We've been talking about the multi dimensional grace of God.
How many of you know God is not a one-dimensional God?
Sometimes people get a hold of one thing and they act like
that's the only thing there is to it.
And, you know, even, you know, the, the wonderful school that
Pastor Earl and Marcy and I had the privilege of being students
at and, and that type of thing, you know, they've got a big
faith shield up on top of the building.
And thank God for faith. You know, we're saved by faith.
We live by faith. We walk by faith.
Without faith it's impossible to please God.
But then Brother Hagin was called to teach faith.
There's nothing wrong. And actually, there's a lot
right about people who are specialists, you know, who are
called especially focus on a particular topic.
But but sometimes in hearing that some listeners act like
that specialized topic is all there is to it, instead of
realizing that it's one of many facets of that beautiful diamond
of God's truth. You know, for example, of people
get a hold of faith, but they forget.
But the Bible also teaches wisdom and the Bible also
teaches patience, and the Bible also teaches love and that type
of thing. So.
So we celebrate the fact that Brother Hagin had an assignment
to teach faith. Go teach my people faith.
But we're also very cognizant of the fact.
And he was certainly cognizant of the fact.
He people don't realize he taught a lot about walking in
love and being led by the Spirit and all these different things.
So when it comes to grace, I'm sure there's many more aspects
than what I'm covering, but we talked about saving grace and
strengthening grace and sanctifying grace and sharing
grace and serving grace. And I'm not going to go through
all that teaching tonight because we did, you know, that's
what we've been doing the last couple of days.
But grace is God making available from his nature
because grace is what flows out of a gracious God.
Aren't you glad God is gracious and, and, and so that he, he's
full of love and full of mercy and full of kindness.
And when his love acts there, when there's action from that
love, that's what we call saving grace and, and, and
strengthening grace and sharing grace and all these different
ones. But here's a statement I want to
make. And this is, I wish we had just
a whole session to teach on this topic and this topic alone.
The next slide says this, that grace is freely given by God,
but it is not automatically received or experienced by
people. Grace is freely given by God,
but it is not automatically received or experienced by
people. And so there's a there's a God
side of everything. And God is always the giver.
And at least initially there is the man side of things and we
are a receiver. But there also comes a point
where having received, we also become givers.
You know where when I was a student at Rhema, we had a
individual that said this, if God can get it through you, God
will get it to you. And maybe the people think
that's just a cliche, but it's really true.
God wants you to be so transformed by the good things
you receive from him that you don't simply become consumers,
but you become distributors. But you cannot give what you
have not received. And so the fact, for example,
that God has saving grace and is the author and The Fountainhead
and the source of saving grace and the fact that He makes it
available freely doesn't mean that everybody automatically
receives that there. There's this element of saying,
yes, it's not that we work for it, but there are ways that we
receive what God gives. OK, because God's not a, he's
not a bully. He's not going to, you know,
force you to have something that you refuse to accept.
And I want to give you 4 things very quickly 'cause I want to, I
want to get to Paul's thorn, but I want to give you 4 things that
will. These are biblical principles
that will enable you to tap into the grace of God.
How many? What if I told you that you
could have more or less grace depending on how you respond to
God? God's done all the giving.
He's always giving. But the question is, are we
receiving and, and what if I were to tell you there are
certain things you could do and I'm not teaching works here.
I'm not saying if you will, you know, perform all these rituals
and crawl on your hands and knees and do all these things,
then God might get inclined to bless you.
No, God's already done all the giving.
But, but these are things that you do to receive what He has
provided and is providing through the work of the Holy
Spirit. 4 things #1 faith. Everybody say faith.
Did you notice the other day? And what I said was probably the
number one scripture that people know about faith.
Ephesians 28 that faith and grace work together.
Paul said in Ephesians 28. And I know that's not the
Scripture that's up there now, but we'll get to this one in
just a minute. Paul said for by grace, are you
saved without faith? No, it doesn't say that, does
it? It says for by grace, that's
God's part. Are you saved through faith?
So grace and faith are partners. They work together.
All of God's principles are cooperating, and just like all
the no, no one facet of the diamond is in competition with
another facet on the diamond. That they're complementary, not
contradictory. Don't let people tell you that
faith and grace are contradictory, or that grace and
holiness are contradictory, or that grace and repentance are
contradictory, or that grace and confession are contradictory.
