In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the message of the Ephesian letter in the Bible. The central theme of the letter is oneness, as emphasized by the repetition of the word "one" in several verses. The preacher highlights the significance of this message, describing it as the most wonderful thing that God has ever revealed. He emphasizes the need for believers to come to the cross, to die to themselves, and to not rely on their own gifts or experiences. The sermon also mentions the importance of the cross in the four gospels and encourages listeners to focus on what God wants them to see.

Shall we turn again to scripture? I think that, unplanned by me, the spirit of the Lord is moving us along a theme, and tonight I want to talk to you around the cross. I shan't be able to take all the references to the cross in the New Testament, and you know that, except by oblique reference, the cross isn't plainly spoken about in the Old Testament at all. But in the New Testament, you know, we're introduced to the cross. Praise the name of the Lord. It was in the fullness of time that God sent forth his Son, made of a woman and made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. It was when time was full, and it was at the end of an age, when Jesus Christ came onto the earth, and God planned to bring his Son into the world at the time when the Roman Empire was at full height and strength. And these were people who used the cross as their means of capital punishment. It's a marvellous thing what God does. It's always right, and he moves towards fixed ends. Bless his name for that. And since the Lord Jesus came into the world and hung on that cross, and died upon it, and then left it, the cross has been a great focal point, a symbol, and the Lord has made it permanent in the church. You know that as you draw near to the end of each of the Gospels, we are presented with the cross. We are presented with that cross, beloved, because it was necessary to God. It was necessary to Jesus Christ. I know that we always think of the cross, or I suppose we mostly do, with reference to ourselves. I want us to do that, presently. But I want us, first of all, to think of the cross in its necessity to Jesus Christ. And I think perhaps I want to read first to you, or you read with me, please, in the Scriptures, in the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, in chapter one. Praise God. Paul speaking in verse seventeen of the first chapter. Christ sent me not to baptise, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. Hallelujah. If I understand the relationship of the next verses to that, it's written in verse nineteen that God said he would destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. And if I understand that right, he did it by the cross. Hallelujah. The cross is set forth in many, many ways. Let us note, first of all, beloved, that it is set forth to destroy wisdom. Hallelujah. To bring in another wisdom, a greater wisdom, a spiritual wisdom, a wisdom that isn't founded on education, or on the discoveries of men, or on humanistic theories, or whatever you want. It's a new and glorious wisdom, devastating in power, absolutely destructive of everything that a man may imagine, hatch up, think, present, propound, or what he may do. Hallelujah. Jesus Christ and that cross has been set forth to destroy the wisdom of the wise. Amen. For where is the wise man? And where is the scribe in verse twenty? And where is the disputer of this world? Praise the name of the Lord. Where is he? Has he ever produced dynamic power, this man? Has he ever been able to deal with the causes of mankind's ills, this wise man? Where is he? Where is this scribe, even if he be a scribe of scripture, or just a banal ordinary writer, for which men get laureates, and all this sort of thing. That means laurels round their necks, figuratively speaking, and so on. Where are they, all these people? Has ever anybody, at any time, anywhere, produced the answer to the needs of man? Many have totted up all our needs, many have sought to catalogue them, many have pointed out, I was going to say secondary causes, I wonder if they even get to secondary causes. Maybe about tenth cause, they don't know the other nine that go back to the first one. And so they philosophise, and so they write, and so they teach, and so they set up schools, and so they do this, that, and the other. And well, where are they now, in realms that matter, and in terms of human souls, and in power, where are they? What have they produced? God, beloved, has produced the cross. Hallelujah. God has produced the cross. Hallelujah. Amen. And what a wonderful thing it is. And we tonight must beware of falling into common errors. I perhaps ought not to specify tonight, but here we are, and we are considering this great thing. Common errors such as this, and one hears them to one's great, my own anyway, disappointment, considering the sources from which they come, that we don't want you to preach about the cross, we want you to preach about the things beyond the cross. We've got beyond the cross. And these kinds of things, making the cross of none effect. And yet, beloved, if they did but know it, and let's not seek to talk about these as though they're trying to destroy anything, they're reaching forth into something that they want. They want to talk about the baptism in the Spirit, which I suppose we shall talk about, seeing that it's a whips and tide in this conference at some time or another. They want you to talk about the Spirit, they want to talk about being sons of God, they want you to talk about gifts, they want to talk about power, they want you to talk about anointings, they want you to talk about everything else, but they don't want you to talk about the cross, for somehow that seems to be a negative position. Somehow that seems to belong to the past. When, beloved, it belongs to the present, and it belongs to the future, and it has been produced by God, and it has been placed by God centrally in our faith. Amen. The cross, beloved, was absolutely necessary to Jesus Christ. Moreover, I wish to point out to you that it was necessary to Jesus Christ at the prime of