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And let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 1, 2 Corinthians chapter 1. I'm sure you're all kind of interested, or I hope so, interested how this church turned out. You know, we went through 1 Corinthians, and boy, they had a lot of problems. I'm glad we have 2 Corinthians. I'm glad God saw fit to tell us how this church turns out, because there is a major improvement. Otherwise, we'd think this church was done for. Otherwise, we'd think this church was dead. You know, we think there's no chance that this church would get themselves right. Now, look, 2 Corinthians, there is a huge improvement, but there are still issues. There are still issues. My point that I want to bring out of that is, you know, when a church is struggling, when a church has some major issues, it takes time. Alright, it takes time to fix things. You know, is it easier to destroy a building or to build, you know, to construct a building? You know, think about how long it takes to construct a building. How much work, how much effort, how many people are needed, you know, to get that foundation, the plumbing work, the electric, you know, the electrical work, so on and so forth, you know, all the laborers. But then how long does it take to demolish a building? You just get demolishes in there, put a whole bunch of explosives in there, let it blow up. In a few seconds, that building comes down, right? Think of 9-11, right? Think of 9-11. But yeah, my point is, you know, to destroy something, to destroy, take down a wall is much quicker, but to build it back up again or to construct something takes a lot longer. Okay, so yes, we see an improvement in 2 Corinthians, but it's taken time. It's taken time. Now, so we follow the progress of the Corinthian church here in this chapter, and there's an estimation, I don't know, I can't personally work this out, but those that have studied the history of the Bible and when it was written, there's an estimation that it's somewhere between, the time difference between the writings of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians is somewhere between one to two years. Okay, at least one year, at least one year on, we get to 2 Corinthians. Okay, so there's been a decent amount of time that's transpired during this time. The other thing we learn, if you remember from 1 Corinthians, is that Paul had said, I plan to come and visit you. Remember that? So you would think that Paul had come to visit them between these epistles, but not so. We'll see in this chapter that Paul had yet to visit them. And remember, keep in mind that they don't have the ease of transportation that we have today. You know, they don't have the cars and the planes to get around. And so we feel like Paul, you probably should have gone to visit them, but we'll see later on, Paul didn't visit them on purpose. There was a reason why he had not visited them, and we'll see that later on in this first chapter. So let's pick it up here. We'll actually look at verse number 5. The memory verse. It says, For the sufferings of Christ abound in us. The title of the sermon this morning is The Sufferings of Christ. Okay, now this chapter does not deal with the crucifixion of Christ. It does not deal with his blood atonement and his crucifixion. Okay, that's not the sufferings of Christ that we're referring to. What we're referring to in this chapter is that we as believers, as we as people that profit of the crucifixion, we profit from his blood atonement, we can suffer for his name's sake. And this is dealing with that issue, how we as Christians not suffer for our salvation, but that we suffer in Christ for his name. We suffer as Christians. Because if you haven't worked it out by now, the world doesn't like Christianity. The world doesn't like the Bible. And if you stand on the Word of God, if you take a strong stand, the world's going to hate you and you will suffer. You will suffer persecution. But you know, if you're a Christian and you don't want to suffer persecution, if you're a Christian and you don't want to suffer for Christ, you just don't stand for the Word of God. You just remain quiet and you never make a stand for truth. That's another way to overcome suffering, but that's not the way God wants us to overcome suffering. We'll see this as we read through this chapter. Let's pick up with verse number 1. Verse number 1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God. Again, Paul is reinforcing his apostleship. He's reinforcing his authority amongst the churches here. Because you will remember that some people in the Corinthian church were skeptic of his apostleship. So he's reaffirming the fact, I am an apostle by the will of God. So what we read here isn't just the thoughts of a man, but what we read here is the Holy Ghost moving in Paul, the words of God. This is canonization of scripture. These are scriptures. This is the Word of God and it's applicable to our learning. But look at this, by the will of God and Timothy our brother. So it's not just Paul writing, but Timothy there is sending his greetings with him or his contribution to the Corinthian church. And if you remember, Timothy was on his way to see the Corinthian church in chapter 1. So the reason why we know there's a gap is because Timothy's already gone and visited the Corinthian church, but now he's back with Paul again. And he's sending his greetings to the Corinthian church. So again, I don't know how you can work out the gap, but there is a decent time period there. Timothy's gone to the Corinthian church. He's encouraged them. He's come back to Paul and brought back a report of what's going on in the Corinthian church. And then it says, So obviously the reason why this book is called, you know, 2 Corinthians is because it is written to the church at Corinth. But notice it's not just to the church at Corinth. It says, With all the saints which are in Achaia. To all the saints in Achaia. Okay, so yes, the writings are specific to the church in Corinth, but you know, it wasn't just that church that benefited from this letter. This letter was being copied and produced to other believers in that area. Okay, now please keep your finger there. Turn to Acts 18. Acts 18, because I want to give you a little bit of history so you can understand what's going on here. Okay, who are these saints in Achaia? Why is he referring to these saints? Acts 18. Now if you remember when we started teaching from 1 Corinthians chapter 1, we went to Acts 18 to get some history of Paul going to Corinth and preaching. Okay, and if you remember he got the chief ruler of the synagogue saved. Right, he was getting a lot of people saved there in Corinth. And so let's go back to Acts 18. Let's pick things up a little bit. Acts 18 verse 11. Acts 18 verse 11. And Paul was in Corinth for a year and a half. It says here in verse 11. And he continued