So let's have a word of prayer, and then we're gonna just dive into 2 Corinthians here. Father, thank you for who you are and who Jesus is. Father, you are so good and so faithful, so patient, so long-suffering, so merciful and gracious. Even as in this epistle later on in chapter 12, Paul gives testimony that your grace is sufficient. And your word tells us in Ecclesiastes that your mercies are new every morning. So Father, we thank you for the freshness of your spirit. May we drink from the fountain that only Christ can give. May we feast at the table that only he can prepare. that, Father, we might never thirst again and never hunger again for lesser things. So often, Father, in the frailty of our faith, we find ourself turning toward lesser things. But, Father, help us to keep our eyes upon Jesus and feast upon Him and all that He's provided for us in His life, death, resurrection, ascension, and, Father, His promised return. So, Father, as we study your word, We have confidence in your word, Father. You said to Jeremiah that your word is a hammer. It's able to break up fallow ground. It's able to break up a hard heart. Your word is like a fire. It is able to refine us, Father, and purge us. And Father, help us to see our heart and deal with it according to your word and according to your provision in Christ. So, Father, may your Holy Spirit take your word into our hearts and bring light, either the light of salvation or, Father, the light of sanctification. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. So, Paul has established the church at Corinth back in Acts, and then There's some difficulty in church. Well, he's at Ephesus. He has some folks come and bring a bunch of questions that we went through in first Corinthians. So he writes the letter to the first Corinthians. And apparently he made a short visit again from Ephesus to Corinth, which he refers to in chapter two of second Corinthians in verse one, which he refers to a painful visit. And now he's writing this letter, which we call Second Corinthians. There's illusion that there possibly was a third letter by Paul that we do not have preserved for us. Apparently God didn't intend for it to be preserved for us. And so we just have First and Second Corinthians as canonical or Scripture, the standard of Scripture, they meet the standard of Scripture. But in chapter 18 of Acts is when the church is established there. Paul leaves Athens, goes to Corinth, and that's where the church is established. So we come here to 2 Corinthians. And so he writes this letter, and really the first nine chapters are of great encouragement and joy. And then there's kind of a shift in his tone beginning in chapter 10, because he's starting to deal with these Judaizers, I think primarily the Judaizers. There's other speculation, interpretations on who these individuals were that were challenging Paul's apostolic authority, challenging his gospel. I think the main body of them were the Judaizers. So in chapter 10, through the end of the epistle, he deals with this subject. But the first nine chapters are just overwhelmingly expressing Paul's joy for the Corinthian believers and his joy in the gospel. Some of the contrasting themes we have in this epistle, Paul deals with suffering and glory. He deals with our covenant relationship with God and through that, our transformation, 2 Corinthians 5.17. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. He deals with in chapter five, primarily in the first five or six verses, our dwelling here on earth and our heavenly dwelling that I read a little bit about in chapter 15 when I preached on chapter 15, the remaining part of chapter 15, a couple of Sundays ago on Easter Sunday. He deals with our reconciliation to God and the righteousness that God imputes to us, this is in chapter five, the remainder of chapter five, that we have this ministry of reconciliation, this word of reconciliation, and this call to reconciliation, be reconciled to God. And that great verse in chapter five, verse 21, he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God. For our sakes, he made him, he made Christ to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. So this theme of righteousness. And Paul deals with, through the course of this letter, with words of eschatology of the second coming of Christ and Christology, the emphasis in the magnification of Christ. And he deals with trust, in the word of God, trust in Christ and also his apostolic authority, which I mentioned in beginning in chapter 10 through the remainder of the letter. So we'll touch on all these themes and there's, I could probably articulate more than these, but these are general themes that run through the course of this letter. And, uh, in the beginning verses of this first chapter, deals with suffering and comfort in God's glory. So Paul gives his introduction, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. And it's significant that he identifies himself as an apostle. Majority of his letters, he identifies himself as a bondservant, slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. And because that was his mindset, that he was a servant of Christ, that Christ was his Lord. And where his apostolic authority is challenged, he identifies himself for who he is. He's an apostle. He's one of the foundational apostles that Paul talks about in Ephesians, that the church is built upon the Lord Jesus Christ, but also the teaching of the apostles. Ephesians 2. Verse 19, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built this household, this house. The first thing you do when you go to build a house is you lay the foundation. If you don't lay the foundation, a solid foundation, that house is not going to stand when storms come and rains come and winds blow. So he says, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and the members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. So Paul's apostolic claim is he's exerting his apostolic authority. Now again, I'm