Perfect Faith #13

Enhancing Love and Faith: the Process

September 20, 1987

	Shall we pray. Heavenly Father we are very happy that you have allowed
us to come together again, showing grace and mercy, giving us life and
breath, Lord, in this hour that is most peculiar upon earth, the day,
Lord, that Adam wanted so desperately, having fallen from grace, and all
mankind, having fallen from grace, wanted so desperately. We know that
hour is here. Immortality forever is at hand, and we appreciate that so
much. We know, Lord, that there is a Word in season for it; there is a
time. We believe that we are in that time, in that season, Lord, and in
that Word.

	 We pray that You will help us to renew our minds, oh God, by the power
of the Holy Ghost and faith in that Word, Lord, these minds of ours be
renewed for this hour, to dwell constantly upon that Word which is ours
that It might be truly affective in our lives, for we know, “As a man
thinketh in his heart, so is he,” and “The way he thinks is the way
he will go.” So Lord, we want to keep our hearts and our minds fixed
upon You and have that peace and rest that that brings us; we just feel
it this morning, Lord, Your grace and wonderful mercy to us, and we feel
that peace, that confidence and harmony, Lord. May it increase until
that real, sweet Spirit of Christ wholly pervades the whole Church,
everyone be healed, especially internally, Lord, because we know, if the
internal is healed, that eternal part of us truly reconciled to You,
then, Lord, we know that the other will also be healed, even as John
said, “We pray that we may prosper and be in health, even as our soul
prospers.”

	We realize, Lord, when all is well with Thee, and we with Thee, then
that well-being carries over. May it carry over from this moment on as
never before. We give You the praise in Jesus’ Name. Amen. 

	You may be seated.

1.	You know there is an acceleration of everything in this hour, and I
trust that one of these days we will find that acceleration in our lives
as never before. I know at this point we all know that time is rapidly
passing by. I know that…. I think even younger people complain,
“Where is the time going?” Here it is going to be 1988 so fast our
heads are swimming. Just about, well, pretty soon nine solid months out
of the twelve are gone by. And it will soon be eternity we are coming
into; in fact, they have already blended.

2.	Now “Perfect Faith #13”, we are at this today. I would like to
finish it, but I don’t suppose that I will be able to, but come pretty
close. Now, out of the several principles that Bro. Branham gave us
relative to the outworking of faith, love was the last one that he
mentioned. He said, “One: love and faith are relatives.” They are.
He said, “Faith and love work together.” They certainly do. Also he
said, “Love produces faith.” That is correct. Paul said in Gal 5:6,
“Faith worketh by love.”

3.	Now, according to Rom 5:1-5 it seems to me, it seems to me personally
here, by reading Scripture, that not only do we find faith and love
working together, but that a working formula is laid down whereby we
enhance both love and faith in our lives through the process of
accepting and overcoming the trials of life. Now, let’s listen again.
I want to read It to you. I always write down certain things. I want to
be sure I am saying them as correctly as I can. 

	In Rom 5:1-5, which we will read and study, it appears to me, that love
and faith, actually, are working together, and, as they work together,
the Scripture lays down a working formula, a pattern, a way to
understand how they work together. And, when we understand and follow
that pattern, we enhance or magnify our love and faith, and it is done
on the basis of accepting and overcoming the trials of this life. So, it
is during the trials, the hard times, what you’re going through, that
you have the privilege, the opportunity, to enhance, magnify, utilize,
promote, get more familiar with, your life more functional with, love
and faith.

	And the process comes in the trial of our faith and works these
together. So, let’s go and look at it for a little while before we
start reading the message again. All right.

4.	 This is a portion of Scripture, as I have told you before that God
held me to this for years—literally held me, until one day it broke.
Now Scripture is strange; one word can change everything. That’s why
Bro. Branham said: “Don’t change one word or take one word.” Now
the danger is not as you think, because then, you become a foolish
legalist. The danger is actually changing the meaning or not getting
what was meant. You will find Bro. Branham sort of says that, one place
I’ve quoted to you, when we came to one of the messages a long time
ago. All right. 

	Let’s read [Rom 5:1]. “Therefore having been justified by
faith…” It’s not ‘being’ justified, although that in a sense
is correct, but you are being justified continually in the trial of your
faith, letting you know that you are a son whom God is correcting. But
scripturally, that is not referring to this. Scripturally the past tense
is used here, “Therefore having been justified by faith,” period.
You have been justified. “We have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ.” 

5.	And this peace is not the peace you think it is. You want that nice
peace that says, “Hey, I can serenely go through anything, for the
Lord is with me.” 

	No, this is ‘God’s peace’. This is, ‘God is no longer angry at
His rebellious servants. War has been going on, and God is not at war
anymore. The sacrifice has appeased Him; now He has peace. We are at
peace; there is no more war. Amnesty has been declared. But, remember;
in this generation, they are truce breakers. 

	What happens when you break truce with the sovereign King that’s at
peace? He comes and wipes you out. 

	Now they said, “Johnny, don’t slam that door.” 

	‘Bam’. 

	Says it again. 

