Be Sincere

Reading from the book of Psalms 114: "When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language; Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs? Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob; Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters." 

Psalms 115: "Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. O Israel, trust thou in the LORD: he is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield. Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield. The LORD hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless them that fear the LORD, both small and great. The LORD shall increase you more and more, you and your children. Ye are blessed of the LORD which made heaven and earth. The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD'S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men. The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence. But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the LORD."

Psalm 116: "I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted: I said in my haste, All men are liars. What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people, In the courts of the LORD'S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD." 

Psalm 117: "O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD." 

Seems like the weather gives you just a little bit of a problem. Just enough to be a problem. I'd like to comment on a few things here. You know, I thought this morning was centered around being sincere. The Scripture here it says, the dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence, but we will bless the Lord from this time forth and for ever more. Now you can be seated. I tell you what, perhaps you've never read this, or perhaps if you have you've never thought on it. But I want you to notice how this reads. It said, the dead praise not the Lord. You know, the Bible says the dead know not anything. You know, some folks wonder about the dead. They say, Well, I just don't know about the dead. You know. Well, let me tell you, now what the Bible says. The dead know not anything. Won't be no troubling thoughts in the grave. The dead know not anything. And it says here, the dead praise not the Lord. Now, it's obvious that David knew that the dead couldn't praise the Lord. But then there is more here to it than just what you see on the printed page. The dead cannot praise the Lord. The dead praise not the Lord. The Bible teaches that they that live in trespasses and sin are dead while they live. Though the Bible says let everything that hath breath praise the Lord, yet it's obvious when you say the dead praises not the Lord. See, the Bible that said praise is comely for the upright. That's very obvious. For the upright. If you're not upright then you cannot praise the Lord, for the Bible says God hearth not the prayer of the wicked. How much less would he listen to the praise of the wicked. See? It would be like a jumbled up mess to Him. I know we've got all this Charismatic move going on in all the denominational people in the world. All these things going on. I know that, and I understand that, but they are not praising the Lord. The Bible says you cannot eat at the table of the devils and then eat at the table of the Lord. So those people that are eating at the table of devils, and the Bible says sacrificing what they sacrifice to devils. They're not in the presence of God. They're not eating from the table of God. God doesn't hear those people. The Bible says God is angry with the wicked every day. I preached to you the other night how that people are so mislead. They feel like God loves everybody. And I try to emphasis it. God does not love everybody. God is angry with the wicked every day. I express this so many times. Could I pursue a man trying to blow his brains out and prove to anyone that I loved him? God said, I will pursue you until you perish from off the face of the earth. He said, I'm angry with you every day. Your offerings are an abomination in my sight. And he said, Beware ye that have forgotten me; I'll tear you in to pieces. Said, You think that I am altogether such as you are - in your denominational churches. In your gullible desire of life. In your evil doings. In your evil thoughts. You think that I am like you. He said, Well, one day I'm going to meet you and show you what a hypocrite you really are. I'm going to meet you face to face and it's going to be like a bear that's been robbed of her cubs. I'm going to tear you so bad. Maybe a wreck. Maybe a sickness. Whatever it might be. See? So the dead that are dead in trespasses and sins cannot praise the Lord. Neither can they serve the Lord. And God tells you and me, as Christians. He said, Woe unto you if you set a light by them. That is to say in the Old Testament when a person was dead you couldn't go put a light out by their grave the way they do in Washington now. They have what they call the Eternal Light that they burn at Kennedy's grave and different things. You couldn't do that in the Old Testament. See? That was paganistic. That was witchcraft. He wouldn't let you do that. But, see? Those natural things represented spiritual things. That is to say that natural light that He refused to let them put by the natural dead indicated that we could not put a spiritual light by the spiritual dead. They that live in trespasses and sin are dead while they live. They're dead. They're twice dead and plucked up by the root, which means they are spiritually dead. You can't put a light by them. You say, Brother Pike, what do you mean? I mean you cannot give them a Scripture of consolation. You can't go out there and say it's all right. The Bible says, Woe unto that person that calls good evil, and evil good. You can't go out there and say, Well, it's all right. God understands. You're sucking on a weed. You're chewing on a cud. God understands, you know. You can't do that; God will get you because you're placing a light by the dead. You're giving the wicked a consolation that God does not want them to have. And so then, God will get you for that. And this, again, is why that I preach to you like I do about being sincere. God wants you to be sincere. You can be religious outside but you can be dead inside. Listen at the way David expresses this. "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence, but we will bless the Lord from this time forth; from this time forth and for ever more." Why does David say that we will praise the Lord from this time and for ever more? We couldn't praise God from this time and for ever more if we're going to die. There would be no way that we could do that, because the dead know not anything, and the dead cannot praise God. David brings in out in another place. He says, If I go into the grave, he says, I cannot praise you. So he couldn't be talking about dead folks. He gives us a secret here and he lets us know that we are never going to die. That we've passed from death unto life and that we will never die. That the same way that I praise God right now, my praise will never cease. Though I may go to sleep in my body but my inner man cannot die. The sting is taken out of death. There is no sting in death. See? There is no sting in death, but those people that are out yonder you've got to remember one thing. The people that are out in the world, God does not regard those people. Jesus – I preached this to you the other night. I brought it out in my sermon. Jesus would not even as much as pray for those people. Can you imagine that? Hundreds of millions of people that are born from the time of Adam all the way to the coming of the Lord, and that Jesus would not pray one pray for them people. Now you're talking about loving everybody, you're talking about God being concerned about everybody, angry with the wicked every day. He won't receive their offerings. Though the preacher might receive it, God doesn't receive it. And then said I'll tear them into pieces. And there is no peace to the wicked. Why is there no peace to the wicked? If God so loved the wicked the way that you say that He loves the wicked, why then doesn't He give them peace? He is the Prince of Peace. The Bible says there is no peace to the wicked because the Prince of Peace is not among them. That's the reason. And so then, Jesus knowing that every prayer He prayed the Father was going to regard that prayer. Every prayer that Jesus prayed that God was going to answer. Because of that He never prayed one prayer for the people of the world. Not one prayer. He said, Father, I prayer not for these, Father. He said, But I prayer for these that you have given me. Those that you have given me, He said, I pray for these. I pray for these, but the others, He said, I don't pray for them. So Jesus has never prayed for