Gooding, David: 3 - Movement One (Part 1B)

We are to read this evening the very same verses as we have read on the two previous evenings. But before we do that, two passages of the Old Testament will deserve our consideration, since they may help us to understand our New Testament passage the better. And the first of those Old Testament passages is to be found in the book of Deuteronomy and chapter uh thirty two. The book of Deuteronomy, chapter 32 and verse 8. When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. So much from the book of Deuteronomy. And now some verses from the second book of Samuel and chapter seven. Two Samuel seven and we begin at verse eighteen. where David has just heard through Nathan the prophet God's plan and purpose for David and his royal dynasty. And this is David's response to his hearing of God's plan and purpose. Then David the king went in and sat before the Lord. And he said, who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that thou hast brought me thus far? And this was yet a small thing in thine eyes, O Lord God, but thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come. And this too after the manner of men, O Lord God. For thy word's sake. And according to thine own heart, hast thou wrought all this greatness to make thy servant know it. Wherefore thou art great, O Lord God, for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ear. What one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem unto himself for a people, and to make him a name and do great things for you, and terrible things for thy land before thy people, which thou redeemest to thee out of Egypt, from the nations and their gods. Thou did establish to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee forever, and thou, Lord, becameest their God. And now, O Lord God, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his house, confirm thou it forever, and do as thou hast spoken. And with those words ringing in our ears, we come once more to our epistle to the Ephesians and chapter one, Beginning tonight at verse three. Ephesians one and verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love, having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved, in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in him, unto a dispensation of the fullness of the time, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, in him, I say, in whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ, in whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God's own possession, unto the praise of his glory. God grant our study of his word may serve that same end here this evening. Now, last night we began to study in detail the first major movement of thought in this epistle to the Ephesians. And we found that the first of those major movements of thought concerns itself with the purpose of God in creation. To find out what that purpose of God in creation was, we discovered that we had to go backwards in time, before there was a creation. To think of that initial plan and purpose that God conceived in his divine mind, the purpose that eventually led to the founding of this world. That purpose, again, we discovered to be this, that God originally planned and desired and determined that he would have us before him in love, to satisfy his heart and to gratify his pleasure. And because he determined to have us before him, that in turn involved him in the making of this vast creation. As we found last evening, but it may have occurred to you subsequently to think, or was that the reason why I saw you frown halfway through the meeting last night, that, uh, you say to yourself, but I don't quite follow this. Granted that it was God's plan to have us before him, how did that plan inevitably involve the creation of our little planet? I mean to say, God is almighty and can do as he pleased, so we argue to ourselves. And if he determined to have us before him, why didn't he proceed to do it at once? Why didn't he call us into being and forthwith and immediately place us in the heavenlies before him. Pray why, if that was his purpose of having us before him, didn't he do it at once? Pray, tell me why he first stopped to make a planet and put us up this pokey little corner of the universe, so distant, we might think, from his glorious heaven. Perhaps it occurred to you to think, I say, why did his purpose of having us before him necessarily involve the creation first of our planet? And the answer to that question, if you ask it, is to be found, of course, in verse five of our chapter one, which is precisely where we take up our topic this evening. That tells us that not only did God determine to have us before him, but he determined to have us before him as his son. Says verse five, having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself. That is to say, while he determined to have us before him, he was not content just to have us before him any old how. Why God, if he chose, could have a flower of the field before him, as our blessed Lord did on one occasion, didn't he? As he walked through the fields of Palestine and saw the lovely flowers, said he to his apostles, behold the lilies of the field. And in that moment, I think I see the sparkle in his eyes, the pride and joy and gladness of the creator that thought of a lily and made a lily. Look at it, he said. Heard of Solomon and all his regal magnificence? I tell you that Solomon himself couldn't compete with that lily down there. Look at that superb coloring. And for a moment it gladdened his heart and was the springboard of a bigger lesson, and he passed on. For glorious as lilies are, God wanted something more than lilies before him. And therefore our verse