The Day Of Perfection

Reading in chapter ten of Hebrews let's talk about some things and maybe we'll relate back to some of the things that we mentioned this morning, maybe, maybe not. I don't know just exactly which way we'll go with this but let's read in chapter ten. It starts with the first verse in the book of Hebrews: (Brother George reads: Hebrews Chapter 10: l-39; ll: l) Okay I was trying to hurry along a little bit. There I like to got a little too fast but anyway trying to get to a few thoughts tonight before you get impatient because I know that on the night service or in the night service you get just a little bit weary and it makes it a little harder to reach your spirits. Notice what he says here. This is one of the most beautiful chapters in the whole Bible for it speaks of the law of that having a shadow. He says here in the book of Hebrews that the law having a shadow of those things that are to come and not being the very image thereof could never make the comer there unto perfect. This is why I brought out a number of times to you concerning the revelation of God that as to the law they that were under the law could never be made perfect. Those that were under the law could never be perfect. They could never be made perfect because the Bible said that the law those things only had a shadow of that which was to come, that is to say the things that you and I are enjoying today are those things that were to come. And so then now that we have these things we have that which is perfect. The Bible said, When that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away with. And so then we now have that which is perfect. Those that were under the law the Bible said, And these cannot or could not be made perfect without us. So then they that died under the law could not be made perfect without us simply because as I stated before that the Bible says coming unto the law or the comer thereunto could never be made perfect by the offering up of the blood of bulls and goats. So then there had to be the offering of human sacrifice as to the blood of the Son of God who was the lamb of God who was offered up in the evening time for your sins and for my sins. So then those that were under the law all of these died unto the law not having received the promise. But the Bible says: embracing the promise by faith the promise that God made to Abraham, embracing this promise they confessed that they were pilgrims and strangers and were looking forward to the day when this thing would be fulfilled in God and that perfection would come.

So here we are. We're living in the wonderful day of perfection. You would say, What do you mean by that, Brother Pike? I'm saying that now we are sanctified once and for all by the offering up of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ and the faith which was in Christ hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified, having sanctified them once and for all by the offering up of that body. So then we contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints which faith makes us perfect in Christ Jesus. So then we see that now we've come to this perfect day. What a beautiful thought! What a beautiful thing to know that now I can be perfect! The Bible said, Therefore go on to perfection, not turning again to lay the foundation of repentance as of dead works and dead faith toward God, but let us go on to perfection. So then we see this beautiful thing that God has done for us looking back at the law and looking back at those that are under the law we know then that the blood of bulls and goats could never have made those people perfect. So then the law maketh nothing perfect. Why then do you serve the law as Paul said? If the law doesn't make anything perfect why then do you serve the law? Are you trying again to be under bondage? Why we are free from the law. See the law was given to reveal sin in our bodies, to let us know that it was working all kind of concupiscence within us and it brought to surface as to our understanding all of those evil, wretched things that's come down to us from the birth of Adam in that in Adam all die. So we see that God has now made us perfect. Someone would say, Well why do you get so excited over that, Brother Pike? Because I like being perfect. How many of you like being perfect? Let's give the Lord a hand. I like that.

I like to be blameless before God. See the Bible said, When Jesus stood before the priest that they said, even Pilot, I find no fault in this man, no fault. So then we got what they call no fault insurance today. You know so he said, I find no fault in this man. Isn't that wonderful to think that you can't find any fault with me? Let's give the Lord a hand. Somebody said, Now Brother Pike, let's get this thing in line here. That's what I'm trying to tell you. The Bible said, And no one can lay anything to the charge of Brother Pike. For God justified me. It is God that has perfected me forever. It is God that made me his elect and no one can lay anything to the charge of God's elect. I like that, don't you? Say, Well all the gossipers, all the backbiters, all the fault finders, whatever it might be, they can't find any fault with me because I am a son of God. I like being a son of God. So then being a son of God they cannot lay anything to my charge. Not only that I like being perfect for this reason: if I want something all I got to do is just say, That's the way it's going to be and that's the way it will be. When you're perfect then you just say, That's the way it's going to be and that's the way it will be.

Like when we came in on our ships after a number of days out to sea, went over to the marina and we got over to the marina there God began to move and we had that great wonderful vision where this being that was Christ walking by my side I tell you this over again and he walked right by my side, I kept thinking, What is this? What is this? I feel such a great, mighty, supernatural force walking with me. All of a sudden I said, I'll find out what this is and so I turned just a quick as a flash like that but quicker than a flash he entered into me. And when he entered into me I said, My God, this is so awesome. What a feeling! I said, My God! I said, If I just say anything Lord, I'll have to be careful what I think, if I just say anything it'll come to pass. And so then God within you he is your hope of glory. And see, the Bible said, That if you say anything and you don't doubt whatsoever you say, That's what you can have.

Now this morning you remember we kind of hit this just a little bit and I was trying to tell you that the thing that keeps the church from this great mighty move of God, the thing that keeps you individually from this great, mighty thing of God is that you doubt and that you waver. See Jesus made it real plain. He said, All you've got to do is ask in faith nothing wavering. And he said, Whatever you say, He said, You can have whatever you say if you don't doubt. He said, Decree a thing in your heart and it will come to pass and then he said, Just say what you will even if you say unto the mountain, Be thou removed. Be thou cast into the sea and don't doubt in your heart that you'll have whatever you say. And he said, When you pray if you desire anything believe that you receive it and you shall have it. So then this is so wonderful! How can we have this? Because Paul outlines it here in the revelation he says, And having the revelation I see this and understand it. He said, Now brethren having boldness to enter into the holies of holies. See beyond Calvary no one could enter into the holies of holies. They would have been struck down but today by the blood of Jesus by the blood of the lamb having the boldness to enter into the very holies of holies we can go right in and come boldly before the throne of grace and just tell God what we want and what we're going to have. And the Bible said, Command thou me concerning the works of my hands. Command thou me concerning the works of my hand. Decree it in your heart. Say, It's got to be like that and don't let up and you'll have whatever you desire.