them, and God has never granted unto them the prayer of peace from Jesus. Even though you might say, Well, Brother Pike, look at the good time that they have. Look at the way they do and they get by better than some of us. I know that that is true. That's very true. God created mankind and He's making allowance to the land of Esau that they might eat, drink and all those things. But the only way that they have peace, God doesn't give it. God doesn't want it. If God had His way today – You might not believe this, folks, but preachers gets up and preaches to you how that God loves all of those people out there in the religious realms, and all the people out there in the world. They get up and preach that, but I'm telling you the truth from my heart. This very day. This very day if God could do it without injuring the saints He'd kill every last one of them. He wouldn't let one of them live until midnight. He'd slay every last one of them. He'd do it before the sun went down. He'd kill every last one of them because that's the way God is. He said, Moses, get out of the way; I'll kill all of them. I'll kill every last one of them. And if they'd not had an intercessor, if they'd not had a mediator God would have completely destroyed them and the Bible says He is the same yesterday, today and for ever. Moses said Gird on that sword and kill your fellow, run him through, kill him. And he said, If I be a man of God, he said, let the earth open up and swallow them quickly, and let them go down to the pit quickly. So then, what would God do. He would kill every last one of them. Your children, and my children, He would kill them, every last one. Every one that's wicked. Everyone that's contrary. Mothers, daddies, brother, sisters, relative, friend, neighbor. It wouldn't make any difference. rich or poor, young or old. Even the children, he's slay them. Those that were of the age of accountability, he'd kill them. So God doesn't love the wicked. God does not love the wicked. Now, the Bible says, it's not my desire that people perish. It's not my will that wicked men should perish. I'd rather that they'd repent and come to God and be saved. But in that they're going to be wicked, he said, I'm angry with them every day and I'll pursue them until they perish from off the face of the earth. I don't want their offerings. All this money that they get together, and whatever, He said, I don't want it. Though they send thousands and millions of dollars to feed the poor, God has nothing to do with it. That's just people sending it to people. God makes allowance for that to the extent that He's blessed them with much and He prepares their heart to share with somebody over yonder. But as far as God receiving it, God doesn't receive any of it. So then God said, I am angry with the wicked every day. The very day that Lot went out of Sodom and Gomorrah, the writer in the New Testament emphasizes that it's going to be this way at the coming of the Lord Jesus. That Lot was a type of the church and the very day that Lot went out of Sodom and Gomorrah the Bible says God immediately reigned fire and brimstone down upon them. He never waited for the second day. The very day that Lot went out. See? So God wasn't sparing Sodom and Gomorrah because He loved them. He was sparing Sodom and Gomorrah because that was Lot's place of living. That was His livelihood. And the very day that He got him out of Sodom and Gomorrah He burned the city. We were over there looking at the city not too long ago. He burned it the very day, and the writer in the New Testament emphasizes to let you and I know that the very day that God takes the church out of here He's going to turn all of the furies of hell loose on humanity. If you think God loves them, why then is it that all of a sudden this God of love changes His mind. Somebody would say, Well, Brother Pike, what it is God is giving them all of this opportunity and then He's going to change His mind about it. Now do you believe that God is that ignorant? Now come on, folks, we're talking about God. Do you think God is that ignorant? The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever. God is the same to every generation. Why should God do that? You say, Well, Brother Pike, He wants to give them all a chance. A chance for what? Somebody would say, A chance to be saved. Why? Why? You know, should I take a gun and blow a man's brain out. I look at him, he's lying on the floor. I say, Now I give you a chance to live. That wouldn't make sense. That wouldn't make sense, would it? I'd be ignorant, wouldn't I? If God says that these men were before of old preordained unto this condemnation, and that God has predestinated us unto righteousness, and foreordained them unto condemnation and death, that they are brute beast made to be taken and burned, ungodly men turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, and if the Bible says concerning Paul's preaching, as many as were ordained unto eternal life believed and the rest were blinded, and if the Bible says that Lucifer, the prince of this world, even the prince of darkness has blinded the eyes of the wicked that they might not see when good comes, how is it that you say God is giving them a chance? Did God give Judas a chance? Somebody said, Well, there he was, Brother Pike, he obtained part of that ministry and he was right there with them. I know that. That was what I was fixing to express when I spoke about the atonement, the blood. I spoke about this the other day in a message. The blood is on the seat of atonement. Jesus spilt his blood, but he didn't spill his blood for the world. He didn't spill his blood for the wicked. Do you believe that God would be so ignorant as to take his Son and let His Son die for some wicked devilish person? You know better than that. If he would not even so much as let his Son pray for those people you know He wouldn't spill the blood of Jesus for them. Jesus spilled His blood for the children of God. He made it very clear. He said, I'm sent not but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I am sent only, he says, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Not to the lost, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So then, the blood is on the seat of atonement. How is it that those people have their liberties and they have medical aid, and the different things that help them? By one means, that is because Lot is still in Sodom and Gomorrah. That is to say in the typical thing, the church is still down here in this world of sodomy. I made the statement if they ever license sodomy that God has put this world out of commission. And coming back from over yonder I told them out trip had to do with it, and sure enough when we got to New York the papers stated there was enough to license it. Enough votes. Said the votes poured in so you know destruction is nigh. But, anyway, how then, the song writer said, did the goats get in. Said somebody left the gap down and the goats got in. How is it that the people out yonder that God refers to as goats, as dogs, as swine, how is it that God has given them a chance to be saved? How are you going to save a dog? How are you going to save a swine? How are you going to saved those people that are out there that are called goats? How are you going to do that? God isn't going to do that. God ordained that those people be taken and destroyed because in His foreknowledge He saw what kind of a wretched people they would be. Did they have a chance? They had a chance. Where did they have a chance? In the foreknowledge of God when He first took a look at them. God doesn't have the blood on the seat of atonement so those people could be saved. God knows that they'll never be saved. He said concerning Jacob and Esau before they were ever born into the world, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. Why should He give a day of grace so that Esau could be saved when he hated him? Why should He do that? So then, we misconstrue things and the devils and the leaches, and the people that call themselves ministers get into the religious realms of the world, and in the Charismatic flow and they make millions upon millions of dollars and they get fame and popularity and all of these kind of things, taking advantage of the day of grace, even the righteous themselves, many of them mixed up in it not knowing any better. And a lot of times those people that have faith out there that believe get healed. They get healed and it gives strength to those things out there. Someone would say, Brother Pike, you don't believe anything righteous could give strength to anything wicked, do you? The Bible says Satan, who is wicked, gets his strength from the law. That's where he gets his strength. Sin gets its strength from the law to kill. Those people out