                    [Times Square Church Pulpit Series]

                         Believing the Love of God

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By David Wilkerson
January 4, 1993
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          In recent weeks the Holy Spirit has been leading me to
          pray for a greater understanding of God's love to me.
          After reading 1 John 4:16, I realized how very little I
          knew about living and walking in God's love, John wrote
          in his epistle: "We have known and believed the love
          God hath to us God is love; and he that dwelleth in
          love dwelleth in God, and God in him."

          I believe most Christians know about God's love for
          them only theologically. They have learned the
          Scriptures on love and have heard them preached - and
          yet their understanding is limited to a line from the
          children's chorus: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for
          the Bible tells me so..."

          We say we believe God loves us, the world and the lost.
          But it is an abstract faith! Not many Christians can
          say with authority, "Yes, I know Jesus loves me -
          because I have an understanding of what His love is. I
          have apprehended it - I live in it. It is the
          foundation of my daily walk."

          The daily life of a majority of Christians, however, is
          not one of walking and believing in God's love.
          instead, they live under a cloud of guilt, fear,
          condemnation. They have never really been free - they
          have never rested in God's love for them. They may be
          able to sit in church, raise their hands and rejoice -
          but they carry a secret baggage with them at all times.
          There has never been a time when they were totally free
          from a nagging sense of never really pleasing the Lord.
          They say to themselves, "Something is lacking in me -
          I'm not measuring up. Some thing is wrong!"

          Listen to Paul's words: "Walk in love, as Christ also
          hath loved us" (Ephesians 5:2). The apostle urged the
          Ephesians, "Jesus truly loves you - so walk as one who
          is greatly loved by God!"

          I have heard the confessions of many "older" Christians
          - people who have walked with the Lord for thirty or
          forty years - who confessed they never knew the joy of
          being loved by God. They appeared happy and contented
          outwardly - yet, inside, they dragged onward, always
          carrying heavy burdens of doubt and fear. I believe
          these brothers and sisters simply never understood,
          deep down, the love that God has for them. They never
          experienced the peace that knowing God's love brings to
          the heart!

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                    You Will Never Go After a Revelation
                   of God's Love to You Until You Become
                    Sick And Tired of Living With Fear,
                     Guilt, Condemnation And Confusion!

                      -------------------------------

          You have to wake up one day and say to yourself, "This
          is no way to live! I can't go on serving God with this
          sense of wrath on me, always feeling condemned and
          unworthy. As much as I love Jesus and believe my sins
          are forgiven, why am I so heavy-hearted?"

          The fact is, God did not save you to allow you to live
          in guilt and condemnation. Jesus said: "Verily, verily,
          I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth
          on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall
          not come into condemnation; but is passed from death
          unto life" (John 5:24).

          One meaning of the word "condemnation" here is "wrath."
          Jesus is saying you won't come under His judgment -
          that on the Judgment Day you will be free from His
          wrath. But condemnation also means "the feeling of
          never measuring up to standards." And Jesus is saying
          the believer shall not come under the feeling of never
          measuring up!

          "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who
          are in Christ Jesus, which walk not after the flesh,
          but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:1). All guilt and
          condemnation are clearly of the devil. And Paul warned
          of "fall(ing) into the condemnation of the devil" (1
          Timothy 3:6). He was saying that when you fall into
          condemnation, you've fallen from grace - from the
          security that God has offered us through the blood of
          His own Son.

          Beloved, the Holy Ghost convicts but He never condemns.
          His ministry is to convict of sin. But He does this
          only to heal - to bring men and women to a place of
          peace and rest in Christ. And He does this
          redemptively, not with wrath.

          "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea
          rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right
          hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us"
          (Romans 8:34). The Lord is saying, "Who condemns you?
          Why are you walking around under condemnation, when
          your Savior is before Me right now, pleading your
          cause?"

          The only condemnation remaining is upon those who
          refuse the light of the gospel: "And this is the
          condemnation, that light is come into the world, and
          men loved darkness rather than light, because their
          deeds were evil" (John 3:19).

