Alright brethren, let's turn
to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. And we'll read verse 3. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort." Now, I don't intend to preach
verse by verse. I mean, take a verse at a time
through the whole 2nd Epistle to Corinthians. But these first
three verses or verses that we tend to read over quickly. And
we really should not do that. There is a lot in the opening
verses of these epistles. And right here we have titles
that are given to God. And there is a wealth of instruction
and a wealth of edification to be had in learning something
about these titles. So we're going to take our time
and look at these and see what we can learn from them. Now,
our praise, that's what blessing means, our praise of God our
Father, is because He's revealed Himself to us as the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all
comfort. Now that's why we praise, that's
why we say bless God. Now each phrase here or each
title here is going to make up our divisions. Now let's begin
first of all with this phrase, blessed be God. Now the italics
words were put in there by the translator. It is bless God,
praise God. Now in many passages those words
are used in prayer and they are used to
signify praise. That's what it means. I'll give
you an example. Psalm 34 1 says, I will bless
the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. A lot of times in Scripture,
when it says something like, I will bless the Lord at all
times, the next phrase is going to say that same thing, just
in a little different way. So He said, I will bless. And
then He said, His praise. So that's the same. To bless God is to praise God. Now, when we praise Him, we're
adoring Him. We're praising Him. We are acknowledging
that God Himself is our salvation. We are acknowledging Him in all
our thoughts and in His excellency. And we are acknowledging Him,
His person. All believers praise God our
Father Himself. We praise Him Himself. We praise Him as the source of
all spiritual blessings also. And that is the other thing.
God is Himself the Blessed One. The Scripture says in Mark 14,
61, the high priest, when he was questioning Christ, he said,
Art thou the Son of the Blessed? Capital B. Art thou the Son of
the Blessed? That's God's name. The Blessed. So we praise Him for His person,
but we also praise Him for His works. Psalm 145.10 says, All
thy works shall praise thee. It could be, All thy works bless
thee. God's works bless Him. They bless Him. They praise Him
because they declare that none but God could do the works He
does. None but God could create the world. The world being created
is a work of God. That work praises God. He alone could do it. And God
alone could save His people and make them an entirely new creation
created of God. Just like He created the world,
He creates His people. altogether new, and none but
God could do that. His works praise Him. So the
nature of this prayer is not supplication, it's not praying
to God and making a petition, but it's ascribing praise to
God for being God Himself the Blessed One and for the blessings
of His works. That's why we praise Him. Now
let's go to this second word here. This is the title we come
to which shows us the object of this praise a little more
fully. He says in verse 3, Blessed be
God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as sinners
in need of grace, we bless Him, we praise God as the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if we don't know God, or
if we know God apart from Christ, there's no knowing God apart
from Christ. Let me just say it this way.
Apart from Christ. God is a consuming fire. That's
all He is to us. That's our only relation to Him
apart from Christ is a consuming fire. Now, listen carefully.
Anybody here who meets God outside of Christ, And any of us could
meet God any time now. We are going to all die. And
we don't know when we are going to die. And we could meet God
at any time. And all who meet God outside
of Christ, that is without faith in Christ, will meet God in all
our sins. And we will meet God as a consuming
fire. So we don't just So we don't
come to Him apart from Christ. We don't praise Him apart from
Christ. Nor do we praise Him as the God and Father of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And let me tell you what I mean
by that. He is that. He is the God and Father of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But if that's all He is to us,
then we have no acceptance with God and we have no ability to
approach God. If we just know Him in knowledge,
in an understanding that we've gained just by pure head knowledge,
that He is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, then
we don't have any acceptance with God. We don't know Him.
We can't come to Him. We acknowledge Him as the object
of the saints' praise as God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now we got a relation to Him. You see that? He is the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we praise Him as God, the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are praising Him for blessing
us with all spiritual blessings. When Paul wrote to the Ephesians,
we know this, we hear it a lot, but he said in Ephesians 1.3
the same thing. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And here is why he praised Him.
Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. What are those all spiritual
blessings? What are they? What did He bless?
