Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2160
“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God, who also has made us able ministers of the ne w testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” 2 Corinthians 3:5, 6.
Read also the Revised Version of the same text, for it will be often used in this discourse—
“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God; who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” 2 Corinthians 3:5, 6.
PAUL had given some account of what God had done by him and had described the work in these words—“You are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” Before he had worked out that charming figure, he had asked the question in the 16th verse of the second chapter—“Who is sufficient for these things?” I seem to hear that question repeated as he finishes the description. The more wonderful the work, the more intense the inquiry—“Who is sufficient for these things?”
Who can turn hearts of stone into flesh? Who can write without ink? Who can write on the heart? Who can so write that what is written shall be eternal? “Who is sufficient for these things?” The more we study the work of Grace worked by God through his ministers, the more are we forced to ask, “Who is sufficient for these things?” To raise the dead, to turn a stone to flesh—who is sufficient for these? To give eyes to the blind and ears to the deaf. To subdue the proud will and enlighten the darkened heart. To deliver men from the fascinations of sin and Satan. To bring them out of darkness into God’s marvelous light. To turn rebels into sons of God—who is sufficient for all these things? Yet nothing less than this will bring salvation! Here we have a chain of miracles—an Alpine range of wonders piled upon each other—yet no one marvel can be dispensed with and we are to be the ministers by whom such miracles are worked! “Who is sufficient for these things?”
Having asked the question, Paul now gives an answer to it in the words of my text. All these wonders have been worked—men have had their minds written upon by the finger of God and the stony heart has become a tablet of flesh— and all this has been done by the agency of men! Ministers have been, in God’s hands, the means of working stupendous wonders of Grace, yes, of turning the world upside down and of saving men from going down into the Pit! Since these things have been done, there must have been some kind of sufficiency, or adaptation in the means by which they were done. From where did it come? Was it natural to the men, or did they acquire it by education, or by practice, or by imitation? The Apostle goes on to answer the question by telling us what that sufficiency was not and what it was. He replies to his own inquiry—“Who is sufficient for these things?”
I. By your leave we shall first of all regard the text as AN ANSWER TO THE MINISTER’S QUESTION, “Who is sufficient for these things?” The answer is given first in the negative and secondly, in the positive. “Who is sufficient for these things?” The negative reply is—“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves.” In this instance the best of preachers denies self-sufficiency. Remember who it is that is writing. It is Paul, called to be an Apostle, to whom the Lord Jesus had personally appeared—a man of singular zeal and activity—and of remarkable ability in the things of God.
He was not a whit behind the chief of the Apostles, an expounder of the Truth of God, a founder of Churches, a father of myriads of souls! Yet he says, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves.” He was, when he wrote this Epistle, no beginner in holy oratory, but a well-exercised Evangelist. He had been deeply taught of God. He had preached the Word fully and had gained an experience unrivalled. Beginning with a wonderful conversion, going on through sufferings, persecutions, journeys and labors, he had become a man of great weight and influence. Although long dead, his word would be law to us at this moment. And yet he confesses, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves.”
Here was a man, too, who had been inspired by the Holy Spirit—a man to write Epistles to Churches—a man who spoke with Divine authority and would not allow that authority to be questioned, for he felt that he was truly sent of God. And yet you see him bowing humbly down before the Throne of heavenly Grace and admitting his own impotence in these words—“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves.” I cannot leave this point, for here we have a most successful soul-winner making his lowly acknowledgment. How many were already in Heaven, converted under the ministry of the Apostle Paul?! How many on earth were on the road to Glory, led there by his teaching? How many had he inspired with the courage of martyrs, with the holiness of saints? He was a mine of spiritual wealth to the Churches. I know no man who did more for the propagation of the faith than the indefatigable Paul! And yet he cries, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves.”