The Faith Of Jesus Christ

I want to say again it's a privilege to have you here with us. I thought about little Stan this morning and the Bible said, A little child shall lead them, and thirteen times he came up. I guess Jim perhaps is responsible for helping- So far as we that are here at Bethlehem, I suppose he's probably responsible for giving more than anybody I know here. As to taking the offerings, he's took offerings so many times for different ones to see that they had money, foreign fields and whatever. So he's responsible, perhaps more than any of us in giving to the foreign fields, or to giving to evangelist or whoever. So many different ones, they try to kelp and some of them give until it hurts. Like the little widow that gave her all, some of them just shares until it really would hurt if it wasn't for the fact that God gives so frequently and so abundantly back to us. But I thank you for everything that you give to the work of the Lord. I hope I can give a little more as we go along. I'd like to give more. I feel like I haven't done very much and I'd love to do a little more for the Lord. I wish you'd pray about our crusades and also about the work on the home front. I feel like that we're doing so little on the home front, as to getting out the gospel until it really disturbs me. Like I was telling David Paul, I believe it was yesterday, or day before yesterday, that whereas, like down in Brazil they asked for tens of thousands of pieces of literature. They want fifty or a hundred thousand pieces and we sent them ten thousand pieces, you know. Which ten thousand pieces ain't hardly a drop in the bucket when you get down in a place like Brazil. And it really disturbs those people. And having got the ships and the different things to carry the loads of literature in, we had plans and had some interruptions, but we're trying to get something started on the home front a little more to where we can get a little more production. Seems like we print up such little bit of literature, as of late. I wish I had about three presses and about three printers. And it takes a lot of Stevie's time because he has to make a living, too. And I've tried to supplement him so he could just stay on the presses but he wouldn't do that. So we do have five or six or seven, I don't know how many, that we do supplement regularly every week and their able to put their time in a little more, but we've not been able to get that to work out just like we want it to work out and our literature is running way behind; hundreds and hundreds and multiplied hundreds of thousands of pieces behind as to what, I'd say millions of pieces behind. And we've just not been able to get things to go right for some reason. Well, we appreciate Sister Frances and Brother Gilbert taking the clothing down. That was one of our ventures, was to get clothing down into the foreign countries. And along with that our major objective was to send literature, to send the gospel. But when you take clothing and food, the Bible says, pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, that is to visit the widows and the orphans in their afflictions and then to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. So we appreciate everything that is done. We were suppose to have somebody to come through and take a load down into Belize. Some of you that visited with us down in Belize knows the desperation and we'd love to get some down there. They haven't shown up, as of yet. But I'd like for you to pray for me, pray for our crusades. Paul said, that doors might be opened unto us. We're suppose to go into Nigeria with a crusade in a month or so, and we've had something going about Mexico and we're trying to get it balanced and get it in the right perspective knowing that all the world needs the gospel and we've commanded to go into all the world. That keeps you moving and you don't get to stand still much. You're either praying or seeking the Lord or moving, traveling, doing something and then the home front is so needful. We set up the home front so that it could aid our evangelistic ministry. The Bible said, Make full proof of your ministry. Do the work of an evangelist, and we did this on the home front as a back-up to where we could furbish and refurbish the fields with the literature, because it's no needful. And in that we're in almost every major language in the world and probably some subsidiary languages, or that is, we're in some other languages that's not major. And we are, I know we've got at least fifty languages that we're in around the world. And we've got some other languages that we're fixing to get, quite a number of them, if every thing works out. And our plans, principally, is that in that we're on the Atlantic Beacon and going into the Islands. We're reaching almost every island right on around, maybe into Cuba, right on around. And in that we've been into a lot of the islands and we're broadcasting from the Atlantic Beacon into those islands, we're planning to set up a string of crusades, or at least a visitation, some way or another, into the islands and see if we can help the people. They write and tell us what the Atlantic Beacon means to them, as to survival and food. And so then, we're going to try to do what we can to reach them and get into the islands to help a little more. And again I say that I hope to have a back-up on my press with this. Three years after we got the press it didn't run so we lost three years to start with. And now we've lost I don't know how many years with it not running. Just running it sporadically, or just whenever we can. Whereas, it should have been running. From the time that we got it it should have been running twenty-four hours around the clock. And the ones that are here that are interested in souls should have been furnishing paper, they that are able to share a little bit, and the others should have been giving of their time, as to one printer for x amount of hours and another printer for x amount of hours and it seems so cruel to God that he would supply so much and we would give Him so little in return. Even in our own personal lives: He gives us, you know, a lifetime, and out of the lifetime what we give back to Him it's so sporadic, and it's so measly until if we summed up all the time we took for studying and fasting and praying, or sharing, going to Church, or whatever, if we took all of that and put it together it would be so very little compared to the time that we think on eating and drinking and riding and talking and buying and fellowshipping and giving and having and whatever, you know, visiting. It'd be so little, because when you think about talking to God and meditating in his laws day and night, having the command of God, that we're to do that until every thought is brought into subjection to the obedience of Jesus Christ, that we're not to think one thought except it be as to His advantage, for His benefit, or concerning Him, or His, or what He wants to do. There shouldn't be one thought. According to the Bible there shouldn't be one thought except it be in that direction, or in His behalf. And when we think one thought outside of that we've cheated on God. And He commanded us that we should give our bodies a living sacrifice completely, wholly, it says. That's two ways. Wholly, completely and as to being holy. Here he speaks of being completely surrendered unto God. I surrender all, Lord, I surrender all. All to Thee, Lord, I surrender. I surrender all. And when we think, when we evaluate and when we take stock and see what we've given priority too, we find out that we've done so little, so very little, as to give our thoughts, our time, our strength. We're commanded to love him with all our mind, with all of our strength, with all of our substance, everything, and when we get right down to it, we've done so little until it's soul stirring to me. I don't know how you feel, you know. Everybody has their own convictions concerning things, but the way I feel, I feel so little. I mean I feel so little I'm almost crushed. Like a fellow said one time. It was kind of comical, and yet Paul said less than nothing. I guess you couldn't say what I'm about to say, but he'd been talking about me and I went over to his tent meeting and when he saw me he'd said so many things against me and about me, I'd never done nothing to him, but when he met me I gave him an offering. And the Bible said over come evil with good. It tore him up so bad he looked at me and he said, I tell you what, if I was under a board I'd have to tiptoe to touch it I feel so small. So, I get to feeling mighty little. I really feel little. I feel almost crushed and as Jim said, When I'm going to do something and striving for the inspiration of the Lord there is always things, constantly there are things that are besetting, that always they really cause problems. But, nevertheless, Paul said, it doesn't move me in my conviction, my vision, my stirring, my drive for Christ, but when I get to thinking about the hindrance, like speaking of the literature and the different things, and the lack of production in Christ, and I just, you know, if crying would do any good I think I'd, as one of the writes said he watered his couch and his bed with his tears. I think I'd water the couch with my tears. But that doesn't do the job either. That helps. It's kind of like watching and praying. You can pray all you want to but if you don't watch you'll get killed. And if you watch and don't pray you'll still get killed, because that old carnal mind will lead you into the wrong thing. Faith without works is dead: works without faith is dead. It takes them together. So just watering the couch with tears isn't all there