Well, if you have your Bible, would you turn with me please to the Old Testament prophecy of Jeremiah in chapter 31. Jeremiah chapter 31, our text this morning is just verse two, but we're going to read a portion of the surrounding word just to put it in context. Jeremiah chapter 31 beginning at verse 1, at that time declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel and they will be my people. This is what the Lord says, the people who survive the sword will find favour in the desert and I will come to give rest to Israel. Here's our text today, verse 3. The Lord appeared to us in the past saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with loving kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful. Again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria. The farmers will plant them and enjoy their fruit. There will be a day when the watchmen cry out on the hills of Ephraim, Come, let us go up to Zion. to the Lord our God. Well please keep your Bible open there. Back in the 1800s there was a famous missionary to Africa by the name of Robert Moffat and Robert Moffat came home on furlough as they say when they come back to this country for a rest and to raise support for missionary work in Africa and he was preaching in a little church somewhere up in Scotland and he had chosen as his text that night Proverbs chapter 8 verse 4 which says unto you oh men I call and my voice is to the sons of men and he had in his mind that night that he wanted to reach the men for Christ he wanted to reach the men in the congregation he wanted to to have a harvest among the men especially and when he came out of the vestry to his despair he looked and the congregation was full of older ladies and he thought, oh no, what am I going to do? I've got this sermon which is designed to try and win men to the Lord and the congregation just looks like it's full of ladies. Except for one young boy who was up in the gallery and he was pumping the bellow for the organ. And he thought, well, there is a man here, so I've got no other choice. And he preached his sermon. And that one young boy felt God was speaking to him. And he gave his life to Christ that night and became a servant of the Lord. His name was David Livingstone. And what happened at that time was David Livingstone decided he wanted to be like Robert Moffat and be a missionary as well. And he set his heart to go to China. And he started making preparations for that. He went to medical school and all sorts of things like this. And the time came for him to try to be a missionary, but actually he was barred from going to China because there was an opiate war. in the country at that time, and the Missionary Society wouldn't send him. As it happened, he heard Robert Moffitt speak again, and afterwards, in his missionary talk, Robert Moffitt was talking about Africa, where he was, and he was trying to raise missionary support for Africa, and he told, in the course of his message, about how often in the mornings he would look out and across the African plain he would see as many as a thousand fires, see the smoke of a thousand fires in the distance of different villages that had never had a missionary. never had anybody come and tell them about the Lord Jesus Christ. And that really grasped David Livingstone. A thousand villages to the eye that have never heard the name of Christ. And he went up to Robert Moffat afterwards and said, would I do for Africa? And it turned out he rather did well. He opened up the inside of Africa to further missionary work. And he became probably the greatest British missionary that we've ever had, apart from probably William Carey. But he went out to Africa, actually sent by the British government. And the British government were able to send him, although a missionary organization wasn't able to, because they wanted maps made of Africa and things like this. And so he was sent out with that aim. as well as being able to do his missionary work and he went out there to win souls for the Lord Jesus and he also encountered the evil of slavery while he was out there and it absolutely made him furious and he stood up for the slaves and protected them, rescued them from the slave masters. And he, in the process of doing these two things, of telling them about the Lord Jesus and rescuing their lives from slavery, they saw how much he loved them. And when it came to the end of David Livingstone's life, he died, of course, and his body was to be sent back to England to be buried. And actually, I've seen his burial places in Westminster Abbey in London. I expect some of you might have seen it, too. But they embalmed his body before he died to survive the ship journey home for burial. But when they were going to do so, do you know the Africans said, look, You're taking away from us man who brought us the gospel. He said, will you please let his heart be buried here in Africa because his heart was for the African people. And they did. When they embalmed his body, they took his heart and they embalmed it and they buried it under a tree and a monument is there to it in Africa. So David Livingstone's body is buried in Westminster Abbey, but his heart is buried in Africa. Now why do I tell you that story? Because it seems to me a