Baptism #5

May 1, 1983

 

	You know, at the graveside of Lazarus it was said, “Well, you
weren’t here and he died, but now that you are here, anything can
happen.”

	And that’s the way it is today. Jesus is here. Why do we sing it,
“Jesus You’re here, all things are possible, now that You are
here”? Because the dead will be raised now. We are not fooling
anymore, brother/sister. And I realize that I can be talking to a people
here of which everyone believes as much as I believe. And you must
forgive me, but I am so skeptical in this hour of people believing the
Message and believing that God is here and believing what He is here
for. 

	That has become ultra-personal with me not to exclude anybody else. But
I want you to know that I'm not fooling. I believe that He is here, and
I believe this is the hour of the Resurrection. It hasn’t got a thing
to do with me. I never asked Him to come; I didn’t ask Him to stay
away. I didn’t ask Him at all.

	Like Mary and Martha, things were going on. They didn’t know how
things were going to turn out. But one day Lazarus died, and the word
came and said “Well now, if you had been here he hadn’t a died.”

	And that was true, he wouldn’t have died. And I'm going to tell you,
that is exactly the way it is here, we are not going to die. This
isn’t the false hope, brother/sister, this is the Word. It doesn’t
have a thing to do with your emotions. It doesn’t have a thing to do
with your faith. Let’s understand that. Your faith is only dependant
upon the fact that it is--God has done something, and this is His
Presence, and It has been revealed to you. You didn’t have a thing to
do with it, and you don’t have a thing to do with it.

	Let’s sing, “Jesus. You’re here, all things are possible, now
that You’re here.”

	Jesus, You’re here.

	Jesus, You’re here.

	All things are possible now that you’re here.

	Jesus, You’re here.

	Jesus, You’re here.

	All things are possible now that You’re here.

	Heavenly Father, we’re absolutely right in what we’re singing. We
know that You’re here; we know that You’re here; we know that
You’re here. And we shall not die but live. Oh God, and those that are
dead and passed on, they shall live and be in the presence of the Holy
God, and we shall then rise into the arms, Lord, and be there in the
incarnation, when we crown You King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You're
King already. You’re Lord already, and just about high time that
people realized it--begin knowing the things of Almighty God.

	Father God, we’re so grateful to you. We don’t have one thing of
ourselves, Lord, and never hope to have one things of ourselves, but we
hope to have all things of You, oh God. Taken right back to the very
beginning, then all things with You, joint heirs with Jesus Christ,
rulership divine. All these things, oh God, because of You and because
Your promises, and we accept them, not because of anything we have or
ever hope to be in ourselves, but we accept them by grace, by
understanding, Lord. 

	And in this last hour that the promises have come into manifestation,
Lord, we are so happy for that. We thank You and just pray, oh God, that
mercy and grace, which has been revealed, shall not be spurned or shall
be set aside in some low degree, but, as the prophet said, Your
Presence, You being here, how we ought to be prostrated at Your feet
even now. It’s a wonder, Lord, we don’t try, as it were, almost
crawling under the rug, but, Lord, that would be getting away from You,
trying to, and that’s not the position we are in, but it’s one
really of adoration and worship and praise unto the majesty and glory of
Him Who is worthy.

	So, Father, we commend ourselves to You, and we’re just so thankful
for everything--so grateful to You, Lord. We praise You now. May
whatever Word come forth, Lord, be anointed of You, be blessed, oh God,
be a reality to us, no matter what is said and what is done, Lord. May
it also take on the proportions of the depth of reality it ought to,
Lord. 

	We know day by day, every single thing ought to be coming more and more
and more into the positive, so there isn’t one thing that was ever
said or done for this age but has culminated now into the seed factor
and should be absolutely more glorious and wonderful than ever before
us. The prophets said if there was a glory back there in the days of
Luther, and there’s a glory there in the days of Moses, there's a
glory now that is not going to fade away. It won't because immortality
is here on the scene. And we thank You, Lord, for this hour. Just
undertake for us now, whatever the needs may be. We carefully give You
the praise in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

	You may be seated.

1.	Now, time goes on and we see the goodness of the Lord. I’m, not
constantly, but every now and then I get letters and phone calls, and it
seems that today, what we hold so dear over here, the presence of the
Lord, is sweeping Africa. Everything in front of it the people are
believing. It’s gone into Germany. A brother has taken many tapes over
there and the people are believing, I guess. He mentions two hundred
himself. And he’s preached fifty-five messages taken from what has
gone out.

	We find that people are believing. There's other places, though, where
the strength of men is so strong that they are turning It down, and they
will turn It down because, let’s face it, if It’s true It’s got to
be crucified unto themselves. There's no two ways about it. So, we are
very grateful for what the Lord is doing; however, we are not at all
unaware of Satan’s devices, and, you know, there's certain people
might wonder why at this particular time I’m led a certain way to do
certain things, to say certain things, but that’s because we are
getting older in the Lord. We are getting wiser in Him. We are not
unaware of the wiles of the devil, but also we are aware of the things
of God and how God would have us to deal. So, it’s just kind of round
about way of introducing the thought... 

2.	We are not going to have a meeting this July. I told you I was very
hesitant, but there is no way that I would have a meeting at this
particular time, because the enemy would like to overbalance us by
getting us a little bit too dogmatic, a little bit too offensive in the
sense of taking the offensive way of battle. Now I believe in defending
ourselves where we stand. I believe in standing up for ourselves. If
Paul and Barnabus could have a donnybrook over a personality called John
Mark, let me tell you, I’m ready for a donnybrook over the Word of
God. But I don’t believe that we should attempt go and to press
anything, and I believe any meeting we would have would have a little
edge to it which I don’t want. I'm not interested in any edges. We are
not here for that purpose. We believe the Word. We believe that Word is
going to be manifested in the Bride. So, we just want to leave the
meeting alone. 

	Again we are not at all unaware of the wiles of the enemy. You know,
let’s face it, you say “Well, this Word, the understanding is
catching on.” 

	Look, we could be wrong. I don’t believe we are wrong for one minute,
but if we are wrong, it simply means to shove some people to one side,
but don’t... There’ll be a Bride down that road there somewhere. You
see?

3.	But I believe we are right. You can’t tell me that the prophet
stood up there, and he said these words: [Anointed Ones at the End Time,
p269]

Now, I want you to know this is sure. And you that listen to this tape,
you might have thought today that I was trying to say that about myself,
being that I was packing this Message. I have no more to do with it than
nothing, no more than just a voice. And my voice, even against my better
judgment... I wanted to be a trapper (a skunk skinner). But it's the
will of my Father that I declare to do, and determined to do. I wasn't
the One that appeared down on the river; I was only standing there when
He appeared. (Now, that’s what he meant. He said it or didn’t he?
Either the man is a liar or he is telling the truth.) I'm not the One
that performs these things and foretells these things that happens as
perfect as they are; I'm only one that's near when He does it.

	Now, how near can you be [get?]? I mean, that’s what the prophet
said. So we believe that, but we don’t get ourselves all carried away
and enter into areas where we think we have anything to give anybody, or
any leadership qualities. I’ve taken myself away from that, I’ve
gone off the field more and more and more, for that very idea. Lhe
people talk all they want. I don’t care if they’re near or far, they
can say anything they want. They can say what they want. There's a day
coming down the road that’s going to prove who’s right. I’m going
to be one of those in the Rapture, brother/sister. I stand with that.

	Now people say, “Well, hey, how do you know?”

	I walk and I talk with Him, that’s enough. You’ve got to know for
yourself, brother/sister. You’ve got to know for yourself. I tell you,
people think we’re crazy. That’s right. We’ve lost our mind.
We’ve got the right mind now. People think we are beside ourselves
because we talk with a passion and with a sense of security and
knowledge we didn’t have before. 

5.	Let’s face it, you never heard me preach like this two years ago.
There's no way. You hardly hear me preach like I preach today with
conviction either. That conviction won't change. There's no way, because
I believe in the God who convicts and give the conviction. See, this is
all there is to it. I don’t have a thing to do with it. I don’t
stand on my word; I stand on His Word. I don’t stand on anything I
preformed, I’ll never come and say, “Lord in my hands I’ve done
this and I’ve done that” --I’ve done nothing. But I received a
revelation.

	See? Let’s face it: once there was a time that He said. “Let there
be light,” but light came, was no longer Word. It’s reality. You
know, people talk about the Logos as though It were just a book thing,
but let me tell you, the Logos is He, and He’s here. See? We’re not
this... These are the truths, these are the things that count. If He’s
not here, how are you going to get there? You tell me you are going to
pull yourself by your bootstraps? You’re going to get the dead out?
You can’t make a move ‘til the dead come out. Who’s going to get
those dead out?

6.	He comes down, sets Himself as head of the church in order to raise
the dead. These are the things of God we believe in. So, we stand on the
things that we preach. We go over them and over and over them. Why?
Because in the certain telling, the repetitive telling, there comes a
time when it gets a hold of you. See? That’s what it is. This whole
Bible, you could literally take this Bible for what the intrinsic truth
of this Bible is. I believe you could reduce It down to just a very few
pages. But It is told over and over and over and over again, because
some won’t get it one way, they get it another way. 

	That is, I talk now concerning the fact of the use of language that
penetrates the understanding; the Holy Spirit can use their
understanding, use of those words. But it’s like a book of repetition.
Why didn’t He just say it once, “I am God and there is none other
beside Me?” Why does he say it more than one time? Why does he say the
things repetitively? Because It has to be repeated in order that God
might anoint It. A man doesn’t just sow one seed out there for a crop.
He sows many seeds. See? 

7.	It’s like casting bread upon the water, casting seed. You don’t
know just what one God is going to prosper, but God is going to prosper.
So, often times we take repetitive, we take repetitive attitudes or the
way of teaching, because we want you to know certain things, and as it
comes to you more and more, you’ll find that those things becomes so
great, until literally, you aren’t in control, but they’re in
control of you, see?

	I’m not in Pentecost, brother/sister, to work anything up. Believe
me, I stand here and tell you, and I lie not to you. I care two cents
about myself, because I know one thing, He said so. See? Ah, there’s a
difference. Oh yes, there is a difference. Don’t you ever fool
yourself, there is a difference. We’re at the end of the time. Oh yes.

	Headship is here, brother/sister. People don’t want to believe in
headship. They want to believe in something else. We believe in the
living God that’s come down. We believe that around Him that headship,
Holy Spirit, is the super, super race. You bet! Because they’re not
going to die. It’s not a matter of grace that they have. It’s a
grace that has been imparted, imputed to them. We believe that.

8.	All right. We are going to talk some more today, I suppose finally,
about water baptism. This is really sermon number five, but it is
actually message number four, because we had to cut one and two. Now, so
we have already taken three complete messages and four preaching sermons
on water baptism. And in this one, we’re just going to consider,
hopefully, important facets, or some of the facets we’ve gone over,
and perhaps even add as we have an opportunity or feel we might be led
to do so.

