Sunday, October 30, 2022 AM

Comfort in Trials and the God of All Mercy

Good morning, Sunnyside. Life can be filled with a lot of trials and a lot of troubles, and one can feel pressure on every side. Paul, at one point, wrote about how he felt pressured on every side, and how there were fears on the inside and conflict on the outside.

Life can be filled with a lot of pressure and a lot of trials. But we, the people of God, those who believe in Jesus Christ, are not alone in the misery of life. We're not alone. For God is here with us, a very present help in trouble, our refuge and our strength.

The Lord is 100 sovereign in all things, and He's 100 good in all things. No evil dwells with Him. He makes no mistakes. There is nothing that gets past His attention. He is above all and exalted above everything in this life.

God is good altogether. He does not leave us or forsake us, but rather brings comfort and deliverance to His saints while they are in trouble, while they're in misery. He does not leave us alone, but He brings us comfort and deliverance.

Thus says the Lord in His Word. So if you'll turn with me today to 2 Corinthians 1, we'll be reading verses 3 -11 of 2 Corinthians 1. And we'll look at what God has to say about giving us divine help during trials.

And I would encourage you to stand for the reading of God's Word as we hear from our King. 2 Corinthians 1, verses 3 -11. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now, if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer.

Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.

For we don't want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver us, in whom we trust that he will still deliver us.

You also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many. Here is God's word, you may be seated. And let's go ahead and pray.

Father in heaven, blessed be your name. You are the king of glory. We thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, in whom we have comfort and deliverance, Lord. We thank you for your word and for the precious promises that are here and find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

Father, I thank you for our pastor. I thank you for his family. And I pray that you would comfort him during this time and his family and bring them through this trial. Please bring them healing and comfort in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank you, Lord, for this day and for Sunnyside. And it's in Christ's name we pray, amen. The first help that we see God provide is comfort in this passage. The apostle Paul is the author of this letter to the Corinthians, and the church was founded in Acts 18, earlier in the history of the church, by the ministry of Paul, as the spirit of God was working through him.

Paul stayed there a long while, as the word says, teaching the word of God among them. And the text in Acts tells us he stayed there a year and six months. And later it says he still remained there a good while.

Paul labored long and hard for the believers at Corinth, and he poured into them through his ministry. And after he leaves, a lot of trouble begins happening at the church of Corinth, including diversity among the brethren, the Lord's Supper wrongfully practiced, sexual sin, believers not being sensitive to each other's conscience, not loving one another, but being so consumed on their own self and their own desires.

Suing one another in world's courts, worldly wisdom was a threat, and even misunderstanding the very resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yet through all this, Paul, the faithful leader, the pastoral leader, writes to the church to help them with these troubles, telling them to stop letting such sin be in their midst.

He explains to them what Christian love actually looks like, and he directs them saying, watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong, let all that you do be done with love. And now he writes to the Corinthians once again.

And we can actually see from evidence in the text from both letters that even though we know these epistles as 1st and 2nd Corinthians, that this one, 2nd Corinthians, was probably actually the fourth letter that Paul writes to the Corinthians.

Fourth time. This church struggled with a lot, and they went through a lot, yet Paul reflects Jesus Christ and patiently perseveres in laboring for the Corinthians again and again, even though they struggle with much, even though they have to deal with much, even running into so much sin.

Paul still ministers to them and still loves them. For this fourth letter, Paul addresses the current matter for the Corinthians, that is, false teachers coming into their midst and turning them against Paul.

There were liars and evil men who were taking shots at Paul's reputation, his character, his ministry. These are false teachers who compare themselves with each other, who consider themselves to be eminent or super apostles, who boast proudly in the flesh, and yet they are, in fact, as Paul calls them, ministers of Satan.

False apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. These evil men were coming at the presence of the Corinthians and beginning to sinfully influence them and attack the apostle Paul and his character with false accusations.

Thus, Paul writes this letter defending his character, defending his authority and his ministry. And what was his ministry? The glorious ministry of the new covenant. Glorious ministry of Jesus Christ.

He writes that the Corinthians being openly honest and transparent with them, we see in this letter the apostle's heart for these believers. Though they had dealt with many issues and many sins, and even though they were letting these evil teachers into their midst, becoming unequally yoked with them, Paul still loves the Corinthians and still labors for them.

Love is patient and kind, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Thus, Paul writes this letter out of obedience to Christ and love for the Corinthians. And he begins his letter speaking of comfort and deliverance.

