The Faith Of Jesus Christ

There's something about it when you think about grace. Without grace the whole world would just go to pieces. It isn't that God has just given grace to you and I as Christians, but the whole world has grace. And the only way that the world can continue is by grace. If it wasn't for the blood of Jesus on the mercy seat the Lord could never look in the direction of humanity one time without destroying them. He has placed the blood between Him and the people, or you. He has placed the blood there so that He can look at you and allow you this dispensational grace as the rain upon the tare as well as the wheat to give everybody a chance, as a human sovereignty, to find God and to make arrangements before the breath of life leaves their body. And in the event that you do not do that then you are lost. There is no making arrangements after you leave here. There is no weighed in the balance after you leave here. A lot of people have the erroneous idea that they are going to be weighed in the balance after they leave here and they're going to see if their good out weighs their bad or their bad out weighs the good, or if they've done more good things than they did bad things, or if God took a liking to them or doesn't take a liking to them. That doesn't have anything to do with it. Right here in the courts of God, which is the church, here the Word of the Lord__ Not the man speaking but God as they move into the Scriptures and God in your midst. The angels are there to judge the situation. The Saints are there to judge the situation and eternal life is offered to you through grace. Not of works lest any man should boast, but it is the gift of God and by grace He offers it to you. And if you accept it you pass from death unto life right here and now. If you don't accept it you do not pass from death unto life and that means that you are eternally cut off. So then, it is a serious thing to come into the house of the living God. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. And it is an unreasonable thing to be so unreasonable in your life that you cannot conceive or understand the simple terminology of salvation. Or that is, if you refuse to apply yourself that you might have the benefits of it. So, it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful life and a beautiful world and I know that we as people don't have time to listen to that. We don't have time to hear that. We don't have time to apply ourself long enough to understand that. But, nevertheless, whether so or not the land is full of preachers and churches and people testifying of the gospel to the extent that God intends for you to be accountable in the day of judgment. Violation of the law is no excuse because the law is everywhere so it's required of you and in the day of the judgment it will be required. All the days that you lived here, all the opportunities you had to hear the gospel and every day of your life will come before you and the Lord will require it of you. Though you did not apply yourself, did not have time. Whereas, the Bible said take time to be holy. Though you did not have the time He will still require it of you. Whether you know or whether you don't know you will understand right and wrong. The gospel has to go into all the world for a witness before the end can come. Once it has gone into all the world for a witness then shall the end come. Until then God will not bring the end because He intends to be justified in that day when He speaks and He says, I gave you opportunity to hear. All right. It's good to be here this morning to feel the presence of the Lord. Let's sing the little chorus I love Him, can we? I sing this chorus a lot of times because I think of what the Bible says, If you love Me you will keep My commandments. So, let's think on that as we sing this little chorus. (Singing) Let's sing it again now. (Singing) Can you sing it one more time together? (Singing) You can be seated. It's good to have you here this morning. It's still spring time. The birds are singing. Some say that they have seen the little robins. The song says, When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbing along that's usually springtime. They usually follow that kind of weather. So, that means that there must be some springtime somewhere around. The weather certainly has been nice. We ask God to give us an easy winter and thus far He has done it. We really haven't had any winter at all. God does answer prayer. As a matter-of-fact, He answers prayer in such an amazing way until sometimes He gets right frightening because you see His hands so quickly move and you see prayer so quickly answered and it's kind of frightening because you realize the great reality of the awesome God, that He is so close by and that He is holding you accountable to your thoughts and your deeds and that though He's kind and loving and sweet, long suffering, very patient, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and have everlasting life. Yet there is a time, at a time there will be an accountability of what you have done through your lifetime for every day you must give an account. Not only that, but the Bible says in that day He will judge the secrets of men's hearts, the very secrets of your heart. This morning everyone of you have secrets in your hearts. You have things in your heart you've said and thoughts in your heart that you've thought. And you have things, as to the past of memory that you're guilty of that should not have been and all of these secrets are in your heart. But someday all will be made open and God will judge the secrets of your heart by this gospel that I'm preaching. And God has given you an opportunity to clear all of that all out and to give an opportunity to make your confessions to God and to get your hearts straight and to keep it straight. But even after conviction and after conversion a lot of times people still continue to err and go on and say things and do things and make allowance for things and thoughts that should not be. And because of that then they run into problems. You do reap what you sow. It doesn't matter what it