Strengthening Words from the Savior’s Lips

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL, 2, 1876,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And He said unto me, My Grace is sufficient for you: 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." 2
Corinthians 12:9.

PAUL, when buffeted by the messenger of Satan, addressed his prayer to
the Lord Jesus Christ and not, as he usually did, to the heavenly
Father. This is a somewhat remarkable fact, but it is clear from the
passage before us. He says, "For this thing I besought the Lord
thrice," and that the Lord, here, is the Lord Jesus is pretty clear
from the fact that he says in the next verse, "that the power of Christ
may rest upon me." His prayer was not directed to God, absolutely
considered, nor does he speak of the power of God, but his prayer was
directed to the Lord Jesus Christ and it was the power of the Lord
Jesus Christ which he desired to rest upon him. It is an Infallible
proof of our Lord's divinity, that He may be addressed in prayer! And
this is one instance, with several others, which show us that we may
legitimately present our petitions, not only to the ever-blessed
Father, but also to His Son Jesus Christ.

There seems to me to be a peculiar fitness in a prayer to Jesus when
the temptation came from a messenger of Satan, because the Lord Jesus
has endured the same temptation, Himself, and knows how to succor them
that are tempted. Moreover, He has come to earth to destroy the works
of the devil. In His lifetime He manifested peculiar power over unclean
spirits and was constantly casting them out from those whom they
tormented. It was one of His few rejoicing notes, "I saw Satan, like
lightning, fall from Heaven." It was by the name of Jesus that devils
were expelled after Christ had risen into Glory. "Jesus I know," said
the spirits whom the sons of Sceva endeavored in vain to exorcise.

Devils felt the power of Jesus and, therefore, it was wise and natural
that the Apostle Paul should, when buffeted of Satan, turn to Jesus and
ask Him to bid the evil spirit depart from him. Is it not a little
remarkable, also, that this prayer was not only addressed to Jesus, but
was offered in much the same manner as the prayer of our Lord in the
Garden? The Apostle prayed three times, even as our Lord did when He,
too, was sorely buffeted by the powers of darkness. Paul's
thrice-repeated cry was intensely earnest, for he, "besought" the Lord
thrice.

And Paul, singularly enough, met with very much the same answer as his
Master, for our Lord was not permitted to put aside the cup, (it could
not pass away from Him unless He drank it), but an angel appeared unto
Him strengthening Him. And so, in Paul's case, the trial was not taken
away from him, but he was strengthened by kind, assuring words and by
being led to see that God would be glorified by his enduring the trial.
I see, then, the Lord Jesus reflected in His servant Paul as in a
mirror! I hear the three-times repeated prayer, I mark the cup standing
unremoved and I see the strength imparted in the midst of weakness!

Our text fell from the lips of Jesus Christ, Himself, and if anything
could make its language more sweet than it is in itself, it would be
this fact, that He, Himself, delivered the words to His chosen Apostle.
It is Jesus who says, in the words of the text, "My Grace is sufficient
for you, My strength is made perfect in weakness." This Truth of God
casts a soft, mellow light upon the words, helps us to interpret them
and enables us to derive all the greater comfort from them. When Jesus
speaks, a special charm surrounds each syllable.

The exact tense of the Greek words are not easy to translate into
English. The Apostle does not merely tell us that his Lord said these
words to him 14 years ago, but the tense connects the past with the
present, as if he felt that the answer was not simply something past,
but something which continued with him in its consoling power. The
echoes of what his Lord had said were still sounding through his soul!
I should not miss the Apostle's meaning if I read it, "He has been
saying to me, 'My strength is sufficient for you.'" The words had an
abiding effect upon the Apostle's mind, not merely for

the time reconciling him to the particular trouble which had afflicted
him, but cheering him for all the rest of his life– strengthening him
in all future trials to glory in his infirmities and render praise to
God.

