the book of 2nd Corinthians chapter
12. I want us to look beginning with
verse 6 and let's read down through the 10th verse. For though I
would desire to glory I shall not 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. And 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, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing
I 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. Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I
strong. I want to speak this morning
on that last phrase in verse 10. For when I am weak, then
am I strong. May the Lord be pleased to give
us the liberty of his Holy Spirit. This expression of the Apostle
Paul is paradoxical, I guess, and yet it was in reality the
experience of the Apostle Paul. Now, we're not talking about
some ordinary believer like you and I possibly, but we're talking
about a man who had revelations given to him in the spirit. We're
talking about a writer of scripture. We're talking about a man who
preached the gospel across the Gentile world, a man whom God
mightily blessed and used in this world to establish and to
set up churches. We're talking about the Apostle
Paul. Now, Paul was a wise man in the
realm of the things of the spirit. In spiritual things, he was a
wise man. He had the mind of Jesus Christ. Paul had the ability to understand
the workings of Almighty God. It would be a wonderful thing
indeed if we had more of that ability ourselves to understand
what God is doing, what God is doing in our lives, what God
is doing in the world around about us today. He was also a
man, I think, of a very calm spirit. I think he could get
riled up and he could get upset with people who were perverting
the gospel of God's free grace in Jesus Christ. But yet I believe
that he was a man of calm spirit. He was a man of deep faith. A
man who believed God. A man who had been called of
God. A man who knew that call of God
and knew what it meant for God to have laid hold upon him. And
he knew that he had been chosen by God to be an apostle. He knew he had been chosen of
God. He knew that he had been separated from his mother's womb
and had been called by the free grace of God. He knew this. He
understood this. And he had a calmness of spirit. And Paul was far removed, I believe,
from being a fanatic. I do not believe that the Apostle
Paul was a fanatic in the sense that people nowadays speak of
religious fanatics. I believe that this man had a
solid foundation under him. He was certainly upon the rock,
Christ Jesus, and he had been a man who had been led in the
way by the Spirit of God. And Paul said in the book of
Romans that they that are led by the Spirit of God, he said,
they're the sons of God. Paul believed that a man must
be directed and led by the Spirit of God in this world, and he
only spoke when God spoke to him. And he only preached what
God laid upon his heart, and he was no fanatic. Now the truth
is narrow. Wherever you find the truth,
it is narrow. And so you can expect a man that
is preaching the truth to be narrow-minded. Now I know that
everybody wants, you know, they want the doctor to be correct,
and they want him to be absolutely certain of what he says to them,
and if he diagnoses an illness, they want him to be correct,
and they want him to be right. But we know that, and also it's
true among lawyers, that if we have anything to do with a lawyer,
we want him to be affirmative and we want him to be positive.
But when it comes to religion, we want the preacher to be wishy-washy. Well, not you folks here, but
people in the world, they want the preacher not to take any
solid stand on anything. But, beloved, a preacher, a man
like the Apostle Paul, was a man who had some convictions, and
he had some experience, and he knew the truth of God, and he
wasn't afraid as the Spirit of God moved him. He was not afraid
to speak those truths with words which the Spirit gave him to
utter those words. Now, beloved, he said, when I
am weak, then am I strong. This is the man that made that
statement. He said, when I am weak, then, he says, I am strong. Now, if we're weak, and we are
indeed weak, We're weak in many ways, and we'll try to talk about
that a little bit. And so was Paul, and if like
him, we're strong in our weakness, and if we are weak in the ways
that the word of God suggests, then if we be in Christ, then
we can be strong as Paul was strong, then we shall be in the
best of company, because we'll be in the company of the beloved
apostle, the apostle Paul. Now Paul had an infirmity. He had an infirmity. We read
of that over here in the scriptures in verse 7 of this chapter. He said, lest I should be exalted
above measure. I've been highly favored of God.
God has blessed me. God has done unusual things in
my life. God has led me in an unusual
way. God has opened my eyes to see.
I've had some wonderful visions and revelations and experiences. But lest, he says, here in verse
7, I should be exalted above measure through the abundance
of these revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh. Paul says that God allowed the
messenger of Satan to come and buffer him, to come and torment
him, to come and aggravate him. to come and to so affect him
and afflict him that he was conscious of his weakness in the flesh
to the point where he could not boast or brag or be exalted above
measure, be exalted to the point in and of himself where that
he would be unworthy for the work which God called him to
do. You see, God is very able to
do his work through men. God is very able to do that.
