Open our Bibles tonight to 2nd
Corinthians chapter 1. Notice that this letter begins
with the Apostle Paul who is the human author, Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ by the will of God. This is the same way he
began the first letter to 1 Corinthians. But I noticed in Philippians,
when he began that letter, he did not mention the fact that
he was an apostle. It was only in these churches
that his apostleship was questioned, that he always stated the fact
that he was an apostle by the will of God. He was one who was
born out of due season. He was not one of the original
12 apostles. But one thing that was necessary
to be an apostle of the Lord, a man had to have received his
gospel, the gospel that he preached from the Lord Jesus Christ directly. And he also had to have seen
the risen Christ. And the Lord Jesus did appear
to Paul on the road to Damascus. I was reading just a few minutes
ago the three instances in Acts, Acts chapter 9, Acts chapter
22, and Acts chapter 26, where this incident is related when
the Lord appeared to him on the road to Damascus. But Paul, you
remember, he said, Lord, who art thou? He recognized whoever
he was, he was Lord, by that great light and the Lord speaking
to him. Lord, who art thou? And the Lord
Jesus Christ confessed, I am Jesus whom thou persecuted. We read just a few minutes ago
in 1 John that one of the the signs that a man is a false prophet,
he does not confess that Christ, that is, that the Lord has come
in the flesh, that Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh. If anyone denies that, you may
be sure he's not a prophet, he's not a preacher, he's not sent
of God. If anyone denies that Jesus Christ
is not the eternal Son of God who was made flesh. Paul, an
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. I would
like, if God is willing, to bring several messages to us from this
second epistle, the second letter that the apostle wrote to the
church at Corinth. But tonight we're only looking
at these first four verses. The consensus of the writers
is that this letter was written about a year after he wrote that
first letter. And in this letter we gather
that there were two matters he especially had to deal with. The first matter was that man
who was guilty of incest. He mentioned him in the first
letter. You remember there was a man
in the church and he was living with his father's wife and Paul
had to instruct them as to what they were to do. Well, that man
repented. He repented. And now in this
letter, Paul has to write back to them, encouraging them and
telling them that he's to be forgiven and he's to be received. You know, I don't understand when there are certain conditions
that men or women cannot be forgiven. I just don't understand that.
Do you? We all need forgiveness. We all do. And how a person,
there surely has to be some way, if a person sinned, I'm talking
about a believer, a child of God, if that person has sinned,
there has to be some way that that can be made right. You know,
I mean, the church, someone sometimes said likened it to a hospital.
I don't know if that's a good likeness or not, but the truth
is all of us have sinned, and we all sin, and we all need forgiveness. And there's just no way that
a believer should be treated as a lost person if that person
repents, they're to be received. Now, the second thing in this
letter that Paul especially deals with is an offering. The matter
of taking up an offering to send to the poor saints in Jerusalem. He writes a good deal about that. In fact, in this second letter,
as a child of God, if you want to know what your responsibility
is as to giving, as to supporting the ministry, the work of the
Lord, where will you go? You cannot find a better place
than here in 2 Corinthians, because he deals, two chapters he deals
with this matter of giving. And you know it's, he begins
with, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you
through his poverty might be made rich. The motive for giving,
It's not because the law commands a certain percentage. It's not
because God's going to get you if you don't. You know, the motive
for giving is because of what He has given us. And it is out
of love that we give, that we support the work of the gospel,
the ministry of the Lord Jesus. It's a blessing. It's a privilege,
isn't it, to be able to give, just to thank of the opportunities
that we have to give. I was thinking about Brother
Heller, as I mentioned a few minutes ago. We took that offering
up whenever they were in the States, and we divided it between
him and Cody, and it was several thousands of dollars that both
received. And that's what that money went
to for their ministry there in New Guinea. And that was a blessing
to be able to give. You know, you could live in a
country or you could be unemployed or something like that and not
be able to give. It's a real blessing, a privilege,
and that's the way I hope we always look at it. A privilege
to be able to give and to support the work of the Lord, the ministry
of the gospel. Now I want to call our attention
to four things in these four verses tonight. Paul writes to
them as God's light in a dark place. Notice he says, unto the
church, unto the church of God which is at Corinth with all
the saints which are in Achaia. Now, Achaia was a large province,
a large area of Greece, and Corinth was its capital. And it's always
pointed out, whenever you read and study about Corinth, you
always find these same things. Corinth was a very wicked city,
but there are three things that it was known for. First of all,
it's learning. It's learning. The universities,
the opportunity of education here at Corinth. Number two,
wealth. It was a very wealthy city. It
was located on that isthmus. And they would unload a ship
on one side and transport across ground to the other side to a
ship to save time and to save expenses. And it became a trading
center. And it was a very wealthy place.
