Lord, for this old rugged cross, we want to thank You.
No matter how difficult the times are, we want to hold on to this old rugged cross before Your return. By Your grace, may the cross do a deeper work in our lives.
Because of the work of the cross, before Your return, may You gain a glorious church, that Your heart would be satisfied. Lord, we feel so short of You. You have done so much for us.
We are very ashamed of the situation that we are in now. We are ashamed individually, as well as of the situation of the church.
Now we look unto that old rugged cross, that it would continue to work in our lives. If we can suffer with You today, one day we will be glorified with You as well.
Thank You, Lord. The cross can bring us the crown. The cross brings us before the throne. The cross brings us into harvest.
May You use these words to comfort us, to encourage us. No matter how difficult it is, we want to please You. Thank You for the old rugged cross. In Jesus’ precious name, amen.
Well, let us turn to Galatians, chapter 2, verse 20.
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me:
and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God,
Who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
It is no longer I who live, but Christ.
This evening, we want to continue to speak on this matter of the cross and the Holy Spirit. We saw in the life of our Lord how the eternal Spirit led our Lord to the cross, and at the same time, how the cross led to the Spirit.
A student cannot be greater than his master. Here we have a student called Paul, someone who followed the Lord. What did he say? “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
The life that Paul lived was not a life that he lived himself, but it was Christ who lived in him. So the example that he followed in living was the example of our Lord.
Paul was like us. Not only could Paul say these words; you and I can say them as well: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
We all live, but the mode of life that we follow is not ours. Even Paul’s mode of life was not his; it was the mode of Christ.
Christ, by the eternal Spirit, was able to offer Himself up without blemish. We have seen how the Holy Spirit led Him to the cross and how the cross led to the Spirit.
If our Lord lived in such a way, then the secret of our living is the same. The Holy Spirit leads us to the cross, and the cross leads us back to the Holy Spirit.
If the Holy Spirit does not begin, then it is not the cross. We may suffer much pain, but that alone is not the cross. The beginning point, the origin of the cross, is that the Holy Spirit begins.
The strength to take up the cross comes from the Holy Spirit. Nobody can take up the cross and actually be crucified apart from the Holy Spirit, because it is the Holy Spirit who leads us to the cross.
Just like Samuel Rutherford said, the beam of the cross is like the wings of a bird. Because the Holy Spirit leads us to the cross, it is like two wings sustaining us as we fly in the air.
So, brothers and sisters, let us remember: in the life of our Lord, the eternal Spirit led Him to the cross. Likewise today, the Holy Spirit leads us to the cross; but at the same time, the cross leads us back to the Holy Spirit.
We are filled with the Holy Spirit. Not only are we obedient to the teaching of the indwelling Spirit, but He wants to overflow from within, so that rivers of living water may flow out.
The cross is the only way to gain the harvest. The cross is the only way to glory. Just like William Penn said, “No cross, no crown.”
Now we have to see, in the life of Paul, how he lived. We know that the example of Paul can help us.
Peter is a very good example, but there is one part of Peter’s life that we cannot follow. Peter was at the feet of the Lord when the Word became flesh. If we are to imitate Peter in that way, we would have to live in the first century.
But Paul is a typical example for us. His salvation was like our salvation. His rebirth was like our rebirth. Paul had never met the Lord in the flesh as the twelve disciples had.
Our Lord was the great Apostle, sent by God the Father. The Son also sent the twelve disciples. But the Holy Spirit sent forth Paul, Barnabas, and others.
From after Pentecost, what Paul went through is what you and I go through as well. Therefore, we want to learn from Paul’s life how the Holy Spirit led him to the cross, and how the cross led him back to the Holy Spirit.
With the example of Paul, very naturally we can see how the Spirit works in us. Our Lord went from the manger to the throne. Before He reached the throne, He went through the cross.
Paul met the Lord on the road to Damascus. From the day he was saved until he could say that a crown of righteousness was laid up for him, his whole life began at Damascus and moved toward maturity.
Until his martyrdom, Paul could say, “I have finished the course; henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.” Paul’s whole life began at the road to Damascus and ended at the throne, because the crown represents the throne.
If our Lord went from the manger to the throne, then all of us begin at Bethlehem. We grow and grow until we come into the Lord’s presence, unto His throne. We have to go through the cross. A student cannot be greater than his master.
Our Lord was on earth for thirty-three and a half years. For thirty years He lived a hidden life; for three years He lived a fruitful life.
Likewise, Paul’s life from Damascus until he gained the crown was about thirty-three years. The first eleven years were hidden years. Before the Lord, he grew like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground.