So then the secret of faith is to ask nothing wavering, to ask and don't doubt. Jesus would say unto them a lot of times he'd say, Be not of a doubtful mind. You know just believe. Everything that you want it will be all right. Don't be doubtful. So then tonight I've entered into the very holies of holies. I'm right in there where the ark of the covenant is. I'm right in there with the high priest himself. Oh someone would say, No, no Brother Pike, only the high priest can enter into that. Well the way I entered into it it was because I'm the high priest. Let's give the Lord a hand. The Bible said, Bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh and it's not be living but it's the high priest, Jesus Christ himself. And so then God making the way into this place we just entered right into it and come boldly before the throne of grace and we say, It's going to be like that. It's going to be like this and we rule with a rod of iron because we are the child that's been caught up to the throne. See we're not in the flesh. The Bible said, You're not in the flesh. I've chosen you out of the flesh. You're not in the world. I've chosen you out of the world. I've hid you with Christ in God whom the heavens have received until the time of the restoring of all things. So then tonight we, the inner man, has been caught up to heaven and at sleep or death Christ that is the inner you, the second man, the Lord from heaven went back to God who gave that spirit of life. So I find myself in this condition tonight. I find myself dwelling in heaven. And the Bible said, Rejoice ye that dwell in heaven. Rejoice forevermore! And the Bible said, We're sitting in those heavenly places. God has hid us with Christ in himself as to the spiritual world we're now one with Christ. Our inner man is now as an angelic being that has been translated into the marvelous spirit of God. And our spirit is now one with the eternal spirit and Satan can't touch us. We keep ourself and the evil one toucheth us not. So then this makes us to know what Paul was saying here as to that which was under the law. He said, And if there had have been something under the law or if the law could have taken away sin that we would have no more conscience of sin it would have not been necessary for the Lord Jesus to come and to give his life for us. But in that that could not do it there was always a conscience of sin. No matter how many animals were offered up, no matter how much confession was made, there was nothing that could move the conscience of sin. But the Bible says concerning Christ and the entrance into your heart as to the Holy Spirit that where these things are there is no more conscience of sin. I don't have any conscience of sin. I'm not conscious of sin anymore. I'm not conscious of this world anymore in my inner man therefore the devil cannot get to me. He cannot harm me because I'm sealed by the Holy Spirit and the Bible said concerning your inner man: Grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby thou art sealed unto the day of redemption which redemption I say is of the body.

So then we find that we are still talking about the separation of the body and of the spirit until the day of the change. And the writer said, Job said, And I'll wait for my change. And he said in the last days I shall stand myself upon this earth and see God for myself. Not for another but for myself. I shall see him in the latter day. And so then I am free from sin. I am free from sin because I believe that I am free from sin because I believe what the Word says. So then I am a preacher of righteousness. I come and preach as I did this morning righteousness. And in preaching this righteousness I tell you that this is an eternal salvation. This is an eternal righteousness. And it never again can you sin. For where these things are there is no more conscience of sin, but the comer thereunto in the Old Testament could never have this perfection. So then I have been perfected forever. My innermost being is sealed. My body, somebody would say, What about the body, Brother Pike? You don't have to worry about the body because the body is dead in the sight of God. It is dead and it is crucified. God has poured out his wrath upon it through Jesus who is made sin who knew no sin and having been made my sin he felt the wrath of God and there I died and I reckon myself to be dead in deed unto the world and unto sin by the body of Jesus and I've been planted in the likeness of his death and now I'm coming forth in the likeness of his resurrection. My spiritual man has already come forth from the waters. In that like John said, These are waters, that is scientists considers the body to be water, mostly water and when John speaks of people he speaks of it as waters, and so then when our spirit left this body in that this body died at Calvary then it left this body, having been baptized into death, then it left this body and went back to God who gave it, coming out of the watery grave. The stone rolled away, the heart of stone rolled away which was beyond Calvary. The Old Testament that is to say the law the heart of stone gone and the Bible said, Now God has taken out the heart of stone as pertaining to those things that was there at the mount that burned with fire as to the fury of God and he's taken out the heart of stone as to say, Thou shalt not kill and thou shalt not steal, having fulfilled the righteousness of the law in me, then Christ has taken out the heart of stone and the stone is rolled away and the Christ of my heart hath ascended up into the heavens, having wrote the laws upon the table of my heart and now the love of God constraineth me that I walk within his way. What a beautiful message! What a beautiful day! To think that this is the day that the Lord has made, even the day of rest. Let us therefore cease from our own works and ambition, taking faith and go into the world of God, transformate, translate, transfigure right into the wonderful world of God.

You know as a preacher I seek to present you blameless body, soul and spirit. Paul said, I want to present you blameless body, soul and spirit. Or that is to say, I don't just want to preach holiness to you as to the spirit, but I want to preach holiness to you as to your body, for to be holy in body also. And if I can present you body, soul and spirit blameless unto God, that's what I want to do. How then can I do that? By teaching you faith. The Bible said, And we are helpers of your faith and we're set there as the ministry for the perfecting of your faith. That is to say if your faith is to be perfect you got to hear the perfect message and then you got to believe the fullness of the message and then your faith is not incomplete and therefore you receive the fullness of the righteousness of God, that is to say if I believe in what Jesus did for me then I receive the fullness of the reward of God. For I say, Lord, I'm clean. I'm holy. I'm not dirty. I'm not filthy. You know the devil is always talking to the mind. He's trying to trample down the mind of humanity. Always he's telling you what a wretch you are. He's telling you what you are not in God. He's telling you what you cannot be and he tries to discourage you in anything, any kind of vision that you have for God so that he can spin you around like a top, come into you and use your passions as to this life span to satisfy his greedy, gullible spirit of lust and gain. See to use your life up as a parasite because he knows the day that he has to leave the body he's tormented. Like when Jesus cast the devils out over there when the man was among the tomb the devils cried out and said, Have you come to torment us before our time. You know devils can torment you but God torments devils. Said, Have you come to torment us before our time? Said, suffer us to go into the herd of swine. So then God torments devils. And devils torment people. And if the devil can get into you he'll torment you as I said today. If he can work through your body he can torment you through your human senses and he'll oppress your mind and he'll tell you all kind of things to keep you from excelling in God or going on in God to really be something in Christ because he wants to cast you down and he wants to keep you under condemnation. But the Bible says, There is now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. And I keep telling you it is utterly impossible for a Christian to walk after the flesh. How can you walk after the flesh? Because you're not in the flesh. You've been chosen out of the flesh and the flesh is now dead. How can you walk in a dead body? How can a spirit live in a dead body? See the very fact that a spirit would be there, that would be a living body. And the very fact that the spirit is absent then that means that that's death. Or that is to say if there's no life there's bound to be darkness and wherever there's life there can't be any darkness because light and darkness doesn't have any fellowship. All right so we see that life is light and death is darkness. That is to say the mind of Christ is life. To be spiritually minded is life but to be carnally minded is to the lustful desire of Lucifer as to the gullible desires of the flesh that savors the things that be of the world is death. So we are free from death. We have no conscience of sin and now the body of this death that Satan could work through is now gone forever. God took it away. It's buried now and he can't accuse us anymore. No one can accuse us. No one can lay anything to our charge because we are free from sin having been made free from the body of that death that Paul referred to. So then I am free tonight from the body. I am alive forever. I'm eternally alive.