What are all the spiritual blessings that He blessed His people with
in Christ in eternity? Let me give you Romans 8. You
listen to these words. They are in past tense. Listen
to this. Whom He did foreknow, whom He
did foreordain, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called, past tense. We're still in eternity. And
whom He called, them He also justified, past tense, in eternity,
in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And whom He justified,
them He also glorified. In other words, like we saw when
Christ spoke to Moses, He declared the end from the beginning when
He blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ in heavenly
places. There is a work that declares
He is God. None but God could declare His
people to be foreordained, predestinated, justified, called and glorified
and it be done. It was all done in eternity in
Christ because His will can't be frustrated. It can't be undone. What God has determined shall
be brought to pass. So we praise Him as God, even
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for all spiritual blessings
given us in Christ in eternity. And then turn with me now to
2 Peter. Wait a minute. Let me see. I'm having
trouble tonight. I think it's 1 Peter. Nope. Yeah, 1 Peter. 1 Peter
1. 1 Peter 1 and look at verse 3. Again, we have the same word. 1 Peter 1.3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time." So when we praise Him as God, the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are praising Him for salvation
already accomplished. We praise Him as God the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ for blessing us with all spiritual
blessings in eternity in Christ. And we praise Him as God the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for coming here and accomplishing
that salvation in full for all His elect. Now, we are just waiting. He is keeping us by His power
And we're just waiting for that salvation that's ready. It's
ready. It's ready to be revealed in
the last time. So we praise Him for that. So that we have God, even the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Praise God, the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at this next title back
in our text, 2 Corinthians 1. He is the Father of mercies. The Father of mercies. Praise
God, the Father of mercies. Now God is plenteous in mercy. The scriptures tell us that.
Psalm 86 verse 5 says He is plenteous in mercy. He gives His mercies
to His people in plenty, in abundance. We just read that. He is abundant
mercy. But it means even more than that
when we read the Father of mercies. It means that's His very nature. It means all His mercies toward
us originate from who He is. He is the Father of mercies. He's the Father of mercies. Now
when Scripture speaks of someone as the Father, it means He's
the author. He's the first cause of whatever
it's talking about. I'll give you an example. Jabal.
Jabal is called the father of such as dwell in tents. He was the first to dwell in
tents. He and his family. Jabal. He's
the father of such as dwell in tents. He's the father of nomads
or shepherds that dwell in tents. And then it speaks of Jubal.
You know, we talk about jubilation. That comes from Jubal, his name,
but it also comes from the Jubilee that God spoke of. But Jubal,
he is known as the father of all such as handle the harp and
the organ. Because he was the first to handle
the harp and the organ. He is the author of that musicianship. So for this cause, that is why
the Scriptures speak of God as the Father of different things.
We read in another text, He is the Father of spirits. That means
He is the begetter of spirits. That means if you are born of
God, born again of God, you have a new spirit in you because God
is the Father of spirits. He is the first cause. That spirit
is in you because God put it in you. It's a new spirit He
promised to put in His people. And then the Scripture tells
us He's the Father of lights. And He's the author or the Father
of all gifts. That's because all light and
all gifts come from God as the originator, as the source of
all light and all gifts. And so that's what our text means
here when it says He's the Father of mercies. It means all mercy
originates with God. It all comes from God. He's the source of mercy. Now
there's at least three reasons that God is called the Father
of mercies. At least three reasons He's called
the Father of mercies. Number one, As God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, He is the Father of all our covenant
mercies. And all our mercies are covenant
mercies. Everything God does for His people,
He does in mercy to His people. He does in grace to His people. And everything that comes to
His people comes by covenant mercy, by covenant grace, by
covenant grace. We are going to see a little
bit later in the Scriptures. He is going to show us here in
this second epistle to the Corinthians. That text I love so much that
all the promises of God, that is the covenant of God. All the
everlasting covenant promises of God are yes in Christ and
they are amen in Christ. It is because He shed His precious
blood for His people. When He gave us the wine, remember
He said this is the New Testament in My blood. And I say to you
often that He wrote it in His blood. And it is sure. It is signed by Him in His blood
as it were. That makes it sure. That makes
it certain. So He is the Father of mercies because all our mercies
are covenant mercies. Sure in Christ our Lord. And then two, God is called the
Father of mercies to signify that God delights to show mercy. He delights to show mercy. Look
at Micah chapter 7. Chapter 7. Right after Jonah, right before
Nahum. Micah chapter 7 and verse 18. Listen to this. Who is a God like unto thee that
pardoneth iniquity? and passeth by the transgression
of the remnant of His heritage. That passes by the transgression
of His elect, His elect remnant, those that are His inheritance.