They're all complementary, but I'm going to give you 4 things
about how how we receive more. Everybody say more because see,
if you believe, well, we've just all got the same level of grace
and that type of thing. Well, maybe potentially we do,
but the reality is you're going to see from these scriptures
that that I'm sharing with you right now that we can walk.
God may have made all grace available to all of us, but we
may walk in different degrees of grace depending on our level of
cooperation. So first of all #1 faith.
Romans chapter 5 says, therefore, having been justified
by faith, you know what being justified means?
It's it's the word. It means to be made righteous.
How many of you are tonight here in this room?
You know that you are righteous in Jesus Christ.
Now, you're not righteous based on your personal track record,
but we're righteous in Christ. The Bible says God made him who
knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Christ, not apart from Christ, but in
Christ having been justified by faith.
We have peace with God. Not good to have peace with God.
He's not there. There's no enmity, there's no
separation. We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom everybody say through whom?
How many of you know, everything comes and goes through Jesus.
He is the mediator between God and man, through whom we also
have access. Everybody say access.
We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.
Focus on this phrase. We have access by faith into
this grace. Faith and grace are
complementary. We're in this wonderful
auditorium and such a beautiful place.
And man, it's, it's beautiful not just because you know, the
decor and that's beautiful because it's full of beautiful
people and it's, it's full of the presence of God and things
like that. But what if during the
engineering and architectural process, and I know this is a
silly illustration, but what if they just accidentally forgot to
put doors in into this auditorium?
You'd have this beautiful auditorium and no way to get in.
Well, we have access through the doors into this auditorium,
access through the doors into the auditorium, The access, the
doors are not contradictory to the auditorium.
The doors are the way you enter in.
We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.
So faith is huge. Faith is important.
Any, any realm where we can hear the word of God and what God has
provided. Faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the word of God. Every time that we accept faith
by agreeing with God, you know, trusting him and and so on and
so forth, we are accessing the grace of God.
So the first way that in our list that we access the grace of
God is through faith. Do you know if you say there's a
promise of God and you say I just don't believe that at all,
then you're not accessing the grace of that promise.
Now you may accept Jesus as your Savior and access salvation, but
you can say you know no to another area of God and His
provision and His blessing #2 the second way that we access
the grace of God is through the knowledge of God knowing Him.
And this Greek word in second Peter chapter one, verse 2, from
what I'm told, it's not talking about a cold intellectual
accumulation of information about God.
It means to know him on a personal level, on an
experiential level, taste and see that the Lord is good.
And here's what the Bible says. Peter said this grace and peace
are multiplied. Everybody say multiplied grace
and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of
Jesus our Lord. So the more you know him, not
just from an intellectual standpoint, but from a personal,
you know him and you, you, you catch his heart.
You're not just grabbing the letter of the law, but you're
embracing the spirit of the Word.
And you know Him, that the Bible says that grace and peace are
multiplied in your life because you know him #3 I know we're
moving quickly here, and that's by design.
James chapter 4, verse 6, Humility.
Everybody say humility. Humility is not thinking less of
yourself. It's thinking of yourself less.
It's thinking more of Him in James chapter 4 verse 6, it
says, but he God gives what more grace?
So we found out in according to Peter that grace and peace can
be multiplied in your life. And now we're finding out that
God will give more grace, but it it says, therefore, he says God
resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
And, and you know, we could do all kinds of teaching about
humility and that type of thing, but humility is basically just
where we acknowledge his greatness and awesomeness.
It's not where we tear ourselves down and denigrate ourselves
and, you know, just disagree with God by saying, you know,
we're just such worms of the dust and we're just such
horrible people. No, it's just we acknowledge who
he is and we put him in proper perspective and we realize, you
know, that just without, you know, groveling and wallowing in
the dirt and all that type of thing that we need him.
You know, we can't save ourselves.
We, he's done everything for us. And so we're not trying to earn
anything. We're simply receiving with
Thanksgiving and praise and gratitude.
We're receiving his blessings and man, we give him glory and
honor for everything. So the Bible says, look at it
again. And James, he gives more grace.
So it's obviously we can have grace that is multiplied or
grace that's not multiplied. How many of you want multiplied
grace? Well then grow in the knowledge
of God. How many of you want more grace?
