The Time Is Fulfilled
Introduction
We greet you in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We would like to take this great opportunity to express to you our feelings toward our Savior and to His people. We are very grateful for the people of God who are showing such a great concern towards His work. Having found ourselves in a frontier work of God, we seek to make a full proof of our ministry as the Apostle Paul exhorted us to do in his epistle that was written to the church.
Our goal is to preach the gospel to every creature as much as lies within us. This, of course, should be every Christian’s vision: to go into all the world in some manner or way with the gospel. The Bible tells us that God is not forgetful of our labor in the Lord. Inasmuch as we have ministered and do minister to the saints or the needy, the writer exhorted us that true and undefiled religion before the Father was this: to visit the widows and orphans in their afflictions, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world.
Remember, that the early church did not say that anything that God had given them was their own, but they all came together in the unity of the faith, as one body of Christ in strength and spirit. They honored the Lord with their substance and the firstfruits of their increase; yet, their barns were filled with plenty, and at Pentecost, their presses burst out with the new wine. Jesus said that you cannot put new wine into old bottles. To have this great revelation of Christ, you must be born again of the water and the Spirit. The Bible tells us that we have become a new creature in Christ.
If the love of the world is in you, the love of the Father is not there. Remember, they turned back into Egypt in their hearts and were lost. They murmured and complained, and were destroyed. Let us seek all things common, and He will commit unto our trust the true riches and the crown of life.
May the Lord bless you is our prayer, and we are praying for you.
The Time Is Fulfilled
The Time Is Fulfilled
I want to take a thought right here from St. Mark 1:15: “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.” I’d like to say this first of all, that people who don’t understand, a lot of times don’t mean any wrong, but they try to make a difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven, but according to the Scriptures, the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are identically the same thing.
I want to dwell on a thought here for a few minutes. I read where it said, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” I want you to see the difference tonight in the way that Jesus ministered and the way that the Pharisees and Scribes ministered, and the difference in the way that the ministry of today goes about it. I want to try to drop in a thought that will let you know, and if you can really fathom or understand it, to let you see how far off the chiefest of the ministry of today really is when it comes to the real, genuine truth of Christ.
Now, Jesus preached that the kingdom of God is at hand. The Bible says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. There is no way. When we think of going to heaven, the first thing we think of is being raptured away, caught away, and taken up into some realm that is way up above the earth. We’ve been taught those kind of things; that the Lord will suddenly appear in heaven and the clouds shall suddenly break forth.
It is like a vision that I had one time where I was riding down the road, and all of a sudden, I looked up, and a great, billowy cloud, like hot pokers, was coming through everywhere, like you take a hot poker and touch it to a great, white, snowy thing and it would penetrate through just like that. I watched, and it looked like hundreds of thousands of them at one time, penetrating this great snowy bank of cloud, and as I looked, they turned into angelic beings. All of a sudden, right in the middle of them (during all of this, I threw on my brakes and jumped out of my car and threw up my hands, because I knew it was the coming of the Lord), I looked up, and the Lord, high and lifted up on His throne, broke through in the midst of all of those angels.
The way that we look for the coming of the Lord is by some great natural turn of event. We always look for God in some natural way, in some great calamity or some outstanding thing that is going to take place, and that is why we miss the things of God.
The Bible says that God has hidden these things from the eyes of the wise and the prudent, because man looks on the outward appearance. If He has hidden these things, then tell me how it is that God is going to come back in a way that man will be able to tell what is going on?
The Bible says that every eye shall see Him. I realize that. John also said that they that pierced Him shall narrowly look upon Him, and in the book of Revelation, it says that those that nailed Him to Calvary shall see Him; but you have got to understand what He is saying. I know the Lord is coming back to the Jewish nation and the Jewish people, along with the people of the world, in a natural way, to where God can be seen of them in a natural sense; but that will never be to the bride of Christ. It can never be to the church. That is not God’s way of coming to the church. The Bible says that He will come like a thief in the night. If He comes and breaks forth in the heavens, where everybody can see Him, you couldn’t say that it was like a thief in the night.
