No Beginning

From over in the book of Saint Luke, the first chapter, fifty-seventh verse. "Now Elizabeth's full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son. (58) And her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her. (59) And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father. (60) And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John. (61) And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. (62) And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called. (63) And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all. (64) And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God. (65) And fear came on all they that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea. (66) And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him. (67) And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, (69) And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; (70) As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: (71) That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us: (72) To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; (73) The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, (74) That he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, (75) In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. (76) And thou, child shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; (77) To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, (78) Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, (79) To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. (80) And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel." You know, God does strange things. Here Elizabeth was barren, no children, and God brings a child. Strange sort of a child, in that he spent his time in the wilderness and he really never knew what life was other than just staying in the wilderness and waiting for his showing. The showing that finally came did not last very long; a short ministry, and then his life was taken because he preached against adultery. So the Lord does real strange things. You wonder, you know. You think, Why? Why in the world would God have a child born into the world to a barren woman and then take the child away from her to the extent that he spends his life in the wilderness, and then he comes to preach a few sermons and they take his head off? But yet Bible says, that John came to tell us of the knowledge of salvation. That God sent him that he might tell us of the knowledge of salvation and show us the right way to go. That was the purpose of it, to set something in order. A fore-runner that God said, I send before my face that he might prepare my way before me. So then, God doing strange things, here John was born. About the same time here Jesus is born. A virgin conceives and brings forth a son. Here comes another strange event. The same time that John is coming into the world here comes Jesus into the world. John being the forerunner, sent before the coming of Jesus that he might forerun the Lord Jesus Christ's birth, and might tell them of the coming of the Lord. This is one reason, I believe, that God allowed John to have the strange ministry that he did. His ministry short-lived that it might magnify Jesus' ministry the more. John was such a great light until God, willing to magnify Jesus as a light then God allowed John to go off of the scene. John came on the scene just in time to catch the eyes of the people by his strange ministry of being away in the wilderness so long. And when John came out it caught the eyes of the people so much until the whole city would turn out to hear him preach. And just about the time that he got the attention of all the people he introduced the Son of God the Lord Jesus Christ and told them how great and mighty this Savior was, saying, I'm not worthy to loose his shoes. He that cometh after me, John said, is preferred before me. I'm not worthy to loose his shoes. And so then, Jesus caught the eyes of the people everywhere and began to work His mighty miracles as He lead the people into a great knowledge of God and into a great faith that has never been superseded. So God does strange things. But even beyond this the strange thing is that Mary, having never known a man, the child, the child came forth. The Spirit Itself, the Spirit of God moving over Mary wooed Mary with a heavenly love and with a heavenly touch that caused her innermost being to love God with all that was within her until a divine conception took place and Jesus, Jesus came forth as Scripture says, from a virgin. This is what the Lord is trying so hard to do in our day. The Spirit of God is coming over us and the Spirit of God is trying to woo us and God doesn't want us to know a man. The Bible said not to know any man. Not to know any man. God doesn't want us to know a man. He doesn't want us to know any man. He said not to know any man after the flesh. See? But we're to know God, and we're to know God after the Spirit, and we're to have such love for God that we, everything within our innermost being will just love Him and desire Him. Everything, until we receive that divine conception of the Word of God. And God wants us to be found a virgin, a holy, chaste virgin. Not mixed up with the world, not mixed up with man, receiving a doctrine from man, but God wants us to be virtuous and wants us to be holy. He doesn't want us to watch t.v. on the side over here. He doesn't want us reading some kind of magazine and trying to keep up with the sports and the paper and trying to be part of the social functions of the world. God doesn't want us to do that. He doesn't want us to whore after the world, in the sense of trying to have some business, or make money, or get fame and prestige and all of these kind of things. God wants us to live a simple life, just be the kind of person that's willing to make a living, just be a simple down to earth person. And whatever God blesses us with let our labor be that we might labor that we might have to give to God, or share with God. This is what God wants us to do. He doesn't want us going after the things of the world, but he wants us to be away from the world. The Bible said a virtuous woman is a crown to her husbands head. A woman that is not virtuous, the Bible said, she is