A Thorn in the Flesh (2 Corinthians 12)

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.

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My name is Keith Foskey, and I am a Calvinist.

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Today we're going to be in 2 Corinthians chapter 12.

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We're almost to the end of the book, and we're going to be looking today at one of the most interesting passages in this book where the Apostle Paul talks about the third heaven.

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If we open up our Bibles together and we look at chapter 12, he talks about a man who had been caught up to the third heaven.

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Now, a lot of people believe this is Paul speaking about himself in the third person.

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I tend to think that that's a reasonable understanding, but the text doesn't clearly say that.

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That's just how this text has been understood, and that's not really my argument.

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My argument is that when he speaks of the third heaven, we need to understand what he means by that, because there's a lot of different debate about what it means to refer to the third heaven.

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Well, the word heaven we often think about as the abode of God, the place where God lives, and the place where we're going to go when we die.

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The Bible says in Philippians chapter three that we are citizens of heaven.

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But at the same time, we know that the word heaven is also used in other ways.

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The Bible talks about in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and in that regard, it's not referring to the abode of God.

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It's referring to the atmosphere around the earth and the area outside of the atmosphere of the earth, which we now call space.

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But both of those things are often called the heavens.

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We talk about the clouds being in the heavens.

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Well, the clouds are within the atmosphere of the earth, and then, of course, the stars are in the heavens, but the stars are outside the atmosphere of the earth.

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And so when we think about the idea of there being really two layers of atmosphere around the earth, or there's two layers outside the earth we need to consider, the atmosphere is the first, and then what goes beyond the atmosphere, the area that we would call outer space is, and that's two heavens in a sense.

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So that could be what Paul is referring to here when he talks about the third heaven, because if you consider the first heaven to be the atmosphere around us, the second heaven to be that which is above that, the abode of the stars.

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So the first heaven is the abode of the clouds and the birds.

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The second heaven is the abode of the sun, moon, and the stars.

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The space that is outside of our atmosphere.

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And then the third heaven would be the abode of God.

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Whoever this person is, whether it's the Apostle Paul or not, was given an opportunity to see this third heaven, to see God.

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And he says, whether it was in the body or out of the body, didn't know.

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Whether he was physically taken there or whether it was a vision, that's not the point.

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The point is the person had the opportunity to see this.

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And of course, this is very similar to the book of Revelation, where John himself is caught up and is able to see a vision of the throne room of God and the situations that take place there with the seals and the bowls and those various things.

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And so I just wanted to mention about the three heavens, but I wanted to go on, because again, this passage is so full of things that we could talk about and discuss today.

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I wanted to clarify that, because that can be confusing.

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But the part I really want to focus on is actually what comes right after that.

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Beginning at verse seven, Paul referring to himself.

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He says, to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations.

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And that's again, why a lot of people believe that he's the one who was in the third heaven, because the revelations that he was just referring to is the revelation of seeing heaven.

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And of course, he's receiving the scriptures.

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He's writing scriptures.

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And so he's saying, to keep me from becoming conceited, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

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This is a very important truth.

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The apostle Paul lived with some kind of malady.

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Some people believe that it was his eyes, because he mentions in the book of Galatians, how the Galatian people took care of him and that they would have taken out their eyes and given them to him.

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And some people consider that to be Paul explaining that he had an eye problem.

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And some people think that that eye problem may have happened after the incident on the road to Damascus where he was blinded.

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And perhaps even though he got his eyesight back, it never truly was, he was never perfectly able to see properly.

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A lot of the New Testament writings are actually written by others, Paul dictating what was written.

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And when he did write, says he wrote with large letters.

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And so there are incidences that makes one believe it may be his eyesight that's in view here.

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But there's another idea.

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And that is that if it's, it actually might be an individual.

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Because if you notice the text, it says that a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

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So it could be an individual.

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Who is this thorn in the flesh, this person? I remember years and years ago in ministry, there was a person who was not really happy with my ministry.

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They were a member of the church and they told me to my face that they were there simply to be a thorn in my side.

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And I always thought that was a, if there was one thing that I would pray that God would give me the ability to be, it certainly would not be the thorn in someone else's side.

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But I'm assuming that this is the reference that they were making in a somewhat backhanded way, that they were God's thorn in my side to keep me from being conceited.

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And again, that's just an interesting story from the past.

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But notice in verse eight, Paul says, three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

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But he said, my grace is sufficient for you.

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My power is made perfect and weakness.

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

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

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For when I am weak, then I am strong.

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There are some people who believe that as long as you have faith, you will always have health, wealth, and prosperity.

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That is called the prosperity gospel.

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And it's a false gospel.

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It's not the truth.

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And this is one of the passages that we can use to argue against it, because this passage shows someone of great faith.

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Remember, the argument of the health and wealth gurus is that as long as you have enough faith, you're not ever gonna get sick.

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As long as you have enough faith, you're always going to have an abundance, not just sufficient amount to meet your needs.

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You're going to have an abundance is often the claim.

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And Paul is here saying, well, I've asked for God to remove this.

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I've asked three times.

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I pleaded with the Lord, and yet he has chosen not to do it.

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And so at that moment, we are reminded that God is sovereign over our life, over our health, over our entire condition.

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God is the one who is going to ultimately decide what things he allows into my life for drawing me closer to him, for bringing about my maturity and upbuilding as a believer.

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And James tells me that I should take joy in my trials, because it's the joy, or it's the trials that produce patience, and patience are ultimately what lead me to Christian maturity.

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So Paul here is saying, I asked the Lord to deal with this, but instead of giving Paul healing, if it was a sickness or removing a person, if the person was the thorn in the side, he said, instead, God reminded me that his grace is sufficient.

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He reminded me that when I am weak, it's then that I'm really strong.

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I'm reminded of a great hero of the faith, Johnny Erickson Tada.

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Johnny Erickson Tada was a young girl when she broke her neck and she became paralyzed from the neck down.

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And she has described so many times in wonderful ways how that incident changed her life.

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And it's been difficult for her.

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She has struggled with health issues and having to deal with being a quadriplegic.

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But she says in that, she has learned how to have faith in God.

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And her faith has actually been strengthened.

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Now, there are some people who would say that if she had enough faith, she would no longer be injured.

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But that's not the truth.

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Johnny's faith has not been demonstrated to be weaker, but it has actually been demonstrated to be stronger because she has learned how in her weakness to demonstrate the strength of the Lord.

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She has learned how to live in grace.

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Years ago, we had a lady in our church.

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Her name was Sybil Taylor and she was a wonderful woman.

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And she was a wonderful example to many of us.

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And she was a paraplegic.

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She had lost the use of her legs when she was a young girl.

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A few times in her life, she had people come to her and say, well, if you just believe you could get up and walk out of that wheelchair.

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I was always ashamed of those people.

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And that always hurt me because if there was one person that I knew had great faith, it was Sybil Taylor.

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And for anyone to say that her faith was weak because she was in that chair, well, that's just foolishness and it's just not true.

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This text reminds us that in our weakness, we can be strong because we're not strong in ourselves.

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We are strong in the Lord.

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Thank you again for spending your morning with me.

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Hopefully you're enjoying your coffee with your Bible open.

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Thank you for watching Coffee with a Calvinist.

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I'm Keith Foskey and I've been your Calvinist.

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Please, if you've enjoyed these daily Bible studies, please like, comment, and subscribe on these videos.

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It is a real encouragement when you do that.

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Thank you and may God bless you.