Holy In Body

You can be seated. It's good to be here tonight. It's been a hot day. I was telling my wife today I'd sure hate to be in hell. Wouldn't you? As hot as it's been today and as good as water tastes it sure makes a person glad they don't have to go into the Lake of Fire. It's makes you grateful for Jesus. I want to read from the book of James tonight, chapter one. If you've got your Bibles you can read with me. First chapter, first verse. "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him as of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgeteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come into your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats: Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called? If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works: can faith save him: If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar: Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect: And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." That's reading a good little bit here. Those chapters were kind of short so I decided to read a little bit of it. James here makes it very clear that if we're going to have salvation then we must of necessity have works. There is no way to have faith without having works. That true faith is accompanied by works. Or, that is to say, one of the writers here, or he expressed it like this, James did, that he said, You show me your faith. If you don't have any works, you are not actively engaged in the things of God, you are not doing any thing toward the Kingdom of God, he said, if you are doing anything at all that's godly how are you going to show me your faith? Doesn't a person do what they believe? Or if they believe a thing isn't that what they practice? You know, if I believe in fishing I go fishing. If I believe in hunting I go hunting. If I believe in working I work. Whatever I believe in that's what I do. So then, the writer said it's utterly impossible to show your believing without your works. He said show me your faith without your works. That is, you cannot do it. It is impossible. But he said, I can show you my faith by my works. Without your works you have no faith, because faith constitutes works and works is a manifestation of believing. Now you can have works and not believe. But the thing is, if you have faith you are going to have something to prove it. You've going to do something about it. You're going to incorporate something into your life. This is why that we preach real Bible holy living, is because faith is active and alive. If I have faith it's going to do something to my body. A lot of people say, Well, we believe in being holy, Brother Pike, in spirit. But, see? The bible tells us to be holy in body, too. What am I going to do with my body? Paul said that God wants us to be before Him blameless, body soul and spirit. So then, what am I going to do about my body. Am I not going to bring my body into subjection? Isn't the whole thing centered around one thing and that's redemption of the body? Didn't Jesus die for the purpose to abolish death that He might bring to life immortality? and that immortality not of my soul but of my body, for my body is that that is under the sentence of death. I'm not worried about my soul dying because I've been born again. I have the Spirit of God on the inside of me. I've passed from death unto life so far as my soul is concerned. But the thing is what's going to happen to my body? Somebody you say, Well, Brother Pike, I don't care about my body. Well, you know better than that. The Bible said the body is the temple of God. It's the temple of the Holy Spirit and the man that defileth it then God's Holy Spirit cannot dwell in it anymore. Therefore, God must destroy it. So then, we must be concerned about the body because the body is the very thing that we want. It is the purchased possession. Therefore, the Bible said grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby thou art sealed unto the day of the redemption. Or that is, redemption of the body. I want my body, don't you. If they take you to the hospital and cut off on of your feet, or cut off both of your feet you would be helpless. Isn't that right? If they cut off both of your hands you would be helpless. So then, you want your hands. You want your feet. You want your eyes. You want your ears. Let a person go blind and look how helpless they are. See? They may still have their soul. They may still have their lives but they are helpless in this world they can't see anything. Isn't that right? So then, there is a lot of emphasis to be placed upon the body. This is the thing that Satan is fighting for. He's trying His best to hold your body. Are you listening to me, now. The devil wants to hold on to your body because he is the prince of this world and he savors the things that be of the body, the things that be of the flesh. He is cut off from the heavenly things. God has cut him off from those and he cannot get to those heavenly things, so the only kingdom that he has is of this world. And because of that he is trying to inhabit the human bodies and demon spirits are going, that is fallen angels, are going into the human body and they are taking into captivity the spirit and life of mankind, and they are misusing that life just like, as I said the other night, a nature, the nature of a rat will misusing that life that is on the inside of the rat. That life on the inside of the rat is just like life on the inside of a lamb. But, see? The perverted nature has it imprisoned and it is used in a different way. Take a person that's not serving God, watch how Satan will weave a web around them and around their mind and start misusing their body. He'll start using their five senses to his own desire. And in that he infiltrates the body he dwells in the flesh. And Paul discovered this in his revelation, and he said, Within my body there is dwelleth no good thing, he said, for to will is present but how to have a performance of this thing in a godly way I just can't find it. I have a will to do good, but he said, seeing that the creature, which is the body, is made relative to the dust and relative to sin, he said, It causes a continual warfare. I'm not a war with my body. Now that wouldn't make sense. Would that make sense if I told you that my man on the inside is fighting with my man on the outside? Somebody would say, Well, Brother Pike, is there such a thing as a man on the inside? The Bible speaks of the inner man and the outer man. And Paul said, Though the outer man perish, yet the inner man is renewed day by day. He said there is a continual warfare between the inner and the outer man. Am I then having a contest in the sense that my inner parts are fighting with my outer parts? Wouldn't that be a great division? Wouldn't that be a great confusion? Wouldn't that prove to be a great calamity? See? God is not telling me that my soul is warring against my body. God is telling me that there is something inside of my body, that my body, my flesh has been infiltrated. My human mind has been infiltrated and this evil power is after my body and trying to take my body into captivity and to be able to take my body and use it for his own gullible purposes he must overcome the inner part of me, which is Christ my hope of glory. He must overcome this God that I have in my soul, this great Spirit of Christ that's speaking from within me, that's trying to preserve my body and save my body from death. So there is a continual warfare between Lucifer on the outside in the body and Christ which is on the inside in my spirit. Or in my soul. See? My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It's the temple of God. When we speak of the body being the temple, what do we mean? I say that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Somebody would say, Well, I don't know what you've talking about, Brother Pike. But what I'm saying is that God is the spirit of life. And life cannot place itself on exhibit and cannot project itself to manifest unless it has a human body. It must have the mental faculties. It must have the arms. It must have the legs. And anything that you take away from the body automatically dwarfs life. That is it's a hindrance. Life is not in it's fullness. Now, let's just look at this for just a minute. We spoke last night concerning the covering of His glory. We spoke of this because Lucifer, who has been excommunicated from God, who has become the prince of this world, which is the ruler of darkness, in that the Bible said we wrestle not against each other. We wrestle not against flesh blood, but we wrestle against spiritual wickedness in high places, powers and principalities. That is, those evil powers that are working in the invisible world. You cannot see them because they are angels, fallen angels. So then, in this we see our war is against that and not against our flesh, not against our body, not against each other. So, when we realize that Satan has been excommunicated from that world he has set himself up a kingdom in this world, and you and I and all of the others have become his subject and we're under his power or his influence from the time we are born into this world. And there is but one thing that can change it and that is to let Christ get into our life, to let the Spirit of God get into our