	Now, to begin with, we noted that water baptism by some has been, one:
designated irrelevant, to the new birth. It’s been designated as
simply irrelevant--put to a place that is very inferior to what it
really should be. Number two: it has been improperly performed, and I
suppose that is one of the greatest sins of all, it’s improperly
performed. And number three: there have are some people over the years
who have given a far greater importance and impact or significance to
it, than what it really holds. In other words, number one: it’s been
made of too little importance. Number two: it’s been made too great
importance. Number three: it’s almost always performed wrong. 

9.	Now, let’s go back and look at those Scriptures that people used to
demean it. And now, never forget, because this is true. You’ve heard
this quoted time after time concerning water baptism by even the most
well meaning people in the world, and they will quote from 1 Pet 3:21.

(21)	The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (Now,
not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good
conscience toward God)...

	Now, simply because It tells you it doesn’t do one thing... Now,
watch that. Because It tells you it doesn’t do a certain thing,
doesn’t mean that what it does do is inferior or not of great value.
Now, look; my left foot can not do what my right hand does. But that
does not mean that my left foot is not one hundred percent valuable to
me. 

10.	Now, they got this foolish idea back in Paul’s day, and Paul had
to correct it. And he said because the hand will say because I'm not the
eye, I’m not of the body. Right away they’ll take this verse of
Scripture right here, and they’ll fool with it, and they will fuss
with it, and they’ll cut it down until it comes to the person,
“Well, hey, what is this water baptism anyway? It really, really
doesn’t really mean anything.” It’s just like something that got
shoved in there accidentally, and it shouldn’t be there.

	You see, that’s the way man does things. And you go back over your
own experience, and it’s ten-to-one you didn’t have a hatful of
teaching on this subject. You didn’t have any teaching that led you to
believe there was something real about it. Why? Because it’s verses
just like this that are spoiled, they’re destroyed, they are
perverted, by the ungodly ministers, and they are the ones to blame. You
got a lot of ungodly people sitting in the congregation, and they
supersede the preacher. Oh, they say “Well, he’s not doing it
right.”

11.	I remember years ago when we were all hepped up on gifts. And you
know, we used to send handkerchiefs around the country. And somebody
said, “Bro Vayle, this person sleeps on a pillow. Will you pray over
it?”

	I remember years back, they put some handkerchiefs in a envelope, and
they had me to pray over them. And I said, “Hold it, these envelopes
are mixed up.” I said, “This one here belongs to the girl; this one
belongs to a boy.”

	My eyes were closed. I knew exactly; I told them exactly. They went to
London. Devils were cast out. Right, I kid you not. I’ve got
witnesses. So, we prayed over another little cloth; the woman said,
“I’d like it because my husband is in spiritism. I’d like to see
him helped.”

	So, in those days we were great at praying over cloths. I don’t think
we don’t know we were doing right. We sure weren’t doing wrong as
far as attitudes were concerned. We tried to do right. So, I prayed over
a little cloth. She put it... I said, “Now, kind of hide it in the
bed.” So she put it under the mattress cover. You know, the mattress
cover goes on the mattress; the sheet goes on top of the mattress cover,
and the pillow goes on top of the sheet. So, he couldn’t sleep all
night; he tossed and turned. Finally he gets up and pulls the bed apart.
Takes the cloth, throws it on the floor, and goes to sleep.

12.	What am I trying to tell you? I’m trying to tell you, there's lots
of things that, you know, that the preacher can be wrong. I wasn’t
wrong in doing this now, mind you, but I wanted to lead you where the
congregation goes wrong. So, one night there's a certain couple needed
some help, and so, when they came to church and they brought this little
cushion to be prayed over--pillow... So, I prayed over the pillow. But
that night going home, a woman named Mrs. Lamb, she said “Bro. Vayle
prayed entirely wrong.”

	She grabbed the cushion, and she prayed over it. Stupid preacher,
stupid congregation, always mess everything up. They mess water baptism
up, too. How many people in the congregation, you know, only too glad to
teach you wrong? Even on water baptism? See? A perversion of Scripture.
Why? Because It says here, it’s not the putting away of the filth of
the flesh, but it is an answer of a good conscience. How do you know you
got a good conscience unless something is happened to you?

13.	Why that’s what people are...right today. Say, why haven’t you
got peace with God? 

	You say, “My conscience bothers me.” 

	Ah-huh! Water baptism is an answer of a good conscience to God. No, it
doesn’t save you in the sense of putting away the filth of the flesh.
It doesn’t wash away your sins, but there is something there that is
vital as concerning you, or you don’t go in the water. There's
something there that you know about. See, there's something you are
looking at. But you people take these verses, and they say, “Well,
there it is you see, it, it... Now, you go into the water there. It
hasn’t got a thing to do with your salvation.” 

	Then why is it there? Why is it there? 

	You know, what if you had a horse that weighed about two ton, lovely
big horse, two ton. It’d be quite a monster. But he had a five hundred
lump on his back which is a tumor. He’s a nicer horse, I suppose.
There's something wrong with the horse. Well, let’s say he’s a nice
big horse and you cut his leg off. See what I mean? Scripture? You
don’t add; you don’t take away. People are funny. I mean, they are
peculiar. See?

	Now, and as a good conscience toward God, there's something in there,
but they take that little thing, that Peter uses to explain, to put it
in a right perspective and say, sure this is not the blood of Jesus
Christ. This is not justification. This is not regeneration. But this is
it that you are to do as the answer of a good conscience toward God.
See? Something in it. There's something there. Okay. 

14.	Let’s go to Rom 8:9, the last part:

(9)	...Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

	Now, that’s a good verse of Scripture. It’s an excellent verse of
Scripture, and that’s true. Now, you can be baptized in water--it
doesn’t receive the Holy Ghost. It still doesn’t say you are one of
His. But it still stands there, it must be obeyed and done. See? Okay,
let’s go to another Scripture. 1 Corinthians 12: You know I’m
looking at verse 13. 

(13)	For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body...

	Now, It tells you what that baptism is, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
That’s a big thing. All right. That’s the great thing. See? The
water baptism is still something. See? It’s still vital; it’s still
necessary. Whether it be Jew of Gentile, bond or free, made to drink
into one spirit. The 18th verse: [1 Corinthians 12:]

(18)	But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as
it hath pleased him.

15.	The Blood is way ahead of water, but water is there. Even with water
and Blood, you’ve got to be baptized with the Holy Ghost to be a part
of the Bride. 

	You say, “Well, that’s great, I’ll get the Holy Ghost. Never mind
the water, never mind the Blood.” 

	Hogwash! 

	Now people say, “But just a minute now, I’m going to take the
Blood. I’m going to take the Holy Ghost. But I don’t need the
water.” 

	You are a liar. You’ve got no Holy Ghost when you talk like that
you’re a lousy church member. See?

	I’m not steamed up. I’m just laying this thing down because,
brother/sister, there's not one Word of God that’s void of power.
That’s when I preach Presence, I don’t preach it like a lot of
people. I’ve got my own brand, Reality. I got it from Him. I know what
iI does. See? Oh, yeah!

	Now, God does this. God does this baptizing with the Holy Ghost, but
you and I do the other, bat we’re to do it. Now, the pastor, the
deacon, the elder, the evangelist, the apostle, the prophet, see, right
down the line, can baptize you. [It] could be this one in the hands of
God, preach and all these things, but God’s got to baptize you, but
this is something new. See? They don’t leave either one out. 

16.	Let’s go to Acts 10. Oh, this one, this one really worked a bug
bear with me, I tell you right now. I came up in Pentecost, I came out
the hard way--hard enough of a Pentecost. 

(44)	While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them
which heard the word.

(45)	And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as
many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured
out the gift of the Holy Ghost.

(46)	For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then
answered Peter,

(47)	Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which
have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? 

	Now, the Bible says, “Repent and be baptized in water, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” But these got the Holy Ghost! and
nobody knew that they even repented because you can’t see that. And
they weren’t baptized in water. But they did get the Holy Ghost. You
say, “Well then, who needs it? Who needs water? 

17.	So, it’s very easy to denigrate it and say, ‘Well, look; you
don’t have to get baptized in water; really you don’t. You can
receive the Holy Ghost, then you can do it.’

	Now, listen; that can happen, but that’s wrong. 

	Well, you say, “It was right there.” 

	Yeah! It was right there, just the same as God said, “Don’t make
any graven images,” and He Himself commanded a serpent made out of
brass, to be hanged on a pole as the antidote. 

	These people here had no idea that God was bringing in the Gentiles, so
he had to baptize with the Holy Ghost and show them that the same
command was there, repent and be baptized everyone of you, in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter himself at Pentecost had said it. Repent
and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The promise is unto you Jews, your children, Jews, and all that are far
off, which are Gentiles.

	Tarry in Jerusalem, endued with power from on high, and then Jerusalem,
Judea, Samaria, and then the uttermost parts of the earth for the
Gentiles. See? They didn’t understand that door was being opened. But
from that time on, it was ‘repent and be baptized in water to receive
the Holy Ghost’.

18.	All right. Let’s go back to Luke. I want to show you why people
aren’t serious. My, if Jesus Christ were God, (And he was because God
incarnated Himself in him.) and he stands right there, (And even he
wasn’t God per-se. He said, “I don’t say one Word except I hear my
Father say it first.) now, he said. “Repent and be baptized.” 

	Paul served the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ. People
don’t believe they’re too wholesome. If we really believed they were
wholesome, we’d get somewhere. We’d be wholesome ourselves.

	All right, Luke 23:39:

(39)	And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying,
If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.

(40)	But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear
God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?

(41)	And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds:
but this man hath done nothing amiss.

(42)	And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom.

(43)	And Jesus said unto him...

	Get off the cross and get baptized in water. He didn’t say that, did
he? 

19.	Now, because he didn’t say it, people say, “Well, hey, you
really don’t need to be baptized in water, do you? Look at that thief
on the cross. Look at down there at the Gentiles. Look it, look it, look
it, look it...”

	Shut up and look at this! That’s what’s wrong with people. What do
you care about examples out there? What do you care about traditions?
What do you care about anything your cotton-picking, lousy experiences?
I stood before a prophet of God, I told you, four and a half hours,
beating my gums, beating my brains, refusing to believe what I heard
because every time he said the baptism of the Holy Ghost is not the
rebirth, I didn’t know he was talking a bunch of people don’t there
didn’t know split peas from buttermilk, and I was one of them. For
four and one half hours, I said, “You trying to tell me the baptism of
the Holy Ghost and the rebirth is one and the same thing?”

	And he said, “Now you’ve got it, doc.”

	I said, “Hold it right there. What about your true experiences?”

	What if he had said to me, “What about your two boys, Bro Vayle?”

	I said, “What two boys?”

	My wife had, “What two boys?”

