Sunday Sermon: Thorns In the Flesh (2 Corinthians 12:1-10)

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:15

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabrielle Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.

00:22

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

00:27

New Testament book. On Thursday is our Old Testament study, and then we answer questions from listeners on Friday.

00:34

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series, presently going through the letters to the

00:39

Corinthians. This is the sermon that was preached last week from our pulpit. Here's Pastor Gabe.

00:45

The Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth, I must go on boasting, though there is nothing to be gained by it,

00:54

I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body,

01:06

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

01:14

I do not know, God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

01:22

On behalf of this man, I will boast, but on my own behalf, I will not boast except of my weaknesses.

01:31

Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool for I would be speaking the truth, but I refrain from it so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.

01:48

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

02:06

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

02:20

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

02:29

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

02:38

For when I am weak, then I am strong. Let us pray.

02:46

Heavenly Father, I pray that you would be the desire of our hearts this morning.

02:54

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well in John chapter 4 that the true worshipers of the

03:01

Father will worship him in spirit and in truth, for these are the worshipers that the

03:08

Father is seeking. So I pray that as you have sought us out this morning, in the spirit of truth, we would worship you according to who your word says that you are and according to the way that your word says you are to be worshiped.

03:29

That we would exalt you with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, that there would be nothing in us this morning that is preventing us or hindering us from worshiping you the way that we should.

03:45

Whatever has been going on this past week, we lay it aside. It is not on our minds this morning.

03:52

May our hearts be full of your spirit to focus on what you have said to us in your word.

03:58

Whatever we have coming up this week, whatever fills us with anxiety, whatever we might be concerned or worried about that is coming at us down the road, we don't think about that right now either.

04:12

For now we have the word of God open before us, and we have the comfort of your promises that are laid before our eyes, and may these things fill up our mind and our hearts so whatever has been or whatever will be, we find comfort in the words of Christ.

04:33

My grace is sufficient for you. The grace of God is enough.

04:43

And it's in knowing this truth that our hearts would be comforted. It's in knowing this truth that we want nothing else but all that Christ has given and provided with his death upon the cross and his resurrection from the grave.

05:00

And even now in this moment, we have received the forgiveness of sins, all those who believe on the name of Christ.

05:09

And so I hope that we know and understand that the promises that we've been given are even more than this, though that would be enough.

05:17

But we have the promise now of eternal life with God in your glorious forever kingdom.

05:25

The ornaments that the kids have hung on the trees this morning are decked in gold to remind us of the riches that we have received in Christ Jesus.

05:36

The world has nothing to give compared to the treasure that is Christ. And may we be comforted by that offering this morning and also look forward to the promises that are to come, a kingdom that is imperishable and waiting for us in glory for those who endure to the end in Christ.

06:02

It's in his wonderful, glorious name that we pray and all God's people said, amen.

06:08

Thank you. You may be seated. There's a fellow by the name of George Matheson.

06:15

Most of you may not be familiar with that name, but there's a hymn in our hymnal that if you've grown up in church and you've sung many of the classic hymns in your life, then you've probably remembered this one,

06:28

Oh, love that will not let me go. It's hymn number 110 in your hymnal. George Matheson lived from 1842 to 1906.

06:38

In 1862, he went blind. If you're doing the math, you'll figure out he was 20 years old, 20 years old when he went blind.

06:48

He was engaged to be married and told his fiance that he was going blind and she left him.

06:59

She would not stick with him and commit to this promise to be wed to him, knowing that in that vow to care for her husband in sickness and in health, it was going to be harder for her than she was willing to put the work into doing.

07:16

So, he had a very rough life and was stricken with a lot of grief at a very young age.

07:24

He lived with his sister up until she got married. And on the eve of her wedding, right before she got married is when he penned the words to his hymn,

07:36

Oh, love that will not let me go. In addition to that hymn,

07:42

Matheson wrote the following. My God, I have never thanked you for my thorns.

07:49

I have thanked you a thousand times for the roses, but never for the thorns.

07:55

Show me that I have climbed closer to you along the path of pain. Show me that through the tears, the colors of your rainbow look much more brilliant.

08:10

Have we thanked God for our thorns?

08:18

We just finished up the Thanksgiving holiday a couple of weeks ago, and you probably had a moment where you had gathered around a table with family and friends and eating food.

