Men, please be seated. Turn with me, if you would, in your scriptures to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. I'm going to read the first 11 verses. We will be looking specifically at verses 3 and 4 this evening. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the Church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 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 affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation, and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. James says in James 1, 2, and 3, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. And many times when we think about our trials and the purpose of our trials and the way God comforts us in our trials, we think in terms of patience and the need for patience. But patience is not the only lesson that God intends us to learn when we undergo trials and tribulations, when we have times of affliction. For it is only in our afflictions that we come to know our Heavenly Father is the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort others with the comfort which we received from God. So as we look at 2 Corinthians 1 verses 3 and 4 this evening, we're going to look at the God of all comfort. Paul's praise His blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, with which he begins this epistle to the Corinthians, is a sincere expression of his thankfulness to God. But it's also part of his approach to addressing the Corinthians and their needs. It's shaped for the occasion of the letter to the Corinthians because he's going to be encouraging the Corinthians to take comfort in God and to live out the same kind of comfort that Paul and his group of fellow laborers have experienced when they faced afflictions. And he's going to encourage them to live in the fullness of the comfort that God gives, and he is going to encourage them to live that way with thankfulness. As Calvin expresses it, he begins with this thanksgiving partly for the purpose of extolling the goodness of God and partly with a view of animating the Corinthians by his example to the resolute endurance of persecutions. Now there are many kinds of afflictions and we need to keep that context of Paul in our mind as we read and as we think about and apply this passage to our lives today. So I want us to think about some things as we think about the afflictions that we face and as we think about the different kinds of trials and troubles that we have. And I want us to think about those in terms of the God of all comfort. And so when we look at this passage, I want us to think about a number of things. First of all, Paul identifies here who it is who comforts us. He identifies God. as the one who comforts us, as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. I want to think about each of those for a minute as we begin. It is God who comforts us, and he is identified here as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, similarly to the way Peter opens his first epistle, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Peter has other things in mind to bless God for, but the same introduction of God as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And with that, we're immediately, if we wanted to go off into a deep theological study, which we aren't going to do tonight, we're immediately plunged into the midst of the mystery of the incarnation, the way in which Christ, who was both God and man, fully God, fully man, one person, two natures, not commingled or mixed up, but joined, by the work of God inseparably in one person because no one but God could bear the full weight of the sins of those he came to redeem. And no one but a man could be the one who stood in the place of other men as the second Adam, as the new head of the human race in Christ. So that's a great mystery. But the thing I want us to take, and I think the thing that Paul was most intent on focusing on by introducing God as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the fact that our only hope is in our union with Christ. And this God who comforts us is the one who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who has sent his only begotten Son into the world so that he might redeem us for himself. and that he might be able, as we saw in the passage that we looked at in Isaiah 12 this morning, that as a result of his anger being turned aside, he might be able to comfort us. He might be able to comfort us in all our afflictions. This morning when we had our confession of faith, we used the Heidelberg Catechism, that first question, what is your only comfort? in life and in death, that I belong not to myself, but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. Body and soul, life and death, I belong to Jesus Christ. Our only hope is in our union with Christ. I'm going to quote a couple of times this evening from an old Puritan by the name of Richard Sibbes. And there's a lot that comes from his work here that's not quoted as well. But just so you understand that this guy was a real Puritan. There are a couple of different commentaries that I looked at, you know, and it's in preparation for this and used. And one of them was Sibb's commentary, and one of them was a more recent commentary by Philip Hughes. And they're both about the same size in terms of the book, but the print in Sibb's is about half the size of the print in the Hughes commentary. Oh, and by the way, Sibbe's commentary is only on the first chapter of 2 Corinthians. So, as in typical Puritan fashion, the application is heavy. There's continual application, and so at a number of points I'll pull out some of those applications. But he says here in talking about this, here is the reason of blessing and praising him in this, that he is the father of Jesus Christ, for thence he comes to be our father. It is a point that we think not oft enough on, but it is the ground of all comfort, for we have all at the