How Great Is Our God

... full measure of the full stature of the perfect man, or to go on to a full reward, because there is a full reward. The Bible says concerning the parable that Jesus gave when the fowls came by they got the seed that was sown by the sower and there was no harvest for some of those that the seed was sown for. They didn't get it. And then there was the others that did get a harvest. Then He said, Some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred-fold. So I don't know what you're going to get. I don't know what you're trying to get. Maybe you're trying to get thirty-fold, maybe you're trying to get sixty-fold, maybe you're trying to get a hundred-fold, but to me, serving God is going on by faith. And going on by faith means that whatever the Word says, then that's what we should believe in. And that's what we should do. And the Word said, Let us go on unto a full reward. So, faith in those words makes me want to go on to a full reward. Living by faith. Living by faith. And truly the most adventurous thing that I have ever encountered in all of my life is the venture into faith. The most adventurous, the most exciting thing that I have ever come to in my lifetime is to understand faith and the wonderful hidden mysteries and treasures of Almighty God. In Him all treasure is hidden. You know, we think about diamonds, and pearls, rubies. We think about popularity, we think about talents, ability, faces, forms, all these kind of things, you know. Wealth, as to tangible substance, but all of that is beggarly elements. Even the life is a beggarly life, because it's a temporal life filled with much trouble, a few days and full of trouble. And all of it is vanity and vexation. It's vanity of the mind and vexation. It really isn't there. It just appears to be there, and it's a lying vanity. A forerunner, as a shadow, a typical thing. Allegorically speaking, Paul said, it is a type and a shadow, a forerunner. That is to say, the morning shadows, or the evening shadows, it is that that tell us something real is somewhere. So we see the shadow, and that's all that man is. He's a shadow of a man that is to come. His life is a shadow of life that is to come. This world is a shadow of a world that is to come. Everything in this world is a shadow of reality which is to come. That why the Bible uses the terms that 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. Everything in the world is typical. Even the grass that grows out in the field when the Bible speaks of it, It says, All flesh is as grass. Grass is a symbol of flesh. And when you look around you find snakes crawling in the grass, which is typical of devils and demons, or that which Paul called the unclean thing. No good thing working within the flesh. As a matter-of-fact, I had a night vision last night. I was praying and talking to the Lord, I believe it was last night, and I saw so many snakes. I was in a midst of snakes everywhere I looked. And I saw snakes so big, there were so huge until when I would be able to kill one, or one was killed, somebody would be chopping him up like cord wood, filleting him and stacking him up over here, you know. Great big ole huge heads, monsters, and I remember having to kill one there, and I looked and laying up on the ship like up there above us, off in the distance was a great big hideous monster of a thing, laying there with that huge head just waiting to devour. Some bad, bad situations in the world today. Some bad spirits. But, anyway, what I'm saying is that everything is a shadow. It's a forerunner of life. You and I, we're dead to the shadow. We're dead to the body and the flesh. Dead to the carnal mind. We're buried in a watery grave in the name of Jesus Christ, our sins are gone. We're not in this world of shadows and types, allegories anymore. See? Our spirit, at the death of our body, separated from our body and went back to God who gave it. It is the inner man for the next world. And so then, we are hid with Christ in God whom the heavens have received until the time of the restoration of all things. So we find ourselves eternal. The song says, Where will you be a million years from now. Someone would say, That's a joke, Brother Pike. That's not a joke. I'll be around a million years from now. And someone said, Well, I won't. I've got a feeling you will. I got a feeling you will. See? The question is not, Will you be? The writer didn't say, Will you be here a million years from now. He said, Where will you be a million years from now. So you're going to be around. It's just where are you going to be. The Bible said the rich man lifted up his eyes in hell and said, I'm tormented in these flames. But Lazarus, in the bosom of Abraham, was at peace. All the paths of God are peace. He that keepeth his mind stayed upon Christ Jesus shall have perfect peace. So, there is an inner man, and this inner man is eternal. Paul said, Though the outer man perish, yet the inner man is renewed day by day. So this inner man is for an invisible world. He is an invisible man as to this dispensation and this age, or this level of life. This dimension that we're in, right here, it is but shadows. And it is passing away. And I wish we had time tonight, as I do every night that we come here to talk to you, to detail and to break down some of these things. Sometimes I find myself struggling to try to tell my wife. I'll be talking to my wife, and she'll be listening real close, but I'll find myself struggling to try to bring out the revelational depths of it. And I can tell in talking to her she don't understand. She don't see, you know, because you can talk and talk and say it over and over, but when you've finished, Jesus said, You don't understand what I'm saying. He said, You can't hear my words. Having ears you hear not. Having eyes, He said, You can't see. You see not. And it is altogether a different operation as to be able to have your understanding enlightened to where you can comprehend the height, the depth, and the width, and the length. And sometimes I say, Betty, Honey, did you understand. She said, Well, some of it. Said, Some of it I don't understand. And then I try again. And then sometimes she gets through. Sometimes she don't get through. But it's so beautiful. That's what stirs a preacher up. When he enters into this world it is so fantastically wonderful. And you stand yp, you know, and like, you know, people they like cars, Cadillacs, Lincolns, Rolls Royce, you know. And a fellow comes along and he says, I got a Rolls Royce. I got the finest kind of Rolls Royce, the finest kind. Everyday he tells you about the Rolls Royce, but you don't see it. You know, after awhile you get to wondering if there is a Rolls Royce. But he says, I can assure you it's there. I went and took a peek at it today and my heart is just jumping up and down, you know, because of my Rolls Royce. See? He see it if he really has it. He sees it. Like a man, you know, he's got, we say, fifty million dollars in the bank. He comes by and he's always telling you about his fifty million dollars, but you don't see it. See? And he can't see it either. But he knows it's in the bank. He knows it's there. He's got the papers on it. He's got everything, you know to where he can write the check on it. He knows it's there so he just kind of goes by and takes a peek at his account, and his heart just jumps up and down. Fifty million dollars, fifty million dollars, but your in question of it, you know. But one day, one day when he decides to make it manifest he buys him a new cadillac, or a new Rolls Royce, or like I heard about Sam Walton. I believe David said he had about thirteen commanders, and Elvis Presley, I believe he had, what was it. I believe he had what was it, about five or seven Roll Royces, or more of different colors. You know, I think he used the Roll Royce like some folks use a neck tie, you know, as to the color to match what they're going to do. How many of you know they really match themselves up now. Like a girl was down at the house the other day and her eyes, were they green? Green eyes, that's what they were. Like I was setting at a place with Pete one day eating. I believe it was him. We had flown in the little plane up to the Carolinas, and I looked and this girls eyes were pink. And I kept looking at her, and I thought, am I seeing this right? I'd never see a pink eyed woman before, you know. I've seen pink eyes rabbits. And I do remember seeing a pink eyes fellow one time, you know. This fellow, Betty probably remembers this fellow. They made booze, down, way back down a lane out in the woods back through there, you know, they made whiskey, home brew, whatever, and he'd done drank so much until he was pink eyed. But anyway, I saw, the other day I saw a girl and she was green eyed. And then, of course, I came to find out that you can be any kind of eyed you want to now. If you want to be green eyed, pink eyed, red eyed, yellow eyed, they got these little things you just buy them and put them in your eye and that's what it is. So you make your eyes match your suit or your dress. And that's the way that some people do it in the world. But they're rich. They can afford to do that. You know, they can afford to do that. Some people can use cars, and planes, and like you'd use those little ole things you put in your eyes. But I said all of that to say this. With all of the things that they do it's only typical. It's only a shadow. There's a man somewhere, the hidden man of the heart. The Bible said when you adorn yourself let it not be the outward adorning, or the wearing of apparel, or the putting on of pretty clothes, and all of these things of powdering, and painting the face and the eyebrows, and of jogging and lifting weights and making muscles, and all these like of things. Let it not be that, but let it be the inward hidden man of the heart in that which is a meek, humble, incorruptible spirit. For the Bible said, God giveth more grace to the humble, and that when the Bible speaks of a man's spirit, says a humble spirit, a meek spirit is of great value in the sight of God. And a lot of times in just talking to you like this I try to get over a few thoughts to you that might stay with you. If you will look, you'll find in the Bible that wherever greatness is spoken of humility is the forerunner in every place, for the Bible says that humility goes before honor and you'll find that humility is always the forerunner of power, of wealth, of greatness, and you'll find, as the Bible says pride goeth before destruction. Pride is before destruction. A person that's proud, it won't be long and they'll be destroyed, because pride is a devil, a demon. Somebody says, I take pride in this. Well, you need to get rid of that. If you've got anything that you take pride in you need to get rid of it, because pride is a devil. You don't need to be proud. You need to be thankful. You need to be thankful. So then, you find