STU:Answers to your Bible Questions  by Peter Ruckman

   WHAT PLAN OF SALVATION SHOULD I USE? 

   I use the "Romans Road," which a lot of them use. My convictions are
that a man can't be saved until he's lost. And so, when I deal with a
fellow, I try to get him lost first. The first thing I show almost any
man is Revelation chapter 20, verse 12. When I begin, I begin with
judgment. I tell you why I do; I think a lot of decisions you get these
days are shallow decisions, because the person you're dealing with
doesn't realize that they deserve to go to hell, and they don't see
that Christ is the only way they can keep from going.

   A lot of people these days receive Christ as kind of a "helper," or
kind of a "psychiatrist," or "doctor," or "financier," and you have to
receive Him as a Saviour.

   So, when I'm dealing with a man, I usually give him this. Revelation
20:12, "I saw the dead small and great stand before God; and the books
were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life:
and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the
books, according to their works....And whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

   I tell the fellow, "Now some day you're going to die. You believe
that, don't you?"

   And the man will usually say, "Yes."

   And I say, "Well, now, in the Bible, when you die, you're going to
face a judgment." And then I say, "Now, picture this judgment." And I
give him Romans chapter 2, verse 16: "In the day when God shall judge
the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel."

   Then I ask the man, "If you were to die tonight, would you be
prepared to have your secrets judged?"

   And he'll say something or other.

   And then I say, "Well, the Bible says this..." And then I quote
Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 14: "For God shall bring every work into
judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be
evil."

   And I never try to win a man to Christ until he admits (1) he's
going to die, (2) he's going to face judgment, and (3) he cannot get by
that judgment in his own righteousness. And, if a fellow doesn't admit
that, I don't try to win him to Christ. I don't believe that salvation
is a thing that's given to a man who still thinks he can get to heaven
by his own works.

   So I give him judgment. If he won't confess, if he still thinks he
can get by in his own righteousness, then given him some good, strong
verses like "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6),
or "There is none that doeth good, no, not one," "There is none that
understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God," "They are all
gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable" (Romans 3),
and try to convince him that he's not good enough to make it.

   But if he insists that he is, and will still listen to me, I turn
him to two places in the Bible. I turn him to Luke 18 and Job 31. Luke
18 and Job 31 are the three best men in the Bible, and all three of
them are lost. Job 31 and Luke 18. And I read him about these men, and
then I ask the fellow, "Now, are you as good as this man? Or, could you
say what this fellow says about himself?" And in Luke 18, I read him
about the Pharisee, verses 11 and 12, and the rich young ruler, verses
18-20. And in Job 31, I take him through Job's testimony, and God told
Job that his righteousness could not save him, and God told Job, "Will
you condemn me that you may be righteous?" And, in Job 31, that
testimony of Job shows that Job was a better man than any man in the
New Testament. Job was not only outwardly righteous, he was inwardly
righteous. But he wasn't right with God.

   And I show the man that. Now, if the man admits that he can't make
it, and admits that he would be lost and deserves to go to hell, then
and only then do I give him the plan of salvation. And when I give it
to him, I usually give it to him this way:

   First of all, I give him 1Peter chapter 3, verse 18. I read the
fellow, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the
unjust, that he might bring us to God." I tell the fellow, "Now, Christ
died for our sins--the just for the unjust. Now, who is the unjust?"

   And the fellow will say, "I don't know. Something or some other,"
etc.

   I say, "No, read it again. Christ suffered the just for the unjust.
Who's the unjust?"

   And, if the fellow won't say it, then you say, "Well, it's you and
me. We're unjust. Right?"

   And the guy says, "Yes."

   And you say, "OK, Christ suffered the just for the unjust. He's the
just, we're the unjust. Is that right?"

   The guy says, "Right."

   I say, "OK, Christ died for your sins. Now, what your name?"

   The fellow says (for example), "Bill Jones."

   I say, "OK, `God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.' Let's read together what God says about this and put
your name in. I turn him to Isaiah 53, and I read, `He hath borne Bill
Jones' griefs, he hath carried Bill Jones' sorrows, yet Bill Jones did
esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. He was wounded for
Bill Jones' transgressions, he was bruised for Bill Jones' iniquities,
the chastisement of Bill Jones was upon him, and with his stripes Bill
Jones was healed.'"

   I tell the fellow, "Christ died for you, and took the sins in your
place." Then I say, "God took your sins and laid them on Jesus. Are
they on you, or are they on Jesus?"

   When he says, "On Jesus," then I say, "All right, if they're on
Jesus, then if you trust Him as your Saviour, you'll be saved. Wouldn't
you like to receive Him?"

   He may give some kind of an argument; you have to come around again
and say, "All right, if you knew how to receive Him, would you like to
receive Him." Or, if he gives you some argument at that, you say,
"Well, do you know how to receive Christ?" Nine out of ten of them will
say, "No."

   And you say, "All right, I'll show you how." And then I turn to
Romans, 10:9,10 and 10:13.

   Now, that's not the only way to do, but I believe in the
old-fashioned way. I don't believe a fellow can be saved until he's
lost, and I believe before redemption is ruin.

   SHOULD WE PREPARE FOR A FAMINE?

   All right, take Matthew chapter 6 in one hand and then get
2Corinthians chapter 12.

   Look at Matthew 6:31. Now, there are two things in this. The first
one is, "the just shall live by faith." And, in line with living by
faith from day to day, these words are spoken: "Therefore, take no
thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or,
Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the
Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of
all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take
therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought
for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

   Now, that's a general principle. And that general principle is,
"Don't worry about tomorrow. You've got enough to handle right now,
without worrying about tomorrow." But, by the same token, notice verse
32: "For after all these things do the Gentiles seek." Well, these
words in Matthew 6 are spoken to Jews who haven't found the kingdom of
God. You people are saved people; you're neither Jew nor Gentile. You
have the kingdom of God, and you have Christ's righteousness.

   So, when you start taking stuff out of Matthew 5,6, and 7, and slap
it down on the Christian doctrinally, you have to be careful. Now, the
principle's all right, but then look at this in the Pauline epistles.

   Come to 2Corinthians 12. In 2Corinthians chapter 12, you're dealing
with a Pauline epistle. Here you have a church epistle written to saved
people under grace. Look at the difference, verse 14: "Behold, the
third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to
you: for I seek not you'rs, but you: for the children ought not to lay
up for the parents, but the parents for the children."

   Now, there's a statement about parents laying up stuff for the
children, so the children have something when the parents die. Now, let
me show you another one in the Pauline epistles. Come across here to
1Timothy, and get 1Timothy chapter 5. This is talking about the care of
widows. First Timothy 5:5: "Now she that is a widow indeed, and
desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers
night and day." Verse 8: "But if any provide not for his own, and
specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is
worse than an infidel." Now, of course, that's talking about a man
taking care of widows in his own home. But, it does speak about a man
providing for those in his own house. So, you have to take a moderate
view of that thing. I mean, trust God but keep your powder dry--faith
and works.

   I'd say this: I'd say, don't get so worried about it you get panicky
about it. Some of these anti-communists and right-wingers get so
panicky about it, all they talk about is communism all day. That's all
they talk about. I appreciate Billy James Hargis' ministry, and I
appreciate Carl McIntyre's ministry, and the John Birch Society, and
American Opinion, and all that bit. I appreciate what those guys are
doing; they're putting out a lot of good information. But you can get
hung up on that!

   If Billy James Hargis ever led anybody to Christ, I don't know who
it was. If Carl McIntyre has ever led anybody to Christ personally, I
don't know who that was.

   The Bible says, "Fear not them that are able to destroy the body,
but fear him that is able to destroy both body and soul in hell; yea, I
said, you fear him." Communism is a threat; so is Catholicism, which
you don't hear much about. All you hear is, "Communism, Communism,
Communism."

   I don't know; I think I'd just as soon live in Russia as in Spain,
if I had to. And so, when you get into those things, it's good to
prepare for them. But don't get panicky about them.

   My advice to people is, if you can buy some dehydrated food, get
some--if you've got enough money left to buy it. I'd get some. I
wouldn't get a trunk full of it, though. I'd get enough for a couple of
days or a couple of weeks for the family, and I'd get some guns and
ammunition, and it wouldn't hurt for some of you to carry water, if you
had to carry it. And then, when the time comes, pray like mad, and run
like mad, and fight like mad, and hope for the best.

   The rule for the Christian is, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do
all to the glory of God, giving thanks to God the Father in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ." If the thing broke out, I'd ask the Lord for
help all the time, and lean on Him and trust Him all the time. But I'd
also stock up and load up. You can't be too careful.

   WHAT WILL OUR BODIES BE LIKE IN HEAVEN?

   All right, get 1Corinthians chapter 15 in one hand, and get
Philippians chapter 3 in the other, and then get 1John chapter 3 in the
other.

   All right, first of all, 1John 3:1: "Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God:
therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved,
now"--right now--"are we the SONS...." That's really important.

   It says, "SONS." It didn't say daughters. Now, it says, "Ye should
be sons and daughters to me, saith the Lord Almighty," back in
2Corinthians. But, the Bible says, "But as many as received him, to
them gave he power to become" what? SONS! Now, you ladies here who have
received Christ, do you know what your title is? Your title is sons
here in the Bible. You'll want to remember that.

   "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear
what we shall be." You see, I'm standing on the platform and I'm
preaching, and some guy is standing back there saying, "Yeah, you got
power to get off earth and get to heaven. Phooey!" You know. That's
what they're thinking, you know.

   But they look at me and see me in my natural skin, but it hasn't yet
appeared to them what I'm going to be. You wait till you see what I'm
gonna be! I have Christ in me! Some day I'm going to be just like Jesus
Christ! You wouldn't guess that to look at me, but that Bible says,
"Whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed to the IMAGE
of his Son."

   All right, 1John 3: "But we know that when he shall appear"--male--
"we shall be like him"--male--"for we shall see him"--male--"as he is."
Now, you ladies are going to get your liberation without going to
Congress or having a bill or anything like that! Some day you ladies
are going to have all the privileges of manhood, because you're going
to be men.

   Turn to Philippians 3:19. It's there! No women in heaven. Maybe
that's why they call it heaven! "Whose end is destruction, whose God is
their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly
things.)" Now, watch it: "For our conversation is in heaven; from
whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: WHO SHALL
CHANGE OUR VILE BODY, THAT IT MAY BE FASHIONED LIKE UNTO HIS GLORIOUS
BODY, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all
things unto himself."

   All right, 1Corinthians 15, verse 50. Now, you ladies probably never
thought about this thing, but when the Lord made man, He took a rib out
of him and made a woman. And you say, "Do you believe that?" "Yeah,
just like that. Fifth rib." And He makes this woman out of this rib,
and this woman is called Woman, because she's taken out of man's flesh,
and therefore man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave unto
his wife, and the two shall be one flesh. Well, what kind of flesh is
it, ladies? Female or male?

   It's male! Male flesh. One flesh.

   Now, look at this thing here. See that word right there? WOMB-MAN.
That's a contraction. Now, in an English contraction, you take out that
"B" and you put the two "M"s together. That's a MAN with a WOMB. And,
they're so close, that in English, they only differ by two letters.
And, when the Lord made that man, and then made that woman from that
man, He did not call her Eve. Adam calls her Eve after they fall. That
woman's name was Adam. Turn to Genesis 5; her name was Adam. Adam
called her Eve after they fell, Genesis 5.

   Oh, there's plenty in this Book, man! There's plenty! Folks get this
stuff and they say, "Why, I never heard anything like that in all my
life!" Well, it's in the Bible! See, it isn't in one of these other
books that you buy; it's in the Bible.

   Genesis 5: "This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day
that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him"--watch it!--
"Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and CALLED THEIR
NAME ADAM." There's no "Eve" to it. He called their name "ADAM."

   That's why the woman takes the man's name. She's Mrs. Adam. So, you
ladies here tonight don't have any names. Your name is your father's
name until you're married, and then it's your husband's name. The
reason why is, you came from male and you go back to male. In the
resurrection, you're going to be a 33-year-old male.

   Won't that be a shocker?

   Can you imagine some Catholic getting to heaven, looking around for
Mary?

   I don't know whether you've thought about these things or not, but
you'll get convinced before it's through.

   Did you ever wonder why Christ on the cross lays down His life when
He's thirty-three-and-a-half years old, and says, "It is finished"? He
said, "No man hath power to take my life; I lay it down and take it up
again." Right? How come He laid it down at thirty-three-and-a- half?

   I mean, in Luke chapter 3, when He comes to be baptized, the Bible
said He was "about thirty years old." About 30. Then you read of one
Passover in John, two Passovers in John, three Passovers in John, and
Christ Himself is the fourth Passover Lamb. That thing is
springtime--April. There's a spring, there's a spring, and there's a
spring. There's one, two, three years, and here He is getting baptized,
long about September--six months. Three-and-a-half years. Christ runs
42 months; the Antichrist runs 42 months. Three-and-a- half years. He's
"about" thirty when He's baptized, so He's thirty- three-and-a-half
when He dies on the cross.

   And the Bible says you're going to be conformed to His image.

   Now, look at 1Corinthians 15:45: "And so it is written, The first
man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening
spirit." That shows you something. That is showing that when ol' Adam
messed up and died, he was thirty-three-and-a-half whenever he went.
When Christ comes along, Christ lays down His life at the same time, to
fulfill the same pattern, to produce the same results.

   Now, you ladies need to think for just a minute. If you had to live
forever in heaven, would you really like to be 70 years old forever in
heaven? I mean, I'm sure these sermons about dear old Grandma dying,
and when I get to heaven, I'll see dear ol' Grandma up there, sitting
by the fire, knitting, little babies around the fireplace, you know,
and an old hound dog lying there--and all that stuff, you know. To some
folks, the idea of heaven is just a glorified Kentucky, you know! Why,
if you were a woman, you wouldn't want to be a grandmother forever in
heaven, would you?

   Let me ask you this. Maybe your little baby died, after you had to
bear it. You'd like to see your baby again. You sure will see your baby
again. What would happen to your baby in heaven if it remained a baby
forever? Would you have to take care of it forever?

   See, folks just don't think. They just go charging through there and
say anything, you know.

   Now, let me ask you this. If you got to heaven, and your baby grew
up, your baby would grow up to what? Fifty? Sixty? Seventy? Eighty?
Ninety? A hundred? You say, "Forever." Looking like what? Two years
old? Fifteen years old?

   You know, the Lord who made that Bible and made you knows what He's
doing. And the Lord has fixed an age for you to live forever and ever
and ever, which will be the best age that you could ever be!

   Now, no woman would like to be 33 forever! Female. What's a good age
for a female? If any of you females wanted to choose an age at which
you'd live forever, you would not choose 33. As a matter of fact, you'd
not choose 30. It would be under 30.

   Now, if a man chose an ideal age, if he had any sense, he wouldn't
choose under 30, because you don't know enough at that age. And he
wouldn't choose over 40, because you begin to wear out. He'd choose 33
if he had any sense. I mean, the Lord's got sense. The Lord said, "I'm
going to lay my life down when I'm 33."

   They say old age is life without heat, and youth is heat without
life. And 33 is just right. So, up in heaven there, you're going to be
just like Christ.

   Now, you ladies are not convinced yet. Now, let me just show what
shallow thinkers you are. How many of you ladies are married? Did you
know that the Bible says you are to be in subjection to your own
husband, as unto the Lord? Do you enjoy being in subjection to your own
husband as unto the Lord? All the time? See, you almost slipped there
for a minute! I mean, do you really enjoy that 24 hours a day? Do you
realize that, if you stayed a woman in heaven, you'd be in subjection
to your husband forever?

   Now, let me ask you this. I'm not through with you yet. Suppose you
got to heaven, and then my family and I settled one place, and you and
your family settled over here, and his family and he settled over
there. Don't you know there'd be hell in heaven in about a year? I
mean, I love my bunch, you love your bunch, right? And you'd take care
of your bunch, and I'd take care of my bunch. I can hear it now: "Look
what she's wearing today. That's a second-hand crown she's got on her
head! Did you ever see such linen as that? I don't think it becomes her
a bit!" That kind of business.

   Why, if we stayed the way we were in heaven, there would be hell
after a while!

   So, God's got it worked out. And God's got it worked out so when you
get there, you're just exactly like Jesus Christ.

   Now, I'll show you in a minute how you'll know each other without
looking at the appearance. But first we must look at 1Corinthians
15:50: "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
Behold, I shew you a mystery"--here comes the rapture--"we shall not
all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye...." All right, verse 50 says flesh and blood can't get in.

   You hear these folks talking about "spreading the kingdom" and
"bringing in the kingdom." They can't bring in the kingdom because
flesh and blood can't inherit the kingdom.

   Now, come to Luke 24, and notice that, although flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom, flesh and bones can! Luke 24:36. When Adam
was made, he didn't have any blood in him. He said about Eve, "This is
bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh." Adam got his blood from the
wrong place. Luke 24:36: "And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood
in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they
were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a
spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts
arise in your hearts?" Now, watch it: "Behold my hands and my feet,
that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh
and BONES, as ye see me have." No blood! No blood. He shed every drop
of blood He had in Him before He arose from the dead. There's no blood
there! Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

   All right, back to 1Corinthians 15:50: "Now this I say, brethren,
that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth
corruption inherit incorruption."

   All right, if the Lord were to come right now, and we'd go home and
be with Him, we could go up there in flesh and bones. We could not go
with a combination of flesh and blood, because the blood's no good.
"The life of the flesh is in the blood." You die, because you're blood
is no good.

   Boy, if you ever hang around a hospital, you'll see that thing. A
guy is diagnosed with leukemia--something wrong with the blood.
Hodgkins' disease--something wrong with the blood. Bright's
disease--something wrong with the blood. Cancer--blood carrying it up
and down through the body. It's the blood! Something's wrong with the
blood! And so, if the Lord were to come right now, I couldn't take my
blood.

   So, one thing about your question is this: If the Lord came right
this minute, while I'm standing here, that thing would go--BAMMMM!--
like that, and all these windows would cave, there would be a light out
there like a cobalt bomb--and I'd be GONE--flying through there at
about 150,000 miles a second. And then right where I was standing would
be about five pints of blood on the floor.

   And so, if the Lord were to come with a rapture during a church
service, you'd have a lot of people going insane after the rapture. You
take tonight--what did we have here? About five or six hundred people?
If the Lord came, and 450 of those people left, there would be 50
people standing around there, looking at bloody clothes all over that
building. And there would be blood sopped all over that floor, and
blood running down underneath that thing. They'd go stark, raving mad,
probably--a lot of them. Screaming, praying--going crazy!

