We are very humbled to be with you
tonight.
I have looked forward to this moment for
a long time.
About ten years ago, somebody sent me two
tapes of Brother Irma O.
Stiggins' preaching.
After the first tape, I was in my
office and I sat back in my chair
and I said, this man knows God.
I listened to the second tape.
I called my secretary in my office.
I said, who are these people?
I said, I want you to immediately call
them and send me every tape he made.
I got a box.
I started listening.
You know a man's heart by his preaching.
And when I came to the property here
today, I was not, I'm never impressed with
buildings, though we thank God for buildings.
There was one thing I wanted to know
when I came on the property.
God, will I sense the presence of Jesus?
God, right inside the gate, Jesus filled my
heart.
Jesus is here.
Brother Stiggins, thank you for inviting me.
And I look forward tomorrow to hearing you
preach again.
You will fire my soul and the soul
of everybody that comes.
I'm honored to have my son preach with
me.
If you read the Cross and Switchblade.
If you read my book, the Cross and
Switchblade.
My wife was expecting a child while I
was working with gangs in New York City.
She was about to deliver.
And she called me and said, please come
home, I need you.
We live way out in the country, about
300 or 200 kilometers away.
I pastored a little small church in a
small town.
But God had called me to walk on
the streets and work with gangs and drug
addicts.
I said, honey, I can't come home right
now.
I met a drug addict, a boy on
the street.
He was homeless and he had no shoes.
I said, I invited him to stay with
the pastor's house with me tonight.
I said, we'll just trust the Lord.
You know, I love you, but I can't
leave this boy because he's going to be
lost.
When I hung up the phone, I put
my head on the table.
And I said, I might as well go
home.
I might as well go home.
I've been preaching this boy for hours and
he doesn't want to hear.
And I just had my head on the
desk.
And this boy said, what's wrong with you,
preacher?
I said, I've been walking the streets preaching
to guys like you.
You don't want to hear.
I might as well go home.
I told him about my wife.
She's going to be in the hospital soon.
She's expecting a baby and I should be
with her.
He said, what do you want, a boy
or a girl?
God had already determined what it would be.
He said, I will make a deal with
you.
He said, if you want a boy.
I said, I want a son.
I have two daughters.
I want a son.
He said, if God gives you a son,
I'll give my heart to Jesus.
I said, God doesn't make deals.
He said, that's it.
You have to get a boy.
Then Jesus gets me.
It was a boy that night.
God blessed me with a boy.
His name is Gary.
He'll be preaching to you tomorrow.
God is faithful.
I came to bring the word of the
Lord to you.
I want you please to turn to Jeremiah.
33rd chapter.
If you plan to be here tomorrow, you
must bring your Bible.
This is a Bible church.
This is a Bible place.
I want to talk to you about ministry
to the Lord.
Beginning at verse 19, Jeremiah 33.
I want to show you a covenant God
has made to us.
It's a dual, double covenant.
Verse 19.
I'll read it and then you can go.
And the word of the Lord came unto
Jeremiah saying, Thus saith the Lord, If you
can break the covenant of the day and
my covenant of the night, That there should
not be day or night in their season,
Then may also my covenant be broken with
David my servant, That he should not have
a son to reign upon his throne.
And with the Levites the priests my ministers.
Verse 22.
As the host of heaven cannot be numbered,
Neither the sand of the sea measured, So
will I multiply the seed of David my
servant.
Now that's the first part of the covenant.
And the second part of the covenant.
And the Levites that minister unto me.
Verse 23.
My God anoint me tonight.
Pray.
My God anoint me tonight.
Touch my lips.
Come now Holy Spirit.
Touch every heart.
Give us ears to hear.
Give us a heart that is open.
Change me as I preach.
Change us all as we hear.
I have your word.
Give us now the full blessing of the
gospel.
In the name of Christ our Lord, Amen.
Everywhere we go around the world we find
discouraged pastors.
In one country recently, we were told by
the pastors who gathered, so many evangelical pastors
were leaving the ministry.
Tired and weary and worn out.
In one of our conferences, 1,500 ministers
were present.
And I asked this question.
How many of you expected to leave the
ministry after this conference?
I said I want you to stand and
come forward for prayer.
And out of 1,500 pastors, over 250
came for prayer that they were leaving the
ministry.
And everywhere I go, I ask bishops and
I ask leaders.
What's going on with your brothers?
What's going on in the ministry in your
country?
Why are the pastors so discouraged?
Why are so many leaving the ministry?
I get all kinds of answers.
Sometimes they say it's pornography, it's the internet,
it's culture.
I get every conceivable kind of excuse as
to why men are leaving the pulpit.
