Marriage And Divorce

I want you to listen children of God. I'm going to try to read some scripture on it to cover a few things here if I can. I want you to turn with me first before we read Matthew, I want you to turn with me to Hebrews 13:4. Let's turn over there to 13:4 first and let's see what the Lord says about marriage here. Hebrews 13:4. All right, now, listen, marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled; but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. All right, now, you can take it from there. You can say, Well, I think this and I think that. I feel like I'll be all right or they'll be all right. But I told you what He said; that's the way it will be at the judgement. All right, now, listen, remember the word whoremongers and keep in mind the word harlot. All right, now, I'll show you why in a little bit. I Peter 3:1. Let's just turn over there just for a few minutes. I Peter 3:1. Now, this is to the wife and when I read it, you can do anything you want to with it, but this is going to stand in the judgement. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God a great price. For after this manner in the old time the holy women also who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands; even as Sara obeyed Abraham calling him lord; whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. All right, now, I read that because one of the things that causes the problem of today is the way that women dress. That's one of the great problems. All right, now, just for a moment now, Jesus said, A sinful and an adulterous generation. Just give the more earnest heed and listen this morning if you will. Let me check something here just for a moment. Now, the first thing that I'm going to read after I get a few scriptures here to substantiate what I'm going to say, I know that we're going to have a little controversy over it, I know that, but if you'll listen you'll have to admit that what I told you is God's Word. All right, now, just for a moment turn over to I Corinthians 7. All right, now, concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me; somebody was asking Paul about these things. There was a lot of problems about it in that time. It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless; to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence, and likewise also the wife unto the husband. A lot of you pouty women are bad about not rendering due benevolence to your husband and a lot of you pouty men are the same way, but God will get you in the day of judgement for it. The wife hath not power of her own body but the husband, and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and come together again; that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency. All right, now, Paul says in I Corinthians here in the 25th verse - Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord; yet I give my judgement, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be. Art thou bound unto a wife; seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife. But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless; such shall have trouble in the flesh; but I spare you. But this I say brethren, the time is short; it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoice not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not, and they that use this world, as not abusing it; for the fashion of this world passeth away. But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord; but he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, he may please his wife. There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit; but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction. Listen close now. But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin; if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not; let them marry. Nevertheless he that standeth steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well. So then he that giveth her in marriage doeth well; but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better. The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord. That means if you are a child of God, you've got to marry a Christian. But she is happier if she so abide, after my judgement; and I think also that I have the Spirit of God. If you don't think the preacher has any right to tell folks anything you see Paul here using his own judgement on this thing in harmony with what the Lord said. And God make it the Word of God by putting it here in the Bible. All right, now, it said, If the virgin passed the flower of her age. The word flower comes from flow, flow: like Florida...flow...or like flower it means the liquids that flow through the vine coming out into the pedal which is the life. So then you understand the custom of women when the women used the terminology back there in the days of Jacob, said, That the custom of women was upon her. If then she is passed the age of the custom of women she is free to marry. It's called the flower of her age. All right, now, I want you to listen as I try to tell you the truth in all sincerity, with all righteousness, with all decency. All right, listen now, in Mark 10, now, this is going to go against the grain a little bit, but this is the way the Bible gives it. Mark 10, the 11th verse - And He saith unto them, Whosoever, Somebody said, Now Brother Pike, is He talking to Christians or sinners or what? Jesus said, What I say to one I say to all. He's saying, Whosoever, but we'll get to that in a few minutes. Whosoever shall put away his wife, now, notice, I want you to especially notice one thing here it says his wife remember that - his wife. And marryieth another, committeth adultery against her. All right, now this is going to go against the grain a little bit cause I know that Brother Branham followers teach that the wife cannot put away the husband, but listen to this now. Go by God's Word. And if a woman shall put away her husband, how many of you heard that? And be married to another, she committeth adultery. You follow me? All right, now, I want you to see that the terms "put away" is used. All right, now, in Matthew the 5th chapter the 27th verse, I want you to listen now. 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. (Scripture text continued verses 29 and 30.) Now, Jesus is talking about putting away the members of the body of the church, that the whole body of the church doesn't perish. Get rid of the corrupt arm, the corrupt leg, the corrupt eye. But He is also pointing out in putting away the wife if she is not your wife, if she's turned into a harlot, the Bible said that you're joined to your harlot. But listen now, He is telling you that it is better to enter into this life right here - this life - having one leg, this life having one eye, go through this life being halt, maim, lame, or blind. By taking your finger and plucking your literal eye out. Jesus said, That's a hard thing to pluck your eye out, but it would be easier for you to do that than to go to Hell. You'd be better off to do that. That's how bad Hell is. Now, He said to enter into this life rather than having all of your members, and sin through your life, and then die and go to Hell. All right, now, listen to this folks. It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife. I want you to notice this; Jesus used the terms here, It hath been said. He is not using the terms that God said. Now, Moses said and all the others said, but Jesus said, This has been said. By who? Moses and the others. He said, But I'm telling you because I'm the Word made manifest. All right, listen what He said. It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife let him give her a writing of divorcement. All right, now, who said that? Moses. It hath been said. But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife saving for the cause of fornication causes her to commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery. Now, I want some of you to see that. A lot of people think, Well, if I got a divorce that takes care of it. I don't care if you've got a divorce by the courts of this land that doesn't mean a thing unless God has broke the ties, you're still married; every court in the land can give you a divorce but Jesus said, If you marry a woman; I don't care if she is divorced, she's bound to her husband so long as he liveth. All right, now, there's no way to get around it. I don't care who gives you a divorce. That man that gives you a divorce if he doesn't know any better God will have mercy on him, but if he knows better and he grants you a divorce God will burn him in Hell for doing that. All right, now, let me look for just one more minute here at Mark and then we'll get into our thought here. I want to make a comparison here if I can. Now, look at Mark 10 now listen at it real close, the second verse. And the Pharisees came to Him and asked Him, and asked Him, now; there was the Sadducees that didn't believe in the resurrection, there was the Pharisees that did believe in the resurrection. Today it is typified by the Democrat and the Republican. And the Pharisees came to Him, and asked Him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? Now, they did this tempting Him the Bible said, tempting Him. He answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? Even back there they didn't understand it. And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill fo divorcement. Now, see I just read to you over here, it hath been said give her a divorce. That's in Matthew. And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement. That's just exactly right - suffered - and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother; that ought to get a hold of some of you men out there that won't get out from away from the mother or family, whatever, to your wife. And that also applies to the wife that won't leave, like Rebecca did her family to go with Isaac, that her mother and daddy has got to run her business. It's a shame for here to even be married; she doesn't have any business being married. She ought to be back home like a schoolgirl. Now, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh. So then they are no more twain but one flesh; what therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder. That means the judges and the courts and everything. And in the house His disciples asked Him again of the same matter. See, they still weren't clear on it. And He saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife and marrieth another committeth adultery against her. And If a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery. I believe the reason that Jesus didn't really clarify the thing here was for the simple reason that He intended for there to be a sinful and adulterous generation. I believe that's why He did it. I believe He left it like that because He knew that the episode from the garden experience would result in a bunch of bastard children through out the world. A bunch of religious bastard children that would refuse the name of Jesus Christ. And the Bible said, "That the whore is a great ditch." That's why He compares Rome with the whore because all of your natural whoredom is a type of the spiritual things that God had to encounter. He said, The whore is a deep ditch. Now, if you have played the whore on your husband or if you have done wrong, lost your virginity then this is what God thinks about you. Now, it doesn't matter what somebody tells you, God thinks it about you. This is what God thinks about you. The Bible said, That the whore is a deep ditch. That's what He calls her, a deep ditch. Now, if you're upset at me, then you're upset at God. Your fight is against God. I didn't make whores and I didn't make God. God made me and God suffered the whores to be here. A whore is a deep ditch. And the Bible says, They that are abhorred of the Lord. Them that God detests. Them that He don't like. Them that's lifted up. Them that are unrighteous. The whore is a deep ditch and they that are abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein. A lot of people when something goes wrong they'll take the individual and they'll let them go free, but God said, The man that fell into that trap was abhorred of God to begin with. That's why God let him fall in it because he was unclean and dirty to start with or he would have never fell into it to start with. Now, that's the way the Bible gives it, covering up the sin. All right, now, the Lord hates both of them. The Bible said, The whoremonger; I read it to you over here children of God a few minutes ago; that the whoremonger that is a man. And God said He would judge the whoremonger and then when He spoke of the coming of New Jerusalem He said, the whoremonger, and the whore, and all of those that make and love a lie, shall be cut outside of the gates and shall not enter into the city, but shall be considered dogs in the sight of God. Now, I want you to see this morning what the Lord is trying to say. Paul said, The great mystery concerning the church is the same with the woman and with the man. The mystery is that the church belongs to Christ and that it doth not have a controlling power of its own. It is not a headship; it is the female part of God. How many of you understand what I'm saying? I brought out a message not too long ago. I wish we could just go back and bring that whole message in here, but you know what I'm talking about. I brought it out about Adam and Eve. The Bible said, In the beginning it was not so. Why? Because Eve belonged to Adam it wasn't something that Adam married. A lot of