Sovereign Grace Chapel, located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. If you'd like to follow along,
I'm gonna be in 2 Corinthians chapter one. Excuse me. 2 Corinthians chapter one. Beginning
in verse one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, under the church
of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all
Achaia. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God,
even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies
and the God of all comfort. who comforted us in all our tribulation
that we may be able to comfort them which are in trouble. By
the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. And I'm gonna stop right there. Before I get started, I'm gonna
read you something. Well, I added to it and took
away from it changed some of the wording, but I'm gonna read
it to you anyway. It was good, but I wanted something
in particular. This is from something Joe Terrell
wrote. Part of it is. We have absolutely nothing to
do with the work the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. And We cannot improve upon the
work God has done in us. I like that, I did. Now, we are
told to put off the old man, which is corrupt, and put on
the new man, which is after God. Which after God, excuse me, is
created in righteousness and true holiness. Notice, though,
we are told to put off the old man, which is corrupt. Not was corrupt, is corrupt. Because the old man is still
corrupt, right now, right now. Even believing Christ, your old
man is still corrupt. In my flesh still dwells no good
thing. We are told to mortify your members
which are on the earth. And you know what? That's in
the present tense. We're told to put off the old
man. That's in the present tense.
And we're told to put on the new man, and that's in the present
tense. What's that mean? Continue. Continue. Continue. This is our ongoing daily struggle. What do we do? We are to love
Christ and love the brethren. And that's our ongoing daily
goal. Our life is hid with Christ in
God, but we have this life here to live now. And we are to put
on the new man. I like that, I did. All right,
but here in 1 Corinthians, Paul, I'm gonna do verse three. Blessed is God the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. What? The Father of mercies. The Father of mercies. What's that mean? It means the
Father is the source of all mercy. All mercy, real mercy, comes
from God. Now, what do we know about mercy,
about loving kindness? Well, we know from the Old Testament
and the New, he, the father of all mercies, shall be merciful
to whom he will be merciful. He will show mercy to whom he
will show mercy. God, the father of mercies, has
absolute control of mercy. He's sovereign. He'll be mercy,
he'll have mercy on whom he'll have mercy, and then there's
the next phrase there in one place. And whom he will, he'll
harden. But he is the father of mercy.
He has absolute control of all mercy. And he is the father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the source of our mercy. I like
that, I do, it's good stuff. And then he says this statement,
and this is my title, Paul. The God of all comfort. The God
of all comfort. You understand? Mercy has to
come first before comfort's gonna show up. Mercy has to be, God
has to show you mercy before he'll give you comfort. Again though, here it is. He's
the God of all comfort. What's that mean? He is the source
of all comfort. True comfort comes from him alone
and there is no comfort without him. because all comfort comes
from him. He's the God of all comfort.
And Paul tells us this. He does comfort his people. He does. That's when it starts
in verse four. Who comforteth us in all our
tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in,
what, any trouble. By the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God. There's a lot of comfort in that
verse. There's a lot of comfort in that verse. But you understand,
that's good. Because we need a lot of comfort. We need a lot of comfort. What
did it say? Who comforted us, who comforts
us in all our tribulation. What did Christ say about that?
In this world, you shall have tribulation. That's what this
world's good for, tribulation. Matter of fact, it might be what
this world is best at, tribulation. But we believers have tribulation. In this world, and that's when
he comforts us. That's when he comforts us. In
all our tribulation, in all our trials, in all our problems and
our worries and our cares, he is the source of all comfort. You understand, I mean, it pretty
much goes without saying, so I'm gonna say it anyway. You
don't need a lot of comfort when everything's going fine. When
everything's going good, you don't need a lot of comfort.
Oh, but when things go bad, and they so often do, they go bad
physically, they go bad mentally, they go bad with your health,
they go bad with your children, they go bad with your parents,
they go bad with your siblings, they go bad with your spouse,
they go bad with yourself. But he is the source of all comfort.
He is the God of all comfort. And he does comfort us in our
tribulations. But here's the thing, he'll show you how much you need
him, the God of all comfort. He'll show you how much you need
him. You understand, I've been there, I've done it, going along
just as happy as a lark, and all of a sudden it feels like
the world dropped on your head. You can lose your job, you can
lose a parent, you can lose a child, and it just weighs on you. Oh
my. But it says also, who comforts
us in all our tribulations that we may be able to comfort them
which are in any trouble. How? The same way he comforts
you. The same way he comforts you.
