And He alone can give me rest. No separation from the Lord. No work I do, no gift I give can cleanse my conscience. I cannot call my soul to live. But Jesus died and rose again. The power of death is overthrown. and mercy poured in Christ the Lord. My righteousness is Jesus' blood. My death was paid by Jesus' blood. Amen. Well, some of you might know, we had it on a prayer chain last night. My wife's brother, Alan Yackey, passed away last night, I believe from a heart attack. We're not quite sure, we're not getting all the information, but he collapsed on his kitchen floor and they administered CPR, but he wasn't able to be revived. So he has passed on into eternity. So I asked you to pray for my wife and her family, Alan's wife, Eva. They live just outside of Indianapolis, Indiana. And so it was my wife's only brother and older brother and only son of five, four daughters. And he was third in line. He was kind of the middle child. Good man, retired lawyer. So just be in prayer for my wife's family and for my wife. We never know what a day brings. We just know the Bible says, Hebrews 10, 27, it's appointed a man once to die, and after that, judgment. But I don't always include the rest of that context there. There's a word of hope, it seems to be a word of judgment in verse 27, that it's appointed a man once to die. And I said 1027, it's 927. Let me find my verses here. And just as appointed man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered up once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting him. Jesus answered the issue of death. He answered the issue of judgment. He was judged in our place. Our sins were laid upon him. That's why it's not in me. It's Christ's righteousness. It's nothing I can ever do or ever will do. It's all in God's mercy toward us in his son, Jesus Christ. So just as it's appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. So Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many, which deals with God's judgment upon us. Christ was judged in our place. And he'll come not to deal with sin as far as redemption and atonement, because he's done that once for all, but he's going to come and save those who eagerly await him. And so that's the assurance of his return is to receive us unto himself. So let's go to Lord in prayer. And then we'll go into chapter one, verse eight of second Corinthians. Father, thank you for Your mercy, and thank you, Father, for your grace that you've given us in your Son, the Lord Jesus. Thank you that in Him, we do not need to fear death, because in Him, we have the forgiveness of sin. In Him, we are clothed in His righteousness. In Him, we are accepted before your eyes. So, Father, we pray for Chris, my wife, and her family, and the loss of Alan. And Father, we just lift them up to you for your grace and mercy to be there. And thank you, Father, for your faithfulness to us, to comfort us, as we've seen in this chapter, that you're the God of all comfort. Thank you, Father, for the hope of eternity. Thank you, Father, for the gift of everlasting life that can only be found in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. So tried to deal last week with verses three, actually verses one through eight or seven. I spent some good amount of time on grace and peace of God's gift of grace to us and gift of peace to us. And we only find that in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we have this relationship with our heavenly father, who is the father of mercies and the God of all comfort. I want to speak a little bit about that word comfort. I don't know if I do with my notes, but God is the God of all comfort. And this word comfort, the word comfort's root is in Latin. And the prefix means with, or together. And then the F-O-R-T comes from forte, which means strength. So the idea of comfort is that we are strengthened together. That we bring encouragement to one another. And that as we go through struggles, We're not going through them alone as believers in Jesus Christ, because we're united with him and then we're united with each other. And so, you know, I can remember, how do I do my notes? Probably picked them up when I moved my music here. But in Acts, the Lord told Paul, which I think is what he refers to here, in Acts 9, in Paul's conversion, The Lord told him that he's gonna suffer many things because of the gospel. And again, verse 15, Acts 9, but the Lord said to him, go for he, speaking to, let me back up, let me back up to verse 10. Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, here I am, Lord. And the Lord said to him, rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying. And he has seen a vision, a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so he might regain his sight. And Ananias answered, Lord, I've heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call upon your name. But the Lord said, go to him, go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and the kings and the children of Israel. And here's verse 16, and I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. And so, The Lord already told Paul that he was going to suffer, and that's part of what he's dealing with and referring to here. He expands on it over in chapter 11, where he goes through this litany of what he's experienced. Now, he doesn't get a lot of details here in chapter 1. of 2 Corinthians and what he refers to. Let me just read from verse 8. For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. Now some think that was what happened in Ephesus. And even what happened in Corinth. But when Paul was in at Corinth, let me just back up to Corinth first and then we'll deal with Ephesus, it's next. When Paul got to Corinth, verse four of chapter 18 of Acts, and he reasoned in the synagogues every Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word. He was occupied with the word of God, with scripture. which every preacher, that's our calling, is to be occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, okay, so here's opposition he's getting, even in Corinth, when he's writing