people say, Well, didn't Adam and Eve get married? You don't find any place in the Bible where Adam and Eve ever got married. Just like people get off on a tangent and they say, Well, adultery is after you marry. That couldn't be true. A lot of people say, Well, that's what it means, Brother Pike, after you marry that's adultery if you do wrong. All right, if that is scriptural and that is the Biblical teachings on thing that I'd like to ask; how does a man look on a woman and commit adultery with her before they've ever married? Look on her and lust after her in his heart, you've committed adultery. Many people have committed adultery, never committed the act as far as human relations. Now, the marriage is undefiled in all. Now, I want you to look at this a minute. Adam and Eve in the Garden. Adam and Eve, there is no place where they ever got married. There is no record where God ever married them. He only took what was already Adam's, already part of Adam. He didn't have to give it to Adam. It belonged to Adam to start with. All this message and this thing they got going around about the rib message. And I don't know what the rib message is, maybe they've got something good and I hope they have got something good, but this mess that I've heard will send them and the rib message and all to Hell. God took Eve, and Eve already belonged to Adam. Eve was already part of Adam's body. You understand? Listen folks, why did Paul use the term, having the revelation - the understanding of God? Why did he use the term that every sin, every sin, it don't matter what sin it is, every sin is with out the body? But the man that commits fornication the Bible said, Sinneth against his own body. Why did he say that? Because there is but one flesh and that flesh was the flesh of Adam in the Garden. And every person that's a human being came from that flesh. And we are all one flesh. And Eve; the woman, was one flesh with Adam. And when you commit fornication that's a sin against your own body. That's contrary to what God set up in the beginning because you're going with your own flesh. Now, the low-down evil; I like to get into this subject cause my mind thinks about the things and brothers laying with sisters and sister laying with brothers, and a lot of this filth that we see from time to time that springs up. That thing was already back there with brother and sister long before it ever happened. Low-down evil sloppy mess. Daddy taking up time with daughters, daughters taking up time with daddy's; mothers taking up time with their sons, sons taking up time with mothers. You say, That ain't so. But it is so, been all the way down through the Bible. Ruben was cursed back there because of it. And so it was back there in the days when the tower of Babel was built over at Nimrod's own mother, married her own son. Always been a mess. Why? Because beast have no morals. Beast have no; it doesn't matter, cattle, dogs, whatever it is, they have no godline of like. They have no intuition that tells them anything; they're just beast. Any ole way will do. Like a bunch of these preachers that's got it going. I made the statement years ago I said, Watch and see if it happens. I said, the preachers will start going to concubines. I said, Just watch and see. And already they're doing it. They are doing it. Now, the common law wife; they have them in Mexico. That was the way it was in the days of Abraham. But listen, folks, every great man of God that God ever used, Adam had one wife. Noah, the only record I ever found he had one companion, Abraham had one wife. Somebody said, Well, what about the other? He listened at Sarah and got into that mess. That's what he did and then God took her away from him. God suffered it. Isaac, the same way. Jacob, when Jacob got his wife he only went for one wife because he was a godly man, but they tricked him and he wound up with two. Is that right? A lot of times the handmaids that went with these women, the Bible said, In the last days I'll pour out my Spirit upon my handmaids, handmaids, and they shall prophesy. Now what is the handmaid? The handmaid was just like the ones that went with Rachel and with Leah. These that went along with them because they didn't have any doctors in that day, and thank God for a decent day. Because the doctors have brought in what they call the medical profession are the most rotten low-down things on the face of the earth that has turned our women into a bunch of prostitutes, stripped them down. And the men have allowed them to do it because they have some college degree. And some of the doctors has literally run off with the women. Low-down filthy and ungodly. There is three things that is filthy and ungodly in the world that has corrupted the nation: The educational system, it goes back to the beast. The medical profession, it goes back to the beast. The United States Army and the corruption and rottenness of it that goes back to the beast; because our warfare is not carnal to begin with. Now, that has corrupted the entire world as it was in the days of Noah all flesh had corrupted its way before God. (Now on tape I side II there is a long period of time lapse before the tape begins again.)........flesh of flesh that it might be God in man ruling the world, one body with one head though we have many members. The woman was made for the man. I want you to hear me now. The woman was made for the man. She was made to love the man, serve the man, obey the man, and do whatever the man ask her to do in all things. That's absolutely God's Word. She was made for that purpose. She is suppose to love him, conform to him. Somebody said, Well, my husband so-and-so. That ain't got nothing to do with it. My wife so-and-so. That ain't got nothing to do with it. Somebody said, Well, I don't love him like I ought to. I don't love her like I ought to. I don't..... That ain't got nothing to do with it. When God binds you together if she looks like some shriveled up pumpkin if you want to put it like that, or you look like one. She is bound to you until you die. And it is your job to live with them, take care of them, Mister Man; look after them whether you want to or whether you don't want to. And the little sideline preachers and different ones that puts things into your ears and say, Well, brother we believe so-and-so. They're going to die and go to Hell with you. They're bidding that God speed which is not of God. They reason in their mind and try to justify your evil. Lady, when you leave your husband; I don't care how cross you are, jump up, slam doors, turn flips, jump in the car run it off in the ditch, speed uptown, I'm going to kill myself, I'm going to run it off in the river, I'm going to do this, that's just a lot of junk. That's all it is. Ain't nothing wrong with you, you need a good ole fashioned paddling. That's what you need. You just ain't outgrown your childhood. Somebody said, I'm so nervous, I-I-I-I...... That ain't got nothing to do with it. Not one thing has it got to do with it. Somebody said, But I just couldn't help it, I went all to pieces. You are a liar. You could have helped every bit of it. You didn't have to do none of it, not one bit. The Bible said, That God is faithful who will not suffer us to be tempted above that which we are able to bear, but with every temptation make a way of escape. He made it you just didn't take it. Because you couldn't take His way of escape, which was His Word, in obedience to His Word, and still pitch your fit and accuse your husband. The devil wanted to accuse and so he did. Now, you didn't have to do it, but it is a little gimmick among the ladies all through the world that if we want to pitch a fit well everybody understands that ladies pitch fits. I mean that's understood that the ladies have a right to go nervous, you know, and pitch a fit. No you don't lady. I tell you in the love of God, you don't have no right to do it. I don't read where Mary ever pitched a fit. I don't read where Elizabeth ever pitched a fit. I don't read where Abraham's wife ever pitched a fit. In this modern day fit pitching is no good. God isn't going to accept it. Now, I love you and I want to help you. You have no right to lose your temper and get all upset. You men that cuddle yourself with the idea that all you got to do is you get nervous. She makes me nervous. I can't stay at home. I got to do this. That's a lie. You know what makes you nervous? Is you're in a half back-sliden condition, you're suppose to be the head and you let the Devil come in on your wife cause you don't live right. You don't pray, you don't fast, you don't seek God and you keep devils in the house all the time. It is a wonder she don't go crazy being the weaker vessel. But you're nervous, you're this and you're that. God loves the church. You don't find God getting upset saying, I'm nervous, I'm going to slap you down. I can't stay here, I'm going to do..... God don't do that neither should a man do that. That man knows exactly what he's doing. I've been under pressure and God bear me record it's true. I've been under pressure until my mental faculties was collapsing. I wasn't at myself, I was burning, dying on the inside. My strength being drained from my arms and my legs. Like I had the mad itch, nerves so bad that sores was coming in my head from my nerves. The tongue swelled up so it looked like it took an impression for teeth. I'm telling you the truth, so help me God, with many other things. Having the problems of the church and the finance and evangelism and helping people with problems, and I don't know how many multiplied things outside the parasites. But not one time in all of that have I ever been to the place to where I couldn't contain myself, I couldn't handle myself. When the woman jumps up and pitches a fit the man can sit right there and take care of the children and watch after them. And I'm going to tell you something, if you've got any good common reasoning you'd better do it because she is subject to do anything and go anywhere. And she'll tell you that she loves them youngens better than anything in the world. And you just give her a few minutes to stay with them and when she pitches her fit she don't care if her baby is sitting out in the middle of the river, she is going to pitch her a fit. Now, if he don't get drowned before she gets back she'll look after him. You can't tell me, I've done seen them leave them, leave them sitting their little, biddy babies hollering and screaming saying, Don't do it, Momma, don't do it, Momma! Like this and it's going like that, and it's "em", off slam the doors and gone. And if Daddy ain't got some forebearance to stay there with him them you're in trouble. You know in this world, people strain at a gnat and swallow a camel anyway, don't they? Now, like a lot; I just thought I'd drop this in, like a lot of men they're so tidy, so this and so that, they can't eat this and they can't eat that, you know. Grumbling and mumbling and finding fault in restaurants everywhere they go, and I know some of them is filthy. But now to show you that they strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, there ain't nothing no nastier than a woman. That's why the church has to be cleaned up by God. I'm telling you. She'll be cooking your eggs on the stove in here, in her spare time she'll be washing out the commode and while she ain't doing that she's washing baby diapers over there. I'm telling you. Not only that, but maybe in that period of time the custom of women might be upon her and she is the messiest mess you ever seen in your life and you just sit down and glup it in. And then you go off somewhere and talk about how tidy you are. Now, I didn't say that to discourage you, I'm just saying that we need to think sometime, we need to do a little bit of thinking, folks. All right, now, I still have got a long ways to go so I hope you'll be patient. You see that Eve was part of Adam. Is that right? Eve was part of Adam. She was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. God said, Adam, this is your flesh. Now, listen folks. The Bible tells us to nourish the wife. I'm talking to the men, to nourish the wife, love the wife, be kind to the wife, understand the wife. Somebody said, Well, Brother Pike, why don't you do it? I do try to, I try to love mine and be kind to her. Sometimes I have to tell her what she ought to do and ought not to do because it's my job to tell her. I know some of you ladies, you get pouty because it strikes you wrong and you go off on your tangent. But if you're down there you're going to hear me tell my wife what she's suppose to do and what she ain't suppose to do and you are going to hear me tell my youngens. You can pitch a fit and go back and start a gossip if you want to, but you're going to hear it because that's my house. Like Brother Branham said one time, he said, I'm the king of this castle. God put him over it. All right, now, Adam and Eve was bone of bone and flesh of flesh. If the man is to love the woman, rule over her, he must do it with love. He must do it with wisdom. I'm going to tell you something, I'd sure hate to have some of you men ruling over me. The little bit of wisdom that you use when you're trying to help me around here and the things I try to get you to do, I'd hate to be your wife; I'll tell you the truth, I really would because some of the women have got more reasoning than some of you men got, but that still don't give them the right to do nothing but obey you. If they've got more wisdom than you have then let them show it to you out of meekness of spirit through