Priorities #3

Bro. Lee Vayle

Gruenthal Church

Saskatchewan, Canada

 July 14, 1978

1.	Well, it’s certainly a privilege to be here again this morning, and
I’m going to ramble a little bit before I take the number three in the
series on “Priorities”. And, you know, it’s good to have preachers
sit in the congregation, especially when you’re preaching; they’re
so astute that they catch you, and I just am not going to be caught.
These two preachers said that I said “the second book of Ephesians.”


	Well, that’s true. Here is the first Book of Ephesians; there’s a
second Book with Ephesians? I boo-booed. But I don’t know what I had
in mind, actually. I guess my mind was going down the road too fast. And
they also said I got the parables in Luke 13… (Maybe that’s one of
those mountains that Bro. Stone was singing about.) I moved the parables
from Matthew to Luke—so that’s another boo-boo. I slipped up on
that, but that’s not the first time; and it’s ten to one it won’t
be the last time. However, a brother brought something to my attention
which was a sort of a boo-boo, and yet not. It could be misunderstood. I
made a statement that “I don’t want to be loved;” but I said,
“everybody wants to be loved.”

	Now I’m going to give you this from the Word of God, so you’ll
understand what I said: “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for
you; though more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved, or not
loved at all.” [2 Cor 12:15]

2.	Now I’m going to illustrate this, and I have no business making
personal mention, but we’re one big family here, so this is about as
close to the Millennium as I expect to get, and get away with it. So,
we’re going to talk about a couple of people here, namely, your pastor
and Bro. Guenther and Bro. Hildebrand.

	Well now, the neighbor… And I understand that Bro. Guenther used to,
you know, sort of bug the neighbor about the Lord. And I can just sort
of visualize his good neighbor saying, “Look, Guenther, if you just
lay off, I could love you. Why don’t you shut up about this salvation
bit? We’d be good friends.”

	And Bro. Guenther says, “Look, I don’t care if you love me or not;
that’s not the point. I’ll wait down the road for that, see? But I
want you for Christ.”

3.	So, you understand how the preaching can be misunderstood. Sure, I
want people to love me. Do you think I’m nuts? If my wife said, “Get
out of here; I hate you!”

	Well, she could… And I’d likely get out. [Laughs] But, sure, I want
love. But I don’t want your love when it comes to this Word and
serving Jesus Christ, my brother/my sister. That’s not it.

	You say, “Vayle’s a nice fellow; we like him, and the kids like
him, because he tells his hogwash jokes, and all those sort of
things.”

	That’s not it. What it is: I don’t care two cents about me. I’ve
been down the road, and I’ll go down the road. But, what about you?
I’m not here that you love me and say, “Well, Vayle’s a nice kind
of preacher,” which I sure am not; but I preach a very nice Word,
because it’s God’s Word.

	So, do you see what I’m saying? Sure, I love your affection. Why do
you think I come? Why do you think I stick around? Why do you think
I’m trying to get Bob to stay an extra day and meet all the fellows we
have breakfast with, and dinner with, and we have a ball—maybe twenty
at a crack. Why? Is it just because: “Oh, well, we’re going to have
a good breakfast?” No. We have good fellowship. And, even if the bacon
was too salty and the eggs under/over done… Well, phooey! I could even
get that at home, and my wife’s a very good cook. But you’re not
going to get that rapport and fellowship outside, you know… Sure, so
we love each other. So, I want you to know that my expressions, though
sometimes may be a little difficult, and heaven knows they would
certainly have to be in this human world here, I want you to get the
right picture.

4.	Now, also, I want to just say a couple things with particular in mind
to the lovely bunch of young folk that came forward, as with the
understanding, of course, of being born again is being baptized with the
Holy Ghost, and that, as Bro. Branham said, is a definitive experience,
though it is without sensation, emotion, and these outward evidences and
signs.

	Now the most important thing that I would tell you this morning is:
you’ve got to have somewhere to place your faith. Now I’m going to
talk to you honestly, because I am honest. I am not here to deceive you,
or to say one thing that would harm you in this step that you are taking
to either have received the Holy Spirit by now, or to receive the Holy
Spirit very, very shortly. Now the Bible says that “he that repents
and is baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, shall receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost.” [Acts 2:28]

	There are only two things that you need to do (that you’re obligated
to do). The first thing is to repent, and that is to have a right mind
toward Jesus Christ and His Word; the second thing is to be baptized in
water. Then, God is obligated to do the third, because He alone can do
the third. Now Paul said, “Receive ye the Spirit by the hearing of
faith or the works of the law.” [Gal 3:2]

5.	Now we know that we receive the Holy Spirit on the grounds of faith,
and there has to be some place you can place your faith. Now I’m going
to read you a little bit of Scripture to help you to understand the
simplicity of receiving the baptism with the Holy Ghost, or receiving
the Spirit of God into your life. And, if I can just get it over here in
the Book of Luke, [Lk 11:11-13] Jesus said… Now, listen carefully:

 (11)	If a son (or a daughter) ask bread of you that is a father, (In
other words, if any child goes to any parent and asks bread, a piece of
bread…something to eat) would he give him a stone?

	Now I want to ask every one of you that stood here that night: when you
asked food from your parents, and said, “Can I have a slice of
bread?” did your parent hand you a stone? Now, answer in your mind
now; and I can answer for you: “No.” 

	It says:

(11)	…If he asked a fish, would he give him a serpent? 

	If you asked for a piece of fish, more food, did either or both parents
hand you that which would destroy you—a serpent to harm you? You say,
“No.”

6.	Now I’m sure that, as being kids, you all asked for eggs, because
Canada hasn’t changed that much where we haven’t had hard-boiled
eggs on hand, you know, to eat… And they’re pretty good to come home
for a slice of bread and a hard-boiled egg. And I think a slice of good,
homemade white bread, or brown bread, buttered up, and a nice
hard-boiled, cold egg with salt and pepper tastes mighty good; fills the
spot until supper time.

	Now, there’s not one of you can say that you asked your parents for
an egg, and the parent gave you a scorpion. Now, you see, it just
wouldn’t work. There simply isn’t anybody that is that mentally
deranged, at least here in Canada, that would be that horribly
constituted to have a family and, then, do everything abusive. 

7.	Now, listen:

(13)	If ye then, being evil, (Now, nothing good but God) know how to
give good things or gifts…

	Now, let’s talk about you kids. There’s no doubt that there was a
time in your life when you liked Valentine’s Day. We all did. And, of
course, the boys would give the girls the prettiest valentine,
especially if they thought they could make a little impression and let
the girl know that that was a pretty sweet girl. And maybe you had a
little better luck than I did at my age: you had parents to give you
some money, so you might have bought that girl a nice, little box of
candy with a heart on it, you know, your own heart going “boing,
boing, boing.” And you did the best you could to give the very best
gift.

		In other words I’m telling you: you know how, and you do give good
gifts. Come Christmastime, mama gets a nice gift; come Christmastime,
papa gets a nice gift; come Christmastime, little children get nice
gifts; not just swapping, but because you like to do it; you like to do
nice things; you do nice things. Right?

	Now is there anybody here dares to raise his hand and say, “Bro.
Vayle, I am different. I will not do a nice thing. I hate doing nice
things. I have never done, nor will I ever do, not one.”

	You like to do nice things; I like to do nice things. And the reason
many times we don’t is because we don’t have the nice thing to give,
but we do think nice thoughts, and we can say nice things. What I’m
trying to show you here is: there is not one person here who is not nice
enough to do something nice; and yet, God says, and you know of
yourself: “You ain’t too hot.” 

8.	Now, watch: 

(13)	If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts, how much more
will the heavenly Father give the Holy Ghost to them that ask him?

	If you have been capable of doing one nice thing in your life, you are
now guaranteed that God will give you the Holy Ghost, because you
don’t even know what a nice thing is, and yet you’ll do it, and God
will fill you. Now you hang on to that, you hang on to that, you hang on
to that, and you keep that in mind, no matter what happens to you, and
one day you will suddenly know that That Holy Spirit has come in,
because God’s Word can’t lie. If, in my state, I am capable of doing
one good thing, I am guaranteed that God, Who does nothing but good
things, gives me the Holy Spirit. Do you follow me? 

	Now that’s so simple, there is hardly a five-year old can’t get
that, and that is so true that, if there’s any adult sitting here, let
me tell you now: put that in your heart and keep it like a seed, and
though the seed falls in the ground in the wintertime, and the winds
begin to blow, and the snows begin to come, that seed lies there waiting
for the right moment, and that seed is alive! That Word in there has
that truth in it, and one day, at the right time, It’ll be there.

9.	So, I just thought I’d tell you, to encourage you, because we
don’t go for emotionalism, (Although we are emotional.) but we go for
the truth. Bro. Branham said, “That experience was real…not a
sensation, but reality.”

	I’m sure there’s not one of you here remembers when you were born,
but you ‘sho’ am real. If you don’t believe it, pinch yourself now
so you’ll get ready to pinch yourself in case you fall asleep when I
preach a long sermon—which I hope we won’t preach too long.

	So, so much for the preamble. We’re going to talk now about
“Priority #3”, and I suppose the title has now become a misnomer
with this message, but so what? ‘Priority’ simply means ‘What God
says: this is what you do, period; whether you like it or not.” So,
we’re going to bow our heads in a moment of prayer:

	Heavenly Father, once more we look to You in the atmosphere of this
tremendous, beautiful meeting, where the spirits of men are coming into
line, according to what the prophet said, “When that sweet Spirit is
in the whole building, the devil under control because of It, he can’t
get here or there, then things are going to happen amongst the
people.”

	Lord, I know this sermon is going to be way off what people would think
would be a healing service, but I know Your Word said while You taught
them, they were healed, so teaching can bring healing. There can be
people waiting for healing this morning, get healed right here. There
can be people wanting certain answers, a mountain moved—can have it.
We are not going to doubt anything, just talk about the Word of God and
leave It there; and then, Lord, You bring forth what You want out of It.

	So now, guide our lips, Lord, and our mouths and our ears, our
understanding. We’ll be careful to praise You in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

10. Now in the former two messages that I set before you: my thoughts on
what God’s first priority is for us is on thiswise: that it is to see
Hebrews 13:8 clearly, and Hebrews 13:8 is that “Jesus Christ is the
same yesterday, today, and forever.” And to see Hebrews 13:8 clearly
is to see that God’s attitude towards His Word never changes. Now we
have somehow the idea that we have an unchanging God, and that’s about
where it ends, when it comes to the personality or the spiritual
substance of God Himself; but that’s not so. There is nothing about
God that changes: His attitudes, His Word, and so on. So, what we began
to see in the first two messages was that God’s Word doesn’t change:
It’s as inviolate and cannot be violated, the same as He. 

11.	So, we’re going to go way back to Exodus 20, and we’ll just take
some more verses, other than what we’ve already used:

(1)	And God spake all these words, saying,

(2)	I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (God identifies Himself. Now they
know that God brought them out. So, what He’s going to talk about now
is Himself. And He said:)

(3)	Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 

	Now, that doesn’t just mean that you’re not going to worship any
other god. It means that you’re not going to listen to anybody else.
It means you’re not going to obey anybody else. It means you’re
under the control of nobody else. It means that you’re stuck. Now
I’ve got to use words like this, because we have made Christianity a
democracy. Hogwash! It is not a democracy. It is a totalitarian
theocracy with God saying, “Put up and shut up! And I’ll do mighty,
tremendous things for you. If you can ever learn My way, you’ve got it
made.” And He also says, “I’m going to see to it that you learn My
way.” 

