Well, let us turn to this short
chapter that we've read in 2 Corinthians 13 and for a while I want to
direct you to the final verse of the chapter, the final verse
of the Epistle, what we are familiar with as the Apostolic Benediction. How Paul's ministry at Corinth
was greatly challenged. There were those who were false
teachers, even calling themselves apostles, false apostles. And
how he has to demonstrate to them time and again the truth
of his own divine apostleship. And as he concludes, so he pronounces
these words in verse 14 of this chapter. The grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the
Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen. Familiar words, we often
use them of course at the close of our worship as a benediction. And here we see that this blessing
very much centers in the doctrine of God, the doctrine of the Trinity. We have the three persons mentioned,
the Lord Jesus Christ, God, that is the Father, and the Holy Ghost. And these persons, of course,
are co-eternal and co-equal because there is one God. As we read
back in Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, Hereo is our Lord, our Lord,
or the Lord our God is one Lord. He is one. He is undivided. He is indivisible. Remember there
is also that blessing that we have in the Old Testament that
the priest of Aram had to pronounce over the tribes of Israel at
the end of Numbers chapter 6. God commands Moses to speak unto
the priests that they pronounce that blessing the Lord bless
thee and keep thee the Lord make his face to shine upon thee and
be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon
thee and give thee peace and sometimes we might use that as
a benediction at the close of our worship it's the what we
call the Aaronic blessing but interestingly there of course
We have that threefold name, the Lord's, the Lord's, the Lord's
in those verses. And then, afterwards, God says
that by doing this they are putting His name upon the children of
Israel, His name, name in the singular. God's name then is
Lord, Lord, Lord. And of course here in the New
Testament we have the fullness of that revelation. Who are these
three Lords? Well, it's Jesus Christ, it's
God the Father, and it's the Holy Ghost. And of course, that
is the name in which all Christian believers are to be baptized.
As the Lord commands his disciples at the end of Matthew 28, baptizing
them, he says, in the name. And again, we observe it's in
the singular, not the names, plural. But as back in that sixth chapter of Numbers,
where those three lords bear the name of God, so that name
in which believers are to be baptized is Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost. And so, let's consider each of
these distinct persons as I said before us in this familiar verse
of Scripture. First of all, the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ. How are we to understand that,
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, we do well if we consider
the name that is set before us here, and we see that it is a
threefold name, and it reminds us of who the Lord Jesus Christ
is. It's the divine name that He
bears, but there's also a human name and there's also an official
name here. First of all, he is spoken of
as the Lord and the word that's used is one that is brought over,
I suppose, from the Septuagint version of the Old Testament
Scriptures. This would have been familiar with the Lord himself,
it would have been familiar with his apostles. Certainly, a man
like Paul, with his great learning, would have known what the Septuagint
was. It was a Greek translation of
the Old Testament Scriptures. And sometimes the apostles do
make reference to it in their writings here in the New Testament.
And the particular word, the Greek word that we have here,
is the one that throughout that Greek translation is constantly
used in rendering the Divine Name, Jehovah, Lord, in capital
letters as we see time and time again there in the Old Testament. The Great I Am That I Am. And so here, In this name we
are reminded that Jesus Christ is in fact the Lord God Himself. He is the Great I Am. And remember
how that is revealed to us in remarkable ways, particularly
in the Gospel according to Saint John. We have those I Am statements. And we have remarkable statements,
time and again there in John 8. At the end he says, verily,
verily, before Abraham was, I am. Or before ever Abraham was, he
was the eternal God. And again, there in John 8.24,
he says, if you believe not that I am, ye shall perish in your
sins, because the pronoun there, the word HE in our authorised
version is in italics, it's been introduced in the translation,
literally He did say to them, if you believe not that I am,
if you believe not that I am the Lord Jehovah, you shall perish
in your sins. Here then, we see that this one stands at the beginning of this
benediction. He is God, but he is God manifest
in the flesh because we also have here the human name. This was the name that was given
to him at his birth, the name Jesus. As the angel tells Joseph
quite specifically, they shall call his name Jesus. Oh, Joseph
was troubled because his betrothed was with child, and yet she had
not been unfaithful, she was with child of the Holy Ghost,
she was a virgin, bearing a son. And this son was to be called
Jesus, that's the human name. The great mystery of godliness,
that God was manifest in the flesh. in this person, even the
Lord Jesus. And we took not upon him the
nature of the angels, but he did take upon him the seed of
Abraham in the language of Hebrews, chapter 2. For as much then as
the children were partakers of flesh and blood, we are told
he likewise took part of the same. And how real, how real
that human nature was. All we read of him are in the
days of his flesh, the days of his flesh when he had offered
up prayer and supplication with strong crying and tears unto
him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that
he feared. In his piety, literally, in living
the life of faith, though he were a son, yet learned the obedience
