All right, go ahead and open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians is, in some ways, a lot simpler than its predecessor. You'll recall last week that 1 Corinthians, something of a grab bag, right? Paul's responding to various reports He's responding to various questions that the church had raised. And so he's, he's responding to all sorts of things that are not, um, necessarily connected one to another. He's not unfolding one, uh, cohesive argument. Um, second Corinthians, however, does have one consistent theme, uh, that's raised throughout and that's Paul's defense of his apostolic ministry. Uh, now why would, Paul have to defend his ministry because people were doubting him. That's exactly what you're gonna say, right? People were questioning him. People were trying to undermine him in Corinth. He refers to them sarcastically at various points in 2 Corinthians as these super apostles, which just goes to show there is a sanctified use of sarcasm. Don't abuse it, but it does exist, okay? But there are men in Corinth that are undermining Paul's ministry. And they attacked him at various points. And we get a lot of this, again, from mirror reading. That is, you see what Paul responds to, and then you infer from what he's responding to, or how he's responding, what he was responding to. And so they attack him that he suffered far too much to be an actual spirit-filled man of God. God would not allow a faithful servant such as this to suffer as Paul does. Therefore, Paul must not be the real deal. That is, of course, not true. God allows his servants to suffer much in this world. God, who did not spare his own son suffering in this world, would surely not guarantee our lack thereof. It's also asserted that Paul is weak. This is a charge which he pleads guilty to. He says, yes, I am weak. And that's really, the way he leans into these critiques is going to form the basis of our study today. It's not just Paul defending his ministry, though it is that. That is the, we'll say, on the surface level what's going on is Paul's defending his ministry. But the theological truth that's being gotten across through that is the sufficiency of Christ. Paul says, I do suffer, but Christ is sufficient. I am weak, but Christ is sufficient. And we'll look at that more later. Before we get into the actual breakdown of the letter, I just want to give some kind of historical framework, because I think it'll be helpful. The Baptist minister, Mark Dever, summarizes the historical lead up to this point rather well. He says, after his, that's Paul's, initial visit to Corinth, when he established the church there, Paul left to start other churches. Sometime later, we don't know how much later, he got the disturbing news of the factional problems and other difficulties in the Corinthian church. That's factional, that's people were breaking off into groups. Paul gets word of this, and so he wrote the letter we call First Corinthians. Paul then returned to Corinth for a second time to follow up on these problems. And he actually speaks of this visit in 1 Corinthians chapter one, or excuse me, 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verses five to seven. He says, I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, and perhaps I will stay with you, even spend the winter so that you may help me on my journey wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you. if the Lord permits. So Paul says at the end of first Corinthians, I'm coming for a visit. And he does. That visit is usually called by commentators, the painful visit. And that's based on second Corinthians two and verse one. Would somebody please read second Corinthians two, one. Uh, Mr. Campbell. not to make another painful visit to you. Thank you. So there's been a painful visit. Why would it be painful? Because he's having to confront all of those problems head on. That's not a comfortable thing to do. It is not a comfortable thing to deal firsthand with the sins, especially of people that you love. Because it hurts them and it hurts him, the apostle in this case. And Devereux says, and this is probably true, it didn't go well. Apparently, Paul flopped. He did not make a good impression. And the problem that he went to fix, in fact, did not get fixed. So he left in discouragement and wrote them what is called the severe letter. And this is, again, brought up somebody else, 2 Corinthians 2.4. Yes, miss Duncan. For I wrote to you of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know that the abundant love that I have for you. Yup. And then he brings up the same letter again in second Corinthians seven, eight to nine. And I'll read this for even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it. though I did regret it, for I see that that letter, that that letter, grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were regrieved, but because you were grieved into repenting for all godly grief, for you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. And so Paul's saying, yeah, I wrote you a very harsh corrective letter, yes. Depends on who you ask. Paul is attacked regularly for not being a great speaker. And that's not really uncommon for God to use such a man. In fact, that's actually one of the criticisms that's leveled against him. It's either in this letter or in Galatians. I think it's in Galatians, actually. For he is strong in letter, but he is weak in person. Again, that's an accusation he's responding to, so we want to take that with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, that's a fair question. So he leaves in discouragement. He writes them this severe letter, and we don't have a copy of the severe letter, but we know that it was sharp and that it seems to have had an effect. And that's what he's talking about here. It produced in them a grief that led to repentance. It produced some of the changes Paul wanted. And so Paul, when he learns that that letter was effective, he now also writes second Corinthians in a spirit of great joy at their repentance. And again, all of that to say is that the purpose of this letter, is to rejoice in the growth that he's seen in the Corinthians and to also respond to the criticisms. And he takes those criticisms that he's suffering, that he's weak, as we've already said, and he kind of turns them on their head. He kind of turns them around. He leans into them, in a sense. One source explains it this way. Rather than give a false sense of self-worth, Paul bluntly affirms the insufficiency of any new covenant minister. But Christians may rejoice because their sufficiency is of God in all areas of life. I am weak. I do suffer. I do have faults. But the gospel is that not that I am good enough for you. but that Christ is, and that Christ sustains us in all things. And so what we're gonna look at today with our time left is we're gonna look at four passages pulled throughout the letter. The first one deals with the sufficiency of God in our sorrow, 1 Corinthians 1, 3 to 11, the sufficiency of God in our sorrow. Secondly, we'll look at the sufficiency of God in our sanctification, 2 Corinthians 3, 18 to 4, 15, 318 to 415. Thirdly, we'll look at the sufficiency of God for our reconciliation. or justification, we might say, 2 Corinthians 5, 18-21. And finally, the sufficiency of God for our preservation, 2 Corinthians 12, 7-10. So again, sufficiency of God for our sorrow, our sanctification, our reconciliation, and our preservation. We'll start with the sufficiency of God for our sorrow. This is a passage that is One I would highly commend to you all, memorization of scripture is always great, and memorize it word for word if you're able to, but nonetheless, at the very least, know where this is in your Bible. 