All right, good morning, family. It’s great to see you. Many of you know the drill. Go ahead and get your Bible out and go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. We’re going to be in one through 10. That’ll be our main text this morning of study. So, as you can see, we’re taking a break one week, pause from our series in the book of Romans. I did some homework this week, went on to our app and found out that Romans actually commenced on October the 22nd 2023, isn’t that crazy? Yeah I mean, we’ve been in Romans now for like, two and a half years, and it’s been a whole bunch of awesomeness as we learn about the gospel, our need for a Savior, what Christ has done, and as we enter into peak number three, peak of sanctification. Speaking of the peaks, just by way of review, peak number one, we’ve been through that that’s condemnation, right? Condemnation is eternal, damnatory, separation and punishment. That’s the bad news. We all deserve that because we’re born into sin. The second peak is the peak of justification. Right? Justification is the doctrine that highlights God’s righteousness being imputed to us as a result of Jesus’ 33 years of perfect law keeping. So, think 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that in Him we could become the righteousness of God.” So, our sin to Christ, that’s the doctrine of expiation. His righteousness to us, that’s imputation. It’s wonderful news. Did we earn it? Do we earn justification? No, we didn’t. It’s monergistic in nature. God did it through His Son, by the power of the Spirit. We know that Romans 5:1 teaches us that we’re justified by faith, and because we’re justified by faith, we have peace with God. There’s no more enmity, but there’s peace. And now we’re in the middle, I think maybe the middle. I mean, Romans eight is a beast. So, we might not be in the middle, but we’re studying sanctification. Okay? In sanctification is progressive, okay? I want you to think marathon, not a sprint. And unlike justification, it’s actually synergistic in nature, meaning there are two actors, okay? In justification and regeneration, which actually comes before justification. In the Ordo Salutis, it’s monergistic. There’s only one actor. God does that. Okay? In sanctification, there are two actors. God does His part, and He’s perfect in that. Okay? God works on us. He works in us. Both the will and act according to His good pleasure, and we do our part. And what’s our part? Our part is just coming underneath the Word, right? Humbling ourselves, coming underneath and saying “yes” I believe the gospel, yet again what you say goes and in during this process of sanctification, the Holy Spirit’s faithful. He’s always faithful to renew our minds and as our minds are being renewed, we’re being retrained to think the way that God thinks, to believe what God’s Word says. Right? And I use that word “retrained” purposefully, because all of us have been trained in things that are anti God’s Word, and thus, anti-God. We grew up, right? And as we go from one year to the next, yeah, we’re trained in that. We’re not trained in that here, right? But the problem with it is the Bible. Yeah, the Bible doesn’t teach that. The Bible teaches something else, something completely different, and that’s what we want to understand. What does the Bible say about this? What does it mean by what it says, and how does the gospel impact my understanding? Do this at times in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, if you read that, give it a read. He talks about these super apostles, and these guys were fake. They weren’t genuine which is a pretty big sign that yeah, you’re not legit, right? And they would boast in their own strengths, and they would HIGHLY simultaneously throw shade toward the Apostle Paul and discrediting his ministry. And so, Paul in this letter, he defends them.
