The Search For Life

Hallelujah! I really appreciate the hearty welcome, kind of heart and attitude that you have. Indeed I am less than the least here. That's not a word of expression; that's the truth. And if you knew then you would understand. I count it a real privilege to be here. I hadn't intended to be here. I didn't make any plans to come. We didn't advertise this meeting. All we were going to do was just have a little prayer meeting and somebody was to come over here and minister to a few people here because there are some people in this area that wanted to have a work. We've got some works around different places, and here that's what we really had planned to do. And some of them misunderstood so they kind of got it out that we were going to be here and I don't like to disappoint people or, you know__ I just said, Well, the only thing to do is go over. So we decided to get this little building here and we've had meeting quite a number of times in Ramada Inns, Holiday Inns and different things, and we thought we'd just come over and get this little building here and get together and have a few words together, talk just a little bit. And I'm running late, which I hate to have to admit it, but I usually am. But a few little things arose and hindered us. We started in plenty of time. A few things came up and we got hindered. But I'd like to say I appreciate everyone that came out, coming over here to be with us. I know that God will bless you for coming. It is something special. Brother David didn't exaggerate, it is something special. Not because I'm here, because I'm certainly not special, but it is special coming here to this meeting. I felt like probably that I would come, though I didn't have any intentions of definitely not coming, as far as my natural thinking. But I just felt like it would work out that way because of what I saw happening in this area. Alabama is a very allegoric place and a lot of people, you know, when you talk about things like this they don't understand. Some people do. Paul said, I would that you were spiritual. I'd like to speak unto you as unto spirituals, but seeing that you are babes in Christ, he said, I just tell you to desire the sincere milk of the Word that you might grow thereby. So there are some people that are just still babes, but then the meat belongs to the strong. They who by reasoning exercise their senses to be able to discern between the good and the evil. And we're living in a real allegoric moment. The Bible says He that is spiritual judgeth all things, though he himself is judged of no man, can be judged of no man, but yet he judgeth all things. So, you that are spiritual here I know that you're judging your situation as to something that is taking place, and that you're not just here just to have a meeting. Even though it is just a meeting, we're just having the Word of the Lord, but there is a whole lot more to it. If you're able to look beyond the veil and see the signs of the times, and able to watch the spirit, Jesus said, I do always the things that I see my Father do. And if you're able to watch the Spirit to see what He's doing and hear what He's saying to the church, the Bible said, He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. And if you're able to do that, then that means that each time that something happens you're watching it. We're fortunate; we've been watching things for many years. And we've watched it in it's stride. We've seen His signs in the heavens, for the Bible says the heavens declare His handiworks. We've seen His great knowledge revealed in the earth, for the Bible says the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord. And we've seen nature express itself concerning Christ, for the Bible said, Doth not nature itself teach you. And then we've beheld around the world, through ever walk and level of life, every kind of people, great men and common men and women around the world and we've seen their lives and what they were meant for and what God had for them, and why they were doing what they were doing in the spiritual world. Not just seeing them as their natural activities, we all see that, but beholding them as they did the things that they were ordained to do according to the spiritual mind of Almighty God. The Bible said, 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, to make Himself no reputation. He just came and humbled Himself as a servant and washed their feet to give them an example to let them know the way that's right. Humility before honor. Pride and haughtiness before destruction. But today we recommend humility and we recommend character. Though I speak with the tongues of angels and of men and have not charity it profiteth me nothing. Though I understand all mysteries if I have not charity it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long. It is kind. It vaunteth not itself; it is not puffed up. It's no evil. Charity never faileth. So today it's our pleasure to be here, and it's my pleasure to see you here. Thankful that you've come out. I'd like to refer to 1st John, the second chapter, the first verse. It tell us here that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And you can be seated and I'll just talk to you just a little bit. I want to say again that we are grateful for you being here and if I happen to ask them to make an adjustment, or something on the mike from time to time so we can kind of get it to where it will blend in with the acoustics well don't get disturbed at me. They might lower it just a little bit already because I can tell it's just a little bit loud. Now, you know, I think that the great thought of today, or concern of today would be just one thing. Now, there are a lot of things you're concerned about and a lot things I'm concerned about. We like to eat and drink and buy and sell and go and visit, laugh, talk. We love to live. We love to breath. We love to do all the things that people do in the world, but the one thing that is the major thing among people, as to their desire, and toward their goal is they want to continue life. They want life to continue. Life must continue. Now, they're doing everything that they can to continue in life and that's why that people love to eat and drink and ride and go. They're trying to live. They want to live. They want to get everything they can out of