Leadership #5

Watch and Pray; God’s Criterion

July 10, 1994

	Holy Father, we are happy to be in Your gracious Presence, knowing that
the work You have done to bring us to the true Word is the very result
we see today: people coming to a Message which is full of life; and we
appreciate that, knowing, Lord, that a time is at hand when there must
be a Resurrection and a Rapture, and by Your grace, Lord, we’re
believing to be a part of it.

	Help us all, Lord, to bend every thought and every effort to that end.
Whatsoever we do in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, may it be
according to the Word that we may reap the proper benefits thereof, and
not hear any condemnation for having used Your Name or Your power or any
other such thing adverse to Your divine will and sympathies, Lord.

	We just pray now that You’ll look down upon us and help us to be the
people that You want us to be; and that’s what we want. In Jesus’
Name we pray. Amen.

	You may be seated.

1.	Now we’re on number 5 of the sermon, “Leadership”, that Bro.
Branham brought us, and there are many things I could say right at this
point, but I think I would take a lot of your time. So, I’ll just go
right into my notes and continue in this message that Bro. Branham
brought, which is so propitious. Now, remember that this is actually the
very last sermon that he preached. He preached on “Communion”,
which, although it was a sermon, I do not consider it as part of his
ministry out there in the world and to the churches. His ministering in
“Communion” was to the little group in Tucson and a lot like his
message when he preached “Shalom” and some of those others, which
were what you might call ‘pastoral’ messages to the people that the
Lord had given him. And you remember that, when he preached “Marriage
and Divorce”, which would be so controversial, he said, “This is to
the people I believe the Lord...with whom the Lord has entrusted me;”
and it was specifically to them and to nobody else.

2.	Now in this particular instance he is, of course, preaching to the
Full Gospel Businessmen, the last people to whom he really had access;
and they invited him because of Carl Williams of Phoenix, Arizona. And,
of course, we know that they organized. They set up their creeds and
their dogmas, and they said, “This is it; and this is as far as
anybody goes” or we will allow them to go. And, if you don’t believe
as we do, then, of course, you’re going to have to believe as we do,
because we are the constituted authority.”

3.	So, we’re looking at all of these things that you would look at and
you would expect, or perhaps not expect, unless you jarred your
conscience and by going back to the Word, that, if God sent a man, as He
sent Luther and Wesley, as He sent other men like He sent, of course,
Paul, as He sent Moses... If this was indeed a man sent at the end time
that we would believe, (And we are confident of from the Word of
God—everything fulfilled from the Word of God—that this was a great
end-time prophet to the Gentiles, to set the Church in order by the
Word.) what would you expect from that person? Now, this is where people
will not jar their thinking. Number one: they do not even want anybody
from God to come.

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, why not?”

	Because you’re not studying your Bible. The word ‘Laodicea’ means
‘people’s rights’, the independence of the people. Now, what does
independence mean when it comes from the Bible? Independence from God!

	“Well,” you say, “oh, no!”

4.	Then, tell me what it is. Come up here and tell me. I’m anxious to
learn. I’ll even let a woman stand up here, though God knows that’s
a disgrace. I don’t throw these challenges here for nothing. I want to
know. Or perhaps you’re to tell me God doesn’t deal with prophets
anymore. Give me the Scripture for it! Just tell me. I don’t care what
a bunch of people tell me. Tell me what God said. 

	They didn’t expect a prophet. And those that did, cried for a prophet
but didn’t even know what they were crying for. A prophet to them was
“Vindicate me, Lord, the way I am. Come, stand with me.” You tell me
when God ever stood with anybody, except, first of all, that person was
standing with God. You can’t do it. So, all right.

5.	We’ve been studying this message here by a man that was recognized
for many years to have the closest ministry to the Lord Jesus Christ in
two thousand years, and, when he stood like Paul and Jesus and
proclaimed that people were worshipping God in error, that did it. Never
mind the ministry any more. Forget the ministry. Why do you think God
sends ministries? Even the Roman Catholics know, and they know only too
well, far above the Protestants, when God does a miracle. And they even
accept what happened at Fatima, and what is happening in the
Philippines, what is happening anywhere, as the assured sign of Almighty
God, telling them, “Sit down, shut up, and listen! I’ve got
something to tell you!” And that’s exactly how Jesus came. “I’m
doing this to get your attention. Now, listen!” So, they were going to
stone him. He said, “What good work do you stone me for?” 

	They said, “No good work. But, why don’t you shut up and listen to
us? Why are you trying to set us straight?”

	They said the same thing to William Branham: “Why are you trying to
set our women straight and set us straight? We are straight!”

6.	Do you understand the homosexuals are now saying, “The third sex is
going to be the straight sex,” and “the rest of us are deviates”?
Do you mean you haven’t heard it? You haven’t? Where have you people
been? What do you think they meant when they said they’d be the
majority, and we’d be looking in? From homosexual goes bisexual; from
bisexual it’s all gone. 

	Oh, come on! Think this morning. You weren’t today where you were
yesterday, and you aren’t today where you were ten years ago, twenty,
thirty, forty, fifty years ago. Let’s face it. People just don’t
want to listen. Oh, the listening part’s okay—in one ear and out the
other. Do you know the Bible said: in the days of Noah nobody knew
anything, except Noah and seven more people, till the flood came and
carried them all away?

	Now it didn’t carry them all away. As they said, “Millions now
living will never die, and be carried away in a Rapture.” Hogwash! The
millions that were carried away were carried by the flood—they died!
Now, tell me, why did they die? Because they wouldn’t hear the one
prophet, called Noah...with a simple, little message of condemnation:
“Get in the ark or stay out.” How many of those people... How many
do you think got converted the minute the flood came, and they began
trying to hook onto the ark? But the ark was pitched within and without,
and pitch is pretty slippery! It’s got to be to shed water. 

7.	What do you think it was like when millions—five and a half billion
people—were dying in the flood? What’s it going to be like when six
billion people face the Great Tribulation? That’s what a prophet is
all about.

	You say, “I don’t believe that.”

	Well, fine. You don’t have to believe anything. I don’t ask anybody
to believe anything. Believe anything you want. I’m not just being
mean and tough. I can’t come down and change your heart. I can’t do
one thing for you. The church can’t do one thing and neither can the
Word of Almighty God, unless a person listens and looks. It says,
“Watch and pray.” Watch what? Oh, come on. Who is giving those Words
to us? Jesus is giving those Words. Now, what is he talking about? His
own identified ministry as the Messiah. Watch! Look what’s coming, and
pray according to what you’re watching and apprehending from what
you’re seeing. 

	Boy, the high priest sure apprehended. Didn’t he? He could see his
multitude going; he could see his crowd failing; he could see his money
going; he could see everything going; and he didn’t realize that he
was going.

8.	How many are waiting right now to come forth in that Resurrection,
having died under Titus in 70 A.D. in a mini, mini-tribulation? How many
are waiting right now? Like the spirits in the time of Noah, waiting to
come up and go to the Lake of Fire. 

	“Oh, Brother Vayle!”

	Don’t “Brother Vayle” me. You don’t believe God; you don’t
believe your Bible. You’re sitting here with your own ideas. Forget
it. I’ve nothing to tell you. You’ve got nothing to tell me. Our
fellowship’s gone. And I’m not being mean. I’m just telling you
the truth, because the Word of God is a separator. The gifts only bring
the people together as the charismatic Pentecostal movement has invaded
every single church, and especially the Roman Catholic, who are called
the Neo-Pentecostals. And it brings them together to such a extent now
that the Pentecostals have to come to a decision: whether their baptism
evidence is entirely phony, entirely false, or they’ve got to separate
from the Catholic Church. And the Catholic Church still worships the
virgin Mary—believes in an infallible pope. 

	No matter how much you speak in tongues and claim you’ve got the Holy
Ghost, you’ve still got to come by the Catholic Church. They’ll tell
you that flat. They’ll tell every single Protestant, “You’re
Catholics and don’t even know it, because you’ve been baptized in
the name of a trinity.” And the Roman Catholics admit that they put
the trinity on the map, except before the time that they got their
organizational creed upon them—their dogmas, and said Mt 28:19 is the
only way you can go, (And those are not names—Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost. Those are titles.) everybody was baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And they say, “Now you Protestants are Roman
Catholics!”

