Word of Salvation – Vol. 15 No.23 - June 1969

 

The God Of All Comfort

 

Sermon by Rev. V. R. Nilson, B.A., B.D. on 2Corinthians 1:1-11

PSALTER HYMNAL: 169; 30; 22; 408:1,2,3; 383:1,2,3,4,5; 491

 

Beloved in the Lord:

The names that men give to God reveal the depth of their own spiritual experience.  So, we must ask ourselves: "How do we address Him?"
 – as the author of fear,
            or the conqueror of fear?
 – as a god made like unto our own sinful selves,
            or one holy, before whom the unholy
            and the unrighteous cannot stand acquitted?

What names of God and his attributes do we use, that are the most expressive of our understanding and of our faith?

Hagar, after fleeing from the face of Sarah, called the name of the LORD that spoke to her by this name: "ATHA-EL-RAI" which means, "Thou God seest me."  For the angel of the LORD had found her, had named her yet-unborn son Ishmael, and had sent her back to Sarah.  Hagar had learned that the all-seeing God was concerned about her personally.

Abraham, the father of the faithful, himself gave the name of Jehovah-Jireh to the LORD on Mt. Moriah after the angel of the LORD had stopped him from slaying his son Isaac.  Isaac, himself, had asked the question: "Where is the lamb?" as they climbed up the mountain.  And, Abraham had answered, "God will provide the lamb." And God did with the ram caught in the bushes.  And so, Abraham gives the name Jehovah-Jireh to the LORD for that name means: "The LORD will provide."  For the LORD indeed did provide.

Moses, the reluctant leader of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, gave the name Jehovah-Nisi to the LORD, for this name means: "Jehovah is my banner.  The Israelites had just defeated the Amalekites in a crucial battle on their way to Mt.  Sinai after crossing the Red Sea.  Indeed, under the banner of the LORD they had gained the victory over the enemy.  Moses knew how real this help was, for had he not stood on a hill overlooking the battlefield, holding out the rod of God?  When his arm held up the rod, the battle went with Israel, but when he wearied and the rod dropped, the battle went to the enemy.  So, Moses was set on a stone and Aaron and Hur held up his wearied arms.  And, God did give the victory.  Then, it was, that Moses built an altar and called it by the name of Jehovah-Nisi, or "The LORD – my banner."

And for Gideon, the LORD is Jehovah-Shalom, or "The LORD is Peace."  For Gideon had seen the angel of the LORD face to face.  But Gideon did not recognize the LORD at first.  He thought that he had a visitor to whom he should show hospitality.  But when he brought a boiled kid of the goats and unleavened bread, he was told to put the meat and the unleavened cakes on a flat rock and to pour out the broth of the meat.  Then to his amazement his visitor touched the meat and the cakes with the tip of his staff, and fire rose up out of the rock and consumed the meat and the cakes.

Gideon now became dreadfully afraid and cried out: "Alas!  O LORD God!  for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face.”  So, then the LORD spoke to Gideon in the midst of his fear: "Peace be unto thee; fear not; thou shalt not die."  Then, it is that Gideon built an altar and named it Jehovah-Shalom, for he had found that the LORD does bring and give peace.

Thus, these names for God reveal not only the attributes of God, but they also reveal something of the spiritual life of the people who saw these attributes of God so clearly.

So, too, here in our scripture lesson, the Apostle Paul introduces us to another important attribute of God, for our God is:

            THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT

This name for God has deep meaning for every Christian, for he has found that the everlasting God – whom faithful angels worship and devils fear – God who is thrice holy – God who is at once creator and lawgiver, judge and redeemer, is also the God of all comfort,

The Apostle Paul writes similarly in Romans 15: "Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus."  And here the word translated as "consolation" is the same as the one in our text which is translated as "comfort".  Indeed, in our text in 2Corinthians 1 verses 3 to 7, precisely the same word in the Greek is translated by two English words: "comfort" and "consolation."  There is no difference.

The key-word in our text is this one translated "comfort" or "consolation."  And, the author of the believer's comfort is God Himself.  It is little wonder that the Apostle Paul should thus address his readers immediately after his words of greeting: "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT."

