I want to read the first 12 verses.
2 Corinthians chapter 12 and let's begin reading in verse
1. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse
1. It is not expedient for me, doubtless
to glory, I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, whether in
the body, I cannot tell, or whether out of the body, I cannot tell.
God knoweth. Such and then one was caught
up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether
in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell. God knoweth. How
that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words,
which is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such a one will
I glory. Yet of myself I will not glory,
but in mine infirmities. 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. Unless I should
be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelation,
that 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. My grace, my strength, is made
perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities, my weaknesses. that the power
of Christ may rest upon me. I therefore 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 am become a fool in glory,
and you have compelled me. But I ought to have been commended
of you, for in nothing I am behind the very chiefest apostle, though
I be nothing. Though I be nothing. Paul's thorn is thorn in the
flesh. And working our way up to this,
here in chapter 10, chapter 11, chapter 12, you can see through
these chapters, and even in all the epistles of the Apostle Paul,
that he would go someplace, like here at Corinth, and preach the
gospel of the grace of Christ to these people here, and establish
the churches there. Establish them in the gospel
of the grace of Christ. And put pastors in those churches.
But seemingly everywhere he went, these false teachers, these false
apostles, raised up either in the midst of the congregation
or they followed him around. Some of them came down from Jerusalem.
And they perverted the gospel that the Apostle Paul preached. They couldn't do it face to face. They usually had to go behind
his back. They couldn't do it. They couldn't
out-argue him. They couldn't out-debate him
because the Apostle just opened up the Scriptures. He would open
up the Scriptures and he'd say, let's see who Jesus of Nazareth
was. And he proved from the Scriptures
that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God. He said, here's
the gospel back in the Old Testament that God promised by the prophets.
And it's concerning His Son, Jesus Christ, who was made of
the seed of David and was declared to be the Son of God with power
by the Spirit of holiness by His own resurrection from the
dead. And He preached that gospel. And He convinced men of that
gospel. But here are these false apostles,
they hated Him for it. They hated Him for it because
they could not refute His message. And they couldn't refute his
message because when Paul took them to the Scriptures, he always
won his argument. And you know what happens to
men when they can't refute your arguments. They look upon you
with contempt, don't they? Contempt. And I'll tell you what
happens. If they can't refute your argument, then they'll begin
to blame you. They'll begin to run your person
down and say all kinds of scandalous things against you. Ambrose Bierce
made this statement. He said, Contempt is the emotion
we feel for an opponent whose arguments are too formidable
to refute. So they got so angry with the
Apostle Paul because they could not refute him, they began to
say all sorts of things against him. Paul called them false apostles. He called them false apostles.
And what they were saying about this apostle is this. You'll
find this in the 10th chapter. They were saying this. Look at
this man. Now, you may think this is petty,
but I'm telling you, when you begin to shut men up to the truth
and they get full of contempt, they'll say anything. And they
said, look at this man. Look at this apostle. Look how
weak and frail his body is. And listen to him speak. When
he speaks, his sentences are so broken, and he just stambers
along. His speech is contemptible. And
they said, the world hates him. No wonder people don't like him.
Look at him and listen to him. And they said, why is he suffering
like he's suffering? He's glorying in these sufferings,
but he's suffering because of the way he is. He's just a contemptible
person. That's what they said about him
in chapter 10 and verse 10. And Paul calls them false apostles. They attacked his person because
they could not attack his message. But what was happening to him?
Look here in chapter 11 and verse 13, what he says about him. Chapter
11, verse 13, For such are false apostles, deceitful workers,
transforming themselves unto the apostles of Christ, and no
marvel, for Satan himself is transformed unto an angel of
light. Therefore it is no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness,
whose end shall be according to their works." Boy, they were
false apostles. They spoke so eloquently. These
were the Greeks. You know what's always said about
the Greeks, you know, the gospel is offensive to the Greek. It
offends their wisdom. The foolishness of the preaching
of the gospel offended these men's wisdom. When they got up
to speak, you could almost see them. They were orators. They
spoke so eloquently. And when Paul got up to speak,
he just broke his sentence up, and he stammered along, and they
got so offended at him. And they said, he's not like
us. He's not like us. But you know one of the things
that really got to these fellows? They could not endear to suffer.