obedience, that's Bible. Even if you're a sinner don't give you no right, lady, to detour. The Bible said, He'd be won over by your conversation as he beholds the fear of the Lord upon you. All right, now, the man should love the body, cherish the body. The Bible said, Nowhere do you ever find where a man ever abused his own body, but he always loves his body, he cherished his body. The Bible said, He looks after his body. So then if he does that and you're his body, your his flesh, then he is foolish not to do that. Do you understand what I'm saying? If I run off and leave her, if she goes and messes up her life or does wrong, in the day of the judgement I will go to Hell for it. Come on, you can say, Amen or oh, me. I know you brethren don't like that. Some of you sure don't like that. I said, If God has bound you to a woman and you go off and leave her when you're her head and she's depending on you for guidance, God will send you to Hell for what she done. Somebody will say, Brother Pike, that ain't Bible. It's absolutely God's Word. The Bible said, If he put away that woman he causes her to commit adultery. He didn't say she was the cause of it, it said, He's the cause of her adultery. You think God's going to let him get by with it when he cause her to do it? Like some of you young fellows, God have mercy on you wretched soul. You take these little girls, you tell them everything, leading them out there; I'm going to marry you, I'm going to do this, until you get them out there in a sloppy mess and then you run off and leave them. God will burn you in Hell for that. You didn't have no business putting your hands on her to start with. Not any business at all did you have, not any. That kind of makes some of you flinch because some of you are fixing to get married right now. You've already laid with each other. You think it's hid, that's why you come in here with such condemnation in your heart. Now, God is going to make you pay for it, someday you're going to reap it. You watch and see. Somebody said, Well, if we're going to get married we can do so-and-so-and-so, said, the Bible said, Let a man do what he will toward his virgin if he behaveth himself unseemingly. The Bible said, Let them marry. That's what the Bible said. If he doesn't do right toward her the Bible said, Let them marry. Daddy, you stop you foolishness, quit holding back that girl if she has passed the flower of her age, let them get married. Have some reasoning about who she marries because you are going to be responsible, but let the girl get married. If you don't she'll be a sore thumb in your sight. And the same way with that boy, if he's old enough to make a living, and he's got any reasoning, any common sense, then if he wants ot marry, let him marry. God made folks to marry not to be youngens. He didn't make people to be youngens; He made them to be man and wife to multiply and replenish the Earth. Somebody said, My little daughter. Momma-in-law you've caused more trouble in the family because of your little daughter and usually your little daughter is a whore or a harlot and she's causing a lot of trouble. And your little daughter and you sticking your nose into it has caused that husband enough trouble that God will put you and your little daughter in Hell as sure as you live. You watch what I'm telling you. Mother-in-law that's so worried about her little son, her little son. Somebody is going to hurt her little son. Somebody is going to abuse her little son, so nobody is going to abuse her little son. That old woman ain't doing her son right. Mother, if you don't keep your nose out of that man and woman's business, God is going to get you. Daddy, God is going to get you. You can't go around shifting your shoulders and lording over that young fellow because he ain't big enough to give you a whipping because God is big enough to give you one. He is you son-in-law and you ought to treat him like that. That girl don't belong to you, that girl belongs to him. Somebody said, She is my daughter. She is his wife. God made that woman to be his wife. Now, I believe that a Daddy-in-law has got some place as a Daddy. I made the statement that if sons-in-laws beat my daughters, I'd go down there. They would have to give me a whipping too because I'd be right down there. I'd get my daughter. That's right. But if they treat her right, try to make her a decent living, you need to leave them alone. If they fuss and pout everyday in the week, 365 days a year, it ain't none of your business, none of your business. And when Junior and Sissy and everybody else comes and tells you about it and you start getting on your high horse, I'll go over and give them a piece of my mind. You'll die and go to Hell. You'd better keep your nose out of it. All right, now, it's still going to take a little while. The man and wife belong to each other. It does not say that daddy and daughter is flesh of flesh and bone of bone. But it does say that the man and the wife is. Now, the mystery....one head many members. Now, I'm going to have to get into some things here so I want you to listen because He might sull up on me. Brother Branham brought out some teachings about David being one man, Solomon being one man, but had many wives. That's exactly where this concubine thing stemmed from. They got it from Brother Branham's teachings. When the true Word of God comes forth a bastard child is born as well as a good child out of the same thing. All right, listen, Cain come from Adam just like Abel did. Somebody said, Oh, no. Oh, yes, the same seed of the Gospel produces both children....the bastard child and the other child, the same thing. One disbelieves it, the other believes it. One disbelieves it; he uses it for his own purpose. That's unbelief in it. He thinks he can get by with it so he tells himself it's all right he's got the blood covering, he goes on his way. God is my Father, too, he says. All right, now, they took it because Brother Branham said, A man could have as many wives as he wanted to, but the woman could have only one husband. I'm not trying to be contrary to Brother Branham, Brother Branham's followers, or any of the others because I say that they misunderstood what he said because that is a lie. And one of the biggest that was ever told. God ain't never give a man the right to have as many wives as he wanted to have. I don't care if it was Brother Branham, if it was Paul, if it was an angel from Heaven that said it. It is a lie because the Bible don't back it up, revelation don't back it up, the Word of God don't back it up, the Spirit that speaks to the church today don't back it up. Whoever preaches it, preaches a lie. God does not give a man the right to have as many wives as he wants to. God gave him one wife and God said, If you put away that woman for any other reason saving for the cause of fornication you commit adultery, and if anybody marries her that is put away committeth adultery. And do you believe that God is such a fool that God will let me marry 15 or 20 wives and live with 15 or 20 women at one time? You know better than that. Say, Well, He did David. He did David, that's true. And what made it so bad that David come along and did it after that God had spoke to Moses on the mountain give him the law. Say, Well, He let Solomon do it. He certainly did, He let them do it because grace had not been given; it was the day of sin, every man went his own way. God suffered it for the types and shadows to show that Christ is the head of the church with many members in the body. Somebody said, Well, Brother Branham, said, There is one bull and many helpers. That's what he said. That's true and if we've got a bunch of beasts out here then that's the way it is with you, but don't you ever call yourself a Son of God and practice such filth. That's for the beast. All of the Old Testament and the types and shadows back there it showed that it was the beast side of it. And it came to sin, and come to death, and come to heartaches because Jesus folded it up, put it up on the cross. And God poured out His wrath on it. That's what He thought about it. And then when Jesus come He said, Now listen, let's go back there into the Old Testament. He said, Moses said, They said, but I say.... you understand. Somebody said, Well, them Jews was following Christ. They said, We're Moses' disciples. And that's exactly what they were. They were Moses' disciples and when it came right down to the Word it proved that they were Moses' disciples because they done what Moses said instead of what Jesus said. Jesus kept saying over and over, They said, or it hath been said, but I say to you...... This morning, folks, I've got the Word of God. This is God saying it to you. Now, God don't give nobody the right to marry a half a dozen times. I don't care whether it's a man or whether it's a woman. The Bible said, It wasn't so from the beginning. God made Adam one wife. If it had been God's plan He would have made him a dozen wives. I don't read where Adam ever took on any more. In the day we're living in you'd have a problem anyway feeding them. If you had a half a dozen wives and youngens today you'd have to put them on welfare. As a matter of fact we were having a discussion yesterday that some of the men run off and they don't want to even take care of what they have already got. They do that. God has never give the right to do that. Are you listening? Give me a little more time now because I'm not through. I'm honest with you. There is still some ground I've got to cover. God has never, never done that even concerning your ministers. The Bible said, Let them be the husband of one wife. Now, God narrowed it down to the minister. I may suffer them to do it He said, but it's not my plan and if you're going to be my man then you're going to do it my way - one wife -that's enough, one wife. All right, now, one wife, I give you one wife. Let your ministers be the husband of one wife. Somebody said, Well, we will go back to what Brother Branham said; said that Brother Branham said, That a man that was a minister could not marry a widow. I don't know how in the world they get all that stuff balled up like they do, a man that is a minister can't marry a widow. Listen, folks, do you think a man marrying a widow will take the calling of God out of his life? The Bible said, That if that woman's husband is dead that she's at liberty to marry who she will in the Lord. That takes in the preachers, too. If he wants to marry her, if she's got 15 youngens that's his business. If she's 90 years old and he ain't but 15, that's his business. I think that's silly, but people use such a little reasoning. God will frown on it, but it is still his business. All right, now, the minister of the Gospel, I don't care what he does, if he is a minister of the Gospel he will answer to God as a minister of the Gospel. Baalam had a gift and he used it for money, loved the wages of unrighteous; but what Baalam said still went. The Scribes and the Pharisees did wrong, they wouldn't live right. But God said, Whatever they tell you, you observe it and do it. God still held it. When David, somebody said, Well, I lost my call to the ministry, I've done so-and-so. I lost my call as a prophet. All right, if that's true then that means that David lost his call as a prophet. The Bible said, He was a prophet. Is that right? But he committed murder, he committed whoredom, he done everything. Did he lose his call as a prophet? You know he didn't lose no call as a prophet; he was a prophet when he done it, he was a prophet when he finished doing it. The Bible said, I've seen a horrible thing among the priest, the prophets, they commit adultery. He said, They are prophets they commit adultery. They're men. Solomon said, You can't take fire into your bosom without being burned. A lot of folks feel like cause somebody has got a special gift that makes them something special that nobody can't ever touch. No, they're still human beings. That's why they have to walk a straight line like everybody else and watch what they do. A lot of ministers have got into trouble because some woman, some woman, she just had to come around and tell him about her family affairs. My husband and oh she just has to finally get right down into the slop itself, you know. And he was consoling her, you know, as he dabbled in the slop with her and finally both of them slopped off together. Pigs for the slop. Jesus said, They go back to their wallowing in the slop, the mire. Or like a man he'll come around, you know, the ole sow, wallowed in the slop. And then here comes a man and he comes around and he's got to tell it to sister so-and-so. Something about sister so-and-so. She prophecies. She does this and he has got to get over there like an old dog and spit his vomit out. And she'll get down there and she'll lap it with him and then he'll lap some of it, and finally both of them go off together. Somebody said, Brother Pike, you sure do make it sound bad. It's a whole lot worse than that. A whole lot worse because they thought they were going to California and they were going to Hell all the time. Now, here is the thing; God don't give us no right to do that, folks. He don't give us no right to stand at the door cause we're ministers and catch the sister's hand and rub it like I've seen so many men do and tell her, you know, you understand, you understand. His wife, he gives her a kick, so to speak. He don't understand nothing about her, but he rubs this one's hand, you know. He holds her hand; he puts his arms around her, Darling, honey, and sugar that, and