I'm not asking that question anymore.
If you're here tonight and you're discouraged and
you're downhearted and thinking of quitting the ministry,
it would do me no good to have
a half an hour with you and try
to find the reason.
If you're a man or woman of God
and you've been called, if I'm a praying
man, and if God has sent me here,
and if I have a word from God,
I don't need any other reason.
The Holy Ghost has to take the word
and speak to your heart and to mine.
I don't want to be perplexed about why
people are discouraged and downhearted.
This one thing I know, there's never been
a generation that has so needed men of
God in the pulpit.
We have out-sinned Sodom 25 years ago.
And all over the world, people are calling
for answers.
Our church people are hungry.
Never have we so needed men and women
of prayer and men of God in the
pulpit with the word from heaven.
When 9-11 hit New York City, for
the next three to six months, the churches
were packed.
People wanted answers.
Was it the devil that attacked the United
States?
Was it just happenstance?
Was it just something that happened?
One preacher was preaching a series of messages.
On morality.
And the day after this attack, his announced
subject was sexuality and Christianity.
A church is packed.
This is a Pentecostal church.
And the church is packed.
And everybody that came, they're in tears.
They're full of fear.
And the pastor gets up and announces, we
continue our subject on morality and we speak
on sex today.
All over the United States, people got up
right in the middle of the service.
Some interrupted the preaching.
Pastor, what's happening?
What's this all about?
And there weren't many pastors.
Had any answers at all.
Six months after 6-11, or 9-11.
The New York Times did a survey.
Because less people are going to church after,
six months after, than before.
And this was the question that was asked.
Why did you quit going to church?
And these were the answers.
There was no life.
There was no death.
No pastor could give us answers.
One man said there was not one thing
in the service.
This was a young person.
They gave me not one reason.
Well, I should never go back to church
again.
I want to take you to the Bible
and prove something.
God has made us a covenant promise.
Half of that promise has been fulfilled.
The other half is in the process of
being fulfilled.
We have just read it to you.
In those days and at that time, I
will cause the righteous branch of David to
spring forth.
He shall execute justice and righteousness.
That's in Jeremiah 33.
To save time, let me paraphrase it.
God said, if you can break my covenant
of night and the day, you wake up
one day, there's no more day, there's just
night.
Then you can tell me that I can
break my covenant.
The first part of that covenant has been
fulfilled.
Jesus came to fulfill that first part of
the covenant.
His name shall be called righteousness.
The incarnate Christ was the fulfillment of that
prophecy.
Here's the other side of the promise.
There shall never be a time that there
shall not be a Levite priest ministering to
me.
As long as there's day and night, I
will have pastors who minister to me.
In spite of the backsliding, in spite of
the conditions of Sodom, I already kept half
of my covenant and I promise you that
I'll make a covenant with you as long
as there's day and night.
I will have a priesthood to my own
heart.
In spite of so many that are quitting,
so many going toward the world, God is
still raising up a Levitical priesthood.
Now I want to talk to you about
two streams.
Ezekiel the prophet prophesied in the last days
there'll be two kinds of congregations, there'll be
two kinds of preachers, two kinds of ministers,
there will be those who minister to me,
he said, and there will be others who
are full of abomination.
In Ezekiel 40 to chapter 44, Ezekiel has
a vision of a great temple that is
going to be built.
If you're a pastor, you've read it many
times.
That cannot be a physical tabernacle or temple
because it stretches over lands and seas and
mountains.
He's talking about the church of the last
days.
He sees the church has no boundaries and
the glory of the Lord, he said, is
coming down on that house.
I read the very words.
You don't need to turn.
I'll repeat.
The glory of the Lord filled the house
of the Lord and I fell on my
face.
He said there will be glory of God
in the last days.
But Ezekiel saw a strange horrifying sight.
In spite of the glory, a rebellious priesthood
came forth.
The Levitical priesthood was to guard the gates
of the tabernacle.
They were to cleanse it.
They were to repair it.
No stranger was allowed in.
No abomination was allowed in.
Nothing of heathenism or idolatry was allowed in.
But he said, look at the gates.
He commands this prophet.
Look at the entrances of the gate.
Please go to Ezekiel 44, if you will,
please.
And I want you to look at verses
5 and 7.
The Lord said unto me, son of man,
mark well and behold with your eyes and
hear with your ears all that I say
unto you concerning the ordinance of the house
of the Lord and the laws thereof.
Mark well the entering in of the house
with every going forth of the sanctuary and
you brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in
heart, uncircumcised in flesh, to bear witness to
be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even
my house.
When you offer my bread, the fat and
the blood, they have broken my covenant because
of their abominations.