We, the readers, can draw from this section of the letter that along with false teachers coming into their midst, the Corinthians were dealing with some sort of suffering, some sort of affliction. And so, going through that, Paul's love for them shines forth.

At the very beginning of this letter, he pastorally speaks on these blessed promises that all believers have in Jesus Christ. So he first writes on the one who comforts in verses three and four. Paul writes, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation.

Paul starts with praising God. He draws from the Old Testament an expression of praise that's used often in Israelite history in the Old Covenant. The apostle writes, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And again, we see this expression many times in the Old Covenant, especially in the book of the Psalms. In Psalm 72, it says, Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only does wondrous things.

And blessed be his glorious name forever. And let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen. Psalm 106 states, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. And let all the people say,.

Amen.

Praise the Lord. And we see this same expression used by Job. After affliction came to him directly, and after he lost so much on that fateful day, Job says this, Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Job, in whatever situation he found himself in, whether he had a whole lot or a whole lot of nothing, he said, Praise be to God.

May he be praised. Blessed be his name.

Always.

And now Paul, as begins to write about the one who gives comfort, says, The Lord be praised. He begins with worship to the one who comforts. And Paul further describes God as the father of mercies. The father of mercies.

Here's a characteristic of God seen also in the Old Testament. Psalm 86 says, For you, Lord, are good and ready to forgive and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you. Psalm 86 says again, But you, O Lord, are a God full of compassion and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.

Such passages as these reveal to us what it means to be merciful, to be forgiving to those who commit sin, to be compassionate to others, gracious and longsuffering and patient to those who do not deserve it.

And then there is Micah chapter 7. Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnants of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in mercy.

He will again have compassion on us and will subdue our iniquities. In these passages, we see the one who is merciful. We see the father of mercies in the Old Testament. His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting.

He was compassionate to his people who suffered in Egypt. He delivered them and he was patient with them all those years in the wilderness and all those years in the coming kingdom. He was gracious to the people of Israel throughout all of the Old Covenant, though they did not deserve it.

His mercies are new every morning. Great is the Lord's faithfulness. Paul describes the one who comforts as the God of all comfort. He is not the God of some comfort or the God of little comfort, but he is the God of all comfort.

All comfort is ultimately from him. It flows from the maker of this universe. The theme of God comforting his people was very present in the book of Isaiah in the Old Covenant. There we see God say, Comfort, yes, comfort my people, says your God.

Elsewhere we read, Sing, O heavens, be joyful, O earth, and break out in singing, O mountains, for the Lord has comforted his people and will have mercy on his afflicted. And though Isaiah is filled with much judgment and much prophecy against Israel and the nations, yet we also see the rich theme of mercy and of compassion and of God comfort, God comforting his people.

As a mother comforts her child, so the Lord God will comfort his people. So Paul begins his letter with worship, exalting the one who comforts, blessing him as the father of mercies and God of all comfort.

Behold our God in this text in 2 Corinthians. Behold the Lord God. Behold the one who comforts. This is who he is, a part of his never-changing character. He remains the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He grants us many mercies all the days of our lives. He brings us comfort upon comfort. He does not leave us in our pain. He does not forsake us in the darkness, but is ever there with us. And God comforts us in all our tribulation.

Just as he is the God of all comfort, so too in every one of our trials, tribulations, afflictions, and troubles, God is there to comfort his people in every hard situation. That's a great theme, but how does the Lord comfort specifically?

How does that look in life? Well, he comforts through deliverance, doesn't he? Through bringing us through the values of life. We're helped through these times and comfort is there at the end of those specific trials.

And we look back and say, God was faithful and he brought me out. He brought me out. He comforts us with the company of the saints, with fellow believers. What a comfort it is when we go through hardship and trial to enjoy the sweet communion of spiritual brothers and sisters.

What a comfort that is to know that another is praying for us. I always remember what Spurgeon said, the greatest one can do for another is to pray for that person. Even versus giving that person all of the money in the world, all of the treasures in the world so that they can buy the entire world.

That doesn't compare to praying for one another. What a comfort that is to know that there are believers out there praying for you and your trial and difficulty. There's no greater act than to pray for one another.

For we go to the God who comforts. We ask him who is above all things. We go to ask him with whom all things are possible. Paul later in 2 Corinthians writes about a specific example about how God comforted him.

