Open your Bibles with me, if you would, to Ephesians chapter 1. I'd also like to invite you to pull out a page of notes from your bulletin. That will be something you'll want to hold on to in your Bible. That tells you where we're going to be for the next several weeks. Let's go before the Lord and ask for his help and his blessing on this time together. Our Father, we come to you to give you praise and to give you glory, to ask for your help so that we might behold wonderful things from your word, incline our hearts to you through your word. Open the eyes of our hearts. Give us undivided, undistracted, Hearts for you. We need you to move. Father, if you do not work, if your spirit does not aid us and illumine our eyes, the eyes of our heart. We have no growth. We desire to grow, to know You more, and to reflect the beauty and the glory of Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. I'm really excited because we stand this day at the very mouth of heaven. In this passage, God opens up heaven for us. Ephesians 1.3, and consequently through to verse 14, is not merely a verse to be read. It is, in reality, a doorway to be entered, a mountaintop to be ascended, a sanctuary into which trembling sinners are ushered in by God's sovereign grace. Notice here that the apostle does not begin with command, nor rebuke, nor duty. but with doxology, with praise, with adoration. Before Paul tells you what to do, he tells you what God has done. Before he calls you to walk worthy, as we read in chapter four, he lifts you up to behold where you already stand in Christ. Before he lays the yoke of obedience upon our shoulders, he crowns us with the riches of Christ. Ephesians 1, 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with most spiritual blessings. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. This is heaven opened. This is eternity spoken into time. This is God pulling back the veil and saying, Come, poor sinner, see what I have done for you in my Son. Come, child, see my heart for you. You're not merely being informed. you are being caught up into glory. You're not merely being taught, you're being ushered into the sanctuary of God's eternal love. It's as if the Spirit of God takes you by the hand and lifts you above the dust of your present troubles, above the guilt of your past sins, above the frailty of your present obedience, and seats you, by faith, in the heavenly places in Christ. that you might behold the treasures laid up for you in Him. You are invited to look upon the eternal counsel of God and to hear the inner music, as it were, of the Trinity as the Father blesses you in the Son by the Spirit. And mark this with trembling joy. You would never have known one syllable of any of these beautiful truths, never dreamed one thought of them, never desired one inch of them, had God not first opened up His own heart and spoken. We wouldn't have known any of it. These aren't truths that rise from the soil of human reflection. There are many truths that we can gather that way. But these, these descend from the throne of God. Nature cannot teach this. Conscience cannot unveil this. And philosophy, no matter how hard it tries, cannot climb to this. These are things that even angels, elect angels, long to look into. and sinners would have never conceived them. The human heart, left to itself, does not imagine election, adoption, redemption, inheritance, the sealing of the Holy Spirit, or eternal glory in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Left to ourselves, we don't climb up to God. God stoops down to us and opens up His heart. And so Ephesians 1, while it is very, very rich in theology and there is a lot of technicality, it's not Paul's theology lecture. It is Paul's worship spilling over. The main thrust of Ephesians doesn't start until we get to verse 15. And so from 3 to 14, it is just the overflow of his heart in adoration for God. It is the Spirit granting us a window into the eternal purposes of God and saying, this is how you came to be a Christian. If you are in Christ, this despite whatever experience you may have had, this is how you became a Christian. Not by accident, not by your wisdom, not by your seeking, not because you made a decision for Christ, not by your worthiness, nor by any kind of moral improvement that you might do, because it's not by the will of man, not by the will of flesh, not by the wisdom of man, and it's not by a moment's decision in time. It is because the Father has set His love upon you before the foundation of the world. Because the Son shed His blood to redeem you in time, bearing your name on the cross and also bearing your curse. Because the Spirit Himself pursued you in mercy. and conquered your rebellion, opened your blind eyes to behold the beauty of the Lamb slain. You are a Christian, if you are one, because heaven moved first. And every spiritual blessing you possess, pardon, peace, righteousness, adoption, access to the throne room of God, inheritance, assurance, hope, perseverance, did not rise from your effort. It was already yours in Christ before you ever drew your first breath. You were loved before you even existed. You were chosen before you ever sinned. You were reserved before you ever believed. You were sealed before you understood any of it, destined for glory before you ever wept over your own guilt. And now God says, come, come see what I have done for you in my Son. Ephesians 1, 3-14 is God's unfolding his own heart to you. It is the Father saying, this is how I thought of you. It is the Son saying, this is what I purchased for you. It is the Spirit saying, this is what I have taken from the Son by the Father and applied to you. So you are being invited into the inter-councils of eternity. Into the love of the Father, the work of the Son, the sealing of the Spirit. You are being taught not merely what you are saved from, but what you are saved into. The everlasting delight of the triune God, Creator of heaven and earth. Now while there is much, again, technical and rich doctrine, this isn't a cold decree. This isn't some kind of abstract system. This is love with scars on it. This is grace with blood on it. This is mercy that chased you down. This is heaven stooping to claim its own child. And if this does not humble you, if this does not bow you low and at the same time lift you up, you've not yet seen it. If this does not melt you, you've not yet tasted it. If this does not enrapture you, you have not yet beheld it. For here, in this passage of Scripture, God is not merely giving us truths, He is giving us Himself. Loved ones, this is not a passage for hurried reading or casual hearing. This is holy ground. This is a glimpse into eternity, both past and future. This is the story of