Sovereignty in Suffering | 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

So, thank you all for having me today. This conference has been truly remarkable, reminding me that salvation is truly of the

Lord, amen. And so, God doesn't just simply save us and say, good luck.

No, he's with us. Jesus promises us that he will be with us even to the end of the age, all the days, right?

He gives us his spirit and he sanctifies us and he is sovereign over all of that, even the types of suffering that we undergo in this broken and fallen age.

And so, my topic today is Calvinism in Tribulation. And so, sometimes when we think about tribulation, we think about the great tribulation in eschatology.

And as exciting as that topic is, that's not what I'm talking about when we're talking about tribulation.

We're talking about great affliction, time of suffering. What are we gonna do in those times when we're suffering and yet we're looking up to God saying, why?

I wanna submit to you, Calvinism provides the pillow in which you can lay your head on at night and go to sleep and rest in the absolute sovereignty of God.

I was listening to The Dividing Line one day and Dr. White made this incredible point. He's talking about the acrostic tulip, you know, the five points of Calvinism.

And he said something to the effect of, if tulip could be rewritten, it would be stoolip.

And I was like, what? That makes no sense to me. And his point was, it would start with the

S, the sovereignty of God. Because when you look at the five points of Calvinism, this presupposes a sovereign

God who sees the end all the way from beginning and has divine purpose in everything.

And so, when we talk about suffering, listen, it has been granted to you.

If you're in Christ, it has purpose. It has purpose to sanctify you for your good and for God's glory.

And so, as Calvin, this is one of our favorite Bible verses, is Philippians 1 29.

Paul says this, for it has been granted to you that for Christ's sake, you should not only believe, but also suffer for the sake of Christ.

As much as we are gonna talk about, and we should, that faith is an effectual gift of the

Holy Spirit regenerating your heart, causing you to be born again, and he has gifted you faith, that faith is also going to be met with times of affliction, times of tribulation and struggle, and you can look to God and say, thank you.

And as James says, you can find joy knowing that he is going to mold your faith and make it perfect.

And so, if you would, please stand with me as we read from God's word. We're gonna be looking at the thorn in Paul's flesh.

So, if you would, turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. We're gonna be looking at verses seven through 10.

God's word says, so to keep me from being conceited because of the surpassing greatness of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being conceited.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me, but the Lord said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly, Paul says, of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities, for when

I am weak, I am strong. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we lift your name on high.

We bend the knee to your sovereignty in all things and God, we trust you in everything.

We trust you in times of affliction, we trust you in times of confusion, knowing this, that you are in control.

God, I pray that you would help strip us of all pride and any type of thinking that we have accomplished anything,

God, you ultimately are running the show. Please help us to look to you and give you proper glory.

Lord, please help your truth to shine forth and edify the saints. Praise things in your name,

Jesus. You may be seated. So I wanna make a quick note in verse 10, where we see a wide range of tribulation.

Remember that word in its broadest sense means affliction. Paul mentions all kinds of tribulation that he has been experiencing.

And in verse 10, he says, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.

And so if we're familiar with the life of the apostle Paul, in fact, back just a chapter earlier in chapter 11, he gives us a brief synopsis of all of what he has been doing in his life for Christ in the ministry.

He gives us a brief synopsis when he says, five times I received at the hands of the Jews, 40 lashes minus one.

Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked, night and day adrift at sea.

I was in danger of rivers, dangers of robbers, danger of my own people, danger of the

Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, danger in toil and hardships.

Through many sleepless nights, I was in hunger and thirst, often without food, cold, and was exposed to all of these calamities.

So Paul has received great affliction. And I want to pose this question to all of us to be thinking about throughout the sermon.

How was Paul able to say, I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses?

How was Paul able to say, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities?

How did Paul say, for when I am weak, then I am strong?

Look back with me back up in verse seven. Paul says, so to keep me from being conceited, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me.

And he says a second time, to keep me from being conceited. Okay, he repeated this twice.

He wants us to make special awareness that the apostle Paul has these great experiences, but God is sovereign, and he is keeping me humble.

