Introduction

You everyone know how the devil likes to bring up stuff. Well, you always accuse me, no, it is the devil accusing you of somebody letting them use them. I am so glad that God forgives and then forgets. It said that the Holy Spirit is not an accuser of the brethren. So if you feel that in your heart from time to time, something being brought up of your past, if God has forgiven you, then say, Devil, forget it, you are not my boss, get off my back, he will flee from you in the name of Jesus Christ. He will not only walk away, he will run away, flee. What a blessing it is in those times, when we can resist him, and when God’s anointing comes into our heart’s to bless us. It can be on the road, it can be sitting in your home. Why does He do it? Why does He come when you are not expecting it? It is just a reminder that everything is alright. Brother or sister. Jesus said, salt is good, but if it has lost its saltiness, wherewith will it be salted. Salt is good for food, it is good for healing, it is good for curing. That is our life. He was not just talking about salt, He was talking about our lives, because He said have salt in yourself, and He was not talking about going and getting some of this salt that rains down like an umbrella, Morton’s. He was talking about a lifestyle that allows somebody to look at you, and when they look at you, they would say, make me like him, or her. Actually we want to be made like Jesus. But people are looking at us. What are they seeing? Who are we showing forth? Who are we speaking of? Do we know what we are talking about? There was a man in Australia when we were there, he came to the services and he liked to talk. I mentioned something about how, one time Bro. William Branham said that this age could all be over in 1977. This man said, oh he did not mean it in that way. I said, I was there. We need to be there, be where He is, because when we get acquainted with Him, we will never get unacquainted. The Bible says, taste and see that the Lord is good. Some people have just taken a nibble, but when you taste something, you take it into your inner being. He will sometimes visit with you and He is always wanting to tell us that all is well, but when it gets to be sometimes so hard, that we don’t know where the next corner is, then there will be words that will come out of your mouth that you did not even know was there. That is the Holy Ghost making intercession with words that you did not know you were going to say. It may be that you are by yourself. I never prayed, make me another Bro. William Branham. That brother went through with more than I could ever go through with. Those visions that he had, many times he was seen running out of the woods. When he would preach, he would have to shake visions off, many times he would shake his head to get the vision off while he was preaching, because he believed that nothing should interfere with what he was saying, not even a vision. If you ever saw him while he was preaching, you would have seen him shake his head at times. A lot of these people that think they know him, don’t know him at all. I did not know him like some did. At one time he was down there next to the Tabernacle and nobody was taking care of him after he had been in those visions telling people what was wrong with them, and he fell in a water hole. Living for good, is sometimes hard on this flesh. The flesh was not made to be able to entertain the great things of God on its own. That is why Paul is saying what he did, here in the book of Romans, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. There is not a life that we could live, like living for God, but it takes sacrifice. That anointing is sometimes stronger than what man’s flesh can take. You say, what do you mean? I mean this, when God visited Daniel he was sick for days. Do the scriptures not say that? It took him days to recover from the visitation of God. I pray that God visits us some time in a manner that is going to make us weak in body. I want to be ready for it. I want to be ready when the coals of God’s fire from His altar falls on my lips. I have asked Bro. Steve and Sis. Elsie to go with me different places that have been hard on them. They don’t go for reward, they go as examples of Faith Assembly Church, and not only examples of Faith Assembly, but examples of Christian lives. “Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.” It was four hundred and eighty years before the Law was ever given. Some fifteen years later, God gave Abraham circumcision, but he did not receive circumcision when God called him. Why? Because He could take us uncircumcised Gentiles over and beyond the Law. Because we became a law unto ourselves that we do not allow certain things. Paul said, I had not known lusts, except the Bible says thou shalt not covet. “How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Nor in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.” Paul is getting a message out, which was very hard on him. He grew up as a Jew and this was a hard thing for many of the Jewish brethren to ever deal with. God just almost had to get Paul by himself to speak to him, but He did let him be born outside of Jewry, Paul of Tarsus, that he might know, some day, how God was going to justify the heathen, which we all were. “And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also.” Righteousness became a gift to us Gentiles, because everything in the Law was of works, and I tell you the tradition of what Paul was brought up in was a lot different than what he lived later on. He was able, with the knowledge that God gave him, to be able to sit down with Gentiles and count them as brethren, just as much as he did the Jews. This was a hard thing, even of Peter, and a hard thing for James. I want to go over part of that right now, the 11th verse again, “that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also. And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.” Why was the Law given anyway? The Bible says it was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, speaking of the Jews. Here, we as Gentiles, before that time, were happy-go-lucky, a bunch of people just like the Corinthians on their way to torment. If Billy Graham is right, all these others, Robert Schuler and all of them, then we are sunk. And if we are right, they are sunk. Maybe you think I should not say some of the things I say about some great men like Billy Graham and them, but greatness comes through Jesus Christ, not through any individual, regardless of how high he rises. If I am going to adore anybody, it is going to be adored in Jesus Christ. “For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect.” Paul was getting down to the nitty-gritty where the Jews, in that time, were going to have to look at something very straight. You cannot look down a crooked barrel and expect to hit your target. I had a little pistol one time, the barrel was just about so long, two shots was what it would shoot. If you had been ten feet from me, I would have missed you. There was no way you could train that thing to shoot straight. If I am going to shoot, I want something that is going to shoot straight, that when you sight down that barrel, you know what it is capable of hitting. Somebody was telling me lately, about a U.S. sniper, he set his target on an enemy a mile and half away, and he got him. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. If man is capable of making something that is going to work like that, what about the Word of God? It will shoot straight, and it is right on target for the hour we are living in. Don’t mess with the sights. Bro. William Branham used to be a hunter, he shot squirrels, he shot their eyes out. But there is a target in the Word of God, if we get this thing right, it will hit the bulls eye every time. Until we come down to the end, it is going to be in line, line upon line, Isaiah 28, it must be. It said it must be. There is no probably or possibility, line must be upon line, here a little and there a little. Then he repeats it, line upon line. It must be. Not the law of average. When Ahab was getting ready to go to war, it was going to be his last battle, he calls Micah out, after Jehosaphat has looked at all Ahab’s prophets, he said, don’t you have another one? Yes, but I hate him, he never prophesied good to me. Who could? When Micah came out there, he begins to prophesy like all the rest of them did. Ahab said some words to this affect, did I not tell you to prophesy truth. He said, I see the armies of Israel scattered upon the mountains, and all this that he said, he turns around, Ahab said, put him in prison, I told you not to prophesy against me like this. He said, when I return, I will take care of you. He said, if you return at all, God has not spoke to me. Let’s ask someone that will stick with the Word in front of the Ahabs and the Jezebels, and in front of the religious world of this day. Let me have somebody that will stand for truth. Patrick Henry said, give me liberty or give me death. George Washington fought in many battles. When he got through and hung up his coat and hat, his coat had three bullet holes and his hat had two. He was never touched by a bullet. That was grace, God’s grace. You know, if I have an enemy, it is not God. If I have an enemy, it is me, trying to listen to this old flesh when there is no profit in it. Paul said bodily exercise profits little, but godliness profits in all. Prayer.