They could not imagine suffering for their profession. They said,
why suffer? Why say things that upsets people
anyway? Look at the Apostle Paul. He
is glorying in all these infirmities. He tells us about how he was
shipwrecked and how he was whipped and all of this. He is disgloring
in these things. There is no need to suffer. Get
along with people. Please people. That is what he
said. Look on here in chapter 10 in
verse 18. Seeing that many glory after
the flesh, we will glory also. They want to glory after the
flesh. I can glory after the flesh. Man, he could have too,
couldn't he? But he says, flesh. That's all it is. Flesh. Paul gloried in his sufferings
for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. Most gladly, my text
says, I will rather glory in my infirmities that the power
of Christ may rest upon me. I take pleasure in these infirmities.
I take pleasure in reproaches and necessities and persecution. And these false apostles say,
that's ridiculous. Why do you want to suffer for
the cross? Don't preach it in such a way that it stirs up men's
anger and enmity. Well, if you preach the cross,
it's going to stir flesh up, isn't it? But they said, there's
no need for that. There's no need for that. So
Paul begins here in chapter 12 and verse 1, and here's what
he said to them in verse 12. He said, well, I know that there's
no gain in my boasting. I know there's no gain in my
boasting, my suffering, my infirmities. It's not expedient for me, doubtless,
to glory. There's no profit in it. I realize
that. But he says, if you insist on
me showing you what I could boast in, let me tell you something
I could boast in. You fellows that boast in glory
in your flesh and you want to hear something wonderful, well,
let me tell you about something I experienced. Let me tell you
about the revelations. that I've had of the Lord, the
visions that I've seen of Him. That's His meaning here. I will
come to visions and revelations of the Lord. That is, I'm going
to tell you about some visions and about some revelations I've
had of the Lord. And boy, He begins here in verse
2 and through verse 4, and He tells them of the most spectacular
thing that any human being has ever heard in his life. What
an amazing experience He has. He comes to you and he says,
I knew a man in Christ. About 14 years ago, over 14 years
ago, how such a one was caught up into the third heaven. And
he heard things there and he seen things there that he can't
even tell you about. Now you false fossils, you match
that. You match this. You want a glory
in these things? Well, I can tell you something
I can glory in. That's what he's saying. But
he was caught up. Let's look at this here. He was caught up
unto the third heaven, which he says in verse 4, was called
paradise. Paradise. I looked the definition
of that word up and it means a park. Hippopark. I guess they had the park back
in those days like we got today. You go to a beautiful park to
rest. It's a place of bliss. delight, enjoyment of all that's
good, a place of extreme happiness. Paradise. He was caught up into
paradise. We talk about paradise that our
parents were in. You know the Bible never calls
that paradise. That's never called paradise. Paradise is even something
more wonderful than the Garden of Eden before the fall. Paradise
is heaven. The place of eternal bliss and
happiness and enjoyment of all that's good. That's where the
Lord Jesus told the thief, you'll be with me today in paradise. In that holy and happy park in
heaven. Everything that's pleasant to
the eye. And you know this is called the paradise of God. The
Lord Jesus says in Revelation 2.7, to him that overcomes will
I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of
the paradise of God. God's paradise. A place that
He's prepared for Himself. And Paul calls it in verse 2,
the third heaven. That means the highest heaven.
That's the heaven of heavens. The heaven itself. It's called
in another place, the Father's house. And another place, it's
called the throne of God. Heaven is my throne and the earth
is my footstool. It's where Christ Himself is
in His glorified body. It's where the elect angels are.
