Paul's letter to the Ephesians, Ephesians 2, beginning at verse 11, page 976 in the Pew edition Bible. This will be in connection with our catechism lesson for this Lord's Day. Ephesians 2, beginning at verse 11. Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles, in the flesh called the uncircumcision, by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands, remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers of the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him, we both have access to in one spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple and the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit." Let me draw your attention to really the verse that I want to focus on for this evening's message, which is the pattern, I think, How we ought to understand the ministry, the work, the relationship of the persons of the Trinity. Notice carefully what Paul says. For through him, that is through Christ, we both have access in one spirit to the Father. Simply that tonight, I want you to think about. For through him, we both have access in one spirit to the Father. Now let's turn in our Psalter hymnals to Lord's Day 8 of the Catechism. Page 15 in the back of the Psalter hymnal. Page 15. A very brief Lord's Day. But dealing with the subject of great mystery and wonder. I'll read for you tonight the two questions and answers. This, of course, building upon the Apostles' Creed, which is in the preceding question and answer. How are these articles, that is the articles of the Apostles' Creed, how are they divided? And the answer is into three parts. God the Father in our creation. God the Son in our deliverance. God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification. And here's the difficult question. Since there is but one God, Why do you speak of three father, son and Holy Spirit? And the answer is because that is how God has revealed himself in his word. These three distinct persons are one true eternal God. And here ends the reading from the catechism tonight. Let's join together now in prayer, shall we? Father, as we approach tonight the subject of Lord's Day Eights, we humbly acknowledge that we stand before the greatest mystery of all. One God revealed to us as Father, as Son, as Holy Spirit. Father, we pray tonight that the message that is preached would not simply reiterate the truths that we confess, that we believe in our hearts, but that we would understand the connection between what we profess about You and how that manifests itself in the way we live, the way we pray, the way we worship. That we would truly know You. That we would truly love You and serve You and reverence you with all of our hearts. And so, Father, bless the preaching of the Word this evening for Jesus' sake. Amen. Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, let me share with you tonight a bit of my own struggle in the past week in preparing this evening's message. I say struggle because I think I've probably now preached the Catechism about 15 times in my public ministry. And when we come to Lord's Day 8, there's always a struggle as to how to preach a Lord's Day like this, because we can go through all the proof texts that will verify that God indeed is Father, is Son, is Holy Spirit. But I think the challenge is not to convince you of the truthfulness or the biblical basis for the doctrine of the Trinity. Or we can go into the whole matter of the history of the doctrine of the Trinity. You know that, at least in the first several centuries of the Church's history, this was a highly controversial doctrine. So much so that there were warring factions within the Christian Church. And they would often do battle against each other in much the same way that our politicians did leading up to this last week's election. They would write little songs, ditties, to remember. as a way to call to mind their own specific teaching is, in fact, the son equal with the father. A man by the name of Arius says, no, he's not of the same substance. He's of a similar substance as the father. And then later on, you have the church breaking. The church breaking in two between East and West. Over what? Over this teaching that The Spirit of God proceeds from both the Father and the Son. The Roman Catholic tradition, the Western tradition, said that's true. That's a biblical teaching. That the Father and the Son send out the Spirit. The Eastern Church, what gave rise to the Eastern Orthodox, the Russian Orthodox, and churches of that tradition have said, no. The Spirit only proceeds from the Father. But I don't want to go into that. I'll tell you why. In 20 years of pastoral ministry, I can only recall two instances where I've ever encountered someone who denied the doctrine of the Trinity. The first was in my first pastorate. And we were ministering to a member of the congregation, in fact, whose husband was involved in what was called the Worldwide Church of God, following the teachings of Garner Ted Armstrong. And she was very much in trying to keep peace in her own family. She was very much inclined to join this religious organization. We would call it a cult in those days. And one of their essential teachings was they denied the existence of the Trinity. And in her mind, it was, well, what could possibly be the harm of going along with my husband in terms of attending the services at his church or whatever they called it? of adopting his teachings as my own teachings. He says, what's the harm? And I had to explain to her from the Athanasian Creed what it says. That if you do not confess