The Significance of Jesus Christ Crucified, Risen, and Exalted — T. Austin-Sparks

Seeking to See Jesus

Lord, when we say to Thee, open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law, Thou knowest that the most wonderful that Thou canst show to us is Thy Son. And so, not things, but Him.

Open our eyes, that we may see Him this morning. It is to Thee, not to men, but to Thee that we say, we would see Jesus. And O Lord, grant it in Thy mercy that when we leave this place, we are able truly to say, we have seen the Lord.

Be it so, for Thy name's sake. Amen. We come to the last of these hours at this time in which we have been occupied with the great transition. Having said at the beginning that the whole Bible is occupied with God and humanity, the Old Testament with an old humanity, throughout showing how utterly unreliable that humanity is, and eventually proved a failure as the Old Testament closes.

The Old Humanity and the New Humanity

I think you have noticed that not in chronological order, but in spiritual order, the Old Testament closes with Malachi, and what a sorry picture in Malachi. The closing of the book in Philaeum. The New Testament is occupied wholly with the introduction and development of a new humanity.

Brought in with the Lord Jesus Christ. And from that point, the whole of the Old Testament is occupied with this new humanity of which Christ is the representative. It's birth, it's growth, and it's eventual and ultimate glorification.

Well, that is the general background of these morning hours this week. And we came two days ago to the all-inclusive vision of the Lord Jesus, and began, as we shall never finish, though we stayed here all our life, began to see what there is in Jesus Christ, what he has brought in, and what the Apostle Paul, and the others of course, John, Peter, the Apostle Paul, I think in a fuller way than any, saw in the Lord Jesus when, as he put it, it pleased God to reveal his Son in him.

What an immense revealing that was, which grew and grew all through the life of the Apostle. And we said that four things came to the Apostle in that vision, that heavenly vision, that inward singing of the Lord Jesus.

Firstly, in Jesus glorified, he saw, according to the eternal thoughts of God, the place and the nature and the destiny of humanity, the humanity after Christ. Then he saw the nature and dynamic of a life ministry, of a ministry through this long dispensation between the ascension of the Lord Jesus and his coming again.

What the ministry is, the vocation, he saw that when he saw the Lord Jesus. We spent a lot of time on it, not enough. Then he saw the nature and the purpose of the church now and, as he put it, unto the ages of the ages.

These three great things he saw and then he saw a fourth. With that we are going to be occupied this morning. Saw the time Jesus of Nazareth glorified the man in the glory and as he gazed and gazed inwardly upon that seeing, that vision, that revelation, he saw these three things that we have mentioned and then he saw the immense significance of Jesus Christ, crucified, risen and exalted.

These are the things, of course, which fill all his writings. You have to approach them with these four things before you. Let me repeat, the immense significance of Jesus Christ, crucified, risen and exalted.

Paul's Revelation of the Crucified Christ

We are totally incapable of sensing, recognizing, believing what happened to this man Saul of Tarsus when he saw the Lord Jesus. You see, he had thought of Jesus the Nazarene as an imposter, a false teacher, a false leader, one who was leading people astray and all the feelings of animosity, hatred, bitterness of which that great soul was capable overflowed against this man Jesus of Nazareth.

He made it his life business, his tremendous abilities, natural abilities and his training and all his knowledge made it his life business to blot out any remnants related to that man Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth.

He viewed the cross of Jesus Christ as his deserved crucifixion. He viewed the death of Jesus of Nazareth as death, as death as we know it, the end and that in shame, deserved shame, deserved ignominy, deserved disgrace and more from his Jewish standpoint, viewed that man on that cross as cursed of God, as cursed of Almighty God.

This was his mind about Jesus of Nazareth. When he saw Jesus on the way to Damascus and he was smitten with the light not knowing at that moment who and what it meant and said because of the overpoweringness of it, who art thou Lord?

I say we can never enter into the tremendous convulsion that must have taken place in this man when they came back in answer, I am Jesus, I am Jesus, that one with whom you've had that mentality, that one about whom you've had all those thoughts and feelings, I am he, I am Jesus.

I say we cannot enter into what that man must have felt at that moment but it was then and from then that he began to see that this Jesus man glorified in the seat of power, capable of smiting even such a man as Saul of Tarsus to the ground with one stroke and prostrating him and leaving him one who has got to be lifted up by men and by the arm led blind to the place where he was going.