It's where departed saints are that are called the spirits of
just men, made perfect. This is the place the Apostle
Paul was called up to. Heaven. Paradise. What did he
see there? Oh my goodness, what would he
see there? Can you just imagine what he'd see there? We know
some of the things he saw there. We know the Savior's there. He
saw Jesus Christ in His glorified humanity. You know, the Bible
says He's the light of that city. Jesus was in His glowing, supreme
beauty and glory, and I wonder if Paul didn't go up and put
his hands in the prints of the nails. and maybe thrust his hand
into the hole in his side. He saw Christ there. And he saw
angelic beings in whatever form they take there. He saw that. He saw those spirits of just
men made perfect. I think probably he spoke with
Moses and Enoch. He saw them. There was two men
there and maybe many, many more in their glorified bodies, but
we know that two was there, don't we? He saw Moses and he saw Elijah
in their glorified body. My, what did he see there in
heaven? What did he hear there? Oh my
goodness, he said, I heard things which could not be lawfully uttered. He heard things that he couldn't
explain in the Hebrew or Greek, the Aramaic, the English. He
said this was heavenly language that nobody could come back and
tell of. What mysteries was revealed to
him? What was told him? He heard words. I wonder if he wasn't told secrets
that's not even written in the Word of God. This is a very small
Bible, ain't it? And it would be naive of us to
think that all God has in store for His people is written in
this Bible. Oh, there are secrets that still
hid in the heart of God. And Paul may have heard them.
Maybe he was given the date of the return of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Nobody knows that. I wonder if he's given the day
to the fullness of the Gentiles, when the fullness of the Gentiles
be come in. Blindness in part has happened
to Israel until. I'd like to know that myself. He found out many things that
I've been seeking to find out and will probably never know
it until it comes to pass. But Paul heard them. Things,
he said, that's not lawful for me to utter. Oh, he was privileged
to hear these things. We don't know what he heard because
he didn't tell us. But something else here, more
than just seeing, more than just being there and hearing all these
things, but something else here in verses 2 and 3, he tells us,
he wasn't conscious of his physical body. He said, I don't know if
I was caught up in my body. or in just my spirit. I don't
know if my spirit was caught up and left my body here, if
I went up to heaven in my body and my spirit. I don't know,
but what he is saying is this, I wasn't conscious of being in
my body. Now that's a blessing in itself,
is it not? What did the Apostle Paul say
about his body? Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Christ shall change this vile
body. What would it be like to be free
just for a while from this body? Free from the sense of its weakness,
its infirmities, the sin that's working in it, the vileness of
it, the burden of it to pack around. What would it be to be
free from the sense of this body? I can't imagine, can you? I've
never been, I've never experienced that. But the Apostle Paul said,
I've experienced it. You know, this is not only something
that happened to this Apostle, but this is going to be something
that happens to every child of God. This is just a foretaste
of what's going to happen to them, even when they die. To
be with the Lord. And he said here, I knew a man
in Christ. That's the secret, isn't it?
To die in Christ is to be free from the burden of this body
and to go up to heaven, paradise. And to be free from the burden,
the sense of sin and weaknesses and firmness of this body. To
be absent from the body. is to be present with the Lord.
And we're going to be free from that burden, as Wayne told us
this morning, until the resurrection day. And that body is going to
be raised and changed in a glorious body. I have no idea how this
would feel to be free from the sense of sin. I don't think I've
ever been free from the sense of sin since the Lord saved me.
