Christ and the Cross Bro. Lee Vayle March 29, 1986 Shall we pray. Heavenly Father, we’re very grateful that we can come here together tonight and sing this little chorus that You’re here, knowing that You are here. And going back in our minds thinking of the days of Your resurrection when the apostles were still in a quandary and didn’t understand the actuality of Your resurrection; and there standing in their boats and coming to shore, seeing you hardly knew how to conduct themselves. And we feel pretty well the same way, Lord. But we know that You entered into a conversation with them and You guided them in the conversation, You talked with them and back and forth, Lord; there was communion. And we believe that that’s the ways it is now in this hour of Melchisedec too--communion. The battle is pretty well run out, Lord, and it’s an hour of Your Presence and we ripening in the Presence of the Son. And so, Lord, we pray that it will be that time of fellowship and will be genuine fellowship in the Holy Spirit with You and one with each other. And we pray that it shall keep that way because as long as You were there, there was peace. Man might have his doubts then and man has his doubts today, but You’re able to keep us in perfect peace because our minds are established in the fact of Your Presence. Understanding it to a degree, and looking forward, Lord, to not only more understanding, but more of allowing that Presence to have its right in our lives because that means Kingship (means full authority) is Yours. You’re the One that’s the head then; this is Your doing and it’s wonderful in our eyes. Bless each one tonight, Lord, with the spirit of meekness and humility, and love, and just calm quietness; the heart of earnest expectation, earnest desire, earnest endeavor to serve You. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen. You may be seated. 1. I want to bring a little message tonight quite a bit different from what I preached on many, many years ago. Which I suppose at that time was more effective, being on the road. I call it the ‘Power of the Cross’. But tonight I want to talk not in the same lines exactly as I did way back there, but something like that. We titled the message “The Cross of Christ”. “The Cross of Christ”. And we’re going to read several portions of Scripture, beginning in Isa 53:7; one verse. (7) He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a shearer before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. And then over in the book of Matthew where the author is chronicling the crucifixion; chapter 27 verses 11-14, I believe what we want. (11) And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, (Yes, or) Thou sayest (that’s true). (12) And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. (13) Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? (14) And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly. And then over in 1 Peter the 2nd chapter, 21-23. (21) For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: (22) Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: (23) Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judges righteously: 2. And over in Matthew the 5th chapter, 38-46. (38) Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: (39) But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. (40) If any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. (41) And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. (42) Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not away. (43) You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. (44) But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse, (and that’s to pray for them) do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you; (45) That you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. (46) For if you love them which love you, what reward have you? do not even the publicans the same? 3. The same chapter, reverting back, 25 and 26. (25) Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. (26) Verily I say unto you, You shall by no means come out thence, till you have paid the uttermost farthing. And one more Scripture in Mt 16:24-26. (24) Then Jesus said unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (25) For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. (26) For what is a prof--a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Now remember what He’s talking about there. See? Taking up the cross.) or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (What will you do when it’s too late to do that?) Now, of course, tonight we intend to commemorate because we remember the Lord’s death, and we partake of the ordinances which is the communion bread and wine. And tomorrow morning, of course, we’ll attempt to speak on the resurrection. And so, because it’s this time of year and, of course, this is Saturday and not Friday when they usually speak of His death, I think it is still very fitting to speak about His cross, or the cross of Christ. But, in so doing there is an inherent and imminent danger that we remember only His cross and His life, and forget His cross in our lives. And I just want to repeat that. The--because we are at that time of the year where so much is made, and rightly so much is made of Christ and His cross in His life, we find it a little difficult to avoid the danger of forgetting, not remembering and making full use of His cross in our lives. 4. And you’ll see that in 1st Peter the 4th chapter and 12-13. (12) Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: (13) But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s suffering; Now remember that Christ was never sick; and He might have been hungry at certain times, but I don’t think too hungry. He fasted forty days, and of course, he was hungry, but brought that on Himself because He wanted to do that. But I don’t know of any time that He suffered too greatly in that respect. He also said, the birds of the air have nests, and the beasts of the field have dens, but He said, the Son of man has no place to lay His head. But we do know that people gave Him homes to live in. And women especially were good to Him, providing Him substance as the Scripture says and made Him a beautiful garment of which was completely one piece--a beautiful seamless garment. And so, therefore, His sufferings were not actually physical sufferings, they were those sufferings which were caused by other people. And they in turn led to physical suffering such as His death on the cross, the scourging and the...?... and so on. So, keep that in mind. 5. It says, (13) Rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ’s suffering; (don’t think it strange now) when his glory shall be revealed, that you may be glad also with exceeding joy. Now I think that refers to Paul’s statement in Hebrews that “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, and despised the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Now, to further clarify this point, I might say that the danger which we speak of rears its head just about every Scriptural teaching. Perhaps not every single one, but mostly. For example, we can talk about the token and never receive it. You know there’s--there’s thousands and millions of people talking about the Holy Spirit baptism, but they never got it. There’s never been any actual receiving of the Holy Spirit in their lives. There’s been no application. It’s a discourse, but they’ve never come to the place of--of actually bringing it into their own lives. 6. Now, we can discourse, also, with fervor upon justification and ne’er be justified. Now, you go back to the Lutherans. I’m sure there’s countless Lutherans. Oh, they must have some way of looking back, understanding Luther and the great understanding Luther had on justification. But how many of them are truly justified? The answer would be very, very little. And we’re not throwing off on anybody. Now, to get even closer home, we can define true love and never project it. We can talk it and talk all around it and talk all about it. And especially, we can define it beautifully, have a very good Scriptural understanding as to the literal conception that God had in His mind and is trying to get across to our minds, but to bring it into projection is another thing entirely. 7. Now, also, as Bro. Klassen brought out humility the other day. It’s not a matter of semantics, though I’m afraid in many cases we reduce it to a matter of semantics. And for a matter of correct understanding of that particular facility that is in our lives, if since we’re supposed to have it, but do we actually practise it? In others words, it can all be too academic or simply academic, or say cerebral, mental; rather than truly a living force in the peoples’ lives. Now, like theologians and church members we might have every one of our words just right; that’s what theologians are good for. And church members, they have their words exactly right and they confound all their adversaries, and hopefully they’re--they’re able to confound all their adversaries by the knowledge of Scripture and yet never possess eternal life. See, that’s denominationalism. That’s where they get their good Bible schools; they get their good training. They have their morals, they say their prayers, all nice, but it’s simply denominational religion. It’s not true Christianity. 