Good to see you tonight. I enjoyed
today being here and it's been a blessing to me and just a joy
to be with you people. I want you to turn to a passage
found in the book of Jeremiah chapter 31. This may be a familiar verse unto
you and if it's not, I hope it will be after tonight. There's
a verse that has meant a lot to me over the years. Since I
don't know how many years it's been, but it's a verse that I
think of very often. And it gives me comfort, gives
me encouragement, and it's just a wonderful verse of the Bible. And that's verse number 3 of
chapter 31. has appeared of old unto me,
saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore
with loving kindness have I drawn thee." We can apply this to that of
the entire church of the redeemed. for every child of God. Now,
here's a great blessing if we can grasp this for ourselves. That's where the blessing comes
in, isn't it? And the Holy Spirit applies it to our very hearts
and to our ears, what He says here. What great, confident words
to every child of God. I have loved Thee with an everlasting
love, and loving kindness I have drawn with Thee. Just think about
it, how great it is that to be embraced with love from God Himself. God Himself. We think about love for one another,
but what about God Himself? To embrace with that love. Beloved
of God. Foreknew or foreknown of God. The word is foreloved of God. To be that have ordained by Him
to all spiritual blessings. You have them now. According
to Ephesians chapter 1. He's blessed us with all spiritual
blessings now. I heard a television evangelist
one time, he was using those verses, and I was a little curious
as to what he was going to say. And the scripture says, He hath
blessed us. And he said, if you'll let Him, He will. It says, He
hath blessed us all to be the special objects of His love,
electing love, predestined love, covenant of grace. Have Christ's
blood shed for remission of our sins. Have the Spirit's effectual
Word that we're able to say, Abba Father, or Our Father. This love that is speaking out
here is not benevolence. It's far superior to that. It's
no kin to that. It's so superior to that of benevolence. So let's look at it tonight,
and may the Lord just bless our hearts with these thoughts. What's
needful here? First of all, the Lord's appearing. That's what's needed, isn't it?
The Lord's appearing. And here is the amazement of
it, is here's the creator of the universe. God Himself. The Almighty. The Sovereign Lord
of all. The Holy and High. One, that
He would appear to us by His Word and Spirit. Isn't that amazing tonight that
God would deal with us? That should humble us that God
would deal with us. I realize that I could have went
through this life and just kept on going, but God to appear. how great it is to not. He would
appear to us and reveal Himself to us. And that's what this book
is. It's a revealing, isn't it? God
reveals Himself. Christ is revealed unto us. And
then He would visit us who is sinful and guilty and clay. How needful it is that God to
appear, bring His salvation. That He has to come to us to
know of His great love. You know, we can look at creation
and see His power. But we look at Calvary's cross
and we look at Christ and we look at His coming and all of
this and we see His love, don't we? His love. Paul writes in one place and
he tells us to deliver us from this present evil world. He that has this in his memory
and it's written there, that he's appeared unto, how thankful
are we to be that he's appeared to us. That we've come to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ We've come to believe that He is. He
is. And we see Christ as He took
the place of a servant or the form of a servant and humbled
Himself, obedient to death, showed His love on Calvary's cross as
the very atoning sacrifice and the acceptable substitute for
us. We felt our sins, which were
many, damning, and yet the Holy Spirit has showed us the Lord
Jesus Christ, hasn't He? Showed us Him. So the Holy Spirit
with our spirit, and that is the saving contact tonight, isn't
it? When the Holy Spirit comes into
contact with our spirit, and how gracious that He has appeared.
When He appeared, He appeared mighty to save. I'm glad of that,
didn't He? He appeared mighty to save. He
appeared full of mercy. Boy, we needed mercy. He appeared
that way. And if you notice here, it says,
appeared unto me. It's all personal, isn't it? It has to be this way. If the Scripture's never personal
unto you, it'll never do you any good with it. And He says
He's appeared unto me. He appeared. When He appeared,
He said, live. We lived. Spiritual life was given unto
us. Notice the text here, how certain
it is. It's not that He hoped He'd appeared. It's like Paul, he says, I know
whom I have believed. He was certain about it, wasn't
he? I know whom. It's not what, it's whom, a person. And he goes and next he says,
yea or yes. I love thee. How amazing this
is. There's nothing in comparison
to this. God's love's higher, deeper and fuller. It's without
beginning, without end, without measure. and without change. That's God's heart to His people.
