A ROD Of IRON

                                              
The apostle Paul writes of Christ's ascension into heaven: "And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Colossians 2:15).  

THAT'S RIGHT! Staggering behind our Lord's triumphant procession was the prince of darkness himself, Bound In Chains.

And behind the DEFEATED devil underneath the wheels of the heavenly hosts were all the powers of darkness, bound and vanquished. 

They were being put to an open shame before all those who had died in faith before the cross.

And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall  they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father (Revelation2:27). Jesus entered the gates carrying in His hand a scepter of righteousness, His "rod of iron" with which He rules all nations.

Then, after His triumphant entrance, He took His Rightful Place on the Throne in FULL possession of ALL Power, Authority and Dominion.

What a glorious picture!  

Satan is NOT in control! Communism is NOT in control! Atheism is NOT in control!

No, the enemies of Christ exist ONLY by HIS PERMISSION!!!

And right now they only continue to FILL UP their cups of iniquity.

Jesus is in Control of all things and One Day, when He is Ready, He will "Break Them with a Rod of Iron; [He] shalt Dash them in Pieces like a Potter's Vessel"
(Psalm 2:9).

Beloved, our understanding of Christ's Victory over Satan and the dominion of  sin CANNOT be a vague, confused theology. 

We must KNOW and UNDERSTAND that Satan is TOTALLY DEFEATED!!! He cannot hold us prisoner!

And Christ has freed us by His blood from every bondage. 

Now He sits on His throne with ALL Power and Authority, offering us peace, joy and freedom.

~David Wilkerson~

Experience Is Of Greater Importance Than Being Delivered From Tribulation

                            

May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love... that you may really come to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge without experience. (Ephesians 3:17,19 AMP)

The Holy Spirit, with all that the gift of the Spirit means of enduement and endowment and instruction and strengthening, is not a substitute for experience.

We are very often found asking that certain things shall be done for us by the Holy Spirit which the Holy Spirit will never do. He has to lead us into experience. It is the only way in which He can answer our prayers.

Many prayers are answered through experience. You ask the Lord to do something, and He takes you through experience, and you arrive at the answer in that way.

You had not meant that, of course: you wanted the Lord to do the thing there and then as a gift, as an act; but that would have been merely objective, something given, whereas He wants to make it a part of yourself, and so He answers prayer by some experience.

Steadfastness worketh experience, and if there is no experience, what is the good of anybody or anything?

So then, experience is of greater importance than being delivered from tribulation. 

Tribulation worketh experience.

Oh, how often we have asked the Lord why He allowed this and that, or why He did not do this or that. Why did He not hinder Adam from sinning? Why has He not stopped the world in so many things that have had most terrible results? Experience is very largely the answer. 

Experience is very important because, after all, it is the very quality of service.

When we come to real life, and we are really up against things and the issues are of the greatest consequence, we do not want just information, we want experience, and we go where experience can help us. Is that not so? Thus experience is the very body and quality of service and usefulness to the Lord.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Die To Live

    

Jesus answered them saying - The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified 

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit.

He is speaking of Himself first of all as laying down His soul, but now He extends that principle to those who shall share with Him this life, this life of ascension in God, this life which is Spirit.

We must follow the same principle that He followed, not only for our salvation, but for our identification with Him. 

We do not save ourselves in any way by trying to follow Jesus. I hope you recognize the meaning of that. We do not save ourselves in any way by trying to follow Jesus, because we cannot. 

The one who endeavored best to follow Jesus in the flesh was Peter. He tried hard; and he did all kinds of desperately courageous things, and there was no man so resolute, and determined as he. He was the one who stepped out on the sea in that dark and stormy night.

If ever there was a dare-devil it was Peter in the realm of his flesh. You must not minimize Peter's attributes of heart and mind as a man in the natural.

He was the man who took out his sword and was prepared to fight single-handed the armed forces that came to arrest the Saviour.

Just two swords they had, and Peter unsheathed one and was prepared to defend the Lord Jesus Christ against the world. That speaks for his courage; but he knew nothing about this other thing. He knew nothing about the impact of hell; he knew nothing about the impact of principalities and powers.