The Bible says that they that crucified Him shall look upon Him. How can they look upon Him when He comes, when they are already dead? They are gone! You’ve got to understand what He is saying.
When Jesus came preaching, the Jews could have asked, “Will You, at this time, restore the kingdom to Israel? Lord, will You come in and set up a kingdom, and will You become a great king and let us become Your subjects; will You do this?” Jesus told them, in essence, “The kingdom of God doesn’t come that way! You have the wrong understanding. You haven’t received the doctrine of Christ.”
All they had was an intellectual concept through a typical means, but we have been taught in types and shadows. Paul called them allegories.
Jesus said, “The kingdom of God doesn’t come like that,” and He told them so expressively, so precisely, “The kingdom of God is on the inside of a human being,” but we don’t express it by vocal utterance when we think of it, because our state of being expresses it.
Now, that just takes all the spark out of everything, because here we are, looking for some natural thing to come along and we don’t get to see it. It doesn’t take the spark out at all! As a matter of fact, it puts more spark in. I don’t understand why we can’t tell that the coming of the Lord is in that manner.
Paul said that all the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, are clearly understood by the things that are around us, the things that we see. Look at the light bulb! Doesn’t the light come from the inside and go outside through the light bulb? Let us look at the gasoline in the automobile. It doesn’t come from the outside. It works through the engine and gives the power from within. Look at the motor on the inside of a car. It is under the hood. It is concealed. Everything that God does shows that God is the invisible Spirit, coming as a little grain of mustard seed; as a tiny little thing within the heart; like a babe, being born in the womb; like a little grain of wheat, dropping in the ground and springing forth like a little acorn. From little acorns, big trees grow. Everything springs from within.
Life is always springing from within: the kingdom of God, the kingdom of life, the kingdom of understanding. That is why a lot of people don’t know about God and they don’t understand Him. They are looking for God out here in a natural realm somewhere, but God is springing up from within. The Bible says that out of your innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. You draw water out of the wells of salvation with joy. We are wells of salvation and the water is drawn out of the kingdom of God within us.
The kingdom of God is on the inside of a human being. Jesus said that the kingdom of God doesn’t come by observation. You don’t observe it like scientists do. With their great towers of observation, they observe the stars and whole galaxies. They break them down, but Jesus said that the kingdom of God does not come like that. He said, “What shall I liken the kingdom of God unto? A grain of mustard seed? A pearl that was found in a field?” What can I preach a sermon from? What kind of natural thing, that you are acquainted with, can I reach back and get that will open your understanding and let you know that God is a Spirit, and that He springs forth from within? The Lord shall suddenly come into His temple to be glorified in His saints, and I will make them to come and kneel at your feet and know that I have loved you. What does it mean to us to recognize that the kingdom of God lives on the inside of a human being? It’s like Ezekiel said, “The wheel in the middle of the wheel.” Something is living and walking inside of us; something that is with us. What is it? It is the love of God. It is God’s Spirit. It is the invisible Jehovah Himself, tabernacling in a human body. That’s why they were so confounded in the days of Jesus. They kept looking for the kingdom of God, and everywhere that Jesus went, something would happen and they would run over there, and they thought the kingdom of God was over there, but as soon as Jesus left, it was dry and desolate, and then something would happen over here, and they couldn’t figure it out.
Jacob said, “Here is a stone! It must be the gateway to heaven. I’ll anoint this pillar right here.” They would run to and fro, everywhere, to the kingdom of God; but when Jesus would go over to another place, there the kingdom of God would start again. They were confounded and couldn’t understand what was going on. The prophets of old did great miracles. What was it? They couldn’t find it because it was inside of Jesus.