that people, like the little woman that came to ask Jesus for healing wanted healing for her loved one. Jesus answered her by saying, It's just not right, or not meat that you should give the children's bread to the dogs. She didn't get upset. She didn't feel insulted. She just said, Yea, Lord, I know, but said, the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the children's table. You know, and that humility struck Christ, and that set her faith aflame and her persistence, her importunity in that she wouldn't quit. She didn't take no for an answer. She said, I still need help, Lord. And her persistence was so overwhelming to Jesus He said, Woman, great is thy faith. He said, Just whatever you want, you know, whatever you want. And the little woman that ran up and touched Jesus. She wasn't even suppose to be in the crowd. And she had this issue of blood and she ran up and touched Jesus. The Bible said she'd suffered many things at the hands of physicians, was none the better but grew worse having spent all of her living. When she touched Jesus and the Lord spoke to her and said, Somebody has touched me. And the disciples said, Lord, people are touching you everywhere. He said to them in so many words, not like this. Not like this. Said, I perceive that virtue went out of my body. That is, somebody touched me that had faith. Faith in the Holy Spirit, and I felt the Holy Spirit, the virtue of the Holy Spirit go out of my body. And the little woman trembling, frightened, came before him, or fell down before Him and said, Lord, it was me, in all humility and Jesus said, Woman. thy faith has made thee whole. And in every place where there is humility is greatness. When the man came to have his servant healed, I say came. The Bible gives it in one place as where he came, another place it gives it where he did not come. He only sent someone. And as it was as to sending someone. He said, Lord, he said, my servant is grievously tormented. Said, He needs healing. And Jesus said, I'll come and heal him. He said, No, no. You don't have to come. He said, You don't have to come. He said, I don't feel that I'm worthy for you to come under my roof. And said, Neither did I think I was worthy to even come into your presence. Said, Just, you know, just send me word. Just tell me. Just speak the Word and everything will just be all right. And Jesus marvelled again and He said, Faith, so greater faith, I've not found. No, not in all of Israel. So greater faith. See? Humility going before honor. Great and mighty people. When he speaks of Moses, it speaks of Moses after this fashion. And he was the meekest man in all the land. No one as meek as Moses. And when He speaks of Jesus, the greatness of Jesus was, He said, Take my yoke and learn of me. I've yoked Myself with the yoke of God. You know, I've made myself, as Paul said, the prisoner of God. Take My yoke, He said, it's easy. My burden, it's light. He said, Take my yoke and learn of me, for I'm meek and lowly in heart. You know little sheep are meek. That dove will just come just land right on that little sheep. But did you know, folks, this is why there is not anymore honor in the world today, as to the greatness of people, because the one thing that you cannot find in the life of people, as a rule, is meekness. You can find learning. They'll study, they'll learn, they'll buy, they'll be religious, they'll fast, they'll pray,they'll do all kind of things, but when it comes to meekness, they don't have that meekness. They can't control their spirit, and the Bible said a man without any control over his spirit is like a city with a broken down wall. That's the one thing that they cannot do. They just can't do it. I've met many men in my life. I've talked to many women, men in my life, boys and girls, and it's hardly ever out of the entire world that I really meet a meek person. So then, you can see why that the greatness of God is not ushered forth through the individual as to the virtue that came out of Jesus' body when He went about healing all and doing good, for the Bible said virtue went out of His body and healed all. All right. I thought I'd drop in those few thoughts. I hope they're worth something to you. Let's read from the book of Colossians chapter one beginning at the first verse. (Brother Pike reads all of chapter one and chapter two through verse three.) Now, there's a lot of things here. One thing I like, the terms is used, treasures of wisdom and knowledge, which means that wisdom and knowledge is great treasures. These are great treasures. The man that has wisdom of God and knowledge of God, he hath great treasure. And what kind of treasure does he have? The Bible says, And now is made known to the church the manifold wisdom of God, and we now have heavenly treasure in earthen vessels. So when you get this wisdom and knowledge you now have heavenly treasure and it's within your bodies, your earthly bodies. So then, or earthly vessels, the terms are used. So then, we know then that there is something that's great taking place. Every time we come to church if we listen carefully, if we grow in the grace and knowledge, then have we received great wonderful treasures. I know in our natural thinking, you know, if a man brought to you and I a bucket of diamonds, big beautiful diamonds, why we would just, we would make a fuss over it, because we would be fabulously rich, you know. But, really and truly in all of those things you really don't have anything. That's just a bunch of stones that will be thrown out there, someday completely be done away with, no value, no nothing, but those things are representations of something. These stones represent something that is eternally real, eternally great. A treasure that fadeth not away. As the rich man in this world buys diamonds so that he can put them in his little safe, so do we gather the diamonds in the spirit. That is to say, the jewels of the spirit. The man puts diamonds into his little bank because they are good. Any time he wants collateral the bank will accept diamonds. And he can keep those diamonds up there and go borrow money against those diamonds, or pay bills with those diamonds, or whatever. See? But in all reality in the world of God they are nothing. But there is a representation of something that's great and mighty, which is the knowledge and wisdom of Almighty God. Somebody would say, Brother Pike, could you make a comparison as between a great big diamond, and a few words from God as to what would be the difference? Well, the difference is that God said let there be, and there was diamonds, and before He said let there be, there wasn't any diamonds. If you want to put the value on the rock, then the rock came when He spoke. And without the speaking there is no rock. So then, you can see that the rock is nothing. But the Word is great and mighty, because the Bible said we understand that God spoke this world into existence by His knowledge, by His Word. He made the stars. He made the galaxies. He made you. He made the great ocean. He made everything in the ocean. He made everything in the earth. He created you, and then made you live by His knowledge. So then, we see this great wonderful treasure, this wonderful treasure. Jesus said it is so great that if you get this treasure, as to the understanding of God, and understand it like you should, all you've got to do is say to something thus and thus, don't doubt and it will come to pass. And the Bible said, And whatever you say you can have. It doesn't matter what you say, you can have it. Just say what you will, don't doubt in your heart, and it will come to pass. Ask what you will. The Bible said ask what you will and when you ask what you will don't doubt and it'll come to pass. The Bible said decree a thing in your heart and don't doubt and it will come to pass. That's why I said what I did at the first of the service here. It is so beautiful. It is so fantastically wonderful, so exhilarating that I don't have the words of expression. The half has never been told. Like the Queen of Sheba, when she came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. He answered all the questions that she ask. All the hard questions that was in her heart, he answered them until she was completely satisfied. And she said, I've heard of your fame and wisdom, Solomon, even over here in my kingdom I heard, said, but the half of it was never told me. When I got here and heard you with my own ears, and she brought to him a train of camels. Just one camel right behind another just loaded with wealth and all these kind of things just for Solomon, just to get to hear his wisdom. And think about this: A greater than Solomon is here. A greater than Solomon. Can you imagine that? At Little Bethlehem tonight there is someone that's greater than Solomon. Someone would say, Well, I don't believe that. But that's what the Bible says, and if you didn't believe that then you would be an unbeliever, because the Bible said there is here now a greater than Solomon. How many of you believe that? Sure. Somebody said, Who is he? The Holy Ghost. Let's give the Lord a hand. He's here. The Bible said where two or three are gathered together in the name of the Lord, the Lord Jesus is in their midst, and he's a greater than Solomon. Let's give him another hand. Somebody say, Hallelujah! Somebody say, I love you, Jesus! Hallelujah! So then, we've got Jesus here. That means that we not only have the wisdom of Solomon, but we know all things. The Bible teaches that you are His body, members in particular. So then, that means that you are the Lord Jesus sitting there. You are the membership of His body, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, and you have the mind of Christ, and you have an unction from the Holy One that ye should know all things. Why shouldn't we enjoy growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus. I can know all things. I have an opportunity to know all things. Why you know I want to grow. You know I want to know that. Someone would say, Well, Brother Pike, can a man actually know all things? Sure. Sure. We have an unction from the Holy One that we should know all things. Whereas, again someone would say, Well, I don't believe that. Well, I say again you're an unbeliever, because you are saved by faith. Then you must believe that because that's what the Bible says. All right. So we see where we're going. We see where we've been and we see where we are. And I like where we are. Somebody said, Well, where are we? Well, we've been out there in Egypt with garlic and onions, and I don't like the smell of garlic. I don't like that, but it doesn't smell good. And then we were born again and now we're headed for wonderful riches and treasures beyond the wildest imagination. That's where we're headed and Egypt is where we've been. And right now we're setting together in heavenly places enjoying this wonderful peace that passeth all understanding, while we're being taught of God, Himself, for the Bible said, And they shall all be taught of God, speaking of the ministry. It shall not be Him speaking, but the great Heavenly Spirit speaking to them. God, Himself, within His temple teaching His people, instructing..