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Matthew 28, as we continue to 
look at the Great Commission, the way Matthew's gospel ends 
with a declaration of the universal authority and sovereignty of 
Jesus Christ, and then He defines for His apostles and church what 
is to be done until He returns again in glory. But I do want 
to begin reading in Matthew 28 at verse 1. Now after the Sabbath, 
as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene 
and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was 
a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven 
and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on 
it. His countenance was like lightning 
and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for 
fear of him and became like dead men. The angel answered and said 
to the women, do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus 
who was crucified. He is not here for he is risen 
as he said. Come, see the place where the 
Lord lay and go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen 
from the dead and indeed he is going before you into Galilee. 
There you will see him. Behold, I have told you. So they 
went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran 
to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his 
disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, Rejoice. So they 
came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus 
said to them, Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brethren to go 
to Galilee, and there they will see me. Now while they were going, 
behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to 
the chief priests all the things that had happened. When they 
had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they 
gave a large sum of money to the soldiers saying, tell them 
his disciples came at night and stole him away while we slept. 
And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will appease him and 
make you secure. So they took the money and did 
as they were instructed. And this saying is commonly reported 
among the Jews until this day. Then the 11 disciples went away 
into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for 
them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. 
And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been 
given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make 
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching 
them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, 
I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. Well, 
let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for 
the written Word, we thank You for the incarnate Word, even 
our Lord Jesus Christ, and for His life, His death, His resurrection. How we praise You for what the 
angel reports in this chapter, that He rose as He said, the 
tomb was empty, and the women were able to investigate it for 
themselves, and the disciples respond in worship. Certainly, 
this is the one whom you sent into the world, sinners to save. 
How we thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation 
we have in Him, and how we pray that others would come to know 
Him as Lord and Savior. We pray that your Holy Spirit 
would be with us now, that He would guide us and lead us and 
help us as we look to your truth. We pray that He would convict 
sinners and show them their own place before a holy God, and 
show them their need, their absolute need for redemption, through 
the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray now that you would fill 
us with the Spirit, forgive us for our sins and our transgressions, 
and cleanse us in that precious fountain that is open for sin 
and uncleanness. And we pray these things now 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, we have, as I said, 
been spending some time here on the Great Commission, not 
only because I don't want Matthew's gospel to end, but also because 
it is so instructive concerning the mission or the focus of the 
church. And as we'll notice this morning, it's also instructive 
concerning who our God is. Now, just to kind of rehearse 
for you where we've been. We have seen their meeting in 
Galilee in verses 16 and 17, and then we have seen thus far 
up to, or in the Great Commission, up to verse 19. The Lord Jesus 
Christ declares His absolute authority. He has universal sovereignty. He makes that very clear. All 
authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Now that 
means every bit of authority that exists. There's nothing 
outside the scope of Christ's reign, His rule, His government, 
His crown. But as we saw in the last hour, 
Christ has this absolute authority, but His peculiar focus is upon 
His church. And that's a blessed thought. 
It's an encouraging thing. and hopefully it produces in 
us a great deal of comfort. So he has this authority. He 
now delegates it to his disciples. He tells them to go, or when 
they engage in this particular act, they are to go, they are 
to make disciples. How do we make disciples? We 
preach the gospel to them. We declare the great truths of 
who Jesus Christ is. I think there's a lot of misunderstanding 
here. We hear that word gospel sort of thrown around so much 
that in some senses it needs to be defined, it needs to be 
highlighted. Gospel is not my good feelings. Gospel is certainly 
not my good life or yours. Gospel is the story, the facts, 
the narratives concerning Christ, His life, His death, His resurrection. That's good news. That's gospel. The way by which we come into 
contact with God through the Lord Jesus is faith. In other 
words, how do the benefits that Christ brings in the gospel come 
to sinners. It comes by grace through faith. In other words, believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to be right with 
God today, if you were to die and you were to stand before 
God and you would have to give an account for your life, the 
only way to be right is to be in Christ. The only way to be 
prepared to meet your God is to be in Jesus. And the only 
way to be in Jesus is to believe, to look to Him. As Moses lifted 
up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted 
up. Now that first part refers to 
an instance in the life of Israel when God was angry with the people 
and He sent these snakes to bite people. And these people would 
have died unless there was a remedy provided. So God tells Moses 
to make a bronze serpent and to lift it up in the wilderness. 
And then the people that are bitten by the snakes are simply 
told to look at that bronze serpent and you will live. They didn't 
debate, they didn't ask a whole host of questions, they didn't 
say, well, am I worthy to look? They simply looked because therein 
was the remedy. And Jesus uses that in likeness 
to his own ministry or his own mission. As the serpent was lifted 
up in the wilderness, so also must the Son of Man be lifted 
up. What's the remedy for life? To look. Look and live, believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. So this is 
what disciple making is all about. And then Jesus says, after you 
make disciples of all the nations, a nod to the Abrahamic covenant, 
the Abrahamic promise, that in Abraham's seed all the nations 
of the earth would be blessed. From those out of the nations 
that are made disciples, you baptize these disciples. You 
put them into water. They identify with the triune 
God, which we're going to focus on this morning. And after they 
are baptized, they're in the life and the context of the local 
church, and then you teach them so that they grow, so that they 
mature, so that they understand the things, not only that they 
sing when we sing our hymns, but what they read when they 
read their scriptures. So this morning, I want to focus 
at the end of verse 19, the significance of the name into which believers 
are baptized. Notice verse 19, go therefore 
and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them, the 
disciples that have been made, in the name of the Father and 
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Now, there's a lot of gods that 
people worship. I'm not suggesting that they're 
true, but I am suggesting that a lot of people in different 
religions have a different conception of God, and so there's no shortage 
of gods. And I think in some of those 
different religions, those gods that they worship are kind of 
just like supermen. They're just better versions 
of man. And unfortunately, I think sometimes 
as Christians, this gets co-opted. We sort of view God as just a 
better version of us, a superior being. But God's not like us. God is God. God is creator. We are creature. God is the God 
that Hezekiah describes when he prays in 2 Kings chapter 19. He says, O Lord God of Israel, 
the one who dwells between the cherubim, you are God, you alone, 
of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth 
he summarizes or ends rather his prayer by saying now therefore 
Oh Lord our God I pray save us from his hand that All the kingdoms 
of the earth may know that you are the Lord God you alone. I Now within the Christian faith 
or Christianity, the God whom we serve is infinite, eternal, 
and unchangeable. Our confession describes God 
the way the Bible sets him forth. He is without body. It means 
God is spirit, according to our Lord Jesus in John 4. God is 
without parts, and that simply means that God isn't made up 
of a bunch of other things to produce God. God's in a class 
by himself, and he is without body, he is without parts, and 
he is without passions. That means God doesn't fluctuate. He's not happy one day and angry 
the next day. He doesn't have these emotional 
outbursts that so often characterize we, the creature. He's without 
body, without parts, without passions. He is incomparable. He is all alone in terms of God. And yet that one God expresses 
to us in the scripture that he eternally exists in three persons. This is what we call the Trinity. 
