Clean Or Unclean

You know the devil will do anything to aggravate or to hinder the anointing. It don't make no difference what it is. I'm real sensitive anyway to spirits. And I can feel the least movement of spirits in the audience of any kind easily unless the Lord hides it from me. I guess it's a good some ministers can't. I guess you would be a whole lot better off. But, I can and because of that I go through a lot of miserable sieges of trying to preach the gospel or trying to get the Word over. It really bothers me. Brother Branham was a lot like that. Little things troubled him even anybody setting on his platform troubled him unless he knew who they were. Jesus was like that. If He went to pray for anybody He just had one or two that He would take with Him. The others He would ask them to stay out of the room because He was so sensitive to the reaction of the spirit. Chapter 14 of Deuteronomy if you've got your Bibles, I would like to read just a little bit. People who are not a minister, that is men who have never been called to the ministry, they'll never understand. They'll never be a day in their life that they'll ever understand until they stand before Jesus. Though you might be a good Christian, you'll never understand the life of a minister. And a lot of ministers that's called to the ministry never get far enough along with God to understand spirits enough that they really know or it really bothers them and they don't understand because they're more like babes. The fourteenth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy in the first verse.

Deuteronomy 14:1-29 "Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth. Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. These are the beasts which ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois. And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat. Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you. And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase. These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat: And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it is unclean unto you. Of all clean birds ye shall eat. But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind, And every raven after his kind, And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan, And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant, And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat. And every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you: they shall not be eaten. But of all clean fowls ye may eat. Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk. Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year. And thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always. And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee, which the LORD thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the LORD thy God hath blessed thee: Then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household, And the Levite that is within thy gates; thou shalt not forsake him; for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee. At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates: And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest." 

In reading this, God giving forth as we would say today types and shadows, God giving us an understanding of the menu, or the food which Israel could eat, is typical of the spiritual things that God intended for us to have today. Some of these things that He mentions, you probably never heard of them or seen them. I never heard of them or seen them. Some of them I have seen. And these things if you recall was the same things that Peter saw while he was on the house top when the Bible says that he grew very hungry and would have eaten. Some of these unclean things was let down before Peter and he saw them as they were let down to him to kill, to be partakers of and to eat. Peter answered God by saying, Not so Lord, for I'm not going to eat anything common nor unclean. And the Lord answered Peter back by saying, That which I have cleansed, call thou not common. Now, here are the things that He speaks of here. The abominable things, like the roebuck no, not the roebuck. This is the things that they could eat. In other words, these things that have the hoof cloven that chew the cud. In other words if the hoof was cloven, they did not chew the cud; they could not eat them. If they chewed the cud and the hoof was not cloven, they could not eat them. It had to be one that chewed the cud and had the cloven hoof together. Now see they had to have both of these things. This was something that identified them as being clean. If they did not have these two things together he told them here that they were not to eat of them. When Peter saw these things they were unclean. The first thing he said was, I'll not eat of them. He says here, "Nevertheless, these ye shall not eat that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you." And he goes on to say, that the swine is unclean to you, though today people eat the swine; yet, according to the Bible he is unclean. And they say that the swine carries what they call the trichina worm and it's really dangerous for the people to eat them. But nevertheless they eat them anyway. We learn by the vision of Peter that even though these unclean things was shown that in the day that we're living in