Everlasting Love Revealed

Everlasting Love Revealed

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 15, 1890,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"The Lord has appeared of old unto me, saying, Yes, I have loved you
with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
you." Jeremiah 31:3.

THUS speaks the Israel of God. She seems to wake up as if she had long
been asleep and had forgotten a grand fact– a fact which she ought to
have treasured up in her fondest memory. Suddenly startling into
recollection, she cries, "The Lord has appeared of old unto me." How
strange that she should have forgotten it! Her spiritual lethargy had
dimmed her memory and caused her to feel and act as if it were not
true, as if her God had never revealed Himself to her. Then she saw
with amazement that notwithstanding all the heavy chastisement which
the Lord had sent her and notwithstanding all her backslidings, there
was still a hope of mercy, no, there was the certainty of it, for the
unchanging God had said, "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting
love."

Are any of you forgetful or unaware of this sacred Truth of God? Has it
never occurred to you that God has spoken to His people? Though you are
a child of God, have you been taken up with so many inferior things
that you have let go the blessed memory of former appearances of the
Lord to your soul? May the Holy Spirit awake you at this time! May
there come a blessed awakening hour to your drowsy spirits! This
startling remembrance came to Israel at a time when her sorrows were
very great and her sins were greater, still. She had been wounded so
that she was sick and sore–and she found no healing medicine–and none
to bind up her wounds. In her distress she remembered not only her
faults, but also the former loving kindnesses of her Lord.

She gathered from that ancient assurance of Divine Grace that her God
loved her, still, and would return to her in great mercy. She dwelt
with hope upon that Divine assurance of irrevocable favor–"I have
loved you with an everlasting love." When earthly joys ebb out, it is a
blessed thing if they make room for memories of heavenly visitations
and gracious assurances! When you are at your lowest, it may happen
that then the God of All Grace comes in and brings to your remembrance
the love of your espousals and the joy of former days, when the candle
of the Lord shone round about you.

At the same time, it was not merely a time of inward sorrow, but a
period of refreshing from the Presence of the Lord, for Jehovah was
speaking in tones of Sovereign Grace and pouring forth great rivers of
promises and seas of mercy. See the first verse–"At the same time,
says the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel and they
shall be My people." Sometimes you pour water down a dry pump and that
sets it working so that it pours forth streams of its own and so, when
our gracious God pours in His love into the soul, our own love begins
to flow and with it memories awake and a thousand recollections cause
us to bring to mind the ancient love in which we before delighted, and
we cry, "The Lord has appeared of old unto me."

It only needs a touch, this morning, of that pierced hand to make our
hard hearts soft! If our Divine Lord will only come by His Spirit and
visit us as we sit in these pews, the waters of love will flow within
until the wilderness shall become a pool and the dry land springs of
water! Long may we have suffered a great decay of spiritual life, but
we shall, on a sudden, be restored and then our hearts will burn and
glow with holy attachment to Him whose love has not changed, though we
have so sadly fallen. God grant it may be so! May a renewed appearing
of the Lord revive our joy in His appearing of old! While you are
sitting there, listening to my words, may a still small voice be heard
within your souls, melting your hearts and causing you to say, "Yes, I
had almost forgotten it, but 'The Lord has appeared of old unto me,
saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love.'"

May the grand discovery of everlasting love be made by many of you for
the first time in your lives! Oh, for the surprises of Almighty Grace!
As when one in plowing stumbles on treasure hid in a field and rejoices
exceedingly, even so

may you rejoice in newly discovered love! Or if you know it already,
may you feel its drawings for the thousandth time and may it be to you
still fresh and new, as though you had never felt it before. The visits
of God's Grace and the discoveries of His love to our hearts never grow
stale! We can go over this heavenly ground again and again and always
behold new glories in it! May an overpowering memory of the Lord's love
come over us all at this time, by the power of the Holy Spirit!

I shall handle the text, first, by calling your attention to the
marvelous appearing–"The Lord has appeared of old unto me." Secondly,
to the matchless declaration–"Saying, Yes, I have loved you with an
everlasting love." And thirdly, to the manifest evidence of this
love–"Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you." May the Holy
Spirit be poured forth, anointing every word I speak with Divine
unction and may this discourse be precious to His people!

