I want to read the first 12 verses. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and let's begin reading in verse 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 1. It is not expedient for me, doubtless to glory, I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, whether in the body, I cannot tell, or whether out of the body, I cannot tell. God knoweth. Such and then one was caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell. God knoweth. How that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such a one will I glory. Yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool, for I will say the truth. But now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. Unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelation, that was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee. My grace, my strength, is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, my weaknesses. that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I therefore take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong. I am become a fool in glory, and you have compelled me. But I ought to have been commended of you, for in nothing I am behind the very chiefest apostle, though I be nothing. Though I be nothing. Paul's thorn is thorn in the flesh. And working our way up to this, here in chapter 10, chapter 11, chapter 12, you can see through these chapters, and even in all the epistles of the Apostle Paul, that he would go someplace, like here at Corinth, and preach the gospel of the grace of Christ to these people here, and establish the churches there. Establish them in the gospel of the grace of Christ. And put pastors in those churches. But seemingly everywhere he went, these false teachers, these false apostles, raised up either in the midst of the congregation or they followed him around. Some of them came down from Jerusalem. And they perverted the gospel that the Apostle Paul preached. They couldn't do it face to face. They usually had to go behind his back. They couldn't do it. They couldn't out-argue him. They couldn't out-debate him because the Apostle just opened up the Scriptures. He would open up the Scriptures and he'd say, let's see who Jesus of Nazareth was. And he proved from the Scriptures that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God. He said, here's the gospel back in the Old Testament that God promised by the prophets. And it's concerning His Son, Jesus Christ, who was made of the seed of David and was declared to be the Son of God with power by the Spirit of holiness by His own resurrection from the dead. And He preached that gospel. And He convinced men of that gospel. But here are these false apostles, they hated Him for it. They hated Him for it because they could not refute His message. And they couldn't refute his message because when Paul took them to the Scriptures, he always won his argument. And you know what happens to men when they can't refute your arguments. They look upon you with contempt, don't they? Contempt. And I'll tell you what happens. If they can't refute your argument, then they'll begin to blame you. They'll begin to run your person down and say all kinds of scandalous things against you. Ambrose Bierce made this statement. He said, Contempt is the emotion we feel for an opponent whose arguments are too formidable to refute. So they got so angry with the Apostle Paul because they could not refute him, they began to say all sorts of things against him. Paul called them false apostles. He called them false apostles. And what they were saying about this apostle is this. You'll find this in the 10th chapter. They were saying this. Look at this man. Now, you may think this is petty, but I'm telling you, when you begin to shut men up to the truth and they get full of contempt, they'll say anything. And they said, look at this man. Look at this apostle. Look how weak and frail his body is. And listen to him speak. When he speaks, his sentences are so broken, and he just stambers along. His speech is contemptible. And they said, the world hates him. No wonder people don't like him. Look at him and listen to him. And they said, why is he suffering like he's suffering? He's glorying in these sufferings, but he's suffering because of the way he is. He's just a contemptible person. That's what they said about him in chapter 10 and verse 10. And Paul calls them false apostles. They attacked his person because they could not attack his message. But what was happening to him? Look here in chapter 11 and verse 13, what he says about him. Chapter 11, verse 13, For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves unto the apostles of Christ, and no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed unto an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works." Boy, they were false apostles. They spoke so eloquently. These were the Greeks. You know what's always said about the Greeks, you know, the gospel is offensive to the Greek. It offends their wisdom. The foolishness of the preaching of the gospel offended these men's wisdom. When they got up to speak, you could almost see them. They were orators. They spoke so eloquently. And when Paul got up to speak, he just broke his sentence up, and he stammered along, and they got so offended at him. And they said, he's not like us. He's not like us. But you know one of the things that really got to these fellows? They could not endear to suffer. They could not imagine suffering for their profession. They said, why suffer? Why