Jeremiah 31 and verse 3. The whole chapter is worth your
while to read through it. But the verse that we're focusing
on today is Jeremiah 31 through the Lord. The Lord Jehovah hath
appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."
And as I said, we refer to that verse quite a bit, but there's
a lot in there on its own that bears taking a look at. So we'll
begin with that. Isn't it comforting, isn't it
pleasing when someone confides in us that they deeply love us?
Doesn't that make us feel good? Somebody comes up and says, I
love you. It just makes you feel good. Well, how much more does
that apply when it's revealed to us in salvation that God loves
us and has always loved us and always will love us? It's so
secure and it's so stabilizing and it's not based on whims and
it's not based on modern traditional thoughts about love where it's
kind of more of a physical attraction thing. You know, a lot of times
people profess love for someone and then a month later, not. That didn't work out. But with
God, He's always the same. He changes not. So we can depend
on Him because He's unchangeable. And as He is eternal and His
purposes are eternal, so even is His love. to them who are
the called according to his purpose. And our text today in Jeremiah
31.3 contains all of this and just so much more in the text. is absolutely truth and absolutely
valid and absolutely trustworthy because it immediately follows
what he read, what he wrote in to us in verse one, two, he said,
thus saith the Lord. It comes right from the mouth
of the Lord. And it's his words to us as people,
a people. They're called a remnant who
found grace in the wilderness there in verse two. And we brought a lesson on grace
in the wilderness here another time Norm was gone, and this
is kind of the next phase of that. Our text, The Lord hath peered
of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. You know, almost as I kind of
broke this verse down, every single word in it practically
has deep, deep spiritual meaning. are just so wonderful. And the
best part about this text is it's personal from God to you.
We say, well, it's written to the church. But the church is
not a thing. A church is a group of called
out believers. A church is not just a building. It's not just the church over
there. It's not just the church over here. His church is made
up of people that he has saved by grace the beginning of time
and even unto today until the last sheep is brought home. So this is a personal note from
the Lord to his people. I've appeared of old unto you
and said I've loved you with an everlasting love. And that
is, I've loved thee. It's so inextricably connected
that it, you know, that's really just one word bound together. It's kind of like two sections. I have loved is one part, and
then thee everlasting is actually in the Hebrew, it's olam olam,
thee everlasting, thee everlasting. Isn't that cool? It means forever. Everlasting means forever. Today, we're looking at a few
of the wonderful truths that are declared in the text, and
every word just has spiritual meaning and reveals so much to
us about God and His eternal love for the church, which is,
as we mentioned, is comprised of saved individuals from every
kindred, tongue, people, and nation, as it says in Revelation
5-9. And, you know, the first one
we want to look at here in This great and grand sovereign
truth in this text is that being drawn by the loving kindness
of God is predicated on his everlasting, his forever eternal love, effectually
direct to thee personally. Isn't that wonderful? A second great and grand truth
in this text is that we're drawn by God, drawn by him to the glorious
gospel of his son who died in our place. And we're drawn like
water from a well. Oftentimes we talk about this
word drawn. And in so many religions, well,
God just woos you and tries to lure you and attract you. And then it's up to you whether
you come or not. You know, we're just like that
water in the bottom of the well. It's not coming up by itself
except through evaporation. It's not coming. You've got to
throw that bucket down that well, and you've got to grab a hold
of that rope, and you've got to drag that bucket up hand over
hand over hand. And that's what that picture
always shows us whenever we see that word in the Bible. his drawing. Peter, we always
use the reference, Peter drew out his sword and smote off Malchus's
ear. He didn't just say, sword come
out, I wish you would come out if you will, if you feel like
it, come out, then I'll whack his ear off. He grabbed that
thing and yanked it out of that scabbard and smote Malchus and
then Jesus had to fix him. And one time they're out on the
boat, and Jesus says, cast your net on the right side. And they
threw it out there, and they couldn't draw the net in because
it had so much weight. They were just pulling with all
their might. And yet they couldn't draw it because of the weight
of all the fish in it. So that's the significance of that word,
drawing. And it means to drag. So it's a very, very powerful
word. And another truth that we have
is, in the next few words that we see, is regarding this drawing is
because in our old nature, and Mike touched a little bit on
this in the Bible class, In our old nature, we despise
the riches of his grace and his goodness and his forbearance,
his long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads
us to repentance. And you can find that in Romans 2, 4, by
the way, that we must be drawn. You know, people have their,
they have these notions of God and they create a God in their
mind that meets their needs. They create a God in their mind
that meets their needs, and then they love that God. But it's
not the true God of the Bible. And you read them something from
the scripture, and they say, my God would never do that. But
we have it in the Word of God that He did do that. Jacob have
I loved, and Esau have I—my God doesn't hate anyone. He loves
everyone. That's not exactly correct, and
yet in their mind, God is all loving, all happiness, and he
just wants everybody to come to him, and it's up to you whether
you come or not. But you know, we have to be drawn.