honey that. You're just crawling with devils that's what's wrong with you. You are literally crawling with devils. You don't realize it, but that little sis that you keep holding her hand rubbing her, she's crawling with devils too, and God sent her in there just to get you so he could pull both of you back off away from the right thing to get you down into Hell where you belong. The Bible said, These are brute beast made to be taken and burned. God made them for the purpose to burn them. That's why He made them. They were made to be taken and burned. For this cause have I raised Pharoah up that I might harden his heart to show My glory through him. The Bible said, God hardenth whom He will. All right, now, if a man put away his wife, I'm not through so don't relax, if a man put away his wife for any other reason saving for the cause of fornication he committeth adultery. Whosoever marrieth her that is put away committeth adultery. Now, they said that Brother Branham said, That she could not put away her husband. Then if she cannot put away her husband why did the Bible say, If she put away her husband? It sounds like she can put him away according to Jesus' day. We're going by the Bible. Sure you can put away your husband just like the man can put away the wife, the Bible says that. You say, Yes, but she don't have any right. You say, Well, for the cause of fornication. All right, for the cause fo fornication. Then you mean if he puts the wife away because of the fornication he goes and marries another then that means he is all right. Well, then where does that leave the woman? Say, Well, she's still married to him. Then he is an adulterer because if he marries another then, and her still living, the Bible said, He committeth adultery because she is bound to him as long as she lives. Are you listening? It is going to get a little complicated. If he put away his wife for the cause of fornication, now, folks, notice the Bible said, If he put her away. When that woman leaves because of fornication it means that she is separated from him. He is no longer bound to her. Now, this is where a lot of you are going to get tripped up on what you teach and believe, but if you'll listen you'll see it's absolutely right. Somebody said, Well Brother Pike, the Bible said that the woman is bound to the husband just as long as she liveth. That's right. And if she be married to another while her husband liveth she shall be called an adulteress. That means she is practicing the wrong. Is that right? Does Jesus forgive adultery? The woman at the well with all of her husbands she said, I'll call my husband. He said, That's not your husband. You are in a stage of filth. He said, But nevertheless if you'd ask of me I would have give you water, living water. Does He forgive it He said, Lady, if you would have just asked me, I don't care how many times you've been married that ain't got nothing to do with it, grace covers sin. If you would have just asked me. Whosoever calleth on my name shall be saved. Now, she couldn't get saved and go on with her filth, but the woman came and was taken in the very act of adultery. They said, Lord, the law of Moses said stone her. He said, They say. It hath been said. He said, All right, if we are going to stone the woman for her wrong..... And that's what a lot of pious people like to do, you know. Their background is as filthy and as sloppy and messy as they can be, they done got pious, you know, self righteous. Instead of helping people, eating with the sinners and the publicans, trying to pull them out of the filth, they gossip and yack and find fault and kill them. The woman that was taken in the act of adultery when she came before Jesus they said, Moses said for us to kill her, stone her to death. Jesus said, All right, we are not going to break the law. The law said do it, kill her, go ahead. Not one jot or tittle will I take away from it until it all be fulfilled. If it said to kill her, go on and kill her. Said, Now, the way we'll do it, He said, We'll take the first one among you that's never done anything wrong and don't have any sins. Said, And we'll let him start it off. So He kept waiting, waiting for a leader and waiting for a leader. The Bible said, Each one of them condemnation hit them, hit them because God said, I'll bring all things to you remembrance. He begin to bring things to their remembrance. And they began to think about their filth and it was ten times what that woman had done. And finally they all drifted off, drifted off and drifted off. And Jesus said, Woman, where are those thine accusers? She said, Lord, no man accuseth me. He said, Neither do I. Now, He could have accused her. He was the only one that could have stoned her to death. He was the only one that had kept the law of Moses and that was in the position to do what Moses said do to her. Brother Bucky, He could have stoned her to death. He could absolutely have done it and been justified in the sight of God because God told Moses to do it. In that day God would kill a witch. God would kill an adulterer because that was the only way to get rid of the spirits. Today we've got the power to cast them out and save the vessel, but back there you couldn't cast them out you just had to kill the person because the Holy Ghost had not yet been given where it could come in and cleanse the vessel. So He just killed the person, killed a stubborn child, anything, stone them to death. Now, when the Lord said, I'm the only one that can do it, but I set you free. I give you grace. I'm the only one, folks, I'm the only one that can condemn you of adultery, fornication, or anything else. I'm the only one. Jesus said, But because I am the only one then I forgive you of it because grace covers it. Now, that brings us into another thought. Somebody said that Brother Branham said on the mountain, The Lord said, William Branham just forgive them. When Brother Branham came to forgive them he said, I do this, God gave the right to Moses to do it; God has given me the right to do it. I say again I'm not contrary to Brother Branham or what he was on the mountain or what he heard, but if a voice spoke to Brother Branham on the mountain or if an angel came down, no matter what, it wouldn't move me one iota. It wouldn't bother me one bit. When Brother Branham was alive, I preached the same thing. I believed the same thing. I testified of it whether I was in the town where he was or wherever I was. I have the same convictions when I was in his meeting I didn't change them a bit. It wouldn't make any difference it an angel from Heaven spoke to Brother Branham or come down here. If he went contrary to this Word I wouldn't believe what he said. The Word is sufficient. It won't never be changed. They said that Brother Branham said, Continue as you are. Brother Branham always said, Continue as you are. Just like Oral Roberts said, Go to the church of your choice. He knew you was going to the church of your choice anyway. Wasn't no need of him getting tangled up and losing your offerings. Go wherever you want to. And besides that, that thing about Methodism was back there all the time. He didn't see nothing wrong with it to start with. I don't mean that as an accusation against Brother Roberts. That's the truth. Now, Brother Branham said, Just continue on as you are. They said, Jesus said, It has been said to continue on as you are. I forgive you, but never do it no more. There ain't no man in the world that can do that, Brother Pike or Brother Branham, or nobody else. There ain't never lived a man on the face of the Earth that could do that. Nobody can forgive you sins, contrary to the Word of God. Don't be a fool, people. The Bible said, The Word of God can't be altered. It can't be changed. And in the day of the judgement it don't matter what Brother Pike says, or Brother Branham or Brother Paul, or nobody else. Peter had the keys to the kingdom and Peter started to changing it just a little bit and God sent Paul to him and said, I blamed Peter to his face because he was to be blamed. I'm not changing my Word. Paul said, Now look at here Peter, we're not going to frustrate the grace of God. The Word of God says such and such; it's written. Brother Branham was wise enough to know that people are predestined one way or another. And God told him not to mess with it. It's just such a conglomeration of a mess; it's a sinful and adulterous generation. You or nobody else, William Branham, can't straighten it out. Leave it alone. All you do is bust up homes and hurt innocent little children. Them people that's like that is going to go to Hell anyway. There ain't no need to tear up little children and cause heartaches and woes among the innocent. Just leave them alone, He said. Now, why would God say that? Because just like Abraham, the Lord said to the rich man back there, said, They got the prophets. No, send one from the dead. No, they got their prophets. Brother Branham, they've got the preachers; they preach to them everyday. They know what's right and what's wrong. You might as well be patient people because I'm not through. This lady over here on my right she just can't hardly stand it. She can't hardly stand through one service let along go this long. I wish she'd just ease out. Now, she thinks more of chicken and pie than she does of salvation. Now, the Devil likes to use folds like that because he can let a spirit come in and break the anointing and get my mind away, see. The Devil works in people like that. All right, now, listen, your carnal mind is enmity to God. Keep out of the carnal mind. If they have the preachers, William Branham, they can preach to them. Now, Brother Branham said, I forgive you. That don't mean God forgave them. You say, But Brother Pike you told us that, that you, the minister, had the right to remit sin. I do. I do. Through His name and through His Word that's the only way I can forgive your sins. If I go contrary to it your sins are not forgiven. Now, listen real close. If you are predestinated God knows, and Brother Branham knew that if you got mixed up in a double marriage that somewhere God is going to straighten it out by taking the companion that didn't have no business pulling you into it or that God has something worked out somewhere or saw something in your case to where you was free. He saw that. So then Brother Branham said, Just leave it alone. God knows what He's doing. And you that have got into that mess if you've got you out of that mess, you'd get back into another mess because the same Devil that got you into it will get you into it again. So you can't change that. Leave it alone. God said, You can't make straight that which God has made crooked. You can't make crooked that which God has made straight. Leave it alone. I preach to some of you everyday. You're just as crooked as you ever was. You're just as long tongued as you ever was; you're just as carnal minded as you ever was. I preach to you every few days here, ministers do too. Because you're brute beast made to be taken and burned. You were made for that purpose. God saw what kind of person you would be and He predestinated you to Hell while He predestinated others to be conformed to the image of His Son. Somebody said, But, Brother Pike, my Bible tells me it's let whosoever will. That's the way He predestinated you; He looked down through the future. Peter said, By foreknowledge. And He let whosoever will. He was who wouldn't and who would. The ones that would He predestinated to Heaven and the ones that would not He predestinated them to Hell. Brute beast made to be taken and burned. All of his works are known unto Him from the beginning. All right, now, listen real close now. Brother Branham said, Let them continue on as they are. Now, I'm just telling you what they tell me and what I've heard. Now, they say. It's been said, Let them continue on. Jesus said, But I say. Now, then I'm going to tell you what the Word of God says about it. This I know. That I've heard. The Word of God says, That if any man put away his wife for any other cause saving for the cause of fornication and marrieth another; He didn't say, Let them remain as they are. He didn't say, Let them continue on. He said, They'll go to Hell because they've committed adultery. They've got to be forgiven. They've got to be cleaned up. They've got to be taken out of it. Somebody would say, Brother Pike, but if this man does that won't God forgive him? Sure God will forgive him. If you steal my car, God will forgive you. But God ain't going to forgive you and let you ride around in my car and go by and blow the horn at me everyday. Now, you say, What do you mean? I mean a man is more precious to Him than his car is. Can you imagine if somebody got your wife going down the road saying, Glory, glory, hallelujah, and blow the horn at you going right on down with your wife and here you are setting heart broken, the little youngens crying. You know God don't do nothing like that. You say, Then what shall we do? In the Old Testament they said, When Nehemiah and them over there, said, All right, get rid of all these women. You've married pagan women and so forth while you was down there in Babylon. You're not going to be on the road of God that way. They said, But we've got children. He said, That don't make no difference. That's what he told them, read it back there. He said, You'll still have to put them away. He said, That ain't got nothing to do with it. All right, listen, I ain't through; it will take a little while yet. I want to clarify it because it will probably go over the radio