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Website: www.godsacres.org

"For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound,who shall prepare himself to the battle?"

THE GOSPEL TRUMPETERUSPS #871620

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THE GOSPEL TRUMPETER675 N. Cedar StreetNewark, Ohio 43055

This periodical carries no subscription price; however, it

is partially maintained through the gifts and offerings of its

readers, with the balance of the expenses being paid by

the local congregation.

PRAYER: If you need p rayer, please phone or write:

Roger Decker, Pastor83 Decrow Ave.N ewark, OH 43055

Email: pastor@ church-of-god-online.comPhone: 740-344-2543 or 1-888-730-0461Fax: 740-344-4737Print Shop Phone: 740-345-1312

This monthly religious journal is published for the benefit of the

Church of God universally. It is our supreme purpose to reach the

world for Christ through the printed page. Our burden is to reveal

the truth of God's Word to all mankind, to expose sin and error, war

against apostasy, and to eradicate the longstanding traditions of

men that have no biblical foundations.

Brother Roger L. Decker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EditorWorkers Too Numerous to Mention

THE CHURCH OF GOD BELIEVES IN:

A personal God (John 4:24)A divine Christ (John 1:1, 14)An infallibly inspired Bible (2 Tim. 3:16-17)Salvation from sin (Matt. 1:21)The new birth (John 3:3, 5-7A holy life (Luke 1:73-75; Titus 2:12)Sanctification (1 Thess. 5:23)Unity of God's people (John 17:21, Eph. 4)Divine, physical healing (James 5:14-16)The ordinances (Matt. 28:19-20; John 13; 1 Cor. 11:23, 34)Eternal life (Matt. 25:46; Mark 9:43)The Trinity (1 John 5:7, 8)

SOME SPIRITUAL FACTSPERTAINING TO THE CHURCH

Jesus organized it (Matt. 16:18)On a good foundation (Eph. 2:20; I Cor. 3:11)Christ governs it (Eph. 1:22-23; Isa. 9:6)God admits members (I Cor. 12:13-18)Sin puts you out of it (Rom. 11:22; Ex. 32:33)The saved only are members (John 15:2-6)Membership is offered to all (Rev. 22:17)Final rewards (Rev. 20:12-15; 21:3-4; 22:14)Bible name of the Church (Acts 20:28; Gal. 1:13; John 17:11)

We reserve the right to edit and/or decline any material for anyreason. Not responsible for unsolicited articles or items.

CONTENTS

The Habitation of Babylon (Part 1) . . 3The Fatality of Building

Wrong for Eternity . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Healing to the Glory of God . . . . . . . 14I Must Abide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Vol. 30 May 2000 No. 5

GuestEditorial

The SeraphimsPart 2 of 2

Isaiah 6:1-4 reads: "In the year thatking Uzziah died I saw also the Lordsitting upon a throne, high and lifted up,and his train filled the temple. Above itstood the seraphims: each one had sixwings; with twain he covered his face,and with twain he covered his feet, andwith twain he did fly. And one cried untoanother, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is theLORD of hosts: the whole earth is full ofhis glory. And the posts of the doormoved at the voice of him that cried, andthe house was filled with smoke."

In Part 1 we answered the ques-

tions: What are these seraphims? Are

they angelic beings? and What type of

creatures are they? In this issue let us

consider these seraphims' description

and attributes. How many seraphims

are there? We need to do as Isaiah

34:16 says: "Seek ye out of the book of

the LORD , and read: no one of these

shall fail, none shall want her mate

[for every dark saying in God's Word,

there is a mate somewhere else in His

Word that will bring light to it]: for

my mouth it hath commanded, and

his spirit it hath gathered them."

Isaiah 6:2 says, "Above it stood

the seraphims: each one had six

wings . . . ." Where else are these be-

ings depicted? Revelation 4:8 says,

"And the four beasts [The word

"beasts" confuses some people. The

Greek word is zoon (which means, 'a

living creature'), not the word therion

(which means wild, vicious beast),

which is used in Revelation 13:1 and

13:11 when it talks about the beastly,

hideous creatures.] had each of them

six wings . . . ." Here are the same

living creatures, or seraphims, and

there are four of them. Remember

that they represent the saints.

Ezekiel saw the same thing in

Ezekiel 1:5a, which reads, "Also out of

the midst thereof came the likeness of

four living creatures [the same thing

Isaiah and John saw]." Again, who are

these living creatures? Romans 6:11

tells us, "Likewise reckon ye also

yourselves to be dead indeed unto

sin, but alive unto God through Jesus

Christ our Lord." Those who have

Jesus Christ have life. Second Corin-

thians 5:17 says, "Therefore if any

man be in Christ, he is a new crea-

ture." The living creatures are those

who have experienced the saving

graces of Jesus Christ and are alive

unto God. When the Holy Spirit came

on the Day of Pentecost, He took men

who were dead, gave them life, set

them on fire, and they became living

creatures.

The four beasts are the living

creatures. Revelation 5:8 states, "And

when he had taken the book, the four

beasts [or living creatures] and four

and twenty elders fell down before

the Lamb, having every one of them

harps, and golden vials full of odours,

which are the prayers of saints." If

these creatures have vials full of

odors that are the prayers of saints,

who is holding the vials? The saints.

Who are the creatures? The saints.

Verse 9 says, "And they sung a

new song, saying, Thou art worthy to

take the book, and to open the seals

thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast

redeemed us." These four creatures

that John spoke of in Revelation,

Chapter 5, and that Isaiah called sera-

phims (seraph, the burning), the ones

set on fire, in Isaiah, Chapter 6, are

the redeemed of all ages.

The question that arises is, Why,according to Revelation 4:8 and

Ezekiel, are there only four? Whenyou go back into the Old Testament

economy, old Israel was divided intofour major divisions. As they jour-

neyed, they had the ark of the cove-nant and the tabernacle, or the tent

where the Lord's presence dwelt, andthey had it in the midst of the camp.

Then they took the twelve tribes andbroke them into four major divisions

and camped on all four sides wherethe presence of God was in the midst.

Those four camps represented all ofIsrael, or all the people of God. In this

New Testament dispensation, thesefour divisions represent all of New

Testament Israel: those who have thepresence of God in their midst. It

portrays the people of God, or thechurch, down through the ages of

time.[continued on page 25]

Revelation 18:1 And after thesethings I saw another angel come downfrom heaven, having great power; andthe earth was lightened with his glory.

2 And he cried mightily with astrong voice, saying, Babylon the greatis fallen, is fallen, and is become thehabitation of devils, and the hold of

The Habiof Baby

Part 1 of 2

every foul spirit, and a cage of everyunclean and hateful bird.

3 For all nations have drunk of thewine of the wrath of her fornication, andthe kings of the earth have committedfornication with her, and the merchantsof the earth are waxed rich through theabundance of her delicacies.

tationlon

Brother Roger L. Decker

4 And I heard another voice fromheaven, saying, Come out of her, mypeople, that ye be not partakers of hersins, and that ye receive not of herplagues.

5 For her sins have reached untoheaven, and God hath remembered heriniquities.

Differences Between Babylonand the Church

I want you to focus your atten-tion on verse 2 of our Scripture text:"And he cried mightily with a strongvoice, saying, Babylon the great isfallen, is fallen, and is become thehabitation of devils, and the hold ofevery foul spirit, and a cage of everyunclean and hateful bird." By thehelp of the Lord, we want to look at"Babylon the great."

The word Babylon comes fromthe word Babel, which means "confu-sion." You can trace its origin back toGenesis, Chapter 11, at the tower ofBabel where the people intended tobuild a tower that would reach fromearth into heaven. That is exactlywhat Babylon tries to do–build upan image from earth to Heaven. We

find that they all spoke one lan-guage, but God confounded theirlanguage and the building programstopped. Genesis 11:8 says, "So theLORD scattered them abroad fromthence upon the face of all the earth:and they left off to build the city."Why is there confusion today? Peo-ple refuse to take the Word of God;instead, they take the creeds anddoctrines of men. Confusion is not inthe Word of God; it comes when youstray from God's Word.

Jesus said in Matthew 16:18,"And I say also unto thee, That thouart Peter, and upon this rock I willbuild my church; and the gates ofhell shall not prevail against it." Thechurch was not built on Peter. Youcan find in John 1:42 what Peter'sname means: "And he brought himto Jesus. And when Jesus beheld

him, he said, Thou art Simon the sonof Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas,which is by interpretation, A stone."The church is built on the Rock,something solid. Someone may ask,"What is the Rock?" Matthew 16:17-18 tells us: "And Jesus answered andsaid unto him, Blessed art thou,Simon Barjona: for flesh and bloodhath not revealed it unto thee, butmy Father which is in heaven. And1 say also unto thee, That thou artPeter, and upon this rock I will buildmy church." What is the Rock uponwhich the Church of God is built? Adivine revelation from God; theChurch of God is divine.

Jesus told Peter that flesh andblood had not revealed it unto him,but His Father in Heaven. Wheredid the Church of God come from?She came down from the Father

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above. The Church of the LivingGod is divine all the way through;she did not just spring up. All theother churches sprang up from theearth. Jesus said, "Upon this rock Iwill build my church [singular]." Hedid not build two or more churches.There is one Church of God, andyou have to be born again and pos-sess the Spirit of God to see it.

The Bride, The Lamb's Wife

Revelation 21:1-10 reads: "And Isaw a new heaven and a new earth:for the first heaven and the firstearth were passed away; and therewas no more sea. And I John sawthe holy city, new Jerusalem, comingdown from God out of heaven [notan offshoot of something else, but itwas coming down from God out ofHeaven], prepared as a brideadorned for her husband. And Iheard a great voice out of heavensaying, Behold, the tabernacle ofGod is with men, and he will dwellwith them, and they shall be hispeople, and God himself shall bewith them, and be their God. AndGod shall wipe away all tears fromtheir eyes; and there shall be nomore death, neither sorrow, norcrying, neither shall there be anymore pain: for the former things arepassed away. And he that sat uponthe throne said, Behold, I make allthings new. And he said unto me,Write: for these words are true andfaithful. And he said unto me, It isdone. I am Alpha and Omega thebeginning and the end. I will giveunto him that is athirst of the foun-tain of the water of life freely.

"He that overcometh shall in-herit all things; and I will be hisGod, and he shall be my son. But thefearful, and unbelieving, and theabominable, and murderers, andwhoremongers, and sorcerers, andidolaters, and all liars, shall havetheir part in the lake which burnethwith fire and brimstone: which is thesecond death. And there came untome one of the seven angels whichhad the seven vials full of the sevenlast plagues, and talked with me,

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saying, Come hither, I will showthee the bride, the Lamb's wife. Andhe carried me away in the spirit [it isby a divine revelation] to a great andhigh mountain, [Where is theChurch of God? She is in the top ofthe mountain.] and showed me thatgreat city, the holy Jerusalem [fromwhere did it come?], descending outof heaven from God." The church isnot some human organization; shecame down from God out of Heav-en. The Church of God is separateand distinct, and "she is the only oneof her mother" (Song of Solomon6:9). There is not another one likeher. She answers to Jerusalem,"which is above is free, which is themother of us all" (Galatians 4:26).

What is the New Jerusalem?Hebrews 12:22-23 tells us: "But yeare come [He did not say you willcome, but you are come. This is notsomething out in the future or a cityover in Heaven, but you can be amember of the New Jerusalem rightnow, not out in a millennium that isnot going to come.] unto mount lion,and unto the city of the living God,the heavenly Jerusalem, and to aninnumerable company of angel;, Tothe general assembly and church ofthe firstborn, which are written inheaven, and to God the Judge of all,and to the spirits of just men madeperfect."

The Church of God is divine; hermembers are divine. Jesus said inJohn 10:9, "I am the door: by me ifany man enter in, he shall be saved,and shall go in and out, and findpasture." All of God's sheep comethrough the same Door–Christ. Allher members have come through theblood of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 9:13-14 reads: "For ifthe blood of bulls and of goats, andthe ashes of an heifer sprinkling theunclean, sanctifieth to the purifyingof the flesh: How much more shallthe blood of Christ, who through theeternal Spirit offered himself with-out spot to God, purge your con-science from dead works to servethe living God?" There is no otherdoor to the Church of God. JosephSmith, Mohammed, the Pope of

Rome, a priest, or a preacher is notthe door to the church. Christ is thedoor to the church. No one gets inthe Church of God without firstcoming through Christ. When youcome through Him, old things passaway and you become a new crea-ture. The Church of the Living Godis made up of new creatures, and itis called the New Jerusalem.

Who Is the Head of the Church?

In our Scripture text we find thatsomething else appeared. Throughevery age of time wherever God hashad Truth, there has always been animitation. Our Scripture text says inverse 2, "And he cried mightily witha strong voice, saying, Babylon thegreat is fallen, is fallen, and is be-come the habitation [or dwellingplace] of devils, and the hold ofevery foul spirit, and a cage of everyunclean and hateful bird."

There is nothing good in Baby-lon. God is saying "Come out of her"because it is a habitation of devilsand a hold of foul, nasty, hatefulspirits. Why is Babylon as it is? Thepeople did not come through theDoor. They did not get into the HolyJerusalem, or the New Jerusalem.Had they come through the Door(Christ), their lives would have beencleaned up. If they did not comethrough the Door, then they are notin the Church of God; they are inBabylon. Babylon accepts membersby voting people in, by baptizingthem in, by letting them join andbecome members, and by havingthem subscribe to established regu-lations set by a denomination or theminister and established bylaws ofthe said church.

How does one get into theChurch of God? Acts 2:47b says,"And the Lord added to the churchdaily such as should be saved."Psalm 87 is a prophecy concerningour day. Verses 5-6 read: "And ofZion [What is Zion? The Church ofGod.] it shall be said, This and thatman was born in her: and the high-est himself [speaking of God] shallestablish her. The LORD shall count,

when he writeth up the people, thatthis man was born there. Selah."How can you get into the Church ofGod? You must be born into herthrough a born-again experience.

Christ is the head of the truechurch. God did not have Jesus putHis head on several churches. Liter-ally, if you saw three or four bodieswith one head you would call that afreak. There is only one head perbody. Colossians 1:18 says, "And heis the head of the body, the church:who is the beginning, the firstbornfrom the dead; that in all things hemight have the preeminence."