by the things that he suffered. And here at verse 4 we're told
how he was crucified through weakness. What a remarkable statement
is that. But the reality of his human
nature, Hart says, with strength enough and none to spare, when
he came to make that great sin-atoning sacrifice. He is that one that
John constantly affirms to be the son of man remember how he
opens his first general epistle that which was from the beginning
which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which
we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life
how he is contending there so much for the reality of the human
nature there were those who were denying it and John in his writings
sets forth the Deity of Christ but also the truth of His human
nature. The language there in 1 John
4, 3 Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come
in the flesh is not of God and this is that spirit of Antichrist
whereof ye have heard that it should come and even though already
is in the world. The spirit of Antichrist denies
the truth of the Incarnation the truth of God manifest in
the flesh, the reality of the Lord's human nature, a true man,
a real body and a real soul. We have then His divine name,
He is the Lord, we have the human name, He is Jesus, but then also
we have that official name, He is the Christ. He is the Christ. What does Andrew say to his brother
Simon? We have found the Messiah, which
is by interpretation, the Christ. Having seen the Lord Jesus, that's
what he does, he goes and tells his brother straight away, we
have found him. Oh, this is the promised one, the Christ, the
anointed. He whom God hath sent, says John,
speaketh not his own words, but speaketh the
words of God, because God giveth not the Spirit by measure, unto
him. Oh, what a glorious effusion
of the Spirit comes upon him as he begins his public ministry,
as he comes forth out of those waters of baptism, and the Father
speaks from heaven, and the Spirit descends upon him in the form
of a dove. He is the anointed, he is the
Christ, and he comes to do a specific work. It's the grace, the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, it says. Oh, what is that? Well, the law was given by Moses.
Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. It is the good news,
it's the glad tidings. What does the law do? The law
brings condemnation. The soul that sinneth it shall
die. The wages of sin is death. Whatsoever things the law saith,
it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped, and all the world guilted before God." Which stops
the mouths of men does the law. It's a ministry of condemnation
and death. But what is the Gospel? Well,
we read in Romans 115 of the gift by grace which is by one
man Jesus Christ. What grace it is! You know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet
for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might
be made rich. That's what Paul says to this
church at Corinth. He was in the form of God, he
thought not robbery to be equal with God, yet he makes himself
of no reputation, takes upon him the form of a servant, and is found in fashion as a
man, and then what does he do? He's obedient, and he's obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. Obedient in his life,
obedient in his death, he comes to save sinners. He's made of
a woman, he's made under the law. This is the one, this is
the grace of God demonstrated in his person and in his work.
Well, what does Paul say here in chapter 5 in verse 21? "...he
hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him." These are truths
I'm sure that we're familiar with. It's the Gospel. It's Jesus
in the sinner's stead. It's Jesus honoring, magnifying
the law for the sinner by the obedience of that sinless life.
that he might be to his people the Lord, their righteousness,
Jehovah. He said, can you? But not only living, dying, not
only honoring the Lord in terms of all its precepts and commandments,
but honoring it also with regards to all its dreadful penalties. He bears the punishment. And
so he dies, the just for the unjust, to bring the sinner to
God, the grace the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see it
in the person. He is the God-man. We see it
in the great work that he came to accomplish, to fulfill all
righteousness, and to save his people. But then also here, this
blessing is spoken of in terms of the love of God. the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion
of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen. And we understand this second clause in terms of God
the Father it's interesting because in Colossians chapter 2 and verse
2 we have a similar statement really to the benediction Paul
at the end of that verse writes of the mystery of God, and of
the Father, and of Christ. The mystery of God, and of the
Father, and of Christ. He said up there some reference
to the Holy Ghost, but it's the Holy Ghost who we say is spoken
of as God. And here it is the Father who
is spoken of as God. but it might also be the Son
who is spoken of as God. The three divine persons are
one God, and what is God? Well, John says God is love,
and there's a sense in which we have to recognize that love
is more than an attribute of God. We speak of God's attributes. He's the Holy One, He's righteous,
He's just, He's merciful, He's gracious. that God is love but I say again
that's more than an attribute really because love in the Trinity
is the very nature of God how there is a loving relationship between the
three divine persons if we might so speak The Lord Jesus Christ is spoken
of there in John's second epistle as the Son of the Father in truth
and love. He is God's Son in love. The
Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, and the
Father and the Son love the Holy Spirit. If there was no object
outside of God, He would still be the God of love. He doesn't
need anything outside of himself to love, because love is his
very nature. It's that relationship in the
doctrine of the Godhead. And so the denial of the Son,
as the eternal Son of God, is also the denial of the Father.
