(February 1987) 07 - Self Rising Bread
Ray Lowe
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of having a transformed and circumcised heart in the church. He warns that everyone in the country is just two weeks away from being on the streets if they lose their jobs and fall into debt. The preacher calls for a revival and a revolution, stating that the heavens will open up again. He also shares a vision where Jesus shows him the perversion and distortion of the gospel in a church, pointing out men and women engaged in acts of perversion at the altar.
Sermon Transcription
Prophet Elijah, up under a juniper tree, and his attitude was, I'm the only one left. Now, I've heard that preached, that Elijah was self-righteous. And I never could accept that because I don't believe you could do what he had just done and be self-righteous. The problem was, he couldn't find the church. That's right. He knew what the church was supposed to be. He knew what God's people were supposed to be. They had done got some messed up file in Baal, in Jezebel. So he couldn't find the church. Amen? And God had to take him on another mountain. He said, what are you doing under this tree? And he said, ain't nobody left. Jezebel done killed all the prophets. All the people's done followed a strange God. And as far as I'm concerned, if you'll get me out of here, we'll just call this thing quits. But the Lord took him on top of another mountain. You know what he seen? He saw the church. God let him see the church. You know who the church was? Seven thousand that hadn't bowed their knees to Baal or kissed the king. Only a remnant. He saw a remnant. Amen? Got back down off that mountain. God said, I'm not through with you yet. You're going to finish this thing up. The restoration is going to take place. The rain is going to come. I am going to open the windows of heaven. Praise God. And he got down off the mountain, went back and finished the job. Ordained the man that was going to take his place. And God, sure enough, brought a double portion ministry and a double portion anointing on the people of that day. And I'll be honest with you. I've been through a period of time too, having a battle of finding the church. Because I read about the church in here. And I look at the church walking the earth, and there's very little resemblance. I said there's very little resemblance. Amen? You read about a church in the book of Acts walking the streets. And the shout of healing the sick. You read about a church in the book of Acts. They're selling their possessions. And giving it to the poor. The church of our time is getting their possessions. And forgetting the poor. A lot of difference, isn't it? Somebody say amen. But I want you to know God is restoring a people. Praise God. There's going to be a New Testament church on this earth when Jesus gets back. And I don't know about you, but I want to be a part of it. That's all I'm fighting for. Is to be a part of a New Testament church just like this Bible talks about. How many believe it's possible? Amen. I want you to turn with me tonight. To 1 John. 1 John. Chapter 5. We're going to start reading at verse 1. And probably quit at verse 4. 1 John. Chapter 5. Verse 1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Everyone that loveth Him that begot loveth Him also that is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not grievous. Verse 4 is where we're going to really preach from. Give me a little on this, Mike. Give me a little training to talk tonight. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world. Leave out the word even. The translators added it. And this is the victory that overcometh the world. Our faith. Our faith. Now, there's a lot in verse 4. First of all, it tells you who your enemy is and what you've got to overcome. You've got to overcome the world. Now, this has always been the church's problem. The first century church had the world to overcome just like the last century church is going to have to overcome. You study, and I'm sure the pastor could vouch for this probably more than anybody here. But you follow the church, the footsteps of the church, from Pentecost right on into this present hour. And whatever age the church lived in was the age that the church had to overcome. Now, we are living in an age. We are in the world, but we can't be of it. We are people out of a people. We are a nation within a nation. Amen? America is not God's nation. The church is a holy nation of God. So we are a nation within a nation. And we too today, our battle is with the world. Now, what is the world? Where did the world come from? He's not talking about that big old balloon looking thing you walk out and there's stars up in. That's not what he's talking about. What is the world? Well, there was a time there was no such thing as a world as this word's talking about. The world is that thing. See, it started out just Lucifer. He failed. What he'd done, he'd deceived man and produced a child called the flesh. And between the harmony of Satan and the flesh, that old man, they created what's known as a world or a system. The world is Satan's system in all its aspects is what it is. Now, we're living in a time that our battle is still with the world. We're still facing and fighting the world. But this scripture tells us that there is a victory that overcometh the world. There's a people that's going to overcome the world. Praise God. There's a people that the spirit of this world or the spirit of this age is not going to swallow up. Praise God. Amen. How many believe that tonight? Amen. And here it tells us how. For this is the victory that overcometh the world. I told you last night. And I mean, it's scriptural. All of God's future promises is written to the overcomer. All of them. Jesus said, I'm going to build a church that the gates of hell will not overcome. Amen. Now, he said, Thou art Peter and upon this rock. Now, I can take the word rock out and insert the word faith and do no damage to truth. Upon this faith, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Now, this word faith is not PMA. PMA is what's being taught as a positive mental attitude. It's got nothing to do with PMA. This word faith is a total embodiment of truth. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. This is a victory that overcometh the world, even the embodiment of truth. Hallelujah. It's got nothing to do with a mental attitude. Positive mental attitude. I believe it's good to have a positive mental attitude, but if that's all you got going for you, you're in trouble. It's the same word that Jude used when he said you should earnestly contend for the faith. It's contending for the embodiment of truth. It's standing for the gospel. It's standing for that which God has ordained and establishes being truth. Amen. Now, if I was the devil, and some folks think I am, if this is the victory that overcometh the world, our faith, if I was the devil, the only thing I have to do to keep you from being an overcomer is fool with faith. Amen. All I got to do, because the Bible says your faith is the victory that overcometh the world. Your faith is the victory or the embodiment of truth that you possess is that which will give you the strength to prevail against the world. So, if I was going to overthrow you or keep you from being an overcomer, then all I've got to do is deal with this word or this thing or this embodiment of truth that we call faith. Amen. And that's exactly what the devil has done. You don't have to turn, but lest I, of course this is going to be a hard one to misquote, but Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 1 it says, Now faith is the substance. What is faith? It's substance. What is substance? It's concrete. Somebody says it's the surest. That's right, but that's not the whole meaning of the word. Faith is that which is solid and sound and sure and steadfast and unmovable and will not fail you if you've got it. Hallelujah. Now, if faith is substance, it's the substance of that which you hope for and the evidence of things not seen. I preached a message one time back in my carl years on the ingredients of faith. And it sounded good back then until I realized that faith does not have ingredients. It is the ingredients. You don't take part water, part dirt, part this and part that and mix it together and make faith. Faith is the substance. It's the essence. What's the essence? It's the essential ingredient. Period. You do not mix anything, any two or three different ingredients to get faith. Hallelujah. Faith is concrete. Faith is from God. How many remembers the parable where Jesus said, first he gave the parable of the treasure hidden in the field. How many remembers that parable? He said the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field. A man comes up into this field, finds this treasure, goes and sells all that he's got. He don't come and buy the treasure, he buys the field. Amen? He talks about the kingdom of heaven is like into a grain of mustard seed. The smallest of all seeds. But when it grows, the black mustard seed of the Middle East was the smallest seed there was. Among the smallest. Among the least seed. But in its growth, after you planted it in the garden, it grew higher than all the other plants around it. That's what he said. He said the kingdom of heaven is like into a grain of mustard seed. That when it's planted, though it's the least, when it grows up, it becomes a tree. That the fowls can come and find refuge in that tree. Okay, he follows all these parables with another parable. He said the kingdom of heaven is like into leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of meal. Now I want you to get this. He gave the parable first of the sowing of the mustard seed. Then he gave the parable. The kingdom of heaven is like into leaven that a woman took and hid that leaven or mixed that leaven into meal. And the whole lump became what? Leavened. Now, you listen close. You listen close. The word mystery in the Bible means that which is hid. Give me a little volume on this mic. If it gets too loud, they can put cotton in their ears. Anything in the Bible, the word mystery, when you see the word mystery, it means that which is hid. Now, there's two basic mysteries. There's more than this. But for the sake of my message tonight, we're going to call only two. That's the mystery of God and the mystery of iniquity. Hallelujah. In this parable, both of those mysteries are involved. The woman takes the leaven, leaven in the scriptures, in a negative sense means, in a bad ethical sense means iniquity. The mystery of iniquity. Takes that leaven, puts it into the meal. The meal, you find it back in the book of Leviticus, was that which made the priestess bread. Hallelujah. Amen. We're going somewhere tonight. Now, what this woman done, this woman is a very important person in scripture. What this woman thought, that faith comes by mixing something. So, she took leaven, mixed it in with meal, which represents the bread of God, something good. Mixed it together, thinking that she'd come out with something good. But a little leaven, always leavens the whole up. God fixed it with faith. Faith is not a mixture of anything. Hallelujah. Faith is the seed. The highway of the seed started in the book of Genesis. Where God made a promise and said the seed of the woman is going to bruise the head of the serpent. That's where the seed was planted. That's where the highway of the seed started. And brother, that highway runs through that Old Testament. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. It rolls all the way down. It runs like a river through that New Testament. Say amen. It comes through Noah. It comes through Abraham. It comes through Isaac. It comes through Jacob. It comes all the way down. It's the seed. It's preserved in the hands and kept in the hands of angels. Until the seed could come to whom the promise was made. Or the seed could come on down. That seed is Christ. How many believe that seed is Christ? That seed is the Word. I'll show you that faith is the Word. Faith is Christ. I made a statement last night some of you didn't catch. But catch it tonight. Your overcoming isn't separately tied to your overseer. Why? Because the overseer is the... You know, we... These terms in the Bible, we're so mixed up on them. But God's going to straighten all these terms out for us. The overseer is the preacher. The Bible said, how can they hear without a preacher? Faith comes by hearing. Hearing by the Word. But you got to have a preacher. I said you got to have a preacher. And the preacher has got to preach the Word. That's how faith enters. You don't have to mix nothing to get it. It's the seed that's planted in you. Hallelujah. I said it's the seed that's put in you. What is it, brother Lowe? It's the seed of Christ. It's the Word of God. It's an incorruptible seed. Amen. But this