say things that upsets people anyway? Look at the Apostle Paul. He is glorying in all these infirmities. He tells us about how he was shipwrecked and how he was whipped and all of this. He is disgloring in these things. There is no need to suffer. Get along with people. Please people. That is what he said. Look on here in chapter 10 in verse 18. Seeing that many glory after the flesh, we will glory also. They want to glory after the flesh. I can glory after the flesh. Man, he could have too, couldn't he? But he says, flesh. That's all it is. Flesh. Paul gloried in his sufferings for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. Most gladly, my text says, I will rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I take pleasure in these infirmities. I take pleasure in reproaches and necessities and persecution. And these false apostles say, that's ridiculous. Why do you want to suffer for the cross? Don't preach it in such a way that it stirs up men's anger and enmity. Well, if you preach the cross, it's going to stir flesh up, isn't it? But they said, there's no need for that. There's no need for that. So Paul begins here in chapter 12 and verse 1, and here's what he said to them in verse 12. He said, well, I know that there's no gain in my boasting. I know there's no gain in my boasting, my suffering, my infirmities. It's not expedient for me, doubtless, to glory. There's no profit in it. I realize that. But he says, if you insist on me showing you what I could boast in, let me tell you something I could boast in. You fellows that boast in glory in your flesh and you want to hear something wonderful, well, let me tell you about something I experienced. Let me tell you about the revelations. that I've had of the Lord, the visions that I've seen of Him. That's His meaning here. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. That is, I'm going to tell you about some visions and about some revelations I've had of the Lord. And boy, He begins here in verse 2 and through verse 4, and He tells them of the most spectacular thing that any human being has ever heard in his life. What an amazing experience He has. He comes to you and he says, I knew a man in Christ. About 14 years ago, over 14 years ago, how such a one was caught up into the third heaven. And he heard things there and he seen things there that he can't even tell you about. Now you false fossils, you match that. You match this. You want a glory in these things? Well, I can tell you something I can glory in. That's what he's saying. But he was caught up. Let's look at this here. He was caught up unto the third heaven, which he says in verse 4, was called paradise. Paradise. I looked the definition of that word up and it means a park. Hippopark. I guess they had the park back in those days like we got today. You go to a beautiful park to rest. It's a place of bliss. delight, enjoyment of all that's good, a place of extreme happiness. Paradise. He was caught up into paradise. We talk about paradise that our parents were in. You know the Bible never calls that paradise. That's never called paradise. Paradise is even something more wonderful than the Garden of Eden before the fall. Paradise is heaven. The place of eternal bliss and happiness and enjoyment of all that's good. That's where the Lord Jesus told the thief, you'll be with me today in paradise. In that holy and happy park in heaven. Everything that's pleasant to the eye. And you know this is called the paradise of God. The Lord Jesus says in Revelation 2.7, to him that overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God. God's paradise. A place that He's prepared for Himself. And Paul calls it in verse 2, the third heaven. That means the highest heaven. That's the heaven of heavens. The heaven itself. It's called in another place, the Father's house. And another place, it's called the throne of God. Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. It's where Christ Himself is in His glorified body. It's where the elect angels are. It's where departed saints are that are called the spirits of just men, made perfect. This is the place the Apostle Paul was called up to. Heaven. Paradise. What did he see there? Oh my goodness, what would he see there? Can you just imagine what he'd see there? We know some of the things he saw there. We know the Savior's there. He saw Jesus Christ in His glorified humanity. You know, the Bible says He's the light of that city. Jesus was in His glowing, supreme beauty and glory, and I wonder if Paul didn't go up and put his hands in the prints of the nails. and maybe thrust his hand into the hole in his side. He saw Christ there. And he saw angelic beings in whatever form they take there. He saw that. He saw those spirits of just men made perfect. I think probably he spoke with Moses and Enoch. He saw them. There was two men there and maybe many, many more in their glorified bodies, but we know that two was there, don't we? He saw Moses and he saw Elijah in their glorified body. My, what did he see there in heaven? What did he hear there? Oh my goodness, he said, I heard things which could not be lawfully uttered. He heard things that he couldn't explain in the Hebrew or Greek, the Aramaic, the English. He said this was heavenly language that nobody could come back and tell of. What mysteries was revealed to him? What was told him? He heard words. I wonder if he wasn't told secrets that's not even written in the Word of God. This is a very small Bible, ain't it? And it