second hand. Christ hath all first, and we have all from him. He is the first Son, and we are sons. He is the first Beloved of God, and we are beloved to him. He is the Father of Christ, and our Father. Calvin said, where Christ is not there, the beneficence of God is not. Where Christ is not there, the beneficence of God is not. Jesus said, no one comes to the Father except through me. So the God who comforts us is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that very fact in itself ought to be a great comfort to us as we face our trials. The second way he's identified is as the father of mercies. The father of mercies, and to me this is reminiscent of Psalm 103 that talks about, as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth his children. The father of mercies. Why call him the father of mercies? What are mercies? Well, mercy by its very nature is a quality of God. Mercies, in the plural, are the individual expressions of that mercy directed to the particular needs. of different situations. One of the things that differentiates mercy from the other ways when we look at the goodness of God as he expresses it to people is the perspective of mercy looks at God's goodness from the perspective of human helplessness. Grace looks at God's goodness from the perspective of man's evil and undeserving character. Mercy looks at God's goodness to his people from the perspective of our helplessness. The mercies of God are the way Paul summarizes his appeal in Romans 12.1. After Paul has written 11 chapters laying out the theology of salvation, the grace of God by which we're saved through faith in Jesus Christ alone because of the work that he did for us that no one else could do. He says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice. The mercies of God, the God who is the father of mercies is someone that we need not fear to come to with our every need in our time of need for comfort and consolation and encouragement. The God who is the Father of mercies is one that even one who does not know Christ need not fear to come to because he is a merciful God who calls you to come and who says that whoever comes to me, I will not cast out. He calls out as the father of mercy. So this God is the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the father of mercies and he's the God of all comfort. Psalm 94, 19 says, when the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul. God is the God of all comfort. And that word all is important. God is the source of everything that can possibly comfort us. Just as we say, what is your only comfort? It's Christ. God is the source of all comfort. He is the divine fount of all consolation to his people. As Hughes says in his commentary, the all both excluding any other source of comfort, and also emphasizing the complete adequacy of that comfort for every circumstance that might arise. As Paul says in Philippians 4.19, my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. So this God is the God of all comforts, who comforts us. Now what does that mean, that he comforts us? Well, first of all, it does not mean that he eliminates all misery, suffering, and trials. Because note that he is the God who comforts us in all our affliction, not the God who comforts us by removing us from all affliction. As our God, he has a purpose even for the affliction, the suffering, the trials, the misery that we experience in this life. But even in the midst of them, he is the God who is comforting us. Jesus said, in this world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. Second Timothy 3.12, Paul says, yea, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. We should not be expecting the God of all comfort to comfort us in a way that corresponds to our desire for the touchy-feely warm fuzzies, or for some narcotics-type deadening of all the pain and difficulty. But we should expect that comfort to come to us in the form of God standing beside us and giving us everything we need to deal with our afflictions. Because that's what the word comfort really means in this case, in this usage here. Again, as Hughes says, Paul employs the term here in its basic Greek sense of standing beside a person to encourage him when he is undergoing severe testing. Also, I want you to think about this, that when, while in this passage the emphasis is on the Father being the God of all comforts, the New Testament is very Trinitarian with regard to who comforts us. God the Father here is portrayed as the one who comforts us, but Christ is the one who is our advocate with the Father. Different English word, same Greek word. The one who advocates for us, the one who stands beside us in the court setting. to be there to speak for us on our behalf with the Father. And of course, if you ask people in general who the comforter was, most Christians would immediately think of John chapter 14 through 16, where Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit who will come as another comforter to take the place of the comforter who was with them now, himself. in the life of the disciples and in the life and ministry and growth of the church. So he is this God, he is the God who comforts us in this way. And who is it that he comforts? Note, Paul says, he comforts us in all our afflictions. And it's interesting that immediately after that, though we're not spending a lot of time on that section in the passage, Paul goes on to describe the sufferings and the afflictions that he's endured for the sake of the church at Corinth and for all the churches. In other passages, he describes the beatings and the shipwrecks and all of the things that he has undergone for the sake of the gospel. And why does he do that? Because just as he and his companions in ministry have experienced great affliction in the ministry of the gospel, And by the way, Paul's going to argue the fact that that happened is not a reason to think that I'm not a good