MEETING GOD'S NEED AND PRESENT NEEDS IN THE LORD'S RECOVERY
Message Three
The Need to Develop Our Faith in the Lord and Our Love for Him
Scripture Reading: 1 Pet. 1:8; Gal. 5:6; 3:2; Eph. 6:23; Heb. 12:2a; Rom. 5:5; 8:39; 1 John 4:8, 16
I. We need to develop and perfect our faith in the Lord and our love for Him—the One whom we have not seen—1 Pet. 1:8; Heb. 12:2a; 1 John 2:5; 4:12, 17-18:
A. Jesus Christ, "whom having not seen, you love; into whom though not seeing Him at present, yet believing, you exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory"—1 Pet. 1:8:
1. Although we have never seen the Lord Jesus, we love Him; at present we cannot see Him, yet we believe in Him—v. 8:
a. It is a wonder and a mystery that the believers love One whom they have not seen.
b. We love Him whom we have not seen because of believing, that is, because of the faith that has been infused into us through our hearing of the living word—Gal. 3:2.
2. The believers "exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory"—1 Pet. 1:8:
a. We exult with a joy that is immersed in glory.
b. This joy is immersed in the Lord as glory; thus, it is full of the expression of the Lord—2 Cor. 3:18.
3. By believing into the Lord and loving Him, we obtain great joy.
4. The normal condition of a Christian is to "exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory"—1 Pet. 1:8.
B. "Faith avails, operating through love"—Gal. 5:6:
1. Living faith is active; it operates through love.
2. Faith receives the Spirit of life; thus, it is full of power—3:2.
3. Faith operates through love to fulfill God's purpose, that is, to complete the sonship of God for His corporate expression—the Body of Christ—4:3-5; Rom. 12:4-5.
4. Love is related to our appreciation of Christ—Eph. 3:8, 17-18; Col. 2:2:
a. Without such an appreciation, faith cannot operate—Gal. 5:6.
b. The hearing of faith awakens our loving appreciation—Rom. 10:17; Gal. 3:2, 5.
c. The more we love the Lord, the more faith operates to bring us into the riches of the all-inclusive Spirit—v. 14; Eph. 3:8; Phil. 1:19.
C. "Peace to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ"—Eph. 6:23:
1. Love with faith is the means by which we partake of and experience Christ—1 Tim. 1:14.
2. We need faith as a match and support for our love—Titus 3:15.
II. "Looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith"—Heb. 12:2a:
A. Faith and love are two inseparable, excellent virtues of the believers in Christ—1 Tim. 1:14; 2 Tim. 1:13; Titus 3:15; Gal. 5:6:
1. Through faith we receive the Lord, and through love we enjoy the Lord whom we have received—John 1:12; 14:21; 21:15-17.
2. By faith we receive the Lord and therefore please God; by love we enjoy the Lord and thereby keep His word—Heb. 11:6; John 14:23.
3. By faith we receive and enjoy the divine life that is revealed and ministered to us in the Gospel of John; by love we love the Lord and those who belong to Him—3:16, 36; 20:31; 21:15-17; 13:34-35.
B. Faith is for appreciating, substantiating, and receiving the unlimited riches of the Triune God—1:12; Eph. 3:16-17a:
1. Faith is given to us by God so that by it we may receive Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, and thereby enter into the Triune God and be joined to Him as one, having Him as our life, life supply, and everything—2 Pet. 1:1.
2. By faith in the Lord, we receive the forgiveness of sins and eternal life—Acts 10:43; John 3:16.
3. When we believe in the Lord, we believe into Him—v. 15:
a. By believing into Him, we enter into Him to be one with Him, to partake of Him, and to participate in all that He has accomplished for us.
b. By believing into Him, we are identified with Him in all that He is and in all that He has passed through, accomplished, attained, and obtained—1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 2:5-6; Col. 3:1.
C. Love is for experiencing, enjoying, and living out the immeasurably rich Triune God—Mark 12:30; 2 Cor. 13:14:
1. Love issues out of faith and enables us to live out all the riches of the Triune God in Christ with those who have believed into Christ with us in order that the Triune God may have a glorious corporate expression—Eph. 3:19-21.
2. Love is for the believers to minister and transmit the Triune God to their fellow believers so that all the believers may love one another with divine, transcendent love and live a corporate life in Christ—Rom. 12:4-5, 10.
3. Our love for the Lord must be absolute—Matt. 10:37; 1 John 2:15; Rev. 12:11.
4. To give the Lord the first place in all things is to love Him with the first love, the best love—Col. 1:18; Rev. 2:4.
5. "To love God means to set our entire being—spirit, soul, and body, with the heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30)—absolutely on Him, that is, to let our entire being be occupied by Him and lost in Him, so that He becomes everything to us and we are one with Him practically in our daily life"—1 Cor. 2:9, footnote 3.
III. "The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us"—Rom. 5:5:
A. God has poured out His love in our hearts with the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us, as the motivating power within us, that we may more than conquer in all our tribulations—v. 5; 8:39.
B. The love of God is God Himself—1 John 4:8, 16.
C. God as love is the divine essence that has been poured out in our hearts—Rom. 5:5:
1. The pouring out of the love of God in our hearts is a matter of the essence of God.
2. Because we have been regenerated, we have love as the nature of God's essence within us.
3. As believers, deep in our hearts we have something of the divine essence, and this is God the Father in His love.
D. Because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts, the heart of every believer in Christ is a heart of love—Eph. 3:17.
E. In our experience and enjoyment of God as the Father in His love, we experience and enjoy the dispensing of love as the nature of God's essence into our hearts—Rom. 5:5, 8; 8:35, 39; 15:30; 2 Cor. 13:14.