You’ve Left My Ordinances
Let’s read from the book of Malachi. If you’ve got your Bibles, turn to the third chapter and let’s read from the first verse of the book of Malachi.
Malachi 3:1-7: “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years. And I will come near to you to judgment" and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts. For I am the LORD, I change not" therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.”
We come together to talk about the wonderful things of Jesus, and not one time has God failed to speak to us or share His wonderful blessings with us. I feel His wonderful presence here and I can tell that God is here. I can tell that His love is in our midst, and I can tell that the wonderful Holy Ghost is here in this building. It is so wonderful to be able to feel Him shower down the way I feel Him shower down over me right now. I feel His wonderful presence just as if I had stepped underneath a shower and turned on the water and the wonderful glory of God had just come down upon me.
It is such a wonderful privilege to feel His presence, to feel the glory of God, to know that the blessing of the Lord is among us, and to know that He is doing something very outstanding in this tabernacle. Though the crowd is not very large, Jesus doesn’t have to have a large crowd. People often use the terms “two or three”, and people that really carried the gospel had to use the terms “two or three” because they didn’t have many more than that, because not everybody loves the light. We’ve been privileged to have large crowds many times as we preached the gospel, and we’ve seen times when we didn’t have large crowds.
I remember one time in my life, when we didn’t have anybody. I hadn’t been in my ministry long and I went off to the state of Nebraska to pastor a church. I went to church, and that night it was raining very hard. When I got there, there wasn’t anybody but me. I was so disappointed, and so torn up. I sat down and there was nobody but me. I had never had that experience before in my life, and I thought that it was the most horrible experience I had ever had in my life. I sat down and began to pine and mope and lick my wounds. I thought, “Now, Lord, here I am. I’m working in the hay fields of Nebraska, pastoring a little church, trying to do all I know. I’m fasting and praying, and I’ve come to church and here I have nobody but me. My wife didn’t even go to church that night.” So I thought, “My, this is horrible.” The longer I sat there, the worse I felt.
Then, after awhile, when I felt so bad I couldn’t feel any worse, all of a sudden, something struck me. I heard something say, “Did you know you’re the only one here tonight?” I thought, “Well, of course, I know I’m the only one here tonight.” How could I help but know it. Something said, “Isn’t that wonderful?” I thought, “Well, what’s wonderful about that?” Something said, “To think that nobody in this whole town cared enough about God to come to God’s house tonight but you.” When that hit me, I almost shouted! I began to praise God, and I thought, “Hallelujah! To think that it’s on record in heaven that I’m the only one that went to God’s house on that bad, rainy night to praise and love my redeemer.” That’s one of the grandest experiences that I ever had in my life. I’m so thankful for it now and I wouldn’t take anything for it.
So, it depends on how you look at it. If you look at a thing right, it can be the greatest blessing you ever have. I’ve learned a lot in my lifetime, and I’ve learned that the main thing is to do God’s will. Find out what God’s pleasure is and what God’s will is and do God’s will and everything will be all right.
Now, I read from the book of Malachi. In the day we’re living in, there is much dispute over the book of Malachi, but tonight I want to speak about the latter part, where he said that, even from the days of your fathers, you have gone away from mine ordinances.
It’s hard to believe that in the day we’re living in, people have actually left the ordinances of God. You would think, “Brother Pike, in the day we’re living in, there’s no way that people could be away from the ordinances of God. We’re the most religious people in all the earth. We’re surely following after Christ.” But, nevertheless, in the day we’re living in, though it’s one of the most religious hours we’ve ever lived in, people are farther from the Word of God and the Words of truth than they’ve ever been.
What a horrible thought: being distant to God, and being cut off from God, and finding yourself away from God. And you say, “Away from God? What do you mean, away from God?” Away from the Word of the living God! When you separate from the Word of God, you have separated from God. Anytime you put distance between yourself and the Word of God, you have separated from God.
The Bible says that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. In this day, people are departing from the faith. I say again, departing from the faith is not departing from some religious sect. It’s not departing from a denomination. It’s not getting away from a religious body. That is not departing from the faith, though there are a lot of religious bodies that would like for you to think that. But that’s not departing from the faith. The Bible doesn’t tell us that faith cometh by the hearing of something that a religious body has to offer. It doesn’t tell us that we receive faith because we belong to a church, but it tells us that we receive faith by the hearing of the Word of God. To depart from the faith is to separate yourself from the Word of God. When you depart from God’s Word, you have departed from the faith because there is no faith outside of the hearing of the Word of God.
If we can get this down into our heart, to know that there is no faith outside of the Word of God, then we would really have scored a victory. There is no faith outside of the Word of God. It doesn’t matter what you believe. It doesn’t matter what you think. It doesn’t matter what somebody has told you. It doesn’t matter what indoctrination you’ve had in your life time. There is no faith outside of the Word of God. Faith cometh by the hearing of the Word of God, and if you don’t have the Word of God, then you don’t have faith.