In chapter 7, verses 5 through 7, Paul writes,. For indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears. Nevertheless, God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was comforted in you when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoice even more.

Paul got comfort by the coming of another brother and by news of other brothers, the Corinthians, as they were being convicted of sins and they were being led to godly repentance. God comforts the downcast when there is fear on the inside and conflict on the outside, specifically with the comfort of the saints.

God comforts with his word, and what a comfort it is to have his word and to be able to read it. I have really enjoyed some quotes recently. When we pray to the Lord, that's when we talk to the Lord. And when we read his word, that's when we hear the word, hear the Lord.

And if you'd like to hear audibly the word, the Lord speak to you with your own physical ears, as one brother said, just read the word out loud. But when we pray, we talk to God. And when we read his word, we listen to God.

What a comfort. What a comfort to hear God and to know the precious promises that are in the Bible. Romans 15 .4 says, for whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

The patience and the comfort of the scriptures, that we might have hope. And Psalm 119 .50, I appreciate how the ESV puts it. Psalm says, this is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.

Finding comfort in God's word and God's promises. Praise God. God also comforts through his spirit, who Jesus describes as the helper or the comforter. His spirit is ever with us, producing in us spiritual fruits, such as joy and patience and peace.

The spirit illuminates God's word and teaches us, for he is our greatest teacher after all. He teaches us what the word means and how to understand it. There is supernatural divine work that the Holy Spirit does in our lives.

And he comforts us in a multitude of ways. There are many ways indeed, in which God comforts his people. And I very much appreciate a song that describes the comforts, the blessings of God as rivers and streams, which flow from the ocean.

Many rivers and streams that flow from him. All these blessings flow from the father of lights with whom there's no variation or shadow of turning. Yeah, we have to ask ourselves too, how do we know that for us at Sunnyside, all these promises are for us?

How do we know that all these promises are yes and amen for us? How do we know that the one who comforts is the one who comforts us? How can we know this deep truth for ourselves? Behold, the new covenant is here.

Behold, Jesus Christ is here, a much more glorious covenant than the old. Behold, the son of God has come to us. There are many blessings and comforts that God gives, but the greatest blessing, the greatest comfort that he has ever given is Jesus Christ, his son.

Look back to Paul's expression of praise in second Corinthians. He draws from the old Testament, an expression of praise. And instead of saying, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, of Jacob, of Abraham, he says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It's in him that we have these promises. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all the law and the prophets that came before. He is the substance of the shadows of the old covenant. And as the apostle Paul will write in second Corinthians just a bit later, in him, all the promises of God are yes and amen.

We know the Lord as God and father and enjoy all the blessings that come with that relationship, all the comforts that come with that relationship because we are in Jesus Christ by faith. The son is the one who draws us out of the grave and to the father.

He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through him. We were once far off, sinners and rebels deserving of nothing but holy judgment. But now we've been brought near by the blood of Christ.

We've been brought near to God, the father. Praise God. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, made us alive together with Christ. For by grace, we have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, least anyone should boast.

In Jesus, we know God as father for through Jesus, the spirit has been given to us. And in our hearts, we now cry out, Abba, father. We know God as father through Jesus. And through Jesus, we know and believe that the father of mercies and God of all comfort will comfort us in all of our tribulation because we are in Jesus Christ.

Through Jesus, we are comforted with deliverance from trials. Through Jesus, we are comforted with the communion of the saints for we're all redeemed by the blood of Christ. And once we meet a brother or sister in Christ, instantly, there's that connection.

Instantly, there's that comfort of, yes, here is another one of the saints. Through Jesus Christ, we are comforted with the communion of the saints. In the name of Jesus, we pray for one another. We pray in the name of Jesus.

Through Jesus, we are comforted by the word of God for it testifies of him. It points to Christ in every one of its passages and every one of its texts. It points to Christ, who is our greatest comfort.

Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you. He has saved you and he tells you all. I will never let you go, never. While God gives us many good comforts, while there are many rivers and streams that flow to us, these all flow from and through the son of God, who is himself the ocean.

He is fully God who came down to us and saved us. Are you in a trial right now? Are you in pain? Are you experiencing affliction? Do you face many trials? To your sunny side, look to Jesus Christ. Worship at his feet.

Know that he has redeemed you. He's covered your sins. He's forgiven you. He's cast them away. And having faith in him, God the Father will send you comfort upon comfort, for he is the one who comforts.

