Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the Prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 31 and 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. Jeremiah 31 and verse 3. In the first two verses of this
chapter, the Lord is speaking of the families of Israel, and
he says, 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 and caused him to rest. It is thought that the next verse
of our text begins with Israel speaking. The Church of God is
speaking. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me. And though we have inserted in
our Bibles the saying, this is true, this is right, this is
the Lord saying these things, but some view it because the
word in italics is not underscored, that this is the Lord then taking
over. He is continuing, as if the Church
of God is saying, The Lord has appeared to me, O old, and then
the Lord says, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
As if he would say, Israel, you are looking back to, in Egypt,
and you're looking back to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, but I am looking
back way before then, I have appeared unto thee Of old I have
loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and
thou shalt be built. And for this time with Jeremiah,
when they're going to be carried away into Babylon's captivity,
this is a wonderful word to be reminded of what the Lord was
to Israel. and even before what they can
recall or their history is going back into eternity past everlastingly. There's two words here really
to really be looked at that everlasting love. I have loved thee with
an everlasting love and then the word loving-kindness. You could have a situation where
there is a love to a person, but the person that loves that
person is not kind to them, they're not actually showing that love,
or bestowing things that that person needs, doing those things
to them which evidence that love. But here we have, there is loving
kindness, and it is especially put in the context of the therefore,
the flowing out from an everlasting love, I'm gonna show kindness. Again, if we split those words
up, You could have someone that is kind to someone, but not done
in a loving way. It may be done in a begrudging
way. The gift is given, the thing
is done, but it's done begrudgingly. But here, the kindness that is
shown, and it is a practical kindness because it results in
a drawing, then it is a loving kindness. And so the word here,
spoken by the Lord to his ancient people, to the Church of God,
is going back beyond what time is. And Paul, when he writes
to the Ephesians, they have been called, they have been blessed,
and he writes to them to tell them what actually had been wrought
in them. He tells them that they were
elect, that they were foreknown. He tells them that the power
that was wrought in them was the same power that brought our
Lord from the grave. We may be called, we may be blessed,
but not realise the extent and how far back those blessings
or the foundation of those blessings actually lie. the great doctrines of grace. They don't just begin in our
Lord dying so that whoever of their own free will believes. They begin in eternity with the
love of God. All the provisions of the gospel
are provided including being drawn and brought to believe. There's a great depth in the
doctrines of Sovereign Grace. I want to look this evening firstly
at what everlasting love has done before time. And then secondly, what everlasting
love has done in time, and for those not yet called, will yet
do in time. And then thirdly, what everlasting
love will do. The Church of God, in time as
called, can look back, but also can look forward in what the
Lord will do. Although there's only a couple
of places in the Word of God where it speaks of that which
is everlasting or everlasting love, yet the precious truth
that is here is echoed right through scripture. And I want
to look at some six of these places as to what everlasting
love does or how it is evidenced or set forth in other places
of scripture. We mentioned Paul's letter to
the Ephesians and of course now we're going to the New Testament
and we're going to a Gentile church. We are not now before
the world was formed and before man fell, but rather after man
fell. And we must make it very clear
that our God decreed the fall and all what he's done in his
love for his people was not altered, but rather is shown much more
because of the fall. It's easy to love a person that
is very nice to you, but it's hard to love a person that is
not. And the Lord loved us when we
loved him not, when we were enemies, when we were at peace with hell,
when we were at war with him. The Lord's love to his people
did not change and does not change. It goes right through the fall,
through the years of time and in eternity. And so the first thing to note
here in Ephesians is that everlasting love brought about a choice. to be chosen, not just chosen
on our own, but chosen in Christ. In verse 4 of the first chapter
of Ephesians, Paul says, according as He hath chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. In a similar way to our text,
We have the everlasting or the choosing before the foundation
of the world first, and then what flows out from that, that
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. And so that everlasting love
is evidenced in a choice, and a choice in Christ, that is,
in what the Lord Jesus Christ should do for those people that
were chosen. The choice is not separable than
the Lord Jesus Christ. It is chosen in Him. The choice of God, and it was
