[0:00] In chapter 12 and verse 7 we read, Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me.
[0:16] Now this phrase, the phrase in the flesh, would support the premise that the thorn was something to do with Paul's physical body, that it was painful, irritating and humiliating.
[0:30] It may have been some physical disease or disability, but the thorn in the flesh was something allowed by God, but not directly produced by God himself.
[0:45] For Paul describes it as a messenger of Satan to torment me. And we're not sure, Scripture doesn't tell us, whether this messenger, this thorn, was given to Paul at the time he came to faith in Christ, whether it was 14 years ago, or something that was given to him along the road.
[1:11] But what we do know, the permissive will of God and the activity of Satan are also seen in the experience of Job.
[1:22] In Job 2 and verse 6 we read, The Lord said to Satan, Very well, he is in your hands, but you must spare his life.
[1:33] And then James goes on to tell us of the fruit or consequences of that experience in James 5 and verse 11. As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered.
[1:45] You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of mercy and compassion.
[1:56] And so here we see that God used Satan to fulfill his purpose, and that ultimately Job's faith would shine like a beacon.
[2:13] Paul's experience then, and Job's experience, sheds light for us on that great verse in Romans 8 and 28. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.
[2:28] We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. And most of us know that verse, half by heart, it's laid upon our hearts, but sometimes we don't always grasp or always believe or have the assurance that when the word says all things, in all things, it's exactly what it means, in all things of our experience.
[2:53] Paul's experience then and Job's experience are very, very similar. Afflictions in themselves are evil.
[3:04] Yet in their effects and overruled and directed by God, they become very, very useful. That is because all kinds of things happen to all Christians, but they are overruled by God for his glory and for our good.
[3:26] And God would never permit evil if he could not bring good out of that evil. And though we're speaking about Paul's thorn this evening, I do want to broaden it a little bit because what's more important, as we'll see, is not what the thorn was or is, but God's remedy, God's grace that was sufficient for Paul.
[3:50] Have no doubts then that God, that God is at the helm of your life and my life if we have faith in Jesus Christ. He's steering us through the storms of life, towards home, towards a safe haven.
[4:06] And he takes care, he takes care to order all the events of our lives right now to guide and to protect us on our way there. That's what we call providence.
[4:19] God's overruling hand at work everywhere in the fallen world. That's how, that's how God works in the lives of his people.
[4:30] As I said in my prayer and I think I said the other day, the world, people in this world out of fear, they look at a world that's out of control. But you and I with faith in Christ, in a sovereign Christ, a sovereign God, we look at the world with a God who is in control, a God who is sovereign.
[4:52] So he takes all our problems, he takes all our situations which look so terrible and in a sense he mixes them all together in the crucible of his mercy and his love.
[5:05] And he produces something that is very, very wonderful, even shall we say medicine for the soul. And the providence of God is clearly taught from one end of the Bible to the other.
[5:17] And either all things do work together for our good or nothing makes sense. Either all things do work together for our good or nothing makes sense.
[5:29] So let's, let's be bold, let's be faithful, let's be confident and let's be bold about it. Let's either be transformed Christians or doubting Thomas's because we cannot just sort of believe Romans 8 and 28.
[5:48] We either truly believe it or we doubt it. There's no middle ground. John Calvin writes, there is nothing of which it is more difficult to convince men that the providence of God governs this world.
[6:05] And George Muller adds, if our circumstances find us in God, we shall find God in our circumstances.
[6:16] Now speculation, as I've said already, on the identity of Paul's thorn is endless. But clearly, God doesn't think it's important enough for us to know what Paul's thorn was.
[6:31] And if we broaden the thorn, and that's what I want to do this evening, all Christians experience trials, testing, suffering, sorrow, affliction, and irritation.
[6:47] We hurt. We hurt, even as Christians, even as Christians with faith in Christ, we hurt in different ways. Physical, emotional, and spiritual.
[7:00] But we should and must be grateful that Paul doesn't share the precise details of what exactly his thorn in the flesh was.
[7:12] Because by leaving out the details, he makes it easier for you and I, for each one of us, to identify with his experience of the sufficiency of God's grace.
[7:25] In our own difficulties, sometimes distressing difficulties. You see, the Bible often reminds us, now if we are children, then we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
[7:40] If indeed we share in his sufferings, in order that we may share also in his glory. And Paul said to the Philippians, for it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer.