GROW IN GRACE

Today I am looking over a congregation that I am grateful for. I am going to go into my message this morning, going back to Romans. I want to go to the 4th chapter. I want you to listen to this, the 13th verse. “For the promise, that he should be heir of the world, (Abraham, the promise that he should be heir of the world, that is a big statement, but God has fulfilled that. I was thinking, here Netanyahu is over here to speak to his enemy, I mean to Obama, and every time something like that happens, something happens in this country. You know what they said in the News this morning, that Obama is pressuring Netanyahu not to do anything until after the election. What a man! I will not go any further than that. But today, all these politicians are out for, is just to get elected. It don’t matter about anything else. There is one thing I am still looking at, the Word of God, and whenever it is time, it is going to happen. Obama is doing nothing. When God gets ready, He will force the situation. But this promise was to Abraham, that he would be heir of the world. Now the thing about that is, this shifts, because Abraham is the representative of Jesus Christ. It said, in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. When Paul brings that out, he brings it down to seed, as one, not to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but the seed, which is Jesus Christ. What a beating that name is taking today, even in the church world.) was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect.” It is like I said before, there was nobody else that could preach this message like the apostle Paul could, because to most of them, there was too much Judaism in them. But Paul said that the gospel was not to the Jews only, but to the Greeks, or the Gentiles. “Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.” Paul goes ahead in Galatians, to talk about this same subject. He said the Law was a school master, to bring us to Christ. In other words, it is telling you, don’t do this, don’t do that, which man was living much as he felt like living. Now Abraham was a righteous man, he was living righteously because God was dealing with him. God was showing him things. It says on down here in this chapter that Abraham believed God. There is some place in Abraham, in his bosom, that he had this desire to please God more than anything else, because God had called him. He had visited him. Without that call, and without that anointing inside us, we will go every which way. The religious world today is lost. I know they will say, we have a lot of denominations, but we are one church. There is only one Church, but everybody works into that. Just as long as you believe in Jesus, they say, everything is going to be alright. Just as long as you believe in Him, you are saved. The devils believe, and they are not saved, because it says that the devils tremble. It is good to have a victory, but that victory means you are going to have to have another victory, because the devil will always keep after you. I heard a statement made on television, I was really surprised about, but of course it probably came from the man’s background, but he said, I believe we are only saved once, which is what I believe, but he said you are sanctified every day. That is our walk with God. I know the Methodists used to believe, and so the Nazareenes, do anymore, because their lives do not prove it, but they believed in being saved, that is one definite work of grace, then sanctification was another definite work of grace. I heard a man get up and testify one time, a Nazareen. He said, I am saved and sanctified and satisfied, then he sat down. Just because we quit doing this and quit doing that, and we do not do the other things anymore, does not mean that we are sanctified, nor does it mean that we are satisfied. We should always desire to be closer to the Lord as long as we are still in this life. Otherwise we become cranktified. That is not good. We must realize that living for God is a daily walk with Him. It is a daily cleansing. We are washed by the water of the Word. Of course these people that believe certain things like that are not washed by the water of the Word because they stopped somewhere. Abraham’s trial was one after another, after another, after another. There were times he failed. When Sarah told him to go unto Hagar, that showed a little bit of doubt in Abraham, because the promise was not for Hagar to have a son that God was going to work through. He was of the wrong bloodline. I don’t mean necessarily that he was another nationality or anything like that, but I am saying he did not have the blood of Abraham in him. In other words, faith blood. He never did have faith. He made fun of his little brother when he was about seventeen years old. He was not a little boy then. If he had been a little boy, that would have been a different situation. The thing about it is, he was old enough to know better than that. Cain should have known better than to kill Abel, but he could not, because the Bible says he was of that wicked one. I guess we get accused sometimes, that we do not show enough love, but we are not butting in, and trying to help in every situation. We are a people that want to take care of our own. I was thinking this morning, what if a storm came through and some began to want this place for a shelter. Brothers and sisters, I could not give it over to just every kind of that would not have respect for what this place is. This place is dedicated to God and the children of God, not to everything else in the world. Sure, we have room back here, but these rooms are for saints to come and stay in while they are here. Some stay here because it is so far for them to travel, to be here for services. Well, you are just funny. No, we are pilgrims and strangers in this world. We are not trying to be strangers, we are. Well I think you ought to do a lot more, get in with the Red Cross and all of them. You should hear some of the stories of the Red Cross, and some of the stories of FEMA. I know a certain young woman down near Evansville, I will not mention her name. A few years ago they had a bad storm down there, a tornado, she had a child. The tornado completely demolished her trailer, she went for help and they told her, we cannot spare help for you, you have too much. The trailer she was living in was completely demolished. Oh they like to get in the headlines and look so good when something is coming, but when it is all finished and when the television cameras are gone, then it is another picture. It says where there is no law, there is no transgression, that does not mean that there is not sin. Where there is no law, back in Moses’ time, people were without God. There was only one way to come unto God, and that was through the Law. You either were a Jew or you were somebody that went to live in the Jewish quarters, and so according to them. But when Grace came, God took down that middle wall of partition to put us all in together, to walk in faith, by the grace of God. Verse 16, “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; so the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; (We are seed of God’s upbringing. We don’t want to just be born again, we want to grow in grace. That is what we are talking about, a sanctified, righteous life. Well you are making this thing too hard. What does the scripture say, He is coming back after a Church without spot or wrinkle, or blemish. Well you are making this thing an impossibility. It is not as hard as we make it to be. When we get in love with Jesus Christ, then things will begin to turn for us. The things that you once loved, now you hate. This is not once in awhile, or a once a week thing, this is a daily walk with Him. Some could say, Well I go to church on Sunday and