woman... Let's go back to this woman. Jesus told us what the seed was. It's like a mustard seed. Why do you think He said if you can have faith? Not the size of a mustard seed. As a mustard seed. What's He talking about? He's talking about it starts out little. But if you let it, it'll grow into a tree. It'll get big. It'll get bigger than the mountain they set you up against. But He said there's a woman. She began to mix. She took the mystery of iniquity that Paul said is already working. Amen. Tried to mix it in with truth. Amen. You know what they done? You know what they done? The leaven changed the substance of the meal. Changed the substance. Hmm. Now, let me go back to what I said a while ago. If faith is the substance, and faith is what you've got to have to overcome the world, then if I was the devil, I'd fool with the substance. I'd fool with the substance. I'd take the substance, the concrete, the sound, the embodiment of truth, and mix something in with it. Because the minute you mix something in with it, you destroy the substance of it. That's why Paul was constantly saying, Purge out the old leaven. Purge out the old leaven. In Galatians he said, Law and grace won't mix. You keep mixing. It's not Jesus plus. It's Jesus period. It's not Christ plus. It's Christ period. It's not law and grace. It's grace. Hallelujah. And the two won't mix. Don't mix flesh with spirit. They won't mix. Don't mix faith and works. They won't mix. Paul was constantly battling. Teachers. It was trying. Teachers with the spirit of this woman. This woman. What is this woman? If you'll read in the next... Don't read it tonight. Unless you do it after you get home. Read the first ten chapters of Proverbs. And in those ten chapters, you're going to see a picture of something. You're going to see two women. Standing on the streets. Two women. One of them is wisdom. What's that word wisdom? It's the personification of wisdom. Who is our wisdom? Who does Paul say is our wisdom? Christ our sanctification. Our wisdom. He's our everything. Hallelujah. So that one of those women on the street corner there in the first ten chapters of Proverbs is the personification of wisdom, but it's really Christ. But there's a second woman standing on the same street corner side by side and in the streets is the public. Wisdom is saying to the simple, to the public, to the congregation, wisdom is saying, come with me. Come with me. Come with me. Come follow me. Get wisdom. Get understanding. Get knowledge. Call it your brother. Call it your kinsman. Make it your sister. Make it a part of your household. Bring it home with you. Bring it home with you. Get wisdom. Get understanding. Get knowledge. How you doing? You're going to save yourself. Hallelujah. One place He said if you'll get it, it'll be health to your navel and marrow to your bone. Glory to God. It'll get on down deeper than skin deep. It'll get on down to that stuff that's in your bone. Hallelujah. It'll heal your body. It'll preserve you. It'll keep you. Get wisdom, He says. And it'll keep you. My son, attend to my words. Take them into your bosom, wisdom cries. But on that same street corner, there's another woman. To the same crowd she beckons. Amen? Look at it. You read it when you get home. If it ain't in there, then I'll apologize tomorrow night. It's in there. There's another woman been to that same crowd. Come go with me. Now back at her place, she has a bed of the finest of linen. She has a bed that's perfumed with the most expensive perfumes. Amen! She said, come on with me. We'll make our fill of life. I've got a bottle of wine. I've got a bed already. Amen? And if you'll come on to my house, we'll just have a big time. But the Bible says, her steps are the stairways to hell. Because she has on a attire of a harlot. Brother, there's two women back on the streets today. There's two women back in this land today. It's clear as I've ever seen it before. One of them is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth that came down this earth 2,000 years ago crying to this same crowd. Come on, get wisdom. Come on, get understanding. Take it home with you. But brother, there's another woman in this land with an attire of a harlot. Very rich. Oh, got all the expensive gifts. Got all the expensive things. And said, come on and go to bed with me. We're going to have a big time. But you better listen. You better listen. This is how you better discern which voice is saying what and which one you're going to follow. Jesus talks about a woman that deals and says that faith comes by mixing. You've got to have this and that and the other to make faith. But no sir, faith is the ingredient, period. Now, praise God. What happened to the apostolic faith? Would you like to know what happened to it? This woman raised her head up again just 60 years after Pentecost. Sixty years from the day that Peter walked the streets and he had shouted, Heal the sick! About just a few years from the time of the gate called beautiful where those early preachers said we don't have any silver. We are broke. We don't have any money. But we've got something else. We've got the power of God in our lives. Silver and gold have we none. But such as we have, we're going to give it to you in the name of Jesus. Get up and walk. Hallelujah. How many would like tonight to get back to the place where we can say to a crippled world that's right outside our door we don't have any silver. We don't have any gold. But we've got something better than either one of them. Hallelujah. We've got the power of a resurrected Christ. That's where we're headed. And if you want to go, let's go. I said if you want to go, let's go. If you want to go to bed with a heartache, go ahead. I done made my field and my covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ. I done set my goal. I'm headed with Him. Hallelujah. What happened to the apostolic doctrine and the embodiment of truth that they established the great apostle Paul? What happened to it? The mystery of iniquity could not work as long as Paul was here. I'll show you that there's two ministries that the church has done away with which is the apostle and prophet. Amen? Did you know the church has got AIDS? Did you know the church has got AIDS? How many knows what AIDS is? It's the immunity system of the body destroyed. It's a built-in mechanism that keeps foreign objects or viruses. You know the only thing that will keep you? Brother? You've got to have