The NASB says that this was to keep Paul from exalting himself, from becoming arrogant.

Paul understands that he is an apostle by Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and that carried the temptation to think highly of himself.

The apostle Paul was a true apostle. He had the signs of an apostle, right? He did many wondrous, mighty works and deeds, and yet he trembled at the thought of being tempted to boast in himself, rather than boasting in his

Lord. Verse seven, he mentions, because of the surpassing greatness of revelations.

Now, if we go back earlier in the context here in chapter 12, we get a little insight to the kinds of visions and revelations he was talking about.

He says he's received many visions and revelations that he received from the Lord. Paul then proceeds,

I believe, in verse two, to refer to himself in the third person, right? We're about to look at this verse where he received this wonderful vision, revelation.

He's not even sure how to describe it, but he just doesn't wanna boast in it, right? He's telling us his mountaintop experiences as he has seen and tasted that the

Lord is good, but don't get it twisted that he has been able to do these things in the power of his own might.

One of those visions, look with me in verse two. Paul says, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up into the third heaven.

Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows. I know that this man was caught up into paradise.

Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

So I believe in verse seven, when we see that Paul experiences amazing revelations, this is the time that he is referring to.

That he had lofty experiences that God had granted him, but as we're going to see that God also granted that Paul would suffer greatly for the sake of Christ.

Paul says, a thorn was given me. Now, in your mind or in your

Bibles, make special note of this. How is this given to Paul? Paul is saying that this thorn was given to him in the flesh.

And then he says, a messenger of Satan to harass me. Now, we're not told exactly what this thorn in the flesh is, but we know its function.

We know this thorn was meant to harass and torment the apostle. This thorn in Paul's flesh is some kind of spiritual attack.

He calls it a messenger of Satan. And so even though we're not told exactly what this thorn is,

I believe it's just vague enough to easily glean principles as a

Christian. To look to this moment of affliction and says, look how Paul responded in times of affliction and tribulation, right?

I want that same peace. I want that same comfort to know that God's grace is sufficient.

And we look more into the context as we're going to develop, we're gonna see that Satan has been relentlessly attacking the believers at Corinth.

And if you mess with the bride of Christ, then by extension, you're messing with the apostle Paul. He has been laboring in discipleship with these

Corinthian believers. And a couple of chapters earlier, he says he is trying to present them as a chaste bride to Christ.

He loves them dearly. And so Paul numerous times has been telling the believers at Corinth, you are in the direct crosshairs of the enemy and you don't even know it.

Earlier in the letter, he speaks of the urgency that the believers must carry out church discipline because they have unrepentant sin in their midst and you must be in prayer to be reconciled in love and forgiveness.

And he says this, so that we may not be outwitted by Satan and his schemes.

So if you would look back with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 10, where the apostle

Paul tells them there is a spiritual battle in your midst and you must be on guard and you must be ready.

Chapter 10, starting in verse three, Paul says, Our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power.

This divine power is able to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.

How? By taking every thought captive to obey Christ. He's telling the believers at Corinth that they are in a spiritual battle and they must prepare themselves.

That the kingdom of darkness is in their midst and the arch enemy of God does not fight fair.

He is the father of lies and he will subtly malign the truth and distort it ever slightly.

The enemy will wreak havoc on an undiscerning mind with every wind of doctrine and will sift you like wheat if you do not know

King Jesus and his word. And I believe that this is a principle that we can all glean, that we must fight not with earthly made weapons, but with weapons that have divine power.

We do this by putting on the whole armor of God, renewing our hearts and minds with God's truth, being equipped with the knowledge of God revealed to us in his word.

And we do this day by day, looking to King Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, amen?

So in chapter 11, Paul informs the Corinthians that the enemy unfortunately is already in their midst and has infiltrated their local gatherings and has already begun to build strongholds.

Look with me at 2 Corinthians 11, verse three. Paul says, but I'm afraid that the serpent that deceived

Eve by his cunning, but let's look back at verse three. He says, but I'm afraid that the serpent deceived

Eve by his cunning. Your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or have received a different spirit from the one that you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you have accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

He's saying you have no discernment. You will let anyone come into your midst and preach a false Jesus. And verse five says, indeed,

I consider that I'm not least inferior to these super apostles.

