Meekness

A woman gave her testimony the other day as having been delivered from Kuwait, she had escaped or something. And she was saying that these people are monsters as to the Iraq people. And I know in saying that there are people in Iraq that's no doubt good folks and perhaps Christian people. But in general as to the brutality, it was real bad. And they was telling of some of the horrible things that would even be bad for me to mention even from the sacred desk. But they said that some of the boys had taken the young boys and held their eyes open and burned their eyes with cigarettes, and some of the other things they done, had stooped to, so very low. And they told of a mother that was ready to be delivered of child that was at a hospital there and wanting to get in; and they, a couple soldiers standing there at the door, this other woman said she was also taking another woman that was to be delivered and as she came near this woman was pleading with them to let her in the hospital. They wouldn't let her in. As she was apparently in pain or something or crying that one of the soldiers just ran her through with a bayonet and pinned her to the wall. And it was just a horrible situation. She said they're just monsters. And she'd be so glad when her people was delivered. Folks, we should be ever so grateful and ever so thankful that we have a place called America. And I know that here in America we have people that's just as bad, just as evil and wretched. Here in America we have people that's just as wretched. They have molested, killed. They've done such evil, horrible things that it's so horrible that almost makes you shudder to make mention of them. Our Americans have done it. I just received word a few days ago how that a man molested his own little nine or ten year old daughter. But it's suppose to be a Pentecostal man. You know him. He's been here, and I told him he wasn't right with God when he came here. But anyway, we have people just like that here in America. And in that there's such people that are going to be turned loose on, such people as the Iraq brutality that's going to be turned loose, to do the mean horrible things that they're going to do to people, as to devil, demon possessed people. That's demons incarnate. To do those things to the people that's rejected God through the tribulation period. It's going to be a horrible massacre. And there are people among the Jews. The Jews have been some of the most wretched, cruel people that ever walked on the earth. They've stones people to death without any feeling whatsoever. They've ravished and done all kind of things. And you have to remember that they are also the sinful, adulterous generation that's on the earth, just like the Americans and everybody else. With no repect of person. We've been there and I know of the horrible things that they're doing just like everybody else. With no respect of person we've been there, and I know of the horrible things that they're doing just like everywhere in the world. So all of the world is that way. There's no difference. All of them are the same. But in the midst of the Jews, in the midst of the Arabs, in the midst of people, wherever they're at, Egypt, Germany, Japan, China, Africa, India, there are beloved children of God. People that are so blessed and loving. And even in Israel there's about six thousand people I believe the paper reported of Americans that's right there in Israel. I remember reading a little article where they're singing Amazing Grace. Some of them praising the Lord. But it's just a terrible, pardon me, a terrible world that we're living in. A terrible situation that we're faced with, and of course the man making the statement that they're the only nation that can be trusted. That's altogether wrong. They can be trusted no more than anybody else. They're just as wretched as anybody. I know that for sure. I've been there. And like Paul said, the wrath of God's come upon them to the uttermost. Because if anybody has ever killed the Christians and hated what's right, they have. And they're fixing to undergo a tribulation such as man has never known. But it is a true fact that out of them comes a hundred and forty-four thousand people that have never, never forsaken Christ. Never done any wrong to anyone that's followed the Lamb whithersoever He goes. Just like out of America there's precious, darling people that have loved the Lord, or down through the years has been people that have given their life and their blood spilt from their veins to protect the testimony of the Lord Jesus. They're in the graves tonight because they died for the Word of the Lord before they'd compromise. And all over the world it's been that way. Russia, people that's been inprisoned all of their life, been beat and mistreated, and there's people that's dead. Buried in the hills of Russia that are responsible for the freedom that others have today as to the liberty of the Gospel, because they would not recant and would not give up. And the Lord had to do something because of their sufferings. And as Paul said, We've entered into the labors of others. So let us be grateful and let us be thankful even today that we're able to have a place like Little Bethlehem and that we have a place like Little Bethlehem. And I know that as David was praising Little Bethlehem as to God's blessings here, that doesn't mean anything to some people. Little Bethlehem doesn't mean anything to some people. And I know that people, some would dispute that and say, Well, we love Little Bethlehem, but I know that doesn't mean anything to some people, because some people doesn't help support it, they don't help build it, they don't care about it. And it's been proven. Some have come here and stayed to get what they could out of it. Then they left. And they hadn't come back. And some have ridiculed. Some have torn it down. Some have spoken against it. Some have left and never come back. And some will leave and won't ever come back; and some have reproached it in every way that can be made mention of, and they care nothing about Little Bethlehem, even those that are living here now. Some of them are just following as Jesus said after the fishes and the loaves. But on the other hand they are those that do love Little Bethlehem, and they do love the Lord, and they love one another. And they work together to do everything they can to build up a little community, not a commune, but a community. A little community to where they can affiliate and they can work together, they can support it. Some just come here to see what they can get out of it. That's all they're interested in. They're not straight to start with. But as I said the other night in the rain, it's not so much