life. They're continually trying to get everything they can out of life. They know that life is but a few days and full of trouble. And at their very best is they're rich, if they're poor, if they're educated or non-educated, or whatever it might be, that life at it's very best is just a few days and full of trouble. Solomon was a great mighty wise king, none like him, and yet he said, Life is few days and full of trouble. He gathered gold like dust, but yet he said it's few days and full of trouble. So then, it doesn't matter what you do we have to acknowledge one thing, and that is that we're all on death row. And everyone is on death row. You know, we think of the people that are yonder in prison that are on death row, and it's a horrible situation, and when we think about it it's a horrible thought. We think that's horrible. Those people are just waiting, knowing that they're going to die but, you know, we never associate that with ourselves. As a rule people never associate that with themselves. They never stop to consider that those people are no more on death row than they are, and that everyone in this building right now is on death row. Everyone in the world today is on death row. And everyone is waiting their turn. They're waiting their turn. One might go a little earlier, one might go a little later. One might go at an early age. One might live a little longer and go at a older age, but everyone will be going. Even the little child that you see in the cradle, or the little boy and girl walking around, though they seem full of life and everything is promising to them and we're considering education for them, and position for them, and we look at them and we think, My! they've really got a future, but they're really on death row and it doesn't matter what the age is, it doesn't matter what your equivalence of life is, you're on death row and everybody is going to meet that debt for the Bible said it's appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment. You know, and when you pass over this veil, we have to remember this, though we don't like to consider it, but we have to remember it that once we pass over this veil the Bible said if we're not ready to meet God then we're placed in a lake of fire. Or we go into a burning fire that is called Hell. And the Bible said it's where the worm dieth not. The worm, referring to the human body. A lot of people say, Well, Brother Pike, I don't believe there is any real fire, and I don't think the body is going to really go through this, but the Bible says, Where the worm dieth not. And when God referred to Jacob He said, Thy worm, I will help thee. And in all of the teachings of the Scripture it refers to the body as being the worm. It speaks of Lucifer climbing up into the upper lintels. And it calls him the worm. Evidently because of the fall from the garden where Adam sinned against God he became the worm. Though He was the Son of God, yet when this great Shekinah glory moved away from Adam then he became the worm and in Adam all die. From that time on it was the serpent, and it was the death bite and all of that generation was to die, and every generation that followed was to die and in Adam all was to die. And it continued all the way down to Calvary until John came and laid the axe to the root of the tree and when he laid the axe to the root of the tree he cut that old tree of knowledge down that started with Adam, and he cut that whole family tree down all the way back to the garden and done away with that family tree, and then Christ came and there was another tree planted that was called the tree of life, the one that said, I've come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundant, for I am the Prince of Life. Or I've come that you might have this life that is filled up and overflowing. And so then, John cut that tree down, and even though you and I cannot grasp the fact that it's been cut down, we cannot get ahold of the fact that that tree has been cut down. It's the old educational system of the world. It's the old tree of knowledge. It's the thing that is a great power that rules by the badge and by the gun and the governmental constraint of that of the world. You know, government is a great power. It's a great power around the world, but even Mr. Washington made some statements that did not favor a government. Even though he established the government of the United States he really did not favor a government, as to ruling and reigning over the people the way that he knew the government would do, for he called it a very dangerous servant and a fearful master. He said, It's not elegance and it's not reasoning. He said, It is a force, like fire. And so then, we realize that government is a constraint. And there is a world of government everywhere. So then, in the United States we have government. We have constraint, but it is also the badge and the gun and the militant force. And so then we're subjected to it and we have to do whatever it tells us to do. It can take our lives. It can direct our lives, or it can wreck our lives. It can do whatever it wants to do and there's absolutely nothing that you and I can do. See? First of all, that's wrong. It shouldn't be that way because we the people are the government of the people for the people and by the people. And yet you know that the government isn't for the people and of the people and by the people. Because the people actually don't do that. They have a way of boycotting things in the world today and they do what they want to when they get ready, and you can tell by talking to the average individual that this government of the world today is not for the people and of the people and by the people. Now we travel around the world continually. We preach around the different parts of the world and have done it for numbers of years. Been into Israel about eight different times and was there even during the desert storm ministering to the people there in Israel. And we find out that in Israel that it's the same way that it is in America, or wherever we go. In China it was the same way, and in Russia it was the way. It doesn't matter where we go it's the same way. The government is a constraint. It's a power. It's ruling and domineering people and it is not at all in the power of leadership, or to lead the people and guide the people, and