431. Prayer Day Conference 1928

There is one thing that we need to see very clearly, and that is written in Rom. 6:6: “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” We must reckon the old man as crucified. All trouble, all vices, strife, and all evil come from the old man. If we do not preach cross and death over the old man, we will never come to any real divine life. In Romans 6:22 it is written that we have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God. When does that take place? When the old man is on the cross, we are set free from sin. If your old man is not there, then you are a slave of sin, a transgressor who cannot be a servant of God. Why is there no progress? Why are you not conformed to the image of Christ? It is because the old man is still active instead of being on the cross.

In Leviticus 21:17-23 it is written that no man of Aaron’s descendants who had any defect could approach the Lord’s table to offer the bread of his God. They could still eat the bread of their God, both the most holy and the holy, but they were not allowed to approach the Lord’s table. From this it is apparent that you must have access to the Lord’s table in order to be able to give food to others as well as being without defect. When they saw the brothers, they were glad. It was evident that they had been nourished with food from above because their faces lit up with joy when they saw Paul. The priests who do not live a crucified life cannot approach God’s table and present God’s food. However, they are allowed to eat from it. Defects are caused by unfaithfulness, and that blocks access to God’s table. You become a spiritual dwarf, or get a scab or eczema, or become hunch-backed, or get a broken foot or broken hand, or a limb that is too long. They do not experience that there are three against two and two against three in their house; their unfaithfulness is too great and human loyalties too strong for that. They “falter between two opinions” and consequently are denied access to God’s table. No one can approach the altar of burnt offering who himself has not endured the fire.

And yet when they were denied access to the Lord’s table, they found other means. They placed their threshold next to God’s threshold and their doorpost next to the Lord’s doorpost, with only a wall between them and God. Ezek. 43:8. The old man is inventive, but no matter what it comes up with, it always experiences a wall between itself and God. But on the cross the wall of division is broken down. The old man is a troll, so of course it regards everyone who proclaims cross and death over it as dangerous. “That is a dangerous teaching,” the old man cries out. Many saints through the ages have had this same teaching. They have lived by it and entered into rest by it. In other words, they died happy in faith in this blessed teaching. Therefore, if you want to be one of Jacob’s sons, then preach the cross of Christ; preach being crucified together with Christ. For those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. In this state you have full access to the Lord’s table.