Tonight, before I pray, I want to begin our study by reading from Ephesians 1-3-14. And this will sort of be our devotional thought for tonight, as well as I think a good lead-in to our study on the doctrine of the Trinity. Ephesians 1-3-14, and if you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn there.

This is a, as you know, a wonderful celebration of our blessings of salvation. I remember over 20 years ago, I was in preaching lab at the Master's Seminary, and Pastor Alex Montoya was the evaluator in that preaching lab, and he was known for his direct critiques of the students' preaching styles.

And I preached on Ephesians 1-3-14. I was so excited about this text. It was more heat than light. I was sort of so excited about the text, I didn't really have an organization or flow to what I was saying. And I remember after I finished, Pastor Montoya said to me, "You're like a little kid in a candy store.

You're so excited about the candy, you're not sure which one to grab." And I took that critique humbly, and yet I confess that over 20 years later I'm here, and I still feel like a kid in a candy store when I read this passage. It's impossible to read Ephesians 1 without getting excited about what God has done in our lives.

But just as we read this, what I want to do for tonight as we turn our focus to the doctrine of the Trinity is I just want you to note how many times specifically the persons of the Trinity are distinguished in this wonderful passage, how many times the work of God the Father is distinguished from the work of God the Son, how many times the work of God the Son is distinguished from God the Holy Spirit, and how an understanding of the roles and relationships within the unity of the Trinity is essential for us to understand the grace of God in our salvation.

It's really essential for us to understand the greatness of God's plan and all that He has done for us in salvation. And so let me read this for us, and just note the ways that Paul distinguishes the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as we read this text.

Paul says in verse 3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Just as He," that is the Father, "chose us in Him," that is Christ, "before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.

In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved," and that is Christ the Son. In Him," that is Christ, "we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us.

In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention, which He purposed in Him, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times," that is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end, that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who was given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory." And what a wonderful passage that is, that celebrates our salvation in Christ.

You'll find here that this is not only a celebration of our salvation, it's really a celebration of the doctrine of the Trinity. You find in this passage the work of the Father explained and clarified, it is the Father who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. In this passage we find the work of the Son celebrated and unfolded to us, verse 7 says, "In Him, that is Christ, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses." So it's not the Father who died on the cross to save us from our sins.

It's not the Spirit who died on the cross to pay for our sins. It is the work of the Son, the perfect substitute, the perfect Redeemer and mediator, in whom we have redemption, the purchase of our souls for eternity. So you have the work of the Father explained and clarified, the work of the Son, and then in verse 13 you have the work of the Spirit defined and recognized.

Paul says, "In Him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with a promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance." So the Holy Spirit has come to live in us and to bear His fruit in us.

Even in this one passage we make the observation that the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, the Spirit is not the Father. There are distinct roles and relationships which exist within the unity of who God is. And yet we also find that there are not three gods, there is one God.

And so we get the whole concept of triunity or trinity, that this is not a text that teaches polytheism, there is one God, and yet God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are distinct. They are three persons, yet one God. Triunity or trinity. So the implication of Ephesians 1 is that we cannot understand the greatness of our salvation, we cannot understand the greatness of God's grace, we cannot understand the wonders of what God has done in our lives apart from an understanding of the trinity.

We must understand the doctrine of the trinity to celebrate the wonders of God's amazing grace in our lives. And I would go one step further in saying that the entire Christian life is defined by our understanding of the trinity. Think about Christian worship. What is Christian worship is we come into the presence of God the Father, we come through the work of God the Son, who is the one substitute, who is the one mediator, who is the great high priest, he is the one who stands in between us and the Father.

We come through the Son's perfect work into the presence of the Father, and we come as we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who lives in us and who leads us to embrace the fullness of all that the Son has accomplished for us, and by embracing through faith the Son's perfect work on our behalf, we come with boldness and with confidence into the presence of the Father who loves us and who embraces us.

Think about Christian prayer. Romans 8 verse 15 says, "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba, Father!'" So there you have a Trinitarian understanding of prayer in Romans 8.

It's as we're filled with the Holy Spirit of God, it says the Spirit of God leads us and empowers us, we are assured of the Son's perfect work on our behalf, and so we relate to God as Father. And this is not the – I always think of the Von Trapp family in that musical Sound of Music where they all lined up and they kind of had this formal, distant relationship with Mr.

Von Trapp, the father, and they kind of said in a formal, distant way, "Father." That's not the type of spirit that Paul's talking about in Romans 8 verse 15. He's talking about the young child who eagerly and boldly runs into his or her father's presence knowing that the father will embrace the child and love the child.

