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Scripture Reading: John 14:23; 1 John 2:27-28; Eph. 3:16-19
Living with the Lord is not a matter of coercion. Living with the Lord is according to the same principle as that of marriage life, which is not based upon coercion but upon love. It is truly painful for two people to live together without the sweetness of love and without being maintained in love. The Bible also likens our living with the Lord to the living of a husband and wife in love. Our Beloved is the Lord Jesus whom we love, and we are His lovers. We are bound together with Him by the sweetness of love. Of the sixty-six books of the Bible, one book — Song of Songs — speaks exclusively about the loving relationship between the Beloved and His lovers. From beginning to end, Song of Songs talks about our living a life of love and mutual attraction with the Lord.
In John 14:23 the Lord said, “If anyone loves Me.” All religions, including Christianity, stress respect toward God and fear of God. They state that God is fearful, so man should fear Him. Some religions also speak of worshipping God. These religions assert that since God is great and exalted, man must worship Him. Religion teaches primarily these two things — fearing and worshipping God. The words spoken by the Lord Jesus, however, do not stress fear, worship, or even adoration. Adoration is something that someone who is inferior has for someone who is superior. Instead of stressing these things, the Lord Jesus spoke of love. Love is something that is shared by two people who have an equal standing and are on the same level. The love between a husband and a wife is a love between equals. In such a relationship it cannot be that one is higher and the other is lower, one is superior and the other is inferior. The Lord Jesus did not say, “If anyone adores Me,” He did not say, “If anyone worships Me,” and He did not say, “If anyone fears Me.” Fear, worship, and adoration are all, more or less, related to religion. Our Lord is not a religion or merely an object of worship. He is a living person.
Our Lord is the ever-living God and the almighty Sovereign of the universe. It is true that He is God, but this God also became flesh, put on humanity, and took on our nature. As a man He died and resurrected, and today He still has His humanity, a resurrected humanity, and He is still Jesus, the Son of Man. Therefore, 1 Timothy 2:5b says, “The man Christ Jesus.” Today our God — the Lord of the universe and our Savior — is still a man. Even though He became the life-giving Spirit, He still has the human nature. Thus, He can speak to us about love, something that is shared between those of equal rank. He said, “If anyone loves Me.” When we come to this section of the Bible, we may not treasure the word love. We have to realize that the love spoken of here is something more than adoration, fear, or worship. This love is something shared by two who are on the same level. We are human, and He also is human. We have the human nature, and He also has put on the human nature. He has come to our level. He is not standing above us. He is standing in front of us, on our level, saying to us, “If anyone loves Me.”
After the Lord rose from the dead, He immediately went to find Peter, the one who had denied Him to His face. On the night that the Lord Jesus was betrayed, Peter was full of confidence that he would follow the Lord. However, when the test came, Peter denied the Lord three times right to His face (Luke 22:55-61). Shortly after this, the Lord Jesus was crucified and then resurrected. After the Lord had resurrected, an angel told Mary the Magdalene and two other sisters to “go, tell His disciples and Peter” (Mark 16:7). Peter forsook the Lord, but the Lord did not forget Peter. I believe that after Peter denied the Lord, he regretted to the uttermost that he had done so, saying to himself, “How could I have denied the Lord three times?” However, at the very juncture when Peter must have been feeling this way, Mary came and said, “Peter, the Lord wants me to tell something to the brothers and to you!”
In John 21 the Lord manifested Himself to the disciples. While He was manifesting Himself to them, He found time to speak to Peter face to face. He questioned Peter three times, asking him, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” (vv. 15-17). I believe that the Lord asked Peter this question three times because Peter had denied the Lord three times. The Lord seemed to be saying, “You denied Me three times, saying, ‘No! No! No!’ Now let Me ask you also three times, ‘Do you? Do you? Do you?’” First the Lord asked Peter, “Do you love Me more than these?” Then He asked him, “Do you love Me?” And the third time He asked him again, “Do you love Me?” Peter found it difficult to answer these questions. Just a few days earlier he had denied the Lord, so how could he now say, “Yes, Lord, I really love You”? At the same time, he could not say, “Lord, I do not love You.” Peter was probably thinking, “If I say that I do not love the Lord, I will be lying. I do love Him, but my love for Him is so poor. What is my real situation? Only the Lord knows whether or not I truly love Him!” Therefore, Peter answered the Lord, “Lord, You know that I love You.”
Now I would ask you, “Do you love the Lord?” I believe that like Peter many of the brothers and sisters would say to the Lord, “Lord, You know that I love You.” In every believer there is a heart to love the Lord. How do you know that you have believed into the Lord Jesus and that God has accepted you? How do you know that the Lord lives in you? How do you know that you are one with the Lord? We do not know these things by touching the Lord outwardly. We often hear the saints say, “Once I believed into the Lord, I touched the Lord. Once I believed into the Lord, I gained the Lord. Since I believed into the Lord, the Lord has been with me. Since I believed into the Lord, the Lord has never left me.” As a result of hearing such statements and understanding them according to their human intellect, some expect to be able to touch the Lord Jesus outwardly. This, however, is the human understanding, the human concept. The Lord Jesus is the life-giving Spirit. He is a mystery.
