Turn with me if you would to
2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Last Sunday
morning, we looked at the first four verses of this chapter,
and they say, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will
of God, and Timothy, our brother, unto the church of God which
is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in Achaia, grace be
to you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ. And let me just say while we're
on that verse, we are so blessed to have that verse. You talk
about a verse that we take for granted. Grace be to you and
peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. How
wonderful is that? That is not just a formal salutation. That is God assuring His people
of His love for them. I had to go through the scriptures.
I went through each one. We have that in Romans. 1 Corinthians,
2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians,
2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, 1 Peter, 2 Peter,
2 John, and Jude. 17 times we have recorded in
God's Word Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and
from the Lord Jesus Christ. Man, that is wonderful. Wonderful. Verse 3 says, 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." Verse 4 right there sets up what we're going to look at
this morning. He said, "...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." The first
thing he's saying in that is all comfort comes from God. All comfort comes from God. We
look for it all over the place, don't we? But then we are reminded
finally all our comfort comes from God alone. every ounce of
it. And all of God's people agree
with Paul. We pass that comfort along to
each other, and that's what this is about. We do pass that along
to each other. We want to be a comfort to each
other, but we acknowledge that all comfort comes from God. Turn
with me over to Hebrews 13. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5 says let your conversation
be without covetousness and be content with such things as you
have for he hath said I will never leave thee, nor forsake
thee, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I
will not fear what man shall do unto me. That's where our
true comfort comes from, knowing that the Lord is our helper.
He will help us. He'll help us. He will never
leave us. He'll never forsake us. And that's
all the comfort we need. That is honestly all the comfort
we need, isn't it? He'll never leave us. Never forsake
us. Go with me to Isaiah 41. Man,
I love this. Isaiah chapter 41, verse 10, he said, fear thou
not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed, for I am thy God, I
will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold
thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they
that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be as nothing, and
they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou shalt seek them
and shalt not find them, even them that contend with thee.
They that war against thee shall be as nothing and as a thing
of naught, for I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand,
saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee. Fear not thou worm
Jacob, and you men of Israel, I will help thee, saith the Lord,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. That's comfort. That right there is comfort.
I love that. I love hearing him say, fear not, I'll hold your
right hand. I'll sit there and hold your
hand. We'll go with me back to the text, 2 Corinthians 1. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 3 says, Blessed
be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of mercies and the God of all comforts, 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. Now the first thing that he's
saying in verse four is God is the source of all our comfort,
every bit of it. The second thing he's saying
is the comfort that God gives to us, and this will shed a lot
of light on our trials. The comfort that God gives to
us is not just for us. The trial that God gives to us
is not just for us. And the comfort that God gives
with that trial is not just for us. God comforts us so we can
take that comfort and pass it along to each other. He comforts
us. He sends us through a trial and
he teaches us something and comforts us through that so we can pass
it along to each other. Verse 4 says, 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. Now the sufferings of Christ
are our salvation. Isn't that right? The sufferings
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the sin that He took upon Himself
was our sin. That is an amazing thought. This sin that grieves me so badly,
do you ever honestly grieve over your sin? Do you ever feel guilty
about your sin? Does it ever, ever really bring you down and cause
you to see how wretched we are? Our Lord said, fear not thou
worm, Jacob. Do you ever feel like a worm?
Well, our sin is what he bore on that cross. That's what he
took off of us. What we experience is what he
paid for. That death was our death. His
suffering is our salvation. But what Paul is saying right
here, he's talking about the sufferings that God's people
endure, the persecutions, the afflictions, the trials, because
Christ suffered for us. Now, every person out there suffers. I see people walking up and down
Center Street and I think, I'm so thankful God has given me
a car. I have so much more than so many
people have. So many people are in the gutter.