"Abba, Father!" That's the cry of intimacy, "Abba, Papa, Dada," the cry of a young child. The more a person is filled with a spirit, the more their prayer life looks like a child who is talking to a heavenly father. And this is the fruit of the Holy Spirit working in a believer's life.

What about Christian evangelism? It is impossible without an understanding of the Trinity. We proclaim the Son and His saving work on our behalf as we are empowered by the Holy Spirit and we desire for men to be reconciled to God and to relate to God as their father. And then there is the ministry of biblical counseling.

So I want to let you know that Theology Exam #7 is really critical for an understanding of biblical counseling. I mean, on one hand, I think ACBC put this essay in there because they want just to make sure that we're certifying theologically orthodox believers as biblical counselors, believers who believe in the Trinity as revealed in Scripture.

But I think on the other hand, this has tremendous implications for counseling ministry. We are distinctly Trinitarian in our convictions about how ministry is to be done. And that distinguishes us from every other form of secular counseling that is out there in the world today. We desire to minister in the power of the Spirit.

We desire to minister the truth of the Son, Jesus Christ. And we desire that men and women draw near to God as Father. We are distinctly Trinitarian in our conviction. And so my devotional encouragement to you really comes from Bruce Ware's excellent sermon. This was, I put this on your resource handout from the Dropbox folder.

He has an excellent sermon called The Trinity of Persons. He actually has three messages from that conference, the Desiring God Conference 2005, that's available as a free download. But if you're going to listen to one, listen to The Trinity of Persons, that's message number one. And I'd encourage you to listen to that just to get pumped up to write this essay because it's an excellent treatment of the doctrine of the Trinity.

Bruce Ware actually has a book that was published, it's called Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Roles and Relationships. It is out of print, but if you want to spend some time trying to find a used version of that, that book is worth its weight in gold just as a phenomenal job articulating the doctrine of the Trinity and its practical implications for a Christian life and ministry.

But he writes this, or he says this in the sermon, "We need to put on our Trinitarian glasses as we read the Bible and notice Father, Son, and Spirit. When we do so, we'll find there is a richness that is there that we have not seen. May God help us and open our eyes to see more of his glory, more of his greatness, more of the richness of who God is as he is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." So with that thought, let me pray for us and devote our time to the Lord.

Father, we thank you that we can come to you with boldness, with confidence, because we come trusting in the perfect work of your Son, Jesus Christ, the one mediator between God and man. We thank you that we come to you not on the basis of our own merits, but on the merits of your Son who lived and died and who rose again on our behalf.

And we thank you that you have given us your Spirit who lives in us that we might know Christ and that we might rejoice in the fullness of your blessings to us. And Father, we would pray that you would bless our time together. Thank you for each student joining on this webinar.

Pray that you would bless their studies. Pray that our study of the doctrine of the Trinity would yield a greater understanding of who you are, a greater understanding of your amazing grace, and a greater understanding of how we are to minister in the ministry of biblical counseling. And so yield much fruit from this time, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, so tonight's topic is the doctrine of the Trinity, and we are looking at Theology Exam #7, which reads as follows, "Explain the doctrine of the Trinity and provide its biblical basis." So if you look at your handout on page 1 of your handout, I gave you some good reading on the doctrine of the Trinity.

Paul Enns has an excellent section there in the Moody Handbook of Theology. Wayne Grudem probably has one of the most readable and clear sections on the doctrine of the Trinity that I've come across. I don't know how you're going to improve on just reading Grudem's work and doing some summary work there, footnoting some relevant sections from his systematic theology, but he has an excellent treatment on the doctrine of the Trinity.

I'd encourage you to read that whole chapter and also read the parts where he distinguishes the theological errors of the Trinity. We'll touch on a little bit in this session, but he has an excellent work there. I commend that to you. And then Charles Ryrie has a good chapter on the Trinity as well.

I also want to recommend the book Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling, which is a compilation of different writers writing on key themes on biblical counseling that was edited by Bob Kellerman and Steve Vires, and that is an excellent resource. Chapter four in that book was written by Kevin Carson and Jeff Forey.

It's called The Unity of the Trinity. And if you want one chapter that really articulates the doctrine of the Trinity and then relates it to the ministry of biblical counseling, that would be the chapter to get. It's an excellent treatment of how the doctrine of the Trinity impacts and informs the ministry of biblical counseling, so I highly commend that to you.

And I do want to quote from that chapter to introduce our study tonight. This isn't on your handout, but I put it on the screen there. The authors write, "A clear grasp of the relational model exhibited in the Triune God directly impacts the purpose and the practice of the biblical counselor." So implication is theology exam number seven is immensely practical.

