Paul's Thorn In The Flesh

We are addressing here, and by the way, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, and you know, the way to live by faith, the joshua, live by faith, is to hear the word, understand what it's saying, and make application to your life. And in doing so, you begin to move into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you live by faith, and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

So Paul here is defending his apostleship. There are false apostles that have come, and as I shared before, whenever there is truth, the devil will come behind it with the lie. And so oftentimes that truth and lies stand right beside each other.

And the wheat and the tares, the devil sows the tares amongst the wheat. So do not be surprised that there's faults in the midst of that which is true. But here it is, Paul, in trying to build the church there at Corinth, there are those who are coming and claiming also to be apostles.

Now, I told you the last two messages that he didn't start out with all the books he had written or the money he was making, or the miracles and wonders, which we'll talk some about today. But Paul begins his defense with two basic things with reference to what true Christianity represents. And he starts out with the idea of self-denial.

Self-denial. If you look back to chapter 11 in verse number seven, he starts his defense this way, have I committed an offense in abasing myself that you might be exalted because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely. He starts out by saying, my testimony amongst you was that of self-abasement, self-denial.

And we learn how that those who are true apostles of Jesus who have the spirit of God in them will do like the Lord Jesus. They will lay their life down. They will give, even Paul says it here in chapter number 12, I will therefore gladly spend and be spent for you.

Though the more I love you, the less I be love. And that is the spirit of Jesus Christ in them. And he who laid his life down lives in us.

And therefore those who are in leadership, those who are apostles will certainly be an example of laying their life down. And so when you look at it, all these apostles and prophets and how they're wanting to get money from you and take and take and take, you can mark them off as false. They are not representing the spirit of self-denial.

And so Paul starts out that way with self-denial. He moves then to his example of suffering and how he has suffered and laid down his life. We talked about that last week, self-denial and suffering.

And you remember what Jesus said to the multitudes that wanted to follow him. He said, if any man is gonna come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. And so this is not just a message for those who are gifted with apostleship or prophets or evangelists or teachers, but it's for all of us.

It's for all of us. And the spirit of God that is in us ought to be motivating us and compelling us to a life of self-denial and a life of being willing to suffer for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. And in just a couple of weeks, we're gonna get to chapter 13 here.

And after laying this all out, Paul's gonna look at the church there at Corinth and he's gonna say, I don't know. You all need to examine yourselves. Whether you be in the faith, know you're not that Jesus Christ is in you.

If Jesus Christ is in you and he's not working self-denial and suffering, then are you even in the faith? And that's a good question for us. And we'll address that question here in just a bit. But suffering, in Philippians 1.29, verse 29, Paul said this, for unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.

That's what's given to you and I. And believing on the Lord Jesus is a choice that we make. Suffering is also a choice that we make. Brother John here read the verses about suffering.

It's a part of the Christian experience. It's a part of the choices that we make. You know, we oftentimes come to a situation where we could speak up and speak into people's lives.

And we oftentimes will say, no, I won't do that because I'm gonna suffer the consequences. And I might get in trouble. They might hate me.

They might throw something at me if I speak into the situation. If I preach the gospel to them, I'm going to suffer. So we end up being quiet.

And we avoid those things which bring suffering. I just want to lay a foundation here and review before we get into our message here this morning. But in 2 Timothy 1, Paul is writing this to Timothy.

Timothy was a young man who had an issue with fear in his heart. And in verse seven of chapter one, it says, for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel.

Timothy, don't be afraid. Timothy, don't be ashamed of the Lord Jesus, but you be a partaker. In other words, Timothy, I'm giving you a choice.

You be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. And we all can do that. We all can be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel.

And so self-denial and suffering are evidences of what is true, the life of Jesus. We just heard this morning. He lived a life of self-abasement.

He suffered at the hands of many and he's the example. And so we follow him. And so when you think about apostles, that's what Paul mentions here as the true test.

Now, today we're gonna throw in a cherry or two on top. And Paul mentions these two things that also show to be an apostle, that he is an apostle. And starting here in chapter 12, I'm just gonna read this first verse here.

He says, it's not expedient for me, doubtless to glory, I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. Visions and revelations. These are the things that are kind of the cherry on top.

