James chapter 1 and verse 1. James, a servant of God. James,
a servant of God. What grace that any sinner could refer to
himself this way. That doesn't happen naturally.
We don't serve God by nature. As we come into this world in
our natural condition, we're enmity against God. But I know it was with joy in
his heart that James was able to introduce himself as all believers
can and do. James, a servant of God. He takes his rightful place in
the hierarchy of God. I'm God's servant. Paul called
himself the bondservant of Jesus Christ. What a privilege. Even in the Old Testament, as
long as there have been believers, they've referred to themselves
this way and done so with joy, with a sense of the grace of
God that brought it to pass. David said in Psalm 116, 16,
O Lord, truly I am thy servant. I am thy servant. He said it
twice. And the son of thine handmaid,
thou hast loosed my bonds. That's why we're his servant,
because he set us free. A bond servant is a slave that's
been set free and has said, I don't want to be free of freedom means
I'm not with you. To be free is to be with Christ,
to serve him. That's freedom. That's true freedom.
And this is all of us. And to be servants of God is
to be servants of one another, to be his servant. is to be your servant. Matthew chapter 20. If you'd
like to turn there, verse 25. Matthew chapter 20 and verse
25. Jesus called them unto Him. He had many things to say to
His disciples and this was one of them. Jesus called them unto
Him and said, that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion
over them. And they that are great exercise
authority upon them. This world has a hierarchy, doesn't
it? A pecking order. And everybody's out to show that
they're bigger than everybody else. Bigger and badder. But look at what he said in verse
26. It shall not be so among you. But whosoever will be great among
you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among
you, let him be your servant. I wonder if we've learned what
it is to serve. To be the servant of God means
that what he says goes. To be the servant of God is to
say what Paul said when the Lord met him on the road to Damascus.
Lord, what would you have me do? That's what a servant does. He does whatever the master wants. Do we have any idea what it is
to serve him or one another? He said, whosoever will be chief
among you, it's not going to be like it is with the Gentiles.
It's not going to be like it is in the religion of this world. Everybody's a big shot, aren't
they? We're the church where everybody's somebody. Christ
said, it shall not be so among you. Even as the son of man came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom
for many. In the hierarchy of God, there
are only two positions, God and servant. It's a very simple, simple hierarchy. If you're not
God, then what are you? Now, James said, I'm a servant
of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is not my example. He's
not just a great teacher or a great prophet. He is, as Thomas said,
my Lord and my God. He said in John 13, 13, this
is the Lord Jesus speaking, he said, you call me master and
Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. We are servants of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And forget about calling yourself
a servant of God, if you're not a servant of Jesus Christ. To
serve Christ is to serve God, and vice versa. If you don't
preach or support the preaching of the true, sovereign, victorious
Christ, you are not a servant of God. To serve Christ, to be
a servant of somebody, is to do what they said, and you know
what the Lord told us to do? Go and preach. He wasn't just
talking to his preachers. He was talking to all of his
people. Go and preach. Be in on this ministry. be all
about the furtherance of the gospel in this world, because
that's what he gave us to do. And we're his servants. And if
you're not in on that, you're not the servant of God. He said
in John 5.22, For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed
all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son,
even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. To honor the Lord
Jesus Christ is to honor the Father. And to honor Him not,
don't call yourself a servant of God. And he said to the 12
tribes. I'm writing this to the 12 tribes. These are the people of Israel,
in an earthly sense, of course, named after the 12 sons of Jacob. But we know that this is written
not only to the earthly Israelite, but true spiritual Israel. Christ
said to Zacchaeus, I must abide at your house today. Zacchaeus
had climbed up in that tree and said, I want to see who this
is everybody's talking about. And the Lord walked through a
throng of people and walked up to Zacchaeus' tree and said,
Zacchaeus, you come down here, for I need to abide at your house
today, I must. Salvation has come to your house.
And do you remember the reason he gave for that? because you're
a son of Abraham. That whole place was full of
earthly sons of Abraham. He wasn't talking about that,
was he? There were Jews all over that
place according to the flesh, but Paul said in Galatians 3
that those which be of the law are under the curse of the law,
but those that be of faith, they're the sons of Abraham. If you have
the same faith from God, the same faith God gave Abraham,
if he gave it to you, you're a son of Abraham in a spiritual
sense, in the true sense, you're God's people. And so, is this
written to you? Is this written to you? I hope
you didn't come here this morning to read somebody else's mail.
