The Trinity (Part 1 of 3): The Trinity is Revealed

There was a bishop Named Athanasius so another deacon in his church raised this idea of Jesus being created his name was

Arius Athanasius at the time was was young he was only 20 years old

But because of his very sharp mind being an astute Christian his bishop whose name was

Alexander the bishop of Alexandria Asked him to craft the statement that we know as the

Nicene Creed at only 23 years old he wrote it and With that counsel all of the bishops of Christendom of Christianity I should say joined together in Nicaea the controversy should have been settled

That should have put an end to it because they clearly defined that Jesus is not created But is the eternal son of God and they even pronounced an anathema on anybody who would say different and yet For the next 60 years the church entered into the most difficult struggle

That it had seen up into that point up until 312 the church was facing a struggle

But it wasn't over theology everybody agreed that Jesus was the eternal son of God except for the

Romans and those who weren't Christian and for all of those years from 33

AD until 312 the church was on the run the church was running for its life and Persecuted through ten violent waves of Roman oppression ending with the edict of Milan in 312

AD The church was holding on for dear life being persecuted from the outside, but now the threat was coming from within a

Teaching that was different than had been handed down from generation to generation Athanasius wrote the

Nicene Creed or crafted it and all of the bishops all of Christianity joined together in affirming it that God exists in three persons father son and Holy Spirit Arius would soon die off He was an older man when he he wrote his letter

And he was not too influential, but as other leaders began to take on his teaching the controversy sparked again

For 45 years Athanasius battled to uphold the truth of the

Trinity as Arianism began to gain strength especially through the

Eastern churches Athanasius wrote and confronted the lie

During the course of his 45 year pastorate because his bishop Alexander passed away after only three years and then

Athanasius took over as a young man For 45 years he battled this heresy

During that time he was exiled. I think five different times

Banished Because the political winds turned against him when an emperor would come into power

Following Constantine he would be kicked out and he would run and he would hide with the desert fathers like Anthony Who were ascetics living out by themselves in the desert and they would protect him until he was free to come back he fought and he fought for the truth of the

Trinity and finally just shortly after he died another council was called the

Council of Constantinople in 381 AD and the church once again affirmed that God exists as father son and Holy Spirit And the son is fully

God as well as fully man The controversy ended after he died, but he was the champion that fought for it willing to go into exile

Never willing to back down Being called intolerant being called a bigot being called narrow -minded because the other bishops were not so much

Promoting promoting Arianism as saying listen, this is fine to believe this but Athanasius knew something if you lose the deity of Christ You lose the gospel

God cannot just create some being and Sacrifice that creation that was his and still be the

God of love Here is the essence of the gospel message that God himself

Took on our sin and our punishment and our payment and so the Son of God Jesus must be 100 % divine he has to be

God in order To pay the penalty for God to take the penalty of sin upon himself and die in place of man only someone who is 100 %

God Can satisfy God's demand for justice, but only someone who is 100 % man can stand in the place of sinners like you and me

Jesus 100 % God 100 % man this truth was at the core of the gospel and to not understand it to reject it is to lose the gospel and Athanasius would have sooner died

Than to relent on this point he held on like a pitbull Wouldn't let go 45 years battling until finally the church emerged victorious and now think about this guys as Christians in America and even worldwide

We are rather divided aren't we from Presbyterians to United Methodist to evangelical free

Even within the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic community there's many differences and some of them major Some of them gospel related but here is one thing that the church can say all who believe the true gospel can say

I believe in The Trinity the Trinity is what binds together all

Christians What Athanasius fought for what the church had always believed before him was the gospel itself?

when we say the word Trinity It's a little hard to understand the word simply means try unity

Trinity is a an amalgamation of those two words try meaning three and unity meaning oneness

That God exists as a three oneness He is truly one

God in being an essence But within himself within who he is he exists in three persons

That it is both true to say that he is one and that he is three but not in the same sense

The teaching of the Trinity is this that there is only one God one being one essence

But there are three Persons So the personhood is different than the being or the essence of God one

God in three persons That is the doctrine of the Trinity and that's what we're going to study for three weeks

One preacher Roger Pascoe said of all the doctrines to preach on the doctrine of the

Trinity is perhaps the most challenging Because it is a difficult concept to understand and explain and because it's hard to relate to life

Probably true one of the hardest things to preach on one of the hardest things to sit through and listen to Because how does this really apply to my everyday, and what does it really mean?

