In this sermon, the preacher warns the congregation to be watchful and prayerful, as Satan is trying to deceive and destroy them. He emphasizes that Satan's kingdom is in jeopardy and will be taken over by the Messiah, the Son of God. The preacher urges the listeners to choose to be on the side of the Messiah and not be deceived by the adversary. He also highlights the importance of spending time in prayer and seeking God, rather than being consumed by worldly distractions. The sermon concludes with a call to make a decision that could determine one's eternal destiny.

Mercy reach out and touch. We thank you for your wonderful presence here this day, for each and every one that has come. We pray once more for our government, Lord, that there will be righteousness in our land and the fear of God will enter into every area of the American life. Lord, in our schools, in the media, in the government and business, we need righteousness, Lord. Unless you do a mighty work, the decay will continue. We ask your help, Lord. And now for each one of us here, Lord, of many needs, we pray the word this morning that Jesus will be lifted up among us. We will say and hear those things which are important to each one of us. We carefully praise you in the wonderful name of Jesus. And everyone said, amen. You may be seated. We'll turn in our Bibles to 1 Peter 1.23 and we'll read together through the second verse of the second chapter. All right, here we go. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever, for all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile, hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby. Now, we've been talking about this for a week or so, and we wish to point out again that there's a difference between birth and conception. And we'll let this point in here be conception, and then over here brought forth. And then in here, there's a travail. Christ is conceived in us, and then we go through a period of travail, and then finally something is brought forth in our nature that is substantial and eternal. The problem is the problem of abortion. The problem is that the life will perish, and probably a great many American Christians, that life has been or is in the process of being aborted because we do not understand the difference between the soul and the spirit. We do not understand the reality of the born-again experience. We use the term incorrectly. We use it to mean an acceptance of Christ. Let me show you a verse in Galatians 4.19. You get the point here? Galatians 4.19 says, My little children. Now, who is he talking to? We go over to Galatia. It says, The churches of Galatia are to save people. And then in chapter 3 of Galatians, verse 2, he said that they had received the spirit, received the spirit by the works of the law. They were saved, and they had received the spirit. But in Galatians 4.19, he says, My little children, of whom I travail in birth. Now, the concept is that there has been a conception, because you cannot have a birth until there has been a conception. So the idea is that Christ has been conceived in them, but he has not been formed in them. They are saved, they have received the spirit, but Christ has not been formed in them. He knew that because they were being occupied with religious doctrines, with circumcision and other doctrines of the Jews. And Paul knew that once the Christ is brought forth in us, we see that all doctrines and all things have been a means to an end or scaffolding to bring forth a new creation. Religion serves a purpose. It's supposed to serve a purpose. And so these people were saved and have received the spirit, but Christ had not been born in them. You see, that's a change in our doctrinal understanding. We would say if a person had been saved and received the spirit, automatically he had been born again. Well, that's not scriptural. Being born again is not synonymous with having your sins forgiven. Being born again is something that happens to us over a period of time, provided that we see to it that that life is nourished. Remember the parable of the sower, how there was quick growth, but not lasting growth. In many instances, it was aborted. The process was aborted. And I think that in America today, in many instances, if not most, the process is aborted, largely because of ignorance, because we do not—one example is the so-called contemporary Christian music. Maybe some of you have heard that. Maybe some have been not that unfortunate. But there is such a thing called contemporary Christian music. And if a believer is under the impression that this is doing anything for the bringing forth of Christ in him, he is really a baby. He has little understanding of the difference between the soul and the spirit. This is soulish activity. It may inspire the soul, and we'll be talking about the soul in a moment as God leads. That's because something of the soul doesn't mean that it's bad. The soul isn't something bad. The soul is something that we have. But the soul shall not enter the kingdom. The only thing that enters the kingdom is that which is brought forth, namely, Messiah, formed in us. Jesus said to Nicodemus, unless you are born again, you cannot see or enter into the kingdom. Being born again is an issue of the kingdom, because it is the kingdom that is born within us. It is supernatural. It is not fed by the numerous doings of the church. It is fed by specifics, by the Word of God when it's made alive by the Spirit. And especially as we learn to get alone with the Lord and feed upon his body and blood. My little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ or Messiah be formed. This does not mean that you have turned over a new leaf. It does not mean that you have become like Christ. It means what it says. It means that the central aspect of the Christian redemption, the central aspect, the core of it, is that a new creation or another seed, another seed, has been planted in us. Its parents are not human. John 1.13 says, which were born, not of blood or bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of man, but of God. The soul was not born of God. It's the new man. It's the new life. And that life is not ministered to by much that goes on in the churches. And we have to take care that we find out how it's nurtured and to see to it that it's nurtured. Because if it is not, then we pass into eternity when we die physically as a naked spirit. Because the only thing which inherits the throne of God, the soul doesn't inherit the throne of God. The soul inherits a cross. It is the new man of the heart. That is not an expression meaning that the soul became religious or good. You must be born again. And we don't know too much about that. In 1 Peter 1, because we're talking about that verse of 1 Peter 1.23, being born again. And in 1 Peter 2, you get the same picture. In 1 Peter, 2 Peter 1, 2 Peter chapter 1, Peter's talking here about his experience on the Mount of Transfiguration. 