Title:
Blessed Sentence of Death
Text: 2
Corinthians 1: 9
Date:
December 20, 2012
Place:
SGBC, New Jersey
2 Corinthians 1: 9: But we had the sentence
of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which
raiseth the dead:
Have
you suffered trouble so that you felt like there was nothing you could do? Maybe someone here is suffering such a trial
now.
Proposition: If we are a child of God, God gives us the sentence of
death in ourselves, to teach us not to trust in our selves, but in God.
Title:
Blessed Sentence of Death
2 Corinthians 1: 3: Blessed be God, even the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all
comfort; 4: Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to
comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God.
We as
believers ought to regard all our trouble as God giving us a great privilege. Because
by bringing us to the end of our strength and by delivering us by his strength then
we can speak from experience—“that we may be able to comfort them which are in
any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
2 Corinthians 1: 5: For as the sufferings of
Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
We are
made to really know Christ by tasting a little of the sufferings he suffered
for us. Then we get the spiritual
reality of the gospel down in our hearts as he brings us to see Christ is our
only Strength. Christ’s consolation always
abounds much than our light afflictions.
2 Corinthians 1: 6: And whether we be
afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation...[last part of verse] or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
Paul is
speaking of his own affliction and comforts and that of his fellow
preachers.
Illustration: You hear of pastors or some member of their family
suffering. It causes that pastor great affliction. But Christ comforts that pastor so that he
knows by experience that Christ really is All. Why? “It is for your consolation and salvation”…that
the preacher might be able to preach to you by experience that God’s grace really
is sufficient.
2 Corinthians 1: 6: [now the middle part]…which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also
suffer:…
The
consolation—the reality of Christ’s abiding presence—is made effectual in our
hearts by us enduring—by us going through these sufferings.
Illustration: One of my brethren has suffered a burdensome trial for a
long time. Recently, I told them what
God taught me through a similar trial. God blessed it to their comfort.
They
responded to me, “I am so thankful and blessed to have you for my pastor and I
thank God for that. You are just such a great comfort to me.”
And when
they wrote that to me, this scripture came to mind. It made me realize that my own trouble, which
I suffered years ago, and the comfort given me of the Lord during that
suffering, was for the very purpose of being able to comfort that believer just
recently. Then by that believer’s kind letter, saying “thank you” God comforted
me all over again.
Brethren,
“Thank you” is so needful for one another.
It made us realize, God has brought glory to himself in a manifold
way. He did that through a trial. He
made me to know our hope is sure.
2 Corinthians 1: 7: And our hope of you is
steadfast; knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye also
be of the consolation.
Our hope
that God will give this comfort to his child, is sure and steadfast. As you partake of the sufferings, so shall
you also partake of the consolation. And
all is for the purpose of God receiving praise, “thank you”, and of our hearts
being united with our brethren who God uses to comfort us.
Brethren,
when you can give comfort, give comfort. And when you are on the receiving end,
never let pride keep you from receiving. Pride makes us hard and bitter in the
trial. Pride will make us separate ourselves
from hearing the gospel. Pride will make
us separate ourselves from our brethren.
The purpose of the trouble is not to lift us up in pride but to humble
us under God’s hand.
James 4: 6: God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to
the humble.
Psalm 34:18 The
LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a
contrite spirit.
2 Corinthians 1: 8: For we would not,
brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble, which came to us in Asia, that we
were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of
life.
What a
blessed placed to be: “pressed out of measure” with no strength left. Why is that a blessed thing for a believer?
2 Corinthians 1: 9:
But we
had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God which raiseth the dead.
Divisions:
1) The sentence of death in ourselves; 2) The purpose of God toward ourselves--“That
we should not trust in ourselves.”; 3) The purpose of God toward God—but that
we should trust “in God which
raiseth the dead.”
I. THE SENTENCE OF DEATH IN OURSELVES
We think
we have strength in ourselves, wisdom, life and so on. We get lifted up in pride, even in pride of
grace. We sometimes think we manage our affairs better than others and we start
to look down upon them. There are number of ways we begin trusting in
ourselves. So God graciously brings us
into a situation beyond our control.
Then we
start trying to fix it. And we choose foolish ways to try to fix it. Sometimes
we even separate ourselves from the gospel or separate ourselves from our dearest
loved ones and our brethren or look to some worldly pleasure to find comfort.
It is
God’s hand causing us the trouble. But we
try to run from the hand of God. But God will not let his child go. Everywhere we run, God is there and as we use
our little hands to build up some refuge, some comfort, but God tears is down. God makes it so that we can’t find peace by
our hand.
This
sentence of death can even sometimes make us feel spiritually dead. We can’t make his word speak to us. We can’t make
ourselves feel any of the comfort and consolation we had in Christ. We can’t even
make ourselves seek mercy. Sometimes it’s like we’ve become lost all over again
llustration: The surgery on my elbow—painful, but needful. Likewise, this operation God performs is painful. But it is needful for our good and God’s
glory.
Now, if
you are a child of God, hear this. If
you have been suffering in a trial, or have, consider who gave it. Consider why it was given?
II. THE PURPOSE OF GOD TOWARD OURSELVES
2 Corinthians 1: 9: that we should not trust
in ourselves.
If we
are God’s child, God does this to make his child not trust in ourselves. Our salvation—both spiritual and temporal—is
of the Lord.