08:27

And there may have been a period in that particular meal where you all expressed thanksgiving for all that God had given to you.

08:35

Everything that you had received this year, maybe a promise of things to come in the year ahead.

08:41

But that's what we gather around the table for at Thanksgiving, to be thankful, to express thanks for God's many provisions.

08:51

But how many of those things that you expressed thanks for around the table included the miserable parts of your year?

09:01

Those things that were the most difficult, those things that you looked at and wondered where God was in the midst of those situations, and yet he did indeed prove himself to be faithful.

09:15

Were you thankful for those moments? Those moments that were the most trying, that brought you to your knees, that filled your eyes with tears, that vexed your heart in such a way that you asked

09:32

God to take this away from you and may you never feel this experience again.

09:39

Were you thankful for those moments? Were you thankful for those moments that actually brought you closer to God?

09:47

Because how far do we find ourselves from God when we hit those moments of contentment, right?

09:53

Things are good right now. I don't need God. Everything's going just fine. What would I need to call upon God for?

10:00

God is just there when we need him in the toughest trials, right? And it's in this instance that C .S.

10:08

Lewis has said, God speaks to us in the comforting times, but he is like a megaphone in our pain.

10:17

He speaks loudest through the most difficult of circumstances. And it's here that Paul relays that to the

10:25

Corinthians. Surely he has seen God in such great and glorious visions that only he as an apostle was privileged to see and the rest of us have not yet seen.

10:36

We won't see until that day we die and we go to be with our Lord in glory. And then we understand as was written in the hymn, my faith shall be sight.

10:49

Paul had the privilege of being able to see those things on this side of heaven, but such glorious wonders that he may not utter what it was that he saw.

10:59

Yet he did not boast in these things. Instead, he boasted in his vexations, in his trials, in his pain, in this spirit of Satan that had been given to him as a thorn in the flesh, that he might cry out to God, take this from me and hear the word of the

11:20

Savior. My grace is sufficient for you. So that we may be reminded in those same circumstances that we might cry out to God and say, why?

11:31

Why this? Why this? Please take it from me. Will we also hear the voice of Christ as Paul did?

11:38

My grace is sufficient for you. My grace is enough. I have shown you favor through the sacrifice of Christ and his resurrection from the grave and our faith in these things have saved us and that's enough.

11:59

Do we thank God for those times, for those thorns that remind us of the goodness of God that has been shown through his son,

12:08

Jesus. At the start of chapter 12, Paul says, I must go on boasting.

12:16

What is this boasting that he has talked about? In the context of what we had read in chapter 11, Paul felt it necessary to kind of lay out his resume as an apostle and he was doing this not so he could impress anybody, but because there were these other men who had come into the church, these men who were super apostles, they claimed that they were even greater than guys like Paul and Peter and James and John.

12:45

And so because of these men and their false teaching, Paul felt it necessary to contend for the hearts of the

12:52

Corinthians, that they would not be led astray by false teachers, that they would not be led astray by the deceptiveness of Satan.

13:00

Back in chapter 11, verse 13, for such men are false apostles. They might have a smile like Joel Osteen, but they are deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

13:14

And no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.

13:27

Their end will correspond to their deeds. So Paul lays out his qualifications as an apostle, again, not to look impressive to anybody, but so the

13:39

Corinthians would know. These men who look flashy, who have the booming voices, who deck themselves in the riches that they accumulate from you because of the messages that they preach, these men are false teachers.

13:52

They are leading you astray with lies. What I say to you as an apostle, a true apostle of Jesus Christ, are the words that lead to eternal life.

14:03

We think of what Paul said to the Romans in Romans 1 .16, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe, to the

14:14

Jew first and also to the Greek. So this is the reason why

14:19

Paul boasts. It's so they would know the difference between a true teacher and a false teacher.

14:27

But consider those things that Paul had to lay out in his boastings.

14:32

Chapter 11, verse 23, I have gone through far greater labors than they have, far more imprisonments with countless beatings and often near death.

14:44

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less one. Three times

14:50

I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked.

14:55

A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, hint, hint, in toil and in hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

15:21

And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

15:27

Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to fall and I am not indignant?

15:36

That's quite a different resume than these super apostles had. The super apostles, their resume was all the stuff like you write on your resume, all the wonderful, awesome things that you have done.

