The cross

Turn with me please to the book of Galatians and chapter 6. Galatians and chapter 6 and verse number 14. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom or by which the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. One more reference please in Philippians.

Will it suffice for reading? In Philippians chapter 3 verse 7. But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. Yea doubtless and I count, he's still counting, I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do still count them but done that I might win Christ. That's all we'll read I trust with the Lord's blessing with what we have heard maybe sum up a little only a little maybe different way what we have heard in the theme of this meeting.

What's on my mind if you wanted to put a little caption on it. The secret of obtaining a Christian balance. I don't know about you but we live in a world where imbalance is seen very often and raise your hand if you feel that you're truly balanced.

Thank you. It's difficult to live a balanced life and therefore I want to try to get the secret to that. If we could get it.

We see a vast number of young people here. We're getting a little older, I'm middle aged now. And getting a little older we recognize this.

We're going to hand the testimony to others. The legacy we're going to pass on. The word of God that we have learned but scantily we're going to pass on.

And we're going to leave the scene if the Lord doesn't come. Young men will take up the torch and they'll move for God in a dark world. What we want to do is leave in your hand brother and sister a legacy, a torch that you will burn brightly in a dark world.

We have to recognize we're living in a world that's really truth is on the gallows. And what has taken over in our present age is humanism, atheism, secularism, liberalism, legalism and all the rest of isms if you want to add to them. And so therefore we're confronted in a world that's pressurizing us.

Maybe it was different in our time when we were younger. We hadn't got the, well we've got almost all the technologies that one could ever think. iPods and Peapods and I don't know what else, televisions and we've got text messages and we've got everything that you could think of.

Technology leaves Albert Hall absolutely in a fog. I say David, my son, I'm trying to get something. I told you how to do it before.

But I'm slow. Technology's a way ahead. But a rising generation, it's fun to them.

Listen, with all the 26 gadgets, new gadgets in technology among us today, are we more spiritual? Come on brethren. Are we rising to higher heights? Come on brethren. Where are we seeing, and I love you all, I wouldn't preach as I do if I didn't, but brethren, I wonder how many times are we seeing in our ministry meetings, after it's all over, hearing the phone ring and some young brother saying, I got the message, I'm giving my life over to Christ.

That's what this conference is all about. We need theology, absolutely. I was taught that as a young brother.

I listened to men who exposited the Word of God and taught us about the seven feasts of Jehovah and the seven offerings, not the five, the seven. You know who the seven are. You could even add an eighth one to it, if you use your head.

I heard all that friend, but what spoke to Albert Hull is what I would like to speak to you. And I was only a lad of 22, 23 years of age. How many here are just in their teenage life and the young early twenties? And I sat in a ministry meeting, I couldn't tell you what the brethren spoke, only one man.

And he got up and he spoke on the book of Acts, Paul's life, commencing with consecration and moving out into the evangelism. And as he spoke, I bowed my head. And at 23 years of age, with my fiancée beside me, I said, Oh God, if you can do anything with Albert Hull, I want to leave myself in your hands.

I pulled in the old Oxford car. I could afford a car. It was a cheap one.

Had the hood more up than, I don't know, underneath it and above it. Stopped here and stopped there. Well, anyway, I pulled in to an old field.

And that old Morris Oxford is just like yesterday. Oh, it's great to have dealings with Christ, not only in salvation, but my friend, grips about your life. I bowed over the old ceiling.

I wonder where we're going, brother. Young lives here. What potential, what power could be used? In evangelism we're a witness or whatever.

If someone today had in their mind, I want to grasp what it is to have a balanced Christian life. I read in Galatians chapter 6, verse 14. I want to take it up.

I want you to notice one thing. Theology is most important. You know something? Every foundation upon which theology radiates, it's found in the cross.

In fact, eternity past, that's the only way we can look at it. God sees us at one. Eternity past knows no future but the cross.

And eternity to come of the ages, of the ages, of the ages knows no past but the cross. When in heaven's bright glory, surrounding the throne, what will be prominent, brethren, as I look at the pierced hands and pierced feet inside of the Christ that died for me? I'll explore the wonders of Calvary. No wonder Isaac lost only 22 years of age.

Pen the words, when I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my riches gained, my content lost, poor contempt and all my pride. I want to think of four things. When I think of the cross, I think of the sacrifice.

When I think of the cross, I think of the stigma. When I think of the cross, I think of the separation. And when I think of the cross, I think of sanctification.

