2 Corinthians 1.10, who delivered
us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust
that he will yet deliver us. You also helping together by
prayer for us that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means
of many persons, thanks may be given by many on our behalf.
For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience,
that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom,
but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world,
and more abundantly to youward. For we write none other things
unto you than what you read or acknowledge, and I trust you
shall acknowledge even to the end, as also you have acknowledged
us in part that we are your rejoicing, even as you also are ours in
the day of the Lord Jesus. who delivered us, Paul says,
from so great a death. In this verse, he reminds us
that what he said in verses eight and nine, this verse 10 is just a continuation
of what God has always done for us. Look at verses eight and
nine again. For we would not, brethren, have
you ignorant of our trouble, which came to us in Asia, that
we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that
we despaired even of life." God brought him to the place where
he was without hope. He was beyond his strength, beyond
his ability to comprehend, beyond his ability to bear it. But when
we reach that point, the Lord gives us hope in our Savior that
we might be able to bear The trials he brings, but look at
verse nine, but we have the sentence of death in ourselves for a purpose
that we should not trust in ourselves. Isn't that a simple reason? Everybody
that walks this earth tonight is either trusting in themselves
or they're trusting in the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. They're a self-made man and they're
They control their little world to the extent that they can,
and of course, that ain't much, that's not any at all, but we
believe we can, don't we? And so people exert themselves, they impose themselves so that
they can control others to the extent that they can do so without
just becoming a societal pariah. But that's, they trust themselves.
They manipulate and create their own outcomes, they think. And
then there's the believer who walks through this world praying,
Lord, Lord, help me. I don't know anything. Give me
wisdom. Help me choose right. Help me, teach me to pray. Teach me to worship you. May I do what I do for your glory,
not my own gain. May I be a witness for you in
this world, just by the way that I live, just give me opportunity
to glorify you, to lift you up. Make me a help to other people. Make me a blessing to others,
to not think on my own things only, but on the things. And
we could go on and on. There's just two people, two
types of people in this world. We trust ourselves or we trust
the Lord. And Paul said, the Lord brought
me to the limits of myself, beyond measure. I couldn't even calculate
the trouble I was in, above strength, beyond my capacity to do anything,
insomuch that I despaired even of life. He brought me to that
place for a specific reason. that I would be shut up to Christ.
And that's how God saves sinners. And that's how he deals with
those that he saved. He's talking about earthly afflictions
here, but look what he says in our text in verse 10. And you
know what he's talking about in verses eight and nine, Paul
suffered affliction everywhere he went. He said, I don't know
what's even gonna happen to me in this place I'm going to, except
that death waits for me, trouble and death. That's all I know,
but I count not my life dear unto myself that I might preach
the gospel that the Lord sent me to preach. I trust him, in other words,
I trust him. But look what he takes it to
here in verse 10. Who delivered us from so great
a death. He's been delivering us from
death all along. He delivered us from death before
we knew we were dead. And doth deliver. Is the Lord
saving you tonight? If he's not, then he never did.
If he ever did, then he is. In whom we trust that he will
yet save us. That word deliver means to save.
He saves us. So it's just a continuation of
what God has done all along. Not only does he save us from
death while we're alive, but he saved us from being dead.
He's the reason we're alive. And when he delivers us from
trouble in this life, it reminds us of how he saved us from so
great a death. The death that he saved us from
was so great as to be eternal. We can't even comprehend that
eternal death. The one thing that we dread the
most, we live in fear of until the Lord shows us that death
is gain and makes it so in Christ. The one thing we dread. But this is eternal death. This
is spiritual death. Having sinned against the infinitely
holy God, our sentence of death is infinite wrath and punishment. Again, it's incomprehensible.
We don't even know what that is. But we know because of who Christ
is and what an infinitely sinful thing it is to despise him and
to have murdered him, to reject him, to trust ourselves and not
Him, we can never pay for it. We can never pay for it. We're
talking about beyond strength, above measure. That's where we are by nature.
We're beyond our strength, we're above measure. We despair even
of life when the Lord shows us our true condition. The death that he has saved us
from is so great as to be imperceptible. It's an insidious death. We didn't
even know we were dead. That's a death so insidious that
not only like dead people in every sense, we could do nothing
about it, but we love being dead. And we called it life. The Lord says those that live
in sin are dead while they live. He delivered us from it even
though we desired no deliverance. We refused and resisted deliverance. We chose death. We embraced it. We preferred it. As the Israelites, they preferred
the bondage of Egypt, didn't they? To what the Lord provided
for them. They said, we should have just
stayed in Egypt. At least we ate good there. They preferred
the heavy tyranny of Egypt because they said, our soul loatheth
this light bread, this manna from heaven, which is Christ.
