Do You Have The Wedding Garment

Now, I'd like to say again that I'm thankful to be home, to be home safe, to be with my brothers and sisters in the Lord. Each trip that we go out in to the world we encounter things that they're just not good at all. We're living in a nude world. This is the world of nudeness. When he came in the evening time he found them without a garment and the nudeness in the natural indicates that people are spiritually unclothed. They are spiritually naked in the sight of God, and as we've brought out a number of times where the garments were placed on them in the Garden, now it is just in the reverse. And it indicates that with all of the religious teachings, and with all of the religious people, with all of the religious preachers, that people are not being taught the Word of God, and they are spiritually without a covering. The Bible says in that day they will enter into His presence, or to the supper, and they will be without the wedding garment. And when they are without the wedding garment this means that they are naked in the sight of God. They are without the wedding garment and the Bible says bind them hand and feet and cast them into the outer darkness. He said unto them, Friend, how camest thou into the wedding without the wedding garment. And so it is we've entered into the supper time, into the evening time of the supper. People have completely left off with God. They've just left off with God. I was talking to someone today and of course, the individual started talking to me about the Bible and the things of the Bible and I wasn't trying to be arrogant, I wasn't trying to be haughty, but it's like I said to them. I said, You don't want to live right. I said, You don't want God. I said, You don't want to do the right things. I said, You want to go out in the world and wallow in the mire. And I said, People do what they want to. And I said, You are doing what you want to. And of course, talking to people around the different parts of the world, or the nation, they want to lead you to believe that they are helpless, that they can't do anything about it. You need to pray for them, and pray for them, and pray for them. Folks, let me tell you. They are not helpless. They can do something about it. They do what they want to do. And like I told the individual. I said, You do what you want to do. You go where you want to go. I said, You don't want the ways of God, and you don't want what's right, and you don't want to live right. I said, That's what the problem is. And somebody says, You mean you talk to people like that. That's the way I'm talking to you tonight. If you wanted to live right, you'd live right. Let's give the Lord a hand. You are doing what you want to do. You are doing exactly what you want to do. You are going to the movies when you want to. You're watching the ungodly things on TV when you want to. You cut the corners. You shyster around, you do that thing that's contrary to God, you fuss, you argue, you fight, you have a temper, you go after money, you go after fame, you go after the prestige of the world, you go after businesses, you go to visit relatives, you do everything but God's will. That's because you want to do that. That's why you do that. You don't have a love for God. The love of the world is in you. That's why you do that. Coming on back I passed through that nude world again. There were girls and boys almost without anything and getting worse all the time. You know why they do that? They want to do that. They love the wages of unrighteousness. They don't come to the Lord because they don't love light. They know that if they come to the light their deeds will be made manifest that they are not wrought in Christ. And they will not come to the light lest they be reproved. They love their intellectual way of darkness. They love the tree of darkness, because it fits their warped up concept of life. So then, they don't love the light, neither will they come to the light. But if you love the Lord you will walk in the light. And you will have fellowship one with another. But they don't want what's right. So then, they continue to do the things that they do. In their mind they are depraved, in their mind they are polluted, in their mind they think evil all the day long. And the Bible says their thoughts are continually evil, and they are whited sepulchers that appear religiously white, as to cleanse, and yet men fall into them unawares for they are full of dead men's bones. When you think of them you think of them that dwell among the dead, for they that live in trespasses and sin are dead. Their dwelling in among the dead. They are among the tombs, and their delight is in money, and their delight is in passions and frolics. And their delight is in gossiping, and back- biting, and roaming, and visiting and talking. Their delight is not in fasting, nor praying, nor studying the Word, nor giving to the cause of God, or giving their time to self-denial to follow in the steps of the Lord Jesus. Their mind and life is not centered toward Christ, nor is their ambitions, or their motivation. Their motivation is not toward Christ, but it's toward the lust of the flesh, because Satan is their master. And they savor the things that be of the flesh, because Satan loves the things that be of the flesh. He's the prince of this world. This world belongs to him. As I say so often, until you come to the place to where you hate yourself, and you hate your life, and you hate the world, and you hate all that's in it, all that's in it as to the system of the world, as to the world itself, as to the people that inhabit the world and until you hate evil with a perfect hatred you are not making any progress, folks. God is a spirit, and He desired that we be spiritual. And he that is born of God is spirit. And it is that God loveth the spiritual people, and God careth for the spiritual people, and God careth for His own. And God is angry with the wicked every day. God hates their image. And