2 Peter 1.18, And this voice, that is the voice of the Father which came from heaven we heard when we were with him, that is with Jesus in the holy mountain, that is of transfiguration, Peter, James and John. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. What's more sure than the voice of God from heaven? There's only one thing more sure than that. What's the more sure word of prophecy? The scriptures. He's talking about the scriptures. You see that a couple of verses later, the prophecy of the scriptures of any private interpretation. It's the prophecy of the scripture that is more certain than a voice from heaven. And he says, where unto you do well that you take heed. Now, that is the same thing that he said in the first chapter, isn't it? As of the first Peter, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of what? Of the word. And he's saying the same thing here again. Take heed unto the scriptures, read them. That is what feeds the inner man. On as a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn, something happens. There is a bringing forth that has nothing to do with physical death and has nothing to do with going to heaven. It has to do with something that happens within us when we have been dutiful for a long enough period. Well, you see the same thing in John 14. If any man love you will keep my words and then something happens. I will love him. I will reveal myself to him. Again, if a man love you, keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode. And here we find that something happens in the heart. The day dawn, it dawns in your heart. And the day star, the day star is the herald of the day of the Lord. And those who expect, listen carefully, those who expect to be raised when Jesus comes, will be people in whom the day star has arisen first. If my understanding is true, not every Christian or every person who professes faith shall be raised when the Lord appears. I can't get away from it. I can't get away from Revelation 20 verses 4 through 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part. I can't get away from Revelation 2 and 3, the promises to the overcomer. I have come to the conclusion and I see no way out that the only people who are raised when the Lord appears are those in whom the Lord has been formed. There are many reasons for that. One is because being raised up to be with him means that judgment is in the past. You can't be raised up and be forever with the Lord and then be judged. There's no question in my mind that we have to go past Pentecost into this feast of tabernacles, this day star, this forming of the Lord, if we are to be eligible to be raised in the day of the Lord. Because it is not Adam who is raised. It is not Adam who is raised. It is not a believing Adam who is raised. You find the same thing, the exact same thing. Do you follow me? Do you hear what I'm saying? Be alerted. I'm blowing the trumpet in Zion. Be alerted. When the Lord comes, people are not going up. We have the same thing in John 6. If a man loves me, he says, he that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up. You see, it is not we who are raised up. It is the body and blood that is raised up. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me and I in him. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood shall live by me as I live by the Father. That's not our norm. It's not today's American Christianity. We are not living by the body and blood. We are living a soulish life with church music and other church building programs and other things which do nothing, nothing for the inner man. And consequently, God's people have become merchandise and a prey, a prey, Doug, a prey of people who are teaching that which only dwells in the realm of money. It has nothing to do with being born again. You must be born again. It's not enough to be conceived. You must be born. You must bring it forth. The day must dawn in your heart. The day star must rise in your heart because that day star, which is Christ, he is the day star, is saying to you, you have arrived at the day of the Lord. We won't see it in its externals until the Messiah appears. But when he appears, we will appear with him because the day of the Lord, with a small d, if you will, already has been begotten within us. My little children, take heed to the scriptures. Now what does that mean in practical terms to us as Americans? It means that we must return to times of personal communion with the Lord. We must return to the closet of prayer. Well, we don't do it and we can't do it. Two reasons. One, the closet is full of other stuff. And two, we don't have time. That's why I can talk about prayer closets, but most of us may very well go out of here and say, that's wonderful. I certainly agree with that and never do it. You have to take vital, strong, radical steps if you're going to have a prayer closet. It means not less than a half an hour a day spent with Jesus in communion and in the word. Of course you don't have time. You may be holding down two jobs. You may have to get rid of one of them. Better eat beans and have the Lord than two television sets and a nice car without the Lord. You can't pray on the run. You can't think good thoughts. They don't wash. You've got to have time with God each day. Church is not a substitute for personal communion. Church is kind of like a place where we all come and build up one another as we've done this morning. Many ministering prayer and different things in music and worship and as we join together and comfort one another. That's no substitute. You can't take this and ride through next week with it. Monday there's got to be a time in your prayer closet. Brother Thompson and I can't do it. I'm on the thin edge of despair now. The reason that you are is because you're earning money and putting it in a bag with holes in it. And there's no end to it. There'll never be enough time. There will never be enough time until you say I get off the bus here and I'm going to make time. I'm going to make time. And that means for most of us that the television goes off at 10 o'clock. Boy, you hear Adam cry and scream bloody murder. Adam wants to be saved, but he doesn't want to be saved at the expense of his television. You can't serve