[0:00] We are going to begin ourselves singing through God's praise from Psalm 36. Psalm 36 and from verse 5.
[0:17] Thy mercy, Lord, is in the heavens. Thy truth doth reach the clouds. Thy justice is like mountains great. Thy judgments deep as floods. Lord, thou preservest man and beast, how precious is thy grace.
[0:33] Therefore in shadow of thy wings men's sons their trust shall place. They with the fatness of thy house shall be well satisfied.
[0:44] From rivers of thy pleasures thou wilt drink to them provide. Because of life the fountain pure remains alone with thee. And in that purest light of thine we clearly light shall see.
[0:59] Thy lovingkindness unto them continue that thee know. And still on men upright in heart thy righteousness bestow.
[1:11] And so on. We can sing these verses. Psalm 36 from verse 5. Thy mercy, Lord, is in the heavens. Thy truth doth reach the clouds.
[1:22] Thy mercy, Lord, is in the heavens.
[1:37] Thy truth doth reach the clouds. Thy know kinda earth. Thy mercy, Lord, is in the heavens.
[1:47] Thy минmon. Thy mercy, Lord, is in the heavens. Thy keen sights, thy taboo's people. Thy grace, God, and divine пусть.
[2:15] GONIE CONTINUE The kindness of thy God shall be blessed by his life.
[3:00] From rivers all thy treasures of will drain through the admiral light.
[3:19] It calls on high the fountain pure Revenge the Lord with thee And in the purest heart of mine We may rejoice thee Thy loving kindness unto them On daily love to know I still on land
[4:19] The more than all thy life shall be blessed by his life.
[4:36] Let us join together in prayer. Let us pray. Lord God, as we come into your presence with praise and with prayer we are indebted to you, O God, for every opportunity that is afforded as us creatures of the dust to enter into the presence of the holy living and true God the one who is from everlasting to everlasting.
[5:09] We give thanks that even though our circumstances affect the way in which we have met we acknowledge that you are sovereign in all the affairs of the children of men.
[5:28] You supply your needs or you withhold them from us depending on wisdom that is unfathomable.
[5:41] We have a measure of understanding and we are expected to apply it in circumstances that become our journey through life but there are things over which we have no control we are expected in such circumstances not just to lie back and despond or be filled full of the weakness that necessarily marks us out when we can't do nothing by way of our own resources.
[6:35] There is a greater resource placed before us even in the access that you have allowed us to the dragon God and upon whose name we can call at any time and as a result of any cause we bless you and thank you that we can seek your blessing today upon our time together.
[7:04] That is what we crave above all while we may have a measure of thankfulness for the opportunity to come together to this place today.
[7:18] The greatest blessing that we can ever have is an experience of your own presence. We know that you are here in this place at any given time because there is no place where you are not to be found at any given time.
[7:39] You are an omnipresent God and you are a God who who is in the world even though the world is rarely willing to acknowledge the existence of the God that you are.
[7:57] even when your only begotten made himself known upon the scene of time he came to his own but his own would not own him as the one that they belonged to.
[8:15] We know that there is ignorance with us by reason of our sinfulness and part of our sinfulness is seen in our failure to recognise that we are in your presence even in this place.
[8:31] So overcome our sinfulness and this expression of it by impressing upon our hearts and minds and upon our souls that you are here in this place and that you are able to bless even willing to bless.
[8:47] Bless in a sense in which our soul's cravings are met by a face-to-face encounter with the God who is God over all. We give thanks that as creatures we can come before the Creator and the one in whom we live and move in half of being that you are able to impress upon us the power that is yours not only to sustain his body and soul but to minister to our wants and needs spiritually and that great need that we have as sinful creatures who come short of your glory sinning against you in thought and word and deed that you have met that need in Christ and that through the Gospel that Christ has presented to us and we are encouraged to put our trust in him.
