HomeARC ML 1768
THE MESSAGE OF THE CRUCIFIXION! DO 1768 4/84
(After Listening to Dad's "Songs of Love" Tape:)
1. AMEN! PTL! TYJ! THAT WASN'T PLAYED TO MAKE YOU FEEL SAD, YOU OUGHT TO FEEL GLAD, AMEN? Is everybody happy? PTL! I simply felt it was fitting tonight. We don't have many ceremonies in this Family, we don't celebrate many feast days, we don't put much stock in form & ceremony & formalities, celebrations, but a few we do. We generally celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ, right? We celebrate our own birthdays, don't we? And we ordinarily celebrate New Year's, usually we have a time of prayer. (Stops to experiment with mikes & equipment.) Sorry, we really didn't prepare for this.
2. THEY'RE ALWAYS EXPECTING ME TO BE A PROPHET & PREDICT EVERYTHING THAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT, & Maria's always wanting to know, "What are you going to do now? What are you going to do next?" And I tell her, "What do you think I am, a prophet?" (Maria: Yes!) "I don't know what the Lord's going to do!" So we're often not quite prepared for what He does or is about to do. But anyway, PTL!
3. SO WE HAVE A FEW CELEBRATIONS OR COMMEMORATIONS, AMONGST WHICH THE MOST FREQUENT IS, OF COURSE, THE LORD'S SUPPER. I know that normally you celebrate that on Sunday at your Fellowship Meeting, but tonight around the World literally hundreds of millions of Christians are celebrating the Lord's Supper & the Lord's Passion. Can you all hear me? I'm not used to yelling except when I'm angry, & I'm not angry tonight. I'm generally rather soft-spoken. (Adjusting taping equipment.) PTL! This is one of the afflictions we must endure for the sake of modern science in order to have some of its advantages.
4. BUT AS I WAS SAYING, ON THIS NIGHT KNOWN WORLDWIDE AS GOOD FRIDAY, & ALL DAY LONG, THERE ARE MANY CELEBRATIONS & OBSERVANCES OF THE LORD'S LAST DAY HERE ON EARTH BEFORE HIS CRUCIFIXION. Literally hundreds of millions of Christians, at least professing Christians, have been celebrating this day & especially this night. Some have been celebrating all week, beginning last Sunday with Palm Sunday, the commemoration of our Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem as its King--the King that He was, but no longer is. He's no longer the King of the Jews of Jerusalem, because this week [DELETED] [EDITED: "the Jewish religious leaders"] rejected Him & this night they crucified Him!--And [EDITED: "some of them"] still do!
5. BUT THANKS TO THAT EVENT, YOU & I WERE BROUGHT INTO THE KINGDOM TO TAKE THEIR PLACE, & THE KINGDOM MOVED ITS HEADQUARTERS TO THE NEW JERUSALEM ON HIGH! He no longer had to be worried about being the King of those filthy sinners the Jews, He became King of even more filthy sinners, you, the Gentiles, who at least were thankful for Him & received Him. He was no longer a mere King of the filthy city of Jerusalem & the [DELETED] little kingdom of Israel, but the King that He really is, of the whole Universe, the Kingdom of God!
6. THIS IS ONE OF THOSE STUPID, IDIOTIC AUTOMATIC VOLUME CONTROL MACHINES! Whoever invented that gadget oughtta ... well, I guess we shouldn't crucify him, but he sure should suffer something, because it messes up our videos, it messes up our audios, you can't say one loud thing or it knocks it flat for about 10 seconds & then you can't hear anything else for awhile. I don't know who it was invented for, probably for some stupid idiots that apparently were afraid of a little volume or something. But anyway, be that as it may, I hope you can hear me.
7. SO HE WAS THE KING OF KINGS & LORD OF LORDS & THE KING OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE as well as the whole World & the Heavenly Jerusalem--rather than a mere Earthly, physical, dirty, ancient little old Mideastern city called Jerusalem. He became the King that He was & showed His power by dying on a cross, crucified like a common criminal! But even in that moment of His death, God showed His power that this was His Son in Whom He was well pleased, by showing His anger as the Earth shook & even opened & swallowed some of His enemies, & Heaven thundered & the wicked trembled at the manifestation of the anger of God over their iniquity! (Mat.27:51)
8. ACTUALLY, HE HAD VERY FEW ENEMIES, BUT THEY WERE POWERFUL ENEMIES. [DELETED] The same ones that crucified Him then would crucify Him again if He came back [DELETED], "And crucify afresh the Son of God," as God's Word says, "putting Him to an open shame." (Heb.6:6) [DELETED]
9. THE WORLD IS SUPPOSED TO BE MORE CIVILISED NOW, BUT IT'S NOT. Just read the WND & look around you, it's less civilised than ever! It is more savage, more cruel, more violent, more horrible, more terrible, slaughtering more people every day, wars going on around the World, more anti-Christ, more anti-God, more unbelieving, worse than it ever was!--While they're trying to fool themselves & convince themselves & compare themselves with themselves that today they are more intelligent & more educated & more civilised.--When in the years that they have been flaunting their own pride & their own knowledge & the Knowledge of Good & Evil that Satan tempted them to gain, they have certainly accumulated more knowledge of Evil than they have of Good & have become worse & worse! Times & evil men have waxed worse & worse throughout the centuries for the past 6,000 years. Amen? (2Tim.3:13)
10. MAN IS JUST AS CRUEL & JUST AS TORTUROUS & JUST AS HEINOUS & HELLISH & EVEN MORE SO THAN HE EVER WAS, to the point that he now stands on the brink of total destruction, prepared to destroy both himself & the World & all of God's Creation if God did not intervene & put a stop to it all!--Which He shall very soon, thank the Lord, in order to salvage His Creation, including man. He's not going to allow man to destroy himself nor God's Creation nor His World.
11. SO DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE ATOM BOMBS DESTROYING THE EARTH COMPLETELY & BLOWING UP THE WORLD, GOD HAS RESERVED THAT [DELETED] FOR HIMSELF a little bit later after having given the World another chance, another whole Thousand Years of another chance! Think of it!--Another opportunity with the visible, personal, powerful reign of Jesus Christ, the King of kings Himself here upon the Earth, through you, His people, His Kingdom, to give the Earth one last chance to voluntarily receive Him.
12. IT SEEMS TO ME WITH MY SHORT PATIENCE & SHORT MERCY, I WOULD HAVE SAID THEY'VE HAD ENOUGH CHANCE ALREADY FOR THE PAST 6,000! But apparently the Lord seems to think at least some of them deserve another thousand, which is coming, but not all of them. Millions have already gone to Hell, more millions are on their way & will get there before the Lord comes, & millions will go there when He comes again the third time with us & we wipe out the Kingdom of the Antichrist & his evil fiendish followers! Millions are already in Hell & have been going there for 6,000 years, & quite a few million more are going to go there from now through the Wrath of God & the Battle of Armageddon!
13. BUT SOME IN THE MERCY OF GOD WILL BE SPARED & BLESSED TO ACTUALLY BE PERMITTED TO SURVIVE INTO THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST ON EARTH DURING HIS VISIBLE, PERSONAL, POWERFUL REIGN AS KING & KING OF KINGS with His officers & Saints--you--over the entire Earth for another Thousand Years, to give those who remain & who have survived Armageddon & the Wrath of God another chance.--Apparently the people whom He feels sorry for & who He feels deserve more of a chance, at least, than they have had.--Perhaps not another chance, maybe they never had a chance, maybe the many who we never got to with the Gospel. Maybe the hundreds of millions, yea, perhaps even billions who are alive right now today in the East who have never yet really heard the Gospel of the Love of Jesus. Oh, they may have heard of His name, they may have heard of Him as a historical religious leader of a sect called Christianity, they may have heard of Christians & churches, but I daresay they haven't seen very much Christlike love.
14. I HOPE YOU DON'T MIND NOT HAVING A DANCE TONIGHT. There's a time for everything, a wise man said, a time to laugh, a time to cry, a time to rejoice, a time to be sorrowful, a time for everything, a time to live, even a time to die. (Ecc.3:1-8) And I felt that tonight was a good time for us to be sober & thoughtful & to think about the World, to be grateful & thankful that hundreds of millions of Christians throughout the World are celebrating this week, & especially this night, the love & the sacrifice & the death of Jesus Christ.
15. NEARLY THE WHOLE WORLD IS COMPELLED TO HONOUR JESUS' BIRTHDAY & HIS DEATH DAY, the two most outstanding events in His life, & yet one more, coming Sunday, His Rising Day, Resurrection Day, to live aloft forever in a body similar to ours, similar to His Own, but immortal, eternal, which shall live forever--like us--in the Heavens. "For we shall be like Him when we see Him as He is." (1John 3:2)
16. AS MARIA KNOWS, SHE NEVER KNOWS HOW I'M GOING TO FEEL... (Stops to adjust taping equipment.) That's the stupid, idiotic thing about this automatic volume, it comes up when I go down & it goes down when I go up! I feel like sometimes ripping the guts out of one of these things! I've felt like it several times when we were making videos. If I suddenly came out loud it would knock the volume flat for about 10 seconds & I'd have to count almost to 10 before I could start talking again. Sometimes I think it was an invention of the Devil! Well, you just ride it, Son, the best you can. PTL! I'm sure the Enemy hates this talk tonight so bear with us if we have a few problems. So where were we, do you remember? Yes, Maria remembered that one, she never knows how I'm going to feel or what I'm going to do, & I don't either. How could I know ahead of time what the Lord's going to do unless He tells me? And He doesn't usually have to tell me until it's time.
17. BUT BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THE MAJOR JOB OF A PROPHET IS NOT FORETELLING THE FUTURE, IT IS NOT PREDICTING IN ADVANCE THE EVENTS TO COME. Do you know what the major job of a prophet is? The literal word in the Greek "prophetes" means "to forthtell," not always foretell. Prophets do a lot of foretelling, a lot of forecasting, a lot of predicting, that's true, under the inspiration of God's Spirit. But the literal meaning in both the ancient Hebrew & also the Greek, particularly in the New Testament where the word "prophetes" is used, means "to forthtell the Words of God," to simply give God's Word, whatever it may be, whenever it may be, at any time, at any place, to any people, whenever it is God's will.