Paul is telling the Corinthians that you are tolerating anyone to come into your midst, even false teachers, these so -called super apostles who are no apostles at all.

They are allowing them to come into their midst and distort the gospel of grace. And so we don't know exactly what these super apostles taught, but Paul is saying they are teaching a false

Jesus, a false gospel, and their teaching is not leading to the Holy Spirit, but to demonic spirits.

Paul is telling them that you are not taking every thought captive. Rather, you are slowly being led astray by subtle arguments that are raised against the knowledge of God.

A moment ago, we read about this wide range of tribulation and persecution that Paul had endured for the sake of Christ.

And in that list, I wanna talk about one that really stood out to me. Paul said, the danger of false brothers.

Okay, now, we're talking about tribulation, we're talking about hardships, and when we start talking about persecution,

Jesus had a lot to say about how we, as Christians, followers of Jesus, will be persecuted in this world.

And he says, you're gonna be blessed for it, right? Remember back in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, blessed are the persecuted, those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

And what I wanna say is, this makes sense to me. They first hated Jesus, they're gonna hate us.

Jesus says, they hated me first, look how I'm your master, if they hate me, they're coming after you next, right?

We are a city on a hill, we are salt and light, the world's gonna hate it when we speak the truth and expose sin.

What's hard for me to understand is how professing believers will persecute those among themselves.

Paul listed that as one of the persecutions, many afflictions that he suffered in his time at Corinth.

So what we're learning here is that Satan will throw fiery darts from outside, persecution from the world, but he is also going to invade our midst and attempt to divide from within.

How is he gonna do this? It's gonna be through unrepentant sin, spreading lies, false doctrine, corrupting the gospel of grace, tempting the saints like he has from the very beginning with the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.

So the kind of persecution that Paul is receiving from false brothers are professing

Christians that are slandering and maligning the character of Paul to his fellow believers, those who he loves dearly, and he's been pouring out his life as an offering to them.

And friend, I don't know if you've experienced church hurt, those people that malign and trash your character to other

Christians, but I've seen it devastate churches before. It is awful, backbiting, secret slander about one another to build yourself up.

That is the enemy, and it's tearing Paul apart. Spiritual warfare, we must deal with sin, we must guard the saints from this.

I have experienced this before, and it hurts so dearly. But praise God he is sovereign, and it did not catch him off guard, amen.

This will harm souls, and it will ultimately bring reproach on the word of God. These self -proclaimed super apostles were creeping into the

Corinthians midst. If you have your Bible open, 2 Corinthians 10, 10, this is what they were saying about the apostle

Paul. They said, yeah, Paul's letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech is of no account.

Okay, obviously they couldn't dismiss the fact that his letters are pretty strong.

We understand he's an inspired apostle by God, so yeah, they recognize the truth that he said, but they looked at this as an opportunity to backhandedly say, yeah, but in person, he's a pushover.

He's not a real leader. You don't look to the apostle Paul, and when you do, he is just a terrible speaker.

And what these super apostles are saying, you don't need the apostle Paul, you need us, okay?

Do you see the subtlety of how Satan is working in their midst? And let me just say this, friend, the greatest lie contains the most amount of truth in it.

The subtlety of the enemy will use things like flattering speech to deceive the hearts of the naive, causing divisions, to create obstacles contrary to sound doctrine.

And no doubt, the apostle Paul is receiving blistering, fiery darts from every angle in this spiritual battle with the

Corinthians. So this gives us a little bit more context. Look with me at verse seven in our main passage.

A thorn, Paul says, was given me, and he goes on to say, a messenger of Satan to harass me.

Once again, we don't know exactly what this thorn is, but we know that it is a thorn in Paul's flesh.

It's causing him agonizing pain. But we do get this detail. It says that it's an angelos, a messenger of Satan.

This is almost the exact same language that Paul used earlier in the previous chapter to describe the super apostles that were being instruments of Satan himself.

