Introduction

I have one scripture tonight, that I had Bro. David add on to this list. I thought of it this afternoon, but I did not know if it would be that easy to find, so I thought I would just quote it and go on from there, but it is better sometimes to have it in writing, where you know it is really in there. I was in 1st Peter this morning, and I stayed there. I did not have any idea that I would, but I did, so tonight I want to go back to the scripture I had in Ephesians 2. The scripture is something that takes understanding to be able to have knowledge of where it fits in, if we are in an hour that we believe we are in, so that we know where we are in time. People like to quote that verse, or the verses that Jesus said, ye know not the day or hour. They make that a bigger circle than what it really was meant to be, because you don’t know the day or hour, that does not mean you don’t know the time and season we are in. He said you will know the time and season. I know tonight, that it is winter, because of the cold that is out there. We have had a very mind winter, which we thank the Lord for. I know we are not out of the season yet, but we have much to be thankful for, up until this time we have not had to miss services because of the weather. There have been a few times where we thought it may be doubtful, but we have been able to be here, which I thank the Lord for, because I never want to put people in a dangerous position coming to service. We have means to notify people when it is too bad to be out, it can be put on the internet at any time, or placed in the News also. I thank God for brothers that know what they are doing, when that is necessary. It takes people of understanding, that I do not have, to be able to make it convenient for other people. So the church at Faith Assembly is made up of people that are brothers and sisters, that are concerned for one another and they are watching out for the best interest of God’s children. I thank the Lord for each one of you here tonight, because you could be some place else, but would it be the right place. We want to shape our lives according to the Word of God and let Him be first in our life, and let second and third place things stay where they belong. We are gathering here for perfection, not according to my perfection, but according to God’s perfect plan. I certainly do not ever mean to lead you astray. That is not my purpose or aim in any way. My aim is to be able to find out what the will of the Lord is. Paul taught that very straight, about us finding out what the will of the Lord is, so that we are not probing in the dark, feeling our way through. We are not feeling our way through, not in an hour like this. I am not very smart, but I know that I have learned things in the last twenty years and it has not been foolish things. There are a lot of people that would disagree with that, but that is their problem, not mine. You say, you are speaking like you are awful sure of yourself, no, I am sure of the Word of God, and I must be sure of the revelation that God has given me. You must be the same also. Why are you here, if God has not showed you anything? I now want to read from Ephesians, starting in the 19th verse of the 2nd chapter, the same that I read last week. King Solomon was a man of wisdom, but he was not very smart. God gave him a lot of wisdom, that was a gift that God gave him. You say, well that is speaking derogatory. Look at his later life, how he married so many women from other countries, that they pulled him away from God. To me, that is not very smart. But he did place some scriptures here, and it had to be in his earlier days, that is something for our learning. I feel right now that somebody thought I should not have made that statement, but I did make it, and I know it is right. He married an Egyptian woman and brought her in, as well as others, and they took his heart away from God, that is what the scripture says. Anybody that cannot control their life will eventually get in trouble. His mistakes caused his son’s demise. Because Rehoboam, God told him, I have chosen you Solomon, but the kingdom I will take away from you, but it will not be in your time, it will be in your son’s time, in Rehoboam’s time. That happened because Solomon even allowed the Sodomites in his kingdom. You read in Revelation 11, where it will be the same again. How many times have the gays tried to march through Jerusalem in the last few years. It is a yearly thing that they do, two hundred thousand. It is a shame and disgrace that they would make that holy city, which is God’s abode in the Millennium among man, that they would take that city and make it a place of infidels. I will start reading here, “Now therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” He is talking to Jews and Gentiles there. As he does, he speaks in the 8th chapter of Romans, about God taking down the middle wall of partition between them, so he took away the excuse of the Law, because the Law is not binding to a Christian person: that would be like tying a young calf up and leaving it. People that are trying to live the Law as Christian people, it will not work. The Jews could not keep it, and neither can you, if that is what you are depending upon. Paul expresses that in the 7th chapter of Romans. He knew he could not live the Law because in the Law, I remember Bro. Jackson talking about it at one time. He said the Jews could keep the Law, but they would be so angry at one another, they were ready to kill the other one, but they could not do it because the Law said, thou shalt not kill. But they would be mad enough at one another, yet they kept the Law because it said, thou shalt not kill. But there was no restraint to their feelings. Jesus said to the Jews, if you look upon a woman to lust after her, you have committed adultery in your heart already. So that took that away, because that was added into lust. Paul is talking about God taking away the middle wall of partition here. Then he goes ahead to say, “And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” The prophets and apostles left us the foundation to be built upon, and it is up to us to take heed how we build on that foundation. Jesus Christ always was and always will be the chief corner stone. For these people to make a statement, such an ignorant statement, when they would say, Jesus Christ is not that important to this end time message, I just have to say, you are a first class fool. You may say, you should not talk about your brothers and sisters like that. I am not saying that about my brothers and sisters, because they would never make such a statement. If you take Jesus Christ out of the picture, you no longer have a picture, all you have is religion. Bro. Dewayne, when you could not go any further, it was God that saved you, by the blood of Jesus Christ. If you have salvation, it was because of what He did: it was not because of what you did, you did not call yourself to this salvation. So we are built upon a foundation that has a cornerstone, a chief cornerstone, not just a stone, not just a building. God is not going to just accept any kind of building. We are little temples. We are lively stones. That is why we have joy, because we have guidance. Don’t tell me we do not know where we are headed, because we do. It is not pie-in-the-sky as a hope, but the hope that we have is the hope of Abraham. That hope that Abraham held to was what led him out of Ur of the Chaldees, over into Haran, and from Haran on down into the promised land, and Egypt was not going to do it. I remember years ago, Sis. Turner told some of us something while we were sitting around in fellowship, she said that after she had departed from another assembly that had a twenty-four hour prayer group, she was sick in her body and she thought, I am going to call them for prayer because I am sick. I know if she were here, she would not care for me to tell this. But she wanted to look in the scripture to see what the scripture said first, so she let the Bible fall open and it fell upon the scripture that says, Why go down to Egypt for help? Why go back to bondage for your healing? Regardless of how many twenty four hour prayer groups there are, it is not up to prayer groups, it is up to the healing grace and mercy of the living God, through our faith in Jesus Christ. Our healing is already purchased, but our acceptance comes from within. Therefore brothers and sisters, I am built upon something tonight, and you are too, but it is all by the grace of God. “And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself (not others) being the chief corner stone.” If you don’t have a corner stone, you don’t have a building. If you don’t have a starting point, you don’t have a proper foundation. I know I have told this before, we moved away from a place in 1967, which we were renting, and bought a little place. The man that bought that place, the neighbor we had, we saw him later, he built a room on. What did he do? He did not put any foundation under it, he just laid blocks out to set his room on. He laid blocks out and the neighbor said, that is not big enough, let me put another block out. I never did go back and check to see what was done, but I can imagine, after a few thaws and freezes it did not settle good, because it had no starting point, it was guesswork. “In whom all the building fitly framed.” He is talking about people, if he is talking about Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone, then he is talking about believing people here, he is talking about framework, and the framework is people. You might say, I would rather be the finish work, you will be, but somebody has to be framework. We have had a lot of framework before us. I remember working here one day after I got off my job, Bro. Jackson was in