I think of self-denial and suffering as being the milkshake, but these are things that are kind of like a cherry on top and he's gonna kind of breeze through them. But the next thing he's gonna mention is another cherry on top. If you look at chapter 12, verse number 12, or excuse me, verse number 11, he says, I am become a fool in glory and you have compelled me for I ought to have been commended of you for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles.

Though I be nothing, truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs and wonders and in mighty deeds. Signs and wonders. And I know we like those kinds of things, but signs and wonders and mighty deeds.

And what's happening here in Corinth is this, there are people coming in, claiming to be apostles, claiming to have visions and revelations, claiming to have signs and wonders, but having no self-denial and no suffering for the cause of Christ. And so Paul is going to not only talk about his own self-denial, his own suffering, but he's going to also mention the cherries on top. He's gonna mention his visions and revelations and he briefly mentions these signs and wonders.

Now, Matthew chapter seven says it this way, many will come to me in that day and say, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy? Did we not stand in a pulpit like this? Did we not cast out devils? Did we not do many wonderful works, wonders? And he'll say, I never knew you. And so from the Bible, you can see that people can get revelations and visions. People can do wonders and signs.

But if they lack self-denial and a desire to suffer for the Lord Jesus, that is what separates the true from the false. Matthew 24 says, for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and apostles and shall show great signs and wonders. In so much as if it were possible, they shall see the very lack.

Look at this person, what they're doing. Look at the signs, look at the visions and revelations, but you need to ask this question, how about self-abasement and suffering? That's the heart of the matter. And so that's the two here that Paul begins with, self-denial and suffering.

And I just wanna go to one more passage here because I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but in 2 Timothy chapter number three, and you don't have to turn there, you might remember we talked about in the last days, perilous times will come. And men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous and all down through this list, but they have a form of godliness. It appears that they're Christians, but they deny the power thereof.

And then Paul moves to Janus and Jambres. Janus and Jambres were two individuals who did signs and wonders. As a matter of fact, those are the magicians who came and withstood Moses.

And they could duplicate much of what Moses did, signs and wonders, but they lived in the court. They didn't live a life of self-denial, as far as we know, and suffer for the cause of Christ. But here's Moses, Moses, the one who chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to live in the palace.

And here Moses is contending with these two individuals. Both of them doing wonderful signs and wonders, but Moses has gone down this road of self-denial and suffering. And so in the end, you're gonna see people do amazing things.

But the real question is, are they living a life of self-denial and are they willing to suffer for the Lord Jesus Christ? Are they givers or are they takers? And so that's kind of a review, how far we've come here. And so let's move here to chapter 12, starting in verse number one, and we're gonna look at visions and revelations that Paul had. And he also, you know, here we go.

We even look at this, he's wanting to speak and share these things, but he doesn't wanna give himself glory. He's doing everything possible to keep from giving himself glory. So he's gonna speak in the third person.

I knew a man 14 years ago. I knew a man who had this amazing revelation. I'm not gonna say it was me, but it was him.

And so he's doing his best to try not to point glory to himself. Let's start reading here in 2 Corinthians, chapter 12 and verse number one. Let's pray before we do it.

All of our ways, Lord, you've asked us to acknowledge you that you might direct our path. And so Lord, there's so much in the word of God that we can learn and understand. And there's so many ways that the spirit of God can speak to individual hearts and individual situations and to instruct them.

And so we ask for that today as we acknowledge you before we begin, that you might direct the path, the path of my heart and the path of these hearts here, the souls of those that you love. May you direct their hearts into the will of God and teach them and instruct them and encourage them and admonish according to your will. So we look to you again here this morning for your help in Jesus' name.

Amen. Chapter 12, verse one. I'm gonna go down through about seven or eight verses here.

Verse one, it says, it is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. Now, just like these false apostles who are claiming visions and revelations, Paul also has had visions and revelations.

And interesting enough, one of those visions and revelations is actually, or actually occurred while Paul was at Corinth. And I'm gonna read it to you here in Acts 18. It says that he departed thence and entered into a certain man's house named Justice, one that worshiped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.

And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision.

Here's one of the visions that Paul received right there in Corinth. Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. And so here in Corinth, this is actually the church that we're talking about, Paul had visions.

