Let us turn to God's Word once
again turning to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 I'll read verses 9
and 10 in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 reading verses 9 and 10 as unknown
and yet well known as dying and behold we live as chastened and
not killed the sorrowful yet always rejoicing as poor yet
making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things. Such then is the testimony of
the Apostle Paul. And what is it that he is speaking
of in these verses? That that's of what we might
term spiritual paradoxes. Looking up the words paradox
in the Concise Oxford Dictionary, we're told it is a seeming contradiction,
but really a well-founded statement. It seems a contradiction, but
that is not really the case. It is in fact, according to the
definition, a well-founded statement. Though there is much that is
paradoxical when we think of the life of faith, the life that
the children of God are to live. We sometimes sing the words of
Joseph Hart, tears to credit contradictions, talk to him one
never sees, cry and groan beneath affliction. yet to dread the
thoughts of ease. What a strange and mysterious
path it is that the believer must travel. Now we have in times
past looked certainly at the 9th verse here and sought to
say something with regards to that experience of chastening,
dying, and behold, we live, says the Apostle, as chastened and
not killed. Of course, that chastening is
very much a mark of the believer's sonship. Whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. What a favour, what a blessing
then if we are being treated as the sons of God, those who
have been adopted by Him. He takes account of us and He
seeks to correct us. It is a great favour. And yet
it involves of course at times such a sense of sorrow, no chastening
for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous or sorrowful. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised
thereby. Well, we've sought many a time,
and even from these words in verse 9, to say something with
regards to the chastenings that are the portion of the children
of God. But this morning I want us more
particularly to look at the words that we have in the 10th verse. a sorrowful yet always rejoicing,
as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing
all things." In the context here we see how the Apostle Paul is
speaking of his ministry and in that ministry of course very
much supported by his son in the faith Timothy And so he does
speak in the plural, not in the singular. In the opening verses,
we then, he says, meaning himself and Timothy, and others who might
be associated with him, we then, as workers together with him,
beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain. For he says, 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. But you see how that second verse
is very much a parenthesis. What he has started to say in
the opening verse, he really continues then in verse 3 as
he speaks on about the ministry that these men were exercising
given no offense in anything he says that the ministry be
not blind but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of
God and then he goes on to speak in the following verses right
through to our text of all that these men were experiencing in
the course of that ministry that they sought to exercise and why
is he doing this? well he's defending his own ministry
because there were those at Corinth who had come in and sought to
turn the hearts of those believers against Paul they were false
teachers and he asked to time and again defend his own ministry
amongst them. And that's what he is doing.
He speaks of all that that ministry has cost, but his great concern
really is that these Corinthians should be followers of him, not
simply because of who he is, but because he is that one who
is truly the follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Or does he
not say it's there in the opening words of the first letter? In 1 Corinthians chapter 11,
the opening words of the chapter, he says, Be ye followers of me,
even as I am of Christ. And what will it entail following
in this narrow way, this way that leads to life. It will involve
experiences that are really quite strange, mysterious, paradoxical
experiences to be a follower of the Apostle, who is a follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is much that is paradoxical
when we think even of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, that remarkable
hymn of Isaac Watts, See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
sorrow and love flow mingling down. Often think of that little
couplet of Watts and what it says concerning the sufferings
of the Lord Jesus, the shedding of his precious blood. What do
we witness? Sorrow, grief, and yet that all
mingled with love and kindness and compassion these contrary
things as it were coming together in the sufferings of the Lord
Jesus Christ the great love that he has for sinners and all that
that costs when he must bear the punishment of all their sins
and suffer so sorely at the hands of his Heavenly Father Well,
thinking this morning then of the believer and that that is
paradoxical in the life of the child of God, I want to concentrate
on the believer's sorrow and joy. These two things that are
mingled in the life of faith, the believer's sorrow and joy,
as we have it here at the beginning of verse 10, are sorrowful yet
all the way rejoicing. First of all, to say something
with regards to the sorrow of the godly. What makes the godly
to be sorrowful? The word, in fact, literally
means to be full of grief. What is it that grieves the child
of God, the believer who desires only to walk in that narrow way
which is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the way, the truth and
the life. What brings sorrow into our lives
if we're those who are true followers? Well, it is not really chastening. It is not chastening that makes
us sorrowful. Although it's interesting to
look at the context here that we've already intimated because
previously in verse 9 he is speaking of chastening as dying he says
and behold we live as chastened and not kills as sorrowful yet
all way rejoicing chastening as we've said is not something
that is is pleasant it's painful maybe some of us can recall occasions
in our childhood when Our father did have to chastise us, and
it was, it hurt. It was unpleasant. And yet, of
course, really, when we come to analyse it, we understand
