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[0:00] Glory to God. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. How many was here last Sunday? Amen. How many was here last Sunday? Praise the Lord. Well, I can't go all the way back, but we'll catch up a little bit.

[0:23] I have a visitor here. Who is our visitor, Brother Jesse? You want to introduce us? Louie? Dewey. Oh, well, that's one of Donald Duck's nephews, isn't it? Louie, Huey, and Dewey. Pleased to meet you, Dewey. Is that right? Got saved for the first time today. Praise God. Everybody give the Lord a big hand. Amen.

[0:48] Is that right? Well, praise the Lord. By the zone. Hallelujah. Praise God. I got so many messages started. I don't know when I'm ever going to get to finish one.

[1:06] I started on the prayer shawl, and I hadn't finished that yet again. And then I started on the tribulation period and living on the edge of the rapture, and I hadn't finished that yet.

[1:20] Now I'm on the book of John, the 10th chapter, and I hadn't finished that yet. But one day the Lord put them all together. Amen. Hallelujah. You send your children to school to do what? To learn. Amen. And we come to Sunday school to do what? To learn. Amen.

[1:39] So if you got your Bible this morning, turn with me to John, the 10th chapter. Now, if everybody knew what I knew, then we wouldn't have any need for any of us to try to teach the other thing because we'd all already know what we're going to talk about.

[1:56] But since we all don't know the same thing, amen, we got to, I like to call it stretching your mind and broadening your horizons. Amen.

[2:10] Paul said one time, he said, to preach the same thing to you or to teach the same thing to you is not grievous unto me. But praise God, I know it was, I couldn't be preaching all the time on the book of John and on rapture and tribulation and growing up and being in the bride because all these things are not grievous unto me. Amen.

[2:35] But they're profitable unto you if you will ever learn what I'm trying to teach you. Amen. There are a class of people that the Bible, boy, doesn't Chris look sharp today.

[2:48] There are the class of people that the Bible talks about that are ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth of God. Amen. Hallelujah.

[2:58] Last week I was preaching on John 10 and I just want to read this again to you this morning to kind of give us an opening place. Beginning in the first verse, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold but climbeth up some other way is the same as a thief and a robber.

[3:17] But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth and the sheep hear his voice and he calleth his own sheep by name and he leadeth them out.

[3:30] Everybody say out. I thought we was going in. You do have to go in before you can go out. How many of you know there was one time we were lost in sin?

[3:43] And that sin is a type of the world and Egypt. Amen. Hallelujah. But while we were in Egypt, amen, the blood was shed for us. And we put that blood up on our doorpost and on our lintel.

[3:54] Amen. Can somebody say amen if you're still with me? Amen. Amen. And because of the blood, the blood made the way. Amen. Hallelujah. For the Holy Ghost to come.

[4:06] Somebody shout amen now. Help me out a little bit here. Amen. And that Holy Ghost has been leading us and guiding us for the last, ever since you've been saved. Amen. Me personally about 35, 6, 7 years.

[4:17] Somewhere along there. Amen. Now listen to what it says here. I'm going to read this third verse again so you can get it. Now I want to start again because if you miss one word, then you don't miss the whole thing of what I'm trying to preach to you about.

[4:31] Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not. Now what are we talking to? Entereth. Entereth. Go in. Go in. By the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way.

[4:44] He's the same as a thief and a robber. Now what did I tell you last week, because I'm not going there this week, but what did I tell you how that we become thieves and robbers in the house of God? And why is that on other people's prayer and worship?

[5:01] And how do we show that we don't want to do it ourselves? We don't get to church in time to pray and to seek the face of the Lord. And so we want to come in after the service has already started and after everybody else has prayed and interceded.

[5:17] And we just want to get in and get up there and sing and shout. And then, you know, and what does that make us? Thieves and robbers. Amen. He said if any man seeks to. And what are we trying to do?

[5:28] We're trying to get a high. We want to get on a high. Amen. Dopers take dope to get on a high. Alcoholics drink alcohol to get on a high. Christians come to church and get in the spirit to get on a spiritual high.

[5:40] Amen. Where there's no hangover. And there's no hang up. Amen. There's just an entrance made. When we get high on the spirit, there's an entrance made into the door of the sheepfold.

[5:52] Amen. Oh, y'all make a shout out of my heart. Man, I feel the Holy Ghost this morning. God has made an entrance for us into the sheepfold. And you may not know it, but that's the Old Testament tabernacle.

[6:05] Amen. That's where the sheep go. The sheep enter in. I get so sick and tired hearing about that Old Testament tabernacle. That's because you're too stupid to open up your Bible and study about it and find out that the whole Word of God is laid out in the form of a cross.

[6:18] You can take that stupid word out of there, brother. Too lazy to read it and to find out that how it applies to our lives.

[6:31] Now, what did it say here? He that entereth not in by the door of the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

[6:43] And to him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and he leadeth them out. Can somebody say amen? Now, I am not too crazy about the outpastor.

[6:57] I love the in-pastor. Hallelujah. God has got a balance.

[7:10] And every one of us are being weighed in the balance. I don't have time to preach all this today. But just let me give you a little bit of it.