like water in his blood, or rotteness in his bones. But if a woman is virtuous, if she is withdrawn, if she's a clean, holy, godly, upright person she is a crown to her husband's head. She is such a great outstanding thing. The Bible says she will never betray him, never at any time will he find her in her heart, or in her deeds, betray him. Never. She will never betray him. She will always be a crown to his head. But a woman that's not virtuous she's like rotteness in his bones. She will betray him in deed every opportunity. Every time her flesh gets to lusting and desiring she will betray him. Or every time something passes before her face that kindles her interest she will be enticed and in her heart she will betray her husband because she is not a virtuous woman. But a virtuous woman is great and mighty, and the Bible said her price is far beyond that of rubies. It says, Who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far beyond that of rubies. You look for a church in the earth today and see if you can find a virtuous church. Look for a virtuous church. Find one church anywhere that has withdrawn for the world, that dresses right, that talks right, that tries to do right, that stays away from the movies and stays away from the televisions and stays away the things of the world. Find one church that does that. Find one church that's more interested in God than they are the things like six-flags and the frolics of the world. Find one church that rather study and pray, and rather grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Just find one church that's willing to be withdrawn from the world and leave off with the world, the buying, the tinklings, the pretty things of the world, and just be a holy, godly upright church. The Bible says a virtuous woman's price is far about that of rubies; who can find one? But, see? Mary she believed the Word of God. I believe with my heart that Mary reading the Old Testament, reading the Scriptures, knowing that it was prophesied of the prophets that a virgin would have a divine conception, I believe that Mary being holy and godly and pure, knowing that she was spotless to that extent, I believe that being among the virgins that, no doubt, many times in her mind she must have thought, Now, the Word of God can't fail. The prophets have said it; it's got to come to pass, and It said it would happen among the virgins. And according to our scholars, and according to the Bible teachers. I hear them talking and I hear this in the Synagogues and they talk like the time is at hand for the Messiah to come. And they talk like the time is at hand for this divine conception, maybe not knowing that that would be the Messiah. Not knowing what kind of child it would be, but knowing that it was prophesied that One would come forth, and knowing that the Bible said, I will raise up a prophet like unto Moses, and it shall come to pass that whosoever fails to hear that prophet shall be cut off from among the people. Knowing this I believe that Mary pondered on these things, and thought on these things and tried even the more to keep herself pure, and keep herself holy. You know, she had a right to think like this. It could be me as well as anybody. I am a virgin and I am among the virgins, and it could be me as well as anybody. And no doubt she might have thought upon her lineage, and where she came from and she encouraged herself in the Lord. She did this until one day, the Bible said, that the Spirit of God came upon Mary and the Spirit of God began to commune with Mary, and the angel of the Lord just came right out and said, Mary, blessed art thou among women. Mary, blessed art thou among women. Out of all the women blessed art thou. God said unto Daniel, O, beloved man of God. Out of all the people in Babylon, Daniel, said, you are the beloved man of God. Because Daniel had his mind on God. Daniel was withdrawn from everything that Babylon had to offer. And Daniel was hard down after God. Fasting and praying and calling on the name of the Lord. Daniel didn't have any personal motives, any personal ambitions, or some kind of ministry. He just sought God with one thing in mind, and that was, What is going to befall my people in the last days? And the angel of God came and said, Daniel, thou art a blessed man. Blessed art thou, Daniel, O thou beloved man of God. And here it is in another day and this time it's a woman, and God is looking at a woman, and the angel of God comes and looks at Mary, and the angel of God says, Blessed art thou, Mary. Blessed art thou among women. You know, today women don't really care. They could care less about being blessed of God. You know, if they can be an old whorish woman, or girl, that can go out and satisfy their passions and be a road runner, or anything else, they're right on the job. That's all they care about. If they can get them a little snort of dope and get out there they can care less about what kind of name they have, or whether they ever have a home, or whatever. And usually they're beat down into the gutters and aren't fit for a mother, or nothing else, by the time they do find marriage life. But in that day women prized being a virgin. Women prized being clean, and being upright. That was something of a price that was far beyond that of rubies. And so then, it was said to Mary, Mary, blessed art thou among women. You know, wouldn't it be wonderful if we today had the outlook that the thing that we want to do would be clean, be holy, be virtuous, be godly, not looking for any personal ambitions in life, or trying to be some outstanding spectacular something so that people would take a bow to us, or whore after us, or try to prove our point of something that we've said, or something we've done, or something we're going to be? but just a down to earth simple person that wanted to do nothing but seek God and love the Lord, be clean and be virtuous that we might conceive of the Holy Ghost. And the angel said, Blessed art thou among women, Mary. Blessed art thou. God has chosen thee for a purpose. Thou art blessed among women. Thou art different from other women, Mary. And so then he said, Mary, you are going to have a divine conception and in this divine conception you're going to bring forth a son, and that holy thing