The Seed Of God

Let's read Matthew 18 start at the first verse:

Matthew 18:1-20: "At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. 

Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. 

Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

Jesus tells us that He's in the midst of us. He tells us here that this thing is so serious, so great, so mighty that if your hand be offensive to you, cut it off. Cut it off. Somebody would say, "Well, He's speaking spiritually." He always spoke spiritually. He always spoke spiritually. He said to Peter and them, "I'm going to Calvary. They're going to take My life." He was speaking spiritually, but they took His life. Somebody said, "Well, I don't think He really meant for you to cut your hand off." Yes, He really meant for you to cut your hand off. He really meant for you to cut your hand off. He said, "And if thine hand is offensive to thee, cut it off." He said, "It's better for you to enter into life than it is to have all of your members and be cast into hell." That is, to enter into life with one of your arms missing. Pluck out your eye. It's better that you enter into life with one eye missing than it is to go into the lake of fire. 

So then, what does He mean, it is better for you to enter into this life? It is better for me to enter into this life and go through this life. He's not talking about the life to come. It's better that you enter into this life with one arm. It's better that you be a blind man. It's better that you not have any arms. It's better that you be without your legs than it is to have your legs and eyes and then be cast into hell. Like I was telling my wife the other day. I said, "Betty, it's horrible to think about people being in prison and think about people being killed and people being mutilated. Everywhere you look people being mutilated. And you see the war and all of these people being killed in the war, and people's entrails just being blown out, and their brains scattered everywhere. It's so horrible and people that are put in prison, even for life, some going to the electric chair. But just think. That is nothing compared to going to hell. Not anything at all." God is suffering all these things that we might wake up before it's everlasting too late, because once we go into the lake of fire, folks, that's it. There is no getting out of that. There is no starting over. That is eternally and forever. Once that comes, that's it. And it's so horrible. 

That's why God is suffering all of these things. These things are horrible. God doesn't want our hands missing, and He doesn't want our eyes missing. He doesn't want us to go into prison. He doesn't want us to go to the electric chair. He doesn't want us to kill one another. He doesn't want us in war. The Bible asks, "From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" So then, He doesn't want those things. But it is better to have those things and enter into this life in the misery of those things than it is not to have those things and then go to hell. It is better that we learn a lesson. It is better than we understand. It is better that we are processed. It is better God uses these things to awaken us, to let us know the detriment of hell and the horribleness of being in the lake of fire, where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. In hell, the rich man looked up to Abraham and said, "Send Lazarus just to dip his finger in just a little bit of water and cool my tongue." 

This is why He says to forgive people. Don't hold grudges against people. Whatever people have done to you, forgive them. I've had such horrible things done to me in my lifetime, and I could be bitter. I could hate people. I could really hate people, but I don't hate anybody. They've never done anything so bad to me that I would want to see them burn in the flames of hell. They've done some things so bad to me that if it wasn't for the love of God on the inside, I could literally strangle them to death. I could hang them up by a rope. I could torment them for the rest of my life, if I just wanted to do it, if I didn't have the love of God. But I don't have that kind of heart. I don't have that kind of feeling. I don't have that kind of desire. I don't have any enemies. All of my enemies, I've turned in to my friends. Jesus said to Judas, "Friend, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?" And, as I often say, it wasn't because Judas was a friend to Christ, but Jesus was a friend to Judas. And so He said, "Friend." I've turned all of my enemies into friends by giving them the love of God, to love my enemies, to do good to them that despitefully use me and pray for them that persecute me. 

The Bible says that when people rise up against you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for My name's sake, that you should be exceedingly glad. Leap for joy, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets before you. But if everybody is speaking well of you and saying something nice about you, the Bible says to beware of that man that everybody speaks well of. They did that about the false prophets. So when you're going through a little persecution, then you should be willing to go through that persecution. 

When Jesus would speak a parable, the disciples would ask, "Why do You speak to these people in parables seeing that they understand not what You say?" Then Jesus said, "It is not given unto them to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but unto you it is given." And then when they were alone with Jesus, they said, "Expound to us the parables." And so Jesus did. He would expound the parables. 

He gave one parable and He said, "A sower went forth to sow and he sowed seed and some fell by the wayside, some fell into stony places, some fell among thorns, and some fell into the good ground. That which fell by the wayside, the fowls came along and those fowls devoured it and took it away. That which fell among the stones didn't have much root, and when the sun came up, it scorched them and they withered away. Those that fell among the thorns came up, and the thorns choked the seed and it didn't bring forth any fruit. That which was sown in good ground brought forth thirtyfold, sixtyfold and an hundredfold." 

