and that He would open the Scriptures to us and make our hearts burn within us. We finished up Sunday looking at the suffering and consolation of Christ and we focused on how our Savior is the consolation and how He's able to comfort us. This time we're going to see what He teaches us in every trial.

2 Corinthians 1.8, Paul declares to them his trouble. He says, we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble. It's interesting that Paul is here affirming to them that he's an apostle of Christ, and you might think it would not be very affirming for him to declare the trouble he suffered, but he wants them to know about his trouble, because he wants them to know about the Savior who saved him out of that trouble. He said, this trouble came to us in Asia.

We were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life. We don't know what this was. There's four or five things it could have been. He fought with wild beasts at Ephesus. He was beaten with 39 stripes on one occasion. There was a riot in Ephesus when he preached against the idol. Diana and the people that made the idols saw they were going to lose their money. They caused a riot. The Jews laid in wait for him one time. Then he had a thorn in the flesh. It could have been any of those things.

But the important thing is what he says here. Whatever it was, God ruled the trial by his sovereign hand, so that, he says, we were pressed out of measure, above strength, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life. And here's God's purpose in the trial. Every single trial we suffer, this is God's purpose. Verse nine, but we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead. God is sovereign, all-powerful.

He's ruling everything in providence, and He brings the trial to us, the trouble to us, like He did Paul. But He's doing it to teach us, to prove us, That's what a trial is, a test. It's a proving, and it's not a test in that you're taking a test to show how good you can pass the test. It's God proving to us that we have no strength and that He is all our strength. He proves to us we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.

Over and over, This is the case in Scripture. This is what the Lord shows His people over and over in Scripture. In Exodus, the Lord led the people. He led the children of Israel all through the wilderness. He's leading us. He's working everything in Providence that's come in the past. And everything they suffered, the Lord led them to that and proved to them their need of Him. That's what He's proving to His true people.

You remember when He rained down the manna and he gave them commandment of to gather a certain rate every day, and he said he did this that he might prove them whether they would walk in his law or not. And then when Christ the true manna came, and he had been with his apostles all that day, and there was this great multitude that was gathered, and they were hungry, the Lord did all that, and put them right there in front of this great multitude of people who were hungry, thousands of people hungry. You want to talk about a riot that could have happened?

And he asked Philip, he said, how are we going to feed all these people? And the scripture says, this he did to prove him because he knew what he would do. The Lord knew what he would do and he knew what Philip was going to do. And Philip did what we do.

He looked to the flesh first. He said, 200 penny worth's not enough to feed all this people. We don't have the money to feed these people. And Andrew looked to himself too. He looked to the flesh too. Andrew said, here's a lad with two fish and a few loaves. How are we gonna feed the multitude with that? Neither one of them looked to Christ.

That's us when the trial comes. We look to ourselves first. And the Lord does it to prove to you and me Do not trust in yourself. Do not look to yourself. He is our salvation. Look only to him. That's so in every trial. And that's what I've titled this. Trust God, not self. Trust God, not self.

We're gonna see how God presses us out of measure. Then we're gonna see God's purpose. And then the end to which he brings us. All right, first of all, God rules the trial to press us out of measure. He says in verse eight, we were pressed out of measure. Here's what it means, above strength. In so much that we despaired even of life, verse nine, we had the sentence of death in ourselves.

Now, what God is working in the trial to bring you to that place, this is what he did When He first worked in us and called us, quickened us and called us, He did the same thing. This is what He did. Whenever He made us know Christ, He did it by making us know we don't have any strength. We have nothing to commend ourselves to God. The Lord made us know we're the guilty sinner. He said, when the spirits come, He'll convince you of sin. And that's what the Lord did. He sent the gospel, put us out of the gospel, and he convinced us of sin.

He did it by making us see Christ is the righteousness God has provided. He's the righteousness of his people. The only righteousness that God will accept is if we are robed in the righteousness of Christ himself. There's no other righteousness. We've not kept the law. Only the Lord Jesus did. And when the Lord made us see we have no strength, He did it by showing us Christ is the only righteousness.

You saw Him on the cross, and you saw that's what it took to make us righteous. That tells me, and that told you by the Spirit of God, it told us, I don't have a righteousness. If God had to send His Son to do that for me, I don't have a righteousness God will accept.