In fact, we sang about the Trinity in Hymn 89. And my desire is 
that the people of God understand this doctrine of the Trinity. 
Perhaps not the way that Calvin or Gil or those brothers were 
able to explain it, but we need to know something of what Scripture 
says concerning this one God who eternally exists as Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit. And if you're new to Christianity 
and you're learning about Christianity, you need to learn about the God 
whom we serve. He's not just a better version 
of man, but He is one true, everlasting God who has always existed as 
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So that is a longer introduction 
than I'm accustomed to. Let's look at our text. At the 
end of verse 19, the Lord Christ says, baptizing them in the name 
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Now that 
preposition, in the name of. When we read it that way in, 
it seems to suggest that this is a baptismal formula. In other 
words, every time you baptize someone, you baptize them with 
this language. I baptize you in the name of 
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. When you get to 
the book of Acts, however, you'll find that they didn't always 
use that formula. They were baptized in the name 
of the Lord Jesus. What are we supposed to make 
of that? I think the primary emphasis 
here in Matthew 28, 19 is that you're baptized into the name 
of. Again, it's not wrong to use 
this as a formula, an early church manual of doctrine and practice, 
and probably dated around A.D. 120, called the Didache, uses 
this formula, but then later speaks of baptizing in the name 
of the Lord. It's proper to use the formula, and that's okay. 
But what we find primarily in view with verse 19 is they're 
baptized into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy 
Spirit. It shows identification with. It shows belonging to. It shows subjection unto. As Davies and Allison say, into 
the name probably means either in order that they may belong 
to, this is what Greek usage leads us to expect, or in order 
that they may enter into a relationship with. In other words, when we 
baptized Chloe last week, We did use the formula. I said I 
baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of 
the Holy Spirit. But what does that baptism represent 
or identify? Certainly many excellent things 
for the subject of baptism. It represents to them the fact 
that they have died and been buried and been raised with Christ. 
It represents to them the fact that they are now in living, 
vital union and communion with the Lord Jesus. It represents 
to them the fact that they have received the remission of the 
forgiveness of sins. But it also points to the fact 
that they are now owned property. They now belong to another. You 
are baptized into the name of the Christian God. You are no 
longer your own. You are subject to His authority. You are subject to His rule. 
You are subject to His lordship. You belong to Him, and as a result, 
there are certain expectations as the children of God. You're 
not saved by works, you're not saved by performance, you're 
saved solely and alone by grace through faith. But when we are 
saved by grace through faith, what ultimately results? Holiness of life, obedience to 
the Master, the service of Christ, the taking of His yoke upon us 
according to Matthew chapter 11, going where He bids us. singing and meaning all the way 
my Savior leads, I will happily comply and I will happily follow. Those who are baptized into the 
name of the triune God are subject to that triune God. Those who 
are baptized into the name of this God are now owned by this 
God and they need to follow this God. Now let's look at this Threefold 
name. Notice, go therefore, make disciples 
of all the nations, baptizing them in the name singular of 
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It's kind 
of an intriguing way to say that, in the name, singular, one name 
and then three persons. Now, I don't want to load too 
much on this particular text, but at the same time, I don't 
want to neglect it. There is one name, God, three persons, 
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Those enemies of truth that say 
the Trinity is not taught in the Bible haven't got a clue. The Trinity is most certainly 
taught in the Bible. Some of the times they say, well, 
the word Trinity is not in the Bible. The early church and good 
theologians have always recognized that sometimes we need to use 
words that aren't in the Bible to protect the truths that are 
in the Bible. Some of the earliest debates 
concerned words, usage of which, that weren't necessarily in the 
Bible, but the words were employed to protect the true doctrines 
of the Bible. The idea that there is no Trinity 
in the Bible is an absolute lie and it's false. We see this singular 
name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This indicates what our confession 
of faith declares. Now, some of this language may 
not be common terminology that you use every day. And the temptation 
might be to say, well, I don't go to Saturday Morning Theology, 
and I don't read Berkhoff, and I don't read The Fathers, and 
I don't read, you know, the blogs that deal with this, so I'm just 
going to tune out for the next half hour. Please don't do that. 
You ever consider the fact that you just sang praises to the 
triune God? You should really make it your 
duty to learn something of the triune God to whom you're praising. We need to understand some of 
this stuff, because again, when we do not, there is the tendency 
to fall into error. Here's what our confession says, 
and I'll draw out some sort of implications. It says, in this 
divine and infinite being, So here we might say the name. The 
name represents or sort of highlights or indicates this one infinite 
or divine or this divine and infinite being. The confession 
goes on to say there are three subsistences. Now there's the 
word that everybody's going to go, I don't know that word. The 
Westminster Confession here uses the word persons. We've got one 
divine infinite being, one essence or substance, and then three 
subsistences or persons. This is how the Trinity is not 
a contradiction. A contradiction is it's the case 
that something is three and it's not three. The Trinity, God is 
one in one sense and three in another sense. He is one according 
to his essence or substance, and he is three according to 
his subsistence or his persons. You see? It would be a contradiction 
if we said God is one essence or substance, and he's three 
essences or substances. You get that, right? He can't 
be three of one thing and one of the same thing without a contradiction. But the doctrine of the Trinity 
does not maintain that. He is one essence or substance. Those words often are used interchangeably. And he is three persons or subsistences. Let's go back to the confession. 
