2 Corinthians 1. I want to begin reading here in verse
3. Paul says, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercies. Don't you like that? He's the
Father of mercies. I need mercy. Scripture says
mercies are new every morning and I need new mercies every
morning. He's the Father of mercies and
the God of all comfort. The God of all comfort. Who comforteth
us in all our tribulation. All our trouble. that we may
be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort
wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. And I hope of you is
steadfast knowing that as your partakers of the suffering, I'm
sorry, verse 6, he says, I'm sorry, verse 5. For as the
sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth
by Christ. Paul here is talking about sufferings
that came from preaching Christ. Being rejected of family and
friends. You know, the devil and his seed,
God put enmity between the devil and his seed and Christ the seed. Those born after the flesh still
persecute those born after the Spirit. And the enmity is toward
Christ, but can't get to Christ so they get to his preachers
and his people. And there's sufferings involved,
but he says, but as that suffering abounds because of Christ, so
our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. Whether we be afflicted,
it's for your consolation and salvation. which is effectual
or wrought by you enduring the same sufferings we also suffer.
Or whether we be comforted, it's for your consolation and salvation.
And our hope of you is steadfast, knowing that as you partakers
of the suffering, so shall ye be also of the consolation."
Believers suffer much trouble in this life. Much trouble, but
our God's the God of mercies and the God of comfort. And he
comforts his people in all our trouble. And he does it so that
we may be able to comfort our brethren with the same comfort
that we've been comforted with. So we can speak to suffering
brethren about Christ our consolation. and know something of what they're
suffering and be able to speak of how Christ comforted us when
we were in that suffering. I want to remind us tonight of
that great consolation, Christ our consolation. Now Paul gives
an example of some trouble here. He says in verse 8, we would
not rather have you ignorant of our trouble which came to
us in Asia. We were pressed out of measure,
above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life. Now
why would God do that? Why would God cause his child
to be pressed above measure, beyond strength, so that he despairs
of life? Here it is. We had the sentence
of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God which raised the dead. God sends trouble to save us
from this terrible sickness that every believer has called self-trust. Self-trust. Sin makes a sinner
think that we can trust in ourselves, that we have some ability or
some strength in ourselves. That was Paul's problem when
he thought that he was saved by the works of the law. He said,
it's touching the law, I was blameless. He thought he was.
But he said when the commandment came, when God made him hear
it, sin revived and I died, he said. All his goodness went out
the window. He realized he was a spiritually
dead sinner who needed God to do the saving. He had no righteousness
at all. But you know, believers are not
exempt from this self-trust either. Paul's writing this as a believer.
He's the apostle. Nobody preached grace more than
Paul did and knew that we're not saved by ourselves. But he's
saying that God brought him to suffer this too. Remember in
chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians, he said, lest I should be exalted
above measure. Pride's the enemy. Pride is what
our sin nature is. It's what our sin nature is.
and we're full of it. And he said, lest I be exalted
above measure, because God gave me revelations, because God showed
me something, and I had to be saved from being puffed up in
pride of God showing me something. And he said, there was given
me a thorn in the flesh, the messengers of Satan to buffet
me, and he says it again, lest I should be exalted above measure. We need God to keep us humbled
because we have this terrible, proud... Let me say, the Pharisee
is not out there somewhere. There's plenty of them out there,
but what we're going to find out, by God's grace, is the Pharisee
is right here in our breast. There's a devil in here. He's
self-righteous, he's proud, And our Lord keeps humbling us. Spurgeon
said this, he said, when we say, after we've done something sinful
or something unwise and proud, he says, when we say, I'm surprised
that I should have acted so unwisely. Have you ever said that? I can't
believe I did that. He said, we betray our secret
pride and we confess that we thought ourselves wonderfully
wise. Proverbs 28, 26 says, He that
trusteth in his own heart is a fool. The world says, trust
your heart, trust yourself. He that trusteth in his own heart
is a fool, God said. Whoso walketh wisely, he shall
be delivered. So God sends this trouble to
bring us to the end of ourselves. And he doesn't stop doing it.