18. IN OTHER WORDS, THE JOB OF THE PROPHET IS TO DO THE WILL OF GOD, WHATEVER & WHENEVER IT MAY BE! Some prophets even did it silently. Isaiah ran around naked for three years to show how God was going to strip Israel for her sins. (Isa.20:2-4) Ezekiel wallowed in dung & ate shit to show what God was going to do to the Israelites for their wickedness. (Ezekiel 4) That was a silent skit, a silent witness. So they didn't always have to even say anything as long as they did God's will & just did whatever He told them to do.
19. JEREMIAH RAN AROUND--ALTHOUGH HE PROBABLY DIDN'T RUN VERY FAST--WEARING AN OX YOKE FOR YEARS TO SHOW WHAT GOD WAS GOING TO DO TO THE SAME WICKED JEWS [DELETED] by placing them under the bondage of a World Empire, the King of Babylon, as slaves for their sins. (Jer.27:2,8) And that yoke was no little bent bough with a little stick across the bottom like we used to wear on our demonstrations, but that was the best we could do. We were up in Canada & there were lots of trees, but we couldn't very well make an ox yoke like you may have seen on some yaks or water buffalo, as the Americans & the British call them. If you have seen any of them wearing a yoke, you'll find it is a great big thick heavy wooden thing around their necks & in front of their shoulders, stout enough to either insert the staves or have the staves bound to them of the cart that they pull.--No little branch of a tree bent & inserted in the holes of a little small beam of wood like we used to use, but that was the closest we could come to what the Lord showed us to do.
20. DON'T BLAME THIS EQUIPMENT ON HIM (THE RECORDER), I DIDN'T GIVE HIM ANY ADVANCE NOTICE. I didn't give Maria or anybody else any advance notice because the Lord didn't give me any advance notice! All I know is, when He says, "Jump!"--I jump! When He snaps His fingers I say, "Yes, Sir!" And when He tells me to do something, I do it! That's the best talent that a prophet has, to obey instantly & do what God tells him to do no matter what!--Whatever the circumstances over which he has no control. So that's all I'm doing tonight. If this is a surprise to you, it's no more a surprise to you than it is to me!
21. NOW YOU CHILDREN, IF YOU NEED TO GO POTTY, GO!--Because everybody needs to go potty sometime. You don't need to go now? Will you promise me you'll go when you need to go? Okay! ILY! And if you're uncomfortable there you can come sit on Mommy's lap, or you can even sit here beside your Father in his throne. I'll share my throne with you like the Lord shares His with us. (Rev.3:21) PTL! Amen? So, where were we?
22. THE MAIN JOB OF A PROPHET IS TO JUST OBEY! And since ye are all prophets of God, all sons & daughters of God, it is your job just to obey & do what the Lord tells you to do. I didn't know we were going to do this tonight, neither did you, but God knew, so here we are! PTL!
23. TONIGHT HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF PROFESSING CHRISTIANS AROUND THE GLOBE--be they Catholic, Protestant or whatever, & I guess we're in the category of "whatever"--are celebrating the last day of Christ's life here on Earth before His mortal death, as well as the Last Supper.--Which, incidentally, was not a sad occasion as the Church makes it today, but a happy occasion! The Feast of the Passover was a celebration, it was a fiesta in which the Jews were celebrating an event of their salvation from death by the blood of a lamb killed in a certain ceremonial way that night, cooked in a certain ceremonial way, & eaten with joy & thanksgiving that the Lord had saved them from annihilation in Egypt.
24. THE CHURCH HAS TRIED TO MAKE EVERYTHING SO POMPOUS & SO SOLEMN & SO SAD! IT SEEMS THAT THE IDEA OF RELIGION TODAY IS THE SADDER YOU ARE THE MORE PIOUS YOU ARE.--Like that old story I used to tell you about little Johnny that went to visit Grandpa. His Grandpa wasn't a funny, happy Grandpa like yours, his Grandpa was the kind who observed the Sunday blue laws. You couldn't even run on Sunday, you couldn't play on Sunday, you couldn't have any fun on Sunday, you weren't supposed to laugh on Sunday. You were just supposed to be pious & go around with a long face & be sad on Sunday because it was the Lord's day. Any other day you could be happy, but on the Lord's day you had to be very sad & long-faced, because they worship a long-faced Lord, a sad God, not the One we worship.
25. SO EVERYTHING LITTLE JOHNNY TRIED TO DO, HIS GRANDPA SAID, "NO, YOU CAN'T DO THAT! You can't play ball, you can't play a game, you can't run, you can't laugh, you can't be happy, you just have to be very solemn & very sober & very sad & just mope around on the Lord's day." That was his Grandfather's idea of religion.--Not your Grandfather's!
26. SO YOU REMEMBER THE OLD STORY, HE FINALLY WENT OUT INTO THE BARNYARD & HE SAW OLD JENNY THE MULE. He went out to the fence & Jenny stuck her head over the fence expecting something, as horses & mules often do. They think you've got a little sugar cube or something for them, & why they want to feed the poor, defenseless, innocent horses sugar, I don't know! But anyhow, Jenny stuck her head over the fence & little Johnny caressed Jenny's long face & said, "Jenny, you must be awful religious, you've got a long face just like Grandpa!" Well, that's not like your Grandpa, is it? (Techi: You're much prettier!) Thank you, Sweetheart! I have one admirer here, an always faithful fan!
27. SO THE CHURCH & THE RELIGION OF FORMAL CHRISTIANITY, BOTH CATHOLICS & PROTESTANTS, HAVE MADE THIS WEEK A VERY SOLEMN, SAD, SOBER WEEK OF SUFFERING. Their idea of religion is the sadder you are & the more you show that you suffer, the more religious you are. The greatest sufferers & the saddest sacks, they are the most holy & the most religious. They have founded whole orders & monasteries & brotherhoods & convents & nunneries on that principle, that the more solemn & sad you are & the more you suffer, the more you show how religious you are. This is a religion of the Devil, not the Lord! This is a System of Satan, not Christ!
28. EVEN THE PROTESTANT CHURCH HAS BEEN SUCKED INTO THIS SAME THING, ALONG WITH THE CATHOLICS, INTO BEING VERY SAD DURING HOLY WEEK with much fasting. But Passover was not a fast! The original time of the Passover was not a period of fasting at all, it was a period of rejoicing & feasting! And you & I have sat down tonight & we've eaten a good meal, right? TTL! And God bless the cooks, amen?
29. THE ORIGINAL PASSOVER EVEN OF THE JEWS WAS A HAPPY OCCASION, A FEAST, A FIESTA, A HOLIDAY! Jews came from all over the World, & Gentile believers as well, to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem. It was a happy occasion, not at all sad. It was only going to be sad for one small group eventually, but at first it wasn't necessarily sad. They had a good supper together, the Lord found them a place to have it by a miracle, & I'm sure provided the food for them by some provisioning miracle, & they sat down & enjoyed a good meal. And then they had the so-called Communion or Eucharist, after a good full meal on a good full tummy!
30. THAT SOUNDS A LITTLE CONTRARY TO PRESENT MODERN-DAY RELIGIOUS, PARTICULARLY CATHOLIC & EVEN SOMETIMES PROTESTANT PRACTICE, RIGHT? You aren't even supposed to eat anything until after Communion, right? But if you'll read it, it's there as plain as day. (Mat.26:26; Mark 14:22) I've gone through the Gospels & every time it says that they ate their supper first, which was apparently a sort of lamb stew, kind of a soup, maybe a sort of a thick soup like I notice you fellas seem to be having on Sundays. Our one & only fast day of the week seems to be getting faster & faster & more & more & thicker & thicker!
31. WELL, GOD BLESS YOU, JUST AS LONG AS YOU REMEMBER & TAKE A LITTLE MORE TIME TO THINK & PRAY & FELLOWSHIP WITH EACH OTHER, THAT'S THE IDEA OF FASTING. Fasting is not for the mere practice of asceticism, it's not flagellation, it's not inflicting punishment on your body in order to gain merit & earn salvation. Our fasting is merely to remind us to pray & to cut down on all the work we possibly can, even as much of the cooking as possible, in order to have more time for fellowship, inspiration, reading, prayer & devotions.
32. SO THEY EVEN HAD LAMB STEW THAT NIGHT. We know it was a kind of a soup, otherwise they wouldn't have been sopping the bread in it, right? They were Dunkards! My Grandfather could prove that the very first Christians were Dunkards like he was, because they dunked their bread in the soup! You read it & see! (John 13:26)
33. SO PRAISE THE LORD, IT WAS A FEAST, A HAPPY OCCASION! Maybe I had to sort of sober you up a little bit to get you in the mood to realise tonight we were going to have something different from our usual fiesta, dancing, etc., & that we were going to remember to commemorate the Lord's last day as a normal human being. Of course, He was far above most normal human beings, but He was normal. He had the same kind of body that we have, had the same feelings we have, same problems we have, same weariness, probably even sickness & pain.