8. Now, evidently, what is happening is that we make every spiritual Truth centered in Christ, (all right now, don’t think that’s bad. It is bad if you do it wrong, it’s good, but it’s centered in Christ;) make every spiritual Truth centered in Christ. And in accepting Christ we leave it all in Him, and claim Him in a far off manner rather than His life given to us; and we empower to live His life with love and humility and all graces and virtues abounding. Now that’s very true. In other words, we make everything simply vicarious. We put it all in Christ and we say, “My, what a tremendous death He suffered.” How wonderful is the shed blood? How fantastic is the day of Pentecost? How marvelous is this great God that we have? And then put Him in a creed and a dogma of joining a church. See? It’s vicarious insofar, it’s too far. There were certain things in Christ that are vicarious, but they’ve got to come out of Him into us. And if they don’t come out of Him into us, demonstrated, then it’s simply a wrong understanding. It’s simply, you’re not with it; not getting what God wants. 9. Now, that’s what the churches do. Absolutely. Starting with the great Roman Catholic church which is universal in its scope. The eastern branch with the Orthodox. And, no doubt, wonderful people in it. They join to be better people. And they have their doctrines. But you notice how it is, it is just a half-truth that they have. Because when it comes down to the literal life of Jesus Christ, the virtues and the graces, and those things which come forth from Him and are supposed to be resident in us and practised because of their presence, to them it is all a hidden knowledge of theory. And they live beautiful lives. No one’s going to fuss at their lives. But brother/sister, it is just subscribing to a life and not living it; and that’s again your church joining. That’s why Bro. Branham kept screaming out against church joining. When everybody sat in the church audience said, “What’s he talking about, we don’t join any churches.” Begin to understand what he’s saying tonight. You can be very guilty of being just a church member, having literally shaken the hand of Jesus Christ, but receive nothing from Him. You know it’s just... Well, you say, “How do you do that?” Well, you could be healed, you could be anointed, you could speak with tongues. You could praise God, you could have gifts of the spirit. You could have many manifestations, and say, “Well, I think this is it.” But it’s not it. See? 10. Now, we must know why this is. And we hope to know something about that tonight by the grace of Almighty God. To begin with, we just go back to the opening words of which I started. Tonight we commemorate His death. Tomorrow we commemorate His resurrection. Now, here is a very simple absolute Truth: “If Christ had not died in weakness, He would not have been raised in power.” So if we had not been--we’re not been able to talk tonight about His death or we look into Good Friday, and the interim Saturday as it were, where he was offered the souls in prison in that shadow land that many people try to talk about. But only Bro. Branham had any authority to speak of, and he said very, very little. And then we come to this hour tomorrow morning where there is a resurrection. See? 11. All right, “If he had not died in weakness, because He was crucified in weakness, He would not have been raised in power.” It is very clear then, no death no resurrection; and it is still very clear, no death no resurrection; and it must be made clear to you and me. And this is the hard part. This message then is very clear, unless the cross of Christ is in our lives and not left in His life. Now you follow what I’m saying? Because we’re going to show you denominations do. If we leave it in His life and do not put it in our life, then there is no power of the resurrection or of His resurrection in us. Because He had to die in order for that life to come in to Him. And remember that life that came back into Him, was that same wonderful life that was in Him, which is, “I and my Father are one.” Now He came back in a glorified form. Now He would not have come back if He had not died. In other words, His own body would not have been glorified if He had not died. 12. Now, if God can’t work death in us, He cannot work life in us either. Now that--that is the truth and is difficult perhaps to take it at this point. For us to deny the power of the cross is to annul the power of the resurrection in our lives. Now this is a shocking statement, I suppose, for most people are only vaguely aware that the cross is a powerful force. They look back and they say the cross is a powerful force because it did away with sin. And that’s true. The cross is a powerful force, because by the shedding of the blood there’s remission of sin and the vessel becomes perfect before God. God made a way to make perfection so the bodies could become temples of the Holy Ghost and God would not see us any more but only hear our voices through the blood and see our represent--representative the Lord Jesus Christ. And seeing only Him then, we have a perfect entree before God; we have a perfect standing. 13. Now, we ourselves may not have a perfect state, but this brings us a perfect standing before God. The old state of standing doctrine of the true eternal security believers like old Scoffield and his ilk, is good to understand, because we do have a perfect standing before God though our state at this moment can be anything but even nice as far as we’re concerned. But God is at rest and completely reconciled even though we may be frustrated. God is not frustrated about any of His children, no way shape and form. You understand that, but, if--but many people do not realize that the cross is still a powerful, effective weapon. Now you see, Christ has died once and can not die again. Therefore, really, the cross then has been fulfilled. And the Scripture says, when the--when the Word is fulfilled it passes away and He cannot be crucified again. He is crucified in this hour to the people, but He Himself is not crucified. The people crucify Him to themselves. But people do not realize the power of the cross. 14. Now let’s go into 1 Corinthians and see that this is a true thing we are looking at. And we’ll read [chapter 1:] verses, 18-25, I suppose. (18) For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (Now he tells you right there that the cross is still a mighty force, even though that force which brought about the ability to remit our sins, has been done and gone with, the effect is still there.) (19) For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. (20) Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of the world? hath not God made the foolishness the wisdom of this world? (21) For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. (22) For the Jews require a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom: (23) But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; (24) But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. (25) Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. So, the apostle Paul knows that there is a power that comes from the cross. And it is still available today from God Himself, whatever He accomplished there…will do its work until the last one is brought in and into the redemption of Almighty God. 15. Now, what I’m looking at here, though, more than anything is this, that the cross is actually a source of the power of God the cross itself. And since we are to... we’ve been admonished, that we carry on where Christ left off (and that is a type of a crucifixion, the type of of the life that must be put to one side, so that His life can have the pre-eminence) we begin to see that there is a power in the cross to such an extent that the cross gets things done. Now, that’s what we’re looking at. Power means the force, the ability to get things done. You know there’s different kinds of energy and this is--this is the great energy that most people do not understand; the effectiveness of the cross. Even though it spells death, it is a great source of power. Now you usually don’t think of death as power. It is power, but it’s the negative. But in this case it is not so. Things get done by this power. A life gets lived by it. And that’s taken from Galatians the 2nd chapter, the 20th verse, so that you may understand this very carefully. (20) I have been crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; Now there’s the cross. And this is not simply vicarious where you’re looking back there. But many people would like to do that. And that is where you’ll get into trouble. Because when you put this on the grounds that this, “I was in Christ when He died upon Calvary,” and you abnegate the cross that you personally are to bear, (for it says, “Take up your cross and follow Me,” and if a man does not take up his cross, he’ll lose what he has, which is trying to save his life) you can not then put this to one side and say, “I receive this in Christ and I leave it there.” This is not what is being said. 16. He said, (20) I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. When did this take place? It took place after Paul was appraised of the fact, after the Pillar of Fire met him and blinded him that he would