You know a lot of people they'll look at the preacher and they'll listen at him preach and they think, My that's so beautiful you know the way the preacher says that's so beautiful to think that we are alive forever. And they say that's real good and someday it's going to be just the way he said. But beloved friend it's not going to be someday. It is right now. The Bible said, Now beloved are ye the sons of God. Now beloved are ye the sons of God. It doth not appear what ye shall be like so far as people looking on you because you're body hasn't been changed. And someone would say, Brother Pike, that's the thing I'm interested in is my body. Well that's not the thing I'm interested in. Let's give the Lord another hand. See that's where you make your mistake. You're too interested in your body. You're too interested in you. You're too interested in your human senses and your feelings of the body therefore you never get into the spirit. Paul said, I would that you were spiritual. We don't need to be fleshly. If we're concerned about our body and the benefit of the body and the comforts of the body then that means that we're absent from the spirit and that means that we don't have the blessings of God and we don't have eternal life. If we're interested in the passions of the body we still don't have eternal life. But folks we're suppose to be interested in the spirit. And we're suppose to walk in the spirit and we're suppose to make no provisions for the flesh to fulfill the desire of the lust thereof. The Bible said, They that are Christ they have mortified the flesh or the body with the deeds thereof. So then we need to walk in spirit. We need to be spiritually minded. We need to be God minded. We need to think about the things of God. I guess this is one thing that excited me tonight while we were in the men's service that all of a sudden people became interested in the things of God. They just kind of laid aside their feelings and begin to think about the wonderful things of God. And they got so engrossed in those kind of things that it looked like the world just fled away. Isn't that wonderful?

How many of you believe that you'd rather be of the other world? This world is at an end. There is nothing but problems in this world. I've said this morning that though it has been heaven as to the first heaven there is nothing but problems in this world. I said this morning that though it has been heaven as to first heaven, second heaven, third heaven all of a sudden the heaven is beginning to fade away and it's beginning to become a nightmare. Like the song we wrote you know it's turned into horrible screams and it's turned into nightmares and the beginning of sorrows have already come. This body that you think so much of you know and you try to build it and keep it young and keep this out in the spotlight, this body is all of a sudden, the bellies are beginning to rot out with cancer. All of a sudden the lungs are becoming depleted and lungs are collapsing, even in young men and young men are beginning to have heart attacks and all these things are beginning to happen. Even young men are getting bald on the top. You know and young women they look like a hag. You know you can look at women that was one time, years ago you could look at a young woman you know and she really looked radiant and full of life. She didn't have to have powder and paint and all these other things. And she didn't have to go around with her clothes wrapped so tight trying to project her body in lust you know to catch people's attention or rip out the neck or rip out the sleeves or whatever. She didn't have to do that to get a husband. She looked so rich and radiant in health that she attracted a man. She attracted a man you know. It was wholesome. The Bible said that God beautifies the meek with salvation, but when God begins to chasten the beauty fades away and God's beginning to chasten the world and they're becoming like old hags. They're beginning to look like witches. I don't care how much they comb their hair, powder their face, the more they put on the more like a lizard they look.

So then they're not getting anywhere you know. But there's one thing about it if you leave that body, lay that body down for Christ. Give that body to God to glorify God in your body and in your spirit and if you turn to God you become spiritual, then God will bless you. God will strengthen you and God will make you radiant with life. Someone would say, Well, how could that be Brother Pike? Well it's like Moses, he was so radiant with life, there the glow of life, his face he was so radiant, Stephen was so radiant with life, Jesus had stood on the mountain was so radiant with life. So was Enoch when he was taken away. So was Elijah when he was taken away. So radiant in life. See we're living in the day of perfection. These men were so radiant in life that Moses he had to put a veil over his face. The people couldn't even look at him. The Bible speaks of a time when he shall shine brighter than the noonday because you turned many to righteousness. And someone would say, Well Brother Pike, you know I still don't understand that because Moses he put the veil on his face and he was radiant and whatever and he up and died. No, he put the veil over his face. It wasn't that he was just shining you know like a light. The Bible says that the natural sources of his body wasn't abated. And the Bible said, His eyesight had not waxed dim. And as it was with Elijah, Elijah, it doesn't matter what age he was, he just stepped on board that chariot and away he went. He was strong and mighty. The same way with Enoch, somebody would say, Well my lands, Enoch was three hundred years old. It didn't make any difference. He was still strong, healthy, young. He just stepped into the whirlwind and away he went just like that. You know I remember the vision where I told you I was caught up in the whirlwind and away he went just like that.