God will pursue them until they perish from off of the face of the earth, for this world is of the devil, and it's filled with the devil. It's controlled by the devil, and the people that are in it are of the devil. Somebody said, Well, Brother Pike, I'm in it. Well, that means that you are of the devil. Let's give Him another hand. All right. So now we know where we stand. I'm glad I'm not of this world, but I'm glad He chose me out of this world and hid me with Christ in God whom the heavens have received. So then, I'm not of this world. I don't have the love of this world in me. I don't have the desire of this world. And I don't want to go the way of the world. So then, God who is a spirit loveth His Own, just like the world loves its own, and the world hates you and I because we are not of this world. So then, we are of the Lord. And the body is the Lord's. Not that old bodily image of that bastard child that you are that's in the world. Not that. He killed that thing at Calvary in His sight and He eradicated it from His sight and from His presence that He might never see that horrible, hideous tare of misdemeanor anymore. But they that are born of God are spirit, and they are bone of His bone and they are flesh of His flesh. And that body is the temple of the Lord. And it's to be adorned as such and God dwells in it. That's why it's the temple of the Lord. It's because God is in His temple. And the temple is there so He can be in the temple. So when you are not born again you are not the temple of the Lord, but you are the children of the devil. And Jesus said Satan is your father and his lust you are going to do because you are of the world and you've got the devil's mind in you and you are taken into captivity at the will of the devil. But when you are born of God then are you his body, and then are you His temple, and then do you have the mind of Christ within you, and then do you deny self, as to that old devil, as to the flesh and the perversion of the first birth. So then, you deny that. So out in the world we're out there in them and the Bible says we are among them and yet we are a great light that shines even unto the ends of the earth. So let your light shine that men may see your good works and know that you are not of this world and that you are not in the flesh, that you are the wonderful, holy, godly, pure body of the Lord Jesus. Ah, you say, where do you find that? Well, I can bring it to you in the New Testament. I was reading it to my wife yesterday how that they that are born of God don't sin and they are godly, and they are holy, and they are pure, and they are righteous. But you know that when a man and a woman puts on shorts that they have to kill something in their life. Did you know that? That you can't wear shorts around in public without killing something in your life? Did you know that? It kills something. You have to over ride something. You sear you conscience with a hot iron. See, and when you dress out in form fitting clothing, whether you be man or woman, you kill something on the inside of you. When you follow after the world you kill something. And the Bible says they seared their conscience with a hot iron and they got passed feeling. And they can say anything and they can do anything, they can go any place, be anything, and they are dead spiritually. Their minds are on their bodies and their faces and their money and their positions. Somebody said, Well, I would love to have a business, Brother Pike. Well, I need some business partners. I'm in the greatest business in the world. The Bible says be about your Father's business and I'm about my Father's business. And this is the only lasting business and if you'd like to have one you can have it. But if you'd rather go after the world and eat with the swine then you can do that, too. Somebody said, Well, that's why I don't like to hear you preach. Why? Because I tell the truth, that's why you don't like to hear me preach. I said you can feed with the swine if you want to. The Bible says, And the prodigal would vane have filled his belly with the husk the swine did eat until he came to his senses. Somebody said, Well, I don't like that kind of talk. That's because you're a swine. Do you love the Lord? That's what got them upset with Nehemiah in that day is they were half-breeds and they didn't like his preaching and they didn't like what he was doing, because he was building the walls back and they didn't like that because they were part of the problem. Like Peter Marshall said one time, Lord, let me be part of the answer and not part of the problem. And they were part of the problem. There were ones that was given him trouble, causing him problems. They at Bethlehem don't like that kind of talk, because they are trouble makers. And they that are in the world don't like that king of talk because they are trouble makers. The world has become a horrible situation and the churches, as to the church world, the churches have turned into cages. And the Bible says they are a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. They have driven the Holy Ghost out and they've driven the things of God out, and the people of God out. And they've got ministers that stand up, that transform themselves into ministers of the Word. And they say God loves you, God loves you. And like I told the individual today, I said, God don't love you. I said, You are as contrary to God as you can be. You're doing the dirty, filthy things of the world and you are going after the world, I said, let me tell you, God don't love you. I said, As a matter-of-fact He is going to pursue you if you do that until you perish from off of the face of the earth. And He said, Beware ye that forget God lest I tear you into pieces. I said, He's angry with the wicked every day. Even their prayers are an abomination in His sight. I said, and all of their efforts and everything that they do is an abomination in His sight and He despises their very image. And I said, That's what the