is to it. So I get real disturb and I get crushed and I think, Lord, with all of my efforts I'm barely scratching the surface. You said to go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, and here we are, we're just barely scratching the surface and I mean I literally get crushed. I even feel that way this morning. As to having what I would want, I don't have any problem. He said if I'd delight myself in Him He would give me the desires of my heart, make me to ride upon the high places of the earth. He's done that, no problem. Go where I want to, do what I want to, have what I want to, no problem. My cup runs over, then I have to share with many people after doing that. But, when I think of what I have failed to do for God it is so crushing until I cannot find the joy that I need to find in what I have tried to do for God. And maybe it's suppose to be like that, I don't know. But whether it's suppose to be like that or not, that's the way it is in my life. So, I come to you here and I call on Jim, like to come down here and help me to get something over there to Chris to where we can win a few more souls through the efforts of Chris and those people that was converted to our ministry over there. And the same way in Africa, or in the Islands, as to our broadcast, or whatever, and when I see the lack, I see the lethargy out of all of us, the unconcern, and then I see the boats, the planes. They've not been used as we wanted to use them for God and it really bothers me. But nevertheless, I tell the Lord like I did this morning. I said, Well, it doesn't matter, you know, if it's that way, it's just that way. There ain't nothing I can do about it. Seemingly there ain't nothing I can do about it. But there's one thing that I feel that I can do as pertaining to the gospel and that's go on and do what little I can. Whatever I accomplish, at least I'll have that much. It's like a man, he might not can make five hundred dollars a week, but there's one thing about it. If he makes a hundred it'll ward off starvation. He's not very wise as to, you know, say, Well, cause I can't make a hundred I just won't work at all, cause he could starve to death that way. The Bible said, if you don't work neither shall you eat, so it's pretty good proof that if there ain't nothing coming in you ain't going to eat, you know, if you don't have money, or work. I appreciate Brother Gilbert and Sister Frances making their trip. It takes a lot of boldness and lots of courage traveling such a long distance and Brother Gilbert taking his own money to pay the way, still sharing on the home front, still taking of his time, Sister Frances planting flowers and bushes and still evangelizing. So, I really appreciate it. I appreciate also the frankness of Brother Gilbert. Gilbert never has been ugly toward me, as far as insulting. He's always been very reverent. Whether it was strong or whether it wasn't strong he always said, That's what we need. And very bold. There are so many occasions where people have confronted Gilbert. They've confronted him and said things that he just tried to hold his composure and answer them right but from the reports I got he was right down, as Brother Branham used to say, Right down the old Kentucky gun barrel. Brother Branham used to say, you know, get your double barrel and go look for the wolf to get your prowlers. You remember I said that one time here and when I got home there was a fellow down there wanting to know what I was going to do. What do you mean, you're going to get you gun and shoot somebody? So you have to be careful how you express it about the double barrel. He was real serious about the thing, you know. But, anyway, I appreciate Gilbert. He has said some things that came to my understanding and my ears. Just a few days ago we were over in Alabama and he set some people straight. George, Junior happened to be close by and heard it. He said, Daddy, he said he set him straight. Said, he told them exactly like it was and what he'd better do if he wanted to keep on living. And of course, Gilbert wasn't threatening him. I don't mean he was threatening him, you know. He was just telling him that God would kill him. And I appreciate that. You know, it's so good to have somebody with a backbone. A lot of people, they're so wishy-washy that they'll do anything, you know., In your presence they'll fellowship you and then out of your presence they'll cut Little Bethlehem down, or the people down. That's real bad, folks. That's real bad. I'm so thankful for people that love God, that is the same yesterday, today and forever, as the Bible says concerning Jesus. And that they are continually, no matter where you find them, speaking of their brothers and sisters to uphold them, and to uphold Little Bethlehem, and to uphold the Word of God. That's when you are a friend to the Lord. That's when you are a friend to the Lord. No matter what anybody said Abraham believe what God told him. He believed it; and the Bible said because he believe it he was called the friend of God. Well, let me read just a little bit to you here before I get to talking and just take up all the service. Let's turn over to the book of Romans. If you've got you Bible's turn and read with me. The book of Romans. How many of you appreciate my Dale being back with us? All right. Romans chapter 1. If you've got your Bibles let's read it together. It's good to have Gerald here with us this morning. It says, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy Scriptures,) Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh: And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." That reminds me, Pray about Rome. We were invited over into Rome. I told Betty I felt like we might go there and preach, and of course, immediately after that we were invited to come there and preach. "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world." I like that, don't you? I say sometimes to the saints of Bethlehem. You know, when we first started here I said I'd like to establish a place to where I can later on say that you faith is spoke of throughout the whole world, and now I can say that. There are some places in the world we haven't got to, as to an expression of your faith, but in general the whole world, your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. And they praise you. Just like the Bible said, "In a good thing I praise you, and they praise you as to that which, like out in California they're praising you. And over in the Islands, and over in the Philippines and Africa and all around the world. "Said, "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you." Folks, I make mention of you in my prayers the same way. "For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that often times I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome Also." (Brother Pike continues reading on through Chapter 2 verse 16,) All right. That's reading quite a bit. Notice this, that the terms are used in the seventeenth verse of the first chapter of the book of Romans. "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Now, there's a lot to be said right there. "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith. First thing is to remember, is that as the Bible says concerning the gospel, it is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh that saves a man, but it is the answer of a good conscience toward God. It is good that I don't chew cud, that I don't suck on wed, and it is good that I don't covet another man's companion, or I don't covet a man's silver or gold. That is good. It is good that I try to walk upright. I try to live holy and just, righteous before God all the days of my life. I try to pray, I try to fast, I try to study. I try to do everything that I know that pertains to righteousness. And I try to live to where I can bring every thought into subjection to the obedience of Christ. I want my every thought subjected to Jesus. And all that is good. And it is good that I want to mediate in His laws day and night because I'm jealous over my thoughts with a godly jealousy. And I don't want Satan to have any of my thoughts. I want to have altogether the thoughts of the Son of God, as to this mind being in me that was in Christ Jesus, bringing every thought into subjection to the obedience of Jesus and all this is good and we should do this. We should give our bodies a living sacrifice completely. Just pull away from everything, to seek God first and let him add all of the rest, as to taking care of us, as to the little sparrow, to feeding us, to make our cup run over, as he does this. I've proven it and it works. So then, all of this we do. All of this we should do, because that is the right thing to do. But after that I've done all of these things, I must remember one thing: that I am not saved by the putting away of the filth of the flesh. I am doing all of those things for one purpose. And that is that I may have a good conscience toward God. By doing these things thereby we assure our heart, then do we have a good conscience toward God, John said. To do all these things as for one purpose and that's to have a good conscience toward...