The Angel Of The End

Now, like I said before — you can be seated. I'm sorry. Like I said before, I like to get into the Scriptures. I like the Scriptures. I don't care where you go in them. Talk about the Old Testament, the New Testament; I don't care. I just love the Scriptures. I love the Word of the Lord. And whatever you want to do, well, that suits me fine but I have to admit that I like the deep mysteries of God. I like the deep mysteries of God because I've spent so many years in the deep mysteries of God. And when you once get into the deep mysteries of God you want the deep mysteries of God. You want those deep wonderful, spiritual things. So, it's like Peter. Peter got into a few deep things, more than some of the Brethren. And he got so deep he looked beyond the veil and saw that Christ was in their midst walking in a human body. And he looked beyond that veil and the deep calling unto the deep he recognized Christ and received the keys to the Kingdom. Now, that's pretty good. When you get the keys to the Kingdom that means that you just open it up and you get anything you want. So, it was wonderful but even then Peter never waded as deep as Paul. He had some great experiences. He walked on the water. He raised the dead. His shadow so inspired people that they were healed but he never did wade in the water that Paul did. Paul got so deep, that is to the depths, got so deep that even Peter made the statement, said, Paul says things that are hard to be understood, that they that are unlearned do wrest to their own destruction. Then when the confrontation came Paul said, I blamed Peter to his face because he was to be blamed. Now, you can't imagine somebody like Paul being so lifted up in his mind, as the world would say, that Paul would say, They that seem to be somewhat in conference, they don't add nothing to me. And he said, as to the apostles, I labored more fervent than all of them. And said, Peter, I blame you because you are to be blamed. And he could have said, You walked on the water like Jesus did (Paul had never walked on the water.) and you raised the dead and you did all these great and mighty things, but still, foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ evidently was set forth and crucified. And so then, he had a confrontation with him. Now, it shows the greatness and the power of Almighty God in the understanding of Paul. Someone would say, But, Brother Pike, since when did Paul ever walk on the water? He didn't; no record of it. But then the question arises, since when did Peter get caught up to the third heaven? Let's give the Lord a hand. So then, that means that there is something that's going on in every episode of life and things that one does another, perhaps, doesn't do. But it takes us all to fit together to be able to have the program of God. And there's great significance in Paul's life. He was the overseer to the Gentile Church. Someone would say, Well, wasn't Peter? No, he wasn't. Then what was Peter? Paul said if the gospel was committed unto Peter for the Jews, so has God committed the gospel unto me for the Gentiles. And because I am the Gentile apostle I magnify my office. So then, we see a difference and God said, Paul, I'm going to give you a mystery. I want you to go get me a bride. He did not say to Peter, go get a bride. Now. We can just take all night long in talking on this subject right here and go into those things because there are hundreds of thousands of things in the Bible that are great spiritual things. We're fortunate because we've been blessed to know some of these things. All right, now. We have an unction from the Holy One that we should have the mind of Christ and know all things, in that the mind of Christ knows all things. We're going to go back one more time now to the same Scripture, back over to the ten chapter of the book of Revelation. I want to remind you one more time, the eighth chapter, remember what happened? There was some trumpets that began to sound. And remember, there were seven trumpets that was to sound. The last three of the trumpets, woe, woe, woe. One woe cometh and then another woe. What was these woes out of the sound of the seven trumpets? Some of them was where the bottomless pit was opened up and locusts came out and all kind of things happened during the time of the sounding of the three woes and the last angelic messenger that was to sound. Remember this. The seventh angel sounded the Bible said. That last angel that was to sound, it was to be a woe. That was the last of the three woes. Two woes had sounded and then the breech came and there was an angel that stood with one foot on the land and one foot on the sea and his head in heaven and his hand raised to heaven. Now, we could say some things here that we had better not say. But, anyway, we're reluctant to say some things in a mixed audience sometimes to clarify things. But so we see then this angel. Who was this angel? He was in between the sixth trumpet and the seventh trumpet. All of them sounded in succession down to the sixth trumpet and all of a sudden this breach came in between the sixth and the seventh trumpet. And then we go back to say what we said this morning. And John said I looked and there it was an angel; an awesome sort of a thing. An awesome sort of a thing and he said, And this angel his head was in heaven. Face like the sun, a rainbow about his head, clothed with a cloud, feet like pillars of fire and in his hand he had a book. And see? And the thing we have to remember is it was an open book. Now, if you could run that all the way back to where the Lamb comes in Revelation in the fifth chapter, the first verse (where we preached on this before "And there was in the right hand of him that set upon the throne, a book written within and on the backside sealed with seven seals.") you'd understand something because when it was in the right hand of him that was sitting on the throne it wasn't an open book. It was a book and John said, And they searched through heaven and through earth looking for somebody to open the book and to look thereon and to loose the seals thereof. And the Bible said, in heaven nor in earth nor beneath the earth, as to them that had pasted in the previous generations, there wasn't anybody found at all. And he said, I wept much. And then a voice said, Weep not, John, for the lion of the tribe of Juda has prevailed to open the book and look thereon. Then all of a sudden he looked for a lion, as to the tribe of Juda and then he suddenly saw a lamb. Now, I made the statement like this. I ask the question, Why was it a lamb? Why did he take that book? I'm going to drop this in just before I refer to the Scripture again. He took that book as a lamb because He was a lamb when He was sacrificed. And He took that book when no one else could take that book because that was His body. "Lo, I come in the volume of the book as it is written of me, O God, to do Thy will. For sacrifices and offerings I wish not but a body Thou has prepared me." So, He came to redeem His body. See? The church is His body and that book was the book of redemption. Now, this also ties into something if you'll remember. We are an epistle that's known and read of all men. Okay. We are bone of His bone: we are flesh of His flesh. All right, now. So we see this. Here we find this angel and then all of a sudden this angel comes in. He breaks in with the open book. Now, when he comes with a book here John is still in heaven. He's still seeing these things. What we have to remember from the fourth chapter when the door is open in heaven, John goes up and all of those things of the revelation is seen of John in heaven even until the time that his great angel stands with one foot on the land and one foot on the sea and lifts up his hands and swears that time shall be no more. Then as John beholds this, Revelation 10 and 3, and then we bring it back to your mind as what was said this morning when we brought this to you because this is what we had on our mind. "And cried with a loud voice as when a lion roareth, and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices." Now, right back to where we were this morning to try to say just a little bit, as to whatever we can say, hoping that we can say a few things because great is the mystery. And we can say a lot of things and go on and on saying things, see? But I want to comment a little bit tonight and I hope you'll give me a chance to do that. Now, everything is reverent. Everything seems to be quite. You came in a good spirit. You received the reproof this morning real well and you came back with real entreaty. And that pleases the lord. So give of our time to God and God loves a cheerful giver. So you come here to try to hear the voice of God. Well, I come here to try to hear the voice of God. And the Bible