as to what the brotherhood owns, even though they're thankful for what they've got. It belongs to them. They worked for it. The Bible said, Riches got by labor shall increase. But the thing is they build a great and a mighty brotherhood, like it was as Lincoln, and Washington and great men of old, as to the early establishment of the United States when the little communities came together, thirteen colonies. And men knelt in the snow to pray, and they worked together, and they shared what little they had. And it was a brotherhood, and they learned to love each other and respect each other, and they stood together as mighty men and women. And they were decent, and they had good morals, and they had virtues and, they had virtues and they had values of life that they protected. They loved one another. They respected, men respected each others wives, and wives respected each others companions, and they respected each others sons and daughters. And they wasn't a bunch of dope addicts and a bunch of drunks that was running around trying to defile each others wives, and lead each others husbands off, and defile little daughters and sons, and ravish and this kind of thing, and thieve and steal and undermine. They wasn't doing that. As a matter of fact when the United States was established the richest men that they had among them gave their wealth, just like some of the men coming here to Bethlehem. They took their wealth. History records that they took their wealth, millions of dollars that some of them had, and they pooled it together to where they could have a government. They took their wealth. And those men were eventually killed by the enemy, because of they were the ones that established the government by giving their wealth. Pooling it together so that the poor people could come together and have a good, wonderful, common way of life. And have an economy that would suffice until they could do something. And even Martha which was Washington's companion, took her silverware, I remember, and gave her silverware as to the making up of the first money as to making up the silver so that they could have the change. And it was a real, wonderful thing as to the sacrifice and efforts in their little way of life. And I've seen pictures of Washington when they had the old horse racks, and when they you could see the old bogs of the horses where it was down in the mud right there around the Capitol as it was in that day. And the old horse hitches, and you know it was just kind of like a pasture or whatever; but it was something in that day that they built it just like you're building Bethlehem here. But it was a wonderful thing. And they built a brotherhood, and love flowed from breast to breast and great men and women they become strong and mighty with one another. And this is the thing that's so beautiful as you see them out in the rain and out in the cold as I've seen them many times over in the morning. And not what they own as to natural things, but what they own as to an heritage of values that's from heart and love from breast to breast. And this is what really makes a society, and this is what really makes a society; and this is what really makes a difference. And folks, this is what's been lost in the shuffle down through the years. This is where it all lays and this is where all is gone you know. So it's not natural wealth. Men have begin to lean toward natural wealth and education and intellectual abilities; and they've strayed from the stedfastness of real charity and real love and real faith. And because of that they've got a bogged down mess today. They've got harlots for daughters and harlots for wives and whoremongers for husband and thieves for senators, and they've got an underworld for a government and for their IRS and everything else. Their clergymen is a bunch of, I hate to say it, but they're a bunch of thieves. Their clergymen have turned into thieves. And their priests and preachers are hypocrites and liars and whoremongers. And I say that in reverence and respect to those that are godly and those that are holy. And they're churches have become a bunch of reprobates, and of every unclean and hateful bird as to evil spirits instead of saints of God. And I say that with respect to them that are Christians. For they are still Jesus said, few there be that find it, a little flock. But anyway, it's all been lost, as we say in the shuffle. And they've left the old foundation as to what God gave them, and as to what men like Washington founded as to true charity and love and respect and laboring together; and they've gone after pretty painted faces and jogging and weight lifting and sports and education, and as I say powder and paint and frolics and forms and fashions and everything, but virtue and love and charity and decency and good understanding. They've left the real foundation of life. And God is about to destroy it all. As a matter of fact I made the statement today, that you look around and you see Russia beginning to let religion in. And of course they're letting it in the schools and everywhere. While we're over here we're suppose to be the brilliant people and we're pushing it out of the schools. We're pushing it out of our midst, boycotting, coming down on it, Jim Jone's it. Wanting to tax everything that they've got over here. Putting them under heavy taxes, and we're suppose to be the land of freedom and they're suppose to be the heathens over there. And that's why I made the statement that those supposedly heathens over there are saying that they're coming over here. That God's telling them to come over and evangelize us real intelligent folks. What it is folks, we're turning into heathens over here. We're becoming educated heathens over here. And it's very evident that the Spirit of God is through with America; and that the Spirit of God as we said is turning back to that country, and they're accepting it; and they've been in darkness, and they're beginning to open their hearts to God, and God's beginning to come into their country. And God is beginning to harden the hearts over here like he did Pharoah's heart down in Egypt, and they're beginning to harden these peoples' heart, and they're pushing the light out, and they're turning to sports and everything else. And they're instigating things in their churches that's nothing but garbage and trash. And they are tutoring their children to a religious fanaticism that's not fit for anything. And then telling them that that's God. And they're two-fold more the child of hell. Not having a love for the truth, God's turned them over to a reprobate mind, to send them strong delusions, cause them to believe a lie and be damned. And our churches are filled with heresy. They've