It is my desire that by the end
of this message, you and I will know if the Lord Jesus is not
merely speaking to Paul, but that he is speaking to us as
individuals. When he says, my grace is sufficient
for thee, wouldn't it be something if you heard the Lord say this
to you, my grace, is sufficient for thee." The Lord Jesus will return. The earth as we know it will
be destroyed. And at that time, all the things
that we're so concerned about and that seem so important to
us will not seem very important then. Look at the description the Lord
gives us of that time that will come in Matthew chapter 25. Verse
31. I love reading these two verses
of scripture. When, not if, but when the Son
of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with
Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory, and before
Him shall be gathered all nations." You and I are going to be there
at this time. And he shall separate them one
from another as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats. The thought occurred to me. If. I stand. Among the redeemed at this time. If I'm one of these people that
he separates as a sheep rather than a goat, if I end up taking
part in that great choir singing worthy is the lamb that was slain. If I'm in heaven, I will be there. by sheer free
grace. I know that that is so. The only way I'll be there is
by sheer free grace. I will not be there because of
anything I've done. I will not be there because of
anything I've been enabled to not do. I will not be there because
of some reception I've made. I'll be there. If I'm there. I'll be there by fear. free grace. I know that. Now, while I was
musing upon that, this scripture came to my mind that just delighted
me to think of. It's where the Lord said to Paul,
my grace, my grace. That's some kind of grace, isn't
it? That's the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said to Paul,
my grace is sufficient for thee. And my thought was and is, dare
I take that to myself? Where he says to Todd, me, my grace is sufficient for
thee. The little cup worries about
the ocean being able to fill it. And the ocean says, little
cup, my waters are sufficient for thee. Does the Lord speak
to me? My grace is sufficient for thee. Well, let me give you a hint.
Let me give you a hint as to whether or not he's talking to
you. This is not for everybody. He doesn't say to every son of
Adam, my grace is sufficient for thee. What's he say next? He says, my strength, my ability,
my power is made perfect in weakness, literally powerlessness. strength-less-ness. How do you fit? Would that describe
you? Now what led Paul to make this
statement? Let's go back up to verse 1 of
2 Corinthians chapter 12. He says, it's not expedient for
me doubtless to glory. It's not profitable for me to
boast. That's 2 Corinthians chapter
12. It's not profitable for me to boast. You see, boasting is
always ugly, isn't it? Who maketh thee to differ from
another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Now, if you received it, why
do you glory as if you didn't receive it? It's what was given
to you. Boasting is so ugly because whatever
we have, we have by the grace of God. It's nothing meritorious
about us. It's by grace. So Paul says it's
not expedient for me doubtless to glory. Now, he says, I will
come to visions and revelations of the Lord. You see, he was
a steward of the mysteries of the gospel. God taught him the
gospel directly. Now, God taught me through a
man. He taught you through a man. But do you know Paul was brought
into the third heavens and he learned the gospel from the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. He said in Galatians 1, 11, and
12, I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
to me was not after man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. You see, the gospel is a mystery
that we couldn't know unless God was pleased to make it known.
And God made it known to Paul, and God uses Paul to make it
known to us. He said, I'll come to visions
and revelations of the Lord. Now look what he says in verse
two. I knew a man in Christ. I don't know why that never hit
me before. I knew a man in Christ above
14 years ago. 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. Here's my identity in Christ. I knew a man in Christ. Now this is the only man I'm
going to glory in. This man that's in Christ. There's my hope. that I am in the Lord Jesus Christ."