Let’s take a look verses one and two. 2 Corinthians 12:1-2, Paul says, “I must go on boasting though there is nothing to be gained by (that’s a shot at the super apostles, by the way) I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who, fourteen years ago, was caught up to the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body. I don’t know. God knows.” So, what’s going on here? You know, some of you have read this, some of you haven’t. This can be a little complicated at a surface level. Well, 14 years before Paul actually penned this letter, he had an experience with God in the third heaven, the very abode of God, not the first and second heaven, the third heaven. And he’s blurry and fuzzy on some of the details, right? And you can see that in the language that he uses, “Whether in the body or out of the body, I don’t know.” And what you see here is interesting. He’s flopping from first to third person to first person. Why is he doing that? Well, you’re going to find out just a second, right? Just be patient. Don’t pressure me. We’ll get there. 2 Corinthians 12:3-4, verse three, “And I know that this man was caught up into Paradise (that’s synonymous with the third heaven) whether in the body or out of the body. I don’t know. God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told (look at this) which man may not utter.” He actually can’t speak about these things. He’s not permitted. He’s not given freedom from the Lord to do so. We know Paul’s conscience was bound to preach the gospel, right? I mean, without hesitation, unapologetically, he preached Christ His person and His finished work, but this vision in third heaven, yeah, he had to be extremely guarded about the details, right? We see that here. 2 Corinthians 12:5, look at verse five, he says, “On behalf of this man, I will boast, but on my own behalf, I will not boast except of my (what?, except of) my weaknesses.” Now the attitude underneath this term here is one of dependence and neediness. It’s the heart posture of “I can’t do it. I need You. I’m not enough, and I need help, and if You don’t show up, yeah, I can’t do this thing.” And it really does fly in the face of modern-day Christianity and self-help that, again, is out there, not in here, but it’s out there. We face this pressure from the outside, right? From all these different narratives, and even like people that we hear on social media like to place our strength in our own strengths. Yeah, boasting and weakness. Yeah, that’s foreign for the world, and it’s actually a foreign concept in many so-called “churches”. And I use air quotes purposefully there. He continues in verse six, take a look. 2 Corinthians 12:6, he says, “Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth, but I refrain from it (why?) so that (purpose clause) no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.” In other words, Paul says, “Listen, if I did talk about this in the first person and I shared the details with you, I wouldn’t be lying. I wouldn’t be a fool. I would actually be telling the truth, but I refrain from it, so that no one thinks more of me than he ought to.” You know, I’ve heard it said before that, “You know the apostle Paul, the great Apostle Paul, he was so mature, he didn’t care what anybody thought about him.” Well, I get what you’re saying. But to a degree, he cared, and he cared because he knew that the glory of God was always on the line, and he didn’t want to steal any glory. And so here he’s saying, “Listen, you know, I have this vision, but I can’t talk about it, because if I do, people are going to look at me and think I’m a big deal and I’m not a big deal. The only big deal is Jesus Christ, and I’m here to exalt Him.”
Take a look. He continues in verse seven, further insight here. 2 Corinthians 12:7, Paul writes, “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh.” Do you see this? Now? Let me pause for a second and chat with you. And let me ask a question that some of you perhaps are thinking right now, “What was the thorn?” Well, we really don’t know. I have a guess, right? I have a guess, standing over here intentionally. My guess is had something to do with his eyesight. Right? In his eyesight getting worse and worse and worse. And there’s actually some evidence, you know, to that in other letters, as a result of his Acts nine experience, right, Damascus road, right? Jesus knocks him off of his horse. He’s blinded, right? But I can’t speak authoritatively in that direction because the text is not explicit. What we do know, what is very clear is that it was given to him. You see that language in the text, okay? Which means God ordained it. Now, don’t misunderstand me, God’s not the Author of evil. Of course not. He’s God, but He does sovereignly supersede over all things. So, think Psalm 115, He’s in the heavens. He does what He pleases, He allows what He pleases. So, Paul says, “To keep me from becoming conceited, a thorn was given me in the flesh. (He elaborates) A messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.” So here we have twice in the space of what do we got here? 1, 2, 3, 6 lines. Paul uses the same phraseology here. The word “conceited” in the original literally means to raise oneself over. Conceit says, “I’m the captain of my own life in this area. God can’t tell me what to do. I make the rules. And I don’t need anybody else. I don’t need to be dependent on anyone. I’m independent. I’ve got autonomy.” The word picture here is, you make sure I get this right. You’re up here in the Bible’s down here, not the reverse, the Bible up here, and you in submission to the Word of God. But rather, yeah, you’re up here and you, you think that you’re all that and a bag of chips, and you get to tell the Bible what it needs to say. It really is pride. That’s what it is. And if you think about it through that angle, you recognize here early on in the narrative that God’s actually being gracious to the apostle Paul, because the thorn was given to him in the flesh to keep him from that. And that is bad. No bueno, right? James 4:6 says, “God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.” He stands in loving opposition to the proud. Oh, God’s being gracious to Paul.