that sanctification can cause us to be in the position that if we are hungry we can eat a snake. We can eat anything as long as it is sanctified by prayer. If we sanctify a thing by prayer if it is necessary to eat it, we can eat it. If it is a matter of starvation and we sanctify it by prayer, God will accept it. For Paul said, There is nothing that is unclean of itself to a person that is clean. Anyone that esteemeth a thing to be unclean to him it is unclean. So then Peter here, esteeming these things to be unclean, they were unclean to Peter. But God immediately showed him that in the teachings of the Old Testament which Peter had been taught, that He was not talking about animals, but that He was having reference to people. And so then immediately He made Peter to know that He was speaking of the Gentile people. He was saying, Peter, I have let this sheet down and I've let you see all manner of unclean things and I have commanded you to eat these things and yet you say to Me Peter, that you cannot eat these things. But Peter, don't you tell me that you can't fellowship that which I have sanctified by Calvary. You know they say, How is it that you being a Jew, you standing over here talking to a Samaritan? Why you know the Jew have no fellowship with the Samaritans! But Jesus was simply saying, Peter, how is it that you say that you cannot have any fellowship with the Gentile people? How is that you count my blood of non-effect? And so then, it was immediately that Peter understood that God was going to give salvation to the Gentile people. And He said, Peter, there will be some men coming down to your place; you go down there doubting nothing when these men come to your gate, you go with them. And when you get down to the Gentile's house, you preach the gospel to them and I'm going to give them the Holy Ghost just like I've given it to the Jewish people. To show to you Peter, that I am no respect of person. And so it was that when Peter stood up and testified among the brethren, he said, I am persuaded to believe that God is no respect of person, but that in whatsoever nation or a people, wherever the fear of God is, God will save those people. God will accept those people or they are accepted of God. So then, he went down to Cornelius's and for the first time, the door was open to you and to me. Being the Gentile people, all of a sudden, God opened the door to the Gentile people. It had never been opened before. But here Peter goes down to preach to them, all because he had had a vision of these unclean beasts or animals that had been put before him. Peter on the house top, being very hungry, the sheet was let down. There he saw the unclean beasts. God said, Peter, just rise up and eat. Peter said, No Lord. But at the very time that this was happening, an angel has been down to visit Cornelius. Because Cornelius was a man that feared God. Though he was of the centurion band, yet, he feared God greatly. He had been fasting. He had been praying. He was giving alms of all that he had. Let me tell you, it pays to fast. It pays to pray. It pays to give alms of what you got. You should take every dollar that you got and share it for God. You should take a little time out to fast for the sake of Christ. You should take time out to pray, whether you have time or not. Because it was this thing in Cornelius' life that caught God's eye and caused God at that moment to send Peter to his house, to open the door to the Gentile church. To me that's one of the greatest, most beautiful outstanding things in the Bible. To think that God, opening the door to the Gentile people, chose this great, one personality, Cornelius. Here is a man that had fasted and prayed so much and give so much alms to the needy, that the Bible says, it had come up as a memorial before God. And the man not even being a Jew, not even considered to be a Christian, not suppose to be a God-fearing man, nor suppose to be one that even had any feeling toward God. Here he was doing more than the Jewish nation, Praying and fasting and giving. And the Bible says in such manner that it become a memorial in the sight of God to the extent that God actually sent an angel down into the presence of Cornelius and told Cornelius to sent for a man called Peter. And here the Bible says, As Peter went down to preach that the Holy Ghost fell on them and that they began to speak with other tongues. And Immediately Peter said, Seeing that God has given to them the Holy Ghost as well as you and I, who can forbid water that these should not be baptized? Why is it that these cannot be baptized in water in the name of Jesus the same way that you and I have? And the Bible says that they were immediately baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin. Therefore later Peter testified and said, You see brethren how that God has opened the door even to the Gentile people. But I want to show you something right here children of God, though Peter had been so powerful and so great, yet there was something about Peter that at times his faith would waver. You know when people get under pressure, it's at that moment that people's faith begins to waver and that is the very moment that they don't need their faith to waver. Their faith should waver at any time other than when they are under pressure by the devil. Because it's at this time when the devil begins to