everlasting love, not foreseeing anything in us, in the Church
of God, nothing what we should do, nothing why he should love
us at all just a sovereign love as determined in himself and
it is evidenced by a choice and we are reminded in the case
of Jacob and Esau that there is a difference it's not just
choosing on one side but It is a rejection on the other. Some are not chosen, some are
chosen. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. That one that is loved is then
chosen by God. And in the verse here in Ephesians,
It is chosen with an end in view, a purpose in view, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. And it is as well
a people, this people have I formed for myself that they should show
forth my praise. In addition to choosing, I want
to go back to the Old Testament, To David, a man after God's own
heart, a man that God not only called by grace, but brought
him to be king over Israel in the second book of Samuel, in
chapter 23. The very first words in this chapter
being the last words of David. Now these be the last words of
David, David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised
up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist
of Israel said, the Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his
word was in my tongue. Now, I want to just go down to
verse 5. Although my house be not so with
God, Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and sure. For this is all my salvation
and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. The covenant
is an agreement, and if it is an everlasting one, it is an
agreement before David was born. but a covenant is agreement between
two, and yet David here is the beneficiary of this covenant. David made a covenant between
him and Jonathan, and the beneficiary of that covenant was Jonathan's
seed, Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth, lame at both his feet, that was
brought to sit at David's table. And there we have a little picture
of this covenant, this agreement between the father and the son
of which the chosen ones, those that were everlasting loved,
are the beneficiaries. This covenant is an agreement,
though given by the Son, by the Father to the Son, to redeem. Those covenant engagements, our
Lord Jesus Christ completely fulfilled in coming to this world,
in taking our nature, in walking a perfect life to be able to
give a righteousness to His people, shedding His blood, laying down
His life for ransom, taking it again. These things were done. The love of the Father and the
love of the Son that brought Him to make that covenant and
then fulfill all of the provisions of that covenant. Our Lord is
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. As soon as that
covenant was made, the Lord was as good as slain because he would
not ever not fulfill those covenant engagements. We read in Hebrews
that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for
God to lie. And those two things God has
promised eternal life and he has sworn with an oath that he
would save his people. And so the second evidence of
the love of God was in a making of this covenant. And here is
David, and he, in time, as one that has been called, he is mindful
of this covenant. He's not ignorant of it. He knows
it, and blessed are we if we also are mindful that we are
bound up, those who have been called in this covenant, that
it has been made with us as being the subjects of it. and the Lord
to enact the terms of Him. The third thing is that there
was a book of life. There is a book of life. This we read in the Revelation
in three places. We have it in the Revelation
chapter 13 and verse 8. is speaking here of the beast
of the adversary and it is said, and all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship him whose names were not written in the book
of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him
hear. There is a book, and it is spoken
of as the Lamb's Book of Life, in chapter 17, and verse 8, the
beast that thou sawest and is not, and shall ascend out of
the bottomless pit and go into petition, And they that dwell
on the earth shall wonder whose names were not written in the
Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they behold
the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. And then in chapter
21, we have in verse 27, And there shall in no wise enter
into it, that is, into glory, into heaven, anything that defileth,
neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And so this that which
was done, that everlasting love has done before time, is to write
the names of those that were chosen, those that were in the
covenant, write them in a book. And it is spoken of as the Lamb's
Book of Life. It all ties in, doesn't it? If
you choose someone, if you make an agreement, is it not documented? Is it not written? Is it not
sealed? And these things then flow together
and they flow out of whatever lasting love has done before
time. And I want to come to the reading
that we read this evening in the Gospel according to John
chapter 17. And we read in verse six of the
Father giving to the Son, a people. This is a beautiful intercessory
prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ to his Father on behalf of his
people. First part of those of the 12,
and then later he prays that, neither pray I for these alone,
verse 20, but for them also which shall believe on me. through
their word, the disciples, the apostles, a little type of those
that are specifically chosen, chosen for a purpose, as all
of God's people are. But we have in verse six then,