Who is a God like that? Why does He do that? He retaineth
not His anger forever because He delighteth in mercy. He delighteth in mercy. Sometimes,
you know, we get to speaking about God in such a way that
His mercy and about His saving His elect and about Christ laying
down His life just for the sheep. And I don't want anybody to ever
get the impression that God is anything but a delighter in mercy. God delights to show mercy. Everything
God is doing, He is doing to show mercy so that He can show
mercy justly. He pardons iniquity. Those that
come to Him and cast all their care on Him will find that God
will pardon. And not only pardon, He's made
complete atonement. He's totally put away the sins
of His people forever and justified His people so thoroughly that
He doesn't remember our sins anymore. If you can come to Him,
it's because God's already shown you mercy. He delights in mercy. And if you come to Him frightened,
terrified, afraid that God is going to turn you away, afraid
because you see your sin, you know you are nothing, you know
you deserve nothing, you know you don't deserve for God to
do anything for you. You come to God and I guarantee
you what you will find. And when I say come to God, I
mean just believe on Him. have this resolve in your heart,
I am putting all my hope, all my trust in God, the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. I am trusting Him. If He saves
me, it will be all His doing. And if I am damned, it will be
because I am damned trusting Him alone. But I am going to
trust Him only. And that is what I mean by coming
to Him, trusting Him alone. And I guarantee you, if God If
you do that, God will delight to show you mercy. He will have
shown you mercy and He will show you mercy and all you will ever
find from it is God delighting to show you mercy. He is the
Father of mercies. Now we are not saved by mercy
singular. It is not mercy singular. We
are saved by mercies plural. Mercies plural. All the things
God does for us to save us are His mercies. And there is a lot
that God does for His people to save us. That is all God's
mercies. And we are saved by His mercies.
Listen to Lamentations. Well, turn there with me. Lamentations
3.22. Lamentations 3.22. Listen to this. Lamentations 3.22, it is of the
Lord's mercies. Plural, mercies. It's of the
Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Because His compassions,
plural, His mercies fail not. They are new every morning. Great, plentiful in mercies is
thy faithfulness. That's our God. It's mercies,
plural. He delights in mercies, plural. And then thirdly, the third reason
that He's called the Father of mercies, it applied especially
to the case of the Corinthians. That's why, one of the reasons
that God uses that title when speaking, writing to the Corinthians.
It applied to them. And as we see how it applied
to them, we see how it applies to us. See how it applies to
us. Did that not kick on back there?
Kick it up and see if it will turn back on. When it kicks off,
it doesn't come back on for some reason. He is the Father of mercies.
It applied to the Corinthians. And it applies to us just like
it applied to the Corinthians. It was God the Father's mercies
to send Paul to them who spoke faithfully to them, wrote faithfully
to them and spoke faithfully to them. And it's of God's mercies
that He sends faithful ministers to us to minister to us. That's
a mercy. It was of God's mercies to rebuke
them for their faults instead of just drawing away from them
and not having anything else to do with them. We just read
that. It's of His mercies that we're not consumed. His compassions
don't fail. You know, we'll be merciful to
somebody for a little while to a point. And then our compassions
fail. Not God. Those that He has set
His mercy on, He will not fail to show mercy unto. And so He
didn't pass by them and just withdraw from them when they
were in all that sin we read about in the first epistle. He
came to them through His Apostle, through the preaching of the
Word, and He rebuked them like a father chastens his child whom
he loves. And so, when we're rebuked through
the Word or we're rebuked by the Word of a brother or sister,
we ought to know this, brethren, that be thankful because it's
God's mercies to do so. And then it was God's mercies
that caused Him to convict them by that Word. We could hear the
truth spoken all day long. You know, there's folks who sit
and hear the Gospel and they hear it and hear it and hear
it and it has no effect on them. If you're convicted in your heart
and brought to believe on Christ, that's of His mercies because
He sanctified that word to your heart. That's a mercy of God.
And then it was God's mercies to bring them to repentance and
make them right their wrong. That's God's mercy to make us
see where we're wrong and to turn from it and go after God. So we praise God as the Father
of mercies because everything in our salvation, beginning and
end, is of His mercies. of His mercies. They all originated
with God and they all continue with God. Psalm 51.1, we pray
this, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness,
according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out
my transgressions. And then we keep praying to God
saying, withhold not thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let
thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me. And
He does because He delights to show mercy. Now let's go to this
last title in our text. The God of all comfort. The God of all comfort. Now we're going to look more
at this next time. But here's what I want us to
see. Since God is the Father of all mercies, God is the Father
of all comfort. And again, it means all comfort
comes from Him. He's the source of all true comfort. I'm talking about true comfort.
Now it says here that He's not the God of some comfort, but
He's the God of all comfort. All true comfort comes from Him.
He said, "...as one whom his mother comforteth, So will I
comfort you. You know, there is not a tie
like the tie between in this earth. There is not a tie, a
bond like that between a mother and a child. That tie, that bond
is incredibly strong. When my children were young and
even now, if they hurt themselves, the first one they are going
to run to is their mother and she comforts them. every time
she comforts them. Can you ever think of seeing
a child who got hurt and did not run to their mother for comfort? That's unusual and not natural
if they do, but most children run to their mother for comfort.
And God said, ìAs one whom his mother comforteth, so will I
comfort you.î But you know the sad truth is when we need comfort,
we usually turn first to our vain comforts. Weíre that unnatural
child by nature. We turn to our vain comforts.