In this divine and infinite being, there are three subsistences, 
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. Now, they are distinguished among 
themselves by several peculiar relative properties and personal 
relations. So this passage reflects that. The one name of the three persons, 
the one infinite and divine being that is three persons, into the 
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. John Gill says, hence a confirmation 
of the doctrine of the Trinity. There are three persons but one 
name, but one God, into which believers are baptized. You see 
that, right? I'm not making this up, everybody's 
with me. I want everybody to follow this 
because it's absolutely crucial and because a lot of errors are 
made right here, both in the early church and in the modern 
church. In fact, some of those errors were consistent in the 
early church and they're still persistent today. The heresy 
of tritheism, which teaches three gods. that there are three gods. The Christian doctrine of the 
Trinity, according to tritheism, is that the Father is God, the 
Son is God, the Spirit is God, three gods. That's not what the 
Trinity maintains, the doctrine of the Trinity. What you have 
in tritheism is that there are three different essences that 
are all God. Of course you have competitors, 
of course you have threeness in that way. Then there's what's 
called the heresy of modalism. Again, this isn't just back then 
with Sibelius and some of the other fathers. This is right 
now in the Oneness Pentecostal Church. Right now, this idea 
of modalism, it's a denial of the three personal subsistences. It's a denial. It says that God 
was Father, became Son, and now is the Holy Spirit. Again, brethren, 
that is a way to try and explain what Scripture presents, but 
it's a way that's very wrong. It argues that the one divine 
essence or person manifests itself in three modes or roles. He was 
the Father, he became the Son, and now he's the Holy Spirit. This whole idea of oneness in 
Jesus' name only. Well, for them, Jesus means God. Again, Jesus does mean God, but 
we need to distinguish and we need to explain how that is the 
case. And then there's what's called 
the heresy of subordinationism. Claims that the divine essence 
is marked by a gradation of degree or rank. In other words, there 
is this one divine essence, but the persons within this one divine 
essence are gradated by rank. The father, and then the son 
is subordinate, and then the spirit is subordinate. Subordinationism. All those things have plagued 
the church from the earliest times, and they plague the church 
today. So it is important that I say 
that you look at our confession of faith that does correctly 
set forth the doctrine of the Trinity. Now, with reference 
to our text, Go therefore, make disciples of all the nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Spirit. Turn back to Matthew 3. Matthew 
chapter 3. All three persons are present 
at the baptism of Jesus. Notice in Matthew 3, beginning 
in verse 13, then Jesus came from Galilee to Jonathan Jordan 
to be baptized by him, and John tried to prevent him, saying, 
I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me? But 
Jesus answered and said to him, Permit it to be so now, for thus 
it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he allowed 
him. Now, before we actually get into 
the three persons of the Trinity that this text so clearly sets 
forth. I just want to focus on what 
Jesus says here for just a moment by way of an aside. Notice that 
Jesus says, "'Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting 
for us to fulfill all righteousness.'" Why does Christ say that, or 
why does Christ do that? Because the message of the gospel 
that I defined earlier as the message of Christ's life, death, 
and resurrection requires that his life be one of obedience. You get that? Christ's life on 
earth was a life of obedience to the Father. Obedience to the 
Father's law. Obedience perfect, exact, entire, 
and perpetual. An obedience that the Father 
demands from us, but we are We're unwilling, we're unable, there 
is nothing in us that complies with the law of God the way he 
calls us to. It's not perfect, it's not exact, 
it's not entire, and it's certainly not perpetual. That is not the 
way we obey the law of God. This is why Christ came into 
the world. so that he could fulfill all 
righteousness, so he could obey the Father, so that he could 
comply with that written law, so that he always did what the 
Father gave him, he always obeyed. Why do we need that? Because 
of our lawlessness, we need His. lawfulness. Because of our sin 
and perversion, we need His holiness. Because of our unrighteousness, 
we need His righteousness. In other words, Christ fulfilled 
all righteousness in His life. He then died as a sacrifice on 
the cross, as a sacrifice, as a substitute, as one who bore 
the wrath and penalty of God the Father. He then was raised 
the third day. Now the Christian gospel goes 
forth, and sinners are called upon to believe. When sinners 
believe, by the grace of God, upon this Lord Jesus, they receive 
benefit. From His death to be sure, our 
sins are forgiven. His blood atones for us. We are 
cleansed, we are purified. We now sing, my sin, oh, the 
bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the 
whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise 
the Lord, praise the Lord. That is a blessed thing for the 
people of God, to know the forgiveness of sins. But it's through his 
fulfillment of all righteousness that we receive this righteousness. So now we stand before God as 
righteous. In other words, Christ forgives, 
or the life and the death and the resurrection of Christ brings 
forgiveness, but it also brings a righteousness that we need. 
God hasn't suspended that. God doesn't say, okay, your sins 
are forgiven you now, but go ahead and not provide a righteousness. The gospel provides the righteousness 
that God demands, and that's the blessing of this statement 
when Jesus says, it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. 
He always went about doing good. He never violated the law. Think 
about the Ten Commandments for a moment. I mean, how many of 
you have been broken by the time you got here today? I love the 
way we're so proud. Well, you know, I'm a good person. 