problem is. If the preachers had preached that and told the people the truth instead of telling this wicked, sinful, adulterous generation that God was with them and that God loved them they would have straightened up their crooked ways and they would have gotten their lives straight. But now they are a wicked, sinful, adulterous generation. You know why they are? Because Mama and Daddy ate sour grapes and their children's teeth are on edge. It was Mama and Daddy that wanted it so bad that hypocrited around as the half-breeds and now their names are not on the roll. And they've produced bastard children, and they've produced a generation of freaks and God is bringing His wrath down on them. So they are an adulterous generation. They don't marry. They just live together like dogs. And somebody said, Well, Brother Pike, what it is, some of the preachers, you know, they don't understand this new generation. And what God has to do is raise up preachers for this generation. Well, it's sad to have to tell you this but He doesn't have any for this generation. Let's give the Lord a hand. He's got something for this generation, but it's the fire and brimstone that He's got for them. They are an adulterous generation and God isn't going to raise up any adulterous preachers as for His cause. He will allow the devil to raise up some preachers for this generation that will deck out like they deck out and do like they do. Like a man over in the Islands just said about a man over there. He was saying, Well, if you have any disagreements with this preacher, and he called his name, slip him a five and it will take care of every bit of it. All right. So there are preachers for this generation. There are preachers of the devil and they transform their minds and the mess with the Word and they talk about the Word and they sing about the Word and they say God is love. And they tell this generation how God is bearing with them, but let me tell you something, God isn't bearing with you at all. God says you are a sinful, an adulterous generation. There are no preachers for you. God doesn't have any preachers your style. And you have heard the gospel as much or more than any generation that ever lived and the Bible says our words have gone to the end of the earth, and they have heard these things, but who have believed out report? And the Bible says the grace of God has appeared unto all men teaching them that denying worldly lust and ungodliness they should live soberly and righteously in this present world. God has the fire and brimstone for you just like He had the waters in the days of Noah. In the days of Sodom and Gomorrah He brought the fire and brimstone. He didn't spare any of them. The Bible says, Lot a just, godly, righteous man, being vexed by the evil conversation that God saved him. And in the days of Noah, the Bible says, it grieved God at His heart that He had ever made men and women. It grieved God at His heart for it said the whole earth was over spread with violence, and He said, I will destroy man who I have placed upon the earth. And He set out to destroy him. Had not been for Noah finding grace in the eyes of God there wouldn't even be a generation today. He would have destroyed them all. And when He took them out of Egypt and gave them an opportunity to repent of their sins, the Bible says they did not, and God got angry and said, Moses, get out of the way and I'll destroy all of them. I'll raise up a generation from you, which he later did. He killed every last one of them, took Moses, raised up Joshua from Moses and sent the children into Canaan. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever. God had one that had found grace in his sight and that is Jesus for this generation. And He has given them a sign called the resurrection, as to Jonah. And you have the sign of the resurrection and Jesus said that evil, adulterous generation would have no other sign though they would seek it. And in this generation all that is in Christ and all that is family of Christ, as it was in the days of Noah as to his family, that's the ones that's going to be saved and there's not going to be anybody else saved. All right. So we praise the Lord. We know then that this generation is a sinful, adulterous generation that is waiting for the fire and brimstone like I saw in the vision, and God doesn't have any preachers for them. The only preachers they have is the old time gospel preachers that has always preached the old time gospel. And the same gospel that Paul preached, that Peter preached, that I preach, that every other God man has preached is the same gospel that they'll be judged by. And Paul said, And this gospel will judge you in the day of the judgment even to the intents and thoughts of your heart. That's the same gospel I'm preaching. And so then, when I see them they are a nude world, an adulterous world. They've lost their virtues because Satan doesn't like for anyone to have virtue except that he can prey on it and get it and use it to stay out of the dry places. But he doesn't want you to have any virtue for yourself whatsoever, because he cannot fellowship you because virtue drives devils away and virtue brings healing and drives diseases away, and virtue is the thing that we should have. He has called us unto glory and unto virtue. And the bible teaches that if anything has virtue in them that we are to think on these. But this is a non-virtuous world. Non-virtuous women, non-virtuous men, non-virtuous churches. This is a non-virtuous generation. A generation of devils and demons. And all this world is hated of God and this world will pass away and everything in it shall pass away. And all that abides shall be those that dwell in heaven and those that have done the will of God, and the word of the Lord shall abide forever. So we see then that we are not of this world so why then do we run after the world, and why do we have to find us a place in the world and why do we always want to own everything that we can get a