there a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. Okay, so we knew that already. That's how long he was there. That was the beginning of this church. And then verse 12. And when Galileo was the deputy of Achaia. Now this Galileo, the deputy, it's kind of like the police chief or something, right? He's in charge of making sure that the laws are being kept. He's making sure that there's peace in this area. It says Galileo, the deputy of Achaia. The Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat. So they bring him before Galileo, the Jews, against Paul. Saying, this fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. And when Paul was now about to open his mouth. This Galileo is a funny character, by the way. So Paul's about to defend himself. And then Galileo said unto the Jews, if it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, oh ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. But if it be a question of words and names and of your law, look ye to it, for I will no judge of such matters. So there's this massive like riot against Paul. And he says, boy, you know, if it had to do with lewdness, if it had to do with crime, yeah, I'll deal with it. But if it's your business, your words, you know, you fighting over, you know, your laws and your doctrines, and you deal with it, right? You deal with it. What we see here, this guy's a pretty lazy man. Okay, we'll see soon why. And well, not why, but we'll see how lazy he is. In verse 16, and he drove them from the judgment seat. Now look at this in verse 17. Then all the Greeks, now I don't understand what's going on in verse 17 exactly. If you've got some thoughts, let me know. It says then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Galileo cared for none of those things. So the Greeks here in Corinth, take Sosthenes, who's the chief ruler of the synagogue, and they just beat him before Galileo. And Galileo doesn't care, or whatever. See, Galileo cared for none of those things. He doesn't care about the, you know, this guy shouldn't be the deputy basically, right? He's not taking his job seriously. But I don't know why the Greeks take Sosthenes. I assume because it's in the Bible, well actually, if you look, well actually let me turn there to Acts 11 myself. Sorry, Acts 18. Do you remember what the chief ruler's name was? That Paul got converted in Corinth? Anyone remember that? It's there in Acts 18. I'm pretty sure it's Crispus, but I want to make sure. Yeah, look at verse 8. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house. So Crispus gets saved. And I'm assuming because he gets saved, he's no longer allowed to be the chief ruler of the synagogue. So now we have Sosthenes, who becomes the chief ruler of the synagogue. And then he gets beat up by the Greeks. Now the reason, now we need to put a few things together here, because you may remember that name Sosthenes from before. It's in 1 Corinthians. So if you can turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And I believe the reason why he's getting beaten up, but I don't know why by the Greeks specifically, but I believe Sosthenes got saved. And that's why he's getting beat up. So it's kind of funny. Paul goes in, Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, gets saved. They replace him with Sosthenes. Then Sosthenes gets beaten up, which I believe is because of his faith. I believe he gets saved as well, because look at 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. It says Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother. So there he is. Sosthenes gets saved. He's our brethren. He becomes the chief ruler of the synagogue. He gets saved. And then he gets beaten up by the Greeks, but we don't really have enough information why it's the Greeks doing it and not the Jews. Okay? But I just thought that was funny, you know. They replace him. We can't have this Christian as the chief synagogue. Replace him with another man. That other man gets saved anyway through the preaching of Paul. So I think that's wonderful. But if you can go back to Acts 18. Acts 18. Sorry, I should have told you to stay there probably. Acts 18 verse 18. Acts 18 verse 18. It says, And Paul, after this, tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria. So he goes into Syria, but before he goes into Syria, it says, And with him Priscilla and Aquila have in shorn his head in Cintria, for he had a vow. So before he goes into, sails into Syria, he goes into Cintria, and shaves his head and makes a vow. Now we don't really have much information on what that vow is. Okay? But Cintria, is about nine kilometers from Corinth. It's not too far. It's a town on the outskirts of Corinth. And he goes there to Cintria, to shave his head. Why are you giving us all this information? Because it's at Cintria, and I'll just read so you don't need to turn there. In Romans 16 verse 1, Romans 16 verse 1, he writes, I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cintria. Okay? So, Phoebe, who has this letter of the Roman letter for the Roman Christians, is being sent by Phoebe, who's from the church at Cintria. So when Paul journeys into Cintria nine kilometers away, not far, he gets other people saved. Okay? And all this region is Archaea. Okay? So it's, my point is, it's not that far away. Okay? So, we, when we talk about planting churches, we shouldn't be thinking like a franchise. We shouldn't be thinking, well, this church is only nine kilometers away, or, you know, this church is only 30, you know, minutes away. If there's a need to plant a good church, we need to go and plant that church, even if it's only nine kilometers away from another good church. Okay? But my point is, no matter where Paul went, he would get people saved, and he would establish churches. Okay? There's a need to establish churches, even if they're only nine kilometers away from each other. Okay? So, my point of all that was, this letter, this Corinthian letter, yes, is written to the Corinthian church, but it's also written to the church at Cintria, and all the saints that are in that area. Meaning that these letters, these epistles, are for all churches. It's not just for the one church, and it profits us, the church at Calandra, to read this. It profits us as well. Yes, we don't have these problems, but we need to read these things, so we don't have those problems. The church at Cintria was probably a better church than the Corinth church, right? But they were able to take the readings, and apply it, and make sure they don't go down the same bad path that the Corinthians went down, okay? So, there's value for us to read these epistles. Never think, what's the waste of time? Like, why are we going chapter by chapter on Sundays, because it profits us as a church, right? The reason why God has this, is so we can read from it, and profit from these church epistles. We can learn from their bad mistakes, so we don't repeat those bad mistakes as well. Okay, let's look at verse number two. Second, sorry, Second Corinthians chapter one. Second Corinthians chapter one, verse two. So, I hope that gives you a good sort of feel for the history, and where we're at right now with this letter. Verse number two. Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father, and from his Son. No, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. You might remember me preaching on the name of Christ. This is another reference here, where the name of Christ is differentiating him from God the Father. Meaning that it's not the Father's name, okay? The name of Jesus Christ belongs to the Son of God. I'm just piggybacking from last Sunday's church, but who is the Lord Jesus Christ? He is the Son of God. Is he God? Yes, he is. But is he God the Father? No, he is not. He is the Son of God, okay? The name is used many, many times in the Bible to differentiate the Son from the Father, or from the Holy Spirit. Verse number three. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. So here God the Father is called the Father of mercies, the God of all comforts. You know, do you need mercy? Do you need comfort? Are you going through hard times, trials and persecutions, if it's sickness, financial, whatever difficulties you may be having, relationships with people, whatever it is, if you need some mercy, if you need some comfort, you go to God. You go to the Father. He's full of mercy. He's full of comfort. All comfort. You're not going to be able to find comfort anywhere else besides straight from God himself, okay? He's the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort. And as we saw on Friday from King David in Psalm 5, or Psalm 6, he went to God seeking mercy. He recognized, I need some mercy. I'm going to go to God and get that for myself. Why do we need comfort? Why do we need mercy? Look at verse 4. Who comfort us in all our tribulations that we may be able to comfort them which are in trouble by the comfort where we ourselves are comforted of God. Listen, there is no tribulation that you can go through in this life that God cannot comfort you in. Okay, every difficulty God has comfort to give you, okay? And it's greater than the tribulation you go through. Now our church believes in a post-tribulation pre-Raph Rapture, you know? And so many Christians are afraid to go through the tribulation. And I don't blame them. It's going to be a hard time. But you know there are believers that have gone through tribulation themselves. There are believers that have been tortured and put to death throughout the centuries. And we might look at people, you know, burnt at the stake or things like that. And we might wonder how can they do that? How were they able to stand for Christ? I don't know if I'll be able to do that. Well, the reason is because He can comfort us in our tribulation. If we're the generation that goes through that great tribulation God promises us that He will comfort us. Okay, and you'll only experience that great comfort if you go through tribulation yourself. Okay, I know now it's scary to think about what might happen if it's us. But when we're there God's comfort will be there with us. God will uphold us in His strength. Okay, there's no need to be afraid because God is a God of all comfort. Okay, now He doesn't just give us comfort to just comfort us alone. Look at that second part there. It says to comfort us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble. So when someone else when a fellow believer is struggling when they're going through tribulation you ought to provide comfort to them. Okay, you get comfort from God. You get strength from God yes, to comfort you but so that you can go then and comfort your fellow brethren. Okay, so let me encourage you. Look, when you know someone's going through difficulty ask them how they're doing. Try to comfort them. Ask them, hey, how can I pray for you? How can I meet your needs? See what you can do for your fellow brethren. That's what God expects from you. Okay, He expects, hey, if I'm going to if I'm going to comfort you I expect you to comfort your fellow brethren. Okay, that's the message from God in any comfort. By the comfort, so what comfort do we comfort them with? By the comfort we're with we ourselves are comforted of God. We ought to reflect God in our lives. We ought to reflect Christ in our lives, right? We show love, we show comfort for our fellow brethren because it's the same comfort and love that God has shown upon us. And let me ask you, you know are you someone you know, just a self-reflection upon yourself something that we can all improve on you know, are you someone that people feel they can approach to? Are you an approachable person so they can get things off their chest and so they can share some of the difficulties and troubles they're going through or are you someone that will bite off their head when they approach you in their weakness, you know? You ought to be someone that they feel hey, I can go to my fellow brethren whoever it is share my difficulties and know that I can find comfort through them, okay? That's what you need to work toward, okay? And if you say to me yeah, you know what I'm not someone that provides comfort to people you need to work on that. You need to work on that. One way that I can measure you know, your spiritual growth your spiritual maturity is by how much you reflect God in your own life. You know, you might be full of knowledge you may know every key doctrine you may know exactly how to teach certain things but you may not be someone that can provide comfort to other people that's something that you need to work on in your spiritual life, okay? It's not just about your knowledge it's about how do I profit my fellow brethren? And that's why church is so important. You know, being in church having a good church to go to is so important so you can practice these things. You know, if you're just behind a computer listening to preaching you'll never be the person that provides comfort to your brethren, okay? Yes, you have a lot of information, a lot of knowledge but you need church to put into practice what God has done for you so you can benefit your fellow brethren, okay? Self-examination. Think about that. How approachable are you? Are you more likely to give comfort or are you more likely to bite someone's head off, right? If they come with their struggles and weaknesses. Now, if we go back to verse number three just quickly what I find interesting in there's three epistles or two epistles and one writing of Peter keep your finger there in 2 Corinthians 1-3 but see how it says blessed be God okay, even the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. Well, Ephesians 1-3 and 1 Peter 1-3 goes really well with 2 Corinthians 1-3. These three things are really well together. Please turn to Ephesians 1-3. Ephesians 1-3. I just