So, we're going to God's Word
and I want to direct you back to the portion we were considering
last Lord's Day in 2 Corinthians chapter 6. In 2 Corinthians chapter
6 and reading verses 9 and 10. It's unknown and yet well known
as dying and behold with you. as chastened and not killed,
as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich,
as having nothing and yet possessing more things. I want us to consider then this
part of God's Word once again and think about a third aspect
really of what we were saying last time concerning the paradox
of the life of faith. The paradox of the life of faith. What we have in these two verses
are spiritual paradoxes. A seeming contradiction. But
really well-founded statements are found in these words. And
we were considering verse 9 last time. We thought of those different
views of the believer. The believer is someone unknown
and yet well-known. We thought of the viewpoint of
the world. John says concerning Christ that
the world knew Him not and knoweth us not. There was the Lord Jesus
Christ, he was in the world, the world was made by him, and
the world knew him not. And what was the lot of Christ
must also be the lot of his people unknown. The world is ignorant. The world ignores the people
of God, turns away from the truths that those people desire to live
their lives by. Unknown. And yet, well known,
unknown by the world, but the Lord knoweth them that are His. And His great purpose of grace,
His eternal decree, is rooted in that knowledge that He has
of His own. He has known them from all eternity.
And because He foreknew them, He has predestinated them. And
as He predestinated them so, He's called them and justified
them and He's going to glorify them. All the Lord knows His
people. He knows them very intimately.
He knows everything about them. At times we scarce know ourselves,
but we're comforted by that thought that the Lord God knows everything.
And yet, in spite of all the evil that He must be aware of
in the depths of our souls he has made a gracious provision
in the person of his only begotten son. It was unknown and yet well
known. And then we went on in the evening
to consider the remaining part of that verse as dying and behold
we live as chastened and not killed. And I said there that
in a way the statements of parallels, the dying answers to the chastening
The living answers to their not being killed. The experience
then of chastisement and the difficulties of chastisement
when the Lord corrects us, when the Lord rebukes us. Remember
the language of the apostle in Hebrews 12 verse 5. He had forgotten
the exhortation of the Lord. My son despise not his chastening,
nor faint at his rebukes. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If he endure chastening,
God dealeth with him as with sons. What son is he whom the
Father chasteneth not? Now that chastening is very much
a mark of sonship. The father chastens his own child. He's concerned for his own offspring.
Well, the Lord God chastens those whom he loves, his children.
Those who have known the blessing of adoption. They're the sons
of God. We're thinking then of that chastening. And now I want us to move on
and to consider what he goes on to say at the beginning of
verse 10. a sorrowful yet all-way rejoicing. The believer is one who knows
sorrow and joy. Those might be contradictory
experiences and yet such is the case with the people
of God. A sinner may repent and sing,
rejoice and be ashamed, says Joseph Hart. Is this life the
life of faith? You know that Paul is here speaking
of his own ministry, he's defending that ministry because there were
those who would come into the church at Corinth, they were
false teachers, they claimed to be apostles, but they were
teaching heretical doctrine and many of the people had followed
them and And Paul as he writes certainly here in the second
epistle must defend himself, defend his ministry and say many
things concerning himself and all that that ministry had cost
him. We read in chapter 11 and he says something there. He also
speaks here in chapter 6 and then last week we were also reading
in chapter 4. How he has to speak of himself
then, and the cost of his ministry. And he also includes Timothy,
here at the beginning of this chapter. We then as workers together
with him, that is with the Lord God, beseech you also that you
receive not the grace of God in vain. And then we have that
lovely second verse, that parenthesis, that bracketed verse, as little
aside as it were. What has God said? I have heard
thee in a time accepted. And in the day of salvation have
I succored thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Lord, there was such an urgency
in the ministry of this man. And this is what he's speaking
of, the manner of his ministry. Giving no offence in anything,
he says that the ministry be not lame. He wants that these people should
be followers of him and followers of Timothy. Writing in the first
epistle and there in the opening parts of chapter 11 he says as
much. Be ye followers of me even as
I am of Christ. And in that portion that we read
in the epistle to the Philippians there in Philippians 3.17, again
he exhorts the Philippians to be followers of him. Followers
of him because in many ways, as we've said, he's the pattern
believer. 1 Timothy 1.16, a pattern to
them which would thereafter believe, a type, a type of the believer.