Now, I don't know how the Hebrew is
interpreted in your particular Bible.
Now, I don't know how the Hebrew is
interpreted in your particular Bible.
Look up here now.
Is Ezekiel being warned by God?
You're going to see now, he said, what's
happening in my house.
There's risen up now a priesthood that is
ministering to the people's idolatry.
He said, look at the gates.
They're supposed to be guarded.
Pastor, let me tell you something.
God has called you to guard the gates
of your church.
Nobody ever speaks at our church until we
listen to at least two tapes.
We make calls and we check it up.
As a pastor, it's my responsibility not to
ever let a wolf come into the congregation.
When I went to New York City and
the church began to be packed with people,
from the very first I made my congregation
a promise.
I said, God helping me, I will never
allow anyone with false doctrine in this pulpit.
I will never let anybody come in here
with this message of adultery or fornication.
There will be no wolves come to tear
you apart.
And I kept that promise.
But for one exception.
There was a young preacher I once knew.
Righteous, powerful young man.
He could sing and he could preach.
I didn't know his heart had changed.
I didn't check him out.
I wasn't guarding the gate.
I invited him for a service.
As soon as he got up, sang his
first song, I knew he was in the
flesh.
He was trying to create something in the
flesh.
And I jumped up.
I went to the pulpit.
I said, I want you to sit down.
I said, I'm sorry.
But you were in the flesh.
I don't want to embarrass you.
But you were not the man I knew.
And I didn't know his people had put
t-shirts for sale outside that had demonic
pictures on them.
And I asked him, my sister scored him
out.
And I bobbed my head on the pulpit.
And I began to weep.
And I apologized.
I said, I've sinned against God and I've
sinned against you.
Let me tell you what America exports.
Coca-Cola and false doctrine.
And it shocks me.
And I don't understand.
Pastors are supposed to be men of God.
They allow these preachers from other countries to
come in.
And I'll tell you when you can tell
when they're false.
They're going to ask you for money.
Money is the number one thing.
And they're going to tell you you're going
to be a great evangelist.
You're going to be mighty.
They prophesied nothing but good.
You know what the prophet said?
If they were my servants.
If they were my pastors.
They would show the people the difference between
the profane and the holy.
Any man who won't preach about profanity and
show you the difference between what is holy
and what is unclean.
He's not a God.
He's in the flesh.
You see, if you look at the gates.
Look what they're letting into the church.
In the United States.
They illustrate their sermons in many big churches
now.
A big screen.
And they take excerpts out of that to
illustrate their sermons.
Some of those movies are filthy, full of
cursing and God hatred.
Now, I don't know what you expected to
hear.
But I'm telling you.
There are two kinds of preachers here.
Now folks, I'm 73 years old.
I don't have anything to prove anymore.
I have a church to go to preach
to.
And I don't like to travel.
I'm going to have to travel.
But God arranged this time.
And he wants to speak to our heart.
You're one of two kinds of preachers.
And you pastor one of two kinds of
churches.
Now, if you'll be patient with me.
Let me take you I have to give
you a foundation.
Of these two priesthoods.
The Abiathar priesthood and the Zadok priesthood.
Do you remember the story in 1 Samuel?
An unknown prophet comes to Eli.
He said to Eli.
You've been disobedient to the Lord's commandment.
You've honored yourself and your sons above God.
God made you a promise.
A long lasting, everlasting ministry.
But not so now.
Because you've been disobedient.
There shall not be an old man in
your house.
Every man in your lineage will die at
a young age.
Your sons Hoffnai and Phineas are going to
die soon.
Then he made a strange prophecy.
He says the one that I shall not
cast out shall consume your eyes with grief.
He said There will always be your kind.
I'm not going to wipe your kind of
ministry off the map.
There will always be one of your kind.
There will always be this kind of preacher.
Who's afraid of reproof.
Compromiser.
Taking the spoil of the poor to himself.
You always have your kind.
Your challenge You skip later to the days
of Saul.
King Saul.
You remember that he asked Doeg to kill
85 priests from Nob.
These were all sons and grandsons of Eli.
And what does the Bible say?
And Abiathar escaped.
Just as the prophet prophesied.
One shall escape.
One of your kind.
David adopts him.
When David comes to the throne he has
two priests.
Abiathar and Zadok.
Zadok is the Aaron priesthood.
Abiathar is the Eli priesthood.
And for a long time they seem to
be equally anointed.
When Absalom rises up in rebellion against his
father both Abiathar and Jacob are faithful to
him.
You can't tell what's in this man's heart
yet.
I know preachers who preach for an anointing
for years.
They prayed for a season.
They were successful.