there they get their strength from the church. While the church is here they're the light of the world and God has to bless the church and to bless the church in their immaturity from childhood, giving them time to develop and to be able to differentiate between what they are and what the world is, God has to have the blood on the seat of atonement so that He doesn't destroy everybody because of the wicked. So it's like people that set the laws. That wicked generation out there, that wicked group of people, the thing that they call the government of your local community and the government of the world they wouldn't give you not one thing that would be of comfort to you. They wouldn't pass a law for one benefit to you except for the fact that they, being human beings, have to have benefits, and every time they pass a benefit for themselves then you are partakers because you are a human being and they don't know how to get around it and they always manipulating. They always take the benefit of the law that they pass and then they bring some addendum, or some little thing over here that they hold over your head and rob you of every benefit that you could get out of it, and manipulate and twist it around to enslave you and rob you and they go on reaping the benefits that you wouldn't have if it wasn't for that. And, see, with God He's using the measures. As they've measured to God's people so has God measured unto them. They wouldn't have one benefit. God is angry with them and would destroy them all. They wouldn't have one benefit if God didn't have to give benefit to His church, to give them time to mature and develop knowing that their shortcomings would cause Him to have to do something harmful to the church. So then, God put the blood out there and that's the way the gap was let down and the goats go in. So then, that means that grace is all over the world, and that's why they have medical aid. And that's why they can eat and drink. And that's why they can live like a bunch of devils. That's why they can work like worms in a dead dog because the blood is on the seat of atonement for the church. But, folks, let me tell you. The very day that Lot goes out of Sodom and Gomorrah that's the day that God is going to turn the fireworks a loose. If you don't believe it read it in the 8th chapter of the book of Revelation, and read where the hundred and forty-four thousand of the Jews were sealed in the earth, and where John looked in to heaven and saw the great multitude that no man could number which had to do with the church, was caught up in to heaven. And read following that very chapter where he saw this and see that the Bible says that the angel went and put the fire into the censer and threw it down into the earth and there was lightning and there was earthquakes and thunderings, and all of these things, blood, flesh and hail all mingled together. So does God then give them a chance to be saved and then change His mind? How could God change His mind when the Bible says He's the same yesterday, today and forever? His opinion has been one throughout the eternities and will always be one without a flicker of thought, or change. All of His works are known unto Him from the beginning. He hasn't changed His mind about anything. Just because all of a sudden God pours out His wrath on the wicked, whereas He hasn't in the past, that doesn't mean that God has a good attitude toward the wicked and He's changed His mind. It just means that the church, Lot has suddenly gone out of Sodom and Gomorrah and the salt of the earth is gone and the meat is spoils. Just as quick as God's people get out immediately God pours out His wrath upon all humanity. So then, improper differentiation, or the lack of understanding through Christ, causes us to err. In many places if we are not careful, we'll be setting a light by the dead which is forbidden of God. So then, the Bible says, and we shall praise God henceforth and forever more, which means my spiritual man is passed from death unto life. And that spiritual man will always praise God. He will never be silent. Never. Because he is eternal. He has passed from death unto life and he will never come into condemnation. There is not one charge against him. Nobody can lay anything to the charge of God's elect because it is God that justifieth. It is God that saved us. Having predestinated us by foreknowledge, having sanctified us by the faith which is in Christ, Jesus made that very plain. He said, Paul go turn them from darkness unto light, those that are sanctified by faith in me, Paul. So then, by the sanctifying of the faith. Christ's faith, not your faith. He said, Paul, by the faith which is in me. And the Bible speaks of the people, that is especially the Jewish people, as reference to the church, or to the Jewish people. He said, And all of these were under the law. Kept under the law. Shut up under the law unto the faith. That is the faith of Jesus Christ. Unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. So then, being shut up under the law unto the faith. The Bible says, Everyone that is fallen from grace is under the law and no flesh shall be justified by the law. So shut up under the law unto The Faith. My faith, Jesus said. Unto the coming of Calvary when this great faith was brought forth for salvation, for sanctification, and for deliverance. God has predestinated, justified, and He has also glorified them that love Him, and they are without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish. They've always been. From the foreknowledge of God, they've always been. They came into the world without spot, wrinkle or blemish by the foreknowledge of Calvary and the finished works of the Lord Jesus. Just as the world is altogether wicked and no hope for them, we are altogether righteous and there is nothing that can cause us to fail to have that salvation and eternal reign, or regime, with Christ. So then, we see what a wonderful thing that God has done. Such a great marvelous thing that God has done for the Church, for you and I. He loves us, children of God. He loves us. He loves us. So then, we are made eternal. We are without spot. We are His Bride. We're without blemish. We're His children. God sealed us in, and nothing can touch us. Nothing can spot us. He that is born of God keepeth himself and the evil one toucheth Him not. So it's such a wonderful thing to know that we have passed from death unto life, and that God will not change His mind, that God is the same as He's always been. His attitude is the same. And that when we think that God has suddenly changed His mind and got upset at the people, and that He's going to bring His wrath on them it is nothing more than the fact that the time for the rapture, or what you call the rapture, or the translation of the Church is taking place. And at that time grace can be no more. The blood comes off of the Seat of Atonement and if there be no more grace then the wicked cannot stay in the presence of God anymore. Those human bodies that are filled with devils and demons of every descriptions, hundreds and millions of demons. See? God will bring them to naught. The punishment will be upon them. Let me ask you another question to confirm what we're saying. If God so loved those people, if God cares for those people, God really feels the way you say, and a lot of ministers say that He feels about those people, why is it that God who is the same yesterday, today and forever, now looking at it in reverse, why did He all of a sudden change from His goodness toward those people? Them- His love. For the Bible says He changes not. How did He change all of a sudden and break the Scriptures to the extent that the Bible says He makes them gnaw their tongue for pain? And boils pop out all over them? And He is so upset with them that He takes death away to where they can't even die out of their misery? What has caused God to get like that all of a sudden? Why is that loving God – Somebody says, Well, Brother Pike, the reason He done that is because they're so wicked. Well, I thought they'd been wicked all the time. I don't think they could get no more wicked than what they are. People that'll take a little baby and dash his brains out against the wall. Choke a mother to death. Somebody that would run out on the streets and just mutilate and cut into pieces someone. I've even heard of them where they cut the hands off they find them eating their fingers, and eating parts of their body. One man down in Alabama cut his wife up and begin to eat her secret parts. See? You tell me that all of a sudden they got wicked, and God got upset? Now, you know better than that, folks. You know better than that. See? What kind of reasoning is that? It's just one thing and that is all of a sudden their judgments has