The overwhelmingness of it he began to see in that one that it was not a crucifixion just and it was not a death such as he had thought of death but that Jesus Christ crucified was all that his afterlife and teaching showed him to have seen and what an all.

What he saw comes out in considerable fullness does it not? In his ministry what he saw first of all was that death, that death, that ignominious death, that shameful death, that awful death was his own death.

It's what God thought of him, it was God's attitude toward him. He could say that man on that cross like that, like that, in all that state of degradation and shame and the helpless weakness despised and rejected all that, that was me, that was me, that was what God thinks of my humanity.

He died for me, but you know the meaning is in my place and he died, I died, that was my death and that was God's conception of me, Saul of Tarsus. Oh what a revolution, he had a great idea of himself and his own abilities but look this is God unveiling Saul of Tarsus but more than that he died in my place and that was a death, a new idea about death.

The Cross as the Death of the Adamic Race

All over he saw and I'm keeping of course closely to his teaching, I'm not reading in anything, making up something, you can sit down with it yourself and prove everything that I'm saying from the New Testament.

He saw not only that that death, that awful death as a judgment upon a kind of man was his death, he saw that it was the death of the whole human race in Adam. What does he say? Because we thus judge that one died in the place of all, therefore all died, Connie Bear says, in him, therefore it was the death of the whole race as in Adam all died.

New conception to the cross of the Lord Jesus, our death, the death of the whole race, the humanity to which we belong by nature, therefore all died, but then he came to see this also in the death of Jesus that it was not death as an end, it was a death that destroyed death, in a sense it was a death which was the end of death and he tasted death for all men, it's true, but then he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil.

So from the death of death, she saw in the cross, this is in Christ risen, the death of death has taken place, he's alive forevermore. He saw more, he saw that that cross was, use the word we've used before, it was a cosmic death, that is it reached out beyond the individual and beyond the race to that whole encompassing realm of evil forces which had brought about this condition, making that judgment necessary.

And as he went to the cross he said, now is the prince of this world cast out, and later the apostle said, he stripped off principalities and powers, made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in his cross.

A cosmic cross, a cosmic death, touching the uttermost bounds of the lower heavenly, destroying him that had the power of death. Came to see all this when he saw, by revelation of God, his son revealed in him, as he put it.

Humanity's Destiny, Ministry, and the Church in Christ

Well that's so much as to Paul himself, who comes further over this matter of the cross, resurrection and exaltation of the Lord Jesus. You see, if the revelation of Jesus Christ comprehends all those three things that we have said, comprehends the destiny of humanity, one side of humanity's destiny is judgment out of Christ, the other side of humanity is glory in Christ.

He comprehended that, a subject for a lifetime. If in the seeing of Jesus Christ, in his heart revealed, he saw the nature and the dynamic of all true ministry during this dispensation. Then if he also saw, began to see and saw with increasing fullness as he went on, the nature and the vocation of the church now and in the ages to come.

If he saw all those three mighty things in the face of Jesus Christ, in the person of Jesus Christ, that is in the presence and revelation of Jesus Christ. If he saw all that, remember, this is the vital thing for this morning.

He saw that all that human destiny, all that ministry through the centuries, and all that face and vocation of the church in time and in eternity, he saw that it was all centered in the cross of the Lord Jesus.

Mighty, mighty thing was the cross to him. God forbid, said he, that I should glow save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We preach Christ crucified. I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.

For all this content is in the cross of the Lord Jesus. He saw that the cross of Jesus Christ was the climax of humanity, the climax of humanity. It was the zero hour of the old Adam race. The place at which in the darkness, more than natural darkness, God said the door is closed.

The door is closed upon a certain kind of humanity. This is zero for that humanity. We take a lifetime to learn that. The Holy Spirit, when he gets hold of a life, is always bringing us back to that one fact, and putting his finger upon this and that, something else, and saying in us, that went out from the cross.

The cross has closed the door on that. If you bring that in, you are countering the work of the cross. Now I could stop there, you know. For instance, with the letter to the Hebrews, as well as to these Corinthian letters, what a terrible, terrible thing it is to go back upon the cross and crucify afresh the Son of God, and stamp upon the blood of our redemption.