And I want to leave that in the foreground and then at the end of my message, as quick as I can, you pray that I'd be quick. You know, when I'm up here, I hear my wife. God bless her.

She says, Albert, keep the time. Oh, that's a big problem. And then she'll say another thing, stay behind the mic.

And I find that difficult. I'm not an Irish rover in a way, but a kind of a rover, we bet. That's part of it.

We can't help that. Some people use their hands and some use their feet and some use everything else. And here we are.

And I want to look, using that in the foreground for my message, I want to look at the end. I hope we'll be able to say, I count all things but done for Christ. Not only starting out in the Christian life, but those of us who are 20 years, 30 years, 50 years on the road, that we might again take the language of Paul.

I still count all things but lost for Christ. So we want to look at the sacrifice. You see, brethren, that's where we all started.

It was the sacrifice of Christ that won our hearts. The fact that one absolutely, in totality, yielded his life upon dark old gothish tree. A mighty, willing sacrifice.

And all our darkness and sin, I tried to understand it. I tried to figure it out. I tried to, like a jigsaw puzzle, put two and two together.

But it dawned upon me. And you know, it's not because you're going old and gray that you go back to when you get saved. If you didn't go back, I'd wonder where you are.

It's part of life. Going back, going back. That's what keeps us fresh in our soul.

That night dawned upon me in all my darkness and sin with a praying mother and a praying father preaching the gospel. Saints praying, this wanderer for five years on the road to hell without a Bible for five years. And my sins, visiting the pubs, living it up, friend.

In the darkness of my awful condition, it dawned upon me, Christ died for Albert Hall's sins. Hallelujah. Thank God they're gone forever.

I love those words. I like the old hymn readers. My sin, oh the bliss of that glorious thought.

My sin, not in part, but the whole. Nail to his cross, there's a soul wanting to be saved this afternoon. Nail to his cross, I bear them no more.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. And so I have the thought of the mighty sacrifice, friend.

That's where we started. You know many hymns in your hymn book with a cross on it? Now, I'm not thinking of a wooden cross. I'm not thinking of that so much.

I'm thinking of the doctrine of the cross. The man of the cross, not the material. The work of the cross, not the wood.

Although we hung upon a wooden cross or a tree. But friend, I think of that mighty sacrifice. That's where we all commence.

We wouldn't be here today, I wouldn't have met you. None of us would have met each other had it not been for the marvelous work of the cross. At the cross, at the cross.

I can nearly preach this without the gospel, but I have to move on. At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light. Isn't that right? Absolutely, totally.

That's where we commence for glory. Inner deadness, darkness, depravity, lostness. Thank God for the mighty work of the cross.

In the cross of Christ, I glory, gazing over the wrecks of time. There I read the wondrous story, gathered round his head, sublime. So, we want to think of the sacrifice.

That's where we started. That's our great foundation. Immovable, eternal, unshakeable, unchangeable.

Thank God for the sacrifice. The stigma of the cross. You know, Paul says in the Galatian letter, I could have looked at that and Kenny give you a little outline, as the apostle, as the shepherd, as the mother, as the evangelist, as the shepherd, as the servant.

It's all there, but I'm just picking out. Someone said, you know, in a ministry meeting at the last, don't read too much because I'll all sleep on you. And you'll try to be, because you get a wee bit weary.

And if I see you sleeping, I can still throw water. Anyway, that's it. And so, I've got you where I want you.

Listen, listen to that sacrifice. Absolutely, is our foundation. The stigma.

That's what people don't like. There's a stigma to the cross. And Paul says at the end, he said, you know, I bear in my body the brand marks of Jesus Christ.

I can show what I suffered. I took the stigma. There were those in Galatia that wanted to take away the stigma and add to the work of the cross and bringing a legalism that would take them away from the emancipating, redeeming blood and work of Calvary.

But oh no, Paul says, there's a stigma to that cross. Listen to it in Hebrews 13, our brother read from Hebrews. Let us go forth.

Therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. There's a stigma. Come on.

I hope we bear it willingly, loftily, happily, joyfully, happy reproach to bear, shame for thy sake to share, since we the crown shall wear when he returns. Oh, I'm glad. You know something? The devil as our brother has well said, he wants to take away the stigma of the cross.

He wants us to shun it. I don't want to jump ahead of my message. I was going to introduce something, but I'll leave it till I get there.

