The Pure In Heart (1)

I Corinthians, the third chapter, and I think I'll start at the first verse. "(1) And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. (2) I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. (3) For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envyings, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? (4) For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? (5) Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? (6) I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. (7) So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. (8) Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. (9) For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. (10) According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. (11) For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (12) Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; (13) Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. (14) If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. (15) If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. (16) Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (17) If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. (18) Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. (19) For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. (20) And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. (21) Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; (22) Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours; (23) And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's." Now, you know, it's on over here a little farther that the Lord speaks through the mouth of Paul saying, Shall I come unto you with a rod, or in the spirit of meekness? A lot of times__ I try to be as meek as I know how. I don't believe in being a hypocrite. I don't believe in coming up here being a hypocrite and I try to be as meek as I know how to be, and I come up here to try to tell you the truth and try to be just exactly what I am, and to love you and try to understand you and try to work with you. Not to do anything in the way of make believe, or striving, or envy, or malice. But for me to be able to help you you're going to have to believe in me. Now, you know, you reprove a person__ Solomon said, you reprove a person__ If you listen close enough you'll hear you're own servant curse you. You reprove a person because they do one thing that's wrong and then if they can let that thing that you're reproving them over, not the wrong thing, but the thing that needs to be corrected. If they can take and use that against you by not making any attempt to do anything else to get back at you, that's a spirit. How many of you know that? That's how the devil works. That's why I say things to you. You don't understand what I'm saying, some of you, but I understand what I'm saying. It's then that you break the anointing of God. Spirits break the anointing of God. All right, now. I read to you from the third chapter, First Corinthians, how that Paul said that I'm doing the planting and Apollos is doing the watering. He says first here, he said, I would like to speak unto you as unto spiritual. You know, witches, sorcerers, they are spiritual, but not godly spiritual. They're spiritual in the sense of demons. So, he said, I would like to speak unto you as individual that is a spiritual individual. Brother Branham one time said that a spiritual individual is nervous. A nervous type person. And usually that's true. That don't mean that if some of you take the idea, you know, you want to snap everybody's ears off, and go around and say I 'm nervous, you know, because you want to fly off of the handle, that you're spiritual. Of course, some of you are spiritual when you get like that, but that's spirits being spiritual of a devil. But I'm talking about a person that fasts and they pray and they seek God and they walk with God and they're tense because they're always trying to understand the things of God and what God is doing. And they don't go around like this, you know, snapping everybody up, but on the inside, a lot of times, they're at a breaking point because they are spiritual. Paul said, I would like to speak unto you as unto spirituals, people that are spiritual, said, but I can't. He said, I can't do that, he said, so I speak unto you as unto carnals. Now that didn't mean that the people were sinners out yonder, or people that were lost without God, but it meant that they had never grown into their inheritance, or into the mind of the Lord Jesus, and there was no difference between them and the sinner, as far as trying to talk with them. See? He said, Are ye yet now carnal? For he said, Ye have division among you. And I wonder today, like out here, do we have anybody that's got division among them? Do we have any Brother out there that just can't digest another Brother? He just can't do it to save his life? Have we got anybody like that? See? No matter how much they pray, or whatever they do they can't digest that Brother. There is just something about that Brother that is repulsive to them. Are you not yet carnal? Strife. Have we got anybody out here that strives with each other, you know. If they want to do something and you don't do it their way, whether in men's meeting, or down on the camp ground, or wherever we're at, do they strive with each other? Do they get on the job and they strive with each other and the wrestle with their words, you know? And wrestle with their words? Do they do that in men's meeting, or do they do that among the ladies? I'm asking you do they do that? Division, strife. Have we got anybody here that's envious? You know, somebody gets a car a little better than theirs and they kind of get envious, you know. Or maybe one contractor he gets five hours more than another contractor and the other contractor he's all huffed and puffed up about it, you know, and he feels like, yeah, well, you know, and I mean do we have any kind of people like that? Do we have any of those here? All kind of things, you know. All kind of problems. Paul said, Are ye not yet carnal? Now, that means that you are not spiritual. Somebody said, Bless God, he hired my man. He didn't have no business hiring my man, and he worked a little gimmick on me. And most likely he did, because he's carnal. But the only thing about it, about six months ago you worked a little gimmick on him and he's just catching up with you. He never did forget your gimmick. And he's just feeding you out of the same spoon. But the thing is, are you not yet carnal? I mean, that shows how much of a prophet we are. That shows how much the body of Jesus Christ we are. That shows how far along that we've got with God and how much power we've got to do the will and service of God. Isn't that right? That shows it. That shows where we're at. Paul said, Are we not yet carnal? He said, I'd like to speak unto you in a different manner, but, he said, are ye not yet carnal? He said, So then, I have to speak to you as babes in Christ. Being babes in Christ, he said, then you have to desire the sincere milk of the Word that you might grow thereby, that you might become strong, because when you've become strong then, he said, the meat is for the strong; they who have by reasoning exercised. That is, done a little praying, a little thinking, a little studying, a little understanding. They who have by reasoning exercised their senses to be able to discern between good and evil. That is, they by__ The Bible said, come