We're not just testing theological orthodoxy. We're trying to get at a doctrine that will be the foundation for your counseling ministry. They continue, "Regarding purpose, the counselor focuses on both the vertical and horizontal relationships of the counselee. The purpose of counseling is to help the counselee view life and trials in the light of a personal relationship with the Triune God.

As the counselee understands this primary relationship in all areas of life, the counselee grows in horizontal relationship with others as well. When the process of counseling flows out of a Trinitarian model, the counselor and counselee share a rich, deep-rooted, tender, and united relationship with each other in Christ. All forms of detached, professional, solution-oriented, aloof therapy fail to satisfy the depth, intimacy, and energy demanded by the unity of the Trinity and unity among believers." I think that just scratching at the surface of how the doctrine of the Trinity has tremendous implications for counseling ministry, one of the points that they're bringing out is that there are relationships between the persons of the Trinity.

God is relational not only in his relationships with believers, but you see in Scripture the relationship between God the Father and God the Son. You see the relationship between God the Spirit and God the Son. You see this perfect community within the unity of the Trinity, and at some point that's a mystery that is impossible for our finite minds to understand, and yet we can trust in and believe in the plain statements of Scripture that there are relationships that exist between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

The invocation of that is that to be a Christian who worships the Triune God is to be a Christian who is committed to relationships. You can't reflect the likeness of God unless you are committed to forming and developing relationships in the community of the body of Christ. And so what they're saying there in that quote is that if you believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, you will become a person who is highly relational, and that will inform your relationship with your counselee.

So there are just a lot of implications here, I'm going to run out of time before I mentioned them all, but just to give you a start there, a taste of how this doctrine will inform your counseling ministry. They continue that the counselor is not primarily a doctor, professional, or technician.

The counselor is a friend, brother, sister, and companion in Christ amid suffering and sin. So that's a good word and a great chapter to look at. So on your handout, let me move to page two of your handout, and this is the doctrine of the Trinity, I love that hymn, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, all thy work shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea.

Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity." And that's our confession of faith, we worship the Triune God. And as Sinclair Ferguson writes, "The Trinity is so vast in significance because it can bring comfort to men driven to the edge by the atmosphere of sorrow about to engulf them.

The Triune One is greater in glory, deeper in mystery, and more beautiful in harmony than all other realities in creation. No tragedy is too big to overwhelm Him. Nothing incomprehensible to us is so to Him whose very being is incomprehensible to us. There is no darkness deeper than the depths of the in-being of God." Now, if that's not a quote that is relevant to counseling, I don't know what is.

It's amazing how even, you know, theologians who aren't typically known as biblical counselors speak of themes here that are so relevant to counseling. He says, "No tragedy is too big to overwhelm Him. There is no darkness deeper than the depths of the in-being of God." So you're sitting with someone, a counselee, who's just going through the depths of the valley of despair.

And Ferguson says that there's nothing more helpful than you can do for that person than to bring this person an understanding of the Triune God. And you can see how that might work out in counseling practice. You can sit with your counselee and just minister the truth that God is your Father, that you can cry out to Him, you are a child of God, you can come boldly into His presence, you can pour out your heart to Him.

Even evil fathers will give good gifts to their children. How much more will your heavenly Father give you good gifts if you come into His presence and ask and seek and knock? I mean, that's a conversation you could have with a counselee that is rooted in your understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity.

Or you could say to your counselee, "Christ is your Savior and He has died for you. You can rest in Him. He has loved you when you were His enemy. How much more will He love you now that you are His friend?" You can trust in His finished work at the cross.

He has promised never to leave you or forsake you. I mean, those are themes you could bring out in a counseling session that are, again, rooted in your understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. Or you could say to your counselee, "The Spirit of God is your comforter and He is your counselor." You see, there's just this ocean of truth that you can draw from to minister to someone who is dealing with great darkness.

Jonathan Edwards has a quote in the middle of your handout, I'll just skip down there. He says, "God has appeared glorious to me on account of the Trinity. It has made me have exalting thoughts of God, that He subsists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The sweetest joys and delights I have experienced have not been those that have arisen from a hope of my own good estate, but in a direct view of the glorious things of the gospel." I just want to pause at that point and just kind of encourage you a little bit.

We want our counselors in biblical counseling ministry to know more than just correct information. We don't want to train counselors that just know the right facts. We want to train counselors who, in the words of Edwards, have a view of the glorious things of the gospel. There ought to be in every biblical counselor something of the peaceful trust and rest in knowing that God is your Father.

Each of us who are in biblical counseling ministry or training to be biblical counselors ought to be able to look at this world, to look at all that's going on in our nation, to look at all that's going on in terms of a pandemic and economies and our own personal lives in the midst of all of that, and to be able to say, "God is my Father, and this is His world.