12.	Now we’ve got a tougher dictator than Stalin, because the same
dictator we’re under is going to judge Stalin and throw him in the
Lake of Fire.

	You say, “How do you know?”

	Well, do you think I’m kidding you? What makes you think he was ever
born again, anymore than Pharaoh? He’s an instrument that God raised
up to bring the Jews back to the homeland, like Pharaoh—reprobated.
See? We’ve got a tough dictator: “I am the Lord. I’m the One that
brought you out of ecumenism, and the World Council of Churches, the
denominations,” and said, “Come out of her, my people, lest you be a
partaker of her plagues.”

	Now, notice; He said, “Lest you partake of plagues… Okay, if you
stay in there, you’ll find out I’m a tough God.”

	Like Bro. Branham said, “He’s not some doty old grandfather.”

13.	Now:

(4)	Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of
any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or
that is in the water under the earth: 

	In other words He said, “Don’t you even try to manufacture anything
concerning me. Don’t try it; don’t think it; don’t fancy it.”

	You say, “Hey! Sounds like I’m trapped.”

	You’re right. If anybody’s going to change, it won’t be God.

(5)	Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: 

	What am I supposed to do? 

	“Bow down to me. Knuckle, knuckle, serve me. I’m jealous!”

	You say, “Whooee! What a God!”

	You bet your life ‘what a God’! Who do you think you’re fooling
with? Now you pardon my language, but this is how it becomes plain. It
doesn’t become plain in highfalutin, theological, high-sounding words.
Forget it. It just brings it right down here. 

(5)	I’m jealous, (And, let me tell you flat: you get out of line and)
I’ll visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children, (because the
fathers got out of line; therefore the kids get out of line, and so,
therefore, there’s a complete lineage of destruction and punishment
and retribution, because you’ll begin getting away from me.) 

	Ah ha! When they first began getting away from God, the revealed Word,
watch what set in until finally the whole thing is going to go to the
Lake of Fire. Now I’m not talking about a Bride going there, or the
Church going there; I’m talking about the whole thing that really got
away from God. 

14.	Now, notice; he says:

(5)	…Unto the children of the third and fourth generation of them that
hate me.

	You say, “I don’t hate God.”

	Well, God said you did. Jesus said, “If I had not done the works
which no other man did, they had not sinned. But now they have both seen
and hated both me and my father.” [Jn 15:24]

	William Branham came on the scene, and, absolutely, they saw God,
because they saw the works, and they hate.

	“Oh, no, we didn’t.”

	Then, God’s a liar. Fine. You’re wonderful; the truth is in you. 

	Then, why are you sick? Why are you dying? 

	Now, you know I love you. I’m talking this way out of just getting
something across. But, look; we’ve got to face it: you just can’t
bandy words, brother/sister. You’ve got to take them the way they are.
He said, “Hate Me.”

15,	You remember the other day I spoke on that out of Matthew 6:
“He’ll love the one, and hate the other.” Is it the same God,
then? Is Hebrews 13:8, then, the same? Can you change Exodus 20 from
Matthew 6? No.

	“But, Bro. Vayle, I don’t hate.”

	You don’t know your heart, honey-child. Right? Huh? Sorry about that.
I’m going to keep telling you folks, unless you get mad at me. I
didn’t write the Book, but I’m going to preach It. And, if I point
one finger, I’ve got three pointing back. And, as I talk here, I’m
plenty red in the face inside. I don’t blush easy, being, you know,
quite a brunette. And I don’t have too much shame, I guess, either.
But inside I am blushing desperately. 

	I told you when I started this series: there are three kinds of
preachers. There’s the guy that really lives it; there’s the guy
that’s a hypocrite; and there’s the guy that tries, like me, that
flounders, and he cuts his throat worse than he cuts the
congregation’s throat when he preaches, because, boy, listen: he gets
a double-barrel. First of all, he’s got to get it from God, then pass
it on to you; then, it bounces back and the heart goes [Big sigh].
That’s me. So, feel sorry for me.

16.	(6)	And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep
my commandments. 

	Notice that He’s not only God, but He’s ‘God the Word’. See?
Notice this Message that we preach, when you understand what Bro.
Branham taught, it lines up, lines up, lines up, lines up in His one
perfection. See?

	So, we see in these first seven verses a sovereign-only God, with
sovereign decree. So, we learn we are commanded to recognize God in all
things whatsoever come into our lives, that God is in authority, (See?)
to recognize and consider always His abiding Presence and that nothing
can happen outside of His Will.

	Now, remember, He said, “I’m the same God that led you out of
Egypt.” And, brother, they were having problems. See? And they’d
wandered; but He said, “I’m the same God.”

	Now, remember, the Bible said that Moses learned His ways but Israel
only saw His acts. There’s a big difference. I can look around and see
everything that God does and never learn one thing about Him. If you
think Moses didn’t learn—he learned—and one lesson he learned too
late. God said, “Don’t you strike that rock a second time.”

	And he said, “Wham! Bam!”

	God said, “I’ll strike you: ‘wham! bam!’ to you.”

17.	Don’t fool with God. See? That’s our whole trouble. We have
never been taught the absolute perfections of God with His Word where
nobody, nobody but nobody, can talk back to God. It’s a dictatorship. 

	That’s why people can’t understand sovereignty, election. They’ve
got to have it their way. Like a woman said to me one time, “Well,
Bro. Vayle, if I believed that, I couldn’t believe God.”

	Well, don’t bother believing God. And, let’s get this straight:
this is Laodicea, which means ‘anarchy’, ‘freedom for the
people’. We’re in the worst age of all. We’ll talk about it later.

18.	Now: to understand the supreme authority of Almighty God in every
single thing brings us back again to Romans 8, and I’ll tell you: the
more you get in Romans, the more you’re going to be astounded at the
fabulous scriptures that lie in that book. Listen: 

(35)	Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

	Now, what did He say back there? “Of those that love me,” as in
contradistinction to those that hate me;” and those that love Him
recognize the supreme authority of God.

19.	Now, just before we get this, let me see if I can find a Scripture,
brother/sister. You know my memory is so horrible, and I’ve got Bob
down here—good old Bob [Brown]. If I can’t find it, Bro. Bob,
you’re going to find it for me, hopefully. Yeah, 2 Thessalonians: 

(13)	But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you unto
salvation through sanctification of the Spirit unto belief of the truth.

	We are bound to give thanks to God always for the doctrine of
predestination. Now, people don’t like that. They don’t want to
believe that God is in the driver’s seat, and of one lump He does
this, and of the same lump He does that. See? They don’t want to
believe that. They refuse to see election as ‘love’. Now the
Scripture lets us know that the person who loves God admits to His
supreme authority, that whatever He says goes, whether he really can
endure it, or like it or not, he’ll still say, “God is God, His Word
remains forever;” and as Bro. Branham said, “Let every man’s word
be a lie, but let His be true.”

20.	Now, that’s the place where love starts; where you can take
sovereignty, and say, “God’s in the driver’s seat.” Like Job,
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”

	You know his wife came to him and said, “Now, listen Job; why don’t
you curse God and die?”

	I’ve got news for you: that word in the Hebrew can either be
‘curse’ or ‘worship’, depending on the context and certain
little things with it. And she might have been thinking, (like in the
days of Jacob when he just pulled his feet up and worshiped God and
died) and she’d say, “Now, listen Job; I want to just tell you
something: Why don’t you just see that you don’t have to fight
against living anymore; just pull your feet up in bed and die?”

	Well, he said, “You talk like a foolish woman. I happen to know the
ways of God. I’m not going to die. I believe God. I’ve been doing
those sacrifices, even for my own kids in case they messed up somewhere.
I’ve got a totalitarian, sovereign God in my concept. I’m not going
to die.”

21.	Listen: the soul must settle on this with an irrevocable decision
because the command is irrevocable: “I’m God: listen to me. I
don’t change. You still better listen, or I’ll see that you listen,
because I’m going to have my way, regardless.”

	Oh, and He puts everything out there to make it look like He doesn’t
have His way, but it’s winding down, brother/sister. The soul must
settle. I said the soul, because Bro. Branham said there’s a choice
within the soul; and, let me tell you: if that soul has the gene of God.
Yep. And, if it gets a little bit spotty and rebellious, God will make
it go His way, because He said, “I won’t lose anybody.”

	I’m no Pentecostal drummer that gets up here and tells you: “No man
can pluck him out of my Father’s hand.” 

	Yeah, but you can pluck yourself.

	Well, what am I? A baboon?

	No. Man—capped by the power of God through faith! 

	What’s all this nonsense? I wish I knew. Oh, God, blow my brains out,
and give me Yours.

	He said, “That’s what I’m trying to do, son, just keep on.”

	God’s priority will not be changed. May God help us to see it. This
is the foundation of all of our seeking His Kingdom—the whole
foundation. You’ve got to believe in a sovereign God; you’ve got to
have faith that cup of cold water is going to get it right.

22	Let’s be honest right now, huh? I love honesty, and I’m going to
show you I’m not a hypocrite. Good enough? Raise your hands, and
don’t drop me like a bunch of Pentecostal hoo-doo’s that don’t
know nothing from nothing. How many before God have not—I said
‘not’—given a cup of cold water in His Name to get a reward? I
have not. Let me see your hands if you’ve got any guts. You’ve got
no guts.

	Are you going to sit there and tell me your lives are so planned that
you do give cups of cold water in His Name, knowing there’s a reward?
Have you been doing it? Well, have you been? 

	Now, come on, we’re not playing church. I’m up here as an old
school ma’m—I want to set us free. If you sit there and lie to God,
and lie to me, you’ll never be set free. I like what Bob said last
week—come and preach your sermon again, Bob, I’ll just give over to
you.

	Now I know I’m rough and mean up here, but I’m going to tell you
something: I raised my hand; Bro. Branham raised his hand. Are you
sitting here, telling me that you give cups of cold water in His Name?
You’re looking embarrassed now. Maybe you’ll repent; maybe I’ll
repent. I have not done it.

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

	Come on to the Bible. Bro. Branham said, “The little things.”

23.	Oh, mighty general… If Elijah had said, “Pull down the mountain,
we’ll break up the river, clean the Aegean stables, like an atlas,”
oh, you’d have been ‘johnny-on-the-spot’. But give a glass of
water… 

	I want to ask you a question: How many of you have ever deliberately
gone up town and said nice things and done a nice thing, just because it
should be done? I can say I’ve done it. Now I get a couple hands.
That’s nice. Where’s the rest? Why aren’t the rest of you doing
it?

	“Well,” you say, “Bro. Vayle, I’m like you. I did it once
twenty years ago.”

	Now, you saw it just breaking my heart. I didn’t do it yesterday. I
didn’t do it even a year ago, hardly. 

24.	I’m going to tell you something: I’m not much of an Ann
Lander’s fan, or Abigail, or anything else, but I read their crud.
It’s interesting; sometimes it’s good. A lady wrote, and she said,
“Ann, I have just got to tell you what happened. I went to a
restaurant last week, and a waitress came to serve me, (And this
woman’s a widow and getting up in years.) and the waitress said,
“Oh, madam, you look so lovely.”

	She said, “Ann, it made my day. And I’ve learned one lesson: From
now on, every day I will seek somebody and tell them something nice!”

25.	When have you last made somebody’s day? Jesus keeps telling us
we’re nice: “You’re in my Image, you’re my children, I love you;
you’re beautiful; you’re gorgeous,” and we say, “Well, of course
we are.” Heh, heh, heh.

“If you’ve had a kindness shown, 

Pass it on. 

It was not meant for you alone, 

Pass it on.

