Now, you remember at the end
of Paul's first epistle, we looked at this last week. He told them
that he planned on coming to Corinth and spend the winter
there if the Lord permit. Now, it appears, though, that
the Lord did not permit. And we'll see as we go down through
here that apparently there were some fairly severe trial that
kept Paul and the brethren that were with him from coming to
Corinth. So this is about a year later.
He writes the second epistle. He planned on being there by
now, but he hadn't been able to make it. So he writes this
second epistle about a year after he finished the first one. And
he begins here in verse one. He says, 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 of Chaos. Now, Paul, this is his common
salutation. You know, this is his normal,
humble way, he doesn't take a fancy title upon himself. He has called
himself an apostle, an apostle of Jesus Christ. And that's a
whole lot different than years before, the way Saul of Tarsus
would have addressed the letter. You know, Saul of Tarsus was
a man, from what we read about him, I would imagine pretty full
of himself. He was a powerful figure. He had great political
connections. He was a rising star in the Jewish
religion. And I'm sure he was after all
the power and titles and recognition that comes along with all those
things. But the Lord met him on the road to Damascus. That's
why there is a big difference between Saul of Tarsus and Paul,
the apostle of Jesus Christ. And he says he's an apostle of
Christ by the will of God. Our thought this week says going
through this, if you're going to be an apostle, You have to
be called of God. Have to be. Nobody in their right
mind would volunteer to be an apostle. Nobody would try to
make themselves an apostle. Not if they were in their right
mind. You know, Paul and the other apostles, you know, they
were known to be great preachers. And they were great preachers. Paul preached in many different
places, powerfully in the Spirit. But you know, he preached to
kings in chains, in bonds. He went and preached in the town
called Philippi. Founded a church there. But in
order to do it, he had to go to prison, be beaten within an
inch of his life, to preach to that jailer. That's how the Lord
started that work there. Paul and the other apostles could
work miracles. But you know, one of the miracles
Paul worked was after his ship wrecked. You know, they feared
for their lives. Their ship wrecked. They're cold, hungry. They started
a fire there and a viper jumped out and bit Paul in the hand.
And he shook it off while the natives and the people there
just waited and watched for him to die. Surely he's going to
die. And he didn't. That was a miracle that he was
able to work. But in order to do it, he had to be shipwrecked
and cold and hungry there on that beach. Paul had a clear
understanding of the gospel. Maybe in men, the most clear
understanding of the gospel a man has ever had. revealed to him
by Christ. But he suffered a thorn in the
flesh that Satan used, he said, to buffet him, to buffet his
flesh, to keep his pride down. Paul and nearly all the other
apostles were martyred in a cruel, painful way. Very few sane people
would volunteer for that. You have to be made an apostle
by the will of God, called to that work and given the grace
to do that. Now, that was Paul's calling.
But each of us, each individual one of us are where we're at
doing what we're doing by the will of God. God's called us
and put us doing what it is that we're doing. And each of us should
be as serious about our calling it. You know, none of us are
called to be an apostle like Paul was, but we should be as
serious about our calling as Paul was about his calling, because
this is what God's called us to. This is what he's given us
to do. So he's called to be an apostle. And Timothy, he says,
is with him. Now, you remember, Paul had wanted
Timothy to go to Corinth. Well, in this past year, maybe
Timothy had gone to Corinth. He's preached and spent time
with the folks, and now he's come to Paul. He's brought Paul
a report, and that's where Paul's got some of the information that
he uses in writing this letter that we'll be studying over the
next few weeks. And you could just kind of tell
Paul's love for the people of Corinth, because he says all
the churches, all the believers, you know, salute you. He must
have talked about these Corinthian believers a lot. And they all
sent their greetings because they knew so much about them
because Paul talked about them a lot. So he sends his greeting
and he says in verse two, grace be to you and peace from God,
our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you know,
Paul's writing to believers. And every believer has grace
and peace from God. But what he's praying for here
is an increase of grace, an increase of the peace we have. Not one
person here would say they don't need more grace. We all need
more grace. We all desire more grace. We
want to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ. A sinner
loves grace. Can't get enough of it. Can't
hear enough of it. Can't get enough of it. We need
grace. And that's what Paul is praying
for, an increase of grace. But this grace has to come from
God, our Father. He's the God of grace. He's the
fountain of grace. All grace originates with him.
