The Christian & His Attitudes #2, Part 1

Bro. Lee Vayle 

January 22, 1978

	Shall we pray? Heavenly Father, again we come into Your Presence by
means of prayer, through our Intercessor, Jesus, who lives and abides
for us continually, the High Priest, the…?… Melchisedec, and we know
that He was revealed to us and made Himself known in this last day, now
is with us, so we, as it were, are doubly fortunate, realizing what a
great hour we’re living in, and not only that but how great, Lord, is
Your Word and Your ministry to us at this moment, so if we ask anything
concerning Your Will we know that You hear us. We know we have the
petition therefore we desire of You, which is that You, Yourself, would
break the Word to us. Bring our hearts and our minds very low, Father,
so that there will be no danger of any other control but Yours. We give
ourselves unreservedly into Your Hands, therefore, in Jesus’ Name.
Amen. You may be seated.

1.	Now last week, last Sunday morning, we were taking “The Attitudes
and Behavior of Christians” when we were looking at one that seems to
be tremendously vital in this hour, where it says: “Agree with thine
adversary quickly while thou art in the way with him, lest at any time
the adversary (literally the judge), and the judge deliver thee to the
officer, and thou be cast into prison.” [Mt 5:25:] And we saw that
this is not really a corrupt court and an immoral nation, but it’s the
Word of the Lord in admonition to us that there will always be problems
in the church because people are people, and we learn the most important
thing is to get our spirits under control, and to get good attitudes,
because this Scripture actually refers to a misdemeanor or a
confrontation over understanding the Word.

2.	Now you can apply this in just about any way you wish to apply it,
and what I mean by that is that there’s something legitimate has come
within the church. Now what if there’s a misdemeanor? Well, it’s the
same thing as a confrontation over what the Word says. You know, Bro.
Branham brought us a vindicated Word—now there’s no doubt about it.
We saw that in the meaning of what “THUS SAITH THE LORD” is, and
simply anybody who doubts it, I would feel, needs to take some time for
prayer and fasting or something, because as Bro. Branham brought out his
own interpretation of the Pillar of Fire over here…he thought he said
that the eye of the camera caught it, and science cannot now deny it.
And it’s right, it’s been proven.

	Well, when you realize that the Message has been proven, authenticated
by God, to be the interpretation of the Word, as Bro. Branham said,
“The Same Spirit that brought It is now here to interpret It.” And
by God’s grace we have the perfect revelation of that Word at this
hour. 

3.	Well, now it’s strange but even with this tremendous vindication of
this Message, it is a fact that you can hear Bro. Branham, and I can
hear Bro. Branham, and we’ll draw different conclusions. Now that’s
just factual, we will draw different conclusions. One reason is because
you are trained in your spiritual thinking already, and if you have been
trained in a certain way to understand certain Scripture, then it’s
very difficult to jog your mind and to realize that Bro. Branham was not
speaking in ordinary…well, terms of what modern-day theology is. I
came to that conclusion happily quite a time before he died, so it
isn’t too difficult to stand back and wonder: am I hearing him
according to my understanding, or am I hearing him according to his
understanding? And that’s really what you’ve got to do is to just
listen to what he is saying, and try to put your own thinking aside.
That’s difficult.

	Now because it is, we have this problem amongst us where we are not at
odds with each other,  temperamentally—although I’ve got my tongue
in my cheek when I say that, don’t worry—hopefully, we’re not. We
are at odds, and sometimes it’s temperamental—little personal
things—rather than that which is judicial and something that’s
really meaningful, but we have schisms amongst us over the Word. Now how
are we to conduct ourselves over those schisms which sometimes take a
whole lot more meaning than that which is over a moral situation?

4.	Now Bro. Branham brought us to the point, if we would only listen to
him, where he says even concerning a man that just simply never did see
this Message, to see Bro. Branham in the light of THUS SAITH THE LORD,
and the vindication…he said, concerning that brother, “He believes
this Message just as much as we do.” And Bro. Branham wasn’t
lying—the man did. In other words, I believe Bro. Branham was telling
us that fellow was just as strong in his faith as we are in ours. 

	Now what did he do? Take clubs and annihilate each other? No. He said,
“If you’re eating cherry pie and you run across a pit and it’s
kind of hard on the teeth, you know, a little jar on the skull, and what
do you do? You don’t throw the pie away, you just spit the pit out and
keep eating.” If you’re eating chicken, you don’t throw the
chicken away, you just carefully eat around the bones, put the bones to
one side.

5.	 Now I see here what we need is a proper spirit, which I’ve been
talking about last Sunday, is to get the right attitude toward our
brethren so that we realize they’re fighting for their lives the same
as we’re fighting for ours, and this being a democracy, people have
every right to believe the way they feel led. But we have one bad
problem, and that is that people who would go along with this statement
I have made, they’ll continue to bore in. Now, that’s bad. If we
give a reason of our hope, and can sit down and look at this Message in
many, many facets, which we should be able to do, it should not separate
us, and the reason the separation is there is because somebody won’t
back up. And the people who won’t back up feel that if they do back
up, they are betraying the Message. 

	But how come Bro. Branham could say to somebody, “Oh, you could be
right; I could be wrong”? Tape after tape, “Oh, you could be right;
I could be wrong,” knowing he was right! Now that spirit that stands
up and fusses is absolutely diabolical. I don’t care how right I am or
you are right, you and I have ceased to be right when the spirit is
wrong, because I’ll tell you why…I may never get to preaching but
it’s all right. I want to illustrate: I’ve got a hand here that has
a little power—not much, I’m getting too old—but if you were in a
river and hanging onto a little branch and the current was swift, and
you could drown and I could put my hand out and take like this and pull
you up…I go ‘wham’! right on the face. There is no difference in
the strength supplied—it was the attitude and the motive.

6.	Now all power is of God, and I don’t care if the devil’s got it,
all power is still of God—it depends on how you use it and for what
reason. So if there is any spirit amongst us that would attempt to make
ourselves right and separate—that spirit is not of God or I don’t
know what the prophet had for a spirit. 

	And I’m going to just clear the air, as far as I’m concerned: if
you’ve got it, or if I’ve got that spirit that is not the same as
the prophet’s in bringing this Message, then there’s something
wrong. Now that’s what I tried to make clear last Sunday: there has
got to be an understanding spirit. I will go to any church unless they
get too rough in their doctrine. I’ll go to any church and preach and
not cut across their doctrine on purpose because I have not been set in
the church to be a guide to anybody. No, sirree. The best I can do is
beat my little signals…?cymbals…?……and walk off

	Now if there’s gross immorality, that’s a different thing. But
it’s very strange that there are those who would look upon immorality
and wink at it as long as the person went along with their ideas of
understanding. If that’s not organization and Babylon, I’ve never
heard it.

7.	So get the right mind toward the individual. Now if he’s a brother,
he may not believe what I believe, but that’s all right—we’re both
eating chicken, we’re both eating cherry pie, we’re both brethren.
See? And that’s not hard to do as long as the person is not
obstreperous. If he becomes malicious, and a liar, then you’d better
watch him, because I’ve discovered this, and perhaps if I wait long
enough I’ll find you Scripture for it—I know that every Word has got
to have a clothing, every Word has got to take the form on it. If there
was a word called ‘spoon’ and no spoon, there’d be no word called
‘spoon’. There just wouldn’t be.

	So when I find people lying and I couldn’t believe their doctrine any
more than I’d try to fly to the moon, I’m sorry, but there’s got
to be a form for everything. Just like spiritual fornication has got to
have a physical…trace it back in the Bible as wrong doctrine, and Bro.
Branham said a lie is nothing but the truth perverted…then if you see
a fellow lying about a lot of things, you better believe there’s
something perverted back there, you’ve got to trace it back…would be
a truth, which would be a wrong thing. See? 

	But we have to look at all these things, yet maintain a right spirit.
And a right spirit is always keeping the door open and never saying
‘never’. Now that’s one thing I’ve learned. There’s one thing
I’ve learned: I’ll say ‘never’ unless the Lord changes my mind.
Now if the Lord changes my mind, I’m open for it and you see it’s
not ‘never’. But if the Lord doesn’t change my mind, then it could
be ‘never’. 

8.	But the door must be kept open and there must always be a right mind,
no matter what has been done, you’ve got to keep a right mind. And the
right mind, of course, is remembering that we, ourselves, are fallible.
There isn’t one of us who couldn’t be a sinner or a bigger sinner in
the realm of that individual sin than the person we’re condemning. And
we see that in the light of the Apostle Paul who thought he was just
about the finest man living, when he was actually killing the very Bride
of Jesus Christ. That’s why he called himself a chief sinner because
he was doing that terrible thing. 

	So there’s nobody who is too far gone that the door cannot be kept
open to and a right attitude always maintained in our own mind,
especially in wonderment, as to why a person would do certain things.

	Now here is where Bro. Branham was past master. Of course, I realize,
being a prophet, he was in a far superior bracket than you and I are, or
ever will be, as far as this life is concerned. But he always kept his
heart open to put himself in that fellow’s shoes and looked to see why
the person did it. Then he could, with honesty, integrity, be rougher on
a little so-called sin than what looked to be a bigger sin because he
was watching the motive—watching why people did certain things.

9.	So when we see something come up which is legitimate, and this is
based on legitimacy, not based on some little silly thing amongst us,
make up stuff, but something that is in our midst and it’s a moral
thing, or it’s something to do with the Word and differences, we must
always realize that we’ve got to have a right mind, gear ourselves
down, get a right spirit, and learn to look at it, if possible, in the
light of the other person’s understanding. 

	Then the next thing is not separate ourselves—that’s usually what
comes when there is something that goes wrong—a spirit of separation
gets in. Now there’s only one spirit of separation and that’s from
the world unto the Lord. As soon as we get with the Lord it seems that
we now become critics of the highest order, judging before the time, and
thereby we move ourselves asunder—and that’s not right, because the
Scripture warns us to restore.

10.	You know, I’ve been involved in…oh, different things in the
church which have to do even with immorality, and I want to tell you:
I’ve looked for the church that had the gracious spirit to restore,
and I haven’t found it. Sorry about that. I wish I could come and say,
“Bro. Vayle travels around,”—maybe I should travel more. See, I
guess I really should…fifty-two weeks out of the year…get about two
churches per week and I’d get a hundred and four churches in a year,
and that’d pretty well cover everything in two years in America, and I
could come back and say, “Well, I found…” or, “Haven’t
found…” Well, the little traveling I’ve done, and I haven’t
found the church that’s willing to restore. Now I want to know
what’s wrong with their hearts. 

	You say, “Well, Bro. Vayle, we look at that sin as though we can’t
trust the person anymore.”