In the second eleven years, the dam holding back the living waters was removed. These were Paul’s fruitful years. He made the first missionary journey, the second journey, and the third journey.
He walked throughout Asia Minor and about half of Europe. The distance he walked was about half the length of the equator.
Brothers and sisters, Paul’s second eleven years were when he was most useful. His usefulness was at its peak. His ministry was at its peak. His revelation was at its peak.
When the third eleven years began, Paul was at his peak, when the sunshine was at its brightest. We would not have thought it, and we do not know why, but the Paul who was most useful was brought into chains.
No two hands were more useful than the hands of Paul. The Lord used twenty years to sculpt Paul, to build Paul, and he became very useful in the hands of the Lord.
My brother Watchman Nee often said that if a young person wants to be useful in the hands of the Lord, he has to give the Lord at least twenty years. That was what happened in Paul’s life.
After Paul was converted, twenty years later, through God’s work, he became a masterpiece in the hands of God. That pair of hands was the most useful in the whole world.
We do not need merely one Paul. We need ten thousand Pauls, and then the good news would spread throughout the whole world.
But God’s ways are above man’s ways. We do not know why. At the end, we understand that when the third eleven years began, God listened to Paul’s prayer.
Paul said, “I want to go to Rome.” He had told the Roman saints that he had already preached the gospel everywhere and had no more room to preach.
Alexander the Great said something similar. When he had conquered the whole world, he was crying in his tent because, he said, “From now on, I have no more land to conquer.”
Paul, for Christ’s sake, was willing to go throughout the whole world to preach the good news. The Lord gave him a great and effectual door. Paul was very fruitful.
Paul said, “I am going to Rome.” God listened to him, but He also did not answer his prayer in the way Paul expected. Paul told the Roman saints that he wanted to come joyfully to them.
He did arrive in Rome, but he did not go joyfully. He went with chains. Brothers and sisters, Paul said, “Remember my bonds,” or, “Remember my chains.”
The last eleven years of his life were under the shadow of death. He bore the mark of chains. This was Paul’s third eleven years.
How do we understand these three periods of eleven years? Acts gives us some material, but the most important material comes from Paul’s thirteen epistles.
In the middle of his second eleven years, Paul wrote his first two epistles: 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians. At the end of the second eleven years, he wrote Romans, Galatians, 1 Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians.
Later, from prison, he wrote Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon. Before his martyrdom, he wrote the three pastoral epistles: 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus.
When he wrote to the Thessalonians, they had been saved for only a few months. The church in Thessalonica was an infant church.
Paul’s whole life, from the first eleven years to the second and third, was as though he went from infancy to adolescence to adulthood. How could he help those who had just believed? How could he help a church that had just been born?
Of course, he helped them by what he had learned in his first eleven years. When you read 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians, you can see the lessons Paul learned in those first years.
When he wrote Romans, Galatians, 1 Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians, he had almost completed his second eleven years. The churches he faced—Rome, Corinth, and Galatia—had reached their adolescent period.
Paul had walked a few more steps than they had. He himself had gone through those things, and therefore he could help churches in their adolescent period. The second group of books shows what Paul learned in his second eleven years.
By the middle of the third eleven years, Paul had been brought into maturity. The churches in Colossae and Philippi were also moving into maturity.
Do you remember what our Lord said to the disciples? “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” Many times we are too young to bear the Lord’s word.
Now Paul could give the highest revelation to the churches in Ephesus, Colossae, and Philippi. Ephesians and Colossians contain the highest revelation in the whole Bible.
But throughout the whole Bible, the deepest experience is found in Philippians, because the church in Philippi went in that direction.
Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon show us what Paul learned in his final eleven years.
If we put all thirteen epistles together, we see four groupings. The first two groupings—1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, Romans, Galatians, 1 Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians—show us what Paul learned in his first and second eleven years.
Then, when you read the latter seven epistles—the four prison letters and the three pastoral letters—you know what he learned in his final eleven years.
A student cannot be greater than his master. If we read carefully all thirteen letters, the first six letters show how our Lord, by the eternal Spirit, was led to the cross.
Paul learned the same lesson. The first six letters show how the Holy Spirit led him to the cross. Among the thirteen letters, Galatians, 1 Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians speak most clearly concerning the cross.
Our topic is the cross. First Corinthians tells us that there is a way, the way of the cross, and there is a word, the word of the cross. In Greek, it is logos.
Paul learned many lessons of the cross. Not only did he have experience, but the Lord also gave him a word. If Paul had only experience, he could not help us. But the Lord gave him a word.
He gathered these truths together as the logos of the cross. What does that mean? It shows the whole will of God.