here, he was doing some trim work and putting some molding down. He said Bro. Allen, this molding is like the grace of God, it covers up what you couldn’t hide when you put up the panels, you put the molding around the edge, oh that is beautiful molding. Well what is it for? It covers mistakes. This could be left like this, but you would have been seeing blocks. So we are in the finish work of this. If I am just polyurethane, let me be good polyurethane, polyurethane covers to make it look better. Maybe I am the putty. Putty has its ability to cover. Underneath these little spots you see here, is a nail head. You drove it in so far with a hammer, my trouble was I missed sometimes, it is hard to cover up those places. But then you take a punch and drive it on in and cover it up, then you put polyurethane on top of that, and that is what makes it look good. That is the finished work. God is looking at the finished work. He is talking about building here and he is talking about peoples lives, because we are the building product. How do we look when we place our being in that finish work? Is there something in our life that we are continually trying to cover up? I don’t have to look for what is in your life because there is a Holy Ghost, what in the world is the Holy Ghost anyway? He is the very Spirit of life from God Himself, that abides inside of us, to take ourselves out of the way and put God in there should be our goal as a believer. Therefore we become temples of God. Know you not that you are the temple of the Holy Ghost? That is a question. Or do you not know that you are a temple of the Holy Ghost? So we are instruments of God in His use. Well, I don’t do anything but pray. Then keep praying, pray for me. God has all kinds of instruments. I am going to read something in a minute, after I get through with this. It said, framed together. So where this joint leaves off, this other part of my arm continues on, but where it leaves off, it goes from one joint into another one and they all work together to make a useful body. This works with this, and this works with this, and this works with these. When David looked at it, he said, I was marvelously and wonderfully made. He had time to think while he was watching the sheep. “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth (Groweth, that is the same thing that Peter said, he said grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is the last verse of 2nd Peter because he did not want to leave the best part out. Sometimes the last thing you hear is what you remember. But he could not have summed it up in a better way. Neither could Paul here, when he is talking about being framed together, groweth…) unto an holy temple in the Lord.” He is talking about a whole, because he is talking about a framework. He is talking about the whole Church of the living God growing into a temple for the Holy Ghost to abide in. There was about a hundred and twenty people in the upper room, and one of them could not say, I got a better Holy Ghost than you did. God first manifested Himself in the room, then when He did, He manifested Himself in the disciples and they began to see each one of them had a little flicker of a tongue over their head, a light. Oh God, send us that light. What does the scripture say? Search me, Oh Lord. I am saying that tonight, search me Oh Lord, see if there is any evil way in me. We are getting ready to get out of here, and God is working on us until He has a people without spot or blemish or wrinkle. I could come in here with a greasy spot on my shirt and you would not see anything but the spot and you would wonder why I did not notice it. God is looking at our spots and wrinkles and blemishes. I tell you what, it is like bleach. You can take the prettiest red coloring you can find and put it in a glass of water, but when you then put a few drops of bleach in it, you will see the red disappear. Where does it go? When God saves you, when the blood of Jesus Christ is applied, where did your sins go? I don’t really think like that, I am just glad to get rid of them. I do not want the devil to remind me. He is an invader. You have a right to command him to leave, because he has no business in here. Oh he will keep coming around, but we should not give him any place. He does come around, we everyone know that. Right? But he cannot take up abode any more, because we are instruments of the grace of God, in whom He abides. We are builded, into a holy temple of the Holy Ghost. You need me, and I need you. “In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” Through the Spirit, you can never get away from that. You cannot get away from being an habitation of God. When you are walking around, you are God’s habitation, on the job or when you go to eat your lunch in front of a bunch of unbelievers and you bow you head, you don’t have to make a big noise. Some day somebody is going to come and say thank you, but there may be others, maybe for many days, that make fun of you, but that is alright. Now I am going to Proverbs the 4th chapter. Why did he word this, that way? He said in the 1st verse, “Hear ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.” He is not talking about the Old law of God, he is talking about the law or the word he is speaking, because he is giving some good instruction here. “For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. (He is talking about David and Bathsheba. Did you know that Solomon, when all the sons of David, which were many, got together, they left Solomon out. They were going to get their own king, it did not make any difference what God thought, they were going to pick a king of their own choosing. If they had, it was a rebel.) He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words; keep my commandments, and live. (Now we get down to the good part, the next verse.) Get wisdom, get understanding: (I remember years ago, a certain man married this young woman. He would get around a bunch of people and would talk about how naive she was, always downing her. Look what she married. He must not have been too smart, everybody talked about what a wise man he was, but he was not too smart to marry somebody so naive, as he said she was. However he left her out there, he played his game, he went his way, he had his entertainment, then one day she was not as naive as he thought. She found somebody else. When she did, it broke his heart. The Bible said here, get understanding. The Bible speaks of understanding what the will of the Lord is, wisdom is a great gift from God, but if you don’t have understanding, then you are in bad shape. Solomon is not going to stop at that, he is going to go on.) forget it not.” Solomon got wisdom, God gave his wisdom, but he overlooked understanding. I have been around Bro. Bud, I have been around Bro. Jackson, they always talked about their little wives. Bro. Jackson called Sis. Jackson mommy. I have heard Bro. Bud call his wife baby. That is understanding. If you say oh, that woman I have for a wife is so naive, you better look out. She may not be as naive as you think, because the thing about it is, she married you. It is good to have wisdom, but it is good to have understanding to go with that wisdom. There are two brothers here, I know them to be truthful brothers. One of them has been married many years, the other has been married several years, they say they have never had an argument. I would have to say God bless you brothers, somebody had to keep their mouth shut instead of just blowing their stack. We all have enough to come against us that makes us want to blow the stack sometimes, but we cannot be like that Jew was, I wish you were dead, you know he had a problem. If I cannot get along with anybody, I have a problem. I said, I know two men, I don’t know how many more there are in here, but it is time that we do not only have wisdom of what God is saying in our hour, but it is time that we have understanding with it. Bro. William Branham said he married two couples, one of them was a lawyer, and one was just an old every day worker. One day he decided he would visit these married couples that he had married. One of them could not afford anything, lived in a box car. He said he walked up and started to knock on the door but heard a conversation, when he heard the conversation, the man said honey, you will not always have to live like this. She said, this is alright, this is all we can afford. He said honey, I want to go buy you a new dress. She said, I have a dress, that is enough. So he went from there on down to the man he had married who was a lawyer, when he went to the door all he heard was a racket. He was one of these Philadelphia lawyers, so what he did, he was going to go to Philadelphia for a business trip, and she said to him, if you go there and find somebody else, I will divorce you. He said to her, if you don’t be true to me while I am gone, I will divorce you. Bro. William Branham said he turned around and left. There was no trust there. Am I meddling, am I going to far with what I am saying, or am I trying to get us to have understanding of the other person’s feelings. I have said before and I say it again, I would rather a woman slap me than for her to fuss at me. I don’t like that kind of racket. I don’t like confusion. I don’t like temperament. I don’t want wrinkles or blemishes. I was asked a question, this woman and this man that were believers, this was just a few days ago, they were getting ready to break up, they were not from here, but as they were getting ready to break up, one of them was wondering about getting married again. I say to that one, if you are listening tonight, you have no place to do that if both of you are believers. If an unbeliever depart, let them depart, but if you cannot get along with your mate that is a believer, and