Episode Title: Cross—Offense or Power

Episode Summary (short): W. D. Frazee asks the searching question: is the cross to you a stumbling block, or is it the power of God? A study on daily cross-bearing in appetite, service, and sacrifice.

Show Notes / Description:

"Is the cross a stumbling block to you—or is it the power of God and the glory of God?" With that piercing question, Pastor W. D. Frazee opens a 1963 study on the daily cross that Jesus calls every disciple to lift.

Working from Galatians 6:14, Luke 9:23, and 1 Corinthians 1:23–24, Pastor Frazee gives the inspired definition of cross-bearing: to take a course directly against our inclinations—and to do it daily. He then walks through two of the three areas where that principle must be applied:

• Temperance and the control of appetite — tracing from Eden through Noah, Sodom, and Israel in the wilderness, and warning that "Satan's temptation to indulge appetite will be more powerful… as we near the close of time." Whenever someone offers a health program that doesn't require denying appetite, Pastor Frazee cautions, "you had better be afraid of it."
• Personal ministry to the poor and sick — a close look at Isaiah 58 and Matthew 25, where God deliberately designed medical-missionary work to cost us inconvenience. Donations cannot substitute for personal ministry; Satan stands ready as the great medical missionary of a sacrifice-free gospel.

Along the way, he lingers on the rich young ruler, on David's refusal to offer what cost him nothing (2 Samuel 24:24), and on one of the most arresting lines in all his preaching: "Jesus didn't give up bad things so He could be saved. He gave up good things so we could be saved."

The message ends with a sobering realization: there will be no cross in Heaven. No inclinations to deny. No suffering soul to minister to. The only opportunity we will ever have to show our love for Jesus by self-denial is here and now.

Key Scriptures

• Galatians 6:14 (opening text)
• Galatians 5:11, 24
• 1 Corinthians 1:23–24
• Luke 9:23
• 1 Corinthians 9:25–27; 15:31
• Isaiah 58:7
• Matthew 25:35–36
• Mark 10:17–22
• 2 Samuel 24:24

Key Themes

• The cross as offense, snare, or the power of God
• Daily cross-bearing defined: a course against our inclinations
• Temperance and the last-day battle with appetite
• Isaiah 58 and the cost of true medical-missionary work
• Satan's sacrifice-free gospel and the counterfeit health program
• "Love for Jesus" as the one sufficient motive for cross-bearing
• No cross in Heaven — the urgency of self-denial now

Companion References

• Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1 (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1948), 286.
• Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5 (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1948), 70, 94.
• Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6 (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1948), 275, 662.
• Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1905), 453.
• Ellen G. White, Counsels on Diet and Foods (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1938), 145, 147, 162, 164.
• Hymn: "In the Cross of Christ I Glory," by John Bowring

Memorable Line

"Jesus didn't give up bad things so He could be saved. He gave up good things so we could be saved."

About To My Dear Friends brings the timeless messages of Pastor W. D. Frazee to a new generation of listeners. Visit WDFsermons.org for the full sermon library.