The Way of the Cross — Devern Fromke

Around the world today, Christian people have been giving attention to the cross. This is the day that all Christendom has looked upon in its significance because our lovely Lord gave himself. Now, it's not really important, I'm not too sure it was on Friday, but that part we're not going to get into.

The Cross as the Central Reality of Christian Life

The important thing is that the cross has become very real to all the Christians, all the world, those who know the Lord. And as I've been waiting before the Lord this evening, I think we ought to take a look into some of the realities of the cross.

I really wonder, beloved, while we speak much of all that the cross means, I wonder how much of the reality of it has really gripped us. I tremble when I think of even trying to share from it because while I have given so many years to it, I realize we see through a glass darkly, just a dim peek at it really.

I remember back in 1947 and 48 when for the very first time we came to understand something of the cross and our identification with the Lord. I got into the Overcomer message, lived for two whole years.

I don't think I read anything but the Bible and Mrs. Penn Lewis. It was good. It was good. But I remember in those days as the Lord began to work, every place I went in meetings and revival was working, I preached about the cross.

And I had folk come to me continually and say, do you preach Easter all the time? I'm not speaking tonight about the cross because it's Easter. I wouldn't give place to a day because I'm not just keeping days.

I'm not against it necessarily, but I think there's something better than keeping days. This to me is the central reality, the place where God does something most significant. And I would have us bow once more tonight.

I surely do not feel that I'm able, but maybe the Lord can get something through to us. Shall we ask Him to do that? You bow, telling Lord, don't let me live in just the outwardness of things, just to look at two old pieces that we call the rugged cross.

But oh, tonight, Lord Jesus, we pray that somehow the Holy Spirit will come and bring us into some of the realities of what really is involved with the cross. I am not able. Who among mortal men could ever unveil?

Only Thou canst unveil it by the Holy Spirit. And so we are shut up to Thee tonight, Lord. We pray that somehow it shall be something very personal that You apply to us. We believe that our fruitfulness unto Thee, our life and walk and ministry, all of it needs, yea, it can be really adjusted as we understand the working of the cross.

So be pleased tonight, dear Lord. Be pleased in our midst. We come acknowledging this is a day all of the people who come to know You around the world have given great attention to it. And we join with the prongs tonight, not merely to keep a day, but to acknowledge the reality of something.

Thank You, Lord. We bless Thy name. We look to Thee with expectancy in Jesus' lovely name. And everyone said, Amen. Amen. Well, for a moment in getting started, I think it's good to look at the father of the faithful.

Abraham’s Altars and the Cross as God’s Final Altar

You know who he is? Abraham. And I would remind you tonight that all through the Old Testament, the cross is pictured as an altar. I have to say that many people have really misunderstood the fact that while we have many insights into the altar all the way through the Old Testament, one day, God said, there'll be no more building of little altars as such.

I'm going to consummate it all in one. And there was the cross. Jesus accomplished the full and the finished. That was God's final altar. And any meeting of Him at any altar today, that is the altar where we meet Him.

I know churches and places will build altars and so forth, but I would remind us tonight that God's altar in a full and final way is right there. At the old rugged cross where Jesus died. But it's interesting, as you look into the life of Abram, and you find the minute he moves into the land of Canaan, that having arrived there and the Lord appearing unto him, he does something significant.

Chapter 12, beginning with verse 7, it says, And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there built he an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him. The whole of his life from this time on transpires in the life of the altar.

Isn't that wonderful? The altar. He begins a rite. And I believe all through you find various times when he is once again building the altar. You follow over in chapter 13. Well, while we're reading there, look at verse 8.

And it says, He removed some fence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent. Having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east, there he built an altar unto the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

What does this altar back here, what does it really represent? Here is Abram, as it were, having an appearance of the Lord. What does it signify? I cannot help but believe, brothers and sisters, that if God appears to us and we begin to see something of his worthiness, something of our obligation and our rightful relation to him, there's just one thing we can do.

And that's give ourselves to him. Offer ourselves to him. And that's basically what the altar represents. The altar, a burnt offering, is that place where having seen, having seen, I now present myself to him.