It is a sweet thing to have a text of Scripture laid home to the heart
for present uses, but when God the Holy Spirit so applies a promise
that it abides in the heart for the term of one's natural life, then
are we favored, indeed! Elijah's meat gave him strength for 40 days,
but what is that meat which endures unto life eternal? What bread must
that be which feeds me through the whole period of my pilgrimage? Here,
then, we have before us food which Jesus Himself provides, so nutritive
that His Spirit can cause us to remember the feast to our dying day! O
Lord, feed us, now, and give us Grace to inwardly digest your gracious
Word.

With this preface, which I beg you to remember during the discourse,
since it indicates my line of thought, we now come to the text
itself–a mass of diamonds, bright and precious! In the text we notice
three things–first, Grace all-sufficient. Secondly, strength
perfected. And, thirdly, power indwelling.

I. In the text, even the most superficial observer notices a promise of
GRACE ALL-SUFFICIENT. In the case of our Lord Jesus, the Spirit so
rested upon Him as to be sufficient for Him at all times. Never did the
Spirit of God fail to uphold the Man, Christ Jesus, under the most
arduous labors, the most terrible temptations and the most bitter
suffering. Therefore He completed the work which His Father gave Him to
do and in death He was able to exclaim, "It is finished." The Lord,
here, assures His chosen servant that it should be the same with
him–"My Grace," said He, "is sufficient for you."

To bring out the full meaning of these few words, I will give you four
readings of them. The first is a strictly grammatical one and is the
first sense which they bear. Taking the word translated, Grace, to mean
favor or love–for that, also, is included in the word charts–how does
the passage run? "My favor is sufficient for you." Do not ask to be rid
of your trouble, do not ask to have ease, comfort, or any other form of
happiness–My favor is enough for you. Or, as good Dr. Dodge reads it,
"My Love is enough for you." "If you have little else that you desire,
yet surely it is enough that you are My favored one, a chosen subject
of My Grace. My love is enough for you."

What a delicious expression! You do not need an explanation. Repeat the
words to yourselves and even now conceive that the Well-Beloved looks
down on you, and whispers, "My love is enough for you." If you have
been asking Him three times to deliver you from your present
affliction, hear Him reply, "Why do you need to ask Me anymore? My love
is enough for you." What do you say to that? Do you not answer, "Yes,
Lord, indeed it is. If I am poor, if You will me to be poor, I am
content to be severely tried, for Your love is enough for me. If I am
sick, so long as You will come and visit me and reveal Your heart to
me, I am satisfied, for Your love is enough for me. If I am persecuted,
cast out and forsaken, cheerfully will I bear it, if a sense of Your
love sustains me, for Your love is enough for me. Yes, and if I should
be left so alone as to have no one to care for me in the whole world.
If my father and my mother should forsake me and every friend should
prove a Judas–'Your love is enough for me.'"

Do you catch the meaning, and do you see how Paul must have been
comforted by it if he understood it in this primary and most natural
sense? "O Paul, it is sufficient for you that I have made you to be a
chosen vessel to bear My name among the Gentiles. It is enough for you
that I have loved you from before the foundation of the world, that I
redeemed you with My precious blood, that I called you when you were a
blasphemer and injurious, that I changed your heart and made you love
Me and that I have kept you to this day and will keep you, even, to the
end by My inimitable love. My love is enough for you. Ask not to be set
free from this buffeting. Ask not to be delivered from weakness and
trial, for these will enable you the better to enjoy My favor and that
is enough for you."

We will now read our text another way, keeping to our authorized
version, but throwing the stress on the first word–"My Grace is
sufficient for you." What Grace is this? Note who it is that promises.
It is Jesus who speaks, therefore it is mediatorial Grace, the Grace
given to Jesus Christ as the Covenant Head of His people, which is here
intended. Think of it a minute. It is the Head speaking to the member
and declaring that His Grace is enough for the whole body. The
anointing oil has been poured upon the Head that it may go down the
beard and descend to the garments and, lo, one poor member of the body
is mourning and complaining, for it is fearful of being omitted in the
plenteous anointing. But the Head comforts it by saying, "My anointing
is enough for you, since it is enough for all My members."