He had many visions, no doubt. And some of them are given to us here in the Bible. But one of the visions that are not given to us in other places in the Bible is this one that Paul's gonna mention, starting in verse number two.

He says, I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago, whether in the body, I cannot tell, or whether out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth such in one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth, how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. And so now Paul's trying to avoid bringing attention to himself, even though he was a man who had amazing visions and amazing revelations.

So he brings it out this way, I knew a man. I knew a man. He speaks in the third person, not in the first person.

Well, a little later on, we're gonna find out that that man is him. I knew a man who had an amazing vision and a revelation. Verse two, he says it was 14 years ago, 14 years ago.

Now, I did a little studying on dates just to give you some history here. And I don't trust these historical accounts. I mean, these are people trying to go back and put all this together time-wise.

But Paul was converted according to history around 36 AD. And this letter was written around 58 AD. So 14 years ago from 58 would put it around 44 AD, eight years after his conversion.

And according to the historical accounts, that would put him in the church at Antioch. Remember when he was there at Antioch, before he was sent out on his first missionary journey, it had been roughly at that time. Now, many people believe it was a year or two later than that because it was a year or two later when Paul was preaching and he was stoned for preaching the word.

And he was left for dead underneath those stones. And the disciples thought he was dead. And it could have been during that time that God said, yeah, we'll take you up, we'll take you out of here, but I want you to go back to that body.

And during that time, perhaps Paul received this amazing revelation. Verse two says that he was not sure whether he was in the body or out of the body. He said, I could not tell, but God knows.

Now, I don't know what happened there, but if you're caught up, some of you think if you caught up to paradise and you see amazing things and you have revelation given to you that you're not thinking about whether you're in the body or out of the body. But if he'd had a chance, he could have pinched himself, you know, and ooh, that hurts. So I must be in the body.

But he says, I don't know whether I was caught up physically into paradise or whether or not I was taken up just my soul, my spirit, and I was translated into paradise. But I know this, God knows what happened. And I'm gonna leave that up to him.

But whether it was in the body or out of the body, God knows. He says here in verse two that he was caught up to the third heaven. I'm gonna draw this.

I think we've talked about this before, but God made the earth. I wanna show you this in Genesis. And then on the outside of the earth, there's this thing called our atmosphere.

We call it kind of the heavens, the clouds are up there, the rain comes down from the heavens. I did a little study. That's 62 miles up to the top there of what they consider the ozone layer and the atmosphere.

And then outside of that is this place we call kind of the solar system. And who knows how big that is. That's where you have the stars and you have the sun and you have the moon outside of there.

And then outside that solar system is where God lives in the third heaven. And so Paul says he was caught up to the third heaven. Look with me to Genesis chapter one.

I wanna show you something here. In Genesis chapter one, the first verse of the Bible and then the first verse of Genesis chapter two. This is kind of interesting and I don't have time to have a solar system story.

Study here and how all of these things were created. But just to give you something to think about here. In Genesis chapter one, verse one, it says, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.

Now notice it doesn't say God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning, God created the heaven singular and the earth. That's hard for our minds to understand this, but God is up here.

There is no earth. There is no star. There is no sun.

There's just nothing. There's just a huge vacuum. And God is in His dwelling place in heaven.

And God says, I'm going to come down here and I'm going to build the heaven and the earth right here. I'm gonna make this heaven and earth. And that's what you see there in Genesis, the first part of Genesis chapter one.

And so there was nothing outside of it. Now, I'm not here to challenge your astronomy classes, you young people who are taking school, but I'm under the belief, biblically, that the earth is at the center of this universe. The earth is the center and that everything revolves around the earth.

As a matter of fact, you know, the Lord in the end of the Bible is going to come. He's going to dwell on this earth. And this earth is the center of everything.

And if you think of how this whole thing was created, God started right here at the center. He made the earth and He made the heaven, singular. And then we go on here in verse 14 through 19.

It talks about how He made the stars and He made the sun. He made the moon and He made what was the solar system around this earth and its heaven. And interestingly enough, go to Genesis chapter two here, after He's all done, in verse number one, He says, thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them.

And so now there are plural heavens. In other words, He's done the heaven that's around this earth, which we would look up, you know, it's about 62 miles up. And He made then the second heaven where the solar system is and all the galaxies and everything that's in there.