primarily secessionist. These are the 12, I guess we can say 13 apostles. We're excluding Judas, but Matthias was selected in Acts 1 for replacing Judas. And then Paul saying he was born out of season. He was born late. He became an apostle to the Gentiles. So if we count Matthias, we have 13 apostles. And it's these men that, it's out of that pool of men, let me say it that way, excluding Luke, writing Acts and the Gospel of Luke, under the apostolic authority of Paul primarily, I believe, and Mark under the apostolic authority of Peter, writing his Gospel, they were the writers, human writers of the New Testament. So in Acts 1, it says they continued in the apostles' teaching. What we know as the apostles' teaching is the New Testament. And that's the foundation upon which our lives and doctrine are built. So Paul is establishing his apostolic authority when he identifies himself an apostle of Christ Jesus. And this is, by the will of God, an Apostle Christ Jesus by the will of God. When Christ apprehended him on the road Damascus and set him aside for that purpose to, let me see if I can find it real quick from Acts, a great passage in Acts where Paul explains his apostolic ministry. I didn't intend really to look at this, but in Acts 26, when he's telling of his conversion before King Agrippa. I'm gonna start in verse 12. In this connection, I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priest to persecute the Christians in Damascus, to arrest them, and even put them in prison, even at times to kill them. At midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven brighter than the sun that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads. I said to him, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. And that ties in over here in the first chapter of 2 Corinthians when he talks about verse five, for as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings. Now, Christ's suffering for our sin, he suffered alone on the cross. He suffered in Gethsemane alone as he looked at that cup of judgment that he was to drink the wrath of God that was going to fall on him for my sin and your sin. So there, In Gethsemane and at the cross, Jesus suffered alone for our sin. But as the gospel is proclaimed and the church is being built, we receive persecution, not in the extent to gain salvation, but because we're followers of Christ. In fact, Paul wrote to Timothy, any person that desires to live a godly life is gonna be persecuted. Jesus said, they persecuted me, they're gonna persecute you. the service not greater than his master. So we should not be surprised by rejection and persecution. But that's the suffering that Paul's talking about that we share in the sufferings of Christ. Because Jesus said, while Paul was persecuting his believers, he was afflicting Christ. I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. If you persecute the body of Christ, you're persecuting the Lord Jesus, okay? And the sufferings that believers experience, Jesus feels that pain and that suffering because of his love for us. Just like when our children are sick, we don't have the sickness, but our heart is broken. And we feel to some extent, not one-on-one, but to some extent we feel pain because of their sickness or their suffering. That's what Jesus is saying here to Paul. I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise and stand upon your feet for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you. delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, here it is, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. So Paul says, This is Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, established there on the road to Damascus in Christ's calling, salvation and calling to Paul. And he says, and Timothy, our brother, he's with me. To the church that is at Corinth with all the saints that are in the whole of Achaia. So the church at Corinth, but also he says to his whole region of believers. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Common greeting, but there's so much depth in there. Grace to us. That's why John MacArthur in his ministry, in his radio program, calls it grace to you. The preaching of the gospel is the extension or extending of the grace of God to those who hear. And it's an invitation, it's a proclamation. It's a heralding of the good news of Jesus Christ. And it's an offering of grace to you, the gift of God for those who hear and the spirit opens their heart and minds to repent of their sins and receive. And so Paul is saying, this is my task as an apostle. And from that grace comes peace from God. That's why he deals with reconciliation in chapter five. We have need to be reconciled to a holy God because our sin has caused an enmity. What Paul talks about in Colossians 1, there's enmity between us and the true and living God because of our sin. And so God doesn't need to be reconciled to us. See, when there's reconciliation going on, the need of reconciliation is to the offended party. The one that has offended this party needs to be reconciled back, restored back. God is the offended one because of our sin. because, as R.C. Sproul calls it, of our cosmic treason, that we rebel against the true and living God. We rebel against our maker. We rebel against our creator. And so in Christ Jesus, God has offered this word of reconciliation. He has offered, as believers, this ministry of reconciliation to appeal to those without Christ to be reconciled to God. because we need to be reconciled back to Him, because we have broken His law, we have disobeyed Him, we've turned and gone our own way, and done our own will, and we need to be reconciled back to God. And when that happens, peace is restored. That's why Paul says, in Romans 5.1, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God. We've been reconciled back to God. We've been restored to a right relationship. So this basic greeting of grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ has much more weight