and give us understanding in your holy word. Thank you for this saying that the Apostle Paul wrote. Thank you for its inspired nature. Thank you for all it can teach us. Would you please draw near to us, give us faith, deepen our love for you and for one another, glorify yourself as the word is preached, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. I wonder, have you ever been in a situation or witnessed a circumstance like this? The telephone rings. And when you notice the name displayed on your phone, you realize that the person calling is someone with whom you have been, had difficulties, maybe irritating or offensive in previous conversations. Or it's someone with whom you are having a dispute. Perhaps it's a family member who disagrees with you about an important matter such as finance. Or maybe a neighbor who has initiated a property dispute or who refuses to remove all the junk in his yard and allows his dogs to terrify the neighborhood. Possibly it's a contractor who did shoddy work on your property. There could be many scenarios. Now you must answer the call, but how do you feel at that moment when you see that name coming up on your phone? And when you connect, how does the conversation usually proceed? Well, if we're honest, seldom do these conversations go well. Often they start out heated, and as you talk, the emotional temperature increases. And how do they conclude? With anger and bitterness, and sometimes sinful recriminations, hard and harsh words spoken back and forth. Now I ask, is that familiar? Sadly, probably for most of us, we can remember when we experienced or perhaps witnessed just this kind of thing. And it's not a very pleasant memory, is it? Well, Paul's second letter to the Corinthians is in some sense like one of these conversations. We're only able to listen to one side as in while someone one of these trying discussions, but it's very much like this. Consider for a moment, in this epistle, Paul must address deep troubles in the Corinthian church, defend his own ministry, describe the depth of multiple trials and difficulties he has endured. He must call the church to repentance, plead for reconciliation, and more. The Corinthians had criticized Paul, viewed him as secondary, and perhaps even as an object of scorn because of his troubles. They had been overzealous in the practice of church discipline, pardon me, were proud, miserly, self-centered, willing to accept other pseudo-apostles over Paul, and this epistle is full of these problems. It reads very much like one side of an exceedingly difficult conversation. And yet, it concludes with the fullest and most extensive word of blessing found in all of Paul's letters. Listen to the final words of Murray Harris' commentary on 2 Corinthians. This is the last thing that you read if you pick up his commentary. He says this. It is a singular paradox that a letter so full of indignation, remonstrance, and gyrating emotions should conclude with the most elevated Trinitarian affirmation in the New Testament, couched in the form of a benediction addressed to all factions. Well, Dr. Harris is exactly right. While our experience of difficult conversations often ends in hard feelings or in shame or in further conflict, Paul concludes his hard letter to this church with words of blessing, words of hope, words which are in some sense a prayer. They're directed to the Corinthian Christians They're based on his Trinitarian doctrine, and they are applied to all the believers without exception. Here, my friends, is genuine Christian love presented to us in a beautiful form. You see, in these final words of 2 Corinthians, we have a wonderful benediction. Now, before we proceed, I want to define some terms. I wonder, do you know what a benediction is? If I asked you to give a definition, how would you do with it? Many churches close their worship with one. I believe that there's a benediction in the bulletin. Yes, it is. There it is. It's a word that we use, but maybe we don't always understand it. Benediction is an English form of a Latin phrase that means a word, a blessing. And it's not the same as a doxology. Though it's easy to confuse them, and often we do. Let me define them. A doxology is a brief expression of praise to God. Look across the page or turn back one page in your Bibles to chapter 11, verse 31. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is That's an example of a doxology within our own context. A doxology is a word of praise that we speak to God. Think about it this way. A doxology originates on earth with us and its audience is on the heavenly throne. To say this in one form, the direction of a doxology is upward. We write or we say a doxology speaking to God, giving him a brief word of praise. A benediction is different, though. A benediction is a word of blessing that is spoken to us. It comes from heaven, it is delivered by God's representatives on earth, and it expresses a desire for the Lord's gracious bounty to come upon us. And so the direction of a benediction is downward, from heaven to earth, from the Lord to his people. Many churches conclude their worship with a benediction so that the last word that God's people hear before they depart is a word of blessing from God to his saints. That's why we conclude our services with benedictions. Now, keep your finger here and go all the way back to the beginning of this epistle with me, 2 Corinthians 1. Here we have, in verses two and three, a benediction and a doxology side by side. Let me read the first three verses. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the Church of God that is at Corinth with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Now, you see, both of them are placed together. First, we have a benediction, grace to you, And then we have a doxology, blessed be the God and Father. Verse one identifies the author and the recipients. Then we have a benediction and a doxology. And though they are distinct, they belong together. God's grace and peace bestowed on us, that's the benediction, draws forth praise from his people, that's the doxology. We hear what God says to us and we respond with these words of praise. Paul very frequently employs benedictions. Every one of his epistles begins and ends with a benediction. In his greetings, he will say something like this, and the Lord Jesus Christ. In his farewells at the end of his epistles, he likewise expressed a blessing upon his recipients, whether churches or individuals. Now, he doesn't do this out of custom. He doesn't do it as a mere formality, the way that we greet someone with, how are you? And they respond with, fine, thank you, even if they're terrible. We all do that. I find myself doing it because that's our habit. The apostle writes in this way because he genuinely desires God's people to know the things that he expresses and to grow in grace in every circumstance. You see, Paul's yearning is for Christians to learn, to live with a deep understanding of the spiritual realities which are at the root of their lives. They must know God. not just have some facts about him, but really and truly to comprehend his grace and to walk through life with an absolute dependence upon him, to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength. And it's for this reason that he uses benedictions at the entry and the exit of every one of his epistles. Now, with these definitions in mind, let's look at Paul's benediction in 2 Corinthians 13-14. So come back there with me. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship, or your translation might read communion, of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. These words are very familiar. We've heard them over and over again. We've read them many times. They're full of wonderful truths. to give life to our Christian experience. Now, we need to remember that they conclude a long epistle and we must not divorce them from what has been written previously all the way back to the greeting and benediction that we've just looked at in the first three verses. There's a very real sense in which this final benediction looks back and presents us with ideas that are drawn from the earlier portions of the epistle. For example, grace. Grace appears 11 other times in 2 Corinthians. In chapter 1 and verse 12, Paul asserts that his conduct has been dependent on the grace of God. Or in chapter 4, verse 15, in which we read that grace produces thanksgiving in God's people. Or chapter 6, verse 1, when Paul pleads with the Corinthians not to receive the grace of God in vain. And in chapter eight, where he provides an example of grace at work in the Macedonian churches, they gave from their poverty to those who were in need. The second element of the benediction, love, has been presented in words such as, the love of Christ compels us in 514. Or God loves a cheerful giver in 9-7. When speaking of fellowship or communion, the apostle has asked the question, what communion has light with darkness? Reminding the believers that they must flee from evil deeds and urge them, in verse four of chapter eight, to enter into the fellowship, the communion of ministering to the saints. If the Corinthians have been paying attention as the epistle is read to them, they will hear these echoes when they come to the final verse of the letter. But having said this, it's important to note that this is not a backwards-looking benediction. It actually points the Corinthians and us forward. The reasons they need grace and love and fellowship are obvious, but at this moment Paul does not want them to dwell on the past and on their sins, rather he intends for them to seek the remedy and know its blessed fruits. So the last word they hear as the letter is read is a blessing. I imagine the Corinthian church gathered together like this, and the elders reading to them this epistle that has been sent to them. From beginning to end, they hear it in one sitting, and the last word that they hear is a blessing. Indeed, they have a great deal of repenting to do, but even that must be done in the proper context. And these words explain that context. This benediction is full of deep, profound, and in some ways inexplicable things. The Trinity, grace, love, fellowship. It is an overflowing, overwhelming source of comfort and help. So I want to focus in on it. I want to think about it in several ways. The first thing I want you to notice is that this is a Trinitarian blessing. A Trinitarian blessing. I want to say something that contradicts many theological scholars today, but I think it's essential to say, the apostles of the New Testament were clearly Trinitarians. A lot of them say, well, the doctrine of the Trinity wasn't really defined until the Nicene Creed, which we've just read a few moments ago. I want to say, no, that's not the case at all. They might not have used the word Trinity, but they understood the concept. We should be troubled when people say that the doctrine of the Trinity is an invention of the 3rd or 4th century and that Paul would not have recognized it. Never! Think about this statement. Here we have a Jewish man raised to believe that there is one God and who continued to assert that there is one God over and over again in his epistles, and yet this one who believes that there is one God places three persons on an equal footing in a divine blessing. 