          If you love to have the Word of God come and expose
          everything in your heart, then you are no longer
          condemned. Condemnation remains only for those who hide
          sin and love darkness! You do love the light, do you
          not? So why allow condemnation?

          Yet perhaps you are assaulted by a temptation you can't
          seem to shake off. Or maybe you carry a sense of never
          measuring up, of unworthiness - a fear that the devil
          is going to trip you up and you're going to fail God.

          This is the day for you to wake up to God's love to
          you! I pray that as you read this message, something
          will strike deep in your heart, and you'll be able to
          say, "You're right, Brother Dave - that's me I don't
          want to live this way!"

          Christians who live in guilt, fear and condemnation are
          not "rooted and grounded" in the love of God:

          "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that
          ye, beingrooted and grounded in love, may be able to
          comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and
          length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of
          Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be
          filled with all the fulness of God" (Ephesians
          3:17-19).

          "Rooted and grounded" here means "to build under you a
          deep and stable foundation of knowing and understanding
          the love of God to you." In other words, the knowledge
          of God's love to you is the foundational truth upon
          which all other truths must build!

          For example, this is what the fear of God is built
          upon. A holy fear of God isn't a dread that He is ready
          to strike you down if you're caught in some little
          fault. Rather, it is the dread of His holiness against
          rebellion - and of what He does to those who love
          darkness rather than light!

          Our heavenly Father sent His Son to die for our sins
          and weaknesses. And without knowing and fully
          understanding that kind of love to you, you will never
          have a stable or permanent foundation!

          "That ye .. may be able to comprehend the love of
          Christ." The Greek word for "comprehend" here suggests
          "to eagerly seize or lay hold of." Paul means for you
          to seize this truth and make it the foundation of your
          Christian life. He is saying, "Put your spiritual hands
          out and say,'I'm going to lay hold of this!'"

          Let me share with you three things that the Holy Spirit
          has been teaching me about the love of God to us. I
          pray that you will get hold of His truth - that it will
          open your eyes and help you enter a whole new realm of
          joy and peace in your daily walk with Him:

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                      1. The Love of God to Us Has to
                      Do With His Treasures in Glory!

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          You cannot divorce God's provisions from His love. His
          love to us has to do with the abundant riches laid up
          in glory for our use. He has given us provisions for
          every crisis in our life - to help us to live
          victoriously at all times!

          For weeks had prayed, "Lord, I want to know Your heart.
          I can't get a revelation of Your love to me from any of
          the books in my library, or even from the holiest men
          who ever lived. That can come only from You. I want my
          own revelation of Your love - directly from Your heart!
          I want to see it so clearly it changes the way I walk
          with You and the way I minister."

          As I prayed, I didn't know what to expect. Would a
          revelation of His love come rushing into my soul like a
          flood of glory? Would it appear as some great insight
          that would leave me breathless, or as a manifestation
          of His nearness? Would it be a feeling of being very
          special to Him - or a touch of His hand on me so real
          it would change me forever?

          No - God spoke to me in a simple little verse: "God so
          loved ,,, that He gave..." (John 3:16). His love is
          tied to His riches in glory - His bountiful provisions
          for us!

          The Bible says our love for the Lord is shown by our
          obedience to Him. But His love for us is evidenced in
          another way - by His giving! You cannot know Him as a
          loving God until you see Him as a giving God. God so
          loved us, He invested in His Son Jesus all the
          treasures, glory and bounties of the Father - and He
          gave Him to us! Christ is God's gift to us, in whom is
          wrapped up all we need to be overcomers.

          "For it pleased the Father that in him should all
          fulness dwell" (Colossians 1:19). "For in him dwelleth
          all the fulness of the Godhead bodily And ye are
          complete in him" (2:9-10). In other words, "In Him you
          have all provisions - everything you need!"

          The problem is, very few Christians appropriate what
          God has freely offered. We don't go after it or take
          possession of it - and the treasures of Christ lie in
          glory unclaimed!