One might say, though, a believer that's been struggling with affliction and trials for a long time, I've waited so long for comfort. There seems to be no end to my trial. I'm still experiencing so much pain.

Take comfort in Christ. Take comfort in him. He is ever-present with you, and he has redeemed you. He is still your comfort, and he will be forevermore. You will never leave Jesus, and more importantly, he will never leave you.

You will never lose Jesus Christ. Patiently bear the current suffering. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, hope in God and still praise him, even in the affliction. And in Christ, you will receive comfort.

It's coming, saints. God will comfort you. Someone might ask, Joe, how do you know this? God says so. He says so here in Corinthians. Let's have faith that, yes, he will comfort. For the Lord has said, he is the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our affliction.

He is the one who comforts. The next part of verse 4 talks about the result of comfort, of being comforted by God. In verse 4, the apostle writes, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

After praising and looking to the one who comforts, the apostle Paul writes about the result of comfort. There is a blessed equipping that takes place during the trials for the Christian. The believers who suffer are made to be able to be comforters to others.

They do so not by creating their own message of comfort, such as sending positive vibes and thoughts.

No.

But they pass on the comfort that they have received, that they have experienced from God himself. Here we can draw from the text that, again, Paul is talking about the theme of comfort, because the Corinthians seem to be going through some sort of affliction, some sort of suffering themselves.

And Paul, out of pastoral love, even though they'd struggled with many sins, he writes to them now about how he, a fellow believer, can comfort them who are in any trouble, because he himself has been comforted.

God is sovereign in all of the troubles we experience in life, and he uses them for good. Even though evil and suffering is present in trials, God is so big and so good that he can bring about good through all of these.

And he does so, doesn't he? For all things work together for good to those who love God. The Lord will be glorified in all of our affliction, and he'll be used for our good. And one of the ways specifically that works, one of the ways that happens is to equip us to minister comfort to others.

The Lord works out good through trials by equipping his saints to comfort others, to be vessels of comfort that can be used by God to comfort his people. We grow as believers through the experience of walking through many valleys and receiving comfort from God.

And we can look back and know what the experience was like and know specifically how God helped us. So then we can take the knowledge and the comfort and bring it to others who are going through the same valley, going through the same trial.

We don't bring them our own ideas of self-enlightenment or self-satisfaction, saying, I found myself while going through the trial. I just needed to really take care of myself. No, we don't come to other believers with ideas focused on the self, but we come testifying, yeah, that valley was hard.

But God got me through it. He was faithful all the day long. And every step of the way, he sustained me. Jesus Christ, my good shepherd, led me through that valley. And here, this is what I learned. This is what the Lord showed me.

We can pass it on to the other believer. We can pass it on to those who are suffering. We pass on the comfort of God to others who are suffering with a focus on the Lord Jesus Christ, not on ourselves.

We become comforters reflecting the one who came to give us great comfort. So how can we be a comfort to other believers right now, Sunnyside? In what ways can we do that? Where can you pass on the comfort that you have been given?

As the Lord gives opportunity to love the brethren, let us do so. Let us pass on comfort, keeping our focus and directing the focus of others upon our Lord Jesus Christ, who comforts us in all of our tribulation.

Suffering and Comfort in Christ

Next, Paul continues to write on the theme of comfort and now speaks on both the certainty of suffering for the believer, as well as the hope of comfort for the believer. Verses five through seven. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.

Now, if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.

And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation. The apostle writes on how both suffering and consolation, that is, comfort, abound for the one who is in Christ.

The believer following the master will experience both of these. That is for certain. And these will, again, be used for God's glory and for the good of the saints. Paul says if he is afflicted, if he suffers, this will be used for the comfort and the salvation for the Corinthians.

And what does Paul mean by salvation here? We are to understand that as the sanctification of the saints. The ongoing change and growth a believer has in Jesus as he's changed from glory to glory, and he begins to look more like Christ over time.

Paul says that his afflictions, which are certainty in following Jesus, are going to be used for the Corinthians' comfort and growth in the faith. As well as the comfort that Paul receives, this situation, too, will bring comfort and growth to the Corinthians.

So that whether Paul is afflicted or whether he is comforted, this will work out for God's glory and for the good of the saints. They, too, like Paul, will partake of the sufferings, but they will also partake of the sufferings.