So then, people in the latter times will depart from the ordinances of God, or they will separate themselves from the Word of God. In separating themselves from the Word of God, they will find that they will become what Jesus referred to as a faithless generation. To depart from the Word of God is to leave the faith. When we leave the faith, we find ourselves helpless and find ourselves a prisoner of Satan and a prisoner of the circumstantial environment of the things of this world. As Satan weaves his web about humanity, he takes them into prison. He uses the glitter and sparkle of this world and the things of this world to draw them into that trap. Little by little, he draws you in. He entices you with the materialistic values of life. He entices you with the tangible side of life.
It is God’s plan for you to have the natural things or the carnal things of life. Paul said, “If I have sown unto you spiritual things, shall I not reap of your carnal?” It is God’s plan for you to have a home, an automobile, and for you to have the conveniences of life. But God never at any time intended for anyone to place their affection on anything that is in this world.
A wise man’s substance is precious to him and he doesn’t want it abused. He tries to take care of it. But, brothers and sisters, any time any natural thing of this world captivates your attention or catches your interest, you are in trouble with God and you are sinning against God, and God is on the verge of rejecting you. Any time we find ourselves growing interested or finding an interest in any natural tangible thing, we should back off. Any time we find anything that’s of carnal interest to us, we should start backing off, for the Bible says to love not this world, neither the things that are in this world, for all that is of this world is the pride of life and the lust of the flesh. The original word for lust is desire. It is the desire of your human being.
If the love of the things of this world is in your heart, then the love of the Father is not there. You must not love the things of this world. If God gives you houses, or land, or properties, or conveniences, or materialistic values, you should never at any time get your heart or your mind on those things. You should never let your desire rest upon those things. You should keep your mind on Jesus. The song said to keep your eyes on Jesus and He will calm the troubled waters of your soul. What we need to do is keep our minds on Jesus. We need to love Jesus with all of our heart and with all of our soul.
God is a great God, He is a mighty God, but He is a jealous God. God tells us that we should love Him with all of our heart, mind, strength, and soul. We should love God after this fashion. To love God pleases God. The more we love God, the more He gives us the materialistic values of life. The more I love God, the more God wants to give me things. If I love God with all of my heart, then God wants to give me everything He’s got. He made the stars and the moon for me. He made the sun for me. He made the trees and the birds for me. He made the beautiful ocean for me. He made everything in this world for me. God wants me to have it, provided I will love God with all of my heart, and turn my affection toward the Holy Spirit. But, He is a jealous God. He doesn’t ever, at any time, want us to get our minds on things.
When a man really loves his wife, he loves to give her all kinds of beautiful things. It pleases him well to bring her a bouquet of flowers or help her get a nice automobile, or see that she has a beautiful home and nice furniture and whatever he can afford for her. He loves to give her those beautiful things, to see her eyes sparkle, and make her enjoy life. He gives her those things so that she will admire him, and think upon him, so that he will be her hero and the admiration of her eye.
But the very minute she gets her mind on the things that he is giving her, or she gets her mind on somebody else other than him, he becomes a jealous husband and he doesn’t want her to have one thing that he has given her. He’d like to take it all away from her. The way the world is the more you give the woman, the less she loves you and the more she goes out with your friend.
A man told me lately that his best friend ran off with his wife. They were the best of friends. Such good friends, that after awhile, the man took his wife. I know of another case where a man said, “Brother Pike, I took one of my best friends into my home. It wasn’t long before I didn’t have a wife. My best friend took my wife.”
So then, God is a jealous God. He said, “My name is jealous, for I am a jealous God, and thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” Just one God is all you can have and that’s Jesus! That’s the Holy Spirit. Worship God and God alone. You can’t have any other God. To worship sticks and stones, idol gods, or worship in idolatry as in the foreign fields of heathenism, is wrong!
Somebody would say, “Brother Pike, I’m right with you, and I believe it’s wrong. There’s one thing about us here in America, we don’t do things like that.” But I’m afraid that here in America, people do a whole lot worse than those poor, paganistic people over in the far flung corners of the world. Through their ignorance, they worship sticks and stones, but over here you worship automobiles and homes and the things of this life. You are caught in the web of the things of this life and you worship programs, and you worship people, and you worship things, and you are in a web of Satan, because of the sparkle and glitter of this great time of prosperity here in America.
When we think about these things, we see that America is not only as bad as those heathen people, but much worse off than the heathen people. You ask, “Brother Pike, what makes you think that they are worse?” The Bible says that the servant who knew not to do his lord’s will and committed things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes, but the servant who knew to do his lord’s will and committed things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with many stripes. Here in America, we know the will of God, and we’re still committing things that are wrong. We’re still transgressing the Word of God, still going away from the ordinances of God, and we are going to be punished in a great way, and we’re going to receive many stripes.