[7:22] Psalm 16 and 10, he said, And at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore. When he said in Isaiah 9 and 6, he said unto us, A child is born, and a son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace, and the government shall be upon his shoulder.

[7:37] When you look up the word shoulder, you find the word balance or scale. We're all, what happened? What was the handwriting on the wall? Many, many tackled you, Pharisee, to the Belteshazzar, you know, the old heathen king.

[7:52] And could nobody interpret it? And Daniel came in, and he said, Oh, king, here's the writing of thereof. Thou hast been weighed in the balance. Amen? Every one of us, God is weighing every one of us in the balance today.

[8:02] And God is faithful to balance our scales. Amen? With just the right amount of pleasure and with just the right amount of pain. But you know why? We all think, Oh, whoa, it's me because I got all this pain.

[8:13] Honey, that's just because that you don't believe that God is a just God. And we forget about the pleasure of God and all we can remember is the pain. We forget about all the good things he's done for us. We forget that he woke us up this morning.

[8:25] Amen? That we had a roof over our head. We had shoes on our feet and food on our table. We forget all the blessings of God. And just because somebody didn't shake my hand, somebody didn't look at me, Oh, I think I'll never go back to church anymore.

[8:36] But don't you worry. God's going to balance the scale of pleasure and pain. Amen? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. God is faithful. Amen?

[8:48] And the in pasture is all the pleasure. And the out pasture is all the pain. But who takes you in? The shepherd leads you in to the in pasture. Amen?

[8:59] Now, you know what happens at nighttime out of the in the sheepfold? Oh, Lord. Let me tell you what happens at nighttime. That shepherd. Well, if you'll understand it, let me just read it.

[9:15] Let me read my notes right here. This refers to the place of a shelter for the flocks whereby they might repose at night and be safe from the attacks of the beast. Sheepfolds were low buildings or even walls opening into a court surrounded by a stone wall or a fence with a layer of thorns on the top for protection.

[9:36] And a doorway was carefully made there and an entrance. Jesus said, I am the door to the sheep. What that means is that Jesus laid himself down at the door at the gate.

[9:51] You'll get it in a minute. What am I preaching on? I'm preaching about, you know, the first door here was the door to the Old Testament tabernacle was the Shoah Gate. Jesus said, I am the door.

[10:05] I wish I could just throw you a picture of a wall here. And there was one entrance, only one way into the Old Testament tabernacle and one way out. Amen? And it was the same way in was the same way out.

[10:15] Amen? And that was through the Shoah Gate. Amen? And that is Jesus Christ. He said, I am the door. And then he lays himself down to protect.

[10:27] Now, I don't know how much you know about sheep. Sheep are the most defenseless creatures upon the face of the earth. They can't run that fast. They have no teeth to bite. All their teeth are made for.

[10:37] It's for chewing the cud. Amen? But they're good for keeping you warm at night. They make a good pillow for you to lay your head on. And can't you see them little sheep?

[10:49] Amen? As a good shepherd leads them in. And they all get around him and he sits down and he begins to sing the Psalms to them. Amen? He might be singing, The Lord is my shepherd.

[11:00] I shall not want my sheep knoweth my voice and another they will not follow. I'm not very good at making up songs, but I can imagine to sing, you know, home, home on the range where the deer and the antler low play.

[11:16] And the cows would hear his voice and the sheep would hear his voice and they would know that voice. Amen? Hey, somebody else could come in, but they didn't have that relationship with the sheep that the shepherd has with the sheep.

[11:26] Amen? And the sheep heard his voice and they wouldn't follow anybody else because they were his sheep. And he calleth his own sheep a name when he's going out. See, because there wasn't just one shepherd. But Jesus later on he says, There are other shepherds I have which are not of this fold.

[11:41] Them also will the Lord bring in with him when he comes and we'll be one fold and there's going to be one shepherd. One Lord over all. Amen. His name's going to be Jesus. He said, And when he put forth his own sheep, he goeth before them.

[11:54] When he's sending you into the out pasture where the pain is, he don't send you out there by yourself to be devoured of the lions, be devoured to the wild beast. He goes before you. He said, I'll go before you and I'll make a way where there seemeth to be no way and not only that, I'm going to come behind you and I'm going to be your rearward so that no devil can slip up behind you.

[12:13] Amen. Listen, you don't understand. You just don't understand. When you put your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee, when you put your soul into his safekeeping, honey, the Bible said that no man is able, nothing is able.

[12:26] Watch your separators from the love of God. High theft, principalities, power, things present, things come. No. Not anything shall separate us from the love of God but Jesus Christ Jesus our Lord. He said, no man is there, Lord, all these that thou gave me of thy cabin till now, nobody is able to pluck them out of my hand.

[12:42] Amen. But he lets bad things come so that we'll grow up. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. Bad things have to happen. You have to get burnt by fire before you know to stay away from the fire.

[12:55] Amen. How many of us can say we've been burnt enough times that we should know to stay away from sin because sin will burn you. Can you say amen? Let me hurry along here.

[13:10] Verse 4, when he put forth his sheep he go up before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice. What are they following? You may be so far back in the pack that you can't see the shepherd but the shepherd is talking and he's probably singing a psalm to you.

