We turn to Deuteronomy chapter 6 this afternoon, Deuteronomy chapter 6 for a Bible reading. We'll be through the Bible today and we encourage you to look up the portions of Scripture, maybe to jot them down, maybe at the back of your Bible or On a piece of paper, we trust that the message will be beneficial and instructive to our hearts today. Maybe not as much application, but yet as much God's word as any other message that we preach. So it's Deuteronomy chapter 6, and we'll read from the opening verse of the chapter. Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments. which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whether ye go to possess it. That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command thee, thou and thy son and thy sons, on all the days of thy life, and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it. that it might be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And I shall bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And I shall write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates, and it shall be, When the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good things which thou fillest not, and wells digged which thou diggest not, and vineyards, and olive trees, which thou plantest not, and thou shalt have eaten, and be full. Then beware, lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Amen. And we end at verse 12. Let's unite in prayer together. O God, our loving Father, we come before the Word of God, and we are reminded of the goodness of God to us. For surely, O God, what Israel experienced in their generation and as they entered from the land of bondage and entered into the land of promise, how God had provided so many blessings that they did not deserve and they did not work for. It was all of grace that they found houses to live in and vineyards and olive trees. and all the many blessings. that thou didst bestow upon them as a people. And surely, O God, thou hast given to us multiple blessings. Thou hast opened thine hand and given us so many things, soundness of mind, health and strength, food on the table, a loving family, a gospel-preaching church, the word of God in our own mother tongue, a relative peace and tranquility within our borders. And, Lord, thou hast been gracious to us And yet, Lord, we must admit that we have forgotten Thee. We have, O God, done what these individuals were told not to do. Beware, lest thou forget the Lord thy God. O Lord, help us to remember Thee. Help us, O God, to give to thee what we ought to give to thee, not only the tithe and offering, but also our lives. We give ourselves first to thee, and then having given thee in our entirety, then we believe, O God, that you've got every other part of us. And so, Lord, come and challenge us through thy word. Help us. to see our God once again, behold Him in all of His greatness, and in the complexity of His being, help us not to lose the wonder of who our great God is. We come to Thee, help us by Thy Spirit, and open our understanding, for we pray our prayer in Jesus' precious and holy name. Amen. For a number of weeks, we have been away from our series on the doctrine of God, but we want to take up again that subject matter today again. Last time I spoke on the doctrine of God, I spoke about the being of God, and as we spoke about God's being, we did think about God being one who is a solitary being, one of whom there is none like in heaven or in earth. We thought about him being a self-existent being. He needs no one to preserve him or to give him life, but he exists in and of himself, and we thought about him being a self-sufficient God. Though I didn't say it back then, let me add another to that list. He is a self-satisfied God. He needs no one. He needs nothing outside of himself to find any satisfaction. He is eternally satisfied in his own being. He is self-satisfied. We also thought about how God is a living being. We serve the living and the true God, and we also thought about him being a simple being, a he who is uncompounded, he who is indivisible. But I also mentioned on that occasion that our God is a triune being, but we didn't have time to make any comment on that truth. Well, today and over the next number of weeks, with the exception obviously of next Lord's Day being Children's Day, I want to simply present, if at that is at all possible, the biblical truth that there is a trinity of persons within the Godhead. There is God the Father, there is God the Son, and there is God the Holy Spirit. I must admit as we come to this truth on the Trinity, we are coming to one of the most mysterious and obviously one of the most difficult doctrines contained within the confines of Holy Scriptures. It is a truth that has perplexed the minds of the greatest theologians and Christian apologists down through the ages of church history. It is one of those doctrines that we must receive by faith, for its complexities are so vast that only a divine mind could fully comprehend all that is entailed in the relationship that exists between God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Just listen to what a number of men said about the study on the doctrine of God. Thomas Watson, the great Puritan, he said, the Trinity is purely an object of faith. The plumb line of reason is too short to