It is the Head, Christ, in whom all fullness dwells, speaking to one of
the members of His mystical body and saying, "The Grace which God has
given to Me without measure on behalf of all the members of My body is
sufficient for you as

well as for the rest of them." Beloved, seize the thought! The Lord has
given to Christ all that the whole company of His people can possibly
need–no, more than that–for, "It pleased the Father that in Him
should all fullness dwell." And of His fullness have we all received,
and Grace for Grace, and from that fullness we hope, continually, to
draw forever-more. This is the Grace which is sufficient for us!

It greatly tends to help faith when you can see the relation that
exists between the Redeemer and yourself, for Jesus is your Covenant
Head, and God has been pleased to give Himself and all His infinite
riches to the Lord Jesus Christ as your federal Representative. And as
your Covenant Head, the Lord Jesus assures you that the stores laid up
in Him on your behalf are sufficient for you. Can you limit the
mediatorial power of Christ? Don't you know that God gives not the
Spirit by measure unto Him? Be you, then, assured that Christ's Grace
is sufficient for you!

I will read the text again and this time put the stress in the center.
"My Grace is sufficient for you." It is now sufficient. You are
buffeted by this evil spirit, but My Grace is sufficient for your
present need. Paul, you have been beaten with rods, stoned, shipwrecked
and in perils often–and in all these My Grace has been sufficient–and
now I tell you this present trouble, though it is somewhat different in
shape from the rest, is, nevertheless such as I am well able to meet.
My Grace is sufficient for you in this, also.

The nearness of an object increases its apparent bulk and so the
affliction under which we are at present laboring seems greater than
any we have known before. Past trials appear, when we have passed them,
to have been small things compared with present troubles and,
therefore, the difficulty is to see the sufficiency of Grace for
present and pressing afflictions. It is easy to believe in Grace for
the past and the future, but to rest in it for the immediate necessity
is true faith. Believer, it is now that Grace is sufficient! Even at
this moment it is enough for you. Do not say this is a new trouble, or
if you do say it, remember the Grace of God is always new!

Do not complain that some strange thing has happened to you, or if you
do, remember blessings are provided in the Grace of God to meet your
strange difficulties. Tremble not because the thorn in the flesh is so
mysterious, for Grace is mysterious, too, and so mystery shall be met
by mystery. At this moment and at all moments which shall ever occur
between now and Glory, the Grace of God will be sufficient for you!
This sufficiency is declared without any limiting words and, therefore,
I understand the passage to mean that the Grace of our Lord Jesus is
sufficient to uphold you, sufficient to strengthen you, sufficient to
comfort you, sufficient to make your trouble useful to you, sufficient
to enable you to triumph over it, sufficient to bring you out of it,
sufficient to bring you out of 10,000 like it, sufficient to bring you
home to Heaven!

Whatever would be good for you, Christ's Grace is sufficient to bestow!
Whatever would harm you, His Grace is sufficient to avert! Whatever you
desire, His Grace is sufficient to give you if it is good for you.
Whatever you would avoid, His Grace can shield you from it if so His
wisdom shall dictate. O child of God, I wish it were possible to put
into words this all-sufficiency, but it is not. Let me retract my
speech–I am glad that it cannot be put into words, for if so, it would
be finite. But since we never can express it, glory be to God, it is
inexhaustible and our demands upon it can never be too great! Here let
me press upon you the pleasing duty of taking home the promise,
personally, at this moment, for no Believer here need be under any
fear, since for him, also, at this very instant, the Grace of the Lord
Jesus is sufficient!