And then God is in the third heaven. So when Paul was taken up and maybe when he was stoned that time at Lystra, he was caught up to the third heaven. He went through the entire solar system.

I don't know how far that is. Man's still trying to figure that out. And man may be just scratching the surface.

You know, you never know. Man's sending out these satellites as far as they can go, but still haven't seen the end of this second heaven. But the Lord is in the third heaven.

So let's go back now and look at 2 Corinthians. He says what happened to him when he was caught up to the third heaven. By the way, that's where I believe if you died today, just like this man that was killed last night and in this auto accident, and if he was a born again Christian, that his spirit would have ascended to the third heaven, to the presence of God and to be with the Lord.

Verse number four in chapter 12, it says, "'How that he was caught up into paradise "'and heard unspeakable words, "'which it is not lawful for a man to utter.'" Now there's probably no one that's been given a revelation and a vision such as this one. And you know, here's something, I wanna throw this out. When people, maybe they die and they have some vision, maybe they went to hell or they went to heaven and they saw all these things.

There's a lot of them around that have testimonies. They all wanna write books. They all wanna sell videos.

They all wanna have a lot of publicity. But it's interesting that Paul, he never talks about this, this great experience that he has until he gets here. And when he gets here to try to prove his apostleship, he says, I knew a man about 14 years ago.

So I have a question. You know, a lot of times when people have these experiences, they wanna make a little money off of it and make themselves popular and glory in themselves. But Paul has no desire for those things.

But he says here in verse four that, he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. He got up there into that place and he said, I heard things come into my ears that were unspeakable. And I looked up that word, it simply means inexpressible.

You know, it's like a situation where it is so incredible and I'm hearing such incredible things that my language cannot communicate what I'm experiencing here. And it's virtually inexpressible. So I can tell you this, heaven's gonna be a wonderful place as far as the presence of God and being in his presence and the angelic world there.

And so what Paul experienced was inexpressible. So heaven is a place where you cannot express yourself, humanly speaking, when you see this. I tell my wife, you know, I've had, maybe shared this with you, I've had two experiences in my life where I've seen something that my mind could not find anything to correlate with it.

And I was just kind of dumbfounded. I was left kind of without anything to say or to think. And my wife and I were in Hawaii and we went up to the top of this peak on our honeymoon.

And I looked out over this incredible sight, just incredible beauty. And I just was there and my mind said, I don't have anything to relate to this. I just can't understand it.

And it's just incredible. The other place it happened when I was about 23 years old, I went to the Philippines. You talk about poor.

I went to the Philippines and the first day I was there, you know, this young American who's got everything, they took me down to the slums in Manila. We took a Jeep right down to the heart of the slums of Manila. And I remember getting out of that Jeep and looking around at all that I saw and I experienced the same thing.

It was like my mind said, I cannot relate to what I'm seeing. There's nothing, you know, your mind works finding comparisons and trying to understand from your history what's going on here. And my mind couldn't understand it.

Well, that's kind of how in a dramatic way, a much more dramatic way that Paul experiences this thing while he's in heaven. I'm hearing things that are inexpressible. Now, you know that there are different human languages and those languages have, many of them have broader ways to express, many more words.

But the language that he heard there was outside the bounds of a human language. He said it was not lawful. And that means there was no boundaries.

There was no boundaries. It's outside of the human boundary. It's far beyond, you know, what I could understand.

1 Corinthians 13, one says, so I speak with the tongues of men and of angels. So angels have their own language. And I'm sure in paradise, the language is gonna be something amazing.

And yet have not charity, I am become as a sounding brass and a tinkling symbol. Well, let's keep going here because I wanna get to our lesson this morning. Verse five, of such in one will I glory, yet of myself, I will not glory, but of mine infirmities.

Again, Paul is one of these people who likes to be on the lower rung of the ladder. And I think that's good for all of us to stay down on the lower rung. He could have boasted about many things.

He could have boasted about the people he healed. He could have boasted about the miracles, the devils that he cast out. He could have boasted about his visions and revelations, but he does not like to do that.

He likes to stay on the lower rung. And I think we all ought to take that counsel and just stay low. You wanna boast about your brother and sister, boast about the Lord, but don't speak about yourself.