	‘Bang’ goes the door. [Bro. Vayle hits pulpit.]

	“Johnny, don’t slam that door.” Finally, he says, “Johnny, for
the last time,” (Seventh Church Age Message) “Don’t slam the
door.” 

	‘Wham’ to Johnny, for slamming the door. “You asked for it.” 

	Now you know that that’s… Hey, God’s not stupid; sometimes we
just think we’re smarter than God. He has declared His Word. Okay.

6.	Having been justified, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. We are at peace with God; God is at peace with us.

(2)	By whom also we have access by faith (by Jesus Christ through faith)
into this grace, (the unmerited favor) where we (now) stand… 

	We are in favor, without merit and any need of merit, because the blood
of Christ has done it. That’s good. Bro. Branham said, “How can you
make a sinner when the blood of Jesus Christ has scattered sin till
there be nothing found of it?” Now:

(2)	…and rejoice in (the) hope, (the earnest expectation) of the glory
of God. 

		Now, what’s the glory of God? Man is the glory of God. Right. Bible
says so. Woman is the glory of man. Her hair is her glory. That’s why
she shouldn’t cut it; simple as A-B-C. Okay.

7.	We are looking forward, then, to this man that was to be, literally
formed and created by God, with the ability to come to, which was his
apex, immortality. Now, that’s the great one, but every other promise
in the Book is also a hope, which, in the Greek, should always be
translated, I think, literally, which means, ‘earnest expectation’.
“And rejoice in the ‘earnest expectation’ of the glory of God.”
Now this has to do with God, just as God is at peace toward us. Yep! No,
God is not fussing about anybody, except the end time there are
truce-breakers. He’s got to do something about it. 

8.	(2)	…we have access…(now) we rejoice in hope of the glory of
God—(the ‘earnest expectation’ of the glory of God.)

	Now, this principle laid out here, in our lives and for our lives, can
be repeated many, many ways, and it will all end up to the fact that
Bro. Branham told us, and we are dealing on a bit this morning, that,
when we leave this earth, we leave it unchanged as to the condition we
are in spiritually. It is only a geographical change. So, we had better
be having something perfect from God that’s going to get us there, or
we had better get some kind of perfection God desires. And I want to ask
you: How we going to get it? It tells you right here: [Bro. Vayle points
to the Bible.] only by grace through faith. 

	If your minds are boggling and looking for something else, let’s get
our minds down this morning and bring ourselves into a position where
“by grace are we saved through faith. It’s a gift of God.” It
doesn’t have a thing to do with us. We just simply believe. That’s
all. Now we can go to sleep saying, “Hallelujah, when I rise tomorrow
morning, I shall be in His image.” Not just spiritually, but
physically.

	You say, “Well, Bro. Vayle, why do you sort of pretend you are
falling asleep?”

	Because, “He that keepeth Israel slumbereth and sleepeth not.”
Then, let God stay awake. Do you think you can do a better job than I
can? Now is the time to get lazy. But you better have the right ideas to
get lazy. Like Bro. Branham said, “I am a legalist in the right
place.” Now, the right place is, you better be anything but a
legalist. See? Oh yes, “I will fall asleep; lay me down to sleep. My
enemies compass me. I’m full of passions and things, too, that can
lead me astray. Lay me down to sleep.” No problem.

9.	If you can ever get this thing here, [Bro. Vayle points to his
heart.] this heart, the top of this heart here, that wants to bounce
back and back and forth to your mind, then do something to your mouth…
Now I’m describing a condition here. If you’ve got something on the
ball, you’re listening, and you’re getting it. Because out of here,
[Bro. Vayle points to his mouth.] will come bitterness, criticisms,
angers. Why? Because we don’t take This the way It is written: “by
faith.”

	You will never accept yourself, and neither will I. It isn’t in the
cards. If you do, you’re just a phony psychologist. But, if you could
ever accept yourself in Christ… (Right.) If you ever… And you can,
and I can, and we must come to that place of accepting ourselves in
Christ and the Atonement, know that God is at peace with us, and we are
at peace with God, and then we are coming down through here to learn
lessons in life, which denote a struggle with and against the senses,
but knowing that “greater is He that is in us than we ourselves”…
So, the great trick is right down where Bro. Branham said, “Learn to
get out of the way.” The greatest gift in all the world is to learn to
get out of the way. 

10.	So, let’s keep reading: [Rom 5:3] “And not only so, but we
(rejoice) in tribulations also.”

	Now we notice, we rejoice in the ‘earnest expectation’ of the
production of God for us, as well as in us and to us, and at the end of
the trail. We are rejoicing in every single thing that has been
accomplished in Christ Jesus—complete reconciliation. We are going
back to Eden. Hallelujah! Right to the Millennium; right to the glory of
New Jerusalem. We are. Yep, it started already with the tremendous
impact in this last age.

11.	Now, exulting in earnest expectation. Now you can say, “Well, what
about the glory of God in healing?”

	Well, the man was born deaf, was blind, and Jesus came by, and he said,
“I am going to heal this man,” and he healed him. Before he healed
him, the people said, “Hey, was this man born blind because of some
sin his parents did, or did he get blind on his own.” And Jesus said,
“It was neither for his sin or his parent’s sins, but for the glory
of God.” What was the glory of God? The man got healed.