God and sit up night after night because you can't get up in the morning and it's in the morning that you've got to meet God. You go to work at 6, you've got to get up at 4.30. How in the world are you going to have time to eat a decent breakfast and get prepared? You say, how can I get up at 4.30 by going to bed at 8 o'clock? Well, I can't do that and keep up all my stuff. Well, you may be burning the candle at both ends. God isn't going to bless you for that. God carries no brief for a man that works himself into the ground. God did not create us to grub in the mud. We're children of the stars. We're children to be born and worship our God. That's the meaning of the eagle and the four faces of man. We're born to soar. We're not gophers. God holds no brief for people that work that hard. You'll never have enough money, never. You have to rearrange your priorities. And I tell you, if you don't get a time of prayer with the Lord and good intentions and positive thoughts and praying on the run or reading the devotional guide in the bathroom, it doesn't count. There has to be a time of getting along and communion. You've got to feed this man before he dies. Everything in our culture is working against this thing ever coming forth. Satan stands before it to kill it as soon as it comes forth. Satan doesn't care about our religion. What he cares about is Christ. That's all he fears. He doesn't fear the church saying, armed with Christian soldiers. What does that mean? It wouldn't mean anything to Satan if every Christian in the world joined together arm in arm and raised all the money in the world. Well, it would only be anti-Christ. That's all it would be. When you get people together, all you get is anti-Christ. It is only Christ that matters, nothing else. That's where Satan's mortal fear is, that we'll learn that life comes by death. Praise the Lord. A heavy word. Well, you can't. God said, blow the trumpet in Zion. He didn't say play the violin. Huh? No, blow the trumpet in Zion. If you ever know anyone practicing the trumpet, it's not the most restful thing in the world. 1 Peter 2.23, being born again. We were born of our parents, but we have to be born again of God. This is not a figure of speech. It is not a figure of speech. It means that our body then becomes, what shall I say, a kind of a custodian of our personality. Our soul becomes a custodian of our personality while this other thing is going on. It becomes stock into which the true life is grafted. Two men, Adam and Messiah. Not of corruptible seed. The issue is one of seed. It is not one of religion. It is not one of learning to do certain things. Behavior. It's not one, first of all, of behavior. It is one, first of all, of a seed. The issue, first of all, is a change in seed. I was telling the group Friday night about an illustration that came to my mind. It may seem to you bizarre or radical. Nevertheless, there's a point to it. And that's about God talking to a horse. God comes to a horse and says, horse, I want you to compose a fugue after the style of Johann Sebastian Bach and play it on the pipe organ. If you do, you'll be a happy horse. If you do not, you're going to be punished severely. And I had to think of something that was impossible, because if I got anything any less radical than a horse playing a fugue, somehow it would have got back into if I try real hard. Well, a horse doesn't know the difference between a fugue and a bale of hay. How many know that? So the horse goes back to God and says, how do I do this? I'm unable to do this. It's a good horse, you say, conscientious horse. And God said, horse, you have to be born again. Bach must be born in you. It's easy for Bach to do it, but it's impossible for you. So you must be born again. So the horse says, I must be born again. And how do I do that? Well, you must do all the things that pertain to the Christian life. You must pray. You must read your Bible. You must gather together with fervent horses. So the horse goes to a horse church with a horse pastor. And the horse pastor is preaching to them that if they're good horses, they're going to go to the great pasture in the sky. They're going to have clover. They're going to have mash, hay, oats forever. Well, every once in a while they talk about Bach and the fugue, but all the horses know this is impossible. What the horse pastor is teaching is that if they'll be good horses and believe because of God's mercy, they will all get to go to the great pasture in the sky. And that's what they talk about most of the time. That is not a bad analogy of what is going on. So this particular horse is conscientious. So he goes back to God and he reads his Bible and prays and worships God and reads the word. And pretty soon he finds he can carry a tune pretty well. The only thing that hinders him then is his body. But God has promised him, horse, if you will just go until Bach is born in you, I will give you a body like Bach and then you can do what I have told you to do. You see the difference between the traditional gospel is trying to save the horse. It's trying to save the soul. The soul is not saved like the horse going to the pasture. The soul is saved by coming into something else. Let me give you another illustration that God has given us in nature that is a most marvelous illustration and that is the larva of a butterfly. Now when the insect comes forth from the egg, the larva is a caterpillar. The caterpillar is an earthbound animal. Then the caterpillar at some stage, God speaks to the caterpillar and the caterpillar spins its own shroud and it enters into death. And that is something that God has given us in nature that is so marvelous to see. What God expects Adam to do is to spin his own shroud, to reckon himself dead, to say it is not I but something else that is coming forth. Now when that comes to the time for the butterfly, which is the second stage of the same insect, the butterfly wiggles out of that cocoon and it comes forth. Now the question is, is that the caterpillar? Was the caterpillar saved? Does the butterfly remember his life as a caterpillar? We cannot answer those questions never having been a butterfly. But that is a very, very good analogy of what happens to us. When God is saying to us, when the soul is being saved, it is not the caterpillar that is being saved. I don't know what caterpillars eat, little bits of leaves I guess because they cause blight and things. And a caterpillar's idea of heaven is a whole heaven full of leaves that you can eat forever and ever. An endless forest of leaves. And it would be very easy in a