Let us hear from God's Word. Matthew 27, beginning in verse 51. This is the very Word of God. Matthew 27, beginning in verse 51. Just after the death of Christ, we read these words, the signs that came to pass after the death of Christ. Hear God's word. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now the centurion and those who were with him, keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, Truly this was the Son of God. Heavenly Father, we pray that this Scripture, sacred as it is, the very infallible Word of God, would fully persuade our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit, and that through this full conviction we would have the life and knowledge of Christ, and that we would walk in your ways, and with an informed mind that we would be built up in greater and stronger faith in Christ to swim against the tide of all troubles, all lies and trials that we would see in this life. We know, O Lord, we have the living Savior who brings the dead to life. In Jesus' name, Amen. You may be seated. Well, you'll notice if you look at verse 51, it says a very clear thing. Behold means look. Look here. When the Apostle Matthew says, look here, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he is directing us to see something that is important for us to recognize. It seems really obvious, but you have to notice that Christ has died in the verse right before this. He has declared, according to John's gospel, it is finished, and then he yielded up his own soul. And then Matthew says, after Christ has given up his spirit, and behold, he says, look at this. See something that has happened. Look here. Matthew is very specific, always, in his gospel. He's actually very short in how he explains things. You think about three years of events have gone by in only 27 chapters. And he has been very terse, very specific, very to the point. And here he's saying, look, look what happened. And when he says this, it's actually the Holy Spirit through him directing us to look here at the effects of the work of Christ. The problem today is, and at least I've seen the western part of the United States, probably other places has other problems slightly, but definitely the western part of the United States, most people are looking for some sort of emotional connection to a sermon, emotional experience from religious worship. This probably comes from the Second Great Awakening and Charismaticism in the 20th century. but basically people want to have some sort of feeling of emotional elation. Maybe the Holy Spirit's presence with you is the hair sticking up on the back of your neck, a feeling of tingling or warm fuzzies of some kind, some sort of emotional experience where you know, oh, God must have been with me. These things are fairly easy to drum up, fairly easy to get evoked out of people, And the result is that people think that that is true religion rather than what the scripture tells us. Now, there's nothing wrong with being an emotional person. There's nothing wrong with having emotional experience. But when that is religious experience defined, that can become an idolatry as we see it has today. So we have to be careful. Even though emotional feelings about a sermon or a text could be helpful to persuade us, they may run the risk of replacing the true Christian experience. Namely, that it should produce an affectionate faith in God, a love for God, a love toward God with full persuasion of the truth. The truth. Persuasion of the truth is the way that God creates this affectionate love and true Christian experience. Pop culture Christianity is a term I use a lot at my home church. So, pop culture Christianity. In other words, Christianity that is kind of the popular Christianity you can find on Christian radio, Christian TV shows, that sort of thing. They basically make feelings and experiences the main thing. True Christian experience. Biblical Christian experience. is truth and logic catching fire. That is the Holy Spirit fire of conviction that this is so. In bold and stark clarity, God has spoken. Behold, look at these signs. That is true Christian experience. Behold, the Son of God has accomplished this. This is what He brought to pass. Behold, look at it. It's so clear. The dead are rising from their graves. The earth is shaking. And even the centurion is crying out, this was the Son of God, the full persuasion. People may say, the persuasion is too dry. It's too dry of an experience. But if you're going to start a fire, you need dry kindling. And sometimes the Christian life And studying the scripture can be very dry. It can feel very academic. You're trying to understand, what does this text mean? And you've probably had these kinds of texts. You read in the Bible, and there's just something in a passage you just don't understand. And it can be years. You kick it around. You talk with people. You read about it. You think about it. You end up holding to one position. And then you realize, oh, that doesn't really make sense. And you move to a different one and a different one. But you've wrestled with it. You've wrestled with it. And as you wrestle with it, you come to a conclusion eventually. And that conviction, that persuasion stays with you for a long time, stays with you