Are you really? Like, you woke up this morning 
and your mind went right to God and loved to him? This is the 
demands of the Shema. The Lord our God, the Lord is 
one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, 
soul, mind, and strength. If you thought coffee before God, 
you failed. If you thought bathroom before 
God, you failed. You get the point. We are proud 
and arrogant and think that we're good. We're not good. We're terrible. We're monstrous. The Bible can't 
say enough bad about us. I'm sorry if you're going to 
go home and pout and whine and cry and say, he really made me 
unhappy today. Maybe you need a good dose of 
unhappiness to see your condition before a holy God so you'll see 
your need for the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, brethren, we 
break the law. We sin against God. We defile 
everything He says is good and holy. Not only in acts of commission 
we transgress, but in the things that He tells us to do that we 
don't do. Sins of omission. And if any of you ever think 
you're doing well, go to Exodus 20, go to Deuteronomy 5, and 
read through the Decalogue, read through the Ten Commandments, 
and ask yourself, is this true of me? God says, have no other 
gods before me. You say, well, I don't worship 
Baal, I don't worship Moloch, I don't worship the almighty 
dollar. You probably worship yourself. You say, well, I don't 
blaspheme. I was taught when I was a youngin' 
that you don't use the name of God or Jesus as a blasphemous 
word. Our conduct can bring blasphemy and shame to the name of God. 
Sabbath, we all wake up on Sunday morning eager, ready to go to 
the house of the Lord and spend our day in thoughts and meditations 
and words and contemplations focused upon our great God who 
is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yeah, we do that until about 
10 minutes after we're out of bed, and then it's, I wonder 
who won the game, I wonder what we're having for lunch, I wonder 
what I'm gonna do tomorrow at my business meeting, and boy, 
is this sermon ever gonna end. The fifth commandment. What does 
God say with reference to children? Go ahead and conduct yourselves 
like beasts. Whine, grumble, complain, cry, 
and scream for everything you want at Walmart. Embarrass your 
parents, make other people want to take discipline to you. You just do that. You just be 
free. Express yourselves. No. Children, obey your parents 
in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and your mother. 
Again. How often do you engage in that 
perpetually, exactly, entirely, and personally? The sixth commandment. You say, well, I never murder. 
I haven't, you know, actually killed anybody. You've murdered 
in the heart. You've been angry without cause. 
You've called your brother fool, a rocker, empty head, knucklehead, 
brainless, fool, whatever. Seventh commandment. I mean, 
you know, most of us would probably say, why don't we just skip that 
one? We can't skip that one. What does Jesus say? As long 
as you haven't actually engaged in the physical touch with another 
human being, everything's okay. No, if you look upon a woman, 
I will infer, or a man, to lust, you have broken the commandment 
in your heart. The eighth commandment, oh, I never steal. Do you go 
to work and give your employer the eight hours he's paying for? 
Your thoughts are completely devoted and dedicated to him. 
Ninth commandment, don't bear false witness. Again, another 
one that we might want to conveniently just bypass. And then the tenth 
commandment, who of us hasn't coveted? Really, are you with me? We need 
a righteousness, brethren, that avails with God. And the fact 
that Jesus fulfills all righteousness, when the sinner, by the grace 
of God, looks unto the Lord Jesus Christ, he is justified. And 
justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardons 
all of our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only 
for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by 
faith alone. It's beautiful. the glorious 
doctrine of justification by faith alone. Back to the text, 
notice in verse 16, when he had been baptized, Jesus came up 
immediately from the water and behold, the heavens were open 
to him and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove 
and alighting upon him. And suddenly a voice came from 
heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Turretin says, hence the saying 
of the ancients, Arian, go to Jordan and there you will see 
the Trinity. You see, all three persons are 
here. All three persons are present. We go back to Matthew chapter 
28. This isn't some new thing. This isn't some revolutionary 
concept or thought. What is, however, is the fact 
that Jesus identifies himself with the Father and the Spirit. 
Revolutionary or or you know outside the the realm of what 
the bible taught us to expect In terms of the messiah to come 
in the old testament, but imagine for this first audience How did 
they know jesus? They knew jesus is a wonderful 
man. They knew jesus is a wonderful teacher They saw jesus engage 
in miracles and and excellent things. They saw him feed multitudes. 
They saw him heal the blind They saw him heal the deaf and the 
mute he saw they saw them. I saw jesus actually still the 
waves and the winds. But they had also seen him brutally 
beaten. They had also seen him hung on 
a cross. They had heard the religious 
leaders mocking him. They had seen him die. And now 
behold, he has been raised. Behold, he has absolute sovereign 
authority over all things. And he says, baptize these newly 
made disciples in the name singular of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Again, back to John Gill. He 
says, and this is a proof of the true deity of both the Son 
and of the Holy Spirit, and that Christ as the Son of God is God, 
since baptism is administered equally in the name of all three, 
as a religious ordinance, a part of divine instituted worship, 
which would never be in the name of a creature. You see, you can't 
link yourself with God as creature. Christ is not creature. Christ is the second person of 
the Trinity who took on creature. He took on man. He took on humanity. He identifies with us such that 
he takes all of the essential properties and the common infirmities 
of man. But he is God. He never stopped 
being God. The Word became flesh and dwelt 
among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten 
of the Father, full of grace and truth. It's a wonderful thing, 
brethren, when you appreciate what Jesus does in history, and 
then you look behind it to what Jesus is in eternity. And He is God, baptizing in the 
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Now, this joins several other 
passages in the New Testament that show us this one God and 
three persons. We see the one godness in Deuteronomy 
6. Here, O Israel, the Lord our 
God, the Lord is one. You see it in 1 Corinthians chapter 
8. New Testament authors, Old Testament authors never posited 
the existence of several gods. Now, the Old Testament, to mock 
the heathen or the pagan. New Testament does that as well. 