	I said, “You ought to know, you had them.” I was going crazier by
the minute. I said, “What about the time you’re in that shed?” I
said, “there, prophesied, spoke in tongues. You went out there jumping
and screaming and rejoicing because your sins were forgiven, and next
time,” I said, “I think, in the wood shed or something, like rain
pelting your body.” I said, “you’re full of the Holy Ghost.”

	He said, “Bro. Vayle, we don’t go by experience. We go by the Word
of God!”

21.	Then this church goes by the Word of God, not by your experience!
You say I jumped, no, other brother--these people say I jumped I
hollered, I did this. I can look at churches around here... Yes, I could
name your churches. And You had to run to the altar, and you said you
got it. Ha! Then turned on the Word of God! Oh, you want to go by
experience? You’ll burn in hell with your experience! Christ is not an
experience; he’s a life.

	Word anointed for this hour and people turn it aside. That old thief
made it, because he couldn’t get to the water. Water doesn’t save
you, my brother/sister. You aren’t born again by it. You are not
regenerated by it. You are not filled by it. But you better do it. 

	You say, “So, why don’t you just tell us why?” 

	I prefer to do it this way because you know what? you could forget in a
hurry. Constant repetition like rain falling, which is the Word of God.
Let the light of God’s Spirit fall upon it, and It will do something
for you. See? 

22.	All right. B: Let’s look at the Scripture, taken by those who
would over emphasize by imputing to it a wrong intention. Over here in
Acts 22, here Paul is reiterating while he’s telling his experience,
he reiterates over in 26. But he tells his experience in Acts 22:1-16.

(1)	 Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now
unto you.

(2)	(And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them,
they kept the more silence: and he saith,)

(3)	I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia,
yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught
according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was
zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.

(4)	And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering
into prisons both men and women.

(5)	As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of
the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and
went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem,
for to be punished.

(6)	And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, (that) was come
nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great
light round about me.

	Now the Jews wonder why they are in a pogrom right today, and why they
get annihilated and everything else and the Holocaust. They said, “His
blood be upon us and our children, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.” Yeah! They
could shed his blood. Thrown him to one side like people throw water to
one side. Oh, it was all part of the Word of God. I didn’t write the
Book, I preach It, and I intend to be serious about my preaching. I’ve
got to answer for it. 

22.	Now, he said:

(6)	And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh
unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light
round about me.

(7)	And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul,
Saul, why (do you persecute) me?

(8)	And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said..., I am Jesus of
Nazareth, whom you persecutest.

(9)	And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid;
but they heard not the voice (In other words, they couldn’t tell the
audible voice that spoke. They didn’t here the words. It was like a
thunder, see?)…

(10)	And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me,
Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all
things which are appointed for thee to do.

(11)	And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by
the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus.

(12)	And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good
report of all the Jews which dwelt there,

(13)	Came...and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy
sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him.

(14)	And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou
shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and should hear the
voice of his mouth.

	Notice he called the Pillar of Fire, the just One. He said, “You saw
It.” Now Peter said in Pentecost, you killed the Just One. Here in
Acts He is the Pillar of Fire. All right.

23.	(15)	For thou shalt be...witness unto all men of what thou hast seen
and heard.

(16)	And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away
thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.

	Now, they say right there you go into the water and baptize in Jesus
Name, your sins are washed away. That’s not true! Because Peter said
it’s not true. No sir! Now, wash away thy sins. What they are doing
there is repentance, and his repentance towards God, and this little
preaching right here was what gave it to him, caused him to have
repentance, and to turn to Him, that the One that he had called Lord.
And that’s the One that was to forgive him of his sins and atone
through His blood. Then he could go to the water. 

	But you’ll find that people, invariably, in the Jesus-Only
Pentecostals and the Church of Christ and so on, want to take this and
say get baptized in water, and that does it. And that’s what the
Baptists are doing also. But not as far as these guys, because they’ll
talk about Jesus Christ and then say ‘get baptized in water’ and
they’ll call that the real thing. They carry it too far. They
absolutely carry it too far.

24.	All right. Let’s go to Acts 2. Now Peter’s talking. Paul is over
here. Now here is Peter, Acts 2:38, and he says here:

(38)	Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,...

	It’s not ‘for’ it’s ‘unto’ remission of sin. In other
words, because sins are remitted, you are now baptized in water. 

25.	All right. Let’s go to Romans 6. I read this the other day and
showed you, there are too many people who will take this and say, “Hey
that is water baptism.” 

(1)	What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may
abound?

(2)	God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer
therein?

(3)	Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ
were baptized into his death?

26.	Now, let’s find out what baptism into Jesus Christ is. [1
Corinthians 12]

(12)	For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members
of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

(13)	For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body...

	Now, It tells you what that baptism is: it’s the Holy Spirit baptism.
This is not water. Water doesn’t go into you; you go into the water.
The Holy Spirit comes into you, and when He does, you are forming the
corporate body of Christ. So therefore, you’re in Christ by baptism of
the Holy Ghost. It’s a different story entirely. 

27.	[Romans 6]

(4)	Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as
Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
we also should walk in newness of life.

	Now, if you want, you can put that into water baptism as a type. I
baptize in water signifying the fact that I am indeed dead unto the old
life and alive unto the new, that, as He died and rose again even so I
show that I was dead in my sins and I rise to newness of life, which
means I’m going to walk right into the Holy Ghost. Now you see, that
was the promise. Now, do you understand, if there is a promise--repent,
be baptized--that’s your job; then, God’s got to do His job, which
is fill you with the Holy Ghost? 

	And someone says, “Well, that’s this, that’s that, this that,
that’s a feeling.” 

	Hogwash! It’s the Word of God. 

	See, people don’t understand...too much back in Pentecost. There’s
too much shouting and jumping amongst the Methodists; there's too much
shouting and jumping amongst the Pentecostals. Not that I’m against
it. That’s fine. The only thing that doesn’t jump is dead. I’m not
against this. I'm not for a dead religion--no, not by any means--but
neither, brother/sister, am I going to be confused by noise and much to
do as though that were the Holy Ghost. See? 

	Why? If you are full of the Holy Ghost, you’ll testify to the Word.
You won’t shut up. They can’t shut you up. But it’s going to be
for the Word. 

29.	Now: [Romans 6]

(5)	For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death,
we shall be… in his resurrection:

	Now, water doesn’t do that. No siree. It’s the Holy Ghost that
guarantees your resurrection.

(6)	Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body
of sin might be destroyed...

	Who should deliver me? Through Christ Jesus our Lord, there is no
condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus...hath the baptism of the
Holy Ghost. Now:

(6)	...that we henceforth… should not serve sin.

	You don’t have to. Why? Just because a little symbology? No way!
You’ve been loosed from the thralldom of sin into the thralldom of
Life. It’s two different things entirely. 

30.	Why, listen; let’s just take a look. Why, if you could take a
little puppy dog that, you know, that he almost has a nervous breakdown
because he thinks he is a human being, and one day by some divine
alchemy you could take the dog and turn him into a human being, he
wouldn’t be a dog anymore. You wouldn’t have to worry about little
Rover sniffing around and doing this and the other thing. Why? You’d
have to worry about opening drawers and pulling the pots and pans out
like a kid because he ain’t a dog no more; he’s a child. 

	Well, that old, little gene down there was so submersed by sin,
cluttered up, until he had no bearings, but he gets his bearings at the
rebirth. Certainly, it’s a new life. He’s no longer a sheep gone
astray. See? There's been a change there. 

30.	Now: [Romans 6]

(7)	For he that is dead is freed from sin.

(8)	Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live
with him:

(9)	Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death
hath no more dominion over him.

(10)	For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth,
he liveth unto God.

	All right. There you see the perfect picture. Jesus Christ died that we
might have life. And this life comes into us. Now you can take water
baptism and say, “Well fine, I understand that.” 

	We’re going to put it to type here, but when you want real life, you
don’t have a type. You get the baptism of the Holy Ghost. 

	Now, you say, “Well, this could be a mixture of the two.” 

	All right, but don’t you dare put that water baptism where you are
going to get Life. No way. They do it. They do it, brother/sister.
Churches are doing it all over the land. 

31.	And other churches are simply baptizing you into their community of
believers. It won't work. Go to Colossians 2 and see the same thing
there, and Colossians 2:10 plus. 

(10)	(For you) are complete in him, which is the head of all
principality and power: (Now if you are in Him you are complete.)

(11)	In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ:

	Well, that guarantees you right there that your body of sin is gone
when Jesus died on Calvary, provided you are full of the Holy Ghost.

(12)	Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him
through the faith of the operation of God...

	What faith of operation of God took you out of that water?  If the
preacher didn’t get you up, get up yourself. It’s not talking about
that. It’s talking about what God is doing for you--talking about what
God is doing for you. Jesus died upon Calvary to impute every single
thing to you that lay in him, which was forgiveness of sins and eternal
life, and now you have it. 

(13)	And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all
trespasses;

	Now there you are, you see. The forgiveness leads you to the water and
the water leads you to the baptism. Three steps. Yep, doesn’t fail. 

32.	All right. And some would like to make--who would make--there are
those, as I said, who make too little of 1 Pet 3:21; there are those who
make too much of it. Let’s go back and look at It. 

(21)	The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us…by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ

	So, you see, there you are. Water baptism--it saves you. They’ll turn
right around and pervert it. I said, “There you are.” No wonder we
need a prophet. We need somebody that’s vindicated to tell us some of
these things because we are certainly messed up by ourselves. Yep.
It’s just these preachers. You might as well go to an alcoholic, a
rubby dub, that’ll go into your bathroom and drink your fingernail
lotion...there’s the alcohol...or pick up your boot polish, if it’s
in a bottle, if there's any alcohol in it. Don’t think they don’t.
Stuff they’ll drink would kill you in five seconds. 

	[I] saw one guy one time going on a bus, and he was so loaded down with
actual alcohol, the stuff you shouldn’t drink, the wood alcohol. He
had big bottles here, and he had big bottles there and big bottle--he
must have had eight bottles in his coat. He’s going to rubby dub his
friends, going to add water and drink this stuff. They got to the place
of immunity. They die, don’t worry.

	No. Here you are. It tells us ‘it’s not the putting away of the
filth of the flesh.’ It’s no way. It’s a good thing we got a
prophet to reveal these things because we take this Word, it becomes
poison to us. That’s exactly right. We’ve got to be turned back to
the original, the way it should be. 

35.	Now, we can plainly see there is no place of regeneration, outside
of the baptism with the Holy Ghost. It is not by water. But listen;
let’s go back to Jesus. Let’s look at his baptism. See? It isn’t
regenerational. That’s not water baptism. It doesn’t take away your
sins. Now, look; Jesus was baptized in water, and we got to be baptized
the same way. Now, he said, “Thus it behooves us to fulfill all
righteousness.” John said, “I wish you wouldn’t ask me to do
it.” Well,” he said. “I’ve got to do it.”