to help the people, but it's suppressing the life out of the people, and robbing the people and all of the things that are coming about in the world today that are taking the funds away from the people, or causing the people to literally despair of life. They seem like they can't hardly go on. Even in Israel, I remember David, our guide, on one occasion there stood and the tears running down his cheeks, or coming into his eyes when he said, I don't think we can stand much more. Said, the way that they're taking everything that we've got, said, it's such an suppression until we can't handle the situation anymore. And so it is in the world today. Why? Because first of all we're on death row. It is appointed unto man once to die. This thing that seems so terrible, why is it like that? It's like that because God never intended for the world to be your home. He never intended for the world to be your home. Somebody would say, But, Brother Pike, what am I doing in the world today? If God did not intend for the world to be my home what am I doing in the world? Well, let me ask you a question. If God did intend for this to be your home why did he say, I've chosen you out of the world? And why did He say, come out of the world, be ye a separate people, touch not the unclean things and I will receive you, saith the Lord? Why would He call me out of the world? Why would He chose me out of the world? And why would He say the world and all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh and the pride of life and the pride of the eyes and the world and the lust thereof shall pass away? Why did He say that Satan, or Lucifer, is the God of this world? And why is it that this world is under the constraint of Lucifer? And that Satan is the god of this world if God made this world for your home? See? There is something missing somewhere. There is something that we failed to understand because we failed to apply ourselves to try to understand. We spend all of our time trying to understand the world and the things that are in the world, and we spend all of our time trying to get our children through college, or school, to educate them according to the system because we don't want them to be ignorant, and we don't want them to be without the necessities of life, or the good things of life. So then, we go to great extreme to turn them into prostitutes and whoremongers and drunkards, and all of these things that revel in the world, and a bunch of religious proselytes? Somebody say amen! And that's what the world is doing today. Come out of the world. She's an unclean thing. Touch not her unclean things and I will receive you saith the Lord. So then, there is a world that God hath made. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place I'll come back, He said. I'll return for you. I've got a place for you. But, folks, it isn't the world. And so then, if we just had time today, which we don't have time. But if we had time today to elaborate on this and take it and put it in detail to show step by step what God has done, what God is doing and why the world is in the situation it's in we could better understand today. So then, we realize that we're all on death row. The great preeminent thought of man today is survival. What shall we do for survival? Shall we continue on this little planet call the world? Or shall we look to another place. Is there other places? Scientists, falsely so-called, Paul said, the word meaning knowledge, they keep probing at the heavens and they keep trying to find another place. Why are they searching for another place? Why are they looking for something outside of the world if the world is so safe, and if this is the place that we ought to be, why do they continually search for another place for safety? So we see that something is wrong. Being on death row, as I say, the preeminent thought is one thing. That is, the search for life. We are looking for life. That's what it's all about, folks. Today we're gathered together for one reason and that is to find life. You come out here to try to find life. You wouldn't be here if you weren't interested in life, because you know that you're going to die. One of these days they're going to have your funeral. One of these days they're going to plant you in the earth. One of these days you're going to be no more than a seed going into the ground and they're going to throw the dirt over your face. It doesn't make any difference what you look like right now. It doesn't matter what you're equivalence of life is right now, you're financial status in life, it doesn't matter. They're going to put you in the ground and they're going to throw the dirt in your face and everybody is going to walk off and leave you there. Isn't that a thought to look forward to? So...(Begin tape one, side two.).....that we're seeking life, and we want life, but we've got to remember there is but one form of life and that is God. There is no life outside of the quickening of the Spirit, for the Bible teaches that no man has power over the spirit to retain the spirit of death. Only God hath life. God is the spirit of life. All life emanates from God. Everything in this world emanates from God. Everything must answer to God, and everything must go back to God, because God is life. In God there is life and without God there is no life. So I'm looking for life. Where is this God? He is the Word. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was God. The Word still is God. The Word is the same to a thousand generations, and the same wonderful Word of faith and life still speaks to us today and He does it through human instrumentality, even the minister. When the minister comes, the Bible said, it shall not be him speaking but the Heavenly Father speaking from within him. Because God uses his members. God uses his voice. God uses your members. God uses your voice because as John 4:24 says God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. You know, the woman at the well when she met Jesus, she was talking with the Lord Jesus, and as she talked with the Lord Jesus she began to question Him and to say things, and began to tell Him about their form of worship and their place of worship, but Jesus being a young minister He looked back at her and He said, Woman, you worship, He said, you worship you know not what. See? That's what wrong with the world today. Isn't that what's wrong with the world? They worship what they don't know. They worship things that they don't understand. They really don't know about God. They don't know what they're worshipping. They've got so many religious in the world today, and so many different avenues of thought today, so many scholars that would be Bible scholars, and so many Bibles today, or books today called holy books, until they don't know what they worship. Travelling around the world I run into the Moslems and all kind of people, and all of these people have a different view of religion and yet they are worshipping they know not what. Somebody would say, Well, do you believe that the Moslems worship they know not what?  