Gooding, David: 2 - Movement One (Part 1A)

Let us read again this evening the verses that are found in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, verses one to fourteen. We read them last evening, let us read them again, that the same repetition of them may engrave them on our memories and help us to grasp their meaning. Ephesians one verses one to fourteen. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 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, 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, through 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, until a dispensation of the fullness of time, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heaven 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 to the praise of his glory, we who had before hope 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 illuminate the eyes of our understanding and give us true understanding of his word. Last night we found that there are three major movements of thought in the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians. And we suggested that those three major movements of thought have to do, the first of them, with the purpose of God in creation. The second of them, with the ministry of Messiah in history, history past and present and future. And the third of them we found to deal with the role of man newly created by God in Jesus Christ. The role of this newly created man in God's new world. That role to be an imitator, both of God and Christ. Three major movements of thought, therefore, in the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians. And tonight it is our task to begin to investigate in some detail the first of those major movements of thought, the purpose of God in creation. And the verses that we have read will tell us of two of those purposes, two purposes that in the end combine in one. In verse four, for instance, of chapter one, um we are told that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him, in love. So then the first of God's purposes was that we should be before him. And further to embroider and explain what it means to be before God, the apostle adds to that a phrase in verse five, having foreordained us unto adoption as sons to himself. This being before God, to his satisfaction, will be made possible by our being made into sons to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The purpose of God, therefore, as it pertains to us individually. Subsequently, in our verses, we are told, in verse ten that it is God's good intention eventually to sum up all things, both the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, of all ages and of all times of creation. It is God's good intention finally to sum them all up in Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then, as far as our first fourteen verses go, these are God's good purposes. And one of the first things that we are told about them is this, that these purposes were made before the foundation of the world. Chosen in him before the foundation of the world. We must stop to inquire why it is that God tells us that his choice was made before the foundation of the world. If we weren't thinking very carefully, but merely reading these things superficially, we might suppose that God throws in this remark simply to communicate the fact that he chose us rather a long time ago, not yesterday, nor last century, nor in times BC, but a long, long time ago, why, even before the foundation of the world. Then, having chosen us, for some reason or other, he went on to do other interesting things, like making a few galaxies or making our planets. But we might fall into the mistake of thinking that these two things were unrelated. Of course, they're not unrelated. We are told that he chose us before the foundation of the world, because that very fact and plan will explain to us why the world was ever founded, why the galaxies were made, why the sun, the moon, and the stars, and our planets. Before he made them, he had a plan, and the plan and purpose was such that inevitably it involved God in making our world, in making our universe as a stepping stone towards the achievement of that higher intention and purpose. Let me descend for a moment from those great things of God to simpler levels that I might illustrate to my mind, and you'll have mercy with me as I have to use personal and tiny little illustrations to get it home to my mind, and you'll bear with me. But the principle that is ex- is at stake in this matter of time, that one thing is planned first, and then it leads on inevitably to other things. So I ask you to come with me into the kitchen, not some old-fashioned kitchen, but one of these modern super-duper kitchens. And here there's a machine. It's an oven, but no ordinary oven. It has lights that come on and in and out, and bells that come in and off, and clocks and knobs and handles. Only an expert would know how to deal with the thing. And over here is a mixer, the very latest type of mixer. It will go at all sorts of variable speeds, and sometimes at no speed at all, and there it is, along with this automatic pre-timed, pre-programmed dishwasher and other such devices. And in the middle of the kitchen is an almighty bowl here, and there's mother standing in front of the bowl, and she has flour, and she has sugar, and she has sultanas and raisins and little bits of figs, and a whole caboose of things, and she's guiding this bowl beneath the rotating arm of the mixer. And you come into the kitchen and you say, what on earth is going on here in all this mixture, in all this movement, and the lights are going and the bells are ringing and the mixers are