It has to come to us from God, the Father, through our Lord
Jesus Christ. And that grace is revealed to
us by God, the Holy Spirit. The whole triune God is wrapped
up in this thing of grace for the guilty. It originated with
the Father. It comes to us through the Son
and revealed to us by the Spirit. And then He prays for an increase
of peace. An increase of peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ that He bought for us with the blood of His cross.
He prays for an increase of peace with our brethren. Peace in our
hearts and peace with all men. As much as life in you, live
peaceably with all men. And a believer loves peace. And
just like grace, not one person here would say, I don't need
any more peace. We all want more. More peace. Peter said, seek
peace and pursue it. Peace. But there's no peace with
God without the grace of God. Peace and grace always go together. You can't have peace with God
without the grace of God. And our peace is found in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is our peace. You know, you
cannot read and study scripture without repeatedly seeing the
gospel is a person. The gospel is the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're not just talking about
some doctrine of peace or some feeling of peace. Christ is our
peace. He that's where our peace is
found. It's in a person. It is our peace is a person.
And we need more peace because in this world, We will have trouble
because of our affiliation with Adam, because we come from Adam.
We have we have enmity against God, trouble with God and hatred
and trouble amongst men because of our relationship with Adam.
In this world, we have trouble because of Adam. But in Christ,
we have peace. That's where it's found is in
him. So we have our peace in Christ and we're going to have
an increase of it by learning more of him. Now, verse three,
he says, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. Now,
you know, when he says, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, he means to give praise to, to thank, to
give glory to his name. And that's our desire and worship
in our everyday life as we walk through this world, to give praise
to our God. to give Him the glory that's
due unto His name, and in all things, to be thankful, to thank
Him. He is the eternal Father who
sent His eternal Son to be our substitute. How can you praise
Him enough? How can you thank Him enough?
How can you give Him the glory that's truly due unto His name? And we praise Him and thank Him
and bless Him for who He is. Paul says, First, He's the Father
of mercies. Now, everything we have is from
God. And it's because of His mercy.
Look back at Micah chapter 7. Micah chapter 7. Right after Jonah comes Micah. Micah chapter 7, verse 18. He is the Father of mercies.
Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and
passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage,
who retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delights in
mercy? He will turn again. He will have
compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities,
and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham,
which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old."
All these blessings are because he remembers mercy that he swore
to Abraham. He's the father of mercies. Now, he's the father of mercies
because mercy can only be found in God. You don't find mercy
in men. Mercy is found in God and the
Father. He's the father of mercies, Paul
says. Mercies, plural. And he says
mercies, plural, because of the greatness of his mercies. You
can't reckon up his mercy. You can't count them. The mercy
of God is inexhaustible. David said God is of great mercy. He talked about the multitude
of his tender mercies. He talked about God who delights
to show mercy. He's the father of mercies, plural. And this is our Father that we're
talking about here. This is our Father, the Father
of mercies. We go straight to our Father
to find mercy. We don't go to a stranger to
ask for mercy. We don't go to the judge who
doesn't know us, doesn't care a thing about us to find mercy.
We go to our Father to find mercy. Our Father who loves us, who
cares for us. God's children always find mercy. at the throne of our Father.
Not because we deserve it, because you can't deserve it, can you?
Mercy, by definition, is undeserved, unmerited, unearned. We find
mercy at the throne of our Father in Christ. And I'm telling you,
there's plenty mercy to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the Father of mercies. And second, Paul says, our Father
is the God of all comfort. Now, there's no real comfort
found outside of the Father. None whatsoever. You know, people
learn. It's just a function of human
nature. We learn to cope with our circumstances. You know, you might be able to
take bad things that happen and push them to the back of your
mind and not really think about them, not really dwell on them.
You know, the saying, time heals all wounds. Well, that just means
you learn to deal with them, push them to the back of your
mind because there's new things that come up you have to think
about. But that's not real comfort, is it? The only place we'll ever
find real comfort is in the God of all comfort. He's the God
of all comfort, so much so His Spirit is called the Comforter. That's His name, the Comforter.