But before God works through a man, He most generally will
bring that man to see his nothingness. And Paul admitted, he said, though
I be nothing, that's the last part of verse 11, the last phrase,
though I be nothing, the Lord had brought this man to see that
he was nothing. Nothing apart from him, nothing
apart from his power, nothing apart from his grace, which was
sufficient for him. The Lord had brought this man
to see what he really was in a state of nature. And so the
Apostle Paul, I believe he had this thorn in the flesh. Many
suggest that it was a physical ailment which made him very weak,
which tormented him and bothered him as he lived his daily life. Now I believe that there was
something more to this than just simply a eye disease, a disease
of the eyes that caused him a great deal of embarrassment and pain
because I do know, according to what I read, that his eyes
were generally matted shut and he had a difficult time looking,
what we might say, as a man would like to appear in public. He
was a man of a weak stature, and he appeared to be an ill
man, an infected man around the eyes. But nevertheless, I think
there was more to this than that. I believe that Paul had gotten
a view of the majesty of God. I know that Paul understood that
God was holy and that he was a sinner. You know, Paul said
that he was the chief of sinners. He was the chief of sinners.
And he said, Christ, it's a worthy, he said it's a faithful statement
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. He believed himself to
be the chief of sinners. And I think he understood something
about the holiness of God, that God was holy, that God was in
the heavens, that God sat upon the circle of the universe, and
that God was far removed from man, and that God was exalted,
God was light, and we're darkness. And he understood something about
his nature, and he felt a lowliness. inside. I think that everybody
that is converted by the Spirit of God, everybody that has been
brought low, everybody in whom the withering work of the Spirit
of God has taken place, that every one of them, they have
a sense of awe at the majesty of God and they have somehow
or other they have a feeling that they're just low themselves
and that they're inferior to God Almighty and they're careful
about the things of God and they're very careful not to say something
that they ought not say in the presence of God. And so Paul
was this kind of an individual. However, the power of God, he
was a man who felt all of this, his weakness by nature, and had
this thorn of the flesh, and had this eye disease, and this
affliction, and he was bothered by all of it. However, however,
the power of God was so upon this man. The power of God from
heaven by the Spirit came upon this man to the point that the
weakness was not obvious, and that men and women that listened
to him preach men and women that sit under the sound of his voice
and his message and the gospel that he preached. It was not
obvious to them that this man had all of this weakness, that
this man had all of this problem and all of this trouble. It was
not obvious because the power of God so blessed him and so
was upon him that it was not obvious. Now isn't that wonderful? Now, he says in verse 9, The
B part of the verse he said most gladly therefore will I rather
glory in my infirmities That the power of Christ may rest
upon me Now if I can have the power of Christ upon me, then
I will glory in my infirmities I'll glory in them because I'm
in a position where God will have mercy upon me. I'm in a
position where I'm unable in and of myself. There's no sufficiency
in me. I have been emptied out and there's
no sufficiency in me so the power of God is going to be upon me
so much more and therefore I will glory in my infirmities. I'll glory in it. Now, beloved
Paul understood that there was no power in human nature to convert
men's souls. He understood that there was
no power in a man to encourage and to edify the people of God. He understood that this was a
spiritual work, and that if it was going to be accomplished
by him, that God must do it through him, and it must be the power
of God that accomplishes that work. And so the power of God
was upon him, and so he said, he said, most gladly therefore,
I'll take this infirmity, I'll bear this infirmity, I'll bear
this reproach, I'll take pleasure in necessities along with infirmities
and reproaches. He says, I'll take, he said,
I'll take pleasure in persecution and in distresses as long as
it's for Christ's sake. As long as it's for the gospel's
sake, as long as it's for the master's sake, who loved me out
of my sin and loved me into liberty and life, as long as it's for
Jesus' sake, I'll be glad to suffer whatever I must suffer. Now Paul was greatly taken up
with the Lord Jesus Christ, and Paul would do anything for Christ's
sake. He would bear anything for Christ's
sake. And oh, my friend, if we have
come to know Him, if we've come to appreciate Him, if we have
ever spent any time with Him, if He is altogether lovely to
our souls, if He is precious to us, we would bear anything
for His sake. Oh, if we could have His power
upon us, if we could be liberated by the Spirit of God, if our
tongue could be loose, if we could speak for Christ, if we
could speak for His honor and His praise and His glory, we
would, we would, we would bear it. We would take pleasure in
it if it would enable us to speak more for the glory of His name. It was said of Augustine, that
he very seldom was ever heard to speak a word unless some way