It's difficult for our human minds to grasp what the Trinity is So why do it some of you are thinking

Jeff? Why why are we doing this then right? If it's so hard if is it really worth it well

No, I'll answer that in five ways quickly, and then we'll get into our biblical study through number one

To know the Trinity is to know God To know the Trinity is to know him for who he is

What could be more important than to know God for who he is? J.

I. Packer said disregard the study of God and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder your way through life

Blindfolded as it were with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you This way you can waste your life and lose your soul

Think he sums it up. Well To know God centers life life is all about knowing

God Didn't Jesus say that I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the

Father except through me He says he is the resurrection and the life to live is Christ to die is gain to know him is

What life is all about what could be more relevant than to know God it orients our entire life

Secondly as we studied through Colossians We just finished an expository series through the book of Colossians But one of the things that I noticed again and again was the

Trinitarianism that underlined the teaching so each member of the Trinity is mentioned in the first eight verses of the book and It calls for a deeper stunning study of the

Trinity so Colossians points us to that in fact When Colossians says that we are called to mature in Christ That maturity is the wisdom of knowing

God for who he is So if we're to apply Colossians to our lives we have to go deeper into a knowledge of God himself

The book of Colossians points us to this number three church history points us to this

We have people like Athanasius who went before us who are willing to suffer and many were martyred because of this teaching and Yet would we be so apathetic to not even care to learn

Forbid it right our heritage calls us to learn about the

Trinity fourth I Think that in the American evangelical circle.

We have a fascination with everything. That's practical everything that is therapy everything that applies to me and my problem and With that we run into the danger of turning

Christianity into a religion that is about me a me oriented religion How about we take time away from ourselves to say when we come to church on?

Sunday morning for these three weeks my thoughts are not even about me It may not be the most practical thing to do right

But wouldn't it be awesome if? Living in the culture that we do that we could defy that culture and defiantly say

No, I come to meet with him to know him more and Let it be all about him

So a series on the Trinity has nothing to do with the relevance of our life in some ways in another way

It's everything to do with it because God is our everything, but how about we come here just to know him more and Defy our culture in so doing and finally because The Trinity when you really boil it down is the dividing line of humanity

It is the dividing line between true and false religion There are many religions in the world that preach many different Christ's and have different paths to salvation

But there is one true religion, it's the true religion that worships the true

God The dividing line of all of history of all humanity is belief in the

Trinity The Trinity is that important if You reject now doesn't mean you have to understand everything fully

But to reject that Jesus is the Son of God meaning that he is God in human flesh is to reject who he really is

Now you can still say you worship Jesus But conceive of him as something else But what you conceive in your mind of Jesus whether it's the

Jehovah's Witness view of Jesus Who's a created being that emanates from the Father or whether it's the

Mormon view that he's just one in an eternal String of gods one after another whatever you conceive of Jesus to be if it's different than the triune

God revealed in Scripture It's only a figment of your imagination This Jesus that you make in your mind has no power to save the shedding of that blood, which is imaginary Cannot take away your sin the dividing line of all history

Is the Trinity of all humanity there is a tombstone at a cemetery in Indiana that reads this way

In fact, if you were to walk by it and read it, it would probably be sobering to see it It would make you stop in your tracks and think about life a little bit but it says this pause stranger when you pass me by as You are now.

So once was I as I am now so you will be So prepare for death and follow me

Wow, if you read that tombstone it would stop you wouldn't it as This man is so I will be one day and he was once like me walking on this earth and I'm going where he's going

But I thought it clever what somebody scratched underneath it Somebody saw that and thought about it and scratched underneath that saying on this old tombstone

To follow you I'm not content until I know which way you went

That's the dividing line all of humanity Goes to the same place if that's the grave unless Jesus comes back before we die

But which way do you go? After the grave, that's the question and the

Trinity is that dividing line those who will believe in the true God worship the true

God receive the covering of the blood of Jesus the forgiveness of sin So this is what we're talking about the main idea

The preaching of the Trinity is worthwhile Especially because to know the

Trinity is to know God himself this study is worth it because we're digging into the scriptures to know

God and For no other practical reason than that it is worth our time. It's worth our investment

There could be no better use of time than to meet with the true God It is crucial for all

