The Land Of Promise

I thought of how about being there with you this morning but I felt like maybe I shouldn't. And I really was going to try to let Brother Taylor talk with you this morning but I felt maybe I ought to say something to you, if I don't do nothing but just talk with you just a little bit this morning. The Lord has been good to us. He's blessed us and He's stood with us in all of our problems. And, of course, He's still standing with us. He's still helping us, no matter, you know, where we go or what we do. Things are shaping up a little more and a little more. And it looks like that we're going to be able to maybe win another soul here and there. I've been trying, as you know, to get a few things in line with the telephone system. We have had Chuck working with us quite a bit and he's gone to some great extent to try to stretch out for us and get things together for the telephone system. And we have, I think, three lines coming in now from the outside and we have eight hundred numbers where we can have the people giving their requests and if they need something, you know, they can get in touch with the Bethlehemites at anytime and with the Christians and have you, as a brotherhood, to pray for them. And, of course, when we first came here one of our ambitions was, in putting on the security, once they did that, to get them to have prayer around the clock. That was the purpose of it. Somebody would be praying all during the night and all during the day. And they kind of misconstrued those things and it's not really run like that. But that was the purpose of it. We had kind of severally divided among the people to where each one of them had a prayer life and each one of them had a prayer time. Whereas, it seem to be a great benefit to them in helping them and helping the church, too, of course. And these things were proving to be a real benefit to us so we kind of pressed the issue on it for awhile and then something happened that we didn't get to continue with it. But Chuck has got these lines coming in now and I don't know how many phones we'll use. I can't ever tell. It's maybe just a few but he's contemplating about thirty-two phones that will be in the offices of the people, that every place where we will be operating there will be a phone. We'll have to use a phone in the printing department for the fax, to work with the fax and it works with the internet. And then Betty has to have a couple of lines coming in here into her office and into Sister Harper's office. And then Brother Taylor and them they need a telephone there at the bank and there are just so many of them that needs a telephone base and we are trying to do that. And then, on the other hand they have the telephones going out from the sanctuary there to where they can kind of head them up in the multi-purpose building, in the top of the building there where we did have the recording studio and with this going out from there to the neighboring churches in the different states round about. Different people keep on asking for these things and we hope to be able to contribute a little bit toward that, an effort toward them to help them in their work. And they're wanting direct contact with Bethlehem. So then, things are shaping up pretty good. We're glad to say that the sign that Brother Eldridge seems to be responsible for, there's a few thousand dollars involved that he, himself, with a few brethren, seems to have taken the load and brought us a sign from out of Alabama, which is about a sixty thousand dollar sign. I don't know that this sign is going to work, as of yet, and there's nothing that tells me that it is or is not. It is a mammoth of a sign of about twenty-seven feet long and about twelve feet high and we're planning to put it up as you go out the little driveway leaving the church toward seventy-eight. It will be, probably, on the left corner there to where that both sides of the sign can be seen, because it's doubled sided and it is an electric sign that will have Scripture, so far as I know. They tell me there's about, maybe, I don't know how many busses. I may have this all wrong. I don't know is it's nine or ninety busses but there's a whole bunch of busses that are suppose to come by with a regularity down highway seventy-eight going to the ball games, as to the olympics, and it would be a wonderful opportunity to be able to reach soles and be able to do something, to have Scripture there where they can tell what's going on, you know, and get a little Biblical knowledge. The Scriptures are so wonderful. There's nothing be be compared with them. I exhort you to read the Bible, to study the Bible, to listen to the Word of God, to make it your bread and make it your drink. And day and night love the Word. Stay with the Word in every way. Don't ever alter it, don't ever change it, don't ever err from it, don't ever stray the least bit. It doesn't matter what you see happen to anybody, or anything, don't let that phase you not one bit. The Word of God is absolutely, one hundred percent pure and good and true, and without alteration. And there is never at anytime, never yea and nay to God's Word. Always and always God's Word will be yea and amen. No matter what it says you don't have to say yea or nay. That is, to question it or have a discussion over it; it is just