and looking at 2 Corinthians.
And Paul had a special relationship with the Corinthians. He brought the Gospel to Corinth
and had suffered much in the course of time prior to coming
to them and then of course later on. as he looked at them and
he saw many false teachers come among them and lead many astray. And he was very concerned for
them as a father was for his children. You know, we don't
like to see our children going astray. We don't like to see
them embracing things that we know or not to their benefit. And so Paul was the same way,
only the only thing he was concerned about, about the Corinthians,
was whether or not they stayed true to the things of the Gospel. And because he knew, you see,
that their health depended on that. That is, their health spiritually. as it would be. And so really
that's the only thing that we are to be concerned about is
that one another are walking in faith. Because we are our
brother's keepers and we are indeed, if we have been given
love one for the other, we're concerned that one another would
be walking in faith and truth. It's not just enough that we
profess faith, Now when I was growing up, that was the main
thing that everybody wanted you to do, was just profess faith. In other words, that was the
thing that everybody wanted to do, was get you to make a confession
of faith, a profession of faith, because then buddy, once you
did that, everything was alright. And they didn't really care if
you continued to walk in the faith or not because they'd say,
well, you know, old so-and-so joined the church back when he
was ten years old. Now, he'd never been since, but
buddy, we know he's in because he was there. We're not concerned
with that. What we're concerned with is
whether or not God's people are walking according to truth. You know, we can't define who
is and who is not the sons of God. That's not our business.
But we can define what the truth of God is. Now, that can be defined,
you know. Now, that doesn't mean that everybody
is going to see that exactly the same way, but it can be defined. The gospel of Jesus Christ can
be defined. What Christ did on Calvary's
cross can be defined, and that is what we come to declare is
the gospel as the Lord has shown it to us. And we don't believe
these things change. Our understanding of the gospel
might change from time to time, but the gospel has always been
the same, always will be the same, and it's the same in every
generation. It does not make any difference.
Nothing changes about it. And so Paul writing to the Corinthians,
this being at least the second letter in
so far as what is recorded for us, he evidently had other correspondence
as we saw he referenced in the first book of Corinthians. He had referenced some correspondence
that he had evidently had with them. And so we start off reading
in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 1. It says, 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. He did not want anybody to think
that he thought that he had risen to the position that he was in
because he just learned how to do it or that he had some innate
ability of himself. And he starts this epistle off,
he says, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. Now everything is by the will
of God. You're here today by the will
of God. Now some people would say, well,
I'm here because I decided to come. Well, that's right, but
you decided to come by the will of God. How do I know that? Because you're here. If you'd
have been somewhere else, you'd have been there by the will of
God. But, dear brethren, that's not a... Now, some people look
at that in any kind of smirk and think that it's kind of a
funny thing. Well, it's not a funny thing. Because, dear brethren,
we are what we are, where we are, and how we are by the will
of God. Now, what that ought to do in
us is cause us to fall on our faces and worship Him, because,
dear brethren, we could be in jail today by the will of God. Or we could be on our deathbed
this very moment by the will of God. But so, you know, we
rejoice in whatever the will of God is, and only as the Lord
is pleased to give us such a mind and heart can we do so. Because
the natural way of man is to rebel against the will of God,
is it not? I mean, the natural man does
not want the will of God done. He wants his will to be done,
does he not? But you see, when the Lord taught
His disciples to pray, He taught them to pray, Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven. Because that is that which the
Spirit of God teaches the children of God to be reconciled unto
the will of God. Now, that's a tough battle sometimes,
is it not? Because the flesh does not want
that. The flesh wants the easy path,
the flesh wants what the flesh wants, and that's what it's going
to pursue. But by the grace of God, He does
work in His people to give them a heart and mind in varying degrees
wherein they are reconciled to the will of God. And it ought
to be our prayer continually, Lord, help me to be reconciled
to your will, to be glad when I see your will unfold in the
earth rather than bucking against it and fighting against thy way. So he says he was an apostle
of Jesus Christ by the will of God. And then he mentions Timothy. And of course, Timothy was very
special to Paul in his ministry. He wrote to Timothy and he said,
I have no man like-minded as myself other than you. He said,
you are the only one. Now, he wasn't saying by that
that he didn't have any confidence in anybody else or whatever,
but he said, you and I see eye to eye. We're like peas in a
pod. He said, you know, the Lord has
taught us together. He has taught you through me.
