If you've turned in your Bibles
to the book of 2 Corinthians, I'm conscious it is warm this
morning, and I'll try to move right along, but I want to read
verse 3 and verse 4 of 2 Corinthians chapter 1. The apostle Paul is
writing to the church at Corinth, and he's writing to all the saints.
He's writing to the church there at Corinth, with all the saints
which are in all Achaia. And he has a message for them.
And he says in verse 3, 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 our tribulation, comforteth
us in all of 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. The Apostle Paul was a very much
tried man. He lived in an age when all believers,
I think, were peculiarly tried. The persecutions of that time
were excessively severe and every man who called himself a Christian
had as it were to carry his life in his hand. God's people living
in that age and time were a very afflicted and persecuted people
and the Apostle Paul he had I think a largest share of this tribulation
and trouble and it was because I believe he was the most prominent
teacher and preacher. He was an apostle and he was
the most prominent teacher and preacher that the church had. Now we have here in these two
verses and the context to these two verses I think a little insight
into the inner life of the Apostle Paul. Well we're told that he
needed comfort and he received it. Isn't that blessed? I'm sure
that it's been the experience, and we'll be talking a little
bit about experiential religion this morning, when we're talking
about people being tested and tried and afflicted and troubled
in this world, and then they crying out to God for comfort,
and the Lord coming and administering that comfort to them. And the
Apostle Paul had it in such abundance that he himself became a comforter
of others. He received so much comfort,
so much consolation, so many blessings in his Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ, that he became a comforter of others. Now in
this text, there seems to be four things which stand out to
me. And number one, we have Paul's
practice when he was being tried, when he was being persecuted,
and that practice was that he blessed God. Now the second thing
we'll talk a little bit about is the titles which he gives
to our God here in our text. First of all, he calls our God
the God and Father. of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
is of tremendous significance. And then He speaks of our Heavenly
Fathers being the Father of mercies. And then He says that He's the
God of all comfort. And then we have this fact, that
is, who comforteth us in all our tribulation. Isn't it wonderful
that God is so in touch with our lives that He comforts us
in all our tribulation. And then lastly we have the design
of it all. and that we may be able to comfort
them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God. Would you not like to be used
as a blessing to those around you? Would you not like to be
able to minister to the living family of God, to be able to
bear their burden and to be able to lift them up and to encourage
them to come alongside. The word comfort means to come
alongside. It means to stand with us. It
means to alleviate the irritation that we have and that we find
in the world dealing with the ungodly and also dealing with
all the various problems and the ups and downs and the afflictions
that we have. The Lord comes alongside. and
relieves all of that for his people and we can become such
ministers ourselves of the comfort of God. First of all then, to
those of you who may be cast down or troubled or mourning
in Zion this morning, I want to call to your attention the
practice or the occupation of the Apostle Paul. Here was a
man who never knew but what he might be dead the very next hour. And he had many enemies in this
world. They were cruel and they were
mighty. And yet he spent a great part of his time in just praising
and blessing God. He praised and blessed God. Now this argues that his heart
was not crushed and vanquished by his troubles. Often times
we're overwhelmed. The Apostle Paul had times when
he felt like he was stretched to the very end. He had times
when he felt like that his strength was gone. And you and I have
those times in our lives. But we take note of the fact
that he was not crushed by his pressures, and his troubles,
and his trials, and his difficulties, and he was not vanquished by
these troubles. Paul was sore beset in many ways,
yet he could say, and did say, Blessed be God. Blessed be God. Now my friend, this is so important
for us to see. You remember that Job was greatly
tried, and sorely bereaved, but he still said, the Lord gave
and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. God's people have always, the
true people of God, those people who understood anything about
their God and His mercy and His goodness and His grace and have
understood the world and something about it, that the world lies
in the lap of the wicked one, and understands that the persecutions
that the people of God experience in the world is because they
lack their Master, and they're not of the world even as He was
not of the world. These people understand what
