The Drawings of Love 2
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Now we come to the second point, which is:
II. THE UNMISTAKABLE MANIFESTATION, the manifestation by which this love is made known. Good people often get puzzled with the doctrine ofelection. In their simplicity they sometimes ask, "How can we know whether we are the Lord's chosen, or ascertain if our names are written in the Lamb's book of Life?" You cannot scan that mystic roll, or pry between those folded leaves. Had you an angel's wing and a seraph's eye, you could not read what God has written in his book. The Lord knows those who are his. No man shall know by any revelation, except that which the Holy Spirit gives according to my text.
There is a way of knowing, and it is this: "Therefore, with loving-kindness have I drawn you." Were you ever drawn? Have you been drawn with loving-kindness? If so, then there is evidence that the Lord loved you with an everlasting love. Be ready, therefore, to judge yourselves. You are challenged with this pointed question: Were you ever divinely drawn? Say now, beloved, have you experienced this sacred attraction that made you willing in the day of his power? Were you ever drawn from sin to holiness? You loved sin once; in it you found much pleasure; there were some forms and fashions of vice and folly which were very dear to your heart. Have your tastes been changed and your track been turned by the sovereign charm of this divine loving-kindness? Can you say, "The things I once loved, I now hate; and what gave me pleasure, now causes me a pang"? Is it so?
I do not ask you whether you are perfect and upright. Alas! who of us could answer this question otherwise than with blushes of shame? But I do ask, if you hate sin in every shape, and desire holiness in every form? Would you be perfect if you could be? If you could live as you would like, how would you like to live? Is your answer, "I would live as though it were possible for me to serve God day and night in his temple, without a wandering thought or a rebellious wish"? Ah! then, if you have been thus drawn from sin to holiness by the way of the cross, no doubt he loved you with an everlasting love, and you need not discredit it. You may be as sure of it as if an angel should come and drop a letter into your hands on which these words should be inscribed. Yes, surer still; for the angel might have missed his way, but God's Word cannot err. If you are thus drawn, he has loved you with an everlasting love.
Harken again. Have you ever been drawn from self to Jesus? There was a time when you thought yourself as good as other men. Had the bottom of your heart been searched, there would have been found written there, "I do not see that I am so great an offender as most of my neighbors; I am respectable, upright, moral; I should hope it would be well with me at the last, for if I am not now all that I should be, I shall try to be good, and by earnest endeavors, joined with fervent prayers and repentance, I hope to fit myself for Heaven." Oh! that you may be drawn away from all such empty conceit, and led to rest your hope solely on that blessed Man who sits at the right hand of God, crowned with glory, though he was once fastened to the tree, despised and rejected of men, and made to suffer as a scapegoat for our sins This, beloved, would be a sure sign that you had renounced yourself and closed in with Christ. You must have been loved with an everlasting love. It is as impossible for any of the elect of God to come to Christ and lay hold on him without divine drawing, as it would be for devils to feel tenderness of heart and repentance towards God. If you can say from your heart: "Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to your cross I cling," then his drawing may suffice as the proving that he loved you with an everlasting love.
Have you ever been drawn from sight to faith, from consulting your creature faculties to confidence in God? You used to depend only on what you called your common-sense. You walked by the judgment of your own mind. Do you now trust in him who truly is, though he is invisible; who speaks to you, though his voice is inaudible? Have you a sense, day by day, of the presence of One Supreme whom you cannot hear nor see? Does the unseen presence of God affect you in your actions? Do motives drawn from the next world influence you? Say whether you, in the day of trouble, lean upon an arm of flesh, or cry, and pray, and make supplication to the Almighty? Have you learned to walk in dependence upon the living God, even if his providence seems to fail you, and give a lie to his promises? Know, then, that a life of faith is a special gift of God; it is the fruit of divine protection; so as you are enabled to walk with God, and he deigns to befriend you, you may humbly but safely conclude that, in the records of the chosen, your name, stands inscribed. To be drawn into a life of faith is a blessed evidence of Christ's love.
Are you, moreover, day by day being drawn from earth to Heaven? Do you feel as if there were a magnet up there drawing your heart, so that when you are at work in your business, in your family with all its cares, you cannot help darting a prayer up to the Most High? Do you ever feel this onward impulse of something you do not understand, which impels you to have fellowship with God beyond the skies? Oh! if this be so, rest assured that it is Christ that draws. There is a link between you and Heaven, and Christ is drawing that link, and lifting your soul forward towards himself. I love that sweet hymn, and I hope you love the sentiment of it: "My heart is with him on the throne. And ill can brook delay; Each moment listening for the voice, Make Haste and come away!"
If your heart is here below, then your treasure is here; but if your heart is up there; if your brightest hopes, your fondest wishes be in the heavenly places, your treasure is manifestly there, and the title-deeds of that treasure will be found in the eternal purpose of God, whereby he ordained you unto himself that you might show forth his praise. Thus have I tried to show you that those who are thus drawn may be assured that they were loved with an everlasting love. And now will you, further, observe that it is with loving-kindness they are drawn.