It's just what it says. And drawn because our scorn and
enmity for God because of sin in the fall is of such enormity
that we would rather drown in that dark well of perdition than
come to Him. We must come to Him by being
drawn or we just die never coming. And again, we're happy with that
in our old nature, we're happy with the God that we created
in our mind, or no God, whatever it is that we happen to pick,
we're happy with that. But it's never satisfying, it
never can do anything, and it always depends on what you're
doing, and what mood you're in, or how you feel. It never depends
on the solidness and security of God himself. And so we must
be drawn. You know, in Romans 5, verse
8, it comments on that because He loved
us with this everlasting love even when we were against Him.
Even when we were saying, well, we love this other God, this
universalistic God that we have invented. He loved His elect. He loved them even in spite of
them doing that. And then He turns us from that
idol to worshiping the true and living God. And Romans 5, 8 says,
God commends or exhibits His love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's how He exhibits
that everlasting love to us, even while we were at enmity
with Him. while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In the drawing,
God by the Spirit changes us in the new birth that we will
come to Him. Jesus said, all the Father giveth
Me shall come to Me. And Him that cometh to Me I will
no wise cast out. Mike touched a little bit on
the Bible class on that very thing this morning, if you listened
to that. In a few verses here on in Jeremiah,
he says, and Mike quoted from Ezekiel 36 this morning, I'll
give you a new heart. I'll put my spirit within you,
and then you'll love me. You'll love me, not the Not that
little G God that you've been pretending to mess with all this
time. You'll love me, the true God. I'll be your God and you'll
be my people. And he says a similar thing here
in Jeremiah 31, a few verses down. He says, I'll put my law
in their inward parts. It won't just be in their mind.
It won't just be some words. Isn't it interesting how people
can look at the same page of words on the Bible and come away
with different things. Some of them will look at that
and say, well, there's a sovereignty of God completely declared and
unmistakable. And somebody else will look at
that and say, well, there's free will cropping up its ugly old
head, and we should go with that. So He says, I'll put my law in
their inward parts, and I will be their God, and they shall
be my people. There won't be any mistake about it. They shall
be willing in the day of His powers, what tells us in Psalm
110, verse 3. And Mike, again, our Bible class
and our message this morning intersect in so many points,
because all things point to Christ and His finished work on the
cross. He does all the work from Alpha to Omega. He does all the
work from beginning to end. As Mike mentioned, He's the author
and finisher of our salvation. He is the author of it, the creator
of it, and then He's the finisher of it. He that began a good work
in us finished it on the cross, and that's all there is to be
done. He does all, and not because of any works which we've done,
But according to his own purpose and grace, he saves us and calls
us with a holy calling. That's from 2 Timothy 1. We could read that because the
order of it is significant, how he brings that up. In 2 Timothy
1, verse 9, he says, who hath saved us? and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began." So, without that new birth, and we'll get a little
bit more on this in the next section, The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, because they're foolishness
to him. Neither can he know them, because
they're spiritually discerned. So, if you're in your natural
condition, you can't receive it. You can't know it. You can't
see it. You can't understand it. You can't receive it. So,
it's important that we follow this truth here. He saves us
and calls us. The Spirit comes in and gives
us new birth. The Spirit comes in with the Gospel, causes us
to believe it, and then we look to Him and say, Hallelujah, because
I was not coming on my own. I was involved in this other
stuff. I was like that Pharisee. I trust it in my own righteousness.