Tell me one thing. The Bible says that He is the fullness of God, and that the Spirit of God was given to Him without measure, and that when He prayed, His own prayers returned into His own bosom. It had to return into His own bosom. It couldn’t go anywhere else, because God was in His bosom. He was the only God there was! He still is the only God there is. He said, in essence, “I am the light of the world. I am the kingdom of God. I’ve come to you, folks!”
The Bible says that in the fullness of time, here came John the Baptist saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!” Old Brother John began to preach and said, “Folks, it’s time to get your crooked paths straightened out, because there is one coming behind me whose shoe latchets I’m not worthy to stoop down and unloose. He has the kingdom of God within Him.” He is the old lamplighter from the far away hills, that has lighted life’s picture to give your heart a thrill. He is going about lighting little lights, and after He gets through, He is going to take a trip and go away, but He is going to light up all the candles before He does, so that He can leave a church that is called the light of the world.
This Jesus preached that the kingdom of God is here! A man came to Him and talked to Him, and because he answered Him discreetly, Jesus looked at him and said, “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.” Old Brother Peter said, “I know who You are! You’re the Christ!” Jesus said in so many words, “That’s the key, Peter! Now you’ve discovered Me! I am the door! You’ve got the key, Peter, so just unlock the door.” So, they took Him to Calvary, rent the veil and unlocked the door, and this was the door that John saw opened in heaven as never before, but the kingdom of God was at hand. Why? Because the time was fulfilled. How beautiful!
Great Bible scholars in that day, and still up to this day, don’t know what John was saying when he said, “The time is fulfilled.” Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled.” At last it has happened! All that the prophets wrote about, at last, it’s taking place. Everything that they ever said would happen, Jesus said, “I have come to fulfill it.” He said, “I have come that you might have life in great abundance; filled up, and overflowing.” At last the time is fulfilled. Jesus said that the kingdom of God is not far away anymore; it is right here at hand. Handle it, reach out and touch it!
The kingdom of God today is still at hand, but some of you don’t have it. Do you know why? It’s because the Bible says, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” You are too fleshly minded. You’ve got too much reasoning and too many plans of your own. You’ve got too much of yourself in the way, but the kingdom of God is still right here at you. The Bible says to repent and hear the gospel! Believe the gospel! It also declares that God began to translate men into the kingdom. How did He do it? He translated them into the kingdom by faith in God. Today, He still is translating them into the kingdom of God. The Bible says that Enoch was translated by faith, that he might not see death. Today, I stand here in the kingdom of God, because I have been translated into it. I stand here as a subject of the kingdom, to witness to you as one that has been translated into the marvelous kingdom of the eternal God. Somebody said, “You could be mistaken!” Faith doesn’t mistake things. If I stand here and testify of it, and believe it in my intellectual mind, then that doesn’t mean a thing; but if there is a conviction in my heart that I’ve passed from death unto life, and that I’m in the kingdom of God, my brother, I want you to know that I am in the kingdom. His Spirit beareth witness with my spirit that I am a son of God.
Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled.” It is fulfilled because the kingdom of God is at hand. Where is the kingdom of God? He said, “Flesh and blood can’t inherit it.” It takes spirit to inherit spirit. Paul said, “I would that you be spiritual,” that you may inherit the Spirit. You have got to be spiritual! To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. A lot of people say, “Some day, I’m going to sweep through the pearly gates.” I want you to know that the kingdom of God is an inheritance that you receive by faith from God in a human body. It is something that comes from God. It came down in a human body called Christ Jesus. You receive it into your human body, and from within your human form it steadily progresses until, at last, by faith, you are translated into the marvelous kingdom of the living God.