very faint picture of God's love for you and me. David Livingstone was driven by love in all that he did and this is true about our God as well. And this is why today I want to speak to you about God's love for his children. from this text in Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 3. The Lord appeared to us in the past saying I have loved you with an everlasting love, I have drawn you with loving kindness. Now, we need to understand that the context of this verse, first and foremost, is for the nation of Israel. And this is given in Jeremiah's prophecies to the nation of Israel in a part that's called the Book of Consolation by theologians. Chapter 30 to 33 is where God is giving comfort to the Jewish people who are in captivity, that he's going to draw them back and he's going to bring them back to the land and bring them back to their Lord, bring them back into a relationship with himself. And you can see that this part here that I read was about that, about how he says they're going to come back to the land. It was probably actually given to Jeremiah in a dream. If you look in verse 26, he says, at this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been pleasant to me. and we think that maybe like Zachariah who had his visions given to him in a dream that maybe this portion the book of consolation was given to him in a dream as well and that's its context and I want to say that up front this is first and foremost about God's love for the nation of Israel but it is by extension because we've been grafted in to the to the new covenant where it is by extension a message of love to God's children in our generation as well to all of God's children in the church of Jesus Christ and we can take this verse and study it and learn about God's love for his children. Now I know full well this morning that some people when they hear they're going to be a sermon on the love of God they just roll their eyes you know another sermon on the love of God you know why do we need a sermon on the love of God? Well I want to tell you, when I'm preaching the love of God, I'm preaching what the Bible tells us Paul wanted the Christians to learn. You know, in the book of Ephesians, chapter 3, Paul said this in Ephesians 3, verse 17 to 18, he said, and I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge." Paul said he prayed this for the church, that everybody will grasp the love of God for them, the depth, the width, the breadth, the length of it, and to know it in reality. in their lives. So I know because of that that I'm in the will of God as I preach this text to you today. This is what Paul wanted the church there to know. And add to that Jude verse 21 because Jude, the last but one letter of the New Testament says this, keep yourselves in God's love. as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Keep yourself in it, keep yourself in the revelation of it, keep yourself in the reality of it, keep yourself in the restraints of it, how it will keep you from sin and from the world. So I feel confident this morning in bringing this message to you. But I do know that there are some people who struggle with hearing a message about the love of God. In fact, in my observation, I think there's three types of people who struggle when we talk about this. There's those who see themselves above it a bit. you know they see a sermon on the love of God as being oh well that's just baby Christian level. But I think you can see from what Paul says here that there's so much to it, the breadth, the width, the depth, the length. It's a love that surpasses knowledge. It's not a subject that's just a foundational truth. It is true, it is a foundational truth. And probably the first verse every child in Sunday school learns, isn't it, is John 3, 16, for God so loved the world. And we want them to know that God loves them. But you never outgrow that. You never outgrow that. You can grow deeper in it, but you don't outgrow it. And if you feel that that's just baby level and we need to leave that behind, then let me tell you, you haven't plummeted the depths of it yet. And I hope this morning, this verse will help you to do that a little bit more. But there are other people who struggle with sermons on the love of God. And I've noticed this is very often people who have an emotionally damaged past. There are people who struggle with talking about love. I'll be honest with you, I've got a friend, a very dear Christian friend, who's an outstanding Christian, but he really struggles with the word love. And I know the reason why. He has had a very deep emotional event happen in his past, where his marriage broke down and terrible things happened. And he really struggles. And I say to him, I sometimes say to him, I love you, brother. And do you know what he says to me? He says, same. Or he says, snap. He cannot say, I love you, he struggles. And I know his family and his family, they know that their father loves them, but that hasn't always been said. Martin Luther said this, he said, I knew my father loved me, he just never told me. And there are people who struggle with this and it's a real thing that needs healing and people need help with it. If you are in that situation, you need yourself to get this dealt