pressure them that they need to keep their faith up. But Peter walking on the water when the devil began to pressure, put him under pressure. He began to see the environment of the raging waters. His faith began to fail him and down he went into the water. Here Peter opening the doors to the Gentile had great faith in what God had said. But it wasn't but just a few days after that so to speak and here some people came down from James and then when they come over here, the Jew coming in, Peter got afraid, withdrew from the Gentiles because he was afraid that they was going to say something about it. And Paul had to blame him to his face because he was to be blamed. His faith began to fail him. Though he had faith in God, though he had faith in what the Lord had shown him about these unclean things, knew that God had done a great work, but here all of a sudden getting back into the natural mind of man, thinking about relatives, thinking about friends, thinking about the past, and thinking about the Jewish people with whom he had dwelt, all of a sudden Peter got beside himself and his faith failed him, and he got afraid and went back with the Jews. Now begin to just change the whole situation around; and Paul went to him and blamed him to his face and wanted to know why that he withdrew from the Gentiles just because the Jews come around. And then he told him to his face, he said, If you being a Jew, you've lived like the Gentiles, then why compel the Gentiles to live like the Jews just because somebody else comes around, Peter, that causes you to get afraid. So Paul said, I won't frustrate the grace of God. It is by the works of Jesus. It is by the blood of Calvary, Peter. He could have said, Peter, don't you remember the vision God gave you? Don't you know it's by the sanctification of the blood? What has happened to you? You did run well. What has hindered you? But see, that's the way it is with the world. The world gets started off that is the church world, they get started off real good and the first news you know they got a ball game on their mind; the first news you know their relatives have talked them into something and got them to believing that they are just a little bit on the fanatic side. Or the next thing you know their employer has talked to them and got them clear out of the mind of Jesus and got them to thinking that what they ought to do is be a good business man in the world, or somebody putting them under pressure, some friend, some neighbor, or some reprobate causing them to get their minds on the things of the world, causes them to withdraw or to lose their faith in the Word of God. Or as the Bible says, they get their minds on the lust of the flesh and they get their minds on the things of the world. Like Jesus giving the parable, He said, when the man sewed the seed some fell over here by the wayside. He said some of this that fell by the wayside, He said, the fowls just come along and they just picked it up, took it away. It never did get to take roots. Whereas, He told later, concerning the parable that the wasted seed was where spirits picked it up. If a preacher is preaching the Word, sewing the Word, putting out the Word of God, every time he says something, some old spirit strikes your mind it may be a spirit of resentment, it may be a spirit of jealousy; it may be a spirit of fault finding; it may be a spirit of haughtiness; it may be a spirit of arrogance, but a devil comes by and he picks up the seed because it went by the wayside, and it couldn't find any ground for lodging; therefore, there is no harvest. You'll never get any harvest out of it. A lot of people say, Well, I don't understand Brother Pike. They come to me this way all of the time. Why is it that others are doing something and I don't ever get to do anything? God's using others, but God don't ever use me! Brother, because you're like the one by the wayside. Every time the Word of God comes forth, you let the devils devour it. You let the devils pick it up. You let the evil spirits pick it up. You let evil powers working through your human senses, the lust of your flesh, through your five senses, the desires for the things of this world, you let the demons and the devils come by and pick that up and take it away. And it never gets any root in your life. You never make any change in your life. You never incorporate the Word in your life. You never grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. So then God can't use you because you never develop yourself in Christ Jesus. Whereas, the Bible went on to say, that some fell among thorns and these that fell among thorns, said, that the thorns quickly sprang up and it choked the life out of it. And when they inquired concerning it, He said, these are they that fall in the hearts of mankind that let the cares of life overcome them or they let the lust of the flesh entangle them and they are soon overpowered by human desire, and by the things of this world. And they bring forth no fruit unto perfection. Whereas, the Bible tells us to leave foundation of repentance, go on unto perfection, not turning again to lay the foundation of repentance toward dead works and faith toward God; But let us go on unto perfection. For the Bible says, Then we will come to the doctrine of baptism, come to the power of laying on of hands and then we will come to the resurrection