But listen, God is the God of all comfort, real comfort, true
comfort. Go to God for comfort. Comfort
of perfect righteousness. Comfort of being justified. Comfort
of being made holy and accepted. Comfort of being kept. Comfort of never being forsaken. That's comfort. That's real comfort.
That's where real comfort is. And all this comfort is in our
Lord Jesus Christ. When we think of comfort, we
think of soothing. And it does mean that, but it
means a great deal more than that. It means strength, is what
it means. God is the God of all comfort. And His comfort is our strength. And His strength is our comfort.
He is able to effectually comfort us by strengthening us. Listen to this, Psalm 119.50.
This is my comfort in my affliction. This is my comfort in my affliction,
for thy Word hath quickened me. That's when you have comfort,
when His Word quickens you. You know sometimes when you're
in affliction and the Word don't speak to you, and you can't hear
the Gospel, and nothing comforts you, but then God quickens you,
and you're comforted by the Word. That's the comfort we're talking
about here, the strength we're talking about here, and it's
all in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I want you to consider this.
God our Father is able to justly be the Father of mercies and
the God of all comfort to us because Christ endured the cross
on our behalf. And when He was on that cross
in place of His people, God showed Him no comfort and God showed
Him no mercy. Because He stood there or hung
there on that cross as the surety and substitute of His people.
He hung there as the one who was made sin for His people. The one made a curse for His
people. And by that, I mean He stood
there, hung there, and God justly poured out unyielding justice
on Him as the one guilty sin-bearer representing all His people. He was that one man, that one
who had sinned, that one who had been made sin, that one guilty
one is who God poured His wrath out on. And he poured it out
on him, and as he did so, he said, Awake, O sword, against
him, against the man that is my fellow, and saith the Lord
of hosts, and smite the shepherd. And this was a smiting. This
was a smiting. And it was a terrible smiting. Now you know when the Lord, you
think of what the Lord endured at the hands of men. I mean,
it was, you see, the depravity of the human heart and what Christ
endured at the hands of men. nailing his hands to that cross
with spikes and his feet with spikes and beating him with those
whips that had metal and nails and things in them and you see
the stripping him naked and spitting on him and putting a crown of
thorns on his head and falsely accusing him and mocking him
and all the just on and on and on and on it went. And in all
of that he opened not his mouth. He didn't say a word. But whenever God forsook him
on that cross, he opened his mouth and he cried out, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? When the God of all comfort
and the Father of mercies withdrew from him, all together withdrew
from Him. Talk about a mystery. Talk about
a mystery. I'll probably be accused of preaching
mysticism because I said that. But talk about a mystery. God
forsaking God. And yet He declared why it had
to be so. He said, but thou art holy. But I am a worm. and no man. That's who He owned
Himself to be hanging on that cross. He vindicated God for
forsaking Him in justice as He bore the sins of His people.
That's the faithfulness of His heart to vindicate God and the
justifying accomplishment of His bearing our sin on the cross
while He bore our sin. That's the positive and the negative. vindicating God and bearing our
sin in justice. Made a curse for His people.
And since He satisfied divine justice for His people, now,
since God showed Him no comfort on the cross, and since God showed
Him no mercy on the cross, now, justice and mercy have kissed
in harmony. And now God can only show and
will only show His people all comfort and all mercies. I want to close with this and
I want you to remember this and don't ever forget this. Our cup
is sweet because our Savior's cup was bitter. God communes
with us because He forsook our substitute. God has enlightened
His people because Christ endured darkness for us. Now this is
why. This is why we praise God. Is it not? Is this not why we
praise God? This is why we say, bless God,
praise God. Even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Don't you see now what emphasis
is put on the fact that He says, even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ? Don't ever forget too, that one
who was bearing that on the cross suffered tremendously. But don't
forget this, that one who forsook him was his father. And yet he
could not deal with him as a father at that moment. He had to deal
with him as a judge. That's why we say, praise God, even the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the
God of all comfort. This is why we have His mercies
and His comfort. He figured out a way to give
us that comfort and those mercies and do it justly. And it's in Christ. I pray He
make you call on Christ and cast all your care on Him if you have
it. I mean, He's nothing but good. He's nothing but good.
He delights in mercy. You're doing nothing but cheating
yourself if you don't call on God, if you don't cast your mercy
on Him. It's not hurting Him. It's not going to hurt His people.
It's not going to hurt His kingdom. It's just going to hurt you.
I pray God make you see that and cast your care on Him and
believe Him. And you that have, now you see
why we praise God. This is why we He's the God of
all comfort and the God of all mercy because He's the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.