Morning. Alright, our text is
found in 2nd Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians chapter 1. 2nd Corinthians
chapter 1 and we'll be looking at verses 3 through 5. Now I wanted to take up a message
this morning on the comfort of our God. The comfort of our God. I know that some of you are hurting. I know that some of you are going
through times of difficulty, through trials and tribulations,
through various sufferings. And I'm certain that, while I
know some of you are going through tough times, I'm certain that
there's many of you, there's many of you that have troubles
that your brethren don't know anything about, that they're
not aware of what that they haven't made these things known to others,
the things that are troubling them. So we all are going through
various struggles and troubles. So I hope that this message will
prove to be a comfort to you. So let's read the text in 2 Corinthians
chapter one, and we'll be looking at verses three through five.
Let's read that together. 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 salvation of Christ abound in us, as the sufferings of Christ
abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. Our title is The Frame of Our
Comfort. The Frame of Our Comfort. And
we're first gonna look at the blessed God. That's where we'll
begin in our study, the blessed God. And then we'll say a few
remarks on tribulation, and then I'll close with a few words of
comfort. So the blessed God. Paul starts
here in 2 Corinthians 1.3 saying, blessed be God. Now, In this first point here,
what I'd like to do is just provide for you an outline of several
beautiful truths that concern the will of our God toward us. It's good for us to know the
will of God for us and toward us, what he's doing in and among
us because It'll help us. It'll help us as we're suffering
and sorrowing and going through times that prove us. So this
outline should help with that to some degree. I actually got
the outline from a message I was listening to from Bruce Crabtree
recently. And it was actually a very recent
message. I think he just preached it.
And he was using it for some spiritual truth, some spiritual
truths. And I thought, you know, that
is such a great comfort. That outline is so good for any
spiritual truth that we're looking at. I thought it would be good
even here, because he wasn't using it in this sense that I'm
going to use it here. But I'll get to that in a moment. But Paul says, blessed be God.
And that word blessed, it means to praise. It means to thank
God, to speak of Him in adoring words, words of adoration for
our God. It means to glory in God, blessed
be God, to glory in God. Now, these three truths that
I'll just mention, it's just the beginning in this first point
here, they are a comfort to the soul that's being tried, to the
soul that's being tried and troubled by something that's revealing
to us our weakness. And the reason why I'm bringing
these forth is because they frame out, they provide a framework
in which the Lord is dealing with us, in which the Lord is
speaking to us and providing these things for us. And so it's
to give us a perspective of our God in the trial that we're going
through. and understanding these things will help us bow to the
will of our God, to bow to Him and to trust Him, to believe
that He's doing these things for our good. First, turn over
to Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3. And we'll look at
a couple of verses there in Ephesians 3. We'll begin first in verses
10 and 11. Paul writes, here I'll just pick
up where Paul starts, he says, to the intent that now unto the
principalities and powers and heavenly places might be known
by the church the manifold wisdom of God according to the eternal
purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. So what
we're seeing here is that our God, in his dealings with us,
our God has a purpose. He has a purpose in what he's
doing. And we know from Ephesians 1 that he does all things according,
his purpose is according to the good pleasure of his will. So he's doing what pleases him
well in all things. And we that know Him and believe
Him are brought to understand this, that God has a purpose
in what He's doing. And so through this purpose,
we begin to see the wisdom of our God and what He's doing here
in the earth and what He's doing in us, His people, His children. And so because of that, blessed
be God, because of that, we are made to praise Him to thank Him,
to speak of Him with words of adoring Him, adornment, and to
glory in Him. So as He's revealing His purpose,
making it known, we rejoice in our God. And so as we go through
this providence, as we're brought through the things that we experience,
which we call providence, we think to turn left or go right,
we think to do this, we think that our choice is here, and
to do this and that, and what we find is that the Lord has
a purpose in everything, and everything that we do, and everything
that we experience, and everything he brings to pass, he has his
purpose being worked out, whereby we see the wisdom of our God.
Now look at verse 9 in Ephesians 3, 9, before we leave from here. He says, And to make all men
see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning
of the world hath been hid in God who created all things by
Jesus Christ. He's created all things by his
son. Now go over to Hebrews 11 with
that in mind, Christ creating all things. Hebrews 11 and go
to verse three. If you're familiar with your
Bible, you know that Hebrews 11 is the chapter of faith. It's
a chapter of faith. And Hebrews 11.3 says, through
faith we understand that the worlds, the worlds were framed
by the word of God. Who's the word of God? The Lord
Jesus Christ. And he's framed the world, he's
created the world so that things which are seen were not made
of things which do appear. We understand that Christ has
a purpose in what he's prepared, in what he's created and what
he's framed out for us. And I bring that view out to
us to see that what we're going through, the providence that
we experience and are going through has been framed out for you by
the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as he's created the worlds,
he's created the providence that you're going through right now.
