What a wonderful blessing to
belong to the King. Isn't that true? The King of
Kings, the Lord of Lords. Do you belong to Him tonight?
Those of us who can sing that hymn in sincerity and truthfulness
that we belong to the King, we belong to Him in a threefold
way. First of all, by choice, the
Father chose us in Christ. Second, by purchase, the Son
of God purchased us with his own precious blood. And thirdly,
by conquest, God the Holy Spirit came and revealed Christ in us
and subdued our stubborn will, making us willing in the day
of his power to come as a bankrupt, helpless sinner. to look to Jesus
Christ for all our salvation. I belong to the King. That's
a wonderful, wonderful truth. Great hymn to sing tonight. Now
let's open our Bibles to 2nd Corinthians chapter 1. I want us to read the first 11
verses. 2nd Corinthians chapter 1. Paul and Apostle of Jesus Christ by
the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, unto the church
which is at Corinth with all the saints which are in all Achaia. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God,
even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies
and the God of all comfort. who 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. For as the sufferings of Christ
abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And
whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation,
which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which
we also suffer. Or whether we be comforted, it
is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is steadfast,
knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you
be also of the consolation. 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 raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so great a
death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will yet deliver
us. Last week we looked at these
four things in the first four verses. First of all, I pointed
out to us that Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, which
was a light in a dark place because Corinth was such a wicked, wicked
city. And here God had His church,
one of His churches, and they were a light in a dark place.
And then secondly, how that Paul desired that they increase both
in grace and peace in verse number two. We mentioned the fact that
every one of these to whom he wrote because he addresses them
as saints, they had experienced one type of grace that is saving
grace. But we know that grace has many
facets, many different areas of God's grace and God's people
We experience His saving grace, His keeping grace, His preserving
grace, His enabling grace. I mean, there's just so many
different kinds of grace, and we need grace. We're saved by
grace through faith. And grace is not a one-time experience. Grace is our salvation as we
walk through this life. And peace. They had peace with
God. They were justified. They were
saints. But peace itself may increase
in our consciences. And then, third, Paul gave this
example of how we should bless the Lord in verse number three. Blessed be God, even the Father,
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I mentioned the fact that
in the Old Testament, the believers in that dispensation, they blessed
God, the father of Abraham, because it was with Abraham that God
had made that covenant, that covenant in which God promised
that in his seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
Now we bless God as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
because it was with Christ that this covenant of grace was made
and us in Him before the foundation of the world. We bless God who
is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies
and the God of all. comfort. And then Paul testified
in verse 4 to the faithfulness of God. Now tonight I want us
to continue with this theme which runs through these verses and
that is tribulation and comfort. Tribulation and comfort. But before we go ahead with these
verses I need to make us aware of something that I'm sure we
know, but we may need to be reminded of something that was behind
these verses that we are looking at tonight and those that we
will look at next Wednesday, God willing. If you turn back
just a page or two in your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 16,
we need to be made aware of this problem. this problem that the
Apostle Paul is dealing with in these verses. In 1st Corinthians
chapter 16 and beginning with verse 5, he wrote to them in
this first letter, almost the end of the letter, and he said,
I will come unto you, when I shall pass through Macedonia, for I
do pass through Macedonia. And it may be that I will abide
yea, and winter with you, that you may bring me on my journey
whithersoever I go. For I will not see you now by
the way, but I trust to tarry a while with you, if the Lord
permit." It was these words of the Apostle Paul there in verse
5 that the false teachers took when he wrote, I will come to
you. And seeing that he had not come,
they took these words and used them against him. They accused
him of not keeping his word. Now Paul had detractors, he had
false teachers in almost every city where God raised up a church. After he went there preaching
the gospel and then he moved on to another place, then these
false teachers always moved in. For the most part, Judaizers,
those who were trying to bring these believers under the law
of Moses. These Gentile believers under
the law of Moses. But they took his words, in this
case, where he said, I will come unto you. And they accused him,
now of not keeping his word, of him being a person who says
one thing, but then he does something else. But notice in that passage
there in 1 Corinthians 16 that we read at the very end He did
say, if the Lord permit. Verse 5, he said, now I will
come unto you. But notice how he ends the passage
in verse 7, if the Lord permit. And that's the way the Apostle
James, we recognize that this is a way that he teaches you
and I, all of us to speak and to write. We don't make our plans
and say next week I'm going to do this, and the week after that
I'm going to do this, or next year I'm going to do this. We
make our plans, and that's okay, but always with these words,
if the Lord will. If the Lord permit, as the Apostle
Paul said. Let's read that passage over
in James just a moment. James chapter 4. Because it's
so easy for all of us to fall into this habit of making our
plans and leaving God out of them.