would be naive of us to think that all God has in store for His people is written in this Bible. Oh, there are secrets that still hid in the heart of God. And Paul may have heard them. Maybe he was given the date of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody knows that. I wonder if he's given the day to the fullness of the Gentiles, when the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. Blindness in part has happened to Israel until. I'd like to know that myself. He found out many things that I've been seeking to find out and will probably never know it until it comes to pass. But Paul heard them. Things, he said, that's not lawful for me to utter. Oh, he was privileged to hear these things. We don't know what he heard because he didn't tell us. But something else here, more than just seeing, more than just being there and hearing all these things, but something else here in verses 2 and 3, he tells us, he wasn't conscious of his physical body. He said, I don't know if I was caught up in my body. or in just my spirit. I don't know if my spirit was caught up and left my body here, if I went up to heaven in my body and my spirit. I don't know, but what he is saying is this, I wasn't conscious of being in my body. Now that's a blessing in itself, is it not? What did the Apostle Paul say about his body? Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Christ shall change this vile body. What would it be like to be free just for a while from this body? Free from the sense of its weakness, its infirmities, the sin that's working in it, the vileness of it, the burden of it to pack around. What would it be to be free from the sense of this body? I can't imagine, can you? I've never been, I've never experienced that. But the Apostle Paul said, I've experienced it. You know, this is not only something that happened to this Apostle, but this is going to be something that happens to every child of God. This is just a foretaste of what's going to happen to them, even when they die. To be with the Lord. And he said here, I knew a man in Christ. That's the secret, isn't it? To die in Christ is to be free from the burden of this body and to go up to heaven, paradise. And to be free from the burden, the sense of sin and weaknesses and firmness of this body. To be absent from the body. is to be present with the Lord. And we're going to be free from that burden, as Wayne told us this morning, until the resurrection day. And that body is going to be raised and changed in a glorious body. I have no idea how this would feel to be free from the sense of sin. I don't think I've ever been free from the sense of sin since the Lord saved me. It's just a burden. This old man, this old man we pack around, have to keep him under submission all the time, keep him crucified. To be free from that. What a blessing that was. Think of that. And here in verse 5, Paul speaks of two selves. Look what he says. Of such a one will I glory. This one that was caught up to heaven. My spirit, my soul, my new man. I will glory of him, yet of myself I will not glory, but in my own infirmities." He separates his two selves here. He said, I'll glory in my redeemed self. That's the self that was caught up, wasn't it? My saved self. The self that's been regenerated and washed. My inward man. I was caught up to heaven. I'll rejoice in that man. Just as much as I would if it would have happened to you. If the Lord called me up to heaven today, I'd rejoice, wouldn't you? And I'd rejoice if He did that to you. If I rejoice Him doing it to you, I should rejoice if He did it to me. So Paul said, I'll rejoice in that one that was called up to heaven. I'll glory in Him. And yet he said, my fleshly self, my earthly sinful self, I want glory in Him. This is the only thing I'll glory about the man that's left, this flesh, is my infirmities, my sufferings that I bear for the Lord Jesus Christ. And then verse 6, For though I would desire to glory, I should not be a fool, he said. And he said, I could boast of all that I have experienced, and I could do it in truth, but I'm not going to be that foolish. He said, if I boasted of everything that I could boast of, there's a lot of things I could boast of. There's a lot of things that he experienced in the way of revelations and visions that nobody ever knew but him. I could boast in truth, he said. But he said, the reason I'm not going to go on boasting about my experience and what the Lord has taught me and showed me, I don't want you to have too high an opinion of me because of what I've experienced. That's what he said. For I say the truth, but now I forbear. I refrain from telling you any more of my visions or my revelations, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he hears of me to be." Why didn't Paul go on and say, now this is what I've experienced. Let me tell you another experience I had. Let me tell you what the Lord did with me over a year, what He showed me over a year. Why didn't He go on saying that? He said, if I told you everything, you fellows would be wanting to worship me. You're going to have such a high opinion of me, you're going to set me up on a pedestal and think I'm something when all I am is nothing and less than nothing. You say, Bruce, I don't think that it did that. Well, there's one place they wanted to worship Him. Remember that? They had the wreaths they brought for him in Barnabas, and they're going to worship them. And he stopped them? Yeah. If he kept on telling about all that the Lord had did