How Did God Come To Be

Well, we're back tonight to talk about the Word of the Lord. The other night when I talked with you I talked about some things that they were for the purpose of trying to establish you. I was trying to stabilize your faith. Those things were for the sake of stabilization. You may have faith. A lot of times people they feel that their problem is that they don't have faith, but that's not necessarily their problem. Not lack of faith. A lot of times it's a lack of utilization of faith, or not being stable in faith. It's like Peter that walked on the water. He had plenty of faith. Evidently he had great faith or he could never have walked on the water. But he didn't have a stabilized faith because it wasn't long after walking on the water that he was about to drown. Had it not been for the mercies of God he would have drowned. What he needed was stabilization of his faith. The Bible says that you can ask in faith, nothing wavering. So then, unstable faith isn't going to be rewarded. You have to have stable faith, otherwise you'd be like Peter; you're up today and down tomorrow. You have to be stabilized in your faith that you might have a sincere walk with God, and a stabilized walk with God to where a person is continually up with Christ and strong in Christ. So that's why I talk with you about the stabilization of faith. The only way that faith can be stable is for you to understand, and for me to understand. If I cannot understand God, if I cannot understand the ways of God then I cannot have stabilized faith where it takes understanding God and walking with the Lord. Understanding Him, what He is, His attitude toward us, and what He'd have us to do to be able to have stabilized faith. So I talk to you about stabilization of faith. I'd like to mention something tonight. I don't know just exactly what we'll talk about. I had some things on my mind and I'd like to make mention of them. When I say this, of course, you're really going to wonder cause you're not going to understand what I say, and when I say this I'll have to explain what I'm saying, but the thought a lot of times is, how did God come to be? How did He come to be? Well, we know that according to the Bible He was, He is and He shall be even from everlasting to everlasting. He has no beginning; He has no end, but still there is something in what I'm saying as to how that God came to be. I want to read just a little bit over in chapter fifteen of I Corinthians. I don't know that we'll get to comment too much on these things. We may and we may not, but in the thirty-fourth verse of the fifteenth chapter of I Corinthians it says "Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame." I'd like for you to think on that for just a few minutes. We take it for granted, as the terms are used in the world, that everybody knows about God. And they do. Probably not anybody in the world that don't know about God that is old enough to know about God. But it says that some have not the knowledge of God. To know about God is one thing; to have the knowledge of God is another thing. Solomon tells us in the teachings that if we keep searching that we will find the knowledge of God. And then the question arises in our heart, What benefit is the knowledge of God? Why not have the knowledge of the world? Why not have the knowledge of science, or what difference does it make what knowledge we have? Well, it makes a lot. To be a doctor you've got to have the knowledge of a doctor. And to be a mechanic you've got to have the knowledge of a mechanic. And to be a God you've got to have the knowledge of God. And so there is a lot to having the knowledge of God. Whatever you are, as to your knowledge, this is the motivation of your life, and this is the way you think in your heart. And the Bible says the way a man thinketh in his heart so he is. So as to whatever knowledge he has that is what he is. And I'd like to have the knowledge of God because of that. Solomon said we can have the knowledge of God. What can the knowledge of God do? The knowledge of God can raise the dead. The knowledge of God can create a world. The knowledge of God can create a human being. The knowledge of God can overcome all evil. The knowledge of God is the thing that we need. It is the power of God. So Paul speaks of this knowledge and when he speaks of this knowledge he says, I count all things as but lost. All things; I count it as dung. I count it as nothing. I count it as lost. All things I count as lost. He said, to attain the knowledge of God, or the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Said, to attain this knowledge I count everything in my life worthless that I might attain this knowledge. So, it's great to have the knowledge of God. If you don't have the knowledge of God, then you need the knowledge of God. It's by faith of the knowledge of God that you come to be translated that you should not see death. And that's what we try to teach, is the knowledge of God. We're ever looking for the knowledge of God. All right. So I read this in the fifteenth chapter of I Corinthians, the thirty-first verse. Awake to righteousness. It's obvious that you're asleep and that all humanity is asleep. It's very obvious that they are hard and fast asleep and they do not have the knowledge of God. For some have not the knowledge of God, He said, I speak this to your shame. It's a shame that you should not have the knowledge of God. So then, he said, Awake. Awake. The Bible says, when they awoke they saw His glory. They saw His glory. You cannot see the glory of God as long as you are asleep. So when they awoke they saw His glory. So He said, Awake, thou that sleepest and God shall give thee light. Awake to righteousness, and sin not. Don't sin, but wake up to the right way of life. Be stimulated to the right way of life. Awake to the right way of life. He said, the knowledge of God. And he tells us here in the fifteenth chapter that we have a reason for awakening to the things of God, he said, for I am preaching the resurrection of the dead. So he said here in the twelfth verse of the fifteenth chapter, "Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? (13) But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: (14) And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. (15) Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. (16) For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: (17) And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. (18) Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. (19) If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. (20) But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. (21) For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. (22) For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (23) But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. (24) Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. (25) For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. (26) The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (27) For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. (28) And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. (29) Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead? (30) And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? (30) I protest by your rejoicing which I have in "Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. (32) If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die. (33) Be not deceived; evil communications corrupt good manners. (34) Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God; I speak this to your shame. (35) But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? (36) Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: (37) And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: (38) But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, to every seed his own