(Begin tape one, side two.).....as to their riches, their power, their magnificence and what they are, and what they are going to be throughout eternity. Let's give Him another hand. So this is joy unspeakable and filled with glory. And I think about this wonderful thing, and it is so fascinating that I_ I love to get with my wife. We'll be riding down the road, or be somewhere around home and, once in a great while we'll have just a little bit of time there, you know. But I like to talk to her about this great wonderful thing of God. It is so outstanding. It is so fascinating until I want to make her understand what it is, because I understand what it is. Well, you say, she might understand what it is. Well, that's fine. You know, some of you might understand what it is. I'm happy about that, because that's what God wants, and that' what I want, but I'm talking to them that don't know. You know, I'll bring this back to your mind, and I'll bring a refresher to your mind, in that Peter said, Though you know these things, as long as this inner man of mine is abiding in this tabernacle of the outer man, I feel to stir up your pure minds in Christ. But in the event that you already know that's fine. I'm just talking to somebody else that wants to know and needs to know. You know, if you're rich that's fine, but there is somebody else that hasn't enjoyed those great things, and they want to get rich so they can enjoy all of the great things that you're enjoying. And that's what I'm trying to do. The blessings of the Lord maketh rich. I want to give you some heavenly treasures tonight. I want to put some heavenly treasure in your earthen vessels tonight. Someone would say, Well, how are you going to do that, Brother Pike? Because the Bible said this wisdom and all this knowledge is hid in Him, see? And you are Him. And we are Him. And we have this heavenly treasure in our earthen vessels. So, if Brother Taylor has it he ought to give me some of his heavenly treasures, because that's the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, members in particular as you are. So then, you ought to give me some of your wealth. See? If I'm seeking, if I'm a little child, and I'm growing up, or I'm looking for something. I'm trying to find some help you owe it to me to share with me. The Bible said freely you have received, so freely you should give. So then, I'm seeking this heavenly treasure. All right. So as I say when Betty and I are alone at home, sometimes for a few minutes between the knock on the door, and the doorbell ringing, and the telephone ringing, and now we've got a dog down there you know. Between all of these things, I say, Betty, can you listen just a minutes? She says, O, yes, just tell me. Tell me, you know, and she's on the telephone and I say, Well, Betty, can you take a minute? And she says, Yes. And off to the door she goes, the door bell is ringing, you know, and it's just one thing and then another. As a matter-of-fact, I never knew some many people could own one dog. We put in the paper about this dog and his master, and people are calling, and everywhere, and they say, We'll just pick him up. You know, they come and look at him, and say, Yeah, we'll pick him up and take him with us. And Sister Betty says, Well, you'd better wait a little bit, you know. Somebody else on the telephone said, Please don't let them have him until I look at him, because it might be my dog, you know. My little girl is in bad shape, because I lost my dog, or whatever. So she comes and she says, Yes, we'll pick him up and take him with us, you know. And you know, that's really something, isn't it? And you wonder, you say, Dear God, who does the dog belong to? Who does he belong to? Well, anyway, I'm just saying, between these things, as it's been today. I think there has been at least a couple has come, outside the telephone calls, and between these things, I try to get Betty's attention, and I try to tell her something, because, folks, let me tell you something. With all of the tutoring that I've done here, I've been here for quit a number of years and I've taught you. And I've explained to you, and unless you have excelled in some way that I don't know about, or gone another route, or contacted God, which you might have done, or somebody else, I can truthfully say, with all that you've been taught, all that you know, all that I've had the privilege of telling you, you still don't understand. Let's give the Lord a hand. All right. You say, Brother Pike, you must be crazy. You must be crazy. No. I'm not crazy. I'm not crazy. Paul said, If I'm beside myself, I'm beside myself for the Lord. You say, You mean a child can go to school all those many years, and not learn anything? I didn't say that at all. Do you mean he can go and not get a diplomacy? I didn't say that. I just said that there are some things, this thing is so deep, this thing is great, this thing is so unusual, this thing is so different from what you think, and I think, and people think, and preachers think, and denominationals think, and professors think, and great mighty Bible scholars that have worn out Bibles reading, it is so different from all of that until it has to be a divine entrance into the world of God, as to come to the understanding of what this thing is about. Do you love the Lord? But it's great. It's good to know what we know as to my measure, your measure, their measure, or whoever it might be. It's good to know that. It's good to know that. It's good to know this great revelation of Jesus Christ as to the many multiplied things that we've had the privilege of sharing, as to share with you concerning the body of this death, concerning the rending of the veil, concerning the many, many, mighty things as to the fullness of time, and whatever it might be, see? This is great. This is wonderful. All these mighty things that you know, that you heard, that you understand, that is the revelation of Jesus Christ. But folks, you just don't know how great God is unless you've cone in contact with Him to move on and on and on, you just don't know. You know it's like the astronauts. They leave from here, they go out into space, they get way up here. Here Shepherd is, you know, he goes up, he breaks the power, the gravitational powers of the earth, he goes into orbit, as we say, or he gets into space, and he has done a great and a mighty thing. Great and mighty is that, but my, there is so much more to do. And here comes another fellow, and he goes off and he goes all the way to the moon, and he gets out of the little ship, and walks over the moon. You know, when you stand and look at the moon at night, isn't it fascinating as you see a great full moon, and your standing there and you think, My, Dear God! I'm looking at that moon, and just think. A fellow went up there and walked around on that thing. See? And that's great and that's mighty, and then you think about Ranger and some of the other little contraptions that they put together, moving over here from one planet, like Jupiter, over to another planet, Mars, and Jupiter, and on and on and on. Pluto, whatever. And that's great and that's mighty. Look where they went to as to the millions and billions of miles they travelled. See? And that's fascinating. That's great. And then we say, We're really getting somewhere now. And scientists say, well, what about the Milky Way? This is within the radius of your world right here. The Milky Way. Now what about the Milky Way? Now here's something to talk about. The Milky Way. We say, What about the Milky Way? Say, Well, it's got billions of stars in it. And we say, Oh, my! Oh, my! We've just got to Mars, and we got to one or two little planets over here, you know, and we've explored planet Earth, and now he says just one little thing of God has got billions of stars, just billions of stars. Isn't that something? Billions of stars. And we say, My God! God is so great! He's so mighty, how did he do this? You know, we think when He made the earth and made the people on it and put the fish down in the ocean, don't worry about that they can cut that out. That's the devil. Let's give the Lord a hand. Anyway, here he made all of these things down in the ocean, all of these things in the heavens, all of the trees, every organic part in the earth, every organ within your parts of your body. You know, David said, I'm wonderfully made. All these great things, that's God! See? We're talking about God, and God's great wonderful being, God, eternally great, and mighty. You know, I like to magnify God. I like to talk about God, because he's so great and mighty. No man can comprehend God except through Jesus Christ. And Christ Jesus alone is the only one that's ever comprehended God. So then, we see the greatness God. How great, how marvelous, how wonderful He is. And we see what we have accomplished as being scientific, you know, with our little ole minds, and our little ole finite programs, and our computer. We say all mixed up. And the Bible says concerning us, To us belongs confusion of face. That's as far as we've got, is confusing of faces unless we're born again. So all the brilliance in the world is nothing but confusion of faces, that's all their diplomacy. Their diplomacy extends to one place, and that's confusion of faces. With all of their greatness. You know, Satan, he don't like for you to magnify God. He don't like for you to do anything to lift up and magnify God. But, nevertheless, with all of our endeavors, all of our money powers, all of our discoveries, as to the ores, and gold and silver, and diamonds, and pearls, and all of these kind of things that we have that's in the world today, all of these kind of things that we have, we done nothing. We have done nothing. Did you know that you can take all of the generations that's ever come down from the beginning of time, put them all together, all their brilliant men, all their scientists, everything now, put it all together as to their learning, their books, pile it up like a mountain, and take one look at it and it's nothing. It's nothing. Out of all of that, they never did learn one thing, and that was to be born again. One thing and that was to be born again. They never did, out of all of that. The Bible said, ever leaning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Never. Out of all that they never even learned it. All the people together, all the polished scholars never did even learn to be born again. You know, I never did learn a whole lot about books, I never did learn a whole lot about the past, and didn't know nothing much about the future, don't know much about the present, as before I was born again. I didn't know nothing about