I. First, consider THE MARVELLOUS APPEARING–"The Lord has appeared of
old unto me." Here are two persons, but how different in degree! Here
we have, "me," a good-for-nothing creature, apt to forget my Lord and
to live as if there were no God–yet He has not ignored or neglected
me. There is the High and Holy One, whom the Heaven of heavens cannot
contain and He has appeared to me. Between me and the great Jehovah
there have been communications–the solitary silences have been
broken–"The Lord has appeared," has appeared "unto me."

He has looked through the window. He has shown Himself through the
lattices–"The Lord has appeared." Hundreds in this House of Prayer can
each one say, without doubt or hesitation, "The Lord has appeared unto
me." Perhaps of late the Lord has manifested Himself to you as He does
not unto the world, but even if it has not been so just now, yet there
was a happy time, now in the old long ago, when you saw the Lord. This
is a very wonderful thing, that Jehovah the Eternal should reveal
Himself to the creature of an hour–that the thrice Holy should speak
to the greatly guilty! See here we have "the Lord" and "me"–and
between these two, this is the golden link, an appearance in infinite
love–"The Lord has appeared unto me."

That the All-Glorious should put in an appearance among His angels and
unveil Himself to Cherubim and Seraphim, I can more easily understand.
But it is incomprehensible that the Creator of the ends of the earth,
of whose understanding there is no searching, should visit me, a sinful
child of man! Yet this which surpasses understanding is undoubtedly
true. My Brothers and Sisters, we have enjoyed the Supernatural–we
have risen out of the region of materialism into the spirit realm where
God dwells and condescends to commune with mortal men! We can say, "The
Lord has appeared unto me." It was necessary that He should do so, for
nothing but His appearing could have scattered our darkness, removed
our death and brought us salvation.

It needed that He should appear, for nothing but a vision of His love
could have won our hearts for Himself and delivered them from the
fascinations of this present evil world. Tell it among the skeptics and
the earthworms–"The Lord has appeared unto me." I care not who
questions it, for the results of His gracious visit are in my Nature
and my life! The event is recorded in the diary of my memory in
indelible ink! But it is also written in my soul and the experience of
every day deepens the inscription! Is not this even as the Lord
promised of old, "They shall all know Me, from the least of them unto
the greatest of them"?

Do I hear some asking, How is this? I understand that God appeared to
Israel, but how to me? Let me picture the discovery of Grace as it
comes to the awakening mind, when it learns to sit at the feet of
Jesus, saved by faith in the great Sacrifice. Touched by the Spirit of
God, we find that the Lord appeared to each one of us in the promises
of His work. Every promise in God's Word is a promise to every
Believer, or to every character such as that to which it was first
given. When God said this or that to the saints of old, my Soul, He
said it to you! I read the word as first spoken to Abraham, Moses, or
David–but in very deed each utterance is for me! What a discovery!
This Bible is God's letter of love to me! No promise of the Word of God
is for one individual only. Though the promise was whispered in one ear
at first, that one favored person was the representative of all who
have like faith.

With what delight you will now read your Bibles, when you can see that
in them the Lord has appeared of old unto you and spoken words of love
to you personally! Does the Word of God speak to Believers? I am a
Believer and therefore it speaks to me. Does the Word speak to praying
men and women? I pray–it speaks to me. The richest word in all that
Book is as much the inheritance of the Believer today as it was the
heritage of David and we may find the words of the Lord and eat them as
the Bread of our souls, as Jeremiah did, for, in this sacred Book, "The
Lord has appeared of old" to each one of His believing family.

Furthermore, "The Lord has appeared of old unto me," in the Person of
His Son. God came to each Believer in Christ Jesus. God came in
boundless love to each one of us as "Immanuel, God with us." Towards
each one of us He "took upon Him the form of a servant, and humbled
Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross."
Listen, my Heart! In His Manhood and humiliation the Lord God appeared
to you! On the Cross your Lord Jesus showed Himself to you in love. Now
you have found it out, is it not a glorious discovery? It was not only
for the innumerable multitude that Jesus died, but for you, my Soul,
for YOU! I wish, Beloved, we could always look upon Jesus as God's
embodied love to us–to us in particular. Will you take a faith-view of
Jesus at this time as dying for sinners and for you as a sinner in
particular? Say, "Yes, 1,800 years ago and more, the Lord in the Person
of His dear Son appeared unto me in Gethsemane and on Calvary as my
Lord and my God, and yet my Substitute and Savior."