	Now, a prophet came on the scene and said that was the washing of the
sacrifice. Now, let’s look at the washing of the sacrifice in
Leviticus 1, [] about thirteen verses. It tells you in there when you
make a sacrifice unto the Lord, this is an offering by fire for sin. You
bring the animal, lay your hand upon it, the animal is killed. The
priest--maybe you--partake of it. I don’t know. But they took the head
off, and he, and the body, and they laid it on the altar to burn it, the
fire, and they cut off the legs and the insides, the visceral. The
visceral, that’s what’s inside the calf, the heart the lungs and the
bowels and all those things. And you notice that they took the legs off,
which would be from the knees on down. Four of them, they cut them off,
[] disjoint the joints. And then they took the visceral and they washed
it. See? 

36.	Now, you might look at the fact and say now, “Hey, why would they
do that?” 

	Well, let’s look at it. The feet are on the ground. That signifies
the walk; that signifies contact. The insides signify which you are
inside, so they’d have to be washed. But you see, Jesus wasn’t
unclean. See? So, you can’t talk about that in that respect. Now, He
was the sacrifice; so therefore, He would go through washing (You see?)
as the sacrifice, being typical/ But I’m trying to show you He
didn’t need cleaning up with water, and water will not clean us
either, anymore than it cleaned [] Pontius Pilot’s hands. He said,
“I said ‘All right, I’ll just wash my hands.’” [He] let it
go.” See?

37.	Christ was clean inside. He said, “I only say what my Father tells
me to say. “ Clean inside. “I only say what my Father tells me to
do.” Clean hands. “I only go where my Father tells me.” ...must
needs go to Samaria. The only--all contact he had with the earth,
everything he had was perfect; so therefore, the washing of the water
did not signify a cleansing. See? It signified more of the separation.
Now, not only that, not just a separation, it signifies beyond that and
greater still, the witness, because John had to come baptizing in water,
and he said, “That one that’s in the water, in baptism, that’s the
one, when you see the Holy Ghost fall, that’s that clean one.”

	He said, “I’m indwelling him.”

	It was a testimony. It was the witness. And that’s exactly what Peter
said. He said here, ‘...not the putting away of the filth of the
flesh, but a witness, an answering back of a good conscience.’ 

38.	All right. How are you going to have the best conscience in all this
world toward God, except you let your own conscience go because you
ain’t got one. As Bro. Branham said, “You got no more conscience
than a snake’s got hips.” He didn’t say it about you. He said that
about certain people, and I’m going to put you in that same category,
and I put myself there, too, because that’s true. 

	We have a very convenient conscience. When it comes face-to-face,
brother/sister, it doesn’t matter what kind of conscience you’ve got
anyway. It’s not going to do one thing for you, unless you know that
He stands in your stead. And that’s what you are witnessing to, just
the same as God said He is standing here for you. 

	“That is that one in whom I am pleased to dwell. That is that one
that I have sealed. That is that one.” It was the witness. See? And
the good conscience was right there. He wasn’t being washed as though
he was unclean, and neither are you being washed as though you were
unclean and now you’re getting clean. It’s because you are depending
on Him Who is clean. You’re witnessing to It. We’ll go further than
that as time goes on. All right. 

39.	Now, see, the third thing is...first of all, too little importance;
[secondly], too much importance; thirdly, they do it wrong. Now, you
couldn’t get anything messed up better than that, could you? The rites
of water baptism are perverted by man. One, there are those who pour or
sprinkle. And where they get this is beyond me. For ‘baptize’
categorically means ‘to immerse’, and it’s the same word in the
Hebrew that means ‘to dip’, as when people dye cloth or clothes in a
dye, and they dip it in.  

	Do you remember the story of Achilles’ heel? The dragon blood, mom or
pop or someone picked him up by the heel and forgot to transmit him to
the other hand, and one little place on the heel didn’t get the blood,
right? So what happened? They killed him by way of the heel. All right.

40.	You take a cloth and you dip it. You keep your fingers there, and
the dye doesn’t get to it. It’s not thoroughly immersed. What is it?
Your cloth is kind of spoiled. You’d have to cut that corner out. So
therefore, what do you do? You literally take the cloth and drop it into
the vat of dye and you take a stick and you poke it down. And I don’t
consider anyone baptized unless they are down under the water. If
you’ve got one arm up, you’d better get baptized over again. If your
head is out of the water, I think you better get baptized over again. I
never saw a person buried yet with the head sticking out of the grave.
I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, but it’s not a burial as far as
I'm concerned.

	One of the most gruesome things in all the world would be if some poor
corpse in a landslide come and shake the grave loose and the casket
loose and you see the hand out of the clay. You’d say that fellow
needs reburying. How are you going to do it? How are you going to be
buried with him if it isn’t a burial?

41.	The dipping is exactly scriptural. It is very evident that plunging
the whole body into water is required when one views even the simple
statement of Jn 3:22-23. Let’s just take a look at Jn 3:22-23 and know
what It says:

(22)	After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of
Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized.

(23)	And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there
was much water there...

	Why do you need much water if you are going to pour them or sprinkle
them? You need enough water to get them down under the water, as in
death. 

42.	Let’s go also to Mt 3:16. Let’s see what that tells us here.
This one could be interesting if this is the right one. 

(16)	And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the
water... 

	They say that means he crawled over the bank. I don’t believe that
for one minute. Came up straightway out of the water. In other words,
it’s a rapid transmission of progress. He simply brought under the
water and brought right up. It’s exactly what happened. And that is
exactly when the Heavens were open.

	He saw the Spirit of God coming descending down upon him as a dove, and
lighting upon him:

43.	John Wesley, as do other students, tell us that Nicodemus
well-understood water baptism. And you would... And Jesus, knowing he
did, spoke to him in Jn 3:1-10. Now, this here is argued by the
theologians. Oh yes, other theologians will argue this. I don’t know,
they kind of want to make it as they want to. But he says about water
baptism:

(1)	There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the
Jews:

(2)	The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know
that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles
that thou doest, except God be with him.

(3)	Jesus (said… truly, truly) I say… Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God.

(4)	Nicodemus (said….) How can a man be born when he is old? can he
enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

(5)	(And) Jesus (said, truly, truly…) Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

(6)	That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit.

(7)	Marvel not that I said unto thee, (You) must be born again.

(8)	The (Spirit) breathed where it (willeth), and (you) hearest the
sound thereof, but (you can’t tell from where He’s coming or where
He’s going) so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

(9)	(And) Nicodemus….said… How can these things be?

(10)	(And) Jesus (said)…. Art (you) a master of Israel, and (don’t
know) these things?

	What things did he know? He knew when if you transferred from the
Gentiles to the Hebrew, or from a tribe to a tribe, you were fully
baptized in water that says “I’m dead and I’m rising to a new
life.” That’s exactly history. Nicodemus knew it because the rites
were there. But they did not understand the rites, where they took three
pieces of bread, and they broke one and put it under a cloth and hid it,
signifying the three manifestations of Godhead where he comes as a man,
pour out His life, go down to Hades and rise again for our
justification. 

44.	There is no doubt from 1 Corinthians 10 that immersion is demanded.
Let’s go to 1 Corinthians 10. Here’s the story of the Israelites: 

(1)	Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that
all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;

(2)	And were all baptized unto Moses...

	A cloud is water, and sea is water. There was water above, there was
water around, there was water below. They were baptized. Then how in the
world can you take baptism to mean sprinkling or pouring? It doesn’t
cut. Furthermore, the oldest known manuscript called the didaki of the
second century AD, places water baptism as immersion. And they say the
ideal place is running water, and if you can not get running water to
immerse them, you get a lake that may be simply standing there, or a
pond which is next. If you can’t get that you can take a baptismal
pool. And if they are dying and you can not get to water at all, they
even accepted that you put a pan of water below them and a pan of water
above them, signifying that they are doing their dead-level best to get
a baptism in water. 

45.	And people say, “Well, it’s just, you know, it’s just...” 

	Is it just? See, I’m trying to get it across to you, brother/sister,
everything lives today like it never lived before. They were obsessed
with something back there. Brother Branham must have known something
that somehow we couldn’t get across just concerning water baptism,
because he said, “There's water, get baptized.” 

	That’s what Philip said, preaching to that eunuch, got there in the
carriage together. Opened the book Isaiah 53 to him. And Philip must of
said the same thing Peter said, “Repent and be baptized,” and soon
they came to water, a body of water. Now that old boy--now listen,
let’s face it, he had to have a jug of water in the caravan. Why
didn’t Philip say, “Hey, you’ve got a jug of water? Let me
sprinkle you.”

	“There's a body of water,” he said. “Look,” he said, “a whole
body of water.”

	He said, “what hinders me?”

	“Why,” he said, “nothing hinders if you believe Jesus is the
Christ.”

	He said, “Man,” he said, “why certainly I believe. What do you
think I was asking those questions for?”

	Couldn’t get down to the water fast enough. Then it said Philip got
caught away. You think God would have caught him away on a bad mission?

46.	However, not only is the ceremony itself distorted by many, but so
are the very consecrated words that are to be used. For Mt 28:19, is
pitted against all other Scripture records where the actual names are
used instead of titles. Every ancient record known testifies to the fact
that Father, Son and Holy Ghost are words of titles, and were brought to
us by Roman Catholics, and it is their baptism. Actually, this is
absolutely the truth, because I read it myself. The Roman Catholic
theologians, because they know it is their baptism, no longer stop
Protestants baptized in the name of Father, Son and Holy Ghost as though
they were heathen. They say they belong to our church, and they can get
married in the church and anything else they want to do. They haven’t
lowered their standards, their standards already were low. That’s how
the Protestants can get in.

	Like Bro. Branham said, he said we lowered the bars, he said, how did
the goats get in? Said, you lowered the bars. Protestant goat. Be happy,
you’re going home.

47.	I told you how it was over there in London. This great preacher went
over there, and he was a Methodist brother, he was spoken in tongues, or
Lutheran or something; was a great, great meeting, so he is now, it’s
a Full Gospel Businessmen meeting going on, and a Roman Catholic priest
that prays for the sick, speaks in tongues, he’s a great man of God.
He gets up there and he’s going to pray for these Full Gospel
Businessmen, this great congregation of Pentecosals.

	He says, “Well, well, well, this is a switch.” He said, “Years
ago,” said, “you Pentecostal prayed for us Roman Catholics, and now
a Roman Catholic is praying for you Pentecostals, why don’t you come
home to mother?”

48.	They already were home. Safe in the arms of mother. Right on her
rotten breast. There feeding her rotten nourishment. It won’t
be--it’ll be in hell but not safe, their rest. Listen, let’s get
this flat, brother/sister. Momma whore had a lot of daughters, and they
are protestants. Show me who is protesting today. They are only too
happy to go back. Pentecost stuck its neck out and said the evidence of
the baptism of the Holy Ghost was speaking in tongues, and now nuns and
Catholics are speaking in tongues and exalting the pope as the vicar of
Jesus Christ and they’ve got to accept it because they’ve got
their-self in a bind.