his life and at the peak of his powers as a man. It was necessary to Jesus Christ to end an age with it and commence another one by it. Hallelujah. Perhaps we're beginning to get the cross into focus then, and we're seeing what God wants us to see. And not without cause do the four Gospel writers present us at the end of their Gospels with the blessed, blessed cross. It all merges unto the cross. You know, one starts here and goes that way, and one takes another path in talking to us about Jesus, and one takes another way to talk to us, and then the fourth one, he takes another way, and for my part, he takes the best way. But, I mean, if you take them in the order of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, but never mind, I've got no quarrel with Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It's just that I seem to find affinity with John. And the tremendous thing about it is that they all, whichever way they come, whichever facet of the life of Jesus they have been raised up to bring to us, whether it be king, or servant, or man, or God, in that order, they bring the king, the servant, the man, and the God to the cross. Amen. And what a wonderful and glorious thing this is. It was so necessary to Jesus. You see, we're told in this verse, beloved, that the cross, or the preaching of the cross in verse 18, if we're saved, to us it's the power of God. I want you to see that it isn't a power of God. It is the power of God. All right? Have you noticed that? For instance, it's not a power like I give you power over unclean spirits, or over all sickness. It is not an authorizing. It is the power of God. And this, beloved, immediately introduces us to a vital point where Jesus Christ is concerned. For an uncrucified Christ could give power to cast out devils, could give power to cleanse lepers, could give power to heal the sick, could give authority and power to God and preach in his name. But, that's right, now you begin to see why the cross was so vital. There were things he couldn't do for men until he had the cross. The most vital needs of men could never be met apart from the cross, and he knew it. Yes, hallelujah. So necessary to Jesus Christ. All that he'd ever done before, all that he'd ever said before, without the cross would have been unfulfilled, unconsummated. It would have been a flare up in the dark and would soon have subsided. For I suppose you know, as well as I, that during the days of our Lord Jesus Christ's life on the earth, Israel enjoyed the greatest revival it had ever known. Have you ever thought about that? Jesus Christ, the revivalist. Mind you, he didn't have a band, and he didn't have any tambourines, as far as I know, and he didn't have any gimmicks, and he didn't have anything. I don't believe he did, if you discover this or got some secret sort of revelation about it, I'd like you to tell me. He just came down on this earth, and Israel went through the greatest period of national revival it had ever known, at least the tribes that were there in the land. You see? And like all revivals, at the end, there was nothing to show for it. This is what Daniel the prophet said. He said this, he shall be cut off and have nothing. You'll find that in Daniel. Amen. So that's one of the reasons I don't go to revival prayer meetings, because that's not what I'm after. I don't know whether you do, and if you cross me off your list from tonight on, well, we're alright. That's why I don't go to revival prayer meetings. I believe that what we're needing is regeneration, not revival. That's what I believe, with all my heart. As a matter of fact, I'm heading for the regeneration, all the time. I'm not heading for revival. Bless the name of the Lord. May God open your eyes to see that. And it's a tremendous and wonderful thing, for all revivals, born along waves of power and raising up six, twelve men, seventy men, marvellous excursions within a period of three years, out into Israel. It was wonderful. And then, there was nothing. Nothing. Oh, hallelujah. When will we learn? When will we learn? That the greatest of all that engaged in revival had nothing at the end of it. Except there be regeneration. Except there be a cross. Except there be a sudden death, and an utter curtailment. Except there be a sweeping into a grave as rubbish. Everything of the old. There can be nothing, even for God. This is the lesson of the cross. And this is the thing that we've been so slow to learn. No wonder this man, Paul, says, God didn't send me to baptise. Now that's a tremendous thing. If you read, for instance, when he went to Corinth, perhaps you ought to read it for yourself, in the Acts of the Apostles. Or when he went, say, to Philippi, or places like that. See, I don't know, were we baptised? He tells people in this Corinthian letter, for instance, he says, I thank God, in verse fourteen, that I baptised none of you but Crispus and Gaius. This then he should say, that I had baptised in mine own name, and I baptised also the household of Stephanus, beside, I know not whether I baptised any other. Praise God, for a man who wasn't swept along on the current wave of dipping everybody in quip. Hallelujah. Amen. Not that perhaps we shan't have the tent uncovered sometime during this week. That's not what I'm talking about. But bless God, for a man who got into a place where he was prepared to leave even the sacred ordinations, and go into something which is eternal in the heart of God, and move in the realm of power, and preach from the place of power, lest anything, whether words or ordinations, or anything, should make the cross of Christ of none effect. Amen. I wouldn't be surprised, again you might write me off after this, but at least I must be allowed to say what I've got to say, I wouldn't be surprised if again, yet, before Christ comes, God raises up a people that will do what the early Quakers did. In England. They saw through all these other ordinations, and had none of them, but moved in power, not to establish it forever in the church, this sort of thing, but to sweep from people's minds the trust that they have in outward ceremonies. The trust that they have in, oh, I've been baptised. And you know, baptise