suffer great things, universally, for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. And his life was a constant process of crucifixion. Now he was not trying to get rid of the crucifixion. No, he wasn’t. He was trying to get rid of the--the problem which was nerves. And he besought the Lord three times. And the Lord said, “I’m sorry, but you’re a unique person, so you can not have healing; but my strength is more than sufficient for you. And remember, that was also a part of crucifixion in the particular sense there that he had to bear it. See? Because normally the crucifixion strikes what is taken care of and he could have had a healing. Now, this tells a story. Paul says, “I have been crucified, yet I’m in a living condition.” And the life that he lives, he lives by the faith of the Son of God, Christ is living in him. Now you understand what we have set forth here as a thesis (which is very, very correct): That without crucifixion there cannot be a life. And that’s what Paul is saying. There simply cannot be. 17. Now, we’re going to go to Colossians just to pursue this a little further. And Colossians will be the 2nd chapter, I think. Yeah, 2nd chapter, beginning at verse 18. Let’s see now, I better start at verse 8. (8) Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (Now in other words, they’re going to present a philosopher.) (9) For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. (10) And you are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: Now notice what he’s saying, because here’s what we want to get, you might say, joined to, united in a flowing life, like a complete circle from Him to us, and us back and so on. It’s just a life of flowing. (11) In whom also ye are circumcised (you’ve been crucified, you’ve been cut off, you’ve been killed) with the circumcision made without hands, in the putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Now watch, (12) Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. (13) And you, being dead in your sins and uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; (14) Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross; (15) And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Now, you can see here he’s speaking of that--of what--he wants to show us of the cross, the power of that cross which was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. But he didn’t put aside the fact that Jesus said, “If a man doesn’t take up his own cross, he loses his life, he loses this.” 18. You cannot make the Scripture go against Scripture. But this is what most people do. And you come to the happy, happy crowd which was epitomized by the way. And I’ve nothing against them. But the idea is everybody happy, happy. Everybody healed, healed. Everybody money, money. And went so far, everybody sex, sex, smoke, smoke, drink, drink. And everybody goes to hell doing that. Now you know a group like that wouldn’t have anything in the first place we’re interested in. And I’m not ashamed to say and afraid to say it, that’s the truth, I’m not interested. I wasn’t interested years and years and I’m not interested now. See? We don’t have a licence to sin. Their main thesis was this: What you do with it, the flesh profits nothing, the spirit quickens, so let’s give vent to the flesh, the spirit’ll still take over. Is that a fact? I’ve got news for you, that’s a lie from the pit of hell. The spirit will take over all right, won’t be the spirit of God. See? 19. Now, that’s your danger of looking at this and leaving it in Christ and say, “Hallelujah, that’s me.” Hallelujah, that’s not you. No. No way, because you can’t say that and make that you. I want to tell you what, like Bro. Branham, I believe there’s got to be something take us out of this world, everybody doesn’t get healed. I don’t care what that person does or if he doesn’t. You cannot major in a minor. We’re not--we’re not majoring in minors tonight, we’re majoring in a major. There is a cross. Like they said, “Must Jesus bear the cross alone, and all the world go free? No, there’s a cross for every one, and there’s a cross for me.” Now notice, quickening can only come after the death on the cross. Christ was only quickened after his death on the cross. And we can not have the measure of the quickening power that we want. Now we can have it in seed form, true, until we begin to grow in this particular area. 20. Now notice carefully, that Colossians 2 that I read in here, starting with verse 8. (8) Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Now, that’s today we’re talking about. The rudiments of the world have completely scandalized this into putting it into Christ, and I accept Christ therefore I’m free to do what I want. Now, if you’re a good Roman Catholic, a good Greek Orthodox, a good Episcopalian, and a good Lutheran and you’re one of these psychology bounded Protestants, all you got to do is confess your sin and you’re forgiven; go out and do the same thing tomorrow and the next night, and the next morning and the next night, and keep on doing it. It’s going to catch up with you. That’s a vain philosophy. That’s a tradition of men. That’s a church. See? Until it comes to the place where you’re rich and increased with goods and don’t lack a thing; they’re wretched and miserable, naked and blind and don’t even know it. 21, Now, with that we want to read also the 18th and 19th verses. (18) Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, (ha, how many visions have these people had? And how many angelic visitations?) The Mormons conveniently had a good one for polygamy. Joe Smith had his visions, so now everybody can have several wives. Well, I admit that’s a whole lot better than whoring around, though that’s bad. I’m with Bro. Branham. Hollywood, marriage, divorce is rotten; polygamy is a thousand times better, but it’s still wrong. Even the Pope’s had visions. I don’t doubt he has, but they’re wrong visions. A lot of them have visions and dreams and they base an awful lot on it. What got--made Mattie Crawford preach it. Oh she started a whole movement plumb around the world, and a tremendous person. She had a vision of Christ that made her go preaching. What kind of vision was it? I say watch it, see? 22. Now, (18) ... intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. (19) And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. Now that’s under the Word. But remember also, there’s a headship there, and you’re holding the Head and the Head had a cross. And the Head said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” If a man doesn’t do it he’s not worthy. 23. Now, in these two verses that I read, “Beware lest you you get fooled by vain philos--by vain deceit, by traditions, by philosophy.” Now, here is your Gandhi and your Martin Luther King. And the church with its doctrine of passive resistance; and they’ll take up their cross of passive resistance. And they’ll suffer, they’ll fast, they’ll starve themselves. They’ll even burn themselves. They’ll make great sacrifice of themselves. And yet you know what Paul said, “If I give my body to be burned, I’ve got all faith to move mountains, have all these things and don’t have something that’s very necessary, which is the Holy Spirit, which is love,” he said, “I don’t have it.” 24. So here are your Gandhis. Now they are very productive, socially and politically, but they are not Christian. Yet they’ll be accused of being Christian. I should say, they’ll be marked as being Christian, but I used the word accused, for my own sardonic reasons. Now Gandhi and King and all their life, they are very fine. And as I said, they’re good example of a social gospel; but the church is ordained of God to stay out of politics. See, you’re not--you’re not allowed to go into politics. 25. Jn 15:19. You know there’s a real batch of so-called born again men in congress, and the Senate they’re every place. They’re all over the place. And I don’t doubt that they’ve got something, I’m not doubting that at all. But do they have what the Scripture mentions? Jn 15:19. (19) If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Now I know that politicians are usually hated, but invariably they’re loved or they wouldn’t get the office. So it’s kind of a love-hate. Sounds like a marriage, doesn’t it? It certainly is. It’s the wrong kind of marriage. 26. Let’s go to Jas 4:4 and see what James has to say about this very same thing. (4) Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship of the world is the enemy of God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (Now you got to be a friend of the world to be in politics. You got to talk their language.) I don’t care how great a Christian you are, it’s going to falter and fail somewhere down the line. Either it’ll get Christ out of you or Christ will get you out of it. One of the two. Because they simply don’t mix. There’s a place where they don’t mix. Now, it’s not that people cannot speak out against these things and understand these things, but they have no place in them. But you see what you can--what can con--conspire here is, look it, there’s two vines. Every side, every corner has two sides. There’s a negative and there’s a positive. There’s God’s side, there’s Satan’s side. Now, there is the cross. And people know that and they understand that it’s effective. And they’ll take and pervert it to politics. Or they’ll pervert it to the extent where they’ll adopt it and it looks wonderful to a false religion. And they’ll work themselves to death for it and die for it. And they’ll show that there--as it were, that the cross was there. But it can’t be the same cross we’re talking about because Jesus Christ got crucified for being a heretic for what He believed, not what He did. So there’s quite a difference there. 