caterpillar church to begin to preach the great leaves beyond when you die you are going to go into a place where there are all these leaves. That is what we do when we talk about acres of diamonds. When we talk about mansions, it is the soul that wants these things. It is like a caterpillar wanting leaves when we talk about acres of diamonds. What does the new man in you want to do with acres of diamonds? What does the new man in you want to do with mansions? He has nothing for mansions. It is our soul that we have got and we have got a horse church. I am not talking about this church in particular, I am talking about horse churches in which we are talking about great pastures in the sky when I am put out to pasture in the great retirement home in the sky. That is because your soul is tired and he is not going to be saved any more than a caterpillar is going to grow wings. The caterpillar has to go into death. There must be a metamorphosis, that means a change. There must be a change in the whole structure. If any caterpillar goes into a cocoon, there is a new creature that comes forth. Teaching a caterpillar to fly would be a very laborious task. But you don't have to teach a butterfly to fly because a butterfly flies by nature. But the route to salvation for a caterpillar is death. It is a period of time in a cocoon. I don't know what it is like in there, what the caterpillar thinks about when he is in that cocoon. I am sure there are more pleasant things to do than to abide in a cocoon. And there are more pleasant things to do than to grab hold of Christ and then to bring yourself down into death and to live on the basis of another life coming forth. There are more pleasant things to do. And that is what we do in our horse church. We keep all the horses happy. We give lip service to Bach and the few. But what we basically do is look to the horse. Our religion, without realizing it, serves to reinforce Adam. And I gave the example of building programs in contemporary Iraq. These are all things that Adam recognizes and understands. Fellowship. Adam loves it. You accept fellowship, you will have every Adam in town because Adam loves that thing. It is of the soul. Put on a big program, you will get every Adam in town. Put on a floor show, dancing, singing, you will have every Adam in town. It is Adamic, it is soulish. I say, Thompson, that is a pretty bare bones religion. I want to talk to you now about the soul. As I said, the soul is not bad any more than a caterpillar is bad. The problem with the caterpillar is not that he is bad, it is that he cannot fly. And he is not all that pretty either. Unless you are given to caterpillars. Most women are not given to caterpillars. They yell and scream like it was a water moccasin. They see a caterpillar and flee. No, the soul is not bad. And this is another thing. If you fail in your Christian life, it will not be because Christ has failed. It will be because Adam has failed. If you fail, it will not be because Christ has failed. That is the seed. It will be because Adam has failed. Let me explain that. Most of what we do is of necessity of our soul. There is no way out of it. The new man is so small. Remember, the kingdom has a grain of mustard seed. It is the smallest of all seeds. And when this is born in us, we say, I have been born again. Then we go out and fight with our family. You know, all of us born again Christians are coming up to Christmas time. You know what that means? The family gets together. You know what that means? World War III. I don't care whether they are born again Christians, Episcopalians, or what they are. Why is that? Because we have been conceived and not born. It is because most of us is of the soul. You get all these souls together and the family goes into action. Endless fighting, quarrels, poutings, hurt feelings. The kids run around bananas. They burn their hands. People eat too much. One time I will tell you, you want to preach on the deeper life. It is during the Christmas season. I said, preach on the deeper life. People are so loaded with food and shopping and their brains. You know, that is why you get a high rate of trouble, hospitalizations, nervous breakdowns and everything during the celebration of the birth of our Lord. It is because all the born again Christians got together. The thing is we don't understand that we have to live in the soul. That is all we have got. And the soul is responsible to take care of that seed. It is the soul's responsibility with his intelligent brain that God has given to the soul to understand and to read the word of God. We talked about getting up early and having a time of communion. Guess who is going to do that? The inner man or the outer man? The outer man has to, in his brain, he says, if I don't, then my hope of being saved is aborted. He has to reason it through. So he says, I would love to stay in bed, especially as it gets cold and rainy. How many know when it gets cold and rainy, the church attendance drops off radically? The reason is because all the people in California are made of sugar. And if they get wet, they dissolve. They wake up and they look out the window and the wind is blowing. Oh my goodness! And they get back in bed. It is a hearty race of pioneers we are bringing. That is Adam. Our culture has told Adam, our soul, over and over and over, you are a delicate treasure and what you need is improved acids, false teeth glue, and various other things. It has been over and over. Take care of Adam. He is delicate. If you don't, he will be uncomfortable. Now it is Adam that has to choose between the perpetuation of his own corruption or whether to be born again. And when he enlists on the side of being born again, he is spelling out his own doom. It is like a caterpillar of his own will. A caterpillar is a free will agent, I suppose. And of his own will, he decides to go into a cocoon. It is Adam that does that. You have to decide that you are going to go into a cocoon, that you are going to enter into the death route and reckon yourself dead, that you are going to get up and minister to the Lord. I don't want to put you in bondage, whether it is morning or night or when. That isn't the point. The point is to do it. And Adam has to understand this thoroughly. That if he can go through all of his religion, he can have perfect doctrine, he can believe in the virgin birth, he can believe in the triune God, he can believe in the correct formula for water baptism, and all these things. But unless he is born again, unless he is given over to death and another life comes forth that is substantial. Not