Let it travel through the years, 

Let it wipe another’s tears; 

Until at last in heaven the deed appears. 

Pass it on!”

	Huh? When you wake up in the morning, determine to do something nice:
just a cup of cold water, just a visit to the hospital, just some little
letter. 

26.	I’m going to tell you something: There’s a certain woman who
has, in my books, just about as little redeeming features as any woman
could have, but she’s a big-mouth, and she runs her husband. I’ll
just say one thing: shame on her. (I’m not going to tell you who she
is.) I’m going to tell you something: She keeps a record of
everybody’s birthday, as far as I know, and anniversaries, and she’s
there to make them happy with the cards and remembrances. It may be that
her big mouth will go unnoticed before God, because she’s doing
something that’s going to balance it out.

	Well, I know you don’t believe that, in a way, but Bro. Branham said,
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” See? Yes,
sir. 

27.	We must understand these things, and I know we can. Now, not only
must we be careful not to disobey God’s laws, which we would perhaps
like to disobey at times, but we must be careful to so know the Way and
the Will of God that we’d literally feel like criminals in not doing
it.

	Now this morning I’ve made you feel a little bit like criminals,
because you haven’t been giving glasses of cold water. And I hope it
stays with me more than you; because, look: I’m going to stand on my
two feet in judgment; and, if I’m preaching to you here, and you beat
me in doing it, I’m going to look awful sick—at least for a while.
See?

28.	Now Paul said here: [Rom 8:35]

(35)	What can separate us from the love of Christ? (Those who understand
the totalitarian concept.) Shall persecution? (Heaven forbid, God said I
would have it.) distress? (Certainly, there’ll be distress. So what?
I’m not destroyed.) persecution? (Certainly.) famine? (Certainly.)

	That can happen. I don’t care how much you quote David saying, “I
have been young; now I’m old; and I’ve never seen the righteous
forsaken nor his seed begging bread,” [Ps 37:25] I want to tell you
flat: there was a famine and people had to send something in there to
help those folks, or they would have died. And I wouldn’t be surprised
that there are choice saints of God who have died. According to Hebrews
11, they said, “Well, let’s die.” 

(35)	…Peril, or sword?

(36)	As it is written, (See the totalitarian concept?) For thy sake we
are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the
slaughter. (God has said so, so if I’m going to be slaughtered, glory
be to God.)

29.	You say, “Bro. Vayle, that’s the kind of religion I don’t
like, because it takes away my thinking; it takes away everything of my
own inner strength and all.”

	That’s exactly right! Sorry about that. You know what? We have been
so far removed from the true concept of sanctification and dedication,
we in Pentecost know nothing but the Scripture: “Power, power, power,
power, power. I’ll blow my way through, hallelujah; knock the wall
down; take care of the mountains. Hallelujah! I’m a big shot!”

	You is a big nothing! And I’m guilty, because I was brought up in
Pentecost. That’s right. Paul the apostle, great, mighty man of God,
to whom the Pillar of Fire came and gave the Word, perfectly vindicated,
says, “It’s written, I’m nothing but a sheep to die.”

	“Well, but God just doesn’t smear his prophet across the road.”

	He doesn’t? He feeds them to the lions where their carcass becomes
dung, little heaps of manure.

	“Ooh,” you say, “that kind of a God?”

	Look, that’s the kind of a God we have. As Bro. Branham said,
“He’s not some fat, old Buddha with His hands across His stomach,
like somebody tried to portray Him.”

	They don’t understand that God, in portraying and bringing forth His
characteristics, it was necessary that this be so. Let God be God!

30.	The point is: what are you going to do about it anyway? Have you
ever stopped to think of the times that you did things and got your
hands caught in the cookie jar, when you said something you shouldn’t
have said, and somebody came by [Sucks in breath], “Oh, boy, well,
I’m stuck.” 

	I said it: “I’m stuck.”

	I often think that way: “I did it; I’m stuck.” That’s the way
you are with God. And God said, “I want you to know…” 

	Now, listen: God is not a mean God. Don’t get this idea. I’m trying
to get this idea across strong (Look!) that God is God; leave Him alone.
He knows what He’s doing. He knows what He’s saying. He knows
beginning from end. It’ll turn from what came from God is going to go
back to God, and that Word that came from God, and what I’m saying, is
going to go back to God in a people who constitute the actual redeemed
Body of Christ in a New Jerusalem. You can’t lose for winning, but
you’ve got to be one of those funny kind of people who recognize what
real love is: “Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated.” See?

31.	Now:

 (37)	In all these things we are more than conquerors…

	Notice: sovereignty accepts the principle of Him with us, guiding and
ruling all things. Though we be tortured to death, we can take it. Look
at Polycarp; they finally caught him. It’s not wrong to run, if
they’re trying to cut your throat. Don’t be a hero, please. You
know, the persecution comes, and you say “Here I am, here I am; come
and get me!”

	Oh, come on. Hide? They’ll persecute you from city to city. And
Polycarp was hiding, and one day they caught up, and he said, “If I
hide anymore, they’re going to hurt somebody.” And the venerable old
saint of God, he said, “Here I am; time to go.” And so, they were
going to tie him to a stake. He said, “You don’t need to tie me.
I’ll just stand here.” Yeah.

	So, they started the wood going, and the flames just went all around
him.

	“Well,” they said, “that’s a phenomena, but we’re above
phenomena. Get him with the spear.”

	You thought, “Hey! Didn’t God do something nice now? Old Polycarp,
he’s going to get away; he won’t have to burn.”

	He didn’t have to burn, so they plunged a spear in him. And they say
so much blood and water came up, it put the flames out. But he died
anyway.

32.	“More than conquerors.” Can’t you see that you’re ‘more
than conquerors’? No warrior of this world could hardly stand up to
that. I’m not saying, “For a good man, some wouldn’t dare to die,
and some wouldn’t be brave and all,” but those men don’t have
anything but the joy of a pride. We have the joy of our Lord and a
Kingdom. See? “I’m persuaded!” That’s what I’m trying to
preach here. I think I’m never going to rest again; this is what I
better do. 

	When I was on the road preaching ‘faith’, and used to pray for the
sick, man, when I got through preaching, I expected results. Many a time
a person would come and sit under my hands, and I’d say, “Look,
honey, you ain’t even believing. Just pretend you’re a million miles
away. I ain’t got time to fool with you. I’ll take the whole
responsibility.”

	A woman was under my hands one time, shaking like a leaf, this way and
that way; and I said, “Oh, honey, look, you ain’t got no faith.
Forget it. Just leave it to me. Pretend you’re way down the road
somewhere. Get out of my hair.” In minutes flat she was healed.

33.	I’m saying the same thing here. Maybe I better get back on the
road day and night and start preaching. I’m persuaded!—about this.
That’s when the eye gets single to light and the body gets full. See?
[Romans 8]

(38)	For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, angels,
principalities, powers, things present, nor things to come…

	“I don’t have any time for things here. I don’t have time for
time. I don’t have time for materiality.” 

	Now, what are the three things? Time and… Oh, Lord, I forget anyway.
“I don’t have time for any of that stuff. Forget it,” he said,
“because I’ve got a persuasion. They’ll only come in here and bug
me anyway. Who needs to be bugged?”

34.	You know, old Evan Roberts had a good thing worked out. He was
sitting on a train one day in Wales with a friend of his, and a man came
in and recognized Evan Roberts. And he just turned on him and cussed and
swore and blistered him, and it went on and on and on for miles. And
Roberts just sat there. After they got off the train, a man said,
“Bro. Roberts, I don’t know how you stood it.”

	He said, “Stood what?”

	He said, “The way that guy talked to you and blistered you.”

	“Oh,” he said, “after the first five words, I just turned him off
and turned on the Lord and never heard a thing.”

	True! Yes, sir. Now that’s the Word of God. 

35.	He said: [Romans 8]

(39)	Height, and depth, and any creation, (no, sir) there’s nothing
able to separate me from that love…

	I was predestinated unto His Glory, and I don’t care what it costs
you. “Let me be as dung upon the ground. Let the lions get me,” he
said, “I don’t give a rip.” 

	Now we’re getting somewhere, and that’s what priorities is all
about. Now I should start preaching them, or we’re never going to
finish.

36.	Now, listen: we are not given the dubious privilege of accepting or
rejecting this, but we are commanded to accept it.

	“Oh, Bro. Vayle, I can do what I want.”

	You say, “Bro. Branham said there’s a decision to be made by the
soul.”

	That’s exactly right. But, who’s got your soul? If the Word answers
back to the spirit, and the spirit back to the Word, brother/sister, I
want to say, “What’s in your soul this morning?”

	I’ve suffered a bit, but not much. I know what it is to go down that
road and say, “Well, God, I sure don’t feel like doing it; but, if
that’s what You want, that’s what it’s going to be.”

	It wasn’t half bad. In fact, I can’t even remember what it was like
at all. Thank God for poor memories, but can’t thank God for a lousy
memory when it puts this out. The memory, brother/sister, is a
tremendous, tremendous thing; it has to do with the spirit. Bro. Branham
said, “The spirit is inextricably linked with it.” See?

	Now I said, and I repeat: We are not given the privilege, the dubious
privilege, of accepting or rejecting this; we are told this is it. 

37.	Matthew 6:22-24. I can’t read that in Matthew 5 or the two
Ephesians. I can tell you that.

(22)	The light of the body is the eye: (True.) if therefore thine eye be
single, the whole body shall be full of light. (That’s why God sent a
prophet with an eagle eye, and you listen to him, period. See?)

(23)	But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that
darkness! 

	In other words, if you’ve been given the wrong training, if you’ve
been given the wrong idea, look out. I don’t care how smart you are. I
don’t care how much you think, and you can be so charismatic that
you’re going to have millions of dollars come in. You can be like some
women and men that I know, who are never sick; and, oh, they just
couldn’t be sick. Elisha died of the sickness wherewith he was sick.
Bro. Branham didn’t get healed. He even got killed on the road. See?
People getting wrong concepts.

(24)	No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and
love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. 

	Now, how do you hold to anybody? You hold to anybody on the way they
act toward you, according to a premeditated plan. And, if we don’t
understand God’s premeditated plan, we end up hating Him on the
grounds we can’t take what He wants to do for us to make us love those
Christians according to Hebrews 12.

	Now He said, ‘hate’ and ‘love’. I took you back to Exodus and
showed you. I take you here and show you, and it works out the very
same. See? You can’t serve two masters. It’s impossible.

38.	Now in Heb 4:12-13, I don’t have to read It. It tells you that
“the Word of God is quicker and sharp as a two-edged sword.” It
discerns, It divides, It cuts asunder, “and there’s nothing but what
is open to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do”—which is God.
See? God knows everything about us, and He knows if we’re sham—if
we’re real. He knows if we’re knuckling down to Him or not. And,
remember; when it comes to a king, as Bro. Branham said, “When that
trumpet blew, here comes Joseph.” I don’t care what you were doing.
You might have been pouring the coffee: you stop right there, even if
you drop the pot. You might have been just ready to get the money and
close the deal; and one interruption, you’d have lost a million
dollars in Egypt. 

	“I’m sorry that you lost a million dollars. Flop on your face. Here
comes Joseph!” 

	Huh? I didn’t write the Book. I just preach It.

39.	 The Book of Romans. I’ve got to keep reminding you, because this
two-edged sword seems like a six-edged sword. I’m getting chopped to
pieces up here. Romans 14:7-9:

(7)	None of us live to himself, and none dies to himself.

(8)	For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we
die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.


(9)	For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he
might be Lord both of the dead and living.