it was a real mark of his love towards us, his concern for us,
because he wanted us to see the difference between those things
that were wrong and right. The rod is not to be spared according
to the wisdom that we find in Holy Scripture. The child is
not to be spoiled. Chastening is a mark of sonship,
as we've already said. But, then we have those words
in Hebrews 12, 11, No chastening for the present seemeth to be
joyous, but grievous or sorrowful. It's the same word really that
we have here in the text as sorrowful. No chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous but sorrowful. Nevertheless afterward it's yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised. Well
there are a number of words that are very striking in that particular
scripture concerning chastenings. And where we begin to see that
the chastening should not really cause us to be sorrowful. It says, it seemeth. It seemeth
to be sorrowful. It's not really so. That's an
appearance. But he goes on also to speak
of that chastening is ultimately for the good. seem it to be grievous,
nevertheless. One of those great words of Holy
Scripture, is it not, when we find them so often in the book
of Psalms, nevertheless. It reminds us of the Lord and
the ways of the Lord and the dealings of the Lord with His
people. He might correct them, yet nevertheless. He has a great
love and a great tenderness towards them. All that He does is ultimately
for their good. All things work together for
good. To them that love God, to them who are the core, according
to His purpose. But then there's that other word
that we have there in Hebrews 12, 11. He speaks of exercise. It is profitable, you see, to
them who exercise. How we are to take account of
God and the ways of God and the dealings of God. When God deals
with us in ways that are contrary to what we would desire, when
he seems to cross us, when his providence goes against us as
we would judge, that's how it seems to us. But we have to be
exercised in these things. and brought to examine ourselves
and to bring our lives back again to the touchstone of Holy Scripture
and to examine our lives in the light of those things that God
has declared and revealed here in Holy Scripture. The sorrow
that is spoken of here in verse 10, I say again, is not really
because of any chasing. What is it that makes the child
of God sorrowful? What is it that fills him with
grief? It is not the Lord's correctings. Surely it must be that sin that
is confronting the believer. And how the Apostle himself felt
that. And how he reminds us in a passage
like Romans chapter 7, he thought himself to be a wretched man.
All wretched man that I am, he cries, thou shalt deliver me
from the body of this death. He's speaking of his own nature.
He's speaking of what he was by his natural birth. One born
dead in trespasses and in sins. One who was once a proud man,
a self-righteous man, a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Oh, but then
when the Lord dealt with him, when the Lord visited him in
his grace and he became a partaker of a new nature, a partaker of
the divine nature, when he was born again by the Spirit of God,
then he felt what he was. in his fallen nature and that's
what he's crying out against there in that seventh chapter
of Romans the good that I would I do not he says the evil that
I would not that I do all wretched man that I am who shall deliver
me from the body of this death and that's not just the experience
of Paul remember When he writes to Timothy, he clearly speaks
of himself as a pattern to them which should hereafter believe.
There in the opening chapter of 1 Timothy, that's how he speaks
of himself. He was of sin as the chief. And yet, he says that in the
way in which the Lord has dealt with him and shown him his sin,
he is a pattern, a type. to those who should hereafter
believe, as we said many a time, he's not saying that we all have
to have the same depths of experience. He was called to be an apostle,
the apostle to the Gentiles. He had a great work to do, the
Lord prepared him for that work. But there are principles. There
are principles in his life, in his experience, that can be applied
in general to the experiences of all the people of God. And
isn't that the reason why he has to write as he does time
and again in these epistles of the Corinthians and speak of
himself? He speaks of himself, speaks of his own experiences,
not because he wants to parade his own ego, he's not doing that
at all. Rather, he's having to defend. his ministry, that ministry that
he received of the Lord. But it's all overruled by God.
These things must be so that we might gather from this man's
experiences those principles that apply to the lives of the
children of God. And it is the case here with
regards to these paradoxes. He speaks of himself But there
is an application to us. He speaks in Romans 7 of himself. But there is an application to
all believers. It's not just Paul who has to
wrestle with his old nature, with himself. It's every believer. The flesh, he says to the Galatians,
the flesh lost it against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh. and these are contrary one to
the other and ye cannot do the thing that ye would. He's telling
them straight there that that is their experience as well as
his. That conflict between the old and the new nature in all
the people of God. Well here then as we consider
the sorrow of the godly It is not the afflictions that come
through chastening, it's that grief of sin that brings sorrow
into the lives of those who are truly the children of God. We
know all are sinners, but how few really feel the awful truth
of their sinnership. all have sinned. There is not
a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Or
there are a multitude of Scriptures that point out what man's standing
is by nature. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And remember how the Apostle
in the third chapter of Romans refers back to Old Testament
scriptures he refers particularly to the Psalms, Psalms 14 and
53 and he quotes those Psalms are the same in content 14 and
53 but he quotes a lengthy passage from those Psalms as he speaks
of the condition of the sinner by nature verse 10 of Romans
3, as it is written. And then you'll see from the
margin that the quotation is from Psalm 14, the opening verses,
Psalm 53, the opening verses. As it is written, There is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable.