You remember the Lord (ch. 13) says - "Whither I go thou canst not follow me now," 

And Peter says: "I will lay down my soul for thy sake." But he did not know what it is to lay down the soul. He thought it was to die in the mortal body. That is not laying down the soul. 

There are plenty of men with dare-devil courage who will face that, but that is not laying down the soul. And the Lord tells him: "Wilt thou lay down thy soul for my sake?

Verily, verily, I say unto thee the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice." As much as to say, You do not know the impact of Satan, and the weakness of your own moral fiber.

You will crumple up as I take My sheltering hand from over you; but I have prayed the Father that thy faith fail not, and when thou art turned again at last, and hast seen thine own weakness, then strengthen the brethren.

And it is only the brethren who have had this crash who can strengthen others, because they know the weakness of the flesh, the impossibility of any man or woman fighting their way through. 

Thou shalt follow Me hereafter. That means following Him in the way of laying down your life; but we are only able to lay down that life through the operation of the Cross. 

It is only as the Holy Spirit makes possible the laying down constantly of the natural life into that death which Jesus has already died for us that we can follow Him through into the Godhead, have access unto the Father in Fellowship of one Spirit in Him.

We only live in the Spirit as we are crucified in the flesh.

We only live in God as we die in ourselves.

~T. Austin Sparks~

PRESSED Out Of Measure

2Co 1:8  For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: 

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

God allowed the crisis to close around Jacob on the night when he bowed at Peniel in supplication, to bring him to the place where he could take hold of God as he never would have done; and from that narrow pass of peril, Jacob became enlarged in his faith and knowledge of God, and in the power of a new and victorious life.

God had to compel David, by a long and painful discipline of years, to learn the almighty power and faithfulness discipline of years, to learn the Almighty Power and Faithfulness of his GOD, and grow up into the established principles of faith and godliness, which were indispensable for his glorious career as the king of Israel.

Nothing but the extremities in which Paul was constantly placed could ever have taught him, and taught the Church through him, the full meaning of the great promise he so learned to claim, "My grace is sufficient for thee."

And nothing but our trials and perils would ever have led some of us to know Him as we do, to trust Him as we have, and to draw from Him the measures of grace which our very extremities made indispensable.

Difficulties and obstacles are God's challenges to faith. When hindrances confront us in the path of duty, we are to recognize them as vessels for faith to fill with the fullness and all-sufficiency of Jesus; and as we go forward, simply and fully trusting Him, we may be tested, we may have to wait and let patience have her perfect work; but we shall surely find at last the stone rolled away, and the LORD waiting to render unto us double for our time of testing

~A. B. Simpson~

LET IT GO

                            

Rom 12:1  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.

 

You have a life, and that Life is a Great Trust, a Great Responsibility. It can stay in its Own Ambitions, its Own Interests, its Own Worldly Concerns and Considerations, it can Stay By Itself.

Will you give your life to God, will you let it go to Him, will you put it on the altar and let the knife be taken that God may have it utterly?

If you will, God will multiply your life, God will extend your life, God will make much more of it than ever it would have been if you had kept it in your own hands. 

Have you got something in your life that you are holding on to as a Christian? 

You are not letting that go to the Lord?

You know what it is.

I should miss it if I tried to catalog the things it might be.

You know you have something where you are not letting go to the Lord. 

The Lord has put His finger on something, and you are holding on. 

You have an argument which you think is a very good argument. 

You have a reason you think perfectly good, so you are holding on. 

Deep down the truth is you are not prepared to let that go....

There are times when, in recognition that a certain course is the Lord’s way, we have to wait for the Lord’s time and see to it that our strength of will coming into alliance with some purpose of God is not jeopardizing the fruitfulness of that thing, and doing other people harm and making other people suffer.

There are times when we have to come back to the Lord and say, "Lord, You have shown me that is Your way for me, but I can see that it is going to involve others in a great deal of suffering.