[13:23] Amen. And you don't have to see him. All you got to do is hear his voice. Amen. And follow which way the voice leads you and it won't ever let you down. Follow the shepherd's voice. And a stranger they will not follow up but he will but we'll flee from him for they know not the voice of strangers.

[13:39] You know how they know when a stranger comes around saying oh come on sheepy sheepy come on sheepy sheepy come on follow me. They wait a minute that's a different voice. That ain't the way. And they flee from him.

[13:51] It's sad when the sheep don't know the voice of the shepherd and they don't flee because then they're going to be consumed. Amen. Then Jesus said unto them verily verily I say unto you I am the door of the sheep.

[14:07] All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door by me if any man enter in he shall be saved and shall go in and out. In and out.

[14:20] Why in the world would you want to go in and out? Because you have to experience the pleasure and the pain. You have to. There is no way to go through this life without experiencing pain. Amen.

[14:31] Heartbreak. Misery, war, and affliction that's going to come. Amen. But God is faithful to bounce your scales to give you love and joy and peace and long suffering and goodness and meekness and temperance and faith and all these good fruits of the spirit.

[14:42] Amen. Hallelujah. The thief cometh not before to kill and to steal and to destroy but I am come that you might have life and have that more abundantly. Let's bow our head and go to the Lord in prayer. Lord Jesus, Father as we get into your precious word this morning.

[14:56] Lord God I pray that you'd anoint my mind Lord God to remember those things. Lord God that your word Lord has taught me Lord God that I might be able Lord to bring it down. Lord on the level Lord that we can understand Lord make sense out of it Lord so that we can apply it to our lives when we go out of this place.

[15:11] Lord God so that we can say I was glad when I went to the house of the Lord. I can't wait until I get back so I can get some more of that good teaching so that I know how to grow up before you Lord God into the fullness of the measure of the stature of Jesus Christ.

[15:21] In Jesus name everybody say amen. Amen. Hallelujah. The word porter in Greek means a watcher a gate warden. He said to him the porter openeth and there's a whole thing in there about porters that I don't want to go into today but the porter is the type of the Holy Ghost.

[15:38] Amen. Everybody say Holy Ghost. Amen. And also in the Mosaic Tabernacle is the only place where the shawar word is found which represents the gate.

[15:50] But there's four hangings of the gate. There's four different colors that made up the gate. Let me just tell you briefly what they are. It's in Exodus 38 and 18 and the hangings of the court were blue and just like in the Hebrew alphabet there is a number for every letter and there's almost a word for every letter and every number in it.

[16:18] Just let me give you an example. The word for blue means wisdom. And if you want to get to the Tetragrammaton name which is taking your way out there in deep water there's amen the secret in that spoken name that's where you get the first name is the yud comes from the blue of the wisdom of his word.

[16:38] Amen. And I just want to throw this at you real quick. I'm not going to teach you and I'm going to talk on it but I've come across this and I just want to bring it down. The purple is the hay. It means understanding. It means good understanding.

[16:49] Wise understanding. Understanding what the will of God is. Amen. And then there's scarlet and the scarlet stands for the va and it means knowledge. Knowledge. One thing is to have knowledge and the other thing is to have wisdom to know how to work the knowledge and to be able to make a prudent choice at the right time.

[17:06] You know what my daughter Stacy tells my little two year old granddaughter Annie? When she wants her to do something she says now it's time for you to make a wise choice and sit down.

[17:20] And Annie's learned to make a wise choice because you make a bad choice then you get a spanking. It's time for you to make a wise choice here and sit down. Amen. How many knows it's time for some of us to make some wise choices.

[17:31] Amen. And do the right thing that God has called us to do. And then the last one is the white linen and it's the hay of his name. Amen. It means prudence which means a wise choice. So you got the you, hay, and the vah, hay.

[17:43] And it's all revealed here. Like I said it was revealed in the prayer shawl. If you'd have been here and you'd have heard me minister on the prayer shawl and how many of the letters of it. The you, the hay, and the vah, hay. And it all goes along with the A, B, C, D, and E and the, you know the alph and beth and so forth of the Hebrew alphabet.

[18:02] But anyway Jesus is the door. He's also the shepherd. And what is he the door to? He is the door to the Old Testament tabernacle which is a type of the New Testament tabernacle which really is Jesus Christ.

[18:17] Amen. But he is the way. He is the entrance that we get to the way and the truth and the life of God. Listen our life is going to end.

[18:29] And only what we lay hold of the life of God is going to be eternal. And the only way that we can lay hold on eternal life is through Jesus Christ coming through the gate. Amen. And coming through that gate we're taking on that that tetragrammaton name that we don't even know how to pronounce it or couldn't spell it if we had to.

[18:46] Just like when a child is born it might not be able to spell his parents name. It don't have to. It's born into that family.

[18:58] Amen. We were born into the family of God when we got born again. We might not understand everything about it and everybody else looks at us with jealousy in their eyes because you are special.

[19:08] You're elite. You're the toast of the town because of who your father is. Because of who your family is. Amen. You may not know it honey but we're the toast of Riverside Gardens Community because of who our father is and what family we got.