Then humble yourself. What does it say?
God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
And finally #4 boldness. Now boldness is not arrogance.
Arrogance is a confidence based on self boldness is a confidence
based on God and his word and what he says.
Hebrews 416 NLT says so let us come boldly everybody say
boldly. It doesn't say come sheepishly,
it doesn't say come in backwards.
It doesn't say you know anything of that nature.
It says let us come boldly to the throne of see.
That's the reason we can come boldly to it.
It's a throne of grace to the throne of our gracious God.
There we will receive His mercy and we will find grace to help
everybody. Say grace to help see.
I think this is probably a special grace for special times
because there are times where we're facing extra difficult
situations in life and, and we just, we sense a greater need
for him. And it doesn't mean that when
things are going OK that we just tell God to take a vacation and
say, God, I can just, it's a pretty good day.
I can handle everything myself now we need him all the time.
But but there are times you, you know this to be true and I know
this to be true, man. You get hit from every direction
and you get hit with circumstances and situations
that you're tempted to feel overwhelmed and things like
that. That's the time that you need to
come boldly to the throne of our gracious God.
There you will receive His mercy and find grace to help when we
need it the most. So these four things, this is
the next slide. What do we do to keep ourselves?
I just like to say this, to keep ourselves positioned.
None of this has to do with earning, but it has to do with
receiving. What do we do?
We respond to God in faith when we hear His word, when we read
His word, we hear a promise. We read about His nature, His
goodness, His provisions, etcetera.
We just say yes. Remember Martin Luther said
faith is the yes of the heart. We embrace the knowledge of God.
God, I want to know you more. Reveal yourself like like Pastor
Earl prayed about. The Spirit of God has been sent
to reveal and unveil truth to us and to teach us things.
And then humble yourself before God.
DL Moody said God sends no one away empty except for the person
who's full of himself. So when you come to God, don't
come to God. Proud and arrogant.
God, I'm so awesome. God, I've got it all together.
God, I'm better than everybody else.
Just come to God in humility and say, God, thank you that you
know you, you've done so much for me.
And just, you know, praise and honor and worship him and then
finally boldly approach him. So you're ready to tackle Paul's
Thorn. All right, we're going to look
at this. And if I can just say this, I
approach this subject with a little bit of trepidation,
partly because it's so it, it's been so controversial and I
don't know your background and I don't know what you may have
been taught, you know, in previous churches and things
like that. And, and I just want to say
right at the offset, if I say anything that just, you know,
having a hard time, please just feel free to put it on the
shelf. I'm not trying to, you know,
force a perspective on you or, or anything like that.
But I'm going to share with you what to me is helpful.
And, and I think at least at the very least, it will cause us to
rethink maybe some of the things we've traditionally heard.
So let's look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7.
Second Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7.
I'm reading from the New King James Version and here Paul says
and and let can I give you some context for the these few
chapters right around here? Paul is mad.
OK, Paul is not happy with the Corinthian church.
Start reading in 2nd Corinthians 10 and 11:00 and 12:00 and
you're going to find out that Paul was not happy.
He, they, Paul had laid down his life for this church and, and
they were comparing him to what he called super apostles.
And, and, and they, it's just, you almost have to read the
whole, all these chapters 10/11/12 to get the full
context. But Paul is actually, he's a
little bit hot and he's a little bit sarcastic because, you know,
he's given everything for this church and they're not being
very respectful to him. And he's he's they're forcing
him to defend his apostleship and he's not happy about it.
So here's here's where we're going to pick up in Second
Corinthians 12/7. Paul says, and lest I should be
exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations,
how many of you know Paul had a lot of revelation.
Many saw Jesus personally. You know, he had a revelation
about who we are in Christ. He had a revelation about the
church. I mean, Paul, I mean God used
him to write, you know, we, we say generally and approximately
about half of the New Testament and you know, it depends on how
you look at it and and read it and that type of thing.
But but not asking your opinion, but, but I want to ask you what
you think most people's opinion is.
What is Paul talking about from the very beginning of this
sentence when he says, lest I be exalted above measure, what's he
talking about? Say it.
Go ahead and say it. Pride.