you have to move out, then you stay single, there is no place for remarriage in that kind of situation. Read 1st Corinthians 7, the word is in there. I cannot live in a troubled house, but I am saying tonight before you ever go to the front to get married, make sure that you are getting along first. Don’t say, well I will change him or change her when we get married, you will not change that situation after you get married. It will turn around and bite you. Am I talking with some sense? Or am I crazy? I will leave that up to you. This was not a planned part of this sermon. I told you, that on my way to church, I thought of these scriptures that I am talking about, it said get wisdom and with your getting, get understanding. I have known Bro. and Sis. Berta many years, they get along. “Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.” He calls it a “her” now. Do you know why he does? The thing about it is, God means for us to draw from one another. When our lives are compatible with the Word of God, as husband and wife, and we as a Church can draw from one another, that will work right. You are my strength. Do not hate me. I am talking with some sense, I hope, I know I am. “Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.” He is talking as a man unto a woman here, which is understanding. Oh she has such beautiful eyes. He has such a muscular body. Have you ever looked inside him, or her, to see what is coming out. “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: (I am not saying anything about not having wisdom, but these two go hand and hand and one will not work without the other one.) and with all thy getting get understanding.” Get it. Do not say, well you are just a good neighbor, when you get wisdom, get understanding. These things compile to work together. It used to be that man, when he worked in wood work, he had to do everything to dovetail everything with his hands, now they have machines for that part. I like to see anything that should, dovetail together. In woodwork, it is beautiful like that. But our lives, when they dovetail together, it is more beautiful. If I was one of those Pentecostal preachers now, I would yell and say, yea, ain’t I preaching good. They bribe people to say Amen to them, because they don’t have anything else to say. They say five words, come on now, ain’t I preaching good. They are crazy. If the Holy Ghost is not the preacher, you are not preaching good. I can have wisdom to preach the Word of God, but if I do not have understanding to know when to rebuke or correct, or bring forth doctrine, then that is a very poor sermon. “Exalt her, (he is still talking about understanding) and she shall promote thee: (what a statement) she shall bring thee to honor, when thou dost embrace her.” Embrace her, that is not talking about a woman, it is talking about understanding. Maybe it would not hurt somebody to embrace their wife tonight and tell her, I love you. Or your husband, this is a two way street. “She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: (That is my message, grace, an ornament of grace.) a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.” The Bible says, Paul said the first commandment with promise is to honor thy father and mother, that your days may be long upon the earth. Young people, do not look back at your mom and dad with that old crabby look. Do not go off in another room and sulk because they told you something you need to do. Do not be a part of this lazy generation. The word that I hear about young people of this day, and I am not talking to you, the word I hear about young people of this day, all they want to do is watch cartoons and play games, like little children that never grow up. They would not listen to what I have to say, they would not listen to what the police would say, they will not listen to anyone, all they do is find a needle and the government allows it. Stupidity rules the day. We have a slide to show on this. I now want to go to my scripture for this slide, 1st Kings chapter 6, verses 1 thru 7. Verse 7, is the one I want to get to, but don’t have your mind on verse 7 until we get there. “And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, (which is May) which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord. And the house which king Solomon built for the Lord, the length thereof was threescore cubits, (which is ninety feet) and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, (which is thirty feet) and the height thereof thirty cubits. (Which is forty five feet) And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits (That means it is as long as the temple is high, which is thirty feet.) was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house. (Which is fifteen feet wide, ten cubits.) And for the house he made windows of narrow lights. (Why did he make narrow lights? Because they did not need light inside the Holy of Holies because God was that light.) And against the wall of the house he built chambers round about, against the walls of the house, round about, both of the temple and of the oracle: and he made chambers round about: The nethermost chamber was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad: for without in the wall of the house he made narrowed rests round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house. (Why did he do that? The 7th verse tells you.) And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: (Why? Everything was already cut before it was ever brought to be set up.) so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.” God did not want any racket there. God is building a temple today in the hearts and minds of His children and He does not want a lot of commotion. So whatever grievance or grudge or feeling, brothers and sisters, you are not in fear here to me. I heard our sister tell about how she loved to be here, and she said they enjoy the internet, but it is not like being here. How that should hit our hearts, how it should hit the hearts of God’s children tonight, it is not like being here. I want, when we have a meeting or something, I thank you brothers that you are not punching one another any more. I am not putting in church order, I am not doing that. I could go out here now and touch Bro. Pixley and he would yell because he cannot help it, but I do not aim to do that. I do not mean that in a derogatory way. I mean, I thank you brothers, I really do, from the bottom of my heart. I did not go back through the aisle and bang anybody on the head, I just said it is better that we do not do that. If you punch me in the ribs, I will not do anything. You say, well maybe you are dead. I am just not ticklish. But my dad, you could not touch his feet. He told my mom when they got married, don’t ever try to tickle my feet, I cannot take it. So my mom sneaked up on him and tickled his feet, the next thing she knew, she was laying in the floor. He was not mad at her, that was just his reflect. When he was in the hospital, the nurse came in to check his feet, he said, don’t do that, I don’t mean to, but I will kick you. If they would get around his feet, he would start shaking them because he could not take it, and he warned them, I can not take that. I remember a man down in the country was painting. He was standing on a ladder, painting, and this man came around and thought he would make him mess up. So he walked around and punched him. He turned around and slapped the paintbrush across his face. We are all different. My dad was ticklish, but that did not make me ticklish like he was. I am just saying tonight, we need to respect each others feelings. It might have been fun for a long time, nobody meant anything by it, but sometimes we need to enter into his gates with praise and into his house with thanksgiving in our hearts without all that other. I want to be an example to the people here, and to the people we have went to through the years. I was not Bro. Jackson when I went there, I did not try to be Bro. Jackson. I am not Bro. Jackson when I preach here. Some people have said, you are just trying to copy Bro. Jackson. No, I want to be led by the Holy Ghost, and if that sounds like him, then praise God, because I have nothing against what my brother did. Do not try to make me to be somebody that is trying to be different. One of these days you will find out that was not the drive in my life, the drive to be different. When it comes to feelings, I feel inferior to what my brother was. Bro. Bud and I worked out there some. He liked Pepsi. He would come out with a cold Pepsi and a bowl of ice cream. It made me feel about that tall, maybe smaller. The Bible says if you measure yourself by someone else, you are wrong. But that does not cut down on the revelation that God has given in this hour. I have to let God be God. But I have to have understanding of what the will of the Lord is in my life. We are getting ready to get out of here, that is what I am talking about tonight. I am not saying give me five minutes, then take a half hour. That wears me out. Many times some preachers have come in here, I am stopping now, but forty five minutes you are still looking at your watch. If they would have stopped forty five minutes earlier, they would have been a lot better off. I did not say give me three, I may need one minute, I may need two minutes, but I am not planning on holding you a long time. We are getting ready to get out of here, that is why I say unapologetic tonight, these things are something for us to think about. I have not been to any of your homes to see how you are getting along because the Holy Ghost goes with all of us. You say, if you have got it, it goes any way, either to prove that we are God’s children or we are just a foolish bunch of something, and I talk about myself there as much as I do anyone else.