A stigma. I remember when I come to this country, I know it's a little different now. I have to be wise and we get a little wiser.

I hope when we go on life, a little more understanding. And of course, I was coming to this country with my wife. I had to fill in forms and all this sort of thing, you know, and you sit down and I had to ask you this question, why you were going, where you were going? And you put in your name and address and your birth certificate and everything else.

And then what is your religion? Well, what is it? And so I wrote down in my simplicity, you know, God is kind to us, takes mercy in the simple. And I wrote down these words, Christian gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew 18, 20. And the girl looked at me, you could have knocked her eyes off with a stick.

She said, sir, I'm asking your religion. I said, wrote it down. She said, the first time I ever saw that.

I said, you're seeing it for the first time. Now, I don't know whether that would pass muster now or not. You have to put down, I think the brethren, as far as I know, is that right? But I put it down and let me through.

But what I'm saying is this, there's a stigma with that name. Brethren, let us never remove it. You know how you remove the stigma? Go out to the sisters.

Associate with that which is not biblical and that removes the stigma. I learned the stigma of the cross and the stigma of as a young believer. And I learned it from a big man who was a big Irish man.

He took me under his wing. I'm thankful for that. You know, his name, Hugh Alexander, he had a voice like a trumpet.

Maybe he passed a wee bit onto me. I don't know. And anyway, I remember him.

He met me in a bus station and the first time I was only saved a year or two. And he asked me first question. He said, are you going to heaven? I said, yes.

When did you get saved? I said, two years ago. Wonderful. He said, where, where do you hang your hat? That's a strange, you wouldn't know what that meant.

Where do you go on a Sunday? I said, I go to a little place. King William slept in it. It's an old castle, but they gather in the name of the Lord Jesus in that place.

Well, he said, wonderful. He said, I'm going to be transferred there with my work. I'll see more of you.

And he took me under his wing. I'm glad of that. Young, older brother, take the younger one under your wing.

We are losing young men by not taking them. School them, train them, help them. He took me under his wing.

And the first time I preached that day, the platform tumbled over on me. I said, never again. And by Jesus said to me, Oh, Albert, keep at the gospel.

Thank God for men like that. And he put that into it. I remember when he called the first time he called, I've told this so many times, that's all right.

And I'll never forget. He, three, three farmers from Donna Colony. You wouldn't know where Donna Colony is.

And they come to tell her testimony. I went and were in the little hall, King Billy's little castle was packed. And of course, as they got up, one got up and he said, it was good.

I enjoyed him. It's nice. You said your amen.

Amen. Now that's gone today. Oh, thank you very much.

Yeah. It's not me that says the amen. We always went in the brother's name, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen. Anyway, he was good. The second one got up, a red fish, running fish farmer.

And he said, I want to step through the stove. He said, I was baptized. In the name of the Father, Son of the Holy Ghost.

So many old adverts said amen. Big you get up, never forget it. Big voice, big hands.

And he got to the end of his wonderful testimony. And he said, our brother said he went a step. Do you hear me back there? Raise your hand if you can, a shout letter.

And he, he says, I want to step further still. I gathered to the purest name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he quoted, I have it written down, but I'll quote it without looking at it.

He called me out. The man with garments died. I knew his form.

My Lord, the crucified, he showed himself. Oh, I could not stay. I had to follow him, had to abate.

Cast me out the world when it had found that I, within my rebel heart, had crowned the man. It had rejected spurned and slain whom God in wondrous grace had raised to reign. And so I am without the count.

My Lord and I, and sweeter is his presence than any earthly tide. At once I counted greater than his claim. I'm out, not only from the world, out to his purest name.

Sweeter place on earth can ever be found. To it seem as if I rest in holy ground, as I along with kindred spirits meet, to worship, kneeling at his pierced, wounded feet. So I am without the count.

My Lord and I, sweeter is his presence than any earthly tide. At once I counted greater than his claim. I'm out, not only from the world, out to his purest name.

I hope young believer get a hold of it. It's not, it's not a brethren idea. It's a biblical truth.

A scriptural truth. Finds his foundation. Hebrews chapter 13 and 13.

1 Corinthians chapter 1 and 9. Acts chapter 2 verse 42 and onward. And you'll get it in all our parts friend. Matthew 18 and 20 to also.

Outside the count is still God's place. There's a stigma, a stigma attached to it. Don't be ashamed of it.