or another he would speak the name of Jesus. Every time he
opened his mouth, he'd be speaking the name of Jesus. Now, beloved,
listen, that is admirable, very admirable, I think. But I understand
that some people would say, well, a guy surely wouldn't have much
to say if all he could say was something about the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's because we have no understanding
of who He is. It's because we're very limited
in our appreciation of Him, that One whom God sent into this world,
that was the Son of God's love, that One who fills heaven and
earth, that One in whom all the fullness of God dwelleth. We
know very little about him, and therefore we think it's, we certainly
have a very limited vocabulary if Jesus is all we could say. But I'll tell you what, if you
could say that and really know who he is, then my friend, you
would be a wise man Indeed now he says here then in these verses
that he would That he would glory and take pleasure in these reproaches
because when he was weak He said then am I strong when I'm weak
when I got all these problems and all this trouble and all
these necessities then he said I'm weak and therefore then I'm
strong in the Lord now the servant is not greater than his Lord
and Look over in the 13th chapter of 2nd Corinthians, chapter 13,
and look at verse 3 and 4, if you will. Since, Paul says, you
seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you, Lord, is
not weak, but is mighty in you. Now, Paul had preached to this
church, and the Spirit of God had done a great work among them. There had been many Corinthians
that had been converted They became believers under the ministry
of the Apostle Paul. Paul was their father in the
faith. And he had not been weak before them, and his speech was
one of the Spirit. But he says, it's mighty in you,
for though he, listen to this now, for though he was crucified
through weakness. Look at it. Now the Lord Jesus
Christ was hung on a cross. The Lord Jesus Christ had nails
driven through his hands and his feet. The spear was thrust
into his side. The Lord Jesus Christ gave up
the ghost on the cross. And the scripture says here that
he was crucified through weakness. Now, what it means is that he
was crucified as a sinner on the cross because our sin had
been imputed unto him. Our sin had been laid upon him,
and when he was numbered with the transgressors, and when our
sin was laid upon him, then God the Father God the Father in
his divine purpose caused him to be laid out upon that tree
and nailed to that tree. This was the work of the Father.
Now we know that the hands of wicked men were involved in it.
But the Lord Jesus Christ, here is that one that there was not
anything made without him and yet here he is humbling himself
and becoming obedient even to the death of the cross. And Paul
said he was crucified through weakness, yet he lived by the
power of God. Meaning that when the Lord Jesus
Christ expired, gave up his life to finish the work of redemption
and salvation on the part of his elect, that God, as he was
put into the grave, into that buried tomb, that there was a
day when the rock was rolled away and the Lord Jesus Christ
was raised up from the dead. He was raised out of the dead
by the power of God. And that's what Paul says. He's
living by the power of God. He was crucified through weakness,
but he lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in
him. Hear that? We are weak in him. If you are in union with the
Lord Jesus Christ, you appear to be very weak as far as this
world is concerned. because you turn the other cheek,
and because you're praying all the time, because you're asking
God's wisdom, and because you're begging God to show you His will,
and you don't exert yourself and set yourself out as somebody
who is proud, and somebody who's arrogant, and somebody who feels
like or acts like they have the world by the tail with a downhill
pull. You're not that kind of a person.
You're a meek soul if you're a believer. And so you're weak
in Him. You appear to be weak, but listen
to this, but we shall live with Him by the power of God, Paul
said, toward you. And so Christ living in us now,
the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ living in His people, His people
are strong in Him as He lives in them and His resurrection
power is in their souls. So the Lord Jesus Christ is living
in his people and we are strong in him Well, let us for the sake
of understanding this text just a little bit better at the outset
this morning Let us turn this text inside out. Let's just turn
it inside out now men by nature and you you just listen to me
carefully for a little while and you begin to get the drift
of A little more about what this text is actually saying. Let
me say that men by nature do not want to own their weakness. All men are weak by nature. Men are weak by nature. We know
the flesh is weak. The spirit is willing, but the
flesh is weak. Now all think that they are strong. All men. They have a native strength. They are born into this world,
they're educated and tutored, and they have a certain degree
of pride, and they think that they are strong. And even though
this is a supposed strength, they feel they are strong. strong. Men and women don't want to think
about being weak by nature. Now men are proud, they fancy
that they have strength and this is an indication of a terrible,
terrible weakness. A man who thinks that he is strong
And he just feels that he is capable, that he has ability,
and that he is able to do whatever that he's called upon to do.