is now telling us the status, the quality of the fellowship that God determined upon in having us before him. Nothing less than veritable tiny gods would do. Sons of God. Beings with the very nature of God. Beings that feel like God and think like God and answer to God. And can understand God. Because they are veritably children, sons of God. With a very life of God within them. I needn't, of course, before such an audience as I have before me tonight, spend any length of time at all reminding you that when the New Testament talks of sons of God, it is using that term in a precise and technical sense. It is the fact, of course, that in popular theology the term is frequently used by those who apparently do not know its precise meaning, and they tell us why, of course, all men are children of God, and we ought to treat ourselves as though we were all one, members of one great family of God. And they mean very well. And what they're trying to say is that God created us all, and since God created us all and loves us all and cares for his creatures as a father might care for his children, they are pleased to express it to themselves in this fashion. All men, they say, are children of God. You, of course, in your studies will know better. All men are not children of God. All men are not sons of God in the biblical sense that confronts us here in verse 5. We shall miss the whole glory of the Savior. We imagine that men and women, as born into this world of ours, are automatically sons of God. They are not. What they are is creatures of God. If ever they are going to be sons of God, then in the words of the fourth gospel, they will have to become children of God. And ask the fourth gospel reads, doesn't it? But as many as received him, to them gave he the authority to become children of God. It is evident, isn't it? The simplest logic will tell you, you can't become something you already are. I cannot, at this late, late stage in my life, become a human being for the simple reason I am one. I could conceivably become a goose or an ass, because here's hoping I'm not one. You can become something you are not, you can't become something you already are. So then, when Holy Scripture tells us that if you want to become a child of God, you have to become a child of God, it is reminding us that we don't start off as children of God or sons of God. And further, to emphasize that lesson, the Apostle Paul here chooses a word that reminds us that we didn't start life as sons of God. We've had to be adopted as his sons. But this, and none, no less than this, was God's purpose. And therein begins to be the answer to that question that we raised at the beginning. If it was God's pleasure to have us before him, why did that involve, uh, first of all, creating this planet above? Well, for this reason, that you can't create a son of God in one go. Can you? Son of God is one of those things, you'll see. You can't be born physically a son of God. Let me take a faint, uh, analogy. You can't be born married, can you? Well, if you could be, when then marriage would be something else from what we normally mean by marriage. You can't be born married. You can be born a man, you can be born a woman, you can be born beautiful, and you can be born otherwise, but you can't be born married. Why not? Well, to have marriage as we understand it, first of all, you have to be born, then you have to go up. First of all, you are a child under your parents and dependent on them and not quite a complete personality yet, and then you go up into the full all personality, and hey, presto, when you've got your independence and the merry about it, you meet some other independent personality, and hey, presto, then the thing happens, and the one accepts the other, and the other accepts the one. And by their free will and deliberate choice, this new relationship is formed that is called marriage. Can't be born that. And you can't be born or created instantaneously as a son of God to start with. First, you have to become a creature of God. And then be given the offer of becoming a child of God, a son of God. You've noticed the difference, haven't you? You see, you, well, not you can, God can. God can make a human being and does all the time without asking their permission. I don't know about you, but nobody asked me whether I wanted to be born. I suddenly woke up and found I had been. But he asked me whether I wanted to come, what I would like to be like. You see, you can, that is, God can make a human being a creature without asking that creature's permission or cooperation, for that matter. You can't make a child of God that way. Because to become a child of God demands your choice. That you will see Holy Scripture emphasizing in that passage already quoted that discusses this matter of becoming a child of God. It says of our Lord Jesus, the creator of the universe, he was in the world, and the world was made by him. The world knew him not. He came to his own, and his own received him not. But to as many as received him. And therein was the choice. Some did receive, but some didn't. And the becoming a son of God depended on that choice, on that voluntary receiving of the son of God. We begin to perceive, perhaps, what a difference of category there is between being a creature of God and becoming a son of God. And therefore it was that when God determined to have us before him, and then added to that plan that he determined to have us as sons before him, God was then obliged, first of all, to create our little planet. For this, he didn't have to ask our permission. And then he designed us and put us on it, and for that he didn't have to ask our permission. And he gave us artistic sense and a