The Spirit is a mystery, but there are several matters that illustrate the Spirit. One such matter is electricity. Electricity is very practical and is an essential part of modern living, but we cannot see it or touch it. Another mystery is our physical life. No one has ever been able to thoroughly define life. Because we have life within us, we are able to speak and move. However, once a person dies, although all his inward parts are still within him, he is no longer able to function. Death is the cessation of the function of life. When someone dies, where does his life go? It is difficult to say. Life is a mystery. The Bible reveals that our Lord is life to us. He is our life — He is real, practical, and almighty, yet we cannot touch Him. Although life cannot be touched, its presence is discernible. If I am standing before you, do I need to tell you that I have life? I do not, because when you see me standing before you, you know that I am living. Likewise, how do you know that you have believed into Jesus and are saved, and how do you know that Jesus is in you? You know because you have been enlivened within. There is something within you that you cannot remove. I was saved at a young age. After I had been saved, whenever I heard someone say something negative about Jesus, I would become very unhappy. Later, I understood that this was proof that the Lord Jesus had come into me.
Outwardly, you may not appear to love the Lord very much, yet deep within you, there is a feeling that the Lord is sweet and that you like Him. Perhaps you may not yet know how to love the Lord and, according to your inner feeling, you do not feel that you love Him. Nevertheless, there is still a sense hidden deep within you that Jesus is good, and every time you think about Jesus, you feel that He is good and that you like Him. If this is your sense within, this is proof that you are saved.
You may say, “Brother Lee, do not try to fool me. If I am saved as you say, why is it that I still like to play mah-jongg and go to the Chinese opera? Surely, I am not saved.” In response I would say that while I do not encourage you to do these things, I am not concerned about them. I only ask you whether or not you have the inner sense that Jesus is good. When Jesus is mentioned, do you have the inner feeling that you like Him? Do you sense that Jesus is lovable? It may even be that while you are playing mah-jongg, while your fingers are on the tiles, a thought arises within you — “Jesus is good.” It may also be that while you are at the Chinese opera, while the stage is filled with exciting things, the statement arises within — “Jesus is truly good.” Moreover, regardless of how hard you try to get rid of this sense, you are not able to do so. The fact that you have this feeling within that Jesus is good proves that you are saved.
I hope that the sense that Jesus is good is growing within you every day. You do not need to determine to give up mah-jongg or the Chinese opera. All that you need to do is to daily say, “Jesus is good; Jesus is really good! Although I am here playing mah-jongg, Jesus is better than mah-jongg. Jesus is truly good!” If you say this more and more every day, by the time that you have said this hundreds of times, you will no longer play mah-jongg or go to the opera. You will give up these things, because Jesus is good, and Jesus is so lovable.
Dear brothers and sisters, please do not think that it is superstitious to say this. I began hearing sermons in Christianity when I was very young, and although I have heard many of them, no one ever clearly told me that we should confess, “Jesus is good! Jesus is so good! O Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus! Lord, You are so good!” Then one day when I was compiling the hymnal, I found a hymn that says, “O Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord! / Forgive me if I say, / For very love, Thy sacred name / A thousand times a day” (Hymns, #208). These lines deeply touched me. I said to the Lord, “O Lord, I am truly sorry. I have been saved for so many years, but I have never said Your name a thousand times in one day.”
Some say that calling “O Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus!” is almost the same as the Buddhists’ chanting “Amitabha.” However, the real situation is that the more the Buddhist priests and nuns chant “Amitabha,” the more their faces become downcast, the more their foreheads grow wrinkled, and the more their countenances become sorrowful. Even the rooms that the Buddhist priests and nuns live in are dark and gloomy. When they walk into them, they cannot see anything. Calling upon the name of the Lord is completely different from the chanting of the Buddhists. When you say “O Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus! You are so good!” from morning to night, your sad face turns into a smiling face, your downcast face becomes an uplifted face, your furrowed brow loosens up, your wrinkles diminish, and even your bedroom is filled with warmth. How amazing this is! Why is there such a contrast between calling on the Lord and chanting? It is because when the Buddhists call “Amitabha,” demons come. The more they say “Amitabha,” the more demons there are, and demons are gloomy. However, when we say, “O Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus! You are so lovable!” the Lord Jesus comes, and the more we say this, the more He comes. The Lord Jesus is the reality of every positive thing in this universe. Thus, when He comes, we have everything.