I do want to be sure of Your time in this, and that I am not taking hold of it; it is not my strength of will to do Your will. I want to do this thing in self-sacrificing love, so that the least loss shall be suffered by others."

We have seen people who are right as to their objective, right as to what the Lord wants, but the way in which they do it often spoils the whole thing.

They take hold of Divine things, and while the thing is right, they are spoiling it by bringing their own strength of will into alliance with it.

This applies in many ways. We must be circumcised in heart to do the will of God, ready to let go and let God determine the way to accomplish it. May the Lord interpret His Word and make it fruitful.

I know it is challenging. It searches us all; we shall all come up against it. But oh, see what happened in heaven, and see that He desires that as it is in heaven, so it shall be on earth.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Forsake YOUR Ground

Gal 3:28  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 

In this dispensation God is not meeting Jews as Jews, and Gentiles as Gentiles, and a great many are making the mistake of thinking that He is.

His Word to the Jew is: "You must leave your Jewish ground, and stand before God, not as a Jew, but as a man, and until you take that ground God has nothing to say to you; you will not have any light whilst you persist in coming before God on your own ground."

The same has to be said to everyone else. We have to leave our own ground in every way. As that applies in these directions nationally, it applies in every other thing. Are you going to answer the Lord back: But I am this or that, or something else; or, But I am not this or that. It is not what you are, but what the Son is, that is of account.

Come on to His ground. The Lord will not meet you on the ground of what you are, whether it be good or bad; He will meet you on the ground of the Heavenly Man. Do you answer back, "I am so weak!" The Lord is not going to meet you on that ground; He will meet you on the ground of His Son.

That is what the Holy Spirit means by such words as He speaks through Paul: “...be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1). God hears us exclaim, "But I am so weak, Lord!" but He does not pay any heed to what we mean to indicate by that confession, which is: "Come down on to the ground of my weakness and pick me up!" He says, "You forsake that ground, and come on to the ground of My Son, and you will find strength there." "I am so foolish, Lord!" The Lord says: "You will remain foolish until you get on to the ground of My Son, Who is made unto you wisdom."

That applies all the way along. We take our own ground before the Lord and are surprised that the Lord does not lift us right out of our own ground and put us into a better position, but He never does. We shall stay there forever, if that is our attitude.

The Lord’s word to us is: "Forsake your own ground and come on to My ground. I have provided a Heavenly Man Who is full of all that you need; now come on to that ground." It does not matter what you are, or what you are not. There everything is adjusted and made good.

~T. Austin Sparks~

REVIVING THE HEART

                                                                                 
Did you first come to the Lord only because you wanted something from Him? Did you turn to God in order to kick a drug habit, to have your marriage restored, to be delivered from financial trouble?

The truth is, Christ will work miracles for you. He will do the impossible in  your life. But if you come to Him only to get something from Him only to be delivered from your problems you will never grow an inch in maturity. On the contrary, you will only grow hard.

Think back to the time of your conversion. Did it happen after some locust had  eaten everything away? Was your health debilitated? Was one of your children in trouble? Did you end up in devastation, with death and ruin hovering over you?

Please do not misunderstand me. Of course, God loves to save people who end up  in ruin. When all is lost, He is always near and faithful to deliver. But, beloved, you cannot come to Jesus just to get relief. You must come to Him because He is God and because He deserves your life, your worship, your obedience.

Right now you may be saying, "Yes, I admit I've been neglecting God's Word and  I'm still bound by a besetting sin. Am I too far gone to receive the Lord's healing touch?"

No, not at all! If you will begin to call on the Lord today, in the midst of  your need, He will bring you times of refreshing. Whenever you bring a truly repentant heart to Him, He will act as your mediator and intercessor, not as your judge.

Do you want to grow into maturity in Christ? Do you want the Lord to keep  reproving you in love and guiding you toward godliness? Then call on Him today. Nothing will keep you on His intended path for you more than a broken and contrite heart!

For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name  is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isaiah 57:15).

~David Wilkerson~



 

THE IMPOSSIBLE MISSION

                                                                                 
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). Christ said, "I came into this world for one reason — to reach and save lost souls." Yet this was not only the mission of Jesus, He made it our mission also: "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15).