He's determined this. It's according to his purpose
for you. for your good, okay? So, we see
this goodness of our God in revealing to us, in bringing us through
the path that He's bringing us, and He's revealing to us the
mystery of the fellowship that we have with God in His Son,
Jesus Christ. So that by His power, for His
glory, we have Christ revealed in us, the hope of glory. effectually, powerfully to us
that we know Him and rejoice in Him. So that's the first thing.
God has a purpose. Second thing that we see is that
our God intends to humiliate the flesh, meaning He's going
to humble us. We're going to be humbled in
self. All right? I'm going to go over
to Isaiah 2. If you want to follow along,
Isaiah 2, and I'm going to read in verse 11. And then I'm gonna read verse
17, which is the same words, but worded a little differently
in the English. Isaiah 2, verse 11. And he tells
us, the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness
of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted
in that day. Look down at verse 17, he says
it again. and the loftiness of man shall
be bowed down, or humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall
be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. The ugliness of the sin of pride,
the ugliness of the sin of pride is that when we're proud and
sinning in pride is that we have contempt for others. We have
contempt for others and ourselves. We see this, I know I've said
it or thought it at times in my life and I'm sure we all have. Think about how many times We've
said, I told them that if they keep doing this, this is what's
gonna happen. I've told them, and they didn't
listen, and now look, the world is caving in upon them, right? We've done that before. We've
all done that before, and that's having contempt for others because
we're not seeing how we aren't listening. We're not taking cues
and hearing what the Lord is saying to us, and so, As we mature, as we go through
suffering, we're humbled, right? The Lord deals with us in such
a way that we're humbled and ashamed for what we do and how
hard we are and how we don't listen so that as these things
come up and we're about to say to somebody else again, and you
remember. The Lord's showed me this. The Lord's been teaching me this,
so that we're less quick, we're less hasty in pointing out the
faults of others, so that we're humbled through that and say,
you know what? I thought I had the answers. I thought I could
say what they needed to hear, but you know what? I'm just gonna
hold my tongue here and trust the Lord in it, and just trust
the Lord in this. And so, The suffering that we
go through shows us our helplessness in self. And now I'm gonna read
in Isaiah 40. If you're already there in Isaiah,
go to Isaiah 40. And we'll look at verse six.
And what the Lord's showing us is that every one of us that
are His, we're going to hear the voice crying, as it says
in Isaiah 40, verse 6, all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness
thereof is as the flower of the field. We're gonna know that
my flesh, me, I'm the grass, and my beauty and my excellency
is as the flower, is as the flower of a field. And he says, verse
seven, the grass withereth, the flower faded, because the spirit
of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass."
And so it's the Lord who is the one that's revealing the gospel
to us. If we don't have the Spirit of
Christ, we don't understand the gospel. We won't know the good
news that God has provided for his people in his Son, Jesus
Christ. And so the Spirit is informing
our understanding, he's teaching us, by revealing the Gospel,
as we go through providence, as we go through the trial and
the troubles and the sorrows of this life, he's bringing to
bear the experience of the Gospel in us. He's making known these
truths by experience. We live out and prove the truth
of what God has revealed to us in his Son. And what we see is
that it's the spirit that, through it, withers the flesh. The spirit
withers the flesh, weakens the flesh, so that we're not proud
and confident in the flesh, but we learn to be proud and confident
in the Lord. We glory in Him, we rejoice in
Him. So the grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, verse eight, but the word of our God shall stand forever. So this flesh, when God is done,
this flesh isn't going to be what's standing up and boasting
and glorying himself, but no, we'll be humbled and the one
that we'll be rejoicing in is the one that's standing up, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Word of God that stands
forever. Now the third thing is that our
God is going to get himself a great name. a great name in his people. His people are going to know
the greatness of their God. And he's going to reveal himself
to be the great one in the heart of a believing sinner. For this,
I'm going to read 1 Corinthians 1. I'm going to pick up in verse
27 where it says, God hath chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of
the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things
of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen
yea in things which are not to bring to naught things that are.
