Brethren, do you remember what Our Lord Jesus Christ told the mother of the two sons of Zebedee, when she went and knelt down before the Lord in a requestful mode? The Lord asked her, woman, what would you that I do for you? She answered: “Grant that my children should sit, one on your right hand and the other on your left hand in your glory.” But Our Lord Jesus Christ told her, you do not know what you ask: “Can they drink of the cup I drink of? And be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” And the woman said they could. But Our Lord Jesus Christ answered: “They shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized of. But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it was prepared by the Father.”

If this kingdom were to be understood by you, no person would have struggled for anything or for any position, but every person would have kept mute. But I would not have any person to blame because you are ignorant of the place where you are. Each of you must definitely reap what you planted. Have you heard what the Lesson says? These are they who were redeemed among men, they did not marry or give in marriage, they who did not defile themselves with women because they were virgins and they were the first fruits unto God and unto the Lamb; and they were those who would follow the Lamb withersoever He goes. This very statement was stamped, sealed and delivered. This very state of affairs does not require any pleading or fasting or bribery. It has been laid down as an everlasting covenant.

It means that all over the world, God had already selected those who are pure virgins, not making yourself a virgin after you have married and divorced or you have been widowed or separated. But He has already called the virgins and they have been created so for this kingdom. It will be the height of foolishness for you on that great day of reckoning to plead with the Father to select you. Can you find therein any vacant position? Everything you see had already been planned and arranged in pursuance of this Divine order before He created man. This divine order is unchangeable. You have heard that from the beginning there has been the distinction between those who were created as carnal people and those created as Spirited children. The difference between the two categories of people is quite distinct and cannot be changed even if you weep and wail, you rightfully belong.

An important question which most of you always ask is about where the virgins could be found, but such a question is belated. Similarly it is equally too late for you to decide now to divorce or separate from your wife so that you can become a virgin. It is also too late for you to regret now to have married a wife. Be steadfast because a place is allocated in the kingdom for married people. If you are already married with five or seven or ten wives, do not plan to divorce them, continue with them for there is a place in the kingdom allocated for those who marry five, or ten wives. A great many people think that there are certain things they do deliberately or that there are certain behaviors which are purposeful. This cannot be true. Wherever you find yourself has already been destined for you. No person can, and no person has ever advised God. And Jehovah God and His Christ have never made a mistake. It is only man who possesses the Spirit of error. If you want to be like the person you see, you have erred. If you intend to do exactly the same thing as the other person has done you have also erred.

Our Lord Jesus Christ had advised parabolically that when you are invited to a supper, you should sit at the lowest seat and do not sit in the highest position, lest a more honorable man than you had been invited also. Because if you take the highest seat and if perchance a more honorable person than you also attends, your host will come to you and ask you to give that man the seat and you will shamefully take the lowest seat. There you will complain that you have been disgraced. No person has disgraced you, but you have disgraced yourself. If you had taken the lowest seat, as He has advised that whenever you attend any gathering, you should plant yourself in the lowest position in the first instance, and at the arrival of the host, you will be invited to a higher seat, then will you have worship in the presence of them who sat at the supper with you.

I have witnessed the manifestation of the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Brotherhood of the Cross and Star. Everyone of you is struggling for the undefined “MOST IMPORTANT POSITIONS.” You always strive for positions, and if you wish to arrogate the position of a preacher to yourself, it is good luck to you. It is only in the world that people are politicking for high positions, even there, it does not serve any useful purpose to struggle for positions because God has come down Himself to rule and He had placed everything in its ship- shape order in accordance with His divine plan. And so you cannot occupy any position which was not fore-ordained for you, no matter how relentlessly you may struggle. If you usurp any position, the angels will degrade you.

Brethren, this kingdom is very deep and mysterious and if I begin to explain its implications, you will agree with me that it is not only deep and weighty but sometimes inexplicable. It is a very sorrowful situation that from the beginning of times, the people of the world have never known the ways of God, neither have they known Him and His divine plan. His wisdom has confounded the intelligence of man.

You may find people who go to steal in order to be rich overnight, but if they were prudent they would know that no matter how much they steal they will never be wealthy. If you were not destined to have any child, even if you marry all the women in the world, you will not have any child. Some men have discovered that it is not easy for them to beget children and so out of desperation, they pick already pregnant women as wives in order to get children. They do not realize what they do, because it is only what God has destined for you that can be fulfilled in your life. It is equally a mark of folly and a wasteful exertion or dissipation of energy on thinking of how you will possess a lot of money. If you are destined to have money, you will not even think of the ways and means of getting money, and until money begins to flow into your hands, you will not know it. It is being sent to you from above, and you do not have to struggle for it, and neither do you have to steal, nor tell lies nor show the tendency to craftiness and exasperation. If you are destined to have a battalion of children, do not do anything, do not even marry wives, do not devise any means because until you have numerous children, you will not know it and you will not experience any problems. But whoever was not destined to have children, may indulge himself in all forms of concoctions, consult oracles, employ the services of a necromancer, a herbalist, and apply all forms of medications, he will still not have a child. Even if he prays to God to give him a deformed child or an abnormal child, since his wish is at variance with the will of God, he will not have any child.