Paul says our hope for you is steadfast. As you suffer like we do, you will also partake of the comfort in Christ like we do. We see this dynamic of both suffering and comfort for the follower of Jesus.

These are two certainties in the Christian's life. Jesus said multiple times that those who follow him will face adversity and persecution. He said if one wishes to follow him, to deny himself, to take up his cross, and follow Jesus Christ, to die to self and to die to the world, and walk a life of carrying a cross.

There will be hardship. There will be trials. There will be suffering. Jesus said so. And in 1 Peter, we see as well, Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

Peter says that trials and sufferings are no strange thing for the believer. The truth is a certainty for the Christian. Like how one song puts it, it should arise as no surprise that tears are going to come.

If you're called by his name, you're sure to suffer some. Yet alongside this truth, there is the blessed hope of comfort in Christ. Comfort in Christ. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation, so our comfort also abounds in Christ and through Christ.

Alongside the suffering, there will be divine comfort for the believer, a divine comfort that the unbeliever does not have. The unbeliever does not have this comfort. And even in the certainty of suffering, this will be all used for the good of the saints, for their comfort and for their growth.

How does that work? How does that work itself out? If one suffers, how does that work out for the comfort and the sanctification of another? We just read that before with Paul's letter. For as God comforts his believers, they will also be able to comfort those around them and will help them to grow, to be comforted and to be sanctified over time.

And if a believer is comforted, there'll be comfort and sanctification for other believers as well too. Yes, the Lord helped that person through that trial, through that valley. And the Lord will be faithful to me too, for I am in Christ as well.

The Lord will bring me through. He'll bring comfort to me as well. So Paul talks on comfort, but he also talks on deliverance. In verses 8 through 11, he says,. For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.

Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us, in whom we trust that he will still deliver us.

You also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many. Paul writes to the Corinthians and says, We experienced a trouble so great, so severe, that we despaired even of life itself.

That word despair indicates no way out. There was no exit. Paul basically came to that trouble and said, There's no way out of this. Even to the point where he said, We had the sentence of death in ourselves.

We made up our minds. We thought this was the end. There's no way out of this. But he says that this trial came, this trouble came. And what was the purpose? That we might not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.

That's another way the Lord uses troubles and trials and pressure in our lives for his glory and for our good, so that we might not trust in ourselves, but in the Lord who raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

Even in a hard situation where it's seemingly no way out for the Apostle Paul, the Lord delivered him through it. And the Apostle Paul looks back and he says, The Lord delivered us from so great a death, and he still does deliver us, and he will still deliver us.

And we have this blessed idea, and we see this example in Paul of, The Lord delivers his people. He has delivered them out of death, out of slavery to sin, out of so much spiritual darkness and bondage.

He's delivered us. And he is delivering us through this life, through all the trials and difficulties. He will bring us out through every valley. He'll bring us out for he is the God of deliverance. He's the God of comfort.

And he's that good. He's that powerful. He loves us that much for we are in Jesus Christ. He'll bring us out of the trials we go through. He will bring deliverance. And looking ahead to the trials that are coming, to the trials that might be in the future, we can rest assured that the Lord will still deliver us through everything we go through.

For he's that good. He's that faithful. And he is the God of all comfort. And he's the God of all deliverance. Yet also knowing this, Paul says, You also help him together in prayer for us. Resting in the blessed reality that God is the God of all comfort, and that he is the God of all deliverance, does not negate our responsibility to pray.

Does not negate our responsibility to pray. We can't just look at our brother who is suffering and say, the Lord will help him. But no, God calls us. Jesus Christ commands us to pray for our brother, which is the greatest good one can do for another, is to pray for them.

Along with resting in the fact that the Lord will be faithful, he will bring comfort and deliverance to each one of his saints. The Lord is good. And we remember that God delivered us through Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ became a man and suffered crucifixion. He died and he was buried, eventually to rise again for us and for our salvation. Let's close with prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. I thank you for Jesus Christ.

We thank you, Lord, that you promised to comfort us in all of our tribulation, all of our trouble. And Lord, we know that there will be suffering, there'll be affliction on this road. But Lord, this is still the way we should walk.

We're still walking with Christ. We're still saved in Christ. And we have such great comfort that never goes away in Christ. Father, please help us to focus on him and trust you, Lord. Please bring comfort and deliverance to our pastor and to his family during this time.

And we know, Lord, that you will be faithful to them and to all of us for you are that good. And it's in Christ's name we pray.

Amen.