You know, we just decide we're going to do something and we've
got our plans made out and many times they don't work out. And so James He taught us in
chapter 4 of his letter verse 13. Go to now you that say today
or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue their year
and buy and sell and get gain, whereas you know not what shall
be on the morrow. We know this, don't we? We know
this. We're sitting here tonight May
the 17th, 2017, and we don't know what's going to be on May
the 18th or May the 19th. We've got our plans, we think
we're going to do this, we're going to do that, which is good
to make plans. We're not talking against that,
speaking against that, but always remembering that God has the
final say. God has the final say. Today
or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year
and buy and sell and gain, whereas you know not what shall be on
the morrow. For what is your life? What is your life? There used to be a program on
television in the early days of TV, and the title was, This
is Your Life. Some of you may be old enough
to remember that. This is your life. And in 30
minutes, I believe it was, the 30-minute program, they'd condense
all the life of a person who, some famous person usually that
everybody knew, and this is your, what is your life? They could
condense a man's life into a 30-minute program. Really not even 30 minutes
because they have cuts for advertisements, don't they? What is your life? James tells us what it is. It
is even a vapor, a vapor that appeareth for a little time and
then vanisheth away. If we live to a good, I mean
a good old age, and by good I mean long, it'll still be just a vapor. When one day with the Lord, or
a thousand years is as a day with the Lord. If you live to
be a hundred years old, it'll be just like a vapor, just like
that quick. I know when you're young, you're,
you're anxious for things in the future. You're looking forward
to things that you think you can do and think where the places
you can go and all of those things, which is natural. But life goes
by fast. It goes by fast. The scriptures
speak of it as a vapor, as a post. You see the Pony Express rider,
something along that line is what I believe Job has reference
to, how the rider comes and he's just on his way and he's gone,
you know. Drops off the mail and phew.
And so our life, we come into this world and we're here for
just a little while, and then we're gone. That's another reason
why the scriptures encourage us over and over and over again. What should it profit a man if
he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Keep that
in mind. The most important thing always
is our relationship to God. Let me read the rest of this
verse here. For that you ought to say, If the Lord will, we
shall live and do this or that. Now, that's what the Apostle
Paul had done. He said, I will come to you,
but then he ended that statement with those words, if the Lord
permit. You see, the proverb is as true
of an apostle, an inspired apostle of the Lord, as it is of you
and I. A man's heart diviseth his way,
but the Lord directeth his steps. The man's heart deviseth his
way. This is the way I'm going to
go, but God directs our steps. Now, let's go back to our text
this evening. And I want us to look at six
things in these verses here in 2 Corinthians 1, beginning with
verse 4. Six things that Paul acknowledges. In verses 4 and 5, Paul acknowledged
that apostles and ministers abounded in tribulations. Verses 4 and
5. Who comforteth us in all our
tribulation, and that we may be able to comfort them which
are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted
of God. For as the sufferings of Christ
abound in us, So our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. Paul
acknowledged that being an apostle, being a minister, as Timothy
was, you notice he uses these two words, us, in verse four,
for who comforted us. And then in verse five, it's
our consolation. Who does he mean, us? He's talking
about himself and Timothy. Paul, an apostle, Timothy, a
minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, does that exempt a person
from troubles, from afflictions? Paul is declaring and acknowledging
that being an apostle or a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ does
not exempt anyone from afflictions, from trouble, from problems.