your salvation if you are in Christ, written before time began and carried out in that perfect one, that champion, Jesus Christ. As we open the sacred portion of God's word, Remember, we're not climbing up to heaven. Heaven is stooping down to us to show us the riches of Christ's treasury for His people. Ephesians 1, 3-14. Now in this section, and actually through the book, there's eight lengthy sentences. Verses 3-14 in Greek is one sentence. The whole thing, one sentence. And then when we move out of this after several weeks and we look at Verse 15 of chapter 1, 15 to 23, is one sentence. So apart from just the prologue, chapter 1 is just two sentences long. In chapter 2, verses 1-7, it's all one sentence. In chapter 3, verses 2-13, all one sentence, and so on. There's eight lengthy sentences. But our focus today is going to be looking at 3-14. Now remember, Ephesians is split up, if we just look at a macro level, in two parts. Chapters 1-3, The high calling of the church, it gives us doctrine. Chapters 4 through 6, the high conduct of the church, it gives us our duties based upon our doctrine. And we saw last week, we looked at the opening in verses 1 and 2, And now we look at verse 3. Verse 3 introduces, as you look at the notes that I gave you, praise for God's efficacious, they are effectual, spiritual blessings. And we see the extent of the spiritual blessings, and we'll look more at that next week. But it's not most, it's not some, it is every spiritual blessing. If you are in Christ, there is not one spiritual blessing that you are lacking, no matter how you may feel. and then the establishment of spiritual blessings. And notice how he breaks this up. I've laid it out for you. You have the Father's election in verses 4 to 6, and then you have the Son's redemption in 7 to 12, and the Spirit's protection in verses 13 and 14. Let's read through them so that we have them fresh in our mind. 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. Just as He chose us, that's the doctrine of election. That's where we get the word election, elect us. He chose us in Him, that is in Christ, before the foundation of the world. Before God said, let there be light. He had already chosen His people. that we would be, there's the purpose of it, holy and blameless before Him in love. That before is as I'm standing here before you. How does He do this? By predestining us to adoption as sons through the Lord Jesus Christ to Himself. Why does He do this? It is according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in Christ, the One who is beloved. So we see here that in the weeks to come, we're going to be looking at holiness, blamelessness. We're going to be looking at election, predestination, reprobation. We're going to be looking at the pleasure of God, the glory of God, the grace of God. and so many other rich doctrines that are contained just in these few short verses. And then in verse 7, That is Christ. We have redemption, and that redemption is through His blood. And that is the forgiveness of our transgressions, according to the riches of His grace, which He caused to abound to us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He, the Father, purposed in Him, the Son. Why? For an administration of the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, placing things back under one headship once again, and that headship is under Christ. Things in the heaven, things on earth, in Him. Verse 11, in Him, literally in whom, we also have been made an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose, singular, of Him, singular, who works all things, plural, according to the counsel of His will. There we see God's sovereign decree. Anything that happens, any experience that we have or that we read about or that we see that is true, rolls out from the eternal counsel of God, which He decreed from before the foundations of the world. to the end, verse 12, that we who first have hoped in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. You hear that refrain. We saw it in verse 6, to the praise of the glory of His grace. Now we see it again, to the praise of His glory. So we've looked at the Father's work in 4 through 6, we've looked at the Son's work in 7 through 12, and then He concludes this doxology with the Spirit's work, verse 13. in whom you also, after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, You were sealed in Him, in Christ, with the Holy Spirit of promise, who was given as a pledge, as earnest money, as a down payment, as a promise of our inheritance unto the redemption of God's own possession. And then again that refrain, to the praise of His glory. Now at this point we must pause and ask, what kind of God Must he be who can bless his people in such a coordinated, eternal, and effectual way? Notice what Paul has just done. He's not merely listed the blessings, some of them, of which we have all. He's unfolded one saving work accomplished through three divine persons. The Father elects and predestines, 4-6. The Son redeems and secures the inheritance, verses 7-12. And the Spirit seals and preserves unto final redemption, verses 13-14. And yet notice, Paul doesn't present three separate plans. or three independent missions, nor three competing wills. He presents one unified saving purpose, issuing from the Father, executed by the Son, and applied by the Spirit. And so Paul's not merely teaching soteriology, the doctrine of salvation. He's unveiling the Trinity at work. This is fascinating. There is no way we could have known this had not God revealed it to us. The blessings of the Christian life are not generic gifts handed down from some distant deity. They are the overflow of the intra-Trinitarian fellowship and coordinated divine action, which brings us to a crucial doctrinal reality that the Church has always confessed. The works of God, outside of Himself, are undivided, are always undivided. Though the Father elects and the Son redeems and the Spirit seals, they never act in isolation from one another. Each person works according to his personal mode of subsistence. It's a fancy word, but you want to know it. And we'll get to it in a little bit. But they never operate apart from. one another. The Father never elects a soul that the Son does not redeem. The Son never redeems a soul that the Spirit does not regenerate and seal. And the Spirit never seals a soul to the Father that the Father did not choose and the Son did not purchase. Perfect harmony, perfect unity. In other words, distinct persons, but inseparable operations. Paul's Trinitarian structure here in Ephesians 1, he's not dividing the work. He's distinguishing for us so that it reveals the glory of God. So that we can bask in that glory. It shows us that salvation is not