we're talking about, and they understand that the name of God
is to be blessed regardless of what be our situation. And as
long as we can keep the blessing of God coming out of our lives
and out of our mouth, In our very daily experiences, it's
a sure sign that whatever may have happened in our lives, whatever
been the nature of our persecutions and our afflictions, that we've
not lost our confidence in the living God, which hath great
recompense of reward." Our confidence in God hath great recompense
of reward. And blessed be God, whatever
your situation is this morning, whatever situation you left when
you left home this morning. Whatever situation that you're
dealing with in your personal life, dealing with in your health,
whatever your situation is, my friend, if you could practice
the example of the Apostle Paul and bless God. Just bless God. Now, beloved, there have been
times when I've tried to practice this, and the first two or three
times that you say, bless God, it comes out rather slowly, and
inhibited to some degree. But then when you say it a number
of times, it gets easier all the time. Blessed be God. Praise the Lord. Glory be to
our God. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Now beloved,
this confidence in God is revealed, made known by that which comes
out of our heart. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh, and we give praise and blessing to our God. Now beloved, do you believe that
God is in control of the events in your life? If you truly believe
that, then bless God, regardless of what's happening. Now, the
Apostle Paul, as we made mentioned, and it's all through the Scriptures,
especially through the epistles that he was the author of, we
see it clearly. He was a greatly tested man.
And if he was taken up with those tests, then of course he would
have never been able, and if he had been crushed by them,
he would have never been able to bless God in them. So bless
the Lord, O my soul. Spurgeon said it is glorious
to see how the grace of God will enable a man to endure all of
the assaults of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and how
he will be laid aside by sickness, how reproach may break his heart,
how I may be depressed in spirit and lose all temporal benefits
and yet be able to still say, be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Though He slay me, Job said, yet will I trust Him. I'll trust
Him regardless of what happens. Make up your mind, my friend.
Let Him do what He pleases with me. I have made no stipulation
with Him that I'll only praise Him when He does according to
my will, when He does according to what I want Him to do, when
I feel like I ought to be feeling. No, no, I've made no bargain
with God or in any way, shape, or form entered into any covenant
with God that He would bless me and do exactly as I would
have Him do. Then I would bless Him? No! I'll bless Him regardless. I'll praise Him when He has His
own way with me even though it runs exactly contrary to mine. Now, beloved, if we practice
this, it's a brave heart that under all pressures gives forth
only this cry, Blessed be God! Blessed be God! Now, if you would
hold your finger here in our text and turn to the 11th chapter
of 2 Corinthians, Paul here has been pointing out to the church,
he's been pointing out all of his afflictions, and the various
and sundry afflictions that he'd experienced. And I'll just read
verse 24, the Jews, he said, five times, received I forty
stripes, save one. I read that in order that you
might, way, shape, or form that this man just had, you know,
just little mediocre trials and tests. He had whippings. He says, Thrice was I beaten
with rods, and once was I stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I've been in
the deep. And then you can go ahead and read down through to
verse 31. And then in verse 31, listen
to what he says. He says, The God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, which is what? Blessed forevermore
knoweth that I lie not." He was telling them all about his afflictions
and troubles and persecutions, and he said, the God of our Father,
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed
forevermore. Blessed be His name, blessed
forevermore. He's always blessed, so blessed,
regardless of what your situation is. And Paul said, He knows that
I lie not. What a solemn assertion. He asserts
here that God knows His heart, that He has indeed suffered,
but in His own heart, God is blessed forevermore. And so,
beloved, so if you and I are in trouble and are afraid of
being overcome, Take the praise in God and get away from the
present trial by blessing His holy name. You say, will it really
do any good? Absolutely it will do good. It
will do good. You say, I can't see where there
would be anything in my blessing of God that would alleviate my
troubles and my trials. Try it. God says, or the Word
says, that bless the Lord and He will deliver you. He will
come to your rescue. He will alleviate the sufferings
and the trials. You know when a man blesses God
for the bitter things, the Lord often sends him the sweet. I
like that because it's true. And so whatever, if it's bitter,