As we reflect on this verse and those that follow it, we note two important aspects:

First: This comfort must be experienced, and

Second: This comfort must be shared.

First, and foremost, this grand truth that our God is THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT must be experienced personally.

Now when Paul says that God "comforts us in all our tribulation," this is not just pious talk; this is his own personal testimony.  The whole of his life from his momentous experience on the road to Damascus testified to the care of the sovereign God.

He could recount incident upon incident of the care and comfort of his God.  In Damascus new friends let him down over the city wall in a basket when a plot for his death was discovered.  In Lystra, Paul arose from the ground after having been stoned and left for dead.  In Philippi, God opened the prison doors with an earthquake and brought the jailer to his knees to ask, "what must I do to be saved?"

In Corinth itself the governor, Gallio, had dismissed the charge of the Jews against Paul.  And, now in our text, Paul reminds his readers of further difficulties in the Roman province of Asia after he had left Corinth for Ephesus.

We cannot be quite sure as to the precise incident to which Paul refers in our text.  Was it at the time when the synagogue was divided over Paul's preaching – when some of the Jews spoke evil of the gospel?  Or, was it the time when Demetrius the silversmith led a city riot to protect the honour of the goddess Diana – and to protect the trade of the silversmiths who made those silver images?

Or, was it some unrecorded incident of which we do not know the circumstances?  Does he refer here to the incident of which he later wrote Timothy, that he was delivered out of the mouth of a lion?  We cannot tell.  But we do know the effect of this particular incident on the Apostle Paul himself.

Paul was "pressed out of measure, above strength, in so much that we despaired even of life."

Here was no picnic for Paul and whoever else was with him on this humanly-speaking hopeless situation.  No!  Not at all!  So, Paul now takes his readers and us into the depths of his own soul.  Yes!  He, the great Apostle, had come to what was apparently the end of his road.  His condition appeared absolutely hopeless as man could look at it.  He was not just tempted to despair of life.  No!  He says, "we despaired even of life."

Indeed, he says: "We had the sentence of death in ourselves.”

Now, does this mean that Paul – or Paul and some of his companions – were imprisoned for preaching Christ?  Had he been put on trial?  Again, we are not told.  And, again, we do not know, nor do we need to know.

But the Apostle Paul knew this: that all human supports were gone.  His logic and his oratory could not avail; his friends could not intervene.  He could only leave himself, and his case in the hands of God.  He could only trust God.  So, Paul was shut up to faith itself.  This is faith unadulterated by worldly considerations.

This is like Abraham who as the author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote – “offered up Isaac ...his only begotten son... accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead.  Abraham too, had all human supports for his faith ripped away, And Paul – as well as Abraham in his test of faith – found his own faith strengthened to trust God alone; to trust God absolutely and completely.  Truly they, and all the heroes of the faith recorded for us in Hebrews 11 – and all the household of the faith both before and since the cross – yes, all of them can say from the heart, they can say from personal experience: GOD IS THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT.

Yet, the believer's comfort is not simply a vague sense of well-being.  No!  Not at all!  The believer's comfort is always centred in a person – that of our Lord Jesus Christ – or, as we read in the first question and answer of our Heidelberg Catechism: "My only comfort in life and in death is the Lord Jesus Christ."

This is the comfort which sustains believers in the midst of physical agony or harrowing persecution, personal tragedy or deep disappointment.

Is this your comfort?  To your soul?  Has each one of us here today experienced for himself or herself this wondrous comfort of God?
 —the comfort of personal salvation,
            of forgiveness of sins through Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross?
 —the comfort of daily strength and care?
 —the comfort of Christ's promise to be with us by His Spirit?

Can we all confess with Paul, from our own personal experience, that "God is the God of all comfort?" – that I have learned in whatever state I am not to despair? – but rather to be content?  Have we all learned the infinite distance between mental assent or agreement, and saving faith?

We should remember that even in the most evangelical congregation even in the midst of spiritual gifts and graces among God's people, yes, even here among us today there can still be some people full of doubts and full of fears.  And, the comfort of which Paul speaks is not yet experienced.