          What a shock we're going to have when we get to glory!
          At that time, God will show us all the riches His love
          had provided and how we didn't use them.

          We see an example of this in the parable of the
          Prodigal Son. This story reveals God's love in a
          profound way - and it proves that His love to us has to
          do with His abundant riches and provisions!

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                  2. God's Love Insists We Come to the End
                 of All Our Human Resources -and Claim and
                    Appropriate His Bountiful Treasures!

                      -------------------------------

          This is what the parable of the Prodigal Son is all
          about. It is the story of two sons - one who comes to
          the end of his own resources, and one who would not
          claim his father's resources.

          The younger son came to his father and said, "Give me
          the portion of goods that falleth to me" (Luke 15:12).
          The substance he received - and then wasted -
          represents his own interests: his talents, abilities,
          all the things he used to face life and all its
          problems. He said, "I'vegot intelligence, good wits, a
          good background. I can go out and do it on my own!"

          That attitude describes many Christians today. Yet,
          when things get hard how soon we come to the end of our
          own resources! How quickly we spend all that we have
          within ourselves! We can figure our way out of some
          problems and find inner strength for some trials, But a
          time comes when famine strikes the soul!

          You come to the end of yourself, and you don't know
          which way to turn. Your friends can't help you. You are
          left empty, hurting, with nothing left inside to draw
          upon. You are spent - all your fight is gone! All
          that's left are fear, depression, emptiness,
          hopelessness.

          Are you still hanging around the devil's pigpen,
          wallowing in emptiness, starving to death? That is what
          happened to the Prodigal Son. There was nothing left in
          him to draw upon! He had exhausted all his
          ownresources. And he realized where all his
          self-reliance had brought him. But what was it that
          finally woke him up? When was it that he came to
          himself? It was when he remembered all the abundant
          provisions in his father's house!

          He said, "I'm starving here. But in my father's house
          there is bread enough and to spare!" (see Luke 15:17).
          He decided to go back and appropriate his father's
          bountiful provisions!

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                    The Heart of God's Love Is Found in
                    the Father's Invitation to Come and
                     Enjoy a Banquet of His Provisions!

                      -------------------------------

          There is not one word in this parable that indicates
          the Prodigal came back because of love for his father.
          True, he was repentant - he fell on his knees, crying,
          "Father, I'm sorry! I've sinned against you and against
          God, I'm not even worthy to come into your house," But
          he never said, "Father, I came back because I love
          you!"

          Rather, what is revealed here is that the love of God
          to us is without strings; it is not dependent upon our
          loving Him. The truth is, He loved us even when we were
          far away from Him in our hearts, still sinners. That is
          unconditional love!

          When the Prodigal came back, his father didn't go over
          a list of his son's sins. He didn't say, "Where have
          you been? How many harlots did you lie with? How much
          money is in your bag? I want an accounting!"

          No - instead, he fell on his son's neck and kissed him.
          He said to the servants, "Kill the fatted calf! Put a
          new robe on him, a ring on his finger and new shoes on
          his feet. Let's have a celebration - let us rejoice and
          be merry!"

          Where is the revelation of the Father's love in this
          picture? Is it in his ready forgiveness? his
          affectionate kiss? the fatted calf? the robe, ring and
          new shoes?

          Indeed, these are all expressions of His love - but
          none of these is the heart of it! "Herein is love, not
          that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his
          Son to be the propititation for our sins" (1 John
          4:10). "We love him, because he first loved us" (verse
          19).

                      -------------------------------

                      The Full Revelation of Love Came
                       When the Father Could Not Have
                       Real Joy Until He Knew His Son
                    Was With Him in The Banqueting Hall!

                      -------------------------------

          "He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner
          over me was love" (Song of Solomon 2:4). The father's
          joy could not be complete until he was sitting in the
          banqueting hall with his son, and he had made sure the
          boy knew he was forgiven and his sin wiped out. They
          had to be sitting at the table - feasting on the Lamb!