	He owns, by reason of his death and resurrection, having bought the
saint and the sinner… And there’s nothing you can do about it,
because whether you live or die, God’s got His hand on you. And He
said, “You listen to me.”

40.	Listen, you don’t think that’s right? How come men were stricken
dead by laughing at the prophet? How come when Bro. Branham used that
little hairpiece, and Billy Paul (He’d been acting up.) said, “I’m
going to get a Beatle wig and put an old mop up here and begin dancing
around.”

	Bro. Branham suddenly whirled, went in his room, then came back and
said, “Billy, I had to go. God might have stricken you.”

	How come Sis. Branham… I don’t know if you knew her like I did. But
there’s a sweet woman. One  little word: “Well, then, Bill, why
don’t you take care of the kids?” Tumor!

	He’s just a prophet in whom is the Word. He wasn’t God Who was the
Word. See?

41.	We’re supposed to bear the yoke, when we’re young, to learn. How
many of us as Christians have really learned? That’s why we look back
in yesteryear and see where the great saints were. But I believe before
it’s over, we will see greater saints. Yes, sir. Listen.

	You say, “Why, Bro. Vayle? Because you’re preaching this?”

	Partly. You think I’d preach this, if I didn’t have faith that this
Word will take a hold somewhere? You think I… Like I said the other
day: We’d plant corn, when I was a kid in Canada, when they had that
long type of corn that took maybe 120 days or something to ripen, and we
only usually had about 90 days, or something like that. And I’d hoe
and hoe and hoe, and here I’d have my corn. Have my corn? Hogwash! I
had a bunch of green stuff.

	Then, you know what we’d do? Then, at the end, when no corn came, we
had one of those… Remember those hand choppers, where you chop the
stuff for the cow? We’d take the tender corn, go chop, chop, chop, and
I didn’t get any corn.

	Well, I’m not preaching that kind of a seed. I’ve got the
germitized Word of Almighty God here, and I’ve got the good soil of
God out there. And there’s going to be a people leave this meeting
with a determination and a thinking in their hearts and minds: “God is
sovereign, and I’m going to begin looking at it. I’m going to start
admitting that one thing, and I’m going to admit that’s His love,
and hallelujah, He is going to take me through. I’m as good as through
now. Height or depth, there’s nothing anywhere in His way! Come on, I
can face it.”

	You can do it. It’s not as hard as you think. It’s just that
decision. Yes, sir; it’s right.

42.	Romans 8:28.

(28)	And we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 

	When you are elect, there is nothing that can work against you, but for
you. And, what is it doing? It’s working out an exceeding weight of
glory.

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, that’s going to put money in my pocket.”

	Well, it just might; but that’s not it. 

	“It’s going to make me happy in my family.”

	Well, it might; but that’s not it. It’s working out the glory,
which He’ll share with you. Oh, you talk about kids playing ‘ring
around the rosy’, and being so happy, when we see Him, and we begin
dancing around Him and singing and shouting and dance about, oh,
hallelujah! Then, there’s going to come a day when every tear is wiped
away, and there’s no more memory of the thing, and you’re right back
where you were. Oh, brother/sister, and that goes on and on and on and
on. See? “Not worthy to be compared… I don’t even consider it,”
said Paul. That’s a far cry from Pentecost, as we know it.

43.	Ephesians 1. Not the second Book of Ephesians; now I got that
cleared away. That first chapter of the only Book of Ephesians—It
parallels Joshua. Third verse:

(3)	Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places (This is one
of them.)

(4)	According…

	Now, listen: you won’t get a blessing this morning the way I’m
preaching, and I’m preaching the way the prophet taught. Sorry about
that. I can bring you a tape; I know what I’m saying. Oh, man, when
the people did not believe in predestination through foreknowledge and
election, he said, “I left this place as a church, and I came back to
a cult!” I didn’t say it. The prophet said it. You jump on him.
I’ll jump on him, too, because I love him. Oh, I wouldn’t be a cult
for nothing. I wouldn’t be a cult or occult. I’m a Christian. 

	You’re blessed in this meeting this morning and in gatherings like
this, as Bro. Branham said.

(4)	According as he hath chosen you before the foundation of the
world…

	If you haven’t been chosen before the foundation of the world to
understand this election, this foreknowledge of God, this
predestination, you’ll sit here this morning, and your head’s all in
the fog. I’m sorry for you, honey. I can’t help you. I can’t help
myself. I was, or I wasn’t. Oh, the big grin inside and out; love it.

44.	(4)	…That we should be holy and without blame before him (Period!)
in love! 

(5)	Having predestinated us to the placing of children (Placing back
where we were lost in Adam) by Jesus Christ to himself.

	Jealous God. Not the Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, your creed, your
dogma, your idea, my idea, but Him Who is the Word. I understand Hebrews
13:8—not just to say, “Well, hallelujah, He never changes. We’re
going to have a big healing service in our church.”

	Oh, that’s the tiny, tiny part of it. He doesn’t change. There’s
a sovereign God, sovereign in my life; and I am His child, and what He
says goes.

	“Yes, Father; yes, Father; yes, Father.”

	Go to the Catholic Church.

	“Yes, Father; yes, Father; yes, Father.”

	Come here.

	“No, Father; no, Father; no, Father.”

	Somebody’s nuts. Somebody’s got a wrong spirit. 

45.	(4)	…In love:

(5)	Having predestinated us to the placing of children by Jesus Christ
himself according to the good pleasure of his will. (Huh?)

	 “You never called me; I called you. You didn’t look for me; I
looked for you: ‘Blessed is the man whom Thou causest to approach unto
Thy Throne’. Except the Father giveth them to me, they can’t come.
And him,” he said, “He does give me, they will come, and I won’t
lose one of them.” 

	You say, “Just a minute now, Bro. Vayle. The way you’re preaching,
the way you say God will allow things to happen, He might lose some.”

	That’s where you’re entirely wrong. He won’t lose one.

	You say, “What about if I get disobedient?”

	He still won’t lose you. Remember that little girl that Bro. Branham
told about. She’d gotten pregnant; and she’s married, of course, and
the baby died in her; and they took her to the hospital, and the doctor
said, “It’s all over. If we cut her, she’s gone; if we don’t cut
her, she’s gone.”

	And Bro. Branham walks in and lays hands on her, and hallelujah, she
wasn’t gone. Boom! Beautiful!

	A couple days later she sits up in bed and says, “Mom, I’m going
home.”

	She says, “I know, daughter. Isn’t it wonderful? God’s healed
you. You can come home now with your husband and the kids and all.”

	And she said, “You don’t understand. I’m going home to Jesus.”

	“Oh,” she said, “now stop it. Listen, you’re just nervous. I
can understand that, with what you’ve been through.”

	She said, “Mom, you don’t understand. I’m going home.”

	And she was dead—just like that.

	Well, Bro. Branham comes by: “What’s going on here?”

	Now, he’s righteously indignant with God. And the prophet says,
“What’s going on here, Lord?”	

	And the Lord knew better; and so, He thought, “Well, if this boy’s
my prophet, (And he is.) he’s going to have to learn a lesson, and
that’s just ‘don’t yap back to me’.

	So, God just shut his mouth and let Bro. Branham go down the road. He
never heard from God for quite some time. Then, one day, going down the
road, God said, “About time I showed him now.” And He gave him a
vision, and he saw this girl in a boat fall out of the boat, going down
the third time, and they brought her up. And God saved her life. And God
said, “She was living filthy. I couldn’t take her in that condition.
I saved her life. She still wouldn’t live right; so now, I cleaned her
up, and I took her home.”

46.	You say, “Bro. Vayle, I just can’t believe that she’ll be
Bride.”

	Who told you to believe anything of your thinking?

	People ask Bro. Branham, “Will that person make it?”

	He says, “I don’t know. It’s up to God; it’s by election.”

	“Will a little baby make it?”

	“I don’t know. It’s in the election.”

	“Well, what about this?”

	It’s in the election, but people still don’t believe it. Bro.
Branham, Bro. Vayle, Bro. Guenther…

	Aw, shut up! Elect according to foreknowledge of God—His good
pleasure.

47.	No wonder Paul said it’s cause to rejoice and give thanks to God,
because it is predestination. Oh, they sing and shout and dance about,
and they don’t wait to get there. Let’s have a hallelujah march now!
I challenge you.

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, you’re not emotional.”

	I am emotional. The only reason I don’t jump over the pulpit is
because I can’t jump over the pulpit. I’d fall flat on my face, and
I’m not stupid. Don’t kid me, brother/sister.

	When I preached on election and predestination there in Venezuela, I
never knew God could so anoint me to preach that sermon in such a way
that, if God did not elect, He would be a fool, because I would have
done it. Caldona got so excited, he wanted to throw the microphone down
and start running and screaming, but he knew he had to stick with me.
So, he lost the blessing.

	Do you want to start running and screaming? Go ahead; I’ll scream
with you. Yes, sir. I’m not lying to you. This is the Word of God, not
something somebody thought up.

48.	Now, okay. We’re going to go on now, and we’re going to break
down what we’re talking about into specifics of these priorities, or
God’s ways in life, what He expects of us; not what we expect or want
to do—but what He expects and wants us to do, as we walk this pilgrim
path. And in these further studies it will be a matter as to who and
what have priorities over us in our daily lives: what does God say about
our ways of facing life.

	Now it’s going to be a clash with the natural man. It’s inevitable.
That it’s against our nature and our ways and of the world, it’s
certain, because It says over here in Matthew 6. Now, you see, it sounds
like I’m changing my subject, but I’ve taken a lot of time on
backgrounding, and I’m going to talk about you and me going past the
glass of water, but understanding that, if God has said something, we
are obligated, not to just sniff that and walk by… And we’re going
to touch some real little goodies in here in a few minutes, and it’s
going to really be rough on old Lee Vayle. And his heart’s not as good
as it used to be, so you better pray that he won’t fall over dead when
he preaches it. All right.

49.	Matthew 6:32-34:

(32)	For these things the Gentiles seek after: for your heavenly Father
knoweth the things you’ve got need of.

(33)	But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and
all these things shall be added unto you.

	Now It says right here: that God demands the priority of His Word over
our own existence so that we don’t have our own existence, but we have
an existence, which is literally His existence; because, if I take you
by the nose, or the back of the neck, and I tell you: “You do it or
else!”

	You say, “Yes, sir; yes, sir; yes, sir.”

	“Then, you’re not doing what you want; you’re doing what I
want.”

	Now, that’s what God wants. And it’s the Word of God that will
transform a man. That’s why Bro. Branham said, “If you’ll receive
the Word of God into your flesh, your flesh becomes the Word of God.” 

	Now, do you see why he said it? Simple as A-B-C. Oh, boy, may we get it
like that.

50.	(34)	Take no thought for the morrow: (Think present; think future.)
the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.

	You have a full time job, moment-by-moment, facing life with the Word
of God, bind them as phlacteries before your eyes, bind them upon your
wrists, put them around your ankle, put them over your mouth, seeing
through the Word of God, saying the Word of God, working the Word of
God, walking the Word of God, until it’s all Word of God.

	Now, remember, brother/sister: We are enlivened by the Word of God, we
are judged by the Word of God; so therefore, if the enlivenment takes
place, there couldn’t be a judgment; it’s just rewards, rewards,
rewards.

	Now, remember: It’ll fill us full of life.

	So, we’re going to consider one or more priorities, and we’ll try
to go as fast as we can. 

51.	Now, listen: How obedient must I be to civic, state, and federal
laws, or national dominion laws, and what recourse do I have to use
these laws myself?

	Now you say, “Bro. Vayle, you’re off the subject.”

