THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST

Given For The Translation Of The Church

Bro. George L. Pike Sr.
Volume 2
Here is Volume 2 of a compilation of sermons preached by the honorable Reverend George L. Pike Sr. in his 40 plus years of ministering the Gospel of Christ! This has been compiled for the purpose of a study guide in the incredible life and ministry of the great manifold wisdom of God shown forth in the life of this great Man of God! Having all the sermons in one file one can search and research various subjects, words of interest and many other items of interest in this compilation of actual sermons ministered and or written by the Rev. George L. Pike Sr.

Table of Contents
Cover Page (pg 1) Table of Contents (pg 2) Abide In me (3) At The Crossing(13 ) Before The Beginning (26) Being Spiritual (41) Blinded In Part (52) Death Conquered (55) Established Thoughts (64) Gods Perfect People (70) Lets Go On To Perfection (81) Partakers Of Immortality (93) Return To The Fathers House (96) The Abolishment Of Death (102) The Bride (105) The Comforter Will Come (116) The Dispute Over The Body (129) The End Of The Transgression (158) The Fulfillment Of Time (161) The Greatness Of Faith (164) The Rending Of The Veil (170) The Rent Veil (173) The Veil Is Rent (180) This Is The Fullness Of Time (193) We Are Nothing (196)

Abide In Me

It's good to be a Christian, to live forever and have eternal life. When you talk about eternal life, people make the mistake of talking about eternal life in the sense of 'someday'. But the message I'm preaching is not for 'someday'. It's for right now! We've already passed from death unto life. I'm not preaching that 'someday' I will enjoy eternal life. I'm already enjoying eternal life. Some might question that, you know, and say, "He doesn't really have it now," but I do. The Bible says that I have this heavenly treasure in this earthen vessel. Now is made known to the church the manifold wisdom of God, even to that which is in heavenly places. If I have the heavenly treasure, which is eternal life, in my earthen vessel, which is my human body, then that means Christ within me is that hope of eternal glory. So I have eternal life. I've already passed from death unto life. I'm not expecting to pass from death unto life.

Someone may say, "Well Brother Pike, I still feel like I have to die." Well, I don't. If you're expecting to die, I recommend that you get born again and that you pass from death unto life. Somebody said, "That's a good saying but you still die." No, you don't die. It's not just a good saying. It's true. You don't die. When you come to Christ, you don't die. You never die. Someone would say, "Well, you must be one of those 'never die' fellows." That's right. I'm never going to die. There are a few people that are considered eccentric like I am, and they believe the same thing I do. They say that I'm a fanatic. The definition of a fanatic is that whatever he believes, he feels like everybody else should believe the same way. That's the way Jesus was. He believed something, and He believed that everybody should believe the same way He believed. And I believe He was right.

There are so many things God has given me that I could write a great volume of commentaries. The Bible says that if all the things that Jesus did were written and put in books, the world itself couldn't contain the books, and He has shared some of that with me. There are so many wonderful things in the Bible. This is the book of life. There are lots of books in the world, but there is only one book of life, and this is the book of life. This has the Words of life. Jesus, when the seventy turned away, looked at the twelve, and asked, "Will ye also leave Me?" They said, "Where will we go? You alone have the Words of eternal life." Where will we go? These are the Words of eternal life, and I believe in this Word, and I've passed from death unto life, and now I am alive eternally.

The Bible says that the thoughts of a man's heart are continually evil. God looked down from heaven after the flood, after He had destroyed the wicked, and He found Noah getting drunk, and things were going on that shouldn't be going on. He saw that the thoughts of man's heart are continually evil. But there is a mind of Christ, and it's called a pure mind. Man's mind has been interwoven and entangled with sin and the mind of Lucifer. But there is a mind of Christ that is pure, and the Bible tells us to stir up our pure mind. When the preacher starts talking to you, then your pure mind is stirred up and you get hungry, because that mind, that spirit, always hungers for the things of God, inasmuch as we're partakers of the divine nature when we stir up the pure mind.

Let's read in the book of saint John in the fifteenth chapter, the first verse: I am the true vin e, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

Now I would like for you to think on this. We say, "Lord, we are Christians. And Lord, we honor and obey You, and we follow You. You know that we love You, and You know that we serve You." If we serve Him, we then we abide within Him. Isn't that right? If you served Him, you would abide in Him. He said, "If you abide in Me, you just ask what you will and it will be done." I wonder how many of us ask God what we will and always get it? I wonder how many folks we have like that. Now you would say, "Brother Pike, what in the name of reasoning are you talking about?" I'm talking about abiding in Him. Are we abiding in Him? We're using a little bit of thought here to discern our position in God. Are we abiding in Him? We don't like for anybody to question our integrity with God, but are you abiding in Him? Do you ask Him what you will and get it? Do you get it? If you do not get it, then you're not abiding in Him, because He emphatically states, "If you abide in Me and My Words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you."

It's just like it's written, "If you abide in Me." He can't lie. What He said can't be changed. It can't be altered. There is no shortcoming on His part. He didn't fail to do it. He didn't put it out of reach. It's just like He said it. If ye abide in Me, then ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. So then, that makes us find out how much of a Christian we really are, and that makes us to find out where we're going and where we're at.

Jesus was a man, a man that stood on the earth just like we're here on the earth. He was a man that looked at other men, and He told them these things. Now, if He was a liar, then that means that He could not have been the Messiah. If He was a liar, then that means that all of God's efforts were in vain. If He lied to these men, we can place no confidence in what He said at all. If He stood there as a man and lied to other men, who would want to put confidence in what He had to say? But we know that He did not lie. It is impossible for God to lie, and that God was in Christ, reconciling the world back to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Here we are positive that He didn't lie. He didn't stretch the truth. He simply made a statement that is valid and very true.

Was there anything that ever showed up in their lives to contest this? There certainly was. They wanted to cast out a devil, and when they got ready to cast it out, the devil wouldn't come out. Then, when Jesus came, Jesus cast the devil out. They were all baffled. They couldn't understand, because He had told them this, and they accepted what He said. They believed what He said, as to their conviction, and that's the way it is with us. We believe what the Lord says, and as far as we're concerned, it is exactly the way He said it. We believe it. We don't question it. But consequently, it doesn't happen for us the way that He said it would. What causes that? The problem is, we are too much of a make-believer. I'm not talking to those out

in the world, for they've never been converted to Christ. They should come to Christ and should be in this condition as to ask and believe. But I'm speaking to the church. We make believe, and the same thing happens to us, in that these things don't take place in our life. The same thing will happen to us when we stand before the judgment of God, and we're expecting to be allowed into the joys of the Lord, and we suddenly hear Him say, "Depart from Me ye workers of iniquity. I never knew you." We suddenly hear the Lord express Himself to us, and we find out that all the time we've been make-believers.

What causes this? It's because we do not live holy. We do not walk holy. We do not talk holy. We do not make any effort to conform to the ways of God. We do not make any effort to cast down imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, to bring into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ every thought. We don't follow Christ. We don't deny ourselves. We don't give of that which we have, of our substance, of our strength, and of our time. I'm speaking in general of people. Paul said, We (that we say not, ye). God, speaking to all of us, as humanity. So then, what is the problem? We're make-believers. We eat, we drink, we go. We don't pray. We don't fast. We don't seek after God. We don't study the Word. We don't know exactly what He said about it. We don't know exactly what He wants us to do. And if we do come to that, then we don't do it. We don't yield to holiness, though the Bible says that we should serve Him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life, and He said for us to be holy in body and in spirit. But we don't make any effort to be holy in body.

We don't withdraw from the world, even though He said, "Come out from the world." We go big-time in the world. We continue on in the world. We're busy in the world. We're going to be a celebrity in the world. We're going to have a career in the world. We're going to have education. We're going to have money. We're going to process our children. We're going to see that they have the best in life. We're going to have securities. We're going to have businesses. All these kind of things we're going to do. We're going to look like the world, and we're going to dress like the world, and we're going to fellowship the world, and we're going to be part of the world. We're not going to come out of the world, though He said to come out of the world. Yet we say that we are believers.

We're make-believers when we do that, and when we call on God, and when we want something, we don't get it because we are make-believers. And as far as eternal life, we're confessing something that we don't have when we're like that. We're confessing something that isn't there because we're still make-believers. We're making believe that we are Christ-like, saying we're Christians, carrying that title when it means to be Christ-like. At Antioch they were first called Christians because they were Christ-like. So we see in this that when we come before God, or when the race is finished, or when our work is done, as we say, and we go to meet our Creator, then we don't have eternal life, and then God turns us away. Why? Because all of our life we were make-believers. We didn't deny our tempers, we didn't deny our jealousy, we didn't deny our selfishness, we didn't deny our self at all. We didn't take up a cross to follow Him where He was, as to His sufferings and self-denial. He said, "If you're My disciples, you'll be there, too." But we didn't do that as a people. We haven't done that in the past. We're still not doing that. And the future shows that we're not going to do that, because millions of people are going to be turned into hell.

So then, being make-believers, we're not true believers. We are not abiding within Him, for if the Word abides within us, and we abide within the Word (which means if we know the Word, and we let the Word

live within our heart), then we'll incorporate this into our life and live according to the Word. We'll go the way of the Word, and we'll do the things the Word tells us to do. Daily, we'll conform to the Word, and daily we'll do the things that the Word tells us to do. This is abiding in the Word. He said, "Ask what you will, it will be done to you."

There's a place that you can walk where God will give you the desires of your heart. He'll answer every prayer you pray. He will do everything you ask Him to do. Everything. The Bible says that everyone who asks receiveth, if we ask according to His will. The Bible says that if we ask anything according to His will, we know that He hears us, and if we know that He hears us, then we know that we have the petition that we desire of Him, because we do the things that please Him. Hereby we assure our heart, and this is our confidence that He heareth us, and we know that if He heareth us, then we have the petition that we desire of Him.

When we abide in the Word, and when we ask of God, then God will answer us, and God will give us the desires of our heart. But, when we pray and don't get it, that means that we have lied. That means we're not abiding in the Word, because He said, "Everyone that asketh," if they ask according to His will. Then we say, "Well, what is His will?" The Word of God is God's will. Jesus said, "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God." So then, the Word come forth as a body, as flesh and bone. And so we see that the will of God is His expressions, His Word. The Son of God that dwells in the bosom of God hath declared God, or made God a declaration as to human concept.

Faith cometh by hearing, and faith is manifested by that which we do. When we do the thing that pleases God, then we know that we believe, and God knows that we believe. If I say, "Repent every one of you, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin," and you honor me and obey me, then that proves that you are a believer. If you don't do that, it doesn't matter what you have to say, you are an unbeliever. His will is His Word. And what does His Word tell us? That we're to serve Him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life. His will is that we be holy and righteous. He has expressed that to us. His will is for us to come out from among the people of the world and the things of the world and be a separate people. His will is that we be holy in body and in spirit. If we ask according to His will, that is to say, if we are doing according to His will, abiding within the Word, in Him as the Word, and His Word abiding within us as Christ, the hope of glory, then we are in His will, and His will is within us, and we are walking in His way, and we are asking according to His will, and we get the very desires of our heart. Whatever we ask of God, He giveth to us. Everyone that asketh, receiveth.

So then, we see the error is not with God, but it's with man. These are the elementary things, whereas I would love to talk about the deep mysteries of God. Paul spoke of being a steward of the mysteries. He said that he would that we be spiritual, because he would like to speak unto us as unto spirituals. But seeing that you're babes in Christ, then desire the sincere milk of the Word. The great wisdom and understanding of the mysteries are things that we have to come to. We feel like we're so advanced and so great, having moved on into the mighty things of God; and when we feel we understand, we suddenly learn that we're not even moving along as to just what the Word says, as to ask of God, being in the will of God and abiding

within God. We're not even in that place as to the benefits that we're drawing from our prayers and what we're asking.

Your joy is knowing that you have eternal life. It's knowing that the Lord is your fellow, that the Lord is on your side and He is blessing you. It's knowing that the Lord hears you and walks with you, and He takes care of you and protects you, that the Lord will give you the desires of your heart and provides for you, and the Lord makes you to ride upon the high places. That's your joy. The Lord is your joy. The joy of the Lord is the inspiration of the Spirit as to Christ within the body of Jesus, that Christ is within us, and the joy of the Lord is our strength. When we feel that we're not honoring God, and we're not going on with God, then we feel that God is contrary to us and we're contrary to God. He said, "If you walk contrary to Me, I'll walk contrary to you." We get cast down. It becomes a gloomy day. We read Scriptures that says if you do that which is right, then God will rejoice over you to bless you and make you a great people. But if you do not that which is right, then God will rejoice over you to destroy you. When we get on the opposite side of the thinking toward faith, our believing becomes of such that we are drawing the wrath of God, for the Bible says that if you abide in unbelief, then the wrath of God abides upon you.

Then we say, "Well, that's what the Bible says. We have to believe that." But what we don't stop to realize is, although the Bible says that, it said that to the unbeliever. It said that to the disobedient. It said that to those who were going astray. We who are stumbling and staggering, trying to do our very best, then that is not for us. I'm trying to do my best. I'm a Christian. Why should God rejoice over me to destroy me? But we get our minds all warped up and we get bogged down in our minds. We have God warring against us, as we think, and we're warring against Him. How can we ever get anything from God? How can we ever have God to help us because there's a continual warfare between the body and the soul anyway? We've let the devil deceive us, in that he's even taken the Scriptures to do it with.

We must walk circumspectly before God. We've got to do the things that please God, so the devil can't get an advantage to come to us with those Scriptures, to put us down and charge us with something that we're not guilty of, for the Bible says a good man will fall seven times and get back up. Why should I listen to those Scriptures that come to me and put me down and tell me that God's going to pursue me until I perish from off of the face of the earth? The Bible says God will pursue the wicked until they perish from off of the face of the earth. We get in a mess because we get all out of sorts in our minds.

It's like a musical instrument. As long as the strings are in tune, it brings out beautiful music. But when it gets out of tune, it's just noise, and that very unpleasant. So we need to walk with the Lord, and we need to stay in tune with God. We need to pray and fast, and we need to study the Word. We need to conform to the ways of the Lord, and do the things that please God, so that our thinking will always be that God rejoices over us to bless us. Doesn't He rejoice over a Christian to bless them? If your little child went out and played in the mud, are you going to rejoice over the little child that you might destroy it? And yet, the little child could just go all to pieces, because some people are so ignorant. They speak so harshly to the child. But if a real mother and the love of a mother is in there, she's not going to injure that little child. She'll have to correct him. She'll have to clean him up.

I'm simply saying one thing: the devil uses these things and he's got an approach. He comes to you and quotes the Scripture to you just like he did to Jesus when he said, "It is written." He was trying to use the Scriptures to persuade Jesus to destroy Himself, because he knew that Jesus was a human being, and he recognized Him as the Lamb of God. He'd heard John say, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. There's one among us whose shoe latchet I'm not worthy to stoop down and unloose." So we realize that the devil uses the Scriptures, just like the Holy Spirit uses the Scriptures. Satan knows the Scriptures, and he uses the Scriptures. When we don't do what the minister says, and we don't incorporate these things into our life, and we don't stay away from the beaches and the frolics of the world, and the non-virtuous things on television, and the non-virtuous things in the newspapers, the obscene books and magazines, then we get in trouble. That's when we program our mind wrong. Then we start feeling under condemnation, and we feel distant from Christ. Then, when we start grasping for faith, we hear something say, "And as I have rejoiced to bless you, I will rejoice over you to destroy you."

Though we are a child of God, when we've stumbled and when we've erred, we still run into this. We are lighthearted and didn't really get down to business and just wobbled about and let little things come in. The Bible says that the little foxes spoil our vines because our vines have tender grapes. So then, these things come in, and the first thing we know, we are warring with God Almighty. We're trying to get a prayer through and we can't get a prayer through because we feel like God doesn't love us anymore. We feel that God is now our enemy, and God won't listen to us. And why do we do that? It's because of the lack of faith. We don't have any faith in God. Why is it we don't have any faith? Because we didn't do the thing that pleased Him, to convince our conscience that we might have confidence toward God.

When we get out of bounds with our heavenly Father and we go contrary, when we get all muddled up with the world, when we get bogged down, when we get our minds on the world, then we get stuck and we get bogged down. It's hard to get started off again. And it's all because we have been contrary to God, and God becomes contrary to us. God doesn't want to be contrary to us. How could somebody that took the blood out of their veins to die for us be contrary to us? He cannot be contrary to us, except when we go contrary to Him. Isn't that right? God is just one way: Peace on earth and good will toward man. An eternal love, an eternal life, an eternal concern about you and your welfare. But if you go contrary to that, then that means it's contrary to you, because you're exactly the opposite of what this thing is speaking of. Because of what you've done, you've got your conscience all defiled, and you're all out of shape. Paul said, "I strive always to keep a conscience void of offense toward man and God."

Why is it that we do not get what we ask for? It's because of you and I. It's our contrariness. It's our frivolousness. It's our desire for the world and our love for those things, and the enticement for those things out there. Why do you get poison ivy all over you? It's because you mess with poison ivy. Why do you get drunk? It's because you drink whiskey. Why do you get out of your head? It's because you take dope. Why is it that you run your car into somebody out here? It's because you're not looking where you're going. The Bible says to watch and pray. Isn't that right? You might be looking and not praying. You might be praying and not looking. But the Bible says watch and pray, and especially watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. Pray that God will lead us not into temptation.

We go through life and we feel like we know everything. We don't need any instruction because we know. It's that way because we think that's the way it is. Every man's ways are right in his own eyes. But that's not the way it is. Not at all. In the first place, God lets you, as a sovereignty, go through life, and whatever you do with your life, that's what happens to it. Some people take care of their health and their life, and they live longer than others. God didn't mark up their days so they would come to an end. He gave them a life. It's their sovereignty. Some use their life up quick; some don't use their life up quick. It is a true fact that God has said in the Scriptures that our years shall be seventy, three score and ten. But it is also true that God said that some shall live longer by reason of strength. It depends on how you handle your life, how you handle your health. Do you understand what I'm saying? It is the way that you handle your sovereignty, as to your natural life and your spiritual life. It's all running as one and the same. As in heaven so in earth. As in the spirit, so in the world. It's the way that you handle it.

You can shorten your days by your disobedience. You do the thing that's wrong, and God cannot protect you as He ordinarily would. You do the thing that's right, and He might add fifteen years to your life, like He did to Hezekiah. Do the thing that's wrong, He might smite you, just like He did Pharaoh. God raised him up for that purpose, but he kept doing wrong, he kept being in rebellion, and finally the Lord smote him, because he was interfering with the work of God. You shorten your days by your disobedience, because God blesses and adds strength to help you protect yourself, and even if you get sick, even if you have let your body run down, even if you've been careless and ordinarily would have died because you haven't used wisdom with your sovereignty of life, but, because you are a Christian, maybe you've called on God, or because you did something, God will come and help you. God will give you a few more days, or God will heal you, and your life is extended. Daniel warned Nebuchadnezzar, "Nebuchadnezzar, after the other way of life, as to wickedness, I would that you heed the words that I say. I'm giving you a warning from God. I'm interpreting your dream. Why not do what I'm telling you and have extension of life, and a blessing as to the tranquility of your life? The lengthening of your days?" But he wouldn't listen to him.

I'm saying that you might do wrong, and in doing wrong you might have had more years if you had just went on as a sovereignty. Your health might have been all right. You might have lived longer, but you keep interfering with God, and you keep going contrary to God, to injure other people, and to encroach upon the rights of others, and finally God has to do something. And so, your days are shortened by your disobedience. Satan comes in on you and takes an advantage. It's all a 'serve yourself' way of life. It's whatever you do. Whether it be in the spiritual as to a thirty-fold, sixty-fold, or a hundred-fold, going on to a full reward, or going on to the full measure of the full stature. It's up to you. Some men apply themselves and they go on. Paul said, "This I do, forgetting those things that are behind. I press forward to the prize of the mark of the high calling which is in Christ Jesus." That is to say, going on with the Lord, some of you don't do that. You don't have time to do that. You'd rather eat, drink, frolic, have the world, do the things of the world, and if you can just get in, as we say, by the skin of the teeth, that's all right, as long as you don't go to hell. That's foolishness. That's crazy. You know that's crazy, and that's out of reasoning when you think of all the great, wonderful things that you could have. But somebody would say, "Well, Brother Pike, you go to heaven. I go to heaven. We all go to heaven. So what?"

But that isn't the way it is. That isn't the way it is at all. I tell you again, that some people will be sitting on a throne up there. The Bible says every man will be rewarded according to the deeds done in the body. There will be some that's so magnificent and so greatly surpassing others in those things in heaven. The way that you think about it is altogether out of control as to your mind and understanding. We see that God says,

"And this man shall have the greater damnation." And He said, "This man hath received the greater blessing." And He said of Judas, "It would have been good if this man had never been born into the world." And then He said, "There's some that's never known the depths of Satan as to the punishment or damnation."

The Bible says that godliness is profitable for this world and for the world to come. If we do the things that He tells us to do, then the Bible says all of His paths are peace. If we keep our mind stayed upon Christ Jesus, we shall have perfect peace. The Bible teaches that the joy of the Lord will fill our heart. And the joy is like wine making the heart merry. He'll give to you the new wine, that you will draw waters out of the wells of salvation with joy. A merry heart will do good like a medicine, making you to ride upon the high places of the earth, giving you the desires of your heart, the blessings of the Lord, making rich and adding no sorrow. It is the Lord thy God that giveth thee the power to get wealth. He makes thee to be like a tree that's planted by the waters, and you'll bring forth your fruit in your season, and your leaves will not wither.

Whatsoever you do shall prosper. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesses his sin and then forsaketh his sins, the Bible says that whatever he does shall prosper. If we walk in His way, ask of Him, abide within His Word, then we can have the desires of our heart. We can delight ourself in Him. We can tell Him what we want. Whatever we ask in His name, He will give it to us. For everyone that asketh receiveth. And when we ask according to His will, we know that He hears us. And the Bible says if we know that He hears us, we know we have the petition that we desire of Him, for the Bible speaks of fasting and praying to make your voice to be heard on high.

God said one occasion, "You fast and you pray to smite with the fist of wickedness," to have glamour and fame and money and popularity and to achieve a purpose. You do not fast, He said, as you do this day, when He saw a real repentance, to make your voice to be heard on high by God. The Bible says when you deal your bread to the hungry, help the needy and the poor, clothe the naked, and take them that are in need into your house, then shall thy health return unto thee speedily. This tells us what has happened to America. Selfish. Greedy. Their health gone. The Word of God is settled in heaven and cannot be altered. It cannot be changed. He watches over His Word and hastens to perform it. So shall your health return unto you speedily, and your light shall go before you, being the light of the world, that men may see your good works. This is your light: your good works. Then the Lord will hear you from heaven. Before you even call, it shall come to pass, I will answer. That is, I've already got it laid up for you. I will open the windows of heaven, pour you out a blessing that you'll not be able to receive, or that is you'll have to share it with another. Your cup will run over, your presses will burst out with the new wine. Whatever you do will be blessed and prosper.

So we see that there are many things that we need to know. There are many things that we need to understand. Many hundreds and thousands of things that we need to understand and come to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and understand that we be not children that are just blown about by every wind of doctrine. We're not blown to and fro, but we are established and founded on a rock and anchored in the truth of God. We find out that God has blessed us because He's given us this understanding. He's made it available, but if we're not hungry or thirsty, then we don't get it.

You need to get where this means more to you than natural life, where you get so thirsty, like David of old said, "My heart panteth after Thee like the hart after the water brook." I hunger and I thirst. And this is the way it's suppose to be. You have to have that kind of attitude. David said, "I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of God." That was David's way. He made the statement, "I had rather be a door keeper in the house of God, than to dwell in the tents of the wicked." Just make me a doorkeeper.

America has been a very gracious, righteous nation, as to her degree of knowledge in the past, striving and trying to come to something that was greater, even as Israel did in their early life when they listened to the prophetical utterance of the prophets and God. They that believe My prophets shall prosper, He said. So America prospered, but now America has become very corrupt. Her women and men have become prostitutes and whoremongers. They dress that way. They're a generation of vipers, a generation of lustful people, and an adulterous generation, the Bible says, that curses mother, father, disobedient to parents, wearing things, printed things on their shirts and their clothing that's inviting evil and being wretched. Their hearts are filled with malice, jealousy, gossip, backbiting and faultfinding, tearing down, reproaching everything that's decent and holy and godly that you would try to establish. And so her end is come. As she hath represented the days of the Gentiles, being the leader of the nations, her end has come.

The end of the world is here. Paul saw it at Calvary when he said, "Ye are the people upon whom the ends of the world have come." The harvest is come and gone. It's over and the winter is here and the summer is past. And, as the Bible says, you're not saved yet, though we say we're saved. The Bible says we come to the house of God, and we delight in hearing the Word, and we approach as those that have not done wickedly, and as those that love the Lord. But He tells the preacher to lift up his voice like a trumpet and show My people of their sins. Though they take delight in approaching unto Me as those that have not done wrong, but He said He knew that they had done wrong. He knew that they weren't right, for He said that if you abide in Me, My Word abides in you, even as it did in the early church, when they asked what they will, and God did it for them. He met all of their needs according to His riches in glory. He healed their sick bodies. The people marveled at them, and the people glorified them, and the people magnified them. The people didn't come down on them, putting them down. They magnified them. There were the abase sort, and the jealous people, and those that were afraid that they were going to overthrow their kingdom that come against them. But the people as a whole had great respect for them. Jesus, though He was despised, a man of sorrow, rejected, yet the Bible says He grew in favor with man and God. The people loved Him. They magnified Him. So it tells us where we're living today.

Hopefully, this exhortation, as to the elementary things, will help you understand so that you will apply yourself, and you will create a thirst and a hunger. That way, you will go to the house of God looking for the wonderful, deep things of God, to go on into the Spirit, and receive the great rewards of God, that He hath for them that follow Him. Let's search our heart. Examine ourselves and see if we be in the faith. Let's don't make believe, then find out that we don't have faith in God. Let's do the things that please Him, to assure our heart that we might have confidence, that He hears us, that we might have eternal life.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

At The Crossing

Exodus 2:1-13 "And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water. And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?"

Now, I want to take my time and talk with you a little bit tonight. I think we all recognize the seriousness of what we are doing tonight, that this is the first time we have ever had the Lord's Supper in this temple. It is the first time in this building. There is a great significance to it, in that today is Columbus day, the day when he passed over and discovered the new world.

Most of us are acquainted with the ways of Israel and we are acquainted with their feasts, and the offerings of Israel. By number, they had about eight feasts and about five offerings. They had the feast of the Passover, the feast of the unleavened bread, the feast of the firstfruits, the feast of weeks, which was their seven Sabbaths, the feast of trumpets, the feast of atonement, and the feast of tabernacles. They had five offerings, which was the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. All of these things were a must to Israel. It was something they had to do. You and I don't have to do that today. I'm thankful of that because they had so many things to do it would be hard to remember them, let alone do them. They had all these they had to do, and these feasts and burnt offerings all were compacted into one unit as to their meaning: pointing toward Jesus. All of the offerings pointed to Jesus. All of the feasts pointed to Jesus, all of them.

In the first offering, Israel had a burnt offering to God wherein they offered a bullock, lamb, sheep, goat, or turtledoves or pigeons as a burnt offering. They were allowed to do that. They had to have a lamb of the first year without spot or blemish. I read to you how that they had to slay a lamb for the Passover of Egypt. They had to offer this offering to God with a regularity. They also had a meal offering, sometimes referred to as a meat offering in that they used meal for flour and they called it meat. They could offer this offering as a meal offering unto the Lord. It had to be unbaked fine flour or baked cakes or a green ear of corn

parched with oil, with salt, and frankincense. This was the offering that they had to offer to God. They also had a peace offering, offering either a male or a female bullock, lamb, or goat. In their sin offering, it was still a male or female bullock, a lamb, or a goat. In their trespass offering, which was their last offering, they had to have a lamb or a kid. It had to be a female or it could be two turtledoves or two young pigeons, or the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour without any frankincense or oil. They couldn't use honey or anything like that because it would sour. The Lord wouldn't let them use that but they could use salt. These were the offerings that Israel had to offer.

There was another offering that was called the atonement. One of the feasts in the seventh month on the tenth day was called the atonement offering or feast. Now, they had the feast of the firstfruits on the fourteenth. They had the feast of the unleavened bread on the fifteenth beginning at sundown on the fourteenth because a day was reckoned from evening until morning, as in God's creation. The fifteenth was the unleavened; and the sixteenth they had the firstfruits. Fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth - Passover, unleavened, and firstfruits. Now, these were very significant. They could not celebrate the feast of the firstfruits until after they entered into Canaan. They kept the feast of the Passover, which was coming out of Egypt. They had to do this as a memorial unto God forever. It signified passing from death unto life. It was kept as the Lord's Supper from Calvary on down. Before then, it was kept as the Passover until the real Passover Lamb came, who is Jesus. They kept the Passover and then they kept the unleavened bread. I want you to listen to this close because if I get into revelation, you are not going to understand what I am saying because you are not listening to the typical formula that God gives for revelation. To understand a revelation, you have got to know what you are dealing with. So then, on the fourteenth it was the Passover. Now, they put it up a lamb on the tenth. And then on the fourteenth, he was slain. Go back to the days of Noah, the time that God appeared to Noah, and He spoke to him and told him to go into the ark. Go back and check it out. Then check it out on your calendar. God does everything in a great sequence, I call it. They observed the Passover, they observed the unleavened bread; but they did not observe the feast of firstfruits until after they got into Canaan because the feast of firstfruits represented the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It was kept by getting a whole sheaf of barley when the barley harvest came in. They would take a whole sheaf of it. This was the barley harvest that they waved before God as the significance of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ in their firstfruits after Canaan.

The beginning of that harvest was the barley harvest. It lasted over until Pentecost. That's where their feast of weeks came in, their seven Sabbaths. The fifty days from the resurrection unto Pentecost. In other words, the firstfruits signified the resurrection, which is after Calvary, because Calvary signifies the Passover. The wilderness wandering signifies the unleavened bread until they came to Canaan, and they came to the Jordan. When they got to the Jordan, then the unleavened bread, or the walk of unleavened bread, ends. They called it the holy walk, walking with God. And all of this is significant to our own life, for when we are born again by the blood of Jesus, we start the holy walk with God. In Corinthians, Paul said that we are to keep the feast with the unleavened bread of truth and sincerity. The unleavened, for leaven represents sin and they could eat no leavening from the time that they came out of Egypt. It had to be an unleavened walk with God. Once you come out of the flesh and you head for the body of the Lord Jesus, which is the new Canaan land, there is no leavening that can be in your life. Malice, all of these things, you have to get rid of because you are in a holy walk with God. If you don't keep that holy walk, then God will do you like He did the elders. He brought then out of Egypt, and the Bible said God was still not well pleased with them in the wilderness. So then, the holy walk must be kept with God. It must be kept. You must live a holy life. People can tell you what they want to about the gospel, but I'm telling you, folks, you've got to live a holy life. It has to be a holy life. The wilderness wandering is the time that Jesus was in the heart of the earth,

preaching to the souls in prison, as Moses, the Word, leading us through the wanderings. We are wandering in our minds, here and there, trying to find out what is going on, being bit by the serpents as we wander through the wilderness. The evil spirits tried to look on the brazen serpent of Jesus, who was made the propitiation for our sin, made like unto a serpent to end all of our sins. We use the term "the king snake" that swallows up evil, which was signified by Moses when he was down in Egypt and he used that rod and turned it into a serpent and swallowed up the serpents of the magicians down there to show Calvary.

The unleavened bread of sincerity must be kept without intermingling, or putting malice in your heart to walk with God, the holy walk of God. Then you cross over the Jordan, which represented the grave; whereas Jesus came out of the grave and then appeared to them in another form over there as He walked along the way to Emmaus. I have said this a number of times, this is where people get in trouble when they don't understand God because God appears in another form. He walks in a prophet, he walks in one individual, and then when He gets through there, He goes to somebody else (like He appeared to Mary). The Bible teaches that He appeared to Mary in one form, and all of a sudden, on the way to Emmaus, He meets some men walking down the road and the Bible said He appeared in another form. God has always done that down through the years.

Keeping the holy walk, then coming to Jordan and crossing over and the fifty days, which is the feast of weeks from the resurrection over to Pentecost and then the feast of Pentecost. Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen Passover, unleavened bread, firstfruits, then the feast of weeks is signified from the resurrection to Pentecost. They only celebrated the first and the last day of it. Barley harvest was the first day, and the last day of it was when the wheat harvest came in. The first was before God, as firstfruits way before Him. The last one that came in was on the sixth day of the third month; whereas, the firstfruits come in on the sixteenth day of the first month which was Abib, the beginning of their months. Fifty days was in between there. They celebrated the first one then they celebrated the last one.

On this day of Pentecost, when it came in, they would celebrate the day of Pentecost by their wave loaves. They would take the fine flour. It had to be ground up real fine. Now, in the barley harvest it was just a sheaf, which represented just one, Jesus Christ coming up the firstfruits on them that slept, the first of the barley harvest. But when the last day came around of those fifty days it represented the Holy Ghost coming back. A measure of fine flour, a measure of the Spirit in you, a measure in me, ground up. It had to be ground up where it could be proportioned. It was a measure. They made it into two loaves. They had to bake it with leaven because there the Gentiles came in with sin. Now, instead of just the Jews, the Gentiles came in, the Catholics, the Protestants. They had two wave loaves made into something they could use in the home. Something they would feed from, for it signified the bread of life. That was on the sixth day of the third month. This great feast of Pentecost is how we got in. Jesus said, after the supper, that He wouldn't drink this wine with you anew until He drank it in His Father's kingdom; whereas, the kingdom of God cometh not by observation but is within a man. Inside of our heart at Pentecost, that is, the Holy Ghost of God came in. They accused the apostles of being drunk on new wine because He was drinking it afresh with them in the kingdom of God. God, as a Spirit, has been drinking it afresh with us ever since. We sing the song "He turned the water into wine". At the marriage supper of the Lamb, Jesus turned the water into wine. That's why He tells us to keep the supper as an ordinance. We do this in remembrance of Him, showing forth His blood, His death, His resurrection. The blood signifies His life in us, in that Israel was under the covering of the cloud, which was spirit by day as a cloud of refreshing and rain, as a mist; but by

night it was a pillar of fire that lead Israel. The angel of God making Himself a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

I've explained that now, instead of being a pillar of fire as it moved with Brother Branham back in the age of the church, it is a pillar of cloud. It is the latter rain. When he was with the pillar of fire, Brother Branham kept saying that this will come as the latter rain. The latter rain was to be the revelation of Jesus Christ, which was to be out of the veil. That is to say, at night, God being a consuming fire, at night He was a pillar of fire because night represents the veil. Night represents the carnal mind. In the intellectual realms of moving or in the veil of the church ages, then He is a pillar of fire. He is judgment. But then, the veil is taken away, and the Bible says that the veil is taken away in Christ, when you get into the mind of the Lord Jesus, Paul said. The reason he knew that is because he had the revelation of Jesus Christ, and he knew that, having the revelation, the veil was taken away in Christ. It was a pillar of cloud by day.

You don't find in the New Testament where the pillar of fire ever followed them. You find it in the Old Testament, because the Old Testament was represented that way. It was Israel and the pillar of fire, and the denominational world represents Israel and the pillar of fire. Brother Branham represented the Lord in the veil with them. This represents the spiritual Jew and the spiritual Christ out of the veil, a refreshing by day. David and Solomon, the same kingdom. The angel of God is still here, just like He has always been. How else would He tell us these things? How would we know these things? The Bible says, "The angel of the Lord encamped around about them that love Him and fear Him" How many of you believe that? He watches over us. He keeps us. He never leaves us. He is always there to deliver us.

So then, Israel was under the pillar of fire because she was under the covering of the blood, and the life is in the blood. But what happened? The pillar of fire went away at Calvary, because it indicated the night, the carnal mind, and the life being in the blood and the blood having to do with the veil. When Jesus went to Calvary, He spilt the blood. He did away with the Jesus part and He let the Christ part out, which was the cloud by day. That's why Elijah was told, "A cloud like unto a man's hand." The cloud of the five-fold ministry. God gave us a symbol of the pillar of fire in the latter times when He brought Brother Branham forth. Like the coming of the Jews, Moses will be again with the Jews, where the pillar of fire was, and Elijah will be again with the Jews as it was in the day of judgment.

At Calvary, the blood is spilt. The blood signifies that which is over the door post. Brother Branham signifies Jesus, and the pillar of fire would appear over peoples' heads in that the Bible teaches that we are the everlasting doors or the gates of God. We are the gates of heaven. He said, "Lift up your heads ye everlasting gates and let the king of glory come in." It signifies the blood over the door post, where the Lord said, "When I see the blood I'll pass over you." Brother Branham was typical of that door. Then the blood was applied over the door post, in that he was a type of Shepherd who went up and made a doorway between heaven and earth so that the rest of the astronauts might pass through. Shepherd, as a type to get into the new world, which was out yonder in the galaxies.

In other words, there is a difference in the day that we are living in. God is not a pillar of fire. God is a Spirit. How many of you know that? God only uses fire to signify Calvary, to signify the blood, to let us know that

the wrath of God is to be upon the people. Look in the covenants God made. What kind of covenant did He make with Adam? He made a water covenant. Adam could eat of the fruit of the trees, isn't that right? He made a water covenant with him. From Adam, the beginning of the covenant, the trees, the water, the fruit, all the way down through the 2000 years over to Noah, it was water. It was a water covenant, and man lived longer that they did when they got under the blood covenant. In other words, the water covenant signified the redemption of the body, the cleansing of the body. He fell from the spiritual realm or level that God had exposed him to. By listening to the carnal mind, he fell down to the realm where he was supposed to be, to process him, down to the water realm to where he could go back from that to the blood realm and through the spirit realm to get back to God where he was. God did that to process him. In other words, the first thing He did was expose him to the heavenly things, to give him an appetite, a hunger, a thirst for Him, and then He let him drop down to the water realm and for 2000 years. Man lived a long time under the water realm. I've noticed that we are gradually coming back to the garden of Eden because men, more and more, are getting away from the blood realm, going into the vegetation realm. The Lord made a covenant with, Adam and that was the covenant He made. He said, "I set My bow in the clouds," and He made a covenant by water. He saved Moses by water in the little ark in the bulrush. But then the next covenant God made was after the flood, when He made a meat covenant, which was a blood covenant. It started with water with Adam, ended with water with Noah, then it started with blood with Abraham and ends with blood with Jesus, another 2000 years. The first had to do with the body, but this had to do with the soul, for the blood denotes the soul.

So they went through the wilderness wandering of the blood age. That first one was established with the people that were to escape, which signified the Jews. That second one, though the Jews were chosen to be a type of sin, they were not (Jesus being made sin, He was not sinful), but the blood covenant was made to show that wrath of God. That's why the pillar of fire came to Brother Branham. It was in the Catholic realm, the Roman realm, the church world realm to show God, the consuming fire, the blood of His Son as judgment upon them that rejected God. The blood over Israel and applied over us to show that when He saw the blood, He passed over us. That realm is a blood realm, a blood covenant. It starts with blood and it ends with blood, because it is made with the Gentile people as the wrath of God upon them that are guilty of the blood.

But the next covenant it starts with the Christ, with Peter, as Christ lives in Peter. It is a spiritual covenant, where He said, "I'll pour out My Spirit upon all flesh." It's not made with the body, it is not made with the soul, it is made with the spirit. It's an angelic covenant. It is made with the church. It starts with Spirit, the Christ, and it ends over here in the last days with the translation of the coming of the Spirit again. It is a spiritual covenant. I just want to lay down, real slow and careful, a few of these things that we are talking about so you can get them in your thought pattern and you can understand when I preach revelation and understand what I'm saying. If I broke down some of it, I think it would run at least eighty-one times, eightyone different approaches. The things of God are complicated. How many of you know that? I know the simplicity of the gospel is just repent and be baptized in Jesus name for the remission of sin. But great are the mysteries of God. It is said that Genesis, I believe it is, the creative days back there, can be broken down 40,020 times, and yet Moses on the mountain took one shot at it and got it just right, just exactly according to the way scientists finally defined it in the last days. That proves it is God, doesn't it?

So then, God is trying to make a covenant with us, and that covenant is in the blood of His Son. The blood is for the atonement of our sins. The blood indicates wrath. The blood always indicates wrath. Hold a red

garment up before a bull and see what he'll do to it. It's typical of Satan. Typical of the rage of the devil trying to destroy the blood. It is typical of the wrath, but God put it away once and for all. But the life is in the blood; that is, the spirit. God is a Spirit. He sent back the Holy Ghost. That's God. God has always wanted it to be where you could just see Him through the eyes of your understanding and see the head of His body as Jesus Christ, the Son of God; not to see anything else so that we wouldn't have a fear, wouldn't have a dread, so we could be knitted to together in a membership in a unity. That's why He brought a Pentecost, to bring back the Christ in the church. That is why they have the wave offering over there of the loaves, signifying the crossing over of the Jordan, the conquering of death, coming over the carnal mind, and getting into the world of light. That was a great offering. They had to kill seven lambs, along with those two loaves of bread, a burnt offering, meat offering and drink offering to accompany it. They had to kill a bullock and two rams, and then kill a goat, and then kill two more lambs, all just to signify Pentecost and what God was doing. I believe it had to do with the church ages when the seven lambs were slain. The bullock had to do with Israel, and those two rams, no doubt, showed the end of the church ages, showing us the two prophets coming in with Israel. Then the lamb nations come in after the bullocks and the two rams. Then came the goat, perhaps having to do with the sacrifice of the antichrist, doing away with sin. Then comes the Lamb to bring in the Lamb nation. It was a beautiful thing that God did.

One of the greatest offerings was the atonement offering that had to do with the feast of atonement. Notice this, passed Pentecost, the fourth, fifth, sixth month on passed there, they gathered their harvest, and then at the end of it, when the seventh month came in, which signified their rest again, on the very first day they started to sound the trumpets, bringing in another feast, the feast of the trumpets. Then just a few days later, on the tenth of the seventh month, they began to have their feast of atonement. That was an outstanding feast. Then, from about the 15th unto the 22nd of the latter part of that month, they had their feast of tabernacles. They had to keep it with their little palm bushes and the little willows that some believe signified the pilgrimage that they had back there through the wilderness, when they stopped at Elim under the palms and the willows by the brook over in Babylon where they hanged their harps on a willow and couldn't play because they were in a strange country. Yet now, they had crossed over into Canaan land.

It was about eight days of celebration, of a remembrance, to commemorate what had been done, to show what God had done in delivering them. On the day of the atonement, the priest had to bring a bullock and the people had to bring two goats. He had to kill the bullock take the blood and put it on the hot coals in a censer that it might cause the sweet aroma, typical of the Holy Ghost, to come up to stand between the offerer, who was the priest, and the mercy seat, to keep the judgment of God down. He had to go back out and kill one of the goats, and using the blood, do likewise to sanctify the tabernacle and the altar. Then, he had to take the other goat, lay his hands on it, confess the sins of the people, take an able man and let him take the goat away into the wilderness as a scapegoat. This is on the day of atonement. Then he'd return into the holy place, which was the second part of the tabernacle, wash his body, change his clothes from the linen that he had used for the sacrifice, and put on his holy garments, his glorious garments, and come back out to the people.

At the beginning of this atonement, he had to take these two goats, and before he killed one of them, he had to cast lots on them to see which would be the scapegoat. This was on the day of atonement. To us, it has to do with Jesus. But with Israel, it was altogether different. It has to do with the coming back of the Lord, when He sets His foot upon the mount of Olives, when the great gathering of the Jews will be again.

The sounding of the trumpets will gather them, then the return to Mount Olivet, to have the day of atonement and then the celebration of the booths, indicating Canaan land, the millennium rest.

All of these feasts had to be kept. All of these offerings had to be given because God demanded it of Israel. It had to be that way. Of those five burnt offerings, the first offering of the bullocks, lambs, or the turtledoves, was burned up completely. Nobody got it. The priest didn't get it. The offerer didn't get it. The offerer only got one offering, and that was the peace offering. He could take that after he took the fat out, and took the caul out, and then took the kidney out, and offered that on the brazen altar. He could then take the rest of it and he could eat it with his family in the tabernacle.

The priest never got much. A handful of the meal offering was thrown on the altar and all of the frankincense poured on it, and then he got the rest of it. He didn't get any of the burnt offering. Nobody got any of it. Only the skin was taken from the burnt offering and he got the skin. To me, that really means something. The Bible teaches that in Genesis, the first thing that happened, when God killed the Lamb there in His foreknowledge, there had to be something that took place, because He clothed them with skin. That was all that the priest got, just the skin of the burnt offering. Everything else was consumed. All he got was the skin. Then on the sin offering, the priest could have whatever was left if it went in a certain way. For the ruler and the common people, it had to go one way, for the priest and the congregation it had to go another way. If it was for the priest and the congregation, then they could not eat it. It had to be taken outside of the gates and burned. But if it was for the ruler and the common people, then it could be boiled and the priest could eat it in the tabernacle.

These burnt offerings all pointed to what we are doing tonight. Everyone of them. The burnt offering. The meal offering. The peace offering. The sin offering. The trespass offering. All pointed to what we are doing tonight. In the last offering, it was a trespass offering for those that had trespassed against God. We pray, "Lord forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." That is all we have to do, but back there they couldn't do that. They had to kill a female lamb or a kid. They had to bring either two turtledoves or two pigeons, or a tenth part of an ephah of flour without oil or frankincense, and they had to offer it up to God. They had to go through all of this for God to take away their trespasses. All of this had to be done. The peace offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, all of them were pretty much the same. The fat, the kidney, and the caul had to be taken out and burned on the altar. Of the three offerings, one could go to man that offered it, which was the peace offering. One could go to the priest, if it was for the ruler and the common people, which was the sin offering. And the last offering, the priest could have it. They didn't get a whole lot of some of the offerings, and not any of some of the offerings, but they were allowed to get enough to sustain them and take care of them.

All of these different covenants that God made, we enumerated them to try to put a thought pattern into your mind so that when you get into revelation, every bit of it points to Calvary, which means the blood and which means the bread of His broken body, for the ground meal was the grinding of His body that we might be fed the bread of life. Ground at the mill of Calvary for you and I. Everything points to it, and that's why that I'm taking my time tonight to teach you. the sacredness of what we are doing tonight, what all the Jews had to go through with, and all we have to do is sum it up in one thing and that's just keep the Lord's

Supper. That's all we do. Aren't you glad it is simple? I'd hate to have to go through all of the things that they went through with. Israel still offers up a sacrifice to God for the Passover. But it's not a lamb or blood. It is a different kind of thing because they are out of their homeland. The blood is left at Calvary. They don't keep it like they used to, but they still keep the Passover. We keep it too, as a spiritual Jew, we keep it as a supper, a memorial unto God to commemorate the things of God. What God wants us to do is to try to establish in the minds of the people the need of having faith in the Word of God and of the things of God.

I've heard people say, "Well, I believe it is all spiritual." I do too. I believe that God is a Spirit and I believe that everything God does is in the spirit. I believe that. But I also believe that there are some natural ordinances that we've got to keep. When you get to the place to where you take everything spiritual, the first thing you want to do in not live holy, not pray, not fast, not do anything, because you want to take it all spiritual. I believe you need a house, but I believe you need some doorsteps up to it. I believe that these natural things are to captivate the minds of the children, to be a doorstep to show them how to get into the spiritual house of God. Don't you? I believe that there is a great spiritual significance in it.

Down here in our little finite minds, and in the little finite world of ours, we get off in a corner somewhere and we forget how great God is. We forget there is an eternity. We define things the way we want to, as a comprehensive definition of things, and that's it. But God had a different way of doing it. There is more to this thing than you think. Great is the mystery of godliness. There are other worlds. There are greater places in the galaxies that scientists have discovered. We leave this little ball we call earth down here, and get out there, and then where are we at? Out there, it is void. Out there, before there was ever a world created, where everything is void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. When the Bible says that the Spirit of God moved upon the waters, He said, "Let there be light," and there was light. In our little world of finite thinking, we fail to realize there is an infinite world somewhere. Scientists, because they are able to leave this little ball that is called earth and go up to the moon, they feel like they have accomplished something. But I want you to know something. It would take them over three years to make a trip to the sun at the rate they are going. And then, they couldn't get near it because the Bible says, "God is the great light unto which no man can approach." They can't get near it. It would burn them up. But then when we get away form the sun, and get away from the earth, and get away from the planets, then we see how smart man is.

Man thinks he can comprehend the depths of the ocean pretty well. He can comprehend the time and space from here to the moon and over to the sun, but what happens when you get away from those planets? Where are the walls? Where is the bottom? Where is the top? When you get out in that part that is void, when you get away from this little ball down here that we call earth, that has got a few time elements in it because of our intellectual definition (we do that to maintain a vocabulary expression to one another to be able to keep our bearings), but when you get away from what God made and you get out there, then you are in an infinity. You can't find the bottom. It's a bottomless pit. There is no top to it. There are no walls to it. There is no bottom to it. If scientists are smart, why don't they measure it? Why don't they tell you where the bottom of it is at? Why don't they tell you where the top of it is at? Why don't they tell you where the walls of it is at? If they're smart, all they can do is take what God's made and just work with it and define it down. That's just as far as their intelligence goes. But when you get out there in the void and you get out there in the emptiness and you leave somewhere and go to nowhere, then what about that? Get out there in the eternities. Man is not very smart, is he? He just thinks he's smart. He is not very smart. If he is smart, why can't he figure that out? He has been here long enough. There is a world of finite.

I'm thankful to be a part of it in the sense that God made it. I'm glad that we have got some kind of foundation. The Bible says, "We seek a city that's got foundation." I'm glad there is a place somewhere that's got some foundation, because that void out there, that space out there, that's a bottomless pit. I mean that is eternity. There aren't any boundaries to it. There isn't any end to it. It's about 93 million miles, I believe they say, to the sun? About 247,000 miles to the moon. But when you get beyond that 93 million miles and you travel another 93 billion, then were are you going to be? What's going to be out there? I tell you, I'm glad I'm a Christian, aren't you? I'm glad for what science can do. I thank the Lord for what man can do, what God has allowed him to do. But I think sometimes we get too big for our britches. That's the old folk's saying. God has to take you down a notch or two. We get to thinking we are pretty smart, but we forget there is something out there that we don't know anything about. That's why it pays us to listen and learn. That's why it pays to get in with God and go on with God. You get a hold of God and you can't turn Him loose as easily as you'd like to. The better thing to do is serve Him and love Him. Go on with Him. That's what we need to do. Let Him have the reigns and let Him guide us, and acknowledge God in all of our ways. That's the better way to do it. Let Him be the big boss. Somebody said, "If I can just hold out." You don't have to hold out, you just hold on. He can hold out.

When I think about Calvary and the great things of Calvary, what the Lord has done for us, it thrills my soul. I go back, sometimes, and I read the stories and I hear about the great things of old. I've relate things like William Travis and the Alamo, and different things. Great men and great things that happened. In everything I read, I start reading it and looking at it, and the first thing you know I see Jesus jump up. And I think my, "My! There He is again." Everywhere I look, He is there. David said, "Wherever I go, He is there. If I make my place up in heaven, He is there. If I make my bed in hell, He is there. He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. He is ever before my face. I see Him always." Hallelujah!

I was thinking of the beauty of the revelation, of Brother Richard's dad coming to visit. Being a railroad engineer, it is typical of death. Trains are typical of death. The railroad crossing. It is a typical thing of death. Trains go all through the mountains, winding around them. I've been on them, and when they get into the mountains, you can look back and see the tail of it way over there on the other side of the valley. They go down through tunnels like a big worm, a big snake, down through the tunnels, down under water. And when they roll down the track, everything shakes and trembles, because they are of death, typical of Satan. It shakes and trembles. Death moving through the land. Everything shakes and shivers. Then, when you go to cross over the railroad track with a car, you see that the crossing symbolizes what Jesus did for us.

Everything is a type and shadow. Everything points to Jesus. Everything shows the greatness of God, from the heavens, the land and the seas, the three bodies by which God works. In the ships, in the great airliners, in the great trains that move up and down the rails. God in His greatness. What is He doing? He is trying to speak to us, trying to deliver us, trying to show us His love, His compassion in types and shadows, to get us educated in the spiritual side of it. Somebody thinks that the world is just one big vacation. They think all you got to do is make money and ride trains and planes and go swimming and play golf. God didn't put us down here for that. This is not one big vacation land down here. This is a training ground where we can get a hold of God, learn about Jesus, get over the Jordan and get into the world that's out yonder in the great beyond where the real land of vacation is. I see the Lord in all of that.

There's a little sign about Casey Jones over here in Memphis. I remember the story of Casey Jones. I remember how we used to sing that song, how that I saw Jesus in the life of Casey Jones. Running the rails, trying to make a crossing, running late, and had to get there, knowing that they only had one track in that day and they had to get to a side track so that the other train might get around. But when they got off schedule, it meant a crash. It was a deadly thing. Two big iron engines crashing together, maybe with fifty or a hundred cars behind them. A terrible crash. I don't guess there is anything worse than a train crash. There haven't been a lot of them, but where one is recorded, it is a sad thing. Casey Jones was trying to make it. I saw Jesus in the story of it. I remember the song, because he was late and he couldn't get there. He was trying to make it and the other train was trying to make it. I saw a beautiful picture of Christ and I saw a beautiful picture of Satan. I saw them moving down the track one toward another, getting closer and closer. They got a little game they called "chicken." You start running at each other and one chickens out. In the story, they kept getting closer and closer. Casey Jones looked at his watch, but his watch was running slow, and he looked at the water and the water was low. He hollered to the fire man to shovel in the coal, pulled on the whistle and let the drivers roll. He hit the train head on. I thought that's Jesus. Hallelujah! He could have got out of it, but He didn't do it. He met the devil head on. When He had a chance to get away for His life, He didn't do it. He met it head on. I'm glad He did. He made the crossing and He made it for me. He could have gotten out of it, but He didn't do it. He knew it meant His life, just like Casey Jones knew it meant his life, but he was still trying to make the crossing.

I'm glad that Jesus didn't give up. I saw the life of Christ in it. I know that Casey Jones was a black man, as far as we know. But Jesus was made sin too. Gave His life. The blood was spilt in the life of Casey Jones to seal a testimony and a story. You hear a lot about Casey Jones. They commemorated him. They've got his home over there. But you don't hear anything else about the other fellow, do you? You hear a lot about Jesus, but Satan is standing in the background.

I thought about how beautiful the story was, and how that right at this very hour, Brother Richard's dad has come down here and how the Lord referred me back to Macon, Georgia. having to do with Centerville. Over there, at the little widow's house that you've heard me tell about it, how that I saw the great pillar of fire rise up, after praying and seeking God. I looked out the window and I could hardly believe my own eyes when I saw the pillar of fire rise up and go over the house of the engineer, and I said, "Lord, what in the world does that mean?" That engineer had been so cruel to that little widow and I didn't understand it. The Lord spoke to me after I got acquainted with the engineer. I took my three little children over there, like little bitty lambs, and I was talking to the engineer and the engineer told me how that a train could knock anything off the track. He said there was hardly anything that would derail a train. But, he said when that little sheep got on the rail, he said there was something about it because the fur would roll up and it wouldn't separate, and the oil that was in the skin was a sure thing that would derail a train. Just as sure as you hit him, he said, you'd come off the track. And I thought about it a few days later when we had the children sing for that hard-hearted fellow. When they begin to sing, all of a sudden, the tears begin to run down his cheeks and he began to get the praise of God in his heart, and I thought, "What nothing else could do, a little lamb did it." It derailed him and broke him up and he saw Christ in the life of it. That's why that we ought to be innocent. We ought to love the Lord and be innocent. Be innocent children of God and come into innocency, even the partaking of the supper tonight, as a lamb led to the slaughter, who opened not His mouth.

That's what derails the devil. That's what hits him head on and causes him to be unable to find his bearings, because, we as children of God, swear to our own hurt and go right on when people mistreat us, not being a quitter, but like Casey Jones, knowing he was going to hit but just kept right on keeping on. Jesus knew it would cost Him His life, but He kept on keeping on. They say a good skipper goes down with his ship. I believe that's what we ought to do. May God give us the same courage, the same perseverance, the same outlook so that we can rise up for Christ and keep on keeping on. Be a lamb and be gentle, swear to our own hurt and let people say what they want to and do what they want to, as the scripture say, "Open not our mouths," just commit ourselves unto Him.

I believe that we are at the crossing and there has to be some blood spilt to get over. I'm glad that the blood has been spilt. I'm glad that He spilt His blood so we could make it over, aren't you? I want you to think of the seriousness of these things that I've talked to you about. The offerings, and the Passover, the unleavened bread of sincerity, the blood of which Jesus said, "Drink My blood, eat My flesh, if you don't do this, you have no life in you." A lot of you tonight might not want to partake of it, and you'd better not partake of it if your heart isn't pure and right with God. "Except you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no life in you," Jesus said. I want you to partake of this offering of the Lamb, and come out of that fleshly mind of Egypt. Start a holy walk with God, with the unleavened bread of sincerity, and walk until you walk over into the Canaan land of the mind of Jesus Christ, into the revelation of God.

How many of you love the Lord? Let me see your hand. Now, I want to do everything that I can tonight according to the way that I feel that the Lord would have it done. To me, as I said before, this is very scared. We already have the wine for it. I don't believe in using grape juice, like a lot of churches do, because there is no strength in grape juice, and His blood had strength in it. Alcohol is a preserver, and real wine carries a little alcohol in it. I believe His blood can preserve. I believe the supper should be kept with wine. I believe that's why God let's them keep the supper with grape juice out there just to show that they don't have the Holy Spirit or any strength in it to preserve them. It is just a ritualistic with them. But any blood won't do. It takes His blood so tonight I want you to regard this as the crossing over of the Jordan.

When I saw that pillar of fire go over that engineer's house I asked, "Lord, what does it mean?" And He said, "That's death. This is the church passing over the Jordan, going over the Jordan by the blood of Jesus Christ." What we want to do is get over our carnal mind. To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. To lean to your own understand is the carnal mind of death. To lean to the mind of the Lord and trust in His Word with all your heart is the mind of life and peace. Don't try to figure it out; try to believe it out. If you try to figure it out, God will turn you over to a reprobate mind and send you strong delusion, letting you believe a lie and be damned. But if you'll try to believe it, God will open up your understanding and give you revelation and show you what it means.

Somebody said, "Well Brother Pike, do we just go out into something we don't understand?" Abraham sojourned in a land he didn't understand and didn't know anything about. He just went by faith, believing that God was going to make the way and God did. It's a journey by faith. Did you notice that in all of the offerings that they brought that animal to the door and always killed it at the door? That again had to do with the blood being applied over the door post. There's no atonement or no remission without the shedding of blood as in the atonement of the Lord Jesus. All things were sprinkled with blood.

Jesus gird himself about with a towel, which indicates the truth, and He took that and used the water to wash Peter's feet, which indicated the Spirit, by the Word of truth, the Spirit of truth. He had His loins gird about with the truth. He washed the feet of Peter because that's where the soul is. The serpent strikes at the heel of the foot. The soul is that that goes through the torture by everything resting on it continually. Peter said, "Lord, You will never do that to me." He said, "If I don't wash you, you'll have no part with Me." That was baptism. Then Peter said, "Lord, not only my feet, but my head and my hands," that is, baptize me. And so then Peter boldly preached baptism when he got the revelation of it.

Jesus was the Word that washed Peter's feet. Tonight, when you wash each other's feet, I want you to remember that your doing it to the least of these. It is bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. You are washing the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you eat the communion bread, you are eating the broken body of the Lord Jesus in a spiritual sense. The unleavened bread of His broken body, for His broken body had no sin in it. It was unleavened. You are eating the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. When you drink His blood, His blood represents the Spirit of God, for the life, which is the spirit, is within the encasement of the blood. Without the blood of Jesus, there is no life or spirit because it comes within the blood of Jesus. So, to drink the blood is to get the strength of the blood to preserve you. To drink the wine is to get the strength of the wine.

The Bible said, "Drink a little wine for the stomach's sake and thine often infirmities." Jesus drank wine at the supper and then He turned the water into wine. So, they could drink wine, but He said drink a little wine. Paul said, "A little wine." They called Jesus a wine bibber. You know, a wine bibber is one they say is always running off at the mouth about something. When Jesus would go to preach, they said, "You're just a bibber and it is all caused from wine. Everything you say, you are just bibbing over Your drunkenness." But He wasn't a bibber. He wasn't drunk and what He said wasn't bibbing. It was preaching the gospel. He knew exactly what He was saying.

John came neither eating or drinking and they said he had a devil. You can't please folks, can you? Jesus came both eating and drinking, to be made like unto us, and they called Him a wine bibber and a friend of publicans. John neither ate nor drank or would fellowship anybody, and they said he's got a devil. Either way you go, folks are going to pin you down. So the only thing to do is obey the Lord and let nature take its course, as it is said, as God guides you. Acknowledge the Lord in all of your ways and He will direct your paths.

Tonight, we want to acknowledge the Lord in this. We've got the plate and we've got the little tiny glasses that you use, but we are just going to use one cup tonight, just one cup. Brother Terry brought me a cup and he is a Lambert. So tonight, we are going to use one cup and that cup being brought by the Lamb in the type tonight. The men are going to drink from it and then we are going to let the ladies drink from the same cup. Take a sip of that and to pass it on from one to another. Brother and sister Lambert made this bread, so it also comes from the Lamb. Isn't that something? The wine will be from the Lamb and the bread will be from the Lamb. What I want you to do, before we do anything, is to kneel down where you are at. I want you to pray for a few minutes.

I want you to pray tonight and I want you to talk with the Lord and ask God to clear your soul and your mind before you partake of this tonight. Father of heaven, Lord we come to thee tonight in Jesus' precious wonderful name. God, You said let whosoever will come and partake of the waters of life freely. Lord in the book of Zachariah, You said there would be fountain open in that day for Israel. Dear God, I believe that that fountain was Calvary, and I believe that it's open, Lord, for Israel, and I believe that tonight, Lord, that Your blessings are upon spiritual Israel. Father, tonight I know that Your blessings are upon us. I know that this is a great significant, God, in that in our history it shows a new world coming in, Lord, by the man Columbus. Dear God, I pray tonight, as this new world comes in, as this new revelation comes in, Father, as this new mind of God comes in and the old veil goes out, I pray, dear God, that this great refreshing of the later rain might rapture the church and bring forth the harvest that is needed, O God, for what we are about to do. I ask in the name of the Holy Christ child tonight, that if there be anything in my heart, Lord, that it be moved away, that I might be pure in heart, dear God, and that if there be anything, Lord, in the minds of these people, in the hearts of these people, Lord, in the souls of these people, that it might be moved away. I ask in Jesus' name that You unite us together tonight as one body by Thy blood, heavenly Father. Unite us together tonight as one body, dear God, by Thy blood and by Thy broken body tonight that we become one membership through the eating and drinking, Lord, tonight. I ask You to be with us and I ask You to help us. O God, bless the people tonight, Lord, as we linger here before Thee. I pray, keep us in Jesus' name tonight.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

Before The Beginning

The Word of God. Across the world you'll hear this as you journey. The Word of God. The Word of God. Folks, I tell you, when you say the word of Brother Pike, the word of Brother Taylor, the word of someone you know, or even the word of a president or the word of a king, well, it could have great significance. It could have a meaning, just depending on the individual, but when you say the Word of God, the Word of God. What are we saying when we say the Word of God? And the Bible said in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the same come forth, put on flesh, dwelt among us, and we beheld it as of the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And the Bible said He hath created the worlds by His Word, not world, but as to worlds plural. He has actually created the world and the worlds by the Word of God. He has sent His Word and healed them, and the Bible said with His Word He cast out the unclean spirits, and His Word is the same to a thousand generations. It's unchanged and it's unaltered, this wonderful Word of God. This is what brings faith and by faith comes salvation, in that faith comes by the hearing of the Word of God. And on and on it goes. This wonderful Word of God, this wonderful Word of God.

It's no wonder that we want to know more about this wonderful Word of God. We want to know something about this Word of God, because this Word of God is Spirit. He said, My Words are Spirit, and they are life. He said, My Word, as to My promises, are life to them that find them, and it is health to all their flesh. This Word is a Word of Spirit and a Word of life. I speak this Word, because the Bible said he that God sendeth will speak God's Word. So then, I speak this Word, and when I speak this Word, as to the ministry, the Bible said it's not me speaking but the heavenly Father speaking from within me. And they shall all be taught of the Word, or taught of God. So then, this Word is Spirit and life. This Word is healing. This Word is salvation, and the Bible said the gospel, as to the Word of God, is the power of God. It is the power of God. It is a powerful Word. In the days of the Jews, the Bible said, it did not profit them that heard it because it was not mixed with faith. But this wonderful Word that you just let lay around on the shelf, if there was just a little bit of faith mixed with it, it would become powerful. So great and mighty would it become in your behalf, to supply all of your needs, all of your needs whether physically, financially, spiritually, whatever it might be, this wonderful Word of God. That's why I love the Word of God. That's why I think on the Word of God. That's why I talk about the Word of God. The Lord tells us to meditate in His laws day and night. He said to Israel, "Make them frontlets upon your eyes, and put them up; hang them by your door post, and teach your children these Words, to meditate in this law day and night." And the Bible said casting down imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of the Word of God, or to Christ.

So then, we are trying to grow up into this wonderful Word. We are trying to eradicate, as it would be, our own mind, our own thoughts, to where we don't lean to our own understanding, but that it is a continual stream, as to the mind of Christ, to have every thought into subjection to where it will be the Word of God. The Word of God. The mind of God. After all, if you are dead, you don't need your mind anymore, do you? But we're the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, resurrected from the dead, and it seems fitting that we should have His mind. Somebody say hallelujah! All right. So then, we understand each other. Wonderful, wonderful Word of God, the mind of God. These things were given to us in Christ before the world ever was, and brought to light at Calvary, or that is to say, this great mind is the Spirit of Christ Himself, and this mind is living within you if you've been born again. If you have not His Spirit you are none of His, but if you have

the Spirit then life is in the Son, and if you have the Son then you have life. If you have not the Son then you don't have life. So then, if we have the Son, we have life, we have the Spirit of God. And that is, the mind of God is within us, and this mind contains all of the wonderful wealth of God, for God, in His fullness, and in His entireness, lives within the mind of Christ. To wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world back to Himself, not imputing our trespasses unto us, but giving us grace, saving us by faith. And so then, the fullness of God within Jesus Christ, whose body ye are, members in particular, even the temple of God, and God lives in you, dwells in you, walks in you, and that means that we must, of necessity, have this mind to have His perfection. Let us go on to be perfect. Let us just keep on with this mind. This is our diplomacy as to graduate from the school of God with the fullness of the mind of God, everything in the earth being symbolic.

