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If you have a confession, you 
can turn with me to chapter 2, paragraph 3. We will finish off 
a look at the doctrine of God this morning by a consideration 
of that third and final paragraph. Does anybody need a confession? 
No? So I'll just, if you turn to 
chapter 2. I'll read paragraph 3, and then we'll get into a 
look at the doctrine of the Trinity. So this is chapter 2, paragraph 
3. 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. The Father is of none, neither 
begotten nor proceeding. The Son is eternally begotten 
of the Father, the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and 
the Son. all infinite, without beginning, 
therefore but one God who is not to be divided in nature and 
being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties 
and personal relations. Which doctrine of the Trinity 
is the foundation of all our communion with God and comfortable 
dependence on Him? Amen. Well, in learning about 
our God and in studying our God, of course, we land upon the doctrine 
of the Trinity, the consideration of the fact that in this divine 
and infinite being there are three subsistences or persons. God eternally exists as Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit. And this doctrine of the Trinity 
is an essential doctrine of Christianity. It's a non-negotiable. It's not 
something that is on the level of tertiary things that may be 
debated within the arena of professing Christendom, but rather it is 
a most blessed doctrine that must be held to in order for 
one to be Christian. So anyone who rejects the doctrine 
of the Trinity is, of course, outside the bounds of salvation 
and not truly a Christian properly so-called. So an understanding 
of this doctrine is very important, but it's also very blessed. It's 
a joyful occasion whenever we can come to a study, whether 
it's in this context or whether it's hearing it from the pulpit, 
learning about our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and growing 
in the grace and in the knowledge of Him. So paragraph 3 of chapter 
2 treats the doctrine of the Trinity, having beforehand dealt 
with the oneness of God and the glory of God being infinite, 
eternal, and unchangeable, and all those glorious perfections 
of His in paragraph one, treating His independence in paragraph 
two and the doctrine of God relative to creation. Now it turns to 
the doctrine of the Trinity. And In doing that sort of pattern 
and following after that sort of pattern, considering God in 
his perfections, then God in his independence, and then God 
as triune, the confession here, and even the confessions of the 
17th century before this one, aren't doing anything new. In 
the early church, that same pattern was followed when articulating 
doctrine. For example, in the 7th century, 
this was John of Damascus. He's basically, or I guess you 
could say the confession in one sense is almost following after 
this same pattern but expanding upon it in the same order. We 
therefore both know and confess that God is without beginning, 
without end, eternal and everlasting, uncreate, unchangeable, invariable, 
simple, uncompound, incorporeal, invisible, impalpable, uncircumscribed, 
infinite, incognizable, indefinable, incomprehensible, good, just, 
maker of all things created, almighty, all-ruling, all-surveying, 
of all overseer, sovereign judge. and that God is one, that is 
to say, one essence, and that he is known and has his being 
in three subsistences, in Father, I say, and Son, and Holy Spirit, 
and that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are 
one in all respects, except in that of not being begotten, that 
of being begotten, and that of procession. So, if you can recall 
how our confession moves, this is an inherited movement or articulation 
of the doctrine of God that they have gained from centuries prior 
to themselves. So they're following a very trusted 
and proved pattern of speaking of the doctrine of God in our 
confession of faith. And one thing we ought to notice 
here that's very interesting, and it's only present here as 
compared to the other two confessions, is that Paragraph three fittingly 
moves from the one God to the three persons three times You 
know, it's the doctrine of the Trinity and it's it's a it's 
it's not that it's coincidence I imagine that was deliberate 
but you see the movement of the one to the three and then back 
to the one back to the three and then that again a third time 
in this divine and infinite being so It speaks of the oneness of 
God, reiterating from paragraph one the language of the oneness 
of God. The Lord our God is but one only, 
living and true God. It then speaks of three subsistences. It then moves back to the one, 
saying each of one substance, power and eternity. and then 
it moves to the three articulating the processions or the eternal 
relations of origin, then it moves back to the one, and then 
back to the three again. So it's an interesting structure 