	I am not off my subject, because God has laid down rules. And He says
to me there are priorities concerning civic, federal, or national,
provincial, any type of government in this world. Now, what must I do
concerning the laws of either Canada or the United States? Now,
there’s only one Bible for a Yankee and for a Canadian. I’m both.
I’m both. I was born a Canadian, and I’m a Yankee. So, I’ve got no
problem preaching the Bible. But it’s not going to hit me twice,
either. There’s one Bible. That’s why I can’t stand it when
somebody says, “Well, Bro. Vayle, you don’t know the black man; you
don’t know the Indian; you don’t know the Chinaman.”

	Well, wonderful, then. If it’s a white man’s Bible, forget it. The
rest of you boys, beat it. Somebody’s crazy, and I’m not. You mean
to tell me color has a thing to do with this? Hogwash! Nationality?
Hogwash! Shew! Man! How people get messed up. So, Canadian, Yankee…
Who cares? 

	Listen: How obedient must I be to civic, state, national laws? What
recourse do I have to those laws myself? Now I’m a Christian. In other
words I’m a Christian here; my citizenship’s in heaven. But, bless
God, I’m a citizen here of Canada, and there are laws here, and there
are laws there. What do I do about the laws of the land?

	Well, as Bro. Branham says, “If the Bible questions, the Bible
answers.” 

52.	Now we’ll deal with obedience: Mt 22:21. Bro. Branham said,
“Render therefore unto Caesar…” quoting Jesus, “the things that
are Caesar’s.” In this case, it was specifically concerning the
speed limit. Bro. Branham said, “When you exceed that law, the Holy
Spirit leaves the car.” He doesn’t leave you, as an individual,
(You’d be gone.) but He could leave the car.

	Now, can we exceed the speed limit? The answer is, “No!” 

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, what about you?”

	You shut up about me! I’m not talking about me. I’m talking about
you, because I just broke it getting up here, doing 70 mph in about a 62
mile zone—hardly 70. Well, sometimes more. Are you going to report me?
It won’t do any good. They didn’t catch me, but God did. God knows.
“Render to Caesar.”

	Bro. Branham was caught. He shouldn’t have done it. He paid a price. 

53.	All Caesar’s laws are not speed laws. The blanket coverage of this
question goes to the point where Caesar’s laws contravene God’s
laws, where the state says, “Never mind what God says. Obey me.”

	Now you obey to that point, to where the law says, “Never mind
God.”

	You say, “Hold it.”

	Until that saturation point, you are stuck with the laws of the land.
Not only must we be careful not to disobey God’s laws in obeying a
state law, but certain state laws allow liberties that God’s Word
prohibits. Now the state comes along and says, “Now, you can do it.”
God’s Word says you can’t. 

	So, here is where the criterion is; here is where the fulcrum is. And
you’ve got to hold that perfectly level, so you don’t balance here
or balance there, one against the other. It’s always in a state of
balance. 

54.	Now we’re going to read Rom 13:1-7. Now this is going to be tough
on poor Bro. Vayle; so, if you don’t pray for him, you’re in worse
shape than I am, and that would be pretty pitiful.

(1)	Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no
power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 

(2)	Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of
God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves judgment.

(3)	For rulers are not a terror to do good works, but to evil. Wilt thou
then be afraid of the power? (You don’t have to be.) do that which is
good (And there won’t only be no fear; they’ll say, “Isn’t that
a fine citizen?” You’ll get praise.)

(4)	For he is the minister of God to thee for good.

	[Whistles] You mean Tommy Douglas, former premier, was a minister of
God for good? Whew! Well, I guess the Lord must have boo-booed there.
Too bad, too bad, too bad. We’ll just take exception, shall we?
Unh-unh. Sorry. It says, “All power is ordained of God.”

(4)	For he is the minister of God to thee for good. 

	Now, not to say everything he did was good, but he was put there to
uphold the laws of the land. Right? That’s the oath he took, and those
laws were made for good. Now God will touch him where he went haywire,
if He did. I don’t know. I happen to know that he’s pretty
socialistic-minded and, you know, religion that way, and I just can’t
buy that. See? I’m not Laodicean, and I’m not Nicolaitan. I’m a
child of God. 

55.	Now: 

(4)	But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the
sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger (Like more of
an avenger) to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. 

(5)	Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for
conscience sake.

(6)	For for this cause pay you tribute also: (Um! Dirty tax!) for they
are God's ministers, (Um! Got to pay them wages. Horse feathers!)
attending to duties. (They’ve got to be paid for… Who needs them?
Huh?)

(7)	Render therefore to all their dues: (Pay your dues like a good,
lodge member—a good citizen.) tribute to whom tribute is due; custom
to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

	Oh, brother. These seven verses tell us just about everything. Notice:
“Let every soul be subject.” Not one believer is exempted. 

	I’ve got a good buddy, who used to be a good buddy back in Ohio, and
he said, “Bless God, when I drive a car, I’m not under law; I’m
under grace.”

	Perfect example of stupidity, carnal thinking, carnal indulgence,
disobedience.

	“Let every soul”—not ninety-nine percent—one hundred. See? Not
one believer is exempted: no loopholes, no loopholes. Tax loopholes?
Yes, if they’re authorized. If our government is so stupid to let the
rich man pay nothing, and you and me pay everything, there’s a legal
way of righting it: that’s by the law. The Constitution says,
“Vote.” Watch who you vote for, but you pay your taxes. No
loopholes. Obey all good laws made by any public authority, for all
authority is of God. To resist the law is anarchy and is to fight God.

56.	Now I think we should go home and just forget about God. Nobody
could give a cup of cold water a while ago. How are we going to be
convinced that to fight the law is to fight God? I want to know. Look, I
didn’t write this Book. Listen, I want to tell you: I was born thin; I
was born nervous; I’ve always been for the underdog. Now, if I’ve
got an enemy, and I find he’s really in hot water and trouble, I’m
ready to go and fight for him, too, because it’s just in my blood. I
can’t help it. But I better get it out of my blood. 

	To fight civic authority is to fight God. Now this is tough, but this
is the acid test of priority: whether I am going to put God first, or
put myself first; whether I’m going to put my thinking first, or put
His thinking first; will I want my way, or I want His way? Resisting
authority means to fight God. I’m sorry. I did not write the Bible,
and my mind is boggled, because I’ve got a pretty smart mind, and
I’m a very nice thinker, and I could do some very fine things.

	Oh, no, you couldn’t. Let’s just get down to nitty-gritty. I’m
pretty dumb and stupid, because I’ve fought the law.

	Listen: They that resist or disobey will be judged by the judge and
condemned. So, there would be no use praying about it. Just take your
medicine.

	Say, “I’m going to pray about something.”

	Don’t bother praying. Just take your medicine or obey it. That’s
one thing I’ve really been learning to do a little bit of. Rulers are
meant for good; so, why fear their laws? See? Obey them and be praised;
disobey and be condemned.

57.	Let’s read verse 4:

(4)	For he is the minister of God to thee for good. (That is, a man who
will obey the oath of office. See? Because original authority is always
set up in a state.)

	Now, listen; these men are God’s messengers in the world system, the
same as a five-fold ministry is God’s ministry in the Kingdom. Believe
it or not, these men would be the Holy Spirit by their law to the world
system, as the five-fold ministry is the Holy Spirit to the Church. 

	“Hey, boy,” you say, “Bro. Vayle, I’ve got to change my
thinking.”

	Yeah, it’s a pity we didn’t read this chapter before and… [Bro.
Vayle makes noises like he’s ‘speed-reading’.] Oh, that’s
fine—chapter14, come right on. You can’t judge a book by the cover.
You’d better get to know what’s in the covers. You’d better not
try to judge what God says and means by what you and I might just think,
without finding out what He says and means. 

58.	When Bro. Branham said, “Render to Caesar,” he wasn’t kidding.
And he said, “for the preachers to break it down.”

	You say, “Well, Bro. Vayle, Bro. Branham didn’t read the thirteenth
chapter.” 

	So, what’s that got to do with it?

	Bro. Branham never came here to write his own book. He either preached
this Bible, or he was as false as the devil himself, because he said,
“The same Holy Ghost that wrote the Book is here to interpret It,”
and he claimed to be in touch with Him, and He said, “Render to
Caesar.” 

	So, I go to my Bible, as he taught us to do, and I find what it is to
render to Caesar. And I find it right here in chapter 13, and I find,
much to my horror: strong, solid thoughts to persuade my re-thinking of
the whole subject. Up to this point, we haven’t got past that point,
yet the laws of Canada are meant for good. The men took oaths to do the
country good. Obey those laws, or you’re fighting against God. The
same with the Yankees who come up here in Canada and say, “Why, the
wide open spaces; we can’t speed down there, but, boy, we can have fun
speeding up here.”

	Dirty bunch of Yankees. Didn’t I just condemn myself; didn’t I?
I’ll take it back. Shall I? No. I was condemned. I knew what I was
doing; just like you do.

59.	Verse 5:

(5)	Wherefore you must needs be subject, not for wrath only, but for
conscience sake. 

	He tells you right now: to break a law of the land will make your mind
and heart guilty and bother you, just the same as breaking God’s laws.
And He’s saying: “Let me tell you something, son: you know the
difference. Don’t break those laws.” 

	A ‘no’ here is interjected. No man can break these laws without his
conscience striking back any more than we can break the Bible laws and
not be condemned in our hearts. And, if our hearts can condemn us,
greater is God than our heart. And Bro. Branham said, “It’s where
your faith stops, that’s where you stop. The little flies, the little
things,” he said, “are what’s bugging us.” 

	Oh, if that sweet Spirit could be here—not just “I love you, honey;
you love me. Isn’t it great?”

	Poof on that! Come in like men and say, “I haven’t broken a law.
I’ll stand with the state with the problems. I’ll stand with the
thing. I’ll do what they tell me for good. I’ll make this a better
land. I’ll be a citizen worthy of praise.”

	Now, you haven’t got a bit of trouble.

60.	You say, “I’ll stand with Jesus. What He says goes. I know
it’s going to be bearing down on my nature; but, so what? Look what
I’m laying up in heaven: those treasures. My whole body will soon be
full of light. No more worry. I don’t have to worry whether Bro.
Branham is coming back or ain’t coming back, whether he’s God, or
whether he’s not God, whether there’s two souls, or four souls, or
six souls, or whether you should have church order or not.”

	Hallelujah, you’ll just have it, kid.

	Why? Because you was it. Huh? I think that’s simple. Bro. Branham
spoke in the “Seven Seals”, he started with simplicity, and he
preached simplicity. And at the end of the Seventh Seal, he said, “Oh,
when I preached that sermon on ‘simplicity’,” he said, “I
didn’t know what I was preaching.” He said, “It is so simple, even
simpler than I thought.”

	And I said, “Oi, yoi, yoi.”

	And then, he said, “Now, look; don’t try to figure it; don’t try
to puzzle. Just be a real Christian.”

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, tut-tut. You don’t understand. You see,
I’ve got all the quotes.”

	[Makes sound of disdain.] to your quotes; that is, the way you use
them, not the way he gave them. 

61.	Some men are so sick, they don’t even understand what you’re
saying. I stood up in the pulpit one day, and a man was sitting in the
audience, (And he knew what he was doing; don’t worry—puffed up in
his prideful ignorance.) and I said, “Look, any Methodist can quote,
quote, quote the Word; any Baptist: quote, quote, quote the Word, and
end up in a dogfight.” 

	And anybody in this Message can quote, quote, quote William Branham,
and then quote, quote, quote, and end up in a dogfight. And I said,
“What you’ve got to know is the doctrine. That’s why he came!”

