Sermon Text: II Corinthians 12:9-10

(9) And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
(10) Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

One of the most precious promises in the Word of God, I believe, is God's promise of grace. When you stop and realize what grace is, when you recognize what we mean when we talk about the grace of God, in my opinion, it's very very difficult to find another word in the Word of God that would be any more precious.

What is grace? It is a word which we find again and again throughout the Word of God. It is the word which God uses again and again to point us, to direct us, to guide us to that realization that you and I, this morning, have a peace in our heart if we know Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour because of the work of His grace. Then that word even takes on a more precious definition or a more precious connotation in our thinking.

Grace is simply stated as God's unmerited favor. Here's what grace is. Grace is doing for you and God doing for me what we do not deserve. That's basically what God's grace is. God does something for you or does something for me and we don't deserve that. But God does that because of His grace. Paul said this to the saints at Ephesus as he wrote in Ephesians chapter 2:8-9:

(8) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
(9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.

In other words, it is grace that's going to bring us to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. God didn't have to do that. But because He loves us He has done that. He has provided that grace.

I'm not a great fan of systematic theology, though I did have to study it when I was in seminary. But one of the great theologians of years gone by was an individual by the name of Louis Sperry Schaffer. As a matter fact, he has an entire theological system of books that he has written that's used in many seminaries and Bible colleges, the Systematic Theological Studies of Louis Sperry Schaffer. Louis Sperry Schaffer said that "grace is what God may be free to do and indeed what He does accordingly for the lost after Christ has died on behalf of them." That is a phenomenal statement when you stop and think about it.

If you sit here today and you have never received Jesus Christ as Saviour, you need to understand that God so loved you and He so desires to see you spend eternity with Him in heaven that He allowed His Son to die on your behalf. And now because His Son has died on your behalf, He is willing to extend to you grace. You don't deserve this but He is willing to extend to you that grace that will allow you to come to know Jesus Christ as Saviour. And that's why Christ died for the world. That's why all may be saved.

Now, all will not be saved. We understand that because the Scripture not only teaches there is a heaven, the Scripture also teaches there is a hell. So, consequently all will not be saved, we understand that. But, all may be saved because of God's grace. That is an individual's acceptance by that individual person of Jesus Christ into their heart and into their life. That is a decision they make when they realize that "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9)."

That is the wonderful subject of grace. It is amazing when you stop and think about it. Grace is something every Christian is always going to be in need of. For you and I who are here today who know Jesus Christ, we're always going to be in need of grace. If the Christian plans to live to the praise and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, grace is going to have to manifest itself. I am here to tell you this morning, the only way I am going to be able to live my life to the praise, honor, and glory of Christ is through the grace of God. The same would be true in your life. It's not by accident that the Scripture says that "... Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD" in Genesis 6:8. That Scripture is there for a reason. It's there for a purpose. You've heard me quote this verse of Scripture many many times. It's one of the Scriptures that I quote here quite often, because it's a need that you and I have to see in our lives.

The Scripture says we are to "... grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. (2 Peter 3:18)" In other words, if you and I are to grow in our lives, we have to realize that it's going to be because of the grace of God operating in our lives that challenges, directs, and leads us to want to live our lives for the glory of God. In our human nature, we are not prone to want to live for God's glory. "Wait a minute, you're a pastor". I don't care what I am. I could be a pastor, a rabbi, and a priest all in one and my human nature is not going to want to live to the praise of God. The fact that I have been to a seminary, a college, or university and I have studied and prepared for the ministry does not change my human nature. And it doesn't change yours either. So, the very fact then as Peter said in 3:18, that we are to "... grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." Why? So that we can live for God's glory. Without that grace we are not going to do it. None of us are. Paul was not going to be able do it. That's why he says in verse 9, "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." That's what God communicated to the apostle Paul.