the project of one person later joined by the others. It is unified. It is eternal. It is covenantal. is the action of the one and true and living God, in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so, before we go any further into the blessings themselves, we must first bow in adoration, in awe, to the God who blesses. And to understand this chapter rightly, we must understand who the Trinity is, how the Trinity works, and why inseparable operations are the only framework that preserves both divine unity and personal distinction. And only then will we grasp why Paul ends every section the same way, to the praise of his glory. Not to the glory of the Father alone, not to the glory of the Son alone, Not to the glory of the Spirit alone, but to the glory of the one God, eternally three, acting inseparably in saving His people. So, what's the Trinity? The Trinity. First off, we must confess we are monotheists. We believe in one God. Deuteronomy 6, 4. Deuteronomy 6, 4. Hear, O Israel, Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one. And historically, in the church, since its inception, this reveals that there is one God, and that this God is one. It might sound like the same thing, but it's not. that this God is one refers to the doctrine that the church has held throughout the ages called divine simplicity. Divine simplicity. Divine simplicity means that God is not composed of parts, properties, or qualities added to his essence. So, God's not partly this and partly that. You think of a watch, a pocket watch, It's one watch, but it's composed of many parts. God's attributes are not like that. His attributes are identical with His being. And so when we read through Scripture and we see certain attributes, we want to be careful. God's not composed of parts. So God does not have love. He does not have light. He does not have righteousness. He does not have power or wisdom. God is Love. God is light. God is righteousness, power, wisdom. Every attribute of God is identical with His essence. God is spirit, John 4, 24. God is light, 1 John 1, 5. God is love, 1 John 4, 8. These are not metaphors. These are ontological, which means pertaining to the nature of the being. Ontological declarations about what God is. And so when we say God is love, we cannot separate that from the rest of His attributes. His love is a righteous love. It is a holy love. It is a good love. His power is a holy power, a loving power, a righteous power. God is simple in the sense of not composed of parts, simple in essence, not a conglomeration of all his attributes smashed together. So it's the exact opposite of what are little girls made of, sugar and spice and everything nice. You take these things, you put them in, and then you have a girl, that old saying. God is simple in essence, not a conglomeration or mixture of his attributes. So this means God has no parts. God has no potentiality. He is pure act. There is no passive potency with God. He's not waiting to act. He is acting. God has no internal conflicts. God does not depend on anything outside Himself. His will, His power, His justice, His love, His wisdom and being are one indivisible reality of who He is. And yet, because of our finiteness, God reveals himself through his words and by his works in ways that we can understand. He accommodates his language for our frailty, for our weakness. He speaks to us as a father would speak to his young child. Those of you that are parents, you know, you know this, you've experienced this. The way that you will talk with your wife or the way that you will talk with people you work with is going to be different than the way you talk with a young child. You're going to accommodate your language and speak to them in simple, easy to understand terms so that they can understand it. That's what God does with us through his word. Now, the fact that we have a God that is a simple God. Also demands from us. A single heart. A single heart. God is not divided. And the people that He calls to Himself through His Son by His Spirit, He calls the whole man to have a single heart. And so I ask you, when you say that you are a Christian, when you say that you love Him, do you love Him simply? As He is? Or selectively? by dividing Him into parts and picking and choosing the parts that you like and that resonate with you. Do you want His mercy, but not His justice? Do you want His grace, but not His holiness? Do you want His promises, but not His commands? Do you want His kindness, while rejecting His authority? since God is his attributes, then to embrace his love is to bow to his righteousness, to trust his grace is to submit to his sovereignty, and to rejoice in his mercy is also to obey his law. You can't worship a God of your own editing. And so ask yourself, when providence crosses your plans, When situations and interactions arise throughout your day, throughout your week, that weren't part of your plan, that aren't things that you wanted, when you either get something you don't want or don't get something that you do want, do you call it wisdom? Or do you grumble and complain at the injustice of God? When discipline wounds you, do you call it love? and cruelty. A simple God never acts in fragments. His love is always holy, His power is always righteous, and His mercy is always wise. There's no tug-of-war in God about what to do with you, Christian. The cross itself displays this in Crimson. Justice satisfied while simultaneously mercy magnified by the same act. And so why do you live fragmented lives before a God who has no compartments? Why do you compartmentalize your life where there's areas that God may not enter? One man on Sunday, another at work, another online, another in secret. Do you think that a simple God will be mocked by a divided obedience, by a divided allegiance? He stoops to speak to you as a father would a child whom he loves, bending infinite truth into finite words. And will you treat that accommodated word that he gives to us lightly? Will you continue negotiating with God, curating appearances in front of others, managing loyalties and parceling out measured obedience instead of full obedience? A simple God calls for a simple faith. Undivided allegiance, sincere obedience, whole-souled worship. And until you give Him that, Until that's your desire, albeit imperfectly, but that's your desire, that's your aim, that's your goal, that's your motivation. Until that is the cry of your heart and your chief goal, you've not yet truly heard and understood Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one. Now, while the Trinity is a New Testament doctrine, there are Old Testament hints to the Trinity. Look at Genesis 1.26. We'll run through a few passages. Genesis 1-26. Then God