It's just a burden. This old man, this old man we
pack around, have to keep him under submission all the time,
keep him crucified. To be free from that. What a
blessing that was. Think of that. And here in verse
5, Paul speaks of two selves. Look what he says. Of such a
one will I glory. This one that was caught up to
heaven. My spirit, my soul, my new man. I will glory of him,
yet of myself I will not glory, but in my own infirmities." He
separates his two selves here. He said, I'll glory in my redeemed
self. That's the self that was caught
up, wasn't it? My saved self. The self that's been regenerated
and washed. My inward man. I was caught up
to heaven. I'll rejoice in that man. Just as much as I would if it
would have happened to you. If the Lord called me up to heaven
today, I'd rejoice, wouldn't you? And I'd rejoice if He did
that to you. If I rejoice Him doing it to
you, I should rejoice if He did it to me. So Paul said, I'll
rejoice in that one that was called up to heaven. I'll glory
in Him. And yet he said, my fleshly self,
my earthly sinful self, I want glory in Him. This is the only
thing I'll glory about the man that's left, this flesh, is my
infirmities, my sufferings that I bear for the Lord Jesus Christ. And then verse 6, For though
I would desire to glory, I should not be a fool, he said. And he
said, I could boast of all that I have experienced, and I could
do it in truth, but I'm not going to be that foolish. He said,
if I boasted of everything that I could boast of, there's a lot
of things I could boast of. There's a lot of things that
he experienced in the way of revelations and visions that
nobody ever knew but him. I could boast in truth, he said. But he said, the reason I'm not
going to go on boasting about my experience and what the Lord
has taught me and showed me, I don't want you to have too
high an opinion of me because of what I've experienced. That's
what he said. For I say the truth, but now
I forbear. I refrain from telling you any
more of my visions or my revelations, lest any man should think of
me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he hears of
me to be." Why didn't Paul go on and say, now this is what
I've experienced. Let me tell you another experience
I had. Let me tell you what the Lord did with me over a year,
what He showed me over a year. Why didn't He go on saying that?
He said, if I told you everything, you fellows would be wanting
to worship me. You're going to have such a high opinion of me,
you're going to set me up on a pedestal and think I'm something
when all I am is nothing and less than nothing. You say, Bruce,
I don't think that it did that. Well, there's one place they
wanted to worship Him. Remember that? They had the wreaths they
brought for him in Barnabas, and they're going to worship
them. And he stopped them? Yeah. If he kept on telling about
all that the Lord had did for him and with him, yeah, they'd
have worshipped him. They'd have worshipped him. I don't want people's estimation
of me to be based upon what I've experienced. Do you? I don't
want that. And Paul didn't want that either.
but what they really see in me and hear of me every day that
I live in this world. Listen. You hear these silly
televangelists. You hear them talking about themselves,
and boy, they're on cloud nine. They've had all these experiences
and they're way up here above everybody else. And there's nobody
like them. They're just special people.
And God is working with them amazing. That don't impress me,
does it you? Don't tell me about how high
you are in the clouds you're on. I don't want to see that
and I don't want to hear that. I want to know how you walk when
you get back down to earth. Ain't that what we want to see? Show me how you live your life
every day. Don't ask me to base my estimation
upon you, upon what you've experienced. Not even if you're experiencing
it in truth. I want to see how you live. You
profess Jesus Christ? I want to see if you're willing
to follow Him. I want to see if you're willing to suffer for
His cause. Don't estimate me by what I tell you I've experienced.
Because I've been caught up into the third heaven. You listen
to me while I'm preaching to you, Paul said. But when I finish
preaching, you follow me outside. You go on the job with me. You
go on vacation with me. You go to my house. You talk
to my neighbors and my wife. And see how I live every day. That's what I want you to estimate
me by. Not my experience. And he said, if I went on in
talking about what I've experienced, you're going to have too high
opinion of me, so I'm going to quit. I'm going to quit. Don't rely too much upon what
people tell you about their experiences, good or bad. Good or bad. Watch them. Watch them. Lest I should be exalted above
measure. Boy, verse 7 tells us now the
price that the Apostle Paul paid for all these visions and these
revelations. In verse 7. Lest I should be
exalted above measure through the abundance or because of the
abundance of the revelation that was given to me a thorn in the
flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, to harass me, lest
I should be exalted above measure." Someone said this. I don't know
who to give credit to, but somebody said this. Maybe it was Joseph
Hart. He said, what a paradox the Christian is. He had a message from the Lord,
and he had a messenger from Satan. He feels like he has one foot
in heaven, and the other one in hell. He has visions in his
mind and a thorn in his flesh. The Son of God from heaven in
his heart and a messenger from hell in his flesh. Isn't that
amazing? Grace to keep him humble and
pride to lift him up. What a mystery the Christian
is. What a paradox he is to himself. Are you a mystery to yourself?