I'm not saying that the Moslems alone worship what they don't understand. I'm saying all of the world worships what they don't understand. There are very few people in the whole world that know what they worship. Jesus said concerning the flock that does know, ye are a little flock. Fear not little flock. It is thy Father's good pleasure to give unto thee the Kingdom. There is just a little flock that really understands and really knows. And the sad thing is, the Bible said, and these shall never come to understand, the people that reject God, and they shall never come to know, they that reject the Word, He said, for they will never understand for they are blinded by the ignorance that is within them. And that ignorance is a darkness. And if that light within you be darkness how great is that darkness. And so then, they will never come to understand. It is not given to them to understand. You know, Jesus was preaching on one occasion, and while He was preaching His disciples said, Master, why is it that you speak to these people in parables seeing that they understand not what you say. He said, It is not given unto them to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but unto you it is given. So then, today it is given to you and I to understand the great wonderful mysteries of God. And this is what God is trying to do. He's trying to get us away from the milk and bring us into the meat of the Word so that we can understand the great mighty mysteries and depths of the wonderful Word of God. This Word is deeper than a well. It is filled with the waters of life, and with this wonderful Word we can find our way into the place that we're trying to get to. So then, we are looking for life. In the medical world of today they're doing everything they can according to science to try to prolong life and to try to help life. And it can be appreciated, and anything that God has revealed through the medical world, or any other means of the world. It can be appreciated as to what can help, and what can aid, what can stop pain, and do the good things that might be done. All of this comes from God. But when it comes right down to what we call the nitty-gritty they don't have the answer to it. Doctors, as an average, I think live to be about fifty-six years old. I believe that's the average life that they have. Seeing that their life is about fifty-six, as to an average, then it's a true fact that they can't offer a whole lot of support. So then, we realize that there has got to be an answer somewhere else. In that we find that they don't have the answer in their medical world, then what do we do. How do we go about getting life? Why does man die to start with? Does man have to die? Why does he die to start with? Why can't we find a medical cure for him? Why is it that through all these many years that we've never been able to find a medical cure for it? Why can't he stop where he's at and continue to live? Someone would say, Well, Brother Pike, the reason for this is the body wears out. The reason for this is you just get old. Well, yes and no. Someone would say, Well, what do you mean by that? I mean no. No, the body doesn't wear out. All of that, all of that is just your ironic thinking. It doesn't wear out. The Bible doesn't teach that it wears out. God didn't make anything to wear out. Scientist have learned that you can't destroy anything that God has made. It can change forms, it can go back to it's original composite but it cannot be destroyed. Jesus said not even one hair of your head shall perish. Even every hair that God ever created upon the head of men, or women, will be there in that day of restoration. So then, that is not the answer. The body does not wear out. It does not get old and feeble and wear out. That's not the answer at all. What is it that happens? It is the sentence of death. The Bible said the sentence of death is in the body and God has placed the sentence of death in the body. Why? Because of disobedience. It isn't that God has done it but man did it and God has allowed it. So then, man is responsible. The Bible said that death did not come by God, but death came by man. The sad thing is that not only did it come by man, but death continues by man. And though man does everything he can to eradicate it and to stamp it out, it still continues. No matter what man does, death is still at a rage. You never get rid of it. It's through the wars. It's through the devastations, as to the weather. It's through diseases. There is nothing that can stop death. Death continues on. Why? Because the sentence of death is in the body. They'll never perfect anything to stop death. They'll never come up with anything that can keep death from taking it's toll. There is no way you can deal with death. God alone can handle death. Love is as strong as death, and God is love. And it takes God to turn death. It takes God to strengthen you in the time of death and the only thing that you can do is to call on the name of Jesus. The Lord Jesus is the answer and unless you have Christ then you don't have an answer. It takes Jesus to do that. Death is a terrible enemy. The Bible teaches that death is the enemy of God, and that enemy is on the rage and you can't stop it unless you turn to God. When you turn to God then God stops death. But the sentence of death is in the world today. And, folks, death is going to take it's toll. It's going to take it's toll. I appreciate the fact here that God did a little something for me right there because I had an interference. So then, we realize that death is on the rage, and we realize that death is taking