Jesus was speaking here to a small band of believers, about 120 people who had  gathered in the upper room. And what an impossible task He laid before them!

Go to foreign nations, live with the people and study their languages. Lay hands on the sick, cast out devils, proclaim the good news. Go to the very seat of Satan and preach the power and victory of the risen Savior."

We must realize that Jesus was talking to ordinary, insignificant, uneducated  men and women. He was placing the very future of His Church on their shoulders. They must have been overwhelmed.

Can you imagine the conversation that must have taken place once their Master  ascended to heaven? "Did I hear Him right? How could we start a worldwide revolution? We're penniless and the Romans are beating and killing us. If we are treated this way here in Jerusalem, how will we be treated when we witness and preach in Rome?”

Another might have said, "How does our Lord expect us to go into all the world  with the gospel when we don't even have enough money to go to Jericho? How are we to learn languages when we haven't been educated? This is all impossible."

It was indeed an impossible mission. Yet our challenge today is just as  daunting!

If all who read this message would allow the Holy Spirit to make this word real  to them to seek Him for His burden and guidance — there is no telling what kind of harvest the Spirit might reap. The truth is, the greatest works for eternity are done not in mass crusades, but with one saint reaching one lost soul.


~David Wilkerson~

How Long Will You Halt~~~~~~~~~~~~ Between Two Opinions?

                             

1Ki 18:21  And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. 

 

That word was never addressed to the unsaved. It was never intended for them. It is only rarely that the unsaved are in the position of two opinions. More often than not they are of no opinion.

This is what the prophet really said to the people: "How long limp ye from one side to another?" He viewed them as lame, and lamed by uncertainty, lamed by indecision, paralyzed by an unsettled issue.

Oh, how an unsettled issue does paralyze the life. Have a controversy with the Lord, an unsettled issue with the Lord, and your whole life is lamed, is paralyzed; you are limping first one way and then the other; there is no sense of stability about your way.

So the prophet called for the issue to be settled. How long limp ye from one side to the other? Settle this issue one way or the other. If Jehovah be God, let Him have His place, His full rights; settle it once and for all. If Baal is god, well then let us be settled. 

But until that is done you are crippled, you are paralyzed, and the whole secret of your being in that weak, indefinite, unstable, uncertain place is that God is not having His full rights.

There is a dividedness in your life, a dividedness in your own soul, because other interests and considerations are in view. The dividedness may be in your home life, where you have power, authority and influence, and you are not standing one hundred percent for the Lord’s interests there. 

It may be working in other directions, but wherever it is present the result is that deep down in your being you are not satisfied, you are not at rest. You may be busy, you may be occupied, you may be rushing hither and thither in the Lord’s name, but you know that deep down there is a lack, an uncertainty, an unsettled state; your spiritual life is limited and paralyzed.

It will always be so until the issue is settled and God has His place in fullness in every part and relationship of your life. It is a question of zeal for the Lord, jealousy for the Lord.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Satan Knows Our Weakest Moment~~~ And He Uses It

It was when the Master had fasted for forty days and nights and hungered that Satan came with his testings. 

Whatever other factors were present in the cases of Elijah and others, there is no doubt that the Physical and Nervous drain of recent experiences gave the cowardly enemy very promising ground for his assault.

When Moses made his great mistake at the rock it is evident that he was an overwrought man, and although the weakness is given full uncovering and the result shown to be very grievous in a temporal way, he was never afterward repudiated in history as a failure; rather was he with the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration. David still held his place of high honor and value in Divine purposes, and his name runs to the end of Scripture with Divine recognition despite the grievous fallings in the way. 

He suffered, it is true, but God knows that in the lives of those who count for Him there are forces at work which are extra to the ordinary human weaknesses.

This is made so clear in the case of Peter, whose terrible failure was said by the Lord to be the work of Satan; and there is no doubt but that Satan knew Peter's weak point and weak moment. 