That's what we assume. So he's talking about getting
into pride. Now keep that thought in mind
because we're going to, we're going to challenge that and look
at that in just a minute, lest I should be exalted above the
above measure by the abundance of revelations.
How many of you know Paul had an abundance of revelation?
How many of you believe he probably had more revelation
than maybe any of us? I think he probably had maybe
more revelation than maybe the rest of the original band.
He was not part of the original band.
Did you know that Peter said that?
God's given Paul wisdom? And some of it's hard to
understand. I mean, even Peter didn't
understand everything Paul said. So Paul did have a lot of
revelation, and Paul says, lest I should be exalted above
measure because of the abundance of revelations.
Now, can I do something here with you?
I'm going to I'm going to read some of this wrong.
And I want you to correct me where I'm wrong because I'm
going to read it in ways that most people think it's what Paul
says, but it's not what he says at all.
OK, ready. And lest I should be exalted
above measure by the abundance of the revelation God gave me, a
thorn in the flesh doesn't say that, does it?
Doesn't say it was from God. As a matter of fact, it says a
thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of God.
No, it wasn't from God. It was not a messenger of God.
The thorn was a messenger of Satan.
OK, to buffet me, that word buffet means to beat with blow
after blow after blow. Does God send demons into
people's lives to beat the daylights out of them?
So we're just trying to consider, are all these
traditional things we've heard right?
A thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan, to
beat me with blow after blow, lest I be exalted above measure.
Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that
it might depart from me. Let's go to the next slide,
verse 9. I pleaded with the Lord three
times that it might depart from me.
And he God said to me, no, that's not what God said at all.
OK, let's try it again. And he said to me, My grace is
insufficient for you. No, God said to me, My grace is
sufficient for you, for my strength.
See, Satan is giving him the thorn to buff at him.
God is giving him His grace to strengthen him.
He says. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. How many of you know?
Sometimes you do need to remember not to trust in
yourself. You need to rely on Him, not
your own strength, Paul says. Therefore, most gladly I will
rather boast in my infirmities. How many of you know you have
some infirmities? How many of you know you don't
know everything? You don't have all wisdom, you
don't have all knowledge, You don't have all strength, you
don't have all abilities. See the person who just is their
own God and God I don't need you.
I can handle everything. See that's God resists the
proud, but he gives grace to the humble.
I think 1 trait of being a humble person is you're just
honest about areas that you're not super strong in and and you
trust him. So so God Satan gave him a
thorn, a messenger of Satan to buff at him.
But God said my grace is sufficient because my strength
is made perfect in weakness. Paul says, therefore most
gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power,
everybody say the power of Christ.
So there are three things you'll notice all three of these are
underlined. See, this is what God gives my
grace, my strength, and the power of Christ.
That's what God gave Paul. He didn't give him the problems.
He didn't give him the thorn in the flesh.
Paul, we don't have to say, well, where did that thorn come
from? He says it, it was a messenger
of Satan, not a messenger of God.
He's a messenger of Satan to Buffett him to beat him with
blow after blow. Therefore I take pleasures in
infirmities and reproaches and needs and persecutions and
distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am
strong. And I, I don't think it's too
big of a stretch to say that Paul was saying, when I am weak
in myself, I am strong in him. OK, so let me tell you the
traditional understanding of this.
I have this as part of a slide and I took it out because I
didn't even want your eyes to read this.
But here's how people have tended to interpret this whole
section of Scripture. So that I would not become
conceited. God sent a thorn to lodge itself
in my flesh, A sickness to keep me humble.
When I prayed to God and asked him to remove it, he said, no,
I'm not going to heal you. But Paul says it's OK because I
I realize it's better that I stay sick.
That's how people, they read what we just read and they come
up with that interpretation. Am I, am I off?
How many of you have heard people say, well, I'm just like
Paul, I've just got this thorn in the flesh.
Really, Really. You're like Paul?
How how many times have you been caught up to heaven?
I don't think you have an abundance of revelations like
him. I mean, I think Paul is really
describing this as kind of an exceptional situation.
He, he knew more than we know. He'd been to heaven, he'd seen
Jesus, he heard God's audible voice.
God made him an apostle to the Gentiles.
I'm not going to put myself on, on level with Paul.
This is an exceptional situation.
Now, the principles may apply in different ways at different
levels, but let's go to this next slide because in order for
us to properly understand this, I think there are five things we
need to understand #1 on the next slide, if we could, please.