This is a terrible weakness indeed. Now we've met certain persons
who think that they can do all that is needful for their own
salvation whenever they please to do so. I've met a few people
in this world. Oh, they are strong people and
whatever God demands of any man, they're certainly capable of
producing it. They can do it. They can do it. Now their idea is that they're
to be saved by their own doings and they feel that they're very
much up to it. They feel that they can do whatever
is required, that they have the strength of character, and that
there's no leak in their ship, but what their pumps can well
keep the water out. and that they're well able to
do whatever is demanded of them. Now, the idea is that they are
to be saved by their doings, and they certainly feel that
they're up to it. Sure, they have a few flaws,
and they have a few faults in their character, but these faults
are hardly worth mentioning, and after all, the God that they
worship is too merciful to be particular, and therefore, sure,
what few faults they have, the Lord will overlook. And the Lord
will certainly consider their merits to be worthy of being
rewarded with eternal life. Well, my friend, they feel that
they'll win the prize, and if they don't, nobody will. Have you ever met anybody who
was this strong? This strength of yours is a mere
delusion. It's built on ignorance. Bold. of yourself and the Word of God. Anybody who feels that they can
satisfy God is, boy, let me tell you something right now, they're
ignorant of themselves, aren't they? Anybody that thinks they
can do good, such good as God Almighty will accept, a God who
will not look upon sin, a God who is such a holy God that even
when sin was laid on his own well-beloved son, hung him on
a tree, nailed him to the tree, and he was crucified because
he was my substitute and my sin had been imputed to him. And
I tell you, God is too holy to look upon sin, and nobody is
gonna beat the demands of God's holy law in and of themselves. Nobody can do that, and they're
ignorant of the word of God. Scripture says, cursed is everybody
that continueth not in all, A-double-L, all the things that are written
in the book of the law to do them. Cursed is that man. And
so, beloved, unless we're perfect, and unless we have never committed
a sin, then we do not understand how weak we are unless we've
considered the word of God, then we're in ignorance. And this
ignorance I'm going to expose today. I'm attempting to do that.
There is no going to heaven, beloved, this way. There's no
going to heaven by a man lifting himself up by his own works and
by his own righteousness. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but it's according to his mercy he saved
us. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth. The man that runs You know what
that suggests? It suggests the fella that he's
doing it on his own. He's running, and he's running
to obtain the prize, and he feels that he will get it. But God,
it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
God that showeth mercy. Mercy is of the Lord. Mercy must come from the hand
of God. Mercy must come down upon your
soul. A man can receive nothing except
to be given to him from heaven and mercy has got to come from
God. Now I've seen and heard of epitaphs
of persons that were placed by the mistaken kindness of relatives
and friends upon their tombstones, which I'm sure, if it could be
substantiated, if it could be proven, would be sufficient to
shut them out of heaven. Now, for an example, here lies,
here lies our dearly beloved mother. She kept all of the commandments. Now what kind of an epitaph is
that. Now if she kept all of the commandments,
she is the only person that ever kept all of the commandments
besides Jesus Christ. If she kept them all, is that
right? She's the only person that ever did. My, what a strong
lady she must have been. She kept all of the commandments. And here lies our dear Father
who was perfect in all of his ways. Well, if that be the case,
I would have sure liked to have lived when he lived. I would
have liked to have lived around him, because, oh my, to live
around somebody that was perfect, wouldn't that be, well, that'd
make me uncomfortable, of course, and probably would make you uncomfortable,
but I'm here to tell you that these epitaphs And I've heard
of people, you know, that had, I've read about this, about how
the people felt, you know, that they never sinned, they never
sinned in so many years. Never sinned in 30 years. Been
30 years. Well, my friend, they didn't
live around me. If they lived around me, they would have sinned.
Because I have a way of bringing it out of people somewhere or
another, aggravating, irritating people until they show their
depravity. But I'm here to tell you this
morning that this would keep a man out of heaven, such an
epitaph as that, if it would be true. These departed were,
these do not appear to have been sinners at all, their virtues
were superlative, their faults nonexistent, it seems. Let men
think what they want to. These people are not in heaven. Let people say, well, that fellow's
in heaven. He most surely is. My mother's in heaven because
of this, because of that, because of something else. Your mother,
my friend, if your mother's in heaven, she's going to be in
heaven just like the harlots get to heaven, just like the
thief on the cross gets to heaven. She's going to be in heaven just
exactly like Paul the apostle got to heaven, and that is by
the grace of God. Got to heaven by the grace of
God. The whole, the scripture says, listen to me, he said,
I come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He
said the whole doesn't need a physician but the sick. And the scripture
says there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents than
the ninety and nine which needs no repentance. Sounds to me like,
listen, listen to me now, the folks These folks that supposedly,
you know, are strong and that they can walk their way to heaven.