forever. It can feel very dry. But when you realize that the problem is not with the text, the problem is with us as interpreters. and that the Holy Spirit uses the text of Scripture through full persuasion to convict and clarify and bring us up in the faith and to bring and evoke from us the true affection for Christ, you realize that you do need that dry kindling to start a roaring fire. True, fully persuaded Christianity says, behold the text. This is now utterly unavoidable to me. This is true. and I cannot see any other way. I must believe because I can't deny it. I'm persuaded. I must live according to this. And that's what a convicted heart is like. That is the fire of the Holy Spirit, that dry kindling of the word of God, which catches a light and fire, kindles a flame. And that's what we see here, a very clear, a very obvious word, behold. Really obvious. In some of your translations, just say look. Look, here it is. Look at these things. It's really obvious, really clear, really simple to understand. Matthew's just telling us, look at these signs. Look at these signs after Jesus died. The important thing for us to recognize here is that these signs tell us what Christ affected at his death. What did he affect? and he died. What came to pass? What did he bring about? The first thing we'll see is the sign of the veil torn. Then we're going to look at the earth shaking. Next week we're going to look at the dead rising because there's just too much there to put into a sermon going through all of these things. Next week we're going to look at the dead rising, but we begin with the sign of the veil being torn. The veil of the temple is torn from top to bottom. There's some debate as to whether it's the inner veil or if it's the outer veil. Because if it's the inner veil, this means that basically the high priest would have seen it. The priesthood would have known about it. I don't know how widely publicized this was. There's not much about it other than in the New Testament about the tearing of the veil. But we know from the Old Testament is what the veil means. So, archaeological discoveries aside, because, of course, the temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, so we really can't go and inspect what happened to the temple veil with our own eyes, or dig it up from the ground, because it's not there anymore, it was all destroyed. We have to look at the Scripture and see, what does God say about this veil? Because that's what's really important, the theology of the veil. Because Exodus 26 is the first place where the veil comes out. We're told there, Again, very plainly, the veil shall serve for you as a partition between the holy place and the holy of holies. So you've got the tabernacle. It's a big tent. So there's like a fence of tents, right? There's like a fence around the tabernacle. And then there's the tabernacle itself. And then within the tabernacle, there's a smaller compartment called the holy of holies. There's the holy place, and there's the holy of holies. Now when you say holy of holies in Hebrew, It means it's the most holy place. Comparatively to just being the holy place, this is the most holy place. It's comparatively more holy. But the reason why it's more holy is because this is where they would place the Ark of the Covenant. It was a place where God would dwell in the Ark of the Covenant. This is the presence of the Holy Spirit being present with God's people above the mercy seat. That was God's place where he would be with them. God among his people, Emmanuel. Leviticus chapter 16 tells us that they would go into the tabernacle once a year and eventually into the temple once a year. And they would bring the blood of the sacrifice for the day of atonement, place it upon the mercy seat once a year. But this place was so holy that they had to put a rope around the ankle of the high priest in case he was struck dead by the Lord. from His holiness. And they would put bells on Him, so that they could tell if He had fallen on the ground. They would hear the bells jingling, and then the bells would stop. They would now start pulling the rope, because He went in there and He displeased the Lord somehow, and died from God's holy judgment falling upon Him. This is the most holy place. It couldn't be toyed with. It was necessary the high priest would make sacrifice for himself first before he went in. We saw that in Hebrews chapter 9. We just read that a few minutes ago. So this is the most holy place. The veil makes a partition so that people could not go inside that veil. The high priest could go once a year to show the way ultimately into the holy place had not yet been accomplished. Now what we learn about this at Christ's death, when the veil of the temple is torn at the death of Christ, are three things. First, this is the end of the Old Testament. The Old Testament's over. Christ has accomplished salvation. Hebrews 9, verse 10 actually says in verse 9 that the veil was a symbolic partition, and symbols are meant to be replaced with reality. Christ is reality. Symbols are meant to be replaced with reality. It was a symbol for the present time, he says, in Hebrews 9.9. And then he says in verse 10, it was to be there until a time of reformation. We just read it. In God's providence, it was in the worship service today, and it was one of the examples I was going to give here in explaining this doctrine from the Scripture. This is the end of the Old Testament. The death of Christ is the end of the Old Testament. The Lord set in motion the just reasons and events for the end of the Old Testament in his providence with the priesthood rejecting Christ, having him crucified, having this trial against Christ. Sure, those things are all really important, but really what ended the Old Testament was the death of Christ. The second thing it shows us about this tearing of the veil is that Christ has made satisfaction and reconciled sinners to God. Again, Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews has the answer for many of these things. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19, he says, Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus. See confidence into the holy place. That's into the tabernacle and into the reality of the tabernacle by a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh. Hebrews is teaching us that the fulfillment of the tabernacle and the Holy of Holies is the body of Christ. See, the location where God's satisfaction of His justice was made was by God pouring out the wrath of God upon the humanity of Christ, His body, His soul. Proper, systematic theology to teach us that Christ began suffering in his soul in the Garden of Gethsemane. And almost every commentator since the ancient church has pointed this out. But he says his soul is burdened unto death in the Garden of Gethsemane. But that was just a foretaste of what he would go through on the cross. And now on the cross, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Performed the covenant of redemption Accomplished the plan of God the wrath of God was poured out upon the body soul the human body and soul For the son had taken on to himself He made satisfaction as God and as man as Man to be able to represent us to die as one of us to accomplish redemption as one of us that is God to bear infinite penalty. So what does the veil represent? It represents that God has accomplished redemption in the presence of God, so that man can be brought into a reconciled relationship with God. The flesh of Jesus was where God made satisfaction. That's why Hebrews says that we enter in by a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh. When the veil was torn, it shows us This Old Testament sacrificial system is now obsolete, because now the reality has come. God has brought in satisfaction, and God has brought man near that we can enter in the veil, that is, that we are brought in by the union that we have with Christ. Now the satisfaction has actually really been made in history. Hebrews 10.21, he says, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near. That's the point of those passages. Let us draw near. You can draw near. Here's the realistic basis as to why you can draw near. Now let us draw near. Sorry, I gave it a little too much gusto in the singing. Blowing out my voice a little bit. Third thing we see from this, about the veil, is Christ has now gone before us into heaven as our representative. Again, Hebrews chapter 6, he talks about the veil a lot in Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 6, verse 19, he says, This hope we have is an anchor for the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast, and one which enters within the veil. Christ is the high priest who made sacrifice not through entering into a veil and not bringing blood of goats and calves into that veil. He brought his own blood to bear for our sins by dying on the cross. But what he's saying here is he takes this metaphor of an anchor and says he's become the anchor for our souls. It is that we have a way into the presence of God, into communion with God that is now immovable, that he's weighed anchor for us. The historic work of Christ has now become the firm foundation that cannot be moved. I don't spend a lot of time on the ocean, even though I live in San Diego. I don't know if you guys spend time on the ocean. You're surrounded by water. But you may be like me, where you don't actually go to the ocean that much because of various reasons. But something that's pretty obvious to everybody is that anchors are supposed to hold you basically in place, unless they don't. But they're supposed to, right? They're supposed to hold you in place. Christ is our sure anchor. He's the anchor for our souls. But it's a weird metaphor because the anchor for our souls within the veil means that we have an assured place in the presence of God in reconciled communion with God through him and that his way to anchor not in the depths of the sea, but in the veil, in the presence of God. In other words, there's nothing you can do to take that anchor off of yourself. He will drag you along, bring you to full, blessed communion all of its glory. He's the anchor for our souls, an unstoppable anchor. Held by the power of an indestructible life, the author of Hebrews says. This is a great help to our assurance of salvation because it means that Christ has given us a clear reason to say reconciliation has been made. It cannot be turned back. Satisfaction has been accomplished. It