and everywhere. And boy I'll be shot at. Boy, I'll be a target. But the Lord Jesus did not say, let them continue as they are. The Lord Jesus did not say, I will forgive them. He didn't say that at all. The Word of God is still the Word of God to every generation, unchanged, unaltered. That's my generation and Brother Branham's generation. It's without change or alter or being altered to every generation to every individual no matter who it is, your case is the same. All right, now, He said, that is, they tell me, To let it continue on as it is. Just stay like you are. I forgive you, I forgive you, just don't do it anymore. Nobody can't do that. Nobody can't do that, Brother Pike can't do that. Nobody has the right to do that. I cannot look at you and tell you that I forgive you for your evil just continue on doing it as you are. I can't do that. The people was not wise enough to understand that when Brother Branham said that he also said, Now I'm saying this to my people. If God was speaking through Brother Branham and it was God that was speaking he was saying, My people continue on as you are. I've taken care of everything for you, my people. Now, how are we his people? When we're not in adultery, when we are abiding by the Word. When we've done what we were told to do. Now, he said, I say this to my people. A lot of times even the minister himself don't know what he is doing, but God knows what he's doing. Now, look, listen real close. Somebody would say, Well, Brother Pike, what about all of them hundreds and thousands of people that are out yonder in sin? What are you going to do with those people? Jesus said, If this man put away his wife and so forth; then there is hundreds and thousands of them out there like that. Said, What are you going to do with them? I'm going to leave them alone. That's what God done with them. And you say, We'll, what do you mean? Well, I mean this, if people are out yonder in sin they're on their way to Hell. It don't make no difference whether they are in adultery or not. If they marry one time or ten times or fifty times, what difference does it make? Why try to unscramble a mess? If I go out there and take every man and put him back in his right place and get him over here when I get him back over there he is still a sinner on his way to Hell. There ain't no profit in that. God isn't going to mess with that. Them people are on their way to Hell. Why worry about how many times they've been married? They are a bunch of beast to start with. God don't want us trying to figure out all of that. He said, I am not the God of the dead, but of the living. Howbeit all live to God. But them people are dead in trespasses and in sin, and Jesus said, You are of your father the Devil. I'm not your father, He said. Said, You're of your father the Devil. You do what he tells you to do. I'm not your God, my sheep hear my voice. They do what I tell them. I'm not the God of the Dead. He said, No man can say that Christ is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. That means that no man can claim Jesus as a Savior except he do it by the voice of the Holy Ghost. You can't say that Christ is your Lord. Oh, you could pop up and say, Well, He is my Lord. But that wasn't what the Lord was speaking of. No man can call Him, Lord. That is, He cannot be your Lord because there is one spirit, the Holy Ghost. If you have not that spirit you are none of His. He could not be your Lord. No man can call Jesus, Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now, then He is our Lord, He is our God. I'm not worrying about them people. Why should you worry about them people? God doesn't worry about them people. Somebody said, Well, He's worried about all them that are going to be lost that we could have won to God. Jesus said, Father you've not lost a one of them. Ain't none of them been lost except the son of perdition. He was predestined to be that way. Ain't none of them folks going to be lost that are predestinated to be that way. Ain't none of them folks going to be lost that are predestinated to Heaven. God don't lose none of His. Said, You'll raise them up in the last day all you give Me. Them people that do them things, somebody said, But what about all them people that was with us, Brother Pike, and went back out there? The Bible said, If they would have been of us they would have no doubt continued with us. They went out from us that it might be made manifest to the world and everybody else that they were never of us to start with. They never did have the Holy Ghost to start with. You say, Don't you believe they were believers? They might have been believers coming to the knowledge of the truth and after that there is no more remission. Now, but I'm talking about having the Spirit calling Him Lord, being of the Holy Ghost. Sure they believe. The Devil believes and trembles. But you don't do those filthy things out there in the world and belong to God. If you went back out there it was positive proof that you never was born again to start with. How can a Son of God go back and wallow in the slop holes of the world? How can he do it? He can't possibly do it. The Bible said, If you ever come to the knowledge, the light of the truth. Just like this morning, I'm trying to tell you this. One of the things that Brother Branham tried his best to say on the mountain, I brought this out here awhile back, was that we have been living in a day of ignorance and that people have not understood. And where there is no knowledge of something God does not require it. Them people that are in sin, God don't require it of them until they come to the knowledge of the truth. They're just dying a sinner, not as an adulterer, but as a sinner they're lost. But when you come to the knowledge of the truth, Brother Branham said, Now that you know that you're wrong. Don't ever do it anymore. Don't ever do it anymore because if you do you will go to Hell. He was speaking to them that did not understand. A lot of the people that have got mixed up in that knew better than to do it when they done it. They went over the head of the preachers like Baalam did, got into that mess. And me nor Brother Branham or nobody else can't get them out of it. They are in it and when Brother Branham said, Continue on. I forgive you. God wasn't speaking to them kind of people. He was speaking to the innocent that didn't know, them that got mixed up, them that have atonement for sin, them that God could straighten their lives out. All right, now, listen just a few more minutes. I still got a little bit here that I've got to cover. Them people that are out yonder in the world, folks, they're sinners. There is no need of you messing with them. There is no need of me messing with them. Somebody would say, Brother Pike, what would you do? The Bible said, When you come to God you're born again, that behold old, and all things, have passed away behold all things have become new. You are a new creature in God. If you were an adulterer you're no longer an adulterer. If you were a sinner you are no longer a sinner. You say, Ah, Brother Pike, that don't apply to that. Then why did Paul use the term, he said, Some of you were adulterers and such, but now you are clean? Somebody said, Well, if I left my wife out there and then come over here you mean that I'm free from her? No, you are not free from her. If she is a decent woman even if she is a sinner just because you got to be a Christian that don't mean that you are going to stay away from her. The thing to do is go make restitution and go back to her. You say, Well, she done married somebody else, done got all mixed up. Well, that's different case. If she's done married somebody else and got mixed up in the things of the world out there, then the thing for you to do is you've been borned again, you're cleaned up. She's done committed the wrong. She's gone her way. Somebody would say, Now, wait a minute, Brother Pike. Jesus said, Fornication. Now, I'm going to get to that in just a few minutes. I just want to clarify a few thoughts. Some say, Fornication this and some say, Fornication is that. All right, now, now this is why I stayed off of this subject as long as I did because I figured you wasn't going to be patient enough to listen, but you're doing better than I thought. All right, now, I won't take any longer than I have to. When you come to the Lord if you've been in ignorance and you have been in ignorance, then you are born again. All of that is behind you. You are a new creature in Christ. You've been borned again. You are now a Son of God. You are not an adulterer. Somebody said, Well, Brother Pike don't you think that after you are borned again if you have run off and left your wife you are still an adulterer? Now, that don't make sense. Now, you've got better reasoning than that. How can you be born again and be an adulterer? No born again people are adulterers? You say, Well, everyday born again people go out there and commit adultery. You've never seen a born again person commit adultery. Said, But I know Christians that done it. No you don't, oh no. The Bible said they went out from us because they were never of us. And those wasn't borned again. They went out there and done that because they were never right to start with. Sons of God don't commit adultery. They couldn't be Sons of God and be adulterers. So then, when you come to the Lord you are cleaned up, you're not longer a whore. You're no longer a whoremonger. You're cleaned up. You're washed, you're clean. Jesus said, By the words I spoke unto you because you believed them. Then you are clean by the washing of the water of regeneration, which is God's spirit. You're clean. Now, if you listen you'll know how to explain it when you go to tell somebody. Somebody said, But every case is an individual case, Brother Pike. Look at all the many people in the world. First of all, there is a set way of God and the set way of God is to forget about them people in the world that ain't got nothing to do with it. You try to preach salvation to them don't go over there and tell them they are an adulterer, they're in this, and that kind of thing. You go over there and preach the Gospel to them. They need to repent and get right with God. Then you can get all that untangled. God would do that by the washing of regeneration. Now, you say, Well, what about John? When he went over there and he told that man, said, It's not lawful for you to take another man's wife. Sure that's right he told him it wasn't lawful because he had never done it. He went over there, he saw Herod; here was a ruler in the city that could corrupt the whole thing out there and God trying to bring in salvation. And John told him said, It's not lawful for you to take her, your own brother's wife. That's not right for you to do that. But, of course, he done it anyway. That woman had him killed to have her way, though he was a prophet. (Side II of tape II, time lapse)......all right, now, don't lose interest now. Keep your interest because I still ain't through. I'm honest with you. I'm not through. You take what I said and you think, Well, praise God I got it. And you'll go off and you'll get in a mess. You'd better wait and listen. Solomon said, The end of the matter is better than the beginning. You better listen. Get your mind right. Oh, you say, It wouldn't happen to me. I ain't concerned. I ain't in.... Yes you are. Some of you it can happen to you. It could happen to me overnight. All right, now, don't mess with the people in the world, leave them alone. It's all right for you to preach to them that they are sinners and adulterers and fornicators, and those kind of things, and that God is not pleased with it, that is, to tell them they are unlike God. But don't ry to untangle their lives. You ministers, don't lose your soul by having some denominational person that's suppose to be a Christian that's all mixed up and jumbled up and they say, I've got the Holy Ghost. I've had the Holy Ghost for 10 years. And I belong to the church of so-and-so. And I've just got to have some help. And here you set down with them and you wreck your brain and you twist this and you twist that. And after awhile you've done told them something, and both of you is on your way to Hell because you bid it Godspeed. Leave them alone, them people is all mixed up out there. The first thing to do when a person come to you, find out if they are real genuine Christians, find out. Say, Well, they said they was. That ain't got nothing to do with it. The child is not know by his sayings, but his doings. Get a report on them. Find out something before you advise them. Say, Well, they're fixing to commit suicide. I ain't got but 15 minutes. Well, there ain't no need to bother with them no way, leave them alone. Let them go on and commit suicide. There ain't no need of you committing spiritual suicide to try to keep them from committing natural suicide because that's what you are going to be doing. You just wait and find out if they're God's people He ain't going to let them commit suicide before you can straighten them out. Just leave them alone. God knows what He is doing. If they commit suicide let them go on. They probably committed so much sin they can't get over it anyway. God is just letting them be marked off the list. Now, I feel that if you will take a real Christian, a real child of God and maybe they have been mixed-up in their life back there and they've got all torn up. Now, I'm not talking about a real Christian that's got to be a Christian that's got all mixed-up, because Christians don't get mixed-up like that. The love of God constrains me, Paul said. But them that got mixed-up back there and now that they're trying to be Christians they are trying to get things straightened out. You can set down and you can help them and straighten them out. Now they say that if a man put away his wife for any other cause, the Bible used the terms, saving for the cause. And the word saving means otherwise and so forth; if you put away your wife for any other reason saving for the cause. That means except for the cause of fornication. If any man put away his wife for any other cause except for the cause of fornication, and notice this, it said and marrieth another committeth adultery. Whosoever marrieth her that is put away committeth adultery. Now, let's look at two or three things right there in that statement. If any man put away his wife, his wife, if any man put away his wife, not talking about people out in the world now. God is not the God of them people. They will answer to God for what they are doing, but that has nothing to do with the world. If any man put away his wife; now what is a wife? What is a wife? Like the man said, Who is my neighbor? Jesus said, Your neighbor. He said, Who is a neighbor? What is a wife? A wife is not something that you married. Come on now. Somebody said, Oh, Brother Pike, you're really going over my head now. A wife is not something that you married. Now, somebody said, Boy, I didn't know you believed in the rib message. I believe in the rib message; the kind of rib message God gave back in the days of Adam and Eve. Because you get married that does not mean that she is your wife nor does it mean that he is your husband. If getting married means that, that is your companion than when the man puts away his wife and marrieth another then they're married by God. Marrying don't mean no more than divorce means. The Bible said, If any man put away his wife. Said, Well, Brother Pike, we have to get married. I don't read where Adam and Eve ever got married. Somebody said, Brother Pike, you mean to tell me you don't believe that a judge ought to put us together? I do, the Judge of all Ages. And I believe He is the only one that can put you together. Say, Well, you don't believe a preacher could do it? The Bible said, It's not you that speak but the Heavenly Father. What you do according to the Word that's God putting them together. God said, What I have joined together. Not what some marriage vows was. Somebody said, Well I, I, what do you mean? I mean one thing. Jesus said, If any man put away his wife. Now, what is a wife? A wife is something that God joined to you that's bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh. And He said, What I have joined together, don't let any man touch it. Don't let any man put it asunder. Don't let any man mess with it. The preacher, the judge, or nobody else, don't let them mess with it. I'll hold them accountable in the day of the judgement. What I have put together if any man put away what I have put together, the wife. Now somebody said, Well, Brother Pike, How are you going to differentiate between these thing? How do you know what God put together and what God didn't put together? That's easy. In the beginning was God the Word. God the Word the same to every generation. God the Word tells you what you can do, God the Word tells you what you can't do. The minister tells you on the strength of God's Word and that is it. Whatever it is it binds you together. That is, God put you together. Now, you come apart from that and you're in trouble. If any man put away his wife, God is not the God of the dead but of the living, if any man put away his wife for any other cause; now somebody says, But Brother Pike, fornication means before marriage. All right, let's just look at it. Paul uses the terms like this. Let every man have his own wife. Is that right? To avoid fornication. So, it's obvious he is speaking of before marriage. Brother Branham used the example of Joseph and Mary. The Bible said that before Joseph and Mary came together that she was found to be with child. Joseph being a just man, not willing to make her a public example, sought to put her away privately. He didn't want to injure her in any way. He loved her. But the Bible said while he thought on these things the angel of the Lord appeared to him. And the angel of the Lord said, Joseph, fear not to take unto thee, for thyself, Mary. For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. It was a divine conception, I think I brought it out one time how that the divine conception come about, or was intending to bring it out how that it happened. It's a great mystery. Joseph accepted what God said. Now, it did not state in there anywhere that Mary had committed fornication. So you can't put your fingers on that. Nowhere in the Bible does it point out any such thing. In the Old Testament if a man humbled a woman, caught her away from the house and in the field, in that she was the weaker vessel, he had to marry her. When you humble a woman, you're single, the woman single, you've got to marry her. You've sinned against God if you don't do it. She is the weaker vessel. Now, they had a right back there if the Father did not want him for a son-in-law, he could still refuse to let him have the hand of his daughter, but that man had to pay him as much money as he wanted for what he had done to that daughter. Take care of her to look after her, the child, or whatever it might develop they had to give him whatever money he wanted. The Daddy's word was law. All right, now, fornication; if we use the terms that fornication is before wedlock, and tell ourselves that the only way that you can put away a woman is that after you marry her find out that she is not a virgin, then you have a right to put her away. And this is fornication. And it is a shame before God that women are not virgins. It is a shame. Philip had four or five daughters and everyone of them was virgins, but this sinful rotten low-down generation that we've got in, that's got their non-virgin clubs and and their filth. It is a shame and a disgrace that you can't even find a woman on the face of the earth, it seems like, that is a virgin. All of them is filthy before marriage, that is, fornication, I want to ask you a question. You mean to tell me that the only way that you can put away your wife, speaking to the men, is because you found out that she was not clean before her marriage. That's absurd. I mean that's unreasonable. You say, Well, Brother Pike, she's unclean. What if she has been born again and she is a child of God? You mean to tell me she's unclean and her a daughter of God? Now, you say, Well, don't God give you a right to put her away? He certainly does. If she has been untrue and you find it out you would have a right to put her away. But the only thing is, as Brother Branham said one time, Six of one and a half dozen of another. You show me one man that's clean that's able to put her away, like I said about Jesus -one that could throw the stones. Then I'll say, Let him put her away. Usually he's in the slop more than she was. All right, now, another thing I ask - you mean to tell me that if you are married to a woman and that woman goes out and commits adultery with a man, that you don't have any right to put her away? Now look, folks, I've seen a lot of fools, but that would be a big fool to tell me that I've got to live with a woman while she's committing filth with a man over here and I can't put her away. I might be a fool for Christ, but I'm not that kind of fool. I ain't never read in the Bible where I've got to live with a woman while she takes up time with another man just because it ain't fornication because fornication is before you marry. Why that would be some kind of fool that would believe in a thing like that unless they were just ignorant and didn't know no better. Do you mean that these men that I got here are holy, godly, upright men that you are going to go out there, you ladies, and play the harlot and go where you want to and live in the filth of the world and they still have got to live with you. No sir. I ain't fixing to do it. Now, they might do it, but I ain't fixing to do it. I'll just tell you like it is. You say, Well, Jesus said, For no other reason saving for the cause of fornication. You say, Why are you saying those things, Brother Pike? Because I'm confronted with that kind of thing. Some of them say, Fornication means before you marry. And I'm just trying to show you that how absurd it is for you to take the idea that Jesus meant that you've got to live in a slop hole. That don't even agree with the Word. The Bible said, If any man be joined to a harlot then he is a harlot. Let him get away from her. Let him put that unclean thing away from him. That's Bible. So, it's obvious that when the Lord said fornication, that wasn't what He meant. You say, Brother Pike, you said, That the woman is bound to her husband by the Law so long as he liveth. All right, let's look at it just a minute right here. It won't be long now. I'm going to try to cover a few more things here. As long as he liveth, she's bound to the laws of her husband. Is that Bible? Now, listen real close. When Paul taught this sermon, you can check it out; he was talking about being divorced from the Law, married to Christ which is another. Is that right? That's what he is speaking of. So then what he was saying concerning death was typical because he said, Reckon yourselves indeed to be dead unto sin and alive unto God. Is that right? So his conversation was concerning sin. If the man be dead, dead, how? Either way, dead naturally; she's free from him. Dead in trespasses and sin, she's free from him. Somebody said, Now, wait a minute Brother Pike, you can't prove that. But I can prove it. The Bible said, That if a brother or sister be bound to an unbeliever that a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. If the unbelieving depart let him depart. Is that Bible? Now, if the unbelieving want to do right and stay with them, said that he'd be won over by your chaste conversation. Honor him, do what you're suppose to. He is your husband. Now, somebody would say, That's confusing to me. I don't understand that. How can he be my husband if he is dead in trespasses and sin. There is a way if you wait just a minute I'll show you. I'm not giving double talk. I'm telling you the way the Bible tells it. The mystery of godliness. That's the way it goes. The brother or the sister is not under bondage. In the Old Testament the servant that didn't want to go free put a hole in his ear, by the awl he become a servant forever because he loved his master. He was then under bondage to him. All right, now, until the time expired, for the time he was to be with him so many years before he ever did that, he was under bondage to him. The woman made for the man, being bound by the laws of her husband, she is under bondage to him. Do you follow me But Paul said, A brother or a sister in such cases where there be an unbeliever is not under bondage. Now, I say these things to you and I know that they go through you mind; well that's what you say. But I've tried to do more than that in my preaching to you and teachings. I've tried to break it down to where you could see the mystery and understand what he is saying so that you could understand it, accept it for what God tells you, makes you to understand it instead of what Brother Pike says. Now, let's look at it a little bit and see if that bares out, line upon line and precept upon precept. You say, You mean that that brother or that sister is not bound to that person? Absolutely. They are not bound to him. All right, can you prove it? All right, if any man put away his wife, are you following me? If any man put away his wife. You say, You mean that that woman is an unbeliever and he is a Christian, that woman is not his wife? She is under one condition. Not because God has joined them together in the way that you think. Not in that she is bound to the husband or vice versa by the laws, but the Bible said that God will sanctify the unbelieving companion. If the unbelieving be willing to dwell with you God will sanctify that companion else your children will be unclean. The companion has a sanctification as long as a Christian brother or sister is married to them. God sanctifies that individual as long as one of them is a Christian. You follow me? This is not a sanctification unto salvation. The word sanctification means cleanliness. He cleanses them in His sight to that extent. Now, like He says for us to sanctify ourselves, that is, we cleanse ourselves up daily. But our real sanctification is by the blood. You're sanctified once and for all by the offering up of the blood of Jesus. We need to get into that sometime on the doctrine because they have all kind of doctrines on it. Now, the sanctification is for the wife. Now, listen real close children of God. The sanctification is for the wife or for the husband. If the husband or the wife be married to a believer and if they are an unbeliever then God has not joined them together but suffered them to be together; just like he suffered Moses to give a writing of divorcement. Just like I said concerning Brother Branham when they said, As Moses, let Brother Branham do it, or, or, or God let Moses do it then God let Brother Branham do it. That's what they said. But now listen I still say this. That if God let Moses do it and it wasn't so from the beginning, if he let Brother Branham do it it still wasn't so from the beginning. He done it the same