Since the Lord saved you, you're a paradox. You can't figure yourself
out. You're two people. Heaven's in
you and hell's in you. Christ is in you and the devil's
in you. What a mystery you are. How can they be saved? How can
a man be saved who is nothing but flesh and has no inner man? created in you. If there's no
old man to buffet you, then there's no new man to rejoice in the
salvation that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is not
only determined to save His people, but He's determined to keep them
humble. And I tell you, He'll take extreme
measures to keep them from pride. The Lord loves His people, but
He hates pride. He hates pride in His people.
And boy, He'll give them anything and do anything to keep them
from pride. Pride goeth before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall. Thorn in the flesh. What was
this thorn in the flesh? Well, I'll tell you what. You'll
wear yourself out trying to figure out what it was. Because we don't
know. I laugh, and I still laugh about
this, and I think I told you about this. One fellow said,
Paul was bald-headed, and that was the thorn in his flesh. And
I thought, every morning I look in the mirror and say, oh no,
I can't take this any longer. Poor old Elijah was bald-headed.
That was his thorn in the flesh. My goodness, how vain. How vain
some people are. It's not that we need to try
to figure this out. It's futile to do that. The way
we profit from this is seeing the effects of it. You may have
a thorn in the flesh. Most of the Lord's children probably
have a thorn in the flesh. And the way you determine that
is by the effects of a thorn in the flesh. How would you feel
if you had a thorn in your foot? Wouldn't that be awful? Most
of us know what it is to have, we raised out in the country,
especially down south somewhere, we got thorns in our bodies all
the time, didn't we? And how it would affect your
walk if you got a thorn in your foot. You'd go limping along,
wouldn't you? Every step you took, you would feel it. What
if you got a thorn in your hand? Man, you'd just grab something
and oh, it would hurt so bad. You'd squall out. Oh, the thorns! If you've got a thorn in your
backside, you couldn't sit down. If you've got a thorn in your
back, you couldn't lay down. It would just affect you, the
pain of it. If you ever forgot about it,
sometimes you did something and you would hit it and suddenly
the pain would shoot down to the bone and you'd scream out,
oh, this thorn, this thorn. So it's the facts, isn't it?
It's the effects. Not what it is, but it's the fact that a
thorn causes you pain. You have something in your life
that causes you some agony. You have something in your life
that almost continually gnaws you and grieves you. It may be
something physical. It may be something without you
or something within you. But it grieves you. You feel
it. It's there. It's a thorn. It's a thorn to you. Maybe you have one. I've detected
two or three. I've detected two or three. How
come Paul with his thorn? This is a mystery. Why did he
have this thorn to begin with? Well, it was punishment. Paul had sinned one time. Remember
when him and Barnabas had that falling out? That was awful.
And they had to go separate ways. And the Lord said, well, this
is your trouble, buddy. This is payback for your involvement.
No, that wasn't it at all. It didn't have a thing to do
with his sin, did it? Nothing to do at all with his sin or
his failures or anything else. How come him to have this thorn?
He tells us here in our text. There was given to me. It was a gift of God. A gift
of Jesus Christ. Isn't that amazing? What a mystery.
I have a thorn tree at my house. And man, I've got into that thing.