within thee is going to be called the Son of God. And Mary said, How can this be seeing I've never known a man? And the angel said to her, said, Mary, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of the Most High shall overshadow thee and you shall conceive and bring forth this son. And so Mary said, Let it be unto thine handmaid even as you say. And so it was that the Spirit of God came upon her. This is another one of the strange things that God did. Strange. See? How could this be. Strange things. Here is the Spirit of God overshadowing a human body, and here is a divine conception unto life. How could that possible be? See? It wasn't the seed of Adam. It wasn't the seed of those that had come down through the lineage of Adam. It wasn't that at all. It was all together different. Here is a divine thing that happened. A spiritual thing. It's not a thing of passions. The Bible said He was not begotten of passions. He was not begotten of the will of man, but He was begotten of God. You know, I can say, or you might say, We've begotten a son, but see? He could not say that He was begotten of man. No one could say that He was begotten of man, for here he was begotten of God. The Bible said He was not born of man, nor after the will of man, but it was after the will of God. It was a holy desire, a godly, pure, righteous, holy desire that overshadowed a human body and by-passed the passions and the human senses and brought forth a divine thing, a lovely thing. And that thing was the very life of God, He said. It was the very life of God. Just to think now, it was the very life of God, and God was actually made a human being. God Himself was actually made a human being. God actually became the Word unto life. The Bible said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. The Word was with God, and the Word came forth and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld the glory of it as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth. Here is the Word. The Word. We look back in the beginning and say, here is the Word. When really there wasn't anything in the beginning, as we've said so many times. There was no Word in the beginning. There was no nothing in the beginning the way that you think of the beginning and the way that I think of the beginning. But, see? In all reality in the beginning was the Word, and this Word actually came forth and made Itself a human body. By divine birth it actually became a human being; that Word. Now you might say, What do you mean, Brother Pike, when you say that there was no Word in the beginning? I mean that this way: When we think about the beginning we always think about before anything was ever created. That's the way we think about the beginning. But when God speaks of the beginning he speaks of the very origin of things. The very coming forth of the first thing, and the first thing that came forth was the Word. It was the Word. That was the beginning of things. That was the origin of things and that was what God was doing, so in the beginning of things. In the beginning of things, or in the beginning, or whenever there was a beginning, that was the Word. But then before the beginning, as we say, what was before the beginning? If the beginning is the act of God, or the beginning as the creation of God, then what was before the beginning? But, you know, you and I don't think like that. Being human beings our mind, unless God can anoint it to do so, it can't go beyond the beginning because we don't have a start. We don't come into the picture until the beginning. We are part of the beginning. So then, we are of the beginning. But, see? When we get in the mind of God and we go back beyond the beginning what about then? What about beyond the beginning? Someone would say, Well, beyond the beginning was Adam and Eve over there in the garden, Brother Pike. No, that's not right. Adam and Eve was not beyond the beginning. Adam and Eve was the beginning. But beyond Adam and Eve, beyond the garden, beyond the world, what was there back there beyond the beginning? See? It means that God is a spirit. God is the invisible force. God is the uncomprehended. God which was never known. God never known until the beginning. Until the beginning, because known goes back the word knowledge, and there was no knowledge of God. So then, there was no such thing as knowledge, no such thing as the Word, no such thing as a beginning back beyond where God started to create. So then, beyond the beginning, far back, as we say, beyond the beyond the beginning. I say this so often so that we can keep our balance. We say, far back beyond the beginning and we think, how far back? In that God is from everlasting to everlasting, how far back do we go beyond the beginning? How far back in the eternities can we go? And I say this a lot of times. You know, again we who are finite beings all of our thinking is in a finite realm. All of our thinking is of things, tangible things. Things that we can touch. Things that we can see and record on our eye nerves, or on our hearing, on our ears, our nerves of our ears. Things that we can taste with our taste buds. So when we think about how far beyond the beginning then we think, My God! you know, ages and ages. Many, many, many years, hundreds and billions of years, see? And this is where we get off in our thinking, because I say again, there is no such thing as days with God. There is no such thing as years with God. There is no such thing as a beginning with God. There is no such thing as an end with God. You say, Brother Pike, you said in the beginning. But I'm trying to tell you, when I say in the beginning, or the Bible says in the beginning it isn't talking about God. It's talking about you. It's talking about me. But it's not talking about God, because the Bible said God is without beginning. So how could he be talking about God? That is, the writer, how can he be talking about God when he said in the beginning when the Bible said that God is without beginning? And when the Bible said that in the end, the end of all things is at hand, how could that be God when the Bible said God is without end? So then, God doesn't have a beginning and God doesn't have an end. Therefore God is from everlasting to everlasting. We have a