said, God, singular, God said, let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Remember, when you're reading the Bible, context is king and the gold is in the grammar. This isn't a plural of majesty. This is a holy deliberation within the Godhead. And God's not speaking to angels, for angels do not create. And man is not made in the image of likeness of angels. But God speaks to himself. What we find out in the New Testament is Father, Son, and Spirit. Now, we can't know that from Genesis. What we can know is there is singularity and plurality. But what we learn is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are consulting in the work that would most display his wisdom and glory, the creation of his vice-regent, his image-bearer. And notice how the language hints at both. There's distinction of persons, let us, and there's unity of essence, God said. Singular said, plural us. Now, just to clear out of the way really quick, because you see this sometimes online from scoffers, that's a contradiction. Something can't be A and not A in the same way at the same time. And if it was set up like that, that would be true. You can't have A and not A in the same way at the same time. I can't be standing here in front of you while simultaneously standing in front of another group of people in another location on this planet in the same way at the same time. I could say I'm with you in spirit, but I'm physically here. And when we're looking at the Trinity, what we have to understand is the distinction between essence and persons. One in essence, three in persons. So you see, it's not a contradiction. But what we find as we start moving through Scripture is that creation itself is the first theater in which the Trinity quietly reveals itself, stepping onto the stage. Man, made in their image, is stamped with a dignity that reflects the communal life of God Himself, rationality, moral likeness, and relational capacity. That's important. The triune God creates a creature fit for fellowship with a triune creator and fellowship with one another. Look at Genesis 3.22. Then Yahweh God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us. You see it again. Yahweh God said, singular, us, plural, knowing good and evil. Again, the divine speech is plural. This isn't just irony alone with the knowing good and evil like one of us. It's judicial speech flowing from within the counsel of the Godhead. God is calling out to the fact that man sought God-likeness, but he sought it by rebellion. And what he gained was a tarnished likeness. due to his sin. So we see here both the gravity of the fall and the solemn unity of the Trinity in divine judgment. Notice God doesn't consult the creatures. He speaks within himself. The same triune counsel that formed man now determines the just consequences of his disobedience. And yet, quietly, This same Godhead will later reveal the plan of redemption by which fallen man may be restored. And when we come to Ephesians 1, 3 to 14, we find out this was the plan all along. Look at Genesis 11, 7. As the Tower of Babel is being built, and it is so high that it reaches up to heaven, you see some divine comedy here, some divine humor. God says, come. This thing is so high it reaches up to heaven, and heaven is the throne of God. Come, let us go down there and confuse their language. Not quite high enough. Here the plural returns, but again in judgment. Babel is the display of God's opposition to proud human autonomy. God said, be fruitful, scatter across the earth, fill it, and they said, we will not. We will stay in one spot, and we will make a name for ourselves. But once more, notice this. In Genesis 11, 7, the judgment proceeds from an intra-Trinitarian counsel. Come, let us. We never would have known that had God not revealed it to us. God doesn't react in chaos. He judges in unity according to His decree. The same united will that spoke light into being now speaks confusion into arrogant rebellion and confuses the languages of men there. And the Trinity, as we're beginning to see, is not a doctrine invented by theologians. It's not something determined by man, it is something recognized. It is the silent architecture of redemptive history itself. Turn over to Genesis 19-24. You know this account. Sodom and Gomorrah. But notice the language, notice the grammar here in Genesis 19-24, where he says, And Yahweh reigned on Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire, from what? From Yahweh out of heaven. Here the veil lifts a little bit further to our names. You have Yahweh on earth and Yahweh from heaven. So we see a profound hint of personal distinction within the Godhead. Now we're not quite at the point where we could say Trinity, but we can see there's multiple personhood with one essence. Yahweh who speaks to Abraham and walks the earth in Genesis 18 and 19 is not a man, not an angel. He bears the divine name and divine authority and yet he sends judgment from Yahweh out of heaven to who are one. And notice this also, one will, one divine act, distinction without division. So this cannot be understood of one person only, but of two that are both Yahweh, the one on earth, the other in heaven, intimating plurality of persons in one divine essence. Now turn with me to Isaiah 42. Look at verse 8. Yahweh says, I am Yahweh. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to graven images." Now, this should strike us and remind us of passages like John 17, where Jesus is praying. The Son is praying to the Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world was. But He doesn't give His glory to another. Look over at Isaiah 44, 6. Thus says Yahweh, the King of Israel, and His Redeemer, Yahweh of hosts, I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me. Who is like Me? Let Him call out and declare it, and let Him tell it to me in order. from the time that I established the ancient people and let them declare to them the things that are to come and the events that are going to take place. Do not be in dread and do not be afraid. Have I not long since caused it to be heard to you and declared it? And you are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me or is there any other rock? I know of none. The God who knows all things knows of no other gods but one God. Israel is anchored by Isaiah's revelation in the unspeakable truth that God is one. Monotheism. There is one eternal, self-existent, incomparable God. No rivals, no peers, no additions, no divisions. And yet within this uncompromising monotheism, Isaiah quietly opens the door to this mystery. Yahweh speaks of himself as both the first and the last, a title later claimed by Christ in Revelation 1. And he distinguishes himself in Isaiah from my servant. If you look back at 42, behold my servant, verse 1. who will act in divine power and authority. And yet the same Lord who is alone God also speaks of his spirit. Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul is well pleased, I have put my spirit upon him. Not as a creature, but as God's own divine presence and power. And notice, Isaiah doesn't fracture God's unity, he deepens it. The one God reveals himself as Yahweh who sends, as the servant who saves, and the spirit who empowers. This is beginning to sound strangely familiar. One essence, one glory, one name, yet a plurality of personal self-relations within the single divine identity, foreshadowing that full light of the Trinity without surrendering the absolute oneness, simplicity of God. Nevertheless, these are foundational hints. It's not until New Testament revelation that we see the fullness of the doctrine of the Trinity. Look with me at Matthew 28, 19 and 20. You know this passage well, it is the Great Commission. Going therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name, singular. of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you. And behold, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age." Name, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Now, this is very bad grammar. Those of you that don't go to public school will know that. This is very bad grammar. It should be names of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But this is wonderful, glorious theology because of the unity of the Trinity and yet the distinction, the subsistence of each person in the Trinity. And a brief glance at the New Testament shows us that deity is attributed to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You can note these down and I'll go through them quickly. Romans 15 verse 6. So that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Even as we have in Ephesians 1.3, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see the same thing in 2 Corinthians 1.3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. 1 Peter, similarly, verse 3 of chapter 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That's the Father. Well, what about the Son? Acts 20, 28. This one is fascinating. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God. Notice he didn't say the church of Jesus or the church of Christ. The church of God, which He, that's a pronoun, going back to the referent, God, purchased with His own blood. But we already know God is Spirit. What's He doing here? He's accommodating His language so that we can understand that Christ is God. Because Christ is the one that purchased the church with His own blood. Romans 9.5. Paul does it again. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all. Blessed forever. Amen. Hebrews 1.8, as we read earlier. But of the Son, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. Titus 2.13, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior. Who? Our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. So we see Scripture tells us the Father is God. Scripture tells us the Son is God. What about the Holy Spirit? We'll just look at one passage now for the sake of time. Acts chapter 5 verses 3 and 4. Ananias and Sapphira, you know this passage well. Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? and to keep back some of the price of the land. While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. You lied to the Holy Spirit, Peter the Apostle says. Which is, you lied to God. If the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Spirit is God, and yet there is only one God, and we're not dealing with some kind of cold abstraction, but with living, triune glory before whom angels veil their faces, and sinners ought to tremble. Consider that without the Trinity, you would never know God as Father at all. Have you ever thought about that and meditated on the wonder and the beauty of the Trinity? No Trinity, no fatherhood of God, and we'll look more into that next week. If He were not eternally Father, then He would have to become something He was not. In time, He would have to change. And a God who changes is no God at all. And without the Trinity, God would not be love in his own being. Only lonely power waiting for creation to supply an object, because love is one of those things that demands an object. I love. I love. I love. What do you love? Upon what object do you place that love? Think about this with respect to Islam. One God, one person, as they present it. If Allah loves it all, then he's not God. Because in eternity past, before creation, there is no object upon which to place love. Within the Scriptures, the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father and the Spirit, and the Spirit loves the Father and the Son. But within something that has one person and one God, such as Islam, if Allah is able to love, then He changed, and He's no God at all. Scripture declares that love is not something God began to do, it is something, as we learned earlier, that God essentially is. God is love flowing between Father, Son, and Spirit in perfect and holy delight. So I know that this is very rich doctrine, but it is also foundational doctrine, and I implore each one of you, by the mercy of Christ, examine yourselves. Examine yourselves. Do you truly worship the triune God, or only a soft, sentimental deity carved in the image of your own comfort? Do you come to the Father through the blood of the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit, or do you pray like a practical Unitarian, one God, one person? Vague in doctrine, casual in reference, and careless with eternal realities. If Jesus Christ is indeed God over all, blessed forever, as Romans 9.5 teaches us, why is his lordship so lightly worn by you? Why is disobedience so easily negotiated within your heart and your mind? So why is he so quickly disobeyed? If the Holy Spirit is the God you can lie to because He's also a person, why do you trifle with His warnings that He's revealed to you in Scripture? Why do you quench His motions within your own soul? Why do you grieve His holy tenderness without trembling? Why do you sear and quiet your conscience when you know what the right thing to do is? You know what's expected of you. And if the Father has eternally loved the Son and given Him a people and sealed those people by His Spirit, how dare you live as though salvation were a human scheme entrusted for you to manage, rather than a triune miracle that God has extended grace upon you for you to worship and adore Him? Sinner, do you not feel the weight of this? Believer, do you not blush at your own coldness? You stand every day before Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, before infinite love, infinite holiness, infinite power, and yet