[8:00] In 1 Peter 5 and verse 10, And the God of grace, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast.
[8:18] So, in a sense, I'm broadening or widening the thorn this evening. But whatever the thorn was, or how long Paul had the thorn, Paul calls it a messenger of Satan.
[8:35] While it was given by God, it was Satan who attacked Paul. Satan is ever willing, always seeking to afflict the saints of God.
[8:47] But he is still under the control of the Almighty. And I often remember in Aberdeen University, listening to Mr. Still, the Reverend Still, he would often say, God is sovereign and he has Satan on a lead.
[9:03] He has Satan like a dog on a lead. And I just scratched my head and wondered at that. But you and I know through our experience of God's grace, of God's plan and God's purpose in our own lives, even when we're in those valley experiences, Satan is indeed on a lead, God's lead.
[9:24] And it's a short lead. There's great comfort in this. Even though there is a mystery involved, Christians can be sure whatever hurt comes our way from Satan, it can only come by divine permission.
[9:43] permission. Whatever comes our way from Satan, it can only come by divine permission. We know that Paul has been blessed, greatly blessed, with some extraordinary and powerful salvation experiences.
[10:00] But so have you and so have I. He put God in his wisdom and with a thorn in the flesh with which Satan tormented him was preserving Paul, keeping Paul from excessive pride.
[10:17] Does that not tell us a lot about our own hearts, about our own experience? Who could have imagined that the great apostle Paul would be tempted with pride?
[10:28] as he said himself in verse 7, therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited. The authorised version has it this way, lest I should be exalted above measure.
[10:42] The new century version, so that I would not become too proud. Another modern version, to keep me from exalting myself. The new living translation, to keep me from getting puffed up.
[10:56] and then the messenger, so I wouldn't get a big head. So I wouldn't get a big, you know, the Lord knows our hearts, doesn't he? Sometimes we think we know our hearts.
[11:09] Scripture reminds us that they're deceitful above all things, but God knows our hearts. He knows how to keep us on the right track and at the right level. For Paul, it was a thorn in the flesh, and very often, it's a thorn, an attack, a temptation, a time of darkness, in your life and my life.
[11:29] If anyone ever judged his own heart and plumbed the depths of its blackness, it was the apostle Paul. But then, as said, in all of us, in every one of us as Christians, no sin is so deeply rooted in our nature as pride.
[11:50] It cleaves to us, doesn't it, like our skin. And no matter how severely it's pruned, it spouts up again and again and again, and it furnishes as though it has never been touched.
[12:02] Nothing is as hard to do as getting down off your high horse graciously. Let me say that again. Nothing is as hard to do as getting down off your high horse graciously.
[12:17] we're told that Paul prayed three times concerning his affliction, his thorn. He tells us in verse 8, three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
[12:31] And I'm sure he pleaded with tears in his eyes. It was so distressing in its effects. Three times, of course, that was sufficient for Paul to know what the mind of the Lord was.
[12:43] The Lord himself prayed three times in the garden of Gethsemane. You see, very often we ask the Lord, we ask the Lord what we think to be best. Whereas God gives us what he knows to be best.
[12:59] We pray for what we think is best, but God gives us what he knows is best for us. How gracious, how gracious our loving Heavenly Father is to, dare I say at times, modicoddle his people, to uphold us, to direct us, to guide us, to comfort us.
[13:18] He's all of those things to the people of God. In prayer, we very often seek to bend God's will to our will.
[13:32] We are bringing our will to his. C.S. Lewis says, you know, if God granted all the silly prayers I've made in my life, where would I be? And I'm sure you can identify that.
[13:45] If the Lord had answered all our silly prayers, where would we be? Nevertheless, though God did not remove Paul's pain and Paul's thorn, that doesn't mean he didn't answer Paul's prayer.
[14:00] The answer was simply different from what Paul prayed for and asked for. And there is nothing mechanical, nothing mechanical praying three times, because when such a prayer comes from the heart, it's genuine and your prayer to the Lord has to be touched by you and you feel it yourselves for God, for it to touch God and for God to feel our prayers.
[14:25] C.H. Burden says, do not reckon you have prayed until you have pleaded, for pleading is the very marrow of prayer.
[14:37] Now the difference between Paul's thorn and his other sufferings was this, while they came and went, this thorn seemed to be permanent and from it there was no relief.