Well, how does the Holy Spirit comfort us? By pointing us to
Christ, by taking the things of Christ and showing them to
us. That's how we're comforted. And that just stresses to me
again the importance of preaching Christ, preaching the person
of our Savior, because that's where our comfort is found, by
being pointed to Christ, by being shown Him. What did God tell
Isaiah, the prophet, in Isaiah chapter 40? He said, speak ye
comfortably to Jerusalem. Comfort her. Well, how are you
going to comfort the heart of spiritual Israel? Well, He told
Isaiah, you cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished.
The war is over. Tell her her iniquity is pardoned. Tell her she hath received of
the Lord's hand double for all of her sins. It's finished. The battle's over. It's finished.
There'll be no more war. Why? Because our Savior is the
mighty conqueror. He's already won the battle.
He's defeated all of our enemies. He's put our sin away. Sin's
gone. He's accomplished our eternal
salvation. And He's on the throne. He is
our conqueror. our comfort in what he's accomplished
for his people. He's the God of all comfort.
Who, he says in verse four, 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. Now, our
God's the God of all comfort, and he will comfort us in the
day of trouble. All of our comfort, all of our
strength in the day of trial comes from God. And I was looking
over my notes this morning and I wrote in here, every day. Every
day our strength and comfort and everything we have comes
from God. Everything. Certainly our strength and comfort
comes from Him because we don't have any. He's the God of all
comfort. The God of our strength. And our Father comforts His children
in the time of trial. That's what a father does. Who
can comfort a child like their strong father? Tell him everything's
going to be alright. The father can comfort his children. And the comfort of our father
is not just empty words. It's not just your daddy telling
you that everything's going to be okay. Even if you can't make
it so. You know, you can say that and
you tell your children that. Maybe you can't make it so. Maybe
you can. I don't know. But our father can. He can truly
comfort the heart by speaking peace to our hearts. And this
comfort, Paul tells us, is not just given to us for our use.
Now, the father does comfort his children because he cares
about them, but it goes further than that. The father comforts
us so that we're able to comfort others when it's their time in
the valley, when it's their time to go through the same deep waters
that we've been through. We can comfort them. That's why
the father comforts us. These trials we know are sent
for the glory of our God and for the good of the church. And
a big part of that good is that we're able to give comfort to
others when they're going through the same furnace that we've already
been through. Once we've been through those
same deep waters, we can truly tell people, God will not forsake
you. He's not going to leave you alone
there. You know that because you've already been down that
road before. You can tell them from experience,
our Father will not forsake you. He will give you the strength.
to bear this trial. I know you don't have the strength
to bear it yourself, but he will strengthen you. I can tell you
from experience. You can tell them from experience
the Lord will provide. He'll comfort you with his presence. You will learn that it's true.
Prisons do palaces prove if Jesus will dwell with you there. Once
you've been there, who who can Tell folks that better than the
person that's already been there. And you never would have learned
that. You never would have been able to comfort one of your brethren
if you hadn't been through that trial yourself and obtained mercy,
obtained comfort from our Lord. Now, Paul goes on in verse 5.