And He made you to know He convinced you of judgment. He made you to know that right there, Christ crucified, is when the judgment of God's people was settled. Every select child in Christ died that day on Calvary's tree under the justice of God. God was crucifying you and me, just as real as He crucified His Son. He poured out justice on His Son, and doing so, He poured out justice on His people, because we were in the Lord Jesus.

And when the Lord made you know these things, that's when you saw, I don't have any strength in myself. That's when you were pressed above measure. That's when you realized, I must have another, I must have Christ to save me. And he brought you to see, cast it all in on Christ, trust Christ. And by that, he roped you in his righteousness and showed you that he is your salvation. When Paul said when that happened to him, he said, when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. We were pressed above measure. We had no strength. We saw there was nothing good in us. We had to have Christ.

That's how he gives faith. So when you experience this in a trial, just remember, it's just what he did for you when he first called you. And he's just showing you again. You hadn't moved from that place. move beyond that, we don't have strength. We need the Lord Jesus. But just like we saw last time, the suffering abounds by Christ, but the consolation abounds by Christ. Look at Titus 3. The consolation that he brought you to in that hour when he taught you, you had no strength to present yourself to God. He made you see you needed Christ and made you to trust him only.

When he did that, the consolation was abundant by Christ. Look here, verse 5, Titus 3, 5. We were sinners, dead, and the love and grace of God appeared to us. And he said, verse 5, not by works of righteousness we've done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly. through Jesus Christ, our Savior. The abundant consolation was Christ when he made you see what he had done for you.

That, having been justified by his grace, already justified by Christ on the cross, it was a must that he send the Spirit and work this in you, bring you to believe Christ. You should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life because Christ justified you. It wasn't our believing that justified us. It wasn't our baptism that justified us. Christ justified us.

That's why he sent a spirit and created you anew and made you look only to him. It was a must to make you his heir. So that's every single trial we go through, the Lord's working the exact same thing he worked the first time he called you. Exact same thing.

Don't trust self, trust Christ. All right, secondly, This is his purpose in every trial, and we're going to look at it a little more in depth here. Verse 9, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raised up the dead. And when he made us have the sentence of death in ourselves the very first time, that wasn't the last time.

You know that. That wasn't the last time. He's worked it many times since, and he's going to continue to do it because Due to our sin nature, we so easily become lifted up in pride. So easily. Pride of self-wisdom. It's our flesh, it's our sin nature that wants to be seen as wise. It's embarrassing if you make a foolish mistake, and that's our flesh. We want to be seen as wise. And when a trial comes, We're really prone to lean to our own understanding and our wisdom in how to get out of it.

And the Lord's gonna bring that to, he's gonna bring us to the end of self, end of self-wisdom. And we can get left up in self-righteousness and self-sanctifying, thinking we have separated and we're not as bad as we were and something we've done is, you know, contributing a little bit. I know we don't believe that, I know we wouldn't say that, but we can get to thinking things that are just flat out contrary to the gospel. And the Lord brings us to the end of ourselves again and shows us we don't have any righteousness, we don't have any holiness. Christ is our righteousness at God's right hand, and he's the holiness in us that made us look to him through which he robed us in his righteousness.

Self-sufficiency, this is probably the worst. We get to thinking that, looking at our accomplishments and thinking that, you know, we've come to a, we've arrived at this place or that place and start feeling independent. And the Lord has to show us again. We're not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves.

Our sufficiency is God. And so, by the trial, that's what God's proving to us again. Not to trust self, but to trust Him. We need Christ. We need Christ to do all the saving. He's taught us that. We believe it. We know it. But He keeps showing us again and again that He is the only one who delivers. It's only the Lord Jesus.

We try to deliver ourselves, just like Philip When Philip saw that multitude, and the Lord was proving him, and he was proving to Philip that Philip left to himself, had no wisdom, left to himself, he would just make a grave error. And what did Philip do first?

He leaned to his own understanding. We don't have money to feed them. There's the creator of the world. There's the one who they've done his life for his people. There's the one, think of all the miracles he'd already seen Christ work. And don't think, well, Philip just showed up.