1 Corinthians 8, 4 through 6, Paul says this, there is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father of whom are all things, and we for Him. A Jewish man might have stopped there. A man who hadn't come to faith in Christ. Paul doesn't stop there. For us there is one God, the Father of whom are all things, and we for Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. Remember his words from 1 Timothy 2.5, there is one God and one mediator between God and man. Our apostle was a committed monotheist, and yet here he has no reluctance in placing three persons, Christ, the Father, and the Spirit together in his blessing. It's not a doctrine of three gods, but of one God who is three persons, the Son, the Father, and the Spirit, working together to bring about salvation to his people. The doctrine of the Trinity is profound and ultimately beyond our comprehension. Our feeble human minds, even apart from sin, cannot know God as he knows himself. We may only know him as he reveals himself to us. The great fourth century Bishop of Constantinople, Gregory Nazianzus, expressed this beautifully in his Sermon on Baptism, which he preached on January the 6th, 381. Those of you who were here yesterday will remember I mentioned this sermon during the lectures yesterday. But listen to how he speaks about the Trinity. These are some of the most beautiful words theologians have ever written. He says this. No sooner do I conceive of the one than I am illumined by the splendor of the three. No sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the one. When I think of any one of the three, I think of him as the whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking escapes me. I cannot grasp the greatness of that one so as to attribute a greater greatness to the rest. When I contemplate the three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the undivided light. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that wonderful? When I think of the one, I'm illumined by the three. When I think of the three, I'm brought back to the one. This is our God, and here is the doctrine of the Trinity. One in three, and three in one, expressed in the clearest language possible by an inspired author of a New Testament book. Maybe you remember the words from Chapter 2, Paragraph 3 of the Baptist Confession of Faith. Some of my favorite words in the Confession. It says this, The doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God and comfortable dependence on Him. The foundation. Do you want communion with God? Do you want comfortable dependence upon Him? To delight in His beauty and His splendor? To enter into a sense of the eternal majesty of His holiness? then you must do so contemplating the Trinity, one in three and three in one. Paul understood this and expressed himself in this way to this troubled Corinthian church. The Holy Trinity, blessed forever in majesty and glory, works as one to bring us to eternal life. Now, we must be careful here, because it might be easy to misunderstand the apostle. He does not teach us that these three things, grace, love, and fellowship, are works of the persons of the Trinity acting as individuals. To think this would be to contradict other places in scripture, which speak, for example, of the grace of God, or the love of Christ. The acts of God are always one. They are united. Paul's point is this, from one perspective, it's only by the grace of Christ that the Corinthians may know the love of God and the blessing of the Holy Spirit. And this may be why the order of the persons here differs from the traditional form. We normally speak of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We sang about those three in that order in the hymn Holy, Holy, Holy. That's how we usually think about this. But Paul reverses the order. It's the Son, then the Father, then the Spirit. We come to the Father through the Son. Here, Paul is seeking to help the Corinthians out of their troubles. They need the grace of Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by him. It's great, isn't it? It's a wonderful Trinitarian blessing. Now consider with me the portions, the parts of Paul's blessing, because each person of the Trinity is presented. First, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We encounter the full name and title of our Savior, just as we noticed back in chapter one, verse two. Charles Hodge helps us to understand this usage. Think about the three terms, Lord, That word, Lord, speaks to us of his divine nature. He is really and truly God. All that may be said about deity is properly attributed to him. He is infinite, eternal, unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. When we read that word Lord, that's what we're to think of. This one who is described to us is God himself, followed by the name Jesus. Jesus describes his human nature. This is the name announced to Joseph by the angel of the Lord to be given to the baby who was born of the Virgin Mary. It speaks to us of his true humanity. As the Chalcedonian definition says, he has a rational soul and body coessential with us according to his manhood. Think about it like this. Everything that may be said about man as man, about us as humans coming forth from the hand of God may be said about him. He is just like us, body and soul, mind and will. He is a man, a human like us that is depicted to us in his name, Jesus. The third name, Christ. Christ speaks of his office. He is the long-promised anointed one, the prophet, priest, and king, the only mediator between God and man. Listen to this excerpt from what is known popularly as the Athanasian Creed. It just dawns on me that we had the Nicene Creed, I just quoted from the Chalcedonian definition, and now we'll hear from my favorite one of them all, the Athanasian Creed. Listen to this. For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man, God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds, and man of the substance of his mother, born in the world, perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting, equal to the Father as touching his Godhead and inferior to the Father as touching his manhood, who although he is God and man, yet he is not two, but one Christ." Wow, what wonderful words those are. Truly God, truly man, one Christ. These words beautifully express Paul's doctrine. You see, not only do we have a profound Trinitarian blessing, we also have a benediction that is based on high Christology. The idea that our Savior, in the fullness of his identity, Lord, he's God, Jesus, he's man, Christ, he's the Messiah. In the fullness of his identity, he is the one who brings grace to us. He loves his church, and he lavishes grace on her. Grace, favor, unmerited love