	Then you put yourself above God, and so have I. Something’s wrong
somewhere and it simply lies in the spirit. There has got to be that.
Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t be cautious…like one fellow
said, “If a dog bites me, that’s the dog’s fault. He bites me
again, that’s my fault.” True, true. You know you’re not a bunch
of dummies. You know when the Bibles said, “Love believeth all
things”…then “Well, I believe the moon is made of the green
cheese, and a five dollar bill is worth twenty-five dollars”…nobody
has to be a nut. What we’re trying to say here is that when “love
believeth all things” that love puts himself in a position that never
gives up and keeps him looking to help, but not become foolish in doing
it.

11.	So we’re looking around to see that we’ll be able to in the
future, hopefully, come to positions of restoration and reconciliation
in faith that the person is going to come to this level that the
Scripture demands of him and we ourselves are hopeful that we are
arriving in also. So we don’t want to separate: get the right mind and
don’t separate. And, of course, there’s reconciliation, and if there
were reconciliation, you wouldn’t separate. And then if there’s
reconciliation there’d be attitudes of forgiveness, which would be
divine, and remember that Paul the Apostle—Bro. Branham said the same
thing—that there’s none of us can forgive, it’s got to be the
Spirit of Christ in us. So just get yourself off the hook right now, and
don’t try to forgive, just let God in you have His way, because you
and I are not going to get to first base.

12.	So we saw that last Sunday. Now there’s one point I didn’t
cover, and I want to try to get this across in a way that doesn’t
erase and eradicate everything I’ve said, but what do you do when you
come across a situation where a person is pressing all the time, and
you’ve got to admit the guy has rights, and the other person has
rights, and yet there’s a conflict where one is pressing. Well,
that’s something in the spiritual realm. There’s something wrong
with the man’s spirit. Now I just can’t say too much or I’d give
away everything I’m talking about here, and I don’t intend to…you
name names, it wouldn’t be nice…but what would you do about a person
who pressed, and the pressing was legitimate in the sense of something
mechanical, but illegitimate in the sense of the person demanding it
when he should have backed away? What do you do? 

	Well, I’ll tell you what happened. This came up in the prophet’s
life and he said to this brother, “By the grace of God, I will never
mention your name again,” you see, because the church and nobody could
do anything. Somebody has to finally turn back and walk away, and say,
“Look, I’m sorry. We simply can’t keep this up. Now I’m not
going to abuse myself any longer, and you’re not going to abuse me any
longer, but by the grace of God, it’s quits.”

	You say, “What’s happened?”

	It’s been turned over to God, and the man with the wrong attitude
will pay a price, and the man with the right attitude will be blessed of
God. 

13.	Now I hope that illustration hasn’t hurt you. I hope it helps you,
because, look, as long as we’re this side of the Resurrection, we
don’t know what people are going to do. See? A woman tried to trap me
one time and she said, “Oh, Bro. Vayle, what would you do?” because
her husband committed adultery on her…she said, “What would you do
if your wife committed adultery on you?” 

	Well, what would my wife do if I committed on her, of course? But the
question was, “What would I do?” Being a preacher…and she asked me
and I said, “I don’t know,” because I know my nature, but by the
grace of God I hope—and boy, that’s a mighty big hope—that I might
just do the right thing.

	Now, look, see, we just keep showing you here: you get under a wrong
spirit—and I don’t care how right you and I are—we’ve ceased to
be right that very minute…ceased to be right. Because, you see, it was
the Holy Spirit that brought the Word and he would have to have a right
motive with the Word, which is mechanical. Now the Bible warns us to
“judge not before the time,” which means when all the facts are in,
so we must inculcate in ourselves the right and true spirit, and if we
have the right and true spirit, I believe we can meet any issue within
the church and it’ll come out beautiful. But if we have the wrong
spirit, I don’t care what you’ve done, it’ll backfire. See? So
that was the important thing about last week’s message—to get
ourselves lined up with the right spirit, the right attitude, and then
God will begin to work it out for us. Otherwise, it will never, ever
work, no matter what.

14.	Now we’re going to continue concerning “The Christian and His
Attitudes,” and we’ll take another Scripture, which is also in
Matthew, but I won’t quote it just at this moment. And before I read
it and take up this portion, I want to repeat what I’ve said on many,
many occasions, and that is: as far as I know, and I think I know pretty
far in this respect, that there is no true, basic law of psychology that
is not found in the Bible. Now the psychologists and psychiatrists help
us to understand ourselves:  they help us to bring out what is in us to
see where we’ve gone wrong. And the only way anybody can be wrong is
when a law is broken. Now, if there’s no law there, and that law’s
not broken, then, of course, how can anything be wrong? But there’s
got to be something off-center…something missing, or something in
conflict.

15.	Now if it’s something like that then, of course, things will
happen in their lives that will be bad, and we don’t like them, but I
find by studying myself, that there is no definitive law,
psychologically, no definitive law in human nature but what is already
in the Bible. You’ll find it somewhere if you look for it. And one of
the greatest is over in Mt 6:19-21:

(19)	Lay not up for yourselves treasure upon earth, where moth and rust
do corrupt, and thieves break through and steal: 

(20)	But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth
nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:


(21)	For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

16.	Now Dr. Crane, one of the great Christian psychologists and
psychiatrists, said, “Go through the motion and the corresponding
emotions will come.” Go through the motions—a law of psychology.
“Go through the motions and the corresponding emotions will come.”

	And he says this to every family that is in difficulty, especially to
those whose marriages are fading, losing out, and even on the rocks,
because to every person who says, “The old original love and joy of
marriage are gone,” he replies, “Act as you first did when you first
courted, fell in love, and married. Act as you first did, no matter how
you feel, whether you even hate to do it.” 

	“Embarrassingly, I’ll do it,” and “the old will renew itself as
great or greater than ever.”

	Now that’s what he said, which is “go through the motions and the
heart will catch up.” Now I know that people would say, “Well, I’d
feel like a hypocrite. I’d feel like an idiot.”

	Well, you are one, so don’t feel bad if you feel it, because you’re
not a hypocrite if you have a genuine goal in sight. 

17.	Now I’m going to read it again and tell you:

(19)	Lay not up for yourselves treasure upon earth, where moth and rust
doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 

(20)	But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust
cannot corrupt, and thieves cannot break through nor steal: 

		(21)	For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

	Now you’ll notice what it says: it says the heart follows what you
are laying up, as important…what you’re doing. Now “lay up
treasure in heaven”…a person says, “Well, I don’t feel like
it.” There’s something missing in the spiritual, there’s something
missing in the emotional, there’s something missing in the mental,
there’s something missing in the ego, the psyche. All right, do what
the Bible said, “Do it anyway.” Do it anyway, with the understanding
that there is a guarantee that what you lay up, the heart will then
begin to fall in line with…the ego, the emotions, the psyche, the
whole person will begin a new concept, a new relationship, a new life,
if you begin to do certain things.

18.	Many people have no great desire for heaven. They have no great
desire for what is to come, and the reason is because they haven’t
laid up toward it. Now you know Bro. Branham told the old story, which
is very famous, about a man who was the…actually, this came from
France where a Catholic bishop one day went to visit a prisoner. And the
man was boasting what a great fortune he had made. He said, “I want
you to look north, Bishop, as far as your eye can see, that’s my
land.” He said, “Look to the west as far as your eye can see, and
look to the east, and look to the north as far as your eye can see,
that’s my land.”

	And the man had great prosperity, he’d worked hard, been
skillful…even the little towns and villages belonged to him…he was
so mighty. And finally the bishop said, “Sir, I want you to look up.
How much do you own up there?”

	And the fellow said, “Nothing.”

	He said, “That’s your trouble.”

19.	Now that is what the Scripture shows here: that if a person wants to
enjoy, to love, to be motivated, then there is a way to do it. When that
emotional aspect, the motivation, is not there, start doing something
because it’s right. And it hasn’t got a thing to do about your
feelings. In fact, the Bible condemns working on feelings. It said if a
person comes by, and he’s poor, and doesn’t have clothing and
all…don’t say…get a big smile on your face, pat the guy on the
back and say, “Now God bless you, buddy, you go down the road and
I’ll pray for you.”

	The Bible says, “You rotten hypocrite.” Your prayers aren’t worth
a plug nickel; they don’t even go past your nose. If you had enough
brains, you wouldn’t have said it. It said, “Give the man something.
Do something for him.” See? Not saying you should put your prayers on
legs…that’s fine, you can put your prayers on legs if you want.
Sometimes you haven’t got any legs to put the prayers on. So we’re
not just saying that. We’re saying where the Word of the Lord is, and
that Word is remedial because now you are on God’s level and God is
playing by utilizing that Word. It doesn’t have one thing to do with
what you think about it. 

	That’s where this Message went haywire with the people. They began
thinking about it, what their creeds and dogmas said, and their preacher
said. If they had just stopped thinking and looked at the Message, and
did what the prophet said, they’d have been a million miles down the
road toward restoration and recovery. No. What your thoughts and my
thoughts have to do with the Word is nil, except to agree with It and
start putting into practice here. 

20.	So the doctor was completely right. He said, “You start building
up your marriage.” In other words, you start doing those things that
you know to do, that you used to do. You just do them, and pretty soon
the heart will have a complete change. The heart will have complete new
life. It’s what the doctors tell us. They say there’s no such thing
as breaking an old habit, you build new ones. And that’s true. You
reprogram your life. And so you take these computer lives of ours and
you reprogram them by deliberately doing those things that you know
should be there and they’re being missed because of personality
conflicts, or something has broken down. You can rebuild it by doing
that which the Scripture tells you to do.

21.	Let’s go back and just see this marriage affair a little bit in
the Book of Ecclesiastes. There is a Scripture here that’s very nice
Scripture—I like it very much myself, and it says in verse 9:

(9)	Live joyfully (Or enjoy life) with the wife whom thou lovest all the
days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun,
all the days of thy vanity: for this is thy portion in life, and in thy
labour which thou takest under the sun.

	Now it said, repeating, “Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest
all the days of the life of thy vanity.”

	Now of course vanity in here could be where a person doesn’t have
much experience, where he has not actually come under the discipline of
life but it’s been a good life. He’s loved it, he’s enjoyed it.
And the Scripture says here that that is what we are to do. It’s a
command there. Many a person says, “Well, I don’t know that I can
actually live with my wife or my husband.”

	You are wrong. I know Bro. Branham said, “Some of you,” he said,
“you couldn’t live with each other and so therefore you’ve
separated, I wouldn’t have you go back.”