These carnal illustrations are by way of digression. This is not the subject of today. The theme of the sermon to day is the reason we are exhorted to be Holy even also as He is holy. If you marry, you are no longer holy. You are very much aware that the day you go to ask a woman’s hand in marriage, you have fallen short of the expectation of God. Because most of the requirements needed to consummate a marriage are such things which God does not like.. But since you want to marry you cannot help meeting the requirements. You have been told in one of the lessons that those who will be accounted worthy to obtain that kingdom and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage. Realize that when you ask a person’s hand, you are going to marry or give in marriage, it means you have judged yourself.

Brethren, the gift of God is as precious as it is enjoyable. It is not grievous. It has no encumbrances, it does not admit any question or struggling because the Father had already kept the diversity if gifts in accordance with His divine plan, and they work eternal life. Do not be so concerned when I tell you every time that I am looking for virgins. I am only pulling your legs because I have already got the complete number through out the world. Many people ponder over this question of where to find the virgins, and that in the absence of such virgins, I will select you. I shall not select you because your name is not on the list. You have your own place. Always be content with whatever position God has given you. Do not punish yourself unnecessarily because it is too late. And every man who has this hope in Him purifies himself even as He is pure. He wants holiness and purity, you have to be holy as He is holy.

When the people of Corinth asked St. Paul certain things concerning marriage, he advised them that, “It is good for a man not to touch a woman, nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let everyman have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband.” This advice is in no way perfect, but it is rather choosing the lesser of the two evils. As a final advice he told the people that he only advised, not of commandment but by permission. “For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man has his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.” He knows that the ability to refrain from vices could not be attributed to man, but only to God who does everything according to His divine plan and what was predestined for you. It is not good for a man to advise the other to divorce his wife or compel a single girl to marry in this kingdom. God had already arranged everything . He had arranged the various positions and every person has his own distinct position. That was why Our Lord Jesus Christ usually concluded His discourses with the statement, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” It means that whenever you listen to the Gospel, you should accept and practice those which belong to you, and reject those which do not belong to you. Do not be disturbed by any Gospel because you are not the only child of God for as we have different faces so are there diversities of gifts.

I find it difficult to believe that you can only learn how to do something from somebody, but I believe that gifts are inborn in man, and that which you are born with is good and the one you acquire through learning is counterfeit. Our Lord Jesus Christ has made it known to us that He is the only Teacher we have, who teaches us and imparts valuable knowledge to us. All other doctrines are counterfeit.

I have told you that God does not require your money, children, clothes, shoes, food, but he does want you to be holy, to keep your body pure, even as He is Holy. You have to be pure with the words of your mouth, with your footsteps, your perception, you have to be pure in your behavior, in Spirit and in flesh. That is why man is very important in this kingdom. This is because God has no other dwelling place. GOD DWELLS IN YOU. Any time you defile yourself with fornication and adultery, that house stands demolished

The failure of 99% of the world population is attributable to this fact, because a great many people argue that there is no sin in somebody marrying a wife or husband because God says a man or woman should marry and procreate children and replenish the earth. If this happens you will not be holy, neither will you notice the evil in it. But the only difference is that you will not follow the Lamb wherever He goes. It is said that the Lord is not slack concerning His promises, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and be saved. Examine critically the statement that they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain the kingdom and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage. You have been educated at school, or college, you have been a member of various church denominations, you have the Holy Bible and you have read the passage. If you believe in the statement that it was made for your guidance, you could not have had any problems.

It is now one thousand and nine hundred and eighty-two years since the Gospel on chastity and celibacy started to be preached to the people. It has been a very long time, indeed more than enough time within which it should have sounded a note of warning into every person’s ears, even if they were blind and deaf. And before this generation, if the people had believed in the significance of the Gospel, and that it was for the compliance of every person, you would have been one of the virgins who follow the Lamb where He goes. It seems to me that the whole world is in the same position as the five foolish virgins who attended a wedding without their fuel for their lamps, and contended that when the bridegroom arrived, they would look for oil. The other five who were wise took their lamps and also sufficient oil in their vessels. While the bridegroom delayed, they all slumbered and slept. When the bridegroom arrived at midnight, the ten virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. The five foolish virgins, realizing that their lamps were almost extinguished asked the wise ones to give them oil because their lamps had gone out. The five wise virgins told them no, lest there be not enough for us and you, go to the town and buy oil for yourselves. No sooner had they left to buy oil than the bridegroom arrived. The door was opened and the five wise ones entered the door and the door was closed against the five foolish virgins. That is why so many people who had married, having realized the truth, contemplate separating from their wives. It is rather too late for you to take such a decision.

