2 Corinthians 1:3-4

the more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the creator.

So the first disease that was actually completely eliminated by the science of medicine was smallpox, and that didn't occur until 1980. 184 years earlier, Edward Jenner found out that milkmaids didn't get the disease because they got something called cowpox virus, which was gentler, and it protected them. And it took that time to get rid of the disease. smallpox. So whether doctors want to admit it or not, the practice of medicine has been throughout the ages much about comfort and relieving suffering and not curing it. Many of the treatments we have don't cure the disease. They only manage it. And suffering exists today, both physical, spiritual, mental. And not only will we experience it, but we will have a role as believers to help the suffering from others. So my three take-home points, one, we will all suffer in some way or another in this life, including Christians. Number two, in your trials, God, through his Holy Spirit, will comfort you. And number three, our suffering will be used as a blessing for others. So let's go into these in detail. Number one, we will all suffer in some way or another in life, even as Christians. So the prosperity gospel people would have you believe that faith in Jesus means no more trials. We cannot forget that our Lord suffered for us, and we are to suffer for his sake, as Paul notes in Philippians 1, 29 and 30.

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

Paul suffered many trials and afflictions, including the persistent physical ailment, the quote, thorn in his flesh, that he pleaded the Lord would take away. But the Lord didn't. Why would God allow this? To highlight the power of God's grace in the face of adversity, and to prevent Paul from being puffed up, conceded from his experiences. His weakness in this adversity allows God's power to be the strength, or the thing that strengthens him. In 2 Corinthians 9 and 10, he said,

but to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Think about that. The suffering brings the power of Christ, and that is gonna be the thread that runs through all of this.

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

These tribulations brought the Lord near and kept him there. And in John 16.33, in Jesus' own words,

in the world you have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world.

We had a pastor once who gave an entire sermon on the idea that life is hard and God is good. Janet showed me a book that the ladies are reading from Gianni Ardovanos who said basically, and it's on the book of Lamentations,

life is hard, God is good, pain is real, so is God's love. This world will come to an end, but God's love will not. We cannot lose God's steadfast love no matter what happens. All that happens to us will be proven to be part of God's love in the end.

There's no salvation without suffering. Jesus' suffering for us was a necessary part of our redemption. It's the greatest act of love known to mankind. God sent his son, who knew no sin of his own, to suffer for our sins and die a sinner's death. Although none of us can do anything to deserve this gift, because it happened, and because he accepted our unworthy souls, he has changed us from within, so now we walk in the Spirit, as in Romans 8, 3 and 4.

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. For sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

So if you belong to him, the Holy Spirit is within you. Romans 8, 10, and 11.

Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

So my second point, number two, in your trials, God through his Holy Spirit will comfort you. Now, to comfort implies that there's someone who not only provides the comfort, but also someone who is in need of comfort and receives it. We are strengthened by his grace and suffering that we might share that with others. Hebrews 4, 15 and 16.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who is in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and to find grace in time of need.

In Romans 5, 3, and 5, we understand these trials must change us and make us grow as Christians.

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's been given to us.

In 2 Timothy chapter two, one through four,

you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, that you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust a faithful man who will be able to teach others also. Sharon's suffering is a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.

I saw something as I prepared for this, a pastor whose name I've forgotten, who basically said,

no soldier is worth assault until he's tested.

We will be tested in suffering. Number three, our suffering will be used as a blessing for others. As Jesus told Peter, not only would he suffer, but he should then strengthen his brothers in Luke 22, 31 and 32.

Behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat, but I've prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.

This isn't for Peter, this is for all of us. As Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5, 9, and 11.

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him. Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

So back to our verse for tonight's devotional, 2 Corinthians 1, 3, and 4.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Some closing thoughts. Sir William Osler was the first physician-in-chief of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, which is where I did my residency and fellowship. He was a Christian who was the son of a Christian missionary who famously said about doctors, but it goes beyond that, he said,

the good physician treats the disease, the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.

Your heavenly father is greater than any earthly physician and is embodied in his son who gave so much to us through his suffering, death, and resurrection. So, a few points. Know that your trials are God's trials. Repent of your sin, receive his comfort, and accept the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. Grow in your relationship to him through the knowledge and love of God. We suffer unnecessarily when we do not turn to him, but when we turn to him, these tribulations can be a blessing for ourself and for others as we grow in the spirit. Another point, you may not know the reason why you're going through certain trials. Often we do not know why. The reasons are God's alone. Sometimes it's to face something you need to face and would not otherwise, or to keep you from going where you should not go. Most of us know Psalm 23,

the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake.

As his sheep, the Lord is leading your path, and sometimes that feels out of control. Your life is not your own, but the secret is it never was. The psalmist goes on to say in that same psalm,

even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Well, the comfort in Psalm 23 sounds a lot like weapons, a rod and a staff. A rod and a staff are the tools of the shepherd. The rod is like a club to keep away predators by striking them, but the staff is the hook shepherd crook. It's to pull the sheep out of danger when they go where they shouldn't go. So trial can be a correction, either now or in the future. In Hebrews 12, the author reminds us that the Lord, like any good parent, disciplines those he loves. He loves you. Sometimes a trial or affliction is so that you can be a comfort to others, the topic of our text. In Isaiah 41, he says,

comfort my people, says your God.

In other words, the comfort you have received is a gift that you can give in the future that you don't even know you have to give. Someday it'll be a responsibility to give that gift away. Proverbs 7.17 says,

a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity.

God's comfort becomes visible to others when we share it for those who need it. If you do not know Jesus, or you have not accepted Him as your Savior, please reach out to anyone in this church. We would all be glad to talk to you more about it. And I actually did include something about Pastor MacArthur. He went to Ireland at one point, and it rained every day. It was miserable. But then he realized that that experience pertained to Paul and Paul's afflictions. He said, and this is a quote from John MacArthur,

Paul had learned that the trouble and trial and the pain that came to his life was the very rain and mist and fog that God used to make him the magnificent Christian he was. He learned that God's strength is only perfected in our weakness, only when we have come to the extremity of life where we have no human solution that can God invade and do what only he can do. He gains all the glory and makes beauty out of the darkness.

He will do the same to all who truly turn to him. I want to close with 2 Thessalonians 2, 16 and 17.

May the Lord of our God, Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish in them every good work and word.

Amen.