want to expand on the blessings of God our Father. I just want to sit back and talk about God our Father for a minute and the blessing that He is to us. Not only is He full of mercy and full of comfort look at Ephesians 1-3. Very similar language being used here. It says blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Okay? So the blessings first thing I want you to notice there in heavenly places in Christ. The reason why we're deserving of the blessings of God is not because you're such a great Christian. It's not because you're such a good person. It's not because you're such a great church attendee. The reason why we are blessed by God the Father is because we're in Christ Jesus. We're in Christ. That's what makes us deserving of blessings of God. Okay? Because of Christ. But how does He bless us? With all spiritual blessings not just in this world alone but in heavenly places. Okay? Our Heavenly Father doesn't just bless us on this earth but there are great blessings to be had in heaven. You know we don't even know how great heaven will be. We have no idea. We have some thoughts that we can read about in the Bible but really at the end of the day heaven is going to be a place of great blessings. It's going to blow our minds. It's going to blow our minds. Okay? Yes we're blessed here but hey man in heavenly places it's going to be awesome. It's going to be awesome. And you can improve on how awesome that's going to be by laying up your treasures in heaven. Okay? Turn to 1 Peter 1-3. 1 Peter 1-3. 1 Peter 1-3. So 2 Corinthians 1-3. Ephesians 1-3. 1 Peter 1-3. These are great verses to compare together. Okay? 1 Peter 1-3. It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy so again that reference to being merciful have begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So what's this lively hope? The resurrection. Okay? God the Father promises us because we're in Christ because he rose Christ from the dead that we will have a resurrected body. That we will be raised from the dead. That we will not need to struggle with this flesh of sin for the rest of our lives. The promises that God our Father has for us are truly amazing. You know when we compare these things full of mercy. You know full of comfort. You know blessings in heaven not just in this life. And that promise of that new resurrected body. All promises by God the Father. And if you want to receive those promises you must be saved. You must be in Christ Jesus. Okay? So you know we need to take time and thank God for the amazing blessings that he has for us in our lives. Please go to 2 Corinthians back to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. And let's pick up from verse 5. Verse 5 the memory verse. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. I just mentioned whatever tribulation you go through God has the comfort. God has the consolation. It doesn't matter how much suffering you abound in this life. You may suffer more than other Christians then you will also abound in the consolation and comfort of God. Okay those two things will go together. The more you suffer for Christ the greater the comfort and consolation you'll receive. So you don't need to be afraid to suffer for the name of Christ. You don't need to be afraid of that. God has his comfort. Don't be afraid of tribulation. And this is what we learn from Paul the Apostle. Boy he suffered. He went through so much tribulation. And I scratch my head wondering how does he keep going? How has he not given up? How does he keep encouraging church after church after church? You know there's a point in his life where he gets stoned to death. And he's back up and he's still going. He's still going. He's still preaching the gospel. It's amazing. And that's because he's experienced this. He's gone through the sufferings and he's gone through the consolation. And the consolation will always outnumber the suffering of Christ, okay? So verse number six. He says, And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer, or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. So Paul is saying, I'm the example for you, right? Yes, I've been consoled by God in my sufferings. But it's also for your consolation, meaning that when we look at someone like Paul and we see the suffering he goes through, because you might be wondering, I don't know, if I stand up for God, if I'm persecuted and I suffer, I don't know, will I really get that consolation? But when we look at Paul and we see how he's going, we see that he keeps getting up, we see that he keeps serving the Lord, no matter what happens to him, we can then reflect on that and look at that as our example and say, Yes, God will console us through our difficulties. That's why he's saying, my suffering is profitable for you. It's for you. It's effectual toward you. And it's not just Paul. You might think of other believers, other Christians that have gone through tribulation, that have gone through suffering, and you still see them serving the Lord. Hey, that ought to encourage us. That's an example for us, that we know, Hey, when our time comes, God's going to come through and deliver us. You know, I'm reminded of one of my previous pastors that his name was Pastor, or his name is Pastor Oliver, and he had a sickness with his blood. I don't remember what they call it. It's kind of like leukemia, but it wasn't leukemia. It was something similar. And there was a point, I think it was 2014, where he, I mean, we thought he was going to pass away. He lost so much weight. He kept needing like blood transfusions. And what's that process with a, like cycle blood? Uh, sorry? Dialysis. Yeah, he went through dialysis after dialysis to get, he had a platelet issue. So you know how we pray for my wife for her platelet issue? But he hobbles around 100 for her, which is very low, by the way. But for him, his platelet count was like five in his blood. I mean, we thought he was gone, honestly. You know, everyone was just ready. You know, just was just waiting and ready when he would pass away. And there was a time that he took an extended leave from church just because he couldn't get out of bed. You know, he was suffering. But every now and again, he turned up to church and he lost so much weight and he was so skinny. And everyone's like, are you okay, Pastor? And he's like, yep, God is good, right? Just constantly praising and serving the Lord. He'd still get up behind the pulpit and preach and we could see that he was weak in his flesh, but in his spirit, he was stronger than ever. Right? And I would just look at him and I'd just be, boy, you know, and I'd go up to Pastor Oliver and say, Pastor, you're such an encouragement. You know, you have all the right to give up on God. You have all the right to give up on serving us in church and preaching and preparing sermons. Look, he's weak. You know, dark, you know, he looks bad, right? But you can see his love no