It's good to be with you on the Lord's Day. I look forward to the Lord's Day every week. It is the highlight of my week. I hope it is yours. This afternoon, since your church calls this a Bible class, we're going to have sort of a Sunday school type Bible lesson. If you would turn to Matthew 28, I did a number of years ago a series, I wouldn't call them lectures, I don't know how to lecture. I don't know if I know how to teach, but a lot of my teaching usually ends up preaching, but I guess I need to be apt to teach or I wouldn't be able to stand up here. Anyway, one of the most rewarding studies ever did was doing a series of messages, sermons, lectures, whatever you'd like to call them, on the doctrine of the Trinity. It was as if I got to know my God in ways and in depths that I had never really come to know Him. You know, most of you know, that a lot of people in Christendom with their so-called relationship with God, many of them, it is a relationship with someone who is an imagination of their own hearts. Sadly. And it can easily creep into our own. And so I think it's extremely important that we understand this one whom we call God, the being of God, and if we don't, We can easily slip into idolatry if you don't know who God is. Now, I understand that the doctrine of the Trinity will always maintain a mystery about it, as will the doctrine of the Incarnation. But when I studied this doctrine and read a couple of good books, I can recommend Bruce Ware, The Doctrine of the Trinity, and James White, The Doctrine of the Trinity. Both of those were just great aids and help to me. It's just ministered to me spiritually and I think ministered to the people to whom I delivered these messages to. I'm going to begin today by giving you, after I give a sort of an introduction, eight reasons why you should study the doctrine of the Trinity. And I'm not going to have time to do this, but I have it here anyway, because there was a three part series that I did. And the other part was the historical background on the doctrine of Trinity. Why did our forefathers come to believe such a doctrine when the word itself is not in the Bible? And I found a lot of wonderful things about that. And then I did a third message, which was the sort of the spiritual applications, the applications of why does this have anything to do with me? How does the understanding of the Trinity relate to my relationship to my wife, my relationship in the church. It is extremely, and I'm going to touch on it today, important because what you know about the Trinity is immensely helpful in knowing how to guide your own relationships within certain perimeters like in the marriage or in the church. Simply want to read to begin with you a text that is often used to sort of to affirm the doctrine of the Trinity. As I said, there's a total separate message on how the early church came to formulate the doctrine of the Trinity, although it was always there. They began to articulate it in ways and systematic theology and teaching it as to make it very helpful to the church to understand. But inevitably, it was always back to the point that as we studied the Bible, we weren't putting on the Bible our own thoughts. Our forefathers in studying the Bible, the early church in studying the scriptures, they couldn't get away from it because they knew God was one. They were never going to stop believing that. But they also knew that the Father was God. And they also knew that the Son, attributes of deity, the Holy Spirit, attributes of deity. So what do you do with that? Well, at the end of the day, you go as far as you can with Scripture and get your applications and understandings. There will always be a set of remains of mystery, but it is in the Bible. And this is who, this is who our God is. And if you're going to worship him like you worshiped him this morning and as we just sung a moment ago, you need to keep in mind constantly, even if it's a battle, I mean, as children battle with it and our intellects battle with it. And they always are going to battle with how do you understand three persons and one being? Well, you go as far as the Scriptures give us light. And as I said, you leave it there. But one of the texts, and I'll just read it to you. You've seen it often there in the end of chapter 28, Matthew's Gospel. Our Lord tells his disciples to go therefore, verse 19, and make disciples of all the nations, and they were to go do something if they do this, and that was they were to baptize them in the name. And in the Greek, it is singular. Right, so in the name, and so you would think that the next thing you would hear would be just one name because it's in the singular. Of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And of course, there are many other passages that you could go to to to begin to formulate the doctrine, and we would go through that in the other study. But today, I just want to spend some time with you first in giving you sort of some definitions, and then give you those eight reasons why you should study this doctrine in the Bible, because ultimately, if you're saved, He's your God. He's the one you get up for, you live for, you die for. You place everything you have and everything you are in believing in this one God of the Bible. But who is He? What is He like? And it cannot be just that this sort of abstract just being or that, you know, it doesn't really matter whether you just always just talk to Jesus or pray to Jesus. It really doesn't matter if you just sort of think of the Spirit. It matters. How you think about the persons of the Godhead in your relationships, in your church, in your prayer, everything, it touches it. And I hope to bring some of that out today. So if you would take