	So, you need healing? You need a new job? You don’t need a new wife,
or more of them, or husbands, or boyfriends. [Bro. Vayle shakes his
head, ‘No’.] You can’t have those; you’ll mess up. No. What’s
in the Bible?

12.	You know, I’m going to tell you something, don’t you laugh at
that. A guy phoned me a year ago and he was going to leave his wife. He
was a preacher, and he was going to marry a nice young girl, sixteen
years old, for the glory of God. And he said he was praying one morning
after fasting, and this girl came to his attention. I told you how that
can happen. I’m a little modest this morning; so, I don’t want to
put it all out here in the open and let it all hang out. I know exactly
why he felt and how he felt, because absolutely it is physiological. He
felt he heard from God after praying and fasting, that he should marry
the sixteen year old. 

	And I said, “You heard from hell. You didn’t hear from God.” 

	He never phoned me again. [Bro. Vayle and congregation laugh.] I
wasn’t on his side. I was trying to help the guy. 

13.	Anyway, you rejoice in the glory of God, and there are many aspects
to the glory of God, which means ‘the desired thing, according to the
Word, that is promised you, and you are looking at It’. Hey, I know a
guy that wanted curly hair. Shew! He stood before Doctor Gar, a
tremendous man of God. His hair turned curly.

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, that is frivolous.” 

	Don’t think it is so frivolous, if God raised a fish from the dead
and helped the poor little opossum mother, and He bypassed a crowd. You
might think it is frivolous. It’s not frivolous. Nothing is frivolous,
if you got real faith toward God. Now you can get into trouble, of
course, if you just want to, you know, look at that end of it. All
right.

14.	Now we’re looking for something from God. Not only do we rejoice
in this earnest expectation that God made a promise, and He sealed it
with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and proved it by the
resurrection of Christ, and today we see it fully manifested, but, He
said, “We rejoice in tribulations.” Yep. Not just lift up your head
because your salvation draweth nigh, but you really come to God with a
beautiful attitude. That’s it. Rejoicing in tribulation, the trials
that come your way, before you get the answer to your prayer, because
you will go to God and say, “Lord, I want something out of You.”… 

	And God says, “I want something out of you.” 

	So, you say, “Well, I want this thing here.” 

	“Fine” He said, “I will give it to you.” “Now, what I want of
you is to know this: Come to me in the right attitude of happiness,
turning your senses away from those things that are against you and
looking to the Word of God and to me, which is for you, because nothing
out here is meant to be for you. When you come to the Word, only, will
you find your hope in my Word.” 

	So, you now begin to rejoice. And I will tell you, why do you rejoice?
Because now you are above all this out here, because you have come to
God. And though you may be plagued, the attitude of the mind coming from
the soul, channeled by the Spirit, using this Word, says, “Now, it is
fine, because, as God has peace with me and I have peace with God and I
am justified, I am now above these things here.” As Paul said, “I am
a master of circumstances.” Now, I want to tell you something: The
mind is a very important factor, because the mind is part of the spirit,
and it is the spirit that dominates the flesh, and only can the life of
the Word come from our souls. So, there is a battle on. And there is a
power of choice, which is the true legality of true legalism before God.
Which way shall my choice go?

15.	So, I rejoice in my tribulations, those things which I can be,
knowing [Bro. Vayle emphasizes.]… Now you just can’t say, “Well,
hallelujah. Oh, this thing is killing me, and hallelujah, my wife, she
is a mess, and hallelujah, my husband is a mess, and my kid’s are a
mess. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. 

	Well, do you know if your wife is going to get straightened out? 

	“No, but hallelujah, hallelujah!” 

	That’s not it! You don’t have a euphoric spirit about you or
something which is carnally stupid. You know something, and, if you
don’t know something, you can’t afford to be happy when the chips
are down. Otherwise it’s, [Bro. Vayle mimics with his hands and makes
sounds with his mouth.] “And I’m sure that will help you.” You
have got to understand what I am trying to get across to you. Because,
listen; we are not insane. But I am sorry that people many times lose
the balance of their minds, which God has given us a sound mind, when it
comes to the Word—because we know something. 

	Number one: we know we are at peace with God; sins are all wiped out;
God’s not angry. So therefore, these tribulations mean only one thing:
God is not against us. God is for us, and He is going to do something
good, and this is the way He does it. That’s right. I also know this,
that I have a measure of faith. Sure, I know what I got. I know I can
have it, because He hasn’t said, “No.” Now, you look at your life,
your life cleaned up, these things, and you’re trying to be a good
Christian, which you are. So, all right. I’m entitled.

16.	“Knowing.” I know that this tribulation is working endurance. In
other words you must fatigue your muscles to a certain extent, before
they will get hard and harder and harder and bigger and bigger. You have
got to work at it. And, as you work at it, you will get stronger, and
you will take more and more, and you will find your attitudes and
everything changing more and more. But you’ve got to start somewhere.
See? 