of the dead. All of these great things the Bible says, and we will do them if God permits, if we'll go on unto perfection. Now so then He said, When the cares of life come up, this is they that sprang up and chokes the seed and it doesn't bring forth any fruit. The Bible says, The little foxes spoil our vine and our vines have tender grapes. So then, when the cares of life come up, it entangles the seed. It wraps itself around the harvest. And after a while we are so carried away with making money, so carried away with business, so carried away with human desire and getting a home and getting land and houses and having prestige and so carried away with the things of the world, until we can't produce anything for God because we are too busy producing things that please the flesh. We have so many ambitions so much that we must do toward the world of education, the world of having a career, the world of having prestige, the world of having convenience, the social side of life. And then eventually we find ourselves completely barren of the fruits of God and we bring forth nothing to the harvest for God. So then he spoke of some that would fall among ground that had stones. It falls in a stony heart. It doesn't take any root. It falls into stony ground, hardhearted people. People that, you try to get the Word to, but they can't receive it. They are too hardhearted. The Bible says, Harden not your heart as they did in the days of the provocation of the wilderness. They tempted God for forty years and provoked Him and God was not pleased with that generation and God swore in His wrath that they should not enter into His rest. So then these fell upon the stones, He said; in the stony places. Having no roots, when the sun come up, they just withered away because they could have no roots. They fell on the stones. They could not take any roots. The sun just burned them up. The fouls just picked them up. They was gone. The evil spirits took them away. The sun burned them to a crisp. But then He spoke of a good ground. Some of the ground He said was good. He said, It wasn't as good as other ground, but some of it was good ground; whereas, the fallow ground of our heart, sometimes being broken up, we listen to the Word of God and the Word of God and the plowman he plows and he plows. And after a while he breaks us up. We might shed a few tears. He breaks us all up on the inside and we fall upon the stone and we are broken; and we surrender and we give our spirit to God. And we don't change over the situation, we stay broken; we stay humble; and then after a while the seed begins to fall into the furrow. The seed begins to fall in the fallow ground. And the Bible says, It's fertile. And after a while there comes forth a harvest. It might be thirtyfold. He said, It might be sixtyfold. He said, It might be a hundredfold, depending on the soil as to how fertile the soil is, how much could be surrendered to God. If I surrender thirtyfold to God, then I get a thirtyfold harvest. If I surrender sixtyfold to God, then I get a sixtyfold harvest. If I surrender a hundredfold to God, then I get a hundredfold harvest. If I completely surrender my life to God without reservation of heart, my way to God without reservation of heart, if I completely surrender my desire and my ambition and I have no other plan in life, then I come forth with a hundredfold in God because I have no other plan, I have no other purpose in life. But as the song says, I'm born to serve the Lord. I'm born to love the Lord.(Tape turned over)  to God and to be what God would have me to be. I've come here with the thought to give my life in exchange for His that Christ may live in my life and use my body during the days of my pilgrimage. That I, in exchange may take this life that is without body because of sin, get the body of Jesus that is without sin that I may inherit that body for eternity that my life may reside in that body throughout eternity. If I give Him my body of sin here for a few days for God to live in here in this world to try to get people reconciled to God, in that the life, the God-life may live in it a few days to reach humanity, beseeching men to be reconciled to God through this body. If I'll give this temple, if I'll give this body to the great Holy Spirit, God the Eternal Spirit, and let that God life live in here and work through me a few days to win humanity to God, and I'll kill out my passions, and I'll kill out my human senses, and I'll kill out that old burning desires of evil and my old lustful ways and let it be clean and let it be holy; and I'll take the smut off of the globe so that God can dwell in my temple and I can be whole and be clean. And I give this body to that God life for a few days that God can work in it, use that body to reach His people, then brother in exchange I can have the wonderful, sinless body of Jesus Christ throughout eternity. This body that is under the penalty of death that is done away with, this life can be taken out of this body. It can be transferred to the body of Jesus that's spotless, without blemish. And that body I can inherit forever and this life can live in that body and I can enjoy eternity and the riches and the glories of eternity because of the great exchange. For He hath given me beauty for ashes. He hath given me, as the Bible says, my beautiful garment. The Bible says, Put