God and Satan have nothing in common.
They're not on the same team. God is light and in him is no
darkness at all. Jesus said the Prince of this
world cometh, and he has nothing in me.
The thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy.
Jesus came that we might have life and have it more
abundantly. God and Satan have nothing in
common #2 they are not partners working together.
They're not in partnership, they're not on the same team #3
God and Satan have totally different agendas.
They don't have the same purpose.
They don't have the same agenda. And, and here's something, this
may sound very simple or simplistic, but if God is for
something, Satan's against it. If Satan is for something, God's
against it. I I think that's that's pretty
easy to grasp. So here's a quick summary, A22
sentence statement about this, what this whole thing is about.
Let's go to the next slide if we could.
The thorn is Satan's. I'm sorry.
Yeah, it's the thorn is Satan's ability against Paul.
It was sent to Buffett him. And we're going to get into this
thing in a minute about what does it mean to be exalted above
measure? Because I think that's a great
key to the misunderstanding. The thorn is Satan's ability
against Paul. Grace is God's ability for Paul.
Does that is that simple? Say this with me.
The thorn was Satan's ability released against Paul.
Grace was God's ability released on behalf of Paul.
Now I want to look at, let's go to the next slide if we can.
We're going to talk about exalted above measure.
Are you staying with me? I know this is a a, a a a
Monday. Many of you worked all day, but
I need your mental crispness here for just a couple more
minutes, your mental clarity, your focus.
Because we're going to, we have to look at this exalted above
measure concept. The thorn was sent, and Paul
says it twice. To keep me from being exalted
above measure. To keep me from being exalted
above measure. And we've always interpreted
that. People have always interpreted
that to keep me from getting into pride, right?
That's how people interpret it. To keep me from getting into
pride. So Satan sent a messenger to
keep Paul from being proud. Does that make any sense?
That's so good. Pride goes before destruction
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
If anything, Paul Satan would have loved to have seen Paul get
into pride. Charles Spurgeon one time.
He's considered the Prince of preachers.
Greatest preacher in the English language perhaps of all time, at
least of the 19th century. One time he was stepping down
from the pulpit right after a sermon and a woman, I'm sure she
is a good-natured, well meaning woman.
But she, she said, Pastor Spurgeon, she said that sermon
was wonderful. And he said, yeah, I know.
He said, Satan told me the same thing just a minute ago.
Now, I'm not saying if somebody compliments you, you have to say
that. That's the but he knew that
Satan, if Satan can't pull you down into inferiority, he'll try
to get you lifted up into pride. Satan doesn't want any Christian
to be humble. He'd love it if every Christian
was arrogant, conceited, full of pride.
So I want to just do a, a, a little game here with you.
Don't try to second guess me. Don't try to outmaneuver me
mentally. I just want you to say what
comes to your mind. I'm going to give you some words
and you're going to tell me your first impulse again, don't try
to, you know, outdo me here. Just just give me your honest.
If you heard this word in a conversation, is your impression
positive or negative? OK jealous.
How many say negative? OK let's go to the next slide.
God says I'm jealous over you with the godly jealousy.
So maybe we see it mostly negative.
What about the word anger? I'm angry.
Is that positive or negative? We think negative but the Bible
says be angry and sin not. What about covet negative?
But the Bible says I feel like this is a game show.
The Bible says covet earnestly the best gifts.
What about hate? Negative.
But the Bible says abhor that which is evil.
What about sorrow? We think that's negative, but
the Bible says godly sorrow works repentance.
What about fear? But the Bible says the fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the fear of the Lord
prolongs life, etcetera. So what are we saying here?
There are many words in the Bible which we usually assume
are negative, and maybe they are negative most of the time, but
there are exceptions when they're not under the control of
the flesh, but perhaps under the control of the Spirit, where you
can have a godly jealousy, have a righteous anger, covet the
best gifts, abhor that which is evil.
The Bible says about Jesus, you have loved righteousness and
hated iniquity, godly sorrow works, repents the fear of the
Lord, and so on. So is it possible that exalted
above measure, maybe it usually means something negative, but
maybe, maybe Paul's using it in a little different sense here?
That's good. That's good.