to the paragraph, very Trinitarian in treating the doctrine of the 
Trinity. Now, before getting into, just 
continuing some introduction here, before getting into the 
stuff of the paragraph itself and the doctrine of the Trinity, 
just a note with regards to the language used here. Our confession 
reads in the first clause, in this divine and infinite being 
there are three subsistences. The Westminster Confession of 
Faith and the Savoy Declaration use the word persons. And there's 
a reason that the Baptists here are using subsistences. It's 
not It's a different term than persons. They're theologically 
synonymous, so there's not a theological difference between the confessions 
that came before them, but there is a There is a propriety to 
the use of subsistences that makes it a better term than persons. Persons, when used properly, 
is theologically synonymous, but subsistences is a more precise 
term, better fitted to represent the undergirding theology. Richard 
Muller notes that it is a, quote, more technical and philosophically 
adequate term than person for indicating the Father, Son, and 
Holy Spirit in the Trinity. If we think about this for a 
second, just with our own modern day language regarding the use 
of persons, when we say the three persons of the Trinity, the language 
of persons comes with a lot of modern you know, language baggage. You know, we think of human people, 
we think of persons in our own human context. And so often, 
you know, perhaps when some people, some people who maybe aren't 
Christian or are new to Christianity, hear the word persons, they kind 
of, you know, they're importing their own understanding of the 
word persons to to God. And I think that's one of the 
reasons why the Baptists use the word subsistences here, again, 
because it's more adequate for terming and for speaking of Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit. Subsistences Just very quickly, 
maybe not. Well, yeah, just very quickly 
and simply means modes of existing proper to substances. So the 
one God, how does the one God eternally exist? The one God 
eternally exists as father, son and Holy Spirit. We could say 
that God simply is father. eternally begetting the Son, 
who with the Father eternally breathes forth the Spirit." That 
is, the one and only living and true God. Interestingly, last 
point of introduction here, the confession of faith here, our 
Baptist confession of faith, is considerably larger in paragraph 
3 than the Savoy and the Westminster Confession. It's twice as large 
as the Presbyterian statement of faith, The Westminster Confession 
of Faith has 55 words in this paragraph, the Savoy Declaration 
has 74, and ours has 109. Now, we have the advantage of 
time, but the Baptists, of course, being the latest of the three 
confessions, but the Baptists added some language here to enrich this doctrine of the Trinity. It's the same doctrine as our 
predecessors, but they added language to speak well to the 
doctrine. Moving on then, we're going to 
try and look at six things very, very simply this morning. And 
these are the same six things that were in the newsletter that 
was published the last month there, or the last two months. So it's just following after 
the doctrine of the Trinity as simply set forth there. So the 
first thing we confess, and these are six things that we sort of, 
not sort of, six things that we do confess. when we confess 
the doctrine of the Trinity. And the first thing is that confessing 
the Trinity does not entail a confession of tritheism. That would be a 
belief in, or that is the belief in, three gods. So when we believe 
that in this divine, when we confess, in this divine and infinite 
being there are three subsistences, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 
that is not tritheism. We are monotheists. We are Trinitarian 
monotheists. That's what the Bible sets forth. In God identifying himself, he 
identifies himself as the one and only living and true God 
who eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, Confessing 
the Trinity does not entail a confession of tritheism. We do not believe 
in three gods. And so the, you know, for example, 
not for example, but the confession clearly states at the outset 
of the doctrine of God in chapter 2, paragraph 1, the Lord our 
God is, but one only, living and true God. So The Confession 
has already asserted monotheism in its declaration of God, in 
its declaration of the doctrine of God. There is one only living 
and true God. And both the Old and New Testaments, 
of course, assert this. Deuteronomy 6, 4, the Lord our 
God, the Lord is one, hero Israel. And then in 1 Corinthians 8, 
the Apostle Paul reiterates, knowing Deuteronomy very well, 
he reiterates that same language in that particular context there, 
our God is one. And then, in fact, at the end 
of that, he asserts the oneness of God in verse 4, reasserts 
it in verse 6, but then articulates the Trinity in that same verse. 