But number three, it was a very wicked place. They were especially
known for the lasciviousness in the city of Corinth. It was such a place as this that
God raised up a church. And so this letter is to God's
church in a dark place, a light in a dark place. When Paul preached
the gospel at Corinth the first time, the Lord appeared to him
in a vision. And this is the only time recorded
at least. where the Lord appeared to Paul
in a particular city and told him, I have much people in this
city. Now they were not believers at
that time, so what can that mean? But he had many of his chosen,
his elect in that city of Corinth. And it pleased God to save them
and to raise up Raise up a church here. The gospel of Jesus Christ
is for sinners. Now that's just all there is
to it. It's for sinners. If a person says, well, I'm not
a sinner. Well, I don't have a message
for you. I don't have any message from
the Word of God for anyone who does not recognize his sinnerhood. That's number one, isn't it? that we recognize that we are
sinners, that we need a Savior. And thank God, God has provided,
has sent His Son into this world to be our Savior, to save sinners. And in such a city as Corinth,
where there was much wickedness, that's the very place where God
raised up a church. If you look back to I Corinthians
6, You get some idea of the wickedness. It sounds pretty much like our
day. Pretty much like the day in which
we live, the city in which we live. Man hasn't changed. God hasn't changed. And the gospel
hasn't changed. Christ hasn't changed. He's the
same yesterday, today, and forever. And man hasn't changed. Man's
need hasn't changed. But here in 1 Corinthians chapter
6, beginning with verse 9, Paul said, Know you not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers,
nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God, and such
were some of you. Not all of them, and probably
none of them was guilty of all of those sins that he mentioned
there, but such were some of you. The gospel is for sinners. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation unto everyone that believeth. Isn't that true? That's what Paul said in Romans
chapter 1 and verse 16. He said, For I am not ashamed
of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation unto
everyone, no matter what their past is, no matter what kind
of lifestyle they have lived. Such were some of you. But the
gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation unto
everyone that believeth. For therein, in the gospel, is
the righteousness of God revealed. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. Those who are justified, that's
part of salvation, is being justified. It's by faith, by faith in Christ,
to believe the gospel. You know, Paul told the church
at Philippi, that they were holding forth the word of life. He commended
them. They were holding forth the word
of life. And in Revelation chapter one,
when John the apostle was on that isle, exiled to the isle
of Patmos, and from what the historians
tell us, now he was an elderly person. He was the oldest of
the apostles to die. Many believe he was 100 years
old, over 100 years old. But when he was exiled to that
island, it was like working on a chain gang. They were busting
rocks. And any time that guard that
guarded him didn't think he was busting enough rocks fast enough,
all he had to do was take that whip and strike him. And yet
John said he was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. He was exiled
from the believers where he had worshipped, where he had preached
the gospel, but he was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. A person, no matter where a believer
may be sent, to prison, to exile, to solitude, but nobody can put
you in a position where God isn't, because He's everywhere. And
God's people, we can worship Him anywhere and everywhere. We worship Him in spirit and
in truth. He was in the spirit on the Lord's
Day, you remember, and he heard that voice, the voice, the sound
of many waters. And he turned to see, and he
saw a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. But here's my point.
Where was He? When He saw Christ, He was in
the midst of the golden candlesticks. And then He is informed, he had
the seven stars in his hand. The seven stars, our Lord told
him, represent the angels or the messengers to the seven churches. And the seven churches, the candlesticks
represent them. What is a candlestick for? It's
to hold, give forth light, isn't it? And Paul commended the church
at Philippi, holding forth the word of life. And that's what
you and I, and that's what This church at Corinth was doing.
They were holding forth the Word of Light. And remember this. This is so simple, and I know
you know it, but the darker the place is, just the least light
is a great light. I mean, if it's pitch black,
dark, you can't see your hand in front of your face. Just a
little old match. That's a lot of light. A lot
of light. We live in the midst of a dark
society and a dark place, just like these in Corinth. But they
were a light in a dark place. And our responsibility, every
pastor and every church, though in the darkest place, is to hold
forth the word of life. Paul told Timothy in his second
letter, preach the Word. And that hasn't changed has it?
It never will change as long as God's church is in this world. Preach the Word. Be instant,
in season. We're not here to entertain people.
