We Believe | The Trinity (February 25th, 2018) - Mike Armstrong

Well hey, if you would turn your Bibles to Genesis, the first book of the Bible, we are uh we're gonna start there.

We're gonna be uh at a bunch of different places here today, more on that a little bit later, but we're back into our We Believe series, uh which is really a doctrine series.

And and I don't know if you remember this, but back in September, as we started off the ministry year, we started off with this, and it was a three-week series in uh the doctrine of the Word of God.

You remember this?

It was about how the Word of God is clear, it is it is necessary, it is sufficient for life.

And and so the idea now is to uh come back to this series periodically uh from time to time as a way for us to really strengthen our understanding of exactly what it is we believe as Christ's followers and as God's church.

And so today we're gonna be exploring the doctrine of the Trinity.

Now, I liken our comprehension of the Trinity to how some of us approach sports or home renovations or shopping at Target.

All right, now you're wondering, where am I going with this?

Well, um, for example, I've heard some people say that football as a sport uh is just too confusing.

Right?

There's too many rules, and you know, why are they allowed to throw one direction and not another direction?

And why is the you know field longer in Canada and ball is bigger in Canada than in than in the National Football League?

And I there's too many rules, forget it.

I I don't really feel like watching it, it's confusing, and I'd I'd rather watch anything do anything else.

Right?

Maybe some of you feel that way about football or about sports in general.

Um with home renovations, okay, for me personally, uh I'm not exactly what you would call a handyman.

All right.

And so for me, whenever there's you know some kind of a project that needs to be done around the house, something that needs to be fixed, I'm um I'm a little uncomfortable with that.

And I don't really know what I'm doing, and I don't want to mess it up, and so I end up kind of prolonging and and and dragging my feet and usually just like inviting Glenn over to do it for me.

All right, that's usually thanks for fixing my thermostat the other day, by the way.

Appreciate that.

Um, how about uh shopping at Target?

Okay.

Husbands everywhere, all right.

We feel this gaping disconnect with our wives' seemingly primal urge to spend hours and hours at the first super target that they see as soon as they cross the border.

Right?

Do you ladies feel like that?

I mean, it's I think everyone was like seriously grieved when Target, you know, left Canada and went back to the States.

And for for husbands, we just we don't really get the draw.

It's like uh it's like a red Walmart, right?

That's really all it feels like for us.

And so we're we're just happy to kind of hang back in the car and you know hang out with the kids, and again, we just don't we don't really get the draw.

What's the point of all this?

What's the point?

What we don't understand, we tend to stay away from.

Right?

We do.

We uh because we find it confusing.

It's maybe confusing or it makes us feel uncomfortable, or again, we just feel this disconnect uh with it.

And uh in the doctrine of the Trinity, I think it can be like that for us uh sometimes.

You know, we we sort of understand uh the concept of the Trinity from you know from maybe a simplistic standpoint, anyways, but but maybe it's been you know those those kind of unhelpful or even misleading illustrations that you know describe the three in one that you've heard before.

It's like you know, the three in one's like an egg.

You know, it's a it's it's a shell and a yoke and a white, and all three things together are you know are one.

Or you've heard the three forms of water.

It's steam and and water and ice.

You've heard the three-leaf clover one, and we're gonna come back to that one a little bit later.

All of which are intended to help us understand the Trinity, okay, but they all fall short of adequate or even accurate.

Okay, or perhaps for you with your understanding of the Trinity, it's just been a it's because the church in general, the big C church, has in general put a very uh a huge lack of priority, if you can put it that way, on teaching the importance of doctrine.

And so it's left many of us feeling very ill-equipped about these things.

We don't understand the Bible, and we don't understand the Trinity because of it.

Okay, or maybe for you, it's just like, well, I'm kind of new in the faith, and and and that's cool, and and you're, you know, just trying to kind of figure all this out.

