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.
—Jer. xxxi. 3.
Preached in Inverness Church, May 20, 1952.
By REV. D. J. MACASKILL, M.A.
I. Jeremiah.
Jeremiah was a great prophet of the Lord. His prophecies concerned many nations, not only the Jewish nation. He was called the “weeping prophet.” Like the Saviour he wept over Jerusalem, “How oft would I have gathered thee as a hen doth her chicks under her wings and ye would not.” “O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.” In opposition to the false prophets who said there was no need to be alarmed, Jeremiah faithfully warned his people of all classes that they were to be devoured by the sword and carried away captive to a strange land for their forsaking of God, and especially for Sabbath-breaking and idolatry. The land was to enjoy its Sabbaths in desolation when the inhabitants were to be vomited out. This prophet was a well-hated man as well as well-loved. “Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and contention.” Many were cursing him because he would not be silent but continued to witness to high and low, for the “Word of God was a fire in his bones.” He had been sanctified from the womb and chosen before he was born to be a servant of God in the office of a prophet. So that he served God in his youth like Timothy and Samuel and David, Joseph and Moses. He was one who had to endure much persecution, being put in a dungeon where he would have starved if he had not been taken out by the Lord, who cared for him and loved him, although men did not love him. We believe that those who feared God loved him although he had plenty enemies, who would like to murder him, as Cain murdered Abel, because he was a witness for truth. Jeremiah was not one who sought popularity at the expense of God’s favour. He did not flatter nor deceive as the false prophets whom he warned the people against. He sought first to please God rather than the people. “If I yet please men I cannot be the servant of God.” The late Mr. Cameron was one who was like Jeremiah in his own day, as a brazen wall against errors, and heresies, and ungodliness. He had his critics and enemies also, although he was loved of God with an everlasting love. The Free Presbyterian Church is not the most popular in our own day, even in Scotland, on account of our so-called narrow-mindedness. This was the crime of which the prophet was guilty in the eyes of the world. He knew by experience that God was holy and hated sin, but men preferred the lies and deceit of the false teachers. The ministers who have replaced the prayer meeting by the dramatic club and the dance are the world’s ministers. You would think in Presbyterian Scotland that a church which is Free and Presbyterian would be the most loved, but alas it is the most hated by our fellow-countrymen. However, if the eternal God loves us that is all that matters. It was true of Israel as well as Jeremiah that they were loved from eternity. Other churches throughout the world claim to be Presbyterian and Free. These have instrumental music and hymns as well as other corruptions which Knox would not have permitted in his reformed Church. The Free Church of 1843 had a constitution solidly based on the Word of God and the Subordinate Standards. When that constitution was altered in 1892, it was the duty of all who loved the Reformed Church of Scotland, as set up by Knox and the other Reformers, to separate from the Declaratory Act Church, whatever hatred and obloquy and divisions in families might be caused thereby. We are not to return to them, but they are to return to us.
II. Had been loved from all eternity.
The eternal love of God is an ocean that never can be plumbed. It is the love of the three Persons, the everlasting love of God the Father, the everlasting love of God the Son, and the everlasting love of God the Holy Ghost. Theologians refer to the electing love of God the Father, and the redeeming love of God the Son, and the sanctifying love of God the Holy Ghost. The doctrine of the election of grace is one of the most hated in our day, even by professed Christians and teachers of Christianity. Nevertheless it is loved by the true Church of God, for this is the fountain from which all the blessings flow, the electing love of God the Father, as the first Person of the adorable Trinity. Carnal reasoning says, if there is an election of grace, there is no need to seek salvation or use means, but the means are elected also, and set up by God for men’s salvation. This is not the only reference to election in Scripture. It is one of the cardinal doctrines systematized and laid down in the Confession of Faith which we subscribe on Ordination, and promise to defend, maintain and assert in our ordination vows, and also at Baptisms. Although we believe in an election, we also believe in the free offer of the Gospel. We are not Hyper Calvinists. “The Spirit and the bride say Come, and let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him come, and drink of the water of life freely.” The redeemed Church of God will be swimming in the ocean of His love throughout eternity. The Lord appeared unto His servant saying these words, Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love. It was of old, he doesn’t say what year. Some of God’s people cannot tell the year or date. Many of them can, who received assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost; in such an abundant measure that it was a day never to be forgotten, as the night on which Israel passed out of Egypt. They never saw themselves so vile and unworthy as when they saw the worthiness of the Lamb, and tasted of His infinite love. The love of David and Jonathan was great and surpassed the love of women, but