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     1. Great is the Lord, He is the King of Glory   (5:07)
     2. Loving Jesus   (17:09)
     3. Worship and praise   (4:34)
     4. Take the World, but Give Me Jesus   (3:12)
     5. Down from His Glory   (5:35)

Colossians 1:19.  For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.

I Timothy 3:16.  And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Colossians 3:1-2.  If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. ²Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

 “It pleased the Father, that in Him should all fulness dwell.”  What a wonderful man is Jesus.  He’s a man—the great “mystery of godliness: God manifest in the flesh:” “And it pleased the Father, that in Him should all fulness dwell.”  What a man!  What a mystery: “God manifest in flesh,” and all the fullness of God dwelling in this man.  Certainly, it’s a tremendous mystery. 

I’m not surprised that our schools of learning today are fishing around in the mud to find the origin of their ancestry, or in the nut trees where the monkeys swing from branch to branch.  I’m not one bit surprised that the devil is “blinding the minds of them which believe not,” and “if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.”  That’s what God said.  That’s God’s sentence upon the whole gang, call them what you please.  They have to have distinction: doctors of philosophy, and of psychology, and of theology, and of phrenology, and of biology.  They’ve got to have it.  We’ve got to have some distinction else we’d be like the rest of the monkeys.  And I’m not surprised that the devil has succeeded in blinding “the minds of them which believe not” so that they “have given themselves over to all lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”

Because it pleased God, not only that all fullness should dwell in Jesus Christ, but that all the fullness of God should dwell in you.  Oh, the eternal purpose of God is going to be fulfilled in those who love Jesus Christ, in those that make Him their own!  That’s the mystery of the Gospel.

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Oh, how wonderful that “it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell,” and that in you should the fullness of God dwell.  And we’ve experienced something in these last days, something that we’ve experienced many times: Jesus knocking at the door, Jesus looking for lovers!  Jesus Christ says, “I don’t pray for the world.”  The world is crucifying Him every day.  The worldly church is crucifying Him every day.  But, oh, that wonderful church that is composed of the ones and the twos and threes that come together in His name because they say, “‘Jesus, our only joy be Thou.’  Farewell, O world, I’m through with you.”  And they are His treasure.  They are the object of the love of Almighty God—that burning heart of the Almighty God who “did not promise the world to come to the angels,” but to those men who love Jesus Christ.  Oh, what a Savior!  Oh, what a salvation!

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“Lovest thou me?”  It seems to me that He asks that question in every meeting: “Lovest thou me?  Never mind your gifts, never mind your powers, never mind your intellectual attainments, never mind anything like that.  But is your heart beating for Me?  Is your heart desiring Me?”  Has your heart been awakened to the wonder of this one great mystery: “God manifest in the flesh,” and God offering Himself in all His fullness through the Lord Jesus Christ to me?  That’s what the Gospel means.

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He says, “that where I am, ye may be also.”  “Father I will that they whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am.”  He’s gone “to prepare a place” for me, and He’s come again, and He’s here tonight.  And He’s here in the Person and Presence of the Holy Ghost to serve me, to prepare me, to subdue all things unto Himself, to take control of my mind, of my thoughts, of my feelings, of my body, to make me “pure even as He is pure.”  And I’m interested in a thousand and one things but Himself. 

“Oh, thou has left that first love.  Never mind, you can’t fool Me.  You say you’re rich and increased with goods and you have need of nothing, but you’re wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked.”  Dear Lord, You’re not blaming me for being blind, but You’re offering me eyesalve that I might see You!

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“If ye then be risen with Christ…” Why, if you’re risen with Christ, live like it, think like it, talk like it, act like it, shine like it!  “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”

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Do I have to have Him?  Well, He’s got to have me.  He’s purchased me with His own blood.  But you’ve got the name that you live, and you’re dead.  Either that or we’re “alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  And he says, “Do you love Me?  Lovest thou me?” and “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”  And how can I keep His commandments?  I can only keep them as He comes to “work in me that which is well pleasing in His sight.”  He comes, substituting His own divine nature for my fallen, defiled, corrupt nature.  “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”  Oh, what a lovership!  What a marvelous Lover my God has provided for my poor soul!  Beloved, it’s so beyond the power of human words to express it that it takes the Holy Ghost to make it clear…

Jesus alone is life.  Jesus alone is life!  And He is “the Way,” and He is “the Truth,” and He is “All and in all.”  And He comes; He says, “You’ve left your first love.”  Oh, how it grieves His heart, how it grieves His heart when that heart is not altogether in love with Him.

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And He says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy strength.”  And how close do you want me to come, Jesus?  Well, Paul tells us: “I count everything but refuse.”

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His nature is a divine nature.  His love never fails.  His joy never ceases flowing.  His peace “passeth all understanding,” thank God!  His righteousness is greater than the righteousness of scribes and Pharisees.  And Jesus comes.  He says, “Come on, open up.  I’ll come in.  I will come in.”  Who wants him?  That’s the great question: do you want Jesus? …

And wherever I go, I find there is a going back, a losing out, getting interested in a thousand and one things—spiritual things, spiritual intentions, great movements, and all that.  And Jesus Christ is outside.  But listen, when He comes in, there may not be the success that you seek, but there will be fruit that will abide forever.  Oh, there will be that life of God and that Kingdom of God manifested through you and in you and by you.  And above all, it will not reflect credit on you.  You will not seek the approbation of men, but God will be glorified.

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Leaving the first love: a woman whose love grew cold while her fiancée was away.  “She smiled.  She kissed him.  She embraced him.  But, you know, love is very subtle, and he sensed that there was something had happened to her.  Oh yes, she had gotten interested in some other affinity.  And she wouldn’t tell him, but he felt it.”    (from 5:58)

Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee, a hymn by Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153):

Jesus, our only joy be Thou,
As Thou our prize will be;
Jesus be Thou our glory now,
And through eternity.

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