Someone would say, “Well, how do I know that I’m in there?” It is because you are full of love and peace. Serving God is joy, peace, righteousness, meekness, kindness, gentleness, patience, longsuffering; all of these things. You’ve got the Spirit of God in you. You’ve got the nature of Christ in you, something that is running over from within. Your tree is bearing fruit, you are planted by the river of waters, your leaves never wither, and your leaves are for the healing of the nations. You bring forth your fruit. You’ve got the fruits of the Spirit, not as the tree of knowledge, not as the tree of evil, but as the tree of life. When people eat from you, they don’t get the warped, twisted-up concept of some college degree. They don’t get their understanding from some intellectual thing that you’ve figured out or brought down from grandmother or grandfather, but from the Word of God. You are a tree of life that is springing up, something that is overflowing and coming out. Hallelujah! David said, “My cup runs over,” and everybody gets a drink of it! A tree of life gives forth the fruits of the Spirit: joy, peace, meekness, longsuffering, the understanding of God; all of the virtues of Christ Jesus. Do you know why it does that? It is because a tree produces according to whatever the roots are in. These trees are planted by the river of life. They feed from the water of the river of life, and that water comes up into the branches, and from those branches comes the water or Spirit of life.
Trees of life are in the earth. Isn’t that wonderful? Someone said, “I wonder what the tree of life was in the garden of Eden.” It was Jesus. How many of you believe that you are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh? The only tree of life in the earth tonight is you. If you eat of this tree you will never die. Jesus said to drink of this water and you will live forever. This is the well of salvation. Come here and get you some water! The lady said that she wanted some water. Jesus said, in essence, “That’s good, but if you drink that water, you are going to get thirsty again, but if you drink out of this well,” talking about Himself, “you will never get thirsty anymore!” Hallelujah! He said, “If you drink out of this well; if you eat from this tree of life; if you build on this rock, Peter!” Is that right? Hallelujah! I took one swallow of that water, and I’ve never thirsted again since that day. It satisfied me completely. Some of you wander from pillar to post, from one worldly thing to another, from one gossiping tongue to another, from one evil deed to another, from one covetous thing of the world to another, all because you have never gotten a drink of that water. Your spirit is wandering through the dry places, where the waters are not, and you can’t find satisfaction; but I found the well of living water. We sing the song, “The Well of Living Water.” I found that well of living water. I drank from it, and I have never been thirsty again. It has been a well of eternal life, springing up within me and quenching the thirst, and I’ve never been thirsty again. Hallelujah! That makes me feel good!
Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled.” What does it mean, that the time is fulfilled? From the time of the fulfillment, that meant Calvary had come. BC was behind us and AD was ahead of us. That meant that we had crossed over the bridge of strife, that death was completely swallowed up in victory, and that we are free from every evil and all condemnation, folks! I’m sure that you don’t understand what Calvary means, and that you don’t know what it means when you say, “The time is fulfilled.” The Jews never understood what it meant. God blinded them in part, and they didn’t understand. They never knew what God meant when He said, “The time is fulfilled.” Repent ye and believe the gospel! What did it mean? Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Isn’t it wonderful to be partakers of the kingdom of the living God? Father, Thy kingdom come on this earth. Your will be done on this earth, as it is in heaven. Those that are carnally minded are flesh and blood. They can’t inherit the spiritual things of God; the peace and happiness, the prosperity of the saints, nor the faith that comes from Jesus Christ by which you are sanctified.
He said, “The time is fulfilled.” The kingdom of God, at last, has come into the world. Who are You, Jesus? I’m God’s real ark of the covenant that Moses carried, the ark of Noah that survived the raging waters of the wrath of God as they poured down out of heaven. I rose to the top of Mount Calvary, where a door was opened to a new world. The waters beat fiercely down upon it, but it survived. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the door that Peter opened in heaven!” The time is at hand!
Jesus said that you can inherit the kingdom of God if you want to, but it takes spirit to inherit Spirit. Flesh and blood can’t inherit what I’m talking about. You’re looking for it by observation. There won’t ever be one like that! He said that the kingdom of God will never be seen by the eye. It will never come by observation, for the Bible says that they endured as seeing Him who is invisible. He was the invisible God that walked the earth, and the prophets walked with Him.
