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     1. His Name is Jesus, Wonderful Jesus   (3:24)
     2. O Sweet Wonder   (3:22)
     3. Displaced   (23:38)

Galatians 3:22.  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Colossians 2:10.  And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.

Colossians 1:27.  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

When I heard the Lord say some years ago a word like this: “I have been ready for My people.”  And then He said, “My people were not ready for just Jesus.”  It made me very sad.  It made my soul grieved within me when I thought of that great call of the King.  You know, there comes in every meeting, there comes a great call of the King to recognize Him, to recognize His presence—but more than that: to recognize our deep need of Him, and then to recognize the unspeakable gift of God: Jesus wanting to come to me.

We expressed it in a song a while ago: “I found a Friend… and not alone the gift of life, but His own self He gave me.”  His own self is all the blessings of salvation rolled into one gift, one package: Jesus.  And the great and wonderful simplicity of it is the fact that so many people miss Him.  They seek blessings innumerable, but the Bible tells us, “Delight thyself in the Lord.”  Isn’t He wonderful?  Isn’t Jesus Himself wonderful, and isn’t He Himself enough?  “Delight thyself also in the Lord.”  Jesus says, “I am ready for My people.”  What does He mean?  Why, “I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in.”

I’ll tell you why it takes us so long: we love ourselves too much.  And even in seeking God and seeking spirituality, we seek somehow to adorn self.  We don’t know we do that.

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You’ll find out that to be spiritual is not to be spiritual.  Now, that’s a paradox.  You don’t believe that.  But if God has His way, He will lead you in paths that make you see yourself undone, utterly undone.  “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

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Jesus is ready for us.  And what does He want to do?  Why, He wants to be formed within us.  He wants to be glorified in us.  He wants to be admired in us.  It must be He and not myself.  Until I learn the lesson of getting out of His way, and making room for Him…

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Oh, beloved, “we who have believed enter into rest.”  And we don’t enter into rest as long as we try to rest in ourselves.  As long as we seek anything in self, we will not have any rest, but confusion.  But “we who have believed enter into rest.”  We “cease from our own works” because another One, a perfect One has undertaken now to do all the works within me.  This is the righteousness and the gift of righteousness of God.  It’s my Lord Jesus Christ.  And He says, “I am ready to be poured into my people.”  But where is the hole, where’s the emptiness? 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit”.  We’re so full of spiritual intentions and plans and decisions and labor and zeal—like Peter.  And God couldn’t use Peter until He had thoroughly emptied him of his self-love and his self-esteem.  “Lord, I will go with you into prison and into death.”  And Jesus Christ had to help him down.  He said, “The cock shall not crow until thou hast denied Me thrice.”  That was a greater blessing to Peter than if he had gone into prison and into death for Christ.  We don’t know the abomination of this self-life.

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The Lord spoke to me years ago, before I came to Brooklyn, and oh, it just melted my soul.  He said, “Son, you’re so dutiful.  You strive so hard to please Me, and that does not please Me.”  He said, “I want you be My lover.  I want you to love Me.  I want you to live just for the love of Me.”  And then He explained it…  “Whatever you do during the day, do it for the love of Me, just for the love of Me.  When you shave yourself, do it for the love of Me, or… whatever you do.”  Oh, “If any man love Me.”

You know how different things are when you do it for the love of Jesus Christ, and because you’re in His presence, and because He dwells within you, and because you know that He does it for you.  How different everything is that Jesus does!  How different is the ministry that Jesus takes over!  How different is your smile when Jesus smiles through you!  How different when He talks through you! 

How often you hear the voices of men and women, and there’s a worldly twang in it.  It hurts you—it hurts.  The devil’s in it.  How different when the unction of the Spirit of God is in your voice!…  Beloved, He says, “that you might be rich.”  He wants you and me to be rich.  We’ll never be rich until He Himself becomes the wealth of our soul: “The Lord is my life.”

Thank God, He demands of me to deny self: “I never knew this man!  I don’t know him!  I don’t want to have anything to do with him!”  “I forget the things that are behind.”  Here is “the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

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The casting of a bell.  “In order to have a beautiful bell with beautiful designs beautifully executed, there has to be a hole in the ground exactly the size of that bell.  And wherever that bell’s going to be, there has to be a hole—there has to be nothing.”    (from 5:16)

A jewelry casting.  “There was air in that mold, and that air had to be eliminated before Christ can be formed within you.  Everything that pertains to self has to be eliminated.”    (from 6:22)

Comments on silence.  “I’ve been in meetings that were silent because nobody knew anything, and nobody had anything to say, but it was a dead silence.  But, oh, how the silence lives when Jesus is here!...  He has “hidden these things from the wise and prudent..”  Men have been here and gone away disgusted because they did not want Jesus.”    (from 9:13)

A schoolmate who did not believe in electricity.      (from 19:32)

Examples of carnal ornaments of spirituality.  “They were not ready for just Jesus.  He came to them; He spoke to them in prophecy, in wisdom; He did signs and wonders.  And oh, they took all these blessings and they made ornaments of them and hung them around their necks.  Do you see them strutting around?”    (from 20:13)

A quote from Das Lied von der Glocke (The Song of the Bell) by Friedrich Schiller.  The full poem and translation is available here.

Wie sich schon die Pfeifen bräunen!
Dieses Stäbchen tauch ich ein,
Sehn wir’s überglast erscheinen,
Wird’s zum Gusse zeitig sein.
   Jetzt, Gesellen, frisch!
   Prüft mir das Gemisch,
Ob das Spröde mit dem Weichen
Sich vereint zum guten Zeichen.

See the pipes already browing!
This small bar I dip therein;
If it show a glazèd coating,
Then the casting may begin.
    Workmen, quickly go;
    Prove the mixture’s flow.
When soft and brittle fuse together,
’Tis a sign propitious ever.

This is unintelligible.  If you have any idea what he is saying, please contact us.

I’ve Found a Friend, a hymn by James G. Small, 1863.

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