He comforts his people so his people can be a comfort to others. Be a comfort to others in any
trouble. And here's the thing, what I'm
saying, and this is what Paul, I believe, is saying here, and
it goes on. There's another chapter we're gonna get to just looking
at some stuff about comfort. He will use you to be a comfort
to others. and he will use others to be
a comfort to you. This is not by accident. He's the God of all comfort.
But this is the way he works. Now, I am not, I understand that Jesus Christ said the comforter,
the Holy Spirit. But Paul doesn't refer to it
here in 2 Corinthians. And I'm not going to actually
designate, spend a lot of time on it. Because the Holy Spirit
is the comforter. And he says, if I don't go away,
the comforter shall not come. And if I go away, I'm gonna send
the comforter. And the comforter has come. But
here's the thing. He shall not speak of himself.
He's gonna take of mine and show it to you. So there are people
out there who seem to have a whole denomination, a whole religion,
based upon the fact of they speak about the Holy Ghost, they speak
about the Holy Spirit doing this, the Holy Spirit doing that, and
the Holy Ghost, and yes, the Holy Spirit does quite a bit.
He gives life. He gives faith. He indwells every
single believer. But he doesn't speak of himself,
he speaks of Christ. He speaks of the God of all comfort.
So I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on here because that's
not what Paul's main point is. That's not the context of this.
But I do wanna point out this. The word of the Lord comforts
his people. You don't have to turn there,
I'm just gonna read this. Psalms 119 and verse 49 and 50. This
is the Psalm of David, it says. I believe it was David, anyhow.
No, this is the big Psalm 119. Remember the word unto thy servant,
upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort in
my affliction, in my affliction. For thy word hath quickened me. Remember the word unto thy servant,
upon that which thou has caused me to hope. This is my comfort
in affliction. Here. Never doubt the Lord Jesus
Christ remembers his word to his people. Never doubt it. He gives me hope. He gives me
hope. This is my comfort in my affliction. The Lord's word, what? To me. The Lord's word to you should
give you comfort. because his word gives hope and
comfort. He is the God of all comfort. Now, there are so many, but I
picked out, well, just a couple of places. I'm not gonna keep
you long, but these are some scriptures that comfort me when
I'm troubled, when I'm bothered, when I'm in tribulation. These
are things I love to call to mind. I want to remember. I'd
like to remember them every day. So Romans nine, verse 25. And 26. Wait a minute, I'm going
the wrong way. Romans nine. Verse 25. Now. I want you very carefully to
realize these scriptures here come right after he talks about
the potter having power over the clay, to make one vessel
unto honor and one vessel unto dishonor out of the same lump. This comes right after that.
Verse 25, as he saith also in Osi, which is Hosea, I will call
them my people. which were not my people. And her beloved, which was not
beloved. And it shall come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my people,
there, there shall they be called, what? The children of the living
God. That comforts me. Because I know
at one time, I didn't know God. I didn't know God. As a matter
of fact, let's make one thing perfectly
clear here, okay? When the Lord calls you my people,
you are my people. You are his people. And it doesn't
matter what you think, and it doesn't matter how you feel. And here's the thing. It doesn't
matter what tribulation you're under or what burden you're under.
If God says you are his people, you are his people. Because here's
the thing. All it takes is God saying it,
and it's so. It's a fact. It's true. Our God, who cannot lie, has
said, you're my people. You're my people. You're my people. And our God, the Lord, who changes
not, once he says you're his people, you are always his people. No matter what you're going through,
no matter what your burden or tribulation you're under, you're
his people. He said it, and it's so. I like
that. And it said, what is it? and
it shall come to pass in the place where it was said unto
them, you're not my people, there shall they be called the children
of the living God. Romans 8, 15, just a little bit
before this, Paul spoke of, we've not received the bondage to fear
again, the spirit of bondage to fear again. What we've received?
The spirit of adoption, adoption. Those not known as my people
have been adopted in to the family of God in Christ Jesus, in Christ. Those not known as my people,
what shall be called? The children of the living God. Here's what adoption means, and
this is something that comforts me to no end, and I wanna tell
you, just think about it, okay? What the adoption means, Here's
the thing, God has decided to be your father. Now is that not glorious? Is
that not grace? You understand, when you adopt
a baby, the baby doesn't have anything to say about it. No,
he says, I'm gonna be a father unto you. You know why? Because you're gonna be my children.