body. (39) All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. (40) There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. (41) There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. (42) So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: (43) It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: (44) It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. (45) And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. (46) Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. (47) The first man is of the earth earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. (48) As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. (49) And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. (50) Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. (51) Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, (52) In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (53) For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (54) So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory, (55) O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is they victory? (56)The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. (57) But thanks be to God, which give the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ( 58) Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." That's reading the whole chapter there. The fifteenth chapter of I Corinthians so we might get some basics for a few things that I do say here. You know, we need the knowledge of God. Something came to my mind while I was reading here. We need the knowledge of God. Not too long ago, some of you remember the occasion. I was over in Louisiana and there in Louisiana I baptized Mrs. Grey in the name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins, Betty's mother. And I baptized a number of other people from out of Texas. And one of the girls, knowing she wasn't lined up like she ought to be, God still giving her grace even as he did with Judas. When He knew that Judas wasn't right He allowed him to be among the number. This girl went off to Texas and said all kind of things, and like ripping a pillow open the feathers went every where. As a matter-of-fact, the same time as Sister Margaret was baptized. But, anyway, she went back and she said all kind of things. And she called me a devil, and my! I don't know what all she did say. But she spread these things all over Houston, and called us a cult and said a devil baptized her. And I really felt sorry for the girl because I feel sorry for people like that. Very sorry for people like that. And I prayed. I prayed that God would open her eyes and if there was any way to have mercy that He would because if she did not blaspheme the Holy Spirit she came so close that I wouldn't want to be no where near what she did. She might have crossed over the dead line with the things that she said. There is a very thin margin. But, anyway, she said this. But I prayed that God would open her eyes. So whether true or false, if I didn't misunderstand, the girl has written, or not too far back talked with one of our fellows here and said that she was sorry, that she realized she'd made a mistake and she had made a fool out of herself. And, said, the whole thing hinged on the fact that she felt God had shown her that she was to marry one of the fellows here at Bethlehem. And, of course, when he didn't marry her that was her outlook. So I said all of that to say this, without the knowledge of God we're in trouble. Now look. All that has been done, all that she had done, all of the things that she has said can never be straightened out. Never. There is no possible way. But this is the thing I want to point out to you. All of those ministers that was suppose to be so great, suppose to be shepherds, and supposed to lead the people, and all the other laity whether deacons, or whatever they were this girl, one girl, swayed them, caused them to rise up against this. Caused them to find fault with this, and caused them to say things and do things that caused them to injure the Kingdom of God. That will bring the wrath of God upon them and upon her. No way to get around it, see? and yet they were suppose to be shepherds. They were suppose to be leaders. They were suppose to have outstanding churches, and suppose to know their way around. The thing was so bad that it effected the home of some of our brethren that are here; it was so bad. And just recently the parents, or some of them have been able to come out of the shadows concerning this thing and have talked with my wife and said that they would love to come here, and they would love to send clothing here to help with the poor, and love to share in this. They've changed their minds. Their eyes have come open. Now, principally because there has been a couple that left from here that have, according to their report, walked holy and godly before them so as they had never seen anybody walk, and this effected them. So then, I'm saying that again to say this, that you need the knowledge of God. You don't need to run out here and say things and do things that is going to cause you to be doomed, and damned, or cut down. You don't need to say things because it can cause your death. Like someone told me today. They said that they had been sitting up at the place up here, the steak house, or wherever it was. I can't remember just where. My sister was sitting there and two other people were sitting there. And something was said from my sister concerning me sending somebody to another state, and she was saying to an individual, why don't you go and maybe he'll send you somewhere, and another individual spoke up and forcefully said, I don't need anybody to tell me where to go. And the same individual immediately after that had a terrible wreck and almost lost their life. Almost. Barely escaped. I was told of this today. See? Why do people do those things? Because they don't have the knowledge of God. See? They don't understand the knowledge of God. And they don't have the knowledge of God, so then they do these things. They foolishly do these things. The Bible said a wise man keepeth it in until afterwards. He doesn't just speak out of his head, as we say, and say something. He thinks things over. He considers the path of his feet. He ponders the way that he is going. He tries to find the right direction of life, but the Bible says a fool uttereth all that he knows. He just up and says what he feels and says what he thinks, and he utters everything that he knows. See? We need the knowledge of God. It is necessary in life. It is essential to our salvation, and is an imperative thing to our life that we have the knowledge of God. This is an essential thing. I must have the knowledge of God. I cannot talk to you if I don't have the knowledge of God. I am a minister of theGospel. I cannot indoctrinate you. I cannot talk to you unless I have the knowledge of God. See? If I tell you something and I don't know what I'm speaking of then that means that I'm in trouble and I can loose my soul, and I can cause you to be lost, too. The Bible said that if the blind lead the blind they all fall into the ditch. So then, I must have the knowledge of God. I can't have the knowledge of God just by getting some idea that I'm a special person, or that I have some special hold on God, or God is going to pick me out of everybody else, and do something special for me that He wouldn't do for anyone else. I can't have the knowledge of God like that. I tell the Brethren so often; I tell the Sisters, the different ones. I tell you that you can't be a leader and not have the knowledge of God. You can't do that. The world out here, there are people out there that supposedly are leaders and they're doing what they feel is the right thing, but they are continually leading people to destruction. The Bible said that if you lead into captivity then you go into captivity. And all that I speak will either bring you freedom, or lead you into captivity. It will put you into a bondage in