me, don't you, Paul. Or, I have breaking of bread every Sunday morning. And all this, bless God for the first generation of Quakers, who had the courage to go through with what they believe, and God save this present generation of Quakers, who've got no courage to believe anything that's really true, mostly, and I wouldn't be surprised, I wouldn't, if God moved again, in all this great mix-up that there is about water baptism. And I don't know what, that's sweeping through this country, or was sweeping, I hope it's slowed down a bit now, the pace of it. I hope it has. So that we shall see right down through, beloved, it is the cross itself, stark and naked and glorious and powerful as it is, for it exists this night as power in the Spirit of God. It doesn't exist as wood, it exists as power, power, the power, where the mighty God of heaven stooped down and got hold of things invisible and moved against the damning, corrupting thing that's absolutely ruined the race of men. And has reared itself against God's plans, got hold of it, when a man didn't know that God had got hold of it, hadn't got the intelligence to know that God had got hold of it. No wise man could tell us anything about it that counted much. Go even to the wisest man, perhaps, except Jesus Christ, whoever lived on the earth, that's Solomon. You won't find he talks much about these things. And perhaps it was because of the lack of this great cross that he finished as he finished. Now God is wanting us to understand that what that cross meant to Jesus Christ, that there he who divided the Red Sea, though I wanted to stop you this morning about this. You didn't sing the truth in that chorus, you sang, how did Moses cross the Red Sea, did he walk? Well of course he walked, you said no, of course he walked, how do you think he got across? Of course he walked, you better correct that chorus, you correct the tunes, we have lovely new tunes, well let's have some of these words altered that aren't right too, amen. Of course Moses walked across the Red Sea, you mustn't teach your young children untruth. If you expect me to be a child, you must treat me properly, amen. Of course he walked across the Red Sea, amen. I know that God used the great figure of bearing them all on eagle's wings, but they weren't flying through the waters. They walked across the Red Sea, hallelujah, that's how they knew it was dry. It was a bare, flat, dry road for them, specially made by God, so that they could walk across, amen. And this is a tremendous thing, but the great God beloved, that divided the Red Sea, did all these mighty miracles for men, that people sing about, and shout about, and stamp about, and wave about, is the God of the cross, and there he did his greatest work beloved, he got down to this beloved, and oh may God save us from ever moving off this marvellous ground of the cross. Not that I think we want to get all sad, and sing sad songs about it, I don't think that at all, I think we want to sing songs of glory, and rejoicing about it, that's what I think we ought to do, but it's here, the cross, amen. And it's by this great power, that God does everything, if you want to know what the power is, that comes on you in the baptism in the spirit, it's the power of the cross, if you really want to know, if you want to know what the power of your authority is, it's the power of the cross, amen. I invite you that have a young's concordance, there you are, or if better than I, you're a great Greek scholar, to trace through this word dunamis, that's translated power in Acts 1.8, and see what else it is you're told about it, in your New Testament, you'll have such an eye opener, that I reckon you'll change your ministry, on these tremendous truths that God wants us to understand, when you want the power, it's the cross you're asking for, yes, to us which are saved, this is the power, this is the power, hallelujah, hallelujah, oh glory. You see, when I thought it was power to do miracles and heal the sick, yeah, hallelujah, do you know why, because he dealt with sicknesses on the cross, that's right, I thought it was power to give prophecies, do you know why, because the word was crucified, the word, and this is the great word you've got here, it says the preaching of the cross, it's the logos, the logos of the cross. There it is, the logos that we read about in John 1, has become empowered to us by the cross, amen, yes, oh, there's your prophet, amen, look what our brother said to us a little earlier this night, oh my Holy Spirit through him, God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spaking times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, but now listen, who, not prior to Calvary, notice it, who, being this, being that, we're upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged us in Saddam, it's the voice from the throne, the Son on the throne, with Calvary now, I was going to say in the bag, excuse me using that word, amen, and he's spoken to us from there, that's the word, hallelujah, the power that he wields from the throne is the cross, glory be to God, hallelujah, glory, that's why lower down in that same Hebrews 1, it says, the scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter, or a scepter of righteousness, it's the cross, hallelujah, it's the power of righteousness, it's the power of God, there wouldn't have been any righteousness worth talking about if there had been no cross, where would righteousness have been if there had been no Calvary, where would the gospel have been, where would a man have been able to open his mouth and say one word if there had been no cross, what if God had made a sentimental attempt to reach us by marvellous miracles like virgin birth, and the Christmas story, and his wonderful concern for the sick, if there had been no cross, where oh where, beloved, would have been truth and justice and love, where would it have been, the cross, everything is the cross, the Holy Ghost didn't come until he got the cross, do you understand it, the Holy Ghost was withheld until God had the cross, do you see it, God opening your eyes, that you might understand that he was withheld until he could come and he could