When we read the thirteen letters, especially the second group of letters, we can see the cross from different angles. These six letters show us how the Holy Spirit led Paul to the cross, so that he would know what the cross is.
The Holy Spirit placed these words in Scripture so that the Holy Spirit can now work in us.
I have a deep feeling that there are many messages on the cross today. Some people speak very fervently about the cross, but we must remember that when we speak of the cross, it must rest on a very accurate foundation.
If you read the writings of Madame Guyon, you know that few people knew how to choose the cross as she did. If you read Jessie Penn-Lewis, very few have a revelation of the cross like she did.
But let us be careful. No matter how much Jessie Penn-Lewis or Madame Guyon may help us, we have to return to the basis, the foundation, and the Word.
Many people like the writings of Jessie Penn-Lewis, and some become obsessed with those materials. Then the life they live becomes a gray life. Everything is gray, and the cross becomes a burden.
Thank the Lord. In England, the Lord raised up Brother T. Austin-Sparks. He gained much help from Jessie Penn-Lewis, but he showed us that the cross is always related to resurrection.
Speaking of resurrection, very few speak as Brother Sparks did. If Jessie Penn-Lewis’s emphasis was the death of the cross, Brother Sparks’s emphasis was resurrection.
Let us remember: the Holy Spirit leads us to the cross, but here is the balance—the cross leads us to the Holy Spirit.
We need to ask that the word of the cross would be in us. The first six letters show the Holy Spirit leading us to the cross; the latter seven letters show the cross leading back to the Holy Spirit.
When we read the prison letters, we know that if the cross describes Romans, Galatians, 1 Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians, then one word describes the prison letters: Christ.
When we speak of Christ, we speak of resurrection: the risen Christ, the ascended Christ, the indwelling Christ. The cross leads us to the Spirit—not only Golgotha, but also Pentecost.
When you read Ephesians and Colossians, we are seated with Christ in the heavens, and our blessings are blessings in the heavenly places. Romans speaks of salvation and redemption; Ephesians also speaks of salvation.
Romans speaks from earth to heaven. Ephesians speaks from heaven to earth. What we see is a resurrected Christ, an ascended Christ, and ourselves resurrected with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly places.
We are on earth, but on earth as though in heaven. This is what the cross wants to lead us to. In Ephesians, we find that we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
What is the secret of being filled? It is not only that the Lord was crucified; He rose again, ascended to heaven, and the Holy Spirit descended.
Paul experienced Christ in resurrection and ascension. Because of that Christ, the Holy Spirit abides in us, and from our depths flow rivers of living water.
Now you understand what the cross is. The Holy Spirit leads us to the cross. It begins with the Holy Spirit, and it returns to the Holy Spirit. The result is that from our depths flow rivers of living water.
Do not misunderstand the cross. When the disciples followed our Lord to Jerusalem, they were amazed and fearful.
In the afternoons we have listened to many testimonies. Are you afraid of some of those testimonies? A sister was sick for more than thirty years; there were parents, in-laws, and difficult circumstances.
If we pay attention only to these things, we may become fearful. Is this the gospel that the Lord gives us today? We need to listen carefully to the Lord’s word and see how, in the Lord’s life, He gave us a complete salvation.
He has given us the fellowship of the redemption of the cross. Will a father give his child a stone to eat? Will not the Father give us the Holy Spirit?
The Lord gained Paul and used him as an example. What the Lord did in Paul’s life, He will do in our lives as well.
The first six letters represent the first twenty years of Paul’s experience: the lessons he learned as the Holy Spirit led him to the cross. In the latter part, we see how the cross led him back to the Spirit.
A student cannot be greater than his master. This way is a glorious way. Our Lord was crucified for us, and He is worthy. When we walk the way of the cross, it is worthy as well.
If we truly walk the way of the cross, not one tear is wasted, because it is the cross that takes us to the crown.
God gives you grace so that you can learn these lessons. The Lord has confidence in you. Many people who suffer abandon the Lord, but Job was not like that.
Job suffered to such a point that he was willing to curse his own birth, because he did not want to wrong the Lord. He did not want to offend the Lord.
The Lord loves us. The Lord gives grace to us. The Lord gives us the best. You need to believe. He has given us the Holy Spirit.
How do you gain the Holy Spirit? It is the cross that leads us to the Holy Spirit, and from our inner being will flow rivers of living water.
This is the highest result of the fellowship of the cross. After this conference, may none be afraid of the cross. We are afraid of the cross because we misunderstand the cross.