And so, the Bible clearly sets forth that there is one and only 
living and true God, and that that one God eternally exists 
in three persons or subsistences, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So the confession, having already 
asserted in paragraph 1, asserts in paragraph 2 that our Lord 
is but one only living and true God, and then clearly upholds 
later in this divine and infinite being, here in paragraph 3, the 
fact of monotheism. God is one. As has already been 
touched upon previously, He is one in such a way that there 
could be no other, that oneness of singularity. He is one in 
His simplicity, and of course there are no rival deities in 
the universe. As we already said, the oneness 
of God asserts that oneness of singularity, that He is one in 
such a magnificent and glorious way, that there could be no other 
than the one and only living and true God. And so the assertion 
of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not an assertion of three 
gods, but rather of that divine and infinite being eternally 
existing as in those three subsistences. As we work through this, and 
hopefully we should have maybe reasserted this at the beginning, 
the doctrine of the Trinity is a high doctrine that is, of course, 
as God is, incomprehensible. a high mystery to this doctrine. God, remember, can be known, 
but He cannot be comprehended. We cannot encapsulate or contain 
God within our finite human contemplations. The finite cannot contain the 
infinite, though the infinite has condescended to us in His 
revelation to reveal Himself to us. And with our renewed Christian 
hearts, by the power of the Spirit, we prayerfully consider the Word, 
reflect upon doctrine, and we can know the God who created 
us, the God who sustains us, and the God who has redeemed 
us by the perfect work of Jesus Christ. And so it's going to 
be, you know, we stretch our minds, and we ought to stretch 
our minds when we study the doctrine of God, because the blessed subject, 
the blessed object of our worship, you know, demands our minds to 
be stretched, because He is so glorious, He is so magnificent, 
He is so perfect in His being and in His, of course, condescension 
to us. One man has sort of worded it 
this way with regards to incomprehensibility and the knowledge of the Trinity. 
He said something like, if we could wrap our minds around God 
such that we could fully contain Him, we might congratulate ourself 
for our cleverness, but we would never worship. Because God is 
incomprehensible, He is by virtue of being God incomprehensible, 
and He is in that worthy of worship. If we could contain Him within 
the encapsulating of our human contemplations, we would either 
be God or He would be like one of us, and we don't want either 
of those things. We want God to be God and us 
to be His people. worshipping Him in spirit and 
in truth. So getting back to this, we confess the Trinity, 
and in so doing, that confession does not entail a confession 
of tritheism. Remember, there are three reiterations 
of the oneness of God, of one substance, power, and eternity. 
each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided, 
and therefore but one God who is not to be divided in nature 
and being." So this paragraph, while opening up the doctrine 
of the Trinity and speaking of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 
continuously refrains the reality that there is one and only living 
and true God. And with this, this confession 
that we are not confessing three gods, we realize that there is 
no plurality in essence. There are not three essences. 
So when we speak of the Father having the whole divine essence, 
the Son having the whole divine essence, and the Spirit having 
the whole divine essence, it is just that, the singular whole 
divine essence. There are not three essences, 
the essence of the Father, the essence of the Son, and the essence 
of the Spirit, somehow comprising a three-fold divine monarchy 
of three gods. There is one essence, no plurality 
in essence. The ground of the difference, 
as we'll see in a number of moments, the ground of the difference 
between the persons is not essential or substantial or with regards 
to being, but with regards to their mode of subsistence or 
simply the persons, their eternal relations of origin. There cannot 
be plurality when there is unity of substance. So, we do not confess 
three gods, we confess one God in three persons, which then 
brings us to a very important second point. In confessing that 
this one God eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 
we are not confessing a contradiction or a paradox. Those who are opposed 
to our Trinitarianism, those who are simply opposed to biblical 
Christianity, will charge us with confessing a contradiction 
or a paradox here, because we're saying that God is one and that 
God is three. For example, if you ever speak 
to Jehovah's Witnesses at any length, they will do that very 
thing. They will charge us with tritheism, 
or they'll charge us with confessing a contradiction. How can God 
be one, and how can God be three? Well, it would be a contradiction, 
or it would be a paradox, if we confess that God is one in 
a particular way, and three in that same way. You see, so if 
we say that God is one in one way, but also three in that exact 
same way, then that of course is a contradiction. That's logical madness. But that's 
not what we're saying. The confession itself, in this 
divine and infinite being, that's one particular thing, this divine 
and infinite being, there are three subsistences. that that 
one divine and infinite being exists eternally as Father, Son, 
and Holy Spirit. So we're dealing with essential 
matters, and we're dealing with matters concerning the persons. 