matter what he was going through. He had a great love for the Lord. Why? Because the Lord brought the comfort. The Lord brought consolation upon him even though he was suffering not so much for the name of Christ, but just suffering in his body. But we could see Christ and God just coming through in his life. And that encouraged everybody in the church. You know, and you might ask the question, why would God allow a man like that who loves the Lord to go through so much suffering? Well, he went through suffering to edify the church so that we would be encouraged in the Lord and recognize, hey, we're not going through any difficulty as much as he is and if he's still able to praise the Lord, then surely we can also praise the Lord, right? So God put certain examples in our life. Paul was one of them. There might be other Christians you know of to encourage us when we do suffer that we would be, you know, know that the Lord's comfort is there for us. Look at verse 7. Verse 7. And our hope of you is steadfast. No doubt about it. We're steadfast in our hope for you knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you also of the consolation. No doubt. You go through suffering for Christ, you go through suffering in this life, no doubt you'll also be a partaker of the consolation of God. Okay? Verse 8. Verse 8. For we would not, brethren, have ye ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia. Now, I'm not sure what he's referring to here in these following verses, but it could be, I was trying to look at Book of Acts. This could be Acts 19. In Acts 19, we're not going to read that, but in Acts 19, there was a silversmith who would create idols of the goddess Diana, the false goddess Diana. And he raised a riot against Paul. But you don't really read there that they were, you know, fearing for their life. So unless Acts 19 just doesn't tell us all the information, but that could be the reference that we're reading here in verses 8, 9, and 10. Let's just read it. For we would not, brethren, have ye ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia. So again, it could be Acts 19. You might want to read that yourself at home if you want to compare. That we were pressed out of measure above strength in so much that we despaired even of life. But we had the sentence of death in ourselves. So they were going to be killed. That we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead. So it says, look, the reason why we had the death sentence, why there was a fear of death upon us, was so that God would teach us not to trust in our own strength, that we would not trust in ourselves, but that we would trust in God which raiseth the dead. Right? So even He knew, even if I lose my life, my trust is in God because at some point He's going to rise me from the dead anyway. Okay? Verse 10. But then look at this, verse 10. Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us. So whatever this issue is, that we knew the point of death, God delivered them. God saved them. Okay? Now, what I want to bring out of your attention there, especially in verse number 10, is that Paul says, look at verse 10. Who delivered us past tense and doth deliver present tense and then at the end, will yet deliver us. Future tense. Past, present, and future. Paul knows God's always going to come through. God will always deliver us. He's delivered us in the past. He delivers us right now and He's going to deliver us in the future. And that's how you ought to think. Okay? When you're suffering for Christ. That He's done it for you. He's helped you in the past. Amen. Has He not helped you in the past? Yes, He can help you today in the present and even in the future troubles, you might be able to look down your life and see, man, I'm going to go through some difficulties, whatever they are, but yet I know God can deliver me. I know that He's able to deliver me. He's done it before. He's doing it now and He can do it in the future. Okay? Always keep that in mind. That's what got Paul. That's what Paul kept going. He knew. God's done it for me before. He can do it again. Verse 11. Verse 11. Ye are also helping together by prayer for us. Just stop there. Prayer helps. Somehow. Somehow. I mean, Paul's in Asia, almost at the point of death, and he says, Corinthian Church, even how messed up you are, you know, your prayers helped us. You know, also helping together by prayer for us. You know, so we need to make sure we're Christians, that we're a church that goes to God in prayer. You might say, well, I can't help much. You know, if Paul is suffering, I can't travel to Asia where he was and help him physically. Yeah, but you can help him in prayer. You can help your brethren. In prayer. Somehow, the Lord of the universe listens to us and makes some spiritual work, something supernatural, and can change the course of events in other places of the world just by you getting down and praying. Prayer is powerful. Prayer helps. And I can't tell you exactly how that works, right? I mean, but it does. We have the promise of God that prayer helps. Verse 11. Keep reading. That for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons, thanks may be given by many on our behalf. So there's been many people praying for them, praying for their work. Verse 12. For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation. That word conversation means your behavior, okay, your Christian testimony, your Christian behavior in the world and more abundantly to you-ward. So he's saying that his behavior in the world was not one of fleshly wisdom. The world does not look at us and think of us as wise people. In fact, they think of us as fools for serving the Lord, for going to church, for knocking doors and preaching the gospel. You know, Paul wasn't interested in impressing the world with his fleshly wisdom. You know, and if you're a preacher, you preach the Word of God, no one's impressed by your fleshly wisdom, okay? You need to come, what does it say, in simplicity and godly sincerity. That's what our behavior ought to be like. That's what our preaching ought to be like, okay? Whether here in church or whether it's out there in the world in our behavior. You know, Christianity is simple, honestly. It ought not to be a complicated thing. Yes, it can be challenging, yes, it can be difficult, yes, but it's simple. Salvation is simple. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and they shall be saved, right? But you know those that want to add works to the gospel, you've got to clean up your life, you've got to give your life over to Christ, you've got to serve him to be saved or whatever it is, you've got to endure to the end to be saved, always make it complicated. They always have to bring out their fleshly wisdom and say, well, you have to do your work to be saved, no. Salvation is simple. Our faith is simple. Our faith is built upon that simple truth that salvation is just by grace through faith on Christ alone and not of works. So if that's what gets us saved, that's what makes us believers, that's what makes us children of God, then the rest of your faith should also be simple, okay? And if you find that you're making things so complicated, you don't even know how to serve the Lord, you need to take a step back because, you know, Jesus says his yoke is, what did he say? My yoke is easy? Easy, yeah, that's the word he used, right? His yoke is easy, right? If you're listening to preaching and it's so complicated and you can't figure it out, it's confusing, it's not of the Lord, it's fleshly wisdom, okay? Your life ought to be simple, okay? The truths are in the Bible. Verse 13, verse 13. For we write none other things unto you than what you read or acknowledge, and I trust you shall acknowledge even to the end. So I'm not really sure what he's saying there, but it sounds like, it sounds like what he's saying is what he writes to them. So let me read that again. For we write none other things unto you. So he's written 1 Corinthians, he's written 2 Corinthians to them, so we don't write more than what you read or acknowledge. What I think he's saying there is, there's no hidden agenda in his writings. There's nothing more in his writings than what you can read for yourself, okay? And we need to be mindful of that when we read the Bible, we don't start throwing our opinions or start creating things that are not clearly spelt out in the scriptures. What's written, there it is, there's no more than what is written in the scriptures, if that makes sense, okay? Don't be looking for some secret hidden message trying to read between the lines, what the, you know, maybe he means this, no, it's plain, okay? Bible reading ought to be plain, don't make verses mean more than what it says, okay? I think that's what verse 13, again, if you guys have some thoughts, please share them with me. Sometimes the way Paul writes is a little challenging, but verse 14, verse 14, and also ye have acknowledged us in part, now what I think what he means by that is, remember the Corinthian church, some of them had difficulties with respecting the authority of Paul, his apostleship. So he says that ye have acknowledged us in part, most of you are acknowledging our authority, most of you are acknowledging our writings, but in part, there are some that are not, that are still resistant to the truths that he's writing to them. But that we are your rejoicing, to those in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus. Now I like that, I like that he says, I bring joy to you, you rejoice in me, and I can rejoice in you, and I wanna be a church like that, I wanna be a church that we can rejoice in one another, you know, we can rejoice in the adults, we can rejoice in the children, we can rejoice in the little babies, newborns and whatever, I wanna make sure that we're a church, that when we look at one another, it doesn't begrudge us, we don't think, man, that person again, but that we can truly rejoice in their presence, okay? No matter how difficult they are, right? No matter how difficult they are, you ought to be able to rejoice, that's my brother in Christ, they've been saved, we share the same blood, the blood that was spilt by Jesus Christ from the cross, okay, and rejoice in one another, see how we can bless one another, okay? If you say, well, this person's not a real blessing to me, well, then you'll be a blessing to them, okay, you try to be someone that they can rejoice in. Verse 15. And in this confidence, I was minded to come unto you before, so here it is, remember I said that Paul had not yet visited them? Well, this is the verse. And in this confidence, I was minded to come unto you before that you might have a second benefit. Now, what I believe it's saying here is that I had planned to come before to see you, you know, we saw that in 1 Corinthians, that you might have a second benefit, meaning that if I were to come again, that would be the second time that I would come to see you. You'd benefit a second time by my presence in the church, okay? So, that was what he minded to do. And then verse four, who comfort us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort where we ourselves are comforted of God. So, you know, he had minded, he had purpose to go to this church to bring comfort to them, because you know they were suffering, you know the divisions they were having, you know the problems this church was having. So, that was his plan and he wanted to have a second benefit, benefit them a second time. Verse 17. Now, he hadn't yet come, he hadn't yet come. So, these verses are to deal with that issue, verse 17. When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? Okay, all the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh that with me there should be yay, yay and nay, nay? Question? So, I found really hard to sort of work out how to teach this and I'm gonna try my best here, okay? So, he's saying, look, I've not yet come and because I've not yet come, there might be a lack of confidence in me because I said I will come. But he says, but do you think I made that decision to visit you lightly? You know, did I use lightness? Well, this wasn't a light decision, you know? All the things that I purpose, this was something I purpose to do. You know, this isn't like a yay, yay, nay, nay. Oh, I'll be there and not be there. You know, and as Christians, we should be people that strive to be people of our word, okay? When we say we're going to do this, and I've failed at this, you know? We all fail, but when we say we're going to do this, people shouldn't be saying yay, yay or nay, nay. It's like, well, I don't know, is he? Is he not? People should have the confidence, yeah, you know what? This person's a man of his word, this person's a woman of the word, of their word, and go about it and do it. They want to be confident in doing that. Or if you can't achieve what you had planned, you know, let people know so that people can work around that. So that's what I think he's saying. You know, he's saying that I don't want you to lack confidence in me. I purpose, this wasn't a light decision. This isn't yay, yay or nay, nay. It's yay, we'll see soon, in verse 18. Verse 18. But as God is true, is that what I'm up to? Verse 18, yep. But as God is true, our word toward you was not yay and nay. So it wasn't, I'm not trying to give you lack of confidence. It's not yay or nay, okay? The writings of Paul and the scriptures in general are not yay and nay. It's all yay. It's all true. It's all yes. Look at verse 19. For the Son of God, who's the Son of God? Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yay and nay, but in him was yay. So if you're reading this like all quickly, it's like, whoa, what are you saying, Paul? But he's saying, look, the preaching is yay. It's true. You can have confidence in the preaching of Christ. You can have confidence in the writings that I'm sending you. 