Samuel Rutherford said that many people misunderstand the cross. It is like the ten out of twelve spies who gave an evil report. Ten out of twelve today give an evil report concerning the cross.
But do not forget: if we understand what the cross is, the reason we can have victory is because of the cross. Without the cross, we cannot overcome.
What the Lord accomplished on the cross is not little; it is much. In many people’s minds, He was nailed to the cross simply so that we could go to heaven. They are satisfied merely to go to heaven.
In their experience, that is all the cross means. But the cross is more than that. Let us use Paul as an example and see what lessons he learned: how the Holy Spirit led him to the cross, and how the cross led him to the Holy Spirit.
Paul met the Lord on the road to Damascus. The Holy Spirit regenerated him, and he was saved. His inner eyes were opened.
Before that, the god of this world had blinded him. But on the road to Damascus, the light of the glory of Christ shone upon him, and his inner eyes were opened.
Paul was born from above, like you and me. How was he saved? If we carefully read the account in Acts, we find that Paul’s conversion had much to do with Stephen.
The Bible says that Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit. When Paul first met Stephen, the spirit he encountered was the Spirit of the Lamb.
The Lamb is the weakest, yet He conquered one of the worst sinners in history. If the Lord could convert Paul, He could save all others.
Do you remember that the Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes? The Bible says that these are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit; but more particularly, He is the Spirit of the Lamb. The Lamb is the weakest One, yet it was the Spirit of the Lamb, the eternal Spirit, that led Paul to the cross.
How did Paul see the Spirit of the Lamb? He saw it in Stephen, and he gave his impression to Luke.
When Stephen stood before the Sanhedrin and was being judged, what did Luke say? Stephen’s face was like the face of an angel.
Not only that: when Paul heard Stephen’s prayer, “Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge,” he heard the same prayer that the Lord prayed on the cross.
When Stephen was filled with the Spirit, what Paul saw was the Spirit of the Lamb. Because he saw the Spirit of the Lamb, the Holy Spirit could speak to him.
If the Lord was being persecuted and His followers were being destroyed, why was Stephen’s face like that of an angel? Why, before leaving this earth, did he say, “Do not lay this sin to their charge”?
Why did Paul hear Stephen say, “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God”? Paul was a Bible scholar. He was a rabbi. He knew what the glory of God was.
He knew that Ezekiel had seen the heavens opened. But since man fell, heaven had been as bronze. The heavens truly opened only after the Lord was crucified.
The heaven opened to Stephen was different from that seen by Ezekiel. Ezekiel saw the likeness of the glory of God; Stephen actually saw the glory of God.
The Son of man was standing at the right hand of the Father. Was this not the same One who had been crucified?
The Jews had every reason to reject the Lord as Messiah. If He were the Messiah, they thought, He should be greater than the Roman Empire and should overthrow it. Yet the Roman Empire crucified Him.
Paul had every reason to prove that Jesus was not the Messiah. He was under very strict training at the feet of Gamaliel, the chief rabbi of that time.
In Galatians, Paul tells us that everyone who hangs on a tree is cursed. If the Lord was hung on a tree, then He was cursed. How could He be the Messiah?
Paul’s doctrine was correct, but he used his theology wrongly. He said, “This is a deceiver,” and he sought to destroy all the Lord’s followers.
But here was the problem: if the Lord was indeed cursed, how could He be standing at the right hand of the Father? How could Stephen see the heavens opened?
Jesus had told Nathanael that he would see the heavens opened. After the work of the cross was accomplished, the third heaven could be opened.
Paul knew the Bible. He knew the Old Testament. He knew what the glory of God was. But at most he had known only the likeness of the glory of God.
Now he saw something more: the glory of God, and the Son of man whom he had rejected standing at the right hand of God. This proved that the Holy Spirit was working in him.
If Paul’s theology was correct, why were the faces of those followers of the Lamb like the faces of angels? Why were their prayers the prayers of the Lord?
The Lord is seated at the right hand of the Father. Yet when He saw on earth someone conformed to His image, someone praying as He prayed on the cross, did He not stand to welcome Stephen?
Who gave these details to Luke? Of course, Paul did. Paul heard them with his own ears. Others covered their ears because they did not want to hear, but Paul remembered.
Stephen spoke one of the longest messages in Acts 7. Who could have recorded it so clearly? Paul was a Bible scholar. Stephen was merely one appointed to serve tables, yet he was filled with the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit had already done a great work in Paul. How do we know? When Jesus appeared to him, He said, “It is hard for thee to kick against the goads.”
When an ox wants to go its own way, the farmer pricks him. The ox may kick against the goad, but it only hurts the ox.