	It works endurance—patience. And endurance, or patience, works
character. You become mature; you can handle things.

	You say, “Oh, that kid, all he lacks is experience.” 

	That’s exactly right, and the only experience kids want today is
sexual experience. They don’t even want to work and get a good
job—most of them. That’s right. The more experience you have in the
wrong field, the worse you will get. And the more experience you have in
the right field, the right way, there is where your maturing will be.

	Now, you see why the worlds gone to hell? They took God out of the
school room. The parents allowed it. Who do you think runs this world
outside the devil? Just the devil does. God’s not in politics. Pope
comes over here and plays politics. Well, he met with Walden because
it’s politics. And our President, shame on him. He meets with the
Pope—politics. Who are they kidding? Liars from the ground up, inside
out.

17.	Mature…now ‘maturity’ (Now, watch.) goes back to earnest
expectation. Now, watch: earnest expectation. All right. Experience of
tribulation sets in, working in you as you stand there, and endurance
and the maturity, and after your maturity, suddenly you’re right back
to earnest expectation. What’s happened? You have completed a cycle of
growth. So now, your earnest expectation is multiplied. The very Word of
God becomes realer and stronger and more wonderful, because you went
through it, and you can say, “It can be done.”

18.	Look, I have only had experience in certain fields. My experience
years ago as a kid preacher was failure, failure, failure. I told you:
They brought a young baby to me one time, and she said, “Well, maybe
Bro. Vayle will pray for you.” She said, “Maybe.” 

	I no more prayed for that kid than nothing, because they had no more
faith than nothing. I was an ignominious failure. I couldn’t even do
that. People got healed under my ministry when God supernaturally spoke,
through me, perhaps—how it was done. I’d say, “Well, if that was
the Lord, might as well thank Him.” [Bro. Vayle scratches his head and
uses a mocking or naïve voice.] God working in spite of my stupidity
and my rancid faith, if I had any, because it certainly was sour. I quit
preaching. 

	When I went back preaching… I was also financially abused by the
people. They would always send their money to the radio stations. We
don’t do foolish things like that around here. If you do, you don’t
belong. If you do, you haven’t even come… You’ve got nothing on
the ball; I’ll tell you that flat. Not that I want your money, no, no.
No way, shape and form. You know that. I learned too many years to trust
in God—prayed food on the table. I thought I was abused—quit
preaching. I had to go back. 

	After hearing Bro. Branham, I knew I would have to go down that trail
again. I knew I couldn’t fail no matter what it cost. When my wife
could have worked for a while (and she did), I said, “Listen, you know
what we’re facing. We’re facing to trust God if we starve, and we
won’t starve. You people sitting here, you have been earning your
hundreds a week. I was making maybe $39.00 and paying twenty percent off
the top. You’ve had your steaks and your good times. We had a
hamburger and a cup of coffee, because Howard Johnson’s coffee was the
best coffee. We’d wait for a Howard Johnson’s in sight and have the
coffee with a good piece of rye toast. We couldn’t afford very much. I
wouldn’t trade it for ten million dollars if you asked me.

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, let me give you ten billion dollars for what
you got.” 

	I would say, “Drop dead!” 

	I stood there kicked out of churches, refused offerings. Preachers
would say, “Bro. Vayle, we will take the offerings on Friday night.”

	Why? How many people get their checks on Friday night, huh? Certainly,
Friday night! So, they took the offering Friday night for themselves to
get all the tithe.

	And they said, “You can get yours. You can get up and ask for it and
beg and say, ‘I need money, I need money.’”

	I said not one word. I stood outside the door shaking hands with a
knife in my back and one in my gut, because of Pentecostal preachers and
their ilk.

	Some poor sister came out the door crying “Bro. Vayle I know you’re
right. I know you’re so right.” 

	She handed me twenty dollars or something. We lived. You wonder why I
can stand here and say the things that I say? You’ve got to go through
them. 

19.	You don’t know the first thing about faith, unless your faith is
on the spot. Oh, I could have quit and got a job, same like Bill
[Graham] did and Jim [Pitts]. I could have gone to Ford. Oh, yeah. I
even knew a Pentecostal guy there I could have prevailed upon as a
former Pentecostal. I wouldn’t have told him that, just pretend that I
was. Took that old Buick down, the road, that ‘56 Buick, on many
occasion; took it down the road. I was going to Lima on old [route] 117.
I’d get mad at myself, whirl that thing in the middle of the road and
say “I’ll die, but I won’t quit.” I said, “God, I will pray
for the sick, and they will be healed.” They were healed.

	The same with this Message. I’m stuck with this Message. If I’ve
missed the boat, I’m on my way to hell. Sorry about that. If I’m in
the boat, I’m going to heaven. There are a whole lot of folk going to
miss it. You’ve got to understand what I am saying, brother/sister.
You come from the promise, back to the promise. Now you can’t transfer
that to every single thing in life. I don’t have that ability standing
here. If I were to preach a series on faith and on healing, sure we
could get somewhere temporarily. That’s why you need a pastor to come
in here and pastor you like a pastor should pastor you. Don’t think
I’m unaware what a pastor does. I teach!