This morning I want us to look at that 9th verse and notice what I call a Christian paradox. When you read down through the 10th verse you will see the paradox. Paul says in that 10th verse, "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, ..." Now wait a minute Paul, "you take pleasure in your infirmities?" Are there any folks here who agree with Paul on that? I can't honestly say I agree with that. I don't take pleasure in being sick. Do you? Of course, the logical answer is, "absolutely not." I don't take any pleasure in being sick. Paul says, "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, ..." He says, "I just love it when folks come after me." You begin to think this guy is a case for a psychiatrist. He doesn't need a psychologist, he needs a psychiatrist. That is what he is saying though. Besides that, he says, "I take pleasure in distresses."

But then notice the rest of that verse. Notice what it's for. For who's sake? For Christ's sake! Oh, Paul, that still doesn't make any sense. Why? Well he goes on and says, "... for when I am weak, then am I strong." Beloved that's a paradox. How can you be weak and strong? It's a Christian paradox he's talking about here. The apostle Paul basically says, when we are weak in ourselves is when we are then able to be strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now don't leave me on this, don't lose me here. When we see ourselves as weak in ourselves, then we are going to go out of ourselves and we are going to then go to Christ. It's when we come out of ourselves and go to Christ that we then become qualified to receive the strength from Him. It is not from ourselves but from Him that we experience most of the supplies of divine strength and grace for that need. That's what he is teaching here.

Now, this morning, I want to simply point out to you a couple of simple principles that I want you to put down and seek to remember as you go through your week of activity. As you remember these simple principles that come out of these two verses of Scripture, it's going to give you some direction as to how you can be strong when you are weak. Now it's true that some of you do this, but I'm not sure you know all of the "why and wherefore" as to why you are doing it. If you know why you are doing it, then you are going to be able to become more proficient, more capable, more successful in doing what you need to do. When you are weak, so that you may be strong.

If you look here, you'll notice that Paul encountered suffering. Put down the suffering Paul encountered. In order for you and I to become strong through our weakness, there is going to have to be suffering. Every Christian, without exception, encounters trials and testings in this life. Now, because there was too much to put into this message, I took some of the morning message out and I've put it into the evening message. This evening we're going to talk about "Why Do Christians Experience Trials and Testings?"

A couple of weeks ago I got a phone call regarding a family that was in our church back in the '70s. The mother of a little girl in this family went to our Christian school back then. The sister of the mother of this little girl, 5 years old, was taking her to school, she encountered some black ice, lost control of her car, and the little five-year-old girl was killed instantly. What is God doing? Five-year-old kids are not supposed to die. Trials. Testings. We all go through them, every single one of us. That's what he is talking about here. There is going to be suffering. There is going to be trial.

Look at verse 7 please. In verse number 7 you will see Paul mentioning what he calls a thorn in the flesh. This was his testing.

(II Corinthians 12:7) And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

Now we don't have time this morning to talk about what that thorn in the flesh was. There's several ideas that certainly have been presented. I have mine and I'm sure maybe some of you have yours. But there was nevertheless a thorn in the flesh that God gave to the apostle Paul for this specific principle he was teaching in regards to how we may be strong when we are weak.

Now there are several things which could be said about this thorn. Of course, we could talk about the nature of it. In other words, this was real. This was not imaginary. This was not something that he was thinking about or had in his imagination. It was an infirmity of some kind. I personally think it had something to do with his eyes. That's on the study of other Scriptures and passages. There are others who don't agree with that. There are those who think it was something else. None of us can be dogmatic about it because the Scripture just doesn't spell out what it was. But he did have this infirmity and it was real; so that's the nature of it.

The purpose of it was again revealed here in verse number 7. God wanted to keep him humble. See Paul had one of the problems that a lot of us have. Paul was a very proud man. He was a very proud individual. Remember who Paul was before he was led to Jesus Christ, before he was converted on the road to Damascus. He was a Pharisee. If you know anything about the Pharisee, he was very proud because he was very religious. The Pharisees were faithful in their tithe and they prayed every day. I could spend the next 15 minutes taking you through the laws of the Pharisees. They did all of these things because they were such good people. So, they were very proud individuals. Very proud people. Paul had this pride, so God gave him something to remind him of who God is and who Paul is.