Oh God, what have you created me for? What am I here for? I present myself to him. And be sure of this, the life that has had some insight, that God has appeared to that life, I believe we can do no less than present, than give.

It's interesting now that on each side here, there is something that I think stands in a very significant way. I would like to believe that Bethel, on one side, represents when a man gives his life totally to God.

For what God wants out of that life, he'll see just one thing, Bethel. What is Bethel? What does it mean? You know in the Hebrew that Beth means house, and El means God, house of God. And it's interesting, right here at the very beginning, the father, the faithful, who gives himself, God, as it were, on one side, he looks, he will see that which is very significant to God.

I believe that the thing that Abraham's life is going to find fullness in, is when through him God finds a house or habitation, the house of God, the house of God. A little bit later on in Jacob, we find El, Bethel, and we get to the God of the house of God.

But right for now, and I'm not wanting to divert our attention, I'm just saying that here we have that which is significant to Abraham. Can I say to you tonight, if you give yourself to that which will please God, and fulfill something through your life, I believe it will also consummate in living under the thing that Bethel really stands for.

But do you know what's at his back? Well, let's put it this way. If you turn your back on what God is really after, you'll have Ai. You turn your back on Ai and you have what? Bethel. It's one or the other.

The question is, what does Ai mean? Heap of ruins. Wouldn't it be something? Come down the twilight. Years of a lifetime. You'd miss this that God was after. And what do you have? Lifetime. A heap of ruins.

I don't think I'm old in spite of some gray hair. But I'll tell you, God keeps pressing my heart. After ministering 25 years for the Lord, there's something within that keeps crying out, Oh, God, to get to the realities of things.

You can preach. You can travel the world. You can do all of this and that. It's good. It's helpful. It's for the Lord. But after a while, something begins. I believe it's the Holy Spirit's working within us to want to sharpen things down to that which is most important.

And so here we are before an altar tonight. Ours is the life of the altar. And I'd like to say that having really established our altar, what we give ourselves to, then you can pitch your tent. Don't try to pitch your tent and set your altar accordingly.

It's a real difficult thing to find fullness. I tell people who think they're going to move to Florida and retire, that's pitching your tent and trying to build an altar nearby. If you move to Florida, California, Arizona, or even lovely Virginia, just for climate, just to have a nice place to live, that's putting the emphasis on the what?

Tent first. And God wants an altar first. Now, what does the altar represent? All the way through, I believe the altar represents what we give ourselves unto. Now, it's true, in a sense, every one of us has an altar tonight.

We're giving ourselves to something. You're burning out for something, aren't you? At least, smoldering. Burning out for something. Something has caught the passion of our life. When the twilight hours come and life is about over, I have to say it will either be Bethel helping to bring about that living habitation of living stones where God will dwell.

Holy temple growing as unto the Lord. That habitation for God. It isn't that. It might be a heap of ruins. Keep us from it, Lord. And oh, isn't it blessed that when your altar is really the altar of the Lord, your tent goes right along.

Any place should put me, Lord. Even an old bread truck. A tent or a cottage, why should I care? It's something to consider. It is something to consider, beloved. Your tent is dwelling with the thing where your life is really poured out.

I remember reading back in the earlier accounts where John Chrysostom, one of the early fathers back in the early church, was being persecuted. Rome was making it so difficult for him. They banished him to an isle to get him away.

And he just laughed and he said, it's just as close to the Lord there as any place else. Praise the Lord. You can't hurt a fellow like that. They said in trying to get at him, we'll kill you. And he shouted, hallelujah, I'll be quicker with Jesus.

Getting the altar, you see. Well, what I'm concerned about tonight is this. And I do pray that God will help us to realize we have an altar. We're burning out for something. May it be. May it be the right altar.

The right altar. Well, having looked at Abram, let's just look at a few more of the Old Testament pictures of what the cross really testifies, or what the altar back there really signifies. I think we'll turn to 1 Kings.

