WWUTT 1721 My Grace is Sufficient for You (2 Corinthians 12:8-10)

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There are lots of different opinions as to what Paul's thorn in the flesh was, but it's pretty evident what it was, according to the context, and Paul is even making a reference from the

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Old Testament, when we understand the text. Many of the

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Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it.

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Visit our website at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. So we come back to our study of 2 Corinthians chapter 12,

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I'm in verses 7 through 10, picking up where we left off last week, and this will be the section we look at today, reading from the

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Legacy Standard Bible, this is the word of the Lord, through the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth.

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Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself.

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Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me, and he has said to me,

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My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.

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Most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

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Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions and hardships, for the sake of Christ, for when

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I am weak, then I am strong. So we talked about this thorn in the flesh last week, as we looked at verses 1 through 7, and we finished on Wednesday last week with me saying that this thorn in Paul's flesh, we can know what it is, because in the context that is given to us in chapters 10 through 12, we understand this thorn in his flesh, this messenger of Satan to torment

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Paul is a reference to those false teachers in Corinth that are leading the Corinthians astray.

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Becky and I talked about that again on Friday, and I mentioned that I had attended a shepherd's conference where Pastor John MacArthur was preaching from this particular section, and he had preached that from 2

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Corinthians 12, 7, and he said that the thorn in Paul's flesh was a reference to the false teachers, because it's also a reference to a messenger of Satan.

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So this isn't some sort of bodily ailment, like it's sometimes conveyed, that Paul had nearsightedness or he had some kind of an illness or something like that.

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It wasn't anything like that. It wasn't anything physical in Paul. This thorn in the flesh is a reference to a messenger of Satan.

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The same ones that he talked about in chapter 11 as being the servants of Satan, Satan who disguises himself as an angel of light.

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So of course, his servants are going to disguise themselves as apostles, but they're actually apostles of iniquity.

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They are teachers of lawlessness, messengers of Satan, not messengers from Christ. So Pastor John had been teaching on that, and he said to the pastors that are there, of course, because this was the

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Shepherds Conference, he said to them, why are there people in your ministry to oppose you? Why would

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God even allow something like that? It's to keep you humble so that you, like Paul, would know that Christ's grace is sufficient.

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We may pray for that opposition in our lives to be taken away from us, just like Paul. Three times

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I pleaded that this person who is opposing me, who is slandering me, who is saying false things about me, would be taken away.

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But the voice of Christ says to us all, in 2 Corinthians 12 9, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.

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One of the other things we come to understand by this, as Christ says this to us, my grace is sufficient for you.

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We might also understand it this way. Do you love

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Christ more than you love ease and comfort?

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Are you willing to go through hardships for Christ, or is there some sort of a persecution or a hardship that's just a step too far for you?

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I would rather have comfort here than have Christ. For Christ to respond to Paul this way, you have the grace of God.

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And as you go through these hardships, power is perfected in you. Paul talked about this also in Romans chapter 5.

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Let me turn back there. But as you had heard on Friday, if you listen to the Q &A, the pages that I have in this

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Bible stick together. All right. I was able to get there quickly. Romans chapter 5, beginning in verse 1,

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Paul says, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand.

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And we boast in hope of the glory of God. Remember Paul saying to the

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Corinthians, let he who boasts boast in the Lord. So we have the grace of God, and we boast in hope of the glory of God.

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Verse 3, and not only this, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction brings about perseverance, and perseverance, proven character, and proven character, hope.

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And hope does not put to shame, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the

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Holy Spirit, who was given to us. This is power perfected in weakness, boasting in the

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Lord, knowing that the grace of Christ is sufficient for us. It is all we need.

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And being grace, we don't do anything to earn it. It is unmerited favor.

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In fact, it's even demerited favor, because what we deserve is judgment. But God has shown his love for us, in that while we were sinners,

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Christ died for us, Romans 5, 8. So it is by the grace of God that we don't come into judgment, but we have come into his love, and even have become fellow heirs with Christ of his eternal kingdom.

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Everything that we could ever need has been fulfilled in Christ. Now even though there is nothing for us to do to earn that, it is only by the grace of God.

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Now that we have received this grace, there are things for us to do. In light of the grace that God has shown to us, we must love one another.

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We must love God by obeying his commandments. We will demonstrate that he has given us this grace when we do what it is that he has said for us to do.

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That is not to earn the grace, because he's already given that to us, but to show that we are in that grace.

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And so we must live as Christ has called us to live, even boasting in weaknesses, in insults and distresses and persecutions and hardships for the sake of Christ.

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That he would be glorified, not that we would be glorified. So this is why we face that opposition in our lives, so that we would learn to rely all the more on Christ.