cannot be turned back. I have been brought into the life of communion with God. And it cannot be ended. Christ has become my anchor. So here's the application. In Hebrews, at the end of this long tirade from Hebrews, at the end of chapter 10, he says, let us draw near. Christ is the basis of why we can draw near to God. This is what entering into the veil means. This is what the tearing of the veil means. That man can now come close to God on the basis of the death of Christ. Salvation has been accomplished. And so Romans Hebrews says let us draw near and it says three things Draw near with a sincere heart With full assurance and with a cleansed conscience Those three things a sincere heart full assurance and a cleansed conscience I've been preaching this series to Matthew 26 and 27 for six months something like that and I decided to take a chunk of scripture that I felt like, having preached through Matthew a couple times before, I'd never really taken the time to go through these passages the way I felt like they needed to be. So I've been going through it very slowly. And what I have found in Matthew 26 and 27 is overwhelmingly the effect for the congregation and for myself has been the assurance, the clear assurance of salvation in Christ. There's no turning back the anchor for our souls. There's no stopping the indestructible life of Christ. There's no stopping the plan of God for the salvation of his people. It's been a great help to many in the congregation for this and maybe a few hairs standing up on the back of the neck or something like that, chilled feelings, but the main thing is to see that it comes through the clear exposition of what Christ has done, but Hebrews ends up saying, these are the conclusions. These are the logical conclusions. Let us draw near, one, with a sincere heart. Two, with full assurance. Do you have a lack of assurance at all? Is there any place in your heart where you have a shadow of a lack of assurance? That is a problem with you, but not a problem with your Savior. And what a blessing that is. If there's any shadow in your heart where you think, maybe I have done something that would take myself out of the hands of my faithful servant. That's just a lie you believe. Just ignore it. Reject it. Cry out against it. Because it has no basis in objective truth. What are you gonna do? Turn back the anchor from your soul, from tethering himself to you, What are you going to do? Undo the reconciliation when Christ is accomplished? Paul says, what shall we say then to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also freely, with him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died. Yes, rather, he who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us, who will separate us from the love of Christ. In other words, what are you gonna do? Unresurrect Christ? He's the anchor for your souls, whether you like it or not. And whether you wanna wallow in a lack of assurance or not, you can't turn him back. He has hold of you. That's the blessing of the gospel. God saves you, not you save yourself. God saves us sinners. And what are you going to do, unsave yourself? All goes on. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword Just as it is written, for your sake we are being put to death all day long, we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now the Apostle Paul is saying he's convinced, not because he's just convinced that you should take his word for it. He's speaking in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In other words, there's nothing that can separate him from the love of Christ. He's laid his love upon you, so draw near with a sincere heart, full assurance of his conscience. Second sign. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. Very simple words in verse 51. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. Earthquakes, that's a norm for me. I'm from Southern California. It was an Easter morning, 2008. We had a 7.0 earthquake or something like that. It's unbelievable. And the house went like this. Well, we build houses with ratings that they're supposed to survive in. We're used to it. Earthquakes. Places that don't have building codes like this, or if it's in God's providence, freeways fall down. Whole towns are decimated. Before they had rebar, earthquakes were absolutely destructive of everything that they touched. They're terrifying. They're frightening. You kind of get used to them in Southern California. But the big one could always happen. And we could just, like a shell, fall off in the ocean. We know that. We live there anyway. San Andreas Fault in California, that's a bit of a problem. That could be. But it's up to divine providence. But if it did happen, man, that would be pretty horrible. Can you imagine for about four minutes being on the land while Continental shelf becomes a different continental shelf. This kind of shelf falls off into the sea. You're just riding that wave down into your sudden doom. Here they have the rocks split. The earthquakes. Now that's very strange because the earthquakes and rocks splitting, this is more than just an earthquake. This is the splitting of rocks. This is the act of God. And what it immediately points you back to is the rocks splitting on