I will show my good side. That is not good enough: I do not want to have to look for that, because I don’t know which side it is.) not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all.” Of us all, that is why God called Abraham, and he had no restrictions on him until years later, when God called spake to him about circumcision. Why did God do that? He wanted us to see that man could live by faith, without Law. That is why He called the Gentiles, and Law has nothing to do with righteousness. I will keep this, and I will keep this, and I will keep this. What are you going to do? Count to ten every day? I don’t have to look at the Law to know what I should do about my neighbor. The Law says thou shall not commit adultery. Well I don’t have to look at that, to realize that. Or thou shall not kill. God just takes away the want to for these things, and He gets them out of the way. Paul said, I had not known sin except the Law said thou shall not covet, but if you look back in the Law it says you shall not covet your neighbors wife, you shall not covet his donkey, you shall not covet his animals, his land, or his house. The Bible says whatever state you are in, therewith be satisfied. We keep reaching for more and more. God is going to supply our needs according to His riches in glory, there is no way to get around that when we please Him. I don’t necessarily need as much as some people do, so I am not asking for it. Because godliness with contentment is great gain. Anymore, I would rather feel what I felt coming up the road to church this morning, than to have all the troubles of the world on my shoulders, like the president. I did not know my sister was that smart, but one time, because she was kin to me, she said, you have learned to compartmentalize. What is meant by that, you put the things that are most important in one place, and the others, you lay aside, that way you can have contentment. God is going to help you anyway, if you are a true child if His. The supposed to be scripture that some people like to quote, is not found in the Bible. They will say, God only helps those that help themselves, but that is not a scripture. I suppose that has been around for most of two thousand years. It is a funny thing, how people can pick up things like that and believe it to be scripture, when it is not even scripture at all, yet they will mention that more than they do the Bible, because they have heard somebody else say it. Cleanliness is next to godliness, is another thing that is quoted, and it is not in the Bible either. Cleanliness is a good thing, but that saying, is not scripture. I have heard that quoted many times. The second place where I pastored, I remember a man quoting that in a Sunday school class, well we know the scripture says that cleanliness is next to godliness. God is not on a shelf that we can pull out when we need something. There are people that feel justified because somebody wrote a scripture, a daily devotional, then they will say one little scripture, one little verse of scripture, and off they go. Let us be sure we are quoting God’s Word, when we quote something. Let us get back to Abraham now. “As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations, before Him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” What is he talking about? He is talking about faith. He is not talking about possibilities: he is talking about reality. Too many times we have “if” faith, if the creeks don’t rise, we will do such and such. If you live that way, what are you going to say when you see a tornado coming your way? God, if it be your will, but you are not going to make any long prayer, you are going to begin to call on Jesus Christ, Save me from this thing! You don’t have to scream. There was one preacher, every time he would pray, he would get as loud as he could get. Some little sister came along and told him, son, you don’t have to get so loud, God is not hard of hearing. Call those things which were not, as though they were, I cannot see the coming of the Lord this morning, but I believe that it is near, because I see in His Word, those things that precede His coming. When you begin to see these things come to pass, and we are living in those things right now, “Who against hope.” Everything was against Abraham being what God had promised him. When he took Isaac there that day, that was a dire situation. Bro. Jackson said one time, Abraham had a one day journey, but it took him three days to get there. Why? Because he was looking for anything he could see, in order to get out of that situation. How would you do such a thing, if God instructed you to do it? Abraham did not tell his wife about that: she would have had him hog-tied. This man is getting old and senile and needs a straight jacket. Everything that could have been done, would have been done to keep this from happening, but it is a recorded scripture today, that is a benefit for us. That is why Abraham is the father of many nations. Take thy son, thine only son, He did not tell Isaac what he was going to do. He did not tell his servants what he was going to do. He just told him, get the wood, a representative of the cross, he carried his own wood to his potential death. I was not going to say death, because he did not die, even though it looked like he would. We just have to believe Abraham was looking at the promise, thinking, if I do this, then God will raise him up. It is time that we look at God in the right way. Sometimes He demands little of us and we do less. If God spared my life in this, it would be telling me, wake up. We sing the song, God has the whole world in His hands, well He has our lives in His hands also. Jesus said, I know when my hour is come, but He said yours is always ready. I tell you what, you keep preaching like that, you will not get many members. I am not looking for members, I am looking out for lives that are committed to God, so that when the time comes for the rapture, we will all be ready to get out of here. “Who against hope believed in hope, (believed anyway. As we look at the life of Abraham, everything God told him to do seemed like an impossibility to do with human ability, but in God’s hands, all things are possible to them that believe.) that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, (As I said awhile ago, that does not mean that you doubt, if you have faith as the grain of a mustard seed, there is a belief in there.) he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb.” All hope of a child had ceased, but there was a promise given to him twenty five years earlier. “He staggered not (In other words, God, I know you have done a lot of things for me, everything you have said has come to pass, you have made me rich in goods, you have sent me to the promised land, I went down to Egypt and you brought my wife and myself back into the promised land, you have done all these things for us, but now this, this is hard. If he had thought this was hard, then he would not be much of a father, would he? Not enough of father to be a father of many nations.) but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.” His faith muscles began to increase, he began to exercise faith. He began to get out of that want to, or wishing state of mind, and he became positive. “And being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform.” I have thought much lately about God’s creating His great creation, and here we are in God’s creation, this world that we live on, this land we live on, twenty five thousand miles around, but it is only a little speck of sand in God’s great creation. They say that there is nations being born yet. I don’t have any doubt of that, because He is God and He spoke the whole thing into existence a long time ago, so I don’t care if some of it comes along many years later. This earth, when it was formed, was a rock. I believe what Bro. Jackson taught about that. He said God created the little bitty, minute, microscopic bugs and things that began to eat at it through millions of years, to where there was dirt. It had to be, for God to fling it out here, He flung it out here as a rock, but He knew that it was going to be a created earth. Don’t limit God to a little microscope, because there are galaxies out here that are many light years away from one another. If you would say this earth is a billion, or five billion years old, it would not effect my faith at all. God did not have to hurry, like so many people think, which at one time I was one of them, thinking this entire thing was made in six twenty-four hour days. Spiritually and scripturally speaking, that is stupidity. I used to be one of them that thought that. Thank God, today I know different. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. What difference does it make how long ago it was? God was there then, and before then, He was already there, before there was a sun, moon, or stars, He was already there planning. But the amazing thing today is that you and I were in that plan from the foundation of the earth. So what we are, we were a part of that God creation, and today we are a part of His life, we have to be to have eternal life. That is why you are born again. Why would that not make us want to live a life of holiness? Well you are talking about something that is impossible. It is not impossible. We can live a holy life without being perfect. I tell you what, let us get to an altar somewhere and surrender all and go from there. You may say, well that will make me an old foggy. Am I an old foggy to you? Maybe. But I am still just a pilgrim and a stranger here. This is not my home. Like I said one time, I went to see someone in the hospital, got on the elevator, and there were two women that had been to this big shindig the day before on a green party, or whatever that is. I had on a tie that said, this world is not my home. One of these women looked at that and said, are you a part of this? I thought, how naive you are, you may be educated but you are foolish, accordi8ng to the Bible. When I wore that tie, I was not even thinking about that. I was not thinking about the earth at all: I was thinking about the change that is going to come, and there is going to be a change. We like it or we don’t like it. There is a change coming. Brothers and sisters, no matter who you are today, it is going to be an improvement. There was a weather man I saw on TV the other day. He got a face lift. It showed how they marked his face up and what all they were going to do, ten to thirty thousand dollars. He got a face lift. To me, he did not look any better after he got it lifted. He may say, ain’t I pretty? No. I want one too, but I want it to be God that does the work. I want to see my sisters one day, like they were when they were young. I am not ashamed of them now, because they are my sisters and years do make a difference. Why be ashamed of family members? We are not going to take everybody with us when we leave here. This old thing of the world, the church world, thinking that no matter what you have done, you are going in the rapture if you believe in Jesus. That is not going to happen for everyone who goes to church somewhere. Jesus said narrow is the way and straight is the gate, and few there be that will find it. I am here today to witness that. Jesus said to His disciples, oh ye, He called them the little flock. But He wept over Jerusalem and said to Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered you together as a hen doth gather her brood, but you would not, now your table is left unto you desolate. That means they were without hope. Let’s read the 20th verse again, “He (Abraham) staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.” He knew that what God had promised, He was able to perform. “Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, (See? It was not written just for Abraham, but it was written for us also, you and I. How can I put myself above you, when it says that it was imputed unto us also, that does not separate one true believer from another. The Bible says, now we are the body of Christ, and members in particular. There is no big I and little you in God’s great kingdom. There are people here at Faith Assembly, that have never given a testimony, but you have faith, and you know how to pray.) to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. (If we believe in Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.) Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” It has already happened. I have seen that empty tomb twice. You can look from the tomb up on the hill and there is the place of the skull. The tomb is there and the garden is still there, and in that area there can be more than a hundred people. They have benches for people to sit on. There are a bunch of soldiers that are watching that grave, which some boys used to say, scared the liver out of them. I have another scripture I want to go to, which is Colossians 3rd chapter. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” If we be risen with Him, the thing is already over, we are just waiting for the change. You just as well count it as done. But here he is talking about our lives, if we be living for Him. “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” I want to read that again, set your affections, there are many people today that had hope because they had a house to live in, they had furniture, they had food to set on their table, and today they have nothing. Probably most of them have no hope in the Lord. “For ye are dead, (I don’t see any markers, the markers went right in here in a watery grave.) and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, (He is wrapping this up in a little bundle, He is making it compact, because in Christ Jesus everything is compact. You do not have to look for another, no Mohammad, no pope, no Methodist bishop. When they say that we are all one, they are including themselves, and that is right, because they are working this thing out to where they are all going to have their denominational identities, but they are all going to live by the same rule, whether it be Protestant, Catholic, or whatever, and they are including the Muslims. I am saying the Muslims have not included them. They will see one of these days. This nation will see.) then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” What a day! What happened to Enoch? It was not one day, it was his life, he walked with God, the next step he took was in heaven. I know we made the statement, one day these people will come back and tap us on the shoulder. That is just a statement. We will probably die and be resurrected with them. “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” These things are idolatry. There is nothing going that is in idolatry. “For which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; (Put them off, get rid of them.) anger, (Some people are like a pit bull, get out of my way. Put them off, get rid of them. Nobody else pulls it off for me. All these mentioned here.) wrath, (That is something that is dangerous. That goes beyond anger. It is something that boils up in somebody and stays there. Don’t speak to me, I cannot stand you. This is what he is talking about putting off. He did not say put it off until the next day. He meant to get rid of it forever.) malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. (I hope nobody has that problem.) Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, (It is time that we sit down and get rid of all these things, and put on the new man.) which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.” I am going to stop there until another time.

