Let's read the first four verses
for our text, looking at the third for our principal text. At the same time, saith the Lord,
will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they
shall be my people. Thus saith the Lord, the people
which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness. Even Israel, when I went to cause
him to rest, 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. Again, I will build thee. Thou shalt be built, O virgin
of Israel. Thou shalt again be adorned with
thy tabrets and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make
merry." And then the blessings continue to be discussed. We
won't read any further, making reference to some of it along
the way. This particular section of the
book of Jeremiah has been denominated by a lot of expositors and commentary
in what they call consolatory discourses of the prophet unto
the people. That is, when he speaks comfortably
unto them, giving them assurance of God's presence and of love
for them. The prophet speaks words of comfort
from their god. who had been ravaged, that is,
the people had been ravaged by the captivity. And they moaned
and they groaned and many of them died. John Gill said that
the 31st chapter is actually an extension of the one before
it in that both of them occur and refer to one and the same
time. And as Gill put it, this place
is full of prophecy, of promises and of spiritual blessing. Now, the faithful had been heard
to say, the people of Israel, the people of God had been heard
to say, God was far from them. God was not with them, had not
blessed them. And they wondered what had become
of the former blessing that God had bestowed upon them, why God
had abandoned them for such a grievous time in the hand of their enemy? Why is it that the covenant of
God made with them seems to be at an end? And why is it that
They were at that time, and for some time, as it were, under
the heel of their enemy. Thus this, some say, being the
tenth discourse of the prophet Jeremiah, reckoning up the various
discourses that were delivered by him unto the people, is actually
to them a renewing of the covenant and an assurance unto them. But
as stated here in the third verse, it is a fresh declaration of
God's everlasting love unto them as a people. The Lord appeared
of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Now, the design of the prophet
is pretty clear. that God would not abandon His
people. He would, in due time, bring
them out of their bondage and into former blessings and deliver
them, even as He delivered their fathers out of the land of Egypt. Calvin summed it up this way,
there was no doubt that God would again deliver them and manifest
the same power exhibited toward their fathers in another time
and today. We see the promises of God unto
them as we look through the chapter. Verse 4, I will build thee, and
thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel. Also, thou shalt be
adorned with tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them
that make merry. Again, they would be at a happy
and a joyous point in their life. In verse 5 it said, Thou shalt
plant vines upon the mountain of Samaria, and eat them as common
things. They would be so readily available. And enjoy them. without fear
of persecution from their enemy. In verse 6 and verse 7, a day
would come when they would again worship God and that upon Mount
Zion. And they would sing and they
would shout the glory of their God. Verse 8, verse 9, God would
re-gather His people. including the lame, the blind,
the woman with child, with weeping would they come, by the rivers
of water there they might drink, in a straight way so as not to
stumble." Verse 9, the last part, I am a father unto Israel. But now let us get at our textual
verse. which is verse 3, and we notice
that it has two parts which are given as cause and effect, inseparably
related and cannot be disconnected. First of all, we see, Yea, I
have loved thee with an everlasting love, and then, as a consequence
of that, therefore, have I with loving kindness drawn you. Now, I agree with Thomas Goodwin.