yea and amen. Everything that He brought is amen. It's so be it. So, you don't want to err away from it. You don't want to stray away from it. You want to keep strengthening your thoughts in in, always strengthening your mind in it, remembering that as a person thinks so they are. As they think within their heart so they are. And if you don't err form that Word and you don't cross that Word, I can assure you that that Word will always be your defense and the faith of that Word will always be a shield unto you and it will take care of you all the days of your life. It doesn't matter if it's a physical need, if it's a spiritual need, it it's a financial need, natural, whatever it might be, God has already provided for it in the atonement. And when the Lord Jesus went to Calvary He died to take you out from under the curse. And there the Bible said cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. And He hung upon the tree to show you the end of the serpent. As the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness three million people came out of Egypt to Canaan. During that period of time, that serpent being lifted up was a brazen serpent. Brazen because, you know, when you run brass and these king of things through the fire they become brazen, and that showed one that had been tried in the fire. The Bible said, I counsel of you to bring me raiment that's been tried in the fire. That is to say, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provisions for the flesh for He actually walked through the flames of the fire and conquered the flames of the fire. And the flames of the fire literally had to take a bow to Him because they could not hold Him. Corruption, no corruption was found within Him. Corruption could not hold Him in the grave. Death could not hold Him in the grave because He was spotless. And so then, hold to the Word of God and remember your atonement. Remember the things that Jesus did was for you, that He actually took you out from under the sentence of death and this serpent that was hanging up there as they looked upon the brazen serpent it meant that the bite of the serpent could not penetrate that which was brazen. And it was a symbol of the Lord Jesus Christ for we came from out of the old Egyptian way of life, as to education and understanding of the world and desiring science and these kind of things, science falsely, Paul said, so-called, coming out of that, going over into Canaan, which is a promise land, a promise of the Word of God that God had given Moses, getting out of the old Egyptian intellect and getting into the promises of God, going on by faith into the promise land that flows with milk and with honey. So then, we take it by promise and we take it by faith and that's the way that God leads us. The song writer said, All the ways that He will lead us to that promise land. And during this pilgrimage as they traveled through the wilderness and in a continuation they looked upon the serpent. And as they looked upon the brazen serpent the serpents around about them had no power to bite them or to hurt them. And it is true that though Satan attacks you fiercely, he will attack you because there are many devils and many demons in the world. He's like a sidewinder in the desert. He is in the world today in the air, the very air. He's the prince of the powers of the air and the very air is filled with devils and demons. Everywhere you look there are devils and demons in people. Sometimes one, sometimes a whole legion of devils in people. They're like maggots working in dead dog, for people that are in the world that reject God are dead and twice dead, and plucked up by the root. And so then, these evil powers are working within them and they're trying their best to get off on you, or they're trying to get to you. And the enticement of the things of the world__ Don't love the world, or the things that are in the world, for all that is of the world is the pride of life and the lust of the flesh and the world thereof shall pass away. But he that doeth the will of God shall abide forever. Hold to the promises. Hold to the promises. See? It is a true fact that we are going all the way from Egypt into Canaan. We're traveling altogether by faith to another world. We are passing through the land of Esau and this world belongs to Esau. Pay your way through it. Be honest. Be straight. Do the best you can and don't be high minded and reach for the wealth of the world. Just having food and raiment be therewith content. The Bible says you didn't bring anything into the world, and it's for sure that you're going to take nothing out of the world. So then, just having food and raiment be therewith content. Rest in the Lord and enjoy your wonderful salvation. And God, I say, He could have provided a barrel of food for each individual in the wilderness. He could have provided freezers of food, as we would say, but He wanted them to learn to trust in Him, to believe in Him to where that they would have an unending source, to where they would be looking to God. It's like when Elijah went to the widow. God knew that she didn't have anything much and the famine was on and she was going to starve to death. But He wanted to get her faith in command to where that she would believe in the word of promise and Elijah gave her a word of promise