Everyone who has seen a diamond loves it because diamonds are lovable. However, if you bring me a handful of dirt, how do you expect me to love it? I may be genuinely willing to love it, but I cannot love it because it is not lovable. We love the Lord Jesus not because we know how but because He is truly lovable. This is the reason that millions of people treasure the name of Jesus. Whenever the name of Jesus is mentioned, there is a feeling of sweetness and love within them. We may think that only little children call upon the Lord, but even I, an elderly man who is over seventy years old, call out “I love the Lord Jesus” every day. Our Lord Jesus is so wonderful.
Do we love the Lord Jesus? Since we all love Him, we should live with Him. Suppose there is a brother who has not taken a shower for three days, and his entire body smells. If this were the case, it would be difficult for me to love him and live with him. For two people to live together, they must love one another, and in order to love one another, they must find each other lovable. Our Lord Jesus is truly lovable. Formerly, we were not lovable, but the lovable Jesus has made us lovable. Thus, not only is Jesus lovable, but He has also made every one of His lovers lovable.
I know that this is true. I have seen people who were great sinners. Before they were saved, they were like monsters. Then one day they believed in the Lord and called, “O Lord Jesus!” Within two or three days after they believed in the Lord, they became most lovable. The loveliness of Jesus made them lovable. This illustrates that if you love Jesus, you will become lovable. Moreover, your loving Him and your becoming lovable will produce a result. Because He is lovable and you have become lovable, and because He loves you and you love Him, the two of you will live together. Because you love one another, you will want to live together all day long. Because He is truly lovable and you love Him, you will want to see Him often and live with Him. He is your life, and you are His image. You and He, He and you, will then become one. He loves you, and you love Him, so the two of you will live together.
In John 14:23 the Lord Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me,...My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” The Lord did not say that the Father and the Son will merely visit us and say “hello.” He said that They will make an abode with us. For the Father and Son to make an abode with us means that They will live, walk, and move together with us. It is truly amazing that the Lord said, “If anyone loves Me,...My Father will love him.” Our love for Him is not a love of someone who is below for someone who is above, and His love for us is not a love from someone who is above for someone who is below. Our love for Him and His love for us is a love shared by two who are on an equal standing. This is the Christian life.
What follows such a love? What follows is a life of living with the Lord. The Christian life is a life of living with the Lord and a life of the Lord living with us. Eventually, we will live together with the Lord to such an extent that when we say to the Lord, “Lord, let us go to the movies together,” we will be able to sense the Lord saying, “I am not going.” Moreover, not only will we sense that the Lord does not want to go, but we will also say, “Lord, You do not want to go? Since You do not want to go, then I will not go. What would You like to do?” We may say to the Lord, “Lord, they are playing mah-jongg at Mr. Lee’s, but they are short one person. Can we go play mah-jongg?” And when the Lord says, “No,” then we will not go. However, when there is a special gospel meeting, we may say to the Lord, “Lord, tonight there is a special meeting at the stadium. Shall we go there?” Then when the Lord says, “Yes, let us go,” we will say, “Okay, Lord. Let us go together.” This is to live with the Lord. We may say, “Lord, I have not had a haircut in four weeks. Should I go get a haircut today?” Then if the Lord says, “Yes,” we should say, “Then which barbershop should I go to?” This is the Christian life.
We need to see that the Christian life is not a matter of self-cultivation, self-improvement, or anything other than loving the Lord and allowing Him to live with us. The Lord wants to live with us, but the question is whether or not we love Him and are fond of Him. This is why Paul prayed to the Father in Ephesians 3:16, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man.” Paul did not pray for us to be prosperous, for our business to thrive, or for everything to go smoothly with us. He prayed for us to be strengthened into the inner man. When our inner man, our regenerated spirit, is strengthened, it is completely open, and when our spirit is open, the Lord can fill us and spread from our spirit into every part of our heart, including our mind, emotion, and will. This is the way that Christ makes His home in our heart (v. 17). He does so by filling our spirit and taking possession of our heart.
Do we love the Lord? We must thank the Lord that we do indeed love Him. However, although we love Him, we have not given Him much room in our mind. The Lord is still standing before a closed door and is not able to enter in. We continue to garrison our heart, not giving Him entrance. It is as if we are saying to the Lord, “Lord, please do not come in. Do not come into my mind. This is not a through street. Just remain in my spirit.” This may be our condition. Our spirit may be like a living room in which we have politely asked the Lord Jesus to stay. After a long while, however, the living room of our spirit turns into a prison. We imprison the Lord in our spirit and do not allow Him to take one step out of our spirit. Thus, we need the Spirit to strengthen our inner man by His power, causing our spirit to become strong.