So many people are miserable. So many people are sad, but not
over their sin. That's the one difference. That's the suffering that God's
people endure and nobody else endures it. They could be the
lowest person in the gutter and ask them, are you an out and
out wretched sinner? And they will say, well, no,
I've fallen on some hard times, but no. I'm talking about the
afflictions and the trials and the sufferings that God's people
endure because Christ suffered for them. There's a suffering
that comes because He suffered for us. And they're going to
suffer with Him and they're going to suffer for Him. That's what
our Lord said, in the world you shall have tribulation. And the
reason, He said, is because you're not of the world, even as I'm
not of the world. Look with me at John 15. John 15 verse 5 says, I am the
vine and you are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you
can do nothing. What he's saying is he is joined
together with his people. They're in a true union. Now
look at verse 18. If the world hate you, you know
that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world,
the world would love his own. But because you are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you. Remember the word that I said
unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they
have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have
kept my saying, They will keep yours also. If they're offended
by what I've said, they're going to be offended by what you've
said. The reason is because I've put a new heart in you to declare
this word, to declare my word. I've put a heart in you to speak
and believe and cling to my word. And he's saying the persecution
is really not against you. It's against me in you. That's
what it is. It's against me and you. The sufferings of Christ abound
in his people. And I'll tell you one of the
greatest examples of that. The Apostle Paul, Saul of Tarsus,
he was a Pharisee who hated Jesus Christ. And he went everywhere
dragging people out of their homes, beating them, killing
them, hauling them off to prison because they were followers of
Christ. That's the only criteria he had. If you follow and love Jesus
Christ, you're a dead man, you're a dead woman. And God came to
him and God knocked him off of his horse, he was riding to Damascus,
and he said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Why are you persecuting me?"
Saul thought he was persecuting them. The Lord said, uh-uh, you're
persecuting me. Everything they endured was the
suffering of Christ. They endured it because Christ
was in them. He said, you are persecuting
me. If we belong to the Lord, His
sufferings will abound in us. I hate to tell every believer
this. In religion, they lie and they say, get saved, it will
all be better after that. You have money trouble, get saved. Do you have family trouble? Get
saved. Are you depressed? Here's the
answer. Get saved. It's only going to get worse
from here. All right? The trials will not stop. They will not stop. They will
not stop. Our Lord said, I'm going to prepare
a place for you. I'm going to deliver you. I'm
going to do all these things for you. He said this in, I believe
it's 1 Peter 5. after you suffer a while." He
said, in the world you shall have tribulations. You're going
to be hated for my name's sake. And the trials and the sufferings
are going to continue, and they're going to continue, and they're
going to continue. But don't you love that word,
but. Look back at the text. 2 Corinthians 5 says, For as the
sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth
by Christ. As the trials increase, so does
the comfort. That's what he's saying. So does
the comfort. Our Lord said, Blessed are you
when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all
manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. He said rejoice
and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven. Now
certain experiences have caused me to see that verse in a little
bit different light from the way I used to see it. I used
to understand that verse to say don't worry about persecutions. They just mean that you belong
to the Lord and in the end of this whole thing you're going
to be in heaven with Him. And it does mean that. That's
exactly what it means. But through certain experiences,
through certain circumstances, I have experienced the fact that
God's people are truly blessed in the midst of great trials. God's people are truly, truly
blessed right in the middle of great trials. At that exact moment
in time, great is their reward from heaven. At that very moment. I don't feel closer I do not ever hear the voice
of the Lord. And I'm going to tell you this,
if a person's never heard the voice of the Lord, you say that,
and they don't know what in the world are you talking about. You're
speaking foolishness. But I'm going to tell you something,
if God ever speaks to your heart, you're going to say, I've heard
the voice of the Lord. Somebody said, does he speak
out loud? He said, no, it's much louder than that. Much louder
than that. And I don't hear his voice and
I don't feel his touch and I don't feel as near to him and as close
to him and as loved by him as I do in the middle of a great
trial. I just don't. When God sends
that trying moment, God sends great consolation with it. And
it becomes proven to the child of God. As trial after trial
comes, it becomes proven to the child of God that His grace is
sufficient. His grace is sufficient. Paul asked him, Lord, whatever