And then when they ask Him to expound, to interpret, to tell them what it was, He said that the seed that fell by the wayside is the seed being sown, and people come and hear it, and when they hear it, they don't understand it. They don't understand it. You know, I mentioned this the other night. People have a habit of saying, "I don't understand that. That confuses me." Don't you know that is the devil when you talk like that? Don't you know that you need to get born again? Somebody said, "But, I'm a Christian, Brother Pike, but I just don't understand." No, that isn't right. If you were a Christian, you would understand. The reason you don't understand is because you are not a Christian. The Bible says the righteous shall understand. Come on, folks. I said the Bible says that the righteous shall understand. How then can you say that you're born again and that you are righteous, even by the righteousness of Christ, and that you do not understand? The Bible says the righteous shall understand. Are we to make the Word of God a lie? The Bible says to lie not against the truth. The Bible says the righteous shall understand. 

What it is, we're not righteous. We're not born again. We do not have the Spirit of God in our heart. Therefore, we have a problem, folks. That's where our problem comes in. When we have the Spirit of God, He is in the inside of us, interpreting what the preacher says. He interprets. You might not understand everything right off, but you'll have an understanding heart. Solomon prayed, "Father, give me an understanding heart." And then he said, "With wisdom get understanding." So we have an understanding heart. That means that we do understand. We may not understand as to the measure we would like to understand, but we do understand, and we're going on to understand more. A little child might not understand all the things that I say, but he understands what he understands. On his childish level, he understands because he has an understanding. As he grows, more and more he'll understand more. As he studies in school, he'll understand more. As he goes on to college and whatever, to a diplomacy of life, he'll understand more because it's given to him to understand and develop from childhood into manhood. 

Then Jesus said that after the seed that was sown by the wayside, the fowls got them. He said these were devils and demons that came and took the Word out of the peoples' hearts to the extent that they did not understand. He said that these are the people of the world that do not understand, for the Bible says the wicked shall not understand they shall not see when good cometh, and they cannot see because the Bible says, Satan, even Lucifer, the god of this world, has blinded their eyes of understanding that they should not see when the good cometh. 

Then He said that were those that fell among the stones, or on stony ground. He said that the sower went forth to sow, and he sowed seed that fell upon stony ground, and it didn't take roots. It didn't have much root, and when the sun came up, it was burned and it was done away with. It brought forth no fruit. The master said that this is the seed that falls on stony hearts. God said that He'll take out of you the heart of stone and place within you a heart of flesh. 

Did you know that the Bible teaches that everyone that is fallen from grace is under the law? And did you know that the law is that which is engraved in stones? Israel has had this understanding of the law. Did you know that the laws of today, even natural laws that are by man, the laws we're under the constraint of, that they are a derivative from the law, as to the law of God, the law of Moses? You can check it out. Go back to the root of it and you'll find it came from there. 

I'll take out of you the heart of stone and place within you a heart of flesh, write My laws upon the table of your heart and cause you to walk in My laws. That is to say, I'll take out the law, as to the dos and don'ts and that hard-hearted thing that's engraved in stones as the letter that killeth unto death, and I'll place within you the heart of flesh. I'll make you bone of My bone and flesh of My flesh and I'll make you to know the love of God, and the love of God will constrain you to walk in My ways. 

And so then, He said it fell on stony ground and it didn't take any roots. When He expounded this, when He interpreted this, when He brought the revelation of this parable, He said that these are they that have stony hearts. These are they that, when the Word comes, when the preacher preaches, they receive it anon with joy. They grab it up. They receive it. They like that and they make a fuss over it. He said they go along, making a fuss over it for a little while. But, by and by, He said persecution arises, tribulation comes, trouble happens. Something confronts them, and then they can't take it anymore. Then, they don't hold on to the Word of God. They become offended and they turn away from the Word of God because of the world, because of the things of the world, because a little pressure is put on them, then they fall away from God. Jesus said that these are they when the Word is sown people anon with joy, grab it up but have no roots within themselves to endure and when the heat of the day, as to that pressure from Satan begins to come down upon them. All of a sudden, they fall away from God. They fall away from God. They don't have any roots. No roots of endurance and so they fall away from God. So it was that that seed fell upon stony ground and that seed perished and there wasn't any fruit. 