9.	Are you reading any papers these days? Are you listening to anything?
You know, because you call yourself ‘born-again’ and read a Bible
the odd day, doesn’t mean you can’t open your eyes and ears and know
what’s going on. That’s why the Bible said, “Watch and pray.”
Watch! Watch! Watch!

	When the Jews and the Pope signed their first concordat the other
day—6-6-6—sixth month, sixth day, sixth year...no more religious
persecution, and the Jews are not accountable for crucifying Christ.
And, if they weren’t, then Rome was. Right? Rome doesn’t know that
the same spirit of hell, the Babylonian spirit that came down to Rome,
was already amongst the Jews. How much did Israel believe the Word of
God when their own religion had been invaded by the religion of the
people out there in the world? It had been invaded, and Rome admits, but
they won’t draw back from the fact they hurt themselves by letting all
pagan religions become a part of theirs. Does Rome, then, have anything
to tell us except paganism? Nothing.

10.	Now there’s your picture, and this is what I’m trying to tell
you. And Bro. Branham stood before those people representing—and they
were—the Laodicean complex and all their complexities, and he preached
this sermon on “Leadership”. So, here... I’m going to go over a
little bit of it.

	In our last reading, in pages 16-19, from the message on
“Leadership”, we found Bro. Branham speaking to a golden calf scheme
agency of the final hours of Pentecostal Laodicea where the Full Gospel
Businessmen had superseded the five-fold ministry, even indicting it,
excusing themselves as though all ministers were failures (And they
wouldn’t be, now.) in not taking the Gospel to the whole world, and
these men now organized and apart from ordained ministers given by God,
were no different from the ones upon whom they frowned, for they had
rejected out of hand the prophet Elijah, who alone could restore the
living Word to the church and, thereby, establish true leadership.

11.	Now, that’s a mouthful, but it’s the truth as I understand it
today, because William Branham was vindicated and vindicated just the
same as Paul was. And Paul’s vindication was simply based upon the
miracle power of Almighty God preceded by “THUS SAITH THE LORD,” as
Deuteronomy 18 tells us. Furthermore, when God spoke to Moses, He said,
“I will make myself known in dreams and visions to prophets, but with
my servant, Moses, not so. I will speak to him even apparently,” which
means “I will make myself visible to him in some way.” And at the
burning bush that’s exactly the way it was. And with Paul that’s
exactly the way it was.

12.	Are you going to tell me now: The God Who works in three’s could
not do it through this man? and that is not an ‘apparently’ of
Almighty God? I’m not saying that’s Almighty God. If that is the
shekinah glory, and the Jews understood it, that’s a glory attendant
upon the personal presence of God. And it doesn’t make it ‘God’,
but God is behind it somewhere, vindicating Himself. That’s why nobody
has to believe. I’m just telling what I believe. 

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, why are you such a bad person in front of these
lovely, nice people here?”

       I know you believe, but you understand also, these tapes go
around the world. My ministry is not a local ministry. I don’t want it
to be, except I love you and you love me. But I speak very, very strong,
because I haven’t got anything else to do.

13.	Now Bro. Branham did not accuse them concerning their
desires—that’s to win the world for Christ. He never accused them of
that. But, remember; Jesus stood before the Pharisees, the religionists
of the day, and the Sadducees—their complex religion which was
dominated by the Talmud, not the Torah—and he said, “You
circumnavigate the whole globe to bring in one convert, and he’s a
two-fold more child of hell than you are.”

	Like the apostle Paul said, “You can come to church and leave in
worse shape than when you came!” And no little old ladies are getting
mugged; no women and girls and young boys being molested; everybody’s
been taking the Lord’s Table and leave it in worse condition than when
you came. And you know how they are in worse condition in Paul’s day
and Jesus’ day? And Paul enunciated. He said, “I’m giving you what
God Himself gave me, and you’re not taking It.”

14.	Now, don’t think I’m ‘God’ up here. I’m just Lee Vayle.
I’m not trying to give you anything, but I’m quoting the Word of God
and showing you Scripture being fulfilled. And Scripture runs in
circles, because alpha is omega. And, if you wonder what’s going on in
this hour, all you’ve got to do is trace your Bible and go back where
the Bible talks about it. And, when you see it, you know you’re in
that hour. And, if we’re not in the days of Noah and Sodom and
Gomorrah—Sodomite condition—I want to know what we are waiting for
to find a Sodom condition.

	Now you know that AIDS comes out of sodomy; there’s no two ways about
it. Are you fully aware that AIDS is spreading amongst the heterosexuals
in their forties and fifties faster than any group? Are you aware
what’s causing it? Men frequenting prostitutes is what’s doing it.
If we’re not in a Sodom condition of destruction, I don’t know what
people call a Sodom condition of destruction. They’re willfully blind.

15.	Bro. Branham did not accuse them concerning their desires or
motives, but he informed them from the Scripture that they themselves
were unscriptural. How could they lead others in any way, except in an
unscriptural way, where all worship and service towards God is in vain.
And he was quoting Jesus who said, “In vain do you worship me, having
for doctrine the traditions of men.” In other words, “You do not
have the actual true teaching from the Word. Though you go to It, you
will not stick with It. You’re using your Talmud; you’re using the
expressions and sermons of the elders of Israel. You are not going right
to the Word Itself. And neither will you examine It in the light of the
Word Itself.” That’s why he said, “You say you’ve got Moses?
Then go to Moses!”

	They weren’t going to Moses. They were going to their Talmud. They
weren’t going to the Torah. He said, “If you had known Moses.” He
doesn’t say, “Well, if you were back there so many hundreds of years
ago, meeting with and talking to Moses...” He doesn’t say that.
He’s talking about those five books of Moses. He said, “If you’d
have known.” Now, what were they supposed to know? Exactly what a
prophet is, so they could tell one when they saw one—so they’d know
Messiah. But they didn’t go there. They didn’t at all. They didn’t
even believe in it.

	Now we get the scenario: Here these men were criticizing the five-fold
ministry for not getting the work done, which to them meant the loss of
millions of souls and they in turn bringing in those millions,
hopefully, to a rejected worship and worse still, a very possible three
and a half years of the Great Tribulation and White Throne after that.

16.	Now, let’s take the Scripture, and find out if I’m lying to you.
We go to Rev 2:18:

(18)	And unto the messenger which is in the church in Thyatira write;
These things saith the Son of God, who hath eyes like unto a flame of
fire, and feet like unto fine brass; (In other words he’s been through
the judgment, so now he’s going to talk to these people here.)

(19)	I know thy works, and charity, service, faith, and thy patience,
and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.

(20)	Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou
sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calls herself a prophetess, to teach
and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, to eat things
sacrificed to idols.

	Now, if you’ve got a Jezebel, you’ve got to have an Ahab. 

	You say, “Well, I don’t believe that!”

	Then you don’t believe the Bible. Jezebel was nothing without Ahab!
Ahab was the husband; he was the king; he was the authority; and he
married her, and she, then, began ruling him. So, the church says here,
“You’ve got a murderess, an idolater, a filthy woman, a schemer, who
gets fed to the dogs, running you, and you’re happy.”

17.	Now you try to tell me the Bible doesn’t say that! I’m going to
tell you, “Go back here, and I’ll prove it to you.” Come on; get
your Old Testament, stand up here and show me the Old Testament
doesn’t say it. Did the dogs not lick her blood? Was she not the one
who flaunted the death of Naboth? Was she not the one that polluted the
religions, the truth of Judaism? Really, it’s Christianity, because
the word ‘Christ’ is ‘Meshiah’. Christos is Meshiah, and Meshiah
and Christos mean simply what we know: Messiah, which is Savior. And for
anyone to think the Jews are not Christians, you’re mentally
deficient. Are you in that category this morning? Christos and Meshiah
(or use Messiah) are the same word. 

	The trouble with the Jews: They are Christians who rejected Christ, and
now we’ve got another bunch of Christians rejecting him with their
creeds and their dogmas. How do I know it? Because It says in Revelation
3: “Standing at the door,” and you don’t find that they’re
inviting him back in. Why? Because the church goes to judgment! Now, if
they had invited him back in, it’s a different story.

(21)	I gave her space to repent of her fornication; she repented not.

(22)	Behold, I will cast her into bed, and them that commit adultery
with her into the great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
(Now, when is the Great Tribulation going to come? At the very end of
the Laodicean Church Age. So, this prophecy goes right on down there.)