fathom its mystery. But where reason cannot weed, their faith must swim. The sacred doctrine, though it be not against reason, yet it is above reason. John R. R. Smith was another Puritan and he said this about the Trinity. He said, it is a mystery which my faith embraces as revealed in the Word, but my reason cannot fathom. A. W. Tozer said, to meditate on the three persons of the Godhead is to walk through the garden eastward into Eden and to tread on holy ground. Our sincerest effort to grasp the incomprehensible mystery of the Trinity must remain forever futile. J.C. Ryle, he made this declaration about the Trinity, this truth is a great mystery. Let it be enough to receive and believe it, and let us ever abstain from all attempts at explanation. It is childish folly to refuse assent to things that we do not understand. We are poor, crawling worms of a day, and at our best know little about God and eternity. Suffice it for us to receive the doctrine of the Trinity in unity, with humility and reverence, and to ask no vain questions. Let me give you a final quote from Watson. God is but one. Yet there are three distinct persons subsisting in one Godhead. This is a sacred mystery, which the light within man could never have discovered. As the two natures in Christ, yet one person is a wonder, so three persons, yet but one Godhead. Here is a great deep, the Father God, the Son God, the Holy Ghost God, yet not three gods, but one God. The three persons in the Blessed Trinity are distinguished but not divided, three substances but one essence. This is a divine riddle where one makes three and three makes one. Our narrow thoughts can no more comprehend the Trinity in unity than a nutshell could hold all the water in the sea. Brothers and sisters, if men like Watson and Arrowsmith and Tozer and Ryle couldn't comprehend the mystery of the Godhead and Trinity, I doubt whether you or I will ever come to a greater knowledge than these men ever attained to. And yet, though our mental and our spiritual capacities be limited, That does not mean that we're never to ponder or to meditate upon this great doctrine. A doctrine that I would have to say, upon the whole of Christianity, it either stands or falls with it. And so these messages on the Trinity are most important. For upon it, the truth of it. Christianity stands or falls. Now in one sense, the doctrine of the Trinity is a mystery, hard for us to comprehend. However, we can understand something of its truth by summarizing the teaching of the scriptures concerning the Trinity in three simple statements, just three simple statements. Number one, there is one God. Note Deuteronomy 6 in the verse number 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. There is but one God. Statement 1. Statement number 2. There are three distinct persons within the Godhead. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thirdly, each person is fully God. It does not mean that God the Father is one-third God, God the Son is one-third God, God the Holy Spirit is one-third God, each of those three making one complete God. No! Each person is fully God. And therefore, each person has the attributes and the characteristics that we have been speaking about in recent days. Each one is infinite, each one is eternal, each one is unchangeable, and we will see that over the next number of weeks as we think about the deity of the Son and the deity of the Holy Spirit, but that's for a different day. Today, I want us to look at the subject matter of the Trinity in three ways. I want us to consider the doctrine of the Trinity biblically. I want us to think of the doctrine of the Trinity historically, and then I want to close by thinking about the doctrine of the Trinity redemptively. The first thing then we want to do is consider the doctrine of the Trinity You see, with every doctrine that is presented from this pulpit and from the Church of Jesus Christ, the doctrine of the Trinity must have its foundation in the Scriptures of truth, if it is to be believed and if it is to be received. Now, there are those who reject the doctrine of the Trinity, and they do so on the grounds that the word Trinity does not appear in the Bible. Now, that is true. We never read of this word Trinity in the Bible, but that does not mean, though the word is not found, that its truth is not found. Because there are many truths in God's precious word that we know of, in the church of Jesus Christ, and though they're not mentioned by the names by which we know them, their truth is still found. For example, the virgin birth. That statement, the virgin birth, is not found in scriptures, and yet we believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. Another example is eternal security. We would use that statement many times within the church. We believe that a man, once genuinely saved, a woman, once they're genuinely saved, are eternally saved, they are eternally secure. That phrase is not found in the scriptures, yet its truth is taught. I give on to them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand, that he's able to keep that which I've committed on to him against that day. Verses of scripture that teach of the eternal security of the saints of God. Another example is atheism. The word atheist, the word atheism does not appear in the Bible. But what