	Oh come on. Come on. That’s what’s wrong with this message. The
preachers are taking the people back to Pentecost. Oh, they say,
“I’ve come out of Babylon,” but did Babylon come out of you? Huh!
Sure, that’s the trouble.

49.	Now I’ve got no big ax to grind, just let you know flat. I preach
here. Yeah. You know that too, don’t you? Yeah. This is the pulpit the
Lord gave me. You might not think so. It’s okay by me. You say,
“well Bro Vayle, what if you preach us out of here?”

	That’s fine, you go ahead. I tell you one thing, I can’t preach you
in, so I might as well preach you out. At least I’m doing something
for you. Listen, I wasn’t kidding when I said look if you ever want to
leave here, just be nice enough to tell me and I’ll see that you get
out and you never come back.

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, you’re a rotten dirty dog!”

	I never said I wasn’t. That’s what scares me. For a couple of years
I’ve been the dirtiest dog under high heaven, now they are all patting
me on the back, and saying nice fellow, nice fellow, and I’m more
scared than ever. I kid you not! Listen, I’m not lying to you, I’m
laughing, but I tell you one thing, I’m not stupid. I’ll tell you
right now, the ax is ready to fall pretty soon, you better get ready for
it too. It’ll come from a quarter you won’t believe. That’s all
right. I’m not talking riddles, I’m just telling you plain straight
fact. 

	Now, embracing titles. Again referring to the didaki, that ancient
manuscript places water baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and also mentions one must be full of the Holy Spirit to partake of the
elements of the Lord’s supper, and Bro. Branham added foot-washing,
which is a hundred percent correct. 

50.	In the Church Ages book, on page twenty-eight, you’ll find an
excerpt from Time magazine, December 5, 1955, telling of the water
baptism--Marcus Vasca, by deacon Publius Decius that took place in 100AD
in Rome. In it the words are used “I baptize you in the Name of the
Lord Jesus Christ.” And one day a Roman Catholic priest said to Bro.
Branham, “We used to use those very words, Lord Jesus Christ.”

	Oh yeah, they knew. Listen, the Roman Catholics are great historians,
and you know who hates the Roman Catholics the worst? Seventh Day
Adventists, and Jehovah Witnesses, and they are better historians than
any of them. I’m going to tell you something. History does nothing for
you, revelation does. I don’t care two bits if the Roman Catholic
church used to baptize in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They could
be wrong as all get out. 

51.	What does the Bible say? What does the vindicated revelation say?
The vindicated revelation said by the prophet opened all the seals and
under the Seventh Seal it says, “I command you to be baptized in the
Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you’ve been baptized in any
other way, I command you, thus saith the Lord, to be re-baptized in the
Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

	And if you’ve got any doubts, let me tell you this. I’m not
kidding. I wasn’t kidding the other day. We’ll rent the church again
if they’ll give it to us, or we’ll go down here to Kaiser Lake or
right down here we’ll dam up this little creek or something. Don’t
worry, there's water, plain water, the rain’s coming down, the
water’s going to rise. We’ll take you down. If you’ve got any
doubts, my brother, my sister, you had better be rebaptized if you’ve
got doubts. Now you don’t need to have doubts if it’s been done
right, but I’m of the human mind.

52.	I know what Bro. Branham said, because I questioned him thoroughly
on it. “If you’ve been baptized correctly, you do not need to be
baptized over again.” But he also said, he said, “If you have
doubts, that’s where your faith stops.” As someone said, “Well I
understand this man here that baptized me, why he made Bro. Branham God.
Bro Vayle, I just don’t know.”

	I say, “Hold it, hold it. If you don’t know and you are hung up,
come on! We’ll get someone to baptize you all over again.”

I’m not a guy running around to get people rebaptized and remarried
and this and that and the other thing. You know, let’s have you, we
could have a merry-go-round. Fap! We are not a conveyor belt here. But
look! If somebody has a hang-up, you’ve haven’t got faith in it, get
your faith right. That’s all I’m trying to tell you.

53.	All right, listen. Bro. Branham, on page 18 of Future Home, now
here, listen!

18-6 Before God can come down in the Person of the Holy Spirit, which is
Christ coming down to dwell in the human heart, it first must be
repentant. It must be baptized in water in His Name to show Who it
belongs to...

	There’s your witness right there, I belong to Jesus. Yeah! You know
why you get baptized in water? Because you say now look, I belong to
Jesus. Paul said, “Who are you Lord?”

	“I’m Jesus!”

	Yeah! Jesus. Yes. Well he said, “I’ve been claiming that you own
me. I’ve been claiming that I belonged to you and I’m trying to kill
you and everything associated with you.” Well he said, “I got to do
something about it.”

	Yeah, he said, “Get baptized.” Yeah, Christian baptism, to show who
you belong to. That’s what the prophet said. Now did you know he
didn’t baptize, that was it? Fap! Pentecostals. They get baptized into
a position. They get baptized to a gift. They get baptized this, they
get baptized that. They get baptized--ha ha! This prophet said here, and
you’re reading it:

Before God can come down in the Person of the Holy spirit, which is
Christ coming down to dwell in the human heart, it first must be
repentant...

54.	Right in here! Repent. Yeah! A sheep gone astray, I need God. It
must be baptized in water in His name to show Who it belongs to, and to
show who it used to belong to. That’s why Paul got baptized. Because
he claimed Jesus, “Who are you?”

	He said, “I am Jesus.”

	He said, “You mean to tell me you’re the one I’ve been trying to
serve and all?”

	Now listen, Bro. Branham said the same thing. He said, “Listen you
people, the very God you claim to worship is here to destroy you.” 

	The very God they claim to worship, there in a human form, they said,
“Let’s crucify Him.”

55.	Now listen, if that is true, the witness to whom we belong to, and
we know it is true, no wonder there has to be a return to the proper
name in water baptism before Christ, the Holy Spirit in the Person can
come down and set Himself as the head of the church to raise the dead.
If it takes the proper baptism to simply bring Him into your heart, what
is the church got to do? It’s got to return to the proper Lord Jesus
Christ understanding of Godhead and water baptism to bring Him right
here. And when they begin to understand that’s exactly when He came on
the scene and cleared the whole record, and He said now that you’ve
got this far back, you see, to Whom you belong, Who It was that paid the
price that this One was the Blood of God, this was that Incarnate One.
Not a second or third, fourth person or so-on, but It was that One. That
God had come down in that form of a human body, and that life...

56.	I’m going to talk on Logos one of these days. Don’t be alarmed
because I’ve preached five times on this. I’ve preached a lot on the
Logos but the people couldn’t take it. I’m not saying you did, but
there were some who couldn’t do it. I’m going to go back to it
pretty soon. I’m going to talk more and more about it, because I know
exactly how Jesus, how God became His own Lamb, and how He became His
Own Priest. Yeah, oh yeah. 

	Oh, I could start singing ‘I love Him’, because I do love Him,
because you see, I don’t know why He loves me. If He likes me that’s
good. I think that’s great He loves me, and I think I love Him a
little bit, too.  But the revelation is fantastic, see, because here is
where life is.

	All right. He comes down, sets Himself head of the church to raise the
dead. And just think back in Jesus’ day, He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not, but that won’t happen today. No sir, it’s not
going to happen today. I can tell you that categorically, my dear
brother, my sister. 

57.	Let’s go to Jn 14:1-3.

(1)	Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in
me.

(2)	In my Father's house are many mansions:...

	He said my Father’s kingdom there are many, there are many great
mansions, you know, many great principalities, you know, layouts there.

	...if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place
for you.

(3)	And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and
receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 

	For two thousand years He’s been making the New Jerusalem, and He’s
going to come and get us. Oh yeah! But this time He comes to His own,
His own reject him? No! Here’s where election comes in with the surety
of the shed Blood. “I’ll lose none but raise him up at the last
day.”

	Some people worry they’re going to miss the Rapture. How are you
going to miss the Rapture if you are born again? How are you going to
miss the Rapture, that’s one of the Word’s. You are part of that
Word. How are you going to miss which you are part of? Ha! Gracious me,
God didn’t redeem any serpent seed. He doesn’t take that soul of
yours and annihilate it, take that old cotton-picking body of yours and
bring you right back to elements and recreate. You have no more serpent
in you than nothing. Absolutely pure, just like the Son of God Himself.
We’ll see Him just the way He is. 

58.	Let’s look at 1 Thessalonians there. Paul, they, these people,
they all worried. They said, “Paul, what about this, what about
that?”

	He said, “You guys worry, let me tell you something,” he said,
“Don’t worry about that Resurrection, that Rapture.” I’m going
to tell you, don’t worry about those who are asleep, worry about
yourself. 

	 [1 Thessalonians 4:]

(14)	For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, (That’s what It
says, that’s the simple gospel.) even so them also which sleep in
Jesus will God bring (forth) with him.

(15)	For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, (Thus saith the
Lord) that we which are alive and remain unto the (Presence) of the
Lord...

	What are they--Presence? What are they talking about? He wasn’t
present then. This is Eph 1:15 plus. The spirit of wisdom in the Church.
That spirit wasn’t there, wasn’t there, no sir, He wasn’t present.
Now He was present unto the--that, that shall not prevent those, or take
precedence or take any preeminence over them that are asleep.

(16)	For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout...

59.	Now Bro. Branham said the Shout was the Message. That’s what I
read over here to you. When he says in here, you might have thought I
was saying this about myself, seeing I am packing this Message. I got no
more to do with this Word preaching It than nothing. No more than just
the Voice. Right in the Greek It says it’s not said to be the voice of
God Himself. It’s another man.

	As Mede says that day on the bank, she said, “He told me to close my
eyes, I closed my eyes because I was used to obeying Bill.” And she
said, and she, “After it was over though, and he came out of the
water, I said, ‘Bill, I heard what was said, but that was your voice
that said it’.” She said, “He just smiled and walked on.”

I said, “Mede, I’ll tell you why. There it is right there. Lee Vayle
ain’t no Greek scholar, but Vine and Roth and the rest are Greek
scholars and they say it’s not said to be the Voice of the Lord. 

60.	What did he use? He always used a prophet and people come by and say
there ain’t no prophets. And if there ain’t no prophets, there
ain’t no God coming for you. You show me where God come without a
prophet. Now come on, there's John the Baptist. You mean He ain’t
going to do it again? Hogwash! Why, you bunch of infidels! Ain’t no
place in hot Hell hot enough to roast these people, that’s why God is
going to burn them in the Lake of Fire.

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, you’re vengeful.”

	What do you expect me to be? What do you expect me to be? Tramp on
Jesus Christ, tramp on His Word? Where do you think that puts me? 