Father, Son, Holy Spirit, equally divine, equally eternal, you cannot be saved. And then I think of my second pastorate where We used to have our sign rolled out in the front along the street, because we were renting the building. And we had visitors, as we often did on a Lord's Day. And this young family came to us from Boise. They were visiting. And afterwards, I was talking to them, and they told me that they were interested in looking into our church, because they were wondering if, in fact, we were Unitarian, because we were a united, Reformed church. Well, I'm sure that after we sang the doxology, which was, holy, holy, holy, I dispelled any notion that we might be Unitarian. God in three persons, Blessed Trinity. Well, we never saw them again, obviously. But other than those two instances, I can't recall a single time where I've ever had to convince a student in catechism class, or a parishioner on a visit, or in my office, or have to convince or have these notions in my mind as I'm preaching that perhaps people don't believe this doctrine. That's never been the case. I think the more essential question that we have to ask ourselves that I want to raise with you tonight is, does this doctrine matter? I mean, have you ever thought of that? Has this doctrine anything to do with the way you live your life? Does it affect your day-to-day living? Does it affect the way we worship? Does it affect the way you pray? I dare say for many people, they never think those things. It's not that they don't believe in the Trinity, but they've never thought through the consequences. What happens when you don't hold to the biblical teaching regarding the Trinity? Not only that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist as three persons of the Trinity, but how do Father, Son, and Holy Spirit relate to one another? How do they interact with one another? How do they together work out the plan of salvation? Have you ever thought about that? Maybe with all the busyness of life and with hectic schedules, we don't think about those things. But you ought to think about those things. And here's why. I have three reasons tonight. First of all, that without the doctrine of the Trinity, there is no Christian faith. I mean, why does Lord's Day 8 address the matter of the Trinity? It's because that is the mark. The watershed moment where we part company with every other religion. Think about that. Judaism says no. God and free persons, no. Islam says no. Buddhism, Hinduism, all the major world religions deny the doctrine of the Trinity. What is the distinguishing mark of the Christian faith? You can look at many things. But ultimately, we have to say what establishes us, what sets us apart from every other religious groups is that we confess Father, Son, Holy Spirit, three persons, one God. Think about how that distinguishes us from the cults. If you've had contact with Jehovah's Witnesses who come to your door or walk through your neighborhood, I always found it interesting in my first pastorate, they knew that our house was a parsonage. So they would visit everybody else on our block, but they would always avoid our house. And I had a parishioner in my first congregation who loved to debate the Jehovah's Witnesses. But the Jehovah's Witnesses essentially are teaching of ancient heresy. As I mentioned, the teaching of Arius. Jesus may have been a mighty prophet. He may have done wonderful things, but to say that he is equally God with the Father? No. No. We don't believe that, say the Jehovah's Witnesses. But also, what is the distinguishing mark of the Reformed faith? Now that we've just remembered and celebrated the Protestant Reformation, Many of us have, at least we've thought about these things. What distinguishes the reformed faith? Well, you say justification by grace through faith or the authority of the scriptures or a form of church government. Well, you could say all those things, I suppose, and you'd be right. But have you ever thought about the fact that what distinguishes the reformed faith, the faith that you and I profess, is that we have a healthy regard, a biblical regard that is, for the relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the work of salvation. What happens, for example, if in our thinking, in our preaching, in our worship, we focus only upon, or primarily upon God the Father, to the exclusion of the Son, to the exclusion of the Holy Spirit and His ministry? There are consequences when you do that. It doesn't happen in many evangelical churches, I would say, but there is an element historically, an element of the church that gravitates in that direction. Or if you only focus or primarily focus upon the work of the Son, Jesus Christ, to the exclusion of the Father and the Spirit and how the Son relates to the Father and to the Spirit, what happens? There are consequences. And perhaps some of you are familiar with churches that raise up the third person of the Trinity, almost to the exclusion of father and son. You see this, for example, in certain Pentecostal or charismatic churches, where the Holy Spirit sort of has free reign to do whatever he wants to. And that those who don't subscribe to that are described as, are labeled as people who want to put the Spirit in a box. I've heard that expression before as well. But over against that, you and I profess, and I think the catechism wants to make very clear to us as well, that we believe Father, Son, Holy Spirit relate to one another intimately. They work together. They work harmoniously. And each has his role in the work of