I go back to this argument. Paul makes it very clear that
the thorn in the flesh was a messenger of Satan to buff at
him and to keep him from being exalted above measure.
So if Satan wanted to keep Paul from being exalted above
measure, if Satan's against it, does God want any of his
children to be exalted, not in the prideful and conceitful way,
but it But is there another exalted above measure that means
to just go far beyond the normal, to have a super
outstanding success, to have phenomenal results?
What? What if?
What if Paul was saying to keep me from being highly effective
because God had given me these amazing spiritual insights?
Satan saw me as a great threat to his Kingdom, so he assigned
some principality or power to just beat the daylights out of
me every chance he had to keep me from being highly effective.
And I said, God, I don't like all this persecution and stuff.
And I asked God, God, take this thing away.
Well, God didn't give it to him. Right?
There you go. And God didn't say no.
He said, my grace is sufficient. For you see, the thorn was
Satan's ability against Paul. The grace was God's ability
toward Paul. And he said, thank you, my grace
is sufficient for you, my strength and the power of
Christ. Now what?
What is the possibility? What is Paul's thorn in the
flesh? I mean, how?
What was the outward manifestation of it?
Can I tell you my first answer to that is I don't know.
But can I tell you my second answer is I think he just talked
about it right before he talked about the thorn in the flesh.
Because if you back up a few verses, I can't prove this
definitively because Paul didn't say and this is exactly what the
thorn in the flesh is. But, but let me just ask you a
question. I'm going to ask you a question
if if you had a literal thorn in the flesh, because I think he's
using that term as a metaphor. You know, you say somebody, man,
that person's a pain in the neck.
OK, well, you don't necessarily mean that your neck hurts
because you're around. What are you saying?
You're saying those that person really irritates me.
That person gets under my skin. You don't mean that literally,
but but everybody knows what you mean.
If you literally had a thorn sticking in your flesh, I want
to hear about six or seven things from you.
Give one one a person that that, what would be the indicators
that you had a thorn in the flesh?
What would be the results or the consequences?
So, brother, if you had a thorn sticking in your flesh, what's
the first way you would describe it?
Irritating brother right here. Ouch.
It hurts. All right, Dear Jim, what would?
If you had a thorn in your flesh, what would you say it was
to you, Sharp? Who said annoying?
You said annoying, Sharp. Annoying brother right here.
If you had a thorn sticking in your flesh, what?
What? How else would you describe it?
Rehab. You might need some rehab.
Yeah, this young guy right here. If if you had a thorn sticking
in your flesh, what would you say to somebody?
Man, this thorn is really hurtful.
OK, what about that guy next to you with the beard and mustache?
What would he say? Irritating.
OK, I think we get the picture,
don't we? What?
A thorn in the.
The one word I didn't hear was distracting, you know, and it
would try to, you ever notice like if you really do have like
a thorn or even a like a splinter that you know, 99.9% of
your body can be fine, but you tend to be focused on that one
thing. It just, it just screams for
your attention. OK, so Paul said in Second
Corinthians 12/7 this that Satan gave him this thorn in the
flesh. But let's back up just a few
verses, not too many verses. 2nd Corinthians 11 verse 23.
Now you remember I said that Paul was mad when he wrote this.
OK, you think Paul never got mad.
If you think Paul never got mad, then you haven't read the New
Testament very thoroughly. He he walked in love and yet but
but on occasion he got a little bit bothered.
And I won't go into all that, but remember I said that the
Corinthians were choosing these false apostles and these what he
called super apostles over him when he is the one that had laid
down his life. He was the one that had poured
the foundation of the church. He was the one that had given
his life for them. And now they're choosing these
other people who are attacking and criticizing Paul and, and,
and Paul's having to justify himself to them.
And and he doesn't want to do it, but he's kind of like having
to say, let let me I, I hate to have to tell you why my ministry
is legitimate. Second Corinthians 1123 New
Living Translation. He says, are they servants of
Christ? He says, I know I sound like a
madman, He said, but I have served him far more.
See, he, he, he doesn't even like doing this.
But, but now he begins to list his credentials and he's not
talking about his educational credentials.
He's not talking about how many churches he started.
He's not talking about how many times he's seen the Lord or
anything like this. He's talking about how much he
has suffered. I have worked harder.
I've been put in prison more often.
I have been whipped times without number.