	I’m letting my hair down this morning, because I’m giving you an
opportunity, like Bro. Branham did to go back… I like to teach. Sure,
I’m not kidding. I’ve got twenty-seven sermons, two hours a piece on
it. I was criticized for preaching forty-eight sermons on one of Bro.
Branham’s sermons. Stick around; I’ve got some of my own.

20.	It says right here: “earnest expectation.” If you cannot
earnestly expect God to fulfill His Word, don’t even bother coming to
God. And, notice; it is not just an expectation; it is an earnest
expectation, because God is different from you and me. I know… I
don’t remember the time I promised, somehow, our younger son a
bicycle. You know he has been alienated from us, Don, very much so. I
don’t know… He thought we loved Gray, the one that died, a whole lot
more than we loved him, but that wasn’t true. Actually we thought Don
was the cutest thing that came along out of the three of them. We said,
“Hey, it’s too bad we stopped having a family so soon, because we
might have more like him, even better still.”

	But he got alienated somewhere. Then, one day he wrote me a big, long
letter of all my faults, which was all right. As a parent you get used
to a lot of things that happen in life. You’ve just got to take it.
What can you do? They are your kids. See, we weren’t brought up that
way, so we didn’t have those wonderful outlets of all these great
emotional, psychological crap cans. Let me tell you: When you do write
it all down and blame somebody; you still better face yourself before
God! Yes siree, brother/sister. I wasn’t angry that the letter was
written. I said, “Well, that’s fine.” 

	I didn’t write one back. In that letter, he wrote I promised him a
bicycle. I can’t remember, because he would have got it if I had
really promised it. Maybe he took it for granted. I’m telling you for
one thing brother/sister: I can be a miserable failure in my promises,
but God doesn’t fail His. That’s why you and I can afford to honest
with God, and sincere, and not with others. Not that we shouldn’t be
earnest and sincere with others, but I’m telling you something: This
is special. You cannot depend on me and my word. I can get you nowhere
but into trouble. But, it is different with God.

	Now we’ve got a good rapport with our kids now. Just got to wait and
see what the Lord will do for them. They understand. Carel thought we
didn’t love her. She had to even talk to Bro. Branham. He said,
“Your dad did love you; you didn’t understand. Now you people might
think that I don’t love you, because I do certain things, or won’t
stand for certain things. It’s not that I don’t love you. I got to
stand with what I got to stand with. We’ve got to be understanding
here. That’s one of the biggest things in life, to learn to
understand.

21.	Now you see the cycle here. The cycle starts with the Word of God,
because earnest expectation must come from God, and it does come from
God, and it’s based… Like Bro. Branham based our faith on his
wonderful ministry to prove it, this is based on the fact that Jesus
died for us, and said, “Can’t you see that he died and rose again;
you’re justified.” Therefore, this follows through, and it follows
its own principles and its own way of conduct. And you cannot escape it,
and we want to escape it. People have got a philosophy and say, “Well,
I believe in the Spirit of God out here. We all got the Spirit of God.
It’s in nature; it’s in that. Forget the blood of Christ.”

	You are so disillusioned by the devil, it’s pitiful. You’ll answer
for it. You will find out one of these days. 

	You say, “Bro. Vayle, what if you’re wrong?” 

	I’ll find out one of these days. I’ll tell you, kid: You’re going
to die. I don’t care who you are.

22.	Oh my, the doctors are so imbued with geriatrics right now. They
might as well be morticians; they’re the same. Because you’re going
to live to be 120. So what! You will die. 

	“Oh, bless God, I knew a Chinaman who lived to be 110.” 

	And he died, didn’t he? You will find out one of these days. I’ll
find out, too. I’m not being mean; just telling the truth. You start
with the earnest expectation, because God is earnest, time is earnest,
time is fleeting, and you rejoice in it. Many people rejoice, then they
forget it. But he said, now the next thing said you better learn to
rejoice in tribulation, because, as sure as you want something from God,
God wants something from you.

	Remember; there is only one way that you can ever produce character,
and that is by suffering. Sartrik tried to figure it by existentialism.
He said, “We’re all born to suffering.” And that is one hundred
percent true. But suffering is not an end in itself! If suffering were
an end in itself, you can have it! I’m not stupid; you can have it.
Some parents got a stupid idea of bringing up kids: You’ve got to slap
them around. That’s the stupidest thing in all the world. You show
them what they need correction for. Suffering is not an end in itself.
What you are going through now is not an end in itself. What I’m going
through is not an end in itself. It is a means to a higher end. 

	Character is not a gift; character is a victory. You will have no
character unless you suffer. You know why? Because, if we suffer, we
will reign and rule with him. And that’s what’s wrong with all these
kings and all these pharisaical imps out there that try to run society
and try to run the race. They have had no suffering. They have had no
training. It takes the poor man to come up from the bottom, suffering to
get to the top to know what he is doing. That’s why the world is full
of mischief and dishonor today, because men have not suffered. They try
to legislate so people don’t suffer. That’s right. Everybody knows,
if you take a little cocoon, in which is the moth, the chrysalis, which
is the butterfly, and they start to emerge, and you don’t let them
struggle their way out, they are destroyed. You don’t go around
tapping the egg to get the chicken out. All right.