nothing, but did you know, God revealed to me I needed to be born again. And when I got born again, did you know that was better and greater, and more mightier, and more exciting than all of the world put together out of it's thousands of years of transitional changes that just one thing, being born again, was better than all of it put together, because I am now eternal. I now live forever. I now cannot die. I've not passed from death unto life. I've now found a path of peace and I'm happy in God. And I'm alive forever more. All because I learned I needed to be born again. So then, I said all of that to say this, with going into the galaxies, going into the these great places, going into these mighty places, when you do all of that you have barely scratched the surface as to scientific ability and knowledge as to excelling, and excelling, and excelling and excelling. Have you realized that with all of their brilliance, all of their probing, all of their great flights, that they never have found even one wall out there. Let's give Him another hand. How great is God? Like the song we wrote, How Great Is God? They've never even found one of the walls out there. Did you know that throughout eternity with all of their brilliance, as to scientist, when God turns them into the bottomless pit, that throughout eternity they'll never be able to find the bottom to the pit. Nobody has ever found the bottom of that pit, with all of their brilliance they never even found the bottom to the pit. So then, I'm saying that when we think that we know something we don't know something as we ought to know. God is eternally great. He is a present help in the time of need. He is a being that is present. He's above you. He's in you. He's through you. The Bible said if I take the wings of the morning and go to the uttermost parts of the earth, He's there. If I make my bed in hell He's there, wherever, there's no way to escape His presence. He filleth all in all. And here we are trying to comprehend God, and here we are trying to comprehend the things of God. And someone would say, Well, Brother Pike, you yourself said that we have an unction from the Holy One that we should know all things. That's right. How then can I know all things? There ain't but one way that I could ever know all things. Just one way. No other way. You say, well, how would that be, Brother Pike? To be God! Let's give Him another hand. Because God knows all things. Is there anybody that knows all things outside of God? Sometimes it's amusing to me. I set down, you know, by myself, when I can get by myself, and I'll be setting there thinking and I'll think about, the Bible said there's Gods many. Many Gods. And I think about that Scripture, and I think about the Gods, and I've been in different places in the world, and I think there is a God over here, you know, and a God over yonder, and I'll name this God in my mind, another God in my mind, and then when I get through I'll just chuckle on the inside, you know. I'll think, God's? What a joke, gods. Many gods, you know. And I'll think, what a joke. God's? You call that trash gods? You call them things gods? Them things are gods? Even the bewitching power of the devil? You call the devil a god? Even though the devil is a god, and them things are gods, and the word god means object of worship, but when you really get down to it, and you think about what should we worship, as to what God is, who God is, and you say them things are gods! I think, My! what a joke. You know, what a joke. Them things are no more than chaff in the wind. When you think about God, God! The devil didn't make any stars. The god that's called the devil, the god of this universe, he ain't never made nothing. He can't create nothing. Though he can do all kind of things, deceiving things, bewitching things, miraculous things; yet he, himself, was made by God. Tell me about Confucius, the gods of this world. (This is where the devil struck at Brother Pike and tried to choke him to death.) We're going to brag on Him. O-kay. Now the devil don't like that at all. He didn't like that when I called him trash, so I'm going to repeat that. You call that trash god? You call that trash god? All over the world, you travel and I travel, and I hear about all of these things, and that's trash. There's no such thing as god except our God. Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God. One Lord. One God, one faith, one baptism. Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all of thy heart, with all of thy mind, with all of thy soul, and thy shall love thy neighbor as thy self. And I think a lot of times, I think, God? I think that's a joke. God? And then my mind begins to think about God. I think about God, and I say, O my! God! And I shudder, I quiver. And I think, God. God, Who made everything, Who made the universe, that made me, that made everything, that made the human beings of Japan, of the dark fields of Africa, and the Philippines, and the other parts of the world. And I think, God, you made those people that so foolishly are worshiping stones and sticks, and idols, and you made the people that are so afraid of the devil, that fears the devil, you made them and you're a God. And you're the only God, the all powerful God! And this is nothing but trash! Nothing but trash, that we have in this world as gods! Even Satan, even Satan is nothing. He's nothing. Somebody would say, Oh, that great and mighty Satan. Satan is nothing. As a matter-of-fact, he doesn't even exist anymore in God's world. God said, I've destroyed him that had power over death. Satan doesn't exist anymore in God's world. Somebody said, But, now, what about that, that happened awhile ago, Brother Pike? Said, Wasn't that the devil? Yeah, that was the devil. That was a lying vanity out there in the world of lying vanities, but did you know that that never did touch me. That I kept myself and the evil one toucheth me not. In my world of dwelling, he never comes nigh my dwelling, because he isn't there. He's been cast out of my world. He's been destroyed from my world. And anything that happens to the body, this body is buried. It's gone. In the sight of God it's no more. See, it's no more. In the sight of God he can never touch my body. He can never defile my body, because in the mind of God I'm the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, members in particular. And that's why God has not yet, as of yet, changed the body. He has not, as of yet changed the body for one simple reason. He doesn't want Satan to touch it. He doesn't want Satan to spot it, because that's His Bride. That's His Bride and Satan has never touched it, or never can touch it. So then, all that you see, as to the problem, are lying vanities. As one writer said, It came to pass. All those things come to pass. So they come and they pass on. So then, to magnify God again. We see this great God. What has he done? The Bible says that He has translated us into the marvelous Kingdom of our God. Or that is, Paul said, I praise God who hath taken me out of the world of darkness, and translated me into this marvelous world of light. So then, my inner man, my spiritual being, he is translated into the world of light. And he is a creature of light. And he cannot sin, he cannot do wrong, he cannot die, he is eternally alive forever more. The wonderful magnificence of God. God, if you could fathom God, if you could understand God, if you could know the conditions, you know, sometimes I illustrate a few little things like this. I'll say to my wife, I'll say, Betty, we talk about transgressing the law, and we say the law pounces on us, and look what the law did to us, and look what the law has done to our children, but then I say if we could just understand that the law hasn't done anything. The law has done nothing at all. It's what we have done to violate the standards of the law. There's a standard that's set forth that's given forth by the people. It's a general standard. Just like the light is something that, in general, is here all the time. It is a standard thing. It's just here. The light is present. The law is something that is just set forth. It doesn't bother anybody. It's a standard by which we're suppose to live, whether it be a spiritual law, or whether it be a natural law. And it's just a standard. And the law doesn't pounce on us, and the law doesn't do anything to us. The law is a great benefit, and protection to you and I if we abide by the law. But see, we're the ones that's the aggressor, and the transgressor, and the problem maker. Because we are always transgressing the standards of life. See? Life is a standard, and we're always transgressing the standards of life. We're transgressing the standards of the law. Always we're doing that, day and night we're doing that. See? And if the law says fifty miles an hour, then it's fifty miles an hour. Why should I try to go any faster. If that's set forth by the people, and by me, unless it's an act of God why should I practice going faster. It's no wonder we get a ticket. No wonder I would be in trouble. See? When something is set forth as a standard, like they have a standard. The say you must have insurance. This is a standard. People have come up with this as a standard, and this is a thing among the people. It's a standard. It's just there. Not for your protection, but for your neighbors protection. So then, there is a standard. You've got a standard. The standard is; everybody must have a certain kind of insurance. If I don't go by that standard then I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. I can't say the law pounced on me because that's the standards of the law. If with God it's the same then there is a standard of life. Even in natural life there is a standard of life. You've got to get up sometime and move around. You've got to go to bed sometime and get some rest. You've got to give your eyes a little relaxation sometime. There's a time to eat. You've got to have food sometime. There is a standard of life that all of these things are incorporated into, and you have to honor that standard. You have to learn about that standard. You have to conform to that standard, or you're not going to be around very long. You know, if you just stand up and say, Well, bless God, I defy these standards. I ain't going to sleep, and I ain't going to eat. It won't be long and they'll put you in a box. They'll put you in a box. But if you will honor the standards of life and you'll abide by the standards of life then you'll find out that you'll be healthy. You'll have a great life when others are dying and their health is gone, you'll still be living. It's the same way in God's world. God's world is the same way. God is a standard. Somebody says, God won't bless me, Brother Pike. God just won't bless me. I see Him bless others. He won't bless me. He gives to others, He won't give to me. You know, making Him a respecter of persons in your