Glory to God and amen praise the Lord for that You have your Bibles tonight. Let's go over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 Thank you, Berean Baptist Church for Allowing us to have the FBFI meeting here. We do thank the Lord for your ministry to us Wonderful food the ladies have prepared for us and just a great time of fellowship Thank you, Pastor Savinsky, for the opportunity to labor here. Pastor Facenda, thank you so much. I love the way you conduct the meetings. I sent a note to our president today and said, Brother Facenda ought to do a seminar, a workshop at our national meeting on how to conduct a meeting. This has just really been outstanding. thank you so many of you that we have been reacquainted some we haven't seen in quite some time. And it's just been a great time. The Apostle Paul talked about it in Romans chapter 1 he says, that I may be comforted together with a mutual faith both of you and me. It just really has been a tremendous time together. I'd like to direct your attention this evening to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 a passage that Pastor Savinsky mentioned this morning in our workshop and so appropriate, I think, as you and I anticipate what is going to happen next in our culture. You and I know that there are storm clouds all around, whether it be that someone is trying to exploit the next crisis, whether it be overarching, overreaching political policies, reading years ago the history of the Puritans, and they said what was used to persecute us was what they said was called the public standard. We would probably say today public policy. That's what was used to persecute us. And right in the beginning of that work on the history of the Puritans, they just wanted all of us to understand that. I want you to think that about the days that are coming to us and tonight's message. If you would please pray as the word of God is preached, because folks, I have to tell you, I think this one goes right into the bone. I think this one goes right into the marrow of where we are and what we all desperately need to know and be very familiar with for the days ahead. Let's step right into the passage there in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and just go right to the purpose statements that are here. Beginning in verse 7 of 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and going down through verse 10, the Apostle Paul wrote, and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, There was given unto 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, three times, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I 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. Shall we pause together to pray? Thank you, gracious Lord. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for your matchless work, your great grace given to us in your precious Son. Lord, we are marveling tonight that any of us here have any interest whatsoever in what we are doing. It is all of your amazing grace. that we would gather here longing to learn together and work together around the word of God. Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. He reminded us it is the spirit that quickens, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I give unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Lord, you told us, do not my words do good to those who walk uprightly. And so we are asking, Lord, this evening that you would meet with us by your precious Holy Spirit. Lord, keep us from quenching your Spirit. Fill us with your Spirit. Cause that we would walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I pray, dear Heavenly Father, this evening that as you would make yourself manifest through your precious spirit, through us tonight, and help us to exalt our precious Lord. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. As you can see there in your notebook, I'm raising the question tonight, how will you get through the episodes, the deep trials that are ahead of you and ahead of me? How will we go through those very painful times, pain that touches us at our most tender places, that bring us to our knees, that put us on our faces? It may be physical pain. It could be physical disease or infirmity. It might be what is commonly called emotional pain. It might be difficulties of various sorts where you and I are put under enormous pressures. And if you and I look at the news and we see what is being said in the media, then you and I have to anticipate we are really going to need the Lord's great, all-sufficient grace for the days ahead. As you think about this then tonight, I would ask you to carefully consider this. There are those of you in this room who could rise and testify about this. So may I speak for some of us? There are some of us in this room who have been brought to our knees and onto our faces and with God as my witness, I've been through times when I did not want to continue living. I certainly, certainly never wanted to preach another message as long as I lived. But I'm glad to say to you this evening that the episode that I have in my mind right now occurred 20 years ago. By God's great grace. I've been able to continue to preach and I believe this is the grace that is working in all of us Last night we talked about saving grace God's riches at Christ expense Tonight we're talking about serving grace And I believe I could back this up from a number of passages of scriptures that an appropriate acronym would be godly responses that are activated, or if you will, animated by Christ enablement, Christ energy working through every one of us. That's what we're depending on. for that great grace to labor with us. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, when the apostle Paul was talking about this, he said, by the grace of God, I am what I am. He said, I'm not a bit behind the chiefest apostles. He's basically saying I was one born out of due time. And he said, I'm not a bit behind the chiefest apostles. I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Many in this room tonight could testify. It was amazing what God's grace did through me, in me, with me. And all of us tonight can say this is absolutely amazing how the Lord has done this. We all recognize it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. And that's what's been happening by God's great grace. And as the days grow darker and as there are more trials and troubles ahead, I believe it is that particular aspect of God's gracious character that will be manifest to us. As I said last night, this is not cotton candy in a rainstorm. It's not all going to dissolve away. It is the grace of God that you and I are depending upon to do this great work in us. This is sufficient grace. This is serving grace. In order to sort of run up to this passage, if we sort of begin with the end in mind here tonight in 2 Corinthians 12, verses seven through 10, and we said, let's go back and then sort of run our way up to it. Let's go all the way back over to 2 Corinthians 1 just for a moment, shall