[9:44] we do many things in this world and we exercise many expressions of trust in the things that we apply ourselves to believing that when we exercise these expressions of trust in worldly matters that they will do as expected and yet when it comes to the spiritual reality that our fallenness speaks of we are not willing to put our trust in the only living and true Saviour the one that you have sent into the world the one that came into the world that one that made himself known in the world as the Saviour of sinners and we know that without him our lostness will remain and it will mark itself even when we enter into eternity so pour out your Spirit upon us as the Gospel is preached today even in this place and every other gathering of your people throughout the world we thank you and bless you that you are able to refresh those lives that are tried and tested by this wilderness of ours where we are where we are living and whether we are domiciled to the degree that we think this is where we are bound to exist our behaviour speaks of our of our believing that our permanent residence is here and it is seen even in the sudden awareness that comes our way when death encroaches and we realise that we are deluding ourselves at best we are tent dwellers we are pilgrims we are sojourners and the enemy of our soul impregnates our thoughts with with delusions concerning our abiding in this place so that we would be overtaken suddenly when death will come as it must and that we find ourselves unprepared to enter into the experience of eternity lord lord we pray for your grace to to to touch our lives touch our lives in a way that the things that are so precious to us that they would be seen for their for their emptiness and their shadow like property when we are without christ the true pearl of great price we pray lord that you would visit us in mercy to that end blessing those who cannot be with us remembering any who may be unwell especially those who have to deal with serious illnesses of various descriptions we pray for the frail elderly amongst us and those who are dependent of the care of others whether it is at home or in hospital or in homes for the elderly we pray for those who are suffering still from the effect of covid-19 and we pray for mercy even in the face of the foolishness that is in this world that so many are reckless in the way that they live their lives in the world not only careless about
[13:45] themselves but others we pray for grace that the eyes of the blind would be opened the ears of the deaf tongue of the dumb that they would look heavenwards and pour out their soul before the god who is all too ready to receive our prayers our petitions our requests for mercy bless our nation be merciful to us in our waywardness and in the way that we have as a nation departed from god and your ways are so ill thought of instead there are so many other things that are held out as being precious and as being things of worth and things of merit and these very things that are heralded and highlighted are seen in your word as being a shame and a blasphemy to your name lord hear us and in mercy pour out your spirit upon us that we as a generation might turn to our god as we have done in times past we pray that you would mercyfully undertake for us even in the face of the circumstances that surround us even at this present time remember the preaching of your word to the four corners of the earth remember the nations of the earth that are at war be it against nations against nations or civil war and the war and poverty and want and that because of the many ills that are in this world we pray lord for grace and for mercy and for peace bless us now as we turn to your word as we read it we pray that you would bless it to us pardoning sin in jesus name amen we're going to read from the old testament scriptures in the book of the prophet jeremiah and chapter 31 jeremiah chapter 31 we're reading from the beginning of the chapter and we can read down to verse 22 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 again i will build thee and thou shalt be built oh virgin of israel thou shalt again be adorned with thy taberets and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make many thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of samaria the planters shall plant and shall eat them as common things for there shall be a day that the watchmen upon the mount of mount ephraim shall cry arise ye and let us go up to sion and to the lord our god for thus saith the lord sing with gladness for jacob and shout among the chief of the nations publish ye praise ye and say o lord save thy people the remnant of israel behold i will bring them from the north country and gather them from the coasts of the earth and within the blind and the lame the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together a great
[17:45] company shall return thither they shall come with weeping and with supplications will i lead them i will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble for i am a father to israel and ephraim is my firstborn 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 him and keep him as a shepherd of his flock for the lord hath redeemed jacob and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he therefore they shall come and sing in the height of sion 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 soul shall be as a watered garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance both young men and old together for
[18:59] I will turn their mourning into joy and I will comfort them and make them rejoice from their sorrow and I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness saith the lord thus saith the lord a voice was heard in ramah lamentation and bitter weeping Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children because they were not thus saith the lord refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears for thy work shall be rewarded saith the lord and they shall come again from the land of the enemy and there is hope in thine end saith the lord that thy children shall come again to their own border they have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a bullock and accustomed to the yoke turn thou me and
[20:08] I shall be turned for thou art the lord my god surely after that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smoked upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth is Ephraim my dear son is he a pleasant child for since I speak against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the lord set thee up way marks and make thee high heaps set thine heart toward the highway even the way which thou went does turn again O virgin of Israel turn again to these thy cities how long wilt thou go about O thou backsliding daughter for the lord hath created a new thing in the earth a woman shall compass a man and so on may the lord add his blessing to this reading of his word or to his name be the praise before we sing the next psalm just a word to the young people here this week was many weeks leading up to this with the dry weather we've had