become heretics. Which proves the days of the Gentiles is over, and the Spirit of God is moving back to the old country. So knowledge puffeth up. Charity edifieth. And America has become as it was in Babylon when they're walking about saying, Look at us and look what we've done. And look at our great land and our great America and our great highway and our great societies and our great ability and our great bank account, our education and all these other things. And now the handwritings on the wall, you know. Mene, Mene, Tekel, Tekel, Upharsin: weighed in the balance and found wanting. And their mind has left them and they've gone crazy. They're spiritual mind is gone, and now they've become a bunch of beasts. And God's fixing, He's already driven them out of His presence. He's fixing to drive them out and let the tribulation period come upon them, and let that old beast and that old satanic power come down upon them, and that mark come upon them as it was with Cain being driven out of His presence, until they'll gnaw their tongues for pain, and they're kingdom will be filled with darkness to the extent that there won't be any healing medicine. Hospitals won't be any good to them. They won't be able to find any relief from their pains and their miseries. Then they'll know then that it's all been of God. And that their education wasn't anything. And that they didn't do anything by their own ability. So then here at Little Bethlehem, I keep trying to tell you about God, and how that God reveals things, and how that God gives you things, and how that it is God that has done all of these great things for you, and that you can receive nothing of yourself. That it's all given to you of God. That you have no ability of your own. That it's God. And the preparation of man's heart is from God. Every good and perfect gift comes from God. And that if you're doing anything else that you're leaving the foundation, that you're going to run into problems, and everythings' going to fall through for you; and all of the world that you're running after, after a while you're going to find out that there's nothing to it, and you're going to be hungry, and you're going to be cast out side, and you're not going to have any health, and you're not going to have any money, and you're not going to have any understanding, and you're not going to have anything. Some of you are just about gone in your health already. Some of you are just about gone in your money already. Some of you are just about gone in every sense of life. You don't have any hope anymore. You know it. You just bobbling along like a stopper on the top of water, you know. You just kind of bobbling along. You're really not doing any good anyway. And like somebody come to me the other day, and I was talking to them, and they was telling me how they was going to make a change. Was going to get rid of their property and sell their property, and they decided they was going to make a change, and what all they was going to do. And I thought you know it's not really like that at all. Come to find out it wasn't really like that at all. But what it was you know you promise to give to God, and you promise to give to God, and you keep spending and taking from God, and God keeps blessing you and blessing you and blessing you, and you have and you have, and then after a while because you don't share with God and you keep doing that and you keep saying that, and you keep on, after a while everything that you got is taken away from you and you lose it, and you can't stand the thought of telling somebody that you're losing it, so you just let it go that you're going to do away with it you know. You keep telling people that you're going to do away with it. But that isn't what it is at all. You just lose it. If you hold it, it's being taken away from you, and that's where the whole thing is. You know but with God it isn't that way, folks. It isn't that way. Share what little you got with God and you won't have anything taken away from you. God giveth. He giveth to you. He isn't going to take anything from you. He wants to give to you. He wants to help you. He'll stand with you. And as long as you try to do right, as long as you try to pray, as long as you try to share with one another, God will supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory. He'll give to you. He'll help you. He'll open the windows of heaven, pour you out a blessing you'll not be able to contain. You'll have to share it with others. Your health will return unto you speedily. The blessing of the Lord will go before you, but you're going to have to pray. You're going to have to be honest. You're going to have to be straight. You're going to have to walk with the Lord. You can't run around in your tights and in your shorts. You can't run around and make your smart remarks about the church and do your thing. You can't go off and establish your business and throw God down, like somebody that the police are looking for right now. They've been out here two or three times. I just told my wife, I said, something's wrong. I said, That man's just thrown God down, walked off and left God. I said, And God's going to get him. And sure enough, no sooner said than done, a few hours later the police started looking for him. They come back again looking for him today. They're looking for him. He isn't here. He's off right now. He'll be back, but they're looking for him. He's making plenty of money. But they're looking for him. Something's gone wrong and it may cost him plenty of money. Maybe even worse than that before the thing's over. See, you don't do that. You don't do that. And yet people knowing all of, Jesus said, You knowing that the judgments of God come upon people that do these things, yet you know this and you still go do the same thing, how can you escape the damnation of hell doing these things? You still lean to your own understanding, lean to your own reasoning, go do these things, knowing better than to do it. In you little old finite mind, you still try to out-reason God, and try to reason around in your little old finite mind, and try to make this thing work according to your ability and according to your figuring and according to what you think about it. How little can we be? How little can we be? You know, we need to remember that that's what's happened to America and all the world. We need to go to God. If any man lack wisdom, let him go to God that giveth to all men freely and upbraid, he upbraideth none if you go to Him and ask of Him. And the Bible said, He won't hide anything from us, if we'll walk upright, He'll reveal it to us. He said concerning Abraham, shall I hide anything from Abraham, seeing that He'll command His household