is you do reap it. Some people don't really believe that but you do; you reap what you sow. Every day of your life you must reap it. If you do not reap what you sow in this present world then that means that you are a bastard child and you are without chastisement. So, if you see the wicked spreading themselves as David of old said, like a green bay tree, no bonds in their death and their children dancing to the full, then just remember that they will reap what they sow. Though they will not reap it here because this is the land of Esau and God has given it into their hands, they will reap it when they leave this scene of life and they go to be with God. So, that means that some men's sins, as the Scripture says, go before them to the judgment to be judged in mercy in our reaping here day by day. Other men's sins follow after them and find themselves there with the people at the judgment that they might be judged and condemned and turned in to a Lake of Fire. So then, one way or another you will reap the things that you've sown. Well, we've been dealing with the Word of the Lord over and over and this morning I think we're just going to take a thought this morning concerning something that's been on my mind. I don't know that we'll even get into it. We may not even get started in to it. I can never tell. I just have to wait and see how the spirit of the Lord moves. Or where the hunger and thirst is. I always remind you of this. I try to be a constant reminder. Coming to church is not sufficient to get you into glory. Coming to church is not sufficient to get you into glory. You can be a church attender and never miss a service and still be lost and go into the fire. David said I saw them come to church, I saw them leave the house of God and then they were turned into hell. So coming to church isn't going to suffice. Belonging to a group of people or a community, even as Little Bethlehem, isn't going to suffice. You have to be holy even as He is holy. You have to take time out from life to be holy. Take time out from the thoughts of your own mind and take time out from the endeavors of your own life, the ambitions of your own life, to set your life in order with God and to adjust your attitude toward His Word that you believe and that you will perform this thing called faith. You know, there's one thing that we need to consider and that is when we say righteousness__ When we say righteousness__ It's like I was telling my wife the other day. I said, Betty, I said, we need to hunger and thirst after righteousness. You know what it is to be hungry and you know what it is to be thirsty, when it comes to water, drink or food, especially on a hot day. I said, But what we need to do is be thirsting for the spirit of God and hungering for the Word of God. And I said, If we do not hunger and we do not thirst then that means that we don't have faith. Now. Let's just analyze that just for a few minutes in discussion this morning. When we say believing, just mere believing is not sufficient. You may go up and stand before the minister many times as they do in the crusades around the world and you may make your confession but that still isn't sufficient. You may even cry. You may get down on your face and you may go through a lot of emotion; that still isn't sufficient. And you may cry from the bottom of your soul but that still isn't sufficient. That still isn't sufficient. There's only one thing that can get you into the presence of God and that is faith. And that faith is not your faith. That faith is another faith all together outside of your faith. I like to say it like that because if I don't say it like that then we still misconstrue it with our faith. It is not your faith. It is the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is one faith. Now if it is my faith that saves me and your faith that saves you then there is more than one faith because I've got a faith and you've got a faith and he's got a faith and she's got a faith and all of them believes what they believe. And I can talk to some of them and they'll say, Well, I believe it like this. Somebody else says, Well, I believe it like this. Somebody says, Well, I believe the King James Version. Somebody says, I believe the Catholic Bible. Some says, I believe the Hebrew Bible. So then, if it's a matter of believing then there is many believings. The Bible said if you believe there's one God you do well, so does the devil. And the churches of today around the world are built on the basis of believing, so then they believe. They believe in their doctrine. They believe in their social benefits. As I said, I don't mean this as a reproach and God forbid that I try to reproach anybody but it's like the letter we received in the last two or three days and the letter was from the Church of God, so far as I know the local Church of God, that ask us would we bring our ball team and come and join them in this olympic sort of a thing, whatever it is that's coming up. And they wanted to know about our players, or best players or whatever. I've never received an invitation, my people have never received an invitation to their church, to come to their worship service and then we receive an invitation to the ball game. Now you say, What do you think about that, Brother Pike? I think if that be the case then I need to quit preaching if that's the way the waters are to run because I sure am missing the boat. But, nevertheless, I just said that to say this. People believe all kind of things. People believe that they are healed of cancer and they die. And they get in to this rut called positive thinking and they say you have just got to positively think. You've got to believe that it's not there. That is, you've just got to be positive that you don't have cancer though they told you you had cancer and they proved medically that you have cancer but you've just got to positively believe that it ain't there and it won't be there. I've got some news for you. You can positively believe all you want to with your intellectual exuberance and you're going to find out that you're still going to die with cancer. It ain't going to