And not because it's me, but because the Lord has given us
a bond. And the Lord does often give to brethren a special bond. and being able to see things
eye to eye. And what a blessing it is when
brethren can walk together in an agreement and not be at odds
with one another. And so Timothy was indeed often
his scribe in recording some of the letters that he wrote. very special in his mind, unto
the church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints which
are in Achaia. Now, as Paul writes here, he
says to the church which is at Corinth. He didn't say at Corinth Baptist
Church. Or he didn't say at Corinth Methodist
Church. He didn't say at Corinth Church. He said the church which is at
Corinth. And there's a big difference
in how people look at this. Now, you know, some people think
the first, of course, a lot of people when you mention church,
the first thing that pops into their mind is a building somewhere.
Oh, that's down there at the church. Well, that's not a church. That's a house. It's a building. It ain't a church. Now, I know
that it's common to do it, and I do it myself. You know, I'm
not getting on with anybody. But that is an error that really
we ought to strive to correct in our thinking that we would
ever cause, that we would ever equate in our mind and in our
speech a building somewhere with the church, because it doesn't
have anything to do with it. The church is at Torrient, that
is, that's the location that it's at, but the church is the
people of God gathered together in that place. Now, wherever
that is, with all the saints, which are in all of Achaia. In other words, this is given
to all the people of God. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is a standard
sort of a greeting by Him, but it is not without its import,
because that is the desire of those that would declare the
truth of God that these things be received. And the only way
they can be received is by grace. It is the only way a man can
hear. The only way he can receive peace
is by the grace of God. Grace 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 comforteth us in all of 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 that's a mouthful of comfort
because he says there, you know, we're speaking about the God
of all comfort and we want to comfort you because we've been
comforted by the God to whose comfort we would bring to you.
And that is what the preaching of the gospel to the saints That's
why we declare these things over and over again. I mean, there's
nothing really new in here. You can read through this enough
times that you can know what's here. It's not that there's not
anything that's going to be here next week that's not already
here now. But you see, the comfort of the
Holy Ghost is a present thing. It's not something that you can
necessarily carry with you and open a bag up and get it out
like you put on a shirt. Well, I think I'll get me some
of the comfort of God. Have you ever been able to do
that? I think I'll just go comfort myself. You know, when you comfort
yourself, that's full comfort. Is it not? Now, a lot of times
we think we can comfort ourselves. That's why men in the flesh,
seek out many types of comfort in things, substances and activities
and whatever they think they're going to comfort themselves.
And it's enough, it satisfies the flesh to a certain season,
but a spiritual man, he can't be comforted by such things as
that. Because the comfort that he is looking for is not just
the old standard comfort. Well, here, take two pills of
comfort and see me next week. No, that is not good enough for
him. You see, the Spirit of God has to apply the Word of God
to his soul. And that is why he is comforted
when he hears about the God of comfort. Because the Spirit of
God applies that to him and works in him in such a way that is
not natural, is not normal as far as men are concerned. But
he is the comforting God. And we're not talking about physical
comfort, because Paul is going to talk about, as we get on into
this chapter, things that were not very comfortable Now, Brother
Al touched on it a little while ago about the idea that the Lord
has designed that we should always be in all sorts of comfort. I mean, now, it's a blessing
to have comfortable lives, isn't it? I mean, it's nice to have
a car that will crank up when you get in it, and a heater that
works when it's cold, and an air conditioner that works when
it's hot. I mean, all of those things are nice. And surely we
wouldn't have them if the Lord didn't give them to us. But that's
not the comfort of God, is it? I mean, that doesn't have anything
to do with it. That's just comfort of the flesh. That's not what
we're talking about here. So the Lord, while He does provide
those sorts of comfort for us, it is really in the midst of
trouble that the true comfort of God can really be enjoyed
and seen. Because really it's only when
we're discomforted that the comfort really is made precious. It's like coming in when you've
been working on a hot day outside, and you're covered with sweat,
and you open the door and walk into the air-conditioned room.
Now that's just nice, isn't it? I mean, you just... And so it
is when the Spirit of God is pleased to take the Word of God
and cause it to be applied to us. It's just like opening that
door to that cool room and we walk in there. And it's precious
because it's true, it's real. It's something that can be felt. And Paul's going to speak about
that. But until such time as a man is acquainted with misery,
discomfort, Can he appreciate the comfort of God? And so that's
what we hope to look at as the Lord would give us some thoughts
on those things in the days to come.