Listen, if they were to get to heaven, they would not feel at
home there. Now, I think I'm right about
this. What would they do with themselves
when the rest of us are singing there in eternity? These people, they had no use
for the atonement, they had no use for the mercy of God. I cannot
see how there could be any harmony of sentiment among sinners saved
by the grace of God and those who owe nothing to the mercy
of God and nothing to the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. How are you going to be able
to fellowship with them? I couldn't. I can't fellowship with them.
I'm going to be there by pure grace. That's how I'm going to
get there. And I couldn't fellowship with them people. They're a bunch
of Pharisees. And they got there some other
way than I did. Well, they're not going to be
there. Why did Christ die if men could save themselves? Why
should he bleed upon the gory tree outside the city of Jerusalem
if men and women could gain a place among the blessed some other
way? If righteousness come by the
law, Christ is dead in vain, the Bible says. And so listen
to me, why should, listen, this is a very fatal weakness. You
say, well preacher, you mean tell me you wouldn't encourage
somebody who felt they were strong and able to do good and able
to do right? You mean you wouldn't encourage?
I tell you this is a fatal weakness. This claim that men, of men who
think themselves strong enough to provide what God demands. If you think you're strong enough
to provide what God demands, that's a fatal weakness, and
honey, you're going to hell. You cannot possibly provide what
God demands. And one of the glories of the
God of the Bible is that everything He demands of a sinner, He provides
for that sinner in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
that weakness lies in pride, which insults insults the crucified
Lord Jesus Christ. The disloyalty, there's disloyalty
in it which prefers itself to the Son of God. Oh, listen to
this, the poet said, perish the virtue as it ought, but abhorred
and the fool with it who insults his Lord. The fellow says, I
got the merit, preacher. I got the merit. I got the virtue,
preacher. I got it. Well, if you have,
my friend, you insult the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're disloyal
to him. He's the Savior, and don't you
infringe upon his work, and don't you offer anything to him in
your hands. You better bring nothing when
you come to his throne. Bring nothing. Come as you are. Come in your true character unto
the Lord Jesus Christ. You must be saved by the merits
and the strength of another or not at all. That's it. You're
a drowning soul and you've got to give up the fight before you'll
ever be saved. Give it up. Give it up. Nothing
good, neither great nor small. Nothing sinner. Jesus did it,
did it all long, long ago. Give it up. Give it up. Quit your struggling. Quit your
working your way up. Leave it to the Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. The strength you think you have
is perfect weakness. That's what it is. It's perfect
weakness before God. You say, maybe it's so, preacher,
but I still feel You ever hear people say, and you talk with
them, and you show them, and you persuade them? You think
you have, you persuade a man against his will, he's of the
same opinion still. But you think you got the word
across to him, and he says, but preacher, he says, I still think
that I can repent whenever I please, and I can believe whenever I
want to. I think I can. Well, listen to
me, you're still strong, aren't you? You still feel, as a fellow
says, you still feel in your oats. My friend, you're weak. I never met in the 40 some odd
years that I've been a Christian, I have never met, I've never
been around any professing Christian, anybody who gloried in their
power to repent when they wanted to. I never met anybody that
did. I'll tell you something about
repentance. Repentance is more than an act. Now you get this. If you never, if you listen,
if you never understand anything else about repentance, you understand
what I'm telling you right now. Repentance is more than an act. Repentance is a disposition of
the soul, and that disposition can only be brought about by
the inward workings of the God of the Bible. As God works in
your soul, He will create in you a loathing for your sin and
bring conviction and guilt upon your heart and enable you to
change your mind. And that's what repentance is.
It's a radical change of mind. And it's not a once for all act
either. We're constantly, from the time
we do repent, We are repenting, turning always from the mind
of the flesh to the mind of God, all our lives long. Now we need
to understand that. Now I never met a man with a
broken heart over sin who boasted that he could break his own heart. Did you ever try to break your
own heart? My friend, listen, you can't
do it. You cannot break your own heart, not really, before
God. If God has ever broke your heart,
you know that you can't break your heart like God breaks a
heart. You know that. And if God ever
breaks your heart, then your heart is broke. Your heart is
broke. A man cannot, he does not have
the power to repent when he wants to, and he don't have the power
to break his own heart and give himself a contrite spirit, which
is in the sight of God of great price. I never met a person who
I felt had saving faith, who had not received this faith as
a gift of God. who had not received it from
the Lord. They didn't work it up. But I
tell you that your notion that you can believe when you want
to believe, I tell you, that's your weakness. That's your weakness. You can't believe just when you
want to. Listen, you've got to have faith.