beginning. So in the beginning was the Word and the Word that came forth from the Spirit spoke everything into existence and you and I are here today because of that. Now think about this. This is why it is so fascinating when we think about the virgin birth. And this is why the devil would like to do away with the virgin birth. See? This is why that it is so fascinating because it says in the beginning. Where then is the beginning of God? Where is the beginning of God if God does have a beginning as to a knowledge, as to something to comprehend, as to some way of knowing God? Then where is the beginning of God? The Bible says that Jesus is the beginning of the creation of God. Jesus is the beginning of the creation of God. Someone would say, But, Brother Pike, Adam was the beginning of the creation of God. No. Adam wasn't the beginning of the creation of God. The Bible said Jesus is the beginning of the creation of God. So then, from Adam everything is rejected. Everything is falling. Everything is going down hill. Everything is going toward the consummation and toward the ultimate consuming of Calvary. Everything. Because that is where Lucifer starts. That's the beginning of Lucifer. That's the image of Lucifer. And the Bible said, In the morning I will despise thine image. Why will God despise the image of man? If he's not born again, if he's not changed with the Thessalonian change, then will God really despise him. Though he be a great president, some great celebrity, some great singer, some great millionaire, or billionaire will God despise him? He said, In the morning I will despise thine image. Why will God do that? Why will God despise him? Because it is the image of Lucifer. It is the image of the bastard child. It's not the image of God. God despises that image. You might look into the mirror and you might think you're, you know, some of you ladies, especially the young ladies, you might look in it and think you are really something, you know, and you think you're so lovely and you're so pretty. But God despises your face. He despises your appearance. And some man he might think he's handsome. He might look into the mirror and think he's real handsome but God despises your image. He despises your face because every time he looks at you you are a bastard child. And the only way that God cares for your image, the only way that God desires your image is to see you dead and see you buried in a watery grave in the name of Jesus. And that you are out of His presence and that He never sees your face again, never again, and that he looks far beyond you and looks to the change of Thessalonians and looks to that wonderful change to where you're changed into the image of the darling Son of God, to where you look like Him and walk like Him. And until then God looks at Jesus, directly at Jesus, seeing only Jesus in your behalf that He may never look at your despised image in the morning, or anymore until the morning. And should it come the morning and you've not had your born again experience, never made your change to where God is the only Christ then He will despise your image for He will look at it for the first time from Calvary. And when He looks at it it doesn't matter how handsome you think you are, it doesn't matter how beautiful you think you are, one look at it and He smites and despises it and utterly consumes it. So then, the Bible speaks of sinful flesh. Where then is the beginning of God. The beginning of the creation of God. It is in Jesus Christ. If you don't come into the Lord Jesus Christ there is no beginning with you. If you don't come into the Lord's body, into His (Begin tape one, side two.) name, into His baptism, into His way of life, if you don't come into that then you don't have any beginning. You are a lost cause, as we say. You are completely cut off from God and there is no hope for you, because you don't have any a beginning. Because you don't have a beginning. So then, in Christ we have a beginning. You know, God is good to people. I was thinking about Herbert W. Armstrong. I believe it was yesterday, or just recently. I was sitting at home and I was thinking about Him dying. I was thinking about now what if He dies. It must be about that time for him to receive his reward, or whatever, and sure enough, they came in and told me the man had died. And I thought, Ninety-three years in this world. Ninety-three years that he has to give an account to God for. He spent ninety-three years in this world and he's got to account for every day, every hour. For ninety-three years; he's got to give an account for everything he ever said, for every thing he ever done, every thing he ever thought. And then I think about you, and I think about me as to how long we have lived, or will live. And you've got everyone of those days, everyone of those weeks, everyone of those months, everyone of those years to give an account to God for all that you've ever done. You know, that's really something, folks. You're going to stand there before God and give an account for every day and every night that you ever spent in this world. So then, God does strange things. We look at it again, going back to our thoughts here; in the beginning. If I look beyond the beginning then I say, How long is it? How long has it been? How long was God here before He ever started a beginning? How long was God around before He ever started a beginning? How many of you understand what I'm saying? I say, How far back do I go before I can find where God got started? I get to thinking, My God! I say, a thousand years, then I say ten thousand years, and I say, No, He was still there. And I say, a million years. And I think, No, He was still there. Then I say, ten million years, and I think, Oh, my God, then billion years. Ten billion times ten billions, and billions and billions and billions and He was still there. And by then, you know, I'm just completely lost. I'm gone. Somebody says, that blows your mind. But, see? What it is, we don't understand. You don't measure God by man's measurements. When you say one years, and two years, and ten years, God is not to be measured by years, because He hath no beginning. You cannot measure anything that has no beginning by days and months and years. How are you going to measure anything