Predestination

...over to the book of First Peter. Put you a little marker there and hold it, because that's one of the Scriptures I'm going to use. And notice this now. I want you to notice here in First Peter, in the first chapter. I want to read this verse and then we'll come back to another one. The 23rd verse, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." Now then, we can easily see by that that when he speaks of the seed of God remaining in him that he's speaking of Word of God. How many of you understand that? The Word of God remaineth in him and he cannot sin. Now then, I want you to turn with me tonight, children of God, right over here to the book of Romans. Turn with me. If you've got your Bibles follow me, because you want to be sure. This is a highly disputed doctrine in our day. It's something that people continually dispute. They cross up on it, and now they don't know what to do. They know that it's in the Bible and some of them don't even attempt to understand it. They just say, Well, I'm not going to teach it because it don't agree with our doctrine. I ain't got no doctrine to protect tonight but the doctrine of Jesus Christ. And the Bible asks the question, who can I teach doctrine? He that is weaned from the breast. So He instructed us to teach doctrine, and this is the doctrine of the Word tonight, that our hearts might be established in grace. Reading here in the eighth chapter of the book of Romans so that we can get a thought tonight. In the eighth chapter I believe it is. All right. Reading in the eighth chapter, and I want you to listen real close, children of God. It says here in the twenty-eighth verse, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Now then, I'm going to read this next verse, and I'm going to take my time tonight and just talk to you, because I want to make this real clear. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." Now, I can say to you, I can say, Well, I don't believe in predestination, but the Bible said they were saved by faith in the Word, Brother Joe. Now, if I don't believe in predestination I don't believe in the Word of God. The Bible said you can't take one word of it away. If you take one word away your part will be taken out of the book life. Now then, line upon line, precept upon precept, no alterations and no changes. No other foundations can any man lay less you take heed how you build thereupon. It says here in the Word of God that them that He foreknew He predestinated. He predestinated. That means it's the Word of God. That means that if I'm to be saved I've got to believe in it. Whether they teach it or whether they don't teach, it's still the Word of God. And Paul said, I've not failed, or shunned to declare unto you the full counsel of the Lord, and this is part of the counsel of the Lord. I know that down through the years I've heard use this on me. They'd say, Well, don't preach that, Brother. Say, Well, why? Well, you'll just mix people up. If the Word of God mixes people up they need to be mixed up. Paul preached it and he didn't mix nobody up. And Paul said if anybody preach anything outside of what he preached, though he be an angel let him be accursed. Never mixed nobody up. If it was going to mix somebody up why did God put it in the Word of God. It doesn't mix anybody up. It's just the devil that doesn't want us to know because it's the only thing that can bring the rapture. This is the only thing that can bring the change, and he doesn't want us to know about it. Lacking the understanding of this thing has caused more people to stumble, more people to be taken into captivity by the devil, and more people to have trouble than anyone thing I can think of right off hand. All right. Notice now. I want to settle that in our heart and in our mind. The first thing that I would like for you to do, now, is to remember that it is the Word of God. How many of you have your Bibles? How many of you have your Bibles? All right. Now. This is the Word of the living God. This is God's eternal Word. Now, it's first thing I want you to know, that I'm not preaching heresy. I'm not preaching ideas. I'm not preaching ideology. I'm preaching the Word of the living God. That's what I'm preaching. All right. If it's in your Bible then it's the Word of God. That's the first thing we want to settle, is that predestination is in the Bible. How many of you believe it's in the Bible? All right. Now, It's in the Bible; you read it right there. Now, if it's in the Bible, the Bible says that all of the things of God, not part of them, but it says, All of the things of God from the creation of the world are clearly understood by the things which do appear. All of them. All right. Let's look at this now and see it it's clearly understood. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." Now then, I want to ask you a question tonight. What did the Lord mean when He spoke here and he said, them that He foreknew? Them that He foreknew He predestinated. What did Christ mean when He said them that He foreknew He predestinated? I want somebody, while I hold this place, to turn over to the book of First Peter. Will you do that for me? Turn over there to the book of First Peter, and I'm going to ask Brother Roy, if he will to stand up and read right out loud, and I want you to listen real close, because I'll have to repeat it for the tape maybe, but I want Roy to stand up, if he will, and start at the first verse of the first chapter. And I want you to give real good attention, folks. Brother Roy, if you will. (Reads:) "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the stranger scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,") That's good, right there, Brother Roy. All right, now then. I want to stress one point here. Notice what it says here in the first part. He said that ye are elect, in the second verse, elect according to the foreknowledge of God. How many of you see that? Now, somebody said, Peter didn't preach election either; Peter didn't preach predestination. But, I