(22)	And I will kill her children with death; (What’s that? That’s
the second death—the Lake of Fire.) and all the churches shall know
that I am he that searches the reins and hearts: and I will give unto
every one of you according to your works. 

18.	And He tells you right here: He’s going to stand as Judge at the
end time. And you mean to tell me, then, that before the Great
Tribulation and the White Throne, there isn’t going to be God Himself
letting the people know that He’s judging them? He tells you right
here that He’s going to do it!

	You say, “Just a minute...”

	Don’t ‘just a minute’ me. If this is the Great Tribulation age in
which we’re going, if we’re seeing the complete demise of
civilization and we talk about the Rapture and the Second Coming of
Jesus Christ, and the handwriting is on the wall, and we see the feet of
clay and iron, and they’re right here: democracy and tyranny,
dictators and so on, communism and democracy; we see the same right at
this hour here, and we see the pope, the antichrist, starting to form
the concordat with Israel, of which it’s already started... And,
remember; the same thing started with Constantine. Constantine, the
Roman emperor, took the church, and he said, “Now, listen; we will get
together politically,” so-called religiously, “because I want my
empire fortified.” And the pope is doing this right now, and he
publicly declared—and you know it. He said, “I’m going to lead the
whole world in Jerusalem by 2000 A.D. and I’ll be head of the
monotheistic religions of Judaism and Christianity and Islam.” And you
know the day is coming when you cannot buy nor sell without it.

	Now you sit here and say, “Well, Bro. Vayle, I believe all that...”

	And you can’t sit there and understand, then, something’s got to be
done about this day, because He said it would be done!

19.	Now He said, “I’m the Judge,” He tells you “feet of fine
brass.” Brass is judgment. Do what you want. My zeal or my loud
speaking isn’t going to convince anybody, if God doesn’t touch your
heart and make you begin to see. We’re in this crucial hour here, and
you’re not going anywhere. It’s running out; the seed is running
out. And you and the seed run out, you know what happens? There’s no
more baptism with the Holy Ghost. And no baptism, nobody can come into
Christ. So, when the baptism runs out, what’s the next step? The
Baptizer Himself. [Mt 3:12] “The fan is in his hand, thoroughly
purging his floor, gathers his wheat into the garner. That’s Judge;
He’s separating: one taken, one left—separating. And you mean to
tell me, then, this prophecy here, to be fulfilled at the end time, is
not going to be absolutely fulfilled? Then, read the rest of the
prophecy: the Laodicean Church age, the third chapter. (20) “Behold I
stand at the door and knock.”

20.	What does James say? The Judge is at the door. What are we supposed
to look at in this hour? Everybody just... “Oh, Rapture! Rapture!
Rapture! Rapture! Rapture! Rapture!”

	Come on! Are you going to build a hope on one little verse in 1 Th 4:16
that people don’t even know the meaning of? I don’t understand
people. Just take what the church says; take what the church says. God
Himself says, “I will kill her children with death.” And, who are
the children? Protestant churches. I keep on telling you about the
article I got from Time Magazine. I’ll never find it likely. But you
could write Time Magazine and ask for it. They’ll find it for you.
Time Magazine shows that every single church in Christianity came out of
Rome—bar none. 

21.	Oh, the Baptists say, “Well, we went back to John the Baptist.”
Poor old Dr. Carroll. My God, I guess one of the loveliest Baptists in
creation. Did he blow it! He became the laughing stock of the universe
trying to prove that the Baptists go back to John the Baptist. Oh,
brother! Trying to make Christianity like Israel.

	“My father was Lev… So, I’m a Levite.”

	“My father was Benjamin; I’m a Benjamite, an Israelite.”

	“Well, my father was Reuben; so therefore, I’m an Israelite.”

	That’s only by blood! John the Baptist wasn’t married! My, poor old
Dr. Carroll. I feel sorry for him. 

	Like Dr. Lee, he can preach one of the greatest sermons under high
heaven, witness to Jesus Christ and salvation, and come up here and
shake my hand and say, ”Now you’ve got it.”

22.	So, I ask a question here: Do you think any of these children are
going to repent? Do you think Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostal, this
and that, are going to repent? The Bible says they won’t. It gave them
a chance to repent; they wouldn’t repent.

	What does the word ‘repent’ mean? ‘Change the mind’. I know
people say, “Well, you know, bless God, repent means to change your
ways.” 

	It’s not that at all. It’s to change your mind; then your ways get
changed. Sure. You look at the Greek, look at the word...it doesn’t
say “change ways”; it said, “change your mind.” 

	“I gave them a chance to change their minds, but they wouldn’t do
it.”

 	No, they could not do that.

23.	Now, this is what we are looking at, very simply: these
self-ordained businessmen—preachers. They’re businessmen-preachers.
And even Oral Roberts said, “Keep out of the pulpit,” but they
wouldn’t do it. They were preaching a false gospel of creeds and
dogmas, whereas, if they wanted the approval of God, they had to come by
the Message of the hour. That Message was predominately that God was a
Rhema-Logos God. A Rhema-Logos God in plain English is: God cannot
depart one iota from His Own Word. As Bro. Branham said, “This Bible
is literally ‘God in print.’” That’s why you cannot add one Word
or take one Word from It, or you defile God Himself.

24.	How are you going to change God? I’ll tell you how you change
God—by changing God’s Word. When did Israel believe in three gods?
Never was three gods. There’s one God, and you can’t cut Him in
three parts, because the Son of God is not God the Son; he’s the Son
of God. And sons have beginnings. I’ll admit the Trinitarians are
right on one thing: according to substance, essentiality, and exactly
what God Himself was is in that Son, but he’s still the Son of God,
because sons have beginnings. But there’s not three of them. He’s
got that one major Son and, then, all the rest of us are Sons according
to natural and spiritual election.

	He’s a Rhema-Logos God—one God and ‘no Message but this
Message’. And this was God’s Message, even as Luther’s message
absolutely condemned Catholicism from that point on. Now, if somebody is
going to tell me, after God raised up Luther, that He could wink at
Catholics’ ignorance, which they studied and systematically defended
and relied upon as the true knowledge of God, the true knowledge of
worship, the true knowledge of true social contact in the Bride and Body
of Christ—having rejected Luther… There’s no way! They were dead
and already judged and condemned.

25.	Now the next thing is tricky: What about when Wesley came on the
scene? Lutheranism organized and died. When the Pentecostals came
without a leader, but the church was going to the gifts restored, they
died, because they all said, “This is of the devil.” And, when you
call anything of the Holy Ghost ‘of the devil’, you’ve committed
the unforgivable sin. Do you think Catholicism is going to rise?
Lutheranism is going to rise? and Wesleyanism is going to rise? And the
Pentecostals call that the Message Bro. Branham brought ‘of the
devil’! Now, how do you blaspheme the Holy Ghost and get away with it?

	You say, “Well, I don’t think they blasphemed.”

	Bring your history books and stand beside me, because I know
Pentecostal history like the palm of my hand. I was born into it. But I
always knew something was desperately wrong.

	But that doesn’t make me right, and that doesn’t make me able to
critique anything. Don’t misunderstand me here. This is a personal
testimony. I knew something was wrong with Pentecost all the years I was
with them. Then I began to understand: How could there be an eternal
hell, when God alone has eternal Life? Every single one of us must have
eternal Life to go to an eternal hell. This is stupid, because the Bible
says, “Only God has It.” So therefore, only sons of God would have
it; not those who are not sons of God. 

	I knew something was wrong right there. I knew that speaking in tongues
was not the answer, though I believed in it and knew they had something.
But it couldn’t be the answer, because you watched the life and those
things that came forth. But that’s simply my testimony. It has nothing
to do with anybody else’s.

26.	Now, leaving illustrating from nature, (which Bro. Branham was
doing) he goes on to show how Moses could not take Noah’s message;
Jesus could not take Moses’ message; nor could Luther take the
Catholic message; nor the Wesleyans, the Lutherans’; nor Pentecostals,
the Methodists’—and so today. 

	As we see the Church progressing, can the Church, or should the
Church…according to knowing Scripture and according to knowing
history…should the Church expect to come to a place of complete
restoration of the Word of Almighty God which started to go off course
in 2 Corinthians 1? Let’s look at It. 