Christ is the head of the Churchof God, but that is not so in Babylon.The head of the Catholic Church isthe pope; therefore, it cannot be theright church, because that is thewrong head. Some Protestantchurches have bishops at their headand others have Doctor So-and So.Isaiah 9:6 says, "For unto us a childis born, unto us a son is given: andthe government shall be upon hisshoulder and his name shall becalled Wonderful, Counsellor, Themighty God, The everlasting Father,The Prince of Peace." Isaiah said thegovernment would be upon Hisshoulder. The Church of God isgoverned by the Holy Spirit, butBabylon is not. Babylon is controlledby conferences, committees, boards,and human authority. Babylon putsmore emphasis on what some hu-man head says than what the Wordof God says.

Pagan Customs and Traditions

When we speak of Babylon, weare not speaking of people but of thesystem that governs that body. Wewant to compare the system withthe Word of God to let you seewhether it lines up with it. In Reve-lation, Chapter 13, we find it speaksof a beast that rose up out of the sea,or out of the minds of the people.According to the Bible, this beastsymbolizes Roman Catholicism, andRoman Catholicism got its powerand its authority from paganism, orold pagan Rome. That is the reason

it still has many of pagan Rome's oldcustoms of worship. Many thingsthat Roman Catholicism does can betraced back to old pagan customsand traditions.

We read in Revelation 13:5-8:"And there was given unto him amouth speaking great things andblasphemies; and power was givenunto him to continue forty and twomonths. And he opened his mouthin blasphemy against God, to blas-pheme his name, and his tabernacle,and them that dwell in heaven. Andit was given unto him to make warwith the saints, and to overcomethem [that is the same spirit theyhave yet today; they have notchanged]: and power was given himover all kindreds, and tongues, andnations. And all that dwell upon theearth shall worship him, whosenames are not written in the book oflife of the Lamb slain from the foun-dation of the world."

In this message we want to un-cover some of Roman Catholicism'spagan practices and place themalongside the Word of God.' Revela-tion 17:5 states, "And upon her fore-head was a name written,. MYS-TERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS ANDA B O M IN A T I O N S O F T H EEARTH." Notice that this woman iscalled a harlot. The true church islikened to a bride who is chaste, onewhose garments are without spot orblemish. This woman called "MYS-TERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS" ispresented as an unclean woman.

Remember, the Roman CatholicChurch got its power and authorityfrom old pagan Rome. What aresome of Roman Catholicism's prac-tices? They worship Mary, pray toMary, and call Mary "the Mother ofGod." These practices came from oldpagan customs. The pagans wor-shiped the mother goddess and alsothe sun. What do you see in RomanCatholic churches? You see statuesof Mary, prayers are recited to Mary,and Mary is exalted right alongside,if not more than, Jesus Christ, theSon of God. They teach that the rea-

son one prays to Mary is that she cantake the request to her son and useher influence to get Him to answer.This infers that Mary is more com-passionate, more understanding,and more merciful than Jesus.

In reciting the rosary, the HailMary is recited nine times as often asthe prayer Jesus taught His disci-ples. The rosary is a chain with fif-teen sets of small beads, and onelarge bead marks off each set. Ametal bearing the imprint of Maryjoins the ends of the chain, and fromthere hangs a short chain at the endof which is what they call a crucifix.The beads on the rosary are forcounting prayers, words that theyrecite repeatedly. This practice didnot originate in Christianity. Beadsare used yet today in other landsand in other religions.

"Doctrines of Devils"

Roman Catholics repeat the HailMary using the rosary. They say,"Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord iswith thee. Blessed art thou amongwomen. Blessed is the fruit of thywomb, Jesus." That is darkness!When Jesus taught His disciples topray, did He tell them to get somebeads, or a rosary, and recite theHail Mary? No! When Jesus saidthat men ought always to pray andnot to faint, if it were necessary tohave a rosary, He would havetaught us that, but it is not neces-sary. You can get hold of God with-out using a rosary or reciting HailMary.

Hail Mary is recited nine times.What does the Bible say about thistype of worship and praying toMary? Exodus 20:4-5 states: "Thoushalt not make unto thee any gravenimage, or any likeness of any thingthat is in heaven above, or that is inthe earth beneath, or that is in thewater under the earth: Thou shaltnot bow down thyself to them, norserve them: for I the LORD thy Godam a jealous God, visiting the iniq-uity of the fathers upon the childrenunto the third and fourth generationof them that hate me." In God's eyes,

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worshiping or praying to idols isidolatry.

In front of most Roman Catholicchurches are statues of Jesus andMary side by side; that is idolatryand blasphemy. Mary cannot for-give sins. You are wasting your timeif you pray to Mary. If your wife'sname were Mary, you would havejust as much effect praying to her.Why can Mary not forgive sins?Because she did not die for you;Jesus Christ died for you.

Colossians 1:13-14 tells us, "Whohath delivered us from the power ofdarkness, and hath translated usinto the kingdom of his dear Son: Inwhom we have redemption throughhis blood, even the forgiveness ofsins." First Timothy 2:5 says, "Forthere is one God, and one mediatorbetween God and men, the manChrist Jesus." No one else can for-give your sins except Jesus Christ;there is no other mediator betweenyou and God. Mary cannot helpyou. The Bible says Jesus is the me-diator of the new covenant, or theNew Jerusalem.

First Timothy 4:1-4 says: "Nowthe Spirit speaketh expressly, that inthe latter times some shall departfrom the faith, giving heed to seduc-ing spirits, and doctrines of devils;Speaking lies in hypocrisy; havingtheir conscience seared with a hotiron; Forbidding to marry, and com-manding to abstain from meats,which God hath created to be re-ceived with thanksgiving of themwhich believe and know the truth.For every creature of God is good,and nothing to be refused, if it bereceived with thanksgiving."

The Roman Catholics forbid thepriests to marry. Hebrews 13:4 says,"Marriage is honourable in all." TheBible says that marriage is honorablein all, but that is not what the systemof Roman Catholicism says. Also, atone time the Catholics were notallowed to eat meat on Fridays. Iused to work with people who werein Roman Catholicism, and the com-pany changed the menu in the cafe-teria and started having fish on Fri-days. However, the Bible says that

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every creature of God is good andnothing is to be refused if it is re-ceived with thanksgiving.

Roman Catholicism does notbelieve in the new birth, but Jesussaid in John 3:3, "Verily, verily, I sayunto thee, Except a man be bornagain, he cannot see the kingdom ofGod." In verse 5 he said one cannotenter into the Kingdom of God un-less he is born again. That is noteven taught in Roman Catholicism.

"Speaking Lies in Hypocrisy"

The Revelator said to give Baby-lon a double cup, yet people pat heron the back today. Babylon is send-ing more souls to hell than thehonky-tonks and the houses of pros-titution. Nevertheless, people runaround and pat her on the back andsay, "It isn't so bad." You need to getyour nose in the Book to see whatGod thinks about her. According toGod's Word, Babylon deserves adouble cup! God hates those falsesystems of worship. They have Hispeople in bondage and without vic-tory. People long to get hold of Godbut cannot because they are in dark-ness.

In Roman Catholicism prayersare offered up for the dead, andmasses are held for the dead. TheBible plainly teaches that after deathis the judgment, not purgatory.There is no hope once death hassealed one's soul in eternity. Allopportunities to get saved are goneonce death comes upon an individ-ual. "If the clouds be full of rain,they empty themselves upon theearth: and if the tree fall toward thesouth, or toward the north, in theplace where the tree falleth, there itshall be" (Ecclesiastes 11:3).

People give the Catholic churchmoney to hold masses for souls inpurgatory. They are told that byholding masses and praying for thedead, they can obtain the release oftormented souls. Money and prayersfor the dead go together. The priestsadmit that they have no way ofknowing when souls pass out of thesupposed "purgatory" and into

Heaven. For this reason, there isnever a settled peace concerning thedeceased. There is always a possibil-ity that more money should be givenfor masses for the loved ones whohave died. Roman Catholicism playsupon one's love and the tendermemories of those who have died totake money for masses and longprayers. What did Jesus say to theJewish priests in His day? Matthew23:14 says, "Woe unto you, scribesand Pharisees, hypocrites! for yedevour widows' houses, and for apretense make long prayer: thereforeye shall receive the greater damna-tion."

The Catholic priests can performeither high masses or low masses.High mass can be very expensive,and it all depends on the amount offlowers and candles used and thenumber of priests taking part. Highmass is usually sung in a loud toneof voice. In a low mass only six can-dles are used. It is less expensive,and they conduct it in a low voice.The Irish have a saying that goes likethis: "High money, high mass; lowmoney, low mass." They call thosewho die without anyone to pay formasses in their behalf "the forgottensouls in purgatory." They rememberthese souls in special prayer on No-vember 2, a time called "All Souls'Day." What did Jesus say to Hisdisciples in Matthew 19:23-26? "Ver-ily I say unto you, That a rich manshall hardly enter into the kingdomof heaven. And again I say unto you,It is easier for a camel to go throughthe eye of a needle, than for a richman to enter into the kingdom ofGod. When his disciples heard it,they were exceedingly amazed, say-ing, Who then can be saved? ButJesus beheld them, and said untothem, With men this is impossible;but with God all things are possi-ble."

If the payment of money formasses could get people out of asupposed "purgatory" and intoHeaven, then the words of Jesuswould not be so. Instead of it beinghard to enter the Kingdom of Heav-en, the opposite would be true. Ac-

cording to Roman Catholicism, if aman has riches, entering the King-dom of God is easy. Contrariwise,Jesus said that entering the Kingdomof Heaven would be difficult for arich man.

Psalm 49:6-7 reads: "They thattrust in their wealth, and boastthemselves in the multitude of theirriches; None of them can by anymeans redeem his brother, nor giveto God a ransom for him." No onecan redeem his brother's soul withmoney. Only One can redeem you.If money cannot redeem a brotherwhen he is alive, how can it redeemone after he dies.

Saved By Grace Through Faith

Read what the Apostle Peterwrote in 1 Peter 1:18-19: "Forasmuchas ye know that ye were not re-deemed with corruptible things, assilver and gold, from your vain con-versation received by tradition fromyour fathers; But with the preciousblood of Christ, as of a lamb withoutblemish and without spot." Moneycannot redeem your soul. It takesthe precious blood of the Lamb.

Acts, Chapter 8, tells us of thosewho got saved down in Samaria. Wefind that a man called Simon theSorcerer wanted the disciples to layhands on him so that he might re-ceive the Holy Ghost. Verses 18-21read: "And when Simon saw thatthrough laying on of the apostles'hands the Holy Ghost was given, heoffered them money, Saying, Giveme also this power, that on whom-soever I lay hands, he may receivethe Holy Ghost. But Peter said untohim, Thy money perish with thee,because thou hast thought that thegift of God may be purchased withmoney. Thou hast neither part norlot in this matter: for thy heart is notright in the sight of God."

Souls cannot be purchased withmoney. When many people come toGod, they are in bad shape spiritu-ally, financially, and morally, butthat does not stop the blood of JesusChrist. When a person comes toJesus Christ in old-time repentance,

it makes no difference if he or shehas only two nickels or a milliondollars. It still takes the blood ofJesus Christ to cleanse a soul fromsin. Salvation is by grace, and it cannever be merited by money, humanworks, or sacrifices. The ApostlePaul wrote in Ephesians 2:8-9: "Forby grace are ye saved through faith;and that not of yourselves: it is thegift of God: Not of works, lest anyman should boast." You are savedby grace.

You cannot buy your way intothe Kingdom of God. However, youdo have to watch that you do nothave a love for money, because itwill take you out of the kingdom.You must keep money in its rightfulplace. Nothing is wrong with layingaside money for needs that mayarise, but you need to watch that acovetous spirit does not get hold ofyou. Often the more one makes, themore he spends on himself and themore in debt he becomes. Also, themore money one makes, the more ofthis world's goods he has to takecare of. You cannot buy your wayinto the Kingdom of God. Further-more, you cannot buy your way outof a supposed purgatory, becausethere is no purgatory.

If one dies short of comingthrough the Door and beingcleansed from sin, that person willend up in hell. If death should over-take people who have not lived rightand have not given time to God,there is no chance for them tochange their destiny. Luke, Chapter16, speaks of the rich man and Laza-rus. The rich man died and wasburied, and verse 23 states, "And inhell he lift up his eyes, being in tor-ments." The angels carried Lazarusinto Abraham's bosom, which de-notes rest. Verse 26 says that a greatgulf is fixed between Lazarus andthe rich man "so that they whichwould pass from hence to you can-not; neither can they pass to us, thatwould come from thence." Purga-tory is a lie. Once a person dies, hiseternal destiny is fixed and settled.Those who go to hell can never leavethere. If death should overtake you

or if Jesus should come before youare saved, you are going into hell, aplace of eternal torments.

"Come Out of Her, My People"

The system of Roman Catholi-cism is filled with darkness, and it isnot going to be converted. OurScripture text says in verse 2 thatBabylon is a habitation of devils andfoul spirits and a cage of every un-clean and hateful bird. Why? Theycan dwell there in safety. All theunclean, foul spirits can dwell inBabylon and not be stirred or chal-lenged with the Word of God; theycan be at rest. They are like thestrong man that is armed: his goodsare at peace. I trust that you can seewhy God is so against Babylon.

If you are in Babylon, you needto flee; run for your life. Our Scrip-ture text says in verse 4, "And Iheard another voice from heaven,saying, Come out of her, my people,that ye be not partakers of her sins,and that ye receive not of herplagues [or judgments]." God isputting judgment on Babylon. Youmay say, "I want to stay in Babylonto help the people." Friend, youcannot help anyone when you aredisobeying God. You are in disobe-dience if you stay there. God did notsay, "Stay there and help others." Hesaid, "Come out of her." In otherwords, you must stand aloft fromher. You had better not keep com-pany with people who have rejectedlight; you need to avoid them.

How can you help those who arein Babylon? You must walk in thelight as God directs it upon yourpathway. Also, you should treatpeople right in a false system ofworship and try to bring them toTruth. God knows more about influ-encing souls than we do. He said,"Come out of her, my people, that yebe not partakers of her sins, and thatye receive not of her plagues" (Reve-lation 18:4). According to Revelation18:2, Babylon is a habitation of dev-ils. What is a habitation? It is adwelling place. The church is adwelling place of the Holy Spirit,

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but Babylon is a dwelling place ofdevils, or demons. Another transla-tion says, "She has become a resortfor demons, a fort for every uncleanspirit, a refuge for every filthy anddetestable bird."