34. I BELIEVE HE ENJOYED THE SAME PLEASURES [DELETED]! How could He be a High Priest that understood all of our infirmities unless He both suffered & enjoyed them all so that He could understand us better? (Heb.4:15) And since we're not the kind of a church that thinks sex was a sin, it was certainly no sin for Him. It was probably a welcome relief from all the trials & tribulations & problems He was going through. [DELETED]
[DELETED]
36. THEY DRANK WINE THAT NIGHT TOO! And it wasn't until they were through eating & drinking that the Lord suddenly took a little bit more of a sober bent & train of thought & began to predict what was going to happen & to somewhat solemnly lead them into a ceremony, one of the few so-called "ordinances" of the Church. The Church calls it an ordinance, meaning a law that you have to observe. The Lord did seem to commend it & He certainly advised it, but it seemed to be something which He considered would be voluntary & which you would want to observe to commemorate His death. What did He say? "As oft as ye do this, ye do it in remembrance of Me." And "ye do show the Lord's death till He comes." (1Cor.11:25,26)
37. SO HE WAS BEGINNING TO ILLUSTRATE FOR THEM WHAT HE WAS ABOUT TO DO FOR THEM. That night & in the following events His body was to be broken, scarred, marred, ripped, torn, pierced, lacerated, horribly abused, His blood shed & finally His life given, that we might be what? What two things does He show in this commemoration? His body was broken for you. For what? (Fam: Healing.) Healing! I hope you finally have learned that, my goodness! I don't really hardly know any church that teaches that but us, but I have brought that out clearly.--The bread is for healing.
38. HE DIDN'T NEED TO HAVE HIS BODY BROKEN & ALL THAT SUFFERING THAT HE WENT THROUGH FIRST IN ORDER TO DIE FOR OUR SALVATION, TO SHED HIS BLOOD FOR OUR SINS, HE COULD HAVE JUST GONE TO THE CROSS & DONE THAT & THAT WAS IT. That's all He had to do, & that was enough, to die for our sins. But He had to suffer pain & agony of the physical body, as some suffer today in sickness & in pain, that He might bear our sufferings in His Own body, "For by His stripes ye are healed." (Isa.53:5)--Not by His death on the cross, not by His final shedding of His blood in His life, that was for your salvation, the salvation of your eternal body, your eternal soul, your spirit! That ought to make you happy & not look so sad, for goodness sake!
39. BUT HE HAD TO SUFFER NOT ONLY ALL HIS LIFE FOR 33 YEARS ALL OF THE THINGS THAT WE GO THROUGH to sympathise with us & empathise with us & to feel what we feel, compassion for us, but final excruciating torture & agony of the physical body to save us from physical sickness & human ills as well as from our sins! He said, "Take, eat, this is My body which is broken for you." "But Himself bear our infirmities in His Own Body," God's Word says, "and by His stripes ye are healed." And He said, "Take, drink, after the same manner the cup. This is My blood of the New Testament shed for the remission of your sins. Drink ye all of it." (1Cor.11:24,25; 1Pet.2:24; Isa.53:5)
40. IN OTHER WORDS, "I'M ALSO GOING TO SUFFER AGONY & PAIN & ILLNESS IN MY BODY TO EMPATHISE, SYMPATHISE WITH YOU & YOUR PHYSICAL TROUBLES & distresses & afflictions to let you know that I know how you feel. I've been through it, I know the pain, I know the agony, I know the suffering! I've been through it all even worse than you, I know what you're going through, so don't worry." "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all!" (Psa.34:19) He was as good as saying, "You need all these afflictions, you're going to have to have'm to keep you righteous! But as you learn your lessons I will deliver you, one after the other, time after time." And you & I are no exceptions, we have our ups & downs, even discouragement sometimes.
41. DID YOU KNOW THAT EVEN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF GOT DISCOURAGED?--AT LEAST ONCE THAT WE KNOW OF. We know that King David got discouraged, he was human, & of course that's natural & that's to be expected & you're not surprised by that.--Even though David has been made a saint by the Churches, & virtually all the Bible heroes have been made such saints that they were supposed to be perfect, never had any faults, never did anything wrong, were absolutely perfect! But if you'll read the Bible you'll find out differently!
42. SOME BIBLE TEACHER ONCE SAID THAT JOSEPH WAS THE ONLY MAN IN THE BIBLE BESIDES JESUS OF WHICH THERE ARE NO RECORDED FAULTS OR MISTAKES OR SINS. But if you ask me, he was pretty stupid telling his brothers those dreams! What do you think? What could he expect but revenge? It seemed to me like he was a little bit glorying & gloating over them, that they were all going to have to fall down & worship him. It seemed like he was almost a little premature in his bragging. I'm sure the Lord gave him the dreams & you are supposed to tell your dreams--some of you have & we've been inspired, encouraged & warned by many dreams--& you've certainly heard a lot of mine. But I wouldn't say Joseph was any more perfect than the rest of them, he was just as human as we are & I seem to feel he made a few mistakes.
43. I'VE EVEN TOLD YOU ABOUT A FEW OF THE GREAT APOSTLE SAINT PAUL'S MISTAKES, OBVIOUS MISTAKES, RECORDED IN THE BIBLE. [DELETED] [EDITED: "H"]e was stubborn, bull-headed, determined to go ahead & do what he wanted to do to try to save the Jews [DELETED] trying to fulfil all the ceremonial laws & go into the Temple, even having poor Timothy circumcised & all the rest of it! [DELETED]
44. YOU CAN'T PLEASE THE CHURCHES, YOU CAN'T PLEASE THE JEWS! You'll never please'm, so quit trying! You can be polite & be courteous & be kind & be Christian & all that, but for God's sake, avoid'm like the plague most of the time because they can become your worst enemies! They were Jesus' worst enemies. The holiest, most religious people were His worst enemies of all.--The Fundamentalists, the conservatives, the Evangelicals of His day, the Scribes & the Pharisees, those who believed in keeping the jot & the tittle of the Law. The holiest of the holies of the Holiness people were His worst enemies & the ones that finally killed Him! He didn't even bother the Sadducees very much for awhile, they were the Modernists, the rich Jews who didn't even believe any more, didn't believe in the Hereafter or the Resurrection or miracles or the supernatural.
45. SEE, MAN HASN'T CHANGED VERY MUCH, WE'VE GOT THOSE TWO SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT EVEN TODAY, HAVEN'T WE? We've got the Holiness people on the one hand, the ultra-Fundamentalist-Evangelical-Holiness-Pentecostals. Then we've got the ultra-Modernist Council of Churches preachers who get up & preach pretty little sermons about social service & say Christ was just a Teacher & just a Philosopher & not even a Prophet, certainly not the Son of God--unbelievers! They don't believe in the Hereafter, the Resurrection, etc.
46. BUT THE TRUE BELIEVERS, THE GENUINE BODY OF CHRIST, IS CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE BETWEEN THE TWO, & FINALLY BOTH SIDES GANGED UP ON JESUS & CRUCIFIED HIM! Because after socking it to the Fundamental Holiness people & Pentecostals for awhile--I'm using a little parallel terminology here--He finally turned around & socked it to the Sadducees too. The reason they called them Sadducees was because they didn't believe in Eternity or Heaven or Resurrection or the supernatural, & that's why they were so sad, you see! The Pharisees believed in it all, they thought themselves perfect & beautiful, & that's why they were so fair I see! Maybe that'll help you remember their doctrines. So the poor Christians got caught in the middle. They were neither Sadducees nor Pharisees, they were just whatever you saw, that was it. But they had it, they had the reality, the Truth! Amen?
47. BUT THE DEEPLY RELIGIOUS & THE VERY RELIGIOUS WERE HIS WORST ENEMIES, & I dare say that probably a lot of the people, particularly hundreds of thousands of the religious leaders today who are solemnly, soberly celebrating these events of this week & this night, are some of our bitterest enemies who would crucify us afresh if they could, thinking that they were doing God service, & some have. (John 16:2)--Perhaps not literally, but they have persecuted us, hounded us, imprisoned us & driven us out!--And not just the Jews, not just the Muslims, but Christians, supposed Christians who are supposedly disciples of Jesus Christ, but who are just as much Scribes & Pharisees & Sadducees & the enemies of Jesus as were the ones who crucified Him on this night that we commemorate, & have done it & we have suffered it!
48. I'VE HAD THEM PICK ME UP BODILY & THROW ME OUT THE DOOR JUST BECAUSE I QUOTED'M SCRIPTURE!--SCRIPTURES WHICH CONTRADICTED THE LIES THAT THEY WERE TEACHING THE PEOPLE. They didn't want to hear the Truth, they shut their ears, & like they did to Stephen, they ran upon me! (Acts 7:57) They didn't actually bite me, although they might have done that in that Pentecostal Church, the Assembly of God & a few others. If they thought they could get away with it they probably would have stoned me outside if the Lord had allowed, but they did the only thing that they felt was legal. I was disturbing a religious service, which was against the law in their eyes. I didn't exactly mean to disturb it, I was just correcting what the preacher said. I just stood up & said, "Aren't you overlooking this certain Scripture?" & quoted it to him. He looked at me blankly like he didn't even know I was there & went right on like he never even heard me. Dumb! Deaf! Blind!--Leaders of the blind, so they all fall in the ditch! (Mat.15:14)
49. SO I'M SORRY TO SAY THAT OF THESE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF CHRISTIANS WHO ARE CELEBRATING THIS EVENT & THIS WEEK & THIS NIGHT & who will be rejoicing on coming Easter Sunday, I would dare say that we could probably count very few of them as friends. But I believe there are a few million who have heard our Word & believe it & who follow our teachings! After all, somebody's getting those hundreds of millions of little tracts that are being passed out every year, they must be reading them, & we're getting hundreds of thousands, in fact millions of Salvation decisions! They must have believed it, they must have received it. So I would say they believed us & received our witness & our testimony & thereby received us.
50. SO I BELIEVE WE HAVE MILLIONS OF FRIENDS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, who although they do not consider themselves one of us as far as the intimate Family is concerned, are believers.--Perhaps not followers or disciples, but at least in a sense following the teaching, even if it be afar off. Other hundreds of millions are simply ignorant, & if they've even heard about us they know little or nothing & really don't know or understand, therefore cannot be held necessarily accountable.