The apostles have a lot to say about that, but that is controversial. I know, but it is not our subject, but there it is. The cross has said an eternal no to a whole kind type and way of a certain humanity.

The Holy Spirit is trying to teach us this. If you are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, you know quite well what the Holy Spirit will allow and what he won't, or you ought to. Oh, young Christians especially, but all of us, how important it is for us to know the Holy Spirit in this way.

You go to this one and to that one, going around asking your questions, Ought I? May I? Should I? Can I? No need for that at all. And if anybody begins to tell you you may or you may not, they are doing the wrong thing.

They are doing the wrong thing. You ought to know in your own heart by the Holy Spirit, if you are born of the Spirit, you ought to know the Spirit making you uncomfortable about certain things. Not whispering in your ear in words and saying, No, you mustn't do that.

But inside, I'm not so happy about this as I once was. I don't feel so free to do these things as I once did. You know what I mean, don't you? The Holy Spirit is only bringing you back to the cross and saying again, Zero to that.

The end of that, that belongs to the old humanity. And I mustn't start with too much detail, but this is a very practical thing, the cross. The cross is not just a historic thing. The cross is not just something in the Christian creed.

The cross of the Lord Jesus is a devastating thing on one side, a terrific thing. It takes us a lifetime to learn how much that is true. However, the fact is here from the beginning, it is the zero hour of the Adamic race.

The Cross, Satan, and the World

It is further the registration of the subjection of the Prince of this world. Now the whole world lies in the wicked ones, says the Apostle. The whole world lies in the lap of the evil ones. By nature, we are in that realm, in that kingdom.

The great work is this transition transferred or transitioned us out of the authority of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of his love. But by nature, we are within that kingdom of the Prince of this world.

At the cross, as we have said, Jesus said, now is the Prince of this world cast out? What did he mean? Not the annihilation of the devil, we know that quite well. Not that he ceased to be a being or to have power.

Something better than that, perhaps. Something better than that. You know, there is such a thing as victory and there is something, there is a more than victory. There is being a conqueror and there is being more than conqueror.

What do I mean? Well, not many of you, a few, can remember, although in America perhaps you can take much account of it, don't know much about it, but some of us lived through the great Boer War in South Africa.

You know how that went on, what devastation and desolation that Boer War saw in South Africa. Last, the British gained the upper hand, as they used to do, and they captured some of the Boer generals and among them was General Botha.

That name means Jesus. He was one of the great generals of the Boer army and they captured him, they put him in prison. He was conquered. As Botha watched the British, watched their way, their life, learned the truth about them, he began to change, change at last.

To make the story short, he became one of Britain's best counsellors and allies. The life of General Botha is a wonderful thing. How highly he was honoured and respected. Even into the First World War he came as a helper, great helper, on the side of British.

What had happened? Oh yes, he was conquered, but there was more than conqueror. Made the enemy an ally. Oh you say, is Satan for us then? Oh no, oh no, he's not for us. I suppose the analogy breaks down here.

But what do we find in the New Testament? I would have you know brethren, the things which befell me have fallen out for the perverse. And those things which befell were satanic activities and the Lord has taken hold of Satan's work and made them serve his ends.

That's more than conqueror. Perhaps, perhaps, of course I would rather that the Lord had wiped him out of existence altogether. But perhaps it's better that the Lord in his all authority in heaven and on earth makes the enemy in the long run serve his purpose.

That's more than conqueror. Isn't it? He's an unwilling servant we know. But you have this strewn through your New Testament. Saints in Caesar's house. Well the cross you see was the registration of this subjection to Jesus Christ of this world.

Further it was the sentence of death upon the world itself. I'm keeping to Paul again. The sentence of death upon this world which lies under a curse. Jesus himself as he came to the cross and knelt in prayer and lifted his heart to his father in the presence of some of his disciples.

The Cross and the Judgment of the World

They are not of this world. Even as I am not of this world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world but keep them from the evil one. The world is banned. The world system, the world spirit, the world influence is banned by the cross.

No such thing as a worldly Christian. If you're worldly you're contradicting your Christian life. However it is the cross pronounced the death sentence upon this world. That is the negative side. But the cross as Paul saw it in Jesus Christ was the D-Day of a new creation.

D-Day what's that? Deliverance day. Deliverance day. Peter must walk in here and say to us blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that faded not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of the D-Day.