That's us, brethren. After everything we've seen and experienced Christ do, our initial reaction to the trial is to deliver ourselves. And whether we know it or whether we would even confess it, what we're really doing in that is we're trying to get out from under the mighty hand of God. That's what we're doing. I've done it. You've done it. That's what we're doing. We're trying to deliver ourselves, and it's as sinful as trying to justify ourselves by our works. It really is.

Here's the good news. Paul says that back in verse six, he said that God's power and His grace is effectual. He said, whether we're afflicted, it's for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we suffer, or whether we're comforted, it's for your consolation and salvation.

In other words, it's only the Lord Jesus that makes this work effectual in us. He does not fail to teach us. He does not fail to make us hear and know again, not to trust us, but to trust only Him. He's effectual in what He does. And His purpose is twofold. The first part, He said in verse nine, that we should not trust in ourselves. The second part, but in God who raises the dead.

Now that's true sanctification. When, you know, False religion talks about sanctification and keeping the law, making yourself more holy by not doing or doing something you're doing is making you more holy. True sanctification is what is happening right here, what Paul's talking about. The Lord keeping us separated from looking to ourselves and keeping us looking only to him. That's what true sanctification is.

Pharisee means separate ones. But the problem is they separated themselves. You and me can't separate ourselves. Left to ourselves, you've ever been in a trial and tried to fix it and you just get more tangled up and more tangled up and you realize, I can't do it. Just imagine if the Lord just let you go. You would never get out of it. It would be a mess, a mess and a mess that just got to be more of a mess.

The Lord delivers you, and that's true sanctification. What we're doing is we're trying to exalt ourselves out of the trouble. And we're trying to do it in our time. We don't want to wait. We want to do it in our time. And that's leaning, that's looking to ourselves, that's trusting ourselves. And every one of us have done this at some time or another. We'll do it again, sadly.

But that's exactly what Peter did. The Lord told Peter, you will deny me, Peter. Peter argued with our Savior that he wouldn't deny him. The Lord said, it's written in the word of God. I will smite the sheep, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. It's written, Peter, that you're going to deny me. Now, here's our self-sufficiency. Here's us trusting us. And this is us. Peter said, I won't do that. I won't do that.

What was he doing? He's trying to exalt himself and save himself from the trouble. And I firmly believe that Peter was trying to show the Lord he would not deny him when he cut that soldier's ear off. He's trying to exalt himself in his time not looking only to Christ. That's the exact thing we do in different ways, all sort of different ways.

But let's go to 1 Peter 5, and let's learn what the Lord taught Peter. The Lord, by His mighty hand, He brought Peter to the end of himself, so that Peter just, he couldn't trust himself, and He renewed him in faith to trust the Lord. And here's what Peter learned. We looked at it not long ago. But he learned this right here, 1 Peter 5, 6, and this is what he teaches us to do.

Humble yourselves. Well, let's read the last part of verse five. God resisteth the proud and gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you. Speaking of trials, we're talking about that he may exalt you out of the pit, out of the trial, out of the trouble. And look, and that he might exalt you in due time. That means in his time, not our time, his time. And the way you humble yourself under his mighty hand is you cast all your care upon him, for he careth for you.

See, Peter, he couldn't have learned that except he went through this trouble. He had to go through this trouble to learn that and be able to teach us that. And that's what we saw last time, didn't we? We saw that the Lord comforts you in all your suffering so you can comfort others with the consolation wherewith he comforted you, and that's Christ.

And Peter had to go through that to learn not to trust self, to trust Christ. And he's comforting us with the same word that comforted him. You humble yourself under his hand and wait for him to exalt you out of the trouble. Wait for him to do it in his time and do all of that by casting it all into his hand. Peter learned that through some powerfully painful suffering. And that's how we usually learn what we learn, sadly. But that's how we do.

By saving us from ourselves in the trial, the Lord teaches us again and again, he's the only one that raises from the dead. When he called us and quickened us in regeneration, he raised us from the dead. We were dead, that's all we were. He gave us life and raised us from the dead.