So then, we're going on to the great diplomacy of God, as to have the full measure of the full stature of the perfect man Christ Jesus, or on to the full reward to be bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh so that we can testify with Paul, It's not us living, but Christ that's living within us. So, this wonderful mind of Christ is revealing to us, from glory to glory, from measure to measure, from thought to thought, from revelation to revelation; it is revealing to us all of the glories and the wonderful things that were given to us in God in Christ before the world ever was. So then, given to us in Christ before the world ever was, they are brought to light at the rent veil of Calvary, and now we are preaching these things down through the church ages, and you have to comprehend the heights, the depth, the width, and the length of this great wonderful light which is the Word of God. So then, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. What kind of mind was this? He thought it not robbery to make Himself equal with God. Seeing that we are the offsprings of Christ, or the offsprings of God, then Paul ask them at Mars Hill, he said, Why then do you want to liken the godhead to stone and to gold and silver, seeing that we are the children of the godhead? We are the offsprings of the godhead. So then, we are the expression of God in the earth. We are God made manifest in human form according to our measure, and Jesus being the express image of the heavenly Father, then ye are members of His body in particular. How beautiful, how wonderful it is to be the children of God. If we're children, then are we heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, which means whatever He is that's what we are. As He is, so are we in Him. And whatever He owns, that's what we own, for we are one hundred per cent what He is. We are His very breath and life in the earth. He breathed into us and man became a living soul. We're His life in human form. So, it's wonderful to be a child of God. I love to praise the Lord, don't you? The Bible said clap your hands all ye people. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. I love to do that. All right. It's a joyful noise unto the Lord for us to clap our hands unto Christ Jesus.

I guess we'll talk with you just a little bit tonight. My heart is enlarged to you, and I am enthused over the things of God. I want to do something for Jesus. I would love to be able to explain what little I understand, or I'd love to be able to get over to you the thoughts that's in my heart, as to the wonderfulness of this wonderful Word of God.

So many things in this wonderful book called the Word of God. In the first of the Bible they use the terms Genesis, which means beginning, and I try to explain that this is something of Moses, that we didn't have any book like this, and we didn't know anything about a garden, or anything else, until God caught Moses away on the mountain and took him into the Spirit, and let him write about these things. So we speak about Genesis, the beginning. And then sometimes we go over to the New Testament, to the book of Revelation, and we speak about the revelation of Jesus Christ, which it sounds strange, but whereas Genesis is the beginning, Revelation is the end, because when Christ is revealed there is no more world. That's the end of

it. And I'd like to dwell on that thought just a little bit tonight, as to talk with you and see just how far down the trail you are. What I say depends on what you want. What I express to you depends altogether how you receive it, or how spiritual you are. Paul said, I would that you were spiritual. I'd like to speak unto you as unto spirituals. And he said, Pray that God will grant unto you the Spirit of revelation. And I say this so often, Paul wasn't talking to sinners. He wasn't talking to sinners when he said pray that God will grant unto you the Spirit of revelation. Sometimes people take that, you know, to mean that if someone's not born again, and they should pray for the Spirit of revelation, that if they are born again then they already have the Spirit of revelation. But that wasn't it. Because how could Paul have said to a sinner, Pray for the Spirit of revelation when the Bible says God heareth not a sinner's prayer? So he couldn't have been talking to him. And if he's talking to a Christian, then that means that there is something outside of just being a Christian. There are some benefits. There is something the Lord has for us. There is something He is wanting to give us. Even as a Christian, the Bible speaks of the gifts of the Spirit that's in the church. And then He speaks of the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. And then, of course, it speaks of the wonderful, wonderful blessings of God as to the Spirit of revelation.

Now, there is a difference between having revelation and having the revelation of Jesus Christ. There is a difference between that. There is a difference between just preaching the gospel and having the revelation of the gospel. See? The Bible speaks of the gospel of the kingdom, and the Bible says when this gospel of the kingdom has been preached in all the world for a witness, then shall the end come, but it also says in the book of Revelation that an angel flew through the heavens having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that are on the earth. Now, there is a difference. Not that there is another gospel, but there is a difference to this wonderful dimensional thing. You know, it's a difference as when you walk down to the river and you look, and there is the river. And you go away and say, "I have seen the river," and then a little boy he comes along and he dives into the water and he paddles around and he just, you know, rolls around in it, and has a big time, and then he leaves, and he says, "I have seen the river." And then somebody else comes back that's a fisherman, and they go down and they begin to explore it clear down to the bottom to find out what's swimming around and what's down there, like divers in the ocean. I don't know whether you've ever done that or not. I've done that. I've dived down in the ocean, you know, and they'll go way, way, way down in the ocean. And they'll see such strange creatures. Come back up a ways and see different creatures. And then come up a little further and see different creatures. And it's the same way if you're sent up into the heavens. You go so high and you see different things, and you go through different spheres, and then after a while you get on up there to where the moon is, and on up there where Mars is, on up to where Pluto is, and on and on and on into the galaxy of millions and billions of things.

So then, we see how great and mighty God is, how big God is, and how that we can just go on and on transformating into the wonderful mind of God, into the wonderful heavens, into the eternities, and enjoy this wonderful adventure in Christ, wonderful adventure. Such an adventure to me to venture out into the things of Christ. To me there is not a whole lot of adventure in the world. I've been all around the world, I've been all across the world, and I've seen about everything there is to see in the world. And I've been in the water, and I've been up in the air, you know, and all around and it's wonderful. It's a wonderful exciting thing. I've eat and I've drank and I've bought and I've sold, you know, all kind of things. But really there is not much to it. It's just kind of a rut. You just do the same things over and over and over, but with Jesus it isn't that way. When you get into the Spirit, you transformate and you go into great wonderful worlds and into great wonderful places, into great things that are so exhilarating, so activating, until it's just a new world. God said, I'll do a new thing, and you're always enjoying something new. And that's why it's so exciting to me. That's why boys and girls, they take trips. They get dope, and they take trips, because the

world is a rut and they get in that rut and after a while they're tired of it. When they first come along in it, you know, being new and young, it's exciting to them and they want to do a lot of things, and after a while it's just nothing. And then they get choked off of it, and some of them, I've heard them say this a number of times. They say, "I'd like to do my seventy and get out of here. And I didn't ask to come into this world anyway." So, with the misery, with the heartaches, with the sorrows, with the woe, with the poverty, with the pain, and all kind of threats, as to your life and your loved ones, you know, it really gets to be a problem.

But, folks, the blessings of the Lord maketh rich, the Bible tells us, and adds no sorrow. So then, this is a wonderful exciting life, and a wonderful exciting world. These boys get on dope, these girls get on dope, because they get tired of the world. It's just so drab that some of them just blow their brains out. They hang themselves. They kill themselves, you know. They do away with themselves, because the world is just such a wearisome place, such a wearisome place. Rick was telling me, just before they came from Alaska, that a young boy there just up and killed himself. He couldn't figure out why. I remember when I was a boy, there was one or two young fellows that lived right close to me. Fine fellows, they had everything. One of them was just getting ready, maybe, to finish his college up, but he just up and killed himself. The one across the way, his daddy was the big boss of the great plant there that most people were employed at, and he just up and he killed himself.

You know, but these boys and girls, as I'm trying to express here, they take these trips because it's new to them. It puts them out into space like. They get spaced out, as they say. They really don't know that they are just having strong delusions, and that they are injuring their brain. They don't understand that, and that in doing this, after awhile they'll be a vegetable, or even if they come off of it, they'll have flash backs, or their little children may be freaks, or anything else, because it's really an injury to the brain. They've even proven that drinking, every time you drink a little bit of whiskey, it kills some of the cells. They say that you cannot drink any without killing cells of the brain. But nevertheless, that's exciting to them, and they feel like they are finding a release, or a way out from the things of the world.

Let's read from the book of Genesis.

Genesis 1:1-31 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after

his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."

Genesis 2:1-4 "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,"

Now, it goes on here to point out that God made a garden in the east of Eden. Not just Eden as to the garden, but Eden was a place, and God picked the east part of it, and He made the garden and put it in the east of Eden. And the Lord planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And of course, He made every thing grow out of the ground. That was beautiful, as to the trees, the beautiful trees, and it goes on to speak of the trees, and it goes on to speak of the rivers that come out of this garden. The Hiddekel, and Gihon, and Pison, and Euphrates. How that they came out of this garden. As a matter-of-fact, the river Euphrates still goes by the name of Euphrates. You can find it over in the eastern part of the world. It's still there. And the other rivers that flow out of this garden, you can find them there, and the Bible speaks of gold being found by these rivers, great outstanding gold, and the onyx stone, and whatever. They are there, but the garden is hid. They can't find the garden.

So, we know that man was made out of the dust, and that dust was of Eden, and that his home was in the garden of Eden, which was eastward in Eden. But they have not been able to find it. See? They can find the rivers, but they can't find the garden. They can't find the head of the rivers. So it goes on to say, And God made man. He made man and He made man in His own image. Now, we could say a lot of things right there, of the deep sleep that fell upon Adam and of the serpent, and of the beguiling, and the many things here, as to the expulsion, but I just want to dwell on a thought here if I can. It says, "The evening and the morning were the sixth day." So, we find here as to an evening time, as to when night and day begins to meet each other, as we say concerning the waters of the evening tide when the tide begins to level off and get even, or we say in our day, you know, the evening time, as to when time becomes even, as to night and to day. But nevertheless, here it speaks of in the beginning.

Now, I've said this a number of times, when we speak of being in the beginning, that's one thing, but then we never talk very much about before the beginning. We talk about the beginning and then that is an outstanding thing, because we know in the beginning, which is Genesis, God done thus and thus. But then when we speak about before the beginning, then we kind of get lost because we think, "What is meant, before the beginning, Brother Pike?" Well, it's very obvious that according to the Scriptures, God did not have a beginning. So when He says the beginning, He's talking about the beginning of all things as to tangible substance. Or He's talking about the beginning of you and I, as to create something out of the elements, or out of the dust. Remember, this world is a world of elements. There is a world of elements and there is a world of Spirit. You belong to one or the other. You belong either to the world of elements, or you belong to the world of Spirit. If you belong to the world of elements then your life is terminal, and somewhere your life is going to end, because your life had a beginning, because all things that are of the elements have a beginning. So then, that means that if you are of the beginning, then, of course, you have an end. Now, Jesus did not say that He was of the beginning. He said, I am the beginning. Or that is, there is nothing before Me. I am the beginning of all things, and I am the end of all things. I am alpha and omega. I am the beginning and I am the end, and the alpha and the omega, of course, are those words that are used in the Greek alphabet. I am the beginning and the end. The alpha, as to the beginning, and omega, as to the end.

So then, we find that there is something that is beyond the beginning. What is beyond the beginning? The thing that is beyond the beginning is God. The Bible said in the beginning was God. So then, if in the beginning was God, then that means that God had to be before the beginning or He could not be there at the beginning. The beginning is that it all emanated from God, came out from God, so every thing that is before the beginning is God. God is there and then God creates the angels, and then God creates the earth and the heavens. And then God creates the creatures, and then God creates mankind. God is the great wonderful God. And a lot of times I say this, not as to baffle you, but to make you stop and think, because man he thinks he's so great and mighty, you know, with his little old intellectual PhD, or something, you know, like some kid playing with a little ribbon. He thinks he is really something. He has excelled because he's figured out how to get to the moon. And he really lifts himself up. He's full of pride. He's full of arrogancy, and he is full of self esteem, but you know, when you think about God, man is hardly a speck in the universe. God has created the earth, which is one tiny little speck of all the many galaxies in the universe, and that within a galaxy, billions of things in one galaxy. And the moon and the stars and all of these other things, Mars, and Pluto, Uranus, and all of these things that are so great and outstanding, God made all of these. God made the heavens, and God made the earth, and made every blade of grass, and God made every little creature, and every little tiny bug, and whatever there is, God made it all. And God numbered the hairs of your head, and the stars, which are innumerable, God made those.

So then, we say, "Where did God get His beginning?" God didn't have a beginning. God is the beginning of all things. And then we say, "Well, Brother Pike, how old is God?" We've said this numbers of times. How old is God? Where did God come from? The writer said, He came from Tema. But nevertheless, where did God come from? Did God come from anywhere? Is there anywhere for God to come from? The Bible said He's above us, He's in us and He's through us. He fills all in all. And the Bible speaks of the clouds like the wings of a chariot for God, and that the earth is His footstool, and heaven is His throne, and when we think of God and how great and mighty God is we just kind of get lost. I say to you, "How old are you?" And so then, we, with our little numerical order, we begin to enumerate, you know, that we were born on such and such a date, as to somebody that got together and divided things secularly to give us a season, and to give us a month, and to give us a day, and to give us an hour, and divided the shadows up, and these many things as we go into it as to explain where time came from, how that time got its origin, and what time is, and when time began, and that time has an end, and where time will stop, in that you are not time creatures.

So to keep the balance, God had to suffer man to do this. Satan did that. See? Because Satan is ignorant. Satan does not understand anything. He is ignorant. Altogether ignorant. The Bible teaches that he doesn't understand this great light, this great God. He is cut off from it. He is the ruler of the darkness. He is in ignorance. So, God is the great wonderful light. The great wonderful understanding. And Jesus Christ, which means you as the membership of His body, dwells in this great wonderful knowledge or wisdom or light. And we understand all things. We have an unction from the Holy One that nothing should be hid from us. So then, from the beginning we say, And God created heaven and earth. But before the beginning, we look and we find God. Where is God? What does God look like? Where did He come from? So we start wondering about God. We try to figure out God.

Do you know that man, with his little finite mind, with all of his education, as to college and school, did you ever notice he won't mess with trying to figure out God, or where God come from? He won't do that. You know why he won't do that? He's afraid he'll wind up in the insane asylum. See? He has to have a 1 2 3 and an A B C. He's like a dog. You know, you take a dog, that's an animal, and you say, "Bobo, roll over. Sit up. Give me your paw." Well, that's all he can do, you know. He can roll over, he can sit up, and give you his paw. The Bible said they are dogs, and they are swine, and they are beasts, some brute beasts made to be taken and burned. But folks, we are not beast; we are gods. We are the children of God. We are made in the image of God. We are the very image of God itself. Though the image was lost in the garden, we realize that, that the image was lost, as to the sonship image, that Adam was the Son of God, and that great wonderful illumination, as to the shekinah, was lost, but we also know that Calvary brought back that great wonderful shekinah image. And today, we that are born of God, we are the recipients of this great wonderful thing, and thus we are the image of God in the earth. We are the very expression of God in the earth. We are the image of God. This great shekinah image has been restored to us, and we are made in the image of God. Now, it does not yet appear what we shall be like, as to the sight of someone seeing us, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

So then, the world doesn't see us yet. The world doesn't understand us yet. The world doesn't know us yet, but the illumination of our glory will outshine the brightness of the noon day. So, that means that we are now, beloved, the sons of God. Though it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that we shall

be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone that hath this hope within him purifies himself even as He is pure. So then, we know that we are the children of God. We are the body of the Lord, members in particular. We are the very bone and flesh of God. We are the image of God. We're the tabernacle of God in the earth, as the natural body, and that in the wilderness of our intellectual wanderings. But Peter said this tabernacle one day being dissolved, we have anther house eternal in the heavens not made with hands, which is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not of the first man Adam, but of the second. And so then, our life then will be within that temple. And today, we are already that body through the foreknowledge of God, though we have not made the change as of yet, as to human sight. But in His sight we already are, as in Christ we are complete. So then, we realize that we are the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're that great masterful image in the earth. We are gods. And we are going to change back into the originality of that image that was lost at the expulsion there from the garden.

But getting back to our thought here: before the beginning. We say again, how old was God when He created the world? How long had He been here when He created the world? Where did He come from? Where has He been living? If the world is approximately six thousand years old, then what about a thousand years before then? And what about ten thousand years before then? And what about ten million years before then? And what about ten billion years before then? Where was God? What was He doing back there ten billion years before that? And a hundred billion years before that? And ten hundred billion, billion, billion, trillion years before that? Where was He? What did He do all this time? See? I said that in a way that appeared to be a great exaggeration, but you've got to admit if we're going to go by a numerical order, and if there's going to be a 1 2 3 and an A B C, roll over Bobo and give me your paw, then that means that we're never going to understand God. So they can't understand God. They confess themselves to be wise, and the Bible said they are nothing but fools. And so, through the foolishness of God, it pleased God that men should be saved. What is our great colleges but a bunch of foolishness? What is our great schools but a bunch of foolishness? God took them out of Egypt; they had none of these. They did not have industries, they did not have medical centers, they did not have any of these things, but not one of them was sick. About three million of them came out of Egypt to Canaan. God watched over them. God fed them. God took care of them. Is anything too hard for God? It seems reasonable that God could take care of three million people if He takes care of what we would perceive to be billions of species that's in the ocean, as the big blue whale that weighs about ninety to a hundred tons, and of all of the lions and the elephants in the jungle, and all of the fowls of the air, and whatever it might be. See? God can handle the situation; no problem for God.

So we don't need the geniusy of mankind, as Satan, magnifying himself through the old tree of knowledge by trying to project himself to be something to a magnitude of making it look like something as to self esteem. We want to glorify God. God is the Spirit. God is the invisible God. What then is the answer to this million years, or billion years, or what is the answer to this? The answer is that there is no beginning with God. The answer is, there is no end with God. And to you and I, as little finite, you know, that is just too much. That blows our mind, we say. That's too much. "But, Brother Pike, we have got to get this thing together. We can't understand it." We can by faith. Jesus declared God. God is a declaration. Jesus declared God. The only begotten Son of God has declared God. See? But when we say, "Something without a beginning, something without an end?" we say that's the way it is with you and I. See? The world don't understand us. They say. "Well, I know him," as it was with Jesus, He's the carpenter's son. "He's the painter's son. I know him." You know, but that isn't the way it is. Did Jesus have a beginning? Of course not. Did He have an end? Of course not. If He did, why did He say, Father, restore unto Me the joys I had with Thee before the world ever was? Before the world ever started? And how is it that all things were created

by Jesus if Jesus just came to be, as in the days of Mary? We spoke of the great high priest, even Melchizedek, which we're not going to speak about tonight, but we have spoken about this great high priest. Jesus being made a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, the priest of the most great and high God.

So then, we see that when we think about time, and time elements, and time barriers, such as a clock, such as calendars, such as A B C and 1 2 3, we find out it's just a lot of foolishness. And yet man has to keep it. He has to have it to have his stability, because he's born into this world. He's trained into this from the old tree of knowledge. This is what he thrives off of. This is what he is. He's born as a blasphemer. He's born into the world as one cursing. He's born into the world in a spirit of foolishness, already bound within his heart, even though God does not impute it unto him because where there is no knowledge of sin, sin is not imputed; that is, until he comes to the age of accountability, God does not impute his trespasses unto him. But nevertheless, we see that God came in the form of Jesus, coming into the world to wit that God, the great Spirit, was in Christ reconciling the world back to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; that is, redeeming His creature to keep from having to destroy it. So, we see that with God there is no time. With you, there is time. And I said this because there are shadows, because there is time, then there is death. There is death. Wherever there is time, there is shadows, because you can't have time without shadows. And wherever the shadow is, there is death, because David said, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for Thou art with me. So then, death. The shadow is death. Darkness is death. Light is life, and to be carnally minded is to be full of the shadows. I wish we had time to bring that out. And to be spiritually minded is to be full of life.

You look up into the heavens and you see a nice bright shining cloud with a silver lining, you look over here and you see a dark cloud, and it's full of the fury of wrath and storm. So then, one of them is cold and one of them is hot. And you see them coming together as thunder heads, and when they begin to bump together, we get a real allegoric picture of Revelation 12 and war in heaven, because clouds represent angels, both good and bad, both light and darkness. So then, we see that these, if we say, as to the heavens, which is the head of the body, we see then that there are all kind of thoughts coming. As a man thinketh in his heart so he is. And then there are clouds that's coming. There are thoughts of darkness, of intellectual darkness. There are thoughts of debauchery, thoughts of lust, thoughts of evil, thoughts of gossip, thoughts of backbiting, all of these thoughts are up here floating around, as we say, in the heavens of our head. And then there are other thoughts, thoughts of our Lord Jesus Christ, of life and hope and radiance and happiness and strength and confidence, and that is not fear, but faith. See? And these things are at constant war one with another. They are warring all the time. There is a continual warfare between the body and the spirit. And darkness, which is the powers of time, is trying to swallow you up. And if time swallows you up, then you are terminal. It proves that you are of the world of elements, but if time can't swallow you up, and if life takes hold of you, then it proves that you are of the Spirit world, and that you are eternal, and that you master that body and you receive that body as a gift from God, transfigured into the wonderful glory of God that the glory of God might be manifested in that body. The Bible said God has called us to glory and virtue.

So then, we see the continual warfare. It's always there, and Satan, as to the storm clouds of this life, sweeps over us with such great fear, and Jesus gave the parable by saying the wise man built his house upon the rock. Or that is, he took the mind of Christ, he took the Word of God. He found it as life. Upon that, he done away with fear, to not let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. And he founded this

little house, this little tabernacle, upon the rock of God's Word. And the Bible said the storms came, the wind blew, the lightning flashed about, the floods arose, but the little house withstood the storm. And when the storm was over, the little house was still solid, founded upon the rock. And then the Bible speaks of the man that built his house upon the shifting sands of worry and fear, theology and human reasoning. And when the storms came and the winds blew, it said, and this house fell and great was the fall of it. So then, we know that with Christ we are eternal. Without Christ, then we don't have anything.

So then, we see that before the beginning, we go back before the beginning. What are we saying? I say once again, if there is a beginning, it is a beginning of shadows, because there was the evening and then the morning. So then, the beginning of shadows. And I say again, as to the sun coming down, you know, as the sun moves from the morning over to the night, then we have the little dial clock that was some of our earliest time pieces, and as the little fin that sits there as the light moves over, then the shadow of this little dial, it moves. The shadow moves with the light, and if you make a little circle, as to a circumference, then you break it down into about twelve points, as we say, numerical order, then of 1 2 3, or twelve characters, then that means that you've got something that you can severally divide time with, and you can absorb that in your mind and thus you become a time creature, and man can determine how long it will be from point A to point B, as to work, and how many hours that he has in the day, or he can tell something about from morning until night, because he is a time creature. So, it becomes a 1 2 3 and an A B C, until finally it gets into the printed page of the calendars, as to thirty days in this, and twelve hours in one day, and thirty days, and on and on and on. We have brought this out as to the sun and the moon and the stars, and how that they determine the months, and how that they determine the years, and we have this on tape somewhere. With this, man becomes enslaved to time. He gives his believing to this world. He gives his believing to time. He gives his believing to his own ability, his own strength, and his survival consists majorly of just believing in his own ability. And this is Satan that does that.

But the Bible says in Revelation, the book of Revelation, in Revelation 10 and 7, it said, And the angel stood with one foot on the land and one foot on the sea, lifted his hands to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth forever and ever that time should be no more. Which indicates, as I've used the little illustration, that if I have an accordion and I opened the accordion up like this, then I'd have point A and I'd have point B, and in between I'd have the riffles, but if I come together and I shut it all up and lay the accordion down, that would be the end of it, as from my left to my right. See? And when God folds it up and He lays it away then it's no more, and at Calvary He did that for you and I. And time shall be no more, no more, no more, and time shall be no more. The angel shall stand, and time shall be no more. So then, time is folded up and laid away. What happened to time? Jesus did away with the shadows. He did away with the shadow of death. He conquered death. And through Christ, we're more than conquerors through Christ who gave Himself for us. And now it is eternity again, and shadows are gone. And as I say so often, from that four eighty-three, as to Daniel's last bit of time, as to what is given concerning the Jews; four hundred and eighty-three years to Calvary, the church ages, or heaven, comes in, and then after that it's that little time element coming in again, and beyond that there is no more time. After the thousand years, as to a thousand years regime here in this world, there will be no more such as that.

But, nevertheless, as to time itself, in Revelation 10 and 7 time is no more, indicating that when Jesus lifted His hands to heaven He said, It is finished. We say what is finished? Time is finished. Time shall be no more, no more. And the Bible said in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son, made under the law, made of a woman, and there it was: the fullness of time. And gathered all things in heaven and earth into the body of

Jesus saying that this is as the waters of Noah to me. Or that is, in the days of Noah, the two thousand years and then the world ended. Then at Calvary Peter said, Ye are the people upon whom the ends of the world have come, and then the world ended. And now we're moving on over to the end of the world, as to the next two thousand years, and now I declare unto you, even as Peter did that you are the people upon whom the ends of the world have come.

So, we're born into the world and this is our day. This is our Calvary. We're looking back now at Calvary and we're seeing these wonderful things take place. So then, in the beginning, in the beginning, but before the beginning, there was no such thing as time. After the end, as to that little era of time, there is no more time, no more calendars, no more almanacs, no more clocks, no more counting of time, or marking time, or any of these things, because that is the end. All right. So then, we are creatures of eternity. We had no beginning. So, if we had no beginning, then we have no end. Someone would say, "But, Brother Pike, you know we had a beginning." No, you had a beginning. I did not have a beginning. If I'd had a beginning, I would have to have an end. See? If a thing has a beginning, it must have an end; must of necessity have an end. But if I have no beginning, I have no end. Jesus said, I come from heaven, I go back to heaven. Ye are of the dust. From the dust thou art, Adam. Ye had a beginning, and to the dust thou shalt go. But the illumination, as to that image called the Son of God in which Adam was made, it was not a beginning. It was there before the world ever was, and God said to that image, even the Christ, Come and let us make man in our own image. Seeing that we're the offsprings of God, made in the image of God, why then, Paul said, should we liken God to gold and silver, or to stones, or these kind of things?

So, before the beginning. There was no such thing as time. Now, this is what blows our mind, as the world says. When we say, "But, Brother Pike, how do you explain that? What do you mean, there was no time?" See? In your little mind you've been programmed like this. You've been programmed like that. And it's so minute. It's so small. It's so little. That's why I say so many times, I say you just don't understand. You know, we're creatures of these circumstantial environments, and we never get beyond that because we never get in the mind of Christ, to allow Him to take us into these wonderful things. He said, Ask of Me and I'll show you great and mighty things that you know not. So then, when we think about these things, we don't get into those things, so we just say, "Well, you know, there are some things that God don't want us to know." But that isn't right. The Bible said we have an unction from the Holy One that we should know all things. What things is there, then, that God does not want us to know? If I am one with God, how can it be that there is something that I should not know? We have an unction from the Holy One that we should know all things. Jesus said, All that My Father has made known unto Me I've made known unto you. He did great and mighty works in the earth, and then He went away, and He said, Because I go to the Father, these works that I do shall ye do, and greater works than these shall ye do, because I go to the Father. Can you deny that that's the Word of God? Don't you have faith in the Word of God?

So then, we say there was no time. I don't have to harass my mind as to say, "What was He doing ten billion years before the creation of the world?" I don't have to harass my mind to say, "What was He doing ten million years before the creation?" I don't have to harass my mind, and say, "Well, how old is He that is called the Ancient of Days?" I don't have to do that, because there never was no time with God. With you there is time. With you, you've got to figure out as to point A and to point B, to your 1 2 3 and your A B C. But with God there is no such thing as that. It's just a matter of fact that we accept that time is just some foolishness of man that he's got to keep his stability, because Satan don't have enough sense to go around a tree, as we would say, by himself. So he has to do everything he can in his ignorance, and in his foolishness,

to captivate man's attention and to get man's attention when he is the spirit of ignorance. Paul said, I would not have you ignorant. Darkness is ignorance, which means no knowledge of God, no knowledge of life. See? But we are children of light. We comprehend the height, the depth, the width, and the length of this great wonderful godliness. Thus we become one with God.

So then, there was no beginning with God. There is no end with God. There is no days with God. There is no time with God. God is, He was, forever shall be. And when you and I think about that we say, "That blows our mind, because, Brother Pike, we know that there has been six thousand years." So then, we know there's been six thousand years. All right. So, somebody stand up and explain to me what six thousand years is. Somebody explain to me what a day is. Somebody explain to me what a week is. I say this so often, the sun comes up over here and it goes down over here, and we say, from the morning until the evening, or until night. But then when you get on the plane, and you follow the sun, and the sun don't go down, and you just keep on, and the sun don't go down, and you do like Joshua, and the sun is always up, and there it is, the moon, and you wonder what happened to night. See? So then, is it night with God? Or is it night with you? Is it a day with God, or is it as that with you? The Bible says concerning Eve, In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die, which if it was God speaking, then it was a God expression. It was a God day, and never has man lived beyond one day of God, never fulfilled a day of God. Peter said, And God's day is as a thousand years. So then, God is going to bring the millennium in, give us one great sabbath day of rest, which is the millennium, and let man live through the whole thing to show that man has entered into the rest of God, and that by that, death is now conquered; no more shadows.

And so then, the great bright light that's ever and eternal will come forth and man shall abide within that light, because there will be no darkness there. The Lamb is the light of that city, and there is no night in that city. And the Lamb is the Word, as to the understanding, as to the revelation of the light most precious, the great understanding. Have you come into the light? Do you walk in the light? If you walk in the light as He is in the light, you'll have fellowship one with another. Are ye the children of light? Are ye the children of darkness? When this great light comes, can you comprehend it, or are you cut off in the darkness as to the intellectual wilderness wandering of the world of elements? The Bible said and this world being on fire, as to the world of elements, and that the elements themselves shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth and all therein shall utterly be burned up. Are you of the Spirit or are you of the world? And the Bible said when the Ancient of Days comes, God, even a consuming fire, the Bible said the heavens, that is the heavens above you, pass away, and the earth passes away, and the ocean is found no more. And the Bible says everything shall pass away and there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. So then, we know that the Word of God is for sure, for the Word never passes away. And if we are of the Word of God, then that means that we endure forever. Thy Word endureth forever, O God. So then, we are just one with the great Word. With God, there is no beginning. So it is today.

We say seven thousand years, six thousand years. I look back I say, "Well, God, it's almost six thousand long years." And we say a thousand years, Brother Pike? My, we can't even hardly make it to a hundred. If we make it to a hundred, we are just absolutely phenomenal, you know, and then we're so weary we can't hardly go. Thousands of years. To rule and reign with Him a thousand years. But old brother Methuselah didn't think that was such a long time. He lived almost a thousand years. And Noah came right down close to it. See? And those men in their great age, as we say. What happened to life? I say this so often. Why is it that with all of our jogging, and all of our eating, as I was talking to my wife today about this, why is it that you die? Why do you die? Scientist can't figure it out. They give them all kind of pills, and pep pills, and

everything else, and they aid life a little bit as to the reflection of the church, and with the understanding that God gives, and these brilliant men, as would be, want you to think that they've got life in their hands. And folks, when you have a problem, you run to them, or you feel that you are going to die. And as I say often, I, having been an undertaker at one time in my life, or helping that is, in the undertaker parlor, we would go to the hospital and we'd take them out the back. Take them in the front, and take them out the back. Dead when they went out. Why do you lean on the arm of flesh? Why do you go down to Egypt for your help? I know that having aid is fine. Having medical aid is fine, a medicine doeth good. God gives that understanding, or whatever, but why corrupt yourself over these things? And why lean upon the arm of flesh? And cursed is he that goeth down to Egypt for his help. What can they do for you? The people that they waited on years ago died. All of them died. Someone would say, "Some of them died." All of them died, and not only did they die, but the doctor died too. What are you going to do? You run to the doctor, you know, and the doctor has got to take care of you, but what if he dies before you get there? What are you going to do then?

So then, what are we saying? One generation comes, and God lets them play with the toys and see what they will do, as to their stewardship, to see whether He's going to give them these things as an everlasting gift. Then that generation goes off of the scene and then another one comes, but God lets it be so interwoven until there is no alarm and you never know about it. And the earth just seems to go on and everybody just seems to live on and on. But, I'm only saying this, that there is no such thing as elements with God. God is not the God of elements. God is the God of Spirit, and all elements emanated from God, and you are a composition of elements. All of your problems consist of complication by means of elements. If it's iron that rusts, if it's wood that rots, if it's your body that decays, whatever it might be, the little atomic particles, it is some kind of complication of that little bodily element, and then you've got deterioration, and it turns back to acids and the stench, as to the fact that acids have such a stench to it. And so then, you are nothing but a little composition of elements. Why then do we place the greater emphasis upon the things of less value? Why is it our evaluation is so improper, and why is it that we do not understand, as to giving priority to the right things? Why is it that we do that? See? It's because man is in a confine of his world. Satan has taken his spirit, his life, his mind, and he's become interwoven with it, and is dwelling within the body, and all he can think of, and all he can see, is the vanities around him. But when Jesus got into the mind of God, He just walked right through the wall of vanity. The grave could not hold Him, because He was not subject to the bondage of the beggarly element world. But you are subject, for the Bible said God making the creature, as to the body, subject to bondage by, as to the element world, or by means of the human senses, you are dependent upon it. All of your labor is for your belly and for your mouth, because your belly craves it of you. So then, you are subject, or subjected, as the creature part, to the bondage of the beggarly elements of the world.

But see now, folks, by the body of Jesus, that body is now dead. And we are no longer the bondschild, as to subjection to the world. But now our body is yonder at the right hand of the Father sitting on the throne. And our life, our life has become interwoven with Christ, and Christ, our life, went away. And when He, our life, shall appear we shall appear in glory with Him, as on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses and Elijah. Before the beginning there is no such thing as time. So then, what day is it with God? Is it yesterday, tomorrow, or is it the day after with God? Folks, God was, is, forever shall be I AM. Not I was or shall be. I AM. That is, today, as we say with you and I, as today with its few hours within it. God is here. Yesterday God was here. Tomorrow God is here. That is to say, with God the blood is still fresh. It's still dripping from the hands of Jesus as He hangs at Calvary. There is no two thousand years, there is no yesterday, there is no many weeks and days and hours that have gone by. He's standing there, and the blood is dripping from His

veins, because with God all that foolishness of time elements, as 1 2 3 and A B C, it's not that way with God. So why does God have to be ten million years old, five million years old, four hundred years old? Why? Why did man live nine hundred years and now he can't hardly make a hundred? What is this? It's because of man's believing. It's because of sin. Sin is killing man, and unbelief is the root of that sin. The day that thou disbelieve that's the day ye shall die, for the just shall live by believing, or by faith.

So then, we know that God is present. God has always been present. God will ever be present. He's above us, He's in us, He's through us. When we say we're going to go five hundred years and then the translation, three hundred years and God's going to catch us away, two hundred years and a great phenomenal thing is going to happen, why do we wait? What do we have to wait for? What is all of that about? That has nothing to do with me. I was before the world ever was, I still am, and I'll be after the world has gone away. I had no beginning. I have no end. I have no days, as to beginning or end, neither am I a time creature. I am, I was, and forever shall be, because my Father and I are one. Let's give Him a hand. All right. So then, we know that it's just one great, beautiful, great big eternity. There's no need of me worrying about 1 2 3 and A B C, as to go to school and learn this as the old tree of knowledge. I'm here. I'm here. Like the fresh daisies of the morning. God is here. Somebody said, "But what about all of those days?" What days? "Well, you know, Brother Pike, all of those years, like yesterdays and tomorrows." What yesterdays and tomorrows? What days? Where are they? What are they? Have you got them? Can you put them in a bag? Can you show them to me? Can you point them out? Folks, let's don't be childish. Paul said, When I was a child I spake as a child. When I became a man I put away as to the beggarly elements of the world, as to the children of this world, as to childish things. See? Let's realize there is no such thing as time. There is no such thing as time. And time shall be no more, no more, and time shall be no more. For in the fullness of time, the end of time, the finishing of time, God sent forth His Son. He doesn't make it manifest as to the revelation, as to end of the world, as to the Jews, but to you and I that was the opening of Calvary. It was just a few short years after Calvary that John was on the Isle of Patmos, saw the rent veil, saw this wonderful revealing of God and the revelation of Christ, and the great world of God, and realized that time was nothing, that time has been swallowed up in eternity. There was no such thing. God only allowed that because of the shadows until this little period would be over that you call time.

So then, from Calvary, John saw this and he wrote the book saying, Time is no more, Revelation 10 and 7, as he looked back at Calvary and saw the fullness of time. Now as for the Jews, as to the last week of Daniel, which is a time period that sets in after the church ages; the church ages being an eternal period that will never end. Somebody said, "But, Brother Pike, what about the end of these church ages?" The church ages will end as to the way you look at it and your comprehension. It will end as to an A B C and a 1 2 3. But folks, heaven doesn't end, and the church ages is heaven, and the church will go right on through the church ages and all of a sudden, shoosh, like a nova, the sun, it will be gone away, because it can never leave heaven. It can never come back into this world. It is the great light that doth not appear until after the tribulation period, as we appear there as God the great light, and everything as to the vanity, the shadow, the time elements, will vanish away because we can never come back into the world. Ye are the light, and wherever this great light is, there is no darkness, and the world is a composition of darkness. God had to recede for this to come forth, and when God comes in the brightness of His shining, it's eradicated. As I say, the light causes the image to dissipate, if you bring the light brighter and brighter.

I refer to this in closing: when Brother Taylor and I were baptizing down at the river, Sister Lambert was taking pictures, and she took two or three pictures. And in the pictures, it shows the image as I stood there,

and the image was dissipating in every picture until the last picture, and the image had completely dissipated. The sun, or the light, as to whatever the phenomenal thing that God used, as to bring it about, using as a natural art to bring a spiritual meaning, or whatever it might be, as a natural body of Jesus to convey a great spiritual God. See? Whatever He used in the phenomenal way that He did it, the image dissipated because the light was so great and there was no more image. So then, that's the way that it is. You are the light of the world. So let your light shine that men may see your good works, glorify your Father in heaven. You cannot sin, because darkness has no fellowship with light. See that light: darkness has no fellowship with that light. Wherever that light is there is no darkness. And the strength of that light will expel darkness, as to wherever it can reach as to the strength. Like the angel, such great light. His light lightened the whole earth. The angel that came upon the shepherds, and the Bible said the light shined round about them. So then, as to you, whatever your angelic being is as to the knowledge of the great light of your understanding, so are ye in that spiritual world. Jesus resurrected from the dead and gave gifts unto men. As Brother Gerald said one time, seeing two great lights, he said he fell down on his face. And Paul, seeing that great light from heaven, he fell upon his face. So, beloved friend, remember we are the light and there's no shadows. Therefore, with God we just are, we've always been, and here we are. And how wonderful it is to be. Isn't that wonderful?

There's a lot of things I'd like to say about that. I'd like to keep on talking about this wonderful thing as before the beginning. As I've said so many times, was God God before the beginning? We again say that the word God means object of worship, so God is something that is given to the great eternal light as a title meaning object of worship, or that is the Lord Jesus, which is the object of worship in the earth. So, you being the body, they will come and kneel at your feet, and know that I have loved you. So, we realize that the title God is not only applicable to our God, but also to Muhammad, as to their god Allah, and also to Confucius. And the Bible said there be gods many, but unto you and I, when we apply the title God there is to us but one God, even the great light that was here before the title God, as to human expression, and human categorizing ever came forth. So, we just use that term again as an A B C and a 1 2 3, for God is the great light unto which no man can approach, who no man has seen, or can see. And Jesus Christ, even you as the body, dwelling in that great light, having an unction from the Holy One that ye should know all things, dwelling in that light, you alone can see God, and know God and comprehend God, who is the great light.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

Being Spiritual

People that really belong to God are jewels. The Lord said, "When I make up My jewels, I shall spare thee as a man spareth his son."

I think most of us will admit that the end of the world is here. I say that so often to remind you. People forget so easily. I think most of us will admit that things aren't going to get any better. No matter what we say or think, they're not going to get any better. I know we have hope that they'll get better, and we talk about things getting better, but in all reality, to be honest with you, they're not going to get better. The Bible says that perilous times shall come and men shall be lovers of self more than lovers of God; whereas, we're at that time now when men would rather have their own thing and do their own thing, and have their own comforts and convenience, and spend their time as to the magnitude of body and of their desire as to their wealth. The Bible says that evil men shall wax worse and worse. So, it's not getting any better. It's getting worse all the time. But we are still God's people, and we are still holding on to His promises, and it's going to work. It's working and it's going to work.

Sometimes the things we say are a little bit deep, but to me, it is so plain. When I say these things, I think of what Jesus said, "Launch out into the deep." He said that the Spirit of God searcheth out the things of God, yea, the deep things. I know that the Spirit of God is among us and that He searcheth out the deep things, and I just get carried away when I start talking. It's not me talking anyway when the anointing begins to utter forth.

When the Spirit of God starts moving, I just say whatever He gives me or whatever He tells me, or I just try to get out of the way and let Him say what He wants to say. That's the only way I know how to preach. It's like Brother David Paul, when he comes up here, he gets excited.

If I say something you don't understand, don't try to latch on to it as to believe it when you don't understand it. Don't do that. Don't be foolish and go to criticizing and saying that it's not right, and that it's confusion and all these kinds of thing. Don't you dare do that. God will cut you off in a minute. Just keep believing what you've already got a hold of as to the Word of God. Just desire the sincere milk of the Word that you might grow thereby, and hold on to what you've got, because if you try to change and grab something else, then you'll make your faith shipwreck, because you can't believe in something you don't understand. If you'll just hold on, you'll understand it. A lot of folks will say, "Well, I'll never understand that." Well, maybe it's because that you are not a Christian. The Bible says that the righteous shall understand. Don't start calling it confusion because confusion is of the devil. When you start doing that, that's the devil, that's Satan. That's the old carnal mind, and you don't want to do that.

You want to listen, and you want to listen with an open heart and with the love of God, and you don't want a spirit of carnality to rob you of these things. You want to listen sincerely, because there are two kinds of people in the world. One of them will say, "Well, it's confusing." The reason they say that is because they

don't want to come to holiness, or they're vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind as to thinking they know something that they don't know, and they don't want to admit that they're wrong about what they thought they understood, or they're not willing to enlarge upon something that God has given, and it's Satan with that carnal mind that's enmity with God, which is death, and it means they've never gone beyond the veil of death. So don't do that, because that will prove that you are the image of the devil and that you are of the devil.

Don't get confused. Just listen, because the Word of God is never confusing. Never. Paul came into the city and began to preach the gospel, and as he began to preach the gospel, there was great confusion in the city. But when the confusion was defined, it was of the devil. The Bible says that confusion is of the devil, and it was of the devil. Paul had confused no one, but they that were so set in their ways, as to the goddess Diana, they were the ones that were causing the confusion among the people, because as it was said of the coppersmith over there, he didn't want to give up his trade, because he made lot's of money making these images of paganistic gods.

There are a lot of people that have frolicking in their heart and in their mind and their spirit. They've have a following and money and prestige, and they don't want to turn loose of that. The Word of God casts out devils, and these devils are holding humanity within their mind as to their thoughts, and these things hibernate within the mind, which is a composition of thoughts, perhaps that Satan has built within you over many years. Sometimes it's biblical building, as to knowing the Word of God and misusing the Word of God and changing the Word of God into a lie; that is to say, as the charismatic order of today, where they've changed the Word of God into a lie, to go on with the lasciviousness of the flesh and not to believe in holiness, and just gullibly go after God as to say, "God loves us," when the Bible says the prayer of the wicked is abomination in His sight. They go after these things through church denominations. They're great in prestige, and they're mighty as to age. They've been here for a long time. As I said about the Presbyterian Church, it is one of the greatest, most outstanding churches that we've ever had, as to reputation, but at the same time, they are as blind as they can be, yet not all of them, but as to the system, in that I told you how that they are beginning to take what is referred to in the world as 'gays', and they're ordaining them into the ministry.

Listen to the Word of God. Have a love for the truth and desire the truth. If the truth is going to make you straighten up your crooked life, then get the truth. I love the truth. The truth, many times, has been a chastisement to me to make me straighten up. As I have come along down through the years, growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus, He has been my example. He grew in knowledge and He grew in stature. He grew in favor with man and God. And as I grow, then the Lord tutors me. He chastens me. Every son that cometh to God, He scourgeth Him first. If you're without chastisement, then are you bastards, whereof all sons are partakers. Even the Lord Jesus as our example, the Bible says that He learned obedience by the things that He suffered, even unto death on the cross; therefore, being made perfect, He became the author and the finisher of our salvation.

Follow after truth. Have a love for the truth. When the truth cuts across the grain or it begins to ruffle the feathers a little bit, love the truth anyway. Love the truth, and then it will be dear to you, and you'll find out that if God will reprove you of your wrongs, then He also will reprove your enemies of their wrongs. If He

will chasten you, in that you mistreat someone, you can rest in peace and safety knowing that no one's going to rise up against you without God chastising them. He's going to make your enemies be at peace with you. If your ways please God, He maketh even thine enemies be at peace with you.

All right, let's read chapter 3 in Saint John: "There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."

Now let's just move over here just for a moment to confirm something. In chapter 4 the 21st verse, Jesus is talking to the woman at the well: "Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

A man that was trying to sell us some property found out that I had been to Israel, that I am a minister, and he started asking me questions and he wanted me to explain who he was supposed to pray to. He said he gets mixed up trying to pray and he was confused as to whether he should pray to God or to Jesus.

So we see that people are hungry and needy. This man didn't even understand how to pray to God, but was very religious and he does pray, but he wanted to know how to pray. Then we expounded very clearly to him what he had to do, in that God is a Spirit and that he cannot get to God, the great eternal Spirit, which

is the Father, except through the blood atonement as the Lamb that was slain in our behalf, as to the name Jesus. According to the law, when you call a name, you bring that person present, and you can be charged by the law with slander. According to the gospel, calling the name Jesus brings the great, wonderful Holy Spirit, even the Lord Himself, present.

First of all, we have to remember that Mary's divine conception was of the Holy Ghost. Now we have to remember, that if that conception was of the Holy Ghost, then who is the Father of Jesus? The Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost must be the great, eternal Father. It's hard for you to understand sometimes because of teachings of three gods, or the teachings of three persons. There is no such thing as three persons. If you'll check, you'll find that even in Webster's dictionary, as to intellectual understanding, tells you that a human person is a body. There are no three bodies of God. There's only one human form of God. God is a Spirit.

It says very clearly in the fourth chapter of John, the twenty-fourth verse: God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Isn't that right? As we was discussing something the other night, I said, "Now, differentiate. Is the Son of God Spirit?" Well, there's something to consider right there. But when Jesus rose from the grave and they saw Him, they immediately said, "A Spirit." And Jesus said, "No. A Spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see Me have." Now He could have said, "No, not Me. I'm a human body, but My Father is a Spirit." He could have said it that way. And He did to those that understand.

So then, it's difficult to look at it in the carnal mind, trying to understand the godhead as we would say. I say this for a purpose, that to understand the godhead, if you look at it naturally minded, or if you look at this revelation I'm preaching naturally minded, you are not going to receive anything of God, because the Bible says that the carnal mind is enmity with God. It's not subjected or subject to the Spirit of God or the things of God, neither in deed can be. It says that the spiritual things of God are foolishness to the natural man. He's got it all figured out in his natural mind; what religion ought to be, what God is, and his intellectual indoctrination has perverted his thinking and he is programmed wrong. That means that spiritual things are foolishness to the natural man and neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned. The Bible says that the Spirit of God searcheth out the things of God, yea, the deep things. It also tells us that the eyes of the wise and the prudent has been intellectually blinded. They that are but babes in Christ. But God has made this revelation known unto babes such as would learn, who humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, that He might exalt us in due season. It also says, as to the natural man, that he shall not see when good cometh, for his eyes are blind. Even the god of this world, Lucifer, has blinded his eyes, even the eyes of understanding, that he might not understand or see when good cometh.

As we go along, I'll expound more and more on the godhead. Remember, the godhead is not confusing. I tell you again, the Bible says that all of the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, are clearly understood by the things which do appear, even to the eternal godhead, so that we're without excuse. There's nothing baffling about it at all, but when we get our own understanding mixed in with it, and we try to figure it out, or try to make it come down to what we have been indoctrinated with, or what we think of it, then we get into trouble. I've went down that trail in my early life, so I know. What we need to do is take the Word of God and let every man be a liar. I don't care what preacher you've listened to in the past, or what preacher you'll listen to in the future. Let every man be a liar, as to his testimony, no matter how

much confidence you have in that person, whether mother, daddy, brother, sister, whatever it is. When it comes to the Word of God, the Bible says that He that God sendeth will speak God's Word, and faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So when you hear the Word of God, you believe the Word of God. Don't be hasty in spirit and say, "Well, that isn't right. I don't believe that. That doesn't agree with what I think." You are a fool when you do that. The Bible says there's more hope for a fool than a person who is hasty in spirit.

Let's not be so hasty in spirit. We're growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus. We're moving on toward the full measure of the full stature, and we're moving on toward the full reward. Now, if I was the kind of person that every time I heard something, I said, "Bless God, that isn't the way I believe it. That doesn't fit what I think. That isn't the way I've heard it," do you know what I'm going to be? I'm going to be a spiritual dwarf, and all I'm going to ever know is my own intellectual ignorance, because that's what it is. Paul said, "I would not have you ignorant." If all you're going to do is judge everything by what you think and by what you know, then you're never going to grow. I know many things by the grace of God, but I listen very carefully. The Bible says that when you come to the house of God, keep your foot. Don't let it slip. Be more ready to hear than give the sacrifice of fools, or that is, your own opinion about things. Don't harden your heart. Don't fasten yourself to judge everything and scrutinize everything, and if it doesn't fit what you think, throw it out. Don't do that. Don't be foolish. Judge everything according to the Word of God, and if it fits the Word of God, whether it fits what you think or not, get rid of your thinking, and come to the Word of God.

Did you know that Jesus so respected the Word of God, that when Satan quoted the Word of God, even taking it out of its original context to pervert it and change it into a lie, as to the meaning, trying to destroy with it, that He never one time cut across the Word of God? Satan quoted the Word of God verbatim. It's in the Scripture the way he quoted it, but Jesus never cut across it one time. He acknowledged that that's what it said. But He knew the spirit behind it was wrong, and that it was trying to kill rather than bring life. And He only said, "It is also written." God said, "Line upon line and precept upon precept."

Now, when you hear God's Word, cuddle what you hear. Listen to it. It may be so dimensionally deep that you could never understand it at first. I had things in my early childhood in God that I heard, and I thought, "My God, I just don't know where to begin with that. That's just slap crazy. That doesn't make any sense. I can't get that. I just can't believe that." And then I'd hear something quietly say, "Be careful." And I tried to be careful. And later years, folks, when the Word of God opened unto me and I went into the deep Spirit world of the mysteries of God, I thought, "My God! My God! My God! My God! The church is so ignorant, they'll never get to You unless You do something!" With all of their shouting and all the things that they're doing, they're still like a bunch of little babies, even the ministers, and they have not even scratched the surface. When God took me away into the world of revelation, and I began to get into that realm that Paul the apostle was in, I thought, "It's no wonder Peter said, 'Paul says things that's hard to be understood'." The Bible says that you have an unction from the Holy One that you should know all things. Jesus said, "What My Father's made known unto Me, I've also made known unto you."

As we read tonight, let's just consider this one thing now. He says here in John 3:19: "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their

deeds were evil." Let's take that as a starting point, "And this is the condemnation." What will be the condemnation, my condemnation, your condemnation, the condemnation of the world by which God shall condemn us in the day of the judgment, should we come into that place of condemnation? What will it be that He uses? This will be the condemnation: that light is come into the world. Light is understanding. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, comprehending the heights, the depth, the width and the length. Light is come into the world. Understanding of godliness, understanding of holiness, understanding of righteousness, understanding of love and concern for God's will to be established, as to His kingdom in the earth as in heaven.

So this light has come into the world. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. I go away, now you're the light of the world." Light has come into the world, and because this light has come into the world, then this will be the condemnation that will bring death upon you, because you love intellectual reasoning, as to the lust of the flesh, which is darkness, more than you love light because your deeds are evil. You want to do the things of the world, you want to go the way of the world. You want to be with the world and be part of the world, and you know that you cannot come to the understanding of God lest you be reproved of your deeds, as the Bible says, for everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither will they come to the light, lest they should be reproved and their deeds be made manifest. But he that doeth truth, loveth truth; that is, comes to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God.

So this is the condemnation, that has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light. This is why I give the warning: don't lean to your own understanding, because the Bible says, "Lean not to thine own understanding, but cast down imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Jesus Christ." So then, we are not to think our own thoughts. We are replacing our thoughts with His thoughts, the great, wonderful Word of God, which is life and Spirit. I take this into my mind; whereas, the Bible says 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. So, in that this mind comes into us, it is a transformating of my thoughta; whereas, the Bible says to be ye therefore transformed by the renewing of your mind, that is from glory to glory, from understanding to understanding, from revelation to revelation, from knowledge to knowledge. Let us move on to that mind of Christ, always eradicating this natural mind with which we're born with when we come into the world.

Let us move on from light to light. Let us move on from understanding to understanding, and be transformed by the renewing of our mind, to prove that which is the good and acceptable will of God. This is how healing comes. This is how salvation comes. This is how the great things of God come, by knowing the Word, believing the Word, laying hold on the Word by faith, and then the Word is made Spirit, as into your heart. With the heart man believeth, and then you're partakers of the great, wonderful, divine will and promises of God, for the Bible says that God hath given us all things that pertain unto life by His divine power. He hath given you health and youth. He has given you strength, good sight and good hearing. He has given you wealth. The Bible tells us that it is the Lord thy God that giveth thee the power to get wealth. I would above all things that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers. I will make you to ride upon the high places of the earth, feed you with the heritage of Jacob, make all of your beds in the time of sickness. If you'll confess your sins and forsake your sins, whatever you do shall prosper. I shall make you like the tree that's planted by the rivers of waters that will bring forth your fruit in your season, and your leaves shall not whither. Whatever you do shall prosper. God promised all this to us because He delights in

us being in prosperity. I would above all things that you prosper, that you be in health, even as your soul prospers.

I've said many times, as to the threefold application of the Word of God and the blessing of God: He would that ye prosper, as to houses and cars and lands and monetary values and clothing, whatever you need is in the world, I would that you have it.

Then He said secondarily, I would that you be in health, even as a physical strength of endurance, to enjoy all the prosperity that I've given you, that you be in good health in every way.

Then He said thirdly, I would that you prosper, be in health even as your soul prospers. That is, I'm going to make all of this hinge upon your soul prosperity, because if I have natural prosperity, that's great, but if I don't have any health to enjoy it, that's terrible. Solomon said, "I've seen an evil under the sun, whereby man has been given everything that his heart could wish for, and hath not been given the power to eat thereof." So then, as to physical health, you must have it to enjoy your natural prosperity.

If you get the natural and the physical, and then since the devil's in the world, he's a robber and a thief, and he's going to take everything away from you and steal everything you have unless you have the spiritual seal of security, as an eternal promise and eternal security concerning these blessings that God has given you. All natural things are made by God. He gave them to you. All of these things emanated from God: the trees, the birds, the lakes and all these beautiful things God has given unto you. The powers of ingenuity as an understanding to build cars, boats, planes, or whatever it might be. God has given that unto you. He is not jealous of that. But the devil cannot give you anything because he doesn't have anything. But he can, through shrewdness, come into your life, take control of your mind, put you into bondage and take control of all of your substance by getting into your body. He'll be a parasite, using up your life here, and then doom your soul, having taken everything that you have as he did Adam and Eve, shrewdly taking it away from them. He's the prince of the world today, but Adam, himself, was the prince of the world, and Satan shrewdly took it away through the weakness of the flesh.

All God was trying to tell you is that the third part has been left out. You know there's water, blood and spirit as three witnesses in the earth. There is Father, Son and Holy Ghost as the three that bear record in heaven. Father, Son and Holy Ghost are one. They don't bear witness together in one. They are one. If you can understand the revelation, it's very clear as to the godhead. There are three that bear witness in the earth: the water, the blood and the spirit. These three agree in one. Going back to that of the water world, coming over to the blood world, and going over to the angelic or spiritual world, putting it all together, it would be so beautiful, letting you see what we're trying to say. For as I say so often, the lifeline of the natural world is water, as to the world of vegetation. The lifeline of human anatomy, as to human physics, whether it's animals or man, and man of course is nothing more than a beast as to his first birth, this is blood. And the lifeline of the angelic world, as to that angelic being on the inside of you, or the angels in heaven, is spirit. So these three bear witness, as to life, as the three different dispensations: a two thousand year dispensation down to Noah, and a two thousand year dispensation down to Calvary, and there's two thousand years from Calvary over to the coming of the Lord as to the translation of the church.

So we know that it's not by power, it's not by might, it's by My Spirit, saith the Lord. The reason that the church today is powerless is because they are without the Spirit of God as to the infilling. It doesn't necessarily mean that they don't have the baptism of the Holy Ghost. It doesn't mean, necessarily, that they don't have the gift of eternal life. But it does mean that they are not, with a regularity, staying before God, to be, over and over, filled with the Spirit of God. It's like a battery, as to having the ability and potentiality, that is to say, the cells are filled with acid and the cells aren't dead. Maybe it's a good battery, but that still has nothing to do with the power of the battery. It must take on a charge. It must get that charge, and that charge has to come from the generator. You have to have that power of charge within you, as to this outer man being charged, filled with the virtues of God, as to living holy like a virtuous woman would be to save her virtues. The Bible also speaks of the man saving his virtues. Living holy before God. The Bible says that the virtuous woman's price is far beyond that of rubies, and she is a crown to her husband's head, but a whorish woman is like rottenness in his bones.

So it is, that we are the feminine gender to God, the Spirit, who is the male. We are the flesh as to the female. If we are a virtuous person, withdrawn from the world and the things of the world, then are we a crown to our husband's head. If we are as to the world, going after that which is worldly and after intellectual knowledge, that reasoning, that human understanding that's contrary to the Word of Spirit and life, then are we rottenness in His bones. So then, when the church begins to tarry and be filled with the Spirit, through fasting, prayer, and submission, and trying to be filled with the Word of revelation and the Word of God's wisdom, then we'll see the great, wonderful move of God in the church. We'll see the church coming together, and we'll see them all come together in one mind. There'll be no disputing. There'll be no schisms in the body. Every member will be fastened one to another. He said, "When I bring Zion again, they all shall speak the same thing, all marched hand in hand, and they'll not break ranks." They'll be like mighty men, and this is what we're looking for.

Why does God bring us to the spiritual application? We start as a child, like in kindergarten and like in elementary school, and then we go on to the types, natural things showing spiritual. Then we go on to college, then to a graduation, as to a diploma, and then on to the business, taking over the father's business. So we see in this, that a natural person can learn the Bible. A natural person can become a scholar. A natural minded person can read and read and read and become, as I've said, a walking Bible. Some of them have like a photographic memory, and they get to where they can quote the Scripture verbatim. I remember that when I first started in my ministry, I started to do that. I would read and read and read and read that Bible through, through, through and through. I've even read the New Testament through on my knees. I tried to quote this and I tried to quote that, and I'd be so precise to be sure that I was just right on the Word. And I heard something say, "I don't want that." And it really shocked me, because I thought, "Well, sure that's what You want, God." And He said, "I don't want that." He said, "I want you to love the truth, and I want you to understand the truth, and My Words are Spirit and they are life." He said, "I want to show you something." I never had considered it before, but He took me over to where Jesus quoted that of David as in the book of Psalms. I just kind of scratched my head, and I thought, "Well, that isn't what the book of Psalms says." And then I looked at it and I thought, "Yes it is what it says, but it's not in the same words." And then I thought, "Now that's what He's trying to tell me. He doesn't want me to pantomime anything." You know it's like two people.

He told me this: "Now when one speaks in tongues, and then you hear one speaking in tongues over here, you hear another speaking in tongues over here, or you hear one speaking in tongues, and this one will give an interpretation, and this will give an interpretation." Then the Lord said, "What is it?" Then He revealed to me, it's like the four books of the Bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. All of them told the story of Jesus, all of them wrote about the life of Jesus, talked about the life of Jesus. But when they wrote it down, as to word for word, they each took a different avenue of thought. They each magnified a different part of His life, and brought in things that the others left out, and putting these together it brought a great composition of knowledge of our master in the earth.

Folks, now that's the way it is. God wants you to be original. He wants you to stay out of that old natural mind of yours. Anybody in the world can study the Bible and become a Bible scholar. That's what's wrong with the Presbyterian churches, as to what I quoted earlier to you. Not only them but others. They are vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind. Jesus said, "If the blind lead the blind, they all fall into the ditch." The scribes and the Pharisees knew all about that. They could tell you all about it, that the Messiah is coming. Such and such and such, but with all of their brilliance, when the Messiah came in a manger, they couldn't receive Him, because they looked for Him on a white horse, and some day, of course, He'll come on a white horse in the coming of Revelation 19. He'll come on a white horse as a king with many crowns.

The Bible says to humble thyself. Make sure thy friend. Jesus came as a pauper in a manger to humble Himself, to see who would love Him without gold and silver and without money and without all of the brightness of life. And now, when He comes back, He'll come as a king to receive unto Himself those were His friends. Right now you can be His friend, as Abraham was. He said, "Abraham is My friend. Shall I hide anything from Abraham, seeing that He'll command his household after Me?" Right now, He needs a friend. He doesn't have anybody. He doesn't even have a human body to work through. Will you then be the friend of God while He, at this time, has nothing? The devil has taken the whole world away from Him, and all He has, even in the world, is what you sanctify and give back to Him.

So we see the calling, and we see who we are, and what we are, and what God is wanting out of us. He doesn't want us to be intellectual. The Bible says that Nicodemus talked with Jesus. He was a ruler of the Jews, a great, learned man. Jesus, twelve years old, sat in the midst of them that thought they knew when He was coming, and confounded them as a babe. And a little baby shall lead them. So here Nicodemus says to Him, "How can a man be born again?" He said, "Are you then a ruler of Israel and you don't understand these things?" You mean that you are a teacher? Then what are you teaching? Jesus could have said that. And then He really confounded Nicodemus. He said, "Nicodemus, lest a man be born of the water and of the Spirit, he shall not even see the kingdom of God, for no man has ascended up into heaven, no man, except the Son of Man who is in heaven." And here the Son of Man is talking to Nicodemus, and Nicodemus is standing there, looking at Him as if to say, "Well, You're the Son of Man. They call You the Son of Man, and You say that You've ascended up into heaven. And here You are talking to me, and You tell me that You are in heaven, when I see You right here?" He was confounded.

That's why I'm telling you, folks, the things of God are spiritually discerned. They're foolishness to the natural man. That was foolishness to that great scholar as he looked and saw Jesus standing right there. When you are naturally minded, carnally minded, then you are at enmity with the Spirit, which means life

cannot, as to the Spirit, get to your soul, and there's no life without Spirit. The Spirit must of necessity get to your spirit, or you are cut off from life. The middle wall of partition that took hold of Eve, that placed itself there, is your intellectual reasoning that you're born with when you come into the world, and it must be eradicated. It must be broken down. It must be done away with, because you, yourself, continually indoctrinate yourself with the things that's been handed down to you from your fore-fathers and all the others. Twenty years old and doing all right; twenty-five, let's get something; thirty-five, let's make some money, let's build us a home; forty-five, I'm feeling a little different about the situation; fifty-five, I need to think it over; sixty-five, my, you know I don't know; and at seventy-five or eighty-five, you think, "My God! I better forget about this junk and I better think about where I'm going."

Do you see how intellectually deceitful life is? Just few days and full of trouble, vanity and vexation of the spirit. So you don't want to do that. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth, when the evil days draw not nigh, when you look back and say, "My God! The sowing that I sowed, I wish that I had have never sowed it. I don't have any pleasure in the reaping of these days." Sow the righteous seed, for the reaping is coming to each and every one, so that He can say, "Come ye blessed, a crown ye have won."

Anybody can learn the Bible and be a Bible scholar. If you want to get into some problems, especially as to the Torah, those first few books of the Bible, you just get with one of the Jews, and I'll tell you what, they'll wrap you up like somebody with taffy. See then if you think you are a Bible scholar. You just try that sometime.

What I'm trying to get across to you is that we are spiritual. We are supposed to be receiving the Word of Spirit and life, to become spiritual. Paul said, "I would like to speak unto you as unto spirituals. Seeing that you're babes in Christ, I can't.' He said," I judge you to be babes because there's envy and strife and malice and jealousy, or love for the things of the world." These things all mixed up with you and you don't know where you're going, you don't know what you're doing, and all these kind of things: you fuss and you fight, quibble among you. "He said, Are ye not yet carnal?" To be carnally minded is death. But I'd like to speak unto you as unto spirituals. Why don't you pray that God would grant to you the Spirit of revelation? God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him, must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

It's like the woman there at the well said, "Our father Jacob gave us this well, and over here we worship in this mountain." And Jesus said, "Woman, the time is coming," (He knew that He was God standing there with her), "and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship God in Spirit and in truth." Or that is, I'm going to Calvary, and in a little while you're going to have to call on God in Spirit, and it's through My name that you're ever going to see God or know God. She got real interested and said, "I know Messiah cometh." It's obvious, as I've said a number of times, this young woman wanted to flirt with this young Jew. We say Jew, and yet He was not a Jew, not of the blood of the Jews, but He was among the Jews. The Samaritans and the Jews didn't have any fellowship. So, she asked Him, "Why are You doing this for, knowing that?" And she wanted to flirt with Him because she was adulteress. She had been married a number of times. But this man had steadfastness in His Spirit. Her admiration for His face or His form or His wisdom did not move Him. See, He was interested in one thing: He had made her, put her together, created her, and there was the devil within her, trying his best to take advantage of Him. But He was steadfast in His Spirit, and He spoke back to her and said, "Go call thy husband." He perceived what she was doing. She said, "I don't have

a husband." You know, being an adulteress, she didn't have a husband, because now she's met another that she thinks might be her boyfriend. She said, "I don't have a husband." And Jesus told her just exactly where she was living, and that shook her up so bad until she said, "Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet. I know when Messiah comes, He'll tell us all things." Jesus said, "I am He that speaketh unto thee." So then, with this, she went her way, and she began to tell all of the people, "I have met a man that told me all things whatsoever I have done. Isn't this the Messiah?"