He abounded, they abounded in tribulations. If you keep your
place here, but look back to 1st Corinthians 6. In 1st Corinthians
6 and verse, I'm sorry, 1st Corinthians 4. 1st Corinthians 4 and verse
9. He said, For I think that God
has set forth us the apostles last. as it were appointed to death,
for we are made a spectacle." Have a marginal reading in your
Bible. Do you see what that word in
the margin could be translated? Made a spectacle. Theater. Unto the world, and to angels,
and to man. They were spectacles. These apostles. These apostles of the Lord Jesus
Christ, Paul said they were spectacles to the world by their sufferings
and their persecutions. They were made like a source
of entertainment when people would go to the theater And up
there on the stage would be those actors and actresses that would
entertain the people. Paul said, he's made us apostles
like spectacles, like we are on the stage and the world is
looking at us. And the reason they were on the
stage was because of the afflictions, the trials, the tribulations,
the sufferings, abounded. The word abound means many, much. abounded in afflictions and tribulations. And notice back here in our text
tonight in verse 5, he calls them the sufferings of Christ. Notice he says, for as the sufferings
of Christ abound in us. Now what does he mean by this,
the sufferings of Christ? He's not talking about Christ
personally, that is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
he is speaking about the body of Christ. The body of which
Christ is the head. I mentioned this in the message
last Sunday morning. It is the body, the church is
the mystical body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yes, he refers
to the body as Christ. When the Lord Jesus Christ, think
about this, when he revealed himself to Saul, Saul was on
his way to Damascus to try to persecute the believers there,
and he saw that great light, he fell on the ground, and the
Lord spoke to him, and he said, the Lord said unto him, Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? Now he was in heaven. Christ
was in heaven, and yet he said, why are you persecuting me, Saul? How was he persecuting Christ? Because all of his members are
part of his body, and to touch one of his members, one who is
in union with the Lord Jesus Christ, is to touch Him. And
that's what Paul has referenced to here in this passage of Scripture. He calls the sufferings of Christ
abound in us. Look at this in Colossians chapter
1. And I think this is important,
very important tonight that everyone understand this. that when he
speaks here of the sufferings of Christ, he's not talking about
the person of Christ. Now the person of Christ, the
Lord Jesus Christ, He suffered. He suffered alone. He suffered
for our sins, for the sins of His people. And Peter, the apostle,
wrote, For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for
the unjust, that he might bring us to God. We don't add anything
to the sufferings of Christ that were necessary to save His people. He suffered alone, and He needed
no one to help Him, nor could anyone help Him in His sufferings
to save His people. He had to tread the winepress
of the wrath of God alone. But now when we're reading about
the sufferings of Christ, that the apostles experienced, the
ministers of Christ experienced, and yes, the church of Christ
experiences. We're talking about Christ mystical,
Christ the church, his body. Here in Colossians chapter one
and verse 24, He said, Who now rejoice in my
sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the
afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is
the church. Now Dr. Gill made this comment
on this particular verse in Colossians, on the sufferings. He said, when
Paul wrote that verse, All of the sufferings of Christ was
not yet fulfilled, nor when John Gill wrote his commentary were
they all fulfilled, nor will they be fulfilled to the end
of time. In other words, today, today,
Christ is suffering. His church is suffering. These
are afflictions and sufferings that He has appointed to His
body. And until they're filled up,
and as Gil said, I know this is so, they will not be filled
up until the end of time. When Christ comes again for His
bride, then all the sufferings of Christ, I'm not talking about
Christ personally, don't misunderstand me, I'm talking about his church. Until that day, his church in
this world will continue to have afflictions, trials, sufferings,
difficulties, calamities, as is one word we find in the scripture. So Paul, that's my first point
tonight, Paul acknowledged that apostles And ministers abounded
in tribulation. It wasn't just a few. They abounded
in tribulation. I know somehow we've got the
idea that to live the Christian life is a life of ease, of never
having any problems, never having any affliction, never having
any suffering. And remember when I'm talking
about suffering and affliction and trials, it is for the gospel's
sake. Let me make that clear. For the
gospel's sake. When Paul suffered, it was for
Christ's sake. For the gospel's sake. Now, second,
Paul acknowledged that apostles and ministers also abounded in
consolation. Abounded in afflictions? Yes. At the same time, abounded in
consolation. Notice that in those two verses.