So, what do we know so far? Let’s do a bit of review here:
– Paul had a thorn in his flesh
– God ordained it
– He experienced constant harassment
– It was given to him to keep him from becoming conceited
Paul had a thorn in his flesh. We know that the text is explicit. God ordained it. He superseded over it. He experienced constant harassment, right? From this messenger of Satan. We just saw that it was given to him to keep him from becoming conceited. That was clear times two. This, right here, guys, is what we would call the historical, literal, grammatical component of the first seven verses. It’s not a deep dive into it, but historical, yes, literal, yes, grammatical. We’ll get to the Christological component in just a moment. So, this is our safe place, right here. Anything outside of this, you know, is really conjecture, and we want to avoid that. Okay, so how does Paul respond? Now, don’t put the text up. Okay, what do you think? How does Paul respond? Does he say, “Hallelujah, praise God, amen. This is easy. This thorn ain’t no big. It’s not a big deal. I mean I’m just gonna get through it, not a problem”? No, we see him struggle with immense pain here. 2 Corinthians 12:8. He says, “Three times, I pleaded (“I pleaded”, this is very strong Greek word, pleaded) with the Lord about this that it should (what? that it should) leave me.” That is that it would stand off from me for good. Listen, family, he’s not asking for a pause. That’s not his petition. It’s not like, “Hey, can you just give me a little break for like, maybe three to five days? I’d appreciate it.” He wants it gone. Bye, bye. Forever. Ever been there? Ever experienced something like that? Yes, normal Christianity, right? Maybe you’re there right now. Maybe it’s a bodily ailment? Perhaps a diagnosis of some sort? Maybe it’s relational? Financial? Notice the text says he went “three times.” There was a repetitious nature to this. Now, God’s going to respond to Paul, He is, and we’re going to dive into that.
But before we do, I want us to look at the next four words, okay, in verse nine A, so not the entirety of nine A, but just the first four words. And I’m slowing down here because there’s a very important particular Greek nuance. We need to do some parsing, actually, okay? So, take a look. 2 Corinthians 12:9a, “But he (that’s God) said to (who to?) me (Paul)…” This word “said” okay, in the original this verb is actually not in the past tense. It’s not now cursory reading, you read it, oh yes, past tense language. Well, this is actually in the Greek perfect language, okay? And I know that because we don’t exposit English, we exposit the Greek. It’s in the perfect tense rather. And what we know about the perfect tense is that it denotes an action that was completed in the past that has abiding and continuous results in the future. Really important for us to get this so the idea is not, “Oh yeah, I had this thorn. I cried out to God, and then He said this to me in the past, and then I kind of just forgot about it, and I went on with my life.” No, the idea here is “I went to God. God spoke to me, and what He said to me remained with me forever, through all the trials, through all the pain, through me being shipwrecked, flogged, beaten, imprisoned, all the way to the end, when I was on the chopping block, about to have my head cut off.” Paul was beheaded for the sake of the gospel. What God said to him remained in his spirit and constantly renewed his mind and strengthened his inner man. You got to get it. It’s the perfect tense.
Now let’s look at what God said. “But He said to me, My grace (that’s God’s unmerited empowering favor, my grace) is sufficient.” That’s our chaos. It’s enough for you. “For my power is made perfect in weakness.” Now this is interesting to me. So, Paul makes this petition, right? And instead of God responding with a “Yeah, sure, no problem,” He rather takes Paul to school. “Yeah, Paul, sit down. We’re gonna have a theology class real quick.” Yeah? This is actually better than a “yes.” Theology, by the way, it’s a combination of two Greek words, “Theos”, which means God, and “logos”, which means word. So put those two together, you have a “word about God”. So here we have God taking Paul to school on God. Yeah, in now we’re dealing with the perfections of God. Here, two of them, and it’s important to remember whenever we deal with any perfection, okay? We’ve got grace and power here. You can’t divorce the particular perfection from God’s essence. You can’t. In other words, God doesn’t just disseminate grace and power. He is grace and He is power. In fact, He is all of His perfections at all times, undiminished. And if that bakes your noodle, good, it really should, right? We were dealing with God here, yeah, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Yeah, He’s the creator. We are the creature. Now, contextually speaking, the sufficient grace that is in view here in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. It’s grace for sanctification, and we know that to be true because of the word is okay. God doesn’t say to Paul, “My grace (was) sufficient for you,” and it was, but he says in this moment, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Now, if you’re anything like me, you grew up in a church, and that church actually trained you to know which is a good thing, that the gospel is for the unbeliever. You need to preach if people, if lost sheep, are going to come found sheep, they got to hear the gospel. You got to preach it right? Because faith comes by hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ, and that’s absolutely true. We need to be trained in that. But it’s not just for the unbeliever. The gospel is also for the believer. In sanctification, we’re not just saved by the gospel. We grow by the gospel. Yeah, it saves and it sanctifies.