A new hope, new creation, creation breaks into in the resurrection Jesus from the dead. Now all that surely does give us a much larger conception of the cross and I'm not going to be able to cover all the ground of these three things so I'll mix up the next two.

The Cross as the Ground of Ministry

The ministry and the church. The ministry and the church issuing Matthew from the cross. Inherent in the cross. No church without the cross. No ministry without the cross. So hence, hence the cross is the ground upon which the Holy Spirit encamps for ministry.

And understand why it is that there's been such an assault made upon the cross to get it out of the preaching. Put other complexions upon it that are true of it. If you in the power of the Holy Spirit live the life of the cross and minister Christ crucified, the Holy Spirit comes on that.

He comes on that. Want to know where the Holy Spirit encamps? Takes up his position for cooperation. He takes it up always on the cross. You'll never come through to a genuine, a genuine true knowledge of the fullness of the Holy Spirit unless the cross is foundation.

And it's the only safety, the only safety amidst of many things that are false and counterfeit. I want to know about everything, what place the cross has there. Not as a teaching, a theory, a doctrine and something in the Bible, but where is the cross in the life there?

That is the Holy Spirit's camping ground, Christ crucified as preached in the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul says here is the wisdom of God as the wisest thing from heaven and the power of God, the most powerful thing from heaven, Christ crucified.

Repeat it. The message of the cross is not just a doctrine, a teaching. It is the message of human life, human life. Before we can teach the cross, we must know it. It must have done something in us and a drastic thing in us.

The preacher, the minister, the ministry must be a crucified minister or vessel. And it must be quite clear that it is not a doctrine of the cross that is being given, but the person who is giving it is a crucified person.

That searches a lot, doesn't it? So let us be careful about our talk on the cross. Be careful how you speak about the cross. Many people come to me and say, I came to the teaching of the cross so long ago.

I came to the message of the cross. It has become something. How much better to say the cross by the Holy Spirit did something in me, did something in me that made it far more than a doctrine, a theory, something to talk about.

Indeed, is that the talk? Is that the talk? It is an old saying, old adage, you talk so loud that I can't hear what you say. There is something in that. I want to see what you are saying. Well, here it is, you see, ministry has got to be a ministry by the Spirit on the ground of the cross.

What will the Holy Spirit allow in ministry? What will He allow in ministry? And what will He disallow? You learn a lot about that, you know. In the old days when I was very much in the preaching realm.

Before the big crisis of the cross, of course I worked hard to get good sermons and I collected everything to make up a sermon. Quotation from this man, quotation from that, this poet and that poet. One day later I was preaching and in the midst of my sermon I made a quotation.

I quoted, perhaps I ought not to even mention the poet. You know his name altogether. I quoted him in my sermon to make a point. At that point the bottom fell out of my sermon and out of me too. All the whole, everything went and I had to struggle to get up to the end, went home.

What has happened? What has happened? Everything went out at that point. And then I got to the Lord and I looked up that poet, very famous poet. And the Lord said to me, you know that poet is a modernist, a liberal theologian, but he does not believe in the great truths of Christ's personality and atonement.

And you drew him in this morning as your ally to make your sermon a success. I learned a lesson, a life lesson. And if really we are under the cross dear friends, we will know what the Spirit will allow and what he won't allow.

The Church as a Crucified and Heavenly People

And we will find that the cross means that the bottom does fall out of everything in that realm. Do you understand this? Am I being too detailed? Oh no, for ministry and I have defined what ministry is, not pulpit ministry, platform ministry only, but the function of the Christian to minister Christ.

That's the ministry, giving Christ. And this ministry must come out of the cross because there it begins. The ministry began there. The cross must be the source of all true Holy Spirit ministry. And as for the church, its nature and its purpose, now and forever, what has God in mind from eternity about this elect vessel?

What is it? What does it exist for in the divine council? Only, only to be itself the vessel, the embodiment of all this meaning of the cross. As with the ministry and ministers, so with the church. It must be a crucified church to preach a crucified Christ.

And to bring by the Holy Spirit all God's knowledge to men. Church is a crucified church. Now, do you look at the beginning and see? We at the beginning of these meditations saw the devastation that took place, not only in those of the world, but with the disciples.