out your confession. You do have it there in the hymn books, don't you? OK, you do have it. One of the great definitions in our confession in chapter two and paragraph three, We're just going to read a few of these definitions, one here, and then I've got another for you, or two more, just to kind of fill your hearts and minds with what men have come up with, which is their best definitions, as they could, tackling such a lofty subject. In this divine and infinite being, there are three subsistences. I've always struggled with that particular word. I often wondered if the forefathers were struggling as well as to come up with a particular one. This is the one they chose. The Father, the Word, or Son, and the Holy Spirit of one substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father. That's extremely helpful, isn't it? Eternally begotten of the Father. The Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son, all infinite, without beginning. Therefore but one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties and personal relations. Which doctrine of the Trinity? is the foundation of all our communion with God and comfortable dependence on Him. So our own forefathers of our confession understood the relationship of you understanding as best you can what is this doctrine of the Trinity because it affects your whole life. It's idolatry to worship just Jesus. Alone. Only. There is a Jesus-only-ism, and the Pentecostal is way heavy on the Holy Spirit emphasis there. And so we need to keep the proper understanding always before us as Christians when we worship, when we pray, in our relationships. And I love that definition there. But just to kind of undergird it, I want to give you a couple of more. Some of you may have heard of a man by the name of Sam Storms. He says the following, and he's going to get to a definition by somebody you know. He says, the concept of the one God as a trinity of co-equal, yet distinct persons is the most intellectually taxing and baffling doctrine of Scripture. And I agree. I remember an older man in my church in Florida, he had gotten saved, very intellectual, stalwart kind of a man, and he was learning and just drinking up all the doctrines when they got to the Trinity, he constantly stayed frustrated because he thought he could figure it out. He thought we ought to be able to fully comprehend it. And you can go so far. At some point, it's too intellectually taxing. Again, you go as far as you can. He says, it is a mystery that is beyond reason, yet not contrary to it. Probably the most famous definition of the doctrine of the Trinity is that of Saint Augustine, 4th and 5th century. And here's what he said. So you've probably heard this many times. It's worth repeating. There are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And each is God. And at the same time, all are one God. And each of them is a full substance. And at the same time, all are one substance. The Father is neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit. The Son is neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. But the Father is the Father uniquely. The Son is the Son uniquely. And the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit uniquely. All three have the same eternity, the same immutability, the same majesty, and the same power. This, brethren, is the most essential thing you can study. Because it's God. It's who your God is. And if you don't get who it is you're worshipping, it at the end of the day becomes an idolatrous thing. The Jehovah Witnesses, the Mormons, and all the other religions that deny the Trinity, they end up becoming idolaters. Because they're worshipping something other than the God of the Bible. who we very clearly see in the Scriptures has taught us that he is three persons and one God. Now, here's your eight reasons why you should study the doctrine of the Trinity. Number one, it is one of the most distinguishing doctrines of the Christian faith. There are many things we might find ourselves in common with among even some of the cultic Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses. Some of the languages they use. We might even find ourselves even more closer to some of the things that Catholics might use as far as that goes. And they themselves claim to be believers in the Trinity, although in practice they have a fourth person to their Godhead. And we know that to be Mary, but we won't get into that today. But this doctrine is the most distinguishing doctrine of the Christian faith. As God took Moses and led him across the Red Sea, they were blown away at the power of God. And they didn't have Hollywood to show it to them. Exodus 15, 11, who is like you among the gods? And remember, that's plural because they had seen that the gods of Egypt, they all fell down and they were worthless. Who are like you among the gods, O Lord, who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders. So if you want to worship God, you want to be in awe of God, you want to be in awe and wonder of this being who's come to save you, know who he is. Know that God is one, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and you learn all about it that you can, because if you get that down, you'll be able to be a pretty good person who can do apologetics. You'll be able to sit down and talk with many other so-called religions out there, because this one distinguishes us. It's the truth of the Orthodox Church, lowercase o, and that you understand this. So a careful study of this truth about God in Scripture will uncover just about every cult and religion known to man. It will. And this is the devil's work. The devil's work is to confuse and to put fog in people's minds about who the character of God