(Begin tape one, side two.).....that out of that conscience faith may arise, for if I do the things that please God, then hereby I assure my heart, John said. And then assuring my heart, then do I have confidence toward God. So I have a good conscience. Paul said, I strive always trying to keep a good conscience before man and before God trying to keep a good conscience before man and before God. For many people have seared their conscience as with a hot iron getting past feel. They have been so religious and they have give and taken so much, as to add to and take away. kind of like the constitution of the United States. They have put in so many amendments and they have restricted so many things by the different insertions until we don't really have a constitution as to liberty and justice for all anymore. And so it is, as to the same thing. Some people have seared their conscience so much that they've got passed feeling and they can do anything that they want to, anything that they want to. And in doing this the little foxes have spoiled the vines. And they don't have any real hope in Christ anymore, any liberties in Christ anymore. But so far as they're concerned they do. They're going about with their zeal. The Bible said, Having a zeal but not according to knowledge. So it's not according to the knowledge of God. Vainly puffed up by their fleshly minds they're going about to establish their own righteousness. But see, when we look at it, we've got to come back to the righteousness of God. And this is why, the Bible teaches that as the two men went up into the temple one into the temple and he said to God, he said, I thank Thee, Father, I'm not like other men. I'm not like other men. You know, I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all I possess. I'm not to be likened unto other men. And then here comes the man that didn't pay tithes, he didn't fast, he didn't pray. He was just a sinner; he needed help. And he just kind of beat on his chest and said, Oh, my Father, have mercy on me. I am a sinner. And the Bible said that the man went down to his house justified rather than the other man that was so sure that he was living upright before God. So, we say, What caused this? Is God then respect of person? Would any sober minded man do that? as pertaining to his business? Would he send home the man that worked and pay the man that didn't work? Would he do that? No sober minded man would do that. See? God is doing just the opposite of what would be good sense and good reasoning. Isn't that right? He's doing just the opposite. No man would send home the man that had labored and keep the man that had not labored. But here we see it, God takes the man that has done nothing and sends him home to justification with full reward and the other man he sends him home empty and him having done the work. The same way with the story of the prodigal. You find the prodigal is the same way. The prodigal says, Father, I want that that belongs to me. He went and took what belonged to him and the Bible said he went out and he squandered it with harlots and done away with it through the things of the world and then he fain would have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat when he came to his senses and realized how low he had fallen and thought about the wealth and the riches in His father's house. See? And here comes the prodigal and the father he goes, as we would say, running out to meet him. And the man falls down at his feet and says, I'm nothing. And he says, Forgive me. I've sinned against heaven and father, I've sinned against thee. And the father didn't even listen at him. He said, Put a ring on his finger, put a robe on him. Put shoes on his feet. Said, Hurry, go kill the fatted calf, we're going to have a jubilee. See? We're going to have a great jubilee. My son that was lost now is found. And here is the boy that's at home, he hasn't done any wrong. He says, Father, I don't understand this. He said, I've stayed home all these years. I've never sinned against you. I've never left home. I've never squandered my substance and you've never killed the fatted calf for me to where I could have a jubilee with my friends, or we could have a great party together. You've never done that. And the father looked at him like this. He said, Son, all that I have is thine. All that I have is thine. Remember the little tract that we wrote, All I have is thine? All that I have is thine. The fatted calf has been there all the time, we'll say. And your friends have been here all the time, and at any time you could have had a great banquet. I've never told you you couldn't. It was there all the time. All that I had was yours. But see? There was no enthusiasm about the thing. Like I say here at Bethlehem. See? On the home front some of you get a little bit perturbed because somebody comes in here and they get jubilant and they've been away and you think, Oh, my God. Lord, I ain't nothing. You know, I've wasted my life and here I am now, Lord. X amount of years, you know, and now here I am. And God, I've just been a nobody and a nothing, and look around like this like I heard one of my sons say. Why in the world would anybody want to leave Bethlehem. Said, It's got everything. And they look around and the see the great potentials of world evangelism, and eternal life, and the favor of the Heavenly Father, who is the King of Kings. And they see the eternal reward and the securities that are yet yonder. And the riches and the splendors of eternal youth and all of the magnificence that people are trading for the beggarly elements of the world. Like Esau, they're selling their birthright for a morsel of bread, eating and drinking. Everywhere you go it's just eating and eating and eating, eating and eating. See? Buying and selling, selling out for just a little bit of nothing. So then, when you see this you see again the prodigal. Some people get disturbed, but folks, I say that if somebody comes in here, for God's sake don't discourage them. You've been here all the time. You could have run them presses all the time. You could have sailed the boats all the time. You could have flew the planes all the time. You could have evangelized the world all the time. You could have done many, many things. All during the time you've been here you didn't do it. See? Because you didn't see it. Being so close to the light, as Brother Gerald said one time. He had a vision to where some was so close to the light that they couldn't see it for the light and they just fell on their face. See? A lot of times that's what you are doing. The light is most precious. It's coming forth. A great wonderful light is coming forth to you and I, and this light is penetrating the veil that's coming forth. And the Bible said her light was most precious. That is to say, her knowledge, her understanding, her wisdom, her greatness of the deep understanding of the mysteries of God that God has given to you as a body of believers. See? So it's coming forth, but folks, if we're blinded by it, if we're standing so close that we can't see the glory and the illumination of that light, and we're standing so close to it, that as Paul, it just blinds us then accomplishing anything. We'd rather eat and drink; we'd rather buy and sell. We love to come to Bethlehem. We like to be a part of what we're doing here. I admit it don't sound exactly right to bring this down to a present day application, but see? That's what a preacher is for. He's not to preach to you about Elijah; He's not to preach about to you about somebody that was yesterday. That was great. That's wonderful. That's wonderful, but whoever was yesterday has done whatever could be done and they have done all that they can do, you know, because they're dead. Maybe they didn't do all that they could have done in their lifetime, but they've done all that they can do in that their life is now passed on, you know. See? And what good is it to preach to you about that as to say, you know, this is the way it is. A preacher must say take those things. And the Bible said that these things, even those that died in the wilderness, happened for your admonition as to this that was to come later that you might look back as Peter and them did when Peter looked back and saw Joshua had stopped the sun and the moon, and he began to preach, you know, as the others, Let's contend for the faith that was once delivered to them saints back there that could make the waters open up and control the sun and the moon. And now here we are looking back at Peter, John and James and we're saying, Let's contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. Or that is to say, a preacher is for the purpose of going back and taking those things and showing you the great things that they did and the mistakes that they made like as to the prodigal and showing you the way that God thinks. And then bringing it down to a present day application so that you might understand in the present day application where you are at, where I'm at, you might understand whether on not I'm a true minister of God as to preaching the Word, in that the Bible said he that God sendeth will preach God's Word, and I might find out if you are a true saint, in that the Bible said a child is know by his doings. So with our observation one of another we try to find out what's going on, see? And we try to find out how God thinks. Here we are at Bethlehem, not only at Bethlehem but I'm speaking of preachers, I'm speaking of laity, churches around the world. See? here we are at Bethlehem and we're preaching the gospel. You're listening to the gospel and you are going out and publishing the gospel, for the Bible said God gave the Word but great was the multitude of them that published It. So then, all of us have a commission to go into all the world to carry this wonderful gospel to every creature. And during this period of time we're suppose to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. He said, Come out from the world. If the love of the world is in you the love of the Father isn't there. So He said come out from the world and be ye a separate people. Touch not the unclean things and I'll receive you, saith the Lord. And remember, anything that is not run through the filter of God is