come. See? Before God ever sends Abraham down into Egypt He gave him a vision. You know the great vision. We bring it out on tape where he passed through this era of darkness and he cut these things in halves, these sacrifices and he let this great lamp by vision pass through there. As to you and I, Abraham perhaps didn't even know what it was all about even during his whole lifetime. But he did know this. God said, Abraham, this vision means that you and your things are going to pass through this area of darkness. That is, Abraham, I'm going to let you go down into Egypt, as we would say, that is your seed. I'm going to let you go down into Egypt, whereas Abraham passed through there. But I'm going to let you go down there and your seed for four hundred and thirty years are going to wonder in the midst of this intellectual darkness. Because they're going to have control of your people. But remember, Abraham, after this period of time I'm going to raise up a deliverer. And he's coming down there and your seed is going to be delivered. With a mighty hand I'll bring them out of Egypt. And I'll tell you what, the Bible says till the very day it came to pass, when the scholars figured it up it was the very day that God had told Abraham. And God turned Egypt into a rubbish pile and took those people out of there. Do you understand what I mean? You say, Well, why do you say that, Brother Pike? I said that to say this. That God, before Abraham's seed ever went into Egypt, knew all about it. And God accorded him his place. And God showed by passing through this thing, as the dividing of these things, that they would pass right on through and they wouldn't be able to stop them, that God would plow right through that thing. To you and I – Perhaps Abraham never knew this, but you and I, when we look at it we get the spiritual understanding that all that Abraham knew was that his seed would pass through there. But Abraham's seed had to do with Isaac. And in Isaac all nations were to be blessed. So then, when we look at the vision we don't look at it as Abraham did. We look at it like this, that Calvary was the sacrifice. And He made in Himself twain and God rent the veil, and separated the Lord from the Christ. And through that open door that Jesus testified that He, Himself entered, when He passed through that door, and passed through that darkness of that veil where Jesus made Himself a veil of darkness, came in the image of darkness and the veil was rent in twain and we passed through it in that He said, I am the light of the world and that light passed between the Lord and the Christ to the extent of the severing of the veil. Or that is to say, when God saved me, my body, by Christ became dead at Calvary and my spirit moved in to heaven and the great lamp, or that light of the light of the world passed through me and it divided asunder my spirit from my body and my spirit went back to God who gave it and my body whet in to a watery grave and that great light passed right through there. And so then, God showing Abraham as to what the type of the thing would be that had to do with his natural seed, gave you and I the spiritual understanding for the revelation of Christ to where we would know at the end time what he was talking about, about passing through those things. And if we went into it, and detailed it a little more as to what kind of animals would know right readily that what I'm saying is true. You'd have to go back and pick it up as to what those doves had to do with in the Old Testament, as to redemption. But, anyway, I said that to try to express myself and to clarify what I'm saying here. God doesn't change His mind, folks. God knew that Abraham's seed was going down there. God knew that four hundred and thirty years they'd be in bondage. God didn't feel good nor bad at the Egyptians one way or the other as to His change of mind. God had one look toward the wicked and those people that were down in Egypt were wicked. There were wicked people down there. When I say that I'm speaking of those that were appointed unto the wrath of God. There is good people everywhere in the world. People that love God among all nations. But, anyway, God brought Abraham through those things and brought his seed out, and He appointed the others unto wrath. He knew that they were wicked people. They were wicked people that had killed the little ones. They had taken the little ones, just – Satan, knowing that Moses the deliverer was going to be born,. they killed the males among the children, and Moses escaped because Pharaoh's daughter found him in the bulrushes in the little ark. God had prepared the mother's heart to put him there to protect him, and he became the son of Pharaoh. You know the story, and you know how that Moses even killed a man, being zealous for God and had to flee from Pharaoh. That was the way God got him out of Egypt. God knew He'd never get Moses out of Egypt if He didn't let him kill that man. And He was angry with the wicked every day. It didn't make no difference if Moses had killed ten thousand people. He was going to kill them anyway. David run through a troop, leaped over a wall, and they sang their song that he slew ten thousand. For God didn't care about the wicked. See? God treasures life. God doesn't love to see anything die. God treasures life in such a way that He marks the fall of a sparrow. But the wicked, He's glad to see the wicked die. He wants the wicked to die. The sooner they die the more happy God is because life is an imprisonment. You know, you've got a rat running around in the house the quicker you can get it trapped and killed the happier you are. Which one of you that's got rats around your place, and I've had some around my place. Great big ones. Which one of you is just a happy, jolly good fellow to know that the rats are fellowshipping you? and you make way for them and say, I wouldn't hurt him for nothing? I don't want to bother him; let him stay here. You know. Somebody would say, Brother Pike, a rat? I'm talking about a rat. Why? Why not? Would you want a mad dog running around in the yard? We say, Well, that's life. I wouldn't touch that for nothing. That's a mad dog, don't bother him. If you had a rattlesnake laying out in your yard, would you just say, now don't be getting upset with him and kick him around? But you wouldn't kick him around much anyway. But, anyway, would you do that, folks? Would that make sense? Then how is it that we judge ourselves to be so intelligent and judge God to be so ignorant? Would not God kill those things? And God destroy those things, when a rattlesnake and a rat and a mad dog, those things are only typical of the spiritual devils and demons that are hibernating in human bodies? Would God then want the wolf among the sheep? Like Brother Branham said one time, What you need to do is get your double barrel and go after them. The Bible says pluck it out and be a new lump. Don't even so much as fellowship those people. You'll corrupt the church. You know we're so busy eating and drinking and our gullible desires, and our passions and whatever. We can't sit still. We can't listen. We can't conform. We can't get nothing. Just, My God, give it to me. Let me go. Let me ride. Let me go. Let me go. You know, it's because you're possessed with a devil. You've got a devil. You've got a demon of restlessness. When people don't have demons they're glad to hear the Word of God. You belong to the devils. You belong to the eating, the drinking, the buying, the selling, the going, the laughing, the talking. You belong to the crowd that's down at the beach. You need to be down at the beach with them somewhere. You need to be out there buying and selling. Just buying and selling, and buying and selling. You need to make yourself friends of the unrighteous mammon, as it's referred to. The filthy lucre, so that they can receive you into everlasting habitation. Because you aren't going anywhere with God. You don't have anything from God. See? The gullible thinking that you have, folks. You need to get out of that. There are people that murder folks in their thoughts. There's people that are cowards. They've never fought a lick. They're cowards. But a man that gets them upset they'll chew him up in their spirit and they'll beat his eyes out. If you could see their thoughts they're down there just gouging his eyes out, choking him to death, and just ripping him all to pieces. Somebody say amen, or tell me something. See? Can I go to heaven like that? Is there any way I can go to heaven like that? You'd be better off like some of these other fellows that goes out there and boxes his ears in, and let him box your ears in, and then get up and shake hands and go on your way. I'm not endorsing fighting. I don't mean you should do that. But I mean that's