said that when we get in the spirit it's not the man that speaks but it's God that is speaking from heaven, because God is a spirit. Where two or three are gathered in His midst He's there so there is not a question as to whether Christ is here or not. He's resurrected from the dead and He's here. But the thing is, is whether we give Him reverence and really believe that. Because we get things from Christ by believing because He is an invisible force and to make belief is not sufficient. That won't do any good. That won't bring things into focus. So that won't do us any good. You've got to believe. And then when you believe things turn to supernatural things and your environment becomes super natural and you find yourself not in a natural realm anymore. You find yourself in a spiritual supernatural realm. Because your realm, your atmosphere, your environment is determined according to your mind. And if you have an intellectual mind you are in an intellectual environment. If you have a mind of the world and desire of the world you are in an intellectual environment, as to a worldly environment. But if you have the mind of Christ and you get into the mind of Christ that Word is spirit and life and you suddenly find that your angelic being on the inside is translated into the Kingdom of God and you are in heaven. And then these things begin to take place as you see these things in the spirit. Being in the spirit; the spirit is heaven. John was in the spirit on the Lord's day and suddenly heaven opened up to him. Because there is no heaven except the spirit. God is a spirit. Heaven is a spirit. It's a spiritual world. It's a spiritual angelic being. When you are translated into the spirit of Christ that's a spirit man that's in a spirit world with a spirit mind and when you begin to get into the spirit then it begins to focus on your intellectual. Or that is, not your intellectual mind but your intellectual parts, as to the brain work. And when this mind begins to come forth from your heart it emanates through your blood stream and it strikes your brain cells. And then as it does it's like fingers on a typewriter and then all of a sudden these things are recorded. See? And they come forth and then they issue forth through utterance. From the heart the mouth speaketh and the Kingdom of God is within the heart. It's a spiritual thing. See? And all of sudden you find that you transformate in mind and your whole mind becomes transformated and then you feel real sacred and you feel real clean and you feel holy all over like suddenly you are in another world, another place. And that you are in an environment to where everything is sacred and everything is wonderful and everything is still and everything is pure and you think, oh, my God! my God! And you're just in expectation of something. And sure enough God begins to do all kind of things. Now, and the more we become__ You can't make believe; you've got to believe. You've got to get a conviction. You've got to actually come to the place to where that's a reality just as much so as it's a reality to you in the natural things. So, we're going to start again now. The preacher is to talk to you about the Bible, the Word of God, and use that like a bait, like a fisherman, like a bait to catch your minds to pull you into these wonderful spiritual depths, into these wonderful spiritual things because you're intellectual and you hear through your ears and you've got to hear something natural. You've got to have some natural printed page and something that will mediate between you and that that seems to be nothing to you. All right. You've got to go by feeling, sight and all these kind of things. So then, here is the angel. He's standing here (I want to repeat this again now) with one foot on the land, one foot on the sea, his hands raised to heaven and his head is in heaven. Now. At night we're not as fresh as we are in the morning. Our mind is crowded with the things of the day and our body's a little more worn and our minds is conglomerated with a whole lot of things, so it's not as smooth sailing. The waters are a little rougher and we have to just kind of bear with it a little bit and you have a little problem there. But when you have a good spirit you can work with it. Usually at night you have an evangelistic service. People are usually in such a state that you just rump the organ, you know, and go brumb, brumb, brumb, brumb and scream and holler and run with the mike until you just demand their attention and have an evangelist service and you start a healing line and all these kind of things and people start hollering and screaming and at the altars praying and all this; just evangelistic. But I'm trying at Little Bethlehem to stay with the teaching for the church and it makes it real difficult over in the evening because of our custom and our way of life and our mannerism. So, tonight we just have to kind of brave the sea if it gets a little bit rough. And here I again say this to you. This angel is standing here. He is called the mighty angel and the question arises, Why is he called the mighty angel? Who is he anyway? He is an angel but he's called the mighty angel. Why is he called the mighty angel. There are a lot of angels that are mighty but there is something different about this angel. Now, this might angel. Somebody says, What's so different about this angel as to other angels, Brother Pike? Why do they call him the mighty angel? Since when have you ever heard, or read in the Bible, or ever read in history anywhere, or heard of any statement or story of an angel who was so great that he could put one foot on the land and one on the sea and that his head would reach into heaven? Have you ever read of that before? There is no record of such an angel? And here this angel is unusual in that he's got a rainbow around about his head. Why does he have a rainbow about his head? Because it indicates the covenant. He is the angel of the covenant. That makes the difference. It's the rainbow over Noah's ark. It's the rainbow as the covering cherubs that is shown with the little ark of the covenant, of which we could say many things. And a lot of times I'm reluctant to get into a subject like this because it's such a broad scope it would take, as I said to my wife this morning, hours and hours to be able to cover the thing. But trying to say a little bit tonight to get your attention, so then when we look there he is. Now, let's look at it for a minute. I want to say one more time, why is it that he's the mighty angel? Because the Jewish people did not know Jesus. They did not know Jesus. And when this great wonderful angelic begin would appear to them they did not know him as Jesus so they just knew Him as the mighty angel because they did not know the Messiah. But here He is and then all of a sudden He has confiscated heaven and earth. And He is taking the liberty of saying time no more. Who is He to think that He has the right to end time and to end the world? What kind of angel does He think He is? Where have you ever heard of an angel doing that before? See? There is something different about Him. So here He is. And not only that, but what is He doing with this book? and this book is open. Going back to the same thing as to Revelation 5. Nobody could open that book there. Now what is He doing here with this book in His hand and this book is open? So then, here He stand and John is looking at Him. And while John is looking at Him it's such an awesome thing until I'm sure that only the Spirit of God, the strength of God could have caused John to be able to survive to see such a great thing, but being up into heaven and caught up into heaven he had a special anointing, a special strength about him that helped him as to be able to stand that kind of thing and to know what was going on. So then, while he was looking all of a sudden a voice cried like when a lion roareth and when it cried seven thunders uttered their voices. Now, right here I say again, Why did he have his foot on the land and sea and in heaven? Because in the beginning, the Bible said, he created the heavens. He created the earth, He created the seas. So He created all these things and He created them as three different worlds and they were lost to Satan. And now He has confiscated and taken these back. How do you know that He's taken them back, Brother Pike? How do you know that? Because the purpose of Christ in the earth was to redeem all that was lost and take it all back. How then do you know that this is the time of the taking back? Because it is the end of the world. If He doesn't take it then, then He'll never get it. So then, He's taken it back. And what makes you think He's taken it back at that time? What makes you think that everything has come to the place that they can be taken back at that time