Today, God still is the invisible God. Paul said, “He is God, whom no man has ever seen.” Moses never saw Him! Abraham didn’t see Him! Nobody ever saw Him! No man has seen God at any time! That is true in Moses’ time, Abraham’s time, and every other time. Somebody said, “Adam saw Him!” The Bible says that the Lord walked in the garden in the cool of the evening; the Lord talked with Moses; the Lord appeared to Abraham. There is only one way to see God, and that is through the Lord (membership of His body). That’s why He is coming back into His flesh and bones, so that He might reveal the kingdom of God from within humanity to the world; a light, a city that all the nations will have to walk in; lively stones, built up into a holy priesthood with Him upon the throne of their heart. You say, “What do you mean, Brother Pike?” I mean that there is a difference between His bones and flesh and humanity’s bones and flesh. He is called the quickening Spirit. His body is the quickening Spirit that inherits Spirit, but your blood or flesh won’t inherit the things of God. Created life is sown in fleshly weakness, and raised in spiritual honor.
The Bible says that it’s the terrestrial that must be changed to a celestial, and that it’s the image of the earthy that must be changed to the image of the heavenly. There has to be a change. There has to be a new birth. You have to come into, a new world. Old things have to pass away, and behold, all things have to become new. Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled.” What is it? He said, “Now, children of God, the kingdom is here!” Don’t be afraid, it is thy Father’s good pleasure to give unto you the kingdom. Did you know that ever since that day, even until this present day, preachers are still preaching to the church, saying, “Don’t fear, little flock. It is God’s pleasure to give you the kingdom. Just be faithful, and one day it’s coming.” That isn’t what Jesus meant. Jesus said that it is thy Father’s good pleasure right now for you to be translated into the kingdom of God and for you to inherit it. It is God’s pleasure right now, children of God, for you to have the kingdom of God this very night. They shall rise and take the kingdom and possess it forever and ever. It is a possession! You have to inherit it! You ask, “How can I inherit it, Brother Pike? How can I take it?” By submitting yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God; by constant submission; constant surrender; constantly breaking down your will power, your outside man, your human desires, your fleshly passions, and submitting, until finally, the faith of Jesus Christ, which is the kingdom of God, will develop in your heart, and you will have power to do what you want to do.
The Bible says, “Contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints of God.” It was the faith of Enoch that translated him into the marvelous liberties of the sons of God. The creature itself (your body) shall also be delivered, transformated or changed into the glorious liberties of the sons of God, for the creature groaneth, not that we should be unclothed; that is, lose this body, but rather be clothed upon with the body from heaven.
What does it mean, “The time is fulfilled”? It means that the benefits of God to the Christian were then at hand, and that from the time that Jesus spilled His blood at Calvary, everything that your heart ever wished for has become yours. It means that there is no more poverty, death, nor sorrow to you, and there is nothing that Satan can do to you any more. The old world is passed away. The new world is here!
Somebody would say, “Now wait a minute, Brother Pike! You must be crazy!” No, I’m not crazy. The man thought that Paul was crazy. Paul said that this was not crazy talk! This is the kingdom of God. You inherit it by faith. You change into it by faith. You do everything by faith. Christ did the works; we do the believing by faith. The husband purchases and the woman moves in and possesses. Ever since that day of Calvary there was no need for another man to be planted in the sod. There was never a need for any little child to ever scream in death as it passes out of this world. There has never been another reason why a mother had to surrender up her darling baby since Calvary. Jesus told those preachers, “I’ve finished the works!” Everything is done. The devil is conquered and destroyed. Death and hell are conquered. Now, we’re to go preach deliverance to the people! Is that right? Preach to the people and cast out devils. Those people that are dead, get them up out of the graves! Death is past. It is gone! Jesus said, “Raise the dead!” Why would He say that? Because it was all over. It was gone! No more death; no more sickness, poverty, or insanity; no more perplexity or troubling spirits; no more sin! There was no more anything for the devil! He is gone! Finished! All of his works are balled up and taken away. At an end! Did you know that every time the devil jumps on a Christian, it means that the Christian has allowed him to do so through unbelief? Do you realize that you are believing Satan into strength with these fears, perplexities, and bondages by unbelief? Did you know that fear is faith in reverse; believing those things into effect in your body? Somebody said, “I’m just afraid I am going to think it!” That little fear is all it takes. That is faith in reverse, believing Satan into his strength and power. You say, “I can’t help but think it! I’m trying!” And there you go. It’s that fear, that expectation that has developed in your heart through fear, that caused you to do it. But, take it the other way. Start believing! Christ said it and I believe it. I’m not going to believe anything the devil says to trouble me. Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled.” Don’t let your heart be afraid. You’ve got power over the devil. You heal the sick! You cleanse the leper! You raise the dead! Keep your heart from being troubled! Go and preach deliverance! Go and help other folks, and lay hands on the sick! Am I telling the truth? Is that Bible? The time is fulfilled. The time is at hand. It is done. Jesus said, “It is finished.”