Demon-possessed people canhide behind Babylonian walls. Thosewho are devil possessed can slipinto Babylon and never be dis-turbed. They can hide behind herteachings. They may measure to hercreeds and conform to her teachings;nevertheless, it is a hold of everyfoul spirit. People can carry spirits ofbitterness and partake in her ser-vices; they can sing specials or beplayers on the instruments and notbe disturbed. Those with spirits oflust and worldliness and those whoare lovers of pleasure can walk intoBabylon openly and become mem-bers of that church or organization,but they cannot get in the Church ofGod. Why? They have to comethrough the Door, and when theycome through the Door, they mustbecome new creatures in Christ Je-sus.

The Hold of Every Foul Spirit

Someone may inquire, "How canyou know when foul spirits areworking on people?" They manifestthose spirits when the Word of Godis preached by a man of God. Someshake their heads and say that he isa judgmental preacher. Others say,"You are preaching at me" or say,"That's your idea." What do thesaints of God do? They rejoice in theTruth while those who have rejectedTruth sit there and manifest the foulspirits that have hold of them.

Foul spirits can live in Babylonand never be molested or tormented.Though they are living in sin, if youwere to ask them how they are get-ting along spiritually, they wouldsay, "I'm getting along great! I'mgetting my soul fed." On the con-trary, their souls are not getting fed;their flesh is getting fed, but they arenot spiritual, so they cannot discernthe difference.

The Prophet Jeremiah wrote in

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Jeremiah 5:25-31: "Your iniquitieshave turned away these things, andyour sins have withholden goodthings from you. For among mypeople are found wicked men: theylay wait, as he that setteth snares;they set a trap, they catch men. As acage is full of birds, so are theirhouses full of deceit: therefore theyare become great, and waxen rich.They are waxen fat, they shine: yea,they overpass the deeds of thewicked: they judge not the cause, thecause of the fatherless, yet they pros-per; and the right of the needy dothey not judge. Shall I not visit forthese things? saith the LORD: shallnot my soul be avenged on such anation as this? A wonderful andhorrible thing is committed in theland; The prophets prophesy falsely,and the priests bear rule by theirmeans; and my people love to haveit so: and what will ye do in the endthereof?"

My friend, what will you do inthe end? Those who do not comethrough the Door (Jesus Christ)climb up some other way, and asJesus said, "the same is a thief and arobber." Babylon is full of those whohave unclean and hateful spirits, butall they have to do is make a reli-gious move and they are accepted.The doors are open wide for them tocome as they are, but that is not so inthe Church of the Living God.

Today many people want acheaper religion. Babylon is full ofcheap religion, where people do nothave to get rid of anything and theycan live as the world does, dress asthe world does, act as the worlddoes, and talk as the world does; yetthey still take the Father's name. Youdo not have to go far to find cheapreligion, but souls there are slippinginto hell.

Babylon the great is fallen.Though many are looking for ashortcut to Heaven, there is only oneway, and that is through JesusChrist. God does not want His peo-ple in the filth of Babylon. Revela-tion 18:6 says, "Reward her even asshe rewarded you, and double untoher double according to her works:

in the cup which she hath filled fillto her double." In other words, weare to put judgment on her. She wasrewarded once under the sixth seal,and now she is being rewardedagain under the seventh seal. She isbeing rewarded double for her sinsand iniquities. God worked throughBrother D. S. Warner and other re-formers to send forth the message,"Babylon is fallen, is fallen" and"Come out of her, my people." Rightin this seventh-seal dispensation,wherever there is a true man of God,he is proclaiming the same message.

Many ministers no longer pro-claim that message. Why is that?They would be preaching againstthemselves. As I said earlier, Baby-lon is sending more souls to hellthan all the saloons and houses ofprostitution. God's wrath is stirredagainst her. I repeat, I am not speak-ing against people but against thefalse systems of worship that tellpeople they can get to Heaven someother way besides the Bible way.

Anything that is top quality isgoing to cost you. The Church ofGod is on the top of the mountain.When you buy a car, you get whatyou pay for. If you want top quality,you must pay top dollar. When youtake the cheaper route, it will costyou more in the end. Becoming amember of the Church of the LivingGod will cost you. You may ask,"What will it cost?" You must giveup all sin and uncleanness and everyfoul spirit. If you are in Babylon,you need to come out of her, take astand, and separate yourself fromher.

Again, Revelation 18:2 reads,"And he cried mightily with a strongvoice, saying, Babylon the great isfallen, is fallen, and is become thehabitation of devils, and the hold ofevery foul spirit, and a cage of everyunclean and hateful bird." SinceBabylon is fallen, there is no use totry to prop it up. The message is,"Come out and stand aloft from her;be separate and touch not the un-clean thing."

(Cassette C-1117E)

Matthew 7:21 Not every one that saith unto

me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of

heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father

which is in heaven.

22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord,

Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in

thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name

done many wonderful works?

The Fata

Building

for Ete

23 And then will I profess unto them, I never

knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings

of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a

wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

25 And the rain descended, and the floods

came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that

house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a

lity of

Wrong

rnityBrother Esau Brooks

rock.

26 And every one that heareth these sayings

of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto

a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

27 And the rain descended, and the floods

came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that

house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

The Importance of DoingWhat God's Word Says

Our Scripture text is very solem-nizing and very challenging. If youlook into this Scripture seriously,you will move in God's direction.These are not the words of Matthew,John, or another Apostle, but theyare the divine words of our Lordand Savior Jesus Christ. He wasabout to close one of the most mar-velous messages of His entire minis-try here on this earth. This messagebegan with Chapter 5 and continuedthrough Chapters 6 and 7. Howmany people would like to sit undera message of that length today? Ifyou will note, His message was notdivided into sections. It begins,"And seeing the multitudes, he wentup into a mountain . . . And heopened his mouth, and taught them,saying . . ." (Matthew 5:1-2). (TodayHe is still "saying.") In the closingpart of this message, Jesus at-tempted to show His hearers theimportance and the benefits of let-ting His Word affect their hearts,govern their practices, and convicttheir minds.

In verse 24 of our Scripture text,Jesus said, "Whosoever heareth thesesayings of mine, and doeththem . . . ." God's message was neverintended merely to be enjoyed. Thepurpose of His sending the messagewas to provoke action. Therefore, inessence, He stated, "One who letsthese sayings govern his actions andhis practices is likened unto a wiseman." Thus, we can conclude thathearing the message and doing whatthe message requires is wise.

Too many of God's people aregetting in the habit of merely goingto church to hear. It is time to arouseyourself to do something aboutthese messages. Remember thatJesus said, "Whosoever heareth thesesayings of mine, and doeththem . . . ." In other words, you mustlet them convict your mind to thedegree that you act wisely.

Then, Jesus said, "I will likenhim unto a wise man." Where is thewisdom? The wise man built hishouse upon a rock. Any sensible,rational person will agree that build-ing one's house on a rock is wise.People need to stop building theirspiritual houses anywhere they

choose. Jesus pointed out the impor-tance of not only hearing but alsodoing. In so doing, He likened it tobuilding your house upon a rock.Why? Your building is subject tobeing tested. If you think you aregoing to spring any surprises onGod when you arrive at the Judg-ment, you are mistaken. Long beforethen, God will know which side youare on, and not only He but every-one who takes heed will know also.

Many religions are in the worldtoday, and they are influencingmany people. Sad to say, in mostcases, men and women are sufferingfrom the wrong influences. When Iwas a boy, I used to think that if onewere religious, that was good. How-ever, in time I learned differently.Friend, if you have not learned this,I pray that you will learn the differ-ence. Just because one is religiousdoes not mean it is good. There issuch a thing as false religion. A reli-gion is false when it comes short ofproducing in your life what Godintends it to produce. Too many arelagging behind the revelations ofGod's Gospel that is being soundedout constantly. Going to church has

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become fashionable. Hearing a mes-sage and then going out and follow-ing one's same selfish ways has be-come the practice of these days.Nevertheless, there is going to be aJudgment, and on that day peoplewill meet God face to face. SecondCorinthians 5:10 tells us, "For wemust all appear before the judgmentseat of Christ; that every one mayreceive the things done in his body,according to that he hath done,whether it be good or bad."

Being a Hearer and aDoer of the Word

Friend, when was the last timeyou thought about the Judgment?When was the last time you thoughtabout how you might fare at theJudgment? Oh, I know there aremany other things to think uponand occupy your mind, but nothingis more important than thinkingabout how you are going to fare atthe Judgment. The Judgment is notgoing to be a casual meeting withGod, but rather a time when Godwill bring every one of your worksinto Judgment; He will reveal everysecret thing. Therefore, you need tohave your sins washed away by theblood of Jesus. Eternity and the Dayof Judgment are going to be veryserious.

Look at the words with whichJesus introduced our text (verse 21),"Not every one . . . ." Today the pre-vailing thought is, "If one is a churchmember, he or she is going toHeaven." Nevertheless, manychurch members are going to findthemselves short of Heaven on thatday. My friend, you are not going toHeaven because you belong to achurch. If you search your Biblecarefully, you will see that not aword is mentioned concerning join-ing a church. As far as the Bible andHeaven are concerned, there is onlyone church. The only way to becomea part of that church is not by shak-ing a preacher's hand but by beingborn again, not physically but spiri-tually. God's Word lets you knowthat you must be born of water and

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the Word. The water, in this case, isnot speaking of drinking water, butsymbolically, it is referring to theHoly Spirit. Salvation is a divinework, not a work of culture; youcannot culture yourself to be saved.

Jesus illustrated His message bycomparing two kinds of builders:one who hears and does His sayingsis likened to a wise man, and onewho hears His sayings and doesthem not is likened to a foolish man.We all belong to one of these twogroups. No matter how well edu-cated you are, if you are not amongthose who are hearing and doing,God said you are among those whoare hearing and not doing; therefore,you are acting foolishly. God evalu-ates things quite differently from theway man does. Today a man is con-sidered wise if he has a lot of educa-tion. However, the Word of God istelling us what makes the difference.What makes the difference is wheth-er you hear and do or whether youhear and fail to do. To which ofthese two groups do you belong?You can know right now whichgroup you are in.

I have heard people say, "Noone knows who is going to Heaven."On the contrary, you can know.Jesus made it plain. Verse 21 states;"Not every one that saith unto me,Lord, Lord, shall enter into the king-dom of heaven; but he that doeth thewill of my Father which is inheaven." When Jesus used the word"doeth," He was not speaking ofdoing the will of God now and then,but of doing the will of God consis-tently.

Do You Know for CertainThat You Are Saved?

Our Scripture text brings analarming condition to our attention.Many people are going to arrive atthe Judgment deceived. Friend, areyou going to be among them? Peo-ple are going to arrive there trustingin things that they have done in thename of the Lord, but no change ofheart has been effected in them; inother words, no change has been

practiced by them. Living for Godconsists of more than being a mereprofessor of religion or being calleda brother or a sister. It consists of "hethat doeth the will of my Father."

Jesus said that many will say toHim in that day (the Judgment Day),"Lord, don't you know me? Remem-ber when You heard my prayer?Remember when I asked You for ajob and You opened the way for meto get a job?" Friend, are you goingto be one of that class at the Judg-ment? Jesus was saying that manypeople are going to be like that.They will live out their entire liveson this earth, whiling away theirtime and ending up at the Judgmentdepending on absolutely nothingpositive or real.

How do you know that you area child of God? Have you reallybeen born again or do you just thinkyou have been born again? Youmust find out before you die, be-cause after death comes the Judg-ment, and you will not have a sec-ond chance. Verse 22 says, "Lord,Lord, have we not prophesied in thyname? and in thy name have castout devils? and in thy name donemany wonderful works?" God'sreply will be, "I never knew you." Inother words, "All the while youwere talking and professing, I neverknew you." My friend, are you surethat the Lord regards you as a childof God? You may say, "My preachersaid . . ." Well, he can say anything,but it is what God says that youshould be interested in. Will He sayto you, "You were prophesying,casting out devils, and doing manywonderful works in My name; but Ihave never met you"? You need toknow for certain before you die thatHeaven knows you as a child ofGod.

Some time ago a man was dying,and he was going through quite ademonstration, crying out to God.Many people were reacting veryfavorably to the way he was acting,so when someone said to me, "Isn'tthat a wonderful way to die?" I said,"I know a better way to die thancrying out to the Lord or praying. I

know a way of hearing from Godwhen you are dying." It is not goodto have to be praying at death; thatis when you need to be hearing fromHeaven.

Friend, you need to stop thepractice of going your own way andbelieving that all is well when inreality you have not heard fromHeaven. Again, verse 24 of ourScripture text states, "Therefore [orfor this cause] whosoever heareththese sayings of mine [they are stillHis sayings], and doeth them . . ."Too many people have it in theirminds that it does not matter whatthey believe and that as long as theyare sincere, they will make itthrough. However, it is not thatway. You need to read your Bible tofind out what "Thus saith the Lord."

The Seriousness of BeingUnprepared to Meet God

People today are so busy doingother things that they do not takethe time to do what the Lord says.They say, "Oh, yes, I know He saidthat," but their doing it is anothermatter. Jesus illustrated the serious-ness of arriving at the Judgmentunprepared to meet God by bring-ing to our attention the two kinds ofbuilders. Everyone is building arefuge for eternity. Jesus wants us tosee the importance of building right.Jesus introduced two kinds of build-ers and presented two very impor-tant facts about them. First, theyresembled each other. Second, de-spite their resemblances, there weregreat differences between them. TheLord wants you to find out which ofthese two groups of builders youreally belong to.

You might be a religious person,but does Heaven know anythingabout you? You may say, "Well, ofcourse, Heaven would have to knowabout me." No, Heaven does nothave to know. I am speaking regard-ing Heaven knowing about you, notfrom the sense of being a creation ofGod, but in the sense of being re-deemed of the Lord. The points inwhich these two builders resembled

each other are quite plain. First, theyboth heard the same sayings ofChrist, and that is important. Todayeveryone is hearing something.Some may not be privileged to hearthe Gospel, but they are hearing agospel. Second, as we look uponthese two builders, we see that bothsaw the need of a house; that is thereason each built a house. Everyonesees the need of salvation, but howmany are striving to get saved? Wecannot say that the Word that waspreached to these two builders wasnot heard or was heard in vain, forthey both saw their need.

