If you would turn with me to
the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, please. Jeremiah chapter 31. The prophet Jeremiah was called of
God for the specific purpose of warning Israel, God's chosen
nation, of the severe consequences of their idolatry and the breaking
of his covenant. And Jeremiah prophesied, he foretold
to Israel that the empire of Babylon would come and bring
judgment upon them, destroying Israel and driving the people
into exile. And Jeremiah foretold that Israel
would be banished and expelled from the land that God had given
them. And that's exactly what came
to pass. Why did that come to pass? Because
it was God that delivered the message to Jeremiah. In God's
word, God's message always comes to pass. Jeremiah himself lived
through this season and destruction of Jerusalem and witnessed this
exile personally. You see, Jeremiah, this is what
I want you to see. Jeremiah was a messenger of God's
justice, and Jeremiah was also a messenger of God's grace. Jeremiah,
in the book that bears his name, He uproots, and He tears down,
and He plants, and He builds up. He warns of God's impending
judgment, and then He gives great hope for the future. That's what
a true messenger of God does. He uproots and He tears down
all self-hope, all self-righteousness, all self-help, and any other
visions of grandeur in saving yourself due to something that
you yourself do. And the true messenger of God,
as Paul said, he plants, and he waters, and he trusts God
to bless the message to those who believe. It's God that gives
the increase. The messenger of God knows that.
And God's people know that. And He does this by preaching
to them that it's God alone who gives that increase. So our message,
the Gospel message, is always one of judgment and one of love. It's always one of justice and
one of grace. So you've got Jeremiah 31. Actually
look at verse 23 and 24 of the previous chapter, chapter 30. Look what it says here. Chapter
23, Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury. A continuing whirlwind, it shall
fall with pain upon the head of the wicked. Verse 24, The
fierce anger of the Lord shall not return until he hath done
it. and until he hath performed the
intents of his heart, in the latter days he shall consider
it." Now here we see the prophet uprooting and tearing down the
hopes of those who trust in themselves that they're righteous. And these
pronounces of judgment are all through the Holy Scriptures.
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, Paul said, we persuade
men. And yet the gospel is not a message
of fear. You know, religion tries to scare
people out of hell. and into heaven. Safe sinners
are drawn to Christ. They're not driven from him. It's the goodness of God that
leads men and women to repentance. And the genuine believer, the
true believer serves God because he loves him, not because he
fears him. The child of God knows that they've been delivered from
condemnation. They've been delivered from judgment
and holy justice by being washed in the blood of Christ. And they
are so thankful and so appreciative of what God has done for them
that they love Him. And yet, they'll be the first
to tell you that they love Him because He first loved them. Who is the best servant? Is it
the man who simply does what he's paid to do? The servant
does what he does for his wages? Is that the best servant? The
one who earns it and feels he deserves it and merited it? All
that any of us have earned, deserved, and merited is hail, judgment,
condemnation. And we just read it. His wrath
and judgment is fury. His wrath is fierce anger. He's
angry with the wicked every day. Oh, it's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. But He loves His people
with an everlasting love. Jeremiah's message continues
this way. Verse 1 of chapter 31. At the
same time, I love that, though God's judgment and justice is
going to be shown on some. At the same time, saith the Lord,
will I be the God of all the families of Israel and they shall
be my people. Thus saith the Lord, the people
which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness,
even Israel, when I went to cause them to rest. The Lord hath appeared
of old unto me, saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. The first sentence there, verse
three, denotes a note of complaining. There's a sense of complaining,
even in this beautiful expression of gratitude. My dad used to
call it a backhanded compliment. You've heard of that. Indirect
compliments with a hidden dig, so to speak, compliments spoken
maybe with some sarcasm, insincere and ambiguous, compliments that
could also be taken as an insult. How about this one, you really
look nice in this light. Or, well you look pretty tonight,
insinuating that you look bad every other night. Or, that's
a beautiful photo of you, I didn't recognize you at first. Thigh-candy
compliments. I heard this one from my dad
often, you're not as dumb as you look. Thigh-candy compliments. The Lord tells Israel that they
were delivered, not destroyed from or by the sword. You see,