The thorns are about that long. One of them blew down and I hope
the other one blew down. But what if I got one of those
thorns and brought it here and said, Greg, I've got something
I want to give you. And I take that thorn out and
stick it right in his eye. Thanks a lot, friend. And he
goes around with his eye running and holding and he keeps saying,
and you know, Bruce must hate me. No, I really love you, Greg. This is going to be good for
you. That's a mystery, isn't it? It wasn't for any sin in
the Apostle Paul. It wasn't a chastisement. It was a gift from Christ, a
Savior who loved him and was doing it for his good. What a mystery that is. I'm going
to put a thorn in you because I love you so much. His ways
are not our ways, are they? His thoughts are not our thoughts. The Lord loves His people so
much and He hates their pride so much that He's going to do anything,
even afflict them sore, to keep them humble. You ever pray the
Lord would bless you with great faith? You should pray that way. Remember, you should pray that
way. I pray that way. Lord, increase my faith. Lord,
give me more understanding. Lord, use me. Use me to be a
blessing to your people. But I tell you, you better be
careful when you pray that way. Because, boy, with that comes
a thorn to keep you down, to keep you low. The thorn is tough. It was tough
for the Apostle Paul. But the alternative was worse. Better to weep over our failures
than to be lifted up because of our success. You know one
of the effects that this thorn had upon him? His estimation
of himself. In the last part of verse 11,
he said, Though I be nothing. I'm nothing. I'm absolutely nothing. And this thorn helped him to
see that. I've got another quote here, and I don't know who to
attribute this to either. It's a little bit lengthy, but listen
to what this fellow said about Paul said, I'm nothing. Those
who are most favored in the Christian life and most honored by God
should not be unwilling to take a low place and to regard and
speak of themselves as nothing. Compared to God, what are we? Nothing. Compared with the angels,
what are we? Nothing. As creatures compared
with the vast universe, what are we? Nothing. Atoms, specks. Compared with other Christians,
the imminent saints who live long before us, what are we? Nothing. Compared with what we
ought to be and might be and should be, what are we? Nothing. Let a man look over his past
life and see how vile and unworthy he has been. Let him look at
God and see how great and glorious He is. Let him look at this vast
universe and see how immense it is. Let him think of the angels. Let him reflect how pure they
are. Let him think of what he might
have been, of how much he might have done for the Savior. Let
him look at his body and think how frail it is, and how soon
it must return to the dust. And no matter how elevated his
rank among his fellow worms may be, and no matter how much God
has favored him in the Christian life or ministry, he will feel,
if he feels rightly, he is nothing. The most elevated saints are
distinguished for the deepest humiliation. Those who are nearest
to God feel most of their distance. They who are to occupy the highest
place in heaven feel most deeply that they are the unworthiest
and the lowest of this earth. They are nothing. We get there
sometimes, but we can't stay there, can we? We're being told all around us
that we ought to think more highly of ourselves than we do. Our
self-esteem is just too low. I was reading a book by one of
the prominent authors of our day, one of the noted megachurch
pastors. I couldn't believe the book that
I was reading. He took the quote out of Exodus where the Lord
said, I am that I am. And I started reading and he
said, say this about yourself, I am powerful. I am beautiful. I am this and I am that. I couldn't
believe it. And what did the Apostle Paul
say? I am nothing. I am nothing. Verse 8, For this thing I besought
the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. For this thing I besought the
Lord thrice. Can you imagine the surprise
when this thing first struck him? He first realized, oh, the
prick, what was that? Sudden pain, the confusion. Oh,
how deep will it go? This thing, he calls it, this
thing. What did he do? What's the first
thing he did? If this is to teach us nothing
else, and if we don't learn this lesson out of it, I wonder if
we've learned anything. One of the first lessons we learn
from all of these experiences of these men is this. They prayed. The first thing they did was
turn their thoughts and prayers towards heaven. For this thing
I besought the Lord three times. This is what David did, wasn't
it? When trouble come, he sought the Lord. He poured out his heart.
That's what is to teach us. Whatever else we learn, brothers
and sisters, we must learn this. Prayer. Prayer. Verse 9. The Lord says this to
Paul. My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in
your weakness. This word sufficient, I'm like
Wayne, I love to look up these words and love to look in the
other versions to see how they translate this thing. This word
sufficient, it means to raise a barrier against. My grace will raise a barrier
against this thorn." Now, that's amazing, isn't it? This affliction
is regulated. There's a barrier that says,
if it won't hurt you anymore, then I'm pleased to let it do
it. There's grace that set this barrier
there. When your suffering begins, how
deep it will go, how long it will last, there's this barrier
set. You'll not be tempted above.
what this barrier says. I've set a barrier. It means
to ward off. Sufficient to ward off. My strength
will ward off. Now this is amazing. My strength.