we? You find a reference to grace in 2 Corinthians 1 and verse two. And immediately after he gives that salutation of grace, he makes the most interesting comment about our great God. He says he is the father of mercy and the God of all comfort Who comforts us in all? our Tribulation are you like me? There's your all hat like 37 L's on it now all your tribulations that may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble by the comfort with we ourselves are comforted of God. I would just note for you the Apostle Paul's amazing objectivity in that passage. It carries all the way down into verse 8. Here is what he is saying, he is saying the reason that we go through trouble, He comforts us, God comforts us, the Father of mercy, the God of all comfort, comforts us in all our tribulation. And what He's doing is He is enabling us to comfort those which are in any trouble by the comfort, or with we ourselves are comforter of God. It's really pretty amazing. Paul says, I go through trouble, God comforts me, so that when you go through trouble, I can be used of God to comfort you. And then if you read verses 3-8 carefully, It's like he lifts out the middle two steps. He said, so, the reason that God, the reason I go through trouble is to comfort you. Folks, that's objectivity. I mean, that's pretty close to Job saying, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. It is amazing, objective work that the Lord does through every single one of us. I know that many of you have been through just these kinds of things and these kinds of trials. Brother Steve Russell and I, I have to say, Brother Russell was my counselor. That makes him older than me. He was my counselor at the Wiles. And we had the pleasure of serving in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, in neighboring churches, sister churches there. Never will forget the night I was lying in my apartment, and I was anxiously, eagerly, I should say, anticipating being married very shortly. I'm lying in my apartment, and I suddenly awakened during the night, and I heard a car go by, and it sounded like it ran over tree branches. And I'm lying there thinking, that was strange. What in the world? How could that be? And I was lying there and I was trying to analyze the sound and I thought, there's no tree branches out there. What was that? I have no idea what that, and I thought, okay. And I thought, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It couldn't be. Oh no, it could not be that somebody has egged my car. I have to tell you at the time I was about as poor as Job's house cat. I mean, I had nothing and I was just trying to figure out how to save enough money just to get married. And I went outside and looked, and sure enough, somebody had egged my car. And I was furious. I got out the hose, and I was washing off the eggs. And I thought I heard the note of an engine off in the distance, so I immediately stopped and hid in the bushes. And sure enough, here came the car by, the one I suspected it was. And I immediately saw who it was, recognized the young men, and got in my car and began to chase them around Rocky Mountain, North Carolina. I had a Chevrolet Monza. He had a Trans Am. You can kind of figure out how things worked out from there. Lost him in the first half block, if I remember correctly. I didn't have a telephone, so I went down to my office, and I called the police, and they came over, and we talked about it. We talked about what had happened, and they said, you could file charges if you wanted to file charges, and we could see what could be done. I hate to have to confess this to you tonight, but I was so angry. I mean, I was so mad that for three, and it may have been four days, it affected my digestive system. I mean, my body was not working right because I was so ticked off that somebody would do something like this to my car. And I knew that the way I was thinking about this was not right. I knew it was wrong. And yet I did not seem to be able to get past it. I mean, this is just wrong. This just shouldn't even be happening to me. I still remember the exact spot where I was driving. And I just cried out to the Lord. I remember Dr. Stuart Custer had given a message years before where he told us about Moses. And it talked about Moses at the bitter waters of Mara. And it said, the Lord showed him a tree. And when the tree was thrust into the waters, the waters were made sweet. And I cried out to the Lord and said, Lord, show me the tree. I mean, show me something here. Show me the sweetness that God can give. I am here to testify to you that it was like a divine antacid went over my system. I began to realize that I was far more concerned about the finish on my car than I was about the eternal souls of these young men and of their families. And folks, the Lord did the most amazing work in my heart. Right there while I was driving along and I thought, glory to God. It's nice not to be angry and mad. And I just felt like if I could have gotten my hands on those young men that night, I often wonder if I would not have been put in jail because I was that angry. And the Lord changed me dramatically in those few moments. And so I went back, and I began to pray about it. And I thought, OK, well, I'm going to call the family. And I called the family to ask if I could come over. I'll never forget the mother said, what's he done now? And I thought, OK, I sort of get it. So I think it was the next night, I went over. And I was just meeting with the family and talking with them and just sharing. And I just began by talking about how the Lord had delivered me from a really sinful anger and frustration. And I was just sharing with them that verse about how the Lord basically reminded me of, in this case, the tree of Calvary, that when it's thrust into the waters, the waters were made sweet, Romans 5.20, where sin abounded, grace did much more about. And they all sat there in just sort of rapt attention, and they were listening to me, the young man who had done it, the mother, the father. I finally turned to the young man, and I said to him, Charles, you know what you did. I know what you did. So why don't you tell your parents what you did?" And he did. He not only told us what he had done to me, he told us what they had done all over town. He told us about all the things they had done. You know, it was after that, you know, in a tent of me, that's why there's so many egg cartons along the side of the road on River Road. Okay, now it all makes sense. You know what's happening there. And he just opened up and just began to tell us about the things that he'd done. Folks, it reminded me that it's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. It was about six weeks later, as I witnessed to those people that night, it was about six weeks later, if I remember correctly, that the father was so drunk that he ran over a man on a motorcycle Didn't even stop he had to be stopped blocks later to say you've we think you've killed a man back here It is that kind of grace that