your spirit in unbelief, or put you in a bondage in your spirit of thinking that you're going the right way when you are not going the right way and it will lead you into a bondage, into a bondage of death and a bondage of fear, a bondage of poverty, a bondage of an eternal loss unless I know what I'm speaking of, unless I've got the knowledge of God. See? I must have the knowledge of God to keep from leading you into captivity. And then if my conversation leads you into bondage, and leads you into death, then God will let Satan bring me into bondage and bring me into death. For He said, He that leadeth in to captivity shall go into captivity, and I don't want to go into captivity. So then, the liberties of God are for the sons of God and the Bible tell us to abide within the liberties of God, to walk in the liberties of God for wherever the Spirit of God is there is liberty. And God -- Liberty is His word, for His word is Spirit, and His word if life, and in His word we find the abundance of living. So then, this is why we need the knowledge of God. How is it that I understand where God came from and how God came to be? How do I understand that? I understand that by the knowledge of God. Then, we say again, where did God come from? How did God get here? What is the origin of God? I tell you again God doesn't have any origin. There is no beginning with God. There is no end with God. So then, the question arises, what do you mean, Brother Pike, how that God came to be? I'm speaking principally of one thing and that is how He came to be in our world. In our world. See? There was no world -- There was no world until He made it. And then making the world God had to enter into this world. He had to be made manifested in this world. How did He come to be in this world? I say, how did I come to be in this world? Well, we can explain that. Scientists explains that. We can explain that by human characteristics, by the history of mankind. We can explain that. By discussing this thing one with another we can explain how human beings get in the world. See? How did they get in the world? How did I come to get in the world? I came to be because my dad and my mother brought me into this world. And through the blood genetics of my own dad I'm here. I'm here in this world, but how did God come to be in this world? How did God come to be in this world? One thing we know that He came to be in this world, He came in by blood genetics, but not as to any individual, for the Bible teaches that He did not come into this world by any means of any individual that was in this world as to blood genetics. He came into the world and He was born into the world, but He came in by the will of His own self. The Bible says that He was not born of the will of man. He was not begotten of the will of man. He came into this world by the means of His own self. He took on a human body. He died. He tasted death. The things that He had never known about as God; He tasted those things. So bitter was death. So bitter was the problems of mankind that the Bible said God himself, who made man, repented over making man and was sorrowful toward creating man when He saw the misery and the hurt and all of the things that was to come into existence because He had made man, so He repented over making man. He came into the world, not begotten of the will of man. It wasn't of passion, but it was of the act of His own self. And so then, the will of God -- God himself was made manifest in a human body. We now know that He was as a man in the world, but before that how was it that God the great light, came to be? How is it that He ever got into the world? Even coming through the blood genetics that He did, how is it that He came to be in the world? The Bible said that He came forth and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and He said, Let there be light and there was light. Right there is the secret of the whole thing. Right there is the secret of the whole thing. When He came forth and the Bible said darkness was upon the face of the deep, that is the secret of the whole thing. That's how He came to be in the world. Had God not created something that would have given forth darkness, had God not have created something that would have been altogether the opposite of himself, or brought forth something as darkness God could have never made His entry into the world because God is light. And like scientists say, science as to knowledge, scientists say that you cannot see light. You cannot see light. Our human intellect tells us that we cannot see light and God is light, therefore, light could never have been. God could never have been. How then did God come to be? By means of darkness. The Bible said that God veils himself in darkness and the only way that He could come into the world was by means of the shadow. And we have explained this a number of times why that we have to suffer the way we suffer. Why that we go through the misery that we go through, and we say why does God let little children die? and why does God allow the miseries that men encounter? Why does God let this go on? I tell you again, the Bible said God repented when He saw all the sorrows and heartaches and the things in this world, He repented that He ever made man. That's what He thought about sorrow and heartaches. Death didn't come by God. Sickness didn't come by God. Heartaches didn't come by God. All of these things never came by God. It came by man. It came by man. So then, that means that all of these things that we encounter is because of our own doings, because of our own backsliding. Because of our own fault, because of our own failure. It's our wrong that has subjected us to all of these things, but God, being the all sovereign One, God being the all powerful One; He takes it upon Himself to say, I am to blame. Therefore I will make a human body. I will go down into the world and I will suffer the cruelty of death and misery, and I will make an end of it. And I will feel all of the pains and the sorrows, and the heartaches that my creation feels since I'm the one responsible. Since I'm the one that put them in the world. Since I'm the one that subjected them to vanity. And the Bible said the creature, speaking of the body, is subjected in hope. For the Bible said the creature groans, travailing, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. Speaking of Thessalonians change, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, all of the creatures. That is speaking of the body. And everything in the world is longing for the sons of God, longing for the return of the Adam, as the son of God. See? So we are subjected to these vanities. We are a spiritual being. We are an angelic being that is living on the inside of a human body, experiencing these things down through life, tortures and miseries and all of these things, and we cry, O God, why do You do me this way? God, why do you let me be sick? Why do I have to die with cancer? Why do I have to have all of these problems? Why is my loved ones suffering? What has happened to me, O God? Why did you do this to me? And then when we think it over God didn't do it. He didn't have anything to do with it at all. As a matter-of-fact, all that God has ever done to you in your lifetime has been good. I told you the other day, we got a good look at God. When Jesus came into the world, the Bible said, He went about doing good, healing all that was oppressed of the devil. That was God. And when the man said to Jesus Good Master, He said there is none good but God. Well, why callest me good? Or, Am I God? He could have said. So then, there is none good but God. So we see that God has never done anything wrong. God has never done anything bad. There has never been a time when God ever did anything wrong. The Bible said, in His time He made all things beautiful, and yet He said, Can evil come to a city and I've not sent it? saith the Lord. Don't I create the good, and