Let us turn once again to the
Word of God and turning to the portion we were reading in the
opening verses of the second epistle of Paul to the church
at Corinth. And I want to take for a text
the words that we find here at verse 10 concerning Paul's experience
concerning the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who delivered us
from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that
he will yet deliver us. In 2 Corinthians 1 and verse
10, and to try to say something with regards to Christ as the
deliverer, Christ the deliverer. And of course, here, as I intimated,
Paul is speaking of his own experience, and in many ways the bitterness
of that experience, and yet the comforts, the consolations that
he knew by the grace of God. He says previously that verse
3, blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforteth
us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them
which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ
abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. How the Lord God is no man's
debtor, how even in the midst of of trial there is blessing. We were thinking of that last
Lord's Day evening when we were looking at those words of James
in the opening chapter of his epistle. that man is a blessed
man who knows what it is to be tried by his God. What we see in Paul, we see it
in all the apostles, but I suppose it's so evident really in the
epistles of Paul that he is a man who doesn't just theorize with
regards to his message, but he is a man who preaches those things
that he had known and proved in experience. And so it is evident
here in what he says in this opening chapter of the Epistle,
verse 6, where do we be afflicted? It is for your consolation and
salvation which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings
which we also suffer, or where do we be comforted? it is for
your consolation and salvation. How Paul is so clearly ministering
to them out of those things that he had known and felt of the
grace of God. Again, later in chapter 4 we
have that passage from verse 7. He says we have this treasure
in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. We are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We are perplexed but not in despair,
persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed,
always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. And then he says, we which live
are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life
also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then
death worketh in us, but life in you. Those things that the
Lord brings him into are for a purpose. When he was in a sense
first given his commission, Remember how in Acts chapter 9 we read
about how he was apprehended of Christ Jesus there at the
very gate of Damascus. He had gone as a persecutor,
seeking to find and destroy those who were followers of the way,
those who were followers of the Lord Jesus. This is a man who
was evidently under some conviction of his sin, kicking against the
pricks. kicking against the gold, his
conscience was awakened, and there the Lord, as it were, arrests
him. He's blinded, he's led into the
city, and then that disciple of the Lord, Ananias, is directed
to go to him. And, in a sense, Ananias, as
the Lord's mouthpiece, gives this man his commission. What is he to do? He's to be
the Apostle to the Gentiles. This is what the Lord says unto
Ananias, there in Acts 9.15, Go thy way, for he is a chosen
vessel unto me that he saw of Tarsus. Go thy way, says the
Lord to Ananias, he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name
before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel for
I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's
sake. All the ministry is going to
cost this man dear and yet out of all that experience that the
Lord brings him into he will be a faithful minister of the
gospel of the grace of God. We find him for example writing
there to the Philippians in that epistle chapter 4 and verse 9
those things which ye have both learnt and received and heard
and seen in me do and the God of peace shall be with you oh
it was those things that They not only learn from him but they
see in him. He is a man then who must preach
out of the fullness of his own experience. And what is he speaking
of here? He is speaking about how the
Lord has delivered him and delivered him again and again. He speaks in the past tense and
the present tense and the future tense. He says at verse 9, we
have the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not
trust in ourselves but in God, which raiseth the dead, who delivered
us. Past tense, from so great a death,
and doth deliver, present tense, in whom we trust that he will,
yes, future tense, deliver us. the Lord Jesus Christ is that
one then who is the deliverer of his people. And what is it
that they are delivered from? What are they delivered from?
Well, here in the middle of the verse we're told it's a great
death. Who delivered us from so great
a death? how remarkable this is. And you
may have observed as we were reading the two portions, we
read first of all there in the latter part of Acts 19, and all
those troubles that came upon the apostle whilst he was at
Ephesus in Asia Minor, and then we read here the opening verses.
And see how he clearly is referring to those events. in what he says
here at the 8th verse we would not brethren have you ignorant
of our trouble which came to us in Asia this is when he was
at Ephesus that we were pressed out of measure above strength
in so much that we despaired even of life but we have the
sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves
but in God which raises the dead We read of all the trouble that
was caused by Demetrius, the silversmith who made images of
the goddess Diana and was troubled, he thought that his trade was
about to be destroyed because Paul's ministry there amongst
the Ephesians had been so owned and blessed of the Lord God. the words that we have there,
the whole city was told. Verse 29 in that 19th chapter,
the whole city was filled with confusion. And having caught
Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions,
in trouble, they rushed with one accord into the theater.