So, then, may any of you who still feel this way know that, as long as you take refuge in human supports your wisdom, your heritage, your church membership, your baptism, your good works — you cannot have the comfort of God.  You must come to the end of yourself before you can have the peace of God.  But, when you do come to the end of yourself, then do heed the call and come to Jesus.  He says to everyone in despair: "Come unto me and I will give you rest."

Then it is that you too will experience personally the comfort of God — the peace that passes all understanding.

And yet, just as the Apostle Paul says for himself, the Christian does not experience the comfort of God in isolation from the community of men.  He is not comforted just to be made comfortable.  No!  Not at all!

He is comforted for the purpose of sharing the comfort of God with fellow men.  To know that GOD IS THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT must not only be experienced; this comfort must also be shared.

Has one found the well of water unto everlasting life?  Then he cannot hide the knowledge of this well from fellowmen, who are in deep need and ready to die for want of this water.

We have an interesting illustration of sharing good news from the time of Elisha in the Old Testament.  Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, Israel, was besieged by an army of Syrians.  Food was scarce — so much so that an ass's head sold for 80 pieces of silver.  At this time Elisha prophesied that the very next day a measure of fine flour would sell for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria.  But who would believe it?

In the meantime, four lepers facing death by famine in Samaria thought that they could not fare any worse by going to the camp of the besieging Syrians.  They went and, to their amazement, found the camp entirely empty, vacant, for the LORD had caused the Syrians to hear the sound of a mighty approaching army.  So the lepers gorged themselves on food, and gathered gold and silver and clothes for themselves.

Then one of the lepers thought out loud: "We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us now: therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household."

Note that this leper said: "This is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace.”  In affect is he not saying: "Look what God has given us.  Should we not share it with the rest in Samaria?  We have found food for life and yet many are dying of starvation in the city.”

Now, has anyone here among us found comfort from the God of all comfort?  Why, then, let him comfort others who are in trouble, by precisely the same comfort which answered the despair of his own heart, of his own soul.

Of course, this does not mean that we need to have gone through exactly the same troubles and struggles of the soul and body as others, to be of help to them.  We need not experience the dregs of particular sins to know the one who can forgive all sins.  We do not need to have been a thief or an adulterer or a drunk or a dope addict, in order to bring to that person the gospel, the gospel that brings men to repentance and faith – for it is only this gospel that can truly bring abiding comfort.

Indeed, we do not need to suffer everyman's personal troubles, to point every man in distress to the God of all comfort.

So, this then brings us to another vital question: What kind of a comforter am I?  What kind of a comforter are you?

Yes, we may sing from the heart such a hymn as this old German one (Trinity Hymnal No.596):

            Jesus lives and so shall I;
            Death!  thy sting is gone forever!
            He who deigned for me to die,
            Lives, the bands of death to sever.
            He shall raise me from the dust,
            Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

Yes, we can know all this from personal experience.  But how helpful are we really as comforters?  And, how widely are we willing to share this comfort?

Paul's burden and yearning is this, that we who know the comfort of God might comfort anyone in any need not just to make men comfortable in their need, not just to dull the fears and the pain but rather to heal the wounds and remove the fears and the pains.

Just as the Apostle Paul wanted the Corinthians to know to share the comfort of God, so let us also be alert to share this same comfort to the neighbour and the stranger, to the member of the congregation and the member of the family, to the employee and to the employer.

To do this, we need a blessed un-self-consciousness.

There is no room for censure, as in the case of Job's friends whom he rightly called "miserable comforters.'  Nor is there any room for self-righteousness.

But there is room for the loving heart and the openness of the soul.  There is room for the quiet witness: "I have found the answer to fear and despair in Jesus Christ".  And there is the place for invitation, too: "Will you not come to Jesus yourself, to find this comfort of God – for the ills of mankind?"

So, today, may all of us who do know Jesus Christ as personal saviour rejoice that our God is:
            THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT

We may be thankful that we can and do experience this wonderful truth from day to day – in the midst of one need after another – tragedy, and trial, disappointment and heartache.

And, then, let us reconsecrate ourselves to this ministry of the gospel to share the comfort of Jesus Christ, the comfort of the gospel without respect of persons.

But, then, young or old, friend or visitor, church member or not, you who do not know for yourself the comfort of God, do not delay any longer.  Come to Jesus today.

Amen.