with. And I hope that learning about God's love will help you this morning. Because not only for your own self, but also for others as well. You know, you're going to have to, if you're going to be a married person, you're going to have to tell your loved one, I love you. Now, I know lots of men say, well, my wife knows I love her. I told her I loved her when we got married. But let me tell you, people need to be told they're loved continually. I hope I don't get in trouble for this, but when Heather was a little girl, and just a little Ben, she had terrible tummy aches and they took her to the doctor and the doctor examined her, couldn't find anything wrong and he asked, he said, tell me, how's things going at home? And Heather's mom and dad were able to say, well, we're having a bit of a hard time, actually. We've just moved up north from Reading. And Heather's dad had just lost his job. He got there. He went up there for work. And then the company folded up as soon as he got there. And they lost everything. And it was a real bad time. And he said, that's the problem. This is anxiety in this child and that's why she's got this terrible tummy. She's picking up your worry. And he said, what you need to do is surround her with love and tell her continually, we love you, we love you. And you know what? When I came to know Heather and started going into her home, I mean, I grew up in a very loving family, but I have never heard a family where they tell each other so much, we love you, we love you. You know, each of them says it to the other probably 10, 20 times a day. honestly and truthfully. And I heard Heather's dad especially, which taught me, he would often say to the girls, Max, I love you. Ruth, I love you. Heather, I love you. And their home was filled with this message of love. Now, let me tell you something. If you know my wife, she's one of the most loving people you'll ever meet. It does you good to hear your talk. And other people need to hear that. And if you have a problem with this issue of love, you need to be healed of it. because your children, your wife, your husband will need to hear this and it's the love of God in Christ that is the source. God is love and you need to come to him for the fountainhead of this love to be healed. But there's other people who will struggle with a sermon on the love of God because they say well we've heard it all in the past We've had it all in the past, and I want to come to church to hear something new. Well, I want to tell you, I think there's things in this verse that you probably haven't heard in the past, and I'm hoping today it will be fresh to you. It's what we all need, and it's what we need, it's what it all boils down to for the future for our lives. You know, there was a great theologian in the past by the name of Karl Barth, a German theologian. I wouldn't agree with him on some of the things he said, but he was a deep thinker, like C.S. Lewis, you know, one of these types of people. And one time he was interviewed for a radio program, I believe it was, and they asked him on this problem. They said, now, Dr. Bart, they said, would you tell us, please, what is the most profound, deepest theological truth that you have ever studied? And do you know what he said? He said it's this, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. They weren't expecting an answer like that, but he's right. That is the deepest and most profound thing. And that's what you and I are going to be resting on, on our deathbeds when we go to glory. And that's why we want to know it and grasp it. So this morning I want to see from this text, which is first of all in its context to Israel, and then by extension to us, God's love for his children in three ways. I want you to see it's a converting love, I want you to see it's a covenant love, and I want you to see it's a compelling love. Those three things. So let's see this first thing then. It is a converting love. Now, the verse says, in the first part of verse 3, the Lord appeared to us in the past saying and that's the part I want to draw on here. He says the Lord appeared to us in the past or your version may say the Lord appeared to them or to me in the past. I think the King James Version says me and so do others and the reason is it's talking as I said in the first place about the nation of Israel and it's referring back to when the nation of Israel became the Lord's people and it's really what we would say their national conversion when they became in a relationship with God nationally. Now they were by covenant from Abraham, his people, but there was a point in which God appeared to them, as he says there, and he spoke these words to them. The Lord appeared to us in the past saying, And what it's referring to is the time when God drew the children of Israel out of Egypt, out of slavery, and brought them to the promised land. That's why you'll notice this verse here where it says, the Lord appeared to us in the past, or some translations say, the Lord appeared to us from of old. You'll notice the margin, or the footnote, also says, the Lord has appeared to us from afar. Because there's a double dimension to this. It was a distance of time and space and what God did was he brought the children of Israel, he did