GROW IN GRACE

I want to go back to Romans, the 5th chapter, in That 7th chapter of Romans, people think that gives them an excuse for a lot of things, but if you read it closely, he is talking about under the Law, he is not talking about under Grace, that last part of it, if you are living that way, then it is something that is not going to be much of a Christian life, because Paul goes into the 8th chapter, as he goes into the 8th chapter, he says there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. As I read about Abraham this morning, I want to pick up Moses tonight, because man has so interpreted the scripture to where they want to put you back under the Law. The Law has no connection with the Christian life because it was a school master to bring us to Christ. But here we see, that after he has talked about Abraham, he said this, “Therefore being justified by faith, (Jesus, when He was talking to Nicodemas, He said a man must be born again, that was not really anything to explain it, because nobody is going to understand it at that time. The woman at the well, when Jesus spoke to her, He went in a different direction with her, in order to explain something for our benefit. The scripture is beneficial to the Christian life, because it is the only thing we have to go by. You say, well I will go by the Holy Ghost, you will not go by the Holy Ghost unless you go by the Word of God. They are married together. Paul here, lets us know, therefore being justified by faith,) we have peace with God.” Man always looked beforehand, and they still do today, as God being some monstrous something that you cannot please. The only way man could see any different, was because God did not choose to walk in human flesh, but He chose a representative of human flesh, which being born of a woman, grew up as a child. But in Him, you find no guile, because God is using Jesus the Christ as a pattern, a pattern for a godly life. He knew we were still in this body, in this flesh. He knew that all along. So when the disciples asked Him, teach us how to pray, He tells them to pray, Our Father, which art in heaven. He was making God to be something that could be contacted, not a God of wood or stone. How stupid. Because man, from the beginning, was given an opportunity to do right. When Noah walked out of the ark that day, the first thing he does is offer a sacrifice unto God. But he had three sons. By the time his grandsons came along, it was already chaos. They began to build, to try to get something taller than the flood ever was, a tower. But they were staying in a little huddle, even after God told them to replenish the earth. That is why God had to confuse their language, in order that they would not understand one another. I remember Bro. Jackson talking about that. You could see that they were mad at one another, because he said one would say, give me a stick, and the other one would hand him a brick. Confusion, that is what religion is today. The same thing, man is trying to build a tower without God. But that does not fit the pattern of what Paul is talking about, because man is making it an easier way and it is so passed over by mankind, where he is not willing to accept it, because he is exactly like Cain, his daddy. They are not even looking for the presence of God, they do not look for Him at all. If you watch religions television, which I watch very little of, but if you ever hear their music, you want to turn it off. Years ago, when all this beat and bang came along, (That is all it is.) they tried it in a dairy. They tried the symphony and the cows gave their milk. They tried this beat and bang, and the cows would not give their milk. That ought to say something to somebody. “By whom also we have access by faith. (Before Jesus Christ, man was without access, but God had to beat His Son, He permitted it, and Jesus was willing to. He had to take His life in order to give us access into this grace. Access by faith…) into this grace wherein we stand, (There was a song, if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything. When you make a stand, not everyone is not going to like it, and everybody is not going to like you. What we see right here, was a step up from what man was living before, because this is telling man, you are wrong. For the next fourteen hundred years, they tried it, and it did not work. It was still God’s law, because religion does not work. It never worked fifty years ago and it will not work in 2012. Religion is like getting the mumps. It is not going to last too long, but it is going to hurt while you have it. Why? Because there is no peace is religion.) and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” God has made a way of access, to where we can meet Him, because He made a perpetuation, a buffer, That is what Jesus Christ is, a buffer. The devil can just go so far, then the blood stands in his way and he cannot go beyond a certain point. The devil cannot get into a Christian no more than he could Jesus Christ, because it was His shed blood that stopped him, and we each have that same Spirit, If that same Spirit dwells in us, that was in Jesus Christ, we have access unto the Father also. Not only that, but we glory in tribulation, knowing that it is for a purpose. You were not happy when that tornado came through, but in that, God was going to make you stronger. Nobody likes to see anyone suffer, regardless of who it is, you just do not like to see that suffering. But the thing about it is, when you see the grace of God, and how he took care of his people, sirens went off three times in Salem. I looked out the windows, but did not see anything because the path it was taking, it looked like it was headed for Salem. I have a little underground room that used to be a root cellar. I did not go there, but I was thinking about it. You are not trying God to see how far you can go, to see what limit He will let you go, but you can have faith in God in those times. If you will walk with Him, then He will take care of your situation. We all have unpleasant situations in our life. I had one a month ago, in which I would have been in the wrong. I started to pass a car, there was a road coming out there, a woman came up to it, looked the other way, did not look my way, and I went between two cars and I don’t know how, except for the grace of God. “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: (They claim, that if you live on the coast, you can tell how many hurricanes have come through there by the palm trees, because each time they come in, they lean over and have a crook in them. I don’t know that for sure, but that is what I have heard. Really, it is a testimony that they have stood another test. Our tests become markers in our lives, because the thing about it is, that gives you strength. You don’t get on your knees and pray, Lord, send me another one, but there will be another one of some kind anyhow. I would hate to try to count how many tests I have had.) knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience, hope.” An experience is building you from one experience to the next experience, to make you stronger. God does not do it to destroy you. He does it to strengthen you and me for the journey ahead. Never blame God as the world does. Do not ever say to God, Why did you do this to me? People of the world get so angry they say, if there was a God, He would not do this. To that I would say, If there were not a God, you would not be here today. An experience is what God builds upon in your life. That is the way the apostle Paul expressed it: he builds from one revelation to another revelation, wanting us to get a hold of what God is doing. “And hope maketh not ashamed; (God is getting us to the place, like Sister Pam was saying, everybody was praying, there were no atheists in there at that time. They say there are no atheists in a fox hole. I don’t know about that anymore, because a lot of people do not trust in God or even believe in God.) because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” It is a free gift, free as the breath you breathe. I remember that the man named Simon tried to buy it, Peter looked at him and said, your money perish with you, thinking that you can buy the gift of God with money. I tell you what, you can do that on these religious broadcasts, you can do that with most any of those preachers, because they have already sold out. When one of them ventured to say, the thing with Cain was, he did not give enough in his offering to God: he did not have enough watermelons, cucumbers, and pumpkins in his offering, you know that is a carnal thought. That is the religious scene today though, and that is what these big name preachers are building upon. They would not like to hear me say that, and they would not like me, if they did hear me saying it. “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” Let’s