they weren't destroyed by the sword of Pharaoh in Egypt or
at the Red Sea. They didn't perish by the sword
of the Amalekites and Amorites on their journey to the land
of promise. The Lord tells them that He was
behind the grace that they found in the wilderness, that He was
behind them being spared by the sword. After all, our Lord is
the God of all grace. All grace belongs to Him. And
the Lord says here, even Israel, when I went out to cause him
to rest. Listen, if we're ever to rest,
it's because He causes us to rest. We labor to rest, and He
causes us to rest. Even Israel, when I went out
to cause Him to rest, when the Lord chose some, loved them eternally,
and gave them to Christ, He loved even me, as we just saw. That's
amazing to me, that He would love me. You feel the same way
if the Lord is giving you a whiff of yourself. You see, how could
He love me? I see how He could love so and
so, and I see how He could love this sister and that brother,
but how He could love even me? Oh, what a token of God's mercy
and grace. He loves even me. Wonderful things
in the Bible, I see. This is the dearest, that He
loves me, even me. He loves even me. God led them
by a pillar of cloud by day and by a pillar of fire by night,
and he promised them divine goodness and mercy and deliverance to
encourage faith in them. And it's as if Israel is saying,
But that was centuries ago. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me. In other words, he used to be
gracious to us, but times have changed. Now the Lord does not
appear unto us. The complaint seems to be that
God's gracious revelations and wondrous deliverances were all
in the past, many years ago. In other words, Lord, what have
you done for us lately? But the Lord here is saying,
I'm immutable. I'm unchangeable. And you can
omit that word old and insert everlasting. I have loved you
with an everlasting love. Now you chew on that for just
a moment. You ponder on that for a second.
My love for you has never stopped. If anyone stopped loving, it
was you. The word everlasting is the very heart of the gospel. First everlasting means that
it never had a beginning. God never began to love his people. He's always loved his people. He says, I have, past tense,
loved them. And if it lasts forever, it's
never stopped. Before the blue heavens were
created, before the stars and the sun were put in the sky,
before all the earth was ever formed, there were thoughts of
love in God's heart towards his people. God began to create. Yes, God
began to redeem when man failed, but God never began to love.
He's always loved. It's eternal love. That's what
burns in the heart of God towards every elect one of His chosen
race. Do you know what that means?
That means that I did nothing in order for God to love me,
and it's truly because He first loved me. I did nothing and can
do nothing that would cause God to love me, then I cannot do
anything that would cause God to cease to love me. His love for me is based 100%
because of something else, and in our case, because of someone
else. And that being the finished work
of righteousness that the Lord Jesus Christ done for us. He made us accepted in Him. I don't have a problem with that.
I don't have to have a part in that. I'd mess it up. If I add
anything to it, then I make it less than perfect. A little leaven
leavens what? The whole loaf, the whole lump. Now, folks, I tell you that that
kind of statement will promote sin and unfaithfulness in us,
that it'll give us an excuse to sin, give us an opportunity
to sin so that grace may abound. That's the most asinine thing
I've ever heard. I tell you what Paul said to
that, God forbid. This is our motivation for love
and obedience to our Lord and Savior. It's because of His love,
His substitution, His sacrifice, and His redemption for us that
we love Him. Men and women don't love God
in order to be saved. They love God because God saved
them. We love Him because He did all
these things for us, and loving us was the first thing. God's
love for us is everlasting. It's not like a mushroom. You
ever seen a mushroom? You mow the grass one day and
the next day you look and these mushrooms are growing. Where
did they come from? I just mowed the grass. And then
you look out there the next day and they're gone. But God's love's
not that way. No, sir. God's sheep were loved
of the shepherd before he even fashioned Adam out of the dust
of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life. He loved
Adam before Adam was ever created. And He loved you and I before
we were ever born. God's love for His people is
without beginning and always was. And how can they then take
any credit for their salvation? They can't! Salvation's of the
Lord. Secondly, everlasting means the
love of God has no end. The Lord says, yea, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
have I drawn thee. Young men and women meet today
and they pledge their love for one another. They get married
and pretty soon they don't love each other anymore. And now we've
made it easy. You don't even have to go for
a divorce. You can just get an annulment like it never happened.