Elijah, the Broken Altar, and the Cross’s Unifying Work

Take just a little glimpse there. 1 Kings, chapter 18. When I let my mind begin to peruse through all these places, there were so many. We could be here all night. But maybe just a few glimpses back into the altar.

You know, in chapter 18 of 1 Kings, we have the picture of a man whom God has raised up as a prophet in Israel. It's a dark hour in Israel because Ahab, king, is reigning. He has a wife. Remember what her name is?

Jezebel. And the conditions in Israel are very, very difficult. And there's a fellow by the name of Elijah who is called a troubler in Israel. I really think he's a healer. But everybody who looks upon him can only speak of him as a troubler.

The reason is because he has prayed. Remember what has happened? It's been dry for a long time. And so when he meets, when he meets king Ahab, it's interesting. Oh, I don't know where to start. Chapter 18 and verse 17, we pick it up.

And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? Wouldn't you like a reputation like that? Could I tell you something? I believe that this man has the cross as a working principle in his life.

You see, beloved, it is possible, maybe we'll get to it now as well as a little later. It is possible for us to look upon the cross here and to see man in his fallen condition and to see all that has happened at the cross for us.

I like to call this the work of the cross. When I look to the cross, I see that the precious blood of Jesus has been shed and it gives me forgiveness. In the work of the cross, I have forgiveness. I look back at the cross again and I see that not only are my sins forgiven, but that when Jesus was nailed to the cross, I was nailed there in Him, with Him.

And I tell you, this is a forgotten side of the cross all too often. So many, thank God, they know the substitutionary work of the cross. They know that Jesus died for them, that there's forgiveness through the blood, thank God.

But I'll tell you there are lots of folk who have never looked back to see that there's the cross of Calvary. In God's viewpoint, He saw you and I wrapped into Him in the death of Christ, His death was my death.

I was one with Him in death, burial and resurrection. And it is true that this is the way God lays the axe to the root of all the old tree of Adam. He counts it out through death. So there are two things at the cross, the blood that brings forgiveness and our death with Him that brings us deliverance from what we are in Adam.

We need that. We need that. Far too many of God's people have never looked back to see the deliverance that comes through our death with Christ. But I must say to you that all of this, the blood and our identification with Him still constitutes the work of the cross because it represents something that I get.

Forgiveness, deliverance, whose benefit is that for? Mostly. It's for me, isn't it? You see? Now let's just stop and realize. I think it's well to remember that in a sense the cross is an eternal principle in the heart of God.

Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. God was not caught off guard here when Adam was placed in the garden and he goes his own way into sin. And now, through the work of the cross, man is brought back into fellowship with God.

God was not caught off guard. I mean, He didn't have to set up some stopgap remedy to overcome the whole treacherous rebellion of Adam. I sort of believe that all He needed to do was open up His bosom, pull back His heart and say, Here, I have already the capacity, I have already that with which I can take care of man's rebellion, man's going astray.

Could I say, in getting to the real point tonight, that I believe that all that God does in all of His working has His cross in the heart of it. God's sacrificial, God's pouring out, God's giving. And there's a sense in which all the purposes of God, that which is headed toward the real goal toward which He is working, needs to be accomplished by what I like to call the way of the cross, the way of the cross.

Now let me make this as a distinction for us. Everything that God does out of His own heart has in it the way of the cross. What is it? Self-giving, pouring, sacrifice, sharing, giving Himself. When Jesus came and walked among man in the way of the cross, He really was just unveiling the heart of God, God so loved that He gave.

God so loved that He gave. Now, when we first come to appropriate from the cross man in his selfish condition, man in his own need, I'm afraid most of the time we only see the cross and interpret it in relation to what it will mean to us.

What is it? Forgiveness, joy, blessing, peace, deliverance. All of that accrues to who? To us. Thank God. Thank God. We don't minimize it. Thank God. I wish most people could get through at least the second aspect of what is involved at the cross.

But, having arrived at this point right here where we're on the line of purpose and we're moving on toward the thing that God wants, there has been a real explosive work that has taken place at the cross.