The Holy Spirit was leading Paul to the cross, but he was not willing. He said, “My theology is correct. As long as you hang on a tree, you are cursed.”
Paul was not only a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He grew up in Tarsus, one of the great centers of Greek learning. He was also a Roman citizen. He encompassed three worlds.
When our Lord was crucified, were there not three different languages on the inscription above the cross?
Hebrew represented the religious world. Greek represented the cultural world. Latin represented the political and military world. This was the entire world, and it was this world that crucified our Lord.
Now our Lord wanted to use one person who embraced these three worlds so that the entire world would come before the Lord.
Before he was saved, Paul was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a man of Greek culture, and a Roman citizen.
What did the Jews want? They wanted power. What did the Gentile world want? It wanted wisdom.
There are two kinds of wisdom: idealistic wisdom and realistic wisdom. The Greeks were philosophers and dreamers. The Romans said, “Do not tell me about your dreams or ideals. As long as I see the Roman Empire being built up, I am satisfied.”
On one hand, Paul knew what the Jews wanted: power. On the other hand, he knew what the Gentile world wanted: wisdom. Whoever had the highest wisdom was revered, and whoever had the greatest power was revered.
To the Jews, the cross was a mark of weakness. If the cross represented power, they thought, Jesus should have gathered Israel and overthrown the Roman Empire.
But the Roman Empire crucified our Lord. To Paul, that was weakness, and he could not accept it.
To those who sought wisdom, to philosophers and idealists, the cross represented foolishness. Paul could not accept the cross because it was a mark of weakness and foolishness.
But if it was a mark of weakness, why was Paul touched by the Spirit of the Lamb? Why did he remember Stephen’s message? Why did he hear that Stephen saw the glory of God when the heavens opened?
Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit, even while he was being filled with stones. His reaction was not bitterness. His reaction was, “Forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Stephen also said, “Do not lay this sin to their charge.”
If the cross is weak and foolish, why did Paul have this voice within him? He did not want to hear it. He wanted to suppress it.
There was not just one Stephen. There were thousands of Stephens, people whom Paul wanted to kill. If they were all there, his conscience would accuse him.
Therefore, Paul began to persecute the church. In Greek, the word is like a bear entering a vineyard and destroying the entire vineyard.
Was not Paul a cultured man? Did he not have wisdom? How could his hands become full of blood? The answer is simple: he wanted to suppress his conscience and suppress the voice of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit wanted to lead him to the cross, but he refused. He kicked against the goads, and he suffered much.
The Holy Spirit did not shine on Paul at the Damascus gate in Jerusalem. He shone on him on the road to Damascus.
Paul was a Pharisee. Pharisees not only treated Gentiles as dogs and pigs; they would not speak to them. That road was a lonely road.
Yet, at the very end, Paul surrendered. Finally, the light of the gospel shone on him.
Paul tells us that before he was saved, the god of this world blinded him so that the light of the glorious gospel could not shine upon him.
What was the light that shone upon him? It was the light of the glorious gospel of Christ. In 2 Corinthians, Paul speaks of the God who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness.”
This reminds us of Genesis 1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
Paul tells us that this was like Genesis 1 in his own life. The Spirit hovered over the waters. Did not the Holy Spirit, through Stephen, hover over Paul? He refused, he refused, he refused.
Right before he arrived at Damascus, the glorious light of the gospel shone upon him. Only when we get to heaven will we fully know what happened that day, but one thing we know: that light was the light of the gospel of Christ.
What is it? It is Christ and Him crucified. On the road to Damascus, very clearly, the Holy Spirit led Paul to the cross.
Thank the Lord, Paul was saved. But do not forget: the light he saw encompassed Christ on the cross. At that time, however, he had no word.
Therefore, Paul had to go to the Arabian wilderness. According to Galatians, the wilderness of Arabia was Sinai, where God had used Moses to speak to the people.
Likewise, God led Paul to the Arabian wilderness to speak to him. Paul was saved, the Lord abode in him, and the Holy Spirit led him into all truth.
God took the words He had already spoken in the Old Testament and spoke them to Paul once again.
Paul did not understand his own story of salvation when he read Genesis 1. “Let there be light,” and there was light. Now he understood that this was not only the story of the old creation; it was his story as well.
The light of the gospel shone upon him, and he was saved. In Christ, he became a new creation.
How did he learn the term “new creation”? God spoke to him once again through the words He had spoken in the Old Testament.
Many rabbis understand the Old Testament, but only the Holy Spirit can lead people into truth. It is the same Old Testament, but it is as though it has become a new book.
When Paul read the story of Abraham, “and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness,” the Lord opened the light to him. Abraham was reckoned righteous because he believed.