Some people are frightened into religion. Beware of any religion that depends upon exciting your terror. Some people's religion consists entirely of doing what they think they must do though they do not like it. They are afraid of punishment, or they are anxious for a reward. Such is not the religion of Jesus Christ. It is said that the soldiers of Persia were driven into battle, and that the sound of the whips of the generals could be heard even while the battle was raging, lashing on the unwilling ranks to fulfill their part in the fray. Not so went the Greeks to battle. They rushed like lions amid a flock of sheep to tear their prey. They fought for their country, for their temples, for their lives, for all that they held dear, and right cheerily from such an impulse within did they engage in the war. The difference between the Greeks and the Persians is just the difference I want to describe among the professed followers of our Lord.
The genuine Christian serves God because he loves him; not that he fears Hell, for he knows that he has been delivered from condemnation, being washed in Jesus' blood; not that he expects to earn Heaven; he scorns the idea. Heaven is not to be merited by our poor paltry works. And besides, Heaven is his inheritance, since Christ has given it to him, having made his title sure. But he serves God because he loves him. He is drawn by a sense of the love of God towards him to love God in return. Who is the best servant? Not, surely, the man who only does what he is paid for; who serves you for his wage, and who would betray your interest to benefit himself; rather is he the true servant who would cling to you in all your fortunes or misfortunes, through good or through evil report. Some of the
old-fashioned servants were so attached to their masters, that they were reckoned on and regarded as members of the family. Those are the true servants of Christ who love him, and render him their services, not menially for the pay they count upon, but loyally, because their hearts are faithful and true to him; they love him so that they could not turn aside from him, or seek another Lord. Say now, are you thus drawn with loving kindness?
What a lovely word this "loving-kindness" is! "Kindness," seems to be like some huge opal or some sparkling diamond, and love seems to be like fine gold to encircle it. I think I could stand and look at that word "loving-kindness" until with sacred enchantment I burst into a song. There is such a charming sweetness, and yet such an immutable stability in the grace of God which it reveals, that our rapture is kindled as often as we review it. Of that loving-kindness I have tasted here below, and of that loving-kindness I hope to sing in yonder skies in worthier notes than this weak voice can compass now. The loving-kindness of the Lord, as it beams from his eyes, as it is communicated by his helping hand, as it is expressed by his gentle, tender voice, quickens the soul in the path of duty, and restrains it from falling into sin. How can I do this great wickedness, how can I sin against so almighty a Friend, whose kindness to me is so gratuitous, so constant, and so exceedingly generous? "Now for the love I bear his name, What was my gain, I count my loss; My former pride I call my shame, And nail my glory to his cross."
"Yes, and I must and will esteem All things but loss for Jesus' sake. Oh! may I so be found in him And of his righteousness partake!"
Thus clearly and thus surely may you judge for yourselves whether you are God's chosen or not. Are you drawn, and how are you drawn? Is it with loving-kindness? These are the two points that melt and fuse in experience. As before that God whose eyes of fire search you through and through, I do implore you to judge, and righteously judge, now as to your own condition. Be not satisfied to rest peacefully until you can say, "Thanks and praise to God's eternal love, I am drawn; by grace, by grace divine, I am constrained. Henceforth, I freely yield myself up to Christ to be his servant, his disciple, his friend, his brother, forever and forever. The Lord has appeared unto me, saying, ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love.'"
Do I hear a sigh come up from some in this assembly; a sigh which, being interpreted, would say, "Alas! for me, this sacred solace was never mine; I never was drawn; I feel no love, no such melting favors as your description of loving-kindness ever dawned on me; but, ah! I wish I were drawn; that I had a part among that blessed throng who shall forever see his face. Oh! that I could believe that I, though the meanest of them all, should find my name written in the Lamb's book of life! "Why friend, with you, it would seem, the drawing has begun. Surely God's loving-kindness has made your mouth water. I rejoice exceedingly over those who hunger after the bread of life, for they shall speedily be filled. Right well I know my Master will give it to them. If you desire Christ, depend upon it, Christ desires you.
No sinner ever was beforehand with Christ. When you are willing to have him, he is evidently willing to have you. You had not put out one hand towards him, if he had not put two hands on you already. Oh! if you will but trust the bleeding lamb; believe that he can save you, and trust in him to save you with sincere confidence, then you are already drawn. This is proof positive that God has loved you from before the world's beginning. Oh! how I would that some might be drawn today; some who have been great and grievous sinners. There are many such among the chosen vessels of mercy. God grant some of you young people may be drawn. And you who, though no longer young, are still without the blessing, I cannot bear the thought that you should tarry longer uncalled by sovereign grace. May the Holy Spirit attract you! May you feel in your heart the wish to belong to Christ; the desire to be counted among them when he makes up his jewels. Turn that wish into a prayer. Bow your head now, and pray with this petition. God will hear your secret sighs. He does not reject sincere prayers, however badly they may be worded. If you can get no further than a sigh, it has its value in his kind esteem. The tear that fell just now upon the floor of the pew were not lost; for an angel tracked and treasured them, and carried it on high. God will accept you if you will accept Christ. If you trust Jesus now, it is done! you are saved.
The moment a sinner believes and trusts in Christ, he is saved- saved forever. In that moment his iniquity is blotted out, and he is accepted in the Beloved. From that moment he might sing:
"It is done, the great transaction's done;
I am my Lord's, and he is mine;
He drew me, and I followed on,
Glad to obey the voice divine."
The Lord appear to you, speak to you, and bless you, saying to you, "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love! Therefore, with loving-kindness I have drawn you." Amen.
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