salvation. Notice, for example, in the question and answer in Lourdes VIII, 24. Of all the things the Catechism could say about the Trinity, about God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the Catechism does not emphasize, first of all, the existence or the essence of these persons. It doesn't talk about the fact that the Son is eternally begotten. Whatever does that mean? See, we could have all these kinds of discussions and you'd walk away saying, well, what good does that do for me to know? I mean, how does that affect the way I live my life? The catechism doesn't talk about the spirit proceeding from father and from son. We have that language, by the way, in the Athanasian Creed, but the catechism doesn't do that. The catechism is much more pragmatic. Notice the catechism says, God, the father and our salvation, our creation rather, God, the son and our deliverance, our salvation, and God, the Holy Spirit and our sanctification, that each assumes a significant role, a primary role in each of those things. But how relevant is the Trinity in the way you think? Think, for example, of how the Trinity helps us understand the meaning, the purpose of something as practical and pragmatic as marriage. One of the things I've done in recent years in my premarital counseling is to walk through the passage in Genesis 2 where the Lord, after describing everything as being good, and man being very good. There's the account of Adam naming all the creatures. Wouldn't it have been fun to be in his position? That you had, boys and girls, the opportunity to give a name to every creature you saw. And so he sees these creatures, perhaps in pairs, male and female, whatever the case may have been. But there's a sense in that narrative where the man realizes that there's no suitable helper for him. The Lord had said to him, be fruitful, multiply, have dominion over the whole earth. But Adam can't do that by himself. And so there's the commentary by the Lord. It is not good for the man to be alone. Well, you could say, well, he has animals. I mean, if you have pets, you say, well, if you have a pet, you're never alone. But it's different with a human being. And so God creates the woman as the mate, a suitable helper for the man. Why? Because Adam, because the man, the woman, are image bearers of God. And maybe you've never thought of this before, but as image bearers of God, we reflect, we image the fact that our God enjoys perfect fellowship. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The Father is not alone. The Son is not alone. The Holy Spirit is not alone. And maybe you say, I don't know where you're getting this from, but this is the teaching of Scriptures. The Scripture teaches us that Father, Son, Holy Spirit work together in perfect love, perfect harmony. And Adam is now going to enjoy that fellowship and that union with the woman. Think about how the Trinity helps us understand the way we function as families. Because you have a God who is one, yet revealed as three persons. There is unity and there is diversity. The three persons are distinguished. Think about how that helps us understand the dynamics of our families. There's unity in the family. There ought to be unity in the family. that we're unified in our purpose and our love, that we're working towards the same goal. I've mentioned in pre-marital counseling, the Bible warns about being unequally yoked. In the 21st century, that imagery falls upon deaf ears as we don't think of animals being yoked together. But the idea is, if you're going to pull the plow or pull the wagon, you can't be going in two different directions. There's this unity, and yet, Within that family, there are distinctions, are there not? The husband, father, has a distinct role. The wife and mother, a distinct role. The children. And isn't it wonderful that our children are all different? At times, for parents, it can be very frustrating. I know that. You say, well, if they were all the same, it would be much easier to figure them out. But they're all different. So there's diversity. Or in the church. We're unified, says the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4. We have one faith. There's one spirit. And yet for all of our unity, we speak about the diversity as well. Paul compares it to a body. There are hands and there are feet, there are eyes. Some parts are much more visible than others. There's all this diversity and it's wonderful, beautiful diversity. But one body. Have you ever thought about that being a reflection of who God is? One God. Three persons. So, without the Trinity, there is no Christian faith. Then secondly, without the Trinity, there is no Christian prayer. Let me remind you again of what Paul writes in Ephesians 2, verse 18. For through him, that is through Christ, We both, that is Jew and Gentile, have access in or through one spirit to the Father. What is prayer? C.S. Lewis described prayer as an invitation to experience God. That's a remarkable definition. Maybe you've never thought of prayer that way. Maybe you thought of prayer as giving God a laundry list of all the things that you'd like. All the things that weigh heavily on your heart. My pastor always taught me prayer is covenantal conversation. I love that expression because it talks of the fact that it's not simply a monologue between myself and the Lord. There's this dialogue. He speaks to me in the Word. I speak to Him in prayer. But C.S. Lewis said prayer is an invitation to experience God. Or as someone else said, when we pray with a view to the work of the Trinity, when you