If you would, take your Bible and open it up to the 31st chapter of Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 31. This morning, I want to speak on the subject of the greatest evidence of God's goodness. The greatest evidence of God's goodness. And so I would like for you to look with me now in Jeremiah 31. I want to read verses 1-3 at this time for our text this morning. Look to God's Word as I look to it and listen attentively as I read these three verses from Jeremiah 31, beginning with verse 1 this morning. The prophet says at the same time. Well, this was a time to bring you in touch with the context that God was working in the hearts of a rebellious people. and bringing them to repentance once again, causing them to see that they had been disobedient to the Lord and had actually become idolatrous and were carried off into captivity because of it. Jeremiah's whole book is primarily about this and his lamentation. Another book that he wrote which follows the book of Jeremiah in our Bibles is his lamenting over the ungodliness of God's people and their need for repentance. And Jeremiah cries out to the Lord with a broken heart and actually pours out tears before God that God might do work in the hearts of His people. And God is in the process of doing that and telling them what He's going to do to bring them back into a right relationship with Him. And this is somewhat of the context we find ourselves in here at this portion of Jeremiah. And so He says, at the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel. Have you ever stopped to think about what the word Israel means? Have you ever looked up the definition of Israel? It literally means power with God. Power with God. The children of Israel are children who experience in their own lives the power of God at work within them. Isn't it amazing? To be a child of God. To know that you are a child of God only because of the working of God's power in you. And that when God begins to work His power in you, He never ceases to do so. Day in and day out, He abides with us. He's promised never to leave us, never to forsake us. If God doesn't leave us, God's power doesn't leave us, does it? God's people have power with God. And so the Lord says, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, those who actually have power with God. And they shall be My people. Thus saith the Lord, the people which were left of the sword, those who didn't perish, in the process of being carried off into captivity, found grace in the eyes of the Lord in the wilderness. You remember what happened in the days of Noah? God told Noah to build an ark because he was about to destroy. all living things, man, animal, and everything off the face of the earth because of the sinfulness and the ungodliness of man. He told Noah to build an ark to preserve himself and his family and the few animals that God would have Noah to bring into the ark. And the Scripture tells us that Noah was one who found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He didn't perish. There were many of the children of Israel that didn't perish because they found grace. The grace of God came to them in the wilderness. Even Israel, he says, when I went to cause him to rest. Now listen closely to verse 3 if you would. Jeremiah says, The Lord has appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea or yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. And there again, our King James has translated the word everlasting. I think probably a better translation, one that I'm sure some translations have, is the word eternal. When I think of everlasting, I tend to think of what is yet to come and something being forever in the future. But the word eternal points us in both directions, doesn't it? And in this particular case, it's needful that we see that that's what the scripture means when the word is translated either eternal or everlasting, because it certainly means eternity past. God said to Jeremiah, I have loved you with an eternal love. God Himself is eternal. He always has been, just as He always will be. And God says of His people, those who find grace in His sight, He has loved them eternally. and will do so everlastingly. Oh, if that's not enough. He doesn't stop there. He says, therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn you. Oh, it's one thing to have been loved by God for all of eternity past. But it's something quite much more, is it not? to be drawn by the cords of everlasting love to Him. For that is our great need, to be drawn to the Lord. We who are sinful, alienated from God, separated from God, just like the children of Israel were separated from that holy place and from the temple or from the tabernacle where God made His presence known, So we come into this world because of our sin, alienated, separated from a holy God, at enmity even to God, needing something to happen in order that we might be restored to God and reconciled to God. And it is this eternal love of God that works, drawing us unto Himself, that brings that about where nothing else ever could. or ever would. Oh, I want to speak this morning, if I can, of the existence of God's goodness, yes. But even more pointedly, to the greatest evidence of God's goodness. Would you bow with me again in prayer? Our dear Father, as we bow before You this morning, it is with much joy in our hearts as we do so because of Your eternal love. And that because of that eternal love and the cords of that eternal love that reached out and wrapped around our hearts and drew us in our sin unto You through the Savior, the Lord Jesus. in order that we might be reconciled to You and be