You haven't I haven't even really gotten to what the Trinity is all about yet, and I'm just kind of trying to keep my head above water in the Christian life.

No, I get it, for sure.

Well, here at Harvest, understand this.

Here at Harvest, we believe in the doctrine of the Trinity.

We believe in it because it's, first of all, who our awesome God is, and also because our entire salvation hinges on it.

That's really the outline.

I mean, you've got it all in your notes, but I gave it to you there, front loading here this morning.

Okay, and and and by the way, this doctrine, the Trinity, all of it, this is not, okay, it's not just heady intellectual stuff for you know people in seminary or academic elites or something like that.

No, it's for all of us.

It's for the common common man, right?

It's for every single person.

And like all doctrine, okay, all doctrine, it's supposed to have this transformative effect on our hearts and on our lives.

It's not supposed to be boring.

It's it's not supposed to be dull or dry.

It's supposed to transform us.

It leads to that.

And so the Trinity is where we're going today.

And before we jump into this, um I'm gonna pray.

Let's pray.

God, I can't think of a a topic in the scriptures that is maybe so understood in such an elementary and simplistic and many times not even a correct way.

And Father, this is, you know, as as you know, I think about teaching through this, it's easy to feel like you're just a moment away from heresy and just a slip or a step away.

And so, Lord, I pray that you would guide uh our time together.

I pray that you would lead us from uh the Holy Scriptures, Lord.

I pray that you would show us how awesome you are, Lord.

I pray that you would show us that this doctrine matters.

It is it is hugely essential.

And so, Father, I pray that we would grow as a church with greater love for the Word of God, greater heart for the Scriptures, greater desire to be in it, motivated by the gospel because of how awesome you are, because of how great our salvation is.

Lord, we want to be with you.

We want to spend time with you.

And every time we open our word, that's what we're doing.

Open your word, God.

So would you lead us now in this time?

Bring glory to Christ, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

So a little bit of a different message today.

A little bit of a different message.

Typically, what we do is we pick one passage and we stick to it.

And we kind of mine our way through it and seek to find some application for our lives and all of that.

And so today is a little bit different.

It'd be considered more of a topical message, and I'll be really up front with you about this.

These are not my favorite kind of messages to preach.

I would much prefer uh to just stick in one passage and and and stay there, but we're gonna jump around uh a little bit today.

And so if you've got a copy of God's word, you've got a Bible, uh, get ready to strap your seatbelt on here because we're gonna be flipping around, and you can follow along uh with all of that and jump with me here and read all of that.

Some things are gonna be on the screen a little bit, or you can just kind of absorb this and take it all in here.

But here's the first thing as we get going.

I already said it, but here it is.

We believe in the doctrine of the Trinity.

Why?

Because it's who our awesome God is, straight up.

Right?

That's who he is.

Now listen, throw this uh throw this quote up here.

This was A.

W.

Tozer, one of my heroes of the faith, and and it was him who said, What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

I tend to agree with that.

100%.

I agree with that.

If we fail to have a correct view of uh of who God really is, then it inevitably impacts our lives.

Do you believe that?

Do you know that?

Okay, so for example, let me give you an example here.

If if we don't believe that God is good, okay, how are we gonna live?

In in fear, right?

With with dread and possibly anxiety.

If we don't believe that God is good and we think that he is evil, if we think he is out to get us, we are going to cower.

We're not gonna want to draw near to him.

Every time something bad happens, we're gonna be like, oh yep, there's the Lord again, kicking me while I'm down, everything's out to get me, the Lord's against me, everything is.

If we don't believe that the Lord is good, it affects us.

If we don't believe that the Lord is all powerful, what happens?

Well, one of the things that would happen is we probably won't pray like we ought to.

Why would we?

Why would I pray to a God who isn't all-powerful?

What is the point?

Why would I bring it to him if I don't really believe that he has the ability to not only hear my cry, but answer my cries and do some serious work?