Third, both built a house–-thewise and the foolish. They eachplanned to build a house, and theyeach started and ended. Verses 24and 26 say: "Therefore whosoeverheareth these sayings of mine, anddoeth them, I will liken him unto awise man, which built his houseupon a rock . . . . And every one thatheareth these sayings of mine, anddoeth them not, shall be likenedunto a foolish man, which built hishouse upon the sand." Both heardthe sayings, both saw their needs,and both began to build.

Another point of similarity be-tween the two builders was thatboth houses were subject to the samekinds of tests. This is something thatmany people are not counting on. Ifyou listen to God's Word and followit (I know that is not the popularway), you will arrive at the Judg-ment knowing exactly what spiri-tual. condition you are in. Sinnerfriend, if you keep on playing thepart of a fool, you are going to endup as one. There is more to livingthan breathing. There is more to lifethan amassing wealth and enjoyingthe frolics and pleasures of sin. Lifeis real, and it is loaded with far-reaching consequences. Every indi-vidual in this lifetime is setting inmotion actions that will be usedeither to justify or to condemn himor her. Friend, when you arethrough rejecting the message anddisregarding the preacher, it is notover. If you do not want to hear it,you can walk out and ignore it, but

you will still face it at the Judgment.

Standing the Test

We all can get ready for the test-ing of our spiritual houses. (I amusing the term houses in the samesense in which our Lord used it,designating an experience withGod.) What were the tests to whichthese buildings were subjected? Thefirst was the rain of affliction. Tomany, the stern preaching of theWord of God is an affliction they donot want to endure. Paul said, "Forthe time will come when they willnot endure sound doctrine" (2 Timo-thy 4:3). The second test was thestorms and the floods. Verse 27 ofour Scripture text says, "And therain descended, and the floodscame." My friend, merely going toan altar or shaking a preacher's handor being admitted into a church orbeing regarded as a Christian is notenough. If you are building for eter-nity, you need to make sure yourbuilding will stand the tests herebefore it has to stand the test at theJudgment.

The testing comes through theform of afflictions, floods, andstorms of false doctrines and decep-tions. Saint, you must have an expe-rience that can stand the shaking.God said, "I am going to shake heav-en and earth, and all that cannotstand the shaking will be shakenloose." Many today are being shakenloose, and many cannot understandit. Too often people sympathize withand try to help those who have beenshaken off. Frankly, when it comesto eternity, only God can help peo-ple. In some cases, if you are notcareful, those people will only damnyour soul rather than your helpingthem. This is very serious!

I once heard the story of a moth-er who asked her children, "Whatwould you like to be when yougrow up?

One said, "A lawyer," anothersaid, "A judge," and another men-tioned something else.

She said, "Why don't you wantto be a minister?" One boy an-

11

swered, "Oh, no, Mama.""Well, why don't you want to be

a minister?" she asked."Well, because he says things

that people don't like to hear." Noone finds pleasure in saying thingsthat people do not like to hear. Thatis the reason about 99.9 percent ofthe so-called ministers today havechanged their way of preaching.They have gone from preaching topleasing. Places where theold-fashioned Gospel is going forthare becoming more scarce all thetime.

There used to be a time whenthere were camp meetings all overthe country, and they all were dedi-cated to the preaching of the onesoul-saving Gospel, but that is not soanymore. In many places if youwere to go to fellowship God anddeepen your experience, you wouldbe confronted with elements andspirits aimed at turning you againstyour brother; that is pitiful. It is as ifhatred has become a part of theChristian life, but it has not! That isthe reason many will say to Jesus,"In Thy name have I done this andthat," but He will say, "Depart fromMe, ye that work iniquity." Whatabout your practical life? It is timefor people to realize that if they aregoing to make it to Heaven, theymust comply with the requirementsof Heaven. Suppose God was to takeeveryone who professes to be savedinto Heaven as they are withoutrequiring anything. How long doyou think Heaven would have aheavenly atmosphere? If all the strifethat is going on down here weregoing on up in Heaven, it would notbe Heaven. The Bible lets us knowthat in Heaven everything is peace-ful, joyful, and orderly. There willnot be any disgruntled people walk-ing around saying, "I don't thinkyou ought to be doing this or that."

The Need of ListeningClosely to God

The next point of resemblancebetween the builders was that eachrested with the security of his build-

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ing. The foolish man felt as secure asthe wise man. He was not worried;he had no doubts. He was contentedthat his building was as good as theother building. However, when thewrong was discovered, it was toolate. Friend, do not make that sameblunder today. Make sure, with thehelp of God, that you hear the say-ings of God and do them. If you donot, you will not make Heaven. I amhearing some things in these lastdays about how people feel aboutGod that shock me.

Some people have said to me,"Did you know that it was God whostarted sin? He made the devil, andsin started in Heaven." No, He didnot! Had sin started in Heaven,what assurance would we have thatit would not start again? Had thedevil been in Heaven in the firstplace, how would we know that hewould not be there again? The onlyway we can be sure is to know thatthe devil has never been in Heaven.Some preachers tell people that thedevil was in Heaven and that hetook about a third of the angels fromGod, and they say that in order forGod to get him out of Heaven hehad to declare war. The thing theycannot tell you is how the war wasfought or with what kinds of weap-ons they fought. It is all silliness,because there never was and neverwill be a devil or a war in Heaven.That is one reason I feel so goodabout working to go to Heaven.

You may say, "But I have heardsome good preachers who preachedthat." Friend, I am telling you whatthe greatest Preacher of all, JesusChrist, has said. You may say,"Don't you read in the Book of Reve-lation that there was war inheaven?" Well, which heaven? TheBible tells us there are three heavens.One reason people err in thesethings is that they refuse to humblethemselves under the mighty handof God and let Him teach them.

When I got saved, I knew noth-ing about the Gospel, the Truth, orthe Church of God. There was nogreat teacher like Gamaliel for me tosit at his feet and be taught by. Nev-

ertheless, when the tests and trialscame that caused me to beginsearching, I sat in the school of Jesus,and He taught me. I will never for-get when I went to the God's Acrescamp meeting for the first time. Imarveled when I heard Brother Em-erson Wilson preach, for he waspreaching the same thing God hadshown me in Honduras. Now, I didnot know Brother Wilson. I hadnever seen the man in my life, yetwe were preaching the same Truth.More recently, Brother Roger Deckerpreached a good message on thekingdom, and as he was preaching,I thought, "He is preaching just whatGod had shown me!" I had not beentaught by him. If God can teach mein Honduras the same message thatHe is teaching God's people inAmerica, God can teach anyone whowill listen.

I do not have to contact others tofind out what they are doing. Godreveals the truth to me through HisSpirit. Friend, He can also reveal itto you through His Spirit. Too manypeople are so busy hearing this one'sside and that one's side. I do notwant to hear anyone's side. I want tohear what God has to say; that ishow I make decisions. I do not makedecisions because someone is pres-suring or compelling or indoctrinat-ing me. When things come up, Ipray and ask the Lord what to do.Now, I do not pray as Balaam did.He prayed to find out which way hewould have the advantage. When Ipray, l want to find out what Godwould have me to do. If 1 were todisobey God and listen to others, Iwould get locked out of Heaven,and they would not be able to do athing to help me. I am going to listento the Lord and do what He wantsme to do! I have known the Lordsince 1949 when He saved me, and Ihave never found Him to fail once.

The Wise and the Foolish

Now we will look at the otherside of the picture in our Scripturetext. I want you to notice the thingsin which these two builders differed.

Though they closely resembled eachother in many things, they differedin some areas. One area they dif-fered was in their character. Jesuscalled one builder wise and theother foolish; that was the maindifference. There is a great differ-ence between being wise and beingfoolish. If you are wise, you willselect in this life the highest object ofpursuit, and you will adopt the bestmeans to obtain it. You are not goingto get to Heaven by listening to justanyone and everyone. If you aregoing to make it to Heaven, youmust do what God told the discipleson the Mount of Transfiguration.When Elijah and Moses stood beforethem with Jesus, Peter said, "Let usmake three tabernacles. One for You,Lord, one for Moses, and one forElijah." Then the Scripture tells us acloud came over all of them, and avoice from the cloud was heardsaying, "This is my beloved Son;hear Him." We need to shut up andhear His voice today. You may say,"Well, I want to hear what BrotherSo-and-So and others have to say."Friend, hear Him, and when He isfinished with you, He will have youwell straightened out.

If you are going to make it toHeaven, you must persevere untilthe object of your pursuit is realized.The wise man considered the valueof the soul. He meditated intently onthe soul's security and adopted theefficient means for its eternal wel-fare. If you are wise, that is whatyou will do. I do not mean this dis-respectfully, but if you are not doingthat, then you are playing the part ofa fool.

The next point on which theydiffered was in their practice. Onewas a hearer and a doer and theother was only a hearer. One had thename and the other had the nature.One professed to be a builder, theother possessed the qualities of abuilder. One talked and admiredwhile the other was doing. A builderwho knows what lie is doing startswith a solid foundation and buildsright. The trouble with too manyspiritual buildings today is that theyare built without foundations. They

are up in the air like castles in thesky. Anything that goes Lip withouta foundation will come down. Thefoundation is the principle part of abuilding. All good builders knowthat. A builder starts by first layinga solid foundation. No matter howcostly and how beautiful a buildingmight be, the results are dependentupon the foundation under it. This isso with your salvation. You mayspeak ever so eloquently, but if yourfoundation is not resting on theRock, your building will fall.

While one man built on the rock,the other man built on the sand. Doyou know why he built on the sand?He knew nothing about building,and he would not listen. That is theway many people are today. Theybegin to go to church, but they arenot in a congregation two weeksbefore they want to tell the pastorhow to run the church.

I have heard people say, "Thedevil is so smart." No, the devil isnot that smart. It is just that peopleare too dumb to learn. He is work-ing on people in the same ways heworked in the Garden of Eden. Yet,people still do not learn. They do notlearn because they will not listen toGod. You may talk about how muchyou love and appreciate the Truth,but those words are going to be putto the test. Truth does not changeaccording to the whims of people.Men may change, but not Truth.

Make Sure Your HouseCan Stand the Test

Nothing can make up for theerror of the foolish man. The "rock"represents Christ–His sayings, Hisdemands, His requirements. The"sand" represents a mere professionand self-righteousness. One whobuilds on the sand depends on any-thing or anyone else but God andwhat He says. Last, the buildersdiffered in their results. The onewho built on the rock remainedunmoved in his affliction; he re-mained steadfast despite the rainand the flood.

A real experience with God willstand any test. Job testified of how

good God was and how determinedhe was to be true to Him, and thenhis tests came. God said to the devil,"Have you considered My servantJob?"

The devil said, "Oh, yes, he cantalk like that because You have himhemmed in. If You put forth Yourhand and touch him and take whathe has, he will curse You to Yourface [that is how presumptuous thedevil is]."

God said, "Okay, I will turn himinto your hand. You do what youwant with him, but do not touch hislife." The devil destroyed everythingJob had–his children and his posses-sions; then he stood off to see whatJob was going to say.

In essence, Job said, "The Lordgiveth and the Lord taketh away;blessed be the name of the Lord."

Then Job's wife rose up againsthim and said, "Are you still holdingyour integrity?"

Later, Job said, "Though He slayme, yet will I trust Him." An experi-ence with God can stand any test.

To build on the sand is to beundermined, never settled, and like-ly to be affected by any condition.When the rain came and the floodsswept and the wind blew, the houseon the rock stood firm, but the houseon the sand fell. My friend, that is atotally irreparable loss. Do not endup like that foolish man. You will ifyou are only a hearer and not a doer.Obeying God is what qualifies aman for Heaven.

To the sinner, God says, "Let thewicked forsake his way, and theunrighteous man his thoughts: andlet him return unto the LORD, and hewill have mercy upon him; and toour God, for he will abundantlypardon" (Isaiah 55:7). Sinner friend,you must confess your sins, andthen He will be faithful and just toforgive you. Men will tell you, "Jointhe church of your choice" or "Comeand shake the preacher's hand, andyou will be saved." Contrariwise,you must do what God says to makeyour way to Heaven. You need tomake sure that you are buildingright for eternity so that when youget there, you will not be disap-pointed.

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Luke 13:10 And he was teaching inone of the synagogues on the sabbath.

11 And, behold, there was a womanwhich had a spirit of infirmity eighteenyears, and was bowed together, andcould in no wise lift up herself.

12 And when Jesus saw her, hecalled her to him, and said unto her,Woman, thou art loosed from thineinfirmity.

13 And he laid his hands on her:and immediately she was made straight,

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and glorified God. 14 And the ruler of the synagogue

answered with indignation, because thatJesus had healed on the sabbath day, andsaid unto the people, There are six daysin which men ought to work: in themtherefore come and be healed, and not onthe sabbath day.

15 The Lord then answered him,and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not eachone of you on the sabbath loose his ox orhis ass from the stall, and lead him away

Brother Cleve Green

to watering?16 And ought not this woman,

being a daughter of Abraham, whomSatan hath bound, lo, these eighteenyears, be loosed from this bond on thesabbath day?

17 And when he had .said thesethings, all his adversaries were ashamed:and all the people rejoiced for all theglorious things that were done by him.

Giving Glory to God

I want you to notice verse 13 ofthe Scripture text, which says, "Andhe laid his hands on her: and imme-diately she was. made straight, andglorified God." Sometimes the rea-son people's afflictions return is thatthey do not continue to glorify God.Everyone should have been happythat this woman was healed, butthere are always critics in a crowd.

When this hypocrite spoke upand criticized Jesus, He spoke agreat truth. Verse 17 tells us, "Andwhen he had said these things, allhis adversaries [all those who op-posed and criticized Him] wereashamed: and all the people rejoicedfor all the glorious things that weredone by him." Child of God, whenGod heals someone, you ought torejoice. You would rejoice if youwere the one who was healed. I

wonder sometimes how God's peo-ple can keep so silent when Godheals a brother or a sister.