want you to know that in the mouths of two, or three witnesses it was established that Peter and Paul preached identically the same thing. Now then, in the book of Jude, let's see if in the book of Jude if they preached predestination. We want at least three confirmations. We've done read about John. That really gives us three. But let's turn to the book of Jude and read the fourth verse and let's see what it says. Says in the fourth verse of the book of Jude, "For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." Now then, I want you to especially notice that. Peter said elect according to foreknowledge. Paul said them that He foreknew He did predestinate. Then, when Paul was preaching the Gospel He said as many as were ordained unto eternal life believed. As many as were ordained unto eternal life believed. Jesus said, Father, I have not lost a one of them that you have given me. But every one that you have given me I will raise him up in the last day. All right. He's says here in the twenty-ninth verse, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate." What did he mean? Them that are the called. He said, "Them that are the called according to his purpose." Them that are the called. Notice the thirtieth verse. "Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called" and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." Now, didn't the apostles preach the same thing? Peter stood up and spoke of Judas, and said, Before he was ever born it was prophesied to let his habitation be desolate, and let another his ministry, or his Bishopric take. Before he was ever born into the world. He didn't have nothing to do with it, nothing to say about it. Before he ever breathed his first breath the prophets prophesied that his habitation would be desolate. Said, Let another his Bishopric take before he ever breathed his first breath in the world. God spoke in His Word before there was ever a breath breathed. I've heard a lot of people say, Well, Judas was a good man; he just let the devil get into him. They may use that kind of expression; not the same words. But Jesus said when he took Judas, said, he was a devil from the beginning. He said, I chose twelve of you and one of you is a devil. Jesus said that. Why? Because He had the mind of God, and He knew that before the foundation of the world that God saw Judas doing that. He also knew that the prophets of old by foreknowledge also saw the same thing. Now then, is Judas the only one? How many know that Jeremiah, before Jeremiah was formed in his mother's womb, before he ever breathed a breath --Now, I want to use these two things as a contrast. One of them was called a devil. One of them went to his place because it was prophesied before he was ever born. Another one of them was prophesied to be a prophet. He said, Before you were ever formed in your mother's womb, he said, I knew you, and ordained you a prophet among men. Before you were ever born he spoke of sanctifying. Now then, is this the only one? The Bible speaks of Pharoah, and said, For this purpose have I raised him up, that I might show my glory through him. And then He speaks of Esau and Jacob. Before they were ever born into the world it said, Jacob have I love, but Esau have I hated. All right. Let's see if that's true. Let's see if we can find where Paul was speaking right quick here. All right. Notice in the ninth chapter of the book of Romans, and let's just see. Let's see what he means by this foreknowledge and elect that Jesus spoke of. In the tenth verse, and the eleventh. (Reads verses 10 through 16.) "And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to the election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I love but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then: Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." Christian people, I want you to hear this tonight. He said the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but the battle is the Lord's for God works all things after the council of his own will. You say, Brother Pike, I just don't teach my children that. Well, you're just teaching them the wrong doctrine, and they'll die and go to hell. Now then, if you listen to mama and daddy you'll die and go to hell. You had better listen to the Word of God. All right. Now, listen to this thing now. It says here, "For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." How many of you'd love for me to prove that it's not of him that runneth, or of him that sheweth mercy? The two men that went up to the temple, one of them said, I fast, I pay tithes. He told God what he'd done. God never even noticed him. Another man didn't do nothing but say have mercy. Says on whom God will show mercy right here. The other man said, Have mercy on me, God. And the Bible said he saved that man. He saved that man. That man was justified, and went away justified rather than the other, because he humbled himself realizing he had no hold on God, but he just said, Have mercy on me, God. Now, he said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Now, who will he have mercy on? The Bible said he gives more grace to the humble, and grace means mercy. He will have mercy on the humble. I will have mercy on the humble, Jesus said. All right. Notice this now. It's not him that willeth to runneth. Paul said when he spoke of it, he said, it's not of works lest any man should boast. But it is the gift of God. And here he says in the eleventh verse, "Before the children were ever born, not having done any good, nor any evil, said, they hadn't done any thing, they hadn't done any evil. Esau hadn't done any thing for God to tell him he hated him. Why, he hadn't even breathed his first breath; how could he have done any wrong? He hadn't done any good, or any evil, but God said, I hate you, Esau. I hate you. Now, before he ever breathed his breath He said, I hate you, Esau. But He said, Jacob, I love you. I love you. And look at it when he came along. Jacob went right on after he was born into this world, and what did