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[0:00] We shall turn to the first epistle of John in the fourth chapter, reading at verse 8. 1 John chapter 4 and verse 8.

[0:12] He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love. Those words particularly, God is love.

[0:30] Amen. We ask often whether grace and conversion change a man's temperament.

[0:56] We know that John the Apostle was called by Christ, and by those who knew him, a son of thunder.

[1:09] He was by temperament a tempestuous and hasty man of action. But I don't suppose that John ever lost that element of practicality.

[1:26] The Apostles were all of the men of great courage and great spirit, even at a human level.

[1:38] And yet we know that God's grace, while he didn't at all take from John that particular dynamism, did turn him also into a great contemplative, so that John towers above even the Apostles themselves, as one meditates upon the deepest aspects of the glory of God, and his salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[2:19] We know that God's freedom to a ripe old age. And John appears to have used those years to advantage by turning over and over in his mind the implications of the enfreshment of God in Christ and the mission of God's Son into the world.

[2:50] It is, in many ways, an enviable combination to be at one and the same time sons of thunder ready for God's action and God's bidding.

[3:09] And yet, at the same time, to be God's contemplatives living lives of constant meditation upon his revelation.

[3:22] And John, from his meditation, has given us three priceless statements about the nature of God.

[3:37] He records for us the words of Christ that God is a spirit reminding us of the personalness of our Creator as not some kind of abstraction, remote, unthinking and uninvolved, but a being who, in the warmest sense, is personal, one who knows, and one who wants, and, if I may say so, one who feels, a God in whom there is emotion, in whom there is pity and compassion and the very deepest warmth of feeling.

[4:35] so, our Christian God is a spirit personal in the most perfect sense. And John tells us, too, that God is light, reminding us of the incomparable majesty of God, God, a God in whom there is no darkness, in whom there is only the brilliance of his own glory, a God in whom there is no stain, upon whom there is no spot, within whom there is no duplicity, a God who, to himself, is at last utterly and totally transparent.

[5:31] It always seems to me one of the great things about God that he knows himself perfectly, and that to himself there is in God no darkness at all, we accept that because we are so different and so distanced from him that for us there is so much in God that is incomprehensible.

[6:04] But remember when we talk of the glory of God's knowledge, the glory of that knowledge is not that God knows all about us and about our world, it is instead that God knows all the depths of his own being.

[6:24] God knows what triuneness, God knows what self-existence, God knows what his own love is because to himself God is utter and total light.

[6:40] and I think that as we ourselves ponder this written word of God we ought never to forget that the Bible is possible only because God knows himself and what God gives us and what God gives us in the Bible is a little of what he knows about himself and our post-posture must be as we stand before this world to say to God Lord tell us a little about yourself and what God that's what the Bible is.

[7:24] It isn't man's quest for God or man's discovery of God it is God who alone knows himself telling us a little of what he knows about himself and it is of course only a little and I think it will always be only a little even in the glory beyond when we see God face to face he shall remain infinite and unsearchable and we remain limited and very very finite in our own understanding and I expect that we shall spend eternity even more than we do here standing before the majesty of God and say all the depth well John says to us

[8:26] God is spirit and God is light and then John tells us here tonight that God is love and you will notice that John doesn't content himself with saying that God has love but it says that God is love that his being his nature is love the deepest impulses in God are the impulses of love and John also tells us that God didn't become love but God simply is love it is the only way that he's been it's the only way that he can be he didn't undergo some change in order to become love he was and is eternally love well I know that today it may be that in some sections of God's church this great doctrine business applied and abused and I know that sometimes in our own background we felt that this was almost dangerous teaching we imagined

[9:54] I suppose that everyone knew that God was love but we all know that when the conscience is awakened to a sense of its own need there is nothing in the world more difficult to believe and that God is love and it really is the most priceless thing about God that he is love now I want tonight to walk around those great words for a little and to ask of them a little of what they mean and I want to look at God's love in three different directions first of all God's eternal love within his own triune being and secondly God's love for mankind in general and thirdly