that what we have here in our text is a running dialogue between
God and the people. You read the Old Testament, particularly
the prophet, you find that this was a common thing, fairly common
in the Old Testament, that God speaks in the second verse, the
people which escaped the sword in the wilderness have found
the grace. that the people reply with their
answer and, as it were, their complaint, which is, yea, the
Lord indeed appeared of old, that is, in former days, in ancient
times, of old. Sure, He has done good of old
to other generations, as if to say, all of your blessings have
been in former times, but what about now? And what about our
present situation? to which God answers them in
the third verse, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. As if to contrast of old and
everlasting, the people remembering them as being old, God using
the term everlasting. For they seem to speak of old
as if now. and God had not loved them or
had not continued his love and the tokens of his love toward
them at this particular time in captivity. Goodwin the Puritan
sees God as saying, yea, my love is as ancient as date by far
than any appearances which have been made unto you which thou
sayest are of old." Those manifestations they recall some thousands of
years before in the wilderness journey under the leadership
of Moses, but declares God, My love for you has been from everlasting. My love has been eternal. It
has been beyond olden days or the ancient of time. In other
words, it has been from the beginning, it has been without interruption,
it has had no gaps, it has had no pauses, it has been without
ebb and flow, never been greater, never been lesser, never been
in ellipses, never been inactive. My love for you is an everlasting
love. And I think that the ye, at the
beginning of the expression is with heavy emphasis used by God
and the prophet. Then God speaks of the evidences
of His love toward them, what He had done as a result of His
everlasting love toward them. Chief blessing being, therefore,
have I drawn you. With loving kindness have I drawn
you. I've loved you with an everlasting
love and therefore have I drawn thee with loving kindness. Or the margin read, I have because
I loved you with an everlasting love extended kindness unto you,
our continued loving kindness toward you in all of your situation. I have prolonged my mercy, and
it has been constant in your behavior. Now the message is,
because I have loved you with an everlasting love, have I in
loving kindness drawn you unto me. That is, I have kept you,
I have preserved you, I have bestowed upon you the many benefits
that you have seen and experienced, and I will continue to do so,
for my love is everlasting. Now, here are two truths relative
to the love of God unto His people. Number one, of course, from the
text, it is eternal. It is ever lasting love. It does not begin at any point
in time, such as when we are regenerate, or we believe, or
we are converted, or we espouse Christ. Because you see, His
calling is given as a result of His everlasting love. That every blessing that God
bestows upon us in calling, quickening, converting, and such like, is
because he loves before. Because he loves before he calls. He loves, he draws. He draws
as a result of everlasting love. Because his love is like himself
and his attributes, therefore, have no beginning. So that He
loves His own from the beginning. That verse in John 13 and 1,
Jesus having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them
unto the end. Secondly, the thing about God's
love is that His love is effectual. Never ineffectual. The love of
God is effectual. It bestows the good that is intended. and design for them. And it brings
the objects of His love, the blessings of God shed upon them,
up to and including bringing the objects of His love to God
and to a knowledge of Christ and of salvation. Now, we love
God because He first loved us, is the saying of 1 John 4 and
verse 19. And Romans 5 in verse 5, the
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit of grace. In short, the love of God is
both eternal and effectual. Now let's consider a passage
from Paul found in that wonderful Ephesians the second chapter,
verses four and five, keeping in mind the two related truths
in our primary text. I have loved you with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you. In Ephesians
2, 4 through 6, Paul sets forth the eternal counsel of God to
overthrow the great effect of the fall and the depravity of
the elect. In verse 1 through 3, He had
set forth the deadness of all in their sin, talking about Ephesians
chapter 2. In verse 4 and verse 5, but God,
who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead, in trespasses, and in sin. Now,
Paul lists the name of those things in God by which he saves
sinners. They're exercising, right here
in this passage in Ephesians, we have four of them in Ephesians
2, 4 through 8. They are mercy in verse 4, love
in verse 4, grace in verse 5, verse 7 and verse 8, and kindness
in verse 7. because he hath loved us with
a great and everlasting love." And concerning the first three,
Paul uses what the Puritan Thomas Goodwin called the most heightening
epithets, end quote. So let us quickly note in verse
4, rich mercy. Also in verse 4, again, great
love. Not just mercy, but rich mercy. Not just love, but great or abounding
love. In verse 7, the exceeding riches
of His grace. But we're focusing now on the
love of God. And in verse 4, we have a double
mention of it. for His great love wherewith
He loved us. Or, as the interlinear renders
it, the much love of His with which He loved us. And Paul adds
words of indescribable amazement as he takes us on this way, even
when we were dead in sin, Ephesians 2, 5, the first part. that is,
being dead in sin, even being dead in trespasses and in sin. So let us not forget all four
names that He uses, mercy, love, kindness, grace, and they all
relate unto us, and they all are extended from God to us as