It is said that the world passes away with its lust and desires, the emphasis is on the passing away of its lust and desires. That is why it is said that a man or a woman who is not married cares for the things of the Lord, and how he or she may please the Lord. Adam worshiped God up to the time he did not marry. But from the day he married and the unexpected thing happened, things fell apart. You have heard that since Adam was carnally intimate with Eve, which prompted their expulsion from the Garden, Adam no more cared for the things of God but he was preoccupied with the question of how to feed, cloth and find shelter for themselves and for their children. There is a passage in the Bible where Our Lord Jesus Christ says, “Blessed are the barren and the wombs which never bore and the paps which never gave suck.”(Luke 23:29). Do you understand the implications of that statement? To whom does this statement refer? It refers to the unmarried women, those who do not marry nor are they given in marriage, for they follow the Lamb wherever He goes.

The word ‘Purification’ refers to those who do not defile themselves with men and women. If you maintain your virginity and sanctity, it means you are pure. I do not suppose that any such virgins would be found in Africa, but a great many of them would be found among the whites, because there are many whites who believe these words, and so they do not marry till they die. The whites do not appear to have high regards for begetting children. Some multi- millionaires have only one child, others have none, and others still do not marry. Some of them only live in hostels without any concern for anything. These indicate that when they will embrace Brotherhood, they will do it with great devotion and sincerity. God knows why He started Brotherhood with the blacks. Were God to start with the Western World, the 144, 000 required would have been found there, but He does not wish the blacks to have a cause for regret, that was why He started from Africa. The whites do believe that a fornicator will not follow Our Lord Jesus Christ, and a thief and a liar have no share in the kingdom of God, because the whites have appreciated the truth. How many blacks have believed this sermon? They console themselves that man is saved by grace. What is saving by grace?

God has given a condition for marriage, that from now on those who marry should remain as though they had no spouses and they who weep as though they weep not, and they who rejoice as though they rejoice not and they who buy as though they possess not.

How many persons have complied with the words of this gospel? Your thinking is that the Father knows and He will choose you. I want to sound a note of warning that God will not choose you no matter what happens. Only the pure virgins will be selected, those who have never defiled themselves with men and women, those who never marry or are given in marriage, will follow the Lamb wherever He will go.

It is indicative that the answer given by Our Lord Jesus Christ to the mother of the two sons of Zebedee is true when He said, “To sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it was prepared by the Father from the beginning. This means that the pure virgins have been selected before the foundations of the world were laid. There were some people who are born into the world, but have never heard about this kingdom, nor do they attend church services in any church denomination, but they are born with a repugnant attitude towards marrying wives or husbands or associating themselves with men or women. They do not know why they are born so, but only the Father knows why they are so born.

From now on, do not toy with any Gospel you receive. He wants us to be pure as He is. He wants us to be in readiness, without any hindrance, so that we may be worthy of Him. Requirements of money, clothing or any other carnal thing are not considered. What is considered as sine qua non is for you to be pure in thoughts, words and deeds; to be pure with the flesh and in Spirit.

Animals are more intelligent and more cautious than human beings, because if you set a trap or a snare and one animal falls in it, all the other animals will avoid that route. It will take a very long time before another animal falls into the same trap again. But if a man falls into a pit or a snare all human beings following him, even if they are up to one thousand, they will all fall into the same pit or snare. This is so because one of the frailties of man is man’s high propensity to blame, criticize the other person, so that if one person falls into a pit another person would feel that he fell because he did not have the correct tactics of jumping or of running before jumping and so he could do better, and by going to jump, using his better tactics, he also falls and one by one, the thousand of them will fall into the pit.

Before you were baptized into Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, you read many books, novels, magazines, and other publications, and so you will be so pompous and arrogant that you will neither learn from any person nor take correction when you err. You will feel that you are so educated that you cannot receive instructions from any person; therefore you tend to maintain your position of condemning and criticizing. This explains why we have stagnated. God has not hidden any truth from us. He says that if a man marries he has not sinned, and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But such will have trouble in the flesh. But I would that you be relieved of this affliction, that those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who buy as though they possessed not, so that you may be saved. Who has opted to be saved? You claim that you know your way, does it save you? Learn from the experience of your parents as married couples, also learn from the marriage experience of your brothers and relations and friends and examine the condition of things and you will learn the greatest lesson of your life which confirms the truth in a local adage which says that it is not necessary to tell rain stories to the fire.

It is said a man or woman who has not married cares for the things of the Lord that he or she may be holy both in body and in Spirit but any person who marries cares for the things of the world, how he or she may please his or her husband.

As if that injunction is not enough, God has added another condition that wives should submit to their husbands, and that the husbands should love their wives. If you are a man and you love your wife as he has commanded which other way will you love God and because he has also said that you should love the Lord Your God with all your heart, your mind, your strength and your soul. Similarly, if the woman submits herself to her husband, in what other way will the wife submit herself to God? Brethren, I do not intend to belabor the point, I am only scratching the subject. You really know what I am telling you. Our First Lesson will now be read. Those of you who still want to marry should know yourselves.