a built-in immunity system that nothing can come through it, praise God. Say amen. That early church had something in it. What did it have? It didn't have a three-fold ministry. It had a five-fold ministry. It had prophets and it had apostles. Bless God that when you tried to mix something in with the embodiment of truth they said you can't do it. You can't do it. You can't mix it, Galatia. Paul said no, Galatia. It won't mix. It won't mix. He said no, Corinthians. We can't have that stuff. And he said I'm going to write a letter and if that don't do the job I'm coming with a rod. And you folks done had the letter now the rod's down here to you. I'm going to stop it if I have to stop it with a rod, he said. The mystery of iniquity cannot work until he that let it will let. He that hinders is moved out of the way and then he works. Ain't that it preacher? Hey, I got a hold of something. When them apostles was moved out of the way that immunity system was took out and AIDS and the beast. I'm going to preach. I've been telling y'all all week. God help me tomorrow night I'm going to preach on the house of prayer. And buddy, you talking about an eye opener this is going to open some eyes. When those apostles, that apostolic those apostles begin to die out that hindered was took out of the way the same woman that tried to mix law in the Galatian church to pervert the church is a spirit of witchcraft because Paul said to bewitch you that you should turn away. You was running good. You was running a good race. But somebody's done hindered you got in your way mixed something in with it. Now I got to pray that Christ be formed in you again. Amen. The woman's done hit the meal in with the meal. The leaven in with the meal. And the holes got leaven he said. Here's what happened. When those apostles moved died out that which kept out Oh God God help us as preachers. God help me tonight. God help me. God help me. Lord open these people's hearts. Jesus let them hear this great truth. Lord Guard your hearts my church. Open your ears to hear my truth. For I am the Lord your God. Hear me this night. For it will set you. That's a real Holy Ghost talking brothers and sisters. Brothers and sisters God ain't only revealing the mystery of Christ. He's revealing the mystery of iniquity. The man of sin is being revealed. Jesus can't come till he is. Y'all been looking for a man to jump up over yonder somewhere. They may be but the spirit of it's got to come first. What happened? Here's what happened. Those apostles left the scene. The woman knew. She tried it while they were here. Knew she couldn't mix the leaven in with it. But as soon as they left the scene the immunity system was destroyed. The leaven come in. Mixed the leaven in with the embodiment of truth. It was only three measures of meal. But three measures of meal. I mean three measures of leaven. Mixed in three measures of meal. Mixed the leaven in three measures of meal. Just a little bit of leaven. You can take a pinch of leaven and put it in this room full of meal. And leaven the whole up. Mix that stuff in with the truth. Rather than it begin to grow. It grew and grew and grew. For years and years and years and hundreds of years. Until it woke up one day and realized that the church, the leaven, the mist of iniquity had mixed in with the mist of Christ. Swallowed it up. And the church went into the dark ages. No light shining. Church still going. There's still a church. Still having church. But instead of apostles and puppets they had priests and popes and cardinals. Took the word of God away from the people. Is that right? That's the pastor. He studied all this stuff in detail. The church went into the dark ages. The little leaven had leavened the whole up. The mist of iniquity had swallowed up the mist of Christ. I want you to know one day unannounced with no great fanfare the Holy Spirit, praise God, spoke to a man by the name of Martin Luther and said, The just shall live by faith. Just a ray of light. Just a little pinch of light. But I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you something, brother and sister. That's all the light you need to dispel a whole world of darkness if you'll let that light shine, praise God. It's like, hey, it's just like Jesus said the mustard seed is. If you'll plant it, if you'll plant it, it'll grow and it'll grow and it'll grow, not necessarily in the same vessel, but it'll grow and God planted the seed that the just shall live by faith. Now, before we go any farther up that ladder, let's go back a little. What did the woman do? She brought forth the doctrine, and I may mispronounce this, but you'll know what it is. She brought forth a doctrine called trans-substantuation. Is that right? Is that the way you say it? Trans-substantuation. If you're Catholic, you understand it plainly. What does it mean? It's the medieval Latin word. The word trans means change. Substantuation means substance. Change substance. Trans-substantuation means change substance. What did they do? They took the sacraments, the blood, the wine, the cookie, the bread, that you take when you take communion. Here's what they done. The Pope says, if I touch that, it will change into the literal blood and body of Jesus. And when you eat it, you partook of Him. And millions of people walked up to a preacher, a Pope, drank that wine, ate that cookie, and said, we have just drank the blood and ate the body of Christ. The men that saw the difference cried out against it and were martyred for it. Read Fox's Book of Martyrs. Most of them died for opposing trans-substantuation. They said, it's not so. It's not so. Sure we eat His flesh and we drink His blood, but it's the spiritual partaking. You've got to spiritually eat His Word and spiritually drink His blood. That cookie ain't the body of Jesus. That wine ain't the blood of Jesus. You've got to have it applied. Hallelujah! Are you lost? What happened? The woman changed the mystery of iniquity. Where did the mystery of iniquity start? It started back at the Tower of Babel. It come right on up through the Assyrian, the Babylon, excuse me, let's go back, I skipped one, the Egyptian, the Assyrian, the Babylon, the Greek, the Medo-Persian, right on into Rome, praise God. Right on in. Right on in. That mystery of iniquity. Amen! Always trying to mix in. Always trying to get in. Always, always, always. See, it never could get in that Old Testament as long as them prophets stayed