27. Now notice, what has hap--what happened is this: With this passive resistance they’ve used, the Gandhis and the Kings have given way to a new brand of Protestantism, the militants like Tutu who format rebellion. What are they doing leading the people in rebellion? When is the church told to take over? It shows what church he’s with. It shows what bishop he is. He’s certainly not our bishop which is an elder. For he’s an old--he’s an old dog at this scheme, I’m sure. And I can tell you where the spirit came from. It came from St. Augustine who said it was legitimate for God to strike down Paul in his raging against the church. How much more then can the church strike down people and convert them? And they did it to the Aztecs and the Incas and the Peruvians and the rest of them. And what did they get? They did in the Islands, they got a Roman Catholic brand of heathenism which is far worse than Rome’s. I can’t say it’s far worse, it’s the same thing. Because they endued--they took the statutes of Jupiter and all those and made them Peter and John and James, the whole bunch of them. 28. You read ‘The Magic Isle’ by Seabrook sometime. And you get the perfect picture. Most people don’t want to read those books because it kind of brings things to light. But it gives way then to where the church becomes purely militant. But it has to go that way. Christ’s cross, or Satan’s cross which is military. Because Satan is going to destroy and plunder and pervert. How clearly we can see the churches become what I’ve already quoted in Rev 3:14-18. “Wretched, miserable, naked, blind; but thinks he’s rich, increased in goods and don’t lack a thing.” Actually the book of Revelation chapter 18 tells you what it is exactly. And it’s called Babylon. And we read it many, many times. (1) After these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, (that’s the 1st verse)...and the earth lightened his glory. (2) And he cried mightily, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and become the habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, and cage of every unclean and hateful bird. (3) All nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, the merchants of the earth are waxed rich with the abundance of her delicacies. (4) And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, receive not her plagues. (5) For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Now notice, he said, “Come out of here.” Where the church is in this hour, get away from it as Bro. Branham said, “Don’t have a thing to do with that thing.” Now, what I’m really trying to get across to you is something of a practical application. And this is where we’re going, to the verses I read in the book of Matthew. 29. So we go back to the 5th chapter again and we read those verses, just read them through, 5:25, 26. And it says, (25) Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. (26) Verily I say unto you, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till you paid the uttermost farthing. And then of course, 38-46 we read. (38) You’ve heard it’s been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; (39) But I say unto you to resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Now he tells what evil is there. Now you do resist--you do resist evil as we know evil today. The evil act of Cain, the righteous act of Abel. We understand that. This has to do with what people are doing against you. You just... we have to learn to let it go. (40) If any man sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.(Now that’s a tough one, but it’s hanging in there. I don’t know when the word was ever changed.) (41) And whosoever compel thee to go a mile, go with him two. (Show him you can do it.) (42) Give to him that had asked, and from him that borrow of thee turn not away. (43) Ye have heard that it has been said, Thou love your neighbour, and hate your enemy. (44) But I say, love your enemies, pray for those that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you; (45) That you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: Now watch right there, there’s a difference, a difference between the two. One is militant, one is anti-militant. One is militant for the right thing, and anti-militant for the wrong things. We’re entirely different. (46) (Now) If you love them which love you, what reward do you have? do not the publicans the same? 30. All right. Let’s just read here in 25 and 26 again. (25) Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, the judge to the officer, and you be cast in prison. (26) Verily I say unto you, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till you paid the uttermost farthing. Now, in here, ‘of agreeing quickly’ is the way of the cross. Because the way of the cross made reconciliation between God and man. He reconciled the world to Himself by the death of the cross. Now, this is the principle of the cross in the life of any Christian who is involved with anybody, be it in the church or out of the church. It is: “Do not let the sun go down upon your wrath.” You may get angry, you may be peeved. 31. Now, this is something everybody needs to learn. I don’t know that’s there’s one person in this group, and I’m counting myself, and I’m at the lower end of the totem pole on this. Have we learned to any degree... And this is terribly important; not your background, not your training, now I’m not talking about that. You can be brought up where people are pacifists to begin with. They’re consciencous objectors and there’s no such a thing in the Bible. So therefore you’re all messed up. I’m talking about a living reality where the cross is a vital living principle in a person’s life; understanding, knowledgeable. And the heart is agreeing with it because out of the heart proceeds issues of life and this is an issue. “Agree with thine adversary” whatever comes against you, do it quickly while it is going on. In other words, try to break it off. Try to stop it. Now, “Lest at any time the adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the officer and you be cast into prison.” Now notice the unjustness of this statement. You’re not even the one that did it. You’re the one that is right. You’re the one that is blameless. But now you’re caught in this place. What are you supposed to do? Now you don’t become a per--a--a betrayer to the Word of the living God. There’s no way. If that cost you your life, you die for it. But this has to do with the things of life; the incidence. 32. Remember Abel died because he wanted to worship a certain way; he paid a price for it. This is not talking about that. No. It’s talking about the altercations, the differences, the problems that come our way. And it says here absolutely that no one can deny it. That we should make peace with each other because the person that is offended is going to get the short end of the stick in the sight of God. Now that’s the truth of the whole matter. You say, “Well, I got right on my side. You don’t have right on your side. You only have right on your side insofar as you go this way. See? Now what will happen if a person doesn’t do that? He will pay the price and he will not come out of paying the price until he pays an uttermost farthing to the extent that God has taken that person and brought him down to the place of chastisement, until he’s more than willing to not do that thing again, or let someone take him in that position again. Now, most people never learn this. This is why there’s constantly fights amongst us. And I don’t say this amongst us as a people here. I’m talking about those that believe any type of message, whether it be Bro. Branham’s or any church message. See? There is the--yeah, they don’t understand this. They’ll put the cross back on Christ, but they won’t take a cross themselves. 33. Now, it says here, you’ll not come out by any means. You won’t come out until that last farthing is paid. Now the question comes, because the question is in here. Now when we have our problems with each other, what are we supposed to do? Well, we could get a clever lawyer and he would take the case to court. We could take up karate. And that would be very beneficial. Or, we could take up a two-by-four or a four-by-four or a crowbar. And that would certainly cause things to look in our favor, but it wouldn’t get anywhere. See, now you know what I’m trying to tell you here? This is the source of protection so you do not get hurt and I do not get hurt. You know, ‘he that fights and runs away will live to fight another day’ is a very clever cliche but it’s not what God said. “When he that refuses to fight and runs away, will live again for a better day.” The man that fights will keep on fighting because he that takes the sword must perish by the sword. But he that takes the cross will live. True. 34. This is the factor that we put across to children in psychology. We get it across by men like Dr. Peel who is a tremendous person. And you can’t put a--put a finger on the man. He could be born again for all I know. I don’t know that much. Tremendous person. He understands these things and teaches them. And he tries to get people to understand them and to do them. And I’m saying this: It’s good, when even the world does this. But the Christian needs to do it more than anybody because he’s identified with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this then is the means of your self protection and mine so that we do not get harmed. Because harm lies all around us. See? 35. Now, let’s go a little further. 