don't I create the evil. Don't I have my way in all things? Don't I work all things after the council of my own will? Don't I rule in the affairs of mankind, whether good or bad? All of it is of me, He says. Why does God say that? God has never done anything wrong. Death came by man. God didn't do that. Why does God say that? Because man could not have done those things had God not created it. So then, does the evil come from God? not that God creates the evil to do wrong, but in that He said, I created. I'm the one. I'm the one that created the waster to destroy. I'm the one that created the human being that sinned and brought death into the world. I'm the one that created Lucifer. I'm the one that did these things, but didn't He make Lucifer upright? Didn't He make Him straight? Didn't He make him -- The Bible said in the day that He made him, He made him and he was perfect. He was upright. Everything was right with him. He was the son of the morning. Didn't God make him right? But, see? in the fall -- Didn't He make man right? But in the fall -- Of course, our minds go back. How could Lucifer fall? Well, we've brought out some things in the past concerning that, and maybe we'll bring out some more things sometime to explain what happened. But we've got to remember one thing, that he is a reflector. So that helps us to understand some things right there. But, nevertheless, God created all things so whatever comes out of the act of creation then God is responsible for it. God has His way in it. No evil can come but what God wasn't the One that made allowance. In the days of Job wasn't it God that made allowance. When Satan come before God in the time when the sons of God had presented themselves? Wasn't it at that time that God had to make allowance when Satan said you've got a hedge built about Job? There's a hedge built about Job, and if you'll take the hedge down, he said, I'll make him curse you to your face. But did he do it? He didn't do it. God said, Nay. He's just, he's perfect, he's an upright man. And so then, God is responsible for all of these things. I spoke the other day to some of the Brethren. I was trying to explain some things. I've explained some things to you here, and I perceived that you didn't understand during the time I was trying to tell you. But how is it that even creation came to be? How was it to start with? The way that we know, speaking of the knowledge of God, now, coming into the knowledge of God, understanding the knowledge of God. How do we know? Has God so made it that we can come into the knowledge of God? Has God so made it that we people who are human beings can understand God? So then, how is the creation to be as it is? How are human beings to be as they are? Why? How? You know, you take Brother Don back here, when he goes to develop pictures. We've spoken of this as an illustration. The Bible says all of the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly understood by the things which do appear, even to the eternal Godhead, so that we are without excuse. I know what the Godhead is. I know whether there is one God, or three Gods. I know what the invisible world is. I know what the things of the invisible world are. They are clearly understood. I clearly understand them by the knowledge of God. They are made manifest by the things which do appear. And this is why Paul spoke of a great revelation. Praying that you might receive the revelation, he said, that you might receive the spirit of revelation, for I'd like to speak unto you as unto spirituals, he said, but seeing that you're babes in Christ I can't do that. He said, I would that you were spiritual. I'd like to speak unto you as unto spirituals, because he had so many great and mighty things that were spiritual that he would like to have shared with his congregation. So then, he said, I would like to speak unto you as unto spirituals. Pray that God will grant unto you the spirit of revelation, to open your eyes of understanding that you might awake to righteousness and sin not. For the Bible said when they awoke they saw His glory. And so then, all of the invisible things, I understand them. How? By the things which do appear. So then, I think of some of the natural things that we do, as I spoke of Don. He takes -- When he's going to make a picture he brings his little camera, as people do. He'll snap a picture of someone with a little flash, or out in the light of the daystar, the sun, the bright light. He'll flash a picture and then he goes away with nothing. He doesn't really have anything on there. He doesn't have anything. He flashed a picture, a light flashed. He's got what he feels is a picture but he doesn't have anything. He's exposed the film through a little eye, but he really doesn't have anything. So he goes away with it. See? This is exactly what happened in the Garden. This is what took place; is God overshadowed Adam and Eve with His Shekinah Glory. That is, the brightness of that great light came forth, and there the light flashed on the image. The image. How is it that it did that? In the beginning there wasn't an image. There was no image at all. In the beginning as we know it, there was no image until He made an image. But in the mind of God there was an image, and Jesus brings this out when He says, Father, restore unto me the joy I had with Thee before the world ever was. So then, where was the image? There was only one image, that was God. That was God. The Bible said when Jesus came forth and was manifested among men He didn't come through a blood genetic as to man's passions. He was not born of the will of man. He was an image that was there all the time in the foreknowledge of God. And He was the manifested foreknowledge of God for He came forth. And the Bible said He was the express image of God, or the given image of God. So then, He said, Restore unto me the joy that I had with thee before the world ever was. So then, when Adam and Eve was made, how were they made? The Bible said, And come, let us make man after our own image. Come, let us make man after our own image. So that means that before the world ever was, in the foreknowledge of God, God's eternal spirit had the divine conception of mind, as to His image and His way of life and what He would be. And when He came forth to create man He created man after that image of what He wanted His kingdom to be like. And He created it in such a way that He could make manifest Himself to the image because God, being the great light there was no way that He could be made manifest among mankind as a light, even if He brought mankind into existence. Whereas He did bring mankind into existence. So then, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the same Word was made flesh. And He said that Word was spirit. That spirit was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld the glory that as of that of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And so God Himself became a man, a human being, an image, and was made manifest right here in this present world. Not only did He come into the world and was made manifest, but He proved Himself to be the champion of champions. He proved Himself to be the King of kings. He proved Himself to be the Lord of Lords. He didn't just take these titles to Himself, but He put something among mankind, and this was an integrity. He put an integrity among mankind, and then He met the demands of man's integrity. He met the demands to the extent of whatever man demanded He met that. He stood for those principles, and He conformed to those principles, as to what He had made man to be, and made man to desire. And proved Himself to be a great mighty God, a great mighty savior, and One filled with humility, and One that went to Calvary and spilled His blood for the sake of them that He had made to prove His love. So what can you say about God? He's great. He's wonderful. He's everything. He's sweet. God is not found selfish. In