The Bible says that God wants you to bring forth fruit unto perfection, or God tells us that we should love Him with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our strength, and that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. God so loved the world, then He said that ye should love, for if ye know that God is love, then he that loveth is of God, and he that loveth is passed from death unto life because love is as strong as death. Jesus said that we should love one another. "Keep My commandments," He said, "and My commandments are not grievous. My commandments are that you love one another." 

So then, there came the finishing of the parable, and they said, "What about these that fell among the thorns?" He said that when the sower went forth to sow, he threw the seed out there and it fell among the thorns. The thorns choked the seed and there wasn't any fruit brought forth to perfection. They said, "Well, what is this?" He said this is the seed. This is the Word. When the Word goes forth, when they've sown the Word, the sower has gone out to sow, he sowed the Word and the seed, as to the Word, it fell among the thorns. He said that the choking out of this fruit is those that are entangled with the things of the world. He said the seed falls into the heart of people, but they're too concerned about the things of the world, they're too concerned about the diplomacies of life, and as to education and as to houses, as to lands  just to enumerate now in detail a little bit  they're too concerned about securities, they're too concerned about self-esteem, and too concerned about being a dignitary in life, or being some kind of celebrity in life, or finding their place in life, they're too concerned about all of the things of the world. 

The Bible says that if the love of the world is in you, the love the Father is not there. He says to you and I, "Come out from the world. Be a separate people. Touch not the unclean things and I'll receive you saith the Lord." He tells us in Zechariah that in that day that we should serve Him in righteousness. We should serve Him in righteousness and holiness all the days of our life. All of the days of our life. That's as in was with Zaccheus, when he said, "Half of my goods I'll give to the poor, and if I've taken anything from any man falsely I'll restore it four fold." See? He wants us to be in holiness and righteousness and serve Him without fear all the days of our life. 

Do you know what our problem is? Folks, it's trying to serve God without His Spirit. We're trying to serve God without His Spirit. Have you ever stopped to consider what a problem it would be to an individual to try to be what they are without the spirit that they are born with, even if they had a form of life? Could you imagine what a dog would be like trying to be a dog when he had an elephant spirit? Or when he didn't have a dog spirit? Could you imagine what a lion would be like if he did not have a lion spirit and he had some other kind of spirit? Could he then be like a lion? If you did not have the nature of Jesus Christ, could you then act like the Lord Jesus? The Bible says they were called Christians first at Antioch because they were Christ-like. Can I be Christ-like without the Spirit of God? This is why the Bible says he that is born of God cannot sin, for God's seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. See? 

He says, as to the teachings of John, that this is the way that we can tell the difference between the children of God and the children of the devil. They that are born of God do the things of God. They have the nature of God. They act like Christ. And they that do not have the Spirit of God do not have the nature of God and they do not act like Christ. They act like the world. They act like the devil and they do the things of the world and they have the love of the world in them because the Bible says, "Ye are of your father, the devil." And the devil savors the things that be of the flesh. He loves the things of the world because he's the prince of this world and this world belongs to him. At the present time, it's under the curse and he's got control of it. He told Jesus, "All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine." Or, that is, he says to you, he says to me, he says to all of us, "If you'll just follow me, I'll give you all you want in the flesh. All of the lasciviousness of life. You can live it up in the flesh. Whatever you want. You just have to sell your soul to me. You just have to give your soul to me." 

So then, the thorns choked the seed. The Bible says that people can receive the Word of God, but they can't separate themselves from the world, they can't come out from the world and be ye a separate people, they can't get away from that fleshly lust, the lust of the eye, the pride of life and the lust of the flesh. The Bible says that the lust of the world passeth away, and the world passeth away but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. So then, we can be in that category that have our minds on being something in the world. 

Folks, let me tell you something. The gospel is profitable for this life and for the life to come. It's profitable for this world. It'll bring us health. It will bring us prosperity. It will bring us the blessings of life. But as I said to the people the other night, we've got to remember one thing. I can have all things, and all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. All things don't edify. I don't need all things, because a lot of those things are nothing but chains and weights that drag and cause me to fail God. Paul said, "Laying aside every weight that doth so easily beset you to run with patience the race that is set before you." And since these things to not edify, since these things are not expedient, as to expedite the cause of God, then you need to leave them along. 

You know, I have a lot of folks that will say, "I don't see anything wrong with the things that I do." They begin to go back to the pride of life and the things that they like and the things that they want to do and all of the securities of life and all of the frolics of life, and they say, "I just don't feel like God finds any fault with that. I feel like I can get to heaven doing this. If you don't, then that is between you and God, but I don't feel any condemnation." I say this again, real reverently. The reason some of you don't feel any condemnation is because you have never been born again, and nothing bothers you. And on the other hand, you that have had some sort of experience with God, never having been born again, you have come into a believing but you have seared your conscience with a hot iron and you have, in your religious activities, become one that's calloused in your spirit and nothing bothers you, because the Bible says you've got passed feeling.