He keeps doing this. Here's why. That we should not
trust in ourself, but in God which raised us to death. Not
trust ourself, but trust God. Now here's our comfort. Here's our consolation that Christ
keeps teaching us over and over and over. Verse 10. Who delivered
us from so great a death, and doth deliver and whom we trust
He will yet deliver us." Why trouble? Why trouble? This is why, right here. God's
purpose in tribulation is to teach His child to trust only
and always our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our salvation. He has delivered
us, He is delivering us, and He shall deliver us. Salvation
is of the Lord. And this is what we're being
constantly taught over and over and over and over. I want to
look at these three things, the past, the present, and the future.
God our Father in his Son has delivered his people from so
great a death. He has delivered us. Paul said,
who delivered us from so great a death. In eternity, before
God made anything, in eternity God delivered all His elect by
divine election when He chose us in Christ. Blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in Christ. Paul said in 2 Timothy 1.9, God
had saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. The purpose
and grace of God can never be frustrated. It can never be altered. It can never be changed whatsoever. He's sovereign God who saves
on purpose. And whatever He purposes, that's
what He does. Listen to this from Isaiah 46. You know this well, but He says
this. He says, remember the former
things of old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God
and there is none like me. This is what differentiates the
true and living God from all the gods that men speak about
in this world, no matter what the form of religion is. This
is what makes him different from all the others. Declaring the
end from the beginning. From ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand. I will
do all my pleasure. He called that man from a far
country that executed his counsel. That man is Christ his son that
he called and came from a far country to execute this counsel
that he purposed from the beginning. He said, I've spoken it, I will
bring it to pass, I've purposed it, I will also do it. God our
Father saved His elect, He called His elect in Christ when He wrote
the names of His elect in the Lamb's Book of Life from the
foundation of the world. There was no, we think in time,
God is, He's eternal. This little capsule we live in
is time. God's eternal. There's nothing
new with God. When He purposed it, it can't
be altered. It wasn't according to foreseen
works in us, it was according to His own purpose and grace
freely given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Son of God
entered covenant with the Father to come and redeem His people,
glorify God in it, and redeem His people. And when He became
surety for His people, He became the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Scripture says the works were
finished from the foundation of the world. whenever our Lord
spoke about the inheritance that His people are going to receive
in the end. He said, they're going to say,
He's going to say, come and receive this kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world. It was already established. It
was prepared. In the fullness of time, the
Son of God came. Right at the time God appointed,
He came, nothing in history altered this, nothing in history changed
it. God was working everything for that specific time and in
the fullness of time, Christ Jesus came and He went to that
cross at this precise hour appointed by God from eternity. Not a second
too soon, not a second too late. Right at the time God appointed.
And He went to that cross and He accomplished redemption. When
the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of children. And
our Lord Jesus accomplished it. Christ hath delivered us. He
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us. He hath. He has delivered us
from so great a death. Our Lord Jesus Christ finished
the transgression. He made an end of sins. He brought
in everlasting righteousness for His people. It's done. When
He said it's finished, that's what He meant. He finished it.
And then when Christ arose, He delivered us from so great a
death. Ephesians 2.6 says, He raised us up together He didn't
rise by Himself. All His people were in Him. He
raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus for this purpose. That in the ages to come, He
might show us the exceeding riches of His grace to us in Christ
Jesus. That's why He did it. Believer,
before you ever knew Him, you were already seated with Him
in the heavens. Well, think about this. He said,
He has delivered us. When you were born into this
world, throughout all your days as a lost spiritually blind sinner,
He delivered you the whole time. That's right. You didn't even
know Him. And He delivered you the whole time. He said, I'm
the Lord, there's none else. There's no God beside Me. I girded
thee, though thou hast not known Me. I think about so many, I've
heard so many stories from believers about things that they did and
how they should have. It's a miracle of God's grace
they didn't die when they was younger. I was with a friend
of mine and we were 16 and he just got his driver's license
and we was driving down a little back road out in the country
going way faster than the law allowed. There was a major highway
that the only thing that went up and down that highway was
gravel trucks. I mean gravel trucks and chicken
trucks and 18 wheelers just constantly just flying up and down that
highway. This is daylight. You couldn't turn the lights
out to see if somebody was coming. This was daylight. Never let
off the gas, just went straight across that busy highway, never
looked, just went straight across it. I was just sunk down in the
passenger seat, just, oh please don't let there be an 18-wheeler
come. And I've heard so many stories like that of God's people
that did some crazy thing and they didn't die. Why didn't you
die? You had to hear the gospel. Christ redeems you. You're seated
with Him in glory. You've got to hear the Gospel.
So all that time He was delivering us and we didn't even know it.