God's love is not that way. It wouldn't be everlasting if
it came to an end. Isn't it amazing that the Lord
was drawing His people to Him and they didn't even know it?
Every believer can look back on their life and see this. We look back at certain things
that transpired in our lives and we didn't know that it was
the providence of God drawing us to Himself. For me, it was
a job that transferred me to a new state and city, and it
was there that Teresa and I started attending a church who made the
announcement, I think, the first time we were there, said we're
gonna have a meeting next week, and it was right there that we
heard Maurice Montgomery, Henry Mahan, Don Fortner, Jack Shank,
Scott Richardson, Rupert Reibenbach, and many others that you know.
Most of them have gone on to be, or all of them have gone
on to be with the Lord. But I believe Tim James was there
and preached at that, Donny Bell. And that was the Lord drawing
us to Himself. What are you doing in this town?
I'm working. No, the Lord was drawing you
to Him. That was 38 years ago. I was
a young man then, now I'm older. But God's love for me has not
changed. His love for me never had a beginning. And yet His mercies and His love
are new every morning. This life is like a vapor. I
know you know that. I know that it appears only for
a little time. But the Lord's love for me will never end. The
love of God will be my unfailing portion. One day I'm gonna stand
before God in the judgment, and I need not fret, I need not fear
about impending doom. Why? Because the love of God,
who is Jesus Christ, will stand there with me. And one day very soon I'm gonna
stand face to face with Christ my Savior. and I'll perfectly
know that his love for me is everlasting. How do we know this? He's drawn us to himself. Have
you been drawn with loving kindness? If you have, that's the evidence
that the Lord loved you with an everlasting love. Have you been drawn from self
to Christ? Have you been drawn from sight
to faith? Have you seen the one who's invisible? Have you heard the one who's
inaudible? Then you've been drawn in loving
kindness. Religion often frightens folks
into a false profession. Beware of religion that excites
your terror. Some out of fear do what they
think that they must. Oh, I'll go to hell if I don't
do this. And some are terrified so that they do things that they
don't like. But not the believer. It's a
joy to serve their master. It is a joy to serve the Lord
Jesus Christ. The true servant of Christ is
a servant by choice. They don't serve the Lord by
constraint or force. They're made willing in the day
of God's power. Could there be someone here this
morning who has never felt the love of God in Christ? If so,
I'll tell you this. If you desire to have His love,
you can. He's never turned down a sinner
in need. Not one time. Right now, He'll supply all your
need in Christ Jesus. The leper cried, Lord, I know
you can heal me, but will you? And the Lord Jesus said, I will. I will. that desire Christ, the bread
of life, have never been left hungry. Never. When you're made
willing to have Christ, you can be assured that Christ is willing
to have you. So how do I know if I'm one of
His? Are you hungry for Christ? Are you thirsty for Him? If you are, then He's already
drawn you to Himself. God's sovereign choosing and
electing never shut anyone out of heaven. Only their unbelief
will do that. You know, if you put one hand
towards Christ, He's already put both His hands on you. He's
drawn me with loving kindness. If you put your trust in the
bleeding Lamb, believe that He can save you, trust in Him to
save you with unfeigned confidence, then you've already been drawn. And this is just proof positive
that God has loved you before the foundation of the world.
Oh, that God would be pleased to draw someone this morning. They're called vessels of mercy.
The sovereign potter makes himself. Some are marred in the hands
of him who turns the wheel. But some are fashioned into a
vessel of honor. But some will never come to Christ
that they might have life. They are vessels of dishonor.