moral conscience and a free will, and for that he didn't ask our permission either. That he could do of his own will, he put us there. So So the that gro- growing up and knowing what we did, we could be made the offer of rising in God's universe to an infinitely higher category, being not merely now a creature of God, but being born again as a son of God. That is why this little planet is here at all. And why the whole thing had to start not in God's heaven, but long distance from God's heaven. That our choice might be free. Why, incidentally, in every man's heart there is a feeling that this little planet isn't eternal, that this little seventy years is not all there is, and indelibly etched into the heart of man is the feeling that this life is but a temporary stage, a preliminary to something. Comfortable as we can be in this world, it is but a temporary phase of existence. That's how it was meant to be. The necessary first step that would make it possible to become a child of God, thus to be before God in his heavenly places. Let us just pause a moment to let the wonder of it sink in. We know it is a commonplace truth. We have preached it to others a thousand times and more. Let us call to mind the Savior's words on the topic that we might again perceive with our hearts the wonder of it. That which is born of the flesh, said he, is flesh. And apart from God's miraculous working, would remain flesh eternally. For there is no crossing of the categories in God's universe. By our own unaided effort. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Don't be surprised when I tell you you must be born again. For a cabbage to become a butterfly. You say that would be an extraordinary affair. Yes, you've observed, aren't you, how basic to butterflies cabbages are. Yes. Huh. But then the cabbage will never become a butterfly. Weed it and water it and fertilize it how you will. Forever and forever, they are two different categories. Consider this lovely dog trained to his master's will and delighting to do what his master bids him, and already sensing in his canine mind that he's pleasing his master, and pleased because he can please his master, and having a great deal of fellowship with his master, but the dog will never be the master's son because it's not human. Forever and forever, the category distinction remains. And we began life as creatures. Huddles, intricate, crown of God's creation, if you will, but creatures still. And the gap between being a creature of God and a son of God, utterly for us impossible and unthinkable. And it was God's idea. Who ever heard of such a scheme? It was God's idea that here now the categories would be crossed. That which had been born flesh should be born again and transcend the category, become a child of God. If you cannot conceive of it anyhow else, and the vastness of it and the wonder of becoming a child of God. And pray, think, if you will, of the immensity of space, and go and consult your astronomists, and look at anything you can look at, and consider the vast mechanism of our planet and all the other mechanisms of the heaven that are involved in keeping our planet. Then ask yourself, what's it about? Let God tell you that he did all this. The only way he knew of getting sons of God. If it then has dawned upon our hearts what a wonderful thing this is, we shall, I suspect, find ourselves reacting like King David reacted in that passage that we read earlier in the lecture. David had been appointed king of Israel, and that was honor enough, as David had thought it, for he began life as a mere little shepherd boy. But God had given him the position, with the position strength, and now it meant he felt established in his kingdom, and he proposed to build God a temple. God sent a message back by Nathan, no, thank you, David, that was a very good suggestion, but it isn't my desire yet that you build me a temple. But David, just let me tell you what I'm going to do for you. I'm going to build you a house. And you shall have a dynasty, and you shall have a son. And that son of yours, I will be a father to him, and he shall be my son. And I shall establish your dynasty. It shall never finally be destroyed. And as David heard it, he went and sat. There are some truths, you know, that you, you get, you apprehend better when you're sitting down than when you're standing up. Sat down, said half a minute. I've got to take this in. Let me try. I thought it was a wonderful thing, God, he said, when you, you appointed me king who began life as a mere shepherd boy. I thought it was a wonderful thing when I was cutting old Goliath's head off, and all the young girls said, what a superb chat baby. But what is this? You're going to establish my dynasty. You're going to be a father to my son. You have spoken of my house for a great while yet to come. Oh, Lord God, he said, it's so immense. Why ever did you do it? That was his first reaction? That is when you get a present from your wife more than you ever expected, isn't it, sir? You say, well, whatever made you do that, my dear? Why ever did you do it, God, he said. David searched his heart to think up a reason and soon came to the conclusion. Why did he do it? He did it for his own heart's sake, because of the purpose of his heart. That's why he did. Nobody suggested it to God, and not least David. He hadn't got a notion in his head of any such thing. God did it. And in that moment, David discovered something about God and the character of God and the wonder of God, and God unique in the glory of his plans and purposes, even for a little David. Oh, I say to myself, David, old boy, you didn't know half. You were thinking of s- uh, God having, uh, being a father, uh, to