	Now I hope you don’t think I’m trying to beat you down with what
I’m saying and getting you to believe anything. Please don’t
misunderstand. Understand me, please. If you meet me outside the pulpit,
I’ll simply say, “Hey, glad to know you. May the Lord bless you,”
and walk on. As I say, I preach hard, because these tapes go out. I
preach hard, because I know one thing: I believe with all my heart what
we are looking at is a last day Message. And, if I believe this, should
then I not do everything in my power to drive a nail and clinch it? If
you think I’m making an overkill, that’s your business entirely. To
me, I cannot ever make an overkill. If I could make an overkill, then I
could persuade men against their will—even devils. Forget it. I’m
just trying to show you.

27.	Now 2 Cor 11:2, It says:

(2)	I’m jealous over you with a godly jealousy: (verse 2) I have
espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin
to Christ. (But, watch what happened to this woman—the Church, the
Bride.)

(3)	But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtility, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ.

(4)	For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus, whom we have not
preached, if you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or
another gospel...

	How far can you go wrong? Another Jesus, another spirit, another Word.
Now, listen to what I’m telling you: This woman is getting pregnant.
Where is she getting pregnant? The church is getting pregnant by a wrong
Word coming in. Is it the Bride? No, it is not the Bride that’s
getting pregnant by a wrong Word! She never has and never will. It’s
these children that are bastard-born from creeds and dogmas according to
Acts 20. 

28.	Let’s put it together. Now Paul the Apostle says in Acts 20:25-27:

(27)	I have not shunned to declare unto you...(No, let’s go
further—verse 25:)

(25)	And now, behold, I know that you all, among whom I’ve gone
preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.

(26)	Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the
blood of all men. (Why?)

(27)	For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
(Everything that God showed me, I held nothing back)

(28)	Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over
which the Holy Ghost made you overseers, to feed the church of God,
which he hath purchased with his own blood. 

(29)	For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves
enter in among you, not sparing the flock. 

	What’s a ‘grievous wolf’? He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He
looks exactly like a Christian. He might even have more love; he might
even have more gifts; he might even be a finer person. Oh, he would
absolutely be. But, remember; he’s a ravening wolf; he’s of the
devil, and he wants to get you by his seductions, the same as he got
Eve. You’re not looking at a rape artist here, brother/sister. Get
this flat. You’d throw a rapist out in fifteen seconds. I’m talking
about the Gospel now.

	Joe Smith’s bunch came in with a bunch of Mormons, Seven Day
Adventists, and a woman prophetess. But you get some really nice fellow
come here and you could say, “My God, he’s got more love than I’ve
got,” the ‘kind old priest’. “Oh, my! He’s got more gifts than
I’ve got. Oh, he’s this, and he’s that.”

	How do you get seduced? Huh? Do you know how seduction comes? Let’s
get it flat: A woman is seduced, because she feels inferior. This man is
making her feel good. He’s working on her ego. Every woman seduced
feels inferior, unless she’s a whore going out there to trap a man by
saying, “Look what I’ve got. Here it is.” We’re not talking
about that. We’re talking about a wolf in sheep’s clothing. 

29.	So, these guys come in. Like a friend of mine went to India. And,
when he went to India, he forgot about Christ. He said, “God never
gave me anything like the love those people have. There’s something
wrong with me; there’s something wrong with my God.”

	Do you hear what I’m saying? Do you want me to mention names? I’ll
mention their names! I’ll take you to them. Don’t call my bluff,
because I’ll take you to them. One man owns restaurants in South
Carolina, (unless he’s sold them) and the preacher that went there
ended up getting a degree in psychology—one of the finest young men
I’ve ever seen in my life. And he went to the Holiday Inn as managing
their restaurant. Shall I take you to him?

	Oh, come on! Challenge me! …How that he was a Baptist, became a
charismatic and brought the congregation with him. He let a seducer come
in. I can name his name, too. Shall I? He worked with a man William
Branham knew: Booth Clibborn, who is a Universalist, who said, “One
day the devil and Jesus will walk hand in hand down the streets of
glory.” 

	My Bible says he goes to the Lake of Fire and gets destroyed. Where was
Booth Clibborn coming from? And he’s the son of the Evangeline,
General Booth’s most famous daughter, who turned wicked Paris upside
down, when a man couldn’t do it! A woman doing it? according to the
Word of God? It’s impossible. If you want to talk to me, you better
know your history—where you’re coming from. I’m eighty years old.
That’s from 1914. I’ve read the books, and I’ve been around
people. That doesn’t make me an authority, but I know what I’m
talking about at least.

30.	[Acts 20]:

(29)	...Wolves in sheep’s clothing, after my departing they’ll come
in. 

(30)	Also of your own selves shall men rise, speaking perverse things. 

	“Of your own selves,” your own group right now. As Bro. Branham
said, “There’s three kinds of believers: unbelievers, make-believers
and real believers in every group,” and they’re right here. It
wasn’t the true Bride that got her mind infected. It was the group
sitting there. So therefore, the next generation, even of the true
believers, had to look at these things going on. And by the grace of
God, they separated, and they had finally, at that time, the Catholic
Church had a few members with a little bit of light. And God said,
“Don’t you dare destroy the oil and the meal and the wine: a little
bit of meal...a little bit of oil...little bit of wine.” In the Dark
Ages the true believers had almost entirely died. Then, God told Luther
to come on the scene and start bringing a light back.

31.	Now I want to ask you a question: has the light come all the way
back to Paul? Has it come back to where it was supposed to come back? Do
you know the true Jesus? Do you know the true Spirit? You know the true
Gospel? Come on, tell me: Who’s got it? Then prove it! Prove it!

	Say, “Well, I prayed in the name of Jesus, and this was done and that
was done.”

	I’ll trump your ace—everybody in this church! I’ll trump your
ace, and I’ll bring all the people under my ministry that got healed:
devils cast out, tumors disappeared, blind eyes opened, deaf heard, dumb
spake, cripples got out of wheel chairs. I’ve got nothing! Any devil,
like Judas, could do what I’ve done and many times over. They’re
going to come, and they’re going to do it.

32.	Do you know this age gets judged by the gospel of Paul, who said,
“You can’t add or take one Word”? He said, “Cursed be that
person.” Do you know he said that? Well, I want you to know he said in
2 Th 1:7:

(7)	You who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall
be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.

	Now, listen; It tells you: That’s the time you get your rest.
That’s not the rest in the grave, and that’s not immortality. It
tells you, he’s going to be revealed from heaven. It tells you, at
that time you’ll be standing here, and you’re going to enter into a
place of rest. 

33.	Now, hold your finger there, let’s go to 1 John 3, and let’s
read something here. I just love this, because this is one thing that
opened my mind: “My God, Lee Vayle, where do you think you’re
going?” First verse:

(1)	Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that
we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not,
because it knew not him. (Now, watch:)

(2)	Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what
we shall be: we know he shall appear, we shall be like him; we shall see
him as he is. 

	Now, just a minute... How is he? How is he?... Tell me what about your
Jesus that rose from the dead. Where is he? Tell me what he’s like.

	“Well,” you say, “Bro. Vayle, I know what he’s like. He’s
risen from the dead, and he’s got a glorified body.”

	And he said, “Handle me and see. A spirit hath not flesh and bone.”
He didn’t say “blood.” He said, “flesh and bone,” the blood
was gone. He could go through walls; he could go through doors; he could
disappear from your sight by just wanting to. 

	Now It says right here, “When he shall appear, we shall be like Him,
for we shall see Him as He is.” So therefore, you’ve got to see Him
as He is before you get your change to be just like Him. So, he’s
going to appear from heaven before men. 

34.	Now the thing is: How does God appear? Ask your pastors; ask
yourself; get your Bible. I’m laying it on the line this morning for
you people. I want to know if you’ve learned anything in the last ten
to fourteen years or anybody coming in here is going to have to
double-guess me. You don’t have to double-guess me. I’ve said it
right here. It says in John, “You will see Him as He is to get like He
is.” Now everybody says ‘the Rapture’. No, not the Rapture,
because you’ve got to get changed down here to get up where He is. So
then, He’s got to come down here somehow. How does He come down here?
How does the Bible teach you? What does the Bible say about Him? 

35.	Now, let’s go back to 2 Thessalonians. Now It says here:

(8)	In flames of fire taking vengeance upon them that know not God, that
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:

(9)	Who should be punished with everlasting destruction from the
presence of our Lord and from his glory. 