Some folks can sit around a television and they can see non-virtuous things, even though we're commanded of God that if anything have any virtue in them, think on these kind of things, yet they can read any magazine. They can look at any kind of movie, any kind of billboard, talk about anything. They can dress any way, act any way, look any way, be any kind of thing in the world, or participate in it, and they'll say it doesn't bother them. That's because they're dead. The Bible says they that live in trespasses and sin are dead while they live, and if the love of the world is in you the love of the Father isn't there. So it's very evident that the problem with you is that you need to be born again. 

Like I said about the excuse of not understanding. You say, "Well, I don't understand." The reason you don't understand is, to this extent, because you are blind. If the blind lead the blind they all fall into the ditch. The reason you don't understand is because you have something on the inside of you that's warring. That thing that's in the flesh, Paul said, "  warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" And so then, that thing that's warring against you for the flesh, trying to hold on to the body. This is the dispute is over the body. God wants it and Satan wants it. Both of them, being a spirit, want it to manifest themselves in that they might be partakers of these tangible things that's around us as to that that has emanated from God. As to these things that are around us, God relates to them through the body, and Satan relates to them through the body. Your spiritual being relates to them through the body. Without your body you could not relate to them.

So then, we see that even fallen angels that have committed corruption can relate to these things through the body. If they can get into you, they will commit fornication, they will commit adultery, they will lie, they will steal, they will cheat, they will swindle. If those spirits can get into you, they, with their lasciviousness, will take advantage of your body, of your flesh. And in this kind of thing, what they will do is use your body like a parasite on a fruit tree until all the life has gone out of it. And then when you wither up and die before God, they go to another body. They don't want you any longer because they're looking for that life. 

You have got a certain amount of years during which you are under the grace of God, and you're here and that life is on the inside of you from your youth all the way over to the coming of the Lord Jesus. And during this period of time, God has given it to you that you might make adjustments, that you might conform to the ways of God and the things of God, that you might produce Christ in your life and give that body to Christ that He might speak through you to reach the rest of the world, to save them from eternal doom and damnation. 

God is after that body, but Satan is after that body that he might corrupt it, that he might live in it, that he might have the lasciviousness of life, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, taking advantage of this time of grace. And then, you find yourself all withered up at the end of the way. If you don't use this little span of life for God, then you're going to be sorry at the end of the way. 

But, anyway, getting back to what we said, we don't need to use excuses. We need to call on God. We need to apply ourselves. We need to have a love for the truth. Folks, when we don't have a love for the truth, God will turn us over to a reprobate mind, send strong delusions, and we'll believe a lie and be damned. Ed. note: II Thessalonians 2:11 He said, "I will pursue you until you perish and destroy thee from off the face of the earth." He won't leave us alone. He'll pursue us until we perish from off of the face of the earth.  Ed. note: Deuteronomy 28:22 & 6:15

So then, we see it's real strong when we start thinking about what God will do, and what God has said, and what God will bring to pass, and what God has brought to pass, and then saying to you and I that we, seeing others do these things and then turn and do the same thing, how can we escape the damnation of hell? All right. 

So then, the thorns choke out the life. They choke out the life. Thorns. He said the thorns are the cares of life. These are the people that get so carried away with their intellectual prestige and their self esteem and their desire for monetary values in the world. These are they that don't want to remember Christ in the time of their youth; whereas, the Bible says to remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth, when the evil days draw not nigh, when you'll turn, look and say, "I have no pleasure in those things." That is to say, folks, while you are in your youth, you are sowing, and then there is going to come the time of the reaping. As the song writer said, "Let us sow the righteous seeds for the reaping, which is coming to each and everyone. Then we'll rejoice on that day when we hear the Savior say, Come, ye blessed, a crown ye have won." See? 

We must of necessity remember God while we have some strength. We don't want to wait until we get old and decrepit and can't do anything for God, and then we run to God and say, "I love You, Jesus. I want to serve You." These are some of the most wretched people that ever lived. Now, if a person never comes to know God until they are well in their old age, or when they have come to the end of their strength and then they come to know God, then that's wonderful in that they come to know God, and they have just as much chance as anybody else. As a matter of fact, Jesus gave a parable concerning the workers when He gave every man a penny. He told us in the parable, "I will give unto the last even as I give unto the first." He started to reward them, and though others had labored and endured as to bearing the heat of the day; yet these that came in at the last hour received the same. He started with the last even unto the first, and give every man a penny. When they that had born the heat of the day came expecting more he said, "Didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Is thine eye evil because I am good?" That which is mine, as to a sovereignty, I reserve to myself to do what I will with my own righteousness and light. He said, "I will give unto the last even as unto the first." 