In the last reading which I will give, I shall lay the emphasis upon
the first and the last words–"My Grace is sufficient for you." I have
often read in Scripture of the holy laughter of Abraham, when he fell
upon his face and laughed. But I do not know that I ever experienced
that laughter till a few evenings ago, when this text came home to me
with such sacred power as literally to cause me to laugh! I had been
looking it through–looking at its original meaning and trying to
fathom it, till at last I got hold of it this way–"My Grace," says
Jesus, "is sufficient for you," and it looked almost as if it were
meant to ridicule my unbelief For surely the Grace of such a One as my
Lord Jesus is, indeed, sufficient for so insignificant a being as I am!

It seemed to me as if some tiny fish, being very thirsty, was troubled
with fear of drinking the river dry, and Father Thames said to him,
"Poor little fish, my stream is sufficient for you." I should think it
is, and inconceivably more! My Lord seemed to say to me, "Poor little
creature that you are, remember what Grace there is in Me and believe
that it is all yours. Surely it is sufficient for you." I replied, "Ah,
my Lord, it is, indeed." Put one mouse down in all the granaries of
Egypt, when they were the fullest after seven years of plenty, and
imagine that one mouse complaining that it might die of famine. "Cheer
up," says Pharaoh, "poor mouse, my granaries are sufficient for you."
Imagine a man standing on a

mountain and saying, "I breathe so many cubic feet of air in a year. I
am afraid that I shall ultimately inhale all the oxygen which surrounds
the globe."

Surely the earth on which the man would stand might reply, "My
atmosphere is sufficient for you." I should think it! Let him fill his
lungs as full as ever he can, he will never breathe all the oxygen, nor
will the fish drink up all the river, nor the mouse eat up all the
stores in the granaries of Egypt! Does it not make unbelief seem
altogether ridiculous, so that you laugh it out of the house and say,
"Never come this way again, for with a mediatorial fullness to go to,
with such a Redeemer to rest in, how dare I, for a moment, think that
my needs cannot be supplied?" Our great Lord feeds all the fish of the
sea and the birds of the air–and the cattle on the hills, and guides
the stars, and upholds all things by the power of His hand–how, then,
can we be straitened for supplies, or be destitute of help?

If our needs were a thousand times larger than they are, they would not
approach the vastness of His power to provide. The Father has committed
all things into His hands. Doubt Him no more! Listen, and let Him speak
to you–"My Grace is sufficient for you. What if you have little Grace,
yet I have much–it is My Grace you have to look to, not your own, and
My Grace will surely be sufficient for you."

John Bunyan has the following passage which exactly expresses what I,
myself, have experienced. He says that he was full of sadness and
terror, but suddenly these words broke in upon him with great power,
and three times together the words sounded in his ears, "My Grace is
sufficient for you; My Grace is sufficient for you; My Grace is
sufficient for you." And "Oh! I thought," says he, "that every word was
a mighty word unto me, as, 'My' and, 'Grace' and, 'sufficient' and 'for
you.' They were, then, and sometimes are still, far bigger than others
are."

He who knows, like the bee, how to suck honey from flowers, may well
linger over each one of these words and drink in unutterable content–

"Have we forgot the Almighty name

That formed the earth and sea?

And can an all-creating arm

Grow weary or decay?

Treasures of everlasting might

In our Jehovah dwell!

He gives the conquest to the weak,

And treads their foes to Hell

Mere mortal power shall fade and die,

And youthful vigor cease–

But we that wait upon the Lord

Shall feel our strength increase." II. Secondly, in the text we have
STRENGTH PERFECTED–"For My strength is made perfect in weakness." Now,
running the parallel, still between Jesus and Paul, remember, Beloved,
that it was so with our Lord Jesus Christ. He was strong as to His
Deity–in Him dwelt all strength, for He is the mighty God–but how was
His strength as Mediator made perfect? The Scripture says, "Perfect
through suffering." That is to say, the strength of Christ to save His
people would never have been perfected if He had not taken upon Himself
the weakness of human nature and if He had not, in that feeble nature,
descended lower and lower in weakness. Had he saved Himself, He could
not have saved us. But His giving up of all that He had made Him rich
towards us. And His putting on of weakness made Him strong to redeem
us.

