THE
SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST
BREAD
7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these
surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a
messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away
from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace
is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly
about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That
is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships,
in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from
whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I
pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through
his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And I pray that you, being rooted and
established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp
how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and
to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the
measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians
3:14-19 (NIV)
11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be
prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to
prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be
built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the
knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure
of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then
we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown
here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of
men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all
things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From
him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament,
grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:11-16
(NIV)
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who
drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.
Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to
eternal life.” John 4:13-14 (NIV)
37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood
and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let
him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has
said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed
in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given,
since Jesus had not yet been glorified. John
7:37-39 (NIV)
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and
burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for
I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
(NIV)
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my
enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely
goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in
the house of the LORD forever. Psalms
23:5-6 (NIV)
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will
come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me
anymore, but you will see me. Because I
live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my
Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who
loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him
and show myself to him.” John 14:18-21 (NIV)
1 I love you, O LORD, my strength. 2 The
LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I
take refuge. He is my shield and the
horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalms
18:1-2 (NIV)
BUTTER
“Moment
by moment, grace arrives to enable us to do “every good work” that God appoints
for us. ‘God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all
sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work’ (2
Corinthians 9:8).” John Piper
“This morning let us hear the Lord Jesus speak
to each one of us: ‘I will help thee’.
‘It is but a small thing for Me, thy God, to help thee. Consider what I have done already. What!
Not help thee? Why, I bought thee
with My blood. What! Not help thee? I have died for thee; and if I have done the
greater, will I not do the less? Help
thee! It is the least thing I will ever
do for thee; I have done more, and will do more. Before the world began I chose thee. I made the covenant for thee. I laid aside My glory and became a man for
thee; I gave My life for thee; and if I did all this, I will surely help thee
now. In helping thee, I am giving thee
what I have bought for thee already. If
thou hadst need of a thousand times as much help, I would give it thee; thou
requirest little compared with what I am ready to give. ‘Tis much for thee to need, but it is nothing
for me to bestow. “Help thee?” Fear not!
If there were an ant at the door of thy granary asking for help, it
would not ruin thee to give him a handful of thy wheat; and thou art nothing
but a tiny insect at the door of my all sufficiency. “I will help thee”.’ O my soul, is not this enough? Dost thou need more strength than the
omnipotence of the United Trinity? Dost
thou want more wisdom than exists in the Father, more love than displays itself
in the Son, or more power than is manifest in the influences of the
Spirit? Bring hither thine empty
pitcher! Surely this well will fill
it. Haste, gather up thy wants, and
bring them there – thine emptiness, thy woes, thy needs. Behold, this river of God is full for thy
supply; what canst thou desire beside?
Go forth, my soul, in this thy might.
The Eternal God is thine helper!”
C. H. Spurgeon
“There is in Him an all-sufficiency
of grace and strength; all our springs are in Him, and all our streams are from
Him.” Matthew Henry
“The Lord is our
all-sufficient portion. God fills Himself; and if God is all-sufficient in
Himself, He must be all-sufficient for us. It is not easy to satisfy man's
desires. When he dreams that he is satisfied, instantly he wakes to the
perception that there is still something more, and his longings remain
unfulfilled. But for the believer all
that we can wish for is to be found in our divine portion, so that we ask, ‘Whom
have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides
you.’1
We can then delight ourselves in the Lord who allows us to drink of the river
of His pleasures.” C. H. Spurgeon revised by Alistair Begg
“God is the happiness of man because of His
suitableness to the soul. A hungry man
finds his stomach craving. Give him music or honour and he is hungry
still. These are not suitable to his
appetite. Give him food and his craving
is over. So it is with a man’s soul. Give it honour, profits, and the pleasures of
the world, and these cannot abate its desire; it craves still. These do not answer the soul’s nature, and
therefore cannot answer its needs. Set
God before it just once, and let it feed on Him; it is satisfied, and its
inordinate, dogged appetite after the world is cured. Tasting this manna tramples on the onions of
Egypt. God is the true happiness of the
soul because He is an eternal good. As
the sun never sets, so the soul that rests in God has an eternal Sabbath. Outward mercies, in which most place their happiness,
are like floods that swell high and make a great noise, but are quickly over. The blessed God is like the spring that
bubbles forth and runs over forever.
This all-sufficient, suitable, and eternal God is the saint’s peculiar
portion, and therefore causes infinite satisfaction.” George Swinnock
·
His grace is sufficient to meet every
need. Every.Need.
·
He came to fill us so that we would not be
found wanting.
·
Believers go forth in His power, for His
glory, for our good. All else is an
ultimately wasted life.