a giving, that thine they were, they belonged unto the Father,
and thou gavest them me. This is what love has done. This is what the love of the
Father has done. A people that he had appointed
would be lost and ruined in the fall. That people, the Lord Jesus
Christ, was delivered by the determinate counsel and full
knowledge of God and would be by wicked hands taken, crucified,
and slain. And it was the love, remember
what was said to Abraham when he offered up Isaac, because
thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest,
that in blessing I will bless thee, and in thee and in thy
seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed. And so as flowing
out from this everlasting love is a giving, giving to the Son. And yet when we read John 10,
we read of the security of God's people, where our Lord says that
no man is able to pluck them out of my hand. My Father which
gave them me is greater than I, and no man is able to pluck
them out of my Father's hand. So when we give something to
someone, we lose it ourselves, it's not ours, we're giving it
to them, but in this covenant relationship, they're still bound
up with the Father's great mystery, the one true and living God,
they're still in the Father's hand, they're in the Son's hand,
and they're given to him to redeem. Then I want to go to Paul's epistle
to Timothy, his second epistle. And in chapter one, we read of
grace that was given. In verse nine, who hath saved
us and called us with a holy calling, and remember our text,
it leads from that everlasting love to calling, not according
to our works, he's not looking at something good in us, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. So we're looking at the
everlasting love of God and here we're looking before the world
began and we're looking at the grace that was given. The loving
kindness of God. He gave us grace in Christ his
son before he spread the starry skies. The hymn writer sums it
up in a few lines. This then as well. If we look
at Paul's letter to Titus, then we have the beautiful promise of eternal
life, again linked eternally. We know the Lord says of his
people, I give unto them eternal life, they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. But when Paul
writes to Titus, he says in verse two, or one and two, bore the
servant of God and apostle of Jesus Christ according to the
faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth which
is after godliness in hope of eternal life which God that cannot
lie promised before the world began. We might think, well,
weren't the first promises in the Garden of Eden when man fell,
the seed of the woman, to bruise the serpent's head. No, those
promises are eternal promises and they are in the Lord Jesus
Christ and before the world began. And we have then that hope upon
the promises of God. As we said at the beginning,
the doctrines of grace lay a wonderful foundation in the everlasting
love of God that has nothing to do with what we shall do,
or God foresaw that we should do, but has everything to do
with what we will do. Because the fruits and effects
of that everlasting love will be shown in our lives, it will
be evidenced in time. And it's important that we view
it that way round, that the calling is the evidence of the lovingkindness
of God. 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. In the margin
it says, Or have I extended loving-kindness unto thee. All that happens in
time is a reflection of what has been decreed before time. It all flows out from that everlasting
love of God. And so I want to look secondly
at what everlasting love has done in time, and in the case
of those yet uncalled, will yet do. Our text says, therefore
with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Now the Lord in John 6
states that no man can come unto me except the Father which sent
me for him, and I'll raise him up at the last day. And so again
we have the sending of the Father, we have the drawing in time with
the raising up at the last day, and Our Lord speaks not only once,
but twice concerning this. He reaffirms it later on in John
6, when there are those that were finding fault, that couldn't
believe, and the Lord says, but there are some of you that believe
not. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not, and who should betray Him. And
He said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto
Me, except it were given unto him of My Father." So He's pointing
to the transactions of that covenant. The Lord is to suffer. He is
to bleed and He is to die and He is to have a people that are
drawn to Him and attracted to Him and that is the work of God. Work of God the Father, work
of God the Holy Spirit to quicken. The Lord uses many ways to draw
a sinner unto Christ. The Lord says, And I, if I be
lifted up above the earth, will draw all men unto me. All that the Father giveth me
shall come unto me. Him that cometh unto me I will
in no wise cast out. And this then is an evidence
of that love. Come here at school, we used
to experiment with magnets later on in engineering. We used to
use very, very powerful magnets. You had to be very, very careful
with them. And we used to use magnets for
elevators, taking tin cans from a lower level right up to high
level in a factory. And the magnets would be behind
the conveyor belts. and the tin cans would come along
and they'd stick to that belt and go vertically up. And you
couldn't see that power that was holding them at all. And
when they got up to the top, you'd taper off the magnet and
the magnet would let them go and away they'd go on their way.