moving, and mother obviously very efficient and moving too. You say, what is going on in all this? Some kind friend comes to explain and says, well, it may look a muddle to you, but you see, this is a process, and it's going on, and it's developing. When it is all finished, if you want to know what it's all about, well, here's a picture. And he picks up the cookery book. There's the picture, you see. Oh, is that what's going to come to? A cake. Of course, no ordinary cake. You wouldn't need this oven for an ordinary cake. A glorious cake and iced and decorated as you never saw the cake. Oh, you say, oh, well, that was interesting. Now I know what it was all about. No, you don't. Yes, you say I do. I can foresee what it's going to be. Perhaps you can, but that won't tell you what it's all about. You can foresee it's going to be a cake when it's finished. Good for you. But let me ask you a question. Why do you want a cake anyway? The purpose of having a cake. Well, you might guess at it, but you'll only know if you let mother stop her work a minute and tell you why she wants the cake. And the mother is going to tell you why she wants the cake. Now she'll have to go back in time, before there was this modern oven and this Kenwood mixer. And she will tell you it all started about seven months ago, when she suddenly realized that in nine months time her eldest daughter would reach the significant age of twenty one. And mother had sat down and decided that when the daughter reached the age of twenty one, something would have to be done to glorify the occasion and mark this exceedingly significant epoch in her daughter's life. So mother decided before it all happened, mother decided that the way she would mark the occasion is to make a cake such as nobody ever saw before, to mark the occasion. Now see what's happening even before the cake was made, even before the sultanas were bought. She first chose and planned. Her purpose was to honor her daughter's twenty first birthday party. Ah. That was seven months ago. I'll tell you what happened next, because I'm in the know of this particular story. I made it up. Uh. Mother had first of all decided and foreordained and predetermined, elected, if you like, what was going to happen. Ah, but now Mother also decided that if she was ever going to reach her goal, then certain other things would have to happen. So first of all, she went to Father, and she said, Father, now look, we've got to, we've got to mark the occasion, and it's got to be special. Now this old oven we've got, we've had it for twenty five years, it's no good. We've got to get it out, and we've got to have a new oven. And the father, perhaps not altogether willingly or seeing the point, was persuaded, as usual, that for this special cake, it would need no less than the very latest oven, and the oven was got. And he thought it was the end. No, it wasn't. Father, she said on the second day, he said, now the old mixer was so bad I gave it away to charity. And to leave a new mixer, so I had to get a mixer. And then she had to visit the grocer, and the grocer had to be persuaded to yield the very best flour, the very best sugar, the very best sultanas, and all the rest of the caboose and deliver it to her door. Why? Because the original purpose and plan demanded that these other things should follow in order to, uh, make the realization of the plan possible. And I hope you begin to see in my simple illustration that if you want to know why all this process, flour, sultanas, raisins, and ovens and lights and mixers, why it's going on at the moment, the ultimate why, for that you'll have to go back in time to the point where mother first conceived her plan of having this cake to honor the birthday party. And in passing, I point out to you it wouldn't be any good bringing in the scientists. They are admirable chappies, our scientists. Fascinating ideas. Well, you could bring them into the kitchen if you like. You could bring the old engineer in and say, look here, old boy, I want to know what's going on here. See this affair here with lights and bells and it's getting hot and flashing things. What on earth is it? And the man might get to work with his electrical skills and diagnose the old thing and come up with the idea it's an oven. He might also tell you about the electricity and neutrons and protons and things, and when he's all finished, he's saying, magnificent, I never knew ovens were like this, that's why they cost so much, I suppose. They've all got neutrons in them. Well, dear me. Or you might bring in the chemist and say, look here, chap, what is this bowl of stuff doing? And he analyzes and says there's acids here and alkalis, and there's fermenting a little bit, and there's this and that and the other. Yes. When they'd all finished, what marvelous story they could tell you, and how fascinating at its own level. I rejoice in the scientists and what they can tell us. But all of them combined couldn't tell you why it was being done. Only mother could tell you that. And I repeat, for that, you have to go back in time to the point when she first conceived the idea and determined to honor that birthday party. So is it thus with these greater things? We find ourselves in a marvelous universe. Oh, what a breathtakingly marvelous universe it is. And the more we study it, the more it becomes obvious, isn't it so, that everything in our universe is on the move. The physical universe around us is on the move. Its light's really fresh. Even our own planet is on the move physically, isn't it? Going somewhere. Every one of you who was at the last series of meetings I was, uh, uh, privileged to take in this place, since