[19:25] Amen. Hallelujah. God has given us a name that's above every name. Hallelujah. Thank you Jesus. Romans 12. Listen to what he says here. Now John 1 and 2 Jesus said I am the door.

[19:38] He's also not on the door but he's a shepherd. To get into the Old Testament tabernacle you got to first come to the altar. Amen. You got to come to the altar of the old and that's the first thing you run into. The brazen altar.

[19:48] There where you judge. The Bible said if we judge ourselves we won't have to be judged. Can you say amen? If I say I'm doing something wrong I say that's wrong and God I repent and I'm going to try my best not to do it anymore. God don't have to judge me for it.

[20:00] I've done repented. I've done judged that it's wrong and I don't have to worry about that. But if I do something wrong and I don't repent of it and I don't say it's wrong then I'm going to have to stand before God one day at the great white throne judgment and he's going to say you were wrong and here's a penalty for that.

[20:13] Amen? Aren't you glad that I preached last week that God not only saves us from sin but he saves us from the penalty of sin which is death and hell. We don't have to go through death and hell anymore.

[20:24] We will not die again. We've already died once. When did we die? When we got born again the old man died. Amen? Hey, hallelujah. And now death don't have any hold on us.

[20:36] You say well brother Van you're going to lay down in that coffin one of these days. This body's going to lay down but I have already passed from death unto life and ain't no devil in hell or out of hell or anywhere else going to make me think that I'm not.

[20:48] Amen? Because I know that something inside of me that there is a power a force of life inside of me that when this old body lays down like we like like like sister Kim did amen she wasn't there anymore.

[21:01] Hey, that was just a shell. That was just a tent. That was just a covering that housed that body because she was gone. When three days and three nights with Jesus was in the heart of the earth or he's in the tomb.

[21:11] Amen? He said no you know they were seeking for a sign no signs following them but the sign of the prophet Jonas as Jonas was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth so shall the son of me three days and three nights you know dead in the grave but while his body was in the grave his soul and spirit went somewhere else.

[21:27] Can you say amen? Woo! That's why I like to preach about Lazarus when Lazarus was dead. Amen? Woo! The body was in the grave but old Lazarus was in paradise and they was having a prayer meeting.

[21:38] Can somebody say amen? I feel the Holy Ghost. Woo! Hallelujah. Woo! Hallelujah.

[21:52] Abraham said I went out looking for him. He told me about a city. He gave me a promise that my seeds are going to be as the stars in the sky and as the sands of the sea and I went out looking for him who's builder and maker is God looking for our city.

[22:05] I'm a pilgrim and a stranger. Amen? Oh Isaac came along and he said man if it hadn't been for him providing that sacrifice that day on the mountain I'd have surely been dead because daddy already had the knife thrown back. Oh but God provided the lamb.

[22:16] Amen? Shalom Rish. Son of Ahiah. And they kept on prophesying about him and talking about him. Isaiah said oh I got a vision of him and he said his name shall be called Wonderful. Counselor. Mighty God.

[22:26] Everlasting. Father and the Prince of Peace. My Lord the government's going to be on his shoulder. I got him in a vision. A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Jesus or Emmanuel which is God with us.

[22:39] And about that time they hear a knock on the door. And somebody boy they in there have the prayer mean they all testifying about their relationship. What experience they had had. You know on down Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Old Testament saints.

[22:54] Sometimes they look in there and there's a little man that comes through the door. He said what's your name? He said my name is Lazarus. What you doing down here? Well I got sick and I died.

[23:10] I heard y'all testifying and I don't know what you're testifying about. Y'all testifying about somebody going to come. Let me tell you he has already came.

[23:22] He used to come over my house all the time. My sister Martha and my sister Mary they would cook dinner for me. He'd sit there and he spent a lot of days and nights with me. He's my friend. And let me tell you what.

[23:32] And about that time Lazarus. Ha ha ha. Woo. And let me tell you what. Man you know we was praying for him to come and I was sick. Lazarus. About that time that voice Lazarus come forth.

[23:47] My Lord let me tell you what honey. If he had just called Lazarus all the graves of all the Old Testament saints would have burst open and he would have came forth. He said oh my Lord my God.

[23:57] And he came forth out of that grave. Can you shout amen? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I'm the way. I'm the way to truth.

[24:08] I'm the way to the life. I'm the way to the life. To the light. Hallelujah. Try to enter in some other way. Try to get high on something else.

[24:19] You're a thief and a robber. Amen. Get high on the spirit of God. My Lord I had people that dopes and sold dopes and did dopes and crack and crank and whatever you call it.

[24:29] said I ain't never experienced a high like a spirit when I got high in the spirit. You don't have to worry about the law coming to take you away yet. Anyway when you get this kind of high. But we got to go to the gate into the holy of holy or into the courtyard and there in the courtyard we see this great big brazen altar and it's a type of judgment and all sin is going to be judged right there.

[24:56] All sin. Amen. That's why Paul said in Romans 12. I beseech you. I beg you brother by the mercies of God that you present your bodies. Hey I was the lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world Jesus Christ Revelation 13 and 8.

[25:10] Amen. He said now I want you to be a lamb. Present your body. You be the lamb. Slain from the foundation. Slain. Amen. Slay your will. I present you there for a little bit by the verses of God that you finished your body.