He's going to talk about his experience here and comfort us. He says, for as the sufferings
of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by
Christ. Now, Paul can tell us this firsthand
and we'll see this as he talks about this trial that he's been
through. When he talks about the sufferings of Christ, he's
not talking about the sufferings of Christ as our sin bearer or
as our substitute. He's talking about the suffering
of believers that we endure for Christ's sake. And when a believer
suffers persecution, they suffer hatred, they suffer loss for
the sake of Christ, for the sake of the gospel. Christ, our head,
suffers too. What did he tell Saul? Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? He was persecuting God's people,
but that's the suffering of his body. He says in the Day of Judgment,
in so much as you have done it unto one of the least of these,
my brethren, you've done it to me. So that's why Paul refers
to them as the sufferings of Christ. And don't be surprised
when these sufferings abound. This was no small thing. These
sufferings abound. But here's our comfort. When
those sufferings abound, God's consolation also abounds. That's God's way with His people. Where sin did abound, grace did
much more abound. Where these sufferings abound,
God's consolation much more also abounds. As the trial increases
in heat, in strength, in pain, God's comfort will also increase. It'll increase even more. And
this is what Paul's telling us. He's comforting us with the comfort
where with he himself has been comforted when the sufferings
of Christ abounded in him. He goes on, verse six, and he
says, and whether we be afflicted when we're afflicted, it's for
your consolation and your salvation, which is effectual in the enduring
of the same sufferings, which we also suffer or whether we
be comforted. It's for your consolation and
salvation. Now, Paul is speaking as a preacher,
as a minister, as an apostle. And the afflictions of the apostles
in Paul's day and of pastors in our day happen for the good
of the church. The Lord tries his servants for
this reason so they can minister to those who are in trial. That's
why. Now, we know from reading verse four, that's true of all
of us, but it's particularly true of God's ministers, of his
servants. No one can minister to the hurting
like someone who's been in pain, who knows what it is to be in
pain. That's what I said about being
an apostle by the will of God. You really want to sign up for
that? Be mighty careful, because you will sign up for that willingly. If God calls you to it and puts
you in the ministry, but you will be tried. That's what Paul
is saying. Our sufferings, our affliction
is for your sake and our consolation is for your sake. So we can minister
to people who are in trial and to be an example to the church.
That's what Peter did in 1 Peter 5. He told the elders that are
among you, I exhort you be an example to the flock. And in
Paul's day, the apostles and And pastors our day, they're
examples to the flock. When we see their courage and
their faith in the face of trouble and trial, then we can be encouraged
to follow their example, to suffer patiently, endure the trial that
God sent us in grace and peace. And the comfort that the Lord
sends his servants, it's for their good, but it's also for
our good. You know, the job of a pastor
is to preach. is to teach. Well, once we've
been through this trial, now you can tell. Like the Lord told
that demoniac, you go tell people what great things God's done
for you. Now you can tell that story. Once you've been through
that fiery trial, you've been delivered from that, you can
truly preach. He's able to deliver you. And
He will deliver you. And that happens for our sake. So that message can be preached.
from experience, from the heart. Now, verse 7, Paul says, and
our hope of you is steadfast, knowing that as you are partakers
of the sufferings, so shall you be also of the consolation. Now,
our hope for you is steadfast. It's sure. Well, why are we so
sure of your salvation? How can we be so sure of this?
Is it because you're such strong believers? You're so well taught?
And you've been examples of faith for so long. No, that's not it
at all. We have a good hope. Look over
at Philippians chapter one. We have such a good, steadfast
hope because of God's grace. That's why it's God's grace. Look at verse six of Philippians
chapter one. Being confident, steadfast, confident
of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform He'll perfect it and finish it until the day of
Jesus Christ. That's why we're confident of
your salvation, because of who your Savior is. Because if He
has begun a good work in you, He's not going to leave it unfinished.
He'll finish it. He'll perfect it. If the Father
elected you, the Son redeemed you, washed you in His blood,
the Spirit has regenerated you and called you to Christ, we
can be confident in your salvation. because of who saved you. If
God's given you faith, we can be confident in your profession
of faith because you won't be moved away from Him. Not if your
faith is in Christ, you won't be. And even these trials and
afflictions that Paul's talking about here will not move you
away from Christ. They'll be painful, they'll hurt
you, but they will not move you away from Christ. Trials and
afflictions are sent to every child of God, every one of them.
Look at Hebrews chapter 12. They're sent to every child of
God, and when they come, they won't move you away from Christ.
Look at Hebrews 12, verse 5. And ye have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as children, as unto children of God. My son,
despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou
art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
If ye endure chastening, God is dealing with you as a son.
For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be
without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye
bastards, and not sons. These trials and afflictions
and chastening are sent to every child of God without exception. And those trials will not drive
the believer away from Christ. They'll drive us closer to Christ
because we find our comfort in him, because he's our comfort.
So when trials come and we need comfort, it's going to drive
us closer to Christ, who is our comfort. And we'll take our comfort. in
Christ, just as surely as we will have trouble in this world.