38-46, (38) And you heard it said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; (39) But I say, resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Now, it’s very correctly said by one person, I don’t know who said it, out there-- there never has been a fight until the second blow was struck. And you always heard the--the joke of course, “the Bible said, you know, hit him on the right cheek and he said I let him do that, but he didn’t say what to do after he hit the left one so I hauled out and popped him one.” Well, that’s all very good for a joke, but you know what, that shows that they don’t understand the way of the cross and they don’t want to understand the way of the cross because a joke is made out of it. You see, they put a great--a great amount of stress on their manhood so to speak and their womanhood, “But boy did I really stand up.” No. What about--what about the fact that a person wants to be known as the son of God and manifested. See? 36. All right. “And if a man will sue thee at the law, and take away your coat, let him have the cloak also.” Now, just a minute, you could go to the guy and say, “Well, hey, just a minute now, you--you got my car away from me so I’ll let you have my house.” No. It doesn’t say that. It just says be prepared for anything, because you see, you don’t know what you’re going to get taken into. In other words, settle out of court. It’s always good to settle out of court. The lawyers don’t want you to settle out of court. They can make a whole lot more money. If people understood this in the world, you wouldn’t have to pay those insurance rates you’re paying. Yeah. And we’ve got very cheap insurance rates on our cars around here. I know Cincinnati got to be about double. And I’m horrified at the rates I’m paying for myself, how they’ve jumped up. And they’re going to get worse and worse and worse. You know why? Because people always want to sue somebody and cause a fuss and even get more than they should. And juries are very sympathetic and they’re warding fantastic sums of money and therefore they’re breaking everybody. Pretty soon no one can afford insurance and that might be a good thing. That just might be a good thing. If that’s the way people want to go let ‘em go. They’re going to go anyway. 37. You say, “Well, I don’t think it’ll go that way.” You’re right it won’t go that way, the government will take over. Then the church will be forced to take over. ‘Cause this is said to the church, not the government. As one--one bright judge, I forget his name, anyway he was a judge in New York. He said, “I’ve got these cases here because you church people won’t settle these cases. They belong in church not in my church--not in my court. But he said, you let down. See? Now, that’s what the Bible said, “How ought any man to take a brother to law?” Just like that Mrs. Hoskins is that her name, that got sued in Dayton. Fine Christian she is. I wouldn’t trust her God and her Christianity. If that girl said I wouldn’t why would I let Bill--let my cow have Bill Branham’s religion, I know, I haven’t got a cow to let have her religion. No way shape and form. She signed a contract, knew what was going on. She broke it. Took it right to the law. The supreme court may throw it out, I hope they do. If they don’t we’re in for trouble. Because now the state and the churches come plumb together under labor laws. Oh they’re going to come anyway. But she had no right doing it. 38. If any man sue thee, see? If a man com--compel thee to go a mile, go an extra mile. In other words, he thinks you haven’t done enough, do what he wants the next time, too. You’ll find it works. “Give to him that asks, from him that borrows from thee, turn not away.” Now that doesn’t mean every day. Because the Bible said, “Keep your foot out of your neighbor’s door.” This is a case of exigency, this is a real emergency. See? You heard it said, “Love your neighbour, hate your enemy.” What does God say? Now this is all protection. This is the way to get out of--get away from the--get away a problem. To get away from pain--what you might call the hardship of suffering. “Love your enemies.” And Bro. Branham said we could do it. “Pray for those that curse you.” 39. I remember what Bro. Branham did when--when Dr. Davis said something very wrong about him, Bro. Branham with the right spirit said, “I don’t want anything to happen to that man, so I’m going to pray for him.” Now Bro. Branham didn’t say, “Look, I’m going to tell you something, I prayed for him, and it’s a good thing I did because had I not prayed, I would have found myself with a problem in my hands.” You know what that problem would have been? It’s very simple to understand. You get bitter, you get angry, you get vindictive and you start breaking down in your spirit and the body begins to break down. Ninety-nine percent of our diseases are psychosomatic, except a broken bone; and that’s not psychosomatic, you got one. But most everything else is. That’s why all these diseases are put down to stress these days. Almost every single disease, a stress disease. Why? Why is there stress? Because they’re trying to get rid of the cross. Therefore they let go of the one weapon that is effective to take another weapon that is not effective. And it’s defective. There’s only one effective weapon, my brother/sister, and that’s the cross. 40. Now, it said, “Pray for those who despitefully use you, even persecute you; That you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven:” that you may manifest your part of the adoption. You can be ripened in the Son that you may grow up as calves in the stall and be a blessing. For he said, “Lookit, I’m going to tell you something, don’t you know the human being is just like you? They get rain and sunshine, they get good times and bad times. How do you know but what that bad time they’re trying to put on you is some bad thing that somebody else put on them? Break the chain somewhere. 41. You know, you get these chain letters that say, “Oh break the chain and you’ll die.” Break the chain on this one. You sure will die if you don’t--if you don’t break that chain. But if you break the chain, you’ll live. See? Chain letters are no good, this is the real letter of God, this is the living epistle here. Now, “For if you love those that love you, what reward do you have?” In other words, if you are nice to those that are nice to you, and you don’t go to court because they don’t go to court, and so in other words, you know, it’s just a, “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” What have you got? He lets you know that there is a way in life and this is what you call the homeopathic remedy. The homeopathic remedy is, they take the--they find out what really the symptoms are. And they say, “What causes these symptoms?” Well, I think that sulfur would cause the symptoms. So they give you a dilute solution of this sulfur and pretty soon you start to feel good. So,God wants you to get a dilution of this problem. There’s your medicine. He lets me have it, lets you have it. And then we begin to get strong and we begin to break through into the life which is of Christ. The crucified life is the only true and rewarding life and it is also the only life that is rewarded. It’s a rewarding life and it’s a rewarded life. 42. Let’s go to Romans, the 8th chapter. And these verses are simple; beginning at verse 12. (12) Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. (But Gal 2:20) (13) For if ye live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. (14) For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. (Now how can you be led by the Spirit of God and put down the cross?) (15) For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby you cry, Abba, Father. (16) The Spirit bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: (17) And if children then heirs: heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be glorified also together. (18) For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (19) For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. So there you see it. Now, this church has a goal. And it may never attain to it, I don’t know, but the goal is there before us if we want to attain to it. And it’s the goal of what I call the family of God. It’s a high plateau with the Headship of the Word which we saw manifested in this hour as the Logos. 