He never loved them. He never loved them. And are
we going to charge God with being unfair? He's God. He can do what He wants to, with
whom He wants to. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. Hath not the potter power over
the clay? Does he? Of the same lump to make one
vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? Does he? Paul went on to write there in
Romans 9 verse 22, what if God, willing to show His wrath and
to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels
of wrath fitted to destruction? That simply means that all of
us deserve hail. None of us deserve salvation.
and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the
vessels of mercy, those that He loved with an everlasting
love, which He had aforeprepared unto glory. Even us, there it
is again, it's like the writers of Scripture, recorded by the inspiration of
God, and the writer of some of these great hymns that we sing,
who wrote those by the inspiration of God, can't get over the fact,
and they say, even me, that includes even me. There's hope for you
because of me. Even us, whom he had called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. Look at verse 11 in our text,
Jeremiah 31. Verse 11, for the Lord hath redeemed
Jacob and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger
than he. That's talking about Satan. You
and I are no match for Satan. But Satan's no match for our
Lord. I don't understand why People are always rebuking the
devil. There's some religion. Always
rebuking the devil by some imagined power within themselves. They
take authority. I take authority over you, Satan.
You release that man of that cold or that disease and we cast
you out. The Lord already cast him out.
The Lord's already cast him out. Maybe not you're cold, but He's
cast him out. He's God's dog on a chain, and
he's prepared unto everlasting chains, and one day soon, God
gonna put him there forever. Even the powerful angel Michael,
when contending with the devil said, the Lord rebuke thee. How
are we going to rebuke the Lord when even a mighty angel doesn't
dare do it? We don't rebuke the devil, the
Lord rebuked him for us. And here the love of God is divinely
confessed. It says, the Lord hath appeared. The revelation comes not from
another tongue, The Divine Lover Himself appeared and revealed
that He loved us everlastingly. And the love is sealed with yea.
Yea, I have loved thee. Yes! A young man says to the woman that
he loves, Do you really love me? Do you really love Me? Yes, I love you. The Lord hath appeared and said,
Yea, yes, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. A love that
didn't begin, a love that never ends. He swears by Himself. He can
swear by no greater. God's dealings with us are never
understood until He Himself appears to us and He speaks to us Himself. He speaks to this heart, small,
still voice. We're dead in trespasses and
sin. The Lord must give us life. He must give us ears to hear.
He must give us eyes to see. He must give us hearts to believe. Naturally, we're all atheists. Isn't that what He's done for
you? Didn't He give you life? Didn't He give you ears? Didn't
He give you eyes to see, hearts to believe? Well, sure He did.
You would never see, hear, or believe if He didn't. With all
these things said, I want you to consider just for a couple
minutes longer two pronouns used here, I and Thee. If God gives
the sinner eyes of faith to see those words, I and thee, used
together, they'll immediately see the hope of redemption, their
hope of redemption. God says, I have loved thee. I, the infinite, the unconceivable,
the glorious God, has loved Thee, the poor, lost, undeserving,
and hell-deserving sinner. That ought to thrill your soul. I have loved Thee. You see the
link between the two? It's like there's a diamond rivet
holding the two together. It's the love of God for His
people, the love of the shepherd for His sheep. I have loved you
who did not deserve my love, who did not earn it, who did
not merit it. I have loved thee freely. I've
loved thee freely. Without a cause is what the word
means. There's no cause for Him to love us. And there's every
cause for us to love Him. The Lord doesn't say, I'm going
to love you. Now, if you do this and you do
that, I'm going to love you. That's what religion teaches.
If you do these things, you say this prayer, you walk this aisle,
you give your tithes, you join the church, Jesus is going to
love you. No, He doesn't say, I'm going
to love you. He says, I have loved you. He does not say, I pitied thee.
He doesn't say, I thought about thee, though he's done both of
those things. The Lord says, I have loved thee. There was a song that was popular
in my teenage years, sung by Linda Ronstadt, called Poor,
Poor Pitiful Me. And it was about someone who
was down on their so-called luck and feeling sorry for themselves.
Now listen, we are pitiful. But we're not down on our luck,
because there is no such thing as luck. There's no luck with
a God who purposes all things. All things are directed and purposed
by Him. But we are down in the dust.