1st Lesson: 1 Corinthians 7:32
“But I would have you without carefulness, He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord.”

Brethren, listen to what is read to you. A servant cannot serve two masters. It is said a wife should submit herself to the husband, if she should submit herself to the husband by carrying out the husband’s instructions, what time will be left for her to serve God? It is also said, “Husbands should love their wives,” when he spends his time in loving the wife, caring for her, buying things for her, keeping her happy, what other time has he left at his disposal to love his God also. It is rather too late to try to do the two things.

This explains why Paul, since the day he was selected, did not go back home but straight away went on to serve God. He worked harder than all the other apostles. From the moment he was called, he did not go back home, he had no wife nor children and so nothing attracted him at home but he concentrated all his thoughts and energy in the service of God. He did not follow the examples of the other apostles because others always went on their ministry with sisters. But he never went to any place with any sister because he had no need for one since he had determined to run the race. If you keep yourself holy, without being intimate with a man or a woman, your eyes will be opened and many things will be taught you. Many of the things you never regarded will be shown to you and you will know your relative position. That also accounted for the Apostles taking a little wine, but Paul drank nothing, he did not eat any meat. All his abstinence was to make him worthy of the Lord. Any person who has no wife, cares for the things of God how he will be holy both in flesh and in Spirit in order to please God. He has no other thought apart from knowing how to please God and with such a view you have no hindrance.

Apart from maintaining that purity and sanctity in you, the large circle of relationship will weigh heavily on you. Your brothers and sisters, children, parents, paternal relations, maternal relations, affinal relations, all of whom expect certain obligations from you. They may be so demanding that you spend your time, energy and money relentlessly that you hardly have time again to attend to the work of God. If you devote your attention to your domestic affairs, your children requesting for one thing or the other, your in- laws pressurizing you for certain aids and your parents and brothers reminding you of your responsibilities for them; after all these, what other time will be left for you to follow Our Lord Jesus Christ? Right now a great many married men and women are in the soup. It is not uncommon to find fathers telling their children who should go to them for some request, to go to their mothers and vice versa. During the period of a man’s devotion, his children would go to him demanding money for food or for school fees or for one thing or the other. You find yourself in a position where you are torn between two alternatives.

It is the same God, Our Father who commands saying, “Fathers, love your children!” If you love your children sincerely, in what other way will you love your God? Alternatively, if because of this implication, you abandon your children so that you can concentrate your attention on loving God, it means you have violated the other commandment that fathers should love their children. If you spend your time with your wife and children always, when can you remain in peace, when can you be pure and holy and when can you pre-occupy your thoughts in the things of God?

There is no married man or woman who can profess that his or her heart is pure and that he is at peace with his wife or husband. Whenever you come across a man, he will complain that his only trouble is his wife and a woman will complain that her only trouble is her husband. A man may not bear malice against any other woman but his wife and a woman may not begrudge any other man except her husband. This contractual obligation is not easily separable but during the period of the contract, they are always under fire. This state of affairs lends credence to the words of the scripture that a married man or woman cares for the things of the world how he or she will please the wife or the husband. Any married person has no other thought except to please his or her partner.

If I may ask, what do you mean by “the things that are of the world?” Why did you marry a wife or a husband? A man may decide to devote himself to the Lord, to keep himself pure and undefiled with a woman, the wife will wage war against him. She will tell the husband to return her to her parents because she is not his maid. The moment a woman tells the husband that she intends to keep herself pure for some time, in order to please God, the husband will suspect her, right away, that she has started having affairs with another man. He will blame the action of the wife on her disloyalty to him, instead of accepting that the woman really wants to be pure and holy. He will tell her that the Leader has never approved of abstinence from sex for any married person at any point in time. But for the shame of it, most of you would have reported to the Father the refusal of one partner or the other for sexual intimacy. If one threatens that he will report the other, she is quite prepared to appear before the Father. Even if one of them makes bold to appear before the Father to lay such a complaint, he will not report directly the truth about the situation of things but will beat about the bush and dance at the periphery of the matter without mentioning that the real cause of the trouble in the house is sex.

If any person resolves to render his services to God with sincerity and diligence, and his spouse sees him going on ministry with another woman, he would be strongly suspected of having been carnally intimate with the woman. In the same token if a devoted sister cooks food, washes clothes for another man or goes on ministry work with him, the husband will begin to cast aspersions on her, and that she has betrayed her true intention.

