Our Scripture reading this morning is Matthew chapter 3. Matthew 3, in those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. And the same John had his raiment of camels here, and a leather and girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bring forth therefore fruits, meat for repentance. And think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in his hand, and he will thrilly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him. Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. And, lo, the heavens were opened unto him. And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And, lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. So far we read God's holy word. Based on that passage and many others is the Heidelberg Catechism's instruction in Lourdes Day 8. Lourdes Day 8. Lourdes Day 7, the Catechism gave the Apostles' Creed. the 12 articles of the Apostles' Creed. Now here in Lord's Day 8, question 24 asks, how are these articles divided? And the answer into three parts. The first is of God the Father in our creation. The second, of God the Son and our redemption. The third, of God the Holy Ghost and our sanctification. Question 25, since there is but one only divine essence, why speakest thou of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? The answer, because God hath so revealed himself in his word that these three distinct persons are the one only true and eternal God. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew 3 describes a rare incidence where the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus cross each other, intersect. John's ministry was coming to a conclusion, although it would not be immediately concluded, but it was coming to a conclusion. His work was nearly finished, and Jesus begins his public ministry here at about the age of 30. John is the forerunner of the Messiah, and he was sent by God to prepare the way and to announce the coming of the King. He's a very striking prophet with a very striking message and method of working. He preached away from Jerusalem, away from the religious center of Israel in separation from the Jewish leaders and their religious leaders. He preached repentance. He preached in the wilderness, usually by the River Jordan. And when he preached repentance, he also preached the repentance, the baptism of repentance with a washing away of sin. He did not care a bit about the comforts of life. He wore a coat of camel's skin and a leather belt around him. And for his food, he found it in the wilderness, locusts, and wild honey. But his message was clear. The call to prepare for the coming of the Messiah, and in the chapter we read, he announced that to the religious leaders who came out to see who he was. In verse 11 and 12, he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Not long after he said that, Jesus came to him out by the Jordan River to be baptized by John. John at first would not allow it. I have need to be baptized of thee, he said, and comest thou to me. But Jesus reassured him this was necessary as a part of his work, that it became us to fulfill all righteousness. And so he baptized Jesus. After Jesus was baptized and came up out of the river a marvelous miracle occurred. The heavens were opened so that Jesus could look up into the heaven of glory. And from heaven came the Holy Spirit. He came in the form of a dove that those who were there could see, and he descended and lighted upon Jesus. At the same time, there was a voice coming out of heaven. This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. That's what the message was for John and for all those standing around him. But interestingly, Luke puts it in different words This was the message to Jesus, thou art my beloved son, in thee I am well pleased. And so it was that at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry, there is this revelation of the Trinity, a clear revelation that had ever been given to that point, the Father speaking from heaven. Thou art my Son, the Spirit descending in the form of a dove, and then the Son standing there in the flesh, sent by the Father, anointed by the Holy Spirit. Lord's Day 8 leads us into holy ground, to be sure. a treatment of the Holy Trinity. The Catechism does so because it is treating the Apostles' Creed, what it has called our Catholic, undoubted Christian faith. It's what faith believes, what faith must believe, the summary of the truth of the Bible. And the Catechism asks then, how are these articles divided? It rightly points out that it's divided into three different sections according to the Trinity of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Recognize that that is not a coincidence. That's not a coincidence that you can divide the articles into those three sections. Recall what I said last week that the Apostles' Creed is a confession developed in the early church in the first 300 years of her existence. It was a creed intended to have one who was converted and desired to be baptized and become a member of the church that they would confess these truths. And so it's quite understandable that when you are developing a statement of faith that you want every converted person to confess, at the very heart of it would be, I believe in God the Father, I believe in God the Son, and I believe in God the Holy Spirit. That's the heart of our confession. That's who God is. And so the Apostles' Creed then developed out of or on that framework of the Trinity. Another early creed, the Athanasian Creed, which I highly recommend that you read this afternoon. The Athanasian Creed begins this way. Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith. And what is that Catholic faith? That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, above all things. you must believe this, one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity. So the Apostles' Creed, as I said, is developed on that framework of the triune God. Before we begin the sermon proper, notice one other thing, we are in the section that deals with our deliverance from sin unto eternal life. And therefore, the theme for the sermon is the triune God who saves us. This is about our salvation. This is the God who saves us, the triune God who saves us. Well, notice, first of all, one only God. Secondly, three distinct persons, and thirdly, blessed covenant life. The scriptures and the confessions are absolutely emphatic, emphatic that there is only one God. Question, just question 25, since there is but one only divine essence, one only divine essence. In our Essentials of Reform Doctrine class, we've been looking at knowing God, and there are a number of ways that you can know God, and one of the ways is to look at what the scripture says about the very essence or being of God. And there are a number of things that you can say about that, but one of them we learned is the oneness of God. The oneness of God. That is, there is only one divine essence. There is not a divine essence in heaven and another divine essence on the earth. There is not one divine essence in Russia and another one in South Africa and another divine essence here. There is only one divine essence. And that absolutely then requires that there be only one God, one divine essence, one God. Over against all the pagan religions that multiplied their gods, go back to the Greeks and they had their Zeus as the head of them and his wife Hera and Poseidon the god of the sea and Athena the goddess of Wisdom and Apollo, the god of the arts, and Ares, the god of war. They invented gods for all the different things they saw in the creation, all the things that affected their life. Gods who were not good and holy. Gods who were not even sovereign, who could fight against each other. But they needed gods, and they had many of them. Or think of the gods of the heathen that surrounded Israel, Baal and Ashtoreth, and Dagon the Philistine, and Molech, and Nebo, and Bel from Babylon, and Rimen, just to name some of the gods Israel confronted. And in the New Testament, the Roman gods Diana, Jupiter, and Mercury are listed. But there is only one God. There is only one divine essence. And the Bible is so emphatic on that. Let me give you just a few of the texts where God emphasizes that. Deuteronomy 6, 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Deuteronomy 32, 39. See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no God with me. Isaiah 45. I am the Lord, and there is none else. Three times in that one chapter, I am the Lord and there is none else. 1 Corinthians, go to the New Testament in chapter 1 Corinthians 8, 4, Paul says, as concerning the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is none other God but one. In 1 Timothy 2.5, where there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. One glorious God who starts out the book of Revelation in the beginning, God. created the heavens and the earth, the God who created all things, the God who upholds them, the God who rules over all things. He is spirit. He is invisible, absolutely invisible. You cannot and will not ever see him. He's not made of material things such as we know in this life. He is eternal. He has no beginning. He has no ending. He is personal. He knows. He thinks. He wills. He speaks. He is omnipotent, possessing all power. He is omnipresent, being everywhere in his creation and beyond. A God who is his attributes. He is love. He is mercy. He is righteousness. He is wisdom. He is power. That is God. He is the only God. He is the God who is to be worshipped and to be praised. If you just think about it for a moment, the whole idea of the Greek gods is absolute nonsense. If you're going to have a God, if there is a God, there can only be one God. If you have a God who created everything, there cannot be two creators. If there is a God who is omnipotent, there cannot be two. that are omnipotent, that's impossible, only one has all power. The highest good, there can only be one, that is the highest good, the one who rules over all things in heaven and in earth, there can only be one, one God. This is the God who reveals himself in scripture and continually reminds us, there is none else. I alone am God. That's the revelation of the Bible. At the same time, God gives more revelation of himself. As question 25, since there is but one only divine essence, Why speakest thou of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? And the answer, because God hath so revealed himself in his word. He has revealed himself in his word that these three distinct persons are the only true and eternal God. I'm not going to describe those persons yet, that's the second point, but what I want to emphasize here is that there is only one God and the three persons are God, they are God. God began this revelation of himself, that's what the catechism says, this is what God reveals God began this revelation of the fact that there were persons in God already in Genesis 1. In Genesis 1. Verse 26, when God has created everything up