You wanna speak about yourself, is a good way to do it, is talk about your failure. Talk about the things that you've made mistakes. And to keep yourself lower.

Look at verse number seven now. Oh, excuse me, let's go back to verse number six. For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool, for I will say the truth, but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.

So Paul had a concern about him being exalted. In verse seven, and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

Now, we're gonna see this here in a minute, but can you imagine you, you know, being an apostle, and having all these things, miracles, you're healing people, you're raising people from the dead, and God has given you so many visions, and you have such an understanding of the word, and then you get caught up to the paradise, and you see paradise, and you hear things that are unspeakable. There's a good chance that, you know, in the human heart, and it's a problem in the human heart, that Paul's going to get swelled up, that he's gonna be a proud individual, that he's gonna be exalted, not only in his own heart, but other people are gonna say, wow, you are the apostle, Paul. You're the one that does all these things.

You know, Paul did face that at times. People see him heal someone, they come to make a God out of him. Make a God out of him.

And you know, that's a real challenge, when God gives us a place, a position. That's why, with regards to elders, we're talking about elders, do not ordain an elder who is young in the faith. Why not? Because they're going to be tempted to be proud, and to be lifted up, and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

And so, Paul was given here a thorn in the flesh. Now, I'm not gonna share with you what I, I'm gonna share with you what I think it is, but there's a lot of people who've tried to put their finger on what this thing is, this thorn in the flesh. Verse seven says, "'Unless I should be exalted above measure "'through the abundance of the revelations, "'there was given to me a thorn in the flesh.'" I'm not gonna share with you what that is.

We're not gonna come to a conclusion, but I do know there's a principle here that we can come to a conclusion on. And that principle is found in verse number nine. And he said unto me, "'My grace is sufficient for thee, "'for my strength is made perfect in weakness.'" And we'll get to that probably next week, or next time we share.

But I don't know. I have my thoughts about this thorn in the flesh, and we're gonna go down through some of the hints that were given here of the information that Paul gives us. But he could have told us what it is.

Just like he said, I don't know whether I was in the body or out of the body. God knows. And he could have told us what this thorn in the flesh is, but he did not choose to do so.

But he gives us some hints. And I wanna just go down through some of the things he shares here about this thorn in the flesh. Some of you might have a thorn in the flesh here this morning, and I don't want you to think negatively of that thorn because Paul's gonna learn some lessons that that thorn is a good thing.

And it's something that God gave for a purpose. So let's look here. What was the purpose for God giving this thorn in the flesh? Well, I just read it in verse seven.

And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations. In other words, I have had so many incredible experiences, and especially this one of being called up to the third heaven. I mean, there's a temptation in me to be proud, to think I'm somebody to write a book and to be on the New York Times bestseller list and to be famous and to embrace this glory in myself.

So God's given me this thorn, lest I should be exalted above measure. And not only in my own heart, but other people. We need to be careful about that, you know? Oh, that brother is such a great brother and oh, you're doing these great things and blah, blah, blah, that was a great sermon and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And the temptation to cause people to think, yeah, I am pretty good. Yeah, you know, I can glory in these things. So God gives him this and these revelations and visions, they could have made him proud.

And there's many verses we could go to here this morning, but I thought of one verse, you know, Proverbs says, pride cometh before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. And so here God is pouring out all these amazing things on the apostle and he's an apostle, he's a high up individual in the church and he's blessed and he's getting up, taken to heaven and seeing incredible things. And God says, you know, I better give you something to lower you down a little bit, to temper you.

And so Paul understood that this thorn was given to him to keep him humble. Now notice something else we can see here, it's in verse number seven, it says, he was given a thorn in the flesh, a thorn in the flesh. Now, I believe what that teaches us is that this is some sort of a bodily affliction.

It's in the flesh, in the body. Verse nine, he goes on to talk about this, he says in the last half of verse nine, most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmity, in the infirmities of my flesh. By the way, the word infirmity, I looked it up, it means the feebleness of body or mind.

A malady, a frailty, a disease, a sickness. And so probably this is something that's in his body, his flesh. There is a feebleness, a feebleness.

You know, so much so that maybe I'll use Caleb here as the apostle and Caleb is an amazing person. He's doing miracles and he just comes and tells us he was taken to the third heaven and was like, wow, this guy's amazing. And yet, as I look at him, I see something in him that, well, maybe he's not that amazing.