I was with you those four or five years ago, have traveled millions of miles, haven't you? So you've been given a ride on our planet Earth, and you've not been merely going round the sun and coming back where you were before, and that would be millions of miles, but the sun has been moving, and so you stuck on your planet going round the sun have been kind of corkscrewing through space, and you're now millions of miles away from where you were originally. And the great fixed stars, as they used to be called, that seem to be fixed in the sky and for generations seem to hold their place, only seem to do it because they are at such colossal distances. Actually, they are on the move. There's nothing still. That isn't only true physically of the universe, it's true of you, isn't it? You're on the move as well, what? Some of us have been on the move rather a long time. Where are we going? What's going to become of us? What's our universe moving too. Oh, you may get your scientists in there a moment, and I say again, I'm not dishonoring them. What fascinating men they are to be able thus to study God's glorious handiwork. I wish I were a scientist myself. They might hazard guesses as to where this universe will end up if it goes on moving as it does, or will it suddenly take a turn and move somehow else? Who knows? But if you want to know why it's on the move and why it ever existed anyway, why we were put on it, it's no good asking the scientist. That's outside his realm. He can tell you how it goes, can't tell you why it goes. Know why it's there at all, you'll have to come back before the foundation of the world, and allow God to let you into the secret of his plan and purpose. Why did he have the whole thing? He had it because of this prior intention. He was pleased to determine that he wanted us Us before before. him in love as sons of God. That was the plan. Because God set his sights on such an elevated plan, he then demanded that God create a vast universe, such as we see around us, in order to be the means and the staging by which he would reach the fulfillment of his plan. That was the order of events. Sometimes we are inclined to think and talk of our world as though it was a kind of a glorified Sunday school treat that went wrong. You know what Sunday school treats generally do, don't you? I mean, very often do. You plan to go to Bangor, and you're thinking that the sun is going to shine and all will be well, but the day comes, and Bangor is doing what Bangor so often does. It's pouring with rain, and you stick it out as long as you can till four thirty in the afternoon, and having visited Woolworths and many other shops you can find in Bangor, you then say, well, this is too bad. We shall have to think up something else. You can't go on with this. This is, the whole scheme has broken down, and I know what shall we do now? Shall we take the kids home and give them a slideshow or something? What should we do? And you try and think up some old scheme to fill in the time because the first scheme went wrong. Sometimes folks have speak of God's great purposes of redemption as though they were like that, that first of all, he created a world and man on it, and then alas, the whole scheme went wrong. God Almighty had to sit down and lament the fact and say, now what shall I do? The whole thing's gone amiss, gone astray. Now what shall I do with this world of sinners? Oh, I know. What about inventing a heaven? Oh, no, no. It was altogether the other way round, not only before the fall, but before there was a world anywhere. God had his purpose that we should come to be, that we should eventually be before him, and before him as sons. And to that purpose, God made a universe and put man in it, and in spite of the fall, God has been steadily pursuing that purpose, and it will be achieved. Indeed, I may tell you something. When Paul sat to write this letter, but I doubt whether he sat, he was so excited, I rather fancy he pranced all around the room, and you'll forgive the present preacher if he does similarly. Who could read of such things and remain ice cool? As Paul sat to de- stood to dictate this letter those years ago, a something had dawned on him that filled his soul with tremendous glow and glory. And it was this, that just as God before the world had had this plan, now just recently there had happened to something that took that plan an infinite distance forward. And God has in fact now at this stage blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ, in the heavenlies, even as he chose us. Do you see the sequence? He chose us. We were going to be before him. The universe was made, and our planet, and we upon it, and we fell into sin, but presently, through God's grace and persistence, Jesus Christ came, and he died for our sins, was buried, rose again. Think of it with wonder. Jesus Christ, as Paul, has been raised to the heavenlies in this moment, sits before God. And you, if you be a believer, are in him. And the plan is already taking shape. So far advanced along the road is he. Even though yet and yet and yet, there are more phases of it to be developed. And therefore we ought now to turn to considering what these basic terms mean. First of all, that he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love. And then secondly, having foreordained us unto the adoption as sons. What do those terms exactly mean? They are defining what is God's ultimate purpose for us. The reason why, therefore, he made the world. What do they mean? Now, again, if we were reading these verses superficially, we might decide that God's ultimate purpose was that we should be holy and without blemish. And certainly