And in the season of His love that He appointed, He sent the
Gospel to you. Wherever you were, it didn't
matter. Wherever you were, that's where He put you. And He made
you at your path cross paths with the gospel and preached
the gospel of Christ to you to tell you what He did for you.
And He delivered you then. He gave you life when you were
just dead. He brought you to faith in Christ
when you couldn't make yourself believe anything that you'd heard.
He did that. and made you to see all these
great things He did for us. We're the dry bones. The Lord
said, Behold, I'll cause breath to enter into you and you shall
live. And that's how you're going to know I'm the Lord. That's
how we know He's the Lord. He made us live. He made us live. And now, because He brought you
to cast it all on Christ, now we are delivered. We are delivered
from the law that being dead wherein we were ill. That old
man of sin is dead because we died in Christ. Remember Levi
paid tithes in Abraham way back there when he paid tithes to
Melchizedek. He was in the loins of Abraham.
He paid tithe. I was in that garden. I'm the
one that took the fruit and ate the fruit and disobeyed God.
That was me. It's that real. I was in Adam. But here's the good news. Every
one of you that know Him, you were in Christ when He perfectly
obeyed the Father. And when He died, you died. And when He came out of the ground,
you came out of the ground. And when He sat down at God's
right hand, you sat down. Now you're delivered from the
law. You're delivered. You deliver
it. Now we serve in newness of spirit,
not in the oldness of the letter. He said if the conscience was
purged, if those sacrifices would have purged the conscience, they
wouldn't offer them anymore. Well, He's come, and by the Holy
Spirit, He's purged your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God, and He's made you to see your sins and iniquities. I'm going to remember no more.
When God says He does not impute sin to you, believer, get this.
It is because before the all-knowing Judge of heaven and earth, you
have no sin to impute. Talk about being delivered. You
have no sin to impute. He's delivered us, brethren.
Therefore, there's now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. So when
He says He hath delivered us, He hath delivered us. That's
not all. He is delivering us. He says
there in verse 10, and He doth deliver. At every moment of our
lives, and we don't enter into this, we just don't. At every
moment in our lives, God is constantly delivering us and keeping us
trusting Christ alone. He gets the glory for this. He
said, He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee
in all thy ways. I think about David. You see,
so many times David was in, I mean he was, he was done. He had the sentence of death
in him. That time Saul came and he had all his army and they
got to this place and there was that, what they call the rock
of division. And David, Saul was sending his
men around one side and around the other side and they were
closing in on David and his men and it was about to be over.
And God sent word to Saul that the Philistines had invaded and
Saul left and took his army and went after the Philistines. And
they call that place the Rock of Division. That Rock of Division
is Christ. He's protecting His people all
the time. And we don't see the things He's
protecting us from. The wiles of the devil, we just
don't enter into all that He's protecting us from. We're not
wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities and
powers and rulers of the darkness of the world, spiritual weakness
in high places. much evil and wickedness that
God is saving us from constantly that we don't even comprehend. We don't even see it. But the
angel of the Lord, and that's Christ, the angel of the Lord
encampeth round about them that fear Him, and He delivereth them. All the time, constantly. You
know, He gives us these times of peace and we begin to behold
Christ and like this weekend, He gives you these times of peace
and comforts you and makes you behold Christ and you go out
of here strengthened and looking to Christ and knowing all is
well. And it won't be very long. Not
very long at all. And we start trusting ourselves
again. trusting ourselves. So what does
he do? He graciously sends us trouble. We don't like the trouble. But
you know he said for his people no evil is coming to you. The
trouble is good. It's all good. Every bit of it. And he sends us trouble and he
presses us above measure. He brings us to the end of self
to keep us trusting Christ alone. And that's where we have to be
kept, to make us see He's presently delivering us all the time. He
has delivered us, and He's going to continue to deliver us. He
says, I'll not forget thee. Behold, I've graven thee on the
palms of my hands. Thou walls are continually before
me. He's protecting His people all
the time. Now get this, brethren. We believe Christ. By His grace,
we believe Him. And we're continually led of
the Spirit. So in that sense, we are continually
walking in the Spirit. However, there are some sweet times when
He really makes us see things clearly and really makes us know
in our heart how things really are. More so than at other times. And what you find in those times
is we are nothing. What did Paul say in Galatians
6? If a man thinks himself something when he is nothing, he deceives
himself. We are nothing, but when He makes
you see that, that's when we see Christ is all. When He makes us really know,
and I mean really experience, we are weakness. That's what we are. He remembers
we're dust. That's what we are. That's when
you see and know Christ is your only strength. When he makes
you see that you're pressed down and you cannot deliver yourself,
that's when you really know, he's my deliverer. Now we know
this, we believe this, but I'm telling you, you get what I'm
saying, there's some times when it's sweet time when he really,
you got it. For a little while, you got it.