to this church he's writing to, he shook out his garments and said to them, these are the Jews in the synagogue, Your blood be upon your heads. I am innocent. From now on, I go to the Gentiles.' And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titus Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord together with his entire household. So Paul did have a convert there in the synagogue, one of the rulers. These were generally one that took care of the synagogue and watched over the scriptures, the scrolls and superintended those. So apparently God opened Christmas heart to the gospel and he believed and was converted in his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent for I am with you and no one will attack you to harm you for I have many in this city who are my people. And he stayed a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. Okay. So that's, that's the birthing of this church at Corinth. Uh, but when, Paul went on to Ephesus in chapter 19 of Acts, and it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples, and he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? some disciples he encountered that were John's disciples, John the Baptist disciples, and they hadn't heard the full gospel. They just heard the message of repentance. So when he asked him, what baptism were you baptized with? And he said, do you receive the Holy Spirit when you believe? And they said, we've not even heard of the Holy Spirit. And so he says, what baptism did you experience? They said, John's baptism. And Paul said John's baptism with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is Jesus. And on hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. And there were about 12 men in all. And he entered the synagogue for three months and spoke boldly, reasoning, persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the way of the gospel of Christ, before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyranus. This continued for two years so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. And then, let me just keep reading, I guess, get the full picture. And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched the skin were carried away to the sick and their diseases left them and evil spirits came out of them. By the way, that's not, this is first century apostolic miracles, okay? So don't order a prayer cloth from one of these guys on TV. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva, were doing this, but the evil spirit answered them, Jesus, I know, and Paul, I recognize, but who are you? And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastering all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded, just beat the tar out of them, because the gift was upon the apostles and not upon these false teachers. This became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of Lord Jesus was extolled. Also, many of those who were now believing came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all, and they counted the value of them and found them to be 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. Now, after these events, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, after I've been there, I must also see Rome. And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. About that time arose no little disturbance concerning the way, the gospel. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines to Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together and the workmen in similar trades and said, men, we know that this business we have, from this business we have our wealth. And you see it here that not only in Ephesus, but also in all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people saying the gods made with hands are not gods. And there's danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may be disposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worships. When they heard this, they were enraged and cried out, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. So the city was filled with confusion, and they rushed together into the field and dragging out with them Gaius and Tarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions, in travel, and when Paul wished to go into the crowd, the disciples would not let him, so a riot breaks out. And so this may be, I know I took a long time there, but this may be what Paul's talking about in these initial verses in 2 Corinthians 1. So he says, we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. And that's what this, it may not, he may not be referring to this in Ephesus, but there's a good chance he was, but there surely was other instances because he tells us, I started to go there earlier, he tells us in chapter 11, through this litany of what he experienced, beginning of verse 16 of chapter 11. I repeat, let no one think me foolish, but even if you do accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little what I am saying with this boastful confidence, I say not with the Lord's authority, but as a fool. Since many boast according to flesh, I too will boast. For you gladly bear, he's being sarcastic here, you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourself. For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, devours you or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs and strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say we were too weak for that. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I am speaking as a fool, I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrew? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one. I am a talker like, I am talking like a madman, with far greater labors, four more imprisonments, with countless beatings, often near death, five times I received at the hands of Jews, forty lashes less, one thirty-nine lashes, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, at night and day I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger in the sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship through many, a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food and cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there's the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak? I'm not weak. Who has made the fall? I am not indignant. If I must boast, I will boast of things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever knows that I am not lying. So he says, we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Paul had an expectation he was going to be killed. Indeed, we felt we 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. You know, what Paul's implying there is what the writer of Hebrews says about Abraham. When God commanded Abraham in Genesis 22 to take Isaac and sacrifice him, What the writer of Hebrews tells us in verse... Sorry, I got a cataract in my right eye, so I have to read with my left eye, and sometimes it doesn't focus well. Verse eight, by faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith, he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who promised. Therefore, from one man and him as good as dead were born descendants, as many as the stars of heaven, as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. We drop down to verse 17. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promise was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named, he considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. Okay. So Abraham, even in his heart, he knew that Isaac was the son of promise and that the covenant promise was going to go through Isaac. And this is before Isaac's married, this is before he has children, before he has Jacob and Esau, who are gonna continue the covenant promise all the way down to the Lord Jesus, okay? So you have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, the Lord Jesus, okay? And so Abraham, the preacher in Hebrew says, even if he had killed Isaac, God was able to raise him up from the dead. Maybe that's what Paul was thinking about here, that we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely upon not ourselves, but upon God who raises the dead. So I think Paul, and this actually happened to Paul. At Lystra and when he speaks about this in chapter 12 About he knows a man. He I think he's most scholars believe he's talking about himself That when he was stoned at Lystra, he actually died But God raised him to that because God was not through with him. God was not done with him but he was caught up into paradise, into the third heaven, which in the Jewish mind was where God dwells. The first heaven is our atmosphere, our sky. The second heaven is what we would call outer space. And the third heaven is where God dwells. So, Paul relied upon not their ability, but upon God who raised the dead. And he makes this statement, he delivered us. Again, that's what God told Paul there at Corinth not to be afraid. He's not gonna let anybody harm him. Now he did experience suffering, but that was all controlled by the hand of God. So on him, this is the point, we go through trials, We have a God who's the God of all comfort. We have each other who have been comforted by God that we can comfort others. And again, that word comfort means to be strengthened together, to be made strong together. These trials that we go through are to make us strong, to build endurance in our life, to build faith in our life, to recognize the faithfulness of God from experience to experience to experience. Again, the simple analogy of David. David was willing and confident, not in his ability, but in God's faithfulness to face Goliath, because God was faithful when David faced the bear and the lion. So David's remembering God's faithfulness, and he's boldly challenging this giant, Goliath, because not of his ability, but because of God's faithfulness and God's power and God's ability. And so our experiences are to strengthen us, to make us stronger. Again, that's what Paul says over in chapter 12. He said, God's grace is sufficient in my weakness. Because of God's grace, I'm made strong. So he says, this happened. We were utterly burdened beyond our strength. We despaired of life itself. We felt that we had the sentence of death upon us. But, here's the purpose clause, that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raised the dead. And he's faithful. 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. So, whatever we're experiencing in our life right now, particularly if it's a struggle, a trial, a tribulation, an affliction, Tribulation, we have to turn to the Lord. He's the God of all comfort. He's the God of mercies. And He comforts us. He makes us strong in our afflictions. And then we can help comfort others. And together we can become stronger in our faith and in our walk with the Lord. You know, someone said a simple, analogy that troubles in life will either make you bitter, or they'll make you better. If what you're going through is tempting you to turn your face away from God, and that root of bitterness that Hebrews talks about in chapter 12, begins to farm in your heart, what God's word says there, it will defile everything in your life. And it will be the bars that will imprison you. And you will be imprisoned by that bitterness. But we're to turn to God. Paul says, that made us, to rely not on ourselves, but upon God who raises the dead. He says, cause me to turn my face to God, turn my heart to the Lord, turn my eyes to his word, turn my heart to his promises, so that we can walk in that victory. Now, he adds another caveat here. This is where this comfort that we comfort one another, that we strengthen one another together, This is part of the means of doing that. You also must help us. How? By prayer. That's why prayer is so important. It's not insignificant. In fact, it's one of the most significant things that can go on in a believer's life. And this is why the flesh rebels against it Satan rebels against. Someone has said what Satan fears the most is a praying church, is a believer on their knees. And the battle that we fight, it starts in that position. It starts on our knees and in prayer. And it says, you also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessings granted us through the prayers of many. And so, a prayer is a selfless act. Or it should be. Sometimes our prayers focus too much on me, mine, and I, and we're just asking God, do this for me, do this for me, do this for me. No, we need to intercede for each other. We need to, lift up one another in prayer so that our hearts will be turned to the Lord and to this God of all comfort, this God of mercies, this God of faithfulness to us. And we turn our hearts to him and him alone. And we rely upon him and him alone. We trust him to deliver us. Now, doesn't mean that we won't go through the fire. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were cast into the fire, but they weren't there alone. I believe the Lord Jesus showed up. That's the four that Nebuchadnezzar saw. He said, then we just throw three in there, but I count four because the Lord is always present with us in the midst of the fire. Just like I said last week, Jesus was present during the storm, but he was at complete peace and rest in his father because he knew the faithfulness of his father. He knew, in fact, the psalmist says, God's not gonna let you stub your toe against a rock. God's watch care over us is beyond our understanding, our really comprehension. But that does not mean we don't go through the fire. But what it does mean, we don't go through the fire alone. We don't go through tribulation alone. We don't go through testing alone. We don't go through sorrows alone. God is present. The Lord Jesus is present. And that's his watchword from Matthew 28, verse 20. Lo, I am with you always, even to the ends of the earth, or it could be translated there, the end of the age. I am with you always. Jesus, I think it's in John's gospel, he said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. And so we have that promise of the living and true God to strengthen us. When our strength is beyond, it's exhausted. Sometimes that's a good spot to be because that causes us to turn to the Lord. Now, we should always turn to the Lord and the strength of His might and the power of His might and walk in that resurrected power. That was what Paul was longing there in Philippians 3. this petition that he puts forth in verse 10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in death, that by any means possible, I might attain the resurrection from the dead. And so, what we need to learn is not to rely upon ourself, but rely upon the Lord. We need to learn to always set our hope on Him. And we need to remember that we're in this together, and that one of the means that we strengthen one another together is through prayer, petitioning the Lord on behalf of each other. And It doesn't necessarily have to be a long, elaborate prayer. It can be just a simple prayer. When my friend George told me his wife was going to have knee replacement surgery Monday, I just stopped in my heart and mind and I offered a prayer to the Lord. And Monday morning, just a little bit before she was due to have surgery, I offered another prayer to the Lord, just a simple prayer. Again, it doesn't have to be, it can be long, it can be wrestling in prayer. That's what Paul, I need to stop because our time's gone. That's what Paul mentions in Colossians. See if I can find it real quick. In verse 12 of Colossians four, Epaphras, who is one of you, he's from Colossae. He's a servant of Christ Jesus. He greets you. And Epaphras is always struggling on your behalf in his prayers. Now that word struggling is the word we get agonized from. It's a picture of hand-to-hand combat. It's a picture of wrestling in prayer. There's an intensity to it. So there are times, and what Paul's saying, Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greet you. He's always struggling or wrestling in prayer, agonizing in prayer on your behalf in his prayers. Now, we do that with our children. We do that with our grandchildren. We do that with each other. So there's times for that, and there's times for simplicity. But Paul's point here, is that I need your help. You can help me. I lost my place here. You can help us by prayer. So we should never shortchange prayer. We should never shortchange faith. We need to rely upon the Lord, set our hope upon Him, and intercede for one another. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you, Father, for your faithfulness to us. Thank you, Father, that you do not forsake us. Jesus was forsaken so that we can be forgiven. And that, Father, in him, you are always present with us. And Father, you're always faithful to us in your mercies and in your grace and in your comfort. So Father, help us to grow together and be strengthened in the Lord that our faith might be light and salt in this world. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Lord bless you. I'm planning right now to finish up these next two Sundays in April from the Psalms, and I think I'm gonna step away from the Psalms for a while. And I'm still looking at Hebrews to start in the beginning of May. So right now that's the direction I'm heading. So this Sunday, I'm gonna be preaching on Psalm 107, the 107th Psalm. Beginning of that is, let the redeemed Lord say so. I will give thanks to the Lord for he is good. So I'm gonna preach on Psalm 107 this Sunday, and we'll come back here to 2 Corinthians next Wednesday night. If you don't have a church home, come and see us at Antioch. We're pretty simple. We sing the old hymns, traditional hymns. They tell the story, they reinforce the story of the gospel to us. We sing, well I sang a couple of contemporary songs tonight. So we do a variety, but mostly on Sunday we sing the hymns. It's my preference, I believe that they're just so solid with theology that, and I enjoy singing them too. So we have Bible study at 9.30, going through the Gospel of John, and then morning worship at 10.45. If you have a church home, be faithful to your church home. But if not, come and see us. If you do have a church home, catch us later on Facebook or YouTube. So God bless you.