You know I remember the vision where I told you I went up, up and way up into the heavens and I looked and waved bye to everybody. I waved them by because that whirlwind was taking me on up, on up, up. And like Brother Taylor said, When I was standing in the heavens and way up in the heavens I had my hands stretched out and I looked and I was the Lord Jesus. And I was saying, Come unto me all that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. You know we sing that song, Come unto me and I will give you rest. So then we see that God is doing something to you and I. There is a great, wonderful mystery that is to be revealed to the church and Paul said, In this behold, I show you this mystery, We shall not all sleep. In the days of the voice of the seventh angel when he shall begin to sound the Bible said, The mystery of God should be finished and we're coming to that great wonderful radiance of life to where the natural sources of our body won't be abated and we'll preserve this body and not have to go by the way of the grave. Not me put in a casket, not me put in the dirt. You know I said not too long ago, I said the days of caskets are over and boy, I tell you what they a little literature down in Texas and they just about had a spell down there and they did everything they could to crucify me. But see they just didn't understand. They just didn't understand. I was simply trying to tell them that since Calvary it's not necessary to die. Even before Calvary Elijah went away. Enoch went away. See this great, wonderful thing is here. (End of tape l side one)...necessary to be put in a box if you want to believe like Enoch, God's no respect of person. But the thing is God is working something because of our lack of diligence and submission and conformity, God's having to take us like a bunch of children and he's working something collectively speaking to bring us to the revealing of this great wonderful thing where death is conquered and that in that he will take the whole church away at one time. So then many of us don't live like Enoch. Many of us don't walk like Enoch. Somebody would say, Well I think I live a good life. I don't doubt but what you do. And Enoch wouldn't be compared to you because you are a son of God, see, and you have more righteousness in the sense that you are the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that you are, but at the same time, I also know that that is in the spirit of what God has wrought for you and not in the body as to what you've wrought because you're not all walking like Enoch. Someone would say, Well, what do you mean by that? I mean that the Bible said before Enoch's translation, God said he had this testimony that he pleased God. Do you have the testimony that you please God? Now I'm afraid that many of us don't please God. It is true David of old made such blunders, but yet David said, My heart is perfect before God. I know my ways don't please God and I can say that of the church world today. The church world as a whole their ways don't please God. They stumble, they stagger, but because God hath wrought this inner work they are perfect in their spirit and they can never die. And though they stumble in their body yet God has allowed for it. The blood has covered it. They're dead in their body. The body profiteth nothing and they are dead in their body. And God doesn't lay that to their charge. But at the same time I want you to remember that that which is on the inside of me can only be utilized through the members of this body. And I must perfect this body as to be able to utilize the full strength of this non-wavering faith to bring me what I want. Someone would say, Well Brother Pike, if God's taken care of it I won't worry about it. Well, you don't worry about it, you'll never be used of God. And the fact that you have that attitude means that God hasn't taken care of it for you because you're not born again, because if you was born again you'd have this attitude that I would be about the Father's business. I want to perfect holiness in the fear of God. I want to go on to perfection in my body to bring it to the same thing that Jesus was as the God manifesting his son in my life or revealing his son in my life to those that are without.

All right we're privileged here at Bethlehem because I speak to you over and over. But many of them that are out in the world as to where these go as to these sermons they're not privileged. And just to get a little bit of what you've got it thrills their heart. They write and they're so excited. You know but a lot of you are so close to the light you're blinded and you really don't see. You really don't understand. But others out there just see a little ray of this light and being in that dense, deep depths of darkness they run to this light because they see hope, a radiant light that's bringing them hope and they get free from fears and the infiltrations of the flesh. All right so to be spiritually minded is life. We've come to the day of perfection. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. I just read a little piece in the paper just before I left the house and these people that have been freed, some of them as from Czechoslovakia different places they were the paper stated that they were praising God. It wasn't democracy that delivered them. I say again, if democracy had the power of deliverance why hasn't democracy done something through all these years? The situation just got worse and worse and worse during the days of the regime of democracy. It was God that delivered them and they praised God. They sang: This is the day that the Lord has made because we had predicted the walls would fall. So then these people were praising God. They are praising God because God had delivered them. And so then that's what we need. We need the power of deliverance. We need God. We need his spirit in our lives and we need to get more God conscious to where we can stay in church all night long, all day long, leaving everything, forgetting about houses and lands and faces and ambitions and all of these other things that continue, just continually going as they did in the early church from house to house breaking bread and praising God and trusting God and believing in God and no one said that anything that they had was their own but they loved the Lord and they worked together and they say praises unto God. They lived the kind of life that the early church was expected to have.

I made the statement tonight, I'm not requiring anything here at Bethlehem except one thing and that is the restoration of the early church. The thing that I was trying to do in bringing about an executive committee was to get some men that would come into this forefront as to live the life of the early church and to be like the early church to where we can prove that that is of God will manifest the same way. For he is the same yesterday, today and forever. If he is the same yesterday, today and forever he has the same principles and we've got to meet him on the same basis, the same principles to get him to do the same things or else he isn't the same yesterday, today and forever. So then I'm just trying to bring forth some men that will step out and some women that will step out and be altogether Gods and be as it was with the early church. You know when we established Bethlehem here our purpose was to bring about the early church restoration and our men and women got in. They didn't try to have anything. They just got in and they wanted to be a part of God's program and everybody was working together one for all and all for one, but then as it was said, Joshua told them, when you cross this Jordan and when you go into Canaan and when you make, God has made you rich beware lest you say, Who is God that I should serve him? So then he said and those things will turn your heart away from God and so it has been here at Bethlehem. All of a sudden you've got rich. God has blessed you with all kind of things and then you turned your heart away from God. You've let these things turn your heart away from God. You know Solomon the son of David had a real problem. He had great wisdom. He come and built the temple of God but the Bible said that the heathen women turned his faith and his mind away from God. See, he wouldn't marry in the tribe. He kept wanting all kind of women for his wife and he just got all kind of women and he got them out of every tribe and the Bible said, They eventually turned his heart away from God. God warned him, said, Solomon in doing these things you'd better be careful. They'll turn your heart away from me and so it was that before the decease of Solomon he had began to build temples for all kind of idols because his wife she believed in this religion and another wife believed in this religion and they wasn't contented and they'd go and to pull on the heart of Solomon and Solomon said, Well we'll build you a temple for your God too and this angered God and it wasn't long before they turned his heart away from God and God smote Solomon or took him out in his old age. All right we say, Well did he go to heaven? I tell you one thing folks, sin is sin whether it's in the Old Testament or in the New Testament. It's still sin. And the Bible said, The soul that sinneth shall surely die. If that soul sin the Bible said, It shall die. And God said, I shall in no wise acquit the wicked. It doesn't matter even if Samuel stood before me I won't do it. Let Samuel of the great leaders stand before me I still won't do it. When a man sins he's going to bare his judgment. So we have to remember that. You love the Lord?