So our God is one in one way, according to being, essence, 
or substance, and three, in another way, according to subsistence, 
person, or relations of origin. And hopefully that's fairly simple 
to understand. You know, we can't say, we can't 
confess, because it would be a contradiction that God is one 
in being, and that God is also three in being. that there is 
the one being God, but also three beings, the Father, Son, and 
Holy Spirit. But that's not what the confession 
of Christian Trinitarianism says. It says that there is one divine 
and infinite being who eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy 
Spirit. So, our God is one in one way, 
according to being, and three in another way, according to 
persons. There is one being God, God, 
and three subsistences, persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
The Father is not a being separate from the Son. The Father and 
Son are not beings separate from the Holy Spirit. And these three 
also are not one person or separate manifestations of the one God. 
Very simply, God is this divine and infinite being who eternally 
exists, again, as Father, Word, or Son, and Holy Spirit. If there 
are questions, I'm sorry I'm drinking my coffee so much, I 
should leave it alone for a minute. Every third sentence I'm taking 
a sip of my coffee, so I apologize. But afterwards, if there are 
any questions, certainly bring those up. Again, we stretch our 
minds when we study the doctrine of the Trinity, and there is 
a measure of simplicity that the teacher, simplicity, A measure 
of simplicity that the teacher ought to exercise in trying to 
communicate the doctrine of the Trinity, but it's often difficult 
to escape some of the language that we've retained as inheritors 
of a blessed theology over the centuries because that language 
has been used. in order to defend, in order 
to uphold, and in order to communicate as best we can the doctrine of 
the Trinity in the face of heresy, in the face of error, in the 
face of bad theology, and also with the heavy yet blessed task 
of simply trying to encourage the people of God in the doctrine 
of God. Moving on to point three then, 
so we have we do not confess tritheism, we have we are not 
confessing a contradiction, and now we have thirdly, in confessing 
the Trinity, we are not confessing that the Father, the Son, and 
the Holy Spirit collectively comprise God, such that we believe 
that the Father is one-third God, the Son is one-third God, 
and the Trinity is one-third God. That's not the doctrine 
of the Trinity. Again, the confession reads, 
of one substance, power and eternity. So the three persons are of one 
substance. They don't collectively comprise 
that divine and infinite being, but rather they each are or they 
are of one substance, power and eternity. And notice the next 
clause, each having the whole divine essence. So the Father 
has the whole divine essence, the Son has the whole divine 
essence, and the Spirit has the whole divine essence. The next 
clause says, yet the essence undivided. You see this important 
repetition of the language, and I'm going to repeat the repetition 
as I speak this morning. There's the constant assertion 
of the one, the constant assertion of the three, and there's also 
the constant assertion that the divine essence is undivided, 
and that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have that whole divine 
essence undivided. And so we are not confessing 
in Trinitarianism that Father, Son, and Spirit collectively 
comprise God. The Father isn't God minus the 
Son and Spirit. The Son isn't God minus the Father 
and the Spirit, etc. The the the Sun and the Spirit 
considered together or the the the Holy Spirit considered alone 
Has the whole divine essence in as much as considering the 
entirety of the Trinity So again, we do not we do not cut up the 
Trinity. We do not divide the Trinity 
Into parts the whole divine essence yet the essence undivided not 
to be divided in nature and being the Peace. The Confession has 
already asserted the indivisibility of the Divine Essence in paragraph 
1 when it spoke concerning the fact that God is without body, 
parts, and passions. So, already in paragraph 1, the 
Confession has prepared us, based upon the witness of the Scriptures, 
to realize that when we get to paragraph 3 and we consider Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit, that God is not comprised of hearts, but 