God
keeps his chosen and loved child separated from self-trust by always keeping us
in his hand. We were in his hand when
God the Father chose us unto salvation in Christ before he made the world. God our Father entrusted us into the hands of
his Son, Christ our Surety.
By his
hand, Christ has fulfilled the law for those given to him. Christ has redeemed
us by shedding his blood for us. His hands did all the work. His hands paid the purchase price and all his
redeemed children are his purchased possession—purchased with his own blood.
We are
in the hand of God the Holy Spirit. He brought the gospel to us, not we
ourselves. He regenerated us, not we ourselves. The Spirit taught us not we
ourselves. The Spirit continues to guide us into all truth, not we ourselves. The
Spirit renews us and makes the comforts of Christ abound in our hearts, not we
ourselves.
Do you
believe this gospel? Do you believe you
are saved eternally by the mighty hand of God and not by the strength of your
own hand? Then, in this trial you are
in:
1 Peter 5: 6: Humble yourselves therefore under the
mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: 7: Casting all your care
upon him; for he careth for you.
Then eventually,
God revives our inner man by his Spirit. He gives us the cry for mercy. Maybe we went through the motions of prayer
through the whole trial, but then we really pray.
Real
praying is not some might in you, not because you are some mighty prayer
warrior. Real prayer is when you have
the sentence of death in yourself and cease trusting yourself, when we confess
to God our utter nothingness, our total inability, and cast all our care into
his hands to do with us as he will. God alone
is able save us from us.
Our
flesh is so deceitful that even after God turns us again to Christ, flesh soon
enters in. We start saying, “I won’t let
that happen again. I will watch. I will be cautious. I will walk better.” So we start looking to us—flesh comes right
back again. Believer, by all means do
those things, but do it by looking out of ourselves to Christ.
The
religious world makes a lot of money off of the deceit of the fleshly heart. They speak of man’s faith, man’s hope, the
love of the believer. They focus on man
getting it, man sustaining it, man growing it and man expressing it in his daily
life. So the poor sinner is always
looking at himself.
Matthew 7: 16: Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men
gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Believer,
we will never find the fruit of grace looking to this thorn tree called our
body of death!
Illustration: I have hundreds of sermons started, some finished. You would think I could go to them at any
time and preach them. But they are dead
letters. Someone laughed at me once for
spending all night Saturday into Sunday preparing—as if I wait till the last
minute. That’s not it at all.
Each
week, God forces to beg God for the message, to give the very word that only he
knows his people need, to make his word alive in my heart. Then I ask him to deliver me here then deliver
it through me then make it effectual in your hearts.
Why? Why does God not let it get any easier? Why does he give that sentence of death each
week? That I might not trust in myself: so that I am reminded not only of the
nothingness in me, but also your need. So that I must look out of myself to God
for both me and for you!
It is
amazes me how God uses everything: my own trials together with your trials which
you express to me, to give his message for the hour and even in the process,
teaches us “that we should not trust in ourselves.”
III. THE PURPOSE OF GOD TOWARD HIMSELF—THAT
WE MIGHT, TRUST
2 Corinthians 1: 9: in God which raiseth the
dead:…
There
is no better way for us to really learn and be brought to believe God than for
him to raise us up inwardly after we have had our bones all broken and
scattered with the sentence of death upon us. There you are with the sentence of death upon you. You are just
dry bones. But God does what he showed
Ezekiel.
Ezekiel 37: 5: Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones;
Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: 6:…and ye
shall know that I am the LORD. 7: So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I
prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came
together, bone to his bone. [here we are today, he has brought us here together,
each members of his body] 8:…but there was no breath in them. 9: Then said he
unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus
saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these
slain, that they may live. 10: So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the
breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an
exceeding great army.
No man
can bring the dry bones together. No sinner can breathe life. As much as I would like to help, I can’t
raise to life you who suffer in your trials.
But my God can. And through his
gospel, the living Word breathes life into our hearts and once again his
comforts abound and console us.
That is
how we are brought to eat his flesh and drink his blood and have life within
us. It is how he makes us know our union
with him is real and inseparable. This
is how he comforts us in time of need. Bringing
us to our utter weakness is how he is made our strength, how his grace is
sufficient for us. This is how he makes
us to know his presence is with us. It is how he brings us to give him all the
glory for making us to trust in God, rather than in ourselves. Then we say with Paul…
2 Corinthians 1: 10: Who delivered us from so
great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;
I don’t
know how to say it. It is a paradox of grace. A sinner cannot know our need of
Christ and be brought to rest in Christ without some feeling of dire need in
our hearts. Yet, we must never look to
the feelings in our heart. The feeling
which is truly of God, is that feeling which makes us realize we cannot trust self,
which makes us look away for all sufficiency in Christ.
Oh, what
a paradox the believer is: when we are nothing Christ is All, when we mourn Christ
is our joy, when we are weak then we are strong.
So brethren
pray for one another. Comfort one another with the comfort wherewith you are
comforted of Christ. By his wise working,
God brings many thanksgivings to himself, for his grace to us, and for our
brethren whom he uses to minister his grace to our hearts. What a God!
2 Corinthians 1: 9: We have the sentence of
death in ourselves, that
we should not trust in ourselves, but in God.
Amen!