Is this, are you one of God's people? Are you, have you bowed
to his son? Have you honored the son? The Lord spoke to the Pharisees
and they said, Oh, we have Abraham for our father. And he said,
you're of your father, the devil, because you honor, not me. You
don't believe me. If you believe me, if you believe
Abraham, you'd believe me and vice versa. We preach in the
same thing. God's message has always been the same. If you
believe Moses, you believe me. Same gospel, same truth of God. Never has been another one. Are you here? Do you love the
Lord Jesus as He's revealed in this book? Have you bowed to
Him? Have you come to Him for salvation? Then this is written
to you. Verse 2, My brethren, count it
all joy when you fall into diverse Trials. That word is trials. You can look it up, but I did
it for you. It's trials. When you fall into
trouble, when you have problems, when you have difficulty, when
you're going through a trial, count it all joy. Knowing this,
that the trying of your faith worketh patience, but let patience
have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting
nothing. All right, now let's think about
this for a little while. All believers endure trials in
this world. Different trials. We don't have
the same exact experience, of course, in this life, and some
to one degree and some to another. But Christ said in John 16, 33,
in this world you shall have tribulation. Tribulation. That word tribulation comes from
an object, in old times it was called a tribulum, and it was
used to thresh wheat, to separate the chaff from the wheat. It
was a violent action that caused it to break apart and be separated,
and that's where that word comes from, to be shaken up, to be
violently dealt with. But to a good end. To a good
end. You see, the wheat's got to be
separated from the chaff, or the wheat's no good, is it? The
wheat's not useful. And so, you shall have tribulation. And notice three things in these
verses concerning trials. First of all, we're to count
it joy. Count it joy. We don't rejoice
in the trial itself. That's not what this is saying.
It's not, oh, good, something bad happened to me. Well, first
of all, we don't know the difference between bad and good, do we?
We need to acknowledge that. When we say, oh, something bad
happened, it may be that something good happened. It just happened
to be something you didn't like. God knows what's good for us
and what's not. And we don't. We just flat don't.
Didn't Paul say in Romans that we don't even know what to pray
for as we ought. You don't have to believe that,
do you? I know what to pray for. No, you don't. Because you don't
know what's good and what's not good. Oh, Lord, I pray that this
will happen. That may not be the best thing
for you. And I guarantee you this on the authority of God's
book. If you're his child, whatever
is absolutely best for you, that's what he'll do. Oh, you think you know how to
give good things to your children? I love Christmas time. I just,
I can't help it. You can call me a pagan if you
want to. I love Christmas. It's not a religious holy day.
There are no religious holy days. Christ is our holy day. He's
our, He, we worship him. He fulfilled all of the Sabbath
and the holy days, the feast days, all the crisis, the fulfillment
of those things. And Paul said, I'm worried about
you Galatians because you're, you're observing days and that's
not good. We don't observe a day, but I
say I like Christmas time because it's just a good excuse to give
something to my kids that they'll love. I love to, it's about them,
isn't it? It's about them. I don't care
if I get anything anymore or not. It's about them. But I delight
in that. I like to shop for it. I like
to think, what would they like, you know? The Lord said, you
think you know how to give good things to your children? Oh, our Heavenly Father. He said,
no good thing will I withhold from you. No good thing. Oh, my. We don't have any idea
what that is, do we? We don't know until He gives
it to us and then we know it is because He gave it to us and
He wouldn't have if it wasn't good. Tribulation, affliction,
it's good. Count it joy. Listen to some
of the Lord's first teachings in this world. It says that He
went up into a mountain in Matthew 5 and He opened His mouth. Oh,
when the Son of God opens His mouth, Oh, incline your ear,
because the Son of God is going to speak. And you know what He
said in Matthew 5? Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness' sake. For theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are you when men shall
revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad. Count it all joy. You suffer,
you're going through a trial, trouble. Somebody, I was talking
to somebody yesterday, day before, that said,
Chris, if somebody will break your heart, it'll be the last
person you think it would be to break your heart. And I know,
believe me, I know. Count it all joy. For great is your reward in heaven.