hold of in the world or misuse our strength and our substance and our mind. Why do we want to do the non-virtuous things? Watch the non-virtuous things? Hear the non-virtuous things? And go after the non-virtuous things? Why do we do that and then confess that we the church when we know what the qualifications of the early church was? Why do we do that? You know why people do that? Because they want to do that. They are a sinful and an adulterous generation. They are an evil generation and God will not receive them. He hath not received them. He will not receive them. And as Brother Branham said years ago, if God doesn't do something pretty quick with this generation He'll have to call Sodom and Gomorrah back up out of the graves and apologize to them, because this generation has been so much more wretched than they. And it's like I was asking somebody today. If God has sent all of this grace so that He can give grace to these wretched people and to the wretched generation, why is it I ask, that the very day that Lot went out of Sodom and Gomorrah He burned the place to ashes? Why did He do that? There was a lot of people there. Lot leaving, he was the only righteous one down there and God had given His grace and spared the city for Lot's sake. And when Lot went out of there He proved He was angry with the wicked every day. And the Bible points out that Lot was typical of the Church. The very day that the Church goes out God will burn, shake down, wreck, pour out of His wrath as Revelation 8 says, and the sensor will be cast into the earth and there will be hell, and there will be fire, and there will be blood mingled with it, and there will be voices, and there will be screaming the very day that the Church goes out of here. Now, I ask this question and I ask it again tonight, would any sober minded person come to the realization that there was within their house, or their living room, a big rattlesnake, and that their little children was in the living room with it, would anybody be so ignorant as to say, I want to be merciful and not kill that snake and just let him lay around there and bite the children? Could anyone be so ignorant, or if they should be, could anyone be in that kind of condition and not be partakers of the poison that's injected into those little children at the bite? Wouldn't he be an accessory after the fact? Wouldn't he be a brute beast made to be taken and burned knowing that thing was in there and it was going to kill those little children and do nothing about it? That would be as bad or worse than those people that throw their little children to the crocodiles and to the big snakes. I've related to you of seeing a film years ago of an actuality where they worshipped this big, huge cobra that was so huge and they would go to this place and the thousands would gather around and they would take an innocent little baby and set him over her on this big flat rock next to this big den and then they would watch as the snake would come out. And as the big snake would crawl out and the little baby innocently reaching for it like that and touching it, and every time it reached for it the fangs would pop the little baby and it would be so horrible as to the pain it endured, and then when it would shake it off, innocent like, and it would reach again until the little baby crumbled over. That big poison snake there and these people so blind that they thought they were pacifying the God of heaven to where He would spare all the rest from the lightning and the thundering and all these other things. You know, just watching it, it was so horrible that it was hard to set their knowing that was an actual thing and thinking of what you would have done had you been there. Do you think that God is so ignorant that He allows Lucifer, the serpent, to lay within our midst and strike at the babies, and that He's a sweet loving God that says, Give them grace while He kills them by the thousands and He causes them to go to hell to never have a chance again? Just be merciful. Just be merciful. Do you think God is doing that? No, folks. It's like I've told you. God didn't put the tares down here to begin with. They are of the devil and the Bible says children of the devil and beast, and some of them brute beast made to be taken and burned. And like it was with Judas, though he obtained part of the ministry of that day, and though he was very religious, and though he did all those kind of things; yet he was a devil from the beginning. And he belong to the devil. Jesus said, You are of your father, the devil. That's why you do these things. That's why you give place to the devil to live in you, because you are of the devil. But they that love the Lord will do the will of God. But ye are of your father the devil, and Jesus said his will you're going to do. And you are taken into captivity at Lucifer's will. So then, you know who you are now. You know where you stand now. You know exactly what real preaching is, and true preaching is now. Now rise up and prove it wrong. Rise up and be a Bible scholar and prove it wrong. Show me where the Scripture is. Rise up and protect your side and be religious and prove it. Go about grumbling and mumbling and preaching and talking against the man of God and talking against the children of God and prove that all these things are wrong. You can't prove nothing because you are of the devil. You are blind to begin with. You don't even know where you are going and the Bible says, If the blind lead the blind they all fall into the ditch. So it is a sad situation even though we're just coming from the Islands and an individual over there in the Islands with a young girl having a lot of problems out of the people he has preached to in the past. And as the Bible says, Be sure your sins will find you out. His sins are finding him out. The people are coming down on him hard. Though he's been in the ministry for many years the people are coming down on him hard. Real hard. Even while I was there staying