You got it. Don't you wish we could just
have that all the time and just not ever trust this flesh and
not ever get caught up in this flesh and one day we will. He told Paul, my grace is sufficient
for thee because my strength is made perfect in weakness.
That's what I'm saying. When we're weak and really weak,
and really see we have no strength, that's when Christ is our strength.
That's when we really are trusting Him and really know He's our
strength. I'm thankful He doesn't look to our faith and the quality
and quantity of it to save us because I'd be gone a long time
ago. But when you're weak, and He
knows you're weak, and this is the thing, think about how meek
and lowly our Redeemer is. He's going to keep us knowing
Him when He's brought you down, when He brought you down to where
you're just so weak that all you can do is look to Him. That's
when we really trust Him. And that's a sweet, blessed place
to be. It's the most painful thing and
it's the most joyful thing all at the same time. The pain is
against our flesh because we don't like to suffer. But it's
joyful at the same time because that's when you really know He's
all my strength. So He keeps you knowing He not
only has delivered you, He's delivering you right now. And
then He's doing this so He keeps you trusting Him for the future.
keeps you trusting Him for the future. He says, in whom we trust
that He will yet deliver us. Religion has their slogans, they
have their sayings, their bumper stickers and what have you. One
of them that was popular for a long time was hold on and hold
out or hold out and hold on, something like that. I think
it's hold on and hold out. Well, you hold on to Christ. But know this, it's not your
holding on that's saving you, it's Him holding on to you. It's
Him holding on to you. Listen to the future tense of
this from Isaiah 41 to 10. He says, 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. I,
the Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee,
fear not, I will help thee. That's future tense. He says,
I will. And he will. Here's our hope,
brethren. If when we were enemies, without
strength, without God, without Christ, without hope, if when
we were enemies, We were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more than being now reconciled,
we shall be saved by his life. That's future tense. We shall
be. We shall be. Because of what
he's done. We shall be. He said, I give
them eternal life. They shall never perish. No man
shall pluck them out of my hand. That's future tense. It shall
not happen. He makes us say with Paul, I
know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. He
said, being confident of this very thing, he which hath begun
a good work in you. That's past tense. We'll perform
it, present ten, until the day of Jesus Christ, that's future
ten. Toward the end of his life, go to 2 Timothy 4, I'll end with
this. 2 Timothy 4, towards the end
of his life, Paul said this. 2 Timothy 4, verse 17. He said, the Lord stood with
me and strengthened me that by me the preaching might be fully
known and that all Gentiles might hear and I was delivered out
of the mouth of the lion. That's past ten. And the Lord
shall deliver me from every evil work, whether it's the evil of
my flesh, or any other evil, He shall deliver me from every
evil work, and will preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." There is a deliverance
that is coming in the end that's going to be the best. We know
that if this earthly house is dissolved. We have a heavenly
abode. We have a heavenly home that
he's made and he's prepared that's ours, waiting for us. And you
remember how they crossed the Jordan? Remember how they crossed
the Jordan? The priests stood in the edge
of the water. The Lord purposely brought them there at the season
when that Jordan River was flooded out of its banks, on purpose. And all they did was stand in
the edge of that Jordan and hold up the ark. We're talking about,
I think about a million plus people at this time. I've read
that the place where he did this was about a ten mile stretch,
not just a little path. We're talking about a ten mile
stretch. You're talking about millions of people going across
a river. But all they did was hold that ark up and those people
stood and just looked at that ark. And He dried that river
up. And they went across on dry ground.
Just keep looking to Christ. That's what Paul said. He's our
comfort. You might suffer because of Him.
And that'll be good for us. We might have a lot of afflictions
and trials in this life from other things, and that's good
for us. But it's to remind us He's our comfort. He has delivered
us. He is delivering us, and He shall
deliver us. And when He does, we're going
to say what Paul said, to whom be glory both now and forever
and ever and ever and ever. He did it all. Amen.