   Have you ever stopped to think how wild that thing would be? With
all those cars parked outside the building? Highway patrolmen would be
going by here, mass disappearances, the Strategic Air Command pressing
buttons and retaliating, and all this mess--and driving by here, and
here they'd find 100 cars parked right outside the church--with no
drivers! Highway patrol would go by at 1:00 in the morning, and they
would all be sitting right there. Four o'clock in the morning, and
they're still sitting right there. Highway patrol stop at 6:00 to open
the church door, and find a bunch of people rolling around on the floor
foaming at the mouth, and banging their heads against the wall-- and no
drivers. Wild! Wild scene!

   First Corinthians 15:51: "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not
all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump." Notice, this is not the seventh trumpet
of Revelation--and not the "last trumpet." Rather, the "last trump"--
that's a sound. "For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible
must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So
when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying
that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is
thy sting? O grove, where is thy victory?"

   All right, when you get stuff together, when we come up, we'll be
like Christ.

   Now, what about Christ's body? In John 20, the doors were shut, and
Christ came in the midst and said, "Peace be unto you." So, in the
resurrection and in the rapture, you'll get a body that can pass right
through solid, closed doors. That's the kind Christ had. He came
through a door. And that isn't all. You'll have a body that can become
visible and invisible at will. In Luke 24, Christ was sitting there at
the table and blessed the bread, and while He broke the bread, He
vanished from their sight. So, you'll have a body that can become
visible or invisible at will, and move through solid objects.

   All right, next: When Christ rose from the dead in John 20, He said
to Mary, "Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended. But go tell the
disciples, that I ascend unto my Father and your Father, my God and
your God." And then two hours later, in Matthew 28, the Bible says they
came and held Him by the feet. All right, He wouldn't let Mary touch
Him, and two hours later He let them touch Him. Which means He went up
and came back down in about two hours!

   Now, you've gotta move to do that! The nearest star--I don't know
how many million light years away that thing is--but you'd die of old
age traveling at the speed of light to get there! So, wherever He went,
He went from here, beyond Alpha Draconis going north, and got back in
about two-and-a-half hours. So He had to move about 150 million light
years a second--or something like that. He had to move! And so, when
you get saved, you have the power in you that can do that when the Lord
turns it on. So, in the resurrection or at the rapture, you'll have a
body just like Jesus Christ, pass through solid objects, become visible
or invisible at will; it's a body of supernatural flesh and bones, with
no blood; it's a 33-year-old male body. Christ said in the resurrection
they are as the angels of God. Every angel in that Bible is a male!
There isn't a sexless thing anywhere in that Bible. Scofield was a good
ol' gentleman, but he didn't bat 1.000. And, you get a body there that
will become just like Christ. When that happens, if you're
alive--SNAP!!--like that, that thing changes, and off you go. If you're
dead, you come up through the ground. If you're dead, the grave can't
keep you--"O grave, where is thy victory?". If you're alive, death
can't kill you--"O death, where is thy sting?".

   Christ said, "If a man lives and believes on me"--LIVING--"he'll
never die, and if he's dead, he'll live again"--up he goes!"

   By the way, in the resurrection body you can eat. You don't have to
eat to grow, and you don't have to eat to stay alive. When Christ rose
from the dead, Luke 24, He ate a piece of broiled fish and honeycomb,
and had no system of elimination or digestion to worry with. He just
ate to eat! Isn't that something?

   How would you like to have a body such that you can just go up there
and drink chocolate malted milks all day long, and never gain a pound?

   You know, I got to thinking about it. The Lord's such a joker--He's
got the wildest sense of humor. Did you ever stop to think about this?
Everything they're working for to get right down here now, God is going
to give you--free! And they can't get it to work for them! I mean,
they're trying to make men and women alike--right? Well, they'll be
alike in heaven. They're trying to get all the races to get along
together--right? They'll get along all right in heaven. They're trying
to have a perfect, controlled temperature. They got it in heaven! See,
everything they're working for--you know, to bend rays, make stuff
visible and invisible--you'll get it in heaven. They're trying to give
you a body that never can die--you'll get it in heaven!

   I mean, the Lord's got this thing all worked out. A dumb fool, who
never even finished the third grade, comes down and falls down before a
bench in some old church, weeping, "I don't know nothin', I ain't got
no education."

   You ask, "Do you know you're a sinner?"

   "Yes."

   "Do you want the Lord to save you?"

   "Yeah, God please save my poor old sinful soul from hell."

   AND HE GETS THE WHOLE THING! See? And these professors down at
Berkeley just bat their brains out and can't make ANYTHING!

   That's the Lord! That's how He does it. Boy, He can do it!

   WHEN EXACTLY WAS CHRIST BORN?

   All right, get Luke chapter 2 in one hand, and get Hebrews chapter 1
in the other.

   Hebrews 1:10: "And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the
foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:
They shall perish; but thou remainest"--watch it!--"and they all shall
wax old as doth a garment."

   The heavens are like a garment. "And as a vesture shalt thou fold
them up." The Lord's going to change clothes. "And they shall be
changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail." Then the
universe is like God's clothing, and He's separate from it.

   The materialist makes the universe eternal, and believes in the
eternity of matter. But that isn't true. "In the beginning God created
the heaven and the earth." So, that's something different.

   All right, now those things are said to be like clothing. In the Old
Testament, what did the Lord appear in on this earth? It was a
tabernacle. In the Old Testament, the Lord was in the tabernacle,
behind the holy of holies, behind the vail, on down there. Brother
Batema and I were talking about the Northern Lights, which he has seen
up there in Canada. I've never seen them, but I was asking about them.
I've seen pictures of them; they look like curtains. Like the curtain
of the holy of holies, hanging down there. And they are north.

   And it's like the Lord has this thing on, like clothing, and then
some day He's going to take it off--dump it. Then God and His holiness
will be revealed. "I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon
it, from whose face the heaven and earth fled away, and there was no
place found for them."

   Before you get to Luke 1, on this clothing turn to John, where
Christ is getting ready to die on the cross. In the Gospel of John,
pick up chapter 19, verse 23. Christ has one piece of clothing, which
has a hole in the top. "Then the soldiers, when they had crucified
Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part;
and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top
throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend
it"--tear the coat--"but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the
scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among
them, and for my vesture they did cast lots."

   When the Bible speaks of Christ's clothing, it says "coat," it says
"raiment," it says "vesture." But one word it never uses is robe. The
scarlet and purple robes put on Jesus Christ were put on by the Roman
soldiers who crucified Him. So Lloyd Douglas wrote him a book called
"The Robe." And then Beverly Shea gets up and sings, "The robe, His
robe, may its glory live forever."

   Let's hope not!

   Christ didn't have any robe. The only robe He got was from the
people who killed him--the Romans.

   Now, concerning this last clothing He has, he's got four pieces. The
last piece He has is a pancho, and it's woven like this throughout,
with a hole in the top, like that. And you're regular pancho is that
piece of material; it has a hole up here, and the guy puts it over his
neck, and it hangs down over the outside. That's the garment which has
a hole in the top.

   Now, I know this is the long way around, but this is gathered by
deduction. He says in Hebrews chapter 12 there's a heavenly Mount Zion.
In Isaiah, the devil says, "I'm going to ascend to the sides of the
north, and put my throne above the stars of God." All right, it says,
"Beautiful for situation is Mount Zion, the city of the great King,
located in the sides of the north." The picture of the universe is a
pyramid in your Bibles--a picture like a mountain.

   All right, Genesis chapter 1: the Lord divided the waters above the
heavens--the firmament--from the water below the firmament, and called
the firmament heaven. He put the sun, moon, and stars in here--
evening, morning, so forth and so on. The picture of the universe is a
picture where there's water above you, and water below you, and the
universe in the middle like that. Then, up here is the throne.

   All right, in Revelation chapters 4, 5, and 6, John was caught up
into heaven--the third heaven--and saw a throne. When he saw it, he saw
a sea of glass. Christ says, "I am the door." John said, "A door was
opened in heaven."

   Christ said, "I am the door; by me, if a man enter in, he shall be
saved, and should go in and come out, and find pasture." You go up at
the rapture; you come back down at the Advent. When you go up there,
you go up through water; when you come back down, you come back down
through water.

   When you go up here, you go up through a place that is frozen, and
there's a hole at the top. The hole at the top of that thing was made
when Christ died on the cross, and the veil of the Temple was rent in
twain from top to bottom. The Book of Hebrews says, "Enter through the
veil, that is to say, his flesh"--likening that rip in the top of the
universe to the rip in Christ's die. And likening that hole in the top
to the hole in the top of a seamless garment.

   And in all of those pictures the Lord has spoken of it as inside a
piece of clothing or a tabernacle, with a hole or a door in the top.

   All right, now get Luke chapter 2. Look at verse 8: "And there were
in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over
their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them,
and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore
afraid."

   All right, now at the birth of Christ, He said the shepherds were
"in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night." Over there in
Palestine, they bring them out of the fields before November. During
November and December, they're not in the fields; they're on down to
the stable in the farm yard. Whatever that time is there, it's warm
enough so that they're still in the fields. So whatever that time is,
it's before it got cold around November and December, or after it got
cold around February or March.

   All right, the most logical inference from what you've got here, is
it'll have to have something to do with the Feast of Tabernacles. Turn
to John 1. The Feast of Tabernacles is September or October. John
chapter 1, verse 14: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,
(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father)." When David is getting ready to build a Temple for the Lord,
the Lord says, "Did I ask for a house any place? In all the days I've
been with you I've traveled in a tent and a tabernacle." That's in the
Old Testament.

   Now, there are other secular things you can get from a calendar
that'll bring it down closer. But, from those things there, you can
judge that Christ was probably born at the Feast of Tabernacles, which
for a Jew is around September 23rd--someplace around there.

   Now, the thing that makes it real strong is this: Here is the sun,
and here is the earth going around the sun. And the earth does not go
around the sun in a complete circle. It's four days off in that thing.
The center of that eclipse is right here, and the sun is right here.
The sun is off four days in that thing. This gap right here is four
days. You check that thing in astronomy, and it'll come out something
like this. This thing over here is September, sitting here, and I
believe this is March; I'll have to check some things on it. December
is sitting up in here; and June is over in here, like that. They dates
here, are September 20th, 21, 22, and 23--those days. September 21st
there, September 23rd there.

   It looks like something started here. And then, four days later, the
sun was placed in the center of it. Take your Bible and turn to Genesis
1. What's the sun a type of, according to what I taught you tonight?
It's a type of Christ. All right, Genesis 1. Now watch this:

   Genesis 1:5: "And the evening and the morning were the first day"--
September 20th. Verse 8: "And the evening and the morning were the
second day"--September 21st. Verse 13: "And the evening and the morning
were the third day"--September 22nd. Verse 19: "And the evening and the
morning were the fourth day"--September 23rd. Verse 16: "God made two
great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light
to rule the night."

   So, I'd say that Christ is born the 23rd of September, at the Feast
of Tabernacles.

   WHO WERE THE "TWO MEN" AT THE RESURRECTION?

   It doesn't tell who they are, brother. There are two possibilities,
however. The first possibility is found in Revelation chapter 11, and
the second possibility is found in Luke 24.

   Luke 24:3: "And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord
Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout,
behold, two men stood by them in shining garments." Now, who are these
two men?

   Same chapter, verse 23: "And when they found not his body, they
came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of ANGELS, which said
that he was alive." So, the two could have been angels.

   The other possibility is Revelation 11:3: "I will give power unto my
two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand, two hundred and
threescore days, clothed in sackcloth."

   The two witnesses, by all odds, comparing scripture with scripture,
are the last two names in the Old Testament. The last two names in the
Old Testament are Moses and Elijah, Malachi 4. So, it might be them.

   Get Romans chapter 1 and Mark chapter 5. First of all, notice in
Romans chapter 1 that nothing is said about demon possession at all.

   On homosexuals and lesbians--which are two of a kind--in Romans
chapter 1, you read this. Romans 1:24: "Wherefore God also gave them up
to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts." Verse 26, He
gave them up to "vile affections: for even their women did change the
natural use into that which is against nature"--lesbianism--"And
likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in
their lust one toward another"--that's homosexuality in the male.
You'll notice in the passage there's nothing about demons at all.
They're not even mentioned.

   It's just talking about God turning a man over to his own self.

   The worst thing that God can do to a fellow is leave him alone! I'm
convinced of that. The worst thing that God can do is just pull back
and say, "OK, you do it your way." That's when you get in trouble! As
long as the Lord keeps dealing with you, you know there's a way to get
through. But once God pulls back and just says, "OK, I'll watch the
side show, and you perform"--then you're in trouble!

   In Jeremiah, he said, "The tribulation will now bring even upon this
people; even the fruit of their thoughts." So, in the tribulation,
here's what's going to happen: Men are going to be allowed to do
anything they want to do. That's what they've been hollering for, see?
Liberation! Freedom! Well, you're going to get it! And, boy, when you
get it, it's going to be hell on wheels!

   Now about demon possession, turn to Mark 5. The characteristics of
demon possession are not given as that found in Romans 1, although that
may be included. Homosexuality and lesbianism--those things are lodged
in the flesh. You have to distinguish between these things in dealing
with your opponents, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Now, the
devil works in a religious realm, primarily--although we're going to
see some interesting things here in a minute. The flesh is something
else. The flesh is, "Satisfy me. Satisfy what I want." And then the
world system is out there to get your mind off God and go after
material things. But those are three different adversaries.

   Now for demon possession, turn to Mark 5, beginning at verse 2. This
is the encyclopedia on demon possession in the Bible. Now, it won't
match Unger's book on Demonology, or Shafer's Systematic Theology. But,
I'll tell you, brethren: Where the greatest and best men who ever lived
depart from this King James Bible, they lose track of the truth. So
let's just stick by the text.

   Verse 2: "And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there
met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit."

   OK, here's Point Number One: The first mark of demon possession is,
they like to hang around dead people.

   A fellow from Minnesota 15 years ago had a whole ice house full of
cadavers. He was eating human flesh. The sheriff who arrested him went
crazy about two years later, because he realized he had been eating at
that fellow's house off and on for about five years, and found he had
been eating people!

   That's demonism!

   Now, do you know how you can be certain that isn't the flesh?
Because the flesh will just want to enjoy a good steak, or a lobster,
or a champagne, or beer--that's the flesh. But, when you can't be
satisfied unless you kill somebody and eat their dead corpse, you're no
longer moving in the fleshly realm; you're off in the spiritual realm.

   Turn to Luke 8:27. In Luke 8:27 it says the fellow was naked,
doesn't it? "And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the
city a certain man, which had devils long time, and WARE NO CLOTHES,
neither abode in any house, but in the tombs."

   Now, there we find streaking! You see, that gets out of the realm of
the flesh, and gets into the realm of demons. Because no man who wants
to satisfy his flesh normally would think of getting satisfaction by
running around naked where people could see him! Now, when you come to
the flesh, he might want a hot bath. That's real sensual sometimes. Or
a cold one.

   I take these ice baths in these spas--I like it, man. It's almost
masochistic--like plugging 110 volts of electricity into you. I'll go
into the sauna, and then run right out and jump into an ice bath.

   A guy in one of those places said, "How old are you?"

   I said, "Fifty-three."

   He said, "We don't allow anybody in those things over 40."

   I said, "Man, it's doing me good. Boy, it feels great!"

   He said, "Well, OK, it's your own risk, man. It's your own
insurance."

   But there's something about an ice cold bath that I like, boy. Man,
that just turns me on like electricity! That's the flesh.

   Do you like a massage? That's the flesh. Vibrater? That's the flesh,
see. Whenever the flesh wants satisfaction, there are certain ways he
goes about it.

   But, running around without any clothes on, where folks can look at
you--that thing is another realm. So, if you're looking for demons, the
two things that characterize them, first of all, is a desire to take
off their clothes, and secondly, to hang around corpses. That's the
mark of demon possession.

   And, for that, I guess Los Angeles is just about as stuffed full of
demons as a turkey is stuffed full of Christmas dressing. I mean, up
there at that beach there in L.A., boy, they're just crawling all over
the place, man! Now, that's your demons.

   All right, verse 3: "Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no
man could bind him, no, not with chains." One of the characteristics of
demon possession is unusual strength.

   All that karate and kung fu stuff is connected with demons. Now, the
average kid that takes it isn't going to get messed up with it. You
have to take a form of Buddhism, and meditation with it, to really get
into it deep, and the average Occidental or European can't follow it. I
mean, Zen is 'way out in left field for him. But, you take those guys
who are real professionals; they're fooling with spirits! In advanced
kung fu, there are certain moves where you knock a man down without
touching him. You project the force--and it sure isn't the Holy Spirit,
that's for sure!

   All right, you can't chain them. They have unnatural strength. In
Daytona Beach, Florida, there's a guy named Little Moses. Little Moses
makes an offer of a thousand dollars to anybody who can lift him off
the ground when he doesn't want to be lifted off the ground. And, when
he doesn't want to be lifted off the ground, you can't lift him!
Charles Atlas and "The Angel," back in the 1940s, almost tore Little
Moses limb from limb, trying to lift him off the ground--and they
couldn't do it! And he won't stand on a platform; he'll stand up the
street or in his front yard. He's about 5-feet-4. And, when he makes up
his mind that you're not going to lift him, you don't lift him! That
fellow's got power; but it's not the Holy Spirit.

   Verse 4: "Because that he had been often bound with fetters and
chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters
broken in pieces." Now, look at this: "neither could any man tame him."
One of the characteristics of demon possession is no response; you
can't get people to respond. You love them, you beg them, you plead
with them--no response. You threaten them--no response.

   One of the ways you know that America is getting demon-possessed as
a country is that way. I mean, as a country, America is getting demon-
infested. The people are passive; you can't get them to react. I would
finish drawing up here and give an invitation; you know how a lot of
folks take that? They take that like a TV program that just went off.
And they're waiting to switch the channel or watch the next commercial.
They don't intend to do anything about it! And you've got a whole
nation of people who just sit and look, and sit and look, and sit and
look, and that boob tube just plays before their eyes constantly. And,
after a while, they get the idea that everything's just a picture.

   A preacher said to me once in Macon, Georgia, "Brother Ruckman, I
suspect you have the same trouble with your congregation that I have
with mine. My congregation done concreted on me!"

   They concreted on him!

   A lot of congregations have concreted on him, brother!

   Let me show you what I mean. Here's this nut in Baltimore, Maryland,
drawing out a gun and firing at people on streets--five times, man!
Well, how does he get off five shots? He wasn't a quick-draw artist.
Some of these men can pull off, firing two times a second. But, not
him; he's just a common, ordinary bum, firing spaced shots in a crowd.
How come nobody hit him?