better off than to have that thing in your heart. You commit adultery in your heart. You murder a man in your heart. The Bible says out of the heart comes forth evil thoughts of adultery and murder and fornication and lying and theft and all these things. And said, these thoughts, that is what defiles a man. This is what defiles, a devil. And when you defile the temple God must destroy it, because God cannot dwell in it. When you have thoughts like that, that means Lucifer is in your heart. That means the mind of Satan is there, the old tree of knowledge. For Satan, a spirit, is recognized by thoughts. Your spirit is recognized by your thoughts. Somebody said, Well, I don't think my spirit is recognized by my thoughts, Brother Pike. Well, I tell you what. When you quit thinking then look for your spirit. Somebody says, Well, a lot of times I – No, you don't stop thinking. You might stop talking, but you don't stop thinking. There is not one time in your life that you ever stop thinking. Not for one second. Never. I tell you what, if thoughts could make you tired we'd be worn slap, completely, tee-totally out. So then, your spirit is recognized by your thoughts. See? My thoughts say, Come on, Brother Taylor, let's get a hamburger. Now, if I just go eat a hamburger, that's fine. But if I say, Come on, let's go get us a ton of hamburgers. You know, and I eat a hamburger and I gain a pound, gain ten pounds. You know, like the man that fell through the floor he ate so much. The floor broke. He fell through. Had to bury him in a piano case he's done got so big. Could fit a casket, couldn't get one big enough for him. I read that little article. Do you understand what I'm saying? Your thoughts, you've got to deal with your thoughts. We're not back in the Pentecostal age. Back there where we're dealing with, you know, killing a man. Or like in the days of David, way back there, they dealt with killing a man, hanging a man. Folks, we're not back there. We've far come from that. We're in another dimension. We're in another age. See? We're dealing, not with that outer man. That outer man is dead by the body of Jesus. I don't have to worry about what the outer man does. He's dead. All of them that live in sin and trespasses are dead. (Begin side two.) They're dead by the body of the Lord Jesus, but they're dead unto damnation because He went into hell. Whereas you and I are dead to sin because He resurrected, and the Bible says God suffered not His Holy One to see corruption, nor His soul to remain in hell. And as He is so am I in Him. So then, we're the resurrected side of it. They are the dead side. They're the Pharaoh that went into the Red Sea and was destroyed. We are they of Israel that come out on the other side, that passed all the way through. We're the resurrected by the death. How many of you understand what I'm saying? So then, your thoughts are dirty. Why is it you don't want to hear the Word of God? Why is it you don't have time for God? Why is it that you don't try to get into revelation? Why is it that you're not spiritual? Because you have your gullible desire. It's Satan. See? That mind is Satan. That's the polluted mind. That's the evil mind. That's the dirty filthy mind. Ball games. What is ball games? It's the mind of the devil. It's the carnal mind. You say, Why do you say that, Brother Pike? That's just the flesh having a little recreation. I know it, but the Bible says concerning Lucifer, Thou savorest the things that be of the flesh. Whatever the flesh has to offer that's what the devil wants. He's the prince over it. You that think you're Christians and you're doing the things of the world, you know better than that. You're not a Christian. A Christian is one that in their thoughts they meditate in the laws of God day and night. You say, Well, you don't know that. I know that because I'm a Christian. My heart won't let me do anything else but think on Jesus. It doesn't matter where my mind starts God will stop it just like that, and the love of God will say, Don't be thinking those kind of thought. Every thought is to be brought into subjection to Me. Love Me with all of your heart, all of your mind. When you say all of your mind it's every thought. So, see, when I express myself in the righteous thoughts then I am a holy man. I am a godly man. If my thoughts are righteous then am I holy. If my thoughts are dirty then am I wretched. If my thoughts are just simply carnal then that means that I am related to the flesh, or to the world, as to my own mind, but I'm still the prey of Satan, because he loves the things of this world and he's been made prince, or ruler, of the darkness and carnal thoughts are what is infiltrated with darkness. Now God can come into your heart. Like I said at the beginning of our thoughts here, if you can plant a rose bush and see the spiritual significance, if you can get to where you can say, God, give me the spirit of revelation, and you can see a building and you can get that as a spiritual significance. And you get the trees as a spiritual significance, then you become spiritual minded. Paul said, I would that you were spiritual. He said to be spiritual minded is life. If you are spiritual minded it means you've got life. Because that that is revealing those natural things to your understanding that is life. That is the spirit of life. You couldn't know if the spirit of life wasn't in there. Because God will not set a light by the dead. He will not let them get revelation. He will not let them get understanding. They will not understand when good cometh. They are in a world of darkness. This is their world. So when you're spiritual minded it means that you are alive. And if you aren't spiritual minded it means that you are dead. If you are always playing ball in your mind, or watching with the lust of the eye the ball games, or if you are always eating and drinking and you got to be at this cafe, and that cafe, or if you've always got to be on some job, or making money, or talking to relatives, or visiting with relatives, or you've always got to be intermingled with passions, and interwoven with passions, if you've always got to be laughing and talking and joking and always talking about something natural then you are lost. You are in the world of darkness. Satan has you in a prison, but if you're thinking about things spiritual and you're mediating in the laws day and night, all the time in your mind and your heart you're thinking Jesus I love you, Lord, I want to do something for you. God reveal this to me. Father, lead me over here. God deliver me from temptation. And on and on and on, then are you Christians. You have a mind of God. You have a mind of Lucifer. Either one of those two you have and they work through your mind. Your mind. I want to say this right hurriedly in closing. Your mind. We've got a message we preach on the three minds. Minds are spirit. Where there are no spirit there won't be a mind. Where there is no mind you won't find a spirit. Because the mind is a proof, or the revealing of life. Whether it's perverted life, as we say, in a rat, or whatever. You kill the rat so the life can get back to God, because it's in a prison. Now. God killed all the rats at Calvary. Did you know that? He killed them. He cut them off. Though grace is allowed for the second heaven, the medical aide and all of these things, but He killed the rats. Exterminated, got rid of them there at Calvary. And Jesus said, It's finished. And did you know the rat part is that part that was born of the first man Adam. That's the rat part. He killed your rat part. The beast part. And He took your spirit into the Spirit of Christ until the day that His body returns and you're going to be His body. That's the way God sees it. And your body is gone. There is no sin in the flesh anymore. He killed the rats. It's all gone. The sin of the soul. And so all of those people out yonder, He killed their body. It's gone. He killed the rats. They're gone. That is, they can't get passed the Red Sea. Pharaoh can't get passed the Red Sea. He's swallowed up in the blood. Those people are swallowed up in the blood. The blood is the judgment upon them. Blood and fire relates one to another. It is the fire of God. When they cried, let His blood be upon us look what happened to the Jews. That was the wrath of God, and they have the wrath of God upon them. Just as quick as the blood is moved God will burn them up. So He killed the rat. All right. In closing I want you to think this over. God killed the perversion. He did away with it. He destroyed it. He destroyed him that had power over death, even the ruler of darkness. He destroyed him. He's gone for ever. He's no more. And it's up to you and I to bury the old dead rats. Some of you haven't even been buried yet. I'm not going