and that He can redeem all these things. First of all, it's very obvious that if He's got His foot here and His foot here and the Bible said I'll give you whatever where so ever ye set your foot. See? And we know then that He's got all three of them together. Body, soul and spirit, now. He's got it all back together. We say in the world we've got it all together. So we know that He's got it all together and we know it's at the end of the world. We know it's in the middle of Daniel's last week and time is no more. Now, there's a lot to be said about this. So then, when we come to this what are we looking at when we see this like that? What is this that's going on that He hath done this thing the way He has done it with His foot on the land and on the sea and His head in heaven? All of these things, the middle of Daniel's last week. Right in the middle of the seven years. About three and a half years, right in the middle of it, right here. And He declares that time shall be no more. See? He is declaring that time has ended. Think about that now. Time has ended. Time shall be no more. And He swear by Him that liveth forever and ever when the Lord commanded us saying thou shalt not swear. Angels don't have a right to swear. You don't have a right to swear. He said you can't make one hair black nor white. I know you can die your hair but I'm talking about really making it black or white. You don't have any power to re-fertilize or bring it back in anyway unless it be revealed to you. So you can't make a hair black nor white. See? You can't do anything. So why do you swear? But God said, I swear. I swear by Myself because I can swear by no greater. Blessing I will bless thee, Abraham, and multiplying I will multiply and thy seed shall be as the sands of the seashore. Don't you swear because you can't do yea nor nay but I can. I do what I want to when I get ready. I don't ask anybody. I don't request anything of anybody. I do it. Whether you like it or not; I do it. So, what can you say. I make one vessel unto honor; I make another unto dishonor. Paul said, Oh, man, what can you say to the potter, he hath the power over the clay to do whatever he wants to. He said, I hard whom I will and I'll have mercy on whom I will. So, then we look at it and we say, Well, there's something in us that rebels against that. Bless God, nobody can tell me that. That's because you're a fool. So then, people who aren't a fool will say, O my God! yes, God. Amen. Glory to God. Hallelujah, whatever. Don't let me think no thoughts against you. Don't let me be contrary because I know you're watching every thought that I think. See? And so then you find favor with God. So this gives us a chance. I lay in Zion a stumbling stone of offense. Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. Whosoever fall upon Him shall be broken, but if this stone fall on them then it will grind them to powder. He brings you here to break you. A broken contrite spirit is of great value in the sight of God and you don't know yourself. You don't know how ugly you are, how hard you are, how bitter you are, how careless you are. I was telling my wife late in the evening, I said, Betty, the young girls and boys are so hard. Hard. Harden not you heart as in the days of the provocation in the wilderness when they provoked Him for forty years, saw His works and He said, I'm grieved with this generation. I swear they shall not enter into my rest. And then He said the last generation would be a sinful, adulterous generation and seeking after a sign. So then, we come down and find out how hard you are when you run against somebody. Bless God, I ain't going to submit to nobody. I know as much as He does. I've got a feeling. I'm a human being like he's a human being. And then all of a sudden you run against God. See? This is where the Pharisees and Scribes got into trouble. They suddenly run into the Lord Jesus which was God in human form and they found later that they made the greatest mistake they ever made in all of their life, that God was there and He had set that stumbling stone of offense there that the world should be broken on it. And it's still the same today. It's still the same today. A lot of these things we don't elaborate on because we're trying to stay with one little thought here. But as children of the Lord, I warn you as a minister. So then we see, creating heaven and earth, now He hath come to gather it all back together. Satan has made a mess of it. He has come to purge it and gather it back together. Why is it in the middle of the last seven years that He does this? Why is it? There has to be a reason. The reason is, as I've said to you before, the prophecy that came from Daniel five hundred years before Calvary. This prophecy was: "And Messiah shall come and He shall make an end of sin." This is something the church world needs to get a hold of. I'm telling you, they are not going to be translated unless they get a hold of it. I feel sorry for the church world. They are good folks. They are still back out in evangelism and there is still all these kind of things and getting more worldly all the time and not growing in the grace and knowledge, just saying I'm saved and I belong to the football game and I belong to this and I belong to the ecclesia. And I'm trying to bring a little prestige to our community and we've got a good church and you ought to come over and all these king of things. And fellowshipping the world and doing all these kind of things and not going on with God and getting ready to meet Christ and not getting more like the Lord. They're getting more like the world all the time and I feel sorrow for them. But, nevertheless, when we look at this it is the middle of the week. Why is this like this? Daniel says, And Messiah shall come; He will make an end of sin. How does He make an end of sin? Now, I want to repent this again. He makes an end of sin by fulfilling the law for sin is the transgression of the law and He fulfills the law. He fulfills every jot and every title and He said, And the law shall not pass until every jot and every tittle is fulfilled. And so He came. He fulfilled it. He said, Father, it is finished. Now, I fulfilled every jot and every tittle, everything that you ever wanted, every desire. I'm the chief cornerstone. Now, When He did that He folded the law up and laid it away. It was within His body that He did that and He folded that body up as a Jewish treasure and laid it away. Now I wish we had time to detail these things. But, having done that, that means that the church, there was a change at Calvary and there is no more law to you. Why is there no more law to you? Because you are dead to the law. How are you dead to the law? Because when Jesus died at Calvary that was your body. That was you that died and when you die the law hath no more power over you and you are buried in a watery grave so the law hath no more power over people that are out there in the graves. And you're dead to the world and you are separated from the world. Your body is now dead. Your spirit cannot sin. It's been translated into the spirit of Christ and preserved by the great eternal Spirit without spot, wrinkle or blemish and Satan in darkness can never get near you, can never spot your spirit. So you are perfect, sanctified, justified, glorified, predestinated. You are now a new creature in a new world, resurrected from the dead, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. So then, He did away with sin. He made an end of sin. There is no sin to a Christian. You've got to transgress the law to sin and the law hath power over a man as long as he lives. Paul brought it out in his teachings. He said, Brethren, said, remember, the law hath power over a woman as long as her husband lives. As long as he lives if she's married to another man then she is an adulterer. I know in our day we got the little modern generation that says, Well, it's like this, and God changes; He understands. And we marry one time and three times but you are adulterers. Someone would say, Well, I don't believe that. But why does the Bible use the terms that the last generation will be an adulterous generation. If God has changed it why did he tag them as an adulterous generation? It's still adultery. So then__ And you know that this woman is bound to her husband, the laws of her husband, so long as he liveth. But if her husband be dead then is she free from that law and can be married to another. You are the very body of your husband. You are not just his wife, you're his bone and his flesh. (Begin tape one, side two.) So you're not suppose to have but one mind and that his. Now, you've got your brain and he's got his brain but you are suppose to have his mind. Now. When we come to this that's what the bride is. We're suppose to have Christ's mind and this body