that doesn't have any beginning? You know, I can say Brother Taylor was born on a certain day. I can measure him by years. I can measure him by days. He can look at me the same way, but you cannot look at God like that. You can't measure God like that. There is no way. See? There is no beginning of God. There is no way to measure God. He is without beginning. He is without end. He is from everlasting to everlasting. The world cannot contain God. Eternity cannot contain God. So then, when we think of God how should we think of God. We should think of God without beginning of years, without ending of days. We should think of God as that which doesn't have a beginning. That which doesn't have an end. That which doesn't have any boundaries. That which doesn't have any means and measures. God. I say then, how long has God been here? I think of God like this: God is here. God was. He is. God forever shall be. God is from everlasting to everlasting. Before the world ever was God is. He said I am. That means that God is present. God has always been present. God is the omnipresent God. That is, He doesn't have to have a yesterday and a tomorrow. He doesn't have to have like today and yesterday, in that He doesn't sleep. The Bible says that the God that watches over Israel shall not slumber. God did not have to sleep. Man has day and night, which gives him a today and tomorrow, because he sleeps. But really, I said this so many times. If you travel with the sun you'll find out that the sun never goes to sleep. And night really never comes. You just move with the sun, you cross the international date line, and you'll find out it's just as daylight as it has always been. See? So the sun doesn't go to sleep; it's you that goes to sleep. So God allows the darkness, we call it, to come and go. Allows the sun to move from side to side on the earth so you can get rest, so you can sleep. And, of course, a lot of people die over in the early morning because the sun is farthest from the earth and the sun energy is what keeps men alive. So when you think of God try to think of it like this. God? How old is God? How long has He been here? When did He get started? Don't think like that. Think of God like this. That when God from the very creation of the world, to the very consummation of all creation, takes it from one end to another and folds it up like an accordion and just blows it away. Throws it into the deep. When God completely just closes it up from beginning to end and there is no such thing as day and night anymore, and there is no such thing as time anymore. Whereas, the angel said, one foot on the land and one foot on the sea. Lifted his hand to heaven and sware by Him that liveth forever and ever that time should be no more, that God, when God just closes it up time, just like an accordion and does away with it. Think then, what will be left? What will be left? Ask yourself the question, What will be the left when God folds up time and does away with it? Someone would say, Brother Pike, you're eccentric, you're out of your mind. You're off balance. Talking about time being done away with. Time doesn't consist of anything, as I say so many times to you. It doesn't consist of anything except your clocks, your calendars. And from the beginning the shadows that the sun made on the little dial that was drawn on the ground. Man had a day. He had to do something with it. It came and it went and he couldn't understand it and he didn't know how to do his chores so he kept trying to figure how to divide it up in to sections to where he could tell when a certain part of it was gone and how much he had left. So he finally came up with a little dial on the ground. Stuck the little stick up in the ground, drew the little circle and watched the sun move and the shadow move. And he kept doing that until he was able to proportion it. And, of course, God put it in his mind to proportion it. God created twelve apostles which he called the daylight. He created twelve apostles that He called the daylight church. And he created twelve sons of Jacob which He called the clock of the night. He did that. And God worked with man's mind and God made him to where man would think like this, to where he would work until he got the little dial as a clock to where he could comprehend the proportional parts of it, as to the application of his daily chores to where he could keep his balance and know that it was starting and when it would end and how much time he had to do thus and thus in. So then, God started time. But, you know. I don't have time. When I come to talk with you and we speak about time I don't have time, according to man's way of doing things, to really get into the deep mysteries of God and the deep revelation of God. But there is one thing that I'd like to do as we go along from time to time. And that is point out things like this. Why was there a clock? Why was there a time piece? Where did it come from? There would never have been a clock. There was no clock to Adam and Eve. There was no time to Adam and Eve. There was no beginning with Adam and Eve. There was no growing weary with Adam and Eve. There was no time to go to bed and a time to get up the way that you have time. It was altogether different. It was altogether different. But, you know, when time came into existence the first thing that forerun time was the shadow called Lucifer. Lucifer, the sun of the morning that had fallen and had become the dark shadow of death. They that said, Yea, thou I walk through the valley. Speaking of this world as a valley. Though I walk through the valley. This is a valley when God looks down from heaven. Though I walk through this valley of the shadow of Lucifer that's over me, this shadow that's between me and God. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he said, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy Rod and staff. That is, Thy Word and Spirit, they comfort me. So then, in this valley that shadow came. God casting Lucifer out, leaving the world of light he became a shadow. It does not mean that he is not light. He is still light but he is called a dark light. The Bible said if that light within you be darkness, how great is that darkness. So he is still a light and a light means an understanding. He still is an understanding but he is a perverted understanding, for light is accounted for as understanding and understanding is light. Light is typical. And so then, God using a natural shadow, a natural light, a natural timepiece, He did that to show us that in a spiritual realm there is a spiritual light called understanding and there is another spiritual light called darkness. And that in that world He is doing things, like in a human stride and He is moving day by day. He is moving toward a goal day by day. In His spiritual stride, in His spiritual world He is doing a spiritual thing. Jesus said if I go away, I'll go away to do a work. I'll go away to prepare a place, and then when it's prepared I'll come again to receive you unto my own. And God let, in the beginning, as we say, Satan enter into Adam that he might, all the way from the garden down to Calvary show the fall of mankind and to bring these natural things into existence that we might have a natural stability of mind by means and measures of comprehending that we might keep our sanity. And then from Calvary comes the beginning of the creation of God. It's then, at Calvary, that we see the second man Adam called the Son of God. And then we see the beginning of that which he went away to prepare. He left at Calvary and He went away to prepare and has been preparing ever since. So then, coming down from the garden to Calvary we see one episode of life. And then when the episode of the shadow of life is over then we see the light break forth from the shadows and the other side of Calvary, the coming of the Lord, we see the episode of the spiritual world and the spiritual life, in that God is preparing another world for another people and bring them into another understanding. So then, Christ is the beginning of the creation of God, that great invisible world, that great wonderful strangeness of God. God doing things in strange ways, that strangeness of God begins to appear. Let me comment just a little more here and I'll close. How then should I think of God? I should think of God as a present God. He's present. Not that He was here yesterday. Not that He's going to be here tomorrow for there is no such with God. He is. God is. He said, Moses tell Him I AM sent you. Not I was. Not I'm going to be. He said, I AM. I AM. I AM. I AM. This is a present thing. I AM. So then, if God was always and God was forever, and God is eternal, then why do we say so many days beyond the beginning and then so many days and so many days and so many days. You say, But, Brother Pike, we have to do that, you know; you have to know where the thing started. No, that's not what it is at all. In God's world there is no such thinking. In God's world all that's a bunch of foolishness because you think of days and you think of months and you thing of years, God allowed that for you to keep your stability, as to the dividing of time. The Bible speaks of time, times and the dividing of times. And so God lets you think like that. Times, times and dividing of times. So then, if I said time, times and dividing of times then what would I be saying? I would be saying a time, and then times, and then the dividing of times. I would be saying one year as time. I would be saying two years as times, plural. And then I would be saying the dividing of times as half of the year, the year being a time. So the Bible said, time, times and dividing of times. See? That's for you, that's not for God. That's not for God. God has no times, no dividing of times, no such thing as days, birthdays and months and beginnings; those kind of things. That's just a figment of imagination, your thinking, your thoughts. That doesn't exist with God. Therefore God is. He is. He is. That means today He's just as fresh as the daisies. He's just as fresh as the morning dew because there is no age with God. Though He's called the ancient of days, it just means He's been here all the time. That doesn't mean beyond the beginning, because there were no days beyond the beginning so that He could be the ancient of days. The ancient of days means the days we've already spent here in the world, but He spent all of them. He's older than anybody else. So then, God is just as fresh as He can be. God is just as young as He can be. God is just as alive as He can be. He is life itself. God is the wonderful ever, filled up, wonderful present state of life. Now don't that make it a whole lot better. Instead of trying to get out of that old brain, and that old feeble computer like thoughts together of trying to measure God by our little ole, you know, what could you call it? To measure God by our brain and our thoughts. See? You can't do that. So, we say, what was beyond the beginning? What was beyond the beginning? What was the beginning? Can you tell me what was beyond the beginning? God. God was beyond the beginning. So then, what is after the beginning? Or after the end, we say? God. What is all between the beginning and the end? God. And what if God done away with every living thing, including me and you, and there was no more you, there was no more me, there was no more nothing? then what would there be? Somebody said, Well, there wouldn't be anything but the sky left. No, there wouldn't be no sky. He made the sky, too. He made the stars, too. He made the clouds, too. He made the moon. He made the sun. I'm talking about doing away with all of that. See? What would there be? God. God. Folks, I said all of that to say this: Jesus was the beginning of God. The only beginning of God there is. Jesus was the beginning of the creation of God. You don't know God without Jesus. There is no God to human beings without Jesus. There never was a God without Jesus. There never could be a God without Jesus. We are the creation of God. We are the image of God. Paul said on Mars Hill, he said, You people that ignorantly worship God, he said, let me declare God to you. He's above you. Said, He's in you, and He is through you, and in Him you have your life. You have your state of being. You exist by God. So then, God, where is He? Above me. Where is He? He's in me. Where is God? He's everywhere. He's God everywhere and He's been here all the time, as the song says. God has been here all the time. So then, in that God is here then let's