think deliberately about Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and their respective roles, it's like he said, praying with the grain. Ask Bill DeBoer what happens when you start using sandpaper against the grain. What that does to a beautiful piece of oak or maple. or redwood. It makes it very ugly, but it also makes it very difficult to produce what you want to produce. You learn to go with the grain, and it becomes very beautiful. And one writer suggested that praying in a Trinitarian way, or with a Trinity in mind, makes that prayer beautiful and vital, living for us. Think about that. Do you ever pray that way? with a view of the work of the Father, who the Father is, what He has done, what He continues to do? Do you pray with a view to who the Son is and how your prayer is shaped by the work of the Son and the Spirit? Think about this, for example. In the Lord's Prayer, to whom do we pray? We pray to God as our Father. Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. And the catechism in Lourdes Day 46 has that beautiful explanation of what that petition means. That we come at the very beginning of our prayer with a sense of intimacy, of closeness with the Lord. There's a sense of reverent awe, but also there's the sense that He's my Father. He loves me. That we enjoy this relationship by His grace. Think of Lourdes Day 9. As my Father, as my Heavenly Father, He is able to do all things. So do I come before Him with doubts? With fears? Do I come before Him thinking, well, He really can't do what I'd like Him to do? What needs to be done? Or He doesn't care about me. He doesn't love me. We sang tonight about our names being engraved upon the palms of God's hand. When you pray specifically with the work of the Father in mind, you think about the fact that the whole work of salvation brings us to the highest privilege of the Gospel, which is what? Our adoption. Behold what manner of love has been shown to us that we are called children of God. It is the greatest privilege of the Gospel. But think also, of praying by means of the Son. Not simply to the Father, but prayer being offered through the Son. What has the Son done that affects the way we pray? We have access to God the Father by means of the Son. No one comes to the Father, said Jesus, but through me. John 14, verse 6. And we sang tonight in that previous hymn of Jesus' continuing role as our intercessor. as our High Priest. And I simply want to ask you the question tonight. I want you to think about this when you pray. Do you pray with that kind of confidence, that kind of assurance, that kind of intimacy? That when you pray, you pray through a Savior who understands your suffering? who understands the trials that you're going through right now. One who is merciful and gracious as a high priest, so that when you come to Him and you bare your soul about your struggles, about your shortcomings, about your failures, He doesn't slap you in the face. He doesn't tell you, but you're screwed up again. What's wrong with you? Sometimes as parents, you know, we become frustrated with our children. We say, how many times haven't I told you this? And yet you still do just the opposite. The Son is merciful and tender. I remember recently a colleague in the ministry reminding me of that. He said, remember, we serve, you serve a tender shepherd. That was very encouraging to me because sometimes the world can be very harsh. Sometimes people can be very harsh. And it's nice to know. It's wonderful to know. It's invigorating to know. that our Savior Jesus Christ is tender. And that's why when we pray, we can pray not only with the intimacy of a Father and a Son speaking to one another, but the Bible says you can come boldly before the throne of grace. Not timidly. Not with doubts in your mind. But boldly. So prayer is offered to the Father. Prayer is offered through the Son. and prayers offered by the spirits. What does the spirit do? What is his work? And here again, you may be told as a Reformed person that you have no appreciation for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Don't be surprised if people tell you that. But when you read the Bible, and again, it's always a matter of what does the Bible say? How is the Holy Spirit depicted? How is his work described? He's never front and center, is He? Some people have referred to the Holy Spirit as the shy person of the Trinity. I prefer to speak of the Holy Spirit as the deferential person of the Trinity. In other words, the Holy Spirit's ministry is always to deflect attention away from Himself and to point our attention to the Son and to the Father. The Holy Spirit creates the desire to pray and to worship. He brings us to faith and sustains us in a life of obedience. And think of what Paul writes in Romans 8. He brings before the Father, before the Son, the words that we can't possibly formulate adequately in terms of our own prayers. That's a great encouragement to pray. And you see, I think that's a much more helpful way of understanding the work of the Trinity. Because if all I gave you was a lecture tonight the history of the doctrine of the Trinity, or all sorts of speculations about how we understand the persons of the Trinity or the essence of the Godhead. You might leave here tonight saying, I don't see how in the world that intersects with the world and with the life I'm living right now. But this does. So be confident. Be encouraged. Be strengthened by this. And finally, without the Trinity there is not only No Christian faith, no Christian prayer, but no Christian