How do we allow the Spirit to strengthen our inner man by His power? The direct way to do this is to call, “O Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus! I love You! O Lord Jesus, I love You!” After you have exercised like this for five to ten minutes, the strongest part of your being will be your spirit, and your strengthened spirit will be filled with the Lord Jesus. Furthermore, the Lord Jesus will now have the way to spread from your spirit into your mind, emotion, and will. As you call, “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus,” your spirit will be filled with Him step by step, and a sense will arise within you, causing you to realize that you have not allowed the Lord to possess your mind, your emotion, and your will and to take away your opinions. If you continue to call, “O Lord Jesus,” the indwelling Christ in your spirit will gradually fill your mind, emotion, and will. Your experience will prove this. Eventually, after one day, two days, one week, or one month, your whole being will be possessed by the Lord. This is the way that Christ makes His home in our heart.
By being strengthened into our inner man through calling on the Lord, we will experience what is the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth of the universe (v. 18). We will discover that the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth are all the Lord Jesus. The breadth, length, height, and depth are all infinite, and all of these infinite measurements are the Lord Jesus. The breadth is the Lord Jesus, the length is the Lord Jesus, the height is the Lord Jesus, and the depth is the Lord Jesus. We will discover that the Lord’s patience is endless. Our patience is at most twelve inches long. If someone offends us two inches, we can be patient. If someone offends us four inches, we can stretch the elastic band of our patience. If someone offends us eight inches, we can still stretch it a little more. If someone offends us twelve inches, we will be stretched to our maximum. If someone offends us two more inches, however, we will snap. Many wives are patient with their husbands in this way — two inches today, two more inches tomorrow, two more inches next week, and two more inches the following week. Their patience is stretched little by little until eventually the elastic band snaps. Then they start throwing things at their husbands. This is our patience. But the Lord Jesus’ patience is able to encircle the globe. His patience is infinite.
We will also come to realize that our love is too shallow and that His love is infinitely deep (v. 19). We cannot even tell how deep His love is. The more we love Him, the more we will discover that His love is infinite. The more we love Him, the more we will discover that His attributes are infinite. And the more we love Him, the more we will realize that His sympathy toward men is infinite. We will discover that the breadth, length, height, and depth of the universe are the Lord Jesus. Just as these four dimensions of breadth, length, height, and depth are infinite, so our Lord Jesus is also infinite. He is infinitely wide, infinitely long, infinitely high, and infinitely deep. Christ is the dimensions of the universe.
Calling on the Lord will also cause us to be rooted and grounded in love and to taste the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ (vv. 17, 19). We will be submerged in the ocean of His love. His infinite love will completely inundate us, and we will be rooted and grounded in this love. At this juncture, we will be filled with all that God is and has. We experience all these things not through good behavior, self-cultivation, or self-improvement but by loving the Lord Jesus and allowing Him to completely possess us within so that our whole being is filled unto all the fullness of God. The last stanza of Hymns, #501 matches this thought. The first two lines of this stanza say, “Thy Spirit will me saturate, / Every part will God permeate.”
The Christian life is not a matter of doing good or of adjusting, cultivating, or improving ourselves. It is wholly a matter of being mingled with the Triune God as one. As the Spirit, God is strengthening us into our inner man that Christ may make His home in our heart. The result is that we are filled unto all the fullness of God. The Spirit strengthens us, Christ makes home in us, and God fills us. As a result, our whole being is possessed by the Triune God. We are filled with the Lord Jesus and with God’s presence. This is glorious. This is the Christian life.
All these things should not just be teachings among us. Dear brothers and sisters, each one of us should receive this light and jump into this flow. We should live according to the sense of the sweetness of the Lord Jesus that is hidden deep within us. Do we not feel that the Lord Jesus is sweet? If so, we should call on His name more and more. The Bible reveals this simple way. It says, “The same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call upon Him; for ‘whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved’” (Rom. 10:12b-13). If you would like to be saved, call on the name of the Lord. Do not say, “Brother Lee, I am already saved.” Although you have been saved eternally, you still have not been saved from your temper, your self, your oldness, and the world. You still need to be delivered from all these things. You need a further experience of salvation. Call on the name of the Lord, and you shall be saved. If you are willing to call, “O Lord Jesus, I love You. Lord Jesus, You are so wonderful,” you will be saved.
How can we enjoy the Lord’s salvation? How can we allow the Lord to carry out His salvation in us? The way is to open ourselves to the Lord, and the way to open to the Lord is not to consider in the mind how to open to the Lord. The more we think about how to open, the more closed we become. Instead of thinking, we should forget our thoughts and exercise our spirit to call on the name of the Lord from deep within — “O Lord Jesus, I love You. O Lord Jesus, I love You. I am willing to give myself to You just as You have given Yourself to me. Lord, I love You!” By calling upon His name, our spirit will open to Him. Then He will carry out His salvation in us, and we will live with Him, in Him, and by Him. He will also saturate and permeate our entire being so that every part of our being becomes Him. This is the Christian life.