we were sinners being dead in trespassing and in sin. So let us be clear. God loved
us before He drew us. God loved us before He called. He loved us before Christ came
into the world. He loved us before Christ died. He loved us before we believed
to the saving of our souls. We have it in verse 4 there in
the past tense. He loved us even when we were
dead in sin. Even then. And the even is very
emphatic. And it carries the love back
to our regeneration and emphasizes not only the time of the exercise
of His love, but also the condition of those that God loved. Before we were His, or before
we knew Him, He loved us and He loved us with an everlasting
love. Thus, the love of God antedates,
that is, it's before our regeneration. But it also antedates the incarnation
of Christ and it antedates even the foundation of the world and
all creation. Look at Ephesians 1, 4, the first
part through verse 5, the first part, in love having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children, in love having predestinated
us. Look at everyone's favorite verse,
John 3.16, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son. He loved before He gave and He
gave because He so loved. Once more, let us see the order
of our original text. Yes, I have loved you with an
everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
you. That is, God's everlasting love
determined His actions toward them, the mercies and the blessing
that He would break upon their head. It was a fruit of His everlasting
love that He drew them and helped them. He preserved them as His
people and so forth, as an evidence of His everlasting love. and
in continuance of the covenant made with them. Even so, in salvation,
it is His love that guides the bestowing of His mercy, of His
kindness, of His grace. every other gift. Now this is
not to deny the purpose, the will, the pleasure, the eternal
covenant and decree, and especially election, for actually the love
of God is inseparably connected to what Paul calls in Romans
9, And verse 11, the purpose of God according to election. Then follows in verse 13, Romans
9, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Still as one of the old Puritans
said, love guides and directs God in the bestowing of his benevolences
and it is the channel in which Saving mercy runs under them. His love was fixed upon its object
before they actually existed, so that it antedates any and
all actions or works in His people. He loved them from everlasting,
before the world, before we actually in person existed and sinned. He loved us before we ever heard
and came unto Christ. He loved us before we realized
that the love of God was in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, being
manifested. Yes, He has loved His people
from everlasting and therefore will love them ever, ever more. For God's love and grace begins
not at our calling. It is not for eternity to come
without being from eternity past as well. So that He loved His
own from everlasting, and His love for them can have no end."
This staggers our mind to stop and to think and to contemplate
about it, that the manifestation of the love of God in our calling
is the bringing together the eternities past and future. Have you pondered the question,
when did God fix, when did God set His love upon His people. Why did God love His people with
a text in Jeremiah 31 and 3 in our mind? Let us read from the
book of Deuteronomy, another great passage concerning that,
found in chapter 7. If you are turning there, And
the verses that I intend to read are verses 6 through 8. Moses
speaking to the people. For thou art an holy people before
the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that
are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love
upon you, nor choose you because you were more in number than
any people, for ye were the fewest of all people. But because the
Lord loved you, because He would keep the oath which He has sworn
unto your fathers, had the Lord brought you with a mighty hand
out, redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand
of Pharaoh, King of Egypt. I said this is part of Moses'
speech unto Israel. Verse 6, God has chosen you to
be a special people unto himself and above all people. Verse 7,
the Lord did not set his love upon you and he did not choose
you because you were a mighty people. Actually, you were the
fewest, he said. And quickly to prove that, they
were one at one time in Abraham, they were two in Sarah, they
were three when Isaac came, they were 12 in the family of Joseph,
they were 70 when they journeyed down into the land of Egypt. Neither were they chosen for
their obedience or for any of their sanctification, for they
were disobedient and against saying people all the days of
their life. But in verse 8 of Deuteronomy
7, The Lord loved them because He would. God's love is uncaused
and it's unconditional. It is unmerited and it is uninfluenced
by anything out of God's own sovereign pleasure. Nothing we
are or do moves God to love us, for He loved us in Christ before
the foundation of the world and before we were born. And because
God's love had no beginning, it therefore can have no end. We mentioned that this morning,
Romans 8, 35-39. We have Paul's final argument
for the premise of Romans 8 and 1, no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. Paul knows it. He has proved
his case. Now he is drawing his summation
unto a close. And he does so, in Romans 8,
with a mighty, triumphal, climatic question that he asks them for. For question. Verse 31, who can
be against us? Verse 33, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Verse 34, Who is it that condemned,
verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ? As to the last, nothing can,
nobody can, not tribulation, not famine, not sword, not death,
not life, not principality, not powers, not things present, and
not things future. Paul says, I am persuaded. Nothing shall be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus the Lord.