he do? Jacob deceived his brother, was called a supplanter. He done everything he ought not to do, but God saved him anyway. God saved him. And what did Esau do? Esau cried. The Bible said he cried and sought repentance with bitter tears, but God had done said before he was ever born, I hate you, Esau. Said he found no place of repentance. Now then, now. So then, he said  Look what He says on down a little further. "For the Scriptures saith unto Pharoah, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and my name be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth." Remember this, Christian friend. When you begin to get selfish, hard hearted, and you begin to go contrary to God, and get negligent, God is hardening you heart. The Bible said the preparation of man's heart is from God. "Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? Who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? What is God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:" In other words he said, What if I have subjected those that are made for destruction unto suffering, and just let them suffer for years, and years, and years? What if I had just done that, He said. Then he said, "And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore," Notice this now. It said, "Which he had afore prepared unto glory," He hath afore  "Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." All right. Now then, we want to really get this to sink in tonight, that God knows what He's doing. That predestination is absolutely right. There is no way that you can deny it, and even in this day when it has never come to pass, God said there is a hundred and forty-four thousand Jews that will be saved. You've got that much foreknowledge because He's already told you here in the Bible; yet it hasn't ever come to pass. All of His works are known unto Him from the beginning. Then the Bible said, a great multitude that no man can number. He knows everyone of them that's in the great multitude. Knows everyone of them that's in the hundred and forty-four thousand. So then, we see here that the Bible said that God does what He pleases. Nobody can't tell God what to do. He said down here at the last verse, rather not the last verse, but near the last verse that we read here, said, who are you anyway that you would try to tell God what to do? Who are we to say, God, how come you made me like this? There ain't nothing you can do about it. There ain't nothing I can do about it. The only thing is if God will show mercy unto us. That's all. We're dependent on His mercy. There ain't no way you can get to Him. You can pray, you can fast, you can say, I fast twice a day, or pay my tithes. I do all of those things twice a week, you say. That won't get you to heaven. That won't do no good unless God has mercy on you. All right. Now then, I want to do back over here a little ways in Romans. I want to read a little more here now. Notice this. We want to take our time and clear this up to where there won't be no confusion. In the eighth chapter of the book of Romans it says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Now. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Notice in the six and seventh verses, and the eighth. "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." Now you ought to think on this. A lot of people will tell you we are still in the flesh and we can't help what we do, but I want you to notice this next verse. " But ye are not in the flesh, " but you open up the heavenly places. "But in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead" (That it, it's not active. It's obeying the world.) "because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." All right, now. Remember, them that He foreknew He also did predestinate. God predestinated them that He foreknew. He not only predestinated them here as we've got it wrote down, but the Bible said He justified them. How many of you know what justification means. Did you know that justification means it is as though it never happened? I wish we had time to explain it. Justification is as though it never happened. He sanctified them. He glorified then. How did He predestinate them? He done it by His foreknowledge, what He foreknew that man would do. Now, I don't think any of you could deny that God did do it. How many of you believe that God did do it? This is a good place to check up and see whether you are a believer, or not. Brother, this is a good test for your ideology, and your previous ideas, and your previous training, and all of your feelings? This is a good place to check it. If you can't deny it right now and accept the Word of God, you are absolutely lost. That's right sure. Now, now is a good time to see if you can lay down all of your ideology and accept the Word of God. If you couldn't believe what I said there you never would believe it. I gave you enough Scripture to confirm it to a nation. There you see that God does predestinate, have mercy on whom He will have mercy. And said, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated and they never had been born into the world. Not only that, the Jews. Not only that, but Jeremiah, and the others that I spoke of. So then He predestinated us by His foreknowledge. Peter said you are elect according to what God foreknew that you would do. God, before the foundation of the world, He looked down through the telescope of time, He saw everything that you would ever do during your lifetime. Now is that ideology, Brother Pike? The Bible said you are elect according to foreknowledge, and Paul said them that He foreknew He predestinated. Here predestination was according to foreknowledge. He foreknew who would come to the altar and repent. He not only foreknew who would repent, He foreknew who would go out yonder and live for God about three days and go back into the mud holes of the world. He not only knew how many times you would repent, but He knew how many times you would go back into the world. He knew how many times you'd say forgive me, Lord, and go