mind, and calling the Word of God a lie, when the Bible said it's impossible for God to lie. God is a standard. He is a standard of heavenly order. He is a standard of heavenly conduct. He is a standard of heavenly blessings. It's not that I have to go beseech God, and beg God, and plead with God like milking a cow. You know, I don't have to do that. God is a standard. The standard is given to mankind through the death and sufferings of Jesus Christ. And that standard that's given to you and I is given like this; Peace on earth, good will toward man. Not if you pray, Goodwill to man. Not is you fast, goodwill to man, not is you do certain ritualistics, goodwill toward man. It has nothing to do with that at all. Somebody said, Well, you've got to live right, Brother Pike. No you don't. You don't have to live right. He didn't say, Peace on earth and goodwill toward men that live right. He didn't say that. He said, Peace on earth and goodwill toward man. Period. And the Bible said He died, the blood, to take away the sins of the world. He didn't say whether they lived right or didn't live right. He said, The sins of the world. It was a standard that God gave. Someone would say, Well, now, Brother Pike, you're telling us we got to live right so we can have this benefit, and we know these others around us don't have this benefit. You told you that they didn't have this benefit? They have all the benefits you've got. Show me some benefits that you've got that they haven't got. As a matter-of-fact, to the contrary the Bible said, If in this life we have hope only we are of all men most miserable. They have the same benefits because God took away the sins of the world through Jesus Christ, through what the Lord did. They're having great benefits of healing, and health, happiness, and money and prosperity, and everything else, all kinds of benefits. You don't have anything that they don't have. You understand what I'm saying? So then, what are we saying? I'm saying that if this be true and the rain is on the unjust as well as it is on the just you can see how this would be so close it would deceive the very elect if possible. You can see how millions of people will go to hell, because they're getting the same benefits that you're getting while they're in this life. See? No difference. The rain on the just and the unjust, and then when the suffering comes it isn't that they suffer and you don't suffer. But rather that the just suffer for the unjust. We're in a bad boat altogether, if just in this life we have hope. We're looking to something far greater. So then, I'm trying to tell you this that you might understand how to believe better, how to think better, how to serve God better, how to understand and know what is right and what is wrong. As long as we're in this realm of ritualistics that we've got to do this and we've got to do that, and dos and don'ts we're right back under the law. It doesn't profit us anything, but when we come to the understanding that this great mighty inconceivable thing called God, except in the mind of Christ Jesus as to concept, divine concept. When we come to the understanding that this is a standard, that God is a spirit, and that spirit is a standard that's above you, that's in you, that's through you, and he doesn't change. He doesn't alter His fashions of life. He is always the same eternally. He has always been the same through eternity, coming on down, eternity, eternity because there is no such thing as days, and hours, and weeks, and months, and times, and seasons with God. He is just eternal. He's the great eternal spirit. He is a standard. Folks, in everything that there is in the world, everything emanated from God, whether it be good, whether it be bad, whether it be good, or evil, all of it emanated from God. Not that it emanated from God as bad, like Lucifer. Said when God made him he was upright. All of his pipes within him, the Bible said, everything within him was upright. But he became perverted. When you're born into this world you become perverted. As a little child if you're taken out of this world God would receive you, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. But just as soon as you get to where you can think, and you make your own decisions and you come to a place of sovereignty then you begin to make the decisions that's wrong. All right. We could say a lot on that tonight, but I'm not going to try to do that. I've just got a few more things I want to say and close. The devil didn't want me to say these things tonight, because if a person ever does come into these things as to what I'm saying tonight, he will never be the same again. You can set here and hear it, and not conceive of it, not understand it, but if you ever get hold of this you will never, never, never be the same anymore, because the entire world and universe, Gospel teachings, everything is altogether different when you conceive of this to understand it.. And you'll say, My God! My God! My God! What kind of thing is this that we live in a religious world and we do these things all of our life, and we're devoted and we give, and we are many times in preeminence as to great understanding and saying things, and yet we don't understand at all. But, anyway, as to another thought or two before we close. So then, what is it? What is it? God is a standard. We're not to go around all the time trying to pray ourselves into some kind of goodness, to pray ourselves into some kind of dimension to learn and to study ourselves into some kind of place that we're going to have the preeminence. I try lots of times to tell you, and especially you men that feel you're called to the ministry, or young men or women, whatever your ambition is, when you go to studying and trying to learn, and you get to feeling you know a lot that you're just ten times in the hand of the devil more than you were to start with whether it's religion or whatever it was. Don't you remember Paul studying for many years. One of the leaders said, Paul, you've learned so much you've gone crazy. He had that kind of reputation. When he learned all them things he was ten times the instrument to the devil that he was before he learned them, because he said, I'm the chief of sinners. I've persecuted and wasted the church of the living God. But in that I did it in ignorance I received forgiveness. When you do those things you're altogether the enemy of God. You're carnal minded and not only are you carnal minded as to the world, but now you're carnal minded as to spiritual things. That is to say, you're not spiritual, but you're carnal minded as to intellectual reasoning concerning spiritual things. And then you really are the enemy of God, and the enemy of the minister, and the enemy as to establishing the Kingdom of God in the earth. But, folks, when we come to the place to where we realize that God did it, God did it. I'm in the world because God made me. I didn't get in the world because I learned how to get in the world, or I become some great thing and I finally come into focus. I'm not in the world because of that. Neither are you. Why is is that if I didn't get into this world by my own means, as to a natural being, what makes me think I can get into the next world by my efforts? You know this is a dispute that Paul had with Peter. He said, Peter, I'm not going to frustrate the grace of God. I'm not going to do that. He said, You Galatians, who has bewitched you that you don't obey the truth? He said, Having begun in the spirit are you now made perfect by the flesh? In other words, what makes you think you had anything to do with it. Wasn't it the act of faith by faith of Jesus Christ, or the righteousness of Jesus Christ. What is it here that you are doing as to go away from this truth with Peter to the ritualistics of the law and as to the Jews to go through these formalities again. What's that got to do with life? He said if there had been a law that could have brought life, he said, then Jesus Christ would be dead in vain. Would God have taken the life of His Own Son when he had a law that could give life? No, he said, I'm not going to frustrate the grace of God. Life comes, Brethren, altogether without your efforts. So then, we can't go into those things tonight, but I want to get over a thought if I can. Life is a standard thing. Just like natural life. If you want to live good, have good health then you're going to have to practice the ways of natural life. You're going to have to conform to the ways of natural life. You're going to have to learn according to the thinking of natural life. And you're going to have to become part of natural life, and incorporate the things of natural life into your life style everyday if you're going to get the fullness of it. And folks, with God it's the same way. God has said once and for all, Peace on earth, peace of earth. There is peace on earth. I know there is no peace to the wicked. I know there will never be peace here. I know you've got wars and problems and everything else, but it's because of your minds. It's because of what you've done. It's because of violating the standard of life. The Bible said from whence cometh wars. Isn't it from the war, or the things that war in your mind? The problems in your mind? Isn't this where it starts with a dictator, or somebody, or five men, or a fifty men or a hundred men, and after awhile breaks out into a crucial thing across the world? Isn't that right? If you've got to go home you can hurry along, but I still want to finish this, this goes on tape. All right. So then, what am I saying? What am I saying? Someone would say, Well, Brother Pike, if we went home how would you feel? The same way I do when I come up here and preach and you're not here. Let's give the Lord a hand. I'm always preaching, over the radio, T.V, or whatever. A lot of times I don't have people around. All right. So then, what am I saying? I'm saying that God is the same. Light is a standard. Let's use that for an illustration as to light. We are children of light, which means understanding. My spirit has been translated into a mind of understanding, a revelated thing. The veil is gone. I'm not a child of darkness. I'm not of the intellectual ignorance. I have Christ's heart, and Christ's mind. I'm His bone and flesh. I'm his son. I'm his child. I'm not a child of Lucifer. I'm not a child of darkness. All right. So then, I think like this. So I have been taken out of the kingdom of darkness. Paul said, Think about this now. You're taken out of the kingdom of darkness. When I was in the world, in darkness I done that way, but now I have a mind of light. I'm in the world of light. I'm now understanding the standards of life. So then, understanding the standards of life I now must conform to the ways of light. If I want to enjoy light, then I must conform to light. I must understand light. I must study light. I must incorporate light in my life, in my life style. So then, I am in