for him and with him, yeah, they'd have worshipped him. They'd have worshipped him. I don't want people's estimation of me to be based upon what I've experienced. Do you? I don't want that. And Paul didn't want that either. but what they really see in me and hear of me every day that I live in this world. Listen. You hear these silly televangelists. You hear them talking about themselves, and boy, they're on cloud nine. They've had all these experiences and they're way up here above everybody else. And there's nobody like them. They're just special people. And God is working with them amazing. That don't impress me, does it you? Don't tell me about how high you are in the clouds you're on. I don't want to see that and I don't want to hear that. I want to know how you walk when you get back down to earth. Ain't that what we want to see? Show me how you live your life every day. Don't ask me to base my estimation upon you, upon what you've experienced. Not even if you're experiencing it in truth. I want to see how you live. You profess Jesus Christ? I want to see if you're willing to follow Him. I want to see if you're willing to suffer for His cause. Don't estimate me by what I tell you I've experienced. Because I've been caught up into the third heaven. You listen to me while I'm preaching to you, Paul said. But when I finish preaching, you follow me outside. You go on the job with me. You go on vacation with me. You go to my house. You talk to my neighbors and my wife. And see how I live every day. That's what I want you to estimate me by. Not my experience. And he said, if I went on in talking about what I've experienced, you're going to have too high opinion of me, so I'm going to quit. I'm going to quit. Don't rely too much upon what people tell you about their experiences, good or bad. Good or bad. Watch them. Watch them. Lest I should be exalted above measure. Boy, verse 7 tells us now the price that the Apostle Paul paid for all these visions and these revelations. In verse 7. Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance or because of the abundance of the revelation that was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, to harass me, lest I should be exalted above measure." Someone said this. I don't know who to give credit to, but somebody said this. Maybe it was Joseph Hart. He said, what a paradox the Christian is. He had a message from the Lord, and he had a messenger from Satan. He feels like he has one foot in heaven, and the other one in hell. He has visions in his mind and a thorn in his flesh. The Son of God from heaven in his heart and a messenger from hell in his flesh. Isn't that amazing? Grace to keep him humble and pride to lift him up. What a mystery the Christian is. What a paradox he is to himself. Are you a mystery to yourself? Since the Lord saved you, you're a paradox. You can't figure yourself out. You're two people. Heaven's in you and hell's in you. Christ is in you and the devil's in you. What a mystery you are. How can they be saved? How can a man be saved who is nothing but flesh and has no inner man? created in you. If there's no old man to buffet you, then there's no new man to rejoice in the salvation that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is not only determined to save His people, but He's determined to keep them humble. And I tell you, He'll take extreme measures to keep them from pride. The Lord loves His people, but He hates pride. He hates pride in His people. And boy, He'll give them anything and do anything to keep them from pride. Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Thorn in the flesh. What was this thorn in the flesh? Well, I'll tell you what. You'll wear yourself out trying to figure out what it was. Because we don't know. I laugh, and I still laugh about this, and I think I told you about this. One fellow said, Paul was bald-headed, and that was the thorn in his flesh. And I thought, every morning I look in the mirror and say, oh no, I can't take this any longer. Poor old Elijah was bald-headed. That was his thorn in the flesh. My goodness, how vain. How vain some people are. It's not that we need to try to figure this out. It's futile to do that. The way we profit from this is seeing the effects of it. You may have a thorn in the flesh. Most of the Lord's children probably have a thorn in the flesh. And the way you determine that is by the effects of a thorn in the flesh. How would you feel if you had a thorn in your foot? Wouldn't that be awful? Most of us know what it is to have, we raised out in the country, especially down south somewhere, we got thorns in our bodies all the time, didn't we? And how it would affect your walk if you got a thorn in your foot. You'd go limping along, wouldn't you? Every step you took, you would feel it. What if you got a thorn in your hand? Man, you'd just grab something and oh, it would hurt so bad. You'd squall out. Oh, the thorns! If you've got a thorn in your backside, you couldn't sit down. If you've got a thorn in your back, you couldn't lay down. It would just affect you, the pain of it. If you ever forgot about it, sometimes you did something and you would hit it and suddenly the pain would shoot down to the bone and you'd scream out, oh, this thorn, this thorn. So it's the facts, isn't it? It's the effects. Not what it is, but it's the fact that a thorn causes you pain. You have something in your life that causes you some agony. You have something in your life that almost continually gnaws you and grieves