all of my years of searching out God, in all of my years of searching the Scriptures I have yet to find one place in the Scriptures that proves God to be selfish in any way. I have never found at any time one place where God ever did anything to draw honor and praise unto Himself, as to a selfish motive, or means. Always everything that He did, or does, throughout the entire teachings of the Scriptures is something that He has done out of love and toward mankind, and had to be done so that man could draw the benefits of God. So, in seeing this, how did God come to be? As I say, there was a light, that brightness of God, that revealed an image. The brightness of God. You say, Brother Pike, what do you mean by that? I mean it's like video. The light can be so bright you can destroy the image. You can't even pick up an image. Like when I was baptizing down here in the river. The brightness of the light of the sun, or whatever God did, it was so bright that the image was no more. See, the translation, the catching away, God taking us into another world, what does it have to do with? It has to do with the light becoming brighter, and brighter, and brighter until we are no more and we are gone, and we become one with the great light. This is what happened to Jesus when he rose up in the midst of them and He began to ascend up into heaven and enter in to the bright light and He became no more. He is today one with the light. Angels are lights. When the angel appeared on the hillside, coming down there at the Shepherd's Field. He was a light. The angel was a light. There was no form. There was no image. He was a light, a great light. Like when Paul was one the way to Damascus. The great light came down. It shined over Paul. And as I say, when we think of light, the only way that you and I can term light is we say the light bulb, or the day star, the sunshine, but I'm not speaking of that light. The angels come to us in the form of that light. The reason that they do is because the only way that we can record light is by the conductive nerves of the eye that teletypes it out to the brain. So then, that is the only way we can comprehend light is by seeing the atomic particles as they begin to glow. This is why the Bible uses the term that wisdom maketh a man's face to shine, because God, the eternal Word, He's a spirit. And He becomes what we call a word, as a printed page, or a word as a spoken oral expression of sound, or a thought before it is an oral expression. He becomes a thought, but beyond that He is spirit. He is light. That is, He is wisdom. He is great wisdom. He is great understanding, and the only way that He can convey Himself to us is through the intellect. You know, I say this a lot of times, in the civilization, as to Egypt, they go back to certain things, like the hieroglyphics. And these are means of communication where they scribbled things, or wrote things and we have a language. See? And everybody in the world has a language, everyone understands the different languages, all saying the same thing. You know, I say, Look, I'm hungry, prepare me a meal. I say it in English. Somebody else says, I'm hungry. It doesn't sound the way I said it at all, but he's saying the same thing. But see? The means of communication. Whatever language, whatever sounds. All sounds have distinction. People speaking in tongues, Paul brought this out, that it should have a distinction. Why speak in tongues if nobody is going to understand what you're saying? unless you are somewhere communicating with God. It's your spirit. Do you understand what I'm saying? So then, there is an invisible thing that is unchanging. There is an invisible thing, Paul said, that is unchanging. It doesn't change. In German it's the same. In Japanese it's the same. The great Spirit of God, the act of life, all of it is the same. Human beings are the same. Sounds are the same. But there are so many ways that these things are presented to the listening ear. You may say to your wife, you may say, Honey, I love you. Or you may say, You devil, I hate you. See? Depending on the sounds, as to what. It was still the same breath. It was still the same vocabulary utterance, so far as that which came forth by the expression of the mechanism of the throat, or of the wind pipe, or anything that brought it out. It was the same. But, see? There was something that the brain did. There was something that you did in formulating that expression. You know, it's like when the south wind blows. It's wind. And when the north wind blows, it is wind. But remember, though it's one and the same, it's just wind. That's all. But the thing is when the wind comes there is a difference, as to the heat, or the chill factor. It's the same way with anything else. One thing may smell good; another may smell bad. It may be the same thing, but because of the acids and the change. Do you understand what I'm saying? So then, this seems to be way off of the theme of our thought here, as to what we're saying of how God came to be, but I'm trying to express something to you. I'm trying to show you how that God is one and the same to all human beings. God is one and the same. I may jump up and say, Hallelujah! Glory to God! and that would be fitting to God. Another might jump up and say, Yonda ya ha, yonda da, you know, and it might be the very same thing. He's saying hallelujah. It's not a matter of the sound that when out; it's a matter of the expression of the heart and the God on the inside coming through that. So then, this is God to us. God to us; the great mighty God to us. And I could say many things. I just wish I had the time to enlarge on this and get into a little deeper water than we're getting into right here. So then, God. God is a spirit. God was made manifest. God became human genetics. God became a sound. And of course today I can lift up the Bible. This is the Word, we say, and it's only a printed page, some ink, and some labor of somebody that took the time to make it into a book that we call the Bible. So then, God came in to the world. God was made a human being. God was in this world as a man. But let's look at it for just a few more minutes, and I'll try not to keep you long. So then, God. The knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame for all have not the knowledge of God. Why do we have the knowledge of God? Or, why is it that God is going to let us have the knowledge of God when he doesn't let somebody else have the knowledge of God? Why would God do that? He's no respecter of persons. See? But the Bible does say on one occasion that God, having chosen Peter, He sent him to the Gentiles. We are taught that though God is no respecter of persons, yet on one occasion He said to the disciples, It is not given unto them. That is, we could say, them that is without. It is not given unto them to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but unto you it is given to know the knowledge of God. So then, the knowledge of God. How did the world come to be? By the knowledge of God. Before the knowledge of God ever became a sound, before the knowledge of God ever became a word, before it ever became something that was expressed by vocal utterance, see? it was still the knowledge of God. Before it ever came to be, as a human concept, as to me I would say the knowledge of God. But before the human concept of an intellectual comprehending, as to the word knowledge, or of God, before that He was God. He was light. He was the Spirit. He was light. And the only way that that light could come to be was through intellectual comprehension and definition, as to characters that we speak of as print outs, or those that we speak of as ABC's or alphabet, or as lettering we say. See? God, the invisible God, though He made a world, though He created everything, though He made this great universe; yet how did God come to be? How did He get into it; Him the great light? So we go back to a thought