We're not here to make everyone happy and everyone have a good
time. That's not the purpose of God's
church. Someone Jim Groover told me this
several, maybe over a year ago now, but he told me one lady
that he had met or something, she said, they've turned our
church into Six Flags. And basically that's what it's
like, a Six Flag amusement park. It's a place of amusement. That's
not the church of the Lord Jesus Christ who holds forth the word
of life. preach the word, be instant,
in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering,
and doctrine, teaching. For the time will come, and I
believe it's already come several years back, don't you? For the
time will come when men, when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after their own lust shall heap to themselves teachers having
itching ears." You say, well what is sound doctrine? To the
law and to the testimony, that is to the Word of God. If they
speak not according to the Word, it is because there is no light
in them. So first of all, Paul writes
to them as God's light in a dark place. Now second, notice that
Paul desires for them grace and peace. Look at verse 2. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's take
those two words, grace and peace. Clearly they had already partaken
of God's grace and they had already experienced God's peace. Why do you say that? Because
they could not have been saints. Notice what he says in verse
1. Unto the church of God, which
is at Corinth, with all the saints. For a person to be a saint, he
has to have experienced the saving grace of God. For by grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is
the gift of God. But remember this, every gift
of which God's children partake of, which we partake of, every
gift, it is capable of increase. And Paul wishes them grace and
peace. This is what Paul desired for
this church, that they grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. The apostle James said this,
he giveth more grace. He giveth more grace. And Paul
said that he is able to make all grace abound toward you. Believers, we're not through
with grace when we are saved. We're saved by grace, but that's
just the entrance into this life, this Christian life. And we need
God's grace all along the way. We needed God's grace yesterday.
We need God's grace today. Our Lord taught us to pray that
we enter not into temptation. And He prayed that we be delivered
from the evil one. We need God's keeping grace. We've experienced His saving
grace if we are saints. We need His keeping grace. We
need His preserving grace. Have you known of anyone? Have you seen of anyone who walked
seemingly with the Lord and then turned back? If you don't see
them anymore, what did John say? They went out from us because
they were not of us. Because if they had been of us,
they no doubt would have continued with us. And why do some turn
back and why do some persevere? It's God's grace. It's God's
grace that keeps us day by day. And the same thing we could say
about peace. We know that they have the peace
of God, or peace with God, rather, because they are saints. Therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God. And that
word peace, it tells us that we are reconciled unto God. By nature, it's fallen nature,
sinful nature. children of wrath, even as others,
we are enmity with God. But through the sacrifice, through
the death, through the offering, the blood sacrifice of Jesus
Christ, we have and we are reconciled unto God. We have peace with
God. But even peace may grow. In our
conscience, for instance, we have peace with God and we have
peace in our conscience. But with knowledge, as we grow
in grace and knowledge of the Lord, even the peace in our conscience
increases. It increases as we know more
about God, more about His purpose, more about His covenant, more
about who He is and His purpose in saving sinners. Paul wrote
to the church at Rome in his letter of Romans, he said, if
it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all
men. And then he said, have your feet
shod with the gospel of peace. So peace, he wished grace and
peace to these saints. And let's remember this, that
these graces Faith, we read of little faith, we read of great
faith in the scriptures. All of these graces, love, joy,
all of these graces may increase, may grow. And that's our desire,
isn't it? That we grow in grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the way we grow in these
graces is growing in knowledge of Christ. The third thing, Paul
gives an example of how we should bless God. In verse 3, he said,
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. Saints of old and saints in this
new dispensation, we add nothing to God when we bless God. God is perfect. We add nothing
to God when we bless Him, but yet this is His due. We are to bless Him, and we always
have cause to bless Him in both dispensations. In the Old Testament,
in that old dispensation, the saints that lived in that time,
they blessed Him as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac. God of Jacob. Why? Because it
was with them that that covenant was made that promised the Redeemer,
the seed in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed.
But now, they blessed Him, those who lived under that old covenant,
that Old Testament. I love that blessing of David
in Psalms 103, when he said, Bless the Lord, O my soul. It's not just a blessing with
our lips. Sometimes I'm convicted when
we're singing. I love our song service, but
sometimes I think, do I really mean this or am I just mouthing
the words that are on the page? Is my soul engaged or is it just
my mouth? Bless the Lord, O my soul. He
calls upon His soul, speaks to His soul, to be engaged in blessing
all that is within me, everything that's within me. Bless His holy
name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all His benefits. who forgiveth all thine iniquities. You know, if we just stopped
with that first benefit, that would be enough to bless Him
for all eternity. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Who healeth all thy diseases. I know the scripture says in
Isaiah 53 that by his stripes we are healed. That's not talking
about physical healing, it's talking about spiritual healing. He healeth all our diseases,
but yet you and I recognize that all healing comes from God, physical
healing as well as spiritual healing. And one day this body's
not only going to be healed, it's going to be glorified, completely
healed. He healeth all our diseases, who redeemeth our life from destruction,
and who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies.