and reason with me. They by reasoning with God have exercised their senses to the extent that they know what is the will of God and what is not the will of God. What is the mind of God and what is not the mind of God. He said, So then, I have to speak unto you as babes and you desire the sincere milk of the Word to grow thereby until you come into this condition of knowing which is which. Isn't that right? Paul was real wise. Very wise. When he saw that there was a division and they were following__ Some were saying, I'm of Apollos, and some were saying, I am of Paul, he knew that that division was going to cause trouble and going to interrupt what he was doing. Now, can you imagine anybody, you know, in that day doing that. In this day, somebody said, Well, if we have Paul the apostle we wouldn't worry about following anybody else, but consequently they did, Brother Hollis. Consequently they did. He was a man just like you're a man, and I'm a man. And they found fault with him and they warred against him and they came against him. Though he worked miracles, and though he did many mighty things among them; yet they bickered. There was backbiting. They did all the things that the people do today. The same devil was back there then. And Paul, Apollos, had not given them the revelation that Paul had given to them. Neither had Apollos demonstrated the power that Paul had demonstrated, but nevertheless, somebody said, You take Paul and I'll take Apollos. So Paul knew that there was a great crisis on and something had to be done about it, so he preached them a sermon. He said, You're divided. And I said, Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? Who are these men but ministers by whom, or which you believe in God. Who are these men? Said, They are nothing. Paul laid himself on the altar with them. Said, Now, you see, they are nothing. Paul is nothing, he said, Apollos is nothing. Said, All I do is just plant. That's all I do. And said, Apollos he does the baptizing. He waters and I preach. Said, God never sent me to baptize, so I do the preaching. Sent Apollos to baptize and he does the baptizing. He waters. But he said, Neither one of these men are anything. And then when he had concluded his sermon, convinced the people that flesh and blood was absolutely nothing and that they should leave off with that, then he turns around and he said, From my birth God chose me to reveal Christ in my life. Said, Follow me. Didn't he? Didn't he? He was trying to solve a problem and humble himself in doing so to show them how unwise they were. He wasn't using psychology. There's a difference between man made psychology and the wisdom of God. You know, a little something come up and somebody says, Boy, he's a real psychiatrist. He knows how to do it, don't he? No. There's a difference between psychology and the wisdom of God. So then, Paul, when he settled a thing he said, Now, Paul ain't nothing. He said, and Apollos ain't nothing, but this Christ that's suppose to come forth in my life, He's something. And said, You follow me as I follow Christ. He said, For I'm nothing. Apollos ain't nothing but, he said, the only thing is; I'm dead. It's not me living but Christ. Is that what he said? The life I now live I live by the Son of God. Said, Follow me. What we need to do is to be wise in God. Paul knew that he had the revelation of Christ. He knew that. He knew that Apollos wasn't given the revelation of Christ. He knew that Peter had not been given the revelation of Christ for the Gentiles. He knew that. That's why he withstood Peter to his face. And God, working in Paul, gave Paul such great wisdom. Because he had chosen Paul for this purpose He gave him such great wisdom that nobody could stand before that wisdom. Even Stephen. The Bible said when Stephen was stoned to death, when he began to cry unto God, the Bible said, they beheld his face as the face of an angel and could not withstand the wisdom by which he spake. Though he was just__ Well, he wasn't even suppose to be a preacher, you know. He was just a deacon and he was just doing a service there in the church, yet great and mighty miracles came through him. He spoke with the wisdom of God and the great Bible scholars and the great intellectuals of that day, why they couldn't do anything with him. God turned all of their counsel, as he did Ahithophel, into foolishness. So then, God is trying to do one thing, and that is to try to get you to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. If you see that much of a measure, so to speak, in my life then follow that much of that measure. If you see that much of that measure in Brother Johnny's life follow that much of that measure. If you see that much of that measure in Brother Taylor's life then follow that much of that measure. Ever what it is. Now, Paul in day was so fully developed in the Lord until he just made the statement it's not I that live, but it's just Christ. In other words, you just follow me because it's Christ Himself anyway; Paul is dead and buried and gone. So he could do that. But, according to the measure of the Lord in a person's life God wants you to follow that measure because that is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. That's what it is. Paul said, I would speak unto you as spiritual. Now, I want you to get that. He said, I would speak unto you as unto spiritual, he said, but you wouldn't know what I was telling you. So then, I'm just going to say that Paul is nothing and Apollos is nothing by just talking to you as carnal. Is that right? Just talking to you as babes in Christ. I'm just going to say, Paul ain't nothing and Apollos ain't nothing because, he said, I can't speak unto you as spiritual. That is I can't just come out and tell you what (Begin tape one, side two.) ....he could do that. Even Jesus had to speak unto them as carnal because they would say, Tell me, are you the Christ? He said, Thou sayest. And then He would speak unto them again as unto carnal saying, Me and my Father are one. And they said, Well, tell us plainly. He said, I told you but you didn't believe me. And see? He was trying to speak to them in a parabolic form to keep the flesh in it's present state, being made sin, in the present status of it's life, or the present condition, to keep them from giving the favor and the praise to the human flesh. Well, when He got ready to go away, when He finally determined He was going to go away Thomas came up to Him and wanted to know where He was going. He said, Well, I'm leaving. He said, Well, where are you going? He said, I'm going back to where I came from. Well, as far as Thomas was concerned He came from around Bethlehem, you know. It kind of confused him. But He said, I'm going back to the Father. Said, I came from the Father and I'm going back to the Father. Well, that confused them even the more, because they were not spiritual. Said, I came from the spirit; I'm going back to the spirit. The last man Adam made a quickening spirit. I come from the spirit; I'm going back to the Spirit, Jesus said. But yet He had flesh and bones just like you and me have got. Somebody said, But, Brother Pike, don't you know, the difference is that that man died, you know, and after you die well you can do that. I'd like for somebody to tell me. Now, I'm just talking to you this morning. I might get to hollering at you later, but I'm just talking to you. But I'd like to know one thing. What's the difference between a dead man and a living man, as far