Christians to know what we believe about the Trinity and how we came to know it How do we know that the

Trinity is true is it because Athanasius fought for it in the 300s. Is it because of the Council of bishops that said so Or did

God himself reveal it? It is the latter. The Trinity is not a human conception, but a revelation from heaven

So that's what we seek to do by studying the scriptures point number one to know the

Trinity requires special revelation turn with me to 1st Corinthians chapter 1

We're gonna read verses 18 through 21 1st

Corinthians 1 18 through 21. I love that sound you guys hear those pages turning

Or if you're clicking on your iPad, that's that's good, too For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing

But to us who are being saved it is the power of God For it is written.

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning. I will thwart

Where is the one who is wise where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age has not

God made foolish? The wisdom of the world for since in the wisdom of God The world did not know

God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe

The world through its wisdom cannot know God It's possible that Adam and Eve in the garden could think rightly about God But after the fall of man and all of us who descend from Adam there is something fundamentally twisted in our brains

Something wrong and how we think and although God has always been triune No human mind can come to that knowledge apart from revelation from above There's no religion that conceives of God as being three and yet being one at the same time it's a contradiction in our minds and therefore not something that The human mind could even come to and think about the message that we preach

We preach that this Jewish carpenter Who grew up in Palestine? Was none other than God himself and he worked miracles

That's an affront to a naturalistic worldview, isn't it? He worked miracles as he was here and then he was strung up to a tree and Left to suffer and die and In that death he paid the penalty of sin that I owed and that each of us owed

His body was put in a tomb and he was resurrected on the third day

The message of the cross is foolishness to the world the idea of a suffering

Savior The idea that God Could come and take on flesh

It's nothing that the human mind can arrive at on its own look in verse 20. Where is the one who is wise?

Where is the scribe? Where's the debater? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

There is something about God that we need to understand and that is this Our God is a jealous

God He is jealous for his own glory Now when any of one of us brags and tries to get glory for ourselves, isn't it annoying?

Isn't it an affront, you know? If someone on the basketball court is just talking trash and it just it's just annoying when somebody's trying to get glory for themselves

It's an affront to us Because we are not worthy to be glorified

To steal glory for ourselves is an affront to our conscience but for God to seek the glory of God is entirely right and good and holy and He does

God seeks to glorify himself and This is good

It's appropriate for God to seek glory and to receive glory and So the way he has worked out his plan of salvation is that all glory must be given to him in Order to come to God We must know him as he reveals himself to be and not by human wisdom

Look at verse 21 for sense in the wisdom of God The world did not know

God through wisdom This is so important Because the world around us who does not know

God cannot know God apart from revelation How can they know unless they believe how can they believe unless they hear and how can they hear unless we?

preach Salvation the knowledge of the true

God requires the preaching of his word if you see in verse 21

The God the world did not know God through wisdom It pleased

God through the folly of what we preach To save those who believe this is

God's plan to save That each of us from a pulpit to a pew and then beyond To our neighborhoods to our workplaces that the preaching of God's Word Goes forth to convert souls to God and apart from that they cannot know

Well, you say isn't it enough that they know by looking that there's a creation right we can all figure out.

There's a creation By looking at the things that have been made according to Romans 1 we know his eternal power and his divine nature

Yeah There is a God With eternal power and divine nature

The world can see that much. There's plenty of signs of that Just look at the size of the universe look how far the stars are

But Romans also teaches us that the wrath of God abides on man because of suppression of that truth

It doesn't say that this is enough to save them. That's enough to condemn General revelation is enough to show the world that there's a

God but every person seeing that suppresses that truth hides from that truth

Runs from that truth exchanges that truth for a lie and worships and serves created things instead of the

Creator who is forever praised and So all people are alike in suppressing the truth about God But just looking at nature cannot tell you that God has a son

To know that the Father has a son who comes and bleeds and dies and rises and Ascends and sits at the right hand of the

Father and sends his Holy Spirit. This requires preaching First Corinthians 1 21

This is how we come to know God second point The New Testament Assumes the

Trinity turn with me one book over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 13 verse 14

We will not find in the New Testament a clear Systematic theology of the

Trinity There's no place where a biblical author will sit down and explain what we read in the

Nicene Creed but rather in the New Testament we have an Assumption that God is triune in 2nd

Corinthians 13 14 we have this

Trinitarian formula This blessing that assumes that God is three in one the grace of the

Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the

Holy Spirit Be with you all Mark that in your Bibles or make note of it in your phone

Learn that verse flip back with me now to Matthew 28 Verse 19.