an amazing miracle as you remember in the story of the Exodus to conquer Pharaoh and his hard heart and to deal with the gods of Egypt for which they were confused with, and he brought the plagues on Egypt, he had the Passover, he had the parting of the Red Sea, and he brought the people of Israel out of Egypt, and he brought them to Mount Sinai, where God himself appeared to them, didn't he? He came down on Mount Sinai, and he spoke his word to them. This is what this is talking about. The Lord appeared to us from afar in the past, saying, And we know God gave his law and it was a fearful thing in some ways because God came down with dark clouds and fire and thunder and a loud voice and the people trembled. The book of Hebrews tells us all this. But there was another side of it which was also an act of love. If you read the Bible with depth you begin to realize that's when Israel became what the later prophets like Hosea would call the bride or the wife of Jehovah. The whole book of Hosea is based on this and it was the marriage of Israel to the Lord and it's where they had the covenant formed and that's what a wedding is that's what marriage is people say oh marriage is just a piece of paper no it's not just a piece of paper marriage is a covenant and this is what God did with Israel with the Mosaic covenant and he became his people by covenant and it was a bonding in love and this is when the Lord appeared to us in the past as he says here and he spoke to us if the Lord appeared us in the past saying these things it was an act of of hearing God's voice that communicated this to them Now that's the context of what he's saying here and he's reminding them of why he's going to be merciful to them in the future when he brings them back as well. It's because we have a covenant of love that are made with you. Now I want to apply this to us now by extension who are God's children. And I want you to remember the fact that this is how we became Christians too. The Lord appeared to us, or as Jeremiah says, the Lord appeared to me in the past, saying. Don't miss out that word saying, because God appeared to us when we heard him speak to us. You know, the night I was converted, I was sat up in the balcony like some of you young people, and I heard the Lord speak to me. And the Lord appeared to me in a real way. Now, I didn't see a real vision of God with my eyes, but he was there. And you can know something's there without ever seeing it. Have you ever felt an itch? Yeah, you've all felt an itch. Have you ever seen an itch? You've never seen one, have you? But you know how real it is. And, you know, God was there. I couldn't see him with my eyes, but the Lord appeared to me saying, he appeared to me through his word. And that was when I was converted that night. And you know what? This is what we are to look back on. The love of God was a converting love. And we need to remember what the Lord did for us when he brought us to salvation, when he brought us to himself when he appeared to us. Our dear brother, Doug Garroway, used to often pray in the prayer meeting with the deacons. He said, oh Lord, we thank you for the gift of memory. Do you remember Doug saying that? He used to say that a lot. Oh, we thank you for the gift of memory. And it is a spiritual gift to look back in memory on what God has done for us, how he appeared to us in the past. There was a famous preacher by the name of Billy Sunday. By the way, I wanted to put all these pictures of people up on the screen for you, but our internet went down at home, so I only got this far with the pictures, so I apologize for not having more. But there was a famous preacher in the past, back in the 1920s, I believe it was, by the name of Billy Sunday. You've heard me talk about him before. He was a converted baseball player in America. And on one occasion, He, well, he was standing on a street corner in Chicago. and a policeman came up to him and said, excuse me, sir, would you mind telling me what you're doing? This is when you had visible police presence and they watched out for people who were loitering with intent. And he was just standing on this street corner. He wasn't crossing the road, wasn't walking on the pavement. He was just standing there and he had his head down and he was in deep thought. And the policeman went up to him and said, excuse me, sir, would you mind telling me what you're doing? And Billy Sunday said, yes, I'm giving thanks to God for my salvation because it was on this spot in such and such a year that I as a drunkard was saved by Jesus Christ. And he used to go back to that spot every time he went back to Chicago, every time he went back to go and say, thank you to the Lord for what you did. And do you know what, dear friends, that's what we should do, isn't it? That's why we have communion. It's not too basic. It's not too babyish. Surely this is our song on the way to heaven, isn't it? Oh, happy day that fixed my choice on thee, my Saviour and my God. We look back with thanksgiving and say, thank God that he ever saved me. I hear people pray it in the prayer meeting. They remember how that day was when they were walking through the town and they heard the open air preacher or they were sat in the church and they gave their