51. BUT THERE IS A VERY SMALL MINORITY, BUT VERY VOCIFEROUS & VERY VICIOUS & VERY VIOLENT, WHO ARE OUR BITTER SWORN ENEMIES! And they're not only amongst the Jews [DELETED], but after some of these recent Letters I'm getting out we're probably going to have some amongst the fanatical Muslims!--When I finally pulled out all the stops & started socking it to them for their unbelief & their rejection of Jesus! But saddest of all we have bitter, pharisaical, self-righteous, hypocritical, Scribe & Pharisee enemies amongst the supposed most believing Christians, largely led astray & deceived & lied to by their religious leaders, as the people were in Jesus' day.
52. THE COMMON PEOPLE HAD HEARD HIM GLADLY! (Mark 12:37) Thousands upon thousands had heard & believed His message, received it, been healed, fed & loved Him. But where were they that night when the [EDITED: "religious leaders"] & their paid mercenaries were shouting, "Crucify Him!"? They must have been home watching television--they certainly weren't there to stick up for Him. No doubt quite a few of them were even deceived by the lies & figured they had been deluded & deceived & it had turned out He was a false prophet. They thought He was true, thought He was right, but they were so easily deluded & deceived & misled.
53. THE SEED HAD FALLEN ON SHALLOW OR STONY GROUND, been choked out by thorns & bore no fruit, & they were led astray & led away. (Mat.13:7) Perhaps afterward some of them were sorry when they saw how far the enemies of Christ went & how horrible it was. Let's hope they were convicted & repented & came back, & a lot of people did. There were lots of Christians led by the Apostles & Disciples who were left, so that on the Day of Pentecost 3,000 got saved with one sermon & a few days later 5,000 with one healing! (Acts 2:41 & 4:4)
54. THE GROUND HAD BEEN SOWN & WATERED & SOFTENED & PREPARED, so that even after Jesus was crucified, many were prepared to understand, comprehend, believe & receive the whole Truth, to really then know that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, & receive Him as their Saviour, really saved.--Not just following a Personality, a Human Being, His Words, His miracles, His free meals, but finally understanding the deep spiritual meaning of it all, that He was the actual Saviour, the Messiah Who had been expected to come for millenniums, thousands of years!
55. WHEN I SAY MILLENNIUM, CHILDREN, IT DOESN'T ALWAYS MEAN THE MILLENNIUM, I hope you understand. The Millennium is that final Thousand Years that we're going to enjoy very soon. But the word "millennium" simply means a thousand years, any thousand years, really, & six of those have already passed. But the one we call the Millennium, that's the best of all, yet to come!--The seventh thousand! PTL?
56. SO HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF CHRISTIANS ARE CELEBRATING THIS NIGHT, with soberness, solemnities, sadness, even tears, and in some places in the World even with such extreme fanaticism that people are actually nailed to crosses, nails actually driven through their hands, lying on crosses, allowing themselves to be nailed to the cross like Jesus was & then hung there. They must have them pretty well tied on as well as nailed so that it's not going to be such excruciating agony that it's going to kill'm & they die like Jesus did.--Imagine, they do it trying to atone for their own sins, trying to suffer for their own sins, & all that suffering is in vain because even if they died on that cross it wouldn't save'm!
57. JESUS DIED FOR OUR SINS, HE'S THE ONLY ONE WHO COULD HAVE DONE IT! Only the Son of God could pay for your sins on the cross! In other words, only God Himself in His Son could have taken your sins in His Own body on that tree & borne the suffering of a dying sinner & taken your punishment for you & suffered for you. Only God could have done that in the Person of His Son Jesus. And that's what I was going to read to you about tonight.
58. SOME OF YOU SAW ME THUMBING THROUGH MY BIBLE & I WAS SELECTING SCRIPTURES THAT I THOUGHT WOULD BE GOOD TO READ TO YOU TONIGHT. But you have the Bible, you have Moses & the Prophets, & best of all you've got the New Testament & the Apostles & the Words of Jesus Himself. The Lord said, "Let them hear them, read them, receive them." He said if they didn't receive that, they wouldn't even believe if He came back from the dead. (Luke 16:31)--And they didn't! He came back from the dead & He resurrected several other people from the dead. In fact, many of the bodies of the saints arose from the grave when Jesus arose. (Mat.27:52) I believe all the Old Testament saints arose along with Him at that time, & ascended to Heaven with Him. But yet the unbelievers will not believe! Still they didn't believe!
59. THEY TRIED TO GET PILATE TO SPREAD THE WORD & THEY HIRED MEN TO SPREAD THE LIE THAT HIS DISCIPLES HAD STOLEN HIM OUT OF THE GRAVE. They didn't want to believe. There are none so blind as those that will not see! They were deaf, dumb & blind, "brute beasts created to be destroyed." (2Pet.2:12) Whew! Interpret that Scripture for me, will you?--Some of you people who believe that God never does anything bad & is always namby-pamby & sort of easy-going, merciful & forgiving. He said some people were brute beasts created to be destroyed!--And I've sure heard of a lot of them shooting each other & being bestial & brutal to each other, horrors of atrocities of this modern so-called "civilised World."
60. MEN ARE JUST AS WICKED & JUST AS EVIL & JUST AS VICIOUS & JUST AS VIOLENT & JUST AS CRUEL TODAY AS THEY EVER WERE, THEY JUST COVER IT UP A LITTLE BIT BETTER.--Although they're not even doing too good a job of covering it up nowadays. It still gets exposed quite often with all kinds of brutal wars going on around the World. I'm beginning to think those Lebanese are a hopeless case! They enjoy killing, it's a way of life. In fact, some psychologists have even said that, that they don't know what they would do if they did ever have peace in Lebanon. Some of those guys would feel out of place, they wouldn't know what to do. All they know is how to kill & shed blood!
61. GOD'S WORD SAYS THAT SOME RUN AFTER IT, ARE BLOODTHIRSTY, "THEIR FEET RACE TO SHED BLOOD!" (Rom.3:15) They love it! They glory in the gory & they like to kill & they like to cause people to suffer & like to make people shed blood. They love to see it! You saw in "Lawrence of Arabia" how he got that bloodlust at the last there & buried his hands in the dead, in the blood! It's a demon-possession, it's fiendish, it's vile, it's devilish! That's the way the Devil is, he loves to destroy, he loves to kill, he loves to devour, he loves to cause people to suffer & hurt! He loves to shed blood & he's shed it by the hundreds of millions around the World for six millenniums!--And he was the first to make sure it was shed when Cain killed his own brother Abel, his innocent, righteous brother Abel who was obeying the Law of God, while Cain was proudly disobeying & trying to have his own religion, his own way & justify himself, save himself. And the World & the religionists have been going that way ever since.
62. ABEL'S RELIGION WAS THE RELIGION OF THE SAINTS, THE SAVED, THOSE THAT OBEY GOD & TRUST IN THE BLOOD SACRIFICE OF JESUS FOR THEIR SALVATION & HAVE NO RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THEIR OWN. Cain's religion also still persists today, the religion of the religionists, of all the major so-called "faiths" today, who trust in their own righteousness, their self-righteousness, their religious formality & observances & ceremonies & the crazy things that are going on this week, their solemnness & their suffering & their sadness to save themselves! So the religions originated by Cain & Abel persist to this very day. The religionists were divided by the very first two sons of Adam & Eve.
63. THE TRUE RELIGION AS WELL AS THE FALSE RELIGION OF THE WORLD BEGAN WITH CAIN & ABEL & PERSIST TO THIS VERY DAY!--Those who are the true believers & true Children of God, true Christians, true followers of Jesus Christ, true disciples who trust in nothing but the blood of Jesus, nothing but the grace of Christ, nothing but the mercy of God, none of their own righteousness, none of their own works, but pure grace, the genuinely saved, the born-again, the true Kingdom of God!--As opposed to the hundreds of millions of poor, deceived, deluded, dumb goats led astray by their religious leaders & bellwethers, who listen to their lies & their exhortations to: "Save yourself! You can save yourself by your own sufferings. You can save yourself by your own holiness. You can save yourself by your own piety. You can save yourself by your own fasting. You can save yourself by your own suffering. You can save yourself by your own merits, your own penances, your own confessions, your own church-goings!"
64. "SAVE YOURSELF!"--THAT'S WHAT THE FALSE CHURCH & FALSE RELIGIONS CRY TO THEIR HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS, IN FACT BILLIONS OF FOLLOWERS!--Not only the religions of Judaism, Christianity & Islam, but also the many Oriental religions of the East. "Save yourself! If not save yourself, save your relatives! Burn up all the things & the money that they need in the Afterlife, burn them up & they'll pass through the fire into Hell to make them happy!" You can see intelligent, educated, smart, civilised, rich Chinese in modern civilised Chinese capitals of the World today going through these silly, ridiculous, pagan, superstitious ceremonies! We saw it in Singapore time & again, burning things for their relatives out in their cemeteries & temples! The bigger model of a mansion you could have them build out of paper & sticks, & the bigger model of a Mercedes automobile that you could have'm build & burn, they'll have that much better car & house in the Hellish Hereafter.
65. GOD'S MESSAGE WAS: "ONLY I CAN SAVE YOU, YOU CANNOT SAVE YOURSELF!" The Devil's religion is & his message has always been: "Save yourself! You're your own god, your own saviour, why depend on another? Save yourself!"--With knowledge, that was his first message of salvation. "Save yourself with the knowledge of Good & Evil so that you'll become like gods & save yourselves!" (Gen.3:5)--And man has been trying to do it ever since, & science is still trying to do it. Instead of that, science is damning the World, destroying the World, & would absolutely annihilate it if God didn't step in & stop it! We're not saying that all the discoveries & findings of science have been evil, there's been a lot of knowledge of good. But if you ask me, from the looks of things it's been mostly the knowledge of evil, promoted by the Devil, including the doctrine of save yourself, you can save yourself!
66. AND SAD TO SAY, HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF CHRISTIANS AROUND THE EARTH TODAY, THIS WEEK & TONIGHT, in spite of the message of Christ, in spite of the message of His sacrifice on Calvary, in spite of what Jesus did to save us, gave His life & His blood for us, are still being taught by their leaders to try to save themselves. Isn't that sad? I would say the vast majority of Christians today do not understand this week nor the message of Christ nor the Gospel nor His death nor His Salvation nor His grace nor faith, & are still trying to save themselves!
