh. This is a humble
man. You read through his writings.
You have to recognize he's a humble man. And even the great apostle
could not get rid of pride in the flesh. Because pride comes
as naturally to this flesh as humility comes to the new man.
But we'll never be rid of it. As long as this old man is drawing
a breath. We'll just never be rid of it. It's just a very real
part of the warfare between the flesh and the spirit. Just that
warfare of pride. And the Lord hates pride in a
maggot. I mean, what is more contradictory
than pride in a maggot? In just a wretch like you and
me, what's more contradictory than us being proud of something? And even more, what's more contradictory
than pride in a sinner who's been saved by grace? Now, I understand
the unregenerate man who's never seen Christ. The Lord hasn't
given any wisdom or understanding to him. I understand him being
full of pride. I do. I understand that. What's awful
is a sinner saved by grace, a believer, a child of God being lifted up
with pride. Well, the Lord knows how to keep
us humble, doesn't he? Now, we hate how he's got to
do that. The method of how he's got to do that to keep us humble,
we don't like, but it's good for us. And it's good for the
rest of the church, too. We can't be a help to one another
when we're full of pride. It's an impossibility. So Paul
says, lest I would be puffed up with pride. And it seems to
me like he's saying I would be puffed up with pride because
of all these revelations. The Lord sent me a thorn in the
flesh to keep me humble, to keep me from being puffed up and filled
with pride. And the Lord allowed Satan to
torment Paul. with what he calls a thorn in
the flesh. Now, there's a lot of speculation
about this thorn. Nobody knows what it is. It could
have been some physical problem in his flesh, you know, eyesight
or pain or something, lots of different things it could have
been. A lot of people think that this was not a physical problem
at all, but it was a specific false prophet who was just a
thorn in Paul's side constantly. Who knows? Whatever it was, God
knows. But whatever it was, it was painful. You know, if it
was a false prophet, think how painful it was to the Apostle
Paul to see people he preached to, he thought were converted,
being led astray. Painful. And he uses the word
buffeted, just buffeted, just constant beating. It's repeated. It's relentless. It's constant.
Buffeting everywhere he turned. And many of us can relate to
a degree. We can relate to this. Just having
been in a trial that just you're buffeted, just like a little
teeny tiny ship tossed in the middle of the sea, just buffeted
with waves on every side. You don't know which direction
the wind's coming from. You don't know which direction
the waves are coming from. Buffeted. And it seems like there's
no end in sight. The root word of this word, thorn,
means from the hips to the toes, to the tip of the toes, just
a shooting pain. It just makes it so you can't
hardly do anything. Paul's being buffeted. Well,
what's he to do? Well, the answer, as in about
any time we find ourselves in any situation, the answer is
prayer. He takes his burden to the Lord
and leaves it there. Look at verse 8. For this thing
I have 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. One of the writers said, Prayer
is the salve for every sore, and the remedy for every malady. Prayer. Take your burden to the
Lord and leave it there. And Paul was earnest in prayer.
This just wasn't formality with him. He was earnest because this
thorn was so painful. He prayed earnestly, but received
no answer. He waited, prayed again, received
no answer. You know, Scripture teaches us
to be constant in prayer, to continually don't be weary in
prayer. Paul went to the Lord three times
before this prayer was answered. Now, I know this, the Lord always
hears the prayers of his people. His ear's not heavy, it can't
hear. He hears. And the Lord always answers the
prayers of his people, sooner or later. I found he seldom answers
my prayer when I want. It's in His time. And He knows
what's best. And He may not answer the prayer
the way we intended when we ask Him for something. But we have
to trust Him that He will answer in a time and in a way that's
for His glory and for our good. And that's what happened here.
He didn't answer Paul's prayer in the way Paul intended, did
He? He didn't remove that thorn in the flesh. But He gave him
something better. He gave Paul something better
than what he asked for. And that's the way our Lord does
things so frequently. He'll give us something better
than what we asked for. He gave him grace. Now, if you
know anything about grace, you know this, there's nothing better.
This grace is sufficient for our problem, sufficient for Paul's
problem and for ours too. God's grace is so good. Paul
said, I'm going to rejoice in my infirmity. I'm not going to
moan and cry about it. I'm going to rejoice in my infirmities. That's a hard thing to say. I
mean, that's just to say I'm going to rejoice in pain? To
rejoice in suffering? Paul says that's what he'd do.