John says it, "...whosoever denies the Son, the same hath not the
Father." but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also
because they are one in love and then there is the Holy Ghost
who is spoken of by Christ as the Comforter when he is come
says Christ whom I will send unto you from the Father even
the Spirit of Truth which proceeded from the Father he shall testify
of mine O God, is love each of the divine persons. But here
we read specifically of the Father, the love of the Father to sinners. And how is the Father's love
revealed, demonstrated? Well, God so loved the world,
we read, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Here is the love of God, that
He gives us that is daily His delight, even His eternal Son. Again John says there in 1 John
4.10, here in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved
us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin. All
God's great love to sinners, that He sends His Son, His only
begotten Son, to be the propitiation. What
does that mean? It means that God is going to
pour all His wrath, God is angry with the wicked every day, and
He's going to visit upon the Son of His love all that wrath
that was the sinner's just dessert. Oh, this is the love of God in
that unspeakable gift that He does not withhold His Son, even
His only begotten Son. And of course, as God is love,
so God is also sovereign. If God were not sovereign, He
would not be God. It is so elementary, isn't it?
Sovereignty belongs to Him. He is the one who is omnipotent,
all-powerful. He is the one who rules and reigns
over all his creatures. And as God is a sovereign, so God's love
is also a sovereign love. And how the children of Israel
are reminded of that, there in Deuteronomy 7 and verse 7, The Lord did not set His love
upon you or choose you because you were more in number than
any people, for you were the fewest of all people, but because
the Lord loved you. and because he would keep the
oath which he had sworn unto your fathers after the Lord brought
you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house
of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Why was it that
God did this? It was nothing outside of himself. It wasn't anything in this people. It was because the Lord loved
you. And as he loved them so he had given his oath of course.
Jacob have I loved. He thought of, I hate it. He
had given his oath to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob. Because
the Lord loved you, because you would keep the oath which he
had sworn unto your fathers. All this is the sovereign love
of God. He says to his people, yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love. And here is the real source of
all the blessings that come to the sinner. that love of the
Father, and He loves them from all eternity, whom He did foreknow,
we're told, He also did predestinate. It's behind God's predestination,
that knowledge, you see. It's not just a foreknowing of
events, a foreseeing of events. It's the knowledge of love, it's
the intimacy. They're God's people. He has
set His love upon them. therefore he predestinates them
or to be conformed to the image of his son the love of God and
then also we have the communion of the Holy Ghost there's a ministry also of God
the Holy Ghost and it's spoken of here in terms of communion
or fellowship How the Holy Ghost must come and make that sovereign
love of the Father, that saving work of the Son, a blessed reality
in the soul of the sinner. The sinner must be born again,
he must be born again by the Holy Spirit. How the Lord declares
the necessity of that. Why those whom the Lord came to save, by
nature they're dead in trespasses and sins. Verily, verily, says Christ,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
How necessary it is. How the Spirit is the one who
comes, it's the Spirit who reveals these things. God hath revealed them unto us
by His Spirit, says the Apostle. It's the Spirit who does this
wondrous work, this remarkable work. It's there, isn't it, in
the first epistle to this church that Paul speaks of that blessed
ministry of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And that 10th verse,
God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what
man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which
is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth
no man, but by the Spirit of God. Or no man can say that Jesus
Christ is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. He goes on here, The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them. because they
are spiritually discerned. All that blessed work then, that
gracious work that comes by the Holy Ghost. And now, as He is God, so the
Spirit is sovereign. The Spirit is as sovereign as
the Father, as sovereign as the Son. And when Christ is speaking
of the necessity of that new birth, does he not intimate something
of the sovereign working of the Spirit? When he makes that comparison
with the wind, there in John 3,8, the wind, he says, "...bloweth
where it listeth, thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst
not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth." So is everyone
that is born of the Spirit. Or there are those circuits,
those circuits of the wind. spoken of in the opening chapter