then bless God for it. And just believe that God's going
to send the sweet. Excuse me a minute. Now if you
can praise God in the night, the daylight is not far off. So praise Him regardless of how
dark things are with you. And you know, many, many times
we cannot appreciate the dark circumstances that our brothers
and sisters in Christ held. We cannot appreciate it. We somehow
or other just simply are not able to enter in and to bear
their burden like we would like to. But if you can praise God
in the night, I'm telling you that the daylight is not for
all. There never was a heart yet. that waited and wanted to
praise God, but the Lord soon gave them an opportunity of lifting
up psalms and hymns and spiritual songs unto Him. God will send
the Spirit of blessing and power so in your soul that you'll be
able to bless Him and praise Him. It shall never be said that
we were ready to praise God, but that God was not ready to
bless us. So praise God, and He will bless
you. Now, beloved, I give this as
one of the shortest and surest recipes for comfort. Just begin
to bless God. Begin to praise Him. Lift up
your voice and your heart. May the Lord enable you to do
it, and there will come comfort into your soul. Now our second
point here in this text is the titles which the Apostle gives
to God. And I like this. This is a great
blessing to me. And the first title that he gives,
he says, Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now the Apostle Paul felt that
when God blessed him with the Son of God, the Savior, when
God was pleased to give him to Paul that he had blessed him
with the greatest of blessing. Now the Bible says in Romans
8.32, He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not also through him freely give
us all things? And if that verse of Scripture
means anything, it means that when God blessed us with Jesus,
when God gave us His Son, when God was pleased as John 3.16
and whatever you believe about John 3.16, the message of it
to me is that God so loved me that He gave His only begotten
Son that I might believe on Him and that I might be delivered
from eternal wrath. I believe that. And God has given
His Son. He is the God and Father of the
Lord Jesus Christ. My friend, never question God's
willingness to bless you. He has given us His Son. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. The Lord Jesus has come. You know the Old Testament talks
about there's one coming. And the four Gospels says He
has come. And the epistles say, He's coming
again! The Lord Jesus Christ has already
come, and God has sent Him into this world. And so, beloved,
never question God's love toward your heart. He gave His only
begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see Him that
He's the God and Father. And I've often thought about
this, and what a blessing it has been along the way to my
soul that God gave me His Son. And then He gave me to His Son. And so what a blessed, blessed
truth this is. And then secondly, when we think
about this, how near to God does this bring us? Oh, it brings
us very near to God because God has given us His only begotten
and beloved Son to be our Savior, to be our Redeemer, to be our
Lord. And beloved, He dwells in us
through the Spirit. And so how near to God we are. How blessedly near to God because
He's the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a comfort. Next, He calls Him the Father
of mercies. then every mercy, if I understand
this correctly, then every mercy I have ever had has been begotten
of God who is the Father of mercies. Have you been a recipient of
mercy? I know you have. I know you have. I know you have. You're here in health this morning
and you're here and able to sit under the sound of the Word of
God and to understand. You've got eyes to see. You've
got ears to hear. And my friend, you've been blessed
of God. Well, our God, Paul says, He's the Father of mercies. Every
mercy that we've had, He's the author of those mercies. All
temporal mercies come to God's people from their Father. Every
good and perfect gift comes down from the Father with whom there
is no variables, neither shadow of turning. James 1.17 All temporal
mercies come to God's people from their Father. He blesses
our tables. Well, you generally don't you
bless Him for what you partake of from your table? Well, it's
because God has blessed your table that you're able to do
that. And then He puts clothes on our
back. Well, I know we don't believe that anymore, but we ought to
believe it because, my friend, God is pleased to clothe us just
as He clothes the flowers of the field. And God is faithful
to do that. And then also, in all common
mercies, I think we see a touch of God's hand in all common mercies,
both temporal mercies and everlasting mercies arise from God. What a barren world apart from
that mercy which endures forever. This would be indeed a barren
world if it wasn't for God's mercies. Every day you experience
the mercy of God. Oh, that God would enlighten
your soul and lift up the veil from your eyes that you'd be
able to see the abundant mercies of God which endure forever. Now, seeing He is the Father
of mercies, can you not go to Him for all the mercy you need?