   I mean, you mean to tell me if a guy was standing right next to you
and pulled out a gun and--BLAMM!--shot a guy--that you couldn't hit him
on the arm, or just, you know, on the ear? I mean, if you stand next to
him here, you can reach for the mouth, that way. That hurts! If you hit
him, there won't be any more shooting. Or, if you kick him, and you
give him a compound fracture in his knees sideways, he isn't going to
do any more shooting, man! He isn't going to fire anything!

   But you take that guy, and he fires the gun. BAMMM!

   People stand around. "Oh, lookie, he's got a gun."

   BAMMM!! BAMMM!!

   "It's a real gun he's shooting!"

   BAMMM!! BAMMM!!

   "Oh, look at the blood. I saw that on the TV the other night." You
know, that's how they are. They're demon possessed. They're in a
passive state. They're just standing there, and they just let the guy
go on and shoot people.

   I have a good friend in Pensacola, Florida, named Farrier. He's a
medical doctor. He came over the other day and got him some coffee in
the drug store. He was drinking his coffee. A black man came in and sat
down next to him. Took him a fork and stabbed him in the neck with it.
He just happened to turn this way, and hit him up here in the muscle,
and he grabbed his neck and turned back, and said, "Hey, what are you
doing?"

   The guy stabbed him again. Missed the jugular vein by about a half
an inch. A friend of Dr. Farrier's who was with him got up and yelled,
"Police! Get that man!" The fellow just put down the fork and walked
out the door.

   They followed him out the door. Do you think anybody tackled him?
Nobody. Twenty-five people in the store--they could tackle the guy. You
tackle a guy into a counter full of glass, and he isn't going anywhere!

   And he got out the door, and they were saying, "Stop him! Stop him!
Stop him!" Nobody stopped him. They followed him down the street.
Halfway down the street, they stopped a construction man in a truck and
said, "Could you get the police on that shortwave?"

   He said, "No, all I can get is my construction company."

   They followed him a block, yelling, "Police! Get him!" Blood was
running all over this guy's neck.

   The black fellow got to the entrance of the San Carlos Hotel, and he
turned around and said, "You white so-and-so, if you keep following me,
I'll kill both of you!" And he went on in!

   And then a girl there in a clothing shop rental place in the San
Carlos Hotel saw it and phoned the police. They got that guy; he called
himself Louis "X". They put him in the county jail with a white man; he
sharpened a spoon and stabbed the white man to death in the stomach.
So, they sent him down to the mental ward in Chattahoochee, and they'll
keep him down there in Chattahoochie for two years, and then let him
out, and then he'll get you.

   That's what's going on in this country--just like that.

   Do you know what the trouble is? The folks can't act! They're all
frozen! It's wild; I'll tell you, man.

   I'm no hero, man, but I'll tell you right now--if I was in a crowd,
and some guy pulled out a gun and shot a guy in the stomach right in
front of me, he'd have to be good with a gun to get off another shot.

   Maybe it has a lot to do with your training. You know, I'm not a
good Christian--practically speaking. Christian's are supposed to be
soul- conscious, not people-conscious. I'm very people-conscious. You
know the greatest temptation I have? I have to fight it all the time. I
travel up and down this country in these airways and airlines. My dad
was a colonel in World War II and a captain in World War I. My brother
was a sergeant in World War II, and I was a lieutenant. My grandfather
was a general. They were all infantry. We didn't have an engineer in
the group. And Great Grandfather was a general--West Pointer. And the
first thing I remember shooting at as a boy was a silhouette target. We
didn't shoot squirrel; we shot men. We came up that way. When I was a
boy growing up, we'd look at battle maps for an evening's entertainment.

   I've been saved now for 26 years, but to this day I have to fight
when I go out into the world, to be relaxed and a witness and at ease
out there, moving up and down. I'm always on the defensive. I got up
there in the airplanes, flying up and down this countryside, and coming
in and out of those airports, and I walk up there, and before I know
it, I'm just looking up and down the lines for buying tickets and
checking baggage, and figuring what I'd do if a guy did this or that!
Or figuring, "That guy's pretty big. If he came this way, I'd get
through here, over here, or pull over here, and get a Coke bottle over
here."

   And a Christian isn't supposed to think those things, you know.
You're not supposed to think those things. But that stuff used to go
through my mind all the time. I mean, I would down there and size the
guy up--every guy I would see is a potential opponent. And it isn't
supposed to be that way when you're saved; you're supposed to have
compassion on them.

   Maybe that's bad, but I'll tell you one thing right now that's
worse. Just to sit around in front of that boob tube at home until you
can't move--that's worse!

   Let's keep on going. Verse 5: "And always night and day, he was in
the mountains." Demon-possessed people have an affinity for high
places. The mountains. You remember that, in the Old Testament, they
worshipped in the "high places," "the high places," "the high places."

   So, there you are in Houston and Cape Canaveral--trying to get up.
The devil, "I will ascend and put my throne above the stars of God."
They have an affinity for high places.

   "And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the
tombs, CRYING...." Excessive crying is one of the marks of demon
possession. Paul says, "I would not have you sorrow as others sorrow
who have no hope." Paul says, "Rejoice evermore! Rejoice, and again I
say, rejoice!"

   A Christian may have sorrow and grief. You're not going to bury a
loved one without getting torn up. Those things are bad. But, the very
worst thing that can happen to you is glory. Eventually, it's going to
work out. So, you shouldn't go around always down in the dumps. That
excessive crying is one of the marks of demonism.

   "....And cutting himself with stones." Sadism, masochism, self-
mutilation--one of the marks of demon-possession.

   If you want a good demon-possessed fellow, check this fellow out
down in Houston, who caught 27 of those 15-year-old boys, abused them
sexually, and then tortured them to death and buried them in sacks.
That's demonism. "Cutting himself with stones." Self-mutilation.

   If you're ever over in the Philippines, you'll see them go down into
the streets about Eastertime, whipping their backs till they're bloody.
You go to Spain, they're tying themselves to crosses. You go to Italy,
and they're crawling around on their hands and knees, and their knees
are bloody. They're full of demons.

   Verse 6: "But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped
him." Every demon-possessed man in the Bible is a fundamentalist. Every
demon-possessed man in the Bible believes in the deity of Jesus Christ.
There isn't an atheist in the bunch. Atheists, generally, are not
demon-possessed. Demon-possessed people are always religious. He ran
and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice. One of the marks of
demon possession is a loud voice. That's imitating the Holy Spirit. The
Bible says, "Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she said
with a loud voice." So, it's a counterfeit.

   You can tell demon-possession by the voice and the eyes. The Bible
says, "Out of the abundance of man's heart, his mouth speaks." You can
hear it in the voice. The Bible says, "The light of the body is the
eye." If demons are in the heart, they come out through the mouth and
the eyes.

   Demon-possessed people have two kinds of eyes. One eye--it pops and
stares. Drug-induced dilated pupils sometimes look like that. Drugs and
demonism are very closely associated. The other eye looks droops,
almost as though they were sleepy. When they talk, they won't look at
your eye; they'll look at the end of your nose.

   They'll say, "Now Brother Ruckman, I just want to have you know that
I'm praying for you, and appreciate you, Brother Ruckman. I love you in
the Lord, but I believe you're wrong about that," etc., etc., etc. The
voice is wrong. I've met them. The ones I've run into are all in
fundamental churches.

   I recall a woman one time, sitting down and saying, "Oh, dear Jesus,
they just said some day you'd persecute us. After all I've given to
this church, and I've just given so much to this church. Oh, dear
Lord,...." Demons, man! That isn't a natural voice.

   There was a fellow on television a while back, who used to draw and
make a few notes, and wore purple robes. Somebody said, "He has the
most fascinating eyes." He did; they were like a serpent; they were
like a snake's eyes! Have you ever seen a snake charm a squirrel or a
bird?

   So you have those things. And then you have the voice. Have you ever
heard a bunch of Holiness preachers preach? They preach like this: "So
my friends--uh!--I bless God--duh!--Glory to God--duh!--he came down
from the mountain--duh!--and he had--duh!--the Ten Commandments--
uh!--bless God!--uh..." What is all that stuff, anyway? It's like he's
getting prepared, and that gasp of breath gives him time to try and
think of something to say, you know.

   There are a bunch of preachers in this country who all use the same
diction, the same enunciation, and the same phrasing and timing in
their speech? Why? They've got the same spirit. And, if I heard one of
them in California, I'd know immediately what church he was a member of
without even asking him. If he was in Oklahoma, New York, Mississippi,
Alabama, Texas, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, or Louisiana, he'd
say: "And so, friends, we see the Bible teaches that we must repent and
be bup-tized, for the Bible says in Acts 2 and 38...and again we read
in Mark 16 and 16, that `he that believeth and is bup-tized shall be
saved,' for the scriptures teach...." Every one of those preachers talk
just like that--same phrasing, timing, diction, everything.

   That isn't the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn't lead 500
preachers to all pronounce their words the same way. That's a different
spirit. It comes out of the voice.

   All right, keep on reading. Verse 9: "And he asked him, What is thy
name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many."

   How many? Verse 13--enough to take care of two thousand hogs!

   All right now, there are two of these men here. Mark is giving you
the detailed account of dealing with one man, but in Matthew we read
that when Christ came over to this side of the lake, he ran into two
men coming out of the tomb. And Mark has only given the account of one
of them.

   All right, in Matthew 8, when Christ comes across here, there are
two men. Matthew 8:28: "There met him two possessed with devils, coming
out of the tombs." So there are two of them, and each one of these
fellows has a thousand demons in them.

   All right now, folks, you are asking about demons in relation to
these things. How can a thousand demons be in a man if demons are
disembodied spirits or angels? They can't be! Back in the old Dark
Ages, the Roman Catholic scholastics used to talk about putting a
thousand angels on the head of a pin. They used to joke about those
things, as if they were discussing something intelligent.

   But a man can have a thousand demons. This fellow had them. Mary
Magdelene had seven devil. Now, if your body can contain a thousand, do
you know what size they are? About the size of a mosquito or a
fly--whatever those things are. Whatever those things are, they have
wings. Let me show you something from Ecclesiastes. Have you ever asked
a lady where she got her information from, and she said, "A little bird
told me"? Ecclesiastes 10:20: "For a bird of the air shall carry the
voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter."

   Did you ever read over in Matthew 13, where the sower is putting out
the seed, and the "fowls of the air" came down and picked it up? When
somebody said to Jesus, "What do the fowls represent?" He said, "They
represent Satan."

   Did you ever read in Revelation chapter 17 where he says, "Come out
of Babylon, because she hath become the hold of every unclean and
hateful bird, and unclean spirit"? Demons have wings. You know what
they say out in the world? They say, "Bats in the belfry." They say,
"Bats in the belfry." You know how Alfred Hitchcock put it? Alfred
Hitchcock came out with a movie called, "The Birds." Birds.

   You know how they do it in New York? They call them "bird watchers."
Germans say, "He's got a bird." Bird brain.

   And so, whatever those things are, they're like mosquitoes or flies.
You remember what they said about Christ? They said He's Beelzebub and
casts out devils by the "prince of devils"? You know what Beelzebub was
lord of? Lord of the flies. Lord of the filth.

   So, God gave you two animals on this earth to show you what demons
are. And there isn't any book on demonology that will recognize that
truth--none of them. So don't waste your time buying them; it isn't
even in there.

   Those two animals are (1) the filthiest animal with wings--the fly;
and (2) a bloodsucker--the mosquito. Those things are pictures of
demons.

   All right, verse 12: "And all the devils besought him, saying, Send
us into the swine, that we may enter into them." And they go out and go
in those swine, and they run down the hill, and they're choked. And
that shows you that demons don't have any preference for live bodies or
dead bodies. Evidently demons are perfectly capable of inhabiting a
dead body as well as a live body, and it doesn't bother them a bit.

   Now, the last thing about demons is this: When the demons go into
those pigs, they go down to the sea. They head for water. And in Mark,
I read, there was a demon-possessed boy whom the disciples couldn't
cure, and the daddy came to Jesus and said, "The devil gets hold of
this boy and oftentimes casts him into the fire and water." See those
two things? Demon-possessed people have an affinity for warm, wet
places--because the final end of demons is a lake of fire. Warm, wet.

   So, if you want to get to a first-place hell-hole, the best place
would be San Diego or Los Angeles. And if not there, Miami or New
Orleans. And if you missed it there, take Shanghai or Cairo. And if you
really want to hit it, hit Honolulu. And when you get to a warm, wet
place, that place is crawling with them. They have an affinity for
warm, wet places.

   And, it also explains something else. It also explains why people
love to buy a house on a lake or an ocean. And to sit there and look at
that water, and to look at that water, and look at that water, and look
at that water, and look at that water. Now, you go out to the beach at
night, and build a big bonfire, or get a fireplace in your
house--people want a fireplace in their house. And they sit around
looking at that fire and looking at that fire and looking at that fire
and looking at that fire and looking at that fire. And something
happens! There's something about fire and water that's magnetic.

   PEOPLE WHO DIE TWICE

   Of course, a lot of people in the Bible die twice, so they have to
be types of people who will die twice.

   Let me show you what I mean. All right, here's your Tribulation--
seven years. There's your Millennium--one thousand years. Here's your
White Throne Judgment, where the dead stand before God, and so forth,
and so on. Now, there are going to be people in the Tribulation who get
killed, because they won't take the mark of the beast--they go down
here. They come up in the resurrection, and go into the Millennium.

   That's why the Bible doesn't say, "This is the first resurrection,"
until Revelation 20. The first resurrection is not over at the rapture.
The first resurrection is not over until the end of the Tribulation.
The first resurrection has three parts: (1) Old Testament saints, when
Christ came up; (2) New Testament saints at the rapture; (3)
Tribulation saints at the end of the Tribulation.

   All right, now they come up and go into the Millennium. When they go
into the Millennium, they have natural bodies. They don't get a
glorified body, because the glorified bodies, like Christ, went up at
the rapture. So, when a man dies in the Tribulation and comes up at the
Millennium, he has a natural body and dies again in here. And he comes
up here at the last resurrection, and if he couldn't get life from some
place, he'd die again.

   So, if a man is a Tribulation saint, or a Millennial, he gets his
eternal life off of a tree. "Blessed are they that do his commandments,
that they may have a right to the tree of life," Revelation
22:14--which is not the way you get your eternal life. You get your
eternal life from Christ.

   That isn't all; you don't get your eternal life by keeping the
commandments. Now, these people here have faith and works, faith and
works, and they come up here. And if their name is in the book of life,
they go into the city and partake of the tree of life and live forever.
Otherwise, they die again. There is nothing to keep them from dying;
they don't get glorified bodies.

   Now, to show you that's so, the Lord put into your Bible all kinds
of people. Dorcas died, Simon Peter resurrected her, and she died again
of old age. Lazarus died, Christ brought him up, and he died of old
age. Eutychus fell out of the window, and Paul raised him up, and later
on he died of old age. The widow of Nain's son died twice; Jairus's
daughter died twice. Jonah died twice. The Shunammite's son died twice.
All kinds of people die twice in that Bible. And they died twice to
show that, in the future, there's going to be somebody who dies twice.

   Moses is a good example. Moses died, and was buried, and nobody
knows where his sepulchre is. In the Tribulation, Moses will come back
and get his head cut off. And Moses will die again in the Tribulation,
and then come up over here. So Moses is a picture of a Tribulation
saint, who dies in the Tribulation and dies again in the Millennium--
two deaths. And they get their life from the tree of life in New
Jerusalem.

   And that's not the way you get yours. You get yours by grace through
faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

   HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN THE LORD IS TALKING TO YOU AND WHAT HE'S TRYING
TO TELL YOU?

   That's a rough one!

   All right, Romans chapter 12. Get that in one hand, and get
1Thessalonians 5:18 in the other.

   Now these things here are on the will of the Lord--that is, in
trying to find out what God wants you to do, how can you know what He
wants you to do, and when He's leading you to do something and when
He's not. And there are certain things in the Bible that are clear on
this, and there are certain things that are not.

   Romans 12:1: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of
God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to
this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye
may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

   All right, the first condition for knowing what God wants you to do,
and the first condition for knowing God's will about a thing, is that
the body has to be surrendered. "Present your bodies a living
sacrifice."

   The next condition is non-conformity. And if a man is trying to find
out what God wants him to do and what God is leading him to do, he'll
never find out as long as he conforms to the world, and he'll never
find out as long as he doesn't present his body as a sacrifice.

   Those are the essentials.

   Now, when he does that, there are three wills of God, verse 2.
There's a good will of God that He doesn't accept; there's a good and
acceptible will of God that's not perfect; and there's a perfect will
of God.

   Now, by that I mean, there are certain things you can do that are
good. They're good things to do, but they won't count at the judgment
seat of Christ. The Lord doesn't accept them--although they're all
right.

   Then there are certain things you can do that God will accept, but
it may not be exactly what He wanted you to do. And the trick is to
find out exactly what God wants you to do, and do it.

   And that's what the question is about.

   All right, now there are certain things that are clear that you
don't have to guess at. For example, come to 1Thessalonians 5. If you
obey these, then you're well on your way to finding out what's not
clear. Look at the will of God here given in 1Thessalonians 5:18. Our
trouble is, we pray and say, "Lord, show us what you want us to do."
And then, when He tells us, we don't want to do it. Now, here's
something we're supposed to do, 1Thessalonians 5:18: "In every thing
give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you."

   So, the first answer to that thing about knowing the will of God is
this. The will of God is for you to give thanks in everything.

   I heard a fellow pray a blessing one time before the meal, and he
said, "Lord, help us to be truly thankful for what we're about to
receive." That's a good blessing, but that sure covers a lot of
territory! But, if that just means the meal, O.K. But, boy, if that
means the next 48 hours, that's saying a lot!

   All right, now, you can be sure of 1Thessalonians 5:18. You can be
certain that, in everything that happens to you, you are to give
thanks, because "all things work together for good to them who love
God, to them that are the called according to his purpose." And it
isn't easy to do!

   Have you ever been in a hurry to get someplace--and then have a flat
tire? Little old things like that try your religion worse than big
things.

   All right, now here's the next will of God, in 1Thessalonians 4:3:
"For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should
abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to
possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; Not in the lust of
concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: That no man go
beyond and defraud his brother in any matter." Now, that's definite.

   All right, the will of God for you is to be sanctified and live a
clean life, and not fornicate--that's the will of God. You don't have
to pray about that; that's His will.