So in the sovereignty of God and the providences of God these
things occur in churches like that at Corinth and Paul has
to introduce in the epistle so much of his own history the account
of all that that ministry was costing him that we might draw
principles from his experience and that's really what one wants
to try to do from these statements here in verses 9 and 10 It's interesting, isn't it? He
speaks of sorrow and he speaks of joy. And I was thinking, I
thought of the words of Isaac Watts in the hymn concerning
the crucifixion of Christ. See, from his head, his hands,
his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e'er such love
and sorrow meet or thorns compose? so rich a crown, a mixture of
Christ's sorrowing, and yet all the love of the Lord Jesus Christ,
having loved his own, how he loved them unto the end, how
he loved them even to the death of the cross, and the sorrow
and the grief that he experienced as he suffered that visitation
of the wrath of God upon his holy soul, as he died the just
for the unjust. In Christ What says this? There's sorrow and love. But
I want us to think tonight of the believer's sorrow and joy
as we come to these words for a little while. These opening
words in verse 10. First of all to say something
with regards to the sorrow of the godly. What is it that makes
the godly man sorrowful? The word really has the idea
of grieving. What is it that makes this godly
man to grieve? Well, first of all a negative.
It is not chastening. It is not the chastening. And
certainly here in the context we have chastening because we
have this juxtaposition between these two verses. As I said we
were looking at the end of verse 9, weren't we last time? as dying
and behold we live as chastened and not killed as sorrowful yet
all the way rejoicing is spoken of chastening we might imagine
because of that connection that the chastening will make the
believer sorrowful But that's not the case. That's
not the case. The chastening is profitable.
As we've already said, the chastening is really a mark of sonship. And to know that we are sons
of God shouldn't cause us to be sorrowful. It should lead
to us rejoicing. It's interesting, isn't it, when
he says, in that twelfth chapter of Hebrews, he says quite a bit
really about chastening in that particular portion at the beginning
of the chapter. But he says, no, chastening for
the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. It might seem to be grievous,
chastening. It might appear that way, if
we If we think subjectively, it's something that grieves us,
that we're suffering, that God is running upon us and correcting
us and rebuking us. But chastening is not the real
cause of the sorrow of the godly. What is it that causes the godly
man to feel sorrowful? Surely it's his sins. It's his
sin. It's not God dealing with him
and correcting him because of his sin. That's a favour, that's
a blessing of God. But all the sin itself. Now Paul,
I said, is the type of the real believer. A pattern. And remember
how he cries out in that seventh chapter of Romans, all wretched
man did I have. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? And he feels it. He feels this
fallen nature. He cries out, doesn't he, when
I would do good. Evil is present with me. The
good that I would, I do not. The evil that I would not, that
I observe. He so feels these things. And
that's the experience of all those who believe, as all those
who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because if a person is a true
Christian, he's one who has been born twice. You can't be a Christian
unless you're born twice. We're all born naturally, and
how are we born naturally? We're born dead in trespasses
and sins. David tells us in the psalm,
I was conceived in sin, I was shapen in iniquity. By our natural
birth, we're sinners. You might have the most gracious,
godly parents. But you see, grace doesn't come
in the bloodline. All who are descended from Adam
and Eve are born dead. And we have to be born again.