	Boy, the man wrote a dirty, filthy letter, because he just wanted to
get in my hair and run me down. I am going to tell you something about
the fellow: he’s got a little picture that he calls his vindication.
It’s a ball of fire at his feet. When was the Pillar of Fire ever at
anybody’s feet? Tell me. Sammy, tell me. Do you know what that would
make that man? It’d make him bigger than God: “God’s at my feet.
Hi, God! Hey, God!”

	Don’t get too big for your britches, honey. I may stand here as a
fool, but, believe me, I ain’t a fool. I’m telling you the truth.
You quote all you want, until you say, “It’s this way, or they’re
out.”

	I’m going to tell you: It’s this way, or you don’t even know
anything about Him Who you said called you, because Bro. Branham said,
“Simplicity.” And he said, “When you think you’ve got it,
that’s the time you haven’t got it.” He said, “Wait for the
revelation to manifest itself. That’s the interpretation.”

	Let me tell you flat: I wouldn’t care if Bro. Branham came back on a
set of pink elephants, (And I’m not being funny now.) and God put a
tent here to cover the whole area of Prince Albert. I’ll scream,
“Hallelujah!” to God. I don’t know what He’s going to do, but I
know this: He’s going to do what He wants to do, and I better just sit
back and say, “Lord, You go ahead. In the meantime, help me to just
even obey the law of the land.” I’d like that. I’d like that.
Yeah.

62.	Now verse 6:

(6)	For for this cause pay your taxes.

	“You mean I’ve got to support those guys?”

	God said so.

	“But they drive big Cadillacs!

	Well, they’re not so big anymore. Ha! Ha! Ha! Getting them cut down.
Oh, Saskatchewan, you’re not as well off as Alberta. I’ve got to
preach that one over there. I’m going to get even with them, because
they’ve got the oil and the gas and the better prices. And I’m going
to laugh at them, too, because they have to depend upon the ‘big
three’ in old Detroit, so they may have the gas and oil. But they
ain’t going to have big cars, unless they do something about it—use
a shoe horn or a stretcher or something. Yeah! 

	“They live so good!”

	Pay your taxes.

	“You mean, I’ve got to support that?”

	Yep…happy, cheerful, because they’re God’s men.

	You say, “Sure doesn’t look like it.”

63.	I’m talking about the world system that God’s over! I’m not
talking about the Church. I’m not talking about some pastor saying,
“Well, you know, I get all the tithes, and I use them on myself,
because, you see, they’re my sheep and I work, and they’re my labor,
so I can live like a king.”

	And people say, “Yeah, our preacher, he deserves the best.”

	The best? What best you talking about? Hell or heaven? Time or
eternity? I’ve got so many good things now I’m ashamed of it. I
don’t deserve them; don’t even need them. I might be able to lay up
treasures, cups of cold water. My God, if a cup of cold water gets
recognition, what will something really good do?

	Of course, you could say, “Bro. Vayle, the thing is, back in the
Orient, you know, there’s a hot climate, and all they needed was
water.”

	I know that. I know that. But that was a simple thing. It didn’t mean
anything. Let’s get out and do some more.

64.	Now It says, “Pay your taxes.” Support these authorities. Taxing
is legal. Now, listen: They, again, are called God’s ministers. He had
to keep calling them God’s ministers, or we’d forget the first time
we heard it. Paul’s like that preacher, you know, who went to the
church the first time and preached a sermon; and they said, “My,
that’s a nice sermon, preacher.”

	He said, “Wonderful.” 

	He came back next Sunday and preached it again.

	“Well,” they said, “that guy, he’s a good preacher, but his
memory is kind of, you know, whatever it is, anyway.”

	He preached a second time, and they went out, shaking their heads, and
he came back next Sunday and preached it a third time.

	They thought, “Well, it is a little bit strange, but I guess maybe
there’s something to everything, so we’ll just wait a bit.”

	And he preached it a fourth time.

	So, they said, “Look, preacher, you’ve been preaching that the
fourth time. What’s going on?”

	“Well,” he said, “you haven’t been listening. When you start
obeying it, I’ll stop preaching it.”

65.	Now that’s just a joke, but I’m going to tell you a true story.
I wish I could quote the Scripture, but I’ve got a lousy memory.
Anyway, this happened in Africa. This kid (a little boy full of the Holy
Ghost) would come to the missionaries, the Christians, and he’d come
and learn a new verse of Scripture every day—about every day. And one
day the kid didn’t show up, and he didn’t show up, and he didn’t
show up. And the missionary got to praying, and he said, “My God, this
boy has back-slidden, or a lion must have got him. Dear Lord, help that
poor boy; something’s wrong somewhere.”

	And one day the boy came in, a big, fat smile on his face, all aglow,
and he said, “Where you been? Where you been? What happened, my son?
Where you been?”

	“Oh,” he said, “I’ve just been out here serving the Lord.”

	“Well, why did you stay away? Oh,” he said, “everyday you used to
come and learn a memory verse, and you stayed away for months.”

	“Oh, well,” he said, “you see, teacher, it’s this way. When you
teach me a verse, I don’t only learn it, I do it. And,” he said,
“that last verse was not something you just learn and do.” He said,
“Boy, I had a hard time doing that one.” 

	And that’s the one about keeping your mouth and all, you know, so you
don’t make your flesh to sin with it.

66.	So, It tells you here: “Pay your taxes.” These are ministers of
God. These are ministers of God!

	You say, “These are non-ministers of God.”

	They are ministers of God! Now, if you and I believe it, we’ll
respect them. And I’m just about as disrespectful as they come. I have
always been a rotten egg that way.

	So, listen: As we tithe to the ministry and give offerings for welfare,
and we put money in buildings, so our taxes will do the same thing out
there. (And we hate it.) Now, let’s learn to love it.

	I hope by next April, if the Lord tarries… Well, I’ll be paying him
before then. I just gave the government three hundred dollars, because I
pay quarterly. I know I don’t owe that, but I like a nice, little
bunch left over so that, when I pay my social security, hopefully, I’m
not paying anything—not very much. You know, I kind of keep the pain
away. I sort of take a bigger dose of pain just now than a great, big
dose later on. But I hope, if the Lord tarries, by next April, if I owe
a chunk of money, (And it’d be nice if I did, because that means I’m
getting plenty.) I hope I can grin and say, “Hallelujah! I hope they
enjoy it, and somebody gets some good.”

	And I can pray over my check and say, “God, if nobody else’s check
does any good, make this check do some good.”

67.	I’m going to tell you something flat. And I’m not boasting.
I’ll let you in on a little secret: Bro. Branham was so loved by
everybody, that everybody wanted to give him something; and so, they
did. They would chuck monies in his pocket. They’d chuck it here,
chuck it there. And he’d chuck it right in the fund.

	So, one day I got to crying, and I said, “Lord, even if I gave him
money, it wouldn’t do any good. I want to give God’s prophet
something from me. What am I going to do, Lord, so he can get something
from me? I’d like to put some clothes on the back of his kids and
himself, maybe, or some food on the table. I want to do something for
him that would be done, and nobody can take it from me.”

	I’m not boasting now. I shouldn’t even be telling you, but this is
out of my heart to let you know you can have a right attitude.

	And God spoke back and said, “Listen: Meda does all the dealing at
Penney’s. Why don’t you just give him a certificate from Penney’s
and she will buy clothes for the prophet’s children?”

	And I said, “Hallelujah!” And I didn’t chuck any money in his
pocket, but I put the clothes on the prophet’s kids’ back, or maybe
some shoes or something. I’m not proud of it. I’m just telling you
that’s the attitude. 

	So, when I drop my check in the mail next time, by the grace of God,
I’m going to lay hands on the check and say, “Lord God, I know
what’s going on, and I hate what’s going on, but somebody needs
help, and they’re committed to give help. Somebody get help from what
I give. I don’t care about anybody else’s money going down the
sewer, but I’m a real Christian. I’m laying my hands on this check
that your ministers out there are going to give it in the right way.” 

	Follow me?

68.	Verse 7:

(7)	Render therefore to all (To all!) their dues: (Oh, boy!) tribute to
whom tribute; custom to custom.

	When you come across the line, don’t smuggle. You can snuggle, if
you’ve got your wife, but you don’t smuggle. If you’ve got
contraband…hmm…hmm. 

	Neil [Guenther], I don’t know if I’m going to preach anymore. I’m
getting under conviction. I was just thinking about coming home from
Europe. It’s easy to tuck a thing here and tuck a thing there. I think
some brethren around here found out you shouldn’t do it anyway. It
cost a whole lot more. 

	“Yeah, but that dirty, rotten government…”

	“Well, I don’t want to have to pay wages back in Ontario. Pay those
guys back there. I’m Western Canadian.”

	So, you’re stuck. Can’t smuggle it. 

	Now, we’re luckier than you, because I can go back to the States any
old time with a couple hundred bucks, because they don’t give a rip.
But here, they’re a little better now than they used to be. You can
come back with a little more, a little more often. But you’ve got it
rougher here; I admit it. See, it’s very unjust, but you’re doing it
to God. Pay the customs.

69.	Well, take a good attitude, and say, “Lord, You said so. Bless
this money, Lord, and whether they want it or not, make it do some
good.”

	You always have the last laugh, if you do the right thing. Yes, sir.
God laughs from heaven. Yes, sir, you try to pull something on God, and
He just stands back and laughs at you. I want to stand back and chuckle.
So, let’s pay our customs. 

	“Bro. Vayle, pay your taxes.”

	I will. I feel better already, I feel even good about paying what’s
already gone in. Most of the time I’ll overpay. I can tell you flat,
see. I know the law, and what I get as gifts is not taxable. I never
came here for one buck. Whatever you give me is tax free. I pay anyway.
I use the short form. One year thousands of dollars went through my
hands, and I never took one thing for it. See? 

	The devil used to bother me and say, “Well, now you beat the
government here….” So, one night I got out of bed, about two in the
morning, and I said, “Devil, I’m going to prove you’re a liar from
the pit of hell. Either you are, or I am.”

	I was mad. I was mad—upset. I took out everything, laid it out there,
and I proved to the devil I gave hundreds of dollars more than I needed
to. I said, “Drop dead, you lying scum.”

70.	I had a lady friend of mine, she was a tax accountant. I’m going
to tell you flat: she said, “Bro. Vayle, you bring your books to me,
you won’t pay one cent.”

	I could do it. She’s a brilliant woman. The law has just said even
tithes are not taxable, if I don’t ask for them. I’m smart enough
never to go to any church and say anything about money. If you want to
give it, give it; if you don’t want to, don’t give it. Send it to me
as a gift—fine; all the better. That’s all the easier; anything in
the envelope, that sure is different. I’m legal. I’m a hundred
percent legal. I’m not kidding you. I’m not lying. I’m not making
loopholes: I’m legal. 

	There’s no man living, as far as I know, can put a finger on me, as
far as the actual taxation principle I live under, because I give
thousands of dollars that I don’t even tell the government I give, and
I’m allowed thirty percent anyway, and I can prove I give it, because
twenty percent comes right off the top; not one cent taken out for
expenses. See? 

	Now I’m only telling you about this for this reason: You will fight
with your conscience, and you will drive yourself down, if you cannot
honestly meet the laws of the land. 