belongs to Christ. And whatever He thinks is suppose to be our desire. Whatever He thinks, that is suppose to be our desire. That's suppose to be what we're searching for, to try to find his very thoughts so that we can do exactly, explicitly, what He wants. You're not doing that. You're not doing that. I can feel it even in my audience tonight you're not doing that. You're not submitting at all, as to that conformity. But, nevertheless, the bride will and those few little elect will. And they are doing it wherever you find them around the world. But the people of the church world as a whole, even the Bethlemites, aren't doing it. So, then we understand that He did make an end of sin. He did take away the law. Somebody said, But I've heard you say that before. I know, but you didn't believe it. You didn't listen. You didn't really hear it. Having ears you hear not, see? And that's why I repeat it over and over, so the elect will get it. It's not a fairy tale. It's not something I'm saying. Somebody says, Well, I know you don't se Him, but I know I see Him. I mean I understand. And then you go around with a long face and go around with all of these things. See? That proves that you don't know nothing about nothing when it comes to them kind of things. You're just in a state of make-believe. And I understand children being like that but some of you have been here twenty years. See? So that means that you don't understand; you don't know. Why set in my audience and make like you do know and just cause me problems with your carnal mind and repel what God is trying to say and get to the people. So then, that means that you don't know. I tell you again there is no law. And where there is no law there is no transgression. And where there is no transgression there is no sin. And where there is no sin there is no death. And where there is no death then what are you looking forward to death for? Why are you worried about death? Oh, somebody said, I believe all of it. Well, why do you act like you act if you believe all of it? So then, that means that something is here now. It's not something that is going to come. That's not what it is. We're not waiting for some great something to come on the scene, or some great thing that's going to happen but that's what you're doing? You keep waiting. Somebody's got to come. Something has got to come. Man, I don't know who it is or what it is. I know we're getting close to it. Man, it's going to break forth after awhile. See? You're like little children; you don't understand. Like I say, you just don't understand. If you realized the right you would be today to know that it's been here and that it's happening. And this thing, you just haven't ever got understanding. You never have come into it. You never have allowed yourself to be given to God enough to be able to understand it. Jesus said have you yet hardened your heart? Oh, fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Scriptures have said to you, that the prophets have said unto you. We are slow of heart to believe. We're foolish because we are so interested in the things of the world and our own vain thoughts and prestige and mind and the ugliness of our own conceit, until we really don't ever get into the things of God. We're so churchy, Church of God, Pentecostal Holiness, all these other kind of churches. You know, my mother belonged to this and I belong to that and I'm a Bethlemite. That don't have anything to do with it at all, nothing to do with it at all. But I've fasted. That don't have nothing to do with it. Two days, ten days, forty days; it don't have nothing to do with it. I prayed all night. I don't care if you prayed ninety nights in a row, it don't have nothing to do with it. I come to church. I pay my tithes. Don't have nothing to do with it. So, when we consider this then we know that He really did take away sin. Now, if He took away sin, if He actually came and took away sin then why do you keep trying to take away sin? Why is it if you believe this why is it that you haven't entered into His rest? Why is it that every day you're trying to get away from sin, get away from sin, get away from condemnation, get away from sin? It's because you don't believe. You don't believe what I've said. See? With the heart man believeth unto righteousness. He doesn't go through works and ritualistics and all these other kind of things to get rid of condemnation, or to get rid of sin. He doesn't do that. So then, that means that we have got to come to the understanding of God and we've got to believe what the voice is saying to us. And if we don't believe it we don't have the faith. And if we don't have the faith we can be translated because Enoch was translated by faith that He should not see death. And the church must be translated by the same means of faith. So when we stop and think about it then we know that it's true that the prophecy that came to Daniel that four hundred and eighty-three years later at Calvary, sure enough Messiah came. And I tell you again that He came in the image of iniquity for the Bible said He will do away with iniquity, and to do away with iniquity there wasn't but one way and that was to destroy the image of iniquity which was the first man Adam because in Adam in his seamen, or his seed, all die. And he had to be done away with. And it wasn't no starting over. It wasn't getting them all and getting them all together and just cleaning them up and say, Well, here we are; we've got a case of do better. We're going to turn over a new leaf, new resolution and we're going to do all these things. It has nothing to do with it. God doesn't do that. You can't do that. Joining the church, coming before Brother Pike, or Billy Graham, Oral Roberts or anybody else, you can't do that. Brother Branham, if he was alive; you can't do that. That has nothing to do with it. See? It has nothing to do with it whatsoever. You can't do that. You've got to die. And you've got to die. I'm talking about die, not just make-believe that you died. Somebody said, Well, we just make-believe we died. No, you don't make-believe you die; you die. You've got to die, see? And when you die then that's the end of you. That's the end of you. See? You've got to come to your end. You've got to die. You've got to get rid of that little thought about your pretty face and you're pretty body and whether you're a pretty boy or a pretty girl, or whether you are the man of the hour, or the woman of the hour or the first lady or you've got all these things to do in life and you're just a glamour boy and girl and you've got all these things and you're going to be rich and you've got intelligence or__ You've got to get die. You've got to get rid of that. Kill that thing. That's a worm. That's the serpent. That is that intellectual geniusey of your own corruption. All flesh has corrupted it's way. There is no special people. So then, you've got to die and then after that there will come forth another creature, a real genuine birth, a real creature when you're dead. So that means there has got to be an erratic change. So, Jesus took away your iniquity. He killed the image of iniquity. So the image of iniquity is forever gone. And He took away your sins and your sins are forever gone. He that is born of God He cannot sin. I could go a lot farther than that and say things, as I have to some of the Brethren in the past, that would take all of my time of trying to explain these few things tonight of what I'm trying to say to you because it goes a lot farther than just not being able to see. But anyway, you cannot sin because you are born of God. Great is the mystery of godliness. So, in that you cannot sin death is at last conquered. O Death, where is thy sting? And if there is no sting of death and if we've passed from death unto life then, grave, where is thy victory? Now, the thing is, right there is the catchy place: to understand. And if we had time we'd like to explain it. Paul's mystery of sleeping. So, when we come to this we're back to the middle of the week. How is it that all of a sudden now the end of the world is here? Four hundred and eighty-three years and then two thousand years of the church ages and then comes the last week of Daniel, the seven years of tribulation. Is it really seven years of tribulation? Someone would say, Well, Brother Pike, for a certainly it is seven years of tribulation. Then the question arises, if it's seven years of tribulation why is it called the revelation of Jesus Christ. So we look at it and the last seven years comes in. What is this seven years? It belongs, as you know, to the four hundred and eighty-three years, which makes four hundred and ninety years and Daniel said four hundred and ninety years. Or the angel did to Daniel. Four hundred and ninety years are determined upon thy people to make