GROW IN GRACE

I have had these scriptures up for several weeks now, that I have never got to. I did go to the book of 2nd Peter for my subject, and I am going to look at that before I go into Romans. I was asked the question about Iran, because I don’t know where it has come from, but some seem to think that if Israel bombs Iran, then that will nullify Ezekiel 38 and 39. But Israel is just after their reactors, to knock them out that it may be something that they can stop them from having a nuclear bomb. That has nothing to do with Ezekiel 38 and 39 because Ezekiel 38 and 39 are still in place. There will be a time for Ezekiel 38 and 39, but I am sure that if and when, let me put it that way, if and when, God knows, if and when Israel should knock out their reactors, then that is going to anger the Middle East more and it is going to give them more ammunition to feel they should go ahead and do something to Israel. But what I was getting to in that, I have been watching it and the United States is doing everything they can to keep Israel from going in there and taking care of the problem. But Israel is finally finding out that the president of the United States is not their friend. The majority of them in America, the last election, voted for Obama, I am talking about the Jews. I could not see why then, but I cannot see why they would even think about it now, because if you look at the Arutz News, you will see that the leadership in Israel, much of the Knesset, do not believe that Obama is their friend. We do have senators and congressmen now that are standing up against the president to show favor unto Israel, because they realize that Israel has no friends in the Middle East. If it was not for the grace of God, they would not be a nation, but by the grace of God they are a nation and they are going to remain to be a nation. They are the only people in the Middle East that can claim that they are an original, dating back into the B.C. period. One of these days Israel is going to get all the land back that belongs to them. There will be a war before Ezekiel 38 and 39 that will bring Israel back into her possession. But it has got to start in Judah. They were showing a couple of the cities, one is Jaime (spelling?) and the other is Seteral, (spelling?) I may not have pronounced that right, but anyway they have showed that in Seteral two thousand houses, which you never see on the News, have been bombed, two thousand. It showed that some of them are just shells, that is all that is left. When the siren sounds for Israel to get into safety, they have twenty seconds to get into a bomb shelter, but many of them do not have a bomb shelter. Many Israelis have been hurt, you don’t hear that in the News. But it showed them laying screaming, bloody all over, from those rockets that go into there from the Arab sector. So today the tension is great. As I said, Israel has not a friend in the Arab world. But looking at the situation, as I mentioned before, Bro. William Branham said God and one is a majority, so with the angel of the Lord, which will be Michael, with the angel of the Lord before him and it said in Revelation 12, Michael and his angels, that means that he has followers when the battle starts. As Bro. Jackson always referred to, Michael is Israel’s warring angel. Today, this is not my message, but the message is still on God’s grace, and it is the grace of God that has placed Israel back there in this time, and every day as they became a nation, they have been on alert since 1948 because of the enemies they have. They have had, I know of four major conflicts, maybe five. I know of 1948, 1956, 1967, then in the1970’s, and in 1983. It could have risen to be a conflict when Lebanon, three or four years ago, I don’t remember exactly when, but it was three or four years ago when Lebanon began to try to start a war with Israel, pushed by the enemies of Israel at that time. Syria now is in great conflict. These conflicts are over and it is always worse after they are over than when they started. We are today, looking like we are going to get out of Iraq. I think they have set the year 2013 for the year of getting out of Afghanistan. I think they had it at 2014, but now they have moved it back, I just heard that yesterday, they are moving it to 2013 to get our troops out. Of course they are planning on leaving so many in there, I don’t know why. Because, when Russia tried to defeat Afghanistan, it never happened. Now it looks like it is not going to happen again because we never fight a war to win any more. They will not let the troops go in and do what they are meant to do, because you have so many appeasers in the government today, that are willing to go along with anything, but never settle anything. One of these days just ahead, it is going to be settled in the Middle East, and only by the grace of God will that happen. When God gets into a battle, then the battle is won. We have had four officers in the last week that have been killed in Afghanistan because they said they made a mistake in burning some of the old Koran’s. There have been at least three apologies made by our government: I saw three of them. But nobody ever apologizes because Christians are being slaughtered. I am talking about the Christian world, the Coptics in Egypt are being slaughtered and nothing is ever said. Yet they bend over backward to apologize to Karzai when he is just a rogue leader, no better than Noreiga was, and some of the other leaders of nations that have been taken out of the midst. Nobody apologized for these four soldiers, these officers that were killed, when they went right into our compound and did it. Karzai did not apologize for that. They found messages in those Koran’s they had, they mentioned that at first, but they never mentioned it anymore, where they were sending messages one to another. They had written messages concerning our armed forces in those Koran’s, and these things are never mentioned in the News, we just always have to apologize to somebody. It used to not be that way. So it makes me wonder where the government leaders’ mind’s are, where their heads are. You will have to pardon my thinking, but it seems that we have more sympathizers than we have people to stand up when it is time. Whenever our young men are being slaughtered in a war that will never be won, why apologize to somebody that kills Christians and nothing is ever done, nothing is ever said. I know they are not believers as we are, but some of those people have done nothing to cause the conflict that is going on. We have so called spiritual leaders in this country, I am calling them so called, that have united Christianity with Muslimism, with Catholicism, and all the other isms. Great leaders that have sprang up in this nation, that had an austere motive in their mind, many years ago, the church world would hate me for my thinking, but when I have heard it out of their own mouth’s, it lets me know that somebody’s heart is not right with God. They may have the attention of the world, but they do not have my attention. I would not walk across the highway to hear them preach. But whenever they want to unite Christianity with Muslimism, and call it Chrislam, then you are not a Christian, don’t even claim to be, even though you still do. I am talking about some of the religious leadership. Bro. William Branham made the statement in the early 1960’s, he said that Billy Graham and Oral Roberts represented the two angels that went down to Sodom. I guess that I waited years to see that manifested, and now I have. In 1974 and even earlier than that, Billy Graham was preaching and having great crusades here in America. The stadiums were full. He was in with these archdioceses,’ with the cardinals and bishops, telling them, get your people out to come to our crusades and I will send the people back to your churches. You remember, back in the early 1960’s, how at Notre Dame and in Canada, there was a move going on then, that Catholic nuns were speaking in tongues. They were calling it the great revival that was sweeping the Catholic Church. What has it changed? It was blinding multitudes, is what it was, because the light of the seventh church was going on in America. Then it completely folded. Therefore people today, according