Could I illustrate myself? In 1980, when my son was entering his senior year in college, I noticed my voice was tiring and I had a lot of problems with hoarseness. It was at vacation Bible time when Rick said to me "Dad, you need to rest that voice. Let me help in vacation Bible time this year because I'm a little concerned about your voice." And I said "No way." Well, the year went by and Rick graduated from college in 1981 and the Lord led him back here to teach in our Christian school and eventually came on our church staff.

The next year though, my voice was not getting any better. Ellie and I had gone out to Camp Koronis at Paynesville, Minnesota. During that time one of the preachers said to me, "Brother Ed, you need to get that voice looked at. There's something going on in your voicebox." So, I made an appointment to see my doctor in Farmington. He looked at me and said, "You need to see a specialist." So he said, "I'm going to make an appointment for you to immediately go see a specialist in St. Paul. He's top notch and you go see that specialist". So, he made the appointment and in three days I saw the specialist.

I walked into the office of Dr. C. Randall Nelms, a very outstanding nose, throat, and ears doctor. He laid me back in a chair and told me to stick out my tongue. He grabbed a hold of my tongue with a piece of gauze and started pulling on my tongue. He had my tongue half way to Rochester. Then he had the audacity to say, "say ah." Well, I was trying to breathe, never mind say ah, while he had this mirror stuck down my throat. And he said, "Ah, there it is." And I said in my head because I cannot talk, "There's what?" He said, "You have a nodule on your vocal cord." Now when anyone says nodule the first thing that jumps into your mind is what? Cancer. The second thing that jumped into my mind was my good friend Pastor Morrie Bender from the First Baptist Church of International Falls who had throat cancer when I first came to Minnesota in the late 60s. I could remember going to Rochester to visit Morrie in the Methodist Hospital after he had surgery at the Mayo Clinic.

There was a fear that came over my heart, people, that I had never experienced in all my years of living up until that point, because I thought if I cannot preach, I don't know what I'll do. Because preaching is my life. I don't do this because it's a job. I had a job. I had a career I was following. I was 29 years old when I surrendered to preach. I thought, if I cannot preach I don't know what I'll do. You see what God was doing there? God was teaching me that, "I want you to know who the boss is. Don't get so proud. Don't get so big headed that you think for a minute you don't need Me." God simply gave me a thorn so that when I became weak in myself I could become strong in Christ. That's what He is teaching here. We all need to be mindful of that. See, everything that comes into our life has a purpose. It's not there by the luck of the draw. There's a purpose for it. God is on the throne. God is working.

Now notice the source of the thorn. The source of it was God, true? But notice who delivered it. Verse 7 says:

(II Corinthians 12:7) ... there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, ...

Though God was the source of the thorn, it was delivered by Satan. Then you go on and you notice the result of it. The result you will find in verse 8:

(II Corinthians 12:8) For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

In other words what happened there was all of a sudden Paul saw that "I must be in prayer on a constant basis." I can say from my own personal testimony that when you get one of those thorns from God to remind you of who you are and who He is, there is going to be a change in your prayer life. So, for example, when you read in Acts chapter 16 when Paul was in prison with Silas and the Philippian jailer got saved, what were they doing at midnight? They were singing praises to God and praying. They were spending time with God.

Do you wonder why Paul wrote in I Thessalonians 5:17, "Pray without ceasing?" God, beloved, had taught him some very very special truth, some very significant truth. That truth which He taught him was that you must know the power of God on your life if you are going to successfully deal with suffering. It is only when you are weak in yourself that you will be strong in Jesus Christ.

Let me show you the second thought I want you to write down. Not only the suffering Paul encountered, but notice the causes. Notice what causes me to look at the supplication Paul manifested in that 8th verse, that necessity of prayer. Look at that 8th verse and what is it saying to you? The first thing that jumps out at me from the 8th verse are the two words, "this thing." In other words, what was Paul doing there? Paul was beginning to see the importance of praying definitely. He wasn't praying "Around and around the mulberry bush." He was praying definitely.