61.	Like one fellow, over here in Europe. I was in Fort Wayne one day,
all these nice big boys, all these so-called the big-shots in the
message sitting there...I commend thee. They bring up this guy’s name
and I said, “I hate him.”

	Oh my God they died right there! Well they said, “you don’t mean
you hate him, you hate what he does.”

	I said, “I hate him.” I said, “You guy’s, let’s get this
flat.” I said, “He can make me a goat, that’s fine, but when you
make William Branham a false prophet, I don’t have any hope and you
don’t either, and you say you love him?”

	You’ve got to be sick! David said, “I hate the enemies of God with
a perfect hatred.”

	I’m not quite yet there! In other words, I bring my own stinking
nature in, instead of the zeal of almighty God. Oh sure, I’m not
starting any fights. You see something, you people, you still sit here
with that sweet, sweet stuff about you. What are you talking about?
You’re supposed to be sweet and kiss the devil’s foot? Let’s open
every jail. Let’s all get herpes. 

62.	Come on! Say brother/sister, don’t play your stuff with me.
Don’t play games with me, because it’s too late. Because, it says,
“I’m going to come back.”

	I didn’t ask to come back. He said, “I’m coming back.” You know
what He is going to do? He’s going to change my nature. I won’t be
thinking of Lee Vayle anymore. It won’t be Lee Vayle’s honor,
won’t be Lee Vayle’s angle, won’t be...it’ll be His entirely,
because we’re going to be just like Him. And the Day of the wrath of
our God is coming, my brother/sister. Now would you sooner be destroyed
or would you sooner be part that destroys. 

	You say, “Wait until I get there.”

	You’re getting there awful fast. You ain’t got too much time to
wait, brother/sister. All liars will have their place. All whoremongers.
All dogs--male prostitutes. If you think this Message is not invaded
with homosexuals and everything else, you’re nuts. You better smarten
up! I’m not naming names, but I can name names. Love them, go ahead
and love them. Yeah. Well they pervert people. Go ahead. Oh, we are
nicer than God aren’t we? 

	I, well, I’ll cut that out. I don’t want to beat you too hard over
the head. 

63.	Listen, It tells you here, the Lord Himself shall do it, He’s
going to descend. Listen, the Lord Himself is going to do it to get you
and me. No slip up! No slip up. Matthew 25:

(6)	And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the Bridegroom...

	Not cometh, “Behold Him.” He’s here to be seen. You’ve got to
see Him to know your mate, the revealed Word. You’ve got to see Him to
be changed. Sure. Now the Bible says that, doesn’t say you’re going
to get changed, then you are going to see Him, you are going to see Him,
then you are going to get changed. And I’m supposed to shut my mouth
and stand back while all these guys run around saying, “what’s this
about the Presence, hee, hee, hee? Been here for two thousand years.”

64.	I’m excited, because He is here to get me out of here. He’s here
to raise the dead.  Now if you are not excited, He’s been here for two
thousand years, tell me one thing. How come the dead haven’t been
raised? Sure. You see why the men who believe this Message have a ring
in their voice? They have a conviction that will stand there. I got news
here, brother/sister, something’s going on. It hasn’t got a thing to
do with the individual anymore, because He is here. He brings everything
under subjection to Him, under control. Headship is of God, not a bunch
of two-bit preachers running around. Come on! I kid you not.

	And It said they had the oil, that’s why they could see Him.
Everybody, look at Luther, Look at Wesley. Organization. I’m this,
I’m that, I’m the other thing. Come on. The door got shut. He made
sure the door was shut. Yeah! Yeah, He enters all doors, rooms with
doors being shut, but I’m going to tell you, when you get in His room,
He shuts the door. Yeah.

65.	All right, you got to be identified as to ownership. It’s not
Methodist, I’m Baptist, I belong here, I belong there. Be baptized in
titles. I belong to Jesus! I witnessed whom my Owner and Master is, and
I’ve been sealed in by the wedding ring of divine grace of the baptism
with the Holy Ghost. I’ve got my wedding garment on, the Holy Spirit.
Bro. Branham also said the wedding garment was the Word. I can prove it
by my faith in the Word, I am ready to go off to the Marriage Supper.
That’s exactly what you’re saying, that’s what it’s all about,
that’s where you’re going.

66.	Now, we’ve mentioned before, faith in the Word, that’s it. I’m
on the other messages. Categorically, the Bible said go unto the world
and preach the Gospel, and he that believeth what? Believes the Gospel
shall be saved. He that doesn’t believe is going to be damned. If you
don’t believe the gospel why get baptized? If you do believe you are
supposed to get baptized, see?

	I guess that’s why I see people today coming to this Message,
something already tells them, “hey, I’ve got to get baptized in
water,” and they are ready for baptism.  

	They say, “when do you want to get baptized?”

	“Right away.” 

	They got a case like that up there in Canada. The woman that wants to
get baptized say, “Let’s go down to the lake.”

	They say, “Hey, it’s freezing.”

	She says, “So what?”

	So they phone me and I said, “Oh,” I said, “I never heard of a
person yet ever get sick out there in the water.” I said, “I know
it’s cold.” But I said, “If she really wants to get baptized and
you guys got the guts, you go ahead and baptize her.”

	I’ve never known a person to ever get sick yet. I’ve heard of them
getting healed and everything else, but never getting sick. See? It’s
good to indulge in water baptism, it’s good for you. Some people get
healed.

	He that believed and is baptized shall be saved. That’s what Peter
did. He said repent and be baptized every one of you. 

67.	Now, let’s go back to Acts the 10th chapter and take a look at it.


(34)	(Now Peter preaching…) Of a truth I perceive that God is no
respecter of persons:

(35)	But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness,
is accepted with him.

(36)	The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching
peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:)

(37)	That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all
Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;

(38)	How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with
power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of
the devil; for God was with him.

(39)	And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of
the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:

(40)	Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly;

(41)	Not to all the people, but unto--(choosen ones and so on. And in
verse 42:)

(42)	And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that
it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. 

	Now see who He is? He’s Judge. Right back there again.

(43)	To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name
whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.

	Now it tells you how to get remission of sins, you believe in His name.
Now listen:

(44)	While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them
which heard the word.

	Now what was he doing? Preaching the gospel. And what happened? They
believed. They repented. Candidates for water. But those Jews wouldn’t
believe that. No way! So God had to convince them. So they received the
Holy Ghost. Now it’s “who can forbid water?”

68.	Now when you ask a question like that, you don’t say, “Hey Peter
was saying well look, now that they’ve got the Holy Ghost, who needs
water.” He said, “Now that they have got the Holy Ghost, who can
forbid it?” Because they would have done it before. 

	Peter would have just gone down there and preached, and walked out of
the house. That’s what he’d done. He wasn’t expecting anything
great to happen, even though the man that said, “Well Peter is
supposed to show you words whereby you must be saved,” but Peter
forgot that. He forgot that Jesus said John truly baptized in water, but
you received the Holy Ghost, until this took place. These guys are good
at forgetting things. So look it, I’m going to preach over and over
again until I don’t forget and you don’t forget. Because we are
warned not to forget. He forgot. 

69.	Now who can forbid water? How are you going to forbid it? No way!
Now that’s the very same thing, notice, the Gentiles came in, the same
as the Jews come in. “Repent and be baptized every one of you,”
that’s based on the fact of the gospel. And there's only one gospel,
that Jesus died according to Scripture. 

	First of all they came out, He was the Son of God according to
Scripture. He lived according to Scripture. He died according to
Scripture. He arose according to Scripture. He was seen according to
Scripture. And He’s on the Throne doing these things according to
Scripture, on the Mercy Seat and now He’s on the Throne. 

	They say, “I believe that.”

	You believe that, you got a right to get baptized. 

	You say, “What about this great big experience? What about running to
the altar?”

70.	What about it? You tell me. Peter didn’t know they were going to
get full of the Holy Ghost. Last thing he figured. He wasn’t even
going to give them water, just go down and preach. Well I guess he said
to himself, “well, I got to do this because God is in it, and
evidently God is in it, so I’ll just go down and do it. I’ll leave
it up to God.”

	And it’s a good thing he did because or he’d have messed up. So God
showed him how He did things. He said, “Peter, I told you preach the
Word, and I’ll fill them with the Holy Ghost after they’re
baptized.” But he said, “You wouldn’t believe in the first place,
so I’m going to convince you in the second place.”

71.	So Peter goes down, he preaches, he does his job, he said,
“wonderful, hallelujah.” He said, “I perceived,” he said,
“that God doesn’t respect persons, and you’re nice guys, and I’m
sure that you respect the Lord, so hallelujah, everything is rosy. I
hope something happens way down the road.”

	BOOM! They began speaking in tongues, full of the Holy Ghost. 

	He said, “Mercy me!” He said, “He did mean it whereby they shall
be saved.”

	Isn’t the Lord wonderful? I’m going to tell you something. Friend
of mine, if you are elect, it may be at one time in your life you could
hide behind the corkscrew, but there comes a time when you can stand
beside the Perpendicular, and there won’t be any shilly-shallying.
You’ll measure up. God’s going to get you there.

72.	There's only gospel, that’s exactly right. There's only one
baptism in water, that’s exactly right. That’s right. Down in the
water, Lord Jesus Christ. There is only one baptism with the Holy Ghost,
because there is only one Spirit. There was only one true Bride. Come
on, let’s read and find out if I am telling you the truth. Over in
Ephesians, I’m sorry, Ephesians the fourth chapter, yeah. 

	My, we got all night to preach. Goody, I’ve got all kinds of notes
left here. Of course, the last few pages run out in a hurry, that’s
the only trouble. I can’t tell you a lie, and then again I might not
be telling you the truth either, because it might take me longer than I
think. 

73.	All right! It says here there is one body, that’s the 4th verse.
[Ephesians 4:]

(4)	….one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

(5)	One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

(6)	One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in
you all.

	Yes there it is. There’s no more, not a bunch of them. 

74.	Okay, let’s go to Ephesians 5:25-27.

(25)	Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church,
and gave himself for it;

(26)	That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by
the word,

(27)	That he might present it to himself...

	He might present it... Yeah. How? That He will sanctify by the washing
of water by the Word. In other words, every Word of every age has a
certain power, and in this age, there is the washing of the water by the
Word, and the presentation of a glorious church without spot or wrinkle.


	You say, “Bro Vayle, you mean to tell me I’m one hundred percent
justified? I don’t--He doesn’t have one thing against me?”

	You guessed it one hundred percent! As Bro. Branham said, he said,
“How can you make a man a sinner when the Blood scatters sin till
there’ll be no evidence of it?”

	So you come behind it, no gift waiting, for the apocalypses. The
revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, that’s this hour. Well you say
they got the revelation back there. Oh no, no no. This is it. The Book
of Revelation is way down the road. When the ages had expired and the
Seven Church Age was all but over, at that time He shall confirm you
unto the end, that you may be blameless in the Day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Absolutely perfect and whole. No guilt, no fear. That’s how
you are supposed to be. Now that’s how He’s going to present it,
He’s going to do it.