All right I could go on and go on tonight because I'm just barely scratching the surface to get into the message that I want to get into but we're bringing in a little at a time something that you can feed on as to concerning the body and the spirit and this great wonderful day that you're living in. Folks, you're so underprivileged in the sense of your unbelief and your contrariness to God and your lack of conformity and your lack of submission and your lack of hungering and thirsting. You're so underprivileged. What a great, mighty hour this is. But you're still going after the flesh and the things of the flesh and your excitement is still concerning the flesh. Oh what a day! What a day! What a beautiful day but the Bible says the little flock, the little flock. Few there be that find it out of all the people that you preach to in a lifetime just a very few of them will find this wonderful, wonderful thing of God. Wonderful thing of God.

Somebody was saying the other day that someone came to them and they said, You know what? I have found the pearl of great price. I said, No, no. No they told me about the individual, I said, No. No. I'm sorry to say that that person has not found it. You say, Well you don't know. The Bible says that when you find the pearl of great price that you'll sell all that you've got, you'll give up everything that you've got. You'll forget all about your ambitions in life and you'll be nothing except what God wants you to be. So then I can tell that you haven't found it. But beloved friend if you ever do find it, really find it you'll start conforming to the ways of God that you might come back to the things of the early church, to be like the early church. You love the Lord? All right, let's stand together. All right let's sing a chorus or two together. A lot of things I'd like to say to you. Appreciate you being with us over the weekend and I trust that something has been said that will stir your inner emotions to where you will start searching and hungering and thirsting after these thing and say, What is that preaching talking about? A day of perfection. What is this that he's speaking of: entering into the rest of the Lord. Seeing that those that were called in the Old Testament entered not in because of unbelief. Therefore there remaineth a rest for God's people and here we are coming to that age. What is this? What do I have to do to get into this wonderful, wonderful thing? All right let's sing together. Can we sing together Sister Dale? (They sing).

Now the altars are open. (They sing). What kind of day is that? The day of his rest. And let us fear lest there be taken away from us the promise of entering into his rest. Seeing that the others entered not in because of unbelief then we ourselves will fail to enter in if we continue in unbelief. But this is the day, this is the day. What do you mean Brother Pike, this is the day? This is the perfect day. This is the perfect day. The Lord is at rest right now. Jesus said, Father, it is finished. And so the Lord rested on the seventh day, he rested from all of his work and so then this is the day of his rest. Not as to the day that's made manifest as will be the millennium the thousand years millennium but as to the day when it was finished in that God now is at rest because his son has done all of the work and everything is wonderful now and in the fullness of time he sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to gather everything in heaven and earth into this wonderful rest of God to where he can just go in rest. See he that hath entered into the rest of God hath ceased from his own work. So then we have entered into this rest and what we do we believe. Instead of works, we believe. We do our works, sure we do works for God, but not as to bring us into the salvation of God, for God's works was finished from the foundation of the world and now we believe for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and confession is made unto salvation with the lips and from the heart the mouth speaketh. This is why it is so important to bring the body into this thing in a perfecting way because the heart is the power of believing. That is though the spirit is the faith and the power of God yet it has to have something natural and the heart is what does the believing. And for the heart to really believe it's going to have to be purified especially to believe if I'm going to believe without doubting then I'm going to have to surrender the body, going to have to make the body conform, going to have to kill out the desires of the body and bring the body into perfect subjection with God to where there is no condemnation between me and God. Even though there is no condemnation to me as to God having wrought my salvation but yet we do things in stumbling and we thereby condemn ourselves; whereas, the Bible said, Happy is he that does not condemn himself over those things which he alloweth. That is to say, I should never condemn myself over something that I allow in that I stagger and I stumble when I'm doing my very best and as Paul said, I know it's not me that doeth it but sin that dwelleth in me, why then should I condemn myself when it was the devil that did it. You love the Lord? All right I know that some of you don't understand, but nevertheless that's the way it is. You have the chance to enter into the rest of the Lord. All right let's sing again. Can we sing again? I'm just a little tired tonight, might be a little short-winded from being a little tired you might be the same. We've had a steady day today but nevertheless we can still sing praises unto God. Can we sing together. The altars are open. Give me another key Sister Dale. (They sing) Can you sing that with me? (They sing) Can you sing that again? (They sing) One more time. (They sing) One more time. (They sing) Let's give him another hand.

The altars are open tonight. If you'd like to come to the altar remember tonight there is a great drama, a great thing is taking place and who is the main player outside of you? Who is the super-star of the great show of God outside of you? He's wanting to show us something. How many of you know that? So then who is the great, the great of this movement outside of you? Someone would say, Well how could I be Brother Pike? Because you're the body of the Lord Jesus and he's the super star. See and none's greater than you because you're flesh of his flesh and you're bone of his bone. So then someone would say, Well what's keeping me Brother Pike from doing these great wonderful things? Just one thing and that is your unbelief. So then someone would say, But somebody else is getting out front and they're doing all the great exciting things Brother Pike and they're before the public and everything is with them? What is then my problem? The measure of your faith, the measure of your faith. Jesus said, Oh thou of little faith. When he stepped out on the boat on board the ship you know when he raised his hand up when he said to the wind, he said, Peace. Then looked down at the waves and he said, Be still. And turned to the others and he said, Oh thou of little faith. Oh thou of little faith. See it's just your measure. It's just your portion. You're not putting it to the exchangers to really let it stand out for God. So tonight if you'd like to move out for God now is the opportunity to do it because the bride of Christ is coming forth. The bride of Christ is coming forth and what a beautiful hour. God is bringing forth a man child. He's bringing it forth in you and me. The great wonderful hour of deliverance is here. Someone would say, What do you mean deliverance? I mean the hour of God delivering us from the bondages of the world, delivering us from fears of death and all these other things. We're living in the day of this wonderful excitement of this wonderful deliverance and God is bringing forth a man child.