at what they call the Lofty Fig, this man came, which has had such a great reputation among the people, came over to the manager and said, I'd love to see Brother Pike. Said, I don't guess you'll tell me what room he is in? And the man pondered, as to the report I got, and he said, Maybe I will. He said, I'll just tell him you're here, and I'll just tell him the devil is calling him. Let's give the Lord a hand. That's how far the man has fell, how much the reputation is lost, and that's how bad a situation can get. And we spoke of this many years ago that this thing would happen, because of this thing in this man's life. But the Lord had us there just in time to kind of pick up some people that were noted people and carry them on the wing. We had a real experience while we were there. Somebody knocked on the door. We let him in and when he came in he stood there and looked at me for a few minutes and he said, Do you remember me? I thought maybe I did but I wasn't sure because it had been 11 years since I had seen the man when I come to realize who it was. And he run and grabbed me around the shoulders and begin to weep and said, My friend, Brother Pike. And when I found out who it was it was a man that 11 years ago, he was there in the Islands and I heard about him. He was about to go blind and he had to have an operation on his eyes. I told my wife, I said, Betty, I said, get together some money. We didn't have the money that we needed. (Begin tape one side two.) But I said, Get together some money and give the money to them and let them take it to the man. They did and the man had a successful operation and he was seeing good. He was crying and he was so tore up. I didn't realize it but he had testified all over the Islands to people about what was done. I thought, Lord, one little thing that we can do in letting our light shine and sometimes it will be more valuable than fifty sermons. I've told you about this story numbers of times, about A. A. Allen. When A. A. Allen was in his ministry and was trying to do right, had gone to pastor a church somewhere, and I told you how that one morning a man came in and gave his heart to God. He was suppose to be a bad fellow that nobody had ever been able to reach, and when Brother Allen ask him to testify and he ask what part of his sermon touched his heart, he said, Sir, your sermon didn't touch my heart. He said, But a little boy, my little boy, in the winter when it was cold that had no shoes, he said, a little pair of white shoes was given to him. And said, It's been talking to me all this time. And said, It got the best of me and that's what brought me to God. Let's give the Lord a hand. So, we see again that pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this; that you visit the orphans and the widows in their afflictions and then keep yourselves unspotted from the world. All right. I want to read chapter 22.

Matthew 22:1-46 "And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men. Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's. When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way. The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine. But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions."

You know, I'd like to just comment there just a few minutes since I talked to you so much before I read. See? It takes the wedding garment. It takes the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says, Put ye on the body of the Lord Jesus. That is, become the body that is His temple, the body of the Lord that is His temple. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. Make no provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof, but begin to live holy, and talk holy, and walk holy, and be holy. This is putting on the Lord. Then let it be him living and no more you. Let the life of Christ that's on the inside be made manifest in your mortal genes when you are born of the Lord, for see? We are called to the supper to put on the garment of the Lord Jesus or we can't partake of the supper. And all of these that have been bidden, they're too busy in their nudeness. They're too busy in their buying and selling. They're too busy in all of the businesses of the world and their desires and the things that they want. They're too busy watching the non-virtuous things in the newspaper and the programs of TV, and all the things of the world. They're too busy to really get down to business with God and to love the Lord, and to follow after the Lord Jesus Christ. They're too busy. They can't do that. It's like I heard today as it was, somebody that you're familiar with that owns a big TV station and operation up here in Atlanta, Georgia that reaches even over into Russia, how that he made his smart remarks about how that he was sorry that he offended the Christians because he had made some foolish statement, and how that he had come against the Christians, you know. Said he was sorry for that, but I believe he said something about he couldn't hardly wait, that is to go wherever he was going, said, because he knew he was going to hell. And had made the statement that if he drank a little whiskey and took up time with a few women that if that was going to take him to hell he would just go to hell. And sure enough he will. But he made some other foolish remarks, blasphemous remarks, and I think went on to say he'd change the ten commandments. But the Lord spoke to me, and the Lord said, I'll cut him down like a tree, and I won't even leave him root nor branch. And so then, with his boasting and his foolishness he is going on in the world, pushing the things of the world, doing the things of the world, loving the things of the world, having been lifted up. The rich answereth haughtily. So, he has been lifted up into the things of the world. And when they do like then they make themselves God. They'll change the commandments. They'll do what they want to. They'll act the way that they want to. You know, you can't tell them anything. They'll