15:46

And all the beautiful, wonderful people who love you and have said such great and awesome things about you, right? That's what you put on your resume.

15:53

You make yourself look good to the person that you want to employ, you want to work for, right?

16:00

They want them to hire you so you're going to give them the best possible resume that you can give them.

16:07

And these guys, these super apostles, come with their boastings. I worked in the court of the emperor.

16:14

I am a Jew who is descended from Abraham. I knew so -and -so who knew

16:20

Jesus, and so therefore, look who I am. Look how great and spectacular I am.

16:26

And these men were profiting off of the messages that they preached because this is what

16:33

Greeks did. You had these orators that would go from town to town, and this was their living. It was their livelihood.

16:39

And the Greeks valued great, wonderful, philosophical speakers. So they would come to the public square and they would pay them.

16:46

And some of these guys would come in and they would say, here's this great philosophy or this great teaching that I have to give to you.

16:52

And they would give them kind of a teaser. And then they would say, if you want to hear more, I'm starting a school over here, pay this much money and you can come and attend my school.

17:01

And that's what these super apostles were doing. But the things that they were teaching weren't even the things that the apostles were teaching.

17:09

It was false teaching. Paul is saying, I give you the truth that leads to eternal life.

17:15

These men are feeding you lies that will lead to condemnation and death. And that's why it's necessary for me to boast so that you would not be led astray.

17:28

When he says in 2 Corinthians 12, I must go on boasting, though there is nothing to be gained by it, he means that there's nothing for him personally to gain.

17:38

Whereas the super apostles, when they boast, they get everything. They get acclaim, they get wealth, they get fame and fortune.

17:48

That's not what Paul was after. There is something for the Corinthians to be gained by it, that they would not be led astray by false teaching.

17:57

But Paul himself does not gain personally in his flesh by his boasting.

18:03

There is nothing to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. So what did he talk about in chapter 11?

18:10

He went through all of the things that he's experienced as an apostle. In chapter 12, he goes on to yet another thing that he has experienced as apostle, and this one much more glorious than what we read in chapter 11.

18:25

Visions and revelations, which the apostle

18:30

Paul received, you haven't. Okay? You get somebody that comes along and says that God has given me a vision or he's given me a voice, some message that I have to share with you, they are putting themselves on the same level as the apostles.

18:46

Be very careful about saying such things or listening to people who proclaim those kinds of things.

18:51

Because they are saying, if God has given them a message for you, they are of that same level that the apostles are, who heard the voice of Christ and said what

19:02

Jesus told them to say. You don't get to be a prophet or an apostle.

19:10

God has specifically chosen those men. They have already been appointed. They have already lived and died.

19:17

There will be no others. The prophets gave us the Old Testament. The apostles gave us the

19:22

New Testament. So if anyone comes along saying that they have a word from God, what they are essentially saying to you is, if you disagree with me, you're disagreeing with God.

19:35

That's putting themselves on the same level as a prophet or an apostle who gave us the scriptures.

19:42

Be very careful of those who come claiming that they have received a word from the Lord. They would actually put themselves, or they would end up being categorized in the same place that these super apostles were in.

19:54

These guys who said they had received a voice from God, but really did not. They spoke in vain.

20:01

They were taking the Lord's name in vain. That's a very serious sin. It's condemned in the

20:07

Ten Commandments. The third commandment is, you will not blaspheme God.

20:13

Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Do not disrespect my name.

20:21

And when we use the name of Christ to benefit ourselves, it is that very thing.

20:27

It is taking it in vain. Or when we use the name of Christ and we attribute the name of Jesus to having said something he did not actually say, that's also taking his name in vain.

20:42

So Paul goes on to boast about those things he's actually received as an apostle. And we know

20:48

Paul was an apostle because he saw the risen Lord. That's one of the qualifications for an apostle. He performed the signs of an apostle, which means he healed the sick, even raised the dead.

20:59

If you've been in Dave's class in Acts, you'll remember the story of Eutychus. Paul preached a sermon so long, somebody died.

21:07

So whenever you complain about me going past noon, just remember, no one's died under my watch and service, okay?

21:15

But Paul was preaching so long that Eutychus, who was sitting in the window, ended up falling asleep and he fell out of the window, hit the ground, and died.

21:23

But Paul, because he's an apostle of Jesus Christ, ran downstairs, laid himself prostrate across the man and said, no, hey, he's fine, there's still life in this guy, and raised him to life.