it's toll. And that means that you and I are going the same way of all the flesh. Jacob said, I go the way of all flesh. The way of all the world unless I can make the contact with God. If we're on death row then we've got to get in touch with God to find eternal life and to get away from death. And when we find eternal life then we'll leave death behind and death won't have any power over us. For the Bible teaches he that is born again has passed from death unto life and shall never come into condemnation. He will never die. Once you come to know God you can never die. Somebody would say, But, Brother Pike, I know people that are put in the casket everyday. I know of these things, and I know that they are dead. And I know that they are going to continue to die so why is it that you say that people are not going to die if they make contact with God? I know Christians that have been put in a casket and they're dead and they're buried. You don't know a Christian that is dead and buried. You've never met a Christian that ever died and was buried. There is no such thing as a Christian being dead and buried for a Christian does not die. A Christian cannot die. A Christian passed from death unto life and there is no such thing as Christians dying. Somebody would say, Well, what are you talking about? I'm saying that Christians don't die. When Peter was getting ready to leave he said, God has shown me that I must put off this, my tabernacle. I must put off this, my tabernacle, speaking of the body, for I've born the image of the earthly. The writer said, As I have born the image of the earthly so shall I bear the image of the heavenly. And so there is a natural body and there is a heavenly body, and that natural body is the first man Adam, but that heavenly body is the second man Adam that was made a quickening spirit. And as we've born the image of the first, as unto death, he that made sin to be, so then we bear the image of the heavenly, He that hath made righteousness to be. For by one man is all the world under the sentence of death and sin. And by one man, Christ Jesus, God hath lifted the sentence of death and took away all of the evils of life and made man righteous in the sight of God just simply by faith in His works, and simply by believing in what He did in our behalf to give us eternal life. So then, Christians do not die. When Lazarus lay in the grave they said, Lazarus is dead. He said, Lazarus sleepeth; I go to awake him. Somebody would say, But, Brother Pike, you know, it's six of one, half a dozen of another. It's just that he was dead. He was dead. No, he wasn't dead. He wasn't dead, and it was like Jesus said, He sleepeth. There is nothing less than a world of difference between sleeping and dying. I've said this so many times. When your spirit departs from your body you go to sleep, but when your spirit, or angelic inner being departs from God you die. You are dead. But when your body just lays down and turns your spirit loose your angelic being immediately is found in the presence of God and the continuation going right on the same way that it is while it's tabernacling in this body. Lazarus, even before the great spirit of Christ had come into the heart as the Holy Ghost, before the gift of the Holy Ghost had come, you know, Lazarus, the Bible said when he died, as the world terms death, the angels carried him to Abraham's bosom. You know, it's evident that His body was placed in the grave. And the Bible said the rich man died, and in hell he lifted up his eyes. It's evident that the rich man died. He did not just go to sleep, as Lazarus, but he died. He died because his spirit departed from God and it went into the flames of fire. And so then, the difference was there. And that was before Calvary, and that was before the great Holy Ghost came, and yet God was still watching after them even by the faith of faithful Abraham. And the Bible said that Abraham looked down from where he was at in this lofty place of paradise and looked down across the great gulf and looked there at the rich man and heard the rich man say, Father Abraham, let Lazarus come, or someone come and just touch my tongue with water for I am tormented in these flames. I'm tormented in these flames. But Abraham said they that are there cannot come up here, and neither can we that are up here go there. In your lifetime you had the good times, and Lazarus likewise the bad. Now, Lazarus is comforted and thou art tormented. And so then, we see that even at that time God took the angelic being out of the body, laid the body down to rest and took faithful Lazarus into the bosom of Abraham. That is to say, bosom of Abraham meaning in the faith of Abraham. He went to rest in the faith of Abraham. Now. And the thing is that we have been into the land of Hebron. We've been down to Abraham's, and Sarah's, tomb. And there at Abraham's, and Sarah's tomb the body is still in tack. But the same Abraham's body that is over there, the same Abraham, as to the inner angelic, had not died, but was yonder in glory. He was yonder in glory talking all the time that his body was laying down there, as we say. So then, we can understand that Christian's don't die. There is a world of difference and you will never see death. Death has no power over you. Sin hath no power over you. You know, for death to have power sin has to have power, and sin has no power over a Christian. There is no such thing in the world today as sinning Christians. You know, we hear a lot of people speak about people sinning and they say, Well, everybody sins, Brother Pike. Everybody does not sin. Why do they say that everybody sins? A Christian does not sin. John said, He that is born of God, he doth not commit sin, for he that sinneth is of the devil. And he that sinneth has never seen God, nor known God, for he that is born of God he cannot sin. For the seed of God remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. So then, we know that Christians don't sin. Why is it that Christians cannot sin? Don't Christians make mistakes? Don't Christians stumble? Don't Christians have trespasses as well as the world? Well, that's the difference. Forgive us our trespasses even as we forgive those that trespass against us. God does not let the Christian sin. Why is it that the Christian can't sin? For the simple reason the Bible said, Blessed