help at all. I've seen that tried many times in my lifetime. And I say again, when you get in to this positive thinking sort of a thing that the world has conjured up you are only more ignorant than you ever were in your life because positive thinking, as to the way the world terms it, is nothing but plain ignorance. That is a negative mind that you have. You are born with that negative mind and there's nothing positive about it and if you start trying to think positive all you are going to do is intellectually think positive how you can make another dollar or have your home paid for, or pay for your car, or how that you are going to enjoy the flesh, or everything is going to work out for you in this natural world. And that's the only positive reasoning that you're going to have because that's all you have got to be positive with and there is nothing positive about it. You cannot take a negative and make a positive out of it. You can reap a positive from the negative but you can't make a negative out of the positive, or the positive out of the negative. So then, that means that with this positive thinking that you speak of there is a positive thinking but the positive thinking is in Christ. It is the faith of Jesus Christ. There is a positive thinking but it is the thoughts of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the mind of Christ within you. It is the only thing that is positive. It is the only thing that has a foundation. And when you start trying to think positive according to these writers that give you books on positive thinking you are getting into darkness. To begin with the Bible said casting down imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bring into captivity to the obedience of Christ Jesus every thought. If you're going to bring every thought into the obedience of Christ, or to God's Word, or to God's mind, what thoughts do you have left to think positive with? So, when you think on the Word of God you are thinking positive. And it is a positive thing because it is the mind that's never changeable. God never changes His mind. He never alters His Word. His Word is settled in Heaven. It is the same to a thousand generations. It is the Word of God that comes to me and to you, to the generation pasted, to this generation, and will be the same to the next generation if there is another generation. And it's the same Word of God. It's settled in Heaven, unaltered and unchanged. This Word of God__ With this Word of God He cast out the unclean spirits. With this Word of God He spoke the world into existence. With this Word of God He still controls all of humanity. He rules in the affairs of men. He lifts up one, He puts down another. He is positively in rule. It is the positive mind. There is no changes. There is no alterations. Whether it be for the president or whether it be for the garbage man it doesn't make any difference. It is God's Word and the same benefits apply to the garbage man as it does the president. God doesn't look at human persons. He is no respecter of human features or human persons or exuberance or ability. He doesn't care what you look like. He doesn't care what you are as to your natural abilities and skills in life. He is interested in one thing and that is faith in your heart. And His eyes are throughout the earth beholding the good and the evil. All of the good, all of the evil of the world, He sees every bit of it and He beholds this good and evil and His eyes are going to and fro in the earth looking for the upright in heart that He might show Himself strong in their behalf. So then, your believing in all this positive thinking is just something Satan has hatched up to throw you off course and to keep you from receiving the mind of Christ and receiving the indoctrination of the Word of God that can make you into what God wants you to be and that is a God, to make you eternal and make you a God that can have youth and strength and rule and reign throughout eternity having the desire of your heart. For this was the intentions of God from the very beginning. And we don't have time__ I don't even like to bring this up but I don't know any other way to do it except speak to you as people like a human being because that's what I am. But we don't have time to explain these things. The things that I do I just run across and say a few little things and try to put it together to where it will make sense on the tape, or where you can kind of group it together in your mind for a thought. But this thing is deeper than the deepest well, as we say. God said, the Spirit of God that searcheth out the things of God, yea, the deep things. Great is the mystery of godliness. But the details of this is so beautiful when it is frame worked and when it is put out before you in a pictorial way. And if it is detailed it is so beautiful, it is so astounding, it is so staggering. There is nothing to be compared with it because all of the details fit so perfectly together to form a mental picture or give you an impression of what this great mighty thing is as the expression from God. So I say then to you, when we speak of faith I say THE Faith. Not a faith but THE Faith. When I say THE Faith, what do I mean THE Faith? The Bible said contend for the faith, THE faith. Contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. Now, if it's your believing then you don't have to have any faith delivered unto you. If it is your believing you don't have to have anything given unto you because you already believe. So then, the Bible says God has dealt the measure of faith, as to your believing, unto every man. But when it comes to THE faith the Bible said, And all men have not faith when it comes to THE faith. So then, this is a special kind of thing and the Bible speaks of it after this fashion, that while as yet__ Paul being a Jew expressed himself that while as yet we were under the law that the law was a school master, like a tutor, to bring us to the faith. He said, But now that the faith has come. Speaking of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ which was a fulfillment of the promise that God had given Abraham. Now