	Now, that’s an interpolation, and that throws you plumb for a loop.
He’s talking about ‘you’, then he’s talking about ‘them’. I
don’t want to hear about ‘them.’ I want to hear about ‘me’.
So, let’s forget ‘them’. Let’s start over: verse 7.

(7)	And to you who are troubled rest with us, (That’s you and me and
all of us here by the grace of God.) when the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. (Now, verse 10:)

(10)	When he shall come to be glorified in his saints...

	He’s going to come to make sure you get your glorified body, and at
the same time you’re going to get your glorified body, the rest are
reserved in judgment for the Great Tribulation. Now, that’s known as
the ‘Presence’, and who dares to teach the Presence?

	“Well,” you say, “that’s that bunch of Rutherford’s Jehovah
Witnesses taught that.”

	I don’t care if they taught it. They taught it wrong. Do you think
they didn’t teach it wrong? 

36.	Let’s go to Mt 24:3.

(3)	As he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came and said to
him privately, Tell us, when shall these things be? (That’s everything
cast down.) and what shall be the sign of thy coming, (No way—the sign
of thy Presence in the end of the world? Presence, then the end.)

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, they’re talking about his Second Coming.”

	I beg to differ! They didn’t even know about his First Coming! They
never had a clue about him dying and rising and going away for 2,000
years and coming back. Come on! Stand to your feet and challenge me;
make me a liar. Get your Bible; tell me they knew about his Second
Coming. Do you know the question they were asking? Come on, come on,
come on! Anybody knows the answer. Turn to your Bibles: Acts 1:6.

(6)	When they therefore were come together, they asked him, saying,
Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

	They still didn’t have a clue about the Second Coming. They still
wanted him to take over: “Declare your Presence; make it plain.” His
brethren said, “Make it plain.”

	The word isn’t ‘coming’ at all. It’s ‘presence’, and the
word ‘presence’ has nothing to do with ‘coming’ at all. It has
nothing to do with the event. It means ‘He’s here’, the same as
when He appeared suddenly in the temple, took up the Bible and showed
who He was. And everybody said, “Isn’t that great? That young kid,
man, does he know Scripture! Oh, boy, can he do it! 

37.	They said the same thing about Bro. Branham: “Oh, man! Has he got
a ministry! Oh, boy, can he do it. That’s like Jesus did, and I think
we can do it, too.” 

	“THUS SAITH THE LORD,” brother/sister, belongs to a prophet. I knew
William Branham. I was in meetings many, many times—never failed once.
Whoever William Branham was in touch with when he said, “‘THUS SAITH
THE LORD’ in the Name of Jesus Christ,” and every event came to
pass, and everything that he ever said never, never failed. You can’t
find one time out of thousands and thousands. 

	And those who say it did are merely liars and detractor. And I know all
about them, because I’ve been in the presence... Well, we’ll bypass
that about ‘presence’, but I’ve got enough reports without trying
to make anything personal, because nobody was much too personal with me
concerning Bro. Branham. I guess they were maybe a little bit afraid of
me on the grounds that I knew who was around him when they could say,
“You know, Bro. Vayle, I was with Bro. Branham in a meeting.” 

	I said, “What meeting was that?”

	And the fellow said, “I was down there in Florida.”

	Well, I was in Florida at that time when Bro. Branham first went down
there. The man was telling the whole world that he was a confidante and
a helper of Bro. Branham. He was an usher in one meeting. I don’t know
if he ever shook the man’s hand. What good was his testimony, unless
he told us something was there? But you get this all the time.

38.	Now, listen; we look to this Word here, and we find concerning what
we are looking at in this very hour that Bro. Branham stood there before
the people, a vindicated prophet of Almighty God, and he talked to these
people in a manner that many people would not understand. And I want you
to know one thing: Bro. Branham could say things in a different manner
from me, because he was on the spot. I am not on the spot. I am bearing
witness, not to Lee Vayle or anything Lee Vayle knows, but to William
Branham, prophet of God, and what he taught. So therefore, I stick my
neck out, say anything I want at any time. Do you understand what I’m
saying? And I’m no embarrassment to the man. I’m an embarrassment to
myself, if I’m wrong.

39.	But I believe, not with only with all my heart, but everything in
Scripture, that that man fulfilled what was to come to the Gentiles,
though people say, “Well there never was a Gentile prophet.” How,
then, do you connect the Resurrection with Jonah, a Jew, going down to
the Gentiles? You’ve got a type right there. I know Jonah was an
Israelite. I’ve no problem with that. But, where did he go? Now,
remember this: When he went down there, it was the same as God going
down there, because the prophet is God to the people. That’s exactly
what It says in Deuteronomy: The people said, “Don’t let God talk to
us anymore. Let Moses be the spokesman. And God said, “That’s the
way it shall be from now on. I myself will never personally go to any
one person and talk outside that man being a prophet, and I’ll
vindicate him to the people.” Now, that’s the Bible.

	You say, “Well, I heard God say so and so.”

	Well, honey, just believe what you want. I’m sorry for you. You’re
your own prophet. Prove to me God talked. Give me “THUS SAITH THE
LORD.” I’m not being rude or vulgar up here; I want to know. I want
to know why people can turn down the prophet just because they say so,
“I don’t believe in it.”

	Find what a prophet is. Then, if that comes on the scene... See?
That’s what happened with Jesus. He was that prophet. He came on the
scene, and they crucified him. Now, if a prophet comes on the scene
today, don’t tell me they will accept him. They cannot accept him, or
you’ll have millions now living who will never die, when the Bible
said that millions are going to die. Eight people made the ark, which is
a percentage, which means ‘very, very few’ are going to be in the
Rapture. I’m not trying to hurt your feelings or anybody’s feelings.
It’s just the absolute truth.

40.	Now Bro. Branham spoke to those people. Now, if he was a prophet in
the end time, what is that man supposed to do about the end time? Well,
let’s go to the Word of God and find out: 2 Timothy 4.What do you find
there? Verses in 1-4 maybe:

(1)	I charge thee before God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the
quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.

	Now, look; that’s not the White Throne. That’s not the White
Throne. It doesn’t say it’s the White Throne. “The Lord Jesus
shall judge the quick and the dead.” In other words there’s going to
be a separation between those that are born again and those that
aren’t, and His kingdom is right afterward. 

(2)	Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove,
rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

(3)	For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. 

	Now, are we going to lie and say, “God, you lied”? “Hey, Paul!
You shouldn’t have said that!” “Oh, millions and millions will
have the sound doctrine.” “Millions are going to go in the
Rapture.”

41.	You know how many Christians there are, Roman Catholics included?
Roughly, one billion. Mohammedans, the same. Israel? What? Six million
to fifteen? Who knows? You can never get a poll on them or an actual
count.

(3)	The time will come when they’ll not endure sound doctrine; but
after their own lusts shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching
ears;

(4)	And they’ll turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be
turned unto fables.

	Now, what’s a fable? It’s where the pope is. He said, “I’m not
spiritual; I’m moral!”

	Aesop’s Fables: they’re stories with a moral to them. So, you come
to church and you hear all the preachers preach a story with morals to
it, and they tell you how to be nice and how to be good and how to love,
how to make friends and win your enemies—which is all good. But they
don’t give you the truth. Why? Because the Word is not rightly
divided. That’s just one thing.

42.	Let’s go to Titus 1:9:

(9)	Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may
be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayer.

	Now, what’s sound doctrine? Sound doctrine was handed down from Paul
to Timothy to Titus and should have been handed right down to this age.
But right in the first age the devil crept in, preached a false Jesus, a
false Gospel, a false Spirit, and you’ve got the same thing right
today. So therefore, there has to be a false Jesus at the end time,
because it’s been sown for. There’s got to be a false Gospel, and,
my God, we know that’s true, because it’s all gone social. And
there’s got to be a false Holy Ghost baptism. It is speaking in
tongues. Is that the evidence? If it is, I’d like to know more about
it. 

	I’m not against speaking in tongues. The honest truth here: with the
Spirit of God moving into the meeting this morning, I was going to get
up and dance, but I thought you people would be floored, and you
wouldn’t understand what was going on, and you wouldn’t join me. And
I wouldn’t take any woman’s hand or any man’s. I’d just have
danced unto God—because you worship God in the dance. You think I’m
stiff and starchy. I’m not. I scream inside. I jump for joy inside. I
laugh inside. I cry inside. Sometimes it spills over. 

