Listen to this Sermon: 09302012OurSufficiencyComesFromGodDonRuhl

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Our Sufficiency Is from God

What else do we need besides God and His Scriptures?

Second Corinthians 3.4–6

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • September 30, In the year of our Lord, 2012

Scripture Reader and Reading: Kadin Lopez – John 6.63–69

Prelude: 

  1. Who has had problems that surpass that of Job? 
    1. This poor man lost all his wealth and all ten of his children on one day.
      1. Shortly afterwards he lost his health.
      2. Then he lost the love and support of his wife.
      3. His friends rejected him.
      4. The children of his employees who had been killed mocked him.
    2. Yet, you will read these remarkable declarations of his faith,

      21
      “Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
      And naked shall I return there.
      The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away;
      Blessed be the name of the LORD.”
      (Job 1.21)

      15
      “Though [God] slay me, yet will I trust Him.
      Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him.”
      (Job 13.15)

      12
      “I have not departed from the commandment of His lips;
      I have treasured the words of His mouth
      More than my necessary food.”
      (Job 23.12)

    3. He endured whatever the devil and the world threw at him
      1. by worshiping God,
      2. by trusting God, and
      3. by treasuring God’s word.
        1. God had communicated His will to Job’s generation.
        2. However, we have much more of God’s word.
          1. If what little Job had helped him endure his struggles,
          2. what about us who have all of God’s word?
  2. Who has had the struggles that David had? 
    1. He confronted lions, bears, and giants.
      1. He was ill frequently, as evidenced by many of his psalms.
      2. King Saul tried to kill him endlessly.
      3. One of David’s sons killed another one of David’s sons for raping their sister.
      4. The surviving son tried to kill David while taking over the kingdom.
      5. He sinned repeatedly, including adultery and conspiring to kill a man.
    2. Yet, read the Psalms and see how he conquered those problems.

      11
      Give us help from trouble,
      For the help of man is useless.
      12
      Through God we will do valiantly,
      For it is He who shall tread down our enemies.
      (Psa 60.11, 12)
    3. However, as with Job, so with David,
      1. we have resources they never had, namely,
      2. the full revelation of God’s word.
  3. If God could bless those men through His partial word, 
    1. making them sufficient for whatever the struggle was,
    2. can He not make us sufficient for our troubles through His complete word?
  4. Yes, the Bible affirms that God makes us sufficient for everything. 

Persuasion: 

  1. Micah 2.7

    7 You who are named the house of Jacob:
    “Is the Spirit of the LORD restricted?
    Are these His doings?
    Do not My words do good
    To him who walks uprightly?”
    (Mic 2.7)

    1. Our Sufficiency Comes from God’s Words
  2. Mark 12.24

    24 “Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God?” (Mark 12.24).

    1. Our Sufficiency Comes from God’s Power
  3. Luke 11.28

    28 “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11.28).

    1. Our Sufficiency Comes from Our Obedience
  4. Acts 20.20, 27, 32

    20 “…how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you…” (Acts 20.20).

    27 “For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20.27).

    32 “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20.32).

    1. Our Sufficiency Comes from the Whole Counsel of God
  5. First Corinthians 2.13–16

    13 “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ” (1Co 2.13–16).

    1. Our Sufficiency Comes from the Mind of Christ
  6. Second Corinthians 3.4–6

    4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2Co 3.4–6).

    1. Our Sufficiency Comes from God
  7. Second Corinthians 9.8

    8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work (2Co 9.8).

    1. Our Sufficiency Comes from God’s Grace
  8. Colossians 2.3

    3 …in [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col 2.3).

    1. Our Sufficiency Comes from God’s Resources
  9. First Thessalonians 2.13

    13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe (1Th 2.13).

    1. Our Sufficiency Comes from Believing God’s Word
  10. Second Timothy 3.16, 17

    16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (2Ti 3.16, 17).

    1. 3.1–9 show the problems of a secular society.
    2. 3.10–15 show the power to overcome a secular society.
    3. 3.16, 17 show
      1. that God breathed into the Scriptures to give us what we need
      2. to live successfully in this secular world.
        1. We take His breath into us, and
        2. He gives us mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
    4. Our Sufficiency Comes from Training in God’s Word
  11. Hebrews 4.12, 13

    12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account (Heb 4.12, 13).

    1. Our Sufficiency Comes from God’s Sword
  12. Second Peter 1.2–4

    2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the [full] knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the [full] knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2Pe 1.2–4).

    1. Our Sufficiency Comes from Knowing God and Jesus

Exhortation: 

  1. Look at the life we can have when our sufficiency comes from 
    1. God’s Words,
    2. God’s Power,
    3. Our Obedience,
    4. the Whole Counsel of God,
    5. the Mind of Christ,
    6. God,
    7. God’s Grace,
    8. God’s Resources,
    9. Believing God’s Word,
    10. Training in God’s Word,
    11. God’s Sword, and from
    12. Knowing God and Jesus!
  2. The problem is we believe 
    1. that the Scriptures only address
      1. determining which church we should go to,
      2. how to set up worship, and
      3. how to be saved.
    2. Therefore, we believe the Scriptures, and by implication, our Creator,
      1. do not deal with the deep, complex, complicated struggles of life, and
      2. that the Scriptures are relatively shallow when it comes to such things,
        1. leading us to believe
        2. that man has better insight, and
        3. that “professional help” serves us better.
  3. When we do not consume the word of God daily and 
    1. when we do not let it consume us daily,
    2. then when someone presents the things that I have presented to you,
      1. we think it foolish.
      2. We believe our troubles go beyond what the word of God addresses.
  4. Another Problem: We want something quick that does not require a life change. 
    1. We go to the doctor,
      1. get a quick prescription without a life change, and
      2. we want the same thing when dealing with the issues of life.
    2. We want going to God’s word to be the same way, and
      1. since you cannot pop in a verse and fix everything on the spot,
      2. we think Scripture cannot help.
  5. If God could create the universe, the heavens and the earth, 
    1. from nothing by merely speaking it into existence,
    2. He can certainly handle our lives.
  6. If God can hear thousands or millions of prayers simultaneously, 
    1. manipulating things on earth to answer all of those prayers,
    2. He can certainly handle our problems.
  7. He gave us a manual for living, 
    1. not a good luck charm.
    2. The word has to direct our lives.
      1. When it does, we learn about sin, even our personal sin, but
      2. we also learn that God has a remedy for it.
        1. His remedy is that which He talks about the most in His word,
        2. His blessed Son Jesus the Christ.
  8. If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and 
    1. after seeing that God makes you sufficient for everything,
    2. you might be ready to become a disciple of His Son.
      1. Are you ready to become one?
      2. Do you want to do something about it today?
        1. Why delay?
        2. Jesus is the Way.