that is true. And we might decide that when Paul adds that we should be holy and blemish before him, Paul is simply saying, well, holy and blemish, uh, holy and without blemish, uh, well, by whose judgment, in whose, uh, estimation? Well, God's estimation, of course, that in God's estimation we should be holy and without blemish. But then we should only conclude that if we were reading it superficially. Well, it wouldn't be saying much, would it, to to say God's intention was that we should be holy. By whose standards? Well, by his standards. Well, of course, by whose else standards would it be? Obviously, if God intends that we be holy and without blemish, it will be holy and without blemish in his sight. Why does he want it anyway? Because the ultimate purpose is that, uh, precisely thus we shall be before him. Our ultimate purpose is that we shall be before him. And it stands to reason that we've got somehow or other to be made holy and without blemish. Why, you ladies have a china cabinet, or you used to, I think the fashion's gone, but you have a china cabinet. I've seen it still in some, uh, lounges, beautiful china cabinets. And in the china cabinet, where you sit when you're relaxed, you know, in the lounge and enjoying our affairs, there's the China cabinet before you. What have you got in it? The old colander in which you strain the beans? Well, of course not. The few old cracked mugs that will do for the boys and that you got from Woolworths or somewhere else? Well, of course not. They'll do for the kitchen when you're bustling about and not taking much notice of anything in particular, but when you're sitting there and the china cabinet is before you, well, every bit in it's got to be without blemish. Not one of these seconds affairs, you know, where the gold leaf has run down the side and and touched the old pattern. It's got to be without blemish. And it's got to be holy as well. It's not got to be mixed up with the vegetables and all dirty and filthy. Why? Because it's going to be before you. That's what you've got the thing for. It was God's ultimate purpose that we should be before him. But perhaps put like that, the thing is a little bit thin. Let me therefore suggest that we go back to the Old Testament for an illustration in Israel's ritual of what it means, this term to be before him. And I'm going to read to you some verses. They come from Leviticus chapter twenty four. They are verses one to nine. And as I read them, you may care to listen to them. And as you listen, you may care to notice how many times that little phrase, before the Lord, occurs. And you should notice it because it is the very same idea. Certain things will be said to be before the Lord. It will help us eventually to gather, not merely with intellect, but with our imagination, what it means to be before the Lord. So I read the verses and you listen, and you're listening to catch the phrase before the Lord. And here comes the passage. Leviticus twenty four verse one: um And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel that they bring unto thee pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually without the veil of the testimony in the tent of meeting, shall Aaron order it from evening to morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. He shall order the lamps upon the pure lampstand before the Lord continually. And thou shalt take fine flour and bake twelve cakes thereof. Two tenths parts of an ephah shall be in one cake, and thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the Lord. And thou shalt put frankincense, pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be to the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord. He shall order the lamp upon the pure lampstand before the Lord continually. And thou shalt take fine flour and bake twelve cakes thereof. Two tenths parts of an ephah shall be in one cake. And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the moors. And thou shalt put frankincense, pure frankincense, upon each row, that it may be to the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord continually. And so to help us in our thinking and in our imagination, God's Holy Spirit has recorded this detail of how God ordained the tabernacle in Israel's worship. There in the holy place, had you been privileged to enter that holy place, you would have seen on the one side a table and on the other a lampstand. And had you inquired their purpose, you would have been told that that table is there to present twelve loaves of bread before the Lord. Those breads were put therefore upon that table, and there they were left one whole week. Nobody touched them. They were there before the Lord. It is true that at the end of that week, the priests came along and they took those bread off and took them away to a holy place and there ate them in the presence of God. But even before they ate those loaves, they had a fresh supply, twelve fresh loaves, which they put on the table in place of the other lot, and those second batch were there before the Lord. So then those loaves did eventually feed the priests, but their prime purpose was to be before the Lord. Of course, you could have seen in part the purpose of the lampstand. It was there to hold up certain lamps. You might have thought that the purpose of the lamps was so that anybody coming in could see their way around. You would be wrong. They did serve that purpose, incidentally, but scripture makes it clear that their prime purpose was the, that was this, that they should shine before the law. They shone when people were there, and they shone when people weren't there. Because their task was to shine before