this was a greater. Human love will come to an end at death. Married people only promise to be faithful, “until death do them part,” but death will not put an end to this love. It goes beyond the grave. Samuel Rutherford wrote of Emanuel’s love, and that is what we have here put before us. The love of Ammon turned to hatred, but God’s love will not alter. It is unchangeable and will not get cold, although the “love of many will get cold when iniquity abounds.” His people may cool in their affection towards Him, but His love is always the same. The Church of Rome is said to be semper eaden, always the same. That is true in the worst sense, but this is true of the love of God in the best sense. One of the earliest English poets, Chaucer, said “Amor vinoit omina.” Love conquers everything, but this is true of God’s love more than any other. The Apostle said, “Keep yourselves in the love of God.” It will conquer sin and death and hell and every enemy of the Church. “Who can separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord? We are more than conquerers through Him that loved us. The love of parents is precious, and of brethren and sisters, of husband or wife or children, but the love of Jehovah exceeds them all. “The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee, nor the covenant of my peace, saith the Lord.” They would never love Him unless He had loved them first, as John said, who was the apostle of love. They hated God by nature, His Word, His House, His ordinances, His Sabbath. Now they are constrained by the love of Christ; and would even be willing to die rather than forsake Himself or anything that belongs to Him in the world.
There were many who did die in our beloved land for Him. How much of the dust of the martyrs is in these islands! The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church, from Patrick Hamilton to James Resby, Walter Mill, Paul Craw. How many men, women and children of the Covenanters died for Christ. When will God arise and visit Scotland again with days of reviving and refreshing from His presence, “like rain on the mown grass”? There were many unlovely characters that were changed to be lovely, owing to the fact that they had been loved from eternity. The first chapter of Romans gives a whole list of them. They were more like devils than men, but they came to be Godlike. Some had been “murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers,” and blasphemers and criminals, but they were washed and justified and sanctified. The man in whom was the legion was a terror to himself and others but he became a blessing instead of a curse. Saul of Tarsus became an apostle of the Lamb who was a raging persecutor. The Gentiles were hateful and hating one another, full of the spirit of murder, which is so common to-day but came to be full of the love of God, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ, to be gentle, and kind, and doing good instead of harm to their fellow men.
III. Drawn with loving kindness.
God the Holy Ghost draws men in different ways, but it is always with loving kindness. The Phillipian Jailor and Lydia were not drawn in the same manner. The one seems to have experienced more of the terrors of the Lord than the other. Some under conviction are like the Israelite who thought Moses was going to kill him as he killed the Egyptian previously. They conclude that there is nothing for them but death temporal and eternal, but it is when they are about to despair that God reveals His Son in them, and saves them from going down to the pit. Herein is love not that we loved God but that He loved us and gave His Son to be a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. He is drawing them with cords of love even when they are awakened and are full of fears. He draws some to Himself by taking away their friends, and causing them to see the vanity of the world, and the need to seek the one thing needful. This is the way the Lord trains young ministers as MacCheyne says. Under conviction it is difficult for the soul to believe the Lord is drawing him, but he will see afterwards that all was done well. Even the darkest experiences of the children of God work for their good. They cannot understand in this world all God’s dealings with them, but they will understand in eternity. “For a moment in a little wrath I hid my face from thee, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee.”
The saints would never come to God unless He drew them by almighty power. God shows kindness to the worst of men in this world. He chastises His own very severely in this life, but it is in everlasting love He visits them with the rod. In eternity He will have time enough to pour His love on them, although He will leave them in darkness at times in this life. In eternity He will also have time enough to pour punishment on the wicked, although they got many a favour from His hand in this life. Rev. Archie Cook says at death, a wave of holiness comes over the believer to fit him for glory, and a wave of darkness comes over the soul of the unbeliever to fit him for eternal darkness. God is light, and God is love. The soul got light as well as experiencing the love of God. In Him there is no darkness at all. They were saved from eternal darkness in the day in which they were illuminated and passed from death unto life. They saw the three shining Ones, as John Bunyan says, who gave them a certificate for Heaven, which is of more value than the highest academical award. In the day they were illuminated as Saul of Tarsus was by the vision of God’s glory they ceased to have doubts, if they had any, about the inspiration and infallibility of the Holy Scriptures from the 1st verse of Genesis to the last verse of Revelation.