75.	Now listen. Let’s read a little further, 30 and 32. [Ephesians 5:]

(30)	For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
(How can we be impure if He is pure and we’re members?)

(31)	For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall
be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

	God doesn’t look upon us as separate from Jesus in flesh. Well you
say, “that’s the place I believe, Bro. Vayle, that the failure lies.
You see what it is? I believe that somehow He could look at my soul and
my spirit and that somehow He could take those and He could do a
something...”

	Ah shut-up! If there be no resurrection, forget it! Forget it. He’s
looking at your body. That’s right. A hundred percent perfect and
whole. And He sees what’s coming, and He sees you in His form, His
flesh, and His bone. Water baptism says I’m looking forward to that.
Water baptism says I’m owned by Him. Water baptism--I used to be owned
by the devil and the churches and those all things. I’m not owned by
them anymore, no way shape and form, I’m owned by Him.

	You see, you see, when the woman marries the man, he becomes the head.
Why not? He’s supposed to provide for her. 

76.	Now it says here: [Ephesians 5:]

(31)	For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall
be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

(32)	This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the
church. 

	And He’s not speaking just to the individual now, He’s speaking of
the Church. Say I and my Father are one! Well that’s nice somebody
says that. The Bride had better say It all together, because that’s
what He’s here for. Sure.

77.	All right! It is such a strange thing. People just can’t stand
that Name used in water baptism. Now isn’t it funny? They can’t
stand the Name. They claim to know it. They say I know a name, a lovely
name, the lovely name of Jesus. Isn’t it strange that they can’t
stand the water baptism. They’ll say wonderful things in songs about
it. The name of Jesus is so sweet, I love this music to repeat. It makes
me so happy and complete. But water baptism? Phooey. Yeah.

	Christians, full of the Holy Ghost? Huh! Brother, come on. Not this
late hour. If it is they better come in.

78.	They will pray in it. They’ll perform miracles in it. They’ll
preach in it. They’ll invoke it. They’ll die for it. But water
baptism? Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! No, no, that’s Jesus only. No, no, no,
no, you can’t do that. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, He said so. Show
me one place where they did it. Not Jesus’ name now, Lord Jesus
Christ. How come? 

	Oh, the dead will use water baptism as that weak link, that week link
even as Eve even was the weak link. So there is repentance, water
baptism and infilling. So they say, “repentance, hallelujah! I’ve
repented, glory to God. I’ve been justified and everything else. Now
over here I’m full of the Holy Ghost. Wonderful, wonderful!”

	What about water baptism?

	“Well, that little insignificant thing. There’s really nothing to
it. Somehow he shoved it in there, and I guess we better do it.”

	The weak link. So now there is no Name? No one God? And you don’t
think your water baptism is important? To witness, and express
ownership? Why does the devil hate it when it comes to this? Sure, we
know why. Because it exposes the diabolical perversion of the Godhead
where they claim three gods, that’s why. And the devil’s got them
trapped in polytheism. 

79.	When you baptize in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are
quoting 1 Pet 1:2-6, and 18-25. Let’s take a look at it.

(2)	Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through
sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

(3)	Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

(4)	To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you,

(5)	Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready
to be revealed in the last (day.)

(6)	Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye
are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

(7)	That the trial of your faith, being much more precious...

	And so on. Waiting for the actual apocalypse of the Lord Jesus
Christ...

(8)	Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not,
yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

	What’s going to happen when you do see Him? What He’s revealed at
the end-time. That’s why Bro. Branham could stand, and I told you so
often, I marveled! He talked about God just like he was holding. Reach
out and take God. 

	And I said, “How does he do it?”

80.	We were on that platform, the Spirit of God come out. I wasn’t
looking at William Branham but God. God. William Branham stood
there--finally, he could stand there forever for all I cared. Really, I
mean it. I knew he had a link with God. I knew it took a prophet. I
didn’t understand what I know now, but something in my heart kept
looking, looking.  But you know that day, it’s getting that way now.
God. Yeah. 

	Everything has got a meaning. Everything is concrete. Yeah! Oh I hope
you catch it, I hope you get what I’m saying. Look, it’s got to be
that way, it’s got to work my brother, my sister.  There is no way
that it can not be this way. Listen: [1 Peter 1:]

(18)	Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible
things, as silver and gold, from your vain (behaviour) received by
tradition from your fathers;

(19)	But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot:

(20)	Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but
was manifest (Perfectly clear as to Who He was) in these last times for
you,

(21)	Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and
gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

(22)	Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the
Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another
with a pure heart fervently:

(23)	Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

	You know, years ago, a great theologian told me that word was spermos,
not a spora. It’s not germ as in seed, human sperm, but spora as in
flowers.

	...of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for
ever.

(24)	For all flesh is as grass,...

81.	Notice it. Yeah, you’re born of sperm. You are born like a flower,
seed. The flesh goes away, but that spirit and soul of yours is one day
going to be clothed baptism by a glorified body coming up.

(25)	But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word
which by the gospel is preached unto you.

	And you baptize in that water signifies you belong to Him because you
heard the gospel that said He died for your sins and He rose again for
you justification. He’s there pleading for you now and He’ll keep
you until He brings you back the same way He is. Oh yeah!

82.	There's the testimony there, brother/sister, to witness. You are
witnessing to the redemptive work of Jesus’ death and resurrection,
you are witnessing that as God filled the Son, so you are also a
candidate because you’re a son just the same as He is. You are
witnessing to the Resurrection the same as He. You are telling the world
I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine. You are telling the world
you’re going to the Wedding Supper, the incarnation of the Lamb. You
stand there admitting you are the living epistle of God, and whatever
Jesus stood for you... Whatever he stood for you... See? You stand for
that, too. What He is you are. That is what the witness is and what
ownership means. Water baptism signifies it, yes it does.

83.	Israel never stopped in the baptism in the cloud and the sea, they
went right on into the Promised Land. You say Bro. Vayle, they all
didn’t go. True, they all didn’t go. 

	God was going to--said, “I’ll tell you what I’ll do, Moses.
I’ll just make a whole bunch, make another nation out of you.”

	He said, “No, no.” 

	That would have meant Caleb and Joshua wouldn’t have got in. That
would have mean the elect wouldn’t have got in. Those under twenty
years of age wouldn’t have got in.

	He said, “Look, I’ll do it.”

	Moses said, “No.”

	What did God say? He said, “Okay Moses, I’ll let them keep going,
but I’ve got news for you. None of those over twenty, except two, are
going to go in. And I’ll meet their sins down the road.”

84.	Yeah. That’s exactly right, brother/sister. They were baptized.
You can be baptized in water. They are doing it all over the land,
they’re doing it all over the world, call in the name of Christianity,
the name of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. And many are baptized in the
name of Jesus and so on. 

	Well they say, “I baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy
Ghost, according to the Word of God.” 

	Do everything in the Name of Jesus, so I do it in Jesus’ name. Oh
they work a deal on it. They are not going to make it. Because you see,
water doesn’t do it. If God does something for you and you are
witnessing to what God has done and is doing for you, and will do for
you, but what if God hasn’t done anything for you and you’re
presumptuous? What if you don’t go on? You won’t go in.

85.	You say, “Then why get baptized?”

	Because you’ve got to be baptized. When you hear the Gospel and you
say He is the Savior, He is the Redeemer. There is only one thing you
can do, but it doesn’t mean you’ll go in. But then again, if you are
going in, you’ll be baptized. So you can’t duck it. You see, they
want to duck it. Every argument is spurious. There is no argument, there
is no room for debate. 

	You say, “I am bound for the Promised Land.”

	Are you? Then you’ve been baptized in water? You say, “I’ve been
baptized, I’m therefore bound for the Promised Land.”

	No, are you full of the Holy Ghost? Because you are supposed to go on.
Oh yeah! Israel never went on. They rejected the Pillar of Fire. Exactly
is what they did, the Bible said they denied Him. They denied Him when
He came on earth in the human flesh, they denied Him in the Pillar of
Fire, they’re denying Him now in the Pillar of Fire. Bro. Branham said
the Pillar of Fire leads us into the Millennium. Oh then He’s got to
be here to raise us. Yeah!

86.	A man said, “Well Bro. Vayle, do you mean to tell me if I and
so-and so and so-and-so believed that,” he said, “We wouldn’t
preach it?”

	And I said, “But you’re not.”

	Oh yeah. Preachers are convenient, they are politicians. 

	Bro. Branham, here we come. Four pillars in the church. No pillars, no?
Knock a couple of walls out, this will give them four pillars, we’ve
got to preach to four pillars. No, I don’t think you are going to
leave. I can name people right now, who have no more intention of
leaving then nothing. They come in with a shotgun and kill you and drag
you out by the heels, you might leave, but other than that you’ll
stick. Your shoes are too sticky, you see. I like your stickiness.
Don’t worry, it’s all honey. Don’t look at me, because I ain’t
going to get you nowhere.

	Water baptism signifies that ownership, signifies it, brother/sister,
that you are taking new witness, see?  

88.	All right, you say, “All did not go in.” That’s exactly right,
they did not all go in. We preached that in the first message. Simon
stopped short in Acts 8. I suppose Ananias and Sapphira never had too
good a experience either. But listen, the elect of Israel went in. Seven
thousand never bowed the knee. 

	The elect will go in. They’ll repent, they’ll be baptized in water.
Because some don’t go in does not invalidate the baptism and negate
the rest of it. 

89.	Let’s look at Hebrews 6. Come on, let’s take a look at Hebrews
6. We learn a lesson right there. It says: 

(1)	Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us
go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance
from dead works, and of faith toward God,

(2)	Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of
resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

	What did Bro. Branham say that was? He said going from doctrine to
reality, and they are trying to make, have a doctrine without reality.
Let’s keep reading.

(3)	And this will we do, if God permit. 

	But He didn’t permit it back there, because He wasn’t coming back
at that time. No way. It wasn’t time.

(4)	For it is impossible for those who were once (for all) enlightened,
and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the
Holy Ghost,

(5)	And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to
come,

(6)	(Having fallen away, not if they shall. Having fallen away,) to
everrenew them… unto repentance (again); seeing they crucify to
themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

90.	They can get all of that and go to hell. They could baptized in
water, too, brother/sister, and not make it. But I’m going to tell you
something, the real ones have been, and go in. And the real ones get
baptized and go in. And there's a false repentance, and there's a false
baptism, and there’s a false everything, but there's still a real. And
there couldn’t be a phony except there be a real first. So don’t you
ever get any ideas that water baptism is not a genuine real thing that
God wants carried out, because that shows who you belong to. 

	You say, “Well, what if I don’t belong?”