I want to give you a cross reference so that we’re adopting the analogous nature of scripture here, interpreting scripture with scripture. Titus 2:11-12. This is Paul. He says, “For the grace of God has appeared.” Now, who is this? Well, this is Jesus Christ. Remember, you can’t divorce the perfections from His essence. Okay? He, Jesus, is grace personified. And here it’s a reference to the incarnation. “For the grace of God, has it has appeared now (watch this) bringing salvation for (who?) for all people.” Now, does that mean everybody will be saved? No, it doesn’t. This is all without distinction, not all without exception. The Bible doesn’t promote universalism in any way, shape or form, not everyone’s going to be saved. In fact, if you study the Gospels, you’ll see actually more people are going to enter through the wide gate than the narrow gate. But the good news is Jesus has come. Jesus lived the life we couldn’t live, died our death on a cross, rose again, and He brings salvation for all types of people, right? All types of people are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone, Jew, Gentile, right? Slave, free, rich, poor, male, female, right? Shermanite, Denisonite, Gunnerite, Pottsboroite, McKinneyite, Oklahomaite, Californiaite. It’s all types of people. It’s really great news, right? So, we have confidence to preach the gospel to everyone, knowing that it’s the gospel that’s going to save, it’s the gospel that’s going to sanctify as well. We’re going to see that here in verse 12. Take a look. Paul continues, and he says, “Training us.” Now, who is training us? Jesus is training us. The grace of God is changing, training us, the grace of the gospel. This is what this text is leading us to believe here. “Training us to do (what?) renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright in godly lives, in (what?) the present age.” It’s the here and now, the gospel trains us by changing our hearts, and that’s what love does, right? We learned about that last week. The more you actually understand and believe the love of God demonstrated to you through Jesus, the more you’re actually going to want to do the things that please Him in sanctification, not for righteousness, but from a position of righteousness. The law can’t do this. The law is powerless to do this. Only the gospel can.
This is John 1:17. It says, “For the Law was given through Moses.” And we know that the law does. What can the law save? No. The law condemns. It points us to our need for a Savior. He continues and says, “Grace and truth came through (who? came through) Jesus Christ.” And His grace is sufficient for salvation. And let me add this, it’s sufficient for every single moment in sanctification. And there are many moments in the progressive sanctification process. There are. There was one moment in regeneration and instantaneously, right? We were raised from the dead spiritually, and God’s grace was efficacious and sufficient there and throughout all the different moments, right? Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. God’s grace is sufficient for you as you do your part in sanctification. This is incredible news. Church, you have a God that is so committed to you that He promises to give you everything that you will ever need at all times, in every single situation you can rest in that. Was God’s grace sufficient for you? Yes. Is it sufficient for you now? Yes. Regardless of what you’re going through, doesn’t matter. I mean, it does, but it doesn’t. But I’ve got this pain, it just won’t go away. It’s sufficient for you. I’ve got this relational issue with this person. God’s grace is sufficient for you. I’ve got this thorn, and like Paul, I’m going to the Lord like over and over again, and I’m not getting a “yes.” God’s grace is sufficient for you. It is.
Now look at the second half of the theology class. Okay, in 2 Corinthians 12:9a, God says, “My grace (Paul) is sufficient for you for My power (this is the second perfection of study today, my power) is made perfect (in what? it’s made perfect) in weakness.” Now, God is not insinuating here that His power is, at times, not perfect. A weakness doesn’t add perfection to His strength. It’s perfect in itself. The meaning here is that God’s power in the strength of Christ is actually manifested, made to appear, not through our strengths, but rather in our weaknesses. Stephen Charnock, who wrote the very extensive volume on the attributes of God, I would commend it to you. We would commend it to you 100%. It might take you four years to get through, but it’ll be worth every second of your time. He says this about this particular perfection, he says the power of God is more gloriously seen in supporting a weak creature than in preserving a strong one. And this is actually what the Bible teaches if you’ve been taught otherwise, if you’ve been taught that, “Yeah, God’s power is actually manifested when you rise up in your own strength.” Let me tell you something you’ve been lied to in that. I’m not happy about that, but I am happy about the fact that you’re not being lied to anymore. This is the truth of Scripture.