[14:53] And the word thorn that itself comes from a word which refers to a sharp wooden stake to torture or impale someone. And the word torment means a sense of affliction or an intense feeling of suffering.
[15:12] The word torment in the authorised version is rendered buffet or buffet and that means to strike with a fist or beat repeatedly to strike against forcefully.
[15:27] So for whatever it was, it was something that Paul never imagined. It was something real. it was something very real to him and so it is with you and I.
[15:39] We don't imagine these attacks and these temptations and these testings. They're real because we are God's people, we are God's children. In this world you will have tribulation.
[15:52] Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. We need to be trusted and laying hold of the promises of God, searching the scriptures and spending time on our knees in the place of prayer.
[16:07] For Paul it was like being beaten with an open fist or being impaled on a stake. But one thing we do know, one thing we do know for sure about Paul's thorn, it was God's plan for his life.
[16:25] It was part of God's plan and God's purpose. For the life of the apostle Paul. And even tonight, even tonight, you might be going through some difficulty, some affliction like this right now.
[16:41] There may be a thorn in your flesh, something in your life, because you're a Christian, because you're following Christ, because you want to testify, because you want to witness, because you have a burden for lost souls, because you want to share the gospel with some family member, and you've woken Satan up and he attacks you.
[16:59] And so you may be going through some difficulty, some affliction, you may have some thorns in your life right now, if not, you will, because we all experience thorns and buffetings in our lives, they are part, they are part of our journey here on earth.
[17:20] Job 14, man born of woman, is of few days, and full of trouble, and when trouble comes, of course, the conclusion usually is, well, where did I go wrong?
[17:34] Or, why did God let this happen to me? That's why we need to search the scriptures and to realise God is sovereign. We don't like to associate God at times with things that appear to be evil and dark and depraved, but he is sovereign.
[17:49] We have to stop defending God and to trust him. He is in control. Remember, he has hold of that lead. The Lord Jesus in Christ, the Lord Jesus himself, he learned obedience through suffering.
[18:06] The writer to Hebrew says, although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered, and once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
[18:22] In his humanity, he went through that experience so that you and I, we can look to the Lord Jesus, we can know that he knows and understands and feels and empathises, we can lean upon him, we can cast all our cares and our burdens upon him.
[18:37] It's also said of Jesus in Isaiah 63, in all their afflictions, he was afflicted, and in verse 4 of Isaiah 53, surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted.
[19:00] In Isaiah 53 and verse 7, he was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. So we have one who's gone before us, who knows it all, who's suffered it all in our room and in our stead, and one who had no sin.
[19:21] In Psalm 119 and verse 67, which we'll sing at the end, it says, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I obey your word.
[19:34] And you can read in Ecclesiastes chapter 2 and 23, all his days, his work, his pain and grief. Even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.
[19:48] We're not doer, we're not down, we're not in the dark, we're victorious through Christ. We have one who is sovereign, we have one who's working out his plan and purpose, not only for you and I, for his church, but for the whole universe.
[20:00] And so it's not doom and gloom, it's victorious looking and faith in Jesus Christ. Nothing can touch your life, but it's not a part of God's plan.
[20:13] Whether it's an infirmity, a weakness, a handicap, it's more helpful for us not to know exactly as said, what Paul's thorn was.
[20:26] Whether it was physical, painful, spiritual and heavy, because we can also apply the same promise, my grace, my grace is sufficient for you.
[20:39] And that was the answer to Paul's prayer in verse 9. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weaknesses.
[20:55] Our weaknesses, our aches, pains, deafness, timidity, shyness, deep feelings of inferiority, real fears, even anxiety.
[21:07] when asked to do something unusual perhaps, Paul's thorn drove him to his knees. In fact, there are some of the graces in your life, some of the gifts and the talents and the graces in your life, that they would never be discovered unless it were for your trials, your afflictions, your difficulties and your dark days.
[21:33] These experiences, they shake us, but they don't shake us to pieces, they shake us to look unto heaven, to look unto Jesus, to search his word, and there to find encouragement and assurance.
[21:49] And we know God is sovereign, we know God is in control, we know God brings good out of evil. How do we know that so obviously and so assuredly tonight, look at Calvary, look at Calvary, he pleased the Father to bruise him, he pleased the Father to bruise him, and yet he laid down his life of his own will and his own authority, the sovereignty of God, the power of God, the love of God, working through all the darkness and the division and the destruction and bringing good out of it, out of it all.