to it than just a standard greeting. You know, just like, hello. God bless you. No, there's so much, so much depth to this, this greed and grace to you. We need that. Without God's grace, we have no hope. Without God's grace, we receive God's justice and his justice brings judgment upon our sin. And so he offers us this grace in the Lord Jesus. And not only this grace that brings about reconciliation and salvation, and again, what Paul said, Jesus said to him, let me go back there, I took my finger out of the spot. I'm sending you to open their eyes. That's the work of the Holy Spirit through the gospel. That they may turn from darkness. That's repentance. Too light, that's what repentance is. It's 180 degree turn from darkness, our own will, our own way, our own authority, our own ideas, our own self-righteousness. We do 180 degree turn, and that's all darkness. Paul talks about in Colossians 1 through 13, it's the kingdom of darkness. We're under the power of Satan, which he says in the same passage. And when we hear the gospel, by the grace of God, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see our lostness, opens our eyes to see Jesus as our only hope, and we're able to turn, we're able to repent from that darkness and turn to the light. You see, the leap of faith sometimes is characterized as a leap into darkness. No, it's not a leap into darkness. It's a leap from darkness into light, the light of God's word, the light of Christ. So he says, from darkness to light, from the power of Satan, the little G-God of this world, which Paul talks about in chapter four, who's blind to the eyes, lest the glorious light of the gospel shines upon darkened hearts, that they may receive, what is it? The forgiveness of sin and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. That's this grace of God. And then we get to chapter 12, it's not only grace that brings salvation, but it's grace that produces sanctification. It is grace that is sufficient to deal with affliction. And it's grace that we'll see in these next verses that brings the comfort of God to our heart. that brings a sustaining power of Christ to our lives that we can overcome. We can endure suffering, and in the midst of that, be comforted by God. And as we go through that, to be sustained by God, to overcome through the Lord Jesus Christ. Our ultimate victory is when Jesus comes back and we're glorified. But in between time, God's grace is sufficient. His peace passes all understanding. What Paul says in Philippians 4, that the peace of God will guard our heart. And I try to make this distinction, maybe it's a distinction without a difference, but I think there is a distinction with a significance. Romans 5, 1, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. we're justified, we're reconciled, we're forgiven, we're restored in relationship, we become a child of God, we're adopted, we have that privilege of crying out to God and saying, Abba, Father. But in chapter four, Beginning in verse four, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God. Romans 5.1, peace with God. And now the peace of God will reign in our heart. As I say that and think about that, my mind immediately went to Jesus in the boat on the Sea of Galilee with his disciples. He's tired. He's physically exhausted. He lays down in the boat and goes to sleep. And a storm arises. And these fishermen who've been on the Sea of Galilee hundreds of times, probably in a boat that they made with their own hands, are terrified and even turning to Jesus in a sense rebuking him, accusing him that he doesn't care that they're about to perish. But the peace of God was reigning in Jesus's humanity. And he was at complete peace in the midst of the storm to where he was able to lay his head down and sustain that sleep until he was rudely awakened by the disciples. And this thought really came to me as I preached on that through the Gospel of Mark last year or year before last. I think it was year before last we went through the Gospel of Mark. I think the best thing the disciples could have done in the midst of that storm was not be pulling their hair out, not be ranting and raving and being terrified at the storm, the best thing they could have done was to lay down next to Jesus and go to sleep. And let the peace of God guard their heart. That's what this text says. The Lord's at hand, don't be anxious about anything. Not even a storm that you seem to think is gonna kill you. A tribulation. Now Paul talks about that in this chapter. He says in verse eight, for we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the afflictions we experience in Asia, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we received the sentence of death. That's what the disciples were thinking about. Well, that storm was raging. Here's Jesus sleeping because he was anxious for nothing. His prayer life was prayed up and he was in complete peace and rest in the will of the Father. The safest place they could have been and the best thing they could have done was just to lay down next to Jesus in the midst of that storm and rest in Him. The peace of God, which I say is a distinction between peace with God. We must have that first. We must have peace with God. We must be reconciled first, but then Because of Christ in us and the Holy Spirit in us, the promises of God that we'll see in this chapter are yes in Christ. All the promises of God are yes in Christ. We can trust in the true and living God. We can make our requests known to the true and living God. The peace of God that we see exemplified in Jesus sleeping in the midst of the storm. which Paul says surpasses understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Again, that's just passing over those two phrases of grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You can camp there. You can pitch your tent there. You can lay your head down there. You can rest there. It's just not insignificant. It's just not a greeting. There's so much depth of