The Preaching of the Cross

Below is but a small measure of revelation that my father had received from the Lord. I hope this will be a blessing to you. All that is written below are the words of my father.

The Preaching of the Cross 

In loving memory of my father
Robert Louis (Bob) Padgett
July 28, 1931-May 22, 2023

 

"God is not looking for brilliant men, is not depending upon eloquent men, is not shut up to the use of talented men in sending His Gospel out in the world. God is looking for the broken men who have judged themselves in the light of the Cross of Christ. When He wants anything done, He takes up men who have come to the end of themselves, whose confidence is not in themselves, but in God." - H.A. Ironside

"Though the cross of Christ has been beautified by the poet and the artist, the avid seeker after God is likely to find it the same savage implement of destruction it was in the days of old. The way of the cross is still the pain-wracked path to spiritual power and fruitfulness. So do not seek to hide from it. Do not accept an easy way. Do not allow yourself to be patted to sleep in a comfortable church, void of power and barren of fruit. Do not paint the cross nor deck it with flowers. Take it for what it is, as it is, and you will find it the rugged way to death and life. Let it slay you utterly." - A.W. Tozer

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish [are perishing] foolishness; but unto us which are saved [being saved] it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18

The Verse above does not speak of Calvary. Every person who claims to be a Christian knows that Jesus died on the cross at Calvary for you and me and for all who will accept that marvelous atoning work. This refers to the working and purpose of the cross in the life of believers after they are born again and baptized in the Holy Ghost. What is that purpose? Christ in you, the hope of glory! Paul, by the Spirit, said,

24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the church:

25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;

26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints:

27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

29 Whereunto I also labour, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily. Colossians 1:24-29

Jesus said,

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be [or become] witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8

It is fairly common knowledge that the word, "witness," means a martyr, or one who loves not his life unto the death. The Verse above conveys the fact that only the dunamis power of the Holy Ghost can enable us to die to king self.

The Cross is the central and most important work of God. Praise the Lord, that is true! But we must remember that the Cross is a means to an end, not an end in itself. The Divine means is the Cross, but the Divine end is the (fully matured) body. Romans, Chapter 12, is one of the preeminent sets of verses about the body. However, we need to include the last four verses of Romans, Chapter 11 to keep everything in context.

33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!

34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor?

35 Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?

36 For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen. Romans 11:33-36

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

4 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:

5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;

7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;

8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. 

Romans 12:1-8

This is something in the very heart of God, and the Christ of God was anointed to bring it about. It is called a mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but is now made manifest and made known to all nations (Romans 16:25-26). We need to look to find the difference between our conception of salvation and the Divine conception of salvation; between our thought about the Cross and God's thought about the Cross.

God did not set Himself to save us, and to give us spiritual experiences like deliverance and victory in life, personal holiness, etc., just so that we could be thousands and myriads of individual Christians. The Lord never intended that Christians should be single units but a body ...

The body of Christ is Christ! So the Head is the Christ and the body is the Christ. Both are the Christ ... the Head and the body. Everything that comes from Christ constitutes the body. Anything that does not come from Christ can never get into the body and must be ruled out.

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12

That is where the Cross comes in; that is the reason why we emphasize the Cross. The Cross is the practical outworking, and the principle of the Cross is the only Divine means of ruling out anything that is of our self ... anything that can never stay in the body. So the Lord deals with us in many ways in many things of our self lives. By things we do not mean to say sins, which would be too low of a level. We can never bring into the body the things of ourselves ... our temperament, our emotions, our make-up, our self-will, etc. God will touch us there.

Some have very keen brains (we sometimes call them intellectuals). But the keenness of our brains will never give us a better mastery of the Word of God so that we can be better ministers. Our intellectual training from a fine seminary or even a Bible college will not do either. That will provide only dead knowledge, whereas some little old lady, sitting at the back of the meeting, without much of a worldly education, knows something of the Lord. You may be a pastor or a minister, but you find that there is something more of Christ in that little old lady than there is in you. How many of us need salvation from our head and mind ... salvation with a helmet! Our natural ability, our natural power, has nothing to do with the body; it has to be crucified. The strength of our own nature must be broken. It has nothing to do with the body.

Without the sound of a hammer, God is building today, a house to dwell in (the body of Christ), forever to stay! Whatever is of me must go. The Cross points me straight on to the body, and the Cross keeps me cleansed from anything that is natural, anything that is from the Adamic nature, which is called iniquity. We have nothing to be proud of.

19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish 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, and 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.

26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

29 That no flesh should glory in His presence.

30 But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. 

1 Corinthians 1: 19-31

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Romans 6:6

For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2

I am 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. Galatians 2:20

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Galatians 5:24

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Galatians 6:14

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Revelation 12:11

Through the atonement God selects those whose hearts are tender before Him; out of those people He creates a company of overcomers ... those who love not their lives unto the death. However, king self is still in the land. King self is the destitute nature we possess as fallen creations. It is there that Canaan (our human soul) is now found and it is there, in the battle ground of the thinking, carnal mind that war is waged. The Lord's standard has never changed. He demands that we take Canaan as our own; this is the daily test and trial of those who overcome.