on thy beautiful garments, O Zion. And what is the beautiful garments? The body of the Lord Jesus, the body of the Lord Jesus. Let's put on the beautiful garment. The body of the Lord Jesus. This wonderful, beautiful linen. For the Bible says, The bride hath adorned herself with the wonderful, pure, white linen, which is the righteousness of the saints. And the Bible says, In that we have been made the righteousness of Christ in God. The righteousness of the saints is the beautiful, white linen that we are adorned in. And He said, If any man come into the wedding supper without this beautiful wedding garment which is the righteousness of Christ or the righteousness of the saints, if any man come in without this into the presence of God into this great supper, he shall be bound hand and feet and cast into outer darkness. You know you can get up another way. You don't have to go through Christ. You can get up another way. Jesus said, I am the door. I am the door to the sheepfold. No man can come to the Father but by Me. You can't get to the Great Holy Spirit except through Jesus. But there is another way to get into the spirit. You can climb up another way. You don't have to go through the Word. You don't have to pass through that great filter of the Word and be cleansed. You can go around another way. You can climb up another way. In the days of grace you can use your faith and because the blood is on the seat of atonement, you can do like the red dragon. You can do like Satan did in the days of Job. You can walk in the presence of God. And you can get in there and you can get in among the religious world and you can get in among the church and you can dwell among the church and you can have the safety. You can have the blessings like Judas did. You can be right in there with the brotherhood, right in there with the sisters and you can have that divine protection and you can be in there in the days of grace, and you can go right on but I want you to know, that the Bible says, That when you do that the devils and demons is going to blind you. You're going to pick up one devil and then you're going to pick up another devil and you're going to pick up another devil and after a while you're going to find yourself bound hand and feet and the first news you know you're going to see that grace lifted as the blood comes off of the mercy seat and find yourself in that deep, dark place of misery and find yourself in that place of, where the Bible says, They wander through dry places, seeking rest and can't find it. God's going to lift His grace from you. Your faith is going to be made shipwreck, and you're going to find yourself bound hand and feet because you did not go through the door. Now I tell you tonight, you, especially here at Bethlehem, but whoever that I might be preaching too, I tell you one thing you've got to pass through the filter of God's Word. You have got to pass through the doorway or if you do not, you will enter in with the lust of your flesh. You will enter in with your human desires. You will enter into that spiritual world with your own lustful passions, and the devils and demons which are fallen angels, the more that you get into the spiritual realm the more that they will eat on your body and work in your body or the more strength they will get in your body just like skin worms working in a dead dog. I marvel at men and women as I see them. Some of the people here at Bethlehem, some of them in the churches as I travel around. Some of our suppose to be best ladies in here, I marvel at them at how little they are in the spirit, how little they are when it comes to having any control over their passions and their bodily actions. A man can pass by them and automatically there's a reaction in their body because they fast so little. Their eyes can see a man and automatically there's a lustful passion that strikes them, just like that because they are not living where they ought to with God. They're not fasting. They're not praying. The body is not dead as it's suppose to be. And there is men the same way. They go by a woman and they pray so little and fast so little and have their minds on God so little that their very presence stir up the ego of a woman's passion and effect her as they go by. This is an abomination in the sight of God. It is an evil, wretched thing and God will burn both in hell because it is the act of fornication and the act of an adulterous generation. This is what God condemned. This is what God said that He would rain fire and brimstone upon. Women dress in such a form fitting way, so as to draw those things of men, And men dress in such a form fitting way so as to draw this attention to them. They do that for that reason. Somebody would say, Well, that brother, it's just his way and I think he's really a fine person. I don't think he means it. Don't you ever be fooled. He's got a devil. That's why he does it. And if you'll give it enough time and you'll find out that Brother Pike told you the truth and it'll show up and it'll cause you heartache. And when you see a woman like that and say, Well, I think she's a good sister but she just don't understand or I think she's a good sister and she just dresses like that. She's got a devil that's why she dresses in the form that she does. And in, over a period of time you'll find out she's got a devil. Brother. sister, let