   All right, now, let's look at the things that you're not too sure
about. Turn to Ephesians chapter 5, verse 17, in one hand, and
Colossians 4:12 in the other. Now, these are things that you are going
to have search out in other ways. I'm going to begin reading Ephesians
5 at verse 15: "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but
as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye
not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is." Now,
that's a commandment. It's a commandment for a Christian to find out
God's will.

   Colossians 4:12: "Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ,
saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye
may stand perfect and complete"--now look how it's worded--"in ALL the
will of God."

   All right, now, one more. Colossians chapter 1, beginning at verse
27. Now, these verses show that God has a will, and you are to find out
what the will is. And, it's a complete will. That is, God has a perfect
will for your life, and a complete will that isn't just a matter of hit
or miss. "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of
glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all
wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which
worketh in my mightily."

   Now, turn to 1John chapter 4. Now, the hardest thing you will ever
to do in your life as a Christian, as far as I know, is to ask
yourself, when something comes up, "Is this God warning me and trying
to get me to stop because I'm going the wrong way? Or is this the devil
putting an obstacle in my way to see if I'll quit?" The reason why
that's so hard is because the devil and the Lord work so closely
together, it's almost impossible to tell them apart.

   For example, when the devil comes down and hits Job and smites him
and makes him sick and takes his children, the devil did it. The Lord
said, "All that he has is in your hands." And, by the same token, the
Lord said of the devil in chapter 2, "You moved me against him to
destroy him without a cause."

   Another real bad one is where David sins, and the Bible says, "Satan
stood up and provoked David to number Israel," in 2Samuel. But in
1Chronicles it says, "God moved David to number Israel." And the words
God and Satan are used interchangeably.

   I'll give you another one. When somebody dies in the family,
Deuteronomy quotes the Lord saying, "I've got power to kill and to make
alive, to wound and to heal." But, by the same token, the Bible says in
Hebrews chapter 2, "Him that hath the power of death; that is, the
devil." So, when a person died, it's the devil that killed him. But God
gives him permission to take him when he goes.

   He said about Job, "All that he has is in your hand. Only don't put
forth your hand on his life."

   So, when you get into those things where God and the devil are
working together, it's almost impossible sometimes to tell what's going
on.

   For example, if you got a raise, that's obviously from the Lord.
Right? And if you got a new house at a good bargain, that's the Lord,
you know. And, you know, if you got a big paid vacation, that's the
Lord. If you got a good meal, that's the Lord.

   But then, when you get cancer, right away you think, "That's the
devil." Or, when you get fired from a job or lose a job, that's the
devil. That's how we think. We think that way because we're human.
We're weak; we're selfish.

   And yet, haven't some of you fellows ever lost a job--and it turned
out to be the best thing that ever happened to you? It did with me. I
lost a job as a discjockey; I'm glad I'm not there.

   So, the thing is this; when something like that happens, it's almost
impossible to tell. Now, "in every thing give thanks." When the thing
happens, thank God and claim Romans 8:28.

   Now, you take a condition where you're praying and saying, "Now,
Lord, should I move to Burbank or should I stay here?" Or, "Lord,
should we get a job in Fresno or stay here?" Or, you're praying, "Lord,
should I get into the ministry, or keep the job I've got and work
part-time?" Then you run into this--1John 4:1: "Beloved, believe not
every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many
false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit
of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the
flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh is not of God."

   And there are three ways you have to seek God's will in prayer like
that. You've got to (1) stay in your Bible and go with the revealed
word; (2) watch Providence; that is, see how doors open and close; and
then (3) pray without ceasing--those things.

   And when you pray, you say, "Lord, do you want me to do this?"

   And you wait awhile, and you get a very definite impression.

   When you get that impression, you say, "Lord, that spirit that gave
me that impression, does that spirit confess that Jesus Christ is come
in the flesh?"

   And then wait.

   And then say, "Lord, that spirit that just said, `That spirit
confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh'--does that spirit
confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh?"

   You see, when you kneel down to pray, you've got the devil working
on you as well as the Lord. There's an old song about the devil
"trembling" when he sees a saint on his knees; but the devil doesn't
tremble when a saint gets on his knees. When a saint gets on his knees,
the devil kneels right down beside him. He starts putting doubts in his
mind.

   So, when you pray along those lines, about when God is speaking to
you, all I can tell you is, go by the Book, by Providence, and by
prayer. And don't take the first impression you get! Try the spirits.
And, in matters where you're trying to find God's will on a BIG thing,
you can't just get down on your knees and say, "Now, Lord, do you want
me to do this?" and then come up with, "Yeah, the Lord told me to do
it," and get up and go. So, be careful of that about a BIG thing. Now,
with some little things you can do it that way. But, in a big thing,
you're going to have to wait on the Lord in prayer.

   If I were praying about a big thing, I would never quit praying
after 15 minutes about that one item. It would run 30 minutes, and I
wouldn't make a decision on it that day. I would wait two or three
days, or even two or three weeks. And, gradually, the Lord will impress
you.

   CAN THE DEVIL READ OUR MINDS?

   Turn to Revelation chapter 12, and get Revelation 12:9. And, with
the other hand, get Luke 22 and Job 2. All right, Job 2, Luke 22, and
Revelation 12.

   All right now, first of all, in Revelation 12, about the devil, in
Revelation 12:9: "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent,
called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was
cast out into the earth." "And the great dragon was cast out, that OLD
serpent."

   All right now, the statement is, "The devil deceives the whole
world." Nobody's big game for him; they're all small pickin's. The next
thing is, he's old; he's been around a long time. He's been around for
six millenniums. When you read your Bible, did anybody ever get in the
ring where the devil got knocked out? He got Moses to kill a man; he
got Moses to lose his temper and hit a rock; he got David to commit
adultery and murder; he got Simon Peter to swear; he got Daniel to let
a king bow down and commit sacrilege in front of him; he got Joseph to
lie about the silver cup; he got Paul to lose his temper when the
fellow hit him in the Sanhedrin. Anybody he deals with in that Bible
messes up--except Christ.

   So the first thing about the devil is that he's been around a long
time, and he's able to deceive anybody. That's the first thing.

   All right, the next thing--Luke 22:31: "And the Lord said, Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as
wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when
thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."

   All right, Satan wanted Peter. And He said, "Satan wants to sift you
and work you over." And when you study what the devil did to Simon
Peter, if he didn't read his mind, at least he knew him better than his
mother knew him.

   For example, in this chapter you're reading, look at Luke 22, the
same chapter, look at this thing on the sword with Simon Peter. Verse
33: "I'm ready to go...to death." Verse 36: "Get you a sword." Verse
38: "Two swords...it's enough." Now what did Simon Peter do this same
night we're reading about here? Didn't he draw a sword in the garden
and hack off a guy's ear?

   Now, do you realize the devil had that thing all worked out? And,
when the devil had that thing, he knew Simon Peter. And he said about
Simon Peter, "Now, Simon Peter's trouble is, he's impetuous. He likes
to fight. And the Lord said to him, `Get you a sword.' So now Peter's
got a sword. Now I'm going to fix Simon Peter!"

   And he gets out there in the garden, and they come in there, and the
devil says, "OK. Action!" And he draws the sword.

   And the Lord says, "Put it up."

   And Peter says, "What do you mean, `Put it up'? You said get one
(Luke 22). You said get one (Luke 22)!"

   And Christ said, "If you live with the sword, you're going to perish
with the sword. Put it up!"

   And Simon Peter put it up, and then he was mad with the Lord! The
reason why Simon Peter denied the Lord was not because he was afraid;
he was mad at Him! And, when he got down by that fire, and they said,
"Are you one of them? Are you one of them?" he said, "Blank blankety-
blank blank, NO, I'm not one of them!"

   Do you know what was wrong? He was mad at the Lord! And he was mad
at the Lord because the Lord said, "Get you a sword," and he got him a
sword--and then the Lord wouldn't let him use it. "Put it back up!"

   Now, you've got to admit that's a pretty carefully wrought-out thing
the devil worked out with Simon Peter. He knew his mind.

   Turn to Job chapter 2. And in Job chapter 2, at verse 9, look what
Job's wife says to him, when he finally winds up smitten with leprosy,
or whatever it was, from head to foot. Look at Job 2:9: "The said his
wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and
die."

   Where did his wife get that from? Look at verse 4, up in heaven:
"And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a
man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand now, and
touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face."

   Verse 9, down on the ground: "Curse God, and die."

   Now, do you know what that means? That means that Job's wife had a
direct hotline right to the devil. And down there on the ground, she
was saying what the devil wanted Job to do, and the devil was using her
to get Job to do it.

   So, I'm saying, in view of that and some others, the answer to the
question is this: That, although the devil can't read your mind, he at
least could know you better than your mother or father knows you. And
your mother and father know you pretty well! I'd say, since the devil
has six thousand years of experience in dealing with people, he
certainly knows anybody here better than their parents know them. And
he wouldn't have to do much reading by them to mess us up.

   And then again, we do things to betray what we're thinking when
nobody else is around. The devil sees that.

   So he's pretty well prepared, and we're pretty unprepared.

   WHY WASN'T DANIEL CAST INTO THE FIERY FURNACE WITH SHADRACH, MESHACH
AND ABEDNEGO?

   All right, in Daniel chapter 3, here's Nebuchadnezzar putting up his
image to worship himself (verse 3). And, you'll notice in chapter 3,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are the only ones who get into hot
water (or a hot furnace!), and Daniel doesn't get burned. So the
question comes up, where was Daniel? Did he bow down?

   And the answer is in Daniel 2:49: "Then Daniel requested of the
king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, over the affairs of
the province of Babylon." They're out in the province (2:49), "...but
Daniel sat in the gate of the king."

   So Daniel is not required to bow down.

   In chapter 3, verse 4: "Then an herald cried aloud, To you it is
commanded, O people, nations, and languages, That at what time ye hear
the sound of the cornet..." So Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego are out
over the provinces, ruling with the people, and when the dedication
comes, they come with the people. But Daniel is right up there with the
king.

   Then the question comes up, Why didn't Daniel say something? And the
answer to that is, Daniel had already had his baptism by fire back in
chapter 2, when he led them and got them off the king's meat (chapter
1), got them on pulse (chapter 1), interpreted the king's image and
dream in Daniel 2. And, like the old proverb says, "Every tub shall
stand upon its own bottom," Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego have to
earn their own spurs. So they earn them.

   And there's one more thought, that's real upsetting. Look at chapter
2, verse 46. Daniel couldn't have opened his mouth! Look at 2:46; he
let that king worship him! See there? Boy! He couldn't have opened his
mouth! If Daniel had said, "What?" the king would have said, "`What'
nothing! You let me bow down to you!"

   HOW DO YOU PRAY SINCERELY WITHOUT VAIN REPETITION?

   OK, get Matthew chapter 6, where that expression occurs, and I'll
give you an example in Daniel 9. Matthew 6 in one hand, and Daniel 9 in
the other.

   Now some of the new bibles have changed this vain repetition to
something else. One of them says, "Babbling," and one of them says,
"Useless," something or other.

   So the question is, How can you pray about one thing for a long
period of time without vain repetition?

   All right, Matthew 6:7: "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions,
as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their
much speaking." Now, vain repetition there cannot mean just repeating.
It's VAIN repeating. Vain repetition.

   And I'll show you in a minute, from the model prayer, that it can't
mean just repeating, because one of the greatest prayers in the Bible
is repetition throughout. And, what He is condemning in Matthew 6:7 is
this business about, "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed by thy
name, thy kingdom come," etc., etc.--and flip the beads around. "Our
Father which art in heaven, hail, Mary, Mother of God, full of grace,
Lord," that business. THAT's vain repetition. That's saying one prayer
over and over and over and over and over VAINLY.

   Now, just to repeat a thing? That isn't it. For example, turn to
Daniel 9, and notice this great prayer of repentance, how the same
thing is repeated over and over again, and the Lord's name is repeated
over again. Daniel 9:3: "And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek
by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O
Lord,..."

   Verse 7: "O Lord,..."

   Verse 8: "O Lord,..."

   Verse 16: "O Lord,..."

   Verse 18: "O my God,..."

   Verse 19: "O Lord,..."

   "O Lord." "O Lord." "O Lord." "O my God." See? That doesn't come
under the heading of "vain repetition" there.

   As a matter of fact, real praying finally reduces itself to about
three words. From what I know about men and about people, I find that
when a man gets really desperate, he's praying, "O my God!" And you
watch the guy get hurt on a job, by accident, or out there in a car
wreck. Or a guy under shell fire or artillery fire: "O my God! O my
God! O my God!", you know. And then it's reduced to, "O God!" It comes
down finally, if the guy isn't saved especially, he doesn't say, "O my
God!" He says, "O God! O God! O God!", you know.

   Boy, if you had a dollar for every time those two words were said in
combat, you'd be rich. An atheist out there saying, "O God! O God!"

   And when you get rid of that, you're down to, "Oh!" And it finally
reduces to that. It comes to "O my God!" And then "O God!" And then
just "Oh! Oh! Oh!" Down to that.

   And, when those things are said from the heart, under burden, that's
not vain repetition.

   Now, look at Daniel's prayer again, and look at the subject matter
here. Verse 5: "We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have
done wickedly, and have rebelled." Verse 10: "Neither have we obeyed."
Verse 11: "Transgressed," "Departed." See that business? That whole
thing is just a confession of sin! But God doesn't count that vain
repetition.

   Now, there's progression, if you wait on the Lord. Let's come to
Matthew for a minute. And, if you find yourself praying about one
thing, just over and over again, in one prayer at one time, you're not
waiting enough between the petitions to see what the Lord is doing with
it. For example, come to Matthew chapter 26. And in Matthew 26, look at
the progression in this prayer. And Christ is only praying about one
thing. Matthew 26:39: "And he went a little farther, and fell on his
face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." Verse 42:
"O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it,
thy will be done." Verse 44: "The third time, saying the same words."
Now that's the greatest prayer in the Bible; that's Gethsemane. That's
blood, sweat, and tears. And the content of that prayer is not even
thirty words--not even thirty words. But there are gaps in there.

   And, if you ever prayed for somebody to get well who was dying, if
you ever prayed for a sick boy or girl or something like that, and
you've been along there, it's the place where you get down there and
you pray, and then you wait. And then you beg again, and then you cry
awhile. And then you quit crying, and nothing happens. And then you
wait, and you start in again. And then finally you're all prayed out,
and can't think of anything else to pray. And you just wait awhile.

   I've had prayer meetings at times when I was afraid to look up when
I got through praying. Any of you been like that? I mean, it wasn't
that anybody was standing there. I mean, I don't believe in spooks or
anything. But, I'll tell you, man, there's a Presence there. There's a
Presence there. There've been times, when I got through praying, and
thought I'd prayed the thing out, where the Lord just said, "Just keep
your head down a little bit longer."

   And so I'd say this: I'd say, I wouldn't worry about a vain
repetition where you're sincere. But if you're just saying the same
words over and over again like a wheel, then just stop and wait, and
watch the Lord begin to work.

   You know, many times He begins to work on us. You ever get that? I
mean, "Lord, get me a new car. Lord, get me a new car. Lord, get me a
new car." And then there's a blank.

   And the Lord says, "Oh, by the way, if I get you a new car, do you
remember what you did with that last one?"

   And you mumble, "Yeah." And go on, "Lord, get me a new car. Get me a
new car!"

   And then there's a blank, and the Lord says, "If I get you a new
car, will you pick up some folks and take them to church?"

   "Oh, yeah, yeah, sure, sure!" Then you pray again for awhile, you
know, and there's a big blank.

   And the Lord says, "Well, now, if I get you a new car, will it
interfere with your missionary offering?"

   "Well, you know, Lord, it's been kind of hard, and I've been laid
off, you know, and I got a lot of bills I've got to get out of the way
first."

   See, that's how prayer goes. When you get down to pray and tangle
with the Lord, you just don't run in there, you know, and press the
button and say, "Hello, bell boy, give me a pitcher of ice water." You
wait awhile and let the Lord deal with you.

   WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT PEOPLE STAYING SINGLE?

   All right, this thing here has to do with people staying single.
We'll begin at 1Corinthians 7:1: "Now concerning the things whereof ye
wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman." And, of
course, touch in the sense of fornication--not in the sense of just,
you know, holding hands, you know, or something like that--although
that can get bad too!

   There's a Christian school in this country where they don't even
allow them to hold hands on the campus, you know. There are a lot of
jokes about that. I went to that school. I remember one day going up to
the post office. I've got a friend named Jimmy Menan. He's a big old
German boy about 6-feet-2. When you go into the post office, there's
only one door to get into the post office, for about two thousand
students. You know, some of these boyfriends and girlfriends try to
hold each other's hand going into the post office. Because, going
through the door, you're all packed in shoulder-to-shoulder. Ol' Jimmy
Menan walked in there one day, and some guy reached out there to grab
his girl's hand and got Menan's hand instead of his girl's! And held
onto his hand going in there.

   They got inside, and Menan turned to him and said, "Boy, you sure
got a good grip!"

   That word "touch" there is talking about sex. Here's how you know
that, verse 2: "Nevertheless, to avoid fornication..." That's how you
know it means that. "Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man
have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Let the
husband render unto the wife due benevolence..." what she has coming to
her "...and likewise also the wife unto the husband..." what he has
coming to him.

   You say, "Well, he has a smack in the mouth coming!" That doesn't
mean that, you know!

   There was a colored boy on trial for desertion in Mobile, Alabama
once. He told the judge, "If you knowed dat woman like I knowed dat
woman you wouldn't call me no deserter. I no deserter. I's a refugee!"

   A wife and a husband were arguing. She said, "Stop making fists in
your pockets at me!"

   Verse 4: "The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband."
All right, if you're married, then your wife's body belongs to you.
It's your body. "Likewise also the husband hath not power of his own
body, but the wife." If you're married, then his body is yours, and
your body is his. That's the idea.

   Verse 5: "Defraud ye not one the other." "Defraud" in the sense of
what? It's talking about relationship. "Except it be with consent for a
time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come
together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency." That
idea is, if the husband and wife are living together and live like
normal people do and have a normal kind of life, then they can decide
for a certain period, you know, to give themselves to the Lord's work.
But then, come back together again, and don't wait too long, or the
devil will get in there--work on the man and work on the woman. Happens
all the time.

   Now the verses, beginning with verse 6: "But I speak this by
permission, and not of commandment." And the idea is, he gave there the
permissive will of God on it. "For I would that all men were even as I
myself." SINGLE! In plainer words, as a commandment, he's not saying,
"I COMMAND that you do this, and COMMAND you to do that," because he
said, "If I was going to give you direct commandment, I'd say, STAY
SINGLE!"