the law. Of course, it was only a symbol, wasn't it? And you know, it is a symbol that perplexed some of the Jewish theologians. They considered that table, and they considered the bread upon that table, and they sat down and they scratched their heads, and they said, you know, this is very curious. Why should God ask us to put loaves of bread upon the table in his presence? All week long. God doesn't need bread to eat, does he? God himself is the giver of bread, who gives to us the bread we need to sustain our life. Why does God ask us to put bread on the table before him? The Jewish theologians were all the more perplexed because they had in their day to stand against the old idolatries of the pagan world. In many a pagan temple, you would have seen the priest put bread upon a table in the presence of the idol, in the curious notion that somehow the idol would come and eat the bread. The Jew said that was absolute nonsense. There was nothing in the old idol, and the idol couldn't eat the bread anyway. But then he was left with his problem. But why does our God, the true and the living God, ask us to put bread on the table before him and leave it before him a whole week. They could see the second bit, that God at the end of the week took those loaves and gave them to his priest to feed the priest. They could see that bit. Has God in his kindness satisfied our desires? Well, what on earth are those doing that all the first week just before God? Their problem? God doesn't need food. Is that true? Well, the answer is both yes and no. God doesn't need loads of bread such as Ormo bakes. Obviously not. You would be rash to conclude that God doesn't need food. Let me immediately go over to the New Testament and quote to you the words of the Lord Jesus. And again, you will see they are metaphorical words, not to be taken literally, they are metaphorical, but listen to them. You've heard them many times before, now hear them again. These are the words of Jesus Christ, God incarnate, as he addresses himself to the church at Laodicea and says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and I will... I will dine with him, says God incarnate to his people. Pray, whatever did the Savior mean? He knocks on the door of the church, as he knocks on the door of the hearts of his people and seeks admittance. Explains that he desires to come in because he wants to come and dine with them. You say that, my dear sir, that's not literally, it doesn't mean come and eat gravy and beans. No, of course not. But literal material food isn't the only food there is, is there? God incarnate in Jesus Christ has revealed to us this astounding fact that he desires from us food of our fellowship. Oh, how privileged were those women in the days of his flesh, of whom it was written that there at Bethany they made him a supper. How marvelous the condescending grace of God incarnate, that he should allow, that he should ask, that he should need and accept boiled eggs and rice and curry. All the greater wonder that God, in the way back before the foundation of the world, decided, though he needed nothing and was the source of all, decided to lead us, decided to long for our fellowship, decided to have creatures that could minister to his heart and minister satisfaction to him. To be the very food of God. Perhaps you find the very concept a little difficult. Let's dwell with it. We need to get this right. This is the ultimate purpose of creation. We need to get it right. You see, I've always thought of that bread on that table in Israel's temple as a picture of the Lord Jesus. You know, the bread of life, who came into the world to give food, spiritual food, eternal life to us. That's how I've always looked at it. Good for you. That's a very good way of looking at it. Ha. Yes, of course, it's a picture of Jesus Christ, the bread of life. Oh, what sustenance is to be found in him, who said, if a man eats, he shall never be hungry again. And you have eaten of the Lord Jesus and found him to be the bread of life. You have eaten him. And like your daily food has gone into you, physically, you have eaten Christ, and spiritually Christ has entered you. He is in you, and you are in him. Yes, you say, that's how I've always understood it. Christ, you know, the bread of God for me. All right, very good, my good brother and sister. Very good, excellent. Just tell me a little thing. Before Christ came down from heaven as the bread of life to feed you, what was he doing before then? What was he doing before then? Yeah. Before the world was made, if you like, before the very beginning. What was Jesus Christ doing then? Well, I can tell you. In the beginning was the word, and the Word was with God, as though facing God. The Word was God, and the Word was with God. This is that eternal Word, that eternal life that was with the Father. That's what he was doing then, and long before he came bread to feed you and me. He was there before the Father, gratifying the Father's heart, filling the divine bosom with the satisfaction that only a divine person himself could possibly give. Oh, the wonder of that Trinity. The Father expressing himself, and the very word he used to express himself being a person, being God. That word, that person coming back to the Father, and always before the Father, filling the Father's heart with delight and pleasure. That's what he was doing before he came down to be food for you and me. Let John tell us of that eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested, and we have seen him and felt him and handled him and touched him, and we write to you that you may join in our fellowship, for God enjoyed Christ. Now you may enjoy