Paul indicated that you could. Do you need mercy? Then He can
and will give you mercy. Now, if your mercies seem to
be few, Hebrews 4 and 16 says, Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find
grace to help in the time of need. The next title that Paul gives
to his God is, he says he's the God of all comfort. The God of
all comfort. All sorts of comfort are stored
up in God. He has just the kind of comfort
that each one of us need. Just that kind of comfort. Have
you grown weary because of the trials of the way? He knows exactly
how to come near you and how to bless you and to comfort you. The world is as a great and terrible
wilderness, and we found it to be so. God's people are not at
home. God's people are on the road.
God's people are pilgrims. God's people are on their way
to glory. And this world is a waste, howling wilderness. And God is
the God of all comfort, not merely of some comfort, but of all comfort
which you might need God is the author of that comfort. If you
need every kind of mercy that was ever given or every kind
of comfort that was ever given to men, that men have ever experienced,
God has it in reserve and He will give it to you. He will
give it to you. Now isn't it wonderful to be
able to say as we live in this world that God has mercy and
comfort in reserve which He has on supply and on hand to give
to us. And if there be any comforts
to be found with the people of God in sickness, or in want,
or in depression, in bereavement, in death, it will and must come
from this God of all comforts. So whenever you come to this
place in your life where you have these various difficulties
and troubles and problems and you sink into depression and
you seemingly can't get out of your depression, remember this,
that He is the God of all comfort and He will come alongside and
He will help you. Now, it is not a creature who
supplies the comfort. It's only the Creator. The comfort
may be brought to us by a creature and brought in God's name, but
it must come from Him. It must come from Him. He's the
author of it. It originates with Him, and He's
the one that gives it. I read a story one time about
a lady, an old lady, and she was an old believer, and she
had her daily needs, and she was praying in her little apartment,
that the Lord would supply her needs. And she was listing those
needs and telling the Lord what she had need of, milk and bread,
and some other necessities of life. And there was a fellow
who had been very much grieved and aggravated at her that lived
in the apartment next door. So he was listening to the wall
that morning, and he heard the request that this old sister
was making to the Lord. And so he said, I'm going to
play a trick on her. He said, I'm going to go out
to the grocery store and I'm going to buy these things and
I'm going to take them and set them right down to her door. Then
when she comes out and starts praising the Lord, I'm going
to tell her I am the one that bought those things for her and
put them there. And so that happened. And she
comes out all excited, hears this big sack of groceries, and
she said, Praise the Lord, blessed be God. And he stepped out of
the door and said, Ah, I caught you this time. He said, I did
this. He said, The Lord didn't do that at all, I did it. And
she said to him, Well, God is not powerful enough to bless
His people. And so that's exactly what He
did on that occasion, I suppose. But I'm telling you, it's not
the creature who supplies the comfort. It is only the Creator. The comfort may be brought to
us by the creature, and brought to us in God's name, but it must
come from Him. It's got to come from the Lord.