There is none that doeth good, no, not one. And so it goes on.
speaking in very graphic terms of what is really in the hearts
of all men by nature and what proceeds from their wicked hearts.
And so we have it twice in the Psalms and again there in that
epistle to the Romans, three times. All that threefold cord
that is not quickly broken, the Word of God. All our sinners And that is the truth. Sin is
of man. Sin is of man but, and this is
the difference, the sense of sin is of God. The sense of sin comes only by
the quickenings of the Holy Ghost. When He has come, says the Lord
Jesus Christ, He will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment. That's His work, to reprove,
or to convince, as we read in the margin, to 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, He says, and you see me no more, of judgment.
because the prince of this world is judged. Oh, this is that work
that must be accomplished in the soul of the sinner, that
conviction. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
came to call sinners, and he himself tells us, they that are
whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick I came
not to call the righteous, but sinners unto repentance. There
are some, you see, who we might say are righteous sinners. There
are others who are sorrowful sinners. And it is to those sorrowful
sinners that the Gospel is addressed. Those are the ones that the Lord
Jesus Christ has come to say, sorrowful sinners. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. Did we not just sing that lovely
hymn of Samuel Medley, and really very much based on that beatitude. The blessed mourners. Jesus,
the glorious head of grace, knows every saint's peculiar case,
what sorrows by their souls are born, and how for sin they daily
mourn. these sorrowing sinners. It's
for sorrowing sinners I say that the Lord Jesus Christ came. And
what did He do when He came? He became. He became one with
those sinners. He became a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. Remarkable words that we have
there in Isaiah 53. This one who never sins, I'm
saying that the cause of the sorrow in the life of the child
of God is that sense of his sins. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ
never sinned. There was nothing of sin in the
Lord Jesus Christ. At this time of year we do tend
to think of His coming into the world and the great mystery of
godliness, that God was manifest in the flesh. What a remarkable
thing! What a remarkable event is that
of the Incarnation. Pope Paul says, without controversy,
great is the mystery. It's the mystery of godliness,
it's the mystery of real religion, that's what godliness is. That
God was manifest in the flesh. Our God contracted to a span,
incomprehensibly made man. And what of that man? Well, you
remember the words, the language of the angel when he comes to
Mary, this virgin who is betrothed to Joseph. And before they come
together as man and wife, the angel Gabriel comes and speaks
to her. she is one so blessed she is
told plainly what her experience is to be the Holy Ghost is to
come upon her the power of the Highest is going to overshadow
her and that holy thing that shall be born of her shall be
called the Son of God all that holy thing, what is it? it's
that human nature conceived in her virgin womb by the Holy Spirit
himself, that human body, that true soul, that's going to be
united to the eternal Son of God, the person of the Son, the
second person in the garden, that holy thing that shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son of God. No taint of Adam's
in there. All of us, of course, the natural
descendants of Adam and Eve, we're all sinners by nature.
We're all conceived in sin, we're all shaped in iniquity. As we're
born into this world, we have a fallen nature. But not so the
Lord Jesus Christ. And as He was sinless in His
birth, so He is sinless in every part of His human life. holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, made higher than the heavens, tempted in all points
like as we are, it says, yet, without sin. And yet, we have
those words, he is a man of sorrow. He identifies with these sorrowing
sinners, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Surely,
says Isaiah, surely he has borne our sorrows, and carried our
grief. Oh, that sinner, you see, such
a sacred thing. 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. Oh, those who are sorrowful,
those who are grieving over their sins. There's salvation for such
sinners. It's not enough, is it, to be
those who have a sense of our sinnership and we know what sin
is and we can speak of it. That's only part of the Christian's
experience. Yes, God's people are a sorrowing
people. The prophet Zephaniah says, I
shall live in the midst, he's speaking as the mouthpiece of
God, I shall live in the midst of afflicted and poor people. and they shall trust in the name
of the Lord." They're afflicted, they're poor, they're sorrowing,
they're grieving. But that's only part of their experience.