What a blessed truth. And He says everlasting love,
this eternal love, is before Adam. It was before Adam's fall. It
was before the world was created. It was before the sun ever shined. This love. Do you know He can't
love His people any more than He does? And He's not going to
love them any less? He's immutable. And we were lawbreakers
and rebels against Him. But the Scripture says He loved
us. We were dead in trespasses and
sin. Every one of us. We are said to be enemies. Yet He loved us. When He appeared unto us, you
know, it could have been that we've become very fearful of
what's going to happen to me. Have you ever asked that question
of yourself? What's going to happen to me? Before you say,
before He appeared, you think about it. What's going to happen?
Where am I going? What's all of this about? But
oh, when He appeared, the Scripture says, He washed us. He robed
us in the righteousness of Christ. He saved us, loved us. And we
look at it and think about this also. Since then, there is no
perfection in any of us. Somebody said, if you claim to
be perfect, just ask the mate. Let me tell you right quick that
there is no such thing perfect husband or perfect wife. And we still have that of the
old Adam. Earthly. There's much of this
old Adam that is worldly, sinful, changes, there's unbelief, pride,
foolishness, and you could just go on. But it says here, He loves
us. Maybe you've been sick. Lazarus was sick. They sent to
him and said, whom thou lovest. Maybe you lost loved ones, which we all have. He loved us. There's been His loving kindness
all of our days. Mr. Pink said this many years
ago, and I read this and it stuck with me. He said, when you get
old and there's a lot of troubles and trials and sickness and different
things, but he said, if you look back over your life, most people's had a lot more
good days than they've had bad days when they look back over
their lives. Love and kindness. As he's loved, he still loves. Circumstances may change in our
lives, and they do. It's a constant thing, isn't
it, in our very lives that circumstances change. But you come right back
to this and said he loves. He loves with an everlasting
love. They may be troubles and trials. And again, we can say,
He loved us. He loves us. We look to the future
and we don't know what the future holds. But yet, we can look at this
verse and say, He loves us with an everlasting love. Then it talks about this love
coming to us. It comes to us in the covenant
when He says, their God, and they shall be my people, this
everlasting covenant of I will and they shall. It's redeeming
love. We look at Christ, the crucified
Redeemer, and think about the scripture says that our names
are graven in the palms of His hands. They're the priest, high
priest, our high priest. And even those hands were nailed
pierced. When you look at the cross, you
see the seal of everlasting love. He still bears those marks today. As He left this world, He bore
those marks. He lived the inner sea for us,
doesn't He? Marks of everlasting love. And
here is the evidence of it. He says, I have thrown Thee.
I have thrown thee. Here is the doctrine of the effectual
calling, and no one ever comes to the Lord without being drawn. We see in John the sixth chapter,
it says no man can come, denoting ability. Scripture says he will
not come, and it is still true today. There has to be an effectual
drawing. That is, that one day we're made
willing to come to the Lord. Isn't that what the scripture
says? A day of His power. Come willingly. There's a spiritual
force. And that's how the Holy Spirit
works. And He works till we bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. See
in Him. Yielded to Him. The Holy Spirit
is compelling that He enlightens our very mind and our understanding. He brings the truth to the very
heart. Doesn't the scripture say, He
begat us with a word of His truth. He begat us. The Holy Spirit
spoke and it's recorded. And Lord Jesus Christ there in
the book is recorded. In Acts, Paul on the road to
Damascus, he told Paul, says, you kick against the prince.
The word says forces, and that's what it meant. There's forces
that would prod you in one way, and you're kicking against it. And Paul, during that, he says,
Lord, What without help me to do, calls Him Lord, doesn't it?
You know, as he speaks out a little later, he says, I was apprehended. He says, I followed and I apprehended
that for which I was apprehended. And we see, the Holy Spirit shows
us the very beauties of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the sufficiency
of Christ. And that He is the one that our
very souls need. And the text here says, He does
it with loving kindness. Now, our experience may be different,
and most of the time it is different. If you came trembling and the
Lord came with a shock unto you, it's still loving kindness, isn't
it? It's loving kindness. He may
have came to you very tenderly. He says, come unto Me. Anyway, it's all love and kindness,
isn't it? If we've come to the Lord, it's
all under love and kindness. Chords of love. Whatever the
experience is, it's love and kindness. Our heart is won by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we see Him who blood-bought
us, We see Him who has pardoned our many sins. And where the
heart goes, the will follows. The Scripture says, He drew me
and I followed on. Now why did He draw us? Why did He deal with me? Here's the answer. He loves you.