that the faith has come, we have no need now, he was trying to tell them, to try to fulfill the law for Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the law. For, lo, as it is written, the Lord said, I come in the volume of the Book to do Thy will, O God. Offerings and sacrifices I wouldest not, but a body Thou hast prepared me. So then, the Word being made flesh, God making a promise that someday He would redeem the seed of Abraham. The Jews made the mistake of thinking that they were the seed of Abraham and the rest of the people were dogs. But the Bible says, In thy seed, Abraham, shall all nations be blessed. So then, we are the seed of Abraham as much so a the Jew. And when it comes right down to the basics of life we are the only Jew. There is no such thing as a Jew as a nationality. There is an Israelite but not a Jew. So then, Paul said we are the true Jew. Not only are we the true Jew but when it comes to the Israelites the Bible said we are the true Israel. And the blessings of God be upon the true Israel. So then, he that is a Jew outwardly in the natural is not a Jew, Paul said, but he that is a Jew inwardly, as to the inner man and the spiritual man he is the true Jew. So, when we remember that the law and the prophets were until John, since that time the Kingdom of God has been preached and men are pressing their way into the Kingdom. Now has come great light into the earth and to them that set in the regions of the shadow of death great light has sprung up unto them. And this was Calvary. So, we who have sat in the regions of the shadow of death__ When we say the regions of the shadow we're speaking of the law. The law is the shadow of death and we all were under the law. Whereas someone would say, Brother Pike, I don't believe that we're under the law. But this is where you're mistaken. See? You that do not have salvation, the Bible said they that are fallen from grace are under the law and if you're under the law then you're under the curse. And if you're under the curse you're under the curse of sin and death and you still have to answer to God as a transgressor of the law because transgression of the law is sin, and where there is no law there is no transgression and where there's no transgression there's no sin. And where there is no sin there's no death. This is how we, as Christians, escape. To us there is no law, so there is no transgression. And since there is no transgression, in that transgression of the law is sin, then that means there is no sin to us. And if there is no sin to us then that means there is no death because where there is no sin there is no death for sin is the sting of death. So then, ye that have fallen from the grace of God then ye are under the law and must be charged thus because the Bible said no flesh shall be justified by the law. So, as a school master the law has brought us up unto grace. It has brought us to the faith but now Calvary comes and now that the faith of Jesus Christ has come we have no need for the law. Paul said we therefore conclude that a man is justified by the grace of God through faith without the deeds of the law. (Begin tape one, side two.) ...the law, God forbid. We fulfill the law because Christ on the inside of us has fulfilled the law for us in the body of Jesus as He tabernacled there in that human body doing every jot and every title. The law shall not pass away until every jot and every tittle is fulfilled and Christ in the body of Jesus fulfilled every jot and every tittle of the law and then graciously folded it up and laid it away and made an end of the law. Now. Today we have the law fulfilled within us, as to the satisfaction of God and the image of the bastard child, which is the perverted form as to the first man Adam, as in Adam all die, the sentence of death being in the body because of the weakness of the flesh. Then the law hath magnified that weakness, magnified that death to bring it to our understanding that sin might become exceedingly sinful that we might see the sin and recognize it through the eyes of understanding and depart from iniquity. Let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. So then, we see that the law and the prophets were until John but since that time the Kingdom has come. And the Bible teaches since that time men have pressed their way into the Kingdom. Since that time we've preached the Kingdom of God and the name Jesus as an entrance into the Kingdom. So then, we know that now, as the Bible said, the true light shineth. The understanding is here. Not everyone will receive this, or get the understanding, but the children of light will. The others are blinded. They shall never see good when good comes. They're blinded by the ignorance of the evil spirit of Lucifer that's interwoven within their bodies and they are in the flesh, not in the spirit. But we are born of the spirit and we are not in the flesh but we are in the spirit. That is, if my life is given to the control of my human senses, as to human desire and my ego and ambition is in the world for career and things of the world then am I in the flesh. But if my life is given to Christ, as to the spiritual endeavors of His Word and to do what He wants me to do then I am in the spirit, and I'm living in the spirit. If I am born of the Spirit the Bible said then walk in the Spirit. So then, the law was until Calvary. Now, the shadow of death is the law. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, for to transgress the law is death. But the Lord came to deliver us from the law because of the curse. And if we had time to detail this and go back and pick it up in it's origin we could bring it out so beautifully to where you could see that in detail. But, nevertheless we are free from the law. So then, we've come to a new thing. Paul said, as concerning Abraham when he met Melchizedek in the Valley of Shaveh, as to the Battle Of The Kings. He paid tithes, or that is, Levi while yet in the loins of his father it was accredited to him to pay tithes, even to the greater as to the priesthood. And then it spoke of one that would come who would have a priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek, as to this great one, Paul said, being ever so great who is this man Melchizedek. The Bible said he had no beginning and he hath no end and he hath no mother, as to decent, no father. So then, Jesus having an everlasting priesthood after this mighty High Priest of God Melchizedek, He said there has been a change and this change He tried to impress upon the Jews. This change has been because He said it has not sufficient, as to the blood of bulls and goats, to atone for sin. He could never make the comer therein perfect, as to pertaining to the conscience, nothing could go inside. So, we had to have the Spirit of Christ to get inside of our heart to loose that soul that's in that intellectual prison of lust, of human desire. So then, He said because there is a change of the covenant, as bringing it from the blood of bulls and goats over to the very blood of the Son of God, as to a new blood cell that was not contaminated and could start a new generation, He said by the washing of the waters of regeneration. Or, that is, through baptism and these things that God has set forth for us, then we become a new creature. Or, that to say, if there is a change, He said of the covenant, there is of necessity a change of priesthood, that we should not be under priest anymore, as to bow down to them, as to fathers and call them fathers because we have but one father when it comes the Heavenly Father. That is, our Savior Jesus Christ, our God, which is the Heavenly Father. And when we come to the priesthood, it is today the ministry. So now, Paul said, we have the law as a schoolmaster to bring us unto grace, but now that faith has come, now that the faith has come, Abraham, I'm going to send a son and this is going to be as to Isaac being a type of this, I'm going to send a son and this son will be the son of the promise. Not only will it be the son of the promise, as to say, Well, this man has come to fulfill the promise but it will be the promise Itself. It will be God Himself. It will be the Word Itself. It will be the actual promise, as to the Word being made human, or being made flesh. And the Bible said the time of the promise drew near. And so then, when Jesus came that was the promise. And when it came Jesus did the work that was required to fulfill the law that we might have redemption. So then, now that the law has been fulfilled in every jot and every title it has passed away. It is thus fulfilled. And then it was said, Pray Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as in heaven because Jesus knew He was fixing to go away and He knew that He was the Kingdom of God in the earth and when He got ready to go away He was going to rend the veil and present the Kingdom and the law and the prophets would thus be fulfilled. So then, He told His followers, said, Pray the Kingdom of God come, Thy will be done. They followed Him like little children everywhere He went because they knew He was the messiah. They felt sure that He was the one to restore the Kingdom to Israel that had went out of their hands through the Babylonian fall. See? But the thing is when they got near Jerusalem with great expectation, expecting the Kingdom to come, all of a sudden they were disappointed and the Kingdom didn't come. But the reason is, is because it does not come by observation. It did come but they did not see it. It came exactly the way that He said it would come. My kingdom is not of this world. So the kingdom came. The law and the prophets until John, since that time the Kingdom of God has been preached and men press their way in to it. Pray Thy Kingdom come, Father. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So then, when it comes to Calvary we know that the Kingdom of God did come, the church ages set in and now we've been preaching this wonderful Kingdom message. Whereas, the Bible said, And the message of the Kingdom must be preached in all of the world for a witness and then shall the end come. And we've been preaching this wonderful kingdom message ever since, that men should repent of their sins and right here in this present world be translated in to the Kingdom of God. Paul said, say not in your heart, who shall ascend in to heaven to bring it down; it's already here. Don't say who shall go into the earth to bring it up; it's already here. He said it is nigh unto you, that if thou canst confess with thine heart the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, believe in this heart unto righteousness, make the confession with your lips unto salvation then ye shall be saved. So, with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. By faith of Jesus Christ we have salvation. Why do I say THE faith of Jesus Christ? that at last it has come? It is because Calvary brought THE faith of Jesus Christ to us for justification unto salvation. And when He gave Paul the revelation, when He said, Paul, turn my people from darkness unto light. Take them away from the intellectual reasoning of this world and bring them not to this positive mind, as people say in this day, but bring them to My mind and to My Word and let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus, who being made in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He did not try to make in Himself a reputation but He repented as a man and went through all of these things to grow in grace and knowledge as a man. And this Jesus perfected salvation and perfected the works that was required for me and the faith that He had was the un-wilting, unwavering faith that not at any time was it ever penetrated. Not at anytime did it ever fail. Not at anytime did it ever give. It became the perfect faith. And this faith, Paul, tell My people that I want them to have it. Contend for this faith. I'm contending for the faith. Are you contending for the faith? Contend for the faith. If I say contend I mean to fight it out with the devil. A boxer, they contend for the belt. They fight one another. They contend in the world for mastery. They struggle and they fight for mastery. Contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. Now, when we say contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints, I say to you to contend for the faith, but that wasn't the way that it was. Paul was saying contend for the faith and Peter was saying contend for the faith. And when they said the saints it wasn't as you and I, as referring back to Paul and them as being the saints. It was Paul and them referring back to Joshua and referring back to Elijah and referring back to Moses saying, Contend for this faith that was once delivered unto the saints, the power to stop the sun and the power to open the Red Sea, and the power to call fire down from heaven. Contend for this faith. So, when this faith, as to the faith of Jesus Christ has come to be given to us through grace, now that faith is here from Calvary and being preached. Preaching not our own faith but the faith of Jesus Christ that He might be glorified in all things, having the preeminence in all things and that it might be the Lord Jesus Christ to be praised. For the Bible said by Him and for Him and for His cause and His desire was all things made. All things emanated from Him and all things that were created were created by Him and without Him was not anything made that is made. So then, we see this faith. At last this faith is here. Paul, turn My people from darkness unto light to the faith which is in Me, the faith Paul by which they are sanctified. And the Bible says the faith of Jesus Christ which is the righteousness of God. So, this brings us back to our early thought here when I was discussing some things with my wife. When I say the righteousness of God we get things misconstrued because we believe this and we believe that and we believe doctrines and we go to church and we practice formalities and we're not going to chew and dip anymore and we're not going to do this anymore and we're not going to frolic anymore and all of these things. That's good, that's fine, that's wonderful but it doesn't have to do with righteousness. So, when it comes to righteousness what can I do to be righteous? What have I done to make me righteous? What have I done in my lifetime that caused God to look at me that He would save me? I've done nothing. I've done nothing. How could I have done anything? The Bible said it's not of works lest any man should boast but it is the gift of God. And the Bible said if Abraham had received it by works then he would have whereof to boast, but inasmuch, as he received it by faith he cannot boast of anything because it was the gift of God. So then, if I am the seed of Abraham then am I elect, then am I the foreordained. Then do I have eternal life because I was with God before the world ever was. As Levi paid tithes while he was yet in the loins of his father, or God accredited the tithes that Abraham paid to Levi then has not God accredited unto me while I was yet in the loins of my father this eternal life? For the Bible said God has given us this in Christ before the world ever was and then brought it to light as to the rent veil at Calvary that He might make it an expose that we would know this wonderful salvation of God through grace, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. One faith. So then, this wonderful faith has at last come. Now, I am justified by faith of Jesus Christ. God therefore purifies my heart by faith and then the Spirit of God can come in. The Bible said the faith, Paul, by which they are sanctified. The Bible said having been sanctified once and for all by the offering up of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, then do we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ being justified by faith. By whose faith? The faith of Jesus Christ. So then, Jesus' faith made me to be what God wanted me to be. Today He says to me in the Scriptures, Thou art complete in Him. That is, you are lacking nothing. I have made you to be exactly what I wanted you to be through Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is what I wanted you to be. And so I purposed this in my heart before the world ever was and I came forth in a human body. I've wrought these things and now it is a mind that I'm trying to instill within you. Just the same, folks, as allegorically we look at the colleges and we realize that education is a mind that Satan is trying to instill within the people to make them all the same thing because education is the same to everybody, to get the one mind to where he can control them and bring them under the computerized system of this modern day doings of technology. So then we see that in the fields of academics. How much more does that express to us, allegorically, that there is one mind? there is one God? there's one faith? there's one baptism? and that all should speak the same thing? When I bring Zion again there won't be this church and that church and another movement and this person believing this and this doctrine over here. As long as we are in our own believing we have all kind of doctrines, all kind of ideology. This is where the problem is, because God is one God. He is one mind. What I say to one I say to all. I don't just say this to one person and then something else to another person and something else to another person. The devil does that to cause confusion. I speak one thing to you all that you are the body and flesh and bone of My own body. And I want one mind in you and I want one faith and that is the faith of that body of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose body ye are as members in particular. I want one worship. I want one mind and that is the mind that worships Me day and night, the mind that did always the things that please the Father. I want this mind in you. I want to collect the members of My body. You are My God family. Jesus is the elder brother, the first brother of many brethren, first fruits of them that slept. So when we think of THE faith of Jesus Christ then that is the righteousness of God. God accepted that as He imputed Abraham's faith unto him for righteousness and kept people within that faith until THE faith could come. Then we understand what the Bible means when it says Abraham spoke to the rich man