How their own humanity was devastated at the cross. Scattered and desolated. They are men who've got nothing, nothing left, and they come to the cross of the Lord Jesus, in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

The church begins. He gathers the scattered fragments. And here and there, he's putting the vessel together again. But on other ground, why did he tarry 40 days? Why? To make sure that they were on new ground.

That they had really grasped the significance of the resurrection as a new ground. And why did he lead them out as far as Bethany and went from them in full view into glory? To let them know that the church is on new ground and on heavenly ground now.

On heavenly ground. And that the headquarters of the church is not at Jerusalem. It's in heaven. All is to be governed from heaven now because of this man who is exalted. He's the head. He's the governor.

But it's heavenly. Am I using language that you don't understand? Or is it too familiar? Christ is installed in heaven as the representative of this new humanity. And the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven is to govern everything, deal with everything, work in everything and in everyone.

Firstly, on the relegation to judgment of the old humanity. And the development, the initiation and the development of this other humanity. That's what the Holy Spirit is here for. See, the writer of the Hebrew letters makes it very simple about father and children and sons, doesn't he?

My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord. As a father chastens his son. Well, what about you fathers who have sons? What are you doing with them? Well, you may not put it in this way, but this is how the New Testament puts it in meaning.

I'm going to make a man of you. I'm out to make a man of you. Sometimes you may not feel very happy about what I'm doing, the way I'm doing it. But I'm going to make a man of you. Paul says to these people, quit you like men.

There's a man, a manhood that the Holy Spirit has come to develop. A kind of man coming to full stature of manhood in Christ. These are his actual words, as you know. And this applies, of course, to the sisters as much as to the brothers.

One man in Christ. All one man in Christ. Sorry the translators haven't given us the full translation. All one in Christ Jesus. But it is all one man. It's best given. All one man in Christ Jesus. The work of the Holy Spirit is to make a man of us.

However, the man according to that man. Is this according to that humanity? Everything. That's humanity. That is why Jesus was here for those three and a half years. A man amongst men, but different from all others.

Conformed to the image of his son. Now, I'm going to close soon. But I want to get very near to this. That not only the nature of the church. This is the nature of the church. As the church's vocation.

The Church's Vocation and the Ministry of Prayer

But the position of the church now and in the ages to come. And because this is a very large matter. I'm going to focus on one thing. To try and help you. I'm going to focus upon the matter of prayer.

I'm convinced that in all the recovery that has to be made. The recovery of prayer in the way in which I'm going to speak of it now. Is very very important. Have you ever seen dear friends. What the position of the church is.

If it is in its right position. And rightly constituted. And now I'm not talking about the church universal. It applies there. Let's come to a local church. Where is Christ? He is seated at the right hand of God.

What does that right hand mean? A place of power. A place of authority. A place of government. Right. He is there. As head of the church. Which is his body. He has been vested. Invested with all authority in heaven and in earth.

Have you sometimes questioned that? Christ's authority here in this world. When you see things going as they are going. Wondered about that. All authority in heaven and on earth. Now dear friends. If you have a nucleus of the church in any one place.

A nucleus in any one place. Rightly constituted on the basis of the cross. And the resurrection. And the exaltation. Of Jesus the Lord. You are united with that throne. And if you get to prayer on that basis.

As such an instrument. You are going to touch things in the heavenlies and on the earth. Have we lost something? Have we lost something? I have and I think to hear properly. I have told of a personal experience on my first visit to the United States in 1925.

Talking to a brother at my side at the breakfast this morning who is from Boston. That experience took place at that time when I first met him in Boston. I had come out and I was just learning then. Just learning the great principles of the church, the cross and the church.

And I had come out to speak at a convention in Park Street Congregational Church in Boston. Of course that is well known now. And I went into my hotel, into my room, my bedroom. As I got in there an awful sense of conflict and darkness and evil came over me.

And this was so terrible that I got to go almost immediately to this ministry. I said I am no good. I can't go. Something has got to happen. It was really awful. Abraham knew what he called, what is called a horror of great darkness.

That is what it was for me. And I began to use what means I knew. Fighting the enemy. You know using the sword of the spirit which is the word of God against the enemy. And fleeting the blood. But nothing happened.

Nothing happened. And I walked up and down that room trying to fight the spiritual battle. Never getting through. I cried to the Lord, Lord what does this mean? What are you saying? Have I got out of your will?