Is God a Spirit? Is God a Spirit? Indeed He is. If I worship Him, how then must I worship Him? He is the Father of spirits. Shall we not then be in subjection to the Father of spirits? If God is a Spirit, then be in subjection to Him. And if God is a Spirit, and if we must worship Him with our spirit, then how are we going to worship Him with will worship, as to carnality and our intellectual approach, by coming into the house of God? Coming to this church or any church, is that worshiping God? No. No. Just being out in the congregation, is that worshiping God? No. Just because your presence is here, are you worshiping God? No. That's why I chide with you to this extent. I say, "Now look, folks. Let us get in the Spirit." The Bible says that John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. If we're born of the Spirit, if we have the Spirit, if we're in the Spirit, then let's walk in the Spirit. That is, let our outer man be submerged in this atmosphere of the outpouring of the Spirit, as we sing and worship God, to get into this flow, that the gifts may come forth from within our heart to use us as members of the body, for there are many gifts in the church, so that the minister also may come to you full of the Holy Ghost and full of the Spirit, that when he speaks, it's not him speaking but the heavenly Father speaking from within him, that it may be a spiritual Word of utterance, that is life and is quickening, that will go directly into the innermost parts as into the spirit, and shape and mold the spirit as to Christ being formed within you.

The Bible says to exhort them the more as you see the day approaching. We can see by this that we need to move up in God, and we don't need to be complacent. We need to go on to perfection. Let us go on to be perfect. Be ye therefore perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect. We need to be spiritual. Remember, this is a Word of Spirit and life. Though I orally express this to you as a natural word here, that's not going to do the job. See, Paul said, "I'm a preacher and a teacher, and he was also an apostle. And then he said, "I have the revelation of Jesus Christ," which means that if the revelation was made known unto Paul, and he was the overseer of the Gentile church, then with the veil being removed, he saw that it was now made known to the church the manifold wisdom of God, that you might have this heavenly treasure in your earthen vessels. That is what we're after: to get the spiritual mind of God.

May the Lord bless you. You go out and win souls. Be a soul winner. He that winneth souls is wise. Preach the gospel to every creature. This is the charge of every individual as the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

Blinded In Part

Reading today from the book of Saint Mark chapter seven:

Mark 7:1-23: "Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye. And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man."

Here is a great lesson that the master was teaching when He was walking here many hundreds of years ago. He was telling the people that they were not keeping the ordinances of God. He was telling them that they had become hypocritical. He did not come to break the law. He fulfilled every jot and every tittle. During His lifetime, they could never find one time that He transgressed the law. Paul said, on one occasion, to the others, "You have the law and none of you keep it." Jesus was the one that kept the law, every jot and tittle. No one could ever trap Him in His words, or find any place where He violated the law.

So His dispute, His confrontation, was not with those who followed Moses. It was not with those who loved Moses and esteemed Moses and who loved Abraham. He had no dispute with them, for these were His fellow men. They were His brethren. He came to seek and to save that which was lost, in that they were looking for their Messiah. But to become the father of all nations, as Abraham did, according to the prophecy, they had to be blinded in part so God could go to the others, otherwise, He would have had to set

up His kingdom there on the earth. They asked Him, "Will You, at this time, restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said, "It's not given unto you to know the time and season that God has set in His own power." He said, "The kingdom of God cometh not by observation." It is within a man. It is a spiritual thing. This was the Christ talking, for the hour when Jesus would sit upon the throne was not yet. He was yet to have compassion on all of the world through the mercy of the Jews.

So then, we see them blinded in part. What does this mean? It means they were able to see the hinder part. When Moses was on the mountain, in the cleft of the rock, the glory of God passed before Moses and He let him see the hinder part; which means Moses, as to Moses' memberly body, the church in the wilderness, was to see the hinder part. This means from Calvary back to the garden. That is the hinder part. And the veil is still there. It is not rent in twain, because the veil that comes through the fall at the garden is still there. The veil that was over Moses' face means they could not look steadfastly to the end of that commandment and that light. That veil, which must be abolished, stands between them. That is the veil of death that Jesus abolished at Calvary.

But until the time of the fullness of all the other nations (the Gentiles), Jesus as the Messiah cannot take away this veil. The holy of holies is still veiled, and they cannot enter into that place. But to you and I, the high priest officiates on the inside, sitting in that body at the right hand of the Father. Jesus came back on the day of Pentecost and entered through the veil. This was the first fruits, the waving of the barley harvest. He arose as the first fruits, and forty days from then He went away. Ten days later He came back, making the fifty days, as to the forty-nine days having to do with the feast of weeks, and the fiftieth day, the Jubilee, which is Pentecost. He returned as the meal offering, the ground up offering, to the Gentiles which receive the Spirit by measure. Not as a whole thing, as to the waving of the barley harvest, but the wheat harvest.

So then, we see what God has done. It is so wonderful! "The veil remaineth," Paul said, "over the eyes of the people, even until this day in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away with in Christ Jesus," in that the veil is rent. God the great Spirit within the human veil of Jesus, the veil is rent, and no more is He under the law, God under the law or God within a nation. The nation has been rent. The head has been rent. The body has been rent. Jesus, the Bible says, made in Himself twain, both Lord and Christ, that the veil might be rent in twain, which means in two, the separation of the Lord and the Christ, as to take the bodily image of sin, to fulfill the law and then fold it up and lay it away. Then, the Spirit of Christ may come forth in the new form, in a new man, as a second man Adam, being made a quickening Spirit, the first man Adam a living soul. The soul that sinneth shall surely die, and then the second Adam, a quickening Spirit, even Christ that resurrected from the dead, to bring us peace.

He was delivered for our offenses, smitten, to take away our sins, and then raised from the dead, that we might have the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, in this new form, even the bodily image of Christ. As He bore the image of the earthly, as the first man Adam, so do we bear the image of the heavenly. If this tabernacle be dissolved, we have another one eternal in the heavens, not made with hands, which is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. We bear the image of the earthly, but we will bear the image of the heavenly.

The hinder part is that which is beyond the veil. On this side of Calvary, we do not see through a glass darkly, nor through a veil, for in Christ the veil is dissolved and done away with. But we see face to face, because we see the face of our Lord; whereas Moses saw the hinder part. So when Jesus came, His dispute was that they were keeping the tradition of the elders, and not keeping the law. He came to fulfill the law. He said, "Out of your heart comes evil thoughts of adultery, fornication, and drunkenness." He said that they did these things, and it was a violation of the law, for the law says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not covet."

Jesus' dispute was that they had the law, and they didn't keep the law, they broke the law, and they kept the tradition of elders, such as the washing of pots and pans. He said, "This is not the keeping of the law, though God gave this to you." We wash pots and pans, because we believe in cleanliness. But He said, "You shouldn't associate that with salvation, because salvation comes from God, who is a Spirit." Life is in the Spirit. There's no life in ritualistics. There's no life in traditions. So He said, "You're breaking the law of God, which gives you light. How can you accept your Messiah? You've been blinded! You do not understand your Messiah." Jesus could have said, "I am God made manifest in the flesh. I am the one that commissioned Moses, and I gave you these things. Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think that ye have eternal life, but they (the Scriptures) witness and testify of Me, pointing to My coming."

So we see, beloved friend, He said, "You break the Scriptures and transgress the law. Therefore, He said, "You are guilty of transgression and must pay the penalty, for transgression of the law is sin, and the soul that sinneth shall surely die." Jesus was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him, that perfect Lamb, there is no sin.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

Death Conquered (1)

Let's read now from the eighth chapter of the book of Revelation.

Revelation 8:1-13: "And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!"

You can see by reading the eighth chapter that great is the mystery of godliness, just as Paul said. I can't explain it any more than you can because I'm just a man. But the mind of God can explain it, and the mind of God understands just exactly what's being said because it was the mind of God that spoke these things to John the Revelator on the isle of Patmos. He spoke these things to John in types and shadows and in parabolic form because He knew how He had made mankind. He made man with a mind to understand such things as trees, houses, waters, flowers, stars, and those kinds of things. God, being a Spirit, everything He did was spiritual, and every move of God being in the Spirit, no man could see it, nor understand it. I believe that we're going to have to know all things, and the way to know all things is to have the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Within your natural mind, you can't contain these things and you can't understand these things. But within the mind of Christ, everything, from the beginning of the world to the consummation of the world, is recorded within that mind, and God gives that mind to you. Paul said, "Let this mind," which means you have to allow it to be there or it won't be there. 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, but took upon Himself to make Himself of no reputation, but He likened Himself unto a man and became humble, even unto the death of the cross.

The mind of God, which was in Christ Jesus, can also be within us, and it should be in us and it will be in us if we let it. Paul said, "Let this mind." In our early ministry, we had to teach it in its primitive form. Repent and be baptized in Jesus' name. Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Don't dip snuff. Don't chew tobacco. Don't smoke. Don't drink. Don't curse. Don't frolic. Every bit of this is the Word of God in its first stages or in its primitive form. That's the first part. We started indoctrinating the people with this, to repent of your sins, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

God allowed this to come forth during the apostle's time.. Then, they killed out the early Apostolic church of Pentecost, and He let the church go into the Dark Ages with the very primitive part of the gospel, which was the very first step. It was so primitive that all they taught was that you just had to believe. That was the first step of it. You must believe. God didn't require anything. He just let them teach that you must believe. So, the Catholic Church came on down requiring nothing but just believe.

And then, after that, He started to teach us more. He began to teach us that there was more to it than just believing. We had to have His Spirit. And then, after that, we had to put away evil out of our lives. Then, there was more to it than that. We had to comprehend the redemption of the body in part, which means in this latter age, we've had the greatest portion that we've ever had, which is comprehending the redemption of the body. Many of the great leaders have taught us to comprehend the redemption of our body, such as comprehension from cancer, from blindness, from deafness. Comprehending in part. Comprehending from spirits that plague us, like spirits of oppression, spirits of possession, and all of these other things that the ministry has dealt with. And God has, in part, let us grasp or comprehend the redemption of the body.

But now, the hour is at hand, as Paul said, when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be swallowed up or done away with. The hour is at hand when we're going to comprehend the fullness of the redemption of our body. Not just comprehend the fact that the Spirit of God can heal us of cancer, not just the fact that He can heal deafness, but the fact that He can totally keep us in perfect health and keep us from all sickness, as well as from all sin, and translate our body into the perfect eternal substance of God.

Now, you may ask, "Brother Pike, is there such a thing for us? Did God ever intend that?" That was the ultimate purpose of God to begin with. Look at Jesus Christ before He ever went to Calvary. He mastered the gospel. He became a master of the gospel, but the Lord Jesus had to learn just like you. He had to grow up into the fullness of the stature. The Bible says that He grew in wisdom and He grew in stature. He waxed strong in the Spirit, and Jesus grew to the fullness of what God called the fullness of the stature of the Christian, and then God took Him off the scene and He was our example. The Lord Jesus did not have to die.

When we think about being changed into the eternal creature that God wants us to be changed into, the first thing we think is, "Well, if we could die, lay down in the dust, and then get up, we'd be ready." But no, that isn't true. I love to ask this question: what profit is it to God or to man when we lay down in the dust? What profit is it to man or to God if I go out there, and they put me in the dirt, let my body rot and let the skin worms feed off of my body?

When the Lord Jesus laid down in the dust, He did it for one reason. That was to let you know that death, as we know death, has no more power over the human being. He said, "I have power to lay My life down; I have power to take My life up." He yielded up the ghost and laid down in the grave for just one purpose: that was to let you know that the grave had no more power over those that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't have to go down there. It wasn't necessary. To the Lord Jesus, it was no more than going through a ritual or through a form. If the Lord Jesus had just gone on back to heaven, if He would have atoned for our sins any other way outside of death, you could have never been convinced that you had power over death, because to you, death is to bring somebody up out of the grave.

So, to show us the ultimate triumph over death, He laid down in the dust and then got back up so that you, in your finite way of thinking, could know that there was no more power in the grave to hold them that had the Spirit of God. That's all it was. He just went through a form or a ritual, which He did not have to go through, except for your good.

He did not have to die at Calvary to get back into the presence of God. Jesus did not have to yield up the ghost. He did not have to die to get back to glory, and neither do you have to die to go to heaven. You don't have to die to get back into His presence, or into the glory world, the presence of God. Paul said, "Behold, I show you a mystery," (and the Bible says that great is the mystery of godliness), "we shall not all sleep," (which means die), "but we all shall be changed."

To prove that the Lord Jesus did not have to die to get back into the glory world, after He had been in this world thirty-one or thirty-two years, He walked up on a mountain with three disciples. When they got up there on the mountain, the Lord Jesus left a sure witness that He had mastered the human body and that He had made the way back into the glory world. There, He transfigured His body. On the mountain, He transfigured His body before His very disciple's eyes and walked right into heaven.

How do I know He walked into heaven? Because the eleventh chapter of Hebrews says that Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him, for before his translation, he had this testimony: a clear conscience, that he pleased God. So then, Enoch walked with God, learned the secrets of God, and bypassed the grave and was translated.

If Enoch did that, then why didn't somebody else do it? Well, they did. Moses did and Elijah did, but why didn't a whole generation do it? Because Enoch had three hundred years to walk with God, and he had enough time to discover the revelation of Jesus Christ. We have had forty years, seventy years, eighty years to a generation. This generation would discover a little and pass it on to the next generation, and that generation on to the next generation, and it takes many generations to be able to discover what Enoch discovered in his lifetime. It was the ordination of God. He let Enoch do it so that we'd have a record of it back there. Enoch was the seventh from Adam, and the seventh means translation, and He let Enoch be translated. If you notice, the son of Enoch, Methuselah, lived nine hundred sixty-nine years, almost a thousand years, which showed the millennium coming in.

We can see then that Jesus did not have to die. He went back into glory, and I say into glory because He appeared in glory with Moses and Elijah. He did not have to die to get back to glory. He left us the way; He left us an example. Paul, also, did not have to die. Paul was caught up into the third heaven. He did not have to die. It was just the divine ordination of the Lord. This was the only reason.

You might say, "But Brother Pike, the Bible says that it's appointed unto man once to die, and every man has to die." That's true. God gave an appointment unto man. The day thou eatest thereof, of thine own understanding (which is the tree of knowledge), thou shalt surely die, for to be carnal minded is death, but to be spiritual minded, eating from the mind of God, which is the tree of life, is life and peace.

God gave an appointment unto mankind, but the Lord did not suffer that appointment to stand. It is appointed unto man once to die. Is that right? But, the Bible says that God looked down from heaven, heard the groaning of the prisoners, and He came down and loosed them that were appointed unto death. Is that Bible? He loosed the appointment with death at Calvary. He tasted death for every man. Then, what did the Lord say through Paul? "Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin by the body of Jesus Christ on the cross and alive unto God by the resurrected body of the Lord Jesus."

So then, He met the appointment at Calvary for us. It was appointed unto you once to die, and Jesus died at Calvary, and that was your death right there. He died at Calvary. He that knew no sin was made your sin that we might be made the righteousness of Jesus Christ within God. He met the appointment. It was appointed unto me once to die, and being appointed unto death, the Lord Jesus Christ paid the price. God, who gave the appointment unto death, robed Himself in a body of humanity called the Son of God, Jesus Christ, came down and went to Calvary, met that appointment at Calvary, and loosed the prisoners that were appointed unto death.

Peter says that when the Lord Jesus died, He went down into the heart of the earth and preached to the souls in prison. He looked down from heaven and heard the groaning of the prisoners, and loosed them that were appointed unto death. He preached to the souls in prison. He broke open the prison, and He let them that were bound with death come out of the prison to show us what He had done for us. When the Lord Jesus went down into the natural heart of the earth, His soul went into hell. His soul went into hell, His body went into the grave, and His Spirit went into paradise. He went down and loosed the souls in prison in this natural earth. He took these people out of hell, out of the chambers of the earth in every way. He paid the penalty and the price for them. They used to call the grave hell. He took them out. He loosed them to show that He had power over death, and now the resurrection had come. When Jesus stood at the tomb of Lazarus, Mary and Martha exclaimed to Jesus, "If You would have been here, our brother would not have died." Jesus said, "Your brother shall live again." Mary said, "Jesus, I know that he shall live again at the resurrection." Jesus said, "I am the resurrection." He also said, "I am the truth, I am the life. I am the resurrection."

We know that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Word. The Word was made flesh. He said, "Lest you eat My flesh," which means eat the Word, "you have no life in you. Lest you drink My blood," which means partake of His Spirit, "you have no life within you." We know that this Word is the resurrection. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection. My words are Spirit, and they are life." In the beginning was the Word. Who was the Word? God. In the beginning was God. God who? God the Word. In the beginning was God the Word. God the Word spoke man unto death by divine appointment. That same God came to Calvary and broke the appointment of death. That same God, living in a human body, that Word God, spoke man unto life and said, "He that believeth on Me." Believe that I have broke the appointment that was passed on to you in the garden because of the sins of Adam. "He that believes on Me, the Word," Jesus said, "has passed from death unto life and shall not come into condemnation." We have passed from death unto life, and we are not of this world because He has chosen us out of the world and we are hid with Christ in God, whom the heavens have received until the time of the restitution of all things, which is the millennium.

When Jesus was talking with Nicodemus and Nicodemus asked Him what he had to do to be saved, Jesus said to him, "No man has ever entered heaven except the Son of Man, who came down from heaven, and who is in heaven." Did the Lord Jesus go into heaven when He talked with Moses and Elijah? The Bible says that He was in glory. Glory is heaven. Paul was also caught up into the third heaven. Jesus said that no man has ever ascended up into heaven, except the Son of Man who came down from heaven, and, as He said to Nicodemus, "Who is in heaven." The Bible says He is our example. We ought to follow in His steps. If He was in heaven, doesn't it sound right for us to be in heaven if we follow in His steps? When He started to leave the disciples, they asked, "Where are You going?" He answered, "Where I'm going, you cannot come now. But, you can follow Me later." He sent back the Holy Ghost later, that it might translate them into the kingdom of God.

God has done the same thing to you that He did to Enoch. God has translated you into the marvelous kingdom of your God. Somebody might ask, "If He did the same thing to me that He did to Enoch, why haven't I gone to the same place that Enoch went to?"

Remember what Elijah said to his servant? "Lord, open his eyes." Paul said that the eyes of your understanding might be enlightened, that you might comprehend the heights and the depths and the widths. Was it a special occasion when that fiery chariot came down and picked up Elijah and took him to glory? No! He had fiery chariots with him all the time. They were ready, waiting for him to finish his ministry. They were with him all the time. The Bible says that when the servant's eyes were opened, he looked behind Elijah, and there were prancing horses with chariots of fire standing right there, waiting for the ministry of Elijah to be finished, that Elijah might just step on board and go away. Where was Elijah? That might be a little hard to understand if you're carnally minded. To be carnally minded is death, because the carnal mind is not subject to the laws of God, which is the word of translation, neither indeed can be, because the carnal mind is the thing that brought man unto death.

In the garden, man died. God did not bring death unto man. The Lord Jesus Christ, or God, had nothing to do with death. Absolutely nothing. When your little baby dies, or your wife dies, or your loved ones die, remember that God had nothing to do with death. You say, "But God appointed man unto death." I know He appointed man unto death, but God broke the appointment! When your baby dies, it didn't have to die.

When you die, you don't have to die. Nobody has to die anymore. Jesus broke the appointment with death. You may ask, "Brother Pike, if this is true, why haven't men discovered it?" They did. At Pentecost, they discovered it. That's why the Lord let every one of those apostles be killed. They did discover it. That's why He let that church die. He wasn't through with His plan, and there were still many years to come yet. You would ask, "Why would He wait so many years?" So the brothers and sisters of the church today could be born into the world and go to heaven. If He had let the disciples on in to heaven, all of us would have been lost because we hadn't been born yet.

So, He had a certain period of time, letting men multiply and replenish the earth, that He might have a great kingdom. This was the plan of God. God doesn't make man die. It never came by God. God didn't send death. The Bible very emphatically states, if you'll read it, that death came by man and not by God. God had nothing to do with it. Unbelief brings death. The Word created man, and the Word of life nourished him, and when he quit nursing from the breast of El Shaddai (El Shaddai means "the breasted one"), he died. He turned away from God and his belief in the Word that said, "Adam, thou shall not." When Adam disbelieved that, he cut his spirit off from the Spirit of eternal life, which is the Word Spirit of God, and he died. The thing that killed him was his thinking, his own understanding, that which the beast had slipped into his mind. The thing that killed him was the carnal mind.

This is the thing that is still killing people today. To be carnally minded is death. You would ask, "Brother Pike, what do you mean to be carnally minded is death?" To think naturally is to die. That brings it down where we can understand it. To think naturally is to die. If you have cancer and the doctor can't do anything about it, and you think naturally, what's going to happen to you? You die. If you have cancer and the doctor can't heal it, but you think supernaturally, what's going to happen to you? The Bible says to call those things that are not as though they are. What is the difference? This is redemption in part; it's just God acquainting our minds with the Words of re-creation. The cancer is eating away a part of the body, and the Word that created that part of the body, through the act of faith by a minister, re-creates that part of the body, and that's all there is to it. That part of the body is redeemed from corruption. If God can do that to one part of the body, why can't God do that to all the body? You may ask, "Well, why does He let it be in part to begin with?" To give people time to multiply and replenish the earth, but at the same time, to keep them acquainted with the supernatural power that is among them, that someday He would manifest fully to let them know there was a God in their midst.

If this isn't the reason, why did the angel, when he appeared over there to Gideon, say, "Gideon, O thou mighty man of valor!" He told him what a great conqueror he was, and what he could do. Why did Gideon then turn to him and say, "If God be with us, where are the miracles?" Isn't that what he said? Where are the miracles? All they had ever known of God being among the people was that there had to be miracles. If there were no miracles, then God was not among them. That was the only thing that Gideon knew.

I don't mean the make-believe miracles like we've got today. I'm talking about real, genuine healing, real genuine miracles, that people can prove by doctor's reports, things that have taken place with the power of God's Word with re-creation. That's what I'm talking about.

I believe, with all of my heart, that we have passed from death unto life because of love. Love is as strong as death. We have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. The only proof of eternal life is to love the brethren, to talk about the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, to have the fellowship and the warmth of the Spirit of God flowing from breast to breast, and if you don't do it, it's positive proof that love's not there. If you've got that love, you're going to be with the brethren in spite of all that comes.

If the wife has got the love of God, she's going to want to be right there, too. I don't mean right in the midst of the brethren. There are some sisters, too. In Christ, there's neither male nor female. You get one of these sisters that cuts herself off over here somewhere, and she's interested in worldly things and what she can get for herself, and she doesn't want anybody troubling her, and all she wants is her four and no more, then that sister needs to be born again. I don't care who it is. Something's wrong with her. She's never passed from death unto life. If she had passed from death unto life, she couldn't stay away from the sisters. She'll want that godly fellowship in Christ Jesus, that flows from heart to heart, and this is the only proof of eternal life. This is the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We've come to the age when we do not have to die. Someone might say, "Now Brother Pike, you just go on believing that, and I'll see the day they put you in a casket." If you ever have the pleasure of looking on my face and seeing me in a casket, you just remember one thing: what I preached is absolutely the truth. Many people have tried to believe that they could be healed of cancer, and they died. But many people believed and didn't die. There's going to be many that try to believe, but do not. I may be one of them. But, there's going to be some that believe, just like Enoch did, and they won't die. When this message is preached around the earth, you can look for the end to come. It's going to be preached, and you just remember that. It's going to be preached because it's the redemption of the body. It's real. It works. It's alive. It's quickening.

There are people who are being indoctrinated this way, to believe that death has no power over them. I've proved to them, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that death is conquered, that it is gone, and there is no more power with death. The Bible says that God has destroyed him that has the power of death. God has destroyed him, He's done away with him. Death has no power over us. It's the last enemy to be conquered. I've proved by the Scriptures, to any sober, sane, reasonable thinking person, that death is absolutely defeated, and it has no power over anybody.

If the Word of God says that, and you believe it, this Word of God will translate you. If you've got cancer, and I preach and prove to you by the Word of God, that the cancer can be healed and taken away, and you believe the Word of God, that Word of God will heal you. The Bible says that He sent His Word and healed them. Enoch was translated by faith that comes by the hearing of the Word. In the past, the knowledge of translation was not revealed. But, now it is being made known, because it is time for it to be made known. It could not be made known, because every revelation with the Word of God proved God could not make it known until this hour. Even Paul, in his day, spoke of how he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which were not lawful for a man to utter. God would not let them be uttered.

How did Paul get caught up to the third heaven? Because he discovered the translation message. How do I know he did? Because it's Paul's writings that I read and discovered this thing. He's the one that brings it out so clearly. But you have to be in the Spirit of God for God for prove it to you and show you what happened to Paul. It is the same thing with John the Revelator.

So then, men don't have to die. I have proved it by the Scriptures. If you believe the Scriptures, if you believe the Word of God, you can put it line upon line upon line upon line. You can take any Scripture that you can get, from Genesis to Revelation, and try to disprove it, but I promise you that you cannot touch it. How do I know you can't? Because I've been before some of the greatest Bible scholars in the world, and never met one of them that didn't have to take a bow to it. I've been before scholars with years of seminary, but they had to take a bow to it. There wasn't any way to get around it, because it's God. A botany professor in North Carolina, with about six or eight years of college, had to take a bow to it. He said, "I have never, in my life, ever heard anything like it. It has to be very God."

I say this because of unbelief, and I want you to know that this is for sure. The Scriptures positively prove that death is swallowed up in victory. It's not a make-believe. It's what the world calls an absolute. It's real. It's genuine. I plan to make the rapture. Not only that, but I predict, that within the next few years, if the Lord tarries, the rapture message for the church is going to be preached by the sons of God. Those sons of God are going to be manifested, which means they are going to be known among the people, and they're going to recognize that they've got something the church world has never had before.

Brother Branham saw it, but couldn't come over to it. Like Moses, Brother Branham had it in his heart. He saw it, just like Paul did, but he couldn't come over to it because spiritual revelation shows God had to stop him at a certain place. It was ordained for Him to do it. He was the great champion among the denominations, because denominations are the wilderness, and he was the Moses that was in the wilderness, to lead those people out of the garlic and onions, which means the worldly things, and lead them into that great denomination. Brother Branham was with a denomination when he started. He started out with the Baptist Church and wound up in the Jesus Name, in a denomination that was called the Full Gospel Businessmen. Moses died in the wilderness. He had to do it.

Brother Branham kept telling them, "Get out of the wilderness. Get out of the wilderness." They're going to leave it, and they're going to come into the Canaan land of God, which is the revelation of eternal life.

I raise my hand to heaven, that according to the integrity of my heart, and I base all of my years of experience, of traveling from coast to coast, and praying and seeking God, and giving my life to God, I raise my hand to God that this is the truth. This is God's very truth. He's about to translate His church, and take them out of this world. We are at the crossing. It's here. You say, "But Brother Pike, the world doesn't know about this." When the Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples, how many people believed Him? Who knew about it? Twelve men, and one of them was a Judas. Twelve men. That's all. From those twelve men sprang that great message that went all over the world. It's always been that way. When the angel appeared to Brother Branham, how many people knew about it? He and one little group.

When Jesus Christ came into the world, how many knew about it? He was born in a manger. Why did He do that? He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He did that to hide it from eyes of the wise and prudent. They expected Him to come on a white horse and in a royal garment. But He said He would come as a thief in the night,. Today, they expect Him to come through the seminaries. They expect Him to come through the philosophers. They expect Him to come through the money men. But He's not going to do it.

After the tribulation, He'll come back to the Jews, and they'll accept Him because that's the way they believed He would come. In the day they see Him like that, they'll accept Him. The Bible says that He will come back on a white horse, and have many crowns upon His head, and the saints of God, you and I, will come back with Him. But it will be too late for the church then, because that will be three years after the church has been raptured. We will have been taken up with God, glorified, and come back, following Him on white horses to the Jews, and when they see Him, they'll accept Him. They'll accept Him because that's the way they're looking for Him. When He came on a donkey, He came humbly, they rejected Him. He did that to blind the Jews until the fullness of the Gentiles came in, to give them a chance for salvation.

But now, He's blinding the Gentiles. The fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and He's blinding the Gentiles so they can't see what He's doing. "Humble thyself," Solomon said, "make sure thy friend." Act like a peasant, and you'll find out who really loves you. Act like you don't have anything, like you're just down here, like a little country boy with holes in your pants and patches on your knees. Humble thyself and you'll find out who your friends are. Solomon said, "The rich have many friends." But when your money runs out, you'll find those friends are gone.

So then, Jesus is humbling Himself to find out who is His friend. Think on these things and stir up your pure mind.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

Established Thoughts

Reading from the book of Proverbs sixteenth chapter beginning with the first verse:

Proverbs 16:1-7: "The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits. Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established. The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil. When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him."

Here in the book of Proverbs, we find it says, "Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established." We're living in a day when there are a lot of problems with human thoughts. It seems that people everywhere are going berserk. It seems like they're losing their stability, their mental balance, and they can hardly continue in life. It seems like there's such a great travail just to exist day by day because of the fears and frustration. The devils and demons are trying to trample down the mind of humanity. Satan is doing his very best to trample down the mind of humanity. The Bible says that in the later times Satan will go about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and this is the day that we're living in. It's a time when Lucifer is seeking whom he may devour. People are having problems with their thoughts. Their mind is like a computer out of control and there are all kinds of things harassing their mind. It's just a continuation of annoying thoughts, fears and frustrations, and folks don't understand what's happening.

But, we've got to realize that if we put something into a computer, then that's what we're going to get out of it. A computer out of control may bring forth anything. So knowing this, why then do we do the way that we do? We sit and watch television with all of the evil imaginations and every kind of fearful thing that can be brought forth, every kind of dreadful thing, and we keep putting this poison into our minds. Don't you know that we're going to have to live with that? Don't you know that when we follow vain imaginations and go after these horror movies and all of these terrible things, and we put this into our understanding, science tells us that whatever a man sees or thinks that it stays with him, and it lives with him.

When we go after all these things and put these things into our hearts, and especially into the hearts of our little children, don't you know that we've destroyed our self and we've destroyed our little children? Those things are going to come back. A man that takes dope is going to have flashbacks from those things. He's going to have a repercussion from those things. And those things are going to clutter his mind and take away all of his stability and confidence and faith. Those horrid things, once it becomes a mind, are a torturous, tormenting thing, and it becomes your master. This is why Jesus tells us not to give place to those kind of things. The flesh feeds on those kind of things because the devil is the prince of this world and he lives within the human body. He is in the human body, and he hungers and thirsts after these things because that's part of his world. He is the creature of darkness. He is the ruler of darkness.

I know when we think about darkness, we think about turning the lights out. The natural things of this world only help us to understand spiritual things as to reality. For instance, light represents understanding, God understanding. The Bible speaks of the light of the church, of the true child of God, as the light most precious. It speaks of that great city of New Jerusalem, the Lamb being the light of that city. When we speak of those things, we understand. When we speak of darkness, we speak of intellectual oppression, ignorance, that which is not right in the sight of God, that which is lying vanity, that appears to be but it's not. It just vanishes away.

God said to Paul, "Turn My people from darkness unto light." He came to the revelation of God. He came to understanding. Now, he was responsible to turn God's people from darkness (intellectual ignorance) unto the light and understanding of Almighty God. Let the light move away the shadows and move away the ruler of darkness and the demon powers that are fallen angels, which are powers of ignorance that work in the minds of humanity. Move all of this away.

Here's what we've got to remember, beloved friend. Angels appear in the form of thought, and in the form of knowledge, and it can be darkness or it can be light. When the shepherds were on the hillside, the Bible says that the angel of the Lord came upon them as a great light. The Bible says when Paul was on the way to Damascus, there appeared a great light round about him. This was the angel of the Lord. These are angels. Angels are spiritual powers of understanding, and this great light is an inspiration.

The Bible speaks of Jesus, that after about forty days of abstaining from food, then the angel of the Lord came and ministered unto Him. This great light of inspiration and these great thoughts came. Prior to that, Satan and the demon powers were there, and these demon powers kept harassing His mind. They would say, "If Thou be the Son of God, turn these stones into bread. If You be the Son of God, cast Yourself down from here." And they even quoted the Scripture, saying, "He will give His angels power concerning thee. They shall bear thee up in all of thy ways lest at any time thou shalt dash thy foot against a stone." Jesus would say, "It is also written." He would not deny the Scriptures.

The Bible says that the sinful generation, this power of evil that we're referring to as Satan, has taken the Word of God and changed it into a lie. They have used the day of grace and turned it into lasciviousness. They use the Word of God for their own benefits. They religiously justify the things that they do, even those things that are of the flesh, which are an abomination in the sight of God, even applying prayer to sports and all of those kind of things. It's an abomination in the sight of God. When they take the blood of the Son of God and use it in lasciviousness to justify that which is the love of the world and the love of the flesh and the things that Satan savors in this world, to pervert your mind, to pervert the ways of God, then it really upsets the Lord.

The thought that I want to get across to you is this: Demon spirits appear in the form of thoughts, depressing, oppressing, misleading, hallucinations or whatever it would be, as to your thinking capacity, and you find yourself having the spirit of error, doing the things that are not convenient to God and for your soul and for eternal life's sake. But the light of God, which are the angels of God, comes to minister unto us. Angels of light bring to us thoughts of inspiration, not thoughts of lasciviousness, as to go after the things of

the world, but the thoughts that inspire us unto hope, thoughts that inspire us unto health, happiness, peace and joy, for serving the Lord is joy, peace and righteousness in the Spirit of God or the Holy Ghost.

So we that these great, wonderful powers come to us and we have to learn to differentiate between these two powers. Sometimes it will be so close that it would deceive the very elect if it was possible. That is, we have to define it by the Word of God. We try the spirits, and that which does not fit the Word of God, we don't allow it to come into our mind. We say, "Nay, that's not of God. That's not life. That's death." If you were going to determine what the law says, then you would have to go to a lawyer. He'd have to go to the book and he would have to quote it to you, because the book is the power as to the authority. It's the absolute. It's the final say, and whatever it says, then we know that's what it is.

I know that there's a lot of corruption in the courts of the law. Solomon said, "I looked and in the place of judgment, there was corruption." I know that. But, if the judge goes to the word of law, the book, then that's the law. That's what the people have agreed on. If he executes that, then that's right. If he brings that to pass, then that's right, so far as law is concerned. There are a lot of things that go on in the law court that ought not to go on. I've been in the court chambers when some of the judges try to make passes at the women that come before them when they have problems with their husbands. I've been present. This is corrupt and evil. I could make mention to you of things that I personally know about local lawyers and judges and authorities that should not to be. They're becoming detrimental to the public. They're harassing the public. Policemen that I know of are committing adultery and doing other things and they are still kept on the forces. Things like this should not be, but what's the cause? Our political powers, while straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel, don't have time to look into these things for the benefit of the people. When it comes to money, when it comes to taxes or anything else, they're right there. But when it comes to the people's rights, to look after them and to help them, they don't have time for it. Many of them boycott together because they're friends one of another. What is it? The world loveth its own.

But beloved friend, there's coming a day when God's going to put away that corruption. He's going to raise up the children of God. He's going to raise up people of understanding and completely eradicate from the face of the earth this kind of corruption. He's going to take it out of the ministry, because He speaks of the ministers that feed themselves and don't feed the flock of God. There are statesmen that are not true statesmen and dignitaries that are not true dignitaries, and even though there are some good among all of them, yet God's going to eradicate the bad. He's going to take it away.

Where does this come from? It comes from evil thoughts. Where does war come from? The Bible says, "Is it not from the lust that warreth within your members?" You desire to have and you cannot obtain, so you kill and steal and do all of these other things. The Bible tells us that if we just simply love the Lord, believe on the Lord, seek the Lord Jesus Christ, all of these other things will be added unto us, whether it be health, whether it be peace, whether it be blessings, whatever it might be. God will give us all those things, because He has given to us in Christ Jesus all things that pertain unto life. And when we do the things that please Him, then we have a clear conscience to believe. When we believe, then we have the fullness of the blessings of God.

So we find that we can escape the detriments of life, the evil forces and powers, by discerning them by the Word of God. He sent His Word and cast out the unclean spirits. If you'll think on the Word of God, study the Word of God, love the Word of God, and come to understand the Word of God, then it will completely drive evil thoughts, as to spirits, out of your life, even infirm spirits that live within the tissues of your body. There's a germ of life on the inside that comes from God. This germ of life gives you health and it gives you life. But there's also another germ, and this is the germ of death, and this germ is an infirm spirit. This thing is on the inside of you and it creates cancer, it creates all kinds of diseases. When the life of that germ is killed, medical science will tell you that whatever the germ produces, cancer or whatever, it will go away. When you cast out the unclean spirit, when you cast out the spirit of infirmity, then the problem is gone.

I have ministered on the curse being gone by Calvary. We are free from the curse of sickness, death and sin. But today, we are having lots of problems. Our children have just gone wild. They can't seem to constrain themselves. They're becoming dope addicts and drunkards and they need places of rehabilitation, when in the years gone by, they did not have to do that, because they had something to occupy their minds. They worked in the fields. I worked in the fields. We had things to do that constituted good living and that contributed to man's way of life, as to make a better man or woman out of him, to make a virtuous person out of them, to provide a living, to take care of our little family or to help our neighbors. This provides good living.

Commit thy works unto the Lord. Someone would say, "I just can't get control of my thoughts." It's because there's too much leisure. The old saying says that an idle mind is the devil's workshop. So it is. As long as you do not commit your works unto the Lord, then your thoughts aren't going to be established.

You can be as religious as you want to be, but that isn't going to answer the problem. Being religious isn't going to answer the problem, but the answer is when you commit your works unto the Lord. Just saying "I believe" is not sufficient. That isn't going to do it, but it's when you commit your works unto the Lord, and when you begin to do the things that please Him. The Bible says that the child is known by his doings. If you're going to make a million dollars, you've got to do something. If you're going to have a strong, healthy body the athletic side of life, then you're going to have to jog and the lift of weights and all kinds of exercises, because you've got to do something.

If you're going to have salvation, and if you're going to have a heart that will be convinced in the things of God, to believe unto righteousness that you might make confession unto salvation of this of your lips, then you're going to have to do something. You can't go out and do the things of the world and still be a believer, not a God believer. You can believe in your intellect and be a religious fanatic, but you won't have salvation of the heart as to faith in God. The ways of life for faith is of the heart, for with the heart man believeth and that unto righteousness.

So then, you're going to have to do something. You're going to have to commit your ways unto the Lord, commit your works unto the Lord, and then your thoughts are going to be established. In the time when you commit your ways and in the time when your works unto the Lord, your thoughts are going to begin to take root and your mind isn't just going to be boggled down with the things of the world. You won't be going

from place to place and thing to thing, and you won't be sitting around watching some non-virtuous thing on television or reading some non-virtuous thing in the newspaper or magazine, and you won't be thinking on non-virtuous things.

You'll have a holy mind, a clean mind, a godly mind, and then all the fears and frustrations and anxieties of life will be gone, and you'll be anxious for nothing. You'll find peace. The Bible says that he that keepeth his mind stayed upon the Word of God, as to Christ Jesus, shall have perfect peace. We are to meditate in these laws day and night, cast down imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ, every thought. We should surrender our bodies as a living sacrifice unto God, which is a reasonable service, in that He did so much to provide eternal life for us and gave us all things that pertain unto life.

So beloved friend, godliness is profitable for this world, the Bible tells us, and for the world to come. It can bring you health and happiness in this world. As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. As he thinketh. It would not make any sense for me to tell you that I just love to hunt and I never go hunting. I would say, "I'm a great hunter. I love to hunt." And you would say, "I never see you hunting. You always go fishing. How is it that you love hunting so, and you never go hunting?" See, I would be lying because if I loved hunting, I would go hunting. If I go fishing, then I love fishing. So if I go out into the world, then I've got the love of the world in me. If I do the things of the world, then do I have the love of the world. If I dress according to the world, then I am of the world. If I have the love of the world in me, the love of the Father isn't there. The love of spiritual things isn't there. If I am carnally minded, then am I still abiding in death. I've never been born again and I don't have the mind of Christ, for to be spiritually minded, as to the mind of Christ, is life, but to be carnally minded is death. Satan has infiltrated everything in the world and it's under the curse until you're born again. When you take on the mind of Christ, and you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all the other things are added unto you.

So, we find that the child is known by his doings. Whatever he does, that's what he is. His thinking will compel him to do that. So then, it's little reason that you should be in the kind of condition that you are in. It's little reason, on your part, in that you never understood the real reasoning of God, coming into the reasoning of God, into the mind of God. To be carnally minded means that you are concerned about natural things, and natural things tend unto death. But when you're considering God and seeking God and putting God first and meditating in Christ, keeping your mind on Christ, then you've got a spiritual mind. And when you have this kind of mind, then you have peace. When you teach your children these things, as to the laws and ways of life of God, then do you escape death.

You must of necessity think according to life and think according to faith, and you must not put things that gender fear, frustration, wild imagination and all of these horrible, hideous things into your life. You must not do that, because it will bring nightmares at night. You won't be able to sleep. You won't be able to rest. You can't take dope and all the other drugs that stimulate the body to where you cannot relax. You take all of these kinds of things to stay awake, to frolic at night, and not have proper rest, then you get to the point where these things control your nervous system. When these things control your nervous system, you're going to be fully alive and awake and everything's going to be going along real good. But after awhile, these

things are going to begin to wear off, and when they do, your nerves are going to be just shaky. You're going to be trembling. You'll become a feeble person. You will not be able to continue on in life.

Did you know that God brought more than three million people out of Egypt? The Bible says that there was not one feeble person among them. He said that if you do the things that I tell you and you honor My Word and you keep My sayings, He won't put any of these diseases upon you that He brought upon the Egyptians. He told the woman, "Go thy way and sin no more." He forgave her of her sins. But go sin no more because if you sin again, it's going to bring sickness, and this time, something worse than ever will come upon you, something worse than before. So then, conform to His ways, love Him, do His will, follow after Him. Folks, this is what we're supposed to do. And when we do this, it makes for good living and brings you good health. Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established. When we commit our works unto God, then our thoughts are established.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

God's Perfect People

Let's read from chapter five in Matthew beginning at the first verse.

Matthew 5:1-48: "And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery. Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Ye have heard

that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

This is the Lord Jesus, Himself, saying these things to you as I read them from the Bible. This is when the Pharisees and Scribes confronted Him, and through the confrontation, He told them how He felt. He expounded to them the way of life and He tore everything apart they trusted in, in that they were not trusting in the commandments of the Lord. They were trusting in the ordinances of men. Jesus said, "You lay aside the commandments of God and you trust in the ordinances of men." He said to the others, "You do the things that you know that I punished men for, in the days of Moses. How can you escape the damnation of hell knowing that you do this when I gave you the warning?" All the things of the Old Testament happened for our admonition and example. We are the ones upon whom the ends of the world have come.

So we see that Jesus is straight to the point with His preaching. He never flattered anybody. He had no respect of persons. It didn't matter what a person looked like, or how much wealth they had, or what kind of position in life they achieved. He was very thorough, very straight, and very much to the point. He told them their future. He told them what would happen to them. He told them what He was there for. He said, "You have not sought Me, but I have come to seek and to save that which was lost." We find Him saying here, "Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the righteous. And they that hunger after the things of God," and on and on He goes speaking of the blessings, and how that when we are persecuted, we should rejoice for this is proof that God is in our life, because the devil doesn't like us. The Bible says that the children of this world are taken into captivity at the will of the devil to persecute the children of God. As it was in the days of Abraham, the Bible speaks of the free child Isaac and the bondchild Ishmael, and we get an understanding as to those that belong to God, that are filled with God's Spirit, and are children of light, which means understanding.

When we speak of the bondchild, we can see the difference there, if we differentiate, by knowing that that child was a child of darkness, which means intellectual ignorance as to the things of God. The Bible says that in the latter times, in the last days, that the whole generation would be filled with darkness. Gross darkness, which means spiritual ignorance, shall cover the people. They'll have great diplomas of education. They'll be dignitaries. They'll have money. They'll have position. They'll have all these things, and they'll be very religious. Very religious. A Laodicean generation, but they will be ignorant. When the grace of God is lifted and the light of God is gone (the children of God, as to the church, are the light of the world, so let your light shine that men may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven), the Bible says that the beast (they that are not born of God they are beasts, if they are not elect), and the mark of the beast and the leader, as to the headship of it, will come to those beasts just like Jesus does to the church.

The Bible says that the beast's kingdom will be filled with darkness and they will gnaw their tongues for pain. They'll curse God because of the blistering heat that shall come down upon them; whereas, that's moving right on in. The ozone is being depleted, and now scientists speculate that the polar ice caps are going to melt and the waters will rise several feet. I said that the ice will melt, because that ice is what tilted the world on its axis. God allowed it to tilt the world and that ice to hold it in that position, and God is getting it ready for the tribulation period, which is approaching us now. When this happens, it isn't just going to raise the waters, it's going to shift the water that God put here to over there. When it does, it's going to be balanced again, as it was in the beginning, before this water was shifted in the days of Noah, when the great flood came. With that shifting, the world is going to go into a great convulsion. The mountains that are now down on the ocean bed are going to come up. They were one time up, and they are going to come back up. These mountains that we see were at one time on the ocean bed, and they are going to go down.

This is why John said, "I saw the mountains move out of their places." He said, "I saw the cities of the nation crumble to the ground." He actually saw the sky scrapers in the cities like London, New York, Atlanta, Georgia, Chicago and other great cities, the great cathedrals, these towering buildings, he saw them crumble to the ground from this great earthquake and this great convulsion. There was such an earthquake, so great as has never been upon the face of the earth before, even to the extent that the stars of heaven fell.

The Bible speaks of wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever. Those stars are made out of nickel and rock. They are up there, but these great tremors are going to shake them out of their orbit, and they will fall, as to a third part of the heaven being cast down, to represent Satan and his followers being cast out. As grace is lifted from the earth, they are cast out of the presence of God. No more grace in the earth. No more help for them. They'll gnaw their tongues for pain. When these things fall, whirling down through space, the friction will melt them to such an extent that the potentials will be eaten out of them and they will be brimmed like coral, and they will be nothing but stone, and they'll break all to pieces. Hot stone, metal coming down upon them, the Bible says, that have done wrong and them that are cursing God. The heat will be so fierce that the wicked shall utterly be burned up. He shall leave them neither root nor branch and we shall tread the ashes of the wicked under our feet. The Bible says, "God is not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance," in that God is love. But the Bible also tells us that though God is love and compassion, the wicked won't repent. It's not God's will that the wicked should perish, but that they should repent. "Repent," the writer said. "Repent or ye shall all likewise perish."

So then, we find Jesus preaching here and telling us some great things. When John comes with the revelation, he tells us some great things. We know that when the polar cap melts, the world is going to come back upright. Why will it come upright? For this reason. When Adam and Eve were made in the garden, they were made upright. Everything was perfect. Their environment was perfect. Their health was perfect. Their spirit was perfect. There was no sin. There was no wrong until Eve lusted after the tree of knowledge. The Bible says that sin is now in the world today because of lust, in that she lusted. The Bible talks about the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. She lusted, for the Bible says she saw the fruit that it was good for meat, good to eat, and she partook thereof and she gave to her companion, Adam, and he partook

thereof. The Bible says God that came on the scene calling, "Adam, where art thou?" God had been in fellowship with Adam, and in the cool of the evening, He came to fellowship Adam and Eve. But, the Bible says He couldn't find them. They were hid, because God cannot look upon iniquity. He found them hid among the trees, and their iniquity had hidden them from God, for the Bible says thine iniquity has separated between thee and thy God and held thee back from good things. The Bible says, "He that walketh upright before Me shall lack no good thing. I will give him the desires of his heart. I will make him to ride upon the high places of the earth. I will feed him with the heritage of Jacob. My blessing shall make him rich and add no sorrow, and whatsoever he does shall prosper."

We see that in the garden, when the fall came, it started with intellectual reasoning. That's the very first thing. The Bible says the carnal mind is enmity with God. It's not subject to God. It will not subject itself to God. It intellectually tries to reason God out. It tries to scientifically tell us that from a little form of mass matter back yonder, billions of years ago, here came the world and here came you and I. They reason God out. Like the song says, I'm reminded of it so much, "Their program is so well planned, they left God's part out." Because they left God's part out, then they died, for to be carnally minded is death. The Bible says the day that you became intellectual, Eve, as eating of that tree, you will die, because your mind will not listen to the Word of God. It will not try to understand the Word of God.

You know, when you try to understanding, to try and learn something, then understanding is good. The Bible says call it your kinsmen; whereas, the Bible says that all that are of God are of a good understanding. A lot of times, we think that we're real great and mighty in our achievements of life, and we think the people of Egypt were very ignorant, but strangely enough, all of your education and understanding came from those ignorant people, as you say. Civilization began with the hieroglyphics in Egypt and was brought out through things like the discovery of the Rosetta stone and other kinds of things, and you're nothing but Egyptians. The Bible speaks about the difference between the Egyptians and the Hebrews. The Bible says he that is a Jew outwardly is not a Jew, but he that is a Jew inwardly, he is the true Jew. You and I, as children of God, are the true Jew. Therefore, the contest is between the children of the world and the true Jew, just like it is, allegorically speaking, between the natural Jew and the natural Egyptian. So we see that civilization has continued from Egypt, and today, the world is the great Egypt. We were over in Egypt not too long ago and it's quite a place. We gave out a lot of literature there. I want to go there for a crusade.

"Science, falsely so called," Paul said. Or that is, knowledge, falsely so called, ever learning and never being able to come to the truth, which is the Word of God. Let every man be a liar and the Word of God be true. This wonderful Word of enlightenment, given to children of light and understanding. The Bible says that we know that the coming of the Lord is at hand, and we know when it is nigh even at the door. The children of this world shall not know, for Satan (Lucifer), the god of this world, hath blinded their eyes, even their eyes of understanding, that they cannot see the light. They are children of darkness and creatures of darkness and they'll not know when it's coming for they cannot see when good comes. They are blinded to it. The intellectual mind won't accept it. The Bible says that it shall come upon them as a snare, all of them that dwell upon the face of earth. They shall not see when good cometh, in that the Bible says there is none good but God. They cannot see God nor His works; whereas, Jesus said, "I do always the things I see My Father do." God is the invisible power, the invisible force, the Spirit of holiness, and no man shall see God without holiness. Paul said, "I serve the God of the Spirit, which is the Spirit of holiness."

The Pope his call "His holiness", but that's foolishness. There is but one "His Holiness", and that is God the great eternal Spirit. The Bible says that He's the great light unto which no man could approach, whom no man has seen, nor can see, and Jesus Christ alone, dwelling in that light, hath immortality, and He shared that immortality with us. Jesus Christ alone was made heir to the promises and glory of God. The word was to Abraham, "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed," as to the promised son, Isaac. The Bible says not seeds as of many, but seed as of one, and that in Christ Jesus. If you don't have Christ in you, you don't have the hope of that glory of God. You don't have the hope of eternal life.

When the great calamities begin to befall the people, you won't have any life, because Christ in you is the hope of glory and He is the only one that was made heir to the glory. The Bible says that God wants us to have His glory. Some people say God will not give His glory to another. But, we are not another. The Bible says we're bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. It's not us living but Christ. Jesus said, "Father, glorify these with the same glory that I had with Thee before the world ever was." That is, give them Your glory, Father. So, inwardly from glory to glory, we're changed into this wonderful, glory of God, this great image of God, to be made perfect by the same lovely Spirit that was overshadowing Eve, and overshadowing Adam, that overshadowed Mary for the divine conception of Christ. Paul said, "I travail until Christ be formed within your heart." When you conceive of this Word of God, as Christ within you, then the seed of God remaineth in you to keep you from sin, even Christ Jesus. So seeing that they were illuminated with this great wonderful Spirit, all was well until the day of the expulsion, and when they became carnal minded, they separated themselves from that great illumination.

God has pursued us down through the generations, until He found us at Calvary. He pursued us to bring forth perfection. Until that time, it was death, and all of them that died back under the law. The Bible says that before Jesus came, they rested in their lot. They could not be made perfect without us. The Bible says that they rested in their lot and when the time came, Jesus went down into the heart of the earth to preach to the souls in prison. The revelation of John records it where He gave white robes to them that were in the earth. When they cried out, "How long?", He said, "Just a little while until your brethren also die as you." That is to say, the Jews went through those things like the holocaust. He said, "Just a little while," and the Bible says He gave them white robes. We also know that these all died under the law, not having received the promise of eternal life, for without us they could not be made perfect. But in the day when Jesus came, who was the perfect one, then that which was in part was done away with, for the Bible says that when that which is perfect has come, that which is in part shall be done away with.

He said, "I came not to destroy, but to fulfill the law. Not one jot nor tittle shall pass from the law until all be fulfilled." He fulfilled every jot and every tittle of the law that you and I may have the righteousness of the law, for we are saved by the righteousness of the law. The Bible says the law is spiritual, but we are carnal, sold unto sin. The Bible teaches that the law came to magnify sin, that we might see how sinful the flesh really is, and that we might repent and see our need for a Savior and go to the Lord that He might give us the righteousness of the law. The Bible says that no flesh shall be justified by the law. Even though He kept every jot and tittle of it, He could not be justified by it because He was our example. He was made a quickening Spirit at resurrection when He came forth. He was delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification, came up in a new form. As He walked on the way to Emmaus with them, they said, "Did not our hearts burn within us as He opened the Scriptures to us by the way?"

We find that until Calvary, we were shut up under the law unto the faith which afterward should be revealed. Today, we have that faith. Today, that shield of faith that we have quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked. He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, and sanctified them once and for all by the offering up of the body of the Lord Jesus at Calvary. He wiped away sin. The Bible says that since sin came by one man, Adam, then righteousness came by one man, Jesus Christ. All are under sin because Adam had sinned, so today all are under righteousness because Jesus led a perfect life and lived righteously. As God accepted Adam, as to sin and death upon all, so He accepted Jesus, as righteousness and life upon all; that is, all that will believe in Him, for if you believe not, the Bible says the wrath of God abideth upon you and your faith is made manifest by your works, for the child is known by his doings. Faith in what you hear, faith by the hearing of the Word, and what you do proves whether or not you believe it.

I look at Calvary and see the veil rent in twain. He made in Himself two, twain, both Lord and Christ. He rent the veil in twain, or He separated the Lord from the Christ that He might separate your spirit from your body, and by His body, kill your body because it is a bastard child image, born of Adam, and in Adam all die. The firstborn of Egypt were all smitten when the darkness came. So, my spirit, at death, went back to God who gave it. I'm dead in the sight of God, and Paul said, "This body of death," this body with the infiltration of uncleanness, it's dead and it's buried in a watery grave in the lovely name of Jesus. Being identified with Christ Jesus in death, now are we identified with Him in the resurrection, for if we are planted in His likeness, then we're raised in His likeness. We're dead to sin and God never looks upon that bastard child image again. It's buried. It's gone. The body will be changed at the sounding of the trumpet, the last trumpet, the Thessalonian change and this body will be changed into an eternal body. From corruptible to incorruptible, from mortal to immortal, from the terrestrial to the celestial, all at the sounding of the last trumpet; but in God's sight, it all happened at Calvary. He already sees us as His lovely sons. We are the sons of God, for John said, "Now beloved are ye the sons of God."

When I say that ye are gods, people draw back because they haven't been taught that. They don't understand that, but nevertheless, if a dog brings forth pups, they are dogs. If an elephant brings forth the little ones, they are elephants. When the lion brings forth, they are lions. When man brings forth, they are men. When God brings forth, they are gods. He that is born of God is a god, and this is why they tried to stone Jesus. He said, "I am the Son of God;" yet the Bible says that Adam was the son of God. They wanted to stone Him, and He said, "For what good works?" He opened the eyes of the blind, unstopped the deaf ears, made the cripple to walk. They said, "For a good work we don't stone You, but You, being a man, make Yourself God, for this we stone You." He said, "Is it not written in the Scriptures that I have called ye gods?" Go back and check the Scriptures in the book of Psalms, and you'll find it there in the writings concerning David, where the Spirit called us gods. He asked, "Why then do You say I blaspheme because I say that I am the Son of God? When He said He was a Son of God, those Bible scholars had enough understanding to know that which is born of God is a god. So when He said, "I'm a Son of God," they said, "You are saying that you are a god." The Bible teaches that Jesus was the manifestation of God. It teaches that He is the express image of God, and that we are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. That means, membership wise, we are God and that we are members in particular, making you gods, according to the measure you receive. The difference between you and Jesus is that the Bible says God giveth not the Spirit unto Jesus by measure, but the fullness of the Godhead bodily dwells in Jesus. But to you, it's according to your measure. Every man is dealt a measure. He resurrected from the dead, gave gifts unto men and the Bible says He gave a measure of faith to each one according to their several ability, as to whatever they could receive.

We see that the expulsion brought death, but we see a new tree, even the tree of life, which they were not allowed to partake of. If they would have ever partaken of the tree of life in the garden, Satan would have had humanity forever and God could not have done anything, because they would have lived forever. At that point, man was innocent in that he did not know right and wrong, and God was indebted to take care of the innocent. That's why the blood is on the seat of atonement today. God is indebted to take care of the innocent because He made man and subjected the creature to vanity. Today, God is responsible if the innocent die. He won't let them die. He said, "When the gospel has been preached in all the world for a witness, then shall the end come." Every man, every boy, every girl who are old enough to understand has to hear the gospel, and if they are not old enough to understand, it's not required of them, for the Bible teaches that to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is a sin, and the soul that sinneth shall surely die. So then, sin is not imputed unto the children. The Bible says for of such their angel beholds the face of the Father always and they are innocent. God could not let them eat of the tree of life. He said, "Now man has become as one of us and lest he put forth his hand and partake of the tree of life to live forever," then he had to be put out of the garden.

Folks, we're back into the garden today. We're back in the presence of God, and today the veil has been rent in twain. We don't have to have a high priest to go in to confess our sins. We come boldly before the throne of grace, going right into the very presence of God, in that the blood's on the seat of atonement as it was when Aaron placed the blood there and the blessings of the Lord came down. Now the blessings of the Lord come down and the rain is upon the just and the unjust. Jesus has not just taken away the sins of the church, but He's taken away the sins of the world. The world now has opportunity to call upon the Lord Jesus, because the atmosphere is created where the demon powers are pushed back if they want to go in the right direction or come to the house of God. But if they reject it, once they come to the truth, the Bible says there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but only the fearful looking forward to of the fiery indignation of God that shall devour His adversaries.

So then, it is impossible, the Bible says, after you have once come to the enlightenment, if you fall away, to ever renew you again unto repentance, seeing that you would crucify Christ afresh and put Him to an open shame. There would have to be another Calvary. When you come to the Lord and you know the truth and you reject it, after that the curtains are closed, the shade is pulled down and you're blind from then on. But the whole world right now has the blood on the seat of atonement, and grace is there to give the church a chance to come out, as to the elect, and perfect their ways before God in that God is angry with the wicked every day. The Bible says He would pursue the wicked until they perish from off the face of the earth. He said their offerings are an abomination in His sight. Their prayers are an abomination in His sight. He's angry with them every day. But He has to allow that grace to be there to bring the elect out.

The Bible says that we will know the time of the coming of the Lord, when it's nigh even at the door. That's very close. That means all He has to do is turn the knob and come in. But it said the wicked shall not know. As a snare shall it come upon all of them that dwell upon the face of the earth. The Bible says, though we know when it's night, even at the door, it says no man shall know the day or the hour. No man shall know the day or the hour of His coming. Why is it that God would not let me know the hour of His coming? Someone would say, "He wants to catch you off guard, because if you knew the day of His coming, you'd get right with God." That's foolishness to think like that, because the Bible says He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. He's made them perfect. There's no way to catch them off guard. It's not going to come on the righteous as a snare, but on the wicked. Why is it then He doesn't let me know? He could easily let

me know. It's no problem. He and I are friends. He is my Heavenly Father. I'm His son. But there is one thing God knows, and that is if He told you or me, or if He told a Christian the very day and hour of His coming, then if you had a daughter, a son, a wife, or a husband, you would tell them. God is not going to let the wicked know anything about it. He knows that you would tell them and He doesn't want to put you in a precarious place. So then, He just doesn't let you know. That way you can't tell them. When the time comes for the wrath of God, He's going to catch them off guard because, most assuredly, the Bible says, all that a man's got he'll give for his life. Even Satan told the Lord, when he went before Him in the days of Job, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, all that a man's got he'll give for his life. A man will give his wealth to save his life. They give it to doctors every day.

We see that God has so fixed everything just perfect for you and me. No problems for you and me. He hath brought Calvary and brought us back to this wonderful perfection of the mind of God. We're not seeing through a glass darkly, as it was in the days of Moses when that veil was placed between them and the shekinah, but seeing face to face, for the veil of death has now been rent in twain. Or that is, the entrance in. He hath made a new way, and has given a more sure word of prophecy. Today we're beholding the glory of God, and we're changed into His glorious image, to the glory of His unveiled face. So, we see the veil of death is gone to the believer.

They that have fallen from grace are still under the law. That is to say, if you are not serving God, you are still under the law. No flesh is justified by the law, and you'll be condemned in the day of judgment, as to the judgment of the law. But we have the righteousness of the law. He fulfilled every jot and tittle for our sake, folded it up and laid it away, and now that which is perfect has come. Christ within you the hope of glory, the one that fulfilled the law. Paul said, concerning this veil of death, the intellectual veil of death that fell over the mind and spirit of Adam in the garden, that this veil is still there today. All humanity is still under that veil and they cannot see when good comes. The eyes of their understanding cannot be enlightened. Lucifer is their god and they run and whore after the things of the world. and they are the bondchild, in that they're in bondage to the beggarly elements of the world by the mind of Satan that gullibly desires worldly things and worldly positions. He said, speaking of His day, that veil remaineth over the face of the people untaken away, but in Christ, the veil has been rent, and it's taken away. You and I don't have that veil, for the Bible says that we comprehend the height, we comprehend the depth, we comprehend the width, and we comprehend the length of this great, wonderful mind of God that's given to us. The Bible says to 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 make Himself equal with God. He didn't try to make Himself a reputation, but He humbled Himself to the washing of the feet of those that were His comrades.

We see that there is something He hath done for us, and that is He hath protected our soul from sin. Today, you cannot, as a Christian, sin the sin of the soul, for the Bible says the soul that sinneth shall surely die. You cannot sin the sin of the soul, but you can stumble as to the body. You can still stagger. You can still stumble. You can make mistakes, but the Bible says that where these things are, there is no conscience of sin. There is no will nor desire to do wrong. You will not take your body, your presence, to places of evil. That is wrong. You will try your very best to live a perfect life in His sight, if that nature of Christ is in there, because it's perfect and it's ever pulling you toward perfection. The spirit of error, as to Satan, is ever pulling you toward the love of the world and the things of the world, which is the diminishing part. Christ must increase, but the other must decrease. The veil is gone for your sake, that intellectual veil of death, for the Bible says to be carnally minded is death, and the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shall surely die.

To be spiritually minded is life, and that mind is the mind of Christ. You should let this mind be in you. That mind is eternal life, having passed from death into life, to never come into condemnation, and no one laying anything to your charge. So we can see that we are God's perfect people. We cannot sin the sin of the soul. As to your stumblings and staggerings in the body, the Bible says happy is he that doth not condemn himself over that thing which he allowed when he's trying to do his very best to stay filled with the Spirit, to honor God. The Bible says happy is he that does not condemn himself over that thing which he alloweth, in that he stumbled. Don't put a breach in your faith, don't tear yourself down. Repent, be remorseful, be sorry in the sight of God. Go to your high priest, tell Him all of your problems for He has already forgiven them. God has already forgiven them in Christ. They are already covered by the blood. As it was for Israel, their sins were already forgiven by the high priest, as to the covering of the blood each time that he went in, as long it wasn't a willful thing. We cannot have a will to sin because we have no conscience of sin. We are conscience of life, not of death. So then, you cannot sin the sin of the soul. The seed of God remaineth in you and you cannot sin because you are born of God.

You cannot die because the Bible teaches that transgression of the law is sin, and the law is folded up and laid away. The Bible says where there is no law, there is no transgression. Transgression of the law is sin and sin is the sting of death, and where there is no transgression, there is no sin. Where there is no sin, there is no death. Since you are not under the law, there is no sting of death to you. There is no transgression of the law. You are made perfect. He hath fulfilled the law in Christ and given you the righteousness of the law as to perfectness. You cannot sin the sin of the soul. You can rejoice forever more. Rejoice in the Lord! Have a wonderful time and tell your Savior how much you love Him and He's your friend. He's with you. He said, "I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Lo! I am with you always even until the end of the world!"

We can truthfully say that God is our helper, a helper in the time of need. So, you do stumble in the body, but God doesn't see the body because He killed the body by the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Bible says to reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, for God hath done away with the body of this death. Paul said that which has the infiltration, sinful flesh. The Bible says you are to reckon yourself to be dead to the world. Come out from among the world and be a separate people. Touch not the unclean things and I will receive you, saith the Lord. The body is now dead. It is now buried. It is now gone, because when the Heavenly Father turned His back on the Lord Jesus, He smote that body and He satisfied His wrath. The heavens turned as dark as sack cloth of hair and the image was smitten, and He cried out, "My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" He cried out, as to say, "My God! My God! Thou are forsaking Me because of Brother Pike, because of you brethren, because of you sisters! Thou hast forsaken Me and Thou hast made Me to be made sin that they might be made the righteousness of God in Christ. I'm dying out of Your presence that they might forever live in Your presence." God so loved the world, having given His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. We are His workmanship in Christ. That means that you may stumble and stagger, but God never sees your body. He never sees it. He looks over the chasm all the way from Calvary, all the way over to that great mountain top that's called the coming of Christ, the Thessalonian change, the sounding of the last trumpet. He sees you already perfect in the body. Now, your spirit at death has gone back to God who gave it. Your body is buried in a watery grave and your spirit entered into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the foreknowledge of God, because He sees you over here as bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, as a finished product in Christ.