This is His universe, and He's in complete control of all of this," and just be able to trust and to rest in that truth. There ought to be something of that trust and peace in every biblical counselor. There ought to be a sweet fellowship with Christ in every biblical counselor, just this love relationship that exists between the biblical counselor and Christ.

There ought to be a sense of that statement where Paul said, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain, and He is enough for me, and my joy is found in Him," and just a love for Christ. There ought to be that in every counselor, and there ought to be a dependence on the Holy Spirit.

This doctrine ought to frame and shape our lives and our ministry, and what that does is it brings this sweetness, this flavor, this warm encouragement into the counseling room where the counselee can—I think it was Brad Bigney who said this—that a counselee can sense real quick if the counselor has a genuine relationship with Christ or if it's just spouting off correct information.

There's a big difference there, and we want our counselors to know something of the sweetness of that fellowship of a relationship with the Triune God. If you look at that next quote there by Louis Burkhoff, he says, "It is especially when we reflect on the relation of the three persons to the divine essence," and here it is, "that all analogies fail us." You've heard the analogy that the Trinity is sort of like water is steam, and then water and ice.

It's an analogy that may be well-intentioned, but it doesn't capture the fullness of what the Bible teaches about the Trinity, and really it is an inadequate analogy. He says, "All analogies fail us. We become deeply conscious of the fact that the Trinity is a mystery, far beyond our comprehension.

It is the incomprehensible glory of the Godhead." In fact, I would say that the doctrine of the Trinity is one of the apologetics for the truth of the Bible. How would a human mind come up with this doctrine, and yet it is the incomprehensible glory of the Godhead that He is Triune, three persons, yet not three gods, one God, a holy Trinity.

So let me move to, I'm going to skip some of this, but I'll move to page three on your handout, and I have there some truths that I just want to give you some encouragements from the doctrine of the Trinity. I think the writing of this essay, some of this is, I want to make sure that you're thinking through this doctrine in terms of how it would be used in counseling ministry, and here are three ways that I would use this to counsel my own heart, as well as to counsel others, and you can think of your own ways, but hopefully this is a framework for you to understand the importance of this doctrine.

Number one, the supreme ruler over all the created universe is our Father. Supreme ruler over all the created universe is our Father. And do you think that has any relevance at all to counseling a believer who might be overwhelmed with care or overwhelmed with anxiety, a believer who's looking at the events of the nation and feeling despondent or feeling discouraged?

Do you think that has any relevance at all to a counselee who's having extreme relational difficulties or disappointment with their family or feeling hopeless about their future? Do you think that has any relevance at all to say to that counselee, and just remind them from the truth of scripture that the one who has created all things and rules over this created universe relates to us as a gracious and loving heavenly Father?

I know I need to hear that on a daily basis, and I'm sure my counselees need to hear that as well. The hymn writer said, "This is my Father's world, and to my listening ears all nature sings and around me rings the music of the spheres. This is my Father's world.

I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees and skies and seas, his hand the wonders wrought." I think of the illustration that Jesus uses of, you know, even earthly fathers who are sinful and wicked know how to give good gifts to their children. And I just think of that often.

You know, those of you who know my children know that they can be really bold. My daughter will come up to me at church and have no problem just saying, "Hey, Dad, I need money," or, "Dad, I'm going to Chipotle with my friends. I need you to pay for it." And she's very secure in my love for her because she has no problem just asking for things.

She knows that Daddy loves me and that he's going to take care of me. And that's, in Jesus' analogy in Matthew 7, that's even a sinful, imperfect father knows how to give good gifts to their children. How much more does our Heavenly Father know how to give good gifts to those who love him?

So one of the things you want to disciple into your counselees is this understanding of trust in and rest in and a drawing near to God as your Heavenly Father. This is at the bottom of your handout, the last quote there at the bottom, G. I. Packer. Wonderful statement there.

It says, "God receives us as sons and loves us with the same steadfast affection with which he eternally loves his beloved only begotten. There are no distinctions of affection in the divine family. We are all loved just as fully as Jesus is loved. It is like a fairy story.

The reigning monarch adopts waifs and strays to make princes of them. But praise God, it is not a fairy story. It is hard and solid fact. Founded on the bedrock of free and sovereign grace, this and nothing less than this is what adoption means. No wonder John cries, 'Behold, what manner of love when once you understand adoption, your heart will cry the same.' Nor is this all." Just a wonderful statement there.

The supreme ruler over all creation is our father. Number two, the son in whom the father is well-pleased is our savior, substitute, mediator and friend. The son in whom the father is well-pleased is our savior, substitute, mediator and friend. This is talking about our focus on the work of Christ, his life, death and resurrection.