unclean, because there's a curse upon the world that they have yet to reap. See? And we're cleansed of the curse, because the Bible said, Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree and Jesus hung upon a tree for us. And back to the Garden and back to the serpent, and back to the ill famed one, back to where we, as to the first birth, picked up the corrupt mind, as to the intellectual infiltration as to leaning to our own understanding. Or that is to say, Satan, the Prince of this world, where he wrestled it out of the hands of Adam. There, since that time, he has set him up an empire. He's the God of this world and the children of this world are under the constraint and control of Lucifer. And the Bible said he takes them into captivity at his will. So then, they do what they want to at their will when we're put under the guns. And we have to honor, and we're enslaved to them as it was with the children of Israel down in the Egyptian bondage. For civilization comes from Egypt and everybody therefore are Egyptians. So then, we see that we are not Egyptians, for the Bible said that he that is a Jew outwardly is not a Jew, but the true Jew is a spiritual Jew, he that is a Jew inwardly. So we're under subjection as to Christ and Christ within you is that hope of glory. That's why the Bible said from glory to glory we're changed into the marvelous image of God and it's from faith to faith that the righteousness of God is revealed to you and I. In that we are called of God we are born of God, therefore we should be an enthusiastic people about doing something for God. We should be on fire for God, doing something for God, for we all, as sheep, at one time have gone astray. And the Bible teaches that God has laid upon Him, even the Lord Jesus Christ, the iniquity of us all and that He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for my iniquities and my healings was upon Him, by whose stripes I'm healed. And so then, I should be enthused over the situation. To know that He has said unto me, Be of cheer for I have overcome the world. Not that you have over come it, Brother Pike. You haven't done anything to overcome. All of your efforts of righteousness is like filthy rags, but I have overcome. And because I've overcome you be of good cheer, because when I overcame it was the salvation of your soul, for what the Heavenly Father wanted you to be, He made me to be that. Thus you are made my righteousness. And what you are in your sinful way of life and your stumbling, staggering way of life, God has made me to be your sin. Being made in the image of sin He that knew no sin, being made in the image of sin, went to Calvary for my sins and was made my sin unto death and received the punishment of my sins that I might be resurrected on the other side, and that I might live in a new form as a new creature, and in so doing that I might be the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus to where I can stand and say it's not me living but Christ that liveth. And the life I now live I live by the Son of God, which lives on the inside of me, and I am now, as to what God sees me across this great chasm from Calvary to the coming of the Thessalonian change bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. Though it does not yet appear to the human eye what I shall be, or you shall be that love the Lord, because it's not made manifest in your mortal genes yet, but it's an inner life, as to the glory working into the outer man that someday, as it made Moses' face to shine, Stephen's face to shine, Jesus' whole body to be illuminated, changed to the glistening as to appearing in glory with Moses and Elijah, we're going to be changed into that, and that in the moment in the twinkling of an eye at the sounding of the last trump. So, we see that we have this great consolation and the Bible said comfort one another, comfort the brethren with these sayings, that there is going to be a change in the mortal body and the heaviness that you now experience in this body is going to be taken away. So, what kind of people should we be? We should be great jubilant people. Here at Bethlehem we should be on fire for God seeing the mistakes of the others as we read of the Old Testament of the histories of the world. And the brave, brave people, men and women a like, and those filled with courage that went through the dark ages that gave their lives for Christ, or hazarded their lives for the Word of the Lord. See? We should be up and about our Father's business. And we should be filled with the Spirit, having a drive, I mean a real drive, that every day that we look forward to the new mercies of God and the new things that we're going to do for God. God said, I'll do a new thing. We should have this drive. We should never stay still. Like I told David Paul the other day, he came up to visit with me while I was up here at the little cabin. I said, David, I can't stay still. I said, I've got to do something for God. I said, I can't just set around and do nothing for God. I said, If people want to become complacent, if they just want to buy them a home and retire and sit down and have the things of the world, I said, that's their business. I said, That wasn't why I bought Bethlehem. I said it was that we were to come together and people that would sell their homes and give up their places of abode, as Brother Douglas and Brother Cobbs and different ones, to give up their homes and come here that they may give themselves wholly unto God. Not to come here to try to make money and get in a rut and all of a sudden find themselves with the things of the world, but come here to serve God. Like Brother John Jameson, here John comes from Texas, college man, college degree, could really excel in the things of the world; if John comes here to Bethlehem to give up all of that for God, then he has a home here at Bethlehem and then he forgets about God, he begins to think about his home and think about a job, or the things of the world, or the natural things of life, then why did he come here? Why did he leave all of that? That would be so foolish. These others that have give up their homes, to give up their homes, leave the land of their kindred just like Ruth did, and then come over here. Why would they do that? That wouldn't make any sense at all. To me that doesn't add up at all. We came here from the west. We sing the song, They'll come from the east, they'll come from the west. They've done that. They've come from the north, they've come from the south, they're here. See? To feast with the king, to dine as his guest, beholding his unveiled face, because that's what we're doing. See? That's what we're preaching. We're preaching the unveiled face of God as those that behold the face of God, as one that seeth himself in a mirror. We can do that, go our way, stray away, forget what manner of man we are, and we can still be all messed up as far as combing the hair and brushing the teeth and whatever. See? But in the conformity to Christ, coming to the Lord Jesus and beholding as it would be His face, then we are changed from glory to glory into the wonderful likeness of the Son of God and we become one with His image, not us living, but Christ that's living within us, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. So then, we see that when we do this then we're moving on with the Lord. See, and that's why we're at Bethlehem. We've left the land of bondage with it's earthly treasures and we've entered into this wonderful country so lovely and so grand; crossed over the Jordan, got our minds on heaven and now with Jesus we're walking hand in hand. So then, when we see this thing we think of the glory of what God has done for us. We realize that we have within these bodies, Paul referred to them as earthen vessels, heavenly treasure, for the knowledge of God is heavenly treasures. That's from heaven. That's what spoke the world into existence, that's what brings the sight back to the blind eye and hearing to the deaf ears. See? That's what makes the lame to walk, is that same heavenly treasure that we have. Someone would say, Well, I don't have it. Surely after coming to Church here for x amount of years, you've got some knowledge of God. If you don't have any knowledge of God, you're worse than an imbecile. If an imbecile had been here that long he'd have picked up something for sure. So then, that means that you do have some treasure. I know there's a lot of people goes to school and some drop out in the third grade and some the fifth grade, and whatever. I know that and I know we've had a lot of dropouts. They come here, and one became a dropout because he became interested in cars. Another became a dropout because he got interested in land and houses. Another was a drop out because he got interested in a business. And I know that there's dropouts all around us, but at the same time, as Brother Taylor going to college. Brother Taylor, you saw a lot of dropouts in school and college, I'm sure, but you also saw some that went on to a diplomacy. Isn't that right? Like John. John went on to a diplomacy. So then, that means that though some are dropouts, yet there are some that's going on to the full measure, the Bible said, or the full stature of the perfect man Christ Jesus. And not only that, but the Bible said, On to the full reward. There is a full reward. Thirty-fold, sixty-fold, hundred-fold; there is a full reward. So then, we see by this that there is something as to heavenly treasures in these earthen vessels. Now, we have the potentiality. We have the potentials, but it's like Einstein's theory. You know, a thing is the potential of what it could be. That is to say, potential energy is not kinetic