For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. And I've
taken some comfort in that. I've thought about Moses. You
think about what Moses went through. Do you ever wonder, do you think
Moses ever thought somewhere along the line between delivering
by God's power and divine operation, delivering the people out of
Egypt and all that he went through and the people all the way bickering
and complaining and opposing him and hating him for it. Do
you think he ever thought, man, I could have been in Pharaoh's
house? I could have had everything. But in Hebrews 11, we find that
he chose the reproach of Christ and counted that greater riches
than the treasures of Egypt. That's grace, my friends. That's
grace. That's the grace of God in a
man. He counted all joy. Blessed are
you. You remember in Acts chapter
5 when the apostles were beaten and threatened for preaching
Christ? for no other reason. You think that would discourage
you? Or are you better than Isaiah who said, Lord, who hath believed
our report? What's the point of preaching?
Nobody believes it. Elijah, we were just talking
about him. Lord, just kill me. I'm the only one. No, Elijah,
you're not. But we get discouraged, don't we? Of course we do. The apostles in Acts chapter
5, they were beaten. and threatened for preaching
the gospel. No other reason. Did they sit
around and mope and say, woe is me? No, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy
to suffer shame for his name. That's grace. We don't do that naturally. That
takes grace, my friends. And they ceased not to teach
and preach Jesus Christ. They could have said, well, what's
the good of teaching and preaching? All it's going to do is cause
trouble. No, they didn't quit. They didn't quit. They counted
it joy. They rejoiced. That's what that's
what James said. I read something recently about
enduring trials, and it said this, and I didn't want to read
it to you, but I want to tell you the message of it. Bless
my heart. It talked about enduring trials
and said this, what a wonderful opportunity a trial is to honor
Christ. Anybody can sing hymns of joy
when all is well. But let me ask you that, can
you sing with Paul and Silas? Who are in a dungeon, in prison
for preaching, for doing what the Lord told them to do now.
They were in prison and waiting to be killed. And you know what
they were doing? Singing praise to God. What an
opportunity. That's the time to exalt Him,
to honor Him. May God give us grace to do that,
because we won't do it unless He gives us strength and grace.
But that's the time to do it. Anybody can go along praising
the Lord when all is well. Oh, but you want to exalt Him?
Oh, my. I've got some friends that are
going through some things. I haven't gone through anything
compared to what some that I know have gone through. And I see the grace of God in
them. I see God's power enabling them
to say, oh, if I can just honor Christ in it, if I can just honor
Him in it. And they do. The Lord gives grace
to do that. Our afflictions are so light
anyway, aren't they? Isn't that what Paul said? These
light afflictions are just for a moment. And they're light compared
to what other people suffer, as I said. We're just not thinking,
are we, most of us? We think we're going through
some things. Most of us have never really gone through much.
It just seems like it, though. Seems like it sometimes. Our
afflictions are light compared to what we deserve. You want
God to give you what you deserve? If you do, then you don't know
what you deserve. Our afflictions are light compared
to what our brother read a while ago. One of my favorite passages
of Scripture in Revelation. Compared to the glory that shall
be revealed in us. Compared to what it's going to
be someday. When we don't need the light
of the sun because the Lamb is the light thereof. How can we
dwell on our troubles, our problems, and not dwell on Him in light
of that? I reckon, Paul said in Romans
8.18, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy
to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
That's what we ought to be thinking about. His glory, not my troubles. 2 Corinthians 4.16, Paul said,
we faint not, but though our outward man perish, Oh, and sometimes
we think he does, don't we? We think, well, that's just going
to kill me. It's just going to kill me. Yet the inward man is
renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. You notice when he's talking
about our afflictions, he uses the word light. When he's talking
about God's glory, he uses the word weight. It's a weighty thing,
the glory of God. And our afflictions are light.
It worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. You get to
looking at yourself and your troubles and your problems. We're
creatures of sense, aren't we? We can't help it. We do that
sometimes. Oh, but the things which are not seen. That's the
things to dwell on. With an eye of faith, behold
him. He said to Thomas, blessed are
they that have not seen me, and yet have believed. Oh, then you're
blessed if you can, by faith, behold the Son of God in his
glory, and look away from self, look away from circumstances,
look away from your troubles. Then you can do what James said,
count it joy, count it joy. Things which are not seen are
eternal. Now, look at verse 3. When God sends trial, He's doing us some good, isn't
He? He's doing us some good. It works. It works. Patience. It results in something. When trouble comes, there's a
result. And you may not know what it is. You won't know what
it's going to be when you're going through the trial. You
may not even know what it is after the trial. You may receive
what God sent the trial in order to give you and still not know
what it is. But I guarantee you this, it's for your good. It's
for your good. It works something. It causes
a result, and that's why God does it. He's working patience. James said in chapter five, verse
10, you've heard of the patience of Job. Faith worketh patience. Have you heard of Job's patience?