21:35

That's a church service you wouldn't be too quick to leave. Doesn't matter if Paul's preaching for hours, we're going to stay because this is, who knows what else fantastic is about to happen in this service here.

21:49

So Paul has performed the signs of an apostle. He has shown these miracles which verify that Christ's word is with him.

22:00

What Paul says is every bit as authoritative as the words that Jesus himself said.

22:06

And this is not to boast in himself, it is to point others to Jesus Christ. If anyone comes to you claiming to speak a message from God, God has given me a message, he's told me to share this with you.

22:20

This comes from God, a good response to that person would be, great, raise the dead and prove it.

22:26

If you can raise the dead to life, I will believe that this message that you have actually comes from Christ.

22:33

So Paul had seen the risen Lord, he was even approved by the other apostles.

22:39

They verified that this man was as much an apostle as they were. He showed the signs, he saw the risen

22:46

Lord, he met all of the qualifications for an apostle of Jesus Christ. And as an apostle, he received visions from the

22:55

Lord. Now these other super apostles, they probably did boast in the visions they claimed they had, but they did not really have.

23:04

Paul was not even going to expound upon those visions that he had. Here is what he says, verse two.

23:10

I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether in the body or out of the body,

23:19

I do not know. God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise.

23:27

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.

23:37

On behalf of this man, I will boast, but on my own behalf,

23:42

I will not boast except of my weaknesses. Who is this man that Paul is talking about?

23:49

Well, he's talking about himself, but he does not want to call attention to himself.

23:56

He does not want to exalt himself before the Corinthians. All he's trying to do is present to the

24:04

Corinthians the difference between a true teacher and a false teacher. He just doesn't want them to be led astray. He's not trying to acquire glory and fame and attention for himself.

24:14

Therefore, when he talks about the visions of God that he's received, he refers to himself in the third person rather than the first.

24:23

So it does not come across that he's glorifying himself. It's a very humble approach to talking about these visions that he's received from God.

24:31

I know a man. He's not saying, I've received visions from God.

24:38

He says, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven.

24:47

Now, there are some that have even taken that concept, caught up to the third heaven, and they've tried to expound upon what that means.

24:54

Very simply, all third heaven means is that he was caught up into the heaven of heavens, the very place where God himself dwells.

25:03

Paul was able to see that with his own eyes. He doesn't know, though, if he had an out -of -body experience, like his body actually went to this place and he saw it there, or if it was just some sort of vision that God gave to him while he was still in the body.

25:22

Whatever it was was so spectacular that he was beyond his own faculties. He would not be able to discern whether he was still in his body or he was having an out -of -body experience.

25:32

Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. But nevertheless,

25:37

Paul has seen such incredible things that we will not get to see until that day of glory.

25:44

But third heaven is a term that was commonly used by the Hebrews to refer to that place that God dwells in.

25:52

The first heaven is the sky, the place where the clouds are, where the birds fly.

25:58

That's the first heaven. The second heaven is a place where the sun, moon, and stars are. It's quite a bit higher than the clouds.

26:05

Out there in the universe, it's referred to as the second heaven. The third heaven is the very place beyond that, where God himself sits enthroned over all of creation.

26:18

So don't try to be too deeply theological with that reference to third heaven.

26:23

That's all it's in reference to. It's the very place where God dwells. That place we will not see until we go to be with him in glory.

26:32

Verse 3, and I know that this man was caught up into paradise, whether in the body or out of the body,

26:38

I do not know. God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

26:44

On behalf of this man, I will boast, but on my own behalf, I will not boast. What was it that Paul saw?

26:52

Well, we would only be able to speculate here. We would not be able to know because he won't tell us. He heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

27:02

So because the apostle himself saw something in heaven that he was not permitted to share what he saw, beware anybody who claims that they've been to heaven and had some sort of afterlife experience and have come back to write a best -selling book about it.

27:23

They're claiming to have seen something and be able to recall and repeat something that even the apostle

27:31

Paul himself was not allowed to repeat. They're claiming to have even more authority than Paul himself, if they could talk about what they saw, but Paul could not.

27:46

Whenever you read these books, I've read several of them. I've read several of what are called heaven tourism books.

