Approaching God

Once again we're here to talk to you about the Word of the Lord. You know, we've come to a new day. Every day the Bible tells us that the mercies of God are new, and here we are to share the wonderful new mercy of God with you. You know, reading from the book of Galatians today, from the third chapter in the thirteenth verse, we find something concerning the law. Paul says here in his writings to the Galatians, 

[Galatians 3:13: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:"]

Notice this. God speaks of faith here through the teachings of Paul. Here we're back to that wonderful subject called faith. Many people in the world today are trying to get to God through ritualistics, and believe it or not, many people are very religious. I'm not speaking of people that are renegades. I'm speaking of people that are religious, people that are very religious. They are trying to approach the kingdom of God by ritualistics and they are trying through religious ritualistics and formalities to get God's attention. Beloved friend, you could never do that. That's not possible. Think of it like this: God is a Spirit. We're told here in the Scripture that we receive the Spirit through the promise. Even the Gentiles are made heirs to it. How could you receive something that is invisible, something that is spiritual, by doing natural things? How can natural things relate to spiritual things? The Bible teaches God's thoughts are abundantly above all that we're able to ask or even think. How then could we do things that would touch God if it's above our thinking capacity or our thinking ability?

So then you see how childish that would be. There is no possible way to do that. When you offer penance to God, and you want to punish your body for the sake of God, and you want to do things that's abnormal to normal living, you're not getting anywhere with God. That's not doing God any good. You know, this one thing that God chided with Israel over; God did not deny the wonderful things that Israel did through their sacrifices of fasting and praying, you know, or offering up to Him something that might catch His attention. He did not feel bad at Israel about that, but He felt wrong toward Israel in this sense; that is, He did not feel good toward Israel in the sense that He knew they were deceived. He felt like that was a ritualistic, that was a formality, that that wasn't God's desire, that He could never have fellowship with Israel under those conditions and He couldn't understand why that Israel could not accept the fact He was a great spiritual invisible power. He had manifested Himself through men like Samuel, through Elijah, through Moses, great and mighty miracles had taken place, and that which was invisible had come forth, and He could not understand why they were not more spiritual, seeing all these wonderful things.

You know, Paul on one occasion said, I would that you were spiritual, and on one occasion, Paul withstood Peter saying, I blame Peter to his face because he was to be blamed, in that Peter, momentarily, withdrew from the spiritual things of God and Paul said to the Galatians, he said, Oh foolish Galatians! Who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ evidently was set forth and crucified, and he said, Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, that ye now feel that you can be made perfect by the flesh? What can we do to catch God's attention, so far as fleshly ritualistics? You know, there are wonderful things, like going to the house of God, having a place of assembling ourselves together, or talking with one another about God, or fellowshipping or doing anything to subject our bodies to His wonderful will. You know, these are wonderful. There are many things that we can do that pleases God like this.

See, God wants conformity. God does not want ritualistics. God does not want sacrifices. I have no pleasure in sacrifices, He said. Away with your solemn assemblies and your feasts, and they said, Wherefore have we fasted and you've taken no knowledge? God said, Is this the fast that I have chosen? That a man bow down his head like a bulrush and spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? Is not this My concern, to take those that are hungry into your house and to clothe the naked and to do something for those that are in need? Isn't this My heart's desire? Isn't this the thing that makes Me delight in you, and makes us fellows? Isn't this the one thing that causes you to relate to Me? Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and I will exalt you in due season, for I give more grace to the humble. The proud shall be abased and the humble shall be exalted. Resist Me and I'll resist you, God said. Draw nigh unto Me and I will draw nigh unto you.