[10:59] God's love for his own people love and I am of course very very conscious not all that must sound dreadfully profound and intimidating and I'm very conscious of voices which say why on earth on a Sunday night with all these young people present would anyone want to explore the depths of God's love in his own triune being but I've been called to expound God's word and that's all those words are part of God's word God's Bible is his people's book I act in the principle there is nothing in God's word meant for theologians alone all

[12:00] God's word is meant for God's people and for God's children and the words God is love these words surely are tonight for the whole of mankind well a word first of all about God's eternal love will in his own triune be I think we must begin there because we'll never understand God's love for ourselves unless we understand God's love for his own son God's love for the Lord Jesus Christ God loved his son in the depths of eternity there was always someone for God to love sometimes when we begin to think about

[13:02] God as I hope you do think about God we speculate that maybe before there was creation and before there were men and women and boys and girls there was nobody for God to love and we imagine that God must have been dreadfully lonely but remember that God was never alone we always had God the Father with God the Son and with God the Holy Spirit and that's where God's love began indeed I say God's love never began God's love simply was but God's love and that eternal glory was focused upon this beloved Son this only begotten the Lord Jesus Christ they lived face to face

[14:05] Christ is called in Colossians the Son of His love there was no loneliness in God he was never starved of affection he looked into the face of the eternal Son and he saw their glory and loveliness and beauty and we must remind ourselves constantly there never has never will be love comparable to that love not the love of human father for human son or even the love of husband for wife nothing can approximate in our experience the affection the depth of commitment the warmth of feeling between eternal son and eternal father we're told

[15:14] I was daily his delight and those of us who know a little of the joys of communion with Christ those who can enter of only a little into the amazed road experience of those men who said did not our hearts burn within us as he talked and walked with us a shadow of the way that the heart of the eternal father burned within him as he and his son lived in eternal fellowship and then we know that God sent forth the son he sent him into this world in our nature into our poverty into our pain into our temptations into our weakness and in that state too this

[16:28] Christ was beloved by God the father you have the great contrast between the human rejection of the humiliated Christ on earth despised and rejected by men and you have the father saying this is my beloved son and all through that earthly ministry as Christ walked the shores of Galilee and the state of Jerusalem he was the beloved son of God and the father's eye was always upon him and the father loved him and the father took such pleasure as he saw his son's achievements my beloved son in whom I am well pleased but you know there is a great lesson for us on the human level here too time and again at moments of crisis in the

[17:34] Lord's life God the father takes special steps to say to his son I love you you find that at the baptism you find in the transfiguration before the cross the same words this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased isn't it a mighty thing that God's own son needed the reassurance of being loved he needed assurance that God the father loved him and we need that same assurance I don't think that can be really any full release of our own human potential unless we have the assurance in the depths of our own being that

[18:41] God loves us we may be so proud as to say in our own independence so we don't need affection we don't need assurance we can serve God regardless but Christ you see he had to be told and told time and time again I love you and I think on the human level that is a lesson to an enormous consequence within our relationships husband and wife parents and children it's one of the great problems in bereavement that one is left wishing that one had said thanks express assure reinforce and maybe we temperamentally because of her background and difficulty with some of those things but here we have this great model of the eternal father the eternal son and the one keeps on saying to the other

[19:51] I love you and at moments of crisis Christ given out mighty assurance this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased me to the son of God that weighed down in the depths of his humiliation he had to be told I love you And it was of course the very heart of the agony of Calvary that those words which he so needed to hear as never, never before, those words were then not spoken.

[21:02] Those words could then not be spoken at that point where the fellowship and the assurance were most needed. At that point the fellowship and the assurance are suspended.

[21:17] God's love for his eternal son. God's son for his incarnate son. God's love for his immolated son upon the cross of Calvary.

[21:34] Well as we have seen upon that cross, God did not say it and God could not say it because the son was anathema.