[21:41] I've been watering plants in pots in the garden I was thinking as I was doing so how privileged we are in our own country to have plenty of water plenty of rain although we complain about it constantly we're always dissatisfied with something and too much rain is something we often complain about but I was chastised by an advert on the television for water aid which reminds us that there are many parts of the world that are parched with lack of water clean water to drink or to cook or to prepare meals with or to use in the toilet and I was looking up this and if you don't mind statistics there are approximately and of course these figures are always inaccurate
[22:56] I suppose because we can never at one given moment have the exact figures correct but there's roughly 7.9 billion people in the world now when you talk about billions you don't really it becomes a mystery to me anyway but if you think of the population of the United Kingdom the United Kingdom which is where we live there's about 68 million people and if you want closer to home in the western isles roughly 27,500 people these figures change daily but if you think of these figures the largest figure there one tenth of the world population doesn't have water that's 785 million people they don't have access to the water the clean water that we have and we all know how important water is for life for sustaining it's important for producing the plant matter that we depend on so much but it also reminds us of how
[24:17] Jesus saw the needs needs of those who were in the world he met one woman once and she was taking water from a well and as she was taking water from the well Jesus spoke to her and although he knew better than you and I know the importance of water he knew there was a greater need that she had which is a greater need that every one of us have and he said to her whosoever drinketh the water that I shall give her shall never thirst whosoever shall drink of that water I wonder what Jesus was thinking was he thinking about what he was going to do with the water no he was thinking more about the needs of her soul and when you think about these statistics again how many people live in the world again 7.9 million billion 7.9 billion and every one of these is a living soul who needs the water of life from
[25:42] Jesus Christ every bit as much and more than they need the water that they need to slake their thirst and the sad thing is that for every person that needs that there are so many people in the world who have access to water and more so to the water of life and yet they don't want it they don't they don't seek it out for themselves it's far easier for them to get the water of life in many of these countries than it is to get water from their wealth but they don't want it I hope that whatever you are you will understand the privilege that you have in being in a country in a place where you can drink as much as you like but also that you have a gospel which
[26:46] Christ has brought to us that speaks of his provision for our thirsty souls going to sing down from Psalm 63 Psalm 63 and from the beginning of the psalm the first six verses first six tanzas Lord thee my God I lairly seek my soul doth thirst for thee my flesh longs in a dry parched land wherein no waters be that I thy power may behold and brightness of thy face as I have seen thee here to fall within thy holy place since better is thy love than life my lips thee praise shall give I in thy name will lift my hands and bless thee while I live even as with madden and with fat my soul shall filled be then shall my mouth with joyful lips sing praises unto thee when I do thee upon my bed remember with delight and when on thee
[27:49] I meditate in watches of the in shadow of thy wings I draw for though mine help has been my soul thee follows hard and me thy right hand doth sustain these verses 1 to 8 of psalm 63 Lord thee my God I darely seek my God I darely seek my soul thirst for thee my flesh shone thin on ripe harsh land where in the waters tree that
[28:49] I thy power may behold and brightness and all thy lips as I have seen thee here to Lord within thy holy ways since better is thy love the light my best he bridge shall give I give my name within my heart all bless thee while
[29:56] I live if not with my heart and with love my soul shall fill it be then shall my love with joyação and sing praises unto thee.
[30:35] When I do thee upon my bed, remember with delight, and when on thee I meditate and wash it all the night, and shadow of thy wind thy joy for thou mine help hast been.
[31:27] My soul may hold those hard on me, thy right and right must be.
[31:44] Amen. We're going to turn now for a short time we're together to the passage that we read in the Old Testament scriptures, Jeremiah chapter 31.
[32:02] And we can read again verse 3. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
[32:22] Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. To many these words are truly remarkable words, for they speak about a love like no other.
[32:48] But they are made even more remarkable by the fact that this love is directed towards a people that are entirely and deserving of that love to be directed towards them.
[33:06] When Jeremiah was called as a prophet, he complained to God that he wasn't fit for the task to which he was called.
[33:18] We read that he said, O Lord God, behold I cannot speak, for I am but a child. And many believe that at that moment that Jeremiah was in his twenties, but he considered the task to which God was calling him a task that ordinarily would have been beyond any living person.
[33:51] Why? Because all you have to do is read through this prophecy and you find out that the people who bore God's name had turned their back upon him and they had followed other gods and they had surrendered any right if they had any such right to the grace of God being exercised towards them.
[34:25] Much of the ministry of Jeremiah was concerned with the coming judgment of God. God and as a nation instead of that warning yielding the appropriate repentance they hardened.
[34:50] They went on even more defiantly in the face of God. And nevertheless God sees foot to send his servant to them in order to give them the opportunity to repent.