This is one reason the world is sick today. Everybody is sick today, including the doctor. Even the physicians are dying today. The Bible says, “Physician, heal thyself.” They can’t heal themselves. It’s a sad time. I counseled with a medical doctor and I talked with him for about an hour or so. He sat all broken up, the tears streaming down his cheeks. He said, “Tell me how to find God. Tell me how to get loose from this condition that I’m in, this oppression.” And he began to express how he was driven and how he was oppressed. He said, “Tell me how to get loose from this thing.” What was wrong with him? He was the doctor. He was the one that was supposed to be helping the people. He’s the one that’s supposed to be freeing the people, the one the people are looking to. He’s the world’s superman, but he was looking for help. He was literally crushed. He was looking for a way out. Even the medical profession of today needs help.
The local orthodontist sent word the other day to me by my daughter and said, “I want to counsel with your Dad. Can I get an appointment? I know that you people have something from God. I know that the usual routine of life is just to drift along and exist, but you people are living. You’ve got life. There is something different about you, and you’ve got life, and I’d love to find out what it’s all about.” Let your light so shine that men may see your good work and glorify your father which is in heaven! Hallelujah!
Even the professional world is beginning to want to find out what’s going on. God is beginning to highlight the church, beginning to lift us up, as the song says, above the shadows.
“Even from the days of your fathers ye have gone away from Mine ordinances,” He said, “and you’ve not kept them. You’ve departed from Mine ordinances, and you have not kept them. Why is it that you’ve not kept Mine ordinances?” Why is it, brother, sister, that we have transgressed the Word of God?
Jesus told the Jews, when He came, “You have kept the traditions of the elders. Well do you keep the traditions of the elders, but you transgress the Word of God. Why do you do this?” Now again, we would say, “Brother Pike, there’s one thing about us here in America. We’d never do a thing like that.” But I say again that we are worse than the Jews. We keep all kinds of doctrines, man-made ideas, and we listen to the false theologians. We accept everything that some doctrine offers to us, and everything the denominational powers offer us. We feed on the garbage of the world, but we fail to hear God’s Word. We do it with a regularity.
There is a denominational teaching in the world today, and when they speak of God, they don’t understand God. When they talk about God, they don’t know how to explain God. So then, they just put it together the best they can to get a following, and they build a worldly enterprise. They build up a great treasury, and take in millions of dollars, and they blind millions of people.
Why is it that they don’t understand? Because God did not send them! The Bible says that they ran, but God never sent them. They went, but He never commissioned them to go. “I did not send them,” saith the Lord. “If I had sent them, they would have spoken My Word, for he that God sendeth will speak God’s Word. If they had stood within My counsel, they would have caused the people to have turned from their sins.” They are not turning the people away from worldliness. They’re not turning the people away from sin. They’re not turning the people away from the evils of this world, because God did not send them. If they had stood in God’s council, they would have caused the people to turn from their wicked ways, but they’re not causing the people to turn from their wicked ways.
They’re infiltrating the houses of God with rock and roll, and they’re bringing the things into God’s house that’s abomination in the sight of God. The Bible says that when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, the place it ought not, then shall the end come. Brother, sister, you can take abomination into any place. You can do the abominable things in the world, and you can do the abominable things in your own home, but when you take them into God’s house, then God is upset. Then there is trouble. There are problems when you take the abomination that maketh desolate into God’s house.
Daniel said that there is something that is an abomination to God. He said that it makes the house of God desolate of God’s Spirit. It drives the Spirit of God out. There is an abomination that makes the house of God desolate of the Spirit of God. We’re moving into the hour when the abomination of desolation, in the spiritual sense, is moving into the house of God. I know that it’s coming to the house of Israel and it’s not far away, but in the spiritual sense, it’s moving into the house of God, and they’re turning the house of God into a rock and roll party. They’re turning the sacred place of God into a nightmare. They’re turning it into a place of merchandise, to sell and buy and to frolic in. But God said this is wrong. “Shall not My house be called the house of prayer of all nations?” Jesus asked. He said “You have made it a den of thieves. Why have you done this thing?” Jesus stepped in there and drove them out because He was disturbed, He was upset.
I’m glad that God lives in my heart and is directing me tonight. I’m glad that I can see. I have eyes to see. I have ears to hear. I’m glad that I can see and hear and know the wonderful things that God is saying to me, and what the Spirit is showing me tonight. Jesus said, “Always I do that which I see the Father do.” The eyes of your understanding must be enlightened that you might be able to comprehend the heights, the depths, and the widths of these things that God has commanded us.
“Even from the days of your fathers, you have left My ordinances,” God said. “You have not kept them. Return unto Me. Return unto Me and I will return unto you. Walk contrary to Me, I will walk contrary to you. But return unto Me and I will return unto you,” saith the Lord. If My people who are called by My name, if they would humble themselves, if they would seek My face, I will hear from heaven and I will heal their lands.”
Why is the world sick today? The doctors are sick. The dentists are sick. The medical profession is sick. Everybody is sick. Everybody needs help. Everybody is searching and seeking. Where is the answer? Christ is the answer! He is the only answer. Christ within you, the hope of glory. Greater is He that is within you than he that is in the world.