to man, sun, moon, and stars, sea, the fish, the birds, the animals, everything up to man, then God pauses speaks let us make man in our image and after our likeness you see the the plural pronouns there let us now God did not have assistance from the angel so he's not saying to the angels lets us know God made so God is speaking within himself Let us make man after our image, after our likeness. And then immediately it goes to the singular. So God made man in his own image. in the likeness of man of God made he man male and female made he man all singular pronouns so you have the the oneness of God but you have the something of a plurality in God and earlier in the chapter actually God has already begun to reveal something of those persons because we read that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And then, although that wouldn't be so clear unless you read the rest of the Bible, God spoke. His word called everything into existence. Throughout the Old Testament, God continued to unfold that gradually, lifting up the veil, showing a little bit more of who He is. But when you get to the New Testament, it becomes very plain. There are three that are called God. There are three that are called Lord, even Jehovah. The Father, first of all. In Matthew 11, 25, Jesus said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Lord of heaven and earth, that's Father. But then, what about the Son? John 1, verse 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word was God, and that Word became flesh and dwelt among us. In 1 John, chapter 5, verse 20, is the clearest statement. Talking about Jesus, John writes, this is the true God and eternal life. That's Jesus. What about the Spirit? The Spirit is also identified as God. And one of the clearest passages is Acts chapter 5, where Ananias and Sapphira were deceiving the church, and Peter recognizes that under the inspiration of the Spirit, and says, why have you lied to God? And then in the next verse says, you have not lied to men, Rather, the first, I'm sorry, verse three says, you have lied to the Holy Spirit. You've lied to the Holy Spirit. And the next verse, he says, you have not lied to men, but unto God. You lied to God, you lied to the Spirit. They're one in the same. Three persons, but all God. God continued to reveal that these three persons are God because the works that they do, can only be the works of God, the work of creating Father, Son, and Spirit all involved in that. The work of forgiving sin, as Jesus showed with the man lying on the mat. Thy sins are forgiven you. And then Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. Raising from the dead? Who but God can do that? And the attributes that they had were attributes only God has. The Spirit is described as the Eternal Spirit. He's the one in Psalm 139 that is omnipresent, the Spirit of God. How can I hide from Him? And Almighty, the Spirit and the Son, and the Father are called Almighty. So the Bible makes us to conclude that there are three persons, all of whom are equally God. One essence, but there are three persons. They have all the attributes of God equally. equally they have infinite love and mercy and grace and wisdom and power this is the one only true God but three distinct persons and now here in the second point I want to develop that what does it mean Who are and what are these three persons like? When we try to understand this very difficult idea of one God, three persons, we start with the idea of what is a person? What is a person? Now, we all have an idea of what a person is. We don't mistake a car for a person. We don't mistake a tree for a person. We have an idea what a person is. A person is an individual with real existence. He's not a mere idea. He's a true existing substance. A person has self-consciousness. Little babies do not have that. It takes about a year or two before they begin to be self-conscious and recognize that they are distinct from other things and other people. Nobody here imagines that they're just like the piece of wood that they're sitting on, the bench, or no one here imagines that they're not different from the person sitting next to them. We know we are an individual person. We have self-consciousness. An individual speaks about himself. I saw this. I went there. I would like this. This is what I, as a person, say. It's what you say. A person has intelligence and will. A person thinks, desires, makes choices, a person loves, hates, speaks, and does things, acts. A person, an individual, self-conscious, who says I, who has intelligence and will. One thing more we can say about a person, that is, he is unique. He is unique. Every person God created is a unique individual with a blend of attributes and personality that makes that person different from the seven billion plus people that are on the face of the earth right now. Each one of us is unique, different from all other persons. The three persons within the Godhead are also unique. There's something very unique. Now within a family you can have two children that are very much alike, they share a lot of things in common, but they are still individual unique persons. And that's true within the Trinity. God, Father, Son, and Spirit, they share a lot. All the attributes of God they share. And yet there is something that makes each one of them distinct from the others in the Trinity. Their own personal characteristic. That each one has that the other two do not have. One personal characteristic. Now God helps