Paul understood that those who are of faith are the descendants of Abraham. God knew that this had to do with the Gentiles being justified by faith, so He preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham.
In thee shall all the nations be blessed.
Those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
Let us read Galatians, chapter 3, verse 13.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us;
for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.
Before he was saved, Paul said that all who hung on a tree were cursed, and therefore he could not accept the cross.
But now the Spirit’s light shone upon him, showing him that the one who deserved to be cursed and hung on the tree was Paul himself.
But Christ, for Paul’s sake, became a curse. Paul was the one who deserved the curse, but Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.
The Holy Spirit led Paul to understand the cross. We are justified by faith, and those who are of faith are descendants of Abraham.
For the earthly Jews, the blessing of Abraham was the promised land. God remembered His covenant with Abraham, and even though Israel rebelled, He brought them back.
But what is the blessing of Abraham for us who are justified by faith? Paul tells us in verse 14.
That upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus;
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
For us Christians, we are descendants of Abraham. But what is the blessing of Abraham? Where does this blessing come from? No cross, no blessing.
For the Jews, their Messiah was to be a glorious Messiah who would not suffer. But here we are told that we have received the heavenly blessing because of the cross.
Because of the cross, our Lord rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, and the Holy Spirit descended. We have received the promise of the Holy Spirit.
The Israelites received the promised land. Their blessing was a material land. But thank the Lord, what have we gained? We have gained the Spirit.
What is a Christian? A Christian has the indwelling anointing. Second Corinthians tells us that it is God who anointed us. The Holy Spirit is our seal, and the Holy Spirit is that anointing.
What is Christ? He is the Anointed One. The Lord rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, and God exalted Him, making Him Lord and Christ.
God anointed our Lord, and the anointing came down as the oil upon Aaron’s beard and unto the skirts of his garments. He is the Christ, and we are Christians.
All those who are filled with the Spirit, all those who have the seal of the Holy Spirit, all those anointed by the Spirit—these are Christians.
To be a Christian is to have the blessing of Abraham. What is a Christian? It is one who has the blessing of Abraham, and that is a heavenly blessing.
This blessing is not only that we are obedient to the teaching of the anointing. We are also to be filled with the Spirit.
After the first eleven years, Barnabas found Paul, and Paul helped in Antioch for a year.
The church in Antioch and the church in Jerusalem were very different. Antioch was a place where people liked news, liked to spread news, and liked to give nicknames.
There was an emperor who came into their midst with a beard, and they called him a goat.
After a year, the whole society was wondering, “Who are these people?” They wanted to know what kind of people they were.
They could not say that these people were simply a branch of Judaism. They were different from Judaism. Why? Because they were anointed.
There was something in their lives that was like Christ. Therefore, they called them Christians.
“Christian” was actually a nickname given to them. But after one year, Paul had used what he had learned to help the church in Antioch.
The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
One who is filled with the Spirit is not one in whom the Holy Spirit comes and leaves. We are to be always filled with the Spirit.
If we receive the blessing of Abraham, that is our Canaan land—the unsearchable riches of Christ. What kind of people are we? Paul says that these people are spiritual men.
When Paul speaks of habitual sin, he is not speaking of one who commits an occasional sin, but of those whose sins are habitual.
Likewise, when Paul speaks of a spiritual man, he is not speaking of one who is occasionally filled with the Holy Spirit. He is speaking of one who is always filled with the Spirit.
How does the Bible describe such a person? He is a spiritual man. A Christian is a spiritual man, and a spiritual man is a Christian.
Paul was stumbled by the cross because, to the Jews, the cross was a stumbling block. Paul could not accept it. But now he could tell us that the cross of Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom.
Why is it God’s wisdom? Because only on the cross can God’s righteousness and His love, which seem to be from two extremes, meet together.
The cross fulfilled the righteousness of God, but it also fulfilled God’s love. The cross is the highest point of God’s wisdom.
The greatest power in the universe is not nuclear power. The greatest power in the world is love.
What is the cross? The cross is man’s hatred of God brought to its highest point. But at the same time, it is God’s love for man brought to its highest point.
That is what Paul calls the word of the cross. God’s foolishness is wiser than men, and God’s weakness is stronger than men.
How do you know that a person is spiritual? It is very interesting: when 1 Corinthians speaks of the word of the cross, chapter 2 speaks of the spiritual man.
Paul uses himself and Apollos as examples. Apollos came from Alexandria, and they were both in Corinth, which was the cultural center of Greece at that time.
At that time Corinth represented Greece even more than Athens. They wanted wisdom.