If I don't believe that God is all-powerful, I will not trust him.

I will not trust him.

Again, why why should we?

Okay, faulty views of God affect us big time.

Big time.

Now, the Trinity, again, it's it's who our God is according to the scriptures.

So if we fail to understand that and believe that and really embrace all of that, then ultimately, guess what?

It's gonna affect us.

Now, if you think like big picture here, big picture, 30,000 foot level, it's gonna affect our our worship.

Because think about it, if we try to worship a God that we don't believe is triune, okay, and the Bible teaches that He is, well then we no longer worship the God of the Bible.

Okay, that's kind of a kind of a scary thought, I think.

Probably, I don't know, less than ideal for us as the church.

Okay, a clear and and accurate picture of God is is absolutely critical for you and I as we you know we seek to bring him glory in all things.

So understanding him and worshiping him as he is brings him glory.

Alright, now what do we mean by the Trinity?

Okay, what do we mean by when we use the word Trinity, triune, trinitarian, all of that?

Well, first of all, understand this.

You're not gonna find that word in the Bible.

Okay, you're not.

And some people have said, well, the doctrine of the Trinity is not in the Bible because it doesn't use the word, and and that would be um false.

That would be false.

The Bible absolutely teaches the doctrine of the Trinity.

Uh, it's just that the word's not there.

The word is actually uh first used by uh the third century theologian uh Tertullian.

He was the one who developed that and and and saw that and used that that term and and now we use it.

Um but again, how do we define this?

What is the Trinity exactly?

What do we mean by it?

Well, Wayne Grudum has been uh a big blessing in my life, and I don't know him personally, but I've read uh his books, and he's got you know that big monster systematic theology book that some of you have, and and uh we've got, of course, down the skinnier, kind of easier version, shorter version uh that we're gonna be going uh through with the men on Thursdays, but this is what he says.

He has a great influence on me and also on this message for sure.

We're gonna be referring to him quite a bit.

This is how he defines uh the Trinity there.

God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God.

Okay, now we're gonna pull this apart here and uh take a look at how the scriptures reveal that this definition is in fact accurate.

Okay, so let's start with that just kind of that first part there, if you're jotting it down.

Okay, don't throw this up back up yet, quite yet.

But here's that first part.

God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Okay, now understand that that God's word, it reveals the doctrine of the Trinity uh progressively or or uh gradually.

As the scriptures go, we see it come to light more and more and and more.

Meaning we see we see hints of it, you know, touches on it in the Old Testament, and we see it again developed a little bit more fully in the New Testament.

Now you can throw that other graphic up.

All right, there we go.

We're gonna look at these here, just a couple of verses, a couple of passages that show uh the Trinity revealed.

Okay, we're not gonna go through all of these, but you can jot these things down, take pictures of it with your phone, send us an email, we'll send it to you, whatever you want to do, kind of depending on how you roll.

Uh, but let's go through a couple of these things here just to see that the Bible does, in fact, teach this, okay?

God eternally exists as three persons Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Well, you guys were in Genesis chapter one, right?

You got your Bibles turned there now.

We'll take a look at it.

It says this it says in verse 26, God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness.

Okay?

And now what you see there is an obvious plurality within the Godhead.

You notice that there?

It uses the word us, it uses the word our uh two times.

And we see this uh in multiple places throughout the New Testament.

I believe uh in the Psalm verse there in verse 45 or chapter 45, uh we'll see that there as well.

Now in Isaiah 63, again, if you want to turn there, that's fine.

It says this.

It says, but they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit.

His Holy Spirit.

And so the Holy Spirit here is shown to be a distinct person from God.

Do you see that?

A distinct person from God.

And the fact that he is grieved, all right, shows that he is he's a person.

He's he's able to, you know, he's capable of having an emotive response.

Do you see that there?

You notice that?

Right?

As opposed to just being some kind of uh a mystical force that emanates from God, as some who have denied the doctrine of the Trinity have suggested.