	That’s true, and yet it’s not true. Did the people follow the Word
of God? The answer is “no.” Under human instrumentality there could
be few marriages really exist, but under God there shouldn’t be one
marriage that falls apart. And if anybody places himself under the Word
there is a command promise here, and the command is “Go ahead and live
and be happy about it.”

22.	An old fellow was once on the “Art Linkletter” program and he
was about the most jovial fellow you ever saw, way up in his eighties,
he was a joy to behold. And Art said, “How in the world,” he said,
“are you so happy?” 

	He said, “It’s just a matter of wanting to be. I find I can be
happy or not happy—I choose to be happy.”

	You see? Now I realize it would take two people to tango, as they say.
It takes two people to really make a go of it. Well, I’m talking this
morning to Christians so therefore I trust you are all married in
Christ. But here is the truth, and we find many marriages, even in this
Message, where there happens to be great flaws and the marriage is not
doing too well, and the trouble is: the people aren’t working at it.
See? That’s the whole thing. They’re not laying up treasure;
they’re not doing those things where the heart can follow. They’re
all the time hoping that the heart will set up a condition, then things
will begin to brighten. Well, that’s simply attitude. And the attitude
is if you’re right toward God, you will do what the Word of God says;
you’ll begin to make your marriage a whole lot more successful than it
ever was before. Galatians 6:9 brings this out:

(9)	Be not weary in well doing for in due seaon we shall reap if we
faint not..

23.	Now the Bible says here there has got to be a sowing, but remember:
people have got their eyes on the harvest, but the Bible doesn’t say
one sowing brings the harvest. The Bible says sowing and sowing and
sowing and sowing, and it just may be the last time you sow, because it
would be really, that’s the time that gets the harvest. And if you
don’t get a harvest, you’ve got to keep on sowing, because it says
right there, “Your heart will follow.” 

	And I’ve seen some marriages where one side of the family was
absolutely beautiful and the other wasn’t worth a plug nickel. And
I’ll tell you how it was, was because somebody applied himself or
herself in that marriage. It’s like one person said, “There’s
never a fight until the second blow is struck.” And that’s exactly
true. That’s why the Bible says, “Turn the other cheek,” so
you’re not the one that takes the blow…you know, gives the blow
back. You know?

24.	So therefore we see in Scripture here that Dr. Crane is right when
he said, “Go through the motions, and the corresponding emotions will
come.” In other words, there must be a heart-set…?… do I want to
make a go of it? Do I want to have the life that I believed I was going
to have? And the answer is: when people decide to make a go of it, they
can make a go of it, and it’s not merely sticking together for the
kids’ sake—how often do you hear that? Then the psychiatrist comes
along and says, “It’s better you two fighting apes get pulled apart
and let the children go some place else to get love and affection
because all you can do is fuss at each other.” See?

	Well, there’s no rebuilding a marriage under those conditions,
there’s no laying up treasure—there has got to be that laying up
with the treasure, the heart will follow. If the Bible gives us a Word
of command promise on it—and I like the command promises best of all,
because that means if you do, God is sure to answer. You’ve got your
hands on something you understand. Then God will help you.

25.	So none of this therefore requires a passionate motivation or
feeling or a gift, or special dispensation to bring back into the church
love, but an understanding mind concerning the Scripture. Now we’re
going from marriage in the home to marriage in the church as the Bride
of Christ.

	So while people are bemusing themselves and befuddling themselves,
waiting for this momentous dynamism to come down, which we often speak
of  “Christ’s Love capstoning the Bride,” everybody is hanging
around and not going through the motions. Well, I’ve got news for you:
I don’t think It’s going to come down…at least on the people that
think they can go on a certain way and do what they want, and not lay up
for it. 

26.	We’ll go to Ephesians 5:25:

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

	Now we see in here the Church and Christ as husband and wife. Now,
remember, Christ Himself being perfect, that leaves the woman imperfect,
that leaves the Church imperfect. Now we want to find one place where
Christ has not laid up for the Church—there isn’t one single place
or time where Christ has not laid up for the Church. Therefore it’s
the Church’s part to begin to seek out, to properly do those things
amongst themselves that will cause the Love of Christ to sweep into the
Church.

27.	Now as far as I see the Scripture here this morning, it is not
‘love’ that brings the act in this case, but ‘acts’ that brings
the love renewed, and better than ever, and more enduring, because
it’s built upon the Word. You see? We’re looking for love to do
something. We’re all the time looking for something as though God is
going to give us something more, whereby then something special is going
to happen. And that’s not true as I see the Scripture this morning.
And it’s not true as far as I understand what Bro. Branham said,
because when he spoke of That Spirit of Love amongst us, which would put
the gifts on the shelf, as it were—he didn’t say they would be on
the shelf, he said ‘as it were’—he was speaking about the people
themselves. See? And as I showed you here, I’m sure, maybe sixteen,
eighteen months ago, talking about the witness to the
Resurrection—every time Bro. Branham mentioned there would be gifts of
the Spirit in that room, it was always contingent to a need of somebody:
“Now Sr. Brown, you live too near the railroad tracks, and if you stay
there, well, the old train is going to come through and wreck your
house.”

	And then here’s a brother that needed some kind of betterment, and
the reason he wasn’t getting it was because there was something in his
life that shouldn’t be there.

	Now along comes the Word of the Lord and ministry and it brings out
what is necessary. Well, what I’m trying to show you here is that God
Almighty in His Spirit is trying to do people good. So, therefore, there
ought to be a watchful eye because of the Eagle Eye, the Shepherd Eye,
of the Holy Spirit That is amongst us and over us, then that same thing
ought to be in us where we have an eagle eye and a shepherd eye for each
other, for the Bible says, “Look not on your own goods, but on each
other.” 

	Well, that doesn’t mean I’m going to be looking to see if I can
grab something from this fellow. He’ll try to grab from me. It means
I’m looking out for you. See? Trying to help each other.

28.	So what we need is a militant campaign of good deeds amongst us now,
to bring the Love of God sweep into the Message. That’s what I can’t
stand, and I’ll repeat…?… of all this hogwash I see amongst the
five-fold ministry, and I’m part of the five-fold. I abhor what goes
on. If they can jerk you this way and jerk you, that’s doing God a
favor. Why can’t they come in and do ‘you’ a favor…instead of
trying to get a bunch of satellites round about, and make some pretense
out of it? 

	Brother/sister, let me tell you flat: “He that is greatest of all is
servant to all.” [Mt 23:11] See? There ought to be a campaign amongst
us, not to rend and to tear, but to serve and to help, because let me
tell you: if I make a show in your flesh, I’m shot! I’d better make
a show in my own flesh, which means to come on down and become a
service, and aid and benefit to somebody. See?

29.	Now we’re just going to nail the thing the way it is, and if you
see different, the Lord bless you—you see what you want to see. I’m
trying to get as clear a picture as I can in order to help you this
morning to see that if you’re simply looking for Christ’s Love to
come on down and make a great, big climax, and you and I are not in
obedience to God’s Word and laying up those treasures, I believe
it’s going to pass right over to somebody else. 

	Bro. Branham always talked about the little, old washer woman with one
or three tapes. Why? Because she was a picture of perfect service, a
picture of humility, and of abnegation, where she could just wash over
the old tub and try to help somebody. That’s why he always said the
woman has a tremendous ministry: she ministers to her husband in serving
him. But too many have got a grandiose idea—“Give me gifts,” “Do
this, O God”--some great tremendous thing in the midst of them.
Hallelujah!

	Hallelujah, my foot! You’ll be as lean of soul as anybody ever was.
It’s to get in there and realize the things that should be done—do
them. In other words, start looking around and say, “O God, what can
do to lift somebody up? What can I do to say a kind word? What can I do
to encourage somebody? What can I do for the situation here? Lord, make
me aware of it.” Begin laying up. 

	You say, “I don’t feel like it.”

	It has nothing to do with feelings. In fact, it’s like paying income
tax. If anything, I’ve got a feeling against it, but I’ve got to do
it, and no way to get out of it. Oh, I suppose if I fought hard enough,
but I’d end up a mess anyway, wasting all my strength. Why waste your
strength against a packed deck of cards, for a system like we’ve got?
The thing to do is to cooperate. See? That’s what the Bible said. It
said, “Don’t resist evil.” It says, “Start doing some good
thing.”

30.	Now we’re not saying there’s evil in the church, we’re just
saying that what we want is the Love of God sweeping in our midst and I
believe It will come by a militant campaign of good deeds. As Bro.
Branham said, “Say good things.” That’s how the woman got the
devil cast out of her daughter. Say good things, that’s true—a
militant campaign, a building-up people. See? Helping, that’s what an
‘exhorter’ is. 

	Do you know there’s an exhorter in the twelfth chapter of the Book of
Romans? What’s an exhorter? He’s a man that draws near. Draws near
to what? To Christ, by coming in, like a fresh breeze, like a warm
breeze on a cold day, and a cool breeze on a hot day. That’s a hot
drink on a winter day and a cool drink on a summer day. In other words,
he’s a man that’s got answers by the Word to lift and to build you
up. You see? And I’m telling you: a man that’s a builder-upper will
never be a tearer-downer, because, you see, you can’t exert the same
strength at the same time in two different directions. As I said, my
fist can go whop! And hit that guy in the nose and destroy him, or that
same fist can grab him by the hand and give him a little pull. It
depends on what you’ve got in your mind. See? 

31.	Just like when I…I know you know this story, it’s right on the
tape: Bro. Branham mentions Ernie Sandler…poor old Ernie had a trouble
with his wife and he knew she had a devil, and I suppose everybody else
did by the time he got through, but I don’t the people who knew her
knew she had a devil. 

	But anyway, Bro. Branham said, “Well, I can tell you how to cast a
devil out of her.”

	Ernie got real excited, he said, “Yes, sir,” he said, “just tell
me how, Bro. Branham.”

	“Well,” Bro. Branham said, “I’ll tell you what to do, Ernie,
the next time you go home,” he said, “just buy about a five-pound
box of the best chocolates you can, a big bouquet of roses, knock on the
door, and when she comes to the door, just give her the candy and the
flowers, and sweep her in your arms and kiss her. You’ll drive the
devil out of her.”

	Of course, she might have gotten real suspicious for a while. That’s
okay. I think women like that kind of suspicion…after a while they get
used to it. After a while he gets used to it. Pretty soon they love each
other again. See? That’s what we find here.

32.	Now Paul brings this to our attention also, what we’re talking
about, in Philippians 2:1-4:

(1)	If  there be any consolation in Christ (there sure is), if any
comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and
mercies, 

(2)	Fulfil ye my joy, be ye likeminded, having the same love, being of
one accord, of one mind. (Now he tells you that.)

(3)	Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of
mind let each esteem other better than themselves. 