Since then, the Lord has constantly appeared unto us in the power of
His Holy Spirit. Do you remember when first your sin was set in order
before your tearful eyes and you trembled for fear of the justice which
you had provoked? Do you remember when you heard the story of the
Crucified Redeemer? When you saw the atoning Sacrifice? When you looked
to Jesus and were lightened? It was the Holy Spirit who was leading you
out of yourself–and God by the Holy Spirit was appearing unto you. How
long has it been? I hope I speak to some who have lately been renewed
by the Holy Spirit and to you this appearing is fresh as morning dew!
But I speak to many more whose call by Divine Grace was long ago.

It was "of old" that the Holy Spirit came into saving contact with your
spirit and drew you with the cords of love and with the bands of a man.
These past appearances have been eclipsed by others still more clear
and full but, at the same time, as Israel remembered the first Passover
as the beginning of things with the nation, so do you remember those
first appearances of the Lord–for then you began to live! Some of us
can remember where the Lord Jesus first met with us. Though it had been
in the desert as with Moses, or by the brook as with Jacob, or by the
city as with Joshua, or in the furnace as with Shadrach, we have
forever reckoned the place to be holiness unto the Lord. Call it
Jehovah-Shammah for the Lord was there!

Now, dear Friends, we hold this appearance in precious memory–"The
Lord has appeared of old unto me." Many things are preserved in the
treasure house of memory, but this is the choicest of our jewels. How
gracious, how glorious was the appearance of God in Christ Jesus to our
soul! God full of mercy, God mighty to save, God the salvation of His
people–what a sight is this! There was nothing like it at first! There
is nothing like it now! Nothing that has ever been discovered by us
since has borne comparison in preciousness to that marvelous
manifestation of the ever-loving God! Time may obliterate a thousand
memories but it can never wear away the recollection of the Lord's
appearances unto us!

This appearance came in private assurance. To me it was as personal as
it was sure. I used to hear the preacher, but then I heard my God! I
used to see the congregation but then I saw Him who is invisible. I
used to feel the power of words but now I have felt the immeasurable
energy of their substance. God Himself filled and thrilled my soul!
Through and through, His almighty love pierced my heart. I know that
some of you think that if God were to show Himself to you, as He did to
Moses or Elijah, it would be a vast blessing to you. But the Lord's
present appearances are not a whit less comforting and establishing.
Manifestations by His Word and Spirit are by no means second in value
to those of a miraculous sort. In no case can God, who is pure Spirit,
be seen by the eye–He is only known by our spirit–and therefore His
spiritual appearing is all we should desire.

Oh, the encompassing of Divine Love, when it wraps us about as a cloud
enfolded the disciples upon Tabor! When the sacred hand of Love grasps
our very heart, we feel the heavenly grip and every part and power of
our being is moved! God has an indescribable way of putting Himself
into communication with His people through Jesus Christ, by His Holy
Spirit and when this occurs, they say, "The Lord has appeared unto me."
There is, then, no hearing and seeing for other people–"The Lord has
appeared unto me." Come, my Brothers and Sisters, shall we go back to
that time of love when first the Lord said to us, "Live"? That was a
word, indeed! Then every word in the Bible seemed for us. When we went
up to the house of God every hymn and Scripture lesson was for us. And
when we heard the sermon the Lord manifested Himself in it to us. "He
loved me, and gave Himself for me" was our daily song, for He had,
personally, and of a surety, drawn near unto our soul and shed abroad
His love there by the Holy Spirit.

I cannot help calling your attention to the fact that the Lord came in
positive certainty. The text does not say, "I hoped so," or, "I thought
so," but, "The Lord has appeared of old unto me, saying." She who spoke
thus saw the

appearance and heard the speech. Brethren, be sure about your spiritual
experience! It would be a horrible thing to leave spiritual things a
matter of question, or to regard them as visionary and uncertain. To me
it is bliss to say, "I know Whom I have believed." My soul cannot
content herself with less than certainty. I desire never to take a step
upon an, "if," or a, "perhaps." I have often waited as to spiritual
movements till I could find beneath my foot one of God's shalls and
wills upon which I could securely stand. I can never be content with
the bare hope that I may be a child of God–I must have the Spirit
bearing witness with my spirit that I am born of God.

Give me Infallible Truth. I want facts, not fancies. O Beloved, let
your experience be made up of facts and not of notions and ideas! Seek
to use the plain, straightforward utterance of my text–"The Lord
appeared of old unto me, saying." If that is your case, you are happy.
If it is not so, you are in an evil plight, for you are evidently
without God and therefore without hope.