an end, which means the Jewish people because Daniel was a Jew. There is just going to be four hundred and ninety years. Now when you think about this, this sounds awesome, as I've said in the past. That means that there wasn't but four hundred and ninety years of the earthly episode of life, that there wouldn't be but four hundred and ninety years of the earthly life, of the episode of the earthly life. And it would all be over. That would be the end of it. So then, we say, Well, what is all this other? Brother Pike, what is all this other if it's four hundred and eighty years to Calvary and the seven years brings the last of making the four hundred and ninety years which is upon the Jew, what about all the rest of it? Look at Calvary. Four hundred and ninety years upon thy people, Daniel. And from that time, the four eighty-three to the seven, Daniel's people have been out of the presence of God and they have been turned away as Jesus was forsaken. So they were out of the presence of God. Revelation 6. And the sixth seal shows that the fig tree dropped her figs. Or the Bible said the stars fell from heaven as a fig tree that shaketh her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And sure enough out they went and for two thousand years they've not known the Messiah. For two thousand years they haven't been in this wonderful era. They've been dead folks. They've been through the holocaust. They've been through misery. And even the last seven years comes the tribulation period. And here we are. From Calvary we've been eating and we've been drinking and we've been splurging and we've been blessed. And we've had all kind of medical aids and we've all the benefits. And instead of war we've lived like kings. While the blood was spilled on the other side of the hill as we say, on the other side of the ocean, we've lived in heaven. So it has been a world of difference. And if we elaborate on that any more we'd have a hang-up right here, as to getting on with the other things. So then, we see that there is a difference. My! how we need to say so many things on that to clarify it. But when we say that He made an end, He made an end. That was all. And there is a lot more to that prophecy that we need to bring out as to detail, as to what else was said about that. There is no such thing as you backsliding. I want you to remember that again. We use the terms backsliding because it's a convenient word and people are acquainted with it from the past but there is no such thing as you backsliding. A Christian cannot backslide. Israel cannot backslide. The Bible called Israel a backsliding heifer because she was always backsliding. For God said, I have healed your backsliding. Your warfare is accomplished, Israel. And even to us who are spiritual Israel. So then, that means that our warfare is accomplished. See? And Israel's warfare is a finished thing and there is no such thing as a backsliding Christian. There's no such thing as a backsliding Jew. Israel is elect according to godliness and even if they don't believe, the Bible said, Can their unbelief make God's faith of none effect? God's faith, which is the faith of Jesus Christ, which is the righteousness of God, which has determined that a hundred and forty-four thousand of them shall be saved and sealed and that a portion of Israel shall be saved. And out of Zion shall come forth a deliverer and turn ungodliness away from Jacob and the whole house of Israel shall be saved. Can their unbelief make God's faith of none effect? No. Paul said, Your unrighteousness, what does it do? If just commends the righteousness of God. My! I need to explain those things to you. So, when we come to this we realize there is a lot of things in there that if we're going to understand, as to make the translation, we're going to have to get a different look at it. The church world is going to have to get a different view of it. They're going to have to go. Somebody said, Well, I don't believe all of that. I'm not trying to perfect you. I'm trying to perfect the saints, the elect. All I'm trying to do is to tell you that you are in a mess. And I'm preaching to you because this cuts you off while it brings the other believers in. You are an intellectual mess. See? So when we come to this then we know that the middle of the week tells us something. Now, I'm having to skip, skip, skip, just jump about here to be able to get these things together and a few little things together because so much is involved. When we come to the middle of the week, the reason that this thing comes together is because at last the Jews have come back. Now the bodily perspective is in view. And since the bodily perspective is in view that means that the thing is now a finished product. When the Jews come back that means that everything is together. When Jesus resurrected from the dead, as to the headship, He went up into the heavens and the rainbow is about His head and He sets upon the throne. And there He is the head of this great mighty angel. And now when He comes to the Jews, as to the middle of the week suddenly He's got His membership. He's got His body. He has collected the members now and now it's not just Him ruling in heaven and this power in heaven is in the spirit, but now it is in the earth. He now has His hundred and forty-four thousand. He now has His government in the earth and now He's fixing to sound the trumpet that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ that He should rule and reign forever and ever. He's got His membership together now as the government of the earth to bring in the millennium. And now He's got His foot on the land and on the sea and in heaven and all of it is connected together. And Jesus, the head, has returned as to the body to the bodily perspective of the Jewish people. And now they are to be the government of all the earth, of the land, and the sea and of heaven and all these things. So He's got it all back together now. See? And it takes in heaven and all of it is now joined together. So, the bodily perspective is there in the middle of the week. Now it's all over. Now it's ended. I don't want them Gentiles anymore. I don't need them Gentiles anymore. I don't need those reflectors anymore. Lay the ax to the root of the tree, cut down that vine, gather it into the wine press of Almighty God until the blood runs to the horses bridle. All right. So, we see then there is a reason for this angel being there. Now when we get to this place, as to these things, we should be getting into something on the thunders but we've done took so much time tonight that we're going to have to stop. Nevertheless, you've been a good audience. You listened real good. But coming to this place and a lot of other things that we need to say that leads up to what we would like to say. So then, we know that being in the middle of the week that something is happening. Something is happening. What is it? It is the end of the world. Is then the middle of Daniel's week the end of the world? Well, like I said, we'd have to get into a lot of things. I don't draw back on it. The only thing is I know that I don't have time to explain it and if I say some things it would be just enough to conglomerate it. So then, we do know that the middle of the week brings the end of the world. And tonight with the interest you've got, tonight with the drive you've got, tonight with the mind you've got I could go on for hours but I know if I go down the trail a little farther I'll get started in some things and then after awhile you'll start breaking down on me even though you're doing real good all the way through. I have no complaints whatsoever. None whatsoever. But I just know what will happen. But, anyway, this brings us to the middle of the week. This makes us to understand at least a little portion of what this thing is about about the angel. And we'd love to say a lot more about that mighty angel and why that is there in that particular place and what follows that of the mighty angel. We know pretty well what is previous to that but the thing is as to know what follows that of the mighty angel and what does that have to do with us right now, or we as people of Bethlehem? Or the things that are going on as to a present day truth? Or what does the thunders have to do with us? Brother Branham said one time, according to what I understand, he said, The thunders passed before me and I saw the thunders, he said, but they were in an unknown language and I couldn't interpret them. What does that have to do with us? See? Why could he not interpret the thunders? or were they to be interpreted? Or what is meant by the thunders? What is there to the thunders? What are the thunders all about anyway? He said, I believe, that that which will rapture the church is in the thunders. I believe that that is what it is