71.	Now I know us preachers have ways of having the deductions—not
‘loopholes’—that you might not have. I wish you had it. But I’ll
tell you one thing: As the law says, take advantage of every opportunity
that’s legal, but don’t try to be illegal. My books are open any
time. I take actual mileage, the whole bit. There’s many ways I could
cut my income tax down, (And I mean really cut it down.) but I’m lazy
for one thing. It’s just easier to take clean across the board by
mileage, when anybody knows you can’t take 15 cents a mile on your
car, with depreciation. It runs about 36 cents according to the AAA. So,
every time I take 15 cents, I lose twenty-one. So, I’m lazy, stupid,
and, Lord, forgive me for that. I’ve got to change that around now,
too, because the Bible says, “Don’t be slothful.”

	Do you follow me? We’re not fooling anymore, brother/sister. The
prophet said, “The little things are ruining us.” The prophet said,
“Render to Caesar.” Listen; this is God’s priority over you and me
concerning the land in which we live, the civil law. You don’t have a
choice to say “yes” or “no.” You have a choice of “yes.”

72.	Now, pay all debts; pay all dues levied on you, all taxes, all
customs. See? Fear and respect the authority of these men. And, let us
note that the Holy Spirit must have been concerned about the tendency we
have toward evading the laws of the land, because six times, which is
the number of man, He tells us the authority and men using authority in
the state are of God. 

	Now, do you believe that? Nobody believes it? You don’t have to.
You’ll answer to God; not me. Or maybe I taught you so well, you
don’t have to say “Amen,” that you didn’t say it. I hope it’s
that way, but you do what you want.

	Say, “Bro. Vayle, you ruin our camp meeting.”

	I ruin a camp meeting that fills your body full of light? that helps
you to get the doctrine? Oh, come on. Look, kid, I’ve got my troubles,
but maybe you’ve got more than I’ve got. I hope not.

73.	Daniel 4. I’m getting to feeling real good about paying some
taxes; I mean getting conscience-stricken about doing more. I don’t
know about you. I’m telling you the truth. I was going to read
something here in Daniel, but I just can’t seem to put my finger on
it. Anyway… 

	Now, so even here God is sovereignly ruling in the affairs of man.
That’s a precept. 

	“God, You’re the boss, You’re the totalitarian, despotic,
theocratic Person. I don’t have a thing to ask, or to say. I just do
it—born slave. Yep, I’ve had my ear to His wall, and He punched a
hole in it. All I can hear is His Word now, dedicated.”

	No wonder Paul said, “I’ve been crucified with Christ; nevertheless
I live.” He said, “Oh, man alive,” he said, “I’ve been
crucified, but I’m living.”

	Man, that’s an awful state to be in: crucified. You should be dead,
but you’re somehow alive. Man, I’ve got conflict; I’ve got
problems. 

	“I’ve been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live;” he said,
“yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live in
the flesh, I see I live by the faith of the son of God.” [Gal 2:20] 

	Oh, brother, it better be that, because I can tell you flat: I
couldn’t do it without that. Shew! Better go back on him. 

	“I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me,” and he’s never stopped giving himself to help me. As Dr.
Grubb said, “It is a replacement.”

	Now, do you know something? Bro. Branham wasn’t the source of all
wisdom. God was. And the prophet quoted the Bible. He said, “I can’t
forgive people; it’s Christ in me forgives people.” Paul said, “In
the person of Christ forgave I them.”

74.	How in the world could you and I reconcile ourselves to this world
and its laws, as being of God and living right up to the very best we
can, without recognizing the principle in the person of Christ, and that
stops the whole thing from tearing you up?

	Romans 9. 

	I know you’re getting tired, so I’ll quit in a minute now, and
we’ll finish this tomorrow. I’d just as soon preach the same sermon
in series. I’m tired, too. [End of the side two, audio tape one; words
missing.] Sitting in those hard seats out there, I don’t know how you
do it. I tell you: you guys are amazing to sit and listen to this old
windbag up here for as long as you do; because, if I was down there
where you are, I’d be squirming, squirming, squirming, squirming. I
cannot sit. So, you love me. I know that. The Lord loves you. I won’t
light a candle for you. I’ll pray for you. I won’t send a request to
the priest; I’ll do it myself. Listen, so I’m going to try to get us
out of here as quick as I can. 

	For the Scripture says unto Pharoah, “Even for this same purpose have
I raised thee up.” He’s talking about Moses and Pharaoh, Egypt and
Israel, Bride and the world.

	Ho, man! “That I might show my power unto thee. I can do it and
control you, pick you up, and smash you down, that my Name might be
declared to all the earth.”

	Do you realize that God says He puts the basest of men over people? And
a Christian comes right along in the strength and power and character of
Jesus Christ and makes a monkey out of the guy.

	Oh, my. How’d you like to be like old John Fosch, the great old
Puritan? He believed in the old days that you didn’t lift your hat to
nobody. He thought you took your hat off to God. Now, look; I knew he
had some screwy ideas, according to really what is truth today; I should
say some funny ideas that are prone to be a little bit off. But, listen;
I liked that old fellow. He said, “I’ll obey you insofar as you
don’t make me disobey God. I’ll go all the way; but the minute there
comes a challenge, forget it.”

	And God raised up Pharaoh to see what Israel would do, and Moses went
right down the line with Israel, and God destroyed Pharaoh, and the name
of God went through the whole earth. And they said, “That’s the
people’s God that took care of Pharaoh.”

	And they said, “You don’t mean to tell me.”

	What happens when great men of God pay a price? Huh? The world stands
back: “I don’t understand it. I don’t understand it.”

	God’s Name goes through the whole earth.

75.	[Romans 9:] 22-23:

  (22)	What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power
known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction: (Pharaoh, whom God raised up and put there.)

  (23)    That he might make known the riches of his glory on the
vessels of mercy, which he had afore (knew and put there) which he had
prepared unto glory.

	What about it? See? God’s in it. God’s in all government, in all
authority, all power, and we’re obligated to listen to the government,
insofar as it does not contravene the Word of God and put us against the
Christ-like conscience we have in Christ. And we’re to obey it with
such simplicity and such faith that, if we break the law, our conscience
smites us right now, and we can’t sleep.

76.	Proverbs 24. Just these verses here, and we’ll wind right down.

(21)	My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: (“Nuts to the king!”
If someone says, “Nuts to the king,” it’s, “Nuts to God.” It
doesn’t say that, and my Bible says, “Fear God and the king.) and
meddle not with them that are given to change: (They want to change
things. They don’t want God’s way or the government’s way. Hah!
Hey, that’s interesting. Why?)

(22)	For their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of
them both?

(23)	These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have
respect of persons in judgment. (Oh, Bro. Vayle, listen, and take your
hat off, kid; sixty-four years old and haven’t learned very much.)

(24)	He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous; him shall the
people curse, nations shall abhor him:

(25)	But to them that rebuke him shall be delight, and a good blessing
shall come upon them.

	That’s the law.

77.	1 Peter 2. Let’s just find that the Word of God is full of the
Word of God all the way through on this subject; because, if I can find
something that will get me off the hook, I’ll just know that God has
changed His mind.

	Say, “Hallelujah! Isn’t that nice?” 

	Then, of course, if God changes His mind there, it’s not so
‘hallelujah-nice’, because He might decide I’m not elected. That
ain’t so nice. I’ve got to watch it very careful now. See? You’ve
got to watch it very careful now. See, if He gets me off the hook so I
can thumb my nose at the government, (I like that.) but, if He changes,
then He may take His hook out of my mouth, and I can fall back. I
don’t think I want Him to change. You get the point? Would you want a
changing God? Oh, no! We better listen to what the Bible says. All
right.

	1 Peter 2:9-17:

(9)	But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation,
a peculiar people; (That word ‘peculiar’ is a circle with a dot in
it, meaning that you are so thoroughly surrounded, ain’t nothing going
to touch you but what is touching you—which is God. You’re something
different. Like, “Ain’t that guy something?” Yep, this Bride sure
is.) that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you
out of darkness into his marvellous light: 

(10)	Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of
God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. 

(11)	Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain
from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 

(12)	Having your behavior honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they
speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they
shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. 

(13)	Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake:
whether it be to the king, as supreme; 

(14)	Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the
punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. (And
so forth.)

(15)	For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to
silence the ignorance of foolish men: 

(16)	As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness,
but as the servants of God.

	Paul, and Peter and everybody and the Bible agree: accept the authority
of the land. If it ever contravenes God’s Word, that’s the one time
you don’t listen. 

78.	Now, consider 1Timothy. I hope the seats are getting softer. Of
course, they won’t. So, we just praise God for them, too.

	1 Timothy 2:1-4:

(1)	I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, and prayers,
and intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; (Of
which… Who are they?)

(2)	For kings, and for all that are in authority…

	I want to ask you a question: Preachers, you people called upon to
pray, how many of you obey this? First, let me see some hands. No hands?
Neither mine. How many have actually even done it? Thank you. I’ve
done it maybe once or twice. Huh? No church service without it, no
prayer meeting, no house meeting, no devotion. God’s priority. God
says, “You do this.”

	You say, “Well, see, Bro. Vayle, I’m worried about my kids.”

	Why?

	“Well, you see, there’s dope in the land.”

	You didn’t pray for your governor. If you had, you wouldn’t have
had those hotheads that want this thing going on. You didn’t pray, you
didn’t exhort, you didn’t supplicate, and you didn’t thank. And I
didn’t either. I’m not pointing my finger at you. In fact, I’ve
got my fingers down here in my belt so, you know, kind of protecting my
innards, because I’m getting hurt right now.

	I haven’t done any praying. I’m not boasting. I’m just telling
you flat: I’m confessing I haven’t supplicated; I haven’t
interceded. Sure is a good thing the Holy Ghost has done something about
it. I sure hope so.

79.	(2)	…(Praying for) men in authority that we may lead a quiet and
peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 

	But, if you don’t pray for it and believe it, you don’t get it. Now
Bro. Branham said, “I don’t pray for America anymore” does not
mean you don’t obey this. He had to say that, because people did not
do this. Wouldn’t it be something, if you went to political meeting,
and you say, “Hey, fellow…” (Or Whig or Tory, or whatever you are,
Conservative, Democrat, National New Democrat, or fool, or whatever you
are. Who cares?) “Hey, fellow, I want to tell you something: Got no
faith in politics. Don’t have much faith in you. So, you give me one
promise: you’ll have faith in my prayers. I’m going to pray for
you.” 

	Man, you’d scare the living daylights out of him.

	He’d say, “Nah nah, nah, nah, nah , hold it! This is not the
church. This is politics.”

	You see, honey, I’ve got news for you. It is church, even though
it’s politics, because God says, “Pray.”

80.	(3)	For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;


(4)	Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of
the truth.

	You say, “Hold it. You mean I do these for the kings and all these
fellows that we can have a good, quiet life in honesty?”

	Uh huh. [Sure]

	“And this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior?”

	“Yeah, I believe that. But hold it, don’t read the rest.”

	I didn’t say “full of the Holy Ghost.” I just said ‘saved’.
We’ve got a man in the States, he’s called President of the United
States, President Carter; he says he’s saved. I think he is; I believe
he is. He did make a boo-boo. He said, if he was ever caught in a lie,
he’d resign. He did get caught in a lie, and he didn’t resign. If he
was then full of the Holy Ghost, he would have, I guess.

81.	Now, listen: Do you realize It says right here some of these guys
can get saved? Oh, man, wouldn’t that be nice to have some saved
people in government? Nobody thought of praying. Now we’re talking
about priorities and what God puts as incumbent upon me in relation to
civil law. I am telling us all here today. Will there be those of you
who have family devotions now every morning begin to pray in this wise,
or will you leave the meeting and say, “Well, Bro. Vayle sure told us
some things, but I don’t necessarily have to believe it.”