O Incarnate God, You could not redeem till You were swaddled as a Babe
in Bethlehem! No, You could not redeem till You were made to bear a
Cross like a felon! No, You could not perfect redemption till You did
hang, a ghastly corpse, upon a gallows! No, it was even essential that
You should be laid in the grave! Your work was not fulfilled till three
days and nights You did abide in the heart of the earth among the dead!
The Lord Jesus could say–"My strength is made perfect in weakness."
This was to be realized in Paul and is to be fulfilled in all the
saints. Of course the strength of God is always perfect–we do not
understand that anything is necessary to make perfect the Divine
power–but the words fell from the lips of Jesus as our Mediator and
Representative–and it is His strength which is made perfect in
weakness.

In us this is true, first, because the power of Jesus can only be
perfectly revealed in His people by bearing them up, keeping them and
sustaining them when they are in trouble. Who knows the perfection of
the strength of God till he sees how God can make poor puny creatures
strong? Yonder is a timid, sickly woman who lives a life of agony.
Almost every breath is a spasm and every pulse a pang. Each member of
her body is subject to tortures of which others scarcely dream. But
look at her cheerful patience! As much as possible, she conceals her
pain that she may not distress others. You hear no mutter of complaint,
but oftentimes she utters words as cheery as those which fall from
persons in robust health. And when she must tell of her afflictions,
she always speaks of them in such a tone that you feel she has accepted
them at the Lord's hands with complete resignation and is willing to
bear them as many years as the Lord may appoint.

I do not wonder when strong men say strong things, but I have often
marveled when I have heard such heroic sentences from the weak and
trembling. To hear the sorrowing comfort others when you would think
they needed comfort, themselves! To mark their cheerfulness when, if
you and I suffered half as much, we should have sunk to the earth–this
is worthy of note! God's strength is perfectly revealed in the trials
of the weak. When you see a man of God brought into poverty and yet, in
that poverty, never repining. When you hear his character assailed by
slander and yet he stands unmoved, like a rock amidst the waves. When
you see the gracious man persecuted and driven from home and country
for Christ's sake and yet he takes, joyfully, the spoiling of his goods
and banishment and disgrace–then the strength of God is made perfect
in the midst of weakness!

While the man of God suffers and is under necessities, distresses and
infirmities, then it is that the power of God is seen. It was when tiny
creatures made Pharaoh tremble that his magicians said, "This is the
finger of God," and evermore God's greatest Glory comes from things
weak and despised. This is equally true to the man, himself. God's
strength is made perfect to the saint's own apprehension when he is
weak. Brothers, if you have prospered in business all your lives and
have had an easy path of it, I will tell you something–you do not know
much about the strength of God. If you have been healthy all your lives
and never suffered. If your families have never been visited by
bereavements and if your spirits have never been cast down, you do not
know much about the strength of God.

You may have read about it in books and it is well you should! You may
have seen it in others and observation is useful. But a grain of
experience is worth a pound of observation and you can only get
knowledge of the power of God by an experimental acquaintance with your
own weakness–and you will not be likely to get that except as you are
led along the thorny, flinty way which most of God's saints have to
travel–which is described by the word, "tribulation." Great
tribulation brings out the great strength of God! If you never feel
inward conflicts and sinking of soul, you do not know much of the
upholding power of God. But if you go down, down, into the depths of
soul-anguish till the deep threatens to shut her mouth upon you–and
then the Lord rides upon a cherub and does fly, yes, rides upon the
wings of the wind and delivers your soul and catches you away to the
third Heaven of delight–then you perceive the majesty of Divine Grace!
Oh, there must be the weakness of man felt, recognized and mourned
over, or else the strength of the Son of God will never be perfected in
us!

Thus have I given you two meanings of the text. Others see the strength
of God in our weakness and we, ourselves, discover it when our weakness
is most manifest. I think the term, "made perfect," also means achieves
its purpose. Read it thus–"For My strength fully achieves its design
in weakness." Brothers and Sisters, God has not done for us what He
means to do unless we have felt our own weaknesses. As long as a
portion of strength remains, we are but partially sanctified. When our
Lord has accomplished in us what He is aiming, the result will be to
empty us out and to make us discover the utter vanity of self.