after him? And the Bible said, We have this unction from the Holy One that we should know all things. And let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus, which of course knows all things. And the Lord, He'll lead us and guide us. And when we separate ourself from God, we don't know nothing. We don't know nothing. As it was with Ahithophel as those men in those days when they turned against God and turned again God's leaders and separated themselves, as it was from the great kings of that day or God's leaders. The Bible said that their counsel had been that of God, when they would give advice that it would have been like God Himself. And said, when they turned away from God's men, and tried to go against God's men, the Bible said, God turned their counsel into foolishness. And everything that the counsel turned into foolishness until they went out and committed suicide, hanged themselves. Folks, you can't do anything against God. All right let's talk for just a few minutes. I'll try not to keep you long. But I would like to talk with you just a few minutes. Chapter 7, let's read in chapter 7 if you've got your Bibles. This is Saint Luke. (Reads: Saint Luke 7: 1-35) Now, Jesus used the terms here in the ninth verse of Saint Luke saying that I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel. I've dealt with you a number of times as of late concerning faith, because I have wanted to impress on you a few things as to what we have to have to be able to believe. And one of the things that I've impressed on you is humility. If you'll notice, everywhere that you find Jesus referring to great faith, you find humility. I was talking to some of the brethren today about this very thing. When you speak of great faith, humility is always a fore-runner of great faith. As it is said concerning Moses. And Moses, the Bible said, was the meekest man in all the land. And yet he was the greatest man in all the land. There was no man like Moses in his day. And meekness is the one of the hardest things as we would say to find among people. Or that is the most scarce thing is a better term. See, you cannot find meekness among people. There's something about meekness that is outstanding. And you ask yourself the question, why would meekness be such a great thing to God? Meekness is great to God because God is a Spirit, and God is a tender Spirit, and God is a dove-like Spirit. And God likens Himself to a dove-like approach. And because He is dove-like, then that means He cannot fellowship you nor come into your heart if there is any kind of resistance. If there is a resistance, He cannot come into your heart. It's like a man that loves his wife. Women in our day are so haughty, they're so arrogant. There's never been a day in the history of the world where women in general are like they are today. Women are commanded to be shamefaced. They're suppose to be gentle. They're suppose to be submissive. And that's the last thing that you could find in the day we're living in. That's just altogether out. Women are very bold in their approach. They're not shamefaced at all. They're very outspoken. And it's hard to caress a woman anymore. As to a woman she'll say, you don't love me, you don't kiss me, you don't care for me. But my lands, to try to get around her you know, it's like running into a bull or something. She's haughty. She's hateful. She's got her own ideas. She's got her own way. She'll snap back at you. She'll tell you what she thinks about it. She'll slap you. She'll do anything she wants too. You say, Look honey, don't do that. I'll do what I want to do when I get ready. You know, and how can you caress that? You know you got a wild cat over yonder in the corner, and you go to put your hand over there, and pops it's pangs into you as we say or it's claws into you, you know. How are you going to love something like that? And it's the same way, how can God get near a man? See a woman is symbolic of the feminine condition of us today, because we're feminine as to the spirit. Man is suppose to be gentle. Even the preacher is commanded to be gentle. You know in the south they use to call them gentlemen. And we did have gentlemen. You had to stir a man up. They wasn't men with temper. They didn't spend their time sitting around watching something because you didn't have television, that kind of thing then. But sitting around watching something you know to try to be hard and to be calouse and to be brave, to punch somebody in the nose and fly off the handle you know, and show their courage and this kind of thing. They were gentlemen, very gentle. And you really had to get a man stirred up before you could get any sparks out of him. But he was a real man. Usually he was a real man. He worked for a living you know, and a lot of times he followed a plough stock or a horse, or a lot of times and whatever he done he was a man. I mean he had a body. And if you mess with him and he hit hit you, the blood sometimes would fly. He was a real man. And if he did get upset, he might get his shot gun and blow your brains out. Because once you got him upset, I mean he was really upset. You had to do something as to insult his lady or to hurt his family, and when he got upset he might just kill you. And when he killed you the whole community might say, amen. That's the best thing you could have done for him, because if you hadn't done it, we'd done it. You know like a horse thief, they'd hanged him. So I'm just saying that we had gentlemen. And at that time we had ladies. As I said, I can remember even when I was a boy, you didn't curse in front of women. You insult women. You didn't do those kind of things, because we had real ladies. We had real mothers, but where has it all gone? You know when the Bible speaks of the church, it speaks of the elect lady -elect lady. Because the church is referred to as a lady. And the reason for that is because it is virtue. So then a gentlemen, someone that is gentle. And the Bible said the preacher should be a gentlemen. He should be gentle. Pardon me. He should be apt to teach, patient, long-suffering, meek. And the woman is suppose to be shamefaced in approach. She's not suppose to be bold and she's not supposed to be haughty. But we've just got a bunch of adulterers, a sinful, an adulterous generation; and it's all come from the old twisted tree of knowledge. Give sissy an education. Send her to school. Let her get her college. Give her some kind of a career. And she's just as bold faced as she can be, and she's in the face of men half the time. And that's why she's a prostitute. That's why she belongs to this man and this man and still belongs to you, you know, and wears your ring and she carries your marriage vows. But