[21:46] And when we begin to ponder God's love for ourselves, that is its measure. That on that cross, God is giving for us the most precious thing, the most precious being in the whole universe.

[22:08] And on that cross, God loves you. As the father sees him impaled upon that cross, he loves him.

[22:23] As the father sees him hung, the father loves him. As the father hears the cry, my God, my God, why?

[22:38] The father loves him. The father loves him. As he witnesses all the pain. And as he hears the cry for himself, for his own comfort and his own health.

[22:54] Then the father loves him. It is the core paradox and highest mystery of our gospel.

[23:06] That at that point, God is simultaneously bruising and angry with a son and loving him.

[23:18] Never was he more lovable. Never was he more loved than he was at that particular point.

[23:29] It would do us who were made in his image. No harm to go down in our own imaginations and listen to that cry as if addressed to ourselves by one of our own children.

[23:50] Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Well, that's where we must begin to think about God's love.

[24:01] His love directed towards his own son within the eternal trinity. That love which never began but which simply was.

[24:14] That love for Christ the eternal son. That love for Christ the humiliated son. That love for Christ the crucified son.

[24:29] Those of us who love him. We may well ask how we would have felt if we had watched him there.

[24:42] Maybe the mothers have pondered sometimes how they would have felt if it had been their son and they were in Mary's position at the cross.

[24:59] From which unbearable sight it was John, this very apostle, who gently led her away. Let us ask then what it was for God.

[25:15] God's love for mankind in general.

[25:36] God's love for the whole world. God's love for all men. God's love for all men. God's love for all men. God's love for all men.

[25:48] Now I know there are problems sometimes in that form of words. And I know there have been some Calvinists who would argue that we must never in any sense speak of God loving all men.

[26:04] But I take my guidance on the New Testament itself. We are told in Matthew chapter 5 that we must love all men.

[26:16] We must love even our enemies. Because in that way we'll be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect.

[26:27] The perfection of God is that he loves his enemies. That he sends his sun to shine and his rain to fall upon the righteous and upon the unrighteous.

[26:42] So the Bible itself, whatever our logic may say, the Bible will say there is a love of God which extends to all men.

[26:57] How does that love show itself? Well it shows itself in the blessings of common grace that God showers upon the whole world.

[27:11] His sun, his rain, food, affluence, prosperity, peace and security.

[27:26] I cannot say tonight how many in this audience are enemies of God. I can't say how many are still unconverted.

[27:40] But as I look around the signs of God's blessing are so obvious.

[27:51] We all enjoy the beauty of this building. We all enjoy its comfort. We all live in an affluence in this land and in this island.

[28:08] Which 90% of the human race tonight couldn't begin to understand. We enjoy such security.

[28:22] We enjoy such peace. We have our friends and our families. Where do these things come from? Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning.

[28:44] turning. Indeed in the Old Testament it was a great problem to the prophets and the psalmists that very often the ungodly were more blessed and more prosperous than the godly themselves. And the psalmist would even ask, does God know what he's doing? Why do the ungodly prosper? Why do the wicked flourish? Well they flourish because of the wonders of God's love. And that's why Paul can say in Romans that the goodness of God is leading us to repentance. All those blessings God has given you, they're supposed to alert you to the kindness of God. He has showered forth goodness in abundance and extravagance upon us and God is asking tonight, is there gratitude? Is there thankfulness? Are all these things leading us on to repent before God? But there's something else too. God shows us love for all men and women, for every boy and girl and that he offers salvation to every single human being. He is offering it. He's offering you his forgiveness. He's offering you membership of his own family. He's offering you peace. He's offering you his own help and his own assistance. It sounds, man, Davis, and even put that way. But it's best put different. It's best put this way.

[30:39] Christ is offering you. Christ is the great gift. Christ is the great blessing. You remember the message in Mark's Gospel in his closing chapter is this. God sends the disciples and tells them, go and preach the Gospel to every creature.