as his flesh is concerned, in getting into God. I'd think that before you put him in the casket, while he could talk, pray and praise God that he'd have far better chance of entering the spirit than after he's dead and cold and can't say a word, laying over in the casket. Especially maybe two or three days, you know, where he's just laying there in the casket, been embalmed and just laying there cold and still. How many believe you have a better chance before than after? Somebody would say, Well, I believe he'd have a better chance after. Well, if he's got a better chance after how come a lot of these great men died back yonder the law, why are they still in the grave? If they had such a good chance after why didn't they come on up? They walked with God when they were alive, not they're laying out there in the tomb. Do you understand what I'm saying? Death doesn't make any difference. The devil side tracts us and gets our mind deluded and gets us in such a condition, Jim, until we don't stop to understand the thing. That's what Paul was trying to say. He said, I speak this to your shame. He said, In that you are ignorant I would not have you ignorant. He wasn't speaking against the people, calling them a bunch of ignoramuses, but he meant they were unlearned in the things of God. Isn't that right? So then, Paul was trying to explain a revelation. What difference does it make about a dead man? I've worked in the funeral home. I know what it is to mess with dead men. That doesn't make any difference. See? You've got a better chance while you're alive, so why get it in our heart that we've got to wait until we're dead and they embalm us and put us in a casket and then we'll be ready to meet God? Come on, folks. I said, After they tear me all to pieces with a trochar(?), embalm me and, you rub some, you know, a little powder and paint in my face, and stick me in a box, then I'll be more ready to meet God than I am now. I don't believe that. Somebody says, Well, it was after Jesus died, Brother Pike, that this thing happened. No it wasn't. Before He ever died He went up on the Mount of Transfiguration and stood right there and appeared in glory before He ever died. He didn't have to die. He only died that I might not have to die. How many understand that? Jesus didn't die to get back to the Father's house, Brother Hollis, but He died that I might not have to die. I like that, don't you? He'd already found the way back to the Father's house, and showed them the way back to the Father's house. And when He stood on the Mount of Transfiguration, standing between Moses and Elijah, He was standing there the same way He hung at Calvary between those two thieves. He was saying, Everyone that ever came after me was a thief and a robber. Is that right? Is that right? Before me, that is. Everyone that came. Is the right? He said, But I am the good shepherd. I am the door. I am the way to the sheepfold. Is that what he said? In other words Moses and Elijah standing there just typical like the two thieves on the cross, yet they came before the Lord. He said, They're not the door. They're not the way. You see them hanging between heaven and earth. I'm showing you now a little preview of Calvary. I'm hanging here between heaven and earth. Here I hang. Here I am on the Mount of Transfiguration but I'm the door. I'm the way to the sheepfold and no man can get to the Father except by me. That's why trinities will make it. Trinities will never get into the Kingdom of God. Now, you say, but I feel the Spirit of God. I know you feel the Spirit of God. The drunkards feel the Spirit of God. People say, Well, I don't believe that; I know better than that. I've encountered it and I've heard a man curse and talk about how he won souls to God by drinking with them and cursing with them. And when I looked at him like I doubted it he said, don't doubt me. He said, just look here. He said, If you don't believe God's spirit is on me and I saw the hair raise up on his arm because the spirit of God is poured out on all flesh. I saw it. He exercised faith and the devil exercises faith, and the devil runs this thing by exercising faith. So feeling the spirit of God doesn't mean that you are a child of God, and it doesn't mean you are on your way to heaven and talking in tongues doesn't mean it either. Healing the sick doesn't mean it either. Having a gift if you don't have charity it means nothing. Even if your faith can move a mountain. You've got so much faith that it can move a mountain and it can't even save you because you don't have charity. Are you listening? Paul is telling them right here those very things. The very things that he's speaking of right here. Is that right? Having worked miracles but they still left him. Isn't that right? Paul had done all of this but they still when off and left him. In other words, God's spirit is sufficient, if you've got God's spirit, to work the gifts and to do all that you need done, but Paul said there is something greater than this. There is a spiritual understanding of God. He had already worked miracles before the people, but that didn't get the job done. He worked miracles. He healed the sick. He raised the dead but he said, You are still not spiritual. That didn't get the job done, did it? It takes the mind of Christ. It takes the revelation of the Lord to rapture the church. It's going to take the revelation of Jesus Christ and nothing short of the revelation of Jesus Christ will ever rapture the church. You can work all the miracles you want to, you can heal all the sick. You can have the gift of discernment, you can do whatever you want to. You can stand, like Brother Branham did and tell them everything that they ever did from the time that they were born into the world until the time that they leave it but that won't rapture the church. It's going to take the revelation of Jesus Christ to rapture the church. Paul said the revelation was given unto him, and when John speaks of it John says that this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. And Paul said, May God grant unto you the spirit of revelation. There is a spirit of revelation that we need, folks. There is a spirit of revelation, and I know that spirit because it's worked in my life. I've been acquainted with it and it's the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen or ever dealt with in my life. I'm grateful because it worked in my life. I got acquainted with it; I know what it is. It's a spirit of revelation. It will reveal things to you and tell you the things of God, and let you understand the things of God. But do you know why that people don't have it? It's because they are yet carnal. They are yet carnal and the Bible says to be carnally minded is death. They're still carnal. These people are still carnal. I said in the last meeting where they preached right after the sermon, I made the statement, You've got to be pure in heart. The trouble with the church world is they are not pure in heart. They're not pure in heart. People are not pure in heart. The Bible said the pure heart shall see God. You've got to be pure in heart. I related the other night how God is a spirit. God is invisible, yet He comes in the midst of us. He stays here with us. He talks with us. He tries to leads us. He tries to captivate our minds, our attention, our spirit through the minister that they might feed the spirit, and yet we're so carnal until the only way we can get fed is for somebody to put on a demonstration, or somebody