23.	Tribulation, trials, sorrows, work endurance, makes you strong. The
old oak, Bro. Branham said, shaken by the mighty wind; all it does is
dig its roots in deeper and deeper. I thank God I went through what I
went through. It’s rough. It’s suffering. You bet. But you can lick
it. Endurance; patience. That’s why I can sit and wait for God twenty
years to show me one thing; then I take it right back to Scripture and
see if it follows through, and I know it’s God.

24.	Experience. What does it do within your character? It takes you
right back to the Word, where suddenly the Word is enlarged to you that
you know it’s yours. The circumstances haven’t changed, but you know
it is yours. It’s there; it’s sitting right there. You see, because
you know this way. Many people never sit long enough to know this way. I
had to sit until I knew. But I’m going to tell you something: I still
don’t know. You think I’m standing here preaching as though I have
arrived? I have not arrived. I’ve got battles over my healing, and yet
I know what to do about it, if I weren’t so lazy. I tell you the
truth, I just battle it.

25.	Thirty some years ago, after praying for the sick. (Everything going
for their benefit—very well. I was happy to be of service.) I came
home and that flu struck me, and I mean it struck me. You talk about
sick —burning with fever, yet icy chilly, run to the bathroom every
five minutes, kidneys and bladder were completely out of control. Then I
got mad at the devil. On my bed I just stood there, gritting my teeth,
and I went against him four solid hours. From that point on there was no
return of any problem whatever. My back took longer. Pain would come; I
couldn’t do anything with it, if I lay in a certain position. One day
I said, “Okay devil, I can beat you to your bluff any day.” So, I
laid there an hour and I ached. I didn’t groan, but I was ready. I
said, “Okay, you got me this time; now let’s try it again. I’d go
back again. I got him.

	There is no devil, in hell or out of hell, big enough for those who
know. I don’t practice it too much, but I’m telling you we can. We
can do these things with the faith we’ve got. And with the remarkable
hour of faith today, we can take this Message and translate it into a
perfect understanding of calmness and move on. And every time we go
through this cycle of trials, our faith enlarges, our endurance gets
greater, our character matures, the Word of God becomes more precious,
more living, and more powerful. 

26.	Now, watch what It says. [Rom 5:5]

(5)	And hope (earnest expectation) maketh not ashamed; because (What?)
the love of God (at the same time) is shed abroad in (your) heart.

	Now I’m quoting what I believe to be the proper understanding of this
Scripture. I don’t have a prophet to put me right, if I’m wrong. But
I want you to know something: From my experience it is right. Love goes
down the drain. The love of God diminishes. Faith goes down the drain
diminishing and souring, because we do not understand that, though we
want something from God, God wants something from us. 

	And Bro. Price, Doctor Price, one of the most brilliant men I’ve ever
met in my life, one of the greatest preachers, a true man of God, made
the statement, which I will only paraphrase, because I don’t have it
actually anymore. I think my notes are gone on that one statement. He
said, concerning the path, (the Christian path our feet must tread upon
when we go to God for a promise—he said:) “There is a path you must
tread upon.” And he said, “From the time you begin to trust God to
the time you get your answer, you can either lose or make the answer.”
And he said this is the reason right here. He never got the full
revelation that I’ve got on it. And I’m going to tell you something:
Doctor Price started me off in understanding. And it is the truth:
Something happens to you every time you gain a victory. And, if you’re
wondering today why you’re sitting in a bad place, you haven’t
gained your victories. That’s your trouble, brother/sister. You
haven’t stood the test. That’s all. It happens to every single one
of us. Not one misses it.

27.	Now, watch. Again I say, “Hope maketh not ashamed.” You start
with this Word, you start with the promise of God, you move through
those promises, and you come right back every single time, and it is all
magnified. And, when you do, God’s love moves in your heart. Faith and
love are relatives. They’re twins. They are of God. Faith and love
work together. And then, notice; as God sheds this love in your heart
from this experience, you love Him all the more, and you are ready to
move all the more. Why do you think Bro. Branham was the man that he
was? I gave you the answer right there. There is no royal road to
success outside of this. All right.

28.	Hebrews 12:1-11 which follows the entire eleventh chapter on the
annals of overcoming faith in the trials of the lives of the elect ends
on verse 40, wherein God provided an even greater perfection of faith in
our lives today and, then, goes on to speak of our trials also, which
you can look at in Hebrews 12. And this is for you and for me today,
brother/sister, because chapter 12 contains the verses of once more the
Voice speaking out of heaven, the Voice from heaven speaking,
approaching unto Mount Zion, going in. And It says here: [Heb 12:1]

(1)	Wherefore seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud
of witnesses, (to faith, the trial of faith and the overcoming), let us
lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us,
(What’s that? Unbelief.) And let us run with patience the race that is
set before us.