II. My second head is THE MATCHLESS DECLARATION–"The Lord has appeared
of old unto me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting
love." I do not want you, at this moment, so much to hear me and to
consider my statement, as to behold the appearance of the Lord and
enjoy for yourself personally and at once, the gracious assurance of
heavenly Grace. Here is a word from God of amazing love–Jehovah says,
"I have loved you." Think it over. Believe it. Stagger not at it. If
the husband should say to his wife, "I have loved you," she would
believe him–it would seem only natural that he should do so.

And when Jehovah says to you, a feeble woman, an unknown man, "I have
loved you," He means it. This is no fiction. God means by love what we
mean by it–only His love is higher, deeper, fuller, holier than ours
can ever be. Looking from His Throne, the insufferable light of which
your eye could not endure, Jehovah speaks in accents of fervent
affection and He says to you, "I have loved you." Get hold of this
Truth that God really loves you–that you are the object of the intense
delight of the Host High–and what more would you have? God's heart to
you is Love! Be amazed. Be enraptured with this!

Note, next, it is a declaration of unalloyed love. The Lord had been
bruising, wounding and crushing His people and yet He says, "I have
loved you." These cruel wounds were all in love. What? When He struck,
did He love? "Yes, I have loved you." What? When she was past human
help and foul with sin? "Yes," says He, "I have loved you." "But, Lord,
I have never been worthy of it." "No," He says, "but I have loved you
all the same." But, Lord, I have not been conscious of it. "I have
loved you all the same." But, Lord, I have run away from Your loving
guidance. "I have loved you all the same." God's heart to His people is
love, love, love, love, only love! Without beginning, without end,
without measure, without change is the love of Jehovah to His elect. "I
have loved you."

Oh, when I sat at home and tried to eat this roll, as the Prophet did,
it satiated my soul with fatness! I ardently wished that I might have
voice and strength to tell out this blessed Truth to you. And then I
thought–Well, what does it matter if I should be faint and feeble, if
they will only think of the text believingly–and get it into their
hearts by present enjoyment–it may even be better that the preacher
should be nowhere and the Truth should be all in all. When we drink
from the well we do not want the water to taste of the pitcher. If you
have nothing from me I hope you will have the more from my Master. You
will have no taste of me this morning, but only of this precious
declaration of the Lord. "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting
love."

It is love, love only, love always, love perfect, love to the
uttermost. This statement is a declaration of love in contrast with
certain other things. Did you notice in the 14th verse of the 30th
chapter, "All your lovers have forgotten you; they seek you not"? Let
me sound those two notes in sharp contrast–"All your lovers have
forgotten you," but–"I have loved you with an everlasting love." What
a difference between the false friendship of the world and sin–and the
changeless love of God! You, being earth-bound in heart, have been
going after your idols and they have all deceived you. You have been
trusting here and there and your trusts have all betrayed you! But the
Lord Jehovah says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love."

You have provoked Him to jealousy by gods which were no gods, but He
has never ceased His love. O Friends, how sadly have we erred by
spiritual idolatry! How often have we hewed out broken cisterns which
hold no water and yet our God loves us the same as always! What a
miracle of Grace is this! As for our love to Him, how fickle! We have
been hot today and cold tomorrow. Our love has been an April day–warm
sunshine and cold showers–but the Lord has loved

us with infinite constancy, even with an everlasting love! He has never
changed. He could not love us more–He would not love us less. "I have
loved you with an everlasting love."

The contrast is very beautiful if we place over against it either the
world's love to us, or our own love to God. Jehovah, when He came to
His people in Egypt, made Himself known as, "I Am that I Am"–the
immutable God who abides forever the same. As such He has revealed
Himself to us, for He is without variableness or shadow of turning. How
sweetly does Immutability smile on us as we hear it say, "Yes, I have
loved you with an everlasting love"! Thus, dear Friends, our text is a
word of love in the past–"I have loved you." We were rebels and He
loved us. We were dead in trespasses and in sins and He loved us. We
rejected His Divine Grace and defied His warnings, but He loved us. We
came to His feet all trembling and afraid–and He loved us and washed
us and robed us. He loved us and therefore He saved us.