[22:33] It was a powerful, it was a powerful sufficiency, but he said to me, my grace, my grace, my power. And of course, grace is the undeserved love and favour of God.
[22:49] And if you link that with Isaiah 14, verses 28, do you not know, have you not heard, spirit, the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.
[23:02] He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
[23:15] It amazes, God's grace amazes us, it strengthens us, it even strengthens the weakest Christian. And I'm sure you've experienced that, not years ago when you came to faith, but even in the past week, the past month, because we all have those difficulties, those upsets, those dark times, those problems, those issues, we all have them.
[23:40] And yet his strength, his power, is just so made perfect in our weakness. The important point for us to consider, first of all, is that the Lord's answer was twofold.
[23:55] Firstly, there was the promise of sufficient grace to bear his trial. And secondly, there was a statement that his weakness would allow the Lord to perfect his strength in Paul.
[24:11] None of us like feeling weak or being weak. There's something in us that wants to be in control, that wants to handle all the things and to give all the answers.
[24:24] But amazing grace brings us, brings us to that place, the place of the thorn, the place of testing, the place of temptation, that we look away from ourselves, when we look unto the Lord, and we search his word for those wonderful promises.
[24:41] The first statement told him how needless it was to have the thorn removed. food. And the second told him how beneficial it was for him to have it remain.
[24:55] You see, what Paul assumed to be a great disadvantage was in fact a great asset. A great asset. And we need to be able to think like that when we go through our difficulties.
[25:09] And then we begin to rejoice in our times of difficulty and our times of suffering. not being flippant, but being gracious and humble as a little child.
[25:21] Knowing that God is fashioning us, working in our lives, keeping us like Paul from that place of pride because we have nothing at all to boast in. If we do have something, it's in the glory of God revealed to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[25:39] In effect, the Lord was saying to Paul, I will not remove the thorn. But I will do something better. I will give you grace to bear it.
[25:52] Just remember Paul, though I have not given you what you asked for, yet I am giving you what you need the most. You want my power and strength to accompany your preaching?
[26:03] Then the best way for that to happen is for you to be kept in the place of weakness. In the place of weakness. Let me say this.
[26:14] your minister is very well respected. Most of the town, most of the island, watch his online services on a Sunday. But you see, he still trembles.
[26:27] And there's a fellow minister here with me tonight. They're still trembling. Every time we enter the pulpit, every time we pray at a funeral service or in a group of praying people, we're anxious, we're worried, we're weak.
[26:45] But that weakness drives us. It drives us to the Lord and we trust in him. Then amazingly, everything seems to go so well.
[26:56] And you come out of the pulpit like a wet rag. People say, oh, that was good. Or you spoke well tonight with us there. But we don't think that. We're so weak, so helpless, so hopeless.
[27:09] But that's allowing the Lord to perfect his strength to our weakness. And it's not only in the pulpit, it's in the daily life and the daily routine of each Christian.
[27:25] God's answer to Paul's repeated prayer. And it continues to be God's answer time and time again to his people throughout the world.
[27:35] Better than the removal of the trials and sufferings is the fellowship and the companionship of the Son of God and the grace, the abundance of grace that he gives to us with the assurance of his strength and enabling power to fulfill and to do all that he expects us to do and gives us to do.
[28:00] You see, grace itself, it's not random power operating without any purpose or direction. grace is a power harnessed by the love of God.
[28:14] It's always his power being exerted in mercy, kindness and tenderness. A power that can touch you and I in the weakest areas of our lives and in our darkest moments with all the gentleness of divine power.
[28:33] power, with all the gentleness of divine power. It was a powerful, a powerful sufficiency. It was a personal sufficiency. In verse 9, he said, for you.
[28:49] That's so, so, so wonderful. Grace sufficient for your need and for my needs. So much grace. Grace is love that gives.
[29:00] Grace is love that loves the unlovely and the unlovable. And he knows us. He knows us, each one. We are known to him personally. Even the very hairs upon our heads, the scripture relates to us, are known and counted.
[29:16] Jesus said in John 10, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me. Just as the father knows me and I know the father.