   Verse 1: "It is good for a man not to touch a woman." That's the
commandment. The permission is, to avoid fornication, let them get
married, and so forth, and so on.

   "But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment. For I would
that all men were even as I myself..." single. "But every man hath his
proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that."
Some men have an ability to stay single, and a gift to stay single.

   I'll give you an example. Turn to Matthew 19, and keep 1Corinthians
7; we're not through with it yet. All right, Matthew 19. Some men just
make good husbands and good fathers; some men don't. Matthew 19:10:
"His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his
wife, it is not good to marry." See that?

   "But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save
they to whom it is given." So not everybody can receive the saying of
staying single. But some can.

   All right, 1Corinthians 7:7: "For I would that all men were even as
I myself..." single. "But every man hath his proper gift of God, one
after this manner, and another after that." So you can't give a
commandment on it. I mean, you can't lay down a hard, fixed line. "I
say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they
abide even as I..." single! "But if they cannot contain..." (in the
sense of self-control, verse 2), "...let them marry: for it is better
to marry than to burn..." in the sense of verse 5, incontinency, and in
the sense of verse 2, burning in lust.

   IS THE BIBLE INSPIRED WHERE PAUL SAYS, "TO THE REST SPEAK I, NOT THE
LORD"?

   Oh, yeah, it's inspired. He's saying, "By the Holy Spirit, I'm
telling you what the Lord will allow." That's what he's saying. "The
Lord will allow that."

   Let me show you another one just like it. Verse 10: "To the married
I command, yet not I, but the Lord." Verse 12: "But to the rest speak
I, not the Lord." The idea on that is, that the Lord, when He was on
the earth, didn't say anything about that. When he says, "To the rest
speak I, not the Lord," he's not saying, "The Lord is not behind what
I'm saying." He's saying, "The Lord didn't say what I'm getting ready
to say. So I'm speaking this." But the Lord led him to say it! "All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God."

   When the Lord was on the earth, He said some things about marriage
in Matthew 19, but didn't say the things that Paul says in 1Corinthians
7. So, when Paul says, "I'm saying it, not the Lord," he's saying, "The
Lord didn't say these things, but I'm saying them." And, of course,
he's saying them under inspiration.

   WAS PAUL EVER MARRIED?

   According to Edersheim's Life and Times of the Jewish Messiah, he
was supposed to be married, because he was supposed to be a member of
the Sanhedrin, and every member of the Sanhedrin was supposed to have a
wife.

   I never have bought that stuff. I figure Edersheim and Josephus
don't know what they're talking about half the time. I never read
anywhere in the Bible that Paul was a member of any Sanhedrin. And if
he was, I never read anywhere where a member of the Sanhedrin had to be
married.

   I think a lot of that stuff is talk.

   Look at verses 32,33, and 34: "He that is unmarried careth for the
things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: But he that
is married, careth for the things that are of the world, how he may
please his wife."

   You know, when a guy gets married, or a woman gets married--you
ladies can say what you want to--you cannot attend upon the Lord
without distraction, married to a man. Because he'll distract you! I
mean, you'll have to constantly think of what he wants! No way to get
around it! And you're picking up after him around the house, too!

   And you take a man. When a man marries a woman, I don't care how
good a man he is, he's got to think about her, because there may be
children. And, if there are not children, he's got a responsibility,
see?

   So if a guy is able to stay single and be undistracted, he'll do a
better job for the Lord. But if he be distracted to the point where,
like it says here, he goes into sin, then he'd better get married, and
take on responsibilities.

   The Bible is a very practical Book. It gives one of the motives for
marriage as just to avoid the life of sin. That may not be very
romantic, but it's real practical!

   EXPOSITION OF HEBREWS 6:1-6

   Oh, goodie!

   All right, I'll read it through one time like a Holiness, and then
I'll read it through one time like Scofield, and then I'll read it
through one time like Dr. DeHaan--then we'll get it right.

   All right, Hebrews 6, beginning at verse 1. First of all, we'll come
through like the Church of God and Assembly of God and the Pentecostal:

   6:1--Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let
us CHRISTIANS go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of
repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of
baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead,
and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit. For it is
impossible for those SAVED PEOPLE who were once enlightened, and have
tasted of the heavenly gift, WHICH IS ETERNAL LIFE, and were made
partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and
the powers of the world to come, If THOSE SAVED PEOPLE fall away FROM
SALVATION, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to
themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

   So, Holiness people teach that it's a person who was saved and then
lost it. And, of course, it's kind of a foolish thing to teach, because
verse 6 says if they shall fall away, it's impossible to renew them
again to repentance. And all Holiness people believe you can get saved
again and again and again. And whoever that is there, they can't get
saved again!

   So, that won't work.

   All right, Dr. DeHaan does it this way:

   Verse 4: It is impossible for THE CHRISTIANS who were once
enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made
partakers of the Holy Ghost (SAVED PEOPLE), And have tasted the good
word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall
away (IN THE SENSE OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE), to renew them again unto
repentance (TO SERVE THE LORD); seeing they crucify to themselves the
Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. THEREFORE, THEY'LL
SUFFER LOSS AT THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST.

   That'll be in M.R. DeHaan's books.

   Now, of course, that overlooks the fact that the Judgment Seat of
Christ is not in the book anywhere. It also overlooks the fact that the
name of the book is Hebrews.

   All right now, Scofield has it this way:

   Verse 4: It is impossible for THOSE HEBREWS (JEWS) who were once
enlightened (KNEW ABOUT THE GOSPEL), and have tasted of the heavenly
gift (IN THE SENSE OF KNOWING ABOUT IT), and were made partakers of the
Holy Ghost (IN THE SENSE OF GOING ALONG WITH THE CONVICTING OF THE HOLY
GHOST), And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the
world to come (IN THE SENSE OF SEEING MIRACLES), If they shall COME
RIGHT UP TO CALVARY AND THEN REJECT CHRIST, THEN THEY CAN'T REPENT
AGAIN, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh.

   The Scofield note makes that the unpardonable sin. You know, coming
up, and then coming short of it.

   Now, there's one more that I've heard recently, that the evangelists
are using. And they call this a hypothetical case. They say, "It is
impossible for those IF they shall fall away..." So, they're teaching,
If a Christian could fall away, he couldn't get saved again--
hypothetical, see. Not that he will. But if he could, then he couldn't
get back.

   And all that's very fine, but it has nothing to do with the Bible.

   Now, let me show you something here. Turn to Hebrews 3, and let me
show you the characteristics of the book of Hebrews. You notice that
every one of those interpretations that I gave, I had to stretch
something? Now, if you really want to see it stretched, you get the
"Greek nuggets" by Kenneth Wuest or Zodhiates, and you watch those
fellows go to the Greek and spend fifteen pages trying to change your
King James Bible to make it teach what they believe. Because they
couldn't understand the verse! All right, now let's look at Hebrews 3
for a minute. Then I'll try to nail that thing down.

   Now, this is going to be a tough session. I mean, I get more
criticism for what I'm getting ready to show you now than anything I do
in the ministry. Because it isn't very good Baptist doctrine. But I'm
not a very good Baptist where the Baptists cross the word of God! I
tend to be kind of a heretic along those lines.

   All right, Hebrews 3:6: "But Christ as a son over his own house;
whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of
the hope firm unto the end."

   Do you have to hold fast your confidence and rejoicing firm to the
end to become a member of Christ's house?

   No! Of course you don't!

   Now, of course, there's all kinds of ways around it. You say, "Well,
obedience," you know, or, "It isn't our salvation; it's the assurance
of our salvation." I mean, Christian colleges have all kinds of ways to
pervert the word of God. Look at verse 14; you can't mess with that
thing! That doesn't even say a house. It says, "For we are made
partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence
stedfast unto the end."

   Now, how many of you people have received Christ? Now, do you know
when you became a partaker of Christ? The moment you trusted Him as
your Saviour! And you did more than partake.

   Somebody says, "Well, that means the Judgment Seat of Christ," and
all that bunk.

   When you got saved, you became bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh,
and a member of His body. You couldn't partake any more if you tried!

   And when Paul prays, Paul prays for the fellowship of His
sufferings, "that I might be a partaker of the fellowship of His
sufferings." But that verse in Hebrews 3 didn't say "partaker of His
sufferings." That thing said, "Partaker of Him!"

   All right, now let me show you another one like it. Come to Hebrews
chapter 10. Hebrews is a rough book!

   Did you ever wonder why so many denominations teach you could lose
your salvation? I mean, we know they're wrong. But don't you know they
had some basis for doing it?

   How do you account for the fact that the Lutherans, the
Episcopalians, the Methodists, Church of God, Assembly of God,
Pentecostals, Nazarenes, Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses,
Campbellites, Catholics--how do you account for the fact that they all
teach you can lose your salvation? Now, I don't believe you can. But
don't you know they had something to go by when they taught that? They
didn't just make that thing up!

   There are scores of passages in there like that! I mean, they're
rough!

   Now, here's a real rough one. Hebrews 10:26: "For if we sin wilfully
after that we have received the knowledge of the truth..." Any of you
folks ever sin willfully after you got saved? How many of you have?
Well, I'm glad to see we've got an honest congregation! Now, the
"Holiness" people never sin willfully! Because if they did, they'd lose
it! Did you ever stop to think about the mess people get into?

   I was talking to a Holiness preacher one time, and he said, "He that
is born of God does not commit sin, because his seed remaineth in him,
and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."

   And I said, "Well, are you sinless?"

   He said, "I was eradicated. Had the old nature eradicated and
sanctified and purified with fire." And he gave the experience.

   I said, "Well, was that when you were saved?"

   He said, "No, that's the second work of grace, brother."

   I said, "The passage didn't say the second work of grace. The
passage said whoever is born of God does not commit sin. He didn't say
whoever is sanctified. He said whoever is born of God!"

   See the mess folks get in?

   That guy would get that thing there, "Whoever is born of God does
not commit sin."

   I said to one fellow one time, "Well, have you sinned since you've
been saved?"

   He said, "I haven't committed a sin for eight years!"

   And I said, "Brother, am I glad to meet you! Take my hand, brother!
I sure am glad to meet you. The first man I ever met in my life who
hasn't sinned for eight years!"

   When I had him by the hand, I held on to him and I said, "You mean
to tell me you've never overslept one time in eight years?"

   And he said, "B-b-b-b-ut...but..."

   And I said, "You mean to tell me you've never underslept one time in
eight years?"

   And he said, "But...but..."

   I said, "You mean to tell me you've never overeaten one time in
eight years?"

   He said, "Well, I didn't mean that!"

   I said, "Oh, yeah, I know what you meant. You meant your standards
are lower than mine; that's what you meant!"

   All that stuff!

   I said to a fellow one time, "Are you sinless?"

   He said, "Yeah, I haven't sinned! I'm perfect!"

   And I said, "I sure would like to believe that, but I just never met
anybody who was perfect."

   And he said, "Well, I am!"

   And in the back seat, his teenage daughter laughed and said, "Oh,
Daddy, you are not!"

   I mean, with a lot of these folks, the trouble isn't in their
theology, the trouble is in their head! They're about half crazy!

   Let me read you "the Holiness nightmare." I wrote down a whole list
of sins here, and drinking, dancing, fornicating, perversion, lying,
swearing, killing, cheating, and stealing aren't even on the list. I
call this "the Holiness nightmare:"

   What is sin?

   Sin is to feel a secret pride in success, training or appearance.

   Sin is to feel an important, independent spirit,

   to feel bitter over what somebody has told you about the success of
somebody else.

   Sin is a harsh, sarcastic, unyielding spirit,

   a touchy, bitter, sensitive spirit,

   a desire to attract the attention of the opposite sex,

   to say and do things to attract attention to self.

   Sin is a constant complaining and desire to quit trying to do right.

   Sin is unnatural or abusive acts to self or others.

   Sin is a deceitful spirit that seeks to create false impressions,

   to pick flaws and criticize when set aside unnoticed.

   Sin is lustful and wandering eyes,

   a shrinking from duty and reproach,

   a tendency to retaliate when crossed,

   permitting things you would not permit in your idea of a consecrated
Christian.

   Sin is a shallow, stingier uncleanness in thought or desire,

   a joker or jester, vain or light in manner of conversation or life,

   unwilling to put out for others unless personal advantage is
involved,

   partiality to certain people, classes, or denominations,

   always thinking of what might have been if things hadn't happened
the way they did.

   Sin is being unthankful and unappreciative of your lot in life,

   in constant fear of failure and taking an unmerciful attitude toward
those who do fail,

   or taking an inferior attitude toward those of wealth or position.

   Sin is putting on a false or exaggerated humility,

   imagining how others are praising you or speaking well of you.

   Sin is straining at the truth and showing an "I don't care" attitude
toward being caught in sin,

   or shirking responsibilities.

   Sin is the feeling of nervousness you get when you see somebody
doing something you think you could do better.

   Now, that's the Holiness nightmare, see? And you never heard a
Holiness preacher even mention those things. And those things are sin!
That's sin! That's where the trouble comes from.

   All right, now Hebrews 10:26: "If we sin willfully after that we
have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more
sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and
fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised
Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much
sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath
trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the
covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done
despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said,
Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And
again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God."

   Now, I don't care what you do with that verse. But that thing, as it
comes out right now, as it stands right there, is somebody who has
"trodden under foot the Son of God," and they're God's people! "The
Lord shall judge his people."

   Now, Dr. DeHaan will make that the Judgment Seat of Christ.

   It won't work! It will not work!

   "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." It
isn't for me. I'm in His hand! And no man can pluck me out of His hand!
It isn't a fearful thing for me to fall into the hands of the living
God.

   As a matter of fact, I'm one of His hands! First Corinthians 12 says
I'm bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh and one of His members,
like an eye or a foot or a hand!

   So whatever that thing is, it isn't me!

   All right, now, I'll show you how folks read the Bible. Look at
verse 30: "We know him that hath said..." Do you know Him that hath
said? "We know him that hath said--" He said it in the past. 'Way back
someplace.

   Where did He say it? Where'd He say it? Where? Whereabouts in the
past?

   Deuteronomy 32.

   Now, do you see how folks are? They just go through the Bible and
say, "Well, that means, Look out or you'll lose it!" Why, it has
nothing to do with you at all!

   Go back to Deuteronomy 32. That wasn't given to any Christian in Los
Angeles. And the verse told you it wasn't! The verse said, "We know him
who hath said," and then gave you the reference. But who ever checks
the references?

   All right, Deuteronomy 32. Now look at this context, where this
quotation came from. Deuteronomy 32:35: "To me belongeth vengeance."
Verse 36: "For the Lord shall judge his people." Who are His people in
Deuteronomy 32? It's the Israelites! Israel! It's the Jews! That's not
talking about Christians.

   Look at the time of this thing here. Verse 29: "...their latter
end!" Verse 41: Armageddon! Verse 42: Armageddon! Verse 43: the
Millennium!

   It's talking about a Jew in the Tribulation!

   All right now, back in Hebrews, you find verse after verse after
verse that keeps indicating that you can lose your salvation. And the
reason why you can is because, in the Tribulation, you can! And the
biggest argument for a pre-Tribulation Rapture is the fact that, in the
Tribulation, if you were there, you could lose your salvation. That's
the greatest argument for a pre-Tribulation Rapture anywhere in the
Bible.

   And you've got a bunch of folks saying, "Do Christians go through
Tribulation?" They couldn't if they tried! If they did, they would be
liable to lose it!

   All right, now I'm going to draw something for you here. And it's
going to be wild. I know some of you are going to raise an eyebrow at
this. And the reason is, Dallas, Moody, Fuller, Wheaton, Springfield,
Arlington, Bob Jones, Biola, Midwestern, Mid-South, Northeastern,
Southeast by Northeast, don't even get into these kinds of things. All
they do in these Christian schools is make the Bible teach what's in
the Scofield reference notes. And those were out in 1909.

   All right, lookie here. Watch this thing here. God puts Adam down in
that garden, and He tells him, "Don't eat of that tree." And he does!

   Puts ol' Adam down there, and he puts him down there on a works
basis. All Adam has to do to be saved is just don't eat of that tree.
Pure works, if you ever saw it! And when He runs him out there, He
covers him with clothes and kills a lamb; covers him with clothes of a
lamb's skin--pure grace!

   All right then, back in the Old Testament, from Adam up here until
the time of Moses, you find, "By faith, Enoch did this..." "By faith,
Abraham did this..." "By faith, Isaac did this..." "By faith, somebody
did this..."

   Then along comes Moses, and the children of Israel say, "All the
Lord God says unto us, we'll do!"

   Paul says, "The man that doeth those things shall live by them under
the law."

   So, from Moses until the time of Christ, you have a setup of faith
and works--and there isn't any way you can cut that thing with a knife.
It's faith and works--isn't any doubt about it at all! "Don't touch
this." "Don't touch that." "Wash over here." "If you don't do this, the
soul will be cut off from the people." "If you don't do that, the soul
will be cut off from the people." WORKS, WORKS, WORKS, WORKS!

   When you get to talking like this, then somebody says, "Well,
Ruckman doesn't believe in salvation by grace." I believe every person
who ever got saved got saved by grace! That hasn't got anything to do
with what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about grace; talking about
faith and works. It's the grace of God that any of us get to heaven!
Always has been! I believe anybody who was ever saved was saved by
grace. But the grace is negative. God will give grace to anybody. He
caused the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. God is merciful to
a lot of people who aren't saved. God's grace is sufficient.

   All right, you get up here to the time of Christ. Then, after Christ
dies on the cross, He comes up from the dead. When He comes up from the
dead, Simon Peter gets up in Acts chapter 2, and somebody says, "You
want to get saved?" And he says, "Yeah. How do you do it?"

   Peter says, "You gotta get baptized!"

   Somebody says, "Oh, no, he was saying, `Be baptized because your
sins have been forgiven.'"

   Yeah! But he said, "You can't get the Holy Ghost unless you're
baptized in water." Acts 2:38: "Repent, and be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."

   Right? Isn't that Acts 2:38?

   That's Acts 2:38!

   Take your Bible and turn to Galatians 3. You didn't get the Holy
Spirit by getting baptized. If you get into that baptismal and you get
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins until
you're red, white, and blue, you'd still go to hell! You can't get the
Holy Spirit by getting baptized in water. Turn to Galatians 3. The
Bible says, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." All
right, in Galatians chapter 3, let's see how you got the Holy Spirit.
Verse 14: "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles
through Jesus Christ: that we might receive the promise of the Spirit
through..." what? FAITH! There's no water baptism to it.