Now the reason why bread feeds us, and medicine heals us is
because God chooses to make it do so. Don't you ever forget
it. You know, we somehow or other say, well, you know, we're living
in such an advanced age that we don't have to look to God
or even acknowledge God in any of the blessings or any of the
mercies and comforts that we have. But the reason why that
things work like they do, it is God who must bless the means
in order for them to be useful in our life. We have the Creator
Himself as our Comforter, the One who will bless means and
make them useful in our lives. Now then we have thirdly, and
we're going to move on here and try to hurry up here and close
early, the fact that we mentioned, and that is the God of all comfort
comforts us in all our tribulations. He does indeed do that. He does
indeed do that. Now you say, well it's one thing
to tell me that Paul was comforted by God, but it's another thing
if I could experience it myself. Now I say to you children of
God here, those of you that are walking by faith, and those of
you that are waiting on God, continue to wait. Continue to
wait before the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Acknowledge
that these blessings we've been talking about, they come from
Him. Acknowledge that and wait on
the Lord for the experience in your own life. Keep a diary and
wait on the Lord for Him to show you His own comforting and gracious
hand. This was Paul's declaration. It is not only true of Paul as
we said in the Christians of his day, but it's true of us
today. The God of all comfort has comforted
us in our tribulation. And like I say, keep a diary.
So you can go back and say, well, on this date, and I just run
across the date yesterday in one of my books where I'd written
down. Some things that had happened back in 1994, February, early
February of 94. And I could go to many of my
books and find where I put notes in there about how God came to
my rescue, how God delivered me, how He came near, how He
supplied my needs, how the Lord met my needs. And beloved, God
is a merciful God. He will comfort us in all our
tribulation. I can't say that with enough
conviction. I think we need to understand
it that He said, I'm going to do this. I'll do it. I'll do
it. And you sit there in unbelief
and say, I'll never see the hand of the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. And He will
strengthen your heart. He will strengthen you. I speak
for myself. The Lord has been very gracious
to me in all my afflictions. God has never left me without
a word of comfort, without a word of blessing, without someone
to come alongside, through whom God uses to minister to my soul. God has never left me alone. He has been willing and He has
been gracious to draw near and to give us that help that we
need. Paul speaks in the present tense.
Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, right now, whatever
you have. in the way of tribulation. God
is comforting. He will comfort. Believe Him
and trust Him to do so. God is now comforting us who
believe in Jesus. And He's doing that through the
comforts of the gospel of the grace of God. How often we're
comforted with the thought of God's amazing grace. God is so
gracious to have forgiven this sinner. God is so gracious, not
to send me to hell, but to have mercy on me and lift me up, and
to give me hope, everlasting hope, in His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And all of this hope, good through
grace. Good through grace. Now you say,
that don't mean a lot to me, but it means a lot to me, my
friend, because I'm getting down to that time when Very shortly
I shall go the way of all flesh, and very shortly shall look upon
God, see Him face to face. And I'm telling you, there is
glorious comfort in the gospel of grace to my heart. The gospel
of grace. Now it's the only gospel there
is. Is the gospel of the grace of God. That God loved a people,
chose a people, redeemed a people. And that He experientially saves
that people. And He does it all by grace. By grace. Now if you came in
here heavy of heart, I hope some of the heaviness At least, maybe
it's gone by now. Maybe the Lord will lift up your
heart and the heaviness and the burden will drop off. The Bible says that He shall
never suffer the righteous to be moved. He will not leave us
comfortless. He will come to us and comfort
us in all of our trouble. and our tribulation. The text
is true of the future as well as the present. He has comforted,
He is comforting, and He will comfort. That 10th verse right
there in 2 Corinthians 1 verse 10. Who delivered us from so
great a death? Paul said He delivered us from
so great a death. That's the deliverance from sin. And that deliverance from the
death of sin, the wage of sin is death. The gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, and doth deliver, present
tense, He's delivering now, and in whom we trust that He will
yet deliver us. He will yet deliver us. Paul
said we trust that He will yet deliver us. We believe! that
He will yet deliver us. Oh, my friend, what's your fears?