Ought I not to be here? What is it? It came to me so clearly. Just stand in to the prayer for you of the Lord's people. Now that is very simple isn't it? But I stood there in my room and I said I stand by faith in to the value of the prayer of the church on my behalf in the name of the Lord Jesus.

The whole thing went right there. We went through. Now of course that isn't the end of the story. I wrote back to London to my brothers in London. And I told them of my experience. And one brother wrote and said will you please let us know exactly the time that that happened.

Making allowance for a difference of five hours between London and Boston. Give us the hour, the very hour that that happened. So I told them just when it happened. He wrote back and said in that very hour we were met for prayer.

We felt that you were having a great battle. And we felt that we had got to take up that battle for you and pray it through. And we did. Have you seen what I mean? Forgive the personal reference. And forget that.

Spiritual Warfare and the Church's Authority

But the principle. My 3 ,000 miles. Difference in world time. Just nothing. That very moment. The church prays. Far away something happens. The enemy in the heavenlies is touched. Authority in heaven.

And the situation on earth is touched. Authority on earth. In touch with the throne. Don't you think we want something like that now? Are there not forces of evil in the heavenlies that need to come under the impact of that all authority in heaven?

Are there not situations even in the church of the churches where that authority in the earth needs to be brought in to change them? And the church is the vessel of that. The instrument of that. Oh for local companies on that ground.

Power of the cross. And the authority of the risen and exalted Lord. That's a great need. Ask the Lord about that. When you get back where you are. Oh be careful of a technique about pro prayer warfare and attacking the devil direct.

Be careful he'll make a mess of you. He'll wait his time. But get hidden in the cross. Remember that this is not your strength. Your wisdom. It's a crucified vessel that's going to do this. But oh the Lord does need a recovery of that kind of vocation.

The Church's Future Governmental Vocation

And it's not going to stop here. I've said the vocation of the church in the ages to come. Oh it may not be then against the devil. But I quoted a scripture the other day and told you I don't understand what it means.

No you not said Paul to the Corinthians. We shall judge angels. We shall judge angels. That doesn't mean that angels are doing wrong and going to be brought into judgment by us in eternity. It means government.

Telling them what to do. What is required of them. Or it means I don't know what it means. But it means something. We shall judge angels. It's the church that is going to be the administrative instrument of Christ through the ages to come.

It's got to learn administration now. And that was the point of those words of Paul to the Corinthians. You are going to the courts of this world to get judgment from worldly men. Worldly wisdom. Can't you learn to judge yourself amongst yourselves?

You ought to. Because in eternity you've got to judge angels. You better learn now. Go to judge angels. You better judge these things in them that you are taking to the courts. You ought to have wisdom for judgment.

Now learning. Oh we are in a school. A wonderful school. Learning to fulfill such a vast vocation in the ages to come. In the ages to come. This is the school for that. And if we are really through the cross.

Under the Holy Spirit. Under the anointing spirit. And we are all we are all baptized in one spirit into one body. If that is true. Perhaps we've got to get clearer as to what that baptism is and that anointing and what that body is.

But this is it. We are now under the Holy Spirit's tuition. Which is a practical tuition and not a theoretical one. Under his tuition that we shall graduate when the Lord comes into that vocation with which we have been called and to which we have been appointed from eternity.

The councils of God. To be his governing vessel in this universe. Too wonderful to grasp. Beyond you is it. It's beyond me. But this is what Paul teaches. And it's to begin now. And now says he unto the principalities in the heavenlies may be made known the manifold wisdom of God in the church.

It's a wonderful vocation. See how far we fall short. Now this morning. That's enough I'm sure for you to grapple with. Much more to be said. But that's quite enough for now. Be quiet about it. Think about it.

The Cross as Living Reality

All this dear friends. All this that I have tried to say to you. The Lord has tried to show you. Issues from an experimental knowledge of the cross of the Lord Jesus. It does. And you have seen now what that cross means on both its sides.

May it not be a subject of doctrine, teaching, theory. But the mighty reality that it is in every realm. We pray. We're very conscious Lord that when we touch realms like this. As much that tries to grapple and stifle and make it difficult.

Both to speak and to hear. So that now at the end of this course. For this time. We must appeal to thee as on the throne. To exercise thyself and thy authority. Thy power. To make these things realities.