is, the person of God, persons of God. And at the very beginning, you want to know why we have creeds? The creeds in the early church were fought out in the trenches of defending this doctrine. That's why we have them. That's why we want to keep them, because we have to keep on defending it. Second reason you should study the doctrine of the Trinity. And there's going to be overlap in this. The doctrine of the Trinity is central to the Christian faith. If we remove the Trinity from our faith, Christianity fails, falls miserably. Consider the Trinity briefly in salvation. The father sends his only son to die for sinners, John 3, 16, right? For God, the Father, so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. So that's the Father sending the Son. The Son leaves His glorious place with the Father in heaven in order to pay the debt for His people. So call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. The Spirit didn't die on the... come to die on the cross, the father didn't come to die on the cross, the son did, uniquely. And the Holy Spirit works not only to bring regeneration to the elect, John 3, unless you're born again by the spirit of God, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Obviously, as well, the spirit has come to empower the elect to be sanctified and live godly lives on the earth. Acts 2, Galatians 5, walk in the spirit. Ephesians 5, 18, be filled with the spirit, do not be drunk with wine. So it's essential It's essential to the Christian faith. So if you're not saved at the end of the day, I mean, that's the most horrible thing that could happen to us. So if we're going to talk about salvation, our own salvation, then we ought to know how it is the persons of the triune Godhead worked in bringing about our salvation, as Brother Ryan prayed a moment ago. So the third reason you should study the doctrine of the Trinity. I get through this fast enough, we might get to the historical facts, we'll see. Worship of the true and living God consciously acknowledges the relationship and roles of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Worship of the true and living God consciously acknowledges the relationship and roles of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 1, I'd turn your attention there. I don't want to spend a lot of time, because I'm not intending here to give an exposition through Romans 1, that glorious, lofty chapter of predestination. But you see the doctrine of the Trinity woven in and out here of these passages from Paul to his letter to the Ephesians. As you think about the Trinity, you think about which one is speaking, which one is acting. This is not just singular God, as it were, in general, the Scriptures teach us that these three persons of the one God are acting distinctly in this work of our salvation. So in verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. So when he says in Christ, you know that they're still talking about the Father. The Father has blessed us. with every spiritual blessing, just as he, the father, chose us in him, the son, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy without blame before him in love. And some translations or interpretation here is that in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, who we're talking about there, the father, right? According to the good pleasure of his will. To the praise of the glory of his grace. That's that's I think this seems to be Paul's ultimate goal in teaching us what he's taught in these in this first chapter. OK, so to which he made us accepted in the beloved, there is the son. In him, in the son, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. Which he made made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made to us made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself." The Father is speaking now. "...that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ the Father, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him." In His Son. "...in which also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will We who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. And here we go, verse 13, in whom you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. So in these first 13 verses of Ephesians 1, Paul is opening up the veil of the glorious doctrine of God's election, predestination, and salvation in Christ through His blood. All the essential doctrines of the Christian faith of salvation. And Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is speaking of the Father at times, and of the Son at times, and of the Spirit at times. Purposely. So he's thinking, he's thinking that there's a distinction within the Godhead. One God. But he's keeping the distinction. So all I'm saying is worship of the true and living God consciously, continuously acknowledges the relationship and roles of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And we will get into that in one of my other lessons, because there are roles that each one plays. They don't play the same roles. They don't all do the same. The Father has a particular role. The Son has a particular role and the Spirit has a particular role. They don't do each other's roles, yet they remain one God. And the beauty of it, this is why this is such a blessed teaching to me, and I struggle to teach it in a way that I feel like I can bring it home to you to feel what I felt as I got through studying it, was wow! I'm starting to understand just a little light there at the end of that tunnel in John 17, that massive, glorious passage where he talks about fathers, that they may be one, even as we are one. And the connection is love. And there's never any conflict within the three persons. So, in the marriage, there ought to never