Christ. Did the story end there? That would be wonderful, wouldn't it? It doesn't end there. For you have come to Christ, this great bread of God that eternally satisfied God, and you have come to him, and you have received him, and he's in you? And you in him? Let's pause a minute. I know you're going to tell me afterwards, but that was very fanciful talk. Okay, but it was in the Bible, wasn't it? You don't quite understand it yet? Well, believe it first, and then you will understand it. That's always a good bet- way to do. Believe it first, then you will understand. And if the Bible says that the believer is in Christ, you believe it. Then be honest and admit you don't understand it, but believe it. All right then, you're in Christ. Well, that's lovely. And he satisfied you. Very good. And you're in him? Yes. Say, where is he now? We'll say he's, he's gone back again. He's in heaven. He's in the heavenlies. Thank the Lord for that. But then if you're in him. And as he this moment is before the Father, now there has been added, one trembles to use the word, but yet it is true. There is something happened that never was before. That the very Godhead has been changed because now the second person of the Trinity has become human. And you have been united to him in spirit, and he's gone back before the Father, and there he is, and you in him. Just as those loaves on that table were there all total before the Lord. They were about pictures and symbols of what Israel should have been, but never were because they failed. But what in Christ has now become possible, that God should have us before him. For his satisfaction. That is God's purpose. While we're at it, what about those lights in that tabernacle? The Jews found a problem with them too. The lamps that burn before the Lord continually. And then the Jews said, you know, isn't it odd that the lamps have to burn even when we're not there? Why does God need lamps in the holy place? He doesn't need light. We need light so we can see with, but God doesn't need us to give him light, does he? Because he's the author of light. And it puzzled their heads a bit. But thus the verse was... the lamps burning before the Lord. And now we know the secret of it, don't we? It was in its way an emblem, a prototype of what has become the great reality. He who was the light of God, shining into this world. Ah, but marvelous thing. You have become to Christ, have you? And Christ has shined upon you. Yes, you say he has indeed, and he's exposed my sin. Thank the Lord for that. And he's shown me the way of forgiveness. Oh, thank God for that. And he's shown me the way of eternal life. Oh, thank the Lord. And you've accepted it. Marvelous. Oh, you say the light of God to me in Jesus Christ, glorious. Anything more? Why, yes. The very light of the world by his spirit now in you? In you for what reason? Why, so you might shine, my good friend. Oh, you say, yes, so I can take the gospel to the next door neighbor. Of course, I hope you are. But more than that. Oh, so I can go be a missionary. Well, I hope you will, perhaps, if you can. But more than that. The very light of the world in you, by his spirit, so that you might shine before the Lord. So I don't get that bit. How could I shine before the Lord? I used an illustration last night. Let me use a similar illustration tonight. There's a painter who decides to express the ideas that have been burning in his soul for the last twenty years. He's going to express them in a masterpiece of an enormous great oil painting. And he sets to work. This is his idea. He paints it. When it's all done, it's hung, and the clouds come in, and some think it's wonderful, and some think it's hopeless, and some can't make head and a tail of it, and some slash it with a knife, but there it is. But I tell you that there are nights when the museum is closed and there's nobody else about except one person, that's the artist, and he's there and sitting and looking at him. Oh, he helped you enjoyed it, but even if you didn't, he doesn't care all that much. He is. You said that it was his idea. Yes, it was his idea, and he expressed himself, but now he's expressed himself, it's so to speak, coming back to him, and he sits there and looks at it. Well, I've known lesser men. I've known husbands and others who've done a little decoration in their homes, you know, they just finished the lounge, and if the wife has made a cup of tea and a coffee and the sandwiches, they are to be found sitting down, feet up on the other chair, and looking at it. Ha ha. I work, Mars. And the thing shines in the light, and the color effect is good. Ah, Mars. And the room is shining before its owner. He hopes you enjoy the color scheme when he invites you as a guest, but if you don't, you couldn't care less. Preaches him. God had those lamps burning before the Lord. And all the sublime wonder of you. We have talked of such little things, God help us not to obscure the issue. We are talking of the transcendent Lord of time and space, who needed nothing. Yet he decided to have the likes of you and me, to feed him, to shine before him. We might sit eternally and look and listen. And enjoy us. You caught the idea? Why, if you have, madam, it will so shine a luster on your life that will steadily increase until it bursts in the glory of the immediate presence of God. That is your significance. God might have made us as tools, as a man makes a tool to do a job with, and when the job is done, he throws away the tool. The great philosopher Aristotle, when he considered some of his fellow human beings, he described them as slaves and defined slaves as human tools. There could be no fellowship