think of God like that. Not as to how many years, because we throw ourselves into a dilemma when we start thinking about days and years, because what is days and years? Nothing but a figment of imagination. It's nothing but a human imprint. It's nothing but a thought. I say that a lot of times. I say it like this to prove that. If there is such thing as days and years, where is yesterday? I as the question. If there is such thing as days where is tomorrow? Why don't somebody show it to me? Out of all the years nobody has been able to find it. Nobody has been able to find yesterday. And nobody has been able to find tomorrow. Somebody said, Now wait until tomorrow comes. All right. It was yesterday and we waited until tomorrow came and here we are in today. How did we get into today when we were waiting on tomorrow? And we were so sure that tomorrow got here, and then when it got here as we thought we found ourself in today, and we're still waiting for tomorrow and we left yesterday behind. You understand what I'm saying? There is no such thing. The sun comes up, the sun goes down all because the sun goes around the earth, that's all. See? So there is no yesterday. There is no tomorrow. There is just this one present state of being. That's why the Bible said, this is the day that the Lord has made. John entered into the Lord's day. And the Bible said a day with God is as a thousand years. So then, there is no such thing as days with God. God just proportioned out something for your sake to train you, to develop you, to educate you. To make you to understand so that you could have stability of mind. But, see? Folks, when you come into God, when you come into the things of God all of that goes away into nothing. And this is one of the great dangers I keep speaking to you of as a pastor. See? You are going to excel. People that have gone up in the rockets, people that have gotten out yonder into space, people that have gone way out yonder they have lost their sense of balance. There is no boundaries out there. They can't find any end out there. Somebody would say, Well, Brother Pike, if you were out there if you'd go so deep you'd hit the bottom after awhile. There is no bottom. How could you hit a bottom? There is no bottom out there. Someone would say, Well, if you just kept going straight up, Brother Pike, you'd hit the top. There is no top out there. There is no sides out there. Folks, when you get out there you're in eternity. The only means and measures you've got for stability is that you remain within the circle of the little circumference of this gravitational power that surrounds your world. Or if you go from here to the moon, or one of the other planets, and that's all there is to it, and beyond that it is endless eternity without any bottom, without any top, without any findings, without any means, without any measures. And everybody is headed in that direction. You say, No, not me, Brother Pike. No. No, not you, so far as your natural brian, your natural body, your natural eyes, no. But so far as your mind, which is your spirit, it's ever excelling. It's ever searching. It's ever being educated. Even the children in school, their minds, their spirits is out there somewhere around pluto. Or out there somewhere around Venice, or somewhere out yonder. See? That is to say, Satan is pulling your mind out of the realms of sanity, and people by the thousands are going insane. They're losing their stability. They're losing their balance. See? This is why it's so necessary for us to grow into the knowledge of God and get the mysteries of Christ, and get into the things of God to where we understand that our yonder. You say, What do you mean by that? I mean that there is no such thing as a foundation to anything. Scientifically speaking that's what you go by. Where is the bottom to the world? Where is the foundation of the world? They've learned that it's just floating around and they've proven it's just floating around out here in this vast eternity. Where is the foundation of the sun? and where is the foundation of the moon? They don't have one. See? That means that there is nothing. That there is nothing in this world, or nothing in the universe that has foundation. But, see? Abraham said, I seek a city whose builder and maker is God. Said, it hath a foundation. Do you know what it is out there? It's a bottomless pit. It's an infinity. It's an eternity, and God is going to put you into it. You're going into it. Your spirit, your mind, when it departs your body it's going into it. Ever learning, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. That's what you are. That's who you are. That's where you spent your world, in college, in school, in study, in thinking, in reading those kind of things, in reveling in the world. And when your spirit is loosed from this body you've lost your means of habitation. You've lost your boundaries. You've lost your means and measures. You've lost your comprehension, because you're not in the body anymore when you do that. But, folks, we are not going to the bottomless pit. We're not going to an endless eternity. We're going to a city that has foundations; that is an absolute. You know, we might call this Little Bethlehem foundation, or they might call that the Foundation for the Blind over yonder, but see, we've got some heavenly foundations. And the Bible said Jesus laid these foundations and built you and I as lively stones, as a city, into a holy priesthood for God, a habitation for God. And we've got a new earth. We've got a new place of habitation. We've got foundations. Abraham sought a city that had foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Other foundations can no man lay except those that Jesus laid of the twelve apostolic leaders, of the tutoring, of the teachings, of the indoctrination of our mind to comprehend the height, the depth, the width and the length. Not ever learning. The Bible said the things of God have an end. That is you completely grasp, comprehend God in Jesus Christ. So then, I look for God and I see Jesus, and I see God going about doing good. Before then we could not comprehend God. God could not be measured. God could not be comprehended. But when God became a man in this world then we can comprehend a man, so we