rather the Father, Son, and Spirit have the whole divine essence 
and the essence undivided. And on this topic, it's important 
to perhaps touch upon something that has been occurring, not 
occurring, but something that is prevalent in our age, growing 
over the last number of decades, and it's something called social 
Trinitarianism. That simply means Simply pray 
and it has various sort of manifestations. There's another one for you Isaac, 
but it has it has certain Basically, it says that the unity of God 
is not seen in the one essence But in the communal harmony of 
Father Son and Holy Spirit so that these so that the Father 
Son and Holy Spirit are separate wills, separate centers of consciousness, 
which simply have a divine harmony amongst the three, and that's 
wherein we should see the unity of God. But historically, and 
biblically, and confessionally speaking, the unity of God is 
seen in substantial unity, or that they are all the three persons 
of one substance, power and eternity, so that the unity of the persons, 
the so-called, if we would ever use that word, the harmony of 
the persons, is simply seen in that they are of one substance, 
power and eternity. And so the Godhead is not comprised 
of you know, constituted of 1 3rd, 1 3rd, 1 3rd, Father, Son, and 
Spirit. But again, there is one divine 
and infinite being that eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy 
Spirit. The whole divine essence, yet 
the essence undivided, and that essence not to be divided in 
nature and being. Fourthly, confessing the Trinity 
entails distinguishing the persons or subsistences according to 
their eternal relations of origin. That simply means what the Confession 
brings forth here in the center, after it has stated, yet the 
essence undivided. Notice the language here, the 
Father is of none. neither begotten nor proceeding, 
the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, and then the Holy 
Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son. So that is the language 
of what's been called eternal relations of origin. When we 
distinguish the persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that distinguishing 
does not come at the level of a divided essence. That distinguishing 
does not come at the level of their individual works, because 
they do not work individually, but the external works of God 
are one. But rather, the distinguishing 
of the persons is simply in their relations one to the other. The 
Father eternally begets the Son, the Son is eternally begotten 
of the Father, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and 
the Son. And this language speaks with 
the propriety of biblical revelation in a number of places, and one 
of the best places to see this language is the Gospel of John 
that Pastor Butler is preaching through. That language, the doctrine 
of the Trinity, the doctrine of the deity of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, the relations of the persons one to each other. All 
of this is brought out in the Gospel of John, and in fact, 
you can see if the Confession of Faith, and I think most of 
them do have some of those proof texts or scriptural references, 
you'll see John's work there listed at least three times, 
and his epistle listed once here. And so this doctrine of the relations, 
or the eternal relations of origin, simply speak to the fact that 
the Father is unbegotten, the Son is eternally begotten of 
the Father, and the Spirit proceeds from them both. when we speak 
of that language, because the language begotten immediately 
tends to, you know, perhaps make us cringe a little bit because, 
wait a minute, you know, doesn't that, don't we confess that Christ 
is God and that, you know, he wasn't brought forth in time, 
he wasn't begotten in sort of the natural sense of the term 
or in the human sense of the term? Well, of course, we, you 
know, we don't import our, our understanding of begetting in 
the human sphere or in the creature sphere and predicate that sort 
of thing of the eternal Son of God. Eternal begottenness is 
a very important doctrine in the history of Christianity, 
being biblical and confessional, and it is very vital for retaining 
the fact that the Son is distinguished from the Father, and the Father 
from the Son. And think about the language 
for a moment. Jesus Christ, or the Son of God, is eternally 
begotten of the Father. What does that mean? It means 
that that's outside of time, and not with respect to time. 