Listen to James 5.10. Take my brethren, the prophets
who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering,
affliction, and of patience. Take them for an example. Think
about what they went through. And you'll begin to realize you
really hadn't gone through that much. Like I said, I was encouraged
by thinking about Moses and what he went through. And Korah and
his cronies rose up and said, Moses, you're taking too much
responsibility on yourself. We feel like we need to have
some say in some things. My goodness. And constantly facing
opposition. The trials that he went through.
The trying of patience. James said, take them for an
example. In verse 11, behold, we count them happy which endure.
You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end
of the Lord. But the Lord is very pitiful. When He puts you through a trial,
you need it. He loves you and that's why He
does it. When He chastens you, when He sends trouble, whether
He's chastening you or just sending it for your good, it's for your
good either way. But He deals with you as with
children. Would you have Him deal with you any other way? Have you always done what your
children wanted you to do? For them? Oh, my. They never
would have been a spanking, would they? Sometimes there needs to
be a spanking, doesn't there? Sometimes there needs to be a
crossing of wills. And when wills are crossed, Daddy
wins. So does he. You understand what
I'm saying? The Lord is very pitiful. We
don't cross their will or afflict them because we hate them. We
do it because we love Him. The Lord is very pitiful and
of tender mercy. That's the tender mercy of God.
When you suffer like Job did. When you suffer like the prophets
did. That's what He's saying there. Have you ever suffered
like Job? Let's turn to Job chapter 1.
Let me remind you of this. This is such a good thing to
read. Job chapter 1 verse 13. And there was a day when Job's
sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest
brother's house. And there came a messenger unto
Job and said the oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside
them, and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away. Yea,
they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and
I only am escaped alone to tell thee. The Sabeans, a wicked band
of thieves, have come along and stolen your goods, killed your
servants. What an infuriating thing that
would be. Can you imagine that? Is there anything more infuriating
than somebody coming and stealing your stuff? Breaking into your
place now. But while he was yet speaking,
in verse 16, there came also another and said, the fire of
God is fallen from heaven and hath burned up the sheep and
the servants and consumed them and I only am escaped alone to
tell thee. And while he was yet speaking,
one upon the heels of the other now, Well, before it even has
a chance to sink in, what's taking place? The Chaldeans, in verse
17, made out three bands and fell upon the camels, and have
carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of
the sword. And I only am escaped alone to tell thee. And these
camel and sheep and oxen, that was money in those days. That's
what that was. It still is in a sense today.
But that's what the currency was, livestock. And while he was yet speaking,
you think about this now, while all that's sinking in, from riches
to rags in a day, in a day, while that's still sinking in, while
that one was yet speaking, there came also another. And I bet
Job could tell by the look on his face, it wasn't good news. And he said, thy sons and thy
daughters. They were eating and drinking
wine in their oldest brother's house. And behold, there came
a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of
the house, and it fell upon the young men and their dead. And
I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Then Job arose and rent
his mantle, shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground
and worshiped. And said, naked came I out of
my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. This last verse here, I wonder
why. We can see that this happened, but we're told specifically,
in all this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. You
know why it says that? Because that's exactly what we
would do if left to ourselves. Without God's grace and strength, power, We would charge God and
sin foolishly against God. You've heard of the patience
of Job. Could you worship God on the day you lost everything?
And I mean everything. God uses our trials for his glory
and for our good. That's why God does everything,
by the way, that He does. He does it for His glory and
for our good, for the good of His people. Turn to Romans chapter
5. Romans chapter 5 and 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 this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope
of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience,
and patience experience, and experience hope. 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. Those troubles,
those trials, those afflictions result in us having patience
which is steadfastness. That's what the word is, steadfastness.
Job was steadfast. Losing everything he had didn't
cause him to hate God, to forsake God, to curse God because the
Lord is good when He gives and the Lord is good when He takes.