us to understand that by giving names to the three persons. The first person of the Trinity is called Father. Now, God put fatherhood into the human race so that we would understand something about God being Father. And a lot of times what we think about then is that the Father is the head of the home, He makes the rules, He provides, He protects, He cares for us, and all of that's true. And yet, that's not the distinctive character of the Father in the Trinity. that the Father in the Trinity is the one who cares for us and protects us and provides for us, that's not distinctive because the Son also rules, and the Spirit also provides and protects. So what is it about fathers that is unique to them that no one else can do? And that is, they begat children. They begat children. That's the one unique characteristic of the Father within the Trinity. He is source. He is source. He is the one who begats a son. He begats a son in his own image. He communicates his own divine essence to the Son. When did the Father do this? The answer is there's no starting point. There's no starting point. And that has to be. Think about this. We say Father, Son, and Spirit are all true and eternal God. Eternal. They have no beginning. There is no moment when the first person of the Trinity became Father. He has been Father forever. His begetting of the Son is a constant activity. It's not that the Father within the Trinity begat the Son and now it's finished, no. He is continually, everlastingly begetting the Son in His own image. This is exactly where we struggle. A father begetting a son. We understand that. but a father begetting the son eternally and unceasingly. We really can't explain it. The father's life, his divine essence, his attributes, He is communicating to the Son unceasingly. Everything that the Father is, the Son is, except the Son does not beget. And if you're struggling with that, the man who was one of the chief authors of the Heidelberg Catechism is in the same boat you are. This is what he wrote about Jesus. Jesus had his divine essence communicated to him by the Father in a way not to be explained. You can't explain it. You can't explain it. You understand what it means to beget. You can understand the words, God eternally begets the Son. And then we really have to just stop. That then is the unique characteristic of the Father. He begats. He's the source within the Trinity. He begats the Son in His own image. If you go to the second person, then God says, this is son. What is it about sonship that especially describes the one unique thing of the son within the Trinity? Well, it's that he has a father, he's begotten. The Son is begotten in the image of the Father. And the passages in the Word of God that prove that the Father begets and the Son is begotten are the same passages. For example, John 1.14, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. full of grace and truth, John 1, 14. A few verses later in verse 18, no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. The father stands apart. The first person stands apart, that he's father, begetting the son in his own image. The son stands out in that he is the one begotten of the father in the father's image. What about the third person of the Trinity? He's called Spirit. Spirit. And Spirit, in the original, the name can mean either breath or wind. And wind describes the spirit as he works invisibly and powerfully. Jesus talks about that in John 3. You can't see the wind, but you can see the effects of it. Powerful, invisible work. But it's now as breath that we try to understand what makes the Holy Spirit to be unique within the Trinity. Breath. Now the Father is source within the Trinity, always source, and yet it would not be proper to say that the Father begets the Son and the Father begets the Spirit. Son begetting, that makes sense, but begetting the Spirit doesn't make sense. The Bible does not want us to draw that conclusion. Breath. Breath is something that comes out of your mouth. You breathe out air. And the Spirit is not mere air, but He is breath. He is breathed forth. And the word that we pick up on in the scriptures, we'll see in a moment, to convey that idea of the Spirit being breathed forth is that the Spirit proceeds from the Father. Proceeds from. Not begotten, that's the son, he's begotten of the father, but the spirit proceeds from the father. And then if you delve into it more deeply, you see that the spirit also proceeds from the son. The spirit proceeds from the father, the spirit proceeds from the son. That's John 15, verse 26, for one passage. John 15, 26 says, but when the Comforter has come, whom I will send unto you from the Father. So Jesus is saying that I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father. The Spirit proceedeth from the Father. You say, well, okay, then where's the Son? Well, if you go to John 20, verse 22, when Jesus had said this, He breathed on them, His disciples, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. He breathed the Spirit unto them. The Spirit proceeds as breath from the Father, from the Son. That is His distinctive characteristic. Now, according to each person, and according to the relationship and characteristics within the Trinity, so also the particular role that each one accomplishes. Understand that all God's works are triune. The Father never goes off and does something on his own. The Son never goes off and does something on his own, nor the Spirit. All of God's works are one