I thank God I'm not like other men. I have my own thoughts about
religion. I have my own thoughts about
God. And if my behavior isn't good enough for Him, well, so
what? It's His fault, not mine. It's His problem, not my problem.
All those different things that we run into every day in our
Christian lives, we run into those folks that profess some
degree of religion or Christianity, and yet it's all based on on
trusting in their own righteousness, trusting in themselves. So we find here, He saved us
and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Just a ton of truth right
there. A third grand and glorious truth
in this text is that And here we come across another one of
a couple of these interesting words here in this text from
Jeremiah 31, 3. I have appeared unto thee from
old. Well, when we look up that word
appeared, it means that God has given you to see. That's what
that word means. God has given you to see. I have
appeared unto thee and from old, When you look that word up, it's
kind of one of those kind of a word that has several different
flavors to it. And it has the old part, gives
you a flavor of eternity. But the primary meaning of it
is from above. I have appeared to you. eternally
from above. That's kind of what that means,
so the word means. And he gives, I've given you
to see. And then what Mike read this
verse in the Bible class, John 3, 3, he told Nicodemus, unless
a man be born again, again the order of things, he can't see
the kingdom of God. It can be right there on the
page in front of him and he can't see it. can be told him, you
can't see it. And he says, unless you're born
again, you can't enter either. You can't see it and you can't
enter. And that's just the way that is. And under this, he says,
I've appeared unto thee, I've given you to see from above. And so we're given
to understand that God does and must reveal himself to us, and
he does this through his Son, Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah,
and the gospel of his death, burial, and resurrection in the
new birth. God reveals the Son, and then
we find later in another verse that the Son reveals the Father,
and then we find out yet still that they are one. He that has
seen me has seen the Father. So we can look there in Luke
10, verse 22. We were there in our Bible class
probably a year ago in chapter 10. He says in Luke 10, verse
22, he says, all things... And boy, when you start tying
the Scriptures together, when Jesus Christ, when the Lord God
Almighty says all things, it's the same all things that Paul
was writing about in Romans 8, verse 28. He says, all things
are working together for good to them that love God, who are
the called according to His purpose. Well, Jesus said in Luke 10,
22, all things, all those things, are delivered to me of my Father.
Everything connected with the redemption of the church is given
to me by my Father. The creation, the running of
the world, all the planets in their orbit. We were just talking
yesterday about You know, they come up with a better microscope,
and then they come up with an electron microscope, and they
find out that, well, there's more than molecules, there's
atoms, and atoms have electrons, and atoms have neutrons and protons,
and then we find out the protons have quarks, and then we find
out that the quarks have neutrinos, and on it goes, and the better
microscope they get, they just keep finding more stuff, and
it all works in a perfect order. It's not random. It's under the
direction of God. It works according to his will
and purpose. And he says, so all things are
delivered to me of my Father. And then he says, you know, over
in John 17, he says, all that the Father giveth, John 6, all
the Father giveth me shall come to me. In Him that cometh to
me, I'll know why He's cast out. And in John 17, in that great
prayer that He prays, He says, You have given Me these people.
As Thou has given Me all these, I've given them Your Word, and
I'm not going to lose a single one. I've got them all. All the Father giveth Me, shall
come to me, and I should lose nothing." John 6, 39. They've
all been delivered to Christ. All of the elect, all of the
things, all the circumstances, where they live, who their parents
are, what country they're from, every circumstance, down to the
last minute detail is all been delivered to him, and he is under
his direction. And he causes them to all work
together, to come together. And so the child of God gets
intersected with the Bible and the gospel, hears the gospel,
and the Spirit causes them to believe that. And then they say,
wow. I've been loved with an everlasting
love. I've been loved forever and I didn't even know it. I've
been loved by God and I was not wanting anything to do with him
in my prior existence. All things are delivered to me
And no man knoweth who the Son is but the Father, and who the
Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him."