me tell you something. There is no perhaps about it. There's no maybe about it. They are taken with lust devils. I have watched it for many years and I have never seen one case fail, not one. I mean I have closely observed it. I have closely watched it to see if I was mistaken in it. And brother, sister, in every case it's proved out to be exactly that they had a lust devil. Now whether it's a married woman, whether it's a single woman, whether it's a married man, or whether it's a single man, they've got lust devils when they do that. This is that, that Jesus spoke of. This thing comes up. It can't get any life. The life of God reaching out, but it can't bring any fruit to perfection because it is so entangled with these old passions, these old desires, and they torment a man of God. They torment a woman of God. The Bible says, Lot was literally tormented and vexed by their conversation as he stayed down there in Sodom and Gomorrah. He was vexed by that. When a man wants to be clean in his heart and he wants to be clean in his mind and when he tries to walk with God and he tries to be holy, and these devils and demons prowl around and walk around and he knows that those people know, God will reveal their hearts and God will say, That individual knows what they're doing, and it vexes that man of God. It vexes that man of God, because that man of God would love to take hold of him and give him a good shaking and tell him what a hypocrite he really is. But the only thing is if he pulls up a tare, a lot of times he'll get some wheat. And he'll just have to suffer it and keep warning and keep warning and keep describing and keep giving a description and keep saying something. You know, just like if there's a man out that's killing people. You say, Well, I don't know. He had on a green suit the last time I saw him. He was wearing a certain kind of a hat the last time I saw him. Be on the lookout for him. And so then warning after warning comes, brother, sister, so that you can watch. There's all kind of devils and demons in the world of today. All kind of demons. I see these things constantly on people. I see them reacting on people. I hear them talking to people. I see them in visions. And how pitiful it is! Not so much in that people are taken with them that don't know, but people that do know. This is where they get their strength. A lot of times if you'll watch somebody will say something to you. It won't affect you though it isn't the right thing. You think, Well, that brother or sister ought not to have said that. But it doesn't have much effect on you. And then another one would come along and something that would cut you to your heart. What is the difference? One of them had the spirit of Satan behind it. That was the difference. Let a thought strike your mind. You brush it out. It goes on its way because thoughts present themselves to human beings. Every kind of human being, thoughts present themselves to them. But brother, sister, when something strikes you in your heart, when that thing comes, why did it do that? Because you gave place to a devil, that's why. It was an evil spirit. It had a power behind it. It had a strength behind it. And you can tell the difference. An evil thought will strike your mind, it's nothing. It passes on by. But brother, when something strikes your heart, there's something wrong with you. You're giving place to something. You're in the environment of something. You're treading on dangerous ground. You didn't pray enough, you didn't fast enough. You didn't have your shield up. You wasn't concerned enough. You didn't try to turn, as the world says, you didn't try to turn yourself off enough to the opposite sex. You didn't try to put up a shield. You didn't try to be grave. You men didn't try to be grave and you women didn't try to be shamefaced. And you made a little allowance. And the first news you know you had a connection and then you become a harlot. You became a whore. You become a whoremonger. You become one of these that God rejected. When you look on a woman to lust after her you've committed adultery with her in your heart. The same way with a man. That's why Jesus said in this generation, It will be an adulterous generation, a sinful generation. It's such a generation that lusts after everything they see. I read it to you here in the fourteenth chapter, and He said, Whatever your soul lusteth after go ahead and get it. Whatever your soul lusteth after go ahead and get it. And it said in the Old Testament over there, He said, And they lusted after the flesh and He gave them flesh. But then He slayed the fattest one among them. America has been a lustful people. She doesn't have any morals anymore. She doesn't have any decency anymore. She doesn't care anymore. She doesn't put up any standards anymore. She doesn't have any shamefacedness anymore. Her men doesn't have any graveness anymore. It's just a giggle and a grin and a smile and a hello and a how are you and all of this kind of mushy stuff that has just made America one, great, big mess. Years ago when a woman come down the street she had on a long dress. It wasn't form fitting. It was put out from her body to where she was every bit a lady. And when she come by, a man walked by, he stepped to the side and he tipped his hat like that and he stepped to the side and he got on out of her way until