heart. If we do not take Christ into our lives, or the Spirit of God into our heart we are helpless. Take an individual that is sitting out here tonight, suppose that you've got cancer. Suppose that you've got the cancer germ within your blood. Brother, you can join every church you want to, you can shake hands with every pastor you want to, you can admit yourself to every hospital you want to, you can meet every doctor and know him by name, but unless somebody take something that is strong enough that they can pop it into your veins and that serum can get in there and kill that cancer germ you are going to die. It's the same way with sin. You can join every church you want to, know every pastor you want to, you can be a celebrity about town, you can have a reputation, but if you've got sin in your heart you are going to die. There is nothing that can change that except Christ. And when you are born into that world you've got sin in your life. When you are born into this world you are not charged with sin in that you are an infant, and as you live as a little child you are not charged with it, because where there is no knowledge of transgression sin is not imputed. But just as soon as you start maturing, just as soon as you start developing, just as soon as you start knowing right from wrong then God begins to charge every wrong against you, and then you begin to be a transgressor of the law of righteousness. And then you have need for a savior, and you begin to search for something to lift the heavy load and to take away the condemnation because you know that you are sinning against God and the Bible said the soul that sinneth shall surely die. So then, the devil has got you under his control until you are born again. Your first birth is just a prey for the devil. You are just right for the devil. It doesn't matter how good you might think you are. It doesn't matter how secure you think you are in this world. It doesn't matter how much morals you've got, you are dying and your soul is in jeopardy in that you are going to be turned into the Lake of Fire. It doesn't matter how good you are, folks. The Bible said there is none good but God. So then, your goodness cannot save you. Did you know the Pharisees and the Scribes, Jesus gives us a little illustration. Two men went up into the temple and one of those men he stood there and he said, Lord, I thank yo that I'm not like others. I'm a church goer. I've got church membership. That is, I am among the religious people. He said, I pay tithes of all I possess. He said, I fast twice a week. Are you listening now? I'm a religious person. I believe in fasting. I fast twice a week; I pay tithe of all that I have and I thank you that I'm not like that publican. The Bible said God looked down from heaven. He looked down upon this man and the other man beat himself upon the chest, would not as much as raise his head, as we would say, and said, Oh God! Have mercy on me a sinner! And the Bible said that man went down to his house justified rather than the religious man. Now why did God do that? He said lest your righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees and Scribes ye shall in no wise go into the Kingdom of God. He said you've got to excel self-righteousness. He said paying tithes is self-doing. Isn't that right? He said fasting is something that you do. He said that's your part in it. He didn't say that was wrong but He said you've got to have a righteousness which is greater than that righteousness, which is Christ in you the hope of glory. You've got to have the righteousness that comes from God, the righteousness that excels religious activities. Now, you've got to have those religious activities. You need to fast, you need to pray. The Bible tells me as a minister that I should fast often. It tells me that you should fast. But on the other hand, that has nothing to do with my justification in the sight of God. That is something that I do for preparation to present myself unto God, sanctifying myself daily that God might use me. So then we see that Lucifer has control of the body and he is on the rampage today all over the world and he is literally devouring millions of people. How is he doing it? By the lust of the flesh, by the lust of the flesh. For the Bible said the flesh lusteth unto envy. And the Bible tells us to refrain from fleshly lust, said, because it warreth against the soul. And the original rendering of the word lust is desire. Stay away from the desires of the flesh, he said. Make no preparation to fulfill the desire of the flesh, or the lust thereof, but follow after Christ and deny your flesh, deny yourself. Let every man that followeth me let him deny himself. Let him take up his cross and follow me if he's going to be my disciple. See? The whole thing centers around one thing and that is, Jesus' life was a life of self-denial. This is where the church is losing out today. The church is trying to make a spiritual thing out of this all together and they are saying there is nothing to it concerning the body. They don't have to do anything about it, and so they are getting involved more and more in the things of the world and the devil is just having himself a jubilee over it because he knows that he has them blinded and he's using their bodies and he's literally devouring thousands of people, millions of people. That's why disease is on the rampage the way it is right now. Disease is at an all time high and the Bible said it's in such a way that in a little while there won't even be any healing medicines. Like I said here the other night, a man told me, said, I spent five thousand dollars for medicine, said, but when I got through taking the medicine they still took my feet off. Said, They were no healing medicine. People are still losing their arms, they're still losing their eyes, they're still losing their organic part. They are still losing their feet. And yet they are spending millions of dollars on medicine, but it it getting to where there is no healing medicine. How many of you understand what I'm saying tonight? So then, when we speak of this body we want to preserve this body. We want God to heal this body. I have to have this body so I can enjoy my life. How can I enjoy my life if I don't have my body? See? I can't enjoy life if I don't have my body. I can't eat an apple. I can't eat an orange. I can't drink a milk shake. I can't set down to a steak. I can't ride around in an automobile. I can't fly in an airplane, see? if I don't have my body. I can't be in church like we are tonight and fellowship one with another and shake hands with somebody and have the wonderful presence of you near, and my presence near you that you might see me and I might see you. I have to have my eyes to do that. So then, there is a lot of emphasis to be placed on the body. The devil has the human being under his control today. He is the prince of the powers of the air, which means he is the ruler, the invisible powers, the ruler of all of the powers that are in the air, which means the invisible angelic powers, or the principalities that Paul spoke of. But not only that. Being the ruler or the prince of this world he is the prince of the powers of the air which means the atomic particles. If he is the ruler of this world and the powers of darkness, if he is the prince and ruler of this world then that means that he has power through science and the intellectual reasoning over the particles of your body. That means that Lucifer having power over that intricate matter, then he has power over your body because your body is a composition of atomic articles that's taken from the dust. Therefore, they use the terms when they speak of the mind, they say, Mind over matter. Mind over matter. When we speak of matter in energy we say the mind is over the matter. That is, the supreme mind of science, the supreme mind of Lucifer has control of all form of matter, and they are able to change it from one image to another image, from one thing to another thing. But, Brother, let me tell you something. It is not Lucifer's mind over matter, which is man's mind, but God's mind is the one that spoke matter into existence. It is God's Word and God's thinking and God's mind that is mind over the matter. God is the one that made it and Lucifer is an impostor. And science is falsely s0-called, Paul said. It's not real knowledge. The Bible said they are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. One year they positively prove that there is something on the moon and the next year they positive probe that they were wrong about what they said was on the moon. Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. And the only real support they've got for their understanding they have to go back to the Bible. Otherwise, you know what they do? They give you what they call history, or his story. That's all they've got to go by. They word history means his story. In others words, I'll give you his story. That's what he said about it and he gave me the story. You know, this fellow gave him the story and he gave me the story and I'll give you the story. And so we'll go back to his story. But, Brother and Sister, there is only one history. There is only one his story that's right and scientist have learn that even they when they go back to hieroglyphics and the rosetta stone and go back to Egypt looking for civilization that get stumped and they have to stop. And did you know that if you'll check history you'll find out they have to go back to the Bible to prove their genealogies. And did you know the Bible is the only genealogy they've got. Did you know that? Out of all of the history they don't have any genealogy. (Begin tape one, side two.)..never come to the knowledge of the truth. But I'm talking to you tonight about the wonderful knowledge of God. I'm talking to you tonight abut the wonderful knowledge of truth. And this knowledge of truth it goes to God, it goes to Christ, it goes to healing, it goes to salvation, it goes to life in great and mighty abundance. But when it comes to Satan it is true that he has the power. And that power is the prince of the powers of the air that's now in effect, which means he has the power to give you cancer. He has the power to trouble you. He has the power to afflict your blood genetics, to get into your blood stream. He has the power to cause you problems because you are fleshly and you are a composition of atomic particles. So those atoms he has power over and the atomic parts that you are composed of he's got power over that. So he can handle that. He can harass you. He can bother your mind. He can bother your soul. He can trouble your soul. That's why the Bible said abstain from fleshly lust that warreth against the soul. But at the same time we've got to conquer the body. At the same time we've got to surrender the body to God. If we're going to have redemption of the body and we're going to have immortality we're going to have to do something about this body. You know, a preacher can preach like that and somebody will say, Don't preach like that, preacher. You know, preach about the Spirit. Preach about the this, preach about that, but when you get down to where you say do something about your body, do something about your body, do something about your body. In other words, get a hold of your body, cause your body to conform to godliness, cause your body to conform to this Word. Why conform to this Word? Because this is the words of life and this is the only thing that can heal the body. The Bible said He sent His Word and healed the body. It stands to reason that if it takes this Word to heal the body it's going to take this Word to change this body into immortality. Isn't that right? The Bible said that Jesus Christ abolished death in His body, and he brought to life the resurrection and the immortality of the body. Isn't that right? So then, it stands to reason that we need to go something about our bodies. We need to get a hold of our mental faculties and we need to get a hold of our body. And the Bible said be holy in body and in spirit. How can I be bone of His bone and flesh of his flesh if I am not holy in my body? How can I say, Well, I holy in my spirit and I'm not holy in my body when the Bible said the child is know by his doings? Not by his sayings, but by his doings. Whatever I do that's what I am. Isn't that right? If I go out here and I catch a man and I murder that man am I not a murder? If I go out here and I take a gun and I rob a bank am I not a robber? If I go out here (and I listen now.) and I play the hypocrite on God am I not a hypocrite? If I profess something that I'm not doing, isn't that hypocrisy? If I go out here and I say I'm something that I'm not, isn't that lying? If I say that I'm a Christian when I'm not a Christian__ But you say, Brother Pike, I am a Christian because I believe I'm a Christian. But that doesn't mean you're a Christian. This is the thing I'm trying to get over. Just because you say you're a Christian because you believe you're a Christian, that doesn't mean you're a Christian. Just because somebody tells you you're a Christian that doesn't mean you're a Christian. But the word Christian comes from, we say Christianity, it comes from being Christ like. Down at Antioch they were first called Christians because they acted like Jesus. So then, how am I a Christian? When am I a Christian? How do I know that I'm a Christian? It is when I conform to Christ. And who is Christ? He is the Word. The Bible teaches that the Word was made flesh and that was the Son of God. That was Christ. When I conformed to His way I conformed to the Word and I began to make the Word flesh. When my flesh begins to do like this Word then I am becoming Christ like. I'm beginning to be a Christian and the Word knows that I'm Christ like. See? This is what's important. The body has to do something, beloved friend. Your body must do something. You can't just throw your body out like that and, Well, I'm a Christian. It doesn't matter how I dress. It doesn't matter how I look. It doesn't matter what I say. I believe in God. God loves me, I'm going to heaven. But I tell you, you're not going to do it. You're not going to do it. You're not going to heaven because you belong to the church, of any kind. What's that got to do with it anyway? I say again, just because you got admitted to the hospital doesn't mean you're going to live. I use to run the ambulance service. I'd go over to the hospital, I'd take them over to the hospital and sometimes never did bring them back. Just because I got them to the hospital while they were still breathing, that didn't mean nothing. I could get them to the hospital but that didn't mean they were going to be saved. That didn't mean they were going to live. They had some of the best doctors but that still didn't prove nothing. See? So belonging to a church don't prove anything whatsoever. The thing is, have you been born again? Have you been born of the Spirit of God? Do you have God's Spirit tonight? Are you walking in the light as He is in the light? Are you doing something for Christ? Is your mind on world evangelism tonight? I read to you tonight, pure and undefiled religion is this, before God and the Father, and that is that you visit the widows and the orphans in their afflictions and then keep yourself unspotted from the world. Now the question is, are you keeping yourself unspotted from the world? Are you coming out from them? Are you a separate people. He said come out from among them and I will receive you, saith the Lord. Are you keeping yourself unspotted from the world? Are you visiting the widows and the orphans in the sense that you are supporting world evangelism, and you're giving to the little hungry person over there that doesn't have anything? Have you ever been down the streets of India? Have you ever been down the streets of Central America or South America or some of those countries down there? Have you ever seen those people starving to death? And seeing the cancer and seeing the leprosy, and seeing all these evil things just devouring their body? You say there is nothing to the body. I tell you what, you go down there and see their poor little helpless bodies and you see the things that's happening to them and you'll find out there is much emphasis to be placed upon the body. When you see the mute, the blind, the lame and all these things, when you see the suffering, you say, My God! There is something about this of the body. When you start getting pain, when you start getting a tooth ache, when you get to where you can't hardly see enough to comb your hair in the mirror and all these things begin to happen to you, then you know that you need your body. You need to do something, beloved friend. Are we going to stand back and let disease eat our body up? Somebody said, I'll go to the hospital, Brother Pike. But what good is that going to do? If the Bible said there will be no healing medicine what can the doctor do for you? Listen. It is true that through the grace of the Lord Jesus, through His kindness, through His compassion, through His love he has allowed grace to be here and he has allowed us to have medical care, for which I'm very grateful. I'm very grateful for anything that you can do to help your body. If it's godly and holy and you don't have to go through a nudeness and an expose to discredit God or to discredit the way of God I'm for it. Are you listening? Somebody said, Now, wait a minute, Brother Pike. All right, let's look at it. Somebody said, What are they going to do about the children that come into the world, Brother Pike? We're going to do like they did down in Egypt when the Bible said they brought forth their children quickly and they didn't have to go through the awful travail. They didn't have to go before a bunch of men and expose their bodies and put themselves on parade like a bunch of harlots. Can somebody say amen? It never has been God's way to expose people and cause people to be degraded. It's Satanic way of science, knowledge falsely so-called. It's the practice of the devil to ruin lives and to take away virtue, and to get people to where they don't care about anything. Because they get confused and they say, My God! What can you do about it? Everybody does it. How are we going to approach the situation? By the Bible. By the Bible. Somebody says, But, Brother Pike, we're too far down the road for that right now. I know we're too far down the road for the people to turn back to it and do like they ought to, though we ought to be trying with all of our heart. And there are the people that are doing it, and there's some that coming along that are going to do it, but I want you to know that though the world is too far down the trail God is going to set up a kingdom and God is going to bring in the millennium and God is going to bring in a thousand years of living and ruling right here in this present world. God's going to bring it in. He's going to set it up right. It's going to be decent. It's going to be holy. And God's going to prove to you and prove to me and prove to science and prove to the medical world and all the rest of them, the military powers and whatever, that you don't have to fight, and you don't have to slay each other, and you don't have to split each others throat to survive. And that you don't have to put yourself on expose in the world to be a whoremonger or a harlot to have a society. God is going to prove that to us. But, beloved friend, I speak unto you tonight as unto people of wisdom, people of understanding, people of godliness, people that what to know the truth. There is something that we must do about this body. Am I to give my body out here to the world? Now listen to me. I go to church, so then I hear the preacher, and the preacher preaches to me, and I say, That's beautiful. I love that. That's wonderful words, let him preach more to me. But then I look into the mirror and I see myself undone in the presence of God's wonderful Word and then I go away. And it isn't long before I forgot how undone I really was. And then I look around and somebody says, Let's do this, and I say. All right, but what about my body. I went in there, what did I do? Why did I go to church? What was the purpose of going to church? I'm out of church now we say. Somebody says, What shall we do? You name it and we'll do it. Whatever you want to do we'll do it. Wherever it's to go, whatever it's to do, whatever pertains to the world we'll do it. You just name it and we'll do it. Somebody said, Don't talk like that, Brother Pike, it bothers me when you do that. It bothers me, too. It bothers the devil, too. And a lot of times the bother that you have is the devil. The devils got a hold of your mind and the devil's got a hold of your flesh and you don't want to give up sipping on the beer and you don't want to give up sucking on the weed and you don't want to put on decent clothes and you don't want to stay away from the world and come out from among you so you get miserable. Why do you get miserable? Because the devil makes you miserable. That devil that's got a hold of your mind. That devil that's using your body. That devil that knows he'll go back in the bottomless pit, that he'll go out into the dry places. He'll be cast out. He won't be able to do the thing he wants to do as living in your body as a parasite and living your life. You know, a lot of people go through life and when they get thirty-five, fifty years old they look back and they say, You know, I just don't understand this. It is as if I had no life in the past. I can't hardly_ I just don't have anything. It's almost like something else lived my life. Where is my life? I haven't really done what I would like to do. I would really accomplish what I wanted to accomplish. What is this? Something has lived my life. Something has taken my life. And that's true. Parasites, demon spirits. Did you know that you can set in front of a t.v. and a devil can come into your life? A devil can come into your heart? Somebody would say, Well, I don't believe that. Well, it's true anyhow. You can have evil communications and it will corrupt your good manners, even if you've got good manners. And you can set in front of that t.v. and that devil will come straight out of Hollywood and come right straight down to your house. Somebody said, Brother Pike, you just don't understand Hollywood. I understand Hollywood. I preached in Hollywood, up and down the coast of California and Hollywood, too. Out of Hollywood comes those devils and demons of wild imagination. We act like a bunch of children and we gullibly swallow those things up, all of the make believe. Those things come out like a little child. Here's a young woman here; she's baby sitting. She's watching; she's trying to protect the little ones, but all of a sudden as she gets into that environment an the devil comes forth and gets in her mind and spirit the next thing you know the paper carries it. She chokes the little one to death. Why did she do that? She didn't do it before. What caused her to do that? The devil came right straight into her by using the t.v. to do it. Now you say, He came out of the television? No. He just used that as an instrument to get her faith and her thinking and come right into her because he's the prince of the powers of the air and all around you everywhere this is a world of darkness. Devils and demons, fallen angels are present. Somebody said, Well, I don't believe in that. It's like I said the other night. Billy Graham made the statement, said, anybody that didn't believe in the devil made themselves an open target for him. That's true. People that feel their so brilliant they can't talk about spiritual things and they say, Well, I can't see him; He's not there. Like man told me one time. I went to talk to him about God. I walked into his room. I went to talk to him about God and I looked up__ He was sick. I wanted to pray for him. Fine man, had a fine home, whatever. I looked up. I wanted to start a conversation. As I looked up I saw a picture hanging on the wall and it had to do with the Lord Jesus. I started a conversation. He said, Wait. Don't talk about that. I don't believe in that. And he just stopped me right flat. I said, You don't believe in it? He said, I don't believe in that. He was an infidel. And you would be shocked over what caused him to be an infidel. If I mentioned him tonight it would be childish, but it would be shocking to you to know how easy devils can wreck human hearts and minds. But he said, Don't talk to me about that. I don't believe that. Well, see? I knew he was an infidel when I went in there because I'd already talked to his wife and she said, My husband is an infidel. Said, He's one of the finest men you ever met. He's one of the finest providers you've ever seen. He takes care of us, (?) everything is well with us but He don't believe in God. He just don't believe in God. I said, Well, I'll talk to him is you want me to and I'll pray for him, but he stopped me right flat. I said, Sir, tell me something. I said, You don't believe in God, tell me why is it you don't believe in God. Of course he told me what caused it. But I said, Why is it you don't believe in God? He said, Because I cannot see God. He said, If you'll show me God I'll believe in God. I said, Then that means you only believe in what you see. He said, That's exactly right. I said, Well, how is it, sir, that we don't see the wind. I said, But when the wind blows sometimes it's so strong it takes the trees up by the root. I said, It tears houses down and it dismantles things, I said, How is it you believe in the wind? And he was shocked. See? Things that are invisible are more powerful than visible things. I was talking to a man in Arizona about the resurrection, a very intellectual person. He said, Do you mean to tell me that something can get down through that vault to that body that's sealed in there, and down in the dirt, and bring it out. I said, There certainly is something that can do it. I said, God can do it. His Spirit can do it. He said, You can't show me that. You can't prove that to me. We happened to be standing near a window and the sun was shining bright in Arizona, and while we were standing there all of a sudden the sun began to move and come right straight through that window and fell down on the floor and I said, Sir, do you see that light on the floor. He said, Yes. I said, How did it get through the sealed window into the room where we're at? And he was dumbfounded. You see? God can do what He want to and demon spirits can go into your body. Evil spirits, though you may not see them, they can go into your body. After Jesus had finished his forty day fasting, being out there in the wilderness with the beasts, the Bible said the angels of God came and strengthened Him. Do you know how they Him? The same way that the angel did when it appeared to the shepherds on the hillside. The Bible said the angel of the Lord came upon them. See? It is a spirit. It is a strength. It is an invisible source and that thing can move right into you. Sometimes when you're feeling at your lowest ebb and angel of God can come by, like he did to Daniel, and he can strengthen you. When Daniel said, All of my strength is gone. My inwards have turned into corruption; I retain no strength. The Bible said the angel of the Lord touched him and Daniel said, Speak on because I have received strength. So, the Bible said the angels of the God encamp around about them that love the Lord. You've got a guardian angel. When I say that tonight you might mock it. You might not believe it. You might say prove it to me. But if we had the time tonight I could prove to you that every individual has a guardian angel, every person. And you can communicate with him through Jesus Christ but you've got to do like Daniel. You've got to get away from your fleshly reason and get into the Spirit. But tonight we're principally talking about the body. Can the devils and demons inhabit the body? Can the devils and demons take over your body? Can they take over your mind? They can drive you insane. They can make an alcoholic out of you. You know, you take a person that's becomes an alcoholic, that person may be one of the finest people you ever met in your life, and you can't understand why that person can't get control of themselves. But see? If is a spirit. That spirit has control of their mind; they can't get a loose from it. You can take them to a rehabilitation center and work with them and you may get them of of it for a while by keeping them away from it, but it won't be long if you turn them a loose they'll go right straight back to that thing. The Bible said like the sow that's been washed. They'll go right back to the wallowing in the mire. That nature is there for that hog to wallow in the mire and it doesn't matter how much you wash that hog that is looking for the mire because it's pleasing to it's nature. See? There is a perverted nature that gets a hold of a person that makes them an alcoholic. That thing gets in there and it's just a whining crying self-pity sort of a thing that they loose all control of their mind. They loose all control of their body. They get to where they feel they can't do anything. The devil has done a lot of people that way in Christianity. Did you know that? You get in a church and you keep hearing a preacher hammer on you and hammer on you and hammer on you that you don't have to do this and you can't do that and God loves you so much He didn't require it of you anyway, after awhile you'll get to where you are worthless in the Kingdom of God. You'll get to where you don't have any standards of holiness. You'll get to where you don't have standards of godliness. You'll get perverted in your mind and you'll get past feeling and you'll get to thinking that you're going to heaven irregardless to what you do. But I'm telling you tonight, folks, you've got to be born again. And I'm telling you tonight you've got to have some works with your faith, which means your body has got to come into focus. Your body has got to do something. You've got to do something with your body. You say, What must I do with my body. One of the things is you must repent. Another thing, you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with your heart and spirit and mind, to love Him with your body, with your soul, with your strength, to love him with all of your strength. See? When you love God with your strength it means you do something with your strength, with your body. Isn't that right? You do something for God. The next thing you need to do you need to be baptized. There is something for the preacher to do with you. He needs to baptize you. There's a lot of dispute as to where you sprinkle them, or whether you put them under the water. You need to go under the water. Are you listening? Somebody said, Brother Pike, as long as I'm sprinkled I'm all right. The Bible doesn't teach that. The word baptize means to plunge under in the original. Check it out and see. The word baptismo, or plunge under. It doesn't mean to sprinkle. That's a burial. The Bible said you are buried into the death of Jesus Christ. Now tell me something. Would you take a dead man if you were going to bury him and lay him out here and sprinkle a little dirt on him. Now, would you do that? I'm afraid you'd have a bad odor. And that's what's wrong with the church; we've got a lot of bad odor because they didn't really bury them. Isn't that right? So then, tonight we've got something to do with our body. I must do something with my body. Besides that don't you want to do something with you body? When God put Adam and Eve in the Garden didn't He give them something to do? He said you dress the Garden. A person that won't do anything with their body they'll set down and rot. Now, you try it. You retire. Watch a person that retires and it isn't long before they have their funeral, as a rule, unless that person is a person that gets active and does something. Because if that person is use to keeping their body, you know, in movement and keep their joints loosened up and whatever, they keep right on living. Like a man I knew, rode a bicycle all the way to California at a hundred years old. Warner Brothers bought it from him. But he could ride the bicycle, he was agile. He could get around. Why? Because he kept his body in that kind of condition. A lot of people don't live their lives, I'd say, half out because they just sit around and they don't go nothing. And the less they do the less they want to do because the more complicated the situation gets in their body and they finally don't have the strength to do anything. The first news you know the pancreas won't give of the insulin and they find the little (?) that's in the pancreas has done quite on them and they can't get in any of that to work with them in the sugar blood, and they find themselves in a terrible condition. All of their strength is gone. So it is with many other diseases because we don't utilize out ability and strength in the body. But folks, let's rise up and do something for God. You ladies that are setting here you try to figure out everyday what you can do with your body to do better for God. Did you know a ballet dancer tries to figure out what she can do with her body to get attention and do more for her career? Did you know that? Did you know a singer will do the same thing in dressing or singing or whatever? Now, isn't that right? A man with skill and ability he'll try to figure what more he can do with his thinking and his ability of body to make his career greater. Now if you're going to be a child of God, if you're going to be a daughter of God then try to figure out what you can do with this body. How that you can dress more holy that you can look more like a godly woman, more like a lady than just a woman. And you men think of it like this: Let me do more for God. Let me seek the kingdom first. Let me put God first. Let my plans, let my thinking, let my ability be to prayer and to be to fasting and to be to study, and let my concern be for God. And then let my job and let my career and let all of these things be secondary. Is that Bible? Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these other things will be added unto you. Try to figure out how to take care of an orphan. If you're not supporting an orphan, folks, you haven't got anything. If you're not supporting the weak you haven't got anything. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this that you do something for the hungry, for the needy. You have the compassion of Jesus that went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil. You do something. Being Christlike, you help somebody. And you keep yourselves unspotted from the world. You stay away from the television program that are non-virtuous, you stay away from the magazines that are non-virtuous. You stay away from the newspapers that are non-virtuous. You stay away from the conversations that are non-virtuous. You stay away from those things in the world that does not edify and build you up in the things of God. If you're striving for mastery you are going to have to do that. Now you can go out there and mix and mingle with the world. Paul said all things are lawful to me but all things are not expedient. That is, think on these things that have virtue. Somebody said, What are you trying to do, Brother Pike? What are you trying to tell me to leave alone? I ain't trying to tell you to leave nothing along. If you'll come out from the world you'll leave it all alone. If you get in Christ there ain't nobody going to have to tell you to leave nothing alone. There's going to be something on the inside that's going to change your appetite, folks, and you're not going to hunger and thirst after that thing of the world. You're going to hunger and thirst after God. If you ever get this Christ on the inside of your heart that I've got on the inside of my heart it might take a day or two, or a week or two, or a month or two. It might even take a year or two, but if Jesus tarrys one of these days it's going to transformate your mind, it's going to transformate your thinking, it's going to change your hunger and your thirst and you're going to find the things that you did love you don't like anymore. And you're going to find yourself changing around. All right. Let me say just a little more here and we're going to close in exhorting you tonight. I just want to say a few more things. Where do we get problems? It says here in the fourth chapter from whence comes wars and fightings among you. Come they not hence even of your lust that war in your members? What causes the war between the nations? The Bible said is it the lust that's in your members? Somebody gets to lusting after something and they get somebody else there and they get somebody else and the first news you know they've got themselves a place of leadership and they've got hundreds of thousands of people involved and slaying them when it wasn't nothing but just their gullible desires for something whether it be preeminence or power or whatever. All of it was that way. Alexander the great, the time of the Persians, all of it was the same way. Check it out and you'll find out some of it was just out of temper and revenge. It says, Ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain.

You fight and war, yet ye have not because you ask not. He said, And then when you do ask you don't receive it, said, because you ask amiss that you may consume it on your own lust. God said, When you do ask me for something I can't give it to you because all that you've got inside is what you want to do and the way you want to use it. Said, You don't come to me and ask me for something to where I can bless you that you might bless others, that your cup might run over and you might help others. And you don't ask for that. He said, All of your plans are for yourself. You know, give me a car for me and my four and no more. Give me a house. Give me land. Give me money. Give me something to eat. Let me do what I want to. Let me go on vacation. But, beloved friend, when you begin to ask that you might help others, and you begin to look toward salvation and the true laws of liberty and you ask God to do something for you that you might do something for others I'll guarantee you God will make your cup run over. I know He will because I've already been down that trail. Tonight my cup runs over. I do not know of anything, not anything that I desire that I can't get or that I desire that I don't have. That's right. I wanted a plane so God gave me two of them. I wanted a ship so he gave me a nice ninety-something foot ship. I wanted a tent. I wanted video. I wanted sound equipment, to own my own professional studio. I wanted a campground. I wanted a church. I wanted buildings. I wanted, wanted, wanted, wanted. You know, that's the way man is. He always wants something. And I just wanted something, but I wanted it for God. I said, God, I want it to do something for you. I want it to share with others. I want to help somebody. I want to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. I wanted hundreds of thousands of dollars and God gave me hundreds of thousands of dollars, and still giving me hundreds of thousands of dollars. Do you know why? Because I wanted it for Christ sake. I wanted to use it for God. I want to serve God with my body. I want to serve God with my mind. And this your going to learn, beloved friend. As you go down the trail you're going to find out that if God gives you everything that He can give you your going to learn that you love Him better than all of His gifts. You know, today I love God better than all His gifts. He's given me everything I ever wanted, but I thought about it and I told Jesus. I said, Jesus, I thank you for everything, but after I've though it over really I love you better than all of your gifts. I'd rather have you than all of your gifts, Lord. Because you learn that he's really the wonderful thing. So then, tonight as we stand together I want you to think this over. We need to do something with our body for faith without works is dead even as the body without the spirit is dead. Therefore, let's do something for God with our body, beloved friend. If your not doing anything for God think about the missionaries in the foreign fields. Think of the sacrifice and the heartaches that some of them go through. They're doing something for God with their bodies. There are many people in the world today, they have given their bodies wholly. The Bible speaks of giving your body a living sacrifice unto God, holy and acceptable unto God which is a reasonable service. He said that if I give my body completely unto God as a living sacrifice, said, I've only done a reasonable service in the light of what Jesus did for me. So tonight are you doing anything for God with your body, with your hands, with your eyes, with your ears? Are you doing anything for God by working on a job. The Bible said labor that you might have to give that you might support the weak. Are you doing anything for God? Said to love the Lord with all of your strength. Did you know that's where your strength comes in, is remembering others as you share with them? You put your strength into that. So tonight, you think about what I'm telling you. That body is precious; don't lose it. Paul said, I'd like to present you before God blameless body, soul and spirit. That body is precious. You might not think so. You might be a young man, young woman tonight; you might not think too much of it. Wait until the health starts failing. Wait until you go to press your death pillar and you get to thinking about them putting you in a coffin. I remember I had a vision one time. I was having it rough. We were over in some state and I was due to preach at some persons tent. I was suppose to preach under the tent and I was having it rough and I said, I told my wife, I said, Honey, I said, you get you a room over there and I'm going to get me one by myself over here. I want to communicate (Begin tape two, side one.) I saw a casket roll up. Here come two fellows, dark men. They came rolling a casket up. And they rolled the casket up right where I was at. I looked at the casket and I heard one of them talking to the other one, or whatever, and he looked over at me and I said, Are you looking for me? They said, Yes, we came to get you. Said, we're looking for you. I got up, you know, in the vision. I got up and I went over to where the casket was and I climbed up and put my foot over in the casket and all of a sudden it dawned on me what I was doing. I said, Whoa! Wait a minute. I said, I'm not going to get in that casket. Oh, yes. That's what we came for. I said, No way. I'm not planning to get in that casket. I said, I'm not getting in the casket and that's it. So he kind of looked at me, you know, kind of stunned like, and said, Okay. So they rolled the casket away. See? That's the way you have to do it. If you don't the devil will put you in a casket. Isn't that right? The Bible said, Resist the devil, he'll flee from you. How many of you know that death is God's enemy? One night we're going to preach on Christ abolishing death. I just mentioned it tonight but one night we're going to preach on it. And did you know it's beautiful? It's unbelievably beautiful. This is something that really shocks me. Why the church wants to play around with the things out there in the world and go after the frolics of the world when God has got something that's so breathtaking and so beautiful that there is no comparison. The Bible speaks of the mysteries of godliness. Why do we go after the frivolous and beggarly elements of the world to get into bondage to those things? The wonderful things of God are being hid, but, beloved friend, God has got a plan. And I tell you from the bottom of my heart He's got a plan where you don't have to get in the casket. He's got a plan where you don't have to go by the way of the grave. He's got a plan where they don't have to throw dirt in on the top of you. Somebody would say, Oh, no, Brother Pike, that's absurd. Oh, no. That's the Word of God. That's the Word of God. Somebody's going to find out about it. Somebody's going to learn about it. Somebody's going to enjoy it. Somebody's going to be partakers of it. Watch and see. And we're moving in on it. That's one reason this tent is in Eden tonight. I speak unto you as spirituals Paul said. I've not been able to say too many things here concerning the mysteries of God because I have to just speak to you as I can, not knowing who is spiritual and who is not unless I have a chance to discern their spirit, God reveals it to me, or I meet somebody, I just have to speak the best I can. But oh, beloved friend, there are so many wonderful mysteries. Paul spoke of his much revelation. There are so many wonderful mysteries of God until it is unbelievable. They are so beautiful. Did you know that this very day sitting right over here, just before I went to talk with Christ over in the evening about the service, I set there with a group of men from the morning of about eight thirty, I guess it was, over until about two o'clock? And did you know that we never ceased to talk about the wonderful things of God? And during that period of time we brought out a number of mysteries, a number of mysteries. Great is the mystery of godliness. Somebody said, Brother Pike, the gospel is just a simple thing. I know that. Just to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, be saved. No mystery about it. But on the other hand the Bible speaks of the mystery of iniquity and then it speaks of the mystery of godliness and it says great is the mystery of godliness. And Paul said, I am a steward of the mysteries. What beautiful things the church is missing all because they are more interested in the tangible side of life. Beloved friend, get a hold of your body. It's redemption time. It's time to bring that body in. It's time to do something. Let's sing a little chorus together, can we? There was a time in my life when I did not know that there was such a thing as a mystery. I really didn't. I fasted, prayed, did whatever you are suppose to do, tried to live a Christian life. But I didn't know there was a mystery. I didn't know there was anything for the church. And when I read where Paul said, My much revelation. I didn't know how to take that. I didn't know how to understand that. But did you know tonight, my hands be raised to God. I hope the Lord will kill me before I breathe another breath if this isn't the truth. I can truthfully say tonight as Paul said, My much revelation, much revelation. Wonderful, wonderful things. Exceedingly much revelation concerning the lovely mysteries of Jesus Christ the Son of God. And today I wouldn't trade my experience for all of the things of the world. In the first place when you seek God you get all the other things anyway. But when you get all the other things you find out that seeking God and the thing that you got from God is the thing that thrills you, the thing that you love. That's the most valuable to begin with. But the Lord just does the other to let you know that He won't withhold any good thing from them that walk upright before Him. He loves you. He wants you to have every good thing. You know, let me say this right hurriedly, not to weary your patience but just right hurriedly. God's got a three fold blessing. He's got a physical blessing. He's got a spiritual blessing and He's got a natural blessing. You have to have all of them. One of them is for your spirit, one of them is for your soul and one of them is for your body. Did you know that if you don't have health you can't enjoy nothing. Did you know that? If you don't have health you can't enjoy anything whatsoever. You can't even eat a can of sardines and a box of soda crackers without having pain, without having misery. You can't ride anywhere without almost going insane and being in misery because you don't have your health. So you must have your health. That's why God put healing in the atonement. Another thing, how can you enjoy life if you don't have the things that necessitated to life? If you don't have the things, like an automobile and a place to live and a place to lie down, and sufficient finance to pay your bills to where you can hold your head up and be a human being as a human being ought to be, you can't be happy. If you don't have something to share with your wife, your husband, or your children, you can't be happy. So it's necessary for God to give you the wonderful, natural things of life and that as he runs them through the filter seeking the Kingdom of God first that these things might be added, taking the curse off of them. And then you cannot be happy even if you have your physical health and your natural substance unless you have satisfaction of your heart and soul in the spirit, knowing that all things is well between you and your creator, that you are going to live eternally, and that when you finish with what you've got down here, not only can you enjoy it here with the liberty without condemnation, with the liberty of the Spirit but knowing that you are going to be able to enjoy it eternally in that God has reserved to you all wonderful things throughout eternity. You can't be happy unless you have spiritual rest, spiritual peace. You've got to have spiritual peace. You've got to have a rest folks. And God has so made it that way. I would above all things, He said, that ye prosper, your natural, you prosper and be in health, your physical, even as your soul prospers, your spiritual. So His three-fold blessing for you is that you might be complete in all thing. That's why James tells us to be patient. The coming of the Lord draweth near; be patient. Let God make you patient that you might be entire, that way your faith will register and you won't lack nothing. All good things will be yours. I will withhold no good thing from them that walk upright before me. No good thing. While they're playing on the organ again, let's sing a little chorus together, can we? Every night we've taken just a few minutes for Jesus, and I know some people don't have time for Jesus. I realize that, and it might be a little late tonight. I don't know. I try not to hold you late because I know you've got jobs. Somebody said, Well, I don't care how long you have to stay. I do. God cares about you. I care about you because your bodies get tired and weary. Now. The thing is we've got to take time to be holy. The Bible tells us to take time to be holy. You know, I'm of this opinion. A lot of people right off they'd say, Ah, you're just a foolish man, but I'm not a foolish man. I feel, I feel that a lot of times it wouldn't hurt for the doctor, the dentist, it wouldn't hurt for the lawyer, it wouldn't hurt for the banker, (I communicate with all of them, talk to all of them, prayed for all of them and prayed with all of them.) but it wouldn't hurt the ministers of the different churches, it wouldn't hurt if the factories, if the presidents and the leaders, it wouldn't hurt if they closed those places down for a few days. Paul said, I'm coming over to your place to have a revival so I don't want any gathering when I come. If you've got a harvest, he said, get it in because we're going to have church when I come. I don't want you going out in the field because we might have a late service. Somebody said, Well, what do you mean by that? Paul could have said, I might preach all night because that's what he did. He preached all night. See? But it wouldn't hurt them to close it down. When they get ready to go to their games and they get ready to go to their frolics, and they get ready to go their vacations they always manage to work it out. And then besides that, when the funeral comes and death strikes, you know, and their loved ones have to be buried they can find time. You say, But that's different. What's different about it? Jesus told the man one time, said, You don't have time to bury your dead father. What I'm doing is more important. Let the dead bury the dead; you follow me. And then besides that there is another thing to consider too, beloved friend. What are they going to do when death comes for them? When death strikes for them, or death knocks on their door, they're going to close down then. Not for a day or two; they're going to close down. They might think they're real important and their businesses can't go, but whether it's their best skilled men or whatever, there's going to be time to close shop. Something is going to have to stop. Do you understand what I'm saying? So why not do it for Jesus, the one that died for you, that gives you eternal life? I'm not telling you to do that. I'm just saying that if it ever comes necessary seek first the Kingdom of God. Let's seek God. Let's ask God for strength and for health. Take a little time for Jesus; He took a little time for you. So then, I love you tonight. God loves you. I'm just trying to make you stop and think a little bit. There is coming a day when we are all going to take time. The grim reaper is coming around and we are all going to have time, a lot of time. So tonight let's just take a few minutes for Jesus. We have from night to night and the people have been very courteous. So let's take a few minutes for Jesus. Let's gather around the alter tonight for just a few minutes. I'm not going to try pray for the sick tonight. I'm not going to try to weary you or hold you tonight. I just want to take a few minutes of your time to re-dedicate your life and think over what I said tonight concerning your body. Beloved friend, you need to do something with your body. You need to do something with your body. I've said this a number of times and I repeat it tonight. The professional men need to stop and think. Not too long ago not very far from where you are at over here in Charlotte, NC, just out side of Charlotte the Lord told me to do to a doctor. I went over there to have a conversation with a doctor. I was just going to call him on the telephone. I thought, Well, the Lord wants me to say something here that pertains to something that seems to be needful; I'll just call him. It had to do with another individual. But then something said, I don't want you to call him; I want you to do to his office and talk to him. And I thought, Oh, oh, something is up. When God send me directly to somebody I know that something is up. So I went over to see him and he was very busy. And he really was busy, had numbers of patients, going just as hard as he could. I said, That's all right, I'll wait. So I waited and when he finished he took me into his private office and we set down and began to talk. I told somebody standing there with me, I said, If he doesn't go something, I said, he's going to have a heart attack. He's going to go out. I went in there and talked to him, said something to him about Jesus. We took a little time and we left. I believe it was about three days later, or something, I'm not sure just how long. Five days later. Five days later before they could get him back to the hospital, having gone home, he was dead. He had a heart attack. I don't mean this irreverent. He was Mr. Important to everybody that was around. He was the man with the understanding. He was the man that had the last word, but doctors don't have the last word. God has the last word. It's hard for doctors to accept it and presidents to accept it. It's hard for professional men to accept it, but the minister had the last word. He's usually the one that says it over you anyway. So then, he died. So it pays us to listen. He was very much alive, very busy wrapped up in his profession. He didn't have time but he took time. He took time. So tonight who knows. It could be me, could be you, could be anybody. But, folks, we need to take a little time for Jesus. While we're standing here tonight and while we're thinking over these things I'd like for you to life your hands up with me. Wouldn't you do that? Just lift your hands up to God tonight. I have great respect for you people here in Eden. I've great respect for you. You say, Why do you do that, Brother Pike? Because you have great respect for God and anybody that respect God has to be intelligent people. People that don't respect God are fools. I don't mind saying that. But people that respect God are intelligent people. So tonight I respect you because you respect God. As a mater-of-fact, I believe I see some people back here that's come all the way from Thomasville, or outside of Thomasville. I think I'm right. Let's lift our hands up, beloved friends, can you do that? Close your eyes for just a moment. I want hold you long though because I'm a little bit late coming to the pulpit. Tonight I want you to think now. The Bible said to examine yourself and see if you are in the faith. Faith by the hearing of the Word. Your conviction in the Word of God, that's what it means. For in the last days some will give heed to seducing spirits. So then, think on it tonight. Salvation comes by faith in the Word. And tonight as I pray for you, I've been asking God to bless you people. I really truly have. I said, Father, bless these people financially. Bless these people physically. Bless these people with the desires of their heart. They love you, Jesus. They are concerned. They want God in their city. They want God in their home. They want righteousness. They want truth. And I've been asking God to bless you, and the Lord has been blessing you. He showed me he's really going to bless you. So tonight you may not know what another man knows, or what another woman knows. You might not be doing what another person is doing. Whereas we ought to be doing all that we can, but God only requires of you what you do know. But He does expect us to grow in the knowledge of the grace, to continue to learn that we might learn more that we might do more and not be dwarfed in our experience and the stature of Jesus. Being ordained of the full stature of the perfect man Christ Jesus. But he only requires what you know. So then tonight whatever you know about Jesus, whatever you think about Jesus, whatever you feel about Jesus, whatever you understand about Jesus, give Him your heart. Give Him your service. Give Him your life tonight. Give Him your dedication. Put your body to work for Jesus, your mind to work for Jesus and let's love Him with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our strength. To love Him with all of your heart. Just adore Him. And to love Him with all of your mind means to think upon Him day and night, to bring every thought into subjection to Him, and to give Him your body, to love Him with all of your strength means that you have nothing else but Jesus on your mind. So then, tonight as we pray I'm going to pray that God will heal you and touch your bodies. We're talking about your body. The redemption of the body. The redemption. God is concerned, beloved friend, about your body. He's wanting to redeem your body. He's wanting to bring it out of the corruption of the world and make it a holy place that life abundantly might dwell in it and just overflow. For the Word abundant means filled up and overflowing. And Jesus said, I've come to give that life in abundance on eternal basis. So tonight let's just love Jesus and let Him pour life into us. He's the prince of life. You don't have to die. You say, Brother Pike, I'm getting old. Oh, beloved friend, you don't have to die. Adam was nine hundred years old. Noah was nine hundred years old. All of those people lived a long time. Somebody said, Well, the body just wears out. We'll talk about that one night and I'll prove to you it don't. It don't wear out at all. You'd be surprised how mighty that body is. You'll be surprised the night we talk about it. And you'll find out the devil has really deceived you. Do you love Him tonight? Oh, I feel the Holy Ghost going all the way through my finger tips down my spine, down through my body. I feel that wonderful spirit that resurrected Jesus from the dead. I feel it quickening my mortal body and I feel it resurrecting me. You say, Brother Pike, you don't. So help me God, I hope to die before I breath again if it ain't the truth. I feel Him all the way going into my fingers in my hands, down through my body I feel that wonderful Christ of Calvary. That wonderful Holy Ghost, that Spirit of Christ the hope of glory. Do you feel It? I feel It. Oh, that body is great and mighty. You don't know just how great and mighty it is. You don't know how long it can last. One of these night we'll bring it out, just how long it can last. What a wonderful possession it is. It's called the purchased possession. Let's just close our eyes together while we feel His wonderful presence. He's here in Eden tonight. Isn't that wonderful? Two or three gathered together in My name, there am I Jesus Christ in the midst of them. Jesus Christ is in Eden tonight. I feel Him. He's right here under this tent tonight. We're gathered together in His lovely name tonight and I feel Him tonight. I feel Him tonight. Hallelujah! So lift your hands up and close your eyes and let's pray together, can we? Precious, wonderful Father of Heaven, oh, I feel your wonderful anointing upon my body. I feel the Christ on the inside of my blood genes, in my heart, and throughout my body. Dear wonderful God, I thank You for Your thoughts. I thank You for Your Word. I thank You for Your people. I thank You for Your presence. Oh, hallelujah! Hallelujah! Oh, hallelujah. As I feel Your presence, Jesus, I thank You for Your healing, Father, the healing power that flows through our bodies that kills the diseases and germs even as it killed the poison within the blood stream of Paul when the serpent bit him. Oh, Father, let Your presence, let your Spirit go in through that blood stream tonight of these people. Let it go into the blood stream. Let it go into the heart. Let it go into the brain cells, into the lungs, into the genetics of the body, into the organic parts, into the bone, Father, as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Lord, even separate the marrow from the bone. Let it go into the bones tonight, into the marrow. And oh, God, renew youth, renew strength, renew life. God, renew faith, God, to make these people healthy and strong. Oh God, as it was with Moses, even when Moses grew old the natural sources of his body wasn't abated. God, let it be with these people. Renew their youth, renew their strength, renew their lives, God. Let them bring forth fruit for you. Heal them tonight while I feel this wonderful, wonderful anointing. Heal them tonight and let them be a light, let them be a testimony and let other people throughout Eden and the surrounding areas see their health, see their strength, and see their happiness and see their faith, O God, as they redeem their bodies from death. Redeem these bodies from death, O God, and let them live, Father. O God, in the name of Jesus, Lord, while they enjoy Your wonderful spirit and they enjoy Your wonderful presence. Grant it tonight, Lord, as we feel this lovely presence of God. Sweep over our soul tonight. Hallelujah! In Your fathomless billows of love. Grant it, Oh God, in Jesus name. Hallelujah! While they are praising God and loving the Lord let's sing this chorus tonight. Can we? (Singing.) Do you feel it? (Singing.) Sing it with me, can you? Sing it like this. (Singing.) Can you sing that just one more time, now. (Singing.) Can you lift your hands again and close your eyes tonight? Folks, I feel, I feel God here tonight. I feel Him healing tonight. I feel His anointing tonight. I feel Him healing. There are people that believe God here tonight. Folks, you are doing something for Eden. You don't realize it but when people believe and the Holy Ghost comes down and God begins to come into hearts you're becoming a people and you're doing something for Eden and something for your fellow man tonight in being filled with the Spirit of God. I'm telling you the truth. I'm not exaggerating. I'm telling you the truth. There are some people that's believing God tonight and they're making connection with heaven tonight. Real genuine faith in the Son of God. It's here tonight. Hallelujah! While your loving Him and while you are feeling Him tonight I want you to just think on Him for just a few minutes as I call a brother up here to dismiss us. I just want you to think on Him for just a minute or two. Can you do that? Can you do that? We could just stay here all night long this is so wonderful. Hallelujah! Just think on Him for just a moment. Hallelujah! While you are thinking on Jesus tonight and you are enjoying the wonderful blessings of God I'm going to ask our Brother Fontain over here to come up here, if you will, Brother Fontain. The Bible said there is a fountain open in the house of David. And I'm going to ask this brother to come up tonight. Brother Fontain is out of Tennessee. He's been here with us for a number of days now. Let's lift our hands up, beloved friend. Can we do that? I'm going to ask him tonight to pray with you. He loves the Lord. And while he's praying with you I want you to think on Jesus. Can you do it tonight? Can you do it? Come around, Brother Fontain. Can you get that mike right back here? Just love the Lord for a minute. Just love Him for a minute. I feel Him here. As a matter-of-fact, if it wasn't late, for your sake I say, not mine. Sometimes I stay with Him all night long. I just love it. But for your sake and if it wasn't late the way the anointing is here tonight we'd sure pray for some folks. Come on up, Brother. But I feel Him healing anyway. I feel Him healing you. I feel your faith going up to Him. You are going to discover, you watch and see. Somebody says, Brother Pike, I just don't know. I guarantee you you're going to discover that you've been healed. There are people that are going to discover that they've been healed. It's going to be surprising to them. You say, Well, if I believe it, it wouldn't be surprising. Yes, you can believe. You can believe and then when you get out from under the atmosphere you can get to thinking about it, you know, and wondering about it, but it's already happened. It's already happened. And to your utter amazement you'll be healed. As Brother Fontain prayers for you tonight just close your eyes, lift your hands up and let's believe God for our healing tonight. Can you do that? Believe God for the healing for your body. Healing is in the atonement for your body, beloved friend. And oh, there is so much more for your body. One of these night I trust I can get the interest of the people and to where they are patient and can just set and listen and have the right congregation just to really tell what God has for the body. Go ahead, my brother.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

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

Holiness Unto The Lord