Every child of God here tonight. God's crowned you. God's crowned
you, not with some physical crown with diamonds and rubies and
precious stones, but He's crowned you with loving kindness and
tender mercies. New Testament saints, you and
I, now we bless Him as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Old Testament saints, God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And both of these remind us of
the covenant. The reason we bless Him as the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because we recognize
His everlasting covenant. He's the Father of the Lord Jesus
Christ as He is no other, because He is His only begotten Son. God has angels, which He calls
His sons. They are His sons by creation.
You and I, we are adopted into the family of God. We are His
sons by adoption, but not the Lord Jesus Christ. Neither by
creation nor adoption is He His Son. He is His everlasting, eternal
Son of God. He is the God of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the Father of the Lord Jesus
Christ from eternity. He's the God of the Lord Jesus
Christ as he came into this world as a man, as a servant of Jehovah. And after his resurrection, he
appeared one time to his disciples and said these words. He said,
I send unto my father and your father, to my God and your God. It's only through Christ, only
through him, right? that He's our God and our Father. He's our God forever and ever. What a blessing. Now He's the
Father of mercies, Paul says, the Father of mercies. Did you
notice the word mercies is plural to emphasize the abundance of
the mercy of God. Now there are temporal mercies
and there are spiritual mercies. And God is plenteous in mercy. He abounds in mercy. And all
of His creatures, all of His creatures partake of His mercy. Wicked men as well as saved men
partake of the mercies of God. But His grace is reserved for
His chosen people. In Matthew 5 and verse 45, the
Lord Jesus Christ said, God makes His Son It's His Son to rise
on the just and on the unjust. What would the unjust do if the
Son did not rise on their farm? They'd have no crop. No, His
mercies are upon all of His creatures. In fact, in Psalm 145 and verse
9, it says, The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies
are over all His works. And then notice he's the God
of all comfort. And there's no solid comfort
except that which comes from God. The comfort and the consolation
that God's people have We have it from Him as our covenant God
and Father, and it all comes to us through Christ. You see,
when a lost man sits down at the table and eats his food,
yes, God's given it to him. But when you and I, as God's
children, when we sit down at the table and eat our food, that's
a gift from God as our covenant God, as our God and Father has
given unto us. And notice this last thing, Paul
testifies, the fourth thing, Paul testifies to the faithfulness
of God in verse 4, "...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." Notice
that Paul tells those believers, and thus you and I, that God
did not keep them from tribulation. He doesn't say that. He's not
promised to keep us from tribulation. In fact, the Lord Jesus Christ
said, in the world you shall have tribulation. But He has
promised to be with us in the tribulation and to comfort us
in every tribulation. Think of this passage in Isaiah
43. You're familiar with it, but
let me read it to us. But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear
not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name,
thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee. When you go through the water,
when you enter into tribulation, He has not promised that we will
not have tribulation, that we will not go through the water,
but He does promise us that when we do, I will be with thee. And through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee, when thou walkest through the fire. And
sometimes God's children go through tribulation that I don't know
of any word that could better describe it than fire. Fire. And yet God says, thou shalt
not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. Now,
God is with his children in tribulation and he is with us to comfort
us. Now the comfort, Paul tells us,
with which we are comforted, we're to use that comfort. The
comfort that he comforts us with, we are to use to comfort others.
When we have a brother, a sister, someone that is a believer that
we know, we're to comfort them with the comfort that we have
received. Maybe it's a verse of Scripture
that you share with someone. And you might say, you know,
when I was in great trouble, this verse of Scripture really,
really ministered to me, really blessed me. Or maybe it's something
else, but the comfort that God gives us, we're to use to comfort
others. And let me close with this. Tribulation. This is what we know about tribulation. Now, this is just so. We know
this. It cannot come without God's
permission. We know that from the book of
Job. He went through the fire, didn't
he? But the fire could not come without God's permission. We
know this about trouble. It cannot come without God's
permission, and it cannot last one minute longer than what God
has purposed. When that time comes, the tribulation
is going to be over. And it is part. We know this.
It cannot come without God's permission. It cannot last one
minute longer than what God has purposed. And number three, it
is part of the all things which work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. I pray that the Lord would bless
these words and thoughts to all of us here tonight.