to the scripture I read last week from the book of Proverbs, which says get wisdom, and with all your getting, get understanding, the multitudes did not get that. The Bible speaks about understanding what the will of the Lord is. We will never know what the will of the Lord is without an understanding of His Word. Some of the visitations that we have here in the service is a manifestation of the Word, but you take the word out of the visitation, then you have an empty shell. I turned on the television the other night, they had some big name preachers that are rising to the top of the ladder in this time. When they started the music, they were jumping all over the platform, boys with tennis shoes on, their pants up to here, you could see their white socks. If you turned, which I don’t, but if you turned on to some of the secular stations, it would not be any worse, and some times not as bad. That is the type of people that every week get on the Internet, wanting to come here to teach our young people how to have service and teach the preachers how to preach to bring in more young people. If we are going to do that, why not just open it up to the world and say come on in. Sometimes I know people think that you are hard when you talk like this. It has even been preached about how we are too hard here at Faith Assembly. But when I see some of these splinter groups, you begin to see that the Word of God is taking a beating. They want to integrate their move with us, which as long as I am here, and I can speak for Bro. Bud as well, that is not ever going happen. You just as well hang up your shingle and go your way. There has been a standard set here at this church for many years, that has kept certain things out. I know there was a preacher one time that wanted to talk to Bro. Jackson, so he took some of us upstairs to let him say what he had to say. He began to talk and say that him and Bro. Jackson would be the two prophets that would go to Israel in the beginning of the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy. They always want to put somebody else in because they figure they can pay the way. He said so much and finally Bro. Jackson just stopped him. The man looked so surprised. Bro. Jackson told him, you know what you are saying scares me about as much as a mouse running across this floor. You say, well that was rude, no, that was just straight talk. Don’t pull that stuff around here. I see the way the world is going in this hour of time, and it reminds me of and old saying, the devil is taking it to hell in a handbasket, that is a hard thing. Someone wrote a book one time, I never did read it, but it was supposed to be a great best seller, Rick Warren, Robert Schuler, the head of the Campus Crusade, Billy Graham, and they mentioned others, that now they are appeasers with the Muslim religion. I said Billy Graham, and it just let me know when I hear things like that, what Bro. William Branham said is a fact, that they are like the two angels that went down to Sodom to blind the people. Billy Graham had one idea when he started out, he wanted to be like Moses. He wanted to be the greatest evangelist that ever lived, and he became that, and preached to more people at one time than anybody else ever had. Now he is an old man sitting in a rocking chair, with somebody else almost having to wait on him. But the Bible says their works do follow them. You say, well I know people that were converted under Billy Graham. That had nothing to do with Billy Graham. There are even people that come into this congregation, into this message that were converted in a Billy Graham crusade, but that had nothing to do with Billy Graham. God can use whatever means He chooses, maybe I should not say this, but it proves a point: He used a donkey one time to stop a prophet that was about to do something. As for me, when you take the Word out, you have nothing left, you just have an empty shell. I have a slide of Abraham, which I will put up. Abraham was not called out of Ur of the Chaldees for nothing. That old man walked, rode a camel or donkey, for hundreds of miles before he ever found out what the will of God was for his life. Because God said follow, he followed, not knowing where he was going, but he kept following. Because of his obedience, he came out of an unbelieving, Godless bunch of people to fulfill a purpose of God. Brothers and sisters, I feel like, today in America we are living among a bunch of Godless people and Godless preachers, people that do not know a bit more about God than a dog laying out there resting. I am not condemning the dog, he is doing what he is supposed to, he is laying out there. On the other hand, these are doing what they are supposed to do, because the Bible says, that in the end time there would be a falling away first, to let us know what time we are in. There is a song that goes this way, take this whole world but give me Jesus, He satisfies. It also says, no turning back. I will read my scripture again, which I want to get into. It is in 2nd Peter, I started in the 14th verse last week, I think I will go back to the 13th today. Chapter 3, verse 13, “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” Everyone that is blessed to make it there, they are going to know why they made it there, they are going to know how they made it there. We are not on television, we don’t have to be, we are on the Internet, which will reach every place that it is supposed to hear us. Jesus speaks unto His disciples and calls them a little flock. Today we are a little flock. There is a song that says this is not an easy road, but it is a safe road. By the grace of God we will cut down the bushes and briars and snags, with the sword of the Word of God in order for people to walk on through. If you were in some parts of the world you would call it a machete. God did not call his Word a sword for nothing, because it is something that works both ways, it is sharp. The Bible says sharper than any two edged sword, to cut down to the heart, down into the marrow, into the bone. Because God is going to get every ingredient of His Word into us. We see preachers on television, they have gone from preaching the Word to selling vitamins. I am not against vitamins, but that is not the gospel of salvation. Then from that to exercise, and the women do not wear enough clothing to cover anything. They show their bodies to the world. The Bible says he that looketh upon a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery in his heart already. If a woman presents her body in that way, then she is a part of it. She is a part of that adulterous act if she presents her body in a way to make herself look that way. You do not see one thing in these scriptures I am going to read, that makes you look like the world. But the Bible says we are in the world but we are not of the world. I heard a couple of weeks ago, of this man that tried to get this little girl, seven year old girl in a Walmart, he tried to take her and she began to kick and scream and hit him, and he had to let her go. That was because somebody taught her right and had told her what to do in such a time. However I am wondering where her mother was. If you have to put these little children on a leash to keep them close to you, do it. We live in a Godless world, that there is somebody always looking for something in order to appease their perverted mind. I mean perverted, because only a devil would want to take a little girl and abuse her, then kill her. That is out of the pit of hell. The thing that should happen to them, they should not even have a trial, they should be hung for the public to view. You may say that is wrong, but that would get rid of that one. Well you preach hate. The thing about it is, God hates it too. So I am saying, keep a watch on your children. If you have to put them in a cart to keep them close to you, if they are four years old, or whatever. They may scream and yell for a little while, but they will soon stop that. We live in a dangerous degraded hour. The Bible said it would be like this in the last days, so where are we? In the Middle Ages? Some might say, Well, it could be a hundred years yet. That is a not true. Well God’s time is not like our time. But He said when you see these things