she's a prostitute from morning till night. She's nothing. Even if she's not a prostitute in her body, she's a prostitute in her mind. That's all she does is lust all day long and she dresses so she can be lusted after. And the men are in the same condition. They're nothing but whoremongers. Their mind is filled with adultery. It's an adulterous generation. That's all they care for. They comb their hair. They powder their nose. They paint their eyes like lizards. They dress up. It's this generation. The whole entire generation is like that. How can you have any faith? How can you ever have faith? It is so bad in the billboards and so bad in the magazines and so bad as to the tv's and the movies and all, until men's passions have gone wild with them, and women's passions have gone wild with them. And high, spicy foods and all these kind of things and night-light, until they're ravishing their own little eight and nine year old daughters. And women are laying with their own sons. It's unreal. It's like a bunch of dogs. Even dogs have got better morals. There's never been like it, never in the history of the world. Incest. See, it's a horrible situation. It's an evil, wretched generation. All over the world, it's not just in one country. It's all over the world. Everywhere I go in the world, I find the same thing. And men are temperamental. And women are temperamental. And they marry one time, two times, a half a dozen times, it doesn't matter if that woman don't like that man, and that man don't like that woman. They'll marry again. And they'll marry again. And they'll marry again. And it doesn't matter. They'll soothe their conscience with it. It doesn't matter how much you preach against the daughter, this is an adulterous generation. Everybody, everywhere except God get ahold of their lives and straighten them out, their just a bunch of adulterers. If they're not mixed up in marriage and adultery, they're wondering down the street lusting after each other. Dressing, running around naked, whatever it might be, it's an adulterous generation. See, and it's murder and hatred and wicked men are waxing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. How can you ever have any faith like that? You'll never have any faith like that. So then I say again, we need to be clean. We need to be holy. We need to be godly. We need to be upright. People are after money. They're after fame. They're after popularity. They're after passions. See, we need to clean up our lives. And then we need to get meek. Meek, get back to shamefacedness. If a woman would be shamefaced, if she would be meek, if the man would again be grave as to staying out of a woman's face and be grave, and have a little soberness. But not him you know. He's going to be right in her face. Giggling, if she ain't a woman that will get right in his face, give him a little time and he'll break her spirit down, and he'll just keep running off at the mouth as the world says, until he'll ha! ha! ha! and giggle right in her face until he gets her attention, and he'll corrupt her and he'll make a rot out of her for sure. Just give him a little time. He's got to show himself because he's going to do it. He's just one of those kind of guy. And he'll be just as religious as he can be, when he's rotten from his head to his feet. So then that's the world for you. See, but we're suppose to be meek. God is a dove-like Spirit. God is a Holy Spirit. God is a clean Spirit. God is a pure Spirit. See, and God is a tender Spirit. When you're meek and when you're tender and when you're kind, then the Holy Spirit will come down, just like a dove coming down lighting down on a lamb. A little lamb so tender and so meek. And then here comes a dove. A dove is so gentle. And it will come right down and light on that lamb. But it won't come down and light on an old goat. It won't do that. See, and then the Bible says concerning the baptism here we read about the baptism of John. It says here as Jesus was baptized, said, upon whomsoever you see the Spirit decending and coming down upon and abiding upon, you know that this is Him. See, that is He is so gentle. He is so tender. He is so sweet. He is so meek until when the Spirit comes upon him, he'll never do anything to disturb it, to cause it to withdraw. And here it comes down in the form of a dove, the most gentle thing. And John sees it as coming down in the form of a dove. And it comes down upon Jesus and it never leaves him. It stays right there. Until the time that He is forsaken at Calvary, as to the smiting for sin, it stays right there with Him. It abides upon Him. And this is the way that you know the body of the Lord Jesus, members in particular. When this Spirit comes down upon the real body of Christ, the real members in particular, it will abide upon them. They'll be gentle. They'll be loving. They'll be kind. And God will embrace them and they'll embrace the Spirit. And they'll walk in the Spirit. They won't fulfill the desire of the flesh. See, when that little wife gets tender, when she gets gentle, and she wants his way, and he tries to be a real gentlemen, he's concerned about her and loves her, you know, and then they'll come together, and they'll be one. But until God gets into those hearts, it'll never be. I don't care how much he serves God, if that wife's got that old thing you know of not being right, he can say, Honey, But she'll say, No! You know she'll be just as ugly as she can be. He can be just as nice as he wants to be, but she'll say, I'm not going to do that because of... You know that's not the way it is. She's just got the devil a hold of her and that's what's wrong with her. But it is a true fact that if you'll keep on praying, keep on believing God that you'll drive the devil out. It might be her when she leaves, both of them might leave, you know because she might leave with the devil because they're one. And she might not come back. But you'll get rid of the devil one way or another. And if she really is your wife, you'll get rid of the devil. The devil will leave and after a while you'll have your wife. And it's the same way with him. If you'll keep praying, you'll get rid of the devil. You'll either get rid of him with the devil or you'll get rid of the devil and you'll have your husband. But nevertheless, I'm trying to say that we need to be meek. If I'm going to have God's Spirit, I'm going to have to be meek. That's where the answer is, if I can be meek, then I can embrace the Holy Spirit. And He'll come down near me, and I can take Him in my heart, and He won't run off and leave me, and I won't run off and leave Him. And we'll just come together in the most beautiful kind of way. We'll just come right together. So beautiful