          If you were to look in the window at that moment, you
          would have seen a young man who had just come into a
          true revelation of God's love:He was dancing! There was
          music, and he was laughing and happy. His father was
          glad over him, smiling at him!

          He was not under a cloud of fear. He wasn't listening
          to the old lies: "You're going to go right back to that
          pigpen! You are unworthy of such love...." No, he
          accepted his forgiveness - and he had obeyed his
          father's word to come in and take for himself all he
          needed.

          He heard his father whisper to him, "All I have is
          yours. There is no need ever to be hungry again. You
          need never be lonely, a pauper, cut off from My
          store-house."

          Beloved, here is the fullness of God's love, the very
          heart of it! It is that even in our darkest times, God
          not only embraces us and brings us back in - but He
          also says: "Bring forth the fatted calf, and let us eat
          and be merry! In My banqueting house, there is a feast
          of plenty for My loved one!"

          Yet today we have an even better promise: "To know the
          love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might
          be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him
          that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that
          we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in
          us" (Ephesians 3:19-20).

          Here is God's love to us: "I offer you exceeding,
          abundant fullness - provision for every crisis, joy
          throughout your entire life. You may go to the
          storehouse and claim it all!"

          Now, the older son was out in the field, hard at work
          doing his father's business, when suddenly he heard
          music, laughter, dancing. When he came near the house,
          he discovered it was all a feast for his wayward
          brother - the one who had wasted his father's substance
          on harlots and riotous living!

          As the older son looked through the window, he saw his
          father rejoicing over the younger brother, full of
          delight. He couldn't understand how his no-good brother
          could get so free, happy and blessed in such a short
          time! Scripture says of him, "He was angry, and would
          not go in" (Luke 15:28).

          Finally, the father came out and urged him to come in.
          But the older son said, "Lo, these many years do I
          serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy
          commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I
          might make merry with my friends" (verse 29). He was
          saying, "This is not right! All these many years I've
          served you well. I never disobeyed you at any time."

          Oh, how many of us can relate to the older brother! We
          spend years trying so hard to please our Lord, living
          in dogged determination to always do right. That
          certainly describes me - for I have often been caught
          on the outside, looking in!

          You see, I've known the Lord all my life. I never was
          in the world. I never smoked a cigarette, never touched
          a drug, never lived in adultery. I worked hard to live
          for the Lord.

          Then, at times, I would see a convert come home to
          Jesus, one who had lived in sin. And when he came back,
          suddenly he was dancing, rejoicing - happy and
          carefree! He had come to Christ with simple faith, and
          he no longer had any guilt, condemnation or memory of
          the past. Everything was new to him! God seemed to be
          smiling on him.

          Yet I sat back, thinking, "Sure, he's singing and
          praising now - but is he really holy? I paid a price
          for my place in God - I've served Him for years. And
          yet I have burdens, cares. At times I feel guilt,
          confusion. And here this one comes in, dancing! He
          walks in and passes me up with simple faith in God's
          Word, Lord, it's not right! He's so free - and my life
          is so complicated!"

                      -------------------------------

                The Older Son, in All His Years of Service,
                 Had Never Known True Gladness - Because He
                 Had Never Taken Advantage of His Father's
                  Invitation to Appropriate All He Needed!

                      -------------------------------

          I believe the older boy went right back to his lowly
          shepherd's shack, thinking of the day when he would
          have his inheritance: "Just wait. One day, after death
          does its work, I'll come into great blessings. I'll
          have a great storehouse!" This is the one who is
          waiting to get to heaven before appropriating all the
          good things of God.

          His father must have been heartbroken. I believe he had
          told this son over and over: "Son, thou art ever with
          me, and all that I have is thine" (verse 31). In other
          words, "You have been with me all these years, and all
          I've owned has been yours for the asking. You know I
          would have given you anything - and yet you did not
          come in to lay hold of it!"

          I ask you - how many years have you been on the
          outside? You have a Father who has been laying up a
          great treasure of provisions for you. And yet you have
          left it unclaimed!