she passed on by because she was a lady. Today there is no such thing even in existence anymore, anywhere in the world that I know of. What is it? But I said the other night, brother, sister, it is the same way in the church world. People are critical; people are gossiping; people are backbiting; people are devouring. You are saying things against your brother, sister. You are saying things against the ministry. You are backbiting. You are devouring. You are not going to your brother, sister and telling them they are wrong. You are not speaking in their ears so they can hear and understand. But you are telling somebody else and you're backbiting. And the Bible says, The backbiter and the talebearer will not stand in the holy hill of God. He will not. And you're doing all of these things. And doing these things, the Bible says, That God will get you for it. He that putteth his money to usury shall not stand in the holy hill of God. They that backbite, they that find fault, they that cause division among the brotherhood, the Bible speak of them accusing the Bride of Christ, them that find fault with the wife of God. And you that do that someday as I said the other night, God is going to get tired of you saying things against his children. God's going to get tired of you saying things against his wife. God is going to get tired of you saying things against his bride and one of these days He's going to call you into the judgment for it. He's going to call you into the house of the judgment of God and He's going to call your life into judgment and He's going to want to know why you said it? What grounds you had for saying it? Why did you do it? Who are you to do that? And God going to ask you why that you accused her or why that you was backbiting concerning her? The Bible says, She's perfect. She is a lady. She is the elect lady. She is without spot. She is without wrinkle. She is without blemish. All the rest of the world is a mess and she is the only lady in the entire world. She's the only lady, but she is an elect lady without spot, and without wrinkle, and without blemish. And the Bible says that, You can't lay nothing to her charge. Not one thing can you lay to her charge. But every other one that comes in any other way is a thief and a robber. Everyone that climbs up any other way will be bound hand and feet and they'll be cast into the outer darkness. But brother, someday God is going to bring you into judgment because you're bringing no fruit to perfection. You're not, you're not clean in the sight of God, only through the blood of Jesus. And when you count everything else unclean that's been cleansed by His blood, here as Peter counted unclean, God reproved him; and when you count something unclean that's been cleansed by His blood and you gossip and backbite and you find fault with it, God will bring you into the judgment. For the Lord said, Why do you call that unclean that I have cleansed? Why is it Peter that you say this is unclean when I have cleansed it? Did you know that momentarily the entire world is clean by the shed blood of Jesus, by the grace of God in that God is not looking at their wickedness and He's allowed them to go on? But did you know when the blood is taken away, the Bible says, They are swines that wallow in their mire, and they are dogs that lap their own vomit according to the Bible. And there is only one garment that is righteous. That is the righteousness of the saints which is the righteousness of Christ. In that we are made the righteousness of Christ in God by the blood atonement. So then that which is sanctified is clean, but that which is not sanctified is unclean. And the Bible says, We are to feed upon this. He gave them the sign of the cloven hoof, that which has the cloven hoof. What does that mean to us? It has to do with Pentecost when the tongues of fire were cloven. The Bible says, And they set upon each of them tongues of fire, cloven tongues of fire. Why was they cloven? To let them know that it was clean. It was clean in their sight. It came down as that which was holy and of God. It was a confirmation that come down, a spiritual thing that presented itself according to the teachings of the old Bible. Why they that chew the cud? Because it is those that meditate in His laws day and night. Meditation is called in the spiritual sense and type chewing the cud. You hear the Word today. We feed you tonight here on God's Word. Tomorrow until you get back to your feeding, you chew the cud. You're constantly meditating in the laws of God day and night. All the time you're feeding on that which God has given you. This is the clean things, He said. This is the holy things. You'll recognize it by these things. These are the things that God said you would recognize cleanliness by. And so then when we meet people that are of this kind, when we meet people that relate to these things that he described here as that which is according to the Bible, we can feed upon those things. We can fellowship those things. We can partake of those things. But when we meet those animals of darkness, when we meet those birds of the night, when we meet those people that are in the night, that is to say those that are in the carnal mind, those that are out there in darkness, because He calls it darkness. He calls it death. Those that are out there in the darkness. He said, You