to ask you how many we've got here that haven't been buried in the name of the Lord Jesus for remission of sin. But you haven't been buried yet and you're bound to cause a stink if I let you stay you around here and don't bury you, or get some of these people to bury you. Brother Taylor helps me bury them. I don't have very many that will help bury them. But, anyway, you need to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. The world out yonder, the church world, and I don't mean this wrong but if the church world would get away, get away from their paganistic practices of baptism and get to the name of the Lord Jesus there wouldn't be such a stink out there at this time. There wouldn't be a stink in the Baptist Church. There wouldn't be a stink in the Pentecostal Church. There wouldn't be a stink in the Methodist Church, in the Catholic Church, in the Jehovah's Witness Church, in the Church of Science, in what they call the Christian Church. All those things. Somebody says, Well, I don't believe there's a stink in there. I don't think you ought to say that, Brother Pike. Well, the Bible says, My tables are full of vomit. That's not supposed to be His table. Jesus went in and popped the whip and turned the tables over. That's where the tables were, because He didn't like what they were doing. It sounds to me like there is a stink out there. Well, anyway, when you look and see a woman in shorts and she's got her dog in her arms and she goes into the church, there's something connected there with the abomination that maketh desolate. That's an abomination to God. It's going to make that church desolate of the Spirit of God. And Daniel said when you see these things happen there's going to be trouble. All right. Let's stand together. I say that we need to get rid of the pool tables, out of the churches, or the basement of the churches. I say that we need to get rid of the ball games. Everyone that's got TVs needs to get rid of them. I don't mean sell them to someone else. There's a better way. Like our people here, they took some of the clothing that we wouldn't send to Mexico because it wasn't decent clothing, and they said, I know what we'll do with it. We'll give it to the Goodwill. And I said, Strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Here I am preaching on the radio that people should dress right and then you go and give it to the Goodwill. Somebody said, Well, I don't know why he preaches like that; he's the one that gave it to me. I kept it out of Mexico so that when I go to Mexico they won't think, Well, look, he preached one way and published literature one way and here you bring us stuff another way. You know, folks, we need to get our thinking straightened out, you know. Somebody said, Well, I think it's better to put them on some clothes and just let them be half naked. I believe it's better to let them be naked. God just let them be naked in the garden. I think it's better to let them be naked. Some of them, if all their nakedness was shown, they wouldn't be so lustful. Their rotten bellies and rotten thighs, and everything else. The old dirty filthy bodies if it really showed like it was people would back off, and wouldn't be like a bunch of buzzards after it. That is, the eagles wouldn't. They'd see what kind of carrion it really was. So if you're just going to put enough on them to make them lustful just leave them alone. You're not doing them any good anyway. Do you love the Lord? I think folks need to make some efforts to cover up their secret parts. The Bible says because the daughters of Zion have walked haughty I will discover their secret parts, He said. And He has. We've got a whole world full of prostitutes. The great whore is everywhere, because she's been haughty and she's walked, mincing with her feet in her high heels, and her painted eyes like lizards, and all the different things that she does. Her body protruding because she has made it to look like a harlot. And men are the same way. He's discovered their secret parts because they've gone around with their form fitting clothes, and they've become the whoremongers. And so the buzzards are out there with the old dead carrion. You know, there isn't anything more degraded and rotten than a bad woman. The Bible speaks of her being like water in her husband's blood. Whereas, it speaks of a virtuous woman, her price being far beyond that of rubies. You don't have to be a whorish woman, as far as giving your body to the dogs for people to misuse them. All you've got to do is have the wrong thoughts and Jesus said you are a harlot. A man doesn't have to be a whoremonger by abusing himself with the degraded means of life. He doesn't have to do that. All he's got to do is think the wrong thoughts. Some of you that are supposed to be religious, you are dirty and filthy and rotten until you stink in the nostrils of God. And you're just as religious and pious, some of the first to be at church, but you are rotten. The Holy Spirit wouldn't even get near you. The blood of Jesus is the only thing that the world can count on, and you can't even count on that because you've come to the knowledge of the truth and the blood won't even cover you anymore. There would have to be another crucifixion for you to have a coverage. That's why so many people are dying and all the diseases taking place, is because they came to the knowledge of the truth. And some of them said, Well, I'm cold, Brother Pike. I know about religion but you won't find me messing with religion. I know all about it. My daddy was a preacher. My mother was a praying woman. Don't you know you can't be cold. I tell you this again. Anytime you know right from wrong your days of being cold is over. If you were cold that means you wouldn't know nothing about it. God couldn't even destroy the world. He'd have to wait till you come to a knowledge. But when the world becomes a place of religious knowledge and they know right and wrong and then they go back into the things of the world, they're done for. They don't even have the protection that those that are cold, those that are in the world, has. The world has a protection until they come to a religious understanding. The worst thing that the Philistines ever did was over power Israel and took that Ark Of The Covenant. They were getting along fine. They didn't have the emerods. They didn't have the diseases. When they got the Ark of the Covenant they come to a knowledge. They examined that thing. They looked at that thing. Now you know. Now you see. To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not it's a sin. And the plagues began to fall on them and after awhile they said, We don't want to be Methodist. We don't want to be Baptist. We don't want to be nothing. You know, give us our ball games and our frolics, and you take this religious thing back. It's already getting like that. God is getting it back. He's getting it back. He's getting the Ark of the Covenant back. Better not to know the way than after you have known it to go the evil way that you are going. So remember, you that come here to hear, and then go out to eat, drink. Can't stand it until you feed your belly. The Bible says you're on your belly. God put you on your belly. The old serpent. All of you labor is for your belly. Can't wait to get to that cafe. That means more to you than getting to the church. Can't wait to talk to somebody, making that dollar, or some kind of deal, or some kind of trade, or buy something. You can't stand it until you get back to your business and your thoughts about your money making deal. You haven't got anything, folks. You'd have been a lot better off if you'd never come to Bethlehem. You'd been better off if you'd never went to church. Even those people in the Methodist, Baptist, whatever. Catholic. Pentecostal. Those people out there are hearing the gospel. Paul said, whether the gospel is preached for contention, or whether it's for money, or whatever, He could have gone on to say. He said, Nevertheless, the gospel is being published and in this I rejoice. When it comes on T. V., Radio, whatever the preacher is, if he's talking about the Bible you're in trouble because you're getting a knowledge. You're in trouble. So you that come here that love the Lord, hear ye that love the Lord. Let your joys be known. Let's sing about Jesus. Let's talk about Jesus. Let's fellowship people of Jesus. Let's stay out from the world. Get out from among them. Forget about your dealings and trading and buying and all of your gullible desires, and be with your friends in Christ. And be with God's family. And make it your business once and for all to forget about trying to be some kind of a boss, or trying to have some kind of a business, or trying to have some kind of false prestige. That didn't get Daniel