I want to illustrate this to you by way of parable. Okay, the safest illustrations are the ones that you find in the Bible. Okay, so let’s lean into this. Luke 18:9-14. Jesus “Also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.” So here’s the context. You don’t have to guess, all right? He’s talking to a bunch of strong dudes who think that they can earn righteousness via their good works. Okay, yeah, they were. They were relying on human behavior in human do betterism, if you will, to earn God’s righteousness. Is that possible? No, it’s not. But he’s speaking to these people. Verse 10, “Two men went up into the temple to pray (watch this) one a Pharisee, and the other a tax collector.” So, you have two totally different guys here. Okay, from the from the external, right? Same on the inside. At this point in the narrative, they were both spiritually dead, in need of salvation, but externally, at this point, polar opposite, right? You got the Pharisee who looks really strong and righteous and religious to many, and then you have the tax collector who looks really weak. Verse 11 continues, “The Pharisee standing by himself, prayed thus, ‘God, I thank You that I’m not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even like this tax collector.’” Wow. Talk about a terrible prayer. There are terrible prayers in the Bible. You’re staring at one right now, right he’s flexing his own strength and he’s hiding his weakness. This is what the Pharisees did, by the way, they were so acutely aware of the outer cup, and they forgot about the inner cup. Jesus talks about that elsewhere. Verse 12, the Pharisees actually not done. He says, “‘I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.’” “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, look at me. God, I’m strong. I’m mighty. I’ve got it going on, and I’m better than everybody in the room, especially that guy right there, the tax collector, way better than him.” What about the tax collector’s response? About his prayer. Take a look verse 13, “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven. (Watch this) But he beat his breast saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’” In other words, “God, I’m weak. Can’t save myself if I’m going to have eternal life, if I’m going to be saved, You’re going to have to do it because I can’t.” Two completely different prayers. One is actually the fruit of regeneration. You’re seeing it. So where does God’s power manifest itself? Take a look. Verse 14, “Jesus says, ‘I tell you (now, keep in mind who He’s talking to here, He’s talking to those who are strong in themselves, He says) I tell you this man (this weak man) went down to his house justified (that’s declared righteous) rather than the other (the strong guy). For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.’” Are you seeing it? I mean, it really is clear. Now, the context here, right, is justification, initial salvation, but what about sanctification? I mean, is it the same deal? Does God’s power manifest itself in the weak and sanctification or the strong? Oh, it’s actually, it’s the same deal. It is. And what we’re seeing here in 2 Corinthians 12:9 is Paul’s eyes as he’s being sanctified. They’re getting bigger and bigger, and he’s understanding this.
Look at his response in 9b Paul says, “‘Therefore (this is the bridge word, therefore) I will boast all the more gladly of my (what? my strengths? No) my weaknesses. So that (purpose clause) the power of Christ may (what? may) rest (or pitch its tent) upon me.’” Now what we can’t do here, from an interpretive standpoint, is we can’t divorce Paul’s response from God’s response, because what Paul said here is inextricably rooted in what God said to him. So here, really, in the most profound way possible, right? Immediate revelation, Paul’s eyes are being opened, and he’s learning the art of dependence. “Yeah, I can’t boast in my strengths. I need to boast in His strength. I need to boast in my weaknesses.” This is Paul’s response. And you know what? It’s really good and right for us to understand it historically, literally and grammatically.