you. It may be something physical. It may be something without you or something within you. But it grieves you. You feel it. It's there. It's a thorn. It's a thorn to you. Maybe you have one. I've detected two or three. I've detected two or three. How come Paul with his thorn? This is a mystery. Why did he have this thorn to begin with? Well, it was punishment. Paul had sinned one time. Remember when him and Barnabas had that falling out? That was awful. And they had to go separate ways. And the Lord said, well, this is your trouble, buddy. This is payback for your involvement. No, that wasn't it at all. It didn't have a thing to do with his sin, did it? Nothing to do at all with his sin or his failures or anything else. How come him to have this thorn? He tells us here in our text. There was given to me. It was a gift of God. A gift of Jesus Christ. Isn't that amazing? What a mystery. I have a thorn tree at my house. And man, I've got into that thing. The thorns are about that long. One of them blew down and I hope the other one blew down. But what if I got one of those thorns and brought it here and said, Greg, I've got something I want to give you. And I take that thorn out and stick it right in his eye. Thanks a lot, friend. And he goes around with his eye running and holding and he keeps saying, and you know, Bruce must hate me. No, I really love you, Greg. This is going to be good for you. That's a mystery, isn't it? It wasn't for any sin in the Apostle Paul. It wasn't a chastisement. It was a gift from Christ, a Savior who loved him and was doing it for his good. What a mystery that is. I'm going to put a thorn in you because I love you so much. His ways are not our ways, are they? His thoughts are not our thoughts. The Lord loves His people so much and He hates their pride so much that He's going to do anything, even afflict them sore, to keep them humble. You ever pray the Lord would bless you with great faith? You should pray that way. Remember, you should pray that way. I pray that way. Lord, increase my faith. Lord, give me more understanding. Lord, use me. Use me to be a blessing to your people. But I tell you, you better be careful when you pray that way. Because, boy, with that comes a thorn to keep you down, to keep you low. The thorn is tough. It was tough for the Apostle Paul. But the alternative was worse. Better to weep over our failures than to be lifted up because of our success. You know one of the effects that this thorn had upon him? His estimation of himself. In the last part of verse 11, he said, Though I be nothing. I'm nothing. I'm absolutely nothing. And this thorn helped him to see that. I've got another quote here, and I don't know who to attribute this to either. It's a little bit lengthy, but listen to what this fellow said about Paul said, I'm nothing. Those who are most favored in the Christian life and most honored by God should not be unwilling to take a low place and to regard and speak of themselves as nothing. Compared to God, what are we? Nothing. Compared with the angels, what are we? Nothing. As creatures compared with the vast universe, what are we? Nothing. Atoms, specks. Compared with other Christians, the imminent saints who live long before us, what are we? Nothing. Compared with what we ought to be and might be and should be, what are we? Nothing. Let a man look over his past life and see how vile and unworthy he has been. Let him look at God and see how great and glorious He is. Let him look at this vast universe and see how immense it is. Let him think of the angels. Let him reflect how pure they are. Let him think of what he might have been, of how much he might have done for the Savior. Let him look at his body and think how frail it is, and how soon it must return to the dust. And no matter how elevated his rank among his fellow worms may be, and no matter how much God has favored him in the Christian life or ministry, he will feel, if he feels rightly, he is nothing. The most elevated saints are distinguished for the deepest humiliation. Those who are nearest to God feel most of their distance. They who are to occupy the highest place in heaven feel most deeply that they are the unworthiest and the lowest of this earth. They are nothing. We get there sometimes, but we can't stay there, can we? We're being told all around us that we ought to think more highly of ourselves than we do. Our self-esteem is just too low. I was reading a book by one of the prominent authors of our day, one of the noted megachurch pastors. I couldn't believe the book that I was reading. He took the quote out of Exodus where the Lord said, I am that I am. And I started reading and he said, say this about yourself, I am powerful. I am beautiful. I am this and I am that. I couldn't believe it. And what did the Apostle Paul say? I am nothing. I am nothing. Verse 8, For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice. Can you imagine the surprise when this thing first struck him? He first realized, oh, the prick, what was that? Sudden pain, the confusion. Oh, how deep will it go? This thing, he calls it, this thing. What did he do? What's the first thing he did? If this is to teach us nothing else, and if we don't learn this lesson out of it, I wonder if we've learned anything. One of the first lessons we learn from all of these experiences of these men is this. They prayed. The first thing they did was turn their thoughts and prayers towards heaven. For this thing I besought the Lord three times. This is what