Certainly men think that their belly is God. Certainly men think 
their pile of loot is God. Certainly men think that their 
prestige or their power or their ability is God. That doesn't 
mean it is. So the authors of the scripture 
at times use that convention to mock them. In fact, Psalm 
115, the idols of the nations. They have eyes, but they can't 
see. They have ears, but they can't hear. They got mouths, 
but they can't speak. They've got, you know, noses, 
but they can't smell. I mean, you get the point, right? You ever read Psalm 115 and said, 
okay, we get it. He's piling on invective to attack 
the idea that there are these competitor gods. And then he 
says, all those who worship them become like them, or those who 
make them become like them. Idolatry has an effect. You become 
that which you worship. So the Bible tells us there is 
one God. The Bible tells us that the Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Spirit are God. Notice the specific 
texts that deal with the three. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 
Again, very important. If you walk down Yale Avenue 
on a Saturday morning, you're going to see people out there 
that are representative of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. And they're going to tell you 
that the Trinity is not in the Bible. Jesus isn't God. You're 
going to probably bump into that sort of thing in your life. You're 
going to meet people at the water cooler at work, and they're going 
to say, well, you know, I don't believe Jesus is God. Well, there you 
go. That must settle it, right? That's 
how people say it. Well, I don't believe it. You 
don't recognize how people take that as fact. What I do or don't 
believe is definitional, defines what a fact is. No, God's Word 
does, and God's Word teaches. There is one God who exists eternally 
as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Just showing you some of these 
texts that have all three persons. Notice in 1 Corinthians 12, verses 
4 to 6. There are diversities of gifts, 
but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, 
but the same Lord. And there are diversities of 
activities, but it is the same God who works all in all." You 
see, Lord, Spirit, God. God in context is Father. More often than not in the New 
Testament, when we read God, it's referring to Father. But 
strictly speaking, God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But the 
Scriptures does use or do use the convention God or the name 
God specifically for Father at times. It uses the name God or 
Theos for Christ at times as well. When Thomas sees Jesus, 
what does he say? My Lord and my God. That is the name God or the word 
God applied specifically to the Lord Jesus Christ. It does this 
with reference to the Spirit. When Peter is rebuking Ananias 
and Sapphira, you have not lied to men, but to God. In this lie 
against the Holy Spirit, what you have done is you've lied 
against God. For the most part, when we read 
God, oftentimes in context, it's a reference to Father. Notice 
2 Corinthians 13, 14, the benediction, the good word. 2 Corinthians 
13, 14, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of 
God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 
Amen. Notice in Galatians 4, 4-6, Galatians 
4, 4-6, but when the fullness of the time had come, God sent 
forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. to redeem 
those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption 
as sons. And because you are sons, God 
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying 
out, Abba, Father." Interestingly enough, this also highlights 
something of those relative properties and personal relations that the 
persons of the Trinity bear and possess. The Father is unbegotten. The Son is begotten. The Spirit 
proceeds from the Father and the Son. What is true of God 
in Himself is oftentimes fleshed out in the economy of redemption. 
The Father sends the Son. The Father sends the Spirit. 
The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, reflecting 
to us something of what is true of God in Himself. It's a beautiful 
and a glorious thing. And then notice in Ephesians 
4, If he said, well, he skipped Ephesians 1, you're right. We 
don't have worlds of time. God is eternal, and we are not. 
And I always remember that, and I try not to keep you here past 
a certain time. But Ephesians 1 is certainly 
Trinitarian, or God the Father is blessed, why? Because He chose 
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. God the Father 
is blessed, why? Because in His Son Christ, we 
have redemption through His blood. God the Father is blessed, why? 
Because of the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit, 
who is the seal and the guarantee of our final inheritance. The 
Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all those that we praise 
with reference to salvation from the one God. But notice in Ephesians 
4, specifically verses 4 to 6, there is one body and one spirit, 
just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, 
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above 
all and through all and in you all. Again, when you meet those 
people on Yale and say, well, there's no Trinity in the Bible, 
you're going to say, wait a minute, I just read the Trinity in the 
Bible. But the word's not used. The concept is present. The particular 
word doesn't have to be in the Bible for the truth to be there. This is just how foolish it has 
become. Well, the word Trinity's not 
in there, so I'm not gonna believe it. But the Trinity's in there, 
you should believe it. But the word's not there, I'm 
not gonna believe it. I pulled a concordance down one day, I opened it up 
to the T's, I popped it open and there was no Trinity, so 
therefore I'm not gonna believe it. Again, brethren, we use words 
outside of the Bible to protect the truths inside the Bible. 
If we don't do that, we're going to be heretics. If we don't do 
that, we are going to be damned. Now, when it comes to Christian 
doctrine, there are things that Christians and churches disagree 
about. Not all those things we disagree about will send us to 
hell. The Trinity does. We need to be right when it comes 
to the Trinity. We need to be right on who Jesus 
Christ is. We need to be right on the way 
of salvation. Now, we differ on baptism, and 
this text is one particular instance of that. In fact, last week, 
I think I made some comments that were anti-pedo-baptist in 
nature, but you know what? Pedo-baptists, saved by grace, 
through faith in Jesus Christ, are dear brothers and sisters 
in the Lord. Praise God Almighty for that. And a whole host of 
paedobaptists wrote a whole host of great books that are in my 
shelves right now, and I have no intention of throwing them 
out on Wednesday when the garbage man comes. We can disagree about 
some things, but we can't disagree about who God is. We can't disagree 
about who Christ is. We can't agree with the witnesses 
that say that the Holy Spirit is active force. No, you can 
grieve Him. You can lie to Him. He speaks. He equips people with gifts. 
How in the world is that active force? He is the third person 
of the Blessed Trinity. God blessed forever. We can have 
no truck with those who deny the triune God. We preach gospel 
to them. We urge them to believe what 
scripture says. We try to declare to them the 
glorious truth of the Trinity. But in terms of being brothers 
and sisters, they're worshiping an idol. They might as well bow 
to Baal. They might as well bow to Molech. 
They might as well give themselves to their money, or to their sex, 
or to their drugs, or to their rock and roll, or whatever it 
is they're worshiping. Brethren, the God of the Bible 
is one God. Three persons, Father, Son, and 
Holy Spirit. That's it. That's why this is important. 