67. CHRIST'S MESSAGE WAS CLEAR, HIS DEATH WAS PLAIN, THE MESSAGE OF GOD WAS VERY CLEAR THROUGHOUT THE OLD & NEW TESTAMENTS!--Especially the New Testament, but very clear even in the Old Testament. The Jews were without excuse, they were to be saved by faith. Abraham was the father of the faithful because he was a man of faith, demonstrating faith that he couldn't do it himself, he just had to have faith in God, & yet the Jews claim him as one of their own!
68. THE JEWS CLAIM ABRAHAM & MOSES AS THE GREATEST OF ALL JEWS, WHEREAS ABRAHAM WASN'T EVEN A JEW, he was a Hebrew of the Tribe of Heber! Judah hadn't even come along yet! Not even Moses was a Jew, how about that? He was a Levite, wasn't he?--Tribe of Levi, not the Tribe of Judah. So he wasn't a Jew either. Here all these Jews are claiming Abraham, Isaac, Jacob & Moses & all the rest, & none of them were Jews! Not even Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, was a Jew!--Only his son Judah was a Jew!--Ha! How about that?
69. [DELETED] Think of that! But as I say, don't blame it all on the poor Jews, there are hundreds of millions of Christians tonight who are doing the same thing! But aren't you thankful that we know better? Aren't you thankful somebody told you the Truth?--That you believed the Word, that you received it, that you received Jesus as your Saviour? PTL?
70. I WAS GOING TO READ YOU THE STORY TONIGHT, BUT YOU'VE READ IT, YOU'VE HEARD IT, YOU EVEN HEARD IT IN SONG TONIGHT, WHICH I THOUGHT WAS GOOD PREPARATION. We tried to find hymns, something fitting to prepare your hearts & the atmosphere for this occasion & cause you to think about Jesus & His Love & His sacrifice on this night that commemorates His death for us. We tried some MWM tapes, God bless'm, & they've got a lot of good ones, but they're mostly happy because they are saved. We tried some old hymns of the Church & they're pretty sad because they're not sure. But finally I decided, "Well, I know there's one thing for sure, the 'Songs of Love' that I sang are the truth & fitting & they tell the story."
71. SO I TOLD THE BOYS, "PLEASE PUT MY 'SONGS OF LOVE' TAPE ON, I KNOW THAT GIVES THE STORY!" I think that's a pretty good tape, don't you? At least I sang with my whole heart, I meant it. I was singing quite a few old hymns that I'd never even sung before, believe it or not. I got a little tangled up once in awhile, you may or may not notice it, but at least I sang with my whole heart even if I didn't always get it right. God bless dear MWM who put the harmony & the musical accompaniment to it, they really had a few problems, so it wasn't all my fault either. But it came through pretty good. I think you got the message, didn't you?
72. SO IF YOU HAVE FOUND ME IN A LITTLE DIFFERENT MOOD TONIGHT, IT'S BECAUSE I AM!--Because I thought it was fitting tonight when hundreds of millions of Christians around the World are celebrating--I don't like to use the word celebrating in that context--commemorating the death of Jesus.--And billions of others as well know it & are hearing about it, knowing that this is a very special Holy Week for Christians. Virtually the whole World is hearing the message on radio & television, & even if they're not Christians, even if they're of other religions, they know that this is the Christians' Holy Week & this is its holiest night, the holiest of holies of all.
73. SO I WAS THINKING & PRAYING ABOUT TONIGHT & IT CAME TO ME VERY STRONGLY, that as we celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ & New Year's, the New Year coming in, our own birthday, the birthday of our Family, your birthdays & other important dates that are important to us, that while hundreds of millions of Christians are celebrating this day, we ought also celebrate the Lord's Supper.
74. THERE ARE SUPPOSEDLY 600 MILLION CATHOLICS IN THE WORLD, I don't know what the figure is for Protestants, but roughly, probably not more than a billion total of professing Christians. Of course the Catholics count everybody in Spain, everybody in Italy, etc., as long as they're an officially Catholic country whether they're all Catholics or not! So if it came down to the actual facts--& by observance of what I've seen the attendance in most Catholic churches--I think their stats would be pretty slim compared to that. But they boast of 600 million Catholics! So all together, the total of professing Christians, those who claim to be Christians or are counted as Christians around the World is probably not more than a billion at the most. Whereas there are about four billion people in the World today & the other three billion must be something else, including Muslims, Buddhists, Shintoists, Hindus & God knows what else!
75. BUT CONSIDERING THE EXTENT OF COMMUNICATIONS & THE DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION TODAY, probably the whole World, in all countries, of all faiths, nationalities & religions are hearing about this week & know that the Christians are celebrating their holiest days of the year, & are at least getting a little tiny glimpse of the message of Christ or hearing about Jesus, even if they don't understand it. A lot of these people who are ignorant & don't understand & really have not made a decision because they've never had a chance to have been popped the question are probably the millions who are going to survive the Wrath of God & holocaust of Armageddon & be preserved by a miracle of God into the Millennium, to be given not their second chance but their first chance to really hear the Gospel, understand it & receive it or reject it!
76. BUT TONIGHT MILLIONS OF OTHERS, & MANY OF THEM TRUE CHRISTIANS, GENUINE CHRISTIANS, SAVED, BORN-AGAIN CHRISTIANS WHO UNDERSTAND THE MESSAGE OF CHRIST & HIS DEATH & WHY, are choosing this week & this night to commemorate this event, & of all the nights in the year it seemed that we should celebrate the Lord's Supper, on the night in which He & His disciples celebrated that First Supper. Amen? And you can celebrate it again on Sunday if you want to. The Lord didn't give any frequency or any set time or how often or how little, but He says, "As oft as ye do it, ye do it in remembrance of Me." So the oftener you do it, the more you're remembering Him!
77. SOME CHURCHES DO IT ONCE A YEAR ON GOOD FRIDAY NIGHT, LIKE TONIGHT. Some churches do it once a month like my church did. Some churches do it once a week like my Grandfather's Church of Christ did. And God bless the dear Catholics, they do it every day that they have Mass, & many of them have Mass every day, several times a day. Of course, they don't seem to know what they're doing, because they don't seem to understand that it's almost like they're crucifying the Son of God afresh every day & putting Him again to an open shame, because they don't even understand the efficacy of the Mass & the Holy Eucharist & what it really means. But at least they're honouring Christ the best they know how in their ignorance.
78. AND WHETHER YOU BELIEVE IN CONSUBSTANTIATION OR TRANSUBSTANTIATION & a few other theological terms about whether this bread is actually the Body of Christ after we pray for it, & whether this wine does actually become His literal blood or not, personally I don't think it makes any difference here or there. If the Catholics consider that blasphemy, well, let it be. Some Protestants would almost consider it blasphemous. All I know is, like Martin Luther believed, Jesus said, "This is My body & this is My blood!"
79. JESUS, IT SEEMS TO ME, INDICATED THAT HE MEANT THAT THEY WERE DOING IT IN COMMEMORATION, IN MEMORY, IN SYMBOLISM, IN TYPOLOGY. Certainly they were not cannibals, they were not actually eating His flesh & drinking His blood! And it was that incomprehensible message, one of the final messages that Jesus preached to the mob & the multitude of Jews that finally lost Him His crowd, one of His last public sermons, when He said to them: "Except ye eat of My flesh & drink of My blood, you have no part in Me!" (John 6:53) They all left Him then except the Disciples!
80. PEOPLE HE HAD PREACHED TO FOR YEARS, HAD HEALED, FED & RESURRECTED FROM THE DEAD, ALL FLED & DESERTED HIM! Because, "Uh-oh, we thought He was a true Prophet, but now He's really gone off the deep end, He's off the beam, He's really become a fanatic of some kind, a radical! He's become a false prophet, He's teaching cannibalism, He's teaching eating flesh of humans! He's even teaching drinking blood!"--Which is an abomination to the Jews & the Mosaic Law, forbidden!--And still prohibited to Christians. (Acts 15:29)
81. JESUS, IN ONE OF HIS LAST PUBLIC SERMONS SAID, "EXCEPT YE EAT OF MY FLESH & DRINK OF MY BLOOD, YE HAVE NO PART IN ME!" And of course He was certainly meaning spiritually. None of His disciples ever ate His body or drank His literal blood, it was a symbolism, a type, a representation. So I still hold to that to this day. I've forgotten what the name of that doctrine is, but anyhow, you don't have to have the theological terms. Transubstantiation is the Catholic doctrine that it actually becomes the actual flesh & actual blood of Christ after they pray over it.
82. WHEW! WHEN I USED TO SEE THOSE PRIESTS GIVING COMMUNION AND STICKING THEIR DIRTY FINGERS IN EVERYBODY'S MOUTH, I wondered how many germs they were passing along with the body of Christ! And some of them still drink out of the common cup, I wonder how many germs they're sharing? Thank God for the alcohol, at least that helps kill a few germs. So we do drink the common cup & we trust God that we're not going to pass around anything but the cup & the wine!
83. THE CONSUBSTANTIATION THEORY IS THE DOCTRINE OF EVEN SOME OF THE PROTESTANTS, the formal Protestants, the Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians & a few others. It's a sort of a halfway doctrine that it is in a sense the literal body & blood of Christ & it has that effect, etc., but it's not quite as strong as the transubstantiation doctrine. The body is with the bread, the blood is with the wine, spiritually, but not actually the bread & actually the wine, that's consubstantiation. Not that it matters whether you know anything about theological doctrines & hairsplitting or not, but you might bump into somebody that knows sometime & they may ask you which one you believe. Well, do like Martin Luther, just say, "All I know is what it says, Jesus said: 'This is My body, this is My blood!'" So maybe you figure I'm a little bit closer to the Catholics, huh? Well, my common sense tells me that obviously it is a commemoration, as often as we do this, we do it in remembrance of Him & these things.