back to the television. He knew how many times you would say I'm sorry to your brother, and go back and gossip and backbite. He knew how many days that you'd pray and seek God, how many weeks that you'd wander around in sin. He knew every time you came and repented, every time you laid up to live for the devil. He knew if you lived for God two years, and lived for Satan three years, came back and lived for God one day, lived for Satan a month, came back and lived for God ten years, went back and wasn't living for God in the end time. He knew every time that you repented and went away from God. All of His works are known unto Him from the beginning. By what He foreknew He predestinated you. He looked down through the telescope of time, He foresaw what you were going to do. He wrote your name in the Book of Life, or Jude said, He ordained you unto condemnation. He wrote your names in the Book of Life before the foundation of the world, and He slew the Lamb in His mind before the foundation of the world. Everything with God is foreknowledge. We went into it the other night, how that God just thought the world into existence. And how He repented over it when He saw all the blood shed and everything, but couldn't change it because of His integrity. So then, we see here that in the mind of God He saw the whole world before Him from the beginning. Saw every person that would rebel against Him. Everyone that would love Him, or worship Him. By foreknowledge God saw every bit of it. Then after the Lord saw it He looked down, and He said, This brother, this sister, their are going to serve me, but they can't serve me, because they are made a little lower than the fallen angels. Angels are greater in power and might, and fallen angels are a loose in the world. They can't serve me, though they want to serve me they can't serve me. So then He foreknew who would have the desire. I told you the other night the only thing you could have was the desire, and then the preparation of your heart is from God unto condemnation, or predestination, righteousness. So then, He said, Now, if this person had the chance they would serve me; they have a desire. So what did He do? He couldn't seal you with the Holy Ghost right then, could He? No. He couldn't do that, unless He did it in His mind. That's right. So, in His mind He gave you the Holy Ghost. He healed your sickness. He looked way out to the end of the road and saw you at the end of the road justified, sanctified, glorified. Saw every bit of it out at the end of the road. So He wrote your name down in the Book of Life according to what He saw. In the mind of God by foreknowledge He saw you saved, or lost, at the end of the road. How many of you believe that out there at the end of the road, that God when He saw that great multitude, that He knew who was missing and who wasn't missing. Have you ever looked at your children and could tell who was missing and who wasn't missing? He knew who was missing and who wasn't missing. So then, He saw them that was out there at the end of the road that had tried their best to live right. Now, He wrote their names down in the Lamb's Book of Life, because the only reason they got to the end of the road, the Bible said, He that endureth to the end the same shall be saved. Now, the only reason they endured to the end was because God predestinated them. You know what the word pre means? Before. Do you know what the word destination means? It means where you are going. God, before destinated you wherever you were going. He predestinated you. The Bible said He afore prepared them unto glory. He predestinated them, and they are the called according to God's purpose. Now then, He foreknew they would do right if they had the opportunity, but they couldn't live right because of the fallen angels so He looked down through the telescope of time and predestinated them in His knowledge that in case they should stumble, in case they should err, because he saw that their heart wasn't in it, their desire wasn't in it, he predestinated them so there would not be one mark of sin against them throughout the eternities. All right, now then. In doing this He saw that they would have to have something to overcome Satan, so He baptized them with the Holy Ghost. Then He justified them by slaying the Lamb in His mind. Then He sanctified them by the offering up of Jesus on the tree, and He glorified them. The Bible said He glorified them. In His mind He glorified them by foreknowledge seeing them complete in God. He healed you. Everything that you claim by faith, Jesus said, it's already finished from the foundation of the world. The works were finished from the foundation of the world, Brother Roy. Everything is already finished. You are made heir to healing because you believe that you are already healed. Calling those things that are not as though they are. You are justified by the same means, sanctified by the same means, and glorified by calling yourself glorified because the Scriptures said you are glorified. And in so doing you believe it until it becomes a conviction, and the change takes place in your life in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, and you find yourself in heaven. Now then, what does it mean? When God predestinated these, sealed them to where they could never be lost, to where they could never commit sin, to where there would never be an ought them all during their life time when He predestinated these. Now you know, this will make you think, won't it. A lot of people thought they were pretty smart, you know. They thought they were going to out smart God. What they were going to do they were going to give Him that last lap, like the turtle and the hare. You know, they thought they'd set down and rest awhile and on that last lap they'd run out there and get in. But you couldn't do it, could you? See? It wasn't on the last lap, it was on the first lap that it got you. So then you see the wisdom of God; how wonderful God is. Now a lot of people say, Well, I'm young and I can't serve