He loves you. You are drawn to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He loves you. He loves you before
the world. He loves you. He predestinated
you to be conformed to the image of His Son. So this call is effective. It is accomplished by a powerful
hand. Now we may have thought that
we moved on our part and our accord. But a little later, don't
we realize, He draws us. He draws us. And we bless Him
for it. I got a friend, and we talk,
and he always says, I give him all the credit. You know, that's
pretty good testimony, isn't it? We'll be talking about something,
and he'll say, Lord save me. He says, I just give him all
the credit. And we bless him. Now, do you know something? This
drawing just doesn't stop. It continues. His people are,
they keep coming, don't they? Peter wrote, it says, to whom
cometh. That's the way of the Christian
life. He keeps coming to Christ. It's coming. He keeps on coming. And because he's passed from
death unto life. And I asked you today, did you
change yourself? Are you blessed because you're
smarter? Now I've heard people say that.
I'm just smarter than these other people. Is it because of your
will by nature? No, it's a stubborn will. That will that you've got by
nature is stubborn. Is it because you're better than
others? Can you boast of that? I'm amazed, I was listening to
a radio preacher yesterday on the way over here, and now he
said, well, I'm not talking about myself, but then he began telling
about all the things that he did. Yet he wasn't talking about
himself, you know, he wasn't bragging about himself, but yet
he kept on repeating all these things. What makes the difference? What makes the difference? The
sovereign grace of God. That's what makes the difference.
You trace salvation to Him. I of Him, through Him, to Him
are all things. He's first and last. It's all
of God's will. That's where salvation comes
from. It's not of the flesh nor the will of man, but it's all
of the eternal purposes of God, purposed in Christ. Yet a lot
of people talk about we're saved by chance. I never have figured
that out. They'll say, well, we're saved
by accident. One time someone came to church
about some windows, stained glass windows. He said, if you put
these in, people will be saved. He said, they see these glass
windows and they want to come to church. Others say, well, it just happened.
I say, it's what God purposed from all eternity. What He purposed. There's a time that He brought
you, Brother Oscar, into this world. Isn't it? Then there's a time He appeared
unto us. It's called a time of love. A time that He called us. And
it's all known to Him. This whole system of salvation
is found here in this verse. Isn't it a very comprehensive
verse when you really look at it? And He appeared, the Lord
has appeared of old, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love, and therefore with love and kindness I have
drawn thee. And He comes with this salvation
and we know it. After we know it, this salvation,
we know that He's drawn us. And this loving kindness, you
can't measure it. You can't fathom it. It's too
deep. It's beyond measure. And you
know this loving kindness has been all around us. All around
us. That's what's loaded us with
benefits and all spiritual blessings, His loving kindness. There's
not a moment that He's not loved His people. There's no pause in it. There's
no break in it. And I submit unto you, we think about leaving this world
and we're all going to leave it one day. Somebody mentioned
today about a vapor. I don't know. It might have been
in there a while ago. Somebody said something about
a vapor where there lies like a vapor. But what about this
verse speaking to our hearts when we get ready to leave this
world? Wouldn't that be great? Yea, I've loved you with an everlasting
love. Loving kindness, I've drawn it
to myself. That'd be the way to leave this
world. So here's a love that abides
forever. One day, what you see here is
going to be gone. Even Earth's going to be gone.
The sun's going to be gone. The stars is going to be gone.
But His love will still be there. Amen. Love will still be there. Now we are just poor sinners. And that's what we can make of
ourselves. Yet we also can say we are objects
of everlasting love. The scripture puts it like this.
It says, Love Him because He first loved us. May this verse just speak to
your heart tonight. We think back when the Lord dealt
with us. Dealt with us in His love, in
His tender mercy, in His loving kindness. And like I said, it's been in
my heart many years. Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
I have drawn thee. What a wonderful verse to speak
to our very hearts of our God. Yet, as I said a while ago, we're
just poor sinners. with an everlasting love. It's
been good to be with you today. I trust that the Lord used these
verses to bless your heart and put in our memory, in our mind,
that the Holy Spirit will bring it back to our minds many times,
these verses. Our Father,