to come up and put on some kind of show. And then if they do that that catches us because we're carnal. But God is the invisible God. He is the invisible spirit. Like for instance, look at Elijah when Elijah went over to the cave. There he was. He didn't have anybody to play. Anybody to sing. Anybody to beat the timbrels. He did have anybody to do anything. He didn't have anybody to pray with you. He was just over there in the cave by Himself, and there he stood there in the cave. Nobody to work up anything. He just stood there and all of a sudden a small still voice began to talk to him and said, Elijah! Elijah! What are you doing here? God began to speak to him and ask him what he was doing there. A still small voice. I said this so many times, God's voice is small. It's small. It's so small you can't see it. You know, like atoms. Atoms are so small you can't see them with your natural eye, but yet they exist. Isn't that right? They exist but yet you can't see them. You've got to have a special kind of mechanism that you might magnify these things into existence to where you can see them because they belong to the other world. That magnifying glass is typical of the eyes of your understand, because scientist through understanding developed that magnifying glass. It's typical of eyes of understanding. It takes eyes of understanding that has been developed by scientist to be able to look into that invisible world of electrons. Isn't that right? Because it's typical of the invisible. It's takes the mind of Christ. It takes the understanding of God to be able to penetrate the veil and go beyond the veil and to see God. To see God. The Bible said no man has seen God at anytime. No man has seen God at any time. You can't see God and live. If you see God that means you've got to be dead. How many of you know that? Now. You've got to be dead to this old body. I don't mean dead and laid out yonder in the grave somewhere, but you've got to be dead to this body, dead to your desires, dead to the things of the world. You've got to bring you're mind into such a position that you possess your vessel and you control your vessel, and you make your vessel do what you tell it to do. You know, people are like beasts, they just follow their passions; what ever their desire is. If their desire is just to ride around they jump in the car and ride around. Their desire is im hungry, go feed my belly and they go feed their belly. And their desire says I'm thirst, let's stop and get a coca cola, so they get a coca cola. Do you follow me? In other words, their passions, their desires, whatever the human body wants to do it just leads the spiritual man around anywhere. That is what the Bible refers to as a beast. That is a beast. But when you become a spiritual being on the inside to the intent that you have control of your outer man. Paul said, I keep under my body. I bring it into subjection lest after I preach to other I become a cast away. In other words I make it do what I tell it to do. If I say no, we're not going to drink a coca cola, we're don't drink a coca cola. If I say no, we're not going to eat, we're going to fast today, we fast today. If I say, no we're not going to just ride around and spend the day in pleasure then it's left alone. If I say we're going to pray today and all night tonight, then I pray all night tonight. Do you understand what I'm saying?. In other words, he has control of his outer man. You've got to get control of the body. How many understand what I'm saying? Unless you've got control of the outer man then you are a beast, then you are carnal and the Bible said to be carnal minded is death. That's what happened to Eve in the garden. That's what happened to Adam. It was the carnal mind of understand that killed Eve. Death exists in a knowledge and that knowledge is evil, abased. That knowledge is a natural knowledge that envelopes you to an educational knowledge that's called the tree of knowledge. That knowledge is what we refer to as your own understanding. It is your own understanding. To lean to your own understanding is to dwell in a state of death. To be carnal, Paul says, is to dwell, and to abide in a condition of death and to escape that death you've got to escape that mind because that mind is a spirit that got in through Adam and Eve and this mind is inside of you in your heart and it's got your spirit and it's interwoven with your spirit, and it is death as long as it abides there. And what has got to be done is God's spirit has got to come down. It's got to get into your heart, it's got to completely eradicate everything that's impure inside of your spirit, which spirit is inside of your heart and your blood genetics and God has got to completely take that and filter it through the blood of Jesus Christ. It's got to be filtered, and once God's spirit goes in there and it kills it, just like a cancer germ, just like a T.B. germ, or just like something that has gotten inside of you, physically speaking. The Spirit of God goes in there and it literally destroy's it and kills it. They say a cancer germ that you can treat the cancer down to the size of a pea, have a great big cancer like that and they say you can bring it down to the size of a pea but when you get it down, said, the germ is still alive. It won't die. There's got to be a radiation treatment of some kind, or something that will go in there and cut it out or something strong enough to kill the germ. Like a radiation treatment. Like the great light God to kill out the germ. Now, it's got to be in there. It's the same way. You can minimize sin in your life by you stop chewing tobacco and you stop smoking, and you stop doing this and you can shrink it on down and shrink it on down and shrink it on down to where people will think you're a real genuine God man, but on the inside of your heart the germ of sin is still there. If we talk in physical terms, it's still there. That evil spirit, that perverted life, that demon is still inside of you and the only way to kill it is with a good shot of the spiritual word of life. That's right. To take the Holy Ghost down in there and to root it up, and to kill it out; that's the only way to get rid of it. You can be a social comer to church and you can be a social Christian, or whatever you want to, but it's going to take the real spirit of the Holy Ghost, the real Spirit of God, down in your heart to make you a Christian. Now, the rain comes on the just and the unjust and everywhere people are shouting and jumping and feeling the Spirit of God, working miracles and signs and wonders and all of these things, feeling the Spirit of God. But the congregation and the man that works them all that works them, all will go to hell because many of them are still not right with God. Now, I know that there are men that are working miracles that are right with God, and for those men I'm very grateful. Now a man that never has come into a knowledge of a deeper walk with God I understand that, but those men will come. If they are real true elect they will come right on into the things of God. If they don't it's positive__ How many know that's positive proof that you don't belong to God? How many of you understand that if you openly willingly violate one jot or one tittle of God's word that you couldn't belong to God. Don't you know that if I kept everything in this book except one thing, and that's to love my neighbor as myself and I could say, Bless God, I ain't going to do it. We don't teach it in