Okay, again, there's just a couple of verses there of what the what the Old Testament shows us, and there's many, many, many more that we could go through, but how about the how about the New Testament?

What does the New Testament show us?

Okay, well, two key passages that that people tend to go to right away and point to that not only shows the plurality of the Godhead, uh, but also identifies who they are and and even makes it clear that God is three persons.

I seen first of all in uh in Matthew chapter three.

Okay, I love hearing the the sound of Bibles turning.

Matthew chapter three in verse 16 and 17.

All right, this is actually the um the story of Christ's baptism, right, where he was publicly recognized by his predecessor, John the Baptist, who paved the way for him.

He was like transferring, passing the baton over to Jesus now, and and and Jesus' baptism showing us that he identifies with sinful man.

Alright, there, Matthew chapter 3, 16 and 17, take a look.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

He says, and when Jesus, okay, so we got one there, there's God the Son, when Jesus was baptized, he immediately went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God.

Okay, so there's the Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, and it says he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.

And behold, a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased.

And so who do you got there?

You got God the Father.

Okay, all three persons of the Trinity present at one time.

You know, and and and and and I love that.

And you see them there.

It's and you know, they're they're doing distinct and and and separate things.

You see the different roles that they have, even in that, you know, those two verses.

Pretty cool.

Pretty cool.

Okay, now the second main text that people go to is still in Matthew.

If you want to jump over to Matthew 28 at the back of the of uh of the book, Matthew 28, we know this this passage well.

We refer to this this passage a lot at our church.

It's the great commission, it's the mission of our church.

Okay, and in verse 19 there of Matthew 28, he says this.

This is Jesus to his disciples.

Uh, before he ascends to go sit at the right hand of the Father, he says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Yes.

And so you again you see how how the how the scriptures, it starts in the Old Testament with a kind of a very, a very basic or partial revelation of the plurality of the Godhead, the Trinity, and then reveals it more completely, more specifically, even as the New Testament goes.

Alright, now let's go back to that to that Grudom quote.

There we go, that definition, and let's go through the next part of it there.

Alright, so God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We see that scriptures teach that.

And each person is fully God.

Each person is fully God.

And then it says, and there is one God.

Now, there are a ton of verses all throughout the Bible.

You and I could probably point out, again, millions of them, that show that the Father is God.

I think, I think that one is a little is pretty clear to us.

One such verse would be Psalm 68, verse 5.

Psalms 68:5

You know, it says, the father of the fatherless and protector of widows is is God in his holy habitation.

So God the Father is fully God.

That one is probably the easiest one for us to comprehend.

Okay, but so is Christ the Son.

Christ the Son is fully God as well.

You remember at Christmas time, it wasn't that long ago, uh, we worked our way through uh John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

Remember, and in John uh 1 verse 1, it says, In the beginning was the word.

We spent some time studying that and how the word is referring to the person of Jesus Christ.

In the beginning was the word, and and the word was with God.

So you see some plurality there, but then it says this, and the word was God.

Okay, it was God.

This is as clear of an affirmation of the deity of Jesus Christ as it gets.

Okay, now what about the Holy Spirit?

What about the Holy Spirit?

Is he fully God as well?

Well, the Great Commission verse, the one that we just looked at a second ago in Matthew 28, verse 19, would say, yeah, absolutely, man.

Matthew 28:19

Absolutely.

It puts the Holy Spirit on the same level as the Father and the Son.

Baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Right?

They are they are equal, same level.

But then I love Acts chapter 5, verses 3 and 4.

Acts 5:3

It makes it clear that the Holy Spirit is fully God.

It says this, but Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?

Remember that verse?

And then a little bit later on he says, You have not have you have not lied to man but to God.

You have lied to God.

So each person within the Trinity is is fully God and completely equal in their deity.

Now, there have been some who have suggested fine.

Fine.