Whenever we're in the trial and we're suffering, the more we try to handle it ourselves, the more farther we go into the pit. And it's Him that exalts us out. And He does it in His time. And He's going to keep doing this and keep teaching us this. And one day, He's going to exalt us out of this world into glory with Him. And He's going to do it in His time, exactly the right time. And it's all going to be all of Him. So all these trials are teaching us this same thing. Don't trust yourself. Look to Him. Trust Him. Cast it all in His hand.

Now, lastly, Here's the end that he effectively works. He makes us remember how he delivered us in the past. And by doing it, he renews us to make us know he will deliver me today. And that grows you in hope to know he will deliver me in the future. Look what he says here, verse 10. He said, who delivered us, past tense, who delivered us from so great a death, Doth deliver today and in whom we trust he will yet deliver us Now in today's trial whatever if anybody's suffering a trial Whatever it is today's trial The Lord's gonna bring you to your right mind eventually if you're trying to save yourself You get more further in the pit Eventually, he's gonna bring you into your right mind. You know how he does it How did He originally regenerate us and bring us to faith in Christ? This gospel.

And He's gonna make you remember what He already did for you. He said He delivered us from so great a death. He makes you think back to what He's already done for you. How far back? When did He deliver us? When did the Lord deliver us? Way back there before He created anything. Before He made anything.

The Lord elected his people to salvation. He chose whom he would in Christ, and when he did that, the works were finished before the foundation of the world. Whenever Christ entered covenant to save his people, to be the surety of his people before God had created anything, he became the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Our Lord said he'll put the goats on his left, the sheep on his right, And when he calls the sheep in, he'll say, come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

That's how far back. Then he'll renew you to remember, then my savior came. And he went to that cross and laid down his life. And when he laid down his life, he justified all his people. He blotted out all the sins of his people so that in the all-knowing mind of God, in before God who knows everything, even the deepest, darkest, hidden things, who knows everything, God says, I don't remember your sin anymore. You don't have any. He really put our sin away.

And he renews you to remember that. And he reminds you that he put you under the gospel. You didn't. And he gave you a new heart. You didn't. And he gave you faith. You didn't. And he reminds you, I brought you to see, not to trust yourself, to trust me.

The same message that he used to raise you from the dead in the first hour is the same gospel whereby in the trial he's gonna bring you into your right mind to remember he already delivered me, he delivered me. And I'll tell you what that does. When he brings you to see that and know that and you know how it is, when the Lord renews you Especially when you're in a trial, you haven't been able to hear, you haven't been able to do anything but look at the trouble, look at the waves you've been sinking, and then He speaks and makes you hear. When He shows you, I have saved you, you are mine, I have redeemed you, and I'm with you in the trial right now. It's not gonna sink you. It's not gonna burn you. It's not gonna separate you out of my hand. And He makes you know that. You know.

With assurance, you know by God given renewed faith, you know He's delivering me right now. He is delivering me right and just like he's already done. He's doing it right now And when he makes you when he does that and he brings you out of the trial gives you a little bit of a reprieve You have some peaceful days It renews you in hope to know Whatever the next trial is it comes? He will yet deliver me, because I know he did it in the past. I just saw him do it now. He's going to do it in the future. And all of these are preparing us for that final, ultimate trial when we face the grave, death in the grave, to make you know you can work the same thing again.

I was with a believer one time that had cancer and was dying. He was a pastor. He told me, he said, Clay, he said, I have the same thoughts and fears that I've had as a believer in the least trials or, you know, even the bad trials I went through. He said, right now, he said, I have that same fleshly, sinful unbelief. And he said, but the Lord has given me such a peace to know He's redeemed me. I'm His. And he said, and I can't do anything but trust him because there's nothing for me to do. I mean, he was within a few days of dying and died within a few days. And that was what he said, it's the same as every trial I've ever been through. The only comfort I have is the gospel. The only peace I have is hearing that he has delivered me. And knowing every trial I ever faced, he delivered me. So I know He will yet deliver me. That's it, brethren.

You know, people think you should preach something else. If this is the message that the Lord used to save 3,000 people on the day of Pentecost, And then 2,000 more just a little while later. And ever since then, this is the message. It's the message he saved you by. It's the message he saved anybody he's called that you know that believes the gospel. It's the same message he's used to call them. Why on earth would we preach anything else? This is how he saves his people.