just conceived, but substantial. When he dies, he will pass into eternity as a naked spirit. We tend very greatly to misunderstand God's mercy. And we say, well, I've kind of knocked her on. I haven't done all that great, but God loves me and he's forgiven me. It isn't an issue of forgiveness or mercy. That's not the issue, because the goal is not heaven. If the goal were heaven, to bring Adam to heaven, yes. The idea was, oh, the poor kid. We don't want him in the fire, let's bring him up here where all the goodies are. That's a horse church that thinks that way. The goal is not to go to the happy hunting ground. The goal is the kingdom. The kingdom which is coming to the earth. That's the goal. And God doesn't forgive you so that you enter the kingdom. What must you do to enter the kingdom? You have to be born again. Why? Because flesh and blood cannot enter the kingdom. And God could look at him and say, well, he sure didn't sow to the seed. And when the rubber hit the road, he just wasn't in there. He was a good church man and everybody loved him. He was just a dandy, but he wasn't born again. But we'll let him into the kingdom anyway. What's wrong with that thinking? It's like saying to the caterpillar, you can fly anyway. I love you, so fly away, little caterpillar. It won't work. No matter how much you love that caterpillar, it won't work, because he can't fly. And that's why when we say, I know I'm a miserable sinner, but I'm going up to the streets of gold because Jesus is righteous. Why won't it work? Because the goal is not to go to another place. The goal is to bring forth the kingdom, which is a new creation. Now, if you are not doing this, you will perish. You will go into Laodicea. The reason for that is the judgment is upon us and the times are going to get hard. When they do, the soulish religionist, when persecution comes, severe persecution comes, you will not stand. You will not stand because, well, for several reasons. One of the prime ones is that when persecution comes, if it costs your life to be a Christian, you're going to lie and say, I am not. If you're living in the soul. If you're living in the other man, what he wants to do is die so he can get a body like Bach and play the organ. He's got different goals. You can't scare the born again man with the prospect of death. He wants to die. Not in a suicidal sense, but in the fact that he wants to go with Jesus where Jesus is. He's just not of a soulish nature. He's not suicidal at all. It's the soul that gets suicidal. It's the soul that's up and down like a yo-yo. And one day it loves this world and the next day it wants to cut its own throat. Not the spiritual man. He's not like that. But you cannot frighten him with death. You can talk about earthquakes. You talk about earthquakes and all these things and the people that are living in the soul will get angry. The soul gets angry and says, how dare God do that to me? That's how you can tell people who are in the soul. They'll get angry. You talk about God's judgment, they'll get angry. Their soul says, no, I don't believe in a God like that. The spiritual man says, oh, hallelujah. How long, Lord? How long? How long do I have to walk around with hoofs instead of hands? That's how you can tell. That there will have been born in the hearts of God's people a fresh commitment and a new commitment to go all the way to the spiritual man. So Lord, you have it. Whatever you do, Lord, we're looking for the glory. We're looking for the coming forth of the presence of God in the midst of these people. We want to be a spiritual people. We want to bring forth for your honor and glory. But Lord, when we begin to do that, we promise you, Lord, it's going to be you. It's going to be for the Lord's name and glory's sake. We'll retain none of that glory for ourselves. But God grants us that commitment that we sow from such depth within that when these things begin to happen, we will not forget it. God grants that even as he begins to fulfill that commitment and to glorify your son in the midst of his people, that he will remind us over and over and over again, remember what you said. Remember what you said, that this one I'm bringing forth in your midst was to be given to me all the days of my life. You were not to retain it. There are too many in the land today who say, I have this ministry, I have this commission from God, I've got this from God. If you're going to go anywhere with God in the days that are ahead, when God is bringing his people into realms of new things, new directions, every one of us has got to be prepared to give back to God everything that he has given us, not only in the natural but in the spiritual. Every gift, every blessing, every ministration he's given you, you've got to give it back to him that you'll no longer have anything but that he'll have you, that you'll no longer have anything but that he will have you. And if he has you, you still have him. At the same time, you have nothing. But having him, you have him. You have all you need. There can be no higher ministry come forth in the land than that ministry that is coming forth when his people come forth out of the cryings and intercessions of God's people who are given unto the Lord and begin to walk with God and hear the voice of God. I'm not crying, oh God, raise up a great prophet in the land, raise up another prophet, raise up a great apostle. Our cry is that God will bring forth in common ordinary people, new people, those who are uncommon members of the body of Christ, such a weight of his glory, that you'll begin to function as a vital member in the body of Christ. Cause the word of the Lord to go forth in your life with truth and with function and with anointing and with power. And we're going to see it. We're going to see it in the end times when God's people, when God's hand is in the earth, are crying and interceding unto the Lord to bring forth this man-child, this man-child, this son, this male son, this one, and call it to God in the name of the Lord. We will not be able to stand. Now this 666 business, I read somebody sent a pamphlet to me lately and I haven't checked it out, I'll have to ask somebody who knows, but they say on the National Price Code that the two end lines and the middle two lines are the number 666 and that the computer operation of the National Product Code is based upon 666. Does anybody know? You know how there's these little black lines? Well somebody said that the two at the beginning, the two at the end, and the two long ones in the middle are sixes. Is that so? Does anybody know? Paul, do you