Greater is He that is within you than the cancer that is in your body. Greater is He that is within you than the insanity that’s pressing and oppressing your mind. Greater is He that is within you than the poverty that’s pressing upon you to bring you down into the dust of despair. Greater is He that is within you than the thing that’s trying to steal your soul, Lucifer, the thing that’s in the world, that evil power that’s in the world. Greater is He that is within you because Christ is within you, and Lucifer, being in the world, is subject to the powers of the Almighty God, for the Bible says that God ruleth in the affairs of mankind. God has His way in the affairs of mankind. God rules according to His will. God looked down in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, back in the days of Daniel when He did mighty things and said that this is to let you know that God rules in the affairs of mankind.
When God says that we’re going to have a certain president, you can vote any way you want to, but when you get through voting, God puts in who He wants to. Hallelujah! “Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?” asks the Lord. “I create the good. I have created evil. I have My way in both. I work all things after the counsel of My own will,” He said, “I kill. I make alive. I wound" I bind up. I am God.”
But, in the world today, they’ve gone away from God’s ordinances, and they don’t worship God anymore. There are many teachings in the world today. One teaches that there are three Gods, and that these Gods are coequal. Three Gods and they’re coequal. Why do they teach that? Because God did not send those teachers, and because they do not know and their ordination is of mankind. Their ordination is not of God. Their oversight is not of God. The Bible says to take the oversight over the flock of God over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God which God has purchased with His blood.
Three Gods, coequal. How do they teach such things when the Word of God condemns it? It’s because they have gone away from the ordinances of God. They do not understand. How can they say that there are three Gods that are coequal when Jesus Himself, speaking in the Spirit, said, “I created the heavens by Myself. I stretched out the heavens alone. When I did it, there was no one to help Me. Who is My equal? I know not of any.” How can you say coequal when the Bible denies it, when God denies it, when the great God of heaven stood and said, “I am God alone. Don’t tell me there’s another God. Don’t bring another God and say He’s equal to Me. I am God!” Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all of thy heart, with all of thy soul, with all of thy mind.
I was preaching for a denominational movement over in the state of Michigan, and we were having a great meeting. The sick were healed. The pastor’s wife was healed. She was so thrilled that God was moving. The pastor came to me and said, “Brother Pike, I’m so glad you came and preached for us. Ever since I heard of this coequal thing, I’ve been confused. When I go to pray, I don’t even know who to pray to. I don’t know which one of the Gods I can pray to. It’s had me confused.” Let me tell you something: Jesus is God! Jesus is the only God. Hallelujah!
In the heathen countries, they have a god, and they’ve got a name for that god. Over here we’ve got a God and we’ve got a name for our God. Hallelujah! Somebody would ask, “Brother Pike, do you mean to tell me that you just believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?” Well, there are people that believe, not in three-ness but in two-ness. They believe in two-ness. They believe there is a Father, and they believe there is a Son, but they can’t figure out where the Holy Ghost came from, and so they have a two-ness. But again I say, if God had sent them, they would have understood. They ran, but God did not send them. They went, but God did not commission them. They taught, but God wasn’t in it. They run as one that beateth the air, teaching two Gods, when the Bible says there is but one God.
Jesus said, “Where is there another God? I know not of any besides Me. I am God, and I am God alone. Besides Me, there is no God. There is just one, just Me. I am God alone. Besides Me, there is no God. I know not of any.” I don’t know of any either. Do you know of any more? If you know of any more I’d love to hear about them. I just know of that one, and when I get in trouble, I call upon that one. I go to God and pray and ask God to help me, and I ask God to lead me.
Therefore, it is obvious that these people were not sent of God. What have they done? They have gone away from the ordinances of God. They’ve left the Word of God. They have preached heresy. They’ve preached what they thought. They’ve preached the traditions of the elders. They’ve tried to hold together some worldly enterprise that’s brought them great amounts of money and prestige. But beloved, someday God said, “I’ll meet you face to face. You think that I am all together such a one as you are, but someday I will meet you face to face, and I will be as a bear that has been robbed of her cubs.”
When you hear people preaching about two Gods, you know that they run as one that beateth the air. Then you have people that say there’s no such thing as one God. One God, two Gods, three Gods, and they take a different route all together. And they come up with something else. Some deny the Father, some deny the Son, and some deny the Holy Ghost. One will deny one, one will deny another, and one will deny another. Then there are people also that will stand up and say there is but one God. That’s good preaching. Forget about the Father, forget about the Holy Ghost. There is but one God, and that is Jesus.
But if that’s so, if there is nothing but Jesus, then the question arises again. The Bible says, “To make in himself of twain.” How then did He get to be two if there is only one? How is it that He made in Himself twain, both Lord and Christ, if there is but one? So, when people teach that there is nothing but Jesus, that there is no Father, and you don’t have to pray to the Father, then something is wrong with these people. God did not send them, for they’ve gone away from the ordinances of God. The Bible says He made in Himself twain, both Lord and Christ. If He made in Himself twain, both Lord and Christ, that must mean that there are more than one somewhere.