here, and that thought is that when God, in His brightness, showed forth there it's like the sunshine. If there is any potentiality placed out when the sunshine comes life is going to come forth. Lightning, thundering, and out of that comes a a fall out of a certain thing that has to go into the earth to bring life. All of these things God did for our benefit. We brought some of these things out on tape. So then, the brightness of God brought forth light. It brought forth light because there was a potentiality of light. But the only thing is, it's like here in this world we have to have the winter rains. We have to have the different things that I don't have time to elaborate on tonight. I wish I could. It would make it more vivid to give you more of an understanding of what I'm trying to say. So then, Light. And then with the receding of the light there came an image. The with the receding of the light the potentiality that God has placed there beginning to take form, and formation came forth. That is to say, Don with his camera, when he flashes he flashes on a potentiality. And with that, though it seems he has nothing, with the receding of the light something happens. The light is brightened up. And then when Don takes what he's got, which seems to be nothing, he takes it to the dark room. Now when we say the dark room after the light flashed in the garden and the Shekinah glory of God was seen, all of a sudden there was a receding of God and the light went out. And then the potentiality began a formation. See? Because when the light flashed it flashed upon the great image of that wonderful, divine conception of God, as to Jesus, which image Adam was made after. So then, when the potentiality began to form, that is to say, God took a handful of dust and made a man, the great light flashed upon it, God breathed in to it the breath of life and man became a living soul. And when this great light flashed upon it, all of a sudden God began to recede and man was left in the dark room. And from the fall in the Garden he was in the dark room. And God, way down later years said, Paul, turn my people from darkness unto light. I'm come as the Daystar. It's time for the Daystar to dawn within their hearts. It's time for them to come out of the shadows. And all that He did was from evening until morning. And so then, working unto that day of the daystar, the knowledge of God dawning within your heart. And I'd just love to say a lot more about that, going back into the eternities, as to God the great light. But speaking of this we know that the daystar is now dawning. Calvary has come to pass. The image has been folded up and laid away, as to that which was dark. That is to say, Satan penetrating through the weakness of the woman, him being the intellectual darkness, having been a reflector, retaining the knowledge of God from that, even though God had withdrawn from him and that infiltration within the man, within the body, as was shown by the woman, then the angelic being of life was imprisoned in a human body. And still is imprisoned within the human body of intellectual rudeness today. And the infiltration is still within that body, for Paul said within the body, within the flesh there dwelleth no good thing. And so the angelic being which is the principle thing of life, the life itself is still imprisoned, for the Bible said the body without the spirit is dead. Which means the life is within the spirit. And we could say something here. We're not going to try to say anything about it, but we could say something here about the soul that would be a wonderful thing to get into. But the life itself at death goeth back to God who gave it. The angel departs from the body; it goes back to God who gave it. That angelic being on the inside is thus released, having went into the body there in the garden and then coming on down through the dark room, all the way down to Calvary before the daystar dawns. And God, during that time, was formating, and God was developing. And as I said, when Don takes his film in to the dark room there is one characteristic that is outstanding. And that is, in the dark room there is a red light. Coming down through the dark room from the expulsion from the garden there had to be the blood. So then, Noah's day brought the blood. And then the blood, the life is in the blood. And then there was a covering from that time on of the blood over the tabernacle which represented that you and I are covered with the blood. This is a tabernacle, Peter said. As long as we're in this tabernacle we're covered with the blood. The blood over the body of the Lord Jesus. The blood cloud wasn't over everybody. It was only over Isaac's seed. In Isaac shall the seed be called. Not everyone that came out of Egypt was God pleased with. But some turned back into Egypt in their hearts because their hearts wasn't right with God. So then, the blood cloud, the red cloud, it was over Israel because it was over the tabernacle. And, my! so many things that we have brought out on tape, that's on other tapes that you could listen at that might help to clear this up. But this blood was there, that little red light in the dark room. And it was a cloud by night to show what was happening. The people in general was in the night but it was a cloud by night as to give them day and night, to give them a symbolic thing to let them know that someday the light would come as in the morning, the day star as the sun, and then the red would not be seen. It was a cloud by day but there was no fire in it because they didn't need a light by day. They had the daystar. This had to do with Brother Branham, the pillar of fire, and many other things. Some is on tape. We'd like to take time to go into revelation but it would take all night long to be able to do that. So then, in the dark room we see that the process took place. The chemical process took place, and we'd have to go through so many things to bring it out. But Don takes this into the dark room, then he starts his chemical process. And one part of the process is called spirit, because scientists refers to liquids as spirit. So then they begin to go through the process of it and finally he comes out with something. He comes out and he says, Look, Brother Pike, I've got something here. So I look and I say, Well, what have you go? He says, See? I say, But I don't see anything, Don. Oh, he says, but it's there. I say, But, Don, I don't see anything. And he says, But look right here, you see this hole? You see this, this is not black this is clear. So I look through there and I say, I don't see anything myself. I'm looking right through; I don't see anything. He says, But, Brother Pike, what you don't understand is what you're looking through that is what it is. So I back up and I take another look and I see that there is nothing there except a place to look through. So I say, Well, what do I do, Don? He says to me, he says, It's the darkness, Brother Pike, look at the darkness. See? So it's like a silhouette. There is nothing there except the darkness. That whole thing is dark. And all that is there is the light. The light that the darkness has made. How did the image come to be? By the darkness. Let there be light and there was light. And now there is just a hollowed out place. There isn't anything there. There isn't anything there except the darkness, and yet it's there. I see it, because it is silhouetted by the darkness, or it is formed by the darkness. And the form of light is there; the light that I could not see. It is there and it's taken on formation. So then, I say, Away with the darkness and then there is no image. There is no form anymore; no form. Jesus said you've never seen His form at any time. So then, there is no form because I did away with the darkness. So then, the world came to be how? By darkness. And there was darkness upon the face of the deep. There had to be darkness and then when the light came. The