   You got the Holy Spirit before you got baptized in water--just like
Cornelius did in Acts 10. In Acts chapter 10, he's preaching, Cornelius
and his house believed, and they received the Holy Spirit before they
were baptized in water. So, in Acts chapter 2, Simon Peter is still
preaching a faith-and-works setup. The gospel of the grace of God
hasn't yet been revealed. It isn't revealed unto you get around to
chapters 8, 9, and 10 of the book of Acts.

   All right then, you go on here, and you're saved by grace through
faith. Then the Holy Spirit takes the body of Christ out, and the Great
Tribulation starts.

   How is a man saved in the Great Tribulation? He's saved by faith and
works. Turn to Matthew 24. Faith and works. Without the works, he'd go
to hell, just as sure as he's standing there. When the Holy Spirit
leaves and takes the body of Christ out with Him, in Matthew chapter
24, look how a man is saved. Matthew 24:13: "But he that shall endure
to the end, the same shall be saved." Now what are they doing in the
passage? All right, look at the passage. Verse 14: "...gospel of the
kingdom..." Not the gospel of the grace of God. Verse 15: worshipping
in a temple. Verse 16: in Judea. Verse 20: keeping the Old Testament
Ten Commandments. See the Sabbath? Verse 20. Faith and works. Faith and
works. Faith and works.

   Take your Bible and turn to Revelation chapter 14. In the
Tribulation, a man is saved by faith and works. Without the faith, he's
not saved. Without the works, he's not saved. That's what James is
about. Revelation 14:12, right in the middle of the Tribulation. Notice
the mark of the beast, right in the context. "Here is the patience of
the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God..." WORKS!
"...and the faith of Jesus." FAITH AND WORKS!

   Chapter 12, verse 17, right in the middle of the Tribulation. Faith
and works. "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make
war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of
God..." WORKS ..."and have the testimony of Jesus Christ..." FAITH.

   FAITH and WORKS.

   Now, you ask about the passage in Hebrews. I'd say this. I'd say
that Hebrews 3, Hebrews 6, and Hebrews 10, where those passages are
aimed, are aimed at a Hebrew in the Tribulation. And, in the
Tribulation, he has to endure to the end to be saved. He has to put off
the mark of the beast to be saved. And he has to go by the Mosaic Ten
Commandments to be saved. And if he endures to the end, he's saved. If
he doesn't, he loses it!

   And I'd say the passages in Hebrews that deal with losing salvation
refer to a man losing salvation in this age.

   Let me show you a clincher. Revelation 22:14, which all the scholars
have changed. They will not believe what God says. That's true of all
the scholars. Any fundamental scholar or premillennial scholar in
America will change the verse, because he can't understand it.
Revelation 22:14: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they
may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the
gates into the city." Salvation by works! "Blessed are they that do his
commandments."

   Now the modern scholars--any of them, all the same crew--say,
"Blessed are they that wash their robes," you know, that kind of bunk.
They can't believe a man can be saved by keeping commandments. They're
going to make the Bible say what they believe.

   All during the thousand-year reign of Christ upon this earth, nobody
is saved by faith! You couldn't even have any faith. Come to Hebrews
chapter 11. When Christ is on this earth, nobody could be saved by
faith if they had the faith to do it! Hebrews 11:1: "Now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Will
we see Christ in the Millennium? Will the people on the earth see
Christ in the Millennium? Will He be here in the Millennium? Then
there's one thing you won't have in the Millennium--and that's faith!

   Make sure you don't have it. If you do, you get stoned. Turn to
Zechariah. You'll get your brains knocked out. Anybody who goes around
preaching "faith" in the Millennium gets their brains knocked out by
their mothers and daddies. Turn to Zechariah. And here is Christ on the
earth in the Millennium. Zechariah 12:10: "And I will pour upon the
house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of
grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me..." look upon
me ..."whom they have pierced." Chapter 13, verse 3: "And it shall come
to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his
mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live: for thou
speakest lies in the name of the Lord: and his father and his mother
that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth." Context?
Verse 6: "And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine
hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the
house of my friends."

   All right, in the Tribulation a man is saved by faith and works; in
the Millennium a man is saved by works. You can't beat that thing with
a stick, folks! There's no faith to it! "Faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." And in the
Millennium, Christ is right there, with a hole right there, and a hole
right there, and a hole right there--and if that weren't enough, there
will be about three million exact replicas of Christ out across this
earth--from the Church Age--reigning with Christ. There's no faith to
it!

   A man in the Millennium gets saved by keeping the Sermon on the
Mount--which is pure works, from start to finish.

   In the Tribulation, you know what happens to a fellow who doesn't
visit folks in jail? He goes to hell! Did you ever read Matthew 25? "I
was sick; you didn't visit me. I was in prison; you didn't come to see
me. I was naked; you didn't clothe me. I was hungry; you didn't feed
me. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the
devil and his angels." Pure works! Pure works!

   So, although anybody who's saved is saved by the grace of God, God
doesn't save them the same way in each dispensation. Noah was certainly
not saved by "looking forward to Calvary," like the pretty little
sermons say. He was saved by building a boat!

   In each age, the Lord says to a guy, "Do you want to be saved?"

   The guy says, "Yes."

   The Lord says, "OK, you do this."

   The Lord said to Noah, "You wanna get saved?"

   "Yep."

   "Build you a boat."

   The Lord said to Abraham, "You want to get saved?"

   "Yeah."

   "All right, I'm going to give you as many children as there are
stars up there. Do you believe it?"

   "Yep."

   "OK. Imputed righteousness."

   At Pentecost: "Do you want to get saved? Turn and get baptized."

   You know what the message is now? "You want to be saved? Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

   You know what the message is in the Tribulation? The message in the
Tribulation is, commandments of God AND faith in Jesus Christ.

   They differ.

   So concerning your question about Hebrews chapter 6, if I'm going to
answer that thing right, I'd say this: I'd say the Bible is not just
written for Baptists in the Church Age. I'd say the Bible is written
for people in all ages. And the book of Hebrews and James, in
Tribulation epistles, you'll find verses aimed doctrinally at a man in
the Tribulation, and in the Tribulation a man can lose it. He can lose
it.

   IS AMERICA THE NATION OF BABYLON?

   Well, that's what Logsdon says. Turn to Revelation 17. Logsdon was a
pastor up in Emmanuel Baptist Church in Holland, and then he left there
and went somewhere. And he's got a book out to try to prove that
Babylon the Great is America. And he doesn't change more than about
five verses with the Greek. But when a fellow changes a verse, I
usually leave him.

   All right, Revelation 17 on Babylon. Revelation 17:1: "And there
came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with
me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of
the great whore that sitteth upon many waters."

   Verse 3: "So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness:
and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast..." Now, the Bible
is self-interpreting. If you want to know who this woman is, the Bible
tells us who the woman is. In the same chapter, look at verse 18: "And
the woman which thou sawest is..." what? What? "...that great city..."
Not a nation! The Bible says it's a great city--not a nation.

   That makes a nice book you can sell, you know, and get all the
prophetic students messing around with it, you know. But that's a lie.
Babylon is not a country; Babylon is a city.

   All right, now let me show you some other things about this city.
Verse 4: "The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet." Are the colors
of the United States purple and scarlet? Do you know of any city whose
colors are purple and scarlet? Well now, if you don't, let's look at
verse 9: "The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman
sitteth."

   That's ROME!

   Here's a city built on seven mountains that reigns over the kings of
the earth, her colors are purple and scarlet. Now, if she isn't Rome,
if you have any doubts, go back to verse 4 and look at it again:
"...having a golden cup..."

   Did you ever drive down the streets and see that little gold cup
sitting there on the sign with that "RX" sitting on it? Don't they have
that in Los Angeles? They've got them everywhere else. Did you ever see
that thing out there with a little sign like this, by a church, and
here's a gold cup sitting like this? And then you've got this thing
sitting here like that. Boy, they've got them all over Louisiana, I'll
guarantee you. "A golden cup."

   All right, something else about this woman. Verse 6: "...the woman
drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the
martyrs..." Do you know of a city built on seven hills who kills saints
and martyrs, and has a golden cup, and her colors are purple and
scarlet?

   So, I've always taught the woman is Rome. And, if she's the United
States, somebody's sure stretching the Scripture.

   You know, folks, you're living in the last days. You know that,
don't you? And this prophecy thing, a lot of Christians go out to sea
on it in America. There are guys who go up and down this country making
a living on preaching Ezekiel 38 and 39, and Matthew 24--that's all the
Bible they know, and they don't know that! And you get that way by
spending too much time in front of television. Did you ever stop to
think about that television, sitting there giving you a newscast every
hour? And there are items on the half hour? And that radio on the hour
and every half hour? And the newspapers? Did you know, brethren, there
isn't that much news in the world? You buy a Los Angeles Times for ten
cents--that thing is that thick. Do you realize that if you took
everything that's really news that happened in one year and put it on a
piece of paper, it would fit one piece of paper in a year? It would fit
one piece of paper.

   And the Bible said in Acts chapter 17, the Athenians spent their
time hearing or telling something new. You get a bunch sitting around:
"What's next? What's next? It's shaping up! It's shaping up! It's
shaping up!" You know, watching every little detail of what's going on.

   Well, it sure is shaping up. But the Bible doesn't tell you about
Ford getting that shipment back. And the Bible doesn't tell you about
killing the calves before they go to Honduras. Now, some prophetic
teacher can go through there, you know, "The calves, the pasture,..."
and there it is--big item! Fifteen-minute broadcast, you know. And then
go through here, you know, and, "The ships of Tarshish have gone into
captivity." You know, a fifteen-minute broadcast! And those guys are
making a living off that kind of thing.

   Now, here's the whole thing. You know what this Bible says about the
future. They're all going to get together, so the devil will swallow
them up in one bunch. So, every news item is just one more thing to
show you they're getting together; that's all it is! I mean, "Nixon
Goes to Red China." Where's that in the Bible? It isn't in the
Bible--except they've got to get together.

   So, you don't want to go too much to sea in that thing, you know,
locating all those details.

   You know what they're doing down in Berkeley? I mean, they pay those
guys down there, those professors, you know, thirty or forty thousand
dollars a year, and I could tell them their curriculum without going
down there and looking at it. You know what they're doing down there in
Berkeley? They're teaching the way to get rid of wars--this is what
they do in the United Nations and the H.E.W. and the National Education
Association. You know what they're doing right now? They're teaching,
"The way to get rid of wars is to get rid of differences." It's just
that simple! "The way to get rid of wars is to get rid of differences."
That's all they're teaching! There isn't a lawyer or doctor in this
country who isn't working on that. "The way to get rid of wars is to
get rid of differences."

   How do you get rid of differences? You level to a common denominator.

   So, everywhere in this earth today, you know what the leaders are
doing? They're teaching you ladies that you're really men! And they're
teaching you men that you're really women! Get rid of the differences.
See? That's all that thing is!

   You're going to wind up with washrooms with no names on the
washrooms. "Man or woman." They'll make them the same!

   All right now, they're going to teach you this: There's no
"Catholic" or "Protestant." The Catholic has to have a Sunday school
and bus the kiddies in. And they're doing it! And they're preaching,
and they've got Sunday school literature. Now, you Protestants have to
wear a cross around your neck. And put robes in the choir, and put the
candles in.

   If this room was filled with every leading major scientist,
educator, philosopher, lawyer, and doctor in the world in here, I could
tell you in thirty minutes everything all of them are doing in this
mess, and they couldn't tell you one thing I didn't tell. Because all
they're doing is what I'm telling you.

   Now they're saying, "Now you black folks are not black, and you
white folks aren't white. You're the same." See? So you get a black
fellow to talk like a white fellow. Get a white fellow to talk like a
black fellow. Best way to do it is to give them their music. Give them
their culture. Mix them up in school.

   All right, now, you Occidentals. You're not really Occidental;
you're Oriental. Shave your head, sit cross-legged, Yoga, meditate, you
know--see, you're Oriental. Now you Orientals are not Oriental-- you're
Occidental.

   All they're doing is teaching that there isn't any difference in
anything, and they hope to enforce that and get rid of wars. That's all
they're working on.

   Now, you folks who are rich, they're going to make you poor. They're
going to take your money and "share." Now, you folks who are poor,
they're going to make you rich. Welfare. They're going to give you the
money.

   Now, you folks who are old--fifty, sixty, seventy--they're going to
make you young. See? Just talk and act like "kiddies." And you take
these kiddies--eight, nine, ten--they're "responsible adults." They
make their own decisions. See that thing?

   In plainer words, when you get that thing right down to it, every
major progressive movement in the world is just one movement--just to
get them together. And the Antichrist will come in, and will just
swallow them in one swallow.

   DO CHRISTIANS IN HEAVEN KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING ON EARTH?

   The question has to do with people dying and going on to Heaven. Do
they know what's going on down here?

   I'll give you the verses that are used to prove they do know what's
going on. First of all, this will be Hebrews chapter 12, in one hand,
and then Matthew chapter 2 in the other. And in the third hand take up
Revelation chapter 19. Hebrews 12, Matthew and Revelation.

   Now, these are verses to prove that people up in Heaven can know
what's going on down here. And we'll see they're all stretched. They're
stretched.

   All right, first of all, Matthew chapter 2, verse 17: "Then was
fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama
was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because
they are not." Rachel had been dead over fifteen hundred years by the
time that thing was written. And the idea is that, when Herod had all
the children killed in Bethlehem, that Rachel was weeping because of
the death of all those children in Bethlehem.

   But that won't work. I mean, it's obviously figurative. It's
obviously not Rachel weeping for her children; all those children
weren't hers in Bethlehem. So, it's obviously just talking about a
prophecy that Jeremiah spoke when he said that Rachel, who typified
Bethlehem--that's where her boy Benjamin was born--was going to lose a
lot of ancestors when they were killed.

   That isn't all. If that means Rachel is up in Heaven weeping for her
children, who were dying, it would mean that after your loved ones died
and went home to Heaven, they'd be miserable when they saw what was
going on down here.

   And that isn't the worst of it. Rachel didn't go to Heaven; she went
to Abraham's bosom. So that blows that.

   All right, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1: "Wherefore seeing we also
are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay
aside every weight..." The teaching is, that the Old Testament saints
are up in Heaven watching us, and we're down here, with them looking
down on us as a bunch of witnesses looking down on us. Which is
interesting, but it's stretched. When Paul says, "We're compassed about
with so great a cloud of witnesses," it isn't a statement that there
are a bunch of people up in Heaven watching you. He just recited the
Old Testament saints, and those are the witnesses. But they aren't
witnesses looking down, watching you; they're witnesses to the same
thing you're going through, and they surround you in the sense that
that they've all been through it, and you've got to go through it, too.

   All right, the last one is Revelation 19, which is true. But
Revelation 19 is a Tribulation passage. "And after these things I heard
a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation,
and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: For true and
righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore." And
here are people up in Heaven (verse 5) around the throne saying,
"Praise God." Verse 6, people around the throne saying, "Alleluia." So
in the Tribulation the people up in Heaven know what's going on down on
the earth, because they rejoice at the fall of Babylon. They rejoice
because the marriage of the Lamb has come.

   But to say that dead Christians in the body of Christ are sitting up
there watching things now is really stretching it. Because the
Tribulation is a special time with special things in it.

   Now, there's one more. Turn to Matthew chapter 17, and again you
have to stretch it. In Matthew 17, verse 3, here's Moses and Elijah on
the mount of transfiguration. You get a better account in Luke chapter
9, the other account of the mount of transfiguration. And in Luke
chapter 9, when they're up there on the mount, we read in 9:30: "And,
behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: Who
appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish
at Jerusalem." So, the reasoning is, if Moses and Elijah knew about
Christ dying on the cross at Jerusalem and spoke about it, then Moses
and Elijah in Heaven must have had some knowledge of what was going on
down here-- which they did. But, boy, when you make Moses and Elijah
typify New Testament Christian saints, you're really stretching 'er
hard. Moses and Elijah are two witnesses in the Tribulation; they
represent the law and the prophets. There is no Christian in this
building who represents the law and the prophets. As a matter of fact,
the law and the prophets are until John.

   So I would say this. I would say, if the Lord wanted anybody in
Heaven to know what was going on down here, He could show them if He
wanted to. I would say, however, that there is no indication that, once
a person is dead and gone on with the Lord, that he'd ever fool with
it. There's no indication.

   Turn to Ecclesiastes. I'll show you another one. But, of course, you
have to stretch this one, too. I'll get Ecclesiastes on folks dying.
This is a Jehovah's Witness passage. Get Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse
19: "For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts: even
one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea,
they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a
beast." Now, couple that with Ecclesiastes 9:5: "For the living know
that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing."

   See, now, you could use that. But that's slipping the hitch again,
because the writer is writing there about life under the sun, and
doesn't have the advanced revelation of the New Testament. And some of
the dead do know they're burning; the rich man in hell is screaming for
water.

   IS KING SAUL IN HEAVEN?

   Well, let's see what the Book says. The question is, Is Saul in
Heaven or is he not? Of course, you understand that in the Old
Testament he'd be in Abraham's bosom; he wouldn't be in Heaven. Sins
weren't paid for.

   First Samuel chapter 28. Now, this verse would indicate that when
Saul died, he died as a saved man. First Samuel chapter 28, and begin
at verse 16. In this passage here the witch of Endor has summoned up
Samuel, and the Lord has given Samuel permission to come up for a
minute to preach a message. And Samuel says in 1Samuel 28:16: "Then
said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is
departed from thee, and is become thine enemy? And the Lord hath done
to him, as he spake by me: for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of
thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David: Because thou
obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst his fierce wrath
upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this
day. Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand
of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me."

   We know Jonathan got killed in battle, and Jonathan was saved. So
the reasoning is, if Jonathan was one of his sons, and he went to be
with Samuel, then, if Saul went where his sons went, he went with
Samuel, too.

   Now, there are some catches on that. The catch on that is, in the
Old Testament, when a man died, he went to Sheol, and both saved and
lost were in Sheol. Except you don't learn until the New Testament that
Sheol has two compartments--Abraham's bosom and hell. So, he could have
been in Sheol with his sons, and still be in the wrong place.

   Now, evidence for being unsaved is here. Come to 2Samuel. And, in
2Samuel, look at this thing in 2Samuel on God's promise to David. That
would be 2Samuel chapter 7, verse 12. Now, this is the Lord talking to
David. You read in the Bible that the Holy Spirit came on Saul, and the
Holy Spirit departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord
troubled him. When you're dealing in the Old Testament, you're on shaky
ground with salvation, because you have fellows the Holy Spirit comes
on and leaves, and doesn't come back--Saul. You have fellows the Holy
Spirit comes on and leaves, and comes back-- Samson. You have people
the Holy Spirit should have left and didn't-- David. So, when you get
in there, you're on shaky ground.