the trial was, would you remove the trial from me? And he said,
no. I'm not saying the trial goes
away. He said, my grace is sufficient. And the child of God learns through
experience. It's true. His grace is sufficient. And his child becomes consoled
by his will and by his purpose. His will and His purpose. God's
children learn, He loves me. He loves me. They learn the end
of this is going to be perfect. The reason it is all going the
way it is, is because this is the absolute best thing that
could ever happen to me. His child learns that. And then
once the trial is over, it's very sad to say, but that comfort
goes with it. Isn't that right? You're right
in the middle of it. You don't know how it's going
to go. This is a big deal and you're crying and you're praying
and you're crying and you're praying and God shows you it's
fine. And then you go about four days
and realize, I haven't even called on Him. I haven't even cried
out. Not begging anymore. I don't
feel as near to him as I used to. That's the reason why James
said, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse
trials. Count it all joy. Acknowledge
the fact that God is going to send great comfort and great
consolation with this. Somebody was going through a
lot of trials one time, and a wise man said to him, God must truly
love you to put you through all this. Well, 2 Corinthians 1,
I'll be quick here. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 5, as
the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also
aboundeth by Christ. And 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." What
he's saying is every affliction that happens to us is for your
encouragement. Look over at chapter 4, 2 Corinthians
4 verse 15 says, For all things are for your sakes. Now he's speaking as an apostle
saying everything that happens to us is for your sake. And I
tell you how I relate to it. Sometimes I endure such misery. And then the Lord sends me a
message from it. And I see I could have never gotten that message
unless the Lord had allowed me to endure all that misery. And
I see what he's saying, but this is not just from preacher to
hearer. This is from believer to believer. It says right here
in verse 15, all things are for your sakes that the abundant
grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory
of God. For the which cause we faint
not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is
renewed day by day for our light affliction. What all did Paul
endure? You know what he called all that
stuff? Spending a day and a half out in the ocean, wondering if
anybody is going to come pick him up. He said, our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. What examples of God's grace
we could be if the Lord would teach us to respond to every
single trial that He sends to us, and that's the key to it
all, every single trial that He sends to us, if He would allow
us to respond in that way. Don't turn over there, but in
Philippians 1, I'll just read it to you real quick, Paul said,
I would, you should understand, brethren, that the things which
happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance
of the gospel." The reason this has happened is for the furtherance
of the gospel. That is always the case. The reason this has happened
is because in the perfect purpose of God, it is ordered for one
of His elect to come across the path of the preaching of the
gospel. And it would not happen without
this taking place. And he went on to say, this happened
so many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident by my bonds
are much more bold to speak the word without fear. They see the
Lord has been with me. And it encourages them to press
on and preach the gospel. Preach that gospel. Things are
going to come, but it's okay. Press on and preach the gospel.
And Peter said, let's be examples to the flock. Paul said, we're
ambassadors for Christ. I've mentioned it a lot lately,
but it's so good. Shimei was cursing David. David said, God
said to him, curse David. It's the Lord with everything
that happens, every trial that comes, it's the Lord. So the
trials will come, but so will the comfort. 1 Corinthians 1
verse 6, 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. Whether we be comforted is for
your consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is steadfast,
knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you
also be of the consolation. He said, we see what you're going
through. And we are confident, we're convinced
that because you belong to Christ, He is going to comfort your heart.
He will comfort your heart. The end of the suffering will
be gladness. It will be. He said, there's
no doubt in my mind that you're going to say, God is good. He's done all things well. And
that's the truth. All of God's children will say
that. And the reason Paul said that is because I'm confident
through my own experience." Now watch this, verse 8, we're only
going to verse 9. He said, I'm confident because
of my own experience. Verse 8, 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 in so much that
we despaired even of life." He said, we were convinced we were
going to die. He does not say what incident
it was, but again, we know everything that happened to him. We went
through the book of Acts. He was going through Asia. It
kept saying, there was no small stir. There was a huge stir. They beat him with the intent
of killing him. They were not going to stop.