flowing from Jesus Christ, the Savior, to his needy people. Grace isn't a physical commodity, but it's an essential spiritual virtue, and it is the fruit of the mediatorial acts of our Lord freely granted to us. Imagine for a moment with me. Paul is on his knees before God. He's asking for copious measures of grace to come upon the Corinthians from the God-man, from the Eternal One, who humbled himself and became man in order to redeem us. And then, pronouncing this to his sinning, selfish friends. You see, there's a real sense in which this benediction is a prayer. It is really and truly a pronouncement of blessing, but from Paul's perspective, it's an invocation of blessing. It's quite simple, but it's amazing when you contemplate it. Grace is to the life of the believer what water is to the soil. Without it, there is no growth. There's only barrenness and emptiness. I lived for 20 years in Southern California. That's where I met your pastor long ago. It's a semi-arid climate. If you don't irrigate, you get dust and dirt and brambles and weeds, that's all you get. I remember leaving the neighborhoods and going out into the country where there was no irrigation. It wasn't the prettiest place in the world when you get out there. For the Corinthians, with all their troubles, Paul seeks the blessing of grace, showers of life-giving grace, because grace is the doorway to the future. It's the blessing that is necessary to bring forth good fruit, to bring about repentance and forgiving one another and growing in love. And it comes directly from the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who gives grace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. The second element of the benediction is the love of God. When the New Testament authors use the word God, frequently, maybe even commonly, they refer to the Father. And that is clearly the sense that is here. The grace which comes from Christ helps us to know the love of God. As we said before, citing John 14, 6, no one comes to the Father but by Christ. This is not about our love for God, but rather it's about his enormous, unbounded love for us. The Corinthians desperately needed to grow in their love for God, that's true. But that's not the point here. Grace alone allows the Corinthians to know something of the fullness, of the depth, of the love of our Father in heaven and what he has for his saints. And brothers and sisters, this is true for us as well. Our God is not a deity far away and hidden from us. Our God is overflowing in love. As John says, God is love. He has given us Christ through whom we come to him. How do we describe the love of God? It's beyond parallel and it's above comparison. Paul speaks about it in spatial terms in Ephesians 3. Listen to this. That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints. Ready? How are you gonna comprehend with all the saints? What is the width and the length and the depth and the height to know the love of God which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Dear friends, we cannot fathom its depths, we cannot reach its heights. It extends in every direction to the horizon and beyond. David speaks some beautiful words in Psalm 139 when he speaks about God. Listen to this. He asks the question, where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? Then he begins to speak in spatial terms about the fact that God is always present. Verse 8 of Psalm 139, if I ascend into heaven, you are there, up. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there, down. If I take the wings of the morning, that's the eastern horizon where the sun rises, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea in Israel, that's the western horizon where the sea is present to the west side of Israel. If I ascend into heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you're there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me. and your right hand shall hold me." Up, down, east, west, the God who is love is there wherever we go. We can never be free from the presence of the love of God. So here in 2 Corinthians 13, 14, this simple phrase points to this amazing reality. God is love. And His love brought to us by and demonstrated in Christ's grace is to be known. And as the Corinthians bathe in the love that God has for them, they will be transformed and they will love like Him. He turns them to God's love. The scripture asserts that we are to delight in God's love. Jesus prays to the Father for us because the Father loves us. The Holy Spirit sheds the love of the Father into our hearts. This is a marvelous truth and it's an enormous blessing. What better benediction could be offered that all would know the love of God? But Paul's not finished. the communion of the Holy Spirit, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Here's the third person of the Holy Trinity, the sometimes neglected Holy Spirit, who is an essential part of this wonderful benediction. Think about this with me. Now we must be careful to understand properly the Apostle's intent It's possible to read this statement as if it says, the fellowship we have with each other because of the Holy Spirit, but that would miss the point. That's not the point that Paul is making. In the other two cases, the grace of Jesus Christ and the love of God, Paul's desire is that the Corinthians would know blessings that come from heaven, Christ's grace and God's love. And I would argue that the same kind of idea is present here. The koinonia, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, is the blessings brought to us by God's Spirit. It's the fullness of spiritual favors lavished upon us by the Lord. It's the fruit of the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Everything else. that the Spirit does in making us like Christ and preparing us to live in the heavenly world of love in the presence of the glorious triune God. Remember some of the benefits granted to us. The Spirit reminds us of the words of our Lord. He works among us to glorify the Savior. He