People at ball games rejoice andthrow their hats in the air; yet whenthey go to the house of God, they arequiet. Church, let us rejoice! Psalm150:6 says, "Let every thing that hathbreath praise the LORD. Praise ye theLORD." One Old Testament writer,speaking of the priests being clothedwith salvation, wrote, "Now there-fore arise, O LORD God, into thyresting place, thou, and the ark ofthy strength: let thy priests, O LORD

God, be clothed with salvation, andlet thy saints rejoice in goodness" (2Chronicles 6:41). He was speaking ofthis Gospel Day, a time when thesaints of God would shout aloudand praise the Lord.

I want you to notice that thiswoman in our Scripture text was notnamed. She had no fame, but she

glorified God when He healed her. Ifyou look in a dictionary, you willfind that infirmity means "an afflic-tion tion of the soul or the body."Our Scripture text states in verse 11,"And, behold, there was a womanwhich had a spirit of infirmity . . .and was bowed together." Thiswoman's infirmity was a physicalinfirmity. Something was wrongwith her back, and she had beenbent over for many years.

There are three approaches todivine healing. First, there is an ex-treme to completely ignore divinehealing. In fact, this message hasbecome an offensive Gospel in manyplaces that have Church of Godwritten over the door. I once asked asister who spoke of having a doc-tor's appointment, "Have you evertried James 5:13-15?" and she wasinsulted. Friend, when the Word ofGod insults you, something is

wrong in your soul. If you have leftTruth, you need to get back to it.

The preachers in many areashave quit not only preaching divinehealing but also practicing it.Preaching something you do notpractice is difficult. It takes faith tokeep this message alive. People mayget down and wash their brothers'feet and yet not have good experi-ences. They might tithe a tenth oftheir income and do many things forGod, but it takes faith to trust Himcompletely for healing.

Once when I was asked to speakat a camp meeting, I tarried beforeGod and prayed, and He gave me amessage on divine healing. How-ever, after I had preached aboutfifteen minutes, some preachers leftthe auditorium and went out to thepop stand to drink soda pop. Thismessage has become an offensiveGospel to many people. Brother,sister, you had better wake up to theTruth of God's Word. Manyso-called Church of God congrega-tions do not preach divine healinganymore. Church, we must embracethis glorious truth. We are raising ageneration of children who knowslittle or nothing about God's powerto heal. My wife and I raised ourchildren on divine healing. God hasbeen our Physician since we havebeen married, and He has healedour children. In 1953 we moved intoCaldwell County to pastor thechurch at Granite Falls, NorthCarolina. A man at a service stationasked, "Where are you heading?"and I said, "Granite Falls." He said,"Man, I wouldn't take my childrenin there for any amount of money."At that time Caldwell County hadthe highest number of polio cases inthe nation (they had seventy cases).When we moved there, we trustedGod for our children. Many peoplewere excited when their children gota little fever, but we trusted in Godand put our children in the hands ofthe Lord.

Today we are living in a "pill"age, but I have only one pill to rec-ommend, and that is the "Gos-pill."It will supply all our needs!

It Is Better to Trust in the Lord

The second extreme that peopleturn to is professional healers. Childof God, you do not have to leave theChurch of God to get healed. If youhave faith, God can heal you. He haseverything in the church that Hispeople need. Many people havebeen led away by false teachingsand have poured money into suchthings. May God help people to gettheir eyes open. Saint, do not bemisled by everyone who is perform-ing miracles or is seemingly healingthe sick. In Revelation 16:14 you willfind that even devils can performmiracles. It says, "For they are thespirits of devils, working miracles,which go forth unto the kings of theearth and of the whole world, togather them to the battle of thatgreat day of God Almighty."

Friend, do not be misled. Thereason you need to know the Truthis to know if a man of God is preach-ing the Truth. You also need the giftof discernment. The Bible tells us,"Beloved, believe not every spirit,but try the spirits whether they areof God: because many false prophetsare gone out into the world" (1 John4:1). False ministers are preaching inpulpits, on television, and on radio.They have gone out to deceive thevery elect, if possible. This is thereason the Bible instructs you toknow those who labor among you.You need to know those whom youare following, lest you be led astray.

The devil can heal, perform mir-acles, and deceive people. Profes-sional healers say, "Thou cancerousdevil, come out." However, cancer isnot a devil; cancer is a disease. Oneproof of a true man of God is that hecan cast out devils. Beelzebub can-not cast out Beelzebub. If the personis willing, many evil spirits can becast out if a man of God lays handson him. You need to be sure that theman you are following is preachingthe Word and can cast out devils.The Bible says to try the spirits, toknow whether they are of God.

In the third approach to divinehealing, the devil is moving people

away from trusting God completely.Some are roosting too low, spiritu-ally speaking. They are not in thetop of the tree. No wonder the devilis knocking off some folks so easily.I want to encourage you to saw offthe low limbs and climb higher.Saint, you should not take the coursethat worldly people take, with nofaith and no belief in the Word ofGod. It is safe to put yourself inGod's hands. Then when the Lordheals you, the vilest critic will haveto say that God did do the healing. Iwant to encourage you to put your-self in His hands and see what Hewill do. If your faith is weak andyou feel that you must go the way ofman's repair program, ask God tostrengthen your faith. Pray that yourfaith will become stronger so thatyou can take God's healing route. IfGod has healed you by His greatpower of healing, let Him have theglory.

The Bible says in Psalm 118:8, "Itis better to trust in the LORD than toput confidence in man." This simplymeans that you are safer trustingGod for healing than trusting man.A man is limited in power and doesnot have all wisdom. You are betteroff trusting in God Who has all wis-dom and all power. It is better totrust the Lord. Child of God, if youbelieve it is better to trust in theLord than to put confidence in man,then why not do it? Man is limitedin knowledge. Often he does notknow the answer and he makesmistakes, but God does not makeany mistakes. God has all power.

God can be everywhere at once.I thank God that I have my Physi-cian with me everywhere I go. WhileI have Him with me, my family hasHim at home. I do not have to tele-phone Him; that is too slow. I mightdie while dialing the number. I havea straight line to Glory, and I cantalk to Him anytime. He is my GreatPhysician!

Statistics reveal that many sur-geons are unfit to operate. Friend,do you see what a chance you aretaking when you do not go God'sroute? Church, let us trust the Lord

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for healing. Let us preach divinehealing and practice it.

Healing to the Glory of God

We need to get back to this oldlandmark and rediscover the oldpaths and see what God will do! Allof us would like to see more mira-cles and greater healings. Well, putyour case in God's hands and seewhat He will do! We can read aboutthe woman with the issue of bloodin Mark, Chapter 5. This case is anexample in the Word of God of howlimited and finite man is and of howunlimited God is. The Bible lets usknow that she went to many physi-cians and spent all she had, yet shegrew worse. One day she heardabout Jesus and said, "If I can justtouch the hem of His garment, I willbe healed." This woman had beenafflicted for twelve years with anissue of blood. No doubt, she wasfrail, anemic, and weak in body, butshe reached out to touch Jesus.Touching Jesus in that large crowdwas not easy for her, but she wasdetermined to touch Him. Saint, itwill not be an easy task for you topress your way through the crowdtoday. Some of the "crowd" may beyour unbelieving family or yourcritical neighbors. Your co-workersmay have all kinds of ideas andremedies for you. However, theBible has only one remedy: healingto the glory of God, healing thatcomes by faith in the divine prom-ises of God.

Keep in mind that this womanhad to press through a movingcrowd, because Jesus was going topray for Jairus' daughter. So she hadto walk faster than Jesus was walk-ing to catch up with Him. I do notknow how long it took her. It maybe that she was almost exhaustedwhen she got there, but when shefinally reached out and touched Hisgarment, she was made whole bythe power of God. She was healed ofthe issue of blood that she had fortwelve, long years. Jesus turned andsaid, "Who touched my clothes?"Now, a great crowd was there, so

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the disciples said, in so many words,"You are touched on every side."

When Jesus asked who touchedHim, the afflicted woman came andfell down before Him. Jesus said,"Daughter, thy faith hath made theewhole." Friend, do not expect apreacher to pray the prayer of faithfor you. You must have some faith.Now, if you are unconscious, theman of God will have faith for you;otherwise, you must have faith. Theblind man who came running toJesus said, "Jesus, thou son of David,have mercy on me." Jesus said,"What would you have Me to do?"and the man asked to receive hiseyesight. Jesus said, "Do you believethat I am able to do this?" and hesaid, "Yea, Lord, I know Thou artable." Who had the faith? The blindman had the faith.

The centurion who came to Jesushad many servants. When one ser-vant was sick, he could have sentanother servant, but the centurionhimself went to Jesus. Jesus saw thathe had faith and said, "I will comeand heal him." The centurion re-plied, "Lord, I am not worthy thatthou shouldest come under myroof." He was a captain of an Italianband of more than one hundredmen. He continued, "I have soldiersunder me, and I say to this man, Go,and he goeth and to another, Come,and he cometh." Yet he told Jesusthat he was unworthy that Heshould step under his roof. Noticethe great humility this man camewith. Friend, if you expect to receiveany help, you must come to Jesuswith a humble heart. You cannotcome with pride and haughtinessand expect to get healed by thepower of God. Regarding this centu-rion, Jesus said, "I have not found sogreat faith in all Israel." Althoughthis man was a Gentile, when heheard about Jesus, he had faith. Je-sus then turned to the centurion andsaid, "Thy servant is healed. Gohome." That centurion did not re-ceive more than you can have today.He had the words of Jesus, and youalso have them. If you will believethe words of Jesus, you can be

healed.Divine healing is to the glory of

God. When the woman with theissue of blood was healed, God re-ceived glory. If you do not tell oth-ers about your healing, God will notreceive any glory. He wants yourhealing to His glory!

Alternate Methods WherebyPeople Can Receive Help

Let us look at the methodswhereby people can receive help.First, there is what people call "cli-matic healing." Some people in theearly stages of certain diseases canreceive help by going to the aridclimate of the Southwest. They donot get healed instantly, but they canrecover after staying for months oreven years. While this climatic heal-ing may help in some instances, it isnot healing to the glory of God. Godwants your healing to be to His glor-y. He wants you to be healed be-cause you have exercised faith andhung on to His promises. No doubt,everyone would like to trust theLord if they could get healed in-stantly, but God does not alwaysheal that way. Many times He does,but sometimes He sees fit for one'sfaith to be tested. He said in Hisblessed Holy Writ that the trial ofour faith is much more preciousthan gold tried in the fire.

Let us look at another method ofhealing. Nature has a repair pro-gram. I do not know what someunsaved and unbelieving folkswould do if it were not for nature'srepair program. Nature correctsmany conditions, but this is nothealing to the glory of God. Theunsaved man, the agnostic, and theatheist can benefit from climatichealing, from nature's repair pro-gram, and from man's repair pro-gram. Although man has done somecommendable things, this is nothealing to the glory of God. Thephysician gets the credit for this.God is the One who should getglory and praise and honor for Hisgreat healing power.

God has a way for His people to

receive healing to His glory, and weought to find that path. On that pathwe can trust God completely for thehealing of every sickness and dis-ease. Glory be to God! I am glad forhealing to the glory of God!

Climatic healing, nature's repairprogram, and man's repair programcannot heal you immediately. Youmay convalesce for months andsuffer much pain. Yet, when folkscome to God, they expect God toheal them instantly. He can andsometimes He does, but not always.He may want to test your faithawhile. The Bible says in Isaiah40:31, "But they that wait upon theLORD shall renew their strength . . . ."Sometimes it is good for us to waitawhile. God has three ways of an-swering prayer: yes, no, and waitawhile. We all like to hear Him sayyes, but sometimes we get impatientwhen He says to wait awhile. Manyfolks have become discouraged andtheir faith has faltered because Goddid not move quickly.

While God does not alwayscome in a hurry, He has never beentoo late. You cannot accuse God, theGreat Physician, of being too late.People thought He was too latewhen Lazarus died. In essence, theysaid, "Jesus, had you been here, weknow You could have healed him."Jesus let them know, "I am the GreatHealer and the Great Resurrecter."They said,"We know that we will beresurrected again in the last day."Jesus looked to heaven and weptand said, "Lazarus, come forth," andhe came forth. It is a good thing Hesaid "Lazarus," otherwise every oneof the dead would have come forth.God does not always come in ahurry, but He is never too late.

Reasons People Fail to Receive Healing

I want to mention reasons thatpeople do not get healed. There isthe fear of suffering. Some of thegreatest lessons are learned throughpain and suffering. Job learned agreat lesson through his affliction.He did not have any pain relievers

or a godly pastor to visit him everyfew days and encourage him asmany Christians have today. Also,he did not have a godly companionto stand beside him and encouragehim in the things of God. In fact, hiswife said, "Why don't you curse Godand die?"

Job did not even have a friend toencourage him. His so-called friendssaid, "Job, if you had not sinned, youwould not have this affliction."However, it was just the opposite.God saw in Job one who wouldstand the suffering, and God al-lowed the devil to test him. I believeGod still talks to the devil. MaybeHe has talked to the devil about you,and the devil has said, "Yes, but letme test him awhile. Let me sendsomething upon him." The devil canput an affliction on you, and he canpull it off.

Often people get prayed for, butbecause they still have pain, theysay, "I guess I'm not healed." Thepain is more real to them than thepromise. Child of God, the promiseought to be more real than anything!If the pain comes back, you shouldsay, "It still hurts, but praise God,I'm healed anyhow." You can be likethe man who was prayed for at acamp meeting several years ago.After they prayed for him, he wasstill limping, but he said, "It stillhurts, but I'm healed. Praise God!"Too many folks say, "Well, I want tofeel better before I testify." You usethe same faith for healing that youused to receive salvation. You had tobelieve that God saved you beforeyou had any feeling. You had tobelieve that He redeemed you andthat you were His child before youhad any feeling. Likewise, you mustbelieve that you are healed beforeyou get any feeling. In spite of thedoubts, the symptoms, and the pain,you need to believe that you arehealed.

You may say, "I don't want toclaim healing if I am not healed."You are not claiming that the pain isgone. You are just claiming thepromise and glorifying God. Youmay say, "I am afraid that I will have

to suffer awhile." Well, all the otherroutes that men and women aretaking have plenty of suffering.Some people will suffer until the lastday they live in this world becausethey have taken other routes.