light. I am in light. If I honor light, then I live in a world of light. The light hasn't done anything to me anyway. It's not versatile in the sense that, you know, one minute I've got to say, Light, O light, don't put me in the darkness. Do I have to do that? Do I walk around in the light of the Day Star, as to the sun, and I'm nervous and I say, The light might smite me at any time. The light is going to crucify me. The light hates me. O, I've sinned against the light. The light's going to put me in complete darkness. Do I do that? That wouldn't make any kind of sense. Somebody said, Well, of course we don't do any such thing. I know. I know. But the thing is we could do the silly thing, because we do in the spirit. See? Am I to do that? Why then do we go around, you know, and say, Oh, my God. Oh, my God. It's going to destroy me. Oh, my God. He'll never answer my prayer. Oh, my God. I'm a sinner. Oh, my God. I lost out. Why do we do that? Like God is ready to pounce on us, God is ready to hurt us. Why do we do that, folks? Don't you make mistakes through the day? Do you make any mistakes through the day? Have you ever made a mistake in your life while the sun was shining? Did you get all frustrated and think, Well, I made a mistake. The sun's going to go out. I'll never see light any more. Wouldn't that be, as the world says, a stupid thing to do. Wouldn't that be an ignorant thing to do? What's your mistake got to do with the sunshine? The sunshine, the light, isn't based on your ability. It's based on the sunlight's ability, as to the sun. Isn't that right? Well, it would take a long time to illustrate, to try to get you into something that we're trying to say here. Folks, God is a great standard, and every time you stumble, and you stagger the light don't go out. Every time you make a mistake God didn't withdraw from you. You might have stepped over into the shadows, but the shadow of the thing is one thing, and that is that you stepped into the shadow of the thinking of your own mind, as to the devil, and the lying world of vanity. You should never have done that. If you're working around in the light you don't have to get out of the sunlight. You can stay in the sunlight. You don't have to step off into the shadows. And there are days when the clouds come. Some with silver linings, some dark clouds. See? You can differentiate between those that these clouds haven't come altogether to bring you problems. Though there are some clouds that have, yet God has provided shelter. He's given you understanding. All you've got to do is hide away from it, or be prepared for it. The other clouds that come are for your good. Sometimes, we shed a few tears, as to say a little rain falls, a little rain falls, because we need it. Our ground needs broken up, and needs watering. God needs to do a few things to give us a little chastisement to where it can break up the fallow ground of our heart, but even then it's a self-service. You still serve yourself to do all of those things, because in God, when you're born again there is no darkness. There is no shadows. Those clouds that drift around have to do with angels, good and bad. And there is no darkness in God's world. You're beyond the clouds. You're beyond the shadows. See? The shadows are not between you and God, as before your born again experience. That's what you did. Like Shepherd, you went beyond that. You went beyond that. You got beyond the clouds. You are in the sunlight of God all the time, and there's never any, any bad feeling from God to mankind. Did you know the murders, the liars, the cheats, the robbers, all those things out yonder. Do you know why that a preacher can preach the love of God to all them people? Is because God doesn't see them. God doesn't know it. Except through Jesus Christ he knows nothing about that as to his feelings. The blood covers the world, and God allows it to cover it until his work is finished to give those people that are renegades out there the full opportunity toward repentance, or to do what they've got to do in their system to give the church time to be processed, and then after that He'll bring the church out of that thing as He's doing right now, stealing them out of the darkness of that intellectual night that those people are in. See? And putting us into the Kingdom of Light. And we're in that world of light, and when it comes to healing, when it comes to prosperity, when it comes to blessings, when it comes to eternal life, when it comes to Gods feelings toward us, it's like the sunlight that never grows dim. It's one way, and that is the standard of love and life to you. And when you go to ask God to heal you, or you go to ask God to heal somebody, you don't go to try to figure out whether he ought to be healed, or can be healed, or whether God is going to allow it, either for you, or whether you're good enough, or whether you're not good enough, or whether you're going to live good enough to get that way. You don't do that. That's frustration, that's confusion. He's a standard of healing, and the Bible says, Peace on earth, goodwill toward man. And the Bible said that God is gracious, and God is plentiful in mercy, and God desireth pardon in your life, and God is filled with kindness. That's His nature. That's His standard. That's His feeling. Why should I go to God who is like that as a standard of light and say Oh, God, I know you're kind, but God please don't kill me. Give me another day. God, I know that you're loving and kind, and I'm dying with cancer, but Oh, God, please don't kill me with cancer. Lord, please help me, Lord. You know, why should I go to God who is wanting to pardon me. The Bible said He desires that I be pardoned, and I say, Oh, God. I know I'm going to hell. I'm struggling. I'm doing all I can. I'm fasting, I'm praying, and I'm just begging you Lord, to take notice and don't send me to hell. Lord, please don't. Don't you know that's absurd in the sight of God? Don't you know that's foolishness in the sight of God? Don't you know that's why God said, Come boldly before the throne of grace that you might receive help in the time of need? Don't you know that when you are doing that that you are letting the devil walk all over you and rob you of everything? How can I come boldly before God? Somebody would say, Well, you mean I should just go up there and say, God, it's going to be this way? Yes and no. You should come up there with the attitude, I say it, that's the way it'll be. I think it, that's the way it'll be. You said, Ask it, and that's the way it'll be. Not because you're going to be rude, not because your going to be protruding, but you're going to be firm. You're going to be non-wavering. You're not going to be negative. You're positive in your mind and convictions in God's Word. And you're going before God with this conviction because of one thing. Because God is love, and you are approaching the Throne of love. And you're approaching love that expressed Itself, and said, Whatever you desire. I gave you My Son, the best. All the other is yours. All things that pertain unto life, it's yours. Partake of it freely. Come and partake of it freely. Have what you will so you go boldly in the confidence of His love, and His blessings in what He has given you. And folks, how can you run around saying, I'm sick. Oh, my God. Help me. Oh, my God! How can we be so childish in our approach to God, knowing that God is a standard of life. Like the law, we don't have to violate the law, so we don't have to pay the penalty of the law. Somebody would say, Well, Brother Pike, I know people that pay penalty when they done real good. I know, but that's because the law is rotten as to what they call the law, but not the true law. For the true law is your protection. The true law won't do that. True statesman don't do that. True government don't do that horrible hideous thing that man does today as a government. All right. So I said that to say this. Children of God, go boldly before the throne of grace. Take what you want. Do what you want. Would you go into your mother's kitchen and her having prepared a lovely meal, and she has sent word for you to come and set down and eat, and you'd set there, and every time you'd go to reach for something, or every time you wanted something say, Well, I know she's my mother but I'd better not mess with that. I'd better not. You know, what? I'd get up and leave the table. Somebody said, But, that's your mother. That wouldn't be my mother. No mother. You couldn't give that woman the title of a mother. Say, well, she brought you into the world. I don't care, she still don't deserve the title of a mother. Just to bring children into the world, devils do that. Harlots, whoremongers. It's like I've told Brother Taylor. Somebody adopts a child, and works for it, watches over it, brings it up, that's Dad, that' Mom. The other is nothing but a bunch of harlots and whoremongers that were practicing filth when those things happen. Don't care nothing about it. Kill 'em. Like a woman said one time, said, If I have another one I'll take a hat pin and stick it clear through it's head. You say, My, what a hideous devil. No. That was a woman that said she was a pentecostal believer that loved the Lord. Of course, after I preached a few sermons she left. So, we see, folks, that we are a fortunate people. This is great, this is mighty, this is thrilling. I'm right out here in the middle of everything. Isn't that wonderful. I'm right out in the middle of everything. God has dropped me right in the middle of a bucket of honey, as we say, and I'm like a little child. I've got it all over me, and all in me, and I'm a lapping, and a licking because there's nothing like it. It's joy unspeakable and full of glory. Take a little kid on a hot day, and drop him in the midst of some water just deep enough for him to splatter, and scream and holler and play in, and he's in a little heaven. Did you know that? That's a little heaven to him. And, folks, I'm out here in the middle of this. Jesus said, that light, dwelling in that light. So then, why? Why do we confuse the issue? Why do we do these things? Why? You know, I have to kind of hold myself down. If I get to moving around a little bit I slap the thing, and I hit the thing, and I bump the thing, and they get frustrated up here, you know. Whereas, down through the years preaching I just take a mike and walk with it and you don't hit nothing. Of course, you might bump your mouth, you know, but otherwise, you go along real good. So up here, like Brother Branham used to say, Said, trying to make tapes and all these things I have to pen myself in one place. You get exhilarated, you get excited, you know, and then you bump into things. But I'm asking you again. Do you understand? Jesus said, Can you hear my words? Do you have ears to hear? Do you realize that all of your efforts and fears, and frustration and anxiety, and all the things you do is