[35:09] But God told him and he told them that they would suffer the judgment of God and that would involve them being taken into bondage taken out of their own land.
[35:28] Now part of the ministry of Jeremiah not only involved him in telling them about God's judgment but also about God's grace that although they would suffer the bondage that was the direct consequence of God's judgment that God would restore them that God would take them back to himself.
[35:57] Professor John L. Maccari says that this people needed to know that God would not permit sin even the sin of his people to have the last word on the destiny of those who bore his name.
[36:18] So the prophecy that Jeremiah had to declare involved not only a forewarning of judgment but also the prospect of restoration.
[36:32] I'm going to look with you today at the words of her text which in the words of Alexander Stewart chapter 31 bears the soul of the prophet in the highest possible way in the predictive vision that he has of God's grace God's will to restore them.
[37:03] But it has to be remembered that the captivity while it would come to an end it would only be a remnant that would be restored.
[37:14] not all of them would be healed. Not all of them would be recovered. If you read on further on in this chapter in verse 28 it shall come to pass that like as I have watched over them to plug up and to break down and throw down and to destroy and to afflict so will I watch over them to build and to plant saith the Lord.
[37:44] There's two sides to it. God is going to break down, he's going to pluck up, he's going to destroy, to afflict but the same God who does all these things is the God who is going to plant again, to build again, to restore again but only a remnant would experience that.
[38:11] So I want us to bear that in mind, bear in mind the wonder of the calling of this man of God to preach judgment on one hand but at the same time to look beyond the instrument of judgment to the restoration of God in his time.
[38:35] So in this verse we are told, the Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying. I want us to think about what that appearance of the Lord refers to.
[38:50] Secondly, I want us to notice the declaration we have there of the love of God, the nature of that love, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
[39:05] And then what he says, because of the existence of that everlasting love, he is going to draw them with loving kindness and think about the implications of what that means.
[39:20] the ESV translation for the first part of this verse reminds us of the difficulty that those who are translating this part of the scripture have with the words of our text.
[39:47] The Lord appeared from far away, is the ESV translation. The Lord appeared from far away, the Lord appeared of old.
[39:59] So you try and bring these two thoughts together in your mind, you might be inclined to think that they cannot be reconciled, but the language of the text where it is found reminds us that what the prophet is doing here is he's either reminding the people or remembering with them of the things that God has done in the past where the love of God was made known.
[40:43] in other words, when we think of what he is doing here, he is reflecting upon other occasions in the past, recent past and in the far away past where he is able to think of what God did for them.
[41:09] Israel, very often when God acted mightily on their behalf, they, by reason of what God was doing, were persuaded that God loves us, that they were favoured by God when God performed his miracles, when God took them with powerful expressions of omnipotence directed against enemies of Israel and in their favour they concluded rightly that they were experiencing the privileges of God's people because of his love for them.
[42:00] But at the same time, that experience of believing themselves to be loved by God was not a lasting experience.
[42:14] If you read John Calvin's comments on this, it's his opinion that the people, when they experience a death or when they experience negative onslaughts onslaughts on their passion and they bring the thought of God's love to bear upon that experience, they will say, well, does God really love us?
[42:49] He says he does, but this is no confirmation to us. It works against that thought. God's love and the people of God are at this point, although they are encouraged to remember what God did in the past, what God did when he took Israel out of Egypt, what God did when he revealed himself to them from the mount and gave them his commandments, he gave them an expression of his love even in giving them his love, convincing them that he did indeed love them, but as time progresses these things are forgotten and these things are denied.
[43:43] And they may be thinking at this point there is no present day equivalent of that love. You may think one of my thoughts went to the way Peter was speaking to the church in the New Testament and he was saying to the church there that there were those living in his generation who were convinced that God did not love his people.
[44:16] Scoffers, he says, walking after their own lusts, where is the promise of his coming? And that was more or less saying God has loved this people, has promised this people that he would come again and restore his name and his glory, but he has forgotten us.
[44:40] He's gone and there's no sign of him returning. And very often what you find is that the spirit that was being confronted here by the prophet is alive and well in every generation.
[44:57] Where God's love is questioned, where God's love is challenged, where God's capacity to love is brought under the microscope. And yet the very people he is speaking to here, there are people who are so wicked, and who are so determined to follow the path of wickedness that you would think God would be right to turn his back upon them permanently.