that is in the thunders and he couldn't interpret it. Well, then we would say, Well, the reason he couldn't interpret it, it wasn't time for the rapture, or the translation when Brother Branham was here. Well, that brings up a question and a lot of thoughts but nevertheless let's stand together. I appreciate your kind attention tonight in listening. I'm glad to be able to say what little we could tonight especially with a audience like you were tonight. Think on these things and ask the Lord to help us to have a hunger and a thirst because if we could find this kind of audience, especially in the morning, or even at night and could stay with us, and we could. We could stay with each other, stay with it. See? We could go on and really get into some things but I'm always reluctant. When I get so far along I'm reluctant because I've tried many times, even with a diligence from the people and then when I get past a certain point they start breaking down on me and then I run into problems and then I get upset and I get grieved and I wish I hadn't started and my tapes get all conglomerated and they go out to people and then I wish I had never said anything. So, I just have to wait and get it in bits and pieces. As long as I can keep your interest all right. But with me it's a little thing for me to stay here. I can stay here all night long because I do that a lot of times. See? So it wouldn't be anything for me to just stay here and get into this more and more, deeper and deeper; more expansive because I just love to get into it. And you can believe it does cover great, great territory. And the whole time that I stayed here, if I stayed with you for hours, it wouldn't run out. It wouldn't grow dim. It wouldn't grow to where I wouldn't have anything to say; it would be hours upon hours, upon hours, upon hours, upon hours, upon hours and it would still go because it that plus many, many hours. So then, we just say these few little things tonight as to try to expound some things to where we can come together. I do say one thing, folks. You need to get out of the world. You need to get your mind off of the things of the world and start being spiritual minded because when this translation takes place if you are left (and you will be left) and if you are left you are going to just almost go slap out of your mind. It's going to be a night mare like you've never experience in your life. Oh, well, you don't know all them kind of things, Brother Pike, you know. We respect you and whatever, and you talk to us just like you know those things that__ How do you know, Brother Pike? You've never been there. It might be good if sometimes you could just talk to the Lord and say, Well, some things might be a little different from what I think because I can tell you, from the bottom of my soul, you're so wrong. You are so wrong. You don't know where I've been and you don't understand. You think you do but you don't. Especially you guys that are so brilliant. You are so sure you know but you don't. You've never even gotten around the corner. Just take my word for it. And be glad that you haven't and thank God that you haven't. Just go on doing whatever you're going to do. But if I talk to you be thankful. Be thankful. I say so many times the writer said, Be thankful for what you've got for to some folks these things would mean a lot. All right. Let's sing a little chorus together. (Singing.) Can we sing that with me? (Singing.) I want to sing that one more time. Can you sing that with me? Think of it now. (Singing.) Think about that now. Cut off from the world, to come out from the world just to get along with God, just to get the grace of God and to see the face of God. And the Bible said we behold as it would be, an open face the unveiled, changed into the very glory that God is changed into. Shut in with God in the secret place. There in His presence I'm beholding His face and I'm gaining new courage to run in the race. I love to be shut in with God. Have you ever been shut in with God? We sing that song sometimes, Did you ever drink a cup of loneliness with Him? A lot of people never have. Some people have. One more time together. (Singing.) While we're singing together the altars are open. If you'd like to come you're welcome to come. Let's sing this little chorus. I've got Brother Taylor rolling. He's rolling too fast now. I get a cord and he rolls off and leaves me. Let's sing this little chorus. I just kind of have to wait until he strikes the right key. It's not that we don't get in the right key but sometimes he rolls off and__ (Begin tape two, side one.)...can't tell you but it's a problem anyway. (Singing.) Do you love the Lord? We don't need the things of the world; we need the Lord's love. So let's sing this little chorus. (Singing.) Let's lift our hands up together and close our eyes. Take the few things that we've spoken to you about tonight, lay it to heart, get real hungry, ask the Lord to deal with us, bring us together with the kind of attitude that we had tonight a few times and we'll receive some edification that we ordinarily wouldn't receive and the Lord will begin to heal your bodies. He'll begin to bless your children. You're going through a crisis right now, testing your faith. He will open up your finance like you've never dreamed of. I challenge you tonight. Some of you are pressed real tight but remember, the Lord has his way. The preparation of a man's heart is from God. Isn't that right? Don't the Bible say that God holds the king's heart in His hand and he turns it whether so ever He will like the rivers of waters. Didn't he say that men shall give into your bosom good measure, heaped together, pressed down and running over? Didn't He say, I'll open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that you would not be able to receive? Isn't that right? Somebody would say, Well, Brother Pike, I just don't know anybody that can do that for us. That's where your problem is. You're not suppose to be looking at anybody. He didn't say that anybody would do that, did He? Didn't He say, And your God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory? And didn't He say if you delight yourself in Me I'll give you the desire of your heart and I'll make you to ride upon the high places of the earth? I'll feed you with the heritage of Jacob? I'll make all of your beds in the time of your sickness? My blessing will make you rich and add no sorrow? I'll give you the power to get wealth? I'll give you the desires of your heart if you delight yourself in Me? Isn't that right? So then, who are we looking to? Hangs His gates out of pearl, paves His streets with gold. And someone would say, Well, I've heard that before. I know that. I know that. Haven't you? But have you ever enjoyed those gates of pearls and streets of gold? Let's give Him a hand. See? It's one thing to hear about it and another thing to really enjoy it. Hallelujah! So then, tonight this is where your believing comes in. You say, Well, I'm a child of God. Somebody says, Well, I'm not good enough. Why aren't you good enough? Well, Brother Pike, I'm trying to get sin out of my life. Well, I've got good news for you. There ain't no sin in your life. Let's love the Lord. I'm speaking of the elect. So, if there ain't no sin in your life what do you need to do? You need to love the Lord, thank Him for removing sin. Isn't that right? Thank Him for removing sin. Oh, somebody said, I can't believe that. I'm not talking to you unbelievers. You elect, you thank God for it and you believe God, thank God for it and watch the windows of heaven begin to open up to you. I challenge you to do it before this week is out. I challenge you to do it before this week is out and if God don't do it for you before the week is out if you'll get sincere, I'll get down and kiss your feet. I'll line you up in a row. Somebody say hallelujah! I said it will change before the week is out if you'll just look to God and it will begin to pour in like a river. Somebody said, I just can't believe that. Well, just set that unbeliever over to the side and go on anyway because it's going to happen anyway. Somebody say hallelujah! We're bound to have some believers here. Bound to have some believers here. Bound to have some believers here. Hallelujah! I would that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. I'll supply all of your needs. Somebody said, Well, my needs aren't being supplied. Well, let's get right with God. He said He'd do it, didn't He? Has He ever lied? Can He alter the thing that's gone out of His mouth? Can He change it? Why isn't He doing it? There must be something wrong with us. Let's get right. Somebody said, What have I got to do to get right? Faith! Faith sanctifies you in His sight. Faith unto righteousness. Faith is the confession. God is the high priest of