	Well that’s the same as the couple used to--you can do it now, they
don’t even question, the hotel/motel. You can walk in with two girls
and lay in bed with both of them, they don’t give a rip. But years
ago, you know, the cute thing to do was to sign as Mr. and Mrs.
Pinkerton. Now just, I don’t know Pinkertons from a hole in the
ground. The Pinkerton I know, his wife is dead. I’m not compromising
anybody. You could take the kid’s name out of the funny paper, Bushka,
and say Mr. and Mrs. Bushka, but she was really a Miss. Townsend and he
was a Mr. something else. They don’t give a rip anymore. 

91.	You can have a phony baptism. Sure. You can have a pretend. No more
married than nothing to a woman, live with him, everything else. You can
have all those things, there's all those things, it’s all a phony.

	Water baptism is commanded. Go into all the world and preach and he
that believeth shall be baptized. It’s that simple. Because it shows
who you belong to. See? Now I didn’t say this, the prophet said it. I
take everything he said the best I can and tell you about it. 

92.	Now, you hear what I’m getting at? I’m telling you what it
stands for. I’m telling you what lies there, it’s up to you. You and
your house can come in by believing and being baptized in the Name of
the Lord Jesus Christ and inherit the riches that lie in it. 

	I’m not going to be able to stop there!

	That’s what you said when you went into the water, that’s exactly
what your testimony was, when you went in the water. Now if that’s
what it means, we stick to our witness. We claim His ownership and we
realize He is going to fill us.

93.	Now I’m going to just give you a quote and I’m going to call it
quits. There’s a quote that Bro. Branham makes in Future Home of the
Earthly Bride, page, I forget what it is, 49, paragraph 2. He said:

Your body was justified under Noah's baptism...

	In other words, there's something very significant knowing your body is
put into water. You know why? Because the soul and the spirit, the soul
gets born again, to change the nature so you walk different, but that
water signifies that you as a person are not whole except that you are
one, two, three: spirit, soul, body. It really should be soul, spirit,
body, because the soul is in there already, waiting for the spirit and
the outside to give an animation. All right. So therefore it’s called
spirit, soul, body.

94.	Now look it. It’s the soul that is born again. That is where the
rebirth comes, gets down in that seed. All right, now the nature can
come through the spiritual part of man, and in the spirit here, in this
here, is the part of the mind, and that is one that leads to repentance,
in here. So there is a work in the spirit, but the Holy Ghost gets down
here right within, deep within the believer, the wheel within the wheel.

	Now then, what about this other? All right. Under Noah, Bro. Branham
said, it said here, your body was justified under Noah it was baptism.
In other words, he is telling you very, very frankly that as Noah’s
baptism took all the rest out and made it safe for you by the same water
to come back and takeover, so it is that you are telling the world that
not only do I have an inner experience but I know I’m coming back
here, the same as He’s coming back, because I’m owned by Him. And we
are going to reign and live as King and Queen, we are going to get back
on this earth and walk over it.

95.	You see, your water baptism actually testifies to the whole gamut.
It testifies to it, says hey! And you look back on everything that comes
your way, and you, “Say that’s right! I was dead but now I’m
alive, and everything that’s in him, as it starts pouring in by
revelation, the believing part.”

	See, you say, “Hey, I came up out of the water to get that. I came up
out of sin and death to get that.”

	It is the witness, it is the testimony. It is the part of the God’s
truth this hour, brother/sister. And therefore I trust it has quickened
you to know this, that's something of the definitive, something very
real, something very powerful, was ministered to you in Water Baptism,
and it wasn’t just a ho-hum, “well I’ll guess we’ll do it, but
what’s to it? I really could get by.”

	You see, it’s not that all. No.

	I may preach some more. I’m, you say why are you going to preach
more? I tell you why. Because I want to get so convicted myself that,
whatever is in it, I want to ride, I want to ride plumb to the Crest,
brother/sister. I want to be the best old surfer in the world. Go up
there and get on the biggest wave and come roaring into the Homeland, on
every single thing of the Word of Almighty God. Because I tell you one
thing, if that doesn’t do it, ain’t nothing going to do it.

96.	Bro. Branham used to like to sing that song We Are Nearing The
Shore. You bet we are nearing the shore, brother/sister. One of the
great flood-tides, whether you know it or not is the fact you went down
baptized in that water in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That you,
when you had a doubt you came right back and said, “hey, I don’t
know if I came in baptized right, I’m not taking any chances.”

	When he said that night, I remember, under the Seven Seals, he said,
“It is thus saith the Lord that you’re baptized wrong.” He said,
“You must be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ,” I’d
pat myself on the back all my life, still, “Well hey, I was baptized
right.”

	I wasn’t baptized myself, but who needs it? Sure, I was put off by--I
came into Pentecost. And I understood right away by Acts 10, why they
didn’t get baptized but they got the Holy Ghost, so who really needs
to get baptized? And I’ll just wait until I get baptized with the Holy
Ghost, then I’ll get baptized in water. So that’s how I ran it. God
let me do it. I want to tell you one thing, as soon as I got baptized, I
knew I had to. Why?

	It doesn’t take the baptism with the Holy Ghost to make you know you
need water baptism. The word of God stands and says you repent and be
baptized every one of you, showing ownership, showing the witness. And
that tells you what it’s all about. 

97.	You look back and say, “Hey, look what I did. I just repented and
walked in the water. See what He’s done.”

	Aw, there is literally chapters, there's literally volumes that lay
within this symbology, and I keep talking about it. I want to. I like to
talk about the shed Blood, I like to talk about foot-washing, because I
know it lays there. 

	Look at the fact that the sacrifice, you wash the legs, and you wash
the inner part. And Jesus came by with Foot-washing, and he said,
“Look Peter,” he said, “I don’t have to wash you all over.”

	The inner man was already washed, the visceral was washed where the
Life is. But he said, “Peter, it’s those feet of yours down
there.”

98.	It’s a witness to the world. People come along and say well you
see what it is? If you wash your feet, that means--well, what does it
mean? I don’t know what it all means. They’ve tried to figure out
something, and I guess it’s good to figure out certain things, but I
figure myself it just shows us this one thing, what Jesus said: “Hey,
the inside’s already clean, and I’m doing this as a witness to
it.”

	That’s doing something for me. You say, “What’s it doing?”

	I didn’t ask. If I do ask they don’t tell me. But he did say to His
disciples, He said, “you don’t know what I’m doing now, but
you’ll know hereafter,” and I don’t know how long hereafter is
going to take. Maybe the year after.

99.	Now I know one thing he said. “You drink this Blood, you drink the
wine, you take this bread.” He said, “I’m going to do it with you
in the Kingdom.” And He came down and He ate a fish sandwich with
them. See? 

	I’m going on to the Resurrection. Everything I do points to it. For
the first time I’m getting happy to live, because I’m going to live
right. Now I figure if I had to live wrong, if I had to go back to being
me--forget it! I’d do my very best to get annihilated. Fap! The first
time around is bad enough without a second time. I want to tell you one
thing, brother/sister, when I sinned, I learned how to improve how to
sin when I sinned. I ain’t coming around a second time for any messing
around. I’d be the biggest sinner. Yeah, I’ll prove it to you. When
they come back here in the second resurrection, they know better, but
they try to overcome Christ and His bride. I’m coming back changed. 

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, I appreciate sure that.”

	Not have as much as I do, kid! You may think by the way I preach and
I’m rough up here preaching, you may think that old Lee Vayle had
better change. That’s exactly right, and you better believe I’m
going to change. Yeah. Let’s rise.

	Heavenly Father, we’re very grateful to You for Your love, mercy,
kindness, and all those wonderful things You’ve done for us Lord, and
You’ve done in us, and You are doing to us, oh God. And we know that,
we’ll never, ever do anything for it or do we really attempt to, in
the sense of any aggrandizing, or even to say Lord look at what we’ve
done with what You’ve given us. But oh God, we know that when we do
believe, when we are in that Light, we will walk in that Light, we’re
in the Spirit we will walk in the Spirit. We believe that Lord. 

	We believe that somehow Father, that there is a place that’s pleasing
unto You, and by grace Lord, you have bestowed unto us. We have the
strength and not just the will, we have the will and the strength which
has been given by You, to be overcomers in this world. He that believeth
that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God, and he that believes is an
overcomer. We know that.

	And just like You overcame and sat down on the Father’s throne, You
said that we will overcome in the last time. We know we are going to
overcome the antichrist system, the beast system, the whole thing Lord,
overcome this unbelief. Coming out of Babylon, we know that that opens
the door in that way, to come right in. And then believing Lord, to be
with You in that hour. And we know Lord, that You are with us in this
hour, which is that great hour. And we are thankful for it, that You are
here, and You will take us in Lord. 

	And everything we do and everything we want, is to be a witness, oh
God. And Lord we really believe that. And Lord, I just want to thank you
Lord, that I believe Lord, that you do talk with me, you do tell me to
the deepest impression in my mind, right to my inner-most being, right
down to the core Lord. With that wheel within the wheel, there’s
something that deeply impresses me. And I’m so happy, Lord, with what
You impress me, that that dawn is breaking. The warmth of Him who is
Love, flooding our hearts and our minds as never before.

	We are entering in Lord. Deeper and deeper into that secret and Holy
place, the secret chamber of unity, when our Beloved is mine and we are
our Beloved’s. Lord we believe that. And that very hour in Lord, there
is a transference of attributes that must be within us. And there is a
growth Lord, of those attributes to the role that we’re destined to
play, coming right in to the spotless virgin Bride. Immortal with Him. 

	Oh, how can we ever praise You enough? How can we say anything Lord, or
ever do anything? We know that there's no way we can ever do anything.
There is no way. We could only offer back to You what You’ve given us.
And no matter how softly we watch, how anything Lord, we know except it
was by that same life, it isn’t going to work anyway. But Father, here
we are, consecrated to this thing, to say as Mary, “Be it unto me
according to Thy Word,” that’s all we are going to say Lord.
That’s all we are going to say.

	And we know that such a thing as that has been preached so long and for
so strong, that it means that ninety-nine percent of our thinking, and
ninety-nine percent of the people means that, well, hey, that’s going
to be something too hard that God is going to ask us to do, but that’s
not what Mary said, and that’s not the answer that You would have
received anyway. She said, “Be it done unto me according to Thy
Word,” it was that she would be that mother of that One, to be
everything, Lord that You did, and she would nurture It. And now God,
with you help we will nurture that which you’ve laid within our bosom.
With your help Lord, because it’s got to be in the election, and we
have to be the right one, just as Mary would have to be that right one,
there’s no two ways about it. There had to be the proper tracing down.

	Lord, only that that way, if we are in the election, we say be it unto
us according to Your Word. And Lord, nurtured to bring forth. And we
commend ourselves to It, oh God, this evening hour, that the glory of
the Lord, the grace of our Lord, be magnified as never before. Let it be
obvious, not just in the world to come, but even now. Father we commend
ourselves therefore, in faith and grace in the Name of Jesus Christ our
savior, Amen.

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