"...who 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. For as the sufferings
of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by
Christ." The God of all comfort not only comforted them But as
the sufferings abounded, so did the comfort and the consolation. They were not left to go through
the sufferings, the afflictions, the tribulation alone. The Lord
has promised His people, I will never leave thee, nor forsake
thee. Now Paul ascribes all the comfort
to be from God. But that doesn't mean, and that
doesn't rule out, that God uses means in comforting His people. Let me show you that in chapter
7, 2 Corinthians chapter 7. The point is, yes, the sufferings
abounded, but so did the consolation. More suffering, more consolation. More afflictions, more consolation. But here in chapter 7 of 2 Corinthians,
verse 6, he said, Inasmuch that we desired Titus, that as he
had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also. Therefore, as you abound in everything,
in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence,
and in your love to us, see that you abound in this grace also. Titus came to Paul. I don't have the scripture I'm
looking for here, but Paul confesses that he was comforted by the
coming of Titus. And the point is that God, that
all comfort, all consolation comes from God, but he works
through means. Paul confesses here in the text
that I hope that I had, that when Titus came, he was comforted
just by the coming of Titus. And I would say tonight that
God has many ways of comforting his people who are in tribulation
for the gospel's sake. One of the titles of the Holy
Spirit is a comforter, isn't it? Lord Jesus Christ said, I
will not leave you comfortless or orphans, but I will pray the
father and he shall send you another comforter. That's his
name, comforter. And he is not limited in the
number of ways that he may comfort his people. He especially uses
his word, the written word of God, and gives us grace as we
read the word of God and hear the word of God to believe, to
believe the promises and to rest in the promises. And He manifests
His presence in shedding abroad His love in us. Sometimes when
you're reading the scripture, the Holy Spirit, he just, he
just blesses that word to you, doesn't he? And you can't explain
it any other way other than he comforts you. He uses his word
to comfort you. Sometimes he uses a friend, a
friend who will speak to you, maybe a word of encouragement
when you are going through afflictions for the gospel sake. I think
I've mentioned this before, but I remember many times in my life
that I have been comforted and helped by just the coming of
a friend. I have one episode in my mind
that I'll never forget when I was so discouraged and it just looked
like everything was dark and might as well just throw up my
hands and give up. And two of my friends came by
and helped me. What a blessing it was. What
an encouragement it was. I called a pastor friend the
other day, and I said, what are you doing? He said, I'm sitting
here thinking about this text of scripture. And he said, I've
been sitting here for, I think he said, an hour or two. It was
that verse of scripture which says, Elijah said, where is the
Lord God of Elijah? When he came back to Jordan,
where's the God of Elijah? And it so happened when he said
that, he said, I just, I feel like this is what God wants me
to teach on. And I just, I have no, no light. It happened. I said, it so happened,
in the providence of God, I just finished reading a book on Elijah
the Tishbite, and I was in the process of reading Pink's book
on Elisha, and I mentioned a few things to him, and he said, you
know, he said, I believe it was God's will that you called me.
He said, just those things that you spoke, he said, I know how
I'm going now. I know what I want to say. We
never know. how we may encourage someone
else. Maybe you send them a card or
a word in some way, and it may be a time when they need encouragement,
and God sends it. It doesn't just happen. It's
all in God's providence, and we give him all the glory. That's
what Paul is saying, isn't it? He's the God of all comfort,
but he uses means. He uses his word. He uses other
men. Now here's the third thing. Paul
acknowledged that God had a purpose in the afflictions of the apostles
and ministers. Verse 6. They didn't just happen. God had a purpose in the sufferings,
the afflictions, and the difficulties that Paul and Timothy were going
through. And what was his purpose? And
whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation,
which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which
we also suffer. Or whether we be comforted, it
is for your consolation and salvation. When these believers heard the
apostle Paul was going through sufferings, sometimes he was
beaten, he was shipwrecked, he was stoned, he was beaten with
rods. You know that one list he gives of all of the things
that he had gone through. When these believers heard that
and yet they saw Paul was still faithful and zealous in preaching
the gospel even though he suffered greatly. by these tribulations. How it blessed and comforted
the people to whom he wrote and to whom he had preached. Look
at this example in Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1. and verse 12, but I would, you should understand
brother, that the things which happened unto me have fallen
out rather unto the fathers of the gospel. So that my bonds
in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. He was in bonds, he was in chains
and yet it gave him the opportunity of preaching and the word working
effectually even in the palace there, in Herod's palace, or