truth in God's grace and God's peace for us. So, let's start in verse three. Blessed, praise, adoration, be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Excuse me. Why? He's the Father of mercies. I allude to that in my prayers. Scripture says the mercies of God are new every morning. Part of that, I think, is saying that his mercies are so abundant. They're so fresh. They're so overflowing. But a part of that also means that I'm not to live on God's grace from yesterday, so to speak. I need to experience his grace and his mercies today. And they're new every day. They're new every morning. The mercies of God. You know, Paul in Romans 12, I beseech you by the mercies of God. What are the mercies of God? Everything he talked about in chapter one of Romans, the chapter 11. of our justification, of our sanctification, of our glorification. He's the father of mercies. That's how God acts toward us as his children. He's a merciful God. And even in some respects before our salvation. Before God opens our heart to the gospel and we cry out in faith and trust in Christ. There are many, many times God is merciful to sinners. The very fact that a lost person is breathing is an extension of God's mercy toward that individual. And if I can find it real quick, in Romans 2, Verse four, let me begin verse one. Therefore you have no excuse, oh man, every one of you who judges for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourselves because you, the judge, practice the very same thing. Now Paul's not saying what people misquote about Jesus when he says judge not lest ye be judged. Scripture repeatedly tells us to judge ourself, to examine ourself to see if we're in the faith. 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, particularly 2 Corinthians in the last chapter, chapter 13. He tells these Corinthians, examine yourself to see if you're in the faith. Make a judgment about your life to see if you're truly in the faith, which he says in chapter six, when he begins chapter six, work together with him then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. And we're to examine the fruits of people to see if their life is bearing good fruit or bad fruit. What Paul's saying here is, if I'm going to judge somebody for something, it better not be in my life. You, the judge, practice the very same thing. So there's a hypocritical judgment when he's talking about. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who do such things, those who have sinned. Do you suppose, O man, that you who judge those who do such things, yet do them yourself, that you escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume upon the riches of His kindness and His forbearance and His patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. But because of your hardened and penitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He's the father of mercies. And he even extends those mercies to a degree to those who are lost, that they're even breathing and walking on the face of this earth. that they might hear the gospel, that they might turn from that darkness and turn to light, that they might repent of their sin and turn to Christ. He's the God of mercies. And for us who have believed, we've experienced his mercy. His mercy, again, Sunday School definition, mercy is God withholding from us what we deserve, his justice. Grace is extending to us what we don't deserve, his forgiveness, his reconciliation, his love. So he's the God of mercies, particularly to believers. And one commentator may comment of the distinction that he's the father of mercies to his children. He's the God of all comfort. His role as father, his role is the true and living God. He's the God of all comfort. Who comforts us? Now he's talking to believers. Who comforts us? Where? in all our affliction. That's why when we are dealing with affliction, when we're dealing with trials, when we're dealing with sufferings, we're not alone. God has not abandoned us. He is there. You know, a lot of times when, and I don't want to trivialize this, our sufferings at times, but there's a parallel here. When our children primarily are are young and they fall down and skin their knee or skin their hand or even just fall down, don't do anything, just the shock and the trauma of falling down, they start crying. And what they need is for us to hug them, us to comfort them. They're really not hurt to a great extent, but the trauma of a young child Maybe a new experience. Now, some kids will fall down, doesn't faze them a bit. They can fall off the bed, they can fall off the couch, doesn't faze them a bit. But most of the time, kind of the shock of falling down or hitting the ground hard and getting that bruise or that scratch or that skinned knee, what they need is a hug. They need to be comforted. And God is the God of all comfort. whether it's, so to speak, a spiritual hug or his sustaining grace in the midst of a great trial, he is sufficient. He's the God of all comfort. There's no exhausting of his comfort. There's no limitation to his comfort. There's a lot of things that we go through that we can help each other to a certain extent, but there's a point we can't help any further. Only God can bring the true comfort in the heart of a believer going through a trial, a significant trial, a heartbreaking trial, a devastating trial. The one who brings that comfort is ultimately God. Now, our time is about gone here. There's connection though to us with each other, okay? He's the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction. so that, and there's a purpose in, partially a purpose, and there's a purpose clause here, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction. So there is a responsibility for us. When someone loses their mom or dad, I lost my dad in December the 29th, 1986. It'll be 38 years this December. I lost my mom on September the 3rd, 1993. It's gonna be, I guess it's gonna be, yeah, it's gonna be 31 years this September, 38 and 31 years. And I know