And so if you do wanna look with me at 2 Corinthians 11, 13, Paul says this. For such men, these super apostles, are false apostles, false messengers, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ in no wonder.

For even Satan disguises himself as an angelos, a messenger, an angel of light.

So that it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.

Their end will correspond with their deeds. And so in some way, these false teachers no doubt have been tormenting the apostle by slandering his character, discrediting his apostleship, and spiritually attacking the bride of Christ.

They have been slowly corrupting the thinking of the Corinthian believers and leading them to a false

Christ who cannot save. And so I believe we're getting a peek into the pastoral heart of the apostle

Paul. He was broken over this. He was constantly praying and pleading to the

Lord. Look with me in verse eight. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, about this thorn, this angelos of Satan, that it should leave me.

I believe this is the heart of a pastor. A man of God who continually goes to the throne of God in prayer when he feels the attacks of the enemy on himself and he sees the attack of the enemy on the saints.

Paul elsewhere says, I endure all things for the sake of the elect that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Something else I wanna make special note of in verse seven is that this thorn in the flesh was given to the apostle

Paul. This should be perplexing, right? Because you mean this affliction, whatever it is exactly, this spiritual attack from Satan that is harassing and tormenting him is a gift.

If you look into the Greek of this, this was bestowed as a gift to the apostle

Paul, okay? Very interesting. The only way to understand this is that it was sovereignly bestowed upon him by God himself.

You have to have a big view of God to understand that even affliction is a gift.

Remember Philippians 129? It's not only granted to us to not only believe but also to suffer for the sake of Christ, right?

Yes, we are victorious through suffering. The professor and scholar of New Testament, George Guthrie, I loved what he said about this in his commentary.

He said, paradoxically, the thorn in Paul's flesh was both a gift from God and a goad from Satan.

And so it's easy to understand that affliction and persecution are flaming darts from the enemy.

But listen, Paul had the perspective that his entire life was in the hands of his sovereign triune

God and had exhaustive purpose in everything that comes about in his creation.

The creator is not just some distant, ethereal deity that's just spun this world in motion and is just chilling and sitting on the sidelines.

We understand that God has revealed himself in the person of the eternal son,

Jesus Christ. And it is Jesus who entered in his own creation to redeem humanity, all that the father has given him.

But how in the world, Paul, did you have this perspective that even through suffering and tribulation, that this is a gift from God?

Paul had the perspective that trials are for our good and for his glory.

These ordained trials are meant to sanctify and grow us in holiness, to mold us more and more into the image of Jesus, amen?

And when you have this absolute, or when you have this understanding of God's absolute sovereignty in all things, then certain verses you can never read the same way again.

Talking about verses like Romans 8, 28, right? And we know that those who love

God, those who have put their faith in King Jesus and have peace with God, who have been justified, those of us that love

God truly, all things are working together for our good, those who are called according to his purpose.

God is sovereign. God is working out all things together for our sanctification.

Nothing random is happening in his world. That is why we can say

God divinely appoints gifts, bestows as a gift trials in our lives to strengthen our faith.

And so perhaps one of the best stories to illustrate this is the sufferings of Job. The text says that Job loved the

Lord and he feared God. Satan saw this and Satan targeted him.

Satan was like, you know what, I'm going to harass him. Satan says to God, does

Job fear God for no reason? You've blessed the work of his hands. You've given him all the possessions.

If you take that away, he will curse you and die. And so Lord said to Satan, behold, all that he has is in your hand.

And then he later said, only spare his life. Now I want to make a note at this point.

This is remarkable because God and Satan are both at work in the life of Job, but here's the key principle.

God and Satan are at work in different ways. Satan is at work by bringing accusations against Job.

He's prowling around like a lion and trying to sift Job like wheat. And he is tempting

Job to curse God. Yet God is absolutely in control of what happens.

Satan can only accomplish what the Almighty permits and has ordained to happen.

Nothing more and nothing less. Just a moment ago, we heard about the Calvinism of Luther.