[31:06] God bless you.

[31:36] God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. He calls you hope you're having fun. Christ to lead them back to God. Christ to lead them to everlasting life.

[31:53] A long time ago in Scotland in the 18th century, God raised up a great band of men called the Marrowmen. These Marrowmen are from Thomas, Boston was the best known I suppose. They based their preaching upon a book called the Marrow of Modern Divinity and that book was a great and succinct statement of Reformation Divinity. And one of its great features was that it pressed Christ upon every single man and woman in the church of that day. It was so dead that it condemned Boston and his fellow preachers for being so explicit in offering and presenting

[32:56] Christ. And in that book we read, tell every man Christ is dead for him. Christ died for mankind lost. Christ is there for you to come to. And that's what God's love for every man means. That God is offering you Jesus. God is offering you Christ. And you know it isn't simply God in great and sovereign majestic detachment but it is God in all the involvement of his own longing in terms of Paul's words, he will have all men to be saved. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. And that's why God has sent men to plead. Not simply to say, matter of factly here is the gospel ABC. But to men say, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. God's ambassadors. Well you know today the superpowers, they're so touchy about their own honour. And you can't imagine the ambassadors of those great nations going and bound and bound it, bended knee, to the various courts of the diplomatic circle. We can't imagine Reagan pleading with Gaddafi on bended knee. And we would say, well, the ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ, of the King of Heaven, he must keep his dignity.

[34:54] And he must simply proclaim the gospel and he must proclaim the gospel and say to men, there it is, whether you hear or whether you forbear.

[35:05] But that's not how it is. God has sent us to plead. He has sent us to be seated, to bend the knee and to implore people to come to God. To every human being, tell them all there is good news. There's a saviour suited for you. There's a saviour ready for you. There's a saviour and he says if you come, he will in no way He's cast out. And he has sent us to come. God loves all men. He has sent us to come. God loves all men in the sense of showering upon us the blessings of common grace. But even more he loves us in offering you, in offering you Christ as your saviour.

[35:56] God loves all men. Let me say this too. God's love for all men means that at last he will condemn and he will damn only reluctantly.

[36:12] God of course will condemn. And one day God will say to some, and shall I add, to some of us, God shall say depart ye wicked to the place to visit for the devil and his angels.

[36:39] Yes, God will say that. Yes, God will say that. That his love means that he will say it reluctantly.

[36:53] He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God loves pardoning. God loves pardoning. God loves forgiving. God loves sinners coming in repentance to us for forgiveness and cleansing.

[37:14] He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He has no pleasure in it. There is no joy in heaven when a sinner goes to hell.

[37:29] You remember the great picture given to us in Ossia chapter 11. How shall I give thee over? I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger. I will not.

[37:48] God as portrayed to us in his own word by those great men led by his spirit.

[37:59] God on the threshold of judgment. God who will do what is right. God is right. God is right.

[38:10] God is right. God is right. God is right. God is right. God is right. God is right. God is right. But when he does what is right in damnation, we are told he does it reluctantly. How shall I give thee over? I will not.

[38:22] I won't. He has no pleasure in it. There really is no symmetry. God is right. As far as God is concerned between salvation and damnation, God loves saving.

[38:38] God is thrilled by salvation. God is so fulfilled in salvation. Now, of course, God is glorified also in all men's judgment. I accept that.

[38:49] But my Bible, not my human logic, but my Bible, God's own word says to me, that here is something he does reluctantly, something which he does not rejoice.

[39:01] He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. And we must accept that that is where it's going to be. That's what God's word says to us. Rabbi Duncan said to us, Rabbi Duncan said, God sends men to hell, not in malice, but in equity, because it is the right thing to do.

[39:32] Well, he gives the church of God no pleasure to see men and women and boys and girls living godless lives.

[39:43] And he gives God himself no pleasure to see men and women hissing to world's damnation. He loves all men, pours his blessing on all men, offers Christ to all men, and has no pleasure in the condemnation of any.