We must, however, bear in mind that, while the Scriptures on these matters are given us for our comfort, and to magnify the grace of God, they are not meant to weaken us or excuse our weakness, but to make us aware of how Satan can get an advantage, and to indicate the danger points along the way of spiritual usefulness.

In the case of Elijah before us, there is one thing that we want to note, and the noting of which we feel will be a help to some. It is this: in the moment of his weakness Satan sowed a lie in Elijah's mind, and Elijah accepted it. Our Lord said of Satan that "he is a liar, and the father thereof" (John 8:44). In this case he begot the lie that Elijah was the only faithful prophet of God left in Israel. There was ground for that seed. The man was fighting a lonely battle; ploughing a lonely furrow; walking a lonely path. There is no doubt about that. 

~T. Austin Sparks~

TroubleMakers

John 16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. 

 

When the Spiritual STANDS to CONFRONT the merely formal, traditional, nominal and natural, then there is going to be trouble.

This is not now merely the reaction from the world: it is the reaction from religion. I would go further, and say it may be the reaction from Christianity.

There is a very great difference between formal, traditional, nominal, "natural" Christianity, on the one side, and spiritual Christianity, on the other; a great deal of difference. So much so, that this also becomes a battlefield – the battlefield of a lot of trouble.

Leave formalism alone, and everything will go on quite quietly. Leave traditionalism alone – that is, the set order of things as it has always been; that framework of things as it has been constituted and set up and established by man; that Christianity which is the fixed, accepted system of things – and you will escape a great deal of trouble.

But seek to bring in a truly spiritual order of things, and trouble arises at once. And YOU are the trouble maker!

The truth is that the trouble lies in the existing condition, the situation, the state; but it is only brought out by your action.

And so spiritual men and women, and spiritual ministry, are called "trouble makers," because the two things cannot go on together. That is where Israel was. They had the traditions, they had the oracles, they had the ordinances, they had the testimonies; they had the forms, they had the system – they had it all; but, in the days of the prophets, there was ever this vast gap between the "externals" and "internals" of life in relation with God.

The heart is far removed from the lips. The spiritual reality is not found in the formal. You may have it all – but then bring in the truly spiritual meaning of things, and trouble begins in that very realm.

It is the trouble which arises when what is external and traditional comes into conflict with something which is truly spiritual.

~T. Austin Sparks~

A SATANIC MASTER-STROKE

                              

2Co 2:10  To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; 

2Co 2:11  Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

Perhaps one of the most significant things to any who are Not Ignorant of his (Satan’s) devices is that there never has been a specially spiritual movement of God in the earth, calculated to serve Him in a particularly useful way, but what Satan’s ANIMOSITY thereto has been Manifested along the line of Division, Schism, Discord, Separation, and a Breaking Down Of Fellowship.

And how often has the Real Sting and Stigma been modified by a feigning love unbroken and preserved, when the divided parties should have no association with each other in the things of God.

Love, let us again say emphatically, is incumbent upon the Lord’s people toward “all men,” whether of the “household” or otherwise (Gal. 6:10), but fellowship is something more. It is the most spiritual things which suffer the greatest shocks in this matter, and again we say this carries its own satanic significance.

The methods of the enemy are numberless, the “wiles” unfathomable by human wit.

A Suggestion of Suspicion, IF it finds lodgment, is enough to completely paralyze the work of God and spiritual progress. Have a doubt and you are done.

There never was a time when Positive Spiritual Work was more jeopardized by suspicion than now.

It would seem that hell is largely employed in issuing forth smoke, clouds, vapors, mists of suspicion, question, reservation, in order to INFECT with uncertainty, mystification, prejudice, fear, discrediting, distrust, aloofness. 

It is in the “heavenlies” that this is most registered; that is, the higher ranges of spiritual things. It is an atmosphere, and it is everywhere. You sense it wherever you go. In some places it is stifling – there is no clear breath of the Spirit, and a word of Life is almost choked back. Of course, this is no new thing, although now so intensified. The New Testament is full of it.