Why? So that no flesh should glory
in his presence. And you know, naturally we do
glory in self. Naturally we think pretty highly
of ourselves. We think we're pretty smart and
we think we've got good answers for ourselves and know what we
should do or how to fix the mess that we get ourselves into. And
so we're the ones that think of ourselves as mighty. We're
the ones that despise others and think that we're something
in ourselves. And so it's the Lord, it's the
work of the Lord to strip us of our vain confidences and to
strip us of the works of the flesh that we do. Because this
flesh is still dead. This flesh is still corrupt.
This flesh isn't changed or improved. until the Lord comes and raises
us anew after His image. So this flesh is still weak and
corrupt. It's the new man in us. It's
the work of Christ that believes and trusts Him and follows Him.
So the Lord is stripping us, withering this flesh, weakening
the flesh, so that we're not rejoicing in self, but looking
at Him. We're rejoicing in him, and so
he does all this that we see and confess, blessed be God. Blessed be God. Praise him, thank
him, adore him, glory in him, because me, I see that I'm not
holding up so well in the trial and the tribulation. I'm weak,
I don't have the ability in myself, but he does. So that's the framework
that the Lord is showing us. So in our text where it says
in 2 Corinthians 1 verse 3, so go over to the second letter
now. He says, blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's by which we know him to
be the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. The God of all comfort. We know
that in us, the scriptures reveal that it's not because there's
any goodness in us. It's not because of anything
that's savable in us. It's not because of anything
that we're good, that God has had mercy upon us. In fact, the
scriptures teach us that we're dead in trespasses and sins,
dead in those things, and that we're enemies of God by nature. We come forth as enemies of the
Lord. But our God has sent His own
darling Son. He sent His Son to be the sacrifice
for His people, to be the mediator for His people. You know, we
know, we use that term, the Son of God, and here it says the
Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what He's showing
us in that is it's speaking, because the Son of God is eternal,
just as the Father. He's eternal. He had no beginning. He has no end, just like the
Father. The Father and the Son are one,
and they're eternal. But when he speaks of God the
Father and God the Son, it's teaching us that Christ that
God the Son came in the office of the Christ, as the Christ,
as the mediator for his people, and what that says to us is that
he submitted himself to the Father. He yielded to the will of the
Father. He obeyed God his Father. That's what's being communicated
to us in this and why he points out the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. So that we understand and know
that our Savior, He came in the flesh as a mediator. He came
in the flesh to do for His people what we cannot do for ourselves. And He sacrificed Himself so
that He came as a servant, humbly, humbly before His Father, hearing
the will of his father and doing the will of his father, what
God had determined he should do, even unto the point of death.
I'm going to read from Philippians 2, Philippians 2 in verse 7 and
8. It says that Christ 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." So, you know, when we're going through
hardships and through trouble, in the flesh we think, well,
this isn't what a child of God should go through. Maybe there's
something wrong with me. Maybe I'm So great a sinner that
God is just pouring out these condemnations upon my head and
I'm just being troubled because I'm such a sinner. But when you
think about it, the Lord Jesus Christ went through great trials,
great afflictions, great trouble, great suffering, being rejected
by others, being beaten and mistreated wrongfully, all so that he could
go to the cross, bearing the judgment of God for his people
to put away their sins, that we might know forgiveness by
by the Father. And so in Hebrews it says that
though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which
he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal
salvation unto all them that obey him. So In that light, is
it any wonder that we suffer and that we're brought low in
self? Because when you think about
it, Christ himself as the Son of God, the Son of God, he suffered
and the Lord tells us that he's conforming us to the image of
his Son. He's conforming us to the image
of his son, so he does, it is right that the Lord brings us
low. He is going to humble us and strip us. And he tells us
even, also in Hebrews 12, six, that whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. All right,
so that's why, we're going through these things. That's why we suffer. That's why we feel chastened
and go through that because we're being conformed to Christ. And
it's all in that framework so that we see that God has a purpose
in it, so that we see that He's humbling this flesh and that
He's going to, His name shall be great We're going to confess
the greatness of God. We're going to glory in Him. All right now. In tribulation,
we understand, because of what God has shown us, that our salvation,
our eternal salvation, is secure in Christ. It's not moved or
altered by the things that we do or the weakness of this flesh,
but it's secure in Him. And we're taught that we're made
disciples of Christ. We're taught to follow Him and
to believe Him. And so, In that discipleship,
in hearing his word, we're shown that we're not our own anymore. We're not here just living to
ourselves anymore. And he's going to be sure to
show us that. He'll be the one that teaches
us that. We know it in word. we'll know it by experience when
he's worked his work in us for that purpose. And so we'll stop
serving the diverse lusts that are all in this flesh, that continue
to be in this flesh, that are ever present here, and we'll
learn, we'll bear the fruit of love to our God and our King.