And he says, you are my children in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus,
I am a child of God. That's not boasting, that's fact. Because he said so. He said so. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Jesus Christ. Would it say? Now, beloved, now
are ye the sons and daughters of God. That should comfort you
in any tribulation. These are comforting words. I
read it last week. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,
saith the Lord. And what's he talk about in that
chapter? I read it last week, pre-sought last week. All flesh
is grass, and behold your God. There's where the comfort is.
It's in behold your God. Then the next verse said, behold
the Lord God. Why? Because if your God is not
the Lord God, you're not gonna get any comfort. Because the
one I need to comfort me is the one that's in control. The one
that's in charge. The one that's sovereign. The
one that rules and that reigns. The God of all comfort is who
I need. Now are ye the sons of God. Then
in the next chapter, I'll give you this other one. This is chapter
10, Romans chapter 10, and verse 20. This is one of my favorite
verses. Romans chapter 10, and verse
20. Is that right? Went one too far, sorry about
that. There. But Esaias, Isaiah. is very bold,
very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not. I was made manifest unto them
that ask not after me. My brothers and sisters, that
was me. I was not looking for God. and
he found me. He found me. I wasn't looking
for him. I was found of them that sought
me not. How is that possible? Other sheep
I have. They're not of this fold. Them
I must bring. And there's gonna be one fold
and one shepherd. Now you understand, you can look
all throughout the scriptures, you can look in the Old Testament,
you can look in the New Testament, You can look at every single
parable there ever was. You'll never find a parable,
an illustration, or a word in this scripture about anybody
changing a goat into a sheep. All you have is the shepherd
finding his sheep. You have the shepherds who are
to watch their flock. The sheep is a sheep. And other sheep, what do you
say? I have. A, they're sheep, and B, they're
his. And C, them I must bring. Oh, I like that. I was found
of them that sought me not. That's why we're compared to
lost sheep. Oh, I like that. That gives me
hope, that gives me joy, comforts me. I was not looking for Christ
Jesus, He came looking for me. I'm gonna tell you this. No one,
no one, no one looks for Christ until he finds them. He's gotta find you or you're
not gonna look. Oh, I like that, I do. What'd
he say? No man can come unto me except
it be given him of my Father. No man can come unto me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. Ah, yes. Well, isn't he gonna draw all
men unto him? Yes, he is, all kinds. But this is one where
he says, the Father draws him, him I will raise up at the last
day. Oh, there's hope, there's comfort. The good shepherd found his sheep,
called his sheep by name, and then they follow him. I was made
manifest unto them that ask not after me. He makes himself manifest. He makes himself known unto his
sheep, unto his people. Then they do look to him. They
do follow him. They do call upon the name of
the Lord because they know who the Lord is. That's grace. And to me, that's
comfort. But here, what Paul is talking
about in second Corinthians, well I'm gonna read Let me just
read this. This is 2 Thessalonians 2 and
16. Now the Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort
your hearts. Comfort your hearts. And establish
you in every good word and work. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
God of all comfort. And believers can say this. Our
Father. Our Father. Abba, Father. Oh, I like that too. Who have
loved us and has given us an everlasting consolation. And here's the thing. That song a couple, three, four
decades ago, whatever it was, you know, Endless Love drove
me crazy on the radio. I got so tired of that stupid
song wherever I was at. They kept playing it over and
over for months. No, that ain't no endless love.
This is endless love right here. The love of God for his people
in Christ Jesus gives us an everlasting consolation. What? Everlasting
consolation and good hope through grace, through grace. There's
no true comfort without him and he will comfort your heart. But in 2 Corinthians chapter
seven, there's a couple of verses I wanna read here. 2 Corinthians
seven and verse four. Great is my boldness of speech
towards you. Great is my glorying of you. I am filled with comfort. I am exceeding joyful, here we
go, in all our tribulation. That's the Apostle Paul writing
that. For when we were coming to Macedonia, our flesh had no
rest, but we were troubled on every side. Without were fightings,
and within were fears. Nevertheless, God, that comforteth
those that are cast down, comforted us, here we go, comforted us
by the coming of Titus. and not by his coming only but
by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you when
he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind
toward me so that I rejoice the more. This is when Paul got the
results of his first letter to the Corinthians where he kind
of raked them over the coals a bit because they needed to
be. And there were some that were
talking bad about the apostle Paul while he was gone. Paul wrote him a letter, and
then he got the results back from Titus, and this comforted
him. Not that they were in tribulation, but that they were troubled by
this. You understand? If God rebukes you, you need
to be troubled by it. If I'm rebuked, I feel miserable
about it. But it is a good thing. You understand? Tribulation worketh patience.