comprehend God through Jesus. A good God. A loving God. A kind God. We know what God is because of what Jesus did. Everything that Jesus did, the way He lived, the way He sacrificed, His attitude, that was our Heavenly Father. So now we comprehend God through the characteristics of Jesus. So, I want to say this again. That God has a plan and a program and you and I fit into it. And we've got to go one way or another, and we are going one way or another. So then, when you and I think about God let's think about God as that wonderful immeasurable Spirit that is ever present, that is ever new, that is ever alive, that never has days, never has beginning nor end. He is not measured by our thinking when we think of Him as a spirit. He is not measured by our thinking. There is no measurements of God, so you don't have to say, how many years was he there because all of that is foolishness, as to how many years. Because what is here today if they don't exist? We just say that God, the present state of being, the wonderful everlasting, ever present, Almighty, fresh as a daisy. Fresh as the morning dew on the roses, our God who always is, always was, always shall be, just the present state of life which is God. Isn't that wonderful? That is God. So then, when we think of God otherwise, as to our means and measures, remember He's Jesus. For no man has ever seen God as a spirit. No man has ever seen God, not at anytime. The Bible said, neither can you see Him, for He is the great light unto which no man can approach. Like the sun; you can't get to it. Whom no man has seen at any time, and Jesus Christ alone dwelling in the midst of that great light, that great radiance of God. He alone dwelling in the midst; He has comprehended God and made God a declaration, and today we comprehend God through the declaration of human utterance as a human being. The Word was made..(Begin tape two, side one) ..the spirit was made flesh. It was made Word so we can have our little human terminology, as to a declaration. So we declare God, and Jesus has declared Him. He comprehended Him and He declared Him and we comprehended the declaration as to part, and today our God is Jesus. One God, one faith, one baptism, and in His name alone is salvation. Beginning at Jerusalem, as to where He was born, divine birth, and unto the uttermost parts of the world this life, this wonderful state of life that I'd love to express more clearly sometimes. This wonderful state of life. In His name shall the Gentiles trust. And in His name comes salvation, beginning in Jerusalem then to the uttermost parts of the world. Unto you and to all who be afar, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Let's stand together. Let's sing the little chorus I Love Him. (Singing) Sing it with me again. (Singing) I wonder tonight if you really love the Lord? The woman stood at the well, and Jesus was there. As she stood at the well she kept talking about worshipping God. Worshipping God and she kept talking about their father Jacob giving them the well and Jesus finally told her, said, Woman, said, there is a day coming. If you'll notice He said, it now is. The last man Adam was made a quickening spirit. That quickening spirit was there talking to her. Said, The time is coming, and now is when the true worshippers, the true worshippers, said, they'll worship God in spirit because God is a spirit and he seeks such to worship Him. Said, He's a spirit. And said, for you to make contact with God, or have communication with God, your spirit on the inside, your spirit is going to have to be holy, and godly and pure, and it's going to have to love and worship the eternal spirit. You're going to have to get to where when you pray, woman, and talk to God that you're going to have to get into the spirit to where it's a spiritual thing, and His Spirit and your spirit is becoming interwoven. For, He said, the days of ritualistics is over, to join the baptist, the methodist, the presbyterian, and the church of God, the Church of Science, and have your name on the roll and hear the preacher say something nice. He said, Those days of ritualistics are over. He said, it's being revealed now through My ministry that God is a Spirit. For Jesus is the One that brought it. It's being revealed now that He is a Spirit and the true worshippers are going to worship God in Spirit. They're going to worship Him with their Spirit. So, folks, if you're not worshipping God with your spirit then you are not worshipping God at all. You know, when your spirit really genuinely gets right with God, you know what you'll do? Your spirit on the inside will make you think holy thoughts and desire holy things. And it will make you want to do away with all the make-up and the rings in your ears and the jewelry, and the form fitting clothes, and the t.v., and the frolics and the things of this world, because you're spirit will begin to be Christ's Spirit and it will begin to think like Christ and it will begin to walk like Christ, and it will begin to act like Christ, and all of your characteristics will begin to be Christ in the earth until you get to where you can say, it's not me living but Christ. But this ritual that you call religion, this formality that you call religion of coming to church, maybe giving in the offering, talking about the Lord once in awhile and trying to do some little religious thing on the side, that won't do any good. You know, that reminds me. It comes to my mind about this time that, you remember? the brotherhood here sent a widow, they sent a widow an automobile. That widow wrote a letter; I read it to you. And I believe I got this right. She said, the biggest drunkard of Apalachicola through the years has never sought God, or whatever, from the way she described it, said, when the car was given to the widow it was more than he could stand and he gave his heart to God and became a Christian. When he saw the love of God in your heart to give that widow that vehicle, said, it overwhelmed him, said, he couldn't resist then. (Note: I couldn't find anything else on the tape, though it sounds unfinished. No ending either, I suppose. P.H.)

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

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

Holiness Unto The Lord