So then he says to you and I to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not the Bible said, He shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents. If they drink any deadly thing it shall not harm them. These signs shall follow them that believe. Someone would say, But Brother Pike, here we are in church, why doesn't the signs follow us? I believe that they do. But on the other hand it didn't say it would follow the people that went to church. It didn't say it would follow them that give in the offering. It said, It would follow them that believe. So then, do you believe? The man said, Lord, I believe. Help then my unbelief. Can we sing together again? What a wonderful hour. Give me another key sister. (They sing) Can you sing that with me? (They sing)

Don't you like being the main player of this show? Don't you like that? Somebody said, A show. Yes, showing off for Jesus. Revealing Jesus in our lives, the greatest show, the greatest drama and the veil, the curtains have been rent in twain and God is holding out his hand to you because he's expecting you to come. This great wonderful thing is ready. The Bible said, All things are now ready. Let them come. (They sing) Sing it with me now. (They sing) Hallelujah! (They sing) Sing it now. (They sing)

Let's give him another hand. Let's praise the Lord tonight while we're standing around the altar let's get our hearts in tune with God tonight and let's praise the Lord. Just to give him praise and honor and glory and let him reveal Christ in our life and reach out and touch the Lord and reach out to that perfectness that is God with your faith. Remember now that perfectness can only be yours if you reach out by faith. And it can't be make believe. It has to be real genuine faith when you reach out by faith and then the thing really happens. All right, let's sing, I love Him. Can you sing that? (They sing) One more time. (They sing) Can you sing that with me now? (They sing) Let's sing this little chorus Sister Dale. (They sing) Can you sing that with me? (They sing) One more time. (They sing) Can you sing that with me now? (They sing) Let's sing this little chorus Sister Dale. (They sing) One more time together. (They sing) You love the Lord? Let's sing this little chorus. We sing this chorus so often. (They sing) I want to remind you again as we sing this song (They sing)

Remember now, and God sent forth his son at Calvary made of a woman made under the law and he sent the son forth in the fullness of time. What a beautiful thought: the fullness of time. And Jesus said, It is finished. Raised his hands to God hanging there at Calvary hands raised to God saying, It is finished. So then the fullness of time, what is the fullness of time? It means that the day that the Lord has made is here. It means that you're not creatures of time anymore. It means that you've passed from death unto life and now because this fullness of time you are now perfect. You're now perfect. Look at there. Since the fullness of time come and Jesus said, It is finished. Now you are perfect, eternally perfect. Now someone would say, I wish I could believe that. If you don't believe that you'll die in your sins. If you don't believe that you'll die in your sins. Jesus said, Lest you believe that I am he ye shall die in your sins. So then you are living in the perfect day. The fullness of time has come and now God is rapturing the church. I know when we say the church I know the body is yet to be changed. I realize that. But why do you worry about the body? The body profiteth nothing. It is dead. It's dead. There's nothing to the body. It's life, it's spirit that we're concerned about. Why worry about the body? The body has nothing to do with it at all. The body is a helpless creature. That's why Jesus died to take away the sins of the body because the body has nothing to do with this. You have no more conscience of sin. The Bible said, Blessed is the man unto whom God will not impute sin. Blessed is the man whose sins are gone, his iniquities are taken away, his sins are covered. For charity the love of God covereth a multitude of sins. So in the fullness of time God has come into your heart now. And because he lives in your heart you're perfect. Well someone would say, But Brother Pike, I just don't feel like I'm perfect. How could you believe that you're not perfect? How could you do that? Do you believe that Jesus, do you believe that the Holy Ghost, do you believe that God could live in anything that wasn't perfect? Do you believe that he could come and take up his abode in anything that wasn't perfect? Isn't that the reason that Jesus died so life could come and take up it's abode in you, so that you would be perfect? He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Sanctified you once and for all by the offering up of the body of Jesus, having taken away the conscience of sin, having made you now perfect. He lives within you. You're the temple of God. He walks in you. He talks in you. You are now the temples of God. Now beloved are you, ye are the sons of God.

Now do you believe that you could be a son of God and not be perfect? How many of you feel like the sons of God are imperfect? Everybody that believes that sons of God are imperfect I'd like for you to raise your hand. If you believe that sons of God are not perfect then it looks like we need to get something straightened out in our minds. The Bible said, Now beloved are we the sons of God. We're the sons and daughters of God. Do you believe daughters of God are perfect? I know that in Christ there's neither male nor female. In heaven we're all as angels, that is spirits. The body is dead. The spirit went back to God who gave it. We're all in heaven. For God has chosen us out of the earth, hid us with Christ in God whom the heavens have received. Rejoice ye that dwell in heaven. So then do you believe that sons of God are imperfect? Somebody says, Well Brother Pike, I want to be perfect and I'm going to be perfect, just give me a little time. Folks, if it took a little time for you to be perfect, it will take a little time before you can get the Holy Ghost. It would take a little time before you could have eternal life. How many of you believe that you got eternal life, that you've passed from death unto life? Do you really believe that? You really believe that? Do you believe that because of that that you're going to heaven? Do you believe that? You're going to heaven not being perfect. But if you get eternal life even though you wasn't perfect he's going to take you to heaven and we're going to have all kind of imperfect things up there. No that isn't the way it is. So then we're going to have sons of God but they're imperfect.

No, that isn't the way it is. That isn't the way it is. See you're partakers of the divine nature of the Lord Jesus Christ which means you are perfect. Oh somebody says, I wish I could believe that. Well if you don't believe that you'll die in your sins. There's nothing less than perfection going into the glory world. The Bible said, Outside of those gates nothing, nothing will enter in through those gates except perfection. And outside of those gates is the liar, the cheat, the whoremonger. The Bible said, They that love and make a lie. All of those things, are ye then perfect? The world isn't perfect. Them people out yonder are not perfect. Those people are dogs and swine. They're beast but you are the perfect sons and daughters of God. God having perfected you forever because this is the day when the comer thereunto can be made perfect and because of that the conscience of sin is no more. Satan can never touch you. God has sealed you by his spirit and to get to you Satan has to pass through his spirit and Satan, darkness can never pass through that spirit of light most precious.