84. BUT ON THE OTHER HAND, THE WORD TELLS ME: "THIS IS MY BODY!" JESUS SAID, "THIS IS MY BLOOD!" And perhaps the Catholics partially in a sense are right, that if you have the faith to eat this with that much faith, that this literally becomes His body & a part of His body shared with your body to give you that miraculous, supernatural touch of healing that you need. If you will hallow it & respect it--not worship & adore it like the Catholics--but revere it, as Jesus Himself said, His body, & can believe that you're actually taking a part of Jesus' flesh into your own, perhaps that will give you the faith that you need, that with the flesh of Christ within you, it is going to supernaturally, miraculously heal your own vile body. And that as you drink the cup, it is so real, so genuine, that you can believe the very Words of Jesus: "This is My blood of the New Testament shed for the remission of your sins!"
85. HAVING ALREADY BEEN SAVED YOU KNOW THAT DRINKING THIS IS NOT GOING TO SAVE YOU, BECAUSE YOU HAVE ALREADY DRUNK OF HIS SALVATION, HIS SAVING BLOOD BY FAITH. But this should encourage & affirm your faith & your testimony & it is your witness that you have drunk of His blood in the Spirit, by the Spirit. You have received the blood of Christ as your atonement, His blood sacrifice for your sins. For even as Moses said, "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." (Lev.17:11; Heb.9:22)
86. I ASKED A RABBI THIS ONE DAY IN HIS CONSERVATIVE SYNAGOGUE, I SAID, "WELL, WHAT DO YOU DO?"--It was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. I said, "You go through all these ceremonies & you open the sacred cabinet & take out the Torah & walk around through the congregation"--while they touch it & kiss it & worship the Words, worship the text, worship the parchment & its decorations & its case & forget what it's all about, if they even know! I didn't say all that to him, mind you, I was trying to be friendly & bring out a point. I said, "What do you do with the fact that Moses himself said, 'For without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins'?" The Mosaic Law required a blood sacrifice, an animal sacrifice to be killed in a certain ceremonial way by the Priests or the Levites & to shed its blood, which was to symbolise their salvation, sprinkled by the Priest over the congregation, etc.
87. I SAID, "HOW DO YOU GET SAVED NOW?--Since you no longer have a Temple, you no longer have an altar, you no longer have blood sacrifices, when Moses himself said, 'Without the shedding of blood there's no remission of sins.'--God by the mouth of Moses said it. How do you get saved now?" Well, of course he was prepared for that, because Christians have probably asked Jews that question through the centuries, ever since the Temple was destroyed & the altar destroyed & the sacrificial worship stopped. I'm sure they quickly thought up a good excuse & a good alibi & have been using it ever since, & that's probably the one, the one he gave me. What do you suppose he said?
88. HE SAID, "OH, BY OUR PRAYERS & OUR WORSHIP! WE HAVE THE SACRIFICE OF PRAYER, THE SACRIFICE OF WORSHIP, THE SACRIFICE OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD TODAY AS OUR SACRIFICE!" Well, he was pretty close to a truth, in a way, because Jesus said, "They that worship the Lord must worship neither in the Temple nor in this mountain, but they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit & in Truth! The Father seeketh such to worship Him." (John 4:21-24) You see, the Jews [DELETED] say, "We're worshipping today in Spirit, in prayer, in worship & the worship of the Word, etc., so we don't have to have those blood sacrifices any more. They were rather primitive & more or less just a sort of typology, an ancient, primitive form of worship."
89. I SAID, "ALL I KNOW IS WHAT MOSES SAID: 'WITHOUT THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD THERE IS NO REMISSION OF SIN.'" And of course Moses meant not only the animal sacrifices that they were observing & performing then, none of which saved them, but which they were performing by faith in obedience to God, looking forward to the death of Christ & the shedding of His blood. And if, therefore, they believed in the proper sense of what those animal sacrifices meant, that that blood of those animals was symbolising or typifying the coming shed blood of their Messiah, they were just as saved as we are.--Such as the wine tonight symbolises & typifies, or if you want to believe it, becomes the actual shed blood of Jesus Christ. Well, whatever encourages your faith the most, whatever you can believe the most, whatever gives you the faith to remember that it was Jesus' blood shed on Calvary that saved you, believe it! "According to your faith be it done unto you." (Mat.9:29) Amen? So in like manner, so do ye tonight! After they had supped He took the bread & He blessed it, He prayed over it.
90. AND LORD, TONIGHT WE TAKE THIS BREAD, THE SYMBOL, IF NOT THE ACTUAL EMBODIMENT OF THY BODY, for as Thou did say, "This is My body which is broken for you. Take, eat!" For Lord, You suffered in Your body for our sicknesses & our illnesses as well as for our sins. You took our infirmities in Your Own body, by Your stripes we are healed. You didn't have to do all that, Lord, but You did that for our health, to show by Your vicarious suffering that You atone for our physical bodies as well as our spiritual souls.
91. WE ASK YOU TO BLESS THIS BREAD, & AS EACH ONE PARTAKES OF THEIR PORTION THAT THEY WILL HAVE THE FAITH TO BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE PARTAKING OF THEE, Thy body which was broken for them, for their sicknesses, their illnesses, that You shall cleanse them, Lord, from disease, cleanse them from pollution, cleanse them from infection, cleanse them, Lord, in a mighty victory! (Strong tongues!) Hallelujah! "Hear ye the Words that I have given unto thy Father David, that ye should believe that this shall save thee from thy sicknesses!" Hallelujah! TYL! TYJ! PYL! Help them to believe it as they partake of this bread tonight, to have the faith to believe that Thou dost heal their body tonight, their physical filthy flesh, to cleanse it & purify it & heal it, Lord, by faith, in Jesus' name! "Take, eat, this is My body which was broken for you"--broken for your healing, Beloved.
92. HE SAID TO THEM & TO THE CHURCH TODAY, "FOR THIS CAUSE MANY ARE SICK AMONGST YOU & SLEEP, DISCERNING NOT THE LORD'S BODY"--discerning not its efficacy for healing the flesh, discerning not the power of His suffering for your sicknesses & your diseases & your infections & your afflictions. "And many even sleep." Many have died because they didn't discern the Lord's body! They didn't understand what the breaking of the bread was for, they didn't understand what the partaking of His body was for, for their healing. They didn't have to be sick, they didn't even have to die prematurely when they did if they had discerned His body.
93. CAN YOU DISCERN HIS BODY & UNDERSTAND HIS BODY TONIGHT, WHICH IS AT THIS MOMENT, AFTER THIS PRAYER, AS HIS BODY WAS, BROKEN FOR YOURS?--In Jesus' name! Amen! Will you please give that half to partake of along there? I believe in passing the half loaf like this & letting you break off your own, "According to your faith be it unto you." How much medicine do you need tonight? Hmm? It's the normal custom in most churches to partake together, except in the Catholic Church they take it as they get it, & you can do whichever way you feel, as you pray & as you have faith. I don't think we have to wait until everybody has their portion & partake together, I'm going to take mine right now. I need it now! How about you? PTL! Bless it in Jesus' name & make it a blessing. "Take, eat! This is My body which is broken for you!"--In Jesus' name!
94. EXPECT HEALING! EXPECT TO BE CLEANSED! REBUKE THAT INFECTION IN Jesus' name! Rebuke that pollution of the Enemy in Jesus' name! He should have no part in you! Why should you suffer it? Why don't you ask God to deliver you? Maybe you haven't specifically asked Him. Maybe you haven't rebuked the Enemy. Maybe you haven't partaken of the body of Jesus by faith. How can Christ have any part with Belial? (2Cor.6:15) What place has the Enemy in the Body of Christ? Rebuke it! Resist it! Get rid of it! Partake of the bread & expect Him to cleanse you, in Jesus' name! Amen? TYL!
95. YOU DON'T HAVE TO PUT UP WITH IT, YOU DON'T HAVE TO SUFFER IT, YOU DON'T HAVE TO CONTINUE LONG YEARS OF PROLONGED INFECTION & DISEASE & WHATNOT! Rebuke it! Get the victory tonight! Ask God for deliverance! I'm expecting to hear some testimonies of deliverance from this meeting, that God is going to answer prayer & your faith & heal you right now! And if you can believe that, He will, & He wants to & He's promised to, so why don't you receive it? Just reach out that hand of faith & accept His gift. It's a gift! You can't earn it, you don't deserve it, you just have to receive it, like salvation.
96. BUT I WARN YOU, IT'S A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT THAN SALVATION IN THIS RESPECT, IT'S AN EXTRA BLESSING, & if you don't obey, if you don't please the Lord & You break His laws, spiritual or natural, you'll suffer for it again. He can take it away from you. He won't take away your Salvation, but He can take away your healing if you don't use it for His glory, if you don't use that health & that strength & that healing to glorify God & testify of it & thank Him for it & tell everybody about it & stand on the promises & the Word that He's done it! Even if you don't see it immediately, expect it! Praise God?
97. "AND AFTER THE SAME MANNER ALSO HE TOOK THE CUP, WHEN HE HAD SUPPED, SAYING, "THIS IS MY BLOOD OF THE NEW TESTAMENT." This is a new covenant, a new will. You've heard a lot about the reading of wills & He was reading His will. He was about to die & He was reading His will to His beneficiaries, those who were to receive His inheritance, Salvation & the Kingdom of God! That was the reading of His will, praise the Lord? Thank God, by faith you've already received it! We have an earnest, a sample of His inheritance. (Eph.1:14) We don't yet have the fulness of it except by faith, just like healing is a sample of resurrection. Healing is a sample of the supernatural body we're going to have. So our present salvation by faith is a sample or an earnest of the complete spiritual salvation that we shall have when we are raised from the dead, or when we die & go to be with the Lord. "The spirits of just men made perfect." (Heb.12:23) PTL!
