We have this little phrase that has become a part of the ordinary exchanges of our lives. It's the phrase, good things come in small packages. Good things come in small packages. Things like engagement rings. Good thing in a small package. When I was a child and my grandfather, my mother's father would visit us. He would often ask me if I had a penny, just a little penny, and I'd say, oh, yes, yes, yes, grandfather, I have a penny, and I'd run back to my room and I'd get my penny, and I'd give him my penny and he'd reach into his pocket and he'd pull out a good thing that came in a small package, a silver dollar, and we would exchange the penny for the silver dollar. It's a great, great thing, you know, for a grand son to have that kind of relationship with his grandfather and for the grand father to give something of real value in a surprising way in a small little package. Our collect for this morning, something which we all prayed, reads this way. Blessed Lord, who caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning, we've got a good thing in a very little package in these last four verses of Second Corinthians, and we could even put a different sort of a spin on that little phrase and say, some very big things come in a very small package, lots of pastries come in a very small package. Lots of pastries and commentators have observed that we make a great mistake when reading the letters of Paul, we make a great mistake if we pass over the greetings, thinking that we need to sort of get that stuff out of the way and get onto the meat of the letter, the real substance of what it is that the Apostle has to say, but we make an equally great mistake if we come to the end of Second Corinthians and just sort of pass over these last verses, a kind of a farewell, a kind of a closing that's incidental to the rest of the letter. Martin Luther in his commentary on Galatians talks about these two words in the third verse of the first chapter, grace and peace, grace to you and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostle says to the Galatians, and Luther says that the whole of the Christian faith can be summarized in those two little words, grace and peace. For grace, for gives our sins and peace, comforts, our consciences, comforts our consciences, the whole of the Christian faith and two little words, pregnant with meaning, packed with significance, good things, big things coming in small packages. We have in a similar way, a sort of a summary of the whole of Christian theology in the last four verses of Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. We make a great mistake if we pass over it because it's a wonderful encouragement to the people of God. And the whole thing, these last four verses, this one last little passage is shot through, shot through with joy. The leaven in these last verses is the leaven of joy and rejoicing. Whenever Paul says, finally, that's a heads up, you know, you're supposed to sort of pay attention. He's bringing things to a conclusion. He says that here, finally, and he addresses these Corinthians as brothers, even though he's had hard things to say to him. He calls them brothers, finally, brothers. Here's my last word. Here's the last thing that I want to say to you. So pay attention. Sometimes when he says, finally, he's only, he's like any preacher. He's only halfway through his sermon and he's got this long digression and he meanders and wanders all over the place as he does in Philippians. He says, finally, in verse 1 of chapter 3, he's only halfway done. But it's always a heads up. It's always a kind of an exclamation point. It always calls your attention to something very significant. And here the Apostle says, finally, and in the New King James, it is rendered farewell, but the word derives from the same word that is used in Philippians where the Apostle says, finally, rejoice in the Lord. And really what he's doing here is admonishing these Corinthians, encouraging these Corinthians to rejoice. He's admonishing them to joy. That Philippian letter, as you may know, is referred to as the epistle of joy. The letter of joy was written from prison, but it is shot through with admonitions to joy. How is it that the Apostle in the midst of his circumstance can know joy and can encourage the Philippians to rejoice? How is it that the Apostle in this particular letter can bring the whole thing to a conclusion by admonishing these people to rejoice? Finally, brethren, be encouraged to rejoice. Well, to me, it's not difficult to imagine that the Apostle puts a period at the end of the last sentence in the passage just before verse 11. The authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction, period. Then he sets his pencil down and he takes a step back from this letter. I don't know if he did this. This is where you stop taking notes. I'm sort of reading between the lines here. But it's not hard for me to imagine him placing that period, setting his pen down, thinking about these Corinthians, whom he loves, those whom he calls brethren here, those whom he had called saints in the first chapter of this letter, those whom he has addressed difficult and hard words, those whose life together is characterized by all kinds of strangeness and oddity. There are divisions, there are wrong headed theological beliefs, there's all kinds of difficulty. But he puts his pen down and when he makes his last statement, he wants to encourage them in the midst of it all and in the face of it all to rejoice, to know joy. Now what's the basis? Upon which? What's the reason for which these people may experience joy? It's because of who they are. It's because of who they are in the face of all of the craziness and the Corinthian church. In the midst of all of that craziness, these people are Christians and the source of their joy, the reason for their joy, the foundation of their joy is God Himself, the triune God of creation and redemption. The one who is identified in the 14th verse, the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father and the Holy Spirit, one of the most mysterious and difficult affirmations of the scriptures that you'll ever wrestle with, how the one God can exist in three persons, each sharing all of the attributes of