He's got something that's visible, or you can see he has an infirmity that lowers his stature a bit. It's not something hidden. It may be something that could be seen.

It's a thorn, he says, in my flesh. It's an infirmity. Not only did it keep him humble, but it kept others from exalting him too much.

You know, that poor fella Herod there that the people came around him there and asked, I think it's chapter 12, and said, he is a god, he is a god. And you know what Herod did? He said, yeah, I may be a god. And then the Lord judged him and he was eaten of worms.

And so an infirmity. I wanna read to you here. You don't have to turn there.

I wanna read 1 Timothy chapter five here in verse 23. It says this. Paul writes to Timothy, drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine infirmities.

Okay. Drink no longer wine, or drink a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine infirmities. And so Paul understood what an infirmity was.

It's a weakness. It was something that he suffered with in his body. And it's hard maybe for us to believe that a person who's going around and laying hands on the sick can himself be sick and say, Lord, would you deliver me from this sickness? And God says, no, three times.

I want you to have it. And there's reason or purpose in you to have it. By the way, we're gonna see here in just a minute, it's a messenger of Satan.

Well, if you go back to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you see oftentimes a spirit of infirmity being cast out. That which is afflicting the body. Well, I thought about the thorn here, the thorn of the flesh.

And one of the things they taught us in Bible school is this the law of first mention. You wanna go back and find the true meaning of a word, go back towards first mention. And you probably remember where it's first mentioned, the fall of man.

God cursed the ground, it brought forth thorns and thistles. And the curse upon us, the curse brings with it great infirmity. And so we keep reading here and it mentions here a messenger of Satan.

In verse number seven, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Now this messenger was given unto him. The first part of that verse says, I was given a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure.

Who do you think gave that to the Lord? Who do you think gave that to Paul? The messenger. Who gave that messenger to him? Well, the messenger was given to him by the Lord. The Lord is the giver of every good and perfect gift.

Do you think Satan wanted to keep him humble? Not at all. Satan desires for our hearts to be swelled up with pride. By the way, that was his downfall.

You know, he was a beautiful angel, Lucifer. And he looked around at his stones, he was made up and beautiful jewels. And he was the highest angel and he was around the throne and pride swelled up in his heart.

Hey, I can be like him, the most high. And he exalted himself up to be like the most high. And so God had to bring him into judgment.

And so Satan knows something about pride. He knows something about exalting humanity. As a matter of fact, when his first temptation was, you shall be like God's.

Yes, you'll be high and lifted up like a God. Ah, knowing good and evil. Oh, that's what we want.

We want to be lifted up. And so this messenger is somewhat like God's gift to Paul. This is what I want you to have, Paul.

And that's hard maybe for us to understand that the Lord would allow a messenger of Satan to buffet him, to keep him down, to keep his glory down, to keep people from exalting him too much. It says here, this messenger of Satan buffeted him. And I looked that word up.

It means to slap with a fist. Every once in a while, just. And so not only does Paul have to deal with all these things we talked about, this suffering, but he's also got this messenger of Satan to afflict him.

Wow, we think we got it tough. I'd like you to turn with me to another example of this. And Job, Job's a very good example of Paul's thorn in the flesh because Job was afflicted also by the devil and God gave permission for this to happen here in Job.

I don't, I'm not going to read the whole story, but you know pretty much the story. Job is a godly man and Satan wants to try to touch Job. And here in Job chapter one, I'm going to jump down to verse 13.

Satan has come before the Lord and the Lord says, yeah, yeah, you can go ahead. Yeah, I'll take this hedge and I'll knock it down a little bit so you can get in and you can buffet him. So here we read how he's getting buffeted here in verse 13.

And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And there came a messenger. By the way, we're talking about the messenger of Satan.

There came a messenger unto Job and said, the oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them. And the Sabians fell upon them and took them away. Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell you.

There's always a bearer of bad news in the devil's kingdom. You know that? A bearer of bad news. Don't be a bearer of bad news.

Negativity. Always someone with the bad news. Well, verse 16, while he was yet speaking, there came another also, another messenger.

And said, the fire of God is swollen from heaven and has burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them. And I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Yeah, that's right.