And there the Lord Jesus Christ reminds us of that. in that great
third chapter, except a man be born again, born from above. He cannot see the Kingdom of
God. All we need to be born spiritually,
because by nature, spiritually we're dead in trespasses and
sins. And the Lord says in that chapter,
that which is born of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born
of the spirit is spirit. And that's that spiritual nature. It's the divine nature. It's
the life of God in the soul of the man. It's that seed and it
can never seed. But there's the all nature. And
surely when Paul is writing there in Galatians chapter 5 is mindful
of those words of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel. Paul says, the flesh lost it against the
spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary
one to the other and he cannot do the thing that she would. And that's what grieves, that's
what grieves the child of God. When I would do God's evil is
present with me. Oh, it's not the affliction of
chastening, it's the grief of sinning that brings real sorrow. We know all our sinners as we've
already intimated, all have sinned. and come short of the glory of
God. There is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good
and sinneth not. But as the hymn writer says,
so rightly, so all our sinners in God's sight there are, but
few so in their own. To such as these our Lord was
sent, there are only sinners who repent. Nor these awakened
souls, But there are many that are aware
of that sin that is bound up in their very nature. Someone has said that it's so
right that it's a truth that sin is of man. Sin is of man. God is not the author of sin.
Sin is of man. But the sense of sin, is of the
Holy Ghost. Isn't that an important part
of the ministry of the Holy Ghost when the Lord Jesus is speaking
of His coming there in those chapters in John's Gospel? When
He has come, He will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment. The margin as the alternative,
convince. When He has come, He will convince
the world of sin. of righteousness, of judgment,
of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness because
I go to the father and you see me no more, of judgment, because
the prince of this world is judged. This is his ministry when he
comes, or part of his ministry, and a significant part of his
ministry. It's not all his ministry. Ultimately he comes as the spirit
of Christ. He comes to testify of Christ. He comes to make that gracious application
of all the work of Christ and to bring the sinner to salvation
by the gracious work of regeneration. But he comes also as that one
who is the reprover, the convincer. He will reprove the world of
sin because they believe not on me. Oh, here it is, you see. What is sin? They believe not
on me. Unbelief. Isn't unbelief at the
root of all sin? Isn't unbelief the sin which
does so easily beset us? Isn't unbelief the sin that we
see there in the Garden of Eden? When Adam and Eve sinned, what
was it? What was their sin? It was unbelief.
They didn't believe the word of God. They rejected the word
of God. They believed the lie of the
devil. When the devil contradicted the word of God, they embraced
that lie. Unbelief. Unbelief. Oh, what an accursed thing is
that seeing of unbelief. And when God begins to deal with
these people, do they not in some measure feel that? John
Newton knew it. Or could I but believe? then
all would easy be I would, but cannot, Lord, relieve. My help
must come from Thee. No good telling that poor sinner,
oh, it's your duty to believe. What sort of a gospel is that,
duty faith? It's like striking that poor
dying man completely dead. He can't do anything. He's under the conviction of
sin. And it's It's those who know
the gracious working of the Spirit, even when He comes to reprove,
to convince and to convict. It's those who know what it is
to sorrow over their sins, because they feel their sins. They feel their sins. A sinner
is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
New life from Him we must receive. before for sin we rightly grieve,
all sorrowing over sin. But you see there, there is Christ,
and who does Christ come for? For they that are whole have
no need of the physician, but they that are sick I came not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Or doesn't the
Lord say, blessed are they that mourn, they shall be comforted? Those who are sorrowing over
their sins, those who are mourning because they feel what they are,
they feel the impossibility of their faith, they feel shut up
to what they are, they can't in any way extricate themselves
or deliver themselves. They are sorrowful. Ah, but Christ
is that one who has come for sorrowing sinners. We were reminded, some of us
yesterday, when we were at the anniversary service at Agend,
that there in that remarkable book of Isaiah, we see so much of the suffering
servant of the Lord. And it's very interesting, when
Mr. Field mentioned there are 66
books in the Bible, and 66 chapters, in Isaiah. He said Isaiah is
like a little Bible. And 39 books in the Old Testament,
27 books in the New Testament. And he said, you know, there's
a definite break in Isaiah at the end of 39. Those chapters
at the end of the first section, from 36 to 39, it's different
to the rest of the book. It's historic. It's an account
of King Ezekiah. It's recounting some of those
things that are also recorded in Kings and Chronicles. And
then after chapter 39 we come into chapter 40. Comfort ye,
comfort ye my people, sayeth your God. It's almost as if we're coming
to the Gospel. Isaiah is full of Gospel. But he spoke also
of the Lord's suffering servants. Do we not read of him there in
the 53rd chapter? And what sort of a man was Christ? A man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief. All we read here, Paul speaks
of those who are sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Isn't Christ
one to sint those who sorrow over their sins? Surely, says
the prophet, surely, He has borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows. You see, He's fitted for sorrowing
sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why the sinner is such
a sacred thing, because He's fitted for a Saviour, and the
Saviour is fitted for the sinner. Oh, that's the wonder of it.