I love how he says this. My strength is made perfect. My strength. My strength is made
perfect. Paul's strength had been turned
into utter weakness by this thorn, but Christ's strength was perfect. Notice what the Lord is telling
this apostle. It's not your strength. It's
not your strength. You won't prevail against this
thorn by your strength against this messenger from hell, but
it's My strength working in you. And the Apostle Paul recognizes
this in the last part of verse 9. Look what he says. He says,
Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my weaknesses,
that the power of Christ may rest upon me. The power of Christ. He had this
constant pain, but he felt this constant power of a loving Savior. He could hardly believe it. He
was amazed by it. How could it be, he thought to
himself. I'm no match for this thing, yet I'm not sinking. It's pricking me, but I'm not
hurting. It's opposed to me. Every step
I take, everything I try to do, it's opposed to me. But it's
not hindering me. It's not stopping me. It's not
discouraging me. Because I'm feeling this constant
power. Not my power, but the power of
Christ that is resting on me. Isn't that amazing? That's amazing. He said, it isn't my power at
all. I don't even have to exert myself. I'm not even straining. This power is Christ resting
on me. That's the most amazing thing
I've ever seen in my life. How would you feel if you experienced
something like this? How would you feel if your thorn
was there pricking you? But it was really having no effect
upon you. It couldn't get you down. It
couldn't discourage you. It couldn't drive you to despair
because of this power that was resting on you. It wasn't Paul's
power and his efforts against this thorn, this thing, but it
was Christ's power in him and resting on him. Well, I think
if I experienced something like that, I'd almost pray, let me
suffer some more. Let another thorn be given to
me, if I could feel this power of Christ resting on me. There is no match, brothers and
sisters, for the power of Christ. Christ's power is perfect. It's
perfect. All power is His in heaven and
earth. I have power over all flesh.
Sin is no match for His power. Any kind of suffering and diseases
is no match for Him. All the power of the underworld
is no match for Him. Death itself is no match for
Him. He is greater than all the opposition
of the underworld or in this world. My power is made perfect
in your utter weakness. That is why Paul said this, Most
gladly therefore, I will rather glory in my infirmities that
the power of Christ may rest upon me. I think I would be glad
too if I had this power, if I felt this great power. And nothing
could get me down or drive me to despair. Not even this thing. Oh, these false apostles. They
could only rejoice while they were free. They could only be
glad while they were pleasing everybody. If they suffered anything,
it got them down the least thing. Flesh, flesh, flesh. And here
Paul was assaulted by hell itself. And he says, I'm glad. I glory
because I feel this power. This unseen power of a risen
Savior. Let hell unleash itself upon
me. I will prevail. I will prevail. because of the power of Christ. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities and reproaches and necessity for Christ's sake.
For when I am weak, then am I strong. My grace, my grace. What can
reach down to the lowest pit of hell, the hell of sin, and
save a sinner from it? The power of Christ. What can take a poor believing
man or woman through this world full of devils and sin and pits
and temptation and take them all the way to heaven? The power
of Christ can do it. The power of Christ can do it. What can supply every need He
has 24 hours a day for the rest of His life? The power of Christ. What can make Him save from the
low bottom of His heart most gladly, even in the midst of
his extreme sufferings. Oh, Paul said, I am nothing.
I am nothing. But I am possessed of God, of
eternal life, and the power of which the gates of hell cannot
prevail, the power of this risen Christ. Oh, such a power as this is not
felt when we're at ease in Zion. You won't feel this power when
you're at ease, when you have no opposition. This power has
to be experienced, and it's experienced during times of extreme opposition. I don't pray for it, and I don't
pray God give it to you, but I hope He does. I hope he does. If this is what it takes for
us to feel the power of Christ resting upon us, then God give
us these thorns. For when I am weak, when I am
brought to the end of myself, then I am strong in the power
of Christ. Let's pray.