is the man unto whom God will not impute sin. God will not impute sin unto a Christian. There is no sin to a Christian. Why is there no sin to a Christian? There is no sin to a Christian because the Bible teaches that transgression of the law is sin, and where there is no law there is no transgression, and we are dead to the law by the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And because we are dead to the law by the body of the Lord Jesus Christ then that simply means that we cannot sin, because if transgression of the law is sin, and if the law is fulfilled and laid away then we cannot transgress the law, and therefore there is no sin because there is no transgression. Where there is no transgression there is no sin, and where there is no sin there is no death for the sting of death is sin. And if there is no sting then there is no death, so then we've passed from death unto life and shall never come into condemnation. So then, a Christian cannot sin. A Christian doth not sin. It is impossible for a Christian to sin because a Christian is born of God. He is born of God. You are born the first man Adam the first time in this world and you are born unto sin, and in Adam all die because Adam sinned. And because Adam sinned sin has come upon the whole world. But in Christ Jesus all are made alive, for in Him, He that lived a perfect life, has brought us salvation. And in Christ all have been made alive. And so then, righteousness came by the Lord Jesus Christ and today all of us are alive by the Lord Jesus Christ if we serve God. You know, not only this but there is a blessing upon just humanity in general. The Lord took away the sins of all the world. All of the world, He took their sins away. But He only took their sins away to the extent that the blood is on the seat of mercy. And as long as the blood is on the seat of mercy God does not see the sins of the world. And so He continues to let the world live, and survive and be blessed, to eat and drink, to give them the mercies of God for a chance to repent before the great detriment comes. So then, they get the benefit. But once the blood comes off of the mercy seat, which we're on the verge of that right now, then there will be no more mercy for the people of the world. And all of the world then will be under the detriment of the wrath of the living God, because when you take the blood off only those that have the blood applied to the heart can continue. And only the Jewish people that will be sealed through that tribulation period shall be able to survive, and all of the rest of the world will be in the detriment of the wrath of God. So then, today we realize that we are people that are predestined to a certain thing. Everybody on death row unless they meet the Lord Jesus. Today is the day of salvation, now is the accepted time. And if you've never made the commitment unto God you need to make the commitment unto God. For it shall come to pass that whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Not as it would be in just meeting after meeting. Not as it would be when somebody comes up and make a confession, for the Bible says not everyone that saith Lord, Lord, shall be saved, but rather he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. And he that continueth, the Bible teaches, continues to do the things of God and continueth unto the end, the same shall be saved. Cast not away thy faith which hath great recompence of reward. So then, taking the shield of faith that you might be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, we know then that God is for us and the Bible said if God be for us who then can be against us. Seeing then that God has lifted the death veil, seeing that He has done away with death, seeing that He hath fulfilled the law, folded it up and laid it away then are we free. Continue in the liberty wherein Christ hath made you free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage to be in the beggarly elements of the world, or to be a bondschild by means of your human senses to the beggarly elements of the world. The law. Someone would say, but, Brother Pike, the law must continue until every jot and tittle is fulfilled, and the law will always be with us, Brother Pike, until every jot and tittle is fulfilled. I agree with you that the law must be fulfilled. It has to be fulfilled. It must be fulfilled. That is what God commissioned, but the only thing is it has been fulfilled. It must be fulfilled as to the Scripture teaching it must be fulfilled, but it was fulfilled. And Jesus when He came He came for one purpose and that was to fulfill the law, and He fulfilled every jot and every tittle of the law. You know, we cannot have the benefits of the law until every jot and tittle is fulfilled. God has given the law and it is said that everyone that continueth not in the law to do all that is contained in the law, are under a curse. Cursed is he that continueth not to keep every jot and tittle or the law. But the thing is, there is life in the law, for the law is not carnal; the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold unto sin. And therefore what the law could not do because of my weakness, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh has condemned sin in the flesh and taken sin and nailed it to Calvary to do away with it. As a matter-of-fact, Daniel prophecy in the Old Testament speaks of the Messiah coming and making an end of iniquity. And the Bible said, in iniquity did my mother conceive me, therefore this image of iniquity that has come down to us from Adam had to be nailed to Calvary to get rid of that image of death, and that image that God despised that was out of wedlock. So then, we realize that Jesus fulfilled every jot and every title and said, It if finished, and He folded the law up and laid it away. And when He did that He brought grace. And when He brought grace now we realize that the law was a school master to bring us unto grace. And now grace has come and now that we're under grace there is no more law, for the law is fulfilled in one word love. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, and love the Lord thy God with all of thine heart, for love worketh no ill to its neighbor. Love fulfills even the ten commandments. Apply love to either of them and you'll find that love will automatically fulfill anyone of the ten commandments. If you love the Lord you're not going to covet your neighbors wife. If you love the Lord you're not going to steal from your neighbor. If you love the Lord you're not going to commit adultery, you're not going to hate your mother and daddy. You're not going to do those things. You're going to honor your father and mother. You are going to do the things that the law commanded. You're not going to have any other God before Him. Love will see to that. So then, we realize that God has fulfilled the law. If He fulfilled the law, which He did, then today we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. The word advocate indicates intercessor. Intercessor, or one that can go in between for you. The one that can plead your cause. The advocate. He is our advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. He is that wonderful advocate. So then, that makes the law, that makes the law a benefit to me. Whereas, before it was not a benefit to me, for Paul said, I was alive without the law, and when the law came sin revived and I died. And that which I thought was unto life I found to be unto death. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death. I see a law in my members that's working against me, and he said, and when I would do good I find that this law is present and the good that I would do I do not, and the evil that I would not that I do. O, wretched man that I am. He said, if I do that which I would not do, then it is no more I that doeth it, but sin that dwelleth within me. That is, within me there is no good thing. That is to say, in my flesh. So then, what has God done? He nailed that body to Calvary. He nailed that body to Calvary. He condemned sin in the flesh. He took my angelic being out. He rent the veil in twain and He took my angelic being out and today my angelic being is translated into the marvelous Spirit of Christ, into the Kingdom of God and today I am free from sin and death. Having been baptized into Christ I put on Christ, but Paul says, It is not I that liveth, but Christ that liveth within me, and the life I now live I live by the Son of God. No more remembrance of former things. Old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new, and today we are they that dwell in heaven. Not in the world anymore, for I have chosen you out of the world and I've hid you with Christ in God whom the heavens have received until the time of the restoration, or the restoring of all things. So your angelic man is sealed today and the Bible said, He that is born of God keepeth himself and the evil one toucheth him not. He is without spot. He is without wrinkle and He is without blemish. He has passed from death unto life and shall never come into condemnation. Neither can anyone lay anything to the charge of God's elect. So we realize we're elect according to foreknowledge given to us in Christ before the world ever was and brought to light at Calvary to be preached down through the church ages that we might comprehend the heights, the depths, the width and the length of this wonderful marvelous thing. This heavenly treasure that is now revealed from heaven and made known to the church. We are now having this in our earthen vessels. It's to be made manifest in our mortal genes that it might transfigure this body. The spirit translated into the Kingdom of God, the new birth, and this mind transformated down through the church ages, as to the tutoring of the wonderful Word of the ministries and the perfecting of the faith. And then this body transfigured by the wonderful presence of that heavenly treasure being made manifest in our mortal genes. So then, we see that the law has been fulfilled and now the advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous, hath made this law of benefit to you and I. There is no law that is of a benefit to a people unless it's seasoned with the element of grace to allow for the innocent. And God seeing that the law was too harsh to the extent that it had to be seasoned with an element of grace, finding fault with the first He brought the second. For if the first, though it is a figure of the times to come, it could never make the comer thereunto perfect, as pertaining to the conscience. But the great mighty Holy Ghost could by going into our heart. You know, and Paul disputed this with the Jews. When he disputed with the Jews he disputed on these basis. He said, You have the law and none of you keep the law. He said, But these being a law unto themselves, having the laws written upon the tables of their hearts, their thoughts being the means while accusing, or else excusing one another. That is to say, constituting faith in the finished works of Jesus Christ and rejecting the corruption of that which is in the body, for Paul said, these things I allow not for. So then, it means that we are free from the sentence of death, and the sentence of death that's in the body we are free from that so we do not have to die. The sentence of death is no longer within our body because we're not the body of the first man Adam. We're now bone of the bone and flesh of the flesh of the living Son of God, and the resurrected Son of God, and there is no sin to you. And if there is no sin to you there is no transgression because that's what sin is. There is no transgression of God's law, because Jesus completely fulfilled God's law and accredited to you just simply by believing in His wonderful works. And when you believe in the works of Christ Jesus then you've passed from death unto life and even as Enoch, Enoch being translated by faith that he should not see death, long before the law came God considered this and gave Abraham the plan by faith. So then, blessed is the man unto whom God will not impute sin. And blessed is the man unto whom God imputed faith for works, and faith for righteousness. And so then, we realize that God will not impute sin unto us. Where there is no knowledge of sin, sin is not imputed. And where there is a knowledge of sin then you are charged with sin. And this is what's going to bring the end of the world, is that people are coming to the knowledge of the truth. And once you come to the knowledge of the truth, and then if you turn away there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. That is, Calvary doeth not apply. There is only a fearful