[25:23] It says living sacrifice is holy and acceptable unto me which is your reasonable service and may not conform to the world but be it transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

[25:36] Can you say amen? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. It says the Bible said to him the porter opened and he entered him by the door.

[25:46] Amen. Hallelujah. Once I saw a vision. Let me tell you what you need a vision. I don't mean a television or a television. You need a vision. You've got to have a vision. You've got to have a vision of being saved before you can get saved.

[26:00] Amen. You've got to have a vision of salvation. You've got to have a vision of going on for God before you can ever go on for God. If you want heaven, you're home. You know, I've got a vision of hell and hell was hot and the lake of fire was there and burning hot and I read in the Word of God where there was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and I said, I don't want to go there.

[26:17] Then God gave me a vision of heaven and of the holy of holies and of the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat. And he said, it can be yours.

[26:29] And I said, God, who am I? You know, high school dropout. Who am I? I'm nobody. You know, I could never. He said, if I said you could do it, you could do it.

[26:40] But God, I just barely got through, you know, through the school I got through. I just barely got through it. He said, yeah, it is hard to get through school if you don't ever open the book. It's hard to be a Christian if you don't ever open the book.

[26:51] It's hard to live an overcoming life if you don't ever open the book. It's hard to get from Louisville, Kentucky to California if you don't ever read the map. Amen? That shows you how to get there.

[27:02] But this book will take us from hell's gate to heaven's gate. And then when we get to heaven's gate, we can enter in by the door into the sheepfold. Amen? Oh, hallelujah.

[27:13] Enter to the, oh, I got so much to tell you today. How do we enter in? Amen? Jesus wants us, he said, and he gave some apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers till we all come into a perfect man and to the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ.

[27:30] Amen? But how do we enter in? Now, this is going to hurt some of you, but I just got to tell you, tell you like it is. You enter in through this gate. Sure, you entered in through the first hand through the blood of Jesus.

[27:40] But if you want to get up here where I'm talking about and get this ecstasy, this exhilaration and feel the exaltation glory of God, you've got to learn to get into intercessory prayer.

[27:55] Now, Brother Van, I don't know about that. That's the problem. That's why I'm telling you about that. That's why, because you don't know about it. That's why God asked me here to tell you about it. When we came to Louisville, Sister Anna already had it by gift.

[28:06] I didn't even know what she had. Amen? And how many knows that the Bible said that the gifts and the callings of God are without repentance? You know what? I have been around people who have been in church and really going on for God and they have backslid on God and they've gone out into the world and become alcoholics and different things.

[28:20] But you know what? When they would get around somebody out there that had the Spirit of God, they would feel that Spirit and they would begin to even speak in tongues and prophesy and intercede. You know why? Because that gift that God gave them, He didn't take it away from them.

[28:32] And that thing was drawing them back, drawing them back, drawing them back. Sometimes we have had people come in here, sinners, just come in here and they feel the power and the glory of God.

[28:42] We're up here shouting so they can get up here and start dancing. Well, we don't understand what in the world is going on, honey. You don't know. That's right. The Bible said the blessings of God lead us to repentance. And He's drawing them. He's drawing them. He's drawing them.

[28:52] Amen? Hallelujah. That's why I first, now here's how to tell how much spiritual growth you have. First Peter, flip over there with me real quick. First Peter, the second chapter.

[29:05] First and second verse. He said, wherefore, laying aside all malice. Malice has evil intent. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. First verse.

[29:16] Second Peter, two and one. You may not have said it, but you thought, I'm going to get them for a chance. They said something to me. They did something to me. They dug me somewhere. He said, now listen, you want to know how much spiritual growth you got?

[29:29] He said, wherefore, laying aside all malice. Not part of it. You got a date on page 266. By the way, I made the Huber, but most everybody was here last night.

[29:41] I got a special. I got a special. They're doing away with date Bibles. There's not going to be any more of them. But my company, that'll get them through. We can order them.

[29:53] And they're cheap. They're even cheaper than I'm selling you mine, Brother D. They're $29.99 plus shipping and handling. And if you want to name one, it's another $5. So it's about the same thing. But it's, and they're not going to have any more of them.

[30:07] They're not making them anymore. It's the small ones. It's this size right here. Listen, here's how you measure your spiritual growth.

[30:19] Whereby laying aside all malice and guile, which is bitterness, and all hypocrisies. Now, what is a hypocrite? That's one that says the one thing, but acts and does something else.

[30:32] Amen? If I say I'm a Christian, and I, and you find me tomorrow out there at the bar, and, and, and, you know, and I'm, got me a beer tomorrow, I'm going back to somebody else. Well, wasn't he just down there preaching to us Sunday?

[30:44] But here he is out there Monday night down, well, you can say he's a hypocrite. Amen? He's a hypocrite. And not only that, he, he, he's then going to be burned unless he gets back and repents and gets praise through to God.

[30:54] Amen? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. So laying aside all hypocrisies and envies. Envies. Do you envy anybody? Brother Chris says, no.