Since then we have been earthly, sinful, changeful, unbelieving, proud,
foolish–but He has loved us without pause. We have been ill and racked
with pain, but He has loved us. We have lost our dearest relatives by
the Lord's hand, but even in this He loved us. Everything has been in a
whirl round about us, but He has loved us with fixed affection. Our
life has been a strange labyrinth, but He has loved us and that love
has been the clue of the maze. How sweet it is, Beloved, to roll up the
years gone by and put them away with this label–"Days of the loving
kindness of the Lord!" The matchless declaration of the text is a voice
of love in the present. The Lord loves the Believer now. Whatever
discomfort you are in, the Lord loves you. In this house, perhaps, your
heart is failing you with fear, but the Lord still says to you, "Yes, I
have loved you with an everlasting love."

"Everlasting" includes today. Things present are provided for as well
as things to come. External circumstances do not change the love of God
nor will your internal condition do so. Has He not said, "I am God, I
change not"? Everlasting love makes no leaps and jumps so as to leave
out this day of trouble and that hour of temptation. Even at this dark
hour your name is on the heart of your God. The text is a voice of love
in the future. It means, "I will love you forever." God has not loved
us with a love which will die out after a certain length of time–His
love is like Himself– "from everlasting to everlasting." If you will
read the chapter through to the end, you will see how God was about to
deal with His chosen. He says, "I will build you, and you shall be
built." "He that scattered Israel will gather him." "I will turn their
mourning into joy." "I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
These are outpourings of a love which goes on forever–

"Father, 'twas Your love that knew us Earth's foundations long before:

That same lo ve to Jesus drew us By its sweet constraining power, And
will keep us Safely now, and evermore."

It is a joy worth 10,000 worlds to have this assurance sealed in the
heart by the Holy Spirit! "I have loved you with an everlasting love."
This is a declaration of love secured to us–secured in many ways. Did
you observe in this chapter how the Lord secures His love to His
people, first, by a Covenant? Read the first verse–"I will be the God
of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people." See
further on from verse 31 to thirty-four. The Covenant is summed up in
these words, "I will be their God, and they shall be My people." And if
it is so, the Lord's love must, indeed, be everlasting. God has pledged
Himself to His saints by a Covenant of salt, "an Everlasting Covenant,
ordered in all things, and sure." The tenor of the Covenant is, "I
will, and they shall."

How my heart delights in this! God loves me with an everlasting love
and He embodies that love in an Everlasting Covenant. Further, this
love is secured by relationship. Will you dart your eye on to the 9th
verse and read the last part of it? "I am a Father to Israel, and
Ephraim is My firstborn." A man cannot get rid of fatherhood by any
possible means. Yes, though my boy should transgress and dishonor his
father's name, yet I am still his father. There is no getting out of
this relationship by any conceivable method and so, if, indeed, the
Lord is unto you a Father, He will always give you a father's love. In
your adoption and regeneration the Lord has avowed Himself to be your
Father and has virtually said, "I have loved you with an everlasting
love."

"The son abides always." "If children, then heirs." His love is pledged
again by redemption. Read the 11th verse– "For the Lord has redeemed
Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than
he." Would you see

the indenture of God's Covenant love? Behold it in the indented hands
and feet of the Crucified Redeemer! How shall Christ leave off loving
His people when He has their names engraved on the palms of His hands?
Redemption has sealed everlasting love. That spear which found His
heart and set flowing its blood and its water has killed all doubts as
to the eternal endurance of our Lord's love! From now on let no man
question our Well-Beloved, for He bears in His body the marks of His
everlasting love! Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and
forever–and His love to His chosen is at this time what it was before
time began!

Once more, in this passage of the book of the Prophet Jeremiah, the
Lord certifies His love to His people in a very solemn way by calling
Heaven and earth to witness it. Let me read from the 35th verse. "Thus
says the Lord, which gives the sun for a light by day, and the
ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which
divides the sea when the waves thereof roar; the Lord of Hosts is His
name: if those ordinances depart from before Me, says the Lord, then
the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me
forever. Thus says the Lord; If Heaven above can be measured, and the
foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all
the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the Lord."

Thus are the laws of Nature made to seal the Law of Love! God, that
cannot lie, thus makes the whole creation to be a guarantee of His
abiding love to His own. I pray you, believe Him and be joyful in His
House of Prayer. This is a declaration of love divinely confessed. The
Lord has not sent this assurance to us by a Prophet, but He has made it
Himself–"The Lord has appeared." This declaration does not come
through another tongue or lips, but the Divine Lover Himself breathes
His own love words to His chosen–"The Lord has appeared of old unto
me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love."