light is what brings the positive. And working with that film, though there isn't anything there. It's like the hole in the doughnut. I've got a hole. As long as I've got a doughnut I've got a hole. But if I don't have a doughnut I don't have a hole. I can't find the hole. I can't define the hole. I can't chase the hole down; it isn't there anymore. And yet I know there was a hole there because I saw it in the doughnut. But the hole only consists because of the doughnut. How many of you understand what I'm saying? If I say to you, Where can I look for God? I would have to look for a form, because without a form there is no God. How does God come to be? By your membership; by your body. It's by you as bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. It is only by you that God exists in this world, otherwise there is no God in this world. Where is God? You cannot show me God. So then, I said that again to say this: By means of the light, but what can I do? I know. I know what I can do, Don will say. Let me process it a little farther. I've had to take it through the dark room, and then comes the Daystar, then comes Calvary. The blood has been applied. The Spirit has come forth. All these things had to be done. People, like the Jews, had to be run through the negative that over here in this new world, as they called it, that we might have a positive. They had to go in as the darkness, even as the black man in the world today to show the negative side of life as darkness. If there were no black man there would be no white man. You don't understand that, do you? Somebody would say, Well, I don't understand that. How could that be? They would say, Don't that black man come from the white? Or does the white man come from the black? Well, you say, he came from God. But if you'll check back you'll find over there that's dark country. You'll find even the Jews, salvation is of the Jew. Light comes out of the dark country. So then, where did the white come from? There had to be darkness before white could ever show up. So I say that to say this. We look at it one way and we get exalted and we're wrong. We look at it another way and it's wrong. You know, we say the hen or the egg, the egg or the hen, which came first? You know, and we start getting all confused. The thing is, God was in the beginning. God is the answer to it all and God will explain it to us through the knowledge of God if we'll let God do it. That's the way it is. So we find that if we go a little farther with it, Don takes the film and he goes a little farther. He goes through the process and after awhile he's all happy. He comes out and he's all smiles and he says, I got it. I got it. I got it. I say, Well, did you get rid of that darkness? Oh, yes, he says, it's gone. So then, I look and there is what we call a positive. Not a negative, but a positive. And there is the image that was in the beginning. And yet there wasn't any image. There wasn't any image but the darkness came forth first and then when the light penetrated and when the divine comprehension comes to my heart from God, as to what He is through His knowledge then it's as the positive. So the Jews, as to the negative, over here we have in America the positive, as the Jew, the true Jew, as the Christian. And my! we'd have to go into that in a reversal to show you the thing. But I'm saying this, so as not to confuse you. Here is a positive. There is a positive. God is going to bring us out in His own image, though we're negative right now. And though the world can't see God in our life right now, as to seeing God, except by our characteristics, yet we're going to be changed into the very image, as to this outer man. We're going to be changed into the very image of God, because God is, He was, He shall be. God will be among His people. God will walk and talk to you, just like I'm walking and talking to you. And God will establish a millennium of a great kingdom and set His Son upon a throne as a lifted up body that was here . And God will change that body, and your body, and all of our bodies that believe. He has changed Jesus' in to His very image. And we'll rule and reign for a thousand years as a celestial, positive image while the Jews are yet negative and have not yet come to the positive way of life. And then God, at the end of the thousand years, will bring forth the great light as to the Daystar dawning to make manifest what happened at Calvary, as to the coming of the Son. And many, many hours of teaching that we'd have to go in to explain it to you. But the light will come forth and the shadows will be gone and nothing will remain except the positive that which is of the light, that which belongs to the light, and we being one with the light, we will remain for Jesus Christ alone, we as the membership of that body shall dwell in the light unto which no man can approach, who no man has seen, nor can see at any time. So then, our headship is there as to the proof that we're going to be there as His membership. And so then, we see the light increasing. What is the light? The knowledge of God. The knowledge of God is coming forth. The wisdom of God is coming forth. And what is the wisdom of God doing? Just as the wisdom of God in the (?), or the receding, as God receded, as went away to leave the residue, God in His receding left that which was the image. That is to say God receding as the light, having come forth, then the world came into existence by shadows. And so it is that you and I exist by means of the shadows. In the night the sunlight as a reflector, and then the shadows. And then comes the positiveness of the day star in the morning and we see the very images, and the shadows are -- They dissipate. They are eradicated and they go away. So then, even as God receded to bring the world in to existence God is coming forth now as the great light. Coming forth, not to the world out there, because He's going to do that after the millennium and that will be the eradication, but He's coming forth to you as the spiritual being and the Daystar dawning within your heart to eliminate the impurities, to take away, to eradicate the infiltration to bring out the characteristics of Christ within you that He might eliminate the shadows of the outer crust to do away with that which is but a shadow, which is but a vanity that He might bring forth true life. And with this when you look at the positive in the daylight of God's Word, as to the change, then you realize that the only thing that remains is that which made the image. For instance I'll pick Pete. I'll get Pete. I'll put Pete up here. I'll put a board up here. I'll get Pete with a pencil and I'll say, Pete, take a white board now. I'll say, Pete, I want you to write something for me. Now I'll say -- Pete will say to me, he'll say, Brother Pike, there is the most beautiful horse over there. I'd say, No, Pete, you must be out of your mind; there ain't no horse up there. Oh, yes, he says, there is, Brother Pike. And I'll say, Pete, come and show me the horse. So Pete goes over to the board and he says, Watch real close now. He begins to sketch. He says, There it is. I say, Oh, Dear God, there was a horse up there. See, the horse was up there all the time, but the horse had to be made manifest because the horse was in his mind. The image was in his mind and he projected that by putting those pencil marks there. And if he takes away the black, dark, shadowy pencil marks there is no horse; he goes away. So then, the horse is there because of the shadow. And this is what I'm saying to you in just a few words in trying to elaborate here tonight. How did God come to be? How came God to be? So I say, the same way that I got into the world as a son of God. The same way you got in to the world as a son of God. So then, we are speaking the world out of existence as the voice of God speaks, as the wisdom of God comes. The world is in your heart. We are speaking it out of your