There was no time when the Son was not. Contra Arius, who said 
there was a time when the Son was not, that was his mantra, 
The Son has always been. In the beginning was the Word, 
or Son, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So 
eternal begottenness is simply that. That the Father eternally, 
without time, eternally begets the Son. And it's not that the 
Father eternally begot the Son in eternity past, as if He doesn't, 
being eternal, beget Him no longer. It is eternal begottenness. The 
Father eternally begets the Son, and that's the distinguishing 
factor concerning the Father and the Son, and the same with 
the Spirit. It is an eternal procession, or an eternal breathing 
forth, from the Father and the Son, such that those are the 
only distinguishing factors between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
It's very often that, very often in our own day, even within the 
Reformed camp, that theologians will take the biblical revelation 
concerning the works of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in redemptive 
history, and read those things back into the divine persons. For example, we see the language 
here, the Holy Spirit, all infinite, without beginning, therefore 
but one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being, 
but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties 
and personal relations." It's a very important clause, because 
the distinguishing of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit doesn't 
have to do with their works in the economy of redemption, as 
we read them in the Scriptures, because those works are one. 
Very often in the Scriptures, we read something concerning 
the Father creating, the Son redeeming, and the Spirit regenerating, 
for example. And these are things that the 
Bible speaks with respect to each of these persons to shine 
the light on that particular person in the collective, not 
the collective, but in the one work of God externally. Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit work as one, and In time and in history, 
or in the revelation of redemptive history, we often read, though, 
of one work being ascribed to one in particular. But, all of 
that to come back to this. We are not to see in the differences 
of the Godhead anything other than the fact that the Father 
eternally begets the Son, and Father and Son eternally breathe 
forth Spirit. Hopefully that's clear because 
we also have another error prevalent in our time, and that'll come 
up in point five here, but with regards to the inequality or 
the inferiority or the subordination or eternal submission of the 
son to the father. And part of part of that error 
sees something other than eternal begottenness, or that the fact 
that the father eternally begets the son, something other than 
that, as distinguishing the son from the father or adding to 
that. something that distinguishes 
the son from the father. For example, one of the things 
that they will say, those who advocate the fact that the son 
is eternally subordinate to the father, which again is heresy, 
but they will say that sonship entails inferiority, because 
the father is always superior over a son, and that this obtains 
not only amongst humanity, but in some sort of exalted way amongst 
the persons of the Trinity. And so, when we are saying here 
that confessing the Trinity entails distinguishing the persons only 
according to these relations, that precludes or jettisons from 
our contemplations of the persons of God anything other than those 
distinguishing factors. Again, that the Father eternally 
begets the Son, that He is unbegotten, but eternally begets the Son, 
and that Spirit is eternally proceeding from the Father and 
the Son. a lot to consider, a lot to think 
about, and a lot to wrap our minds around. Not fully, though, 
because we cannot comprehend. We do not read the economy that 
is the external works of God as revealed in the scriptures 
in time and in history, the redemptive acts of the three persons back 
into the theology, and thereby distinguish the persons according 
to what are perceived as separate works. but rather we only distinguish 
according to those relations of origin. Fifthly, in confessing 
the Trinity, we acknowledge the equality of the three persons. 
So Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, being of one substance, power, 
and eternity, and each having the whole divine essence, yet 
the essence undivided, must then have equality one with the other. The Son and the Spirit are not 
inferior to the Father, The Spirit is not inferior to Father and 
Son, but they are all equal. They are consubstantial, you've 
heard that word in Pastor Butler's preaching, of one substance. 
They are co-eternal, they are all eternal, and they are co-equal. They are one with the other, 
equal to one another, again, being of one substance. There 
is no hierarchy among the persons of the Trinity. The language 
of the Confession asserts that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 
again, are of one substance, power, and eternity, and that 
all are infinite and without beginning. Because God is one, 
He cannot be divided in nature or being. If there were division 
in nature or being, perhaps then of course there could be inequality, 
but that not being the case, and God being one substance eternally 
existing in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there is no universe 
wherein the Son is inferior to the Father in power and authority. 