	Now, when you run a race, you’re anything but patient. So, it is
telling you, ‘learn to gear yourself down.’ If God gave you the
answer every time you prayed, right now you would be a spoiled brat.
That’s all you would be. And I started to say and didn’t finish it,
but I got into it: The trouble is, you’re supposed to reign and rule
with Christ, but only if you suffer, because the man that doesn’t
suffer, doesn’t have character. And the people that don’t suffer in
ruling don’t have enough character to rule. And that’s what you got
wrong in this world today. That’s what I was trying to get across to
you. And, if a preacher hasn’t suffered, he hasn’t got character; he
is just a big mouth. If he is a man of God, he will be called, though,
into a place where he will suffer. He will suffer for his
congregation—suffer for others, because that’s what they do. All
right.

29.	Listen; run with patience a race; gear yourself down.

(2)	Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher… (Now he is the one
that starts and finishes.) who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, (There is the enduring; there is the patience during
the trials.) despised the shame, (He looked out on the world and said,
“Forget it. These things don’t mean a thing. I am over and above it
all. And now, look at him. He) is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God. (There is your answer to what I preach in Romans 5.) 

(3)	For consider him… (Abraham considered not his own body now dead.) 

	Consider Jesus. Thoroughly perceive; get your understanding lined up.
Don’t just talk Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Blood, Blood, Blood, thank you
God, sacrifice. Get into it.

(3)	Consider him (thoroughly perceive him) that endured such
contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint
in your minds. 

	Look; the whole thing is a ‘contradiction’: ‘contra deco’ means
‘to say against’—two Latin words. That much I remember from
sixteen years of age. Latin, ‘contra deco’, ‘to say against’.
Something is coming against you. Where is it going to hit you? It is
going to hit you in the mind. Where do you get weary? In the mind. Much
study can weary you. Not this! This Word will make you strong.

30.	(4)	Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

	 Jesus did battle his own life, powers, and faculties in the Garden of
Gethsemane, and great drops of blood stood out. I had a peculiar
experience, not like his. Don’t think for one moment it was anything
like his, but I will mention it in passing. I had a thing come before me
one time for somebody, somebody wanted prayer. I became so desperate for
that person, I suddenly felt I had blood in my mouth; I had not bitten
myself. The taste of blood was in there. I didn’t shed any blood.
I’m just telling you there is such a thing as you going before God and
going beyond yourself. You don’t become an idiot. You don’t become a
raving maniac, some kind of a fool, some kind of a mystical person
that’s in the sense that he’s not mystical, that he’s eerie,
he’s irrational, he’s weird, flakey, all those words. Mystical in
the true sense of the word that there are things you can’t understand
and explain, but they are real. Science probes at it. Ssst, they will
never get anywhere. This is not scientific in the sense of a test tube.
This deals with the soul, brother/sister, that doesn’t fit in a test
tube. They try to put the mind in a test tube; it doesn’t work,
because, if the wrong chemicals are in the test tube, you blow the mind,
even as the wrong chemicals blow your mind. 

31.	That’s what I keep telling you: Bro. Branham says there is nothing
left in the earth, and your body turns to mush. Then, what about your
mind? 

	How many sitting here this morning feel you’re not even taking care
of yourself, perhaps, just eating any old junk food.

	You say, “Well bless God, my mind...” 

	What about your mind? The prophet said it would turn to mush with your
body. Are you trying to say the prophet is wrong? Learn to take care of
yourselves. I’m getting pretty bold this morning, because I tell you I
feel better than I’ve felt in years right now. I’m to the place
where I’m more scared than ever to live, because I’m so strong,
I’m going to live many years, if God doesn’t take me home. And I
want to feel good while I’m living! I don’t like arthritis. It may
sound like a joke to you, but I’m not joking. I know how to preach. I
can hit you so hard you’re scared not to stop and listen; I can tickle
your fancy and make you relax and laugh a little bit. I wasn’t born
yesterday. Maybe I was, and I don’t know it. 

32.	 You’re wearied and faint in your minds—wearied and faint; but,
you know what kind of food you need is brain food: the Word of God. 

	You say, “I’m getting that.” 

	Yeah? What about the reposit, called the brain, where the mind works?
Mind is not the brain. Anybody knows that. Brain is tissue. If you think
you’ve got a mind, you go to the morgue. Sixteen corpses laid out
there. There is no minds at all; brains. No minds. Mind is spirit. Mind
is in the compartment of the spirit. And the nature of your spirit that
directs your mind and your brain and all, your whole body, is the
soul—what is in the soul. And there is the power of choice. There’s
your willpower right down in there. When God is in there, you’ve got
something going for you. All right.

33.	Listen:

(5)	And you have forgotton the exhortation which speaketh unto you as
unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor
faint when thou art rebuked of Him.

(6)	For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom
He receiveth.

	Now, that doesn’t mean He whips the living daylights and, then, mauls
you all over the place—hurts you. It tells you He constantly puts
pressure on you for your good. 