[31:05] I love these newborn babes in Christ. They don't have any, any malice, any ill content. They don't even know anybody here and really don't care to, and, and, and they're not worried, you know, if somebody gets to do all the singing or, or, you know, you know why we got so many microphones up here?

[31:19] And, and we'll probably get more if we ever get our church built because we got that many people that want to sing, and if they don't get to sing, then they get envious. They say, well, I wish I could have, I wanted to get up there and sing. He never asked me to.

[31:30] And then some of you have even told, I got a microphone just for you, and you still won't get up there. So, we get envies and, and, and, and, and all evil speaking.

[31:41] All evil speaking. All evil speaking. He said, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby, if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is good.

[31:54] Now, going on over here to, to the, to the next, uh, uh, second Peter. And it's the, uh, uh, third chapter and 18th verse.

[32:09] He says, but grow in grace. He said, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby. And laying aside, if you want to grow, you can't grow if you're holding on to hypocrisies and, and envies and malice and hate and discontent and all these different things.

[32:23] Amen. Here he said, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be both glory now and forever. Amen. How does God want us to grow?

[32:34] In the, in the, in the, in the knowledge and in the grace of Jesus Christ. Now, I'm going to get a little deep, so y'all hold on, buckle your seatbelts. Amen. Hallelujah.

[32:45] Like I said a while ago, the way that you, uh, going to enter into the Holy of Holies is you enter in through intercessory prayer. The Bible says, for we know not what to pray for as we all, but the Spirit of God maketh intercession for us with groanings, which cannot be uttered.

[32:59] For he that searches the highest knows the man of the Spirit, and he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of the Father. And then in verse 34 of Romans 8, it talks about that how the Jesus Christ is sitting on the right hand of God.

[33:10] Now, where is God at? He is in the Holy of Holies. Amen. Jesus Christ sitting on his right hand, which is the power hand, which is the pleasure side. He done bore the pain on Calvary's cross. Now he's sitting on the right hand of pleasure forevermore.

[33:21] Amen. And what's he doing on the right hand of God? Romans 8, 34. He's making intercession for the saints. Amen. He's interceding for you and me. But he intercedes for you and I when we intercede ourselves.

[33:35] Brother Van, I don't know how to intercede. Well, did you hear what was going on here for about an hour this morning? Oh, that sounds like a, you know, if you, if you went into a place and you ever go, you think, I could be in a haunted house.

[33:58] You think, well, that's just crazy. Well, if you think that's crazy, then you would think that's crazy also. Amen. If you think that's crazy, then you think that the blood of a dead Jew died 2,000 years ago is able to wash your sins away today and make a home for you in glory.

[34:10] Amen. Then, hey, if you can't take intercessory prayer, honey, then you can't take the blood of Jesus and you can't take the Holy Ghost. You can't take nothing. Amen. And the only reason why you don't have it is because you don't want it.

[34:23] You haven't, and when I say you don't want it because you hadn't sought for it and because he said, I will withhold no good thing from them who walk up right before me. And then the Bible said, let no man think he's going to receive anything from God except to get it by faith.

[34:34] If you don't take it by faith, you ain't going to get it. And I don't have time to preach to you on all that. Hallelujah. But in everything, we got to get down to pray and get an intercessory prayer. Now, Lord, look at my wife's face.

[34:45] That's what happens to you if you get an intercessory prayer, your eyes get all swollen up and your sinuses, they get all puffed up and your nose begins to run. And, you know, you look and your little face gets red. Hallelujah. You know why? Because you're lifting up praise.

[34:58] You're magnifying God and you don't care how you look. You don't keep your hairs messed up. You don't, man, you just haul you into another realm. You have crossed the threshold. You have entered in. Amen. You're going behind the veil.

[35:10] Amen. You're giving God a reason, my Lord, to intercede for you. I feel the Holy Ghost in here.

[35:23] And I ain't even doing my message yet. And I'm running out of time. First gate, first door, show war. It's where we're saved at. We're born again. Amen. First line, I am the door.

[35:34] This is not the show war gate, but it's the delete door. The first time we were saved from the penalty of sin, but I've said you've got to be saved twice. First time I get saved from the power of sin and from the penalty of sin, which was death and hell.

[35:46] Now the devil is no longer my problem. I look in the mirror at my problem every morning. Who is it that stops me from praying? Who is it that stops me from reading my Bible? Who is it that stops me from fasting?

[35:57] Who is it that stops me from doing all the things that I know that God would have me to do? And it's not the devil anymore. I've got to be saved from myself, from my old man, from this body of sin.

[36:10] Can you say amen? Read about it in Romans 6, chapter 4, verse. Amen. That the body of sin may be destroyed. Amen. Should be. Not is. But if it was, then we'd all be like Jesus, perfect. And we're getting there.

[36:22] But it takes growing in grace, into the fullness of the measure of the sense of Christ. I love the way you're looking at me. Like, I'm understanding what he's saying.

[36:37] You know, we can just get it so high it goes right over your head. And I don't realize when I start talking about that tetra-gretion, gramaton name and that Yud-He-Vahe. You know, some of that stuff is deep. But, you know, you can learn it just like I learned it.