What's your anxiety about the future? What is it? What is it? You're much troubled. What is
it that troubles you? Well, the Bible says that we
trust He will yet deliver us. So the text is true of the future
as well as the present and the past. He has comforted, is comforting,
and will comfort. As your days, the Bible said,
so shall your strength be. As your days, so shall your strength
be. Now lastly, I want to say a word
or two about the design of which this text speaks. Why does God
lay trouble upon His people and comfort them in it? That's been
an age-long question. Why would God send trouble into
the lives of His people? We see and we mention that Paul
was greatly tried, and we mention the first century Christians,
how they were afflicted and the world was not worthy of them,
and how they had to live in caves, and how they took joyfully the
spoiling of their goods, greatly afflicted as they were. But we
see that there's a reason for that. Why God allows this to
happen in the lives of His people. Why does God lay this trouble
upon His people and then comfort them in it? So Paul said in verse
4, Who comforteth us in all our tribulation? And here's the answer,
that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble. That we may be able to comfort
them which are in any trouble. It is that He may make them comforters
of others, that we may be able to comfort them which are in
any trouble. You say, well, I thought, you
know, I've never been in trouble because I've preached the gospel
or because I testify to the grace of God. I've never been in any
trouble because I lived right. I just have some trouble. I just
have some various troubles in my life that I don't want to
speak about publicly. Well, I'm here to tell you this
morning that God has comfort for those who are in any trouble.
In any trouble. And look for God to send somebody.
Look for God to speak a word to you. Because God has comfort
for those who are in trouble. I've often said that not even
God can deliver a man who's not in trouble. And so, my friend,
when you get into trouble, a man who has never had any trouble
is a very awkward He's very awkward when it comes to trying to comfort
troubled hearts. Very awkward. The preacher, if
he is to be of much use in God's service, he must have some troubles.
One old writer said that prayer, meditation, and affliction are
the three things that makes a minister of God. There must be prayer,
there must be meditation, and there must be affliction. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous. Through much tribulation we'll enter the kingdom of God.
In the world you'll have tribulation. Be of good cheer. I've overcome
the world. There must be affliction. It
is God's will to the end that we can comfort one another. Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Give a word of comfort
to my people. These comforting men are to be
made. They are not born so they can
comfort, and they have to be made by passing through the furnace
of affliction themselves. They cannot comfort others unless
they have had trouble and have experienced comfort in it. We
are to be made able comforters. You know Job, what did he say
about his comforters? Miserable comforters, he said,
are you all. Miserable comforters. The same
can be said of many that I've crossed paths with in my day
and time. Depart, be warmed and filled,
they say. Go on about your way. Go on about
your way. Go on, the Lord will take care
of you. Oh yes. You love not in deed, you just
love in word only. You're miserable comforters.
Brethren, the able comforters must be those who knows both
the trial and the promise that is suited to meet that trial. So school yourself when you're
in trouble, school yourself with the promises of God. that will
enable you whenever somebody else is in need of a word, you
can sort out the promise and give it to them. You can find
it in the word and give it to them. Experiential knowledge
helps a man to speak with power to afflicted souls. If you've
had some experience, what about your travels with the Lord? Have
you had any travels with the Lord? Well, my friend, I'm afraid
sometimes that we've not waited on the Lord to deliver us, we've
looked to the hand of flesh. And many, many times, if God
would give a man a crutch, he'll lean on it. If God would allow
a man to have a crutch, he'll lean on it. He won't wait! for
the Lord to deliver. He'll deliver Himself somewhere
or another. Sometimes we get ourselves in head over heels
in debt. We won't believe God. We won't
trust Him. We won't do what we ought to
do with that which God places in our hands. We won't wait on
the Lord. We won't trust Him. We won't trust Him. Somebody
said, well, Preacher, I've always believed 100% would go further
than 90%. You know the Word of God, the
Old Testament taught tithing. taught tithing. And many, many
people said, well, you know, 100%, I mean, it stands to reason
100% would go further than 90%. All depends on who's managing
the circumstances. All depends. If God, if you're
trusting God and if you're managing, if God is managing your circumstances,
90% will go a long ways further than 100%. Just trust God. Trust
God. Believe God. Wait on the Lord. Trust Him. And the Lord will
comfort you. Now the Lord often sends His
preachers through trials which they would never have to endure
if it were not for their people to whom they preached to. Even as upon the chief shepherd,
one writer said, all the wanderings of the flock had to be laid. That is on Christ Jesus. All
the wonderings of the flock of God was laid on Christ Jesus. So in a very minor sense, the
wonderings of the flock must be borne by the under-shepherd
or else he cannot be a comforter to them. So many of the things,
listen, you say, I'm just unique. I've experienced things that
you preachers never did experience. Don't believe a word of that
in your mind. Don't believe a word of that. I'm not here to tell
you where I've been or how I got there. I'm not here to do that.