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians. It's not yay and nay. Don't lack confidence because I've not come to see you, okay? I had purpose to do that, and he's going to give his reason why he had not yet come. We'll see in a minute, okay? So have full confidence in the Word of God. Don't read something and go, well, I don't know. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe not. No, it's yay. The preaching of Christ is yay. It's true. We can have confidence in it. Verse 20. For all the promises of God in him are yay and in him. Amen. And to the glory of God by us. Okay, so the promise of God, we saw the promises, you know, we're talking about his mercies, and we're talking about his comfort, how he can consult us in times of difficulty, you know, the promises of blessings in heavenly places, but we can have confidence that we're going to be resurrected from the dead. It's all yay. Okay, it's all true. Okay? Verse 21. Now he which established us with you in Christ, with you in Christ and have anointed us is God. What we're going to see in the following verses here is the Trinity, okay? So, God there in verse 21 is a reference to the Father because, you know, we had the context at the beginning of verse one. Sorry, verse three about God the Father there. But so, it says that God the Father has established us in Christ, right? God the Father has established us in Christ. I've already preached on Christ being our strong foundation, Christ being our rock. We stand upon that rock. We stand upon that sure foundation, okay? And then it says, and have anointed us. That anointing is the Holy Spirit, okay? When we're saved, the Holy Spirit comes and indwells in us, and he anoints us with the Holy Spirit. We'll see this soon in the following verse, verse 22. Who have sealed us, by the way, we've been sealed by the Holy Spirit, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. So, we have God the Father who establishes us in Christ, and he has the Holy Spirit indwelling in our hearts, okay? Now, please keep your finger there. Please turn to Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one, verse 13. Ephesians chapter one, verse 13. Just to prove this a little bit more that the sealing is of the Holy Ghost, is of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians chapter one, verse 13. Verse 13, in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. So, he is talking about believing the gospel as trusting. You know, when we preach the gospel, that's a good way to explain what belief is. It's to rely upon or to trust in Christ. Not just believe the facts that he came and died on the cross, but actually put your trust that that's what gets us saved. The gospel of your salvation. In whom also after that ye believed, but look at this, and were sealed, remember the sealing that we saw in 2 Corinthians, and were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, okay? So, what you're sealed of God, it's airtight. Salvation is eternal, it can never be lost. You're sealed by the Holy Spirit. The fact that you have the Holy Spirit in you is proof of eternal, what am I thinking of? What's the word? Once saved, always saved. Eternal security is the word I was thinking of, the phrase I was thinking of, okay? Having the Holy Spirit is our seal. It'll never go away. Look at verse 14, which is the earnest, remember that in 2 Corinthians, the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession and to the praise of his glory. So here, the word earnest kind of is similar to the word honest, it's got some similar root words, but what earnest means is a fixed down payment, okay? There's a fixed down payment. When you've been saved, you've been sealed by the Holy Spirit, that's God's down payment that is going to fulfill the promises to us, all the promises that he's given us, okay? God will follow through and redeem us holy. We're saved now, but we're going to receive those future resurrected bodies in the future. The reason why we're sure of that is because he's given us the earnest of the Holy Spirit, the down payment, because later we're going to receive it in whole, in full, the full salvation, okay? To come in the future. Back to 2 Corinthians 1. 2 Corinthians 1, I just wanted to compare Ephesians there because Ephesians gives a little bit more information as to what Paul is referring to. Verse 23, 2 Corinthians 1.23. Now it explains. He explains why he's not visited them. I can't help but laugh. Do you guys read the Bible and laugh sometimes? I laugh a lot at Paul and I laugh a lot at Peter. For some reason I find them like really funny, okay? And we've seen like, I am naturally very sarcastic and I find Paul is like really sarcastic and so I kind of, I'm not like Paul in some ways. You know, he's pretty like rough as well but I like his sarcasm and stuff. But anyway, he makes me laugh. Look at verse 23. Moreover, I call God for a record upon my soul. So what he's saying is like kind of like saying as God is my witness, okay? God, you know, he calls on God as the record. That to spare you, I came not as yet unto Corinth. So the reason I've not visited you is not because I didn't want to. You know I purposed to that. It's not a light decision but I've not come to spare you because Paul knew if I came early, I would let it rip. I would destroy you. I'd be so frustrated about how you're going about business and so I'm waiting to go and see you. I'm sparing you from my wrath. I'm sparing you from my judgment. I'm giving you time to get things right. That's why Paul had not come. You know, he's like this church is so messed up. I'm going to spare them with my presence and give them extra time to work out their problems. You see the reason, right? And that's why I kind of laugh at this stuff because but I guess what I want to point out again, we talked about is it easier to destroy or to build? It's obviously easier to destroy and it takes time to build. Okay, if you've had certain foundations, certain walls up and then you destroy them, you need time to build them back up and Paul has patience for them. He knows if I was there, I would just tear them apart, right? Tear them apart, let it rip and you know, maybe it won't even work. You know, maybe it wouldn't even help them. So I'm going to give them time to read my epistle, give them time to kick this guy to the church. Well, actually no, he says do it immediately, you know, but give them time to work on the things that were laid out there and this is at least a year later and it's still not visit to them. Some people say two or three years later. I don't know, but let's say a year. Let's say it's a year later. We need to be patient with churches that are struggling and have problems. Please be patient. We see Paul has that patience. I know we want to let it rip, right? Like Paul, you