know? It needs to be checked out. I wouldn't doubt it. I ordinarily don't talk about 666, but if this is the case, if these lines like this, if the first two and the last two and the two long ones in the middle are 666, if that is true, then we're nearer than we may understand. And if the economists are correct and if we're moving toward a cashless society, then it is not at all improbable that the day will come when we will be forced to take some kind of a mark if we are to participate in the economy. If we go into a cashless economy, which they're talking about very seriously, that is just ten years away if that. Now picture this. Suppose that next month they adopted a cashless economy and the only way that you could trade at a store was with debit and credit mechanisms that were based on the number 666. And I don't preach this stuff ordinarily because we say, ah, that's gauche, you know, and all this stuff, these weirdos going in their 666 routine. We have to watch that we don't become supercilious. I don't fly around after all witchcraft and superstition. That's not my number. But we have to be careful that we don't get so far, quote, above it that we don't see what's really going on because Satan loves to trick sophisticated people in this way by doing things right under their nose. Having the kids worship Satan and everybody says, oh, that's just a fad. Satan's great for that stuff. So don't get so smart that you get beyond your own intelligence because that can cause problems. So if this happened, now picture it, next month and you couldn't go to the store unless you received one of these things, which is based on 666, what would you do? What would you do? You can't eat berries off the bush and make fire with rubbing two sticks together. Forget that. People say, oh, I go live in the woods. The cavemen could do it handily. You and I can't do it at all, so skip it. Can't be done. When you're out without a coat and it's cold and wet and you say, I'm going to rub two sticks together, brother, you'll be rubbing them together for a long time because you don't build a fire. That nonsense came because there was a tribe of Indians in the United States that used to have what are called flint sticks and people saw them rubbing them together and thought they were rubbing sticks together. You can't even make sticks warm rubbing them together. With flint sticks, yes, but not with ordinary sticks and we don't know how to bind flint to wood with raisins and tars and gums and things. We don't have that kind of curriculum in the schools. So we are kind of at the mercy of the supermarket and the fast food industry. And if you had to show your little card with 666, we'll say, well, it isn't in my head or in my hand yet, but it keeps getting closer, doesn't it? Guess what would happen in America? All the born again people would say, never. I don't care if I and my children starve to death. Did you just see that happening? No, they'd say, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and use them. That's right. Even though the Bible says, if you take it, you'll be tormented in the presence of the Lamb and the holy angels and fire and sulfur. Better to die than risk that. What am I talking about? Don't do the product code? No, I'm telling you that God is speaking to us today and saying the day may come when you will have to know me in a way that you have not known me and today is the day to do it. Not when you're out with your children in the rain and no food. Now. So all of our plans and career ambitions and retirement schemes and all the rest, God says they won't work. We've got to know the Lord. First Peter 1.23, being born again, not a corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God. And brother, sister, this is not, you see, there's two kinds of the word of God. There's the word written in the Bible, and then there's the living word, who is Jesus. The written word brings us to the living word, and we're not born again of the written word. We're born again of the living word. The letter without the spirit kills. You can read the Bible and it won't do a thing for you. You have to be in that place with God where you're waiting upon him and saying, oh, living word, come and feed that man within. So you are born again of the living word, not of the written word, but of the living word, who is Christ and which we ourselves are becoming, because that which is born in us is the word. And in so doing, we are raised. That is the resurrection. Your soul never shall be raised. Its place is the cross. The new man of the heart never shall be raised because he himself is the resurrection. Only the body is raised. And then only if there's a new life-giving spirit to put into it. Adam's destiny is the cross. So if you want to be raised, the time to be raised is today. The inner man is the resurrection. I am the resurrection. He will never die and he cannot sin. But Adam is as full of sin as a well is water. All flesh is as grass. If you are living in the soul and not, or the religious soul even, and not spending that time with the Lord, you are living a temporary life. You are addressing yourself to that which is temporary. You are sowing to that which is temporary. You're giving your life to that which is destined to pass away. It is only that which is born again which is eternal. Adam is doomed to the cross. The grass withers. Everything we say in it looks so attractive. It's interesting, the people in this lottery. What if I won a million dollars? What if I won ten million dollars? I'll tell you a secret. It isn't going to do a thing for you. Because the things that you want cannot be purchased with money. We don't realize it and we go on this endless trip. We picture, oh, I'll travel around the world. Yes, you'll end up as a hostage. Or with Montezuma's Revenge. You know what that is? You come home with a case of dysentery so bad, oh, I would go on the beach in Florida. Florida? Where you drive down the street and people run, jump in your car and steal your stuff or else you have to run down the children. They even got permission there one time. The district attorney said if you happen to run over somebody that does that, you won't be prosecuted. Because they stop your car and run and grab your stuff. In Florida? Is that what you want to do? I pay off the mortgage on my house. Then what are you going to worry about? What you want is love and joy and peace and they cannot be purchased with money. All you do is get yourself more headaches. You'll make people jealous. You work on a job with a bunch of other stiffs, you know, you come in