He'll bring that forth through his through His means and how
He's doing things, He'll bring that forth in us, that love to
our God and our King. And what that means is that we're
marked out for tribulation. We're marked out for tribulation
by our God. As sons and daughters of the
Most High, we're marked out for these tribulations. Now some
are because we follow Christ. Some are because we open our
mouth and declare the gospel to somebody, and we catch flack
for that, we suffer for that. As Paul said to Timothy, all
that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So you open your mouth and you
speak to someone in love, right, even in love, and you think this
person would love to hear the gospel, and you tell them the
gospel, and they get upset with you, and you get a response that
you think, wow, Quite a response that I wasn't expecting there.
Well, that's because when you live godly, when you speak the
truth, people are going to give you a reaction in the flesh until
the spirit makes that known in their heart. But also, some of
the troubles that we experience are very common to everybody. A lot of people do have troubles
and difficulties in this life. But the difference for us is
that we experience them in Christ. We experience the troubles and
the sorrows in the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that what that
means is that he has a purpose in it, it means he's going to
humble the flesh, and it means that he's going to get a great
name in his people. We're going to experience these
same sorrows that others go through, but we're going to experience
them in Christ. That's a blessing. because you're
learning Christ. Now watch in verse four in our
text, 2 Corinthians 1 verse four, it says, who comforted 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. So we go through these tribulations,
we go through these sorrows and suffer these things that we may
help those in any trouble that they might be in by the same
comfort that we've been comforted in the Lord. That's how the Lord's
going to use his people. Now there's just two things I
want to show us here in this text, is that one, again, these
tribulations are, they're broad, they're broad. Dropping down
to verse six, And verse seven, we see Paul uses words like afflictions
and sufferings, right? He says, whether we be afflicted,
it's 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. And
our hope of you is steadfast, knowing that as you are partakers
of the sufferings, So shall ye be also of the consolation. And so, we are tried by various
troubles in this life, right? People that we love and know,
they die. We experience that loss, and
that hurts. And that never goes away, you
know, when you suffer like that. You just learn to live with the
loss. And it can be hard. And we're
broken by things, and we suffer hardships, and we're made sad
by various things, and we have disappointments, and there's
things that we experience that we wish could be another way,
and would have it maybe be another way. But through it all, as the
Lord humbles us in that, and brings us low in self, and brings
us to see that the Lord has a purpose in it, and that the sorrows we
feel, there's a purpose in it, and you don't need to doubt Him. Sometimes we're mistreated, sometimes
we're mocked, sometimes we're left out, sometimes we're hated,
and we don't even understand that sometimes, but it's just
true, and we all go through them, and that's really the, The second
thing that we see there is that you're not alone. You're not
alone. And I know that there's nuances
and little subtleties about the differences that we go through.
You know everybody has these things, but you have unique circumstances
that make you feel alone sometimes and that no one can understand.
But the Lord shows us that we are all going through it. Yes,
it's unique and And, you know, no one can take away what you
feel. You feel what you feel. And it's valid. But know that
your brothers and sisters, they're with you in that. And we experience
those things as well. It says in 1 Peter 5 verses 9
and 10, Peter was telling us that we all have the enemy that
would sift us, that would sift us and strip us and break us
if God would let him. And he says, whom resists steadfast
in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all
grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect establish, strengthen
you, settle you. So you that are suffering, God,
he knows, and your brethren are also experiencing trials and
tribulations and suffering as well. But the purpose of God
is to settle you in Christ. Not settle you in the flesh,
not have things go the way your flesh would prefer that they
go, or the way that you imagine they would end up, You're settled
in Christ, and that's a blessing. That's a good thing, where we're
able to praise him and to thank him and to glory in him and to... to adore Him in it because He's
there for His people. He's purposed it. He's framed
it out this way for His people to know Him and to be His people
and to rejoice in Him. All right, now, our third point,
let me just say a few words on comfort here. First of all, our
comfort is spiritual. We have a spiritual comfort. And what that means is sometimes
in the flesh, oftentimes in the flesh, that doesn't change. In the flesh, there's just some
things that are permanent and aren't going to change. And the
Lord humbles us in that way. And I'm sure we've all experienced
certain things that we know in the flesh this is never going
to change or get better. And the Lord has done that. He's purposed it that way. But
our comfort is spiritual. we're in the Spirit, in the new
man that He's made in us, we're comforted there by the Spirit
of Christ. It says, verse 5, 2 Corinthians