it will be as we come together. Moses was the meekest man in all of the land. The prophets were meek. They were meek people. See, and when you are a real, genuine person, the Bible tells us to be gentle as a dove, to be wise as a serpent, and it tells us to be bold as a lion. That is bold, when it says bold, don't back up for the devil. Draw nigh to God through prayer and fasting and studying and then be bold in standing against evil. Don't give any ground. And be meek as a lamb. Just be meek. And stand there and God, He'll stand with you. He won't let you down. God will always stand with you no matter what. He'll stand right there with you. And He'll supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory. Now, talking about faith. See, Jesus said, Have faith in God. So then here is a good show of it. This man comes and he says, Master, he said, My servant needs healing. He said, But I didn't come to you. I know in one place it speaks of this man as though he came to Jesus. And when you read it it sounds like this man came to Jesus. But in reality when you check all of the Scripture, the four gospels, or the gospels as to where Jesus speaks of this, you'll find out that the man didn't come to Jesus. He said, I thought myself not worthy to come to thee. And so, I just sent someone. He said, And I thought myself not worthy to ask you to come in unto my roof. He said, But if you'll just send me word that everything will be all right, he said, I got the confidence that it will be all right because you said it. He said, First of all it's because I am a man of authority. And he said, All I do is send word. He said, I'm over soldiers and whatever. And I just send word by my servant, and you go tell that soldier you better do thus and thus, and he does it. And he said, and I know that you are a man of authority. And he said, In that I'm not worthy to come, and I didn't feel worthy for you to come unto my roof, he said, if you'll just send me word, said, it'll be all right. And Jesus literally marvelled. He said, I've not, I've never found so great faith, no not in Israel. And that's when He said, And they shall come from the east and the west, speaking fo the Gentiles now, and they shall set down in the place of the children of the kingdom. And the children of the kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness. And so it came to pass when He died for sin, and when He gave His life for sin, then the Jews went into outer darkness, was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth; and from the east and the west there came the Gentiles, and they were translated into the kingdom. For the law and the prophets were until John, and since that time the kingdom has been preached. The Jews have been at the Wailing Wall ever since. And since that time, people have come from the east and the west and have been translated into the marvelous kingdom of God. So here we get a picture of meekness. Another time I pointed this out to you as when the woman came and she wanted her daughter healed. She came to Jesus and she ask for her healing. And the Lord put her to the test. And He said, It's not meet to give the children's bread to the dogs. In that the Jews referred to the Gentiles as dogs. And she said, Yeah, Lord. She didn't get upset. She said, I know that. If I had have been out there preaching, that was just a young preacher out there preaching. If I had have been out there preaching, and I'd have said that to somebody, they'd got all upset. But she said, that's all right, Lord. She called him, Lord. He was a preacher. It's okay, Lord. It's okay. Said, I know that. But said, the dogs they do eat of the crumbs that fall from the children's table. And when He saw the meekness, and that she wouldn't give up, that she was determined to have what she asked for, in that she believed that He would do it. And He said, Woman, great is thy faith. See again, this is great faith. Great is thy faith! And Moses, the meekest man in all of the land. See, this is what brings great faith is meekness. Because it is meekness that takes you out of the way to where the Spirit of God can come into your heart, and mightily anoint your believing and fill your heart, to be filled with the Spirit. See, and I brought out from time to time, I've tried to individualize quite a number of these things and put it on tape that you can go back and study it. Or others can get it around the different parts of the world that receive the tapes and on video and whatever. See, and these things, one at a time, we take these things. Incorporate them in your life. Take one at a time and work with these things. Add patience and godliness and meekness and charity and longsuffering. And all these things, and the Bible said, If these things be in you, ye shall not be barren. You'll be fruitful. These things in you will make you fruitful. And this is your fruits that whatever you ask in my name that ye should have it. For the Heavenly Father desire that you bear much fruit. Now like today we got a letter from Caribbean Beacon. You know we've been on Caribbean Beacon before. It's been a long time. Been on Atlantic Beacon and we'd come off of both of them. We've got tremendous mail from especially the Atlantic Beacon. And then we've got mail from Caribbean Beacon whatever. And we went back on the Caribbean Beacon. They had ask us to go back on there. And they said today, they said, We're glad to have you back with us, you know, on the Caribbean Beacon. And we're beginning to reach people again through the Caribbean Beacon. Bearing fruit as to winning souls. It's not just my labor. That is your labor. Because you work with me, and this goes into the islands. We have reached just about every island, one way or another. Even down into South America, Central America, different places that we've gone. One way or another, all over the islands we reach going out with the gospel, reaching around the different parts of the nations and different parts of the world. We have went way over into Africa through our broadcasts and whatever. And into the islands. Sometimes by television, sometimes by radio, whatever it might. Bearing fruit one way or another. Maybe working a miracle, maybe praying for a healing, or maybe giving to somebody to help something come about like this testimony that you're responsible for in Costa Rica. Having given to Brother Brown and his wife and she got down into Costa Rica just before her dad passed away. She got there one day, spent some time with him and he passed away the next day. And she was so grateful. She was so thankful. And it left such a tremendous impact upon the people there in Costa Rica, until there's several of those people that work for the government