And when Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples
suffered him not. They feared for Paul. And then
certainly Chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him,
desiring him that he would not adventure, he was not to venture
forth into the theatre, his life would be in the gravest danger. He was one who was therefore
made to suffer greatly as he sought to exercise his ministry. He mentions events at Ephesus,
not only Here in the second epistle we have a reference also at the
end of the first epistle there in chapter 15 and verse 32 he
says, if after the manner of men I have fought with beasts
at Ephesus. This is the context, these are
the things that he is speaking of. These bitter trials and troubles
but he wasn't just at Ephesus he could say later on in chapter
11 that he was in death often in the course of his preaching
we know for example back in Acts 14 that at Lystra he was stoned
he was stoned and he was left for death there at Lystra, Acts
14 19. Oh this man knew what it was
then pressed out of measure above strength. This is the the figure
that he is using as he's describing something of these aspects of
his ministry here in verse 8. Pressed out of measure above
strength. It's a reference really to the
the beast of burden that's loaded and loaded and loaded and loaded
over its strength really. You know, the straw that breaks
the camel's back. And these are Paul's experiences,
and he wasn't just like this when he was in Asia. He'll go
on, he'll go over into Macedonia, into Achaia, of course Corinth
is there, in Achaia, the southern regions of Greece. These are the places he goes
to minister the Word of God, and even as he moves from place
to place, it very much is a matter of in-depth, oft with Paul. In Greece, what does he experience
there? Well, he speaks later here, in
this epistle, in chapter 7 and verse 5, when we were coming
to Macedonia, he says our flesh had no rest but we were troubled
on every side without the fighting within were fears oh what a ministry
was this that Paul has to exercise and so he says we had the sentence
of death in ourselves the sentence of death it's the
same that's spoken of in verse 10, so great a death. What is
it? What is it? The sentence of death
in ourselves. Well, of course, we know that
there is an appointed time to die. In that sense, we all, I
suppose, have the sentence of death in ourselves. It is appointed unto men once
to die. Says the apostle writing to the
Hebrews. after death cometh the judgment there is a time to be
born there is a time to die a time to every season and every purpose
under heaven and so there is that sentence and it's in ourselves
but He's not just speaking of his mortal life. Surely here we're to understand
what the apostle is saying more particularly in a spiritual sense
when he speaks of those various deliverances. He delivered us from so great
a death. What is that greater death? What
is that sentence? That sentence of death that he
feels in himself. Well, it's a reference surely
to a persuasion that he has in his own heart. The margin gives
the alternative reading there at verse 9, the answer of death
in ourselves. What is the answer? Well, here
is a man who feels continually his utter helplessness, who is
made to feel his own weakness. Of course, he'll go on to speak
in some detail of that at the end of the second epistle when
he makes reference to that man that he knew in Christ. He speaks
in the third person, he doesn't want to draw attention to himself,
that man who was caught up to the third heaven, who was favoured
to say unspeakable things. But how he was made by the Lord's
dealings with him to increasingly feel is helplessness and so increasingly
realizing his utter dependence upon the Lord so greater death he calls it interesting the word that's actually
used as I say in verse 9 we have an alternative rendering of the
word in the margin It says the sentence of death in the text
but the answer of death in the margin. To indicate that it's
a word that there's no really adequate English words to substitute
for that particular word. We can think of the language
that he uses in Romans 7, that great 7th chapter that we so
often refer to. And how thankful we are that
there's such a chapter in the Word of God, where Paul speaks
of the conflict, you see, between his old nature and his new nature. The flesh lost against the spirit
and the spirit against the flesh, and these are so contrary one
to the other. And he says there, I know that
in me, that is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing. That's where the sentence of
death is. in self there is no good thing. And the true believer
is brought to recognize that. It's interesting how in one of
his sermons Ralph Erskine says of the true believer that that
is one that believes that he cannot believe. He says of believers
they believe that they cannot believe. And it's the same truth,
isn't it, that we often might sing in that lovely hymn of John
Newton's, O could I but believe, then all would easy be, I would
but cannot, Lord relieve, my help must come from thee. Well, this is that sentence,
this is that great death that we feel in self, as the Lord
deals with us in this fashion. At the beginning of our experience
in some measure surely we have to be brought to realize that
there's no salvation in self. You want to be saved. The Lord
comes and there's an awakening in the soul and you long for
faith. And you want to know that you
have a faith that is a true faith. You might say, well I have faith,
I believe, I believe that God is, I'm not an atheist. But more
than that, I believe the Bible. I believe the Bible is the Word
of God. I believe all that is written here concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ. And yet, is this faith that I
have a saving faith? I'm not sure it's a saving faith.