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I've constantly been coming back to that as we've been going through 2 Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians 1 .9,

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where Paul says, these things happen to us to teach us to rely not on ourselves, but on Christ who raises the dead.

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So even this circumstance, even this instance, is Paul coming back to that again. In chapter 1, he says so here.

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He pleaded with the Lord to take this from him three times he pleaded. But Christ said to him, my grace is sufficient for you.

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What would you rather have? You want to have the teachers gone or do you want to have Christ? Do you want to share in the sufferings of Christ that the power of Christ would be perfected in your weakness?

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And Paul goes, hey, I'm going to go with that. What's more exalting of Christ? What puts me in fellowship with Christ to share in his sufferings?

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Let's do that. So he would rather go through the hard thing if it means more of Christ.

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As Paul said to the Philippians, to live is Christ, to die is gain.

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So with his life, he's going to live for Christ. Even if he has to go to death, that's even better because I gain the eternal reward in Christ Jesus with that.

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And when you understand that, I mean, what can man do to me? There is there is no offense in this word, as it says in Psalm 56, what can man do to me?

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There is no offense in this world that is going to separate us from the love of God that we have in Christ Jesus, our

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Lord. Now, I want to come back to the flesh thing again, the thorn in the flesh thing. I've been receiving emails.

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I've had some different people offer their varying theories on thorn in the flesh. And I kind of wondered, should

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I save these emails? Maybe we'll do another Friday Q &A on it. But I think, you know, since I'm still there, I'm still in second

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Corinthians 12, seven, then we can we can talk about that a little bit here.

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One person sent me an email, cracked me up. I don't know if I've ever heard this before or if I did hear it.

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Then it was just in it was just joking. But he said that he heard a pastor say that Paul's thorn in the flesh was a woman like like a nagging wife.

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I just laughed. I just that was that was a pastor who apparently had a problem with a nagging wife.

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I think that was why he said that. No, Paul's thorn in the flesh was not a nagging wife.

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Three times he pleaded with the Lord, please take this nagging woman from me. You know, as it says in Proverbs, better to live on the corner of the roof of your house than in the house with a quarrelsome woman.

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Right. That may be what that preacher had in mind. But it's not what Paul had in mind. That's not what's being understood here.

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FF Bruce, who was a New Testament scholar from Scotland, he said that we cannot know what the thorn in the flesh is.

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There's not enough detail for us here, given that we can know what Paul was referring to when he talked about the thorn in his flesh.

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So I don't know if it originates with FF Bruce that people say that we can't really know what this is.

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And so therefore, we're left kind of making up our own, you know, whatever this might be. One person said that the thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan actually tormented

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Paul while he was experiencing his visions and revelations. So this was something spiritual that took place because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations.

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For this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan. So remember that Paul said previously that he was taken up into the third heaven, whether in the body or out of it,

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I don't know. Only God knows that for that reason, I have to reject that theory that this was a messenger of Satan that was tormenting

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Paul while he was experiencing this exceedingly great revelation of being taken up into the third heaven, because only if it was in his body could he have said this was a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan.

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But because he prefaced this by saying whether it was in the body or out, I don't know.

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Therefore, he would not have said that a thorn was given in his flesh. Now, this thorn in the flesh is actually an

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Old Testament reference. Believe it or not, Paul is referencing back from the

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Old Testament. This is a common idiom that we use. You've probably heard many people use it talking about a thorn in the side or a thorn in the flesh.

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And it is from the Bible that this idiom comes. So people use this all the time.

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That person's a thorn in my flesh or they've been a thorn in my side for years or whatever else. It comes from Second Corinthians 12.

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But Paul got it from Numbers 33. It's in Numbers 33 where the

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Lord is telling Israel that when they go into the promised land to possess it, that they need to get rid of all of the pagans that are in the land.

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That's going to be part of them being given the promised land is that they have to eradicate the pagans, either driving them out or destroying them utterly, depending on the instruction that God gives for that respective group of people.

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So if they don't drive them out, what's going to end up happening? We know the answer to this because they did it.

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Israel did not drive out all the pagans from the land. So what ended up happening? Well, they ended up worshiping the false gods of the pagans.

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Consider what the Lord says in Numbers 33, 55. If you do not dispossess the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it will be that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land which you inhabit.

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So who's the thorn in the side? The thorn in the side are the false teachers, the pagans.

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That's the reference in Numbers 33. So then when Paul uses that same reference in 2nd

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Corinthians 12, I think the context establishes it anyway, as I mentioned to you last week. But knowing that it comes from the

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Old Testament, also that even adds to an understanding of what this thorn in the flesh is.

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Isn't it great how Scripture just interprets Scripture? There is no infallible interpreter of the

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Bible except the Bible itself. Only the Bible infallibly interprets the

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Bible. We can make mistakes in our interpretations, but the Bible is perfect in the way it interprets itself.