energy, but potentially speaking it's kinetic energy, so it's called the potentials of kinetic energy. Or that is, it's potential energy. So as to change whatever the mass, as to the means and measures into kinetic energy is to receive the same amount of mass, that amount of quickening, as to kinetic energy. So see, you are the potentiality of God and you've got the potential energy on the inside of you, but you've got to change it into the kinetic force. You've got to move in, and what we're looking for is inertia. See? We've got to have something that will do the job. We want something that will do the job. You see the big locomotive as it used to be, you know, before they got up-to-date a little more with it, an old steam locomotive, and here you saw the change of water into power. See? The change of the water into steam, and many a time as a boy I've seen it. That big black engine set there and just do chug, chug, chug and then it's go chug, chug, chug, chug, and the wheels would just spin on the tract. You know, when they pulled the lever and done whatever was to be done, that's what you've got to do is pull the lever. See? You've got to utilize your ability. You've got to have a little faith. First of all to find a goal, to find a direction, and then to get all steamed up for God, as we say. And then to pull the lever and move in the right direction for God. Do the work of an evangelist. You know, like here. Why not go out in the morning time and take some tracts and give them out, or testify for God like as in the Carolina's, I've told you this before, sitting at a table eating there in a home where there was a young boy just come in to dinner, coming from his job. He worked there on a job. Jerry or some of them probably worked up there, too. But, anyway, he come in and he set down at the dinner table and was eating with me, because he knew I was an evangelist in there to preach, and he was setting there just mumbling and grumbling and said, Can't do nothing for God on the job, can't do nothing, ain't no way to work for God, and he was admiring me, you know, because here I was, I was off of the job and he felt like I was doing something for God, but the thing he didn't understand was that when you're off of the job, see? there's a difference. He had the paycheck and I didn't have no paycheck. So he couldn't get it all together just right and I set there and listened to it for a little while and then I reached and got some tracts out of my pocket and I handed them to him. I said, You're in business; go back and evangelize where you're working. I said, Then you can work for God. And of course he did. He went back; he took me at my word. But I just said that to say this: We can just be sitting around home with everything. There he was with a nice church, there he was a nice home, there he had a good job, there he had all of the potentials and me and Betty just rambling from place to place with nothing to eat and nobody, an old dilapidated car, see? And here he was, he just thought he was, you know, he was nothing and we were everything, but we was nothing and he was everything. You know, as to the potentials of the natural sources, of to be able to get the gospel out, or whatever. So then, let's remember that we have the heavenly treasure on the inside. And let's remember that this heavenly treasure is given to us by grace. It is by grace that you are alive in God. It is by grace that God has purified your heart with His faith. By His grace, or through the grace of God He has given forth the faith of Jesus Christ, as to sanctify you. That is to say, Jesus did all the works and all I had to do was get his faith. The Bible said, Contend for that faith, even that faith by which you're sanctified, even that faith that worked through Joshua and stopped the sun and moon. All I have to do is draw nigh unto God and God will draw nigh unto me to humble myself under the mighty hand of God and He will exalt me in due season. All I have got to do is come boldly before the throne of grace because of His righteousness and He will give me the faith of Jesus Christ that it might dwell within my heart, the faith by which I'm sanctified by. And the Bible says God has perfected forever them that are sanctified, or made them perfect, justified and glorified them, predestinated them as elect. So then, we find that this faith comes to me. And the Bible said that we are under tutors. Paul, being a Jew could speak this way. He said, Being under tutors, though we be lord of all, as a child we differ nothing, or being under the tutors we differ nothing as a child. So then, being a child I spake as a child, I thought as a child. When I became a man I put away childish things. Or that is to say, being under the tutors, whereas, the Bible said, when we ought to be teachers we have need that we be taught. This is the beginning of the oracles of Christ Jesus. Let us go on to perfection, not turning again to lay the foundation of repentance of dead works and dead faith toward God, but on to the laying on of hands, to the resurrection of the dead, the eternal judgments. And these things will we do if God permit. See? So let us, let us go on. Let us go into all the world and evangelize. Let us make full proof or our ministry to do the work of an evangelist. You're the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, members in particular. Whatever member of that body, as to bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, that is a member of evangelizing, that is a member of evangelization and should be put to the exchangers, as to the ability or the utilization of that strength, that measure that's given unto us, whatever the measure might be. So then, being under the tutors until the time appointed of the Father, and then Paul says concerning this, that we are under the tutors. And we were under the tutors. That is to say, under the law until faith came. Under the law until faith came. Now then, we're not under the law anymore. And this is why he spoke about the Jews as to the prodigal staying at home. Boasting themselves in the law, and yet they were the transgressors, because their glory and praise were not as unto God, but as unto their own selves, going about to establish their own righteousness. They had stumble at the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, because when the law was folded up and laid away that ended the law. And as to the death of your body, as to the rent veil, your body was buried in the watery grave and the spirit went back to God who gave it. That is to say, Jesus made in himself two, or twain, and the veil was rent in two, or twain. he made in himself both Lord and Christ. And God separated the Lord from the Christ, and therefore, the body going into the grave, the Christ back to God who gave it. And so today, being His bone and His flesh, our rending of the flesh as to our cross and our Calvary, as to one dying upon the cross, even the flesh and the spirit. In that one cross is enough and there's a continual warfare between the body and the spirit. So we kill out the flesh and it's buried by Calvary. So then, our spirit went back to God who gave it. And the Bible said you're not in the flesh and can never come into condemnation, but he's chosen you out of the flesh and hid you with Christ in God whom the heavens have received until the time of the restoring of all things. As Jimmy said, there is no Satan to us. The Lord said concerning Satan and them that dwell in heaven, Revelation 12, said, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven, which was Calvary. And said, I have destroyed him that hath power over death. And the Lord said to Eve and Adam, in the day thou eatest thereof thou (Begin tape two, side one.) shall surely die. And though men lived a thousand years, Adam about nine hundred years or something, but they died. See? They were destroyed. They died. And when the Lord destroyed Satan at Calvary the potentiality of it again, as we say, he's gone he's over, he's done, he's finished. Jesus will make that manifest with the Jews at the coming of the last seven years. Remember, the Bible said, Messiah shall come and make an end of sin. Four hundred and eighty-three years later he come and made an end of sin. Dividing the seven from the four ninety he put it over here on the other side of the Gentiles. So then the last seven years as to make the four hundred and ninety in that the angel said four hundred and ninety years determined upon thy people. Four hundred and ninety years determined upon thy people, or that is we say, seventy weeks, so then, in this we see that from Calvary all the way over to the coming in of the Jews, which is brought in concerning the opening of the eighty seal. So then, we find in this, it is heaven. From Calvary all the way over to the coming of the seven years, that is heaven. See? Coming over to the seven years it is heaven. That is, it is the Gentiles. The body is dead and the spirit went back to the God who gave it. That's why you find in Revelation 10 the angel with his foot on the water and on the sea. So then, we see that's a heavenly thing. That's a heavenly transition. All the way from Calvary over to the seven years that is a heavenly thing. The Gentile dispensation. That's why they came into this world, like Columbus discovering America. It's called the new world. See? It's a type of being caught up to heaven. In the natural these people are in heaven. I say again, you know, I say it so people can understand. If you don't believe this is heaven wait until you get to hell and then you'll know the difference between hell and heaven. Here you've got everything; you've got life, you've got health. This is a