And we are on the dung hill. You can't get much lower than
that. It's not bad luck that put us there. It's sin that put
us there. And sadly, we don't feel sorry
for ourselves, as Linda sung. Matter of fact, we, by nature,
take pleasure in our sin. And here's the amazing thing
about the Gospel. The Lord feels sorry and is compassionate
towards us. We're not. We're not sorry until
He makes us sorry. Bartimaeus cried, have mercy
on me. And the Scripture says the Lord
stood still. Those are the words that gets
the Lord's attention. Have mercy on me, thou son of
David. He stopped in his track. Who
said that? He knew who said it. He knew
who said it. And the Lord stood still and
said to Bartimaeus, what will ye that I should do unto you?
And blind Bartimaeus said, that my eyes might be opened. So Jesus had compassion. and touched his eyes and immediately
he received his sight. The Lord had compassion on that
leper. All through the Scriptures we're
told that he had compassion. The Lord told that demoniac,
go home and tell your friends the great things that the Lord
has done for thee and hath had compassion on thee. The Lord saw that widow woman
who lost her only son, and he had compassion on her. He said,
weep not. And he came and he touched that
coffin. And he said, young man, I say
unto thee, arise. What did he do? He rose. For
the Lord said unto Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have
mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion.
The Lord says, I not only loved you when I died for you, but
my love for you is why I died for you. And one day, this wretched
sinner that stands before you this morning cried, and the Lord
had mercy. Did I deserve it? No. Did I earn it? No. Did I merit
it? Absolutely not. and saved him out of his troubles.
For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth, the poor also,
and him that hath no helper." Are we not all poor? Are we not
all in trouble? Are we not all needy and have
no helper? What can we do to be saved? We
can cry. We can cry. He shall spare the
poor and needy and shall save the souls of the needy. Beloved, this is the proof of
God's divine intervention. Our salvation is due to His loving
kindness. However He draws us, it's in
love. Whenever He draws us, it's in
love. Yes, the Lord drew me, no doubt about that, but He Himself
says, with loving kindness have I drawn thee. God doesn't pull and snatch in
anger. He does so in loving kindness.
What wonderful words. What a wonderful word that word
loving kindness is. Two choice words made into one.
Loving kindness. Loving kindness. What a word.
Okay, verse nine, let me hurry. They shall come with weeping
and with supplications will I lead them. I will cause them to walk
by the rivers of water in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble. Hear the word of the Lord, O
ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say,
he that scattered Israel will gather them and keep him as a
shepherd does his flock. Look at verse 12. Therefore they
shall come and sing in the height of Zion and shall flow together
to the goodness of the Lord for wheat and for wine and for oil
and for the young of the flock and of the herd, and their souls
shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any
more at all." Oh, he that's begun to draw will go on drawing us.
Till he safely landed us where his everlasting love shall be
our endless theme and song. Because of Christ's loving kindness
to us, we shall dwell in eternal fellowship with him. There was a beginning when God
created the heavens to the earth and man and all that dwells therein,
but there was no beginning for the love of the chosen people
of God. And the amazing thing is, as
we've already said, there is no end. What a beautiful place
for us to rest, huh? The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, yes, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Look down
at verse 33. I've already closed my Bible. I've got it written down. But
look at this if you haven't. But this shall be the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,
saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and
write it in their hearts and will be their God. and they shall
be my people." You see, friends, because of the covenant, the
Lord Jesus says at the end of verse 24 there, I will forgive
their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. Dear believer,
everything is going to be all right. To those of you who are
without Christ, get to Christ. Get to Christ. Whatever it takes,
get to Him. And if He ever drew me, He's
still drawing me. And if I'm saved, I'm saved forever. Because His love for me is everlasting,
unending. That's what I rest my soul upon.
What's your hope of salvation? Christ's love for me. Christ
is doing for me what I couldn't do for myself. And because of
that, I have hope that these things are so. Well, may God
be pleased to make them so. That's the only way they will
be. Make it so, Lord. For Christ's
sake.