Church, let us take the Word ofGod. Now, you may be persecuted,misunderstood, and looked downupon by your family. There maycome a day when you will getlocked up in jail for your faith. Yet,in spite of it all, stand on the Wordof God. Too many of God's peoplefear being different, fear being per-secuted, or fear being misunder-stood. Some preachers are afraid ofoffending someone. Well, some folkshave to get hurt before they canreceive help. The only way somefolks can be awakened is to joltthem. We are living in an age whenwe need an old-fashioned,teeth-jolting Gospel.

In Red Cross training, they teachhow to save a person who is drown-ing. If that person is hysterical, hewill drown you and himself too, ifyou are not careful. Therefore, theRed Cross teaches you to slap himcold. While that may sound cruel, itis necessary to save a life. So it is inthe spiritual. Sometimes the blessedWord slaps you up one side anddown the other. As soon as you getup from being knocked down, youmay get knocked down again. Well,God wants to give you some spiri-tual exercise. My friend, just keepdigging and measuring to the Truthof His Word.

Truth is like a sharp sword, andsome folks get cut down by it. Theonly way you can be safe is to get onthe old Truth and ride it. You arenot going to get cut down by a rid-ing mower if you are riding it, but ifyou get off and get in its way, youwill get cut down. Getting in theway of Truth and bucking upagainst it is dangerous.

Some people are afraid to trustin God for fear that they might die.Well, many people who have takenother routes have died too, butsomehow folks are not afraid of that.The Word of God is clear. The more

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I study it, the clearer this subject ofdivine healing rings out.

Shortly after I was saved, Godbegan to deal with me along thisline. He said, "I want you to trust Mefor healing." I said, "God, I'll do it.Sink or swim, live or die, I am goingto trust You." I began to lay asidethings that I thought would hindermy faith. Well, it was not long untilI had a test. I had a throbbing head-ache and walked the floor with it. Iobeyed James 5:13-15, which says topray if you are afflicted, but I didnot get any relief. The devil said,"Why don't you try a BC (a remedyI used before Christ)?" I said, "Devil,I won't do it." I did not get healedinstantly. I suffered for an hour ortwo. Then God moved, and the paineased. The next morning I felt that Icould jump over a wall and runthrough a troop. I have trusted Godthe very best I know how ever since.God has been my Great Physician,and I am glad to recommend Him toyou.

Friend, do not try the "BC"route; just go to Jesus and take Himas your Great Physician. I haveheard people say, "My faith is soweak. I know the Lord can heal. Iknow He has, and I know He will."That is historical and future. Whatyou need to believe is, "I believe Hedoes when I pray the prayer offaith." That obligates God. Whenyou believe He does, He has to dosomething.

Ways to Strengthen Your Faith

There are three ways tostrengthen your faith. First, youmust quit doing anything that hin-ders your faith. Second, exercisewhat little faith you have. If I wereto tie down my arms for a year andnot use them, I doubt that I could liftthem above my head ate end of ayear. Similarly, if you tie down yourfaith and do not use it, it will weak-en.

Today we do not have to usefaith as much as the old pioneersdid. Some of those old timers had topray in groceries for the table. God

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called some preachers to go to campmeeting to preach, yet they did nothave any money. Nevertheless, theywent down to the train station prais-ing God for the transportation thatHe was going to provide. Oftensomeone would walk up to themand say, "I feel that I should givethis money to you." They had faithfor transportation and faith for food.Most people do not have to praytheir food in now, and many havegood vehicles to drive. They do nothave to pray for clothing as somesaints used to. However, there isplenty yet to pray for. God wants usto use faith. If you do not use yourfaith, it is going to dwindle. One ofthe best ways to use faith is to trustGod for healing. I do not know abetter way to exercise faith. Beforelong, the devil will see that you havea test, but trust God anyhow.

The third way to improve yourfaith is to pray and ask God to in-crease your faith, believe that it willcome, and then launch out on tiepromises of God. Many people aretoo fearful to launch out on thispromises. You need to launch out onthe Word of God as did Daniel ofold, the three Hebrew boys, the oldpatriarchs, and the saints in the NewTestament. Some folks treat steppingout on the promises as if they weretissue paper. Their attitude is, "I amgoing to hold to the old reliableroutes of healing and watch othersto see if this promise of divine heal-ing will hold. Friend, you might aswell forget receiving divine healing.You have your faith in other routesof healing. You need to believe thepromises of God as if they are con-crete. God has never failed, and Henever will. Praise the Lord!

Fear Brings a Snare

The Bible says in Proverbs 29:25,"The fear of man bringeth a snare [ifyou are afraid, you need to get onyour knees and pray and rebukethat devil of fear]: but whoso puttethhis trust in the LORD shall be safe."Glory to God, I have found it so! Iam like an older sister who was

singing, "His yoke is easy, His bur-den is light," and someone hollered,"How do you know?" She said, "I'vefound it so." I am glad that I haveput my case in God's hands andfound that I am safe in Jesus. Thefear of man brings a snare. There isfear when you cannot trust Godfully.

Job said, "For the thing which Igreatly feared is come upon me, andthat which I was afraid of is comeunto me" (Job 3:25). Through it all,Job sinned not and came throughvictoriously. God was well pleasedwith Job, and He said to the devil,"Have you considered My servantJob?" The devil said, "Yes, but Youhave a hedge around him." Godsaid, "All right, I will take the hedgedown." The devil stripped Job ofeverything he had. He was a wealt-hy man. He had hundreds of camels,sheep, and donkeys. First came amessenger saying, "The Sabeanshave stolen your oxen and donkeys."Then a messenger said, "Fire fromheaven came down and burned upyour sheep and the servants." An-other messenger said, "An enemycame and took away your camels."Finally, yet another messenger cameand said, "The wind destroyed thebuilding where all your sons anddaughters were dining, and everyone of them is dead."

Despite all that job lost, he hum-bled himself before God and said,"The LORD gave, and the LORD hathtaken away; blessed be the name ofthe LORD." He did not say, "Lord,why have You allowed this to hap-pen to me? Why have You mis-treated me so?" When Satan wentback to God, I can imagine that Godwas smiling when he said, "Nowwhat do you think of My servantJob? You could not move him, couldyou?" Then the devil said, "Let meafflict his body. A man will giveeverything for his life." God said,"All right, but you cannot take hislife." (If God did not shelter andprotect us, the devil would take ourlives.) The devil afflicted Job withboils from the top of his head to thesoles of his feet, but he stayed true to

God. His affliction did not last onlya few days but several months. Jobsaid, "Though He slay me, yet will Itrust him."

Some people have said, "If Godwill heal me, I will trust Him." Thatis no good. You cannot buy God.You should say, "Live or die, sick orwell, I will trust You. Lord, if Youheal me, fine, and if You do not healme, I will serve You anyhow."

The fear of men is causing manyfolks not to get the blessing when itcomes to healing. The Bible says thatperfect love casts out fear. Friend, isyour love perfect? God gives us lovewhen we are saved, but He perfectsour love continually. Something iswrong with your love if it does notcast out fear. This does not mean itwill cast out all fear. Some fear isgood. For example, we should beafraid to disobey God. If we cast outall fear, we would not have any fearof displeasing God. I would beafraid if I were on a railroad trackand my car stalled just as a train wascoming. However, the writer wasnot talking about that kind of fear.He was speaking of fear that thedevil tries to impose uponyou–being afraid to obey the Wordand being afraid of what men maysay or do. Child of God, you need toput your case in God's hands andleave it there.

Having Faith in an Unfailing God

Divine healing was the greatestdrawing the early church had. Agreat revival broke out after thecrippled man was healed at the GateBeautiful. Thousands of people werestirred, from the poor to the rich,and five thousand men were saved.Peter said to the crippled man, "Sil-ver and gold have I none; but suchas I have give I thee: In the name ofJesus Christ of Nazareth rise up andwalk" (Acts 3:6). Peter reacheddown, the crippled man reached up,and a power of God went throughthat man's body. He jumped up andbegan to leap and praise God. Iwonder how many of God's peoplewould rejoice if they saw a crippled

man jump out of his wheelchair orblind eyes opened or the dead raisedto life again. If you were close toGod, you would rejoice. You mayweep for joy, or laugh with a holylaugh, but there will be some dem-onstration of rejoicing over Godworking a mighty miracle.

You may ask, "Is it God's will toheal me? I want to be healed if it isGod's will." I have good news foryou. Third John 2 says, "Beloved, Iwish above all things that thou may-est prosper and be in health, even asthy soul prospereth." God wants youto have a healthy soul and a healthybody. It is a trick of the devil tomake you believe that you have tobe afflicted for a long time.

Often people have faith in thosewhom they do not know. Have youever been driving up a mountain ina hurry and a truck driver in front ofyou signals that it is safe to pass?You cannot see around him, so hewaves his hand as if to say, "Go onaround. I can see up the road, and itis clear." He is a man that you havenever seen before, yet you entrustyour life to him and go on around.

You may be driving down thehighway and come to a temporarybridge. There is no fear in your mmind that the bridge will not holdyou. You may say, "Well, if it is un-safe, the highway departmentwould not have it open." However,they could be mistaken. Many peo-ple have more confidence in thehighway department than they havein God. Men have erred in theirjudgment, but God has never madea mistake. No man putting his handin God's hands has ever failed. Noman has ever been able to say, "Godfailed me." Man has failed God, butGod has never failed man.

No doubt, you have confidencein true saints. If they told you theywere going to do something for you,you would believe it. You wouldsay, "Well, it is as good as done." Letme use this illustration: Supposethat your sole source of heating yourhome and cooking your meals wascoal, and this particular winter youwere without the proper means to

buy coal. If I were a coal hauler andfound you in dire need, I would say,"Friend, the Lord has put it on myheart to give you a truckload of coalfor your winter supply." You wouldprobably go to your neighbor'shouse rejoicing before the coal evercame and say, "Praise God, I got mywinter's supply of coal. I didn'tknow how I was going to manage toget the money to buy it." Yourneighbor may say, "I don't see it inyour backyard," but you say, "That'sall right, I have the coal hauler'spromise that he is bringing it," so toyou it is just as good as the actualdelivery of the coal. Now, somethingcould happen to cause me to fail infulfilling my promise, but nothingcan keep God from fulfilling Hispromise. Glory to God!

Having Confidence Toward God

We read in 1 John 3:21, "Be-loved, if our heart condemn us not,then have we confidence towardGod." In other words, if your heartcondemns you, you cannot haveconfidence toward God. There mustbe a reason for so much weak faithtoday. I lay a large part of the blameat the feet of the ministry for notpreaching and practicing thisold-time truth. The modern churchworld and many people who claimto be Church of God have sent thesick to the hospital when God hasgiven the command to pray theprayer of faith. It is much easier tosay, "Sister, you had better get to adoctor or a hospital." The old-timepreachers stayed all night or even aday or two until they prayedthrough.

Much of this modern ministrytoday consists of school-madepreachers who do it because Mamawanted them to preach or becausethey thought it would make a goodvocation; therefore, they cannot praythe prayer of faith. You may say,"Well, preacher, I am in a congrega-tion like that. What should I do?"You are not without promise. Youshould not compromise. The Biblesays, "If ye abide in me, and my

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words abide in you, ye shall askwhat ye will, and it shall be doneunto you" (John 15:7). If you canfind one other brother or sister toagree with you, Matthew 18:20 says,"For where two or three are gath-ered together in my name, there amI in the midst of them."

We read in Mark 11:24, "There-fore I say unto you, What thingssoever ye desire, when ye pray, be-lieve that ye receive them, and yeshall have them." You can claim thepromise and get healing even ifthere is not a Church of God preach-er within a thousand miles. All youneed to do is claim the Word andhold God to His promise.

People have made too many ex-cuses. They say, "Oh, I used to be-lieve it like that." Well, why do theynot believe it now? Many old-timesaints have had miracle after miracleperformed in their homes. At onetime they had faith and confidencein God. They understood this oldtruth and trusted God for years.Now, because of a compromisingministry in so many places, theyhave let down too. This is a re-proach. Saint, just because somehave compromised does not giveyou any right to compromise. Re-member, you must stand in thejudgment bar of God. If God hasrevealed Truth to you, you mustwalk in that light; do not back awayfrom it.

God's "Prescription" forDivine Healing

God's Word gives us a prescrip-tion text. If you go to an earthlyphysician, often you will get a pre-scription. Well, the Great Physiciandid not leave you without a pre-scription. James 5:13 states, "Is anyamong you afflicted? let him pray."An affliction is defined as, "a trial, atest, a persecution, or a slight ail-ment." No matter how the devilpounces on you, God's Word saysfor you to pray.

When you worry, you do nottrust God. There is a difference be-tween worrying d carrying a soul

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burden. A soul burden will driveyou to your knees and cause you toget hold of God and pray through.Worry cancels energy far faster thana hard day's work, and it dumpstoxic poison into the bloodstream.You are much more susceptible todisease when you are worried. Itputs a hardship on your physicalbody. If you trust the Lord, what doyou have to worry about?

James said if any is afflicted, lethim pray. Saint, if you are in a trialand the neighbors are persecutingyou, the boss is treating you rough,or your family is misunderstandingyou, you can pray. James did notsay, "Go and talk to the neighbors"or "Tell it to the church," but he saidto pray. You need to talk to Jesusabout it. A good way to start trust-ing the Lord for healing is to trustHim for a headache or an upsetstomach. Then as the Lord heals youand you become stronger in faith,you can trust Him with biggerthings. I do not believe that Davidcould have faced the giant had henot killed the bear and the lion. Nodoubt, the devil was there saying,"David, what are you going to do ifyou don't hit him?"

Friend, when the devil says,"What are you going to do if theLord does not heal you?" do notentertain that thought in your mind.If spells doubt. Do not allow theenemy to trouble you with anythought of "What if . . ." The Hebrewboys said, "O king, our God is ableto deliver us, but if I He does not,we are going to trust Him anyhow."You may say, "I'm afraid that Imight die if I trust the Lord." Well,are you saved? Do you want to go toGlory? Are you ready to go whenthe Lord gets through with you? Ifyou have lived for Him, He willkeep you here until He is throughwith you. The world's best medicalspecialists could be in your bed-room, saying, " "You are going to dietonight," but you will live anothertwenty years if God wants you to.On the other hand, you may be get-ting along fine, but if God says it istime for you to go, you will die.