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So there we go. We have an Old Testament reference, which Paul is using, pulls into 2nd Corinthians 12, 7 and uses it in reference to these false teachers.

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They are thorns in my flesh. They are messengers of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself.

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Because remember what Paul is doing here. He is boasting in exceedingly great revelations.

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Well, he's boasting in those things that he's done for Christ. He is an even greater minister than they are.

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Going back to 2nd Corinthians 11, 12, are they sorry, 11, 23.

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That's where I am. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as if insane. I'm more so.

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These false teachers, do they claim to be ministers of Christ? I'm more of a minister of Christ than they are. So he's had to boast in himself to get the

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Corinthians to not follow the false teachers, but to follow the truth. The truth that has been given to the apostles, the true apostles, not those most imminent apostles, but the apostles whom

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Christ has sent out. So Paul has been boasting in himself, but he's been boasting in weakness.

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Then we get to chapter 12 and he says, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven and he saw and experienced inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.

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On behalf of such a man, I will boast, but on my own behalf, I will not boast except in weakness.

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He's referring to himself there in third person. So that he doesn't exalt himself.

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He could easily one up these guys. And I mentioned that last week, it would be easier for, it would be very easy for Paul to say,

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Hey, these guys claim to have visions and revelations. Let me tell you about the visions and revelations I've had, which would be far greater than anything that they claim that they've seen or heard, but he doesn't exalt himself to keep me from exalting myself like they exalt themselves.

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Does the most eminent apostles exalt themselves, but to keep me from exalting myself, a thorn was given me in the flesh, those false teachers that I would not be like them, that I would not exalt myself the way that they're exalting themselves, but that I would know

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Christ's grace is sufficient for me. It is not necessary for me to beat these guys.

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The grace of God has been given to me, and that is sufficient. For the power of Christ is being perfected in weakness.

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And so what's Paul going to boast in his weaknesses, the hardships that he has to go through so that he can share in the sufferings of Christ.

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Christ did not exalt himself. Who exalted Christ? Who exalts Christ? The father exalted

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Christ. Consider the great commission in Matthew 28, 18, where Jesus says to his disciples, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, given to him by whom?

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By the father. The father exalts the son, the son exalts the father in the high priestly prayer that Jesus prays in John 17, glorify me in your presence with the glory

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I had with you before the world began. And so as Christ in his humility, in his earthly ministry did not exalt himself, even when he was reviled, he did not revile in return.

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We have in first Peter two, but he entrusted himself who he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

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And it will be before God that these false teachers are going to have to answer, Paul says in Romans 12, do not take vengeance out on your own.

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Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord. Do not avenge yourselves. God will avenge.

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And so Paul pleads with the Lord to take this thorn from his flesh, but Christ's response to him is my grace is sufficient for you so that Paul rests in the power of Christ, not looking to his own ability to try to beat these guys.

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I've been in this position before. I've been in a position before where there are people who are they are slandering me.

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They are saying, uttering all kinds of evil against me falsely. And I could make a big deal out of it.

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Bear with me in a little foolishness here. OK, just like Paul said in second Corinthians 11 one.

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All right. Bear with me in a little foolishness. I got a podcast with several thousand listeners per day.

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I've got a YouTube channel with over 40, 50000 subscribers, something like that.

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Hey, these guys want to try to come after me. I'll make fools of you. I will post it in my videos.

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I will talk about it on my podcast. I will set you up so that I can tear you down and I will win this argument.

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I could do that if I wanted to. I speak as though a madman, but I could do that if I wanted to.

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But it's just not necessary. I've got work to do. I've got a

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Bible to read and preach to the people of God who actually want to hear it. And if there's anything I'm going to boast in myself about, it's going to be my weaknesses, my hardships.

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I want to follow the example of the Apostle Paul in that way, who is following the example of Christ, not trying to exalt myself, but that I also would be humble in the way that I approach these things.

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He has said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.

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What does Paul say next? Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

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Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with hardships for the sake of Christ.

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For when I am weak, then I am strong. And my brothers and sisters, the hardships that you face are also to draw you more to Christ, that you would cling to him who raises the dead.

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Heavenly Father, thank you for this today. May we in our hearts and our minds know your grace is sufficient.

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It is all we need. It has given us everything that we need for life so that even when we die, we don't have to fear death or the grave.

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We will live forever with God in glory. Most gladly, therefore, teach us to boast in our weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in us.

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Can we say with the Apostle Paul that we are glad to endure these things, content with weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions, and hardships?

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For when we're weak, we rely all the more on the strength of Christ. It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

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Amen. Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues.

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You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com. Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word, when we understand the text.