We are complete in Him, the Bible says, and we see what God has done. We patiently wait, not for the redemption of the body, but to wit the redemption of the body. We have the Spirit, the earnest of our inheritance, but the Bible says the body is the purchased possession. He purchased the body for His possession. We are waiting to wit that, or come to the knowledge of this, that the body will be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, from mortality to immortality, caught up to be with Him, so shall we ever be with the Lord.

The body has to go through a change, but it has already been redeemed by the blood. The song writer said, "I'm redeemed by love divine. Glory, glory Christ is mine. All to Him I now resign, for I have been redeemed." So then, we're waiting for the change. Job said, "I'll wait for my change. Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. He will stand upon the earth in the latter days, and I shall see Him with mine own eyes, not as with another, but I, myself, shall see Him, for my redeemer liveth." Though you go to the grave, and skin worms devour your body, you are going to be brought forth and you're going to see Him in the latter times stand upon this earth.

I tell you this again, we don't have to die. There is going to be a generation that's going to discover these understandings. They will come to this great, wonderful knowledge and never be put in the ground or put in a casket. Paul said, "Behold, I show you a mystery." Being the overseer of the Gentile church, he said, "I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep." Sleep is the separation of your spirit from your body, at what you call death. It's not death, but death is when you are cast into the lake of fire. That's called the second death, the only death. We've passed from that death and can never come into condemnation. Death is when your spirit is separated from God's Spirit.

Sleep is when your spirit is separated from your body. Your spirit will re-enter your body and pick it up from that sleep. Jesus said, "I go to awake Lazarus." He sleepeth. We're coming to the mystery of understanding that we will not sleep. Great is the mystery of godliness. Paul said, "I am made a steward of the mysteries." We're coming to the understanding. A generation is going to come to the understanding that they do not have to sleep. They do not have to die. It says in the Bible that the mystery of God will bring forth a translation, and Paul said, "You which remain and are alive at His coming shall be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump." You'll be changed into your immortality without going by the way of the grave. David said, "I can't praise Thee in the grave." What's the grave got to do with it? What does going into a grave do to perfect you? What does that do in making you a saint? What does that do in helping you to praise God, when you lay there and the worms eat you? Folks, let's not be ignorant. God wants you to be a living sacrifice to Him. God's work is to you and death is the enemy of God. It's not a friend. It's not part of the plan of salvation and it didn't come by God. The Bible says it came by man and Jesus Christ, the man, conquered it for us.

The last enemy to be conquered, to the wicked, will be after the millennium. But to you and I, blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, over which the second death hath no part or power. We are passed from death unto life, and our spirit can never die. Your body will go to sleep if the spirit departs from it, but the wicked will die. Their spirit and their body will die. "I will help thee, thou worm Jacob," it is said in the Bible, and it also says, "Where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." We see then that we cannot die, but the Bible says that ye shall die like men from the lack of knowledge. That is, some

generations have never come to this. All down through the years, they've never come to this. But they will. A whole generation will come to it.

Has anyone ever come to that? Enoch did. Enoch lived three hundred years and had plenty of time to learn. The Bible says the heavens declare His handiwork. Before the Scriptures were ever scribed, as to the writing, they appeared unto Abraham and the others and taught them. The Holy Spirit, the word that came to the prophets, which was God. The Holy Spirit is now here today. It's not you speaking but the Heavenly Father speaking from within you, and judgment begins in the house of God as to your faith in what the minister says. The Bible says that the minister remits your sins or he retains your sins. "As My Father sent Me, so send I you." Jesus said, "Whosoever sin you retain shall be retained, whosoever sins you remit shall be remitted."

So we see that we die because of a lack of understanding. Enoch was translated by faith. Before his translation, he had this testimony, that he did always the things that pleased the Father. Jesus said, "I do always the things that please the Father." Without faith in Him, it's impossible to please Him. He that cometh to God must believe that there is a God, or that He is, and believe that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

We are free from sin and transgression of the law. We are free from death. We're going to grasp that and come to understand that. We're going to get that imbedded in our heart after awhile and it's not just going to be an intellectual concept, as from a minister preaching or a word that you've heard, but it's going to sink down into your heart and turn into spirit and into life and it's going to fulfill a vision that I had where we all were standing in the millennium. All of the believers, standing there in the millennium in the most beautiful white garments after everything else had been burned. There wasn't anything left but the ashes, and we were standing in the millennium. It was so beautiful. In the vision, I said to you, "Folks, you can do anything you want to now. No more death, no more sorrow, no more problems, no more heartaches. You made it! You made it! Glory to God you made it!" All because of Christ Jesus. This was given to us in Christ before the world ever was, and today you are children of God in Christ Jesus. He loves you. He gave Himself for you and you're His precious wonderful children.

Go thy way and rejoice forever more, enjoy perfect health, enjoy prosperity, for He has that three-fold blessing for you. He would, above all things, that you prosper. Number one: the needs of the flesh, as to eating and drinking, buying and selling and whatever you need. Number two: He would above all things that you be in health, that you might be able to enjoy that prosperity. And number three: that you prosper even as your soul prospers. That is, a soul prosperity, as to an eternal seal so Satan can never take your health again or your natural prosperity as he did when he took it from Adam in the garden. That means that you are complete in Him and everything is so wonderful to be His child.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

Let's Go On To Perfection

Let's read just a little bit over in the book of Hebrews, chapter 12:

"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire."

Paul uses the terms, "The great cloud of witnesses," being encompassed by the great cloud of witnesses. He says this after Hebrews chapter 11 expounds to us faith. The sixth verse says, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." That is, without believing in the Word, you are never going to be a Christian, or you are never going to please God. You have to believe in the Word of God. Faith cometh by the hearing

of the Word of God and to believe in the Word of God is faith. The only way that you can prove that you have faith is that you practice the things that the ministry is teaching you. When you practice those things, then you believe.

Paul, in pointing out these things, tells us how terrible it was as to what happened in the days of Moses. All through the Bible, Moses is spoken of as the one who saw the hinder part of God. All through the Bible we're told that there is a day wherein we shall see face to face. We're told of an age of imperfection and then we are taught an age of perfection. So, we're living in the age of perfection. Moses was in the day that was not an age of perfection. Things were imperfect. You probably would say, "Well, Brother Pike, what makes you think that and how can you prove that?" The only way to prove anything is by the Scripture. If the Scripture doesn't say it, you don't want to use it. The Bible says to those that were under the law, "And the comer thereunto could never be made perfect by the blood of bulls and goats." But the blood of the Son of God perfects forever.

So then, we are living in the day of perfection. We are not an imperfect people. We're living in imperfect times as to the world, but as to the church ages, we are not living in imperfect times, but we're living in the time of perfection. That's why the Bible tells us to go on to perfection. Don't turn again to lay the foundation of repentance of dead works and faith toward God, but leaving the foundation of repentance, let's go on to build the building. We've laid the foundation for the building in that we have repented. Now that we've laid a foundation of repentance, let's go on to build. Let's don't keep going back, as it was with Esau, repenting over and over, doing the wrong things, thinking the wrong things, saying the wrong things and going back over and over to repent. For the Bible says, "Therefore leaving the foundations of repentance." Let us get to the place where we don't have to repent over and over. Instead of repenting, we can testify to the victory and say that our faith is that victory and that we are overcoming the world by our faith. The Bible says that who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Christ.

My faith is my victory, for the Bible says this is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith. Believe that what He did in your behalf put the world away from you and took you away from the world. You have the victory in Christ, and this is the victory, even your faith. The Bible says us not to cast away thy faith which hath great recommence of reward, for after ye have done the will of God, ye have need of patience that ye might receive the promise. Once we have done the things that please God, then do we have confidence toward God, that whatever we ask of God, He heareth us, and then we know that if He heareth us, then we have the petition that we desire of God. So then, let us go on to be perfect in the sight of God, not laying the foundation of repentance over and over, but let us go on. Someone would say, "To what?" To the doctrine of baptisms, to the laying on of hands, to the resurrection of the dead, and these things will we do if God permit.

There are people that preach, "Leaving the foundation of repentance, let us go on." They say to go on from the foundation of repentance and go on from the laying on of hands and go on from the resurrection of the dead and go on to something. They don't ever say what, but that isn't what the Scripture says. It said to go on to the laying on of hands. Paul said not to neglect the gift that is within thee that was given thee by the laying on of the hands of the presbyters, which means the elders. It tells us to go on to the doctrine of baptisms because there is a lot in baptism. There are numbers of baptisms that have to do with your

salvation. For instance, there is the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the baptism of fire, the baptism in water. There is a baptism of suffering and on and on. Jesus, on one occasion, said to the disciples, "Can you be baptized with the baptism I'm baptized with?" They said, "We can." He said, "You will." They wanted to set one on the right hand and one on the left. He asked if they could measure up to His stature. We can measure up to the stature of the Lord Jesus by believing in His righteousness, for the Bible says that everyone that would be perfect shall be as his master, and the Bible says God hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, and sanctified them once and for all by the offering up of the body of the Lord Jesus at Calvary. Jesus said, "He that overcometh shall sit down in the throne with Me, even as I have overcome and set down in the throne with My Father."

We see that we can go on to be perfect. I have brought out a number of times what it means to go on to be perfect and it's not at all the way some people think, as to going on to perfection, because to them, going on to perfection is trying to work their way into an atmosphere, or a condition, where they are very holy and godly and because of this God will accredit this to them and they will be saved because they have been such good people. But I tell you, there won't be anybody in heaven like that. The Bible says that no flesh shall glory in the sight of God, and the Bible teaches, as to keeping the law, that even though the Lord Jesus, Himself, kept every jot and tittle and Paul, himself, said he was blameless as touching the law, yet they could not be justified by the law or by their dos or don'ts or works, or whatever. If you are trusting in that to get to heaven, then you are sure to miss heaven. There's no possible way, and I challenge anybody in the world, it doesn't matter who they are or how long they've been in religion, to give me any Scripture to prove that they can get to heaven by doing good works, or by the things that they are doing. All of your works, in the sight of God, are like filthy rags. The very best you can do has nothing to do with life. Life is a spiritual thing. God is life and without God there is no life. The Bible says that if you have not God's Spirit, then you don't have any life and you're none of His.

You're none of His because God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are not alive if you do not have God's Spirit. We find that being one with God, to have God's Spirit, is to have life, and to have life is the seal of our new birth. We have been born again and we are not to grieve that Holy Spirit whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption. That is, Christ's Spirit has become interwoven with my spirit and it has sealed my spirit so there will never be a stain within my angelic being. My body is now dead by the body of the Lord Jesus, and like a great angel with wings, I flew away into the heavenly places and there I abide with the Lord. I don't ever return from that place. I'm always, day and night, in the heavenly places with God, for I am hid with Christ in God whom the heavens have received until the time of the restoring of all things.

So then, I am in heaven. I am with the Lord. I've passed from death unto life. My sins are gone. They are underneath the blood on the cross of Calvary, as far removed as darkness is from dawn. They're in the sea of God's forgetfulness. Praise God, my sins are gone. He that is born of God cannot sin, for Christ, the hope of glory, called the seed of God, remaineth in you and you cannot sin because you are born of God. He that is born of God keepeth himself and the evil one toucheth him not. There is no experience you have that gives you a new birth. I don't care how good you try to be. I don't care how often you go to church. I don't care how many years you've tried to live for God. That has nothing to do with it. As God looks at it, it's all filthy rags unless it is done as unto the Lord and if it is done as unto the Lord it is accepted. But not as works unto salvation. There are no works unto salvation except the works of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we speak of salvation, we speak of salvation by faith because this is the age of perfection. I have salvation by faith, and that faith is not my faith. I have salvation by His faith. The Bible says to contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints of God. That is to say, the Bible teaches that we were all children under tutors until the time appointed of the Father, shut up under the law, Paul said. All are shut up under the law until you come to your Christ experience, your Calvary experience. Shut up under the law unto the faith. Not until the faith, but unto the faith which afterward should be revealed. Not unto your faith which should afterward be revealed, because there has always been human faith from the foundation of the world. Adam and Eve had faith. You are not shut up unto your faith which afterward should be revealed. The human faith has already been revealed. The Bible says that sin had dominion over mankind. Though men had not sinned after the similitude of Adam, yet sin and death reigned over them even unto the law. The Bible says this continued until the seed, to whom the promise was made, came, and that seed, of course, was Jesus, for the Bible says, concerning Abraham, "In Isaac," speaking of Jesus, "so shall thy see be called and all nations shall be blessed." Not as unto seeds of many, as Brother Pike, Brother Taylor, and of you. Not as unto that, but as unto one, even Christ.

So, Christ is your hope of glory. It is Christ in you the hope of glory because Christ alone was made heir to the glory of God. If you don't have Christ in you, you don't have hope of that glory of God. The Bible says that God is the great light. God is a Spirit unto which no man can approach. No man has seen Him at anytime. The Son of God alone dwells within that light. That light means understanding, knowledge. He dwells in that light and no man can approach unto that light. So then, unless you can become bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, you don't dwell in the light. It is unto Him that the promise is made. Therefore, for me to be a partaker of it, I have to be Him. He became me in death that I might become Him in life. He died out of the presence of God that I might live in the presence of God and He was made my sin that I might be made His righteousness in God. So, I find myself holy and godly and pure in body, in soul, and in spirit. Paul said, "[I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." So then, I find myself holy in body for He said, "Be holy in body and spirit." I find myself holy in spirit. I find myself holy in my soul, all because of the faith that was to be revealed to me after Calvary, the faith by which I'm sanctified.

I find myself with that faith that's been revealed to me, by which I am sanctified, and this wonderful faith, having sanctified me, I am perfect forever. The Bible says that God has perfected for ever them that are sanctified. And He hath sanctified them once and for all by the offering up of the body of the Lord Jesus. The Scribes and Pharisees and others, always having done the works of the law, they asked Jesus, "And what must we do to work the works of God?" He said, "This is the works." That is, I am the works. It was finished from the foundation of the world. Paul brings the costiveness to this, speaking in the affirmative by saying, "This faith needs no works, for this faith is without works. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith." What faith? The faith of Jesus Christ. By faith, without works. The Bible says that blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. The Bible says that to wit that God, who is a Spirit, was in Christ, who is flesh and bone. To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world back to Himself, as the ministry of reconciliation that He has given unto you and I in the time of His absence as a human body, to reconcile the world back to Himself. That is, through His works, through His atonement, through His efforts, reconciling the world back to Himself and not imputing their trespasses unto them. That's why we can go to Jesus, our high priest, and we can pray, "Father, forgive us our trespasses even as we forgive those that trespass against us."

So then, we find ourselves free from sin. I know when I say this to people who have been brought up in church, they think that's sacrilegious. But folks, if your salvation is dependent on your works, then let me inform you today, of all that I've ever seen in the religious world, in the Pentecostal world, in the Baptist world, in the Catholic world, and in the Methodist world, and I've preached around the world at different places, I have never found one godly, holy, pure person, ever! The Bible says that there are not any. All of them have gone astray. Every man has turned to His own way and the Bible says that God has laid upon Jesus the iniquity of us all. He was bruised for our transgression, and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, by whose stripes we're healed. So then, there is none good. He said, "No, not one." All of them have gone astray. Every man has turned to his own way. The Bible says their thoughts are continually evil and their throat is like an open sepulcher. The Bible says their heart is continually thinking the wrong things. So then, I thank God that through Jesus Christ I've been redeemed. I've been redeemed by love divine, glory, glory Christ is mine. All to Him I now resign because I have been redeemed. I am waiting to wit the redemption of my body, but it isn't because it hasn't been redeemed, for the Bible teaches that Jesus redeemed it at Calvary, and speaks of it as the purchased possession and that the coming of His Spirit into our heart is the earnestness of our inheritance.

We're being taught and tutored that we might comprehend the height, depth, width and length, to comprehend or to wit the redemption of our body. You were shut up under the law until you came to the faith, unto the faith. Paul was a Jew, and he's speaking to the Jews and he's says, "Brethren, you were shut up under the law unto Calvary, unto Christ Jesus, the perfect one, unto that which was perfect that was to come, unto that which is called the faith." You were shut up under the law unto the faith, unto the faith of Jesus Christ which was coming, by which we were to be sanctified. Having been sanctified by that faith, then are we made perfect forever, and that not of works lest any man should boast, but it is the gift of God. We find out that there are no works required to have salvation. Someone would say, "Well, I have to repent to get salvation." The Bible teaches that the gifts of God, which takes in the gifts of the Spirit and the gift of eternal life, that they are not given through repentance. If they were given through repentance, then millions of people in the world today who don't live right would have eternal life, just like Esau would have gotten the birthright. Though Esau repented, he did not find the birthright. Though Judas repented, he did not find the birthright. If it was given through repentance, Judas and Esau could have repented and found those things.

So it's not given through repentance. It is given by foreknowledge. The Bible says that ye are God's elect by foreknowledge. That is to say, God foreknew what you would do in your lifetime as He looked down through the telescope of time, beholding your life before you ever came into the world. Like the prophet said, "I was called to be a prophet before I was ever formed in my mothers womb." As it was with Judas before he ever came into the world, the Bible says, "Let another his bishoprick take," before he ever had a chance to do any good or evil. The Bible says, concerning Jacob and Esau, the children not yet being born, having done no good or evil, it was said, "Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated." God foreseeing, even before you came into the world, the kind of attitude you would take when you heard the Word of God, or when you were confronted by the Word of God. He sent forth His Spirit crying, Abba, Father" into your heart. Today, everyone that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ can be saved. The Bible says, "Say not within thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven to bring Him down, or who shall descend into the heart of the earth to bring Him up?" It is nigh thee even in thine heart. If you shall confess with thy lips the Lord Jesus Christ and believe that God hath raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved, for with the heart man

believeth unto righteousness and with the lips confession is made unto this salvation. What a man speaketh cometh from his heart, and when he confesses, it is proof that the Spirit has taken up its abode within the heart.

That's why the Bible says blessed is the man unto whom God will not impute sin. God, within Christ, imputing not their trespasses to them. Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven, whose iniquities are covered. Blessed is the man unto whom God imputeth faith for righteousness, without works in his life. We find that salvation has nothing to do with your works. Then the question arises again, "Then why is it that the Bible tells us to go on to perfection?" It does not tell us to go on to perfection that we might perfect our work so that we can be a Christian, or that we can have salvation. I want you to understand this clearly, brothers and sisters, that when a little child is born into the world, this little child does not have to go on to be a human being. He does not have to go on to have life. He does not have to go on to belong to your family. He is a human being. He has blood. He has life. He has eyes. He has hands. He is altogether a human being. He doesn't have to go on so that he can be born into the world. He's already born into the world. When God said to go on, He wasn't talking to the world. He was talking to those that had been born again, who have been born again, the children of God, who are caught up to the throne when we're born again. Immediately, the kingdom of God comes into our heart, our inner man is within the throne, or in the presence of God. The body is dead. The spirit goeth to God who gave it. There is a new birth, and the new birth is that angelic one that went to God who gave it, to live in the body of Jesus. So then, the Christ is born and it's not you living but Christ, and the body of death and sin, even the devil's image, as to the bastard child, is dead, buried, gone and taken away. You are then cut off from sin and any occasion from Lucifer is cut off from you.

When you are born again, you are just as much a Christian as you'll ever be. You have eternal life just as much as you'll ever have eternal life. You are a son of God as much as you'll ever be a child of God. The Bible says that though we are a son of God, yet we are under tutors and differ nothing from a servant. We're like a child that's under guardians until the time appointed. We are under the tutors until the bar mitzvah, and then when the bar mitzvah comes, we are changed into that wonderful glory of God and we begin to be about our Father's business, to take over all the wonderful things of God. In this world, you are still sons of God. You are still born again. God so loved you while you were yet in your sins that He gave His Son to shed His blood for you.

I ask again, how much more does God care for us now that we're making an effort to serve Him? If the devil could not hold us when we were in our sins, in that the blood and love of God was so strong it just took us out of his hands, how much more should we be convinced as to the strength of the preservation and protection of God now that we're born again and now we're serving God? Nothing can separate you from the love of God. No one can lay anything to the charge of God's elect. You are without spot, without wrinkle, and without blemish. What can separate you from the love that was so strong that it gave it's only beloved Son, the dearest thing that heaven could afford? What can separate you from love like that?

So, we see that when God says to go on to perfection, He is not speaking of any of your works, as unto salvation, but of being sanctified daily. I say this again to you: sanctify yourself daily, not for salvation, for you're sanctified once and for all for salvation by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the faith of

Christ. I sanctify myself daily, by living a perfect life before God to the best of my ability, the blood taking care of all my staggering and stumblings, which we all do. I'm trying to perfect myself before God and sanctify myself daily by pulling away from the world, to come out from the world, to be a separate people, going on to be perfect, to the full measure of the full stature of Christ Jesus, to the full reward. I'm trying to do that to bring about the change of the church, as to bodily redemption, that which is already purchased, to bring it into harmony with God, to be able to hear the Word of God, to get the understanding that I might wit the redemption of my body, that we may come to the generation that will not be put into a casket. Death is conquered by you and for you through Christ Jesus, and yet it is the last enemy to be conquered, as to the world. When it is cast into the lake of fire, as to the millennium, then it is conquered. That is what it means as to the last enemy.

But think! A thousand years before this happens, death doesn't have any power over you and over the sanctified. The wicked dead live not again until the thousand years are finished. Death is not conquered for them. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, over which the second death, which is the lake of fire, hath no power. I tell you again, there is but one death, because the first is a sleep, and the last is into the lake of fire. That is death. The first is separation of spirit from body, the second is separation of spirit from God. So then, death is when your spirit is separated by sin from God, and a middle wall of partition comes in as to iniquity. Thy sins having separated between thee and thy God. But when your body is separated from your spirit, it is because Christ has rent the veil in two, took your bodily sin, crucified the body of sin, did away with the body of death, buried that thing in the watery grave and your spirit went back to God who gave it, sealed by the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of God within you and thus you have salvation and life eternal. So when you're born into the world, you are just as much a human as you'll ever be, but we're going on to grow in the grace and knowledge. We're going on to the full measure of the full stature, to the full reward.

So, we are perfecting our body. Let us go on to perfection, not turning again to lay the foundation of repentance, saying, "Oh God, forgive me! Oh God, I'm sorry." Someone would ask, "Brother Pike, do you feel that we should not repent? Do you feel that we should not say that we're sorry?" Of course we should repent. Of course we should say that we're sorry, but we should understand the Bible enough to know that all of that has nothing to do with our salvation. Salvation doesn't come through repentance. It doesn't come by saying many words. It doesn't come by praying all night. The scribes and Pharisees prayed, they fasted, they sought the salutations in the market places with long prayers, but that was an abomination in the sight of God. I'm saved once and for all. I'm made perfect once and for all. I'm free from sin once and for all. I'm sealed once and for all unto the day of the redeeming of my body, the change of the body.

My sins are gone. They're taken away. They are there no more. Christ made an end of sin. I'm not repenting and asking Him so He will forgive my sins. He's already forgiven my sins in Christ. For Christ's sake, He forgave my sins. How can I be perfect and still be a sinner? Someone might say, "Well, Brother Pike, everybody sins." Everybody that is of the devil sins, for the Bible says he that sinneth is of the devil. If you sin, then you can number yourself with the devil. But the Bible says he that is born of God cannot sin. It doesn't say he may not sin. It says he cannot sin, for Christ Jesus is the seed of God that has perfected him forever. On the inside is that faith that sanctifies him and makes him perfect forever. I'm repenting because I do that through humility, through submission, through letting my heavenly Father know that I'm not in harmony with mistakes. I'm not in harmony with stumblings, staggerings, gossiping, backbiting, and all these evil spirits of whatever thoughts might assail my mind. I'm not in harmony with it. It's detestable to

me. My repentance, coming to my high priest, that is the purpose I come to Him. I don't come to Him and say, "Oh, my God, You saved me yesterday and Your blood was sufficient," and the following day I say, "Here I am. I've sinned against You and now I have to have another blood atonement." I don't do that. I go to Him because the blood is sufficient. I go to Him to say, "Lord, I'm sorry that I did wrong. I repent, heavenly Father, but I know the blood covers it." I'm not going to condemn myself over that thing which I allowed as I stumbled, when I was trying my very best not to. The Bible says happy is he that doth not condemn himself over that thing which he allows.

I'm not going to condemn myself over that and throw my faith away and let Satan tear down my faith so he can come in on my life like a roaring lion, for the Bible teaches that we're not to cast our faith away that hath great recompense of reward. We are to take the shield of faith that we might be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. I am an overcomer by Christ, and this is that which overcometh the world, even my faith. The Bible says to be strong in Christ. Let the weak say, "I'm strong." He is the high priest of our confession. Though I be weak in body, yet I confess I'm strong in Christ by His works, thus I draw the strength of God. So then, I'm going on to be perfect. Perfect in what? I'm going on to be perfect in faith. Paul said, "We wish this, even the perfecting of your faith, for the ministry is set here for the perfecting of your faith." I preach this to you so that you can hear all of it in detail, believe all of it so you might have a perfect faith and unwavering faith, a faith that cannot be penetrated.

I go to the heavenly Father and I say, "I'm sorry, Jesus. I'm sorry. Heavenly Father, I ask in the name of Your Son, Jesus, that You forgive me for my trespasses. Lord, I come to You, for Jesus said pray, 'Father, forgive us our trespasses even as we forgive those who trespass against us'." To the world it is sin. To you and I, we may use the term "sin", but it's a trespass. And the Bible says that God was in Christ Jesus, not imputing our trespasses unto us. And here's the high priest of my confession and I go to Him and I say, "Father, I stumbled. Lord Jesus, have mercy on me. Forgive me. Forgive me." Not that I'm asking Him to forgive me in the sense that I'm going to hell. Not that I'm asking Him to forgive me, because I went out and sinned against Him because the Bible says where these things are there is no conscience of sin. How could I sin against God when I cannot sin? How can I sin when I have no conscience of sin. I'm not even conscience of sin. I'm conscience of life, eternal life.

I go to Him and I pray these things to Him, letting Him know I love Him and I respect Him, that I know that righteousness is of God, that His blood is sufficient. Would I go to Him if His blood wasn't sufficient? The fact that I go to Him proves I believe His blood is sufficient. God cannot save you today by the blood, and then you sin tomorrow, and when you come back, save you again. He makes it very plain. The Bible says let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance of dead works and faith toward God. It is impossible for those that have once come to the knowledge of the truth and been made partakers of this divine presence of God -- the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, the rain upon the just and the unjust, coming into that atmosphere of grace, as to that time appointed -- once you come to this, if ye shall fall away, then that is sin against God, and it is impossible to renew you again to repentance. God cannot renew you again unto repentance, seeing that you have crucified unto yourself Christ afresh and put Him to an open shame. That is to say, you would have to have another Christ. You would have to have another blood atonement. God won't do that. You have atonement for your sins one time and that atonement is sufficient once and for all, for He hath perfected forever, once and for all, them that are sanctified. That blood is sufficient forever.

Once you are born of God, then you cannot sin. You can come to God before you're born of God and come to the knowledge of the truth and reject the knowledge of the truth. You can come and be a believer like Judas. You can become numbered with the church like Judas. You can walk with the Lord just like Judas did, and the rain can be upon you, and come to the knowledge of the truth and still not have God, still not have salvation, and come down to the end of the trail, like Judas, and the Bible says that though he had obtained part of the ministry, he fell by transgression. The Bible says that when the Lord gave him the sop, the devil entered into him. If Judas had been of God and had the Holy Ghost, the devil could not have entered into him. The Bible says that coming into this knowledge you can be sanctified, but after that you are sanctified, seven other devils can come and force their way in, for the Bible says that when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it wanders through dry places, seeking rest and cannot find it. Then it says, "I will return to the house from whence I came." It goes and finds it clean, sanctified, and can't enter in because it's an unclean spirit. But when it gets seven other spirits, and all these spirits start harassing the mind, harassing the mind, and harassing the mind. If you don't have the Holy Ghost, you don't have resistance, you don't have strength to overcome. One would say, "Smell the aroma of that cigarette," and another would say, "Look at that man or look at the woman," or one would say, "Money, money," and all the time these things are saying all kind of things to you until you get weary, and the first news you know, you've taken took a puff, or you've said a word you ought not, or you've gotten your mind where you ought not, and immediately all of them, like a covey of birds, flies right inside. Judas never did get the Holy Ghost, so at the last supper, when Jesus gave him the sop, Satan entered into him and he went out into the darkness, into the ignorance of being cut off from the light of Christ Jesus.

Remember, we are going on to be perfect. I am confessing my sins to the Lord Jesus. I'm confessing my wrongs to the Lord Jesus, because when I was out there, I faltered and I did wrong and that was sin. When I was born again, I still falter, but I have no will to falter. I have no desire to falter. I have no conscience of sin. I am in this world, and devils and demons are pressing me, and it's like walking in the night and somebody sticks their foot out and trips you. You didn't mean to fall. There is a difference between jumping off of a cliff and somebody tripping you and you fall. That means that as Lucifer said to Jesus, as from the Scripture, "Cast Yourself down from here, for it is written He will give His angels charge concerning Thee and they shall bear Thee up in all of Thy ways lest Thou should dash Thy foot against a stone." I've had the Lord to take care of me. I've been going down the road, and my car was hit in the rear, and it flipped around and turned over, lying in the ditch. It's been where they'd have to take us out the side of the car. I've been going down the road, skidded off on the ice, turned all the way around in the field, and not turn over. I've been going down the road, skidded off on ice, go over and flip over on the ground and hit the side and the car flip back up. I've been going down the road and hit a bridge and skid and go off into the creek. I've been in all kinds of mishaps. I could go on and on. I've been right on the verge of going off of the mountain, but the Lord would take care of me.

He gave His angels charge concerning me. They bore me up in all of my ways and kept me all down through the years, lest I should dash my foot against a stone. I have never even had a stone bruise since I have grown up to be a Christian. Perhaps you haven't either. So the Lord takes care of us. He watches over us. I say, "Lord, forgive me." I say "forgive me" because He has the power to forgive me, because His blood was my atonement. Since He's my high priest, after I prayed I believed. Someone might say, "Well, Brother Pike, what you do is sin, then go back and ask God to forgive you and then go your way and you are all right." That don't make any sense to me, because if I go to the Lord Jesus, and I've sinned against God, and I get

down and I say, "Lord, forgive me, forgive me, forgive me," and I'm so heavy hearted, so tore up. "I'm a sinner. Oh Lord, forgive me. I one time was a Christian, but now Lord forgive me because I'm a sinner. I'm a wretch, forgive me, forgive me." Fifteen times, He forgives me. Twenty-five times, He forgives me. Then I get up and I say, "Well, it's all right. He forgave me." Let's give the Lord a hand.

That doesn't make any kind of sense at all. You're in the same kind of condition when you get up as you was when you went down because eternal life is not given through repentance. If you didn't have it when you went down there to ask Him forgiveness, it's for sure you're not going to get it when you get up from there. Somebody would say, "Now, wait a minute, Brother Pike." I don't have to wait! The Bible says it was given to me in Christ before the world ever was and brought to light at Calvary, and when I went down, I had it in the mind of God before the world ever was. I was elect according to what He foreknew. I came down to the altar, I came to the high priest of my confession, to acknowledge my salvation and my election in my sonship. The Bible says to make your calling and election sure by checking, or confirming, your flight.

So then, when I get down there and I ask Him fifteen times to forgive me, I'm no better than I was when I started. I was saved by grace. I was covered by the blood. I went down there to show my humility and my repentance, asking my heavenly Father to forgive my sins in that I'm communicating with Him and He's my high priest. I'm saying, "Father, forgive me my trespasses. Take these trespasses away." I'm vexed because of the devil, and I'm asking Him to move the devil away from me. He's aggravating the life out of me, and Lord, I believe in the power of God and I believe I'm strong in Your name and by Your Spirit. Lord, I believe I'm holy and just and righteous and cannot sin because You said so. That's my faith in the Word, and that's what saved me. When it said that I could not sin, I believed it, and my sins were gone. So I only go down there to strengthen my faith, to have fellowship, to encourage myself with the Lord, and let the Savior know that He's the high priest of my confession. I do not go down there to start begging repentance. God doesn't want you always coming to Him to beg repentance. He wants you to do all that you can to stay away from sin. And when the devil attacks you, He doesn't want you to condemn yourself. If you stumble, He wants you to believe in His faith and His righteousness and His blood and continue on to keep the devil out of your life, and keep praising God and magnifying God and singing hallelujahs to God to let Him know that you are an overcomer every day, every minute, twenty-four hours around the clock.

Do you understand what I'm saying? We are waiting for the redemption of our body; that is, to wit the redemption, and that will not come until the Jews come in because adoption must come by law. I'm born again of the Spirit in my angelic inner man, but my body is contrary to it and I'm waiting for the Jews to come in. When the Jews come in, at the Thessalonian change, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, the adoption will take place, because it takes the law and they bring the law in. The body went out when the law was folded up and laid away, and the body will come in when the law is thus revealed again, when perfection comes, as to the manifestation of this within you and I. The Bible says that this life of Christ will be made manifest in our mortal genes, when the Jews, who keep the law, come in, they that believe in bodily redemption, those that believe in the dos and don'ts of life.

So then, what am I trying to do? I am a Gentile over here, saved by the grace of God in the spirit, and I'm working my way down through the transitional changes of the ages to get over here to the Jew, who represent the body, that I, as a spirit, may enter into him and that body then comes to life because he's

been dead in the presence of God ever since Calvary, and as this message enters into him, he comes to life. The Bible says then Zion shall be saved, the same way you are saved, by grace. But when I work my way over to that Jew, over to the perfection which they believe as keeping the body holy, then it indicates that the time of the redemption has come. The Jews come in, the resurrection of the dead comes, and the change of the body. Paul said, "If the casting away of the Jews be the reconciling of the world, what will the receiving of the Jews be but life from the dead?" So, let us go on to perfect this body. Let us go on to perfection, sanctifying ourselves daily that we might be used of God, and the utilization of the membership of our body might be great and mighty as God, Himself, through the surrender of every thought and every deed, may show forth the more as it seeps forth out of this inner most being to be made manifest as the life of His pleasure, which is Christ within the genes of this body, until we go to the full measure of the full stature, to be filled with the Spirit that it might be Christ living and not us living. If you seek to save your life, you lose it. If you give your life to God, then you save it.

Here we are in the day of perfection. Are ye then born again? Paul, on one occasion, had a dispute with Peter and with the Galatian people, and this was the contest. He asked them, "Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Peter had pulled away from the Gentile people and then went back to the Jews when the Jews came up to where he was fellowshipping the Gentiles. This upset Paul. And Paul said, "Why did you do that Peter?" He said, "I blame Peter to his face because he was to be blamed. Peter, I ask you: did righteousness come by the law, or by Jesus Christ?" Whereas the Bible says the law came by Moses, but righteousness by Jesus Christ. Paul said, "If there had been a law, Peter, that could have saved the people, then Jesus Christ is dead in vain, and God would not have given His Son. I'm not going to frustrate the grace of God." He turned to the Galatians and said, "Oh, foolish Galatians, weren't you saved by the grace of God through the preaching of the Word? The miracles that happened among you, weren't they by the act of faith through the death and sufferings of Jesus Christ? Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, now you think ritualistics and the formalities of the Jews are going to make you perfect, going through what you call your holy works and all these kind of things?" Jesus said, "Depart from Me, thou that are more holier than Me."

Remember the two men that prayed in the temple? One man, who was a publican, said, "Lord, forgive my sins. I'm a sinner. I've nothing to offer." Jesus said that he went down to his house justified. The other man, a Pharisee, said, "I pay tithes. I fast. I'm not like this publican." God didn't even notice him. The rich man threw into the treasury out of his abundance, but God didn't even notice him. The little widow gave her two mites, and she took the heart of God. So then, let us go on, brothers and sisters, to believe in this perfect love, this perfect grace, this perfect righteousness, to understand it, to love it, and to go on and perfect it in our lives, to put away everything that's unlike the Lord Jesus. Let us never, in our entire lifetime, rest upon the shifting sands of theology, ideology of mankind. Don't let your faith rest upon anything that you do at anytime, whether it's fasting or praying or whatever, because it has nothing to do with your victory. Your faith is in His righteousness, which is your faith in His faith. It takes works with your faith, because you have to do the things that please God to assure your conscience that you are walking in harmony with God. Then you have confidence, which is your faith toward God, and we know that if we have that confidence, we have the petition we desire of Him. Why do we have the petition that we desire of Him? Because we do the things that please Him. Is that the reason that we have the petition? We know that we have the petition because it's already granted to us in the foreknowledge of God from the foundation of the world, and it's already there and He has already given us all things that pertain unto life, to give us life and that more abundantly. Because our faith is working, then we go away enjoying it, because it's already there. It's already given to us, and the only way we can go by and pick it up is by true believing.

Why do we have to believe? It's a shield of faith to keep iniquity out of our lives, because if iniquity comes by non-submission, and God cannot look upon iniquity, then we are separated from God, for thine iniquities have separated between thee and thy God and kept thee back from good things. But when the middle wall of partition, as to thine iniquities, has been taken away, which it has been in Christ Jesus, then you believe in God through the rent veil, as to look through it, saying, "My sins are gone. My iniquities are gone because of Him," and you sing praises unto Him and you worship Him because your sins are gone.

I praise the Lord because He took my sins away. I praise the Lord because He didn't impute my trespasses unto me. I praise the Lord because He's tender and kind and merciful. I praise the Lord because He's everything to me. I have a right to praise the Lord because He's done all of this for me. That's what it's all about, praising the Lord! You might stumble, you might stagger, you might be weak, you might have failed to pray and fast the way you should, you might have oppression of mind, you might run into problems, but you aren't going to sin. You aren't going back out there in the world. You're not going to mess with the world. You're going to come out of the world, and anything you do is going to be without a conscience of evil, without a desire of evil. You're not going to put yourself in a position to be in that place where the wrongs are. You are not going to go out there to practice the things of the world. You're not going to have the love of the world in you, whether it's being at ball games, money, the lust of the flesh, whatever. When you do stumble into something, when you do find yourself at a place like that and Satan crosses your path to cause you to stumble, when you didn't know that you were going there, you are there altogether accidentally and unawares, and when you stumble, just go right on believing.

Why is it that I want you to believe that you don't sin? Because I'm trying to perfect your faith so you won't be going back for repentance over and over. I'm wanting you to go on to believe in the perfect works of Jesus Christ that your faith may be perfect. I'm wanting to bring in a perfect faith so it will transfigure your body, translate the church, as we say. Let's go on to perfection.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

Partakers Of Immortality

I'd like to speak to you from the book of second Timothy, the first chapter and the tenth verse. Now this is some wonderful reading here in the book of Timothy and there's something that is really outstanding here in the tenth verse. It says, "But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."

The Bible tells us that this wonderful thing God has for us was given to us before the world ever was. Even back in the beginning of the world, God gave it to us. He also tells us that though this was given to us in Christ before the world ever was, yet it was not brought to light until Calvary, and then it began to be brought to light by the manifestation of the Son of God and by the gospel. Now I don't know what that does to you, but that really thrills my heart when I think about the gospel containing immortality and the light of eternal life. That really thrills my heart! That really makes the minister of God very important. Did you know that? That makes him very important. If he is really, truthfully, a man of God, if he's really, truthfully, a living oracle of God, then he is of the greatest importance in that faith cometh by the hearing and hearing by the Word of God, and the Word of God is the gospel; therefore, in the preaching of the gospel comes immortality. Life is given through the gospel.

So then, the preacher is of great importance. It is important that he is a real, genuine man of God if he is to be among you. If you're to listen to him and you're to follow him, then you should be very sure that he is a man of God and that he's preaching the Word of God, because immortality depends on the gospel. The Bible says, "He that God sendeth will speak God's Word," and if an individual comes to you and he is not God's man, then he cannot speak God's Word. If he does not speak God's Word, then are ye deceived in that you do not get the gospel, and you're not partakers of immortality. So then, if we're to have immortality and if we're to have eternal life, then we must be certain that the man that speaks to us in the name of the Lord has the gospel.

This is why I read the gospel to you from the book of Timothy and why I emphasize the Word of God in all of our communications. I want you to believe in the Word of God. I want you to love the Word of God. I want you to know that the only hope for the world, for you and me, is the Word of God. If we cannot come to the Word of God, then we cannot have life, for Jesus said, "My Words are spirit and they are life." There is no life in anything else. There is no salvation in any other name except the name Jesus. If you do not have the name Jesus, if you do not cherish the name Jesus, if you do not believe in the name Jesus, then all of your efforts are in vain. There are no other gods before Him. There is no other way to God.

You know, most of the world agrees that there is a God, and in all nations, wherever I travel, they will readily speak to me about God. We can sit down and have a discussion concerning God, and we can talk about God all that we want to, and the nations will agree that there is a God. But our point of dispute, our point of difference, is the way that you get to that God, by what means do we get to that God. How do we approach that God? It is true that there is a God, there's a great God, a loving God that has created heaven and earth and He is our God. He is our life. He is our hope. He is the great eternal Spirit. But beloved friend, how do we get to God? There's surely a way. There are not many ways. There's but one way, and that one

way is through the Son of God, the wonderful Son of the living God whose name is Jesus. His name is Jesus. His name is not something else. There is not another prophet. There is not another name. There's not anything else that you could come to God through.

The Scriptures emphatically state that you cannot get to God except through the Son of God, for there is none other name given under heaven -- that means in Germany, that means in America, that means in China, that means Australia, that means around the world -- there is not another name under heaven that's given whereby men must be saved, and there's salvation in none other name. To clarify this one thing, as to whether it is a certainty or not, or whether it is to be believed or not, then let us go back to the origin of it.

You could introduce numbers of names of religions, and some of you have your own bibles, you have your own scriptures as they are called. You have your own thoughts, you have your own programs, you have your own religious fervor and plans. But, let's just look for a moment. The Bible says that salvation is of the Jew, and there is a man called Jesus and this Jesus came out of Israel. This Jesus came out of Jerusalem. This Jesus was born in the Holy Land. This Jesus came from the land where the prophets came, from where all the teachings of salvation are. Even going back through history, it's always God among the Israelites. Even before natural history is recorded, before there is a record of civilization, even out of Egypt, we go back and we find the Israelites. We go back and we find Moses as he expounds to us the things concerning the garden of Eden. This was something that was revealed, something that history doesn't record, something that only Moses could have told us, in that he went into the Spirit, entered into the Spirit and brought forth these wonderful things from God, Himself. They were lost to humanity because there was no historical recordings of these things. Therefore, when history goes back, it starts up in the days of Abraham. It must start in the days of the land of the Chaldees, and it must come forth from that time, and beyond that it can't say anything. But Moses goes beyond that. Moses goes back to the garden experience. He comes down through the time of Enoch and he brings forth those great, wonderful things that were hid.

So we see that the only true report, stretching beyond history and extending beyond 'his-story', as we say, we see that there is a true record. This record bears witness of the coming of one, who is Jesus. All of our Scriptures state this. Even Jesus, when He came into the earth, said, "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life." But if you'll read the Old Testament, He said, "These Scriptures testify of Me. They point to Me. They tell about Me. All of these things speak of Me." If you'll properly interpret those things, beloved friend, you'll find that they speak of Jesus, the prophet like unto Moses, and it does not speak of another name, it does not speak of another prophet, and it does not speak of any other leader. It speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved, and salvation is in none other name. That is why it is so important for us to cherish the lovely name of the darling Son of God, and this is why it is so important that we should be buried in His lovely name. Going down into the water in the lovely name that has salvation, that we might come forth in the strength, the power, and the resurrection of the great Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches that after we are baptized, then we shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. We shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and then shall ye have power to witness for Him throughout the world.

It is our joy and jubilance to expound this wonderful gospel and to testify of the lovely name of Jesus and tell how salvation can come to the believer, one that believeth in the resurrection and the shed blood of the

Son of God, one that calleth upon the name of the Lord. The Bible says that it shall come to pass that whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So then, wherever in the world today, immortality is brought to light through the preaching of the gospel, in that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. If thou canst believe in the name of the Lord Jesus, in the wonderful Word of this salvation, then call upon the name of the Lord that ye might be saved.

Let me invite you to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus and let me point you to one that can help you. Don't believe in vain traditions of men. Don't believe in other names, beloved friend. Don't look to another cause, another source, for there is no other one. There is no other way. There is but one, and that is the Son of the living God that died at Calvary for you. Today, His blood is an atonement for you. Today, His Word is a voice to beckon unto you. His faith, which is in your behalf, translates you into the marvelous kingdom of God, to be preserved eternally. All because Jesus loves you. Let me invite you today to call upon the name of the Lord. You can have salvation, you can have prosperity, you can have divine deliverance because in His name is salvation. In His name is healing. In His name is peace and all the paths of God are peace.

So then, you can have peace and you can have happiness and you can have prosperity. It doesn't matter what your environment is, it doesn't matter what country you are in, or the circumstantial environment that might have you. All of that doesn't matter. God can prepare a table in the wilderness. God can bring forth when there is no place to bring it from. God can create when there is nothing. Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ today. Call upon the name of the Lord that ye might be saved. May God bless you is our prayer. We love you.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

Return To The Father's House

Reading from chapter 15 the book of Saint Luke beginning at the eleventh verse.

Luke 15:11-32: "And he said, A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found."

Here in the book of Saint Luke is perhaps one of the most beautiful portraits to the human mind that has ever been given concerning the love of God and His mercy towards one who sins against God and strays away from home as did the prodigal. This young man had asked for his inheritance, and his father graciously had given it to him. He felt that he could make it on his own without the aid and the wisdom of his father. The Bible says that wisdom is with the ancient, and that we, as people of God, should never rebuke the elders, but entreat them as fathers and listen to them. They're our guides. Paul said, "Though you have ten thousand instructors, yet you have only one father in the gospel." He said, "I've begotten you as a father in the gospel. I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy that I might present you unto God without spot, wrinkle or blemish; and that I might present you body, soul and spirit."

So we get a beautiful picture of how gracious God is, how much love the Father has, and how He has extended His love toward us. We find out that He has extended His love to us in such a great way. Here the writer tells us that this prodigal took his substance, went away on his own and decided that he could handle things himself. It wasn't long before he had completely devoured and wasted his substance with riotous

living. He had wasted all that he had and came down to poverty. When he came down to poverty, he didn't have any way of making a living. He didn't have anything to eat. Eventually, someone gave him a job to feed the swine. He went from kingship, the son of a king, as we would say, or the son of a great, outstanding father, a place where he had all, wanting for nothing, and then, here he finds himself feeding the swine. The Bible says that he was in such condition of hunger that he would fain filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat. All of a sudden, he came to himself and realized what he was doing. He began to reminisce, as to look back to the father's house, to think, "What am I doing here?" See, his mind had been clouded up.

So often people's minds get in a fog and they don't know where they're going, and they think they're on the right side of the road when they're about to have a head on collision by driving down the wrong side of the road. I've been in fog like that and barely escaped with my life. A lot of people get in a fog. Their mind gets all fogged up. They let the intellectual cares of life and the pressures of life, the hungry, gullible desires of life, so overwhelm them and take possession of them until they completely forget about God and His righteousness. They completely forget about the things of God.

When our mind gets clouded up, we don't know where we're going anymore. We can lose our life. The best thing to do is to have something that you can trust in. We travel a lot by plane, going around and across the world, having our crusades, and I get to see a lot of things and consider a lot of things. Solomon was a man that considered a lot of things. He went by the vineyard and saw it all broken down. He said, "A little folding of the hands, a little unconcern and then the poverty will come," just like it did to the prodigal.

But I speak sometimes concerning the pilot. The average pilot doesn't know how to maneuver in the dark. He doesn't know what to do in the time of a fog. It takes one that has had special training, one that can maneuver the plane without looking out the window of the plane, or looking for markers along the ground. It takes one that has had a special seasoning of mind and training that makes him capable of flying in dangerous weather, in cloudy weather in low ceilings as they call it. I've been in our own private plane when the ceiling would be low and it would be dangerous and we had to have faith in God to be able to find our goals. Sometimes the pilot may be almost ready to panic. But God always took care of us.

But what we need to do in our Christian experience, beloved friend, is to advance in God. We need to spend some time with Christ. We need to study the Word, growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, so when we get caught in these things, these foggy days as we say, that we have that special training and that we're not alarmed. We're still alert, as to reading those instruments, and we understand those instruments and put our sole confidence in the wonderful Word of God as our instrument of absolute. We need to do this. That way, we're not up and down all the time. We're not in a problem all the time. We have smooth sailing with God. When the hard times and the problems come, we just turn on that little instrument of faith, according to the Word of God. We keep our direction, we keep on going, and everything works out so beautifully for us.

But we get into a fog like the prodigal did. The prodigal got into a fog in his mind, as we would say. A veil got between him and real reasoning, as to stabilization. When this thing got between him and his real upbringing, his reasoning and the tutoring of his youth, the darkness was there and he couldn't find his way.

He was not able to read the instruments, as we would say. He couldn't find his way. Many people really don't understand God and don't know God's Word, and they don't grow in the grace and knowledge of God. These people get caught in the intellectual darkness and the night falls upon them. When this night comes, as to that intellectual reasoning of theirs (which is to say, Satan, being interwoven as a spiritual being of evil gullibility), when that comes into a human spirit, then that human spirit is one with that. Just like when the Christ Spirit comes into our spirit, we are one with that.

So we see that this had happened to the prodigal. He was caught in the darkness of his own intellectual reasoning, as we would say, considering God to be light and satanic darkness to be the infiltration. He wandered away from home, squandered all that he had, and would have filled his belly with the husk that the swine were eating. Then, all of a sudden, the light began to shine and the darkness began to dissipate. Where there's light, there is no darkness, and where there's darkness, there is no light because darkness and light hath no fellowship. You cannot go through the world in your intellectual reasoning, deciding your way of life and always reasoning things out and studying things out according to books and according to somebody's surveys of things. You can't do that and have a successful life as to an eternal source. You might manage fairly well in this world. But see, you're no more than an animal when you do that. You are someone that knows nothing but books and learning and what you've read and have never become acquainted with God and reality in the Spirit of God. All you do is buy and eat, spend, laugh, talk, frolic. You're no more than an animal.

You can take a dog and train him. You can say, "Give me your paw," and he'll give it to you. You say, "Roll over," and he'll roll over. He'll sit up. So when you are in that intellectual frame of mind, you're no more than a robot that Satan is controlling, making you do what he wants you to do. The Bible says that you are taken into captivity at his will. Just at his will, he takes you into captivity whenever he will. The Bible says that the wicked, the evil, the people of this world that don't have God, are enslaved to Lucifer by reason of the infiltration of the carnal mind that got into Adam and Eve through the fall, the mind that came from the tree of knowledge. So then, we find that you are no more than an animal. The whole world is like an animal. You are an animal unless you come to reality, the recognition of the image in which you were made, the sonship image in which God hath made you, in His own likeness, and to be filled with His Spirit, to have the mind of Christ, to become a sovereignty in life.

We like to feel that we're a sovereignty. A lot of people say, "I am a sovereignty. Nobody tells me what to do." But it's so striking to me and so phenomenal in my way of reasoning, to think that when an individual tells me this, that he is completely under the constraint of a dictionary, or some learning, or some college education, or some schooling, or some wild ideas that he has concocted in his mind. He is enslaved, perhaps more than the other people that I've communicated with, and yet he thinks he's a sovereignty. He is eaten up with the leeches of life from every source, such as flattery. The Bible says, "Who can stand before flattery?" He's caught in flattery and soon his substance is gone. Soon his years are gone. Soon his life is gone. Soon he's on his death bed, and suddenly he realizes, right then and there, he realizes that he has been overwhelmed with flattery and people have devoured his substance, as it was with the prodigal.

All that he has is gone. His good reasoning left him. He got into that fog. He got into that intellectual mind of reasoning, thinking himself to be something when man is nothing without God. Man dies. No one escapes

death. The great, the small, the intellectual, the dignitaries, the professors, the presidents, whoever it might be, the celebrities, all of them die. Go by the graveyard and that's the end of all flesh. Big, little, rich, poor, educated, ignorant, whatever it might be. Too late we come to this. We won't listen to the truth. We won't listen to God. We won't listen to what's right. We're so puffed up in our fleshly mind. The Bible says, "Knowledge puffeth up." When a man learns a lot of things and he feels skillful and he has great ability or capability, then he gets puffed up. He feels like he's something when he's really nothing. After all, is something anything when it's going to be thrown over into a grave and dirt thrown in on top of it? Could you call that anything? Well that's no more than an old rag that will be thrown into the garbage. That's like an old worn out garment. "What is man," the Bible says, "that God would be mindful of him?" What is he? He is so small. He's so insignificant. He's nothing. All of his life, all of his endeavors actually amount to nothing.

But if he becomes a Christian, if he receives the Spirit of Christ, then he is eternal, for godliness is profitable for this life and the world to come, to give you health and happiness. His blessing maketh rich even in this life. So then, man with God is everything. He actually becomes a god, an eternal one that cannot die. Something that cannot die is a god. Jesus said, "Ye are gods. But you die like men from the lack of knowledge of God." Here, you have this golden opportunity to have God and then have these wonderful skills, these wonderful talents. Even as the angel said to Daniel, "I've come to give thee skill, Daniel." He wants to give us eternal life. He wants to use us for His glory and fill us with life until we're filled up and overflowing with the abundance of life.

So we see that the prodigal lost all that he had. The tongues of flattery overtook him. The gullible desires of passion overtook him. That thing of looking for fame overtook him, doing his own thing, projecting his own life, trying to being something, rather than as the Bible says, to look on the things of another, to seek the welfare of another, to esteem others better than yourself, to love your neighbor as you love yourself, to have the right mind. Now, if he'd kept the father's mind, he would not have been in that kind of conflict. It's evident that he would not have been in that kind of condition because the father was successful. He, no doubt, had herds of cattle, a home, money, prestige. Everything was well with him, because of the mind that the father had. What kind of mind was it? It was certainly different from the one that his son had, because his son had a mind to squander.

The father had been conservative in the sense of understanding and using the right approach to life. It was very evident that he did have this kind of life, because when the son came in total despair, he was expecting the father to disown him, but the love and the compassion of the mind of the father that had made him so great, that had caused him to have all the good things of life, this compassion could not be hid. When he saw his son, he did not listen to all the things his son had to say about father. "I'm not worthy to be your son anymore," the son said. He couldn't hear that. All he could do is think, "This is my son. He was lost. Now he's found. Go get the best robe. Put a ring on his finger. Put shoes on his feet. We're going to have a banquet. My son is home."

This is the compassion and love of God. How great is the love of God! It so excels our understanding as the heavens are high above us. So we look at Him and we think, "But Father, we've done wrong. We've stumbled. We've staggered. We've not done right at all. And we've grieved You." The Bible says to grieve

not the Holy Spirit, whereby thou art sealed, as to the inner man, unto the day of the redemption of the body. Then we say, "Lord, we've sinned. It just can't be possible," and something is ringing in our ears. Satan is talking to us. Satan is saying, "You know He doesn't love you. Look at the things that you've done. God's after you to kill you," and Satan programs our mind and distorts our mind and gets us into such condition until we feel like God is pursuing us to destroy us, when instead He's coming after us with hands that are dripping with blood, trying to say, "I love you. I love you. I love you. What more can I do? Don't run from it. Don't turn away from it. Don't go out into the world and destroy yourself." Listen to what I'm trying to tell you.

You see this great love of God demonstrated so many times. I've had it demonstrated toward me from God and through saints, different ones, that were considerate toward me. The love of God. And I thought, how great is the love of God. I remember the songwriter said, "If we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made, and every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky." The love of God, the great, wonderful love of God, in my life, in your life. Faith worketh by love, and eternal life comes through faith, as to the purifying of the heart. To know that God, through Jesus, has given Himself through the sufferings of His own Sonship, that we might have eternal life and that we might be free from our sickness. As David of old said of Him, "I am the God that healeth thee. I forgive all of thine iniquities and I heal all of thy diseases." God is good. There is none good but God, the Bible tells us.

So then, we see that with this wonderful, wonderful story of the prodigal, the love of God is made known to us. This was the goal of Jesus, to get this over to us. The reason He gave the story was to let us know that when we're at the lowest depths of despair, and when we have no friend and when we're cast down, God is there. I've even been to them on skid row and introduced Jesus to them and they found their bearings in God. When we're at the point where no one can help us, our nerves are going to pieces on us, and all of the medicine that the doctor gives us and the shock treatments won't stop it, I've seen God pick them up, turn them around, restore their minds, take them out of the mental institution, and make them great people. As a matter of fact, we have some here with us that have been healed and delivered, that are great, outstanding, intelligent people. People with college degrees, outstanding people that make a living, have their little family, happy, free, not one flashback, as we say. God does that when no one else can do it. God does that.

You might not have turned to the bottle or become a barfly, but I'm telling you, that at the end of the way, it's going to be worse than ever. You may lean on the arm of flesh by going down to Egypt for your help, or by trusting in the medical world. But at the end, it's going to be worse. I used to work on a job where we took them in the front door of the hospital and nobody knew that later we came back and picked them up at the back door and took them out. They were living when they come in. They were dead when we took them out. We just rolled them down the hall and slipped a sheet over them and nobody knew about it. They just think somebody's going to the operating room. They'd say, "Don't alarm the patients." You can't trust in the arm of flesh.

I appreciate medicine. The Bible says that a merry heart doeth good like a medicine. I appreciate medical benefits when things are kept decent and in order. I appreciate the physician. Jesus said, "It is the sick that

need a physician." But friend, let me tell you something, the Bible says that the time is coming when there's going to be no healing medicines. There won't be any healing medicines. A physician doesn't know anything about healing medicine. It's the grace of God, while the blood is on the seat of atonement, that makes allowance for these things, and when that blood comes off of the seat of atonement and the tribulation period comes, there will be no healing medicines.

It's not of man. It's of God. While man is weak in faith, God gives something to help carry him over. But during this time, just like grace for us during this period of time, we need to perfect our lives during that period of grace. We need to learn to perfect faith during this period of grace while we have medicine. Let's start growing up in God, and believing in God, getting out of our fallen state and come back to the Father's house and learn about His mercy and learn about His glory, His kindness and the gift of God that He has given to man, which is eternal life through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

The Abolishment Of Death (4)

Reading today from the second epistle of Paul the apostle to Timothy, chapter 1 beginning at the first verse.

II Timothy 1:1-11: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day; Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy; When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also. Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles."

A great, wonderful statement is made here in verse ten. Paul said, "Christ Jesus hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." It's no wonder the Lord said, "My Words are Spirit and they are life." He has brought life to light, and light here means understanding; having your understanding enlightened that you may be able to comprehend with all saints the height, depth, width and length of this great, wonderful thing of God. Though these things were given to us in Christ Jesus before the world ever was, yet they were not brought to light to those that were under the law until the seed came to whom the promise was made, even the Lord Jesus Christ. But when the seed came, the Bible says that in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made under the law, made of a woman, to gather all things in heaven and earth into the body of His Son. That is, God Himself, as a great, eternal Spirit, should rule through that blood, through that heart, through that bodily figure or image and be the Lord and King over all His heritage.

God does nothing today without the body of the Lord Jesus. He does everything through the body of the Lord Jesus, and unless He comes to you through the blood, then you could not exist. As a matter of fact, He has taken away the sins of the world because His blood is on the seat of atonement. The Bible says that we have redemption through His blood. The blood of bulls and goats could not make the comer thereunto perfect, for year after year they brought sin to God's remembrance. But Jesus, coming as a human sacrifice (on the man or beast side which fell from the garden), and coming down through the lineage of man, coming down as a Lamb without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish: here we see the evening time sacrifice of that great altar that was erected in the days of Moses, the one that they could not allow the fire to cease from.

So then, we see God, the great consuming fire, as He falls upon the sacrifice in the late evening time of light. This great, brazen altar of Calvary, as we look back toward the brazen serpent, and see the identity of what's taking place here. We see the Lamb that is spotless, that of the evening time, as the Pesach offering or the lamb offering. Even as it was in the days of Jesus, there was the time when that lamb had to be set out so many days, perhaps four days, for people to come by and see that it was a lamb without spot, a lamb without blemish. Here is Jesus, being a type and a shadow of the coming lamb, sitting there in those courts to this amount of days, that people might quiz Him and people might say things to Him, and people might test Him to see if they could find fault with Him or cross Him up in any of His words or doctrine. They found no fault. Even as it was said by Pilate, "I find no fault in this just man." He found no fault. There is no fault in this just man.

We find this Lamb, this perfect one without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish. Not even the bones of the body could not be broken. Had they been broken, He could not have been the Pesach lamb. In the Old Testament, it was stated in prophetical utterance, "Not a bone of His body shall be broken." His countenance was marred more than any man. He was bruised for our transgressions, and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. The evening time Lamb was upon the big, brazen altar, taking away the sins of the world, once for all, with the blood that's on the seat of atonement through redemption.

Now we have this grace. We find that even the world exists today because the blood is on the seat of atonement as grace, for a dispensational grace period. So we see, beloved friend, that this wonderful thing has taken place. He hath taken away sin. He came to abolish sin, to take away sin. He hath abolished sin within His flesh. The prophetical utterance of the Old Testament, in the book of Daniel, says that Messiah shall come, and He shall make an end of sin. By one offering, even the perfect body, He took away sin once and for all. In the Old Testament, sin could not be taken away in that the sin offerings brought to God's remembrance death, sin, and corruption. Periodically, once a year, it was brought to His remembrance as the high priest made this offering.

The Lord Jesus, not being a priest ordained of man but of God, came once and for all, and took away sin. He did away with sin by His own body, and entered into the holy of holies once and for all to officiate, to make intercession for you and I as the Lamb of God. John said, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." He's here now. Jesus said at the supper, "Eat My flesh, drink My blood, for if you do not, you'll have no life in you." And remember, at the Exodus from Egypt, when they got ready to go out of Egypt, it was told them that they should take the blood of the lamb, this lamb without spot, wrinkle or blemish, and should put the blood over the door post. They should smite the two sides of the door. They were to have this as a blood covering. and at the midnight cry, when the death angel began to move, everyone would be spared, unless he should come and smite the firstborn.

Your first birth is of Adam. You're born in Adam unto death unless the blood is applied unto redemption. Remember the virgins at the midnight cry that Jesus spoke of. There's coming a time when gross darkness shall cover the people in the end time. The death angel will begin to strike, and the firstborn will be smitten, as to those born of Adam. In Adam, all die unless you're born again, unless you're born again of His Spirit. He said to Nicodemus, "Ye must be born again." You cannot see the kingdom of heaven unless you are born again. The Spirit of Christ must enter into you. The law and the prophets until John, since that time the

kingdom of God has been preached and men have pressed their way into it. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory, in that He alone was made heir to the glory of God. He appeared in that glory between Moses and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration. It's Christ in you. He is heir to the glory of God.

He hath taken away the sins of the world. Jesus has come! Good tidings, great joy! The angel appeared on the hillside saying, "Peace on earth, good will toward man." That is, God hath taken away your sins and your corruptions, and what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, so we that believe on Jesus Christ and through His name, might receive the remission of sin, even unto this day we're living in. So we see the beauty of what God has done. They under the law could not be made perfect without us. They all died in the faith, not having received the promise, but today, they can be made perfect. Even as He entered into the heart of the earth to make them perfect, so has He entered into your heart to make you perfect in Christ Jesus.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

The Bride

I always try to be in the Spirit so I'll have plenty of time to break down what the Spirit brings out, that you might understand it, because it takes me hours to understand it, and if I get up and just run right through it, then you're not going to understand it. I've spent many years in the Word of the Lord, and many, many hours, sometimes seven to eight hours a day, waiting on God to understand it, and if takes me hours to understand it, I know that if I try to give it to you, then you're not going to understand it in thirty or forty minutes.

It takes Scripture after Scripture to confirm it, to make sure it is God. The minister has to wait to make sure it is God, to try the spirit, so that when he comes to you, he might come and relate two or three passages of Scripture, or relate to you something that the Spirit told him during the day, but that still won't be quickened to your spirit. He has to get under that special anointing, and let the gift that God has set in the church begin to speak. That's why I come after God has talked with me. It takes God's anointing to bring it out.

God doesn't get in a hurry. You know that, don't you? God will stay all night long, and all day tomorrow, and all day the next day, but you won't do it. Your spirit gets tired and weary. You work all day on a job, and labor at material things, and you're worn out, like Esau. The Bible says that Esau came in from the field and was faint. His spirit was faint because he'd been laboring in the field. When you speak of laboring in the field, what does that mean? In the Bible, the spiritual revelation of 'field' is 'world'. Esau had been enjoying the things of the world, and when he came around where Jacob was, the one that was waiting for the birthright, he did not have any energy and couldn't enjoy those things.

That's the way the people of the world are. They come around where God's blessings are, and they've labored so fervently for the things of the world, and they've been so interested in the things of the world that they don't have any energy in their spirit anymore to labor for the things of God. In so doing, they sell their birthright to their younger brother who is always waiting at the portals of God to find the spiritual revelation of Christ.

That's what we want. These things in this world will pass away. They're good while we've got them here to use, but they're all temporal. You can have the finest automobile, but it'll pass away. You can have the finest home, but it'll burn up one day. You can have the best wife there is in the world, but one day, she'll leave you. One day, God will separate you. You can have the best children there are, but someday, you'll give those children up, for in heaven, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels. And so it is, the thing that we need is the birthright that God wants to give to us. The thing that you and I should labor for is the birthright.

So then, Esau's spirit was very faint because he had spent all of his time in the field. The thing we need to do is to get out of Egypt and go off somewhere and worship God. Every time the children of Israel decided that

they wanted to leave Egypt and the things of the world, to worship God, Pharaoh said, using our terms, "What about getting a new living room suite? You could double up, work a few extra hours, and you could trade your old car in and have a better one." I'm talking about the Pharaoh of today. It was types, shadows, and allegories in that day. But today, it's not garlic and onions, but it's the things that are material goods that are in this world. He'll bind you tighter and tighter when you start out of Egypt. He doesn't want you to leave Egypt.

I want to read some Scripture, and see if we can get into what I wanted to or not. It'll be up to the Lord as to whether He'll let us do that or not. It depends on the drawing of the Spirit. The woman who touched the hem of Jesus drew the virtue out of the body of Christ, and she was a type of the church. The Bible says that if anything has any virtue, think on these. A lot of us don't have any virtue because we don't think on the right things. We should think on things with virtue. It's virtue that heals people. The woman needed healing, and she drew the virtue.