nowhere but in the lion's den, for if he'd gone to Babylon he'd have had no problem with the lion's den. It didn't get the Hebrew nowhere but in the fiery furnace, even though God had to do with their regime, and whatever. But look at what it caused them. Stay away from that out there. If you're going to have a business, or you're going to do something, then work with the Brothers. Work with the Brotherhood. That's why you came here. I'm going to let you go, just hold on a minute. That's why you came here. You didn't come here to start a business and make money. I'm glad to see Jennie, my sister-in-law. I'm glad to see her here. She's been trying to come since Junior's decease. But I used to tell my Brother Junior, who was so dear to me, and so precious. I'd say, Junior, don't try to make money. That's not the way. I said, If you're going to make money to do something for God, that's fine. I said, But don't get all this thing about wanting to retire and have homes and everything convenient. God will give you a home if you need a home. God will give you something if you'll just be reasonable in what you do, and have your desire for God, because where you're going you're not going to need all of that. Where I'm going I'm not going to need all of that. See? Let's just so pass this life sojourning in the fear of God, and reverence Him. You know, Israel was a lot better off when they just moved about in tents. Because, Brethren, when they got over into Canaan they forgot God, and God said, You're going to do that when you are feed to the full, and it wasn't nothing but heartaches and sorrows. And they wound up in Babylon under hard tribute like they were in Egypt before He brought them out. All right, let's sing a little chorus together. I can tell you all of these things, you know, it won't do you any good unless you give the earnest heed, and the more earnest heed to what you've heard, because it's God speaking to you and not me as a man. It's God speaking to you. Those truths and those things come from the mind of Christ. I never knew those things as a man. I could never have known them as a man. Many people today don't know them as a man, though they've studied all their life. But they were reveal to me. The Bible says they'll all be taught of God. I'm trying my best as a teacher to let my voice to instrumental to Him, to teach you. If you don't pay any attention to it, it won't do any good. I tell you, Don't stay out of the house of God. Don't come in and stay half through the service and run out. I've got a number of men, they come in there and they stay until they think I'm through, or think I ought to be through, and out they go. You don't have anything. Nobody could have God and do that. It's not possible for you to have God and do that. See? That's irreverent. You don't know what God's going to do. Somebody said, Well, I've give Him enough time, I think. You don't have any business thinking. There's where your mistake is right there. He said not to lean to your own understanding; to get rid of every one of your thoughts. Somebody said, Well, I think I'm nervous. You're not supposed to be thinking that. You say, Well, I think I'm weak. He said, Let the weak say I'm strong. You've got no business thinking anything but Him. When you come in here you're to come in with praise and thanksgiving and listen, being more ready to hear than give the sacrifice of fools. That's where you're wrong to start with. That's why you're so miserable. You've got a devil. It keeps you miserable. You've got a devil. When a man's just miserable, he can't sit still, he can't sit still, he's got a devil. That individual, or woman, has a devil. They might as well acknowledge it. It doesn't matter how religious they are they've got a devil, and that devil will not let them rest. It will not let them meditate. It will not let them fast. It will not let them pray. It will not let them stay in the house of God and be contented. It will not let them go with the Brethren. It will drive them out with the natural minded people and they will find more consolation doing the things of the world, and being with the world than they could ever find when it comes to being with the children of God. And that devil won't bother them when they do those things. I'll guarantee you the same one that will go to sleep on your bench he won't go to sleep when it comes to money and those things. He's got a devil that makes him do those king of things. And when he's restless and can't sit still you'll find out that that man has got a devil and when he gets out there where he can buy, sell, eat, drink, ride, do whatever he wants to, he won't be restless at all. Same way with a woman. I'm telling you the truth. You say, I'm going to heaven. No, you're not going to heaven. No, you're not going to heaven. I'm here to tell you who's going to heaven and who isn't, and I'm telling you that you are not going. You're not one of them. All right, let's sing together. Can we? If you'll listen to me you'll make it in, folks. This means Betty, my wife. This means Brother Pike. This means my chiefs, my leaders, my governors. This means the ministers that come up here. This means my musicians. This means all of us. It means Brother Taylor. Means Sister Lindy. It means all of you. Let's sing this song together. Jesus said, What I say to one I say to all. Once again, let's sing this song I Love Him. I like to sing that little song because always I'm reminded that if you love me you'll keep my commandments. (Singing) While we sing for just a minute now you need to come to the altar. If you desire to come to the altar you can come. Let's sing this little song again, Every Promise In The Book Is Mine. (Singing) Sing it with me? (Singing) Sing it again. (Singing) One more time. (Singing) Can you say amen to that? Jesus' disciples stayed with Him. Day and night they stayed and they learned, and they grew in the knowledge and grace of God. Let those people that want to buy and sell get that out there. Let them go on. Like my brother. Where is all that my brother worked for? Can somebody tell me? Where is all of his labor? He was one of the finest working men I ever knew. I saw him work – He worked regular. I mean he worked on a job before he ever became a Christian. He had a nice home for his wife. He had a freezer full of food. He kept a fine automobile. His name was one of the very best before he ever became a Christian. But where is it at today? You know what he had left out of it? The good name that's rather to be chosen than great riches. That's why they poured in at the funeral. That's why they were so torn up. He had a good name. Jesus grew in favor with man and God. When he came to God he had a good name. That's what I want, is a good name. I want a good name with you. I want a good name with the people that are without. I want a good name with Christ. I know all of them aren't going to speak well of me. They didn't Junior. They won't you because if every man speaks well of you, the Bible says you are false. And if a preacher he's a false prophet. So when they say all manner of evil against you falsely for My name's sake leap for joy. Be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in Heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets before you. All right. Let's lift our hands up one more time. (Somebody in the congregation says something.) No. I'm going to let it go. I know we're not receiving any offerings in the church because nobody cares. They tell me they care but they don't. Nobody cares. And even though the time to take the offering would be at the end of the service – That's the way evangelists take their offerings. They get the people up there and get them in a spiritual mind and then when they do they know they'll give. A lot of them just bleed them to death. They'll take everything they've got. You get the fear of God on people and they'll do something. At the first of the service, like here, you don't have many people to take an offering from. This makes it difficult for Brother Taylor, but I still say there is no concern in the church for it. If there was there would be a remedy somewhere to take it when the people were there. They'd work out something. But to call on me right when we're trying to get the Spirit of God to move, (We've done it a time or two.) I don't believe that's right. We had all the other service. I think that's Satan. I know that Satan can re-route your mind and just cause you to do something to interfere. Lot of time during the service before then, before I get into the message, after the people gather, before I have my altar call a lot of times if it's to be that way. I'm going to get me some men that will work with me. I'm not worried about it, they'll work with me. Some of the others have lost their