begin to come to pass, lift up your head, your redemption is drawing nigh. When I see preachers like these I have mentioned, plus others, when I see them appeasing people, like Billy Graham did, I even heard him say back in 1997, they were showing excerpts of what he said, he said there are people that don’t even know the name of Jesus Christ, that are Christians. That is like saying, Let’s just open the doors to all, then go and bow to the pope. Bro. William Branham was in Rome one time and he had a chance to have an audience with the pope. He asked the man, do I have to kneel to him or bow to him, or kiss his ring? The fellow said yes. He said, I will bow to no man. So he missed his audience with the pope. “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.” What do I see when I look in the mirror? Am I seeing the image of Jesus Christ, or am I seeing something that wants to be something different? If I am going to be different, then may God make me different. “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation: even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, (We live in an unlearned and very unstable world. Back in Proverbs it says get wisdom and with all your getting, get understanding. What are we teaching our little children. I see these moms put children in beauty pageants, now they are putting little boys, four and five years old, in beauty pageants. They are dressing little girls up like women. I say women, not sisters, they are dressing them like women and putting them out here to display themselves before an ungodly generation of ungodly men. You who do such things are not parents, you are Jezebel’s, and you are trying to make your daughters look like Jezebel’s also. That is not beauty. Let me see a little child be able to play with some kind of toy, a little girl play with some kind of little doll. Don’t dress your little sons like little hell-riders. All this garbage and bandanas around their heads, where are they learning that from? What is wrong with a little boy pushing a truck around, acting like a little boy? What is wrong with a little girl carrying a little doll around? I remember Bro. Jackson saying something like that one time, talking about his sister. He said she had a doll when she was eleven or twelve years old, and people laughed about it. A doll at eleven or twelve years old. I remember those days. What were they doing? They were learning how to be mothers when they were grown, and a twelve year old is not grown: Don’t make them look grown, endeavor to make them look like children of God, not just what you want them to look like. You say, the way you all peach, no wonder Faith Assembly doesn’t grow, we are not trying to grow weeds or saw briars. If we are going to grow, let us grow on, and by the Word of God, because the Word of God teaches us how to live. They that are unstable wrest.) as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” Don’t come to me with a twisted interpretation of the scripture. It tells in the Bible in Ezekiel, chapter 30 or along in there, that a man of God is a watchman sitting upon the wall. What did the watchman do when he was sitting on the wall? He was looking for danger, and that is what I am talking about today. Don’t think that this was something I planned. There are times when you are better off, to let your friends go, if they are not going to follow God, just as Abraham had to separate from Lot. There are some times it would be better, if we would separate from those like Lot, because Lot had one eye on Sodom from the very beginning, or he would not have chose it. He went down with plenty and came out with nothing. You just simply cannot follow a revelation without having a revelation yourself. I am not mad, I am just angry with this nation, because of what it has become. As I said back at the beginning, always going around everywhere and apologizing for our soldiers, you who do that make me mad. When you cannot shoot unless you are shot at, it is very often a little too late then, to begin to shoot when somebody else has already got aim on you and the trigger ready to pull, and you don’t even have your gun drawn. The Bible, in the 4th chapter of the book of Ephesians, gives you a pattern of how we are to arm ourselves, and it does not leave out the sword. The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Peter right here, is talking as kind as he can, but he is talking straight. “Ye therefore, beloved, (He is talking to Christian people, but he is telling Christian people not to leave spots and blemishes. I am not talking today, about things that we cannot do, but the thing about it is, we make it hard to do.) seeing ye know these things before, (When you are looking into the mirror of the Word of God, you are not looking into a mirror that you look at every day, because the thing about it is, you forget what you look like when you walk away from that mirror. Well it is as I read this morning, when opposition comes, that is the time to use that sword.) beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, (What is wicked? It is anything that walks away from the Word of God: that is wicked.) fall from your own stedfastness.” What he is saying is, at one time you were stedfast, but falling from your own stedfastness. “But grow in grace.” That is my subject, grow in grace. It is a growth process. Each day that we walk, we are to inch up, not go down. What affected me yesterday, and I am not talking about yesterday as something in one day. I am talking about through former years, the things that at one time affected me, should not affect me now. The Bible speaks about the present truth. Well I just cannot see the third day, then you are not willing to walk in present truth. But to the true saints of God, that is a settled fact today. I am not saying that to keep hammering on it, but there are other things that God wants to do among us. Whenever He fills up a vacuum, then on down the road there comes another vacuum that He is going to fill also, because He is going to keep us digging. My thought this morning as I drove to church was, am I ready for this morning? I began to search, then when I got to church, I don’t know if anybody else was raising their hands while they were singing or not, but I was, because I wanted to put my antenna up to HIM in a surrendering way. I wonder what that man had in mind when he wrote the song, I Surrender All? The Word of God should become a daily habit with us, but not make it just a habit, make it a desire to feed on the Word of God. Then we can sing the song, walk with me Lord, talk with me Lord. Some of those old movies where men were playing the part where they were not quite all there, they stuck out among all the crowd, you would hear the old Sargent yell, get in place. Get in place, get in step soldier. But those sergeants did not repeat it many times. It used to be, but I don’t suppose they can do that now, it used to be they would give you the boot. I never was in military service. I came to Louisville, had my physical and all, but they did not need anybody in the air force, they would have taken me in the navy or anything else, but you had to have a lot higher grade than what I made, to be accepted in the air force. There were five of us that came, we were like ducks in a row, five of us. Two of them got on the booze bottle that night and they took my blanket. We got ready to go to bed, the old Sargent, which was a marine Sargent, trimmed me down real good. I thought, this is the wrong place for me, I am already being got onto. What happened the next morning, the others sneaked the extra blanket back in and left me hanging. But then the Sargent got friendly with me, he was just showing me that I was not boss. Like it or not, the Word of God is the boss. We have to get in line, we have to get in step with it the Word, by growing in grace. I have not said these things out of anger or of malice, or trying to put myself above you. I am saying it is time that we all grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, then apply these scriptures to our life. We know what it takes. We are not without knowledge, we know what it takes, so it is just deciding that we are going to do whatever is God’s will for our life, no matter what it takes.