(4)	Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the
things of others.

	Now that’s what I said a while ago. Paul lays it down very flat. See?
He wants us to understand that. Begin looking out for your brothers.
See? Begin seeing what can be done. Now I know that this is not a habit
in this present world because of Laodicea. See? Grab while the grabbings
good, get while the gettings good, everybody makes a million. See? Even
the churches want to grab converts…converts to what? To Satan’s
kingdom, not the Word of Almighty God. But begin looking for the good of
somebody else…what we read over here in Galatians 6:10, well, I
didn’t read it but here it is:

(10)	As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all ,
especially  them of the household of faith.

	How often through carelessness we miss opportunities to do nice things
for people. You know, it’s not enough to admire a people who do nice
things. I don’t know about you, but I’m sure…well, that you’re a
lot like me in this respect: you’ve got friends who remember your
birthday and anniversary. Why? I don’t know…I wouldn’t…but I
should. I really do know…it’s because they care. You know the old
Hallmark card says, “You give the very best because you care,” what
about us as Christians? You know sometimes a card could make the
difference, a note could save a suicide, a kind word could stop a person
retrogressing and going downhill.

33.	What would I have given years ago when I first became a preacher
that people would have helped me? But I learned a lesson in that. I
don’t say that I’ve done this all the time, but when ministers, at
least some that I’ve known, are leaving their jobs, and they’re
going to go preaching, the first thing I try to do is to send them a
good sum of money through some church in order to encourage them down
the road somewhere, to let them know right off the bat that God is
faithful, because, look, God is faithful through you and me, and not
through somebody else. God’s not going to open the heavens and rain
down carloads of wheat…you know, remember: back in the days of Elijah,
it was prophesied by a prophet that as there was scarcity, there’d be
plenty, and the man said, “Well,” he said, “if God opened the
windows of heaven,” he said, “and let it rain down, we might have
that.”

	Well, God did not open the windows of heaven and let it rain down, but
there were piles of wheat, and oats and barley, and everything the
people had need of, and God saw to it that what man had put his hand to
by raising what man had labored, Israel got it. And the same thing holds
today: somebody’s got to labor a little harder to help somebody else.
Somebody’s got to work a little more in order to get a little bit more
to help. Don’t you know that’s what the Apostle Paul said over here
in Ephesians? I wonder if I can find it, I know it’s there. If I
can’t find it, I’ll sort of halfway quote it to you, and then
quoting can be pretty punk, but anyway the idea…oh, it’s 4:28:

(28)	Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour,
working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give
to (his family…and put a lot of money in the bank and then retire and
have a ball!)

	It doesn’t say that. It says “that he may have to give to him that
needeth.”

34.	It doesn’t say the person that ‘doesn’t need it’; it says
the person that ‘does need it’. You’re not obligated to help
anybody who can help himself and has already gotten help. There’s too
much of that going on amongst us right now: “You scratch my back and
I’ll scratch yours,” and “You give me a nice gift and I’ll give
you a nice gift.”

	Forget it! And I would think that women are worse than men on that
because they have sweeter ideas and passions and get carried away
quicker, and a man is more hard-headed. 

	Look for somebody that needs something. See? Start looking around;
start rolling your eyeballs in that direction, right? Instead of
inwardly.

35.	Now we ought to help each other here and look for opportunities, and
if there are opportunities we should certainly avail ourselves of those
opportunities. Again, in Romans 12, which I alluded to a while ago,
we’ll see what it says here, 12:20, what I’m looking at:

(20)	Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him
drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 

(21)	Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.  

	What’s the first thing somebody needs when there is a problem and
they’re obstreperous? Do something nice for the person. See? Try to do
it. I know that’s more difficult, but the Scripture says here,
“Vengeance is mine; I will repay.”

36.	Now if we are to do something for those who are against us for no
reason, how much more should we do something for those who are with us?
You see? Trying to help people. Let’s see if we can find something
over here in Luke 6…yeah…giving us an understanding, beginning
perhaps about verse 27:

(27)	But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them
which hate you, 

(28)	Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use
you.

(29)	And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the
other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat.

(30)	Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away
thy goods ask them not again.

(31)	And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them
likewise.

	Now that’s carrying it to a very far degree because no man in his
right mind will want to do all these rotten things going on here: taking
what’s not yours, hitting somebody in the face, cursing somebody. Yet
we have a picture here, given us that show the extremity of how far we
are to go. We’re to go a long, long way. In other words it’s a
constant battle in our lives.

37.	[Tape 2:] Now it says [Lk 6:32-35]:

(32)	For if you would love them which love you, what have you? For
sinners also love those that love them.

(33)	But if you do good to them which do good to you, what thanks have
you? for sinners do the same thing.

(34)	But if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what have you?
for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.

(35)	But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing
again; and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the children of
the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.

	Now I haven’t gotten that far. I’ve gotten as far, if I were to
give thousands of dollars to some minister or ministry, and I’d find
that thing go sour, I have no regrets. I’ve heard people, and
they’ve told me, “Man! I sure regret giving. I wish I could get it
back!”

	Hogwash! You’ve got to be sick. I thought you were giving that money
for the sake of Christ? I thought it was unto the Lord. Well, you might
as well tell the fellow, “Look, bud, I’m giving this to you. This is
from me. God’s not in this thing.” Tone your hallelujahs down, not
worth a plug nickel anyway. See? Yeah, I’m just being very kind…you
don’t know that, but I’m being very kind, because we’re just
spreading it on where it belongs. Yes, sir.

38.	It says:

(35)	…(And be kind, be like God, the children of the Highest), for he
is kind to the unthankful, and he’s kind to the evil, (But the Bible
says, “Be ye kind one to another, speaking of Christians forgiving,
and doing good things.)

(36)	Be therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

(37)	Judge not, that you be not judged: condemn not,that you don’t be
condemned: forgive, and you shall be forgiven: 

(38)	Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, (Now it says
when you start giving with the right attitude, when you’re doing the
right things, it says: watch what’s going to happen to you.)…give,
and it shall be giving unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken
together, and running over, men give into your bosom. 

	In other words, when we do these things that we have already outlined
in Scripture here very poorly of course, you start doing it, and you
know your motive is right because God said so, and you’re looking to
see the changes come, the Bible said that old heart’s going to begin
to swell and God’s going to heap that all back on you. 

39.	Remember Bro. Branham mentioned a Sr. Bell dying, and she died in
such peace, he said, “She must have paid for her sins before her final
hour, she went away in such peace.” 

	I know that you can’t tack Scripture on that all the way…there’s
sinners that die in perfect peace, too, in the sense that they have no
problems…they live old lives, you know, like the old green, bay tree
spreading themselves, and it comes time to die…they just die so pretty
peaceful. And some Saints die in agony. Well, there’s something I
don’t understand. God understands, but Bro. Branham, being a prophet,
knew that she’d paid a price somewhere. And I believe the greatest
price paid is to sow in peace and reap righteousness, to be one of these
people. It says:

(38)	Give, (and it said:)…men will give to your bosom. For with the
same measure that you mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

	Now, that’s just not money, that’s everything. It says if you
continually do this, there will come a time when it will come back on
you, and I know that’s the truth, brother/sister, because what a man
sows, he will reap. If you sow oats, you’re going to get oats; if you
sow wheat, you’re going to get wheat. You simply can’t change it.
It’s the same in the Resurrection. A man goes down a human, comes up a
human. A bird goes down a bird, comes up a bird. The lion goes down a
lion, comes up a lion. That’s 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians says: so
is the Resurrection—that flesh is coming up again. So what you and I
plant, we are going to reap.

40.	Now where are we going to reap it? Right in here, where it really
counts. If you want an enlarged, great, big, fat heart—and you know
fat around the heart is no good—but a fat heart’s wonderful… See?
In other words, a big…a great big heart. What you want to do is start
making room for the goodies that are going to come in that big heart. Or
why would you want a big heart for? 

	Say, “I want a big heart and get everything everybody could give
me.”

	Well, you’re nuttier than a fruitcake—you’ve got a tiny, weenie
heart. You get a great big heart for the goodies coming back—that’s
how you get a bigger heart, that’s how you put an L-shape on, to the
second-story on it—it’s by doing these goodies for people. Look
around, brother/sister, there’s lots of things we can do for each
other…even a glass of cold water is going to, you know, get a
reward…absolutely. That’s what the Scripture says here.

41.	Now let’s go to…let’s see, I think I’ve covered this here
now. Now, let’s be careful to note here. It’s going to cost us
something. Hebrews 10, I knew that had to be about the next little note
I was going to bring you…Hebrews 10…it’s going to cost us
something. Don’t think for one minute it’s going to cost us
nothing…it’s going to cost us something. 10:34-37:

(34)	For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the
spoiling of your goods, knowing that in yourselves you have in heaven a
better and an enduring substance. 

(35)	Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great
recompence of reward. 

(36)	For you have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of
God, ye might receive the promise. 

(37)	For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will
not tarry.

	Now I know that it’s going to cost us something—the Bible says so.
It says right here, “You took joyfully the spoiling of your goods.”
Sure, people will come along and take what we’ve got. We haven’t
seen it in this age—they saw it back there. But I’m going to tell
you: the very fact that you and I can bind the strong man within us, our
will, our character, bind it by the Spirit of God through the Word, keep
that old fellow down, and then deliberately go out of our way to do the
things which we wouldn’t do normally—that’s real, genuine Holy
Ghost love! Do it! Lay up treasure in heaven and lay up treasure right
here, and watch how men will give it back to you.

42.	There’s a friend of mine—this fellow is about forty years old
now—and I have the greatest compassion for that kid because I loved
him the minute I met him. He married very young, married a lovely girl,
but there wasn’t any help for him as there should have been, and so
the marriage went on the rocks—and I’m sorry about that—but in his
early hours of marriage, when there was so little in the house, he was
going down to buy a little bit of bread and some milk for the babies,
and I think he had about two dollars. And he met a man, coming out of
his house…used to visit…and the fellow said, “Cox,” he said,
“I wonder if you could help me,” he said, “I haven’t got a thing
in the house. Now,” he said, “if I just had a little bit,” he
said, “I could live.”

	Well, the kid felt so sorry for the old boy that he gave him the two
dollars he had. And he said, “Oh, my! What am I going to do now?” 

	And the fellow said, “Coxie, look,” he said, “I’ve got a little
budgie bird in here,” he said, “I don’t even have any seed to feed
him. Why don’t you take him home?”

	He took him and sold him for five dollars.

	Do you see? “Give, and it shall be given…a good measure.” It
tided the kid over.

	You say, “The old man could have done that.”