God now, but when I get old, just before I breath my last breath I'm sure going to get in. But see? It don't work like that. So God saw your heart. He saw your desires, and the saw Judas' desire. He saw Jeremiah's desire. The reason He said, I love Jacob, and hate Esau, is because He saw when Esau was born that Esau was just going to do everything contrary to God. He saw Him doing that. He saw that he wasn't going to love God; he wasn't going to follow God. He saw him repenting in the beginning, but he saw he wasn't going to serve Him in the end, so He didn't give him no place of repentance. He saw Jacob, that Jacob wasn't going to do right at the beginning, but in the end Jacob would repent and come to God. So He said, I see what you're going to do, Jacob, and I love you for it. I see what you're going to do Esau, and He said, You are going to trouble my Kingdom and my people and I hate you for it. By foreknowledge God saw that. All right. Then God predestinated us. Now, He didn't just foreknow that we were going to be saved, but the Bible said He elected us unto grace. Ye are elect, just like you elect a president. Ye are elected unto grace by foreknowledge. (Begin side two.) Then He said, Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect. He said, it's God that justifies them; God's done all of these things. He said even the devil can't separate them from Him; nothing can't, (?) can't, poverty can't. Nothing can. Nobody can. Nothing can separate them from My love. I've predestinated them through Jesus Christ. All right. Then what does it mean? It means that by predestination we have come to a finished work in God. When God brings the last age, and He (?) the last age, He will reveal what He's done, and we won't be like the wishy-washy, wavering Christians of yesterday, because they did not know. But we know that we can't sin. We know that he that is born of God can't sin. He's never sinned again. There is not one sin in his life. We know that if a man sins he's never seen God. He's never met God. He never was in the foreknowledge of God. If he comes to church and falls away we know that he never knew God. Why? Because the Bible tells us that. Said we were of old foreordained unto condemnation. And then you say, Some of them are bound to be lost, Brother Pike. Jesus said, Father, I've not lost a one of them that you gave me. Where did He give them to Him? In His foreknowledge. Now, somebody said, But the Bible said He'll blot their name out of the Book of Life. The Bible didn't said He'd blot their name out of the Book of Life. There's no place where God said He'd blot their life out. He said, He that overcometh I will not blot his name out. That's what He told them. I will not blot His name out of the Book of Life. That's what He told them. All right. Now then, predestination, justification, sanctification, glorification all was given to us for this purpose, friend, that our faith cannot be perfected as long as we think that today we're living right and tomorrow we might sin. We've got to come to a place to where we know we're perfect before God. Our faith is made perfect by the works that were finished from the foundation of the world in Jesus Christ. They said, What must we do to work the works of God? Jesus said, This is the works of God, that you believe on whom the Father has sent. Somebody said, Now, Brother Pike, you have really done it. Now then you've told us we can get to Heaven without doing anything. Now you've really done it. No. Now I'm just trying to show you up; that's all I'm trying to do. If you've not got the nature of Jesus Christ you've not been living right no way. You've just been hiding among the Christians. You ain't never lived right. You thought evil, filthy, ungodly thoughts all the time and people just didn't know it. That's right. If they'd been of us they no doubt would have stayed with us, but they went out from us that it might be made manifest that they were never of us; the Bible said so. All right. Now then, predestination, it doesn't cause anybody to fall away from God. It doesn't cause anybody to turn away from God. What does it do? It just shows you who is and who ain't. If you've got the nature of Jesus Christ when you learn that you're predestinated you'll love Him more than you've ever loved Him in your life. You'll say, Thank God. I've always tried to hold on and the devil told me I couldn't. But, God, I know I've got it now. And if you aren't of God --Somebody will say, Boy, I always thought it was grace. Now I can do what I want to, because I'm going anyway. See? It will show you up. That's what it's suppose to do. So then, predestination does what? It causes the Scripture to be brought to pass where it said, If you have tasted of the Heavenly gift, if you have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost. How are you going to be made partakers of the Holy Ghost. He'll pour out His spirit in the last days, the rain will come on the just and the unjust. How are you going to taste of the Heavenly things? By being in church hearing the preacher preach. All these things, coming into the knowledge of the truth. He said, And then if you turn around and say I won't accept it, God already saw it. From the foundation of the world He saw it. He said, if there is no more hope for you ain't no need of you coming back to church. There ain't no need of you coming. Why did he say that? Because He said, if you were one time made eligible for this, and then if you turn away from it, He said there would have to be a second crucifixion, because one crucifixion was to atone for the sin of Adam. Now, He said, a second knowledge of the truth has come, and you see it after you got a knowledge of the truth. That's why you hear me preach dispensational grace. God gave dispensational grace because the people did not have a knowledge of God. But now they have come to a knowledge of God, there is no more grace. When you come to the knowledge of God if you reject God you are lost forever, because to get back to God when you