And yet there was this power that kept the the can hard fast
to the belt that was carrying it vertically up. If you tried
to pull it, if the belt stopped and you tried to pull it off,
you'd realize such resistance. Those magnets behind those belts,
they were two inches square. There was two of them together.
And the workmen that were assembling these had to be so careful. If
they got their fingers between those magnets, they would lose
their fingers, they'd be so strong, attracted together, and yet there's
no visible power, there's nothing you can see. You'd see these
two blocks that just look like steel, but you'd get a bit of
steel near them, and suddenly it'd react, suddenly it would
pull it. And when we have the word here,
drawn, The word is very clear, this is irresistible grace. This is not something that is
weak, but something is very powerful and designed for a specific effect. Going back to the illustration
when I was in design, if that magnet was not strong enough
or was adjusted too far away from the belt, then all the cans
would fall off. But we knew what we were designing,
and what it was meant to do, and it did what we wanted it
to do. And the Lord will ensure when
He draws a people, that drawing will be effectual. Zacchaeus
will go and will be up the tree when the Lord stops and looks
and calls him by name and tells him he must come down, for he
must dine at his house that day. It is irresistible, and yet if
you'd have asked Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus, do you feel a real irresistible
power to see this man, to climb up this tree, he probably would
have said no. But he did it, and the Lord will
always have his people to come. They must come, they will come,
because they are drawn and His loving kindness that draws them. It does us good to remember when
we are thinking of evangelism, thinking of bringing the Word
of God and sending out the Word of God, how right that that is. But to remember that the effectual
saving of sinners is brought about by men, women, children
being drawn to the Word and drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ. So they are drawn, they're called,
called by grace, they're drawn by the Father, and they give love to Him. In 1 John, chapter 4, we have
this simple word, We love Him because He first loved us. And when you have the word here,
I've loved thee with an everlasting love, and then put on the back
of that, we love Him because He first loved us. And you try
and trace back to that first. But what an evidence of that
everlasting love that there is found in our hearts that by nature
have no love to the Lord. have the love of God shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. No, that doesn't even come from
us, does it? It all flows forth from God Himself. It's also evidenced in time by
the Father treating us as His sons. In Hebrews 12, we are told
that He correcteth every son whom he receiveth. This drawing
unto himself, it makes a son, and it makes
a union, and bound up with that union, everyone that is received
is corrected, is chastened, but again, with loving kindness. You know, in Psalm 107, we read
of the changes of the people of God, and many times they sinned,
they went far off from God. Then they cried unto the Lord,
they fell down, there's none to help. They cried unto the
Lord, and he saved them out of their distresses. And this happened
again and again. There's a picture of life through
that Psalm. The Lord dealing with them for
their rebelliousness, their foolishness. but then appearing for them when
they cried unto him. At the end of that psalm we read,
who so is wise and will understand these things, or observe these
things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. And we get a picture of a loving
kindness that needs to be understood, not like a child that would be
given sweets and nice things, and they understand that, that's
very loving of their parent to give them. But when they're given
a smack for doing something wrong, they don't think that that's
so loving. And yet there's probably more love in that correction
than there was in giving those pleasant things. And the same
with the Lord. When He draws, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee, it also will embrace that which corrects. and keeps in the way. Thou shalt
have a word behind thee, saying, this is the way, walk ye in it,
when ye turn to the right hand, when ye turn to the left. Another provision in this is
to be taught. All thy children shall be taught
of the Lord. Great shall be the peace of thy
children. How longsuffering and loving
is the Lord in teaching his children. Sometimes we might go into a
trial and out of a trial in our lives, and we discern no material
benefit, no benefit at all in a natural way, but discern in