I had the great privilege of baptizing Charlie in the ocean the other day.

He wanted to get baptized. I said sure let's do it What keeps us from being baptized right? There's some water. Let's do it

But here's how we did it in Matthew 28 verse 19 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 The New Testament clearly equates

Father Son and Holy Spirit in terms of their glory and significance

We baptize in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit Because each is the eternal

God Each person is God So the New Testament assumes the

Trinity in places like these third point the Old Testament contains the

Trinity in Genesis 1 26 God goes to make the world. He says let us make man in our own image

Who is God the Father speaking to when he says let us make man in our image

There as early as the first chapter of the Bible we have a hint that God is triune the

Father was speaking to the Son and the Holy Spirit Genesis 1 26 and Then we have the most quoted

Old Testament passage in all of the New Testament and that is Psalm 110 verse 1

The Lord said to my Lord Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet

David writing by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit speaks and writes the Lord said to my

Lord Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. So Psalm 110 verse 1 intimates that God is more than a simple unity as Unitarians believe and as Muslims believe and as all monotheists who reject the

Trinity believe But the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand

There are persons within that unity Father Son and Holy Spirit So the

Old Testament contains the Trinity but someone explained it this way and I lost the quote I forget who said this but I thought it was very helpful in the

Old Testament You have the Trinity contained like furniture in a room but the room is dimly lit and So you can't make out everything that you're trying to look at in the

New Testament The old becomes revealed as you look back into the

New Testament into the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament It shines light into that room.

And as you look back you can see there it is That furniture was always in the room.

It just wasn't lit enough for me to see it And so looking back on Genesis 1 26

We can see the Trinity looking at Psalm 110 verse 1 we can see that God is three in one

So the old is the new revealed the new is in the old concealed

Augustine said that as early as the the fourth century point four

God revealed the Trinity between the writing of the Old and New Testaments, and this is a crucial point

Because many will say well, where is the Trinity in the Bible Jesus never steps up and says

I am God worship me I have a father and there is a spirit and we are truly one and Explain the

Trinity in that way. We don't have that in the New Testament. So how is the Trinity revealed?

I'm going to point us quickly to four places that come together and I will say this the

Trinity was not so much revealed in the New Testament as in the coming of the

Son of God When Jesus appeared born to the

Virgin Mary The Trinity was first revealed turn with me to Luke 1 verse 26

Luke chapter 1 verse 26 and following in the sixth month The angel

Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was

Joseph of the house of David and the Virgin's name was Mary and he came to her and Said greetings. Oh favored one.

The Lord is with you and She was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be and the angel said to her do not be afraid

Mary for you have found favor with God and Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and You shall call his name

Jesus He will be great and will be called the Son of the

Most High and the Lord God will give to him the throne of His father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom

There will be no end the birth of the

Messiah Called the Son of God is a revelation that God exists three in one

Because the Son is born 100 % man to the Virgin Mary and yet also from the

Holy Spirit not in the normal ordinary way And so the hundred percent man is shown to be 100 %

God born of the Holy Spirit and He will reign forever.

That's the first great revelation That was told into the world and when Jesus comes born of a virgin

The Trinity is in that reveal But not yet fully this is a progressive revealing

Next the next most crucial event is the baptism of Jesus flip with me to Matthew 3 16 and 17

I don't hear quite as many pages turn in.

There we go Ruffle them a little bit Matthew 3 16 and 7 17 and when

Jesus was baptized the heavens were open to him and 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 with whom I am well pleased This is usually the first place

I go when someone says well, where is the Trinity even revealed? I? Will usually go to Matthew 3 16 and 17 and say look here the

Father Speaks from heaven at that same time the

Son is baptized in water standing there in flesh and blood in full view of all the

Son of God in the flesh and the Spirit descends like a dove

Father Son Holy Spirit Revealed in the act of baptism which the purpose of baptism is identification

When we get dunked in the water, and we come out we say I identify with Jesus. I'm crucified with him

I'm raised to walk in newness of life when Jesus was baptized. He was identified as the

Son of God Because God himself identified him saying this is my son

Uniquely The Son of the Living God and the Holy Spirit descended like a dove Revealing the

Trinity so first we have the birth of Jesus second we have the baptism of Jesus third we have the claims of Jesus and We could talk about these all day long.