Where do you go? Well, I go to that little hall. Just tell him. I go to the place that's gathered unto the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Wonderful to mention that name. What a name. So the stigma.

I want to get to the separation. If you want to know what separation is, you know, there's such a thing as, we could add the things. I can say to you, you should have a white shirt on.

What have you a blue shirt on for? Hey, that's not nice. You should have a, that's legalism. That's a blue shirt.

That's a white shirt. Isn't it? Thank you. And then someone will say, you have a tie pin in here.

Oh, you have? Well, I don't have one now. I was afraid he might say something to me. Tie pin.

And then I say to the man, what kind of a, what strap is that on? And he's almost ashamed of his gold. Come on. Have a wee bit of tether wet.

That's legalism. That's putting demands. Well, I'll tell you something.

The cross gives me true separation. And when I look at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, I'm taking the language of Paul. God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom, by which the world, the world, the world is crucified unto me.

Do you know something, brethren, I'm going to tell you something. For a balanced Christian, the world has eaten us up. We used to hear the old poem, can I take part with those that nailed them to the tree? And is that the place that I should be? Nay world, I turn away.

Though thou so fair and good, that friendly outstretched hand of thine stained with Jesus' blood. I remember my, I have to say this, my, I've told this before, my, my son-in-law, he's in big business. And maybe a 200,000 or maybe a half a million deal.

And he usually says to the person, I'll take you to the best restaurant, whatever you want. It's on me. Well, it's 200, $300.

Not my cup of tea. Tim Horton is, well, Dunkin' Donuts. Well, he's no more interested in hockey than the man on the moon.

I have to say that. He's not interested in hockey. But he said, okay, I'll take you.

And it happened to be the Stanley Cup. Is it called the Stanley Cup? Is that right? Okay. It's not the Gretchen Cup.

No. So anyway, he went there and he's sitting in the stand and dear, my dear, this is true. He just sat there.

He just thought it was crazy, banging one another and had the wee black puck around, trying to put it into a little net and shouting and screaming and yelling. But his friend, he was. The whistle blows, it's over.

And he gets up, walking down the steps. Oh, brother's shoulder shows there. And that brother's out to work today, by the way.

Good man, I love him. But he's there. And my, being a prince, they're always pulling fast ones.

He ducked down among all the crowd. And he said, hey, what are you doing here? The wrong place. Christ wasn't there.

The cross forbids. If I want to know where I should go, what associations I should have, please bring in the cross. I know I fail and I'm speaking to you as an older person and I fail too.

But I have to get back to this and back to this and back to this. I would like to write it in my soul, etch it in my mind, write it on the wall. I would like to write it again and again in a notebook.

God forbid. He did so much. It's only a very small thing that I should say.

Farewell, vain world. Your charms are spread and vain. I have heard a sweeter story.

I've found a truer gain. The cross, my friend, stands between me and a world that's condemned and guilty and lost. It doesn't mean I should not associate and try to win them to Christ.

Absolutely. But I shouldn't become like them. I don't win souls to become like them.

I don't become like them to win them. But I'm kind to them. I'll take them for a Tim Horton coffee.

I do that often. That's what I sometimes will tell you if you call it our house. Where's Albert? He's at Tim Horton's.

What's he doing there? He's witnessing. That's where I met them. I met souls and souls get saved there.

Yeah. Be kind. Be compassionate.

You know, separation sometimes people think you have to smile sometimes. I love to take a camera nap now. I don't mean we're always on top of the twig.

And I don't mean we're always laughing. And I don't mean we're always singing. But I do mean there's something about Christianity that's real, that's easy to wear.

By this shall all men know that you're my disciples, if you have loved one to another. It's seen in you. Did you ever have anyone talk to you and say, tell me, what makes you tick? I was coming along in the car.

Do you mind? I'm a wee bit, but I can't help it. I wasn't going to do this. A Jewish businessman had it all.

Director of Solomon and Reuben. In Pittsburgh, one of the largest stores. There's a buyer coming in, quite a lot, doing business.

This man called Morris Reuben was so moved by the testimony that this man brought in. This is what he said. The owner said to the buyer, what makes you so happy? And the buyer said, because of my second birthday.

My first birthday made me like you. And my second birthday, I trusted Christ. That's what makes me happy.

You can get that on the YouTube, if you look it up. I got it typed out. That man that trusted Christ, that Jew, his wife left him.

In fact, his parents took him, I'll not give you the whole story, he finally landed in a courtroom, charged him with insanity. But God's over all, mighty God, sovereign of the universe. The judge that day was a Christian.