By the way, I think the last time I taught this class, we got to this essay right around Good Friday and Easter. And I made a statement that I hope you understand that Good Friday and Easter are biblical counseling holidays. I hope you see the connection between the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, his triumphant resurrection from the grave and the issues and the problems that people are facing today.

If you can't draw a connection from Good Friday and Easter to the counseling room, then you need to do some work on your theology and also how that relates to practical ministry. Because those are biblical counseling holidays. Whatever the issue is, Christ died to save us from our sins and he rose again to free us from the power of sin.

And therefore, whatever the counseling issue is, we can make progress by the grace of Christ and become more like Jesus Christ in our everyday lives. So I gave you as a supplement on your handout, the statement by Ernie Baker, "Crushed humans, a crushed savior in the care of souls." I'm not going to have time to read through that right now in our class, but I just encourage you to read that.

That's one of the, Ernie Baker used to teach biblical counseling at the Master's University. He is now the counseling pastor in Faith Church in Jacksonville or First Baptist Church in Jacksonville. And just a seasoned biblical counselor. And he did a reflection there on the implications of Good Friday to the issues that he sees in a counseling room.

It's just an excellent word of encouragement that relates the work of the son to the issues we face in our counseling ministry. And then let me move to encouragement number three, which is on, I believe this is page five of your handout, that the spirit who bears witness to the son is our helper and our comforter.

So I can't think of a more discouraging ministry than to try to do counseling ministry apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. I mean, if it's just you and the counseling's problems, and all you've got is your power and your resources, then I say we should probably close up our counseling ministry because I can't think of a more discouraging ministry than to do that apart from the Holy Spirit's power.

But if we believe in the Holy Spirit, that it's the Holy Spirit who convicts, it's the Holy Spirit that brings understanding of the word to the counselee's life, it's the Holy Spirit that does a work of transforming and renewal and changing of the desires of a counselee's heart and we are given the fullness of the Holy Spirit's ministry that he lives in us and he bears his fruit in us and he empowers our ministry, then we can expect the Holy Spirit to do wonderful things in people's lives as we are faithful to minister his word.

And what that does is that it does take some of the pressure off. I like John MacArthur's statement of he ministers in a state of relaxed desperation. And I think that's a good way to put it. There is a desperation in ministry because you are laboring and you are desiring that a life would be changed and you do understand what is at stake, but there's a relaxed desperation because you place yourself in the hands of the Holy Spirit and in the hands of the Savior and you trust that God is going to do a work for his glory as you're faithful to his word.

So this is a truth that brings encouragement to our lives. So what I've given to you, I taught a theology class here at the church and we spent about four weeks looking at the doctrine of the Trinity and its implications for life and ministry and I've given you, this handout is basically a summary of those four weeks.

But I want to move to page number six and you can read a lot of that material on your own and hopefully that'll be a encouragement to you. But I want to move to page number six because I know all of you are asking, this is all really good information, but how do I write my essay?

Going back to the essay topic, what is a game plan to write this essay? So let's look at the question again. The question is, explain the doctrine of the Trinity and provide its biblical basis. So I think the best way to summarize the doctrine of the Trinity is Wayne Grudem's definition is probably the best thing out there.

I don't know how to improve upon it. I think you would do well to quote that and footnote that is probably the most, the best summary statement of the doctrine of the Trinity and then he does a wonderful job walking through each of those affirmations. But he writes there that we might define the doctrine of the Trinity as follows.

God eternally exists as three persons, father, son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God and there is one God. So we may define the doctrine of the Trinity as follows. He has three affirmations there, which we'll walk through in a moment. Number one, God eternally exists as three persons.

Number two, each person is fully God. And number three, there is one God. Those are three central affirmations that are at the heart of the doctrine of the Trinity. And if you deny any one of those affirmations, then you end up in theological error or what ACBC calls a fatal error in the grading of the essays.

So there are rewrites with the ACBC essays, and then there are what they call fatal errors. And if you articulate an unorthodox view of the Trinity, then I'm sure that ACBC will award a fatal error. None of the students in my classes have ever had that. And so let's keep the record going there to keep us out of the fatal errors.

And this is one doctrine you want to be careful to explain and to affirm. Those are just three central affirmations that are at the heart of an orthodox understanding of the Trinity. So let's walk through them one by one. The first affirmation is that God is three persons, three persons, not merely three modes or manifestations of one person.

That would be the theological error of modalism, which we want to be careful to guard against. We believe that God is three persons. The father is not the son, the son is not the spirit, and the spirit is not the father. We see that in numerous texts of scripture.

John 17 verse one would be an example of that. When Jesus has spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that the son may glorify you." And verse five says, "And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed." So the son, the son's prayers to the father do not make sense if the father is not a distinct person from the son.