How do they teach there are two when the Bible says that there are three that bear record in heaven? How is it that three bear record in heaven if there are only two? So then, if He made in Himself twain, we understand why the Bible says there are three that bear record in heaven. If He made in Himself both Lord and Christ, then we understand why that there are more than one involved.
We understand why Paul said, “I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” We understand why the writer used the terms, “I pray to the Father, and I have respect for His Son, as well as the Father.” All through the teachings of Paul and the other great writers, they give special respect to the Son and special respect to the Father and special respect to the Holy Ghost. Why do they do this? There is a reason for it, my beloved friend.
From the days of your fathers you have gone away from His ordinances and you’ve taught heresy. You’ve taught everything but the Word of God. They’re teaching one-ness, they’re teaching two-ness, they’re teaching three-ness, but what they need to teach is godliness! They need to forget about one-ness and two-ness and three-ness, and they need to start preaching godliness. That’s what they need to teach. What Paul preached was godliness. Great is the mystery of godliness. What people need to hear about is godliness. They don’t care about trinity and they don’t care about one-ness and they don’t care about two-ness. They need to know about godliness and that’s what God wants them to know. What we should be doing is preaching about godliness.
What is the problem? They have gone away from the ordinances of God. “You’ve not kept My ordinances.” saith the Lord. “From the days of your fathers you’ve gone away from them. Return unto Me,” saith the Lord. “Return unto Me,” saith the Lord. Who is He? Who is He that you should return to Him?
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and today the Word is still God, and the Word came forth and put on flesh. If the Word was in the beginning, and it came forth and put on flesh, then we’ve got two again. If there was a Word to begin with and a flesh later, that makes two again. Isn’t that right? If there was a Word before the flesh came, and then came the flesh, and both of them joined together, or linked up together, that makes two again. So then, we see that they have misconstrued the teachings of God.
It is a true fact that there is a heavenly Father. He’s not a make believe. There is a real, genuine heavenly Father, though you cannot see Him with your eye. No man has ever seen Him and no man will ever see Him. The Bible says that He is the great light unto which no man can approach, whom no man has seen, nor can see. Jesus Christ alone, dwelling in that light, has immortality, and the only way that we can approach unto that light is through Jesus Christ.
So, the great heavenly Father is the great light. He has never been seen. He can never be seen. He is such a great, mighty personality that Revelation tells us that after the millennium, when the great Ancient of Days comes, when the great light comes, that heaven shall pass away and earth shall pass away, but His Word shall not pass away. Everyone that’s been made into the Word body, the body of Christ, will continue to live. Every one that’s bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh shall continue to live.
Heaven and earth shall pass away when the great light comes after the millennium. There was found no place for the ocean, no place for the seas. Everything passed away. The great light unto whom no man can approach. The mountains cannot approach unto Him. The earth cannot approach unto Him. People cannot approach unto Him. No one can approach unto Him. Jesus Christ alone is heir to the glory of God. The only way that we can have anything is through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The only ones saved in the days of Noah were Noah’s family, and that was because Noah found favor in the eyes of God. It wasn’t that Noah’s family found favor in the eyes of God. Only Noah found favor in the eyes of God. So then, it’s because Jesus found favor in the eyes of God that Brother Pike is going to be saved. It’s because Jesus found favor in the eyes of God that anyone is going to be saved, for we are sanctified by the faith which is in Him.
There is a heavenly Father. There is a heavenly Father. He is the great Spirit. When I pray, who do I pray to? I pray to the heavenly Father. Who did Jesus pray to? He prayed to the heavenly Father. God is a Spirit. Jesus was not praying to Himself. You don’t go around praying to yourself. You pray to God. You pray to the Holy Spirit. God is a Spirit. We walk in the Spirit. If we walk in the Spirit then we have favor with God. We walk in the great Spirit. We pray to the great Spirit, the Holy Spirit. The one that we cannot see.
Our precious, wonderful, heavenly Father that has begotten us, that great Spirit of God that came forth when there was nothing but darkness and everything was void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. That great Holy Spirit, that great wooing power of God, began to come on the earth. When that great Spirit and that great wooing came, the little flowers lifted up their heads, and the little birds began to sing, and out of the ground came these wonderful, glorious things all because the Holy Spirit wooed the earth. So, there is a heavenly Father. Is there a heavenly Father? There is a heavenly Father.
So then, is there a Son of God? Most assuredly there is a Son of God. The Bible says that a Son shall be born and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Prince of Peace, mighty God, everlasting Father. “Aha!” somebody said, “That proves He’s the everlasting Father.” It didn’t say that He would be called the everlasting Father, it said His name would. Therefore, the Son of God came. Here comes the beautiful name of Jesus. Here comes that lovely name of Jesus again. Here comes the Son. A Son was born. Hallelujah! Somebody says, “God was born. Blessed Mary, mother of God.” What a lie!