your confession and when you confess in faith what happens? You get it all. I give you all things that pertain unto life. Come on, folks, Let's resurrect from the dead. Glory to God! All right. Let's sing a little chorus, can we? (Singing.) Have you broke that old stony heart? Have you broke the old stony heart? My! What a hard hearted generation. Folks, get that intellectual conceit out of you; it's a hardener Get tender and sweet. Quit trying to reason it out. Quit trying to blame people with your problems. Get your faith up. Get your faith up. Get your faith up. Get your faith up. Somebody say hallelujah! Get your faith up! Wake up; come to life. Folks, we getting too carnal. Wake up; come to life. Break that shell. Come out of there and resurrect. Somebody say hallelujah! Glory to God! God wants that bondage broke. That intellectual reasoning, He wants it to go out the window. We're children of God. Give God a wave offering. We're children of God tonight. Hallelujah! We're children of God tonight. We're not suppose to be bound tonight. Get them minds in the right way. Get that rut out of here. You start worshipping God and all these scrutinizing things that we've got in here will go out the window and them devils and demons will flee and you won't be having the interference all the time we're having. Somebody say praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Break that old heart of stone and get it out of here. Throw that thing away. Hallelujah! God wants us to resurrect from the dead. The resurrection of the dead is here. I said the resurrection of the dead is here. I don't know a better place to start than Bethlehem, do you? I don't know of a better place to start than Bethlehem. Come on, folks. Let's resurrect for God. Let's resurrect for God. Let's give God our best. The whole world is waiting for you. You've got something the whole world doesn't have. We get letters from all over the world pleading for a crumb, saying they've never heard nothing like it in all of their life and you've got it and you need to give it to the world. You need to evangelize the Church of God up here. I said you need to evangelize the Baptist Church and the Methodist. You need to start by evangelizing your own home, your own life. Amen, and help us evangelize Bethlehem. Somebody say praise the Lord. Glory to God. Like the song writer said, when this great family of God gets together there's going to be a glad reunion. We sing that song, what a great reunion it's going to be when we all get together. So tonight while you're standing here worshipping God lift your hands up, close your eyes while we sing together. Let's sing the chorus I Will Praise Him. (Singing.) Do you want to praise Him? You praise Him because you want to praise Him? God loveth a cheerful giver. Stop blaming other people with your faults; realize that you are to blame and get in there and get that thing out of the way. Who is your enemy? Who is your enemy? Paul said, O wretched man that I am. Your enemy is you. Kill that wretched man and get him out of there. Kill old self. The Bible said lovers of self more than lovers of God. Start loving God. Forget about self. Deny self. Turn self off. Get away from self. Put self down and lift up Christ. Forget about self. Stop doing things for self. Look on others; consider them better. Seek their welfare; quit preparing for self. Quit trying to have securities for self. Quit worrying about income for self, home and houses, cars, understanding, education; all the things you want for self, talents, skills, money, prestige. Get rid of that and start thinking about somebody else. Quit criticizing people in your mind, finding fault. You're nothing but just an old devil. That's all you are. That's why you criticize your neighbor. That's why you find fault with your brother. That's why you're so discrepant in your mind, always finding fault with the laity, with the minister, always finding fault with the church, always finding fault with somebody, always got an ax to grind, always doing something, always gossiping, always backbiting, tongue full of deceit, the poison of asp under your lips, your feet swift to shed blood, get rid of them kind of people. You elect, you're not like that. You that are the elect, you don't have dirty, scrutinizing minds. You're not dirty. Everything to you is pure. To the pure all things are pure. To the defiled and unbelieving they don't see nobody pure; nothing pure. They don't look through clean windows. They are always dirty. Their minds are dirty. Their thoughts are filthy. The Bible said their thoughts are continually evil. They never stop. They never stop with their evil thoughts. Dirty, filthy windows. Their eyes of understanding is all conglomerated. But, elect, you're not like that. Children of God, you're not like that. Sheep of God, you might have got muddy but God is washing you off. You belong to God. You are His sheep. You've got a sheep nature. You've got a loving nature, a tender nature, a submissive nature. You've got the kind of nature that wants to be loved and cuddled and cared for, tender, easy to be hurt, willing to die all the day long, to be accounted for as sheep to the slaughter, willing, as the righteous, to die. Those intellectual giants out there, to keep them out. Willing to die to give them a little more grace so that God can try to reach out there among them and get out the elect, the rest of the elect and bring them in. Bowels of compassion of pity, love and understanding. So He's looking down from heaven upon you. Shut in with God. (Singing.) I'm going to ask Little Ernie to come up, if he will, and dismiss up. And while Little Ernie is coming__ The Bible speaks of the earnestness of your inheritance. To night as Little Ernie comes let's just lift our hands, close our eyes and let's worship the Lord tonight and let's love the Lord tonight. Do you believe in these things I'm saying? Folks, don't play games with me. Don't play games with God. Don't play games with your neighbor. Don't play games with your soul. Get down to business. I remember how Willie Smith used to come here. Willie Smith came among us. All of a sudden one morning over at Paul Ondo's house, there in the car, fixing to go to work. Just had made the statement, said felt healthy and well and strong like he was about eighteen years old, nothing wrong with him, and all of a sudden, one little thing as to his heel, a little scratch, a little place, blood poison, the heart, he was dead. In a few minutes he was dead. Are you going to do something for God? Are you going to clean up that mind of yours, that heart of yours. Are you going to make your thoughts continually pure and holy and godly? Are you going to meditate on the things of God? If anything hath any virtue in them think on these. Anything be lovely, anything be pure. Are you going to fight that thing and get away from that? There's been continual warfare. When are you going to do it? When are you going to start working on it? When are you going to make up your mind that you are not going to go and come, be double-minded, but you're going to do this one thing all the time? Concentrate on it and swear to your hurt and change not? When are you going to be clean and holy? bring your children up that way? When are you going to get rid of the old filthy things, as to that old carnal mind of death, as to your t.v's and your magazines and all the things that are bringing filth into your home? and the books that you get through the mail? Some of you spew like a Roman candle because our people__ We have a rule to throw those books in the garbage when they come in. You want them so bad on the campground so you go get your own mailbox so that you can get that filth and wallow in that mire. Don't you know, out here among these people one of these days God is going to set fire? He's going to set fire to your garbage can and He's going to burn you up with it. You just become a garbage can for all the filth. There is something on the inside of you that makes you want to see that, to look at that. To want that you've got to be ugly and filthy on the inside. The Bible speaks of the filth of the flesh. And the Bible said cleanse yourself from the filth of the flesh. Get that poison out from under your tongue, your lips. Stop being a whited sepulchre to look like something that you are not and on the inside get born again and let that spirit come into Christ. Be a real sheep, a real child of God, really pure and holy and godly. Get away from that old fleshly mind of zeal and feelings and ambitions and human senses. Stop eating and drinking all the time and buying and selling and laughing and going, visiting and relatives and friends and neighbors and these kind of things and get away from those things and love the Lord. You elect, you belong to God. You don't belong to the hog pens. You can't sin. Your sins are gone. You are clean. You are holy. You're upright. You're born again. You're faith has cleansed and perfected you. The faith of Jesus Christ has sanctified you forever. Paul, by my faith they have been sanctified, the Lord said. You're Gods. You're resurrected from the dead. That time is here and you're going to go off and leave all the world standing. See? Get right with God, love the Lord, enter into these gates. Don't go with the crowd. Don't mess with the Bethlemites that have always got their mind on eating and drinking and fussing and finding fault. You people, you have visitors to come out of other states to come to be with you and you invite them into your house and you revel with them and go on with them; you know you're in the mire like they are. Two can't walk together unless they be agreed and you know that you're the same thing they are and you only stay here as false brothers and sisters to cause me trouble. You've been that way ever since you've been here. But, folks, God's going to trouble you because you trouble me and one day He's going to set fire to your fields. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't come into the sanctuary in the wrong frame of mind. Don't come in with the wrong spirit. Don't go out with the wrong spirit. Don't go through the week with the wrong spirit. Don't be among the brethren with the wrong spirit. Don't come with the wrong attitude among the brothers and the sisters. Don't come with a dirty filthy mind of covetousness and lust. Don't come among them with all this attitude that's wrong, of greed and covetousness of the world, gullible desires of the flesh. Don't do that. God is watching your thoughts, every thought and the Bible said He's going to judge your thoughts by this gospel that I preach, even down to the intents of your heart. So then, while we're standing here close your eyes, lift your hands as we sing this again. (Singing.) Elect of God. Ye are elect of God. Before your were ever born into you were the elect of God. You've always been the elect of God. You can never be anything but the elect of God. It's not by your works and my works. It's not by what you think and I think. It's not by what you're trying to do and I'm trying to do. This is something that's preached to you, something you hear, something you believe. And when you receive the nature of Christ, as to Christ's spirit in you, you won't have to worry about works. Your nature will be to bear good fruits, holy fruits, pure virtuous things. It will be to have good thoughts. It will automatically make you that way because you will be full of the virtue and spirit of Christ that's the same yesterday, today, and forever. So then, you get the Spirit of the inside of you. If you don't have His spirit you're none of His. You're none of His. Remember that. There are some people here among us that are professing to be preachers that's a thorn in my flesh and the Lord is on the verge of really burning some of their fields and they won't back and get off of my back. They won't leave me alone so I can minister to my congregation. They don't have enough understanding to judge themselves and their own families but they are always judging me. I'm another man's servant. You don't have any right to do that. So then, tonight judge not one another to be a stumbling block, Paul said, but rather judge this that you don't be a stumbling block to anybody. You don't put an occasion to fall before your brother. So let's love one another with all purity as brothers and sisters in Christ and let's share one with another. If you love your neighbor then slay your fat cattle. Slay them and have a feast and share with the poor. Don't keep them stacked out on the hillside, your money in the bank. Do away with that and do something for God. Don't live next door and let people starve to death, let little ones overseas starve to death. Share the hunger with them. Share what you've got. Sell what you've got, give to the poor, provide bags that don't wax old. Lay up your treasures in heaven where thieves don't break through and steal and moth don't corrupt. Wherever your treasure is there you heart will be also. Make no provisions to fulfill the lust of the flesh, the desire of the flesh. But give yourself to God. Stop working for that which perishes. The meat that perishes. Is your body more than raiment and your life more than meat. Give yourself to Christ. This is what God wants. If you're not doing that you're missing the target. While you've got your hands up and your eyes closed and they are playing on the musical instruments Little Ernie is going to come and dismiss you. Pray for the services and pray for us. I'm around here trying to go my little bit. Sometimes I get a yearning to go off somewhere for numbers of days just to get with God but I don't like to leave my flock. I know the old saying, When the cat is away the mouse will play, and I don't like to do that. I try to stay with you day and night. There's a lot of things I can't say to you here but I do say to the Brethren out of the services. Talk to them as the few of them this evening. So I try to stay as close as I can. And yet there are other people that beg for us to come so I'm reluctant sometimes to do anything except try to stay around with you. Our family is bigger and bigger all over the world, and getting bigger all the time. People are translating the tracts all over the different parts of the world. And where we're falling down, as to our publication here, God is just causing it to blossom over there and they are publishing on the other side of the hill thousands of tracts. People are finding God. Things are still happening. Great wonderful things. People are being saved, healed and delivered and it's being taken out of the hands of the Bethlemites. So you that love the Lord, ye that are elect, you latch on to it and hold what you can. Don't let it go away from you. Hold fast and let no man take your crown because many people are reaching for it. They've seen it. They're getting a hold of it and the more it blossoms the more they reach for it. A lot of people at Bethlehem they are not after a crown. They are not after these wonderful things of God. They're just here so just like all churches they're here and there are false brothers and sisters and people that have got their mind on things of the natural; not on God. So then, you stay with God. You remain the elect. Don't receive somebody with the wrong doctrine. Don't fellowship them. Don't talk with them. Don't be part of them. Don't go with them. Don't listen to them. Withdraw from them and be clean and holy and godly and upright. Don't go out and reproach and do those things that are unlike God. Brother Pike is praying all the time that God will bless you financially, physically and spiritually and He will. If you'll stay in line, I give you my word, He will. The Bible said whoever you bless will be blessed. Whoever you curse will be cursed. But sometimes He lets us hit tight places and get in a real dilemma. Do you know why? Because we talk too much. We gossip too much. We backbite too much. We invite the wrong people into our house. We've got our mind to much on the world. The more God blesses us the more we get our mind on the world and want to do the worldly things and the worse off we are and God has to clip our wings once in awhile and pull those things out from under us, the feathers, to let us down on the briars to where we can get our mind back on spiritual things. And then we get our minds back on spiritual things, our faith comes back up and everything starts being all right. So I'm praying for you. Everything is fixing to blossom for the elect like a rose. You hold on. You've been through some hard places. The church has been through some hard places for years now across the world but God is fixing to bring a blessing like they've never had in their life. Hold on. Don't let this thing slip away from you. It's slipping away from you. You haven't seen it. See? You haven't seen it. If you had seen it you wouldn't let it slip away from you. Don't let it slip away from you. It's fast running it's chorus. I saw it run it's chorus at different places, as to the stages and conditions, as to the measures. And then God moved it. It's fast running it's chorus. Don't turn a loose of it. Hold on. Like I'm tell you; hold on. You that are elect you hold on to it because something is happening. Bow your heads, lift your hands one more time. Close your eyes. While we're standing here together and they're playing on the instruments Little Ernie is coming to dismiss you. One more time let's sing it. (Singing)

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

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

Holiness Unto The Lord