But I am telling you that I have borne the afflictions, the trials,
and the tests, and the troubles that most of you have borne in
your life. I know about it. I know about
these afflictions. I know about these problems.
And the next time we get in trouble, we ought to keep notes on how
God did come and comfort us. Now, one of these days you can
use it, I'm sure, to comfort some brother or some sister who's
in need. An old writer wrote, Whenever
thou comest into the mouth of the furnace, say to thyself,
God has some great work for me to do and He is preparing me
for it. Now have you ever looked, have
you ever thought of your trials like that? Here you are and you
see it a-coming. I mean you see it a-coming. And
you know that awful trouble has settled in on your life. Have
you ever said, well, blessed be the name of God. God has somebody
down the road that I am to minister to. I am to minister to and to
comfort. And so, here I am in the furnace
and it's for that reason. God means to do something more
by us. than what He has done in the
past. You see, this brings home the truth that God is at work
in us. It's what Paul said in Philippians
2. He says it is God which worketh in us both the will and to do
of His good pleasure. God's doing something. God is
at work. Many, many times we sit back
and we say we can't see any evidence of it. I see evidence of it.
I see evidence in this life and that life. I see evidence all
around that God is doing something. Sometimes it's one thing, and
other times it's another. But God is at work doing His
work. Now then, we are not yet qualified
apparently. The furnace must be hotter. And
when we come out, we'll be more fit for the Master's use. You say, I don't know whether
I like that or not. Well, you may not like it, but that's the
way it is. Paul said we've been afflicted and comforted so that
we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble. If
God ever uses or blesses us to comfort others, it'll probably
be because of the very trials that we're right now going through.
The very trials that now vex us. God will use those trials
to fit us to be of use to Him. I want to be used of God to help
others, don't you? Don't you? So they will not have
to suffer as maybe we did if we can help it. If we can help
it, we'd like to minister to those who are in need and those
who need to be comforted. May God bless you who have found
mercy to administer in the name of God to those who are longing
to find it. May God give you a heart and
a burden. You know, somebody said, well,
give us something to do, preacher. Well, I just say, wait on the
Lord and let the Lord make you qualified to administer comfort
and help, to administer His gospel. Wait on the Lord. Trust in the
Lord. I'm not going to give you anything
to do. I think one of the marks of a false prophet is somebody
gives you something to do. gives you something to do. I
just believe that God calls His people and He deals with them.
And I believe in experiential religion. I believe in experiencing
something so that you can deal with people who are experiencing
something. I believe in it. I believe the
Word of God teaches it. And oh may God give us a heart.
Above all things, brothers and sisters in Christ, trust the
Lord. Trust Him. He's working. Trust
Him. Trust Him. Now that's what He's
doing. He's working in your life. And you're going to see it. Wait
on Him. Wait on Him. You're going to see that He means
there's somebody you're going to help. Somebody right around
the corner that you're going to be able to help. Father, in
the name of Jesus, we ask your blessing upon the message, upon
your word, and pray, Father, that Even though it's been warm
today and difficult maybe to sit and listen, I pray that some
good might come from this message. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.