I talked with a priest the other day, and as we were talking, he started talking about blessed Mary, mother of God. I said, “Where do you get that God ever had a mother? Why, that’s the craziest thing I have ever heard of.” He said, “You’re right. You’re right.” I said, “You know God never had a mother. God is the one that created all mothers. Why, we need to worship Mary instead of God if she’s the one that begat God.” That’s crazy. Blessed Mary, mother of God. Mary was blessed. I agree to that, because she was the mother of the Son of God.
You can’t deny it, but not the mother of God, for the Bible says that God is a Spirit. That same Son of God that stood preaching even denied that she was His mother, so far as the sacred event. When she came to Him, and He was under the anointing, they said, “You’re mother wants to see you.” He said, “Who is My mother?” “Your brothers want to see you.” He said, “Who are My brothers? These that do the will of My Father in heaven, this is My mother.” The church. Isn’t that right? The church.
So then, when you say Jesus, you are saying the Son of God, the Son of God that was made of a woman. He was made under the law, born of a woman. The Bible says He was. Mary said, “From hence all nations shall call me blessed.” All nations shall call her blessed. I call her blessed because she is blessed. Anybody that could be the mother of the Son of God is blessed, great and mighty. Elizabeth, the mother of John, the great and mighty mother of John. What a wonderful, wonderful thing.
But, beloved friend, let me tell you something. After the resurrection, when He stood in the midst of them, they said, “It is a spirit,” or it is God. That same Son of God made the statement, “Feel of me. Feel of me.” In the book of John the twenty-fourth chapter, it says, “God is a Spirit.” God is a Spirit. They said, “It’s a spirit.” “Feel of me!” Jesus said, “I’m the Son of God. A spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have. I’ve got flesh and bones. My heavenly Father is a Spirit.”
In the beginning was the Spirit, and it became the Word, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld it as the glory of the only begotten, full of grace and full of truth. “My Father is a Spirit. He dwells within Me. He doeth the work. I’ve not come of Myself" He hath sent Me. The works that I do, I do not of Myself, but the heavenly Father that dwelleth within Me doeth the works. Feel of Me, for I have flesh and bones because I am the Son of God. I am made as the Son of Man. I am made like unto My brethren in all things. Feel of Me.” So then, there was Jesus, flesh and bones.
What is it? They have gone away from My ordinances and they have not kept them. The God of this world has blinded them, and the lust and greed for position and money has blinded them, and they have forsaken the ordinances of the living God!
So then, Jesus said, “Feel of Me. I am flesh and bones.” Is there a Son of God? There is a Son of God. Is there a Father? “My Father hath not flesh and bones as you see Me have,” Jesus said. “I am the Son of God. A spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see Me have. My Father is a Spirit.” God is the great light. You cannot approach unto that light. You can approach unto Jesus because He’s flesh and bones. But you cannot approach unto that great light, because that great light is different altogether. You cannot approach unto it, but you can approach unto Jesus as flesh and bones. The reproaches of them that reproached the great Holy Spirit fell upon Jesus. It fell upon Him. They that reproached the great Holy Spirit, their reproaches fell upon Jesus. He caught it to keep it from going to the Holy Spirit that you might not be cut off.
Now, is there a Son of God? There certainly is! So there must be two. Somewhere there must be two. That’s the reason He said He made in Himself twain. There must be two. So, when we think about the great Holy Spirit, is there then no other? Is there then no other? Is there no Holy Spirit? Is there no Holy Ghost? Is there no Holy Ghost at all? Most assuredly there is a Holy Ghost! Then, what is the Holy Ghost? If there is a Holy Ghost, then what is the Holy Ghost? If the Father is one and the Son is another, then what is the Holy Ghost? The Holy Ghost is nothing less than the Spirit of the Son and the Father united together. Are you listening? The third part of that is the Spirit of the Son and the heavenly Father, the great Spirit, united together. That’s what made the third part. It was when they united together. The great Spirit of God took the Spirit of Christ and became interwoven, in that God in His entirety came down as the Spirit of Christ, not by measure but in His fullness. Thus, the Spirit of Christ Jesus became the great Holy Spirit. It became the Holy Ghost.
That’s why the translators of the Bible translated the Holy Spirit as the Holy Ghost. It was the Holy Spirit, but now, the translation of the King James version is the Holy Ghost. What is the difference? The difference is that a human being has a spirit, and that spirit, when it departs from the body, is called a ghost. The difference is that a departed spirit from a human form has taken on a personification. It has an exacting. You can exact it. That is to say, it has taken on a conformity. It has a personification. It is a certain thing. It is the spirit of a certain image. It is a spirit of a human being, which is a ghost. Therefore, if a thing becomes personified, it is a ghost.
Before that, as the Holy Spirit, God had no personification. He had never been personified in Jesus. There was no exacting of God in your mind. There was no comprehending God, for God, who filled all of eternity, could not be comprehend. God walked in Jesus, personified Himself in Jesus, then, when the mold of the Son of God was opened at Calvary, out stepped the ghost, a personification of God, which is called the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Christ Jesus.