just be whatever they want to be. But nevertheless, God knows that his number is 666. Let's give the Lord a hand. And he knows just what to do to him. The Bible says that God will laugh at their calamity, and mock when their fear cometh. And the Bible says, And God will laugh at them. Said, For He knoweth that death is going to take them. He will laugh at them because he knoweth that death will take them. That's what he thinks about them. See, it is true, I say again, that God is love and He will love anybody that's lovable, anybody that He can love He will love. He will do whatever he can and it is true that God is love to the extent that God has poured out upon all flesh the rain of His grace. Since the righteous are here then God has kept them here because they are the salt of the earth, so that His grace can rain down from heaven until the time of their perfecting, until the time of their maturity, until the time of their developing, and then when they come to the place to where they have that perfect faith God will take them out of here. But He is angry with the wicked every day. Though the grace of God is coming, though the blood is on the seat of atonement, though the rain is upon the tare as well as the wheat, God hates the tare and someday He'll cut it down and He'll bind it in bundles and He will burn it. Can't you just think now, God has had so much grace all this time, loving that tare, wooing that tare, saying, I'm going to give you enough grace so that you can turn into wheat, and then at the end of the way he snatches it out of the ground and he throws it into the fire. Can't you see the end of that great love that you understand? Can't you realize how ignorant you are? Don't you know that Jesus knows from the beginning the children of wisdom? And the Bible says he knoweth them that are His and that before Esau and Jacob were ever born into the world, I remind you again, He said, Jacob have I loved and the tare have I hated? And that He said, All of these tares are of the devil. I didn't plant these, the enemy did. And He knows the tare, that He said to Judas, a tare, I have chosen twelve, He said to the disciples, He said, but one of you is a devil. Don't you know that this was given to us in Christ before the world ever was, and our names were written down in the Lamb's book of life, and the Lamb was slain in the mind of God before the world ever was and that you were sealed unto the day of redemption, and that you are the predestinated of God? So then, why is the grace coming? Why is it on those people? Why is it that the old snake is allowed to stay around? Is it because of God's love for him? God showed what He thought about the snake when Jesus, who was symbolic of the serpent in the wilderness, hang at Calvary, when God literally poured out His wrath on him. See, the Lord right then and there, he showed what He thought about the snake. That's the way He felt about the serpent. And He smote the serpent. Even your bodily image He smote it to completely eradicate, to completely do away with it, it smote it that you might be partakers of the grace of God because you are that which is good, you are that which is holy, you are take which is right by the foreknowledge of God. And so then, God delivering Jesus, the Christ to the Calvary of the past years, God having delivered him, even in your life, again and again as sheep that are lead to the slaughter. And the Bible says, More than conquerors through Christ that gave himself for us, being delivered and killed all the day long that this world may continue. God doing that, God suffering that. Did God love the serpent? He smote it with all of His fury, all of His fury to get that image out of the way that you had reflected, to do away with that that your true image might be made manifest in the earth, that people might see that you are sons and daughters of God. Now Beloved are you the Sons of God, that you might be the Sons of God, and that you might have the blessings and prosperity that God intended for you. And so then, the old serpent has climbed up into the upper lentil and God said, Though thou makes thy nest among the stars, as to your intellectual achievement, I shall cast thee down to hell. So then, we find that God is angry with the old serpent. He is on the trail of the serpent. He is trying to kill out the serpent. Then why does he allow him to continue. He doesn't allow him to continue to the extent that he is pursuing the wicked every day. He's on the trail of the serpent every day. The only thing is He's trying to get you far enough away from the serpent that He can set His bow upon the serpent and kill the serpent without killing you. He's trying to get you out of the blackmail situation in which you are. In that Lucifer, as an angelic being, great and mighty and powerful sits upon the circle of the earth to the extent that he is between God and God's people, and God's people being babes and having been stolen away, and God not being able to get to them, Satan has blackmailed and Satan has threatened, as to their life, to force God to continue with this grace so He can continue with his frolic and continue his wrong, but God is, He has, and is still gradually working the thing to where He can get to that last babe and get the mind of God into that last little one, or that last one that belongs to Him, in that the gospel will go into all the world. And God has done everything He could to protect his little ones from the viscous bite of the serpent, to hedge them in as He hedged Job in that day, and to send people to pursue the serpent, and to kill the serpent. Like in the vision when I saw these two hunters and they were coming as fast as they could. They wanted to kill the serpent. As the shadows were falling and they were walking so fast they were trying their best to stay out of the shadows to the extent that before the light went out, we say as to grace, that they could kill the serpent that was setting in a coil and ready to strike. See, And