When Brother Branham came, did that finish it? Somebody said, “When Brother Pike came, it finished it!” No! Jesus finished it at Calvary! I’m just telling you about it.
Do you realize tonight, and this is the truth, that the church could have been translated immediately after Calvary? Somebody would say, “I don’t believe it!” Well, how was Enoch translated before Calvary? Somebody would say, “Now wait a minute. I don’t understand that. Do you mean to tell me that Enoch was translated before Calvary?” No. I said that for your human understanding’s sake. There has never been a human being that was ever translated before Calvary. Calvary was in the foreknowledge of God before the world ever was. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Anybody that is translated is translated as a result of Calvary, but Enoch caught a vision and saw that there wasn’t any need of waiting for the Lamb to come to be crucified. God had already slain Him in His mind. All he had to do was believe. Old Brother Abraham did the same thing. He believed God, and the Bible says that it was imputed unto Him as righteousness 430 years before the law ever came. I want to get over a thought to you tonight for the sake of them that want the benefits. David said, “Forget not all of His benefits.” Some people have fits, but they know nothing about the benefits. The time is fulfilled!
Somebody said, “Now Brother Pike, I thought that in this day and age you are supposed to have a brand new subject, a brand new message. You are supposed to bring us something here that is brand spanking new.” What could I ever tell you outside of what He has already done? There is nothing brand new about the gospel. It is the same age-old story that has always been. Ever since Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is here,” men have, from that time, been translated into the marvelous kingdom of God through faith. I am one of those men, and I am in the kingdom of God. I am not waiting to be translated into it, for I am already in the kingdom of God.
Somebody might say, “Now isn’t that cute! That sounds real good, doesn’t it? Brother Pike is in the kingdom of God!” They have a coloring book; but what I am saying is a living reality. I am already in the kingdom of God. Somebody said, “That’s good faith. If you keep believing like that, Brother Pike, then when the Lord and the kingdom of God comes, He will take you right in!” He is not going to take me in when He comes, because I’m already in it. As a matter of fact, when He comes back, I’ll be coming with Him. It’s in Revelation 19. If you don’t believe it, read it!
The Bible says that God hath translated me into His kingdom. Since that time, men have pressed their way into the kingdom of God. When you are in the kingdom of God, my brother, you can’t be in the kingdom of the world. If you are in God, you can’t be in the world, for you are in Christ. You can’t be down there in a human mind. I’m in another mind. I’m in another world. I’m in another body. I’m in the body of Christ. I’ve got another mind, another world, another body! Everything is different. That’s why I sing, “Everything is going to be all right.” Everything works together for good to them that love the Lord. It doesn’t make any difference what it is.
I want you to know tonight that the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is already at hand. Men are already being translated into it. God’s will is already being done on earth as in heaven, because ever since the day of Calvary there is no more devil, no more heartache, no more sickness, and no more death. There is no more poverty, no more trouble and no more evil. Since Calvary, there is no more.