it there's been teaching, there's been instruction. We think of
the times that the prophets were led, led to go down, for instance,
to the potter's house, and it was to be taught. And it is the
Lord that says, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way
which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. Be not as the horse or as the
mule, which have neither understanding, but whose mouth must be held
in with bit or with bridle. We are to hear the word of the
Lord. And my sheep, says our Lord,
they hear my voice and follow me. And so that blessing as well
of those that are drawn, they have a hearing ear given them. In every letter of the churches
in Asia, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches. All the parables of our Lord,
he that hath an ear, let him hear. To you it is given, to
them it is not given, to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom
of Heaven. It's important for us then to
look at what everlasting love has done in time, to link the
two together. As soon as we sever that, we
lose our assurance, we lose our comfort, we don't see the Continuance
of those blessings, we see our sins, we see what we deserve,
but we were chosen without any respect to that, and we trust
in that covenant ordered in all things and sure. May we be able to trace this,
trace something of the outworking of that everlasting love, and
hear the Lord telling us this, Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
thee. An interpretation of all that
has been done is all what we've found here below. But then we have one last point. What of the end? What as we finish
the course here, beloved? What everlasting her love will
do is our last point. Our Lord told his disciples when
he was to be taken from them that in his father's house were
many mansions, that if it were not so, I would have told you,
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that
where I am, there ye may be also. This same everlasting love is
still, still being enacted, it's still being shown as to what
it will do. And we go back again to the chapter
that we read, John 17, and we hear again our Lord praying this,
verse 24. Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me. before the foundation of the
world. And there again, we get this
same link to the everlasting love, the blessings before the
foundation of the world, the covenant made then, the choice
of the people of God. And now, when our Lord is praying
that those who have been given Him, that they might be with
Him, that they might behold His glory. These things are being
done by the Lord. I was like the last chapter in
the book of Ruth, where Ruth in the third chapter has made
her petition and Boaz has undertaken for her to manage things. He will see, he will speak to
the kinsman that was nearer than he. Naomi gives her the Beautiful
advice, sit still my daughter, the man will not be in rest until
he have finished the thing this day. And in this context as well,
for one that has been called and known the evidences of everlasting
love, how much more sit still? The man will not be in rest.
He will finish the thing. He will bring us safely home.
He will bring us to glory. He will undertake not only to
begin but to finish the work and to present those people that
were given him in covenant faultless before the throne. What a prospect and what a certain
hope a hope beyond the grave that the people of God have. And it's based not on our works,
though our works will reflect the call and the love that makes
us by his grace what he'd have us to be. But the reason is because
of that everlasting love. You know, the more we go on,
the more we'll be mindful of how imperfect we are, how our
works are nothing but sin and disgrace, that we cannot lift
up our head and say, Lord, we've done this, we've done that. In Ephesians, we're told about
growing grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. What is a growth in grace? It's
opposite to works. If we were to grow in works,
we'd grow thinking more and more, what a good person I am, how
much more better I am, how much more godly, how much more I'm
praying, how much closer to the Lord am I walking. But if we're
growing in grace, We say, I'm not deserving, I feel more and
more undeserving, more and more I cannot trust my works, more
and more if ever my poor soul be saved, tis Christ must be
the way. We would not sin that grace might
abound, but as we see more and more of the depth of the full
and what we are, the more and more will we prize that everlasting
love that will not let us go, that will chasten, will correct,
will not suffer sin to be easy to lie upon us without reproof,
without correction, but that love will not let us go and will
bring us at last to be with Him in heaven. May the Lord add His
blessings.