go to verse 9. “Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” The tribulation will never catch you, because you will be gone before the tribulation time comes. He talks about wrath another time, in the second chapter of 2nd Thessalonians, where he says that we are saved from the wrath to come, meaning from the tribulation that is to come. Isn’t it amazing, how God inspired his faithful servants like Paul and others, and that Word is still true today. I am not picking on Moses, it was not Moses’ fault that he had these, no, he had been in the mountains for forty days and forty nights in order to hear from God, because God demanded him to. He went there to hear from God and when he came back forty days later, they were all living their lives in sin. Aaron was not any help. I just threw this gold in the fire, and out came a calf, he said. Isn’t it funny how many times we try to cover our mistakes. It was more than that. There had to be a mold and there had to be a fire and it had to be hot enough to melt that gold. So the thing about it was, he began to work on this thing early. Sin is not something in our lives that just happens. David looked at the situation and said, I was born in sin, I was shaped in iniquity and I came forth speaking lies. That don’t just happen over night: that happens when we are born. I have a little two year old granddaughter that likes to get hold of the telephone. If it is anywhere close to her, she is going to get it, and she will be looking at you all the time, like, What are you going to say now? A lot of things that little children do is fun when they start, but if it is not handled the right way, then it becomes a problem. I have said that to say this, a lot of our little mistakes, as we call them, if we do not handle them right, they wind up being something to our determent. God looks over some of our mistakes, but when it is sin, He says, repent! There was nothing in the Law to hold you. It could not keep you. The Holy Ghost was sent to keep you living right without a Law. If we treat the Holy Ghost right, when He abides within us, we will want to please God. “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Everything is built for the Christian life. The New Testament was made for our benefit. I made a statement this morning, maybe some did not understand the statement I made. I said the apostle Paul was really the natural one to bring this message to the Gentiles. Let me go to Galatians chapter 2. He is speaking unto the Galatians because they had quit following Christ, and was going back to the Law. Paul began, in the 2nd chapter, talking about how he went up to Jerusalem the first time, then the next time was fourteen years later. “Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain. But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.” Who was this that was compelling him? They were so-called believers. So-called believers can dwell among saints of God for a certain length of time, then they are going to be routed out. Why were they wanting to cause this to happen? It was because somebody was trying to live by grace under the Law, which will not work, and they would try to put Titus and Paul and them under the same thought. “And that because of false brethren (He did not hesitate to call them what they were, false brethren. He said they were brethren, but they were false. We just cannot marry everything into our Christian walk. He is coming back after a church that has made herself ready, as is clearly stated in the scripture, and that has washed her robe and made it white in the blood of the Lamb. These false brethren were brought in, notice what it says…) unawares brought in.” They were unaware to him and brought in to dispute with him. We have to be careful in this hour, with what our association is. I remember a certain preacher that came here, it has been years ago. Bro. Jackson had him to preach at the convention for several years back then, but he would always go to a weekend meeting before he would come here on Monday. Something was said to him about that one time, oh I can associate with them: they will not have any affect on me. But hey did. It did on him, and it will on anyone else that conducts themselves like that. Because Paul said, if they do not bring this doctrine, do not associate with them. I am talking about this doctrine we are talking about in this present time. I am not going down here across the field to look for something else, I am talking about us. A preacher that used to associate with us, sent me an e-mail a few days ago, wanting to know what kind of clothes we wore when we baptized, so we could baptize without getting our other clothes wet. We have never had any such clothing, I am as wet as the one that is baptized. I am not interested in fifty percent, seventy-five percent, or ninety-nine point nine percent. What we don’t know now, we will know before it is all over. What we know now, is going to lead us right into those seven thunders sooner or later. You might say, you are speaking as though you are going to be here. I don’t know that for sure, but I will be waiting, because I know that when those thunders begin to sound, it will not be long until the saints of God are going to be gathered with those that have died already. I had a dream not long after Bro. Jackson passed on to his reward. I was sitting with Bro. Bud on a bench, and all at once Bro. Jackson popped into our midst. He was sitting on the other side of me. He had on a blue shirt, and a blue suit. What do you make of that? Only one place is blue, that is the heavens. To me, the instructions and things that he was telling us, which I have forgot now, but the things he was talking about were things that were going to be beneficial to Bro. Bud and me, questions that he was answering. So tonight, we are sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He did not come back in black clothing, he came dressed in blue, and I knew that was speaking of heaven. Talking about those false brethren Paul says this, “Who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.” Why are you so stern? Why don’t you just give a little? If you give a little this time, you will give more the next time. I never preach the gospel just to be hard, but I do read where the gospel is hard. “But of these who seemed to be somewhat, whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepth no man’s person: for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference, added nothing to me: But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter; For He that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, (or of the Jews) the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles: And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do. But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. (Why would he say that?) For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.” That is what I was saying this morning, and that is what I am saying again tonight, it took Paul to break the yoke, the Gentile yoke. Peter was the first to bring the message to the Gentiles because it was ordained that way, because he had the keys to the kingdom. But this is something new unto Peter. This James that he is talking about, was the Lord’s brother, as he mentioned. If you read the second chapter of James, you will see why he says it in this way. Peter did not want it to get back to Jerusalem, that he was eating with the Gentiles. Oh, that old piece of ham meat tasted mighty good at first, until somebody came from Jerusalem, then he backed off. However, when you read in Peter, you will find that Peter made it right. You did not want to cross those of Jerusalem, because there is where Paul had his trouble, there is where it caused Silas to be circumcised, and he said that is because of false brethren. Peter and James and John said, you go to the heathen and we will stay with the Jews. I am not trying to get on these men. I am not saying this for that reason, but I am saying, you cannot mix a lot of other things with Grace. Before we get out of here, we will know who we are and where we are going and what we are going to do. We are going to be just like the church was that Paul was preaching to. Every church he went to, he found things he had to correct, especially there with the Galatians. He spoke to them like this, Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, in the 3rd chapter. He did not just make a simple little statement there, his first words to them were, Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? I am not talking loud because I am mad, I am hollering because I am glad. I am glad that there is a way made that we may have access into this grace, a free pass, something I cannot pay on your behalf. Neither can you pay for me, we must accept by faith, what has already been purchased for us. We find