But we can’t stop there, because the Bible isn’t ultimately about the Apostle Paul. We’re not saved in and through the Apostle Paul. The Bible is ultimately about Jesus Christ. And did you know Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity lived a perfectly dependent life. He did. Jesus, the greater Paul, was the most dependent human being to ever live, constantly depending on the Holy Spirit and the Father. We see this throughout the gospel narratives, yes, but it’s actually rooted in the Old Testament, in a prophetic text. This is one of them, Isaiah 42:1. This is God speaking. He says, “Behold, my servant (He’s referencing Jesus here) whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. (Take a look at this and see the Trinitarian language) I (the Father) have put My Spirit (that’s the Holy Spirit) upon Him (that’s Jesus) and He will bring forth justice to the nations.” And so, you see it here, 700 years, right before Christ was born. And as you continue reading the whole Bible, which you need to do, it’s one book. It’s not a disjointed, you know, collection of just randomness. It’s one book that points to Jesus. As you keep reading, what you’ll find in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is you’ll find the Paraclete, the Helper, the Holy Spirit, resting upon the Son of God, leading Him and empowering Him to fulfill the entirety of the law. And keep in mind, Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law. He came to fulfill it. Did He need help in fulfilling it? Yes, could He do it on His own? No, He couldn’t. John 4:34 “Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.’” Yes, that’s the Father’s work, by the way. How did He do it? Did He white knuckle it? “I got to get this done. Yeah, come on!” No, it was through dependence, dependence on the Spirit, as prophesied in Isaiah chapter 42 and dependence on the Father as well. Don’t miss that. John 5:19 says this, “So, Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord.’” Now, man, if that blows your mind that the Son can do nothing of His own accord it blows my mind too. Here we have Jesus, the fulfillment of all the promises of God, you know, in the Old Testament, all the promises find their “yes” in Him and He, fully God, fully man. He’s like, “Yeah, I can do nothing of My own accord.” Not one prayer, not one teaching time, not one healing. He was a dependent man. He goes on and says, “‘But only what He sees the Father doing for whatever the Father does (watch this) the Son does likewise.’” I’ll put it to you this way, Jesus didn’t walk with a strut during the 33 years of His earthly ministry. He didn’t. He didn’t walk around thinking to Himself and saying, “You know what? I’m Jesus, second person of the Trinity, right? Seed of the woman. I’m here. I’m here in the fulfillment. I don’t need the Holy Spirit. What are you talking about? I don’t need the Father. I’m Jesus.” No, that wasn’t His attitude. It was 33 years of perfect dependence that actually produced 33 years of perfect law keeping. Aren’t you thankful that our God, Jesus Christ, was dependent? The law actually wouldn’t have been fulfilled if Christ didn’t adopt a posture of dependence. And keep in mind, this was His path. This was His posture, even unto death. 2 Corinthians 13:4, “For He was crucified (speaking of Christ) in weakness (now that’s weakness in His humanity, He experienced physical weakness on the cross, certainly, but watch this) But He lives (speaking of the resurrection, by what? He lives) by the power of God, crucified in weakness, raised in power.” Paul goes on, “For we also are weak in Him.” Now don’t misunderstand this. Paul’s not contradicting what we’ve been seeing in the text. This has to do with us sharing in His sufferings. He says, “For we also are weak in Him (but in dealing with you, we will future language here) we will live with Him (by what? it’s) by the power of God.” Yeah, this theme is on repeat, guys, you just can’t miss it. Once you see it, you’re going to see it over again.
Let’s see this concept elsewhere in the church. Hebrews 11:32-34a, “And what more shall I say? (The author writes) for time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets who, through faith, conquered kingdoms and forced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escape the edge of the sword. (Man, these guys sound like a big deal, wow, strong, man, they weren’t a big deal) They were made strong out (of what? made strong out) of weakness.” How so? 2 Corinthians 12:9. You’re seeing it right here. God’s power manifesting itself, not through strength, but through weakness. This is the way God has set it up. Let me tell you something, believing it is going to change your life. It will change your life if you believe this. That’s not a sales pitch. We’ve experienced those, right? We’ve been to the car dealerships. We know what those are like. Not a salesman, right? But this is the truth, and you need to believe it, and it will change your life. Yeah, Jesus said in John 17:17, “Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.” Yeah, the Word is what changes us. It’s being delivered. We’re understanding what it says, means by what it says, how it applies in the person and finished work of Jesus Christ. Did you know that church is a place to go to be told what you need to believe? It is. Maybe you’ve never thought of it like that before, right? But you know it’s true. You wake up, right? You set your alarm clock. Well, maybe you guys didn’t. You’re 11:00am. Love you. And you come, right? You get your cup of coffee, right? You walk through those doors, you say “hi” to a greeter, a friendly greeter, right? You maybe stop by Connection Central, and then you come and you sit in these chairs, and what happens? We tell you what you need to believe unashamedly, without apology, no hesitation, and there’s no apology or hesitation. Why? Because we’re not over here tracking with me. No, we’re here like, okay, this is what it says. This is what it means. It’s how it applies. Gotta believe it. Yeah, we’re not speaking on our own authority, and we’re under the authority of Jesus Christ, and we have delegated authority as pastors to proclaim His Word.