43. Now a family is a very strong unit, but a family does not always mean ‘all for one and one for all’. It should but it doesn’t. That’s what a family is. That’s what a body is. The body is many members but all one. One suffer, all suffer. One blessed, all blessed. One for all, all for one. But it doesn’t always work that way. We don’t let it, of course, that’s the problem. One or more members of the family may never seem to fit and truly cooperate. You always may find one kid that won’t get up in the morning and do the chores. My wife tells me she had a brother that way, and she’d go up there and beat on a sauce pan, beat on a dish pan, blow a trumpet in his ear, and he’d just pretend he’s sleeping. He didn’t want to get up and do the chores at all. Not a lazier guy to high heaven. I don’t know if they ever got him doing the chores. I know he could drink beer, but anybody can drink beer with never too much problem. Oh, he wasn’t the worst guy in the world, of course not. A very nice, very nice sociable guy. But that’s all he knew in life was to be conving, con...and sociable, but he didn’t like to work. And the rest of the family didn’t like that because everybody, pretty well everybody else was a worker in that family. It was a large family. Our family all worked, too. And right today, I simply don’t like to see in a family where one wants to take advantage of another one. But they’ll do it. Now, but it’s still a family. See? That’s right. You can’t deny the fact there’s problems. 44. The church is a family also. And you got three kind of believers. And you can’t get rid of them, but it’s still a family. So what you got to do, you got to begin to move in the spirit where you as a Christian will not be hurt. Now you see what I’m driving at? This is a protective device to be used by the people in the church when something comes up which is nasty, or situation which is untenable, or grievous, aggravating, and so on. What you got to do is use protective measures. Now we haven’t done that exclusively over the years. We’ve tried perhaps to a degree, but we haven’t been too successful. And I don’t know any church that has, but that doesn’t get us off the hook. If there ain’t no other church wants to do it, we must decide here that we want to do it. 45. Now, there’s only one true protection and guard against division and we found that in Mt 5:25, 26. “Agree with thine adversary.” In other words, don’t let things deteriorate. You know, letting things deteriorate is like the leak in the dike in Holland. Who was that little boy that stuck his finger in the hole, Peter or Somebody, I don’t know what his name was. I can’t remember any more. Hans, maybe Heinz, who knows? But anyway there’s a little, tiny leak in the dike... Now of course this wouldn’t really work, I’m sure it wouldn’t work, actually. But they said next morning they found the little boy shivering and his finger was still in the hole because he knew the water would erode a great, big hole in the dike. But you better believe by the time there’s a little hole on his side there’s a great big hole on the ocean side. 46. So the story is simply moralistic. It doesn’t have any true value to it when it comes to being true; because it wouldn’t work. But the moral is there. Plug up the hole while you can do with your little finger because the day may come when your whole fist and your whole arm and a whole body won’t do it. See, that’s the moral. It’s a protective weapon that’s in the church. In other words, the cross is a weapon. God used it as a weapon to defeat Satan and to defeat sin. And the same weapon in our lives will defeat Satan and will defeat sin. Sure it will; it positively will. Of course, it means it’s got to take a skilful operator, as it would take the prophet to bring the Word of God. The sword held in a skilled hand, an ordained hand. Don’t worry, the cross also must be wielded by an ordained hand. A real Christian only can do it, others will not do it. But then again everybody should try, because there is virtue in it and God will bless because you see the rain falls on the just and the unjust, and the sun on the just and the unjust, so therefore if a man that’s not born again uses this principle, though it will not do in the other land, it will get him off in the great white throne judgment in a lesser degree of punishment but it will give him a blessing down here because God’s Word always blesses. God’s Word always works. 47. Look at the Christian, the Christian Scientist and the Seven Day Adventist in their field they’re cults. Of course, we’re called a cult but so, what do we care? We’re Christians, and by the grace of God we’ll some day show it. But you know, they practise the tithing and things like that. And don’t you know, it works out real good. Oh sure they’re blessed. Rich, rich churches. They don’t worry about church suppers and oyster stews and all them kind of hogwash; putting on some kind of stupid bazaar. Anybody knows that doesn’t work. God’s methods work. See? Now, we look out for ourselves by looking out for others. Sparing them, spares us. See? Blessing them, blesses us. What happens if you hurt them and curse and other and vituperate and all things like that, then it backfires? So, we are to do what the Word says. And do not get carried away with definitions but with applications. Now this can be a very true sermon and very theoretical. But it’s got to be done. It’s got to be done. If we are carried away with the application, that is, we diligently apply the Word of God; we will watch and see the life of Christ come forth off of the cross into a victory. 48. Now let’s go to Colossians again. The 3rd chapter, 12, beginning at verse 12. (12) Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; (13) Forbearing one another, forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so you do also. (That’s gratuitously. Nothing against the man from that time on.) (14) And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. (15) And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which you are also called in one body; (Notice, how do you keep peace? By this very way.) and be thankful. (Have a good attitude of thankfulness, settle disputes, everything come right along. Get the old cross out there and use it.) (16) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (17) Whatever you do, do it in deed--whatever you do in word or deed, do in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father by him. (18) Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. (Now there’s a cross right there. But it’s not a very heavy cross, because you nly have to do it as it is fit in the Lord.) 49. If the husband says you mustn’t go to church, you mustn’t worship, you can’t read your Bible, then you got to leave him. Now the cross comes in on the fact you got to leave your husband and the cross comes in you might not be able to marry again. No doubt you can’t. It would take a prophet to let you know, or you’d have to know from God something which I cannot tell you. But you see, the obedience to the husband as in the Lord. And that doesn’t mean you just have a good spirit because you’re in the Lord, and you go ahead and do anything else he wants you to do. He might want you to help him hold up a bank some time. Drive the get-away car. Oh, a man could do it. Look it, you could even have your car involved and you not there, you, don’t worry you’ll go before the judge. You bet. A lot of men are crazy under dope, and drugs and things. Not saying the wives aren’t crazy, too. We’re talking about the ‘be submissive, but only in the Lord’. See? (19) Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. Now that lets you know right there that the wives are getting away with things that make the man bitter, but he can’t do anything about it. So this looks like a pretty tricky marriage in here. Marriage should not be that way, but many marriages are. What are you supposed to do about it? She bears a cross and he bears a cross. Sure. (20) Children, must be obedient to your parents in all things: (they bear a cross) for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Now watch, (21) Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, (or provoke them, now there he’s bearing the cross again) lest they be discouraged. (22) Servants, obey your master in all things according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord: (Now that’s bearing the cross.) (23) What ever you do, do heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; (now that’s bearing the cross all the way. Because now you know you’re doing this to God, not to the person. But that gets you off the hook real good. See?) (24) Knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. (So the wife is serving Christ and the husband is serving Christ, and the children are serving Christ. See? And the workman is serving Christ; bearing the cross.) (25) But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons. You will not get off the hook. I don’t care if you’re a saint or a sinner, you can’t plead the blood, you cannot plead the atonement, you cannot do it. Why? Because you’re stuck. Now everybody likes to say, “Now, dear Lord, please forgive me.” No, dear Lord, do not. I’m not going to forgive you, got to do make certain things right. You got to start a new brand of thinking, new line of action, you see, in there.) 