Here is a little exercise you can do if you like. I know you cannot see this, but in my Bible I have written out here on the margin because of the 8th verse, "Pray definitely." In I Thessalonians where it says "Pray without ceasing" what have I written in my Bible? Pray definitely. Whenever there is a verse of scripture that reminds me of prayer, I write in my Bible "pray definitely." Why? Because you need to pray definitely. When you are praying for something, pray definitely. When we prayed yesterday for Brother Travis to be able to gain admittance to the police academy, I prayed that God would put that young man into the police academy, as He would be glorified, as He would be lifted up, as He would be honored, as He would be the One who would receive the praise. God had already answered the prayer, while there in my office the mail was being delivered.

The principle there, beloved, is to pray definitely. I don't know what your need is this morning, but whatever your need is, get a hold of a truth which is to pray definitely about that need. That's why I am stressing so much lately the mid-week service for prayer time. This church family cannot pray too much! Amen! You can't pray too much in your home. There's power in prayer.

I also notice there that he prayed with importunity because my Bible says, he prayed thrice. He sought the Lord three times. He was going back and going back. Reminds me of an illustration over in Luke chapter 18 with the widow woman and the judge. Remember that she wearied him with her much coming. He was not going to give her what she wanted but he said "I know this woman." Sounds like some women I know. I won't go any farther past that. "But I know this woman and she is going to weary me." She is just going to keep coming back and coming back and coming back. "So listen, I'm just going to give her what she wants to get her out of my life." Anybody relate to that? I can raise my hand! I know some people like that. But that's what the Scripture is teaching us here. That's what it is showing us.

Look at the last thought I see here in this particular principle because notice God did not answer the prayer the way Paul wanted Him to answer it. The Lord never did take the thorn from him. See, God doesn't answer it sometimes the way we want it answered. He doesn't answer it that way. But that's why he comes back in verse number 10 and says what he says. "For when I am weak then I am strong." Amazing thought when you think about it.

Let me give you the last point. The third thought I see here is the sufficiency Paul received. The suffering that he encountered there can be seen very clearly. You can see the supplication that he manifested. But notice now with me the sufficiency that he received. Again go back to verse 9. The sufficiency that he received was certainly a powerful sufficiency because he says "God said unto me, My grace." Who was he talking about here? He's talking about the God of the universe. He's talking about the God who spoke the universe into existence. He's talking about the God who holds the whole world in His hand.

So, consequently what I see here in this Scripture as far as the sufficiency that Paul received, is a very powerful sufficiency. I not only see a powerful sufficiency, I see a personal sufficiency. Look at the personal pronouns that are in verse 7, 8, 9, and 10. There are several personal pronouns. Why? Because this was a personal sufficiency that Paul is experiencing here. It was not only personal but it was present. It wasn't something promised down the road or in the sweet by and by. Because I notice he says that His sufficiency is enough. So, it was a present sufficiency. Not only a present sufficiency, but it would certainly also be a plentiful sufficiency, because Paul says "I don't need anything else." It's going to do the job. It's going to meet the need.

The thing I love about this the most is that it was so practical. You say, "Preacher, how can you say that this is a practical sufficiency?" Well, it's very practical because, beloved, the grace of God became operative in Paul's weakness. When do you need God's grace? When you are weak. When do I need God's grace the most? When I'm discouraged. When do I need God's grace the most? When I'm laying in a hospital bed waiting to go into surgery. That's when you need the grace of God.

Oh beloved, hear me when I say this. We serve a practical God! We have a practical God because He has a practical grace. So therefore, that thorn in the flesh which was delivered by Satan became a channel of the power of God in Paul's life, because that's how he was made strong. A tremendous truth when you think about it. You cannot get more practical than that. You simply cannot get more practical in the fact that when we are weak in ourselves we can then be strong in our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's exactly what the last part of verse 9 is all about. That the power of Christ may rest upon me.

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