Upon the Gospels preached, who has listened to, assimilated and practiced the Gospels? The thoughts of the wife are always on the husband, if the husband does not return from work early to be with the wife, she will accuse the man of being intimate carnally with another woman. Similarly the husband spends all his time thinking about the wife so that if the wife is not readily available, the husband will accuse her of having sex with another man. Suspicion of promiscuous intimacy is now the order of the day. This is the order and it is unchangeable. But no person thinks about God who created him, but rather man is pre-occupied with carnal intimacy. For this reason there is always a ding-dong battle between the two sides.

If you make the mistake of standing with somebody’s wife to discuss anything, and the husband sights you from somewhere, you are done for. This is because he has marked you, and if he comes near you, the way he will look at you will frighten others. Should your wife prepare food for another man and the two of them enjoy the food in your house, and you come to meet them laughing, will you not set the house ablaze? You will thank God for disclosing the secret plans about your wife and for proving true the suspicions about your wife’s clandestine association with the so-called Brotherhood member. Upon the Gospels delivered to you, no person has complied with the word of God. If your husband buys soutane for a girl who cannot afford it and you accidentally come to see the transaction, no matter what the man tries to explain you will not regard the girl as a Brotherhood but you will declare that you have caught him red-handed and you will want the husband to explain his relationship with the girl. No matter what he tries to explain, you will insist that God has handed him over to you.

Wherever a woman is, whether in Britain or America or any other part of the world, her mind resides with her husband in Nigeria. Similarly, wherever a man is, whether in India or Tanzania or France, his mind will always be fixed on his wife who is in Nigeria. But Our Lord Jesus Christ is in need of your heart and now your heart is not in Him but in mundane things. Brethren you will notice that this problem does not come from God or from any other person but you are the architect of it all.

Do you remember that young man who told Our Lord Jesus Christ that he would follow Him but that he would go and bid farewell to his relations at home? Have you been told that he ever returned to Our Lord Jesus Christ? He went to see his wife and children and he felt he could go back, but it was impossible. Let us have the Second Lesson so that you realize that no person means you any harm but the situation has already been created for you, even though it is unbearable.

2ND BIBLE LESSON:Luke 20:35
“But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage.”

Brethren, have you heard that? Those who are unmarried will follow Him wherever He goes, and no person will have power over you; no man or woman will come to capture you while you are walking with Christ. No person will speak to you in a despiteful manner, and since Our Lord Jesus Christ is the bridegroom, you have only one way to follow. Our Lord Jesus Christ will not allow a married woman to follow Him because He has instructed somewhere that a woman should submit herself to her husband; if he therefore allows a married woman to follow Him, the woman will find herself in a position of submitting to two persons which amounts to being sincere to one and despising the other.

This injunction is not a man-made law, it has no alternative, it requires neither bribery nor pleading. It is a laid down condition that those who are accounted worthy to inherit the kingdom of God, do not marry and they do not give in marriage; they do not buy or sell, they do not keep girlfriends and boyfriends or concubines. This does not imply that those who marry and keep concubines will not have a share in this kingdom, but I am merely giving you the condition under which anyone is qualified to follow Our Lord Jesus Christ pari-passu, wherever Christ goes, I do not say that you will not enjoy, but your enjoyment is quite different.

You are all aware that no person keeps this condition. Our Lord Jesus Christ has not forbidden any person from marrying , neither has He advised you to marry, but it was fore-ordained for certain persons because the passage is specific that they who shall be accounted worthy to inherit this world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.

During the Pentecostal, every Gospel delivered to you provides either a question or an answer. When a condition is given as a reason for your being forbidden from doing certain things and you are so inquisitive as to ask why those things should not be done, the corresponding question has been given. The First Lesson tells us that a man or woman who has not married cares for the things of God, how he or she may please the Lord. His or her ultimate aim is how to please God. Though he is not aware whether or not he is selected but his aim is to serve God, and so he keeps himself pure and holy while still waiting. If you come across a man or a woman who does not desire to marry, it means such a person is predestined to serve God.

It is not necessary to ask any questions because if you confront a girl whether she does not want to beget children, she will say no. And if you further ask her whether she does not desire to marry she will give a negative answer. If you further ask what she wants, the answer will be that she wants to serve God. A Spiritual Chorus attests that you can take the whole world but give me Christ Jesus. What this means is that such a girl has summed up courage to take that absolute but solemn decision to reject the world but accepts Christ Jesus as the Bridegroom.

Today if you find somebody who wants to serve God, people will regard him as a demented fellow. Taking the condition of this world as a base, of the two persons, the married on one hand and the unmarried on the other hand, who is mentally deranged? I want to say that the one who marries is the foolish person, because she no longer has Christ and cannot follow the Lamb wherever He goes. But the person who has chosen Our Lord Jesus Christ is wiser because she has chosen the right things from above, while the married person has chosen mundane things, even though both of them are Him.