And this is the language that's actually used by those who advocate 
the eternal subordination of the Son to the Father, that the 
Father is prime in power and authority over the sun. And I mean, just in considering 
our doctrine of God, His substantial unity and the three persons being 
of one substance, power and eternity. In fact, people who confess that 
very clause still assert that there is some measure of eternal 
inferiority of the Son to the Father. And that's madness, because 
if God is of one substance, then there is equality. If God is 
of one power, then there is equality, because it's one power. We do 
not have the power of the Father as distinguished from the power 
of the Son, as both then distinguished from the power of the Spirit, 
but rather one power. The language of the Athanasian 
Creed is this, the Father is eternal, the Son eternal, and 
the Holy Ghost eternal, and yet they are not three eternals, 
but one eternal. So likewise, the Father is almighty, 
the Son almighty, and the Holy Ghost almighty, and yet they 
are not three almighties, but one almighty." That speaks to 
the power of God, and it also speaks to the works of God. We do not have three working, 
but one working, the three according to their distinct modes of subsistence, 
or according to person. So, continuing, and yet they 
are not three Almighties, but one Almighty, so the Father is 
God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God, and yet they 
are not three gods, but one God. Going back to our very first 
point, that we do not confess tritheism. This is Augustine, 
there is one son of God and one spirit of both, and these, instead 
of being without number, are not three gods, for not only 
is their subsistence one and the same, but their operations 
by means of this subsistence is also one and the same, while 
they have a separate manifestation in the material creation. And 
so, there is equality among the persons, there is no scale or 
hierarchy among the three persons, but are all of one substance, 
power and eternity. Some good quotes here on, so, 
you know, again, and we need to guard ourselves or guard our 
minds or protect ourselves in our confession of Trinitarian 
theology and our confession of the the unmitigated deity of 
the Son of God. These are some quotes that are 
against these modern notions of subordinationism or the eternal 
submission of the Son. This is Leo Maximus. The Godhead, 
which is one in the Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
excludes all notion of inequality, for the eternity of the Trinity 
has nothing temporal, nothing dissimilar, in nature. Its will is one, its substance 
is identical, its power equal, and yet there are not three gods, 
but one God." And this is an important confession too, as 
we confess all of these things that we're talking about. The 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as we've just spoken, 
they don't have three powers. They don't also have three wills, 
but rather their will is one. Recognize the language that Leo 
just used. Its will, the divine, the Godhead, 
its will is one, its substance identical, its power equal, and 
yet there are not three gods, but one God. Ambrose. It cannot please the father if 
the son be judged inferior rather than equal to his father. Chrisostom, 
very simply, Speaking of Christ, He is in no way inferior to the 
Father. Basil of Caesarea, ever be spoken 
among us with boldness that famous dogma of the Father's which builds 
up the churches in the sound doctrine wherein the Son is confessed 
to be of one substance with the Father and the Holy Ghost is 
ranked and worshipped as of equal honor. And then lastly, Spurgeon, 
any doctrine which hath not the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as 
equal persons in one undivided essence, we cast aside as being 
unsound, for we are sure that such doctrines must be derogatory 
to God's glory. And so in confessing the Trinity, 
we confess no inequality, but rather they are of one substance, 
power and eternity. They are consubstantial, co-eternal 
and co-equal, one with each other. And then lastly, Sixthly, and 
lastly, in learning about and confessing our triune God, we 
are not engaged in a dispassionate academic exercise. And hopefully 
that's not what it has seemed like this morning. There's a 
lot of language that we use. There are a lot of words. And 
they're used with propriety. The history of Christianity has 
seen that there is the necessary use of extra-biblical 
words, phrases, and clauses in order to defend what is in the 
Bible and what God declares in His Word. In fact, at the Council 
of Nicaea, in just the course of the Council of Nicaea in 325 
AD, The Orthodox, that is those who 
were properly Christian, Athanasius, Alexander of Alexandria, and 
all the good guys, quickly realized and actually noticed that the 
Athanasian party were elbow-bumping and kind of snickering when only the Bible was being cited 
word-for-word and verbatim. We subscribe to Sola Scriptura, 
and rightly so, but when heretics and errorists and those opposed 
to biblical Christianity employ the Bible in such a way where 
they're simply proof texting and saying, The orthodox, the 
defenders of the faith, need to use, built upon or upon the 
foundation of the Scriptures, use words and phrases and logical 
consequences and phrases that are outside of the Bible in order 
to defend what's in it, so that those who are seeking to distort 
the Scriptures are shown for the fools that they are. We can 
think of the word Trinity, for example. Trinity is not in the 
Bible, and yet we use the term, rightly so and necessarily, to 
defend the fact that there is declared by the Scriptures one 
and only living and true God that eternally exists as Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit. all of that to come back to this. 