And from that moment on, he says, we become alive unto God. Dead indeed in the sin, but alive unto God. And now the question is, as my life is poured out on the altar, and I come to know what it is to be identified with the Lord Jesus, not merely in His death, but in His life, as it were, poured out along the way.

It is then that we begin to see the significance of take up your cross and follow me. I have to be very honest with you tonight. All through the last 25 years, I've heard people say to others, what you need to do is take up your cross.

And so far as I'm concerned, they get it in the wrong place. They have not grasped the real significance of taking up your cross. Because all too often, they're taking it up, hoping thereby for some value for themselves.

Did I lose you or are you with me? Taking up the cross, that thereby somehow, there can be deliverance for them. That would be a miscarriage of grace and a confusion of the real issue. When I first began to share the cross, way back, God began to show me that the reason most people were afraid, most good Bible scholars were afraid of identification with the cross because people approached it as though there was something vicarious, something efficacious, something of value that would come to us in picking up the cross.

No, we must be very clear. So far as the grace of God is concerned, when in our fallen condition, we look to Calvary and we receive the precious blood for forgiveness and our death with Him on the cross, God says by this work of the cross that He has accomplished, He has brought us into a position with Himself.

And now on resurrection ground, strange as it may seem, on resurrection ground, now we can take the cross in the way of the cross as a means by which God gets something out of our life. I hear people all the time, we'll get to 1 Kings a little bit, I seem to be momentarily stalled.

The Work of the Cross and the Way of the Cross

Turn to Romans. Turn to victorious 8th chapter of Romans, the place that most people talk about wanting to live. Romans 8, 35, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.

Is that too chilly? It is? Oh, I'm sorry. I thought it was a little stuffy mostly. Don't do it just for me. We'll get noise and everything else. 35th verse now. Who shall separate us? And so on. And verse 46, As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long.

We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. The little phrase here, For thy sake, sticks out to me. The reason that I, sure it is emphasizing what I want us to see tonight, is that in appropriating what Jesus did on the cross in the work of the cross, it is always for whose sake?

I receive forgiveness. I enjoy deliverance. But now, that I am the Lord's, I've been delivered, and I start on the resurrection way to be poured out for Him. Then I have the privilege, as it were, of being identified with the Lord in a poured out life.

He says, as He was a lamb that was slain, It's for thy sake, O God. I don't get a thing out of this, except the satisfaction that God has satisfied. For thy sake, we are killed all the day long. Now, be very clear about this.

The work of the Lord Jesus on the cross is always a finished thing. And the tense of it is always past. I have been crucified. Crucified with Christ. I reckon on the finality of it. What is it? Precious blood shed.

Crucified with Him. Past tense. And then I always used to wonder, when I would see this, and I was not able to make the proper distinction between the work of the cross and the way of the cross. Here we are entering into something that's a continual progressive thing that God might realize out of our life.

Turn over to 2 Corinthians. You'll notice the same little phrase in chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Beginning with verse 8. He says, We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair.

Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are...

What? Once at camp meeting time. Huh? No. No. We are always delivered unto death for our victory, for our forgiveness. Are you with me now? Lord, help us to get the distinction here. We are delivered unto death, what?

For Jesus' sake. You mean I don't get anything out of this? No. I receive through my oneness with Him at the cross. Forgiveness. Deliverance. But now, on the resurrection line, fulfilling God's purpose, we are daily delivered to death, what?

For Jesus' sake. Oh, Lord. The privilege of being one with You in the way of the cross. It is what God gets. Who else gets something? Others do. Others do. Here He says, notice now, verse 12,. So then death worketh in us, but what?

But life in you. I remember, oh, this is almost 20 years ago when I first began to get into the cross and began to realize some of its emphasis. I don't know how to say it, but when a life begins to experience some of the way of the Spirit of God working, death working in you, life to others, it's so easy to want to somehow escape and take an easy way.

And I'd get into a particular situation where death would really be working. And I didn't know any better than to say, well, praise the Lord, two weeks from now I'll be over there and it'll be a lot easier.

That pastor, that church, or those people, they'll accept what I have to share. So I never unpacked. I never unpacked. I'd always just say, I believe it'll be better down the road. I was waiting for another day, a better day, a better circumstance, a better situation.