I see that you know the there's a father, there's you know, there's a there's a son, and I can even see that there's a Holy Spirit, and alright, I I can get behind the fact that he is God.

I I guess that means that you've got three gods on your hand, right?

No.

No, that would be that would be considered the heresy of called tri-theism, okay, and that's that's not what we believe.

Um as as Grudom's definition of the of the Trinity states, uh, it says there, and there is there is one God.

There is one God.

Now the the famous verse that might jump to mind for you initially when you when you think of that is is Deuteronomy 6 verse 4.

Deuteronomy 6:4

And it says this, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

He is one.

The New Testament asserts it as well.

Paul says in 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, for there is one God.

1 Timothy 2:5

He says later in Romans 3, verse 30, God is one.

Romans 3:30

The Bible is consistent, it is clear about all of that.

Okay, so how are we supposed to understand this?

Right?

How are you and I supposed to supposed to absorb all of this?

That God is one and yet somehow still three persons.

You notice how the mass just doesn't really compute for our minds?

Right?

We we don't totally we don't totally get it, do we?

And those analogies, those illustrations that I referred to uh a bit earlier, they don't quite cut it either.

So for example, remember I said we'd come back to the the three-leaf clover?

You've heard you've maybe heard of that before, and some people would say, well, it's it's like the three-leaf clover.

There's three leaves and Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and and they all make up one three-leaf clover.

Well, where it starts to break down uh is where you know, if you were to remove one leaf, you would no one would ever say that that one leaf Is fully a three-leaf clover.

Does that make sense?

It's like the egg.

The shell by itself is not fully an egg.

It just doesn't work that way.

And yet, individually, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are fully and completely God.

See, do you see how those analogies don't quite work?

They kind of give us like an elementary understanding of things, but but when you really think about it and you pull them apart, I mean they they break down in other ways too.

We're not even gonna go into them all today.

But they all do, they all kind of fall short here, don't they?

Now what I think is is pretty interesting to note from the scriptures is that is that the Bible just simply doesn't give us an analogy.

It doesn't give us an illustration when it comes to describing the explaining the doctrine of the Trinity.

Do you find that?

Do you notice that?

Now theologians like Grudom and and and others as as well have mentioned that the closest the Bible really comes to an analogy here is in the titles of Father and Son.

Okay, which which reveals the kind of closeness, um, the kind of intimacy that the Godhead, along with the Holy Spirit, of course, shares with each other.

Right?

Father-son relationship.

I think we we kind of understand what that is.

And if we, you know, maybe we've been blessed to, you know, as as sons or as fathers, have great relationships with our with our dads or with our sons, and we kind of have an understanding of how kind of cool and and and special that is.

And if we we didn't have that kind of a relationship with our fathers or with our sons, uh, we know that we we probably know that we wish we did.

And and and we we want that.

Okay.

And it's that same kind of intimacy, it's that same kind of harmony and and oneness, really, that that our relationships with with with each other are really supposed to have and and embody.

I think particularly um marriage.

Right?

Genesis talks about in chapter two that that husband and wife are now one flesh.

We're one flesh, two people, but one flesh.

That that's a picture of the intimacy that we're to have.

Where does that come from?

Comes from the Trinity.

And the intimacy, the closeness that that they have.

Our marriages are supposed to be close, not distant, not separated, and you do your thing, I do my thing, we don't, we're not close, we don't, we don't talk, we don't discuss things, there's no intimacy.

No, it's not supposed to be like that.

That all comes ultimately from the relationship that the Trinity has within themselves.

And likewise, it's the the profound unity of the Trinity that we as the church are supposed to imitate and and enjoy together as as a community and and and then and then display to the world.

Right?

That's it.

It all comes from our triune God.

We're not trying to create community because it seems like a nice idea that we made up.

It ultimately comes from the personhood of God, from his very essence.