50. Now, you notice in there he talks especially of the family life. So let’s go to Ephesians the 5th chapter for a second and we’ll take a look at the family there. And you know where this comes in--21st verse. (21) Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. (Now, submission means you’re giving way bearing and forbearing.) (22) Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. Ever see men come in your home and try to talk to your wife, try to tell her something? Boot him out. Oh, in a nice way. In other words you say, “Hey, you can’t do that in my home.” The guy still wants to do it, you say, “well sorry you can’t stay here and do this.” You just be nice and let him go some place else. See? Too many people like to run somebody else’s house. 51. Oh, there’s a lot of pontificators too. Oh they got all the answers. They’ll tell you how to raise kids but they--don’t worry, they didn’t bother getting married and have legitimate kids, they can raise them. Show you how it’s done. Pontificators. Oh yeah, very easy. Then you find the guy also tells you how to raise your kids, he couldn’t do much of a job of his own. Pontificators. Got them all over. Now, it doesn’t say you got to listen to that kind of stuff. Just be very nice about it. So, well, we have a rule here, we abide in Christ and the Word of God comes in our home here. So we just can’t, you know, and that tells us how we do things, so that’s what we’re going by. Now if you have a word from the Lord from his Word to help us more, we’ll listen to you then. But if you haven’t got a word from the Lord, you’re just giving some kind of a theory of your own evolution here which, no doubt is all right for somebody else but not here. You know what I mean, you got to stay with the Word all through this. (23) The husband is head of the wife, even as Christ is head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. (Now that’s a good thought right there. You find a lot of men don’t believe that, they wear their poor wives to a frazzle.) 52. My biggest trouble is I can’t get my wife to tone down, I said, “Look girl, I can get around better than you can, let me do these things.” First thing I know, she’s already got them done. Maybe I’m stupid, lazy or let me go ahead and just using that as an excuse. I don’t think so. But you know, the fact that--that is what it says right here, you got a comparison. Christ is the head and He’s the Saviour of the body. What are we trying to do? Save each other. Save ourselves and save each other. Some get so interested in saving themselves they--that they lose themselves by not saving others. See? (24) Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. (Now, subject unto Christ in every thing. What’s every thing? Christ is every thing, not the husband’s every thing. It’s Christ is every thing. He’s got to begin to act a little like Christ.) (25) Husbands, love your wives, (now watch he’s supposed to love his wife) as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it; (26) That he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by his word, (and so on.) Then notice, and down here it says, (28) Men ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loves his wife loveth himself. (Now then must be trying to do her so much good that it comes back onto him.) (29) No man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: So what does the husband do? He looks out for the wife and the wife for the church and they end up as The Gift for the Magi. She cuts her hair off and he sells the watch. No, no, no, no, you get together in it. Because that she’s a Christian, he’s a Christian. See? So she learns how to do things that are pleasing in the Lord, to the Lord, and to him; and he learns how to do things in the Lord, that are pleasing to the Lord and pleasing to her. See? 53. You’d be surprised how praying together helps a lot of people. A guy says I don’t know. I don’t go out and make a poll in this church and I say now, do you husbands pray with your wife and children? And you say, “Well, my kids are grown up.” That hasn’t got a thing to do with it. That’s why you have to pray all the harder. You’ve got boys and girls that want to get married, you better start praying as never prayed before like you had--you had those kids on your apron strings before. That wasn’t bad, but now they’re running around, now you better pray if you ever prayed. You better follow this way of the cross and these things here if you never did it before. Because I know most everybody got the idea, well, we brought our kids up right now, how it is we’re ready the face the world. Like I read some poetry years ago. I wish I would have kept it. How that you--we raise our kids as lambs and turn them out amongst wolves. Doesn’t work, brother/sister; pretty horrible situation. 54. Then it says down here, 6th chapter. (1) Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. (There’s a cross right there. See?) Well, I don’t think you ought to wear those clothes. I don’t think you ought to go this place, go that place. “Well, I want to go.” What do you want to go for? “Well, the others kids are going.” Well you got to put your foot down. You find some parents that can’t bring their kids up at all. As far as I’m concerned, if their feet are under your table, they listen to you. Now you got to be nice about it, right about it, but they’re supposed to listen to you and obey you. 55. I like what Banks Woods said about his dad one day. His dad... the kids were big now, great--they’re grown men, or getting to grown men. “Look it,” he said. He said, “You know, I never let you speak back to me in life,” he said, “in my life.” And he said, “I ain’t going to now and I don’t care how big you are. If I got to use a four-by-four on you, you ain’t going to talk back.” He said, “You know, we never did.” Well, I don’t say that’s Christian. But the old man had the right idea. In other words, there is a way of doing things and there is a way of not doing things. And the way of doing things is almost always by the cross. Almost always, because man’s nature is a perverse nature. But this is what brings the peace and all this love we talk about, and all this humility and all these other things; this is the way it’s brought because the cross brought it. So if the cross brought it, you can’t get rid of it. It’s like killing the goose that laid the golden egg. The man said, “Hey,” he said, “and I’ll tell you what, it’s that goose must have a tremendous reservoir of gold.” Now he said, “If I just killed that goose I’d get all the gold in one lump.” He killed the goose, there wasn’t any gold. Now that’s maybe Aesop’s fable, but Aesop’s fable is a pretty smart fable. You take a moral out of it. The moral is, if you deny the cross, you deny all of this. See? God’s not some good-time Charlie. Like Bro. Branham said, a dotie old grandfather. He’s the Judge. See? Now he’s already judged us. 56. Now listen here, (4) Fathers, do not provoke children to wrath: bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. (See? That’s what Bro. Branham said, “The Word of God... They’ll not depart if you train ‘em.”) (5) Servants, be obedient to your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as unto Christ; Now, how the laborer treats the boss is a very good sign of what--how much cross he’s got in his heart. You know how much it costs for one man to get a job these days? Well, if it’s a highly, highly specialized job, it may cost the investors at least one-half million dollars to put you to work. If it’s not so highly specialized job, it can cost ten thousand, twenty thousand, thirty thousand, fifty thousand, but I think the average might be closer to sixty thousand dollars just to put one person here to work. Now, just a minute, that’s just one person. It’s going to take a factory and a lot of people. How much money are people investing for people to join a union. I’m not against joining union, but I’m against what the union does many times. To bankrupt those men that put the money in so they can have good living. 57. Now you see, even passive resistance would be a great help. Because you cannot deny the cross. But I’m not talking concerning politics in the world, I’m talking to Christians and Christianity. But you can take this principle of the cross and apply it any place. It’s going to do great, because God’s in it; if it was God’s antidote for sin. He never qualified sin because sin is sin. As the song writer said, “Sin is sin, no matter who it’s in.” Yeah, or what kind it is. You take up a cross, you’ll find a way out. Soften the blow to save face. Chinese are great on saving face. The Orientals are. They understood this. Took a lot for a person to back down. See? Now, I’m not saying you back down if a thief comes in your house and tries to... you know, kill you or something. I didn’t say anything like that. Never said that, see? (6) Now not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as servants of Christ, (there’s everything in life is done to Him with good will;) (7) Doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: (8) Knowing that whatever good thing man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. (Now what’s he talking about? The cross. The good things of the cross.) Everybody wants to talk about the good things of the resurrection, the good things of power, the good things of this, the good things of that. It all started in the cross. See? But there cannot be the good things of God--the restoration, the future advancements that