So then, if you get in late, it doesn't matter. But, folks, if you know about this and you won't get in, and then expect to get as much as anybody else, you're not going to get anything. You wait until the last minute and you're not going to get anything. Can't you just picture a woman like this? And, of course, we've got a lot of them in our day. I've seen a lot of them like this in my lifetime. Maybe sometimes a man is like this. But a woman, in our day, will be a harlot, will lose all of her virtues, and she'll turn away from her husband. Even in her mind and in her spirit, she will lust after others. The Bible says to look on the opposite sex and to lust after them, you've committed adultery with them already in your heart. Today, we're an adulterous, sinful generation because they do that with a regularity. They have no control over their spirit, and the Bible says a man that has no control over his spirit is like a city with a broken down wall. The devil just comes in anytime. He does whatever he wants to. 

But this woman, can you picture her? All of her life in her youth, when she's desirable to her companion, he loves her and he wants to love her, put his arms around her. He wants to caress her. He wants to have her affections, but she's too busy. She's too busy doing everything. She's concerned about this man and that man and everything in the world, and her spirit goes whoring after everything in the world, now. Remember, a woman is either a type of the world or the church. She a type of the bride of Satan, or she's a type of the bride of Christ Jesus. So she goes whoring after the world and everything in the world and everybody in the world. The husband keeps working and trying to take care of her. Finally, when she becomes an old hag, an old bar fly, when she looks like an old rag that's wrinkled up, ready to be thrown away, a rag that the dogs have been playing with, she realizes that somebody has to feed her belly until she dies and they throw her in a hole. But, she's too decrepit to make her own living, and she comes down to the end of the way, and she turns and she says, "Darling, I love you. Oh, you mean everything to me."

She's a witch. That's exactly the way you look to God. When you come to God, you look like a witch. Paul said, "Who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ evidently was set forth and crucified? Are you so foolish," he told the Galatians back there, "Having begun in the spirit that you are made perfect by the flesh?" On the other hand, God requires that the flesh conform to His way of life and that He fill your body of flesh and change that flesh to flesh of His flesh and bone His bone. 

So then, in these little exhortations tonight, I'm simply saying, wouldn't that be a horrible thing? And yet, that happens with a regularity. Wouldn't that be a horrible thing? Wouldn't it be much better if you remembered the Creator in the days of your youth, gave God your strength, gave God your appearance, gave God your physique, gave God your intelligence, gave God your understanding, whatever it might be, while you're quick of understanding and fast in your mind, and those kind of things? The Bible says that the Spirit of God shall be upon you and make you of a quick understanding. While you are able, go out in the mysteries of God and launch out into the deep, go up into the wonderful heavens and fathom the great heavens of God, comprehend the heights, the depth, the width and the length. Wouldn't it be wonderful to remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth, and then you don't have to reap all of these sorrows that come to you through life? You reap the blessed things of God and God sets you up on high and God blesses you. Wouldn't it be wonderful to serve God and then meet God there, when God will say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, having been faithful over a few things now I've made you ruler over many. Enter into the joys of the Lord thy God that has been prepared for thee from the foundation of the world." Wouldn't that be wonderful? 

Folks, let's don't be foolish. Let's serve God. Let's not play games by saying, "I don't understand," just so we can carry on with our devilish doings, our devilish form of dressing, our worldly form of dressing, our devilish things in mind, just because we don't want to come to holiness. We don't want to come to godliness and we don't want to come to virtue. The Bible says that God has called us unto virtue, unto godliness. This is what He has called us unto, but we don't want to submit, we don't want to conform, we don't want to be a real lady, or a real gentlemen as to our dress, as to our conversation, as to honor God and conform to the way of God. We say we don't understand. Let's not ride a hobby horse of excuse and be sorry at the end of the way. All right. 

So then, we see that God has called us unto virtue. That's our goal. Paul said, "If anything have any virtue, anything be pure, anything be lovely let your mind dwell on these kind of things. Make straight paths for yourselves that the lame be not turned aside but rather let it be healed." 