Kids, you're probably going, man, a lot of this language is 
going over my head. But you know what? You need to 
hear this language. You need to be tutored in it. 
You need to be catechized in it. You need to outthink your 
parents. Because at the present, this 
doctrine is under a great deal of attack. And more often than 
not, the doctrine is attacked through the person of Jesus. This idea that Jesus is eternally 
subordinate to the Father is an attack upon the doctrine of 
the Trinity. This is getting commonplace today 
in evangelicalism. Names that everybody thinks are 
great theologians are teaching the eternal subordination of 
the Son to the Father. That is wrong. Jesus willingly 
submits himself to the Father in the economy of salvation. 
Jesus willingly submits himself to the Father when he takes on 
our flesh, when he comes down for us men and for our salvation, 
he willingly submits himself to the Father. But that's in 
the economy of salvation and redemption. That doesn't speak 
to the relationships that are there between the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Spirit. And when we do that, when we 
argue from the economy back into, you know, what's called the eminent 
trinity or the ontological trinity, we're going to error. This is 
what Mark the Arbiter debates with reference to impassibility. We may not like the thought of 
a God who doesn't have passions, but we ought to praise the fact 
that God doesn't have passions, because He is most loving. He can't increase and He can't 
decrease. He is most good. That means he 
can't get more good or less good. Impassibility highlights the 
godness of God. The way that the Persians messed 
that up is to say, well, Jesus bled, Jesus wept, Jesus had hair, 
therefore it must be true of God. We don't argue from the 
economy back to the imminent trinity. There are rules that 
the church has always recognized, but now it's anybody's game. Now we're going to do whatever 
we want. It's like the time listed for 
us in the book of Judges. There was no king in Israel, 
and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Well, Jesus 
wept, Jesus bled, Jesus had hair, so therefore God weeps, bleeds, 
and has hair. You can't do that. Don't do that. You have to make distinctions. 
You have to understand who God is. You have to understand Father, 
Son, Spirit, relationships that occur between them or within 
God, and how God relates to man or to creature. Again, it may 
sound difficult, it's simply because we have been trained 
to think this way. We've been taught on the catechism. Are 
there more gods than one? No, there is but one only, the 
true and living God. In how many persons does this 
one God exist? There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are one God, the 
same in substance, equal in power and glory. Praise God Almighty 
from whom all good doctrine comes. The Westminster Shorter Catechism 
there is beautiful. You get that, you're going to 
be doing well. Better get chapter 2 in our Confession 
of Faith. You're doing very, very well. 
And before you say, well, that's in the Confession and that's 
in the Catechism. It's from the Bible. They're 
compact, succinct, carefully articulated statements of Bible 
truth. We cannot pit the two against 
each other. Oh, you guys, hold to that Confession 
of Faith. And I am thankful to the Lord 
God Almighty that we do. Because if we don't, we're going 
to end up Jehovah's Witnesses. If we don't, we're going to end 
up Mormons. If we don't, we're going to end up Sabellians. If 
we don't, we're going to end up Oneness Pentecostal. If we 
don't, we're going to end up Tritheists. If we don't, we're 
going to end up in a whole host of problems. Look at those confessions 
and the work of the church. You see, brethren, the creeds 
and the confessions reflect something that is right here in Matthew 
28. Go therefore, make disciples, baptize them, teach them." We 
expect in the teaching ministry of the church that there will 
be the articulation of truth, right? Or Ephesians 4, if we 
were to keep on reading. Christ ascended on high, he led 
captivity captive, and he gives gifts to men. What are the gifts 
there? It's not tongues, it's not prophesying, not the gift 
of helps, not service. The gifts in Ephesians 4 are 
men. Some prophets, some apostles, 
some pastors, teachers. Why? So he can equip the church. It's gonna bring maturity to 
the church. You look at those creeds and confessions, and we 
say, oh, that's against the Bible. No, it's a fruit of the Bible, 
because Jesus gave the church these gifts, and these gifts 
outshined a whole lot of other gifts, and they took pen to paper, 
and they articulated and crafted good statements to protect the 
church from abandoning the scripture. You see, we need to be taught 
these things and not tune out when it's not a sermon on five 
principles of being a better me, or tune out when it's not 
something real practical. We've got this disconnect between 
the practical and the doctrinal. Brethren, if the doctrine of 
the Trinity doesn't affect you practically, you're not listening. You're not paying attention. 
You're not understanding that the work and the ministry and 
the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ has behind it, it's almost 
difficult to talk this way because it sounds weird, but the work 
and the ministry and the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus, 
it didn't just happen some sunny day that in Israel a man rose 
up and he thought, I'm gonna do great and noble things. It 
goes into eternity, who God is, how much that God loves creatures 
in the sending of his son to save them. See, my thought is, 
is that you look at the cross and then you look beyond it into 
who God is. I'm not saying everything true 
in the economy is necessarily true in terms of the eminent 
trinity, but it's certainly a window, it's certainly a way to gaze 
upon and behold our God. You see, we just don't want to 
do this because we want tips and, you know, helps on how to 
be a better me. Now, I'm not necessarily, well, 
I'm always against that. The best way to be a better you 
is to repent, believe the gospel, and do exactly what Jesus says. 
That's how you'll be a better you. Always. I hope that you're seeing this. It's not just because, oh, he's 
been reading stuff on the Trinity. As a result of the ARBCA impassibility 
debate, it did cause us to read more in this doctrine of God, 
theology proper. And at least for my own part, 
it's shown me just how deficient in knowledge I am, but as well 
how the church is. We are satisfied with just terrible 
formulations of biblical truth, and we shouldn't be. We're the 
rich inheritors of the Second London Confession of Faith of 
1677 slash 1689, which in their doctrinal statements concerning 
the theology proper and Christology, guess where they went? Well, 
we're gonna do some brand new thing, and I'm not talking about 
Westminster and Savoy. I'm talking about early church. 