2 Corinthians 1, 3 to 11, the sufficiency of God for our sorrow. Let me read it for you, and we'll just make some observations as we go. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. I wanna just pause there and make some observations about how honest the New Testament is. There is no pretense in the New Testament that life will be easy. I had the privilege earlier this year to have three friends of mine from high school. I may have told you guys about this before, but these are people that I haven't talked to since I was your age. And they all reached out to me because they know what I do now. And two of the three had grown up in the church and the other one had not, but they were all we'll say antagonistic towards Christianity, especially the two that had grown up in the church, because at the end of it, after talking to them for a while, the question was not, is God real? Does God exist? Not that, that's not their issue. Some people, that is their question. That's not my friend's question. Their question is this. I was told my whole life that God loves me. And I've had these hard things happen in my life. How do I reconcile that message that God loves me with these hard things in my life? And the truth is, what that question comes from is a misunderstanding of what love is. Because God's love does not shield us from every bad or harmful thing that there is. God's love is with us when those things come and leads us and guides us through them. He is the God of all comfort. And notice here that Paul in verse five of chapter one draws the analogy, Christ suffered. And as a follower of Christ, you can expect similar sufferings in your own life. But the good news is not only did Christ suffer, not only do we share abundantly in his sufferings, therefore, he says in verse five, so through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort as well. In Christ, we actually find comfort and peace even in the hardships of life. And then Paul also says in this passage that we are to use that comfort that we get from God and do what with it? Comfort others. bring that comfort and peace to one another. He uses these things so that we might minister one to another. I'll keep going in with verse six. If we are afflicted, so Paul's speaking of his ministry band, if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. He's saying that the sufferings that I'm going through are real. And I thank God for them because I'm able to use them to then minister to you when you go through similar things, when you go through similar hardships. I can use my experience to connect to, to relate to, and to be there with you. And you'll find this, and I've said this to you guys before, one of the most effective things that you can do, especially when you have a friend that's dealing with something difficult, is to just be there and let them know you understand. That's a really effective ministry. We don't want to do only that, right? We want to also share the good news of Christ and build them up in love and all these other things. But sometimes, it's just being able to say, I've been there. It keeps going. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in comfort. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, verse eight, of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Paul's saying, it was bad. We were kinda hoping we'd die and it would be over. We despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such deadly peril and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. He's using all of this to unite the body closer together. as we come around those who are suffering and lift them up in prayer. This is a picture, if you will, of the words of Joseph way back in Genesis 50 in verse 20. What you meant for evil, God meant for good. God took the suffering that was meant for evil and turned it into a source of unity and comfort for his people. That's God's sufficiency in our time of sorrow. We'll move on to God's sufficiency for our sanctification 2nd Corinthians 3 18 to 4 15 Would somebody please read Let's split this in two. Let's do 3 18 to 4 6 and then somebody else for 7 to 15 3 18 to 4 6 Ms. Scoggins, and then 318 to 416, and then 47 to 15. Ms. Barringer? All right. Ms. Scoggins, go ahead. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even our gospel is veil to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not of ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants, for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, let light shine out of the darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I'm going to pause you there before we go on to Anya. There's a lot of meat on that bone, as it were. First of all, he says that we're transformed from one degree of glory to the next. That's progressive sanctification. How? By beholding the Lord. by reflecting on who Christ is and what he has done for us and communing with him in worship. God uses those things along with the experiences of this life to make us more like Christ. It is the power of God at work in us. And notice also, as she read, that what we proclaim is light that goes out in the world that others might also likewise be sanctified, might be brought to the light. And so it's all the work of God in and through us, particularly in worship and the proclamation of his word. Ms. Barringer, seven to 15. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, I believed and so I spoke, We also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. Thank you, Ms. Barringer. Just two observations I want to make there of the sufficiency of God for our sanctification. One is in verse 10. We are always carrying in the body, the death of Jesus. That is to say that we are in this life partakers of his humiliation, partakers of that suffering. And then he gives a purpose statement. Always pay attention when you're reading your Bible and you come across these words, so that, or in order that, or for this reason, because that's telling you why he just said what he said. Why is it? so that the life of Jesus might show forth or might also be manifested in our bodies. In other words, as we grow in conformity to Christ's image, even while things are difficult and while things are a struggle for us, we actually glorify him and show him forth to others. Dr. Phillips is gonna talk about it in, uh, in the sermon today, uh, there, there ought to be something remarkably different about Christians. And one thing, and I don't think he goes into this just cause it's not the point of his passage, but it's the point of this one, right? Um, one thing that's remarkably different about Christians is how we endure hardships and trials, how we endure, uh, difficulties, how we endure hard things. Um, It was a powerful seed to be planted in my own life this time last year when my father died, how I handled that versus how my half-brother, who doesn't know the Lord, handled that. It was very different. And it stood out to him that I was able to still have a hope and to point to something greater and to still have a relationship with my Heavenly Father. Now, that didn't lead instantaneously to his conversion, but he's still thinking and still mulling these things over. There ought to be a way in which our life and how we process grief and sorrow is different, and it's sanctifying and making us more like Christ. All right, let's move on to the sufficiency of God. Actually, let's pause there. Questions, comments, feedback, concern? Yes. So a general summary of this sort of passage is the fact that since we know that God sort of cares about us, we don't have to be distressed about very many things at all. Right. So then God will help us sort of overcome all sort of things that may come to us. Right. Okay, thanks for mentioning that. Yeah, no problem. There's great comfort in knowing that not a hair from my head falls that's apart from the will of God. Right. And so that means that, yeah, bad things may happen, but, but the, the thing that's really traumatizing and really scary about bad things happening is it tells me that things are out of control, except I know that things are never out of control. They're out of my control, but there's great comfort in knowing that they're not out of God's control, even though I may not personally like what's going on in the moment. All right, very good. 1 Corinthians, excuse me, 2 Corinthians 5, 18 to 21, God's sufficiency for our reconciliation. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for God. This is an especially important verse for those of you that are going on mission next week. We are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. And then he ends on a verse that I quote to you guys all the time. For our sake, He made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. That is reconciliation. That is God in Christ dealing with what put us at enmity with God, our sin, and taking it away. And also replacing it with Christ's righteousness that brings us back into right standing, and it is all the work of God, and our job is not to make other people be reconciled. It is to proclaim that message of reconciliation, and God will work through that. Well, time is evading us, and we'll close out then with God's sufficiency for our preservation 2 Corinthians 12, 7-10. This is another one of those passages that's just good to have in your Rolodex of passages that you know where they are. 2 Corinthians 12, 7-10. Paul says, so to keep me from becoming conceited, anyone else in here struggle with flirting with conceit and ego? You're teenagers and so the answer is yes. You're a human also, so the answer is yes, because I, all right. So to keep me from becoming conceited, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelation. So Paul is saying, God has given me amazing privileges and responsibilities. And in my flesh, I'm prone to become conceited, because God's given me great things. So to keep me from that, a thorn was given me in the flesh. a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. How does that work? Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, and my power is made perfect in your weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Paul's point here is that God preserves us through the trials of life and uses those trials to press us into him that we would not try and do it on our own. There is a remarkable difference that you will see in labors that you do appealing to the Lord for help and labors that you do in your own strength. You guys are all very gifted people. You have great gifts and you, generally speaking, use them well. The temptation is to rely on your giftedness to accomplish the task at hand. And because so many of you are so gifted, you can get by with that a fair bit of times, honestly. But you will get so much more return on your investment if you do it in the Lord's strength. And that's why Paul says, therefore, I am content with weakness. I'm content with knowing that even, you know, I'm a poor speaker, right? But I'm content that God would work through my speaking. I'm not as good at X, Y, Z, whatever the thing is that I'm considering at the moment as I ought to be, but I'm content with that weakness because I know it is God who will work through me. And one last thing, just to point out here as we wrap up, in verse eight, nine rather, it's pretty powerful to know, He said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. That Greek word that's translated perfect here is the same single solitary word that Jesus spoke on the cross when he said it is finished. Telestai. That's the same word here for perfection. And the point is there's a connection between the power of God that gets us through our weakness and the power of the cross. The power of the cross, yes, it atones for our sin, but it also gives us newness of life combined with the resurrection of Jesus and so many other things that we might endure and persevere through the difficulties of this world. It's all centered on the cross. Let me pray for us and we'll be done. God in heaven, we give thanks to you for the book of second Corinthians. We thank you. Uh, what it teaches us about our weakness, about our own, um, insufficiencies, but Lord, it also shows forth the glorious sufficiency of your son, who for our sake was made to be sin, though he knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. I ask now that you would bless my young friends as we prepare to depart, to know that their strength and sufficiencies is not in their gifts, though those are great. their strength and their sufficiency is in Christ who is greater. In his name we pray. Amen.