does Psalm 14 verse 1 tell us? It tells us the fool has said in his heart there is no God. And so this argumentation that the word trinity doesn't appear in the Bible and therefore we must throw it out as a doctrine, it comes and it's seen to be empty, that argument is seen to be groundless by those who forward such a lesson or such a teaching. Now we don't have time today to consider every scripture that brings to us and presents to us the doctrine of the Trinity, but let me give you a number of passages that speak of the truth of the Trinity implicitly, though the truth or the term is not used itself. Turn to Genesis chapter one. I think I've maybe shown this to you before, but let's turn to Genesis and the chapter number one, the very first verse of the scripture. Very interesting that God wants to establish something. The very opening words that we have within the revelation, the special revelation of God's word. We read there in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Now if you look at that, you may think, well, where is the Trinity to be found in that verse? Well, the word God is in the Hebrew Elohim. I am is the end of that word, I am, Elohim. A little bit like cherubim. It means there is a plurality, more than one. There's more than one God that has been spoken of here. We could literally read the word, in the beginning, God's created the heaven and the earth. It is a masculine plural noun. Don't be getting confused. But let me say, you need to look at the next word. In the beginning, God's created. Now that word created is a verb. Now you would automatically think if the word God's is a plural, If it is a masculine plural noun, you would think, well, this word created is going to be also a masculine plural verb. The verbs have to agree. You can't say they did is. There needs to be they and are. They need to be put together. They have to agree. There has to be an agreement between the noun and the verb. Well, that's not the case here. Because instead of it being a masculine plural verb, it is a masculine singular verb. Speaking of one who has done the creating. And so while there is a plurality of gods within the Godhead, yet there is one God who has done the creating. In the beginning, gods, a plurality of gods, created as one the heaven, and the earth. You can continue on down there, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God. moved upon the face of the waters. There we have the Holy Spirit. And God said, let there be light. That's the word. And so we have God creating the heavens and earth, the Spirit of God, and God saying, let there be light. And God saw the light. Again, we have a hint, at least a hint, of a plurality that exists within the Godhead, within this particular phrase and within this particular section. But you know folks, Yusuf, sorry the word Elohim points to plurality of persons within the Godhead, but this plurality of persons within the Godhead is enforced once again in the chapter. Look down at the verse 26, and God said, verse 26, Genesis 1, let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Here we see God, he's employing what we know as the language of consultation. He uses the terms us and our. He does not say, let me make man in my image, but let us make man in our image. And in this way, we see that God is taking counsel with himself within the persons of the blessed Trinity in the creation of man. Now, we can follow that thought through. When we think about man's creation and about more than one person being involved, I'll quote these. You can turn to them if you want. There are other passages that present the truth of the triune God being involved in the creation of man. Psalm 149 verse 2, let Israel rejoice in him that made him. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their king. Literally the Hebrew here brings forth the mysterious doctor of the Trinity. This is how it reads from the Hebrew scriptures. Let Israel rejoice in God his makers. In God his makers, plural. Ecclesiastes 12 verse 1, I would know that you would know it. Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth. But did you know that the word creator is Hebrew and the Hebrew is plural and therefore can be translated remember now thy creators. the days of thy youth Isaiah 54 verse 5 for thy maker is thine husband the Lord of hosts is his name and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel the Lord the God of the whole earth shall he be called again the words maker and husband they are both plural once again highlighting a plurality within the persons of the Godhead but there are other references that speak of and use this word us It denotes again a number of persons within the Godhead. Genesis 3 verse 22, we find there, And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become one of us, to know good and evil. Genesis 11 verse 6 and 7, we find this once again, And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one language, and they are all one language, and this they begin to do. And now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language that they may not understand one another's speech. Isaiah chapter 6 verse 8. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Us. Turn to Isaiah chapter 48 and the verse 16. Isaiah chapter 48 and the verse 16. Again there is, as it were, a hint towards the Trinity. Isaiah 48 verse 16, Come ye near unto me, hear ye this? I have not spoken in secret from the beginning. From the time that I was, there am I. And now the Lord God and His Spirit has sent me." This is speaking of Christ. Christ is speaking here. He is the speaker. And we have the Lord God, the Father, and His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, has sent me. Three persons within one particular verse. Now, in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit deemed it necessary He deemed it necessary to stress the unity in God, that there was one God. Remember that first statement, there is one God. And throughout the Old Testament, you'll find that truth again emphasized over and over again. There is one God, one God, just one God. And the Holy Spirit deemed that necessary because of where the Israelites were coming into. They were coming into the land of Cana. Don't forget that those nations were polytheistic. They believed in many gods. And what the Holy Spirit is teaching His people by the Word of God and through the prophet Moses and through other of God's servants is that there is only one God, that they are to be monotheistic. One God of one essence. yet three distinct persons. And so throughout the Old Testament, we find this emphasize that there is one God. But as we enter into the New Testament, we find that the doctrine of the Trinity is more explicitly revealed than in the Old because God's revelation in the Word is a progressive revelation and a climaxes in the coming of Jesus Christ in the world. God's final revelation of himself to mankind. And so as we come into the New Testament, you'll find many other Bible references, a greater number of Bible references with respect to the Trinity. The birth of Jesus Christ in Luke chapter 1 and the verse 35, we find and we can trace the three persons of the Trinity in the proclamation of the angel Gabriel. If you look at Luke chapter 1 verse 35, it says, And the angel answered, speaking to Mary, and said unto her, The Holy Ghost, the third person of the Trinity, shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest, The first person of the Trinity, the Father, shall overshadow thee, therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. The second person of the Trinity, there at the birth, or prior to the birth of Jesus Christ, we have the three persons of the Trinity referred to by the angel Gabriel, Luke chapter 1 and the verse number 35. When Christ came into the world, when he was born and when he grew up and commenced his public ministry. We read at Christ's baptism there was a very clear indication to the Trinity. All three persons were present at the Savior's baptism. Matthew 3 verse 16 to 17. And Jesus When he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and though the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lightening upon him. So we have already two persons of the Godhead, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And though a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, all present at the Savior's Baptism, the father speaks in an audible voice, bearing testimony to the son, who being baptized in the river Jordan, the Holy Spirit then descends upon him in the likeness of a dove. But then whenever we come to the end of Matthew's gospel, the Savior gives his disciples a formulation of words that is to be used in Christian baptism. Matthew 28 verse 19, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Notice that the Spirit of God and Christ does not say that you are to baptize them in the names. He did not say, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the names of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. No, he uses the singular, in the name. One God, three persons. The name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One name because they all are of the one essence. The Savior himself spoke off the three persons in the Godhead when he comforted his own disciples just prior to his death, resurrection, and ascension. John chapter 14 verse 26, we read, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Trinity, whom the Father, there's this first person of the Trinity, will send in my name. Whose name? Well, Christ is the speaker here. And so we have Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And Jesus Christ speaks of them together in this particular verse, John 14 and the verse 26. But Jesus Christ was not the only one who preached and taught of the Trinity. The apostles who followed after the Savior continued to affirm the truth of the doctrine of the Trinity. If you were in our times of prayer, you'll know that we've been speaking about the prayers of the Apostle Paul, and there in 2 Corinthians 13, in the verse 14, he uses one of his great benedictions to the church in Corinth, and within it he alludes to the three persons of the Trinity, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen. 2nd Corinthians 13 and the verse 14. If you're there you can turn to the Galatians 4 and the verse 4 and 6. But when the fullness of the time has come God the Father sent forth his Son, there's the Son, made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoptions of sons and because your sons God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Again, the three persons of the