And this is how we can unravel in some way the paradox of the
statement that He's being raised. It might seem to be a contradiction,
but it's not really. It's not really. The sinner may
repent and sing, rejoice, and be ashamed. So these sorrowing
sinners also know what real rejoicing is. And so, having said a little
with regards to their sorrowing and what the cause of their sorrowing
is. And it's not God's dealings with them in the way of chastening,
it's that sorrowing and grieving over their sins, over their sinful
nature, over their sins of thoughts, of word and of deeds. Or they
grieve because they're sinners. Well, having said something with
regards to their sorrow, let's turn to the joy of the godly,
the joy of the godly. The sorrowful yet always rejoicing. Their joy, and this is very important,
their joy is an objective joy. It's an objective joy in self. They only really see cause for
shame and for sorrowing, but of the Lord Jesus Christ is the
true cause of all their rejoicing. We read those words, didn't we,
in Philippians? Rejoice in the Lord and again
I say rejoice. All they rejoice in the Lord. That's objective. They're not
rejoicing in themselves or anything in themselves or anything of
themselves, no poor exhorts rejoice in the Lord. And again I say
rejoice. And again it goes on, doesn't
it, to say in chapter 3 and verse 3, we are the circumcision, or
we are the real Israel of God. these Jews with all their legalism
and all their circumcision in the flesh, they have a constitution. We Christians are God's true
spiritual Israel. We are the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh, that's
no confidence in ourselves. All our rejoicing is in the Lord's
Jesus Christ. You see, the joy of the people
of God is not dependent on the circumstances
of their lives. Whatever our situation might
be, whatever circumstances, whatever trials, whatever troubles, isn't
there that remarkable passage at the end of the prophecy of
Habakkuk. Remember those minor prophets
we call them. The writings at the end of the
Old Testament. And they're short. They're short
books. They're not lengthy like the
prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They're just a few
chapters. so we call them minor, but they're
just as much the word of God as those great writings of the
other prophets. Habakkuk just has three chapters.
There were remarkable words at the end of Habakkuk. Although
the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the
vines, the labour of the olive shall fail, and the field shall
yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and
there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in
the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength,
and He will make my feet like hind's feet, and He will make
me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief musician on my stringed
instrument. It's a song, isn't it? That's
why it finishes on that note. It's a song of praise. And surely
it isn't singing and praising an expression of our joy. We
are to rejoice, you see. No matter what the situation
is in the world, what matters is what the situation is in our
own individual lives. Yet, I will rejoice in the law.
I will join the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength. Oh friends, is that true of us?
It's objective. It's not looking to ourselves.
There's a place for self-examination, of course there is. We have to
examine ourselves. We have to prove ourselves. We
have to know ourselves. And that Jesus Christ is in us,
except we be reprobate. And sometimes when we look at
ourselves and take that viewpoint of ourselves, we we can't understand
ourselves, we don't know ourselves. I said that last time when we
were looking at those words as unknown yet well-known. It's
not just the world that doesn't know us, that's ignorant, we
don't really know ourselves. Our comfort is that God knows.
God knows. Oh, I remember that day, man.