in the 1st verse of the 3rd chapter in Galatians, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?” Do you think I am being hard in what I speak? That is not a good sound, crucified Him, because they were crucifying truth, they were trying to add faith and Law together, because the Galatians were once under Law, they were not Jews, but they had caught on to the Jewish religion and they were trying to mix law and grace together, because they had been let loose. “This only would I learn of you, Paul sais, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? (Or by the Law, which was fleshly.) You looked at this and were told what you should do. You had to put it on your doorpost as a reminder, when you went in and when you came out. That blood had to be applied there. You never let it wear thin, because it is not a white wash. If they had to have animal sacrifices daily, what about our lives? The closer we walk with God, the happier we are, because we are not trying to get by with anything that is wrong. We are not seeing how close we can get to the edge. I thank God we are not walking on a ledge, but we have solid ground to mare our stand on. What enters into here, and down into here, is more important than what we can read. I am talking about reading, do this, and don’t do this, do this. You can never have peace living like that. Are ye so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect through the flesh? “Have ye suffered so many things in vain? If it be yet in vain. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? (Here it goes back to Abraham again.) Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” He said it is accounted to him: it is on his account. There is a book already written of our lives, that is what brings about your reward. No, I am not writing a book every day, I am just fulfilling what the book says, that is already recorded with my life in it, because God is going to know what reward we get and what we do not get. If I, being a minister, do not hold to truth, my punishment is worse than someone else’s, because I am responsible. I am responsible for the ones that hear me. I may seem to make this easier, but I cannot make it easier. There is no way that anybody can make an easier path out of this than what the scripture says. As I said last Sunday, we are not out to gain members, we are out for the growth of the true saints. Don’t try to make it an easy thing, in that we are just going to get by, because we will not get by that way. That is because we are in tests, and tests makes grades. “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” I am sure that Abraham had weaknesses, but you never see him fail in that of God’s promise. The Bible tells us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The hope that Abraham had, it says, it maketh not ashamed. When Abraham went and got Lot, he was still on trial. He went and got Lot out of his problem that he had gotten himself into, when the kings came and got him: Abraham went and brought Lot back. Some will say, Oh, I don’t believe in war. Abraham did. He went and took care of so many kings and brought Lot back and the first thing he did, he meets someone. He meets Melchizedek, a representative of God. I believe that this representative of God was so real that he gave Abraham bread and wine rather. Abraham turned around and gave a tenth of all he had unto Him. God is not stingy with us. We sing, I am blessed. Do we really realize how much we are blessed. I have shoes on my feet, plenty to eat, and more too. I have a roof over my head, a bed to sleep in. Jesus did not have either one of them. He did not create something for Himself every day either, because it said He passed by a fig tree and He was hungry. He also said to one, the foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head. He became poor, that He might make many rich. We have more than what He did when He was on earth. Because what He was doing, He was reaching down as far as man is, to be able to pick him up. Even the woman that had the two mites she put into the offering, do you think she went away empty? She did not give that to Him to get something, she gave it to Him because she recognized who He was. We are not just going to South Africa for a pleasure trip, twenty six hours one way is not a pleasure trip. Sometimes I hate to ask my brothers and sisters, because these things can be hard, but they do not refuse, because they believe in a message, the message this assembly and this ministry stands for. Our brothers and sisters will do everything they can to take care of us. I talked to Bro. Ram yesterday, I said brother, you don’t have to do much for us, we are not hard to please. But he would not hear it. Different ones come here, and stay here and eat their meals here, and talk about what a blessing we are to them, then I go to their place, and compared to them, it seems like we have not done very much of anything. We are so very thankful for what you do for us, and when I say that, I am speaking for Faith Assembly, not just me. We are all so blessed, to be children of God in this hour of time.

Brothers and Sisters: I want us to see what the grace of God really is, and how He is working in His people for the hour that we are living in. When we think of grace, that is the greatest thing that God could ever show us, His grace, His unmerited favor toward us when we were so undeserving. He called a Jewish nation to be His people and He never dealt with other nations in the time He was dealing with the Jewish people. He promised Israel the day they turned from Him, there would be other nations that would teach them a lesson. But the lesson they learned through time has carried over for many centuries, and it was not until this end time that God was going to bring them back to their land to give them a place of recognition. It is the only nation in the world that has an identity that has stayed with them. The United States of America is two hundred and thirty some years old, but Israel as a nation is thirty five hundred years and even before that, was the call of Abraham. Abraham at that time was only a few, and they wandered in Israel in the promise that God had given them, some thirty eight hundred years or more. God gave them a promise, He gave the promise to Abraham, that in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, and because of that promise, the gospel has come into every nation under heaven, even into nations that you would not think about now, that ever shared the gospel, but through studying a little of history, I found that Thomas went to India and was killed there after many years of preaching the gospel. We talk about doubting Thomas, but he was not a doubting Thomas when he was in India, because he gave his life for what he believed. People label people with one statement, or with one thing that they say and that becomes a label they give them for their entire life, but it was not really the right label for Thomas. The rest of the disciples had seen the Lord, but Thomas had not. He was a little hard to convince by the others, until he saw for himself. Jesus said to Thomas, blessed art thou that has seen, but blessed are those that have never seen, yet believe. That was for us today. One day we will see, but for now we believe without seeing what Thomas saw. Our hope is in the gospel that has been brought to us by the end time message. We have heard many times, for many years, about the coming of the Lord. What we have heard lets us know, that even though the message has been brought up until now was not all we will hear before the rapture takes place. Even though we did not have it all, what has been preached up until this hour of the message, is true. If we look at it in a way of doubt, then we do not have the faith of Abraham, because Abraham looked for a son for twenty five years after God promised him one, and finally, what God had promised Abraham and assured of, he finally received. Just like Abraham, we have been assured in this hour time, that he is coming back for us, because God sent a prophet messenger unto this age, telling us to get back to the Word of God, and that is what we rest our faith upon, God’s Word. So many times Brother Branham held his Bible up and said, Get back to the Word! That Word is something that tells us not to be discouraged, though His coming is not yet, never to be discouraged and be not in a doubtful mood, thinking that He is not coming, because He is coming, and very soon now. The Bible says the trial of your faith is more precious than gold, though it be tried in the fire. So the trial of our faith is what is keeping us, it is the faith that is keeping us believing that He is coming soon. Every year that we look at it, we see the happenings in the world, and we see the Jewish nation getting closer to the promise of God, to what God is going