and she ventured out to listen to that and to do that and her meal barrel never ran out, nor did the cruse of oil ever fail. When all the others were starving she was all right. So you see what God is trying to do is get you to where you can have an unending source because He knows everything is terminal in this world and He knows the sources here are abated and He knows that they are gone and they're not going to do you any good. It's just a little old temporary thing to satisfy the gullibleness of the world and their appetites, as to the land of Esau. And everything is a temporal thing. But He wants you to have an eternal thing and He's trying to switch you over from the place that you fell into when you fell from Adam as the son of God, and fell into the Egyptian way of life, into the old world of Egypt and into the flesh and He's been trying to bring you out ever since. He did that to the children of God, finally brought them out from under the hard bondage. And after bringing them out from under the hard bondage then He started them to being taught and to learn about the promises and to have their eternal source, to switch them over from the old temporal life that He might give them the eternal sources. So, having these riches, and the Bible said, all things that pertain unto life, God has given them to us through great and mighty promises of God. He hasn't shirked in amy way to give us all things that pertains unto life. So then, when we think about this we know that we're passing through the land of Esau. Our atonement was Calvary and we know because it was Calvary then Jesus became the brazen serpent. And it was said in the prophecy of the woman and the serpent that "thy seed, they seed shall bruise the head of the serpent and the serpent seed shall bruise thy heel. And we know that striking at the heel he's striking at the soul because earth is the footstool and Satan is the worm, the old intellectual and he's striking at our soul because we are living souls through our first birth. But we are striking at his head, the old intellectual diplomacy of this perverted way of the tree of knowledge and we're striking at his head because we dwell in heaven. The head is in heaven; earth is the footstool. And so then, we know that we have the knowledge of God and our mind, as in the heavenlies, and we are they that dwell in heaven. And we're using heavenly wisdom because God has given us heavenly orient and heavenly understanding. So then, this means that we are those that are free from the curse. Cursed, the Bible said, is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. And the Bible says in the twenty-eighth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, Cursed is everyone that continues not in the law to do everything contained therein. Whereas, Paul said, I have given you the law and none of you keep it. So it puts you under the curse. When you are not under grace then you are under the curse. Everyone that's fallen from grace is under the curse. They're under the law because the curse comes by the law. And it was said, The day that you eat of that tree ye shall surely die and they did die out of the presence of God. The Shekinah withdrew from them and they started on their long journey to wandering through the wilderness to find their way back home. God had to send deliverer after deliverer. And so then, finally, He sends the prophet like unto Moses for the final episode of this great wonderful drama. And then we realize that in so doing God has sent us this deliverer that we might find salvation and that we might be free from the things of the world. Having fell from the image and lost the image in the garden, then that means that they were cursed, for the Bible says concerning the woman, thou shalt bear thy children, because thou hast done this thing thou shalt bear them in travail for it brought a curse to the extent of travail and took away all of the peace and the joy of bringing a little one into the world. And then it was said to the man, cursed shall be the ground for thy sake for ye have done this thing and now ye shall toil among the thorns and the briars all the days of your life. Which really was not in the transgression. He did listen to Eve and partook and had to be there for Eve's sake to spare her and to take care of her through this awful ordeal. Well, then it was said to the serpent, thou art cursed above all of the beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shall thou eat all the days of thy life. And so then we see the intellectual generation that Jesus called a generation of vipers. With the old serpent mind we see how wise they are in this world, saying that the children of this world are wiser in their ways than the children of God because of their utilization of that which they do have. So then, we understand that the one that was really cursed was the serpent. And when Jesus came, knowing that Adam had taken on that mind then it became a generation of vipers. He had to again head everything up in Adam because Adam had been the head of the whole thing, in that in Adam all die. For to be carnally minded is death and Adam had taken on the carnal mind of death. Therefore Jesus had to come in this bodily personification and He had to die as the first man Adam upon Calvary that He might be changed from the