If the Lord ever takes you, like a dish, and turns you upside down and
wipes you right out and sets you away on a shelf, then you will feel
what He means you to feel–that is to say, you will feel as if you were
waiting there for the Lord to take you down and use you and then, be
sure, He will come, in due time, and use you for His honorable
purposes, laying meat upon you for His hungry people and making you an
ornament at His banquets of love. If you feel yourself to be a full
dish, I will tell you what there is in you–you hold nothing but the
slop and filthiness of depraved nature. The Lord will never use you
till all that is poured out and you are wiped quite clean and put away
with nothing of yourself remaining in you, wherein you may rejoice!

All the saints who are ready to go to Heaven feel themselves to be less
than the least. But those professors who are, by no means, ready for
Glory are highly self conscious and feel that there is a great deal in
them which is very commendable.

Those who enter Heaven carry nothing of self with them, neither will
any of us enter there so long as we talk proudly of our attainments.
Those who claim to possess "the higher life" have been heard to boast
of their purity, but those who enjoy the highest life in Glory cry,
"Not unto us! Not unto us be glory!" It is a mark of fitness for Heaven
when self is dead and Grace, alone, reigns. The strength of God is
never perfected till our weakness is perfected. When our weakness is
consciously and thoroughly felt, then the strength of God has done its
work in us.

There is yet another meaning. The strength of God is most perfected or
most glorified by its using our weaknesses. Suppose the world had been
converted to Christ by 12 emperors? The establishment of Christianity
might have been readily accounted for without glorifying God. Imagine
that Christianity had been forced upon men with the stern arguments
which Mohammed placed in the hands of his first disciples–the glory
would have redounded to human courage and not to the love of God. We
wonder not that the gods of the heathen were dashed to the ground when
the scimitars were so sharp and were wielded by such ferocious
warriors. But when we know that 12 humble fishermen, without arms or
armor, without patronage or prestige, without science or sophistry
overthrew colossal systems of error and set up the Cross of Christ in
their place, we adoringly exclaim, "This is the finger of God!"

And so, the other day, when the Lord took a consecrated cobbler and
sent him out to India, whatever work was done by William Carey was
evidently seen to be of the Lord! If societies would send out
distinguished scholars, it is thought by some that in all probability
heathen intelligence would recognize abilities and genius and respect
them. And, convinced by reasoning and influenced by talent, they would
bow before superior Western culture! Yes, and so they would be
converted by a conversion in which the Lord would not be glorified, but
proud man would have the praise. In what way would that increase the
Glory of God?

God uses weakness rather than strength and so His power is revealed.
All that you have that is strong, my Brothers and Sisters, will be of
small service in this matter, for the Lord will not exalt your strength
and make you proud of your attainments. Your weakness and infirmities,
in all probability, the Lord will see fit to use, for He delights to
take the base things and the things that are despised and use them to
achieve His purposes–that the excellency of the power may be all His
own.

Let me notice, last of all, on this point, that all history shows that
the great strength of God has always been displayed and perpetuated in
human weakness. Brothers, what made Christ so strong? Was it not that
He condescended to be so weak? And how did He win His victory? By His
patience, by His suffering–that is to say, by those things wherein His
human weakness appeared. Now, look at Christ mystical, namely, the
Church. How has His Church ever been strong? Of course you reply, "By
the strength of God!" I know it–but what has brought forth the
strength of God so that it has been undeniably manifest and,
consequently, operative upon mankind? Has it been the strength of the
Church? No, but the weakness of the Church, for when men have seen
Believers suffer and die, it is then that they have beheld the strength
of God in His people!