divinity, each sharing all of the glory and wonder and blessedness of the Godhead. How does that happen? All analogies fail. If you use the sun, it breaks down. We talk about the sun as we see it, the source of heat. We talk about the rays which emanate from the sun and which warm us and we talk about the warmth itself, our experience of the sun. And we use a picture like that, an analogy like that to try and get at the reality of the Godhead, but it breaks down, you see, because the Godhead is indivisible. He is not made up of constituent parts. He is not the sun as he is observed in the heavens objectively, which can be differentiated from the rays which make their way to the earth, which can be differentiated from the warmth which we feel. It's helpful maybe, but it breaks down. In the Godhead, all of the persons of the Godhead are a unity and possess all of the attributes and glory and blessedness of divinity. But that God, great in the heavens, glorious above all things, mysterious beyond our abilities to comprehend. Herman Bovington, his book The Doctrine of God, begins his book this way. Mystery is the fundamental element of dogmatics. All he's saying is, sooner or later, as you deal with God, you will become aware of two things. God is God, and you are not. He is infinite, and the finite can never circumscribe the infinite. But that great and glorious God is the source of your joy. And why you see the source of your joy? What Paul does here in this benediction is describe for us how it is the God of creation, becomes for us the God of redemption. The triune God is a gracious God, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, be with you. Now remember who it is who he's addressing. He's addressing all of these Corinthians who've made a mess of their lives and made a mess of their life corporately. And he says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, be with you. The unmarried favor, the smile of God, be upon you. It's what grace is. It is unmarried favor. Grace is the activity of God reaching down to me in the midst of all of my craziness, in the midst of my mess. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is Christ reaching into my tomb and doing for me and with me and in me and to me what he did for and in and to Lazarus. He lays hold of me. He raises me up. He delivers me all of it, not because I deserve it, not because I merit it, but because he is pleased as a gracious savior, a merciful savior to do it. But there isn't any other explanation for it. It is unmarried favor. It is the smile of Jesus Christ upon me. It told you about my five days in North Carolina. I mean, Barb has heard me say this, but we haven't really talked it through. There was a certain reluctance which I felt about coming back from North Carolina, not just because of the beauty of the autumn. But because every morning, I got up before dawn and read about the gospel and let Martin Luther preach the gospel to me. For five straight mornings, I heard these sounds ringing in my ears. You are a rescued and redeemed and forgiven sinner. And the work of Jesus Christ is great enough for all of your sin passed. And the work of Jesus Christ is good enough for all of your sin in the future. You've heard me say it enough times. That's not pretend about tomorrow. You're going to screw up tomorrow just like you screwed up yesterday. And this is big enough for it all. And to finish reading Luther and then to go for a long walk in the mountains of North Carolina and preach to myself and marvel at this fact that it's all been washed away. And the slate is completely clean and nobody ever again will write anything on that slate except righteousness. Folks, that made my heart sing and I didn't want to leave North Carolina because I didn't want to leave the joy of undistracted contemplation of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. But it isn't just this grace which rescues and forgives. It is a grace which is I've suggested also clothes me in righteousness. It isn't just that the slate has been wiped clean. It's that there is another word on the slate. And that word is righteous, righteous, righteous. I said to the folks this morning, I'm a prince. Not just the prince of a guy. I'm a prince. Road in the righteousness of Christ regaled in the splendor of his kingly righteousness. That's the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and not only forgiven, but I'm robed and clothed. The popper has become a prince. Not only am I a prince, I am the adopted son of Almighty God. In other words, by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, I have been introduced. I have been brought into the environment of the love of God. And he is now my father. Did you pay attention to what it was that you confessed this morning? What blessed, blessed words. I love the Heidelberg Catechism. I love Westminster, but what I love about Heidelberg is how pastoral it is, how it comforts me, how it encourages me, how it speaks the gospel to me. Listen to this answer. What do you believe when you say, I believe in God, the father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, that the eternal father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth with all that is in them, who also upholds and governs them by his eternal counsel and providence. Everything that you see around you as far as the eye can see, as far as any telescope can see, as far as any satellite with a mission sent out into the farthest reaches of the universe, as far as any of that can go or see, all of it has been created by the finger of Almighty God. And by the word of His power, He sustains and upholds all of it. It's what caused David to marvel in Psalm 8. Lord, when I behold the heavens, when I explore the expanse of it all, who am I that you are mindful of me in its vastness and greatness. The vastness and greatness of God is put on display, and as one commentator puts it, Bob mentioned this to me a few weeks ago, omnipotence loves an encore. And when you go and you behold the heavens, that is omnipotence taking a bow again for us all to celebrate and applaud. But that great God who speaks it into existence, who upholds it, who sustains it, who in a certain sense has plenty to do is more than just