come with the power, amen, and so, beloved, we begin to understand something of the glory and the reality and the fullness of the cross, it's the key to everything, turn with me for a moment into the Galatian letter, now you will know that Paul when he wrote to the Galatians, wrote because these people were in absolute bondage, you know what had happened, they had been born of God, they had a mighty visitation of the Lord in Galatia, and so on, they moved into a wonderful place with God, and then there had come along people that had preached specious doctrines to them, people had come along and said, oh yes, but so and so and so and so, I won't say what they said because they're not relevant today, these things aren't relevant, you see the tragedy is we get hold of young people, we send them to Bible colleges, we fill them up with all sorts of irrelevant things, to 1974, it's not relevant to us about circumcision and law and legalism and all that, except there's a sort of a new antinomianism come, but we won't want to deal with that now, but that's what we do, we fill them up with this, that and the other, and they come out without a clue, except how to present a sermon from the Bible, what we've got to know is this, beloved, that people are being brought into bondage in our day because of certain things that are being said, certain teachings, you've got to do this, you've got to have that, you've got to renounce this and take that, you've got to, oh, oh, oh, oh, you see, this is what's going on, and what these people were needing in Galatia was liberty, they weren't wanting to be brought into freedom, they'd got all bound up by this man, that man, this idea, a new presentation of that, the old, old ways of getting people back into the old, old bondages, that's what they needed, so what did Paul take to the Galatians, let's read a moment in chapter 4, why, he sort of puts us right onto the ground of this thing, he says this, my little children, verse 19, oh, I think that's marvellous, don't you, my little children, bless God, he wasn't standing up saying, oh, I disown you, you've gone back from the gospel of grace that I preached to you, I disown you, bless God, he didn't say that, thank God, his name wasn't Pilate, and he wasn't calling for a bowl of water, his name was Paul, and he was ministering in the great truth of God, he says, my little children of whom I travel in birth again, until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice, for I stand in doubt of you, tell me, you that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law, for it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other one by a free woman, but he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by the promise, which things are an allegory, for these are the two covenants, the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar, for this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children, but Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all, and he was wanting these people to come into freedom, liberty, oh, hallelujah, and now listen to it, he breaks right into it, for it's written, verse 20, some rejoice, thou barren that bearest not, break forth and cry, thou that travailest not, for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath a husband, now we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of the promise, but as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, listen, I'll say amen to this, even so it is now, nevertheless, what saith the scripture, cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman, so brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free, stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, that's right, hallelujah, they were needing liberty, freedom, but how did Christ make you free? By the cross, and he applies the cross in the Galatian letter more than in any other letter, the cross, the cross, the cross, it's the cross that sets people free, I beg your pardon, it's the cross that does it, amen, isn't God good, that's the set that's not working. It's an amazing thing, hallelujah, that mic was only decoration, but this is the truth, beloved, it's the cross, and if you're not free, I tell you, you're needing the cross, by prescription. Of the holy ghost through the apostle Paul, it's the cross, he didn't come on any fancy things about this, that and the other, what you're needing is deliverance, or something like that, he said it's the cross, I hope that really, really wakes you right up, it's the cross. The cross, the cross, the cross, the cross, amen, that's how he did it, by the cross, not a nice comforting soothing syrupy sort of something, the cross, he knows, beloved, that the only way that men and women can be free is the cross. And the trouble with so many people, they have a bond woman birth, that's what they have, and it's not my idea, it's the scripture, they have a bond woman birth, they don't have a free woman birth, hallelujah, they don't. Oh, glory be to the name of the Lord, they don't have a free woman birth, they have a bond woman birth, that's what you're told, there are two sons, only one is the seed, the one that's born free, hallelujah, born free. When God bore me by his precious seed, he bore me free, hallelujah, I've had to learn what my freedom is, mind you, I've had to learn it in increasing measure, I've had to let the Lord deal with all sorts of things, but oh, blessed be his name. It's the cross, and if you've had a baptism in the spirit that hasn't brought the power of the cross to you, I don't know what you've had, amen, amen and amen. Glory be to the cross, sudden death, amen, do you believe in the annihilating power of the cross? Do you? Oh, the ways that men have found to get round the cross, oh, the new specious arguments, oh, the new kind of doctrines, oh, the things that fall on itching ears. But all those that itch to be free have got to get low, you've got to ache to be free, you've got to despair, you've got to come to the place, beloved, where you'd rather die than live in your own state, and that's when God brings the cross for it's his secret death, amen. And what a marvellous thing it is, when it was enacted