And the judge said to the prosecutor, why is this man, Morris Reuben, here in the courtroom? What is the charge? And they replied, because he saw a light. That's the way he expresses conversion. I saw a light.

I am the way, the truth and the light. It dawned upon me, the light shone in. And the judge said, well, the greatest preacher that ever trod earth, apart from Christ, saw a great light and became a mighty evangelist.

Case dismissed. And that Morris Reuben started to preach the gospel. His wife went three years afterwards, and she got saved.

Oh, what a wonderful God we have. You know, brethren, let us wear Christ, let us wear him in our features. Oh, God help us.

More like Jesus would I be. May God grant us our brother Smith has pointed out. Now, let me get to the sanctification.

That clock beats me, but I was late before I got up. And I'll never forget, you know, when I get the word sanctification, that word is, it can be interchangeable with consecration. Same idea.

The sanctification can be positional. Our brother mentioned positional. Can be positional.

We're sanctified, set apart. Hebrews 13, Jesus, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. There's a practical sanctification.

And I bring my message to a close. I want to touch this. If Christ's mighty sacrifice is so great.

If I bear the stigma of the cross for his glory. And if I learn what true separation is, individually and collectively. And if I learn that I'm set apart.

What is my response? Here we are, right to the back of the hall. Paul says, I count all things but loss to win Christ. I count it as refuse.

Hi, I've come short brethren. I'm preaching unfound truth here. Francis Havergill.

Who's heard of Francis Havergill? You have heard? Scott, I'm surprised you come from our part of the world. Francis, you've heard Francis Havergill. Good, wonderful, great hymns.

Francis Havergill served the Lord for many years and she felt there was something missing in her Christian life. She had an experience in 1873. Somebody handed her a little book and the title of the book was All for Jesus.

Very interesting book. It was stressed the importance of making Christ the king of every corner and cubicle of one's life. What happened one day, in a house there were ten people.

She prayed to God, she said, Oh God, give me a definite signal that I might know definitely my life is fully yielded to the claims of Christ. The day arrived when she saw all ten saved. She went home from that experience and she took out her pen and she penned, Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee.

After she did that, she took her pen further and she wrote, Take my voice. She had a beautiful voice. She used to sing in big concerts with her beautiful voice.

She came to that conclusion, Never again my voice is going to sing for my Redeemer. Then she got to this. She came from wealth.

She took my silver and my gold. Not a mite would I withhold. Albert Hall feels, May God help us to get to the cross.

Only one life soon to pass. Only what's done for Christ will last. If we're still here, some of us will be in the glory.

I don't know what we'll see in heaven. Sometimes I think we'll observe what's going on on earth a bit. We'll enter into the mind of heaven.

I wonder will the young men of Stout and Manchester and Garnevilla and Antioch and all the other places, Waterloo and Cedar Falls, I don't want to miss any. I wonder will the young men take up the torch, young women, and say the truth. Give me a minute.

I can't help it here. Born in 1867 in County Down, a young woman, trusted Christ, in 1883. Landed in India in 1895.

Until her death in 1951. She never had a furlough. She never got home.

In March 1909, something changed her life. She had her own little camp in India. One day, a seven-year-old girl fled into the mission compound, screeching and crying, desperate.

This lady, I'll tell you her name in a minute if you don't know it, this lady opened her arms and wrapped a little girl in her arms and said, What's your problem, dear? She said, My parents are going to give me to the altar to be a prostitute to sell my life. Help me. That woman changed her whole life, handed it over to the blessed God, saved many young lives, hundreds of them.

Her motto, that's what I'll close with. My vow, whatsoever thou sayest unto me, by thy grace I will do it. My constraint, thy love, O Christ, my Lord.

My confidence, thou art able to keep that which I have committed unto thee. My joy, to do thy will, O God. My discipline, we heard about discipline, my discipline, that which I would not choose but which thy love appoints.

My prayer, conform my will to thine. My motto, love to live and live to love. My portion, the Lord is the portion of my inheritance.

May God bless you all. I'll not see you again after tonight, probably. But it's wonderful to be here and listen to our good brethren.

I hope that we'll hear someone, boy, girl, young in life, just starting out, Dedicating, consecrating, counting everything but loss, honouring the Christ of sacrifice who died at Calvary. May God bless his word. In the name of the woman, Amy for life.

Thank you.