to do for them. It lets us know that we are in the time of that which was promised. This part of the message today, is going to be a little bit different. I called Bro. David on Saturday to tell him what scriptures I would be using on Sunday, then sitting here about 9:30, I realized there were about three scriptures that I had not given him, which I wanted to use this morning, but I had lost them in the other scriptures I had chosen. That would be John 13, John 6, and Matthew 16. These scriptures are going to tell us something about ourselves, and our feeling about things that are going on in our lives. I am not talking about listening, I am talking about understanding. If we don’t listen with understanding, then we are going to hear the message wrong. It takes an understanding for one thing, that many times, when a true minister gives a message, he is hurt more than what other people are, as far as feelings. I preached a message not long after Bro. Jackson passed away, I am not for sure, but I believe it was from Job chapter 38. In that message, I saw a scripture, no air between us. That is the way I feel about Bro. Bud this morning, and about the true ministers of God in this hour, there is no difference in us. We have different ways of speaking a message and you cannot tie everybody to the same thinking. The message is going to come out the same, but it is going to be in different parts, a little here and a little there, that makes up the true message of God. I think I am going to go to Paul first. The scripture says the Word is for correction, for exhortation, for growth in the things of God. I preached a message over in South Africa and told that I had heard that in many other countries, they call it cyclones, but we have a different name for it here, a hurricane. Those beautiful trees you see along the shore, every time a storm comes through, it bends it a certain way. In that bend there is a remembrance of how many times a storm has really bent that tree almost to the ground, then it straightens back up where the only thing you can recognize from the storm, is where it has been bent. That is the way the message is. Sometimes it brings chastisement. The Bible says without chastisement we are bastards, not sons. That is a hard word, but it in in Hebrews. It is something that you don’t call people on the street, because it is a fighting word. But calls us that if we are not corrected by God as sons and daughters of His. So today, just think about te apostle Paul, how many times he was beaten, how many times he suffered shipwreck, beaten with rods, stoned and left for dead, many times, not just one time. Bro. Jackson talked to us about different things that we would need to go through in order for growth. He said to us many times, stick around, if you have doubts in what we say, just stick around and you will see. I know there are people today, that are preaching that the message is something of just love, it just drools out of their mouth. Well Bro. William Branham said love is corrective. Today there are certain things in our lives that need to be corrected. As I go into the scripture, I want to go to John, chapter 13 first. One thing in the scripture that you will notice, Jesus never apologized for what He said, never. People walked away, but He did not run after them and apologize. That is the ministry in this hour, they better know what they are talking about. Then there will not be all this drooling, like honey falling from somebody’s mouth, which it is not real, it is a show, a put-on, people don’t like it. Just like it has been said about this ministry, you don’t know who your neighbors are. I know I made a statement after the tornado came through up here, and some did not understand it, but understand what a person has in their heart instead of saying what you think about it. The critical statement was made, as though I was insensitive to people’s feelings and needs. This was bad, this was hurtful. We had people here who were hurt, that lost very much at that time. But I made a statement, and this is what my statement was, that I could not turn Faith Assembly over to the community, because the thing about it is, this place is dedicated to God, it is not dedicated to the world. If you go back in the book of Acts and see what the apostles did, they were accused of neglecting the widows of their daily needs. They turned that over to the deacons back then. They appointed the first deacons that were ever appointed. What did they appoint the deacons for? It was for the needs of the widows and things in the church. It was not meant for the community. You turn this place over to the community, and in four weeks from now, you will find nothing but a place full of garbage. They turned the Astrodome over, when Katrina hit New Orleans, just turned it over for a period of time and four weeks from that time they had to take it back because they had ruined all of it. If I am insensitive to the needs of people, why do people stay here in this fellowship hall over the weekend? It is for brothers and sisters: it is not for unregenerate people that have no respect for anything. We are learning in this hour, that we are a separate people. I am separate. Are you separate? The Bible speaks of us as pilgrims and strangers. If the saints of God needed a place to stay for a few days, that would be the place they could stay, but not for the world. Then the dedication would be out of our understanding and out of our good behavior. We love people, it is not that we are insensitive. I have seen what the tornado has done. I have not been to Marysville. Some have, and I did go through Henryville just the other day, but I did not go when it first happened. Of course I drive through Pekin on my way here and back home. I have seen what it did to Pekin. If you remember, last Sunday, I was telling about the little baby named Angel. If you remember that, I was touched about that. Don’t call me insensitive, because I assure you, I am not. But there is a day coming when there will be babies, rich people, poor people, will be laying across this earth with nobody to cry for. They will not even be buried, nor will there be anyone cried over, because the devastation is going to be that bad. Don’t think, when the end time comes, that there is not going to be devastation. We see a little bit of it already, but it is going to be a worldwide thing in that time. The Bible says there will be few men that will be left. As I have turned to this scripture, starting in verse 4 of chapter 13, “He riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments; and took a towel and girded Himself. After that He poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. Then cometh He to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto Him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? (He was asking a question, but it is not a question of learning, it is a question about what he is going to do. Peter was concerned. Peter was sensitive to what He was going to do, but his motive was wrong.) Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto Him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all. For He knew who should betray him; therefore said He, ye are not all clean. So after He had washed their feet, and had taken His garments, and was set down again, He said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.” See, the attitude that Peter had here concerning what he was going to do, he did not understand. But Jesus was as plain with Peter as He could be. This gospel message this morning, sometimes gets plain. I have a way of preaching and Bro. Bud has a way of preaching, but it is all the same message. We are not preaching two different messages. We are not standing on two different foundations. I know that every true minister today is doing the same thing. You cannot waver in the things you say and the things you feel to say. In this message I am going to go over into Galatians the 2nd chapter, I may not do that today, maybe tonight, but go over to Galatians and see what Paul said unto Peter. Just find out what the message is and how our reaction is to what we hear. There have been times I have felt like there were personal rebukes to me, but I needed them. I didn’t take it as though it was something that somebody was trying just to pick on me. Bro. Jackson preached a message one time, everything that can be shaken is going to be shaken. God is going to shake us from the top of our head to the toenails. Sometimes these shakings get hard, because we need that correction. If I need that correction, it is hard on the flesh. Our flesh is the enemy of our soul. Because the flesh is what the devil works with, the Spirit is what God works with. But if we get this mixed up, if we get our soul and our flesh mixed up together, then we get into a place where we are an enemy unto our own selves.