You do not have to be jealous of the unmarried because you have married a wife and have begotten children. You should be satisfied with your own position, that is your glory. Do not be jealous of the unmarried who has opted to serve God and follow the Lamb wheresoever He goes. Has He not told us plainly that whosoever does not forsake all that he has cannot be His disciple? You can be a president, a governor, a millionaire, a king, an emperor or a man of standing in the society but the condition is that those who will be accounted worthy to follow the Lamb of God wherever He goes are those who have neither married nor been given in marriage.

Do not be deceived by any person that you will follow him even though you marry. If any man preaches any other Gospel unto you which is at variance with the one you have received here, merely tolerate him patiently because he is speaking carnally. If any person tells you that even though you have married for a long time, you would today follow Our Lord Jesus Christ. he is deceiving you, for Christ has said, “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.” In which mansion are you kept? It is the same Lord. You should be satisfied with your position.

This statement is confirmed by the words of a Spiritual Chorus that man should be content with his own position. Be absolutely satisfied with your position, if you are married, love your wife as He has instructed, and if you are a woman, submit to your husband. Obedience to these instructions is the kingdom of God. If you have money remain there in your affluence for the same Christ rules over you, and you are in this kingdom. I have already told you what is in store for those who surrender themselves to God, because every person has a share in the benefits accruing from their services to God, but the particular set of persons who will follow the Lamb wherever He goes are the only set of persons who are accounted worthy to inherit this kingdom.

If God has given you the ability, having heard this gospel, and you decide to surrender yourself completely to God, refraining from fornication and adultery, you will be given your due position in one of the many mansions. Do not ever think that you will take your place among those who will follow the Lamb because it is said, “But they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.” They have never had any association or intimacy with men or women. They are holy both in the Spirit and in flesh, and they are without blemish, nor is any vestige of sin found in them.

We should learn from the life and examples of John the Baptist who neither married or kept any girl friends. He was never intimate with any woman nor did he commit fornication, but he was pure and holy to the end of his life. He did not eat anything except locust beans and honey. You will also recollect that Our Lord Jesus Christ, speaking to us today, was a handsome young man; and there were many beautiful women, but He did not marry and He did not keep concubines nor did He have intimacy with any woman. He came into the world to serve God as a full- time worker.

Whosoever puts his hand to the plough, and then looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. In the same token, no soldier who entangles himself with the affairs of this life can please the person or authority who enlisted him into the army. If you like to be angry about the Gospel, you can be angry, if you wish to be happy, be happy, but one thing is certain, and that is, the truth is always bitter but it endures forever.

Some people, after resolving that they want to serve God, soon begin to run from pillar to post with women, and they feel satisfied that I do not know what they do. I am telling you the truth, that is your kingdom, you can afford to do what you like because you are not one of those selected to follow the Lamb wheresoever He goes. If it were not so Our Lord Jesus Christ would not have said, “Whoever is unjust, let him be unjust still, and whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still, and he who is righteous, let him be righteous still, and he who is holy, let him be holy still, Behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” That is the condition in this kingdom. Whatever you sow the same thing shall you reap. You are not instructed not to commit any vice, and no person tells you what to do that is good. But those who are virgins they have their place and those who after listening to, and do comply with the Gospel and abstain from sex, have their own place and those who continue to fornicate and maintain intimacy with women and men also have their own place. There are sufficient places.

THIS GOSPEL WILL BE KEPT SPECIFICALLY FOR ALL THOSE WHO COME INTO BROTHERHOOD TO STRUGGLE FOR POSITIONS SO THAT EACH PERSON MAY KNOW HIS RELATIVE POSITION. WHETHER ONE’S POSITION IS AMONG THE VIRGINS OR AMONG THOSE WHO MARRY BUT HAVE DECIDED TO REMAIN LIKE THOSE WHO DO NOT MARRY, OR WHETHER ONE IS STILL INDULGING IN PROMISCUOUS SEXUAL INTERACTION. IT IS A COMMON PLACE KNOWLEDGE THAT MEMBERS OF BROTHERHOOD STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY OVER OTHERS. THE MEMBERS CONTINUE TO INQUIRE ABOUT THE HIGHEST POSITION IN THIS KINGDOM.

The prophets claim to be the highest hierarchy, the Pastors claim to be the highest and the Apostles also stake their claim to the headship of the hierarchical structure of the kingdom. Others who claim to be highest are the Christ’s students and the Christ’s Servants, BUT I WANT TO PUT IT TO YOU THAT THE HIGHEST POSITION IN THIS KINGDOM IS THAT OF A PERSON JUDGED TO BE WORTHY TO WALK WITH THE LAMB WHEREVER HE GOES, EAT WITH HIM AND DWELL WITH HIM ETERNALLY. THOSE WHO WILL FOLLOW HIM, WHEREVER HE GOES ARE THOSE ACCOUNTED WORTHY TO INHERIT THIS WORLD AND THE RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD, BECAUSE THEY NEITHER MARRY NOR ARE GIVEN IN MARRIAGE. THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN INTIMATE WITH MEN FROM THEIR BIRTH.