I'm appealing to you about tonight and and really trying to say the grace of God that is with us can transform those kinds of situations for all of us and as you and I know there are some very dark times ahead when we think about this. Go forward if you would just for a moment then over to Paul's personal testimony. Look at what he says there in 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 12. Now this is really pretty remarkable. He's under pressure. He's under attack. It's often been pointed out that what he's doing here is he is having to defend his apostleship, question for you, how do you defend yourself without looking defensive? You got any ideas on that? When people say, oh, you're just being defensive. Well, you know, I'm just trying to, you know, defend myself. See, see, see, you're being defensive. Okay, how do you, if you're trying to defend yourself, how do you not look defensive? Notice what the Apostle Paul is doing here. And this comes out a number of times in this book in really unusual ways. I'm thinking about 2 Corinthians 11 where he says, would to God you would bear with me a little of my folly and indeed bear with me. And you say, what on earth is he doing there? And it's almost like he was being a court jester, the political cartoonist of his day, to show his adversaries just how strangely they were acting toward him. But notice what he says here in 2 Corinthians 1.12, he says, for our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation, our conduct in the world and more abundantly to you. Isn't it an interesting contrast that he draws out there? He says, look, we know that you have these orators. Remember in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, they're being critical of him, these golden-tongued orators. His bodily presence is weak and his speech is contemptible, and they're trying to undermine him for that. And here's what he's saying. He's saying, listen, here's how grace works. What grace does is it brings us to the place that in a good conscience, a God-honoring conscience, a conscience void of offense, we can with simplicity, not this complexity of the Greek rhetoric and everything, just in simplicity and in godly sincerity, interesting he says, not with fleshly wisdom. I think he's probably talking about the rhetoric there. Not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God. Do you see it? Godly responses that are activated, animated by Christ's enablement that's what's happening here. Now as you think about this, think about the situation we are up against in our culture. In fact hold your place there just for a moment and go with me over to Ezekiel chapter 16. Ezekiel chapter 16. In Ezekiel chapter 16 we find that in this case both Jerusalem and Samaria are being compared to Sodom and Gomorrah. If I were to ask you right now what was the sin of Sodom? Ok, fill in the blank in your mind. What was the sin of Sodom? And then I hope that you will be as surprised as I was when I had this in devotions now a couple of decades ago. Look at what it says actually in verse 49, "'Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness.'" What? Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness. Look, do you agree with me? What I'm getting ready to say next, just ask, do you agree with this? fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness. Isn't that most people's idea of a good vacation? I mean think about it. I mean isn't it? Isn't that the way people, you know, hey we were on a cruise ship and hey this year do you know where we went to and this is what we did. Fullness of bread. You know some of these cruise ships have this 24 hour restaurant going on. I mean you talk about whose God is their belly. I mean you could just get up there and just have desserts all day long. Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness, wouldn't you say that that would be characteristic of the way most people think about a good vacation? But here's the terrifying part. Isn't it more and more becoming like our culture? Look, I grew up in Pensacola, Florida. I grew up on the beach. I grew up doing a lot of sailing, a lot of swimming, a lot of skin diving and things like that. And I remember the mentality. I remember the tourist mentality. In fact, our brother mentioned tonight, Neil Cushman. Neil worked with us in the library. He was in your youth group. Am I not right, Dr. O? And I still remember every time I see Neil, he goes, yeah, yeah, it's guys like you. I mean, we basically introduced him to the library, all those pranks I was telling you about this afternoon that we would pull. I mean, we taught Neil how to do all those things. I'm really surprised he's the dean now after all this time. But as we worked through those kind of things, I distinctly remember the day that I worked in the library and loved working in the library at Bob Jones. I was standing there at the desk. And I was watching the other guys work around me. And I remember thinking, what is it with these guys, man? I mean, it's like they're enjoying what they're doing. I mean, what's wrong with them? I mean, don't they know that we work so we can have money because the weekend's coming? I mean, don't they get it? And I was watching them work, and I'm thinking, no, there's something different here. Now, I was raised in a very liberal background, and so I didn't have a whole lot of training on work ethic or anything else like that. And I remember thinking, these guys are enjoying this. What is wrong with them? And right there, we didn't have a, there was no preaching, there was no invitation, there was no altar call, but I'm telling you, right there on the spot, I said, yeah, I think the problem was with me. And I asked the Lord right there on the spot to help me learn how to work like these guys were working. It has been a joy just to watch God's grace work in that. Okay, back to this passage. You say, wait a minute, there's more here. There is, look what he says. Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy, and they were haughty and committed abomination. Think about what's happening in your culture. Think about the cultural thing. I have witnessed to more than one homosexual using this passage and said, just so you know, what's happening here is you're a product of your culture. As I said last night, people are thinking more about living for their nerve endings than they are about what's never ending. And of course, you know that now these days when we're talking about these kinds of things, people say, oh, you're a homophobe. You're a homophobe. Has that been said to you? It's not been said to me yet, but I have a response tonight I would like to give to you. That if somebody says to you, you're a homophobe, I would say, oh, no, no, no, no. You misunderstand me completely. I'm not a homophobe. I'm a theophobe. I'm a theophobe. Say, what does that mean? Theos, in the Greek, phobe. I'm a fearer of God. I'm a God-fearer. You say, you made that up. Well, so did they. I mean, come on. Can't I say I'm a theophobe? Couldn't you say tonight we're theophobes? We're not homophobes. When you and I understand what is being said here about God's great grace, it transforms us. Back over, if you will, to 2 Corinthians here. And as you think through what's being said, just think about Paul's personal motive. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, just for a moment. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 14. Notice how this is very much gospel grace. knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you." Now catch this, look at the overflowing capacity here. He says, for all things are for your sakes that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. I mean, think about how this affects even your ministry philosophy. Are you familiar with the ministry philosophies that, well, they would basically work like this. I mean, there's a squeezer mentality and there's an overflowing mentality. You say squeezer mentalities. I think you've been around long enough to know that there are. ministries, so-called, that are squeezers, where it's sort of like this. It's sort of like, you know, I'm just going to squeeze you for everything you're worth. And, you know, the drips that come out, that's what's called the ministry, right? Is that what the Bible's saying to us? Oh no, the Bible's talking to us about overflowing. Our brother mentioned in the passage in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, he said, see that you abound in this grace also. That's what Paul's, the picture here is of a cup. being filled to overflowing, and it overflows into the saucer, and across the table, and out into the world, the infinite grace of God. We don't have to squeeze people. We don't have to manipulate people to try to use them for our own personal ends. That's the farthest thing from Paul's mind whatsoever. In fact, he even said earlier in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, he said, we don't take dominion over your faith. I think when Peter is talking about in Peter 5 when he talks about that. We don't lord it over others. This is the nature of serving grace. This is the way that God is at work in us. And let's face the fact that living like this is trying to be like upstream in a downstream world. Many years ago we took a series of mission trips to Karaku Grenada. We were working on the Harbor Light of the Windward radio station down there. And the one time we were going, we were going to replace the tower. Well, our guys, I just really praise the Lord for the team of guys that I have at Calvary. And then we were all working on this and my son Joseph was going to go with us on this trip and we were all excited about it. And I thought, you know, I'm probably not the guy who's going to climb up that 175 foot tower. we get it put up. I mean I'm probably not that guy. And so I said, what can I do on this trip? I mean I knew I was going to be the preacher, and I was going to be teaching some and things like that, but what can I do? And I thought, you know what I could do? I could be a good gopher. I mean I could go and run errands for these guys. Yeah, a little problem with that. They drive on the left side of the road. I've never driven on the left side of the road. How many of you here have driven on the left side of the road? There's a few missionaries here. You kind of know what this is like. And I'd been driving on the right side of the road since the day I was 16. In fact, before I got my driver's license, the day I was 16, 15 years, always the right side of the road. And I started thinking about the fact of, huh, that's going to be different. So I thought, I know what I'll do. I went down to AAA and I talked to the people at AAA and there was a driver's ed teacher there. I'm getting ready to go on a mission trip, and I'm going to be driving on the left side of the road, and I wonder, could you have an instruction manual or video or something like that? She goes, don't ask me that. Do not ask me that question. I have no idea how those people do that. I thought, OK, no help in this department. Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much. I really appreciate that. And I thought, what am I going to do? I mean, when they hand me the keys to that vehicle, what am I going to do? Here's what I did. For about eight or 10 weeks before we went down there, I would set the alarm at a certain time in my office. And as soon as it went off, I would sit down and I would try to picture in my mind what's it going to be like to drive on the left side of the road. You see, when the Apostle Paul is talking about this kind of thing, what I'm talking about right here, what he's pointing out here, when you get over Romans chapter six, he uses three verbs, knowing, reckoning, and yielding. And I thought to myself, OK, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to sit down, and I'm just going to think about, what's it like to drive on the left side of the road? OK, so you come up to an intersection. And when you come up to the intersection, what you and I always do, right, we always go to the far side. Oh, wait a minute. We're taking a left turn. Now we're coming in on the near. But if you're making a right turn, you're going to the far. And by the way, those wonderful roundabouts, they go the other direction when you're on the left side of the road. And for about 8 or 10 weeks, I sat and just carefully tried to take time to really try to train my mind about what's this going to be like. 15 minutes after we got off the boat, they handed me the keys, and I thought, here we go. This is going to be fun. I had all the guys in the team with me, and we're driving along, and they're saying, pastor, what's that like?" And I said, yeah, it's really different, guys. I mean, I've never been, you know, like this before. And as long as they're talking to me about it, yeah, this is really different. We're driving on the left side of the road. We got there, I dropped him off. We realized something needed to be taken care of. So, now I'm driving back across the island by myself. And And on one part of that, I had to go up a blind mountain curve. And I was going at about 35 miles per hour. I'm telling you, everything in my being was screaming out to me, you fool. You're driving on the left side of the road. There's something terribly wrong here. The only way I could work through this was knowing, reckoning, and yielding. Okay, what do I know? I know, I know, I know I'm in the kingdom of Grenada. I know I'm in Grenada. Okay. What I'm going to do? I'm going to reckon. I'm going to compute. I'm going to consider. I'm going to be thinking about the fact of that's why I'm driving on the left side of the road. I'm going to command my hands, yield, yield, yield. And I thought, okay, so here I'm doing this. I'm going up the left side of the road. I'm going 35 miles per hour, blind mountain curve. My mind's saying, yeah, Well, some crazy American is going to come around on the right side and knock you right off the road, friend. I will never forget