heaven. There's first heaven, second heaven, third heaven. See? And you're in heaven. You've got everything you want. Eat, drink, ride, sleep, whatever. When you get to hell you won't have any of that. As a matter-of-fact, when the blood comes off of the Seat of Atonement, the Bible said they'll gnaw their tongues for pain. And their whole kingdom will be filled with darkness and they'll desire even death as a means of relief and death will flee from them. So then, we see that from Calvary that there is a heavenly episode of the transitional changes of God. And earthly things doesn't come back in, until the Jews come in. Paul said, If the casting away of the Jews be the reconciling of the world what will the receiving of the Jews be but life from the dead which means the resurrection. Or that is, the casting away of the Jews means the body that is dead, the veil is rent in twain. Given to us in Christ before the world ever was in the foreknowledge, name wrote down in the lamb's book of life by foreknowledge, the lamb slain from the foundation of the world and then brought to light at Calvary, the Bible said, or the opening of the curtains for the great drama. Or that is to say, the veil was rent in twain. Or that is to say the Lord separated from the Christ, or that is to say that your body was separated from your spirit and today your body, Paul said, no good thing within my body, the infiltration of sin. He said, Who shall save me from the body of this death. So then, Jesus folded up the body put it away, laid it into a watery grave, that is you and I, and so then, we are free from the body. And God never sees an error of the body anymore. He never sees anything that you ever do in the body as stumbling, or whatever, that is to them that are born again. And even as to the blood taking away the sins of the world, as long as it's on the Seat of Atonement they are in heaven. And that's why John in Revelation 12 saw the old dragon, which is the blood life, the generation of vipers in heaven, trying to devour the child as quick as it was born, which is the true spiritual Jew, which has to do with you and I. Trying to devour him with that old red dragon thing, like I say, you know, church, let's get us a ball game. Church, let's become some celebrity, like Daniel did down in Babylon. Let's get us a career. The church, let's do the things of the world and enjoy the things of the world, be Charismatic. Let's do the things of the world, you know. And that's true, it is grace, and they can do it. They can. They can. They can do it for a season. The Bible said that Moses rather than enjoy sin for a season chose to suffer the afflictions with the righteous. They can do it. The blood is atoning for them just like it is us as to a dispensational grace. But when the dispensational grace is over then the blood is taken off of the Seat of Atonement and they go to hell. And their kingdom is filled with darkness. But you and I, it is the grace of God that is appearing unto every man, the grace unto salvation that says, denying worldly lust that we should live soberly and righteously in this present world. That is as it was said concerning John's father, that we should serve Him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life. So then, we are doing all of these things, as to subject the body, as to make the body to conform to the wonderful ways of God, to please God. Before Enoch's translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. Jesus, before he went away, His testimony was, I do always the things that please my Father. So the secret is to please God and without faith it is impossible to please God. Because the pleasure of God is in the faith of Jesus Christ that has sanctified you and made you clean and holy. Though we do all of these works of holiness it is just to subdue the body, to make the body to conform to the inner spirit of Christ that we might be able to utilize greater power in the efforts of letting Jesus Christ live in our life. If you seek to save your life then you lose it. If you lose your life in this world for Christ's sake then you save it unto mortality. So then, it's Christ living within you. We're the temples of God. He dwells in us; He talks in us. The body is now dead because of sin, Paul said. So then, you cannot sin. Messiah made an end of sin. Four hundred and eighty-three years later after the testimony of the angel, made an end of sin and sin is now gone. And as the writer said, I remind you again, my sins are gone. They're in the sea of God's forgetfulness. That's good enough for me. Praise God, my sins are gone. Or that is, as John said, Beloved, he that is born of God cannot sin, for the seed of God remaineth in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God and herein we understand the children of the world and the Children of God. He said because the child being known by his doings, he said, them that sin we know then that they are of the devil. And he that doeth righteousness is righteous even as He is righteous. So then, we see the great thing that God has done and not what we have done. Therefore, the more I say as a preacher to turn your praises toward God and your faith and confidence toward God that you may stand in the strength of God that when the ill winds start blowing then your founded upon the rock of the faith of Christ Jesus and it don't move you even though you stumble, even though wind might cause a tree to bow way over, and it's not upright like it should be; yet when the wind stops blowing the sunshine will just draw it right back up as it draws the moisture that is within the earth through the tap root and up through it, the fruit will go right on, as to the trees, and the water will draw it right back up straight. So then, we can be draw up straight by the wonderful wooing and love of the Lord Jesus. As he said to Peter, Peter cursing and denying he'd ever known the Lord, as I said before, it wasn't a matter of Peter retaining his integrity with God, as to his ability not to sin or do wrong. There he was cursing and denying that he ever knew the Lord, and the Lord looked at him and said, Peter, I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. Not that his works would continue, but that his faith would fail not. His works had already failed and by faith, by faith, Peter regained his composure and the Lord said, when thou art converted Peter strengthen the brethren. So then, the great act of faith. Here is the act of faith. Not saved by the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but by the answer of a good conscience toward God. The filth of the flesh, the Lord did that when He rent the veil. He buried your body in a watery grave. Within my flesh there is no good thing. Who will deliver me from the body of this death. The Bible said the law being weak in that I could not perform it, what the law could not do, God sending His Son in the likeness of Brother Pike's sinful flesh, or your sinful flesh condemned sin in the flesh and buried it in a watery grave. So then, I'm free from that body. I'm free from that flesh and at death, just as soon as I acknowledge it through repentance, my spirit goeth to God who gave it and the body is put out. And we bring the body under subjection, as Paul said, keeping under the body, bringing it under subjection that we might keep it from indulging in the things of the world. So then, we are dead to the world by the body of the Lord Jesus, we are inactive to trying to have a pretty face and to have pretty hair and have pretty clothes and a pretty body, with jogging and with weight lifting and all these other things that we go through, having a lot of money and being a millionaire and all these things of having prestige, and fame and popularity. We're dead to that. It's gone. For we are they that dwell in heaven, for we are spirit. He that is born of spirit is spirit, the last man Adam a quickening spirit. By the washing of regeneration we've come out of the old man Adam's generation. We're now in the generation of Jesus, and the Bible said, Who shall declare his generation. We're the ones to declare it. He was the first brother among many brethren. So then, we find that we have been buried. The old man's dead and gone and now we are a new man that's alive eternally with riches and power and glory. And though the world still looks upon this body they are only seeing lying vanities for as Solomon said, All is vanity, vanity and vexation of the spirit. And Satan who was cast out of heaven when the man child went up into heaven, that is, as to the birth, the inner man goes out. He goes out of your heart and God has potentially, at Calvary, cast him out and the bringing in of the last week of Daniel to automatically know then that he will appear in the earth and he has to personify himself, coming up out of the waters, as to people, being a type of people, and taking one brilliant one after everything is confiscated, everything is put under the computer, as to a number, especially bringing the six, six, six, then all of a sudden he'll be manifest in the body and he'll know that he's been destroyed, because the Bible says he knows that he has but a short time from that time. He'll go about like a roaring lion seeking whom he might devour. But I said that to say this. From Calvary over to the beginning of that last week where the Jews come in and the Gentiles go out, just as the Jews went out at Calvary the Gentiles came in. So then, the Jews being a type of the body they come up in the resurrection. When they come up in the resurrection it fulfills what Paul said. If the casting away of the Jews be the body that's unto death, rejected of God and buried. And you being the spirit, as to