This year appears to be a very wonderful year, and even the kinds of Gospels delivered to you since the commencement of the Pentecostal have no comparison. The Gospels have revealed a very deep and recondite wisdom which has astounded the most erudite readers and opened the eyes of the ignorant. This is so since a great many of you have asked the question and you need an explanation of the difference between a married and unmarried person. This is because it is your thinking that both the married and the unmarried ones go on blessing, eat from the same plate and they do things alike, and so they are all the children of the Father. This is why some intended Brotherhood members are usually advised by their relations not to accept any position which forbids one from marrying a wife or a husband, but to remain in the congregation in order to marry, and be given in marriage, beget children, and build houses and win property because there is no difference in Brotherhood since the Father regards us all in the same way. Is it true that every person is equal in Brotherhood and everybody enjoys this kingdom in the same way? There is only one Love, and God loves every person in the same way. Whatever is your position, stay where you are. I cannot advice you to marry or not to marry, I cannot question you for the reason why you marry, or why you prostitute about. There are lots of positions and places in this kingdom and these places are categorized. You are free to occupy any one you like. It is said the dogs are found outside the gate of the city. Sorcerers, liars, drunkards, and the polygamists are also found outside the city but the same Father looks after them.

What is the benefit that a handsome young man derives from not marrying a wife, for not enjoying himself, and for not begetting children. Similarly what is the gain of a beautiful young woman for not marrying a husband, enjoying herself and bearing children; she is not even employed to get a house and a motor car? It is the answer to this question that we are going to tell you now. A great many people erroneously claim that every person is the same because they have bought cars, and they have built houses. I want to give you the answer to the question asked by many that they have not bought cars or built houses and that there is no difference between the members and the profit which is to accrue for those who have completely surrendered themselves to God in the service of the Father. Every person should be content with his own position. Our Golden Text will now be read.

GOLDEN TEXT: Revelation 14:4
“These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersover he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto the God and to the Lamb.”

Brethren, have you heard what is read unto you? Heaven and earth will pass away but not a jot of the words of God will pass away until all are consummated. It means that whosoever has not married or given in marriage, any person who is not intimate with a man or a woman is redeemed from this world, he is therefore not worldly but rather the Father’s. Those who have neither married nor are given in marriage, those who surrender themselves willingly to God, and they will follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes. They have no association with anything carnal. The result derived from somebody abstaining from attachment to a man or a woman is very obvious. For one thing, such a person who has kept his sanctity and purity will follow the Lamb wherever He goes. For another, he has no other interest apart from serving God. As an illustration, if you observe the structure of the government of the state, you will notice that there is the Governor at the apex and working in the office of the Governor there are officers of various ranks working in that office. Also, there are other officers of the Civil Service who work in other ministries or departments. The same system applies to those who work with the president or Prime Minister or the king, but those who are to be judged worthy to follow the Lamb wherever He goes are those who have never defiled themselves with men and women. Even though there are many people in the kingdom, but those who will follow the Lamb daily are those who are undefiled. You may ask why these are the only people who will follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Can you harvest yams from your farm and pack them into a house and then appoint a goat to watch over them? Even if the goat volunteers to render free services to you, if you are foolish enough to allow the goat to look after your yams, you will be sure of not getting any yams left for you. Similarly, can you collect all the goats into a house and you are so foolish to appoint a leopard to look after your goats? The same is true with those who will follow the Lamb wherever He goes, because they have no association with the world in the world, but they will render their services to God. They will go to Lagos, Britain, India, and many other places ministering unto the people but without being sexually intimate with any person. They do not segregate among men and women. But any person who is married will have his own concentration on men or women. If you send him to perform a certain duty in Lagos, he will remain there for a short time and when he sees a beautiful woman he will seduce the person and will eventually elope with her. He will refuse to drop the woman even if you shout at him to do so. From that moment the sheep in the Bethel will be scattered. A girl who has been intimate with men, if she goes on ministry to a Bethel, she will seduce a man even though she knows the man is married with a wife. No matter how strongly the wife tries to stop her from eloping with her husband, she will not succeed. That Bethel will scatter. If it is decided that she should be suspended for that act she will rather accept to be suspended than to leave the man. I really want you to discover the truth in this sermon.

WHENEVER THERE IS QUARRELING AND FIGHTING THERE IS FORNICATION AND ADULTERY; WHEREVER PEOPLE QUARREL, KNOW THAT THEY ARE STRUGGLING OVER MONEY SO THAT THEY CAN MAINTAIN THEIR FAMILIES, AND IN THE COURSE OF THEIR RIVALRY, TROUBLE ENSUES. That is why the group that will follow the Lamb are specially created virgins, for they have no intimacy with men or women. They have no interest in money or any other material things, for they are devoted to the Father, and they diligently work for the Father, serving Him both day and night. These persons are the first fruits redeemed from the earth, other fruits will also emerge, and it will be from the examples shown by the first fruits that the Spirit of fornication will be totally exterminated, and no person will ever be intimate with the another person of the opposite sex for like attracts like and so mankind will be reformed.