the God who sustains what He has created. He is for the sake of Christ, His Son, my God, and my Father. And I trust Him so completely that I have no doubt that He will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul. I have no doubt. Why do I have no doubt? Because I have seen not only His omnipotence on display, but I have seen His grace on display in the Lord Jesus Christ rescuing me, and if He has done that for me, He will do all things necessary for me. He will stop at nothing to complete what He has begun. Moreover, what evil He sends upon me in this troubled life, whatever evil He sends upon me in this troubled life. What a great affirmation there is in that statement. You know something about trouble, don't we? Don't we all? Doesn't each one of us know something about trouble? It isn't as though God sends trouble into these otherwise tranquil and undisrupted lives. We know enough about life to know that it's disrupted and it's troubled. But whatever it is that comes into our lives to rock us, it is all in the hands of God who orders all things for His glory and for our good. And He will turn it to my good, the Catechism says, and then there are these two wonderful phrases. For He is able to turn it to good, being Almighty God, and He is determined to do it, being a faithful Father. Oh, meditate on those things. You see what the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ does? It brings us back into the environment of the love of God. It restores us to communion with God. It results in our adoption so that God is not only creator and sustainer, but He is loving and determined and able, heavenly Father. And then there is the communion of the Holy Spirit, the fellowship, the common sharing, the coynanie of the Holy Spirit. What is it that you've been brought into? You have been brought into the environment of the triune God of heaven and earth. You have been introduced into that fellowship. And that fellowship now is your possession. Whatever the Holy Spirit is, you possess. Whatever the kingdom is about, you possess. Whatever it is that Christ has accomplished by His work on the cross, whether it is forgiveness or imputed righteousness or transformation from one degree of glory to another, for all of the riches of the fullness of His Father's kingdom, it is yours. We share in it that is the fellowship, the coynanie of the Holy Spirit. I came back from North Carolina saying to myself, somehow, somehow, I've got to get the people of St. Paul's to help one another. Get out of the madness of this rat race in which we find ourselves so that they can preach these things to one another, so that they can help one another to revel, to revel in the grace of God, in the blessedness of having God as Father, in the communion and common life and sharing of the Holy Spirit. What's the source of this joy? It is the triune God of redemption and His gracious work in my life. I tell you, it's a wonderful thing to walk the country roads of North Carolina and remind myself that I'm forgiven and I'm free and righteousness is written across my forehead. Righteousness is my garment, adoption is my standing and the heavenly glory is my home and place of dwelling and that God, this triune God will not rest until all of that fullness is mine. That makes me a happy camper. That gives me joy. And I want to figure out a way for us as a congregation to help each other, like a pig wallowing in slap, to revel in the grace of God and to meditate upon these things and think about these things and glory in them, sorry for mixing the metaphors. So the source of this joy is the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father and the Holy Spirit, this one great and glorious triune God present with Jesus at His baptism, an evident in numerous ways from the beginning of the Bible and throughout. There isn't just a source of this joy, there is also the practice of joy. It's interesting that the Apostle in verse 11 after encouraging these folks to rejoice and he summarizes all of this with this trinitarian benediction affirming that it is this God who is the source of our joy. He also, right in the heart of this whole thing, encourages these folks to practice something, to practice joy. He admonishes them, he exhorts them, become complete, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace. That is the practice of joy, brothers and sisters. And it's interesting that Paul uses in the 11th verse the same word which he uses in verse 9, where in verse 9 he affirms by praying he affirms that God must make you complete. Verse 9, do you remember it? I pray also that you may be made complete. It's an acknowledgement that there's something about us which we can't fix. The word is used to describe what a physician does when a physician sets a break. When I was about eight years old I fell out of a tree. What was I doing in the tree? I was doing what all eight year old boys do, climbing it and I slipped and I fell and I landed on my back with my left arm behind me and shattered my elbow on a brick. I couldn't do anything to fix my elbow. I was powerless to correct the problem. I needed something to somebody to do something for me which I was powerless to do for myself. I needed somebody to set the break. The elbow was shattered. I couldn't even put it in a cast. It was so badly broken. I had to wear it in a sling. I needed somebody to fix it. I went to the hospital, this doctor stuck this bottle of ether under my nose and I was gone. It was lights out. I was history. I was at his mercy and he brought all of his expertise and wisdom to bear in my life to fix something I was powerless to fix. I can't bring myself back from death to life. That requires an invasion of the supernatural. That requires the grace of God in Jesus Christ as I said raising me in the way that Lazarus was raised from his tomb. I'm powerless. I require the God of heaven and earth to do a work of recreation in my life like unto the work which you did in creation at the first. The Apostle praised that that work will continue until we are made complete. But here he uses the same word and he admonishes us to become complete. Is there a contradiction here? Is there a conflict? No, there isn't. You know there isn't. This is the heart