Because God's grace is seen and appreciated in our weakness. That's when we really appreciate
the most in our weakness. Our rejoicing is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's in His grace. Our rejoicing
is not in our strength. Our rejoicing is not on how well
everything's going today. Well, it's a great day. No. I want the power of Christ, don't
you? I don't want my power for anything. I want His power. And Paul said,
that's why I'm going to rejoice, because in my weakness, I experience
the power of Christ resting upon me. Now there are several lessons
I want us to take from these verses. You take these things
to heart. Take them like Cecil Roach said,
put them in your lunch bucket and take them to work with you
tomorrow. These are the lessons for us to take. First, God's
sovereign. He rules all things after the
counsel of his own will. He rules so that he will accomplish
his purpose in all things. And the Lord allowed Satan to
buffet Paul, to buffet his servant. And Satan rejoiced in the opportunity. He took this opportunity to buffet
Paul with this intention that this thorn in the flesh would
weaken Paul's message, would weaken his preaching, make it
ineffective. But God's in control. The Lord
overruled and he used that thorn to make Paul's ministry even
stronger. That thorn, no doubt, it hurt
the flesh, but it helped Paul's message, his ministry spiritually
because it kept him humble, kept his preaching dependent on the
power of Christ, not on his power, his oratory and, you know, those
kinds of skills, kept him dependent on the power of Christ. And God's
grace is sufficient. Because we have a high priest
who's touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Long before
Paul suffered this thorn in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ
suffered thorns in the flesh, didn't He? Those thorns that
they made a crown and shoved into His flesh, those thorns
were intended to cause pain and humiliation. But what did they
do? While they did cause pain and
humiliation, they accomplished God's eternal purpose of redemption. And this thorn is going to do
the same thing. This thorn in Paul's flesh is going to accomplish
God's purpose too. But Paul be comforted. The Lord
knows how to comfort His people. Whatever it is we're going through,
the Lord suffered it first. He's the shepherd that's gone
before the sheep. Whatever it is we're suffering,
whatever path we're walking, He's walked it first. He suffered
it first. He knows how to comfort His people.
And God's grace is always sufficient for our every need. For whatever
situation you find yourself in, God's grace is sufficient. This
promise that the Lord made to Paul wasn't just said to Paul.
God's grace is sufficient for all of his people, for every
one of his children. God's grace is sufficient to
save. Our chief need is salvation.
For by grace are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves,
it's a gift of God. Salvation is by grace. Look back
at Acts chapter 18. God's grace is sufficient to
give us faith, to make us believe. Acts 18 verse 27, And when he was disposed to pass
into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive
him, who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed
through grace. That's how they believed. It's
through grace. God's grace is sufficient to give us faith,
to make us believe. Look over at Romans chapter 11.
I'm sorry. Well, first of all, God's grace
is sufficient to justify being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Now, Romans
chapter 11. God's grace is sufficient in
election to elect a people into salvation. Romans 11, verse 5. Even so, at this present time
also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. God's grace is sufficient to
elect a people. God's grace is sufficient to
call. Well, how are all these ones God elected in grace going
to be called? God's grace is sufficient to call him. What
did Paul say? But when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace. He'll
call him to the preaching of the gospel and it's a gracious
call. Look at Ephesians chapter 1.
God's grace is sufficient to make us accepted of the Father. Ephesians 1 verse 6. to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein in this grace he hath made us accepted in the
beloved." God's grace is sufficient to put away every sin. Where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. God's grace is sufficient. And if you're interested in grace,
I can tell you where to find it. In the Lord Jesus Christ. For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. If you want grace, if
you're interested in grace, you look to Christ. You go to Him. He's the fountain of all grace.
That's where all grace is found is in Him. Don't look to the
preacher. Don't look to the church. Don't look to your doctrine.
Look to Christ. That's grace and truth came by
Him. And keep going to Him. Only Christ
is sufficient for our every need. His blood is sufficient to atone. wash us free from all of our
sin. His righteousness is always sufficient. It fits perfectly
every time. His power is sufficient to keep
us. His word is sufficient to feed
us. His word is sufficient to make
us wise unto salvation. God's grace is sufficient for
thee. Thee. Every one of us. Thee.
God's grace is sufficient for you. Now, we're not sufficient
to meet anything. You know, today might be a good
day. Everything we think is just great is going our way. We're
not sufficient to meet a good day, just like we're not sufficient
to meet the evil day. But God's grace is sufficient
for thee, wherever you're at, whoever you are. God's grace
is sufficient to strengthen us, to hold us up under the burden
of the trial that would crush us. Now, this thorn Paul had
This is not a light thing. It was going to crush him. He
earnestly besought the Lord that he'd remove it. It was just going
to crush him. But just like God's grace was
sufficient for the Apostle Paul, God's grace is sufficient for
you and for me in whatever we face. And I tell you, look to
him. Call on him. Follow his feet
and stay there. And prove him. Prove him! Cast
all your burden upon Him. Just cast your burden on the
Lord and leave it there. Prove Him. And you'll find His
grace is sufficient for thee. Alright, the Lord bless you.