	Now, if that had been Bro. Branham, he’d have got up and done some
toe tapping. We’re not dyed-in-the-wool, starchy people here. We’ve
learned how to listen. But, if we’re not inside jump-for-joy-ers, my
God, who is? We’ve got something real. Oh, yeah! Makes you glorify the
Lord.

43.	Now, listen; we were in Titus here. Now we go to verse 10:

(10)	For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially
those of the circumcision (the legalists.)

	The legalists, who don’t know the first thing about the grace of God,
so they put all kinds of things upon you, like the poor Mennonites right
today: They’ve got the black hat, the black clothes and the women with
the little thing on their head, when the Bible distinctly says, “Her
hair is her covering,” not some little thing on top of her hair.
It’s her hair, long hair. Find where you can cut your hair. I’m not
against any women who cut their hair. That’s their business. I just
want the Bible. I want the men to show me where they can wear long hair
and get away with it. How they can wear earrings and those things that
pertain to women? The Bible distinctly says, “A woman cannot wear what
pertains to a man, and visa versa.” Why are they doing it? I want to
know!

	“Oh, my church says so.”

	That’s fine for your church! Is the church going to judge you and
judge me on that great day? What does the church have to say about it?
Let’s get the point: where did the church begin to get its doctrine?
Right from the apostle Paul. What happened? It went off. If it denied
the truth 2,000 years ago, where is it today?

44.	You say, “Bro. Vayle, I agree. We need somebody to come back and
tell us the real truth. Who is going to?

	Not Lee Vayle! Don’t look to me. Merciful God, I wouldn’t know the
truth, if I met it in my bowl of porridge. I want vindication. I want a
man to come like Jesus, come like Paul—vindicated. I can show you that
Scofield said that Paul was vindicated. I could show you every teacher,
every Baptist that knows anything, any Methodist, Pentecostal, knows
Paul was vindicated!

	Now, where does vindication go? It went plumb up in smoke! when the
people wanted it to go up in smoke. Now, where are the people today?
They’ve been mentally abused and deceived, until they’re insane with
the word of the devil, not the Word of God, because they went off track
2,000 years ago on the Word, on Jesus Christ Himself and on the Holy
Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is God. Then, where is the church today? You
tell me!

	You say, “My church...”

	Bring your church and bring them with one evidence, and I’ll take
them to a Roman Catholic priest that prays for the sick in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ, which I doubt you and your whole church and your
whole organization can bring one sign that there’s a living God
anywhere.

45.	“THUS SAITH THE LORD” is God’s criterion. Deuteronomy 18: When
did it ever change? And after “THUS SAITH THE LORD” by the apostle
Paul, you can have every man come into the church and he can have his
own tongues and signs and wonders, but not “THUS SAITH THE LORD,”
and take them right off the Word, which is Deuteronomy 13: the sign of
the false prophet. And, what is a false prophet? It’s a man that’s
got every sign right, but the Word wrong. You don’t have to listen to
Lee Vayle to know that. You know that by now. My, my, my.

	What does It say here? [Titus1]:

(11)	Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching
things they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.

(12)	One of themselves, even a prophet of their own said, The Cretians
were always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.

(13)	This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may
be sound in the faith,

(14)	Not giving heed to Jewish fables…

46.	Why did Paul cut that? Because they went to the Talmud; they
weren’t going to the Torah! Paul himself pointed every Jew to the
Torah—the five books of Moses, the law and all the prophets. He never
quoted the Torah once.

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, didn’t he quote the Book of Wisdom?”

	You’re absolutely right. He quoted the Book of Wisdom. That’s not
part of the Talmud, nor a part of the Torah, but evidently, it was that
which was said that came one hundred percent from the Scripture. Like I
could tell you right today, without saying, “Thou shalt not steal.”
I could give you an illustration of how you can steal without even
quoting the Scripture—how you can steal a man’s reputation, and he
never gets it back again—and be one hundred percent with the Word of
God, just the way Paul was; because, you see, he wasn’t adding or
taking one Word. His illustration was perfect with the Word, even as
Bro. Branham said, “I’m going to illustrate, and when I do, I’m
trusting God I won’t lead you off one Word by my illustration,” that
you’ll hang right on that Word and say, “Oh, I’m going to take
Bro. Branham’s illustration.” No! Word, Word, Word.

47.	Again, we read in Titus 2. No, let’s see: 2 Timothy 3. Oh,
that’s the whole chapter on the parable of the end time. You’ve
heard it many times. Go back to Titus 2, just for a couple of verses
there. Time’s running out.

(12)	Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should
live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; (And
that’s great.)

(13)	Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the
great God and Savior Jesus Christ;

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

(15)	These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority.

	See? What I’m trying to show you: William Branham standing before
these men, and he said many things that they did not like—many things
they did not want to hear. If he was a man sent from God, which the
Pentecostals even wrote a book—Gordon Lindsay—that he was a man sent
from God. But, then, they changed their minds. They said, “William
Branham was only a prophet when he discerns and reads your hearts and
tells you those things that only God could know; reveals them. But, when
it comes to the Word, don’t listen to him.”

48.	Have you ever heard such tripe and baloney in all your life? Who in
the world would know the Word of God like a prophet? Look at it: I’ve
got a yard full of geese and a yard full of chickens and a yard full of
ducks; they’re all together. Do you think for one minute a little duck
can’t run up to a duck, and a little chicken doesn’t run to a
chicken, and a little gosling run to a goose? And I could have a
barnyard full of animals, and the lamb will run to the sheep. That’s
what God said. He said, “The oxen know their crib; the eagles and
birds know the path they take; but my people know nothing about me.”

	Isn’t it strange, then, that people will tell you in the face of a
vindicated prophet (in the face of “THUS SAITH THE LORD,” and God is
a God of integrity.) that God would back that man up, and then he could
come and tell you a lie, and in the meantime, sit around and believe
something different? I can’t buy it.

	Jesus was a prophet, brother/sister. Never, ever forget it. Jesus was a
prophet. Moses said, “A prophet will the Lord your God raise up unto
you like unto me, and that person that doesn’t hear is going to be
destroyed.”

49.	Now, listen; get this flat: that was not the time when Jesus was
here on earth in his flesh. They were not destroyed! There were
thousands and thousands that were not the servants under the blood of
Jesus Christ that heard the Word that “when you see Jerusalem
surrounded,” they left on the Word of the prophecy. They were not born
again. There’s no record in the Bible. No record in any book I know.
They fled; they got out.

	Everyone wasn’t killed, but there’s coming a time... There’s
coming a time, and it’s got to be at this time of the revelation,
because it’s the only time it could be: when He appears, which is the
Appearing, which is His Presence. He comes down here according to the
Scripture of how he comes down and how God operates, and at that time
the rejection is: everybody else burns—except what? One hundred and
forty-four thousand.

	Now can’t you put it together? Can you begin to see where you’re
at? You say, “Bro. Vayle, then tell me plainly.”

50.	I will tell you plainly; I will tell you plainly: God does not work
apart from a prophet. He doesn’t. So therefore, if He comes down in
Appearing, He’s got to have a prophet. Revelation 10. If you want to
go to chapter 5 first of all, it’s okay.

(1)	And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book
written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. 

	And the Lamb of course takes the book and hands it back. Then, notice
in Rev 10:1:

(1)	I saw another mighty messenger come down from heaven, clothed with a
cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the
sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:

(2)	And he had in his hand a little book open.

	So, who came down? Revelation 4 and Revelation 5 came down in Rev 10:1.


51.	Now, look at verse 7. Who is standing there when He comes down?

(7)	But in the days of the voice of the seventh messenger, when he shall
begin to sound, (How many messengers are there through the whole church
age? Seven. This is the seventh. Right? Now I left you hanging on 2
Thessalonians 1. I’m going to take you back right away.) and when he
began to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, (And that in the
literal Greek is the... How do you put it now here? ‘when he began to
sound the mystery of God as he hath declared the good news of the Gospel
to the prophets’) shall be finished. 