accepted in Your holy presence. O Father, we come and we bow before You with joy and thanksgiving, asking, O God, that Your presence would be known to us, and that as You make Your presence known to us, You would speak to our hearts, revealing Yourself clearly. and more fully. Lord, help us as we seek to draw near to You this morning. This being my prayer, in Jesus' precious name, Amen. Where are we? Where are we this morning? I'm not talking about our physical location, okay? We're here in Donna and my house gathered to worship the Lord. But where have we come this morning? Have we not come already back to that museum of finest art? Isn't that what we've done when we opened up the Scripture, the Word of God, and read God's Word where He makes Himself known unto us? Let me ask you this morning. Has God ever revealed Himself to you? You know, for Sunday after Sunday after Sunday now, I've invited you to come and go along with me into this museum where I've pointed out to you in the Scripture those portions of God's Word where He makes Himself known in His characteristics, character and His attributes, revealing unto us what God is like. And perhaps you've had folks talk to you often in the past from time to time, telling you about God, who He is to them, and what He means to them, and what He's like, and all of that. But the fact of the matter is, though we are called and even commanded to do that, and do it, we do, every Lord's Day, and perhaps we have the opportunity to do that day in and day out through the week. It is utterly impossible, though I talk to you about Him and what He's like, it's impossible for me to really introduce you to Him beyond that point. And we've talked about this before. God has to introduce Himself to you if you are to come to know Him and see Him. I was thinking this morning about Moses. Moses, how his life was miraculously preserved. You want to just turn back here for just a moment with me to Exodus chapter 3. Moses, you know, was an Israelite, born of an Israelite family, a family among many of God's people at that time who were actually slaves in Egypt. And they were growing so rapidly in the nation of Egypt, God's people were, that Pharaoh began to be alarmed and he decided, well, he's just going to have all the male children that are born to the Israelites put to death, going to have them killed. Well, the Scripture tells us that Moses' parents when he was born saw that he was a goodly child. We'll not go into what that means. But at any rate, they just simply refused to turn him over so that he could be slain and killed. And so, his mother made a little ark out of the bulrushes or out of the reeds there by the lake and placed him in it and set him afloat out in the lake. Well, Pharaoh's daughter happened to come down to bathe. And they saw this ark floating out there and so she had it brought to her and found this baby in it and actually took Moses to be her own and raised him actually in Pharaoh's household. And God in His providence worked miraculously and had, was it Moses' mother or his sister? One of them was actually called to be the nursemaid to take care of him. I should know that and I've forgotten which it was, but I think it was his mother, was it not? But at any rate, he was raised in Pharaoh's household. And I'm sure that being raised, even though in Pharaoh's household, being raised with his mother, he heard about the Lord. He heard about the Lord. And he knew for that reason, when he grew up, that he wasn't really an Egyptian, and he refused to be called an Egyptian, and sided with an Israelite that was being abused by one of the Egyptians, and actually killed that Egyptian, tried to hide him in the sand, and was unsuccessful, and was found out, and had to run and flee. And so Moses, one who grew up hearing about the Lord, I'm sure his mother told him much about him, what God was like and things that God had done for them in the past. But Moses himself had never met God. God had not Himself made Himself known to Moses until Moses had to run out of Egypt and he was out on the back side of the desert later, tending the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro. And you remember what happened? Look with me in Exodus 3. Scripture tells us now, Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed." An amazing thing in and of itself, was it not? A bush that was on fire and it just burned and burned and burned and yet never burned up. And so the scripture says that Moses said, well, I'm going to now turn aside and see this great sight. Why this bush is not burned. Well, what was happening here? God was getting Moses' attention, wasn't he? God was getting Moses' attention. And God uses various ways to get our attention. He may not use the same thing in my life as He uses in yours, but when God is ready, He will get our attention as He did with Moses. And why was it He wanted to get Moses' attention? Listen, if you would. It says that when the Lord saw that He turned aside to see, God called to Him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses! Moses! And Moses said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not near here, put off your shoes from off your feet, for the place whereon you stand is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am. The God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. Do you see what's happening in this passage of Scripture? Do you see what Moses is recording is actually taking place? This man Moses, who had undoubtedly from his mother heard about God most all of his life, to the point that he realized he wasn't an Egyptian, he was an Israelite, he was one of those