Now, having said that, I do want to provide a warning to all of us. You don’t need to be scared. Okay? Warnings aren’t bad, right? To love is to warn. It’s actually a part of pastoral ministry. If you reject this truth, “Yeah, not a big deal. I’m going to continue in my strength.” What’s going to happen if you’re a legitimate Christian in that posture of pride is your sanctification is going to be stunted. And you’re going to stunt it and you’re going to hit a ceiling, yeah, because of your conceit. Is that a thing? Does that happen? Yeah, it does. I mean, read Hebrews five, the author says you should be teachers, I’m paraphrasing, but you’re not teachers. Why? Yeah, they rested in their own strength, and they chose not to boast in their weakness. It’s a thing. John 15:5, this is Jesus. He says, “‘I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides in Me, and I in him, he is that bears much fruit for, apart from me, you can do (what? some things? No, you can do) nothing.’” “Nothing”. Now you can do things, right? I mean, you can go to work and go to the grocery store, you can go out to eat, you can buy a house, you know, you can grow your stock portfolio, whatever. You can do things, but you can’t do anything that amounts to God receiving glory and you subsequently receiving joy, detached from the power source of the vine, boasting in your own strength. It’s not going to happen. This is the way God has set it up. And contrary to popular opinion, let me go ahead and say this. This isn’t discouraging, right? If you’re thinking that, you need to understand this is God’s truth. This is not discouraging. This is empowering. This is liberating. It’s the peaceful power of losing all hope in yourself, in just throwing yourself upon the Savior. You did that in justification, right? Holy Spirit gifted you faith and repentance, right? Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying, and we do that in sanctification as well. It’s divine working through the branch.
The Puritan John Owen, in his classic book on the Holy Spirit, he says this,
“All the power that we have to perform any duty is from Christ; and without him we do nothing.” John Owen
“All the power that we have to perform any duty is from Christ (watch this) and without him (that’s without the vine, we the branch, do what?) we do nothing.” He’s pulling that from John 15:5, obviously and other texts.
I’ll give you some more. Ephesians 6:10-11, “Finally, be strong (in who? in yourself? No, be strong) in the Lord and in the strength of His might.” How do you do that? Verse 11, he says, “Put on the whole armor of God.” This is present, active imperative. This is a command God’s prescribing to us. This is not descriptive. 2 Corinthians 12 is actually a descriptive text. This is prescriptive, imperative. “Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against (what? against) the schemes of the devil.” Listen, I’ll put it to you this way, the weakest yet strongest move that you can make in your sanctification is to open up your Bible on a daily basis while praying to God, “Open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things in Your law.” It really is. It’s the weakest yet strongest thing you could do, yeah, because by doing so, you’re acknowledging that you actually need Him in that you’re not sufficient in and of yourself, and that you need His Word. It’s this heart posture of, “Teach me, God, You’ve given me Your Word.” It’s revealed. Many things are revealed, right? There are certain things that are secret, Deuteronomy 29:29, right? And then there are things that are revealed, those revealed things actually belong to us and to our children forever. “So, Lord, teach me. I can’t teach myself. Correct me. I can’t correct myself. Reproof me. I can’t reprove myself. Train me. I can’t train myself. Equip me. I can’t equip myself.” It’s posture of dependence. Listen, the arm of the flesh will always fail you. Okay, you need to know that anybody heard that language before “arm of the flesh”? Okay, one of you, thanks. That’s not a direct quotation like what I just spoke, but the language is actually germane to 2 Chronicles 32:8 I want you to see this. Okay? The context is the king of Assyria is wanting to wipe out God’s people, okay? And he’s putting together a plan of attack. And then you have King Hezekiah, king of God’s people, right? He speaks to the Israelites, and he says this “With him, (that’s what the king of Assyria is, what?) an arm of flesh.” That’s illustrative of strength in your own strength. Okay? “With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles. And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah.” And listen, if you keep on reading, it’s an awesome story. Did the arm of flesh prevail for the king of Assyria? No, it didn’t. No. God sent an angel and wiped out the entirety of the Assyrian army, all of them, just like that. And then the king. King Sennacherib, he goes back home to his house, and he’s put to death by the sword by some of his very own sons. Yeah, the arm of the flesh failed him miserably. Yeah, it’s weak. The only strong arm there is church family is the strong of the strong arm of the Lord. And that, who is that? That’s Jesus Christ, as revealed in Isaiah chapter 53. He’s the arm of the Lord. Read the text, and He’s been revealed, right? He’s the one who is crushed for our iniquities. He’s the one you know, who took upon Himself the chastisement that brings us peace. He’s the one who substituted Himself for us in our place. He’s strong to save, He’s strong to sanctify, and He’s strong to glorify as well. And that day is coming, glory to God. Hallelujah! Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Are you getting it? He’s the strong one. Our strength is found in Him alone.