You see, God manifested Him to take away our sins, and in Him,
in the Lord Jesus Christ, is no sin. Now this is the only
man I can glory, this man that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He says, I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago, And he talks
about this experience he had, whether in the body I cannot
tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth, such
a one caught up into the third heaven. Now he says, I don't
know if my body was physically translated into heaven, I can't
really tell you. The third heaven, the first heaven
is where the birds fly. The second heaven is where the
moon and the stars are. The third heaven is where the
God of glory dwells. It's where the Lord Jesus Christ
sits on his throne. Now, I don't know if I was physically
brought there or if this was an out-of-body experience. He
says in verse 3, I knew such a man. I think it's deep the
way he won't even say I knew me. But I knew such a man, this
man in Christ, this is my hope. I knew such a man, whether in
the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth, how
that he was caught up into paradise. And he heard unspeakable words,
which is not lawful for a man to utter. Now here, he was taught
directly by Christ, the gospel. Hold your finger there and turn
to Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians chapter 3 for this cause I Paul the prisoner
of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles if you've heard of the dispensation
the stewardship of the grace of God which is given me to you
or to Now, Paul wasn't given this stewardship because he was
anybody special. He's no more special than me
or you. He's just a sinner saved by grace. But God's going to
make known His grace and He used Paul for this. If you've heard
of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you,
how that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery. As
I wrote afore it, a few words whereby when you read, you may
understand my knowledge and the mystery of Christ. Paul, how
do you know all this stuff about the Gospel? because God revealed
it to me. He made known to me the mystery. Now, back to our text in 2 Corinthians
chapter 12. He said, I heard unspeakable
words which is not lawful for a man to utter. You ever heard
of anybody who said they went to heaven and they come back
and tell you about it? Well, Paul was there and he couldn't
do it. I had a lady speak to me recently and said, I died
four times and I've come back and that's so I can testify.
And I, oh, I didn't want to say to her, you know, I just, I didn't
believe her because if she had seen anything, she couldn't speak. Paul said he couldn't. Look in
verse 5. He says, now such a one, this
man in Christ, this man that's brought up into the third heavens,
of such a one will I glory, will I have confidence in, will I
rejoice in. Can you rejoice in who you are
in Christ? I can, because I rejoice in Him.
Remember, as He is, So are we in this world. Can you rejoice
in this man? I can rejoice in this man as
such a one. Will I glory yet of myself? I will not glory,
but in my infirmities, you see how he's speaking of two men.
He speaks of this man that he'll glory in this man in Christ Jesus.
But he says of myself, I will not glory verse six. For though I would desire to
glory, I'm as vain as anybody else is, Paul says. And you know,
there's in every one of us a desire to glory. It's so ugly. It's
so wicked. It's so unbecoming. He says,
for though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool,
for I'll say the truth. I'm going to be honest with you.
But now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that
which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And lest I
should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the
revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh. Now
we're going to come back to that in a minute. But Paul says, lest
I should be exalted above measure. Now I tried to put myself in
Paul's position. I know a little bit about myself. If God used
me to be the man to expound the gospel to the world. If God used
me to write the scriptures, if God used me in this capacity,
I'd have a hard time not glorying. I know myself. You know, somebody
once came to Spurgeon, this is a true story. And they were concerned
about Spurgeon because he seemed to be a little bit too full of
himself. And you know, Spurgeon was, you know, he was always,
he had to make a bust of him and he was always posing for
portraits and all that kind of stuff. He did seem to be a little
bit full of himself and this man was concerned about it. And he
came to Spurgeon and he said, it bothers me that you, it was
particular with the fact that he, he posed for this bus, you
know, he had put the cast of, you know, so they'd have the
statue of him and everything. And he said, it bothers me that
you want to do stuff like this. He said, I'm pastoring the largest Protestant
church in Europe or England, maybe England won't say Europe,
England and Europe. My sermons are translated in a hundred different
languages." He said, it's a wonder I'm not worse than I am. True. Well, Paul said, lest I
be exalted above measure. through the abundance of the
revelations that were given me. And you think what a blessed
time Paul had being brought up into the third heavens. He says
in verse 7, lest I should be exalted above measure through
the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn
in the flesh. The messenger of Satan to buffet
me. That means to strike with a clenched
fist, lest I should be exalted above measure. A thorn in the
flesh. Now have you ever had a thorn
in your flesh? Sure you have. It hurts. It's
painful. It is grievous. I mean just getting
pricked with a thorn hurts a lot. Now, a thorn in the flesh is
not going to kill you, is it? You'll think it is. It's painful,
but it's not going to kill you. It's a thorn in the flesh. Now, who gave him this thorn? It says, there was given me a
thorn in the flesh. God gave him this thorn in the
flesh. That's who gave it to him. But
look what he says about this thorn. It's the messenger of
Satan to buffet me, to strike me with a clenched fist. Now,
how can it be said that God gave it to him, yet it's the messenger
of Satan? How can both of those be true?
Well, I can show you that in the Scripture. Turn to 2 Samuel
24. 2 Samuel 24. Verse 1, And again the anger of the LORD
was kindled against Israel, and He moved David against them,
to say, Go, number Israel, And Judah. Now, did you hear that?