you offer Him half-hearted worship, divided obedience, and distracted prayers. But you move on and check the box. What madness is this? And what mercy is this that this triune God has not yet consumed you? Will you go on living as though the Trinity were just a doctrine for the page? It's something for seminary professors. It's something for doctrinaire academicians seated in ivory towers discussing how many angels can fit on the head of a pin. And not the living God before your face. Will you not now bow, repent, adore, and give him your whole heart before the day comes when you must stand before him without a savior, without one to plead for you, without any blood to cover you? And sinner, if this be so, if the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God, and yet there is only one God, then what madness, what cruelty to your own soul to go on another hour unconverted, to wait, to close with Christ. You're not trifling with some vague deity, but with the living triune God, the Father whose justice burns against your sin. He didn't spare His own Son. His own Son. It shows His love for justice and His hatred of sin. What makes you think He would spare you? The Son whose blood you have despised, the Spirit whose gracious strivings you've resisted, Do you not tremble to think that the very God who made you and upholds your life is that same God that you offend with your sin, with your rejection of Him? And the very God who offers you mercy is that same God that you daily provoke. The Father calls you to repentance. The Son stands ready with wounds yet bleeding to receive you, and the Spirit pleads with your conscience even now. Yet you harden your neck, not seeing that you're lingering at the brink of hell. If you could see, as Edwards has taught us, if you could see the spiritual realities in the physical world, you would look down and you would see the floor under you is rotten boards, and there are gaps, and you can look down into hell. And all your good feelings and all your good righteous deeds that you've done in your life will do nothing more to keep you out of hell than a spider's web would to stop a falling rock. What will you answer? What will you answer when the Father demands why you would not come? What is your excuse? What is your defense? When the Son asks you why you trampled His blood, when the Spirit asks you why you quenched His voice, will you say, I meant to repent tomorrow? Will you plead you were too busy? Children, will you plead you were too young, too distracted? Don't be a fool. Your very breath is in God's hand. God does not have to go to any extremities to be able to end your life. All He has to do is stop giving it to you. Because He upholds you every moment. And your next heartbeat is not your own. If you receive one, it is on loan to you from this triune God. You are one step from eternity, one breath away from judgment, one moment from standing before Father, Son, and Holy Ghost without a mediator to plead for you. Even from an earthly standard, we recognize he who represents himself in court hires a fool for his attorney. And yet, marvel of mercy, Despite all the wickedness that you have done in ignoring God and rebelling against Him and seeking your own desire for which you were made to glorify Him, in spite of all of that, He still invites you. The Father's heart is still open. The Son spreads those pierced hands to receive you. The Spirit knocks at the door of your heart and asks you through my voice right now, why will you die? Why will you perish when the gates of heaven are spread wide open and it is offered unto you, come to Christ now? Why do you delay when hell is imminent? Why will you not be reconciled to God? This hour, this moment, even right now, Christ calls to you. This day, this instant, the Spirit strives with you. Delay no longer. Trifle no more. Flee from the wrath to come, and flee to Christ. Fall at His feet. Cry out for mercy. Give yourself to God wholly, fully, finally, and forever. Because if you refuse this triune Savior now, you shall one day meet this triune God as your judge. And then there will be no blood to cleanse you, no spirit to soften you, no father to receive you, only everlasting fire prepared for those who would not come. Sinner, be implored. Be warned, be reconciled to God now, while mercy yet speaks, and hell has not yet consumed you. And now before any sinner dares to delay another moment, and before any saint dares to take another breath lightly, we must press yet deeper into who this God is that saves, and how this God saves. For the Father who calls you, the Son who bleeds for you, and the Spirit who strives with you are not three disconnected actors in the drama of redemption. They do not work in fragments, they do not take turns, they do not pursue separate individual purposes. The Father never saves apart from the Son. The Son never redeems without the Spirit. And the Spirit never applies what the Father did not will, nor the Son purchase. There is one divine will, one divine power, one divine action, yet personally ordered in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One God, united in essence, eternally subsisting in three persons. And unless you grasp this, you will fracture God's glory. This doxology that Paul gives to us, to the praise of the glory of His grace, to the praise of His glory, to the praise of His glory, You'll misunderstand salvation and rob your soul of the full comfort of a God who always works as one and always works for the good of His people. So we now turn to this great and necessary truth. One God, distinct persons, and then if you're taking notes, you'll want to write this one down. Inseparable operations. Inseparable operations. The triune God acting with one hand, one heart, and one saving purpose towards sinners like us. We see inseparable operations throughout all of the scripture. I'll give you a few categories that we can look at. And these doctrines are crucial for the foundation that Paul lays here and where we're going to go as we look at election and predestination and God's divine decree and redemption in Christ, the extent of the atonement, all of these different doctrines that we'll see. Inseparable operations. We see this in the creation of the universe. If we look for it, we can find it. Genesis 1-1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Psalm 102-25, Of old you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. So it's true, and we recognize this, and it's not a surprise, God created the heavens and the earth. But of the Father, Scripture testifies, 1 Corinthians 8, 6, Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. So we see the Father there and the Son. We also see in Colossians 1, 16, For by Him, that is