our movement, and we don't believe it with our group, and I've been taught the other way all of my life and that is to hate them that don't do good to me and that's the way I'm going to be, don't you think I'd die and go to hell? I sure would. And if any person, it makes no difference how little or how big it is, the Bible said the Holy Ghost will guide you into all truths and all the righteousness of God. And if you don't go into every bit of it then you're lost. So then, to be carnal minded is to reason. That is to be in death, but the pure in heart shall see God. The pure in heart. Now, I'm going to elaborate just a little bit on this this morning so you can just simmer down now and relax a little bit because we're not going to have a little popcorn sermon this morning and get on our horse and ride off. I'm going to take a few minutes to talk with you. You might as well simmer down and get out of that stiff condition, you know, of waiting for me to get through so you can hop up, like a kid, and get on his bicycle and go home, you know. Now. The pure in heart shall see God. It takes the pure in God to be able to see God. You've got to be pure inside of your heart, folks. You've got to be pure. Do you know what pureness is? Pureness, even in the millennium there will be holiness unto the Lord. The pots and pan will have holiness unto the Lord. Holiness is not wearing a long dress. That's not what holiness is. Holiness is not when you stop chewing tobacco. That's not holiness when you quit smoking, when you quit flirting with another man's wife. That's not holiness. Those things are the attributes of holiness. God is the spirit of holiness and all of those things are the attributes of God on the inside of you. That's what that is, and when you get the inside right, Jesus said, the outside of the platter just automatically comes clean. Once you get a man thinking right in here, converted in here, or get that man straightened out here, why the outside will just automatically take care of itself. Isn't that right? Now. I've seen people, and we've got some here, you can put them on a long dress but that doesn't get rid of the devil of lust that's on the inside of them. You can give them long hair but that doesn't make them subject to their husbands, which that represents, does it? They're just as rebellious to their husbands with long hair as they were with short hair. That doesn't make any difference. But I'll tell you what you can do. You can give them the Holy Ghost and whether they've got short hair or short dresses they'll still be clean and holy and learn to subject themselves to their husbands so that their hair will grow out and they'll learn to find somebody that can stitch a little bit so their dresses will extent out, because it's the attributes of what they receive. You put a person in a long dress, and put them on long hair and you don't give them the Holy Ghost, after awhile they've done raised the dress two inches. Just watch them. That's right. One day it's on their shoe top and the next day it's above their ankle. And if the husband don't catch them and say something about it, they'll go up a little farther a little later. Their hair, give them long hair and they'll cut a little bit off. After awhile they'll trim it a little more. The husband don't watch it, they'll trim it a little more. See? Why do they do that? It's because they don't have the spirit of God within them. They don't have the Holy Ghost within them. Their mind is always running in that channel. Always searching and looking for something to feed off of. Take an old buzzard for instance. An old buzzard, that's all he does is spend his time circling, you know. Circling. Just sniffing around, circling, to see if he can find an old dead cow, an old dead dog so he can get down there and peck off of it, you know. A little peck at a time is all he wants, but it's a peck at a time and after awhile he'll eat him slap up and he'll be just as rotten on the inside as the dog or the cow was. Is that right? God gave things like that to show us that there are spiritual vultures in the earth, that God has allowed them to be like that to where they can eat the unclean carrion that's laying around. So they can just go around and get that old carrion and eat it up, to keep the land clean. God did that for that purpose. As a matter of fact, it's against the law to kill a buzzard. Isn't that right? In Georgia. Thank you, Frank. I thought it was everywhere, but maybe it's just in Georgia. I thought it was all over the United States anyway, you know. But in Georgia. But, anyway, God has so made it that way, you know, because if you're an eagle you can't make yourself a buzzard. If you're a buzzard you can't make yourself an eagle. There ain't no way. The leopard can't change his spots. The Ethiopian can't change his skin. Neither can they that are accustom to evil do good. That's Bible. See? I can't make you anything. Now we use the terms a lot of times, the power. To as many as believed gave He the power to become the sons of God. Well, we get the idea a lot of times when we say that, people do, and they say, Well, that means if I'm not a son of God God will give me power and I'll become a son of God. That's not what He's speaking of at all. But to as many as believe, to as many as believe. Who believes? The elect. If thou can'st believe, Jesus said. If it's within your ability to believe. Who can believe? The elect. Predestinated from the foundation of the world. To as many as are elect, to as many as are believers, to as many as can believe I'll give you my spirit and my spirit will make you a son of God. Is that right? I'll give you the Holy Ghost. For you shall receive power when the Holy is come upon you, the original says. After, King James says. Ye shall receive power. I give unto you the power. The nature, the spirit, the Holy Ghost. If you believe I give you the power to purify your heart, to make you pure. I've given you the spirit of revelation. Is that right? What is the Holy Ghost? It is the spirit of revelation. If you don't have the spirit of revelation you don't have the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is to revelate. To show you things to come. To reveal to you. To make you understand. To show you that which is to come and to show your impurities, and to lead you and to guide in all the truths of God, and all the righteousness of God. Is that right? If you don't do that you don't have the Holy Ghost. Somebody ask me the question not too long ago, who do I believe will go in the rapture? I believe every person that's has the Holy Ghost will go in the rapture. I believe that with all of my heart. I always have. But I know that the Holy Ghost is God's seal unto the redemption of the body. And if you're sealed unto the redemption of the body I know your body has got to be redeemed. How many of you understand what I'm saying? It was in the garden that the mind of impurity, the mind of unbelief was instilled, or injected into Adam and Eve. And this injection into the spirit and into the mind caused them to realize that they needed a covering from God. Is that right? They had to have a covering from God because they suddenly realized that with the mind of abaseness, and with the mind of corruption that they were in a state of condemnation and a state of impurity in their heart, Bill. They realized that there was an impure thing in here, that they felt self-conscious, as we say. They felt indecent in the presence of