Now, let's face the question head on and squarely. Does God
love everyone as the Arminian preaches almost every Sunday? Does God love everyone in the
world with this everlasting love? Is everyone, whether saved or
lost, in heaven or in hell, loved with this everlasting love by
God? Today, many, yea, most, would
answer yes under that question, even if they are never saved
and never drank of the fountain of Calvary. Consider the text
in Romans 9.13. Jacob I love, Esau on the other
hand have I hated. When Paul says it is written,
he is quoting from the prophet Malachi chapter 1 verses 1 through
3, which makes twice this is declared in the scripture, Esau
I hated. This in spite of the fact that
Jacob and Esau were brothers, Malachi 1, 2 and 3, Yea, they
were twins, begotten, conceived, developed together in the womb.
Genesis 25 and verse 21 through 24. Romans 9 verse 10 through
12. Esau was the firstborn of the
two, yet he was not the one loved by God. Jacob I love, but Esau
have I hated. By the way, Not have I loved
less, Esau have I hated. Well, the word is Maseo. hated. And in the text in Jeremiah 31
and 3, God says, as a result of His love for them, He drew
them with kindness. And in the text in Malachi chapter
1, verses 1 through 3, He says He hated Esau and that He manifested
it by laying His heritage waste. It was manifested in his offspring. Did not Paul say nothing, including
death, can separate from the love of God? Yea, at death the
lost go to hell, which is a manifestation of God's hate rather than His
love. Now, the question has got to
be answered by the Arminian. God loves everyone if His love
is everlasting. Does He love those that are now
even in the place of torment. Consider, if you will, two matters
bringing us to a close this afternoon. Consider these matters. Number
one, God is said to hate some. Romans 9.13, a man by name is
listed as one who is hated of God. Psalm 5 and verse 5, thou
hatest all workers of iniquity. Revelation 2 and verse 6, he
commands the Ephesian church for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans
which they had brought among them." Now consider this concerning
the eternal or rather universal love of God, the use of special
terminology with regard to the love of God which is used in
the Scripture. I mentioned John 13 and verse
1. Having loved His own, He loved
them unto the end. Listen to Proverbs 3 and 12 and
this distinction. Quoted in Hebrews 12 and verse
6, by the way. Whom the Lord loveth, He chasten. Revelation 3, 19. As many as
I love. Now why these terms, if God loves
everyone? Why these distinctions? There
are two outstanding evidences of God's love manifested in His
people. Number one, He draws them with
loving kindness. He calls them. He bestows salvation
upon them. He opens their heart. He brings
them to a knowledge of Himself. Thus the text. I have loved you
with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
you. And the second thing to consider
about the love of God is that God chastens those children in
love. We read it, Proverbs 3, 11 and
12. Hebrews 12, 5 through 11. Them He scourges. He takes the
rod to bring them to obedience. to teach them the way of righteousness
and to cleanse and to sanctify. What a blessed truth is this. I've loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with kindness have
I drawn you, sustained you. kept you, blessed you, and poured
salvation or the oil of salvation upon our undeserving head. The love of God cannot be a very
comforting truth if he loves everyone the same and equally
alike, that because those that God loves may yet perish. The same thing is true of the
love of God. rather, the death of Christ. If he died for everyone,
there's not much comfort in the atonement, since those he died
for may perish by the Arminian scheme. So it is particular,
God's love as well as the death of Christ.