27:53

These people who have these afterlife experiences, they die, they go to heaven, they come back and they write a book about it.

27:58

I've read several of them. None of them are the same. So they all experience something different.

28:06

But where there are similarities is that Americanized version of heaven that we kind of all have, like they have those things the same, but then you get to specific details and they're all different.

28:20

So either one of you is correct or you're all wrong. That's the only way that you can come to that conclusion, just by evaluating the things that they've written in their books.

28:29

But they all kind of have this experience of going to heaven. I saw pearly gates. I walked streets of gold.

28:34

I heard angels singing, stuff like that. That's kind of the way that they recall heaven.

28:40

It's a very Americanized concept of heaven. Whereas if you have people in other parts of the world who have heaven and relate to them differently in terms that they can understand, they have experiences of an afterlife that's more like what their culture thinks of heaven as being.

28:58

So maybe they saw something in some sort of afterlife experience, but it certainly wasn't heaven.

29:05

In the book of Hebrews, it says it is appointed for a man once to die, and after that comes judgment.

29:11

And so there is no going to heaven and having some sort of experience there and then coming back to tell the tale.

29:19

Especially four -year -old boys who write books called Heaven is for Real, do not have authority that is greater than the

29:27

Apostle Paul. You know, what's interesting about that is when you go to the interviews with Colton Burpo, the young boy who claimed that he went to heaven and saw heaven, and then his father wrote the book that became the bestseller

29:39

Heaven is for Real. In the early stages of that book, when that book was first coming out and being released and Colton was being interviewed, he actually said he couldn't remember anything about it.

29:52

It's just the stuff that he told his dad, and then his dad wrote the bestselling book.

29:58

But then once that turned into such a cash cow, somehow his memory came back to him, and he was able to remember those things that he experienced when he was on an operating table and saw visions of heaven.

30:14

But these things are false. They're false teachers. I'm sure these men mean well.

30:21

I'm sure that they think that because of this experience that they've had, maybe they're leading people to Christ.

30:29

But it's as if they're saying that what we have in the Bible isn't good enough, and so we need these other experiences and visions in order to truly lead a person to the

30:39

Lord, because the Bible's not good enough. So you need the experience I had on an operating table when I was four years old in order for you to truly come to Christ.

30:50

Paul, on the other hand, I mean, you know where this is going. He's going to get to, my grace is sufficient for you.

30:56

So we don't need the extra biblical visions in order to come to an understanding of God, and here says those things that I said, or those things that I heard, those things that I saw, man may not utter.

31:15

And on behalf of this man, I will boast, but on my own behalf, I will not boast except of my weaknesses, which we read about in chapter 11.

31:22

Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth.

31:28

In other words, Paul is saying, I'm an apostle. If I were to tell you the things that I saw, it would not be in boasting because I would be speaking truth to you.

31:40

I saw it. I was privileged enough to see it. God showed it to me, but I refrain from it so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.

31:58

Now, there are certain ways in which Paul had spoken about the things that he saw, those great visions that were shown to him.

32:06

Like, for example, in 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians. He tells the Thessalonians what to expect on the day of the

32:13

Lord when Christ returns. This had been shown to him. But in this particular instance, as he's talking with the

32:20

Corinthians, he's not going to go into that because this is not so that you would think more of me, but that you would think more of Christ.

32:32

I'm trying to point you to Christ. It is the point of my ministry is that you may know Christ and him crucified.

32:38

As he said in his previous letter in 1 Corinthians, when I came to you, I claimed to know nothing but Christ and him crucified.

32:48

Verse 7, so to keep me from becoming conceited, full of myself, thinking more highly of myself than I should think because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations.

33:01

I mean, quite frankly, if God showed you great things that he was not showing anyone else, how easy would it be for you to think, well, how special a person

33:11

I am? Because God has shown me these things and he's not shown them to other people.

33:18

So to keep Paul humble in this, a thorn was given him in the flesh.

33:25

Paul says, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

33:34

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

33:40

But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

33:52

What is this thorn that Paul had in his flesh? Now, for the most part, this is ambiguous.

33:59

It's kind of like you look at this and you, well, it could be anything. It could be any of the things that we saw listed in chapter 11, any of the sufferings that Paul had gone through.

34:08

Some have even speculated that Paul was nearsighted. He struggled with his eyesight.

34:14

And so that could have been it. Since it was a thorn in his flesh, it was something physical.