The Bible tells us that if we make straight paths for ourselves, the lame wouldn't be turned aside, but let it rather be healed. Why? Because we will have become virtuous, and we'd pray for people, and people would get healed. So the thing we need is virtue, and the only way you can get from of the body of Christ (Paul said, "Whose members you are") is by faith, and by hungering and thirsting after righteousness. We've got to make ourselves available, somebody has to, and then you draw that from that member of the body.

Let's read from the twenty-first chapter of Revelation, starting at the seventh verse.

Revelation 21:7-10: "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God."

Now, I want you to notice this:

Revelation 21:11-12: "Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel."

Sometime, we talk about the city of God, but tonight, we want to talk about the bride, which is different from that part of it even though it all ties in together. As it has been said, "Jesus, the Word, is just one, big revelation."

A lot of times, we say, "I got a revelation," but that isn't true. What it is, it's "The Revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave to Jesus," John said, "to reveal to His servants." The only revelation we have is the revelation of the revelation. In other words, He earned it; He worked for it; He labored for it that His bride might have the bread of life. He labored among the thorns and among the thistles, just as Adam did, that His spiritual bride might have the bread of life and be able to survive in the time of famine.

The Bible teaches that Adam, in the garden there with Eve, was secure as long as he was in the garden. He was well and healthy, and the bride was well and healthy. But according to the Bible, when the bride began to reject the Word of God, then God drove the bride out. How many of us know that the woman is responsible for the sin that is in the world? Did you know the Bible says that the man was not found in the transgression, but the woman? Being found in the transgression, she shall be saved in child bearing.

Now you might ask, "Brother Pike, why is it the man didn't sin just like the woman?" Well, the reason is because the man is a type of the Lord Jesus, and you know that it was the bride that sinned and not Jesus. So then, Adam could not have sinned, because he was likened unto Christ, who was called the second Adam. While they were in the garden, according to the Bible, everything was well with them, and God gave him His plan, and gave him His blessings, and told him to multiply and replenish the earth. But according to the Bible, Adam, even though he was willing to obey God, yet he followed Eve, who was his bride, because he loved her so much. He was willing to leave the presence of God and the beauty of the garden to follow Eve.

Jesus was willing to leave the things of heaven, and willing to come down from the garden of glory, to walk in this world with you and I, that He might redeem the bride; not willing to stay in glory, and enjoy the presence of the great things of God while the bride was shut out, but He loved her so much, He wanted to share His blessings with the bride. Isn't that wonderful? He loved her so much. If men would love their wives like that, they'd never lose her. He loved so much that He was willing to give up glory, and come down for a season, and find that bride, adorn that bride with a wedding garment, and take her back into the glory world. That's a wonderful thought if you can get the picture of it.

The Bible says the Word of God came unto Adam, and the Word of God came unto Eve. The Bible says that God spoke to them, and told them just as He's told us today: "The just shall live by faith," and if they'd walk upright before Him, they could stay in the garden. They could have the blessings of God.

We find in the Old Testament, that He speaks of Satan. Satan was also among those that were in the garden. The Old Testament speaks of God looking at Satan and saying, "You have walked up and down among the stones of fire. You've seen the beauty of them. But because you lifted up yourself, you shall be cast down to hell." Do you know tonight that we are the stones of fire? There's only one kind of stone in this world that has fire in it, and that's a jewel. The Bible says that God will remember you when He comes to make up His jewels. When John looked and saw the beautiful city coming down from out of heaven, he said, "Behold, it's the bride, and it was beautiful jewels. It's walls were great and beautiful jewels. It had fire

within them." God said to Satan, "Thou wast in the garden; you walked up and down among those stones of fire. You saw the beauty of them. You were a great and beautiful tree, but you lifted yourself up above the trees in the garden. I shall cast thee down to hell."

Satan was in that garden. Did you know that in the book of Job, when the sons of God came to present themselves before God, the Bible says that Satan came also? John said, "Now, beloved, are ye the sons of God." We are here, right now, presenting ourselves before God. Did you know that Satan is here tonight, too? He has to come and give an account, too. As these sons of God came before God and say, "Lord, deal with me and teach me," Satan comes, also. He's walking up and down among the stones of fire. He sees the beauty and the splendor of them. But, he was cut off from that world. He can never get back into that garden because he betrayed Christ. He betrayed mankind. He betrayed everything that was good, and turned to those things that tend to bring corruption.

The Bible says that God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden. We see the picture as we search for the mind of Christ. We can see the picture as Eve is driven out of the garden. Why? Because she listened to what the serpent had to say. The devil, working through that beast, and according to the Bible, the spiritual power came through that beast, then it went through that beast to get to woman. It went through woman to get to man, and the closest it could get to God was in man.

A woman doesn't portray the bride of Christ, but it takes a man, because man is made for God, but woman is made for man. Woman is man's bride, but man is God's bride. God created man for His bride, and He created woman for man's bride. That's according to the Bible.

The Bible teaches that Eve was driven out as the bride of Adam, and Adam followed her. As he went out into the world, what did he have to do? He had to labor by the sweat of his brow, to bring forth bread, that he might sustain that bride and those children that she had brought forth. When God got ready to give Adam that bride, what did He do? He laid Adam down, He performed an operation on his side. He reached into the side of Adam, and He came out of the side of Adam with a beautiful bride that was called Eve. But for that bride to come out, He had to put Adam, that body, to sleep. That body of Adam had to go through those hours of darkness that He might be able to bring forth a bride.

So, according to the Bible, when the Lord Jesus came into the world, He came as the Son of Almighty God, to bring forth the bride, as the second Adam, when He hung there on the cross. They put that cut in His side, and the blood and the water came out for the covering of your sins and for the baptism unto His death. We see the bride being born from out of the side of Jesus, coming out of the cleft of the rock. He said to Moses, "Behold, there is a place by Me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock, and it shall come to pass, while My glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock."

And so it is, the Rock, Christ Jesus, was cut in His side, and it was said to the bride, "I'll hide you in the cleft of the rock while the glory of God passes by," and you can see the beauty of Almighty God. According to the

Bible, there came the Spirit, the water, the blood, and the church was born. A bride was born. But just as Adam had to lay there and go through the hours of darkness, so it was with Jesus. The dark night of death began to come over Him. God performed the operation. He went down into the heart of the earth, and He laid there three days. Why? He was going through those dark, dismal hours of the operation so that the bride might be born.

God made a world, and out of that world, He reached in and got the Jew nation and He said, "Thou art Mine." Then, He reached into that Jew nation and He got Jesus, and He said, "Thou art Mine." Then, He reached into the body of Christ, and He came out with the Spirit of Christ, and He said, "Thou art Mine." Can you see that? He took the Jews from the Gentile world, and He made them a special people. He took Jesus out of the Jews, and He made Him a special person. He took that Spirit out of the body of Jesus, to place it in your heart and my heart that we might be the bride of Christ, even though it's a different picture when you get it in spiritual allegories. Coming from out of the world comes the Jew nation. Coming from out of the Jew comes Jesus Christ. Coming out of Jesus Christ comes children.

Now look at Noah. God reached in and got Noah out of a world of people, and then He reached in Noah and got Abraham, and then He reached in Abraham and got Isaac, and He reached in Isaac and got Jacob and Esau, and He started two nations with them.

And so it was with Jesus. He reached into the world and got that Jew nation. He reached in there and got Jesus. He reached in there and got the Spirit, and when He came out, what did He have? He had a natural Jew nation and a spiritual Jew nation.

Who was Isaac? He was the son of the promise. But remember, the Bible says that Abraham had two brides. He had Hagar, who was the bondwoman, and he had Sarah, who was the free woman. According the Bible, Hagar brought forth a son who was called Ishmael, but he wasn't a son of promise. But when Sarah brought forth her son, the Bible says she brought forth Isaac, who was the seed or the son of the promise.

According to the Bible, after Isaac came along, Jacob and Esau were born, and out of Jacob there came forth twelve tribes that spread over all the earth. But what did Esau do? The Bible says that when Esau came forth, instead of going to his father's kindred and taking a bride, he went and took a bride from that son of Abraham that was by the bondwoman, and he joined hands with them, and he created a nation of Ishmaelites. And the battle today is between the Ishmaelites and the Jews. It's still the same. Both claim that the Holy Land belongs to them, and Abraham was their father. They are having war in the Holy Land. The Ishmaelites say that Abraham was their father, and the Canaan land is ours. But the promise was unto the son of faith.

Notice this now, that Hagar was the bondwoman. Not only was she a type of Jerusalem that is in bondage with the seed unto laws and traditions, but the real allegory is that she was a type of this world with her children unto bondage to sin and corruption. Hagar was a type of one of God's brides, for God created the

world just like He created heaven. But Sarah was the mother of us all, the Bible says, for she was a type of heaven with her children of liberty, and the children of the Spirit, and the children of freedom. And then, the Bible says that Esau went out, and instead of marrying into that heavenly bride, he went back out into the world and took that daughter of Ishmael. He went and took that daughter of Ishmael instead of going into the land of his kindred and getting a bride.

The world: Hagar. Sarah: heaven. Sarah with her free children. The world with her children of bondage.

Jacob went down into the land of Laban and got Rachel. He got a heavenly bride, a type and shadow of a heavenly bride. Then the Bible says that Esau, instead of doing that, went over to the son of Abraham, which was Ishmael, born of the world, the worldly people and got his bride.

Can you get the picture? As Jesus hung there on the cross, He brought forth two nations, just like Isaac did. Isaac was a type of Christ. Jesus brought forth a spiritual nation, a spiritual Jew, and He brought forth a natural nation, which was a natural Jew. And what happened? The spiritual nation went right on, and according to the Bible, there were twelve apostles that sprang up, and twelve tribes sprang up from the twelve apostles to fill all the world, making up that spiritual nation. Just like it sprang out from Jacob. Twelve tribes making up the natural nation. What happened to that natural nation? They went right straight on through into the Canaan land. What happened to the spiritual nation? They are going through into the Canaan land. But what happened to the natural Jew? He went right back out and married who the daughter of the son of Ishmael. He married into the world. He got back into the world out there.

That's what the natural Jew has done today. But that spiritual Jew didn't do that. That spiritual Jew, like Jacob, wants the birthright. He thought, "If I have the birthright, I'll have the inheritance of my father. One day, he's going to give me all the inheritance." But the natural Jew was like Esau. Esau thought, "I'll go back out there in the world. I remember that the world belongs to God, and I remember that the world was His bride, like Hagar was, and I remember that there's good things out there in the world, and I'll go back out there into the world." So Esau went back to that place that was worldly, to that woman that was worldly, and took that daughter of that son that was called Ishmael and ended up in bondage. And so it is with the people of this world today. They're out there in bondage.

Let's go a little further and see if we can see it in spiritual terms. According to the Bible, once the whole world was Catholic. The Roman powers dominated the world. What did God do? He looked down from out of heaven, and He saw that everything was Catholic. He reached into the Catholic Church and came out with a Protestant. He reached into the Protestant and came out with a Pentecostal. And then, He reached into the Pentecostal and came out with the elect.

Then the elect began to bring forth two nations, just like Jesus did, just like Isaac did, and just like Eve did in the garden. Eve brought forth two nations. She brought forth the nation of Cain, which was corrupt, and she brought forth the nation of Seth, which replaced the seed of Abel, which was a holy and a righteous nation.

And, so it is with the elect. They are the bride. Jesus was the bride of the heavenly Father. Isaac was symbolic of the bride. The elect is the bride. Out of the seed or teaching of that elect, there are two kinds of nations that came forth. Did you know that a good person is born in the church, and also a bad person? You can look around, and you find bad people that profess Christianity, just like you can find good ones. One day, the whole world will belong to the church.

Daniel said that there were four powers striving over the waters. The Bible says that he looked, and out of the waters, he began to see some beasts rise up on the surface of the earth. He said he looked, and saw the great body of waters, and four winds were striving over the waters. The winds were coming together. The east wind, the north wind, the west wind, and the south wind. They began to strive with each other, wrestle with each other. Four powers wrestling over the water. The Bible tells us that waters are a symbol of people; it's a symbol of nations. We find out that wind is a symbol of power.

God portrayed men as beasts. Why? Because they are of the beast. Their origin was of the beast. They carry the beast nature. They do those things that's like unto the beast. I've made the statement in preaching the message on the mark of the beast: look at them around you. When you see sports teams. What do they name them? What do they name the clubs that they have, like the Elks Club, the Moose Lodge and the Lions Club? The beast nature. They will sit around the television, drink in the lust, and act like a bunch of beasts. When they go to eat, they have no control over their appetites. They act like a bunch of beasts. What is it? It's the beast nature.

I remember that I was talking with God one time, and I asked Him, "Lord, why is it that these people insist that they came from a beast? I don't understand that." God answered back and said, "Because they did." I asked, "Why do I insist that I didn't come from a beast?" He said, "Because you're a son of God." Amen! We came from God, but they came from the beast, and they act like it!

Daniel saw those beasts out there, and he began to see those ruling powers. I asked God, "What were those powers?" And this is the answer, and I believe it's right. There is a power of Christianity that I believe is one of the winds that was wrestling over the waters, trying to get control of the people of the world. Do you believe that Christianity is trying to get control of the people of the world? Do you believe the Spirit of Christ is trying to get control of the people of the world today?

I believe that another power is Catholicism. Do you believe Catholicism is trying to do it? I believe it is. I believe one of the powers was Communism. Do you believe Communism is trying to do it? I believe it is. I believe the last power is Capitalism, and Capitalism is trying to do it, too. I believe each of these four powers and you'll notice that each one of them starts with a 'C' - Communism, Catholicism, Christianity, and Capitalism is trying to dominate the world. Christianity wants control of it. Communism wants control of it. Catholicism wants control of it. America, as Capitalism, wants control of it. They're wrestling over the waters.

But, I thank God that we are free from those things. We are free from those powers. We are free, because we are the bride of Christ. Though we may be among the waters that the powers are wrestling over, yet we are the bride of Christ, and we are not entangled in the things of this world.

So then, the whole world will be religious. Of those powers that are wrestling over the waters, that one power of Catholicism, someday, is going to get control. It's going to dominate the earth, and you know what's going to happen when it does? God's going to let the powers of Satan work through that beast. That Catholic Church is that beast. That is the beast in the garden in allegories, that the demon powers come through to get to the bride. Just as that satanic power came through the beast to get to Eve, to corrupt Eve, so does Satan seek to come through that Catholic Church and get to the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what they've been trying to do.

We know that the Jesus Name people are the bride of Christ. There's no true bride that won't take the name of her husband. We know that the Jesus Name people are the true bride. But what does the bride have to do? The bride labors, and the bride travails, and she brings forth the children. Then the beast comes in, and what happens? We get doctrines, and dogmas, and disciplines, that mix into the true church where the bride is. What do we come out with? We come out with Assemblies of God, the Church of God, the Baptists, the Methodists. You say, "But Brother Pike, all those people are going to heaven." I don't believe that. God said that in Isaac shall the seed be called.

You might ask, "Weren't the Jews cut off? Weren't they cast into outer darkness? That was one nation. What happened to the other nation?" They went right on into the teachings of the twelve apostles, and set up a Jesus Name church. When the bride really got herself set up, what happened? The Roman powers came in, and just as quick as they could, they killed out the apostles, took over the perfect church, and began to place the corrupt seed within her, and what happened? Instead of one kind of children coming forth, just Jesus Name, we began to get Baptists and Methodists and Presbyterians, along with Jesus Name people. It began to bring forth the corrupt seed of Cain. It began to bring forth the seed that wouldn't walk with the Word of God.

Every child that is born of his father's seed is like his father. A tree produces after its kind. Everybody that's born of the Word of God has the nature of this Word of God. This is God's seed right here, this Bible. If I'm born of the Word, born of God's seed, I'll do just exactly like the nature, which this Word, says to do. I'll live right, and I'll have the fruits of the Spirit. I'll walk right. I'll talk right. I'll be right everywhere you see me. Why? I'm born of the seed.

So then, God reached into that Catholic Church after she had corrupted everything. Right here, in the end time, He reached in there and got a church out of there called Protestantism. But He wasn't satisfied. He reached back in there and got something out called Pentecost. And when the Pentecost came out, they began to get the same idea as the others, so He just reached in and got the elect out of it, which is the bride. That's the Jesus Name people. He reached in there and got them, and she's bringing forth children. When Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. She's bringing forth some children.

When Jacob and Esau were born into the world, Esau went one way; he went out into the worldly things. Jacob went right straight into the promised land. When Jesus gave forth His children, we find that the Jews went right into the world, but the church, the true Christian, was filled with His Spirit and filled with His nature, and they went right into the promised land, which was the infilling of the Holy Ghost, their spirit being raptured up into the heavenly places.

Remember, your body is composed of flesh, and it's composed of blood, and it's composed of spirit. Those are the three major things, and your words are a production of your spirit, which amounts to being your children. Your flesh is an allegory of the Father, while your blood is an allegory of the Son, the atonement, and your spirit is an allegory of the Holy Ghost. The words that you speak bring forth somebody as a child unto you. You make a disciple according to your words, according to your speaking. That's spiritually speaking.

So then, the elect's job is to bring forth children. What did Isaac and Rebekah do? They brought forth children. What did Jesus do? He travailed and brought forth children. What does the real elect of God do? They travail and bring forth children. They bring forth Baptists; they bring forth Methodists; they bring forth Presbyterians. Have you ever noticed, that in the same family, sometimes a sick child is born, or an afflicted child? Sometimes it's a demon possessed child. Have you ever noticed that? The mother might be good, but it comes forth anyway. The Bible says, "I am the God that visits the iniquities of the fathers down upon the children to the third and fourth generation." It's the iniquity of the fathers that causes that to come out in the elect seed. It isn't that the elect is bad, or that God hasn't purified the bride. But all of it comes out of the same womb. The devil, working through the beast, the Catholic Church, places its seed in the true church. It places its seed in there, and they come up with dogmas, ideas, opinions, and theology, and people that go to seminary to try to preach the Word of God.

The fivefold ministry of apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, and pastors is the head to that body until Jesus comes. They act as the head. The ministry acts as Jesus Christ Himself, for the perfecting of the saints. There's a fivefold ministry, which is the five senses, and the five senses are centered right around the head, showing that fivefold ministry is the head to that body until the Lord Jesus Christ appears in His fullness. That's the head.

So then, Christ, through the fivefold ministry, places His seed in the church by the teachings, just like I am doing. The Bible says, "For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." He's placing the seed there, trying to bring forth a church to Jesus Name and perfection, or a people that are called by His name, so that He can bring healing and so forth to them. Then, out in the world, the devil is working though the Catholic Church and the Catholic doctrine to bring forth a corrupt child.

Back in the Old Testament, the Ishmaelites and the Edomites and the others gave Israel trouble. They caused Jacob trouble and his people trouble all the way to the Canaan land. Didn't they? Jacob's seed had to go down into Egypt. It had to go through the wilderness. But it got to the Canaan land. And so it is today.

The true seed of the elect that comes forth from the fivefold ministry goes down into Egypt for a time. But, they are coming into the promises of God as sure as I stand behind this sacred desk tonight. They are coming into the Canaan land of God. That's where they are headed. They're coming to all of those promises that are in this Bible to be made effect in the body. We are close to the coming of Jesus.

When the Lord Jesus hung on the cross, what did God do? He separated that Spirit from the body. He took the body and laid it down in the earth. The separation of Jew and Gentile. The separation of spirit and body. The separation of Protestant and Catholic. The separation of God's Spirit from Jesus' body. It showed the death. It showed the separation of heaven and earth. It showed the death of those that were in the earth. It showed that they had been cut off from life, just like Jesus' body was, and laid in the grave.

Did He leave it like that? No! There was a time when somebody began to pray and say, "O God, Thy will be done on earth as in heaven." What did God do? According to the Bible, when that prayer came forth, He sent the kingdom of God down into the earth. He joined that body of Jesus back with that Spirit of life. He joined earth back with heaven. He joined your body back with that spirit that He had taken out of you and had translated into the kingdom of God.

What did it mean when that body was separated from that Spirit as He hung there on the cross? The Bible says that the veil of the temple was rent in two, or twain. Jesus said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." It was rent in twain. God took that body because the body was dead. He took that body into heaven, and He set it on His right hand. But what did He do with the Spirit of that body? It went into the heart of the earth, to preach to my soul that was in prison. My soul was in prison ever since I had fallen from the garden. He took my soul out of prison and put it into the kingdom of God by putting the kingdom of God within me.

Now, we have His Spirit in us. The body is in heaven somewhere. It's setting there because God raised it up. Why did He take the Spirit out of Jesus' body? Because He wanted to live in that body. What is the Holy Ghost? It's God's Spirit and Jesus' Spirit combined. That's what the Holy Ghost is. Jesus is the Son. God, the Spirit, is the Father. But, when you get Jesus' Spirit together with God's Spirit, you've got the Holy Ghost. Amen! You've got the Spirit of truth. That's what we have now. We are filled with that Spirit.

We are the bride of God. Remember, Jacob wanted the birthright. Esau's spirit was faint. Why? Because he had chosen to go with the world. But Jacob's spirit was not faint. He had set right there, close to the pottage all the time. He was strong, ready to fight the battle of faith. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

John was caught up in the Spirit and heard the angel say, "I will shew thee the bride." He's saying to you and I, "Come up in the Spirit. I want to show you My bride." Can you see His bride? Are you in the Spirit enough to see His bride? Oh, she's a beautiful thing. There's nothing like her. "Come up hither, John. I will shew thee the bride."

The Lord took the Spirit out of the body of Jesus, and the body died. The Bible says that the body without the spirit is dead. He separated the Jew from the Gentile (the Jew was a type of the body), and the Jew died without the spirit (which was the spiritual Jew). He separated heaven from earth, and the earth died without the Spirit of God. He separated your spirit from your body by translating your spirit into the kingdom of God, and your body died by being buried in baptism with Jesus Christ, the resurrection. Everything is dead without God's life.

When the night comes and the sun withdraws, everything goes to sleep. The great light shall rule the day and the lesser light will rule the night. God is the great light unto which no man can approach. When the night came, everything went to sleep. Why? Death set in. That's what night is an allegory of. What was left? There were wandering stars left that had no life, and there was the moon, which is only a reflector of the heavenly light, which is a type of the church to give light, for you are the light of the world. There were two stars which were called little suns that had their own light. They have their own light.

The devil is after the church. Why? Because as long as he's got the bride perverted, and as long as he's got the bride away from the heavenly Father, then Jesus cannot come back into this world, and the devil can live eternally. But if the bride ever slips away, and God raptures her up into the Spirit, as He is doing right now two in the field (the world), one taken (raptured up in the Holy Ghost, Jesus said, "I've taken you out of the world"), the other left then if He can slip the bride away, then the devil is in trouble because God will burn him with fire. The devil is after the church, and the world is after the moon. The one who gets the moon will conquer the world. The one who gets the church will control the world. If the Catholics can ever get all the people into the church, they'll control the world. They can start war. They can stop war. They will have a voice of power. All they'll have to do is speak one thing and the whole world will obey it.

The moon is a type of the church, and in natural allegories, it shows that Satan is reaching through the Catholic Church after the true church.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

The Comforter Will Come

Reading in Saint John chapter 16, beginning at the first verse:

John 16:1-33 "These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

If you'll notice, there are quite a number of things here that Jesus speaks of that are real striking. One thing is He said, "I go to the Father and you won't have to ask Me anymore." That is to say, I will not be with you as a natural man anymore for you to ask of Me, but because I go away, you can ask in My name. Then He says, "If I go not away, the comforter will not come," which makes it very obvious that Christ within Jesus is the comforter, and that He has to die for the remission of sin, or there will be no comforter given, because unless sin is taken away, the comforter cannot come. He had to depart for more than one reason, as to the comforter coming back: to yield up His Spirit that it might go to God and return into your body; to yield up His body so that body might be given, taken out of the way, not to be given back into the world during the time of this great wonderful move of the comforter, because the comforter is as Aaron, the high priest, officiating within the tabernacle of your human body, which is in the wilderness wandering of your intellectual reasoning.

The body of Jesus must thus be crucified and pay the price for sin so you will be able to receive the comforter, which is the Spirit of Christ, or the Spirit of life. His body, in the meantime, being a vesture dipped in blood, in that His countenance was marred more than any man, must be set on the throne at the right hand of the Father and remain there until the days of the Christ officiating within the temple are over. Then, that Christ will return to the body of the Lord Jesus and bring Him back, pick up that body on the throne that He set there, which is the blood dipped vesture, and bring it back to join it unto you as the Father of His children, or as the head of the church.

He says here, "I must go away." I must go away. He said, "I've been talking to you in proverbs, as to the Father, but you will come to know Him plainly." He said, "When the comforter is come, He will have a job to do, and that job will be to reprove the world of sin. Of sin, because they believed not on Me, (sin is unbelief in that He hath fulfilled all righteousness in our behalf), of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more, and of judgment because the prince of this world is judged."

He said, in essence, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Many things I've said unto you, but that's not all that I want to say. I have many more things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them." That is to say, as long as you do not have My Spirit within you, you cannot bear these things that I want to say. But when the comforter comes, it will still be Me, and I will still be tutoring you and I will still be telling you things, and the many things that I have to say unto you that I've not been able to say unto you, I will then say unto you. I will say these things to you as I guide you into all truth and righteousness. A little while and you shall see Me no more, as to My body, and a little while and ye shall see Me in the return of the Spirit." Having eyes to see, we see Him return. He said, "The world will not see Me. But you shall see Me, for I shall be in you."

We then see that it is necessary to have the comforter. You need to have the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and at the upper coast of Ephesus, Paul asked the question, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" They said, "We've not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost or not." Paul asked, "Then unto what baptism were you baptized? If you don't have the infilling of the Holy Ghost, then what kind of baptism do you have?" They said, "We were baptized with the baptism of John." The promise was be baptized for the remission of sin, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Why is it that if they

were baptized by John, perhaps in the very same place where John baptized Jesus, then why did they not receive the Holy Ghost? There was a reason.

The reason was that the Holy Ghost had not yet been given, for John was the forerunner of the coming of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet died for the remission of sin. Therefore, they were not being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ as to enter into the glory of the Lord. They were being baptized unto repentance, but they were not being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin. It could not be said to them to be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. It could not be said to them, as it was said on the day of Pentecost at a later date, when Peter said, "Repent everyone of you and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin that you might receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, for it is unto you and unto your children, and to as many as are afar off, even as many as the Lord, our God, shall call."

So then, we see that there was a world of difference, nothing less than a world of difference, between the baptism of John and the baptism of Christ Jesus, in His name. The Bible says that Paul met these disciples at the upper coast of Ephesus, and he asked them as he was preaching, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" They said, "We've not even heard so much as whether there be a Holy Ghost or not." We've not heard that kind of doctrine, they could have said. And Paul asked, "Unto what baptism have you been baptized?" He knew that they were disciples. They said, "We are disciples of John. We've been baptized unto John's baptism." And Paul said, "John baptized with water unto repentance, saying, 'Believe on the name which is to come, which hath remission of sin'." Or that is to say, John said, "I baptize you unto repentance, and ye shall believe on Him that is to come, whose shoe latchet I'm not worthy to stoop and unloose." And so the Bible said that when they heard this, knowing that John had taught them that the coming of Jesus was at hand, that they were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. They laid hands on them and they received the infilling of the Holy Ghost, which means that you need to be baptized again if you've never been baptized in the name of Jesus.

Someone might ask, "Well, Brother Pike, what difference does it make how you were baptized? The thing is, I was baptized." Evidently these men had been baptized, but still there was a difference. They had been baptized by John unto repentance. So someone would ask, "I've been baptized." I ask you the question: were you baptized in the name of Jesus? How were you baptized? Some would say, "I was baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." That's wonderful. These men were baptized unto John, but I still tell you, you need to be baptized over, because there's no remission of sin in the name Father. There's no remission of sin in the name Son. There's no remission of sin in the name Holy Ghost. The remission of sin is in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and the Bible says, "And these three are one," and the name shall be called Jesus. The everlasting Father, the Bible said. A Son shall come, and His name shall be called Jesus. Jesus said, I come in My Father's name," and He said, "When the comforter comes, which is the Holy Ghost, He will come in My name," of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, even the name Jesus.

So I ask you, how were you baptized? You need to be baptized over, to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin, for the Bible teaches that we're planted in His likeness. We're baptized for the remission of sin, and as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, for Peter said that

it's not the putting away of the filth of the flesh that saves you, but the answer of a good conscience by baptism. He spoke of the old world being overflowed by water, speaking of those that had been saved by water, and then he goes on to say the like figure whereunto baptism does also now save you. "As My Father has sent me," Jesus said to the ministry, "so send I you. Whosoever sins you shall remit shall be remitted, whosoever sins you retain shall be retained." I, as a minister, have the power to remit sin through His name, and I do that by the burial of the body of that death Paul spoke of, to take the body of that death that was crucified at Calvary. If you be crucified with Him, then are you buried with Him in baptism, and I have the power to bury you in baptism. When you are buried in baptism, that means that you are dead, buried and planted in His likeness. We come forth in His likeness, as to the resurrection. In that it is the death of Jesus, the crucifixion of Jesus, then it is the burial of Jesus and it is in the name of Jesus.

I am baptized for the remission of sin when my body is planted in the watery grave. The body of this death, as to corruption, is now gone, and when I come forth, I'll leave that body there, and I come forth without that body and my spirit thus enters into the body of the Lord Jesus. I am now bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh in the mind of God, and it will be made manifest at the last trump, because this mortal being shall be changed into His likeness at the coming of the great Jesus. He will come as the head for the members of His body, and I, having put on Christ Jesus, am now part of that body. You are baptized for the dead, and as many as have been baptized into Christ Jesus have put on Christ Jesus, and the body of sin is now dead and buried. God, according to the Bible, at Calvary rent the veil in two, and the rending of the veil was the separation of the body and the Spirit, as to say the Lord and the Christ. With Jesus, it was the Lord and the Christ. With the church, it is the body and the spirit, and Jesus did that in the behalf of the church. He made in Himself twain, both Lord and Christ, which means two, and at that great rending of the veil, the Bible said, as to His own flesh, making a new way through His own flesh, in the rending of the veil. He separated the Spirit from the body. He folded up the body of sin and laid it away, and that was my body that He folded up and laid away. He that knew no sin was made sin, even my sin, folded that up and laid it away as to the part of me that was sin, and now I am resurrected in the likeness of the Lord Jesus. Having been delivered for my offenses, He is raised again for my justification, and it is not I that liveth, but now it is Christ that liveth, having raised up in a new form. The Bible says that as they walked with Him on the way to Emmaus, their eyes were opened and their hearts burned within them as He expounded the Word to them by the way.

We see what greatness this is as to salvation. I have then become a new creature in Christ. Old things have passed away and behold, now all things are new. I once was dead, but now I am alive forever more. I now have the comforter. I was baptized for the remission of sin. My body, as to the sinful image, was planted in a watery grave, and now Jesus has taken away my sins, and now I am no more a living soul, but I am a quickening spirit. The Bible teaches that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit. When I was born of flesh, I was flesh, and then when I was born of spirit, today I am spirit. Everyone that is born again is a spirit, for the last man Adam was made a quickening spirit, the first man Adam a living soul. Once, I could die, because the soul that sinneth shall surely die, but in that I have passed from death unto life I can no more die, because I am not a living soul. I am now a quickening spirit. I've been born again by the washing of the waters of regeneration. I've been placed in the generation of Jesus Christ, which is the spiritual generation.

The comforter has come. He has entered into this body. How did He enter into this body? The Bible says to be baptized for the remission of sin and then ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. As long as you are

born of the flesh, then are you flesh. As in Adam, all die. As long as you are born of Adam, you are a fleshly being, a living soul, and you are guilty of transgression and sin, as was your father. By the sins of one man, sin came upon all the world, and by the righteousness of one man, righteousness, life, grace, and mercy has come upon all the world. Why doesn't God just go ahead and give us that infilling of the wonderful Holy Ghost? Why doesn't He give us the comforter? He cannot give you the comforter, because you are in the image of sin, and He cannot place the comforter within your image of sin. But, if you will be baptized for the remission of sin, then the image is gone, of sin. When you are baptized, as the Bible says, for the remission of sin, then you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. If I'm planted in His likeness in that He was made the image of sin, then I've done away with the image of sin. And when I come forth, I'm no more the bastard child as the image of sin, but I am now bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, for it's not me living but Christ Jesus. In that I am the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, then the Spirit that departed from the body of the Lord Jesus Christ will return back to the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, or it will come into me, because I am the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches that the things of God knoweth no man, but they do know God. And if I be the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, He said, then are you gods. And if we be the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ is God.

So then, the great Holy Spirit, the comforter, will come to me after I've been baptized for the remission of sin and put away the old body of sin. I'm saved not by the putting away of the filth of flesh, as to dos and don'ts, but the putting away in that I planted that body in the likeness of death. Jesus killed that body and took my spirit out of that body, and in that sin is conceived within the flesh, sinful flesh, then that means I am free from sin. At death my spirit went back to God who gave it. I am hid with Christ, as to His angel, within God's Spirit which is the great wonderful angelic host of heaven, the environment in which the angels dwell. I'm equal to the angels and cannot die. I've passed from death unto life.

I was baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sin. My body is now gone, and I am now the body of the Lord Jesus Christ and I now have the Holy Ghost, the comforter, which is the Spirit of Christ. It has come back within my body and I received it because I was baptized. I had my sins washed away. Ananias said unto Paul, "Be baptized and wash away your sins." With the baptism, I washed away my sins, because I washed away the old body. The veil was rent in two on my behalf at Calvary. My body is separated from my spirit, and my body is now buried within a watery grave, and my spirit has gone back to God who gave it. Or that is to say, it went back into the body of Jesus, for the Bible says that at Calvary (and that particular time is called the fullness of time), God would gather all things in heaven and earth into the body of the Lord Jesus. He has gathered me into the body of the Lord Jesus. That is, He has gathered my spirit, through the Holy Ghost, into the body of the Lord Jesus. In the ark of Noah, there were the creeping and the other creatures of darkness, creatures of night. He made the Lord Jesus an image of sin, as to sight, in the likeness of man (man is the image of sin), and inasmuch as the children were partakers, He partook also.

In making Him in that image, that was where He trapped Satan. He trapped him right there in that body and destroyed him at Calvary. "I beheld Satan, as lightning fall from heaven. I've destroyed him that hath power over death." You have nothing to fear anymore. Greater is He, which is Christ Jesus, that is within you than he that is in the world, even Lucifer, the one that has the power as the prince of the world, having the power over death. When the veil was rent in two, that was me. I died. Now I'm buried and He became my sin. In that body, He trapped the things of darkness, and in that body He trapped the old raven, the crow, and in that body of sin He took the things of darkness, the demon powers and whatever, in the confines of that body, to reach out and dethrone Lucifer, and He brought down Lucifer's kingdom. That's why from the

ark the raven was turned loose, to go out and feed on the old unclean things, on the bodies that were floating around on the water.

When the Lord cast out of the body (your body and my body) Lucifer, the infiltration, the old raven, the evil spirit, then he had no more resting place. He could no longer be in the grace of God. He was cast out of heaven. The kingdom of God is within you, and the kingdom of the world, having been in you, God put the world out of you, and with that, He put the king out. He dethroned him, which was Lucifer, and out went the raven. And so, Satan was cast out of heaven, out of light, out of that which was within you, and today, you have the kingdom of God within you, and you have the great eternal Spirit, as to the comforter, the Holy Spirit, living on the inside of you. Satan is now destroyed. He is no more in your mind and in your world. He is defeated, and the Bible tells you to be of good cheer. He didn't tell you to be of good cheer because you have wrought the works of salvation. But He said, "You be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world." In other words, "What I have done has been accredited to you, so all you have got to do is believe in what I did." And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even your believing in what He did on your behalf, or your faith. Therefore, taking the shield of faith, you can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, because Satan cannot penetrate that faith. Contend for that faith which was delivered unto the saints, by which you are sanctified.

We see that for the remission of sin, I, as the minister, baptize you and plant you in the watery grave. When I plant you in the watery grave, you thus have washed away your sins, because you have been buried, as to the old man Adam, and he is dead and he is gone. He is no more. Your angelic being, at death, went back to God who gave it. So when you raised up in the likeness of the Lord Jesus, you are then bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh as in the sight of God. Though you're walking through these valleys, God sees from mountain top to mountain top, and over here at the end, God sees the change of your body into that eternal body, which means that your body is, as we say so often, the purchased possession. It's already been paid for at Calvary. When you were baptized, God gave you that new body. The redemption of your body, see? And He looks on it as bone of the bone of Christ Jesus and flesh of the flesh of Christ Jesus. You can't see it, and the world can't see it, as through the natural eyes, because they are beholding the lying vanities and they are in confinement to the world of darkness, which means intellectual reasoning, or the mind of Lucifer, which took into captivity the body at Calvary.

That means that you are free, in that the world cannot see when good comes, but you can see through the eyes of understanding. The Bible says the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, then you comprehend the heights, you comprehend the widths, you comprehend the length. We realize then that we are free from sin and death, because the Bible teaches that the law hath power over an individual as long as they live. But if you die and they plant you in a grave out here, the law doesn't have any power over a dead man. And we being dead to sin by the body of Jesus, and dead to the world by the body of the Lord Jesus, and dead to unrighteousness, then the law hath no power over us because that was the law of sin and death. Thus, are we free from the law of sin and death and it's not us living but it's Christ that's living within us, and the life that we now live we live by the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us.

Jesus said, "If I go away, He (the comforter) will come." Be baptized for the remission of sin that you may receive the gift of the comforter, the gift of eternal life, for you are now the beloved body of the Lord Jesus.

You now have eternal life, because you have the Spirit of Christ. God now, in His foreknowledge, sees you as the Spirit of Christ and He sees you as the body of Christ. He sees you with the mind of Christ. 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. We are made in the likeness of God, therefore we are equal with God as to the wonderful mind of Christ, and God already sees us like this. It's already accredited to us, because the body has already been redeemed and is the purchased possession, for Christ Jesus purchased it at Calvary.

God gives you the Spirit as the earnestness of your inheritance, having purchased your body as the purchased possession. Through this earnestness, we are redeeming it, in that we are going after it to take it and wrestle it out of the hands of Lucifer, because the Lord Jesus has already redeemed it. He shed His blood for it. That's what He bought and that's why you are baptized with Him in the water, because it is the body, and you are putting off the body of death, and now you are taking on the new body of righteousness, which body He redeemed at Calvary. See? Now are you the redeemed body. But it does not yet appear as to your understanding what ye shall be. Your eyes you cannot see it, only in the comprehension of God's Word. But as we go through the transitional change, from glory to glory, working on and bringing this body into perfection, as to get full control of it, as we say, as putting the bridle on it, as to that spirit of the inner man, then we bring it to the full measure of the full stature of the perfect man Christ Jesus. That is to say, we go on to a full reward in Christ Jesus, and then at the sounding of the last trumpet, when the mysteries of God are finished, we will comprehend, through the revealing of those mysteries, the redemption of our bodies. We will come to know, through that ministering, that our body is already redeemed.

I made the statement today that all of this great power is here. We have four hundred and forty volts coming in from the power plant, but in this room, we have a hundred and ten volts. It's not that the full power isn't there, but the receptacle only calls for a hundred and ten volts. If you have the kind of receptacle that could handle two hundred and twenty volts, then the two hundred and twenty volts would come in. But, you can't handle God in His fullness all at one time, so you have to set up a transformer, and it transforms, or it breaks down or converts or changes from the two hundred and twenty volts or the four hundred and forty volts, down to the one hundred and ten volts. We get that one hundred and ten volts and it's just a little something to give us light and to help us, and we use that one hundred and ten volts to cook, we use it for our lighting, and we use it for so many things. All of that electrical current coming in, and we use it.

When man lost that overshadowing, or the illumination, or the quickening of God's eternal Spirit, God had to switch man over to a quickening of an angelic force, in that Satan is a powerful spirit. He switched him over from the inspiration of God's Spirit to the inspiration of human senses, to the sensual way of life, and thus the quickening of the human senses, as to the stimulation, keeps us alive. This is what Satan is seeking. As long as the blood is on the seat of atonement, Satan is seeking to get into your body. When he gets into your body, then he picks up these stimulations, as to the vibrations. Even witches work by those vibrations. This is a refreshing to him as a spirit, because he is cut off from that great vibrant world of quickening. He causes you to overindulge, because your spirit requires quickening to stay alive in the body. Lucifer is in the realm of darkness, and he is in the realm of torment. He's in the dry places and cannot find that water of life, as to the quickening. He enters into your body, because there is blood on the seat of atonement, and through your body, he gets the rain that comes upon the just and the unjust, and by that means, he stays alive and keeps the body alive. Then, when this is all over, there won't be any more stimulation for him, and there won't be any more healing. There won't be any more life. It will eventually all be gone.

Man has been switched over to the quickening of the human senses. This is why the Bible uses the terms that some have sensually separated themselves from the Spirit. They have, through human senses, separated themselves from the Spirit, because they have given their angelic beings to car racing, hunting, frolics, passions, and all of these other things. They have separated their spirit from the quickening of God, and they have given it to the things of the world. I know that we are babes in this body, and we have to live by that quickening until the day we come to the knowledge and understanding of God, and at that moment, if we change over to the light, then are we coming from childhood, off of the milk into the meat. That is to say, we come into the eternal quickening.

The Bible says that this is the condemnation that has come into the world: men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Light has come into the world. Understanding has come into the world. They know this, but they don't want to change to it because they are children of darkness. When this light shines, it shines upon you. Now that the day star now has come, now that the light has come, now that the true word of prophecy has come, a more sure word of prophecy has come, you can judge the situation by the illumination of this light, which is given you during the time of dispensational grace while the blood being on the seat of atonement. When it comes to you, in that you are religiously inclined, then you get into the environment and then you see this and you know what is right and you know what is wrong, but you don't want to do right.

This is the light that reveals the children of light, because when this light comes to them, when they see light and righteousness, they go after that, and they want to conform to that and live and walk in that light. The Bible teaches that if you walk in the light as He is in the light, you'll have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus will cleanse you from all sin. The light, of course, is the understanding of right and wrong.

To those who are creatures of darkness, it is suddenly revealed to them their judgment, which begins at the house of God, as the minister ministers to remit their sins according to faith. They see the light, but they don't want the light because they are creatures of darkness and their deeds are evil and they love that darkness and they love that way of life. Therefore, the Bible teaches that is their judgment. Now they know and they cannot be saved, because they've come to the light and rejected the light. This the proof of who they are, and thus the judgment has come upon them, and the separation of the bad and the good, or the separation of the sheep from the goat, as the minister preaches the Word of life. That's what they are charged with in the day of judgment. They are not charged with all of their dos and don'ts. Their judgment is according to the rejection of light and not loving the light.

The children of light stumble and make mistakes, and they have to be forgiven. The high priest is interceding, and they go to the high priest, as for the body, pleading for forgiveness, in that they are already sealed unto perfection within their inner parts (Christ is within their inner parts), and their inner parts cannot sin, because it is born of God. Therefore, the body is pleading with the Christ that's on the inside of the Spirit, or sitting on the throne of your heart. The Bible speaks of the fullness of God being within Jesus, and when Jesus prayed, His prayers returned into His own bosom. Where else could they go, because God in the fullness was there?

Praying and talking to God is your spirit interceding for your body, in that Christ is within you. Your spirit is interceding, as to Christ, repenting for all of the mistakes and errors that the body is making. Paul said, "I'd like to present you to God, body, soul and spirit." I don't want to be a bodiless person as a bodiless angel, in that angels in heaven have no body. I don't want to be as an angelic being without my body. I want my body, because my body is given to me as a gift. If I overcome evil, if I possess the body, if I redeem the body, then do I have the body. So he said, "I'd like to present you body, soul and spirit blameless before God."

So we see that the comforter will come. You do have a right to the comforter. He will be with you, He will tutor you, He will teach you, He will lead you into all the great revelational truths of Almighty God, and the minister will preach to you. The minister can baptize you, and you can wash away your sins, for it shall come to pass that whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The man said to Paul, "Be baptized, wash away your sins calling upon the name of the Lord." And of course, Paul did that. Paul was a great scholar. Paul was a Hebrew. Paul had everything to his favor as to godliness, even from the Old Testament. He said, "As touching the law I am blameless," but it was necessary for him to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin. People get things misconstrued because they say, "Well, Paul said, God didn't send me to baptize. You know, I just baptized a few people." He said, "But I plant, Apollos waters and God giveth the increase." See? Do you get a harvest without water? Jesus said, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but He that believeth not shall be damned." Then should we be baptized in water in the name of Jesus for the remission of sin? Of course we should, because if a man is dead, shouldn't you bury him?

Somebody might say, "Well, I accept that by the body of the Lord Jesus Christ I am dead." I would then ask you the question, "Why do you accept it? How do you even know about it?" You would say, "By the Bible." I'd ask, "Why do you accept it?" You would say, "Well, the Bible says so." I would say, "That means that you are a believer because you accept that." You would say, "Yes." I'd then ask, "Doesn't the Bible also say that you should be baptized for the remission of sin? Do you believe that?" And you would say, "No." I would say, "The Bible says line upon line and precept upon precept, that inasmuch as you don't believe that, you couldn't believe the other, because the proof of the other is that if you believe you are dead, you believe that you should be buried." You don't leave dead men and women laying around. The unburied is what causes the stench in the church.

We find out that there is a reality in water baptism, because there is a natural body, there is a natural water. Someone might say, "Well, I'm very spiritual, Brother Pike, and I just don't believe in that natural water." But yet you believe that you've got a natural body, and you believe in naturally eating, in naturally sleeping, in naturally working, and you believe in getting natural money, but when it comes to the natural baptism, you don't believe in that. Do you know why you don't believe in that? It's because you are not a true believer in Christ. The Bible teaches that we are buried with Christ, and how then are you going to bury somebody other than in water? Water is the grave. God chose that so that He wouldn't have to naturally kill us. Otherwise, He will naturally kill us and put us into the grave. The only way we can be baptized is to be naturally killed and put in the grave. But in that water is a baptism, as a burial into death, then He buries us in an actual grave, which is water. It is a grave that they use to bury sailors and people out at sea. So He literally buries you in that water, and when you come up, you come up a new man. You leave the old body behind, the image of sin, because of the death of Jesus Christ. It's no longer that which was delivered for the

offenses of sin, but it is the new man that has come forth in a new form. The Bible says that is He was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification; therefore, being justified by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ if we believe it. That is why it is said we are justified by faith. To believe that we are justified by what Christ Jesus did, then it is accounted unto us for righteousness, even as Abraham for the Bible said that God imputed his faith unto him as righteousness. Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven, whose iniquities are taken away and blessed is the man unto whom God will not impute sin. God imputes faith for righteousness.

The law and the prophets until John, since that time, the kingdom of God has been preached, and men press their way into the kingdom. Or as we say, the kingdom of God is an inheritance. It is an inheritance. You don't see the kingdom of God by eyes, as to observation, for the kingdom of God has never come and never will come by observation. The law and the prophets until John, and after that, the kingdom is come. Now the kingdom of God is here, and the Bible says to pray that His will be done on earth as in heaven, because the kingdom of God is now here. We see that the kingdom of God is come, and we are praying that the mind of Christ be within us, in that this body is made out of the dust, so that His will can be done, so that we can set up His kingdom here on earth. Since Calvary, you can now, by your eyes of understanding being enlightened, you can see the kingdom of God, comprehend the kingdom of God, the heights, the depths, the width, the length of the kingdom of God. I repeat this to you again, many shall come from the east and the west, even as they've done since Calvary, and they shall be translated into the kingdom or sit down in the kingdom, but the children of the kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness. That is, the Jews were cut off, in that they were the children of the kingdom, in the days of David.

We see that we have been translated into the kingdom, and we have pressed our way against this evil body of death and dispute, for men press their way into the kingdom of God. The preachers have been preaching the kingdom of God, and preaching the name of Jesus as the entrance into that everlasting kingdom. So today, there is a door open in heaven, through which you go into that kingdom that John was in. Where is that kingdom? The Bible says to repent, believe ye the gospel for the kingdom of God is at hand. It is here. You inherit it. Flesh and blood cannot receive it. It is an inheritance which means Spirit, and you inherit it. By faith you inherit the Spirit of Christ and it becomes an heritage to you. It enters into your body, as to your spirit, and has set up its regime as a kingdom in your heart.

Have you received the comforter since you believed? If you've not received the Holy Ghost, then let me encourage you to receive the Holy Ghost. When He, the Holy Ghost, the comforter, has come, He shall reprove the world of sin. That's why when you hear a preacher preaching and reproving the world of sin. It is the Holy Ghost. It is not him that speaketh, but the Father that speaketh from within him. He has the power, by your faith, to remit your sins, and then, when you receive the comforter, He will tell you to be baptized in His name for the remission of sins. If you are believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and you are baptized, you shall receive the comforter. When you believe, then have you received life by the righteousness of Christ and your body is thus gone. The burial is the proof, as to a testimony to all mankind, that it is gone and you are eligible for the Holy Ghost.

Someone might ask, "Well, can you receive the Holy Ghost before?" The Bible says that at Cornelius' house, they received the Holy Ghost as they believed on the Word as Peter spake it. He spoke the Word, and

immediately, as they received the Holy Ghost, it guiding them into all truth and righteousness. It said, "Be baptized. Here is water. You should be baptized," and they were baptized. Down at the city where Philip was preaching, the Bible says he preached the kingdom of God in the name of the Lord Jesus, and they were baptized in the name of Jesus, and then they received the Holy Ghost. It was said to John, "Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." He will guide us into all truth and righteousness, and baptism is part of righteousness.

Jesus, being our example, was baptized in water. This means that when we stand before God, and we say that we don't believe that it was important, and the King, sitting there on the throne, talking to us, looks at us says, "I took time to come down out of heaven, from glory, into the earth and went to a muddy river, to put My body down into it, and you tell Me it's not necessary?" You are a doctor, or a lawyer, or someone in the upper echelon, and you're too important to leave your throne, which is really nothing but rags and beggarly elements, and you can't go be baptized in His name? There's no way to explain your way out of it. You need to be baptized for the remission of sin. You need to bury that body of death, and when the Holy Ghost is come, He will guide you into all truth and all righteousness. What is righteousness? Baptism is a part of it. How do you know that? Because Jesus said to John, "Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Suffer it to be so now, John, go ahead and baptize Me." So the fulfillment of righteousness was to take away the law.

The carnal mind is the Jordan. To be carnally minded is death. God would never have made a Jordan if it wasn't to be a type of the old mind of Lucifer that got into Eve. It's in you. You've got to get over it. That mind is the mind that savors the things that be of this world and of the flesh, because he is the king of this world. He is the prince of this world: therefore, he savors the things that be of his kingdom. If you can get over that mind, then you've got everything, because God has already wrought victory in Jesus Christ for you, to give you all things that pertain unto life. There's nothing but a wall of unbelief that's holding it back, and the waters are pressing against the dam. The great waters of life are pressing against the dam of unbelief, and all you've got to do is break down that dam of unbelief and the waters of life will flood your soul. Everything that you want, from the redemption of the body to eternal life, all the wonderful things of life are freely given to you in Christ Jesus. Already they are given to you. You don't have to work for them, you don't have to fast for them, you don't have to pray for them, all you have to do is believe.

Someone would ask, "Well, why do I fast, why do I pray, why do I give these gifts to the poor, why do I try to conform to righteousness?" Merely for the sake of your conscience that you might convince your heart. When you convince your heart that you are the friend of God by doing the things that please God, then do you have confidence that is called faith. This faith brings you your heart's desire. The more you believe, the more you have. Do you love the Lord? Your faith then is dead without your works, because you have to do something to stimulate that confidence in the finished works of Jesus Christ. Do you understand? But by His faith are you sanctified. God has sanctified you, justified you, glorified you, perfected you forever, once and for all, even in the foreknowledge of God. Before the world ever was, you were elect. Elect according to the foreknowledge. Get over the carnal mind, now. If thou canst believe, all things are possible.

Let's get over the unbelief. Let's get over the carnal mind. Let's believe all things. Blessed is he that believeth all things. Jesus said, "Thou fool, in that thou hast not believed all things that the prophets have

said." To believe all things that He has said is to cross over your carnal mind of unbelief, because the only death there is is an intellectual concept of religion and unbelief in the supernatural. When you cross over that intellectual tree of knowledge and get rid of that unbelief, and you take on the Word of God and have faith, then you'll get away from knowledge that puffeth up and you'll come to charity that edifieth, and charity, or love, is strong as death. So to cross over your intellectual reasoning of unbelief is to have all that God has for you, which is an eternal kingdom, with eternal life, an eternal body, and eternal happiness. Someone might ask, "Well, Brother Pike, how far away is this? How long does it take to get there, and what do I have when I arrive?" I'm trying to tell you that it doesn't take any longer than just believing, because God did it. You cross the Jordan by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus death is conquered and you cannot die, because you've passed from death unto life, and you have everything that you want because it is His Word that cannot be altered or changed. It is the same to a thousand generations.

He has said to you and me, "I have given you all things that pertain unto life." "If thou canst believe," Jesus said. It's all already freely given to you in Christ. It already belongs to you, and the only problem you have is unbelief, the wall of iniquity that stands between you and your heavenly treasure, as to this full reward. The devil is always stirring up your mind, as to the lustful things of the world, to create within you unbelief, because when you do wrong, then your conscience will not forgive you and you will find yourself disbelieving in the wonderful, supernatural life and treasures of Almighty God. He hath given you all things that pertain unto life, and now you belong to Him. Altogether you belong to Him. Nothing can separate you from Him. Nothing can separate you from the love of God: heights, nor depths, nor things present. Death cannot separate you from Him. Things, people, problems, heartaches, sorrows, misdemeanors of life, stumblings and staggerings cannot separate you. A good man will fall seven times and still get back up. Nothing can separate you from the love that was so great that He gave the best thing of heaven for your redemption and for your recovery, to have your fellowship and for you, as the prodigal, to come home. In the day that we're living in, the kingdom of Satan is falling and people are beginning to hate that life out there. Those that have experienced it see the corruption and the interwoven misery and they hate it. It's the fall of Satan's kingdom. That which was polished and glittery, enticing, is now becoming a dung hole and people are beginning to hate it with all that's within them.

We can see that it's time, as the song says, to come home. It's supper time, time to come home. The shadows are falling. It's time to come home. The bride says come. The bridegroom is saying come. Let whosoever will, come and partake of the waters of life freely, for all things are yours. This is what we are preaching: the sounding of the trumpet, the finishing of the mysteries, so that you might know, as sons and daughters of God, that you are eternally His, and you cannot sin. You are born of God. You keep yourself and the evil one never touches you at anytime, as to your inner man. Your outer man is dead and buried with the Lord Jesus, and God never sees us stumbling and staggering. Never at anytime does He see any of your stumblings and staggerings, because you are not alive anymore. You are dead and buried and gone, and all He sees is His Son, Jesus, and your spirit in that body of the Lord Jesus and you are married to another. Inasmuch as you are the body of the Lord Jesus, it is said, "I find no fault in that just man. No one can lay anything to the charge of God's elect." Jesus died for you and God is the one that justified you.

Jesus so loved you while you were yet in your sins that He died for you when you were doing no works. How can you work your way unto salvation when He gave it to you by predestination, or foreknowledge, as to Calvary, before you ever came into righteousness? Paul said, Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, now you feel you're made perfect by the flesh? Who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the

truth? You did run well, who hath hindered you? Lay aside the sin that doth so easily beset you; that is, kills your faith, and run with patience the race that is set before you.

Am I telling you that you have to work your way unto salvation? I'm not telling you that. I'm telling you that you have salvation by foreknowledge, in that God saved you from your sins. While you were yet in your sins, Jesus died for you. You are the predestinated, you are the elect, you are the God body. If this be true of you, then the nature of Jesus Christ will be in you, because you are partakers of His divine nature and it will bring forth good works, even as the nature of a tree produces according to its nature. As the seed, so is the planting, and when the tree comes, it will automatically produce the fruits. We say the fruits of the Spirit because you are born of God. You are the seed that Christ planted, therefore, are you predestinated unto good works and you cannot bring forth anything but good fruit. A good fountain cannot bring forth bad water and good water. You either bring forth good water or bad water, and if you are a predestinated fountain of God, you will automatically love righteousness. His Spirit will dwell in you and will bring forth the good water.

If you are not the predestinated, you can be very religious, but you will always have your mind on the gullible desires of the flesh and you will bring forth your temper. You'll bring forth your lust. You'll bring forth your greed. You'll bring forth fault finding and gossiping, backbiting and reveling in the world and the love of the things of the world, because this is what's in you. If the love of the world is in you, the love of the Father isn't there. If the love of the Father is in you then, the love of the world isn't there. The world isn't there if the kingdom is there, and the kingdom isn't there if the world is there.

When God's Word says something, down in your heart you'll just chuckle on the inside and rejoice and say, "Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Did you hear what that preacher said? Hallelujah!" I guarantee you'll enjoy the greatest thing that you have ever known in your life. There will be nothing hid from you. There will nothing be kept back from you. You can enjoy all the many riches that you have because you are the son of God.

You're rich! His blessings maketh rich, naturally and spiritually. It addeth no sorrow. God wants, above all things, that you prosper. That's natural. That you be in health. That's natural. As your soul prospereth, so do the spiritual securities. The Bible says all these things don't come upon you because you give not praise unto the Lord with joyfulness of heart. That is to say, because of unbelief in what you have been given, as to health and happiness, you suffer remorse and heartaches, but if you would rejoice in what He hath given you, as to confidence of faith, as Abraham did, being strong in faith (he did not consider his body as to age, being dead, nor the deadness of Sarah's womb), but he rejoiced in what God had said, believing and being fully persuaded that He was able to perform that which He had promised. So today, why can we not believe? Abraham was before the law. He was without this day of grace, as to the atonement, and if he believed, why is it that you cannot believe? With the comforter in your heart to encourage you, why can you not believe what He has said? What did He say? "I have given you all things. I've given you all things that pertain unto life," and you certainly wouldn't want anything unless it had to do with the land of the living. "I've given you all things, all things are yours. Rejoice forever more." By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

The Dispute Over The Body

Some people don't understand what you mean when we say "revelation." All they know is the milk of the Word, and they've never come to any real strength, as to understanding. But, the Bible says that the meat belongs to the strong, they who have, by reasoning, exercised their senses to be able to discern between good and evil. So, it is hard at times to talk to people about revelation unless they've had some understanding of it. In some of our evangelistic crusades, we don't get to say much about revelation to the people. To some people, we get to say more. Here at the home church, and once in a while traveling around to different places, we meet people who really have hungry hearts, and when you start talking, they start understanding.

Jesus gave a parable one time about a sower who went out to sow. That's what we do. We sow. Paul said, "I plant, Apollos waters, and God gives the increase." The sower went out to sow, and some of his seed fell along by the wayside and the fowls devoured it and took it away. Some fell on stony ground. Some fell among thorns and some fell on the good ground. He was speaking in parables to those that were without, as we say. The disciples, being disturbed by it said, "Lord, these people don't understand what You're saying. How is it that You speak to them in parables, knowing that they are not going to understand what You say?" Jesus said, "I do that because it is not given unto them to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but unto you it is given that you should understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God." So, it is given that the church should understand the mysteries of God, but not the world. The Bible says that without a parable spoke He not unto the people, for it's not given unto them to know. Seeing, they'll not see; hearing, they'll not hear, and they'll not understand with their heart.

Moses, after forty long years of leading the children of Israel, forty years of seeing the miraculous of God and seeing the wonderful things of God, just before they went in to Canaan, he said unto them, "For forty years I've lead you through the wilderness. Your ears have never come open. For forty years I've lead you, and your eyes have never come open. Never, at any time in your heart, have you ever perceived." Forty long years. When Jesus came on the scene, He repeated that. He said, "Having eyes, you see not. Having ears, you hear not. Your heart doesn't understand." When the disciples asked Him to expound these things to them and explain the parable of the sower, He said the parable is this: those that fell by the wayside are those that hear but don't understand.

Solomon prayed, "Father, give me an understanding heart." It's often easy for us to say we don't understand. If we disagree with the preacher, if we disagree with the pastor, if we disagree with the Word of God, we just say, "I don't understand. He confused me." So we go on our way, and of course, God, letting us be a sovereignty, He lets us go on our way. He doesn't fuss with us and give us any problem.

This is the world of sovereignty. God doesn't like dictatorship here in this world because this is the world of sovereignty. He lets everybody make their choice, to do their own thing. It's sometimes a little besetting to a minister because he'd just like to pull the bridle just a little bit, and make things a little different. But there'll come a day when the Lord Jesus will be on the throne and things will be different. It will be like a dictatorship. In the millennium, He'll have one rule. Everybody will abide by it. If they don't come up to the

house of God to worship, they don't get any rain on their crops. If they rebel against Him, the Bible says that there is a great thing that happens: their eyes will consume away in their sockets. Once, He got a little upset, and He popped the whip and turned over the tables and drove the people out of the temple. Just before His decease, before He went away, He got really strong. He hadn't lifted His voice much to the people, but He got really strong, and He began to say, "Pharisees, hypocrites, Sadducees, hypocrites, lawyers, scribes, hypocrites!" He just went on and on. "Generation of vipers and serpents," He said.

That's hard to get a hold of because that's some strong preaching. He gave a parable of the sower that went forth and sowed his fields, and while he slept, an enemy came and sowed his field with tares. When they asked what this meant, He said that the enemy was the devil. The servants wanted to pluck the tares up, but he said, "No, just leave them alone. You'll pluck the wheat, too. Leave them alone and let them grow together." The rain comes on the just and the unjust, on the tare and the wheat. He said, "Just leave them alone." Don't bother them right now. Give them their sovereignty, as we say. Let them grow together. The same light that it takes to nourish a son and a daughter, that's the same light it takes to nourish what He referred to as a viper, or a serpent, or a person that is without God, who is not elect. Then they asked Him, "Well, what do we do?" He said, "Leave them alone, they'll grow together. I'll send my reapers in the last day to cut them down and we'll gather the wheat in to the garners and the chaff we'll burn with unquenchable fire."

Then they asked what this parable meant. He said, "The harvest is the end of the world. The reapers are the angels. I'll send them forth and they will come and they'll cut everything down and they'll burn the wicked and they'll gather the righteous into the kingdom of God." But they asked Him, "Where did these tares come from? Didn't You sow good seed?" He said, "I sowed good seed." They said, "Well, where did the tares come from?" He said, "They came from the devil." So we know who we are and we know where we came from. We know where we are and where we're going. The Bible says that we can differentiate and tell by this the children of God and the children of the devil.

We like to think that God brought us all into the world and He created all of us, and since He brought us all into the world, that we're all His children, regardless to what we do. A man in Texas told me one time, "God is going to save us in spite of ourselves." We like to feel that all of us belong to God, but consequently, we don't all belong to God. A woman told me one time (she looked like a Jezebel for sure), "We're all going the same way." I said, "No ma'am, we're not all headed the same way." There are people are traveling right now, some are going to California, some are going to Florida. We're not all going the same way. We're going in different directions.

But all people are not the children of God. Concerning all of those who came out of Egypt, Israel wanted to believe that all of them were the people of God. But the Bible says that in Isaac shall the seed be called. To him that is the promised child, unto whom the promise was made, in Isaac, the child of faith, shall the seed be called. Not in the natural child, as to the bondchild, or as the bondwoman, or those that are in bondage to the beggarly elements of the world, as to their human senses and infatuations of life. Not that. He said the promise is to faith's son; the son of faith, the one that couldn't come here except by faith. That's the child right there.

You've got a mother and a father. You might have brothers and sisters, and relatives in this world. We're pretty close together. When you do something to one of them, somebody says, "That's my flesh and blood, I'll have you to know." That's wonderful. There's nothing wrong with that. That's fine. You love them. Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long on the earth. But then on the other hand, there is another family. When the mother and the different ones came, they said to Jesus, "Your mother wants to see You. Your family wants to see You." He said, "Who is my mother? Who is my family?" Then He said, "These that do the will of my Father, which is in heaven." That means I have some flesh and blood, too. I'm bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, and royal blood is in my veins. He's my heavenly Father, and all the children of God are my brothers and sisters in Christ. They are my flesh and my blood and I'm dead to my family in the earth. I died out to that by the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's like the song I wrote, "I Belong to the Family of God". You spend maybe fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty years, some live longer by reason of strength, but you spend that much time with your family if some don't die and leave you, but that's a short time to spend with your family. I'm planning to spend eternity with my Christian family. So, brothers and sisters that belong to this family, we're going to have a long, long, long time together. A long, long time. It'll be such a long time together that we won't have any remembrance in the past.

So, when I say revelation, it's hard to preach revelation. Someone might ask, "Why would it be so hard?" Well, number one, it would be hard because I need all night and you won't stay that long. Paul preached all night long. He had the revelation. If we really got down to business, it would take longer than that. Moses spent eighty days without food, all by himself, trying to get a little something from God, and that was back under the law. Those things, allegorically, were the revelation beyond the veil, as Moses witnessed, as to what he had in that day. A veil was put over his face, between him and the children of Israel, because they were afraid to look at God, afraid they'd die. Then came Jesus, that veil being typical, symbolic. Paul spoke of the allegoric types and the symbols of the types and shadows. When the moon is shining, it's only a reflector and it reflects that light of the daystar, which is the sun. All you see in the night is a silhouette like thing, and it's shadowy. You know there's an image there but you can't define it enough to really tell the exact shape and characteristics of it.

That's the way it is in this world. This world is a world of darkness. I know that some of you don't feel that way, but it is. It's a world of darkness. When man fell from the garden, they fell from light into darkness, and they've been in darkness ever since. When Jesus came, He was the light of this world, and like the lamplighter of old, He just went along lighting the lamps or the candles. Then He said to the church, "Ye are the light of the world." He said, concerning those that sat in darkness, as to the regions of the shadow of death, "Great light has sprung up unto them." Now, the true light shineth, or the daystar, as it dawns within your heart.

That means, that in your brilliance of education and diplomas, exercising your senses in the natural, and in the brilliance of your experience in life, you are the more in darkness, and greater the darkness that is in you. If that darkness that is in you is to a deeper depth, then you've come to know the depths of Satan. The Bible says if that light within you be darkness, then how great is that darkness. That is to say, Satan was a reflector, and he still retains that understanding, as to a light. When you say light, you're speaking of

understanding. When you say darkness, you're speaking of intellectual ignorance. Everything in this world is a type.