vision; they could care less about it. We've got to win the lost. We've got to feed the hungry, the needy. Some girl sent a two hundred dollar offering. My Dale was talking to her around Snellville somewhere. He Dad's a preacher over here at one of these churches here in Monroe and she sent a two hundred dollar offering because she found out what we were trying to do for God. While you've got your heads bowed think on these things, folks. For God's sake, do something for the Lord. Don't have to be somebody that you have to twist your arm, and pull, and deceive you, and some flashy evangelist come through that could care less. Somebody coming through that will drain you of every dollar, you lose everything that you give and it didn't go nowhere and it didn't do nothing. Don't wait until that happens. You know that the gospel is for the lost. You know what you can give and you know that you should give to till it hurts. All of us should do it. That's the only thing that made God notice the little widow, and you should do something for God. We shouldn't have to get up here and, you know, just – I'm not going to do it anyway. If you can't give I'll go right on like I've always done; trusting in God. Just do whatever you want to do. That's your business. You know when you come to church there was an offering taken and if you don't want to give one why should I bother you about it. All right. While you've got your heads bowed I want you to think over these things. Someone would say, Well, Brother Pike, that cuts me to my heart. I hope it does. It should be. That heart should be ripped wide open like Jesus' was at Calvary so that you could see some of His sorrow and heartaches because it's going to come anyway. I tell you again, with Raymond coming down here it has to do with that. So you're in trouble anyway. That is you that don't love the Lord, you that don't serve God, you're not going to follow after the Lord Jesus. You're in trouble. You others that love the Lord, that have not been careless, you don't have to worry. Even in Zion if you are a Christian you're in trouble if you're in Zion. One woe is going to come and then another one. You're not going to have anything but problems. If you don't give to God you're going to have trouble on your job. They'll steal it out there on your job. They'll take it away from you. Me and Gary and some of us was talking about his last night. That's why some of you get in trouble with your builders and you don't get your money. I'll guarantee you. You take a man that gives regular to God and I'll guarantee you he won't have no trouble with his builders. If any little thing happens out there they'll get it straightened out, or God will move him away from that builder, give him another or keep him straight. But every person that fails to give to God, start holding out on God, you're going to have trouble. Blow outs with the tires. Wrecks on the highways. Hospital bills. Oppressing devils and demons. War between you and your wife. You're children won't do right. You're going to lose your money. They're going to take it away from out there. They're going to con you. Your paint is going to go bad. The weather won't be right. You're going to be cut out of work. Everything is going to go wrong, whatever it is. There's Brother Jerry Lambert. I don't mean to pick Jerry out of the bunch because I've got other here that do it, but Jerry goes with me all over the country, he and Sister Nancy, but I haven't hardly got anybody else that I could say that is more ready. If Jerry finds out I got a need Sister Nancy will show up, or Jerry, just as sure as there is a world. They'll show up and God blesses him with his income. He blesses him with his finance, and Jerry gives freely. And he has – I don't know of anything the man wants that he doesn't have. He's got the finest credit cards that a man can get. One of the finest things with the people. I mean he's got big credit cards where he gets big money. Go anywhere in the world any time. Well, anyway, I'm not just singling out Jerry. Like I said, I've got some here that's great and wonderful. But some of you so sporadically do something for God. You minimize too much. I have a Brother standing here, over to my left. He came to me the other day, said, Brother Pike, I'm one of them that hasn't been giving. He's a young fellow. Just got married not too long ago. He said, But I'll tell you what. I'm going to start giving. Let me tell you something, Wife. When you're husband wants to give you help him. You stand behind him. If you want to ride upon the high places of the earth like Sister Lambert does, and like some of the others that God has blessed. I've got some women here, they ride on the high places of the earth. They eat like a queen. They go where they want to. They spend what they want to, but they stay behind their husband. I mean they're just as anxious for him to give, or they give just like he does. And he gives them the right to do it. If you want to be one of those women then you stay behind your husband. But if you're always choking him to death over every little dollar, every little dime, he can't do nothing, or every time he wants to go get with the Brethren to talk, or go somewhere to pray, or do something for God he can't take no time off, if you're a woman behind him like that you need not expect to every be anything but as the old saying goes, from hand to mouth. Not have hardly anything. You're family won't hardly have anything and what you've got will just be a make-out. That's all you'll ever have. You'll just be a little old nothing. God said, You follow me and I'll give you the desires of your heart. I'll make you to ride upon the high places of the earth. I'll feed you with the heritage of Jacob. I'll make all of your beds in the time of your sicknesses. My blessings will make you rich and there won't be no sorrow added to it. You're cup will run over. You're presses will burst out with new wine and your barns will be filled up. Nobody can't tell me it don't work. You're too late. I know it does work. All right. While you've got your eyes closed, your hands lifted up and you're acknowledging the Lord Jesus I want to call one of the Brethren to pray with you. I call these Brethren up like this because I want them to bless you. I want them to bless you. I bless you through the Lord. You that try to follow and listen, and do the best you can, though you have problems, so does Brother Pike. So does every man that has ever lived. Elijah, a man of like passions. So it did Abraham have problems. The father of the faithful. But if you sincerely, from your heart, genuinely do right and stay sincere with yourself and with God and you're fellow man, looking on the things of another, not on the things of your own, esteeming others better than yourself and not thinking about how great you are and what you're going to do, and seeking the welfare of another instead of trying to get a hold of everything you can for yourself. Accusing the devil instead of your Brother, and loving your Brother. If you esteem him better than yourself you want always be going around finding fault, saying things against him, of what he's done to you, how he's treated you, how you've been mistreated. All of that is the mind of the devil causing you to think like that and it just gets you into trouble. It will cause you to lose your soul. Listen to me, Brethren. Sisters, listen to me. I tell you the truth. Things that will help you, that will bless you all the days of your life and you will be happy. If you would see long life and good days, the Bible says, refrain your tongue from speaking evil. Don't let it speak guile. Don't be carnal minded and worldly minded. God will give you the desires of your heart. Use it all and enjoy it. He'll give you more than you need of carnal things, but don't ever get carnal minded. Always love Him and follow Him. Okay. I'm going to ask David if he'll come up and dismiss us in a word of prayer. David Lundebo. If you will come and dismiss us in a word of prayer. While you're praying and David is praying with you, I want you to ask yourself this question. Say, Lord, I heard what the preacher said, but I want to ask myself this question. Am I genuinely sincere? Am I really? You know, some folks are not even sincere with their wife. They're not even sincere with their husband. Their children. Their creditors. They'll tell them thing when they know they're not going to do it. But just ask yourself that question. While David prays with you, you ask yourself that question, am I genuinely sincerely? And from this day on you start searching your heart and get sincere with the Lord. 

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

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

Holiness Unto The Lord