   If you try to make all plans of salvation equal throughout the
Bible, you mess up your Bible--which is done regularly in school these
days. And they try to make a heretic out of Brother Ruckman for keeping
his integrity together. I'll tell you, if the Bible doesn't fit my plan
of interpretation, I change my plan of interpretation. Now, the
Scriptures don't contradict. It's in the plans.

   Second Samuel 7, the Lord talking to David. Verse 12: "And when thy
days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up
thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will
establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will
stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and
he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the
rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: But my mercy
shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away
before thee."

   Now, the mercies that God promised to David, He did not give Saul.
And those mercies in the New Testament are called the "sure mercies of
David." Turn to Acts 13. In contrast to Saul, turn to Acts 13, where
Paul is preaching the gospel message, and right in the middle of the
message he refers to the promise you just read in 2Samuel. Acts 13, and
I'll show you in a minute how this is connected with salvation. All
right, Acts 13, and this is Paul preaching in the synagogue, and Paul
says in Acts 13, verse 34: "And as concerning that he raised him up
from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this
wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David."

   Then David had a sure mercy established with him that Saul did not
have. And one of the strongest arguments against Saul being saved is
the fact that he's not mentioned in the heroes of faith in Hebrews
chapter 11, and he was before David--and David is mentioned. When you
come to the heroes of faith, you run along there with Adam, Enoch, and
then Noah, and Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Joshua--and he
mentions David. And he mentions Samson. He does not mention Saul.

   Now, come to Psalm 89. Now here are the sure mercies of David, and
they are promised to David and his son and his seed. Who was David's
son? Solomon. Then Solomon has to be a type of Christ, because Christ
is called the Son of David, and Solomon was the son of David. All
right, here they come in Psalm 89, verse 20. And these are given as an
exceptional rule in the Old Testament. David has exceptional mercies
and grace that other people under the law do not have. You know what
the punishment for adultery and murder is in the Old Testament? Did you
know no sacrifice was accepted for it?

   When David committed his sin, you know what he said? He said, "Thou
desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it. Thou delightest not in
burnt offering." There was no offering allowed for murder and adultery.
And yet he said, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me," and the Lord
didn't. So David had a touch of grace that you don't find normally in
the Old Testament.

   All right now, Psalm 89--the Lord is speaking with David. Verse 20:
"I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him:
With whom my hand shall be established." Now, verse 25: "I will set his
hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry
unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also
I will make him my firstborn." He'll make David His firstborn? Did God
give birth to David? Did God give birth to David? No. So, who is that a
reference to, there? It's a reference to Jesus Christ. Then, David is a
type of Christ in that passage. "I'll make him my firstborn."

   Now, if David is a type of Christ in that passage, watch what
happens to his son and the sure mercies. "My mercy will I keep for him
for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed..."
Who is Christ's seed? Yeah, you--if you're born again. "Being born
again of incorruptible seed." That's you. "His seed"--that's a present
truth for the body mystery in Psalms. "His seed..." that's you... "will
I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his
children..." that's you "...forsake my law, and walk not in my
judgments: If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;..."
I'll send them to hell--right? Right? RIGHT? NO! That ain't right!

   Do you all have a Bible open? Are you reading it? Are you reading
where I'm reading?

   All right, He says if you break the law and break the statutes and
break the commandments, you know what's going to happen to you? Verse
32: "Then will I visit their transgression with the rod..." He'll beat
you... "and their iniquity with stripes..." He'll whip you...
"Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor
suffer my faithfulness to fail."

   So the "sure mercies" given David are a type of New Testament
salvation, and Saul did not have them.

   Now, I'm not going to get into an argument with you about it,
because I don't know. Like I said the other night in the message, he
was either saved, or he wasn't. There's Scripture both ways.

   DOES GOD TALK TO PEOPLE TODAY LIKE HE DID TO DANIEL AND ABRAHAM?

   That's dangerous, man.

   All right, Hebrews chapter 1, beginning at verse 1. Get Hebrews
chapter 1 in one hand, and then get John chapter 16 in the other. Now
the question is, Does God talk to today like He talked to people like
David? The Lord comes down to Abraham, and Abraham says, "Lord? How
about it? Twenty of them?"

   And the Lord says, "Well, OK, twenty."

   He said, "Well, what about ten?"

   "Well, OK, ten."

   He just talks, you know.

   He says, "David, you do this and that, and I'll do this and that,
and so forth, and so on." And the question is, does God talk that way
any more?

   Moses was a prophet of God, and the Lord spoke to him face to face.
However, when the Lord dealt with other people, He dealt with them in
visions and dreams. The question is, after having a completed New
Testament and Old Testament revelation here, with the words of God in
it--"Thou shalt preserve them from this forth and forever"--having
these words here, the question is, does God still deal with people in
words?

   The prophets who prophesied, what they said is in here. The
prophecies are in here. And the people of God whom He appeared to in
visions and trances like Paul and Peter on the rooftop, what they had
is in here. The question is, is there any more?

   Hebrews 1, verse 1: "God, who at sundry times..." different times
"...and in divers manners..." different ways "...spake in time past
unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto
us by his Son." Now, that's a summation. God's final method of speaking
to people was with His Son. And what His Son said is recorded.

   All right, John chapter 16, verse 13: "Howbeit when he, the Spirit
of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not
speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak:
and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall
receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you." But, in a sense, that
came to pass, too, because the Holy Spirit, what He got from the
Father, He revealed to Paul, and Paul wrote down all this revelation
after John chapter 16. At the time of John chapter 16, nobody knew
nothing about salvation by grace through faith in the finished blood
atonement. They didn't know about it in Acts 3. Peter said in Acts 3
your sins will be blotted out at the second coming of Christ. Paul says
they're blotted out on the cross. So, the Holy Spirit has come and has
showed you.

   All right, to answer the question, I'd say this. I wouldn't want you
to follow me in my experiences. You have to judge your experience by
the Book. You can't judge the Book by your experience. That's where
your Charismatics get in such a mess. They go through a big experience,
and then try to make the Book match their experience. Well, I've had
some experiences. And I wouldn't dare say that God didn't speak to
people. I wouldn't dare say that. Because He spoke to me several times,
very definitely, about some things.

   But, when He speaks, it's not like David, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
With those fellows, the angel of the Lord is coming down here and
saying, "Well, what do you think about this?"

   "I think this."

   "Well, what do you think about going over there?"

   "Well, I think that."

   Now, the Holy Spirit in the Christian is not talking in your ear.
The Holy Spirit in you is conveying to you what God wants you to know.
And the trouble with that, "The Lord spoke to me," and "The Lord told
me," and, "The Lord led me," is, the Lord in the Christian is not going
to lead him to do anything contrary to this Book. And He's not going to
lead him to say anything contrary to this. And, whatever spirit in a
man led him to do something contrary to this, or to say something
contrary to this, is not the Holy Spirit.

   Now, you ladies and mothers, you call it intuition. I'm somewhat of
a mother myself. I raised five children by myself for about ten years.
I mean, a year and a half and up. And, I know how things go. I mean, I
sleep lighter today than my wife does. I can hear the kids crying in
the front room, and she can't. Every man should spend one Sunday taking
care of the nursery. That's a real experience to take care of a nursery.

   And I say that because I have been sitting, typing at a desk, and
the Lord has said, "Go up and look in the door." And I have gone and
looked in the door, and seen the grease on fire in the stove, and the
flames ten feet up the ceiling, across the ceiling to the bedroom, and
smoke two feet from the floor--and the house would be gone in fifteen
minutes.

   I've been busy at work doing something, and the Lord would say, "Go
in the living room." I would go in the living room, and the baby is
down on his hands and knees by the open light socket. There probably
isn't a mother in this building who hasn't had that happen.

   I've caught them with razor blades--straight-edged razor blades.

   And it isn't that the Lord says, "Hey! Do this." You can't describe
it as a voice in here (in your ear). It's more like a feeling--but it
has words to it. It has words to it.

   Now, you get in some real old prayer meetings with the Lord some
nights, and spend a lot of time in prayer, and the Lord will talk with
you, and He will deal with you. But, you have to try the spirits; the
devil kneels with you.

   DOES THE HOLY GHOST HAVE A BODILY SHAPE?

   All right, let's get John chapter 14 in one hand, and get Galatians
in the other hand. This question has to do with the Holy Ghost having a
bodily shape. Get Galatians 4:19, and now back to John 14. All right,
John 14, verse 26: "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom
the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and
bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."
And the Holy Ghost in the passage is to represent Jesus Christ.

   Notice 15:26: "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto
you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from
the Father, he shall testify of me."

   All right, now, come to Galatians chapter 4, verse 19: "My little
children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in
you."

   Now, one more. Second Corinthians chapter 3, verse 17: "Now the Lord
is that Spirit." There is no such thing as receiving the Spirit of the
Lord without receiving the Lord. There is no such thing as receiving
the Lord without receiving the Holy Ghost. These people who are trying
to get you to think that when you receive Christ, you receive Christ
here and then you get the Holy Ghost later, are giving you the
bamboozle. The Lord is that Spirit. And that Spirit in John 14, 15, and
16 is called the Holy Ghost and the Comforter and the Spirit of the
Lord and the Spirit of truth. He has a number of names.

   When you try to make them different, you get into heresy. God has
some names; He's called Jah, and Jeh, and Jehovah, and Lord, and God,
and Lord God, and Lord God Almighty. It's the same One. Jesus is called
Emmanuel, Jesus, Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ--same One. The
Holy Ghost is called the Holy Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit of truth,
the Comforter, and here the Lord.

   All right, in these passages, in my book, what I meant was this. In
my book I meant there's a lot of argument going on today about the King
James Bible by people who don't do much with it. And they keep
resenting the fact that the King James Bible calls the Holy Spirit the
"Holy Ghost." And they always want to make it the "Holy Spirit."

   And they say, "Why call it the Holy Ghost? Because we think of a
`ghost' as the spirit of a dead person."

   But that's what the Holy Spirit is. Christ died. And was buried. And
rose from the dead. And the Holy Spirit coming into the believer is
Jesus Christ coming into the body of the Christian. "As many as
received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God." You
can't get around it.

   So, I'd leave the translation exactly as it is, and presume He has a
bodily shape, and that the Christian who is Spirit-filled, that Christ
is fully formed inside that Christian.

   IS IT SUPPOSED TO BE "DAY OF THE LORD" OR "DAY OF CHRIST" IN
2THESSALONIANS 2:2?

   Well, the textual criticism is real plain. The Textus Receptus says
"Christ." And the Westcott and Hort and Nestle's and Aland and Metzger
and Eusyppians say, "Lord."

   But, what's the problem? Look at 2:1: "We beseech you, brethren, by
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." So, he said the day of Christ
would be the day of the Lord anyway. It's just another name for it.

   Verse 1 said, "Our Lord Jesus Christ."

   That's somebody who found something there and figured it would make
better sense if it said, "Lord," so he changed it to "Lord."

   WHY DID GOD USE "JESUS" INSTEAD OF "JOSHUA" IN ACTS 7?

   Yeah, that's a great blessing. Get Hebrews 4:8 in one hand, and then
in Stephen's sermon get Acts chapter 7 verse 45. Hebrews 4:8: "For if
Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of
another day." Now, plainly, that's a reference to Joshua coming into
the land.

   And, in Acts chapter 7, verse 45: "Which also our fathers that came
after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom
God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David."

   Now, the way that thing works is, that word in the Old Testament
looked like this. Hebrews write from right to left. Or, a combination
of that. YESH-UAH. Maybe sometimes like this, and sometimes like this.
And that thing in Hebrew will come backwards. Y-S-H-U-A-H. In English,
Y-S-H-U-A-H. Masoretic vowel pointing will put "YESH-U-AH." Something
like that. And we pronounce "J." That's one of them, that's one of
them, that's one of them, and in the New Testament--this. Now, those
are all the same word. Those words mean, "Jehovah saves."

   In the New Testament, the Greek will come out, "Iesus," in
Greek--like that. Now, that word in all the Greek texts in Acts chapter
7 and Hebrews chapter 4 is "Iesus." So, if the new bibles translate
"Joshua," they're not translating the Greek text correctly--after
complaining about the King James not doing it. If you want to hang a
scholar, hang him right there in Acts chapter 7 and Hebrews chapter 4,
because in those passages right there, they have said there that it
should be translated "JOSHUA." That word in any Greek text is not
Joshua--it's Jesus.

   Now, the question is, Why did the Lord do that? And the answer is,
the Lord did that to show you that the book of Joshua is a picture of
the Second Coming. And the word "Joshua" means "Jesus." That's what it
means.

   Now, I'll show you what I mean. When Jesus Christ comes back, He
attacks a cursed city--Babylon. Right? There's a cursed city in here,
in Jericho. When He comes back, He comes back at the end of seven
years' tribulation--right? They go around Jericho seven times. When He
comes back, He's the Angel of the Lord coming back, and the Captain of
the Lord's Host in the book of Joshua is the Angel of the Lord. When
Jesus Christ comes back to set up the millennial land, He divides the
land for an inheritance; so when Joshua goes in, he divides the land
for the inheritance. That's the Holy Spirit showing you that the book
of Joshua is a type of the Second Advent.

   In the book of Joshua, the sun and the moon stand still, and in the
Tribulation the sun and the moon do the same thing again. King James,
then, is superior to the Greek. It's superior.

   A DISCUSSION OF THE "DEEPS"

   All right, we'll go. This will be all for tonight.

   All right, Genesis 1. This is what is known as the doctrine of the
Great Deeps. Genesis 1, verse 1. This is what is known as the "deeper
things," you know, in the original, Elizabethan English.

   Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the
face of the deep." The deep. "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face
of the waters."

   The question comes up, What's "the deep"?

   Job says the face of the deep is frozen--whatever the "deep" is.

   "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw
the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the
darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called
Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God
said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters..." plural
"...and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the
firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from
the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God
called the firmament..." capital "H" "...Heaven." Over there in 14, 15,
and 16, it has the universe in it--the stars, sun and moon--with water
above it and water below it.

   Now, Scofield didn't believe that. Neither did Gaebelein nor Morris
nor the Christian Research Foundation out in Los Angeles and San
Francisco and San Diego and the rest of them. When Henry Morris wrote
his book on the flood, he just pretended 2Peter 3 had to do with the
flood. It had nothing to do with the flood at all. Turn to 2Peter
chapter 3.

   Wherever a man begins to correct the King James Bible, he stops
revelation. Second Peter 3. That water above and below the heavens had
nothing to do with anything that you have ever seen in your life. And
I'll show you why in a minute.

   Second Peter chapter 3, verse 5. You see, some of the most brilliant
scholars in the world who are saved and love the Lord are scared to
death somebody's going to think they're stupid. It bugs them. And
they're good men, and they're godly men, but they're scared to death
somebody's going to think they're dumb. So they compromise here and
compromise there with science, so people will think they're scientific.
You'll notice I never do it. I just stick my neck out and make a
perfect fool out of myself, and I could care less. I don't care nothing
about them, what they think. I could care less, brother.

   Do you know what Billy Sunday said? Billy Sunday said, "Where
scholarship says one thing, and the Bible says another, scholarship can
go plumb to the devil." And when Billy said that he wasn't talking
about liberals or neo-orthodox or neo-evangelicals. He was talking
about scholarship.

   That's where I stand.

   All right, 2Peter 3, verse 4: "And saying, Where is the promise of
his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue..."
watch it "...as they were from the beginning of the creation." Genesis
1:1. "For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God
the heavens..." plural "...were of old, and the earth standing out of
the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being
overflowed with water, perished." That's not a reference to Noah's
flood. It's the heavens in the beginning, Genesis 1, verses 1-3.

   There isn't a fundamental, premillennial scholar in America who
believes that. So, if you're going to take the side of godly
scholarship, you'll have to stand against the word of God.

   Now, people get me wrong. They think, "Well, he's against this, and
he's attacking so-and-so, and he's down on this, and down on that." I'm
not that way. I appreciate what Brother Rice is doing; I think he's
doing a good job. I appreciate him; I recommend The Sword of the Lord
to our students; I think it's got good sermons in it. Now, of course he
won't recommend my stuff.

   I appreciate Jack Hyles. I appreciate what he's doing. I think he's
doing a good job. He's got a real Sunday school. If I wanted to know
how to build a big Sunday school, I'd go up and hear Hyles. I
appreciate him. He wouldn't have anybody come to my Sunday school.

   I think Bob Jones has got a good university. I recommended three
girls to go there last year for Christian education. I think it's a
good place for a Christian educator to get grounded. They wouldn't
recommend anybody coming down to my school at all. And you say, "Why is
that?" Well, the reason why that is, is because the Lord has given me
more grace than He's given some of the brethren.

   A fellow said to me recently, "I would like to have you and
so-and-so" (and he named a bunch of preachers) "for a conference. Would
you come in and have one with them?"

   I said, "Sure. It wouldn't bother me a bit."

   He said, "Well, aren't you mad at those fellows?"

   I said, "No, I'm not mad at them. I've got nothing against them.
They stick to their work; I stick to mine."

   I wouldn't tell Rice how to run a paper, and I wouldn't tell Bob
Jones how to run a university, and I wouldn't tell Hyles how to run a
Sunday school. And they aren't going to tell me anything about the
Bible. They're not even going to make a suggestion.

   My "bag" is this Book. And when they step on this Book, they step on
my toes. And I stomp back sometimes.

   Second Peter chapter 3, verse 6, watch it: "Whereby the world that
then was, being overflowed with water, perished." Watch it: "But the
heavens and the earth, which are now,..." Verse 13: "We, according to
his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth."

   Now, there are three heavens and earth. There were the heavens and
earth that were (Genesis 1, verses 1 and 2). There are the heavens and
earth that are (Genesis 1, verses 3 to now). And the heavens and earth
that will be after the Millennium (Revelation 20, 21, and 22).

   Then the original earth was overflowed with water, standing in water
and out of water. And it was in some kind of a Heaven that had water
above it and water below.

   The Scofield note says it's not water; the Scofield note said it's
vapor. So, when you go six verses into the Bible, why, your
premillennial, fundamental soul-winners all defect. Verse 6: "And God
said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters." Marginal
footnote: "Waters beneath, of vapour above." He didn't say "vapour
above." He said "water above." You know what water means? It means
"water"! You know how you know it's not "vapor"? Because it's spelled
different! Water and vapor.