[36:49] Go get your dictionary. Look it up. It's in Webster's dictionary. You just got to have a desire to learn. Some people, they read the Bible, they put some sleep. Some people, they read the Bible. And after several hours, I told somebody before, sometimes after I've been in that little old room over there, closed up all day long, I just throw everything down.

[37:06] I jump up and I run out of the room. Not because I'm sleepy. I'm wide awake. I'm just, I'm just wired up. I'm, I can't, I'm, I'm just about on overload. I need a bigger computer chip because I'm about to, about to crash.

[37:20] My God, I take, God's taking me all these places and showing me all these things. I'm like, my Lord, how am I ever going to explain this to somebody else? But I know, Lord, if you showed it to me, you want them to know it. So, so help me, Lord, to get it back down and filter it down so where they can understand it. Hallelujah.

[37:38] So why do we have to go in and out? We go in and out to find pasture. That's what you eat. You got to eat in the in pasture. Amen. And then you got to go out and eat, you know, eat the sweet bread in the pasture, go out and eat the bitter bread in the out pasture.

[37:52] And the only way that you can appreciate the sweet is because you have to eat some of the bitter. Only way that you know that you're having a good time is because you had a bad time in the past. Amen. Hallelujah. And the word of God says, be sober, be vigilant for your adversary.

[38:05] The devil walketh about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Amen. So there are 12 gates to our heart. 12 gates.

[38:16] And there's a reason for that because when you start looking up 12 gates and you find that there's 12 gates in different places. And the place I want to go to right now, because we're just about over there, is we don't flip on over to Revelation 21.

[38:30] Revelation 21. There's something to being in the gate. Amen. Remember the story in Proverbs 31, Proverbs 31, and at the end of that chapter it talks about and her husband sitteth in the gate because he was a man of prominence.

[38:49] Men of prominence, people of prominence sit in the gate. That's where they judged things. They would bring people to them to be judged and where there was right and wrong and everything because they were men of learning. And you find out that the husband of the virtuous woman sitteth in the gates.

[39:05] Amen. You also find out that Lot sit in the gates of the city of Sodom because people would bring things to him for him to judge.

[39:16] You also find out that it was in the gate of the city where Boaz went to give his petition to the next of kin who had the legal right to Ruth if he had wanted to purchase her inheritance.

[39:32] He went to the gate of the city. He gave him his shoe. Amen. He gave him his shoe as earnest. You know, as a sign of an old.

[39:45] It all happened in the gate of the city. Amen. But now John in Revelation 21 says these words, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no more sea.

[39:57] And John saw the holy city in New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adored for her husband. Now what's the holy city coming down looking like? The holy city looks like a bride.

[40:09] Now what's the bride look like? You think she's dressed in white? Got a long flowing veil, amen, or veil and a train and all this stuff? And, you know, but he said, I was in the spirit and I saw the holy city coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adored for her husband.

[40:27] And verse 3, And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away.

[40:49] And he that sat up on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new and he said unto me, Write, for these things are true and faithful and he said unto me, It is done.

[41:00] I am Alpha and I am Omega the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that a thirst of the panther of the water of life freely he that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my son but the fearful and the unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death and there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues and they talked with me and they said, Come hither I will show thee the bride the lamb's wife.

[41:40] How many of us to see the bride the lamb's wife? And he carried me away in the spirit. Where did he take him to? Into the spirit. Into a great and exceeding high mountain and he showed me that great city the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven.

[41:56] What's he say you're going to show him? I'm going to show you the lamb's wife and he showed him a city. Are you trying to tell me brother man that the lamb's wife is a city? If God says it's a city it's a city. Amen. The Bible said you are the light of the world a city that is set on a hill.

[42:10] Can somebody shout amen? Having the glory of God the city had the light of the glory of God and her life the light of that city the light of the bride had the glory of God.

[42:22] She was shining in the full force of the sun. Amen. The strength amen with no clouds in the sky like a stone most precious even like a jasper stone and clear as crystal and had a wall great and high oh oh oh now we got to a wall.

[42:37] Here's a wall and had 12 gates. The wall had 12 gates. What's brother we've been preaching on?

[42:47] Our hearts got 12 gates. We got to go in and out. Why do we go in and out? Because that show or gate every time we go in and go out it breaks off some of the world in this on us. Amen. God don't do it. We couldn't stand it if he did it all at one time.

[43:00] Amen. So he allows us to go in and he goes out because he's a good shepherd. He's a gentle shepherd. He's a kind shepherd. He's a peaceful shepherd. And he breaks it off just a little bit at a time.

[43:11] You take like you got a big old scab on your hand if you just go in there and rip the whole scab off man. It's going to bleed and it's going to hurt and you're going to scream and holler. But if you just take it off a little bit at a time it's not too bad. Amen.

[43:21] He jerked off all of our darkness and one time we'd see how naked we were and how full of sin we were and we'd quit. We couldn't stand it. I couldn't stand to know how much flesh I still have.

[43:33] So he don't show it to me all at one time. He just showed me this little bit and he says I know you can't deal with this big old lump but can you deal with this little speck? And I said yeah I can handle that speck. And he said alright you deal with that. And when you get through dealing with that then come back and I'll give you some more.