of practical theology. Side one of practical theology is God doing a work in me to set what is broken, to fix what I cannot fix. Part two is me submitting to the counsel of the great physician. It is me following his program of rehabilitation so that I might become complete. That is what practical theology is all about. It is about God working in me what gets worked out in my life. It is about God initiating and beginning and then sustaining something and it is about me cooperating in that process. You know the biblical word for that. It is sanctification. It is growing into conformity with the image of Christ that is becoming more holy. That is the practice of joy becoming complete. Do I always submit to the counsel of the physician? I don't and maybe you do. I don't. Sometimes in fact I tell the doctor to take a hike. Sometimes I tell him I'd rather do it my own way, thank you very much. And I find that I hurt myself when I do that, don't you? Don't you find in retrospect that it is terribly unwise for me not to submit to the program of rehabilitation which the physician of my soul has constructed for my good, my well-being. It just isn't smart to resist the advice of the physician. Does it get me kicked out of the family? No. Does the physician say I'm tired of messing with you, find another doctor? No he doesn't because he's not just the doctor he's my loving Heavenly Father and he is committed to bringing the completion of the work that he's begun. And you know what he does? When I say thank you very much, I'd like to do it on my own. You know what he does? He hens me in. He backs me into a corner where I'm forced to come to terms with myself and return to the physician and say, I blew it. Now let's get on with it. No, I don't always submit to his advice. No, I don't always heed his counsel but he certainly has his ways of getting me back on track and that itself is a demonstration of his great love for me. He's determined to fix what is broken. He calls upon me to pursue the regimen, to heed his counsel as he sets before me this program of rehabilitation. That's the practice of joy. He says pursue being complete. He says be of one mind with one another. Cooperate in this together work together in it. Live in peace. Get rid of these divisions. Just get rid of them. There isn't rocket science here folks. It is the Nike commercial. No mystery. Just do it. Just do it. There's the grace of God. We look to the grace of God to be enabled to do it. But our part of the thing is arm in arm working together, laboring with one another. Hours is to seek to be complete brought into conformity with the image of Christ. And we are in this together. The enemy is not here. I remember so vividly. Seeing the movie gone with the wind. Years ago this is after I became a Christian. I used to take girlfriends to see it before. I was a Christian fact on successive weekends. I took girls to see. But after becoming a Christian I remember seeing the movie and you know there is that scene where the Confederate army is leaving Gettysburg and they're retreating back to the south and they're bruised and they're hurt. And some of them are badly wounded and some of them are walking with crutches and some are carrying two or three rifles. They're an army and some of them have been hurt. But they're comrades in arms. And one particularly poignant scene has a young soldier who is exhausted from the battle and exhausted from the retreat collapsing on the road. And this old veteran soldier with this long beard who is full of strength and wisdom puts his rifle down and picks up his comrade and carries his comrade back to a place of safety. That's the church. The difference of course is we're not an army in defeat. This is not a retreat. So Paul encourages us to become complete and for us to be doing it together and then there is a promise. There is a promise of further joy of greater joy. If you do these things then the God of love and peace will be with you. I am struck by CS Lewis observation that the promises which are attendant to the preaching of the gospel are unblushing, unblushing about the greatness and wonder of the reward which is associated with embracing the gospel. Here is one of those unblushing promises who doesn't want to know the love of God who doesn't want to know his smile, who doesn't want to know the peace which passes understanding. The Apostle says if you do these things, if you pursue these things then the God of love and peace will be with you. It's a carrot dangled before us and so there is a promise which is associated with this admonition, become complete, labor, encourage one another, help one another in the midst of it, be united and as you pursue it and as you do it together, the God of love and peace will be with you and he will confer upon you his love and peace. This only creates more joy. It's a symbiotic sort of relationship which characterizes our obedience and joy, they feed one another as we pursue it as we labor diligently for it. The word gives this love and peace which produces more joy which only incites us to pursue more and more the completion that he wants for us to know in Jesus Christ. The Apostle puts down his pen and says in effect remember who you are, no joy, practice, joy and there is the promise of greater joy for those who will be diligent. God gives us grace as a family of believers one to this triune God by the work of Jesus Christ to practice what is set before us that our life together might be characterized by joy. Father give us great grace that we might revel in grace. I pray that you would encourage the hearts of your people today by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the communion and fellowship of the Holy Spirit. I pray that you would immerse your people in these things and I pray that as our hearts are encouraged and stirred up we might be incited to pursue this completion which you have set before us, this conformity with the image of Christ, this restoration so that we might know greater joy so that there might be a snowballing among us. And the symbiosis which causes the world to marvel and to ask us what it is that we have. Oh Lord liberate your people and give us great joy. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.