So, when I say these things tonight, I am simply going through a little bit of the parable that Jesus spoke of. Then, there came at the last those seed that fell onto good ground. He said that some did not bring forth as much as others did, but He did say some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, some a hundredfold. He said for us to go on to the full measure of the full stature, let us go on to the full reward. Let us go to be perfect. Let us go on to bring fruit unto perfection, loving the Lord with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our strength for, He said this is a reasonable service. It is just reasonable for you to give your body a living sacrifice unto God, holy and acceptable unto God. He said that this a reasonable service, seeing what God went through for you. Do you love the Lord? Somebody say hallelujah! All right. 

Some fell on the good ground, and they brought forth thirtyfold, and some brought forth sixtyfold, and some brought forth a hundredfold. I trust tonight that you are good fertile ground, good fallow ground. We've plowed the field real good and we've tried to burn out the briars. I've said this so many times. As a little boy plowing the field with my old two horse plow, didn't have a tractor. I was a real poor boy, but we made a big crop because we worked hard. Worked long hours. Got up early before daybreak. Worked hard, but the one thing that we would do, we'd have to harrow the ground. We'd break up the ground, run the snakes out of them. I've run them out many times. Pulverize the ground with a harrow, drag all of the stuff out that was interwoven with it. Get rid of all of that entanglement. We'd pile it up and burn it on the terraces. We would take the blade, the long blade like the Father Time image you see and thrust in the sickle and we'd cut down all of that that was bushes and thorns, and whatever, along the terrace and we'd pile it up and my grand dad stick fire to it and we'd watch it burn. Snakes and weasels and bugs, everything would get out of there. Then we'd plant a beautiful, beautiful field. 

When I was a little boy, we had a great plantation, and my grand daddy wanted me to plow a little place for a garden and I plowed this little break. I plowed it around and did the best I could, and then I set that thing on fire and I was going to burn the middle of it out, and all of a sudden, it jumped from that little place and the whole plantation burned. I mean the whole plantation, miles of forest and fields and everything was burning. At night, I'd stand on the back porch of this great big old mansion type house and I'd look out across the back, down through the woods, and for miles you could see this flame leaping up in the darkness. Rangers couldn't put it out. Nobody couldn't put it out. It burned and I thought, "My God! If they ever find out I'm ruined." I was just a boy. I thought, "I'm ruined for sure if they ever find that out." 

Of course, they never did find it out. I never did tell them. But, finally, it had jumped the creek, anything it had got to, it went right on over and it went on until it burned itself out. Took days to do it. And finally it went out. But you know what, folks? When that fire finished its course, there weren't any snakes, and there weren't any bugs and there wasn't anything. When we got out there, you talk about a crop, I mean we had a beautiful crop. Even as a little boy, I had a vision, and I looked, and out in our fields, I didn't know the hand of the Lord was on me, but out in our fields, out there where we labored together, and coming down out of heaven, I saw like a covey of birds that just came down like this, landing in the fields like hundreds and hundreds of angels landing in the field out there. You know, harvest time. Harvest time. And I thought, "My goodness!" 

And since I got older and understood the fire and those different things, I thought, God, one of these days you're going to renovate the earth like that. I had a vision where I looked, and in  the heavens were these things spinning around, like those ceiling fans, and they went all over the world with fire and brimstone, and everything was burned up and we were protected from that. And then, all of sudden, there came in the beautiful millennium and a people that was to occupy the great wonderful millennium of God. 

We're getting closer and closer and closer. I hope this little bit of talk tonight, as just a little bit of exhortation, to you might help you to understand the parabolic speech of Jesus in this parable and that you can fit yourself into wherever you belong. Can you fit yourself in there, into that picture? Somewhere in that picture, He took in all humanity, and you and I belong somewhere in that parable, as to one of those places. So tonight, fit yourself into that place and let's try to work our way over to the good ground in the event that we don't already fit in there. Let's stand together. 

I appreciate you coming out tonight and talking to you just a little bit about the wonderful things of God, sharing with you a little bit of what we understand. I didn't feel that we should call our services off tonight. I thought we should have services here tonight. Sister Betty and I we caught the plane and left out early so we could return and get back and I see some of them coming in now, different ones coming in. They've, some of them got started a little later than others. Brother Taylor and Sister Linda got back fairly early, for which I'm grateful. I'm also grateful that Brother David made his confession tonight. There are people with talents that you can't hardly get up here, he kept confessing tonight. It made me feel better about it. It's wonderful to know that you love the Lord, that I love the Lord, that we're working together for the wonderful things of Christ. 