98. RIGHT NOW NOBODY'S PERFECT, EXCEPT BY FAITH. Anybody feel perfect tonight?--Perfectly sinless? Sinless saints? Huh? You mean you don't feel perfect? We feel pretty imperfect like the poor publican who was praying: "Lord, be merciful unto me a sinner!" The Lord stood right there & told the self-righteous Scribes & Pharisees that that fellow had a better chance of getting to Heaven than the self-righteous hypocrite who was praying, "Thank God I'm not like this guy!" (Luke 18:9-14)
99. SO THIS IS YOUR ONLY HOPE, & DRINKING THIS YOU ARE TESTIFYING & WITNESSING THAT YOU HAVE RECEIVED THE SACRIFICE OF THE BLOOD OF CHRIST SHED FOR THE REMISSION OF YOUR SINS, YOUR SALVATION. So whether you want to think you're drinking a symbol, whether you want to think you're drinking this along with the spiritual blood of Christ, or whether you want to think you're really drinking the literal blood of Christ once we have blessed it, whatever helps your faith the most, you've already drunk of Christ, amen? Pisteuo (Jn.7:37-38), you have believed, you have received, you've drunk in Jesus! You already have Him in your heart, don't you? So PTL! Whichever way you believe, it's all right with me as long as you believe that you have received the blood of Christ for your Salvation.--Whether you received it long ago or you feel that you receive it every time you take Communion, at least you have received. PTL! As far as I'm concerned, the first time you ever received Him, that was it!
100. AND NOW, AS JESUS HIMSELF SAID, "AS OFT AS YE DO IT, YE DO IT IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME." You're not crucifying Him afresh tonight, you're only remembering His sacrifice. It is a remembrance. "And ye do show the Lord's death"--therefore you testify or witness to His Salvation--"till He comes." PTL?
101. SO WE THANK THEE TONIGHT FOR THIS, THY SACRIFICE, LORD, THY BLOOD SHED FOR THE REMISSION OF OUR SINS, the New Testament in Thy blood which was shed for us on that tree, that we are commemorating this night--Thy suffering, Thy Love, that You died for us in our place, took our punishment for us. Instead of us dying for our sins, You died for them, Lord. And we now attest & testify & witness our faith in Thee & Thy death for us & Thy sacrifice of Thy blood for our Salvation to wash away our sins, as we symbolise it as we partake of this cup. "This is My blood of the New Testament, this is My blood shed for thee," for our Salvation.
102. LET NONE PARTAKE UNWORTHILY, LORD, TESTIFYING OF SOMETHING THAT HAS NOT HAPPENED IN THEIR HEARTS, & we don't believe there is a one here, Lord, who doesn't know & love You, Jesus, & have You in their hearts & are saved. Therefore we can't see how anyone here can possibly partake unworthily.--Having already discerned Thy body & now discerning the significance of Thy blood, testifying of their own Salvation, in Jesus' name. Amen. TYL! PTL! PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ! (Sings "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood") Instead of "There may I," we ought to sing it, "There have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away!" PTL? Hallelujah! TYJ! (Sings "Nothing But the Blood") PTL! TYJ! And that reminds me of another old hymn. (Sings "Rock of Ages") Hallelujah! TYJ! PTL! (Sings "Power in the Blood") I thought you children knew these songs. I can't hear you! Don't you know that song? Well, sing it again, I want to hear you! (Sings it again!) Do you believe it? PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ! Have you received it? I know you have or you wouldn't be here!
103. AMEN, GOD BLESS YOU EVERY ONE! THANK THE LORD FOR THIS ACT TONIGHT & WHAT WE'RE COMMEMORATING, WHICH SHOULD BE NOT A SAD EVENT, BUT FOR US TONIGHT A HAPPY ONE!--Because if it hadn't been for tonight, we wouldn't be saved. Praise the Lord for the night that Jesus died for us! Let's keep that in mind as we remember it tomorrow. He not only died for us, but He went down into the bowels of the Earth, three days & three nights in the heart of the Earth, & He preached to the souls in prison down there to give them a chance to be saved too! Think of it! Isn't that wonderful? A lot of people don't believe that, but I do. It says so! So why not believe it? (Mat.12:40; 1Pet.3:19; 4:6; Eph.4:9)
104. AND THEN, PRAISE GOD, COME SUNDAY, WE'LL BE ABLE TO SING ALL THOSE WONDERFUL HYMNS ABOUT "UP FROM THE GRAVE HE AROSE!" Let's not just remember the death of the cross, let's not always be seeing just a Christ on the cross & a crucifix, the suffering & the death & the fear that it generates & that some religions promote, constantly reminding you of Jesus on the cross. We don't have a Jesus on the cross, He's left the cross! We have a bare cross! Jesus is no longer there! We don't have a Christ in the grave! "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (1Cor.15:55) We don't have a dead Christ hanging there on a crucifix, we have a live Jesus living in our hearts! PTL! Hallelujah? (Sings:)
105. "UP FROM THE GRAVE HE AROSE,
WITH A MIGHTY TRIUMPH O'ER HIS FOES!
He arose a Victor o'er the dark domain
And He lives forever with His Saints to reign!
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!"
And,
"He lives! He lives!
Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me
And talks with me
Along life's narrow way!
He lives! He lives,
Salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives,
He lives within my heart!"
Hallelujah?
"Since Jesus came into my heart,
Since Jesus came into my heart,
Floods of joy o'er my soul
Like the sea billows roll,
Since Jesus came into my heart!"
PTL?--Some of the blessed old hymns of the Church that I guess you aren't even familiar with & haven't learned.
106. WE'VE GOTTA SEND FOR SOME HYMNBOOKS! I've got a burden for it, we've gotta order some hymnbooks. Can't we ask someone to find some of those little cheap ones like we had before?--Little paperbacks with all the old uncopyrighted hymns of the Church they had for years, & I'll teach you a few of those old hymns! You've heard me sing'm on tape but apparently you haven't learned them yet!--Or you forget the words & you need the words to remind you because we don't sing them very often.
107. YOU SOUNDED LIKE YOU HEARD THAT "SINCE JESUS CAME INTO MY HEART" FOR THE FIRST TIME TONIGHT! Some of those good old-fashioned evangelical hymns of the days of the great evangelists like Moody & some of those are beautiful old hymns! (Sings "Since Jesus Came into My Heart" again.) Do you like that one? Isn't that pretty? Well, my goodness, we're going to have to learn some of these hymns. Let's order some hymnbooks, & you can watch the words while we sing & we'll try to teach you a few of those old hymns.
108. YOU'RE GOING TO FEEL A LITTLE STRANGE & A LITTLE UNCOMFORTABLE WHEN ALL THE CHURCH PEOPLE UP THERE IN HEAVEN ARE SINGING ALL THESE OLD HYMNS & YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW'M! Of course, they'll feel a little uncomfortable too when they hear some of the songs that you sing & they see all the souls you won that they didn't win, & they see your crown & your blaze of glory & you're shining like "those that are wise, that turn many to righteousness" when their light is pretty dim! (Dan.12:3) So I don't think you're going to be too ashamed just because you don't know a few old hymns. They'll be embarrassed at our sexual freedom!
109. BUT ON THE OTHER HAND, YOU OUGHT TO HAVE A RATHER BROAD EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE & know a few old hymns of the old saints & the old martyrs & the old great heroes of the Church, the ones that they sang, & I've taught you a few. You probably know "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" better than that one. But you need to learn a few of those, I think, & it would be good for you to know that you're not the only Christians that ever lived, there have been lots of good Christians, real saints & real heroes of the faith & martyrs that have lived through the centuries who sang those songs & enjoyed praising the Lord in songs & hymns & singing spiritual songs & psalms, & the Lord Himself exhorted us to do so. (Eph.5:19)
110. I WANT TO TEACH YOU SOME OF THESE OLD HYMNS, I CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER SOME OF THEM MYSELF, I'M FORGETTING THEM! I'd like to kind of revive a little of that good old Revival spirit! We don't have to be evangelistic here because you're all saved, but we can be revived, at least. You know? Of course, you're supposed to stay alive all the time, but every now & then you need a little revival. So I think some of those old hymns would do you good & you'd enjoy it. PTL? So I hope someone somewhere can send us some nice little cheap hymnbooks. Don't pay too much though, we don't have very long to use them! After all, we'll be able to sing some new songs up in Heaven! We'll have new names & sing new songs & have a whole new life! PTL? But I think you'd really enjoy some of those old hymns, really I do. I think we'd like'm, really! So PTL! (Sings:)
111. "SINCE JESUS CAME INTO MY HEART!
SINCE JESUS CAME INTO MY HEART!
Floods of joy o'er my soul like the sea billows roll"
--like those big waves you've seen in the movies--
"Since Jesus came into my heart!"
PTL? Are you happy?--Got floods of joy?--Joy floods tonight since Jesus came into your heart! PTL! I know you're tired & we kept you late tonight, but I guess the Lord felt like it was a good time to do this, because I had no idea of doing this. I was already thinking today about tapes we were going to play & dance to & whatnot, & boom, the Lord dropped the bomb & I exploded! So TYL! Well, once in awhile we need to have a little time of thoughtfulness & meditation & soberness & inspiration, a little education & edification. You get it all day, especially you that work on the Words like I do.
112. I DID 42 PAGES TODAY, & WE'VE GOT A NEW GN ALMOST READY TO ROLL TOMORROW! You say, "Well, I just got it!" No, you didn't get this one, this is a new one, you just got the last one, that's all. That was a good one too, Faithy wrote half of it. But anyhow, another new GN is coming out. Boy, I go through those stacks of Letters I've got & I see how many good talks you've already had & I figure, "What's the use of ever giving any more?--There's plenty here!" But when the Lord tells me to, I will!--Not when you tell me to, but I'll talk when He says talk. And when He says, "Shut up & dance!"--I'll shut up & dance or prance or whatever He tells me to do! You've got to be willing to be crazy & do whatever God tells you to do if you're going to be the Prophets of God & obedient Children of God. Don't predict what you're going to do, just do it when God says do it. PTL?