because God is one. God is one, and the three persons never operate independent from each other. And yet, there is something about the particular characteristics that puts one in the foreground in some of the works of God. Now, the Father is the source. And He begets the Son and breathes forth the Spirit. All the activity of God, therefore, starts with the Father. Always starts with the Father. But He never works on His own. He works through the Son. And then the Spirit becomes the agent that accomplishes it. So that's why we say in Reformed theology that all God's works are of the Father, He's the source, through the Son, and by the Holy Spirit. By His working. of the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit. Now, in harmony with that, the catechism then says when we divide up the articles, we don't just say Father, Son, and Spirit, but it's the Father and our creation. And you can understand that that makes perfect sense, because the Father is the source. So if you're going to speak of the One out of whom, or rather the One by whom He created all things out of nothing, the Father would be the One. So it's God the Father and our creation. But the Son is there. He's the Word. John 1 says, all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made. The Spirit was the one on the face of the waters, giving life and shape to everything God the Father spoke. In Psalm 33, which we will sing as our last number today, by the Word of the Lord were the heavens made. The Word, that's Jesus. and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth, by the Spirit. So God the Father and our creation coming from Him, but not independent from the other two. God the Son and our redemption. Now obviously that is where the Son stands out. He's the one that took on Himself human flesh. The Father did not. The Spirit did not. So Jesus is God in the flesh who redeemed us. And yet, the Father is the one that sent him. Over and again in his ministry, Jesus said, I do the works of my Father. I do the will of him that sent me. I lay down my life, I pick it up again, because this is what I have been given by my Father to do. And the Spirit is the one that anointed Jesus. The Spirit is the one that united divine and human nature, and then gave Jesus the power to go through His ministry, ultimately to the cross, bear the wrath of God, and then the Spirit raised Him from the dead. The Spirit is the one who sanctifies. God the Father in our creation, God the Son in our redemption, God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification. Obviously, He's on the foreground. He's the one that comes in, He regenerates, puts in that holy life. He is the one that will sanctify and make us to be holy. And yet, He was sent, breathed forth by the Father. And Jesus is the one who is called our sanctification. And in Ephesians chapter 5, Jesus is the one of whom it is said that He sanctifies the church. He cleanses it with the washing of word. by the water, by the word, that he, Jesus, might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, but that it would be holy and without blemish. " My point is this, the Spirit is the one that's identified with sanctification with the Father and the Son. We're also very much involved in the work, all God's works of the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit, Triune God. And exactly because that's who God is, God lives a blessed covenant life, a blessed covenant life. Within God, within His being, God has a life of love and fellowship. God is not a dead God living in the darkness of eternity, a bit lonely, maybe a little bored, who created a universe to fill some void that he needed. That's not God. God is a living God. He is an active God. He has a most beautiful, active life within himself. The covenant life. His life is one of love and fellowship, I said, and the proof of that, the evidence of that is even found in the names that he gives himself as persons. Father and son. Right away you think family. Right away you think fellowship, communion, love. That's what it brings out immediately, and God wants us to think that way. That's what exists in God. The Father eternally begets the Son in love. Whatever that may mean, and though we can't understand, comprehend what that is, God eternally begets His Son in love for His Son, in His own image. And the Son, begotten in the image of God, is the delight of His Father in the bosom of the Father, we read earlier. That's where the Son is eternally, in the bosom of the Father, hugged as it were. There's a bond of love there. And the Son reflects the perfections of God, the Father. He delights to do that. So there is that beautiful relationship of love. They seek each other's good. They desire each other's good. They delight in each other. But there's more to that life. That life of love is a life of fellowship. And that's especially where the Holy Spirit comes in. A life of fellowship. Fellowship is communicating. Fellowship demands knowledge of the other person. You can't love someone that you do not know. The Spirit searches the deep things of God. That's what He does. He searches the deep things of God. And He is breathed forth by Father and Son. So the Father breathes forth, so to speak, the Spirit unto the Son, the Spirit who searches the deep things of the Father, knows the Father, knows His love and His mercy and all of the good that He has directed toward His Son, and the Spirit brings all of that to the Son. The love of the Father His