lives to Christ. It's a converting love. The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying. Isn't that wonderful? And dear friends, I urge you to do that and to think back and to give God the praise for what he has done. It's good to remember our salvation is based on solid facts and solid acts when we were saved. And I wonder, can you this morning say, the Lord has appeared to me of old, saying, You know, it may be that there's some here today. The Lord has yet to appear. I pray that God will appear to them, be real to them. Suddenly, they will understand the gospel. Maybe even today, the Lord will speak to somebody here today, and the gospel will become real to them. Why not? You know, Joseph Parker, the famous preacher, said, every Christian is a miracle of grace. Such miracles Jesus Christ is working today as certainly as he worked them when he was visible amongst us. And I believe that. So may the Lord please convert someone, even today, by his great love. It's a converting love. Secondly, I want you to see it's a covenant love. This is what we see again in verse three. As we move into the main part of the verse he says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have loved you with an everlasting love. There's a famous preacher in history by the name of Philip Bliss. You may not know the name, but I'm sure some of you who've grown up in church or been Christian for a while will remember some of his hymns. He wrote a hymn when he was young, a young Christian, which was this, I am so glad that Jesus loves me. You remember that, I'm sure. And that was a hymn he wrote as a young Christian. Do you know what? He never got over the fact that God loved him. And it became the deepest, most profound thing he ever searched out and studied in the scriptures. And when he was an old man, he wrote another song because he wanted other people to realize this too. He wrote this song, I am so glad that our father in heaven tells of his love in the book he has given. Wonderful things in the Bible I see, This is the dearest that Jesus loves me. We sing that here sometimes. Now, I want to tell you, friends, he was right. This is something that you never get to the depth of. And when you look at a verse like this, you realize why. Because God's love is an everlasting love. And he says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Now stop and think about this. He's saying this to Israel, and he's saying it in two directions. He's saying, I have loved you, and that's looking back in the past. And where does God's love for Israel go back to? It goes back to eternity past. Deuteronomy chapter 7 tells us that God had a covenant, chose Israel out of all the nations of the earth to put his love on them. And it wasn't because of them, it was because of him. And in eternity past, he planned their love. But you know what? It wasn't just a love in the past, it's a love into the future as well. And he says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. So he's talking in the present, he's looking back at the past, and he's looking into the future, and he says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. In other words, it hasn't stopped yet, and it's still going strong. And it's gonna go on forever. and everlasting love. That's why I cannot believe or even abide the false doctrine of replacement theology, because it says that God has finished with Israel. And if you even look in this chapter 31, if you look down in verse 35, you'll see God says never. God says in verse 35, this is what the Lord says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. The Lord Almighty is his name. Only if these decrees vanish from my sight, declares the Lord, will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before me. This is what the Lord says. Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out, will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done, declares the Lord. Do you see that? God is saying there, he said, when the sun stops shining and the moon stops coming out at night, and when they've measured the full size of space, and when they've got right down to the very heart of the earth and done enough research on that, at that point, then maybe my love will have failed. But it's never going to happen, is it? This is his point. He says, my love for Israel is going on forever. And it's despite what they've done. So God's love for Israel is an everlasting love because it's a covenant love. It was born in the covenant in the Trinity. I rejoiced when Kwesi prayed because he didn't know what I was preaching on this morning, but he prayed about that covenant plan of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Well, this was God's love for Israel. And I want to tell you, by extension, that's also true for us in the church as well. God planned in eternity past. His love for us. And he says to each one of us here today, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Isn't that a remarkable thing? I loved you in the past, I loved you, let me put it to you like this, God had his eye on you before you ever had your eye on God. He loved you before you were even born. Jeremiah chapter one, read that, and you'll see he said that to Jeremiah. and he will love you for eternity