And you have there a great Trinitarian passage, Matthew three, verse 16, which, by the way, would be an excellent passage to use in your essay. If you want to see three persons of the Trinity in one scene, you can find that in Matthew three, verses 16 to 17, it says, "When Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened to him and he saw the spirit of God ascending like a dove and coming to rest on him.

And behold, a voice from heaven said, 'This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.'" So you see the son being baptized, you see the spirit descending, you see the father well pleased with the son and his perfect character. In one passage, you have all three persons of the Trinity, three in oneness, three distinct persons, yet not three gods.

So God is three persons, you see in the middle of your handout that the son is not the spirit. Acts four would be an example of how Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and as an expression of the Holy Spirit's influence and ministry, Peter boldly proclaimed the message of the son.

He boldly proclaimed the son's life, death, and resurrection because he was under the influence of the spirit. And that's a great example for all of us in Christian ministry. We want to be so filled with Holy Spirit that we are given a great love for the son and are given great boldness to minister the truth of Jesus Christ and the son's work.

And then you have at the bottom of page six that the spirit is not the father. You see that in Romans 8, verse 26, it says, "Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind and spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." So that passage would not make sense either if the spirit was not a distinct person from God, the father. And so you have in throughout all of these great New Testament passages, the distinction made of three persons, the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit.

Let me move to the next page on your handout. This is page number seven and move to affirmation number two. God is three persons was affirmation number one. Affirmation number two is that each person is fully God. Each person is fully God. The father is fully God. There's not much debate around that, Romans 1, verse seven, "He is the God and God our father.

Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ." And so the deity is ascribed to God, the father. We see the son is fully God, John 1, verse one, "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God." That is from the very beginning of John's gospel, ascribing deity to the person of Jesus Christ.

Titus 2, verse 13, "Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ." Another clear description of deity. Thomas's great confession of faith in John 20, verse 28, "My Lord and my God." And those are just very clear statements ascribing deity to the Lord Jesus Christ.

You can also go through the information in Charles Ryrie's Basic Theology. Divine names are ascribed to Christ, divine characteristics ascribed to Christ, divine titles are ascribed to Christ. There's a whole wealth of information that you can bring to bear in supporting and in defending the deity of Christ. But those are just some very clear statements there that are found in scripture.

And then we have the spirit is also fully God. Acts 5, verse three, "But Peter said, 'Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart? To lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land. You have not lied to men, but to God.'" So to lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God.

And then we see these great Trinitarian formulations and expressions at the bottom of page seven. Matthew 28, verse 19, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Those formulations would be blasphemous if the Holy Spirit was not fully God and co-equal with the Father and the Son.

But the spirit is also fully God. So that is the second affirmation that is at the heart of this doctrine. And then the third affirmation is there are not three gods, but one God, Deuteronomy 6, verse four, "Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." And so we have three in oneness, triunity or trinity.

Now Charles Ryrie, that is, has stated that no illustration can possibly capture all that is involved in the biblical revelation of the Trinity. Most are at best only parallels of a three-in-one idea. And yet he gives this illustration, which is kind of a common diagram that attempts to picture the Godhead as one.

And you can find this picture in Ryrie's Basic Theology, but it's showing how each person, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is God. And yet how each person is distinct from the other persons of the Trinity. And so that is probably the best attempt at capturing in an illustration the doctrine of the Trinity.

So how do we get into trouble for a few moments here at the end of this presentation? How do we get in trouble with the doctrine of the Trinity? How do we veer into theological error? Well, a great way to think about it is just what happens when you deny any one of those three affirmations.

So let's say that you deny the first affirmation that God is three persons, and you end up with this idea that God is one person who manifests himself in three different ways or three different modes. You end up with a theological error known as modalism. Modalism says that God is one person who manifests himself in three different ways.

So it's like how a man would be at the same time a father, a farmer, and a neighbor. And so he would show himself or express himself in society in three different modes or manifestations, but he is only one person. That would be the theological error of modalism. Modalism has also been called Sabellianism, named after one of the promoters of this idea in early church history.

It's also known as modalistic monarchianism. And Wayne Grudem does a good job in his systematic theology dealing with those terms. But they're basically the same idea that God is not three distinct persons. Stephen Nichols has written that modalism is a heretical view that denies the individual persons of the Trinity.

It views biblical terminology of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as merely modes of existence or manifestations of the one God. And he continues that modalism held that there is one God who can be designated by three different names, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at different times, but these are not distinct persons.

Instead, they are different modes, thus modalism of the one God. Thus, according to modalism, God can be called Father. As creator of the world and lawgiver, he can be called Son, as God incarnate in Jesus Christ, and he can be called Holy Spirit, as God in the church age.