sheds the Father's love into our hearts. He bears witness with us that we are God's children. He seals us, assuring eternal life. He's a down payment of the heavenly world. He anoints us like priests so that we may worship. He is the Spirit of adoption. We could go on and on and on. This is the communion of the Holy Spirit. Knowing these realities ever more fully. And this too is a great blessing. Who can quantify it? Who can give it a value? It's immeasurably valuable. It's eternally valuable, infinitely valuable. But we still haven't reached the end. Paul's not done yet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of God, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. We must not miss this last short phrase. And there are two comments that are appropriate. The first, grace, love, and fellowship are not theoretical concepts, merely ideas to contemplate. They are spiritual realities that have a source and a destination. They come from God to women and men like you and me. God's purpose is that they will be known and experienced by us. Grace, love, and fellowship. But secondly, Consider that Paul includes the entire church in his benediction. These are the people who had rejected him, but troubled him, but followed others, and yet he pronounces these words on all of them. No one in the church is excluded from Paul's desire to know grace and love and fellowship. Paul knew their names. He could remember their faces. He could remember their voices. He had been among them at least 18 months. And as he writes, I wonder if these memories were in his mind. Remember grace and love and communion in this blessing are not formalities, but on Paul's part as a godly leader, his genuine desire for them. No one who names the name of Christ was excluded from these words of life and health and growth. Brothers and sisters, they are intended for all. They're wonderful words, aren't they? Grace and love and fellowship. They're not the results of our good works. They aren't the reward for good behavior. Remember who these Corinthians were and how badly they had treated the apostle. Grace, love, and communion go before anything we do and serve as the only basis from which our obedience, repentance, and faith may flow. Let me put it starkly. There's no law in this verse. It's all gospel. It's all good news. You see, reading the book may be like overhearing a difficult conversation, but the ending is wonderful, isn't it? In spite of all the problems among the Corinthians, despite their terrible behavior toward him, Paul, in Trinitarian terms, with the full title of the Lord Jesus Christ, speaks of the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and pronounces this blessing on the whole church. Now I ask myself the question, how do I apply this text? What is the application? I can't do so in the traditional way. If you're like the Corinthians and need to repent of something, then do so. But there aren't three methods by which you can put grace and love and fellowship into practice. There are no steps to take in order to receive these gifts of divine mercy. Without the Lord's presence and power, we are nothing and we can do nothing. And even our duties must be based in his being and in his acts, in who God is. For the foundation of our communion with God and comfortable dependence on him comes from knowing him and receiving his gospel. So I ask you, do you believe the gospel? Do you know the God who is full of mercy and compassion and love? Who promises to his people grace and love and communion? Who grants repentance so that you may turn from your besetting sins? Now there is, I guess, one application that we should make. This benediction gives us hope. Hope for everyone. Hope for you, hope for me. Whatever your personal struggles may be, a besetting sin that cripples your Christian life, difficulty loving a difficult person, your tendency to be critical of others, self-centeredness, anxiety and fear, difficulty with assurance, etc. Whatever your problem may be, let me say this, the triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit, is full of grace and love and His fellowship. The remedy for your difficulty begins here. Receive His grace. Every time you face temptation, teach yourself to meditate on his love and remember the presence and power of the Holy Spirit who is given to you. And when you fall prey to temptation, when your anger expresses itself or you covet the things of others or any other sin, come back to this verse. When your assurance is weak or lost, contemplate these truths, salvation, Forgiveness come by grace because of God's love and through the promised work of the Holy Spirit. This is what Paul wanted the Corinthians to remember and it is his message to you. Apply it to yourself, whatever your struggle may be. So I urge you to go from this place blessed by the Lord. Remember that it all starts with him. And as we learn this lesson and look to him for life, we will see our need for repentance, as did the Corinthians, and we will turn away from our sins. Our faith will grow deeper and more profound. We will love him because he first loved us. So brothers and sisters, look to the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ. Put these things into your life. The final word of the book is our final word as well. So be it. Amen. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, how we thank you that we need not work up from below these blessings, but they are bestowed by you in love and kindness upon us. We need the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need the love of God. We need the fellowship of the Spirit. All of us need this. Every one of us present today need these things. And so Lord, we hear the voice of the Apostle Paul, we read these inspired words, and we ask you to make them true in our lives. Increase our grace, deepen our love, let us know your love. May the fellowship of the Spirit cause us to bear the good fruit of his power in our lives. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.