There was a philosopher who, early one morning, turned on a lantern and walked in the marketplace looking for something. People asked, “What are you looking for?” He said, “I am looking for a man, because man is lost.”
This represents the wisdom of the world. Paul also spoke of a complete man, and we also speak of wisdom, but it is the wisdom of the cross.
The wisdom of the cross is God’s foolishness. If you have the foolishness of God, you have the mark of the cross. If you have God’s weakness, that is also the mark of the cross.
The wisdom of the world says that people are philosophers. The wisdom of Christ says that we are Christians.
The church wanted to make itself like the world. But philosophy is always the philosophy of someone: Socrates’ philosophy, Aristotle’s philosophy, or Plato’s philosophy.
When people say, “I am of Paul,” or, “I am of Cephas,” they have turned the church into the world.
The first thing the cross deals with is this divisive spirit. Paul says, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”
We speak of wisdom and power, but our wisdom is God’s foolishness, and our power is God’s weakness. This is what Paul says.
Who is a spiritual man? Let us read 1 Corinthians, chapter 4, verse 9.
For, I think, God hath set forth us the apostles last of all, as men doomed to death:
for we are made a spectacle unto the world, both to angels and men.
Paul speaks here of himself and Apollos.
We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ;
we are weak, but ye are strong;
ye have glory, but we have dishonor.
What is a spiritual man? A spiritual man is one who has the mark of the cross. What is a Christian? A Christian is a man of the cross.
Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place;
and we toil, working with our own hands:
being reviled, we bless;
being persecuted, we endure;
being defamed, we entreat.
We are made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things, even until now.
Brothers and sisters, this is the man of the cross. Here is one who takes up the cross.
Why take up the cross? So that the people in this world will know that he is a Christian. He is not a philosopher. He is not merely a Jewish person. He is a Christian.
Because the Holy Spirit has led him to the cross, he bears the mark of the cross. When Stephen was filled with the Spirit, he was also filled with stones.
What does that mean? It shows us that all Christians need to be men of the cross.
Martin Luther always liked to speak of the crucified man. On one hand, all Christians are filled with the Spirit; on the other hand, we are crucified men.
We have wisdom, but we need God’s foolishness. We have power, but we need God’s weakness. This is the wisdom of God.
For this reason, we are a spectacle. Not only that, we are looked upon as the scum of the world and the dregs of all things.
Now we know what it is to take up the cross. To Paul, the cross was a stumbling block. He could not accept it.
Paul said, “If I still preach circumcision, then hath the stumbling block of the cross been done away.” What is the cross? The cross is a stumbling block.
Remember when the Lord spoke to Peter? He said, “Get thee behind Me, Satan.” But He added a very important word: “Thou art a stumbling-block unto Me.”
The cross is a stumbling block. If Paul preached circumcision, the stumbling block of the cross would be removed.
Why do all Christians need to take up the cross? Peter, you stumble Me because you have the interests of men above the interests of God.
God had a purpose in the cross, but Peter was more interested in man’s interest. He stumbled the will of God.
As long as Peter was there as a stumbling block, God’s purpose could not be fulfilled. But God’s will cannot be stopped. Peter would have to be dealt with.
If Peter was to follow the Lord and receive the cross, what did it mean? The cross is a stumbling block, but it causes us to fall out of the way so that God’s will can go forward.
God’s will will never stop. Therefore, the cross is the way to the eternal purpose.
When everyone takes up his cross, everyone does it for the will of God.
When we read the history of the church, we know that the Roman Empire conquered the whole world.
Many Christians had no weapons in their hands. They were simply filled with the Holy Spirit. They were crucified men.
When men compelled them to walk one mile, they walked a second mile. They turned the other cheek. They gave their second garment.
On the surface, they appeared to be the weakest, but they were the most powerful.
Who was more powerful than the Roman Empire? Who could overthrow the Roman Empire?
Look at those who were filled with the Holy Spirit. Look at those who took up the cross. After two hundred or three hundred years of persecution, the world knew something.
In the Roman Empire, out of every two Roman citizens, one was a Christian. What was that? It was God’s power. It was God’s wisdom.
This is the result of the cross. I pray that the young people will know that the cross accomplished a mighty work for us.
The cross separates us from the world. Whether one is circumcised or uncircumcised is not important, because that belongs to Judaism and to the world. What matters is to be a new creation.
Paul said, “From henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus.”
As to myself, the world is crucified; and as to the world, I am crucified. You are no longer merely a philosopher or a theologian. You are a Christian.
In human history, there was a glorious occurrence: though the Roman Empire conquered the entire world, the gospel of the cross conquered the Roman Empire.