The devil always has someone to come bear the bad news. Verse 17, while he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, the Chaldeans made out three bands and we got messed there. And verse 18, while he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house and the whole thing collapsed.

Chad, just like your house collapsed, killed them all. And I'm only alive to tell you. And then we have it continuing on here in Job chapter two.

The devil comes and says, ah, you touched all his things. Let me touch his flesh. You know, that thorn in the flesh, let me touch his flesh.

And I'll tell you, he'll curse you. So that's what happens. Verse three, and the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and his Jewish evil and still holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movest me against him to destroy him without cause.

And Satan answered the Lord and said, skin for skin. Can you imagine this conversation? Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath, he will give for his life, but put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face. Yeah, just touch his flesh.

Let me touch his flesh. I touched his house. I touched his kids.

I touched his fields. I touched his camels. Let me touch his body.

We'll see what happens. Well, let's keep reading. Verse seven, so Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils.

Ah, infirmity. His body. The sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

And they took him a puncher to scrape himself withal and he sat down among the ashes. That's amazing, there's no messenger coming. Oh yes, there is a messenger coming.

Look at the next verse. Then said his wife unto him, dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. The wife becomes the messenger here.

But here Job is being buffeted by the devil. And you go back here to Job chapter one, it says in verse nine or verse 10, and hast not thou made an hedge about him and about his house and about all that he has on every side and thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land? Didn't you build around him a hedge? You know, there is probably around most of us hedges. Hedges.

So the devils would like to tear you up. They'd come to steal, kill, and destroy and there was a hedge around Job and his possessions and his property and Satan complained that he couldn't get through it. And so the Lord says, I'll open up a little bit here, you can get through and get his house, get his children, get his farm, get his cattle, get all his animals.

You can take it. I got it. And then the Lord says, I'll open up a little farther if you want and see what he does.

I'll let you touch his skin. You ought to thank God that we got a hedge around us. And so Satan buffets him and buffets his body.

God opens the hedge a bit to allow Satan to buffet him. Now, there are times this happens to keep us from pride. That's what happened with Paul.

I'm doing this, Paul, for your good. I'm going to let the enemy buffet you. Oh Lord, heal me, Lord, heal me.

Take away this thorn in my flesh. Three times the Lord, he prayed, nope, because it's good for you. There are times it happens when God chastens us.

1 Corinthians 5, deliver such in one unto Satan for the destruction of the what? Flesh. That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Paul has a thorn in the flesh.

Let's keep reading here in verse number nine, or verse eight. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

And we want to talk about that next time, that whole principle of strength in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. So God says, keep it, keep it.

It will benefit you. And I want you to lean upon my grace to get through it. Now there are probably people here that have infirmity.

Infirmities. And you know, I'm not one of these people who believe at this point in my life that all healing needs to take place. Here, Paul said, I've cried out three times.

And God said, no, I want you to keep it. Timothy, why didn't Paul heal Timothy? You're off in infirmities, Timothy, and take a little wine for your stomach's sake. Why doesn't Paul heal Timothy? Is God for healing? Yes, he is.

But you can't take that to an extreme. There are times when the Lord says, I want Satan to buffet you. Matter of fact, God uses sickness as a chastening tool oftentimes.

Many are sick, some sleep, and they've died because of my chastening hand. I use the devil to chasten you. So my grace is sufficient for you.

So in the midst here of trying to defend his apostleship, he brings up the idea of revelations that he's had. And he's had more revelations than these false apostles. And to keep me humble, he says, I've been given this thorn in the flesh.

Now, there are people here, probably, who have some thorns. I've heard about some of your thorns. And maybe God wants to heal you, take that infirmity away from you.

I have no problem with that. But there's a possibility that God wants you to have that thorn. And that thorn is there for a purpose.

That his grace would be sufficient for you and your situation. Now, I want to throw out some possibilities here and all that I can see. And I've heard some different people say different things about what that thorn in the flesh is.

And I'll give you the whole gamut here from what I know. The first one, and I'm giving these in what I think is probably the best label or the best example. The first one is his eyesight.

A thorn in the flesh. It is a very humbling thing for Paul to be nearly blind. And I share with you how there in the letter that he wrote to the Galatians, he ends it by saying, you see how large a letter I have written unto you.