If you know Him, you know that, don't you? Whether He's giving
or taking doesn't affect His goodness, doesn't change His
character, who He is. The Lord's good. He gave, He
took, blessed be His name. His name is to be blessed whether
He's giving or taking, you see. And so, that hope, that love
of God was shed abroad in Job's heart all those years ago. And
it's strengthened, it's increased, it's worked, it's exercised by
trial, by trial, by trial. 1 Peter 1, 1 Peter 1, and verse
3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a living hope, a lively hope, by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. There's salvation
from beginning to end, isn't it? We didn't read verse two,
but he says, elect according to the foreknowledge of God.
That's the beginning of salvation right there, isn't it? We're
going to talk about that tonight in our Genesis study. The election
of God and sanctification, obedience, the sprinkling of the blood of
Christ. He, according to His abundant mercy, begot us again.
That happens in time, doesn't it? He comes where we are in
time and causes us to be born again, regenerates us by His
Holy Spirit unto a living hope. to an inheritance incorruptible
reserved in heaven, and then He keeps us. He elects us, He
predestinates us, He calls us, He saves us, and He keeps us.
Who are kept, verse 5, wherein you greatly rejoice, verse 6,
though now for a season, if need be, you're in heaviness through
manifold temptation. That's part of salvation too.
Did you know that? He's going to bring you through.
He's going to bring you through it. That's part of Him saving
you. He has saved us, He is saving us, and He shall save us. And
all of this is part of His work in us and for us. The trial of
your faith, verse 7, being much more precious than of gold that
perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto
praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ,
whom having not seen, you love. You see that? The trial of your
faith. We have numerous examples of
this in God's word. And we shouldn't expect or desire
for it to be different with us. God has always tried faith. When he gives it, he tries it.
He tries it. He doesn't try faith to find
out if it's strong. God knows. He knows everything. He tries faith to make it strong. That's how he does it. When the
apostle came and said, Lord, increase our faith. You know
how he does that? If we did, we might not ask him
to. No, don't do that. I've got enough faith. No, that's
not good. We need more, don't we? And there's
really one way to get it. He's going to try. He's going
to try. You know, Abraham was described
in the scriptures as being strong in faith, in Hebrews 11, strong
in faith. Do you know how that happened?
Have you read the story of Abraham? Abraham's faith was tried, oh,
in a horrifying way, both before and after the occasion. of him being said to be strong
in faith. When his son Isaac was given,
that's when it says he was tried before and after that. But by
God's grace, he was strong in faith. God gives faith and God
exercises faith. And this faith that God gives
is said to be precious. The trial of it is precious,
more so than gold. It's precious to God because
it honors God. It exalts God. God is praised. God is worshipped. God is exalted. God does everything that he does
for the glory of his Son. The Father glorifies the Son.
Isn't that right? We see that all through the Scripture.
And the Son said, Father, glorify thou me with the glory which
I had with thee before the world was. And this faith is precious
to him because it has one object, his Son. Faith is in Christ. It's in Christ. We believe on
Christ. We believe on Him as our sin offering. We believe
on Him as our righteousness. We believe on Him as the sovereign
Son of God who gives life to whom He will. We worship Him
by faith, Christ by faith. And so that's why faith is precious
to God and the trial of it is precious. It's precious to me
too, though. Why is it precious to you, Chris?
Because it's the means that God has given whereby I lay hold
of His Son. Without faith, I can't have Him.
And so I pray with the Apostle, Lord, increase my faith, whatever
is required, whatever it takes. My faith, the faith that God
gave me unites me to Christ, who is my all. That's why it's
precious to me. Peter says the way that God tries
faith there in 1 Peter, where we read, is with fire. And Peter
knew something about being in the fire, didn't he? He denied
his Lord. He said, I won't do it. Though
everybody else do it, I won't deny you. And then he did. Just
like the Lord said he would. And he went out and wept bitterly.
That's fire. That's fire. The fire reveals
the impurity, doesn't it? In gold. When gold is purified,
the gold is not diminished. Though if you weigh the gold
after it's purified, it might weigh less, but the gold is not
diminished. It's just that the impurities are taken out of it.
Not because there's less gold, it's because there's less impurity.