That's so great a death. We preferred our bondage. It was so great a death that
deliverance from it took the greatest death that was ever
died. The death of God's Son, the death
of our Savior was so great a death as to be indescribable. But if
we wanna know the meaning of the words so great in our text
in verse 10, then we've got to look to Calvary. We've got to
look to the Lord Jesus Christ to see God's son there, broken
and bloody, battered. Pilate said, behold the man.
And God's got to give us spiritual eyes to behold the God man. And how he suffered for our sins,
the just for the unjust to know that his own soul was the offering
for our sins. to see him there by faith, and
we don't wanna see a painting of it, a stupid, presumptuous,
inaccurate statue of it. We want by the eyes of faith
to see the Lord Jesus Christ so broken and beaten and hated
on that he didn't even appear to be a man according to the
scriptures. He didn't look like a man anymore. not so that we'll
feel sorry for him, but to know that it pleased the Lord to crush
his son, that he might deliver us from
so great a death. It was so great a death that
eternity will not be long enough for our praises to be sufficient.
for Him having delivered us from it. We can never say enough. Our song can never end. In both now and forever, it must
be worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing. Worthy is the Lamb. Notice from our text that He's
saving us even now. And this is the comfort I would
desire for the hearts of the Lord's sheep tonight, to see
what He did for us and what He's doing for us and what He will
do for us. He's saving us even now. Do you need saving tonight? Are
you desperate tonight? Are you hopeless without Him?
Are you at the end of yourself? Have you despaired? Are you troubled,
are you heavy? And find no help in this world?
He doth deliver. I'm now, I'm alive by His grace
spiritually now. I'm dead to sin and alive unto
God by His power and grace, but I still dwell in the body of
this death. And as the northern star is held
in its place by His omnipotent hand, the hand of Jesus Christ, He holds me yet in His arms or
I would fall. I would fall. He holds me tonight,
or I would fall. In a flash, I'd be gone if he
lets me go. He doth deliver. He's saving
me right now. I need the Savior more now than
I ever have. To save me, to hold me, to keep
me, to lift me up. And we should thank Him and praise
Him all the time for saving us all the time. When we're troubled, we cry,
Lord, save me. And we're not distressed. When
we're perplexed, our prayer is, Lord, save me. And we don't despair. When we're persecuted, the groaning
of our heart is, Lord, save me. And we're not forsaken. but we're
cast down. Our Lord Jesus stretches forth
His hand and takes hold of us and we're not destroyed. That's
now, that's always. The word trust in verse 10 is
in context with the same word in verses eight and nine. Don't
trust in, so that I wouldn't trust in myself, but in Him,
in Him, so that I would trust in Him. to trust in Him where He says
here, in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us. That is one side of a coin of which the
other side is to despair of self, to give up on self. The woman
with the issue of blood, This woman had an issue of blood that
was draining the very life from her, and she had nothing she
could do about it. She went to doctors. The scriptures
say that she spent everything that she had. You all right, brother? Something went down the wrong
way there. So she's, her life is draining
from her. She spent all that she had going
to doctors. And not only didn't it help,
but she just got worse. And says she spent all she had. This is salvation. This is a
picture of what Christ did for us and what he does for us. Everything, she had no other
hope. Where are you gonna go when you've been to every doctor
and you don't have any resources left? beyond strength, above
measure, despairing of self, finding no hope and no help. And she heard of the Savior.
And there was a great throng of people that followed the Savior
everywhere so that they were bumping into one another. And
here's this feeble woman that can barely stand up. And she
said, I've got to get to him. She got through that press somehow. She pushed people out of the
way and she said, if I can just touch the hem of his garment,
I'll be healed. And you think about the faith
at that time. You think about what the Lord revealed in her
heart. For her to have tried every other possibility Can you
imagine how cast down you would be? How discouraged you would
be? How hopeless you would be? Nothing has worked. Everything
I've tried, I've just gotten worse. But I know, I know beyond
a shadow of a doubt, if I can just touch the hem of his garment,
I'll be healed. And she touched him. And the
Lord said, who touched me? and virtue went out of him into
her, and her disease went out of her into him, and she was
made whole. But she had to get to that place
where she had no home, no resources, no help. That's what our text is talking
about, above measure, beyond strength. We despair even of
life, and then we put our trust, We leave off trusting ourselves
when we come to the end of ourselves and put our trust in the one
who's worthy of it. The law brings us to Christ by
causing us to despair of ever pleasing God ourselves. Paul
said, you who would be under the law. And there are those
who, you know, they put it on their walls, 10 commandments.