but childishness and immaturity of never having learned, or understood, and that you are just in a condition of frustration and confusion all the time. Why? Why? Somebody said, Well, I'm in heaven. Is that heaven? Is all of that confusion, all of that corruption, all of that frustration, all of that trying to figure out what you are, who you are, and where you're going, what's going to happen to you, what you should do, and whether you should pray for this one, or whether you shouldn't pray, is that heaven? How can I say this? It's like Brother Howard Walden yesterday. We spent some time together, and he was telling me about George Foreman, the heavy weight champion of the world, came over to preach for him. Said, You know, that man's done went back to boxing? Which I told my wife he'd do that. I said, He has? Said, Yeah. Said, He's fought twenty men and whipped every one of them, and knocked out nineteen of them, and said, he's still, you know, he's talking about the love of God, what He is. Can you imagine that? You know, he prays, God, let me knock him out. Let me knock him flat. And he just says, Praise God, I done it. Somebody says, Well, what would you say he is? What would you say he is? I'd say he's a reprobate. Let's give the Lord a hand. Believe a lie and be damned. You don't go around punching men in the face, knocking them down, and knocking them out, and loving the Lord Jesus. You don't do things like that. That's to believe a lie and be damned. Well, I said that to say this. Howard said, I don't understand that. Folks, that's what I'm trying to say. When you tell me all these things, as to what you are, and that's heaven. I don't understand that. I don't understand that. No more than I could understand that about George Foreman, I don't understand it anymore about you. Heaven, what is Heaven? That's where it's all at. Everything, everything that's good, and nothing bad. I said, Everything good and nothing bad. What is Heaven? God is Heaven. He's a spirit. What is Heaven? The Spirit. When you get in the middle of the Spirit you're right in there where everything is just joy unspeakable and full of glory. You be in the Spirit and the Spirit in you. You be full of the Spirit, ask what you will and I'll go it. You walk in the Spirit, let my Word abide in you and you abide in my Word. That is, you do what the Word says and let it abide in you, as to the spiritual constraint of understanding, He said, Whatever you want you can have it. All right. Now to me, that's Heaven. To have everything I want, whenever I want it, anyway I want it, just to do what I want to to rejoice forever more, now that's Heaven. To me that's Heaven. That's what I understand of Heaven. Have we got anybody in Heaven? My! Sure wasn't but two or three. You mean to tell me that you're not enjoying all these things I'm talking about? You looked at me strange when I said you don't understand. After all these years I'd say you don't understand, wouldn't you? If no more hands went up than that? So then, dwelling in Heaven, ye that dwell in Heaven, what did He say? Rejoice forever more! Why did He say rejoice forever more? How could you do anything else but rejoice. Have you ever heard of anybody being in Heaven that wouldn't be filled with joy, abundance of joy? Did you know that these people that are out here as devils and demons and all these other things out here, that as long as their in this heaven, as to the blood being on the seat of atonement, did you know that they're kicking up their heals and they're dancing and laughing and singing and playing and shouting, and doing all them things, that they're just having a jubilant time, or a jubilee? So then, if you're having all them problems, something must be wrong. All right. So then, you that are in Heaven let's all stand together and you that are not in Heaven, while we give the altar call, and we sing together why don't you come on up here. The voice said to John, Come up hither. Why don't you come up hither? Let's stand together while we sing, can we? All right. So we had a fight with the devil tonight and we won. Let's give the Lord a hand. Brother Gary Armstrong came along the other day, and he just looked like he was about to die. He was in pain and misery. Something had happened in his sides, happened a couple of times, but that was the first time he came along and we prayed, and when we prayed I felt his faith go out to God in a tremendous way, and Gary he came back like a rooster crowing, and he was shouting the victory. That thing went away. Why? Because healing is in the atonement. Salvation is in the atonement. Peace is in the atonement. By his stripes we've been healed. We've been healed. Somebody said, Well, it all looks kind of dirty to me, Brother Pike. I look out there and all I see is pain and misery. Well, Brother Taylor, he's a window washer. You get your windows cleaned up, My! Like the little saying, you've heard me say it numbers of times. The woman criticized the woman's clothes, for days and weeks and months. She said, That woman's got the dirties clothes she hangs on the line, but one day somebody hoped, helped her, it's countrified to say hopped her. Somebody helped her, and the helper realized her windows were dirty, and when she washed her windows she saw the most beautiful clothes, clean. You know, that's what's wrong with some of you that's always finding fault with your neighbors. You've got dirty glasses. Another thing is you always see problems, sorrows, confusion, woes. If you'd wash your windows, why the sun is so pretty and bright outside. It's spring time. As a matter-of-fact, we saw a couple of robins today. You've heard that song, When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbing along? That's spring time, you know. We ask God for spring time and here in the winter it's spring time. And they said that the weather men said they are all confused. Said they'd never seen nothing like this this time of year, never. But it's good. It's good. I'm enjoying it. Whether they understand it or not I'm still going to_ I ain't confused. Are you confused? They're confused because they're looking through dirty windows. All right. So we're going to sing a little chorus here, and while we're singing the altars are open, and you're welcome to come. All right, now, if I've seemed to have taken a little time tonight don't feel bad. I might even take longer next time. You can't ever tell. If it gets gooder, well, we'll take longer. If I eat cake and it gets to tasting good, I just get another bite. Somebody brought Sister Betty some cake, German Chocolate, and I got a bite of it, and I felt like I ought to just ought to take another bite, and then I took another bite, and then my wife began to get worried because I took another bite. And finally she said, Well, just eat it all. I guess she felt like I was anyway. Of course, that made me feel bad and I left a little of it for her. All right. Let's sing this song together, can we? We're just folks, you know, we're just human beings. Let's sing this song together. (Leads in singing Joy Unspeakable.) Can you sing that with me? (Continues with Joy Unspeakable) Serving God is joy. It's joy unspeakable and it's full of glory. The half has never yet been told. Let's sing another chorus together, can we, Brother Taylor? (Leads in singing Sweep Over My Soul, Haven Of Rest, I Love Thee, Lord, Don't Turn Him Away, Standing Somewhere In The Shadows, Supper Time and His Love Grows Sweeter Each Day) You love the Lord? Let's sing this little chorus. Brother Ben Gahellia use to sing this a lot under our tent. It's called reach out and touch the Lord. Can we sing that, Brother Taylor? (Leads in singing Reach Out And Touch The Lord.) Sing it with me, now. (Continues singing Reach Out.) How wonderful it is to be a Christian. You know, I feel so sorry for people, though I know they're serving the Lord, and I don't feel sorry for them to the extent that they're serving the Lord. And I know that they have eternal life. And I don't feel sorry for them in that I know that they have eternal life, but I feel so sorry for people that don't know the Lord, that don't understand the Lord, don't know what He's done for them, and what a grand and glorious thing this is. I feel sorry for them, because I see them struggle. I see them stumble along. I see so many problems in their lives that they don't have to have. I see them struggling with vanity. Vanity of vanities, the Preacher said. I see them struggling with the vanity of their minds, living in the vanity of their minds, walking in the vanity of their minds, taken by the vanity of their minds. Whereas, the Bible said, He that observes, that is takes notice too, or lying vanities, he forsaketh his own mercy. For in Christ we have a full, full issue from God of mercy. We have a full rendering of mercy by the sufferings of Jesus Christ. We have a complete, the Bible said, We're complete in Him. And we have this completeness in God through the mercy. Jesus said, As I am so are ye in Me. Then the question arises, How are you, Lord? He's perfect. He knows all things. He's never troubled. He's never worried. He never suffers. He has all the riches and splendor and magnificence of setting on the Throne. His very inner most being, as to the exhilaration of His state of being is joy unspeakable and full of glory. Jesus. And as He is so are we. But you know, He only gets grieved when we grieve Him. That is to say, He feels the feeling of our infirmities. Otherwise, there is no sorrow to Him. Like a dad that has riches, power, everything, and the only problem he has is the grief of his little son. He can't get his little son to see. You know, his little son is down at the ten cent store, well, I say ten cent, it's a dollar store now. Down at the dollar store trying to steal a little ole frivolous nothing. You know, like a lot of us. You know, we're out there running around the world, we're trying to, you know, in being crafty we try to maneuver around and engineer something to where we can steal something for somebody, or take it, you know. Work two or three hours and make ten thousand dollars, or con somebody out of something, or hobo around, you know, and hitch hike around in life and not take any responsibility when our Father owns it all. The prodigal out there filling his belly with the husk that the swine would eat, could you imagine that? Just before he did he come to his senses. And here we are, our Heavenly Father has everything, and we're living in the vanity of our minds and don't have to worry about a thing, don't need a thing. Don't need a thing. We sing that song, I don't need your gold and silver. We don't need a thing. Everything, got all things that pertain unto life. But we're running around in the unbelief as to the vanity of our minds and letting the devil trouble us when the Bible said, Let now your mind be troubled, neither let it be afraid, but we're all time_ Do you