	Sure, he could have done that, but it wasn’t in God’s plan. God
made that boy a little test, and I don’t believe he would have sold
the bird for five dollars…I wouldn’t have given anybody two bucks
for a budgie bird back in those days…in fact, you couldn’t give me
one…I’ve had all I’ve wanted to do with them.

	But, you see, God knew there was somebody who’d pay five dollars for
that bird, and he did. And the boy got it back.

43.	I remember years ago, the same principle entered my life, because
being on the road, I knew I had to trust God—it was difficult—but
God, of course, was good to me because He got me out of debt. I had
twelve hundred dollars owing on the car, and I prayed for the Lord:
would He send me on the road, but not in debt, and a Voice within me
said, “Don’t worry, you’re going to get the money,” and from
that minute on, I knew it, and I got it. It was just like God
said—just one nice lump like that, paid it off—not nickels and
dimes—twelve hundred dollars cash. See? Well, that’s the way God
does.

	But I’ll tell you: I’ve always believed in a tithe and a
tithe…now you do what you want…because maybe you can’t afford it,
or think you can’t, but when you’ve lived as low as I did on
forty-five dollars a week—of course, that’s some time back—and you
took nine dollars out of that, before you took a nickel out in expense,
that was quite a bit of money. 

	But I got one day…I had a little money saved up…so I sent twenty
dollars to a preacher and I sent twenty dollars to a widow. And exactly
twenty twenty-dollar bills came in and died. I had exhausted my “give,
and it shall be given unto you.”

44.	Now that twenty never came because the twenty tithe belongs to God.
Now there’s one thing we must understand: when a person pays tithes,
he gives nothing—that’s God’s; that’s not mine, that’s not
yours, that’s God’s—it has nothing to do with you and me. That’s
the way I like it because then it’s in His Hands, see? But when it
comes to giving, that’s in your and my hands, and the Scripture
distinctly says you either do it because you want to, or you don’t,
because you don’t want to, or you haven’t got it.

	Now it said if you don’t have it, you’re not obligated; if you do
have it, you’re not obligated. Do you want to do it? Well, I said,
“Sure, I want to do it, Lord,” and that’s how the money came in. I
got twenty twenties for a twenty. 

	And I’ve always found this: that God honors those who give. But you
know what? It’s going to cost you something to give. So therefore I
like what the man said. He said, “It’s not what you give, it’s
what you’ve got left over,” and that puts a different story on it
now because most of us are in a position which we never were a few years
ago—there’s more and more. Of course, we know taxes eat it up, but
let’s face it: we’re still the best fed, best taken care of people
in all the world. Never fuss about America—the only reason America is
going down the drain is because she had the prophet—for no other
reason, because we’re no different from anybody else. In fact, I’ve
been around the world, different places in the world, where I think
they’re a whole lot worse than we are…you know, really, although you
wonder how that could be…well, I wonder myself, really. It’s a bad
mess.

45.	But, anyway, God never lies in His Word, and He always encourages us
to give. It’s just exactly what the Scripture says: that God so loved
the world that He gave His Only-begotten Son. Then John says, “This is
the love of God—that He loved us first.” Then because He loved us,
now we’re able to reciprocate. So, therefore, we look around, and we
do our best to find those who need help in any time of need, and we help
them, and behold, the same blessing comes back upon us.

	So it will cost us something to lay up those treasures, but look at the
rewards: breaches are healed, breaches are healed. You know, that’s
one of the titles that God has given Himself—the Healer of the
Breaches, the One Who Makes Amends. That’s like the daysman. Job
cried, “Oh, is there not a daysman? Is there somebody can take the
Hand of God, and my hand, and bring us back together?”

	And of course the Holy Spirit did it. 

	Jesus is our Daysman. And through Him all breaches are healed, and we,
being as Bro. Branham said, “little Messiahettes,” or “little Miss
Jesuses,” we are to have the very same ministry. 

	Breaches are healed which give us a reward on earth and treasures laid
up in heaven. It gives us a testimony to Jesus Christ. 

46.	Let’s look at John 13…remember the old-fashioned…the old
people in the early church said, “Oh, behold how they loved each
other”? John 13:35:

(35)	By this shall all men know you’re my disciples, if you have love
one to another.

	What is love? You say, “Well, that’s just not saying, “Well,
you’re a nice fellow. I love you, and you love me.” 

	Love is doing something, and it’s not doing when the fellow doesn’t
need doing for. It’s specifically doing when the chips are down, but
it doesn’t mean you ignore him when things are going good. You’re on
the lookout to see that things will go better. See?

	If the church could get on fire, especially the ministry, the men could
get on fire to begin looking out for the people that need looking out
for, what a difference there would be. 

47.	I remember years ago I was talking about this way in the little town
I lived in in Ohio, and there was a lady up there, a Mrs.
Longanecker…?…her husband was a very nice Presbyterian Christian,
and she was like a lot of people’s wives, you know, very saucy and
very smart and very, you know…pantish and short-hairish…and you
know, and so I was talking…how it was that if I were a pastor again, I
would train my elders, and even deacons, and anybody I could, to go to
the homes and help the homes that didn’t have family worship to
institute it and solve their problems. And she… “Hmmm! If somebody
came into my house!”

	And I said, “Yeah, no one will be in your house, and Jesus is not
here Himself…He’d be only too glad…”

	I didn’t mean to put her down, so I didn’t say anything, but, you
see, that woman and the world is so far off-beat in the churches as to
be pitiful, because it is the duty of those that are strong to help the
weak, and there’s nothing weaker than a home that doesn’t have the
prayer and the Word and those things that belong there. How can people
ever get anywhere except they’re helped? Well, look at the very fact
so many marriages are on the rocks. 

48.	Now, I mentioned this before, but I’m always puzzled. The Bibles
says that women are to teach their daughters to love their husbands. In
other words, there should be a preparation for marriage. That’s why
the world is such a mess right now over your sex problem out there,
because the subject was not taught at home according to Scripture. As
old Dr. Bell, Billy Graham’s father-in-law, said, “You don’t need
these books, the Bible tells you.”

	But nobody went to the Bible. You see?

	Well, I want to know where the women are that taught their daughters.
Now, women, I’m not fussing about you this morning, but you now that
it’s in the land out there amongst your sisters of the flesh—they
want to be women preachers, they want to run this…they want to run the
world…they want to run everything! But they haven’t got enough
brains to teach their daughters, because they’re the same miserable
prostitutes their daughters have turned into. As Bro. Branham said,
“The flapper of this age, the last of his day and mine, has become the
striptease of this hour,” until it’s a horrible thing. And the best
any woman can do today is give her daughter birth control pills. Well,
that’s a fine substitute for the Word of God!

49.	Yeah…and what are the Christian homes doing? I want to ask you
this morning, what are you doing about your daughters growing up, I want
to ask you flat, and it’s a good time to do it. In other words, where
is your love this morning for your kids?

	Now you say, “What about yours, Bro. Vayle?”

	Mine wasn’t so hot, but I’m trying to help you. I know, I know
I’m not a pretty guy to talk to. Look, that’s why I’m no pastor.
You know, I just don’t have that knack, I’m sorry, but what I tell
you is the truth of God just the same as though I came down and…you
know…beat you with an ice pick. So don’t look at me this morning and
how I say it—look at what I’m saying. See? I’m not excusing
myself, I’m trying to tell you something: that you are responsible for
the marriages coming up. What are you doing about it? See? 

	Now I know some of you parents have done the best you can, and your
kids have still gone haywire. All right. It’s out of your hands, but
how many of us heeded the admonition where the Scripture laid it out?
No! It’s always been, “Now if he doesn’t treat you right,
daughter, you better come on home.”

	Well, why in the world now would she marry some kind of a bird that
wouldn’t treat her right? Even men who slap women around? I even hear
men in this Message have slapped their wives. I’d like to slap them
with a four-by-four to let them know I love them. If you’ve got to
slap your wife, there’s something awful wrong with you, not that
there’s something wrong with her, but there’s something awful wrong
somewhere. No, sirree. No, sirree. Bad enough to have sharp words, and
that’s pretty easy because we haven’t learned to glue our mouth up.
Some of the finest glue in the world would be lip glue that had a little
timer on it. You know, they have that crazy glue…they say if you ever
get it on your fingers, it’ll take a doctor to get them apart…might
be good to do the same thing with the lips.

	You know way back in the days of Siam, way, way, years ago, they were
heathen, but they weren’t too heathen—if somebody got out of
order…I’m saying this…I don’t mean to throw off on
mother-in-laws, because my wife is a mother-in-law, and she’s a pretty
good girl, but they said they sewed the mother-in-law’s mouth up, she
talked too much.

	Do you realize that you don’t need that kind of glue in the house of
God, because you’ve got the Word? “Soft words turning away wrath and
all.” So, see here the Scripture teaches you. “By this shall all men
know you’re my disciples.” We conduct ourselves in a certain
way…we’re to have certain attitudes and certain behavior qualities.

50.	Now this is the only foolproof method there is. Let’s go to Romans
13 and read in verse 10 here to thirteen:

(10)	Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the
fulfilling of the law. 

(11)	And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out
of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. (Now
listen: waking out of sleep is found in another place, it’s also in
Ephesians. And, remember, it’s those that were sleeping were lying
amongst the dead, and in this age then, there’s a message for us:)

(12)	The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast
off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. 

	But what’s he talking about? Works of love. So when I said a while
ago, I just can’t believe for one minute we’re to sit around here
and talk about coming up in a pyramid and smacking our lips that we’ve
got all the things here, and other churches don’t have it, I want to
ask a question this morning here in Beaumont, I want to ask you: how
much time are you putting aside in your life to find people that you can
help, and be nice to, and kind and decent, and look for something nice
to do? Well, that’s when the chips were down because it’s proven a
whole lot of hogwash that’s already transpired. I know your history,
and I know what goes around America and around the world. Boast all you
want about love and I’ll laugh in your face. You know why? I want to
see it!

51.	I’ve heard these guys that preach on love and they nauseate me,
because it’s always high-fallutin, to take some advantage. The chips
were down…they’d blow their stack like anybody else. I’d sooner
tell you flat: I will try to act in love and blow my stack, rather than
you catch me in an untenable position where I’m so sweet and nice till
the pressure’s down, then it becomes some kind of a vendetta against
me. Hogwash! No man has a vendetta against me; no man can hurt me unless
I let that person do it. And nobody can, if I get so busy trying to do
nice things for people.

	So let’s talk about love by doing something. Yes, sirree. I believe
you’re doing, but I want to get you to do a whole lot more. I’ve
found the most satisfying experience in this whole life are the days I
would deliberately put aside to attempt to do something for somebody. We
dedicate a day the first day of the week to worship Jesus Christ, and
six more days wouldn’t be too bad to dedicate to somebody else, to put
in acts. See? Yes, sirree. 