looking forward to of the fiery indignation of God that shall devour His adversaries. (Begin tape two, side one.) ...to renew you again to repentance seeing that you crucified to yourself Christ afresh and put Him to an open shame. Therefore let us go on to perfection, not turning again to lay the foundation of repentance of dead works and dead faith toward God, but let us go on to the doctrine of baptisms and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment, and these things shall we do if God permits. I'd like you to stand with me. I'd love to have had more time to talk with you. I didn't intend to be late. Just saying a few things to try to share with you the fact that you do have an advocate with the Father, and that He has, because of this advocate, took away the curse of the law. He has taken away the curse of sin and the curse of the law, and He has set you at liberty. He has set you free and today you are a free people. You are not in bondage to any man, nor or you in bondage to any power of the world. You are altogether free because you are God's precious body. Bone and flesh. You are in a new world. You are a new creature. Everyone that has been baptized into Christ has put on Christ. Have you been baptized into Christ by the great Eternal Spirit. Having been baptized by His Spirit in to one body of membership then you have the right to this eternal life. Then you need to be baptized also in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sin, to be buried in the likeness of His death. To be found in the likeness of His death that you may also be found in the likeness of His resurrection. So then, today it is my pleasure to be here and share these few thoughts with you. Around the world the gospel goes and we're having a little part in it for which we're very glad, and you're having a part in it for which we're very glad. And many other people around the world are having a part in it for which we're very glad. God gave the Word, and the Bible said, great was the multitude of them that published it. And so then, we're all trying to publish the gospel. And the Bible said when the gospel has been published in all the world for a witness then shall the end come. And, folks, by Satellite, by the word of missionaries just out on the field, and by the printed page, radio, whatever it might be, the gospel has gone into all the world. When they come to the knowledge of the truth God can no longer leave the blood on the mercy seat. And only you that have the blood applied to your heart and have His Spirit will be able to escape. If you have not His Spirit you're none of His. Someone would say, Well, Brother Pike, what is the proof of God within me? There is only one proof, and that is love. Love is as strong as death. God is love. But the proof of this is if you have not His Spirit you're none of His. And if you do have His Spirit the proof is, the Bible said, having your fruit unto holiness and the end thereof everlasting life. Without the fruits of holiness you do not have proof that His Spirit is within you. And if you do have the fruits of holiness you have proof that His Spirit is within you. And if His Spirit is within you then you have proof that the end is going to be everlasting life. So then, today the question is, have you been born again. He said, Nicodemus, less you be born again, speaking of your eyes of understanding, ye shall never even see the Kingdom of God for the darkness within the people will not allow them to see, for they are blinded by that ignorance that is within them. And Paul said, I would not have you ignorant. So then, the gospel today is to keep us from being ignorant. Because some people are willfully ignorant. Some are ignorant because they do not understand. And God has so made it that we can understand and have this wonderful blessing. So while we take just a few minutes here and we're going to give you a chance to make a commitment to God. If you've never made the commitment we're going to give you your chance. You know, preaching this, as to the advocate, we're not just here to preach a sermon. As I said, things have a great allegoric meaning. They have a spiritual significance. There is nothing without spiritual significance. And everything in the world today has significance. So then, being here at the Holiday Inn has a significance. You being here, as an individual, has a significance. Being in Alabama and in this particular place, and the name has a significance. Now everybody isn't going to receive the gospel. Everybody isn't going to receive it. People are going to make comparisons to their doctrines and their ideology and their feelings, and they're not going to have an open heart to start with. They're not going to listen to start with. They're only here to run interference. You know, I don't follow the world of sports, but everything in the world is allegoric and it's like a football team. There's people on the football team that are put there for one reason. They don't carry the ball. They're not there for any other reason than just to run interference. And the devil has people in the world today, and they come for one reason, like Judas, just to run an interference. And if you watch them they will run that interference. But when they are not right the Bible says, the wicked cannot sit in the congregation of the righteous. Something will happen. And when God begins to trample the floor and the winnowing fans began to go the chaff will fly up and the grain will continue to lay there and the wind will blow it away. And it will take the chaff away and leave the grain right where it was. Can you say amen? All right. Let's sing a little chorus. (Singing) Sing it like this now. (Singing) While we're singing this little chorus the altars are open. We have room up here. If you'd like to step up here then we'd like for you to step out. Maybe you'd like to come and make a commitment. Maybe you'd like to come and renew your faith in God. Maybe you'd like to come and strengthen yourself in the wonderful presence of God, and the Spirit of God, to number yourself with the believers. And while we're singing I invite you to come, to step up. (Singing) Can you sing that with me? (Singing) Sing it like this now. (Singing) Can you lift your hands up and close your eyes? (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