<TITLE>06. Par 35-41</TITLE>L-35   Now, as we study this, my purpose of this is just not to come here to--to fellowship with you people. Which, I love to do that. But if--if I had a chance to do that, I would come to your home, and shake your hand and talk with you, and set down, eat dinner with you; and set down, under the shade tree, and talk and fellowship a while.
But when we come here, we are here for one specific purpose. This is the house of correction. This is the throne. This is the throne of God, and judgment goes forth from the house of God. And here is where we come together, gather in love, with one another, as only Christians can love. But, in here, we are--we are under a--a--a--a leadership of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost is among us. And we're here to be... to take reckoning among us, to see where our short places are, our shortcoming, and how can we catch from where we should be, over to where we ought to be now; where we are, and where we ought to be. And that's what we study. Ministers study those places, for their people. When they see the people, the lack, then they begin on that.

L-36   Now, soon, I think that the church maybe should be taking just a little step higher at this time. I don't plan on doing it this morning, of showing these things. But I--I think, shortly, the Lord willing, before we preach on those Trumpets, I want to--to--to bring the Church just something that--that you should know, I believe, now.

L-37   And now we're speaking on this, "overcoming." The word overcome, of course, you know what it means. You've got to have something to overcome. And this church age that the Holy Spirit was speaking about here, at the Laodicea Church Age, as we have just been through it, needed a rebuking. Laodicea had to be rebuked, because of its--its different towards Christ. It had put Christ outside, in--in their age. And Christ was on the outside, trying to get back on the inside. That's love. After He had been put out of His Own house, was trying to come back in, and said, "He that'll open the door, I'll come in to him." See? The church, itself, in whole, had put Him out.

L-38 But now notice. His call here is not to just the church. "He that overcometh." See? Not the church; that would be she, see, the church body. But it's "he that overcometh," the individual that will overcome, now.

L-39   And Laodicea had it coming to her. Now we see, then, knowing that this is the Laodicea Age, and knowing that this age needs a sharp rebuke from God. It needs a sharp rebuke. And when our clergy gets so soft and doty, like some aged grandfather to his grandchildren, ever what they do is perfect. And they're...

L-40 It's been said so much, that God is such a good God, until they try to make God just a big doty grandfather. You see? But He is not. He is a Father, and a Father of righteousness, of correction. And love is always corrective. See? Love corrects. No matter how bad it hurts, it still corrects.
A real mother will correct her children. A real dad will correct. See? If you just get soft and doty, and let it...

L-41   I was crossing an old log the other day, down a--a wash, or what is called a hollow. And I jumped up on this log. On the outside, it looked good, looked like a big old beech log. But when I jumped on it, oh, a great chunk of it fell off. It was real rotten and dotty. I said, "That's the way the Christians are becoming." They been dead in sin and trespasses, so long, till become doty. They can hold no weight, at all. They--they don't know what the overcoming means. I begin to think of this text, then. Overcome, keep Life in you. When life went out, that's what brought that log to that condition. See? And it made it worse than ever when it laid in the branch where the water was.


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