alive. Never. You don't get by real prophets of God and real apostles of God. Amen? Somebody say amen. That's why God's going to restore them back to the church. You might as well get ready. You say, we need an evangelist. No, you don't. You need a prophet, an apostle to stand in this pulpit and pour truth after you. The Spirit of Elijah's in the land. It's coming back in the land. It's coming on the ministry. My wife is not here, but some of the folks that's been around me. I've preached all my 23 years. I've been hearing God's voice over and over and over. I'll send the Spirit of Elijah on the ministry before that great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And it's going to do a restoration in the church. That ministry, that anointing is on your pastor and on this evangelist because it's back in the land to restore, to put back, amen, everything that the devils took out of the church. You might as well get ready for Elijah. I said you might as well get ready. It's back in the land. Hallelujah. Restoring the covenant back. Getting the living out of the law. Praise God. Y'all ready? That's that sustained ministry. Don't have to beg for money. Say amen. I said say amen. That's that ministry where God supernaturally, amen, takes care of you. Mark, you don't have to worry about it. All you've got to worry about is obeying God. Saying what He said. It's back in the land. See? Because here's what's happened. Here's what's happened. I'm not going to preach this tonight. I'm not going to preach Sunday morning. I might preach this Sunday morning on the church of Laodicea. But Laodicea is a totality of mixing. It's the end results of mixing the mystery of iniquity and the mystery of Christ together. And it's the one you eat the bread that's got leaven in it, the Lord eats it, it makes Him sick. He can't stand leaven, Mark. That's why He says that's the church I'm going to spew out of my mouth. It makes me sick. It's a mixed church. We're fixing to get unmixed, brother, from the world. We've gone through a purging. The leaven's coming out of the lump. Somebody say amen. We're the church of Laodicea. And I approve it. Transubstantiation. All you've got to do to overthrow with the world where you can't overcome the world is mix the substance. Change the substance. Okay. Martin Luther only started the climb. Only started. He never did accept all the embodiment of truth. Did you know Martin Luther said the book of James is not supposed to even belong to the Bible? That's right. Martin Luther says the book of James should have not been written. But I believe it should. Because if you understand it, it's not a contradiction of what Paul said. Say amen. The book of James is not what makes faith. It's results of faith. I said it's results of faith. Works is the results of faith. If you've got real faith, it'll work. Say amen. It's active. Faith is active. Amen. How many of these real faithers works? Do you know how you show your faith? Not by talking about it. By works. Well, I've got it, brother-in-law, but it just won't show up. If you've got it, it'll show up. You know what I tell folks? Oh, I preach and tell folks what kind of condition the church is in. I had one woman. I won't ever forget it. I got through preaching her right on the sixth chapter of the book of Hebrews on going on to perfection. I got through this old scallywag stood up in the back. She said, I'll have you to know I'm saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost. I'm prayed up. I'm packed up. And I'm ready to go. I said I wasn't preaching to you then. I'm preaching to those that wants to get prayed up, packed up, and ready to go. But you know what I did say? Lady, if you've got it, I want to see it. I'll ask you to do it if you've got it. Put it on, put it out, let us see it. Because this thing will demonstrate itself. You don't have to tell folks what you are. Paul said, you don't have to claim to be an apostle. If I'm an apostle, the works of an apostle will follow me. If I'm a prophet, I don't have to tell you I'm a prophet. The works of a prophet will follow me. Can you say amen? If you're a Christian, you don't have to put a sign on the bump of your car and say I'm a Christian. If you're a Christian, it'll show up, bless God. You don't have to wear a t-shirt saying, I'm a Christian. If you're a Christian, it'll show up. It'll show up. The world can see if you've got the real thing. Hallelujah. Give the Lord a hand if you believe that tonight. And I'm going to tell you what I told her. Put up or shut up. Is that okay? Put your noose up or shut your mouth up. Brother, God's fixing to put up. And some of these others is fixing to shut up. Hallelujah. Glory. Hallelujah. See, we've been in hiding but we're coming out. See, God told Elijah to hide. One day He said, show yourself. Now, what we've been doing is showing when we're supposed to be hiding. But we come out before we had anything to show. Say amen. But I've been in hiding. I'm coming out. Because I've got something to show. Amen. What are you going to show? I'm going to show you the mystery of iniquity and the mystery of Christ. They're both rising. They're both in the land. And you're going to clearly see both of them. Jesus won't return until this thing is revealed. Well, what about today? What about today? What about the faith today? Well, we've done the same thing, only more. We've changed the substance of faith again. Only this time, it's far more deceptive. Far more deceptive. This time, we back it up with signs and wonders. But we've done the same thing again. We've changed the substance. Amen. That's the essential ingredient. Amen. Period. You don't have to add anything with faith to make faith. Now, what's wrong today? Well, I said to start with, faith in our day is not preached as an embodiment of truth. It's preached as a positive mental attitude. Is that right? These folks all around me in Mississippi, they get up every morning and quote a hundred scriptures, or the scripture they want to work a hundred times. They're taught in the Pentecostal Charismatic Full Gospel Church down in that area. If you want it to work, you've got to quote it a hundred times. You know what I'd do if I was them? I'd put it on a tape and play it. Now, I wouldn't play it a hundred times. I'd play it a million times. But if you played it ten trillion times, that ain't faith. Faith don't come by quoting scriptures. Faith is a seed planted in your heart. I said faith