Can you imagine somebody being whipped so many times he didn't
even remember how many times he'd been tied to a pole, had
his shirt ripped off of him and just whipped.
So I don't even know how many times it's has happened so many
times. I face death again and again.
Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me 39 lashes
because he sometimes he was whipped by Roman, sometimes he
was whipped by the Jewish authorities.
He says 3 times I was beaten with rods.
Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked.
And by the way, when Paul wrote this, Acts chapter 27 hadn't
happened yet, so he ended up being shipwrecked at least four
times. I'm telling you what if I was
Timothy or Titus or some of these guys, Luke, I might have
said Paul and you're bad luck. Once I spent a whole night and
day adrift at sea. Let's go to next verse, verses
26 or verse 26. I have travelled on many long
journeys. I have faced danger from rivers
and from robbers. I have faced danger for my own
people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles.
I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts and on
the seas. I have faced danger for men who
claim to be believers but are not.
And versus 27 and 28. I have worked hard and long and
during many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty
and have often gone without food.
I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep
me warm. Then besides all this, I have
the daily burden of my concern for all the churches.
It's fun to be an apostle. I have a minister friend and
he's he's an interesting person, character, and he'll have some
sometimes young bucks will come up to him and say pastor, he
said. I think, I think, I think I'm
an, I'm an apostle. What do you think?
And he says, I think you're going to suffer a lot.
I think you'll probably be martyred.
You know, that's not what they're looking for.
But but you understand that's not normal to go through.
What Paul went through is not normal.
It's like something or someone was following him around,
causing as many problems in in his life as they possibly could.
Why was Paul so dangerous to the devil?
Because he had so much revelation, I don't think that
the devil was interested in keeping Paul humble.
I think he was interested in crushing him, destroying him,
suppressing him, getting him so discouraged.
And hey, there's a few occasions when you read the New Testament
epistles, Paul really did get discouraged a time or two.
And but God lifted him up because the grace of God came
in. So what do we see here?
Paul said. A messenger of Satan was a thorn
in the flesh to me. And some people speculate that
he was referring to some human being, you know, like Alexander
the coppersmith or something. I, I'm just guessing that it was
probably not just one person, but it was Satan working through
anybody that he could work through, work through somebody
in this city and somebody in that city and somebody in that
city. Just Satan was just, you know,
anytime you try to do something for God, Satan's probably going
to try to throw up some roadblocks.
And he, Paul went through so much beating, so much battering.
And, and it was a messenger of Satan that came and attacked him
relentlessly through every kind of, you know, beating, whipping,
imprisonment, persecution, danger, threats, all these type
of things. And Paul, if, if, if I'm
understanding this right, OK, that Paul said, God, I'd sure
like for this thing to be taken away from me.
And God didn't say no, he didn't say, sorry, my grace is, is
insufficient. God said, my grace is sufficient
for you. And when you read that back in
2nd Corinthians 12, let's go to the next slide.
Here's what basically grace provided for Paul.
My grace is sufficient. I I am willing to rejoice in my
infirmities so that the strength of Christ can be upon me and the
power of Christ can be upon me. Now here's the question.
Does God want to push his people down?
Now, how many of you know we, we all know that God.
How many of you know you didn't need to come to church on a
Monday night to find out that God doesn't want you to be
arrogant, cocky, prideful, conceited?
How many of you already knew that?
We all knew that. How many of you know that that
in the negative sense of these words?
How many of you know that God doesn't want you to be hateful
toward other people and jealous of other people and coveting
what they have and and going around with anger boiling?
How many of you know that stuff is true?
But we also saw that there's a godly jealousy, there's a a
godly anger, there's a godly covetousness, there's a godly
sorrow. See, I just for the life of me,
I can't see that a messenger of Satan was trying to keep Paul
humble, because Satan would know that if he could get Paul into
conceit and arrogance and cockiness and all that type of
thing, it would be the downfall of his ministry.
It doesn't make sense that Satan would send a demonic power to
keep Paul humble. But what if there's another
sense of being exalted above measure that maybe doesn't mean
conceit, arrogance, pride. But what if it?
What if it had to do with Satan wanted to keep Paul from being
effective, having a highly robust ministry that produced
great results? I told you just a little bit ago
that there were four factors about receiving grace and we're
we're going to wrap up in just a quick minute.