be any conflict. In the church, there should never be any conflict. As the Father has loved me, even so I have loved you. Oh, Father, they may be one. And so there's this oneness that's in the Godhead is beautiful and it's lovely and it's real and it's active. And I'm getting ahead of myself in thinking and saying about how this is applicable to lives and marriages and churches and so forth. Well, fourth reason you should study the doctrine of the Trinity. And maybe we could spend a little time if somebody has some questions at the end here about any of these particular things that I have mentioned to you, corrections or additions or what have you. Prayer for the Christian must be understood in the light of the roles of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in order for it to be, and maybe a little strong here, to say it to be biblical or proper. Because I would not want to say that it would be a sin for any of you to pray to Jesus, because if you pray to Jesus, you're still praying to God. or to pray to the Holy Spirit, you're still praying to God. But if I read my Bible properly, it teaches me that we are to pray to the Father through the Son in the power of the Spirit. And I think it's important to maintain that thinking as we pray, but not consider it such a strict thing that if you were to say within your prayer, oh, Jesus, please help me today. Have we not done that, brethren? Oh, Spirit, fill me with your love for these people. You're praying to the Spirit. It's not a sin to do that. But I think that the norm, the structure, the norm that God would have us understand is this. The Lord had his disciples come to him one day and says, Lord, Luke 11 1, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples to pray. So he said to them, when you pray, say, You know this, right? Our Father who art in heaven. I believe when Jesus tells His disciples, when you pray, I want you to pray to the Father. That as a Christian, I believe Jesus still wants me to pray to the Father. So when I begin my prayers, I'm not sinning when I say, Oh God, thank you for this time we have here today. Or I'm not sinning when I say, Oh Lord Jesus, This morning as we meet for the Lord's Day, we would desire your presence. But the norm, I see reading, if I read our Lord's words correctly, is that we pray to the Father. But what does it mean by to pray through the Son or in the name of the Son? Well, John 14, our Lord said, whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. You know, when I was a child, and I would hear somebody pray, or even before I became a Christian as an adult, I'd hear someone saying, you know, they'd always close their prayers, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name. And I never understood what that meant. Why did everybody always say, in Jesus' name? What is all that about? And, you know, I'm not saying I have the whole... thing on that, but essentially it is that we are asking based on the merits of Christ in our behalf, that for the Father to give us anything or for the Father to do something for us, we're not asking, OK, Lord, I've been to church faithful for 10 weeks. Now will you help me pay my mortgage? No, Father, help me pay my mortgage because Christ died and said I could ask you. He said, if I ask in his name, Father, You love Your Son. And whatever Your Son asks, You delight in Your Son. Hear ye Him. So, we understand that we pray to the Father through the Son because our requests are to the Father based on the merits of Jesus Christ. Yet, while retaining our own personal needs within that prayer. What about the Spirit? Pray to the Father through the Son. Well, listen to these two passages. Both of them out of Ephesians 2.18. Paul says, for through Him, through Christ the Son, we both, that is Him and the church of Ephesus, have our access. Access to what? To the Father, to God, in one spirit to the Father. Ephesians 2.18. For through Him, we both have our access in one spirit to the Father. And then Ephesians 6, 18, you know this one, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. The Catholic or the Pentecostal saints, what that means is you have to be really worked up in some emotional ecstatic frenzy. That's what that means. No. It means that you who are indwelled by the spirit of God ought to be led by the spirit of God when you're praying. Because if you're praying and you're not being led by the spirit of God, you're praying in vain. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, capital S. Now, somebody may have some questions about that at the end, if you have some thoughts on the issue of prayer. Again, I'm not trying to box in a formula that has to be to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. I'm saying, as far as I can see the Scripture, that that's the way the norm is to be. I don't believe that we are sinning. if we are in some way in our prayers calling out to the Spirit of the Son. But we need to just, I think, constantly keep this in mind as we pray. Don't you want your prayers to be heard? I know you do. And so we need to do them as biblically as we can. The fifth reason you should study the doctrines of the Trinity is that the Christian's growth in Christlikeness is learned and understood through the work of the Trinity. OK, Christ likeness, we don't understand Romans 8 talks about how he predestined us to be conformed to the image of Christ. That's happening. If you're truly born again, he's always doing that in our lives, using trials, tribulations, good times, bad, whatever, all things work together. So the father. Has ordained, secured and ordained our holiness. He then sends his son to accomplish this decree of the father by living a sinner's life on our behalf. dying in our place for those who are chosen, and the Son and the Father send the Spirit to regenerate His people and to carry out the work of Christlikeness in them. So the sanctifying work that goes on in your life and my life as Christians is the Holy Spirit working in us and through us. Be filled with the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit, ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. In my early days of a Christian, I still had so much remaining sin, and I still have remaining sin, but I didn't want to sin. I hated sin, but I kept on sinning. I'm a schizophrenic. I'm going mad. What's wrong with me? I thought I got saved. And I'd come across these rich verses and translations. Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I thought, that's it. I don't want to fulfill the lust of the flesh. If I could just figure out how to walk in the spirit, my problems would all be over. There's a lot of discussion there, isn't it? We know that it was that simple, right? It's true, but reality is not the same as what we understand to be true in the sense that it is true, but we don't always walk in the spirit as we should. Because if we walked in the Spirit as we should all the time, we would never succumb to the lust of the flesh. But that's because we have remaining sin, and we have these unglorified bodies that we have to walk around in, in which meathead of sin can still dwell. And so there's why the Spirit lusts against the flesh, and the flesh against the Spirit. Those are always the things that you do. In 2 Corinthians 3.18 it says this, But we all, with unveiled faith, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed. How? Into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. So the work of sanctification The work of God decreeing that He's going to make you like His Son, while retaining your own personality, now that's rich. We're not robots. We're just going to talk like Jesus, act like Jesus as robots. We are going to be fully sanctified in heaven, but we are going to retain our personalities as it were, but without all that sin that still tags along with our personalities now. So again, there is just the Christian's growth in Christ's likeness is learned and understood through the work of the Trinity. Six, we become overwhelmed, or I did anyway, with awe when we study both the unity and the diversity within that triune Godhead. This was something, you know, they just didn't teach me. I didn't learn a lot of stuff I didn't learn at Liberty, and there's a lot of stuff I had to unlearn at Liberty, but I am still thankful for liberty. So don't misunderstand me. Concerning the unity within the Godhead, I want to quote from a man I mentioned earlier on a book by Bruce Ware. There is never any conflict of purpose. When I read this, not only think about the Trinity, but think about your marriage. or your family and your church. There is never within the Godhead, there is never any conflict of purpose. Oh, to have a church with one purpose. Doesn't this remind you of the early church attitude? Never any jealousy over another's position. The son doesn't go around making, father, that's not fair. I wanted to decree this or that. And the spirit doesn't go around and say, this is not fair. I'm supposed to come and bring your glory to Jesus. Why can't I get some glory? Because remember, John 16 talks about he will not speak of his own, but he will speak of me. He will glorify me, Jesus said. We'll look at the passage at some particular point here, but just continue reading his quote. He says within the Godhead, never prideful over one's own position or work. And they are always sharing fully the delight in being the one God and accomplishing the unified purpose of God. Yes. Yes. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, three distinct persons. And they have one purpose. They have roles of submission and authority within the Godhead. And it's just coming along beautifully in perfection. And I think he wants us to translate that harmony and that beauty of one purpose and harmony within our marriages and within the church. And though it will never be perfect on this side of heaven, we look to the triune Godhead to see how it's done. Think how the church would be if we acted the same way the persons within the Godhead acted. The Son, whatever I see the Father do, that's what I do. The Father loves me. I always do the will of Him that sent me. I always do His will. As a shepherd, wouldn't that be great to say? As a shepherd, I always do His will. Well, you know, it's the goal. As a member of the church, I'm always seeking to do His will. As the Son seeks to do the will of the Father. The Spirit shining light on the Son. We do the same. We want to send light on the Son. No conflict of purpose. In the marriage, there is to be submission by the wife to the husband. That's in the Bible. But I want you to think about it. And I'm going to touch on this again if the Lord wills. Jesus Christ submits to the authority of His Father. And yet, He's co-equal with the Father in power and in glory and in majesty. And the feminists are going around saying, oh, that's not fair. We have our place in blah, blah, blah. Man, they just don't get it. God sets us up. The beauty. Of the marriage going as the marriage is delicate to be. And the husband is to submit to Christ. As I said, my teaching ends up in preaching. It's a package deal. But how about the diversity? Each person of the Godhead have their own very specific and unique roles in creation and in redemption. God's two great works. In creation and in redemption. Well, it's spent a lot of time here, but we know that the Spirit hovers over the face of the earth and the waters and the Father, the Crees, and