Paul said, "I would that you were spiritual." He would have liked to speak unto them as unto spirituals in his day, but he could not because they were babes in Christ. He said to them to just desire the sincere milk of the Word that you might grow thereby. That's why Jesus spoke in parables to those that were without. Paul said that the church should pray that God would grant unto them the spirit of revelation. Pray that God will grant unto you, as the church, the spirit of revelation. That veil over Moses' face was symbolic of the Lord Jesus, and God, the great light, was veiled in that body, and that bodily veil was rent at Calvary.

So tonight, we're going to read from Matthew, chapter 24, if you've got your Bibles you can read with me.

Matthew 24:1-51: "And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet

tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

That's reading the entire chapter there. Now let's turn over to the book of Revelation and read just a little bit there to kind of carry our thought over. Let's read here of the sixth seal. It's the sixth chapter, twelfth verse.

Revelation 6:12-17: "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"

Reading this, we see that it goes from Matthew 24, one of the four gospels, over to the book of Revelation. Let's just bow our heads and say a word of prayer, can we? Precious heavenly Father, we thank You for Your wonderful blessings. Father, help us not to be as the seed that was sown by the wayside, Lord, that the evil ones can come and devour it. Let us not take the outlook, Father, as to not understanding, but, Father, let us understand. You said that the righteous would understand, but the wicked would not understand, and Father, the wicked would not see when good cometh. Their eyes, the eyes of their understanding, Lord, would be darkened by Lucifer, the god of darkness, even the god of this world, that they should not understand. Lord, we pray that You will make us to understand tonight. In Jesus' name.

First of all, Jesus said that great light has sprung up unto them that sat in the regions of the shadow of death. Great light. All of us are under the shadow of death. David said, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Walking under the shadow of death, and then, all of a sudden, into the world comes light. The Bible says that Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus comes in, being the light of the world, and that light is within a veil; that is to say, Christ within the body of the Lord Jesus. He said that this light shined in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. But, He said that we have the power through Christ to comprehend the height, depth, width, and length of this great wonderful thing, for unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but unto them that are without, it is not given.

In our preaching, we often use the term that when the revelation comes, it is the end of the world. Anytime the revelation comes, it is the end of the world. When we talk about the end of the world, we think about it in different ways, and most people don't understand the end of the world or the way it's coming. They say, "Brother Pike, anybody with any kind of sense would know when the end of the world is coming and what it's going to be like." But I'm afraid that you don't. The average person doesn't know at all. I find this traveling around the world, that people don't know because they do not understand spiritual things. People are just not spiritual. They spend so much time eating and drinking and buying and selling and going places, that coming to church to them is like a social thing. They come to church. They sing a set number of songs. They have a little exhortation. They might even shout. They might praise God. They might even get a little emotional. But, as to really get spiritual, very few of them around the world get spiritual. God really has to move for them to get spiritual. They even get to the place where they can exercise some faith and they sometimes will have a miracle or a healing, or somebody will go on a fast, or somebody will pray a little bit and things will happen, but to be spiritual, they still don't get spiritual. They really still don't understand the things of God, and that's bad, folks, because we need to understand the things of God.

Any time the revelation comes in any age, it is the end of the world. It came in a number of places during the past several hundred years. It came to a man by the name of Paul the apostle in his day. Paul said, "And the revelation was made known unto me, and when I write, I write so you can understand my knowledge and understanding in the mystery of God." We preach, and some people say, "It's just simple, Brother Pike. Anybody can understand the gospel." But anybody can't understand the gospel. As a matter of fact, nobody can understand the gospel except the elect of God. They are the only ones that can understand the gospel.

Paul said that when he preached the gospel, those that were ordained unto eternal life believed, and the rest did not because it was hidden from them. They couldn't even see it. The Bible says that they'll not even see when good comes. Their eyes are darkened. They intellectually reason, and though they might be great Bible scholars, and though they might be professors, yet the Bible says God has made this higher above our heads, or our understanding, than the heavens are above the earth.

There's no way you can study and get it. No way you can learn it. No way you can fast and get it. No way you can pray and get it. There is no way you can live what you call a holy life and get it. There is no way. It is strictly something that is a sovereignty with God. He gives it to whomsoever He will and whenever He will. Even the Jews, with all of their fasting and all their praying, He said to them, "Away with your solemn

assemblies," and they said, "But we've fasted before You and we've prayed and You take no knowledge." He said, "In the day of your fast, you fast to smite with the fist of wickedness." He said, "Away with that."

He took it as a sovereignty, fulfilling righteousness within His own self, as to the veil, by the body of Jesus. God reserved to Himself all rights so that no one can get to Him except through the righteousness of His Son Jesus, and nobody can get anything from God except through the lovely name of Jesus Christ. He doesn't have to give anything to anybody. He isn't obligated to anybody to give anybody anything. Some folks say, "Well, bless God, I fasted and prayed." It has nothing to do with it whatsoever. So did the one over in India, maybe about eighty or ninety days, and so have others, thirty, forty, fifty, and seventy days. Doesn't have a thing to do with it. He does what He wants to when He wants to, and in any way that He wants to. All things were created by Him and for Him and for His pleasure were they made, and without Him there was not anything made that was made. Everything was made for Him and by Him, so He does what He wants to.

That's why the Bible says, "Humble thyself in the presence of God." Many times, fasting and studying and knowledge just puffs up. It makes you think that you are something that you are not, and you get puffed up by your fleshly mind, and then you are in trouble. The Bible says to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and He will exalt you in due season. Humble yourself. Come down to a place where you can be humble. As it was with David in the Old Testament. At the battle, there were the soldiers, and his brethren, out there that had trained for battle and they were supposed to be the men of the hour, but when the time came, their courage failed. When the giant came along, their courage failed.

But here was David out on the hillside. He didn't know anything about anything. He just stayed out there and praised God, loved the Lord, and talked to the Lord. He became a friend to God and developed a heart of courage and faith in God, and when the time for the testing came, they had to send and for David. David, his little slingshot, and his skill, took care of the job.

When we think we know something, we don't know something as we ought to know. When we try to be something, we only get vainly puffed up by our fleshly mind, but when we humble ourselves, then humility goes before honor. Pride before destruction, but humility before honor. Any place in the Bible where you find God speaking of great faith, it's always humility as the forerunner.

When the man had a servant that needed healing, he sent word by a servant to Jesus. Then, when Jesus decided to come and heal his servant, the man sent word by another servant and said, "I'm not worthy that You should come under my roof; just speak the Word." Humility. Jesus said, "I've not found such great faith, no, not in Israel." A woman came and she asked for something for her daughter. Jesus, not being respect of person regarding male and female in God, He acted a little rude toward her and said, "You don't give children's bread to the dogs." She said, "I know, Lord, I know. But the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the children's table." Then He said, "Oh, woman, great is thy faith. Whatever you say, that's the way it will be," and so it happened that way.

We need humility. That's the problem with the world. The world keeps moving towards education and all of the things of the world, monetary values, polished ethics of life, raising the flesh up, as to pride, and all these kind of things. That's just exactly the devil himself. The devil is trying to get a hold of the body.

The dispute is over the body. The dispute has always been over the body. Even at the time of Moses' death, when Moses was making his departure, the devil came there and said, "This is my body." The angel said, "Satan, the Lord rebuke thee." He couldn't get a hold of that body. There was a dispute over this body because this body had been in the presence of God for eighty days, up there on the mountain. This body had gotten faith. It had bypassed death. It had conquered death through being with God. So when the devil came to get a hold of this body, the angel of the Lord said, "Satan, the Lord rebuke thee."

When you look for the body of Moses, it is supposed to be buried over there in the valley of Moab, but you don't find it over there. They've never found it even until this day. I asked the Lord once, "Where in the world is that body? I've been over in Israel. There is Abraham's body. There is Sarah's body. There's Rachel's body." There are all these other bodies. I go by the tombs and I see these tombs. I asked, "But where in the world could Moses' body be? You said You buried it down in the valley of Moab, according to the Bible."

Then I heard the Lord speak to me so clearly. He said, "You will find him on the mount of transfiguration in glory with Jesus." I looked over there and there He was. Somebody said, "The Bible says they buried him." Well, He must have buried him in glory. You know, when a bird buries something, he buries it up in a tree. So when God buries it, He can bury it wherever He wants to. Isn't that right? So then we see here Moses and Elijah, and we see Jesus, all appearing in glory.

So, the dispute is over the body. The devil came to Jesus, trying to get a hold of Jesus' body. He actually quoted the Scripture verbatim to Him, and Jesus refused to listen to him. He never disputed the Scriptures; He just said, "It is also written." Each time He would say, "It is also written," and each time He would defeat the devil, and finally the devil left Him. If the devil could have gotten the body of Moses, he would have been God in that day because God had made Moses a god to Pharaoh. If he could have gotten the body of Jesus, he would have been God throughout eternity. If he could have got Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of life after they ate of the tree of knowledge, then he would have been God. He would have had the world, and you could never have gotten it out of his hand, but God put them out of the garden to keep them from doing that after they partook of the tree of knowledge.

So, the dispute is over the body, and today there is a continual warfare between the body and the soul. In your mind, there is a continual spiritual fight, and the devil is trying to trample down the minds of humanity and he is after your mind, and he's after your body, and he's disputing with you all the time, and if he can ever put your faith down, he's got you. I don't care how much you fast. I don't care how much you pray. I don't care what church you belong to, or how much you give in the offering; it doesn't have anything to do with that. If he ever kills your faith in Christ and His righteousness, you're gone. It's by grace through faith that you are saved, and that not of yourself, but it is the gift of God. When he kills your faith, you are gone.

You can still believe that you are believing and be dead. The Bible says that if you live in trespasses and sin, you are dead while you live. You're dead. While you have the love of the world in you, the love of the Father is not there. If your desire is for houses and lands and cars and education and all the monetary values of life, you don't have anything in God.

So then, what are we talking about? The dispute is over the body. The devil is a spirit. He wants that body because he cannot eat and drink and frolic without a body. He cannot have the monetary values and the comforts and conveniences of this world without a body. He cannot have these things that have emanated from God. He cannot have passions, as to union between male and female; he can't have the fornicating acts and the adultery of life unless he can get into a body. He has to get into a body to cause this kind of corruption, and he has deceived mankind. Man, through the weakness of the flesh, the woman being a type, lost their inheritance and what God had given Adam, and it went to the devil. God then clothed Himself in a vesture of flesh, robed Himself in a robe of humanity, and came down into this world and gave the very blood out of His veins that He might redeem it and give it back to man. Now, here man has given it back to the devil again. This time he's really given it to him on a full scale.

You can't go into a restaurant, you can hardly go anywhere at all, and sit down and eat a decent meal without it sounding like the drums in the jungles. I'd have to apologize to those in the jungles. These people here sound a lot worse than the jungle. That's right. Going over into Africa and having crusades, there is no comparison with America and the music they have over here. It literally drives people wild. I've seen even the little children get up from the table, while they're trying to eat, and start moving and prancing. I see the others, around about, they can't sit at the table without the devil motivating and moving their body. The world is gone. They've given themselves to the devil, and they've given the world back to the devil, and they don't want you to say anything about it. It's even crept in to the churches. Over in one of the biggest churches in Atlanta, Georgia, the Church of God, they've let a rock and roll group come in that was so bad that even the newspapers gave a big write up against it saying it was so terrible. Across the world, it's been accepted.

Where is holiness? Where is the life of holiness? Someone would say, "That's a thing of the past, Brother Pike." If holiness is a thing of the past, then eternal life is a thing of the past. When the Spirit came upon John the Baptist's father, he stood up and said, "That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life." It's always been down through the years that God told Israel, "When you live holy and you keep yourself from the accursed thing, I will bless you, and in the day that you fail to do it, I'll do you the same way that I've done the others."

Moses told them just before they went in to Canaan, "I want you to know that God is going to take you in to Canaan and give you Canaan, but not because you are good. You've been a rebellious people since the first day I ever knew you. He's not driving these nations out because you are a good people to give you their land, but He's driving these nations out because they are wicked. He's going to let you go on in because you found favor with God through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob your forefathers, and because they were friends to God, I'm going to do this for his children. But I warn you that in the day that you go in to Canaan and you do the things that these nations do, I'm going to drive you out the same way I drove them out."

He's the same yesterday, today and forever. Some might say, "Well, Brother Pike, in this day, don't you realize that we've got grace? We're the church, and God's taken our sins away" I do. But do you realize that in this day we're living in, those people out there are not the church and yet God took their sins away, too? Somebody says, "My God, Brother Pike, you don't preach that?" Yes, that's what I preach. The Bible says, "God saved us while we were yet in our sins."

Why would He save us while we were yet in our sins, and not save those folks out there while they are yet in their sins? Wouldn't that be respect of person? Didn't He say He saved us while we were yet in our sins? The Bible says Jesus died to take away the sins of the world, and as long as that blood is on the seat of atonement, as long as that mercy is there, then God is going to let everybody in the world be a sovereignty and do like they want to do. He doesn't see their sins and He doesn't see their wrongs because He cannot look on iniquity. He is only giving them grace because the church has to have a certain amount of time to get ready, and when the church gets ready, and the church goes out of here, then that blood is coming off that seat of atonement. The blood won't be there anymore. There won't be any more grace. When that blood comes off of the seat of atonement, God won't look at their iniquities. He can't look at iniquity. He'll just destroy the whole thing. When the light of the church is gone, He'll destroy every bit of it, but right now they are getting along just as good as you are.

You don't realize it, but you are already in heaven. All of the people are already in heaven. Somebody says, "My God, Brother Pike, do you know what you're saying?" I believe I do. Somebody said, "You might as well say the devil is in heaven." That's what I'm saying. Somebody said, "You mean to tell me that the devil is in heaven?" The Bible says John, in the twelfth chapter of the book of Revelation, looked up, and there in heaven, he saw the devil. He saw the woman, the church, in great travail, ready to give birth, and he saw the devil right there ready to devour the child just as soon as she gave birth.

Do you realize that when God took away the sins of the world, that the devil is living in those human bodies out there, and as long as there is grace on those human bodies, the devil is in heaven? Did you know that it's heaven when you can go to a dentist and stop a pain? When you can go to a doctor and get something to heal you to keep you from dying of cancer? Did you know it's heaven when you can eat and drink and do what you want to, have your own way, and spew off like a Roman candle and nobody does anything about it? Somebody says, "Well, I don't believe that's heaven." I've said this and I'm going to say it again tonight. When you get to hell, if you go there, you'll be able to differentiate, and you can tell the difference between heaven and hell. The rich man in hell couldn't even get one drop of water to cool his tongue. That was hell.

So, there is a world of difference. Now the question is, what heaven is it? Paul said, "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, such an one caught up to the third heaven." So there must be a second heaven and there must be a first heaven if there was a third heaven. Someone would say, "I dispute that." The Bible says heaven and earth is going to pass away. So if heaven and earth is going to pass away, that means that you folks aren't going anywhere. Your talk about going to heaven, you said you are going to heaven, but if heaven and earth are going to pass away, then you won't have any place to go unless there is more than one of them.

Somebody says, "I don't believe there's another one of them." The Bible says, "And I saw a new heaven. I saw a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." God's got a new heaven and a new earth, and it's going to be filled with the righteousness of God. There is a new heaven and there is a new earth, and the Bible says that we are looking for a new heaven and a new earth and worlds, in the plural, without end, and to the increase of His kingdom, there shall be no end.

There is a dispute over the body, and that dispute is between Satan and God. God, who is Spirit, made this body for Himself, and made Jesus Christ in the likeness of this image to be the head of the tribe, that He might be God of His people, that He might be king of His people. The devil has tried his best to get into a body, even at the end time with the antichrist, to raise up, as it would be, the beast so that he can control all of humanity and keep this perversion, and all these things going that are contrary to the Word of the Lord.

One thing he doesn't understand is why everybody dies. He can't keep them alive. He's trying hard through the medical world to keep them alive, but he can't do it because the Bible says the soul that sinneth shall surely die, and he can't keep them alive. He would if he could. He'd keep this corrupt government going. He'd keep people alive and keep them going. He'd keep them from marrying. He'd keep them like a bunch of beasts, and everything would be illegitimate and perverted, and he'd keep this rock and roll, and all of this stuff going.

But, God is going to do away with the tares. There are some daughters of the devil and there are some sons of the devil, like those that were religious when they looked at Jesus and said the things that they did, as to attack Him. He said, "You are of your father the devil." He didn't say that they were created by God and came in by God. Jesus said the devil sowed those tares. Someone would say, "How did it happen?" Back when Eve got a hold of that tree of knowledge. After that, we had a flock of devils born. They came in because it was the wicked one that was sowing the seed. That seed today is still the seed of intellectual darkness and intellectual ignorance, and the Bible says it's carnality, and to be carnally minded is death.

I can have all the carnal things I want to have. Paul said, "If I have sown unto you spiritual things, shall I not reap of your carnal? If other men be partakers of these, am I not the more?" I can have a car. I can have a home. I can have land. I can have all of these things. As we sometimes say, the three-fold blessing of God is a natural, a physical and a spiritual blessing.

As to the natural things in this world, I can have them because I need them. They are necessitated of life. I can have cars and houses and land and money and whatever I need. The Bible says that God hath given you the power to get wealth, and it's the blessing of the Lord that maketh you rich and addeth no sorrow. If you'll delight yourself in Me, I will make you to ride upon the high places of the earth and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob. I will give you the desires of your heart. You'll be like a tree that's planted by the rivers of waters to bring forth your fruit in your season. Your leaf shall not wither. Whatever you do shall prosper.

Then He said, as to your physical being, that if I have the natural things of the world, I must have health to enjoy it. What good is it to have these things and not have health? Solomon said, "There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof." So then, I must have health. The Lord said, "I would above all things that you prosper and be in health."

But then I need something else, and that is soul security. I need spiritual security. I need something that is in my soul and my spirit and my life that gives me a security that will be an eternal bond of security that will take care of my natural wealth and physical wealth. Throughout eternity, I'll have a spiritual inheritance that will stop the devil from ever taking this away from me again. So God would that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers. If you have the soul prosperity, if you have Christ, you can have all of these other carnal things.

But, there is one thing you cannot have and that's a carnal mind. You cannot be carnally minded. To be carnally minded is death. God will give you anything you want in this world. He made all things for you, but you can't have a spirit of perversion and misuse these things, as Satan would have you to do. God will give you the desires of your heart. All of the things in the world are made for you, but there is one thing God will not do. He will not let you be carnally minded. When you get automobile minded, and when you get worldly attire on your mind, as to the gullible desires of life, or to the love of the world within you, or the monetary values of life, when you get this in your mind and you get thus minded, you are dead while you live. They that live in pleasure and sin are dead while they live, and some twice dead, plucked up by the root, which means they are spiritually dead also.

God will give you the desires of your heart, but the devil is ever warring to get you to be naturally minded. The more natural things you get, the more carnally minded you become. The more of the world's wealth you get, the more carnality that is seen in your life. This was the thing God warned the children of Israel against, saying to be careful when you go into Canaan, when you get your blessing from the Lord, as in our day, when you get these things that God has promised to you, beware lest you get lifted up and say, "Who is God that I should listen to God?" Who is God that I should pay attention to God?

Prosperity leads people away from God. Unless you are really anchored in God, the first thing you want is fame. You want popularity. You want to be before the people. You want to lord over God's heritage, or you want to run things. Even the preacher has trouble with you. Let a person get a little wealth and get him in the church, and the preacher will have a hard time with him. But not with a poor fellow. The Bible says that the poor uses entreaty, but the rich answer haughtily. Let somebody get a little wealth, and they get lifted up and the preacher has to rub them a little bit different, you know. If he ever rubs them wrong, then they get bristled up and he has problems.

I'd rather not have people like that. I'd rather have a group of poor folks, if that's what it takes. If I can't have somebody that will conform to the way of God, then I don't want the rich. I don't want the educated. I don't want those that are lifted up, if that's what I've got to deal with. I'm not speaking against the rich, because there are rich people that follow our ministry and they're good folks. They love the Lord. I'm not speaking against education or professors. We've had all kinds of people. Not too long ago, a Catholic priest converted to follow our ministry.

The thing I'm saying is not against individuals, nor against what they've got, but against the carnality that's in their life. When a person is carnal and they want to control things, or in their mind they want to be a preacher, or they want to be the deacon, or they want to be the leader, or they want to take control of the church, that's a bad situation, folks. In some churches I go to, they don't have any order. They don't have any system. You can sing until you sing your lungs out. You can shout, you can jump, you can do anything. Nobody says anything because they're afraid they'll hurt the Spirit. They don't systemize anything because they're just actually spiritually ignorant and they don't understand, because to them, you just follow the Spirit.

I've been to churches where I've seen this actually happen, where they all sit down, nobody would get up to preach, nobody would do anything but just sit there and say they are waiting for the moving of the Spirit. I've seen this happen. While we all sat there, I saw a women get up, take her little baby and lay it on the altar and change the dirty diaper while we were all sitting there waiting for the leading.

God said even when people prophesy, even when people speak in tongues, there should be an order of one, two, at the most three, and that by course, of one at a time and others should interpret. How much more should you have some kind of control over the singing and other things? There is a time for everything. What am I saying? I'm saying that the devil is wrestling to get a hold of the church. He's wrestling for the body, and as long as I'm ignorant and you're ignorant and they're ignorant, he's going to take it over until we come to some understanding in God.

Somebody might say, "Well, I feel like you should follow the leading of the Spirit." Well, why don't you let them do that in your house? The wife says, "I don't feel led to cook this morning for breakfast, and I don't feel led to cook any supper. We'll just follow the leading of the Spirit, and as for the beds being made up, I just don't have a leading to do it." The husband says, "I don't have any leading to go make a living, either." Sissy comes in and she wants to do whatever she wants to do so. She has a leading to take over the house and invite all her boyfriends over and do whatever she likes. Junior doesn't like it so he has a leading to sock Sissy in the face, or slap her jaws. Oh, nothing like that happens, Brother Pike. Everywhere I go it happens! Not just that, but they actually kill each other. Do you know why? Because they are ignorant. They don't have any leadership. No father, no mother to tell them anything. The Bible says that the parents have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are on edges. The Bible says that in the last days, the children would rise up against the parents and put the parents to death.

It is a terrible hour. Why? Because the devil is trying to get a hold of the body. He makes Junior rise up in the home, and father's so afraid and mother is so afraid to say anything to Junior. They're afraid he'll throw

the shoe through the window, or he'll jump in the car and he'll wreck the car. You get in the car and you go down the road and mother says, "Bless God, I'll open the door and jump out and break my neck if you don't do what I want you to do!" Sometimes they let them do that.

We had a case not too long ago where one said, "I'm going to jump out!" The man said, "There's the door," so she jumped out. That was the last time, as far as I know, she jumped out. It didn't kill her, but it sure did teach her a lesson. It wasn't long before I heard about another case, she said, "I'm going to jump out!" So she jumped out. It didn't kill her, but it taught her a lesson. I haven't heard of her jumping out again. As a matter of fact, the last one that jumped out made the statement, "It's for sure I'll never jump out again. Next time I'll push you out."

So what are we up against? We're up against the devil. We're fighting. We should stand our ground. We should not give place to the devil. Whether it's Junior, or Sissy, or Mama, or Daddy, whatever it is, let's go back to the Bible, and whatever the Word of God says, let that be it. At the church, I tell my brothers and sisters that there is one thing about it. We'll all give our opinions. We'll do our best. We'll say whatever we can, and do the best we can, and when we get to where we can't understand this thing and the things don't work out right, we'll go back to God's Word and He'll be the ultimate in our conversation. The Bible says, "In the beginning was God," and what we need to do is go back to the Word of God, go back to God and we can stop the devil from taking our mind, taking our body, and taking these things.

Let's try to be a little bit spiritual. At Calvary, the veil has been rent in twain, the veil that was over Moses' face. The Bible says, as to that covenant, that they could not look unto the end of that because of the veil. Not being able to look steadfastly unto the end, therefore God abolished death, and today the veil is gone. Today, the true light is shining, and we are seeing differently from what they saw in that day, if we have come into the light. The veil is that intellectual carnality of the mind that came into the weakness of the flesh, through Eve, there in the garden. That carnal mind of death, even the voice of Lucifer.

Man's spirit has been in captivity ever since Adam. In Adam all die, because this light, this perverted power of control, has been handed down from one person to another. When a baby is born into the world, we looked at that little baby and we said, "What a beautiful little thing." And truly, the Bible says that children are an heritage from God. They really are and they belong to the Lord. But, as to the image, as to their birth, when that little fellow is born into the world, it is the image of the devil. Did you know that you are the image of the devil, and did you know that unless you are born again and take on the image of Christ, that you are not made in the likeness of God?

Some might say, "Well, bless God, Brother Pike, I'm made in the image of God!" No. Adam and Eve were made in the image of God, and Adam lost it. You ever hear that phrase, "He lost it? She lost it? I can't handle it. I'm losing it." Well, you don't have to worry, you've already lost it. You lost it through Adam. You are facing death. The Bible says that you are the image of iniquity, and it says, "In iniquity did my mother conceive me." The Bible says, concerning Jesus, four hundred and eighty-three years before He came to the cross, that Messiah will come and make and end of sin. He will make an end of transgression, and He will make an end of iniquity, and from that time, God has taken away sin. How did He take away sin? Paul said,

"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Then he said, "I thank God that for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh."

God has now brought to light immortality, and we've been born again, and in the foreknowledge of God, God does not see our bastard child image anymore, but He is looking at the image of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are members in particular of that body. We are members in particular, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. We are the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. We already are we the sons of God; not going to be. We're already the sons of God. We've already passed from death unto life.

The Bible says the wicked won't understand, but the righteous will understand. If you are born of God, if you are actually born of God and God comes into your heart and you are born of God, then the Bible says that he that is born of God cannot sin. Somebody said, "Well, that means if you do good." Since when does it mean that? He told Israel that with all the good they had done, He didn't accept it. What could they do? He didn't accept their fasting. He didn't accept their praying. He didn't accept their offerings, He said that it's an abomination in His sight.

So then, what do you have to do to do good? The Bible says, "There is none good, no, not one. All have gone astray. Every man has turned to his own way. God has laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ the iniquity of us all." He was the one that was bruised for our transgression. Our chastisement was upon Him, by whose stripes we are healed. He said, "I am the Lord God that healeth all of thy diseases and forgiveth all thine iniquities."

So then, what do you have to do to do good? The Bible says, "He that is born of God cannot sin." It didn't say he may not sin. It didn't say if you hold on and that you can make it and not sin. It said, "He that is born of God cannot sin." Do you want to dispute that? If you've got your Bibles, you can have a dispute with God tonight. We'll take all night long if you want to. He that is born of God cannot sin. I had a fellow come to me not long ago, and he said, "It says that if any man says that he has no sin, he's of the devil. He's a liar." That's right. He did say that he was lying. I said, "The same fellow who wrote that, just read on a little farther, and he's the same fellow that said, 'He that is born of God cannot sin'." I think John knew what he was talking about. He that is born of God cannot sin.

Sometimes we don't understand, but did you know that if you committed one tiny, little bitty speck of sin after your new birth, no bigger than the point of a pin, the finest point that was ever honed, you would be eternally damned and never could get back to God? The Bible says that he that is born of God keepeth himself and the evil one toucheth him not. He is without spot and without wrinkle and without blemish. The inner man is sealed, as to the inside man. He is born of the Holy Spirit and is sealed, and the Bible says, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption," or the witting of the redemption of your body, which body has been purchased by Christ at Calvary. I'm thankful that God took this out of the way, because in the days of the Jews, it was a holier-than-thou thing. We've still got preachers with that same holier-than-thou thing. We've still got people that lord over others, and some weak Christian out there, just trying to hold on, just a little baby, and they'll put their foot down on it and literally crush that thing by some foolish ritualistic that they are doing. When you check into their lives,

they're straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. I pointed out some things, not too long ago, to a group of people that really thought that they were elite. When we got through pointing some things out, they realized that they needed a good wash job from God. Somebody would say, "You're trying to give us a brain washing." No, I am trying to give you a heart washing.

So we see that the devil is after the body. It's not a matter of what you can do and I can do; it's a matter of what Jesus Christ did, and the Bible says for you to be strong in the power of His might. He has already done it for you. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith. Your faith in what He has done for you, to believe, no matter what the devil does to you. Someone might say, "Well, that means I can go out and wallow in the vomit, like the old sow back to her wallowing in the mire, like the dog back to his vomit." No, it doesn't mean that at all. Somebody would say, "Well, you're telling me that I can't sin. If I do these things, I'm still a Christian. I've been born again and I can't sin." No, if you do those things you're not a Christian and you have not been born again. You are a liar if you say that you are. The Bible says, "He that is born of God cannot sin." It says he cannot sin. It says where these things are, there is no conscious of sin. All of the sin has been taken away. That's why God gave a new covenant, because in the old covenant, under the law, sin was always brought back to God's remembrance. God wanted to put it away once and for all. He wanted to get rid of that kind of thing.

So then, we realize that he that is born of God is a son of God. Can a son of God sin? He is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, members in particular. Can the Lord Jesus Christ sin? No. Somebody might say, "Well, Brother Pike, when I stumble and stagger, what is that?" We pray, "Father, forgive us our trespasses even as You forgive others their trespasses." Now then, if we cannot sin, then that means we've passed from death unto life. If you do sin, the Bible says that you're of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. It says, "He that sinneth is of the devil."

Folks, you may stumble, you may stagger, you may make many mistakes, trying to do your best as a babe. A babe will stumble and stagger and Father and Mother have to lift it up. It burns its little finger here and there. It hurts itself, but it still belongs to you. It's blood of your blood and bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh, and all its little stumblings and staggerings don't change the fact that it's part of your family. Those babes need strength. The Bible says that if you offend one of them that trust in Him, it's better that a millstone be tied about your neck and you drown in the depths of the sea. These need comfort. These need strength. These need help.

I'm not talking about the preacher getting up here and letting everything that comes in off of the street and comes from everywhere. I'm not talking about that. I believe in a standard of holiness and godliness and pureness to the best of your ability, and God requires it out of you. I'm just saying, that when I've done my very best, and my strength fails to be able to accomplish what I want to accomplish, as to the stature of Christ, then the Lord takes care of it. He is the link that makes up my chain. As Abraham Lincoln said, "A chain is no stronger than its weakest link." Wherever I've got a weak link, Jesus locks it together so that my chain doesn't have any weakness in it. It's been said, "Everyone has a weakness." Where do you find a weakness in the man Christ Jesus? Pilate said, "I find no fault in Him." If we're the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, where is our weakness?

We need to perfect our ways in holiness, and we need to perfect our ways before God. We need to get our mind on God, and get our mind on holiness. We need to get back to the Word of the Lord and faith in the Word of God. We don't need to trust in carnality, and we don't need to trust in ritualistics. We don't need to get our mind on the world. We need to love God, praise God, have faith in God, and realize our sins are gone. Our sins are not leaving; they're gone. Someone says, "Well, when we stand in the day of judgment, the Lord puts so much over here on this side of the scale and so much on this side of the scale, and if it balances thus and thus according to His evaluation, we're all right." That's not right at all. The Bible says that judgment begins in the house of God. You've passed from death unto life. When you are born again, you can't be unborn. Somebody says, "Ah ha! But in this life, you can die." I know. But thank God, in that life, you can't. That's why it's eternal life.

If you could die, it wouldn't be eternal life. I've heard people say, "Adam had eternal life, and Eve had eternal life. But they died." There is nothing said about them having eternal life. Where did you ever find that in the Bible? Where does it say anything about Adam and Eve having eternal life? You know they didn't have eternal life. If they had eternal life, they would have never died. They were illuminated with the presence of God. I'm not illuminated with the presence of God. Those people out there are illuminated with the presence of God because the blood is on the seat of atonement. That's what makes it a second heaven. They are where John saw them in the twelfth chapter of Revelation.

But the thing is, I'm not illuminated. I am born of the Shekinah glory of God. I am inbred with it. The Holy Spirit is in me and I'm in Him. It's in my inner spirit. He's in my heart. I'm His temple. He walks in me. Am I illuminated? I'm illuminated just like they are, as to take care of the church body. While it was yet without the change, He had to let it go on them, too. They're getting the benefits of it, just to take care of us in the body. But I'm speaking of being born again. I'm speaking of revelation. I'm speaking of understanding. The veil has been rent in twain.

It is strange that when the Bible says that the veil was rent in twain, the Bible spoke of these people, being carnal, these people being natural minded, and they thought that Jesus was talking about a temple here in this world, like this church building, like Moses had in the tabernacle. Indeed, He did mean that the veil was rent in twain, as to the natural. It was rent in twain, as between the holy place and the most holy. The veil of the covering cherubs was rent in twain. But, folks, that wasn't what He was talking about. The Bible says, "They understood not that He spake of His body until after His death and resurrection." He was speaking of His body. His body was the temple of God. You're the temples of God. When the Bible says the veil of the temple was rent in twain, it said He made in Himself twain, or two, both Lord and Christ, and when the veil was rent in twain, it meant that the Spirit had been separated from the body, or the Lord had been separated from the Christ, and that body had thus done its work and fulfilled the law, and now that body was ready to be laid away. Jesus said, "Not one jot nor one tittle of the law shall pass until all be fulfilled." When Jesus came, He said, "Think not that I come to destroy the law; I've come to fulfill." He fulfilled every jot and every tittle. He fulfilled everything that was required of those people under the law that they could not do. Jesus died to redeem those that were under the law, and He fulfilled every jot and every tittle of it, folded it up and laid it away and give us grace.

So, when the veil was rent in two, the Christ stepped out of that veil that was over Moses' face, as it was said. That bodily flesh, as to the law and the keeping of ordinances that stood between man and his salvation and his eternal life. The Bible says God has done away with that, and He nailed it to the cross. He took all of the ordinances out of the way, and today we are free from the law. I say this: if I pass from death unto life, then that means that I'm free from the law, because transgression of the law is sin, and the sting of death is sin. So then, if I'm dead to the law by the body of Jesus and He fulfilled every jot and tittle for me, I cannot transgress the law.

Can a man that's in the grave transgress the laws in Mississippi? Can he do that? No, he's dead to the law. I'm dead to the law. Paul said, "Reckon yourselves to be dead to the law." Be dead to the things of the world. Come out from the world. Be a separate people. Touch not the unclean things and I'll receive you, saith the Lord. God has redeemed us from the curse. Cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree, and we're redeemed from the curse and we're free from the curse of death.

If I cannot sin (he that is born of God cannot sin), then I cannot die, because the sting of death is sin. If I cannot sin, how then can I die? I cannot die. I'm born into this world a living soul, but now I've passed from death unto life. The second man Adam was made a quickening Spirit, and I'm bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. In my world, there is no conscience of sin. All of it is gone. While people were under the law, it brought the remembrance sin to God over and over. Now, God never has a remembrance of our sins. He says, "Peace on earth and good will toward men." Eternally and forever. Jesus, having been delivered for my offenses, is now raised again for my justification. He ended my offenses when He died, then He raised again to prove that death has no power over you and I. We are alive forever more. We are buried with Him in baptism in His lovely name, raised again by the power of God in the resurrection. Having been buried with Him in death, we are now living with Him in this wonderful resurrection of life.

We know that we have passed from death unto life. When the veil was rent in twain, the body of the law was folded up and laid away, and it meant the body of this death was gone and my spirit, at death, went back to God who gave it. I'm hid now with Christ in God whom the heavens have received until the time of the restoring, or the resurrection, or the millennium, that coming in of the new world. That's why we will be translated.

The world doesn't know this. The world's sins are gone momentarily, during this age of dispensational grace. But when the church goes out, the devil is no longer in the light of God. He is no more in heaven. He's in darkness. The Bible says great darkness, so great that they'll gnaw their tongues for pain, and there won't even be so much as a healing medicine. They won't even have enough sense to make a bottle of medicine. Somebody would say, "These wonderful medical people." I know God has raised up some, and I thank God for that. It's just like a mechanic for a car. A physical physician, a spiritual physician. Archeologists for the world. But, folks, let me tell you something. Healing comes from God. I don't care whether you get it through the hospital, wherever you get it, and if you think it doesn't come from God, then what are you going to do with the Word of God when it said, "In that day there shall be no healing medicines"?

There will still be professors around. There will still be doctors around. Why is it they can't bring us any healing medicine if they're around in that day? Because it doesn't have anything to do with them. It is the grace of God. While that blood is on the seat of atonement, God is allowing these things, and when the light of understanding goes out, there won't be anything at all that can rid them of their pain. Not a thing. While we're in this condition, this is what makes us rejoice.

If I have to fast and pray and beg and cry every time I stumble and God slaps me down, and I have to fast two weeks to get back up, what have I got to rejoice for? How can I say, "Glory to God. Hallelujah. I thank You Jesus." How can I thank Him? He hasn't done anything for me if that's the case. That's the way it was with the Jews. They would rise up and say, "I'm a priest. I'm a holy men. Do it my way." But when Jesus came along, He didn't like that, so He did away with all of that. I say, "Glory to God!" because it is glory to God. All the glory is to God. He did it all. He paid it all. All to Him I owe. I say, "Hallelujah!" because I've got something to say hallelujah about! I don't say, "Hallelujah! If I can just fast and hold on." No. No. I say, "Hallelujah! Glory to God! Amen! Praise God, my sins are gone! They're underneath the blood of Calvary. As far removed as darkness is from dawn, and they're in the sea of God's forgetfulness. That's good enough for me. Hallelujah! My sins are gone!" Someone might say, "Well, bless God, I know they're gone, but ..." That isn't the case at all! You need a good case of getting born again. Your faith will never translate you and take you anywhere.

If you don't have the faith of Jesus Christ, the faith by which we're sanctified, you don't have anything. I know the world says that nobody is perfect, but the man that says that is a liar. The Bible says Job was a perfect man. The Bible says, "Mark the perfect man that is among you, and watch the end of a perfect man," which is peace. The Bible says that God has perfected forever them that are sanctified and sanctified them once and for all by the offering up of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish, and the evil one never touches you at any time. You keep yourself.

What are we talking about? We're talking about perfect folks. The Bible says that those that He sanctified, He has also perfected forever. If you're not perfect, you're not a Christian. To be Christ-like means to be perfect. They were first called Christians at Antioch because they acted like Jesus. The nature of a man brings about an image. It doesn't matter if it's an apple, an orange, or seed for corn, or butter beans. Whatever it is, it brings a conformity of the image as to the nature.

If you have the nature of Jesus Christ, then you've passed from death unto life. How did you pass from death unto life if you're not perfect? It's because He fulfilled every jot and every tittle of the law, and because He fulfilled every jot and every tittle of the law, that made you perfect. The Word of God says that God has sanctified us once and for all by the offering of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary.

I know there is a daily sanctification, where you sanctify yourself to utilize your ability for Christ. It has nothing to do with your salvation at all. That has to do with the utilization of your ability, whether to a thirty-fold, sixty-fold, or hundred-fold, what you accomplish in this world for God. The Bible says, "Paul, turn My people from darkness unto light, unto the faith which is in Me, by which you are sanctified." If you have the Son, then you have the life, for the Bible says this life is in the Son. If you have not the Son, then

you don't have life. If you have not the Spirit of God, you don't have life, for the Bible says if you have not His Spirit, you're none of His. There is but one Spirit.

So, the veil has been rent in twain. What happened? My body was buried in Jesus Christ. My spirit went back unto God who gave it, and today, my spirit dwells in heaven, hid with Christ in God whom the heavens have received. My body has already been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, but it hasn't been changed, as to the last trumpet, the Thessalonians change, in the moment in the twinkling of an eye. That's why the people in the world have grace. That's why they are illuminated, like Adam and Eve were. Someday that illumination will lift. Right now, they're illuminated by the righteousness of those who love God. The blood is still on the seat of atonement as to Him, the head of the church, until the church is perfected as to their ability to utilize, to bring this body to wit the redemption; not to bring this body to redeem it, as if by some good works, nor to bring this body to some place where God is going to save you. That has nothing to do with it. I was saved when I was born again. I passed from death unto life. I got into the God family, and that Christ on the inside is still there, like a little babe in the womb. Paul said, "I travailed until Christ be formed within you." I'm waiting for the inward life to be made manifest in my mortal genes, as to the change. I'm going on to perfection, and the more I get perfect on the inside, as to the development, then the more it's released into my body and my body is thus perfected. Is the life in a little baby a perfect life? Sure it's a perfect life, just as you're a perfect life. It might not be but two days old, but if it's living, it's a perfect life and it grows and grows and grows, and if that body responds to that life, having no deformity, it will be a perfect body, and that's what we're working for.

I've passed from death unto life. How did I pass from death unto life? Because I cannot sin. How is it I cannot sin? Because I'm born of God. Somebody would say, "Bless God, I don't think you ought to say that." Well, that's what the Bible says. The Bible says I'm saved by faith in the Word, and if I believe that, I have to say that. If I don't believe that, I just lay that aside and say, "Well, I just don't understand it," and I make God a liar if I say that I'm a Christian, if I really am a Christian, if that were possible at all, which it isn't. The Bible says that he that is born of God cannot sin. The Bible says that we have an unction from the Holy One and we know all things. The Bible says the wicked shall not understand, but the righteous shall understand.

So I'm born again. That's means sin is at an end. Sin is gone. Jesus made an end of it. Four hundred and eighty-three years after the end of the Babylonian captivity, and then He made an end of it. God smote the bastard child image, which was you and me, in Jesus. He was made like unto us in the body, and thus the sun would not shine and everything became as dark as sackcloth of hair, and then Jesus said, "Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" It was because He wanted to save me, that's why. The Bible says that He that knew no sin was made sin, even my sin, your sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So then, if I can't sin, I can't die. Somebody would say, "What do you mean can't die? Why do they put people in the grave?" Because some of the are dead. "You mean they put some of them in a grave and they're dead, but some of them that they put in a grave are not dead?" That's exactly what I mean. You figured it out. "You mean to tell me, Brother Pike, that you are ignorant enough to think that when they put men into graves, and neither one of them can breathe, and they throw dirt in on top, that some of them are dead and some are not dead?" That's what I'm talking about. I've had people say, "Well, there's one thing that bothers me. I hope that they'll never bury me alive." Well, you don't have to worry about that. If you've ever worked around embalming, you've seen them rip that jugular vein and pull all that blood out and put fluid in. You say, "Why are you saying that?" I'm just doing that to humble you a little bit so you'll lose some of your prestige. People get to living, eating, and drinking and they forget there's a day like that coming.

It's appointed unto man once to die. Somebody says, "There you are, right there. That's the Scripture I've been looking for, Brother Pike. It is appointed unto man once to die. That means, Brother Pike, you're doing to die, I'm going to die, and everybody else is going to die." No, that's not right. It meant I was going to die and you were going to die, but we died through Jesus before the world ever was. God took care of that before I was ever born into the world. Somebody says, "But it's appointed unto man once to die." I know, but I'm not a man; I'm a son of God! What difference does that make if I'm a son of God? When an elephant begets elephants, as you use the terms, it's an elephant. If it's a dog, you would say it's a dog, unless you have a better vocabulary. If it's a man, you say it's a son of a man. When I was born of God, what happened to me? I'm a son of God. What does that mean? Well, Jesus gave us a little break down on that. When they were going to stone Him, He asked, "For what good works? For opening the eyes of the blinded eyes, raising the dead, healing the crippled? For these good works? Which good work do you stone Me?" They said, "We don't do that for good works. But we stone You because You being a man, make Yourself God." All He did was say He was the Son of God.

Now, could that mean that you are a god when you say you are a son of God? If an elephant could talk, and it was a son of an elephant, could he say that he was an elephant and be justified? Or if he was a man, could he say he was a man and be justified in it? I believe that we can say that we are gods and be justified in it. Jesus told them, "Is it not written that I have called ye gods?" He called them gods. He said, "Moses, I've made you a god to Pharaoh." I searched the Scriptures, in the Old Testament, to see what He was saying, and there it was in Psalms, where the Spirit spoke through David and said, "Ye are gods, but ye shall die like men." Why shall you die? For the lack of knowledge, or knowing, that ye are gods.

What is a god? A god is something that lives forever. It doesn't die. In every generation, it's still alive. Things don't live on and on unless it's a god. It is a god. That is why the Bible says, "I'll make the whole world come and kneel at your feet and know that I have loved you." Paul said they magnify God and glorify God within me. You are the body of Jesus Christ. How many believe Jesus Christ was God? How could you be a member of His body and not be God? How could you be the son of a monkey and not be a monkey? We are the sons of God, and He begat gods. Gods begat gods and dogs begat dogs and elephants begat elephants and men begat men.

Somebody says, "Why can't we die, Brother Pike?" The reason we can't die is gods don't die. That's why we can't die. When we passed from death unto life, sin was over, and today we cannot sin, and because we cannot sin we cannot die. O death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory? The grave doesn't have any victory, because there is no sting of death.

We may go to the grave, but we don't die. How can this be? Because Jesus said, concerning Lazarus, "Lazarus is asleep. I go to awake him." What do we do? We go to asleep. Somebody says, "Six of one, half a dozen of the other. When you're dead you're done." A man told me this over in Boston one time. But Jesus said, "In that you don't understand, Lazarus is dead. According to your terms, he's dead, and I'm glad that I wasn't there so that you can see the glory of God." Or that is, He could have said, "You will see that I'm the resurrection." So then, Lazarus sleepeth. Jesus went to awake him.

When people die, you don't awake them. You don't wake up a dead man. Paul said, "Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but be changed." Some of us, as I say so often, are not sleepy, so we're not going to go to sleep. A man doesn't go to sleep if he's not sleepy. We're not going to sleep. That is, there are some that are coming along now in this message and in this age, and have come along far enough, and the time is just right that they'll never be put in a casket and they won't be put in the ground. They'll never die. They'll never even go to sleep.

What is the difference? When you say "die", then we then put them in the grave. We bury them. Is that then death? Not to a Christian. What does the Bible mean when it says that we've passed from death unto life? That's what it means. We've passed from death unto life. What death, since we may be put into the ground like everybody else at a certain time? Why is it that we're put in the ground, if we've passed from death? There must be a difference between those that are put in the ground.

When Jesus said you have passed from death unto life, He was speaking of the second death. The Bible calls it the second death. The lake of fire. A Christian's soul can never go into the lake of fire. To have your spirit separate from your body is sleep. The body without the spirit is dead, according to your terms. It is sleep if you are a Christian, because Christ is in your spirit, and your spirit goes back to God who gave it. But if your spirit separates from God's Spirit, that's death. If you live in this life and you never get God's Spirit, which is Christ's Spirit, into your spirit, as to a new birth, you are dead. When you close your eyes and you breathe your last breath, you are as the rich man who lifted up his eyes in hell.

But, as it was with Lazarus, in the foreknowledge of God, it's given to us in Christ before the world ever was. Our names are written down in the Lamb's book of life before the world ever was. Paul said to greet his workers whose names are in the Lamb's book of life, already having passed from death unto life. With these kind of things, what are I saying? That the first is only a sleep. There is but one death. Jesus calls it the second death, because to those who lose out in this world, it's death. He said, "Lazarus is asleep." But since you don't understand, He could have said, "He is dead. I go to awake him."

He's going to wake us up in the morning because we're just resting awhile. But those that are in hell, who look across the great gulf, they'll never be awake to life again. They are in hell and they are very much alive, the way that you take it as to life, but it is really not life. If you are in this world and in pain from the time you wake up in the morning until you go to bed at night, that's a living nightmare and that's not life. You're existing, but you are not living. When you are in hell, where the fire is not quenched and the worm dieth not, you are there to be tormented and tormented. I understand hell is not eternal. I'm not telling you that hell is eternal. Hell is not eternal. The Bible says that death and hell delivered up the dead that was in them, and death and hell was cast into the lake of fire. But when it comes to the lake of fire, the Bible says eternal flames, where the fire is not quenched, and the worm, the body, never dies. The Bible says, "Thou worm, Jacob, I will help thee." Understand what I'm saying?

Just remember this, the veil is dead, and your body is dead because of sin. It's buried in Jesus Christ's name in baptism. Your spirit is now dwelling in heaven with Christ. You cannot sin because sin has to come through the body and there's no such thing as sin to you. Your spirit is sealed, that the evil one can never touch it, and you are free from sin. You may stumble and stagger and make mistakes, but when you know that you're born again and you're doing your best and you're not allowing for those things, as to willful allowance, the Bible says, "Happy is he that doeth not condemn himself over that thing which he allows." If you stumble, don't condemn yourself over it; keep your faith. Somebody would say, "Well then, I can just go out and sin, and all I got to do is say, 'I'm just not going to allow for it'." You can go out and be ignorant. Paul said, "But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant." But we'd not have you to be ignorant. You can do that. You can go out and play a game. You can believe, but believing is not faith. If you believe, you can join the devil's crowd. He believes also, but that is not faith. Faith is out of the heart. You can believe anything up here in your head. You can believe you're healed when you are sick. You can die when you think you're going to live.

We have passed from death unto life, and we can always worship God. Shall I then come into condemnation, or should I condemn myself? Absolutely not! How can I condemn myself when the Bible says there is now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit? Someone would say, "Well, that's where it's at. If I don't walk after the flesh." That's exactly where it's at, if you don't walk after the flesh and walk after the Spirit. The only thing I have to add to that is line upon line and precept upon precept, as to the Word of God. The Bible says, "No one can lay anything to the charge of God's elect." Not even you yourself. If you condemn yourself, God is greater than your heart. He knoweth all things. He knows that you've been born again and there is no condemnation to those that walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. I'm born of God, and I'm not after the flesh. How can I walk after the flesh when I'm not in the flesh? The Bible says that you're not in the flesh. God has chosen you out of the flesh. He's chosen you out of the world. The body is dead, buried, and gone. The spirit went back to God who gave it. How then can I walk in the flesh? There is now therefore no condemnation to them that have been born again.

So, we're children of God, having been made gods, and we cannot die because we cannot sin. We are never under condemnation. If we're never under condemnation, then we can rejoice forevermore. "Ye that dwell in heaven," the Bible says, "rejoice forevermore." We can rejoice, and every time the devil jumps on us and tries to trample our mind down, we don't have to get down in the dumps. We don't have to feel as though we thought we made it and we didn't make it, and now, we don't know what we're going to do. We'll just keep on praising God anyway, keeping our faith up in Him. Don't cast away your faith. It has great recompense of reward. The thing that the devil is trying to do is kill your faith in God's righteousness, to do away with your faith, because when your faith is gone, that means that you're gone, but in that it is He that liveth within us, as to the seed of God, Christ that remaineth in us, even the faith by which we're sanctified, and there is no way that you can ever override that faith.

The Bible speaks of a sin unto death, and I do not say that you should pray for it, as to one blaspheming the Holy Ghost. There is a sin that is not unto death, and you should pray for this. But if it be the sin unto death, don't pray for that. It won't do any good because there is no forgiveness. Somebody says, "Well, there you are. You, being a Christian, and you sinned a sin unto death." How can you sin a sin unto death when you can't sin? Don't be childish. John said, "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall

ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it." He then said, "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not."

So you don't have to worry about those kinds of things. All you can do is just rejoice. Give God the praise. The devil tries to put a damper on you, to keep your faith down, so you won't utilize your ability to be a light for God unto all the world, and so that you can't be about your Father's business. As long as he can put a damper on you and keep you suppressed in your mind and feeling real low, as long as he can do that, you're not going to do anything for God. Your faith is not strong enough.

I've tried to enlightened you, so you can comprehend the height, the width, the depth and the length of this great salvation, because the translation of the church is near at hand. Of course, that means the change of the body, for you have already been translated in to the marvelous kingdom of God; not going to be, but you already have been in the inner man. The kingdom of God has been here ever since the law and the prophets. Since that time the kingdom has been preached and men press their way into it. The Bible says that God hath, even right now, translated us, as to the inner man, into the marvelous kingdom of God; which kingdom is the Spirit of Christ, for my spirit is interwoven with Christ, as the SafeGuard is in the garment, where the spots can't penetrate.

Jesus said, "If you love Me, you'll keep My commandments." The real love of God is manifested in that you keep His commandments. If the love of God is in you, you'll keep His commandments. He said, "My commandments are not grievous. You should love one another." Do you love Him?

If you believe what I've said, then you've passed from death unto life and shall never come in to condemnation. If you cannot believe what's I've said, then talk to God until you can come to the place to where you can understand the Word of God, because the church is being translated and she's on the verge of the change. Everything is just right for the coming of the Lord.

I tell you again, wherever the revelation is found, it's always the end of the world. It's the coming of the Lord. Look in the book of Revelation and you'll find the Lord coming. You'll find in the first part of the book of Revelation, every eye shall see Him, and they that crucified Him shall narrowly look upon Him. The Bible says, "The time is at hand." When the revelation came, it said that the time is at hand. When Paul received the revelation, he said, "Ye are the people upon whom the ends of the world have come." Any time the revelation comes, it brings the end of the world.

Are you ready to meet the Lord Jesus Christ? Is everything ready in your heart? Have you just been playing a game with God, or have you been growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you been moving on to the full measure of the full stature, or have you just took it for granted that you are a Christian and you are still dabbling around in the things of the world? Do you still have your mind on the prosperity of the world and the things of the world and trying to achieve something in the world? It amazes me that even the preachers of today have their minds on the world. They're trying to accomplish things in

the world, and to project themselves in the world, and get all of the world that they can get a hold of. I thank God He has given me everything I could wish for. Boats, planes, land, houses, travel anywhere in the world I want to whenever I get ready. God has given me hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars. He's taken care of me.

But when you get your mind on those of things and you get carnal minded, you are under the control of Satan. You are under the influence of Satan. You don't have to have a private jet to be under the influence of the devil. You don't have to have a private ship to be under the influence of the devil. You can have all of that and still not be carnal minded. You can still love God and use your whole life for God. But you can have just a few hundred dollars and be filled with pride and be under the influence of the devil. You'll have your mind on your income, have your mind on your human physique, and have your mind of the things of the world. You'll have your mind on the future, wanting an education, or wanting to educate your children so they can be a part of this world. Always pressing toward that and you are carnal minded in death.

Won't you come out from the world and be a separate people? Won't you give in to the Spirit of holiness and get into the things of God? Give yourself to the understanding of God. Forget about the old tree of knowledge and the diplomas of the world. Men measure themselves by themselves, as to a world of diplomas, and the Bible says that they are not wise. How can you honor with God when you seek honor of another? We need to measure our self by God and by God's Word, and we need to study the Word.

Some people feel like the Word is so simple. They've read through the Bible, and they know it and now they're going on to college. Don't be ignorant. The Bible says, "Great is the mystery of godliness." I've been made a steward of the mysteries. The church world, with all that they've done throughout their lifetime, has hardly scratched the surface of the mysteries. I was so shocked when God took me into the revelation of Jesus Christ and began to talk with me. I could hardly believe it. I said, "My God! This can't be possible!" I've preached all around the different parts of the world, and prayed and fasted and cried, begging God to help me. I thought that I had something and was doing something and was going somewhere, but when I came into the knowledge of God, I said, "My God! My God! This can't be possible that the church is in this kind of condition."

It's getting close to the translation and still many of you are just babes. Paul said, "I'd like to speak unto you as unto spirituals, but seeing that I cannot. You're babes in Christ. Desire the sincere milk of the Word that you might grow thereby." These things are so phenomenal, so great, so mighty, so wonderful that Paul, with all of his knowledge, said, "I count all of my learning as dung, and I'm determined to know nothing among you except Christ and Him crucified. That when I write, you may understand the mysteries that God has given me."

You know what's wrong? People are not hungering and thirsting after the things of God. Jesus said that if you hunger and thirst, you will be filled. People are not hungering and thirsting after Him. The church world is not hungering after God. They're hungering after land and cars and prestige in the world. Don't you know that the mind of this world is enmity to God? The carnal mind and the things of this world are not what God is wanting. God is a Spirit, and the Bible says they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

Because God is a Spirit, He wants you to be spiritual. How can God, a Spirit, fellowship something that is not spiritual? He wants you to be spiritual. He wants to get your mind and your heart on spiritual things.

Some think that when we go to heaven, all of us are going to have the same thing. We know that isn't right. When the apostles asked, "What shall we have, because we've given up everything?" He said, "When I sit upon My throne, you shall sit upon twelve thrones beside Me." There are twenty-four elders who are kings, and they sit as kings around Him. The Bible says that God has made us kings and priests unto our God. Paul said, "Go on to a full measure of the full stature of the perfect man Christ Jesus and that every man will be rewarded according to his works." That's where your works come in, as to what measure you're going to have.

What are you going to attain unto? Are you just going to sit idly by and say, "Well, if I can just make it to heaven. I don't have to worry about it if I can just get in." Well, I've got some news for you: you won't get in. You've got the wrong attitude. The man that's going to get in is the man that's going to try his best to get everything he can from God, and then wherever he stops, as to the limitations of his ability, as to giving himself to God, then he'll get in with that measure. But men that make no effort and say, "Well, I'm just going to trust the Lord. I'm not going to worry about all that." You're not going to get in. There is no such thing as you getting in. You don't even have the Spirit of Christ.

The Spirit of Christ is a Spirit that says, "I must be about My Father's business." If the Spirit of Christ is in you, do you think that Christ would take the attitude, "Well, it really doesn't make any difference?" The Spirit of Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. If you've got it, it will be about the Father's business. It won't be interested in the things of the world. It'll be after God's business. Where are the saints that used to spend all night in prayer? Where are those that used to come to the church and have all night prayer meetings?

They've been driven out and called fanatics. The church has leaned on the people with money and prestige, trying to bring some kind of false prestige, get somebody into office, some kind of dignitary, something so your church would be a little more polished in its ethics and somebody would notice it. Don't you know you're of the devil when you do that? If you love the world and the things of the world, then God's Spirit and love is not in you, and if you are seeking those kinds of things, that's of the devil. We're supposed to be going out into the highways and hedges and compelling them to come to fill up the house of the Lord. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: that you visit the widows and the orphans in their afflictions, and then keep yourself unspotted from the world.

You should be seeking God, and hungering and thirsting after the things of God, and be interested in the things of God. Forget about that house that you've got on the hill over there and that piece of ground, because you're not going to keep it anyway. After a while, they're going to put you in the ground and the worms are going to eat you. The ones that are left behind are going to fuss over it. Somebody would ask, "Don't you think we should leave something for our children?" Sure, but don't leave it to a bunch of devils. I said leave it to your children, but not to a bunch of devils. Don't see how much you can get here to leave to them. Let them work for a living. Let them learn to work.

We give them education and more education, then we say, "Now, you don't have to work like I did." That's the worst thing you can do. Now, we've got a bunch of reprobates that don't want to work. Every time you ask them to do something, they look at you in a strange way because they've been taught to con their way through life. What we need to have is a mind to work. The Bible says that they built back the walls because they had a mind to work. If you are going to do any learning, let's do it in God. It tells us to work for a living, to be honest.

Let's get away from this worldly thing, folks, and the ways of the world. Let's forget about trying to project ourselves on television, trying to put our self in some kind of situation so someone can admire us, or be some kind of dignitary and run for some kind of office. Let's forget about that. Let's do the will of God. The Lord said, concerning David, "I've taken you from among the sheep cote. I've given you a name liken unto the great men of the earth. I raise up one, I put down another, I'm the one that kings and rulers rule by. I have my way in the good and in the evil. I work all things after the counsel of My own will. I raise up one and I put down another. Kings reign by Me."

As long as the church is in America, America will never be defeated. The day the church goes out, that's the end of America. God is moving on our behalf. This is your chance. This is your opportunity. Now is the time to get hold of it. Get away from the world, get away from the mind of the world, because if you're carnally minded, then that's death. There's no faith unto salvation in that mind. Get in Christ Jesus.

The church is about to be transfigured. It's the change of the body. The church has already been translated. This is the last hour. Let's get our minds on God, children of God, and let's worship God. Let's get back to the wonderful way of life that God has taught us before.

If you want to be healed in your body, the Bible says that He sent His Word and healed them. All you have to do is have faith in God. Jesus said, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to them that believe." Jesus tells us in Mark 11:22, "What ever you say, in your heart, if you don't doubt, it will come to pass." It will come to pass. You say it, decree a thing in your heart, and don't doubt it, it will come to pass. I've done it many times. It works. It works one-hundred percent. Jesus said that everyone who asks, receives. The Scriptures cannot be broken, altered, or changed. There's never been anybody in the history of the world that asked who didn't receive. Jesus said that everyone who asks, receives. The only thing is, they misinterpreted what He said when He said, "According to your faith." Everyone of you received according to your believing. You received exactly according to your believing. That's the way you received. Jesus said, "According to your faith, so be it unto you."

"Do you believe that I am able to do this?" Jesus asked. They said, "Yea, Lord." He said, "According to your believing." If you're going to get salvation, you're going to have to believe. It's according to your faith. Your healing is the same way. If you're going to get your healing, you have to believe. If you're going to heaven, you have to believe. If you're ever going to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and know anything about God, you're going to have to believe this Word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by

the Word of God. You cannot get faith by fasting. You cannot get faith by praying. You cannot get faith by good alms deeds. Faith is believing what Jesus Christ said. Faith comes by the hearing of the Word. You can strengthen your faith by all of those things, but you cannot get faith that way.

Faith comes simply by believing what He said. If He said it and we believe it, then that's the way it is. "I am the Lord God that healeth thee," God said, "I am the Lord God that forgiveth all of thine iniquities. I heal all of your diseases." If you're God's children, and He's forgiven all of your iniquities, then He healed all of your diseases. The Bible says, "By His stripes ye were healed." All of these things were given to you in God, in Christ, before the world ever was and brought to light at Calvary. When the veil was rent in twain, it began to be seen. Four hundred ninety years, it was said to Daniel, was determined upon your people, to make an end of sin. Four hundred and eighty-three years to Calvary, and from that time, it is a heavenly episode. The door was opened in heaven, and time is not counted anymore until the last seven years, as the tribulation comes in and that door is closed. When the seven years is fastened to the four hundred and eighty-three, that's the end. It's getting close, folks, real close.

Don't ever ask the Lord if you're good enough, or wonder if you're good enough. You'll never get good enough. There's none good but God. You have to be the body of the Lord Jesus Christ to be good, and we are. God won't give His glory to another. The Bible says so. He won't give His glory to another. But the thing is, I'm not another. You're not another. We're His very body. We're bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. Jesus said, "Father, glorify these with the same glory that I had with Thee before the world ever was. Give them the same glory." So, He's given us His same glory. Moses and Elijah appeared in that glory. Christ in you is the hope of that glory because Christ alone is made heir to it. Without Him, you cannot get it. Not seeds as of many, but seed as one, even Christ Jesus, the Son of God.

It was said of Jesus, "I find no fault in this just man." You are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. Before the throne, you are without fault. The evil one never touches you at any time. Never! You keep yourself by faith of the seed that remains in you, and you cannot sin. You cannot come into condemnation, neither can anybody lay anything to your charge, for you are not in the flesh, you are in the spirit. You're born again, and you've passed from death unto life. You can rejoice forever more.

Can you forget those things that are behind now? They are gone. When you were baptized in the name of Jesus, when you were born again, they were put behind you. "Satan, get thee behind Me. Thou art an offense unto Me," Jesus said. They are behind you. The shadow is behind you when the sun comes up. As long as the sun is behind you, the shadow is in front of you, but when you turn around, and you look straight into the Son, then the devil is behind you then. That shadow is behind you. It's not before you anymore. Now you see the light. The true light now shines.

I feel the yoke breaking. That struck somebody's faith. Some of you began to believe then because that struck your faith. I felt the Holy Ghost move. The Bible says that as Peter spoke to them, he felt the Holy Ghost fall upon them, and I felt the Holy Ghost fall upon you as we spoke to you then. I can feel the Holy Ghost still falling. I can feel your faith. It's moving.

While we are standing here, let's just pray together, can we? Precious heavenly Father, we pray tonight for these, Your children. You said whoever we bless would be blessed, dear God, and Father, tonight we're blessing these people in the name of Jesus Christ. We're blessing them through the righteousness of the Son of God. We give Your blessings to them. Father, we bring Your blessings to them through the wonderful words of faith, that their sins be forgiven them, heavenly Father. You said that whosoever's sins we remit would be remitted. We remit these people's sins in Jesus Christ's name, according to their faith tonight. Father, believing in Thy Word that their sins be taken away. I feel Your presence, heavenly Father, and I feel the yoke being broken. I feel the yoke being broken. Father, heal these sick bodies. Father, You've healed these bodies. The Lord of heaven that heals, God, we ask You to heal them tonight. Awake them in their faith to their healing tonight, Father, that was wrought in Christ Jesus at Calvary, for You sent Your Word and healed them, even as they believed, O God, and tonight, they are accepting their healing, they are accepting their salvation, they are accepting the infilling of the Holy Ghost tonight, Father. They are accepting it tonight. The yoke is being broken tonight. O Lord, a new life, a new world, a new way of life, Father. I can feel it tonight. Father, while they are worshipping You tonight, I can feel this. I ask You to do that tonight. May Your blessing come down upon them.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

The End Of The Transgression

Let's read from Romans chapter five beginning at the first verse.

Romans 5:1-14: "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come."

There's a great lesson in what we just read. It tells us that sin hath always been in the world. Sin reigned over man all the way from the time of Adam on down to our day. The Bible says, where there is no knowledge of sin, sin is not imputed. The Bible tells us that because Adam had sinned, all of mankind is under sin. They were under sin until the time appointed at Calvary, and they are still under sin if they do not believe. They that are fallen from grace are under the law, and they that are under the law are transgressors. The Bible says that by the law shall no flesh be justified.

Jesus, Himself kept the law perfectly, every jot and tittle, but He could not be justified by the law. The Bible says that in God's sight, no flesh shall be justified by the law, and inasmuch as the children were made partakers of flesh and blood, Jesus, Himself also partook of flesh. He came into this world and partook of flesh; therefore, the Bible says that great is the mystery of godliness. The great God of heaven, who is a Spirit, was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, caught up into heaven.

So we see that for Him to be our example, He had be justified in the Spirit by faith. We find that it was the faith of Jesus Christ that was handed down to us. He could not be justified by the law, but He did take the law out of the way. When every jot and tittle was fulfilled of the law, then it was taken out of the way.