James went on to say, "Is anymerry? let him sing psalms." Every-one believes that Scripture becausethere is no suffering involved. Any-one can sing or whistle a tune whenhe is happy. However, there mightbe some suffering in this: "Is anyafflicted? Let him pray." You mighthave to suffer awhile. Verse 14 says,"Is any sick among you [It is hard tohave the faith for yourself when youare writhing in pain, so God gavesome instructions]? let him call forthe elders of the church . . . ." TheBible says that you are to call. Thepreacher is not supposed to find outabout your illness through others.Sometimes I have visited andprayed for folks and felt that I wasimposing on them. They did notseem to want prayer. When I asked,"Do you want me to pray for you?"they answered, "I guess it's all right.I don't guess it'll hurt anything."When people said that, I felt likewalking out.

Not only should you call for theelders of the church, but you need tohave faith when they come. Again,James 5:14-15 states: "Is any sickamong you? let him call for the el-ders of the church; and let them prayover him, anointing him with oil inthe name of the Lord: And the pray-er of faith shall save the sick, and theLord shall raise him up." Praise God!Again, you should not entertain anythought of what if He does not healyou.

Exercising Faith

You need to be like Brother I. M.Headin when he was afflicted. Hewas a wonderful man of God whohas gone on to his reward. He wassick in bed, barely able to movewhen a letter came that said, "DearBrother Headin, we feel it in theorder of the Lord that you come andpreach in this camp meeting." Broth-er Headin began to pray. His wifesaid, "What are you going to do?You can't go. You are sick and canhardly get out of bed. You cannoteven dress or feed yourself. How areyou going to the camp meeting?" He

Many people believe in God,but not many believe God.

told her, "I am going by faith." Hebegan to pray, and as the Lord gavehim a little strength, he began to putforth effort to get out of bed. (Aftersome people pray the prayer offaith, they do not put forth any ef-fort. They just lie on their beds ofaffliction and wait on the Lord topick them up. They need to exercisesome faith.)

Brother Headin finally workedhimself off the bed. As he gotdressed, he started praising God forhis healing. He went down thestairs, step by step, barely able tomake it, but he said, "I thank you forhealing my body. I thank You, God,that You are going to enable me topreach in the camp meeting." He didnot say, as some folks do, "Lord, Ibelieve You are going to heal me."Instead, he said, "I thank You, Lord,that You have healed my body."When Brother Headin got to thebottom of the stairs, God touchedhim mightily, and he jumped andshouted the praises of God, and thenhe went on to the camp meeting.Praise the Lord! God is no respecterof persons. He wants to do the sametoday. Church, we need it more nowthan ever. We are living in a worldof skeptics and unbelievers.

We need to trust the Lord andprove beyond a shadow of doubtthat He is the Great Physician. Heheals all manner of sickness anddisease. The Bible tells us in Mat-thew 4:23, "And Jesus went about allGalilee, teaching in their syna-gogues, and preaching the gospel ofthe kingdom, and healing all man-ner of sickness and all manner ofdisease among the people." Hebrews13:8 states, "Jesus Christ the sameyesterday, and to day, and for ever."That obligates Him to heal our bod-ies. He is the same yesterday andtoday and forever. When you lookto God in faith, believing, He willheal your body.

James wrote, ". . . the Lord shallraise him up; and if he have commit-ted sins, they shall be forgiven him."First, one must repent of his sins. Nowillful transgression is forgivenunless a person repents of it. Also,

you need to confess your faults.Many people have not been healedbecause they talk about the preacheror fight with others. Friend, if that iswhat you have been doing, youneed to confess your sins. Have youbeen running down the preacher orthe saints? If so, you must confessyour sins so that you may be healed.Verse 16 says, "Confess your faultsone to another, and pray one foranother, that ye may be healed. Theeffectual fervent prayer of a righ-teous man availeth much."

Standing on God's Promises

Going back to verse 13, noticethe word "let." If you follow thisword through the New Testament,you will find that let is a command-ing word. For too long many havetreated this as a privileged affair. Letus see what the Word of God has tosay. Second Timothy 3:16-17 tells us:"All scripture is given by inspirationof God, and is profitable for doc-trine, for reproof, for correction, forinstruction in righteousness: Thatthe man of God may be perfect,thoroughly furnished unto all goodworks." You will not be "thoroughlyfurnished unto all good works" un-less you have faith for healing.

Look again at this commandingword let. We read in Hebrews 13:1,"Let brotherly love continue." Doesthis mean you can or cannot letbrotherly love continue and "sillretain your integrity with God? Itsimply means that you must letbrotherly love continue. You cannotdo as you please about it. Verse 5says, "Let your conversation bewithout covetousness." Does thatmean you can or cannot, that it doesnot make much difference eitherway? I believe this commandingword in James is just as effective asthe commanding word in Hebrews.People have leaned on the hand ofman for too long when God haspromised to be our Great Physician.Romans 12:9 says, "Let love be with-out dissimulation." Dissimulation ishypocrisy. Therefore, the Scriptureis saying, "Let love be without hy-

pocrisy." In other words, do not say"I love you" to someone's face, andthen stab that person in the backwhen he is not around. That is hypo-critical love, not divine love. Thoughthe Scripture says "let," that does notmean you can do as you please. Itmeans that you must let your lovebe without hypocrisy if you are go-ing to retain your integrity withGod.

Another example of the word"let" is found in Romans 13:1, whichsays, "Let every soul be subject untothe higher powers. For there is nopower but of God: the powers thatbe are ordained of God." Does thatmean that one has the choice of be-ing subject to the power of God? No,it simply means what it says. WhenGod says, "let," it is a divine com-mand. My friend, God's Wordmeans what it says.

The Old Testament writer saidin Proverbs 6:21, "Bind them contin-ually upon thine heart [he wasspeaking of the commandments andthe Word of God], and tie themabout thy neck." We read in Prov-erbs 7:3, "Bind them upon thy fin-gers, write them upon the table ofthine heart." Church, we need thistruth bound upon our hearts. If youhave this bound in your heart (not inyour head, but in your heart), it willbe real to you, and it will help you.

Too many people are stumblingat the Word of God. First Peter 2:8says, "And a stone of stumbling, anda rock of offence, even to themwhich stumble at the word, beingdisobedient: whereunto also theywere appointed." Friend, you shouldnot stumble when the light shines onyour pathway. Old traditions, ideas,and opinions of men are what makeyou stumble. Won't you trust Godfor your every need? He is willing tosend you the help you need if youwill take hold of His promises.

(Cassette C-1737)

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Luke 19:1 And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.2 And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which

was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.3 And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not

for the press, because he was little of stature.4 And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree

to see him: for he was to pass that way.5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw

him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and comedown; for to day I must abide at thy house.

6 And he made haste, and came down, and received him

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Brother Irw

joyfully.7 And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That

he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.8 And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold,

Lord, the half of my goods 1 give to the poor; and if I havetaken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restorehim fourfold.

9 And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come tothis house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.

10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save thatwhich was lost.

in Sesher

The Answer to a Man's Salvation

As we break in on these Scripture

verses, we find that the word was out:

a man named Jesus was going to pass

by. Who was He? What was He

preaching? What was He doing that

made Him so important? What was

He doing that made things so excit-

ing? The people's curiosity was

stirred. People all around the country-

side had heard about Jesus, and He

was on His way through Jericho.

Zacchaeus was curious about some-

thing that day that was going to be

the answer to his salvation. He was a

short man, so he wanted to get the

best viewing advantage that he possi-

bly could. He was trying to see this

man called Jesus.

Zacchaeus was a rich man, rich

with worldly possessions, but poor

when it came to spiritual possessions.

Worldly possessions can crowd out

spiritual possessions. Matthew 6:19-

20 instructs: "Lay not up for your-

selves treasures upon earth, where

moth and rust doth corrupt, and

where thieves break through and

steal: But lay up for yourselves trea-

sures in heaven, where neither moth

nor rust doth corrupt, and where

thieves do not break through nor

steal." Riches on this earth do not

make a man more spiritual. You are

going to leave this world with noth-

ing; you cannot take worldly posses-

sions with you.

Our Scripture text says in verse 3,

"And he sought to see Jesus who he

was; and could not for the press, be-

cause he was little of stature." Today

the devil is putting things such as

circumstances, doubts, fears, and

unbelief in front of people to prevent

them from seeing Jesus. Then people

say, "I would serve the Lord, but. . ."

or "I would become a Christian if . . ."

Where does sin leave you? Sin

will leave you empty. Your spiritual

gas gauge may read "Full," but you

are empty. After awhile, sin will

grind you down so low that you will

feel that the pit you are in is so deep

that you have no way out. Sin does

not care how low it takes you or what

you look like when it is through with

you. The effects of sin are unpleasant.

Now, it looks enjoyable on the sur-

face, but sin's pleasures are only for a

season. You need to consider the end

thereof. Sin will take you further than

you want to go, it will keep you lon-

ger than you want to stay, and it will

cost you more than you want to pay.

People need to quit giving God

excuses. Some say, "I would serve the

Lord if my wife or my husband

would live for Him." That is not an

excuse. You must be determined that

you are going to serve the Lord no

matter what the circumstances, no

matter what the cost, no matter what

is going on, no matter who you have

to face, and no matter what opposi-

tion you have to endure. If more peo-

ple would get that determination in

their hearts and lives, they would not

give up so easily. Friend, if you do not

have that kind of determination, you

need to earnestly seek the Lord until

you do.

The Call of the Lord

Verse 4 of our Scripture text says,

"And he ran before, and climbed up

into a sycamore tree to see him: for he

was to pass that way." Dear one, if

you are going to get help from the

Lord, you need to get up to a higher

level. Proverbs 16:17 says: "The high-

way of the upright is to depart from

evil: he that keepeth his way preserv-

eth his soul." Proverbs 15:8 states,

"The sacrifice of the wicked is an

abomination to the Lord: but the

prayer of the upright is his delight."

The Lord said He would never

leave you or forsake you. He will

protect you, guide you, lead you, and

feed you. What more could you ask

for? Child of God, look what He has

done for you already. He is every-

thing you need. When you need a

protector, He is there. When you need

a guide, He is there. When you need

a physician, He is there. He is every-

thing in one.

Zacchaeus had a desire to see

Jesus. That is the key. Had he not had

that desire, he would have continued

his own way. Something miraculous

was about to happen. In verse 5 of

our Scripture lesson we read, "And

when Jesus came to the place, he

looked up, and saw him, and said

unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and

come down; for to day I must abide at

thy house." Zacchaeus did not look

around in that tree to see if there was

another man up there named

Zacchaeus. Saint, do you remember

when the Lord called your name and

you answered? There was something

about His call. Zacchaeus made haste

and came down and left the life of sin.

Sad to say, many have heard the

call of the Lord but have failed to

yield . W hen the Lord spoke

Zacchaeus' name, he knew he needed

to move. Why did he feel that he had

to move? Because that opportunity

might not have come again. His time

of visitation was right then; that day

was his accepted tire.

The Lord is passing by many

individuals today, but they are failing

to move. This is serious. The time of

visitation is now, and the opportunity

may never come again. Proverbs

21:29 states, "A wicked man harden-

eth his face: but as for the upright, he

directeth his way." Friend, what are

you going to do with Jesus?

The account of Zacchaeus would

have had impact had it ended there,

but something more happened when

Zacchaeus made the move. We know

that something miraculous happened

because Zacchaeus was a different

man coming down from the tree than

when he went up. The Bible says that

when he came down, he received

Him joyfully. Any man or woman

who accepts Jesus Christ into his or

her heart and soul will have joy, be-

cause a change takes place. That

change is an instant change–from

darkness to light.

When Jesus comes into your

heart, your spiritual eyes are opened,

and you will let others know that

there has been a change. You cannot

keep it hidden. You will not say in a

whisper, "Guess what? I got saved,

but I am so ashamed." No, salvation is

nothing to be ashamed of. Other peo-

ple let you know how they feel about

things. Why can't you stand for Jesus?

You will have joy in your heart when

you accept Jesus. You will not try to

hide it. Christian friend, aren't you

glad the Lord made a visitation to

you? Where would you be if He had

not made that visitation. The good-

ness of God is so great to save us and

set us free from the bondage of sin.

Old things pass away, and all things

become new. "Therefore if any man

be in Christ, he is a new creature: old

things are passed away; behold, all

things are become new" (2 Corinthi-

ans 5:17). Zacchaeus was a changed

individual, a new creature in Christ

Jesus, in the twinkling of an eye.

Beware of Satan's Tools

The Bible does not say anything

about Zacchaeus having to sign a

pledge card, having to shake a

preacher's hand, or joining a church

on his way down from the tree. He

did not become a member of a de-

nominational church; he became a

member of God's church, the Church

of the Living God. He was born into

the precious Church of God. Many

people say, "You need to join the

church of your choice." Friend, in

reality, you do not have a choice.

Only one church is mentioned in the

Bible, and that is the Church of God.

There is no confusion when the Bible

mentions only one church. People

become confused when men put forth

their own ideas. Many say, "Now, you

really do not have to believe that way.

We all are going to Heaven." Sad to

say, all are not going to Heaven.

Verse 7 of the Scripture text

reads, "And when they saw it, they all

murmured, saying, That he was gone

to be guest with a man that is a sin-

ner." The criticizers were there too.

Those who criticize and find fault are

always going to be around. The

crowd thought it was so terrible that

Jesus was going to be a guest with a

man who was a sinner. Some people

act the same way today. Well, who

were they at one time?

If you live for God, you will meet

people who are criticizers, complain-

ers, doubters, and scoffers. Some may

say, "You can't live that way. You

can't live above sin." Gossipers, fault

finders, and backbiters will make

sharp, cutting remarks and critical

statements. Some people love to make

accusations and critical remarks. They

can run down a man of God and the

saints and not even blink an eye.

Much of that would cease if people

would say, "I don't want to hear that

garbage." When people know that

you will listen, they will just keep

filling your ears. When you start lis-

tening to such things, you are going to

be affected.