So many shared principles. Luther even affirmed this truth that even the devil is

God's devil. Satan is on a leash. He can only do what God ordains and permits.

And so Satan is at work in Job's life and God is at work in Job's life in different ways.

Satan destroyed Job's property and his livestock and he did this by inciting pagans to plunder his goods.

Satan also killed all of Job's children by somehow orchestrating a natural disaster.

I want you to feel the weight of that. No one has it as bad as Job did.

Lost everything. To say that he was being harassed by Satan does not begin to describe the onslaughts of crushing blows from the enemy.

All of this was taking place under the sovereign control of God. Job could have easily blamed

Satan for all these attacks and been consumed with anger against the archenemy of God who is billions of times stronger than we are.

He could have been mad and cursed God for allowing this to take place in his life.

But only by the grace of God, Job worshiped and said these famous words.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And in all this,

Job did not charge God with wrongdoing. And then a little while later, Job's friends come on the scene when he was suffering and they said, this is happening because God is angry at you.

You have sinned in some way. They were wrong. They were not true friends. Job cried out in the midst of their bad advice and counsel and he said, for I know my

Redeemer lives. Though he slay me, I shall trust in him. And at the end of Job's journey in all this, he says,

I know that you, God, can do all things and no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Does that make sense? God is sovereign. Nothing random is happening in his world.

The New Testament actually says God had a direct purpose in allowing this affliction, ordaining these events to happen in Job's life.

In the New Testament, James 5 11 says, you have heard of the steadfastness of Job and you have seen the purpose of the

Lord, how God is compassionate and merciful. Job experienced more of God's gracious character through suffering.

Right if we know the end of the story of Job, he was blessed beyond measure. Listen, trials are necessary in the life of a believer to grow us and to show us more of God's grace and to learn this principle that God's grace is sufficient.

Yep. James 1 12 says, blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life.

God is not only sovereign in regeneration and our justification, listen, God is also sovereign in our sanctification.

And so as Calvinists, we use the word sovereign a lot, don't we? We do.

So what do we mean by that? Well, for one, I would just say it's a biblical term, right? Jesus Christ is

King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the blessed and the only sovereign.

And if you have a good old King James Bible, it says the only potentate. Isn't that right, brother Danny? That's what

I'm talking about. Jesus Christ, God is the only sovereign.

That means that God possesses transcendent power. God is all powerful.

Scripture declares, hallelujah for the Lord our God, the almighty, the omnipotent reigns.

So you better believe God is sovereign and we will say it. And so I believe Calvinists recognize that God's almighty rule and reign cannot be thwarted by anything in this created order.

So everything that comes to pass in history is ultimately decreed and permitted in real time by God's sovereign will to take place.

Well, Jeremiah, that's a good theory, but you better prove it, buddy. Book, chapter, and verse, great. Look at Ephesians 1 .11.

For God who works all things together after the counsel of his will.

God is absolutely sovereign over his creation. Dear saint, every moment of your life has divine purpose.

Nothing random happens under God's divine rule. A comforting psalm that I look to all the time,

I just love it, is when King David said in Psalm 139, your eyes saw me when

I was in the womb. All the days ordained or predetermined for me were recorded in your scroll before one of them came into existence.

Even through the apostle Paul acknowledging this truth about the sovereignty of God and his affliction,

I want you to understand this, he was not robotic, right? One of the main criticisms that I hear from those in favor of choice meat theology and you know who

I'm talking about, and just critics from all over, they're saying, well, I guess we shouldn't pray anymore, right, because if God has determined whatsoever comes to pass, what's the point?

Now, as Andrew said earlier, we are not talking about a hard determinism that is robotic.

We are affirming divine determinism in which God not only predetermines the end, but he predetermines the means to bring about that end.

I want you to understand, we have a limited, finite perspective. If we are going through a

God -ordained trial, you better believe the saint will cry out to God in prayer, amen.

You can understand that prayer is not changing God. Prayer is changing us.

Does that make sense? God's sovereignty is working through the prayers of his children.

We are not asking God to be a genie and to pray something that goes against his will. We are praying that God's will be done in our heart, in our life.