How the Lord, you see, in His own ways will bring us to to
feel our utter impotence and the impossibility of our faith.
It's a sentence of death, it's the answer of death itself, it's
the great death. And yet, in that, there is, strangely,
the beginning of spiritual life. Lord Paul says, we know that
what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
become guilty before God. What is it for every mouth to
be stopped? it's to have the answer of death
in ourselves that we can do nothing for ourselves nothing to save
ourselves that salvation is altogether that that is of the Lord and
doesn't Moses know it? Moses when he comes to pray to
his God there in the 90th Psalm thou turnest man to destruction
and sayest return ye children of men or the sentence, the answer
of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God, which rises at the dead. That's what it's about.
It's God teaching us what we are, teaching us the awful doctrine
of the sinner's total depravity. It is surely one thing to ascend
to those great doctrines of grace, We might make our boast in the
five points of Calvinism. But what is it if we know nothing
of those blessed truths in our soul's experience? We have to
learn. We have to learn the way this
man learned. As I said, when he gets that
commission to preach at the beginning, there by the mouth of the Lord's
faithful disciple Ananias, It's the things that he must suffer.
All their suffering, you see. What does God do? He has concluded
them all in unbelief, it says. This is Paul. Paul writing there
in Romans 11, 32. God has concluded them all in
unbelief that he might have mercy upon all. But first there's that
conclusion of being shut up. I am shut up. I cannot come forth,
says the psalmist. All before faith comes we're
kept, kept under the law, shut up to that faith that's going
to afterward be revealed. And it has to be revealed. It has to be revealed. It's that
that comes from the Lord. It is the gift of God. It's that
faith that comes by the operation of God. here is the awakening
then in the soul, here is the beginning of it as it were of
faith, here is the first deliverance who delivered us who delivered
us from so great a death but it doesn't end there it's a continual
experience there are many deliverances, that's what it says there are
many deliverances to be experienced it's a life that involves a multitude
of deliverances over and over and over again the prayer of
the psalmist back in Psalm 44 Oh God command deliverances for
Jacob and it's a plural, isn't it? We believe in the verbal
inspiration of the Word of God, so we do well to mark that there's
a difference between the singular and the plural. And there it
is evidently in the plural. Psalm 44 and verse 4, O God,
command deliverances. Jacob needs to be delivered,
not just once or twice or thrice, but time and time and time again,
many deliverances. and why so? well the psalmist
elsewhere says many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord
delivereth them out of them all because there are so many afflictions
because there are so many trials and troubles and difficulties
it's not an easy way it's a narrow way that leads to life and I'm
sure you're not unfamiliar with the way Bunyan paints the picture
there in Pilgrim's Progress and all those various things that
come into the life of that poor man Christian as he seeks to
make progress in that narrow way he needs deliverances because
he has many afflictions all the deliverances that the
Lord is pleased to grant to his people So much of it there in
the book of Psalms. Look at the language, for example,
of the 116th Psalm. What does the psalmist say here? Verse 3, the sorrows of death
compass me. the pains of hell gathered upon
me, I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of
the Lord, O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul." Or do we not
have to learn from the Psalmist? We pray for salvation, we have
to pray for deliverance many times. Deliver my soul. We need
deliverance, yes. And who is the great deliverer
of his people? Why? It's the Lord God Himself. Again taking account here of
the context, the language that we have not only in this 10th
verse where we have our text and the Lord and his deliverances,
but that previous 9th verse. Why is it that we have to experience
so great a death? Why is it that we need to have
that sentence or that answer of death in ourselves? well what
we have here is a purposive clause it's in order that look at the
words in verse 9 we have the sentence of debt in ourselves
that literally the force of the word is in order that we should
not trust in ourselves but in God which raiseth the debt or
the way of man is not in himself None can keep alive his own soul,
says the Psalmist. How can we continue? How can
we persevere in the way? We need to be kept continually,
delivered constantly, kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last days. But how precious
is that little word but there at the end of verse 9 or the
sentence of death in self that we should not trust in self but
in God looking away from ourselves isn't that what faith is? the all important thing with