Peter Trumper used to come over from He was originally from Southampton,
of course. He was a minister. He was a preacher
there in Nova Scotia. But when he came back to visit
his brother, he'd worship with us at Hedgen Chapel. A dear man. And he used to often
use an expression, he'd say, Father knows. You're in the middle
of trouble, in trial. Remember, Father knows. Like
as a father pities his children. Also the Lord pitieth them that
fear him, he knoweth our pride, he remembereth that we're lost. He knows. He knows. We might not know ourselves,
but our comfort is that. God knows. And that's where we
find really our cause to rejoice. It's objective. Again, the language
of Nehemiah. Nearby I tend, the joy of the
Lord is your strength. The joy of the Lord is your strength. And observe here the word ALWAY. He doesn't just say I'm sorrowful
yet rejoicing. No, he says ALWAY. ALWAY. ALWAY. Rejoice evermore, Paul says.
Remember how when he comes to the close of his various epistles
and comes to the more practical part of the epistle, he often
gives a stream of exhortations and we have it there in 1 Thessalonians
5.16. Rejoice evermore, the sorrowful,
yet always rejoicing, no matter what circumstances. He goes on
to say here in verse 4 of chapter 7, I am filled with comfort.
I am exceeding joyful in your tribulation. Oh, he's rejoicing even in their
tribulation, in their trouble. Why? How can he rejoice? because
he looks beyond the circumstances of their lives. He's looking
to the Lord God. There's a joy. It's a permanent
joy. And it's a joy that's there not because life is easy. That's what they have to learn.
Life is not easy. There is conflict. Isn't that
what Paul is saying? There in Galatians 5.17 we've
already referred to the words, the flesh lost against the spirit
and the spirit against the flesh, you know these are contrary one
to the other and you cannot do the thing that you would. Tribulation, troubles. For Christ
says in the world you shall have tribulation, be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world. What are we to learn in the midst
of all these troubles and all these trials? to learn that we
must be ever looking to the Lord, the unchanging one. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today and forever, that one of whom we read in the Gospels,
He doesn't change. What He was then, He is now.
We have to look away from ourselves and we have to look to Him. all the aboundings of the grace
of God, where sin abounded, grace did, much more abound. We grieve over our sins, they
make us sorrowful. We feel such wretched creatures
sometimes. We sin so easily, we sin so lightly. Maybe we wonder, do we know anything
of the grace of God? We think the real problem is
yourself, more than I had myself. Dear man, Ralph Erskine. He said
much about some of his gospel sonnets. If ever you
see that little book, it's a rare book. It's his poetry and he
speaks, as I said last time, about the riddle of the believer's
life. But more than that, he He also
in those sonnets speaks of the believer's espousal, espouse
to the Lord Jesus Christ, the believer's jointure joined to
the Lord Jesus Christ and he develops all that in verse and
gives scripture proofs to all the statements he's making. I
suppose in many ways, probably the best known of all his is that little couplet in which
he recognizes the sovereignty of God. Sin for my good shall
work and win, yet it is not good that I should sin. You've probably
heard he quote it many a time in a sermon. How true it is,
the sovereignty of God, yet God not the author of sin, yet God
overruling everything. Sin for my good shall work and
win, Yet it is not good that I should sin, not to excuse our
sinning, but there are so many of these little cupids. Again,
Erskine says, for all my sins my heart is sad since God's dishonored,
yet I am glad, sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, for though
my sin The last does stay, yet pardon takes the guilt away,
says the little songster. How wonderful it is. This is
something of that life then, the paradoxical life of those
who are the people of God. A life full of contradictions.
And it's not just a man like Ralph Erskine. There's plenty
of it in the hymn book. Certainly in the hymns of Joseph
Hart. When we think of prayer, for
example, I'd like to close here really. The words that we have in the
237th hymn, it is to credit contradictions. Talk to him one never sees. Cry
and groan beneath afflictions. Yes, the dread, the thought of
ease. Oh, not an easy life, but a prayerful
life. a sorrowing life, and yet a joyful
life, a strange experience, he said, of the people of God. Well,
the Lord willing, we'll return to consider the remainder of
these paradoxes next Wednesday.