is a seed in your heart. And if it's never been planted, you ain't got none. You can grunt and groan. You can spit. You can slobber. You can jump. You can scream. You can holler. You can get mad at the preacher. You can get mad at the evangelist. You can do anything you want to do. You can get Oral Robertson's prayer cloth. You can get Jack Cole's prayer cloth. You can get Schomburg's prayer cloth. You can call the prayer tower. You can call the Vatican. You can do anything you want to do. But if you ain't got faith, it ain't nothing. If the seed hadn't been planted in you, if the preacher hadn't preached the Word, and faith didn't develop by hearing the Word, if the Word's not in there, if the seed's not in there, I don't care what you do to have faith, you ain't going to ever have no faith, because it ain't there. Faith does not come by mixing. Faith comes by sowing. Sowing what? A seed. What kind of seed? The Word of God. And it comes in. And you can't make it grow. You ever seen people trying to have faith? What if I could just get some faith at work? It don't come by grunting. You ever planted your garden and went out and sat beside it and said, Come on up, boy. I'm waiting on you to get here. It didn't come up that day, so you go back out. Please come up. It ain't listening, because it's the principle inside of that seed that's doing the work. Hallelujah. It's coming up. I said it's coming up. It's coming up. If the soil is right and the moss is right, one day it'll bust through. Hallelujah. First the blade, then the stalk, then the full heir to perfection. Hallelujah. All you got to do with faith, if it's the real, which is the seed, is don't let nothing hinder it. You ever notice in the book of Joel where it says the seeds are right under the clod? Did you know most of you are clods? Yes. The seed gets right under the clod. In other words, there's a big old clod setting up on it and it wants to come out and the clod won't move. And the only thing you do with a clod is hit it and bust it. And then when you bust the clod, that faith will just come on out. It'll just come on out. Can you say amen? Amen. You don't have to make it grow. You have to just let it grow. Don't hinder it. Amen. Keep the weeds out. Amen. You ever notice the parable of the sower? Now there ain't but two of them folks the parable of the sower ever born again. Them first two ain't born. But that third one is where most of us are. This thing started growing in us, but things begin to enter in our garden and choke it out. You got caught up with the cares of this life. Getting rich. Getting things. No time for prayer. No time for Bible reading. You got to... I owe, I owe, I owe. And off to work I go, go, go. No time. But that's faith. Okay, mix nothing with it. But today we have a faith in our land that's not the real. I said it's not the real. The same woman, the same spirit that started this thing out in the dark ages. I'm going to tell you something. And I saw this years ago. You leave the church alone. Take the kind of preaching I'm doing and that your pastor's doing. Brother GW's teaching and some of you others is getting a hold of. You take us all off the scene now. Let the church continue where she's headed and we'll have another dark ages. Because we have produced the soul for another dark age. But it ain't going to happen. We're coming out now. We're coming on. I said we're coming on. It ain't going to happen again. The trend's going to turn, praise God. I said it's going to turn. How many believe that tonight it's going to turn? All I got to do is keep you from being an overcomer is mix something in with the embodiment of truth. Amen. Mix it in. And there's been another mixing. Now brother and sister, please hear what I'm saying. Please hear what I'm saying. The most important thing, the most important thing of your life tonight is you clean the wax out of your spiritual ears. You ask God to move all the hard crust from around your heart. And you fine tune your hearing mechanism. Amen. To make sure that you hear the right voice. Because there's more than one voice in our land tonight. Amen. I don't know if you've ever noticed this or not, but the first beast in Revelation rises, and anybody can tell he's a beast. He's like a leopard, a lion, and a bear. Easy to recognize. But the second beast that rises has horns like a lamb. He looks just like a lamb. How can you detect the second beast? He looks like a lamb. You know how you can tell what comes out of his mouth? He speaks like the dragon. This is an hour. You better fine tune your ear to hear what God is saying. Because I want you to know what he's doing, brother Mark. He's taking the embodiment of truth that was established by those apostles hundreds of years ago, and he's snatching all the living out of it. He's going to purge it. He's going to purge this thing. He's going to thoroughly purge this floor, the Bible says. He's going to purge it and purge it and purge it and purge it. Now, you can believe that the tares and the wheat grow together. You can believe that. Because it does appear. But I really believe it's more to him sending those messengers or those angels than we've ever seen. That just before the end, or in the time of the harvest, he sends his angels to gather the tares into bundles to get them out from among the wheat. But you cannot see it that way and just say, we've got to leave the tares and the wheat alone and let them grow together. But there's one thing you'll have to say by the Word of God. Paul never left the leaven in the lump. Never. You can't leave the leaven in the lump. It's got to be purged out. Didn't Paul purge the Galatian church? Didn't Paul purge the Corinthian church? He spoke the same words in the Corinthian church. Only in Corinthian church, the leaven was sin. Immorality. In the Galatian church, it was law trying to mix in with grace. It doesn't matter what it is. Leaven is leaven, brother and sister. Law will kill grace just as quick as sin will kill the Spirit of God. Mixture is mixture. A mixture in the embodiment of truth. And it all happened. It happened the same way again. Has it ever occurred to you that God, or when Jesus ascended, He led captivity, the Captain gave gifts unto men? Has it ever occurred to you why we've never recognized but three of them in the church? Ain't that true, preacher? You notice everybody is either a pastor, a teacher, or an evangelist. Is that right? Have you ever heard of anybody coming through the land and the church recognized that that guy is a prophet? That guy is an apostle. No, we're either the evangelist or the pastor or the teacher. What did we do with those other two? You really don't want me to tell you. So the church has got AIDS. You say AIDS is only coming on the perverted. You listen close. 