that God had called to be a special people, and yet he had never met God. His mother had sought to introduce God to him undoubtedly, to no avail. But when God was ready, He got Moses' attention. God uses strange things at times to get our attention. Sometimes He uses things that happen out in the world to alarm us, and I'm sure God may be doing that in the hearts and lives of some today, even here in this country. I know my heart has grown alarmed from time to time when I think about what's going on. God uses things like that. God uses illness. God uses illness to get our attention. And why is that? Because God would make Himself known to us. God would reveal Himself to us. And oh, it is my heart's desire and prayer that God will get all of our attention this morning as we stand before this portrait of God, this self-portrait that we've begun to consider together referred to and called the goodness of God. The goodness of God. And just as Moses, when he saw that bush burning that got his attention, decided, I'm going to turn aside and see in this great sight. He wanted to know what it was that made that bush burn and yet not be consumed. I'm praying this morning that God will get all of our attention. and that God will create a desire in our heart to want to know. And we can be encouraged to know that if we were to turn back just a little bit there, back before our text in Jeremiah 31, to the 29th chapter of Jeremiah. There, Jeremiah, the prophet tells us, beginning with verse 10, Thus saith the Lord, after seventy years is accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word unto you in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Why were the children of Israel carried off into captivity in Babylon? God wanted to get their attention, didn't He? God wanted to get their attention. And God got their attention. And then what does He say in verse 12? Then shall you call upon Me, and you shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you, and you shall seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Oh, when God gets our attention. One of the first things He begins to do is to stir up in our heart a desire to know what this is all about. Why is this happening in my life? What is it that's taking place? And oh, when we begin to seek to know, it very well may be that God will make Himself known to us. As we consider this morning this self-portrait of God called His goodness, let me assure you beyond any shadow of a doubt that God is indeed good. I was thinking about this perhaps yesterday sometime and even again into the night after I'd gone to bed last night, about the times that I've had folks say to me things like, how can you try to tell me that God is good? Such a God that allows things to happen in this world like are happening all around us. All of the sickness, all the illness, all the poverty, and perhaps you've heard some of the same things. That's not a good God. and try as we will to convince them sometimes we're not able. Why is that? Why is that? Because they don't know God. They don't know Him. Though we try to tell them about God and His goodness, until God gets their attention and makes Himself known to them, they will not see the goodness of God or any other attribute of the God of Scripture as He really is. Oh, that God would do that this morning. As I begin to think about this particular attribute of God, and the goodness of God. I went to my concordance, my Strong's concordance, which is an exhaustive concordance, and I began to look up all the references that would point me to those passages of Scripture that talk about the goodness of God, and I was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed! with how often, how frequently in the Scripture we are told of God's goodness and flat out, point blank, told God is good. God is good. We don't have time this morning, but if you were to look in the Psalms alone, you would find beginning with Psalm 25, Psalm 34, Psalm 86, Psalm 100, Psalm 106, Psalm 118, Psalm 136, and I've left out a lot of them. There you would find God through the psalmist saying so pointedly and so clearly, the Lord our God is good. He is good. So, let it be settled this morning before we go any further in our consideration of the goodness of God, that whether you see it or whether you know it or not, nevertheless, it remains and abides to be true. God is good. God is good. Well, last week, I can recall telling you that the goodness of God, as we read of it in the Scripture, has several facets really to it. We look at it from different angles, kind of like a diamond. We've talked about salvation being a precious jewel or a diamond with many facets on it, and all the different facets of salvation. the election of God being a facet of salvation. We could go on talking about the justification, the sanctification, the glorification, redemption, forgiveness, all of these different things being facets on that beautiful jewel that just highlight and magnify the glory of salvation itself. So the goodness of God as we see it in the scripture is another precious gem or jewel or diamond, like that, with many facets on it. And I mentioned to you about four of those facets last week, one of them being God's pity. God's goodness is revealed in the Scripture in His showing pity to those who are passing through trying, difficult, distressful times. And I told you you could turn to the 107th Psalm and find there how that God reveals to us four different instances of folks going through stressful and distressful times and difficult times, and when they cried unto the Lord, He delivered them out of all their distress. That's God's