So then beloved friend, all we're trying to teach you when we say, Let us go on to perfection is that you should develop your bodies in Christ and make your bodies perfect. In the way that you make your body perfect it means to submit your body and your thoughts, to bring every thought into subjection, to submit your body to every good work unto God. For your perfection as going on to perfection means conformity as to release this perfection within you into your body. And of course according to the measure so will your reward be. You love the Lord? So it's so good to be perfect. It's so good to enter into the holies of holies. It's so good to be the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. My body of sin is dead and gone, buried in a watery grave and today it's not me living but Christ that's living within me and the life I now live by the son of God and now my body I'm bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. Can anybody find any fault in that just man of whose members ye are in particular. Do you believe that you're the body of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you believe that there's sin in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you believe the body of the Lord Jesus Christ is perfect? I once was dead but now I'm alive forevermore. So it's so wonderful. We sing this song again, (They sing: Time Shall Be No More) If you believe that you're in the fullness of time raise your hands. If you don't believe you're perfect take your hands down. But if you believe you're perfect someone would say, Well I just don't live that good Brother Pike. Well God didn't base it on how you live. He based it on how he lived. He based it on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He based it on the way the son of God lived. He based it on his life and his righteousness. Don't you feel good and clean now? Are you going to stand around and condemn yourself now? Are you going to move that condemnation out? (They sing)

You know I bring these things to you over and over. I tell you these things over and over. I want to instill them within your heart until you can come to believe these things for I'm set here for the perfecting of your faith and when you perfectly believe then you perfectly will be made whole, not only in your spirit but the healing of your body. See your body is redeemed, that is to say, it is the purchased possession and the price of redemption has been made and the only lack of redemption is as to the change as to the recognition which it will come to as to the terrestrial as to the celestial. There is a spiritual body, there is a natural body. You've born the natural, you're going to bear the spiritual. So then I'm trying to bring you to that. I want you to enjoy the fullness of this wonderful thing that I'm enjoying. I really enjoy it folks. I wouldn't lie to you. I wouldn't lie to you. All liars will have their part in the lake of fire. I'm enjoying this wonderful thing. When you come to it and enter into his rest, it is joy unspeakable and it is full of glory. We sing that song, The Old Time Religion. A lot of people years ago they didn't know about what we're taking about but they believed in the old time religion and it gave them a consolation looking forward to this day. Did you know the Bible said, Great men have desired to enter into this day. Great mighty men like Elijah and Moses and others longed to see this day, even Abraham they prophesied of it but they never did get to see this day. You love the Lord? Now I know someone says, You don't believe Abraham saw it? Yes I believe Abraham saw it but I'm speaking of coming into it with his body. He never did get into it. Did he see this day? The Bible said that Jesus made the statement that he saw my day and rejoiced to see it and he was glad. He appeared to him under the oak of Mamre, that's why he was called: Father of the faithful. Wouldn't you like to enter into that day? How beautiful. All right let's sing this song together. We're going to let you go in just a little while. (They sing)

Somebody say, Hallelujah! Let's lift our hands together and close our eyes. I can tell you're a little bit tired tonight. But I'm glad I got the old time religion. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this that you should visit the widows and the orphans in their afflictions and then keep yourselves unspotted from the world. Today we talk to the brethren as to those that want to get into this last move of God. There's going to be a great jubilee. I can hear the sounding of the trumpet. And the trumpet isn't going to give an uncertain sound as it has in the past with so many preachers but it's going to give a certain sound so that the saints of God can prepare themselves for the battle. Many are unprepared because the trumpet said something that was uncertain. And every wind of doctrine is taken over in the church. But this is a sure sound, a more sure word of prophesy. Somebody says, What would you like for us to do, Brother Pike? I'd like for you to come and to kneel around this altar, just get down on your knees for a change, wouldn't you like to do that? Somebody said, Well I thought we was fixing to dismiss. We are from standing up. We're going to kneel now. If you got the old time religion, you just come and kneel around the altar tonight. You know when I got saved, when I got under conviction, when I was filled with the Holy Ghost, that's the way I had to do it, I had to get on my knees. I know the Bible said, Pray while you're standing, but I had to get down on my knees. You know Jesus got down on his knees and prayed all night long, not only that but he got down on his knees when he washed the feet of Peter. And when we come it is so beautiful to see the saints of God kneeling down on their knees. How beautiful it is. How beautiful it is.