Notice, that it is love sealed with a "yes." God would have us go no
further in our ordinary speech than to say, "yes, yes"–and surely we
may be content with so much from Himself. His "yes" amounts to a sacred
declaration–"Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love." He lifts
His hand to Heaven and He swears–swears by Himself, because He can
swear by no greater–"That by two immutable things, in which it was
impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have
fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us." Beloved,
feast upon this! I am very conscious of the feebleness of my
exposition, but I am equally conscious of the great strength of the
precious doctrines which I have set before you.

III. We finish, thirdly, with THE MANIFEST EVIDENCE. "I have loved you
with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
you." Here are drawings mentioned. Have you not felt them? We have not
seen God, Beloved, but we have felt Him drawing us. Oh, what tugs He
gave to some of us when we were children! Do you remember, when you
were boys and girls, when you could not sleep at nights for heavenly
drawings towards Divine things? Do you remember, when you were alone in
the country, how you would sit down under a hedge and cry–you scarcely
knew why–longing for something better than you had as yet reached?

Do you remember when the Lord Jesus drew you out of the horrible pit?
Out of the midnight of despair? Do you remember how He drew you till He
set your feet upon a rock? He drew you from spiritual death, from the
corruption of sin, from the dominion of the devil! He drew you into
life, love and liberty. He drew you to the foot of the Cross, to the
Throne of Grace, to the Church of Christ! How well do I recall the hour
when I was drawn to the place where I saw One hanging on a tree in
agonies and blood–then and there I looked–and as I looked I lived!
Since then the Lord has drawn me along the paths of duty and delight,
of faith and peace, of love and joy, of hope and rapture.

These were drawings resulting from love. He drew us because He loved us
with an everlasting love. Other drawings of Divine goodness are
resisted–resisted, in some cases, to the bitter end–and men justly
perish. But the drawings of everlasting love effect their purpose. If
you have been drawn to Christ, it is because God loved you before the
world began! Do not think the Lord began to love you when you began to
love Him. Oh, no! If God loves you now, He loved you before He created
the earth. If this day He loves you, He loved you when there were no
days, but the Ancient of Days. He saw you through the glass of His
prescience and He loved you and predestinated you to be conformed unto
the image of His Son–and from this purpose of love He will never turn
aside. "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance [change]."
He will not alter the thing which has gone out of His lips.

Here are drawings mentioned–these were drawings from God. How sweetly,
how Omnipotently God can draw! When He begins to draw a man, that
person may pull back and perhaps, even for years, may stand out against
Divine

Grace–but when the Lord puts forth His Omnipotence the man is bound to
yield. Without violating the will of man or making him less a free
agent than he used to be, the loving kindness of the Lord can act as a
charm upon him and win him completely with his full consent. "Draw me;
we will run after You." He draws, and we run. When Jehovah would have
Israel come to Zion, it soon comes to pass that Israel longs to go
there.

See in the sixth verse: "For there shall be a day, that the watchmen
upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise you, and let us go up to Zion
unto the Lord our God." We yield to the drawings because they come from
the Lord's own hand and their power lies in His love. As the drawings
come from God, so are they drawings to God. Blessed is he whose heart
is being drawn nearer and nearer to the Most High. Naturally, we
struggle back to carnal things–we get taken up with business, with
family, and with a thousand groveling cares–but when the Holy Spirit
draws, it is upward and heavenward! He draws us to repentance, to
faith, to love, to holiness and to continuance in well-doing. Oh, that
we may now feel Divine drawings towards Him who is our All in All!

The Lord assures us that these are drawings of His loving kindness.
However He draws, it is in love and whenever He draws, it is in love.
Observe that the Church does not here say, "The Lord drew me," but the
Lord Himself says, "With loving kindness have I drawn you." God knows
better about His drawings than we do. We think that He pulls and
snatches in anger, but He knows that He has always drawn in loving
kindness! Because the horse is willful, it thinks the driver stern–our
waywardness makes us think our Lord austere. The forces which He puts
forth to work upon us are tender, gentle, kind and loving. He has drawn
you and me "with loving kindness." I am sure He has thus dealt with me.
Will you think of your own case and bless His name?

Lord, You have drawn me when I did not know it. You have drawn me when
I thought I was willingly moving of my own accord. I see it now and I
bless Your name for it. Draw me, still, that I may still say, "Your
gentleness has made me great." What a wonderful word is that–"loving
kindness"–"loving," "kindness"–two of the choicest jewels set side by
side! Kindness is "kin-nedness," and the Lord Jesus treats us as His
kin–and He does this in the most loving manner. "With loving kindness
have I drawn you." He might have whipped me to Himself. He might have
dragged me to the City of Refuge. He might have threatened me into
repentance. He might have thundered me into submission. But no, "with
loving kindness have I drawn you."