It's not enough to have a sense of our sins. Are we those who
are trusting in the name of the Lord? And that's the other part
of this paradoxical statement that we find here. It says, "...are
sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." They are sorrowing in themselves,
they are sorrowing over their sins but they are able to rejoice
and how do they rejoice? They rejoice in the Lord. Isn't that the truth of the text?
They are rejoicing in the Lord. In self there is only that cause
for shame for confusion of faiths but in Christ Jesus there is
cause for great joy. and we read those words there
to the Philippians in chapter 3 and again in chapter 4 when
the Apostle comes here to the practical part of his epistle
as is Paul's words time and again writing in these epistles we
have In general, the doctrinal part, in the opening part of
the letter, and then the latter part is the practical implication
of the doctrine. And of course, in the former
part of this letter to the Philippians, how he has spoken of that great
mystery of the Incarnation, that lovely chapter, chapter 2. The mind of Christ, he says,
let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who
being in the form of God, thought it not right to be equal with
God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also
has highly exalted him, giving him a name which is above every
name, the name of Jesus. Every knee should bow of things
in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth. And
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father. The doctrine in those verses
is so profound, so profound. the humbling of the Lord Jesus.
He humbles himself in the eternal covenant when he becomes the
servant of the Father. In the outworking of that covenant,
in the fullness of the time, he humbles himself in the Incarnation. Becoming a man, he humbles himself
as a man even to the death of the cross. All these downward
steps. This is the mind of Christ. He's
speaking, you see, of great doctrine, and yet the implication is that
there's much practical advice and exhortation that he can gather
from such truth as this, those who are the followers of Christ
shall have that mind of the Lord Jesus. But that's the first part
of the epistle. It's really when we come to chapter
3 and chapter 4 that we have the more practical aspects spelt
out. And there in chapter 3 it begins, Finally, my brethren,
rejoice in the Lord. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord, he says. And as you know in chapter 4
and verse 4, Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, Rejoice. Oh, there is cause for joy and
gladness if we have a real appreciation, a proper understanding a saving
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ in his person and in his work. What does he say there in that
third chapter at verse 3? We are the circumcision. He's
dealing with those Jews who were so wanting these Christians to become Jews as it were. Those
Jews who'd made a profession of faith They were saying that
Gentiles needed to submit to circumcision. No, says Paul.
Although he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews himself, he sees that
it is God's spiritual Israel or the true Israel of God. And what does he say there in
Philippians 3.3? We are the circumcision which
worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. and
put no confidence in the flesh. That's the true circumcision.
Nothing of themselves. They rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ. A sorrowful use of it. Yet always
rejoicing. There's that in ourselves that
fills us daily with sorrow. This love of sinning. Take away
the love of sinning. Alpha and Omega B says Dear Charles
Wesley, how true it is, what aspiration. He wants to be done
with sin and yet he can't help himself from loving sin. Looking to south there's sorrow
but there's joy, there's joy in the Lord Jesus. And you know,
the believer's joy isn't something that depends on circumstances. That's the wonder of it. Whatever
our situation in life, Joy in us does not depend upon the situations
or the circumstances that we find ourselves in. Think of those
remarkable words that we have in the little book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk chapter 3 and there
at the end of Habakkuk that little minor prophet what does he say
verse 17 of chapter 3 although the fig tree shall not blossom
neither shall fruit be in the vines the labor of the olive
shall fail the field shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut
off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stores Everything
has failed, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the
gods of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength.
Oh, it's that joy of the Lord. And what does Nehemiah say concerning
that joy in the Lord? He says much the same as we just
read there at the end of Habakkuk. the joy of the Lord is your strength
that's the believer's strength it's as he looks to the Lord
that all the grief and all the sorrow that he feels because
of indwelling sin all of that is overcome that's the wonder of it and here
in the text what does Paul say? a sorrowful yet always rejoicing
always rejoicing, whatever be the trials, the troubles, the
tribulations that you find yourselves in. What does he go on to say
later in chapter 7? And there in verse 4, I am filled
with comfort, he says, I am exceeding joyful in all your tribulations. when they're in the midst of
tribulations, in the midst of the trying of their faith, here
is Paul rejoicing. There's always cause for rejoicing
because that joy doesn't center in ourselves, it doesn't center
in our circumstances, it's altogether outside of ourselves, it's also
objective, it's always at looking to the Lord. the comfort you see of the greater
objectivity of faith that's what faith is it's a looking and every
time we look we look away from ourselves we never really see
ourselves we never see our faces do we? we can see a reflection
of ourselves we can look into a glass, into a mirror and we
see ourselves but our eye is always looking away from self
and that's how faith is spoken of looking onto Jesus the author,
the finisher of our faith. And in Him there is always cause
for rejoicing. O rejoice in the Lord always! And again I say, rejoice! We read the words there in Philippians
4.4. We have it again there in 1 Thessalonians 5.16. He says,
Rejoice evermore! When you come to the end of these
epistles, these practical epistles in their closing chapters, their
closing verses, how many times we have those short words of
exhortation. And you know the exhortation
is in the language of command, it's in the imperative. It's
telling us what we are to do, how we're to live our lives,
we're to rejoice. We're to be a joyful people.