34:20

So maybe Paul with nearsightedness was struggling with this. He could heal other people, but he could not heal himself.

34:27

And so he's asking God, please take this from me that I may see clearly with my own physical eyes.

34:35

But God says, you don't need that because my grace is sufficient for you. Maybe, maybe that was the thorn in Paul's flesh.

34:46

We know that Paul did get sick, even though he was an apostle. And we read in Hebrews 2 that the

34:53

Holy Spirit apportions those miraculous giftings according to his will, according to the

35:00

Spirit's will. So just because an apostle was commissioned by Christ to go out and share the gospel did not mean that an apostle could wield those miraculous powers willy -nilly.

35:11

In the book of Galatians, we read that Paul got sick while he was going through Galatia.

35:17

And it caused him to stop there in Galatia and preach the gospel to the

35:23

Galatians. And people got saved because Paul got sick. So just because he was an apostle did not mean that he was never going to get sick, never suffered from any kind of sickness or disease.

35:37

When he was writing to Timothy, he told Timothy to mix a little bit of wine in with his water to help with his frequent stomach ailments.

35:45

Why didn't Paul just drop one of those little sweat claws that he would wipe his head with and people would get healed when they touched it, as we read about in the book of Acts?

35:54

Well, because it was for times and places in which Paul would perform those things to show that the power of Christ was with him so that the message that he spoke, the gospel, would be believed on by those who heard it.

36:08

Because they know that what this man said, he was a messenger of God. He was not like any of the other

36:14

Greek philosophers. This man could perform miracles. All those others could not, verifying the power that was in his words, that he really spoke something that came from the

36:25

Lord. So there were times and places in which those miracles were performed to verify this gospel that it was that Paul spoke.

36:36

But it wasn't like he could do that whenever he wanted. It was according to the Spirit's will.

36:43

And so here in this particular circumstance, you have something that plagues Paul, that he's asking for God to relieve him of, and God responds, my grace is sufficient for you.

36:56

We know that Paul suffered physically from some things, so maybe it was some sort of physical ailment that troubled him that he asked

37:04

God for, or asked God relief from. There are others that have come up with some absolutely ridiculous explanations to what this thorn in the flesh could possibly be.

37:16

One particular writer, I won't mention his name, but he speculated that Paul suffered from certain sexual temptations.

37:26

Maybe he was even homosexual. And so because he suffered from this, he asked

37:31

God for this to be taken away from him. But that is complete speculation and utter nonsense, because there's nothing in the text that indicates that to us at all.

37:42

As a matter of fact, it's rather easy for us to understand exactly what this thorn in Paul's flesh is.

37:49

Now, for the longest time, I was one that thought of this as being ambiguous, that there was not, we would never know what this thorn was.

37:58

Paul just refers to something metaphorically as a thorn in his flesh, but we could never actually know what that was referring to.

38:07

But when you read this in context, it becomes pretty clear what it is that he's referring to.

38:14

The thorn in his flesh are the false teachers. That's what he's referring to.

38:20

Because consider the last thing that he said that he struggled with in chapter 11. Danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers.

38:31

That's the recurring theme that comes up in chapter 11. Remember that these men were workers of Satan, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

38:43

And no wonder, for even Satan himself is disguised as an angel of light.

38:49

And so then when you come to chapter 12 and he says that this was a messenger of Satan to harass me, that's who he's talking about, the false teachers.

39:01

This is what Paul's struggle is. He has given his life for the

39:06

Corinthians that they may know the gospel and be saved. And what do the Corinthians do? They go after false teachers instead of listening to Paul.

39:15

How frustrating would that be? To have gone through all the hardships that Paul went through, and yet these

39:24

Christians that he has labored so earnestly for, he didn't even take a paycheck when he was with them.

39:31

He talked about that in chapter 11. He wasn't trying to earn a living with them, but instead he paid his own way.

39:39

He mended tents and made tents, and that was his wages.

39:44

That was how he bought his bread. He was not a burden on the Corinthians in any way. In fact, there were other churches that supported

39:51

Paul, so the Corinthians wouldn't have to support him. And the Corinthians were actually taking from those other churches when they take advantage of Paul in this way.

40:00

Paul labored so earnestly for them, and yet they're going after these guys who are charging them money for the stuff that they say.