2 Corinthians 4:7, two more verses. Paul says, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay (that’s ordinary pots) to show that the surpassing power belongs (to who? it belongs) to God and not (to who?) not to us.” Now this is what you call an indicative truth, okay? Note that it’s an indicative. It’s not an imperative. God’s not telling us to do anything here. This is a statement of fact that was written down some 2000 years ago so that we would read it and believe it and not strut our way through the Christian life, but rather do what limp. “Lord, I need You today. I can’t do it.” It’s not this. No, all the power comes from God and not from us. We’ll conclude in 2 Corinthians 12:10, Paul says, “For the sake of Christ, then I am content (this word means well pleased by the way, I’m content) with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, (that’s weak in myself) then I am strong (strong in Christ).” It’s paradoxical truth. I get it, but the reality is the weakest saints are actually the strongest saints. It’s true.
So, what’s your part? What’s your part? Well, your part is to humble yourself under the Word, come underneath it, to not stand above it, but come underneath. Fix your eyes on Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of your faith, and what will happen as you continually on repeat, believe the gospel as revealed in Scripture. And as those gospel roots get deeper and deeper and deeper in your heart, you’ll find yourself becoming more and more dependent not on your strength, but on God’s strength. And you’ll approach His throne, His throne room of grace with confidence because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. And you’ll express your neediness to Him just like that. And you’ll come before Him and you’ll say, “Lord, I need You today. I can’t do it today. I’m not enough today. I don’t have it all together. I’m weak, but Lord, I know You’re strong, so I need Your Word. In fact, I’m not ready for the day until I read Your Word. It’s my armor. I need to pray, and I need the church. You haven’t called me to live the Christian life in isolation. No, you’ve called me to be a part of a family ecclesia gathering. Furthermore, I need to be under qualified eldership. I can’t go throughout my life, not under a group of men, plural, plurality of men who meet the qualifications of 1 Timothy three and Titus one. That’d be dumb when I’m weak. I need Your strength. And You’ve set Your church up, in a way, but You so desire is perfect. The way You’ve set it up is perfect. I need to be under eldership. I need to go to D-group. I heard the sermon on Sunday. I need to hear it again. I need to chew the cud. I need to meditate on the Word.” It’s weakness. Weakness is the way. Weakness is the way in, and it’s actually the way on as well. It is. And the gospel produces that in us. If you’re understanding this, you’re understanding the truth about weakness. Praise God for His Word and thanks be to God for His Spirit who illuminates the text and helps us actually understand it, see Christ and glory in Him.
KEYWORDS
2 Corinthians, Sanctification, Gospel, Weakness, Dependent, Dependence, Grace, Power, Paul, Paul’s Thorn, Thorn, Humility, Humble, Conceited, Faith, Scripture, Christ, Salvation, Monergism, Synergism, Parable, Pharisee, Tax Collector, Attributes Of God, Perfections, John Owen, Stephen Charnock, Paraclete, Church, Bible Church, Online Sermon, Sermon Livestream, Theology, Churches in Texas
Speaker
Matt Hahn