Trinity. If you were with us on Wednesday night past, I wonder, did you notice? Did you notice the reference to the Trinity in the particular passage that we were thinking upon? Ephesians chapter 1 and the verse 17. that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the God of our Lord Jesus, the Father, the Lord Jesus, the Son, give you the spirit, the Holy Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Ephesians 4, the verses 4 to 6, there is one body and one spirit, even as you're called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, Christ, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all." Peter took up the great theme of man's salvation and again reinforced this truth of the divine persons within the Godhead. First Peter and the chapter number 1 and the verse 2, grace be on to you and be multiplied Sorry, 1 Peter chapter 1 verse number 2, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. There we have the Father, the Spirit, and the Son. Grace be unto you and peace be multiplied. And then finally John's testimony, 1 John 5 and the verse number 7. John speaks of the three that bear record in heaven. Who is it that bears record in heaven? For there are three that bear record in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. One God. The Father, the Word, speaking of Christ, and the Holy Ghost. These three are one. Now they are only a few. of the Bible references. But I trust that as we've went through both Old and New Testament that you have seen that the doctrine of the Trinity is presented within the pages of Holy Scripture. Though you may not understand it, though you may not be able to comprehend it, yet we must receive it and believe it as revealed within the Scriptures of Holy Truth, that we believe that there is one God, but that there are three persons within the Godhead, and yet each person is fully God. This is the teaching of Scripture. But consider the doctrine, secondly, and will not be as long, the doctrine of the Trinity historically. As I've said, the early church, they inherited a strong monotheistic belief concerning God from Judaism. The Hebrew Bible confirmed the existence of one God in passages such as Deuteronomy 6 verse 4, Isaiah 45 and the verse number 5. As the church read the scriptures and as they were delivered the epistles from Paul and from others, they were faced with, yes, a belief in monotheism, that there is one God, but they also came up against the teaching within the New Testament that God the Son was divine. and that God the Holy Spirit was divine. And so they started to come, as they moved away from the times of the apostles into the early church fathers, they came to appreciate the triune nature of God, that there is one God but that he exists in three distinct persons. And as the time progressed, there was a Trinitarian consciousness that developed within the church as they noted the relationships between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And some of the early church fathers spoke of the Trinity within their writings. Justin Martyr, he referred to the formula for baptism we have spoken about in Matthew 28. He said that it was evidence for the Trinity. As Polycarp was being martyred for the faith, he said, I glorify you, heavenly high priest, Jesus Christ, your son, and the Holy Spirit. It was Irenaeus who appealed to Proverbs 3 and Proverbs 8. He said, the word, the son, was always with the father, and the wisdom, the spirit, was present with him prior to all creation. Clement of Alexandria, he died in 215 A.D., he stated, I understand nothing else than the Holy Trinity to be meant, for the third is the Holy Spirit, the son is the second, by whom all things were made according to the will of the Father. And then a man by the name of Tertullian, he said, all scripture, or all the scriptures give clear proof of the Trinity. Now there would be those who would say, well, the Trinity did not come to exist as a doctrine within the church until the 4th century. But even with these men, who all came before the 4th century, I trust that you understand that the church did believe in the doctrine of the Trinity prior to the 4th century. But what happened in the 4th century was that there was a controversy within the church. And it was all centered around the deity of Jesus Christ. Was Jesus Christ truly God? Arianism had come into the church. And that which was intended to be evil, God turned it round for good. because the church got together and great and godly men discussed and debated the very truth of the deity of Jesus Christ, and whenever they finished that debate they came up with the Creed of Nicaea, and it asserted this, we believe in one God, the Father Almighty, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, in the Holy Spirit who proceedeth from the Father and the Son." And so in the fourth century there was, we would say, a formal formulation, a formal statement that was drawn up by the church so that down through the ages the true church of Jesus Christ would realize that the Bible teaches that there is a trinity of persons within the one God, or within the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now that doctrine was held to by the church down through the Dark Ages, through the Middle Ages, and right up to the time of the Reformation, and this