Accordingly, Jesus Christ is God and the Spirit is God, but they are not distinct persons. So that's one theological error that arises from the fact that you deny the first affirmation. You end up in modalism. Let's move to a second theological error, and that's Arianism, named after a bishop of Alexandria in the early fourth century, Arius.

Arius taught that God the Son was a created being, and so he denied the full deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Wayne Grudem explains, Arius taught that God the Son was at one point created by God the Father, and that before that time, the Son did not exist, nor did the Holy Spirit, but the Father only.

Thus, though the Son is a heavenly being who existed before the rest of creation and who is far greater than all the rest of creation, he is still not equal to the Father in all his attributes. He may even be said to be like the Father or similar to the Father in his nature, but he cannot be said to be of the same nature as the Father.

So the dispute really rose in Arius' time between the two Greek words homoousios, which means of the same nature, and homoousios, of a similar nature, and you notice that there's only one letter that distinguishes those two words. Arius was happy to say that Christ was of a similar nature as the Father, that Christ was created by God before the creation of the rest of the universe, but he did not want to confess that Christ was of the same nature as the Father, and the difference between the two words was the presence or absence of that Greek letter iota, and it marked the difference between biblical Christianity and a heresy that denied the full deity of Jesus Christ.

The Nicene Creed in A.D. 325 condemned the views of Arius and used the word homoousios, being of one substance as the Father, in formulating an orthodox understanding of the deity of Christ, and in order to refute Arianism, you need to, I mean, you can easily refute it by the numerous texts of Scripture which set forth the full deity of Jesus Christ in the New Testament.

So you have, if you deny the first one, you have modalism, you deny the second one, you have Arianism, and you deny a third statement, you have tritheism or polytheism, which ends up that you have three persons and you have three gods, and that would deny clear statements such as Deuteronomy 6, as we just mentioned, that there is one God.

And so a good essay on this subject would, I mean, a good game plan is to go through the three affirmations and explain your understanding of how God is three persons, the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, the Spirit is not the Father, and then just give biblical texts that support the reasons why you would distinguish between an understanding of God the Father and God the Son and God the Spirit.

You would do well to do an essay, a paragraph on the second affirmation in defending the biblical understanding of each person is fully God, and defending the deity of the Father, deity of the Son, and the deity of the Holy Spirit through texts of Scripture, and there are many texts of Scripture that you can use to defend each of those assertions.

And then a third affirmation, there are not three gods but one God, that would be worthy of a third paragraph there, of just the oneness of God, the unity part of the triunity, and that there are not a multiplicity of gods, but there is one true and living God.

And then you would do well to do a brief overview of where you end up with, how do you end up in theological error, modalism, Arianism, polytheism, and just note what happens when you deny these affirmations. If you have further room, if you're still looking for things to write about, I would encourage you to do a paragraph on how does that impact counseling, how does that change your counseling ministry and practice, and what are some implications of how you would use that in counseling ministry.

Okay, well, I am out of time, so what I'm going to do is I am going to close this in prayer, and you're free to go, but I'm going to hang on for about, you know, five or ten minutes. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to hang on and answer any questions, but I want to be respectful of your time and let you go if you need to get to dinner or have some plans.

So let me pray for us and close our time. Father, thank you for the truth of who you are. We just praise you and thank you for this glorious truth that of the blessed trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, yet not three gods, one God, blessed trinity.

We just praise you at the wonder of who you are. Pray that we would read our Bibles, understanding the distinct roles and relationships that exist between the persons of the trinity, and Lord, that we would be able to use the truth of Scripture to encourage others. We thank you for the work of your Son, we thank you for the ministry of your Spirit, and just bless each person.

Thank you for their faithfulness in joining us tonight. Bless each person, we pray, and give them a great week writing this essay. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, well, I'll hang on for a little bit. If you have any questions, feel free to use the chat function or the Q&A statement, but otherwise, Lord bless you, and thanks so much for being with us tonight.

Okay, question came in, "Can we still pass this essay if we don't mention the implications of the trinity in biblical counseling, but strictly focus on laying out the doctrine of the trinity?" Yes, you can pass this essay if you've got plenty of material there to write about. If you just hit those three assertions and then the theological errors, that should get you to a page, page and a half.

If you still have some room to fill, then go ahead and mention some implications for counseling. But I mentioned, I spent a lot of time on implications for counseling tonight because I found that students tend to approach this essay just more as kind of a theological test and just wanting to get the orthodox statements down, and I'm always trying to get you to think through, "Okay, how would these essays impact your counseling practice in real life?" Because if your theology doesn't make a transition to the actual ministry that you're doing, then I don't think we've accomplished what we want to with these essays.