your son Solomon, uh, and shepherding him through life. That was wonderful. But David, if you had discovered in your day what God really meant, it meant nothing less than one day of your line would be born the Messiah himself, who should occupy the throne of David and the throne of the whole universe, David. What would you have said if you'd known that, David, old boy? Oh, you know it now, anyway. Why ever did God do it? And you sit there already, a child of God, has it never occurred to you to ask, why on earth did God do it? The answer that Ephesians gives is like the answer David gives. He did it according to the good pleasure of his will. The whole thing originated with him. That's the kind of God God is. You didn't have to suggest it to him. It wasn't your idea, was it? You had discovered in your day what God really meant. It meant nothing less than one day of your line would be born the Messiah himself, who should occupy the throne of David and the throne of the whole universe, David. What would you have said if you'd known that, David, old boy? Oh, you know it now, anyway. Why ever did God do it? And you sit there already a child of God, has it never occurred to you to ask, why on earth did God do it? The answer the decisions gives is like the answer David gives. He did it according to the good taker of his will. The whole thing originated with him. That's the kind of God God is. You didn't have to suggest it to him. Wasn't your idea what he... Who raised the wondrous thought? Or who did it suggest that blood-bought sons to glory brought should with thee, son, be blessed? Father, the thought was thine, thine only could it be. Fruit of that wisdom, power divine, peculiar unto thee. What will he not bestow, who freely gave this gift unsought, unmerited, and heeded, and unbought. What will he not bestow? And it's a lovely pillow at night, my brother and sister, when the little ways of life have been dark and trying, and you find it hard to believe, looking at your circumstances, that God loves you. It's a marvelous comfort to be able to look off to this great plan that God has conceived for you out of his own heart. Considering the wonder of it, say, well, if God would do that without my suggestion, left to himself, he would do that for me. Oh, well, then all shall be well. That was where it originated. And what was the end in view? If the plan originated in the heart of God, not my heart, his heart. It always do better for me than I would have done for myself. But what was the goal of it? Ask Ephesians, and Ephesians will reply. It was to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved. He did it as an advertisement, as an exhibition of the riches of his grace. Just recently, I looked at two weddings on a TV. The one wedding was of friends of mine in Seville in Spain, delightful folks. Life has not always been easy for them. Their little hall where they meet for their Christian worship is a tiny little place, and they can only get about fifty folks in it. And one of the young men of their church was going to get married. And since a lot of people wanted to come, they didn't know what else to do, so they had a wedding in the street. Just imagine sitting out there in the street having your wedding, my sister. Well, that's what they did. And it was a lovely occasion. And of course, the bride, as always, was beautiful, and that was the main thing, but it was held in the street. Then I looked, that was on TV too, I saw it on TV. Then I looked at another wedding on TV, and that was of a man called Charles. That didn't take place in the street, though they went through a lot of streets. But what on all the fuss and the bother and the blue and the purple and the white and the green and all those horses and all the men, what were they doing? And what was the point of it? Wouldn't Charles and Diana have been content with a little private wedding somewhere? Ah, but no, Charles can't have a private wedding. Why can't he have a private wedding? Because he has to be the Queen's son. And when it comes to the wedding of the Queen's son, it's the Queen's honor that's at stake, and she has to show the world what the British sovereign can do for her beloved son. And the wealth of the Queen is in question. The wealth of the Queen's country is in question, and the Queen's taste, and the Queen's imagination, and the Queen's glory. That wedding sparkle. Because it wasn't just an occasion to get the two married. You could have done that in the registry office. It was to do it to the praise of the glory of the queen's riches. And my brother, yes, my sister, God has got a salvation for you, and you're going to enjoy it like good, I tell you that. But I tell you why God has done it, so that heaven, earth, and hell, if it likes, can look on when the thing is complete. See it not just that you're saved, but see it as an exhibition of the riches of the grace of God, and every last ounce of the divine ingenuity has gone into such a salvation as would do his grace justice. And as we think of his grace, it leads us, doesn't it, to think of the very next thing that Paul mentions. In that beloved one, we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, the word is. That word you can translate, if you like, as a blunder, meaning an unintentional offense. Or you can translate it as a deliberate trespassing against a known command or plan or purpose. And you may combine the both meanings, for both are true of us. Here comes a fearful thing. At least now it looks to us fearful, doesn't it? It didn't once upon a time. When we think of that immense plan that God had even before the foundation of the world, and we think of the immense trouble God went to to