So there we have that connection where he says, I've given them
to see. In Matthew 16, 15, he's talking
to Peter and he says, You know, all those people, the multitude
were saying, well, some think that you're the prophet, and
some think that you're the Messiah, and some think you're just a
magician or something, and he says to Peter, whom say ye that
I am? And Peter says, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus said, Blessed
art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed
that to you, but my Father, which is in heaven. So the Son reveals
the Father, the Father reveals the Son, and then we find that
that in John 14, 9, Jesus said, have I been so long time with
you and yet has thou not known me, Philip? He that has seen
me has seen the Father. How sayest then, show us the
Father? He said, if you see me, I and
the Father are one. That's what he said in John 17
in that prayer too. So all that is exact. Our text tells us yet another
great and grand sovereign truth here, that everlasting or eternal
love predates a person's physical existence in this world. Because
I've loved you with a forever love. We have this funky concept
of time, because for us, time has a set point here and a beginning
and an ending. But for the Lord, He's always,
I am. In eternity, His love was on
His people from before the foundation of the world, we're told. And
so His everlasting, His forever love, His eternal love. And eternalness
doesn't just go from today off into the horizon as far as we
can see. In God's scope, eternalness goes every which way. Up, down, forward,
backwards. And for Him it's always, I am
that I am. You know, they've just been releasing
all these pictures from this new telescope in space, and when
they keep finding out that there's just more out there, and when
they get out there more, there's just more out there, and there's
just more out there. And this morning in the newspaper says,
you know, we've just kind of come to the conclusion that there's
just no end to the cosmos. It just keeps going. And I think that's just an expression
of God's eternalness. It doesn't have a limit. It doesn't
have a beginning. He says there's no beginning, there's no end.
It just keeps going, and it goes in no matter which way. It just
keeps going, and that's the way our God is. He's so much bigger
than people think He is, and much more grander and powerful. Our text tells us that everlasting
or eternal love predates a person's physical existence in this world. Paul brings that fact out in
Romans chapter 9, verse 11 through 13. You know what? He's just
quoting Malachi. And you know what, Malachi was
just quoting Moses. So it just all comes from the
Old Testament. In Romans 9, 11 says, for the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto
her, the elder shall serve the younger, as it is written, And
that's what it always says, as it is written in the Old Testament.
That's where I'm getting my information from. Jacob have I loved, but
Esau have I hated. Malachi 1, 2, and 3. And he was
referring to Genesis chapter 25, verse 23. So the Old Testament
gospel is what they preached. Everlasting love is love before
there was time, before there was a world. This word everlasting
means eternal, forever. It means there was never a time
when God did not love you and there can never be a time when
he'll stop loving you. His love is bound up in his eternal
nature and it can't change. All the attributes of God are
tied together and they can't be separated and they can't be
changed. They're all equal and they're
all unchangeable. He's immutable, the scripture
tells us. Everlasting or eternal love is
based solely on the perfect will and sovereignty of God Almighty,
as we just noted from Romans chapter 9. The children not being
yet born, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand, just according to His perfect will and purpose. If
we go on there in Romans chapter 9 in verse 15, it says, I'll
have mercy upon whom I'll have mercy, And I'll have compassion upon
whom I'll have compassion. Well, you know that word everlasting
and everlasting love and loving kindness. We're going to get
to that word loving kindness in a minute here. But that word
loving kindness is variously translated as mercy, merciful,
kindness. Loving kindness, it's translated
a number of different ways, but it's the same word. You know, the scriptures call
this election, this I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy
and compassion upon whom I'll have compassion. The scriptures
call that eternal election or choosing. or by God. In a few weeks, we're going to
have an election. We're going to choose a president. That's what that word election
means. We're going to choose various people to represent us
in government. Some we choose and some we reject. People don't have any real problem
with that unless it's applied to God. Oh, He wouldn't just
choose some and not choose others. In the scripture, he does that. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. So, this truth is that he does elect, he does choose. And he did do that before the
foundation of the world. It tells us in Ephesians 1, verse
3 and 4, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us. blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places of Christ. There's just nothing
left out there. He says we have them all in Christ. According
as He hath chosen or elected us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. But we have to be drawn. And so the text, through the
Word of God, through Jeremiah, declares, therefore. I've loved
thee with an everlasting love, therefore. You know that word
is used like 1,220 times in the Old Testament. And every time
it's used, it's saying, this happened and the result was this. So this, therefore, is because
of that. So that's what that word means. It's an adverb that means for
that reason, or consequently, or as a result. It's pretty straightforward,
nothing tricky about it. But it always shows a result
or a consequence from what has before occurred. And so when
we have this scripture here that says, I've loved thee with a
forever love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. Because I've loved you, we'll
look at those things. These links, the effectual action
of God drawing a person is linked specifically to His eternal love
for that individual, to the praise and glory of His grace. So we
might correctly then rephrase this as, God Almighty, God the
Father, have loved thee with an everlasting or eternal love,
and for that reason, that reason alone, with loving kindness have
I drawn thee. I've loved thee with an everlasting
or eternal love, consequently, with loving kindness have I drawn
thee. I've loved thee with an eternal
love, and as a result, with loving kindness have I drawn thee."