of course, all things that speak of Jesus, all things were made by Him and for Him. Without Him, nothing was made that was made. And just to look at the Bible and see, Who did what in creation? Who did what in redemption? It begins to have an impact on you. It begins to cause you to love your God and to see this God to whom you come to and worship every Lord's day. Wow, He is awesome. It's a good thing I can't figure Him out or I'd be like Him. That's not good. He is so far beyond us. That's why we worship. That's why we stand in awe. That's what brings us joy. Part of our joy comes in knowing that we worship a God that's so far beyond us and yet is so near us. The study of the Trinity, two more, and we'll see where we go from there. The study will cause us to marvel, and I've already gone over this, but to marvel at the authority and submission structure that exists within the three persons of the Godhead. In John 16, and a lot of the passages are in John, I think John, the Lord used John, our church fathers, they didn't have to have John alone to formulate the doctrine of the Trinity, but a lot of good stuff does come out of there. And looking at John 16, beginning in verse 13. However, when he, the spirit of truth has come. He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own authority. But whatever he hears, he will speak. And he will tell you things to come. Jesus is speaking, these are red letter, if you have a red letter edition, he will glorify me. For he will take of what is mine and declare to you all things that the father has given. All things that the Father has are mine. Therefore, I said that He will take of mine and declare it to you." So, the Son has everything the Father has, the Son has. There is this structure of authority and submission within the Godhead. And, brother, I was a Christian a long time before somebody ever taught me that. I just went around with this sort of God, I love God, I love Jesus, I love to talk about the Holy Spirit, but no one ever sat me down and said, there is submission and there is authority within the persons of the Godhead and that has an enormous impact on my life. Wow! If Jesus can submit to the Father and there be no conflict, Why can't we all submit in the areas we're called to submit to without any conflict? Right? If the Holy Spirit will not speak on His own, but He speaks of Christ and He will glorify me, why can't we as well labor to not bring glory to ourselves, but to Him? So the study You just, and this is a lot more, some of this I go into as far as the practical aspects of the Trinity and how it relates to us as individuals, as couples and church members and so forth. John 8, 28, just to touch on another passage. Then Jesus said to them, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am. And of course, the heath and pallax, it's that marvelous declaration of His deity. Then you will know that I am. And that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father taught me, I speak these things. And He who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please Him. Jesus, aren't you God? Can't you do what you want? Yeah. And what I want to do is always please the Father. And I want to do it perfectly. And He did it perfectly. Submission of the Son to the Father. In these very words. And yet, there's no conflict. Beautiful. Glorious. Seeing how they relate to one another within the Godhead. And as you read through your New Testaments especially as well, continuing to keep an eye out for that inter-trinitarian relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And let it not just be theology or doctrine flowing through your mind so that you can do apologetics, but so that it might impact you. Look, if the Son is willing to do this, and the Spirit is willing to do that, and not even receive the glory for it. And of course, it just ends up with my eighth reason why you ought to study the Trinity. is that it's very practical. In a way, it teaches us how to live toward one another and toward God. It really does. And this is a short lesson, I understand that, but it's worthy of your time because God is worthy. And you need to know who your God is. And you need to understand the frailty of our intellects that even when we come to understand the things that are taught us and the things that we learn ourselves, This is why I brought this lesson to you today, because I know your church is called Trinity Church. So if anybody ought to have a foundation of what the Trinity is, I ought to be standing in good company today. But I did it because I don't want you to ever forget it. I would never want to see you get weak in it. And this is what happens if we don't keep these things to the forefront. As Peter would speak and Paul, both of them would speak of, it is good for me to remind you of these things. Because we do, we go through life. And you know, I knew guys in my previous churches and sometimes they would pray and the only word that would come out of their mouth was the Father. Sometimes they would pray and the only word that came out of their mouth was Jesus. And I don't think they were sinning, I think there was ignorance involved. And I think that we would want our prayers to be structured the way God wants us to structure them, with the heart and the sincerity behind it. Now, I'm not talking about rote prayers that, you know, make sure I get this right in the order. What was that order again? Then you forget what you're praying for, you know. Well, brethren, there are your eight reasons why I think you should study the Trinity. If anybody else has any other reasons why we should study the Trinity, or if you heard something you'd like to add or take away from what I said today, any thoughts?