every day and you go home and you're tired, you win a million dollars. What do you think is going to happen to your relationships? You think those people are going to love you? They will hate you with a passion. How come him? That's right. You lose all your friends. You don't get it. It's a deception. The flower fails away but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Malice, guile, hypocrisy, envies and all evil speakings. This is our life. Malice, mother against her daughter, father and son, brothers and sisters. Malice. Guile. Saying things you don't mean. Putting on your fourteen masks from time to time. Envies. Hypocrisies. A big church man in the church and then you get home. How does it work Monday morning? And evil speakings. One problem Adam has is with his mom. It's a tremendous thing. And God says to Adam, you set these aside. The new man doesn't have these things. He doesn't set them aside. It's Adam that's got the problem. And God says, Adam, lay these aside. Help me Lord. But thank God there is an end. If you stay steady, the day star will arise. Another world. Another kingdom. And that that is born in you is the eternal house of God. It is the new Jerusalem. It is the kingdom of God. It is the body of the Messiah. It is the new age. It's the day star announcing the day of the Lord. Saints where God is shifting gears today. We've got to get back into this communion with the Lord. Come out of soulish horse Christianity. Begin to sow. Desire the sincere milk of the word. Shall we stand? Lord, we praise you this morning. Hallelujah, Lord. You haven't told us to do what's difficult. You've commanded the impossible. But Lord, you've given us the way to get there is by dying and being born again. Lord, this Adam of ours clings to life like a cornered rat. And he makes himself religious in the hope that you'll let him into heaven and there he'll dwell forever by the river of life. Lord, we know it's never going to happen. The race died in its founders. And Jesus is the first of the new race. Lord, we want to be in that new race. We want to be in that new race. Lord, we know we can't get there by mercy and grace. We get there by birth. By birth and by formation. Oh, this Adam of ours. Lord, help us to just let him when he's tested and we know in the days to come he'll be tested as he has never been tested before. He may have been content before with going to church and hearing the word. But we know, Lord, the fat is in the fire now and Adam is finding that he can't have what he wants. And some of us are teetering. Some of us are teetering. And we're saying it hurts. That treasured relationship. The way of life I want. I'm beginning to feel I can't have it. I better cut out of here. Adam's never been tested before like he's going to be tested. Now, Jesus' name. Oh, God, help us in that hour when Adam is brought face to face with the reality of death. And he has to walk by faith in God, believing that something else is coming forth. Help us, Lord, not to preserve Adam. Help us to let him die with his relationships, with his lusts, his appetites, his intellectual things, his vocations, his professions. Lord, help us to realize this is temporary. And the best use we can make of Adam is to host the living seed which comes from God. Lord, we know we must decrease and he must increase. And Adam must understand this and bite the bullet. Lord, help Adam to bite the bullet today in every one of us. Hallelujah. Help Adam to bite the bullet in every one of us and to recognize this is not his game. It's a game that came from another world, from another race, a supernatural world, a supernatural race. God, help us to be born again. Maybe there's some here while we're in prayer and you have not been communing with the Lord. You just have been too busy to do that and this morning you want to ask God, Oh, God, make a way and give me the strength to change my way of life until I am actually praying and not under constant conviction because I'm not serving God. I'm tired of being under conviction. I'm tired of hearing something and living another. More hypocrisy. And you want to this morning, you want God to intervene in your life radically enough so that when you hear the preaching you can say, Amen, Amen, Amen, I'm living it, I'm living it. Why not, if you're here this morning, come on to the altar and just ask God. He'll do it. He'll change your way of life. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Is anyone here this morning? And you want to come and say, Lord, help me. I want to bite the bullet. I want to learn to commune with the Lord. Hallelujah. You're here this morning. Come and pray. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Anyone have a need? I'm not going to prolong this now. Time's getting on. If you need to come, come. You may be embarrassed, but if you don't have enough strength to come to the altar, if you have the need, you're not going to do it at home for sure. You're going to get back into the football and into the baseball, business as usual, and that life is going to be aborted. That's going to be aborted and you're not going to stand when we get into economic privations and things. You're not in that place. Come on. If you need to, really, this morning, tell God I'm sick of being preached under conviction. I want a change in my life. I want to be able to come and hear the word and rejoice and not feel like I'm trying to hold the world with one hand and Christ with the other. Come on. This is your time now. In all sense, life is so commonplace. The problem with Christianity is it's born in a stable. If it would come out of heaven with a rainbow and bells ringing and xylophones playing, maybe we could get the point, but the problem is it's with the beasts and the hay and it's just too common and that's why we miss it. The decision you make today might very well determine your eternal destiny. It's just in the common things of life where the great things are done. The decision you make this morning may affect your eternal destiny. Praise the Lord. Father, we've laid it out the best we know. For your people, I trust, Lord, we've sounded the trumpet. We've sounded it with compassion. We've sounded it clearly in simplicity. Hallelujah. We're going to sing a hymn and at the end we'll just consider ourselves dismissed. There'll be no further formal dismissal because I want the people at the altar to have a chance to pray as long as they want to. After we sing, if you want to come and pray or just stand and pray, please feel free to do so, but don't go home this morning until you know in your heart that you are ministering to that living seed. You are not letting it be aborted. You are not letting it be aborted by the American culture, by carnal living. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. There's darkness coming, people. There is darkness coming. There is darkness coming. Prepare yourself. Prepare yourself. Set your homes in order. Put your hearts in order. Establish your priorities. The day of the Lord is at hand. The time of the judgment of the nations is at hand. The Lord thy God cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon the ungodly and to convince all that are ungodly among the people of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed. Thou shalt not be as them. Thou shalt walk as children of light. Set thyself to serve the Lord. Set thyself, set thyself to serve the Lord. Watch lest any should steal thy crown. Watch and pray for the hour is dark and Satan arrives because his kingdom, his inheritance is in jeopardy and it must be turned over to the Messiah, to the Son of God. And he knows not how to stop it but he rages through the land to deceive and to destroy as he can. For the Messiah stands at the door to take unto himself his inheritance. Will you be in that number or will you allow yourself to be deceived by the adversary? Lo, he knows his day is numbered and that the Father sends forth the edict and the Son shall inherit the nations. Where wilt thou be in the swelling of Jordan? Where wilt thou be in the day of trouble? Where wilt thou be when all about thee is chaos and the word of God tries the hearts of men? Where shalt thou be when the heavens are shaken and the earth is removed? Where shalt thou be in that day? Be wise, be not as him who says, I have my barns, I have goods laid up for many days, for he was a fool for that very night his soul was required of him. If thy soul should be required this day, shalt thou be a fool? Shalt thou be unprepared to give an account to God? Thou do'st not well to say, I will do this today and tomorrow, and then I shall serve God. Thou do'st not wisely, for lo, saith God, every day shall be thy last, and every day shall be the day in which you shall say, this is the day that the Lord hath made. I'll rejoice and be glad in it, for tomorrow is in the hands of God. Thou shalt live before him and serve him with thy whole heart, else Satan shall deceive thee, and thy end shall be in despair and darkness. Awake up, wake up, saith the Lord, wake up, and sin not, for now is our salvation nearer than we believed, and the hour of redemption is here, saith the Lord. Without him I can do nothing. Without him I'd surely fail. Without him I would be drifting like a ship without a sail. Without him I can do nothing. Without him I'd surely fail. Without him I would be drifting like a ship without a sail. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, All This day, Lord, smite the devourer. This day, Lord, clarify our thinking, O Lord. This day, reveal thy Son to us, O Lord. This day, reveal thy glory, O Lord. Reveal the glory of heaven, O Lord. Reveal the glory of Jesus, O Lord. Reveal, O Lord. O yes, Lord, we offer Adam up unto thee, O Lord. We offer our soul up unto thee, O Lord. We offer our soul up unto thee, O Lord. We offer our body a living sacrifice unto thee, O Lord. O, make a way for us to pray, O Lord. Reorder our priorities, O Lord. Restructure our day, O Lord. Help us, Lord. Help us, Lord. Help us, Lord. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia. Help us, Lord. O, God, teach us to pray, O Lord. Give us a desire to pray, O Lord. Give us a desire to see thy face, O Lord. Give us a desire to read thy word, O Lord. Give us a desire to see thy face, O Lord. O yes, Lord, sound the trumpet in our hearts, O Lord. Cause us to be alert and aware, O Lord, of what you are requiring of us. Make Jesus real to us. Make Jesus real to us. Make Jesus real to us. Make Jesus real to us. Make Jesus real to us. O, God, help us to discern spiritual things. Divide between the soul and the spirit. Divide between the soul and the spirit. Divide between the soul and the spirit. Lord, give us the strength to say no to Adam, to his desires, to his ambitions. O, help us not to try to save Adam. In Jesus, in Jesus, our way of life, Lord, help us to let it go. In Jesus, Lord, that we might learn anew. Those who have been fruitful and rejoiced in the mighty things that they have done, they're going to become feeble. They're no longer going to rejoice in the works of their hands. They're going to realize how weak and how helpless, indeed, they are in that day. The Lord killeth and maketh alive. Something killing? Something ain't killing anyone? Many people have felt infested by it, a new crucifixion, a killing of the Lord, a new resurrection. The Lord does that, that he might make alive. Because God doesn't come to bestow resurrection life upon a people who are alive in themselves. Resurrection life is for those who have come to death. God doesn't come to take what little strength you have and to sort of polish it and work on it and build it up until you have more strength. He comes to take away any strength you've got, that he might impart in his strength. God refuses to mingle his glory with yours, to mingle his wisdom with yours, his knowledge with yours. And so if any man would be wise, how to become a fool that he might become wise. We've got to come to that place of desolation in the natural, that we might know the beauty of the Lord. We've got to come to our third offering, to know ourselves in the offering of God's fires, that as the fire consumes our sacrifice and we are brought to nothing, consumed by the fires of God, we might know his resurrection life. And as you fret and are pained, questioning God, questioning God's dealings, demoning your condition, if nevertheless in the midst of it all, in the midst of the bitterness, your heart is right with God. You're saying, Lord, I'm just crying out into you in the bitterness of my spirit. Your heart is right with God. God smells the sweet savor, an incense that pleases his nostrils, even in that hour. Others will say, he's done for, he's finished, he's come to naught. He's finished. They looked at Jesus in the cross. Is that the end of him? The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Father, the God says that's the sweet thing to see, because though it wasn't what the priest saw, God saw the Lord Jesus Christ in the fullness of time, dying in obedience to the will of the Heavenly Father. God says, that's my son, dying in obedience unto death, that because of his death I might