113. I'M ALWAYS A LITTLE AGGRAVATED WHEN PEOPLE ASK ME WHAT I'M GOING TO DO, BECAUSE I REALLY DON'T KNOW! I don't know, I don't plan ahead. You ought to know that, Peter. The only time I ever plan ahead is when Peter makes me, when we've got to get reservations & buy tickets & we've got to do this & we've got to do that because the System insists on it. And then, in spite of all that, the Lord has often turned us right around & done something different & he had to go back & cash'm all in & change reservations & be embarrassed & have people think he's crazy! He was going to South America & all of a sudden he wants to go to Sri Lanka! They must really think you're nuts! But he's not the one that's nuts, it's me, or the Lord! But He wasn't so nuts after all, was He? PTL? He sure had the right idea! It wasn't so crazy after all. They're having more troubles down in South America than they are in the East!
114. SO PRAISE THE LORD, YOU LITTLE KIDS WERE SURE PATIENT & QUIET TONIGHT! I don't see how you held it, you didn't even go to the toilet! God bless you all! Well, since we're having a somewhat formal evening tonight we can go through one of our other little ceremonies & pray the Lord's Prayer, shall we? Well, He taught it, it must be good, so that's why I like to pray it. PTL? His prayer covers everything. I've always threatened to preach you a sermon on it & some day maybe I will if I ever have time, because it's got a lot more meaning in it than you realise. So try to think of it & try to mean it & understand each word as you pray it, that we really mean business. Amen? Praise God!
115. ARE YOU GLAD THAT YOU'RE ALREADY IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD & HIS KINGDOM IS IN YOU? We already have a little bit of Heaven on Earth right here in our Heavenly Home with all these angels, both male & female angels, God bless'm, real angels, & little cherubs too, little angels! GB'm! PTL! TYL! Okay, well, just grab anybody's hand you can. Techi, do you want to hold Grandpa's hand while we pray? PTL! Hallelujah! TYL!
116. WELL, I THINK WE HAD A GOOD TIME TONIGHT & MAYBE YOU LEARNED A FEW THINGS I HAVEN'T SAID BEFORE, ALTHOUGH I THINK I'VE SAID IT ALL BEFORE! But tonight I just had to remind you, I guess. He says, "As oft as ye do it, ye do it in remembrance," you're reminded, so we remembered again tonight. PTL? We were reminded & this was a remembrance. PTL! GBY! So glad to see you're all here. All of us are here tonight, thank the Lord.
117. AND WE WELCOME PRECIOUS MARY MAGDALENE & WE'RE SO HAPPY TO HAVE HER WITH US TONIGHT! She decided she'd rather come to a personal appearance than just watching television all the time. Well, she hasn't been watching TV, she's been watching videos of me & lessons & classes, not just pure entertainment. So I think she's had pretty much of an education, learned her lesson & is prepared to rejoin our fellowship. PTL? I think she's already been to your fellowships already & testified to that, hasn't she? So I see no reason why she shouldn't be in our nightly meetings & enjoy our fellowship here as well. PTL! She certainly has changed, hasn't she? She almost looks like a different person over there, sitting like a little demure girl, a little feminine woman! PTL! GBH! She looks really downright feminine tonight, thank the Lord, no more of that masculine spirit, thank God! He wants you to be what He made you to be.
118. SO GOD BLESS YOU ALL, LET'S PRAY THE PRAYER THAT HE TAUGHT US TO PRAY: (Prays the Lord's Prayer, Psalm 19:14 & "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.") "The Lord bless thee & keep thee, the Lord make His face to shine upon thee & be gracious unto thee, the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee & give thee peace!" (Num.6:24-26)--And a good night's sleep, safe-keeping & strength for tomorrow.
119. THANK YOU FOR THIS NIGHT TOGETHER, LORD, TO REMEMBER YOU AGAIN AS WE CARRY YOU IN OUR HEARTS ALL DAY LONG & ALL NIGHT. Keep us all safely in Thy care, the children & the Family & all of Thy Family around the World as they remember Thee this day & this night especially. And may as many of those who profess to know Thee come to find & know Thee truly everywhere, & many of those who know Thee not at all, Lord, perhaps never heard of Thee, help us to reach them, to find them through radio, literature, somehow. Bless those precious young Christians in Russia & in China & in many of the closed-door countries that we're getting into, Lord. Bless them, encourage them, inspire them, protect them, keep them, multiply them, Lord, provide for them!
120. AND THANK YOU FOR HOW YOU'VE TAKEN CARE OF US, LORD, THROUGH ALL THESE YEARS! Thank You Jesus that You've kept & provided for us in this comfortable, convenient place to live while we work for You. TYJ! Help us to be able to stay here as long as You want us to, accomplishing what You want us to do, to feed Thy sheep around the World. Bless us & bless Thy Work & Thy Words & bless Thy Children who are heeding them abroad, in Jesus' name. Amen! PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ! (Sings:)
121. "BLEST BE THE TIE THAT BINDS"
--ALL OF US, MILLIONS--
"OUR HEARTS IN CHRISTIAN LOVE!
The fellowship of kindred mind,
Is like to that Above."
And as I've often said, I think it is the same.
"Blest be the tie that binds,
Our hearts in Christian love,
The fellowship of kindred mind,
Is the same as that Above!"
Amen? I don't think it's just like it, I think it's the same! PTL? I'm talking about the fellowship & the spirit & kindred mind, it's all the same, but of course, they've got supernatural, miraculous bodies & a much better place to live. But as far as the spirit & the fellowship & the kindred minds, we have the same, the same with each other & the same with them.
"Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love.
The fellowship of kindred mind
Is the same as that Above!"
We always have to be a little revolutionary, you know, & do things a little bit different! Well, after all, if it's the Truth, why not? Amen? GBY!
122. IF YOU FEEL LIKE DANCING YOU'RE WELCOME TO DANCE, ONLY I THINK IT'S A LITTLE LATE TO PLAY THE MUSIC. I think 11:30 is a good time to go to bed, don't you? PTL!--And have your private prayers & devotionals or Word or whatever you do before you go to bed, lovemaking or whatever. But get to bed now, it's late, & get a good night's sleep. Is tomorrow your sleep-in day? Not Saturday? See, I give you more days off than these other people are giving you, but they know how much work has to be done & that's not my department, so GB'm!
123. THE SCHEDULE & THE RUNNING OF THE HOUSE & THE WORK I LEAVE UP TO THOSE WHO ARE OUR PERSONNEL MANAGERS & BUSINESS MANAGERS & HOUSEKEEPERS & ALL THE REST, IT'S JUST MY JOB TO HAVE FUN & FEED YOU! I have the fun part, the easy part. All I have to do is come down here & have fellowship & fun with you & feed you, & they have to do all the hard work & keep the rules & make you keep the rules & order the schedule & the housework & all the rest. I had to kind of back out of that in recent days. I used to have my finger in every pie! Well, I pretty much keep an eye on what's going on & make sure it's going all right, but I used to figure out the work schedule, figure out everything & do it all. But after all these years I figure you must have learned something by this time so I'm leaving it up to you now.
124. I'M JUST DOING WHAT ONLY I CAN DO, & THAT IS TO TAKE CARE OF THE WORD & THE LETTERS, THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD THE LORD HAS GIVEN ME. That's my job & I expect you to do your job, the work God's given you, & your overseers to do their job to see that you do it! So don't blame it on me! Don't blame it on them either, because after all, you chose it, amen? You chose to serve the Lord & sign a blank check, whatever He wanted you to do, & here you are doing it. So PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ! Amen!
125. THIS IS ONE OF MY BEST FANS RIGHT HERE! (TECHI!) Did you see how quiet our children sat here [DELETED] & listened? Isn't that amazing? [DELETED] I've never seen children that good in my whole life, have you? I don't see how they can stand it, & I guess they don't see how they can stand it either if I don't shut up & let'm go to bed! PTL! So GBY all! ILY! Thanks for coming! Come back again!
126. IF YOU DIDN'T GET YOUR KISS BEFORE, I'LL GIVE IT TO YOU NOW! Take, eat, this is my body! Hallelujah! TYL! You're part of the body of Christ so I can eat you too! PTL! Hallelujah! Can't spend much time with you tonight, they're waiting in line here! I'm going to eliminate this ban on kissing pretty soon. When you tell me you're healed I'm going to start smackerooin'--not to your ruin though! (To Magdalene:) Well, GBY! It's so good to have you back! Well, you haven't really been gone. TYJ! Bless & strengthen & keep her now & give her lots of grace & patience & love & wisdom, in Jesus' name, as she does Thy work, Lord. They say you're a big help to them, Honey, so I'm expecting great things of you. GBY all!
127. BY THE WAY, TELL ME THE SECRET OF WHAT WAS GOING ON AT THE OTHER END OF THE TABLE TONIGHT THAT WAS SUCH A BIG LAUGH & everybody was laughing right during the songs & the serious prayer? I was just curious to know what was it? (Fam: I think Mary Dear was waving at us.) I was in a rather sober mood & I was wondering why you guys couldn't sense that I was rather serious tonight. I expected people to be serious, & you folks were all laughing down there, I wondered what it was about. Was it Mary Dear? (Maria: I think it was.) Well, you have to be amused by children. Children can be funny & they don't necessarily take account of the gravity of any situation. God bless you! PTL! It's all right, Honey, I just was curious to know, when it was a rather serious situation, what was so funny. But children are funny, thank You Lord!
128. (TO MARIA:) WELL PTL! THANK THE LORD, IT WAS THE LORD'S IDEA! I thought the subdued lighting was appropriate for the subdued tone of the meeting. I never did get around to the Scriptures, but I guess that's what they needed to hear. They can read the Bible any time.--Amen? GBAKY remembering!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