Before we end, I would like to read something. I have read it before, and some may have heard it before. But I remember many young people, and many of you have just come to know the Lord.
I pray that once you have this, you will know how to walk this way. In the second century, when the church went through much persecution, one person wrote a letter showing us what a Christian should be.
This is what Paul saw: how the Holy Spirit led him to the cross, and then, through his entire life, how he was brought to the Holy Spirit.
Before he died, Paul said, “There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.” Now you understand why he was chained when he was most useful. No cross, no crown.
For Christians are not differentiated from other people by country, language, or customs.
They do not live in cities of their own, or speak some dialect, or have some peculiar lifestyle.
This teaching of theirs has not been contrived by the invention and speculation of inquisitive men,
nor are they propagating mere human teaching as some people do.
They live in both Greek and foreign cities, wherever chance puts them.
They follow local customs in clothing, food, and other aspects of life.
Yet at the same time, they demonstrate the wonderful and certainly unusual form of their own citizenship.
They live in their own native lands, but as aliens.
As citizens, they share all things with others; but like aliens, suffer all things.
Every foreign country is to them as their native country,
and every native land as a foreign country.
They marry and have children, just like everyone else,
but they do not kill unwanted babies.
They offer a shared table, but not a shared bed.
They are in the flesh, but they do not live according to the flesh.
They are passing their days on earth, but are citizens of heaven.
They obey the appointed laws, and go beyond the laws in their own lives.
They love everyone, but are persecuted by all.
They are unknown and condemned.
They are put to death, and gain life.
They are poor, and yet make many rich.
They are short of everything, and yet have plenty of all things.
They are dishonored, and yet gain glory through dishonor.
Their names are blackened, and yet they are cleared.
They are mocked, and bless in return.
They are treated outrageously, and behave respectfully to others.
When they do good, they are punished as evildoers.
When punished, they rejoice as if being given new life.
They are attacked by Jews as aliens and persecuted by Greeks;
yet those who hate them cannot give any reason for their hostility.
To put it simply, the soul is to the body as Christians are to the world.
The soul is spread through all parts of the body, and Christians through all the cities of the world.
The soul is in the body, but is not of the body.
Christians are in the world, but not of the world.
Brothers and sisters, thank the Lord. On one hand, we are Christians—we are Christ-men. We are also crucified men.
The Holy Spirit leads us to the cross, and the cross leads us to the Holy Spirit. If we are Christ-men, we are spiritual.
Who is a spiritual man? The one who has the brand mark of the cross upon him.
We all want to take up our cross. We want to fall, because God’s purpose must not fall. Therefore, the cross is the way to the eternal purpose of God.
When Paul ended all his journeys, what did he say? “The time of my departure is come. I am already being offered.”
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith:
henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.
What is that drink offering? In the Old Testament, when the priest offered the burnt offering, he took a cup and filled it with wine.
What does the wine represent? It represents the maturity of the grape, passing through the winepress to become wine, and then being poured out.
Here we have a cup of wine. It represents Paul’s whole life. Paul was a drink offering.
The measurement of life is not how much we have gained, but how much we have lost. It is not how much wine we have drunk, but how much wine we have poured out.
When Paul reached his end, his life was poured out. That is how the cross brings harvest.
That is why, when we read Paul’s letters, especially Ephesians, we know what the church is. It is not under the umbrella of Judaism. The church is the body of Christ.
We may think that Paul was at the apex of his life when he wrote the second set of books. He told the elders in Ephesus that he had not kept back anything profitable, nor had he withheld the whole counsel of God.
In the first six books, Paul had reached his highest point. The Holy Spirit led him to the cross, and the cross led him to the Holy Spirit.
Now he was seated in the heavenly places with Christ. That power was manifested—not only resurrection power, but also ascension power—so that he could be seated with Christ in the heavens.
Through resurrection and ascension, the Holy Spirit descended. We are filled with the Holy Spirit, and from within flows rivers of living water.
Thank the Lord. Our time is gone; I have passed my time. But may these words be deeply rooted in us. May the Lord bless His word. Let us pray.
Lord, thank You for speaking these words among us. We ask that You breathe upon them.
If You find them useful, use these words, especially for the young people. Before Your return, may we know what way to walk.
Not only do we have an individual way, but the church has a way. Before You return, You want to gain a glorious church so that Your heart would be satisfied.
We look for You. If You tarry, may we be willing to walk this way. This is the way we can walk, because Paul’s life shows it, and church history shows that this way can be walked as well.
We wait for Your return. We want to say like John, “Lord, come quickly.” In Jesus’ name, amen.