Somebody said, “Well, I sure do see a lot of it for it not to be anymore.” Well, why don’t you get out of the hog pen and come on home? You don’t have to live out there in that stink. Get up! The prodigal son got up. Shake the mud off of you and come on home!
We sing, “I’m coming home.” Get out of it! Come on home! You can be up here, too, and be in the kingdom of God. It’s like the vision that I had. You can see these things that we are looking at in heaven. You can see them, if you want to.
There is no such thing as the devil any more to a Christian. I hope you can get this. I know this doesn’t register to some of you. Some of you think, “Well, Brother Pike has flipped his lid!” What I am telling you is absolutely the truth. It isn’t something that I sat down and figured out and put together to make it sound good, hoping that it would work. It is absolutely “Thus saith the Lord!” It is God! Every bit of it that I’m preaching to you tonight is Christ.
We have passed from the world of death into the world of life. We should never die again. This generation doesn’t have to die. Somebody would say, “Brother Pike, I believe they do.” No, they don’t have to die. Jesus said, “I’ve made you gods but you die like men because of unbelief.” You are gods! Gods don’t have to die! How can Christ die again? He is resurrected to die no more. You say that you are the body of Jesus Christ. If you are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, do you think that He is going to die again? Do you think your body is going to die again? Why did Christ die? The whole purpose of Calvary was so that humanity wouldn’t have to die, but nobody could believe it.
Enoch took hold of it. He saw it by foreknowledge and God revealed it to him. Old Brother Elijah took hold of it! Moses took hold of it, and others down through the ages have taken hold of it, but what about us? Have faith in Christ! We don’t have to die! The days of funerals are over! Somebody said, “Now wait a minute! You re crazy! They’ll put you in a padded cell!” I’m sure that they would, if they could get their hands on me. I hope I’ll be like Elijah and outrun the wheels of Jezebel. It is a true fact, that they are putting them in caskets, but they don’t have to put them in caskets anymore. The days of caskets are over. It is because of unbelief that men die. Christ did away with sin at Calvary. If a man will believe in Calvary, he doesn’t have to die. Jesus said, “He that heareth My words and believeth on My words is passed from death unto life.” Paul said, “Behold, I show you a mystery!” Somebody is going to discover that the days of caskets are over. Somebody said, “Well, I believe that, Brother Pike, but those things are so far out of my reach. I know they’ll just have to put me in a casket.” Well, bless your heart! You need to shake yourself a little bit and get up out of the dust, and start believing in a different direction. Just sit there in unbelief! Go right on! Die right on and go to hell! They won’t just put you in a casket, but they’ll put you in hell, too. What makes you think that you’ve got enough faith to keep you out of hell, if you don’t have enough faith to keep you out of a casket? Come on folks! It is time that God’s people began to believe in eternal life. Jesus gave us eternal life. Somebody said, “Well, that has nothing to do with the body.” It does have something to do with the body. The same faith that I’m preaching tonight is what is going to bring Him right here on the scene, and I believe that it is bringing Him on the scene!
Somebody said, “Well, I’m just waiting for that time!” I preached to you tonight that the time is already here, for the time is fulfilled. Everything the prophet said came to pass. That was the fulfillment of it. Today, we don’t have to die. It is already fulfilled. In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, made under the law, and because it was the fullness of time, Jesus began to preach, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is, at last, come. Repent ye!” Believe the gospel and let God translate you into the kingdom of God, to where you’ll never have to die anymore.
You may never enjoy the inheritance of the saints. You may never enjoy healing, satisfaction, freedom from worry, trouble, sickness, death, poverty, freedom from all these other things; but it still belongs to you now. When Jesus Christ comes and literally sets His foot on the earth in a human body, you’ll have no more benefits, not one more, than you have already. If the literal human encasement that walked the earth in the days of Christ stood here tonight, it could do no more for you than it’s already done. Not one thing could it do. By your faith tonight, you can have exactly the same thing. There is not one bit of difference. We keep waiting for some great thing to take place, but it doesn’t come by observation. You can keep on looking, but you’ll never see it. The Jews kept looking, but they never saw it, and finally God cast them out of His presence. The Gentiles have done the same thing. Why? Because God is a Spirit. Everything He does is invisible. The invisible God is working through man to manifest Himself in a visible way in the outer body of your humanity. That’s why we go to church.