1, 5, for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, right, there's
sufferings of Christ that are abounding in us, where the Lord
is revealing His purpose, the Lord is withering the flesh,
and our God is getting Himself a great name, in us. And he says,
so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And there is comfort
in knowing that Christ is our Savior, that he's our Lord, and
that he's not abandoned us or left us, and that he is returning. And he's created in you through
the trials and through the sufferings. He's created in you that desire,
Lord, come Lord Jesus. Any day I'm ready now, like come
Lord Jesus. He's the one that does that,
working that that in you. And so just a few remarks I was
going to say is that, you know, we get cold and hard and have
that feeling of indifference sometimes and we don't know how
to pray or what to pray, but I would encourage you or just
to say, begin with thankfulness. Sometimes when I don't know how
to pray or what to say, I just thank the Lord, and just thanking
Him begins to turn me, my heart, heart, and just reminds me again
of what He's provided for me in His Son, right? The physical
burden necessarily isn't gone or changed from what it is. It
is what it is, but having a thankful heart helps us to see, the Lord,
I'm reminded that you have a purpose. Lord, help me. Help me to enter
into that purpose. Thank you for what you're doing,
because I know you have a purpose in it. I know that you're humble
in my flesh. I know that your name is great, Lord. And just
being thankful sometimes, oftentimes, will help us to enter in to the
will of our God for us. He says in Ephesians 520, giving
thanks always. for all things unto God and the
Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then the second
thing I was going to say on prayer, wherein the Lord comforts us,
is that oftentimes our prayer is maybe nothing more than a
groan, or a cry, or a sigh. Even in one place, it's compared
to breathing. Breathing. Jeremiah, in that
little book after Jeremiah of Lamentations 3, verse 56, he
says, Thou hast heard my voice. Now this is a man who was among
the people there in Jerusalem. He loved the people. He preached
and ministered to the people, and they wouldn't hear him. He
saw many people, their families ruined. Many were taken away
into captivity. Many lost everything. People
died, people starved, people ate their babies. I mean, he
saw horrible things. He himself was thrown into a
mud pit, treated shamefully and horribly just for speaking the
truth, just for loving the people. He was treated horribly by many. And he says, Lord, thou hast
heard my voice. And he says, hide not thine ear
at my breathing, at my breathing and my cry. And so the Lord you
may not be able to get out a fullness of, you know, and articulate
everything that you want to say, but the Lord knows. He knows
your heart, He knows your hurt, and He knows what you're experiencing,
and He's the one that's put that burden on you, that pressure
that brings out that breathing to Him, that cry to Him. And
he says, Paul says in Romans 8, 8.26-28, he says, likewise, The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities,
for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. But the
Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession
for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God to
them who are the called according to his purpose. So, I just was
saying this, you know, to show how the Lord Christ, who created
the world, has framed out this providence that you're going
through. And though it's not easy, he's the one who's framed
it out according to his purpose, to humble our flesh, and to make
his name great in his people so that we know him We know Him,
that's the rejoicing, the hope of glory. So I know it's not
easy, but that's what the Lord is doing. And that's why you're
experiencing what you experience. It's according to His purpose
for your good. And so I pray that you'll be
comforted in that sight, that it's all been framed of Him.
He's framed it out for you. All right, so let's pray. Our
gracious Lord, we thank you, Father, for your mercy, We thank
you, Lord, that you are wise and that you have a purpose in
everything that you do. Help us, Lord, to praise your
name, to be thankful for what you are doing in us, that we
would confess your name and that we would adore you and that we
would glory in you. And, Lord, you know our weakness.
You know how hard the struggles and the sufferings are for us.
Lord, continue to be patient with us, to help us, to lift
our burden, to comfort us, Lord. We pray for those that are struggling
and suffering and hurting here, that you would be kind and minister
to their spirit, that they would know and feel your presence,
that they would be drawn near to you, Lord, and that they would
feel the comfort of your love, and that they would, Lord, as
they are strengthened and settled, that we would be enabled to comfort
others in any trouble that they go through, whereby the comfort
that you have comforted us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's
in Christ's name that we pray and give thanks. Amen. I'll just
make my announcement now, and then Joe will come up for the
last hymn, and then we'll be dismissed. But just remember,
there's no service midweek, next midweek. And then also, next
Sunday, normally, we'll have the Lord's Supper, but I don't
know if you saw the email. But we'll have the Lord's Supper,
but I'm not going to ask us to do a meal next week, because
there's a lot of people traveling. And we might forget. And then
plus you're probably doing a lot of cooking. If you are home,
you're doing enough cooking already. So we won't have the meal. We'll just have the Lord's Supper
together next Sunday, OK?