I'll just quote a few of them in the book of John Now the teacher baptized full of the

Holy Spirit going out preaching and teaching he makes claims about himself

He says I am the bread of life He says

I am the light of the world. He says I am the door for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd I Am the way the truth in the life no one comes to my father, but through me.

I am the resurrection and the life Jesus makes claims that are so big so grandiose to claim to be the light of the world

But notice not only is he saying that he is the light of the world he starts each sentence with I am

I am the light of the world and You notice this over and over again in the book of John It reminds you of the

Old Testament Where these things were already there the furniture was already in the room

We couldn't see it until he showed up and cast light on it and said I am but Yahweh Jehovah means

I am Moses learned this at the burning bush. Who should I say sent me to when

I go to Pharaoh and From that burning bush. God said I am who

I am tell him I am sent you and In the trial of false gods

Isaiah chapter 40 to 48 where Isaiah holds up the true God Yahweh to all other gods and compares them and destroys all other idols

Over and over again We learn God says I am

Isaiah 43 10 you are my witnesses that you may know and believe That I am he besides me.

There is no God form nor nor shall there ever be I am he and In the

Septuagint, which was the Greek translation of that Old Testament, which was what Jesus was quoting from It simply says a go a me.

I am God makes the claim to be the I am and So when

Jesus is saying I am the light of the world I am I am over and over again He's claiming to be God. He claims to be

God. That's the revelation of the Trinity you have Jesus himself This is what he meant It's not only a matter of interpretation

He's clearly making a claim to deity And we'll look at two final places of this claim that just becomes so stark that we can't miss it guys make note of this

You're gonna be witnessing to somebody who doesn't believe in the Trinity. Maybe they have a different Jesus 2nd

Corinthians 11 3 says that there's many who have a different Jesus and a different gospel How will you refute them unless you know the truth turn with me to John 8 58

Here Jesus has these Pharisees really riled up. They hate what he's saying

It's as if he's making himself greater than Abraham their forefather

Who is this? claim this claimant

Saying that he is like what is up with this Jesus They're getting really mad and he

Jesus could have shied away But it will begin in verse 56 chapter 8 verse 56 your father

Abraham Rejoiced that he would see my day He saw it and was glad So the

Jews said to him You are not yet 50 years old and have you seen

Abraham? Verse 58 mark this memorize it make note

Jesus said to them truly truly I say to you before Abraham was

I am Ego a me

I am who I am He doesn't shy away from he boldly claims.

So no, there's not a place where Jesus says I am God But here to say in this context

I am notice how the Jews respond who know their Old Testament They know

Isaiah 40 to 48. They know the story of the burning bush So they picked up stones to throw at him they picked up stones to stone him because he claimed to be

God and When the Roman soldiers came to arrest him now last one

John 18 4 to 8 Pick up on what John the

Apostle does here in using language to communicate the events that happened

John is the storyteller and He's recording historical words from Jesus, but he reiterates things so that we the reader won't miss the point

Read John 18 4 to 8 then Jesus knowing all that would happen to him came forward and said to them whom do you seek?

They answered him Jesus of Nazareth Jesus said to them

I am he But if you read that in the Greek What do you suppose it says?

Ego a me I am Judas who betrayed him was standing with them when

Jesus said to them ego a me They drew back and fell to the ground.

Do you ever wonder why the soldiers fell? It doesn't connect it with the force of who he was otherwise people would be falling everywhere he walked right?

He's always the I am but the point of John's text here is in the Declaration of his deity in the ego a me they fall to the ground keep reading

So they asked him again So he asked them again whom do you seek and they said

Jesus of Nazareth Jesus answered? I told you that I am he so if you seek me let these men go

This time he says I told you ego a me let these men go he doesn't mow them over with his words this time

But the point of the text is clear the force of his confession of his own deity proves that Jesus is

God Jesus is God more than a prophet priest and King although he's all of those things

More than the Messiah as the Jewish people understand Messiah to be at that time.

