“The Case for Christ - The sufficiency of Christ’s grace’

Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Cor 12:9: ‘And He[Christ] said unto me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for 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.’  

In the light of what we are facing today in this world, and what we may all be facing in the days ahead, I would like to take some time this evening just talking to you about the way we Christians have been called to bear up under these temptations, as well as all other temptations we face from day to day.

Paul spoke of them as ‘infirmities’, those things that were his weaknesses.

And, I purposely call them all ‘temptations’ because every trial that comes to us is inherently ‘temptation’. How is that so?

Simply - because it is that which can lead to either unbelief or doubt, to murmuring or to complaining, to not ‘being content in whatsoever state’ we are.

Or - it can lead to following our own lustful desires, or to using the wrong avenues to escape them as they cross our
paths, or it can lead to doing or saying things, or thinking things, that are sinful.

I am sure there is not one of us who cannot place ourselves in one or more of these times of enticements.

So, let me start by saying: temptation is a fact for the Christian. We can never, ever, avoid having them placed before us. 

Christ was ‘led by the Spirit to be tempted of the devil’. Since that is so, how can we, then, who are His, expect to escape temptation?

He Himself said: ‘The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.’ That is, the learner is not superior to his teacher anymore than a servant is to his master. For what is good enough for the teacher is good enough for the disciple as well...’. You will find that in 
Mt 10:24-25.

Since temptation was His lot, we who are His, then, must not expect to escape temptations from being part of our walk in Him. I am sure you know that well by now.

But how are we to be made ready for such trials and temptations to escape giving in to them?

Let us go back to 1 Corinthians 10:13. It says there: ‘There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man...’.

There it is! That is the start - to know that everything that comes to us in the form of a trial or a temptation is a common experience for all of us.

Are you sometimes tempted to think that you are the only one facing such trials as you are having this moment? 

If so, take heart! 

Know that whatever it is that you and I are now undergoing has been a road traveled before by countless others. We are not alone! To start with, Christ Himself was tempted in all points just as we are.

And, too, Paul, along with thousands of confessing Christians, martyrs, and the very best and most faithful of God’s saints, have traveled the same road you and I are on.

But, you say, ‘I feel as though I am losing my mind in this heavy, heavy burden. I have even considered destroying myself, something maybe Christ and these others probably were never tempted to do.’ 

Then you feel like Job felt. He, at one time, in the middle of all of his troubles said, ‘My soul chooseth strangling, and death, rather than life.’

Yes - he said, ‘I would welcome strangling and death rather than go on like this. I am tired of it! I am in despair! I cannot go on!’ That is in Job 7:15, in case you would like to see it for yourself.

So - let me assure you that many of us have gone through this - been tempted just as you may be now. Yet, we are alive, and have lived many years now, to testify to you that we know of this special kind of temptation. And - we can tell you, without hesitation, that the Lord has delivered us out of them all!  So - again I say - take heart!

And - then, we need to go to the other end of the spectrum of the various kinds of temptations common to all. 

There are some who are tempted to think themselves to be above temptations. There are those who are so self-righteous that they actually place themselves as judge over other Christians. 

Other Christians - they think - ‘are not on the same plane of righteousness as I am’. Go back to Luke 18:11, if you are inclined to think that to be impossible.

Poor souls! They do not realize that - that, too, - is a temptation they have unwittingly yielded themselves to! 

It is probably the worst kind for a Christian because he is doubly blind to what lies before him. He is stumbling over the Stumbling Stone and does not know it!

And then there is the temptation to think that those who are the strongest spiritually have never known what it is like to be tempted in body, soul, or spirit.

Let me assure you that nothing worth having is dropped into any saint’s lap from heaven as a special favor. Paul was a man of strong faith. Did that faith just come floating down from the hand of God because God saw in Paul a man who would do His bidding?

Of course not - Paul’s strong faith came with the deliberate conquering of every trial that came his way.

Peter was another man of strong faith but Peter went through a time of unbelief first, a time of much godly sorrow, before he became a man of faith.

We do not know the inward struggles, the fear, the tremblings within, the struggles coming from without, the battles that were hard fought and hard won of any such men of strong and confident faith.

If we knew the inside and the outside of this person’s  battles, we would know a man who would sincerely and honestly tell us that the temptations he has had to endure, he overcame only through many fierce battles within his innermost being.

And he would be the first to tell you that they will come to him again and again - they do not disappear magically for they are common to all of us and will remain common to all until the day of Christ’s appearing.

But - we have much good news about all such temptations, and here is the next part in which the Christian is made ready, as we continue with 1 Corinthians 10:13: ‘...God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able...’.

God remains faithful during the time of temptation. He knows what is going on at this very moment, the next moment, tomorrow, and always.  

He knows how to keep a restraint on each temptation. He knows just the right time to send it and He knows just the right time to lift it. 

Yes - He is Master of every one of those situations and He keeps His promise. He will always know and will always be the faithful, guiding Support in it all. You have often heard: ‘As thy day, so shall thy strength be’, have you not?

There is no day that you nor I face that does not have the promise of God’s faithfulness directing it in His ‘tailor-made’ course.

Do you believe that? Really? Or - are you adding to your own temptation that temptation, as well, of making God out to be a liar?  I pray no one of us is doing that!

And - here is more good news: He does not leave us facing it alone.  Remember - Paul went on to say, with the temptation, God ‘...makes a way of escape to be able to bear it.’ 