[29:26] And there's some knowledge there between the father and the son that we can't begin to understand. But we know it's deep. There's a union. There's a oneness. And so that relationship and that knowledge that the Lord has of you and I and we have of him, it's a union.
[29:44] It's a bond. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Why? Because we are in Christ Jesus, our Lord. A personal sufficiency. A present sufficiency.
[29:55] The Lord said, my grace is sufficient. Not only sufficient tomorrow or next week when you sorted things out, my grace is sufficient.
[30:06] And sufficient means to be possessed of unfailing strength, to be enough. And that grace was there. It was already there for Paul to draw upon, to realize, to believe, to accept, to fall into, to lay upon.
[30:28] All he had to do was to appropriate and take, to believe and receive, to experience and enjoy. It was a plentiful sufficiency.
[30:40] The Lord was saying, Paul, my grace is enough. And as the need increases, the grace increases. increases. As the need increases, the grace increases.
[30:55] Because some of us go deep, deep into dark valleys, deep into difficulties, deep into danger. So it requires deep, deep grace.
[31:10] In fact, by making Paul weak, Paul could display his power and his strength. 2 Corinthians 9 and verse 8, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
[31:36] In Christ is found all the grace we need to make us the kind of people he wants us to be. to keep on doing God's will.
[31:50] And to enable us to finish our course with joy. But we need to keep on drawing upon his plentiful supply by abiding, abiding in the vine, by abiding in Jesus.
[32:06] You see, his strength cannot be perfected in your weakness. His grace can't be sufficient for you if you're walking away, if you're choosing to flirt with the things of this world and not to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[32:19] Though he'll bring you back at the right time, if you're a Christian, sometimes through great chastisement, but he'll bring you back because he'll never let you go. But we need to abide, abide in the vine.
[32:32] Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing.
[32:43] apart from me, you can do nothing. Reminding us that we can do all things in Christ Jesus. All those things he would have us to do, to have us fulfil, all those works that he set out before us.
[33:03] A present, a plentiful, a practical sufficiency. You see, the grace of the Lord Jesus became operative, shall we say, in Paul's weakness.
[33:14] Therefore, the thorn became a blessing. It became a source of power from God, for God's strength was made perfect in Paul's weakness.
[33:26] And so much so, Paul could say in verse 10, that is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.
[33:41] for when I am weak, then I am strong. When I am weak, then I am strong, not our own strength.
[33:52] There's a verse in the Bible, I think it's in Corinthians, it speaks about Paul struggling with the strength of the Lord.
[34:03] When I read that, I was just absolutely amazed that Paul struggled with the strength of the Lord. so close was that union. And so close is Christ with you and I as his people, blood brought people.
[34:19] He understands, he knows, as I say, and we could struggle and yet know, know his presence and know his peace. Know his presence and know his peace.
[34:34] We spend a lot of time asking God to take away our troubles, don't we? when was the last time? When was the last time that you kneeled down and you thanked God for the trouble in your life?
[34:50] When was the last time that you did that? Thanking him for putting you in a place where you can do nothing else but trust him. Putting you in a place where you can do nothing else but trust him.
[35:05] What a beautiful, what a beautiful place to be in. What if Paul's answer, what if Paul's prayer had been answered the way Paul proposed?
[35:20] In recalling some of Israel's history of prayer and for all the wrong things that they were doing and the wrong things they were praying for, the psalmist writes, and he gave them their request, but sent leanness unto their soul.
[35:38] If you and I keep demanding that the thorn of the trouble be taken away, instead of submitting to the discipline of the thorn, then he may do the very same thing in your life and my life.
[35:53] And the result will be leanness to your soul and to my soul. When the Lord uses you and I for his glory, there is something in us that wants to claim the glory.
[36:11] That pride is within, that boasting is within, but suffering and troubles, they keep our feet firmly on the ground.
[36:23] And I would reiterate, this is not doom and gloom. Don't we meet each other in the supermarket as Christians and we tell each other, the Lord's good, I heard a good sermon, but then we begin to share our difficulties.
[36:39] And at the same time, I hear the Lord has been in those difficulties. He's helping us and encouraging us and warming us. And we get great encouragement for that as we walk away, because we know our brother and sister in Christ, they're going through the same difficulties.
[36:54] They have something of the same thorn that will rejoice as we walk away, because they know what we know, the sufficiency of his grace.
[37:07] We need to be reminded often, not only of who we are, but whose we are. John Newton wrote, I am not what I might be.