You know, we'll have trouble in this world. Just as sure as
that is, the believer will find comfort in the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll find in him everything
we need because just as surely as he's going to send trials,
he'll be our comfort and our consolation too. Now, verse eight,
back in our text, 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, insomuch that
we despaired even of life. But we had the sentence of death
in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in
God, which raised up the dead, who delivered us from so great
a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will yet
deliver us. Now, we don't know specifically
what these trials were that Paul's talking about, but We think that
these are the trials that delayed Paul for this whole year from
coming to Corinth. But whatever the trial was, we
know this, they were more than Paul could naturally bear, more
than the brethren that were with him could naturally bear. They
were sure they were going to die. It was just, it was too
much. They were certain they were going to die. Now, what do we do when that
happens? When the trial comes upon us, that's more than we
can bear. And it doesn't have to be much.
I mean, it does not have to be a very weighty trial to say it's
more than we can bear. We're so weak. We're so fickle. Dust can't hold up much, can
it? Dust just crumbles. What do we
do when the trial comes on us that's more than we can bear?
Paul says we don't trust in ourselves. We trust in God. That's the remedy. That's the prescription. And
I promise you, the Lord's going to more than once bring us to
the place where we have no hope in ourselves, none whatsoever,
to remind us that all of our trust and all of our hope is
in the Lord. That's why he's going to send
us these things. We have to be reminded of that. Just as sure
as we spin, I know this is true of me, maybe it's Not true of
you, but I know it's true of me. Just as sure as you spend
a bunch of time in ease and everything's going wonderful and well, we
get pretty happy with ourselves, don't we? And the Lord's got
to bring us down to remind us all of our hope. I mean, even
for our next breath is in the Lord. All of our hope is in Him. And these trials, are definitely
above our strength, but not above the strength of our Lord. He's
able to even raise the dead. If you've got power to raise
the dead, you've got power and it's not above his power. And
that's what Paul says happened to him. It seemed like that the
Lord delivered us from death. He just he he he raised us from
the dead. That's certainly where we were
going to die. He raised us from the dead. Just like Abraham. Abraham received Isaac from the
dead. That's how sure he was his son
was going to die. How sure he was he was going
to kill his son. That when the Lord delivered
him, it's like he raised him from the dead. And this is all
our hope. Christ is all our hope. He's
delivered us in the past. He's delivering us now. And we
trust because his character never changes, he'll deliver us in
the future. because of who he is. Now, verse 11, Paul says,
ye also, helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift
bestowed upon us by the means of many persons, thanks may be
given by many in our behalf. Now we believe in the sovereignty
of God. Every person in this room would
wholeheartedly say, I believe in the sovereignty of God. I
believe in predestination. I believe the eternal purpose
of God will not be altered in any of its most minute details. I believe that, don't you? He
doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or
ask him, what doest thou? God's sovereign, and he has determined
from eternity what he's going to do, how he's going to do it,
and when he's going to do it. You believe that? Well, then
what's the point in praying? That's what people say. Well,
then you are faithless. You don't believe in prayer.
You know, I believe that. Why just wouldn't pray? Because
the Lord already knows what He's going to do. What's the sense
in praying? Absolutely not. The belief that
our God is sovereign is what drives us to pray. It doesn't
keep us from praying. It's what drives us to pray.
To pray to a sovereign. He's sovereign. He can answer
us prayer if He will. He can do whatever He desires. He will do whatever He desires.
And He is the God of means. God answers prayer. He delivered
Israel when the cry of Israel came up to Him. That's what He
told Moses. The cry of my people has come to me. Now you go deliver
them. And answered a prayer. And Paul says this gift of their
deliverance was given to us by means of so many people praying
for us. Therefore, many are giving thanks. See, that's what our prayers.
We always lay our petitions out to our Father. He's not the one
that can help us. He's the only one that can take
care of those needs. But part of our prayer is always thanksgiving
for everything He's done for us, thanking Him for who He is,
praising Him for who He is. But in all of our prayers, there's
petitions There's Thanksgiving because our God answers prayer.
All right. Lord bless you. We'll pick up
there next week.