regards to our faith is the object of that faith it's the one we're
looking to it's looking onto Jesus you know you know the significance
of the verb that we have there at the beginning of Hebrews 12
it literally means to look away to look away from every other
object to look to one thing alone to look only on to Jesus looking
on to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who delivered us
from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that
he will yet deliver us all this is the one that we have to look
to then the one that we have to trust in and where there is
that fight there is union isn't there? fight is a trusting and
arresting in Christ is a blessed union with Him and He gives us
that promise, Thy dead men shall live or death in self you say,
Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they
arise, it's His resurrection life that's in the souls of His
people and works their deliverance continually the blessing of union
with Christ, how Paul knew it he might have had many afflictions,
many trials many troubles in death after he says and yet he
has that blessed union doesn't he? he is crucified with Christ
and he says nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in
me and the life which I know live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for
me." He had that resurrection life in his soul because of his
union with the Lord Jesus. Again he says, always bearing
about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life
also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. That is the life
that he is speaking of. And it's something that we have
to constantly be learning. This is why there are many deliverances. Because there's much to be learned.
And how is it with us? Why it's line upon line, line
upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon precept, it's here
a little, it's there a little. That's the way the Lord teaches
us. That's the way He shows us, that's
the way He brings us to grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And how that godly King,
King Hezekiah, knew it. How he experienced it. By these
things men live, he says. In all these things is the life
of my Spirit. But what what deliverances they
are, and what consolation comes from all these experiences. Also
he speaks of consolation here, in the earlier part of the chapter.
He says in verse 3, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comforts.
What is consolation? It's comforts, isn't it? He's
the Father of mercies, He's the God of all comfort, who comforteth
us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them
which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God. It's part and parcel of His ministry. It enables this man so to minister
the Word of God to others He goes on to say as much, verse
6, whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation,
which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which
we also suffer. Or whether we be comforted, it
is for your consolation and salvation, whatever it is. Whatever experience
this man finds himself in the midst of, he sees and feels it
to be such a significant part of his whole ministry. And he
is concerned, isn't he, always to be comforting. Comfort one
another, he says, with these words. Writing there in 1 Thessalonians
4, he's speaking there, of course, of the blessed prospect of the
Lord's coming again. We make too little of that blessed
prospect, don't we? The Lord has declared it Himself. There will be they're coming
again the end of time and Paul speaks
of these things and tells the Thessalonians that oh there's
comfort in that blessed prospect then why the deliverances will
all be completed and the believers will be all in heaven resurrected
bodies, reunited with glorified spirits. That's the prospect.
That's the final great deliverance that the Lord has purposed for
his people. But between our very first experience
of deliverance, when the Lord first turns us to destruction
and we feel that sentence, that answer of death in ourselves
and then He comes in all the constellations of the Gospel
and we see something of that fullness of salvation that is
in the Lord Jesus Christ and then the life of faith and the
trials of faith and the many deliverances that we stand in
need of from day to day, moment by moment but all leading up
to that final great deliverance who delivered us from so great
a debt, he says, and doth deliver. In whom we trust he will yet
deliver us. And then he speaks of the necessity
of prayers, ye also helping together by prayer for us. Oh, let us
be those then who would be a prayerful people, praying for one another
that the Lord would grant that we might see those who are being
delivered from sin and Satan, favored with that new birth in
the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord's people in all the midst
of their trials and troubles, knowing the deliverances that
come by him who is the great deliverer of his people, who
is the shepherd and the bishop of their souls. Will the Lord
be pleased to bless his word to us tonight? Amen.