All based on God and His purpose. Doesn't that make it really clear?
I like it when words do that. I like it when we take that words
like faith, by grace are you saved through faith. And when
you look that word up, it just means total reliance on Christ
for salvation. And in religion, whenever it
talks about faith, it always kind of gets presented as something
that you have to muster up. But when you take that word out
and just say, total reliance on Christ for salvation, By grace
are you saved through total reliance on Christ for salvation, and
that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. It makes it so clear. And that's
just what it means. I don't have any objection to
the word faith, but I object to it when they teach you that
that's something that you have to develop on your own, and that's
the result of your being born again. I've loved you with an
everlasting love, and as a result, with loving kindness have I drawn
thee." The term loving kindness is a term variously expressed in the Old
Testament as mercy, merciful, kindness, kindly, goodness, and
into favor. That's all the times that it's
translated variously in those different ways, but they all
kind of mean the same thing. They're all things that God effectually
uses in bringing His people home. And it's described as eternal. It's forever from old. In Psalm 25, verse 6, Remember,
O Lord, Thy tender mercies and Thy lovingkindnesses, for they
have ever been ever of old. And remember that word from old
means really means from above. It has that flavor of being eternal
attached to it as well, but it's kind of one of those combination
of words that means from above forever. It means from above, in my strongest
concordance, it means time out of mind. How perfect. And 22 times in Psalms 136, that's loving kindness
is translated mercy. And you might remember every
line of that Psalm ends with, for his mercy endureth forever.
For his mercy endureth forever. 22 times in that one Psalm, Psalm
136. And it's all linked inextricably
with truth. In Psalm 85, verse 10, it says,
mercy and truth are met together. His loving kindness and His truth.
Mike was talking about righteousness. That righteousness must be satisfied.
His loving kindness towards the elect must be satisfied. Christ
is the mediator between those two things that brings them together.
And then it says, mercy and truth have kissed. What a wonderful
picture. What a wonderful picture of the
Savior bringing those two things. He's like that daisman that Job
talked about that, I need somebody that can lay a hand on us both,
that can satisfy my sin, my needs, and that can satisfy the righteousness
of God and His justice. And Christ fulfilled all those
on the cross and keeping the law and dying in our place for
our sins. Mercy and truth are met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Love and kindness
is understood by the elect kind of mostly, or not mostly, but
only after regeneration and after God reveals it to us. Otherwise,
we just don't see that. But you know what? When you start
digging into this, in the Psalms, which is where almost all the
old gospel comes from in the New Testament. Psalm 107, 42
says, the righteous shall see it. The righteous shall see it
and rejoice. And all iniquity shall stop her
mouth. All that stuff that we used to
think or believe or all those idols that we worshiped ourselves
and everything, that's stopped. It's all gone. The righteous
shall see it and rejoice, and all iniquity shall stop their
mouth. And what is it that they shall see? The mighty... You know, if you go back to verse
19 of that Psalm 107, it says, the mighty works of God in salvation. That's what they're going to
see after it's been revealed to them. That's what they're
going to see after they've been born again. The righteous shall
see it and rejoice. in Psalm 107, verse 43. Whoso is wise and will observe,
and of course, remember from our lesson on not with observation,
that word observe means with ocular evidence. The kingdom
comes not with observation, but we're talking about he that will
observe or see spiritually here in this context. Whoso is wise
and will observe or see these things, even they shall understand
the lovingkindness of the Lord. Isn't that wonderful? After you've
been born again, then He gives you to see, and then you understand
that loving-kindness, that mercy, that greatness of the Lord. Loving-kindness perseveres in
the elect. Isaiah 54.10 says, the mountains
shall depart and the hills will be removed, but my loving-kindness
shall not depart from thee. Never. Paul says that in Romans 8, 28
through 33. He says, who can separate us from the love of
God and Christ? He says, nothing. And he gives a big long list.