We can be church members; we can pay our tithes; we can be good neighbors; but brother, that isn’t going to do anything for your heart. There has got to be the Spirit of God springing up from within you, coming up in your heart, that is going to clean your mind up and clean your soul up; clean the filthy thoughts away and wash them down the drain, to mellow you and convert you; cause you to think right, talk right, act right, be right, and desire right. If that hasn’t come to pass on the inside of you, then you’ve never been born again. A babe can be born dead in the womb. It’s called a still birth, but if it’s got life there is something on the inside of it that makes it kick its feet and say “Go!” It causes him to move. There is something on the inside of a spiritual babe that is springing up into everlasting life. Do you understand what I am saying? The time is fulfilled! The kingdom of God is at hand. This is the fullness of time. What are we doing about it, folks? Contend for the faith! Get in there and mean business, and get the benefits of it. Get in there with God and lay everything else aside. Put everything secondary and say, “God, I thought all of these years that I had to fast thirty days and pray about two months without getting up off my knees, and Lord, I thought I had to go to church every time without missing a service. Lord, I thought I had to live forty years without ever making one mistake before I could ever have these things and do these things!” No! That’s why Jesus died! It’s yours for the believing. It doesn’t make any difference what it is; the believers lay hands on the sick and they’ll recover. The believers can raise the dead. The believers can open the blind eyes and unstop the deaf ears.
God has allowed the thing that was done at Calvary to be in darkness until the coming in of the Jews. When He blinded the Jews and cut them off in darkness, it meant that the human encasement (the body) in which Christ dwelt was blinded, until the end time, of what He had done at the fullness of time, but now the veil is coming off, the Jew is coming back in, and it means the redemption of the body.
He blinded the Jews so that the outer encasement of your inner man might be blinded, so that the body might not receive the knowledge into it and be changed or redeemed until He had time to finish His work with the Gentiles and build His kingdom as big as He wanted it by a new birth; but now that we are at the end of the way, we recognize what was done at Calvary. We recognize that the book of Revelation was written about Calvary, and that the human encasement is the Jew, coming in as the outer man, accepting the fact that the days of caskets are over. With the coming in of the Jews it is the redemption of the body, which means that we shall not all sleep.
I am going to accept mine. You can do whatever you want to with yours, but I’m accepting it. Just the way He said it, that’s the way that I believe it. Hallelujah! Don’t worry anymore! Don’t fret anymore! Don’t be sad anymore! Rejoice forevermore! Don’t worry about your loved ones dying anymore. Don’t worry about poverty anymore, any kind of sickness or disillusion. Don’t worry about storms, earthquakes, and famines anymore. Don’t worry about anything anymore! Just go on your way rejoicing. Thank God that because He said it, it’s true. At last you made it, and at last, it is over. At last, everything is behind you and you have got to where you wanted to go. At last you are what you always wanted to be. Somebody said, “You are crazy!” No, I’m not! I’ve never been more sane in my life. I know exactly what I am saying. It is absolutely the truth all the way. The Bible says, “He that can receive it, let him receive it. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” I found the pearl of great price! I’ve sold all that I had to purchase this field, and I am well pleased.
Until you come to this state of mind that I just described to you, you are not pleasing the Lord, because without faith it is impossible to please God, for he that cometh to the invisible Spirit must believe there is an invisible Spirit. You must believe that God is, and that He does exist. You must really believe that, not in your head, but in your heart, for he that cometh to God must believe that God is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
Every promise in the book is mine, every chapter, every verse, and every line. I am trusting in His love divine, for every promise in the book is mine.
By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.
Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.
Holiness Unto The Lord