[40:05] And then there is God's love, thirdly, for his own people. I did nothing but of what I said of God's love for mankind in general.

[40:21] There is a real love in the heart of God tonight for every person in this audience. God offers you all salvation.

[40:34] God will have no pleasure in the damnation of any single one of you. God's love. But there is a love that goes beyond that.

[40:48] God's love for his own people. And what shall I say of it? Well, I say this of it. God, it's a love for individuals.

[41:02] Not for some great mass or aggregate, but for human beings with names. Our names are engraven on the palms of his hands.

[41:16] God has been tricked on everything. He's finished. He's finished? God has given himself for me. God has given himself for me. Do we tonight know anything of that?

[41:29] The Lord is my shepherd, my shepherd, I shall not want. Remember the words of Psalm 40.

[41:40] I am poor and needy, but the Lord thinks on me. We are told by astrophysicists that this earth on which we live is in mathematical terms only a speck of dust on the edge of a tiny galaxy.

[42:08] It is stupendous that God would notice this earth. And then God tells me that God knows me.

[42:24] That my name is engraved in the palms of his hands. And that my problems interest him. And my pursuits, my interests, my fears, my regrets.

[42:39] That these things really matter to God. And that I matter to him so much that he sent his son to be my saviour.

[42:49] The sheer magnificence of that individuality. The sense we have in a world that tells us in so many ways that we are only anonymous ciphers.

[43:06] And then God says, I know him. And he matters to me. Not a hair on his head is in consequence.

[43:21] They are all numbered. God's love. God's love. God's love. As it homes in upon individual human beings. Isolates us.

[43:33] Calls us. Keeps us. In all our own need. It is really so glorious to know tonight. That not only is this congregation as an aggregate known to God.

[43:52] Out of all the other churches of God gathered all over the world. Some of them even larger than this one. In Korea we've been told that up to a million people will gather.

[44:06] Seems physically impossible. And yet God knows every one of them. And God loves them on that individual level. And there is something as soon as this.

[44:18] God's love is so knowledgeable. Indeed often in the Bible the word know is used for love. God knows his people.

[44:30] And I find it so reassuring for this reason. That in all our human relationships. As we build friendships and form bonds with one another.

[44:44] There is always the fear of discovery. That the other person will find out the truth. And once he knows the truth.

[44:56] That will end the relationship. You know it has happened so often. In our own human lives. Hasn't it? Until we got to know someone.

[45:11] Or until someone got to know us. And then when they got to know us. That was the end of the matter. And I think it's tremendous that with God he knows.

[45:22] From the beginning he knows the worst. He isn't going to make any sudden discovery of something to a disadvantage. That's going to turn him off. But he knows.

[45:33] And there's tremendous security. There is a love that will never let us go. Because that love knows the very worst.

[45:44] It knows what is taking on. It knows it from the very beginning. God has undertaken. Do you know what God has undertaken? He has undertaken to present me faultless.

[46:00] In the face of his glory. With exceeding joy. And I tell you that's something. To present me faultless. And yet from the very beginning.

[46:14] God knows what is taking on. His love knows. And his love will make no sudden discovery. Of the impossibility.

[46:26] Of the undertaking. Because he has always known the exact horrid truth. I think it's magnificent. God's love knows.

[46:41] And yet loves. Loves. Despite knowing. We love often because we don't know. We are loved because people don't know.

[46:53] But God loves knowing. And God loves sovereignly. There is no merit. We are so unattractive.

[47:06] And we've been so sinful. And we've been so rebellious. It is sheer mercy. He knows our corruption. He knows our depravity.

[47:19] He has loved us as unworthy. When we were still enemies. So God loves us individually. God loves us knowingly. God loves us sovereignly.

[47:31] But above all this as my time goes. God loves us extravagantly. There is really a prodigality.

[47:43] About the love of God. There is an exuberance. There is almost a wastefulness. There is a lack of a sense of proportion.