The Lord Jesus met it – Not in Spiritual people, ONLY in Religious people. John met it. Paul met it in every direction. It was made to circle round his person, his methods, his character, and his message.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Stand Still And Wait

  
God speaks to His people by the voice of His Spirit: "Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left" (Isaiah 30:21).

The voice of His Spirit comes to us primarily through the Scriptures. He may open up a biblical passage that will be the key to our deliverance. But before we can hear His voice of direction, God requires something of us: We are to stand still and wait for Him to act.

This word is NOT a suggestion BUT a commandment. It is the secret to our total victory and deliverance. Indeed, the Lord commanded His people to stand still on many occasions.

In Joshua 3 we read of another crossing Israel had to make, at the Jordan River. God instructed the people: "When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan" (Joshua 3:8). Then the Lord added: "As soon as the soles of the feet of the priests shall rest in the waters of Jordan the waters of Jordan shall be cut off and they shall stand
upon an heap" (verse 13).

God was saying, "When you get to the water, plant your feet in it and just stand there. Be still, rest. Just wait for Me to act and I will part the waters for you!"
                                                                                                          
The Hebrew word for stand still in this passage means "stop all activity, cease all striving." Yet, how many Israelites obeyed when they came to the Jordan? As they stood with their feet in the water, many must have thought, "How do we know this is going to work?"

Some might have been tempted to build some sort of pontoon bridge and try to get across on their own ingenuity. But that would have been in vain.

God did act on that occasion — He parted the waters. Israel's act of obedience was accompanied by faith and God answered their faith!

~David Wilkerson~
 

Crucified To The Religious World

 

Galations 6:14 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

It is interesting to notice the particular way in which the apostle speaks of the world here. That term is a very comprehensive term, and includes a very great deal. Here Paul gets right down to the spirit of the thing. You notice the context. It is well for us to take account of it.

Gal 6:13  For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
 
What does the apostle mean? They want to say, See how many proselytes we are making! See how many followers and disciples we are getting! See how successful our movement is! See what a power we are becoming in the world! See all the marks of divine blessing resting upon us! The apostle says, That is worldliness in principle and spirit; that is the world. He sets over against this his own clear spiritual position. 

Do I seek glory of men? Do I seek to be well-pleasing to men? No! The world is crucified to me and I to the world. All that sort of thing does not weigh with me. 

What weighs with me is not whether my movement is successful, whether I am getting a lot of followers, whether there are all the manifestations outwardly of success; what weighs with me is the measure of Christ in those with whom I have to do. It is wonderful how this at the end of the letter comes right back upon these Galatians, and the whole object of the letter.

We recall the words in which that object is summed up. “My little children, for whom I am again in travail,until Christ be formed in you”.
 
Christ formed in you, that is my concern, he says, that is what weighs with me, not extensiveness, not bigness, not popularity, not keeping in with the world so that it is said that this is a successful ministry, and a successful movement. That is worldliness. I am dead to all that. I am crucified with Christ to all that. The thing that matters is Christ, the measure of Christ in you.

You see how the world can creep in, and how worldly we can become almost imperceptibly by taking account of things outwardly; of how men will think and talk, what they will say, the attitude they will take, of the measure of our popularity, the talk of our success. That is all the world, says the apostle, the spirit of the world, that is how the world talks. Those are values in the eyes of the world, but not in the eyes of the risen Christ.

In the new creation, on the resurrection side of the cross, one thing alone determines value, and that is, the measure of Christ in everything. 

Nothing else is of value at all, however big the thing may be, however popular it may be, however men may talk favourably of it; on the resurrection side that does not count a little bit. 

What counts is how much of Christ there is.
You and I in the cross of the Lord Jesus must come to the place where we are crucified to all those other elements. Ah, you may be unpopular, and the work be very small; there may be no applause, and the world may despise, but in it all there may be something which is of Christ, and that is the thing upon which our hearts must be set. The Lord give us grace for that crucifixion.

There are few things more difficult to bear than being despised; but He was despised and rejected of men. What a thing is in God’s sight must be our standard. That is a resurrection standard. Now that is the victory of the cross. “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…”

~T. Austin Sparks~