God. Have you ever noticed a person that doesn't live right? They can start praying and just as quick as the Spirit of God comes down they begin to feel nervous and tore up and sometimes they'll even go to the extent that they'll say, Well, I know, you, you, you, Lord, you just, you know, Lord, wait on me a little while if you will. That's right. When I started my early ministry I used to when the Lord came down I'd day, Well, Lord, I think I've got about as much as I can take right now. Maybe we could come tomorrow night, and I'd get up off of my knees. That's right. Because I felt the power of God so strong until I__ I didn't understand it. I didn't know anything about it. It scared the life out of me. But now I stay. As strong as it gets I stay and hope for some more. That's right. You say, Well, don't it ever get strong enough to scare you? I admit sometimes it gets strong enough I get kind of nervous. I have to admit that. When the presence of God comes around you get like a dead man, but still there is something in my heart. I feel pure in my heart. I feel clean. I feel holy. And not by my works, but by the spirit of God. You know, you're not made holy by your works. Works are after this. Just like apples growing on a tree. Because of the apple nature there's an apple comes on there. That's all it is. You produce works of goodness and righteousness because you have a godly nature. You produce godly ways. Godly fruits. Godly attributes. Is that right? So then, what we need is the infilling of the Spirit of God, to be filled with God's Spirit. They prayed a lot of times and the Bible said when they prayed the whole house would be shaken, and God's spirit would come down and they'd be literally filled with the Spirit of God. It would come down, you know, and God just, He'd shake the entire building and just fill it with the Spirit of God. Now, you can have the Holy Ghost and not be full of the Spirit of God. How many of you know that? To have the gift of the Holy Ghost and not be filled with the Spirit of God. What is the filling of the Spirit of God? It's when you surrender you're outer man, you completely surrender him that the Holy Spirit might invest within your outer man His characteristics, His attributes, that you might show forth the fruits of long suffering, patience, gentleness, kindness, brotherly love and all of these things in your life. In other words, when the Holy Ghost comes in you and you so surrender your outer man, you so surrender your outer man until the Holy Ghost can seal your outer man with virtue. That's being filled with the Spirit, then that's where your miracles come from. That's where all of your divine deliverance comes from, is from the virtues of God. Somebody says, Well, Brother Pike, you just said that a man might be a devil and be up there and be preaching the Word of God. And that's true. The Bible said Satan himself has transformed himself into an angel of light. His ministers have transformed themselves into ministers of the Word, which is called light. Isn't that right. He can do it. Paul said, Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. You can do it. Just by renewing your mind you can do it. Get up here and while the days of grace is here you can get them stirred up and the Spirit of God will come down. But it still the virtues of God that's coming down through the medium of faith that brings healing and deliverance to the people, because the little woman said, I felt virtue come out of your body. I felt virtue come forth from your body, and when it did I felt within myself I had been healed. What heals a person? A lot of times we pray for you here and you feel that virtue. That virtue. I've prayed for hundreds and thousands of people that feel the virtue of God. They feel the virtue of God. They say, I feel it. I feel it, Brother Pike. Now, that virtue can come on you and you still might not be healed. People feel it every day and still die. They still die with disease, but if that virtue comes on you, and if you believe then that virtue goes into your heart, into your blood stream and eradicates the disease and you become healed. The same thing that killed the poison within Paul's blood stream when the viper bit him. It kills the germ in the blood and when it kills the germ in the blood it just automatically dies because it doesn't have anything to feed off of. Is that right? Like a bruised place on an apple, you just cut it off and the apple is all right cause it's not in the heart. So then, to be able to see God it's going to take a pure heart. A pure heart. Now, you say, how can I have a pure heart, Brother Pike? The Bible says that God has purified our hearts by faith. Is that right? Somebody says, Do you mean to say that faith purifies my heart? I certainly do not mean that faith purifies your heart. I do not believe that faith purifies your heart. Faith is the means by which God's spirit comes down and God's spirit purifies your heart. It takes faith to get God's spirit and when God's spirit down in your heart it purifies your spirit, which in turns purifies your heart. Is that right? It's like putting a purifier in the blood. So it takes the pure in heart to see God. I want you to listen for just a few minutes now. It takes the pure in heart to see God. What is God? God is a spirit. Where do we have a record of God first as the Word? In the garden there, before the creation of the garden we have the...(Begin tape two, side one.) ...heal the people, for He sent His word Jesus, and healed the people. Is that right? If I heal the people today, do you know how I heal them today? By being flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone. As the Word I can come to you and heal you, but unless I come as the Word I can't do you any good. He that God sendeth will speak God's Word. His Word, the same yesterday, today and forever. God the eternal spirit. If I speak up here as the body of Jesus Christ and I speak the Word it's not me that's speaking but it's God that's speaking. If God is the Word that spoke in the beginning, that created the heaven and the earth, if that's God that's speaking then that is God the spiritual Word coming into your heart, which is the coming of Jesus. It's the coming of the Christ into your life and into your heart, for to be carnally minded is death. To eradicate carnality is to get rid of death. To conqueror death is just to get rid of your own reasoning, to get rid of your own carnal mind, and the carnal mind is not in your head. A lot of people the first thing they think, you know, when you say get rid of your carnal mind they start wrestling with their head up here, you know, and they think, How can I get that thing out of there? How can I get that thing out of there? You can't get it out of there because it's not in there to begin with. You can wrestle from now on with your head and all you're going to get is a headache. It's not__ You're brain is in your head. It's you brain and nobody wants to get rid of their brain. God don't want you to get rid of your brain. He made your brain. Your mind is in your heart. As a man thinketh in his heart so he is. Somebody says, Well, scientists say it's in your head. I know that, because they can't see anything spiritual. All they can do is go just as far as the natural will go and as far as the can define naturally that's as far as they can explain. And when they get to the brain that's as far as they can go. They can't go into the spirit so they say, Well, his mind is