   Now, let me show you another way you know that it was waters above,
and not vapor. Take your Bible and turn to Psalm 148. But the trouble
is, you see, if you believe what I'm getting ready to show you--and
I'll go up here and draw it out in a minute--if you believe this thing,
then all scientists will think you're crazy. Because they haven't found
this yet. And so they'll think you're crazy, and you're a crackpot,
fanatic, troublemaker, and all this stuff and nonsense. "But let God be
true and every man a liar."

   Psalm 148, verse 1: "Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the
heavens..." plural! "...praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, all
his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon:
praise him, all ye stars of light." Watch it: "Praise him, ye
heavens..." plural "...of heavens, and ye waters..." plural! "...that
be above the heavens..." plural!

   There is water above the second heaven!

   "Waters above the heavens."

   And they're not "vapor"--they're waters.

   All right, let's go to Job chapter 38. Now, this question is going
to take a little time, now. He asked a question when he asked that one.
I'll try to draw it out for you in a minute. Job 38:30: "The waters are
hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen." That's not
"vapor" over your head! But he said, "The Spirit of God moved upon the
face of the deep," Genesis 1. The face of the deep is frozen!

   So these fellows invent an "ice-cap canopy," you know, that was over
the earth. And the flood and the thing busted up. Which is interesting.
But Job is long after the flood. Job said the face of the deep is
frozen, two thousand years after Noah was dead and gone.

   All right, let's turn to Job chapter 26. Bible cosmology and
metaphysics is always beyond any "Christian research" bureau. Because
the "Christian researchers" are constantly altering the King James text
to prove what they already know. I'm not just interested in what we
know; I'm interested in what God wants to show us. Job 26, verse 5:
"Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants
thereof. Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. He
stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth
upon nothing. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the
cloud is not rent under them. He holdeth back the face of his throne,
and spreadeth his cloud upon it."

   That's not a cloud over your head; that's a cloud under the throne.

   And there's water under it.

   And it's north.

   Verse 10: "He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day
and night come to an end." You don't know of any place where there's
water where there's no day and no night! Every place you know of where
there is any water, there is day and night. Not that place there!

   Verse 12: "He divideth the sea with his power, and by his
understanding he smiteth through the proud. By his spirit he hath
garnished the HEAVENS" plural...

   ...And look who's out in de watah:

   "His hand hath formed the crooked serpent."

   There's something out there swimming.

   Job chapter 41. Ah, the unsearchable riches of the English! How
infallible are its judgments on the original Greek! Job 41. Verse 1:
"Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook?" Sea animal. He's in the
water. Verse 31: "He maketh the deep to boil like a pot." Verse 32:
"One would think the deep to be hoary." A water animal. "Leviathan."

   Anybody got a New Scofield Bible here? Job 41:1: "Canst thou draw
out leviathan...?" Footnote: "Perhaps the crocodile."

   Now, you understand, we're talking about Gaebelein, McClain,
Pettingill, we're talking about every great, godly, dedicated,
recognized, accredited scholar in this country. And, don't you get me
wrong. I don't say they're not godly. See, I'm not saying they're not
good men. I don't say that. But, you know, every saved man has an old
nature. And the most godly fellow you ever met in your life has an old
nature. And the old nature in a scholar will rise up and say, "Ahem!
I'm able to correct this Book."

   You know, if that's a crocodile there, that's the wildest crocodile
you ever saw in all your life.

   Turn to Psalm 74. You talk about a crocodile, that's a crock! You
turn to Psalm 74, and look at verse 13. You say, "Well, all of them
agree!" If they all agree, then they're wrong; throw them out. Now,
don't you get me wrong, now, see? When I say something, people just
drive me clear out to left field someplace. I think a Scofield
Reference Bible is the best reference Bible you can get. I really do.
If I was going to recommend a reference Bible, I'd recommend a Scofield
reference Bible. And, I'm not telling you to throw out your Bible, just
because the fellow doesn't hit it right all the time. But, I'm warning
you, where the Bible says one thing, and scholarship says another, just
put it in File Thirteen and go with the Book. Amen?

   I think that's "Amen!" If it isn't, I don't know where I'm at!

   Psalm 74:13: "Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou
brakest the heads {plural} of the dragons in the waters. Thou brakest
the HEADS of leviathan." See that plural? Did you ever see a crocodile
with more than one head? Well, why do you suppose that Gaebelein and
Pettingill and Scofield and McClain and E. Shuyler English said,
"Perhaps a crocodile"? Do you reckon they knew of a two-headed
crocodile someplace?

   Let's turn to Isaiah chapter 27 and see what it is. There is nothing
that sheds light on the Bible like the Bible--when scholarship can't
find it. Isaiah 27:1: "In that day the Lord with his sore and great and
strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even
leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in
the sea."

   OK, folks, what's "leviathan"? It's the devil! How many of you see
that? Do you see that? Now how do you explain that you see that without
the benefit of Greek or Hebrew or seminary education, and the major
Christian leaders in America don't see it and try to mislead you on it?
How do you explain that? Revelation chapter 12: "And the great dragon
was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan..." How
could you miss it?

   Let's go back to Job 41 and see where the cigarettes come from. Job
chapter 41. Now, this is a description of a sea animal--an aquatic
animal. I'm not through with your question yet.

   Job chapter 41, verse 1: "Canst thou draw out leviathan with an
hook?" He's aquatic; he's marine; he's reptile. Verse 9: "Behold, the
hope of him is in vain." The devil has no hope. "Shall not one be cast
down even at the sight of him?" Why, people aren't cast down at the
sight of a crocodile! Why would any fool think that was a crocodile?
There are people who jump in the swamps and wrestle crocodiles, down
where I'm from. But, if you could see that being there, you'd fall flat
on your face! It would drop you if you could see him!

   "None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand
before me? Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever
is under the whole heaven is mine. I will not conceal his parts..." You
can see him. "...nor his power..." You can understand him. "...nor his
comely proportion." You can know the size and shape of the devil. The
Lord said, "I'm gonna show you!"

   So, when he shows you, all the premillennial, fundamental,
independent missionaries, so forth and so on, just blot it out so you
can't find it. You know what that is? That's the old nature in the
scholar rising up in rebellion against the authority of the word of God.

   Verse 15, he's got scales. Verse 19, "Out of his mouth go burning
lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils goeth
smoke...His breath kindleth coals." See that? When that thing inhales,
it kindles that coals and blows the smoke out of his mouth.

   Christ said, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your
father you will do."

   Did you ever stop to think about what an unnatural thing smoking is?
How unnatural it is? I mean, unless you go in the lake of fire to
breathe smoke, why get into practice now?

   All right, keep on reading. Verse 31: "He maketh the deep..." It
can't be the Pacific. It can't be vapors. "He maketh the deep to boil
like a pot: he maketh the sea..." It's not the Mediterranean. "...to
shine after him." "He maketh the sea like a pot of ointment. He maketh
a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary."

   Now, watch it: "Upon earth there is not his like, who is made
without fear."

   A crocodile?

   You can scare the tar out of a crocodile, or an alligator! They have
a law down now, where I think you can't even buy or sell shoes made out
of an alligator's skin. You have to go down to Mexico to get them.
People aren't afraid of crocodiles or alligators.

   Verse 34: "He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the
children of pride."

   Is there any doubt about who he is?

   No doubt if you can read.

   All right, now, I'm going to try to draw this thing out. I never
could talk without drawing anyway. And I'm going to try to draw a
diagram here, and take what we've learned, with some other verses, and
put them together. Now, brethren, I know this is wild. And it's things
like this that give me a bad name, because a lot of Christians get
ahold of a thing like this, and spend all the rest of their life, you
know, on "the great deep," so the "blood-sucking angels from Jupiter,"
you know, or "Cain's wife on the back side of the moon." And those
aren't fundamentals of the faith.

   Now, you folks have heard me preach long enough to know I don't
waste my time defending the King James Bible. I've got four hundred
sermons--three of them are on the King James Bible. I've got four
hundred sermons--five of them are against Roman Catholicism. And they
say, "Ruckman, Ruckman, Ruckman, Ruckman--" just lying like a dog, and
they don't know what they're talking about.

   But, when you get down to these things that we're talking about
tonight, specifically we should know what we're talking about.

   All right, now lookie here. "Beautiful for situation is Mount Zion,
the city of the great King, located upon the sides of the north."
"Promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from
the south, but God is judge." All right, somewhere in this universe
there's a shape like that. Maybe that is the shape of the universe--I
don't know. Now, I know the "sides of the north" don't have any
reference to anything on the ground.

   Take your Bible and turn to Isaiah chapter 14. Verse 11: "Thy pomp
is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is
spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from
heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the
ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine
heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the
stars of God." All right, now, he says he'll put his throne above the
stars of God. "I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in
the sides of the north." The mount in the sides of the north. Do you
think the devil is talking about Jerusalem down on the ground? Now,
wherever that thing is, it's above the stars. And, you read in the book
of Hebrews, and you'll come to a heavenly mount Zion, and new Jerusalem.

   Maybe that is the shape of the universe. I know Einstein had a lot
of stuff on parallel lines meeting in infinity, and all that bunk. And,
I think he's just as full of bunk as he could be. But, if I understand
my Bible correctly, everything is a manifestation of God-- and God's a
trinity.

   I read a book one time by a Lutheran called The Answer to
Everything. And I've got some notes on it there in one of my notebooks.
And what that fellow was saying was, if you find anything that doesn't
make sense, it's because one part is missing--and there are always
three parts.

   That thing is hot...cold...or lukewarm.

   It's up...down...or level.

   It's right...left...or in the middle.

   You have a body...soul...and spirit.

   One of those things. Time has past...present...future. Dimension has
breadth...width...height. He busted energy down into three, busted time
into three--everything came into three.

   Your Bible is written in three languages--Hebrew, Greek, and
Aramaic. And the New Testament is the Gospels and the Epistles and the
book of Acts. The Old Testament is the law, and the prophets, and the
Psalms. It all comes down to three.

   So, if that thing is shaped, it's probably shaped out three, just
like that. Now, for goodness' sake, don't go out of here and say,
"Well, Ruckman teaches this." What I'm going to show you. Because I
don't teach this. I'm just showing you what the verses we've read
suggest. And I don't know enough about it to teach it.

   Now, here's what they suggest. That earth was up there--like that.
This element here was water. And, when you read those old Greek
philosophers, Anaximandes and Anaximander and Pythagoras, they all
believed the basic element was water. Now, some of them were
pantheistic and identified it with God. It's the most common element on
the earth. Your body is eighty-five percent water. And there is four
times as much water on the earth as there is land.

   All right, something was up here where the throne was, and something
went wrong. When that thing went wrong, that thing sank. Overflowed
with water. Perished. This earth has been completely immersed twice.
And, one of the ways you know that, is you study Noah as a type of
Adam. That's a great study.

   Noah was naked; Adam was naked.

   Noah had three sons; Adam had three sons.

   Noah messed up when he was naked; Adam messed up when he was naked.

   God told Noah to be fruitful; that's what He told Adam.

   "Multiply"; that's what He told Adam.

   "Replenish the earth"; that's what He told Adam.

   One of Noah's boys is a type of Christ; so is one of Adam's.

   One of his boys is under a curse; so is one of Adam's.

   Noah is a type of Adam.

   If Noah was a type of Adam, then whatever happened right before Noah
happened right before Adam. And right before Noah, Shem, Ham, and
Japheth--is the flood. So, right before Adam, there's a flood.

   All right, it goes down. I believe the scientists say it's exploding
outward. Or, the "Big Bang" theory, you know--something real jazzy. And
so it comes off down through here. And God says, "Let there be light."
And the light's up there. And He divided the light from the darkness
and called the light Day--CAPITAL--ABSOLUTE. The Land of the Cloudless
Day. And He called the darkness Night.

   So the universe is a black hole.

   You know what Paul prayed one time? Paul got to praying in
Ephesians, and he said, "I want to have all you Christians pray, and I
want to have you learn the length, and the height, and the depth." And
every commentary you pick up--I've got twenty-two of them at
home--every one of them said it's the "height and depth" of the love of
Christ. That's the biggest lie you ever read in your life! That passage
didn't say the height and depth and breadth of the love of Christ; it
said, "You might comprehend with all saints what is the height, and the
breadth, and the depth...AND to know the love of Christ, which passeth
all understanding."

   There's something real practical about what I'm going to show you.
You can't see it yet, but it's real practical. All right, it comes on
down like this, and it gets down here. And then God divided the
firmament, and put water above the firmament, and water below the
firmament, and called the firmament Heaven, and put the greater light
and the lesser light in the firmament to give light upon earth. He made
the stars also. You have a universe there--with water above it, and
water below it.

   Going up and down through here, you have leviathan. Seven heads. Up
and down through the water.

   When ol' Columbus sailed off in 1492 to sail the ocean blue,
somebody said, "Chris, you better watch your step, because when you get
to the end of the dropping off place, there's a dragon out there!" The
scientists never could get it right. And so he got out there and found
out that there wasn't any dragon out there. And the scientists said,
"Oh, that Bible is just full of nonsense. That old fool Bible! There's
no dragon out there! Let's go up!"

   Now you're going right into his domain!

   There is a dragon out there. They got the wrong piece of water.
That's right, brother, that's right! Oh, yeah, man!

   Now, if you ever doubt that, you ought to hear this fellow sing
tonight. He said, "My soul in sad exile was out on life's sea, So
burdened with sin and distress. And, at the haven of rest, on Jordan's
stormy banks I stand and cast a wishful eye, May there be no weeping
when I put off across the bar, Jesus, Saviour, pilot me over life's
tempestuous sea, We have heard the joyful sound echo'd back ye ocean
waves--" You see that stuff? That isn't accident.

   It isn't an accident that people like to build along the coast, by a
lake, by an ocean. That isn't an accident. You're looking across water.

   That old King James Bible sure has a lot in it, doesn't it? Have you
noticed I haven't made any reference to the Greek or Hebrew yet? And
I'm not going to.

   All right, you know what David said? When he got in trouble, he
said, "All that waves and billows have gone over me." It's a picture of
the wrath of God. God drowned out that earth in Genesis 1:2, and He
drowned it out in Genesis 6--so it's a picture of the judgment of God
on a sinner.

   So, when Jesus Christ shows up, He comes down into the water, and He
says, "Hey, John, put me under the water."

   And somebody said, "Well, what was John doing out there immersing
people?" Showing you that thing right there.

   Somebody said, "Jewish proselyte baptism." That isn't in the Bible;
that's Edersheim. That's rabbinical nonsense. Ol' John taking them and
putting them into that water and bringing them back up, and when Christ
comes up out of that water, He says, "Follow me, boys, and I'll make
you fishers of men." And the first four fellows He picked were
fishermen. You know why? Because you're under the water. And when you
get saved, you get landed on the beach!

   Yeah, man!

   And, listen. One of these days, lookie here. I don't have time for
all, but He came down here, and came under this water, and He went back
up. Then He came down, and went back up again in Acts chapter 1. That
thing must have had to part four times. Some day He's going to come for
you, and you're going to go out. Seven years later, you're going to
come back. It's got to part six times.

   Did you ever study that in the Old Testament? It parted when Moses
went across, when Joshua went across, when Elijah went across, when
Elisha came--did you ever study those things?

   All right, that's water there, and you go up and down through that
water. Now, at the rapture, there will be a hole open from there to
there, and you'll go right out through it--like that. And, when you go
out through it, you know what you're like? You're like somebody
drowning under the wrath of God down here in the water, inside the
belly of a sea monster. "The whole earth lieth in the wicked one." It's
almost like he kind of opened his mouth and spewed you out. Christ
said, "There shall no sign be given this generation, but the sign of
the prophet Jonah. As Jonah was three days and three nights in the
belly of the whale, so must the Son of man be three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth"--and that is no more a sign of the
Christian as it is a sign of your Aunt Sally's house cat. That fish in
that Bible is never a picture of Jesus Christ. It's a picture of the
devil, or a saved sinner, or an unsaved sinner--never Jesus Christ.
Folks get the wildest ideas.

   All right, come down--go back up. That's water. You get in the Old
Testament, and you find that figure over and over again. The devil
moves up and down in that water. It probably used to be a pretty good
place to move up and down in until Christ died. When Christ died, the
life of the flesh is in the blood, and God's blood was in Christ. So,
when the blood comes out, it's eternal blood, because the life of the
flesh is in the blood. And this stuff up here becomes a "Red Sea." Not
the "sea of reeds." That's some more of that superstition. It's a "red"
sea. And you'll go through it. Just like they went through it in Exodus
15 when it opens.

   Wouldn't it be something to be in the tail end of the Rapture, and
see the devil trying to get in there after you? What if the Rapture
comes, and you're the last one in the column going up, and looking
behind you, and you see that thing coming up after you? Boy, you'll
move, won't you? That fellow at the tail end of that column in Exodus
15 looking back there could see Pharaoh coming. But you know what the
Lord did to Pharaoh. He'll haul you out and slam that door.

   "And the devil comes down to the earth, having great wrath, because
he knoweth he hath but a short time."

   I know you're in pretty deep now. That was a deep question about
"the deeps." But I'm going to say this in closing. Some people think
this kind of stuff is real impractical, and 'way out and far in left
field. But I'm going to tell you something. If you Christians could
grab that thing to where you knew where you were, it would affect your
life as a child of God in this church and this community. If people see
me doing something kind of nutty sometimes, it's because I never walk
up and down on this earth without a sense of direction. When I walk up
and down on this earth, I know I'm in the sinkhole of the universe, in
the back of an S-shaped nebula, on a peanut planet. And I know the
throne is north, where my Saviour is--and that's where I'm going. I
know I'm in foreign territory and have no business being here.

   So, my job is to get on home. And my job is to get as many people to
go on home with me as I can get.

   Now, that's where it gets practical, brother. And, if you know
anything about modern Christianity, you'd be amazed how much of it is
all built on just what's right here, right now. I mean, modern
fundamental Christianity--it all has to do with right now, right here.
Well, this world is not my home; I'm just passing through. I'm in
foreign territory, and it's a long way home. And some day I'm going.
When I go, I'm going to swim.

   The light that comes out of that opening up there is so bright, they
say our sun alongside it would look like a fly speck on a curtain. And,
if there is any doubt in your mind about it, go down to a dime store
and buy you a compass. And that blue needle will swing right around and
show you right how to get home. There isn't an unsaved man in this
world who doesn't know where Jesus Christ is. The compass needle points
right to him.

   Somebody said, "It's magnetism." You couldn't get a guy to explain
magnetism if you stayed up all night!