know why we do that? We play around too much in the shadows. We get off limits. We get in the places we don't have any business, in the vanity of our minds. You don't have to do that. folks. You don't have to do that. You've got the mind of Christ. You've got the mind of Christ. Can you imagine at any time the mind of Christ observing lying vanities as to what He wondered about concerning His Father's will, or what He wondered about as to what He could do and couldn't do? Can you imagine that? He done what He wanted to whenever He got ready. Somebody said, Yeah, well is that what He done when they killed Him? somebody said, and when they beat Him, is that what He done? He done exactly what He wanted to. He came to bear witness of the truth, rebuked the devil in Peter for trying to make it easy for Him. He said, For this purpose came I into the world. And He said, No man taketh my life from me. I lay my life down. I'm doing this for my Heavenly Father. If you're going through any suffering, if your going through any problems shouldn't you be doing that willingly for your Heavenly Father? Shouldn't you? Like it's been said, and I think on this, too. If sickness is of the way God we ought to let God pour it on. If we say sickness is glorifying God we ought to say, God pour it on. Stay away from doctors, stay away from medicine, stay away from the pill bottle, and don't ever ask Him to take it away for we want to glorify God the more. Let's give Him a hand. All right. But if Jesus glorified God in his suffering, to the ultimatum that He didn't hold back, He said, as we would say, Pour it on, Heavenly Father, until there was nothing left. And that took care of all of it. Then where is suffering and problems and all those things at? That's what He did, the ultimatum. He took it all. He didn't draw back. He didn't go to the pill bottle, He didn't go to the doctor. He took it all away. That ended it, so that you wouldn't have to contend with it. Let's sing another chorus, can we? (Sings Have FAith In God) Can you sing that with me? (Continues singing) Now we sing have faith in God, have faith in God, have faith in God for salvation. All right, now, everybody that feels half saved raise your hand. Because we've got faith in God for salvation, isn't that right? Nobody feels half saved? We act like it sometimes. Then we believe the atonement was sufficient, that we should not be half saved. Everybody that feels saved altogether raise your hand. We've got some that feel saved. Some looks like they need to get born again. All right. Let's sing it again. (Continues singing.) You know, faith is believing what He said about it. (Continues singing.) Everybody that feels half delivered raise your hand. Can you raise your hands? Everybody that feels deliverance raise your hands. O kay, let's sing again. (continues singing.) Everybody that feels half healed raise your hands. Everybody that feels healed altogether raise your hands. That's by faith in God, isn't it? All right. Let's sing it again. (Continues singing.) So we know what faith is now. Faith cometh by hearing of the Word, and whatever the Word says. The Word said, And by His stripes ye were healed. So there's no question about it, is there? No question about it. Somebody says, Well, I believe it, and if it don't work I'll just have to do something else. No. No. You don't even know what I'm talking about. That kind of thinking proves, you don't even know what I'm talking about. Like I said, You just don't understand. (Continues singing.) I feel saved from death altogether. I feel delivered from devil and demon spirits, conflicts of evil and personalities, and I feel healed, completely healed from the crown of my head to the toes, or the soul of my feet. I feel completely delivered, completely healed. Somebody would say, But, what do you base that on? I base that on faith. I base that on the Word. The Word said, By His stripes I'm healed. Oh, somebody said, But it couldn't be like that. Well, why can't it be like that. Can anybody give me a good reason why it can't? Has anybody got anything to say about it that's greater than what he said about it? He said, Let there be and there was. Have you any doubt about that? How many doubt that, when He said let there be and there was. Didn't He say, Let there be healed? I will that ye be healed. Said, You can heal me if you will. He said, I will that you be healed. Somebody said, Yeah, He said that to them. He said, What I say to one I say to all. I will that you be healed. I will that you be healed. Let's give the Lord a hand. All right. So we see that God as a standard of healing and life and health. We don't have to go to Him and beg him. We just rejoice in the fact that it's like that, no matter what the devil says. It's like that no matter what miseries and sorrows and pains and discrepancies say about it, feelings, and frustrations, and anxieties and all these other things, poverty, whatever, it has nothing to do with you. That's lying vanities. Somebody said, But. Brother Pike, it's that way with me. I know, and as long as you observe that it's going to be that way with you. I told you to get your windows washed. Get some of these window washers to wash your windows. See? Get straightened out in your life. Somebody said, Well, I just have that problem all the time. I know because you're looking_ The Bible, it says here by His stripes that you were healed. And you're looking at it. Are you listening to me? You're looking at it through the television, Little House On The Prairie, and all the other little houses, or whatever they are. I don't know too much about television, but I hear them talking about that one. You know, and you're looking at it through that. You're looking at it through the non-virtuous things. Folks, don't you know you'll go to hell. I don't care if you're watching Little House On The Prairie, or you're watching Donald Duck, or Mickey Mouse, or whatever you're watching. Don't you know that you'll go to hell having your mind on that thing. Don't you know the Bible said you serve God with the mind? Don't you know when you've got your mind on ball games, and boxing, and racing, and buying, and eating, and drinking, and having and getting and going, and lying, and cheating, and gossiping, and got your mind on your face and your form, and what you want to be in life, don't you know you'll go to hell for that? Folks, little babies in the gospel sometime they do those things. They mess up their diapers and good mothers will change them, wash them up, to present them as we would say as to us to the Heavenly Father. No wonder you've got pains, and you've got miseries, and you've got heartaches, and you've got woes. The Bible said, Who is he that hath redness of eyes, and bruises and wounds, but he that tarrieth at the bottle, he that goeth out, don't have enough sense to get out of the way of a man's fist, and puts himself in a place and a condition that causes him to be wounded and hurt, and comes back with sorrows? Who is he hath that? So then, who is he that hath all these problems but he that gazeth in the television, and reads the love stories, and has got to keep up with things in the newspapers. Somebody said, Well, I got to know about these things in the newspaper. I know it. I know it. I look at it sometime and you've got the filthiest, dirtiest, messiest, gummiest pictures, and you went through it just like it wasn't nothing. It didn't faze you, didn't bother you laying on your shelf at home, wherever it's at. You have all kind of things in your cars, tapes, newspapers, everything that's gummy and messy. The Bible said Moses was faithful in all of his house. You've got every kind of book, fuss with the mailman because he won't bring you the dirty filthy mail, as I said that is suppose to be thrown away. You've got to stare at every billboard, you've got to stop at every place, you've got to laugh and talk with the waitresses, or whether they be man, as women to men and men to women. Isn't the truth wonderful. folks? Somebody said, I don't know why that don't work. Well, we just found out the secret. Ain't you glad? The Bible said the wisdom of God findeth out witty inventions. We just found out. All right. Let's sing again. So the problem seems to be, Jesus said, When they called for him he was on the boat asleep, He said, O faithless generation. When they called for him to heal the little boy He said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer? So He said, perverse generation. That's why you're faithless. Folks, why are we living in a faithless generation today? Why? Perverted generation, sinful generation, adulterous generation, that's what's wrong. All right. Let's sing and we're going to let you go. (Sings Have Faith In God.) Can we have faith in God? Sure. But not doing those things. Someone say, Well, with me, Brother Pike, it's different. I've grown up and I know that all things, you know, there's nothing unclean of itself, but I just can do whatever I want to and it doesn't bother me. Doesn't bother my conscience. I've just got so far along, and that's true. You've got so far along that you've seared your conscience, got passed feeling, and can laugh and be foolish when you know the thoughts of foolishness is sin, go on and make no change, not conform to the Word of God, not incorporate it within your life, just go on with the same old hardness, no meekness in your life, and with your old ritualistics of trying to fast a day or two, or pray, or think that you on your way to heaven, no meekness in your life, no humility in your life, no conformity in your life, no faith in your life, but folks, you're going to find out it's by faith. and the only way you can have faith is have a clear conscience. And Paul said, I strive always to keep a clear conscience toward man and God, void of offense toward man and God. When you get to where you can do that everything will be all right. One more time together. (Sings Have Faith In God and Go Leave It There.) Can you sing it with me? (Continues singing.) I'm going to ask Brother Vince to come and dismiss us if he will. (Continues singing.) One more time as Vince comes. (Continues singing.) You know what, what you need to do, folks, is go take them and leave them. Don't just take them to the Lord, pick them up and bring them back. Take them and leave them. Take them to the Lord and leave them there. Where is the Lord? Look on the Brazen Serpent, look at Calvary. One more time. (Continues singing.) Remember now, leave them there. Have you got any burdens tonight? Let's take them to the Lord. When Brother Vince goes to pray take them to the Lord, leave them there and tomorrow you'll go out into a new day. And have a good time in Christ, be happy, light as a feather in the wind. One more time. (Sings again.) Listen to the song.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

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

Holiness Unto The Lord