on the tree of wood at Calvary, it meant nothing to any man save God and Christ and the devil, it only meant something in the spiritual world. The men and the women, the flesh and blood around them, ran away, smoked their breasts or did all sorts of things, despaired and said, so this is the end, we thought it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. This then seems to be the heart cry of people that never knew, and the cross only ever meant, and it was why it was done, beloved, to carry the act of Christ over into the spirit and into the spiritual world. The body of the Christ, wonderful as it was, was a means of God moving by spirit into the realm of spirit to get an unknown, undreamed of, unmentionable bondages and sins and weights and complications and perversions in the spirit of man. Dead, dead, dead, bound, bound, no hope of release and here comes Jesus Christ, moves onto the cross, hallelujah, dies on the cross, praise God, oh it's all so wonderful, moves it all into that realm, let me say it again, it was spirit world that was affected there. God, the devil, principalities, powers, death, spiritual death, moral and physical death, amen, these were the things that God got at by the cross, this is why the writers of the New Testament sing its praise, this is why they never deviated one iota from the glory of this cross, amen, if you want to be free sister, if you want to be free brother, look me in the eyes now and look at God, it's the cross you need, it isn't a deliverance man, not primarily, it's the cross. Yeah, it's the death, it's the utter death of self and then there's no one to bind, is that right? Yeah, that's right. Why did the binding grave clothes on Jesus Christ hold up and collapse in the tomb? Because there was no one to bind, he'd come out of it. It's very simple, yeah, glory, hallelujah. The grave clothes, it's really bandages in the Greek, they just bandaged him up like that and then they folded up because there was no one there to bind anymore, he'd gone, he's not here said the angels, he's risen, as he told you, nobody to bind. Well, go in and have a look, there's only angels here, shining light everywhere so that you can see that there's no one there, nothing to bind, he's gone, sudden death, sudden resurrection, total death, total life. It's as simple as that and blessed be the name of the Lord and glory be to him who comes to make the revelation to bring people out of all the darknesses that keep them chasing round and round and round and eventually in the end by God's grace and he will grant it this night to your soul, my brother, my sister, you'll have to come to the cross and die. That's what you'll have to do. You won't have to plead your gifts, you won't have to plead your experiences, you won't have to plead anything, God's not forgetful of anything, you needn't plead it, he doesn't forget, he knows, he knows it precisely. Do you notice what I said this morning, you have to come to the unspeakable place, he knows it all, hallelujah, and when your spirit inside has got fed up with trying all the tricks of the trade, if it be a trade, and when your self inside has got sick and tired of bringing this and pleading that and throwing text at the devil's head, they always bounce off, and when you come beloved and you stop getting your food out of this book or getting your food out of that book and then buying the new book and the next book, I know they sell books here, that's it, hallelujah, when you finish with it all, that's it, cross. If you want to be free, God only got the cross for you, hallelujah, when you give up, admit you've been wrong, even though you really tried, and listen, I'm not scolding you, and God's not throwing anything at you, you've got to come to this place where you die. You don't come back with a thought and you don't say, oh that, if you will justify yourself and the way you've been acting, you're a self-justifier, you don't need God, if you've got to vindicate yourself, you're a self-vindicator, you don't need God. Don't you see why he provided the cross? The cross, my beloved, in the hands of the Holy Spirit this night, oh search out the last vestige of sin and the root of all evil, and you'll get to the seat of that carnal mind. He'll get right back into everything you call heredity, he'll bring everything into you, beloved, and the nonsense, I'm talking to myself now, I'll kill you soon, and all the nonsense and the palaver and the fuss you've been making north is a lot of nonsense. Die. I bless God for a merciful sentence, I bless God for a gentle hand that nailed me to the cross that I didn't even feel it, I bless God for grace that made it the sweetest thing I ever did know, I bless him for love that cradled me on his breast when he had thorns on his hand. I bless him, such a sweet death, such an easy death, such a simple death, such a straightforward death, such an eternal death, such an all-inclusive death, so suited to my need and I was too stupid to understand. And I got him to pray with me and I got her to pray for me and I really tried, oh Lord my God, and he said, the cross, amen. If you want to be free, it's the cross, amen. Amen. Let me turn with you, turn with me, let me go with you at the moment to this glorious Philippian letter. I won't be able to take this setting in all the epistles but you will know with me, I trust, that these epistles have a main message. I said now we'll start here, what's the main message of Ephesians or what's the main message of Philippians, sit up, look at me, don't duck your head, I might be pointing at you. What's the main message of the Corinthians, what's the main, he said well I don't know, well you should know. I'm not blaming you youngsters but if you can see anybody that's about 40, 50, they should know. That's why they have a Bible. That's why God gave them brains. That's why God gave them a thing called time. Amen. Well, Paul took up this cross and whatever the problem was, he always applied the cross to it, always. The problem in Galatia we saw was this, that they were all in bondage. So he said well it's the cross, you say well now, how about me? Well let's come to Philippians and read this marvellous