to come as well. It's a wonderful thing, an everlasting love. You know, there's two great blessings in salvation, eternal life and eternal love. And it's a love that goes on and on and on. You know, this was what changed the preaching of D.L. Moody. When D.L. Moody was a young man, he was a very fiery evangelist, but he was a bit of a hellfire preacher. Now, I believe we should preach hell. I believe that. But he also had a tendency to just go down that one road. And when he came to England after the great fire in Chicago in 1871. He had a wonderful time. He was going to the Metropolitan Tabernacle where Charles Spurgeon was the pastor, and he was sitting there listening to Charles Spurgeon preach to 5,000 people, and he was praying, God, please, I want to preach the gospel like this. And then he had the invitations to go out and speak himself, and he went to Ireland. And when he was in Ireland, he met a young preacher who had a Cockney accent, and they say about D.L. Moody, D.L. Moody murdered the English language. Well, this guy was even worse than Moody. His name was Henry Morehouse. And Henry Morehouse was like a cocky little Irishman who got up and preached the Bible. outright and preached it. And he said to D.L. Moody, when you get back to Chicago, he said, I want to come preach to the Americans. And D.L. Moody thought, not in your life, mate. Not in your life. Anyway, he got back to Chicago, and this man, Dr. Morehouse, kept writing to him. He said, I believe the Lord will have me come and preach to the people in Chicago. And in the end, D.L. Moody said, I couldn't think of any more excuses to put him off, and I had to say yes. But I made sure when he came, I wasn't there that Sunday. That's a clever thing. Then people won't complain on the door. So he made sure he wasn't there on that Sunday when Henry Morehouse came across from Dublin to preach. But you know what, when he got back home, he said to his wife Emma, how was it? And she looked at him. And her brother was there. And her brother stepped forward and he said, he preached the love of God for sinners. and Dion Moody was shaken by this. And he heard Dr. Henry Morehouse preach so many times, he realized that he had been preaching a one-sided message of salvation. Now today, often we hear it only the side and not the other, but it changed his preaching. And we need to grasp this fact that God has a covenant love that's an everlasting love for the lost and an everlasting love for us to bring us to salvation. Isn't that wonderful? And it's a love for us that when we belong to him, he will never let us go out of his love. And I want you to know this because there's going to be days when there's going to be challenges. And as you go on in life, there's going to be challenges. Sometimes those challenges are going to be caused by circumstances. Sometimes it's going to be just by reason of deterioration of the quality of life. You know that hymn I quoted earlier on, Jesus loved me, this I know? Do you know somebody wrote another verse for that later on? It goes like this, Jesus still loves me, this I know, though my hair is white as snow. Though my sight is growing dim, still he bids me trust in him. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. He still loves us in the face of old age. He still loves us, like he said with Israel, in the face of our sin. Because I want you to see here, and this is something that Charles Spurgeon really brings out in his sermons on this passage, this proves to us the perseverance of God with his people. Because he says, I loved you with an everlasting love. In other words, there never come a point where God says, well, you know, I've loved you, but I never knew you were gonna do that. And you did something so bad there, that's done it now. I don't love you now. No, he says, I love you with an everlasting love. And this is assurance for the believer that we're going to glory. You see, the span of it is absolutely incredible. And we need to take this to heart. Oh, the love that Jesus had for me, the suffer on the cruel tree that I, a ransomed soul, might be is more than tongue can tell. And he came and put that love into action by dying on the cross for us and securing our salvation for himself. So grasp that, it's a covenant love. It's a love that's faithful to the end, as it is his faithful love to Israel. And the third and final thing I want you to see here is that it is a compelling love. Because the part of the verse that thrills me at the end is this, it says, I have drawn you with loving kindness. I have drawn you with loving kindness." And what he's talking about here is how he drew Israel to himself in the first and foremost, the context of it being to Israel. Now, who was Moses' leader? Oh, I told you, who was Israel's leader? How to put your foot, eh? Who was Israel's leader? It was Moses, wasn't it? And do you remember how Moses got his name? When Moses' parents put him in the basket of bulrushes, among the bulrushes, and Pharaoh's daughter brought him out, she said, I will call him Moses because I have what? I have drawn him out. And that's what the name Moses means, drawn out. And without her knowing it, it was a prophecy of what God was going to do with Israel. He was going to draw Israel