You have been exhorted not to commit fornication even among the heathens, and the people who are adept in fornication will declare that all churches are one and they will acclaim you as a good man of God. If you fornicate with any member of your congregation, other members will fall headlong since they have their eyes on such business. You only scatter the church by your immoral behavior. GOD CANNOT DWELL IN YOU AS LONG AS YOU CONTINUE TO FORNICATE.

However, those who are virgins are always with God, and they follow Our Lord Jesus Christ wherever He goes. They can go where they please and there will be no trouble, rather, every person will bow down unto them. You can notice that the wisdom of God has confounded the wisdom of man. You indicate your intention to go to war but you have not prepared for it. You have not been enlisted, you have no army uniforms, army boots, and guns, with what then will you fight? It does not consist in fasting for one month, and then during the second month you become intimate with all the women who come across your way. This amounts to your licking what you had vomited.

So, brethren, you can notice that those who will serve with Our Lord Jesus Christ and follow Him wherever He goes, day in and day out, are the virgins. If Christ dwells in you, that Spirit of God dwells in you, and God Himself dwells in you. Since the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of The Father dwells in you, they can through you work day and night without being fatigued. If you fire a gun at them they are not perturbed.

The Spirit of God has no problem with people’s wives and husbands; they have no association with food, money, land, or any other mundane things. The devotion of those that God dwells in is to serve God and project His glorification. Because He walks with them and they walk with Him wherever they go, Our Lord Jesus Christ will follow them. He sits and walks with them, and he also works with them. They are therefore instruments so that wherever they go the Father does His work, even the Gospel they deliver will divest you of all the vestiges of sin in you. The work has not started in earnest because every place is inundated with fornicators but what I want to do is to change the vile and corruptible body and plant an incorruptible and immortal body because if you no more commit fornication all those who come in contact with you will refrain completely from fornication because light attracts light.

This is not an easy job, every man’s hand must be on deck, it does not require any joke at all. It does not require any raising of hands or selection of persons, because the Father has already selected His elects. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, “And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” Those who have sanctified themselves unto God, those who neither marry nor are given in marriage, do so, in order to use the truth to sanctify the whole world unto God. But those who marry and are given in marriage are like guns loaded with powder, but they are without bullets, when you fire the gun, it booms but since there are no bullets you cannot kill any animal.

When you are preaching, a woman is staring at your face, and she would give you certain signs and also give you amorous looks, and if you respond, the action will indicate to her that you are one of them, you belong to her group. Since she has made her kill, she will no longer listen to what you are preaching, she will be so mesmerized, and she will pray that the service should end so that she takes you home for the first deal.

This Gospel is very controversial, if you take courage to preach that people should not commit fornication, every person will be against you, and if you are a man, the women in the congregation will devise all means to be intimate with you, and as soon as you yield to their temptation and you fall, they will tell others you are one of them. From that time onwards you will no longer preach against fornication because you will begin to change the tempo of your preaching and you begin to emphasize the fact that we are now saved by grace. If you are a woman, men will tempt you as they will bring money to you, while others will want to buy a car for you and keep making these proposals until they have a chance to have sex with you, then they will turn round and ask why you have turned against your words.

To preach to people to refrain from theft, lying, anger, is a simple Gospel, but to preach that they should not fornicate, you will not sleep that night and every member will set a trap for your downfall. When you fall they will draw your attention to your words. These women will pretend to be serving God by washing your clothes and preparing food for you, sweeping and dusting your house, but shortly, they will turn around and tempt you, because such women are full of temptations. One day, under their false pretenses, they will tempt you to commit fornication with them. When they see that you have fallen, they will go their way. The most astonishing thing is that they do it so openly that others will notice it. Their aim is just to show you that they do it deliberately.

You may be preaching at the alter and she will openly make signs to you to stop preaching and follow her home because the audience does not understand the Gospel of God. Realizing that what they do is known by others they do not even do it covertly, they are so open and so shameless, they can do it in even in the market.

It is a common knowledge that once you are intimate with a woman, or a man, that indication will be noticed by many people, even the blind will know it and this will lead to the down fall of the Bethel. As Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden for the sin of being intimate with each other, so are you expelled from the boat of salvation and you have fallen headlong from the throne of God for being intimate with a man or a woman.

Whoever is not married but remains a virgin in the throne of God, in the Garden of Eden, wherever such a person goes, everything will bow down for him and wherever he enters, will be quiet, and men of all walks of life whether they are lawyers, doctors, engineers, millionaires or philosophers will submit to him.

Brethren, I do not intend to be tedious unto you. One stroke of the cane is sufficient for the wise. Let those who have ears to hear, hear. ay God bless His Holy Words. Amen. THANK YOU FATHER.

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