The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. So he moved David
to go number them. And you remember what happened
as a result of David numbering them. He took this census without
the atonement money and God killed 70,000 people. This was a judgment
of God. The Lord moved David to do this. Now let's look at the Chronicles
account in first Chronicles 21. Same story told by a different
writer, inspired by the same spirit, verse 1 of 1 Chronicles
21, and Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to
number Israel. Now, is that a typo? Is it wrong? No. The Lord was going to chastise
Israel. So he caused Satan. He moved Satan. You see, Satan
is God's devil. Now, Satan doesn't realize it,
but everything he does is nothing more than God's will being done.
He's using the devil for his holy purposes. Now, only the
Lord can do this. The Lord brings good out of evil.
I mean, the cross is the greatest evil that there ever was, but
look at the good that came out of that. So the Lord is going
to Do something to Israel. It says the Lord moved David
against Israel, but then it says Satan raised David up against
the Lord used Satan. So this thorn in the flesh. God
gave it to him. And it was the messenger of Satan. How painful this thorn was, what
was it? You know, people have tried to
guess and what an exercise in futility. Somebody has suggested
that it was Paul's eyesight. It may have been. He talked about
his eyes in Galatians chapter four. Was that was it a physical
infirmity? I don't know. Was it some particular
sin? I've read where people say it
couldn't have been that. But why not? Why not? I know I have certainly felt to have a sin that seems to be
a thorn in the flesh to me. I don't know of anybody that
hasn't. So I don't know why someone could say this was not some sin. I know that a believer would
never use this as an excuse for sin. Well, it's my thorn in the
flesh, therefore I can't help it, therefore I'm going to indulge
in it. No, not at all. A believer wouldn't treat any
sin that way. But I certainly wouldn't say it was not some
kind of sin or some kind of weakness, but I know this. He felt the
pain of it. We don't know what it was and
it's pointless for us to try to make conjecture about it,
but we know it was painful. A thorn in the flesh. Have you ever felt like you have
a thorn in the flesh that's so painful? Verse eight. For this thing,
this thorn in the flesh, I besought the Lord thrice that it might
depart from me, literally three times, perhaps. Some people say
that just means a whole lot of times. I besought the Lord over
and over and over again that this might depart from me. Now,
I've said in the past, I've said this about this passage of scripture,
I've said, and the Lord said no. But the Lord didn't say no,
did he? You don't read that in this passage
scripture. He didn't say, no, I'm going to let that thorn stay
there. He didn't, he didn't say that, but he did say this. He did say
this. My grace. My grace. Now, when the Lord's
talking about my grace, he's talking about saving grace, the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, you know, the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your
sakes, he became poor, that you through his poverty might be
rich. That's the grace we're talking
about, the grace he calls my grace. Don't you want to hear
him say this to you? I want him to say, Todd, I don't
need to hear my name, but I want to know he's talking to me. My
grace. Is sufficient. That means. It's enough. That's what the
word means. It's enough. It means you don't
need anything else. It means if you've got my grace,
if that's all you got, you got everything. That's what that
means. If you have his grace. If that's
all you got, you got everything. Saving grace. And look what he
says next. Verse nine, he saith unto me,
my grace is sufficient for thee. For my strength, my ability,
my power. is made perfect in weakness. Now, if a doctor is going to
show forth his power, his ability, who's he get the most glory from? Somebody with a hangnail? Or
somebody who's got a horrible disease? Who's he get the most
glory from? He says, my strength, my ability
is made perfect in weakness. Now, how can I know if this promise
is for me? It has something to do with some
understanding of weakness, of strengthlessness, of powerlessness. Turn with me to Romans chapter
five. Verse six. For when we were yet without
strength. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. Now, let me ask you a real simple
question. From that verse of scripture. Who did Jesus Christ
die for? Two descriptions. Those without
strength. Without strength. Not just weak
and barely hanging on, but without spiritual strength and ungodly. Now you can't take a promise
to yourself unless you personally fit the character of the one
the promise was made to. How do you fit in there? My grace is sufficient for thee,
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. My grace is sufficient to choose
you. I don't need any other reason
to make you the person of my choice. My grace is sufficient
to choose you to be mine. I need no other reason. No reason
has to be found in you. For the children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand. My grace is enough. My grace is sufficient to justify
you, to make you stand before me without guilt. What about the thorn? What thorn? Nothing there. You stand without
guilt by my grace, being justified freely. by His grace, through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. My grace is sufficient
to redeem you, to pay for all your sins, all the sins of the
past, all the sins of right now, and all the sins you haven't
even committed yet, all the sins you know about, and all the sins
you don't know about. My grace is sufficient to redeem
thee, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, in whom we have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of sins. We have them. My grace is sufficient
to make you accepted right now. He hath made us accepted, literally,
He hath graced us in the Beloved. My grace is sufficient to give
you spiritual life. And you hath He quickened, who
were dead in trespasses and sins. But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love, wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us. together with Christ, by
grace are you saved. Now listen to this, my grace
is sufficient to cause everything to work together for your good
and even that thorn will be seen as a blessing. That's the way His... Now, only
God can do that. But He brings good out of evil. My grace is sufficient to give
you a reason to come boldly to the throne of grace. Boldly?