have the knowledge of sin and you sin then you are blaspheming the Holy Spirit. That's what you are doing. You are blaspheming the Holy Ghost, because when you know to do good and won't do it, to him that's sin, and a willful sin has no forgiveness, but fearful looking forward to judgment, and a fiery indignation that shall devour the adversary. How many understand what I'm saying? When you come to the knowledge of the truth  I could preach two hours and you might not get it, you might just hear it, but after awhile when I kept preaching and kept preaching, and something spoke to your heart, it wouldn't be a head knowledge then. And something said, You know he's telling you the truth. That's the Holy Spirit then. Now you can come against Brother Pike and get away with it, but you resist the Holy Spirit and you're lost. As when Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit; they died, didn't they? There wasn't any need to let them live anymore. They were dead anyway. So then, it means one thing, friend; that the knowledge of the truth is in this day. We can't deny it. We can't get around it. We can't go back and watch television, all those evil, filthy things. We can't go read filthy magazines. We can't go out here and try to ease around the corner, because if you do you are lost eternally; you'll never get back to God. You are the people that are required to come into the fullness of His stature to be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. You say, But, Brother Pike, why is God so strict on us and let's other people get by. Because they didn't have the fullness of the knowledge. You say, Well, I wish I had lived back there. And died and gone to the grave? Oh, I'm thankful to God. Let Him pull the line tight. He's letting me escape the grave by pulling the line tight. That's the reward for letting me walk (?). I like it like that way. All right. Predestination, justification, sanctification, glorification, means that he that is born of God cannot sin. Why can't he sin? All right. Listen real close. Sin is the willful transgression of the law. How many of you know that? And God is the spirit of love, which is the nature of Jesus Christ, which has been placed within our heart, and fulfills the laws of God by His nature imputed unto us as righteousness. His nature that fulfilled the law, the spirit of love, was imputed unto us as righteousness while He was made our sin when He knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ. That is to say, that Abraham's faith was imputed unto Abraham for righteousness, because his faith was in the Jesus Christ of righteousness, who was His righteousness. He accepted Jesus as His righteousness, and accepted the Lord as His righteousness. Then according to that God justified Him by faith, sanctified Him, which was the righteousness, by the offering up of the body that He believed in and got His justification through, and then glorified Him by the Holy Spirit that came through the faith of the justification and sanctification, because He before had predestinated Him unto that very thing. Is this coming in clear? All right. You say, Brother Pike, what are you saying? I'm going to say a little bit more here, and I'm not going to try to go to another subject because we want to just stay with this one and just take a little bit more. All right. Here's what I'm saying, Christian friend. First of all I'm saying that a willful transgression of the law is sin. Under the Old Testament He said, cursed is the man that continues not to do all these things contained in the law. And then he turned right around and said, No flesh shall be justified by the law, even Jesus kept the law and couldn't even be justified by it. The law condemned Him to death. Now, no flesh can be justified by the law. Because Jesus was to be our example He had to be justified in the Spirit, because that's the only way we can be justified though He kept the law. All right then, justification did not come by the law, and the Bible said when Jesus fulfilled the law that which is old is ready to be folded up and laid away, which was His outer man, or His body. That was the law. Now, in His inner man he was grace. He was grace. In His inner man he made Himself twain. So then, He folded up His body and laid it away, which was the law. Showing that the law had been fulfilled in Jesus. Then God, who is the Spirit of love, came into our heart. Now, how did He fulfilled the law. Let's give it a thought here? How did He fulfill the law? Paul told the Jews one time, He said, The name of God is blasphemed among you. He said, Because you say that you keep the law, and he said, you are a transgressor of the law. He said, But the Gentiles, which have not the law do fulfill the law by the love of God within them. Now, understand what I'm saying. They that do not have the law do the things that are contained in the law, by the love that's within them, and fulfill the law. Their thoughts, get this now, their thoughts are the means of accusing or else excusing one another. Do you understand what I'm saying? He said their thoughts shun the very appearance of evil. And accuse every evil thought that presents itself, and they bring every thought into subjection to Christ. And cast out every imagination, and meditate in His laws day and night, and keep their minds stayed on Christ Jesus, and fulfill the laws of God. He said they do it by faith. They find peace. They find strength. Now, what actually took place. Let's get a thought here. Why did the Baptist miss predestination when they taught it. How did they teach predestination? They teach that if you come to the altar, and repent that you've been saved. That's what they teach. And then if you go (I know because I've been a Baptist.) if you go away that you could do anything that you want to, but you are still saved. You can see how wrong they were. God saw before they ever came up there that they weren't going to be right. And besides that, besides that the Bible said the gifts of God are without repentance. You