Faith and Love

We are still in our faith series, friends, and today I bring another message on the faith life. I have stated in former messages that faith has two sides, a human side and a divine side. I've stated that faith and hope go together like biscuits and gravy, that faith and obedience are inseparable as water is to life, that faith and believing go together like peanut butter and jelly, they have substance.

And today, friends, I'll make the statement that faith and love go hand in hand like two sweethearts. Perhaps some of you have been to a zoo where the lions were up close so that you could observe them. I've been at zoos like that where I heard a lion roar, and it was exciting to hear that lion throw back his head and roar.

But a lion in a zoo is one thing, and a lion in the jungle is quite another. I'll never forget my dear friend and homiletical mentor, Dr. Stephen Ofer, described to me how a lion roars in the jungle. He knew firsthand, for his parents were missionaries in Africa, and Stephen Ofer grew up in the African bush.

He shared with me that lions have different types of roars, roars that are distinguishing and distinct. He said a female lion on the prowl has a certain roar as she stalks her prey, for it is the females that do the hunting for the male, and they bring the meat to him. Dr. Ofer said that the male lion had a distinct roar when he felt threatened by another animal in the jungle.

But the most distinguishing roar that a lion had was when the female would bring him his meal fresh from the kill and drop the carcass before him. That male lion would sniff and survey his meal and let out such a breathtaking roar of satisfaction that sounded like the lion was saying, You're mine! You're mine! He approached his meal with utter delight and satisfaction. Can we say that about ourselves when it comes to spending time with our Lord Jesus Christ? Do we approach Him in our daily quiet time with that kind of delight and expectation? Do we delight in the word of God like that lion delights over his meal? Do we love Christ as we should? Or have we left our first love? If our love life in Christ has gone stale, how in the world, friends, can our faith life be strong? It cannot.

A weak walk with Christ will produce a meager life of faith. Soon unbelief will grow like weeds in our spiritual garden. Billy Graham came to Christ under the preaching of Mordecai Ham.

They soon became close friends. One day, Billy Graham asked the older evangelist if he had any advice in ministry to offer him. Mordecai Ham looked him in the eye and said, Billy, don't ever lose your sweetheart love for Jesus.

Let me ask you, friend, is your love relationship to Christ hotter now than it ever has been before? Are you in a red-hot love relationship with Jesus Christ? Are you like that jungle lion who salivates over his meal with anticipation? Or have you left your sweetheart love for Jesus and let it grow cold? Be honest with yourself because you cannot fool him. I believe I can make a statement that few can argue with if they are truly honest with themselves. Your faith life is as deep as your love life to Christ.

If you have a surface walk with God, then your faith will be superficial. Let me read you, friends, the definition of the word superficial. Near the surface.

External or outward. Shallow. Not profound or thorough.

Apparent rather than real. Superficial. Do you have at this juncture in your life, friend, a superficial walk with God or a supernatural one of bold faith? That definition of superficial where it states that it means near the surface.

Let me open this thought up to you, friend. A man searching for gold in a lazy way will walk atop the earth with a metal detector and expend very little effort in his search for gold. Whereas a true treasure hunter digs down deep in a mine through much effort in his attempt to reach the mother load.

The word of God is like that. If we lazily read our Bibles and spend more time watching TV, how in the world can we search the riches of God's word and find its true treasures? How can we grow in our love life to Christ Jesus if we love the world more than him and prove it by how we spend our time away from him in sports and entertainment? How can we have a deep faith that works when we have a surface walk with God? Our trouble is that we don't love God as we should. Most of us are too self-absorbed.

The modern church of our day is a self-absorbed entity that centers around the happiness of man. It caters to man. It does not glorify God.

It glorifies man. It teaches a man-centered gospel and a man-sized God who's on the same level as man. Why is there so much failure in a church member's walk with God? Why is sin so hard to break with? Why is sin excused? It is because we love ourselves more than God.

We rather gratify our flesh than deny it for him. We have superficial Christianity in a godless society and few can distinguish the church from pagan society because they look and act the same. We have a superficial walk with God rather than a sacrificial walk with him.

In our churches today, we scream and holler if someone tries to take our candy bar away. But how can we grow in our faith life, friends, if we do not love the Lord Jesus in a life of obedience to him? He says, if you love me, keep my commands. If we truly love God, then we will trust and obey him in a life of developing faith.

Faith and love go hand in hand like two sweethearts. Do you remember, friend, the first time you fell in love? You could not wait to get into your lover's presence so you could spend time together. Everything else was secondary to your new love.

Oh, why, you even acted like a fool in the process and you didn't care because you were in love. Now remember, when Christ first captured your heart and saved you from your sins, you could not wait to read your Bible with the same relish and anticipation as that roaring lion, you're mine, you're mine, was the cry of your heart continually. But what happened? Somebody moved.

God didn't move. You did. You put him on the back burner of a divided heart and as your love for Christ went stale, so did your faith go stale like a moldy piece of bread.

The taste went out of it. Turn in your Bibles, friends, to the book of Revelation in chapter 2. We need to look and see if we are there among that body of believers who lived in Ephesus. Perhaps some of you have visited ancient Ephesus.

When I was there many years ago as a young man, I marveled at the beauty of the ancient ruins. I walked the same streets as the apostles John and Paul. Ephesus was an important Greek city.

In chapter 2 of Revelation, we see Christ commend the believers there for their hard work of diligence and duty. They were faithful members of their church and they were there every time the doors were open. Christ acknowledges this fact about them.

But the risen Christ has a bone of contention with them that supersedes his commendation of them. In verses 3-5, we read his startling accusation. And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted.

Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Let me pause here, friends. Jesus is saying to them that, despite all their works for him, he is offended by them and he stands against them as a forsaken lover.

In short, they no longer possessed a sweetheart love for Jesus. Their Christianity had become mere routine, done out of duty, rather than acted out from the passions of a devoted love to Christ. They left their first love and, in doing so, walked away from Christ.

A loveless church is an awful thing. When I was young, I visited a church with two handicapped friends. One had mental issues and the other had physical issues.

And as we entered the church, the entire church body looked at us in horror and had nothing to do with us as we sat there on the back row throughout their service. And after the service, my one friend with a physical disability fell down in the aisle of the church and not one of those Christians offered to help him up. They just stared at him in horror.

We left that loveless church and never returned to it again. Jesus said to his disciples, These things I command you, that ye love one another. We don't love one another as we should, friends, because we don't love Christ as we should.

Jesus warns the members of the church at Ephesus in verse 5, Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. When I was in Ephesus, I could not find a gospel church there. I looked and looked, but all was in ruins.

If our churches and our communities today lack love to God, they will exist in that community and have no influence upon it. I fear many of us today act more out of self-love. Our Christian testimony is one of self-love, how we escaped hell rather than what God gloriously did in our lives in saving a wretch like me.

I repeat, friends, faith and love go hand in hand like two sweethearts. If your passion for Christ has lessened and you have allowed other things to take prominence in your life, then remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works. Jesus must have preeminence in all things.

I myself had to repair my altar lately regarding my morning devotions for the flame had become just a glowing ember. Don't ever lose your sweetheart love for Jesus, said Mordecai Ham. If you long for a deeper faith, my friend, then live in a more devoted love life to Almighty God.

For faith and love go hand in hand like two sweethearts. Let us pray.