The sufferings of the saints have been the victories of the Truth of
God! The martyrs led the van! They suffered most and, consequently, are
the champions of the elect army. The weakness which allowed of their
being destitute, afflicted, tormented, has been the battle-axe and the
weapons of war with which the Lord has procured conquest for the
Gospel. When one of the pastors of a Church in London was put to death
in Smithfield one early morning, before the frost was melted by the
sun, there stood around the stake a number of young people who had been
accustomed to listen to his teachings. Strange thing for young
Believers to be up so very early to see their pastor burned to death!
What do you think they were there for?

No idle curiosity could have brought them to such a spectacle! It is
written that they went there to learn the way. Do you see? They saw him
burn and came there with that intention–to learn the way to die for
Christ, themselves! The church of Rome could do nothing with a people
who, from the weakness which compelled them to suffer, gathered
strength to die triumphantly! The weakness of the martyr, as he
suffered, revealed the strength of God in him–which held him fast to
his principles while he was gradually consumed by the cruel flames. Had
not men been poor worms, capable of being crushed and capable of
agonizing the upholding Grace of God, they could never have been so
conspicuously revealed. Blessed be the name of the Almighty! He
displays His might in our weakness even as He shone forth in the midst
of the burning bush.

He spoke, and lo, the heavens and the earth stood forth. A marvelous
creation! But then there was nothing to oppose the fiat of His
power–His all-powerful Word was not hampered by using weak
instrumentalities. How, then, is God to show yet greater power? How
shall Omnipotence or all kinds of power be seen? Why, Brothers and
Sisters, He will not use His unfettered Word alone, but He will clog
and encumber it by using infirm and weak instruments! He will, in the
Kingdom of Grace, work by men compassed with infirmities–and achieve
His purposes by agencies, in themselves, unfit for His ends–and then
His power will be doubly seen!

The celebrated Quentin Matsys had to make a well-cover in iron one
morning. He was a master in the art of fashioning the metal and could
shape it as though it were so much wax. His fellow workmen were jealous
and, therefore, they took from him the proper tools. And yet with his
hammer he produced a matchless work of art! So the Lord, with
instruments which lend Him no aid, but rather hinder Him, does greater
works of Grace to His own Glory and honor. He takes us poor nothings
who are weak as water and uses us to accomplish His designs! And this
is His almightiness gloriously displayed!

Omnipotence, when it does what it wills by its bare Word is one thing,
but when it takes weakness into league with it and performs its
powerful deeds by means of weakness, it is quite another and by the
weakness it doubly manifests itself.

III. The most blessed part of the text remains–POWER INDWELLING. Dr.
Adam Clarke here furnishes us, on the last part of our text, a most
useful observation, "Most gladly, therefore, will I glory in infirmity,
that the power of Christ may rest upon me." Now mark, the Greek word
here used, interpreted, "rest," is the same word employed by John, when
he says, "The Word was made flesh and," as the Greek runs, "tabernacled
among us and we beheld His Glory, the Glory as of the only begotten of
the Father, all of Grace and Truth."

The passage before us means just this, "I glory in infirmities that the
power of Christ may tabernacle in me." Just as the Shekinah light dwelt
in the tent in the wilderness beneath the rough badger skins, so I
glory to be a poor frail tent and tabernacle, that the Shekinah of
Jesus Christ may dwell in my soul. Do you catch the thought? Is it not
full of beauty? See, then, what he means–First, he puts the power of
Christ in opposition to his own power because if he is not weak, then
he has strength of his own. If, then, what he does is done by his own
strength, there is no room for Christ's strength. That is clear, but if
his own power is gone, there is space for the power of Christ. If my
life is sustained by my own strength and my good works are done in my
own strength, then there is no room for Christ's strength. But the
Apostle found that it was not so and, therefore, he said, "I glory in
my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may tabernacle in me."