[37:18] I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be, but I thank God.
[37:29] I am not what I once was. And I can say with a great apostle, by the grace of God, I am what I am. By the grace of God, I am what I, you see, we are all a work in progress.
[37:45] None of us have arrived. We're not arrived until we go home to glory. We'll not be fashioned, we'll not be complete into the likeness of Christ until we home to glory.
[37:58] The world's philosophy is this, what can't be cured must be endured. But Paul can testify, what can't be cured can be enjoyed.
[38:12] As he says, therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
[38:26] Now, remember this, and I'll close in a moment. Paul had said, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me.
[38:38] When Satan sent that thorn to torment Paul, Satan's aim was that Paul would, his old nature would rise up, he would be roused and he would rebel against the Lord and against the call that he had been given.
[38:56] That is why it's called a messenger of Satan. But when Satan sent that messenger to torment Paul, he found out that all it did was to send Paul to new depths and to new heights of trust and faithful obedience to God.
[39:16] Why is that? the pressure of the thorn include your trial, your difficulty, your temptation, your testing, the pressure of the thorn, the thorn in the flesh, a message of Satan's thorn in me, and the power of Calvary, and the power of Calvary, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
[39:41] In the providence and purpose and plan of God, these things came together, these things came together and they come together in your life and my life.
[39:54] Because we are his, we're precious to him, he's faithful, he's more faithful to us than we are to him. And it was then and only then that Paul could add in verse 10.
[40:10] For when I am weak, then I am strong. When I am weak, then I am strong. In the Bible there are three distinctive meanings of grace.
[40:24] It means the mercy and active love of God. It means the winsome attractiveness of God. And it means the strength of God to overcome.
[40:35] So grace, the sufficiency of God's grace, is a love that cares and stops and rescues. And the will of God, the will of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you.
[40:54] Because grace, grace is stronger than circumstances. The hymn writer wrote, He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater.
[41:05] He sendeth more strength when the labours increase. To added affliction, He addeth His mercy. To multiply trials, His multiplied peace.
[41:19] Praise God. Praise God. It's not easy. Praise God for the trials, the testings, and even the thorn. And you will be blessed. Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you again, Lord, for your word.
[41:33] And we pray that we would have been or will have been encouraged, O Lord, because we know there are those things in our lives, perhaps we're either too ashamed or too afraid to share with another.
[41:45] They're very personal. But you know, O Lord, and we can flee to you. We can, as we've said, cast all our cares and our burdens upon you. Give us grace, O God, to thank you for the thorn, for the trial, for the difficulty, because you are working in and through our lives.
[42:02] You're fashioning us. You're keeping pride at pay, and you're making us more and more Christ-like. And this world needs not only to hear sermons for the pulpit, but to see sermons in shoes, men and women who reflect something of the grace and graciousness of Jesus Christ.
[42:23] So we thank you again, O Lord, for this day, for the opportunity of hearing your word, of being together as iron sharpens iron, so the fellowship and friendship of one Christian with another, it sharpens, it deepens, it encourages.
[42:36] So go before us now, we pray. For Jesus' sake do we ask it. Amen. Amen. Let's turn now to that psalm, Psalm 119, and at verse 65.
[42:51] Again, in the Scottish Psalter, Psalm 119, and at verse 65. Well hast thou with thy servant dealt, as thou didst promise give.
[43:04] Good judgment me and knowledge teach, for I thy word believe. Ere I afflicted, was I strayed, but now I keep thy word. Both good thou art, and good thou doest, teach me thy statutes, Lord.
[43:20] Verse 65 to 71 of Psalm 119, to God's praise. Well hast thou with thy servant dealt, hast thou this promise give, good judgment be and knowledge teach, for I thy word believe.
[44:01] Ere I afflicted, was I strayed, but thou I keep thy word.
[44:17] Both good thou art, and good thou dost, teach me thy statutes, Lord.
[44:34] The men that are puffed up with pride, against me force thou lie, yet thy commandment observe, with my whole heart will lie.
[45:06] their hearts through world please and wealth as fat as grace they be.
[45:24] But in thy holy law I take delight continually it hath been very good for me that I afflicted was, that I might well and soft it be and learn thy holy laws.
[46:14] And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, rest and abide with us all, now and forevermore.
[46:26] Amen. amen. I really love these gifts are