Mount Sinai. It shows us a few things, again, just like the veil showed us several things in theology, the rocks splitting, it cues us in that there's something strange about this earthquake. It's not just a little rumbling that's going on, it's a rumbling that's resulting in rocks breaking like eggs. The first thing it teaches us is God's salvation for his people, which is a strange thing to think about, but this is how it appears in the Old Testament. In Exodus chapter 19, We read that it says, at Sinai, the whole mountain quaked violently. Judges chapter five, verse five, repeating Sinai's language, says, the mountains quaked at the presence of God, of the Lord, this Sinai, at the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel. Psalm 78, verse 15, he split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them abundant drink like the ocean steps. Remember when Moses split the rocks with his staff? Split the rocks, flint rock, poured forth water. Flint rocks don't pour forth water. That's not what flint rocks do. They're a harder stone. They don't absorb water. So a flint rock bringing forth water, that's not a thing in the desert. The Lord split open the flint rock, and he gave them drink like the ocean's depths, it says in Psalm 78, verse 15. Isaiah 48, 21. He split the rock, and the water gushed forth. The splitting of rocks refers to God's salvation of his people, giving the water of life, preserving them in the wilderness. The second thing we see in scripture is the splitting of rocks and the quaking of the earth refers to God's authority when he speaks. Hebrews 12, verse 25 says, speaking of Sinai being shattered and quaked, he says in verse 25, see to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking. So when God's shaking the earth in these times of His presence, it's a way of God getting the attention of His people so that they wouldn't stop paying attention to Him. It's like, pay attention to my authority as He's shaking the earth, the sovereign shaking the earth. He goes on and says, for if those did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. So the application of this, according to Hebrews, is do not refuse him who is speaking. When God is shaking the earth, you don't refuse him who is speaking. So it's the voice of God that causes the cattle to calve, he says, in Psalm 29. In other words, the voice of God is so powerful, it'll cause a cow to give birth. It'll shatter the cedars of Lebanon. The voice of the Lord is mighty. and he quakes the earth. Third thing it teaches us is judgment day. The destruction of wickedness and the lasting kingdom that will come. Isaiah 48, verse 21 and 22, he says, they did not thirst when he led them through the deserts. He made the water flow out of the rock for them. He split the rock and the water gushed forth. And then he says this, there is no peace for the wicked. It's a strange thing in the prophets in the Psalms in the New Testament. You see this connection between the shaking of the earth the splitting of rocks the salvation of God's people and then at the end of it always a warning of judgment day Now this comes to its clearest point at the end of the book of Hebrews again the end of the book of Hebrews Hebrews chapter 12 It puts all of these things together Verse 26. He says and his voice shook the earth then At Sinai, He shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also heaven." In other words, there's coming a time when God is going to shake loose the cosmos. We know from Scripture what this means. 2 Peter, the book of Revelation, that God is going to roll up the old cosmos like a scroll, burn it with intense heat. It says here He's going to shake it. with his voice. It says in verse 27, this expression yet once more denotes the removing of those sort of things which can be shaken as of created things. So he's saying in the future there will be a removing, a destruction of those things which are created. That's what Hebrews is teaching us. So that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. The kingdom of God. See, Hebrews is pulling out of these passages these things that we see. When you see the shaking of the earth, it refers to God speaking, God saving, but also a word of judgment to the world. So what do we see in this passage? Now, again, I'm going to skip over the dead raised because now their tombs are open, they're coming out of the ground. But what do we see as a result of this? The confession of faith by the centurion. Verse 54. Verse 54, it reads, in case you've forgotten, it's been a little while since we read it. It says, now the centurion and those who were with him, keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, this truly was the Son of God. They saw what was happening. They started to see the dead rising out of tombs. They saw the earth quaking. Darkness had fallen over the land. And the centurion says, surely this was the Son of God. They've been saying, they've been mocking Him as the Son of God. This one was the Son of God. Verse 43, they had said, He trusts in God, let God now rescue Him. If He delights in Him, for He had said, I am the Son of God. That's how they're mocking Him. They're quoting Psalm 22, that's actually Psalm 22 they're quoting at the Son, mocking