[47:56] Almost a lack of balance. About God's love for his people. It is so unmasked. It is ridiculous. What God does for his people.

[48:07] You and I would never dream of doing it. For our best friends. And God did it for his own enemies. Well what did he do? Where is the extravagance?

[48:18] The ridiculousness of it? The incredibility of it? Where is it all so evident? Well it's evident in this. He gave his only begotten son.

[48:30] Gave him to die. Well that's extravagance. That's beyond reason. That is ridiculous.

[48:43] That God would go to such absurd lengths. That any love would do that. Yet God did it.

[48:54] Well we saw this morning in the Gaelic service. The problem was that that caused for the apostles. Far be it from thee. God's son being crucified.

[49:06] God's son even washing disciples feet. God's son born in a manger. That's absurd.

[49:19] And yet that's the way God's love was. God gave his son. God gave his son. God gave his son without limit. Gave him to pain and shame and temptation and poverty.

[49:32] Gave him to death and to the cross and to the curse. Gave him in such a way that when he cried to God himself. God wasn't able to help him.

[49:43] No limits. God gave his son. That's the prodigality. And when we begin to measure out to God what we shall give in response.

[49:54] Then we have missed the whole spirit of this gospel. Because this whole gospel is about not measuring. It's about not sparing.

[50:07] It's about not being wise. It's about not being reasonable. It's about not being predictable. It is God going to absurd and unexpected, utterly unforeseeable lengths.

[50:26] And his determination to save his own people. And what's he given to them in Christ? He has forgiven all their sins.

[50:41] Every single one. There is no condemnation. It's all forgotten. It's all cancelled. It's all past.

[50:52] All those words and all those deeds and all those moods and all these feelings. That their own consciences are so keen to be raking up. And to be going over and over and over.

[51:05] Masochistically God has forgiven them. That's the way he's loved. And God has made his own sons. And that too is ridiculous.

[51:17] You can imagine a human judge coming home to his wife one day and saying. I had a man accused and condemned of murder.

[51:30] And have adopted him. And brought him home to be a member of the family. And that too is ridiculous. And that's what the elder brother said in the parable.

[51:42] You've killed a fatid calf for this rogue. You've brought him into the family. With the ring on his hand and the shoes on his feet. But this man, this profligate.

[51:55] It's ridiculous. It's an absurd love. It's an absurd love that made me a member of the church of God. That made me a member of the family of God.

[52:08] To be slaves. To be forgiven. Well that possibly can handle. But to be taken into the household of God. And to be made members of God's family.

[52:20] That goes all against our human race. All against the logic of our consciences. All against angelic expectation. Which thing the angels decide to look into.

[52:34] These poor angels shall I say. They're looking down on bended knee. They can't believe what they're seeing. First of all God gives his son.

[52:45] And then he gets Saul of Tarshish. And Augustine. And Martin Luther. And John Bunyan. And you. And me.

[52:56] And he brings them into his own home. And makes them heirs of God. And joined heirs with Christ. You can't go away then you know.

[53:06] And start measuring out your love to God. Because you're responding to the unmeasurable. And you cannot either go away from that cross and that love.

[53:17] And then live a predictable Christian life. Along certain prescribed canons. Because this will burst everything.

[53:30] It is not something we can manage. It's too great and too big. And God forgives. And God adopts. And God meets all our needs.

[53:41] Not only so. But according to his own riches and glory by Christ Jesus. And then God glorifies us. The angels are saying.

[53:53] What will he do next? They may even be saying. We wouldn't be surprised. If he brought them here.

[54:06] Brought them to glory. Brought them right up into the father's house. He's given a son. He's forgiven all their sins.

[54:20] He's made them heirs of God. Next thing we'll know. They'll be around the throne. And that's what God has done. That they may be with me where I am.

[54:35] In that place where they see him face to face. Christ on the threshold. I shall come again and welcome you to myself.

[54:49] And they shall be brought with joy and mirth on every side. And to the powers of the king. And God rejoicing.