All these words, all these clauses, all these phrases aren't to be 
used in such a way where we're detached from the cheer and the 
joy and the blessedness that a study of God brings to the 
Christian heart. These things are to work in concert 
with one another. A wholesome, intellectual, approach 
to the Bible. We're called to understand and 
know God. It's declared to us that eternal 
life is seen in the knowledge of God and in Jesus Christ whom 
he has sent. And so in the exercise of knowing 
our God, in growing in the grace and in the knowledge of Jesus 
Christ in our lower sojourn on this earth as Christians. We 
are to understand and know our God. We are to learn about confessing 
our triune God, but we never do that detached from the joy 
and the cheer that the doctrine of God is to bring to the Christian 
heart. and these things work in blessed unison and ought to 
really burst forth in worship on the Lord's Day as we come 
in and we come into the house of God on that day of God to 
worship Him. We ought to be filled with the 
knowledge of God and we ought to be filled with the blessed 
cheer in the knowledge of Him. The confession closes on this 
point The confession closes, notice, with this language here. 
Which doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our 
communion with God and comfortable dependence on Him? Isn't that 
a blessed way to close the chapter on the doctrine of God? Again, 
not a dry, cold speculation, not a detached academic exercise, 
but a study and the knowledge of God such that we can have 
communion with Him and such that we can have that blessed, comfortable 
dependence on Him. Spurgeon wrote this, and some 
of this language may be familiar to you, but there's a portion 
of this that often isn't included in this quote regarding the study 
of God. And it has to do with the comfort 
that the knowledge of God brings to Christians. And Spurgeon is 
speaking about the knowledge of God as being the chief school, 
the chief science, the chief study. in God's universe. We can lawfully study biology, 
chemistry, physics, botany, all manner of things, but the most 
blessed study is the study of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
He says, he preached, Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, 
nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, 
continued investigation of the great subject of the deity. And 
whilst humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in contemplating 
Christ, a balm for every wound. In musing on the Father, there 
is a quietus for every grief. And in the influence of the Holy 
Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your 
sorrows? Would you drown your cares? Then 
go plunge yourself in the Godhead's deepest sea. Be lost in his immensity, 
and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and 
invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort 
the soul, so calm the swelling billows of grief and sorrow, 
so speak peace to the winds of trial as a devout musing upon 
the subject of the Godhead. And that ought to be our blessed 
Christian posture, as we study our God, when we study our God, 
and we pray that it's often, and when we come in to worship 
our great God on the Lord's Day, that we can know Him, the one 
and only living and true God, that we can know Father, Son, 
and Holy Spirit, that we can know Jesus Christ, the Son of 
God, who assumed our humanity without sin for our redemption 
and our recovery, What a blessed thing that we can do that, that 
we can know our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer. Let's pray. Heavenly 
Father, we thank you for this time in studying doctrine. We thank you for the doctrine 
of God. We rejoice in you, Father, Son, 
and Holy Spirit. We thank you that we can know 
you, that you have caused us to come forth by grace from darkness 
to light in Christ Jesus, that we've been brought from deadness 
to life, that we can know you, that we can, by your Spirit and 
prayerfully, understand you that we can know these blessed truths 
concerning you and that we can reflect upon with great joy the 
fact that you are infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in all of your 
glorious perfections, that you, Lord God, eternally exist as 
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We pray that we would know you 
more and more each and every day and as we come in to this 
church on the Lord's Day. We pray that you would bless 
us morning and evening with the knowledge of you, with blessed 
reflections and sweet contemplations of our blessed God and of Jesus 
Christ and of our blessed gospel that we've been brought forth 
by amazing grace through the doing and dying and rising again 
of Jesus Christ our Savior. So do go with us into worship 
Help us to know you more and to rejoice in you and give you 
that worship that is due your most high and precious name. 
And it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.