You can take metal and melt it down. You can dig it out of the earth, and as long as it is in the earth, before it starts forming, it’s nothing but deposits. It’s nothing but elements. But you take these elements, put them in the furnace, and melt them down. Then you make a mold, and pour elements into the mold, set the mold up, let it harden and form, then, when it is thoroughly cured out, open the mold. The Bible says that God poured Himself into Christ without measure. He hung the mold up at Calvary and let the mold hang there until it was cured. Jesus said, “It is finished.” He opened the mold. He rent the veil and out stepped the personification of God! Why was that? Because human beings had now comprehended God!
Oh, my brother! Never before, in all of eternity, had God been comprehended. Never! But now came the Revelation of Jesus Christ. What do you mean, the Revelation of Jesus Christ? Now comes the revealing of a personified God! God had walked the earth in a human body, and everybody had looked at that human body. And they said, “That’s God. I comprehend God. I understand God. I see what God is like. God is good. God is going about healing. God is going about doing good, healing all that are oppressed of the devil. I see God. I comprehend God.” God said, “Now that you know Me, I’m going to step out of this mold, and though I’m going to be invisible and go away so the flesh won’t get the glory, yet you know Me.”
Oh, hallelujah! Do I know Him! The Bible says in the last days they that know their God shall do mighty exploits. Do we know Him? The revealing of Jesus Christ is the Revelation of God. Out of the mold stepped the unification of Christ in God. Out of the mold stepped the great Holy Spirit, that which had been comprehended. Out of the mold stepped the God that could be exacted, or comprehended, or understood. Out of the mold stepped a God that could be worshipped because we know Him as Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, “I have manifested My Father’s name. I have come in My Father’s name. I have presented My Father to you. I have kept them in Your name, Father. I have made Your name known to them. I have kept all of them in Your name. I have not lost one of them except the son of perdition. I’ve kept them in Your name, and O Father, now I come to Thee. I came in My Father’s name and you would not receive Me. If I had come in another you would receive Me.” God said, “Because You’ve manifested My name, Son, I’m going to give You a name that nobody knows but You, and to whom You will reveal it. I’m going to give a name that nobody knows but You, and to whom You will reveal it.”
So then, the great invisible God, is today none other than the Spirit of Jesus the Christ. He is a personified God today. He is a God that can be comprehended. He is a God that can be understood. He is a God that can be worshipped. He is a God that is one with His heavenly Father. He said, “Father, make these one as we are one.”
“If He’s not one, and if He’s not two, and if He is not three, then for heaven’s sake, Brother Pike, what then is He?” He is according to what the ordinances have declared Him. These three are one! He is a three in one. God is three that has become one. Is a man one, or is a man three? You say, “A man is but one, Brother Pike.” If a man is but one, why is it when they lay him in the casket that he has quit functioning? If a man is but one, why does he quit walking and talking when death comes around? There was some other part of him. He’s more than one. He’s made in the image of God. He’s more than one. You know why they put him in a coffin? Because there’s a part of him missing. One part of him is missing. That’s what it is. There’s more to him than just one.
You ask, “Where do you get that?” The Bible says that when Rachel travailed, her soul departed from her and she died. Paul said, “I seek to present you unto God blameless, body, soul and spirit.” The Bible says that the Word is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, even to the dividing asunder of the soul from the spirit, the marrow from the bone. There is the spirit, there is the soul, and there is the body, for the Word is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and can divide the soul from the spirit. And then the spirit leaves the body, and the Bible says that at death the spirit goes back to God who gave it, and the body is dead without the spirit.
So then, there are three, but these three are one. These three are one. Therefore, what should I do? I should pray to my heavenly Father. Who is the heavenly Father? The eternal Spirit. How then should I worship God? In Spirit. Paul said, “I would speak unto you as spirituals.” I should worship in Spirit. I should be spiritual. I should pray unto the Spirit. How should I then approach the Spirit? In the name of the Son of God. No man can come to the great light, or the Spirit, but by the name. Only by the name.
If I get salvation, I have to go through the name. If I get healing, I have to go through the name. If I have any kind of deliverance, I have to go through the name. It shall come to pass that whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The disciple said, “Be baptized, wash away your sins, Paul, calling upon the name of the Lord.” It’s obvious he didn’t just mean saying, “Lord, Lord,” because not everyone that saith, “Lord, Lord” shall be saved, so that isn’t what he meant. Be baptized, wash away your sins calling upon the name of the Lord.
I am talking about the ordinances of Christ Jesus the Lord. From the days of your father you’ve gone away from Him. God is a Spirit. We worship God in Spirit. I worship God in Spirit. I worship God in truth. “Return unto me and I will return unto you,” saith the Lord. “If you walk contrary to me, I will walk contrary to you.” Draw nigh unto God, and God will draw nigh unto you.
So there is a heavenly Father. Who is He? The Holy Spirit. Are we actually going to see three people or Gods sitting upon three thrones when we get to heaven? Absolutely not. What will we see? We will see Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. We will see Moses and Elijah as the two olive trees, representing the same thing they represented as they stood on the mount of transfiguration: the law and the prophets. The transfiguration shows Moses as the resurrected saints, Jesus as the living saints and Elijah as the raptured saints. Those three represent the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. God said, concerning Moses, “I will make you God unto the people.” Moses will show the Father in that day. Elijah will show the Holy Ghost, so far as the human person, in that day. Moses will show the body, in that God is a Spirit.