Him as He's on the cross, and saying, because you said you were the Son of God. And now the centurion goes, oh no, we just crucified the Son of God. He realized that mocking was actually accurate. Why? Because of the effects of these signs. The result of seeing these signs led to the centurion saying these things. He became frightened and declared, truly this was the Son of God. We don't know what happened with this man afterward. We don't know whether this is like a spurious conversion, a true conversion, or whether it's just what he was to say because of its confession that has to do with the absolute clarity of what happened. in the conviction generally of the Holy Spirit or what? We don't know where this guy's soul was. But what we do know is it gives us a pattern that what should happen is you see what the Scriptures say, you see what God has done, you hear the Word of God, and you conclude logically, this is the Son of God. You conclude there is no escape of what the text is saying. The text directs all mankind to this formula, truly this was the Son of God. Faith in Christ, not mere recognition of the facts by the centurion, but faith as a trusting faith in Christ. That is what is called for here. Now it's interesting that the centurion makes this profession, it's not a full gospel profession, but he does confess Theologically, this one was the Son of God. He is the Son of God. What we're taught in scripture is we have to go beyond this though. Romans 10, 9, and 10 says that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness. And with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the unbeliever, this means trusting in Christ, repenting of sin, becoming a baptized, confessing Christian because you're fully persuaded of God's Word. This is what it means. You're fully persuaded of God's Word that I have to trust in Christ. I have to turn from my sin to Christ. He's my only Savior. I'm a sinner. I have to be baptized. I have to join this religion. I have to be part of this kingdom. That's what that full persuasion is. When Matthew is speaking and says, behold, look at these things, and the result is that we are supposed to behold them, to look at them, to understand them, the effect is that they cause us to confess Christ. They cause us to have this affection for Christ. They cause us to have this devotion for Christ, to draw near to Him. That's the logical application of this passage. For the believer, then, this means lifting up an affectionate love lifting up a firm faith, trusting God and worshiping God in fellowship with Him. It means carrying on with full persuasion. Now, something I've seen time and again is it's very easy for Christians to be persuaded of something for a time and then forget about it. Now, Peter points this out in 1 Peter 1. He says, I've got no problem reminding you. You need to be reminded. And as a pastor, I've had to remind people of things over and over and over again over the years. It seems like they've forgotten. Or maybe sometimes they're tempted to doubt them, and they need to be reminded of the good and clear reasons why they need to hold to these things. This is a problem that we have of not being fully persuaded of the truth. And what it does is it rocks us on the sea without an anchor, as if we have no anchor. But the reality is, we're just ignoring the fact that we have this anchor. You're anchored. You're tethered down. You're going to be OK. You're not going to be tossed everywhere. To change the metaphor a little bit, go back to what I talked about at the beginning of this, that people would think, with the way that religion is nowadays, that logically going through the text of Scripture and seeking to find the exposition of it and be persuaded, have it as clear, stark, bold, Reality that you can't avoid as the true religious experience They would think well, that's too intellectual That can't be but it really is it's gonna be more emotional. It's gonna be like this feeling of spirituality It's too dry And again, I'd say to you You have to keep your kindling dry to have a fire Because what is the fire? The fire is conviction persuasion, being immovable, because true religion is to know God, not to just have warm, fuzzy feelings. Sentimentality, leave that to the world. The Lord gives us true affection, true emotion, and conviction that this is certainly so. That's what happened to that centurion. Though he had no comfort from it, he had terror. Truly this was the Son of God. But it came through the reality that he saw. Matthew says to you as well, behold, look at him. Look at the signs. The signs compel you. Let's pray. Oh Lord Jesus, ruler of creation, to whom all honor, glory, power, adoration ought to be ascribed and directed to glorify you and the spirit whom you have given to us to give us this full persuasion. And Lord, you have given us, through your mediation, a reconciled relationship with the Triune God, our loving Father. We adore you, O Father, and the Son, and the Spirit. We cannot think of one without the others, for you are one. But we glorify you, adore you, and have nothing else to say but grant us this full assurance that we will walk in clarity, in affection, in communion with the Son of God. In Jesus' name, we pray.