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 are 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 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 divideth his sheep from the goats. The thought occurred to me, 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 sheer, 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, strengthlessness. How do you fit? Would that describe
you? Now, what led Paul to make this
statement? Let's go back up to verse 1 in
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
of 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. And 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 know it's 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 in, 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 three, 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 3. 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. 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 in 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.
Oh, I don't want to say to her, you know. I didn't believe her because
if she had seen anything, she couldn't speak. Paul said he
couldn't. Look in verse five and 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 6, for though I would desire
the 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 the 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 need 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. He said, it bothers me that you
said it was particular to the fact that he he posed for this
bus. You had put the cast of you.
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 bucket
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 him. He took the 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. There's one 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. He, 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 this is, 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 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 to hear Him 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 9. 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 does he get the most glory
from? Somebody with a hangnail? Or
somebody who's got a horrible disease? Who does 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
5. 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 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 accept it 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 it is 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 attain large petitions which 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 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 4 verse 13 where it says, and when they
saw the boldness of Peter and John, they took knowledge of
him. They understood that they were
unlearned and ignorant men. They took knowledge of him 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 hungry 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 OK. 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 I have the gift
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 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. is made perfect in weakness. Amen.