As I said to the people over yonder in Olive Branch, Mississippi at Cedar view, I really miss David Paul when he's not with me because he works with me in our evangelist crusades around the world and he's very needful. And he has encouraged my heart. All right. 

Isn't it good to be a Christian? Why, I don't know of anything else I want to be outside of being a Christian, having been in the mysteries of God for many years in the wonderful deep, deep mysteries of God. It's so wonderful to be a Christian. My heart is filled up and overflowing and my heart is enlarged to you. Many hundreds and thousands of things I'd like to say, but we can only say our little bit, as we did tonight. You need to be spiritual, and you need to pray for the spirit of Revelation. Paul said, "I'd like to speak unto you as unto spirituals." Jesus said, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." But if we can come into the wonderful things of God, as to be spiritual, then the great wonderful Spirit, the mighty Holy Ghost, even the Spirit of Christ, even the Spirit of truth that the world cannot receive because they see Him not. He shall be in you and lead you and guide you in to all truth and all righteousness of God and bring you the revelation and revelate to your mind the great mighty things of God, even the deep things. The Bible says the Spirit of God searcheth out the things of God, yea, the deep things. Paul said, "I write unto you that you might understand my understanding in the mysteries of God." He said, "Great is the mystery of godliness." We can have these wonderful mysteries, for he said, "It given unto you to know the mysteries. Unto them that are without, it is not given unto them to know, but unto you it is given to know the mysteries of Jesus Christ." 

Can we sing a little chorus together? To apply your heart be sincere and you have to be devoted and willing to give up the world because darkness and light won't mix. If you have the love of the world in you, if you're going after the world you'll never have these wonderful, glorious things of God. 

Let's sing this little chorus. I don't think I've ever sung it here but maybe you can sing it with me. Brother Taylor usually picks it up pretty fast. It's just a little chorus and we don't have much volume here, as to singing, but it doesn't matter; you can sing with me. You can make a lot of noise out there. I believe in making a lot of noise. How many of you believe in making a noise? The Bible says to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Make a joyful noise. God likes noise. He just don't like the wrong kind of noise. 

Do you love the Lord? Let's sing another little chorus. Can you? All right. Let's sing I love Him. Can you sing that with me? Sing it with me again, now. Do you love Him? Jesus said, "If you love Me you'll keep my commandments." All right. While we sing the altars are open. You come to the altar tonight and we'll pray for you. Let's sing this little chorus, Brother Taylor. Come Into My Heart. Sing it again, now. Sing it like this now. Sing that with me, can you? Let's lift our hands up to the Lord and let's sing this little chorus. One more time together now.

While we're singing, let's remember Bother Rob's dad Howard. He's suppose to come in from California. He's suppose to get in about midnight. He's driving straight through. Let's pray that God will protect him on the way and help him and you'll really enjoy the fellowship of his dad. He's a very fine man. How many of you appreciate our family being her with us? Rob and also the other families from California, the different ones from Colorado, different places from where they come from around the world. Aren't you glad they're here with us? Our brothers and sisters in Christ that we're going to with us eternally and forever. 

I said the other night, I know that we are with our families, as to father, mother, brothers, sister, daughters, sons, all of these kind of things. We're with them for a few years but, folks, that's very, very little bit of time. But this God family is your real family. When the others are dead, gone and passed on, you're going to be with these people, your brothers and sisters, eternally. The family of God's going to be together eternally. And this, of course, is what I want to do. I want abide within the vine. I want to be with the family. Jesus said, "Who is My family? Who is My father? Who is My mother? These that do the will of My Father." Jesus didn't use the term 'father' in that we have but one father, the heavenly Father. "My mother, my father, my brothers, my sisters, I have a family," someone would say. I've heard them say this so often, "This is my flesh and blood." And they'll get right indignant with you, you know, and say, "This is my flesh and blood, bless God, this is my dad. This is my brother. This is my sister." But, you know, I can't say that because I'm dead to that family. Like Jesus said, "They that do the will of My Father this is My family," and I'm bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh and I've got royal blood flowing through my veins and that is my family. Somebody say hallelujah! Glory to God. Hallelujah! Amen! So then, this is the family that I belong to. I'm flesh and blood of that family. That is my flesh and blood. Hallelujah! 

Once again let's sing together I Will Praise Him. Can you lift your hand up to God? Can you close your eyes with me? One more time. Think on it now. 