Christ, All things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through Christ and for Christ. Hebrews 1.2, in these last days, God has spoken to us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also made the world. So when we see Genesis 1.1, And God creating. We also see it's the Father creating. It is the Son creating. And of the Spirit, Scripture testifies. Remember Genesis 1-2, the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. And Job tells us in chapter 26, verse 13, by His Spirit, the heavens are made beautiful. So creation, inseparable operations. Incarnation, this is why we celebrate Christmas. The Father is the one that sends the Son. John 8, 42, Jesus said to them, If God were your Father, you would love me. For I proceeded forth and have come from God. For I have not even come on my own initiative, but He sent me. Galatians 4.4, when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. And yet, the eternally divine Son, the Word of God, condescends to take on human flesh. John 1.14, you know this passage well. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Philippians 2, speaking of Christ, says, who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being made in the likeness of men. So we see the Father is involved in the incarnation. We obviously know the Son is involved in the incarnation because the Son is the one that is incarnate, that takes on flesh. We know it's not the Father that is incarnate, but the Father is sending the Son. The Son is the one that is going and taking on flesh. And the Spirit, Matthew 1.18, Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. A couple of verses later, when the angel is speaking to Joseph, he says, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived, who has been begotten in her, is of the Holy Spirit. One God, three persons, all working towards this same objective, this same goal, in unison with one will. Creation, Incarnation. Let's look at the death of Christ. The death of Christ. Of the Father, Scripture testifies in Romans 8.32, He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all. John 3.16, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. And of the Son, Scripture testifies in John chapter 10, For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I have received from my Father. In Luke 23-46, when Jesus is on the cross, He cries out with a loud voice saying, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, He breathed His last. John 19-30 gives us a slightly different angle. When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, It is finished. It is paid in full. And He bowed His head and He gave up His own spirit. Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. and of the Spirit, Scripture testifies in Hebrews chapter 9. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, speaking of the Aaronic priesthood, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? So we see in creation, in the incarnation, in the death of Christ, each person of the Trinity working towards the same end, and yet having slightly different jobs, so to speak, but one goal. Just like Ephesians 1, 3 to 14. It is not the Father who dies on the cross, it is the Son. It is the Father who elects. It is the Father who predestines. It is the Son who goes. He dies on the cross. The Spirit doesn't die on the cross. But it's all working towards that one goal of salvation. Even the resurrection of Christ. This is a good one for Jehovah's Witnesses. I had a conversation with some Jehovah's Witnesses on the waterfront years ago. I stopped them and was talking to them, and they were like, no thank you, we're Jehovah's Witnesses. And I said, oh, so you're off the clock now? It's fine when you come up to our door, but not when we come up to you. And so that arrested them a little bit to be willing to have a conversation. And then asked them, who raised Christ from the dead? And they said, God did. I said, He raised Himself. And they said, that's not in the Bible anywhere. And I said, let's look at it in your version, because they change their version. But before we look at that, I want to know, When you see this truth from Scripture, how are you going to change your thinking? Because what I don't want is for this argument just for you to jump off onto some other topic. How are you going to change your thinking in light of this truth, if it's really there? Obviously, they ended up just jumping topics. Acts 2.24 Peter's preaching, God raised Him, Christ, up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible to be held in its power. And of the Father, Scripture testifies in Galatians 1, Paul, an apostle, not sent from men, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead. So, God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. We also, we just saw in John 10, 17, didn't we? Jesus says, I lay down my life so that I may take it again. No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. But in John chapter 2, Jesus says, destroy this temple, and in three days my father will raise it up, My spirit will raise it up. His spirit will raise it up. No, he says, I will raise it up. The Jews said, it took 46 years to build this temple. Will you raise it up in three days? But he was speaking of the temple of his body and of the spirit, Romans 8, 11. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Who raised Jesus from the dead? The father, the son, or the spirit? And the answer is yes. This is the doctrine of inseparable operations. Now, loved ones, if it's true, and it is, that all the external works of God are undivided, that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit never act apart but always act as one God and three blessed persons, then we are forbidden forever from imagining a God who is fragmented in his work or divided in his heart and purposes. The doctrine of inseparable operations is not a piece of cold metaphysics. It's the safeguard of the Gospel itself. It reveals to us that when the Father chose you, the Son did not stand aloof, and the Spirit did not delay in His affection. When the Son shed His blood for you, the Father did not withhold His love, and the Spirit did not hesitate to apply Christ's blood to your own soul. And when the Spirit awakened your dead heart, He didn't act independently of the Father's eternal purpose or the Son's finished work. All that God does to you, toward you, and for you, He does as the one undivided triune God, one will, one love, one saving purpose, one eternal mercy flowing through three distinct persons. And therefore, when we now confess that the Lord our God, the Lord is one. We're not confessing just some bare, arithmetic oneness, nor a lonely deity seated within Himself, by Himself. We are confessing the living