great delight in His Son, the Spirit brings all of that to the Son. But the Spirit brings the Spirit, the Son rather, brings the Spirit back to the Father. And so the Spirit searching the deep things of the Son, His love, His grace, His delight in the Father, He searches that and brings that back to the Father so that there is true love, true fellowship, existing within the Holy Trinity. They're absolutely united. This is a constant activity. This is what God has been doing for all eternity, delighting in himself the highest good, the perfect being, infinitely perfect. God is a covenant God. Also in eternity, God determined to bring creatures into that covenant life, to bring them in, into his life of love and fellowship. That creature is man, the one that is the highest of all the creatures that God made. Created in God's own image, righteousness, holiness, true knowledge. True knowledge. Created as an image bearer so that he can think, he can reason, he can speak, he has intelligence and will. God determined a mediator that would be between the great and infinite God and this lowly creature. A mediator had to be between them, the perfect mediator, one who is very God, one who is very man, perfectly can bring them together in covenant fellowship. This mediator would accomplish God's purpose by redeeming the people from their sin, uniting them to himself, and then bringing them into God's own covenant life. Notice that. When the Catechism divides the articles, Father, Son, and Spirit, he doesn't merely say, the first part is about God, the Father, and creation. The second is about God, the Son, and redemption. The third is about God, the Holy Ghost, and sanctification. No, before every one of those is the word our. It's about God, the Father, and our creation. Who's the our? That's a believer. that's the believer God eternally determined a people and he created those people with a view to his covenant the creation of his people our creation is what we're concerned about here because he made us for his covenant the sun and our redemption The redeemed people, eternally chosen by God, created by God, now are redeemed by the Son with a view to living in God's covenant and the Holy Spirit and our sanctification. We are sanctified. We had to be. We're going to live with God. Sinners cannot live with God. We have to be made righteous in the blood of Christ. We must be made holy by the Spirit. A covenant people. eternally chosen, redeemed in the blood of the Son, made holy so that they can live with God. The triune God saves His people unto the covenant. The covenant is not merely to get you saved. It's the other way around. You are saved in order to live in the covenant of God. Think of the baptism forms beautiful description of God's work as the triune God. The Father makes an eternal covenant of grace with us and adopts us as his children and heirs. The Son redeems us from sin by His sacrifice on the cross, and the Spirit promises to dwell in us and to apply to us all that the Father has determined, all that the Son has accomplished. The triune God saves us. Eternally the three persons of the Trinity had this plan in their own mind, one plan. And the blessed fruit for us is this covenant life with God. So the Catechism this morning gives us some of the significance of the doctrine of the Trinity. This is the God whom we worship. There is no God beside Him. Marvelous is His revelation to us and we praise Him. We who have been taken from sin are brought into His own covenant life and forever and ever we will get to know Him better, understand Him more, and be able to live with Him and praise Him with understanding. That's God's glorious purpose. Amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank Thee for Thy amazing goodness that thou hast given us to know thee. Mere creatures of the dust are given to know the very essence of God. And then to have that glorious God be so interested in us to accomplish His eternal purpose. We cannot wait for eternity. Make us to be faithful now. and to rejoice in this one only God. In Jesus' name we pray this, amen. We sing Psalm 33. I referenced it in the sermon, and this is a new psalm for us, a new tune, I should say, and it has all the things that we emphasized, the creation of the world by the word and the spirit, but this version I picked because the 10th, or rather the 5th verse, speaks of God's covenant. speaks of God's covenant. So let's sing stanzas one, two, and five. It is a new tune to the Psalter, but I think you'll recognize the tune. We'll have the organist play maybe just the first page. You see, it goes on both pages. So when you're singing stanza one, you sing the first page, and then it goes on to the next page. So that's how this works. We'll have the organist play just the first page, and then we'll sing it. One stanzas, one, two, and five. ¶. For it is the theme of life in praise. Let's sing a glory praise in which I will reply with music to the new song to embrace. of the Lord is great, grateful and full. And lead us through righteousness, justice, and judgment, the ends of the earth to the Lord's steadfast love. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, To hope in his love, and in God every fear. We just have come that he will rescue and save you, The Lord be with you. ♪ Help me, oh promise, as we go to the end of hope that we may. ♪ of his triumph, for he alone has wonders done, and he's in glory never found. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.