Okay, but we even with all of that said, okay, and even thinking about the titles of Father and Son and what all of that means and how that helps us connect to what the doctrine of the Trinity is really all about.

Again, remember the Bible doesn't completely explain this incredible doctrine to us.

It just doesn't.

I mean, it's not like it leaves us fully in the dark.

Obviously, we we read through some scriptures and and looked at some verses that that do kind of you know shine a light on all of this, but but it does, I mean, the scriptures overall, it does allow a certain level, anyways, of uh of mystery to kind of just hang in the air about it.

It really does.

It doesn't answer every single question that we have, it doesn't allow our finite minds to completely grasp our infinite God.

Okay, and personally, I'm I'm just learning to love that.

I I love that I can open up the scriptures and and know that I'm I'm never gonna exhaust the Lord.

Isn't that amazing?

Isn't it awesome to know that that we could meet here as a church each and every Sunday and go to small groups and open the Bible every single day and meet in men's ministry and women's ministry and young adults and youth and harvest kids and spend our entire lives opening up the scripture and trying and seeking the Lord and drawing near to him, and we will never exhaust him.

We will never get to the bottom of it ever.

Right?

It's such a reminder to us that our human minds, we just quite we just we can't fully comprehend.

We can't fathom the greatness of God.

But here's the thing though, we love to try and put God in a box.

We love to try and like shrink him down to these bite-sized chunks that that we can handle and that we can that we can chew on, and I can observe him from all angles and understand completely who he is, and he's in his box, and and I think at the core of all of that, what we what we like, what we want is some manner of control over him.

Some manner of control and the Trinity, I mean the Trinity just blows that to smithereens.

Okay?

It really does.

And so as we as we think through this this doctrine and realize that our our minds just can't 100% fully grasp this, not on a human level, listen, allow your heart, allow your mind, allow your life to be characterized by this, by by just marveling.

Marveling in Him and it should be like, wow, God, you are incredible, you are amazing, your word is awesome.

When we when we study the doctrine of the Trinity, or we study any doctrine, it's not just about studying.

It's not about just getting a bunch of book smarts, it's not about underlining a Bible so that when we open it, we're like, oh yeah, I've I've been there before, I've I've studied that.

Look how good this looks.

It's not just about you know understanding some verses so that when we get into a discussion with our brother-in-law who likes to give us a hard time about it, I can I can win.

I've got some doctrine all lined up, I'm ready to roll.

No, that's not that's not the point of it.

It's so that our hearts would stand in awe.

And then we would marvel at who our God is.

Okay, we believe in the doctrine of the Trinity.

Why?

Well, here's the second thing.

Our entire salvation hinges on it.

I'm gonna get you to turn one more time to Ephesians chapter one.

We're gonna look at a couple of verses over there, but kind of as you're getting turned there, you know, maybe you've been listening to this, you know, all along, and and so far you you kind of been thinking, you know what, man?

Who really cares?

Like honestly, who really cares at at the end of it.

What does it matter, you know, whether or not we get this right?

Like, does it does it really matter?

Well, listen, it matters if we want to have any confidence whatsoever in our salvation, right?

It matters.

Okay, let me put it this way: without the doctrine of the Trinity, there is no salvation.

There is none.

Okay?

Throw that Grutom quota back up there again.

I told you we were coming at that hard.

All right, let's mind down on this a little bit here.

Okay, if if God didn't eternally exist, you see how it says there, that there at the beginning, guess what?

If God didn't eternally exist, it means that he's not God.

It means that he had to have, you know, had a beginning.

You know, he was he was created, which means he's not all-powerful something, someone else is.

It means he's not self-sufficient.

He he can't be.

And if he's not all-powerful and self-sufficient, how could he possibly have the power and the authority necessary to be able to forgive you and I of our sin and defeat death?

Right?

If he didn't eternally exist, it means that he's not God and we're still dead in our sin.

Less than ideal.

Right?

I mean it's uh gross understatements today.