40:10

How frustrating would that be? And Paul says that it was a harassment to him, a messenger of Satan to harass me.

40:22

But Paul rejoices in this because it kept him from becoming conceited.

40:28

Three times, he says in verse 8, I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

40:34

But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you.

40:42

God's grace is enough. What is grace? Let's remember that definition of grace once again as we come to understand that God's grace for us is enough.

40:52

Grace has a very simple two -word definition. It is unmerited favor.

40:58

It is God showing his favor to us by no work of our own. We have done nothing to earn the favor of God.

41:07

He gives it to us as a gift. God's favor, which he has shown to us through his

41:17

Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins so that all who believe in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.

41:29

The grace of God, his favor upon us is all we need.

41:34

We need the approval of no man. For we have the approval of God.

41:44

Three times I pleaded with the Lord that this vexation would leave me, but God didn't take it away.

41:54

He said, my grace is sufficient for you. There are many false teachers out there who are going to tell you to name it and claim it.

42:04

Just name it. I want that. It's mine. God has promised it to me. He's going to give it to me.

42:10

And they'll say, if you do that, it will be yours. They'll say the reason why you're sick is because you're thinking sick thoughts.

42:17

If you were thinking thoughts of health and wellness, then you wouldn't be sick. These men and women who teach this way are false teachers.

42:25

And this passage in 2 Corinthians 12 blows up their entire ministry, their entire false ministry, that Paul, an apostle of Christ, pleaded with God for something to be taken from him, and God did not relieve him of it, but instead said to him, my grace is sufficient for you.

42:51

You know, there are many whom I counsel who are struggling with a physical ailment of some kind.

42:58

They struggle with an illness or a disability. There are those who are soldiers who have seen combat, and they struggle in their minds with PTSD.

43:12

Or the things that they've heard and seen that they cannot shake, or maybe even things that they've done, and they wonder if God will forgive them for it.

43:23

And it would be very easy for me in those circumstances to say to that person, just keep praying about it.

43:32

God will take it away. God is the great healer. He'll relieve you of it. Just keep asking.

43:39

One of these days, it'll be gone. You just pray hard.

43:46

I'll pray with you. God will heal you of this. And we can walk away from that meeting, and there will be a momentary feeling of elation or satisfaction or relief.

43:58

But it's momentary, because you know what's going to end up happening? That person's going to continue to struggle with whatever it is that they're struggling with in their physiology, and it won't get taken away.

44:09

It might even get worse, and they'll start asking themselves, what am I doing wrong? Does God actually care about me?

44:19

Is He actually here? That I'm still struggling with this, and it hasn't been taken away yet?

44:28

It would be absolutely selfish of me to give that momentary relief in that way to that person, even though we might walk away from that conversation feeling better about ourselves.

44:40

I'll feel like I've done something good for somebody, and they'll feel like, hey, I got the pastor's word that this is going to get better.

44:47

But I would be lying to that person and leading them into despair to say such a thing.

44:57

It's hard to sit with someone and have to say to them, you may never get relief from this while you're on this earth.

45:12

You may struggle with it for the rest of your life. Think of George Matheson, who

45:17

I talked about in opening up the sermon today, a guy who went blind at the age of 20, lived a miserable life to his dying day, wrote a famous hymn that we remember in our hymnal.

45:30

But could you have said to him, just believe hard enough and God will restore your eyesight?

45:40

But rather, these things were given that George would know the grace of God and the forgiveness of Christ by his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave.

45:52

And knowing that our sins are forgiven is enough, that God has shown us favor through his son in this way, that he gave his son to die that we might live.

46:02

And that's enough. If there is a thorn in your life and you are pleading with God to take it away from you, and he has not done it yet, may

46:18

I present this response to you instead? Not that it's just a matter of time,

46:24

God will eventually take it from you. Let me present it to you this way. Through this circumstance, is

46:30

God saying to you, do you trust me more than your desire for comfortable living?

46:44

Do you want me more than you want this pain to be taken away?

46:53

Because that's what I'm teaching you through this is to trust me and love me and know that God works all things together for good for those who love

47:10

God and are called according to his purpose. Romans 8 28. That we would be reminded also from Romans 8 that we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.

47:23

That also from Romans 8, we would know there is nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our

47:31

Lord. Is God using this circumstance that you're going through to teach you that?