[45:33] And maybe that's the way many people are today in her generation. The God of old is a God who is really a fiction creation, because what the God of old did, he doesn't do today.
[45:51] But that is so wrong, and that is so at odds with the scripture that tells us the God of old is the God of today, and the God of tomorrow. Our God is from everlasting to everlasting God, and whatever he has done in the past he can do in the present, and he is able to do in the future.
[46:14] Our God is the creator God, the God we are told in the scripture who created the world by the world of his power in the space of six days, and all very good, he created all things ex nihilo.
[46:28] The power was his, and as creator he accepted it in the way that he chose to accept it. That power has not diminished, that power has not been exhausted, that God is not a different God to the God that exists today.
[46:46] He is the God that the psalmist speaks of, who is able to divide the flame, the God who is able to bring the howling wilderness under his sovereign sphere.
[47:02] He dries up the sea. He is able to do it. He has power to do it. that power has not changed.
[47:14] But the most significant thing is this, that he exerted power in the coming of Jesus Christ, the power to save sinners from their sin.
[47:29] And he does not need to exert that power anymore. It is done. Christ came, Christ died on the cross, Christ rose from the dead, Christ lives at the right hand of his majesty on high, and Christ would come again, and God does not need to prove to anyone that he possesses that power, because that is the only power needed to save sinners from their sin.
[47:57] And every sinner needs to be reminded of that. And the Lord has appeared of old, and when we read that, we are reminded of the appearances of God, not just as the creator, not just as the sovereign Lord who is able to act on behalf of his people in straitened circumstances, but the God who exercises power in the salvation of the fallen race of Adam.
[48:26] And he is not bound to reveal this mighty arm in any other way, but we are encouraged to remind ourselves of it, because we are told that God loved with everlasting love.
[48:50] What he said before, he still says, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. To be loved by God is surely a wonderful thing to the recipient of that love.
[49:11] There is no human equivalent. And I was thinking to myself, what if somebody asked you, what is it like to be loved by this God?
[49:25] God? What is it like to be loved by this God? What answer would I give? What answer could I give?
[49:38] Where would I start? Where would I begin to speak of being the beneficiary of this love?
[49:50] And it may be that when my thoughts went to this people, that Jeremiah was speaking to, a people who had hearts that were desperately wicked.
[50:06] Somebody who, by God's grace, has discovered the wickedness of the heart of man.
[50:19] You know, people told me a long time ago how desperately wicked my heart was. I didn't believe it. I didn't believe it.
[50:33] And yet, when God exposes our heart to his scrutiny, when we experience the holy eye of God fixed upon this polluted, beautiful mass that is our heart, heart, what do we do?
[50:56] Well, we don't. If we don't look heavenwards, we can hardly raise our eyes from the dust. And then, when we realise that, and we realise that in the gospel of his grace, he exerts, he expends, he displays, he directs love towards the unlovable.
[51:29] When we can't even love ourselves, it is an amazing thing to think that this God loves us, with an everlasting love, with an unchanging love.
[51:44] love. And we get it so wrong, you see, when we think, when we think the way the world thinks, and when we think of love the way the world thinks of love, it can be so quickly quenched, it can be so quickly suffocated, it can be so quickly made to be as if it was of no significance, because we think in worldly terms about love, and we think God will stop to love those that he says he would love with an eternal love, but he says he does, that because he can't but love his own.
[52:33] Someone tells the story of a mother's love, a child, no longer a child, but a child, nevertheless, who had been raised in a loving home and who had again and again kicked over the traces and gone away from the instruction of the home, gone away pursuing the things that life brought their way that they wanted to enjoy, regardless of cost.
[53:05] home, and on one occasion, the home received a phone call from the police station to collect this wayward child who had been arrested for drink driving, and the mother or the father went to collect the child, well not a child, but their child, and the journey home was cold, frosty, and silent, and the story goes that nothing was said until the following afternoon, and the mother presented this son or daughter with a box wrapped, and in the box was a stone, or a bit of a rock, and a piece of paper, or a card with it, saying this rock is two million years old, but my love will never be spent, were it to last for two million years, and we know what that mother was saying, no matter what I will love you, but the
[54:26] Bible says something like that, prophet Isaiah says, but Zion said, the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord has forsaken me, can a woman forget her sibling child, that she shall not have compassion on the son of her womb, and the prophet Isaiah is there saying, there is no greater love than the love of a mother for a child, it's so great that it's hardly possible for you to think of that mother forgetting her child, but God says, yea, they may forget, they may forget, yet I will not forget thee, behold, I have graven thee on the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me, later on, the same prophet says, for the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the
[55:41] Lord, that hath mercy on thee. The prophet is saying something here about the love of God that we must not forget.