in Caesar's palace rather. And many of the brethren, notice,
many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident by my bonds. They saw that I was in chains
and yet I was zealous in preaching the word of God and it gave them
confidence. They were much more bold to speak
the word without fear. He did acknowledge, some indeed
preached Christ even of envy and strife and some also of goodwill. The one preached Christ of contention,
not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the
other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding every
way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached And
I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." So Paul acknowledged that God
had a purpose in these afflictions. Yes, they abounded, so did the
consolation abound, and God had a purpose in all of this. And
fourth, Paul acknowledged that his expectation of them was steadfast. Paul declares that the sufferings
and afflictions was not peculiar to the apostles and the ministers. He said, and our hope, verse
seven, our hope of you is steadfast, knowing that as you are partakers
of the sufferings, these sufferings, they were not limited, they were
not peculiar only to the apostles and ministers, the saints, in
all the churches, they too had to partake of the afflictions
and sufferings of the body of Christ. But they would also partake
of the consolations. Yeah, they partook of the sufferings,
but they also would partake of the consolations. as God was
the God of all comfort to Paul and Timothy, so he would be to
them. But Paul, you notice he said
he was confident of the believers in the church at Corinth, just
like he was those believers in the church at Philippi, when
he said, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath
begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. When God begins a work in the
heart of his people, that work is not going to miscarry. It's
going to come to fruition, and that is their salvation. He's
not going to begin a work and then leave off building. He begins a work in our hearts,
and he's faithful, and he's going to continue to perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ. Now, I really don't have the
time for this, but I want you to notice Paul acknowledged a
special trouble. He doesn't tell us what it was.
A special trouble that came upon him in Asia. And I believe the
reason he brings this up is because this will explain why he had
not come to them. Even though he had every intention,
he proposed to come to them, But as yet, he had not been allowed
to come to them, but he tells them that something extraordinary
in all the sufferings that he had gone through, he experienced
in Asia. Now, if you look in 1 Corinthians
15, in verse 32, we cannot be sure But he tells us here in 1 Corinthians
15 and verse 32, if after the manner of men I have fought with
beast at Ephesus. Now Ephesus of course was in
Asia. Paul tells us, let's go back
to our text tonight. In verse 8 he said, 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. In other words, he said
he had gone through something, he experienced something in which
the very possibility or probability of him being delivered was given
up, he just could not see any way that that would take place. Whatever it was that Paul references
here is not important. Whether he literally had to fight,
and we know that Christians were put into the arenas and they
were not given any instruments to fight with, but had to fight
animals, wild animals. And I don't know if Paul was
literally speaking of something that he experienced at Ephesus,
that he had to fight with a beast there. And it's just impossible. Think about it. If God puts you
in an arena with a fierce lion, and you have nothing but your
hands, Looks hopeless, doesn't it? Looks hopeless. How in the world am I going to
be delivered from this? And that's what Paul says. He experienced something that
caused him to believe that there was no hope that he was going
to die. That this was the end of his
life. That he had the sentence of death
in himself. But I want you to notice this
in verse 9. He said, But we had the sentence
of death in ourselves that, pay attention, that, in order that
we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the
dead. He had an experience that caused
him to lose all hope of being delivered, believing that this
would end his life. He had the sentence of death,
but he said it was so that he wouldn't trust in himself, but
trust in God who raised the dead. God raised the dead, he can deliver
me. No matter what your problem is,
what your affliction is, what your suffering may be, for Christ's
sake, God is able to deliver. He is. He who raised the dead,
whatever your problem is, He can take care of. And yet, I'll close with this
in verse 11. He acknowledged the help by their
prayers and his deliverance. You also help him together by
prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means
of many persons, thanks may be given by many on our behalf. It was God who delivered him,
but their prayers, Paul said, had a part. How do you explain
prayer? You can't. You can't. Believing as we know the truth,
that all things are according to God's will and purpose. And yet he has ordained prayer. Someone told me they were listening
to a message. The title of it was the mystery
of prayer. And I tell you, prayer is a mystery. God hears and God answers prayer. You say, how does that all fit
in with God's purpose and plan? I can't explain that. That's
the mystery. But I know that God does hear
and He does answer prayer. And He tells us to pray. Well, let's sing a verse or two
of a hymn.