David did, wasn't it? When trouble come, he sought the Lord. He poured out his heart. That's what is to teach us. Whatever else we learn, brothers and sisters, we must learn this. Prayer. Prayer. Verse 9. The Lord says this to Paul. My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in your weakness. This word sufficient, I'm like Wayne, I love to look up these words and love to look in the other versions to see how they translate this thing. This word sufficient, it means to raise a barrier against. My grace will raise a barrier against this thorn." Now, that's amazing, isn't it? This affliction is regulated. There's a barrier that says, if it won't hurt you anymore, then I'm pleased to let it do it. There's grace that set this barrier there. When your suffering begins, how deep it will go, how long it will last, there's this barrier set. You'll not be tempted above. what this barrier says. I've set a barrier. It means to ward off. Sufficient to ward off. My strength will ward off. Now this is amazing. My strength. I love how he says this. My strength is made perfect. My strength. My strength is made perfect. Paul's strength had been turned into utter weakness by this thorn, but Christ's strength was perfect. Notice what the Lord is telling this apostle. It's not your strength. It's not your strength. You won't prevail against this thorn by your strength against this messenger from hell, but it's My strength working in you. And the Apostle Paul recognizes this in the last part of verse 9. Look what he says. He says, Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. The power of Christ. He had this constant pain, but he felt this constant power of a loving Savior. He could hardly believe it. He was amazed by it. How could it be, he thought to himself. I'm no match for this thing, yet I'm not sinking. It's pricking me, but I'm not hurting. It's opposed to me. Every step I take, everything I try to do, it's opposed to me. But it's not hindering me. It's not stopping me. It's not discouraging me. Because I'm feeling this constant power. Not my power, but the power of Christ that is resting on me. Isn't that amazing? That's amazing. He said, it isn't my power at all. I don't even have to exert myself. I'm not even straining. This power is Christ resting on me. That's the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life. How would you feel if you experienced something like this? How would you feel if your thorn was there pricking you? But it was really having no effect upon you. It couldn't get you down. It couldn't discourage you. It couldn't drive you to despair because of this power that was resting on you. It wasn't Paul's power and his efforts against this thorn, this thing, but it was Christ's power in him and resting on him. Well, I think if I experienced something like that, I'd almost pray, let me suffer some more. Let another thorn be given to me, if I could feel this power of Christ resting on me. There is no match, brothers and sisters, for the power of Christ. Christ's power is perfect. It's perfect. All power is His in heaven and earth. I have power over all flesh. Sin is no match for His power. Any kind of suffering and diseases is no match for Him. All the power of the underworld is no match for Him. Death itself is no match for Him. He is greater than all the opposition of the underworld or in this world. My power is made perfect in your utter weakness. That is why Paul said this, Most gladly therefore, I will rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I think I would be glad too if I had this power, if I felt this great power. And nothing could get me down or drive me to despair. Not even this thing. Oh, these false apostles. They could only rejoice while they were free. They could only be glad while they were pleasing everybody. If they suffered anything, it got them down the least thing. Flesh, flesh, flesh. And here Paul was assaulted by hell itself. And he says, I'm glad. I glory because I feel this power. This unseen power of a risen Savior. Let hell unleash itself upon me. I will prevail. I will prevail. because of the power of Christ. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessity for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong. My grace, my grace. What can reach down to the lowest pit of hell, the hell of sin, and save a sinner from it? The power of Christ. What can take a poor believing man or woman through this world full of devils and sin and pits and temptation and take them all the way to heaven? The power of Christ can do it. The power of Christ can do it. What can supply every need He has 24 hours a day for the rest of His life? The power of Christ. What can make Him save from the low bottom of His heart most gladly, even in the midst of his extreme sufferings. Oh, Paul said, I am nothing. I am nothing. But I am possessed of God, of eternal life, and the power of which the gates of hell cannot prevail, the power of this risen Christ. Oh, such a power as this is not felt when we're at ease in Zion. You won't feel this power when you're at ease, when you have no opposition. This power has to be experienced, and it's experienced during times of extreme opposition. I don't pray for it, and I don't pray God give it to you, but I hope He does. I hope he does. If this is what it takes for us to feel the power of Christ resting upon us, then God give us these thorns. For when I am weak, when I am brought to the end of myself, then I am strong in the power of Christ. Let's pray.