52.	I remember talking to one man not too long…oh, it’s years ago
now…this fellow, his wife wouldn’t leave British Columbia to go into
Saskatchewan where he lived. And you know some had the idea because she
didn’t believe the Message, and she smoked, and a few things like
that, it was a good idea…she’d be right. And I said, “I’m going
to tell you something, son: you go out and tell your wife that if
she’ll only come to Saskatchewan, she can smoke if she wants, she may
never go to church, you won’t even talk about the Message, but you
love her and you want her and the children.”

	He did that; they’ve got as happy a home, under the circumstances,
that is possible. What if he’d have left her alone? She could have
blown it with some man, he with some woman. See?

	You say, “Well, Bro. Vayle, I want my wife saved.”

	Who doesn’t? But who says she’s going to be? But I’ll tell you:
you can live with her, and she with you, as decent people, if you put
the right foot forward, if there’s anything there at all. See? But
somebody’s got to do something about it…just can’t sit around. I
believe in times like this you don’t pray as much as you put your
prayers on wheels or on feet, whatever it is, and do it. And that box of
chocolates may be a whole lot more than just for a sweet tooth, it may
sweeten up her heart, and that’s worthwhile. It’s guaranteed to
bring victory. We’re not dealing in something that doesn’t work, it
brings victory. 

53.	We go to the seventh verse, and eighth verse of Corinthians, 1
Corinthians 13:

 (7)	Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things,
endureth all things. (In other words, it just keeps that before it’s
going to work, it’s going to work, it’s going to work.)

(8)	Love never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; 

	How often people prophesy, oh, that’s Pentecostal…prophesy. You
know the…oh, my, listen: thank God this Message got over prophesy of
the diabolical things that tongues and prophesy have done. Out there
in…where is it? Wilcox, Arizona, where they went underground, a family
came to me later on because it was prophesied she should marry this boy,
and he should marry her, and the thing blew higher than a kite. Oh, what
is done in the name of prophesies! I would no more get suckered into
that than I would believe an elephant was a battleship. And there’s
more to an elephant being a battleship than this, I can tell you that
flat. Because prophecies will fall flatter than a fritter, but love
won’t fail. See? Bro. Branham said, “A proper marriage is where
you’ve prayed, you’ve prayed out to know that’s your wife, and the
same with the girl—you’ve prayed out and know it’s your
husband.”

	 He said, “But look at that girl that came,” and he said, “What
do you see in that little fellow?”

	She said, “Oh, he’s got such cute feet.”

	My God, have pity.

54:

(8)	…Whether there be tongues, they shall cease; knowledge will
vanish.

(9)	Because we only know in part. 

	But it says here: there is one thing that works. Now you and I, in
other words, don’t need to know about the future, don’t need to know
all the conditions, don’t need to probe—that’s an unkind thing. Do
you realize even men and women sit down, husband and wife, and start
probing. If a person’s under stress, don’t pretend you’re a
psychologist, or a psychiatrist, just, “Look, I don’t know what’s
bugging you, but’ll work out.”

	You know, the worst thing you can do in a church fight is start
probing, probing, probing. Bury the hatchet! But not in somebody’s
skull—in the ground, and leave it there, and don’t dig it up. Bro.
Branham said, “If you dig up what’s under the Blood, God will bring
that back on you.” You’ll answer for it. Not the person sins, as
though on judgment day, but the trouble that comes out of it. See? 

	Probing, probing, probing! Probe what? Nothing to probe—there’s a
problem. Help the person…say, “Can I help you? What can I do?” Do
something, then if it needs discussion, that’s the time. See? That’s
why doctors go ahead, you know, the way they are, they give you a little
bit of something to relax you. Then after a relaxer, they can deal with
you. Sometimes they’ve got to give you something like, you know, that
truth serum…I forget…sodium something or other…pentothal…get you
relaxed down. 

55.	How do you relax people? Be nice to them, show them something.
Little kid’s in the hospital, little kids that couldn’t…one kid
had such a traumatic effect in his life, he could get nowhere and so
some nurse thought, “You know what? Maybe that kid needs something to
love,” brought in a puppy dog. Well, you know what a puppy dog’s
like? Like Dale Carnegie said, “A dog is the best example of what to
be like.” They just do nothing but show love. 

	I don’t know that there’s a…a person’s got to be really not
very happy about dogs, if he doesn’t love dogs—maybe he’s Hindu or
something, where they’re taught against them. But you know, you look
at a puppy the way he is, that little puppy dog just opened that child
up. What about an adult? What about somebody that has a problem? Well,
you just simply help the person. You can quote all the Scripture you
want, and all the prophesying you want, it won’t do the trick. 

56.	Galatians 6 again. We’re going to read two verses this time 9 with
a 10:

(9)	Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap,
if we faint not. (And he says:)

(10)	As therefore we have opportunity, do good unto all, especially the
household of faith. (In other words, keep doing it.)

	Ephesians, with this, 5:15-17, and it says here:

(17)	Wherefore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the
Lord is. (No, 15 first, sorry I got too far down. 15th verse:)

(15)	See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
redeeming the time because the days are evil. (How do you redeem time
because days are evil? Do something good. To counterbalance. Now:)

(17)	Wherefore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the
Lord is. 

	See? What is the will of God? What is His Will? That we should live in
love and help each other. Now that doesn’t mean to run ahead of the
Spirit and to be unwise with theWord of God. It’s a general
admonition. Now I hope we see it, for how often we want to possess love
and manifest it…we want to possess it in order to manifest it. But the
way is to do it. See? And so that is what we should do altogether, in
fact, do our first works over again.

57.	Revelation 2:4-5, and it says:

(4)	Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because you left your
first love.

(5)	Remember from whence you are fallen, and repent, and do the first
works; 

	Now these people began to drift. They didn’t feel that they needed to
keep on helping. Oftentimes people say, “Well, I’ve done
enough…somebody else can do it.” How often have we thought that?
“I’ve done my share!” You know something? It is well said, “If
you want somebody to do something, ask a busy man. Never ask an idle
man—he’ll never get it done. True. Why do people always hold up as
public examples men who do things, and when they do, you’ll find
they’ve not only got a full-time job but they’re doing fifteen other
things on the side. A busy man…you know somebody said the devil always
finds things for idle hands to do. That’s true, but if you’re so
busy looking to do something good for somebody, I believe that you’ll
have no time at all for the enemy. But we have to make our minds up.
That’s to get back to the first works sincerely, though void of all
else but the obedience of faith.

	What if we’re void of everything but the obedience of faith? “I
don’t feel like doing it!” “I hate to do it!” “I wonder if I
even should do it!” “Will it backfire?” Forget it. Do it anyway.

	What if it backfires? Oh, how people get sour. You know that’s true,
especially in the church. And when a thing backfires, it gets so sour. I
went preaching one time and it backfired and I got sour. The Lord
whipped the hide off of me so I knew better next time. I don’t care
how sour it gets, just keep on preaching. Like Bro. Branham said,
“Preach to the four walls; preach to the posts. If the walls fall
down, preach to the posts. If the posts fall down, get out and preach on
the sidewalk.” You see? Sincerely, through the obedience of faith, and
then we can watch to see it happen

58.	Let’s go to Titus…we’re going to look at the 13th and 14th
verses of chapter 2, and it says:

(12)	Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, to live
soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 

(13)	Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; 

(14)	Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity,
and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

	Zealous…lots of zeal. What is our zeal? It seems amongst us we have a
zeal to know the Word and separate. There ought to be a zeal to stay
together and do something good for each other. See? There we’re going
to get somewhere.

59.	Let’s go to Romans 13…a zeal to see good in each other,
too…that’s good. Thirteenth chapter, yes, I went too far…[13-8]:

(8)	Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth
another hath fulfilled the law. 

(9)	For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, not kill, not steal, not
bear, not lie, not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is
briefly comprehended in this saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself. (In other words, how in the world can you do anything wrong if
you’re so busy doing good? See? Now:)

(10)	For love worketh no ill to his neighbour: (It doesn’t say,
“Love doesn’t work,” it says, “It doesn’t work ill.” Love
worketh. Many people think love doesn’t work. Love does work. Love is
a workhorse. Love sent Jesus to the cross. Love bore the cross.) Love is
the fulfilling of the law (And law is do, do, do, do, do, do, do. You
see: Now:)

(11)	And that, knowing the time, it is high time to awake out of sleep:
for now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed. 

(12)	The night is at hand, the day is far spent. (See? I read
that.)…put on the armour of light. 

(13)	Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting…

	In other words, it says, “Walk as though someone’s looking at you
all the time.” I remember…I knew some friends back in Canada,
they’re real sweet girls, and I used to always admire this one girl
and her sister because they were just so plumb sweet, and I said, “You
know, I’m just amazed at you kids,” I said, “you must have had a
real sweet childhood.”

	“Oh,” she said, “don’t you believe it, Lee.” She said,
“They thought we were just little angels but,” she said, “as soon
as mother’s back was turned, we pinched each other, and we didn’t
dare scream though, so we could pinch each other back.”

	That’s what it says here! As though someone was looking at you all
the time. See? If you and I… [Words missing. End of part 2, side
one..]

60.:

(13)	(That’s) honestly, (See?) not in rioting, drunkenness, chambering
and wantonness.

	See? In other words, people do that at night when they can’t be seen.
Oh, what a mess. But God sees. Now he said, “You act at all times as
though this were in your consciousness that God is here,” and that’s
something that I’m looking at today—having brought the message on
the Presence of the Lord…that He is actually here in a way He has not
been here for roughly two thousand years. So He is in us, and with us,
and over us. You see? That should be a tremendous temptation. And I use
the term there on purpose, a tremendous temptation to tempt us to walk
in the way we’re talking about this morning.  

(14)	But put you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and don’t make  provision
for the flesh…

	For the flesh will say, “Feed me, bathe me, keep me, powder me, scent
me; make me feel good.” But the love of God will say, “Look, I
don’t care about me, I care about that fellow.” And in caring about
that fellow, it comes back upon you with the blessing of Almighty God
manifested.

61.	I think of the story of Star Daley—I’m not a fellow to tell
illustrations, look, because I like to go to the Bible, but I remember
this because I heard Star Daley tell it himself. You know he was a
prisoner and the Lord got him out of prison and had His Hand upon him
and he became an author. And Daley tells how that he went to this town
and he always believed in loving and showing love, but he knew there in
town there was a woman there by the name of Mrs. Bean, and she had a
mouth on her like a buzz saw, and a crocodile…you know, she’d
amputate or chew off any limb gossip-wise. She was real mess.