in hell and Lazarus was in the bosom of Abraham. He was in the faith of Abraham not having received the promise as these under the law but confessing that they were pilgrims and strangers and that, as Abraham said, I'm searching for a city whose builder and maker is God, one that hath foundations in that this world doesn't have foundations and it's just floating around like a ball. So then, when THE faith had come since then it has been preached. Today I'm preaching to you the same thing the apostolic leaders preached, the one faith. I'm saying to you that your believing is of the greatest of importance but your believing has a foundation of His faith. And your believing is that which is broken. It is in segments. And as Abe Lincoln one time said, a chain is no stronger than it's weakest link and our chain has many breaks in it. But because of the faith of Jesus Christ God has imputed our faith unto us for righteousness in that He hath made up for the missing link letting us be what Jesus is. And as He is, the Bible said, so are we in Him. He is God; so are we in Him. He is rich. He is young. He is strong. He is alive forever. He hath passed from death unto life. So are we in Him. We are complete in Him. So, all of this was given to us in Christ before the world ever was and we are predestinated in Christ, which means in Him. Whatever God wants us to be He made Jesus to be that. So we are God's workmanship in Christ. Or, that is to say, God did His work in Christ and we're the result of that workmanship. By believing this wonderful thing thus we become the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, members in particular, the very temple of the living God so that God can dwell in us, walk in us, talk in us and that He is present with us this very day. And if any man deny that he is antichrist. All right. So, give me just a few more minutes and we're going to close. When we speak of THE faith, this wonderful faith has at last come. We are free from the bondage of the law. And many hundreds of thousands of things that are so beautiful that the Spirit will tell you if you talk to Him about it. Great is the mystery. So, we have the Spirit that can search out the deep things as the deep calls unto the deep at the waterspout of God and an unction from the Holy One that we should know all things. That means that the faith is here. I have the faith, you have the faith and that faith is imputed unto us for righteousness. Blessed is the man unto whom God will not impute iniquity. God will not impute sin to His body nor to His children. Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven; his iniquities are taken away or they are covered with the blood. Blessed is the man unto whom God imputed faith for righteousness without works. So then, when we come to the ritualistics and all of the different things that the people do, as to the formalities of the world regardless as to whether they call themselves Pentecostal or non-Pentecostal, Catholic or non-Catholic, whatever it might be it has nothing to do with it whatsoever. God is a spirit; He doesn't notice that. All of your efforts are as filthy rags. All of your righteousness is self-righteousness. But the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, without that faith, without that righteousness, then we don't have salvation. You cannot have His spirit unless you are sanctified by that faith. So, I said to my wife, I said, Betty, my people are going to have to learn to hunger and thirst after the righteousness of God. The Bible said He that hungers and thirsts after righteousness shall be filled. I said, And the righteousness is the faith of Jesus Christ. I said, And the faith of Jesus Christ comes from the hearing of the Word of God. It is faith by His mind and His Word. I said, And when my people come to church and they don't have a hunger for the Word and through the day they don't have a hunger for the Word, they will never have the faith of Jesus Christ nor the righteousness of God which is the faith of Jesus Christ which comes by the ministry. Or, that is, by the Word of God through the ministry. So then, when you come here you're suppose to have a hunger to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ to transformate that mind. Paul said, Be ye therefore transformed by the renewing of your minds and unless we do that we can go through all the ritualistics called holiness, or all the ritualistics, whatever it might appertain to in the world. And we can give; we can come to church, we can do whatever we want to, but, folks, I'm telling you, you will still be lost. Let's stand together as they come back to the musical instruments. Just a few little words of exhortation to make you stop and think. Jesus said, According to your faith so be in unto you. Why did He do that? Because He'd finished the work from the foundation of the world by the faith of Jesus Christ. And now He says all you have to do is believe in My finished works. As to the finished works, the faith of Jesus Christ the righteousness of God, it will be imputed unto you. Now. The question arises, Brother Pike, do I have to do any good works? Not any kind of works to obtain salvation; it is the gift of God. I did nothing. God called me and saved me on the basis of exactly nothing that I had done. How then, if I have started in the Spirit, could l have been made perfect by the flesh? Paul had a dispute with Peter concerning this and blamed Peter to His face saying, O, foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus was evidently set forth and crucified. Having begun in the spirit are you so foolish as to think now that you can be made perfect by the flesh. So then, the grace, as Micah sang it; Micah sang the song, the grace was free. It was multiplied to me. Now, this grace is over all the world until the blood comes off of the Seat of Atonement, that God might not look at men's sins and that He might give everybody a chance to come. But He's going to lift it before long. Everybody will be accountable. So, I said all this to you this morning to say this: Do I have to do good works to be a Christian? I definitely