Those brothers in the early church hammered this stuff out. We're 
going to just co-opt their language. We're going to bring it right 
into our confession of faith because it's so good. Not for 
us. We've got to be new. We've got 
to do something different. We've got to retool it all and reorient 
it all, and in the process, we lose God. That's the problem 
involved with this. That's the problem with not hearing 
sermons on the Trinity, of not attending our studies in the 
Confession of Faith when we're in chapter 2 and when we're in 
chapter 8, and when we discuss these things and how it is the 
case that in this one divine being, There are these three 
subsistences, and how this is not only not contradictory, but 
this is precisely what Scripture says, and Matthew 28 is one of 
those stones upon which we step, baptized into the name singular 
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. How else 
does one describe that or explain that convention than the Trinity 
is taught in the Bible? Now, there might be the fool 
out there that says, well, Jesus didn't know how to use the plural 
term names. I certainly don't want to be that person that goes 
up against Jesus on a grammar debate. Brethren, this is absolutely, 
positively, 100% crucial for you to get and for you to assimilate. As well, 2 Thessalonians 2, 13 
and 14. And there are many, many more. 
Again, preachers say that when they don't mean it sometimes, 
but I actually mean it. We just don't have time. As I 
said, God's eternal, we're not. You all want to go home and eat 
your lunch. I get that. I try to respect that. I don't 
ever try to keep you over. I find that it's just not a good 
way to live. You might throw tomatoes at my 
car someday, and I don't want tomatoes thrown at my car. 2 
Thessalonians 2, verse 13, we are bound to give thanks to God 
always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God chose 
you from the beginning, from the beginning, I'm sorry, because 
God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification 
by the Spirit, and belief in the truth. We've got God, Father, 
we've got Spirit, for which He called you by our gospel for 
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, 
it's not one or two passages that set before us this reality 
of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The New Testament is explicitly 
and thoroughly Trinitarian. Paul deals with gifts in a Trinitarian 
context. Paul deals with salvation, Trinitarian 
context. Paul deals with everything, Trinitarian 
context. John greets his readers in Asia 
Minor in a Trinitarian context. What do you think these authors 
are suggesting to us by way of their practice? We need to think 
in terms of a Trinitarian context when we enter into this place. 
It's not in the first place to encourage one another, though 
that should help or that should take place. It is to come to 
the Father through the mediation of the Son, by the power and 
in the Holy Spirit. If a church does not expressly 
commit themselves to the God who is triune, In other words, 
if you can go to a church and it would be a sermon that could 
have successfully be preached in a Jewish synagogue, that's 
bad. We are Trinitarians. We are committed 
to the truth of one God, three persons, Father, Son, and Holy 
Spirit. We are committed to that absolutely 
positively. was said with our lives. It is 
with our lives. This is one of the doctrines 
you die for. When I first came here almost 21 years ago, I thought, 
I'll die for post-millennialism. Not in a chance, brethren. Not 
in a million years now. No way. You go ahead and be pre-mill. You go right ahead. You have 
all those thoughts of pre-mill, and you talk about it, and you 
enjoy it. We're great. We can live together, and be 
harmonious together, and worship together, and that's fine. But 
Trinity, we die for. Who Jesus is, we die for. This 
is one of those things they put a gun to your head. Do you believe 
in the Trinity? Yes. Do you believe in post-millennialism? Yes, but don't shoot. Don't kill me. Trinity, we die 
for. Jesus, we die for. Spirit, we 
die for. Justification by faith, we die 
for. Brethren, those are the core 
doctrines. These are the defining terms 
of what it means to be Christian. It's not just some attempt at 
a better life. It's not just some moral reformation. It's not just putting on a suit 
on Sunday and showing up at a place called church. It's about dirty, 
vile, helpless, wicked, God-hating sinners finding Him to be a God 
of grace, mercy, forgiveness, kindness, and love. knowing that 
grace, understanding that grace, and by that grace, believing 
in his Son, that Son who is God, that Son who is man, yet not 
two, but one person, and realizing that he fulfilled all righteousness 
for sinners like me, that he died on the cross for sinners 
like me, that he was raised the third day for sinners like me. 
encapsulated in Romans 4.25. He was delivered up because of 
our offenses, but he was raised for our justification. These 
are the defining terms of Christianity in church. This is what makes 
us who we are. It is this God who is Father, 
Son, and Spirit. If we don't know this, we don't 
know Him. If we don't know Him, we are 
hell-bound. And the only hope of salvation 
at that point is to look to Christ, to believe on Him, and to say, 
not in words, I'm not going to give you the formula, I'm wretched, 
God's holy, Christ is the only way of salvation, and by His 
grace I believe. I'm going to hold on, and I'm 
not going to let go. I've shared before, there's an amusement 
park in California that we liked, up until Cam and I, last time 
we went, reflected our age. We took the kids, and they're 
running around, and the park closes at 10, and it's 9, and 
the kids are running from ride to ride to ride, and Cam and 
I were sitting on a bench. I remember being a young kid 
thinking, why would anybody sit on a bench when there's all these 
great rides? Because they get older, and they 
don't want to walk anymore, and then they get sick to their stomach 
with these rides. But that particular park, everybody 
goes to Disneyland, but this is Six Flags. And they have these 
roller coasters, and they call them white knucklers. A white 
knuckler is you're holding on so tight, because you don't want 
to fall out, that your knuckles are white. It's the doctrine 
of the Trinity. It's the doctrine of who our 
Jesus is. It's the doctrine of our salvation. These are white knucklers. We 
don't give on this. We don't relinquish on this. 