Prayer changes us. Prayer does not change God. As we are looking at the scripture,

I want you to understand, what's at the bottom of this universe is not some cold, impersonal chance that can't tell us anything.

Let me tell you this. If there was no God, as Richard Dawkins, I'm gonna spare you this quote that I had for a minute.

I can't even read it, I don't like it. But he understands the utter futility of everything. There's no justice, there's no love, there's no anything.

And he says, this is ultimately because at the bottom of the universe, there's nothing. I want you to understand, if there was nothing at the bottom of the universe other than impersonal chance, then everything we're experiencing is cold and is robotic, but praise

God, that's not true. What is ultimately resting, everything is resting on, according to the word of his power, is a sovereign triune

God that has purpose in everything that happens in history. That's an interesting word, history.

It's his story of redemption. The prophet Isaiah said that this one and true

God declares the end all the way from the beginning, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure.

I have spoken and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed, literally, a predetermined plan and I will certainly, okay?

That's why we can look at a trial and say, God has granted that this happen to me for my good and for his glory, okay?

Something else that the psalmist says, he says, yeah, even from ancient times. That means when we look back in history, we can say, oh,

God had a purpose in that and he can actually tell us in his word the purpose for why something happened in the past, even for things not yet done.

That means God can give us prophecy about things that haven't happened yet. He not only knows it, but he has a purpose for it.

We have to wrestle with this reality. You are not God. You are not

God. You are a part of the creation. And please hear me. Yes, we do have a will.

We have a will to do what we desire and that is compatible with God's will that's eternal.

You have a will that is temporal, finite, that you choose according to your desire. God has an eternal will.

Does God determine things? Yes. Do we determine things? Yes, just not in the same way.

I want you to think about this. This is not a contradiction. Unless you lower God and you elevate man and say that we determine the same way, now you have problems.

Listen, you are not God. And until we quit blurring the lines between the creator and the creation and we have a strong distinction, you will have a distorted view of the sovereignty of God.

You will have a conceited and elevated view of man and you will not be able to rest securely in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

And that idea of bringing God down and elevating man is slowly buying into the damaged goods of Rome's dubious gospel, the

Roman Catholic Church. And so as we look back at the Apostle Paul, did

God have purpose in Paul's suffering? Yes. Did Paul know that?

Yes. And yet he pleaded that God would take this from him. He was wrestling with spiritual warfare.

He was resting in the promises of God. He was fleeing to the Lord in prayer.

And I want you to understand that prayer is meaningful. Jesus himself told us, yes, the

Father knows everything that you need, still pray, right? Even though God has exhaustive purpose in what's about to happen, he wants us to pray and go to him.

I believe, truly, this is what it means to have relationship with God, right?

In relationship, we have back and forth communication, right? How do we speak to God?

It's through prayer. How does God speak to us? Through his living and breathing word.

So we see the Apostle Paul fleeing to the Lord in prayer. Why? Because he loves him. That's where the source of our strength comes from, to God.

He is walking with the Lord, so he is praying to him and talking with him.

I wanna say, also, the Lord talks to us, communicates to us through other saints, right?

No doubt, the Apostle Paul is in a corporate church context. He is no doubt praying on behalf for those believers at Corinth, and interceding on their behalf.

My point is, is our walk with the Lord is not supposed to be only individualistic, but is meant to be corporate with the body of the saints.

Paul is modeling this for us. Right, these are incredible truths that I want us to be encouraged with, that, as children of God, we can flee to the

Lord in prayer, and we can seek him during times of affliction and great tribulation, knowing this next truth that I want us to look at, that my grace is sufficient for you, and my power is made perfect in weakness, okay?

I love this phrase, my grace is sufficient for you. As I was thinking through this,

I couldn't help thinking back to the battle cry of the Protestant Reformation, right? That we stand on the sole and fallible authority of the word of God, sola scriptura, scripture alone.

We look to God's word alone for our authority in our life, right? And how are we made right before God?

By faith alone. And then we see out of the Protestant Reformation that we are saved by God's grace alone, sola gratia.