	So therefore, the Gospel has at least two prophets. You say, “John
was a prophet.” He was not; he was a scribe. Peter was not a prophet,
he was a scribe. The apostle-prophet was Paul to the Gentiles, and there
are seven of them. Now the last messenger is in Rev 3:14-23. So,
therefore: the days of the seventh messenger, he shall begin to sound,
the mysteries of the Gospel will be finished and the last mystery you
and I know is this: There’s going to be a people standing here that
will not taste death, but like Abraham and Sarah, a sweep will go over
them at the time the dead come out of the ground, and the Spirit of God
will change them to immortality—1 Corinthians 15. Start at verse 20
when you begin there. 

52.	Now, let’s go to 2 Thessalonians 2. Nobody has to believe this.
This is exegetically sound, but nobody has to believe it. Now, let’s
look back: 2 Thessalonians 1:

(7)	And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall
be revealed from heaven with his mighty messengers, his angels. 

	Now, verse 10. That’s to us:

(10)	When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and be admired in
all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) (In
what day?) this day.

	Now, if Paul’s testimony of 2 Corinthians 11 is this, you’re
leaving it. You’re leaving it. Then, before they can be judged by what
is his, (Because, when they left it, it’s no longer his.) who is going
to come back and put us on track? because we’re going to be judged by
that Gospel. And you know I’m telling you the truth. And It says
we’re going to be judged by one Christ Jesus by Paul’s Gospel.
Who’s going to come back and put us on track? Methodists, Baptists,
Pentecostals, Presbyterian: I was all of those pretty well!

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, how?”

	Because I was born in the Presbyterian Church. We had a wonderful man
of God named Bro. Lanzel, but I was too young to get the truth, but I
knew he had something. Our church joined the Methodist in Canada. We
became united; so, now I’m Methodist-Presbyterian. I hated it. My
sister got sick. She was prayed for by Pentecostals; became Pentecostal.
The day came when I couldn’t stand it, so I got with the Baptists.
Finally, I’m all by myself. And it made God help me to stay that way,
because all I need is His Word backed up by Jesus.

53.	Now, listen. Right here It tells you: “In this day right
here...” Now, don’t tell me we’ve got Paul’s Gospel outside of
Paul coming back or Jesus coming back or God sending somebody, because
it’s off track, and the last Laodicean church, they’re “wretched,
miserable, blind, naked, and don’t even know it.” Now, how can you
be in Christ and not clothed with righteousness? So, they’re not in
Christ.

	Now, let’s not stop there; let’s go to 2 Thessalonians 2. We’re
going to talk about the antichrist in verse 7:

(7)	For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: (That’s back in
Paul’s day.) only he that now hindereth will hinder, will be taken out
of the way. (That’s the Holy Ghost.)

(8)	Then shall that Wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume
with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of
his coming: (That’s after the great tribulation.)

(9)	And even (Now, watch this wicked one), whose coming is after the
working of Satan and he’s got all power, signs and even lying wonders,
with the power...(Now It doesn’t say the power and signs are lying. It
said he’s got lying wonders. And, notice:)

(10)	With all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish;
because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be
saved.

54.	Now, how can you have a love of the truth, if you don’t even know
it?

	You say, “Well, I’ll tell you, Bro. Vayle; I really believe that
our church really has Paul’s Gospel and understands It, rightly
divided. I believe they have.”

	Prove it! My Bible said it went off track. My Bible says Christ is
outside the church. My Bible says He’s knocking, trying to get back
in. So, you tell me your church didn’t try to kick Him out? What is
the name of your church? I’d like to go and investigate. What did you
come out of? I’ll go with you and find out some of the things that
they kept secret. I’ll be a nosy reporter. I’ll dress up in a dress
and pretend I’m... Is it Serec? Or, who is this...I know...Sawyer...
She’s the one that’s got that ability to smell out religion and
things. Let’s put her on the track. She’s even conveniently tells
lies, so I don’t want her with me.

55.	Let’s just go to the bare truth. Let’s find out. It says right
here:

(11)	And for this cause (Now, watch: for this cause (10)...because they
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.) And for
this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe
the lie: (Millions now living won’t die.)

(12)	That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness.

	So therefore, anything outside of the truly revealed Word of Almighty
God is unrighteousness, just as Cain did, offering a Scriptural
offering, but wrongly divided.

	I’m not trying to condemn anybody. I went through this myself. I
wanted to be right. I was even called a ‘church hopper’, because I
was looking for light. Well, that fat woman sat there, and she was just
happy to sit there in her stinking, gluttonous pride with a religion
that wasn’t worth a plug nickel. Maybe I speak kind of harshly about
her, but she sure burnt me up, because she didn’t have a clue. She
didn’t have a clue. She couldn’t tell me one thing, but she
wouldn’t listen either—a type of the church. The church isn’t
going to listen. A little, elect Bride will.

56.	Now It tells you right in here that at the end time there’s going
to be people believe a truth. Now, how do you know it’s the truth? 

	“Well, Bro. Vayle, I’ll tell you: my life was changed.”

	Oh, don’t give me that hogwash. I can take you to the Muslims and
according to a true Muslim, your life will be changed. You’ll be
sweet; you’ll be kind, which is usually a pack of lies, because their
religion is of the sword. Who am I going to believe? 

	So, bring the Baptists, bring the Methodists. Oh, wonderful! I’ll
tell you what you’re going to get: You are going to get confusion
based upon compromise. So, they’ll lay it out so everybody can have
something.

	Now, what if your little bit of nitty-gritty doesn’t go with their
nitty-gritty? You’ve got a fight. What do you do? Get swords and clubs
and kill each other?  

57.	Now, listen. Let’s get very logical. I’m going to close. Let’s
get down to bare facts and bare truth: Wouldn’t it solve everything,
if God in His grace should just send somebody—call him a prophet, call
him an apostle, call him what you will—wouldn’t it be great, if
there is a God Who would be so disposed to have pity upon us—if we do
need pity—to send somebody that could stand there with the authority
of God, like Paul did, like Moses did, like Jesus did, like the prophets
did? And you can’t find anybody in the Word of God that ever stood
there without Him!

	Come on, I challenge you. You say you believe the Bible? Go from
Genesis to Revelation; I challenge you! Come on; find it. Just find it
for me. You can’t do it. God never dealt with anybody after Moses,
unless that person was a prophet; and every person that claims he’s a
Christian mouths the word ‘prophet’: prophet, prophet, prophet,
prophet. But, when it comes to the nitty-gritty, the reality: Could God
send a prophet?

	“Oh, no. My God wouldn’t do it.”

	Where is the Scripture for it? Come on, tell me. I want to know right
here. Then, on top of that, you give me some sign that you’re right.

58.	You see, my case, whether you know it or not, is one of desperation,
because I’ll die pretty soon, if the Lord doesn’t come. And, let’s
face it, if He comes, and He doesn’t want me, I could die anyway;
I’m going to go through the tribulation.

	I saw the throes of the worst depression from 1929 to the ‘30’s. I
don’t want to go through another one. What if I have to? Well, I’ve
got to go through it. But in the light of the Bible I have to make a
commitment, and I cannot make a commitment solely based upon Jesus dying
upon Calvary, (I’m sorry.) because Jesus did not die upon Calvary to
save everybody. He only made a way for it. 

59.	Now, why don’t people come when there’s no need for
condemnation? It says, “This is the condemnation in spite of the fact
that Jesus died to take away every single bit of it, “That light has
come into the world and men love darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil.” [Jn 3:19] They simply turned down the Word of
God like they turned down Jesus. They never turned down Jesus because he
was Jesus, the great prophet, because he did miracles, fed the sick, and
raised the dead. They turned him down, because he opened his mouth. And
he said, “You’re wrong. And I’ve got the witness I’m right,
because every deed I do, the Father backs me up.” He said, “Sure,
John talked about me, but I’ve got a greater witness. The works that I
do, I don’t do, but God in me does them.”

	“Ho!” they said, “kill him!”

	It stuck to their heart. They knew it was the truth. He had the
evidence. They said, “Kill him!”

	He said, “Why don’t you produce it?”

	Oh, that got them real mad.

	He said, “If I’m casting out devils, how do your sons do it?”

60.	They were casting out devils. How do you know they were? Jesus had
twelve apostles, one of which was Judas, and even he was casting out
devils. And he was a devil himself. The anointing of God was upon every
single one of those twelve to cast out devils, to raise the dead, to
heal the sick. And they were doing it, and it couldn’t be denied. And
some people were casting out devils, not even belonging to the group.
Then, God sent seventy more out, and they were doing it. And others,
unheard of, were doing it. 