I keep those every day, that's my hope. If I, you know, I haven't
broken. He said, you've busted every
one of them wide open. If you've ever looked at a woman,
if you've ever hated somebody in your heart, you've murdered
them. But Paul said, when I understood
the law, then I knew what sin was. and that I was it, and it
murdered me. It rendered me dead spiritually.
I realized what my condition was, but for God, and that's
when you'll come to the place where you say, if I can just
touch him, if I can just come to his feet and beg for mercy. The requirements and condemnation
of the law is that burden which Paul's forefathers, nor Paul
himself, was able to bear, he said. It's beyond strength. When God shows you that your
decisions are your problem, you'll stop making decisions for Jesus.
When your will is your problem, you'll stop boasting about your
will, that your works are your problem. That's when you despair
of self. When the law and its uncompromising
demand presses you above measure, beyond strength, and you see
that you have no strength to do anything about your sin problem
before God. When you despair even of life,
which in spiritual terms means you realize you're dead. And all you are and all you know
and all you do is death. God brings you to that place
like Paul said here. He brought me there to show me
that I can't trust myself. I can't trust my decisions. I
can't trust my will. I can't trust my works. And he'll shut you up to cry.
You'll put your trust in the Lord then. If you see him as
he is now, you'll cease to trust in yourself and you will confess
that with me, it's impossible. The Lord Jesus Christ, the disciples
asked him, who can be saved? He said, with me and it's impossible,
you can't. Who can be saved? Nobody. Nobody, and he said that
in the context of that rich young ruler, who he said, you go sell
all that you have and give it to the poor and come follow me,
and that man went away sorrowful, because he got lots of stuff.
And the Lord said, there's not anybody that can choose right. There's not anybody that's gonna
follow me given that decision. But bless God, he doesn't give
sinners a decision. He saves them by the preaching
of this gospel. He saves them. when we cease to trust in ourselves,
we'll be, by God's grace, we'll be able to trust in Him who raises
the dead. That's what he said, who raises
the dead. We had the sentence of verse
nine. We despaired, end of verse eight, we despaired even of life.
And this is, the question of sin is a matter of life and death.
But we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not
trust in ourselves, but in God, characterized in a particular
way, God that raises the dead, that's the God that's got to
save you. Because only He can save you
from so great a death, so great a death. that you're utterly
depraved, that you're like Lazarus. You
know, Lazarus had been dead four days. There's a reason the Lord
waited that long. Salvation is a raising from the
dead. That's why we trust God who raises
the dead, not God who respects our decision, not the God who's
waiting on us to do something. You think about that now. You
think about that. The way that this book characterizes
salvation is by God coming to a grave,
the Lord Jesus Christ coming to a grave, and he didn't come
on the first day. He didn't come on the second
day. Lazarus had been dead for four
days. And when he told them to roll
away the stone, somebody objected to that and said, Lord, that's
not a good idea. He's gonna be stinky by now. By now, he stinketh. Yeah, we
do, don't we? We do. We're corrupt and disgusting
and vile and so far beyond home. that were like a four days dead,
stinky, rotten corpse. That's how you're saved from
so great a death. And that's who you're saved by,
the one that can raise the dead. You remember when Ezekiel was
asked, can these bones live? The Lord took him out in a field
where a war had taken place, a battle had taken place, and
there were skeletons everywhere. And it says that the bones were
exceeding dry. They'd been parched by the sun
for probably years. They were a long time from being
alive. Just bones, just skeletons. They
were not even together. It says the bones came together.
They were scattered. And Ezekiel was asked, can these
bones live? And he gave the only right answer
to that, thou knowest. Thou knowest. The only one that
can answer the question, can these bones live, is God who
raises the dead. And you know what the Lord said
to him? Preach to him. Preach to them. Preach to them. And the Holy Spirit came while God's prophet spoke of
the Savior. And they came alive. A dead man doesn't get alive. He got to be raised from the
dead. We are repulsive dead. The Lord
described the Pharisees, the most religious people on this
earth as whited sepulchers in their religious finery, but inwardly
corrupt and rotted and filthy. What is required quite simply
and so thoroughly established in scripture is a miracle of
God by the hand of his son. To trust in God who raises the
dead is to acknowledge your deadness. First of all, to confess it,
to own it, to despair even of life, as Paul said in our text,
and to never trust in yourself again. Well, I've done bad things,
but I'll do good things. No, you won't, you're dead. I'll make a decision for Jesus.