that experience because Romans 6 became very, very precious to me in the middle of that situation, knowing, reckoning, and yielding. May I say to you, I think that's what it's like in our culture right now, folks. I think there are so many things that as you and I are transformed by the renewing of our minds, it is very much like driving in a different kingdom. It's like driving in a different place. It's like driving on the left side of the road. I think that's what the Apostle Paul is talking to us about here and helping us to understand. night we looked at 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 1, don't take or don't receive God's grace in vain. This is the kind of thing the Apostle Paul is talking about. He has this overflowing ministry. I mean he's just being as I mean the Lord has just given him so much and now he's overflowing into the lives of others. And he's begging them, he's appealing to them, don't receive this grace in vain. Don't despise basically the grace of God in that kind of situation. Well this brings us up to 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9. As you know those are the two best chapters in Scripture on giving, learning how to give. Go forward to 2 Corinthians chapter 8 just for a moment and think about this overflowing concept I'm talking about. Instead of trying to squeeze it out of people, think about what he says here in 2 Corinthians chapter 8. when he says in verse 9, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich. What a tremendous theological statement about the great grace of our God. And of course, in chapter nine and verse eight, he says, and God is able. That's one of the most significant phrases, I think, in all the scripture. God is able. Can I tell you what I say to myself all the time? I say it to myself this way. Take no counsel of your fears, but begin with this. God is able. no counsel of your fears." General Patton used to say that. Take no counsel of your fears but begin with this, God is able. That affects the whole way that you approach situations. I think it's what the Apostle Paul is talking about here. He actually says in chapter 8 and verse 7, he says, see that you abound in this grace also. And as you and I think about this what brings us up to chapter 12 that is sufficient for every trial, for every trial. We were talking about this this afternoon as we were enjoying some fellowship together. Think about Hebrews 3.13 just for a moment. Exhort one another daily while it's called today. Oh, wait, it's today today Is it it's today today? Okay Yesterday was you know what yesterday was when you were there that was that was called today And by the way tomorrow when you get over there, that's yeah, that's gonna be today as well Exhort one another daily while it is called today Lest any of you should be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." The way I used to think about that verse was, okay, if the person who's supposed to be encouraging, you know, if the encourager, the exhorter does not exhort the exhortee, then the exhortee is in great danger of being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. But then the more I meditated on that and combined it with other verses, I thought, no, there's more to this. Can you finish this verse for me? Be doers of the word and not hearers only. Yeah, there's more, isn't there? Be doers of word, not hearers only. What's the rest of it? Deceiving your own selves. Are you deceiving yourself right now? Am I deceiving myself right now? Wait, wait. If I were deceiving myself, would I know it? What if I'm living in a fantasy world of my own making? I mean, what if I'm playing an April Fool's joke on myself? You ever played a prank? No, this group, you've never played pranks on anybody, right? Anybody here ever played a prank on somebody? I mean, you know how a prank works. You try to make them think it's perfectly normal, but surprise, I mean, it's not normal, okay? Or you make them think it's very abnormal, but in fact, it's very normal. Folks, what if we're doing that to ourselves? we're playing an April Fool's joke on ourselves? What if we are deceiving ourselves? And by the way we are very prone to this, right? Jeremiah chapter 17, the heart is deceitful. The heart is a Jacob, literally. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. It's a heel grabber. It's a supplanter. It just kind of trips us up. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. What Galatians 5, be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatsoever man sows, that will he also reap. But the fact is we are very prone to self-deception. You say, that's a little scary. But here's the beauty of it. James chapter 1, he tells you how to escape from that self-deception. How? Be a doer of the Word. The next right choice, the next right step. Do what God tells you to do. The Father of lights will turn on the lights there. I mean, He will help you to understand how to respond. So you see in Hebrews 3 13 if the exhorter is not putting the word of God into practice Then he also is in very great danger of being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin And that is a little terrifying but you know how this works, right? Have you ever been explaining something to somebody? I mean you're just going through and you're explaining to them and And while you're explaining it to them, you understand it better than you ever did before. Am I the only one here that's ever happened to? It's just like, well, I need to explain things to people more often because now I better understand them. I think that's exactly the point of Hebrews 3.13, that we would be encouraging, we would be exhorting because we're going to need it for the trials that are coming up. When you go to 2 Corinthians 12 and you can see how when you look all the way back at 2 Corinthians 1 that He's the Father of mercy and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our tribulation. You look at the short list in 2 Corinthians 4, you look at the long list in 2 Corinthians 11 of all the stresses and difficulties that He was going through. You come to the place in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 where you realize the Apostle Paul here is talking about some really serious pains. Now, you've probably heard people preach from this text before and you'll often have people speculate, well, we think maybe he had an eye disease. Others would say, well, it's probably malaria, some epilepsy. Here's the difficulty. A lot of folks take this and they try to paint this with a watercolor brush, but I am showing you, I hope, from verse 10, the Apostle Paul is not painting with a little tiny watercolor brush here. Folks, he's taking a roller brush. And he's basically rolling the entire wall. In other words, he's applying this with really broad-based applications. Because look what he does down there in verse 10. He says, therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses. This is really broad-based. And so what it helps us to do is begin with