	And so they were very happy that she had never come to their place
because they knew jolly well the minute she came, she’d just tear them
apart—the way the curtains were, the way the house was, the way they
were…nothing would be the truth, but exaggerated…you know…the
exaggerated, discontent of a malcontented soul, and very perverted.

	And so they were thanking the Lord that she’d never come around. But
one day they saw her coming down the street and they were very glad she
was going to go by—they thought—but she opened the gate, and of
course the gate didn’t…the hinges didn’t buckle so she couldn’t
get it—they swung open. And she was coming up the pathway, the walk,
and they saw her and, man, they got very scared, and they thought,
“Well, what we’ll do, we’ll just put on a good act. We’ll just
put on a real good act.”

	And so they talked to each other one minute, and in one he said,
“Now, look here, we can’t do that. If we’re going to do it,
we’re going to do it right. We’re going to do it right from our
heart, in love, do the right thing, consider and be honest.”

	Well, so they said they brought out the best china, gave her the best
tea and the best cookies, and treated her so good, she was all smiles,
and said, “I’m going to come back,” the very thing they didn’t
want, you know. But she came back.

	And so after a few times they could bring the subject around to the
Lord, and the woman was saved. And the upshot was because of their love,
and how they conducted themselves, she became the most notable Christian
in town, so that from that time on, she was never known for what she did
harmful, but only for what she did good, so that whenever there was a
sickness or a case where someone must sit up all night, or anyone must
be charitable, you could count on Mrs. Bean  to be the one who would
exemplify Jesus Christ.

62.	So, you see, the thing is what we’re saying, is that if we want to
see these things, we have got to do something about it. You just simply
can’t pray, pray won’t do it, won’t do it, it just won’t work.
Praying will only work this far: it will help you to come under the
influence of the Holy Spirit whereby you will do it. For prayer is not
twisting the arm of God; prayer is coming where God can twist your arm,
and come under the Word to do what the Word says.

	So we must go back to our friendships, our communions, our fellowship,
our associations, and delight in each other’s company and the Lord
will bless us, because even the jewels are made up of a very peculiar
people, a hard working, illustrious [industrious?] people, and over here
in the Book of Malachi, this is one of my favorite passages also, where
it says, 3:16:

(16)	And they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, (It
doesn’t say they’re talking to God now…praying—they’re talking
to each other.)  and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of
remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and
that thought upon his name.

	Now those that feared God and thought on His Name were talking a
certain way, and I knew the way they were talking. They were building
each other up in the Word of this hour, and staying with what the
prophet said, so that there would be no schisms and no problems, but
coming on. And it said they are going to be a part of the Bride.

	Now this plan for the church is a constant one, not seasonal, unless
it’s for all seasons, and it is. So look no longer for our own needs
and desires that we have, but to fulfill others and see that the
“bread cast upon the water” will come back, because it will.

63.	Now the Bible said, “They that go forth, bearing precious seed,
weeping, will doubtless come again, rejoicing, bearing many sheaves.”
[Ps 126:6]

	Now if you understand the Orient at all, you’ll know that in the
Orient, many times, they have a complete disaster, and the food is so
low that here’s this poor old fellow there, and he’s got this seed.
Now he doesn’t know if he’s going to get a crop or not, but he’s
got to plant it. Now he’s thinking, “If my children ate this, what
I’m going to plant, then,” he said, “we might tide ourselves over
till some food came from somewhere, but I’ve got to rob my children,
knowing that they could use this. I’ve got to plant it and expect God
to water it and get an increase.”

	Now that’s the way you are, and I am, this morning with our lives,
and what we do. We have the ability to use our lives for ourselves, but
the Scripture says, “He that seeketh to save his soul—and that work
is ‘soul life’ in the Greek—which means what we’re doing here
until the day we’re taken away. If we seek to save it, we’ll lose
it. But if we lose it, which means we deliberately plan with the Word of
God to do what the Word of God says, it says we will save it. [Mt 16:25]
See? And it says if you’re in a position where you find it hard,
deliberately steel yourself, like cutting off your hand…cutting off
your arm…plucking an eye. In other words, the constant realization
that life is not made of what pleasure can I have, but what pleasure can
I give. See? Then we’re getting somewhere. 

	Now that’s what we are to do. Then that “bread cast upon the
water,” the grain, as it were, that we wanted to save for ourselves
will come back multiplied, as it certainly will. And the picture there
is in Jesus Christ giving his life.

	Now remember: the early church gave its life for you and me. If it
hadn’t been for the early church, we wouldn’t have been here. The
church before us gave something for us. That’s why Bro. Branham said,
“Don’t un-Christianize anybody.”

63.	Now the day of constant asking for ourselves should be a thing of
the past, for it is the day of building an ark. The ark was not built
for Noah alone, but for his family. And today we ought to apply the
Token for the sake of the family of God and live lives that are
dedicated in order to build up into, or unto Him. See? We’re all
building…what are we building for?

	During the war years, there was a motto: ‘Service To Others’.
That’s right. It was one of the great mottos of the Second World
War…Service To Others. That motto ought to be amongst us, as Saints,
for it is the last war, for the last Trumpet has sounded, declaring war.
Then if we are to return to an Ephesian church, which Bro. Branham
promised would be an Ephesian church, then the first works should be
amongst us. In other words, that great earnestness to show forth His
praises by serving Him, by bringing in souls, and building those souls
up into Jesus Christ.

64.	I’ll never forget my own existence in Christ many years ago. My
sister was dying and nobody was helping us. By prophecy, myself…I
don’t know…here’s the thing about a false anointing, you see, can
really work. I was no more a Child of God than nothing…I was a wicked,
little, heathen reprobate, so to speak, you know, by all outward
appearances. When my sister was dying, I told my mother she wouldn’t
get better until she was prayed for—by two women. You now what?
They’d been healed of cancer. And so she was dying…we called the
women, and God healed my sister just like that.

	Prophecy came true, and I wasn’t even a prophet. Then I began looking
around, and I wanted salvation. Nobody asked me to get saved. I said,
“How do you get saved? How do you come to God?”

	So I was told, and I believed it, and I got it…at least part way
there. And the first thing I saw was almost everybody fighting each
other. The deacon was out behind the barn smoking cigarettes and
fighting the pastor. And the pastor had daughters running around that
weren’t fit to run around—they were literally prostitutes. Now if
you’ve got daughters like that, you better club them into
submission…do something…not that I advise clubbing anybody, but I
mean you’ve just got to take a firm stand and say, “Look, that’s
out.” Her daughters were rotten…she was a pastor. Can you imagine
that? Woman pastor, and her daughters were just scurvy.

65.	So I look around and I said, “Well, if this is it, forget it.”
So I promptly forgot it for a few weeks. Fortunately, I left that town
and moved where they had a pastor who was a man, for which I thank God,
and some good brethren. And a fine man came through preaching one time,
he struck a responsible chord in my heart… See, I hadn’t quit the
church or anything, I just said, “Hey, that’s such a mess.” 

	But, you see, if those people had watched their homes, trained their
children right, taken right stands, helped each other, I’d have just
come right into that groove. But I wavered for a while till I could come
to a place and see people that weren’t doing that.

	Now, look, let’s face it: we can say what we want but,
brother/sister, organization has a spirit about it that kills if you
don’t line up, and you can do anything you want if you line up, but
that’s not Christ, nothing at all. There is a Life that’s in Christ
that comes forth, and that Life is to build people into Jesus by acts of
love and consideration and just helping the fellow out. And there’s
not one thing about conforming to a church, or a creed, or a dogma, it
is a Life that is existent. 

66.	Now, look, you and I know better than to think that we don’t need
to think or to plan our actions. We know better than that. Our greatest
sorrows are because we did not plan our actions; we did not do the
things we should have done. Some of you people right here this morning
would be very happy, had a few years ago you bought a home when the down
payments were low, but you didn’t do it. Now you can’t afford a down
payment because the house is too high. Now nobody stopped you doing
that. Now, I know you might have a lot of excuses but come right down to
it, you could have done it. A lot of you sitting here, you could have
done a lot of things but you just didn’t do it. 

	Now I’m standing here admitting I could have found a down payment for
a house years ago, I wish I had. But, you see, I travel around a
lot…doesn’t matter really if I can just use some little…rent a
place, I’m okay. But now I’m getting older, I would like a place. Do
you know whose fault it is? Lee Vayle’s. It’s not my wife’s, nor
anybody else’s. I did not plan. Now if my wife did get in the way, I
could have said, “Now that’s fine. You think your thoughts…I’m
going to do my thoughts.” She can think what she wants, but I’ll do
what I want to do, which would be: find a down payment somewhere, get me
a house. 

	It’s just like years ago I read Signpost, the Road to Success, I
never had a car to drive and Kenyon said, “Don’t borrow a car; buy
your own car.”

	I went right down and bought one, and have been buying them ever since.
Now I come where I just pay flat cash or don’t have it. God gives me
the money—I can get it. You see? 

67.	You’ve got to realize you can if you want. Now you’ve got to
think it over, and instead of all this praying, wasting time, “Give me
this,” “Do this, O God,” the thing to do is to put
ourselves…bring ourselves down where we’re amenable to what God has
already said about doing the charitable things I’m talking about. 

	Then we get so busy doing these things there will not be time for the
other things to molest us. You know, it’s just like the old Chinese
proverb, it says: “You can’t stop the birds flying in the branches,
but you can sure stop them from building nests.”

	And that’s the way we are today. Now, if you get the right thoughts,
the right nests, and the right birds, that’s fine; but if you go the
other way, you get the wrong birds, the wrong nests, the wrong eggs, the
wrong everything.

	So are we going to plan our lives in the home and in the church? We can
do it if we want to, and as we serve each other, love each other, the
family love will be in our church.

	Now people say, “Bro. Vayle, we’re not as loving as we used to
be.”

	Well, I’ve already said it: don’t sit around hoping for love to
come down—bring it down—because Love is already here. If He is here,
then Love is here, Christ is here. The thing to do is to recognize and
start doing it. It will cost us something, but the returns are
guaranteed and the rewards are eternal. 

68.	We’re going to finish in reading Isaiah 58 here, that chapter,
then we’ll close right off because our time has run out. Now:

(1)	Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet (We’ve
heard the last message.), and shew my people their transgression, and
the house of Jacob their sins.

(2)	Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation
that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they
ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to
God. (Now it says right here: they talk about the Word, they love to
come and pray and worship.)

(3)	Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore
have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the
day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. (In other
words, they have wrong motives and wrong ways of doing it.)

(4)	Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of
wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to
be heard on high.

(5)	Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his
soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth
and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day
to the LORD?