second chapter or part of it, if we may just select these verses. Verse 5, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, will you? Who being in the form of God, listen, he was in the form of God. He wasn't in the form of old Adam, he wasn't in the form of Satan, for old Adam is in the form of Satan. All right. He was in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Hallelujah. That's him, this is him, the death. I don't know how you regard that great statement say in Revelation chapter 12, do you remember it? Well, we're told marvellous things about the future and things that God does. And we're told how there was war in heaven, and Michael and his angels fought with the devil and his angels, and the devil and his angels were cast out and all sorts of things, and then we're told a marvellous verse as he came into a head-on conflict, direct contest with the saints of God, and it says they overpaid him by the word of their testimony, the blood of the lamb, and their love, not their lives, unto the death. What do you understand by the death? This is the verse that interprets what the death is. He became obedient unto death, even the death. They became obedient, they loved not their lives, unto the death. Not just death. They loved not their lives, unto the death. Which death is this, pray? The death that he died, the death of the cross. Well, that's how Jesus overcame, by the word of his testimony, by the blood of his cross, and by the death. And he didn't love his life, unto the death. Amen. You may recall that way back in the gospels, when Jesus talked to his disciples, he talked occasionally about the cross, and one of the things he said, he said, now, if any man come to me, and hate not his wife, everybody, his own life also, and if he doesn't take up the cross and follow me, he can't be my disciple. There it is. You mustn't love your life. I want to tell you, that everybody loves their own life, more than they love their wife, or their husband, or their children, or their mother, or their father, or anything. They love their own life. That's it. And he said, if you don't quit this loving your own life, and take this cross, you can't be my disciple. That's the death. That's the death to all other loves. That's the death, beloved, to anything but this. There's no salvation in marriage, and there's no salvation in blissful singleness. There's no salvation in a man, there's no salvation in a woman. There's no salvation in yourself, there's no salvation in the world. There is nothing for any man in the end, but the starved naked cross. The death that was passed upon you. The sentence that was given out to you, and the grace of God is this. That the sentence of death was passed upon you, and you couldn't die, it was died for you. By Jesus Christ. And the grace and power of God is that it is brought from yesterday to today. And stands eternal. So that no man can say, I cannot die. I wish I could, I tried, I struggled. The death, the all-inclusive death is here. Here. Therefore, there is no excuse for any man. Therefore, there is nothing allowable to a man or a woman in the end. But the cross, it is the ultimate. Now then, hath the Lord made this revelation. A man will try and lodge his soul in a free meeting. He will lodge his soul in prophecies that are given. A man will try and lodge himself in the love or the bosom of a fellowship. A man will take refuge in anything else, as though these were the great gifts of God to him. But if he does it to the despising or ignoring of the cross, or whatever it be. He shall find nothing but bitterness and ashes and gravel. Nothing in the end. Nothing. For none of these things can move you. And none of these things can reach you. Nothing. Oh, that's why Jesus went to the cross. And what is it, pray then, that Philippians is speaking about? Turn over with me a little into the third chapter before we make the great connection. Many walk, he says in verse 18, of whom I have told you often. And now tell you, even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ. There it is. Enemies of the cross. What is he talking about in this epistle? What's the message? It's this. Perfection. The highest. The mind transformed. The mind redeemed. The mind utterly released. Not just spiritual bondage of the law or legality. But absolute mental freedom. Clear to think of God. The whole personality utterly redeemed. How, Paul? How? The cross. Death to your thinking. You don't need re-philosophizing. If I may coin a word. You don't need to get a new doctrine. You don't need to get a new angle or slant on a verse. You don't need preachers. You need the cross. And I tell you, says Paul, that there are many who are walking and talking. Wouldn't be so bad if they kept their mouth shut. But they're walking. And I tell you, they are the enemies of the cross. Listen. The cross. Beloved, it brings you down to a place where everything comes to an end. Where the tormenting, rapacious movings of the mind are brought to naught. See, this is the trouble. Why do people do this? Why do people? They've got this weight upon them, that weight upon them. They make old Paul the excuse, you know, beside that which cometh upon me daily. The care of all the churches. As though poor old Paul was walking about with all the churches in the world on his shoulders. My parents. Oh, don't you believe that? Don't you believe that? Hallelujah. Isn't your mind troubling you? If I said to you now, let's come to absolute honesty in this room. How many of you have really got mental trouble? I don't mean that, you know. See, it's in my mind. That's why I have mental trouble. Yeah. The cross. You're needing the cross. Sudden death. Is that possible, brother? Yeah, it's possible, brother. It's not just a possibility, it's a power application. It's the power. The power of mind is absolutely devastating. It's killing everybody. Yeah, that's right. Perfection. I don't count myself yet to reach perfection. But I'm reaching out. Hallelujah. I'm pressing toward the mark. Glory, glory, glory. What are you after, Paul? Oh, the prize. Amen. Glory be to God. Everybody else had gone from his vision. He wasn't saying, I'm reaching out for the