It's the message that don't trust you. You're the sinner. You're weak. Trust your Savior. He's salvation. Salvation really is of the Lord. So that's what you know, and listen, when we don't, and this, when he makes you look back to what he's done, he makes you know he's gonna save you right now. Remember, I'll give you an illustration.

David. The Lord saved David out of the paw of a lion and a bear. And so when David's facing the giant, it's what he said. David said, moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.

You get my point? Renewing you to remember what he has done, you know he's going to do it right now. And if we don't wait on him, you know, we're going to go on and we're going to work it. We saw it, I'll say, up 30. Therefore, the Lord will wait. And it's not that he's not doing anything. He will bring us to the end of us. And here's why, though. He's so gracious in doing that. It says he will wait that he may be gracious to you. And he says, therefore, he will be exalted. He's going to make you see him as the only one that saved you. And that he may have mercy on you. The Lord's a God of judgment. Now He's wisdom, and He does what's right. And that's what He's gonna bring us to see in every trial, so we know. You look back on everything you ever went through, and you say, the Lord did everything just right. I don't care what you've ever suffered. When you look back on that trial, here's what you say. Tell me if I've been reading your mail. Here's what you say.

I did everything wrong, and the Lord did everything right. As so in every one of them. We try to save ourselves, and then He brings you to the end of yourself, and you see, He's a God of judgment. He made me see His grace. He made me see Him exalted. He did everything with perfect judgment, perfectly right. That's how you see it. And look, one last thing.

Since he's gonna use, when he's brought you through it fresh, and you see your brother going into the trial, you'll have it fresh on your heart. And so he'll use you to pray for the brother. Rather than trying to get him out of it, you'll pray for him and wait on the Lord. Because you know what the Lord's doing. And he says, and here's why he does that. Many will pray for your brother, for the brother, and so that when the Lord works it and brings him out, all the same ones that prayed now will thank the Lord. So the Lord used all that to bring more glory to his name. Look at verse 11. You also helping together by prayer for us that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons, Look at God. God don't have to use us.

And he used all this many brethren that he had taught this. He used them to pray for Paul in their trouble. And then when God, he said he, by the means of many, he uses the means of his people praying. And then the Lord, he gave him the prayer. He gave him the heart to pray. He had taught them. And so they prayed to the Lord. Then he bestowed this gift on Paul and delivered him out and saved him.

And so now then all that many that was praying turned around then and gave God the glory and thank God for doing it. That's what God's doing. That's just amazing. That's amazing. The fruit of grace. Here's the fruit of grace that he produces. It makes you not trust in yourself. This thorn tree called self, you don't trust it. He makes you look to him and trust him.

And if he hears you to pray for a brother, then we turn around and we thank him for what he did. And brethren, don't forget, we're prone to say I'm praying for you. If you're gonna say that to somebody, make sure you have prayed for him before you tell him you prayed for him. Pray for him, really pray for him. And if you tell him that, pray for him, really do. And then, when the Lord has helped him and done what he's done, Be sure to thank the Lord. Be sure to thank him.

I'd like to see this more often. I see somebody write, you're in our prayers, we're praying for you. I would like to see people after the fact say, we'll be thanking God for you. We'll be praying and thanking God for you. We don't say that too much. Don't forget to do that. When he saved a brother through your prayer, thank God for doing it. And thank God that you were able to pray for him. because that's of God, too, every bit of it. Thank God that you were able to thank Him. Every bit of it's of God. All right, brethren, I hope that's helpful.

Our gracious Lord, we thank you for your free salvation, fully purchased by your precious blood. Thank you for the trial, Lord. Thank you for showing us our insufficiency, and thank you for being the power and the strength and the wisdom to save us. Thank you, Lord, for putting prayer on our heart for our brethren. And, Lord, thank you so much for working this in our brethren, working it here for us personally. And, Lord, thank you.

Thank you for those you have delivered. And we pray for those you are delivering now. And we, Lord, We cast it all into your hand and ask you to continue to deliver us. For Christ's glory, for the glory of your holy name, for our good, and Lord, forgive us of our murmuring and our foolish attempts to save ourselves. Lord, receive us in Christ alone. It's in his name we ask it. Amen. All right, Brother Adam.