Okay, how about how about the eternally exists as three persons?

Okay, you see that again Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God.

Okay, have you ever thought about what your salvation amounts to if let's just focus on Jesus here for a second.

If if Jesus alone isn't fully God, have you thought about that?

Have you ever spent some time thinking about, you know, what where would I be in terms of salvation if Jesus wasn't fully God?

What would my salvation amount to?

Let me tell you, this.

Nothing.

It would amount to nothing if Jesus wasn't fully God.

Because if Jesus isn't God, it means he's something less.

It means he was, I don't know, a created angel.

Some have suggested that before.

Well, angels aren't powerful enough to save.

They aren't.

Was he human only?

If so, it means that he's simply a sinner just like us, because all humans sin, which means his sacrifice on the cross would not have satisfied the wrath of God.

Our salvation wouldn't be purchased.

His blood wouldn't and could wouldn't have and couldn't have covered our sin and washed it all away.

Okay, Ephesians 1, verse 7.

Ephesians 1:7

Take a look at it now.

You're there.

It says, In him we have what?

Redemption.

We have redemption.

I mean, it's salvation, right?

We have salvation through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.

Why?

Because Jesus Christ is fully God and able to do so.

Listen, without the doctrine of the Trinity, okay, this the salvation that that you and I hold to and talk about and and and stand on and put our hope in, listen, it all of it crumbles.

All of it turns to dust, it it shatters.

Okay, don't ever, ever, ever let anyone ever tell you that the doctrine of the Trinity doesn't matter.

Can I tell you that I've heard people say that to me before?

And I'm not talking about atheists.

I'm talking about people who claim to be Christians.

I remember being in Bible college and talking to somebody, it doesn't matter what you believe.

It doesn't matter.

How sad is that?

Don't let anyone ever tell you that.

It's essential.

The Trinity is what's true, it's what's real.

It it informs us again of who our God is and gives us incredible uh assurance and confidence that that our entire salvation, from predestination to justification, to sanctification, to glorification, the entire thing, okay, it's secure, it's it's in the the mighty hands of a mighty God.

So hey, as you're studying the scriptures on your own and and you're learning to read it, and you're you know trying to draw close into the presence of God, and as he you know draws near to you in all of that, and as you're reading through the scriptures, learn to spot those places, just like the little the verses that we kind of pulled out today.

Learn to spot that where it where it points out the plurality of God.

Learn to see the spots where it talks about Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Okay, turn your Bible just to probably over a page one last time here to Ephesians four and verse four and six.

There's another another place that that shows the Trinity, but if we're not careful, we we miss it.

We we glance over it, we don't see it, and we and we don't absorb it.

Take a look at verse 4 there, Ephesians 4.

It says, There is one body and one spirit.

Okay, so there's the Holy Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.

One Lord, okay, so so understand that that's the common New Testament title for Jesus Christ.

It calls him Lord uh in multiple places.

So there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

When we see, when we come to understand and and believe in the doctrine of the Trinity and see that He is, you know, as our minds are being blown by this, and we see it in this verse even as He is He is over all, He is that He is above all creation, not just over my life as an individual, not just over your lives, not just over our church, but over the entire world, over the entire galaxy, the universe, the solar system, all of it, He is over all of it.

Our heart response should be what?

To worship.

It should be to worship.

It should be to I would, Lord, I want to give you glory in all things.

It should help us to feel mighty small.

It should help us to realize that life's not about me.

All the lame complaints that I had about everything that didn't quite go the way I wish it went this week.

Those seem so trivial.

When I see who my God is and how how awesome He is.

Our heart should be to worship.

And so that's exactly what we're gonna do.

I'm gonna ask you to stand right now.

And I'm gonna pray.

The worship team is making its way up here right now, and we're gonna sing and we're gonna respond.

Doctrine is not dry, it is not boring, it is not for old dead theologians, it is for us, it is for now, it is forever.