between a philosopher, a wise man, and a slave, for a slave was merely a tool that happened to be human. Poor little Aristotle. God, the transcendent Lord of time and space, made that very man that Aristotle called a human tool. He made him. By the redemption that's in Christ, that the man might be before God, forever to minister to God's satisfaction and enjoyment. Big enough goal? For? But I find it a little bit sort of a letting down. I would have preferred salvation to lead that I should be the managing director of a galaxy or two. I find working galaxies are fun. Oh, you do? I hope, incidentally, when you get there, you'll have quite a number to to organize. It will be fun. But organizing galaxies couldn't possibly be the final purpose for your existence, because when you'd organize the galaxy, you'd have to sit down and say, now why do I want it anyway? Why have a galaxy? You say, but a galaxy, you say, oh, me in charge of a galaxy? The galaxy is so vast! Well, so it is if you're just measuring it in terms of space. But actually, a galaxy is smaller than you are, isn't it? The galaxy made up of a lot of gas and rocks and things. You? Infinitely more complex than a galaxy because you, uh, have a highly developed form of life, and on top of it, a brain, and what is more, a self-consciousness. And an awareness of the very creator of the galaxy. You can do what a galaxy cannot. You can actually talk to your creator. There isn't an end big enough for you, save the God who made you. And in being for his pleasure, you will fulfill your God-given purpose. It puts you beyond the will of the whist of circumstance. It doesn't matter if the woman beside you is far more gifted than you are. It doesn't matter if you're broken and you feel yourself worthless. Ah, my friend in Christ. God invented a whole universe so he could have it to put you on, to give you the chance of meeting Jesus Christ and finding redemption so that you might be before God eternally for his pleasure. You say, how can it be? And what kind of pleasure? Our verses will go on to define it. They will say that we are to be before him and to secure the purpose inherent in that intention. God ordained before it all started that we should be turned into sons. Thus the better to fulfill his desire. That in English you have to ask, and what are sons of God? We shall not have to take it into superficial, apparent meaning, but probe its actual meaning. We can't do that now. God willing, we do it tomorrow. But let us rest here. And I leave with you that brilliant and God-given illustration. Those loaves of bread in that ancient tabernacle, there for God's pleasure. How were they there? They're not flung disorderly upon the floor, but placed on a golden table that presented them before the Lord. How could I ever hope? I am but a creature of dust and ashes. How could I ever hope to stand before God? To bring pleasure and satisfaction to him and that eternally? For I couldn't do it in myself. Just as the loaves were upheld by a table and thus presented, so Jesus Christ takes the pardoned sinner and upholds him in the presence of God. Oh, what a wonderful thing it shall be when we reach the fullness of time and the purpose is complete, and the still incarnate Christ takes the vast throng of the believers and all the redeemed of all the earth, and says with evident and divine and sinless pride to his Father, behold, I and the children you have given me. Oh, what a glorious finale to creation. This was why it was first made. Then shall it be fully achieved. But until that day comes. Oh, my dear fellow Christian, you may go now to your home and to your room, and in spite of your failings and weakness and your sins and your shortcomings this very day, you might find forgiveness for them through the blood of Christ. And there, as you kneel before God, you may know that if none other were in the whole universe, yet you in this moment are taken up and seated in Christ, and he presents you to the Father. And in Christ, God is pleased with you. Oh, don't ask me how he possibly could be. I can't tell you that question. But I can tell you that he's pleased and thinks the trouble of inventing a universe in order to get you was worthwhile. And thinks the expense he paid in the death of Christ to get you was worthwhile. And you may this very night begin to realize the purpose of your very existence. You the reason why God made his universe. The Lord illumine our hearts that we might know it not only with our minds, but with our hearts as well, the better to fulfill the purpose for which God made us. Shall we pray? Our Father, we thank thee for these holy words. The mere recital of them shows us words shivering with eternal life and profound significance. In part, we understand. And for all that we have understood, we bless thy name, for here are schemes that go beyond any human devising. Here is the heart and purpose of God told out. There is much in it that we do not understand. We confess in part that these words remain words, but we thank thee we can believe them, and we thank thee that thy purpose in us is already being realized in Jesus Christ, thy son. And we know the Son of God has come, and we know that we are in him, even in his son Jesus Christ. O God, we thank thee that he sits accepted before thee at the very moment, and we in him. And we believe thy word that tells us that we are to thy good pleasure, and we praise thee. Open our eyes yet to understand it more deeply and to see it more clearly, that thy purpose even now may hasten to its full fruition. And now we take our leave and bless thy name through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.