47:40

One of the things that I've struggled with for most of my life is approval from other people. This is the thing that seems to vex my heart when

47:49

I can't get somebody's approval for something. And I'll have a hundred people think that something that I did was great, but there's the one person who just doesn't like it.

48:01

And I'm going, what's wrong with them? Why don't they? And so I'm just obsessed with that.

48:06

And I can't be happy with the hundred people who are patting me on the back. I got to have the one person who just can't be satisfied with anything it is that I do.

48:20

But I've forgotten in those circumstances, even if there were a hundred people that hated what it is that I did,

48:27

I forget in those circumstances that their opinion doesn't matter. I've got the approval of God through my

48:36

Savior who has forgiven my sins and given me everlasting life.

48:43

What could man ever give me that would ever be as good as that?

48:49

There is nothing comparably close to the love of God that we have in Christ Jesus.

49:04

And so through these situations, through these circumstances, we learn that the grace of God is sufficient, that His favor upon us is enough, and we don't need anything else.

49:20

And so the difficult circumstance that you are in is the thing that God has worked through to teach you that His grace is enough.

49:30

So are you thankful for your thorns? Are you thankful for the difficult trial that is teaching you that God's grace is sufficient?

49:48

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away, but He said to me, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.

49:58

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

50:05

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

50:14

For when I am weak, then I am strong. Are you thankful for your weaknesses?

50:20

When people insult you? When you go through a difficult trial? When people make fun of you for the fact that you are a follower of Christ?

50:28

When you encounter some sort of disaster of some kind that upends your world and was completely unexpected and has changed the landscape of everything for the rest of your future?

50:40

In those circumstances, do you continue to rejoice in knowing that your sins are forgiven and you have eternal life in Jesus Christ?

50:50

So there is nothing in this world that will separate me from that. I have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and it is the greatest of greatest of greatest anythings that I could ever be given.

51:09

One of the things that I've had to repent of before the

51:14

Lord is waiting until those circumstances before I call on His name.

51:24

I want to be one who praises God even when things are great. So that when those hardships come, it's all the more easy for me to call upon the name of the

51:38

Lord and know the words of David in Psalm 13, yet I will praise Him for He has dealt bountifully with me.

51:49

My grace is sufficient for you. For when I am weak, then

51:56

I am strong. In this hymn,

52:01

O love that will not let me go, let me read you the last two verses that George Matheson wrote.

52:09

O joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee.

52:18

I trace the rainbow through the rain and feel the promise is not in vain, that mourn shall tearless be.

52:30

O cross that lifted up my head, I dare not ask to hide from thee.

52:36

I lay in dust, life's glory dead, and from the ground there blossoms red life that shall be endless be.

52:53

All of these things that we go through, these difficult trials and struggles that we go through in this life, here's the good news, my brothers and sisters, it's temporary.

53:04

It doesn't last forever. And there is a day coming in which

53:12

God will put an end to all the evil that goes on around us, all the pain we experience in our bodies, all of the heartbreak that we sometimes experience at the hand of people that we thought loved us, all of the enemies of God will be put to death.

53:33

And there will be nothing but glory in Christ forever, in a place where there's no more dying, no more tears, no more pain.

53:44

Every tear will be wiped away from our eyes and we will rejoice in the

53:50

Lord forever in glory. Child of weakness, watch and pray.

54:14

Find in me thy hope. Jesus made it all, all to Him I owe.

54:29

Sin hath left a crimson stain. He was the

54:39

Lord. Jesus made it all, all to Him I owe.

55:08

Sin hath left a crimson stain. He washed in whiteness, washed my garments white.

55:37

Jesus made it all, all to Him I owe.

55:47

Sin hath left a crimson stain. He was the

55:55

Lord. I stand in Him complete.

56:06

Jesus died my soul to save. My lips shall still repeat.

56:16

Jesus made it all, all to Him I owe.

56:26

Sin hath left a crimson stain. He washed in whiteness, washed my garments white.

56:36

Jesus made it all, all to Him I owe.

56:47

Sin hath left a crimson stain. He washed in whiteness, washed my garments white.

56:57

Thank you for listening to our weekly sermon presented by First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas.

57:03

For more information about our church, visit fsbcjc .org.

57:08

On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, inviting you to join us again this week in growing together in Christ when we understand the text.