what it is, to lose a mother and a father. My sister passed away when I was 12 years old. I know what it is to lose a sibling. My grandparents died when I was young. In fact, that was my first real encounter with the reality of death was when I was seven years old and my grandmother died in 1961. That was my first encounter with death. So I experienced the grace of God when I was seven. I didn't really understand that although it was present, but truly when I was 12, I understood that with the loss of my sister. I understood that comfort of God's grace with my loss of my dad and with the loss of my mom. I buried some of my cousins and aunts and uncles. I understand that. had to participate or be with close friends that have gone to be with the Lord. And I've experienced the comfort of God, as many of you have. And so I'm able to say to someone who's lost their mom or their dad or their sister or their brother, I understand. And I can tell you, God is sufficient to bring comfort to your heart. Though you sorrow as believers, we do not sorrow without hope. What Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, Our sorrow is mingled, that cup of sorrow is mingled with the sweetness of God's hope and the hope of the resurrection. And so, as God comforts us as believers, it's part of our responsibility to comfort one another in any affliction. With the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. I'm still comforted by God's grace. Our time's gone, I'm gonna stop here, stop at that verse. I didn't think we'd get very far. I didn't think we'd get to verse 11, but we will next week. I'm still comforted by God's comfort in regards to my sister, in regards to my dad, in regards to my mom, and some of my relatives, some of my friends, some of the people that I've pastored, some of the most godly people I've known, and such a blessing to my life in this pilgrimage. And we can encourage, we can comfort one another. We can say, I know, I know. And this I know, that God's grace is sufficient. This I know, the peace of God is beyond understanding. And we can rest in his grace and his peace and in his comfort and mercies. and what a blessing. I've heard people say this to me. I've said it myself. I'm not sure how people who do not know the true and living God can deal with death and other life situations that are so devastating. It's not a crutch. It's a reality that the God of all comfort is able to comfort us and to bring peace to our hearts. and supply grace and mercy to us so that we can lift our head and know that the victory is ours in the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's stop there, and we'll continue through that chapter. We'll just continue through the book. I love 2 Corinthians. Again, these first five, six chapters, particularly the first five chapters have just blessed my life for many, many years. Let's pray. Father, thank you for who you are. Thank you for the grace that you offer us and have given us in your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Your peace that reconciles us back to you. Your peace that guards and rules in our heart. Your comfort that comforts us in any affliction. Your mercy that are new and fresh every morning. Thank you, Father, for who you are. Thank you for your word that tells us these great truths that we can trust in you. We can trust in the Lord Jesus. We can trust in the faithfulness of your Holy Spirit to produce this peace and joy and comfort to our hearts. We just thank you and praise you. And even as I sang that first little chorus, I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. So Father, thank you for who you are. I pray of anyone that might be listening tonight by your grace, and they don't know no Christ as their Lord and Savior, that their Father, they'll turn from that darkness and turn to the light of Christ, that they'll repent of their sin and turn to Christ and be delivered from the power of Satan and brought under the power of Christ. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Lord bless you, and this Sunday we're gonna have a special day at Antioch. A young man in our church, Landon Green, has talked to me and expressed to me a sense of calling to ministry. And so last fall, well, October, November, somewhere back there, I told him I want him to be looking at a passage of scripture, and he has been since then for the last about six months. and to prepare a sermon and I want to give him a chance to preach and just to see confirmation of this calling. And the only way you learn to preach is by preaching. And I preached my first sermon when I was 15 years old and I've been preaching ever since. And so Landon's going to bring the message this Sunday. Be praying for him. And if you don't have a church home come and encourage him and be present He asked me I met with him today He asked me how is this gonna work? Am I gonna preach and you're gonna preach I said no, you're the guy You're gonna preach. It's your day that bring God's Word and I'm just gonna sit back and enjoy and I said right now I'm working on my sermon for next Sunday the Sun, you know the the 21st and so I I'm working on a sermon from Psalms for the 21st of April, and Landon's gonna preach this coming Sunday on the 14th. We have Bible study at 9.30, and then morning worship's gonna be at 10.45. So if you have a church home, be faithful to your church home. If not, come and join us at Antioch, 1-831-9, Wild Horse Creek Road, and it'll be a blessed day. Be praying for Landon. as he is diligently studying the passage he's picked and just asks, I've told him, I tell my son this, it's not me, it's not him, it's the word of God, that's the authority. That's the instrument of God that he uses to bring about salvation and sanctification. So it's not him, it's not me, it's the authority of God's word. And so be praying for him and come if you're able. And we pray the Lord Jesus be exalted and glorified. So God bless you. We'll see you, Lord willing, next Wednesday.