the end in mind to say, how might we apply passages like this? The Apostle Paul here is not talking about poor choices, for instance. He's talking about the things that happen to us, and the very first one he lists there is infirmities. An infirmity is a state of incapacity. You and I, when we exercise, we refer to that as calisthenics. This word is asthenes. This word is no strength. And it's a result of some sort of infirmity, some sort of disease. It really helps us to understand how christ relates to cancer how christ relates to coronavirus There are people right here in this room who could rise to testify Let me tell you about god's great sufficient grace in my trials in my difficulties in in my disease, my arthritis, the problems that I have had, those are exactly the kind of things the Apostle Paul is talking about. Now look, here's what the Greek orators were doing. They were saying, well look, we have such excellent presence and we are so erudite and everybody ought to listen to us and his bodily presence is weak and his speech is contemptible. The Apostle Paul was responding, We dare not make ourselves of the number. They measuring themselves by themselves, comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. What does it mean when they're comparing themselves? They are not wise. What does that mean? It means they're fools, that's what it means. The Apostle Paul said, I'm not going to be foolish. By the way, he did play the fool in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 like a court jester briefly to show them how foolish they were really being. But he's referring here to how God brings us through infirmities. He says back in chapter 4, verse 17, our light affliction, our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us. far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. You can tell Paul's thinking in Hebrew here when he says the kavod, I mean the weight, the weight of glory. This is what the Lord is doing here for all of us, even in our distresses, even in our diseases and our infirmities. I still remember the night. The night was January the 10th of 1985. That morning, our Doctor, very good friend, many of you know Dr. Ted Harris, probably the closest thing I ever had in this life to a brother. I still miss him. He's with the Lord in heaven now. As he went down to the hospital that morning to just sort of check over our brand new son, he called me to the office and gave me this terse message. Get down here now. And when Ted Harris says, get down here, I get down here. went down to Memorial that day. Our son had stopped breathing six times. You talk about a roller coaster ride that day. We became very familiar with neonatal intensive care and learned all the ins and outs of what was happening. And it was this roller coaster ride of a day, wondering if he'd even survive. I have never forgotten that on the way home that night, I heard Ray and Ann Gibbs singing this passage. Three times I asked him, three times I begged him, three times I heard him say, my grace is more than you will need, I give it every day. Folks, I'm telling you, in that moment, I desperately needed this passage and I needed those words to know of God's great comfort. Lord did comfort us in that situation. Absolutely amazing story. My wife and I can tell you about how the Lord provided in every one of those situations. What I'm saying is that the difficulties and problems that we are going to go through physically in our diseases, the Olalas could tell you the most amazing story about Mrs. Olala and how The Lord delivered Charlene in a situation like that. This is sufficient grace that is serving grace in all those difficulties that are ahead. Now, you know this is ahead, right? I mean, you do know this. You go to the last chapter in Ecclesiastes chapter 12. And it begins with, remember now your creator in the days of your youth. And then he begins to go through this very fascinating comparison where he compares a home of the day with a human body. And so, for instance, they had a grist mill outside. They would go out and they'd grind the corn or grind wheat, whatever it was. And he makes these comments in here. He says, the grinders beef you. What's he talking about? He's talking about when your teeth fall out. He's talking about, he says, the windows grow dark. He's talking about the body falling apart. I was preaching on this years ago on a Sunday night, and two of the older ladies were just a great encouragement. came out and said, Pastor, three quarters of the way through the message we were saying, Stop! Stop! I don't want to know anymore. But the fact is our bodies are falling apart. I mean the Apostle Paul said our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved. I mean we are living in these clay pots, right? And we are pouring coffee through them every morning. I mean what are we thinking? I mean just think about what we are doing in a situation like that. fact is that what the Apostle Paul does is with his passage he applies it to infirmities. He applies it to reproaches. This is the Greek word that's transliterated as hubris. It's the idea of being insulting, mistreatment, disrespect. Don't you think there is a lot of this ahead? I mean I think it's already there. I mean, people think they are so funny, and they are so witty, you know, by making these things. And you know how this feels. I mean, you feel like, hey, I would match wits with you, but I would never fight with an unarmed man. I mean, we're tempted to respond in kind back to them, right? what do we learn in Proverbs 26, answer not a fool according to his folly lest you be like him. He goes on to say, answer a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own conceit. In other words if you can answer a fool without becoming like him you might be able to help him but you've got to be very, very careful. In any case here's what you and I know is coming. We know there are all sorts of insults, mistreatment that is coming. And But remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 11. Blessed are you when men shall revile you. That's verbal. When men shall revile you and persecute you. That's violent. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad." I think Jesus was specifically anticipating in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 11 that it would be more verbal than violent. I think you and I need to take this passage and apply it. specifically this kind of situation where people treat us as they did the Apostle Paul. His bodily presence is weak, his speech is contemptible. He also applies this to necessities. These are the general troubles, this may come the term, the the resistance or the difficulty you have in financial problems, things that happen really suddenly. It was really funny today when Pastor Zevinsky was speaking in our class and he was asking, is there anything that causes stress and trouble and things like that? And people were giving answers, that's good, that's good, that's good. I don't think I'm any under particular stress right now. Then I got a series of texts from the contractor who's working on my house, and I realized, you've got to be kidding. I mean, look at all the things that are happening at our home right now. We're not even there to see all this. So I used to say that the plumber cut a pipe, and the stuff started flowing in the wrong direction. And we thought, what on earth is happening? Those of you who were in the class this morning, our house had originally been plumbed for a septic tank, but years later, city water had been put in. Apparently, there's a difference in the way that you plumb those. And we learned that while we were in Atlanta. We learned those kind of things. He talks about persecutions. That's physical or verbal abuse. He talks about distresses. That refers to a narrow place, we often say today, between a rock and a hard place. I just want you to see it's very, very important here to see how Paul applied the lessons of the thorns. Because in every one of these cases, we're under duress. Don't you wonder if Job said to himself, what did I do to deserve this? I suspect that's the way it will be for us. We're not crystal clear that was given all that information in his lifetime about what the Lord was actually doing, what if for the Lord's glory this is exactly what He wants to bring in us? I believe there are four very important lessons of the thorn that we find in this passage. First and foremost, think about what He's saying in verses 1 through 7. When He talks about the expedient for me, doubtless to glory, I'll come to visions and revelations of the Lord." He was so humble here. One of the brothers was pointing this out to me. He was so humble here. He said, I knew a man in Christ about 14 years ago, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knows. He would name himself by name. But let me ask the question this way and see if this would make sense to all of us. What if you had been used by the Lord to help write the Bible? Okay, just for a moment, assume that. What if you'd been used by the Lord to help write the Bible? I mean, wouldn't you be tempted to sidle up to the speaker after the service and say, by the way, did you know that the Lord actually used me to kind of write, to write that? No, really? Wow. get that then you can sort of see here what the Apostle Paul is driving at when he says, here's what the Lord is really showing me through the abundance of the revelations. Ok, before I really make the point here I just want you to stop and think about this. We are people who revel in God's revelation. We are people who love the Word of God. We are the people, 2 Corinthians 3, 18, we all with open face beholding as in the glass the glory of the Lord. We are changed, we are metamorphosized, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. I mean this is absolutely amazing. But think about what the Apostle Paul is saying here when he says in verse 7, lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations." If you and I would be tempted to brag a little bit about, by the way, the Lord used me to help write the Bible, think about what the Apostle Paul, I mean, Luke wrote most of the New Testament, but Paul certainly the number of epistles and just seeing what the Lord taught him. I think the tendency here would be to spiritual pride. So he says in verse 7, "'Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me. Lest I should be exalted above measure.'" Wow! Lesson number one about the thorn. The Lord is preparing you for the thorn. Even now, he is preparing you for the thorn. In other words, each and every day as you get into the Word of God and you're looking for that one verse, that one phrase, that one thought for the day to put on the center stage of your mind, that you're meditating on the scripture, that you're transformed by the renewing of your mind. The reason that that's so very important is there are thorns ahead, dear friends. There are diseases ahead. There are necessities ahead. There are insults ahead. How are you and I going to respond? Remember Ezekiel 2, 8, what the Lord said to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 2, 8? He said, thou son of man, be not rebellious like that rebellious house. Open thy mouth and eat what I give thee. Now stop and think about that, preachers, just for a moment. about what he's telling Ezekiel there. He says to the prophet, be not rebellious like that rebellious house. How could that happen? Well, it would be possible for the preacher, the prophet to get so frustrated with the disobedience of other people and get so angry with them that he He begins to justify his own obedience. If a huge truck went by out front right now, and you and I could just feel the vibrations, those of us who would be, like, loving science would say, well, that's like a, it's called a sympathetic vibration, right? I mean, the building would kind of... What he's talking about in Ezekiel 2.80, he's talking about a sympathetic rebellion Here's the prophet and the prophet is being told here be not rebellious like that rebellious house Ezekiel 2 8 be not rebellious like that rebellious house open your mouth and eat what I give you It is extremely important that all of us learn how to crowd these things out of our minds. Just as Joseph told his brothers, you meant it for evil, God meant it for good. Isaiah 61, he gives beauty for ashes. Romans 5.20, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. It is so very important that you and I be able to do exactly what Joseph named his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. For God has made me to forget all my toil and all my father's house God's made me fruitful in the land of my affliction I say to you I believe for the difficulties ahead and the trials ahead that we're going to need every one of these But we have to recognize that the Lord is going to give us the thorn Secondly, you see it there in verse 6 He says, lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh. Okay, first of all here, if the Lord is preparing you for the thorn, he's doing that by the revelation of God, the scriptures being prepared. What's he doing in verse seven? He says, lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh. buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Secondly, I would maintain that the Lord protects you through the thorn." The second important lesson, He protects you through the thorn. This is what keeps us from becoming proud and lifted up. Remember Proverbs 3.30, God scorns the scorner but He gives favor to the lowly. quoted in James and Peter, remember? God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. He scorns the scorners, but He gives grace to the lowly. That's what's happening. And what He's doing is He is keeping us in a place of humility as we wrestle through these things. The word thorn here is the Greek word for scallops. And it has the idea of a very long thorn or a sharp stake. Remember when our Lord Jesus had a crown of thorns placed upon His brow? That's the idea of what's