can't fellowship creatures of darkness. But rather these that are creatures of light. You can relate to these things that I have described here. Now, I know there's fallen angels. I know that Satan transforms himself into an angel of light. I know that ministers transforms themselves into creatures of light, and they appear to be those of light; but we have identification according to the Bible, as far as to know as to what they relate to so that we can identify them as to whether they are really creatures of light as to being clean or unclean. When He told them, Thou shalt not make any baldness between the eyes, around the eyes or any of this sort for the dead. People are bad about shaving their eyebrows. They are bad about shaving the eyebrows and making baldness. When they do this, this is for the dead. That is for the flesh. Those that are dead in sins and trespasses. God said, You're not to do this. He said, You're not to set a light before the dead. He said, It doesn't matter if it's a relative, a friend, or whatever. You cannot set a light. It is an abomination from God to set a light among the dead. And when you go out there in that world of people that you know that they're twice dead as the Bible says, And plucked up by the root, and it's some of the religious leaders of today that come out of seminary and whatever, or preachers that are willing to get a dollar. They go out there and they take the gospel and set it out there as a light when those people are dead out there; it is an abomination in the sight of God. God said, Ye shall not set light for the dead. God does not want to give any light among the dead. Those people are dead in trespasses and sin and He leaves them in the night and He leaves them in the darkness. He doesn't want a light among them. And He doesn't want you going out there bothering with them. And he said, Ye shall not cast your pearls before swine. When you realize that people are swine, you're not to go out there and cast your pearls before swine because the Bible says, If you do they will trample them under their feet. And just as quick as they get through trampling pearls under their feet, then they'll turn and come back with a smart remark and they'll rend you. So then you'll want to leave them along and stay away from them. God will guide. The steps of righteousness man are ordered by the Lord. God will guide you. He'll direct your heart. He'll tell you what to do. But brother and sisters, as long as we walk according to our own thinking, the imagination of our own heart, as long as we decide what we want to take and what we want to leave; as long as we say, Well, we don't believe that and we believe this and when the preacher preaches something, we'll say, We'll take this and we'll leave that. As long as we do that we are in trouble. We're in trouble with God. Because if what the preacher is saying is right in one place, it is right in another place. If he can't preach the truth, you need to get out of there, because if he's preaching something wrong in one place and something right in one place, he is of the devil, Now there's only one answer other than that and that is he is a babe in Christ. And if he is a babe in Christ he doesn't have any business leading the people. If he be spiritually ignorant of something that he is doing, then you need to go to him and enlighten him as a brother and tell him if you know so much. And I feel reasonably sure that if you know that much, then you ought not be sitting under his ministry anyway because you know more than your teacher. You need to be out somewhere teaching or you need to get you a teacher that knows more than you know. So anyway you go you're wrong. You're wrong in being there. If that man is teaching part right and part wrong, the man is of the devil because he's teaching you just enough to pull you into the pit of darkness and you need to get away from there as fast as you can. But if the man is teaching you right, then you need to listen at what he says, and you need to honor and obey him in all things that you might be children of God and be found without blame in the day of judgment. If there's something that you don't understand you need to go and ask him. If he's wrong about it and he's a man of God, he'll say, I made an error. I confess it, or God will bring it to him and show it to him that he won't mislead the church. But brother and sister, no preacher is going to get up and preach those things and be of God. He can't do it. The Holy Spirit won't let him do it. The Bible says, The ministry is set there for the perfecting of the saints, and he's not going to teach you error. He's going to teach you the truth. What he doesn't understand he isn't going to talk about. What he doesn't know he isn't going to try to explain. He is going to tell you what he understands and what he knows. What he doesn't he'll leave alone. David said, I'll not exercise myself in those things that are too high for me. What he don't understand he'll leave alone. The other things he knows, he'll explain. And if he messes with anything beyond that, God will get his hide for it and make him a public show to you that you might know that you might not be harmed. All right, I want you to stand with me.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

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

Holiness Unto The Lord