Anybody remember what they were? The first one, we said that to
receive the grace of God, first of all is faith, that by faith
we have access into this grace. What was the second one?
Knowledge that grace and peace are multiplied unto us through
the knowledge of God. Does anybody remember the third
one? Humility.
God resists the proud but gives grace to the God resists the but
gives grace to the God resists the proud but gives grace to the
humble. Now the 4th 1 was boldness but
but I'm just I'm I'm focusing on this third one.
Would Satan want Paul to be humble, knowing that Paul then
would receive grace? But look with me, this is our
final slide. What happens when you humble
yourself under the mighty hand of God?
First Peter chapter 5. Likewise, you younger people
submit yourselves to your elders.
Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with
what? Be clothed with humility.
God, I need you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, I need you.
See, we're not to be arrogant over one another.
We're we're to be humble toward one another, encouraging one
another, things like that. Be clothed with humility and,
and hear Peter and James say essentially the same thing.
God, God resists the proud. But look at that.
What does it say on the screen? Gives grace to the humble.
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,
that He may exalt you. When you humble yourself before
God, what does that? What does it mean to humble
yourself? A big part of it is just receive
everything that God has for you. Don't tell God, God, I don't
need you. I'm all I've got it all
together. I, I, I can handle this myself.
Humility is where you posture yourself to receive from God.
The Bible says humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and
he will. What was the thorn trying to
keep from happening in Paul's life to keep him from being
exalted? So if Satan was trying to keep
Paul from being exalted, maybe God was trying to exalt him, not
in the negative sense of arrogance, conceit, and pride,
but in the sense of being highly effective, highly productive,
accomplishing everything that God had for him.
Isn't that amazing? I wish we had hours and hours
and hours and hours, but we've got the book, we've got the
video series. You got your amazing pastor here
to teach him things like that. But I just pray that you'll have
and leave tonight with, you know, last night and Sunday
morning with some fresh appreciation for the grace of
God. I mean, I think we could just
say the grace of God means hundreds of things.
It means that God is for you, not against you.
He's trying to lift you up, not put you down.
He's not trying to drive you into the ground.
God is not the one sending a messenger to beat you with blow
after blow after blow, to keep you humble or to teach you some
lesson. There's lessons to be learned in
every circumstance of life. I understand that.
Let's look at that. If we, if we could go back to
that Second Corinthians 12/1 more time, we're going to have
to go back a few different verses there to 2nd Corinthians
chapter 12. And Paul says, And lest I should
be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a
thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to
buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
So all of that, all of verse 7 is 100% about Satan.
Well, except for the revelation that came from God.
But the messenger of Satan to beat him, to beat him down was
all Satan. And then Paul turns to God,
says, concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three
times that it might depart from me.
And then the next verse says, And God said to me, My grace is
sufficient for you see, the thorn is Satan's ability against
Paul. Grace is God's ability toward
Paul. For Paul.
God said, my grace is sufficient for you.
I wonder if God's grace is sufficient for you.
Now we may not. How many of you would be honest
and say, wow, compared to Paul, I haven't really faced much in
life. You know, every once in a while
I get tempted to feel, oh, man, things are going hard.
Well, what's wrong? I had a 30 minute delay at the
airport the other day. I don't really do that.
But I mean, if I did, and I mean, if I said that, I think
when I stepped into heaven, I think Paul would be just waiting
at the gate just to slap me. Say, what do you mean you had it
hard because you had a 30 minute delay?
You know, I was in prison for years and, you know, things like
that. I, I, I'm sure he wouldn't be
slapping me when I go to heaven. I think that's what heaven's
about. I'm just trying to make a point.
So anyway, so my grace is sufficient for you.
My strength is made perfect in weakness.
So I'm going to rejoice. And even though I have
weaknesses and man, I can't control some of these
circumstances and some of these things are outside of my
control. But but I'm going to boast And
even the fact that I I can't even do anything about this so
that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
And then he says at the very end, for when I am weak, how
many of you know it's OK to be weak in yourself?
Paul didn't say I can do all things.
He said I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me. Paul said for when I am weak,
then I am strong. Because when he was weak, when
he recognized his inabilities, he trusted in God's ability.
That was the grace of God working in him.
That was strengthening grace.