in his head. No, your brain is in your head, but your mind is in your heart. It's in your heart, and that means I've got to get rid of, and you've got to get rid of, and they've got to get rid of the mind that came through Adam that is instilled within the heart of mankind today. We've got to get rid of that thing. We can fellowship it, we can't have any fellowship with it. It's death. It's a spirit. It's a spirit that kills faith and causes condemnation. And the just shall live by faith. And if you kill faith then you're gone. Look at Adam and Eve. God said, Adam and Eve, thou shalt not eat of this tree. Is that right? Thou shalt not eat of it. Isn't that right? Thou shalt not eat of it. And faith in those words and faith in the God that created them kept them alive. Is that right? Faith did it. As long as they believed that, as long as they were in tune with God, as long as they had their eyes on God, just like Peter walking on the water, as long he looked at Christ he didn't sink down in the waves, did he? And as long as they kept watching God, kept their eyes of understanding fastened on God they could see God, because the pure in God can see God and they were pure in heart and they could see God. And God walked in the cool of the evening and they saw God. They could see God. Now a lot of times I see your inner man. I see your spiritual being. The reason I see your spiritual being is because through eyes of understanding I see another individual living on the inside of you. Paul called it the inner man. I see the spiritual inner man living on the inside. Now. They could see God. Why could they see God? Because they were looking at God through eyes of understanding. Is that right? And the inner man was in touch with God. And God said, The day that you eat of this tree, he said, that day you shall surely die. And Satan said, Ye shall not surely die. Why just come on and eat of it. Said, You're not going to really die, but they did die. Somebody said, But they didn't die. But they did die. They did die. Because the spiritual man, that which saw God, that which communed with God; it killed them. It kill them. They could still see through these eyes. They could still see through these eyes, but they could not see the tree of life. They could not see the tree of life. Now somebody says, Well, I think they could. All right, let me say this. If you can see the tree of life, some of you tell me where it's at. Where is it growing at? Who planted it? and how did it get there, and who waters it everyday? Where is the tree of knowledge? Where is it at? Who planted it? Where did it grow? Have you ever had a tree of knowledge just spring up in your back yard? Have you ever gone down to a garden anywhere, any place in the world and seen a tree a knowledge growing up our of the ground and grapes of knowledge just hanging all over it, or apples? Have you ever seen that? You wouldn't see no grapes on a tree, would you? Somebody said, That's absurd. That's not near as absurd and it is as to tell you there's going to be some knowledge hanging on a tree. Do you understand what I'm saying? In other words, that means that Adam and Eve were seeing something spiritual. They were seeing something spiritual. Not like, as they say, Adam's apple. Choked him to death, you know. That's not what it was. They were looking at something that was spiritual. They were looking at a tree that was a tree of knowledge which was Satan himself, and God said, Stay away from it! It's death. It's had a knowledge of good that's in heaven and now it's brought down earth and it's got a knowledge of the darkness because I subjected it to darkness and stay away from it. He said, I am the tree of life. I am the tree of life, and He said, you can't get anything from there except the other. They already had the knowledge of good. All they could get from the tree of good and knowledge was the knowledge of evil. Or good and evil, I mean. Is that right? All they could get is the evil, because they already had the good. So God said stay away from it. And the day that they ate of it they couldn't have their faith in God any longer. Their faith died. They killed their faith by condemnation. They believed in God. They had life. They could see that world, but the very minute they killed their faith what happened? God came and they couldn't find Him, and God couldn't find them. They couldn't see God. You say, Oh, they could see God. Then why did they say, We heard Your voice and we hid ourselves. They didn't say, We saw you coming, Lord, and we ran and hid ourselves. But they said, We heard You. Heard you. Now, you say, how could that be? Because My sheep know My voice. They were God's creation. Is that right? They hid themselves. Why? Condemnation. They couldn't believe anymore. They couldn't believe anymore. They wanted to believe, but they couldn't believe anymore. Their faith was gone. They killed their faith. They cut off their lifeline between them and God. That's what happened. That's exactly what happens when you get carnal minded and you start thinking; that's the tree of knowledge. That's your own way. That's your own understanding. When you start reasoning things out that's your own understanding. This is the tree of life. God's word is the tree of life. God's word created Adam and Eve, and faith in God's word is what kept them alive. It stands to reason that what you came from is what you feed off of. Isn't that right? So then, it is a true fact that they, themselves were cut off and couldn't see what had created them, their lifeline. Faith by the hearing of the Word kept them alive and so the condemnation set in and when it set in God said, Adam and Eve, where art thou? Where art thou? They said, Lord, we were naked and we hid ourselves from Thee. But He said, Who told you this? Who was it that you talked with that told you such things? It was the tree of knowledge. In other words they said, Our shame is showing, Lord, we don't have the covering of the Shekinah anymore. We don't have the covering of the Shekinah so there is nothing left for us to do except to turn to the covering of the world. Come on, now. I said, We don't have__ You take a person that doesn't have any kind of spiritual understanding, what do they do? They run after the world and try to cover with a covering of their own. God said, You cover with a covering but not Me. I'm speaking of the spirit now. Covering the inner person. Look at a woman. If she won't subject herself to her husband, which is her head, and which is her covering, what does she do? She runs for another covering. I guarantee, as I stand before God this morning, the woman that does not follow her husband and submit herself to her husband, if you could unravel her thoughts and her mind you'd find down inside there was another man somewhere, if she won't submit to her own husband. There's another man, because she's going to cover with a covering. And if you can't explain the Bible and somebody comes and asks you and you don't understand the things of God and somebody come and ask you, you'll give them what you think about it. Another covering. Come on, now. Come on, now. Somebody says, Well, I just won't tell them nothing. I ain't go a one here, out of every person I've got here from down to a little boy and a little girl, I find them trying to explain the Bible to somebody when they come up and ask them about it. And you try to explain it; you cover with another covering. Isn't that right? So they said, We're naked. That's why we hid ourselves; we're in shame. And God said, Who did that? He knew what it was. He said, Did you eat of the tree that I told you not to eat of? Yes, said, that's what happened. That's what happened. Then He said, All right. You've brought a curse of you. Is that right? Then He pronounced the curse and they've been under it ever since. But how many of you know that Calvary took away the curse? How many know that Calvary took away the curse? I've heard people say the black man is under a curse. I know that. The white man is under a curse, too. The Japanese is under a curse, too. And the German is under a curse, too. How many of you know that? Somebody says, Well, I know the black man is under a curse, but the Bible teaches that the white man is under a curse, too. God cursed all of them. Somebody says, but Calvary lifted the curse for the white man. No, it didn't. Calvary never lifted the curse of the black man, the white man, or the yellow man, or no other man. God, at Calvary, lifted the curse for the Christian. There is no person out from under the curse except for the Christian. And that Christian is bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, and that Christian is restored in the second man Adam. And that Christian is a quickening spirit and that Christian is in heaven and not in the earth. He's not covering with the covering of the earth, but he's in heaven and he's covering with the covering of God in heaven. He is in heaven. He is a Christian; he's in heaven, he's not under the curse. That's why that our faith is restored, but we've got to hold on to it. We've got to cherish it. We've got to build it up. We've got to try and believe in the Pastor instead of doubting him, the man of God. We've got to believe in the Word, the same word that Adam and Eve had their life from we've got to believe it. If that preacher is telling us the Word then we've got to believe the Word. And if we believe the Word and restore it back we restored eternal life. I tell you again, I don't care how many times you come to this tabernacle. I don't care how faithful you are in your occupation, your job, whether spiritually or naturally, if you're not born of the Spirit of God, if you don't have faith in the Word you're lost and undone without God. There's no hypocrite bigger, or worse, than a person that uses going to church and paying a little tithe to try to substantiate christianity. No bigger hypocrite than that. They stand at the door and they won't go in. They're just coming to hinder. All right. I want you to stand with me. We're not getting from God what He has for us. We're getting a little a long, because we don't have any enthusiasm. Our enthusiasm is dying down. Your zeal and your desire for God. You're eating to much in the natural and thinking too much in the natural. Got your mind too much carnally, Paul said. We're not getting the inspiration we need to get because you're like a babe, you know. You're all filled up. The Bible said the prodigal vain would have filled his belly with the husk that the swine eat, but he came to his right mind, the mind of Christ. Not getting enough enthusiasm, therefore the door is just barely being cracked. Just letting a little ray our once in awhile. Jesus said, I've got many things to say to you, but you are dull of hearing. Spiritual ears. You hear good with your natural ears. Somebody said, I can hear good, Brother Pike. I know you do, naturally speaking, but I'm talking about spiritual ears. Some of you are dull of hearing. You don't hear good with your ears. You don't see good with your spiritual eyes. Having eyes you don't see, Jesus said. The wicked shall not see when good cometh. That's why so many people come here and they go away and they say, Well, I didn't see nothing down there. Somebody come to me and said, What about that, Brother Pike? I said, It's true; they didn't. And then the person wondered what I was talking about. Said, With all this that's down here you mean he didn't see anything? I said, They never saw a thing. The reason is they were blind when they came here. The blind lead the blind they all fall in the ditch. The wicked shall not see when good cometh. They didn't have eyes to see. Some of you don't have eyes to see, but you need to anoint your eyes with eye salve that you might be able to see. Anoint with eye salve that you might be able to see. Let's sing a little chorus together. I want you to pray, seek God, because I've tried to do all I can in being effective here to you, but if my ministry ever gets to where it's not effective to help you, then I'm going to look for somebody it will be effective to. When you loose your enthusiasm for the things of God and hunger and thirst, then I'll go to the people that are hungering and thirsting after righteousness that I might fill them. You have to hunger and thirst after righteousness that you might be filled. I love you and I don't want to leave you. I want to abide with you. According to the Scriptures I'll never leave you nor forsake you. But, now, you can forsake me. You can turn away from me, and not follow me. Paul said follow me as I follow Christ. When you loose your joy and enthusiasm, like the vision that Brother Zell had that all the lights went out to the people, and said there wasn't but one light and that was shining over my head. You can beware err the darkness should come. You say, Brother Pike, what do you mean the lights went out? You think God is going to forsake us? No, I mean wherever He is there is light. There is light, but darkness is your own reasoning, your own carnal thinking. That's why Adam and Eve couldn't see Jesus. The light went out; everything got dark. And God said, from now on the first day shall be from evening until morning. They went out into the carnal mind. The thing that happened to Judas. The Bible said God gave him a sign; he went out into the darkness, into his own carnal thinking. And when the light goes out that means you're again in your own reasoning, your own planning, your own desires. Your own understanding; figuring out your own ways. And you won't be disappointed, as far as your own doing, because the Bible said every man's eyes are right in his own eyes. He'll be fully convinced that what he is doing is right, and what he is doing is the way of God. Kill you and think they do God service. But sheep can't lead themselves. It takes a shepherd. A woman can reject what her husband tells her. You can't convince her that she's not right. As far as she's concerned she can see everything wrong with her husband. She can tell you why she won't obey him. She can tell you all about him. But I tell you what, let her get converted and come to God and the first thing she'll do is throw her arms around her husband and tell him how wretched she's been and how she wants to be a light to him. See? The woman can't go without a head. There's no direction. There is no leadership. It has one time been said that a man is the head of the home and the woman is the heart. And that's the way it should be. That's right. If I'm the heart and Jesus is the head we'll get along all right. Because He can direct me by His head and I can love Him with all of my heart, and we'll get along good. That's the way it ought to be. Let's sing this little chorus together. We haven't sung this in a long time, the old song Amazing Grace how sweet the sound. (Singing) Can you sing it with me?

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.

Holiness Unto The Lord