The law was added because of transgression, and it was added 430 years after the promise was made to Abraham who was justified by faith. David said, "Blessed is the man unto whom God will not impute

iniquity," for God justifies man without works; that is, He gives salvation without any works. If it was of works, then we could boast. But it is the gift of God.

So then, blessed is the man, as God spoke to Abraham. His iniquities are taken away. His sins are gone. David and Abraham spoke of these things. Blessed is the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. By the blood, He's covered our sins. He's taken away our iniquities. He said, "I am the Lord God that healeth thee, that forgiveth all of thine iniquities. I heal all of your diseases." So we see that the law, which came 430 years after Abraham, could not annul this. There is no way that this could be set at naught. But sin reigned over man. It had not been revealed to man. The law was added because of transgression, the transgression of Adam, to let us know that we were under the penalty of sin. It was to reveal to us the contrariness of our nature to God.

Paul brings this out: "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The law which was ordained unto life and righteousness, I found to be unto death. Though it is spiritual, yet I'm carnal, sold unto sin. For that which I do, I allow not. I find that there is a law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. And the good that I would do, I do not. O wretched man that I am. I see another law in my body warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin and death." So he said the law that could have delivered us had no way to deliver us because of the weakness of the flesh. All it did was bring to my remembrance my shortcomings, my unlikeness to God's image and the way He had made me in the original image of Adam, when Adam was called the Son of God, without sin.

I find myself, through that fall, taken away from that originality, taken away from that image, taken away from the righteousness which was in God that Adam had, being illuminated with that image in which he was made. I find that it was lost. And because of that transgression, God had to send the law to reveal to us our impurities and our unlikeness toward God, until the day that the seed could come to whom the promise was made. In Isaac, or in Christ, shall thy seed be called, the father of many nations.

We see that in this transgression, the law had to come to bring about sin. Paul said, "Sin, taking occasion by the law, slew me." Getting its strength from the law, this became sin, because it is the transgression of the law that is sin. I find myself a transgressor by something that's within my body. He said that it's warring against the law of my mind through the fall of Adam and Eve. This evil, Satan, has gotten into the human body and the impurities are showing forth. But man could not see this until the mirror of God's law came, that he might look at himself and see the undone condition as to the likeness of God.

We find that even the veil over Moses' face showed the great light, which was God, was hid behind Moses, and they were trying to look at God through Moses. When it was asked, "Should you see God?", they said, "You talk to God and then we'll talk to you, Moses." They were afraid because of the lightning, the thunder, and the fire on the mountain. They were afraid that God would strike them dead in that they knew that no man could see God and live.

Seeing the hinder part of God, they could not see the face of God, because at that time the atonement for sin was not there, and they would have died. But when the veil of death was taken away, as to the intellectual condemnation of sin, when the law was folded up and taken away, there was no law and therefore no transgression. Now we see face to face, and we're changed into the wonderful glory of God, as we behold the glory of God in the unveiled face of our Lord Jesus Christ; which glory, as within us, is changing us from glory to glory into this wonderful image of God. The Bible says that at the appearing of the Lord Jesus, in Thessalonians, at that wonderful coming of the trump of God, that every man that hath this hope within himself, purifies himself even as God is pure, and he'll be changed. That is Christ, the hope of glory. Christ is the seed of God that remaineth in you, and you cannot sin because you are born of God. Even that seed should remain in you, and you cannot transgress faith, which is the faith of Christ, which was wrought in Christ Jesus before you or I was ever born into the world.

We see that we cannot transgress that faith, because that faith was already worked out in the body of Jesus when He walked this earth. That faith was given unto us. Contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints, the Bible tells us, and that faith by which we are sanctified. God hath sanctified us once and for all by the offering up of the Pesach lamb, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He hath perfected or made perfect forever them that are sanctified. That which the blood of goats could not do, God sending the blood of His own Son, Jesus, in the image of sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Today, His blood sanctifies us. The law is gone away. The transgression is gone away, and by the righteousness of one man, Christ Jesus, grace is upon all, if we can believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So then, let us call upon the name of the Lord. If you call upon Him, whosoever calleth upon Him shall be saved.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

The Fulfillment Of Time

Reading from the book of Matthew, chapter five, beginning at the sixteenth verse:

Matthew 5:16-20: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."

Jesus was doing some really strong, outstanding preaching. Pharisees accredited to themselves that they were very righteous people, but Jesus exhorted them by saying, "Unless your righteousness excels what I see as your own self-righteousness, there's no way you can enter into the kingdom of God." Remember now, the Bible says that the law and the prophets were until John, since that time, the kingdom of God has been preached and men were pressing their way into it. Here was Jesus, standing before them, being the manifested kingdom of God, in that He was the body or envelopment of light. He's reproving those that have been such a religious sect, that have accredited to themselves that they were masters, while the others were children. Now, they've met the real master, and they find that they're not even fortunate enough to be children. They have to be born again to even be a child of God. So then, they're reaping what they sowed, for they lorded over God's heritage with intellectual brilliance and intellectual knowledge.

If you'll look around, people are doing the same thing today. God warned the ministry not to lord over His people. The Bible says that He hateth the Nicolaitan's doctrine. We're not to bring people under the rule by constraint of our own intellect or our own evil endeavors, in our stride toward worldly gain or selfishness. But we're to yield ourselves as members unto the body of the Lord Jesus, being an example unto the flock, that they may see within us Christ and the admiration of God. We should live in such a way that men may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. If you try to tell men of your good works, or try to demonstrate your good works, to try to make them believe in something that really doesn't exist in your life, then you deceive your own self, for the Bible says that you are a well without any water, and it cannot produce when time comes for the thirsty to drink. A man that doesn't have a gift, that boasteth himself of something he does not possess, he's like the well without any water. How can he perform when time comes for him to demonstrate?

So then, we know that Christ Jesus was the embodiment of God, that He was the virtue of the heavenly Father, and that He was the power of the heavenly Father. He, through the Spirit of holiness, led a righteous, clean, godly life, proven to be the Son of God by power. When they came to match wits with Jesus, the Pharisees had boasted and testified and said great things, but when it came to the actual demonstration, they could not produce. Paul said, "Not coming to you with the wisdom of man's word that man teacheth, but rather in the demonstration of the power of God and in the Spirit of God that your faith

may not stand in the wisdom of men, but that it may stand in the power of God." Paul said, as to the great, wonderful knowledge of God, to them that have understanding, "Howbeit we do speak wisdom."

I'm only saying, that here Jesus says, "I have come not to destroy the law." Don't think that, He told His followers. Don't get the concept that He came to destroy the law or to do away with what had been a standard of righteousness among the Pharisees, the Scribes and the Jewish people. That was something that was given unto Moses, as a way of life to people and to a sect of people. He is requiring it of them. He didn't come to do away with that. He came to fulfill this wonderful law that was given to the people. He gave it to Israel. Paul said, "You have the law and none of you keep it, and the name of the Lord is blasphemed among the Gentiles, because of your foolishness." You stand at the door in your hypocrisy. You know the way. That means you've come to the door, but He said, "You've not been born again. You've not received the Spirit of God, therefore you are a hindrance, and I'm about to remove that hindrance." Jesus said, "I shall be the door to the sheepfold and men shall go in and out into their green pastures by Me. If I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto Me."

The Lord Jesus said to them, "Now is the hour when the kingdom of God is at hand." He said unto the Scribes and the Pharisees, "Verily I say unto you, they shall come from the east and they shall come from the west," speaking of the Gentile people, the strangers, "and they shall be translated into the kingdom of the living God. You that are children of the kingdom, that is by virtue of David and the others, ye shall be cast into the outer darkness." You'll be cut off and you'll wander around in intellectual ignorance or intellectual darkness. But ye yourselves shall see yourselves being cast out, and the strangers, people from the north, the south, the east, and the west, from all the world, they shall come and be translated by faith into the marvelous kingdom of God. The law and the prophets were until John, since that time the kingdom has been preached and men have pressed their way into it.

It is very obvious that they saw this, though it was grievous to them. They saw as they themselves rejected the Lord Jesus and they themselves were cut off in darkness. Today, they still are in darkness. "That veil," Paul said, "is still over their face, as to the blindness." If the blind lead the blind, they all fall into the ditch. But, the blindness, Paul said, that it was the veil which is over the reading of the Old Testament, as to understand that it was only allegoric, as pointing to spiritual things, pointing to the coming of the Lord the Messiah. Paul said that veil still remains over their face until today. It's untaken away. But Christ Jesus, the great revealed light, rent that veil at Calvary and that veil is taken away. And he that can get beyond Calvary, he that can look to this wonderful Christ, then he hath escaped the death veil that is over Moses' face.

So then, we realize that this light of the latter house, the spiritual Jew, is greater than that light of the former house, the first Jew or the natural Jew. He that is a Jew outwardly is not a Jew, but he that is a Jew inwardly. Paul said, "The blessings of the Lord be upon the true Israel of God, for he that is a spiritual Jew is indeed the true Jew." Understanding then that Christ said, "I came to fulfill the law," He fulfilled every jot and every tittle of it. He said, "Father, it is finished." He folded it up and laid it away. He gave unto us who believe in God, through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, this wonderful righteousness of the law, and today we have, by faith, been translated into the marvelous kingdom of our God as to our inner spiritual angelic person. Today, our spirit is interwoven with Christ's Spirit, which is the kingdom of heaven and the

kingdom of God. We are thus without sin and we are without fault. We're delivered from the curse of the law of the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy and our sins are taken away. The seed of God remaineth in us. We cannot sin because we are born of God. We're kept by His righteousness, full of the grace of God, looking unto the coming of the Lord and praising and worshipping the Lord of glory with all of our heart, mind, soul, body and strength.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

The Greatness Of Faith

Reading from the book of Galatians chapter three beginning at the first verse.

Galatians 3:1-9: "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham."

In the book of Galatians, we're told that Paul worked miracles by faith. He tells us in the Scripture, he that ministers miracles to the people does this by the act of faith. So we see that faith is a powerful thing. The way that some of us talk about faith in the day that we're living in, it's such a minor thing, and we place it, in our way of thinking, where it really isn't beneficial for anything. It's just something we talk about and place it in with all of the routine of life. We go to the house of God, we say, because we believe. Then we confess that we have made a confession concerning Christ.

Folks, we need to realize that it's one thing to talk about faith, but it's another thing to understand the power and greatness of faith. People of our day don't seem to understand the greatness of faith at all. Faith is a great, mighty thing. It is powerful. It heals the sick. It casts out devils. It brings great prosperity to those that believe. It works miracles; not some kind of a make believe miracle, or something that you can explain away scientifically, but I'm speaking of a real, profound miracle. It works miracles when doctors cannot do anything, when scientists do not have the answer, when there is no medical cure and the physicians have backed off and have to admit that, clinically speaking, an individual is dead. God comes in and works a great miracle. This has happened many times to many people.

It's so wonderful to have faith and to know what faith is. In my own personal life, I've experienced faith so many, many times. Having preached around the world, and having taken the gospel to those abroad as well as to the people here in America, I've been privileged to see some wonderful healings and wonderful miracles. I've had God to work great financial miracles for me when there was no possible way out. I have had God to work physical miracles, not only in my body, but in other people, in numbers of places where we carried the gospel. We are in great expectation even now as we are planning to go into a foreign country. We're expecting God to miraculously do something. As I have said in the past, many of those people are dependent altogether on God and they don't have any medical resources.

So then, faith is so mighty. Faith not only saves us, but faith heals us and provides for us during our lifetime. The Bible says, "Cast not away thy faith which hath great recompense of reward." We should always treasure the Word of God and always hold fast to faith. We should practice faith. We should never lean upon the arm of flesh. There should never be a time in our life when we lean upon the arm of flesh. You might have a good livelihood, and that's wonderful. You may have the necessities of life, and that's wonderful. But there should never be a time in our lives when we place our affection in that direction nor lean upon that as our source of security. We should thank God for that in that God has provided it, but we must remember that God, overnight, can take away the health. He can take away the prosperity. He can leave us without anything.

We should set our affection on things above, where thieves don't break through and steal, where moth doth not corrupt. We should lay up our treasures in heaven, so that our heart will be fastened to the heavenly side of life. Eat, drink and be merry, so far as godly joy, and do the things that are pleasing in the sight of God that all of this might continue. Let us enjoy houses and land and our income and our families and our friends. Let us enjoy our health. There's nothing better for man to do than that. God wants us to abundantly be blessed in this world. He wants to abundantly pour out the blessings of prosperity upon us, an abundance of health, to be rich and strong in health.

But at the same time, there's not one time in a our life that God desires that we look in the direction of natural securities or place our affection on anything in this natural world or become dependent upon any natural source to use as a crutch. There's not one time in the life of a man that God desires this to be, for He tells us not to love the world, neither the things that are in the world, for all that is of the world is the pride of life and the lust of the flesh and the world and the lust thereof passeth away, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.

So then, we know that we are to have these things. They are necessitated to life. The Lord knows this, so He gives us an abundance of it. We know that we are to use these things and to take care of these things, for the Bible says that a wise man's substance is precious in his sight. But beloved friend, there is never a time in life that we should love these things. I should never love the things of the world. Never. I should never depend on the things of the world. I should never have confidence, not for a moment, in any living creature on the face of the earth, as to his natural lifestyle or his flesh.

The Bible says that we are they that have no confidence in the flesh, not even in our own flesh. Our confidence altogether is in God. Our faith altogether is in God and we're looking to God, no matter what the source is. We look to God. Even if we have medical aid and we take advantage of it, we're still not trusting in that. We're trusting in God. Someone would say, "Why not trust in the medical aid? This is what's healing him." Well, I look at it like this. Before there ever was a doctor, there was God and God made the doctor. Before there was medical aid, there was God, and God made the medical aid. God was the one that said the sick need a physician and a merry heart doeth good like a medicine. I'm looking beyond the remedy, and I'm looking to the source, which is God. You might say, "Brother Pike, I think the medicine is sufficient. I think the physician is sufficient." But if this be true, why is it that the Bible emphatically states that there'll come a day when there'll be no healing medicines? What are we going to do then? There'll be no healing medicine. It did not say that there would not be any medicine, but it said the medicine would not heal. So

we know that healing is not of medicine. Healing is of God. The reason that medicine heals is because the blood of Jesus is on the seat of atonement and it is God's grace to humanity that they may have remedies and they may have aids.

This is why I look at the situation the way I do when it comes to an income. A man may have millions, but he doesn't need to trust in his millions. We're trusting in God. We're looking to God. He's our source. There will come a time in your life when money won't get you out of your problems. I know Solomon said, "Money answereth to all things." But, it is like a lady that came to me a few days back. She had plenty of money in her life, plenty of prosperity, and everything was just so. All of a sudden, something happened to one of her children. She tried with all of her money to remedy the situation, but she became aware of the fact that it wouldn't do the job. So she turned to God and God did the job. The lady says, "From now on, I'm going to serve God, for I've learned one thing, that money won't take care of the situation that you get into." Sometimes money can be a provision, as to a source, but as she said, there are times when even money won't do it, but God can do it.

So, we should look to God. We should thank God for our health, our happiness. Many times, I just look up to the Lord. I'll be sitting somewhere or maybe driving down the road, and I'll look up to God and maybe tears will come to my eyes and I'll look up and I'll say, "I thank You, Lord, because I can breathe the fresh air as it goes in and out my lungs. I feel so refreshed. I feel so good." Life is flowing through my veins as the oxygen comes in through my nostrils. The Bible speaks of man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils. I say, "I thank You, Lord. I thank You, Lord, for that breath." I look out across the way and I see the beautiful trees. I can hear the birds. I go down to the ocean side or down to the river and I see the waters and the waves, and see different species, and I find myself almost spellbound. I say, "Life, life, how beautiful life is." I say, "I thank You, Lord, for the little birds. I thank you for the trees, the shade, the hot sun. I thank You. I thank You."

Over and over, so many times, I thank God, because in my mind I think, Father, there are people that have asthma. I've seen them struggle for breath and it's such a pitiful, pitiful thing. I've seen the cripple confined to a wheelchair and how they would like to get up just to walk around once in a while. I remember having a vision of a person that was confined to a wheelchair, and in the vision it was such a hideous, horrible nightmare, for the Lord showed me it was such a horrible thing. I'd never dreamed of how they were confined to this chair, that this was the place where they eat, this was the place where they lived, this was their entire life. It was so hideous and horrible. I think of the people with missing limbs, the blind, the deaf, the dumb, and I think, "Dear God, You smiled on me. You've blessed me, Father."

But then I think of the few, frivolous things that I let annoy me or suppress my mind, and I think, "My God, why would I do a thing like that?" I'm so exuberant with life, having everything that I want, being able to breathe, being able to live and be whole and have the members of my body. I've been blessed. I don't have any children that have ever had any bad thing happened to them, so far as afflictions. They've all been blessed. They're still with me. God has been good to me. The blessings of the Lord maketh rich and addeth no sorrow. I think of all those things and I praise God for it. I praise God for it. He doesn't have to give me anything for me to praise Him. I praise Him for what I already have. I have so many things. It's like the songwriter wrote, "The blind man can't see flowers growing in a garden, and a cripple man can't walk places

he'd like to be, the deaf can't hear and the dumb can't speak. Be thankful, be thankful, for what you've got, for to some folks, these things would mean a lot."

I've come to the place where I realize that these mean a lot to me. It's like a lady I knew. She was told that she had cancer and was dying. She worked with her husband and their job was to be out, traveling all the time. We talked to her and she said, "I never realized how beautiful life was. I have been out all of my life, going among the trees and the birds and the brooks. I've seen a lot, but I never really laid it to heart. I took it for granted that it was mine. I never really got enthused about the thing. But when I found out that I had cancer and I had but few days to live, from then on, life has been so beautiful. I look at the trees in a different way. When I hear the birds chirp, it's so different. Life is so full and so wonderful. When you begin to think that you're getting ready to lose your life, it becomes so dear to you."

Folks, this is the thing that I'm trying to impress upon you at this point. You're going to have to realize that every living human being is going to die. One day, life is going to be taken away from you. You don't realize how fortunate you are. We spend our life complaining about little frivolous things, when many people have problems through life. Rather than sharing the abundance of our blessings, our strength and our monetary values, to make them happy and trying to console them in that they have real problems, we spend our time complaining. We often spend our time as a trouble maker, going about from house to house, gossiping and backbiting, causing problems, and because of this, we eventually bring the wrath of God upon us. The Bible speaks of people who do that. It says that there are mouths that need to be stopped, that go about from household to household, subverting people. These need to be stopped, with their foolishness, with their ignorance, causing someone that has escaped the corruption of the world to be entangled again. They are polluted and corrupt in their mind, and they go and give this to someone else. This really upsets God. It really gets God upset.

What we need to do is clean up our lives. Why should I be someone that goes about in corruption, with the ugliness of the world in my mind and in my heart? Why should I go about in that kind of way? Why should I spend my life drinking and going to places I ought not to? The Bible says to give strong drink to them that are ready to perish. A mother said to Lemuel, a king, that you don't want to drink wine. You don't want to go after those things, because that causes the king to error, and that causes him to forget the laws and the way of the laws and do things that are wrong. Eventually, he's in trouble and he's wrecked his kingdom and he's caused others to follow his path of corruption. So give strong drink to them that are ready to perish. But a king doesn't need to get involved in foolishness and frolic. He needs to be sober. The Bible says to be sober, be vigilant for thine adversary the devil goeth about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, who we resist steadfast in the faith.

This is why I refer to faith the way I do. It's a shield. The Bible says to take the shield of faith that you might be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Cast not away your faith which hath great recompense of reward. Remember that faith cometh by the hearing of the Word of God. I say to you again, just believing, mere believing, is not faith. Mere believing is not faith. Remember what the Scriptures says: "If you believe, you do well. The devils believe and they tremble." But the Bible says that faith cometh by the hearing of the Word of God. When the Word of God says something and you believe it, then that's right.

Let me tell you something here. We're running into a real problem in the day we're living in, and that problem is that we've got all kinds of books that are called "The Bible". Let me tell you again: I said books that are called "The Bible". I understand the word 'bible' refers to a collection of books. I understand that. I also understand that this Bible is a book of the canons that have been put together of those books that were chosen to be God's Word or the historical record of the church or God's inspiration as to the utterance of the Spirit. But on the other hand, there is such a thing as proving a thing. The Bible says, "Prove a thing, then hold fast to that which is good." I've proven the Bible, and many thousands of other people have proven the Bible. They've proven it to be the very Word of God. They've proven it to be authentic. They have placed faith in it and it has proven to be God's inspired Words, even to the days of the prophets, yesterday, today and forever. Christ Jesus the same to every generation.

The Bible that has been proven is the Kings James Version. I want you to think on that. The King James Version. Someone would say, "There are errors in it." Whether there would be error or not, it is the most authentic book that we have as a reference to God's Word. It is proven to be right. Being one that's been in revelation for many years, I know for sure it's right. There isn't anything that you could do with all of your Bible scholars and all of your books to sway my mind one tiny bit, because I have positively proven it, and that by revelation. Not only by faith, as to what it has provided in my lifetime, to be the very truth, but as to the revelation of the invisible things of God, and we've been in hundreds and thousands of those things. Paul said, "There was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me because of my much revelation." When I received the revelation of Jesus Christ and went into the great mysteries of God, then I learned that the Bible absolutely is authentic, that it is right, and it is the King James Version.

There are other books. You can go back to the Greek, which I've done for a proof, back to the Hebrew, which I have done for a proof. You can do that, and that's wonderful, because we know that this book was translated from different scrolls. But on the other hand, the present day books that are called the Bible are some of the most trashy bits of garbage that I have ever seen or read from. They have changed the Word of God, as the Bible says, into a lie, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and bringing upon themselves swift damnation. With their intellectual definings and translations, they have become repulsive to God and an abomination in His sight. They have changed those things that were holy and godly into a ritualistic act, a religious thing of today for their own desire. They have intellectually made it say the things they want it to say, so it would conform to their evil deeds of corruption. So beware and stay away from those things.

Stay with the Word of God. Don't get carried away with all of these new translations and these new versions of what's called "The Bible". They are absolutely corrupt. The Word of God is sufficient. To believe the Word of God is not a game. You need to really genuinely have faith, with a pure heart, in the Word of God. So stay away from those things unless you want to get in trouble with God.

Now, what is faith? Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things not seen. The Bible says, "By faith the elders obtained a good report." By faith Abraham sojourned in a strange country, not knowing where he was going, but by faith he accepted the Word of God when the Word said to him, "Abraham, get thee out of the land of thy kindred and I'll make a great nation out of you." By faith these great miraculous things took place. By faith, when Jacob was leaving this world, he blessed his children. He blessed them by faith and it came to pass in their life, according to history, exactly according to the blessing.

Faith is the substance. I want to really impress this upon your mind so that you'll never forget it. Faith is the substance of the thing that you're desiring, whether it be health, whether it be some financial blessing, whether it be your loved ones being saved, whatever it might be of the many thousands of things in life that you would desire or that's necessitated to your living. Faith is the substance.

Once you believe, you ask God, you believe, then it's the same as though you have it. I might say, "Lord, I want an automobile." If I didn't have an automobile and I prayed and asked God for an automobile, then if I really believed that God heard me and God had granted that to me, then I wouldn't have to worry about the automobile. I have the automobile. Faith is that substance, the automobile substance. Because of faith, I have it. It's got to come. There's not anything that can stop it. So it is the substance of the thing that you're hoping for. When you get faith in your heart, then you have what you want. You can rest assured it will be there. And the Bible says that it is the evidence of things not seen. When you have faith, that's the proof that whatever you're hoping for is yours. It belongs to you and it will come. So when you pray, believe that you receive whatever you desire and ye shall have it.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

The Rending Of The Veil (5)

Reading from the book of Romans the fourth chapter.

Romans 4:1-18: "What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be."

This is a beautiful thing here, in that God made a promise to Abraham. This promise was that at the time of life, He will return unto Abraham and Sarah and she shall have a son. And here it is, the deadness of Sarah's womb and the deadness of Abraham's body. He was, perhaps, a hundred years old, yet he staggered not at the promises of God, but was strong in faith, giving glory unto God, being fully persuaded that what He had promised He was able also to perform. And even when the son was born, he staggered not again at the Word of God, when the Lord said, "Take him and offer him for a sacrifice." Abraham boasted by saying, "I and the son shall go thence to worship, and we shall return." He was full of confidence that God had promised and could not lie, and He had promised to bless all nations through the seed of Isaac. If God took that life, He would have to restore it because God could not lie.

My, what faith! Never have you ever heard of such faith! This great faith! He believed when there was nothing to believe in. He believed in hope when there was no hope. Everything was against him, but because God said it, he believed. This pleased God, and he became the friend of God, and faithful Abraham became the father of many nations.

Notice that he was yet in uncircumcision when he received these promises. Remember that. He received these promises before he was circumcised. This was long before the law. It was four hundred and thirty years before the law ever came into effect. How then could this salvation be of the law? How could this promise be of the law? How could this wonderful thing, Abraham becoming the father of the faithful, be of the law? It was four hundred and thirty years before the law ever came. The law was added because of transgression, until the seed should come, unto whom the promise was made. That is, God said not, "As to seeds, as of many," but as of one seed, even Isaac, and the bondchild shall not be heir with the free child. So then, it is very, very clear today that this promise was unto Christ, who was to come through the seed of Abraham, through the royal seed down through the Jewish lineage.

We see how this was side-stepped in the days of David, when God promised that a seed of David should not fail to sit upon the throne. But when Coniah did what he did and the corruption came in, God changed things; not His Word, but foreseeing the corruption, He changed it. He brought it down through the royal seed on Mary's side, through Nathan. God made it come down so the Scripture could be fulfilled that said that a woman shall compass a man. "And behold a virgin," the prophet said, "shall be found with child." A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son. Mary asked the angel, when the angel Gabriel appeared, "How shall this thing be, seeing that I know not a man?" And the Bible says, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. The Spirit of God shall overshadow you and you shall divinely conceive. And this holy thing within thy womb shall be called the Son of God." Even the prophet and the prophetess, when Jesus was to be dedicated at the temple, said, "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the Lord." And even the promise of the great Spirit, as to this prophet saying, "And ye shall see the glory of God." And so it was that he said, "Let thy servant depart in peace. Mine eyes have seen the salvation of Israel."

So we see that the thing that God has done is so great and so mighty, bringing to us this wonderful act of faith. Abraham was to be the father, but not of a nation. It doesn't say that he was to be a father of a nation, of any particular nation, whether it would be one nation or another. How could we, as a nation, say that our father is father Abraham and he is not the father of others? The promise of God to Abraham was, "I will make thee a father of many nations." So that brings in the Gentiles.

This also brings in the mysteries of God, how that God hath made the Jews and the Gentiles fellowheirs in faith through Jesus Christ our Lord, and that by the righteousness of God, wrought through Jesus Christ, nailing to the cross the handwriting of ordinances, and blotting out of the way those things that were a middle wall of partition. This middle wall came as intellectual reasoning, the veil of death, even the mind that entered Eve in the garden, which is human reasoning and man leaning to his own understanding. God had to move through types and shadows, through the veil of intellectual reasoning, even as the veil that was over Moses' face, which the Jews could not, in that day, steadfastly look to the end of that which has been abolished, as to the death veil.

Jesus abolished death at Calvary in His body. The veil is the human body. He put off the old body of the veil of death as that image of the beast. God smote that which was made in the image of sin, to do away with that. We're free from the body of this death, and it's now buried and it's gone. As we were buried with Him in baptism, so have we risen with Him in the resurrection of God to this new life, though we be under tutors

until the time appointed of the father, that is to say, the bar mitzvah, or to the coming of these wonderful things. But at the same time, we are free from sin and death. We're free because we are free from the flesh. He smote the bodily image at Calvary, folded up the law, laid it away, in that the law was added because of transgression, and the law worketh wrath, for where there's no law there's no wrath because there's no transgression. Where there's no transgression, there's no sin, for transgression of the law is sin. Where there's no sin there's no sting, and where there's no sting there is no death, for sin is the sting of death. Therefore, where there is no death, the grave has no victory. So we can boldly say that we've passed from death unto life, because we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

So then, Abraham, in uncircumcision, received this wonderful faith of God. Now, being justified by faith, the Spirit came, as we would say as to the typical thing. The unveiling came, as the circumcision, to bring forth a headship as we would say, to them that can understand. It was to bring this forth, that the veil might be moved and the light might come forth. So now we can see that the veil of death has been rent in twain. The veil is now gone. The intellectual indoctrination of that which came through Lucifer back there, that which came on down, is gone. The indoctrination of the veil that covered the light caused that to be the lesser light, as Paul refers to it, and that light had no glory by reason of this light, even Christ Jesus, or the church of today, being the light of the world. The lesser light has vanished away, in that the veil has been done away with, and now the true light shineth.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

The Rent Veil

There's nothing more beautiful than the Word of the Lord. There's nothing more discouraging than to think that you could read the Word of God and not be able to understand the Word of God. That would be the most discouraging thing I know.

Reading in the book of Revelation, the fourth chapter, "After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

Then the Bible says that John saw this book in His right hand. Let's just take a thought concerning this door open in heaven. We've spoken of it a number of times. Jesus said to Peter, "I give you the keys to the kingdom," and Peter opened the door both to the Jews and to the Gentiles. This was at the beginning of the church ages. Of course, the door that was opened was Calvary. He opened the door by looking beyond the fleshly vesture of the Lord Jesus and seeing the angelic, spiritual being that was hidden behind the mask, as we say, or the fleshly robe that was called Jesus. He went beyond the fleshly veil, and the veil thus was rent. Then, after that, Jesus went to Calvary, and the veil was rent in twain. We brought it out a number of times as to what it means about the veil being rent in twain and what it has to do with.

So we know that at the beginning of the church ages, this door was open, and there He abolished death in His flesh. Here we find that the door is open in heaven. "Now after this, I looked, and behold a door was open in heaven." John is now, about 96 AD, exiled to this little isle of Patmos, a rocky island off the coast of Asia Minor. It's just a few short years after Calvary, and here he is, writing a book called "The Revelation of Jesus Christ," or the revealing, since the veil has been rent in twain. Shortly after Calvary, John wrote of the expos, because truly Calvary had brought about the expos. So, since Calvary there was a door open in heaven.

Many times, as Jesus preached to the different ones, He spoke to them in parables. The disciples asked the question, "Why do you speak to these people in parables, seeing they understand not what You say?" He said, "It's not given unto them to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but unto you it is given." So then, we know that there was another dimensional step, as to what the disciples were taking, as Jesus expounded and explained the Scriptures. They were entering into a secret place. The Bible speaks of the mysteries of God, entering into this great, wonderful mystery, going beyond the veil, going in the door into heaven, or going into a heavenly place. As it was when Rebecca went into the secret chambers with Isaac, and thus the veil was moved. In the old country, the women still wear the veil, signifying that the veil is not yet lifted, the Jews being blinded in part, and the veil still remains over their face. The Bible speaks of the Old Testament, saying that this veil, as to the veil of death or the veil of the Old Testament, still remains over the face of the people, speaking of the Jews. This veil untaken away even until today. Paul said, in his day, "Which veil is done away with in Christ," or that this veil was rent and taken away. But, it's untaken away, as to those that are out in the world, for they shall not see when good cometh. They cannot see beyond the veil, and they have this veil of death that fell over Eve's mind, this power of intellectual reasoning, this power of death, the spirit of darkness and ignorance that fell over Eve's mind that was brought on over to Adam, that in Adam all die. This veil of death, this intellectual concept of religion, it creates a mystic thing about religion, and when we look around, we see this veil of death, as to everything being vanity of vanities. All is vanity and vexation of spirit.

So we see these things, and we behold it. We behold it as vanity and vexation of spirit. We know it's all lying vanities and vexation and it has to pass away. They that are caught in these things cannot get beyond the veil. They do not pass beyond the veil of death. The Bible says to be carnally minded is death. Eve, the day that you eat thereof, ye shall surely die. They're caught within this veil, and this veil is not lifted. In the old country, the ladies still wear the veil, to be shamefaced. Over here in America, they've taken the veil away, because it is typified that in the crossing of the gulf, it indicates that you're beyond Calvary, as to the church. Now the veil is taken and the beauty of the woman is exposed. That means that you can now look upon the face of the wife. When Rebecca went into the secret chambers, the veil was moved, and there they beheld face to face, for the Bible speaks of seeing the Lord Jesus face to face, being changed from glory to glory as into His very image. We sing that song, "O the light of the glory of His unveiled face." We are not looking through a glass darkly, as through the veil.

So then, we're speaking about a door open in heaven, a rent veil, or the veil that is standing between the great Holy Spirit, which is God, and your inner spirit, which is the angelic spirit. Your natural being, as a human being, having conceived of that intellectual blindness, as to the mind of Lucifer or the spirit of death, which is the spirit of Lucifer, and within your body dwelleth no good thing, for that power of death, that blindness, that intellectual darkness is interwoven within your body. Paul spoke of it being the body of this death. He said, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? When I would do good, I find that evil is present with me, for inwardly I delight after the things of God. But I see another law within my members, within my body, warring against my mind," as to the inner man, "bringing me into subjection to the bondage of this outer problem, as to my outer man." A conflict that's against the inner man. "It makes me subject to the vanities of this life of which I hate, and the good that I would do, I cannot do because of this outward interference, and the evil that I would not do, this outward interference subjects me to it, that I find myself stumbling into it. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" And then he spoke of God delivering us by the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we are no longer subject to vanity, because we are now dead to sin, and sin is gone from us, and we are now dead to the world by the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are now alive unto God, and we were

delivered from the body of death. At death, the spirit went back to God who gave it. We are dead to the world by the body of the Lord Jesus, and we are now buried, and our angelic being went back to God who gave it. Our spiritual being is dwelling in heaven. As John said, "Rejoice ye that dwell in heaven."

We are they that are sitting in the heavenly places. There's a door open in heaven. Through the rent veil of the body of the Lord Jesus, we can, by faith in God (as the voice says to John), "Come up hither." We can pass from this world through our angelic being and go right up into the heavenly places, to understand the mysteries of God and understand this great, wonderful revelation. That's why the Bible says to pray that God will grant unto you the spirit of revelation. I remind you again of the vision I had, of being caught up into heaven, seeing all of these wonderful things in heaven, and looking back into the earth, and seeing those people that were so distorted in their mind by the earthly things, and wondering why they could not understand these heavenly things.

There's a door open in heaven, and you have to get into the Spirit to get into heaven. John said, "I saw this door open in heaven." The way that you get into heaven (heaven is God's Spirit) is you transformate into the mind of Christ. Your spirit, your mind, transformates into the mind of Christ. Your spirit translates into the Spirit of Christ. The ultimatum someday is that your body will transfigure into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, as to be made manifest so that the world might see it. But before the world can see it, as to the change of the celestial body, your mind is gradually transformating from glory to glory into the wonderful mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your spirit has, by divine translation through faith in God, as it was with Enoch, been translated into the kingdom of God.

The law and the prophets were until John, since that time, the kingdom of God has been preached. Men have pressed their way into it, and God hath presently translated us into the marvelous kingdom of our God. We've passed from death unto life, and now we have been translated into the wonderful kingdom of God. We find that the veil of death has been moved away, and we're no longer subject to death. He hath abolished, within His flesh, death. So then, when Jesus died and He took away the body of death, that meant my body of death was gone. I'm not subject to the body of death anymore. It's not I that liveth, but it's Christ that liveth within me, and the life I now live, I live by the Son of God. And the heavenly Father, which is the eternal Spirit, never beholds me again as the body of death. My body of death, in His sight, is eternally gone. He never sees me as a body of death anymore. My body of death is completely eradicated and gone. He abolished death at Calvary when He took away the body. He smote the body. He took away the body. Today, I am a bodiless individual, to the extent that my body is dead. My body is buried and my body is gone. My angelic being, separated from my body, went back to God who gave it. Today, my angelic being is hid with Christ in God whom the heavens have received until the restoration of all things, or the Thessalonians change, when the Lord Jesus Himself shall appear in the heavens, and then, this body shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, into that wonderful body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God never again sees this body as a body of perversion. He never sees it again as a body of death. It's gone forever. All He sees is the body of His Son. He sees my spirit divorced from the body that I was born with, as in Adam all die. He sees the bastard child image all gone and the sinful image all gone. He sees me now as the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is to say, He sees me in my glorified form in my change out yonder, and He sees me in the image of His lovely Son. So then, I have nothing to fear. I have no condemnation. My

sins are gone. Blessed is the man unto whom God will not impute sin, and blessed is the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. He that is born of God, the Bible says, cannot sin, for the seed of God remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. No one can lay anything to the charge of God's elect. The Bible says that we've passed from death unto life, and that we keep ourselves, and the evil one toucheth us not.

So then, we are the church without spot and without wrinkle and without blemish. God has the ministry set there for the perfecting of the saints, to the extent, Paul said, "This we wish, even the perfecting of your faith." So, we are teaching and tutoring to the revealing of the Word, as to this revelational mystery, that you may have the Spirit of revelation, and that you might come to the perfect understanding of God's Word, to know what God has given you in Christ, and what God has done for you in the foreknowledge of God before the world ever was. This was given to you in Christ before the world ever was, and brought to light at Calvary, at the rent veil, that it might be preached to you down through the church ages, that you might comprehend the heights, the depth, the width and the length of this great, wonderful thing, that you might hear this in detail, and believe this and become the great, wonderful, fullness of Christ, as to the full measure of the full stature, or go on to a full reward, that you may have this wonderful blessing of God.

It's so good, as I say so often, to be a Christian. It's so good to know that we are perfect in His sight. We are without spot. We are without blemish. We're without sin in His sight. Though we stumble and though we stagger, and though we're full of mistakes, and though we're full of error as to our own bodily problems, yet God never sees one of them. He never charges one of them against us. He encourages you and I to never condemn ourselves over any stumbling or any mistake or any error. He said, "A good man will fall seven times, but don't let it bother you. Just get back up and go right on." There's none good but God. The Bible says we're the body of the Lord Jesus, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, members in particular. Our righteousness is of God. He picks us up and He carries us on the wings, and we continue on. This means that God never sees us with a spot. He never sees us with a blemish. He sees us as His own beloved child.

Can God sin? Can the flesh and bone of God sin? Can the sons of God sin? Can the daughters of God sin? Is there sin in the body of the Lord Jesus? Pilate said, "I find no fault in Him." The Bible says that we're bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, and we are the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, members in particular, that in this just man we find no fault. Can God then find fault with the body of the Lord Jesus Christ? Was not He chastened? Was not He beaten? The Bible says that He was bruised for mine iniquities, and the chastisement of my peace was upon Him, by whose stripes I'm healed. Like sheep, we've all gone astray, but God hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. The Bible says where these things are, there's not even a conscience of sin anymore. He has so thoroughly taken it out of the way, and so thoroughly eradicated it, that to the blessed children of God, to the little children of God, there is nothing wrong anymore. If you have a little baby, do you blame the little baby with anything? Don't you nourish it? Don't you love it? Don't you cuddle it? Now, the little baby does wrong, the little baby messes up his diaper, the little baby can get its hands in grease and mud or whatever. Do you pounce on it? Do you hate it? Is it all dirty and filthy and you don't love it anymore and you reject it? Or do you just take it, put it under the shower and wash it off, cuddle it, love it, spray it, kiss it and it still belongs to you?

See, that's the way it is with us. We're the precious, dear, beloved children of God, without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish. We are His children. He said, "I give My angels charge concerning thee, and they shall bear thee up in all of thy ways, lest at any time thou should dash thy foot against a stone." All the time that we're going through life, the angels of God are right there with us. No matter what kind of crisis we go through, no matter what kind of problems we go through, the angel of God is right there to hold us, to catch us, to keep us from any kind of problems, any kind of hurt, or whatever it might be. Just like in the arms of a mother, we're cuddled and taken care of, because we are the precious, wonderful, dear beloved children of Almighty God. We are delivered from sin, we are delivered from death, and we're delivered from heartaches and sorrow. The blessing of the Lord maketh rich and addeth no sorrow. It is the Lord thy God that giveth thee the power to get wealth. The blessing of the Lord giveth thee the desires of thine heart when you delight yourself in the Lord. So, God that is with us. It is God that watcheth over us. It is God that hath made us righteous and holy and godly. Not ourselves, not of works lest any man should boast, but it is the gift of God. So then, I feel secure, and I feel happy.

What have I done to be a Christian? What have I done to be holy? What have I done to be righteous? Someone would say, "Brother Pike, I came to the altar and repented and I tried to live holy and godly and pure. I fasted and I prayed, and it's taken me many years to get to the place that I've gotten to." So then, I would say to you, "What kind of place have you got to?" I would say, "You've probably gotten to be a mess." If you've been here ten years, you're ten years a mess. If you've been here fifty years, you're fifty years a mess. If you'd just been here two years, you wouldn't have been but a two year mess. But you know what? Before you were ever born into the world, God made you perfect. Before you was ever born into the world, the Bible says, before you ever came into the world, God gave this righteousness and this perfection to you in Christ Jesus. Before you ever breathed your first breath, He called you with a holy calling and predestinated you unto eternal life. Paul, in his day, preached to those people that were, before of old from the foundation of the world, preordained unto eternal life, and they believed, but the rest of them did not believe.

So then, what have you done? Nothing except believe. Then why do I try to do the things I do? Why do I try to fast, try to pray, try to walk straight, try to get away from the world, try to put away the gullible desires of the flesh? I do that so I can believe. I try to do that to assure my heart so my heart can believe, because I'm saved by faith in His righteousness, and I'm saved by faith in His works. All of these things, He's already done for me, and all these things are appropriated for my benefit. I want to believe that. I want to accept that. I want to have that. The only way I can have that is to believe that. The only way I can believe that is to put this old body down and this old mind down, to get this old devil that keeps howling, like a wolf on the mountainside, out of the way. That old devil that works in the body, that keeps saying, "No!" This old devil that keeps fighting against me, that's constantly accusing me, as to the body of this death, that when I would do good, evil is present. That conflict that when I would do good, evil is present. This thing I see, warring in my members against my mind, bringing me into condemnation, that's always arguing with me and telling me that God doesn't love me, that's always putting me down and telling me that I can't be saved and telling me that God is not my heavenly Father. I'm trying to kill him out. I'm trying to stop his mouth. I'm trying to do everything I can to get away from that body, to mortify the deeds of the body, to kill him out. The Bible says that though the outer man perish, yet the inner man is renewed day by day. I'm trying to build up the inner man, the one that God has filled with the Spirit and sealed with His Holy Spirit, the one that Satan cannot touch, because darkness hath no power over light, and light and darkness cannot fellowship.

I'm trying to stop the mouth of that old thing that's got five human senses and is subject to the vanities of this world. I'm trying to, as Paul said, keep under the body, bring it into subjection, so that I can put my foot on the head of that old serpent. Do away with that old body, be divorced from that so I might be married to another, even the Lord Jesus Christ; to stop the mouth of the gainsayer and stop that old body from hindering me with its unbelief, that I might believe in this wonderful thing that our heavenly Father has done for me, and convince myself that there's no more conscience of sin. I'm free from death and free from sin. I must believe the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I must believe these things that God has said to me. I must believe in what the minister has said, that I'm free from death and free from sin and free from iniquity, and God will not impute sin unto me. I cannot sin because I am born of God. God has taken it all away. The accuser of the brethren had been destroyed in the sight of God, and that He will not accept accusations against me, even though the body rages with accusation, God will not listen to one of them nor substantiate one of them against me. Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? I am persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of God. The gates of hell cannot prevail against us, for we're justified, sanctified, glorified, predestinated. We are God's elect according to His foreknowledge.

So that's why I fast, that's why I pray, that's why I study, that's why I try to walk upright. If I just waver about, and don't stay steadfast in my faith, I cannot get the benefits of God. The Bible says if I want something from God, ask in faith, nothing wavering. If I want to get healed, if I want somebody to get healed, if I want a blessing from God, if I want God to meet my need, I have to ask in faith, nothing wavering. If I'm going to ask in faith, nothing wavering, I've got to kill out my mind of unbelief, that old mind that Eve let in, that robbed us, through the fall of Adam and Eve, of our garden home and all the many blessings of God. Satan is standing between us and the restoration of that great, wonderful thing that's been lost through the fall. I've got to eradicate the death that they let in by believing myself back into that garden, that millennium garden. I simply must believe. That's all that's required. I must believe. It's not of works, lest any man should boast, but it is the lovely gift of God. So this is why I try to do the things I do. The better I can live, the more I can lay those things aside, the more I can put my foot on the head of the old serpent, kill out that old mind, mortify the deeds of the flesh, withdraw from the things of the world, in that Satan is the prince of this world, the less he can accuse me. The more holy that I can be, the less he has to say against me. The more holy I am, the more the world will see Jesus in me, and the greater light I will be to them, for the more Christ-like I will be, and I will draw more people to me, and the greater my reward will be in heaven, as to the blessings of God, in the sense that the more of Christ will be in me, in a greater measure, because I will believe the more.

That's why Paul said we're set here, as the ministry, for the perfecting of your faith, to teach you these wonderful things, that we might make your believing perfect in the things of God. God has appropriated all the money in the bank. Calvary is the bank. All the money is now in the bank. Now, you're under the tutors until the time appointed of the Father. Though you be lord of all, you differ nothing from a servant as long as you are under the tutors. But when you come to the time of the bar mitzvah, you can step out and say, "Hey, I can believe. You know, I can believe for myself. Here is Calvary. I believe for myself." Just reach over in the bank and write the name of Jesus. Take out what you want. Go on your way and enjoy it. Rejoice forevermore. This is what God wants. We're His wonderful children. We're His children by faith in Jesus Christ.

I'm glad that where these things are, there's no more conscience of sin. Serving God is joy, peace, and righteousness in the Holy Ghost. How could you have anything but joy, peace, and righteousness in the Holy Ghost? How could you have anything but joy, knowing down in your heart that you cannot die, knowing that you cannot sin, knowing that you're going to be strong and young and healthy and full of life, and exceedingly rich above all things throughout eternity, and never going to die? You may go to sleep, but let me tell you, there's a world of difference between going to sleep and dying. Dying is when you go into the lake of fire. Dying is when you go into hell. Dying is when your spirit is separated from the Spirit of life. When you're born again, the Spirit of life and your spirit becomes one, and you can never, never be separated from life. You have life eternal. There will never come a time when you'll be separated. Lazarus went to sleep. We say, "He died." But, he went to sleep, and the angels carried his spirit to Abraham's bosom. The rich man did not go to sleep. He died, and in hell he lifted up his eyes.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

The Veil Is Rent

The Bible says that surely the love of God constraineth us, and the goodness of God leadeth us to repentance. The Bible speaks of the mystery of godliness. So often we use the term that the gospel is simple. We all know that the gospel is simple. You repent of your sins. You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. God saves you. I baptize you in the lovely name of Jesus for the remission of sin. He gives you His Spirit. That's very simple, and we should never let anyone beguile us from that simplicity which is in Christ. But at the same time, the Bible says that great is the mystery of godliness. Paul said, "I am a steward of the mysteries." Having been made a steward of the mysteries, God has given unto me many many things in my lifetime. He struck me down, like He did Paul, turned me around and sent me to preach the gospel. He has opened the wonderful world of revelation to me and let me have this wonderful gospel of the understanding of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I can only do what the Lord tells me and we're His mouthpiece and we're to do everything as unto the Lord. The Bible says that it's not you speaking but the heavenly Father that's speaking from within you and that all shall be taught of the Lord. Let all the world keep silent, for God is in His temple. His temples ye are, members in particular of the body. The Bible says ye are the body of the Lord. You're the temple of God. If you defile that temple, God shall destroy you.

The Bible is so filled with mysteries. I've read it from cover to cover, as I'm sure you have, and it's such a wonderful book. It's words of Spirit and life. Jesus said, "My words are Spirit and they are life." They're words of Spirit and they're words of life. I'm thrilled every time I look at this book, every time I talk from this book, because, all the way from Genesis to Revelation, it is filled with the glory of God, filled with the wisdom of God, and filled with the revelation of God. Ever since Calvary, the veil has been rent in twain. Since that time, Paul said, "Now is made known to the church the manifold wisdom of God, even that which is in heavenly places," and because of this, you now have this heavenly treasure in your earthen vessels. When you get this heavenly treasure, as to the knowledge of God, which is the word of Spirit and life, it will eventually, from glory to glory, from the inside to the outside, change your image into a glorified celestial image, a body that will not die and a body that cannot be put in the grave. I know that we've already passed from death unto life in that, in the inner man, we've passed from death unto life, and I know that we can't die. It's impossible for a Christian to die. There's no way that he could die. If he could die, he wouldn't have eternal life, because what eternal life means is that you can't die.

That's why you hear me say that Adam and Eve did not have eternal life. They were in the presence of eternal life. They were illuminated by eternal life, but the beast enticed them out from under that shekinah, and the day that they left that shekinah, they died. From that time on, all of their children have died. In Adam all die, but Christ, being the firstfruits of them that slept, as to the resurrection, said to Martha and Mary, "I am the resurrection," and being the resurrection, then the Lord Jesus Christ comes into our hearts. Since that time, we that are born of the Lord Jesus are no longer living souls, as in Adam all die. The soul that sinneth shall surely die, but we are now quickening spirits. We've been born of God and are now quickening spirits, and quickening spirits cannot die.

So then, we are now equal to the angels. The Bible says everyone that's born again is equal to the angels and cannot die. Angels cannot die. Not even Lucifer. God will have to destroy all of the fallen angels. They can't die. God has a covenant with you and I that He will not destroy us. God said unto Abraham, the father of the faithful, "Because I could swear by no greater, I swear by Myself, saying, I bless thee." I bless thee. Therefore He hath given us a promise that He will never destroy us. Our life is eternal, which makes us equal to God. That's why the Bible says to 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 make Himself equal with God. He didn't try to make Himself a reputation. The Bible says that every man that will be perfect shall be as his master. No man shall be above his master, but every man shall be equal with his master. The Bible says that God hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, and sanctified them once and for all by the offering up of the body of the Lord Jesus at Calvary. Jesus said, "If you overcome, you can sit down in the throne with Me and My Father, even as I overcome and am set down in the throne with My Father." Heaven is His throne and earth is His footstool. It's very evident by these things that you have eternal life. You have passed from death unto life. You shall never come into condemnation. The Bible says that no one can lay anything to the charge of God's elect, for it is God that justifieth. It is Jesus that died for you, and whether you live or die, as you say in this world, you belong to God. No one can lay anything to your charge, for you are God's elect. Peter said, "Elect according to foreknowledge." God elected you unto grace, according to what He foreknew you would do, having saved you by the blood of the Lamb that was shed before the foundation of the world in the foreknowledge of God.

You are God's elect according to what God foreknew what you would do when the gospel came across your path. Some are preordained unto condemnation, the Bible says ungodly men turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, or that is, taking advantage of the days of grace as to do their own evil thing and not regarding grace as an opportunity to become right with God. The Bible speaks of others that were ordained unto eternal life, and when Paul preached to them, he said, "As many of them as were ordained unto eternal life, they believed." God is no respecter of person. He did not predestinated you or predetermined your destination in any selfish way or in any respect of person, but He, by foreknowledge, saw what you would do when you were confronted by the ministry and by the Word, and before you were ever born into the world, you found your place either in God or in the lake of fire by what He foreknew that you would do. Foreknowing that some of you would try to serve God and you could not withstand the wiles of the devil (because man is made a little lower than the angels, and the angels are far stronger than man), God had to send the Spirit of His own Son, even the Holy Spirit, into your heart, crying, "Abba, Father," to give you the strength to resist the devil because you wanted to serve God.

They that will not serve God do not receive the Holy Spirit. They never even get their eyes open to see the kingdom of God. Jesus said, "Lest ye be born again, you'll never see the kingdom of God." The kingdom of God it cometh not by observation, as to seeing with your natural eye. That's why the Jews missed it. It comes by revelation. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, to comprehend the heights, the depths and the length of this great, wonderful thing. The kingdom of God is within you, in that the law and the prophets were until John, since that time the kingdom has been preached and men have pressed their way into it. The world is placed within you at your first birth, and when you are born again, the world goes out of you and the kingdom of God comes in because the world is a mind. Satan's world is a mind, your world is a mind, and God's world is a mind.

This sovereignty of mind, as to a spirit, which is a life, dwells within your body and your body profits nothing. It's dead by the body of Jesus. That body of sin is now dead and gone. Paul called it the body of this death. It's gone and you're free from the body, and at death your spirit went back to God who gave it, and now you're as the angels in heaven. The Bible says to rejoice ye that dwell in heaven. You're hid with Christ in God whom the heavens have received until that time of restoring, bringing in the millennium, and you're free from sin and death. He that is born of God cannot sin because he keepeth himself and the evil one toucheth him not, and thus he is a church without spot, wrinkle or blemish. The seed of God remaineth in him, and he keepeth himself by faith in the righteousness of the great Son of God.

So, we find that we have passed from death unto life, and there is now, therefore, no condemnation to them that walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh. Since you're born of the Spirit and your body is now dead, as to the body of death, then you can't walk after the flesh. You can't sin. You can't walk after the flesh. The Bible says that no one can condemn you or lay anything to your charge. We have this wonderful thing. The wicked cannot see when good cometh. The Bible says the world cannot receive the Spirit of truth because they see Him not. Through eyes of understanding, we see always the things our heavenly Father does, in that He is the Spirit. But they that are in the world cannot see it. The veil of death is still over their eyes, as to that intellectual death spirit that was projected through the beast to Eve. That veil of death was rent in twain. In the days of Isaac, it was moved from Rebecca's face in the secret chambers of the mother. Now that we've come to Calvary, the veil is rent in two. The bride has gone into the secret chambers, and this is a secret work. This work the world cannot see, for they look on the outward appearance. But, in the darkness of the night, as a thief in the night, which means coming within the radius of your intellectual darkness, the Spirit of God slips in and takes the spiritual being into heaven. At death, the spirit goeth back to God who gave it. We reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin and unto the world by the body of the Lord Jesus, and the world is dead unto us.

I say this so often to you that you might keep your balance: that if this is true, then the veil is rent in twain. At Calvary, the curtains are open on the last great drama, and now this wonderful episode of that which is beyond the veil, even the ark of the covenant, which is called the revelation of Jesus Christ, comes forth, which took Paul into the third heaven. He never determined whether he was in the body or out of the body, but he said, "I knew a man that was caught up." Knowing this, we now understand that from Calvary, we're now seeing not through the glass darkly, as that light that was veiled in the days of Moses as to the intellectual veil, but we see God as He is through eyes of understanding. Being enlightened, we're seeing Him face to face and beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and we're changed into His glorious likeness and into His glorious image. The angel said to Daniel, about five hundred years before the coming of the Messiah, "Messiah shall come and make an end of sin." We know that He did make an end of sin, and sin is no more. Since sin is no more, then death is no more to them that believe. God has taken away the sins of the world, as a temporary thing by this temporary grace, to give everybody a chance who are elect to come to God.

After that, the blood will be removed from of the seat of atonement, and from that time on, the wicked won't have the benefit of the blood anymore. But yours is a new birth as to the Spirit of eternal life on the inside of you, and though the wicked can't see when good cometh because their eyes are blind, in that they've never had their eyes open nor the veil of death moved, you do have it moved and you're not children of darkness, as to intellectual ignorance, but children of light, as to that mind of Christ. God said,

"Paul turn My people from darkness to light," because he had the revelation or the unveiled mysteries of Christ, and he said, "You're children of light. Ye shall know when it's nigh even at the door."

Folks, it's nigh even at the door. It's so close that you just open the door and it's there. We see this when Calvary came, and what happened? Sin ended. Four hundred and eighty-three years from the time that the angel witnessed to Daniel, then sin was taken away. The veil was rent in twain; that is to say, the separation between the spirit and the body. Jesus made in Himself twain, or two, that the veil might be rent in twain, or two. His body was separated from His Spirit. He made in Himself, according to the book of Acts, both Lord and Christ. When this veil was rent, separating the Spirit from the body, it indicated, with Him coming in your image, that He had put away the bodily image of death. He was a lamb without spot, wrinkle and blemish, and yet not a lamb, but a human sacrifice, to do it once and for all that there might be no more sin and that it might not be brought to God's remembrance anymore. He sat down on the right hand of the Father, waiting until His enemies be made His footstool, because He was to offer no more offerings for sin. That was sufficient. He is high priest of our confession, who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

This wonderful Jesus came, and now the veil is rent. The separation is there. He did that, not for Himself, but He took on the form of Adam, to bring the first man Adam to judgment and death, and the great Holy Spirit, which was the Spirit of Christ, lifted up this body of Adam, this bastard child image, and took it to Calvary, where it was smitten. We esteemed Him smitten of God. The serpent's head was bruised as the crown of thorns was placed there upon the image. The reason they called Him a bastard child is because He came in the likeness of the bastard child. He was resurrected in a new form and appeared to them in a new form as the glorified image.

In Adam all die. He ended death, and the end of the tree of knowledge was when John laid the axe to the root of the family tree, of the people of knowledge, that started in the garden. He cut it down all the way back to the garden and that ended it, as to the law. When we say the Jews are blinded in part, they're blinded in the part from Calvary over to the unveiled light. Being a type of the creatures of darkness, those creatures go to sleep when the light comes. When the glorious light came, as to the dawning of the daystar within, that was the morning. The Bible says from the evening until the morning, saying that all of that from the garden was a fall, as to darkness, over until light, which brings the daystar dawning at Calvary, as to the morning, and that dawning within your heart. So then, as to the darkness of the night, as to the veil, now it is rent, and the veil is laid aside and the true light now shineth, as to the unveiled, and we're seeing face to face.

We must remember that from Calvary onward, it is a heavenly episode. From the time of the four hundred eight-three years over to the seven years of the last week (the beginning of Daniel's last week), all of that in between there is heaven. That's why that the church is in heaven. The earthly episode doesn't come back in until the beginning of Daniel's last week. The rent veil is between the four hundred eight-three years and the seven years, and there is nothing that comes back in, as to earthly perspective, until the beginning of the last week comes in, which is the time of Jacob's trouble. In the book of Revelation, in the sixth and the seventh chapter, you'll find that John was looking in the earth when a one hundred forty-four thousand

were sealed, as to the earthly perspective. He was looking into heaven when he saw the church there, a multitude that no man could number, that were following the lamb whithersoever He went.

You can see that with the coming of the earthly episode, there will be no blood on the seat of atonement. The grace is gone at that time, and because of that, the wrath of God will be poured out into the earth. The two prophets come at the first of the week to tutor Israel down to the middle of the week; and then the antichrist comes on the scene to kill the two prophets. When this last week comes in, it's going to be horrible. That's why the Bible says to pray always that you may be accounted worthy to escape those things that's coming on the earth. Pray that you'll make the translation, which we call the rapture, so you won't go through the tribulation, because in that day, men will actually pray for death and they'll gnaw their tongues for pain. There won't be any relief from their pains. They won't be able to die during a certain period of tribulation.

We predicted a number of years ago that they would dry up the Euphrates River, as the prophetical utterance says that they will do, and that they would do that at the end time. It had to do with the tribulation period. And when they do that, that would be the end of the world. Jesus said, as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, that when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, the place that it ought not, then shall the end come.

You read about it over in the sixteenth chapter of the book of Revelation, the twelfth verse, and it is the sixth plague of the seven last plagues of the wrath of God, and the sixth plague is poured out upon the river Euphrates, and it's dried up to make way for the kings of the east, which, of course, will bring the abomination of desolation. The armies will go in there and compass Jerusalem, and Jesus said, "When you see the cities of Jerusalem compassed about with armies, then know that the desolation is nigh." They've already built this giant reservoir that will hold two years worth of the river's water, and they're going to put one year of running water into it right off. It will hold two years. During that time, this will dry up the Euphrates.

So now the Euphrates River has come into view, and this means that the tribulation period has to be close at hand. No one will know the day nor the hour, whether it be Monday at two o'clock or Sunday at three o'clock. But He said, "You're children of light. You'll know when it's nigh, even at the door." I say, when it gets to the door and I'm knocking on your door, that's as close as I can get without stepping in. All you got to do is open the door. So that means that we're going to know. We're going to understand this revelation, and we're going to be ready at the midnight cry.

So you can see that God is doing a tremendous thing. When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part will be done away with. We've known in part, and that which is in part is beyond Calvary, as to the law, imperfect. Now it's folded up and laid away, for the Bible says the comer thereunto could never be made perfect, as to the blood of bulls and goats. The Bible says without us, they could not be made perfect, because that which was perfect had not come, which was Jesus, or the great Holy Spirit as to the righteousness of God. But they slept in their lot. They waited until that time when Jesus did come, to go down into the heart of the earth, to preach to the souls in prison, to give them that garment of

righteousness. Put ye on the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, even the wedding garment. It's very obvious that you are the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. You put on the Lord Jesus Christ. You're bone of His bone and flesh of his flesh. You're without spot, without wrinkle, and without blemish because He is without spot, wrinkle or blemish. You are the measure of that body as much as you are willing to submit.

Some of you are going to go after the things of the world. You have a gullible desire for the things of the world, and you're going to dwarf yourself. Even you that come into the spiritual things will be dwarfed, because you want to mess around with too many things in the world and don't want to wholly give yourself to God, to receive a full reward, to go on to the full measure of the full stature of the perfect man Christ Jesus.

Now, Jesus is here, and because He is here, then that means that we are made perfect, and that which is perfect is now come. So we are perfected forever, sanctified by the faith which is in Him, and we with them have been made perfect. Some of them came up out of the graves and walked around when perfection came, to show that the resurrection was there and that He is the resurrection. If you've received Him in your heart, then you are children of the resurrection. Your body has been buried and laid away, as the death of that body of sin and corruption, the bastard child image, and it's buried in baptism, and now you've been raised in His likeness. You're the Savior, as to the inner man, and he is perfect. He is resurrected from that body of clay and stone, of that which was given Moses, and it has been rolled away. He's taken out the heart of stone and placed within you a heart of flesh (flesh of His flesh) and He wrote the laws upon the table of your heart, and now you're His children. His Spirit has come into our heart, crying, "Abba, Father." Having passed from death unto life, now we have this eternal life.

What a wonderful thought to know that the veil is rent, and my body was laid away, and my spirit went back to God who gave it. Today, He has taken away my sins, and all I have to do is say, "Father, forgive me my trespasses." I know before I ask Him that He's already forgiven me. God was in Christ, reconciling the world back to Himself, not imputing our trespasses unto us and the Bible says He hath forgiven all of our trespasses, for He is the God that healeth all of our diseases and forgiveth all of our iniquities. So what can we say? I am what I am by the grace of God. If God be for me, who can be against me?

What is a mystery? Can anybody tell me what a mystery is? It's a concealed truth. When truth is concealed, it's unknown, which means it's a mystery. But, if that is true, then what is a revelation? It's a revealed truth. Now that which is secret, the Bible says, belongs to God, but that which is revealed, belongs to man. Remember the Lord told John to seal up the book? In the days of Daniel, you remember how Daniel had the visions of these four beasts, and it was said, "Seal it up, Daniel." The veil had never been rent. Daniel couldn't understand it. Seal it up. God had shown him what would befall his people in the latter times, because that's why Daniel had fasted, because the Jews were his people. But it was sealed up because it wasn't time for the revealed truth. So it was a mystery. When the veil was rent at Calvary, John saw the same visions of Daniel, and they are revealed. If you'll go check it out, the beasts were identically what Daniel saw. The blowing of the winds, as to the four winds wrestling over the waters, was the same thing that Daniel saw, here in the book of Revelation in the tenth chapter:

"And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings."

It says here: "And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer." Now to me that's beautiful, very beautiful. It says, "But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished." It doesn't say the mysteries. It's singular. It's mystery. There are numbers of mysteries in the Bible, as to the mystery of iniquity, and other kinds of mysteries but this one apparently has to do with the mystery of godliness. Great is the mystery of godliness, and I am made a steward thereof. The Bible says he that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. These things are not made known to the world, but to you they're made known. It's not given unto the world to know these things. Jesus told his disciples, "It's not given unto them that are without to know these things." They had asked Him, "Why is it that you speak these things in parables to them?" The Bible says that without a parable spake He not unto the people. He said, "It is not given unto them to know the mysteries, but to you it is given." You're the church. That is to say, Christ preaches to them because it is given to them to know the gospel, and the gospel must go into all the world for a witness, and then shall the end come. But unto you, Jesus is within your midst. He is within your heart and it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.

It says, "When he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God," whereas the original is "the secret of God." So then, if we dwell in the secret place of the most High, we abide under the shadow of the Almighty. What is the shadow of the Almighty? God is a Spirit. Does a Spirit make a shadow? David said, "Yea, though I walk through the valley," speaking of this world as being down here and heaven up there, "of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil," saying that the law is a shadow of death. Though the law is holy, though the law is spiritual, yet we're carnal, sold unto sin. "That that I would do, I do not; that which I do, I allow not for," Paul said. So it is not I that doeth it, but sin that dwelleth within me, which is the body of this death. That's the purpose of the rent veil. So, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. If the Old Testament is a shadow of the New Testament, or all of those things were shadows of that which was to come, then as David, being a Jew, said, "I am under the shadow, but I fear no evil, for Thou art with me." The Spirit of God was with him in the Old Testament, but He's in us today. Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, which

means the Word and the Holy Spirit, they comfort me, in that the Bible says the Holy Spirit is a comforter. When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, which is the Spirit of Christ, He'll comfort you. He'll be a comforter and He'll bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I taught you, and lead you and guide you into all truth and all righteousness. We see that when the veil is taken away, as to the rising of the sun, the daystar in the morning, the bastard image is gone. Those that are in this bastard image, of never having been born again, to have Christ within them, then He despises their image. "I'm angry with the wicked every day," He said. He said that He wouldn't rest until He smote the wicked and pursued the wicked until they perish from off of the face of the earth. Their offerings are an abomination in His sight. Their gifts are an abomination in His sight. He has nothing to do with the wicked. Even though He is loving and kind and would that the wicked would come to repentance, but nevertheless, if they continue to be wicked, then that is the way it is.