do. Someone would say, Well, I don't understand, I'm confused now. No. It's not confusing. Does an apple tree have to bear apples to be an apple tree? If it's healthy and well it does. Now. It does not have to bear apples to be an apple tree in that it's an apple seed and it's an apple tree. If an apple never came on it it would still be the same but it's for sure there would be something wrong with the apple tree. There would be something that would be wrong with it. The Bible speaks of being saved as if by fire and all of your works being burned and not bringing forth any fruit to perfection. But, folks, the proof of the nature of Christ Jesus in you is that you think holy and talk holy and desire holy. You walk holy and you want to be holy. You not only are born in the Spirit but you live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit. So do I do good works? The Bible said faith without works is dead. What does that mean? Faith without works is dead? It simply means the only proof of real believing inside of you is what happens to you in your daily activities because what you do proves your nature. And whatever your nature is that's what you will be. As a man thinketh in his heart so he is and God will feed him the fruits of his thoughts as to the mind of Christ, or to the mind of the first man Adam, as of Lucifer. So then, faith__ The Bible said we see then how that faith with works, faith is made perfect. Or that is, show me your faith without your works. You cannot do it because if you have no works then you have no belief. But when you do believe it will manifest itself in works. Because what you believe in you will practice. And what you do not believe in you will not practice. So then, He's only saying that this work is wrought within you as a work of Christianity and because you have the nature of your Father by which you are born. You will do according to your Father. You will have the characteristics of your Father in your life. This is why Jesus told some of them, said, You are of your father the devil. That is, I see the characteristics. A child is known by his doings. I can see your characteristics. I can discern your nature. You don't have Christ's Spirit in you, He said. But we do have our Father's Spirit so we do the things that are right. We want to do the things that's right. We don't try to do those things; it's just our nature and our desire to do the things that's right. It's just our daily activity to want to be holy and clean in our thoughts, holy and clean in our body. The Bible said be holy in body and in spirit. So then, it's just God's nature on the inside of me and I am therefore, Paul said, what I am by the grace of God. So, this is where works comes in. It's just a manifestation of that which is already on the inside of you overflowing as David said. And if you have this nature, if you have this spirit of holiness it will make itself manifest in your mortal genes. For this heavenly treasure that you already have by new birth and favoritism of God through the sacrifice of the Lamb, already being in your earthen vessel, will make itself manifest in your mortal genes. Let's sing a little chorus together. (Singing. Begin tape two, side one.) Sing that with me. (Singing) Can you sing that with me? (Singing) That's just a little bit low but the song writer said, How can I make a lesser sacrifice when Jesus paid it all? We're glad to have you here this morning. I understand that Bill Lackey is with us this morning. We're glad to have Brother Bill. He doesn't get down that often. And Brother Arthur. We're glad to have the Brethren as they come out to visit with us. The Lord is doing something in the world today. Wonderful things are happening and people around the world are beginning to want to find the light. And it's just about time to go home. We sing that song, It's just about home time; I've never been so homesick before. See the bright light shine, it's just about home time. I can see my mother standing at the door. This world has been a wilderness. I'm ready for deliverance. I've never been so homesick before. So then, we can tell that everything is just about there. The church ages are closing out and the Lord is ready to come and we're ready to be changed into the youthful, strong, immortal ones that shall rule and reign in power forever. For now, immortality has been brought to light. At last we have found immortality. By faith Enoch moved into immortality and his body went away that he should not see death. So, now we've come to the time when we're moving in to where men don't have to go by the grave. All they've got to do is move in now to the right things and be ready because immortality has been brought to light and your body can be immortal and you never lose that body. It'll be changed. But you'll never lose that body because you're never going to lose it anyway if you serve God. He'll bring it forth from the dead out of the grave, no matter what, and they will rise first. But the thing is, your body doesn't have to die. It's not God's will for death. The sentence of death is in the body because of man and the sentence is, The day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And because of that the body has had to go to Calvary. So, let's deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. Let's sing a little chorus together, can we? (Singing) Can you sing that with me? The altars are open. (Singing) Sing this little chorus, Brother Taylor. (Singing) Can you sing it with me? (Singing) Can you sing it just one more time? Can you lift your hands up and close your eyes? Are you really shut in with God? How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of great joy to tell us that a risen Savior has come, that the Lord Jesus has come to save us from our sins, to take us out from under the law and out from under the curse of sickness and sorrow and poverty and heartaches and all of the many things that you experience in this life. God has come to take you away from all those sorrows and shut you in with Him. (Singing) One more time together. (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