The Lord is paring down His army from the 32,000 to 300 (Gideon's army; Judges 7). He is removing from His army any one who expounds the word of God through his own carnal wisdom; any one who does not fully take possession of Canaan, which is his own soul; and those who are not truly basing their life upon the only condition He accepts, that they die to that which is their enemy (self) and walk in the Light. True prosperity comes by how much of the personal cross one appropriates for himself, which cross makes him as a dead man before his enemies ... not yielding to comforting himself, but dying to all in him that is an enemy of God's purposes.

Some start out wanting to do God's will, but then fall back when they are confronted with their own desires of the personal flesh (the enemy nations in the land of Canaan). Those who walk away from their high calling are those who started out in victory but have departed to wander aimlessly around the wilderness another forty years, feeding their own carnal flesh. They religiously hold fast to the truth they know, but they have not done that which is most important to do, which is to conquer the enemies in their personal Canaan land, those elements within which are of the carnal nature. Too many go so far, then turn back because the way to them seems too hard to navigate. So they compromise, make friends with the world, and go back to enjoy lustful affections and the ways of the world. They have disqualified themselves from the true prize. With no working of an inner cross, they end up fellowshipping with the modern world, enjoying their own carnal desires. Like Eve, they see that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise. Just like ancient Israel, they become "blind" to that which they once embraced. Instead of joining in the fellowship of Christ's sufferings, and gaining more of the life of Christ within, they join in with the massive throng who believe God should prosper them with whatever they want in this world. Far too many chosen ones are embracing the carnal condition which results in a blindness which lies to them and tells them that compromise and mixture is acceptable. They use the best ways of the world to try to "promote the gospel."

Some started out in the Spirit and sought to be made perfect by the flesh. The anointing they once had is gone. Some even claim there is no more cross. They state Jesus suffered and died on the cross for them so they don't have to, but this carnal reasoning disqualifies them from the fellowship of His sufferings. This is the hour when men indeed are lovers of their own selves (2 Timothy 3:2)!

The Lord has chosen the halt, the lame, the blind, the broken ones, and those of no reputation; those who know not the way they should take so they totally depend on the Lord to lead and guide them. Those who believe the Lord and walk forward into their personal Canaan land know that the Lord's promise cannot fail, that He will drive out all enemies before them; all they have to do is walk forward. These are the overcomers, who will rise with no blindness at all as long as they remain steadfast with a gaze only upon the Prize; as long as they keep their lives crucified; as long as they "prove all things" and "hold fast to that which is good." The Lord, Who is jealous over His heritage, is separating His own unto Himself. We are witnessing, in the realm of the Spirit, a repeat of,

And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him [David]; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men. 1 Samuel 22:2

The calling to the overcomer is a special call that few can hear. In the Book of Joel, we are told twice to "blow the trumpet in Zion." Why in Zion? because no one in Jerusalem, or in Judah, or in Israel can hear that trumpet call. The latter have ears that cannot hear and eyes that cannot see. That trumpet call will take one into the furnace of affliction and to the full extent of crucifixion. The overcomer endures the fires of God's judgments which call us to identify fully with the cross of Christ.

The true overcomers seek only the Lord and thereby experience the death of the personal cross, which separates them from the enemies in the land of Canaan (the human soul), and separates them unto the Lord and unto fellowship in truth with Him.

The true overcomers cannot escape the cross; neither do they want to. They cannot and will not remove the nails that impale them on all four limbs to their cross; they gladly yield to their circumstances which have been prepared for them by the Master. They have voluntarily allowed the Master to bore their ear through with an aul; and they shall serve Him for ever (Exodus 21:5-6). A fellowship with other overcomers is gained which no one in the world can understand and which every friend of the world (including some Christians) totally hates. It is a fellowship of those being conformed unto the death of the Savior so that His life might be manifest in their mortal flesh. The true overcomers walk in the true light in which Christ abides.

The true overcomers know that by giving in to carnal ambition they defeat themselves. They see the gifts and calling of God as a potential snare if they yield to their own carnal ambition and use them for their personal exaltation, and so they steadfastly set their faces as flints to the personal cross. Such are the ones who will be sealed unto the day of redemption and to the first resurrection, for they cannot be raised in the first resurrection if they have not first died. It is to these that Christ will first appear and raise because death for them will have been completed. It is these who will be caught up in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17) to do battle with the forces of evil.

The true overcomer claims nothing and has nothing. This dividing line has been drawn and few there be who have taken up the cross completely so that they can be found as ones fully identified with Jesus, in His baptism, His suffering, His death, His resurrection life, His intercession, and His weeping over spiritual Jerusalem. These are the ones who will reign with Christ on earth for a thousand years.

And wonder of all wonders! The call to become an overcomer, by the power of the Holy Ghost, is to whosoever will. Many are called but few are chosen. Or rather, many are called but few choose. We have a choice.