          This parable shows us that by going in and enjoying his
          father's treasures, the Prodigal Son had it both ways.
          He could live his earthly life with the abundant
          forgiveness, joy, peace and rest that were his. And
          when death brought him into his inheritance, he would
          fully enjoy what he had already known on earth.

          Indeed, the greater sin was committed by the older
          brother - the one who stayed home, walked obediently
          and never failed His father. Yes, it is a sin to waste
          our Father's substance on sensual living and a runaway
          spirit; but it is an even greater sin to rebuff God's
          great love - to leave unclaimed the bountiful resources
          He gave to us at such a great price!

                      -------------------------------

                       3. God's Love Insists We Stop
                        Focusing on Our Failures and
                       Sins, and Instead Focus on the
                      Riches Offered to Us in Christ!

                      -------------------------------

          The runaway son was not chastised, rebuked or reminded
          of his sin - because God would not allow sin to be the
          focus of restoration!There had been true repentance and
          godly sorrow. And it was time to move on to the banquet
          hall of love - to the feast! The father said to the
          older son, "He was lost, but now he is in the house
          again. He is forgiven - and it's time to rejoice and be
          happy!"

          Are you tired of living like a pauper when you have
          been provided everything you need? Perhaps your focus
          is wrong. You tend to dwell on your weaknesses,
          temptations and past failures, And when you look inside
          your own heart, what you see discourages you. You allow
          guilt to seep in.

          Beloved, you are to be looking unto Jesus, the Author
          and Finisher of your faith! When Satan comes and points
          at some weakness in your heart, you have every right to
          answer: "My God already knows it all and He still loves
          me! He has given me everything I need to get victory
          and keep it."

          "For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our
          heart, and knoweth all things" (1 John 3:20). He knows
          all about you - and He still loves you enough to say,
          "Come on in and get all you need. The storehouse is
          open!

          Indeed, the doors to His storehouse are wide open, and
          His riches are full to over-flowing. God is urging you:
          "Come boldly unto the throne of grace, that (you) may
          obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need"
          (Hebrews 4:16).

          Here is how you go into the storehouse and get what you
          need:

          1. Come boldly to His throne and ask largely for all
          the grace and mercy you need to see you through every
          temptation and trial. The devil has a million ways to
          make you feel guilty, fearful, condemned and confused.

          And he'll tell you, "You feel this way because you've
          got junk in your heart!" But I stopped looking in my
          heart a long time ago, because it is always black. Yet
          it's white to my Father - because it's covered with the
          blood of the Lamb!

          It doesn't matter how you feel. Simply look to God's
          Word for what Jesus has done. He has wiped your slate
          clean!

          2. Remind God that it was His idea for you to come in.
          You didn't go to the Lord saying, "Father, I want
          everything You have!" No - it was He who invited you
          in, saying, "All I have is yours. Come and get it!"

          3. Take God at His Word! The Bible says that everything
          He has for us is obtained by faith, You need only say
          in faith, "Lord Jesus, flood me with Your peace because
          You've said it is mine! I claim rest for my soul."

          You can't work this up. You can't sing or praise it
          down. No - it comes from being rooted and grounded in a
          revelation of God's love to you. This comes not in a
          feeling but rather in the Word that He Himself has
          spoken: "In My house is bread and enough to spare!"

          4. Take God's Word, and hammer all your fear, guilt and
          condemnation to pieces! Reject it all - it is not of
          God! You can say, "Let the devil come at me with his
          lies. My Father knows it all already, and He's forgiven
          and cleansed me. There is no guilt or condemnation
          toward me. I'm free!"

          Dear saint, I believe that if you ask the Spirit right
          now to help you seize this truth - to get rooted and
          grounded in it - the coming days will be the greatest
          you have ever had. You can say, "Lord Jesus, I know I'm
          going to make mistakes. But nothing is going to shake
          me - because You have everything I need to get the
          victory and to live in it."

          Come into His storehouse - and claim all that is yours
          from your loving Father. Hallelujah!

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