If you now turn over to 2 Corinthians 12:9, the text for this evening, you will see the way out that God provided and how it is to be borne.

Paul had been buffeted and sought the Lord three times to take away this trial from him. But the answer he got each time was: ‘...My grace is sufficient for thee...’. 

Christ was speaking directly to Paul’s heart: ‘You may be being buffeted, Paul, but My grace is adequate.’ ‘...My grace...! - My grace is all you need!’   

‘For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell;’ - ‘...and of His fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.’

Christ assured Paul that the grace Christ has to give is adequate. It was sufficient for Paul then; it is sufficient now; it is sufficient to meet your present need, my present need; it is sufficient, both for the fellowship, as a whole, and for any present private need.

It is sufficient to cheer and comfort us and support us; it is sufficient to give us the strength to get through the problem; it is sufficient to calm and ease our fears.

And, to add to the inherent joy in this gift of grace, the temptation is not all in vain, for God’s grace is equally sufficient to make the trial useful to us - to provide the way to build us up for overcoming the next hurdle that lies ahead - grace after grace rolls upon us like the waves of the sea roll upon the shore - it is endless grace that is ours!

There is sufficient grace right through to the day God calls us home!
    
Now - it may not always appear that way to us - especially during the time the temptation is staring us in the face.

It is always true that the nearer we are to an object, the larger it appears to us. A mountain, from a distance, does not alway seem very high. But get within a close range, and you see it from a much larger perspective - is that not so?

That is how it is with the affliction we are under at the moment - it always seems greater now than it will seem when we are a distance from it.

And, so, sometimes it is hard to see the sufficiency of grace for our present, pressing afflictions.

It is easy to believe grace for the past - we saw it at work after we looked back on it. And it is easy to believe grace for the future since our vision of its need is obscured.

But we must learn to rest in it for our immediate necessity  - that is faith in action where grace is sufficient for our very beings now!

And why is His grace sufficient? Read on to what the Lord said to Paul: ‘...for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’

Christ gave the reason for the all-sufficiency of His grace. ‘You may be being buffeted, Paul, but learn that My grace is adequate, for My power is perfected in your weakness; it finds its full scope in it; it comes to full strength in it when you are most weak.’

The light went on in Paul’s innermost being, for now  comes the most blessed part of this all that makes us ready for them: Paul resolved to depend on that grace as he faced his trials so ‘...that the power of Christ may rest upon me’, he said.

‘I would rather glory in my troubles so that the power of Christ may ‘rest, or tabernacle in me’; ‘...may overshadow or enshrine itself in me,’ he said.

Why would he do that? Do you have any idea what that implies?
   
Christ is the One ‘full of grace and truth’. And, thus, Paul gloried in his infirmities so that the fullness of the light of Christ’s grace and truth could become apparent.

It is in the light of Christ’s grace that the truth of the power of Christ in contrast to his own power became crystal clear.

It was because if he is not weak, then he has strength of his own to overcome the temptation, and - drawing from that source would lead to nothing!

If what he does is done in his own strength, there is no room for Christ to exert His power from within Paul - Paul would miss out on something - something super colossal!

He would miss the power of the grace of Christ.

And he would miss the fullness of the truth of Christ.

And both are too important to miss!

That is clear enough to understand. If his power is gone, then Christ is able to come through clearly in the fullness of His grace and in the fullnes of His truth. 

This must have hit him with such reality that he promptly said, ‘..I glory in my ‘strengthlessness’ - yes, I glory in my ‘strengthlessness’ - so that the power of Christ - His strength - may tabernacle in me - may enshrine itself in me.’ 

The faithfulness of God pledged and vouched that anointing of Christ’s power in him. What glory that is in comparison to our feeble strength - would you not agree to that? 

And what was the power of Christ?

It was the power to endure the sufferings that faced Him. It was the power to be oppressed and afflicted, to be made nothing. It was the power to go down to the very depths for the love of God and for the love of men. It was the power to have an agonizing heart when He ‘poured His soul unto death’ for men. It is that mighty converting power He was ready to reveal to Paul in Paul’s trials.

And Paul wanted to glory in his own ‘strengthlessness’ to make room for that power of Christ in him.

Listen: when a person draws so much from the great grace of Christ, he will come to that place where he will feel as though he is nothing at all.

And that is alright! For - if we are at the place where we consider ourselves so great and so good, so much better than anyone else, and so on, either we are in for a grand and rude awakening, or else the power of God is going to be withdrawn until we come to the ‘end of ourselves’. God is not going to share His glory with another - I hope we will always remember that!

The best of us are only flesh and blood and we have nothing in ourselves except as the grace of God gives us power to live and overcome each of the trials set before us.

Therefore, stop exalting yourself and - on the other hand - stop degrading yourself. Neither way is the Lord’s way to live. 

Glory in the fact that God has given you His grace because of Christ living in you.       

And He within you is the power of God unto your salvation right down to the end of your days here on earth! 

He says to each of us always: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’

‘Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my own strengthlessness, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.’

Amen! So be it!  

‘Grace, grace, God’s grace,
 Grace that will pardon and cleanse within,
 Grace, grace, God’s grace,
 Grace that is greater than all our sin.’

‘His grace has no measure, His mercy no end, etc.’          

‘Praise God from Whom all blessings flow,
 Praise Him all creatures here below 
 Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts,
 Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen’