The Body Of Death

They'll let us know in just a few minutes as to what they have. I want to say I appreciate your efforts toward helping. Let's just sing a little chorus together before we sit down. Thank you for helping Brother Don. He's all ready to go and there was enough that came in to take care of it. I thank you for making a special effort. Don will be leaving in the morning. He has to be there by eight o'clock, or earlier. He has to have everything in tact by then. Planes don't wait on you. I have been maybe one minute, two minutes, maybe between one and three minutes, or something like that, late and it was gone, just like that. They don't wait on you so you have to be sure of what you're doing and be sure you do whatever needs to be done. So we thank the Lord for it. Don is suppose to go over to help get the brochures in line. He'll be taking some brochures with him. I might ought to say this. Rick said he hated__ He talked like he hated for me to have tell you this, but said that those that were coming would have to make arrangements for their own stay, as to hotels and whatever. Said he wouldn't be able to help you. He said that he had gotten a number of you places to stay and had gotten it at a very reasonable rate. One place he got it, a nice place, as cheap as twenty-five dollars a night, but said, not one person would do him the courtesy of calling him, or spending enough money on a telephone call to answer. Said, though he had spend much money calling and calling again to try to get you a place to stay and he said not one person did him the courtesy of answering him. So, he said, tell them there is nothing I can do. Said, Every place that I had filled up and said that they need to be prepared. That it may cost them from sixty to eighty dollars a night to stay. Said he hated it but said there was nothing he could do about it. So we've already taken care of our obligations. We've already sent the money over to pay for the, I don't know, pavilion, or whatever it is, where we're having the crusade. It cost us so much money, x amount of dollars to rent the place where we'll be having the crusade and the building has already been rented. It's a big building and it's already been rented. It's a special event building. We've already paid the price of it and we've already, as Brother Jim said, God has already provided the money for our fair over. We trusted God that He would do it and He always has done it. So he did it this time. We've ask the Lord in years gone by to help us go around the world and preach the gospel to every creature and for a poor country boy that's a big request. But, nevertheless, God has afforded hundreds of thousands of dollars for us to travel around the world and the different places preaching the gospel and sometimes taking numerous families with us. He's been real good to us. Whereas, the Lord let me know that Don was to go over, and though Don didn't have the money and I didn't have the money either, but I told him he might as well to pack his suitcase and get ready because he'd be going off on the plane monday, the good Lord willing. That the Lord was going to send Him over, so everything is ready now. I hope he's got his suitcase packed. So, the Lord made the provisions for him to go over. And you say, Well, Brother Pike, the reason God is sending you and Don is because you all are the best people in the world. I tell you, if you check up on my life you'll find out there is no goodness in me except God. And I think Don will tell you there is no goodness in Him except God, that we're both full of faults and failures and problems. And the reason that He sent us over wasn't because we are such good folks. He didn't pick us out of somebody else. He just sent us over because that was what He wanted and because we utilized faith, our faith or our ability as faith in Christ Jesus. Sometimes it's not the best people that go over. Sometimes it's the poorest ones that go over. They are not as good as some of the rest of them. Whereas, it's not so easy to think yourself to be great, you know, because God provides for you and God takes care of you. But that's not always right. That's not it at all. As a matter-of-fact, the Bible tells us to esteem others better than ourself, and unless we can esteem others better than ourselves we're in bad shape to begin with. If we esteem ourselves to be better than others then we're in bad shape to begin with. So then, it isn't because we're good. Peter said one time in praying the prayer of faith, he said, Don't look on us so earnestly as though we did this by our own righteousness. Said, God has glorified His Son Jesus and the faith, which is by the man, has made him whole. Or that is, the faith which is by Jesus Christ has made this man walk again. So, all we want to do is remember that our justification is by faith in God and our righteousness is of God, and that by faith God purifies our heart. And when we use faith God honors faith and God takes care of us and he makes great provisions and goes to great extremes to see that we are blessed. You know, today I met somebody. I had gone over to the shopping mall and there while I was walking around I met somebody and we talked. I felt sure that I'd run in to him sooner or later. He's a young evangelist that's been over here and ministered for us. And a lot of times God shows you problems and different things, and he said, You know, Brother Pike, said I didn't agree with you when you let me know the stand that you took on the segregation among the men and the women, that I didn't fully agree with you on that. He said, Brother, I want you to know that you're right. He said, Some things happened that almost got me, my family, in a bad fix. He said, You're right. And he said, You know what? He said, the man that I so greatly admired__ I'd spoken about this particular man and I__ He's a great figure. Television. Radio. Got a tremendous outreach. Thousands of people following him. And I had spoke about this man and I said, This man won't come down the line with teachings of baptism in Jesus Name. I said, And he still said women are called to preach and he's licensing and letting them do it. I said, that's wrong. I said, It's not God and someday it will show up. Though it go through the years, I said, someday it will show up. A man takes fire to his bosom he's going to get burned. And I noticed a magazine that the man published and I noticed the young evangelist, or the young, supposedly women that were called to preached, published in the magazine. Had seen it a number of times, and I said, it's not right. It's the wrong thing. So the man today me today, he said, though I favored that man and followed hard after that man, and following that it almost caused him to turn away from this over here and not accept this. But he said, Brother Pike, one of the young evangelist that was with the man, he called his name, and I remember seeing the man. To the best of my remembrance I saw him published in the magazine and he was suppose to be a young evangelist on fire for God. Said, his wife came to the young evangelist and confessed and it sounded like there was an affair with the man that was suppose to be so great that was doing all of these things. And not only that, but said, as far as we know, said, it's been farther along than that. Said, it has happened before and it's just now coming out. You know, God He doesn't just smite an evangelist. Sometimes he'll let an evangelist go for a long time and the reason is because there are people, little babes in Christ, that are following that shepherd and to smite that shepherd is to scatter the sheep. So God will let it go a long time to keep from scattering those sheep. And then he'll wait until a number of evangelist, or some evangelist, some man of God gets the attention of those sheep and he feels like he's got them safe and then He'll expose the evil of the people that are doing wrong. Maybe ten evangelist will come in to one evangelist and it might be five sheep that will go this way, that way, or whatever. Lot of the evangelist loves to just bunch people up and just get herds of people, you know, together. I've never desired that. You always have problems, even with the people that we've got at Bethlehem we have problems but we do have a community for God and we try to keep it straight to the best of our ability, and even then problems arise for when you start putting people together__ The young evangelist told me today, he said, Brother Pike, he said, I see it. Said when people start coming together, he said, that's the problem, just like you said. Said, You've got to keep them separated. So then, this is the problem of today. A sinful and adulterous generation. They dress sinful and adulterous. They act sinful and adulterous. They talk sinful and adulterous. And it's just a sinful and adulterous generation. So, it wasn't shocking to the extent that I knew that the thing was wrong and after awhile it would come out that way. But irregardless as to whatever it might be, authentic or nor authentic, the thing is the Bible says be sure that your sins will find you out. They're going to find you out, folks. No matter what you do they're going to find you out. That's why that I preach like I do and that's why I preach like I did this morning, is because we've got some of that among us. It's among our people. They slip in and out and they're deadly as a rattlesnake. Young girl, don't feel that way, young lady. I picked up your spirit then. Don't feel that way. It's true; you are guilty. In your back ground you are very guilty, and you've thrown your life away. You completely threw your life away to passions and to dope, but don't feel that way. Brother Pike is not talking about you trying to slip in. That's not what I'm saying. See? Some of you come here, men and women alike, you come here to try to find God and to find the right thing and you are a person that's done that very thing. Seeking the right thing. So don't feel bad. But there is one thing about it. It's like Jesus said to a certain woman. He said, I forgive you but, He said, go thy way and sin no more unless a worse thing come upon you. Don't ever do those things again and think that God will let you by with it, because He will, for sure, burn your fields. When He brings you to the truth and He tells you the truth, then He expects you to follow the truth. And if you don't follow the truth then you're in bad shape. God will burn your fields. The people that I'm speaking of in general tonight are those that have been taught the right way, that knows the right way and should have gone the right way but they carelessly did the way they wanted to do. And in that they have added a little bit of something that should not have been added and they've manipulated and taken away a little something that should not have been taken away, then they're in trouble with God. So, you remember that, that God does not allow for your sins. People come to a church, whether it's Little Bethlehem or wherever it's at, they come for various reasons. Some Satan sends. Like the woman that came down here not too long ago, God gave her an opportunity to come to this church and to have a chance to hear the gospel, so she just up and she acts out of sorts and she just kind of steams off at everybody and she leaves and on her way in a day or two, she's hit by a train and she was killed. God gave her a chance but she wouldn't accept it and she was going to let us know where she stood and so it cost her life. So you can't play with God, folks. Numbers of people here have been in wrecks, been in trouble with their families and their companions and some in jail, and some in all kind of problems, financially, whatever. All because they would not listen to the ministry and to the Word of God. And in doing so they have found themselves in a real complex of life and the only thing that you can do is listen to the gospel, listen to the Word of the Lord and God will help you. So then, this morning I preached to you that way because Brother Pike wants yo to be clean; you're my children. If you're my children I want you to be clean because if you're my children then you are God's children and if you're not clean you're not my children nor God's children. So then, if you're God's children you're my children, if your my children you're God's children. And if you are clean children then certainly you belong to us and if you're not then you don't belong to us. My sheep know my voice and a stranger they will not follow. If you follow the voice of a stranger then that means that you do not belong to God. So, I love you. I want to help you. I want to do all that I can. I'd like to teach you the wonderful wisdom of God and the understanding of the great God of heaven, the things that God has taught me. But I can't do that unless you have an ear to hear and unless you have a spiritual hunger. There is one thing that you need to keep in mind, folks. Like I was telling somebody today. Just because you are a Christian that doesn't mean that you are above temptation. Just because you are a son and daughter of God it doesn't mean that you are any different from anybody else. You're body being unredeemed, so far as you witting the redemption of your body, leaves it in the same condition as everybody else. And you are tempted exactly in the same way with the same strength, with the same measure, with the same fierceness that Satan tempts the sinner with. No difference whatsoever. You temptation is just as great. The only difference is that we do have the Holy Spirit of God on the inside to give us that special strength to resist temptation. Whereas, they in the world don't have this. And because of that they fall under the pressures. But through the grace of God and by the wonderful Spirit of God we're able to overcome and to stand up in the face of the heat of the battle. So you remember that. You keep yourself. You stay away from those things because you're just like anybody else and don't get any special ideas that you're not, because you are and you'll fall in a minute, just that quick. So I hope you'll consider that. It would be shocking tonight if some of them knew who I was speaking of and I don't doubt a bit but what some of you might perceive who I'm speaking of. And when the check it out, or when they find it out, if they don't know it's going to be terrifically shocking because they would tell you in a minute that that man would never do that. But when a man don't follow the gospel, when a man don't preach the full gospel, when a man makes allowance, I don't care who he is, he will fall. The Bible enumerates some things saying, if you do these things you shall never fall. Because that's the proof of the great loving Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit on the inside of you. But if you don't do these things it's a positive proof that you don't have the Holy Spirit, thought you might be a believer. And let me tell you something. Fasting and praying isn't going to do it. It isn't going to do it. This man is known to be one of the greatest fasters in the nation, or maybe anywhere in the world. And I don't know how much he prays, a lot from what I understand, but that isn't going to do it. You've got to have God's Spirit on the inside of you or you are a loser to begin with. You are automatically a loser to begin with. You'll never be able to do it no other way. I made this statement. A man that fell not too long ago, as far as I know he just had come off of a twenty-one day fast. So, see? That isn't going to do it. Fasting and praying is a great mighty thing. But, folks, you're going to have to be obedient to Christ. You can pray and fast all you want to as to subject the flesh and expedite what God is doing. But you're going to have to be obedient to the faith and submit yourself to Christ or all of that is just vanity and all of it is in vain. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou takest no notice? He said, because you fast for the wrong reason. In the day of your fast you find pleasure. You exact all of your labors. You do not fast as you do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. To make your voice to be heard on high. Is this the fast that I've chosen that a man should bow down his head like a bull rush, put sack cloth and ashes under it? That's not the fast I've chosen. The fast that I've chosen is when you do without your food, give it to the poor. Give it to the hungry. You're abstinence should be to distribute to the needy. You're doing without food and leaving it setting in the pantry, or setting on the shelves, He said, I don't have any pleasure in that. You're just hungry and that's all. But He said take it and give it away. Give it to somebody. This is the fast that I've chosen, is that you deal your bread to the hungry. That you take the naked into your house, that you cloth the naked, that you help put clothes on them that are in need. Help take care of them that are out in the cold. This is the fast that I have chosen. He said, Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and the Lord shall say, Here am I. That is, I will here you. And it shall come to pass even before you call I'll hear you. And, folks, this is the secret to faith. The real secret to faith. The Bible says that if we know that he hears us then we know that we have the desire, or the petition that we want, or desire of Him. That is to say, if I know that God hears me it's all settled. I say this to you to try to help you to know how to believe. A lot of times we strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Even the guides and leaders do it. A lot of people that are good people don't know how to believe and they find themselves in a complex in life. They don't know how to believe God. They don't understand how to believe God and they find themselves pleading, asking, Oh, God! Grant me this. Oh, God! Help me to be good enough to receive you. Oh, Lord, help me fast long enough. Help me pray long enough. Help me live the right kind of life, Oh, God, so I can get this, or I can get that. Or, Lord, give it to me. I beg of you, Lord, don't disappoint me. And with kind of a half-hearted believing they turn themselves toward God. But, friend, let me tell you something. You don't have to do that. God wants you to have it more than you want it. You say, Why do you say that, Brother Pike? Anybody that would go to Calvary and spill His blood and take the torture and torment that He went through to give you all things that pertain unto life, it's for sure He wants you to have it more than you want it. Because you never done that to obtain it. Like the angel that came down to Daniel. He was pressing for twenty-one long days trying to get through just to come and satisfy Daniel's desire and to give Daniel the answer to his problem. Twenty-one days he was pressing. He said, Daniel, I heard you the first day. For twenty-one days I've tried to get to you. So then, God wanted him to have it more than Daniel wanted it. But Daniel's consistency, as to preparation of the heart, is what caused the faith that brought it. But here's what I'm saying, folks. It's not a matter of persuading God to do what He's already promised, or to keep His promise. It's not a matter of that. It's not a matter of you being good enough to receive it. Our righteousness is of Christ. The man that fasted and said, I thank you, Lord, I fast twice a week; I pay tithe of all I have. The Lord didn't even notice it. The other man just said, Have mercy on me, Lord. See? So it isn't a matter of your goodness. There's one thing that we need to do and that's the key to the whole thing. The Bible said if we know that He hears us. That's the only thing that's required. You do not fast as you do this day to make your voice to be heard on high. If we know that He hears us then we know that we have the petition that we desire of Him. And this is why that we do the things that we do. Whether it be fasting, whether it be praying, whether it is something to help somebody, or to deal our bread to the hungry the Bible said, Hereby we assure our hearts. We assure our hearts. Do thy diligence to keep thine heart for out of it comes forth the issues of life. Hereby we assure our heart before God and then do we have confidence that He hears us, because we do the things that please Him. And that's the secret, folks. You don't have to beg him for anything. You have to wonder about it. You don't have to make any effort in any special way. All you've got to do is just be sure that He hears you. If He hears you then you have whatever you want. That's all there is to it. Nothing else at all. Now we know that we hear Him. We're His sheep; we know His voice. We know that, but does He hear you? Does He hear you? I'll tell you what. You get on speaking terms with Him and get to where He hears you and you can have anything you want. Anything. That's all there is to faith. That's the secret. That's the key. But if you just walk any old way, half hearted and don't care whether you serve Him, or whether you love Him and you're hypocritical and you try to persuade everybody to believe that you're something that you ain't and try to persuade yourself to believe that you do believe when you know good and well that you don't walk in harmony with Him and that you do manipulate and cut corners and whatever, you're never going to have that hope of glory. You're never going to have that conviction that He hears you. Never. Never at anytime. I prayed for God to release the prisoners. When Khomeini had them, I prayed and I went back and prayed and I went back and prayed until I was convinced that He had heard me and when He answered I knew that He had heard me, then I went my way and I said, Brethren, they will be released. That's all there is to it. And so they were released. Because that's all there is to it. See? If you know that He hears you, if you know that He hears you then we know that we have the petition that we desire of Him because we do the things to please Him. Hereby we assure our hearts and this gives us the confidence that He hears us. Do you love Jesus? Folks, you can be great and mighty people if you'll listen to my teachings. If you'll honor the things that I say you'll be some of the greatest people that ever walked on the face of the earth. But if you don't you'll be sorrowful people. Not only sorrow to the extent that you won't receive the beautiful things that you could have received, but you'll be sorry as you go down the trail and you then look back and you think, My God, the years that's behind me and I could have been a mighty, mighty person in the earth. The simple act of faith. I could have been one of your mighty people in the earth. And then you'll hate yourself the more. But if you keep on putting it off, you know, won't listen, then of course, there is not anything that I can do, or anything that anyone else can do. Do you love the Lord? Let's stand together and sing this little song that we sang the other night. (Begin tape one, side two.) There's Honey In The Rock For You. I want to say one more time, we thank you for the offering. It provides enough for Brother Don to make his trip tomorrow and I praise God for it. Praise God for Don's willingness and praise God for your willingness to bless Don. See? That does not pay for Don's trip over and back, though it would have if he could post it for about fourteen days. The same amount would be a round trip, or just a little more. Take just a little more. But, in that he has to do right on over it means that he'll be working over there two or three weeks, or whatever it takes to get him back to here. It will take at least a week and a half, or a little more, of work for him to have the money. He would make about three hundred dollars, three hundred and fifty dollars a week, or something, unless he worked long hours. I think Rick told me he, himself, worked ninety-one hours the other week. Or, that is, he did it without stopping. I tried to talk a little bit this morning on revelation and seemed like I had a real problem. I thought I'd press on and try to do it anyway and the problems just increased. So the Lord let whatever come, as to whether right or wrong He allowed certain things to interfere. And the preparation of the preacher heart is from God just like it is everybody else. And so as to the preparation of my heart so was that that was spoken. And as to the preparation of your heart so was that, as to what you listened and as to how much that you got. I want to talk a little bit tonight if I can. I might not be able to talk with you or to share with you like I'd like to, but if I can I'd like to try to talk again tonight. It's not very good on Sunday night to try to talk because people are tired and on Sunday night you just about have to get evangelistic and holler at them just to keep them from dozing on you, or to stimulate them, because most of the time people have eaten and they're relaxed, you know, and they're just kind of sitting back taking it easy. And it makes it a little bit difficult. But on the other hand sometimes there are people that want to listen. You know, it's amazing how that when I look at you I feel the devil sometimes in some of you. It's amazing. I just pass by, you know, and I just record the devil in men and women. The devil just sitting there just can't__ It's the old carnal mind that's his tool. And some of you are suppose to be ever so religious and be so godly. And yet the devil has got you bound tighter than a hat band. And you so cleverly cover it up. But, folks, you're going to hell anyway. It doesn't make any difference, you can sit on the church benches but the Bible said you are vomit that is spewed out of His mouth. You are lukewarm and he's already spewed you out of his mouth. I thank God for the few. Jesus said, few there be that find it. But I thank God for that few, that little flock that Jesus spoke of that's clean and holy and godly and pure. That when they leave the church they leave the church thinking about Jesus and all day long they spend their time thinking about Jesus. And when they come back to the church they're thinking about Jesus. They don't leave the church and go to thinking about the world and everything in the world and get their old carnal mind just souped-up in the world and then come back at night, you know, and try to be religious. They don't do that. They don't spend their day doing the things, as pertaining to the flesh and spend their time thinking about things of the flesh and things of the mind that's wrong. They don't spend their time doing that. You know, that hit real hard because that hit a person. That hit a man. Hit him hard because he knew he was guilty. He knows he is guilty. He knows he's guilty a number of times and it tears him up. Yet he knows he's guilty and he won't put it behind him. But he's going to hell if he doesn't do something about it. Brother Pike tries to speak plain to you, loving and kind to you. Somebody came to me today that apparently took some reproof from the Spirit some way through the services and he said, Brother Pike, he said, I'm guilty. But he said, I thank God for what you did. Said, I thank God you shook me up. You shook me loose; I'd gotten careless. I had somebody that came just recently and I told my wife what was wrong with them. I know it was kind of shocking to her because she had a lot of confidence in the person. It was kind of shocking but nevertheless the person came and confessed it and said they were backslid. I had a person the other day, I was talking to somebody and I said the person is playing the hypocrite. I said, The Lord has already shown me, they're playing the hypocrite. Some of them couldn't believe it but it wasn't but just a few hours and the same individual came and said, Brother Pike, I want to do right. I want you to pray for me. I need forgiveness. Said, I've been playing the hypocrite. See? It's real, folks. It's real, genuine. And though I don't try to make a show of you, as to talk about you, or to call you out, or to point you out, as to those things, to make a gain of you, but I do say something to you as a whole because you know who it is. You know who is guilty. And that way you can make adjustments and you're not a spectacle unto everybody else. Though there are times when I speak confidentially to somebody just like a father would to a mother, somebody that is the right kind of somebody, and I'll tell them the situation so as they might know that God knows and that he reveals. And sometimes I make a thing public because individuals need to be reproved and others need to be warned that there is a wolf in their midst depending on what kind of thing it is. Now I'm sure that you're tired tonight. I'm tired. I'll try one more time to discuss a few things. Maybe I can and maybe I can't. I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. Maybe He'll strengthen me and maybe He won't, as to these things, in that He deals with the audience according to their appetite and according to their desire. Remember now. The serpent said to Eve__ "Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast" (Chapter three of Genesis, first verse.) "Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." Okay. Now right there it said that she did eat and said that she gave unto her husband and her husband did eat. Now this morning to bring out a thought, trying to teach a little bit, instruct you a little bit, do like Jesus would do. If Jesus was here he'd just stand here and talk with you a little bit, or He might even sit down right down out there. You know, if He was tired He's been known to sit down on a rock or in a boat. Being tired and weary from praying during the night, or whatever, His journey, and just sit there and talk to them like I do the Brethren. The priest, not too long ago, he came down and in our little meeting he said, You know, he said, this is really something. He was literally astounded. He said, This reminds me of Jesus and the disciples so much as you sit there and these men sit down to listen to these things. See? But, anyway, here is the tree of knowledge of good and of evil. See? I say this again: Adam and Eve could not get anything from that tree except the knowledge of evil. How many of you agree to that? See? You say, Why is it Brother Pike, they could not get anything but the knowledge of evil? Because they already had the knowledge of good. See? God had told them what was good. He had given them the trees to eat from. He had blessed them with all the wonderful things and He had even told them that tree that was there in the garden, that they should not mess with that tree. Or that is, eat of that tree. The terms mess with that doesn't sound the right thing but it did become a mess. So then He said, You are not to eat of that tree. You are not to eat of that tree. So we say that Eve went and ate evil and brought evil and Adam also ate evil. But, see? That isn't right. It doesn't say anything about her eating evil, or Adam eating evil. Somebody would say, But, Brother Pike, that tree, that was an evil tree and God told them to stay away from the evil thing. Well, let me ask you a question. Why is it that when she ate the evil fruit that she wasn't eating the good fruit, too? It said it was a knowledge of both good and evil. If she ate the evil fruit didn't she eat the part that was good, too? Then it was both evil and good. No. See? That doesn't add up. You know better than that. See? Good water and bad water can't come forth from the same fountain. She did not eat any good and evil together. That wasn't what it was. See? It's very clear that the tree was good for food, and it was a tree to be desired to make one wise. Do you understand what I'm saying. It was the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that it was a tree that was to be desired. It was a tree that was good for food and one to make one wise. If the tree was what caused the transgression, if the fruit is to be blamed for the transgression then why is it that when Adam ate of it, why is it that He was not in the transgression? The woman ate and was in the transgression. How is it then that she gave unto her husband and the Bible said he did eat, and yet the Bible said Adam was not in the transgression. If the fruit was evil is God, therefore, a respecter of persons? No, see? It's our misconcept. It's our wrong understanding. See? You can't blame sin on fruit. It wasn't the fruit. It was the voice that spoke to Eve that enticed her unto disobedience. It was a voice. The Bible said first enticed. Something enticed her. The fruit enticed her. And then, the Bible said, being enticed we are drawn away by our own desire. Or the word rendered as lust. And then when we're drawn away from our steadfastness in the conviction of what God has told us, all of a sudden when we're drawn away there is a conception within the heart. There is a conception within the heart. We conceive within the heart as to our lustful desire. We conceive and then when we conceive in our heart that which is unbelief it brings forth sin. Sin. What is sin? It is the transgression of the law, therefore, where was Eve standing? So the Bible said when sin comes forth death follows, because when we conceive then sin comes forth and when sin is finished death follows. How could this possibly be to Eve? Now, let's examine it just for a minute. The Bible said that the beast beguiled Eve and she did eat and she offered to her husband and he did eat. Why isn't it the same, as to Eve? as to Adam? Why isn't the punishment the same? Why doesn't God judge it the same? Why doesn't he say that Adam was beguiled? Eve said, And the serpent did beguile me and I did eat. So then, they render that in their natural definition of explanation. Not being spiritual the definition of that is given as defiled. That is to say a dictionary definition as to defiled. And the beast defiled Eve. Now that could be right on a man's level but that's absolutely wrong on God's level. That could not possibly be the explanation of it. Somebody would say, Well, he defiled Eve. No, that couldn't possibly be. Now the defilement, as perhaps you would term it, as a man's wife as to the husband of uncleanness, or betraying, use that application if you want to, but there is no possible way that he could have defiled Eve because the Bible says that he that defileth the temple of God, God will destroy that temple. And He did not destroy Eve. So it could not have been a defilement. One reason it could not be a defilement is because she did not know good and evil. She did not understand good and evil before she partook of the tree. Therefore, the Bible said that to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is a sin but the person that did not know to do the Lord's will, that committed things that's worth of stripes, as was the case with Eve and with Adam, said, they shall be beaten but with few stripes. And so it was that God said, Adam and Eve, the day that you eat thereof ye shall surely die. The day that you eat thereof ye shall surely die. But the other voice said, It's not so. Said, Ye shall not surely die. God said, The day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die, Adam and Eve. But the beast said, Not surely. Ye shall not surely die. But said, God doth know that in the day that you eat of that tree that you're going to be equal with Him. That was about the general expression of it. Or that is, you're going to be as gods. You're going to be as gods and you're going to know good and evil. See? The day that you eat thereof you're going to be as gods and you're going to know good and evil. That was true. See? They became as gods. What is a god? A god is something that knows both sides of life. So then he said, you're going to know the evil side of life, as well as the good side of life. So it was that it happened just exactly that way. And it was said unto Adam and Eve, Now that you have become as gods, your eyes being opened, you now know good and evil. So then, I'm going to have to put you out of the garden because you do not have any qualifications, as to righteousness, and yet you are guilty of wrong. You are guilty of wrong. I'm not going to sacrifice you. I'm not going to kill you, because to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not it is a sin and sin is the transgression of the law. But in that there is no law for you to transgress, the law never having been given, since there is no law for you to transgress then I'm going to be merciful to you. How did Enoch get translated? How was it that Enoch was taken out of the world that He should not see death? He walked with God three hundred years and God took him and he was not because God took him. Why did God take him? Because he was without sin. Is there anyone that is without sin? Jesus said, If there is, the ones that are here let them cast the first stone at the adulterous woman. So then, was Enoch actually without sin? Is there anybody that's born into the world without sin? No. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Then what is the difference? Did Enoch actually sin so far as being disobedient? He stumbled and staggered just like everybody. But where there is no knowledge of sin, where there is no knowledge of the law, in that sin comes by the law, in that sin is the transgression of the law, where there is no law, where there is no knowledge of law it's not required. It was not required of Enoch. Though he stumbled and staggered the same way that you and I do, but it was not required of Enoch because he did not know any law. He did not know any transgression. There was no law to transgress but still there was the Word of God. The Word of God that was declared by the handiwork of God, even by the stars, the moon, which the Bible said God had set there for signs and seasons. But see? This is the way that Adam and Eve actually escaped death of the soul. They did die in the day that they ate thereof. That is, within the radius of one thousand years they died. The Bible said a day is as a thousand years with God and a thousand years as a day. So God created in six days and rested on the seventh, likened it unto six thousand years of activity and then a thousand years millennium rest and he put a people in the earth as to type and shadow that, to lay down allegoric types that we might be educated thereby, a people called the Jew outwardly, which only represented the inward Jew, and typical things, as to work six days and rest on the seventh day, as to show us God's labor and that there was going to be a day of rest, that God had a day of rest for his people. Whereas, we preached on the rest of God, entering into the rest of God. Paul spoke about this and said, and said, seeing that those of the Old Testament, they did not enter into God's rest because they murmured and they complained and God cut them off, not letting go into Canaan, which is typical of the rest. God cut them off, swear in His wrath because they murmured and complained against Moses, His leader, or against the ministry of that day, He swear in His wrath that they should not enter into His rest. So then, the day that you eat thereof ye shall surely die. And so it was they never lived beyond a thousand years. Never. They were driven out of the garden and no one ever got beyond the thousand years. They never made it to a thousand years. They never lived a full day. Enoch went nine hundred and sixty years, or more. That was about the longest but that was not so much longer than others lived. People like Adam and people like a number of others, they lived nine hundred years. Noah. Those people lived to a great age, but no one ever got beyond a thousand years. For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And so it was that Adam and Eve died. Their eyes came open but they died to the spiritual world and they died out so far as their human body within the radius of a God day. And this is why the Bible said that John was in the spirit on the Lord's say, because it was God's sabbath of rest. It was in God's day with all things were to end. So then, a thousand years. In the day that you eat thereof you shall die. And so they died, but their eyes came open to the flesh and their eyes closed to the spirit world. So there they were. They went off of the scene, so far as being put out of the garden. And there's just so much revelation you could write a book, as to those things. I'm trying to follow a few thoughts here tonight. Within the radius of the thousand years they died. And I said this morning, or I spoke of it recently, God allowed man to live eight and nine hundred years but the wickedness of the heart of men was so bad, so terrible that God could not afford to let men continue to live like that. Within nine hundred years they became so powerful. Think, if men of today, as wicked as they are, they lived to be sixty, seventy, eighty years old. Think if they lived to be nine hundred years old and then their sons being wicked after them lived to be nine hundred years old, think what a wicked, wretched age that we would be living in. So God began to do away with man. The Bible said the very thoughts of man's heart was evil. Even from his youth up, said, he don't do nothing but think evil. Isn't that the case? There isn't a person sitting in this church tonight, or here, but what their thoughts are continually evil. Continually evil. I've heard people say, Oh no, Brother Pike, not mine. Oh, yes, they are. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Their thoughts are continually evil. God looked down from heaven and saw that men's hearts, his thoughts, were continually evil. He doesn't think good. HE doesn't think good. He always things evil. And Paul said, When I would do good I find that evil is present with me. I find this law, that though in my inner man I delight after God, and I have a desire toward God, but how to perform that with my body, he said, I just can't find a way. There is no good thing within my body, he said, it makes war all the time with my inner man, which is the spirit. There is a continual warfare, he said, between the inner and the outer man, the body and the soul. So then Paul said, O, wretched man that I am. I'm a wretch, he said. I love the Lord. I love the Lord, he said, but I'm a wretch. I'm a wretch, he said. He said, because I find that the good that I would do I don't do it, and the evil that I would not do, he said, that is what I do. He said, it is, therefore, mow no more me that doeth those things, because I delight in the things of God inside of my heart. Said, It is therefore no more I that doeth it but it is sin that dwelleth within me that doeth those evil things. He said, O, wretched man that I am. Then he spoke like this: He said, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Who shall deliver me from (Begin tape two, side one.) the body of this death. I warn you, Adam and Eve, the day that thou eatest thereof ye shall surely die, for the day that you take evil into your mind, and evil thoughts into you mind, the day that you change over from good understanding and good holy thoughts, the day that you infiltrate your mind with the knowledge of evil, you're going to leave my presence. I'm life and I'm the only source of life and the day that you do it I'm going to disfellowship you. I'm going to withdraw from you. I can't look upon evil. I can't be part of your life when you do those wretched things. Who shall deliver me form the body of this death? Paul said. I've been born again. I've been born again. I'm good on the inside. I love the Lord. I'm clean. I'm holy. I'm upright on the inside. But this wretched body of mine, this aggravating body of mine, this accusing body of mine, my thoughts are continually evil. Continually evil. Satan, the prince of the world, working on the human senses, always my eyes pick up evil, my ears hear evil. Every thing. I walk by a bottle of whiskey, I smell evil. I go to taste a beer, whatever, I taste of evil. And if I don't do that everything in this world is under the curse. Paul said, What can I do? What can I do? O, wretched man that I am, whose going to deliver me, he said. He said, I thank God I got a revelation. I thank God that what the law could not do, in that it was weak through my flesh. That is, my flesh is not able to perform the righteousness of God. And I thank God that what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, that God, having made a human body in the image of sin, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sin and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh. That is, in this wretched body. He has condemned sin in this body of death, and having condemned sin in the flesh He took it, He nailed it to Calvary. He smote it in His fury. He did away with the human body and today I am free from the body of sin. My body is dead by the body of the Lord Jesus Christ and I am dead to the world and the world of sin is dead to me by the body of Jesus. And today it's not me living in the knowledge and foreknowledge of God, as to a finished product as to what God sees me to be throughout eternity. But I am the body of Jesus. I am the flesh and bone of Jesus. I've got a new body. I'm a new creature in Christ. Old things have passed away and behold all things are new. Instead of wrestling with my flesh and wrestling with my thoughts I put my faith steadfast in the righteousness of God and it causes that old evil mind to quiet down. I put my faith in God and the Holy Spirit passes over me and a great wonderful virtue comes within me and that old mind of corruption begins to be cast down and I find myself, through the confidence of His righteousness, casting down every accusing thought of God and of my soul. Casting down imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of good. All of that evil infiltration of the knowledge of evil that came from the tree of knowledge, I find myself casting that down by faith in God and by the righteousness of faith by which He purifies my heart, in that as a man thinketh in His heart so he is. And from the heart comes forth evil thoughts of adultery and fornication and murder and whatever. So then He said, I find a purification within my heart and I find that God, by His great wonderful virtue of Christ's Spirit comes into my soul and into my heart and eradicates. And I find myself clean and holy and godly and I mortify the deeds of the flesh and I put away the filth of the flesh from me and I find myself without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish, as to the extent that I can control my passions, and whatever, by His Spirit, by His confidence. And then when I stagger, when I stumble when I'm trying to do my very best, then the blood of Jesus atones for me and the blood of Jesus makes up for my shortcomings. And the blood of Jesus is the missing link in the chain that makes my righteousness complete in God. So then, if I do my very best not using excuses and a hobby horse of excuse, as to do our evil and let go and be light hearted and not seek God and not make any effort to put things down in saying that we're all right, living a life of hypocrisy. But if I love Him with all of my heart, all of my strength, all of my mind and I surrender all of my goods and I follow Him with all of my heart and do my very best then whatever staggering and stumbling I do it is not seen. In the sight of God, I am therefore, perfect in His sight for He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified and that's the kind of people that He has sanctified. He has sanctified them. He hath perfected them forever. He has justified them by the righteousness of His Son. So then, who shall deliver me from the body of this death. The day that you eat thereof you're going to be infiltrated. Your mind is not going to be able to produce faith. Your mind is in your heart. As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. Out of the heart comes forth the issues of life. Do thy diligence to keep thy faith in God in thine heart, for out of it comes forth the issues of life. Paul said, I strive always to keep my conscience void of offense toward man and God. So then John said, Hereby we assure our hearts and then do we have confidence with God. And that confidence is faith in God. And with that faith that means that we can have anything that we want. So then, Adam, the day that you eat thereof. Eve, the day that you eat thereof ye shall surely die. Ye shall surely die. Ye shall not live. So then, here we see the body of sin. We see the body of sin. It is the problem. What did God do? The Bible said that Jesus, being made that sinful image that was repulsive in the sight of God, that God took that image and God nailed it to a tree and that now we've put on the Lord Jesus Christ and we're bone of His bone and flesh of His royal flesh and of His royal blood, even the life is a royal life that we're living. So then, the Bible teaches that God took Jesus and He did away with the keeping of ordinances. By the body of Jesus He kept the law perfectly. And thus keeping every jot and tittle He folded it up and took it away. The Bible said not one jot nor tittle of the law shall pass away until all be fulfilled. So then, all was fulfilled and the law passed away. Jesus took it and folded it up and laid it away. And today as it was with Enoch so it is with the church. Today there is no law, and where there is no law there is no transgression. The law is folded up, it's taken away. All of the sinful acts of the body was done away with at Calvary. When God nailed Jesus to the tree that delivered me from the body of that death of the first man Adam, for in Adam all die. And I belong no longer to the first man Adam, but by the washing of regeneration by the death of Jesus I am dead to the world and the world dead to me, and I've been buried in the baptismal grave of Jesus and I've resurrected unto the newness of life and I'm a new creature in God. So then, today I'm a new creature. I am alive ever more. I once was dead but now I'm alive forever more. God delivered me so the body of that death has been taken away and there is no more body of that death. It is no more. It's gone forever and I'm delivered from death and I'm delivered from condemnation and I'm delivered from those evil thoughts. I'm delivered from the harassment of Lucifer. I'm deliver from those things that was unbecoming to God and I'm not in that body anymore. I'm not in that body of death anymore. It's not here anymore. I'm not in that tabernacle anymore. That tabernacle is gone and today I have another body eternal in the heavens not made with hands. And Peter said, If this one that you look at, as to the lying vanity, if it was dissolved in your sight, in that you that are natural still know people after the flesh, he said, if it were dissolved, as to your seeing, you'd see my eternal tabernacle, which is the body of the Lord Jesus, which is in glory, which is in heaven, which is in the spirit. The spiritual body. As I've borne the image of the body of death, as I've borne the image of the earthly so shall I bear the image of the heavenly. I've borne the image of the earthy, but now I'm bearing the image of the heavenly. So then, God has given me a heavenly tabernacle and given me a heavenly temple. I have a heavenly tabernacle and a heavenly temple. So then, who shall deliver me from the body of this death. I thank God that through the Lord Jesus Christ I'm delivered from the body of death and I'm no more in bondage to the body of death. And I am free from the body of death and I am alive to God forever more. So then, what does this mean to me? As it was with Enoch so it is with me. I've passed from death unto life. I shall never come into condemnation. I'm free from the body of death for I'm not in the flesh, which is the body of death, but I am in the spirit of God. I'm in the spiritual body. I'm bone of the bone of the Lord Jesus. I'm flesh of the flesh of the Lord Jesus. I've got royal blood flowing through my veins. So then, I have Christ in my heart and I'm free from the body of death. Therefore, I'm not in the flesh and in that I'm not in the flesh, I repeat again, I am not in the world for God has chosen me out of the flesh. He's chosen me out of the world and He's hid me with Christ in God whom the heavens have received until the restoration, or until the restoring of all things. Not all of you are free from the body of death. This is why I feel repercussion. This is why I feel spirits. This is why I feel your mind of carnality. It is because you are not free from the body of death. You are not free from the carnal mind. You are still carnal minded. Therefore, you are still abiding in death. If you're carnal minded then are you abiding in death. You are not free from the flesh. You're not in the spirit. It is impossible for you to please God because without faith it is impossible to please God and a person that is in the carnal mind cannot have faith in God. All men have not faith. That is to say God faith. All men have not faith. So then, you're still in your carnal reasoning. You are not satisfied. You don't have contentment because you've never come into the mind of God. You've never come into the spirit of God. You've never been born again of God. And you're carnal minded. Your mind is on passions. Your mind is on money. You're mind is on your features, yourself, your figure, as we say, on your body. Your mind is on gossiping, backbiting. Your mind is on your neighbor. Your mind is on lust. Your mind is on everything but God. Your mind is constituted of the natural things. And your whole hearts endeavor is toward the natural things of the world, the natural things of life. You're not free from the body of death. You've never been released from the body of death. You've never passed from death unto life. To pass from death unto life means you have to come out of the flesh. Means you have to be free from the body of death because that's what death is. The body of death. You've got to get away from that thing. In the day that thou eatest thereof, Adam and Eve, ye shall die. Ye shall die. Ye shall be in prison. Your life shall be a prison to the body and it shall become a power of evil. The infiltration, even Lucifer, the knowledge of evil, shall take your life that you are now enjoying and put it into captivity and imprison it with bars of bones. And your body shall be a prison and in that body your life shall dwell. And devils and demons shall torment that life on the inside for parasites shall live in your flesh. In your flesh there shall be no good thing. And those parasites are fallen angels, which are evil thoughts shall sap your life. Whereas, in the mind of Christ spiritual angels of goodness minister strength unto you. And they are ministering spirits to them that are heirs of salvation and they come down in the form of a light, or an enlightenment, or a thought of encouragement and they strengthen you many times. But angels of death are thoughts of darkness, of lust, of covetousness, of worldliness, of carnality, of human desire and they rob you of your life. They rob you of your virtue. And they take away your eternal life. They leave you without anything. And of course, when I talk to you I'm talking to people around the world. Sometimes, I know, maybe your interest isn't like it ought to be. But, nevertheless, I'm not just talking to you, I just preach here so that I can preach to the world. All the world for a witness. So a lot of times I pay no attention to you when you don't have the proper interest. But, anyway, the Bible said, And who shall deliver me from the body of this death seeing that I am imprisoned, my life is imprisoned, seeing that it is imprisoned then Lucifer talks to my mind and continually I'm thinking evil. And so then, that which speaks to my mind, that which talks to my mind, that robs me, that takes my strength away, that takes all of that wonderful strength of God that I could have. It takes it away from me. So then, Paul said, By the body of the Lord Jesus Christ I'm delivered from evil. I'm delivered from this wretched body of death. It is no more I. So I must cast down every thought, every imagination. I must bring every thought into subjection to the obedience of Jesus Christ. This you don't do. As the church you don't do it. As the church world. Your thoughts are not in obedience to Christ. Every thought is not into obedience to Christ. There is a continual stream of thoughts that you make allowance for, as to your rebellion, as to your contrariness, as to your lack of fasting, as to your lack of prayer, as to your lack of submission, as to your lack of conformity. So then, your thoughts are continually in rebellion. And, of course, a man of God that's moving in the mind of Christ will pick them up. When he comes into your audience, when he comes into your presence he'll pick them up, one and then another. He'll pick up your spirit that's in rebellion because he has a light. He has a light like a great laser, or an x-ray, that moves over the audience. And as a physician he look at your interior, the inner parts. And he beholds the complication within you, as is true of any physician. So he looks down deep on the inside and he sees those things that are cancerous, those things that are rotten, those things that are corrupting. And as he looks down inside of you he sees those things and there he sees whether or not your case is terminal, or whether or not there is hope for you. And he tries so skillfully with all of the desire of a real physician to quietly woo you to sleep with the wonderful antiseptic of God, that thing that can just go over you and gently put you to sleep that he might cut the thing out, that you might not feel anything. But, sometimes, the knife is felt and he's cutting. He's trying to get it out of you. And then when you're not cooperative, as to submission, as to coming to the man of God, as to following the prescriptions, as to the visitations, as to listening to him and his counsel then you die. You die. Maybe another one will live and you die. You say, Not me, Brother Pike. Yes, without respect of person. You're no different; you'll die just like all the rest. So then, who shall deliver me? Who shall deliver me? I've been delivered. I thank God that what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh nailed sin to Calvary and did away with it. And today I'm free from sin. And because transgression of the law is sin I cannot sin because where there is no law there is no transgression. And in that there is no transgression that means that there is no sin. And in that there is no sin there is no death because transgression of the law is sin. Where there is no law there is no transgression. Where there is no transgression there is no sin. Where there is no sin there's no death because sin is the sting of death. And when sin is eradicated and sin is removed there is no sting of death. I've passed from death unto life. I've left the body of death. It doesn't have any power over me. Sin doesn't have any power over me. Death doesn't have any power over me. Poverty doesn't have any power over me. The Bible said Enoch was translated because he had faith in God. Faith in God. He did the things that pleased God. Without faith it's impossible to please God. He purifies the heart with faith. The only way God can dwell in you is through faith. So when you don't do the things that please God to the extent of assuring your heart that you might have faith, then you cannot be translated. So then, translation takes us out of the hand of death. I've been translated so that I am not going to die. Because I've passed from death unto life and shall never come into condemnation. Such is the case with every true Christian, every child of God, every true Christian. If you've been born of the spirit of God on the inside you've passed from death unto life and you have a new life and you have a new hope. And the Kingdom of God, which is Christ's spirit is on the inside of your spirit and you're not in the transgression. Though the world is in the transgression you're not in the transgression because you're protected by the righteousness of God. Adam did not do that willing. He had no desire for that. He did not follow after that. He did not go to the tree of knowledge. It was brought to him and God prepared his heart to partake thereof that he might be with his wife during the time of travail, as to the reproduction of the image of man in the earth, that through that being called man, that Christ's seed, even the spiritual image of God might be brought forth from the inner man. That is, through the travail. Paul said, I travailed until Christ be formed within you. And the seed of God, even Christ, is in your heart and it remaineth in you and you cannot sin because you are born of God. Therefore, having the great Spirit of Christ within my heart, within my spirit, my body, it's never accounted against me again. My stumblings are never counted against me again because I have no will to sin. I have no will to transgress. I have no will to do wrong. Therefore, because I have no will to do wrong then I cannot sin. He that is born of God cannot sin. Paul said, For to will is present but my problem is performance. So then, what can I do? he said. Therefore, I accept the performance of Christ Jesus in my behalf. God has accepted the life of Jesus in my behalf. Therefore, Christ's life is my finished product. I'm complete in Christ. And what God wanted me to be he made Christ Jesus to be that, then made me to exchange places with Christ as he took my body and nailed it to Calvary and gave me the body of the Lord Jesus. So then, nailing it to the cross the Bible said He took it out of the way, the keeping of ordinances. And He hath made a new way, the Bible said, through the rent veil. That is to say, His own flesh, as to rending the veil, the middle wall of partition, the human keeping of ordinances and problems of harassment of the mind. He's taken it out of the way. And today we're delivered from the flesh and today we're delivered from the things of the world. Paul said, this is a revelation, folks. I got this great wonderful understanding from God. He said, though that you didn't know it, nobody in the earth didn't know it, but I got this from God, he said. And God showed me that I was free from the law of sin and death and I didn't have to sacrifice bulls, and I didn't have to go around boasting of my fasting and all these other things, but I have faith in God and I'm an overcomer by faith in the blood of the Lamb, as to what He did in my behalf, testifying to it, as to believe unto righteousness with my heart, and confession from my heart with my mouth unto the things of Christ and by the blood that was spilt by the Lamb I'm an overcomer. And I've passed from death unto life. I am no longer dwelling in the earth, but I am one of them that dwells in heaven. And it would take hours to go into that tonight. But I am one of them that has passed from death unto life. Adam, the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And God brought it to pass. It became a body of death as Satan infiltrated it but God's seed, God's seed at Calvary by foreknowledge. By predestination, before I was ever born into the world I was preserved by His foreknowledge, as to see that when He sent His seed to me I would receive His seed within my heart. So then, by foreknowledge I was saved from condemnation. By what God foreknew of me I became His elect. By what God foreknew of me, by that means He elected me unto grace and wrote my name down in the Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the world. And so then, in Christ, having slew the Lamb in His mind, in His foreknowledge the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world symbolized by Abel, the Lamb, the innocent one, the body. Having slain the Lamb in His foreknowledge He saved me and appointed my my portion in Christ, knowing that I would do the right thing saying, you are the one that shall endure to the end and the same shall be saved. Every Christian shall endure to until the end. He said, And if you endure until the end the same shall be saved. And what He's saying to you and I is that no one else can endure until the end except he that is born of the incorruptible seed of God and he keepeth himself and the evil one toucheth him not. He endureth until the end. The same are those that were appointed by foreknowledge unto salvation. And so then, it's wonderful to be a Christian. It's wonderful to understand the wonderful glory of God and the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus. And this wonderful thing that God has given unto us has made us children of God by foreknowledge and by His own workmanship, for we are His workmanship in Christ Jesus, elect according to foreknowledge. We are those that dwell in heaven that have been perfected forever. So then, we are Christ's seed. We are delivered from the body of death. We are no longer in the Adam generation. It ended at Calvary and the body of death that had taken our life into captivity, the body of death is gone. And today I am, by the washing of regeneration within the second man Adam's lineage, and I am born of spirit. Therefore, the Bible said He that is born of spirit is spirit, for the second man Adam was made a quickening spirit and I'm not as a living soul, as it was with the first man Adam, but I am a quickening spirit and I've passed from the soul realm unto the spirit realm and therefore my soul is sealed forever against death. For when Christ entered into me that ended the soul realm and the opportunity for Satan to take my life. And tonight I'm sealed by the great Spirit of Christ unto the day of the redeeming of my body. And my spiritual angelic being has passed from death unto life and it's sealed by the great seal of God by the Holy Spirit of Christ by the Holy Ghost, which is the Spirit of Christ. And my spirit is one with His Spirit and nothing can penetrate that seal. Nothing can go into my spirit. Nothing can spot me. I am without spot, wrinkle or blemish before Him and I'm able by His love and is grace to keep myself that the evil one touch me not. The Bible said I am persuaded to believe that nothing can separate me form the love of God, nothing present, nothing passed, nothing that is going to come, life, death, evil angels, powers of Lucifer, whatever, it cannot separate me form the love which was so great that God sealed me by His own blood. That great love has overpowered Lucifer and where sin doth abound grace does much more abound to make allowance for my shortcomings. So then, having been sealed in by the grace of God I am free from the law of sin and death and I am, tonight, eternal with Him, not waiting for the redemption of my body for my redeemer came to redeem me at Calvary. I'm waiting to wit the redemption and with this knowledge that's being revealed with this revelation that's coming forth with this understanding that God is giving at this time, the finishing of the mysteries, it means that I am going to have that perfect faith. That perfect understanding will give me that perfect conviction. And that perfect conviction is perfect faith. (Begin tape two, side two.)....be perfectly sealed from all the things of the world and the hypocrite will be taken by surprise and they'll find themselves sealed out rather than being sealed in and not listening to God, not understanding the knowledge of God, not having the wisdom of God. Paul said, I speak this to your shame. You'll find yourself having had your eyes of understanding blinded by Lucifer. You're eyes of understanding having been blinded by Lucifer, even the prince of this world, you strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel, thought you knew something that you didn't know and you found out that you were sealed out in blindness and in your own hypocritical doings. So then, God has taken the hypocrite by surprise, the Bible tells us, but the children of God He hath by foreknowledge sealed in. So then, before the world ever was God saw that you would be a hypocrite and God saw that you would be an Esau. And God saw that you would be as it was with Judas, and God sealed you out before you were ever born into this world. God said concerning Judas, let another His bishopric take for he was a devil. Before he was ever born into the world God saw that he would be that. And God foresaw that because he saw your craftiness, your shrewdness, your cunningness, your desire to manipulate and take advantage of the preacher and take advantage of God's goodness. And take advantage of the children of God, and how that you cunningly would continue to be a harlot and continue to be disobedient and hateful and contrary and a reprobate to every good work, to resist the minister and the people of God so God sealed you out. But those that He saw would be submissive, and those that were not trying to do anything but find the truth, that wanted to do the right thing, that longed to do the right thing, God elected them unto grace and sealed them in by His great loving spirit that they should never see condemnation, that they should never be spotted by Lucifer, that they should never see death. So then, we're going to stop right here because like I say so often, we've not ever really got started good yet, as to what we need to explain about the mystery of God, or the wonderful things of God. But in exhorting just a little bit tonight we've gotten over a few thoughts, not because I felt all of you, as to attentiveness, or listening, or even desiring, but because you are a but just a little fragment of the people that I'm preaching to. You're just a little bit of the people I'm preaching to. So it doesn't matter how you react. You know, I want to love you. I want to help you. I want to see you go on with God. And as it was with Jesus, as to the disciples, but they were just a tiny fragment of the people that God was preaching to through Jesus Christ. And so then, if you act up and you act out of sorts and you don't act right, it's like Brother Branham in his tabernacle. He had to go on to the world. When God said they're not going to listen he still had a ministry to the world. And our ministry is to go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. We did it before we knew you. We still do it. And to those that aid us we praise God for you, and those that hinder us we ask God to have mercy on you, or move you out of the way if you're not going to make any effort to do any better. So when I come here I find a real resistance sometimes out of some of your carnal minds and it's very besetting. Because as I say so often, if I ever raise my voice you just somehow, you don't blend in, you don't relate to me. All I've got to do is raise my voice to find out whose carnal and whose not carnal, and right then, right then and there you and I separate our company. I find out that you're not sheep and you're not part of what we're doing. You're not dead, as to the flesh, and I automatically find out that you don't belong to me. On the other hand there are those that are among you, the little flock. Few that find it. They are among you and they blend right in while we preach to the multitudes around the world. I thank God for them that are my sheep tonight. They hear my voice. There is no resentment. There is no fault-finding. There is no ugliness. There is no jealousy. There's no carnality, as to resistance and those being my sheep they hear my voice and they follow me and they do whatever that I ask them to do and I give unto them eternal life. So then, let's stand together tonight. I watch a lot of times and I see some of our Brethren so cunningly stay home out of the services at night and they'll send their wife over. And of course, if I ask them what was wrong they'd say, Well, our children have got to go to school. Such a lying spirit, to cheat on God. So he stayed home so they could get a little rest and they let the wife come. But I know that those same men aren't found in the men's gatherings. And when we're talking about spiritual things I notice that they had to stay home even then, because of the children, as they say. Their cunning crafty doings and they're half hearted. They half live for God. They half serve God. They have no interest in spiritual things. They live on the campground but they have no interest in spiritual things, as to doing anything for God, or supporting the cause of Christ. And I see others cunningly slip out and stay out until the message is finished and cunningly slip back in. The same carnal minded people that have no real interest in Christ, no concern about God. And I see women do the same thing. But on the other hand I see service after service and day after day I see people of God come. I look and I see some that comes one service and they're out the next service. They come part of the time and the next part of the time they've got to eat, drink and be merry, to visit relatives, or they've got to stay home. But, folks, let me tell you. Mark it down in your book and mark it well. Those people are going to die and go to hell. They don't have any hunger for God. They don't have any thirst for God. They're not doing anything for God. They're not driving forward to perfect their lives in spiritual things and to be spiritual people and conform to the image of Christ Jesus. I have people that sit in the services the whole time I'm preaching. They just shift from one side to another. If they aren't walking they're just shifting. And the wife is looking at the husband and the husband looking at the wife, and the daughter, and their just shifting about all the time. They're minds are just shifting. It makes it very difficult for Christ to do what He'd like to do in their midst. But, nevertheless, those people aren't going to heaven. It's just those that don't see and those that don't understand and those that can't receive it and those that are cut off. They're very carnal. They're very fleshly. The same people are full of passions and I find that those same men and women commit harlotry and cheat on their wives and on their husbands, on their companions.

I find that they do the same thing. They have that old dirty, evil spirit of lust of the flesh. They sit in my services and they have no understanding, no desire for God, no hunger, no thirst. It's sad to say that the serpent has climbed up into the upper lintel. Some of them slip into offices and hold offices, as Judas did, only to their hurt and to our hurt. But I thank God, I say again, for they that are just simple down to earth people that love God. They're not trying to do anything but just be pure. Those people have a crown of life. They have eternal life but, folks, it's hard to have to say this but there are so few of them at Bethlehem. So few of them. We have a big crowd coming from time to time but there are so few of them that really are sons and daughters of God, that has really got eternal life, that are really on their way to heaven, that are really interested in the revelation and the knowledge of the Son of God, that are really spiritual. A believer? Yes. A Christian? No. You say, Brother Pike, how can a believer then be a Christian? They can be if they're a babe and they don't know anymore than what's been revealed to them. They might commit error. But if they're believing on God will give them the spirit. By foreknowledge the spirit of God belongs to them and He will baptize them. The Spirit of God will come into it's temple. The others, believers by foreknowledge, God saw they were not going to do right and so the Spirit of God will never come into their temple. They will always be a religious proselyte, or be a religious non-conformist, so far as salvation. Always just be a religious individual, and that's all they will ever amount to. Always be a prick in your side and a thorn in your flesh and a hindrance to everything that you do for God. That's sad, folks. Let's sing a little chorus together. There's nothing wrong with eating and drinking, having the things that God affords through the flesh of the world. Paul said, Meat for the belly and the belly is for meat but I'm not going to come under the bondage of any of it. To be fleshly minded, as to human desire is to be under bondage to the beggarly elements of the world and your mind is in captivity to Lucifer, who desires the things of the flesh and of the world. It's sad to say that many ministers, hundreds of them, the only thing they are interested in is a ministry. They want a ministry. They want people to know that they are ministers, that they are big figures and that they have got prestige and they are on T.V. and radio. They won't preach Jesus name, so far as being baptized in the name of the Lord. They won't put the woman in her place and man in his place and the sinner in his place. They won't do that. They want a ministry. They could care less about eternal life, as to what's going to happen after this life. Other than the fact that they hope that they'll be saved. Just like the devil, he wants to be saved to the extent he'd like to stay out of the flames of the fire. But all they want is a ministry. But there are those that God has sent that are not interested in a ministry, they are interested in helping people find God and feeding the hungry and the poor. And they are interested in leading people away from fears and frustrations and anxiety, to bring in the great Kingdom of God that the Lords of Lords might be anointed king and that He might set up His glorious Kingdom. And the quicker that they get this world over, and the quicker that they get the people in the better they like it. They are not interested in having a ministry for so many years, and whatever. That's not their interest. There are people that are in the same condition that ministers are in. Laity. The same condition. They can't enjoy themselves in the house of God, in the spirit because they can't hardly wait to get to the natural things because their whole life is built around the old Esau way of life. Let's just sing. Do you love the Lord? Let's sing that little chorus again, Come Into My Heart. This is what we need. We need Jesus to come into our heart. You might be overshadowed by the present day grace but one day it's going to come to an end and the grace dispensation is going to be over. Let's sing this together. (Singing) You know I don't think there is anything that made Jesus any sadder than to know that He had people that were going to be lost after He had done all that He could do. It made Him very sad because He wanted to see people saved. It's very sad, you know. It makes you very sad to know that there is people under your ministry, that's under your voice that hear you. It makes you very sad to know that they're going to be lost. But you either are a spiritual inner man or you are a fleshly outer being. And if you are an inner man then you have eternal life. If you are a fleshly outer man then you are eternally doomed. There is no way to save you. There is no way to help you. If you take that attitude toward the flesh and the thoughts of the flesh and the things of the flesh and you savor the things that be of the world and your interest is in your natural thoughts and natural things then it means that you are Esau. You are the bastard child. You are the bonds child. You are under bondage to the beggarly elements of the world and you'll pass away with the world no matter how religious you are. If any man seems to be religious among you and bridleth not his tongue that man's religion is in vain. I want you to slip your hands up and I want to pray with you. It made Jesus sad to know that Judas was in their midst because it was a grievous thing to Him but he continued on to do what needed to be done. You know, you don't have to be the wrong kind of person. The Bible said it's not my will that any should perish but all should come to repentance and have everlasting life. It's not my will that the wicked should perish but even the wicked should repent of their sins and God should save them. It wasn't God's will for Judas to do the evil wretched thing that He did. He was given warning before He ever did it. God knew that He would do it, foresaw his evil wretched doings, his gullible desire for the things of this world and God foreordained him unto that position, as it was Pharoah. For that purpose God raised Him up. That is, gave him power of the king because he knew he was that type of person and he would do those wretched things. Jesus said to Judas, said, You're going to betray us. Said, One of you is going to betray us. He said, But woe unto that man. He said, It would have been good if that man had never been born into the world. It would have been good, Judas, He said, it you had never had a birth, if you had never come to life. You'd have been better off if you had never been born. But, folks, don't betray the Lord Jesus for a morsel of bread. Don't do like Esau and sell your birth right for a few minutes of passions, for a dollar, for some kind of conglomeration of worldliness. Don't let your thoughts keep running wild and relentless saying, I can't help it. Get rid of that old nature of rebellion and contrariness and of evil. Cast down those imaginations and bring every thought into subjection to the obedience of Jesus. Be a real man of God, a real woman of God and have faith and do the mighty works of God. You can do it. But if you refuse to yield, if you refuse to do it, then your house will be laid waste and you'll be desolate and barren. Father, God of Heaven, in the wonderful name of Jesus I ask You first of all to consider me, Father. Consider me. I'm Your son, Father. Though I'm worth of many stripes, many problems and transgressions of life, Father, so far as my worthiness of stripes, and yet there is no transgression in that You took my stripes for me and You folded up the law and laid it away that I might be Your son. And Father, that I may not have to ask you to forgive my sins but rather, Father, to forgive my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me. Oh, my Father, as you chasten me from day to day to deal with me as a son. Jesus, being a son, yet learned He obedience by the things He suffered. Thus being made perfect, Father, He became the author and finisher of our salvation. Be merciful to me, Father. Be merciful to my companion. Be merciful to my children. Be merciful to my loved ones. O God, be merciful to people throughout the world tonight. Be merciful, God, to my spiritual children, my spiritual household, Lord, to bless them and to love them and to help them. Help me to teach them good doctrine in the right thing. Help me not to have to scold them, O God, nor to hurt them, O God, but Father to love them with the same love that You loved me with, O God, when you died for me. Help me to be a good shepherd. Father, help my people to be healed and to be whole and to be healthy, to be strong, to know and to understand that they might believe, in that they understand what and how to believe, Oh, Lord, that they can have the great faith that will be the shield that will protect them from all the evils of Satan. Forgive me, O God, of everything that I say or do wrong, or every hurt, every misunderstanding or misdemeanor of life, O God, and let Your great Spirit that I feel now, that I feel from day to day. Let it rest upon me, the mighty anointing of the great inspiration of God and the great mind of God, being concerned about Your people. Help me to deny myself, to take up my cross and follow You. Help me, O God, to do the right thing. Cleanse me, purge me, purify me in Jesus' lovely name I ask it. Amen. Let's sing just another chorus or two. (Singing) You know, I appreciate Brother Tommy Merritt's wife being here with us the other night. I didn't know she was here until Betty told me. Sometimes I'm looking right straight at them and it just doesn't register, but we appreciate her being down. She hasn't been with us in a long time and it was said that Tommy might even come back down here. He's not satisfied where he's at but he's continuing on and he's just liable to come back to Bethlehem. I believe she made the statement that as she was looking for a place to worship said Tommy told her, said, There ain't no need for you to look, said, because you're looking for a place like Bethlehem and, said, there is no such place around. Said, You're not going to find it. You know, you could tell by that He favored the Brethren and the work of the Lord and had confidence. So people that go away, you know, they have problems but they'd love to be back with us. Let's sing that again, can we? (Singing) Let's bow our heads together once again. Coming to the close of another day, another benediction, coming to the close of another day, I wonder what you've done today for Jesus. I wonder if you are a routinist. Whereas, the Bible said, therefore leaving the principles of the doctrines of Christ let us go on. Go on unto perfection not turning again to lay the foundation of repentance of dead works and dead faith toward God, but let us go on. We've laid the foundation, let's build the house of lively stones. Let us go on. I wonder if you're a routinist, if all you ever do is repent, never making any efforts to go on. It's okay to repent, folks, that's all right. But don't be a routinist. When you repent, repent when you have stumbled after having done all that you could. And don't condemn yourself for happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he allowed. That doesn't mean as to a willful allowance but that which caused you to stumble. God is greater than your heart. If your heart condemn you He's greater than your heart. He knoweth all things. He knows that you are sealed by His Spirit and by His righteousness, that He hath made you His righteousness in Christ. Don't condemn yourself over it. Just have faith in His righteousness but be sure that your stumblings are not willful, that there is no will behind it. Make sure that you've made a special effort to be clean and holy and then when you stagger and stumble don't condemn yourself over that thing which you allow. Go on believing God and praising God for God knoweth. He knoweth. Pray for us. Pray for the twins tomorrow as they leave for Hawaii. Pray for Brother Don Kleinknecht. Pray for the safety of their trip. Pray ye one for another that we all have strength and protection. While I'm praying for you that God will protect you, then God rewarding you with the protection through my prayer I'm standing in the gap to make up the hedge for your shortcomings of faith, that Satan cannot get to you, then you stand in the hedge for my shortcoming of faith. And in the time when we have problems, as to a consecutive thing in God, as to continued believing, you be the filament and you be that part that makes up the hedge to keep the hedge complete. With all of us praying one for another, though there might be many gaps, yet many places are filled and there's a continual hedge. Even as the prayer chain. Be faithful to your prayer chain. God will bless you. God will help you. While you've got your heads bowed I'm going to ask Brother Larry Allen to come up here, if he will, to pray the closing prayer tonight. Brother Allen he has a real problem trying to keep the warehouse straightened out. He gets everything catalogued and people bring things down there and they won't give it a writeup and they won't let him know it's there, or whatever, and it's just a conglomeration of a mess. And that's the way the devil is. Do your diligence, like Brother Larry, to keep the thing straight. See? Because the devil he's a infiltrater. He'll bring all of his old junk that isn't good for nothing to conglomerate, to get your life out of kilt to where you can't have it systematic, so that when you need something you can't find it for the junk. Tonight search your hearts and see if your in the faith of Christ. See if your mind is in Christ. See if your faith is in God. See if your conviction is of the Holy Scriptures. The Bible said that if we would examine ourselves, and then if we would chasten ourselves through fasting and prayer. Daniel said, I chasten myself twenty-one days. (end of tape)

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

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

Holiness Unto The Lord