We are in a race, dear saint, and

the devil is using everything he can to

knock us out of this race. He is not

going to come to you with horns and

a pitchfork. He is going to work

through individuals who have wrong

spirits in them. The devil is out to

destroy. His ultimate goal is to de-

stroy Truth. He does not care who he

uses or what manner he uses as long

as he gets the job done.

Often people make moves that

they feel are best for them. You may

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say, "This is the way I feel I should

go." Well, have you prayed about it to

see if it is` the Lord's will? Have you

sought an answer from God? You

need to find out what the Lord wants

you to do. Some people make moves

without one thought of eternity and

how souls might be affected.

Salvation Brings a

Definite Change

Zacchaeus knew within his heart

that he was a changed individual. He

did not have to go around asking

people if he was different. He was

willing to give up all to God and not

hold on to things that would bring

him down. The Lord will give you the

power you need to help you over-

come the cigarette habit, the drug

habit, the alcohol problem, or any-

thing else that has you bound.

How do we know that Zacchaeus

was a changed individual? He said, ".

. . if I have taken any thing from any

man by false accusation, I restore him

fourfold" (Luke 19:8). Salvation had

come to his house. Salvation will

make the vilest sinner clean. You may

be in the most terrible pit that one can

think of and say, "There is no hope for

me," but the Lord can make you

clean. Sinner friend, you have to give

up what you have been doing and

what you want to be and be willing to

change your life. You cannot just sit

and say, "Well, He can change me if

He wants." You cannot get help that

way. You have to make a move, and

then the Lord will help you.

In verse 10 of the Scripture text

we read that Jesus said, "For the Son

of man is come to seek and to save

that which was lost." Dear one, the

Lord is still seeking lost individuals.

The things of this old world will

never satisfy. Have you ever seen a

dog chase its tail? It does not make

any headway at all.

Zacchaeus could have gone his

own way that particular day. He

could have had something to do that

he felt was more important. What is

more important than the salvation of

your soul? People put much impor-

tance on other things, but this is

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something that is more important

than anything in this old world. He-

brews 2:3 says, "How shall we escape,

if we neglect so great salvation; which

at the first began to be spoken by the

Lord, and was confirmed unto us by

them that heard him."

Second Thessalonians 2:13 states,

"But we are bound to give thanks

alway to God for you, brethren be-

loved of the Lord, because God hath

from the beginning chosen you to

salvation through sanctification of the

Spirit and belief of the truth." Some

people do not want Truth. If you do

not have the Truth, you do not have

anything. In the Church of God, you

are going to hear Truth.

Truth will guide you. Truth and

light are together. When you are ex-

posed to more light, you can walk in

more truth and understanding. John

16:13 tells us, "Howbeit when he, the

Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide

you into all truth: for he shall not

speak of himself; but whatsoever he

shall hear, that shall he speak: and he

will show you things to come." If you

walk in all the truth that God reveals

to you, He will show you more light.

We need that guiding light today. The

Holy Spirit guides us into all Truth.

We cannot go this route on our own.

We need to be made aware of the

many pitfalls, and the Holy Spirit will

lead us.

It probably would have been very

easy for Zacchaeus to call upon a few

friends to inquire about what they

thought he should do before he made

a move and maybe have them check

out this man named Jesus. However,

Zacchaeus saw his need, and he did

not have time to check Him out. The

Lord was checking him out. It was he

alone that Jesus called. Dear one, you

have to listen to what Jesus has to say

to you personally. Too many listen to

what others have to say. You need to

listen to Him more every day. Have

you been guilty of lending an ear to

what someone else has been saying?

You need to stand up for the right.

Truth is what sets you free, dear one.

If you do not stand by Truth, you are

going to be lost.

Truth is exciting, and this way of

living is exciting! Happiness and con-

tentment are contagious. David

Seaberry once wrote, "Enthusiasm is

the best protection in any situation.

Wholeheartedness is also contagious.

Give yourself if you wish to get oth-

ers." Saint, people in the world are

looking for the very thing that you

have. Nothing out in the world can

satisfy you like Jesus can. God help us

not to take for granted the things that

God has given us. We have Someone

to talk to who understands us. People

in the world do not have anyone to

talk to. We have One who will steer

us in the right direction.

The world is a cruel and cold

place. As a Christian, you must treat

people right. If you are truly a Chris-

tian, you will treat people right. Mark

Twain once wrote, "Kindness is the

language which the deaf can hear and

the blind can see." You need to treat

people with kindness.

Does the Lord Abide

in Your Heart?

Looking back at the Scripture

text, Jesus told Zacchaeus, "I must

abide," and that is the only thing that

will do with Jesus. He must abide

within your heart. Sadly, people are

letting other things crowd out what

the Lord is telling them. They are

letting material gain crowd out what

Jesus wants. First John 2:15-17 in-

structs: "Love not the world, neither

the things that are in the world. If any

man love the world, the love of the

Father is not in him. For all that is in

the world, the lust of the flesh, and

the lust of the eyes, and the pride of

life, is not of the Father, but is of the

world. And the world passeth away,

and the lust thereof: but he that doeth

the will of God abideth for ever."

Dear one, this old world is going to

pass away one of these days.

Do you have the determination

that Zacchaeus had? Do not let things

crowd out Jesus. Do not let the things

of this life press you so that you miss

the opportunity when Jesus passes by.

That is what most people are doing

today. Hosea 9:7 says, "The days of

visitation are come, the days of rec-

(Guest Editorial-continued from page 2)

Numbers, Chapter 2, tells how Israel

broke down and camped and how

each of the four major divisions had

an insignia, or a standard. The stan-

dards of those four divisions were the

same symbolic expressions that repre-

sent these living creatures. For exam-

ple, Judah was a lion's whelp and had

the lion. Each of these four living

creatures was one of the insignias that

identified part of the camp of Israel.

What is the lesson? Though the

Gospel Day consists of seven distinct

time periods, it has had only four

major epochs: the morning time, the

dark day, the cloudy day, and the

evening time. As we look at the de-

scription of the saints in these various

ages, we can see the predominant

condition of each epoch. Revelation

4:7 says, "And the first beast was like

a lion [a lion is the king of beasts: it

knows no fear, and it is a conquering

beast, which was a picture of the

morning-time church that Revelation

6:2 says 'went forth conquering, and

to conquer'], and the second beast like

a calf [a calf is a sacrificial animal,

portraying the sacrificial nature that

the church manifested during the eras

of persecution and martyrdom], and

the third beast had a face as a man

[this portrays the saints in bondage to

man and man rule during the dark

night of papalism and the cloudy day

of Protestantism], and the fourth

beast was like a flying eagle [this

portrays the evening-time church,

revealing that the church has risen

above the old, earthly level and can

soar to the highest mountain; an eagle

is the only creature that can fly right

in the face of the sun, which is where

the church is going–soaring into

brighter days, or brighter and bright-

er truths]."

Thank God, we do not have to

walk in darkness, groping in religious

confusion. Jesus said in Matthew 7:7,

"Ask, and it shall be given you." How-

ever, between the asking and the

receiving, 2 Timothy 2:15 instructs

you to "study," and then God will

bless your efforts.

The fourth beast, which is like an

eagle, is not a molting eagle but a

flying eagle. This depicts the eve-

ning-time church and her move back

to a position of the full light of the

glorious Gospel of Christ.

What about the Old Testament

brethren? Jesus said you will sit down

in the kingdom with Abraham, Isaac,

and Jacob (Matthew 8:11). How did

they get in? This beast had eyes be-

fore and behind (Revelation 4:6): we

look back to Calvary and they looked

forward to Calvary, but the focal

point of it all is Jesus Christ and the

work wrought on Calvary. The Old

Testament brethren gained a reprieve

for their sins one year at a time. He-

brews 10:3 declares, "But in those

sacrifices there is a remembrance

again made of sins every year." Once

a year they sacrificed a lamb, an

atonement lamb, and their sins were

reprieved one more year. When Jesus

died on Calvary's tree, the first thing

He did was made the spirits of just

men (those Old Testament justified

brethren) perfect, or complete, and

brought them in. That is the reason

Hebrews 12:23 says, ". . . to the spirits

of just men made perfect."

The first thing the blood did was

this: it went back and took the Old

Testament brethren's sins that were

rolled up to the foot of the Cross and

made those justified men perfect, or

complete. Hebrews 12:23 refers to the

church as the "general assembly"

ompense are come; Israel shall know

it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual

man is mad, for the multitude of thine

iniquity, and the great hatred."

The woman said in Matthew 9:21,

"If I may but touch his garment, I

shall be whole." That woman had her

faith in Jesus, and she put forth great

effort. Likewise, you have to put forth

effort. Others cannot do it for you.

You have to follow the Lord. You

cannot depend upon your parents to

make it for you. You must be born

again; your heart has to be made

right. Old things have to pass away,

and new things have to come in. You

have to have heart surgery: that cold,

stony heart has to be replaced with a

heart of flesh, seething that the Lord

can work with.

The reason that the Lord cannot

work with many people is that they

have hard hearts. Every time you

reject the Holy Spirit, your heart be-

comes harder. Some people cannot

get the help they so desperately need

because they have rejected the Holy

Spirit repeatedly. Dear one, do not

reject the Spirit of God. If He is talk-

ing to you, listen to Him.

Many listen to other things be-

sides the Spirit of the Lord. The devil

would lead them to believe that by

listening to others, the Spirit of God is

leading them. Do not go on impulse.

Is the Lord talking to your heart? Is

He saying to you, "I must abide"?

Dear one, He must abide in your

heart if you expect to make Heaven

your home. Heaven is a holy place,

filled with glory and with grace, and

sin can never enter there. Many peo-

ple think they can sin more or less

each day and make it into Heaven.

Friend, that is not going to be the

case. That sin-more-or-less religion

cannot get you to Heaven.

Dear one, do not keep rejecting

and grieving the Holy Spirit. We sing

a song in the choir entitled "Dark

Clouds Roll Back." It says, "Oh, how

sweet the name of Jesus, How it calms

my doubts and fears; And how it fills

my soul with glory, When that lovely

name I hear. At the very thought of

Jesus, All earthly treasures grow

strangely dim. For all my longings

and every one of my searchings, I

found all them when I found Him.

Dark clouds roll back, The sun starts

shining. Pain and heartache just dis-

appear. My burden's lighter, the day

is brighter. When that lovely name I

hear." If you have a need in your

heart, won't you seek the Lord?

(Cassette C-4202A)

25

because there are two chambers. For

example, in the state legislature, we

have a House and a Senate. When the

House convenes, you say, "The House

is in session," and when the Senate

convenes, you say, "The Senate is in

session." When they both come to-

gether, you have a "General Assem-

bly." In Jesus Christ, when the Old

Testament and the New Testament

met together, the church is the general

assembly and church of the firstborn.

In Isaiah 6:2 and in Revelation 4:8,

why do these creatures have six

wings? A wing is a manner of convey-

ance; it is designed for transport.

Look where these wings are: "Above

it stood the seraphims: each one had

six wings; with twain [which means

two] he covered his face . . ." (Isaiah

6:2).

Two wings portray two things:

First, in the face of deity the saints are

always aware of their position and

exhibit humility. Isaiah 57:15 says,

"For thus saith the high and lofty One

that inhabiteth eternity, whose name

is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy

place, with him also that is of a con-

trite and humble spirit, to revive the

spirit of the humble, and to revive the

heart of the contrite ones." Second,

when it says "with twain he covered

his face," not only do they exhibit

humility in the face of deity, but they

cover the mind to protect the think-

ing, transport evil thoughts away, and

convey proper, wholesome, and

26

godly thinking to a proper place in

our lives. Isaiah saw them with their

wings over their faces. Peter put it in

these terms: "Gird up the loins of your

mind" (1 Peter 1:13).

Look at the next description:

". . . with twain [or with two] he cov-

ered his feet . . . ." We all know that

feet are what we walk with. There are

two wings and two feet. W hat does

this tell us? The saints are very cau-

tious about how they walk. In Psalm

119:101 the Psalmist said, "I have

refrained my feet from every evil

way." Those wings portray being

lifted from the quagmire of sin and

raised to a spiritual place, or being

resurrected in Jesus Christ and being

lifted above the position of this old

world. Psalm 116:8 says, "For thou

hast delivered my soul from death,

mine eyes from tears, and my feet

from falling." The way you walk has

much to do with whether you stand

or fall. Wings denote a divine manner

of conveyance to enable us to do

things we cannot do in our own hu-

man strength.

W hat abou t the last tw o w ings?

"... an d w ith tw ain he d id fly." T hese

wings designed to keep us above the

level of this old world so that we can

stay in the presence of God and enjoy

His fellowship; they are the Word and

the Spirit. We read in Isaiah 6:3, "And

one cried unto another, and said,

Holy, holy, holy . . . ." Why did he say

the word holy three times? Because

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man is a three-fold being. Through

this experience that Jesus Christ came

to bring, we can be holy in spirit, holy

in soul, and holy in body. It is only

b e ca u se o f th e H o ly F a th e r, th e H o ly

Son, and the Holy Spirit. When you

let each one have His rightful place in

your life, it will be holy, holy, holy,

and the whole earth will be full of His

glory. Where is that glory? When the

Revelator got a picture of the church,

he spoke of her "having the glory of

God" (Revelation 21:11). The glory of

God resides in the saints, or the

church.

This is a beautiful, encouraging

picture that Isaiah saw of our day. It

portrays the experience that the saints

have that enables them to be a part of

God's seraphims so they can live pure

lives and be holy in soul, spirit, and

body and enjoy the presence of God

on a daily basis. They are set on fire,

and that shows a world that is dead in

trespasses and sins that one can live a

victorious life in Jesus Christ. These

seraphims that our lesson text speaks

of in Isaiah 6:2 that were set on fire

portray the experience and the posi-

tion that the redeemed hold in this

Gospel Day. It is a heartwarming and

encouraging vision of the experience

that we are privileged to enjoy as the

redeemed.

Brother Earl R. Borders

inter forTrumpeter

d irection , B ro ther B ernard W ilson

o d 's w ill fo r them to .m ove to the

isconsin , w here he had pastored fo r

th of our prin ter , Brother Ron K ane,

o ther W ilson and h is w ife fe lt the

k area . A fter m uch p rayer, B rother

the new prin te r fo r The Gospel

lp ing to spread the Tru th of G od 's

reach the curren t d istribu tion of

bo th in the U nited S tates and in