worship. How much do you think about the Trinity when you worship, when you gather together for corporate worship? Do you think in terms of those categories of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Who is to be the recipient, the object of the church's worship? It's the Son. The Son who has been exalted because He has suffered, because He has died, because He has risen from the dead, He is now given a name that is above every name. For what purpose? That at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. That's amazing. The Father chooses to do this. But notice as well, let me read to you from that passage. Therefore, God has exalted him and bestowed on him a name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Notice carefully, listen carefully what Paul says to the glory of God, the Father. The Father is the ultimate recipient. of all praise and glory, but He holds up. He brings front and center the Son. Worship the Son. Worship Him. Honor Him. Adore Him. Obey Him. Or again, we read to you a passage from Hebrews 1 where this same thought is reiterated. Hebrews 1, verse 6. And again, when He brings the Firstborn into the world, He says, let all God's angels worship Him. That's what Jesus prays for, by the way, in John 17, doesn't He? In His high priestly prayer. He prays that He would share in the glory of the Father. And that the world would come to acknowledge that glory. That glory that would come by means of suffering and death and resurrection. And what is the role of the Holy Spirit in worship? The Holy Spirit is the empowering agent as well as the joint object of worship. But again, His purpose is always to draw our attention to the Son. That's why you don't read of anyone praying directly to the Holy Spirit. It's not to suggest that it's inappropriate to do so, by the way. But the Bible doesn't emphasize that. It's not prominent. because the Spirit wants us to focus upon the work of the glorified Son. The Spirit has come to glorify the Son. Let me just read one passage to make that clear to you from John 16. Again, Jesus is preparing His disciples for His own arrest and His execution. And as He does so, He talks at length about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He says in John 16, verse 14, He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you. Now do you think about that when you worship? You say, you expect me to take all of that in? Yes, I do. Because we have to cultivate that. We have to nurture that. And I would say by extension, we ought to be singing songs that emphasize that as well. If all of our songs Focus almost exclusively upon the work of the Father, or almost exclusively on the work of the Son, or almost exclusively on the work of the Holy Spirit. We can't cultivate the kind of appreciation for God as He has revealed Himself in His Word. Isn't it wonderful how the Catechism explains that very simply? How do you make sense of this mystery? And the Catechism is not saying here, can you give us all the fine details? Can we know God exhaustively? The answer is no. And as I tell people many times when they ask that question, even in eternity, we will not know God exhaustively because God will be God and we will still remain His creatures. But what we do know of God, what has been revealed, is adequate, is sufficient for our salvation. But the Catechism says, no, we don't have to go into all these explanations. We don't have to try to plumb the depths of this mystery. We speak of the Trinity. Why? Because that is how God has revealed Himself in His Word. And as good Protestants, the writers of the Catechism says, that should be enough. That should be adequate. These three distinct persons are one true, eternal God. So let me challenge you. Let me challenge you to think in a more Trinitarian way as you go about the affairs of everyday life. When you think about the unity and diversity of your family. The unity and diversity of the church. When you think about the unity and the diversity of the created order. All these things are reflections of a God who is three in one. When you pray, Will you now make an effort to pray with a more Trinitarian focus? Thinking of God as your Father, the Son as your Mediator, the Spirit as the One who equips you to pray and to offer up before the Lord what's pleasing to Him. And our worship. Let's work hard. Let's train ourselves to think of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That we may give honor to each. Respecting the work of each person. Rejoicing. As the prophet said, not in our riches. We don't boast in our riches. We don't boast in human wisdom. But let him boast. If he's going to boast, let him boast of this. That he knows the one true God. Let's pray. Father, we have only begun to scratch the surface, as it were, of the great mystery of the Trinity. And what a wonderful mystery it is. And yet, what you have revealed to us in your Word is sufficient to know that as Father, you are the one who has created us. You are the one who has planned our salvation as Son. You are the one who has secured our salvation through death and resurrection. And the one who lives to intercede for us. And as Holy Spirit, you are the one who now applies that saving work of Jesus Christ. You are the one who works within us, assuring us of our salvation. Assuring us that we are children of the living God. And that we can cry out, Abba, Father, that we have hope. for now and for all eternity. So bless this, Father, to our hearts. May it truly transform the way we live our lives. For the honor of Your name, Amen.