have an earth. And here was his purpose for us, and we had the impassance to stand up on our two legs and go counter to the purpose of the creator. We did it in part un- uh, unknowingly, blundering along in life, in our ignorance. Ah, but some of us did a good deal of it intentionally as well, in a way. We weren't having that gospel. We wanted nothing for the moment to do with Jesus Christ. We wanted, oh, how it's pathetic it sounds now, we wanted to enjoy ourselves. Lamentable pathos. We had the impertinence, six feet of humble clay, to stand up against Almighty God in the very world that God has made. And tell God we weren't interested in his plan, and we were going our own way. What would you have done if you would have been the creator? I know what I would have done. I would have pulled the planet from under your feet. And it's a long drop if you, that when we had the impermanence to go against it, he found it in his heart to forgive it. And give us a redemption in Christ. So now it costs, not just the word of command that brought our universe into being, it costs the blood of God's son. Oh, how will you put a price on it? All the sparkle of the exhibition of God's grace that shall be. And you think it wasn't only a glorious plan, but it was a glorious plan rejected and gone again. And then a plan put, uh, finally to fulfillment through a redemption that cost the blood of Of God's. God's son. But you will observe that when Paul reminds us of that great forgiveness that we have, he tells us specifically that in granting us this, God made to abound toward us all wisdom and prudence, that is practical common sense. And I take it, though some differ, that what Paul is talking to now is not God's wisdom, but the wisdom that God imparts to those whom he forgives. He made the forgiveness abound, yes, but along with the forgiveness he abounded to us also, not only in forgiveness, but in wisdom and practical sense. In what particular? Having made known to us the mystery of his will. Do you see the connection of thought? Is God giving gooding? An astounding story. The chance to repent. Buying the man back and giving him forgiveness and granting him release from that stupid position he got himself into as a creature of God on God's planet, going against God. Buying the man back. Father God knows that gooding left to himself is a little bit senseless, more than a little bit. And if you just forgive him his sins like that, he's liable to get it into his head that, oh, well, it didn't really matter. Let's have another go. And let me live as I. I'm saved from the wrath of God. I don't have to bother, not yet, I'm only twenty eight. I don't have to bother too much about, uh, living for the Lord. So I'm going to heaven. I might get silly notions in my head like that. And as a believer, not be too careful about, uh, cooperating in the purpose of God. Have you ever met any believers like that? And therefore God, in his wisdom, saw to it that in granting us forgiveness along with it, he gave us wisdom and practical sense to see at once, if we care to think, that that cannot be the idea that we are set free and forgiven so that we shall never perish, but free to do just as we please, we still ignore God's purpose. So he makes known his purpose at the same time as he does give us the forgiveness. We might see the necessity and the wisdom, as forgiven men and women, of cooperating with God in his holy purpose. And what is that purpose? Well, it is put up, having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in him unto a dispensation of the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, in him I say, in whom also we were made a heritage. Their purpose is to sum up all things in Christ. But that is a vast purpose. Considering exactly what it means will take us quite a time, and for once I must behave and stop a meeting at nine o'clock instead of a quarter past. So let us bring our present study to its conclusion by noticing now this train of thought. We've considered something of the wonder of the purpose, why it involved creation, and that it is to come to this infinitely higher category above creaturehood to become a son of God. That it is a plan according to God's own heart, not something I divide. It tells me that God, left to himself, will do infinitely better for me than I ever could have done for myself. Oh, what an answer to Satan's slander of God it is. Who when a ca- who came to Adam when Adam was in the garden and whispered into his wife's ear and then into Adam's ear, yes, Adam, it may be a lovely garden, it may be a lovely planet, but you know God could do infinitely better for you if he wanted to. He doesn't want to, that's the trouble. In fact, he wants to keep you down. That's God. He's no intention of letting you rise to be as God. That's why he's forbidden you this fruit, says they. Ah, horrid rather. For it had been the original purpose of God that man created should eventually have the opportunity precisely Precisely arising. arising. In the Becoming coming. a son of God. Not in rebellious independence of God, but by God's own grace and regeneration. A plan, therefore, that came from the heart of God. And will inevitably be unspeakably glorious because its final intention is to display the riches of God's grace. The plan that we offended against by our testimony. But now God has released us and forgiven us at the cost of the blood of his son. But, but, but, but... Having simultaneously by his spirit put within the believer's heart a wisdom and a practical sense that tells him instinctively that salvation by grace does not mean that I can go off and live as I like and neglect God's plans and purposes and fritter away my life on