the Gentile Church, the true Jew, and you've been caught up into heaven and the natural people coming into America as a new world to give a type of that. See? You being caught up into heaven, then he said, What will the receiving of those Jews be but life from the dead. That is to say, the resurrection. What will it be in that those Jews will come back? He said, When they come back that will mean the body has been redeemed, for the dead in Christ shall rise first and then we which are alive and remain, our body will no longer be dead then. It will as we say, come out of the watery grave, or that is, in the sight of God it will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, that body that He has seen all the time by foreknowledge as to the end of the thing. We will thus be made manifest and then we cannot say as John said, you know, it doth not yet appear what we shall be like. For the Bible said everyone that sees him, they shall see him as he is and they shall be changed in a moment in the that glorious image for everyone that shall see him, then they shall be changed, or appear as he appears. So then, we see this wonderful thing that God has done for us as to the faith of Jesus Christ being under the tutors of the law. The law being a tutor to bring us under grace. But now that the faith of Jesus Christ has come, atoned for sin and now he has given this glorious faith into your heart. By believing his faith comes into you heart and then your faith is stimulated and God purifies your heart by faith, and this faith of Jesus Christ by which we're sanctified. So then, your faith in His righteousness makes His faith and your faith one faith, to make his spirit and your spirit one spirit. And to make his body and your body one flesh and bone, as to a body. And it's in dimensional steps as to a one, two, three. Egypt, the wilderness, and Canaan. That is to give us a symbolic type. But we're getting close to the finishing line, folks. See? The mysteries of God are being finished, and as we understand, then that means we can believe. Because if I understand that I don't have to do anything to obtain salvation and that it doesn't have to do with my works at all, that Jesus did away with the body of this death and the filth of the flesh, you know, and it's just the answer of a good conscience toward God, that all I'm doing with my bodily effort is: I'm coming into a place to make myself to understand that God, and I are friends, so far as I'm concerned, that I'm walking not contrary to Him that He might walk contrary to me, but I'm drawing nigh to Him that He might draw nigh to me. So then, in drawing nigh to Him He automatically draws nigh to me, because He's already made the way through Jesus and tried so hard to get to me. He's tried to get to me through every way and all He's waiting for is for me just to turn around and accept what He's got for me. So the little one doesn't work all week to get the little red wagon. Daddy works all week to get the little red wagon. And Mon and Dad gets together to present it to Junior. And he rejoices over Dad's strength and Dad's ability, and he feels secure in Dad's abilities. I said faith works by love. That is, his confidence in Dad's love makes his confidence blossom out like a rose. See? Seeing the good things that God has done for people, the way he's taken care of us and blessed us, surely the goodness of God leads us to repentance and our confidence in Him makes us to know that when we stagger and stumble the Bible said, Happy is he that does not condemn himself in that thing which he allows. God knoweth all things. He knows our righteousness is of Him so we just get up and from mountain top to mountain top we just glide right on over. And should we go down in the valley, he's the Lily Of The Valley as well as the Rose Of Sharon. And saying a few things here and then closing. Know then that I'm saved, not by works lest I should boast. The ones then that were, as to the Jews, were turned away, saying, I thank thee that I'm not like other men. More holier than thou. But the Gentiles, the Bible said, who sought not after salvation, nor religion, what is this that the Jews have sought me all the day long and they've not found me. That is, they went about through their own righteousness, their own ways, and so it is with many pentecostals and other churches as to ritualistics, Catholic, whatever. See? But they stumbled at the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. So now that faith has come we're not under the law, but if you fell from grace, then you are under the law continually. So then, we find that the strength of Junior is in the love of Dad. And we find our faith in the love of our Father. So strong is my confidence for the Bible said God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And I think He gave the best of heaven. Shall He not freely with Christ, Paul said, give us all things. Is there any thing else better that He would withhold? So then, my love for Him and in Him, my confidence is so great that the Bible said, And who shall separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. For who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect, being elect according to foreknowledge by grace. Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect seeing that God is the one that justifeth. Paul said, I am persuaded to believe that there is nothing that can separate you from that love that was so strong It gave the Son. Nothing. Nothing. For He so loved you while you were yet in your sins, before you ever done any work that He saved you and called you to be His Sons. Folks, so when we do all these righteous things, which we should do, down to bringing every thought into subjection, bringing our body a living sacrifice, don't be deceived when you stumble and stagger, for Satan has not harmed you. You don't have a will to sin. And the Bible said where these things are there is no conscience of sin. So you are not even conscience of sin. You are dead to sin. See? Sin is of the flesh and you can't sin. You are not in the flesh. So, you can't come into condemnation and nobody can't judge you because you're perfected forever and made perfect by Christ. So when we stumble remember it is of God, but we cannot loosely go Charismatic and take the way of the world, because if we do not works of righteousness isn't that proof that the nature of righteousness is not within us, in that he that sinneth is of the devil. And he that hath the love of the world in him, the love of the Father is not there. Or isn't it a true fact that if this Christ is within me I'm not going to have a desire for the world, or a love for the world, or the things of the world. I'm going to have a desire for God and want to live for God and do something for God. And then if I stumble I don't have to worry. It's all taken care of. But if, if, I do not have the love of God then it's not a matter of stumbling and not condemning myself, it's a matter of habitual practice as to sinning and having the love of the world and going out there and using religion for an excuse, or a crutch to lean upon. So then, we see this wonderful thing. How great and mighty sons and daughters of God are for they cannot sin. And if they cannot sin, I say one more time to you, that transgression of the law is sin. If the law is folded up and laid away and Messiah made an end of sin, because we're dead to the law by the body of Jesus, for we're alive without the law. The law came sin revived and I died and that which was ordained unto life I found unto death. To be unto death, because of my weakness to perform God's desire as to righteousness. Measuring Himself and then measuring me I come up short. But Paul said, If I do by nature, my conscience, my innermost, the things that are contained in the law. That is, if I do these works of righteousness, if I do them, then isn't that proof that if the apples are on the limb the nature is in the tree? As to an apple tree? So then, if I do these things proof that His nature is within me; divine nature of Christ. We're partakers. So then, if I do these things, as to proof of the nature on the inside of you, you can never fall. Never fall, because you are eternal. Make your calling and election sure by seeing if you can perform these things. But if you do not these things then the Bible said if you sin you are of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. Therefore we can tell the difference between the children of God and the children of the devil. So then, if your eternal and you are sealed, everything is all right with you, just confirm your flight. Be sure that somebody else isn't taking your crown. Confirm your flight and do these things. Live holy and godly and pure. Not that that's going to take you to heaven, but it's going to bring your conscience to the extent that your going to feel that you are trying to please God. And John said this brings a confidence which is called faith, that He heareth us. And we know that when He heareth us we have whatsoever petition we desire of Him. Just to know that He hears us is all that it takes. And when we do right His ears is ever attentive toward the cry of the righteous, and He will give you the desires of your heart, make you rich, add no sorrow, make you to ride upon the high places of the earth, feed you with the heritage of Jacob. He will give you power to get wealth. His blessing will make you rich, no sorrow. So then, we see that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord, those that are the called according to His purpose and you'll be like a tree that's planted by the water, your leaves won't wither, your fruit will come forth in the season, whatever