And while you're kneeling I ask today how many would be willing to follow us, serve the Lord, and I had my men folk about fifty of them or more, just got right in. And if there are some here tonight that didn't get in let me invite you to get a vision. Without a vision the people perish. Let me invite you to get in and let me invite you to go out and invite somebody else to compel them to come into the house of the Lord that the house of the Lord may be filled. And today as my men folk was willing to work with me I purposed in my heart tonight, I was going to ask the lady folks if they're going to work with me. Paul said, Greet my women workers, salute my women workers. And he spoke of some saying that these are outstanding and if they have need of you in any of the business that God has appointed unto thee then you assist them in this. Sometimes Sister Betty has business that she has to carry on and she needs assistance. And sometimes the other ladies are appointed unto business and they need assistance. So then as I ask of the men folk today how many was going to stand with me in this then tonight while the lady folks is kneeling, I don't want you to raise your hand when I ask this unless you really mean it from the bottom of your heart that you're going to give your lives a living sacrifice to step out in the fore-front for God in that God is making you as like a head of a nation, having you here at Bethlehem, there's many people in and around the different parts of the world, in the islands and overseas and the different parts of the nations that just the joy bells are ringing in their heart when they hear just a little bit of this wonderful message of Christ. And you're their leaders. You're on the home front. They're looking to you. And they cannot do very much unless they can make contact with you and because of that you need to walk circumspectly before the people that your light might so shine that men would see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven, when your good works begin to show forth as Christ revealed in your life, then your faith is going to be moved tremendously. God is going to heal and God is going to save and God is going to forgive and the joy will return to the church in great abundance. So tonight if you really believe in the ministry of Christ and you believe in this ministry, let me say this as I've said before, if you don't help work on a job, you ladies if you don't work around here that doesn't mean you're not going to heaven. If you don't help me that doesn't mean that you're not going to heaven. If you don't give to me and my ministry that doesn't mean that God's going to leave you out. You don't have to give to me to go to heaven. But I do say this you're going to have to give to some ministry. You're going to have to give to somebody. You're going to have to work somewhere. You're going to have to invest your life and time in something with some minister somewhere. And I just look at it like this it just seems reasonable to be that if you've committed yourself to this ministry as to be here, it's just reasonable that you should aid this ministry, give your time and efforts and substance to this ministry try to conform to this ministry that we all might be partakers together in this wonderful benefit of God. You know you be overseas and you see the thousands and thousands of people wave their hand. I want to be part of that ministry Brother Pike. Someone wrote a letter a few days ago and was telling us how that God had blessed us over there, how that it affected the people. And even when Bill came over from the Philippines Bill said, Brother Pike, they love your ministry in the Philippines and said, They're still talking about it. People wanting to be part of this ministry. But folks, you're on the home front and they're looking to you and it's you that feeds them. You're the ones that feed. You know when a person brings forth a little child as to a mother and a dad they are then responsible for that little child to take care of it. And as I said to some of our people I say to you tonight, through the travail of your efforts you brought forth Bethlehem and this message and this way of life. And now the people have heard about it and they're overjoyed and they long to see the child, but folks remember, you can't walk off and leave it. It's your responsibility. You brought forth a god child and now it's your responsibility to nurse it day after day, to love it day after day, to cuddle it day after day, to keep it with you and to love it and to look after it day after day. Jesus said, Feed my lambs. Let the parents lay up for the children. So then as the men folk have given themselves to this, if some was not in the meeting today then they can raise their hands while I'm speaking to the lady folks. I want the women to raise their hands if they're going to be totally committed to this thing that we're doing for God, even as the men folk did today by that letting me know that they're part of our ministry and that they're going to try to go all the way with this. All right I don't see some of them raising their hands, but for those that are raising their hands, I see quite a number of people and to you that are raising your hands you know that you're making a total commitment, a total commitment, perhaps when you get home you'll find out that your husband has already made a total commitment because numbers of them did. You know that you're making this total commitment, so then if you are raising your hand to make a total commitment to God then I intend to pray for you in a special way. I've always prayed for you in a special way. I've always prayed for all of you but them that are to make a total commitment to God as wanting to be with this to give to this of their time and their substance and to meditate in the laws of (end of Tape 2 side l) tonight to come into this early church that we spoke of that is now that you're perfect manifest this early church that was lost in the dark age but now gross darkness covering the people in the end time as to intellectual reasoning and all of the sorrows and now the light most precious from the church is going to push it away and coming into this light most precious then we're going to be able to manifest this wonderful church of the living God; for there shall be light in the evening time. And if that's what you really mean then I'm going to pray especially for you.

Remember as time goes on now we're going to have a process of elimination to find out who really means that, to bring someone into the early church. Okay Brother Atlee said he didn't get to pledge today but he wanted to pledge. All right this will be left to the discretion of each one, the ladies can come up with whatever they want to do and whatever they purpose in their heart from the gatherings that you have even with Sister Betty, Sister Linda and others that have oversight, you can come together and you can make pledges or whatever your plans is to give yourself to God to have a vision. My little girls here, my little sisters in the Lord, they can do like my little brothers in the Lord today. My young boys today they made pledges and they purposed in their heart things that they wanted to do for God and the little girls can do the same thing. There is many things that you can do for God. Maybe it's not give finance. Maybe it is give finance. There's just a lot of things that you can do. And you just purpose in your heart what you want to do for God and don't play around with it. Get busy and do it. Like I told someone today, if you purposed in your heart to do something then do it like you would if you was going to pay on your trailer, pay on your home, pay for your bills, pay for your car, then do God the same way. Be very conscientious and make sure that you remember that. Mother remind the dad. Dad remind the mother and children, remind the children and children remind the parents that you're God folks, that you're the God generation, that you're the eternal ones, that you're Gods in the earth and that you have eternal life and that you are the ones that's going to outshine the noonday sun. Don't take anything else into your thoughts because that's the way it is folks. And you give yourself completely to the God family that we might be of that tree of the God family, that family tree of life.

All right while you're kneeling here and while you're on your knees and your eyes are closed and you're thinking on these things. I just bring you down once in a while to kneel on your knees so that you will remember, like the writer said when you're on your knees you'll grow taller than trees. Some of you are going to be outstanding. You know it's always that way. In every battle there's somebody. There's heros that's in the battle. There are women heros, many of them that history records, some of them lost their life, some lived on. They done such gallant things until they're still remembered today. They're still remembered. Sometimes maybe we'll mention some of the heroic women as to the names and of those things that they did. And the heroic men of those days and what it meant to the society of life and to our free America. So then some of you are going to be gallant and some of you are going to be outstanding. They were in the early church. They were in the early crusades. They were in the days of Moses, so then some of you are going to be outstanding and the more outstanding you are the brighter your light is going to shine even as to being a leader among your people even here and people that are being commemorated in the sense that they'll never be forgotten, neither by God or the others, that in the day of the Lord as the song we wrote it's called the Christian Hall of Fame. Someday God will have you or your name there that lovely Christian Hall of Fame. You'll be one of the greats, eternally great as to commemorate throughout eternity. So then some of you are going to be outstanding. Some of the women, some of the men, some of the boys, some of the girls.

Or in kneeling tonight trying to find our place in the Lord and asking God to help us I'm going to ask our Brother Shaffer to come up tonight and while Brother Shaffer is coming up while you're kneeling here I'm going to ask him to pray the closing prayer tonight. And folks let's commit ourselves to the Lord. Let's commit our spirit to the Lord and let's give our hearts wholly unto Jesus tonight. As our brother from California comes he's really a native of Charlestown, Virginia but as he comes tonight let's give ourselves wholly unto the Lord in our thoughts and in our desires while Brother Shaffer prays with us? Can you do that tonight? Brother Shaffer. (He prays)

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

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

Holiness Unto The Lord