are in the Word of God--without the cross there is no way. See? Knowing, it says and we know that this is going to bring a big dividend. Now there’s lots of things we don’t know. We don’t know if our prayers are going to get through. We may have long orders. We don’t know a lot of things, but we know this is going to work. See, we do know there’s lots of things we can work at. 58. And he said, (10) Finally, brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. (11) Put on the whole armour of God (and so on.) All right. We looked at... now you can see here then for we are--what we are perusing in this message tonight. Now, the prophet left us a warning about division coming amongst us and love dying. He said, “You won’t always be in love as you are now, there’ll be divisions come in.” Now he said, “If anybody comes in, or anybody in your midst already, start something,” he said, “Treat ‘em in love until they either come in or they get out.” Now, that’s the cross. That’s the cross. What is it? It’s the effective weapon to keep us from the results that are negative, debilitating, divisive, destructive. Now I know it sounds like... Hey, and I let my guard down. I’m doing these things; they walk all over me. Well, they may temporarily, that’s true, they may temporarily, but the Bible says, and very, very clearly, “Whatever man sows, that shall he also reap. And they that take the sword, will perish by the sword, but they that take the cross and the spirit of Christ, will live,” because that’s exactly what the Bible said. “I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, and yet not I but Christ lives in me.” 59. In other words, the very thing that we’re all wanting to see in our lives, we’re celebrating, or should have--should have talked about it last night, Good Friday, the day we believe that Jesus Christ died upon the cross. That’s the effective power of God, was that cross. Had there been a greater power, he would have used it. But there wasn’t. Now, it is not too late, even though we have division, even though we have differences, and we’re seeing what they do. They’re harmful. They’re stressful. They’re destructive. It’s not too late to get on the right track which is the place of the lower seat, the place of the cross, to do the bidding of Almighty God. It is not too late. Because the Bible still says, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that is set before him, endured the cross, despised the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the majesty of God.” And it says, “Consider him, for you have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” Christ actually sweat drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane as he went over his understanding what he must now pay the price of that cross. Some of us may actually come to the place in what I’m ready to... I think I might sweat blood because what I got to go through. What is it going to cost me? But you know something? It’s the way that really works. That’s the way that really works. Some have a greater cross than others. I don’t say that that’s not true. 60. Now in closing, remember, the unbeliever countered Christ and he said, “If thou be the Christ, come down off the cross.” And Jesus answered and said, “To this end was I born.” And today we still get the taunt of the enemy that says, “Just lay the cross down. Roll up your sleeves, you can show him who’s boss.” Well, you got an authority exert your authority. You’re more than a match for these guys. That’s the old devil saying that, “Come down off the cross.” But you see, when we come down off the cross, then that’s the end of it. You’re right back to where we got to start all over again. You know, everybody likes the thought of beginning again. I don’t. I don’t want to begin again. No siree. I just want to get out of here. But I’ll tell you what, there’s not one of us that doesn’t have to begin every time we let down that cross. I don’t care who it is. It’s far easier and far better really to just go that way. Now this is a little ridiculous thing maybe to add, but I tell you it’s the truth to go the way of least resistance some time. 61. I was in a meeting in Minneapolis. There was a Full Gospel Business meeting, and there they were really having a shindig. And they didn’t even need the music to--to dance. They were doing the dosidos and you know what. It was really fantastic. And there was one man was running around, putting his hand on people, not too gently with a force that wasn’t exactly a butterfly, but a shooo! You know, they were going down. And I saw this lady, and I knew her quite well. Her name is Mrs. Easter; very sweet lady. I like her very much; if she’s still living, I... lovely person. And so she went down. And after a while she got up and I go over and I wink at her and I says “Hey tell me,” just out of curiosity, I said, “That man put his hand on you,” I said, “Were you shoved down or did you go down by some power?” She said, “Put it this way, it was easier to yield than resist.” And I’m going to tell you something, it’s no laughing matter, though I joke about it. Because the pulpit is no place to make a joke. But it is easier, see, to go down than to resist. It is easier in the long run, though, as the Scripture says, “No trial and testing at that time feels joyous and good. It feels grievous, it’s rough and it is tough, but afterwards, afterwards the peace of the fruit of the spirit.” 62. How often do we cram for examinations? And worked hard to get somewhere. It worked; it paid off. Well, it pays off to go the way of the cross. And this is that weekend that we celebrate His death. And this is that weekend we celebrate His resurrection. And you know, as Christians, we apply them both to ourselves, but the point and issue is this: How do we apply them to ourselves? See? Now look, there’s going to be a bigger squeeze come down than we’ve got now, brother/sister. The squeeze we got now is just phht. This is just in my books, tiddlywink stuff. As I’ve said, “If this is the squeeze, just give me good health and two thousand more years.” I’ve got no problems. Oh, I’ve had some rough spots, but so what? I can go through a lot of those; just give me the health. Well I’m going to tell you something, if you don’t take those rough spots the right way, you don’t get the health. We’re looking for things that count; the squeeze is coming down more and more. It might be a good idea to just remember that tonight and all those rest of the years we got to come--if there be years to come--and start getting in shape from this point on; to just exert ourselves. Because we’re interested in ourselves. The Bible says we love our bodies. We don’t want to suffer. Then take the way of the least suffering. Because once you get thrown in prison, you are more restricted and constricted than ever, and it’s a whole lot tougher to get out. See? Shall we rise at this time. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank You for the time You’ve allowed us to be together here in Your Word, looking at Your Word, studying Your Word, O God. Appreciate it so much that You give us this time, Lord. And we pray above all though, Lord, that as You do give wisdom and You anoint Your Word, Lord, anoint Your Word to us tonight as never before; to what we’ve already known all these years has been preached, preached, preached, but hardly carried out. That the way of the cross leads home. The way of death leads into life. The way of self-abnegation leads to exaltation. The way up is down. All these things, Lord, we know, we have known. But now Father God, it’s time to practise them. It’s time to put into effect, Lord, what is in our lives already. To bear and to forbear, in the marriage, with the children, with the neighbors, members of the church, members outside the church, with the government, with those who come against us, employers, employees. All of these things, Lord, it’s time to begin to reason together. As you said, “Come now, and let us reason together.” For men and women to reason and not take any hard course unless it is absolutely necessary. As when Paul was pressed by the Jews, he had to appeal to Rome. And they said, “To Rome, you’ve appealed, to Rome you will go.” Lord I know, there is sometimes that it’s--we are put into a place of what can we do? May, when we do it, Lord, do it the right way and in the right manner so that the door is always open to a settlement. It’s always open to a turn-around. It’s always open to a victory, Lord, by way of the cross. Help us, Lord, to never let ourselves get into a spot where we cannot retrench. Help us, Father, that we do not go there because we know that’s exactly what You said in Your Word when You said, the jailor will take ahold of you and then you’re going to be put in there and believe me, you won’t come out until you pay your uttermost penny, the uttermost farthing. Whereas before, Lord, we could have come out, and not paid near so much. Help us, Lord, to take these rough spots, knowing that they’re worse down the road if we don’t do something about it now. Grant it, Father in heaven. Grant it, Lord God, as we plead tonight. In the Name of Jesus Christ. And we’ll give Thee the honor and the glory for Thou art worthy. Amen. Christ and the Cross - Page PAGE 26 Christ and the Cross - Page PAGE 1