don't get the gifts of God through repentance. Eternal life don't come through repentance. You say, I can repent, Brother Pike, and get it. The Bible said for Christians to pray that God would grant them to them repentance. Esau sought repentance with bitter tears, but because he played around on God he never could live right. He'd make up his mind to live right, but he didn't have the nature of Jesus, he couldn't. He never could find repentance because he played around too long. He'd come and make a resolution before God, say, I'm going to do right, be out yonder doing the same things before he could get away good. What was it. He had gone to for and he couldn't find no place of repentance no more, though he tried to find it, just couldn't get his life straightened out. God doesn't give gifts through repentance. If He did he'd have to give everybody in this world a gift. Everybody in the world repents at one time, or another. God doesn't give them that way. How does he give them? He gives them through predestination and foreknowledge. You get the gift of eternal life through foreknowledge. You are called to be a prophet like Jeremiah was through foreknowledge. God saw the offices of God, the preachers. You can't make yourself a preacher. You can't make yourself a prophet. You can't make yourself have the gift of healing. It comes in the mind of God. Before the foundation of the world, He said, Jeremiah, I ordained you to be a prophet. All right. Predestination is the way that you get your gifts. You don't get them by repentance. You get them through foreknowledge. And they are without repentance. You don't get them through repentance. Now, how can you tell a real Christian? Here's the way you can tell one. When people come to the house of God, and they knell down here you can't tell the difference because the rain comes on the just and the unjust. And when the rain of God comes down one will cry just like the other one will cry, because they both see their wrong, they're both brought into the judgment, and both of them are crying for mercy. You can't tell them when they shout, because the tare enjoys the rain just like the wheat. You can't tell them by speaking in tongues, because the wandering stars, which are  darkness reflects the light just like a mirror. You can't tell them by that. You can't tell them by gifts, because He said in the last days there shall be false Christs. And the word christ mean the anointed ones, that the anointing would come down on them. But the people would be false themselves. But faith will arise and miracles would be wrought. I could go into that and prove it by the Scriptures. But how can you tell them? It's when they leave the altars of God, when they go out of the presence of God, and then watch which way their nature goes. They will come here and act just alike, but when they get outside of the rain of God, outside of the house of God that old nature within them will say, I sure would like to watch television tonight. I'm hungry. It'll say, I'm hungry for the ball games. I'm hungry for that comic book. I'm hungry for this thing over here. I'm hungry for that thing. But the Christian nature will say, I'm hungry for the Word of God. I'm hungry to pray. I love the Lord. I will sure be glad when Church time comes. And so their appetite leads them a different way. A nature of Jesus Christ walks exactly by the Word of the living God. It says amen to every jot and every tittle of the Word. It parallels one hundred per cent with the Word, because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, and Jesus said the Word is truth, which means the Holy Ghost is the spirit of the Word. How could it do anything else? It's the Word made spirit. You are saved by the faith in the Word, and the Spirit of the Word comes forth and seals your spirit until the day it redeems your body. That's the Holy Ghost coming into you when you believe the Word. Now. Predestination is the only way. You are elect according to foreknowledge, and God in his foreknowledge said, Let whosoever will come. He didn't bar anybody. You say, Well, does that mean, Brother Pike, if I live right that I'll go? It sure does, because it all ain't over yet. If you live right He saw it. If you don't live right He saw it. If you start to live right and tomorrow you get back in that old carnal mind He saw it, but I'm going to tell you something. You can't live right without being born again. You can't live  When God predestinated man then after that He sent preachers into the world. Somebody told  To show you how childish people can really be, somebody said, Well, if God predestinated us what's the use of preaching. Ain't that absurd? Now, in other words, why do you go preach if God's already saved them in His mind? Because God saved them in His mind by my preaching. How could I do anything else but preach when He saw me preaching? How could the people be saved without a preacher? Because when He saw them saved He saw them saved by the preaching. So then, What do they do? Jesus said, I came to seek and to save that which was lost. They go out to preach the gospel that them that have been predestinated might have a chance to hear while they are in their sinful condition, because predestination has never been confirmed in their life. Predestination has to be confirmed. He saw them, and there is no way they will miss it, but the preacher comes to preach it because it is a confirmation of their predestination. All right. How are they saved? He preaches the gospel, the sheep hear the voice of God, they feel the drawing, and you can't come to Him unless His Spirit draws you. You can't get to Him. Somebody said, Why don't all the world come to God? Because He doesn't bother to call them. Why should He draw them? they're not going to live right anyway. So then, He doesn't draw them, that's why? All right, then. You can see right here that if the Spirit of God doesn't draw you there is no way to get to God. There is absolutely no way. That's why I don't believe anybody will be