[55:03] Presented faultless. Will exceed in joy. And the angels already astonished. These people forgiven.

[55:15] And adopted and made heirs. And all their needs in time made. And then brought right into the palace. Into God's nearest presence.

[55:27] Seeing face to face. And the next thing they see. Is God. Wiping away. All the tears from their eyes.

[55:40] It's one of the most moving portraits. In the whole range of scripture. I spoke before of. The ambassadors of the living God.

[55:53] Pleading with sinners to accept God's salvation. And then we see the living God himself. Personally. Wiping away.

[56:05] Each individual tear. From the eyes. Of his children. God. So loved. But how tonight do we respond.

[56:19] Do we accept the offer of his love. And I ask.

[56:30] Again. God's own people. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Important. As we face for ourselves.

[56:42] Our own particular providences. Let one great fact. Be printed indelibly. Open our hearts and minds.

[56:53] And that is this. God. God. God. God. Will never do anything to you. To hurt you. God.

[57:03] God. He will do things that cause pain. But that pain isn't his intention. I think. Whatever.

[57:15] There is through human love. There must be assurance. That no action. Must. Ever be interpreted.

[57:26] As being deliberately hurtful. Many a time. In this world. In this life. The devil will say to you. When God does something in providence.

[57:38] He did it to hurt. Difficult to understand. God. And you must have this unshaken. And this unshakable assurance. God will never deal with you.

[57:51] Simply. In order to hurt. Deep. Sometimes very deep. In unminds of a never failing skill.

[58:05] He threshes up his own bright designs. And works. His sovereign will. Blind unbelief. And sure to err. And stand his works in vain.

[58:18] God is his own interpreter. And he will make it plain. In love. In human love. We sometimes think. He or she.

[58:29] Trying to hurt. Never. Never. Think it of God. He never deals with the children. In that way. Sometimes it looks that way.

[58:41] He feels that way. And shall we emulate it. For ourselves. That our love should triumph.

[58:55] Over all the pain. That we ourselves suffer. Not only from others. But sometimes from God himself. Remember how Paul says to us.

[59:11] Love. Suffereth long and is kind. It suffers long. Long. Ah yes. You say. It must be long suffering on the human level.

[59:23] But it must be long suffering too. On the divine level. I think that sometimes. God is very difficult to live with. And very difficult to understand.

[59:35] And God needs long suffering too. That's why I say. Never. Never. Lose sight of the fact. That he is never motivated.

[59:47] Simply. By the desire to hurt. God is love. Well tonight. Can I be sure that.

[59:58] Everybody here. Has embraced that love. Responded to it. Accepted it.

[60:08] Am I to believe. That in the light of all that you know. Of the glory of God. And learn of him from week to week. Some still live.

[60:21] In defiance. And in rejection. May God help us. Tonight. To believe his love. And to accept his love.

[60:33] Let us pray. Lord we understand so little.

[60:49] We are so ill attuned. To thy truth. And to thyself. We are so strong. Not weak enough.

[61:00] To feel the need. For thy love. And thy affection. We are so bold. As to a mansion. That we can handle time and eternity.

[61:11] For ourselves. Lord have mercy on us. Give us confidence in thy love. Grace to accept it.

[61:23] And to emulate it. For thy glory sake. Amen. Our closing praise.

[61:40] For our closing praise. For Psalm 103. We sing from verse 19. To the tune Richmond. The Lord is thrown in heaven's farm to stand.

[61:54] Here we are. What a great time.

[62:09] Lord have mercy on you. Our closing praise. Born to sue. Trustee Marybeth £20. Coat sol congregation. Jesus Christ. Saint Stanley. Dear God. Coat sol. Com Andy. O death. To be conceded.

[62:19]  Spoken 나는 you. To be conceded. That it's ra boş so little fear. Christ Christ. It's a leaky year, whole excitement wizard. ci año. ElДа Como친 motivo. Freed.