way He did to Moses. He don't change His word for Moses, though He made Moses a god, He wouldn't change His word. All right, listen, the unbelieving is sanctified. Are you following me? That sanctification is not unto salvation, God suffers it like He suffered the writing of divorcement. It isn't His will for them two to be joined together to begin with. Just like God told Samson, said, Ain't there enough people up here outside of going down there; or rather his daddy did; outside of going down there to the Philistines to get a wife? Don't you have enough holy people? Doesn't the Bible tell you that if you are separated that you are at liberty to be married to another only in the Lord? It's not God's plan for you to be with them because you are unequally yoked together. That's an unequal yoke when you yoke up with a sinner. But you can't tell some young girls that and you can't tell them nothing. All right, now, the sanctification that covers is something that the Lord suffers. God hasn't bound them people together because God cannot bind darkness to light. God cannot join the temples of Belial to the Temples of God. The temples of Belial and the temples of God have absolutely no fellowship. So then God has to sanctify the individual to where the individual would be clean in the sight of God or God couldn't even stay with the Christian. You say, Well, why does He have to do that. Because they are suppose to be one flesh. You say, What are they doing together if God didn't put them together? God put them together in the sense of the sanctification of suffering it, but God did not put them together, in that, God did not bind them on the Word. It is contrary to the Word for them to be together to start with. They aren't even suppose to be fellowshipping each other, let alone marrying each other, but for the sake of the Gospel. All right, now, these two come together. Listen a little bit more. Quit being so restless now and listen just a little bit. I'm not through, just wait. I'm going to have to start preaching to you and scold you right here at the end of the message, listen, pay attention. When the Lord sanctified the individual; now, you might say, Well, Brother Pike, why are you speaking so stern to us? Because I told you before I started this message, I'm not just speaking to you. My ministry is to the world. You are just some hearers that's here. So this thing has got to be clear because it will go out every where. All right, now then, when the individual; when the individual is sanctified God has sanctified the individual. That's the trouble with some of you folks now. You feel like you've got a monopoly on Brother Pike because I'm your pastor, you'll just do any ole way. That's what the Jew thought about Jesus. You better shake that thing off and realize that God is going to require it of you. Because you are married to a preacher that don't mean that you can get by with your evils. You might have a good pastor, I hope I'm one, that don't mean you can get by with evil. The sanctification of the individual is only something that God suffers because the Scriptures does not bear out the fact that God joins darkness to light nor does God join the temples of God the the temples of Belial. They have no fellowship. Evil communication corrupt good manners. God wasn't in it to start with. God never bound them together. They made an agreement and because they gave their word one to another then God let them go on like they are. I wish that man would either ease out of here or get rid of that spirit. You don't know nothing mister you just think you know something. You are one of the worst problems I've got. All right, listen, when the sanctification of the individual whether man or whether woman.... Now, sometimes I raise my voice, I start warring because then I feel the Devil out there. The war is on again and I reach and get my sword. As long as you will keep the Devil out I don't have to fight it, just stand up here and teach it. But I have to start fighting the Devil. Brother Branham said, Load the double barrel to get the wolf out. Carnal minded people let demons in. They feel like they know when I ought to quit and when I ought to start and how much I ought to say and how much.... And they go by their own feelings. Whatever they feel, they feel to go, they feel to stay. If they feel good it is all right, it don't matter how you feel. But that ain't got nothing to do with it, you are to live by faith in the Word. Paul preached all night so that don't mean the anointing left because you thought it did. (Time lapse in tape.) Now then in the sanctification these people are not bound together. I want you to get that, folks, so that we won't run over it now. These people are not bound together by God. That's why that I use the terms; That if any man put away his wife. You follow me? I got about a half a dozen or more in here has done gone dead on me. Jesus said, Couldn't you watch with me one hour? It's no wonder you're in the mess you are in. You don't have no control over that ole spirit of yours. If any man put away his wife. You say, What is a wife? One that God has joined you to. This other, you made an agreement. God never bound you to that, but God said, Don't let anybody mess with what I have joined together. But your agreements that's between you and them. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases if the unbelieving depart. But God will hold a brother or a sister to their word. If they gave that man the word that they'll be his wife, God will hold her to it until that man dies. She can't leave him. As long as that man is decent she has got to stay with him. The same way with the woman, the man, either one of them. But, now if the unbelieving break the agreement and leave you God never had you under bondage to start with. So then, some of you ain't going to half know what I said when I get through because you ain't paying attention. You just hear it and that's all, but if you really had to tell anybody you couldn't tell them nothing. So then, if God has joined a person together and if that is his wife and you put the wife away other than for fornication you committed adultery if you marry another. You've caused her to commit adultery. Now, listen real close. In these things when the individual goes out in trespasses and in sin you are free from that individual. Now, they might be a believer and still not a Son of God. They might be a believer. They might be with the church. Paul said, Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? If you have not the Holy Ghost you're not of his. Somebody said, Oh, Brother Pike, I believe you can be saved without the Holy Ghost. Well, that's your doctrine. I don't teach that and I don't believe that. There is one spirit that's God's spirit as the Holy ghost. If you got it you're His. The Bible said, "If you have not His spirit you're none of His." You are none of His, that's the way I teach it. You say, Brother so-and-so said. Well, that's all right you follow Brother so-and-so. This is the way I understand it. Now, that person might be a believer and still not be a child of God, never been born again, which is of the spirit. The Bible said, "To be born of the spirit." Not born of belief. Somebody said, Well, I believe. The Devil does too. Somebody said, Well, all you have got to do is believe. Well, if all you got to do; the Devil believes and he will be in Heaven too. Now, you say, Well, he is in Heaven. Yeah, I know it that's how he got there by believing. But you'll find out the same way that he gets kicked out at the end is the same way that you got in without the wedding garment; without the spirit of God though you be in Heaven you'll get kicked out too. That's the way you climb up. Now, he might be a believer and he might be in the church; he might be covered with the blood. He might be part of the operation, but he still hasn't been born again. If you watch him he is always contrary to what you want to do. And she'll always be contrary, always carnal minded, talking about lust, and filth, and things of the world, and the fishes and the loaves, gossip and backbiting; though they're still in the ranks. Spots, blemishes in your feast of charity never been born again. They're in Heaven, but they'll be kicked out. They're the wandering stars. Wandering stars is up yonder in Heaven but they're going to be kicked out. The midst of darkness the carnal mind waiting on them, Satan evil. I wasn't going to try to get into that; I want to stay with just this principle thought if I possibly can. All right, now, God didn't join them together. That means if a person is a believer and you've married them thinking that they was a Christian then if that person puts you away and if they put you away, you know that they're not a Son of God, because; a Son of God is going to obey the Word of God. If that person puts you away they might of been a believer. They might of been in camouflage. But they put you away and married another they went out from us that it might be made manifest they were never of us. And they went out there and joined themselves to that evil and the Bible said, "That woman is bound by the laws of her husband so long as he liveth." If he is in the presence of the sanctification he is living in the sight of God. If he is bound by the laws of the Word, he is living in the sight of God. If he goes away from her and goes out into the world or marries another, commits adultery, he is dead and she is free from him. Now, you say, Fornication, fornication. I say this again, if the Lord Jesus only meant that fornication was before marriage and that your companion can continue to commit adultery and do all the things that they can do and you are still bound to them, then I am a false prophet to start with. I'll just tell you right here because I don't believe that. I don't believe that. I don't believe that. Now, the Bible said, "If you are joined to a harlot you are a harlot." Because you are one flesh. And God in the sanctification part don't make you one flesh. You are not under bondage, but by the Word you are one flesh. And if you meddle with that God will get you. But a lot of this other is not marriage to start with, one over here and one over yonder. All those kind of things. How many of you understand with I'm trying to explain to you? There is so may things that I need to say but you done left me, done got restless half of you and I'm going to have to close. I know I'm going to have to close. I'm just trying to crowd a few things in. Fornication, when Jesus said, If any man put away his wife for any other reason. That means that there ain't no reason. I don't care how disagreeable you and your husband get. There ain't no reason for you to leave. If you put away the husband or the wife for any other reason saving for the cause of fornication and go and marry another or if somebody marries her, that is put away, both of you are in adultery, both of you are in adultery. That doesn't matter who. If any one of you, Jesus said, I say it to all. If any man put away his wife for any other reason; I don't care what the reason is, and he marries another he hath committed wrong. And when the Lord said, For the cause of fornication, I tell you that He wasn't just speaking of something that happened before your marriage as people have tried to make you believe. He means when that woman breaks her marriage vows with you. Because to commit the singular act is referred to as fornication, but to practice a thing or to join yourself to it, like to look on a woman and lust after her, you have committed adultery in your heart. That's inside you heart. In your heart you've committed adultery. But when you join yourself to a union with that person you have committed adultery and sinned against your own body, your own flesh. Because the woman that joins with you is bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh and the fornication is that you must have been joined to something or you couldn't have sinned against your flesh to start with. I know you don't understand what I'm saying. Some of you do. But I'm saying this, that when he said to put her away for fornication, it means when that man gets out there and joins himself to another woman you are free from him. Somebody said, Brother Pike, but I'm bound as long as he lives. He is not living; he is dead. He's gone. God is not the God of the dead. He is gone. Now, the woman when she gets out there and does that, you're not bound. Like they say about the minister, and I'm going to try to close here, they say, the minister has got to have one wife. I believe that. If he ever marries a second time then they say, he can't be a minister. That's wrong. Because a man has been married twice, whoever told you he couldn't be a minister. The Bible does not bear that out. Somebody said, He's got two living wives. He doesn't have two living wives. If a man puts away his wife for fornication and marries another woman he has got one living wife. That's the only wife he has got is just one wife. Said, Paul said, Let your ministers be the husband of one wife. Back in that day they committed polygamy. They had a half a dozen wives. God said, I don't want a preacher with a half a dozen wives. You say, Well, it's the same polygamy today. If he is married to a couple of women out here, it is. If he is not legally divorced in the sight of God from her. But if that woman has committed wrong the Bible said, "He whom the Word, the Son, has made free is free indeed." That is, to do deed means to do, free to marry. That man might have been married