unity of the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit. The God who is eternally loved, eternally holy, who acts inseparably in grace, and who reveals His heart to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not worshipping some divided deity. We're not trusting in some fractured God. We're not resting in a God of internal tensions and competing intentions and divided purposes. We are worshipping the one true and living God. Here the mystery deepens and the warning sharpens a little bit. If the Father and the Son and the Spirit act inseparably as one God, And the God who redeems and elects and calls and justifies, sanctifies and glorifies, that's not three gods. This is one God with three persons, with one heart towards you, one heart towards his people. Which means this, when we now confess the unity of God, we're stepping into that blazing reality of divine self-revelation. We're monotheists, not by philosophical deduction, but by divine disclosure. Because God, as a loving Father, accommodated His language to us like a father does to his child to reveal himself, as one eternal, unchangeable, self-existent being. We also know there is no rival throne in heaven, no second rock beneath our feet, no competing sovereignty anywhere in any corner of the universe, for the Lord and the Lord alone is God. And yet, here's where we have to tremble. This confession taken by itself is not saving. Look at James chapter 2. James chapter 2 verse 19. James says, you believe that God is one. You do well. There's a hint of sarcasm here. If you know what follows. Even the demons also believe. And shudder. And tremble. The demons are not atheists. Hell is not only populated by skeptics and agnostics. The pit is filled with orthodox monotheists who know the oneness of God many than most churchgoers. They do not doubt His existence, they do not question His sovereignty, and they do not deny His authority. They shudder before it. And so we are forced to ask this piercing question. How can the demons know all this? What's missing? What's missing? Because I don't want to fall into that same trap. It's not knowledge. It's not orthodoxy. It's not scripture. It's not fear. It's not submission to power. It's love. It's love. When the demon-possessed man saw Jesus, he fell before him and cried out, What business do we have to do with each other? Jesus, Son of the Most High God, I beg you, do not torment me. Mark it well. The demons knew his name. They were the first ones to know his name, apart from those surrounding his birth. They knew his sonship. They knew his divine authority. They knew his power to judge, but they did not love him. They did not delight in Him. They did not cling to Him. They did not worship Him in holy, humble adoration. They bowed, but they did not embrace. They confessed, but they did not adore. They trembled, but they never trusted. And here's a dreadful possibility. A man may hold a creed as pure as crystal, and yet have a heart as cold as ice. Is that you? Is that you? A man may confess the unity of God and yet stand closer to demons than saints, but on paper, his doctrine is impeccable. This is why we must not live among the doctrinal trees, as it were, and miss the forest of God's revealed heart. Remember Eve. She perished not because she denied God's existence. but because she misjudged his goodness. She believed a lie about his heart, and she forgot his love. Truth without love breeds either pride or terror. Orthodoxy without affection will harden your soul, and doctrine without delight is a recipe to make demons. And therefore, beloved, we must not merely know that God is one. We must know who this God is, and we must also love Him as He is. This is why we need one another in the family of God. This is what Paul gets into when he gets into chapters 2 all the way to chapter 6. A man may think he loves the true God and yet be deceived. You could say, but I'm really sincere in my Christianity. I'm really sincere in my love to God. But you can be sincerely wrong. The heart is deceitful above all things, and even our affections can counterfeit true devotions. Thomas Boston cuts us to the bone here when he says, Some men love God just as Jacob loved Leah, if you remember the story, when he mistook her for Rachel. He thought he was loving Rachel, but he was wrong. They love a God of their own making. They love a God who never crosses their will. They love a God who, fascinatingly, is okay with all the sins they're okay with, and not okay with all the sins of others that they're not okay with. They love a God who never wounds their pride, who never commands repentance and obedience and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But that is not the living God. That is a God of your own creation. The living God is to be worshipped in spirit and truth, with a heart enkindled by the Spirit and a mind governed by the Word. And we must do so in the communion of the saints lest we drift into self-deceived religion and unwittingly mimic the faith of devils. The demons know God's power, only the saints love God's heart. The demons bow under His authority, only the saints rest in His love. The demons tremble at His holiness, but the saints rejoice in it. Loved ones, do not be content with a faith that makes you orthodox, having all the right answers, but not affectionate. It needs to be both. Don't rest in a faith that is correct, but not converted. Informed mentally, but not enraptured in your soul to love Christ. What does John 17 3 say? This is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. It is intimacy, more intimate than your marriage. To know the one true God savingly is to love Him, to delight in Him, to trust Him in all circumstances. Will you fail? Yes, you will fail. But you will hate yourself for failing. And you will run back to Him. You will not run away from Him. And you will worship Him through His Son, by His Spirit, in the fellowship of His people. Anything less than this is not Christianity. It is demon theology. Let's pray. Father, we ask that You would save those here who are outside of Christ. Lord, grant repentance and faith, that You would strengthen those of us here that are in Christ, that we would look to You and that we would be taken with the beauty of Your glory, that we would see Your love towards us in Father, Son, and Spirit, and that we would be enraptured. Grant us repentance too, and a continual repentance, for we know we continue to fail. But grant us increased faith and increased desire to be with you, increased communion with you. Delight our hearts in who you are as you've revealed yourself through the truth of your word. For your sake, for your glory, and for our greatest good. In Christ's name we pray, amen.