In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the powerful work of the cross in impressive churches in Nashville, Tennessee and New Zealand. These churches were willing to give up everything they had and rely on their own abilities, but their success was not glorious. The speaker observes that these churches eventually fell and emphasizes the importance of surrendering oneself to obtain all that God is. The sermon highlights the need for humility and the recognition that all glory belongs to God alone.

It's too holy a thing for man to contrive. This point of death and resurrection, beyond doctrine, as event, is something that God has to perform. I had one thought. It was about Lazarus himself. We don't give him sufficient consideration. What did it mean for him to be the instrument through which God's glory was revealed? This was the consummating event of Jesus' ministry on earth. Once Lazarus came forth from death, it was finished. The things were set in motion which resulted in the death of Jesus himself. It was necessary then for the nation that one man die. This kind of precedent could not be allowed to continue. Precedent, P-R-E-C-E-D-E-N-T. This example could not be allowed to continue. Resurrection is the ultimate offense against all that is religious. Against all that is religious. When you demonstrate that, you bring the fury of hell on your head. Far better to only consent to the doctrine than to demonstrate it. That demonstration is intolerable in the world and especially to religion itself. We stand tonight at a dangerous threshold. A Jordan of crossing over. And I will not blame you if you choose not to cross. You're not required. You're only invited. But I want you to know that it's a real crossing. And here's the thought that I had. Can anyone really call Jesus Lord who is not totally dependent upon God for his very life? Who is actually bound up in the rock like Lazarus in grave clothes with your face covered? You can't see, you can't speak. Your hands bound. You can't do. Your feet bound. You can't move till he speaks. When we have come to that, he is the Lord over all. Lazarus was willing without explanation. That's suffering. And if it's a death without suffering, it's not a death. It's a mock, it's a game. He had no explanation of why his friend did not come. Terrible disappointment unto death without any assurance of anything. Even his sister said, he will rise again on the last day. They had the correct doctrine but they did not have the correct understanding of Jesus himself who is the resurrection and life and can call us forth out of our tomb at any time. Isn't that what Paul says? We are dead and hid with Christ in God until his life is revealed. Then our life is revealed also because that is our life. We have no other and it is revealed unto glory. The resurrection life of God is the glory of God. It is the power of God and this is what must be demonstrated at the end. This is a devotional daily reading by Andrew Murray and on April 21st which I believe is the date of Israel's anniversary as a nation there is this reading Christ our righteousness. Let that sink into your hearing because what is our life but the deepest necessity to buy it to establish our own righteousness to make Christ your righteousness is sheerest death. This is why he was crucified. This was his threat to the Jewish nation a nation determined to establish its own righteousness by its own merit by its own ability to take that privilege away from a man is to ask his death we can suffer anything else from God but don't let him take that that's the death Christ our righteousness to forsake our own righteousness the establishing of our own justification for our own being is 10,000 deaths for the Jew and for the German especially and he quotes the verse from Romans 3.24 3.24 justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus this deserves days of consideration together his grace what is the phrase that Paul most frequently uses in Christ in him I live and move and have my being and yet we continue to congratulate Paul for his courage his ability his faithfulness and have missed the entire point the glory of Paul is Christ all that Jesus would have done had he continued to live on the earth and serve on the earth was equally performed by Paul for it was Jesus Jesus continuing to live no longer in his own body but in Paul for Paul was in him and the life of Paul was the life of Christ his wisdom his speaking his understanding it's the apostolic glory because it's the apostolic life the resurrection life of Christ totally in possession of the man who can say with complete literalness for me to live is Christ what hinders us also to say that and also so to live one thing only we are not as totally yielded to Christ as Paul we don't want to be dead and hid in Christ until his life is revealed we don't want to be justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus 1 Corinthians 1 verse 24 unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God God has committed all things unto his Son the fullness of the Godhead is in him bodily all that pertains to life and godliness is in him he is the power of God he is the wisdom of God we will not have either of these except to the degree that we have him or more correctly to the degree that he has us listen to the way I am speaking don't miss the point