But there was a controversy with God that
was never settled.
There was a sin that never was yielded.
Please hear me.
It's usually one thing one besetting sin that
has never been settled and keeps us from
the full blessing of God.
Something that God has spoken about time and
time again.
I'm sure God was dealing by his spirit
with Abiathar.
Jesus hears a type of or David hears
a type of Christ in his kingdom, the
coming kingdom of Christ.
But this thing in Abiathar is finally exposed.
Adonijah, one of David's sons takes authority, tries
to take authority.
Joab joins his rebellion.
And a group of egotistical men follow
Adonijah to a place called the stone of
Zoheleth.
In Hebrew, it's the stone of the serpent.
And they gather there to take the kingdom.
There's not a holy man in their midst.
Nathan was not invited.
Zadok was not invited.
Do you know what Adonijah means in Hebrew?
Success and prosperity.
Are you getting the picture?
I said, are you getting a picture of
an Abiathar priesthood?
And that priesthood is with us today.
Never reprove the congregation.
We have a gospel in the United States.
They call it seeker friendly.
I call it sinner appeasement.
I do not condemn these men.
But I see something in the United States
that must grieve the heart of God.
With pastors of churches of 10, 20, and
30,000.
And they are saying we do not reprove
in this church.
People have too many problems.
People are hurting so much.
Nothing negative.
Just psychological self-help.
They don't call it that, but that is
what it is.
A young singer, a young lady who sings
under the anointing called our office.
She was invited to sing in one of
these churches.
10,000 people.
She is spirit filled.
Godly.
While she was singing, the conviction of the
Holy Spirit fell on the whole audience.
She just began to talk about the need
to get right with God.
She sang another song.
People started weeping all over the congregation.
She said if you really are hungry, you
want your life changed, just come here and
kneel.
The leadership was angry.
They called a meeting the next day.
The pastor stood before his staff.
Never again, he said.
Will we allow this to happen in this
church?
We are not here to offend people.
My Bible says the cross of Jesus Christ
is an offense.
When Solomon came to the throne, you know
what he did?
He has Joab slain.
Then he calls Abiathar the priest.
Let me read to you what Solomon said
to him.
You don't have to turn there because it
will take too much time.
You can mark it down.
It is 1 Kings 2.
And unto Abiathar the priest, this is verse
26 and 27.
I will read one verse and then you
read one verse.
And unto Abiathar the priest, Solomon said, Go
to Anathoth, to your own fields, you are
worthy of death.
But I will not at this time put
thee to death because you bear the ark
of the Lord God before David my father
and because thou hast been afflicted in all
things my father was afflicted.
Listen to this now.
Verse 27.
So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest
unto the Lord that he might fulfill the
word of the Lord which he spake concerning
the house of Eli in Shiloh.
I want you to go to Ezekiel 44
please.
God said to Ezekiel There is no priesthood
that keep my sanctuary, charge of my sanctuary
uncircumcised in flesh.
If you go to verse 10 Ezekiel 44
I will read it in English and you
read it in your own language.
The Levites that have gone far from me
when Israel went astray I'll read the whole
thing.
They went astray after their idols they shall
bear their iniquity yet they shall be ministers
in my sanctuary having charge at the gates
of the house ministering to the house they
shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice
for the people they shall stand before them
to minister to them because they ministered unto
them before their idols caused the house of
Israel to fall into iniquity therefore I have
lifted up my hand against them saith the
Lord they shall bear their iniquity.
