November 12, 2008 The Comfort God Wants to Give You Kathleen Maples

2Co 1:2 Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
2Co 1:3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and
the God of all comfort;
2Co 1:4 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.

You hear the word "grace" a lot in church, and in the Bible. But what does it really
mean? Have you ever stopped to think about it and meditate on this amazing
word? In the Greek, it comes from a word 'charis' and pronounced khorece. It
means God has bestowed certain favors and benefits and gifts upon us just because
it is His character, His nature, to love us and want to help us. He knows better
than we the flaws, inconsistencies and failures of our lives and our hearts, yet this
does not cause Him to withdraw His grace from us. No, just the opposite-He
extends it freely. His grace is His kindness, His willingness to offer His good will,
and do what it took to offer us entrance into the goodness and blessings He has to
share with us-which we did nothing to earn or merit.

Lets consider who Paul is writing to here. This is his second letter to the Corinthian
church. In his first letter, he writes to correct problems and errors in the church
relating to the divisions among the people, the carnal preferences for certain
speakers which divided people into their own groups, and drew attention to the
man rather than God. He warned them against putting their confidence in men,
but rather trust in God. There was open sin in the church and immorality being
tolerated and allowed to continue. He laid out the corrections that needed to be
made, and counseled on marriage, the pattern of the minister, and public worship,
including the gifts of the Spirit, the true meaning of love, and how these things
should not be abused. He finished the letter by instructing and renewing hope in
the importance of Christ's resurrection and what that means in the life of the
believer. It was quite a lot to think about, and many changes needed to be made in
this church. Since Paul's first letter, the Corinthian church had been infected by
false teachers who tried to turn the people against Paul. They attacked his
credibility, his spirituality, his presentation of the Gospel, even his appearance
and speech. They accused Paul of being dishonest, misrepresenting the truth, and
that he was not really qualified to be an apostle of the Lord. Paul sent Titus to deal
with this and when Paul received news of the Corinthians' repentance, and
acceptance of truth, he rejoiced. He was speaking to two groups of people here: the
repentant majority and the rebellious minority.

It is helpful to remember Corinth was a Roman colony with a population of

Romans and Greeks. and it was a busy place of commerce, but also of vice,
comparable to our American city of Las Vegas, where just about anything went.
This city was notable for its great wealth and for luxury and for the vicious and
immoral habits of the people. They were so wickedly immoral, the pagan societies
around them coined a phrase to It was a pleasure loving, thinking society that
tended to trust in flesh. These believers were saved out of this amoral society that
was so wicked that the term 'Corinthian' and 'immoral' came to mean the same
thing. Corinth was home to the temple of Aphrodite, where 1000 prostitutes were
employed. There were many other temples, to many other gods, and debating
societies which discussed these things with what was considered sophistication at
the time. Much of the Corinthian church had been delivered from very wicked
lifestyles, and Paul was striving to see them planted in truth, and grow to maturity
in the Lord.

Paul is writing to a people who came out of gross sin, were greatly blessed of the
Lord, but promptly fell into error and division. This always happens when the
Lord is moving and working among His people. The enemy will try to come in and
conquer and divide. A house divided cannot stand. So, he is also writing to people
he knows have been party to attempts to smear his name and service to the Lord,
as well as those who have been led astray again since his last letter and visit.
When Titus reports back the people repented and accepted the truth, Paul writes
again. He doesn't come with an "I told you so" or harsh criticism. He writes
reminding them they are recipients of the grace and peace of God.

Grace and peace. How do you truly have peace? Saying you possess it and truly
having it are two different things. This peace by definition means God has no
controversy with you. It means you can rest assured in His ability regardless of
the situation around you. This kind of peace comes from knowing God yourself
and learning who He is and how He works. Now, the Holy Ghost knows the hearts
of men and women and He knows how to convict and convince them of sin and
when they have erred, and repented, He comes offering peace and grace of God.
Blessed-that word means adorable, worthy of praise, is God, the Father of our
Lord Jesus. He is the Father of mercy-He has compassion and takes pity on His
children. He knows the weakness of their flesh, and that they are but dust. He is
the God of all comfort- encouragement, exhortation, urging His people to trust
Him, look to Him, and lean heavy on Him for HE alone by His Word and His Spirit
is able to hold them up in times like we live in.

In verse 4 the word for comfort is parakaleo-and it is used to describe one of the
ministries of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It means to call near, invite or all for one
to come closer so they can find the comfort and encouragement they need. He is
calling for us to draw near to Him so He can teach and instruct us and that will
strengthen and encourage us. This Scripture says He comforts us in all our
tribulation. He is our Father, and He knows we are troubled about many things,
and He knows what we need. He wants His troubled children to come to Him, not
expecting harshness but help.