of this God is not just proclaiming he is demonstrating do you think I prepared this message while you were out eating it was hopeless too complicated too deep too significant I could only trust but listen to the logic of what is unfolding I myself am astonished this is the Lord but Arthur it sounds so much like you but what do you want an echo chamber so saith the Lord of course it is going to sound like me but the life of it the vitality the contents is him and why does God do it that way verse 29 of the same chapter that no flesh should glory in his presence you are wise not to congratulate me for anything of the ministry of these days it is not mine it is his that no flesh should glory in his presence but of him are you in Christ Jesus who of God has made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification redemption all that according as it is written he that glories let him glory in God can you imagine a church like this but it means the end of your ambition when you think you should be married and to whom you think you will be married is finished it is no longer your privilege to consider that you are dead you have no rights no future no hope except what is given this is the gospel can you trust him and will it be all the same to you whether there is a husband or not that is the question if you are to say for me to live is Christ he is so totally your life so totally your satisfaction so totally your purpose that if he insists that you have a husband then you will reluctantly agree because the Lord said so but you have no desire for yourself this is not a Christianity for the multitudes but the end thereof is glorious if God gives the husband that is blessed and heavenly what is it to be priestly to come to the place where it is all the same to have or not to have to serve or not to serve to be in the rock or to be out of it in sickness or in health in life or in death if it glorifies God let's try and do something with this here most Christians have a faith in justification but they fail sadly because they do not know do not in full faith yield themselves to Christ to maintain his life in them they know the God who justifies the unrighteous but they do not yet know the God who quickens the dead in whose life alone there is strength and fullness of blessing to live in him and to grow up in him that in all things he might lead the head to count all things but lost for Christ was the key of Paul's life and it must be ours if we are to share fully in the power of his resurrection how little the church understands this Christ claims the whole heart and heart of Christ the whole life this is the law of the kingdom it's unchangeable all things lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord to live as those who are not their own but holy is on the first night the Lord spoke to us about entering the veil he bid us enter he had rent the veil over the holiest place and we were invited to enter by the blood of the lamb a new and living way and by faith we came and yet for some of us it was a disappointment but we came by faith we did not seem to experience the sense of God's presence what failed had he mocked us did he bid us to come and we came by faith and yet did not sense the joy of his presence what's the problem I think the Lord wants to show it through this that though his veil is rent our veil is not there's a veil in many of us that covers still the secret heart a very tender tissue that has not yet been torn and we want to protect it because it's painful to be in danger and this keeps us from the deepest intimate union with God and with each other we have a nice fellowship it's pleasant but it's not yet glorious not yet intimate not yet open spirit to spirit there's a veil not from God but from man that has not been rent it's the secret life the self life that we want to preserve and still be Christian Tozer calls it the veil of our fleshly fallen nature living on uncrucified and unrepudiated unacknowledged it has never been brought to the cross and it is an effective block to our spiritual life it is a tissue that is made up of the self life self righteousness self pity self confidence self sufficiency self love self self self self you know what the remarkable thing is? this is not just for the carnal and the materialistic there's no place where self has greater opportunity to be established and to be strengthened than in the religious life there it disguises itself and purports to be for Christ and to do for him and to be for him while all the while it is being secretly strengthened and established he says it can live on unrebuked at the very altar of God it can fight for the faith of the reformers and preach eloquently about grace and be strengthened by these very efforts this is the ultimate paradox even the desire to be crucified with Christ by our own effort ironically strengthens self there must be a work of God the same God that renteth the veil from the temple needs to rent ours from top to bottom it's a work of God of destruction but will we invite him to do it will we allow the cross to do its deadly work if we don't experience this as suffering we mock God and we make this the worst of all deceptions by playing with the theme of crucifixion and still keeping our self-life it's painful for God to touch this and to deny that is to deny the cross and to make it no death