But what is the power of Christ? Let the text I quoted tell you–"The
Glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of Grace and Truth."
What power, then, was this which Paul expected to tabernacle in him but
the power of Grace and the power of truth? It must be so, because God
had said, "My Grace is sufficient for you." Paul catches at that
promise and he cries, "this is the Truth of God and I rely upon it" and
he, therefore, expects that the Grace of God and the faithfulness of
God would tabernacle in him and shine forth within his soul. This is
the power of Christ which he expected to rest upon him. What more could
we desire?

What is the power of Christ? I answer next, it is Christly power–the
kind of power which is conspicuous in the life of Jesus. There was a
power in Christ peculiar to Himself, as all can see who read the New
Testament–a power unique and altogether His own. You know what the
power of Alexander was–it was a power to command men, inspire them
with courage for great enterprises and keep them in good heart when
called to endure hardships. You know what the power of Demosthenes
was–it was the power of eloquence, the power to stir the patriotic
Greeks, to break the fetters of the Macedonian. But what was the power
of Jesus? It was power to suffer, power to be made nothing of, power to
descend to the very depths for love of God and love of men. There lay
His power–in those five conquering wounds, in that majestic mournful
face, more marred than that of any man–in that great agonizing heart
which sent forth sweat of blood when men were to be pleaded for before
the Lord.

Love and patience were Christ's power! And even now these subdue the
hearts of men and make Jesus the Sufferer to be Jesus the King.
Therefore Paul says, "I glory in my infirmities that this same power
may tabernacle in me. I triumph in weakness, in reproaches, in poverty,
in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, that I may suffer,
humble myself, be obedient and prove my love to God even as Jesus did.
When I am weak then am I strong." He meant strong to prove his love by
enduring the weaknesses and afflictions which he accepted for his
Master's sake. What was this power of Christ? I

answer again, it was a part of the "all power" which our Lord declared
was given unto Him in Heaven and in earth– "Go you, therefore, and
teach all nations."

Paul desired to have that power living in himself, for he knew right
well that if he had to "go and teach all nations" he would have to
suffer in so doing. And so he takes the suffering cheerfully, that he
might have the power! Even as beneath the badger skins of the
tabernacle, the Glory of the Lord shone forth, so the mighty converting
power of Christ which dwelt in Paul was gloriously revealed while he
endured reproaches and persecutions, sufferings and death for Jesus'
sake. What was Christ's power again? I answer, to complete my sermon,
His power lay in His weakness, His humiliation, His dependence upon
God, His faith in God, His self-abnegation, His perfect consecration to
the Father. And Paul says that he was made to suffer and to be weak,
that this same power to become nothing, that God might be glorified,
might rest in him!

I have done when I say just this. Dear Brothers and Sisters, go home
and never ask the Lord to make you strong in yourselves! Never ask Him
to make you anybody or anything, but be content to be nothing and
nobody! Next, ask that His power may have room in you and that all
those who come near you may see what God can do by nothings and
nobodies! Live with this desire, to glorify God! Sometimes when God
honors us in His service, a great, "I" stands in the Lord's way.
Tremble when you see a poor, weak preacher made useful in converting
souls–then all the papers and magazines begin to blaze his name
abroad! And silly Christians–for there are plenty of them–begin to
talk him up as if he were a demigod and say such great things about him
and describe him as wise, eloquent and great.

Thus they do all they can to ruin the good Brother! If the man is
sensible, he will say, "Get you behind me, Satan, for you smell not of
the things that are of God" and, if God gives him great Grace, he will
retire more and more into the background and lie lower and lower before
his God. But, if you once get a man to feel himself to be great and
good, either a fall will happen, or else the power of God will withdraw
from him–or in some other way the Lord will make His people feel that
His Glory He will not give to another.

The best of men are flesh and blood and they have no power except as
God lends them power. And He will make them know and feel this.
Therefore, neither exalt others nor exalt yourselves, but beseech the
Lord to make and keep you weakness itself, that in you, His power may
be displayed. God grant it may be so, for Christ's sake. Amen.

PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–2 Corinthians 11:5-24;
12:1-9. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BBOOK"–909, 681, 745.
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Truly Eating the Flesh of Jesus