of the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon says the wind goeth toward the
south and turneth about unto the north it whirleth about continually
and the wind returneth again according to his circuits men
might be able to harness wind power but they cannot control
it it's God who is sovereign In nature, and God is sovereign,
of course, in grace, and the Lord uses that analogy, as it
were, when he speaks of the blessed work of the Holy Spirit. He is
the Sovereign Spirit. He works here, he doesn't work
there. Oh, but when he works, what a work it is. He brings
that one who is in a state of alienation and enmity, he brings
that one even to God. and into fellowship with God. And cast abroad the love of God
in that sinner's heart. But see here how He is also the
Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost, we read. The
communion of the Holy Ghost. Now, He is the one who has inspired
the Scriptures. Those holy men of God, says Peter,
they spake as they were moved by the Spirit of God, the sovereign
Spirit of God, moving them, carrying them along in their writings. They're not writing their own
words, in that sense they're writing the blessed words of
God, by the inspiration of the Spirit. All Scripture is given
by inspiration of God. and as he is the one who has
inspired the word so he is the one who sovereignly applies that
word of truth and so the believer is brought to delight in scripture
in its totality he delights in the promises all those exceeding
great and precious promises but the believer must also delight
in all the holy precepts David says, Oh, I love thy law. It is daily my delight. That's
what the believer does. He loves the Word of God. He
wants to submit to it. He wants to understand it. He
wants to be really thinking the very thoughts of God after him.
He wants to walk in obedience to all God's commandments. He
wants to know the sanctifying ministry of the Spirit. Doesn't
the Lord pray for His disciples? Sanctify them through Thy truth.
Thy Word is truth. This Word of the Spirit. However,
the Spirit comes as the One who has authored it and He is the
One also who must apply it. And He is the One who comes,
of course, to reveal the Incarnate Word Himself, even the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ speaks of that coming?
Well, the Lord speaks of it in those familiar discourses, those
three chapters in John 14 and 15 and 16. The Lord says there
in chapter 16, verse 13, O be it when he, the Spirit of truth,
is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak
of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak.
And he will show you things to come, he shall glorify mine. For he shall receive of mine,
and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath
are mine. Therefore said I that he shall
take of mine, and shall show it unto you. And we have the
three persons here again, you see, the things of the Father
given to Christ, revealed by the Spirit. Now we need the Holy
Spirit when we come to the Word of God, be it in our own reading,
be it under the preaching of the Word. It's all in vain, but
for the blessed work of the Holy Ghost. And he comes to testify
of Christ. He is the Spirit of Christ. And he's the Spirit of prayer. Oh, he's the Spirit of prayer.
he helps us doesn't he? in all our infirmities and now
it's in prayer that we know this blessed communion the communion
of the Holy Ghost it's through Christ that we have access by
one spirit onto the Father the language that Paul uses there
in Ephesians 2 and verse 18 he's speaking of course of Jew and
Gentile, we both he says the converted Jew, the converted
Gentile that middle wall of partition broken down Gentiles now know
that grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that love of God and
they are brought then into the fellowship of the Gospel and
through Christ they all have access and how do they have access?
By one Spirit and access unto the Father. Oh,
we know something then of God in all the fullness of His triune
being as we come to pray. As we come to pray we know Him.
And Paul of course concludes these words with the Amen. Oh,
he desires that this grace, this love, this communion be with
all these believers. And he ends with the Amen. And
of course when we were looking some while ago last year, sometime
last year, we looked at the contents of the Lord's Prayer and spoke
at the end of the significance of the Amen. All Christ Himself
is the Amen, the faithful and true witness. And when we say
our Amens, do we not express all our trust, all our confidence
in Him? Well, the Lord help us to pray
and as we pray to know something of the blessings of this fellowship,
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion
of the Holy Ghost. Be with you all. Amen. Well let us now sing our second
praise. It's the hymn 1127. The tune
is Blockley 304. There's a title, Prayer, and
it's prayer, of course, that embraces the three divine persons. Eternal Father, Lord of all,
by heaven and earth adored, regard thy guilty creatures called who
would revere thy words. And then the aberrage goes on
to address the Lord Jesus, Son of God, Most High. Holy Ghost, who dost reveal the
secret things of grace. Let's sing then this hymn. I've given you 1127,
haven't I? And we've got a tune for 1128.
I'm sorry about that. Sorry, Heather. My fault.