[43:46] Amen. And then he tries you to see if you really dealt with it. Amen. Hallelujah. What verse am I in? Oh verse 12. And had a wall great and high and at twelve gates and at the gates were twelve angels with their names written their own which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel and on the east three gates and on the north three gates and on the south three gates and on the west three gates.

[44:10] And the wall of the city had twelve foundations and in them were the names of the twelve apostles of the land. And he that talked with me had a golden reading to measure this and he said measure the city and measure the gate.

[44:22] Isn't it something about the gate that God didn't want him to measure the city and the walls but measure the gate. How big is your gate? If the Lord allows me to later on we'll go into the gates.

[44:37] We'll find out what's in the gates. How many would like to know what's in your gate? What's in the gate of you? Amen. Hallelujah. We're about out of town so we're not going to get there today but just let me let me read on down through here a little bit.

[44:50] I love this. I love this. Verse 15 again. And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city and the gate thereof and the wall thereof and the city lined four square.

[45:04] The length is as large as the breadth and as and he measured the city with a reed twelve thousand furlongs that's fifteen hundred square miles. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal and he measured the wall thereof and hundred and forty and four cubits according to the measure of a man that is of an angel.

[45:24] A hundred and forty four cubits that's three hundred feet. That's a big wall. Now how big was the city? Fifteen hundred miles squared.

[45:39] My mind can't comprehend that. I'm too finite. Too ignorant.

[45:51] I can't even imagine fifteen hundred miles. A city. A city. Thank you.

[46:25] Thank you.

[46:55] Thank you.

[47:25] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[47:37] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[47:49] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. no temple therein for God and the Lamb are the temple thereof. Amen?

[48:04] Hallelujah. Are the class ready to come in, sister? What about my father? The same hip or the other hip?

[48:29] Well, it's kind of hard to say that Romans 8, 28 when it's happening to you, isn't it?

[48:45] That's why we believe it and we preach it and we teach it. But if it's my wife in the wreck and I had two young children to raise and I was depending on her income to make the ends meet, we were stretched thin as a tightrope walker between two twin tires of the World Trade Center and the rope snapped.

[49:04] It's hard to say, well, God's ahead over all things. But He is. He really is. He really is. We might not understand it, but He still is. Amen? Hallelujah.

[49:17] Hallelujah. Well, let me go on until they get here. Amen? Amen? Matthew 7, 13 and 14, the Bible says, Straight is the gate and never is the way.

[49:30] Straight is the gate. That is spelled S-T-R-A-I-T which means through much tribulation, through much battling, through much warring, can we enter in the straight gate and walk the narrow way.

[49:47] I want you to notice here, there's two gates and there's two ways. Let me read it to you because you probably have read this but you never stopped to take it. Matthew 7 and 13.

[50:08] Since I hear them coming, we'll end with this right here. But honey, we haven't got down to the valley that we're going to go through yet. And this is so great. Go through this first gate. This is what he says here.

[50:19] Matthew 7, 13 and 14. He said, Enter ye in at the straight gate. All right, there's a straight gate.

[50:30] Amen? Then he says, For wide is the gate and broad is the way. I mean, notice there's a wide gate and a broad way. Now, where does the wide gate and the broad way lead to?

[50:43] That lead it to this structure and many go in there at? But then there is a, there is a, a, a, a, a straight is the gate. Verse 14. There's a straight gate and a narrow way which leadeth unto life and few there be they find it.

[51:00] Straight is the gate and narrow is the way. Two ways. Two ways to get in. There's a thief and a robber. Broad way. Two destinies.

[51:15] Heaven or hell. Destruction or being made whole. Amen? Leadeth unto life.

[51:28] Let's just stand up today. Let's lift up our hands and let's thank the Lord for His Spirit that He brought in this house. God has been so good to us. Hallelujah.

[51:39] He let, He let us speak things this morning that, that, that just came right from His throne room and man, my, in my spirit I just soared right on past the stars and the planets right on up into heaven itself. Lord Jesus, we thank You, Lord God, for Your Spirit that, that just filled this place this morning.

[51:55] Lord God, we, we, we interceded, we prevailed, we prayed. Lord God, we, we felt Your power and Your, you're anointing so much, Lord, as, as people came to the altar, Lord God, and prayed out to You and cried out to You, Jesus.

[52:06] We thank You, Lord God, that when we got into Your Word, Lord, that Your anointing was still there and, Lord, You're trying, Lord, to open the doors of our minds, Lord God, so that the light can shine in and we can begin to understand, Lord God, what the devil don't want us to know, Lord.

[52:19] The devil is the prince of this world and the power of darkness of this world. But, Lord God, You want to let the light and the glorious light of the gospel shine into our darkness of our minds, Lord, so that we can understand, Lord, what is the depths and the heights of Your, Word.

[52:34] And, Lord God, we pray that You'll lead us and You'll guide us and You'll direct us, Lord God, and even in this little bitty Riverside Pentecostal church, Lord God, that we might be the light, Lord God, to our community and to everyone around us.

[52:45] Father, we ask it all in Jesus, holy, righteous, pure, and precious name. And everybody said, Amen. And Amen. Hallelujah. Give the Lord a good hand this morning. Hallelujah.

[52:55]  Hallelujah. I believe that as time goes on and day after day,