may surprise you. But whenever the Reformation came, the Protestant and the Roman Catholic churches, they shared in the traditional doctrine of the Trinity, inherited from the early church and advanced by the medieval church. And therefore, the issue of the Trinity never became a point of contention between the Protestant church and the Roman Catholic church. So much so that the reformers, they added very little to what already the orthodox statements had on the doctrine of the Trinity. Now, the churches did diverge on how a man is saved, how a man is justified by faith alone, Christ alone. We know that. We're going through the time. We understand of the Protestant Reformation, we're celebrating it and remembering it this year. But on the doctrine of the Trinity, there was no divergence. The Protestant churches and the Roman Catholic churches believed and continue to believe the doctrine of the Trinity, that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were truly God and the one God of one essence, yet three distinct persons. The Westminster Confession of Faith was formulated in the 16th century, and it really was a bringing together of all that had been learned in the time of the Protestant Reformation, 1647. I believe that the Westminster Confession was drawn up, and that's just from memory. I may stand to be corrected. But they wrote this in their second chapter, section three, about the Trinity. In the unity of the Godhead, There be three persons of one substance, power and eternity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. More familiar to us might be the shorter catechism that gives this answer to the question, how many persons are there in the Godhead? There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. It is not until the modern era of which we are a part of, that the doctrine of the Trinity has become the focus of attack from those within the church and from those without. For example, the doctrine of the Trinity is denied by Oneness Pentecostalism, a movement that started over in 1914 within the Assemblies of God, which challenged the traditional Trinitarian doctrine and insisted that their adherents would be rebaptized. but only in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in the name of the Father and not in the name of the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is also denied by the Church of the Latter-day Saints, the Mormons, denied by Jehovah Witnesses or the Russellites, denied by Christian scientists or science, denied by Armstrongism, Christadelphianism, the Unification Church, Scientology, as well as Islam. Affirm what I've just said, I'll give you just a number of examples that are taken from Mormon publications which affirm the cult's denial of the doctrine of the Trinity. They say, there is an infinite number of holy personages, an infinite number, not three, but an infinite number, drawn from worlds without number who have passed on to exaltation and are thus gods. They also say in the book of Abraham, 4 verse number 3, there is not just one God, triune or not, there are many, many gods. You know the battle for the faith once delivered on to the saints is still a battle that reaches today within the modern era. May we not be found wanting, brethren and sisters? Thank God we're not of the Unitarian Presbyterian Church. We are free Presbyterian. We believe where our forefathers and what they believe. We believe in the three persons within the Godhead. Finally, and very briefly, let's think about the doctrine of the Trinity redemptively. It was J.C. Ryle who said, it was the whole Trinity, which at the beginning of creation said, let us make man. It was the whole Trinity again. which at the beginning of the gospel seemed to say, let us save man. The beginning of creation, let us make man. At the beginning of the gospel, let us save man. God will provide himself a land. a lamb, a lamb slain. And each person within the Godhead is involved in our redemption from sin. Let me say, first of all, that redemption originated with the Father. Ephesians 1, verses 3 through to 6, we're told how God the Father chose us before the foundation of the world, predestinated our adoption to be His children through Jesus Christ. It is the Father, then, who oversees our redemption from beginning to end. The Father originated redemption. Secondly, redemption is brought to fruition in the Son. Everything the Father does for our redemption, He does through His own Son. It was the Son who came into this world. It was the Son who took our humanity. It was the Son who gave complete obedience to the law on our behalf. It was the Son who died for our sins. It was the Son who was buried. It was the Son who rose again for our justification through all that Jesus Christ did in His life and our in His death, our redemption was purchased and secured through the Son. And it is through faith in the Son that we come into a full relationship with the triune God. How do we know God the Father? Through the Son. This is life eternal that they may know Thee, the only true and living God. Jesus Christ whom I was sent, for that we would know the Lord Jesus Christ. But let me say, though redemption originated with the Father and though redemption is brought to fruition in the Son, redemption is communicated to us by the Spirit. It is by