1968, the Lord took me and set me in a church. And me and Jesus stood at the back of the church. Big church. This is in the Spirit. This church was crowned, packed with people, even hanging in the windows. They were everywhere, just packed with people everywhere. The service was going, but when I walked into that church or as we stood there, even without Him saying anything to me, I recognized something. I recognized the sacredness of that service was not there. The sacredness of God was not there. It was a church. It was a church, just like we have church. Same order that we got. People were clapping. Music was going. People were swinging. It was church. But I immediately recognized that something was wrong. Instead of sacredness and holiness, there was a party spirit there. A party spirit. Hey, brother, coming to church ain't like going to the football game, I'll tell you that now. This is not a social gathering. God's a holy God tonight. I already recognized before He said anything to me. Jesus reached down and took me by the hand and we simply walked up that aisle of that church together. This was all in a vision. Walked up the aisle of that church and we stopped right in there, right about where Mark, right there. He said to me, look to your left. I looked to my left. There lay two women in the act of perversion right in the altar. He said to me, look to your right. I looked to my right and there lay two men in the act of perversion. He said to me then, put your eyes on the pulpit. I shot my eyes to the pulpit The singing stopped. The music quit. The preacher, just like I did tonight, walked to the pulpit and opened his Bible. Read a Scripture. I won't quote the Scripture. But he read the Scripture. When he read the Scripture, I knew, I knew that he perverted the meaning of that Scripture. He totally changed the meaning of that Scripture. I mean, changed it. I knew the Scripture. I knew exactly what it meant. It was clear to see. In fact, the Scripture that he read, a three-year-old could understand it. But that man, when he read it, that preacher, that man in the pulpit, the man of the cloth, perverted the meaning of that Scripture. He changed the substance. Jesus pointed towards that man. Here's what he said to me. He said, because men have perverted my Gospel, I will turn men, he pointed to the two like this, I will turn men over to perversion. You say, that's not Scripture. You go home tonight and read the first chapter of the book of Romans. They changed the truth of God into a lie. They changed the glory of God into the glory of a man and a four-footed beast. Am I still in the Word of God tonight? God does not turn a society over to perversion unless the society, the church in that society begins to change the substance, begins to change the embodiment of truth. Are you listening close to me? And when the pulpit begins to pervert the Gospel, you say, can you pervert the Gospel? I'm giving you a lot of Scripture to read. Read the first chapter of the book of Galatians. Paul said there would be some that would pervert, pervert, pervert. That means the same thing as natural perversion. You pervert the truth and God will turn you to perversion. You change God's Word. You change God's glory. You change God's truth. You change God's holiness. You change God's sacredness. You change God's ways. And God will change you and give us over to uncleanness and unclean passions and lust and perversion. Is it happening? Mm-mm-mm. Quit throwing rocks at them perverts. We're the cause of it. We've changed the substance. We've changed the truth of God into a lie. We've changed the glory of God into the glory of a man. Amen. Hey, brother and sister, you're fixing to see God be God again. You're going to see the holiness of God, the majestic power of God. How many is ready to see God's holiness? I don't want no more partying at the church. I want to see the glory of God come down. Can you say amen? I don't want to see. Amen. I said I don't want to see that. I want to see a sacredness come back into the house of God and the glory come down. Hallelujah. Oh, the pulpit and oh, the priesthood. Can you say amen? It's on the way! It's on the way! Because the Lord is sending a message to him to the work of iniquity now. What's He doing? He's sending that two witnesses back up in the land. Say amen! With the keys in their hands. What did He promise the church? He said, I'll give you the keys. Once you lock, I'll unlock. Once you loose, I'll unloose. Look at them two witnesses in Revelation. What does the Bible say? They shut to heaven. Well, how do you shut to heaven? You take the key that God puts in your hand. Elijah stood on the sea and said, thus saith the Lord. No rain till I prophesied. I got the key. I locked the heavens. Oh, he didn't do it. Why don't you throw that Bible in a garbage can then? He locked it. He didn't lock it as a man. That Old Testament prophet was an embodiment of truth. He was a word walking around. He didn't speak what he wanted to speak. It wasn't really Elijah. It was God closing those heavens. But he said, what you speak on earth, bind on earth, it will be done in heaven. And Elijah spoke and the heavens were unlocked. And then he went through the process of getting the people back to the covenant. Is that right? On Mount Carmel, he challenged the folks and said them preachers are not preaching the right thing. They're telling you that Baal is Jehovah and Baal is not Jehovah? Amen? He stood before them and said, why do you all keep on being divided on who you're going to follow? Why haunt you between two opinions? He said, it's time now to make up your mind which one you want. You want God or Baal? You want God or Baal? Nobody said nothing. If you'll notice, he didn't get no response. Didn't nobody say amen? Didn't nobody say oh me? Didn't nobody say nothing? He said, why haunt you between two opinions? They sat there quiet like you all do to me a lot of times. Because they hadn't made up their mind yet. This side says yeah, this side says no. I'm talking about the right. Part of them said I want to go and another part says I sort of