And they didn't stop until they were convinced in their heart,
he's dead. And they walked away and left him there. But either
he wasn't or God brought him back. But they whipped him with
a cat of nine tails. And some have said they had that
down to a science. Forty lashes would kill a man. It says five times they whipped
him thirty-nine times. Forty save one. Thirty-nine times. Right at the point of death.
In verse nine he said, We had the sentence of death in ourselves. If you have the center reference,
sentence means answer. We had the answer of death in
ourselves. He's saying fight or flight kicked
in. A lot of adrenaline was flowing
and he asked himself at that moment, what's going to happen
to me right now? He said, I'm about to die. He
said, we were convinced of it and gave in to it. We resolved
to it. Verse nine, he said, but we had
the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God, which raises the dead. He said, now I realize. We were resolved to dying, but
now I realize it was for the purpose that we should not trust
in ourselves, but in God that raises the dead." He said, I
was convinced I'm going to die. God told him, and you may remember
as we went through Acts, God kept telling him, you're going
to Rome. You're going to testify these
things in Rome. And through that end of Acts,
he kept trying to get to Rome. They kept trying to get him to
Rome. And he knew he's going to Rome, but at this moment he
thinks, I'm going to die and I'm not going to make it to Rome.
But God said, you're going to Rome. And he said, I realize
now that God allowed me to go that deeply into the trial. Was it necessary that I go that
deeply into the trial? I get it. Okay. Yes, it was. He said it was necessary that
I go that deeply into the trial so that I would stop trusting
myself. There's not a soul in this room
that is not looking to himself. We look to God, don't we? But
we forget. We forget. The flesh says, how
can I get myself out of this? How can I get myself out of this?
How can I? Here comes the next trial. How
am I going to fix this? How can I stop this? And Paul
said, God, let me go that far down to teach me. Stop trusting
yourself and start trusting God. He said, I finally resolved.
I'm not going to stop it. I'm going to die. But God is
able to raise me from the dead. You talk about consolation in
the middle of a trial? You talk about faith that He's
able? This is hopeless, I'm not going
to make it. It's going to be fine. If He kills me, He can
raise me from the dead. The Lord showed Abraham the same
thing. We were going to turn to a bunch of places, but I'm
just not going to do it. Hebrews 11 says, we know the
story of how God promised Abraham a son and God promised an inheritance
through the children of that son, the seed of that son. And
when God finally gave him that son, God said, now take him up
to the top of Mount Moriah and kill him. What did Abraham do? He grabbed his son. He went to
the top of Mount Moriah. He tied him to an altar. He grabbed
a knife. He raised it up. He was at the
moment of clenching his muscles and dropping that knife. God
said, Abraham, Abraham. Now in Hebrews 11, it says, Abraham
offered his son, his only begotten son. In his heart, it was a done
deal. He committed. He offered him. And in Hebrews 11 it goes on
to say, of whom it was promised that in Isaac shall thy seed
be blessed. What it's saying is, it doesn't
even make sense. But Abraham did it, accounting that God was
able to raise him from the dead. God said, kill him, I'm going
to bless all my people through him. That's believing God. I'll kill him. That's what God
said. If God says this, it's so And if God says this, it is
also so. And where religion struggles
is they say, I can't make all that meat in the middle. We don't
have to. God said this and it's so. And
God said this and it's so. You know what believers believe?
God. We don't believe our doctrine
about God. We believe God. We believe God. I mean really, you know, my father,
you all are parents. What do our children believe
about us? They don't believe anything about us. They believe
us. We believe God. And that's what God teaches his
people through trials. Through trials. He will comfort
his child. He'll send more comfort than
he ever sent in the form of a trial. And now I don't even know where
I am. It doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter. The point is this. Wait on the
Lord. That's the point. Wait on the
Lord. Look to the Lord. The trial is bad. No, it's not. No, it's not. All things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose. Trust the Lord. Just trust the
Lord. Trust the Lord and call on Him.
And we will see. We're all going to see. Not only
is it going to be fine come the end of it, we're going to be
glad, very glad. All right, you're dismissed.