So then we see by this that God wants conformity. The thing that God is interested in, beloved, is conformity, and that not to our own ritualistics or our own understanding. The Bible says lean not to thine own understanding. Your ideas are not what God wants. Indoctrination from people concerning the things that they have come up with in their minds, this is not what God wants. The Bible says casting down imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God that we should bring into captivity to the obedience of Christ every thought. That is, we shouldn't have fears and frustrations and anxieties filling our minds. We should be anxious for nothing and we should not be fearful. We should not have a troubled heart. David said, My heart is fixed and evil tidings shall not trouble me. And the Bible also teaches that sudden fear, that we're not to be afraid of it. See? Fear not, Jesus said. Why should I be afraid? Who shall I be afraid of? I'm not to be afraid. God doesn't want me afraid. See, I must fear God, and the fear of God is not being afraid of God or being afraid that we're going to sin against God, but it's being afraid to sin against God. See?

So we do all that we know that He wants us to do, all of His desire, and you know, we need a guide line. We can't get wild ideas and just think that that is the way of God or this is the way of God or whatever someone tells us is the way of God. We can't take it from our parents. We can't take it from the priest. We can't take it from anyone. We must find it from the Scriptures. There is a guide line, the holy book, the Holy Scriptures. God has left it for these generations that were to come after those that were in His time. That is, as Jesus in the earth. And God has suffered the Word to be preserved unto our day. He has watched over His Word, having taken care of His Word, and this great Word has been proven. It's not like any other book. Someone would say, "Well that's your Bible, and I have my own Bible." Oh, beloved friend, that's not true. I've been around the different parts of the world and I know about most all of the books that they call Bibles or that which compares to the Bible, you know, but there's one thing about it: there is none aside from God's Holy Word because I have checked those thing out. I have disputed with people over it, I've had them to try to prove their points and they will come to a certain place and they cannot prove that that is God's Word.

But did you know, beloved friend, I've never found anybody, rich or poor, great or small, that could prove that this Word that I'm preaching and carrying is not God's Word? It has been vindicated down through the years with great miracles. It has been protected by God. It has been watched over. It has been proven, historically speaking, to be the great, wonderful Word of the almighty God. Therefore faith in this Word can bring you the securities and benefits of life that you need. You can have the real blessings of life by believing this Word. This Word speaks after this fashion: the Bible says that God will make all of our beds in the time of our sickness, that He will make us to ride upon the high places of the earth. He will feed us with the heritage of Jacob, that the blessing of the Lord maketh rich and addeth no sorrow. The Bible tells us that God will give us the desires of our heart, and that if we follow Him, we shall lack no good thing, that God will give us all things, or hath given us through Christ, all things that pertain unto life.

And so then it's so wonderful, it's so thrilling to know that this is a living Word. Jesus said, My Words are Spirit and My Words are life. There is something quickening, there's something sharp, there's something awakening, there's something that activates. Something that causes the human mind to come alive. There's something that re-energizes and rejuvenates when you feel all depleted. See, the wonderful Word of God. That quickening Word that has actually raised the dead. The Bible teaches the same Spirit, the same Word will quicken your mortal bodies. You begin to believe in it.

Read the Word. Get you a Bible. Find out where there's a Bible. If you can't find one, you write to us and you let us know that you need a Bible. We'll see that you get a Bible, because friend, this is a real genuine Word of God. These are the Words of God, that God wants to bless you, that God loves you, that God so loved you that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. See, God doesn't require ritualistics. I say again, what can you do to relate to the Spirit? How can you get to the great God who is an invisible God? You can't, beloved. He has to come to you. He must come to you, and that, through His Word, even through His Son and through the sacrifice, taking away the keeping of carnal ordinance, doing away with the middle wall of partition, thus God has given us a Word expression through the ministry and the printed page of His own expressions and desires. He hath given us this that we may hear, in that faith cometh by the hearing of the Word, and then when we hear, we believe that Word concerning that sacrifice and atonement and God's wonderful gift of love in Christ, believing that we call upon the name of the Lord, believing in His mercies. Faith can rest upon nothing but the wonderful mercies of God. The Word of God then we believe in the mercies of God and the wonderful things of God and then we receive the wonderful securities and benefits. Now that is wonderful. That is really something, isn't it?

May God bless you. I want you to think upon these things and meditate wholly upon them that you might receive the wonderful blessings of God. Be listening next time.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

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

Holiness Unto The Lord