being said here. It could be a long nail, a bone with a sharp point on it. In every one of these cases, you're seeing here that the Lord gave him. Him the thorn. Why? Because of the deceitfulness of our hearts. Has this ever happened to you? You say, I'm going to seek the Lord. And you get down and you pray and you cry out to the Lord. And you might spend an hour, maybe two hours just praying and crying out to the Lord and begging Him for His mercies and begging Him for His grace just to be abundantly shown in your heart. And And as you get up off your knees, your flesh whispers to you, you're one of the most spiritual people who ever lived. That flesh, that mind of the flesh, Romans 6, 7, 8, that mind of the flesh is always there with us to try to take us along down the wrong path. What the Lord is doing is he's protecting us. Thirdly, in verse 8, when he says, he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, my strength is made perfect in weakness, he is preserving us. The third important lesson is the Lord preserves you through the thorn. Don't you praise God for his sufficient grace in times like these and times we are anticipating, whether it be in preparation for our own home going, whether it be in anticipation of pain, that sudden frown on the doctor's brow and that sudden pain that you get. My dear mother, when she was on her deathbed, My daughter and I were free to race down there to Pensacola, Florida. We had one of our other sons, I think, was getting ready to have some minor surgery. And so my wife and the boys couldn't come. But my daughter Anna and I were able to dash straight down there. And we got into mom's hospice room. And I had to wait for a couple of relatives to kind of say their goodbyes. And Anna and I are standing there with mom. I said, Mom, tell Anna your favorite verses in scripture. And my mother gasped out from her deathbed. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn of me, for I'm meek and lowly in heart. You shall find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Can I tell you how much that means to me tonight? My dear mother is with the Lord. She found rest for her soul. You may have been like me about that passage. When the Lord says, take my yoke upon you, used to think about that when I was a young Christian. Ok, the Lord is up in the cart and the Lord is saying, ok, you get in the yoke and start pulling. Anybody remember the old rawhide, you know, rolling, rolling, rolling. Keep those doggies rolling. That's the way I thought about that passage. Only to realize years later that it's talking about a two animal yoke. It uses the zygos. You actually have, Ted Harris taught me this, you have a zygomatic arch in your jaw that actually causes, it's like a yoke to work correctly. What he's saying is, I'm already in the yoke, get in the yoke beside me and learn of me. In other words, he's carrying the load. He's asking us to take all our burdens and put them upon Him. And He says, take my yoke upon you. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. And you shall find rest for your souls. In those situations where you're going to have to tell yourself over and over again and remind yourself of those wonderful biblical promises, it is so very important that you and I remember this passage. And most especially because, look what he says here. Here's what the Lord taught him. My grace is sufficient. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities. Now, for those of you who love to study the original language, what's coming up here is a hena clause. It's a hena clause of purpose. It's a very strong in order that in this case. The Apostle Paul, the tentmaker here, is saying, in order that the power of Christ may tabernacle upon me. That's what he's really saying that the Lord is accomplishing. As I was lying on my face on my carpet, I was begging the Lord, Lord, the pain is so great. I cannot live. Lord, you must take me home. I don't want to live. I don't ever want to preach again. What delivered me was this passage and the understanding in order that the power of Christ may tabernacle upon you. Now here's the struggle we face when we get in this. Okay. Lord, you're killing me here. But I'm in, I'm in, right? I want the power of Christ upon me. But Lord, you are killing me here. But I'm in, I mean, I really want this. I really want the power of Christ, but Lord, you're killing me. That back and forth, like a writhing pain, is exactly what the Lord accomplishes by his thorn. So the fourth lesson is this. The Lord perfects you with the thorn. He perfects you with the thorn. So let me ask the question tonight this way. Are you in on this? Are you in? This passage is like a window into our future. It shows us with clarity what is ahead for us. But brothers and sisters, I would ask you tonight, is it worth it that the power of Christ would rest upon us? That the Lord, consuming fire that He is, He would fry off the grease and fat of our ambition and lust, our self-deception, to bring us to the place that we live as Dr. O says, it's all about the Bema seat. It's all about living for him. This is exactly what the Lord wants to accomplish in every one of our lives. Would you not tonight praise the Lord with me for his sufficient grace, his strength that has made perfect in weakness. That power of Christ may rest upon us. May I ask you to bow your heads just for a moment. I'll ask our brother just to choose an appropriate hymn that we can sing here in just a few moments. Can I just appeal to you tonight as a servant of the Lord, are you ready for this? Are you like me and you say, Lord, I'm not willing, but I'm willing to be made willing for whatever is ahead. Dear friends, I believe if you and I would acknowledge that God's grace is sufficient, that whatever that trial is, no matter how painful it is, no matter the difficulty, here's what we know in advance. God's grace is sufficient. His strength is made perfect in weakness. And the end result will be that the power of Christ may rest upon us. Would you with me right now tell the Lord, okay, Lord, whatever it takes, I want that. That amazing grace and that amazing power of Jesus Christ would rest upon me and make me a useful servant in the Lord's hands. Lord, we are praising you tonight for the Apostle Paul's transparency. Just the remarkable ways that you worked in and through him to show us how to serve, how to overflow, how not to be squeezers, how to abound in this grace also. how to reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. And our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Lord, we are submitting ourselves to you once again tonight in the power of your spirit to ask, would you do this great work in us? And Lord, we know there will be thorns. And we know that Satan will buffet us. And we know that Satan desires to sift us as wheat. But even now, you are praying for us and you're interceding for us. Grant, dear Heavenly Father, that the power of Christ would rest upon us. And we pray these things in Jesus' name.