apostle. That's later in the book. But it shouldn't be seen as a strike against him. But rather, Paul's specific case is an expression of God's general practice to his own, to all who are in Christ, in keeping with their individual callings, so that as all of us experience affliction, We all experience God's comfort. So, this is the God who comforts us. When does he comfort us? Let's ask that question next. This God always comforts us. And why do I say that? Well, again, he is the God who comforts us. That's present tense. It's a continuing notion. Again, as Hughes says, the present tense of the verb shows that this God of ours comforts us constantly and unfailingly, not spasmodically and intermittently. And he does so in all our affliction, not just in certain kinds of affliction. The child of God. If you know Christ, if you're united to Him by faith, if you belong to the Father and can call Him your Father because you're His in Christ, always, always has the comfort of God in every affliction. Now, that's a fact. It may not feel like it, Because sometimes God's purpose in our afflictions is to leave us feeling a bit deserted. To teach us our dependency upon him, our need to come to him, our need to look to him. Hebrews 12 talks about the discipline of a father not being pleasant to start. But that doesn't mean that God is not there. It is a fact, whether it's a feeling you have or not, that in any affliction you're in, if you belong to Christ, God is with you, comforting you. If he were not upholding you, you would already have fallen. If he were not there supporting you by his grace, you would already have failed. If he were not standing beside you, all would be lost. The child of God is never in affliction without the comfort of God. And it's also true that the child of God is never without affliction, in some sense, in this world. So if you're never without Comfort, when you're in affliction and you're never without affliction in some sense, then you're never without comfort. Ever. God always comforts us. Whether we have enemies without, think of Ephesians 6 and the description of the spiritual warfare that we have against principalities and powers and spiritual forces of evil in high places. Whether it's the battle against the remnants of sin within, that Paul describes in Romans 6 through 8, and the battle that goes on even in believers to put to death the old man. And whether that finds its expression in our own individual lives or in struggles that we have in the church because we're all sinners trying to live together, or wherever that works itself out. We are never without the comfort of God in dealing with those issues. If nothing else, we all share the miseries common to physical death and decay. We're all subject to our outer nature's wasting away, to that light and momentary affliction that leads to an eternal weight of glory. as Paul will say later in 2 Corinthians in chapter 4. God always comforts us, and he comforts us according to the nature of our trial, to whatever degree suits his good purpose for us in terms of our sense of comfort during that affliction. He never, however, leaves us forsaken and without escape. Remember 1 Corinthians 10, 13. There's no temptation has taken you, but what is common to man, but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but with the temptation also will make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. He comforts us according to the nature of our trial, to whatever degree suits his good purpose for us in that affliction, yet never leaving us forsaken and without escape. He comforts us through the means he's appointed. We talked about the use of means in the sermon this morning. The same things that we use to go to the well of salvation to draw from it. The same gifts that God has given us of prayer and the word and the sacraments and the structure of gifts within the church, the officers and the individual gifts that we use to minister to one another. All of those things are there for the purpose of God comforting us. And when we use means, it does not mean that it's not God who's doing it. We use the means that God has appointed of prayer and the word and sacraments and the government of Christ in the church. We use, as Sibbe says, we use external means, things like a helping hand when you make that meal for somebody who's sick and can't take care of themselves. That's a means of extending God's comfort to one another. When the deacons do their ministry to someone in need, that's God's grace. That's God's mercy and comfort. They're rational. Rational means the reasons found in the word of God. Those comfort us. They are the internal workings of the spirit of God himself, applying all those things in our soul and giving us that comfort. So if God comforts us, and this is how he does it, why does he do it? Well, certainly God comforts us out of compassion for us. He loves us. He's our Heavenly Father. He wants to comfort us out of His compassion for us, but it doesn't end there. He comforts us also, as we mentioned earlier, to teach us dependence upon Him and thankfulness to Him. But the focus of this passage is beyond even that. The why in this passage is He comforts us so that we can comfort others. He comforts us so that we can comfort others. Those who are continually experiencing comfort from God are particularly fitted to minister to others who stand in need of comfort. This is one of the principles of Christian service. The Christian receives in order that he may pass on that which he has received. He is blessed. so that he may be a blessing to others. Accordingly, it is Paul's wish to be a channel of comfort to the Corinthians. Again, that's a quote from Hughes on this passage. Why does God comfort us? That we may comfort others. What do we use to comfort others? The same comfort that he gives to us. Maybe you've gone through a personal experience, a crisis of some kind