five different times and everyone of women went bad. He still has got one wife; that's all he's got. Now, I'm going to say this, some of you have heard me mention it, a man comes to me one time and he jump; usually people come like that is causing trouble anyway. You follow it out and you finally go right back to the same thing they accuse you of. But he comes to me saying something to me about the marriage, a minister being married so many times. And couldn't be a preacher and all them kind of things. Getting everything scrambled up and balled up, trying to get me confused and get me to where I didn't know what I was thinking or what I was trying to explain. That's the way the Devil does; he is the spirit of confusion. He tries to get you to think you don't know what you're talking about. But, listen, when a minister, if a woman goes bad, like I told that man. He said, Brother so-and-so can't be a minister. He says God has called him. But he couldn't be a minister. I said, Well, why not? Say, Well, he's got two and three living wives. I said, What are you talking about? I'm talking about Brother so-and-so. I said, Since when did a man get to be a brother that had two or three living wives? And he got all confused. I said, You know better than that. I said, A man couldn't be no brother that had two or three living wives. Oh, he said, Well, he is a brother. I said, Well, if he is a brother he ain't got two or three living wives. If he ain't got two or three living wives then he has got a right to preach. So, you see if you've got two or three living wives you're not a Christian to start with. You are an adulterer. But now if your wife done wrong and you married another and she was the cause of fornication, I can assure you you are just as much a prophet as David was after his wrong. You are still a preacher. And God will require it of you in the day of judgement, and you don't have no two or three living wives. The reason I don't mess with people like that much is because I get into trouble. I can't go through every message and every service trying to explain to them about this man or that man. The Bible said, You get your reproach. It will never be taken away. I can't go through with explaining it. So, because I can't explain it people go say, Brother Pike is preaching this one and preaching that one and the other one, and so forth, and they're in adultery. When they're not in adultery. So that's the reason why I do it like I do. I just try to stay away from it because it is such a wilderness and entanglement. I can't explain it to people. I want you to stand with me. There is other thing I would like to say and........(something wrong with the tape here).........over to you to where you can at least understand what I'm saying. Because you can be assured that I'll get shot at for this from every place. But I challenge anyone of you that heard me this morning to come up here after I've finished and show me where I violated the Word of God. It is absolutely the Word of God that I told you. I can show it to you in the Scriptures line upon line. You do not have to live with a person that is living in evil. You don't even have to live with a person that's living in sin. If that person ain't decent enough to regard your desires and your wishes you didn't have to live with them. You can't go off and get married again, but the Bible said, "Let them remain unmarried." As long as they're loyal to you on the strength of the marriage vows. But you don't even have to live with them. If somebody is interfering with your Christian life and they're; I don't mean just because you all have fusses and arguments. The Bible said, You marry, you'll have trouble in the flesh I'll spare you. I'll forgive you for your little pouting and different things if you'll get back and repent and try to keep it straightened out. But if that person is keeping you from God you don't have to live with them, but you can't go frolic with somebody else. You can't take that as an occasion to the flesh and say, Well, bless God, I've been wanting to get away from him, go to try look pretty and flirting around, lusting after men. You're just as married as if he was at home. You should be just as solemn. The Bible said, "Let the women be grave and sober." Not giggling, not flirty, let the men be the same way. Don't give place to spirits. But if a person is keeping you from living for God you don't have to stay with them. The Bible said, "Separate yourself from every brother; that's your husband, your wife, anybody else, every brother that walks disorderly." In the first place if they're willfully walking disorderly they're not a brother to start with. You say, Well, why do you call them brothers? Well, it depends on the depths of what they're doing. Paul spoke of false brethren. You call them brothers, but yet they're false brothers. So it depends on the depths of which you're speaking. I hope this morning that you've understood this, and I know that I've took a long time. And that's the reason I stayed away from it like I did. But I wanted to try to explain it to the best of my ability to where you could understand and explain the things that Brother Branham said and others said, so that you would know. Concerning the widows, Paul said, I would that the younger widows marry. Give none occasion to the Devil. For some of the widows have already turned aside and they've become tattlers. Paul said, Busybodies, gossipers. Going into things they have no business in. He said, They've already received damnation because they've cast off their first faith, wherewith they've learned to be idol, busybodies. Said, I would that they marry and bare children, guide the house. Give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. Don't give him a place to cause you to speak reproachfully. I love you. A woman is a great thing. One of the grandest things that God ever put in the world if she is a real God woman. There ain't no more precious, no more greater, no more of a light, no more of a testimony. The Bible said, "Her price is far beyond that of rubies." She is a mother that will go out; Solomon, read it in Solomon. She'll go out and she'll do the things that's right. In the snow she'll work for her children. She'll make them clothes. She'll go to see about them. She'll take care of them in the night time. She'll stand by her husband. She'll be a great woman. Read it in Solomon. God said, There ain't no price to be compared to her. Even the rubies in the earth. God said, I won't even compare them to this. She is even greater than the rubies. She is such a wonderful thing. But I have to confess that as Brother Branham said, A woman that is wicked and evil, and this is the Bible not what Brother Branham said. The Bible said, "That woman is rotteness in her husband's bones." She is rotteness in her husband's bones. That's what God thinks about her. If she does evil said, she is rotteness in her husband's bones. And it could very well be said that she is not as good as a garbage can because she ain't that good. I need my garbage can. At least it renders a service. She ain't that good. But I tell you ladies whatever you do don't dress to where men will lust after you. Don't be protruding in your body in means of dress. Don't be protruding when you talk to men and burst out giggle, come right up to them and tell them what you think and always among men. Stay with the ladies. Be a lady. Wives obey your husbands. Honor, reverence them. Don't find fault with them. When they come home from work don't you be over yonder to who knows where. Be at home when they come or have them some supper, and don't run off and spend the day with sister so-and-so and run back in 30 minutes trying to get supper done for them. You ain't got no business going off to start with unless you've got his permission. You belong to him. Unless he has given you permission to do that you've got no business going anywhere. Ah, somebody said, Well, bless God, I'm going to pin mine down. The Bible said, "Jealousy is as cruel as the grave." That woman don't have the right to breathe or speak or get out or move around, couldn't be more cruel. You couldn't be more cruel. You couldn't even be a child of God. You are on you way to Hell to start with. Some woman said, Well, bless God I'm so thankful for that. Now, I can get out from under that. No the Bible said, "I'm a jealous God." I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy, Paul said. There is a differentiation between all of it. The Bible said, "Thou shall not covet." Paul said, Yet, I covet. So what does the law mean? Thou shalt not covet the wrong thing. Paul said, Covet the right thing. Is that right? You need not get restless, some of you. I'm not going to dismiss until I get through. If you've got to leave, leave. I done told you to leave long before now and you could have gone. So there ain't no need in worrying me. If I had you here and had the doors locked I'd feel bad about it, but them doors ain't locked and I told you from the start when you got restless not to give place to a devil, get on out and go and leave. From the first of my services you can do it. So don't bother me, because I'm not going to worry about you. Now, if we will take what was said this morning, apply it to our hearts, apply it to our souls, you'll get something out of it and it will do you good all the days of your life. Honor that husband, obey that husband, do what he tells you to do if you want to go to Heaven because he is the saviour of the body and the only way that you can get there. And husband, love you wife like Christ loved the church. Love her, be kind to her, be courteous to her, be pitiful to her, love her, try to help her, try to strengthen her, try to work with her. Don't allow for her fit pitching. Don't let her evil devilish ways. Don't compromise with her to get her favor or both of you will go to Hell, but be loving and kind to her. Don't abuse her. Don't nag at her. Don't fuss at her. Don't say things. A lot of times I say things to my wife and you'll say things to yours if you love her. If you're going to keep her straight you had better because you're her head. And she'll say things to you, but when you say those things be convicted in your heart that you're telling the truth. Don't say those things when you know that you're just taking up something to say. When I say things to my wife I believe that or I wouldn't say it to her. I'm convicted of it. Somebody said, Well, you're wrong. I might be wrong, but I'm still convicted of it. I pray to God to show me if I'm wrong. I pray all the time. But I say it because I believe it. I don't just believe in nagging. You nag at a woman you nag at a man you're just going to drive him into Hell and you're going to wind up in Hell, too. Remember this one thing, in closing this morning, wife, he is your head. If you keep him tore up and aggravated you're the one that's going to suffer because he is your guide and God is going to let all of it come on you. It you don't prosper and you won't, then you're the one that's going to suffer for it. You're the one that's going to have the disease and heartaches when he can't reach God because God is going to hear him not you. You are not going to go to God past him. I tell you that in the name of the Lord. If you think you're going to pout with him and go......you can't, even a brother can't do that. The Bible said, "If you've got an aught against your brother before you ever go to God you've got to get that straightened out with your brother." God don't hear your prayers and I've got women in here that God don't hear your prayers. You think He does. But your gossiping, backbiting, faults, you've got to make that thing right with your brother. If you don't forgive from your heart God will not forgive your trespasses. If you've got things there you are on you way to Hell. So then God isn't going to hear your prayers. Stay right with each other, stay sweet with each other and it will work out. Don't abuse your wife. God hateth putting away. You put that woman away and I tell you, in closing this morning, you put her away for any other cause saving for the cause of fornication the Bible said, "God hates that". And when God hates something its time for you to stand up and take notice because when God gets hatred in His heart towards something, David said, I hate evil with a perfect hatred. When God hates something He'll tear you to pieces. He said, Beware ye that forget God lest I tear you into pieces. When God says He hate it, He means leave it alone. He don't mean I just hate it and you can go on doing it, All right, the Lord bless you. Let's sing a little chorus together. I thank you for your kind attention; you've done real well. I had to scold you a little bit toward the end because I've got a few people here that they're just not spiritual to begin with. I have the hardest time with them. May God have mercy on their souls. But there is spots and blemishes in your feast of charity, this is, while you feast off of love. And I can't do nothing about it. God has suffered them to be there and I can't do nothing about it. They are believers. They are believers, just like Satan is. But I can't do nothing about it. I just have to pray. Try to, in the army they punish everybody they just can't just single them out. (......there may be more to the ending, but the tape is not giving the message anymore.)

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

Founder and first President of Jesus Christs Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.

Holiness Unto The Lord