prize. But when you got there, you found that he'd got about 500 other irons in the fire. Amen. It's the cross. The cross, beloved, was the direct route to glory for Jesus. Amen. Was it not? Would you touch me, say it? I'm going to sin to my father. The direct route to glory. Glory. Oh, what he suffered. Oh, what he went through. And God has placed his mighty hand upon it, that cross, and removed everything that would hurt you. That you might come by the plain and open way of the cross. To all the glory of God. Amen. Amen. The trouble is with most of us. We don't know how to disentangle our minds from our spirits. That's the trouble with most of us. We can't do it. For the mind will think of this, and it will get a quote from F.B. Meyer. It's very apposite. And it will draw in a quote. They remember that Oswald Chambers said this. And they remember that. And Spurgeon wrote something else. And then comes a marvellous verse from Sands. And it all goes on in the mind. A mental death, beloved, has prevailed over all. And it's the most beautiful, beautiful thing you ever did see. This veil that's upon the mind. It's decorated with red and purple and gold. It has wings like a carillon. Oh, oh, oh. And it's the veil that's upon the mind. And nothing can penetrate it. Save a shot from the cross. Finished. And then the spirit goes free. Father, in thy hands I commend thy spirit. That's it. Hallelujah. Death to your thinking. That's what the cross says. Death to your beautiful thoughts. Death to your building up of scriptures. Death to it all. It was an ugly wooden old stake. And on it was nailed not your favourite verses, but all the ordinances that were against you. I'm moving into the Colossian letter now. Everything. Everything that was against you has been removed. You can't say you can't get there. You can't say it's not available for you. You can't say these things. Stop your saying. Stop it. It's spoken to us by His cross. Hallelujah. The death of the cross. Oh, Lord. I die a thousand deaths. No, thank you. The death. The death of the cross. This is the touchstone of all liberty. It is the central moving factor in salvation. It's the whole powerful work of God. The cross. Amen. Amen. You needn't even bring a plea. For there stands one as though this night he had but stepped off it. There stands one as though he had come from the cross pleading for thee. Amen. You haven't words to bring. You've nothing to do. Nothing. Glory be to God. Glory be to God. We're going to break bread, I hope. But not before we've looked into the Ephesian letter. And if I said to someone, this ought to be an easier one for you. What's the real great theme of the Ephesian letter? What's the burning message that Paul is preaching? Or writing, if you like. For this man preached through his letters. Hallelujah. What's it? What is it? All right. I think we can find it. He's got a message to tell these people. Listen. You'll find it in chapter four. Verse four. I'm going to leave out all the extraneous things at the moment. I'm coming to the vital thing. Not that the other things don't matter. But I'm coming to the vital thing. Keep your eye down. Right on the verse. Verse four. Here it is. One. One. One. Verse five. One. One. One. Verse six. One. What's the message of Ephesians? Oneness. That's the message of Ephesians. Oneness. All right. I'm going to leave out all the extraneous things at the moment. Chapter one. Verse ten. In the dispensation of the fullness of times, he's going to gather into one. Hallelujah. And so, because it's oneness, and all is oneness, not just union. Oneness. I know that if you were in a theological college, you might learn a marvellous word. Hypostatic union. Oh, it's a marvellous word. Don't worry about hypostatic unions. Oneness. That's the way to talk to the theologians. Oneness. Old Paul was a mighty theologian. Three letters, where the others would use fifteen. One. One. And seeing, beloved, that it's not just union, but oneness. Oneness. Oneness. Do you like this great theme of oneness? Do you? Shall we have a look at the Corinthian letters after this? I was going to stop, but we'll have a look at the Corinthian letters after this. You like this great oneness, do you? Amen. I do, beloved. I see that God, I see that everything came forth from him, and everything is for him, and by him, and it's all under him. That's what I see. The other things will all be whatever they are in your experience now. They will be found to be but partial. Oneness. Oh God, open everybody's eyes to see this. Oneness. One. One. One. One. And how pray, oh Lord, that this revelation that's so great and far exceeds everything, how are you going to make me one with you? One with you. One in you. One. One. One. One. Keep saying it to yourself. I've heard people keep singing choruses to about 40 times over themselves that I've thought are more or less rubbish. Say something that's real. One. One. This is it. One. One. Do you believe it? You think about running all over God's heaven and all that. One. One. One. You're buying yourself a pair of shoes every week to run all over God's heaven. One. One. One. One. Hallelujah. They ring through your hearts. It's the dearest thing that God ever conceived. It's the most wonderful thing he's ever revealed. One. How can it be? How can it be? I know myself. Yes, that's the trouble, son. Know me, he says. Know your God. How can I? One. Oh, hallelujah. Let the message ring through your hearts, beloved, as though the golden fruit was striking the golden note from the golden bell. And the message of God is coming to your heart. One. One. One. One. That's it. One. That's it. That's right. One. That's the revelation. That's what it's all about. And oh God, how did you do it? Chapter 2. Now, verse 13. Now, in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ, for he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one. What's this? The cross. Reconciliation by the cross. The cross. Oneness by the cross. Oneness by the cross, beloved. Oneness. Oh, that my God reached out to me, a poor, separate, cold, dead human being, and made me one with him. One with him. Oh, come up unto my cross, son, he says. Come up unto my