It's not a very long letter, but it's very humbling to have to write this way. As a matter of fact, at the church at Galatia, they said, they'll give their eyes for Paul. Paul said, you would have given me your eyes gladly.

Because mine are so bad. So, I mean, just picture him walking around basically half blind. You.

You're an apostle? You're this glorious apostle who's been taken up to the third heaven? Yeah. I wish I could see better. I wish I wouldn't have this infirmity.

Well, I want you to keep it. Couldn't God heal his eyes? Oh, yeah, Jesus healed eyes all the time. But he still struggled with his eyesight.

Another thing that could have been is just his bodily presence. We talked about how his bodily presence was weak. He could have been a sickly individual, much like Timothy, who had continual infirmities.

It could have been a speech impediment. You know, he said, my speech is crude. My speech is rude.

And here I am, an apostle, and I've had these great visions. And all these things, and yet, I have a stutter. I can't speak properly.

You know, when Paul met the Lord on the road to Damascus, he had such an experience there that he lost his eyesight. He didn't eat for three days. He was probably speechless.

But there's a chance it could have been an impediment in his flesh, in his body. Some people believe it was the Jewish people who were persecuting him. And these people are my thorn in the flesh.

Some believe it was his past, how the devil was buffeting him over the things of his past. Can you imagine going through life and seeing the very people that you encouraged to curse? The Lord Jesus. And many people, he would have... Oh, there's that person.

Constant reminder. And there are some who believe that he had a besetting sin. I don't know if I would go that far, but he's the one who wrote in Hebrews, the sin which does so easily beset us.

Let us lay it aside. Oh, this thorn. I know that a struggle in your own life is very humbling.

Very humbling. Knocks you down pretty good. How can I experience and be this person yet I have this issue in my heart that I'm struggling with? So those are some of the possibilities, but here it is.

God doesn't tell us, so I don't think we need to know. But I do know this. His grace is sufficient for the infirmity that you have.

And if Paul is an example of one who can live a self-abased life, he can go through great suffering, and yet have in his body this infirmity and rest in the grace of God, then, I know it's a high calling, but then we can do the same, amen? We can do the same. And so life isn't perfect. It's not going to be perfect.

There's going to be difficulties, but the grace of God is sufficient. I don't care how hard your situation is. There's a grace for us to deal with it and to get through it.

Someday, you know, maybe Paul got up there to the paradise and he looked around and said, did I get my new body yet? No, it's not yet. And so we will get a new body. But while we're here, you know, you may have a physical infirmity.

You may have to deal with things. Pray and seek God and have faith that He's going to heal you and maybe someday like Paul, He'll say to you, no, I want you to keep it. The Bible says the Lord said, no, I want you to keep it.

Because it's good for you. It's good. And yes, it's a messenger of Satan and he wants to buffet you and I'm going to allow it, just like I did with Job.

I'm going to allow it to keep you in a place where I'd like to keep you, keep you humble. So I don't know what your infirmity is. I know what mine is.

And I know life can be very humbling being in these bodies. But let's let that humility work its way out in each one of us. Let's close with a word of prayer and then we'll open it up for anyone who'd like to share.

Lord, we want to submit to the will of God and for your purposes. And Lord, we want to thank you today for the way that you've hedged us about. Not only as a church, but as individuals, as families.

We're hedged. And that you protect us in so many ways. And Lord, we acknowledge without you, we would be destroyed.

Just like we saw with Job. It doesn't take long. One day.

And everything is gone. And so Lord, we are thankful for that. But Lord, we also want to understand your wisdom in allowing affliction and a thorn in the flesh for our good.

And may we like Paul embrace it and take pleasure in it. And glory in infirmity that the power of Christ may rest upon us. And Lord, may we truly learn that when we're weak, that's when we're strong.

That the Spirit of God can take our life over and do great things. So Lord, may we embrace those things that you've given us. That humble us.

We pray for the congregation here. And Lord, each member. That you would further and further sanctify us more and more into the perfect day.

That the Word of God would have a place that it would cause us to grow in grace. And in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Again, we mentioned this.

Mr. Lydell. His wife Amy. And all that they're going through today.

May you have mercy upon them. And Brother Thomas, Benita, as they minister to this family. Lord, give them grace and wisdom.

We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.