And that permanent joy is not because the life of faith is
easy. Oh no, the life of faith is not easy. Life is not a bed
of roses. There is a conflict. There is
a conflict. And the Lord himself reminds
us of that in that very chapter where he speaks of the great
truth of regeneration, the doctrine of the new birth. As I've said,
we have by nature, an old nature, a fallen nature, there's the
root of our sin, there's the root of all our sorrowing, what
we are by nature. But in the new birth, we receive
a new nature, we're new creatures in Christ Jesus. And that new
nature never sins. Peter says we're partakers of
the divine nature. It's the very nature of God that's
coming to the soul of man. Never sins. All but the conflict. The conflict between those two
natures. There in John 3, verse 6, the
Lord himself says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh.
That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. The flesh never becomes
whole. the flesh is never sanctified
in that sense. There is no such thing as a progressive
sanctification as if the flesh is getting weaker. No, the more
we grow in grace, we grow in the knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, we feel more and more our dependence
upon Him. We feel more and more the awfulness
of our sin, the old nature, the torments. That which is born
of the flesh is flesh. that which is born of the Spirit
is spirit and those words we've already referred to them in Galatians
5 17 Paul simply echoing Christ the flesh lost us against the
Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary
one to the other and ye cannot do the thing that ye would nothing but sorrow in self But all in the Lord Jesus Christ
there is cause for joy. Why? Because the Lord is that
One who never changes. He is the same yesterday, and
today, and forever. I am the Lord, I change not,
He says, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed the Lord
is that one who changes not and he is that one who is the overcomer
he is that one who has overcome sin in the world ye shall have
tribulation but be of good cheer he says I have overcome the world
and who are those who overcome the world Well, look at the language
that we have there in John's first general epistle, chapter
5 and verse 5. Who is he that overcometh the
world? But he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. Oh, do you believe that Jesus
is the Son of God? Do you believe that Jesus is
the Son of God? If so, we have cause to be a
joyful people. because he has overcome and he
has overcome all that we are that wretched man that poor Paul
laments over there at the end of that seventh chapter in the
epistle to the Hebrews remember the answer that he gives to his
own question all wretched man that I am he says who shall deliver
me from the body of this death the answer I thank God Through
Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with the mind I myself serve
the Lord of God, but with the flesh the Lord of sin. We're not to think that this
man is some sort of split personality with these two natures. He's
not saying that. Who is the real Paul? Well, it's that one that
he speaks of there in the middle of verse 25 so then with the
mind he says I myself but just he doesn't say with the mind
I serve no he says there's an emphasis I myself that's the
real me the one that serves the Lord of God all the old nature
that's the nature you see that Paul is seeking only to mortify
to crucify He wants to see the end of that nature. I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. All the paradox of the believer's
experience and how it's shown to us in the in the experience
of this man, this Apostle Paul, as sorrowfully says, yet always
rejoicing. I want to close by just quoting
a few lines from Ralph Erskine's Gospel Sonnets, a remarkable
book. If I remember right, I think
it's divided into five sections. It's poetry, sonnets, but One
of the sections deals with what he entitles the Believer's Riddle. The Believer's Riddle. And he speaks so much of this paradox
and each of the lines in the sonnets he gives scripture proofs
for in the footnotes, a multitude of scriptures to prove the statement
that he is making. in his poetry. But I'll just
close with these few lines from Erskine's Believer's Riddle. He says, For all my sins my heart
is sad, since God's dishonored, yet I'm glad. For though my sin
alas does stay, Yet pardon takes the guilt away. Oh, that's the
wonder, is it not, of the life of the child of God. We are those
believing in the Lord Jesus Christ who stand guiltless. And not
only guiltless, we stand righteous. That's the truth of justification,
is it not? We're not just free from the
guilt of our sins, but God accounts That sinner whose faith is in
the Lord Jesus Christ, God accounts him as righteous. He's a justified
sinner. Well, the Lord willing, we'll
go on this evening to consider the second part of the text. Having looked at these opening
words, the sorrowful yet always rejoicing, he goes on as poor,
yet making many rich as having nothing. and yet possessing all
things. May the Lord bless his word.