	And he said, “If I’m doing it, by whom are they doing it? If you
claim I’m of the devil, they’re of the devil. Your own children,
your own gang, is of the devil. But he said, “They’re not doing what
I’m doing.” They couldn’t do it.

	Do you know what he said? He said, “If I had not done the works no
other man did, they’d not sinned. But now they’ve both seen and
hated both me and my father.” [Jn 15:24] And he said, “I’m a
man.”

	What if God sent another prophet, and Jesus was a prophet, and that man
did those mighty works?

61.	Let’s talk about the atonement. And I’m going to close, because
this is why Bro. Branham preached the way he preached: that these men
were hopeful; they wanted great things. And I’m not against their
motivation; I’m not against anything. I have no problem with all of
that. I think it’s wonderful. But, what if you’re taking a wrong
message? What if you’re taking a Word of reconciliation at a time when
there’s no reconciliation? You’re taking something at the time of
judgment? Look what It says in Heb 10:26:

(10)	For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the
truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. (Now, watch it:
sacrifice and truth go together. Sacrifice without truth is no
sacrifice.)

(11)	 But a certain fearful looking of judgment and fiery indignation,
which shall devour the adversaries.

(12)	He that... (Now this is what happens under Christ, and he’s
comparing to Moses.) He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy
under two or three witnesses:

(13)	Of how much sorer punishment, shall ye be thought worthy, who hath
trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the
covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done
despite to the Spirit of grace? 

62.	And he’s talking about what? Rejecting the Word that goes with the
sacrifice. What if Abraham, having made that sacrifice, and God came
down and said, “Abraham, you’re going to have a son by Sarah.”

	“Huh! Lord! You’ve got to be kidding! I’m too old; she’s too
old.”

	Now, come on, would the sacrifice have been accepted by God? No way.
People talk about being born again and talk about fruit. What kind of
fruit? The fruit the Bible says. See? Christians, without meaning to,
(And I’m not condemning; I’m just illustrating.) we all as
Christians have invariably applied to ourselves what we feel goes with
the sacrifice other than what God said goes with the sacrifice. 

	That’s where the Catholic Church is: Accept God; accept Jesus’
death upon Calvary. He is the Savior. But, remember; Mary is his mother.
Ah, yes, and we talk to her, so she’ll talk to Jesus. And that sounds
great. It’s wonderful, if it were true. But the fact is: The Bible
said there’s one mediator between God and man—a man, not a
committee, either accessory or advisory—one man. Now they don’t
reject the sacrifice of Jesus. They love it. But they say, “Let me
tell you something: There’s a purgatory, and us priests are going to
get you out.”

	You say, “The Protestants don’t do that.”

	The Protestants do do that. The Seven Day Adventists tell you, “Oh,
we believe the blood of Jesus Christ; you must be born again, but
you’ve got to keep Saturday.”

	Find it in the Bible. Show me by history. They’ll try to show you by
history. They can’t do it; they’ll quote everything. 

63.	And like years ago, I told you, when Dr. Bosworth cornered me. He
said, “Lee, at one time,” he said, “I used to believe in tongues
evidence, and I knew everything in the Bible and out of the Bible.”
And I was the same way. That cut me right to the heart. He killed me
right there. Go to the Bible.

	I heard a man named Mr. McArthur, Rev. McArthur, the other day. He
preached a fabulous sermon. He’s got to be a Baptist, without a doubt,
because only Baptists would preach the way he preached. And he said,
“Don’t you ever take any sign or any evidence anybody gives you. Go
to the Bible and find out.” 

64.	Well, I want to ask one question: If that man saw a man stand there
with “THUS SAITH THE LORD,” time after time, would he say,
“That’s of the devil,” or “That’s of God,” or “I don’t
know”? See, the Bible is the authority. And, you know something? If I
preach wrong this morning, I’m not going to be judged by my heart and
what I said I thought was right. I’m going to be judged by what is
right that is vindicated to be correctly divided, not what everybody
talks about, and everybody says; but it’s the Word of the Lord. 

	Well, let’s rise and be dismissed.

	Heavenly Father, we thank You for the time we’ve been here together,
knowing, Lord, that we could go over the fact of the prophets: Moses,
Jeremiah, Isaiah, every prophet had to be vindicated or anybody to
believe would be insane or devil-possessed or easily fooled and led
astray, if he ever had anything to be led astray from. And today, Lord,
we go back to the same Word, the same God of Moses, Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, the God of David, of whose lineage Christ came, blessed forever. 

	Going back, Lord, and understanding that Paul was that prophet-apostle
sent to the Gentiles, we understand this, Lord. We only know one thing:
that a wrong division could turn us aside, and we have only one hope,
Lord, knowing that it takes a prophet to bring the Word, to reveal It.
And our hope, Lord, is not in William Branham per se. You know that in
our hearts, Father, we never have made him ‘God’; we’ve never made
him ‘intercessor’. We’ve never made him ‘mediator’. We’ve
never made him anything but a prophet, because we believe that’s
exactly what You made him according to Deuteronomy 18, according to Paul
himself who knew that his ministry was vindicated by the miracles, the
signs, and the wonders that were performed in a manner that no other
person performed them, given to him exclusively with “THUS SAITH THE
LORD,” the only way I can understand it, going back to Scripture, and
staying with how You were back there. You’ll have to be the same
today.

	And we as a people, Lord, standing with It, believe that we now have,
today, the truly revealed Word of the apostle Paul, if we only want to
receive It. And in there we see the marvelous grace, Your marvelous
predestinating power, Your marvelous Fatherhood to a people, Your
marvelous mercy, at the same time we know judgment strikes the earth. We
know You’re going to get Your Bride out of here without spot, without
wrinkle, perfectly sanctified at the end time to be presented to You by
the washing of the water by the Word. And we know, Lord, a word that
wasn’t given by You to Paul, is not going to do the works. It won’t
do it. It’s going to have to be that Word that was given there with
the proper understanding.

  	And I believe that, Lord, and I believe that today we have that
revelation. As Bro. Branham himself said, “By the grace of God, we
have the perfectly revealed Word for this hour.” And I believe that
somehow Your Word has been fulfilled, and we’re standing on It. 

	And I’m content today to make the testimony, Lord, to You, to anyone
that cares to listen, that I don’t have anything of myself. I have not
discovered one of these things that I preach. I have not had it in my
heart for one moment, but what I’ve got for my belief, the man that
You sent from God, and I believe vindicated by You in this hour, thereby
vindicating Yourself to him and him to us in the Word with that end
result, that we believing, Lord, now have the legitimate faith at the
end time and do not exclude it from anybody else under any
consideration, no means, what they come from or go to. That’s not it.
It’s up to their own hearts whether they want what we have, knowing we
don’t want what anybody else has, but not excluding them, just leaving
them to You, knowing that “The foundation of God standeth sure, having
this seal, the Lord knoweth them which are His.”

	So, Lord, we commend ourselves today, and we clear ourselves to You in
prayer, from our hearts. And if we’re wrong anywhere, Father, we just
ask not only forgive us, but correct us, so we don’t enter into that
which is error, but stand clear in the judgment of our God.

 	Bless your people this morning. If there are sick amongst us, may they
be healed. So many need healing, Lord, these days in this hour, and we
know people are getting healed. We’re grateful for it. Some people
need jobs, Lord; we know their income is small, but You can make it last
further than most people… On the other hand, Lord, we know there’s
nothing wrong with looking for work that betters them. We pray, then,
Lord, for better jobs and anything that’s in the Word of God that’s
not just committed, but it’s actually based upon a promise that is
there. 

	May we not fall short of one promise, not putting You to the test, but
as it were, ourselves to the test, to enter into every grace and Word of
promise in this hour, that we can stand before you, Lord, not with any
pride in ourselves or justification, but stand here wanting to, not just
hopefully, but endeavoring and at times true, glorifying your great Name
as we stand with this Word showing to our own hearts and those around
who want to look and listen, that You are the faithful God Who promised,
and You will never deceive us and never leave us.

  	Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only-wise, God be
all honor, power and glory, through Jesus Christ our blessed Lord, world
without end. Amen and amen.

	“Take the Name of Jesus with You.”