Think about your family, the family of God. Like the song that we wrote, "The Family of God." Think about it. You're going to spend eternity with the family of God. If you can get your dad and your mother in, if you can get your bother in and your sister in, if you can get your loved ones in, that's wonderful. And then, those that you enjoy here in this world, as your family, will be with you throughout eternity. But if they fail to come, one day there will be no remembrance of them. They'll fade away and forever be gone and you'll never remember them anymore, but this wonderful God family will be eternally and from now on, your wonderful, wonderful brothers and sisters. 

One more time together, Brother Taylor. Sing that with me, now. With your hands lifted up, with your eyes closed. 

I'm going to ask Brother Willie, if he will, to come and dismiss us in a word of prayer tonight. Brother Willie. Some of them are coming back from over yonder. They're beginning to come in now. Some of them didn't know we were going to have service. We didn't get a chance to tell them. Only these that were local, we had a chance to tell them about four or five o'clock. And we're glad for those that are here with us tonight. 

Lift your hands up. Close your eyes. The Bible says examine yourselves, see if you be in the faith. Faith cometh by the hearing of the Word of God. See if you're in the faith tonight. If you're not in the faith, then you need to get born again. You need to be in the faith. Faith is believing God's Word. Hearing the Word and believing the Word and your faith is told by your deeds. So then, you will practice the Word if you believe the Word. And if you believe the Word, you will practice the Word. So then, show your faith tonight without your works and I'll show you my believing by what I practice. 

A man practices what he believes. If he believes in making money, he practices making money. If he believes in hunting and fishing, he does that. If he believes in bowling and frolicking in the world, he does that. If he believes in fighting and conniving and drinking, he does that. If you believe in loving God, if you believe in God, if you have faith in God, you'll practice that. You'll be about your Father's business. This is what I believe in, this is what I do because this is what I believe in. My whole life is illuminated with Him. My whole life is centered around the Word of God. I don't have any desire for anything else, anything else in the world, just to love Jesus and to do what Jesus wants me to do, to be about my Father's business. 

And, folks, let me say this in closing tonight. You know, we are the stars of heaven. Did you know that? The stars of heaven that you see at night are only a type of you and I. Movie stars and Hollywood are only a type of you and I. The great celebrities of the world, as to billionaires and the great men that fill the offices of this world, as dignitaries, are only typical. They are a type of you and I. This is the greatest drama that life can afford, and Jesus opened the curtain on the last stages of the wonderful drama of life. Whatever you do in this great drama that's what you're going to be throughout eternity. Listen at me now. We're not making believe. We're telling you how it is. There are some great movie stars. There are some that are not so great. And so it is, that in succession, thirtyfold, sixtyfold, hundredfold. There are some mighty actors that have become fabulous and famous, as to world admiration, with lots of money, famous, filling the halls of fame, but they are only a type. 

That means that there are thirtyfold, there are sixtyfold, and there are hundredfold, depending on the good ground, depending on your zeal for God, depending on what you want to do, going on to a full measure, to a full reward, as to what you're going to be in the drama of life, the roll that you're going to play and what you're going to be throughout eternity, as the admiration of the angels and all of creation every since the world started. The Bible says they that have turned many to righteousness shall shine as the brightness of the noonday. 

And so then, the glory that fills you, the understanding that you've come to, the wonderful illumination of God, the role you play, what you are in God's sight  in this episode of life, so you'll be throughout eternity. If you're willing to give up all of your life, the Bible says, to lose your life in this world is to gain it with God, then you can have the fullness of God and go on to perfection. The Bible says everyone that be perfect shall be as his master. No man shall be above his master, but everyone that be perfect shall be as his master. Let us go on to perfection. He that overcometh shall sit down in the throne with Me, even as I over come and sat down in the throne of My Father. 

And so then, we see this wonderful thing taking place, this great mighty wonderful thing is taking place. Where are you tonight? Are you one of the stars that are bright and brilliant, great and mighty? Jesus was that great star that was so much brighter than all the others.  When He came, forth even the wise men knew that the Son of God had been born, the King of stars. And they followed it until it stood over where the Lord Jesus was. 

So, tonight what are you in the Lord Jesus? Are you applying yourself? Do you have a reservation of heart, trying to hold back a little bit on God? Then that means that you have dwarfed yourself in God. If you've got to hold on to a little bit of the world out there, that means that you are just a little less in God, as to what you could be. Folks, let's love Him with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our soul, love our neighbor as ourselves. Let's love Him and let's give ourselves wholly unto God and be about our Father's business that we can be one of the great mighty ones of God. None greater than John the Baptist, but he that is the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

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

Holiness Unto The Lord