Your decisions are what killed you. It's to acknowledge why you're
dead. You're dead because you deserve it. The wages of your sin is death. It's my problem and it's my fault. My will killed me. God's gonna
have to be willing to save me. My way killed me. And I'm only
gonna have life God's way. And Christ said, I am the way. My works killed me. Christ's finished perfect work
of salvation on Calvary is my life. His are the words of eternal
life. He that hath a son hath life. And what Paul's also saying in
this plain verse is that God causes us over and over and over
through life to deny self. God brought me to that place
when I first met him. And he brings me to that place
every day. Without him, I'm a goner. I've
got to have him. to deny self and follow him,
that's a daily thing. Paul said, I take up my cross
daily. And it's just one thing you need to remember about crosses
and us, the cross of our Savior, we're gonna talk about that till
we die and we still won't have come close to addressing it. When it comes to you and a cross,
there's just one thing you need to remember about that. Crosses
have one purpose, people die on them. That's what they're
for. And Paul said, every day I take
up my cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
To die to self, to deny self, to despair of self, to quit trusting
yourself. That's not a one-time thing.
You're gonna have to stop trusting yourself right now. You have
to stop it again tomorrow, over and over again, That's what Paul
said, he brought these things. He showed me a long time ago,
he showed me 40 years ago that I can't trust myself. I'm still
trusting myself. Except for his grace. He deals with us every day. in such a way that we will not
look to ourselves, we will not look to our own resources or
ability, but will despair of self and trust Him. To renounce ourselves and look
to Him. Is it hard to kick against the
goads? You remember when the Lord asked Saul of Tarsus that.
Saul of Tarsus was high and mighty Pharisee, carrying out orders
and afflicting and killing, in many cases, the people of God,
the sheep of Christ. And the Lord met him one day
on the road to Damascus and knocked him off of his horse and blinded
him. Paul said, I saw a light brighter than the noonday sun.
and I was blinded, and I was knocked off my horse, and I was
down in the dust, and the Lord said, I've been goading you like
a wild mule. Is that hard for you? It's still hard, isn't it? It's still hard. The Lord still
has to goad us some, doesn't he? He still got to bring us
down, got to bring us down into the dust. And that's just the
truth. Now, if we're gonna be honest
with ourselves, if we're gonna be honest with
ourselves, he still got to humiliate us. He brought that high and
mighty ruler down into the dust and humiliated him. And it's the best thing that
ever happened to him. Because he quit trusting himself
that day. and trusted the Savior, but that's a lifelong thing.
Salvation is not a one-time event. We need saving, don't we? We
need saving. And he's still the only one. You ever feel like the stuffing's
getting knocked out of you a little bit at a time in this life? That's
not the world doing that. That's the Savior doing that. And maybe one of these days,
we'll just lay at his feet. Our first reaction won't be to
get angry or to think, what am I gonna do? Our first reaction
will be, Lord, Save me, save me. He uses the world sometimes,
but it's not the world doing that. It's the way he introduced
himself to us, was by causing us, showing us
our deadness, our without strengthness, and cause us to fall into his
arms. This very night, if we're his,
we'll fall into his arms all over again. When we first came to the Lord
Jesus, what did we find? Rest under our souls. Rest from the bondage of the
law. Rest from the futile drudgery of the labors of our self-righteousness. Rest from the relentless pounding
of an evil conscience, our guilt. If you come to the Lord Jesus
Christ tonight for the first time, you'll find that rest. And you'll never stop coming
to him for the same. First Peter 2.2, as newborn babes,
desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.
If so be, you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom
coming? As unto a living stone, disallowed
indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the Savior to whom we're always coming. He has saved us, He's saving
us, and He always will. When I first came to Him about
40 years ago, I found rest. My pastor asked me, are you thirsty? And by the grace of Almighty
God, I was. And the Lord said to my soul,
come into me and drink. drink, and by His grace I did. And tonight, there's still a weariness in
there. I'm weary. My soul is still weary by the sin
that plagues us always in this body of flesh and sin. By His grace, I know where rest
is still found. I'm not weary now because His
rest is insufficient in any way, but because I am so prone even
still to resist it. I'm so prone even still to trust
in myself. But even still, He who has saved
me in every way that a sinner can be saved, doth yet save me. He will always save me. I know that he shall save me.
How? Because I trust him. He's worthy
of our trust. He's my righteousness. His precious blood is my cleansing
from all sin. The one who has forgiven all
of our sins has taught us to pray, Lord, forgive my sins. Give me a heart of forgiveness.
The faith that he gives is an ongoing trust. It's an endless trust. It's an
incessant trust. It's an exclusive trust. Whom have I in heaven beside
him and who on earth, Lord, besides you? Psalm 56.3. This is so easy to
remember. I pray we'll remember it. Remember all that David went
through in his life. He lived in a cave for a good
while because an entire army was out to kill him. And he wrote
in Psalm 56 three, what time I am afraid, I will trust in
thee. Let's pray together.