And then one day, the Lord began to pull back the curtain here. And I saw, and I just thought I'd cheer up. It was never going to be any different. Death works in us what? Continually. And it's this way that life is squeezed out to others.

And I remember in my hotel room coming to that wonderful discovery. And I wrote at the bottom of the page, cheer up Vern, unpack, and face it today. If you don't face it today, you'll never face it tomorrow.

Death works in us continually. But every one of us are escapists when it comes to God getting something out of our life. Do you follow the principle of getting out? We'll reckon on the work of the cross because Lord, I need forgiveness.

I need deliverance. I need to have the cross do something deeper in order to thank God. I don't want to seem to minimize this. But there is a difference when finally the cry of the heart is, oh God, that there might be a fruitfulness unto you.

That you might have something. Then this little phrase sticks out, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. For Jesus' sake we are the lamb led to the slaughter. Thank God. Now, just by way of encouragement, I remind you that every step taken along this way is a voluntary step with the Lord.

He isn't there beating you over the head with a club saying, I think some folk would have heel marks all along the way if it were. It isn't that. Thank God. It's voluntary. It's forgiving. I suppose until you're ready for it, you won't know much about it.

But there comes a time when lives get sick, fed up with just what things can mean to them, interpreting the cross always in the light of what it means to them. And I believe the cross has its deepest, more perfect work of dealing in our life.

And this is what it means then, we become dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. Oh God, for what you get. And I think that it is along this line then that we bear in our body the marks. We are dying daily.

I cannot see that dying daily fits here. Because I have to reckon on the finished work of his death. You follow me? Dying daily could never bring deliverance to me. I reckon on the finished work of his death.

The completed final work of his shed blood. That's grace. If dying daily is going to bring me deliverance for myself, I'm frustrating the grace of God. And yet I suppose it's hard to, it's hard to keep these two separate.

Because we are always needing deeper deliverance. And while death is working in us, it's doing some delivering, it I suppose at the same time is squeezing life out to others. So, I didn't mean to get in all that.

Somebody needed it. Go back to 1 Kings. What I only wanted to say in passing was this. I believe that Elijah was a man who had the cross planted within him. That's all been said just for that. He was a man who had the cross planted as a principle within.

And while everyone looked on and said he was the troubler in Israel, he was the one that God was going to use. While death was no doubt working, there was a squeezing out of life. It was a means by which God was going to do something in Israel.

Don't think, beloved, that your life can really come to its fruitfulness for God. For what those who look on will count you a troubler. Cheer up. But that troubler is the real healer, is the one who is really dispensing life.

And so Elijah here represents that. Art thou he that troubleth? Verse 18,. And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandment of the Lord, and thou hast followed Balaam.

Now therefore send and gather to me all Israel under Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal 450, and the prophets of the groves 400, which eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together under Mount Carmel, and Elijah came along unto all the people and said, How long halt ye between two opinions?

I like this. I believe the man who has the cross planted in his heart knows how to get right to issues. The Lord seems to say to me, Your fuzziness, your soft sentimentality will dodge the issues and try somehow.

But the more the principle really works, there is that discernment that says, How long are you going to halt? Now this is the issue. And I believe as we were saying last night, it will help us with a lot of strangers who will devour our strength.

I don't want to go into it anymore. It will help us. Coming right to the point. How long halt ye between two opinions? He said, If the Lord be God, follow Him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.

Well, I can't go on in all of this. Well, maybe we'll read just a little bit more. Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks, and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under.

And I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under. And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord, and the God that answereth by fire. Let him be God, and let all the people answer.

And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken. Now it's interesting that they make their altars. Notice, they make their altars, and they begin to offer their offerings. And you know the story of how they cry, and they shout, they go through all this exercise trying to get their God to answer by fire.

Nothing happens. But we get some lovely picture, insight into the altar here as Elijah sets up the altar. And I think there's some interesting things that are involved. We'll just pick it up with verse 30.

It says, And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. Now this altar that he begins to repair and establish right in their sight was made of rough stones.