GROW IN GRACE

In all the letters that are written unto us in the New Testament, it speaks of the grace of God. That is not a hangup of the ministry, but that is an expression of God’s grace. I began this series in January, and here we are near the end of February. Someone said in an e-mail, I don’t care if it lasts three months, I hope to end it next Sunday, the Lord willing. That will actually be two months, but it could go further than that. I believe you are getting the message of what grace is, because without grace there is no growth, and there is growth in grace. Grace is not just a word, God has extended unmerited favor toward man, when we were hopeless and without an inkling of what God’s purpose was. I remember, back in the 1940’s going to churches, my mom and dad would take me everywhere meetings were going on, the Church of God, the Methodist, and the Nazareen Church, I remember very vividly, probably in the middle 1940’s, I was just a boy, but I remember us being at a Nazareen church one Saturday night. It was probably about six or eight miles from our house, maybe a little further than that, the main highway was blacktop, that was all the blacktop there was. We were not on that very long, we lived on a gravel road. The church I am talking about was on a gravel road. Some of the people from there probably know where Creston is, eight or ten miles from Liberty, where I grew up. In a fork in the road there used to be a store there. There were a lot of little stores in the country, the main stores in town were not very big. There are a lot of little country stores any more that have more stuff than what they did. Well we were at that church meeting, and a certain young man that had a dump truck disturbed that meeting all the time the preaching was going on, driving back and forth in front of the church. Of course we had no telephone that you could call the police at that time. He would drive by the church and it was noisy. Then he would drive back by again. When we got ready to go home, we drove down the road and the dump truck was upside down and the young man was dead. You know, the visitation of God was working at that time, I did not know it, but during those years along about 1950 Bro. William Branham went to Campbellsville, to a Methodist camp, Camp Acton. He had a meeting there. That was some twenty miles away from where we lived, my mother-in-law went there, and it scared her very much, because she was not used to anything like that, him telling people what was wrong with them. He did that a lot back at that time, more than he did in later years of his ministry. God used him that way, and a lot of the Methodist preachers that were there, (the place was on a Methodist campground), made fun of him. His message did touch some of the people down there. But many of them followed the man instead of the message. Just as Paul was a part of his message, so was Bro. William Branham, you had to be a part in order for it to be alive. If you are not a part of the message that you preach, then the message has no meaning. What I mean is this, the Spirit of God is in His word, but it takes the Spirit of God to reveal His word. It is spoken of there as unction in the New Testament, there is an unction to that Word, which means a power for revelation, or how God will work through His Word, He does not work through any other means. He has never worked through organizations. You say, some of the older ones would say, well I remember when God visited some of these little churches. The thing about it is, they did not even know they were an organization. When I was growing up, the Methodists, the Baptists, the Nazareen, and Church of God, I am talking about the Anderson type, up here at Anderson Indiana, which do not believe in speaking in tongues, they all pretty well got along. But the visitation of God was in the midst of people at that time because God was working through a message. But then, I have repeated this different times, in 1956 Bro. William Branham said if the church does not receive the message this year, it is gone. What I was talking about this morning, some of the things that I mentioned about Billy Graham, started in 1957. Even back in the 1940’s some of the ideas that he had was even working at that time. If Satan has a plan, and that is a hard word to say, if Satan has a plan, he is willing to work many years in order to get his plan out there. Forty years ago, the Muslim people they did not have much of a foothold in the world, but they were working. They have always worked against the Jews because there were two regiments of the nine that was in Hitler’s army, that were Muslims. Through these, came the persecution of the Jews as well as the rest of them. Tonight, we are looking that thing right in the face. It is a threat to this nation, as well as it is to Israel in the Middle East. They are teaching their Sharia Law in America. You have Muslim clerics that are in the higher education and in their mosques today that are teaching Jihad. Leadership in this country is aware of it, but they do nothing about it. I heard some people, this is the saying now, when they burned those Korans a few days ago, then they began to go into these places which were supposed to be secure and kill the officers in our armed forces. The idea that they are springing forth is, we are not like other nations, we don’t retaliate like other nations and we have got to be a step ahead of other nations. This was what was said when some of the News people were talking today in a circle. There were two or three of them that were saying that one apology was enough, and that should have come from the armed forces, not from the president on down, that one apology, but as I said this morning, I heard three apologies myself. It said the president had no business to ever apologize, and here this woman speaks up, yes, but we are not like other nations. When our people are killed, they are as dead as they are anywhere else. I never hear of some of our people being killed over there in Afghanistan without it bothering me. After I see young men come back here that are having to be trained to even think anymore because they have lost it all, because some bomb has blown up and messed up their minds. We need to either fight a war and get it over with, or get out. You can never appease the enemy. We have brothers here that have been in the armed forces, they know what it is. Some thought I said I had been in there, I did not say that. I said that a Marine Sargent, when my blanket was stolen, jumped on me. I said I could have got in the Marines then, or in the Navy or Army, but they really did not need any more in the Air Force, because they were over crowded, and that was where I was wanting to go. No, I was not in the armed forces. It was during peace time then anyway, back in 1955. There was not any war going on in the world, it was army and navy and those were a vocation, where you could go for training and get your schooling, or whatever, come back home with a suit of clothes on, with a straight back. But we have brothers here that have been in battle. War is war, and it is not just standing there being shot at while somebody tries see how close they can get to you before you ever raise your gun. I have a message on something, after I get through with this, that I want to get into, just why certain things are going on as they are, and what is happening in this world. I want to go now, to Abraham again, the 4th chapter of the book of Romans. “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?” The Bible says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. So it was lost again. When Noah got out of the ark and began to plant his feet down, he built an alter unto the Lord. That was the first thing he did. When he did, then God made a promise that he would never send a flood to destroy the earth again. You do not read a whole lot about Noah from that time on, because the attention is taken from Noah unto his sons and unto their children, mostly his grandchildren. We read where one progenitor started a race, and then another, and another one a certain race. You have three sons that came out of the ark, that were the progenitors of what we have in the world today. When they came out of the ark, God began to place certain stipulations on them. God begins to tell what will come of each one of them. From Ham’s line, you have the tower of Babel that is built, because from Ham’s line came a man named Nimrod, an engineer that began to build a tower. Different ones began