out of Egypt to Sinai, where he would make his covenant with them. And this is what he did. He drew them to himself. Hosea says the same thing in Hosea chapter 11 verse 4, I've drawn you with cords of love. And this has a parallel in its application for us in Christianity. Because how did we become Christians? It's the same thing. God drew us to himself. He drew us to himself. We heard the gospel and we put our faith in Jesus Christ. John 6 verse 37, all that the father gives me will what? Will come to me. He draws them. He draws them to himself. And we need him to do that because you think about man's sinful state. How is he left as a result of Adam's fall? Well, Ephesians chapter two tells us we're dead in our trespasses and sins. And you can preach all you want to a dead man, but a dead man isn't doing anything. So we need the power of God to draw us to himself. The Bible says we're spiritually blind in 2 Corinthians 4, you know, and a blind man can't see. And Romans chapter three tells us, there is no one who seeks God. So, I mean, one of my commentaries this week said, this verse is talking about how God heard our cry and he came to us. I'll put a line through it. The guy hadn't read the verse. It's back to front. It's not how he heard our cry and came to us. It's how he came, he drew us to himself. Because we weren't alive, we were dead. and we needed a miracle and this is what happened. God draws sinners to himself and the Lord Jesus said no one comes to the son unless the father draws him in John chapter 6 verse 44. We can't do it, we're spiritually dead and so we need the drawing power of God and it's drawing with loving kindness. Those are like two great diamonds, aren't they? Loving and kindness. It's the Hebrew word chesed, which means his faithfulness. It's a faithful drawing, a loyal drawing, and it's translated in different ways. Now, I know some Bibles don't have this part about the drawing in. The Good News Bible, the ESV, the Message, they leave that part out. I've got no idea why. This is vital to the text. God doesn't just have a covenant. There's no good having a covenant with a dead man. He makes a covenant and he draws us to himself with irresistible grace to come to himself to put our trust in him. And this is what he did for each one of us when we became Christians. And we look back and we say, thank you, Lord, for drawing me to the Lord Jesus. This is what gives me hope in the ministry of the gospel. You know, I read this week a story of a man by the name of Henry Durant, who worked for the French Bible Society. And near his home, there was a base where, an army base, and he wanted to go and speak to the soldiers before they went to war, and to share the gospel. So he had a word with the colonel in charge, Colonel Thomas, And he said, I want to come in. I'm an evangelist. I work for the French Bible Society. He said, I want to come in and talk to the men and encourage them. They're going to war. And he said, and I want to offer them a chance to buy a Bible. I have some Bibles for sale. And the colonel said, I think that would be a very good idea. And he gave him a pass to be able to come in. And so Henry Durant would go in regularly to the camp to witness to the soldiers and tell them about the Lord Jesus Christ. and to offer them a bible if they'd like to buy a bible from him and on one occasion there was a strong young man who was listening carefully and he stepped forward and he said I really believe what you say is true and I would love to buy a bible for myself but I don't have as much as a penny to pay for it And Henry Durant looked at him, and he was touched by this young man's interest. And he said, well, young man, if you can't afford a Bible, he said, then I'll pay for it for you, and you can have it. And he gave him the Bible. And as soon as he put the Bible in the soldier's hand, the boy said, ha, I knew it would work. He said, now I've got some paper for smoking. And Henry said to him, oh, no, you were dishonest with me. He said, give me the Bible back. And he said, no way, he said, you gave it to me, it's mine now. And Henry warned him, he said, you be careful what you do with that Bible. And he quoted Hebrews chapter 10, he said, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Well, they were on the boat going off to war, and this young man was doing just what he said. All the other lads thought it was hilarious. And he was ripping the pages out of this Bible and using them to roll his cigarettes with. And as they got nearer the place where they were landing, They were told that it was a very severe battle, and the battle wasn't going well, and many of the troops were falling. And these were young troops. They weren't experienced troops. And he became more and more nervous as the journey went on. And on the night before, he couldn't sleep. And all he could hear was the words of that evangelist. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And he thought, is God going to get me on the battlefield? And so he picked up the Bible that he had been using and he expected to read in it words of condemnation. Do you know what he read? He wrote John 3 verse 17. God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And he was encouraged by that and he read on, he read, he that hath the son hath life in 1 John 5 verse 12. He read Matthew 11, 28, come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. And these words deeply impressed him and spoke to him. Well, he still wasn't saved, but the word was speaking to him. And he had to go onto the battlefield with all the other boys. And guess what happened? Bang, bullet in the chest. He got hit in the chest. And no, the Bible didn't stop the bullet. the bullet went into him, and he was taken off the battlefield, severely wounded, and he was told he had to go to hospital. When they got him to the hospital, he was then sent home. He was told he wasn't going to live very long. They restored him back to his house. And all the time he'd been in hospital and on the journey back home, back to his family home, he had been reading more and more of this Bible that he had taken. And more and more of the word of God was going into his life. And as the fever he was fighting was raging on him, the spirit of God was working in his heart, bringing him to conviction and to conversion. When he got home, he told his family about the Bible and he urged them to read it. And when they wouldn't read it, he would read it out loud to them and he would share it with them. And it was his most precious possession. Anyway, the young man by the name of Ben died. and they had his funeral. Well, one day Henry the missionary went back to that place and he went back and there was a funeral taking place that day of a young man. And he did what he always did when he was there. He went to the same place to eat. Do you ever go to the same restaurant? I want to go there. We always go to eat there. That's nice there. And he went to the restaurant. He knew the people in there, the Pierre family. And normally this place was buzzing and it was alive. But today they were very sad and very low. And he went up to Mrs. Pierre on the desk, and he said, I'd like a meal, please. But her head was down. She looked up, and tears were streaming from her eyes. And he said, oh, my dear. He said, what's wrong? She said, we buried my son today. We buried my son. He'd been to war, he was hit, and he came back home and he died, and we buried him today. And he said, I am so sorry. He said, I have no words adequate to comfort you. He said, but I have a book, he said, that has comforted millions, and I'd like to give you one, and read a few verses for you out of it now. And he pulled out of his pocket a Bible, And as he read some verses, he couldn't see her face, but her face changed. And she said, that Bible, she said, that's just the same as my Ben's Bible. It was his most treasured possession. She said, don't go anywhere. And he went off, and she got his Bible, and she brought back this Bible with the front half all missing, you know, where it smoked the pages. And she said, here, she said, this is his Bible. And he took it. and he looked in it and he found written inside this Bible these words, received from a missionary on June the 25th, first used for cigarette paper, but later read, believed, and used by the Lord to save my soul. Benjamin Pierre. What had happened? God had set his love in eternity on a man who was a rebel sinner, who was going headlong away from him, mocking God, mocking the evangelist. No, I'm not having any of that. I'll misuse that Bible. But God drew him to himself. I've drawn you to myself. God draws, and this is what gives us hope in the sharing of the gospel. And some of you tonight, this morning, know that what it means to be drawn to Christ. Others of you are feeling it now. So why not come to him now? Why not ask him to save you this morning and put your trust in the Lord Jesus who died on the cross for you? Some of you today need to be born again If you've never been born again, I want to tell you God loves you. He sent his son to die for you. You put your trust in him and he will save you and take you to heaven. There's just one last thing I feel under orders to say this morning, and that this is also a message for the backslider. Because if you look at the next verse, it says, I will build you up again, and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin of Israel. And God was saying this to a nation that had gone away from him and backslidden, and God was saying, I will restore you. I heard about a father who had a wayward son who ran away and got involved in all sorts of crime. And the father knew a man who was going to that town, and he said, when you go to that town, will you see if you can find my son? He's been away for so long, but I just want you to send him one message. Your father loves you still. Well, the man was faithful to his commission and he went and he searched and he searched and he couldn't find him in any of the decent places. So he looked in the indecent places and he found him in a house of ill repute. And he said, if there is so and so here, he said, I have a message for you from your father. Your father says, I love you still. And the young man who was in an indecent place heard that word, and it was a word to his own heart, and he realized he could go back home. I want to say to the backslider here today, your father loves you still. Come back to him. Amen. Let's sing our final hymn this morning.