The law of the altar that had been given previously was this. No handiwork or artifactory work of man upon these stones. Rough stones. No hewing. No artistry. Do you know why? God is establishing the principle that it's at this cross where he meets man, man will have nothing in and of himself to glory in.

And when Jesus was nailed to that altar, finally remember, it was an old rugged cross. Now I have to say to us tonight, one of the reasons I question that a lot of people really understand some of the realities, some of the realities of the cross is because the crosses that I look around at today have the handiwork of man.

And the altars that I look at today are not rough stones, even what they're trying to typify. I remember just in passing, it comes to my remembrance, a number of years ago I was over in Hickory. I can go that far back in Carolina.

I remember staying in a home of a man who was very skilled in working in woodwork. That week he was kind of elated. He was a lovely brother. Loved the Lord. But he came home. I was staying in his home and he was all excited.

He said, We have finished it. I said, What? We have finished the altar in such and such a church. It cost them $145 ,000 for the altar. And nothing would do but what I had to go with him to the church and look at that ornate thing around the front.

It was beautiful. You could see the carving. You could see all of the design and the handiwork. But I'm afraid I couldn't engender any enthusiasm. He kept looking back at me. Finally, I had to be honest.

Dear brother. But he was a good brother. He understood. What are you trying to get at tonight? Heading back here, way back in the Old Testament, there's some principles. I believe that when Elijah repaired this altar, knowing what it was to be, it was rough stone, no hewing of man.

Do you follow me? Nothing for man to glory in. And the cross later on was an old rugged cross. And any attempts of men today, down through the years, to somehow make it something that men can siphon off and glory in, it's a tragedy.

There's something else that's interesting here. Remember now, Ahab was king over Israel, which represented ten tribes. There was a split in the kingdom. Judah and Benjamin represented the other two. And I love this man, Elijah, because right here, right in front of Ahab, he gives testimony to what the cross really does and what it stands for.

Not only rough stones on which there's been no handiwork of man, but when he puts these stones together, let's read it, verse 31. And Elijah took what? Did you hear it? How many? Imagine what a way that must have spoken to Ahab.

Twelve stones representing, according to the number, of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name. And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord.

In the name of the Lord. Oh, thank you, Lord. We look back, hidden way back here in the Old Testament, and we see that your altar back there stood for an altar that represented a unifying. Do you remember at the cross what Jesus did?

He took Jew and Gentile. There'd been an awful middle wall, a breach, an awful partition between them. But what did he do at the cross? He literally wrapped the cross and the cross represents, when he comes forth new, it's one new man.

Neither Jew nor Gentile. Let us remember, you get too close to the cross in its working and all the testimony of it, and it has a way of dealing with all of man's divisions. It only stands for twelve stones.

There it is. Thank God. One body in Christ. It speaks loudly to us. And I thank God for an Elijah who, right in the midst of the king, without any hesitancy, picks up twelve stones. I wonder what he thought.

We stand for the same. Thank God that when he approves of something, we can't read it all here tonight, when the offering had been placed on this altar and God approved, whereas before this, they had tried in every possible way to get the fire to come.

Here they put the water around, make it as hard as possible. You know the story. And God, who answers by fire, comes and consumes not only the sacrifice, but licks up all the water. I'd love to have been there.

Oh, to have God's approval upon the sacrifice that's given. The God who answers by fire. I believe he does it today. To a life as with Abraham. Any life that comes to the altar and gives itself wholly to God for what God wants.

The approval is the God who answers by fire. He purifies only. Well, this is what we call the testimony hidden way back here. The testimony that issues out of the cross, out of the altar. Go on with me to another picture.

Christ’s Submission to the Father’s Will

Turn to the Gospel of Luke for a moment. Let us just get a little glimpse here in Luke of what really takes place. I believe it's Luke that I want, wherein Jesus is saying, not my will, but thine be done.

Thought I had that located. It's Luke chapter 22. Just for a moment, stop and consider with me now. It's the central issue in the cross. What really is the central issue? Here we have the elders we've been saying yesterday and this morning.