Jesus Christ alone will be God. Why? Because the great eternal Father, the Holy Spirit, tabernacles in one body. On the mount of transfiguration, when those two bodies appeared, Peter said, “Let us make three tabernacles.” God said, “My Son’s tabernacle is the only one I am pleased to dwell in. This is My Son. This is the tabernacle.” John said, “Behold! The tabernacle of the great Holy Spirit is among men. Behold the tabernacle of God is among men!” Jesus was that tabernacle. Peter referred to you and me as being a tabernacle for God. We’re in this tabernacle, but if this one be dissolved, we have another one eternal in the heavens, not made with hands.
Jesus Christ, the tabernacle of God, was in the earth. He dwelt among men. God in His fullness dwelt among men. Today, God is still tabernacling among men, for we are the tabernacle of God. We’re the members of that body, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, member by member and measure by measure, yet Jesus, the head of the church, is without measure, the fullness of the great Holy Spirit, the fullness of God. He walked the earth as the tabernacle of the great Holy Spirit, God, the personified One.
In heaven, who will we see? You cannot see God for God is the great light. You will never see God. You will see Jesus, dwelling in the midst of that light, and that light dwells within Him. He is the express, which means the given, image of God. He is the only image of God. The Bible says that no man can see God. Therefore, if you are a human being, you will never see God. If you are a son of God, then you are not a man" you are a god, and if you are a god (the Bible says that you are gods), you will be able to see God. The way that you will see God is through the enlightenment of your understanding, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, to comprehend the height, the depth, the width and the length by the mind of the Son of God. The mind of the Son of God comprehended God, thus through the comprehension and the transformation of mind, as He grew in wisdom and stature, God in His fullness filled that human body, and that human body was changed into the fullness of God.
According to your measure, as you comprehend the mind of God, you will be changed into the God body, into the God membership, according to the mind of Christ that you allow to live within you. You will have a place in that day as kings and priests. Some over five cities, some over ten cities. Kings and priests we are unto God, for He is the King of kings. He is the Lord of lords. There will be kings in that day, like the twenty-four kings that were around the throne and threw their crowns down at His feet. Twelve kings concerning the twelve apostles. We shall be twelve kings ruling on twelve thrones beside Him when He judges the twelve tribes of Israel. There may be kings and lords standing in your midst today, and someday they will do tribute to the Lord of lords and the King of kings and rule throughout the great earth.
There are many things we could say about Jesus and His greatness and about His following. How wonderful, how marvelous is His following! How glorious is His wonderful body. How magnificent is His wonderful form that’s in the earth today, and the promises that God has given concerning this great, wonderful body called the church, which is the bride. How beautifully it shall be arrayed at its positioned places in the world to come.
You know, salvation is simple. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, but there is a mystery of God. The Bible says, “Great is the mystery of godliness.” Paul said, “I am a steward of those mysteries.” Great is the mystery of godliness, the mystery of the kingdom, the mystery of iniquity. Great, great spiritual mysteries, but the Bible says that all of the mysteries shall be finished at the sounding of the last trump, or in the original rendering, the secret shall be finished. He that abideth in the shadow of the Almighty shall dwell in the secret place of the most high. To get into the types and shadows is to get into the secret place and understand the mystery.
Jesus is the given image of God. There is no other human person of God. The Bible says that He is the fullness of the godhead bodily. That is, so far as the body is concerned, there is no other human body. God hath but one body, and that’s Jesus. God, the great Holy Spirit, the heavenly Father, rules heaven and earth through that body, through that spilt blood. Everything that comes to God must come to Him through that name and through that magnificent body.
So then, if you’ve not made that divine commitment unto God, which Paul said, “I’m persuaded God can keep that which I’ve committed to Him against the great day.” If you’ve not made the commitment unto God, then let me encourage you to make the commitment unto God so that He can keep it against the great day that is soon to come, because that great day is fast approaching.
The great day is fast approaching. This Atlanta meeting has to do with that great day. Now if you’re spiritual you can see, but if you’re not spiritual, you cannot understand. No man can receive anything except it be given him of God.
I used to preach so hard until my shirt was wet, my coat was wet, my pants were soaked, my socks were soaked, and sweat would be in my shoes. As I would go get a drink of water, and as I would turn up the water, I’ve often thought, “God, how I would hate to miss heaven.” How I would hate to miss heaven. I thought about the rich man that lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torment by the flames, seeing Lazarus, and he begged for just a little water. I thought how wonderful it is to drink just a little glass of water, and it’s so wonderful, so wonderful. You think, “Oh, God! How wonderful it is. How wonderful it is just to be able to get a drink of water.” You know, if heaven didn’t afford anything except plenty of water to drink, it would be worth it all.
By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.
Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.
Holiness Unto The Lord