He is claiming to be God And that's the third great revelation of who

Jesus is and finally there's many more we can speak of how that the death and resurrection Reveal him with power to be the eternal

Son of God, but we're gonna focus on the coming of the Holy Spirit Flip back a couple pages to John 14

Verse 16, and I will ask the

Father and he will give you another helper To be with you forever

Jesus teaches that when he goes to the Father, he will send another comforter another paraclete and He will be with you forever a third member

Father Son and now Jesus promises the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2 verses 1 to 4, you know the story

Pentecost the sound of a rushing wind a flame of fire that separates and comes and rests on each of the believers and Enters them and they begin to speak in tongues.

They do not know the Holy Spirit comes as promised the third member of the

Trinity comes to earth and enters into the believers and so that's why when

Ananias and Sapphira try to bring a Gift and claim that it was something that it wasn't in Acts chapter 5 the

Apostles say you lie to the Holy Spirit and Go on to say you lie to God They equate the

Holy Spirit with God. The third member of the Trinity is God now coming to live within us

That's the teaching of this revelation and So with that fourth point we need to remember that in these real -time events.

That is how the Trinity was revealed when God sent his son Born of a virgin born under the law

Dwelling among among us the word made flesh this baby laid in a manger the appearance of this one called

Jesus is a revelation that God is three in one When he's baptized the father says so this is my son.

The Spirit is there too in The claims of Jesus we learn who he is that no no one could miss it if we would go and read

The context of the Old Testament and finally in the coming of the Holy Spirit we're given that down payment that now this

God has come to testify to our own spirits and live within us and finally,

I just want to teach that the oneness of God and The threeness of God are not contradictory when you understand

God according to this Trinitarian view I Quoted for you

Isaiah 43 10 which clearly Speaks of God being one.

There's none besides him. I am he But the most important verse that the

Jewish person would memorize in their home was what? Deuteronomy 6 for the

Shema of Israel here. Oh Israel the Lord our God is one Lord They were to write that on their doorposts they were to make note of it put it up in their houses

Everybody was to memorize it to say it every day. There is only one God Far be it from us ever to deny the

Shema of Israel Deuteronomy 6 4 is true. There is only one

God one being one essence But in the revelation of Jesus when he appeared and dwelt among us

We learn that God exists in three persons That does not violate the law of contradiction

Learn this church. We need to know this It would be a contradiction if I said a and not a if I said one

God Three God that would be a contradiction one being three being

Contradiction one essence three essence No, it's not a contradiction to say that God exists as one being essence one

God in three persons That is the key distinction that personhood is different from the essence of who

God is the being of God It's not a contradiction but it is a revelation

We would never know these things apart from the scripture we could never have come to this by our human logic

It is who God is revealed to us three in one

So in closing, how do we apply? What we learned today remember the intro

We don't There's nothing you have to go and do but there is something that you need to go and believe and If you already believe it good, but grow in that knowledge because not only are we called to believe it

We are called to preach it It's a dividing line It's based on revelation not based on human reasoning.

It requires preaching and So always be ready to give a biblical reason for believing in the

Trinity It's part of the hope that is in you Remember some key passages make note of those passages that we studied where the

Trinity is revealed Continually return to the source of our knowledge of the

Trinity, which is the Bible and spend time contemplating what it reveals concerning the Trinity Do not merely seek advice from the

Bible, but seek God in the Bible Asking him to reveal to you who he is

Let's call on the worship team to come close us with another Trinitarian anthem where we worship

God for who he is and I'm gonna pray as they come on up So father it is a joy.

It is a privilege. It is a delight to come into your presence on a

Sunday morning and simply hear about you and Not about me not about us

To consider you for who you are to know you as father son and Holy Spirit We thank you

God because we could not know this apart from your word apart from your revelation of yourself These things do not come to us by our own wisdom or intellect or human reasoning.

These are truths that are revealed and We stand in need of the truth.

It's the truth that sets us free So I pray for all of us here for the next two weeks as we next consider how this is

Relatable in our lives and finally how it's relevant to so many other areas of theology in life.

I Pray we can go there next but for today Lord, we just want to gaze upon your beauty we just want to look at you and stand in awe and To lift our hands to you to say you are

God and you have revealed yourself to us sinners unworthy lost in our sin

You came for us You took on flesh for us. You became one of us and dwelt among us only to be sacrificed for us in our place and you rose again from the dead and So we'll worship you forever and ever

Holy holy holy Will be our praise for you are holy