Faith is a gift of God, and the Bible says, faith cometh. It comes. It's got to come down
from God out of heaven to your soul. And I hope the day will
come and I pray the day will come when you'll be heard saying,
oh, that God would give me faith. Oh, that God would give me, that
the Lord would help my unbelief. that the Lord would enable me
to look to Jesus and live, that He would give me eyes to see
Him and faith to believe upon Him, faith to embrace Him to
my soul and to trust in Him and to close with Him. Your idea
of having personal strength with which to purify and to renew
your own heart, your idea that you can create in yourself a
right spirit, your idea that you can raise yourself from the
death of sin, is a prophecy of your sure and certain doom. You'll go to hell believing that.
That's exactly where you'll go. And I tell you, there's a many
a soul today that's right there. That's where they're at. They
think they can do whatever must be done. And I'll tell you, this
is a turning of this text inside out, but it'll help you to understand
the meaning of this text. And so far, this has been a warning.
This message has been a warning to the unconverted. Now let me
give a word here to God's people. Now take note of this. He said,
when I am weak, then am I strong. When and then are the two pivot
points of this text. When and then. Now, when I am
weak. Well, what does it mean? It means
when the believer is number one, when he is consciously weak. Now, this being consciously weak. Now, let me tell you something
about this. This is painful. And It is distinctly
recognizable. Consciously weak. Now what this
means is that you can't be weak and not, you can't be weak in
the sense Paul's talking about it and not know it and not feel
it. You're conscious of it. You know
it. It's there. You can't get away
from it. It's real. It presses on you
all the time. You're weak. You're weak. He said, when I am consciously
weak. When the necessity is right there
and I can't meet it. When the persecution is there
and I'm trembling. And when I'm in real deep trouble
and I know I don't know a way out, and I'm hard pressed, I'm
between a rock and a hard place, and I feel this weakness, well,
we are strong when we feel painfully weak. And I'll try to explain
how that comes about in just a moment. A painful weakness
is strength. It may seem a paradox, but it
is true. Then I'm strong. When is that? Why is that? Well, because, first
of all, a man, he knows the truth about himself. He knows the truth. Now, we really are weak. We are consciously weak, and
we are growingly weak. Now what I mean by that is, that
a few years back, 40 some years ago when the Lord saved me, I
was weak. And I knew I was weak. Wasn't
any question about it, I knew I was weak. But I'll tell you
what, I stand here before you today and I'll tell you I know
a whole lot more about being weak today than I knew about
it then. I have just growingly through the years become weaker
and weaker and weaker. You say, well Preacher it looks
to me like a fellow gets stronger and stronger and stronger. Not
in the flesh you won't. You may get stronger in the spirit
But in your flesh, in your old flesh nature, and in the things
of time, you're gonna become weaker and weaker as time goes
on. Now the truth thing, because
he knows the truth. Why is he strong? Because he's
come to the truth. He's weak. Now listen, truth,
there is strength in truth. And there's weakness in a lie.
If a man is truly strong, then if that's the truth, then blessed
be God. If he's strong in the spirit,
strong through the Lord, strong through the things of God and
the grace of God, hallelujah. But if a man is weak, he better
know it. He better know it. So he's come
to the truth if he says I'm weak. Because, listen to me now, number
two, number two thing as to why it is that we are strong when
we're weak, because a man will not run without being sent. If he really knows his weakness,
he'll not run without being sent. He will wait for a call from
God. If God called me to preach, I
will preach and nobody will stop me from doing the best I can
with the help of God. But if God called me not, I will
not venture to open my mouth in the name of the Lord. I will
not venture to go out here and stand up somewhere and preach.
Why? Listen to me. I'm not going up
there and saying, well, I've been called to preach. You people
want me to preach? No way, shape or form. Somebody's
going to have to say, come up here. You come up here. We want you to preach. I'll never
volunteer. The Lord calls me. I will do
it. And I believe he has. And so
that's why I'm doing it. I wouldn't do it for any other
reason. But I'll tell you what, when a man knows his weakness,
He will not run before he's sent. He will wait on the Lord. He'll
not be sticking himself out somewhere, sticking himself up as somebody. No, no, no. He will wait. Listen.