There is such a pressure, and distress many are facing right now. We all have our
own afflictions, be they mental, physical, financial or family problems. There is an
all out spiritual warfare raging and God's children need to be edified, encouraged,
and taught truth, more than ever. We need to have our minds saturated with the
Truth and we all need to be praying for the Holy Ghost to fill us. As we are
comforted by God through His Spirit and His Word, then we are able to comfort
others. The word comfort used here is similar --"paraklesis" and it means to call
those close who need help, so they can be encouraged, and strengthened. There is
so much anguish and trouble in the lives of so many hurting believers. He knows
this and He wants us to remember He alone can comfort and bring us through.
Remember He said our faith would be tried by fiery trials, and sometimes we
would be in heaviness because of these. But we can look to Him and know He will
not let this take us under. No matter what storm is raging, He walks above the
storm, and we will make it to the other side if we are obedient and seek Him. He
doesn't want us depending on anyone or anything else but HIM and His Word.
This is one of the reasons He sent the Holy Ghost to us.

Consider this encouragement is being written by a man who has been through the
ringer in Asia recently. He goes there, and meets a group of John's disciples and
ministers to them and they receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. But when he
goes up to the synagogue, he is met with hard hearted people who dispute
everything he tries to tell them and they speak evil of the way of truth in front of
the people, so he leaves them, separating the disciples from this unruly crowd. He
goes to a school- and probably works out an arrangement with this man Tyrannus
where he can speak there so he can reach out to the Gentiles. Any minister who has
been challenged and disputed with like this could relate to the mental and spiritual
battles this kind of reception would cause. Yet, God continues to work mighty
miracles through this humble man's life so much so they take handkerchiefs that
had touched him and when given to the sick, the sick were healed, and evil spirits
left them. Many tried to imitate what God was doing in his life, but couldn't. In
Asia, he was considered a threat to the local economy, which was largely
supported in Ephesus by the silversmiths making statues of their goddess Diana.
The temple worship surrounding this idol was sensual, and lavish. These people,
when they heard the Gospel, were furious and even attacked Paul's companions
and friends, Gaius, Aristarchus, men from Macedonia who had traveled with Paul.
When Alexander tried to speak up and calm them down upon learning he was a
Jew, they spent 2 hours shouting him down so he could not be heard. This was a
real fiery trial to these men. You can find it all detailed in Acts 19.

So when he writes to Corinth the second time, he reveals how these events tried his
faith. He called it trouble, they were burdened, heavy with despair at the
opposition they encountered, stressed beyond their ability to endure, which is
always where God comes in, insomuch that they were utterly at a loss for what to
do for their own lives. But they had the sentence of death in themselves-this wasn't
about them, they had been bought with a price, and live or die they belonged to
Christ and would follow where the Holy Spirit sent them, trusting He was able to
deliver them in spite of what they faced. Here is a man who has been comforted by
God in very trying situations, and He is sharing that knowledge that he gained
with others who are in need. The Corinthian church was in the midst of a cess pool
and I'm sure there was much tribulation and trial facing them, else Paul would not
have written this kind of encouragement to them at this time. He starts off with the
encouragement because he knows they need it.

God knows we need it, too. It helps in times like these we are living in to remember
how God moved in the past for His people and for us, personally. I want to end up
with Isaiah 25 here.

Isa 25:1 O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast
done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
Isa 25:2 For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defensed city a ruin: a palace of
strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
The fact that He is OUR God, that He redeemed us and bought us, and saved us is a
miracle and something to be so thankful for. We are not putting our trust in
Buddha, or Mohammad, or self, or this new age religion that is so prevalent. We
are trusting in TRUTH and TRUTH is Person. He is the Lord! He's real, He knows
our needs, hurts and desire to please Him. He does not give up on us when we are
ready to give up on ourselves. For that we can lift up His name, exalt HIM higher
than our problems, or our failures and praise His Holy Name for what He has
done-deliver us, time and time and time again, and for what He has not done-
which is forsake us. Glory to His Name! Hallelujah!! He has worked so many
miracles, He has parted seas and rivers, He has breathed life into dry bones, He
has opened blinded eyes, He has raised what is dead and given it new life! His
Word has always been faithful and true. He can take the strong hold of the enemy
and reduce it to ruin in seconds with a Word of hope and truth.

Isa 25:4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a
refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a
storm against the wall.