in which God has comforted you. And whether he used means or whether you're testifying simply to the way in which he worked in your heart to bring you comfort or whatever, you come to someone else and you observe that they're going through a similar struggle. You have the experience. You can say God comforted me and He'll comfort you. You can say, this is how I found comfort. Maybe this will be comfort to you. We are to comfort others with the same comfort we have received from God. That's His purpose in putting us in these times of affliction and comforting us. Because we're called to take that comfort and pass it on to others. So what should we conclude about this? First of all, we should conclude that when we are afflicted, we should go to God for comfort. Believe it and do it. Trust God immediately. But it doesn't mean you should neglect the means that he has appointed. Your faith is no stronger because you try and tough it out with just you and God if God has given you other means in order to bring his comfort to you. Sometimes our pride keeps us from sharing our needs with others. Sometimes we neglect the means of prayer. Sometimes we neglect the means of the shepherds that God has placed over us in the church. Sometimes we neglect talking to others. Go to God for comfort. It's always a good place to start when we're experiencing affliction to do a little self-examination and ask us, is there sin at the root? It won't always be. Every affliction that comes into our lives is not the direct result of some sin that we just committed that God is bringing this affliction on us. But sometimes the afflictions that we experience are driven by our own sinfulness, and it's a place to start is to flee to the grace of God. and examine our hearts, and look to Him for comfort, the comfort of forgiveness of sin, if we have sinned, the comfort of assurance that, no, we're walking with Him according to the power of His Spirit and the light of His Word, and that's not the issue here. We might be Job. We might be the Apostle Paul, afflicted because he's preaching the gospel. Turn to the appropriate promises in God's Word, to the appropriate comforters, and pray for the inner comfort, wisdom, and grace that the Spirit of God gives to his children. Sibbes says, if you can't think of anything else, here are five things to think about. Good Puritan gives you a list, okay? Five things to think about that will generally be comforting to you in a vast number of situations. First of all, remember the covenant of grace and God's faithfulness to his covenant. Remember that it's because He set His love upon you and chose you as His people, and sent His Son to save you, and did all of these things for you, sent His Spirit to bring you to Himself, and because He's faithful to that covenant, and that'll give you comfort. Remember, secondly, the promise of 1 Corinthians 10, 13 that we looked at just a little bit ago, that He's never gonna leave you in a place where there's no means of escape, He's never going to try you to that extent. Remember the promise of his presence with his people. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He leadeth me beside the still waters. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. All of those things about God's presence and comfort with his people, remember those things. Make yourself remember them, even if you don't feel them. Remember the good purpose of God, Romans 8.28. All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. And fifthly, remember the promise of final deliverance and comfort. The promise of glory after that time of light and momentary affliction. Remember the promise of final deliverance and comfort. Go to God for comfort and go to one another to comfort. That's the second conclusion. Go to one another to comfort. Yes, there are some people who have particular roles that make them particularly responsible to go to people to comfort them. Husbands, fathers, elders, Those who are called to shepherd the flock. But all of us are called. Because we have received comfort, we are called to comfort others. It's the role of all, not as busy bodies, but as encouragers. How do you do that? Close with three more short directions from Richard Sibbes. One, take notice. Pay attention. There are people who have afflictions around us. Take notice of the afflictions of others. Two, put on tenderness toward them. Recognize that in their afflictions, that they are suffering, you also have been afflicted. And see the need to put on tenderness and gentleness toward them. and reach out to them with the comfort with which God has comforted you. And the third thing is, again, make use of comfort from others. Don't be too proud to share your needs. Don't be too self-sufficient. to say, I have an affliction I'm struggling with. I have a trial I'm going through, and I need your help. If nothing else, will you pray for me? Don't be afraid to make use of the comfort of others. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. Are you comforted? Didn't ask you whether you feel comforted. Are you comforted? Yes, okay. Affirm the truth, that's faith. We are comforted as the people of God. Let's go and live that way. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the comfort that you give. And Lord, we pray that when we don't feel comforted, we would remember that you are right there, that we should call out to you, that you delight to hear the prayers of your people. Lord, for those who are dealing with afflictions and trials that are here or listening, For friends and neighbors that we're thinking about, or family, we pray that you would make yourself known as the God of all comfort and the Father of mercies by making yourself known to even those who do not yet know you as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for sinners, to bring your comfort to your people. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.