they were trying to get to him to where they could kill him. And God has people on the trail of the serpent. They've got their bow set and they are waiting. Just as soon as the children get out of range they intend to kill him. And just as soon as God can get the knowledge of the Lord into the minds of these little ones and get them programmed in a way that they will withdraw from the world and they'll withdraw from the serpent and they'll get out of the range of God's wrath to where he can hedge them in, then just that quick God will smite the serpent. And that will be the end of the serpent. So then, we see that God has through Jesus Christ smitten the serpent for our sake that he might not be part of us, that to that extent then we are dead to that part of the body and that body of death. And God has separated even the life, as to the angelic being, the spiritual man or woman on the inside, separated them from that deadly poison and protected them from it. He has done that. But the thing is, though he has done that for humanity it is not effective in the life of humanity until they can understand that He hath done that and they can received that and they've been tutored by the ministry in the preaching of the gospel to the extent that they can come to that. As it has been said in the days of Abraham Lincoln when he granted a pardon to a man that was in prison and they told him, said, You are pardoned, because God has granted you a pardon. He couldn't believe it. It was too good to be true and he still died at the firing squad. He did not receive the pardon. And it was said after that that they didn't know what to do, and so when they legislated together and they come up together they had to make a decision as to what had happened to account for a man's life because he had been pardoned. And so then, they ruled that a pardon was only a pardon when it is received as a pardon, that if you are given a pardon and you do not receive the pardon then you are not pardoned. So then, when we realize that Jesus has died for us and pardoned us from our iniquity then we have to receive that, to receive the Kingdom of God and to believe that. And we have to turn toward God to accept those kind of things, to search it out, to hear about that, and go in that direction and accept that pardon. If we do not do that, then we do not have a pardon. So it shall come to pass, the Bible says, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And when you accept a pardon then do you have a pardon. So then, we are spiritual people. We are God people. We are putting on the garment of righteousness. We are accepting the death of the Lord Jesus Christ which has separated us from this world and taken us into the other world. And we have now put on the body of the Lord Jesus so that we are now without fault and we cannot sin because we are born of God. And by His grace through His righteousness when we've done all that we can to stand we stand by faith in God, having this to our credibility. So then, we are children of the Lord now, beloved, free from sin and from death. Fallen angels have no part with us. Fallen angels cannot touch us. I know we have all kind of foolish things that are going around in the world and I made the statement a time or two where it speaks of angels cohabiting with women in the earth. And men write articles about this that are supposed to be great Bible scholars, but as I said, and I believe I repeated this last night to some of them. That's foolishness because the Bible says in the spirit there is neither male nor female. A lot of times people kind of take that like it means everybody is male in heaven. No, everything is not male in heaven no more than it is female in heaven. In heaven, in spirit, they neither marry nor are given in marriage. They are all as the angles, and he said, I make my angels spirits. And angels are neither male nor female. Reproduction is in the earth just for the replenishing in the earth and there is no such thing in that world as men and women being together in any way as mating together. It is nothing but spirit in that world. So we don't have to worry about that kind of thing. And those spirits, those evil powers can't get near us and they can't touch us. The only way that spirits can do anything is to work through a human body and take on an image, because they don't even have an image as to a body and you and I, being spiritual beings, we have bodies. And we are not bodiless spirits wandering around like they are. So then, we have a body. God, our Heavenly Father, being a spirit, He hath a body, even the body of the Lord Jesus Christ which is the king of these bodies and the head of the church as to membership of these bodies. And so then, it is a holy body, a godly body, and thus are we like Him as to the membership in the earth. So those spirits seek to enter into human bodies, trying to get the virtue of these bodies, or the blessings from God through the blood atonement through these bodies. Knowing that they have an allotted blood atonement blessing they are trying to get these inspirations because this is the only way that they can get inspiration. And they have to be in these bodies or they have to wander through the dry places seeking rest. They are tormented and they cannot find rest day nor night, so they seek to enter into these bodies and then they go through all this adulterous mating and all of these things as to gendering, or whatever it might be, as to robbing and killing and stealing and thieving and cursing and snorting and gullibly going after the buying and selling and businesses and prestige and celebrities and dignitaries. All of these positions and things they do because they love the world and that Satan is the prince of this world and it's delivered into his hands. All of these things are delivered into his hands and he gives them to whomsoever he will. But I praise God because I'm not of this world. And I praise God because there are other people that are not