heart. We're speaking it out of existence. It got into your heart through the fall there in the garden of those words of intellectual by the infiltrating of the means of Lucifer and we're speaking it out and the world is passing away. You don't see it but I see it. It's passing away. The world is passing away. Time will be no more. There'll be no more world. That's how Jesus was led through the wall. So then, with this death can be no more because death consists of the shadows. Though I walk in the valley of the shadows of death. This a valley to God and it's filled with evil spirits, which is shadows of death. For to be carnally minded is death and Satan savors the things of carnality, or the things of this world. To have carnal things is not death, but to have a carnal mind is death. So I say this in trying to close out a few thoughts tonight. The world is fast passing away. Fast passing away. Things are taking place. The mind of God is now coming. The true image is coming forth. All that is left of that positive is just those little tiny dots and specks, as we say, that came from the shadows to form the positive. All of the darkness is gone and the other has transformated in to a light. Even darkness is light, and it transformates in to a light and when the millennium, after the millennium comes, when the millennium has completed its course then everything will be like a beautiful, crystal clear glass, as to the bodily form, and illuminated with the colors and the spectrum of the rainbow, or light. It will be an interwoven thing with God as a beautiful pearl with its glitter and glamour. So then, it's like the vision I had the other night praying. A man, a stranger came to me. My wife and I were dining together and he gave me rings, and he gave me bracelets, and some kind of odd looking bracelet but it looked like mother of pearl with a rainbow in it. And then he told me, he said, Don't loose these things. They are of tremendous value; don't loose them. And the scene changed. So God is doing something to you. Like Abraham when he sent Eliezer, or when the great man sent for the wife for his son Isaac, the promised son. Rings and bracelets, earrings and beautiful things. Those things represent the things that God has given us, holy unto you. And that's another sermon altogether. Another revelation altogether. Another teaching altogether, but that is given to you. Given to you that you might be the lovely bride of Christ. I want you to stand with me. Let's sing a little chorus together. Let's sing I love Him. (singing) Now what are we talking about? The knowledge of God. (singing) The alters are open as we sing this verse. (singing) Do you love Jesus? (singing) Can you sing it with me? (singing) Let's sing this little chorus. (singing) Sing it again. (singing) Do you love the Lord? Let's sing this little chorus? (singing) Do you believe that God is going to put this all over the wold, and every true Christian will have to come to see this light? Let's sing it together again if you believe it. (singing) How many of you really believe you'll be ready? Let me see your hands. (singing) Can you sing it again with me? (singing) One more time. (singing) Can you sing it one more time with me? (singing) Somebody say praise the Lord. Hallelujah! We'll be ready when the Bridegroom comes. I want you to lift up your hands with me. I appreciate you coming out tonight. I appreciate your concern. And remember, the only way that God has an entrance in to this world is through you and through me. Christ is in my life, but unless the people can see Christ in my life it won't do them any good. The Bible said maintain good works. Let your light so shine that men may throughout the world see your good works and glorify the Father which is in heaven. Brother Chris, I believe, today finished up The Little Glass Slipper in the Tamil language. A few days ago he finished up The thunders in the Tamil language and our other Brother over in India had done Time Is Fulfilled in the Tamil language. Food for those around the world. The people will see Chris's good works and glorify our Heavenly Father. Staying for hours. Whatever you've done in the way of publication, work, giving, sharing, whatever it might be. Sometimes working on a job, whatever it might be men will see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven. The little widow down in Florida, some went and fixed the roof. Some gave money. Some gave an automobile. The light is still shining. People are still speaking of the light that you made to shine there. People seeing your good works. Let's awake to righteousness and sin no more. And let's awake and see His glory. And let's awake. Looking at His glory is what changes us from glory to glory. Let's awake and see this great word of wisdom and understanding and revelation, as Paul called it as it breaks forth within our heart from the Daystar, as a glory to glory and another glory and another glory until Christ be formed within you. So, let's awake to the righteousness of God. And to the knowledge of the righteousness of God. Oh, how beautiful it is. Someone would say, Well, I don't care, Brother Pike, it's too hard to try do them righteous things. I'll just drift with the drift wood, you know, go on to the falls. My Dad said to a man one time, his name was Raymond. Said, Raymond, why don't you change your life? They had worked together for years. They had both been sinners and Dad had come to the light and he went back to this hometown place and he said, Why don't you change your life? He said, Well, Sam, I've been this way so long, I've done these things so long, said, I guess I'll just go on to hell. Said, I'll just go on and do these things and go on to hell. And as far as I know he went on to hell and he's in hell tonight. Folks, if he was back here he'd want to awake to the righteousness of God. He'd change his mind. He's already changed his mind. If he could get back he'd out shine any of you in trying to live right. What is righteousness? It is the glory of God that is changing you. Righteousness is glory. Just like this natural light, there is a spiritual light. Just like righteousness as you know it, there is a spiritual glory. Righteousness is a glory and this glory is something that illuminates you. It's so wonderful. It's something that I'm sure you don't understand except in Christ. While you've got your hands lifted up and your eyes closed let's ask God, in our heart, to give us the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God. All right, while you're standing here with your hands lifted up I'm going to ask Brax, Jr. back there to come up and dismiss us if he will. And while Brax is coming to pray I want you to stop and think now, what are you doing for God? What are you seeing for God? Do you understand? are you making an effort to come to this knowledge of God? Are you making any effort at all? Folks, you're not going to get it just drifting along. You'll have to pray that God will give you the spirit of revelation. You're not going to get it by just going along with the things of the world and being out there. You've got to come out and be a separate people. If you want this glory, if you want this blessing, you've got to learn to meditate in these laws. You've got to get to where it's at. You've got to listen to it. You've got to hunger and thirst after it or you'll never have it. While Brax is coming to pray with you tonight think on these things and as Joseph said, When it's well with you then pray for me. I've got a big job to do. I have the whole world upon my shoulders as long as I'm in this world. And it's such a tremendous weight, such a tremendous weight. So you pray for me and when you can assist me with the things of God then you break forth and help me and God will reward you for it. 

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

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

Holiness Unto The Lord