(6)	Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of
wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free,
and that ye break every yoke? (Now this is what we’re getting to.)

(7)	Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the
poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that
thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

(8)	Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health
shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee;
the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward. (In other words, behind
you, and caring for you.)

(9)	Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and
he shall say, Here am I. (Now Bro. Branham told Jack Palmer, he said,
“Jack don’t ask God for things. You don’t need to ask God for
things.”     What’s a man to do? “Just live it, believe it, do.
It’ll come back. See?) If thou take away from the midst of thee the
yoke, and put forth the finger, and speaking vanity;

(10)	And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the
afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness
as the noonday: 

	Now people say, “I want to be great in the church; I want to be
service to God.” Pentecostals…gifts, gifts, gifts…some big shot.
Forget the big shot—here’s the big shot right here. You want to know
a big shot? The fellow that humbles himself and does things for people. 

69.	Now I don’t mean to run after people like these ‘do-gooders’.
Now the do-gooder is…he’s the scourge of the earth. Oh, forget the
do-gooder. He’ll do you good by putting his hand in your pocket,
taking everything you’ve got. He’ll run your life, he’ll ruin
you—forget the do-gooder. We’re talking to people where there are
needs out here that are real. See? You’ve got do-gooders in the
church, and got them in politics. Forget it. 

	I’m like that old French philosopher…when I see a man trying to do
me a favor, I run. That’s a do-gooder…that’s the Kennedys…the
rich people…they get in government and then they don’t spend their
400 million dollars, they take your last two bits. Huh-uh, we’re
talking not about do-gooders, we’re talking about people who do
good—there is a need, they’re looking to help somebody, and
they’re not trying to make a name for themselves. No, they’re doing
what God said, knowing that they’re laying up a treasure, see? In
other words, the motive of the whole thing is right.

69:

(11)	And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in
drought, and make fat thy bones: and even like a watered garden (And
that tree in the First Psalm, Bro. Branham said, belonged to this day.)
and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

(12)	And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places:
thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt
be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell
in. (That’s our day. Do you realize that when this Bride is finished,
the dead can come out of the ground? All the generations in the
Millennium are going to come because of us? You bet.)

(13)	If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy
pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the
LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor
finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: (You remember
the ‘Sabbath’ is the Holy Spirit.)

(14)	Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee
to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the
heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. 

	See? People say, “I want the Word of God fulfilled in my day. I want
those promises Bro. Branham spoke of.” You know what he said? He said,
“Lie in the Son, the Present Son, and mature. Lie in the Presence of
Christ Who proved that He is down here today. Lie in His Presence.”
What would He be doing? What is He here for? To serve. Not to be served,
but to serve. That’s what we’re here for. We’re here to do these
things. 

70.	Now when we get so busy doing good that we have no room for either
our carnal nature, the devil, we will see the Hand of Almighty God.
That’s what it said right here. See? And we ourselves shall be
exalted. So let our program…so I’d say let us program a part of our
lives and life energies to this end, because that’s what we need to
do. There is nothing unspiritual about systematized, that’s
systematizing this effect, there’s nothing unspiritual about it. See?
Here is where we need to define organization: it’s not creeds and
dogmas—that’s what organization is all about—but we need to have a
systematized, disciplined life of acts of kindness and goodwill to bring
forth fruit unto a great harvest, and we can if we want to.

	When was the last letter you wrote to cheer somebody up? You know,
somebody wrote me a letter from out West, they said, “Bro. Vayle, this
letter doesn’t require an answer. I just want to let you know I heard
one of your tapes—it was a blessing, and it helped me, and I just
wanted to let you know that it did me good, and I thought you might
appreciate hearing it.” And I did, I was grateful. 

	A letter back from Europe—they said, “Bro. Vayle, we got hold of
your tapes. We were being taken away from the prophet and his Word, but
thank God, your message got us back to the Word and the prophet.” I
was glad to hear that. The person didn’t need to write me. You know,
it’s not giving a lot of money, it’s not doing the gigantic things
of this life. It’s doing many times those small things. As Bro.
Branham said, “It’s not the big things,” he said, “anybody can
do a big thing. But,” he said, “it’s those small things.”

	It’s the same as where it says, “A little fly spoils the
apothecary’s ointment.”

	As one man said, “It’s not the dead horse in the slough…no,” he
said, “it’s the little fly in there.”

	And so you reverse it, it’s not great, big things we do many times,
but it’s the consistent little things. It’s like building a house,
brick-by-brick, and board-by-board, and nail-by-nail, you know. I never
did much like these pre-built houses like big chunks of
concrete…I’ve got a better sense of beauty than that. The houses I
like can be partly prefabricated, sure, but I like those finishing
touches.

71.	And so this morning I just leave these thoughts with you,
brother/sister. Whatever is going wrong in your life and mine, let’s
face it…and life does go wrong—the way that God wants it cured is a
deliberate, conscience, systematized, calculated, definitive step
forward in the right direction, and that’s to do the right thing under
the circumstances, whether we feel like it or not, knowing if we
continue to do it, God will bring us into a supreme place of victory.
Though under some conditions, we may not see the results here we want to
see. The marriage can still go haywire, the family might still go down
the drain, your business still might not prosper, see? But God said,
“I will pour it back on you so that you will come back, enlarged and a
beautiful, solid Christian.” See? “Not only will you be that here,
but you will lay up treasure in heaven and whatsoever I can, I will
bless you in the material way that you want.” See?

	God will bless, but, remember, there cannot be a failure under this
Word system, can’t do it. Do we want success? Do we want to go ahead?
Then let’s begin to calculate. I know this sounds a little mundane for
those that are amongst us…many want the goody-most and hip-hurrah, but
I’m going to tell you: I would sooner have you sit here glum, looking
daggers at me. 

72.	I’d sooner have you like happened out in California…one of these
places called “House of Fire,” or something…I don’t know what it
is, but something about a fir—they had their own fire department,
anyway. Man, they could pray like a house afire! And they began praying
one night…the preacher needed tires for his car: “O, God, send the
tires! O, God, send the tires.” The fellow across the street
couldn’t hear, but God got a hold of his heart, he picked up four
tires, four tires, threw them in the door, and said, “Here’s your
lousy tires!”

	Now, he sure didn’t feel like doing it, but I’m glad he did.

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, that’s not Scriptural.”

	Hold it, it’s Scriptural. A man had two sons, he said, “Sons, will
you please stay and work?”

	And the first boy said, “Pop, I’ll be glad to work,” and went off
and beat around the bush. 

	The other fellow said, “Pop,” he said, “I’m going to go and
play pool.” He came and helped his dad.

	Now one fellow didn’t feel like it, but he did it. Now which one is
the one that obeyed the father and showed the love? See?

73.	So I’m not telling you that you’re going to have a hip-hurrah
spirit doing it. I’m warning you right now, you may feel cold as a
turkey doing it. You may even feel embarrassed doing it; you may count
the cost and say, “Well, if I do for him, who’ll do me?” Forget
it. Do it anyway because the Scripture says so, and do it knowing that
it will work. See? Now you don’t know what all is going to work,
except this: you will lay up treasure, you will become an enlarged,
great, personable Christian, and you will get some visible, manifested
results right down here. So what God cannot do in a specific thing that
you’re looking at, He will do in the other realm of the specific. In
other words, I’m telling you something: you will not lose! It’s the
only way to gain. So let’s begin doing it. See? The Lord bless you.
Shall we rise?

	Heavenly Father, we know that we’re getting close to the end, and we,
perhaps, have stood in a place where we’re looking for great things,
and I know it’s not wrong for adoption and the tremendous things that
the prophet seemed to indicate and unveil before us of how a Bride would
have the Word and what to do with it, being one. And we appreciate that,
but, Father, this morning we believe that this Message unveils
everything down to the skeletal structure, even like an x-ray probing
what is the flesh built upon, speaking concerning spiritual things of
the church. And, Lord, we see that if there weren’t a people with the
obedience of faith, there wouldn’t be anything…with a love that knew
that there would have to be a day of recompense and reward, and so they
did it. 

	Father, this morning I pray in Jesus’ Name from my heart and the
hearts of the people for once for all to get us away from this, if we
have it, the desire for the emotional, for a super prod or super energy
to begin to do the things that have not been done amongst us. Father, I
would pray that we would disabuse ourselves now entirely of it and get
right down to the nitty-gritty of daily living where we begin checking
our lives, what are we doing, why are we doing it, and how are we doing
it. Grant that this morning, Lord, I pray, because this is what we sure
need to come to grips with this very hour in which we know by proof
positive that You are amongst us—amongst us in a way that has not been
hitherto, as John said, “this thing had never come into existence,”
bringing us into Resurrection and the Rapture so that we know that
there’s not much time left, that if there’s a time to be manifested
Sons, it’s got to be right now, to do the will of the Father, to take
the training and go on.

	Heavenly Father, I pray that women will begin to instruct their
children in a better way, and the fathers, also, because they’ve got
their duty, too—not just the mothers. The children, being willing,
Lord, and anxious to be so instructed in the tender years that they
might have these graces already developed in them as they face
life—not turned out as sheep amongst wolves, but rather sheep with the
skill and wisdom of a serpent as they go with dove-like natures. Father,
that’s the thing we want, that’s the thing the Church was supposed
to have. And, Lord, we know this morning it’s not too late because if
one thousand years is just a day in Your sight, Lord, You could, with
Your help today, there could be like almost a thousand year’s growth
in people, could happen overnight if the dedication is there, and,
Father, there can be a tremendous wellspring in hearts. I know that, and
I’m praying it, O God, for each one of us.

	Lord, don’t let, I pray, the Holy Spirit be foiled in His office work
in our lives to bring things to our remembrance, to begin now, as it was
with Jacob…he got so far and then the wrestling set in. Lord, I just
pray, wrestle with our minds this morning and our very lives to bring us
right down into doing the things we know we ought to do and can do. Give
us an eye, Lord—I know You’ve already given it—but may the sleepy
eyes be propped open this morning to begin to see others’ needs and to
try to fulfill those needs for the glory of God…Lord, lives that are
lived for others, and thereby they’re lived for You, for You said,
“Even a glass of cold water, a visitation, a letter or card, anything
done in the right way would be just as though it were done for You.”

	So now, Heavenly Father, with this in mind, we believe for Your
strength and guidance to send us on our way to do these things, not just
having heard them, because that’s not the answer—I know that, Lord,
in myself—not happy to hear, but happy, prosperous, to do them. Grant
it, I pray, O God, solemnize it, because the hour is all but gone. These
mercies, we ask for, mercies, they are indeed, the greatest mercy, Lord,
we believe we could ask, is this very thing. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

 

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