[55:56] He does not forget his people, because he loves them, no matter what, and we think that because we do this or we do that, that God's love will in some way be deflected, or that his love will be diminished by our behaviour.
[56:24] His love has no beginning, and his love has no end, because it is like himself. Therefore, he says, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee.
[56:45] Now, looking at that, you would think that the prophet should use the same word. Therefore, with everlasting love have I drawn thee, have I drawn thee.
[57:02] He uses the word loving kindness, and it may make more sense to us because of the fact that the reason for the permanent abiding existence of God's love is this, that his love is not just the love of God for his people, it is the covenant love of God for his people.
[57:33] It flows from the covenant, it flows from this commitment that God has made at the very beginning, even before the world was.
[57:48] Matthew Henry, in his comments, draws attention to this. Those whom God loves with his love, he will draw into covenant with himself by the influences of his spirit, and also into the communication or the communion that they will enjoy with himself.
[58:16] God's people are a favored people. You know, the divine Hugh Martin, speaking about something completely different, but something perhaps very much related.
[58:33] He uses the image of the nature of God. He says that when God reconciled the sinner to himself, the sinner was reconciled by way of the door of the cross.
[58:58] And when God did that, he brought in what is clearly demonstrated in the scripture as a everlasting righteousness. That righteousness which God's own righteousness requires him to require.
[59:20] Think of that. The basis upon which the salvation of the sinner rests is one provided by God and which needed to be provided by him because nothing less than what he provided would satisfy, would meet the requirement.
[59:42] no love less, no love lesser than the love of God would meet the need that a fallen sinner has.
[59:58] The Lord appeared of old unto me. Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee.
[60:09] love of love. And you know, this is really something that gladdens the heart of the believer who sees the grief caused by wayward sons and wayward daughters and wayward professors of faith in Christ.
[60:31] that there is an abiding love fixed upon them and there is an abiding love that draws them to him however far from the fold they go.
[60:50] Nothing but nothing will defeat God's purposes in that way. when we read through this book of the prophet we see so many heartaches, so many reasons for grief and for sorrow for people who God knows have forgotten him.
[61:18] And yet he makes known to these people the nature of his love. And we should remember that even when we are in the midst of a pandemic still, you can think of everything that has been changed and everything that has been affected and everything that has been brought to a halt perhaps never to be restored.
[61:47] And there may be many things you can think of, but in the middle of it all God remains God. and his love remains eternal.
[62:01] Just as he is unchanging, his love remains unchanging. May you experience it being shed abroad in your heart as a beneficiary and a recipient of his grace through Christ.
[62:16] Let us pray. Lord of God, we can speak of something that is unspeakable in the sense at which we find ourselves trying to speak of things that are beyond us and yet we give thanks that you have chosen to reveal such to us in your word, to speak of it and to speak of it through your servants.
[62:44] we pray that you would be able, that we would be able with your help to sing the song of your servant who said that he loved the Lord because your voice sent.
[63:02] Our prayer would you heard and we pray that you would remember us each one. Here are petitions for giving us sins in Jesus. Amen.
[63:14] The closing psalm is psalm 89. Psalm 89 and verse 13. Thou hast an arm that's full of power thy hand is great in might and thy right hand exceedingly exalted is in height.
[63:31] Justice and judgment of thy throne are made with dwelling place. Mercy accompanied with truth shall go before thy face, O greatly blessed. The people are the joyful sound that know in brightness of thy face, O Lord, thee ever on shall go.
[63:48] They in thy name shall all the day rejoice exceedingly and in thy righteousness shall the exalted be on high. These verses thou hast an arm that's full of power thy hand is great in might.
[64:06] Thou hast an arm that's full of power thy hand is with in might of know be what own star in death is Child I'm just as able, I know, Fucked me with freedom, siem for sin.
[65:04] Come, O behold, thy face. O greatly blessed the people of the joyful London, and brightness of thy face, O Lord, never onshadow.
[65:47] The end of the day shall all the day rejoice and see me.
[66:05] And let thy righteousness shall be exalted be, O Lord.
[66:25] May grace, mercy, and peace be God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, rest and abide with you all, never and always. Amen.