cross. Come into my death. Get into my body. Come with me there. Hang there. If you won't come there, you'll have a thousand thoughts and a million bonds and feel all the pinpricks to which you ought to have been dead these years. You'll feel and understand and know everything that the dead spirit of a man can understand when galvanized into self-protective detection of this and that and the other. When you ought to have died, died dead, dead so the devils can't get at you, dead so sin can't have you, dead so the devil can't do anything with you, dead so the world can't reach you, so the flesh can't dominate you, dead, this is the message of the cross, so that your mind can't near drive you mad and bring you to tears, so you think that you'll break down under the strain and the weight. Die, sister. It's the cross, brother. It's the cross. That's how he does it. Oneness by the cross, oneness with God. Oh, oneness, oneness with him. I can't express it. Can you? If so, please stand up and do it. Tell me. Minister it to me. Move my being. Give me an understanding. Bring me up into the greatness of it, for very everything else dies as I touch it. This is it, oneness, and the pretty prophecies will fade away, and nothing will count, and ledges and footholds will vanish, and your precarious clinging to your experience, beloved, will cease. Oneness. Oh, the sharing of his being. Oh, the giving of his love. Oh, the opening of his spirit. Oh, the movings to us. Oh, the raptures. Oh, the rest. Oh, the joy. Oh, the peace. So you don't have to have any devastation about it. Oh, the glory. Oh, the eternity. Oh, the passing of the transient. Oh, the death of the evanescent. Oh, these twinkling stars that rise and shine and fade. Oneness. He bled for it, hung on a cross for it, made the cross virtuous and glorious unto us. To do it. The cross. Made it the ministry of God above all else. He to a man's soul. A revelation to a man's soul. The release of a person's mind. The scraping off a man's emotions. The drying of a woman's tears. The toning down of the loud, vulgar spirit and soul of a woman and a man. Bringing us all up into that blessed one who was revealed from heaven. God to take me back in. Man to God me with God. To bring me in and make me one with Him. The cross. The cross, beloved. The cross. Hallelujah. The cross. It's the power. It's the power, beloved. You can find all you're seeking. It's the answer to all your need. I tell you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that the Holy Ghost disdains all else but this. Waiting to receive the precious ministry from the hands of the living Christ. He comes to bring it with its infallible power and its ineradicable truth. Into the heart of every man and woman that will receive it. The cross. Or seek you some other power and some other way. In the end, these will only bring you into worse than a wilderness. And more evil than Egypt. People say, we don't want you to preach about the cross. We are beyond that. Do you mean you've bypassed it? Do you mean it's just a place where you come on Good Friday kind of occasions and weep? And try to sort of bring your soul into some sympathetic union with the cross. Are you vividly alive and awake? Are the cross really yours? Alright, let's go to the Corinthian letter. We're going to find this oneness in the Corinthian letter. And it's not only in the first Corinthian letter, it's not only oneness, but now I'm going to give you the clue, it's sameness. So you know the chapter to turn to. It's the twelfth chapter of the first epistle. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Here it is. Verse 11. We start. 1. Verse 12. 1. 1. 1. It's almost like Ephesians, isn't it? 13. 1. 1. 1. A sevenfold 1 again, like you found in the Ephesians. Perfection. 1. 1. 1. 1. Same 1. Oh, hallelujah. My word. This is glorious. I can relax. I'm free. And pray. How does he bring us to this? What is it that lets a man go at liberty in this precious realm of power called the gift realm? The cross. In chapter 1. Why in chapter 1? Because, beloved, we'll go back to where we started, Charlie. Verse 29. No flesh. The glory of his presence. Nothing. The cross. What a release. The cross is the secret to the proper ministry of the gift. I thought you had to have power. Well, it's the same thing. It's only the cross that can cut the chaffy stuff away. It's only the cross that can take us away from men's knives. It's only the cross that can bring us into the pure spirit of God. It's only the cross that can keep us there. Hallelujah. It's only the cross. That's all. The blessed Holy Ghost brings the cross. Ooh, the power. The power that destroys sin is the power that works the gifts. The power that destroys the old man and strips off the flesh is the power that should operate in your church. In the ministries. The cross. Hallelujah. Oh, I see so much when I see the cross. What do you see? God save us from making the cross of none effect. We're in danger. You know, men are like this. They swing from one extreme to the other. The danger is this. That you can be brought up in a church that almost thinks it's wrong to talk about the Holy Ghost because you should talk about Jesus and Calvary and one thing and another, you see. That's one extreme. And then if we're not careful, we can swim right over the other extreme and say, well it's wrong to talk about the cross and that because we believe it is baptism of power And this is the way it goes. As though one's positive and the other's negative. But because a clock goes tick tock, it doesn't mean to say one's negative and one's positive. They're both positive. Hallelujah. And the arc between spells out the time. It swings. Hallelujah. And it makes the wheels go round. It makes the hands move. And it makes us know that the day has come. Death to everything else. Cross in everything. Seeking power? It's the cross. Seeking freedom? It's the cross. Seeking perfection? It's the cross. Seeking oneness? It's the cross. Hallelujah. Seeking ministries? It's all in the cross. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Don't you believe that? I hope you do. I hope you do. And now we're going to pray. We're going to move in.