pity. God's goodness made known unto us in His pitying those in their distress and in their difficulties and in their problems. And isn't it amazing that when God does that, God does pity us and God does make His goodness known to us in delivering us from those things. How often so quickly we revert back to the same things that got us in that distress in the first place. We're so prone to that. One of the hymns that we sing, the hymn writer says, prone to leave the God I love. Isn't it true how we're so prone to do that? How prone we are to take our eyes off of Him, even after He has just delivered us out of some distressful, troublesome time in our lives, and we see the goodness of God continues to work in God's patience with us. God's goodness is revealed in His patience toward us. His long-suffering toward us. Peter tells us in 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 9 that the long-suffering of God is toward us. God's long-suffering toward us. We, yes, we rebel against God, we disobey God, but God continues to be long-suffering and patient toward us. Isn't that another evidence of God's goodness to us? God's goodness. We talked also very briefly about the praiseworthiness of God because of His faithfulness. How praiseworthy God is because of His faithfulness. Is it not evidence of God's goodness that He is faithful? We've talked about the passage of Jeremiah, as he wrote in Lamentations chapter 3, how His mercy just comes fresh every morning, His compassions fail not. God is forever faithful. and worthy of our praise because of not only His faithfulness, but also His patience and His pity toward us, which are all evidences of His goodness. But I want us to go even further than those things this morning. I want us to see the facet on that precious jewel of God's goodness that is perhaps the greatest of all of them, and that being God's sovereign, redemptive love. God's sovereign, redemptive love. One man I read in a note in my study Bible said, the supreme expression of God's goodness. And I've come to agree with it, as I'm sure many of you have as well. The supreme expression of God's goodness is the love that saves sinners who deserve only condemnation. Saving them, moreover, at the cost of Christ's death on the cross. Paul speaks of that, does he not, in Romans chapter 5, when he says, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were yet sinners. God's goodness. The supreme expression of it. His sovereign, redemptive love. Did you listen to our text this morning? Did you listen closely? What was it He said in verse 3? I have loved you with an eternal love and with loving kindness have I drawn you. Jeremiah 31.3 With loving kindness have I drawn you. And when was this eternal love set upon us? When was it set upon us? Well, God looked down through the corridors of future time, and He saw that I was going to do some good things. I was going to be a good neighbor. And most of the time, I was going to be a good husband. Part of the time, I'd be a good father. And so God decided to set His love upon me. He says, is it? Even while we were yet sinners. The love of God which was set upon us from before the foundation of the world worked. Worked. such that Christ died for me when I was a sinner, unworthy, deserving of all the wrath and the condemnation of a righteous, just, and holy God. Does not the Scripture tell us in the book of Romans chapter 9, Esau have I loved, but Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated? Just about got that turnaround backwards, didn't it? Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Why was that? Well, it wasn't because God saw that Jacob was going to do something good. As a matter of fact, even Jacob's name tells us he was a scoundrel, a schemer, a trickster, someone who was deceptive and a lawbreaker, if you will. Probably much worse than Esau, the truth be known. And the Scripture tells us before either one of them ever had any opportunity, before they were born, before they could do good or bad, even before that, God said, Jacob have I loved, that he shall have I had. I have loved you with an eternal love. Before time began, before creation existed, the love of God was set upon a people. If we come to the book of James chapter 1, maybe we ought to just turn there. Turn with me to James chapter 1. As I've thought about this particular attribute of God, His goodness, time and time again this verse has come to my heart. Where James tells us in the first chapter of James, let me just begin reading with verse 16 if I could. and you listen and follow along if you'd like in your Bible. Here, James tells us, do not err, my beloved brethren. Don't be mistaken about this. James wants us to get this settled in our minds and in our hearts right now before we even read further. Don't err, my beloved brethren, he says. Every good and every perfect gift. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. The Father of lights, the Father of purity, the Father of holiness, the God of holiness, who never changes. He is immutable. Remember, we talked about that attribute of God. God is immutable. If He was holy in the beginning, He is holy still. Anything that comes from God must come out of His holiness, His goodness, His purity, His sinlessness. Every good gift and every perfect gift. That's why everything that comes to us Though it be viewed by us as something good, or for a time be viewed by us as something not so good, it's good and perfect. Why? Because it comes out of the goodness of God for His glory and for our good. As Paul said, we know That all things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. Those who are not only loved eternally. And you know, he says those who love God. Why do we love God? Why does anybody love God? 1 John chapter 4 verse 19 is it? We love Him. Why? Because He first loved us. Therefore, we know that all things, being good gifts and perfect gifts from God, all things that come into our lives work together for our good to those who are who love God, those who were first of all loved by God in order that they might love God, and those who are called. Who is that? But those who are drawn by the cords of everlasting love to Him. Every good and every perfect gift come down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning of His own will. Begat He us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures? Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, quicken, Begotten of God, made alive unto God. What's he speaking about? The gift of life. The gift of life. We come into this world, we don't have life, do we? Oh, we're alive physically. But we're not alive spiritually, we're not alive unto God. We're alienated from God, separated from the life of God, without life. Just like God said we would be when he spoke to Adam and Eve and told them if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in that day they would surely die. and die they did. Even physical death set in, but much more importantly was the fact that they died spiritually, which destroyed their awareness of God. They had no life. They had no spiritual life, whereby they might know God and fellowship with God as they once did. Oh, but every good and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights. What is the most perfect and the best gift of all? What is it? God's eternal love whereby He draws us unto Himself. Isn't that it? It's described in various ways in the Scripture. Perhaps the most familiar verse in all of the Bible to people is John 3.16. What does that verse tell us? For God so loved the world. What is the so loved calling our attention to? He so loved us. It calls our attention to the eternal love of God. The eternal love of God. That's the so love that John is writing about there. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. that whoever would believe in Him should not perish, should not abide in death forever, but should be made alive unto God, should be quickened unto God, begotten again unto a living hope through the Lord Jesus Himself. That's the greatest gift of all, is it not? That's the greatest gift of all. And oh, then to think that God gave His Son, God gave His Son, the Lord Jesus, in order that we might, who are dead to God, be given life and restored unto a right relationship to Him. The greatest gift of all. And then Paul goes on to write in Romans chapter 8, he said, He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? All the good and perfect gifts that come out of the goodness of God are given to us in Christ. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places belong to believers in Christ. Oh, what an amazing thing. The Gospel. The Gospel. is a part of that good, is it not, that God gives? It's the gospel which is literally good news. Where does good news come from? Only from a good source. Only out of the goodness of God does good news come. And that good news is what God uses for what? To make us aware. to make us aware of His eternal goodness toward us. The gospel is that which God uses to make us alive unto Himself. James will tell us here, "...of His own will begat He us with the word of truth." That's the gospel. That's the gospel. Peter tells us that we're born again of an incorruptible seed, which is the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. That's the Gospel. That's the Good News. It makes known unto us the greatest evidence of God's goodness. That being His eternal love that draws us under Himself. Oh, there's so much more we ought to consider in regard to God's goodness and what it means to us. I hesitate to go on this morning due to time because we just get started. So I think I'll just begin to wrap this up this morning and encourage you to consider if you would all throughout this week the everlasting eternal love of God and how God in that love that he set upon us from before the foundation of the world in and through the gift of his Eternal Son grew us unto Himself. Jesus coming into this world to die in our place in order that we might be pardoned and forgiven of our sin and granting us a knowledge of that. And through the knowledge of that, the everlasting cords of God's eternal love draws us to Christ, causes us to see that our only hope is in coming to Him, putting our faith and our trust in Him and in Him alone. May God so work in our hearts all through this week, those of us in whom God has done such a work. May it humble us. May it humble us in His presence. May it create within us an awe, an awe of God's goodness to us. And may we all go throughout this week standing amazed in the presence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who makes known unto us God's eternal goodness. by drawing us by the cords of His eternal love unto Himself through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. May God do such a thing in all of our hearts and in all of our lives. It will be my prayer that God will do that in your heart. That God will just make Himself known to you like He did to Moses there in Exodus chapter 3. Reveal Himself to you. And in revealing Himself unto you, begin to reveal unto you all those glorious attributes in His character, in His person, who He is and what He's like. May God be pleased to do such a thing in your heart. Would you bow with me in prayer?