So great question, excellent. Another question came in, "How can we access prior class sessions?" So all of the prior class sessions are available on YouTube format, and if you need those links, email counseling@kinderchurch.org and Jacqueline Hernandez will get you those links. So those should have been sent out every week, or we're trying to send that out every week in case you can't make it on a Sunday night, but you're welcome to access those.

The first two classes, we had technical problems. Well, I had technical problems because I run my own tech for Sunday night, so we didn't get the recordings for the first two sessions, but the rest of the session should be available. Great question. Then a question came in, "Can we still pass if we don't mention the different wrong views of the Trinity?" So you may be able to pass, but I would encourage you to, at least in a brief summary statement, mention what happens if you end up not affirming certain statements or truths about the Trinity.

I think that would be a good, well-rounded essay. I think the counseling implications would be a bonus, but I think a good, like an A essay would mention some aspect of what happens, how do you end up in theological error with the Trinity, because there has been so much theological error in church history on this doctrine, and that would just give the reader an understanding that you understand this doctrine well enough to defend it from error or from wrong views.

Great question. Okay, any other questions or anything else I can help you guys with? I hope you're doing well with the essays and that you're able to continue to work through and pressing on. We have another question came in, "What do we do with Christophanes or Theophanes?" Great question.

Like, when Jacob wrestles with God, I don't think I can fully understand the Trinity even if I had years to study it. That's a great response. I feel the same way, that I cannot fully understand the Trinity, and I probably will never in this life fully understand the Trinity.

I think that goes back to our understanding of God is incomprehensible, yet He is understandable. So there is an aspect of God can never fully be understood because He is infinite and beyond our understanding, but that does not mean we cannot understand true things about God, and I will never fully understand the Trinity, yet I can understand true things about the triune God and His nature.

And so I appreciate that statement. I would just kind of give the balancing truth of please be humbled by the greatness of the mystery of the doctrine of the Trinity. That's a good place to be, but don't let that keep you from also stating true things about the doctrine of the Trinity as found in God's Word because I do believe that we can do that and we should do that.

Regarding Christophanes or Theophanes, that is a study that is well worth your attention, you know, the Christophanes in the Old Testament. I would think that might be beyond the scope of writing a page and a half on the doctrine of the Trinity. I think you've got enough information that's there that will help you with that without going into the Christophanes, and I think there's enough information there that you probably need to wrestle through without opening that subject, although it is a wonderful study and I encourage you to do that if you have time for that.

Okay, one last question was the name of the book by Ernie Baker. What was the name of the book by Ernie Baker you mentioned? So I actually gave you Ernie Baker's statement. I have put that in your Dropbox folder. Ernie Baker, I think he wrote that as a Facebook post.

It was just his reflections, it's not a published work, but it's phenomenal and I've used that in some of my classes and many people have appreciated his reflections on Good Friday and how that ties into counseling ministry. And I think we do oftentimes make a big deal about Good Friday and Easter, but don't do enough work in tying together the central events of Good Friday and Easter to, okay, how does that apply to my marriage or how does that apply to how I handle my finances or how I relate to my kids or how I handle my anger problem?

And that's the work that I think Ernie Baker is trying to do in tying together, okay, now that we're celebrating Good Friday, how does that impact all of these issues that we're seeing in counseling ministry? And he does a phenomenal job with that. So I think you'll be blessed by that and reading that Facebook post, which I just turned into a handout.

Okay, wonderful. Okay, the Bruce Ware book, the question came in, maybe the question that was referred to was the Bruce Ware book that I mentioned. Yes, Bruce Ware has a book called Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Roles and Relationships. And maybe I'll send you that link. It's out of print, I believe, and so it'll cost you a little bit if you want to get it off Amazon.

I think you're going to have to pay a little bit extra to get that. If somebody finds a way to get that in any other form, I have that on my bookshelf, and it was one of the most helpful things that I could read in terms of not just understanding the Trinity, but how does this impact my life?

Why should I understand the doctrine of the Trinity? How does this make a difference in how I do family life and church life? And he does a phenomenal job in there. So I'll do some work on that and see if that's available, and maybe if you could research that as well.

But right now it's out of print, and I think the only thing, only way you can get it is by looking at a used book resource, which maybe they have them on eBay or something like that. Okay, well, wonderful. God bless you all. Thank you so much for your faithfulness and for being a part of this class.

It's a great encouragement, and it's a great joy to be able to have this time with you to study God's Word. I hope you have a blessed week. We'll be gathering next Sunday at 5 o'clock p.m. Pacific time, and we'll go through essay number eight in the theology exams.

And until then, have a great week, and may the Lord bless you. Amen. Amen. Amen.