He becomes the defense, the strength to those who are weak, though He always
has been their defense, now they are made aware of this. Their back is to the wall,
they are in a tight place, but He is there. He's an ever present Help because He
knows there is an ever present evil that would swallow them up. He's drawn them
close to Himself and sheltered them and they are learning by experience He alone
is their hiding place. He's their Rock, a solid, unshakable place they can stand
when everything around them is being shaken. He will never be moved. He will
never be overthrown or caught by surprise. The enemy can never triumph over
this glorious God.

The storm has been fierce and it has taken a toll on the people. That word 'poor' is
dal (H1800) and it means dangling, weak or thin-barely able to hang on. They
have been buffeted hard, they have fought this warfare and they are weary and in
great need of help. He's the strength to those who are in need, destitute in a hard
place, in real trouble. When I looked up that word distress (H6862) in verse 4, in
the original Hebrew it means: They have an adversary who has afflicted them and
brought great anguish into their lives, and much tribulation and sorrow. I was
amazed. God is their shelter from the storm-and this is a demonic storm. This the
flood of demonic activity that causes confusion, torment, sorrow, temptation, and
grief. The enemy is sending forth this flood to try to overthrow their faith and
sweep them back into darkness. He said in Isa_59:19 when the enemy comes in like
a flood, He will lift up a standard against him. The standard is the flag that goes
ahead of the army, and who is the Captain of our salvation, Church? The Lord Jesus
Christ!

In the dry, desolate place that has been utterly wasted, a heavy toll has been
exacted because of the prince of the power of the air who has laid siege to God's
people, is determined to steal their faith in God and His promises. He wants you to
throw the Book down and believe the lie out of hell that you have had enough that
you don't need it anymore! He wants to snuff out the of Christ within you. The
blast of the terrible ones-that word 'blast' is an interesting word. (H7307) Both the
New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance and Strong's Hebrew
Definitions agree: It's an attack that comes on the wind, a spiritual attack, as a
breath of cool air to try to extinguish faith in God, love for God, and zeal for God.
The fiery darts are launched as a barrage as the enemy tries to manipulate your
thoughts, provoke your temper and cause you to lose your courage and lose heart.
He wants you to be despondent, grief stricken, in despair. This is the blast of the
oppressor and it is a terrible, strong, and violent sifting within your mind to try to
destroy your faith in God and in His promises. He wants to make you believe the
Word of God is a lie and there is no hope and he has you backed up against a wall
with no where to go.

Remember, he is the liar and the father of all lies. When you are against a wall,
God is that very present help and He is there with you. He said He would never
leave you or forsake you.

Isa 25:5 Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the
heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.

When Israel was up against a wall, God made a way through the Red Sea and they
walked across on dry ground and God had His prophet leading them, and God
Himself was their rear guard. He had their back and would not let the Egyptians
rush in upon them. No, that fiery cloud was right there, preventing the enemy from
following them until it was time-until they were safely across and then God moved
to allow the enemy to rush in to their own destruction.

God will bring down the noise of strangers, that strange voice that batters your
mind trying to wear you out. Oh what a blessing and encouragement I got as I dug
in these words, and examined these Scriptures. The word is H3665 kana, and it
means God is going to subdue this uproar and horrible noise of the enemy. The
stranger, that profane, foreign stranger-who is the enemy and adversary of our
soul, will have to bow his knee in humiliation, vanquished by OUR GOD, and be
brought down low in subjection, under the mighty hand of God. He's going to
make the enemy give account and answer for what he has done. The Scripture says
the branch of the terrible ones will be brought low-(H6030) and it means made to
answer or give account. As the heat in a dry place-He, God Almighty is going to
dry up this flood. Hallelujah! Be encouraged, church. You really can be strong in
the Lord. Has He not commanded us to be strong and of a good courage that we
don't have to be afraid or dismayed for He is the Lord OUR GOD and is with us
where ever we go! He knows what is coming and He wants you to spend time with
Him, in His Word, in prayer, getting fortified, filled up with oil, now, while we can.
He is calling us to draw nigh to Him and away from the things that would distract
and vex us. He wants us to draw nigh to Him so He can draw nigh to us and
comfort us, saints. What an awesome invitation. I pray you come. I encourage you
to find a place, at an altar of prayer and be still, knowing you have been invited
you will be received, and just understand He is GOD. Think about what that
means. HE IS GOD. Nothing escapes His knowledge and He is never without a plan
of victory! Hallelujah! Don't listen to the lies of the devil when he tells you that you
have failed God that your life hasn't amounted to much. Little is much when God is
in it. If he tells you that you are a failure, that means you are succeeding in getting
somewhere with God. If you were a failure, he'd be lying to you telling you that
you were a great success! He can't tell the truth, so when he tells you that you are
a failure, rejoice! He lies!