I can't remember all of them, but you can read it if you want
to. But he says, there's nothing can separate us from the love
of God and Christ. Nothing. Loving kindness perseveres. My
kindness shall not depart from me, neither shall the covenant
of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on you."
And both those words are the same words that we've been looking
at here, mercy and kindness. Loving kindness is part of the
betrothal of the church with Christ. In Hosea 2.19, it says,
I will betroth thee unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness and in judgment, and in loving kindness and in
mercy. Isn't that nice? Isn't that great? He says, I betroth you to me
forever. My righteousness and judgment
is taken care of. I look at you and I see my son.
I see the righteousness of Christ. And I see my loving kindness
that I had for you, my forever love that I had for you. Love
and kindness is attributed only to God by His children, the elect,
the church. They just say, not unto us, not
unto us, but unto thy name give glory. For thy mercy, that's
that same word, and thy truth's sake. Loving kindness is the impetus
of his effectual drawing of the elect. Again, in John 6, Jesus
kind of gives us the divine understanding of this eternal effectual act
of God as he with loving kindness has drawn them. He says, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. that thy people will
be willing in the day of your power." There's Psalm 110, verse
3. Him that cometh to me, I will
no wise cast out. And then he says a little bit
later in verse 44 of John 6, no man can come to me except
the Father which sent me draw him. Where do you suppose Jesus
got that word? It's the same words that he wrote through the
prophet Jeremiah. In chapter 31, verse 3, I've
loved you with everlasting love and therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. And he says, no man can come
unless he's drawn. Pretty plain. And he says, I
will raise him up at the last day. Again, this divine action
is linked by Jesus to God and His church by that term, therefore,
in John 6, 64 and 65, the same word, therefore, as a result
or consequently. In John 6, 64, he's talking to
some folks that right after he fed the millions of people with
the fish and the loaves and everything. And then when he said some doctrinal
truths, they all said, oh, I think it's time for us to go. We walked
with him no more. But before that happened, Jesus
said, there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning.
Well, that doesn't mean the beginning when he started feeding everybody.
That means from the beginning, beginning. the beginning before
time. Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not and who should betray Him. It's
all written down in the Old Testament. Every detail is written down. And He said, therefore, because
He knew everything from the beginning, because He knew all, He knew
who would believe and He knew who would not believe, because
He caused them to believe, He said, therefore said I unto you
that no man can come to Me except it were given unto him of My
Father. You know, we're all in that unbelieving boat to start
with. We're all in that well of perdition
and unless He throws down the bucket and scoops us up and drags
us up into the marvelous light, we're just down there. The Lord
of the period of old from above unto me, saying, Yea. Absolutely. Yea. I like that
part. Yea. With Him is yea and amen. Yea, I have loved thee. I've
loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, because of that
forever love with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. And for those
whom God has caused to be born again from above, As that word
means in John chapter 3 that we quoted, lest a man be born
again, or from above is what that word means, and a lot of
Bibles have that in the parentheses on the side. lest for those who God has caused
to be born again from above, may you give him all the praise
and glory for his marvelous work and just say, thank you, God.
Without your drawing, I would never have come. Thank you for
loving me with a forever love. Thank you for extending your
mercy and kindness to me. Thank you for supplying someone
to take my place in punishment for the sins. Thank you, thank
you, thank you. And for those whom God, the author
and finisher of our salvation, has begun a good work, as God
the Father draw you, May you come to Christ and see Him that
first loved us, and know that we love Him because He first
loved us. So may you be free in that. Until
next week when Norm comes back, thank you for your attention.
Mike, if you have a hymn you dismiss us with.