like fooling around with Baal. I want Jesus, but that world sure is sweet. I would like to follow Winston, but I sure do like to go to bed with that harlot. I would, but I would just turn over there and just eat nothing but that bread made out of meal. Boy, that leaven. That old flat cornbread ain't good without a little leaven in it. It makes it swell, makes it pretty. That old crude flat bread them priests have to eat. Who wants that? I like that rye, that self-rising bread. You know this bread with leaven in it is called self-rising? I like that self-rising bread. Did you all get the message? I like that self-rising bread. That's what some of you like. You don't like this old plain truth I'm bringing to you. Too hard. Too harsh. You don't like this preacher you got up here telling you the truth. You'd rather hear a lie. You like that self-rising bread. But then he asked him a question. Will you serve a God that'll answer the fire? They said, Amen! Hallelujah! Bring it on Elijah, we like that fire. But see, when he started the restoration, I'll tell you what, they said they wanted that. But see, here's what he done. The first thing he done was repair the altar. First step. Hey Elijah, I thought this thing was going to be a little party. I didn't know you had to put that altar back in there. That's where we... Hey, that altar means we're going to die. They dealt. You mean we got to sacrifice to see the fire? First step, he put the altar back in. Read it, it's in there. The Bible said he repaired the altar that had been took out by the false prophets. You don't get it by confessing... Well, praise God. You don't get it by saying it over and over and over. You're probably going to have to do some praying. Get out of that sweet, white, sheet bed of a morning. Crawl up while the dew is still on the ground. Amen and sacrifice. Boy, they begin to pull back then though. Oh, I didn't know it was going to be this way. I thought sheer light when it was fixing to fall and hit us. Repair the altar. Amen. Brother and sister, the altar's been put back in now. God's calling you. Hey, you're going to hear a message of presenting your body a living sacrifice. Holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. Be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed. Now that word transformed, the difference in transformed and transubstantiation is, transubstantiation, you change the substance. Transform, you change the form. Do y'all get it? Transubstantiation changes the truth to fit you. But transformation changes you to fit the truth. Ain't that it, preacher? Be not conformed to this world, but you're transformed by the renovating and the revolution of your mind. Hallelujah! That you might prove is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God. Can you say amen? We're going through a transformation. We're going through a change. We're going to have a revolution. And then we're going to have a revival. I said we're going to hear the sound because we're restoring the substance and changing the form. Oh, I put enough on y'all tonight to chew on. I tell you what this will do if you'll listen to it. It'll work a miracle in your life. But here's what you've got to do to what you've heard tonight. Since y'all are heifers, you've got to do it like a cow does. She eats a while and then brings it back up, wraps it around, makes it a cud, and she'll stand for hours. Boy, I like that. And here's a miracle. A black cow eats green grass, gives white milk and yellow butter. It always brings a miracle forth. Amen. We're in the trance, brother and sister. A transition and a transforming. The substance God has straightened back out, the embodiment of truth, the apostolic truth and doctrine and faith and practice. Hey, about all we've got resembles them any more now as we talk in tongues every once in a while. And sometimes I wonder about a lot of that. Amen. Well, I'm going to close. I'm going to tell you what the Lord showed me. We've done with tongues what the Jew done with circumcision. The actual act and sign and symbol of circumcision was not the real circumcision. It's only a sign. Circumcision took place in the heart. Amen. The Jews, the glory in the flesh, those that weren't circumcised still accepted the sign and the symbol of it and walked around and gloried in the fact. I'm a Jew because I have got the sign of one. How many times you read in the revelation of the church where Jesus said, Them that say they are Jews, I'll make them that say they are Jews. They have the sign of a Jew, but the heart's uncircumcised. I believe that the devil sold us a bill of goods in a lot of cases, not every case. We've accepted the symbol and the sign of being Pentecostal people. But where is the Pentecostal manifestation? That's what I've always cried for the last 23 years. If this book is right, if that church was the church it's supposed to be, I want more than just tongues. I want the demonstration of the power of it. Can you say amen? I don't want to just go up to the gate called beautiful outside this church where there's a crippled world and say, C-O-C, come tie my tie. Look what I got. I want to walk to that crippled place, shiver and go, have I none. But since I have in the name of Jesus, get up and walk. I want to go to the crippled and the lame. Amen. I read just today in the paper where Andrew Young just spent a night of 36 hours on the streets of Atlanta, Georgia. You know what he said? He said all these folks we got on the streets are not just bums. They're folks that hard times has hit on. Thousands of people laying on the streets of our major cities now. Nowhere to lay their head. Nowhere to go. The man that Brother GW took home the other day, he said there's everybody, everybody in this country is just two weeks away, two weeks away from being on the streets. If you lose your job in debt like most folks are, they'd be on the streets also. You know what I want to see rise in this country? A church with the fire of God in their souls. A church with more than just a sign of circumcision. A church with a circumcised heart. Can you say amen? A church that the heart has been changed and transformed by the renewing of the mind. Hallelujah! That the very Christ can walk the streets of Atlanta, Georgia one more time. We're going to overcome the world. Bow your head. Our Father and our God, I thank you tonight for your word. Lord, for heaven's sakes, don't let this word fall on bad soil tonight.