I spoke to a Brother in Christ, yesterday, who called himself–and I
think he spoke the truth–"a specially favored one." I take that title,
also. Take it, my Sister! Take it, my Brother! Does it not fit you
well? Has not the Lord been specially good to you? "With loving
kindness have I drawn you." "Alas," cries one, "but I have been
whipped." "You have chastised me and I was chastised." Very true, but
how few have been the strokes compared with what you deserved! "Oh, but
God has rebuked me sharply," says another. I answer, again, how few
have been His chidings compared with what we might have expected
considering our evil ways! Prevailingly His cords have been cords of
love and His bands have been the bands of a man. Bless the Lord, O my
Soul! He leads me beside the still waters.

Only one thing more. These drawings are to be continuous. "With loving
kindness have I drawn you" and He means to do the same forevermore. If
you will look the chapter through, you will see that God promises to
keep on drawing. See verse eight–"Behold, I will bring them from the
north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth." Verse
nine–"They shall come. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of
waters in a straight way." Read verse 10–"He that scattered Israel
will gather him." See verse 12–"Therefore they shall come and sing in
the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the
Lord." He that has begun to draw will go on drawing us till He has
safely landed us where His everlasting love shall be our endless theme
of song–even in Heaven where we shall dwell in eternal fellowship with
the Eternal God! The everlastingness of Divine Love is the crown of it
all!

I would not care to preach to you a Gospel which has no final
perseverance in it. Spiritual life which can die is not the eternal
life promised in the Gospel–and heavenly love which can fail is not
the everlasting love of our text! Whenever I find that doctrine left
out, I feel as if they had taken away the wheat from the barn and the
grapes from the winepress. If the salvation which you set forth to be
that of Christ is a temporary one, you may have it that like it–I will
have none of it! I believe in everlasting love and I can do with
nothing less! My hope to get to Heaven lies in this–as far as I have
come on the road, the Lord has drawn me and He will draw me the rest of
the way. I have had no strength of my own until now–I have had no
might but what He has afforded me–and I look to the Lord, still, for
all the Grace I shall need between this spot and the gate of pearl!

Such a magnificent text as ours ought to make us consider two things.
The first is, Is it so? Am I drawn? If God loves you with an
everlasting love, He has drawn you by His loving kindness–is it so or
not? Has He drawn you by His Holy Spirit so that you have followed? Are
you a Believer? Do you carry Christ's Cross? You have been drawn to
this. Then take home these gracious words–"I have loved you with an
everlasting love." If you have not been so drawn, do you not wish you
were? Oh, it were worth dying a thousand deaths to be a Christian after
that fashion of Christianity which is based on everlasting love! Here
is a glorious foundation–love without beginning, love without
end–free, sovereign, unchangeable love! Not love bought by merit in
us, nor produced by our efforts or entreaties–but love which comes to
us because God will love and has chosen in His Divine Sovereignty to
love us. "Everlasting love!" Why, the syllables are music! If you can
climb that height, you have climbed where it is worth while to abide
forever!

O Friends, if you cannot claim this, at any rate desire it and go
humbly on your knees to Christ Jesus and look to Him and live! But,
child of God, if you know these drawings and if it is true that God
loves you with an everlasting love, then are you resting? "I have a
feeble hope," says one. What? How can you talk so? He who is loved with
an everlasting love and knows it, should swim in an ocean of joy! Not a
wave of trouble should disturb the glassy sea of his delight! What is
to make a man happy if this will not?

Come, come! We must have no more hanging heads. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
If the Lord has loved me with an everlasting love, I will not be cast
down though the earth is removed! His love is better than wealth! His
love is better than health (great blessing as that is)! His love is
better than honor, better than usefulness! Everlasting love–and you
have it! Man alive, wipe the tears out of your eyes and lift up your
head! "Oh, rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him," for if He has
loved you so, what have you to fear? What is to be done but to love Him
in return who has loved us so much? One thing I know–

"All that remains for me

Is but to love and sing,

And wait until the angels come

To bear me to my King."

PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON– Jeremiah 30:12-17; 31:1-14.
HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–220, 229, 748.