That's why gold is tried by fire, to remove the impurities. The goal itself is more valuable
than it was before. And likewise, faith is not decreased
by trial, though the flesh may be decreased. The faith of God's
elect is more precious to God. being more and more and more
and more relied upon him, more and more believing his word,
and more and more exalting the object of faith, the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's more and more precious. And it's more and more precious
to us because the more of it we have and the less impure the
more clearly we see Him and the more fully we trust Him. The
more glorious He is to us because of the trial of faith. That's
why it's precious. It's precious. The faith itself
is more precious than gold. Faith can't be purchased with
all the gold in the world. If you have this gift from God,
whether you have any gold or not, Paul said, you have all
faith. If you have faith in His Son, you have everything. You
have all spiritual blessings in Him because faith unites you
to Him. David said in Psalm 119.17, it's
good for me that I've been afflicted. Can you say that? Have you ever
said it? Then maybe you can't say it. Don't say, oh yeah, I
could say that. Well, have you ever said it? Yeah, me neither. It's good. Why? That I might
learn. That I might learn your word.
The Lord teaches us by experience. In verse four, we've got to be
through, but may God teach us something here. Let me just be
brief. Let patience have her perfect work. Now, We're never
going to be perfect in this world. It says that you may be perfect.
That doesn't mean that we're going to be without sin. We know
better than that. John said, if you say you have
no sin, I don't care how spiritual you are. You're a liar. And you're
calling God a liar. That's not what he's talking
about. The word is complete or mature. In other words, James is saying
here, let God bring us through these things all the way through
them. Let patience have her perfect
work. Don't be so quick to desire for
the trial to end. There's nothing wrong with praying
for deliverance. There's not a thing in the world
wrong with that. Paul prayed, and when he had that thorn in
the flesh, he said, Lord, remove it. There's nothing wrong with
that, is there? But understand this while you're
praying that. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
12, and I promise I'm done. We won't turn to another scripture.
2 Corinthians 12. Bear with me for two or three
more minutes. 2 Corinthians 12 7 listen to
what Paul said in that experience of the thorn in the flesh He
said in verse 7 lest. I should be exalted above measure
through the abundance of revelations There was given to me a thorn
in the flesh God knows what we're made out of doesn't he the more
he blesses us the more danger there is of the flesh rising
up and The Lord had revealed some things to Paul. And he said,
something came with it, though, a thorn. Something that caused
me grief and pain. The messenger of Satan to buffet
me now, the Lord will use Satan for your good, lest I should
be exalted. Above measure, and for this thing,
I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. Of course
we do. Lord, deliver me. Deliver me
from the pray for the sick. I prayed for somebody to get
well, but I know that it may be the Lord's will that they
not get well. And that may be better for him. They don't get
well. To depart here to be with him
and be better with him. But we pray we were taught to
pray and he said I was off the Lord thrice that it might depart.
Take this thorn out of my flesh. But he said the Lord said unto
me, my grace is sufficient for thee. Can you take that? There's
nothing wrong with asking, Lord, deliver me from this trial. It's
killing me. It grieves me, it hurts, take
it away. But are you ready to hear this
answer? My grace is sufficient. My grace. My grace is sufficient
for thee, for my strength is made complete. Isn't that what
Peter just said in that passage we just read? In our text, that
it may be complete, that you may be complete. that you may
be mature. The Lord brings you there through
affliction. It's made complete through infirmity. Most gladly, therefore, Paul
said. This is his response to the Lord's
answer. See if you could say this. Most
gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in mine infirmities that
the power of Christ may rest upon me. Would you rather have
a bed of ease in this life without Christ or trouble with Christ? Therefore, I take pleasure in
mine infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities when I lack things,
when I don't have what I need now, not desires, necessities.
Paul did without some things that he needed. That's all right. In persecutions, in distresses
for Christ's sake, For when I'm weak, then I'm strong. My grace
is sufficient. Go ahead, Lord, and complete
this work, whatever it is you're doing, though it hurt, though
it be grievous. and give us grace to rejoice
in your faithfulness and to rejoice in the sufficiency of your grace. To rejoice even in our infirmities
because we know that thereby you work good things in us. That
you accomplish your will and purpose and you get glory from
it. Is that enough for you? May God
make it enough for us. His grace was sufficient to save
us His grace is sufficient to keep us. You reckon His grace
is sufficient to bring us through troubles? Amen. Let's bow in prayer.