you do will prosper, everything that you want to do, God will bless it, because you have a heart to do the right thing. All right, let's stand together. I hope you understand then that you are saved by the faith of Jesus Christ and your works are nothing but to condition your conscience to bring confidence that He hears. When He hears we know that we have salvation. Like the prodigal you don't have to be ashamed for the Bible said at one time all of us were liars and cheats and fornicators, all these kind of things, but God has washed and made us clean. Now we are children of God, without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish, for he that is born of God keepeth himself and the evil one toucheth him not. So then, we are out from under the law, so we can't transgress. There is no sin, for transgression of the law is sin. And if we're dead to the law by the body of the Lord Jesus then are we free from sin. Messiah made an end of sin, thus were the Scriptures fulfilled. And if we cannot sin then we cannot die. Always remember that. We have passed from death unto life, beloved friend, and shall never come into condemnation. I tell you again, you may go to sleep, but sleep means your spirit departing from your body and Christ coming will awaken you, as He said, I go to awake Lazarus; he sleepeth. But death, you cannot die, for death is separation of your spirit from God's Spirit, not your spirit from your body. That is not sleep that is death, even the second death the Lake Of Fire which is the only death, because the first death is a sleep, uses that as not death. Death is when your spirit is separated from God to go to the lake of fire. So you cannot die. That is, you cannot go into the lake of fire. You've passed from death unto life, the only death, and you are eternally alive forever more. You now have eternal life, because when you pass from death unto life that means that you are eternal. If you can't die you are eternal. I say again, Adam and Eve did not have eternal life. They were illuminated by eternal life. As long as they stayed in the sunshine of that they could have lived on and on and on, but the minute they stepped out that was it. But you can't do that because you are born of the Shekinah. On the inside you are born of Jesus Christ, the day star, the Son being called the day star. You have eternal life. He never leaves you nor forsakes you. So then, you cannot die and if you can't die then is brought the saying, this little saying in the Bible, and that is: Death where is thy sting? Grave where is thy victory? If sin is the sting of death then death doesn't have any sting, because sin is the transgression of the law and Jesus overcome the law, folded it up, laid it way and done away with the sting that death used when Paul said, I was alive and the sting of death killed me by the law, getting strength by the law. Like it said, And the ten kings gave their strength unto the Antichrist, the beast, but they hated him and would destroy his flesh with fire. And you look at your typical part and you find in one setting the ten commandments. They gave their strength unto the law, for sin gets it's strength by the law under the Antichrist, but they hate the Antichrist. And the Bible said the children, even of the harlot shall be cast into a bed of adultery and I will burn your flesh with fire, He said. But they will have to give their strength until this thing is finished, as to redemption. So then, if you love the Lord say Amen! All right. The song writer said, I'll live on and on and I'll live on. No sin. No death. No death, no corruption. So then, where are you. You've passed from the body to the spirit. Jesus, a quickening spirit, no longer a living soul. That's dead and gone now, as to the man, so your soul can never die. And now a quickening spirit. They that are born of spirit is spirit and you've passed away into heaven, equal to the angels. The angels cannot die. Let's sing a little chorus together. (Sings I Live On.) Can you say I love the Lord? Let's sing this little chorus. (Sings Enter Into His Courts With Praise.) While we're singing the altars are open. If you'd like to come you may. Though we know the altar is the heart, the Bible said, we have better altars than that of the beast. So then, the altar is the heart. God's altars, but we step out a lot of times to come down to the front to let everybody else know that we belong to Jesus and we're stepping out for God, stepping out in front and the altars, as to them that need repentance, that don't know about the hearts altar, so they can find their way as to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, for it shall come to pass that whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. For as it was said to Paul, Paul repent, be baptized calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus. That is to say, the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous flee into it and are saved. So the Bible said as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. That is, by the foreknowledge of God after that He sees us as bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh of His Son, Jesus, and it indicates the veil having been rent (Begin tape two, side two.) and the body being buried, and then our mind becomes revelational, and we begin to transformate into that wonderful dimension of God and the greatness of God into a great height. Paul said, even to the extent that I was caught up into the third heaven and saw things that's not permissible for man to speak. How wonderful! How wonderful. Much revelation. Pray that God will grant unto you the spirit of revelation, the writer said. For there is one spirit, there are many operations. And let's ask God to greatly use us and magnify us to the winning of souls that someday standing on the hilltops of glory you'll outshine the brightness of the noonday. And there you can sing, as we sing that song Bringing In The Sheaves. Let's sing that song together. You know, standing before God, or as we go to meet God, and he looks and he says, The prodigal. Come on, folks, let's give Him a hand. He looks and he says, There is the prodigal. You know, running up to the Father, as I know you've done, falling down on your face and saying, Father, I'm nothing. You're everything. And all the time He's saying, Put the ring on his finger, put the robe on his back, put the shoes on his feet, go kill the fatted calf, my son that was lost now he is found. So that's what we want to do. Let's sing that little song. Won't it be something if he sees the multitudes coming, like we sing that song, I Want To Be In That Number, and He sees the coming, and as He sees us we'll be bringing in the sheave. Can we sing that together? All around the world. (Leads singing.) Can you sing that with me? (Continues singing.) Sing it with me, now. Can you give Him a wave offering? I would that men everywhere lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting. It reminds the Father of Calvary, and of that faith by which we're sanctified. Hallelujah! Somebody say I love you, Jesus. (Continues singing.) One more time. (Continues singing.) Let's give Him a hand, can we? One more time, we're going to sing I Love Him as we close the service. Can we lift our hands up and close our eyes singing I Love Him? (Continues singing.) If you've never made the crossing now is the time. If you've never made that great commitment unto God now is the time. Don't wait too long. Now's the time to make the commitment. Paul said, I'm persuaded to believe He's able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against the great day. If you've never made it, now's the time. Give you heart to the Lord. And it will come to pass that whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord Jesus shall be saved. Now is the time. Today is the day of salvation, now is the time. The Bride is saying come and the Bridegroom is saying come. You've kept yourself. You are without spot, with wrinkle, or blemish, for the Bible said, He that is born of God keepeth himself, the evil one toucheth him not. Hid without sin before God Almighty. You are wonderful, great, mighty gods. The Bible said, Ye are Gods but ye shall die like me from the lack of knowledge, not knowing that you are Gods, not understanding. That's why we are here to preach to you that you are Gods, that you may know, that you might not die like men for Gods don't have to die. Behold, I show you a mystery, having passed from death unto life ye shall not all sleep. Some are going to come to that change, because they are going to discover what God has done for them. What mighty great people you are. Solomon said who can speak to you. You are eternally alive forever more, going through transitional changes, but alive forever more. (Continues singing.) Let's just close our eyes, lift our hands up together. I'm going to ask our brother that's been coming down with us quite a bit, Sister Donna's companion, if he'll come up and dismiss us. As he comes to dismiss us this morning let's remember the Lord, remember each other, to love one another is the proof of eternal life, for God is love. He that loveth is of God. And let's remember the night service. Tell somebody, invite somebody. The policeman that I conferenced with last night. He said, I'm coming out to your service. So many people want to come. You know, you just have to talk with them. Talk with them about the Lord and let them know that you love them the Lord Jesus and that you want them to come and they will come. They'll come. God bless you, brother.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

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

Holiness Unto The Lord