at all and yet this is what we do this is what the cross is designed to perform if we are to come free and fully to have our life in him we must not be satisfied with the doctrine about it but invite the experience of it that this work might be done in truth it's a deadly work but it results in a newness of life from it comes the resurrection and the glory for Jesus for Paul for Israel for us we have come to a moment in the divine history when something is being required of us that is ultimate the work of the cross in fact and no mere satisfaction with the doctrine alone something must be rent and torn if we are to move Israel to jealousy if we are to see the glory and the power the shekinah glory and the radiance of God through those who are actually coming to them out of his presence where there is no veil that separates them from God's part or their part the deepest relationship with God and with each other it's glory but there is a suffering that precedes it and that's the point where we are now Jesus gave himself up freely as an offering without spot to God this cannot be compelled it cannot be required of you it must be freely given to invite the work of the cross into your life and this is what I am seeing in these days by the preaching of this message on Ezekiel 37 in the finest churches in America in Nashville, Tennessee or in New Zealand impressive churches there the work of the cross was most powerful because they had the most to give up their success based on their own abilities which was impressive but it was not glorious and I watched them go down like dead men they didn't just fall on the floor they dug into the floor to give up the best of what they are to obtain all that he is that's the long and the short of it I didn't make this up this is of him that it might be through him that it might be to him to whom be glory forever and what will you be after such a death and resurrection an automaton a mechanical robot under the dictate of God or more truly yourself than you have ever been in the full life and power of God but in which you cannot boast except in him for this people God has reserved his holiest work for they alone can be trusted with it even to speak his word as very God himself and this alone will bring Israel from its grave God didn't need us the God who brooded over the chaos and spoke let there be light let there be this let there be that and there was could he not have done the same over Israel yes but he chose to speak it through us as one body in a true corporate unity that is more than some ecumenical accomplishment more than some ecumenical design religious that itself is the work of the cross are you such a people tonight one people one body of one mind of one heart of one soul one agreement one speaking no there are pockets of individualism self will opinion we're not yet that people and nor can we be it except by that work the cross to everything that is selfish vain self will rebellious opinionated God has got to deal with it that we might be that one people and speak that one word in that one agreement that makes it the word of life to a nation that is completely dead and cannot help itself and waits for that word alone through such a people so the Lord is inviting you how far are you willing to go with him what is the extent of your intention to be an impressive fellowship or a glorious and now the Lord waits for you your word your willingness to invite his work for the rending of your veil it's a pity that you have to die I myself am impressed with you I would not have asked more and find you impressive and delightful but we're called to more in him so settle it with the Lord how far are you willing to go in the giving up of your own life your own future your own hope your own design your own intention even for God and bring everything into death and trust that because he lives you will live also and out of that life to call Israel to life is our calling for his glory amen we receive our bodies as a living sacrifice nothing withheld yours entirely thank you that last thing that we clutch and will not give up take it now let your cross do its work have for yourself sons and daughters who are wholly yours whose lives are not their own fill them with your glory let your radiant light shine let Israel be saved by this demonstration of the life of its God through these vessels bless them in this holy transaction that is not to be taken back once and for all possess us to the uttermost crucified with Christ that we might be raised with him when we come up off of this floor and from this place of death to a newness of life that is no longer self-conscious spiritual in the self-conscious way totally free flowing by the love of God through his life to each other the true koinonia and the true witness hallelujah thank you for the cross that it works that it avails that it's not just a symbol a metaphor it works unto death for all who will yield unto it that they might be crucified with Christ and thereby raised with him hallelujah work your work Lord even now break up in the deeps loose these children from powers that have victimized them exploited them intimidated them out of fear out of the necessity to establish themselves to be found acceptable by men destroy it that they might be free call them forth out of their tomb into life fully for God hallelujah shabbat shalom