empty and sometimes sinful things. But shall be expected to cooperate with God's plan. Therefore, I must come to know intelligently what that plan is. It is finally this. And God's organizational plan is finally, in the fullness of time, come to sum up all that God has done so far. Like an orator. For that's what the Greek word means. To sum up. It's most frequent use. It can be used, of course, of a, of a, of a mathematician adding up the grocery bill or a few atoms and things. It wouldn't make a lot of sense in that meaning here, would it? One star and two stars, uh, one star and two stars are three stars. Well, so what? Now, its more common use is of a, uh, of an orator. And if you have observed orators, I mean real orators, not me, real orators, and they've got a theme. So they start and there's an introduction. And then there's paragraph number one, in which the orator proceeds to make a certain point. And when he's made that point, he turns to paragraph number two, and he makes a somewhat different point, yes? And when he made that second point, he makes a third point, and a fourth point, and a fifth point, and a sixth point, and the danger is the time you come to, uh, point six, you've forgotten point one. But you might be forgiven sometimes for scratching your head and saying, well, I don't quite see where this is all going. Now, now what is he saying now? That seems a little bit different to what he was saying now, three paragraphs ago. Uh, now, ah, and the orator knows it. So when he gets to the end and he's had twelve points, some do, then comes the great finale, the fullness of the time, and he sums it up. He takes point one and point two and point three and point four and briefly recapitulates them and puts them all together. Oh, you see, I see what he was getting at. Oh, is that what it is? And now I see the relevance of these paragraphs of the whole bit. Oh, I see the point of the statement now. Yeah. God's going to do it one day in Christ. What was he doing when he spoke in the great gas clouds erupted and the galaxies were formed? What was he doing? What was he saying? Oh, you see, creation is God's statement, isn't it? And how the statement it is. You know, when we make statements, generally they are statements at the end of it. And we distinguish between our statements and our actions, but when God speaks, it is an action. The vast creation around us is God's statement was made through the word of God. I wonder where the Michael the Archangel stood on the first day of creation for him. Hm, interesting statement, Lord. I see what you're saying, though. Then day two came, and day three, and here came the giraffes. Well, they are an interesting statement, God. Very interesting indeed. Hm. See the point of it. Did you ever work out the point of them anyway? Here follow the ages of history. What was God saying? Here comes the dispensation of Noah and the flood, and then the patriarch. What was God saying? And if it was a part of a great speech, what was the speech going to be about? Well, some of you have a bit of a job. I do, anyway. I find out what John is about. I'm in the Gospel of John, but that Leviticus thing. What on earth was God saying then? What's that got to do with me now? Is it best just forgotten? And I said, Paul, all God's great statements in his crea- creative work in this vast universe, and all the statements that he made through the prophets in the successive ages, different as some of them seem to be. One day in Christ, the whole thing is going to be recapitulated, and God will bring out what he meant then, and what he meant then, and what he meant then, and he'll put the whole thing together, and it's going to make. The whole thing from the tiniest atom, the vast hosts of the redeemed. You will then see what the whole speech has been about. Recapitulates the whole God's statement of himself. And oh, what a lovely statement it shall be when at last we see the meaning of all things. Meaning of history. The meaning of the universe. The meaning of my life. Shall I be part of the statement? Oh, thank God. Yes, when it comes. My little life. It may only be a comma compared to your semicolon, I know. My. My little life shall be part of God's great statement that he made when he created and when he redeemed the world. What all that means, let us reserve till tomorrow, but let us now just bow and thank God for his wonderful. Our Father, we do praise thee from our hearts that thou hast spoken, and that thou hast not kept silent, that thou hast not kept thy holy conversation privy to the members of the Trinity, that thou hast spoken in the word of God, and the world was framed. Thou hast spoken, and we came to be. O God, we praise thee, that having made us by thy word, thou hast subsequently deigned to speak to us through thy word, and shown us thy ways, and shown us thy plans, and shown us what we desperately needed, our redemption. And O God of men and women who many times have puzzled over the significance of life and of the universe around us, now in these closing moments we praise thee for this promise, that one day Christ shall take it all, and summing it up, make sense of it. The great statement of the mind and heart of God. We who are sinners, who deserve nothing more than to be blotted out of the whole record, for our contradictious way of behavior. We bless thee tonight for a redemption that has blotted out our transgressions, that made us anew, that we too shall be part of the statement when God tells all who care to hear what a kind of a God he is and what is the majesty of his grace. Thus, with our thanksgiving, we ask thine evening blessing through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.