Me come boldly? Is salvation by grace? Come on
now! Is it by grace? Is it a throne
of grace? unmerited favor? Why, then I
can come boldly and expect to be heard. Come, my soul, thy
suit prepare. Jesus loves to answer prayer.
He himself has bid thee pray, therefore will not say thee nay.
Thou art coming to a king. Large petitions with thee bring.
For his grace and power are such that none can ever ask too much. My grace is sufficient to give
you full assurance. And the only reason we struggle
with full assurance is because we're struggling with this thing
of the freeness of grace. Free grace? Why wouldn't you
have full assurance? My grace is sufficient to preserve
you and to keep you from falling. Now unto Him that is able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
His throne with exceeding joy. My grace is sufficient to empower
you. Paul said, I can do all things. Did you hear what he said? I
can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. My grace is sufficient to cause
you to deny yourself and be glad you're doing it. To take up your
cross and to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said in Acts
20, 24, none of these things move me, these afflictions that
are awaiting me, none of these things move me, neither count
I my life dear to myself that I might finish my course with
joy and the ministry which I've received of the Lord Jesus to
testify the gospel of the grace of God. My grace is sufficient to give
you boldness before men. regarding my gospel. I love that
scripture in Acts chapter four, verse 13, where it says, and
when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they took knowledge
of them. They understood that they were
unlearned and ignorant men. They took knowledge of them that
they had been with Jesus. My grace is sufficient to motivate
you. You know, the world hears about
the freeness of His grace and they're afraid that won't motivate
people to obedience. It won't motivate them to follow
the Lord Jesus Christ. They just never have experienced
it. If you ever have His grace, it'll motivate you to honor Him
in all things. Obedience is necessary. My grace is enough to satisfy
you and keep you hungry. to be plumb satisfied. Paul said,
I've learned to be content in all things and yet to always
be hungering after Christ. My grace is sufficient to encourage
you. You know, I always have a reason
to be encouraged because salvation is by grace. Never have a reason
to be discouraged as long as salvation is by grace. My grace
is sufficient to make your prayers heard. Wherefore, he is able to save
them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he ever
liveth to make intercession for them. My grace is sufficient
to comfort you under all your circumstances. You really believe
if you have my grace, everything's going to be okay. And you believe
that, don't you? You really believe that. If I
have his grace, everything is going to be just fine. My grace
is sufficient to save you even with this thorn. And my grace
is sufficient to make you stand faultless before my throne. I repeat, now unto him that's
able to keep you from falling. and to present you faultless
before His presence with exceeding joy." Now, back to our text in 2 Corinthians
12. 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, may literally overshadow me. Now I glory in my utter powerlessness
for this one reason. that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Verse 10, Therefore I take pleasure
in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in needs, in
persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am
weak. Then am I strong. Now here is the key to spiritual
strength. Do you want to understand? When I'm weak. When I'm weak. I tell you what,
it's easy. It's easy to trust Christ as
my righteousness before God when I have absolutely none of my
own. It's easy for me to believe grace
when I cannot work. When I am weak, then Am I strong? Now here is every believer's
testimony. You know, when I, I preach this
message and I know that there are people
who will misapply it. There are people who will abuse
it. There are people who will make
accusations. He's saying this or that, but
you know what? I'm not worried about those people. Nothing I can do for goats. I
know the Lord's people won't abuse it. Not a one of them. Not a one of them. But here's
the testimony of every believer. I am what I am. By what? The grace of God. I'm not what I would be. And
that's by grace. I'm not what I was. That's by
grace. I'm not what I will be. And what I will be is by the
grace of God. My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength. is made perfect
in weakness. Amen. Dwayne, what have you got
for us?