to built cities, Nineveh and so on. How forgetful man is. You come from Noah to his sons, and then to his grandsons, and you have a tower being built, not even listening to what God has said to their old daddy, which, when he came out of the ark he was six hundred and one years old. Something happened in somebody’s mind and it did not take long. That is just like it is in America today, the visitation of God came unto mankind in the 1940’s and 1950’s, then God closed the door to the world of religion, and He began to look at individuals and to knock on the door of people’s heart. It said behold, I stand at the door and knock, He was outside the Church. It shows that the light has gone, just as the vision came to Bro. William Branham. He told in 1964, when the pope visited Jerusalem, that is when the light went out unto the Laodicean age. You see that from 1962, 1963, 1964 and on, how religion became just religion, that is all it was. You can be religious and be as lost as is possible to be. As I go back to Noah, when I see the line of which each tribe or each son, grandson, they began to progenerate, it came on down through time, to when it shows up again in the end time, in Ezekiel 38 and 39, the son of Ham’s group, and of Shem’s group. It names them. It tells what they will do. In Ezekiel 38, it names them off, it tells you who they are, but when that tower of Babel was built, as I mentioned a minute ago, they were going to build it so high that it would be out of the reach of the flood plain, they did not even look at the promise of God, that He would never send another flood like that one. America is not looking at what God did back years ago anymore, they are too interested in the modern day living, which is not really living. When we only live for ourselves, and when we become so interested in ourselves, that we are no longer interested in God and His will for our lives, we are in trouble. The children of this hour has no chance because they have no fathering and mothering. I am talking about here in America, and around this world, that is why you have the chaos you have in the streets. Those occupiers, some of them had jobs, but they went out to occupy the streets, to cause chaos and degradation, something that only fools do. But we read here, that Abraham found something, it was lost. We look at the flood and see there is only eight souls that were saved. But then we come to this side of the flood and God only deals with one man, which is Abraham. Because as it was before, something was lost and Abraham found something. “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?” That is a question, what did he find? He grew up in the midst of a perverted world. What a mystery of how God will work in a human being, and I am talking to Faith Assembly tonight, as well as the others that listen to this, what a mystery it is, that God will speak to your hearts in the midst of a dying world of people. It is something to think about, because the same God that spoke to Abraham and told him to leave his country, it was not that he had a living there, it was not anything like that. It was because God had to separate him, He send him to a bunch of godless people, but they are not his people. God sent him through all kinds of trials and tests, just like the offering of his son for a sacrifice. God has a right to try you. He has a right to try me, and He will do it because it said the trial of your faith is worth much more than that of gold, though it be tried in the fire. Gold is somewhere around sixteen or seventeen hundred dollars an ounce right now. But Jesus said if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul, then it has profited you nothing. I don’t want to be like Warren Buffet tonight. These other men that are being elevated to their highest, I don’t want that tonight, I just want to be a servant of God that can listen to Him through His word. “For if Abraham were justified by works, (If he was going to be justified by works, he just as well had stayed where he was. You can work anywhere you want to, you can build your hospitals. Most every college on the east coast was started out in a Christian manner, Harvard, Yale, and all those ivy league schools were started by a Christian move. Now today they are a habitation of devils, a place where boys and girls go and learn to live a lewd lifestyle. Here at Bloomington Indiana is a school where there is supposed to be more people into binge drinking than there are in any other large college in America. When you have binge drinkers, you have dope addicts. Most of them come out of there uneducated. Some get an education, but many of them come out of there uneducated, but their lives are filled with some kind of garbage that some professor has put inside them, that has cost their moms and dads thousands of dollars to put them through something that is to break their will. If Abram were justified by works…) he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? (We are talking about the Word tonight. Abraham believed God. There is a difference tonight in believing God and in just saying I serve God. Believing God is our hardest trial in this hour, believing that He is well able to cause His Word to be fulfilled in the hour we live in. When all else fails, His word will stand. When somebody has a question about the word, just like it was about Iran this morning, when somebody has a question, then I have to say that Iran is not going to be destroyed, until Ezekiel 38 and 39. God is going to destroy that army right there on the mountains of Israel, that, plus the lower parts of Russia, Gog and Magog, and Tubal and all the others, which is Turkey. Turkey was somewhat of a friend of Israel, but they have turned against them now. They are a little nation, like a dot on the map, sitting over there tonight, with all the enemies surrounding them, but God is protecting them. He has given them a know-how that they don’t know how many nuclear bombs, or whatever they have, but the reason Israel is still sitting there, is because the Arab world is afraid of them. Oh I know Abinidijab wants to blow Israel into smithereens, but he don’t want to try it. Back in 1991 when the Desert Storm war was going on, Hussein sent his good rockets into Israel. The United States kept telling them don’t retaliate, don’t retaliate, but one of these days it is going to push God’s button. When they do, Israel will fly onto those oppressors like hornets do on an enemy. Just because there was one man that stood out from all the rest of the people, he stood out, and he believed God, that is what it takes in this hour we are living in, believe God. Believe that He is able to fulfill what He promised, believe His Word.) Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” There is a lot said in the scripture about Abraham, but he don’t say a lot about himself. But God spoke of him, in his seed, talking about Jesus Christ, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. One man that was willing to say yes to God and to surrender to Him, His will and His purpose. That is what God is looking for in the hour we are looking for, men and women that will say yes to Him, and no to the world. “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” Here we have the introduction of that word grace. As Peter said, grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” I remember when they used to give little stars out to attenders of Sunday school. Every Sunday you were there, you got a little star. Some of these old men were so proud of those stars. An eighty year old man was so proud of his star, that he wore it like a badge of honor. You can hardly get on I-65 here on Sunday because of the church groups that have let out over here close by, but you don’t have any trouble Sunday night: They are nowhere to be seen then You go to the parking lots on Sunday night of these big churches, they are as empty as the parking lots were when 9-11 hit. They are not interested in God, they are interested in soothing something inside by hearing a little feel good sermon on Sunday morning. If we get that way as believers, that it is no more important than it is to some of those people, then are we any better? God forgives us, and He don’t remind us. I have said this before, I hope my brother doesn’t care for me mentioning it again, if Bro. Jackson had something to say to his children about something, Bro. David told me if he had something to say to straighten out, he never brought it up again. That is the way God is: He never brings up our past.