I will
read
it in English and you read it in
your own language Now get the picture please
God says they're uncircumcised priests they're leading my
people astray they are men with transgression in
their hearts and they are preaching death in
essence is what he's saying in my King
James Bible it says this they shall not
come near to me to do the office
of a priest they shall not come near
any of my holy things they're going to
bear their shame for the abominations they've committed
but listen to this but I will make
them keepers of the charge of the house
for all the service they're of and for
all that shall be done there but I
have wondered at times when ministers of the
gospel even some that are living in open
sin I know some in my mind now
they've left their wives and married younger women
but in one church in particular 15,000
people the people say we love him too
much let's just forget it he still pastors
the church without any correction and here's what
God told the prophet even though they are
uncircumcised in their flesh I shall appoint them
to minister to the people in the house
they won't come to me I am not
with them they will go through the sacrifices
can you get the picture please men who
are living in sin ministering to the people
with unclean hands impure hearts and the people
don't know the difference nobody knows he comes
around and looks like a holy man and
God said they shall not come near me
there's nothing holy about them they shall bear
their shame what is their shame what is
the iniquity of a man like this what
is the shame and the iniquity that God
passes down upon a man who compromises it
is the worst tragedy that can ever happen
to a man of God and it's happening
all over the world right now when the
presence of God is lifted when the Holy
Ghost is gone and there's nothing left but
death God says I'm not going with you
I've had people come to me and they
say why does God allow such and such
a pastor who is so blatantly sinful why
doesn't God deal with them this is the
answer it's a Biathar priesthood God said there
will always be that kind let me tell
you if you want to know if you're
that kind of a priest it's when you've
been under the glory of God for so
long and you've heard a thousand sermons and
for about 500 sermons you were convicted now
you can sit in a meeting like this
and be unmoved and untouched no matter who
would come to this Pope you can hear
Brother Stig and sit there there's no Holy
Ghost anguish there's no hardness of heart and
God will allow you to stay in your
pulpit but every holy person in that church
is going to leave you and every holy
person is going to be replaced with somebody
that has idols in their heart God said
they will minister to their idols and I've
visited churches just like that just sitting in
the congregation and have to get up and
run out because it's Ichabod but there's good
message there's a good word there's another priesthood
the Zadok priesthood verse 15 Ezekiel 44 but
the priests, the Levites the sons of Zadok
that kept the charge of my sanctuary when
the children of Israel went astray from me
they shall come near to me to minister
to me they shall stand before me to
offer to me the fat and the blood
they shall enter into my sanctuary they shall
come near to my table they will minister
to me they will keep my charge do
you remember the covenant we've talked about as
we started the message and I'm bringing this
message soon to a close he said I
make you a covenant I will always have
before me I will always have before me
those who minister to me this priesthood as
long as there is sunlight and there is
daylight and night time I assure you I
promise you I will have this priesthood and
the Bible says in verse 18 verse 18
they will wear linen and they shall gird
themselves they shall not gird themselves with anything
that causes sweat please
look this way the man who prays the
sister who is shut in with God the
one that gives him the fat and the
blood the blood represents life the life is
in the blood this Zadok priesthood they have
given him everything the best of their time
they don't give the congregation the best of
the time I told the congregation when I
went to New York City do you want
me just to be your buddy your friend
you want me just make you happy and
socialize with you or do you want me
to go and pray and seek the face
of God and stand in this pulpit and
convict your kids of sin and keep your
marriage together you see the Lord Jesus their
God says they're going to come to me
minister to me and give me the blood
and they're going to give me the fat
the fat represents the best of everything and
it's the fat that intensifies the fire the
fat helped consume totally every part of the
sacrifice he said and I'm going to have
a clean holy priesthood that bring me the
blood and the fat and that blood that
is given laid on the sacrifice I will
never retire to burn brighter and I'm asking
God at 73 years of age I will
never retire I will never quit I will
never give up I want him to keep
calling me to the mountain of prayer that
intensifies the fire and I want to put
fat down on the altar that intensifies the
fire and burns out the pride the need
to be recognized consume my roving eyes consume
everything that is unlike Jesus consume the besetting
sins I want to give him everything are
you of the Zadok priesthood if you are
then even now even as I speak the
Holy Spirit is at work in your heart
such a loving father and how he loves
his servants if I wasn't convinced of God's
love for me I couldn't preach and
this message tonight was not to put you
down but to show you what's happening today
and a loving warning from the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit come and speak to our hearts
there's not a man or woman here that
you don't love you love everyone in this
place with a passion and we've come to
renew our passion for Christ oh Jesus forgive
me for the lack of faith that I
have sometimes the doubts that flood in my
heart oh God take out of me everything
unlike you cleanse me sanctify my heart
God cleanse your ministry we heard pastor tell
us that before we started the service get
rid of the dung let the Holy Ghost
cleanse us if we'd obey you our best
days will be ahead and we will be
at your table ministering to you dear friends
we have heard about two different kinds of
priesthoods I think all of
us are so to say priests all
busy in the ministry God has challenged us
to know tonight what kind of a preacher
am I what kind of priests are
we with clean lips hands
and hearts shall
we pray once again we would like to
see ourselves in the light
of eternity in the light of
God's presence in the light
of your Holy Word and God's Holy
Spirit Lord God
has told us that you had told him
that God is light and
that there is no darkness in him whatsoever
we thank you for the light that has
shone this evening may it shine brightly
right through the night and tomorrow as well
a light a light that brings everything to
light and that covers nothing
and that cannot hide anything from your sight
that we may
be on the right side of the right
priesthood with
Paul we'd like to say Lord we wouldn't
like to run the race and at the
end find that we are disqualified may
we be men and women of God acceptable
to you may
we be men and women of God may
we be descendants of the devil that every
knee and every neck shall bow and
confess Jesus as Lord Amen