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     1. Deeper, Deeper, verse 1   (0:39)
     2. Desiring the Sincere Milk of the Word   (29:35)
               a. Message   (22:24)
               b. Choir song: Jesus, My Savior, to Bethlehem Came   (2:50)
               c. Tongues   (1:44)
               d. Interpretation   (2:37)

I Peter 2:2.  As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.

Ephesians 4:13.  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

Act 20:32.  And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

Ephesians 4:15.  But speaking the truth in love, [we] may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.

Galatians 5:22-23.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, ²³Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

That is the great need: create desire within me; make me love you more, Jesus; make my soul to desire You.  And there’s a very simple way to do that.  The Bible tells us that “as newborn babes” we have to grow.  “Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”  Who would like to see a baby remain a baby?  You wouldn’t like that, would you?  You’d like to see them grow, get strong, get tall, become men and women.  And so my God has ordained that His children should grow, and grow into the full stature of the full measure of the manhood in Christ Jesus.

And why is it that we somehow remain a bunch of dwarfs—bowlegged, and deformed dwarfs: great big heads, and little feet that can’t stand?  Why is it that we don’t “grow up into Him in all things” and become like Him?  Because we don’t want it bad enough.  That’s what’s the matter.  And the reason we don’t want it bad enough is because we don’t get acquainted with Him.  Oh, when you see Jesus as He is, something happens to you.  “We beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

And now we have this living hope in our hearts that “we shall be like Him”—not a little bit, but a whole lot.  “We shall be like Him.”  Oh, the Holy Ghost is come down from heaven to put that cry into our souls.  And if we fail to attain, somebody else will attain.  There are people in the world today that are really purifying themselves “even as He is pure.”  They have found the way to grow.  God gives us that way.  He tells us “as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.”

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Look into the world and see what glory the world has.  It’s like the flower of the field—it withers, it falls off, it is destined for the fire.  What glory is there in this world?  And yet men run after it because they’re deceived by the devil.  But Jesus Christ wants to become so attractive to you.  He wants His beauty to shine upon you in such a way that you’ll realize how dark, how deceived, how defiled, how dead the world is.  “The world passeth away and the lust thereof.”  And why should I hang on to it?  Why should I desire it?  Why shouldn’t I “desire the sincere milk of the word”?

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It is God that has created within you “to will,” and He will create “to do of His good pleasure” if you cooperate with Him with fear and trembling.  Oh, I can’t miss this blessing!  I cannot lose this inheritance which Jesus Christ has purchased for me!  Beloved, these things are vital—they are our life.  The Apostle Paul... speaking to the Ephesian elders says, “I know that grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock, and false apostles will arise to draw disciples after themselves.  Now, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up”—make you like Jesus—“and give you an inheritance.”  Oh, this inheritance!  And he prays for the Ephesians that God might give them anointed eyes to see what is “the riches of the glory of His inheritance.”

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The love of God is for you—not human love, but the love of God!  Oh, “More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee!”  And God Almighty holds an ocean of love ready for me, to swallow me up, to flood my soul, to make me like Jesus.  It all comes by desiring “the sincere milk of the word.”  First, He creates a desire.  And when that desire is there, then He creates a prayer.  Then your prayer becomes effective—it becomes a prayer in the Holy Ghost, and He knows what to pray for: and “He prays for the saints according to the will of God” so that the sons of God may be made manifest upon this earth.  Beloved, tell me, how much have we grown “in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ”?

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The Lord has given me many a message, but one time He gave me one that seemed to drop me down into the seventh basement.  I was really done for.  And then the Lord had the nerve to say, “Now, this is the best message you ever had.”  Just think.  We like to hear good messages.  We like to hear the Lord say nice things about us.  But when He calls you a “whited sepulcher” and tells you “Hey, wait a minute.  You’re fooling yourself.”  Oh, how we need the reproof...  That’s all in that milk.  It’s all in this wonderful bread of heaven.  It is all in this wonderful flow of the life of God whereby He deals with us “as with sons”—correction.  “What son is he whom his father correcteth not?”

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“Think of the unspeakable gift I am offering you: even Myself, with all My divine glory.  Why, then it ought to come to your heart a great desire to give yourself to Me just as you are, because you know how unworthy you have been.  You know that when I made choice among men and chose you to be saved and wrote your name in the book of life, it wasn’t because you were worthy of My love, but because I am God, and because being God, I am Love, and because I cannot help but love, and because I’ve loved you before the foundation of the world.  And that’s the thing that made Me seek after you, and come after you.  And now, if you want to hear My voice, I want to call upon you to draw nigh unto Me.  You have recognized that you cannot love Me like even you think you should.  And I admit that you can’t.  But I can fill you with My love if you will only take the time, and only labor to draw nigh unto Me, and to give Me a chance.  I’m not asking you so much to love Me as I am asking you to let Me love you.  Let Me set your heart on fire with the fire of My own love.  That’s what I came to do: to cast fire upon this earth, to set the sons of God aflame with that divine love that will make them all Mine, that will make them come out with a vengeance from among them, that will make them consider ‘everything refuse for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.’”

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The camera catalog.  “I wanted a camera so badly, didn’t have any money, couldn’t get it.  I did the next best thing: I got a catalog with pictures of cameras...  And when you want to have Jesus so bad, you won’t be satisfied with the catalog.”    (from 11:48)

The “Farmer’s Bible”—the Sears and Roebuck catalog.  “If you have the money, all you have to do is send in an order, and send in the money, and the machine comes.  And here’s God catalog full of wonderful pictures of Jesus Christ.  Thank God, and the price has been paid.  And why don’t we send in our request?  Why don’t we come to God?”    (from 13:35)

“…und seid begierig nach der vernünftigen, lautern Milch…” — II Peter 2.2 “…and are eager after the sensible, pure milk…”

Bachenbülach, Kanton Zürich, Schweiz — the town of Bachenbülach, in the canton of Zürich, Switzerland.

Savonarola — Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498).

O to Be Like Thee, a hymn by Thomas O. Chisholm.

More Love to Thee, O Christ, a hymn by Elizabeth P. Prentiss, 1856.

Audio Quality: Fair

See project notes for 18A.  Both 18A and 18B needed resampling, slowing to 105% of the original duration.  The hum on 18B must have been mostly in a copying process at the correct speed for it seems to be right at 60 Hz.  For 18B, we first did a hiss removal, then a notch filter (the same as 017b), then the resampling to 105%, and finally compression/limiting.  In the final pass, we also enabled a notch filter at 120Hz to try to get rid of more of the hum.  A number of stutters, throat clearings, barking dogs, tape jams, and pops were removed.

The original media and project files are available upon request.