<TITLE>07. Par 37-49</TITLE>L-37 We have the same thing in religion. The... I was reading the history of Martin Luther, and any of you historians know. They said it wasn't a mysterious thing that Luther could protest the Catholic church and get by with it, but the greatest mystery, he could hold his head above all the fanaticism that followed his revival and still stay with the Word. That's the miracle, how God kept him clear and straight.

L-38 Now, so they come to this Samuel. They said, "Make us a proph--or make us a--a king." And the Lord told him that He rejected that idea, just exactly what He rejected here with organization. Just like He rejected that, He rejects organization. He don't reject organism, but organization. Organism, we have to have that. But organization we don't have to have, because it draws lines: "We are So-and-so." Are you a Christian, "I'm Methodist." Are you a Christian? "I'm Baptist." That don't mean no more than a pig in a pen. That has nothing to do with it, not at all. A Christian...
I asked a girl one night on the platform, "Are you a Christian?"
She said, "Why, I give you to understand, I burn a candle every night," like that had anything to do with Christianity.
Another man said, "Well, I'm an American. Sure." Well, that's got nothing to do with it, not a thing. You're a Christian because you belong to another Kingdom. That's right. And you are--you're in another Kingdom above.

L-43 Now, what did Samuel do? Just the same thing that God did here. Samuel called Israel together; he said, "Now, listen to me. I want to ask you something. Has there ever been one time that I ever told you anything that wasn't true?" Said, "Now, I'm God's prophet among you. Tell me one time I ever told you anything in the Name of the Lord that didn't come to pass." That's what Samuel said to them. He said, "And hasn't God fed you and taken care of you and done all these things?" Said, "You're doing sin by trying to act like the other nations."
"Oh..." they said.
He said, "I want to ask you something else. Have I ever took any money away from you? Have I ever begged you for an offering? Or have I ever told you anything in the Name of the Lord that didn't come to pass?"
They said, "No. You never took our money; that's true. And you've never told us anything in the Name of the Lord that didn't come to pass."
He said, "Then hear me. You're sinning by trying to act like the rest of them." But they wanted a king anyhow. Regardless of whether it was right or wrong, they--they wanted to carry out their idea.
That's the same thing the church did right here at Ephesus, they taken the Nicolaitane doctrine. And when they did, it pushed them right in to convert paganism and Christianity together and has caused a fifteen hundred years of dark ages. And when Luther pulled them out, if the second round of Lutherans didn't do the same thing they did back in Ephesus. Exactly.

L-49 Now, if you'll notice, the candlestick didn't set quite like that. They started down in this way and come up. Well, the highest one away from where he was standing was this one up here. And Christianity gradually smothered out as it went from where He was standing in the shape of the cross, as we'd seen Him in the 4th chapter, in the shape of the cross like this. And this was His right hand; that was His left hand. Now, right here, He had His hand on this church and on that church. He was both Alpha and Omega, and of course, all was in between it too, all the other letters. But He specifically said Alpha and Omega. Had a rainbow over His head, which was His covenant.


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