know, but to spare them, churches that are struggling and have problems, they need time. They need time to get things right, okay? And just keep that in mind because that's the lesson that we can get out of this, you know? Yeah, just, you know, when Christians have problems and you think, man, why aren't they fixing this? Churches are having problems. Just give them space, give them time, let them sort themselves out. Don't go down and just start destroying them immediately, okay, because we see it. That's what Paul did, you know? I think that's a good lesson for us, you know? Verse 24. Now, he says he's going to spare them because he's going to let it rip, but verse 24 kind of balances this a little bit. Not for that we have dominion over your faith, okay? So he's saying, look, I'm going to let it rip on you. You're deserving of a good, you know, chastisement, right? But it's not because I have dominion over your faith, okay? I'm not the boss of your faith, okay? And this is Paul the apostle. This is Paul who's written so many New Testament books. The Holy Ghost definitely working through him, definitely doing a lot of work, definitely has the authority to criticize this church. But he says, look, even though that's the case, I don't have dominion over your faith. The reason why he's doing this, it says there, but I help us of your joy. I'm trying to help you. I'm not trying to destroy you. I'm not trying to make you just like me, okay? But I'm trying to help you, why? For by faith ye stand, okay? It's our faith on Christ. It's our faith on the word of God that helps us to stand strong through tribulations and difficulties, okay? But he says he doesn't have dominion over your faith. And let me just say to you, I don't have dominion over your faith. I'm not the boss of your faith. That's between you and God. The only person that has dominion over your faith is God himself, okay? You don't have to be just like me. You don't have to believe every little detail of the scriptures just like me. You know, there are foundations of the, our fundamentals of the faith. We need to be aligned on those fundamentals, right? We also have a little bit more than the fundamentals on our statement of faith. We ought to be aligned with what's on that statement of faith, okay? But there are things that are primary and there are things that are secondary. We may differ a little bit on the secondaries. But I don't have dominion. I'm not the boss. I'm not the one that has to tell you you need to be just like me or else get out of here. That's not the case. Every person you meet, every believer you meet, will have some slight variations of how they interpret a passage or slight variations of a certain doctrine. There's no one that has dominion, no man on this earth. There is no pope of Christianity. There is no pope of Biblical Christianity. No one has dominion, not even Paul. Not even Paul and he was an apostle, okay? And I want to think about just because, you know, it's the topic, you know, the Trinity. You know, the topic of the Trinity. Now obviously there are certain truths that we need to stand up for, okay? And I'm trying to demonstrate, I'm trying to lead by example on where we need to stand up on, you know? But then we can have discussions about, well, you know, what words do we use? You know, is saying person right? Is saying manifest right? Is saying essence right? Don't let anyone have dominion over your faith. And this is what I've been striving time and time again. Don't get so caught up on the phrase or the word. Understand what do you mean, right? What do you mean? And let me get a quick example. I think I might've mentioned this before, but in my previous church, there was a lady that came in and obviously we want to talk about, you know, check if that person's saved and, you know, obviously if they're not saved, give them the gospel. And we asked, you know, well, I didn't ask, but someone asked, you know, what do you need to do to be saved? And she says, well, you need to give your life to Christ. Give your life to Christ. Now, yes, you know, there are some that say you need to give your life to Christ, meaning you need to do the works. You need to keep the commandments to be saved. And yes, there are those that use that phraseology to speak of works. But then when we dug a little deeper, well, what do you mean by that? She was saying, I've entrusted. I've entrusted my soul. I've entrusted my life to Jesus Christ. I'm only trusting Jesus to get me to heaven. So when she says, give my life to Christ, she's saying it's in Christ's hands, right? It's in his hand, it's in God's hand. He's done all the work. I'm only trusting him to get me to heaven. But she was using the wrong words, right? Words that people used to preach works doctrine, okay? But hey, an immature person would have jumped down her neck and said, well, no, it's not works salvation. But a mature believer would say, well, hold on, what do you mean by that? Let me understand what you mean by that, okay? Don't get caught up on the words person and essence. Listen, we need to worry about this church. We are an independent church, okay? What's going on in other places, in other places of the world and the arguments? Yeah, they're interesting. Yeah, learn from them. But don't be afraid of thinking we need to make sure we line up exactly with how they present certain things. They don't have dominion of our faith, right? Don't let people control every little aspect of how you think of or how you express your faith, how you express certain doctrine. What's key is this church. Do we understand one another? Are we aligned? Are we of one mind? And if we are, praise God, that's what matters. We're an independent church, okay? And you might say, well, if we use certain words, if we use certain phrases, what if somebody out in the internet world takes that and pulls us out of context and makes us look like we don't even believe the Trinity or whatever? Well, who cares? They're fools. You know, they're fools. Who cares what they, you know? If someone takes us out of context and accuses us falsely for what we believe, what have we just been reading about? Going through persecution for the name of Christ, going through trials and tribulation. It's important so we can then have a consolation that comes from God, okay? So I just want us to be thoughtful of that. Just worry about this church. Yes, think about what's going on. Yes, learn from what's going on in other places in the world, but don't let it come here and start changing and be afraid of how you express your faith, how you express certain doctrines. What matters is that we're aligned as a church. What matters is that we stand on the Word of God. What matters is that we try to present the doctrines of God as clearly as we can using the words that we find in the Bible, okay? Just don't let anyone have the meaning of your faith, okay? Let's pray.