there. They're outstanding people in that family. And they were so touched, they're so tore up until they're looking forward to a great crusade there. And now those that are working with the government are going to great length to see that we get the bull arena or some great arena there, to have a crusade there in Costa Rica. And there's churches that are stirred there. That are already wanting to work with us in a crusade in Costa Rica. They are moved by what you did for these people. See, and this is bearing fruit. That ye should bear much fruit, that ye should win people to God, or that ye should ask things, whatever it might be one way or another, to do something for the Lord. All right so then we're speaking of faith tonight. I said I wouldn't keep you very long. We could go on and go on with many things that would connect with this as to what God would have you to know concerning faith. Or what would build great faith that we might hurl the gospel around the world to bring healing to somebody or bring deliverance to somebody or bring deliverance or bring this wonderful knowledge or revelation to somebody. Like I said that they said the other day from over in one of the foreign countries, said, Brother Pike, said, don't be discouraged. You're literature is evangelizing this country. And said, It's so nice, it's going to the upper echelon. Said, Because it's so nice we can give it to the upper echelon. And then another one just wrote and said from another country, said, Brother Pike, the crisis has hit here and you're literature is like gold to us. See, for evangelism. And it's, they know as well as I know that that's not my literature. That is your labor. It is your dollars. It is your midnight efforts as it was last night in the rain. It is your presses and your grounds and all of your labor and strength and self-denial that is put into this to win these souls. You bid a thing God-speed. You're partakers of it. And we are working and laboring together. And while others mock you and say things about you, and that you're just here and they're doing great things, all they're doing is making a mess and stumbling around doing nothing. And here you are, you have been for years and still are, pardon me, hurling the gospel around the world by television, by radio, by literature, and by your own personel efforts and endeavors of gifts, clothing, whatever it might be. So then you'll have to pardon me hacking a little bit. About two or three o'clock this morning I began to take just a little bit of cold in the rain. I stood it real good to along about then, and then I started taking a little bit of cold. At any rate I'm saying that we need faith. We need to be a real gentlemen as men. And you need to be real ladies whoever you are that might see or hear what I'm saying. And we need meekness and we need godliness and we need charity. And we need to get back to the real foundation. Just to be a nation, we need to get back to what the fore-fathers taught in the early establisment, especially of our nation here in America and around the world, because America's supplemented the whole world at one time. And they have repect for us as a religious people that evangelize the world. But we need to get back to that. The time of great leaders and we need to get back to old time Holy Ghost preaching. And like Brother Brown said down in Costa Rica, he said, Brother Pike, he said, American evangelists, he said, they don't believe in holiness. He is a man. He has been out in California preaching. He's been in Nevada preaching. He's preached around across America. And he was speaking no doubt of many of the big time preachers as we say, because there are people that believe in holiness in America. Evangelists, they do believe in holiness. They said, the American preachers, they don't believe in holiness. He said, But your ministry is holiness and said, We need holiness. And in Costa Rica we need holy churches. Said, That's what we need. And he said, this is want we're wanting. And people are tired of this old hypocritical thing that folks are doing in evangelists are doing, and they want life, folks. They're looking for life. And we need to get together, and we need to show them a light, and be a lighthouse even to our own children, and bring back a real establishment to the church as to a true foundation, and do something for ourselves to bring our health, our happiness back. God said, I'll fulfill the number of your years. You're health will return unto you speedily. I am the Lord God that healeth thee. I am the God that healeth all of thy diseases. I forgive all of thine iniquities. And God will do just exactly that because that's what He wants to do. I'll bless you, make you to ride upon the high places of the earth, give you the desires of your heart if you'll delight yourself in Me. And he that walketh upright before Me shall lack no good thing. I'll open the windows of heaven, pour you out a blessing, that you'll not be able to receive. That is you'll have to share it with somebody else. All right, let's stand together; and we're glad to have you. I could go on and on, because it's a thrill to me to talk about the wonderful blessings of God and the things of God. So I could just go on and on with these things. But since David talked to you a little bit, and I exhorted you a little bit, then I promised myself that I wouldn't hold you long. Can we sing together? Let's sing a little chorus together. Sing a little chorus, if I can't remember it maybe Brother Taylor can. (Sings: Come Unto Me) You know the Lord is calling. And it's His desire for us to cast our burdens upon Him. The writer said, Cast your burdens upon me or Him for He careth for you. Let's sing this little chorus. (Sings: Give Me That Old Time Religion) Can you sing that with me? (Sings) The altars are open if you'd like to come to the altar tonight. If you haven't got the old time religion, you need to get the old time religion. (Sings) Can you sing it with me? (Sings) Can you sing that with me? (Sings) One more time. (Sings) One more time. (Sings) Let's give the Lord a hand, can we? I like to sing the old songs, don't you? Let's sing this old song together. (Sings: Bringing In the Sheaves) Sing it with me. Let's sing another little chorus together. We sing that song a lot of times, Gone, the stone is rolled back. And everytime we sing it, I always think about Israel. Right now, thinking about the things that's about to happen to Israel, and wanting to go back over there, I think about the trouble, the heartaches and the sorrows that's just about to strike Israel. They're people just like we are. And the Bible said, Tribulation such as the world has never known is determined upon this