the Spirit that we are effectually drawn to the Son in salvation. It is by the Spirit that we're enabled to embrace Jesus Christ by faith as He's offered to us in the Gospel. What did we read on Wednesday night past? That the Spirit of wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of Him and the eyes of your understanding being enlightened by the Spirit. This is what happens in conversion. The sinner's eyes are opened, the blindness of their sin is removed, and by the Spirit's work within the soul, the heart is regenerated and brought to exercise saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And having saved us, having redeemed us from our sin, the Spirit continues to work. He continues to bring our redemption and will do so, He'll bring our redemption to its final climax when we are presented before God, faultless and blameless, to stand before God. It will be by the Spirit sanctifying us that we'll be found in glory, blameless and spotless before the Lamb, conformed to the image of God's dear and well-beloved Son. Redemption does not end the night that you were saved. I take the term, as it were, Broadly speaking, all that is contained in redemption, adoption, predestination, being called, being justified, being sanctified, and then being glorified, thank God the Holy Spirit and the Father and the Son are all involved in our redemption. We'll stand redeemed. This body, this body will be redeemed. This body will be made like unto Christ's glorious body. It will be the culmination of our redemption. We're waiting for our redemption. We're waiting to see the King. What a wonder to view the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit minutely involved in the redemption of sinners from beginning to end. The triune God takes special interest and is personally involved in the salvation of the sinner from sin. As I close, let me ask you, have you personally experienced redemption from sin? As a Holy Spirit, third person of the Trinity. Has He convicted you of your sin? Has He shown you the exceeding sinfulness of your sin? Has He enlightened your understanding to see that Jesus Christ is the only Savior of sinners? And then Has the third person of the Trinity introduced you to the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ? Has He drawn you to the Savior, the One who bled for sin, the One who died for sin, the One who has obtained eternal redemption from sin by His death on Calvary's tree? And then have you, through the Son, become acquainted with the first person of the Trinity, God the Father, whereby you're able to cry, Abba, Father. Abba, Father. If you know nothing of that today, may this be the day of salvation for you. There is one God. There are three persons within the Godhead. Each person is divine. This is the doctrine of the Trinity. Simply I trust explained, though hard to grasp, yet it is to be believed, brethren and sisters, because our redemption, our salvation, all hinges on our belief in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. May God be pleased to enlighten our understanding in the things of God through his word today. Let's bow our heads in prayer. O God, we bow before thee and worship thee. Lord, we worship thee, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We offer our praise in Jesus' name. We come by the help of the Spirit of God. We worship Thee, O God, in the greatness of Thy majesty and power. We have seen just a little, just a little of what the Scriptures teach with respect to this great, mysterious doctrine of the Trinity. Lord, we realize that if we could try, or if we would attempt to unravel the great mystery that it is, our finite minds Oh God, we'd be lost in wonder and love and praise. We cannot understand these things. It is too high. I cannot attain onto it. Who by searching out God can know God? We're aware, oh God, that we cannot really fully know Thee. Thou art the incomprehensible one, and yet Thou canst be known. And Lord, we pray that we might know Thee savingly. And all of these things God will be, as it were, brought to light on that great day when our bodies will have been redeemed and our minds and our understandings will be given the capacity to understand who thou art. But Lord, help us to ponder these things, to meditate upon them, and to come, dear God, and worship and say, great is our God, and greatly to be praised. And so we pray that we might know the love of God the Father, that we might know the grace of God, the Holy Spirit, the comfort and the communion of God, the Holy Spirit. And Lord, we pray that we might know Christ. Lord, that we love Thee more and more. Bless the Word. Use it, O God. Challenge our hearts. Help us to love the word as it's preached. Give us a greater appetite for these things. Help us not to throw the truth of thy word out the window on the way home even this afternoon. But oh may it be that which abides in our hearts so that whenever the Jehovah Witness comes and whenever the Mormon comes to our door it will not be standing there stupid and But Lord, having been instructed in these things, that we'll be able to point them to the Scriptures, to show them that Thou art God, O answer prayer, and help us to ever have high views of Thee, for we offer prayer in and through Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen. Thank you.