He is Thy Lord   (29:14)

Psalm 45:11.  So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.

Song of Solomon 2:9.  My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.

Luke 6:46.  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Those know the difference who have fallen in love with Him.  If you’ve ever been in love…  Now I have nothing to say about that, but I’ve watched others.  I notice how they can hold hands for an hour without saying a word.  I’ve had to get after some of them—not any that are here, but ministers.  They—after meeting, they’ll take their girlfriend home, and then they’ll hold hands for an hour or two.  I said, “Now cut it out.  Go home.”  How can they do that—just hold hands?  “Because you come to me with naught save love, and gaze into mine eye and hold my hand.”  Well, it’s love, I guess. 

But Tersteegen says, “There lie my books, for all I sought my heart possesses now.  The words are sweet that tell Thy love.”  But there comes a time when you don’t want to hear any more words.  You want to gaze into His eyes; you want to hold His hand; you want Him to hold yours.  You want to have that flow of His life.  You want your spirit to lift itself into His presence.  It’s an operation of the Holy Ghost that only the Spirit of God can reveal. 

But the wonderful thing is that He reveals it to babes, not to the wise, and not to the prudent.  From them God has hidden it.  But to me, it’s a never-ending source of wonderment how simple people like we are enjoy just Himself, and know Him—really come to know Him personally, praise God, so that we don’t talk about Him only, and sing about Him, but we have Himself.

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That’s what God says is the first love: it’s the awakening of the soul to the wonder of Jesus Himself.  Jesus: “He is thy Lord, and worship thou Him.”  That’s the bride of Christ.  She has been awakened by the Holy Ghost to the greatest mystery of eternity: the great Bridegroom of heaven making love to His bride.  Where is His bride?  Where are the hearts that are not satisfied with a “form of godliness,” but they want Himself?  They seek “to know Him and the power of His resurrection.”  And they find Him because He’s been seeking them.

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Do you think you can satisfy Him with words?  Do you think you can satisfy Jesus by singing about Him and making nice words?  Oh, I tell you, you can’t.  He wants a heart that is ablaze with love for Him.  That’s why He baptizes you “with the Holy Ghost and with fire.”  Oh, He needs hearts that are not only altogether His, but that say, “Lord, had I a thousand hearts to give, they should all be Thine.”

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And when the question came between my most beloved—my father and mother and brothers and sisters—and Jesus, I had already decided it, even though it cost me many tears.  But there was absolutely no question as to what I was going to do.  Jesus Christ was more to me than heaven and earth.  And then I was surprised to find some of these very people that had instructed me and taught me running after things of earth.

Beloved, “He is thy Lord.”  He is thy Lord, and then He says, “and they mind earthly things.”  It doesn’t mean that they join a circus or go to the movies, but to “mind earthly things” means to mind the things pertaining to this life instead of “hearkening diligently” to the Bridegroom who says, “I’ve come to receive you unto Myself, that where I am there ye may be also.” 

Beloved, we ought to quit talking glibly about the “bride of Christ,” and about the rapture.  We really should.  We ought to tremble a little bit.  We ought to say, “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”  We ought to join the Apostle Paul weeping over many who started out but now “their god is their belly.”  “Yeah, but you find that everywhere today.”

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“He is thy Lord.”  What a mystery!  “Man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.”  And the Apostle Paul says, “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”  Has He ever stood before your heart’s door and knocked and said, “I want you…  I want you… no matter what thousands do, and millions do.  I want you”?

“He is thy Lord, worship thou Him.”  That’s true worship—when your whole being is not only bowed in His presence, but when you come way down so that He really is up, and He really is Lord.

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In place of my will, He has put His will.  That’s what He means when He says, “Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.”  That will never be until I worship Him, and recognize that He is my Lord, and there is no more power in me to resist Him in the smallest matters.  I know that where I know the will of God between myself and Him, I will absolutely obey because the obedience of Jesus Christ has been given to me through the power of the Holy Ghost.

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People go through the world today and talk about authority.  They make that a doctrine; they call it “dominion.”  They have “power.”  I never would want any power since I found out that “all power” is His.  I let Him take over.  I let Him handle me.  I let Him handle my ministry.  I let Him handle my life.  I let Him handle my mind, my mouth, my eyes, my hands—how wonderful!—my body.  All I know about divine healing is all that anybody can ever know: Jesus is my life.  He is the health of my body—praise God!—because my body belongs to Him.  It’s purchased with a great price, and I didn’t pay the price; He paid the price.

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The presence of Jesus makes the difference in prayer meetings.    (from 6:36)

A story of the presence of the Lord in silence drawing a Methodist woman.  “The Methodist preacher got up and walked out.  He didn’t understand what was going on.  And so I thought I better get up and make a little explanation…  As soon as I opened my mouth, this fat Methodist woman said, ‘Peace, be still.’  … It was a soul that had entered into lovership with Jesus, and she recognized Jesus.”    (from 13:43)

An illustration of proving the Lord in all details of life, even in the jewelry business.  “I found out how marvelously the Lord made jewelry. … I said, ‘Jesus, tell me how you do it.’  In less than three minutes I had it. … I could have worked half a year.  I could be still at it, and I could feel very important. …  How many people die with their own importance?”    (from 24:27)

Psalm 73:25.  Wenn ich nur dich habe, so frage ich nichts nach Himmel und Erde.

In the King James Version, Psalm 73:25 says, “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.”  Martin Luther’s German says, literally, “If I only have You, I ask nothing of heaven and earth.”  The meaning here is, “When I possess Jesus, I do not care about heaven nor about earth.  All things in heaven and earth will be best for me, just the way He ordained them.”

Because, a song by Edward Teschemacher and Guy D’Hardelot, 1902.

Because you come to me with naught save love,
And hold my hand and lift mine eyes above,
A wider world of hope and joy I see,
Because you come to me.

Because you speak to me in accents sweet,
I find the roses waking round my feet,
And I am led through tears and joy to thee,
Because you speak to me.

Because God made thee mine, I’ll cherish thee
Through light and darkness, through all time to be,
And pray His love may make our love divine,
Because God made thee mine.

The Sabbath Year, by Gerhard Tersteegen (translated by Frances Bevan)
See 19B for the full text of the poem.

There lie my books—for all I sought
My heart possesses now.
The words are sweet that tell Thy love,
The love itself art Thou.

Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned, a hymn by Samuel Stennett:

Since from His bounty I receive
Such proofs of love divine,
Had I a thousand hearts to give,
Lord, they should all be Thine.

Date: “That meant more to me than President Eisenhower’s farewell speech last night on the radio.”  That would place this sermon on Wednesday, January 18, 1961.

Audio Quality: Poor

Original tape marked: C/60.  We ran light hiss reduction; DeHummer 8 filter -26dB at 59.85Hz (higher harmonics of hum at another frequency were present; these could be removed with another instance of the DeHummer, 16 filter -22dB at 57.90Hz, but we decided this was too much reduction for such a small amount of hum and did not use this filter); and compression.  A number of stutters were removed, and a long pause or two shortened.

The audio quality of this recording is unusually poor.  The first ten minutes of the recording has a loud siren in the background.  We captured a noise print of the siren at its peak loudest frequencies, and applied noise reduction at these selected bands, which effectively erases most of the noise.  Perhaps more work could be done to reduce the level of the rest of the siren, for example, around 7:30.  There is a little laughter around 8:02 which might be a reaction to the persistent sirens.

The original media and project files are available upon request.