first man Adam to the second man Adam, which was made a quickening spirit, even the Lord Jesus Christ who came as a quickening spirit with the spirit that entered Mary's womb and brought a new blood cell for a new beginning and a new generation, in that the life is in the blood. And so then, we see that this great generation, Jesus the beginning of the brotherhood, or the first of the brethren of them that slept, now have to waken unto life eternal and we likewise, as he is right now, at the right hand of the Heavenly Father as a complete thing, so are we in this present world by grace of God through that foreknowledge and through the atoning blood of the Lamb sacrificed from the foundation of the world. So we see we've passed from death unto life and we are a new creature and old things have passed away and there is no remembrance of former you any more, or former me. And all God sees is the beloved body of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. And all He sees now is the beloved blood in that life that now you have. Paul said, The life that I now live I live by the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. The life that I now live even in this fleshly body. And so then, the life that you are now is the life, eternal life that is in the blood cells of Jesus and in the blood stream of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you are now royal blood flowing through a royal body of bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. And though you have not made your change as of yet and you are working on it through the transformation of your mind through the church ages, yet God has already accredited it to you because Jesus, going from the manger to glory, picked up the body from whence it had fell, as to Adam to the beast, and had lived the perfect life and took the body back into glory and that thus finished the church body. For the Bible speaks of the church as being His body. So, that finished the church body and when it did He thus then stepped out of glory, away from Moses and Elijah, came down to Calvary and gave His body a sacrifice that He might make, or be the open door, or make a way so that you could enter into that glory without having to go by the way of the cross. And having lived the perfect life accredited to you as the spirit within His body, that you might have that same spirit to perfect you forever and sent the minister to perfect your faith in believing the promises of this great wonderful spirit Word. So then, that means that He has done the work and now He is the church all completed as one. In Adam all die but in the Lord Jesus Christ all are made alive. And with the new body now at the right hand of the Father we're waiting for the change and everyone that hath this hope within him purifies himself even as He is pure, for having this hope we will, at that coming, love His appearing and we will be changed in the moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. When the Lord appears we know that we shall be like Him. So, that means that we have received the blessing, as to freedom from the curse, freedom from the law and we're no longer under the law but we're under grace. We're dead to the law by the body of the Lord Jesus Christ and delivered from the body of death. In that the body has to die because of the sentence of death now we're free from the body of death. And we can go on with the Lord, having a wholesome life now, a living and rejoicing in grace. All the days of our life giving glory unto God and praise and honor unto God for all the marvelous things that He has said to us, and all the marvelous things that He hath done. And realizing that He hath finished the works. That He, himself, hath finished the works and lifting up the brazen serpent that now, though there are many evil spirits that attack us in every way, as through thoughts of the mind, constantly a continual warfare, yet through this great barrage none of these have any effect on us because that body is dead and we now have the brazen body of the Lord Jesus that passed through the fire and that means that it's righteous and pure and holy, burning with the fervency of the fire of Almighty God, like the sun shining within our strength to where the serpents cannot get near that fire. They cannot penetrate this wonderful brazen wall of protection that we have about us. Though they might do many things and say many things, God will never, at any time, count any of these things against you as long as you walk on with Him and think right and do right to the best of your ability. Charity thinketh no evil and charity is the bond of perfectness. We should therefore work to be perfect. He said go on to be perfect and therefore we should work for the bond of charity, or the bond of perfectness. Well, we could just go on and go on and go on talking about the wonderful things of God but on a Sunday morning I've been trying to let you out fairly early to where you would have the fullness of the day and still get enough fuel for the early morning to take you on through the day and keep you, you know, until time to come back together again. May the Lord bless you and we'll see you a little bit later.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

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

Holiness Unto The Lord