	Certainly you don’t have to believe it. I’m not going to come with
a club and make you believe or do anything. I don’t even do it to
myself. Who would like to do it? Somebody’s got to do it; and, if it
isn’t done, it’s going to get worse and worse and worse and worse.

82.	I have a concern (Listen.) that our failing in this area has brought
the spirit of anarchy into the church, even amongst us now. Now Lee
Vayle is no prophet, but I’ve got brethren sitting here who know that
I’ve called the shots beautifully over the years, because I stand back
and watch as the prophet taught. As I told you, those boys that said
1977 will end it were very foolish, because Bro. Branham laid the law
down. He said, “I could not preach this Sodom and Gomorrah on the one
issue of marriage and divorce alone. All the signs must be there.”

	Seventy-seven could not have ended it—could not! There was no
squeeze. You don’t have to leave the unions. Where’s the Catholic
Church? It’s still dissolving. Where is the pope that comes out of
America? Then, how could He have come in ‘77? And, if ‘78 doesn’t
show more signs, He will not be here in ‘78.

83.	Now, let me tell you something: I’m just Lee Vayle talking. I’m
no prophet; but, if we have our senses exercised by godliness and know
this Message, I believe we can know things. I said that, after the
Thunders message rolls, I believed, and I do believe, that indication is
here that this business of leadership has run its course. The Nicolaitan
amongst us is down. I believe, by the grace of God, that I’m hitting
it right that there’ll be no more leaders rise up. That’s why you
know my nature screams against leadership. And I say without fear of
anybody contradicting me: When Bro. Branham died, I was the logical man
to stand up and say, “Look at me.” And I was the first logical man
to sit down and say, “Don’t look at me.” And I don’t intend for
anybody to make me an authority or a leader or nothing, because I
ain’t. I am your brother, and a lousy brother at that. And, if I could
sneak in the back door, thank God. And, if He says, “Go to the Lake of
Fire, I’ll say, “Lord, Your will be done, because You’re the
boss.” But a leader, I am not. And, don’t ever look at me as an
authority.

84.	Now you know I am not using reverse psychology. As God is my judge.
I hate Nicolaitanism. You know why? Because as a young preacher I saw it
when I was in Pentecost in Alberta, and the big shot leader tried to
force me to disobey God. He tried to force me to leave the place where
God took me and gave me revival and blessed me, (And the people wanted
me.) because he wanted to put a buddy in there.

	And I said, “I don’t see it that way.”

	He said, “In the multitude there lacketh not wisdom.”

	I looked around, and I just saw his big, fat head. I’m not going to
take it back. I said it, and I mean it. That’s all it was. He spoke
from his own mouth and heart. And I said, “But, brother, if God put me
there, then, I belong there.”

	“Well,” he said, “it’ll cost you papers.”

	And I said, “You can have them.”

	I’m going to tell you: I was bitter. I got so bitter, I backslid. And
God was in it. And I hate Nicolaitanism.

85.	You pastors, you’re on your own, as far as I’m concerned. I love
you, because, without you, I’d have no place to go. And, if you think
I am so stupid to think I’m going to come in and take over and cut my
throat, you are crazier than a hoot owl that just got bitten by a rabid
dog. Do you follow me? Authority! You can have it! I don’t want it.
You couldn’t conscript me; I can run too fast. I’ve got too good of
health to fool with that junk. 

	Now, what I’m leading up to is this: ‘nico’ is ‘over’, but
not ‘laity’. The next thing you’ll look for, which will hit you
here in Saskatchewan, and then, hit the world, and is hitting it now, is
the people will get more and more restless and want to run
things—internal dissensions; because it’s got to be. There’s only
two spirits, honey. 

	Nicolaitan, Laodicean, people’s rights: That’s the end-time spirit.
People’s rights, until even the Catholic Church must acquiesce. The
pope had to bend to a sub-authority within the Church suing him—and
amongst us, I believe. And I’m not a prophet. I say this from the top
of my head by observation, as Bro. Branham said, by the five major
visions, five having been fulfilled, he believes ’77 could be, could
well be the day the other two would have been fulfilled. And I say, by
what is going on, I fear greatly that we are going to have a spirit of
anarchy rise up amongst us, worse and worse and worse and worse. The pew
is going to start denying more and more and more the authority that God
gave. I say this reverently, because I don’t want any part of it,
brother/sister. I never asked God to call me, but you read Ephesians 4,
when He came back to give gifts to the Church, they were men to lead the
Body to perfection. I have nothing to do with it.

86.	My message this morning, though dull, it could be insipid and boring
to most of you, because you might want a ‘hip-hoorah’ and a nice
feeling. Let me tell you flat, my brother/sister: I have preached you
“THUS SAITH THE LORD,” and right here, people refusing authority. It
gets right into the church. And, who rises up first? A real nice fellow
that everybody respects, and he cuts the preacher’s throat, and he
wants to take care of the fruit. And pretty soon he’s like certain
brethren I can name, which you wouldn’t know; so, it’s all right,
and I won’t name them anyway. They are very spiritual, and they use
all their time to run to counsel, because, you see, the pastor, he just
couldn’t do the great job they do.

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, that couldn’t happen in me.”

	Oh, couldn’t it? When the Bible says it will? How faithful have you
and I been for this Word, right here in the civil part alone, because
everything in heaven has a manifestation on earth. And It says, “Thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” and we don’t even believe
that God’s authority on earth is in the cosmos system amongst men that
He has put here—base men, even.

	But He says, “Pray, supplicate, intercede, and thank God of the
possibility and the reality that it will come in, that you can live
those lives you want, and even some are going to get saved, and it can
get better. Now it’s not too late, brother/sister, because, even if
you don’t change them, you will change yourself in doing it.

87.	Today the world cheers the priests and the ministers who defy the
government and break the laws and say it is lawful to do so, because the
laws are wrong. Then, God has to be wrong, for He takes responsibility
for the authority. So, as much as we dislike restrictions that seem
frivolous, unnecessary, or those placed on us by greedy and deceitful
men, we must obey, as long as it does not force us against the Will of
God. The antidote is to pray for the officials, as Bro. Braham says. 

	And I’m going to quit right here. As Bro. Branham said, “Look, when
I get dry and barren in my soul and spirit, I begin praying until the
windows of heaven open, and I get all lubricated and happy.”

	Well, I want to ask you a question: Still believe the Bible? Now this
is simple. I preached nothing as simple as this in all my life, and
I’ve been preaching a long time. I’d love to be a Philadelphia
lawyer and preach long things, and, you know, and get you confused over
here, and confused over there, and bring you all together, and they’d
say, “Wasn’t Vayle clever?”

	Hmmmm. A four-year old kid could preach this. But I’m not clever. 

88.	I want to ask you: How wise are we? How wise are we? Huh? Start
praying, brother/sister, for governors. And it’s a little bit too
late, almost, but it could just be that it will make the load lighter
and a little bit easier and the burden lifted so we can escape; because
Bro. Branham said, “This age will see a repeat of all diabolical
cunning, the most perilous age of all time.” I don’t know what’s
ahead, but I know this: I am ashamed, and I must take the blame with
you, that I have not seriously read my Bible and considered all the Word
of God. Now, remember; Bro. Braham said, “If you’ve got the Holy
Ghost, you’ll say ‘amen’ to every Word.” Right?

	Not, well, say, “Well, Bro. Vayle, when you said, ‘He heals,”
amen.”

	And I say, “He puts in governors.”

	“Amen.”

	But you’ve got to pray for, first of all, ‘amen’. Huh?

	You know, Abraham’s prayer didn’t seem to do much good, but I
believe it did. I believe it meant an awful lot to Lot, pretty late in
the day, when he prayed. It’s pretty late today, but I’d say one
thing, this: It’s time to start praying. It’s time to give God His
priority, that civil law is of God and must be obeyed, until the state
says, “You forget God’s law and hear mine,” and we say, “Though
you slay me, put me in prison, kick me out, exile me, I can’t do it.
But I’ll obey you, right to the letter, as long as I know God’s
behind me.” 

	Do you follow me? The Lord bless you. Shall we rise?

	Kind, Heavenly Father, I know, Lord, that it just shows again the
profundity of the statement of the prophets: simplicity, the little
things. My, it just… I almost feel like, Lord, You’re not even here
in the building, because it’s so disgraceful to stand here and know
that we just turned these pages over so many times and say, “Well, so
what?” And it kind of strikes home deep now, giving us cause to just
pause when the prophet said, the Holy Spirit said, “Say ‘amen’ to
every Word in the Bible.” And now it’s beginning to get a little bit
sharp, Lord, and I’m feeling a little edgy—not with You, Lord, but
with me. And not just to say, “Amen. That’s right,” but to do
something about it. Otherwise, we’re getting into a little bit of a
bad place here, because…not “Him is blessed who says, ‘Amen’,”
doesn’t do it, not him who believes and then won’t build, but it’s
the fellow who does it and then builds—and the winds come, and
everything begins to disrupt and go down, this edifice still stands.

	Lord, it’s still true that this simple way is going to fill the Body
full of Light, and all this talk about doctrine is going to go down the
drain. Real doctrine is going to be here with the real Light. But it’s
just too simple. Yet, God, this morning I’m convinced that, if I will
take and obey what I have read and the people have heard, and they with
me, the body will begin to fill with Light. And the Will of God will be
manifested and blessed amongst us.

	Lord, I apologize. I didn’t believe it was that simple. Now I am
confounded and tricked by my own imagination, but I will say, “Blessed
be God, Who, through the mouth of the prophet, spoke It and said, “God
hides in simplicity.” It’s so simple… Missed it entirely.

	Father, I’m so glad I can begin to feel Your Presence now. Lord, I
hope it means I’ve been forgiven and strengthened to begin to do these
things, Lord, and pray for governors and become serious, God. Not just
serious about me and mine, as though I was that kingdom. That’s not
it. Lord God! I’ve screamed many times, and I’ve cried that I’m
jealous, Lord, for Your honor. And I would just gladly go to the Lake of
Fire, if I’d know I’d serve You somehow. Here this simple thing lies
here, and I’ve been a complete fool all along, just as bad and worse
than the organizations and denominations and the heretics I’ve
excoriated: pot calling the kettle ‘black’; you accusing somebody of
doing the same thing yourself. I’m standing here, Lord, judged by Your
Word. Oh, God, I only hope It does something for me. Please, please,
please, please. I don’t want to throw the onus on You, Lord. I don’t
want to tell You to do things I’m supposed to do, but, Lord, I know
that You can give me a head start by a properly addressed whack in the
right places, O God. Send the bees in to make me willing to go—the
hornets, or whatever is necessary.

	I know I’m praying like a coward and a lazy man, Lord. I know myself
just like You know me. I’m just afraid of myself, Lord; I just got so
afraid. But I know there’s somebody here today, perhaps many who will
rise to the occasion, perhaps even young kids who’ll get down in their
hearts to the realization, piling Word upon Word: “I’m going to
start obeying the law. I’m going to start praying sincerely, even
interceding. I’m going to know once and for all, ‘If I try to do
good things, and my mom and pop have done good things, then God’s
going to do good things for me, too.’”

	Lord, Jesus, bring us back to simplicity, where the prophets stood,
Lord. I don’t just want to see It for this moment, Lord. I want to
walk in It; I want to revel in It; I want It. So, we just turn ourselves
to You, gracious God, the ‘Altogether Lovely’, and give You the
praise and the honor in Jesus’ Name. Amen. 

	Let’s sing that song, “Into My Heart:” Into my heart, talking now
of obedience to the Word, as He was obedient. “Come into my heart,
Lord Jesus.”

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