saved through the tribulation; the Spirit of God will be lifted. Then predestination shows that the preacher comes and preaches the Word of God and then those that have been predestinated according to the foreknowledge of the Word of God, according to the teaching, those that have been predestinated hears the voice of God, come and repents of their sins, God puts the nature of Jesus Christ within them, seals them with the Holy Ghost, and turns them a loose to resist the devil until the day He redeems their body. So then, they are saved by foreknowledge. Somebody said the Holy Ghost is what saves people. The Bible doesn't teach that. God is what saved you. We know the Holy Ghost saves you, but they speak of the baptism of the Holy Ghost as what saves you. The Bible doesn't teach that. I want get into the baptisms one night and show you. But you are saved by foreknowledge, elect according to foreknowledge, you are sealed by the Holy Ghost. Just you would make a jar of preserves and it would spoil if you didn't put a seal on it. They are preserves before you ever put the seal on them. So by predestination your name is already written down before they ever get the seal of the Holy Ghost on you. When God seals you with the Holy Ghost, for He is the power to resist unclean spirits to keep you from spoiling until the day God redeems your body. How many of you understand what I'm saying? Now then, there is more we could say concerning this tonight, but I don't want to hold you to long, but I don't want to let you go until I know that you thoroughly understand what I say. Now, I'm going to ask you a question. How many of you  I want you to raise your hand now. How many of you believe in predestination? All right, now, what does predestination do to you? What good is it to you? Oh, It's everything. But what can we notice that would be good to us? One thing. It's until you can believe that you are absolutely without sin, without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish your faith will not be perfect and you will not go in the rapture. You will not go in the rapture! You will not! As long as your faith is anchored in your works your faith is going to go just the way your works does, up and down, up and down. You are going to be saved today in your mind, you're going to be back slid tomorrow, but when you place your faith in the finished works of Jesus Christ, predestination, and in the Word of God like it's suppose to be anchored in the Word of God, and don't accept nothing but the Word of God, and don't condemn yourself when you do stumble, and make sure that your stumbling is according to your error and not jealousy, or willfulness, then you will be perfect in God. Now, I want to say this and I'm going to close by the help the Lord. Why is it that you can't sin? We know it's because of predestination, but let's just give a little explanation. Blessed is the man unto whom God will not impute sin. Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven and his iniquities are covered. His seed, which is the Word of God in your heart gives you the faith, unwavering faith that was once delivered to the saints, the faith of Jesus Christ, your justification. It comes into your heart and every time you stumble, the seed which is the Word speaks to you and tells you that God still loves you, that God still holds you up, and that God still doesn't charge anything against you. And your justification  In this day the priesthood had been changed, the law has been changed, the law today is love and the priesthood is Jesus Christ, and you are justified by faith, because the Bible said, That that is not of faith is sin, and you are justified by the faith of Jesus Christ. And the faith of Jesus Christ comes by the seed of God's Word. And it never wavers. You never can transgress it, so you never can sin. How many of you understand that? Now, I'm going to say one more thing. How many of you believe that a dead man in the grave can transgress the laws of the land? I want to see your hands. Everybody that believes that a dead man can transgress the laws of the land. The Bible said, Reckon yourselves to be dead. Dead unto sin and alive unto God. You're dead in your body. That's why I read in Romans, there is no more condemnation to them that are in Christ. Somebody said that means that you won't ever feel condemned anymore. That's not true. That's absolutely not true, for the Bible said, Happy is the man that condemneth not himself in that thing which he allows. And if our heart condemn us God knoweth more than our heart. Grace in our heart knows all things. It means there is not one ought between you and God. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. Why? Because Jesus Christ's body took away the sin of every living body, or every living creature that's in the world and there is no such thing as sin in flesh. It is sin of the soul. If you sin the sin of the soul you'll die. And a Christian can't sin the sin of the soul because he's got the nature of Jesus Christ. He's been born again. The seed is there; he can't sin. And there is certainly no sin to the body no matter how much you stumble, so you can't sin. How long is he's perfected? I want somebody to tell me, in closing, how long he's perfected. Say it again. For ever. All right. I want us all to say that together as a confirmation tonight. I want us everyone to speak together and say how long we're perfected. Let's do it together. For ever. All right. For ever. I believe it. For ever. Now then, we're glad tonight to have a chance to speak to you about the Word of the Lord. And if there is anything you don't understand about it we'll be glad to do our best to explain it. And I want you to remember one thing. Don't throw it aside because it's the truth, and it's thus saith the Word of the Lord. Turn our services back to Brother Stevenson.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

Founder and first President of Jesus Christs Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.

Holiness Unto The Lord