God monergistically is working out all things together after the counsel of his will.

God's grace is sufficient. So I was thinking about sola gratia, and I was thinking about this.

Well, that's talking about our justification, right? God's grace regenerates us, puts that new heart in us to look to King Jesus in repentant faith, and he justifies us, declares us right, no longer guilty of condemnation and the penalty of our sin.

But we're learning a fantastic truth that God is not only, God's grace is not only sufficient in our justification, but God's grace is sufficient in our sanctification.

God is telling Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. And so it's tempting at this point in the passage to think that, well, the main point is that Paul needed to be humble because he has these miraculous mountaintop experiences as an apostle.

That is being taught here, but that's not the main purpose. The main thrust of this whole passage is that God is perfecting his power in magnifying the grace of our

Lord Jesus Christ. So the full verse here again is, my grace,

Paul, is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

God is using the life of the apostle Paul and the sufferings of the church to crush the kingdom of darkness by the foolishness, the simplicity of the gospel.

How does the apostle Paul respond in the midst of so much great suffering for Christ?

He tells us, and this excites my heart, he says, therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the main purpose of this passage, the power of Christ, may rest upon me.

What brought Paul the highest degree of joy and pleasure in this suffering was not boasting in his mountaintop experiences, but in the moments of his lowest.

Those moments of tribulation where all he can do is plead for the Lord to strengthen him, that his gaze might continually look to King Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

That reminds me of the famous words of John the Baptist when he said, that's the lame of God that takes away the sins of the world.

He says, for he must increase and I must decrease. But Jeremiah, my eschatology, the study of the end times, my eschatology says that I'm supposed to have a winning mentality and reclaim dominion of what

Adam lost to Satan. I'm not gonna get into a whole eschatology spill, but let me tell you what the

Apostle Paul's mentality was. He was victorious through suffering.

He said, it's because God's power is made known in our weaknesses. Paul responded to tribulation with great joy.

Verse 10, he says, for the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecution, and calamities.

This word content is eudaikaio in the Greek, beautiful. This actually was said by God the

Father to Jesus at his baptism. He says, this is my son with whom I am eudaikaio, well pleased.

Friend, you cannot get more pleased than when being pleased by God in his son.

The Apostle Paul understood this. He rested in it, he rejoiced in it.

And so my question for you today is how will you respond in times of tribulation?

Will you respond like the world, murmuring, complaining, questioning, accusing?

Or will you be like the Apostle Paul? Verse 10, he says, for when I am weak for the sake of Christ, then

I am strong, well pleased in the strength and power of his might.

How will you respond? I pray that when we are given thorny afflictions in our lives by the sovereign, mighty hand of God, that we would boast all the more gladly, that we would be content, eudaikaio, well pleased.

Yes, there will be times where we plead that God will remove that professing brother, that false

Christian, that accuser, who has proven himself to be dangerous, that is unrepentant, slandering you against the other saints and harming other

Christians. I pray that we do not ask God for a lighter cross, but we pray for strength to carry it.

I pray that as we seek lofty experiences, greater revelations, these mountaintop experiences with our

Lord, that we would rejoice when we are given thorns to keep us from being conceited, always looking to Jesus who had a crown of thorns.

Think about that. We receive thorns here and there. He bore a crown of thorns on our behalf.

Look to him, friend. Look to King Jesus in the times of suffering, and we will look to a new dawning day when he will return and restore all things, and we will rule and reign with him for all eternity, knowing this, that God, your grace is sufficient.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you for this time.

Hopefully, just opening up your word just enough to get a taste, God, of your goodness, your grace, your mercy.

God, sing your sovereignty for what it is. Lord, for those that are wrestling with these doctrines of grace and your absolute sovereignty in all things,

Lord, I pray that you would illuminate hearts to see your goodness in it, that you are working all things together after the counsel of your will to put your glory on display.

Lord, for those of us that have seen and tasted that you, Lord, are gracious, God, please help us in our times of affliction to rejoice in it, knowing that you are strengthening our faith for our good and for your glory.