of this world. And in that we are not of this world then we are of another world and we are another people. You love the Lord? Let's stand together. There's one thing I discovered in the Islands that I'll always remember so far as I know and that is that the sun is hot over there. It really heats you up. All right. Let's sing a little chorus together. Let's sing together. (Leads in singing I Love Him.) If you love me now you'll keep my commandments. (Continues singing and sings Every Promise In The Book.) Let's sing another little chorus, can we? (Sings Sweep Over My Soul, Haven Of Rest, and I Need Thee.) The altars are open. (Sings Don't Turn Him Away.) Jesus loves you tonight. If you'll make an effort to love him, to serve him, and to do the thing that he wants you to. He loves you and the Bible says he hath loved you with an everlasting love. I will never forget you for I have engraved thee in the palms of my hands, as by the nails. He said, Though a mother may forget her little sucklings babes, I will never forget you, for I've engraved you in the palms of my hands that I may never forget you. So the Lord loves you. When you try to do the thing that pleases Him, even though you may stumble and though you may have all problems, and life may offer a lot of problems to you during your lifetime, but it doesn't matter. He still loves you. Having done all to stand, the Bible says, Stand therefore having your loins gird about with the truth, being shod with the preparation of the gospel, taking the shield of faith that you might be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Said, Having done all to stand, stand anyway. Be strong, He said, in the power of My might. So the Lord loves you and have given Himself for you that He might care for you all the days of your life. He loves you with an everlasting love. His love is so great that you and I will never be able to fathom except through Christ, the love of God. The love of God is so great, so great. We sing that song, The Love Of God. It is so great. Let's sing this little chorus. (Sings He Was Here All The Time. Begin tape, two side one.) Let's sing again, can we? Let's sing this together. (Sings Standing Somewhere In The Shadows, Supper Time and Where Will You Be.) Can you sing that with me? (Continues singing and sings I Thank You For The Valley.) One more time. (Continues singing.) Let's give the Lord a hand, can you? Job said, Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord and not receive evil? Therefore the Lord creates the good and the evil. He has His way in both. He works all things after the council of His own will, but His pleasure is not in smiting, nor wounding, for the Bible says that God does not wound willingly, nor afflict willingly. He only does that because He has to do that. As a father that loves the children he has to bring about the afflictions, as to chastisement that we might do the things that please God. And even though God Himself does not bring afflictions, nor does He afflict. The Bible says He does not afflict willingly. That is, when we say God afflicts it means that God allows the afflictions. It's a thing of serving yourself as it was said in the days of Job. When Satan went before the Lord and the Lord said, Satan, have you considered my servant Job that there is none like him in all of the land, that he is just, he is upright, he fears God. Satan said, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, or whatever it might be, a man will give all for his life. Said, Does Job serve you for naught? Said, You've got him hedged in. That is, you give him riches, you give him blessings, you give him all the prosperities of life. Said, Take away the hedge and let me get to him and let me touch him and I'll make him curse you to your face. And even the woman said, Curse God and die, Job. He said, Woman, thou talkest as a fool. Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord and not receive evil. And in all these things Job did not accuse God. So then, God does not afflict willingly. He allows the afflictions because we get in a position of life, or in a condition to where He can't do anything else. And thus we feel the afflictions, and thus we feel the correction of God. So then, there's places that we go a lot of times that are off limits and we shouldn't go there. And because we go there we have to suffer the consequences of it. It's like the song that we're going to sing we sing so often. Let's sing this song, Brother Taylor. Give me another key. (Sings Across The Bridge.) Can you sing that with me. (Continues singing.) Can you sing that with me? (Continues singing.) Can you sing that one more time with me? (Continues singing and sings Gone.) Can you sing that one more time? (Continues singing.) Don't you feel that? When you sing that Gone and death is defeated can't you feel that? (Continues singing and sings He Touched Me.) Sing it now. (Continues singing He Touched Me.) Can you sing it just one more time? (Continues singing.) Can you lift your hands, close your eyes. (Sings Time Shall Be No More and I Will Praise Him.) You know if ever thing is not right with the Lord, if you've not committed you soul to the trust of the Lord, remember the day is coming when you are going to need Him and now is the time to make the commitment. Now is the time to make the surrender. And now is the time to conform to Him and His ways and to love Him that He might remember us. Oh, how sweet He is. Oh, how wonderful He is. How dear He is to my soul. He is sweet and mellow, mellow like ripe fruit to the appetite so is Jesus to my soul. (Continues singing.) While you've got your hands lifted up I'm going to ask Brother Clyde Cobb to come and dismiss us if He will and while he's coming let's sing that one more time. If you love Jesus, love Him with all of your heart, all of your strength, all of your mind.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

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

Holiness Unto The Lord