people. And I look at you tonight and I think about what would it be like if they started to ravishing and killing right here at Little Bethlehem. You know, what would it be like? And then I stand over there and I look at those people, having been there about seven times, and I think what it will be like when those girls and boys and those men and women will begin to feel the sting of the sword, knives, being stoned and killed, what it's going to be like, how horrible it will be. And yet it's got to come. Let's sing this little chorus, can we? Can you sing it with me? (Sings: Gone) Sing it with me now. (Sings) Just one more time together. (Sings) The stone is rolled away. (Sings) Sing it one more time. (Sings) Sing it with me now. (Sings) One more time. (Sings) Just think, the Bible said, You're not in the flesh. God's chosen you out of the flesh, and He's hid you with Christ in God whom the heavens have received, until the time of the restoring of all things. And it said, Rejoice ye that dwell in heaven. Rejoice forevermore. The body of this death hath no more power over you. (Sings) Think about that. The kingdom of God within you, the Spirit of God within you, your spirit translated into the Spirit of Christ and you're at the right hand of the Father. Not you living but Christ living within you. And the body of death has been planted in a watery grave, and we're free from the body of this death. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Paul said. I'll take out of you the heart of stone, place within you the heart of flesh. That is we're bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. And the old heart of stone as to the law, that which was engraven in stone is gone away now. And God, love constrains us to walk in His way; and His compassion and His love is toward us. Now the Lord's favoritism is toward us, and never again does He ever have a bad thought toward us. Always one attitude: Peace on earth and good will toward man by Jesus Christ. (Sings) Do you feel like that you've passed from death unto life? Having eternal life and shall never come into condemnation, never die. He that is born of God cannot die. He is passed from death unto life. One more time. (Sings) You know a lot of people don't know what eternal life is, and they don't know what salvation is, and they don't know what serving God is, and they've never come to the understanding of what real, old-time religion is. It's just going to church and the same old thing, it's always been to them down through the years, but I thank God for the revelation of Jesus Christ, of having to come, having come to something that's real, and really know. (Sings: Sweeter Each Day) Can you sing it? (Sings) Can you lift your hands up and close your eyes? We sing that little song: Reach out and touch the Lord as He goes by. Use to sing that under the tent a lot. Reach out and touch the Lord. Have you ever tried to reach out and touch the Lord? We use to sing another song was called: How long has it been since you talked with the Lord? How long since you stayed on your knees until the light showed through? How long? Another little song we use to sing: People often see you as you are outside, but Jesus really knows you as you are inside. You know sometimes, we do things as to what it might appear to make us look like on the outside, but the Lord Jesus sees us as one inside. It doesn't matter so much what we look like outside, but it matters a whole lot as to what we look like on the inside. And as to find favoritism, as to what people might think about us outside, it doesn't matter all that much, in that you don't last that long in this world. Life is but few days and full of trouble, and life is swifter than a shuttle. It's full of vanity. All is vanity and vexation of spirit. But what you are on the inside matters. It matters. It matters a lot. So tonight, while they're playing that little song, Reach out and touch the Lord. Let's just close our eyes and lift up our hands, and let's think about Jesus just for a few minutes, just think about Him. The Bible said, Examine yourselves and see if you be in the faith. Just to think about Him for a few minutes. And ask yourself the question, Lord, if the translation took place like Brother Pike saw it the other night after the Nevada crusade, would I really meet the Lord in peace? Would I make the translation? Am I really playing a game with my life? Have I really made things right with the Lord? Do I really have a deep, deep conviction as to a staunch faith that I really would be translated? Do I really have that kind of conviction in my heart? Folks, if you don't have that kind of conviction, you won't make it. Enoch was translated by faith that he should not see death. And if you're going to make it, you're going to have to have a staunch conviction that you're going to be translated. If you really truthfully don't believe that you'll be translated, you're not going to make it. And just to believe that in your head as to an intellectual concept, you'll never make it. You'll never make the translation. You're going to have to have a conviction deep down in your heart, because the Bible said, With the heart, with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. Faith is in the heart. Faith is in the heart. And you're going to have to have a conviction of the heart. And the only way to do that is to do the things that please Him. To just do anything out in the world and then accept the fact that you're going to make it, you'll never make it. You've got to do the things that please Him, and then when you do that, you will assure your heart with a confidence before God, and that confidence will be faith. And that will translate your spirit, because your faith has to be a derivative of your spirit. And your spirit is in your heart. An unless you have that confidence of heart, you'll never make the translation. I can assure you that all of your intellectual ability and your intellectual concern will never make you make the translation. It's got to be a spiritual conviction of heart, because it's going to be a spiritual translation. And unless it's faith from your spirit, then your spirit will not make the contact with the great Holy Spirit, the eternal Father of Spirits, so you'll never make it. While you got your hands up, and your eyes closed, we're going to sing this little chorus together. Sing: I Will Praise Him. Sing it with me again. (Sings) I'm going to ask Brother Gary Joiner to come and dismiss us if he will. Are you ready for the translation? They're going to sing it one more time as Gary comes.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

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

Holiness Unto The Lord