It says, "Time should be no longer." When it says that time should be no longer, it says that this angel swore; whereas God has commanded us that we should not swear at all. He said, "You can't make one hair black nor white, so then you're not to swear at all." But I can swear, God could say. Because I can swear by no greater than Myself, I swore by myself, saying, "Abraham, blessing, I will bless thee, and multiplying, I will multiply thee, until thy seed is as the sands of the seashore, innumerable as the stars in heaven." Here in Revelation 10, there is an angel, and the rainbow is about his head, and he is standing with one foot on the land and with one foot on the sea. He has his hands raised to heaven, and he's declaring that the mystery of God is about to be finished, and he says, "Time shall be no longer."

Now we know that has to be Calvary. It is at Calvary that this great angel of the covenant, even Christ, Himself, the rainbow about the throne, as about the head, His head went into heaven. Heaven is My throne. His feet were in the earth, as to the water and the land, which means body and spirit, in that the body is made out of dust. Science considers a man as to be mostly fluids or water, but the water signifying the spirit, the body the flesh. So he raised his hand to heaven, swearing by Him that liveth forever and ever, that time should be no more, or that is to say he said, "The mysteries should be finished." Jesus raised His hands when He hung at Calvary, and He looked up to heaven. He had told Nicodemus, "The Son of Man who was in heaven, and who is in heaven." He lifted up His heart and mind, His inner Spirit, which was the Christ, which was in heaven, and that body, which stood in the earth here, and He raised His hand to heaven and He said, "It is finished, Father." It is finished. Here it is said, "The mystery shall be finished." And it is finished. The trump of God sounded. The voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, a voice is liken as a trumpet, and here He said, "It is finished." That agrees with the Scripture, for the Bible says that in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law.

Time is a derivative of shadows, and where there are no shadows, there is no time. The little shadow that you see on the sundial, it moves as the sun moves. Whether it be calendar, almanacs, tick, tick, tick or whatever you want, the origination of time is from the sun and the shadow. The original time piece, is the sundial, and as the sun moved, as to the daystar, so moved the shadow. So moved the time, and time is a power of consummation. From the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. From the time, Eve, that you would become carnal minded (to be carnally minded is death), then that's the sentence of death, and it will cut you off from the spiritual mind, for the carnal mind is enmity with God. It's not subject to the laws of God, neither indeed can be, because Satan has interwoven himself with that mind. He savors the things that be of this world because he is the prince of this world.

From the time that she conceived of this evil, she died out of the presence of God, for the just shall live by faith, and that killed the faith right there. She did not have any faith in God anymore. It's evident that she did not, because when God came looking for them, they were hid, trying to clothe themselves with the fig leaves because the beast had told them that they were naked, but not as to a nakedness as the outward appearance. That wasn't what it was. If that's what it was, then the question arises: Why did not they know that they were naked before? it didn't have anything to do with the outward appearance. They were already naked. They had been naked all the time. There was no shame. The thing that had taken place happened on the inside of them, and they lost the shekinah glory of God. They had lost the illumination. They'd lost that covering.

The Bible speaks of the covering of His glory, and we've preached on the covering of His glory, and the covering of the two cherubs, and what they were the covering and what it had to do with. Paul spoke of those things, in his day, but he could not speak particular. God said, "You cover with a covering, but not of My glory." When you are baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sin, you put on the Lord Jesus Christ, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. Jesus the express image of God or the given image of God, the only image of God, the fullness of the godhead bodily. You now have on the garment of righteousness.

You now have the wedding garment. The Bible says if anyone comes into the supper without this garment, to this great, charitable supper, the supper of love, the sacrificial Lamb Himself; if you come to this without the garment, then you're cast into outer darkness, because it's evident that you're not born again. You've not put on the Lord Jesus Christ. You've never come into the light of God. Though you may be religious like Cain was, yet you still don't have this garment of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, into the intellectual realms of the darkness you go, to be bound by demon spirits, because you did not walk in the faith of Christ, as to the illumination.

The whole world has been from evening until morning, as to the beginning of God's act of creation, until the coming of the daystar, which was Calvary. With this daystar dawning within your heart, Christ within you the hope of glory, when this came, then the image of death, the bastard child image, was not there. It was planted with Jesus. So, He did not despise your image in the morning because you're no longer of that sinful image of that first birth, of that man Adam as a living soul unto death, but you are now a quickening spirit in that He was raised again, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the second man Adam, was made a quickening Spirit, and now beloved are ye a quickening spirit.

So then, you've passed from death unto life, even the death of that body. Now you're in the Spirit and equal to the angels, and you cannot die, Jesus said. We see this heavenly episode, as to the rent veil, and the wonderful thing where we dwell in heaven and rejoice in heaven and have a good time in God. This is why faith is so outstanding and why we do not cast away our confidence in God, because it hath great recompense of reward. He hath revealed Himself unto us and declared Himself unto us through the rent veil of His Son, even in His flesh, to make a more sure way and give a more sure word of prophecy. So, we see that we don't have to die. The world is dead. They that live in trespasses and sin are dead. It doesn't matter how much they try to make themselves equal with the children of God. They are dead, and some of them

twice dead in that they are dead in their spirit and can never be born again. Some of them have blasphemed the Holy Spirit. They are dead in trespasses and sin. The only way they can even survive or remain in this world without God destroying them is because the blood is still on the seat of atonement, and only until the church comes to it's perfection and makes it's ultimatum of change. Once it comes to the ultimatum, then it's changed, and the blood comes off of the seat of atonement, and then God pursues those people in the world as brute beasts to destroy them. They don't have any protection. "Beware ye that forget God lest I tear you into pieces," God said. "All nations that forget God will be turned into hell," the Bible says.

Do you remember the vision I had where I was holding onto this thing and I wouldn't turn it loose, and it got more fierce and more fierce until it stretched out around the entire world? It kept moving until it turned into fire and brimstone and rained down and everything turned into ashes. But, I was standing with that little group of people in the millennium, and I said, "Glory to God! We made it! We made it! Death is over. All the troubles and sorrows are over. Folks we made it!" Let me tell you something: we made it! Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Jesus said, "I am the resurrection, and you have passed from death unto life." The Bible says that now beloved ye are the sons of God and ye shall never come into condemnation. Nobody can lay anything to the charge of God's elect, for God has sanctified once and for all by the offering up of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, justified you by faith, sanctified you and hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, or made you perfect, because that which is perfect is come. A church without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish, so we can see what a wonderful thing that He has done.

Here is Calvary. Here are the hands going up, and there it is. "Father, it is finished." Jesus had fulfilled every detail of the law. The Bible says that the law shall not pass away until every jot and tittle is fulfilled. Jesus fulfilled every jot and every tittle. The law of sin and death passed away. It was folded up and laid away, and now we're not under the law. Paul said, "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." The law, as to righteousness of the law, is fulfilled in you by Christ who fulfilled it and then went into your heart, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. He alone was made heir to the glory of God; not unto seeds as of many, but as of thy seed, Abraham, even Isaac. Jesus alone was made heir to the glory of God, so He is the hope of that glory in you. When the fullness of time came, that which was perfect came, which is Jesus, made of a woman, made under the law, to gather all things in heaven and earth into Christ. As it was in the days of Noah, God gathered everything into the ark before the wrath of God came, which was just before He brought in the new world.

We see that in Jesus all are made alive. We are now quickening spirits, and we have passed from death unto life. We're now dwelling in heaven because we're hid with Christ in God whom the heavens have received. The world cannot see you because you're invisible, no more than they can see God, but we are free from the body of sin and death. It's gone now. The veil is rent in twain. We're on this side, going on to heaven; the others are on the other side, the body of death. The Jews represented the death of the body when they went out. They were those fallen stars that you see in the sixth seal. When it's opened, the stars fell from heaven as untimely figs. That was the Jews going out. Someday it will happen in the natural. It will happen in the natural, physical and spiritual. Someday you will see the natural stars fall, but all the other things have to be fulfilled first in the invisible world, the angelic world, because the Bible says as in heaven, so in earth. All of the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, being clearly understood by the things which do appear, even the eternal godhead so that we're without excuse. That is to say, the shadows show us the image that is coming, as to the daystar dawning, as the moonlight, the lesser light of the Jews, moves away. The latter house glory is greater because this is the unveiled light. The Bible says that the

former light had no glory by reason of the latter light that so excels, as the unveiled light, even the church, the light of the world, even unto the ends of the earth.

When we think of this, we know that Calvary was the end of time. For everyone that believes, Calvary was the end of time. So, you're not time creatures anymore. They in the world are time creatures. They that was not born again go right on past Calvary. They do not come through the blood, to the acknowledgement; though the blood momentarily covers it as a temporal grace, but not grace unto salvation. They go right on in the shadows. They're still in darkness. The veil is still over their minds. Paul said that the veil is untaken away even until today, which veil remaineth over the face of the people. The veil of death is still there. He said that is the veil is untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament. That is to say, you don't understand the revelation, you can't see beyond that intellectual expression. You don't go into the mysteries. You don't understand that the veil is rent and taken away. In Christ, it's done away with. As the sun consumes the snow to reveal the vegetation on the hillside, so does the light come and destroy that which is the perversion. The Bible says that with the brightness of His coming, He will destroy that perverted image, even that which sits in the temple of God, Satan showing himself that he is God. With the brightness of this revelation, it will reveal him and he'll be cast out into the earth and he'll go about like a roaring lion. He'll personify himself in the antichrist as seen in Revelation 12.

So we see here that at Calvary, time is no more. However you come to Calvary, whether it's there at Calvary to that generation, or over here when you're born into the world and you come to a Calvary, you were taught to look unto Calvary and repentance, just as they that were in the wilderness were taught to look on the brazen serpent. So then, you're looking on the brazen serpent, because Jesus was made that likeness of sin. Calvary is the big brazen altar of the Old Testament, where the fire of His indignation never goes out, and the Lamb is put there in the evening time, as Jesus was offered for your sins and for mine. It's very obvious that in seeing this, we have now come to the morning, and this is now the beginning of the creation of God; not Adam, because in Adam all die, but Jesus Christ is the firstborn of the brethren. He is the beginning of the creation of God. He is the first brethren of them that slept, first of the dead, having life within Himself. Never at anytime in the Old Testament or in the New Testament never did anybody bring forth themselves from the dead except Jesus, because He was the resurrection. He said, "This commandment I have of My Father. I can lay My life down or I can take it up."

We see that time is over and gone. The time of the Gentiles goes all the way back way back to when the crown of Israel fell down to Babylon. It stayed there until the time of Jesus, and they rejected it, and then it went to the papacy church and to the world. It stayed there until they lost it and the crown was taken away. It had to do with the end of the times of the Gentiles, for the start was the beginning of the times of the Gentiles. Now we come to the end time of the Gentiles, which is Revelation 8, when that last seal was open and the blood comes off of the seat of atonement. Then, all these horrible, hideous things start happening, hell mingled with blood, waters turning into blood and the sun and the moon being smitten, stars falling from heaven and all these things. We're on the verge of that great calamity right now.

We know, then, that the end of the world is here. We're at the sounding of the last trump, which finishes the mystery of godliness, the mystery of translation. It's given unto you to know the mysteries. Whatever I get from God, I have to claim it before I receive it, calling those things that are not as though they are. So, I

claim it before. I say, "By His stripes I'm healed," so it comes to pass. I say, "By what He did in my behalf, His righteousness, I am saved," so it comes to pass. I say, "We are now in heaven," and we confess that we're in heaven. We confess it because we live by faith in the Word, and so what do we do? We find ourselves in heaven. Who else goes to heaven? No one, because they're not able to confess it. They don't know that because they cannot believe what they do not know. They do not know this because it's not given unto them to know the mysteries. Unto the church it is given that they might believe, and once they believe it, so they are. As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. The world then passes away with the brightness of the coming of Christ, dawning from within your heart as the daystar. Everything is eradicated and dissipates and goes away after the millennium when the great light appears. There will be no more ocean, no more mountains. Everything passes away. It will Jesus Christ alone, and you as the body, the membership, dwelling in this understanding, which is this great light unto which no man can approach which no man has seen nor can see. The human mind cannot grasp this. That light blindeth Paul as a human being. You cannot grasp that, because if this light is released, you will dissipate. You'll go back to your originality. When God said, "Let there be," there was only one way that He could allow that to be: He had to recede.

That's why the flash of the camera catches the image, and then the bright light goes away. Then, the darkness moves in and it forms these things that we see as to the negative. Have you ever looked at a negative? Take a negative and look at it. You say there's an image there. There isn't anything there except light. It's just darkness that surrounds the light. What forms the image, as you call it, is the darkness. Do away with the darkness and there is no image. That's the way that it is with us. We are spirit. You cannot see us if you do away with this part of the natural on the outside. God has flashed the light of that shekinah in the garden, and so the picture is taken, and it's been processed through the dark room all the way from the garden down to Calvary, and now through this process of the blood and the little red light, it comes out on this side not a negative but a positive, because it reverses. The last is first and the first is last. It's no more the darkness, it is now the light, and it is an image. I'm just saying that we're near that which is perfect. We're near the developing now. We're near the positiveness of it. You that can believe, as you think in your heart, so ye are. How do I then get perfect in God? Somebody preaches to me and I believe, because Paul said we're helpers of your faith. We're set there for the perfecting of your faith. We preach this and you believe it, and when you believe it, then the great Holy Spirit comes in and purifies your heart and seals you, because you believed, even His faith. The faith of Jesus Christ by which you're sanctified. We were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith came. The end of time is here, and at Calvary, which is your Calvary as to your generation, time has passed away to be no more. He said, "Father, it is finished." He had fulfilled everything that God had given Him. He was the only one that could come and take that book, to loose those seven seals on the back of the book. It's very obvious that this is the end. When He goes to open the book, that's the end. It's no longer a mystery. "It is finished," Jesus said. Finished in the fullness of time, for time shall be no more. In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, the last angel, when the last trump sounds, the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared unto His prophets. It immediately goes from Revelation 10:7 over to Revelation 11:17 and the last angel sounds. The last trumpet sounds, and suddenly, the mystery was made known and it was give forth. Even the thunders were made known, as the war in heaven and the casting out of Lucifer, as when Jesus said, "It thundered." Thunders of the opening of the seal and war in heaven. When you see it lightning, you hear it thundering, that's war in heaven. That's symbolic. "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven," Jesus said.

The casting out of Lucifer shows war in heaven, hot and cold coming together, light and darkness coming together, and all of this causing a friction. It's like the lukewarm in the church, those that are vomit on His table, who are trying to eat at the table of God and eat at the table of the devils, trying to be in the world

and be in the church, which is hypocrisy in His sight. All these coming together. The hot and cold. He said, "I would that you were hot or cold." The world is now mixing with the church and the church is mixing with the world. You can hardly tell them apart anymore. That's the hot and the cold coming together. There's going to be war. Two can't walk together unless they be agreed. Saints can't walk with the world. You can try to bring ball games in, frolics, and make all your allowances for all the things you want, to as to the corruption of the world or the gullible desires of the world, but when you hit the real children of God, you're going to have a clash. You're going to cross up. And with that, the devil is going to lose out. The child of God isn't going to lose out. He's going to cast the devil out.

So then, it's obvious that Lucifer is in heaven right now, and his people are in heaven right now, because as long as the blood is on the seat of atonement, he's there. He was in the days of Job, when he went into the presence of God, because he's living in human beings, and human beings have an allotted time of grace. It's like in the Cinderella story. It was at the midnight cry that all of the chariots turned into pumpkins, and all of their horses turned into mice, and all those beautiful, sparkling garments that movie stars and the world wear, they became rags. That's where they're at right now. Sorrow, heartache, nightmares and horrible screams. So here we are in the end of the world. Peter said, shortly after Calvary, "Ye are the people upon whom the end of the world have come." So, being people of Calvary, we are those upon whom the end of the world has come. It is as it was in the days of Noah, when the end of the world came in that age. We know that we are not of this world, for He has chosen us out of this world and we're hid with Christ in God, whom the heavens have received until the restitution of all things, the millennium, to restore all the lost species so that He might glorify them and then change it into that celestial world.

We're speaking of the revelation of Jesus Christ. What is the revelation of Jesus Christ? Christ revealed in you, the hope of glory. It is being revealed to you that you are the God-body. Christ within Jesus revealed to Him that He was God without measure, and the Christ in you will reveal to you that you are God, as the members of the God-body, by measure according to whatever measure you will allow yourself to receive. That is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Christ in you the hope of glory. Christ revealing Himself that this life of Christ may be made manifest in your mortal genes. Some will never receive it because of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. They'll never be able to do it, but some have mortified the flesh with the deeds and the affection thereof and they belong to God and they walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit because they're born of the Spirit.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

This Is The Fullness Of Time

Through our ministry, by the printed page, by radio, or by television, we reach many hundreds and thousands of people, and because I love people the way I do, in that God has put the love of God in my heart, it's a real privilege for me to be able to communicate with you. I just wish I could embrace all of you in a wonderful God-like way and talk with you and tell you about the love of God. I think about the hearts that are so torn and weary, and miserable and so deceived, the minds that just long to have peace and rest. Just a few wonderful words from God to explain the situation, to bring about understanding, would take away all of the fears.

I want to read from the fourth chapter of the book of Galatians.

Galatians 4:1-31: "Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free."

Paul is telling us about his wonderful experience and the knowledge of God, and he's come to realize that there is what we refer to as the fullness of time. "While we were yet under the law," Paul, speaking as a Jew, said, "were not we separated from God?" Is there any law that could save us? Isn't life a spiritual inheritance? Are there any ritualistics by which we could contact God? The desire of God is our conformity to His desire and way. So then, he said, "While we were yet under the law, we were being tutored until the fullness of time should come." And what is the fullness of time? It is Calvary.

God says through the Bible, concerning the fullness of time, that it shall come to pass, that in the fullness of time, I will gather all things in heaven and in earth into the body of My Son, Jesus Christ. I will rule heaven and earth through that wonderful body. I will tabernacle in that body, even in My fullness. The Bible says the fullness of the Godhead bodily is Jesus, in that God the holy Father is the great light. He's the great eternal Spirit which no man hath seen nor can see, neither can you approach unto Him except through Jesus Christ. The Bible says that no man has seen God at any time, but Jesus Christ who dwells in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.

God the great, eternal Spirit of life, even our heavenly Father is above us, in us, and through us. He's that great ever existing, ever present God, the present help in the time of need. This great God has been made a declaration to our human understanding that we might conceive, through human thought, by human instrumentality, the wonderful will of God. It is so beautiful when you understand that the fullness of time is here because of Calvary, and God has sent forth the sacrifice, and God has taken away the middle wall of partition; that is, the keeping of carnal ordinances, ritualistics, and the practices of those things that are humanistic. God has put away all of those things and He hath freely given Himself unto us through Christ Jesus, His Son, even to the extent that the Scriptures declare that if we decree a thing in our heart, it will come to pass if we call on His name. God, Himself, said, "Command thou Me," through the shed blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. He said, "Command thou Me," by having faith in God and God's promises. "Command thou Me concerning the works of My hands." That is, according to His wonderful securities and the benefits that God has given us in Christ Jesus.

The fullness of time came at Calvary. God has therefore made it now possible that all we have to do is call on the name of the Lord Jesus, and come boldly before the throne of grace in the time of need that we might receive the help we're desiring. God has made it possible now that we can go right in, past the rent veil, into the holy of holies and bypass the priesthood. We can go right to Christ, even our high priest, that was tempted in every way that we are tempted and suffered in every way that we have suffered. Go right to Him, who is a high priest after the feelings of our infirmities, bypassing all ritualistics, all the keeping of carnal ordinances, going boldly in confidence that He so loves us that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. It shall come to pass that whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. God hath declared unto us Himself, by the handiwork of His own act of creation.

So then, knowing that we do not have to approach unto any ritualistics or any priesthood, therefore we can call upon the name of Jesus, asking God to save us. It doesn't matter if we are a pauper or if we are in poverty. It doesn't matter if we have problems, if we've done things in our ignorance that we did not know or understand was wrong now that we do know. If we will right the wrong, if we will do our best to change

the situation, if we will make restitution where restitution can be made, and beyond that, if we'll trust in God, repent and ask God to forgive us, then God will take us out from under the constraint of man and the beggarly elements of this world and out of the bondage of these awful perishing things. Let's give our mind to God. Let's cast down our own thinking. Let's think upon Christ and what He said. Let's just reminisce in the wonderful things of God and rehearse this in our mind and heart. Let's think continually upon the wonderful things of Jesus.

Oh, wouldn't you like to have the blessings of God today? Friend, don't let Satan deceive you. Don't think this is a mere statement that I'm making concerning the blessings of God. It is real. God is in your country. God is in your home. God is in your heart. God is in your world. God is wherever you are, above you, in you, and through you. God is ever present. Paul said at Mars Hill, as he declared the gospel, "I want to declare unto you that God, this great wonderful God that you ignorantly worship, is not unknown." This is the fullness of time. God has come forth and resurrected the dead. God has presented Himself in a human form called the Lord Jesus Christ. God has made Himself known in His compassion, His love and all of His life style. He hath made Himself known to you and to me. He hath made you to know His feelings toward you and toward humanity.

It's a beautiful thing to think that the angel came out to the shepherds on the hillside, as they kept their sheep by night, and as the angel of the Lord shone round about them (the great light, God, came upon them), and the voice of the angel said, "Peace on earth!" Isn't that a wonderful thought? Peace on earth! That lets us know that God's not a warlord and God's not in all of these wars, troubles, problems and killings and these kind of things. Rather than kill somebody, God willingly gave His life to keep people from dying. So then, we hear Him say, "Peace on earth and good will from God to man." Isn't that wonderful! We wonder about God's attitude towards humanity. There it is, folks. It's very clear. God said, "I want peace on earth." All of the paths of God are peace. The wisdom that cometh from God is first peaceable and easy to be entreated. Serving God is joy, righteousness, and peace in the wonderful Holy Ghost in the Spirit of God.

It's wonderful to understand God. He's not mysterious nor cannot be understood. We don't have to go through quaint sorts of approaches unto God, being strange even to ourselves and our love ones, thinking that we are a God worshipper. We don't have to be full of fear and frustration because people threaten us and fill our minds with thoughts that cause us to be torn all up. Jesus doesn't feel that way at all. He said, "Fear not." He has supplied all of your needs, He has given you all things that pertain unto life through His sufferings. You just listen to Him. You read His Word. Read about His blessings. He would, above all things, that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. God has a threefold blessing. A natural blessing, which is your surrounding environment of the natural things of life. God has that for you. Food and shelter. Then God has a physical blessing for you, which means your health so that you can be completely whole within your body, to enjoy the natural blessings. Then, God has the third, which is the spiritual blessing, that your soul may be furbished and your soul's welfare, your spiritual welfare, is number one. Seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first. First! Then all of these things shall be added unto you. Think upon those things now. Seek the kingdom of God first and then God will add blessings. Call upon the name of the Lord, read the Scripture, learn about the wonderful securities of God, because I tell you again in the name of the Lord, God wants to bless you. By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr. Founder and first President of Jesus Christ's Eternal Kingdom Of Abundant Life, Inc.

We Are Nothing

We always have to remember that the Word of the Lord is our guide and our shield. He's our buckler, and it's always in Him that we triumph. Praise the Lord, who always gives us the victory in Christ. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith. Jesus said, "I can do nothing of Myself." You and I should always remember, that we as people, as individuals, cannot do anything of ourselves. Even if you went so far as to give your body to be burned, the Bible says that it would profit you nothing. So all of your efforts, whatever you may say or whatever you may do, profiteth nothing, and when you measure yourself to God, the Bible says that you profiteth nothing. The flesh profiteth nothing, and you are but flesh and bones.

So then, we are but flesh and bones, and we have an appointment with death. There is a time to be born and a time to die. You have an appointment with death, and there is nothing that you can do, for the Bible says that the spirit that dwelleth in you lusteth unto envy. That is to say, it's always envious of somebody or something. If they seem to be somewhat in appearance, or they seem to be somewhat, as to having money or an education or a position or whatever, then you lust unto envy. Your spirit is always envious of them. Then, there's the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, and the Bible says that the world thereof passes away, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.

I can do nothing of myself, and you can do nothing of yourself. We're simply people that are born into the world to die and be thrown into a hole. Unless we're translated, unless we reach that perfect place with God, as to His satisfaction, we don't come out of that hole until a thousand years has expired, at the end of this world as to the millennium. The wicked dead live not again until the thousand years are finished, and we don't come out of that hole unless we are Christians. For one thousand years, we lay in that hole, and then God picks up the wicked and makes them stand before Him at the judgment, and then casts them into the lake of fire.

So when you die, or lay down to sleep, you are a finished product as to what you're going to be: whether thirty-fold, sixty-fold, or hundred-fold. You're either wicked or righteous. In that day, God will let your spirit re-enter into your body, and then that spirit will stand before the God of spirits, the Father of spirits, and you will give an account for every deed that you ever did as an angelic being while you tabernacled in that house of clay. Not only will you give an account for every deed that your spirit has done while it tabernacled in that house of clay, but you will give an account for every thought that ever passed through your mind. Paul said, "God will judge the secrets of men's heart by this gospel that I preach." That's why the Bible says that every thought should be brought into subjection to the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that by our own words we shall be justified, or by our own words we shall be condemned, for whatsoever a man speaketh cometh from his heart Out of the heart comes forth either truth and righteousness, thoughts unto salvation and worship, or out of the heart comes forth evil thoughts of adultery, fornication, lying, and blasphemy. These kinds of thoughts condemn a man because they defile the man. The Bible says that ye are the temples of God, and if you think the wrong thoughts, then are you defiled, and if you be defiled, then the Bible says that God will destroy you, for the Holy Spirit cannot live in a defiled temple. You defile your temple by your thoughts if they're unrighteous thoughts.

The thoughts of the righteous are pure. They're more pure than gold tried in the furnace seven times. But if your thoughts aren't righteous, then they are wicked, and the Bible teaches that good water and bad water cannot come forth from the same fountain. You either make the tree good or bad, because good fruit and bad fruit don't come forth from the same tree. The tree is known according to its fruit, for its fruit is according to its nature. So, you cannot have good thoughts and bad thoughts. They do not mix. They do not come forth from the same individual. If you have bad ones, that means you don't have good ones, and if you have good ones, that means that you don't have bad ones. From the heart comes forth one kind of thinking and that's all there is. That's why the Bible says to do thy diligence to keep thine heart, for out of it comes forth the issues of life. As from the newspaper office comes forth the issues of the paper, and what is contained within that paper, and what is going on in the world of today.

Out of your heart comes forth the daily issues of what you are, what you believe, what you think, or what you are doing. A child is known by his doings. So, if it comes out of your heart, that is the issue as to the declaration of your life, whether good or bad. The Bible says to make the tree good, for it's known by its fruits, and if it is not good, the Bible says that the axe is laid to the root of the tree, and that which is wretched is cut down. That's why John the Baptist said, "The axe is laid to the root of the tree." It was time to cut down the old tree of knowledge and do away with it forever, from Calvary all the way back to the garden where it got started, as to that old intellectual thing of death. It was also cut down, as to the future, of everyone that did not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, for they that are fallen from grace are under the law. It continues on until the coming of the Lord Jesus. This tree is cut down in the sight of God. It is corrupt and it is done away with, and it is to be gathered and thrown into the fire.

It was substantiated at Calvary, even as it was before the foundation of the world in the mind of God unto the elect. It was established when the veil was rent in twain, and it confirmed that the righteous were righteous eternally. They were righteous from Calvary right on out through eternity, and have always been righteous in the mind of God. God had preserved them even back under the law, who were the predestinated that could not come to their perfection without us, until that which is perfect had come, which is Calvary, as to when Jesus went down into the heart of the earth to them that slept to bring them perfection. In that our day had come, He that is perfect was then on the scene; and He that was perfect could go down to them; and His blood then would atone for them; and His Spirit would be in their hearts, even as it's in our hearts today to make us all one.

As I said, as individuals, we're nothing. We're not each other's master. We're not each other's lord. We're not great and mighty and preeminent as some of us like to think, that we know more, and we're farther along than somebody else, and we're better than somebody else. Jesus wiped all that away when He dealt with the Pharisees and the scribes, rejecting their self-righteousness, and He made us all equal, and the equality was in His first declaration that you profiteth nothing. You are altogether vanity. All of you have sinned. All of you have gone your own way. All of you have done your own thing, and your thoughts are continually evil. The Bible says that God looked down from heaven and saw that there was none good, no not one.

So, He made us all equal. Then He came back with the Word of righteousness to those that would believe and receive His Spirit, and again, He made us all equal. He said, "It's not of your works, nor of your righteousness, lest one of you might lord over another or, boast, but righteousness is of God. It's of Me, and by what I am saying, I make you righteous, and what I say to one, I say to all." God has perfected forever them that are sanctified, and sanctified them once and for all by the offering up of the body of the Lord Jesus at Calvary.

Someone would ask, "If that be the case, why is there thirty-fold, sixty-fold and a hundred-fold?" When the Bible says that there's thirty-fold, sixty-fold, and hundred-fold, it has nothing to do with your righteousness. You are just exactly what He made you and that's all. The Bible says that He hath dealt unto every man the measure of faith, and He dealt the measure of faith unto man according to their several ability. That is, whatever you are willing to surrender to, or whatever they are willing to receive. So your thirty-fold, sixtyfold, hundred-fold only has to do with your submission, receiving what He appropriated for you at Calvary, and whether you want to give yourself as to thirty-fold, sixty-fold, or go on with a full surrender to let Christ live in your life. It has nothing to do with you, not at all, not one tiny iota as to making you holy or godly or righteous as to your works, as to your efforts.

So then, you know that you're nothing, and I know that I am nothing. We're all even. We start off on the scale of nothing. Now, we look to Him who is everything. He is my redeemer, and He is my Savior. The Bible says that when He, my life, appears, I shall be like Him. He is my righteousness. He is my God. He is my everything. As long as I don't think I'm anything, then I'm all right. As long as I don't accredit anything to me, then I am in good shape. I accredit everything to Him, and realize that my comparison with Him is that I am a filthy rag. But if I accept His righteousness as to thinking on of His goodness, His understanding, and His power, then I am clean, and holy, perfect, just, and righteous in His sight.

All of this past thing of a Pentecostal life of, who's good and who's bad, and all this thing of the Baptist life, of once saved, always saved, and of this thing of the Catholic life, with the ritualistics counting beads and so many hail Marys, all that is foolishness. We don't say anything contrary to Mary, for Mary is blessed. She made the statement herself, even to John the Baptist's mother, said, "From henceforth shall all nations call me blessed." And she is blessed Mary.

But the thing is, you can be blessed, for as she conceived of the divine seed of life and brought forth the image of Christ, as Paul said, "I travail until Christ be formed within you," then you also can conceive of the divine seed and bring forth life, and you can be called blessed, for blessed are they that do the will of God. A woman said to Jesus (bringing things down to the natural level), when she saw this wonderful prince of a fellow, the Lord Jesus Christ, "Blessed are the paps that gave Thee suck." He said, "Nay, but rather, blessed is he that heareth My Words and doeth the will of My Father who is in heaven." You can be blessed if you want to be blessed, or you can be cursed. He said to the Jews, "I set before you a blessing and a curse. Choose whatever ye would."

So, we know that we are nothing, and when we think our self to be something, then we deceive our self when we are nothing. We must think Him to be something, and we must think Him to be our life and our

hope. We realize that we're nothing but brethren. If we look on a brother and think that we might be more advanced than he is, or think that we have more skill and ability, then that means that we are less than our brother. We are far less than our brother. Our own thoughts have condemned us and proved us to be a fool, for only a fool would think like that.

But God's way of life is that we are to submit ourselves one to another. When we say submit, that passes right through our minds and we think, "Now that's what I do," when you know you're lying. You know you don't do it. When it says submit, it means exactly what it says: submit. Just like it says to the wife: "Wives, submit yourself to the husband." But she doesn't do it and she won't do it, because there is a rebellious spirit in her that's not going to let her do it. That's the flesh. She'll always find fault with the husband, put him down to keep her from submitting. That's her way of life.

And it's the same way with the flesh. The flesh isn't going to submit one to another because the devil is in it, and the devil wants preeminence, to lord over people. It's always going to have that mind of its own. But when a person is born again, they die out to the flesh and they crucify the flesh. They do away with their own thoughts, of who they are and what they look like, and get away from spending their time as to try to polish up on what they know, and get down in the dust and realize that they're nothing. In the sight of God without Christ, they have one title, and God gave that to Jacob when He said, "Thou worm, Jacob." We are a worm. We are born the worm, and if we don't pass through the stages of the metamorphosis to that beautiful, heavenly creature that's called the butterfly, then we remain the worm. If we be the worm, as not to go through the stages as to the transformation, then that means we are of the devil and we are the viper. We are the generation of snakes that is called the worm. We must excel that. As in Adam all die, and the worm comes from Adam, through the fall, as to the mind of Lucifer, and his nature produces the worm.

There must be a terminal point in your life when that old cocoon breaks open, and when it does, there has to be on the inside a lovely son or daughter of God that has been born through the travail. This old cocoon breaks open when you accept the rent veil of Calvary. Your cocoon is broke, because He was the one that rent the veil in twain. When you become Him, and the spirit is separated from the old body of death when it is planted in the water in the name of the Lord Jesus, then your spirit, as to that heavenly creature, goes back to God who gave it, and the Bible says that in heaven, ye are as the angels. Jesus said, "You are equal to the angels and cannot die." You have eternal life, for in the Spirit, there is life. In the body, there is nothing but vanity, problems and trouble.

As long as you have any plans for yourself, then you know that you're of the devil. But a son of God's plans are for God. This plan will take you to Calvary in self-denial, and take you to Calvary so that your countenance may be marred as His, more than any man, and to sacrifice and self-denial and hating your own life because you are of the worm. The Bible says that if you cannot hate your own life, to put it down, to mortify the deeds of the body, to equip yourselves with a mind to suffer for Christ's sake, then He said, "You cannot be My disciple." If there's anything in your life that you cherish, that you love of your own life, whether future or past, that is associated with self in any way, you can't be His disciple.

How do we do this? We grow into it like a little child. At the first, we don't put these things away, but proportionately, we come into these things. And each day of our life we grow more into these things, and it's required more that we put the worm under our feet, for the Bible says that we'll bruise his head, which is your old intellectual reasoning. You bruise it by the Christ in you, by doing away with that old mind of Satan that came to you through Adam, that old veil of intellectual death and self-will, of reasoning and self pity and self-esteem. You have to do away with that, and in doing so, you kill the old worm and put him under your feet. The Bible says that the seed of the woman, as to the Christ within you, would bruise that old intellectual head of Lucifer that started with the tree of knowledge. The Bible says that the old worm would bruise your heel, because it's striking at your soul, the foundation of your body.

Those intellectual thoughts are death to your soul, and if you are carnally minded, you abide in death, and if you have the love of the world, the love of the Father's not there. You are in death and you abide in death. Though you be ever so religious, you are still abiding in death, because God is a Spirit and the flesh profiteth nothing. With all the Jewish ritualistics of that day, as the man said, "I fast, I pray, I do all those things," God said, "Away with thee, thou who art self-righteous." And when the other man said, "I am a worm," as we would say, or "I am nothing. My God, have mercy on me," the Holy Spirit said, "I am your life."

To kill out yourself, to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that He might exalt you in due season, is the way. But he that exalteth himself, as to any thoughts or plans of his own, the Bible says that God will abase him, for though thou climbest up into heaven, He shall cast thee down to hell. That is to say, you might enter into the heavenly world, as Satan did, through the days of grace. You might climb up there with your intellectual reasoning, as a religious thing, and even be a partaker of the benefits, and come to the knowledge of the truth, and even be partaker of healing, and even be a partaker of the ministry as Judas was, but the Bible says that you are a devil from the beginning and God will cast you out of those heavenly realms. When the blood comes off of the seat of atonement, when the days of grace are finished, you'll be in your intellectual darkness, whether it's religion or intellect or whatever it might be, and there won't be any spiritual life in you. That's why the Bible says examine to yourselves and see if you be in the faith, the faith by the hearing of the Word.

We could go on speaking of these things, to differentiate between that which is godly and not godly, that which is heavenly and not heavenly, and who are the children, the sons of God, the good tree and the good fountain, and those who are not the sons of God, the bad fountain and the bad tree with corrupt fruit. People confuse things and get things frustrated. Those things that you think have to do with your righteousness, have nothing to do with it whatsoever. It is only God having chose you, and you submitting, as to whatever submission you will for His use, and receive of Him what He has freely given without your works, without your effort. I say again, God so loved you before you ever came to God. While you were yet in your sins. He gave His Son to die for you. He saved you from your sins while you were yet in your sins, when you had done nothing, not anything. He said, "You didn't choose Me. You didn't seek after Me. I came to seek and to save that which is lost, and you are My chosen. I have chosen you in Christ." So then, you have nothing to do with it. Before you were ever born, He elected you, that it might stand according to election. As it was said, "Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated," when the children had done neither good nor bad.

Many times, we misconstrue things when we hear somebody saying something, and we, in our little finite mind, being so small in our understanding, feeling that we're so great, that we start reasoning, and then we become an enemy to God, and the devil takes over our mind, and we think that we know something, being vainly puffed up by our fleshly mind, and then we fall into the snare of the devil. But I was saying some things lately to help someone understand, and because I said something about somebody and it sounded a little derogative, you can't say that it is Satan accusing the brethren. John made the statement, "I'll remember Diotrephes' prating when I come." Paul said, "One of themselves, even a prophet of their own said, 'The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies'." Jesus said, "You generation of vipers. How can you escape the damnation of hell?" John the Baptist said, "Ye are a generation of vipers. Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath of God?" Can you tell me that when those things were said, were they said about Satan, the accuser of the brethren? Was that Satan? Paul spoke of false brethren. So then, was that spoken about a true brother? The Bible says Judas obtained part of that ministry. Jesus said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan."

You have to differentiate and understand what is being said. Somebody might say, "They didn't say that about the true brethren." Now, let's go a little further. Paul said, "I blame Peter to his face because he was to be blamed." He not only said it to the people about Peter, but he said it to Peter himself. See, you need to understand.

So, unless you have charity, you're a sounding brass and a tinkling symbol. And some will accredit to themselves love and charity, when they're some of the most contrary people, perhaps, in your whole congregation. Not understanding, being a novice, they will be lifted up in pride and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Going around, trying to be, as the world calls it, lovey-dovey, is not charity. Going around and never having a backbone to stand up and tell somebody that their mouth needs to be stopped is not charity. Going around and never having any strength in God, as to come against the wicked and the evil, that is not charity. Going around and compromising and weaseling out every time the battle gets hard is not charity. Charity suffereth long. Charity is kind. Charity vaunteth not itself. Charity is not puffed up. Charity thinketh no evil. Charity seeketh not its own.

But on the other hand, charity will take a sword and wield that sword until the blood runs up to the horses' bridle. Charity will say, "You hypocrites, you scribes. All of you are hypocrites. You are a generation of vipers." And charity says, "How can you escape the damnation of hell? You are whited sepulchres full of dead men's bones, and your throat is an open sepulchre." Charity reproves. Charity corrects. Charity is strong and mighty and powerful. Charity turns to wrath when you come to the knowledge of the truth and you reject it. God, who is love, God who is charity, becomes wrath to the extent that the judgments of God come upon those who reject the truth. In the Old Testament, He smote the firstborn of Egypt until all of them were dead. Moses, who had charity, said, "If I be a servant of God, let the earth open up and swallow these and let them go down into the pit quickly," and they did. Was charity in the heart of Elijah when he said, "If I be a man of God, let fire consume these fifty"? Was charity in the heart of Samson, when he took the jawbone of an ass and slew a thousand men? Was it charity, as it was in the New Testament, in the hearts of the apostles, when Paul looked at that man and said, "You set to judge me after the law and smite me contrary to the law? You whited wall. God will smite you."

And on and on and on. The love of charity and the great expression of charity. God will meet you as a consuming fire, and the Bible says that when you come to the truth and you reject the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for your sins, but only the fearful looking forward to of the fiery indignation of charity that shall devour his adversaries. Can you deny that God is charity?

What happens is we get vainly puffed up by our fleshly mind. We are a novice, and we're contrary in our mind to the minister and contrary to the brethren and contrary to all correction. The Bible says, "I lay in Zion a stumbling stone of offense, and whosoever falleth upon Him or believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life, and if you fall on Him, ye shall be broken and God will not destroy you. But if you don't fall on that stone, then the wrath of God will fall on you and grind you to powder."

What we need to do is just submit our selves to the Lord, and let the Lord lead us and guide us, and realize that we're never, never going to get to the place to where we don't need the instruction of God and the ministering of the pastor and the leadership. We'll never be out from under the tutors, as to the instruction of the Holy Ghost and the five-fold ministry which is set there for the perfecting of your faith. Paul, who was the farthest along, said, "They who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me." He was far enough along that he spoke over the heads of all the apostles and everybody else. But at the same time, he had to turn around and say, "Though I come to visions and revelation, I doubtless shall come to more."

When he was on the ship and it was going down to the bottom of the sea, Paul didn't have the answer until he went to God. He stayed fourteen days without food, and then he got some more tutoring, and he learned some more about things. Another time, he went up to the temple, and listening to somebody, he shaved his head to blend in with the others. He had found himself up there and was about to be stoned to death, when some advised him that if he would shave his head, everything would be well with him and they would accept him for a brother. But they didn't accept him. They got upset with him, and especially for one that seemed to be a foreigner that he had brought with him, and they pounced on him, and it caused him many sorrows. Paul spent many years in jail because he was vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, thinking that he knew something when he didn't know something. Finally, he said, "I count all as dung, and I'm determined to know nothing among you except Christ and Him crucified." That's the only knowledge Paul needed to have. Unless God revealed something to him, unless God told him, unless God sent him up, as He sent him up to conference with Peter by revelation, he just stayed where he was. He didn't move until the cloud moved.

So, what you need to realize is that you're never going to come to that day that you think you're going to come to. If you do, that's fine. The Bible says that when it comes to the right thing, it will be God speaking within you. It won't be you sounding your horn, as we say. It will be the trump of God, for it won't be you speaking, but He that speaketh from within you from heaven. The Bible says that seeing that these things happened to the followers of Moses, when he spoke up on the mountain, and the severity of it, if they received that kind of punishment, how much more severe shall be the punishment of them that turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven? It is said that it's not you speaking, but He that speaketh from heaven.

It's not a matter of you deciding to be an apostle, or you deciding to be a prophet, or you deciding to be a preacher. In the world we're living in, traveling around the world, I find that there are all kinds of people who decide that they want to be a prophet, or a teacher, or a pastor. They decide what they want to be. But I tell you, not one of them that makes that kind of a decision is anything except a worm. That's all. But it's when God calls you to the ministry, as He did when He struck Paul down on the way to Damascus. It's God making the choice. He went by and called Matthew, and He went by and He called Peter, and He went by and He called John and James. It's when God gives you a calling, even unto election as being a Christian, that you are of His kingdom. If He doesn't come by your way, if He doesn't call you, if He didn't predestinate you, then you're nothing. You can't make yourself anything. You can't believe yourself to be something. You might say, "I'm a prophet," but you may be a fool, because believing doesn't work like that. You may have a head full of believing. If you believe there's one God, you do well. The devil believes, too. He's a believer to that extent. But he's still going to be put in the lake of fire.

Believing doesn't work like that. It's by faith, and that faith is by hearing of the Word, and the Word says that none of those callings are given through repentance. None of those callings are given to you in any way, as to what you want to be or try to be, or fast to be, or study to be. It is faith by the hearing of the Word that said there is no such thing. When the faith in your heart brings you to an apostleship, or brings you to election, or brings you to the ministry, or whatever it might be, then that is faith as from the Word. The Word that said the things that I just told you.

So we read here in the book of Saint John chapter 14:

John 14:1-6: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him."

Or that is to say, Jesus, the Word, has been made flesh. God the eternal Spirit has been manifested in a human body, and I am that human body; and it has been made manifest in its entirety and in its fullness. He hath not given unto Me the Spirit by measure as He will give to another. He hath given unto Me Himself in His fullness. I am God. That's what He was saying.

"If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him."

Now this is strange, because Jesus stood before the Pharisees and said, "You've never known My Father. You've never seen Him nor His image at anytime," which means the Bible is right when it says, "The wicked

shall not see when good comes." The eyes of their understanding are darkened, and they never see anything good, not even Christ in a brother.

"Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us." Jesus saith unto him," now this is the Father talking, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?"

Have I been so long time with you, and yet your understanding is still darkened? Peter comprehended. He said, "Thou art the Christ." Where did he see the Christ, because he was looking at Jesus? But the Bible says that He made in Himself both, twain, Lord and Christ, and here Peter was looking at the Lord, but he looked beyond the veil and thus the veil was rent and the door was open. Jesus went to Calvary, and Peter had the keys and he opened the door both to the Jews and to the Gentiles. The door that John saw opened at the end of the church ages was the same door that Peter opened. The voice said, "John, come up hither." He said, "I saw a door open in heaven."

"Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?" Jesus is saying, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." That is to say, do you not believe that it is the Christ, even God, Himself, that is filling this human body, that's interwoven with My very blood genetics, that it is God dwelling on the inside of Me doing these mighty works and speaking these mighty words, revelating the mighty things?

As the Bible says, their hearts burned within them as He opened the Scriptures, the Old Testament teachings, to them by the way. Or that is to say, concerning you and I, the Bible says, that this life of Christ may be made manifest in your mortal genes as it was in Jesus, to a full reward, or to whatever measure you would allow it to live in you. So are you the same body as the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, members in particular. So then, He says that He is dwelling in the will of God. "I do always the things that please the Father, and He, as a Spirit, dwells in Me."

"Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." Jesus was saying, "If thou canst believe," for the Bible teaches that all men have not faith. But He said, "If you be the elect, if you be the chosen ones, if thou canst believe on Me, you're not limited to anything, for I have given unto you life in its fullness, abundant, filled up and overflowing." "I have given you all things that pertain unto life," the heavenly Father said, "In Jesus Christ, and if thou art one of the elect, for if thou canst believe, the works that I do shall ye do also and greater works."

He was limited, while He was in His body, because of your unbelief, for the Bible says that many mighty works He could not do because of their unbelief. But when He goes to the Father and atones for sin, you will be perfect. There will be nothing that you cannot do, for there will be no limitations to you. If you can come to the fullness of the stature, to recognize that you are perfect in His sight, your faith can have the perfect freedom so that you can do all things. The Bible says that all things are possible to them that believe. And not only that, Jesus said that you can do all of these things, these great things, and you can become equal with the Father. No man shall be above his master, but by His blood atonement ye shall be made equal with God, and ye shall become gods that cannot die. He told them of the wonderful things that would happen when the blood was on the seat of atonement.

Do all things in His name, and whatever you ask in His name, He will do it. Say what you will in your heart, and it will come to pass. Decree a thing in your heart and it shall come to pass. Say what you will, don't doubt, and it will come to pass. Ask the Father what you will. When you pray, believe that you receive it and ye shall have it.

But, you've got to come through the tutoring. You've got to come to the understanding. You've got to have it detailed to you, because faith is by the hearing of the Word, and the preacher is there to preach the Word, to perfect your faith. The Bible says, "We wish this, even the perfecting of your faith." God has set the ministry there for the perfecting of your faith, or that is, to preach the Word, to detail it to you, that you might know all of your rights and benefits, and then you can have that perfect faith in Christ that will translate the church. Contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints of God.

So He says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." Being in church does not mean that you believe on Him, no more than the devil believes on Him. If you obtain part of the ministry, of the operation of God, no matter where it's at throughout the world, doesn't mean you are a Christian. Judas did all of that and stayed with Christ through the entirety of His ministry, and he obtained part of the ministry. It did not mean that he was a believer, as to Christianity. He was a devil from the beginning. When you do these things, it does not mean that you are a Christian. You may be there to get out of it what you could. Judas was trying to get out of it what he could. Even when he said something about the woman that used the spikenard, washing Jesus' feet, he was very critical, because he had the love of money, and because he carried the bag.

You may go to church for social purposes. You may be there out of fear of being out in the world. You may be there because you want to know and learn and study, thinking that you're going to manifest yourself to somebody as being a great prophet or a great preacher or a great person, and that you're going to draw all kinds of admiration, which means you're spiritually sick. A person that does that is spiritually sick. Even if they are a little babe, as a child of God, having come to some understanding, they are sick. They need to be tended to. Anybody that's in God has enough understanding to know that their body is fit for nothing but to rot and to decay. Anybody that gets their mind on their flesh, and on their face, and on their future, and on making money, and on business, and those kind of things, they are blind and they cannot see afar off.

They do not realize that they are nothing in the sight of God but rottenness and a stench. He does not see you today with your so-called lovely face and figure, as to who you might think yourself to be, while men are lusting after women, and women are lusting after men. He doesn't see that. He sees on down the road where you're dead and in a grave, and the worms have eaten you and you're nothing but rot. He sees beyond that, and sees the true Christian as an eternal body that has nothing to do with this old flesh, as to the body of this death that He buried when He buried the Lord Jesus. He looks beyond that and, if you don't get beyond Calvary, your image is a bastard child image. When the morning comes, when the daystar comes dawning in the heart, that is to say the sunlight, the one that's called the daystar, He said that He will hate and despise your image because it's of Adam. It's fleshly. All of your ambitions are fleshly. All that you're going to do is fleshly. Your old mind is a carnal mind and it's death, and it's contrary to Christ, and it is a prick in the side of those that are sent by Him if they spare you. "If you spare any of them," the Bible says, "they'll be a prick in your side."

So then, we realize a person is spiritually sick when they're carnally thinking about their ministry, thinking about the great things that they're going to do, thinking about their great face, their great mind, their great body, their monetary powers, and being famous. They are sick. But a man of God is like Elijah, like Moses, like Jesus, like Paul, like the others that gave themselves continually to self-sacrifice and self-denial. They're looking for one thing and that is the will of almighty God. They equip themselves with a mind to suffer, and they seek only the Spirit so that the outer man may decrease and get out of its frivolous, ugly, evil ways of carnality, and the inner man may increase, so the Christ may show in the outer man. God is resisting him, and He will resist him, and the man that's carnal will resist God, and the minister and that man will always have a cross every time they meet. He may not say anything. He may try to swallow down and act like he and the pastor are getting along real good, or he and the brethren are getting along real good, but he's way out there, and the pastor and the people are way out here. He may be with them like Judas was. He may partake of the ministry. He may learn a lot of things, only in the end to find out that it's detrimental and death to his soul, that all he was doing was getting vainly puffed up by Satan, to try to learn many things to use it for his own fleshly benefits.

But Elijah killed the body, and Moses killed the body, and other people, like Peter, left their wife and children and home and killed out everything to stay with Him day and night. These men loved the Lord. Men like William Branham left their families and lives to stay out in the woods, out in some cave all night, or going somewhere continually, living in a little room, fasting and praying, staying in some meeting somewhere. These people were people of God. It's true that Brother Branham killed some animals. He had Indian in him, and God didn't take the Indian out of him, and God allowed him, while he was out there, to kill animals. But his time was spent in meditation and in prayer, and God brought those animals to him, and he killed them almost right where he was sitting. It happened again and again. He didn't go out there for those purposes, though he had the thrill of killing an animal because he was a hunter. Yet that wasn't why he went out there, and some of his greatest experiences were there in the wilderness, as it was with John the Baptist. Some of the greatest experiences were there as it was with Elijah, and as it was the others that took themselves away into solitude.

Jacob was not a hunter, but he was one that loved God. He was one that stayed with God. Many times he was out in the wilderness. There were many times he was off by himself in the plains because he kept the father-in-law's sheep and cattle. The Bible speaks of the cold ice or snow and the winter winds, of the things that befell Jacob and the sufferings and the heartaches that he went through. It was terrible. You can read

it, and you'll find it's prophetical utterance, telling the life of Jesus that was shown in Jacob as he suffered out on the hillsides and on the mountains in the cold, and how that Laban mistreated him in changing his wages as many as ten times.

So then, if you have the idea that you're something, then you are nothing. But when you submit yourself to your brother, really submit yourself to your brother in your thoughts, doing all things as unto the Lord, in that he is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you have done it to the Lord Jesus Christ. When you esteem your brother to be better than you are, then you are doing that as unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and God can control your life, as through the membership of His body, which is the body of the Lord Jesus in particular. Learn to submit yourself to your brother, and esteem yourself to be less than your brother. Look on the things of another in admiration rather than on your own face and body.

When you look in the mirror, realize that you are a wretched, bastard child. Realize that every time you look at that face, God despises it. When you look at your bodily image, recognize that you lift up the satanic mind of Satan. Satan does it to create lust in your body. Esteem all this as rot in the sight of God and as a worm in the sight of God. Realize that you are a bastard child and God hates your image. Learn to hate your own life, the things that you plan and the things you do. All that you're looking for is nothing but the lust of the flesh, and all of your labor, what you think that you ought to be or going to be, what you're going to buy, or going to have, is nothing but labor for the old worm, for the worm is on its belly, and all of its labor is for his belly because his belly craves it of him. All of this you are doing is for Satan, because Satan savors the things that be of the flesh, and all of your ambition is for the devil. Everything that you do will be contributed to the devil, unless it is something that God has anointed and God hath called you to do that is spiritual.

The Bible says to lay up your treasures in heaven, where thieves don't break through and steal, where moth doesn't corrupt. Wherever your treasures are, there your heart will be also. Sometimes, your treasure can be your face. Some men's bodies are their treasure. They spend all their life building muscles. That's their treasure. They can't even keep their shirts on when they go to work because they want somebody to see their muscles. Your treasure can be in self-will. It can be in whatever you want to do.

In God's sight, those people that are without, (and when I say those people that are without, it can be Judas that seems to be within, for all of them are within as to the blood on the seat of atonement right now), those that are not elect, the Bible says they are despised. These are God's feeling toward them. He's angry with them every day. He said He will pursue them until they perish from off of the face of the earth. He said that all of their prayers, their religious activities, are an abomination in His sight, whether they are in churches or whatever. He says that their offerings are abomination in His sight. He said that they are like the restless waves of the sea, ever casting their mire up upon the bank. He said they are wandering stars. They don't have any light. They're intellectually ignorant of the things of God and shall not see when light comes. He said that these are wandering stars for whom the midst of darkness is reserved forever. They've fallen from the light. They are in the intellectual darkness of their own stupidity, and the wrath of God abides upon them because of their unbelief. They cannot believe, because God has never given unto them the ability to believe, as the elect can, to true faith unto salvation.

So then, though the devil rules by believing, and man rules by believing in this natural era of today; yet, it's all lying vanities, and it has nothing to do with faith that comes from the heart. We read a little further, and it says, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth."

Now Jesus said, "I'm your comforter, but I must go away. And if I don't go away, the Holy Spirit will not come." He could have said, "I'm the comforter, and the Holy Spirit is My Spirit on the inside, and as long as I'm here, the comforter is in Me and it is your comforter through Me. But when I go away, this Spirit of truth shall come through Me, as to the sacrifice unto you, and actually live in your human body, to wit ,that God was in Christ and you're His body." The tabernacle of God in the earth, and Jesus atoned for you as the lamb, and Jesus Christ's Spirit, even the Christ, the anointed one, lives inside of you, according to the measure that you will allow Him to be.

Some Christians are just little bitty babies. You've got a small measure of Christ, in that ye have been born again, but you're a little bitty baby. You've never grown very much. You've never come into very much. God will bear with you. That's your measure of the Spirit. And that measure of the Spirit can grow and increase as you, as Jesus, grow and increase in knowledge with favor of man and God, growing in knowledge and in the grace of God to the full measure of manhood or womanhood, to the full measure of the full stature of the perfect man Christ Jesus. But if you go so long, then you dwarf yourself. The Spirit may come to you and reveal things to you, but it will lift. If you dwarf yourself, it will lift, and you'll never get that new birth. You've got to have Him on the inside of you. You've got to be born again, and you've got to grow, desiring the sincere milk of the Word, as babes in Christ that you may grow thereby, going on to the full measure, learning and growing.

The question was asked, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" Jesus said," I have to go away. If I don't go away, the comforter will not come, because the comforter is My Spirit. And as long as I'm here, He can't come." So then, it's expedient that He die for the remission of sin, and then the comforter can come. He will then leave His body, the blood dipped vesture, on the throne at the right hand of God, and the Spirit of Christ will come back into your heart as He did on the day of Pentecost. He'll live inside the members of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the measure that you're able to receive.

So we see that the tabernacle of God is among men. Not only as it was in Jesus, the fullness of it, when John saw the revelation of Him walking on the earth, but the tabernacle of God as the membership. And just as soon as the last member of those that are predestinated unto election is born into the world and acknowledge their election, that's the end of the world. Jesus cannot come back until the last one is born into the world. And there may be some that are still just natural babies right now, that have never gotten old enough to acknowledge their election, and they may die as a baby. But if they do, then it's positive proof that they were elect, because the Bible says that their spirit always beholds the face of the Father which is in heaven.

As the little children living, the Bible says, they can be unclean in the sight of God unless the mother and father are sanctified, as to God watching over them and protecting them. But as pertaining to death and departure from this world, because their little spirits never have come to accountability of sin, then it's not required of them, for the Bible says to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not it is a sin. They do not know how to do good, therefore the Bible says their angel or spirit has never come out of the world of righteousness. The Bible says, "And they do always behold the face of My Father," because they're still in heaven.

So then, you see your calling and you see who you are. If you are one that has been so sure of yourself, with your worldly prestige to protect you and your name and the things of the world, to desire and want the things of the world, then you know that you're not of God and not born again. If the love of the world's in you, the love of the Father isn't there. If your ambition has been to deny self in every way, to find Christ, then you know that you're a son of God, and your calling is thereunto as the elect of the Lord. Examine yourselves and see if you be a believer of the Word, being in the faith. Many times, I stop and examine myself. The Bible says that when we do this, if we would chasten ourselves, we'd have no need to be chastened of God. If we're not chastened, then are we bastard children. Every son that cometh to God is scourged. We submit our self to chastening, as to fasting and prayer, surrender, and sacrifice that we might not be condemned with the world in the day of the judgment. Supposing that worldly gain is godliness, and you see somebody prosper, the Bible says, "From such turn away. You brought nothing into the world. It's for sure that you'll take nothing out of the world."

Let's submit ourselves and humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God that He might exalt us in due season. As a natural man or woman, ye are worms. But as the inner man, the Lord, ye are the Lord from heaven, even the second Adam, who has escaped death. Our wretched raiment of this human body that's called the worm shall dissipate and be consumed and done away with. The Bible says that if this tabernacle, where this angelic being is dwelling, be dissolved, then there's another tabernacle eternal in the heavens, not made with hands, even the tabernacle of the second Adam, the spiritual body. The Lord said, "I am in heaven." We dwell in His body by the foreknowledge of God, and God sees us as a finished product.

So, give no place to the flesh. The Bible says that if you walk in the flesh, then ye shall die. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If you walk in the Spirit, in the mind of Christ, ye shall live. There's a mind of the flesh. There's a mind of the Spirit. If you walk in the mind of Christ, the pure mind, you are in the Spirit. If you have your own thoughts, as to carnality, then ye abide in death and all of your thoughts are about natural things.

When your mind is on your car, when your mind is on your wife, when your mind is on your children, when your mind is on your husband, when your mind is on anything that is natural, it is carnality. Paul said, "If others are partakers of the carnal things that you have, am I not the more a partaker of it?" That is to say, there's nothing wrong with having the carnal things when your mind is not on them and those things are dedicated to God and God gave them to you because you sought the kingdom first. But anytime that you have your mind on keeping your good name, and you spend your time trying to do that, instead of seeking the kingdom first, or you keep your mind on automobiles, houses, lands, eating, drinking, laughing, talking,

visiting, relatives, friends, neighbors, fishing, hunting, any natural thing there at all, then you are carnal to that extent and this will bring you problems. Let God keep your name good.

I spoke of Brother Branham once that he must get his mind off of his guns. He had so many guns in his den in Arizona. I said that he's got to get his mind off of that or he'll be in trouble. Then one day, one of them blew up and it could have killed him. He could have lost his life. Even though God made the allowance, yet there is a price to pay. It could be a heart attack. It could be a wreck. It could be sorrow. It could be one thing or another. Everything has a pay day. Everything. Whatever you do that's not spiritual, it's carnal, and if that is your mind, then you're that much away from God, and you're in that much trouble because to be carnally minded is death.

As it was said in the law, if you keep the whole law and offend in one point, you're guilty of all. Anytime something is revelated to you as being carnal and you do not eradicate it or make an effort to get rid of it, then you are guilty of all. If you are doing it subconsciously and you're not aware of it, the Lord will work with you as a babe until you get further along. But when you come to that place where you know, and then you won't accept the deliverance from it, or conform to His way to bring in the mind of Christ to eradicate it, you're in trouble with the Lord. He can give you an abundance of joy and jubilance in your heart and have life filled up and overflowing in such a way that you'll be so grateful, that you'll never want to leave Him out of your life again. To incorporate Jesus in your life is the right way.

So then, it's up to you. Treasures are everywhere. The seas are full of pearls. The divers that go down into the deep receive the greatest reward, that pearl of great price. The Bible says, "When you find this pearl of great price, you'll sell all that you have to purchase this field." I can tell that many have never found this pearl of great price, because a child is known by his doings. I see that many have included too many natural things in their lives, affections, ambitions, desires, and goals. I know by that that they have never discovered the pearl of great price.

But they that have discovered the pearl of great price are willing to lay aside everything. They will not keep anything or have any reservation of heart toward themselves. They will give all that they have. They'll give their face, their body, their minds, their hearts, their strength. They'll give all of their efforts. They'll give their business. They'll give their wife or husband. They'll give their children, even as Abraham laid his child on the altar, and as God did that with Jesus for an example. They'll give their relatives. They'll give everything. All of their visions in life for this one thing, and that's the pearl of great price.

Someone would say, "Well, I want something for myself." So, you get something for yourself. Solomon got something for himself. He said, "Now, who knows but what I'll leave it to a fool?" He still had to leave it. You get it for yourself, and you think you've got something for yourself, but then you have to die. You forget that you're going to die. It's appointed unto man once to die. The treasure of your face is going to be gone. The treasure of your body, that you so esteem, is going to be gone. All that brilliance you esteem, as education and diploma, is going to be gone. That position as a dignitary or celebrity is going to be gone. You're going to be the worm, to lay down in the dust to rot.

So you have nothing. That little bit of life that you reserve to yourself needs to be given to God. You need to utilize your abilities for God, that God may reimburse or refurbish, that you may continue in life. He that seeketh to save what little life that he has shall lose it. You will lose your own desire, your own ambition, your own way, your own thing. But he that is willing to yield that little span of life, to surrender his self-will, his contrariness, his evil, his stubbornness, his rebellion and give it to God, then he gains life unto eternal life.

Remember that you're nothing. Brother Pike is nothing. No one is anything. He that thinketh himself to be something when he is nothing deceiveth himself, and I inform you that you are nothing. You are even as the dust. From the dust thou art, Adam, unto the dust thou shalt return. You are born of Adam and you are born of the dust and you go back to the dust. You must realize that you're nothing, and you have need of a savior, and that you're no good. You might have prayed. That doesn't mean you are good. You might have fasted. That doesn't mean you're good. The Jews said, "Wherefore have we fasted and prayed and thou seest it not, or takest no knowledge?" He said, "You do it for your own ambitions." But the thing is, in Christ, we are gods. In Christ, we are sons of God. In Christ we are exceedingly rich. In Christ we are eternal, without spot, without blemish. In Christ, we are everything, eternally everything. Without Christ, beloved friend, then are you nothing.

So let's don't deceive ourselves. Let's surrender our spirit. Have a good spirit. Not an old whorish spirit, whether it be man or woman. Have a Christ spirit. A spirit of love and purity, a life, a spirit that's clean, a spirit that's godly. Don't let your spirit get in the mind of self-will and self-thinking on the body, for the flesh profiteth nothing. It's to be fed to the worms. Don't get your mind on the world, to be in bondage to the beggarly elements, for when you are worldly minded, then your thoughts are of natural things and that is of bondage unto death. Keep your mind on holy things. Keep your thoughts in heaven. Keep your conversation in heaven. Let your words be holy. Let them be in heaven. Let your ambitions be in heaven. Let all of your drive be in heaven.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and you won't be worldly minded, and you'll still have all the natural things of life. They'll be added unto you. Not one good thing shall ye lack if you walk upright before God. But the minute you get your mind on any of those things, then are ye nothing. Then are ye a bonds child and in bondage to the beggarly elements of death, for to be carnally minded or to think on natural things is death. Rid yourself of every thought of your own mind until you can say with Paul, "It's not me living, but it's Christ."

You can't say that just because you get a religious streak, or you get a thought of turning over a new leaf, or because you've been religious and fasted a day or two or prayed, or because you've been with some religious group for ten years, that this means that it's not you living but Christ living in you. You may be much alive. But when you actually lose all of your vim and vitality and vigor and all of your ambition, and when you completely die to self, and self doesn't have any more rights, not even to one thought, then you can say, "I do always the things that I see my Father do. My Father and I are one. It's not me living, but my Father within me." You put the flesh on like a garment, and that's the way it is.

Where is your mind? Is your mind in heaven? Is your conversation in heaven? Are your thoughts in heaven? Is your desire in heaven? Is your labor and ambition to lay up treasures in heaven? No wonder Jesus could say, "The Son of Man who is in heaven." The Christ on the inside testified, "I've never entered into the flesh. I'm like the little child." He said, "Lest ye become as a little child." That's because your spirit has never entered into the flesh as to the knowledge of right and wrong. He could say, "I've never entered into the flesh not one time, not one thought. I dwell in heaven. Though I walk in the body, though I'm in your presence, Nicodemus, as a human being and you're looking at Me, I'm in heaven. As the Christ, I'm in heaven. As to what you see, I came from heaven as to the body. I leave that body. I lay it down. I go back to heaven."

Folks, let me tell you. If you are elect, then you came from heaven because you were there in the foreknowledge of God. You've tabernacled in this body of clay, but you're going to lay it down. You have laid it down through death by Calvary, and your spirit has gone back to God who gave it. That is to say, the part of you that sees and walks and talks, that inner you, has moved out of that little house and you're dwelling in heaven. You have an eternal house. Jesus said, "A mansion that I go to prepare," even His own body, as to a membership. That Spirit of life will dwell in that throughout eternity. As you've born the image of the earthly of Adam unto death, so shall ye bear the image of the heavenly of the second Adam unto life.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.