We're like a dog with a bone when it comes to this. You ain't 
taking it from us. And brethren, the more you get 
your minds wrapped around who this God is, the more you study 
these things with a view to understanding who God is, the more your knuckles 
are gonna get whiter, and the more your grip is gonna be tenacious, 
and the more you're gonna be like that dog that no one will 
ever try to take that bone away from. Brethren, that's the importance 
and the value of this particular message. In conclusion, two quotes 
and then we go. First, With reference to our text in 
Matthew 28, we see the glory of our triune God. The doctrine 
of the Trinity must be known and believed because that is 
who God is. It's just that simple. How can we believe in a God we 
don't know? How can we believe in a God we 
don't understand? This is something else. People 
say, wow, it's a contradiction. It's so hard to understand. Have 
you taken the time to read? You know, it's amazing to me 
that professing people of God, they think they're going to put 
their Bible under their pillow at night, put their head on it, 
and it's just going to sort of seep in as they sleep. I got this zany notion. Pick 
up a book and read it. Have any of you gone through 
the Confession of Faith recently and looked at chapter 2 or chapters 
8? Are these things vital and important in your life? The psalmist 
said, great are the works of Yahweh. They are studied by all 
who delight in them. It's always intrigued me that 
people will study a whole host of things out there, but the 
people of God won't ever study their God. I mean, it's an unfortunate 
thing that the cultists know more about their heretical God 
than the believers know about their true God. Remember old 
Hank Hanegraaff used to say that. It wasn't him, it was Walter 
Martin. I might be Hank, and I'm not here to comment. I know 
Hank's made some weird changes here lately, but are we willing 
to do for the truth what the cults do for a lie? My experience, 
quite honestly, not always. Not always. So I've just got all these other 
concerns. What greater concern in your life, I know you're important, 
I know you're a snowflake, I know you're delicate, and I know you're 
wonderful in the grand scheme of things, but what really is 
more important in your life than the knowledge of who God is? 
I mean, isn't that everything? Isn't that what Jesus defines 
for us? Eternal life? This is eternal 
life, that they may know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ, 
whom Thou hast sent. I know you're busy, we're all 
busy, get up earlier, stay up later, pinch your leg so that 
you don't fall asleep, and read our confession at a bare minimum, 
chapters 2, chapter 8, those ones that deal with the specifics 
of who God is, because it's that important. Kelvin says on this 
text, thus we perceive that God cannot be truly known unless 
our faith distinctly conceive of the three persons in one essence. Francis Turretin said, for it 
is not sufficient to know that God is. We certainly need to 
know that God is, Hebrews 11. Those who come to God must believe 
that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek 
Him. But listen to Turretin, for it is not sufficient to know 
that God is as to existence or what He is as to His attributes, 
but we must know also who He is. See, Turretin's not saying 
we don't need to know that He is, we don't need to know that 
He's got attributes or He is attributes, but we also need 
to know who He is. He goes on to say, but we must 
know also who He is, as to the persons, as He presents Himself 
to be known by us in His Word. Hence, whosoever denieth the 
Son, the same hath not the Father, 1 John 2.23. And he that honoreth 
not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him, John 
5.23. He says, therefore, God has revealed 
Himself as one in essence, three in persons, viz., the Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now listen to this cutting statement. 
Again, it applies to pagans and their gods, but it could equally 
apply to professing Christians who either adopt a tritheistic 
approach or a modalistic approach or a subordinationistic approach. 
He says, thus, he who does not acknowledge and believe the Trinity 
has not the true God, but has erected for himself an idol in 
the place of God. So why a whole sermon on a little 
part of Matthew 28, 19? Because of that. Because of that. And brethren, this doctrine of 
the Trinity is not only necessary in terms of who God is, but for 
your practical comfort. This is one thing that distinguishes 
the 1689 from the Westminster and Savoy. It's not in those 
two. But after the discussion concerning God in himself, God 
in himself is what we might call internal relations, father, son, 
spirit, one common undivided essence, three subsistences or 
persons. After this discussion of who 
God is in himself, you think they'd end with, okay, now go 
out and pursue your PhDs in theology. Go out and carry yourself as 
proud Pharisees that you now know something about the Christian 
faith that all the other rabble doesn't know. That's not how 
they end that particular discussion. says, it is the foundation of 
all our communion with God and comfortable dependence on Him. 
That's why the doctrine of the Trinity is practically important, 
because it is the foundation of all our communion with God 
and comfortable dependence on Him. How do you guys believe 
that? Because the Bible tells me so, 
and it's because it is most blessed, most comfortable, and this is 
where I depend. Well, praise God Almighty for 
the truth that He reveals to us in Scripture concerning who 
He is. One God, three persons, Father, 
Son, Holy Spirit. No contradiction, no insoluble 
mystery, but a mystery revealed by God to be believed by the 
people of God for the worship of God and for the comfortable 
dependence upon Him. Again, if you don't know Jesus 
here this morning, a lot of this stuff is gonna just go, wow, 
I can't even understand, you know, a person. You need to know 
Christ. If you leave learning anything 
this morning, learn and know this. God is a holy God. Man 
is a sinful man. And by man, I mean man, woman, 
boy, and girl, all of us included. We have offended this God. We 
have raised our fist at this God. We have not done what this 
God says. And as a result, we deserve punishment. We deserve damnation. We deserve 
judgment. We deserve hell. But God sent 
his son that those who believe in him might have everlasting 
life. So look. Look and live, to use 
the analogy of the serpent lifted up in the wilderness. Look and 
live. Well, let us pray. Our Father, 
we thank you for your word, and we thank you for the statement 
of our Lord concerning the name singular and the persons plural. 
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, give us grace to receive this 
with thanksgiving. Give us grace, obviously, to 
believe this, and give us grace, Almighty God, to see how important 
it is, not only that you are, and not only that you are this 
particular way, but who you are, who you are in your being. We 
pray that you would give us the mind of Christ in this pursuit, 
and give us the grace to delight ourselves in the study of God 
Almighty. And Lord, we do pray for more 
and more conversions. We pray for more and more people 
to be made disciples through the preaching of the gospel. 
We rejoice to baptize newly redeemed ones. We pray that in this coming 
year, this tank would be filled on many occasions, and many sinners 
would be plunged beneath that flood, and it would indeed demonstrate 
that they have lost all their guilty sins. Go with us now, 
we pray, in Jesus' holy name, amen. We'll close with a brief time 
of meditation and then be dismissed.