	Now, many pressures in life and nerves are because we are not obedient
to God. Do you know what complexes are all about? It’s not doing your
simple duty to man, to yourself, and to God. When you wake up to the
fact that you’re supposed to do certain things and start doing them,
you will relax and feel good. I learned this years ago when I went to
school as a high school kid. Then I threw it overboard, because I got to
be a stupid idiot, wanting to run around, gas off, and be a jerk. Every
Friday night I did all my home work, if it took me till 2:00 in the
morning. I liked doing it anyway. I love mathematics, and I could stay
up all night and do mathematics. I tried to enjoy my work; I took an
interest in it. Come Saturday and Sunday…Wow! Monday morning, no
problem! Later on I began messing around with a bunch of fools like me
and me like them. I ditched my home work, tried to do it the last thing
Sunday night or the first thing Monday morning. [Bro. Vayle makes an
ugly sound and face.] Worldly stupidity. I learned years ago and
didn’t follow through: Complexes come by not doing what you should do.


34.	You watch how quickly your complexes go, you kids and young people
that think you got complexes. Face reality a couple of times! You
ain’t got half the complexes you thought. 

	You say, “I don’t want to meet people. I’m introverted.” 

	Aw hogwash. Go meet a few people. I’m introverted. I act like an
extrovert, and I don’t mind at all. I’m gregarious. Did you ever
think the day was when I hid behind my mother’s skirt, going peep,
peep, peep? 

	“Well,” you say, “I couldn’t.” 

	“I couldn’t?” You’ve got to be kidding. I ran. I don’t run
now. If I want to meet Oral Roberts, I just walk right up to him. I’d
find a way to meet him. I never met Bro. Branham that way. God did it
all. I’m going to tell you something, brother/sister: Complexes are
just self-induced in ninety-nine percent of the cases. Now some are
complexes because you inherit certain traits in life, but you can
overcome that, too. I don’t find a thing in the Bible that God says
you got to have complexes. Yet Bro. Branham said the devil has got a
whack at you, and that’s true. You can be whacked, and you can be
nervous, but you can understand your nerves and work on them. 

35.	Bro. Branham sat down Hickerson. He said, “Hick, yours are nerves
that will kill you; tell you how to work on them.” Hickerson lives a
life of peace. He told his wife the same thing. He said, “Your nerves
won’t kill you, but they’re bad. I’ll tell you how to work on
them.” He wanted really desperately to take me out hunting someplace
where he could relax and deal with my nerves; but, because of the people
that where always around him, I just refused the invitation. I could be
one hundred percent better off. The man loved people, and he loved those
that loved him, worked with him. 

	But I’ll tell you one thing, if I help people a lot, my own nerves
relax. Sometimes in saving others, you will save yourself. Like the
man… It was bitterly cold. It was so terribly cold. You’ve got to go
up in Canada, up North, for that. It can kill you here, too: blizzards
and snowing. Barely keeping himself alive, stumbling along in the
blizzard, he bumped into something on the road, and he found a man who
was just about dead. He whipped himself into a frenzy of activity, and
he massaged the man and rubbed him and warmed him, until the man began
coming back, and in doing that, he actually saved his own life. Get
busy. Get busy! Do the nice things you’ve been meaning to do, or pay
somebody to do them. 

	I’ve often thought of that. Oh yeah, I would buy the cards and say,
“Hey, what would you charge to send these cards out for me?” Here
are all my friends’ birthdays. 

	Well, you say, “That’s at least better than not.” 

	You’re right. But you know, what makes me the happiest is when I get
my phone calls and say, “Bro. Vayle, you’d never know what that did
for me when I heard you say so and so.” That’s what counts. You
know, then, something is worthwhile.

36.	Now you might understand a little more, then, why I take a very hard
stand with my ministry, because it is everything to me. Would you want
me to get in your way of getting something worth while in your life?
And, would you not want me to have something worthwhile? Think of those
things. That’s why I keep teaching you day by day: Come to church
expecting; sit there and pull it out of me. I challenge you. You’ll
get more than a basketful. You got two baskets full this morning
already. You just start doing this, brother/sister, and I am a living
example of some of the things I’m telling you. I’m not fooling you. 

	You can do it without God. You can do it on your own, too. When I was a
kid, I used to take a turkey feather and tie a string on it and a spike,
throw it up in the air and watch it come down like a parachute. I did it
too close to the building, and it hit my eye; the spike did. I think it
was the left eye—twice, in a row. I could have lost my eye. I blinked
horribly. I got in the habit… [Bro. Vayle blinks hard twice.] I was
laughed at, naturally. Who wouldn’t laugh? 

	My mother said, “You shouldn’t do that.” 

	It was almost like a tick. I worked months and months and months.
It’s not there. Let me tell you something, brother/sister: [Bro. Vayle
pokes his finger on the Bible.] This is true. 

37.	God knows what you are spiritually, psychologically, mentally and
everything else and physically and He said, “I am going to have to
line you up. I’m going to help you. It is going to take pressure that
does it. Today you pressed 100 pounds. Tomorrow I want you to press 102
pounds, the next day 104 pounds, 106 pounds, 108 pounds, 110 pounds. I
want to get you up to the 200 pound press; I want you to run that extra
mile.

	“Kid,” He said, “You haven’t gone the first mile; you’re too
flabby. You haven’t exercised.” 

	Now God doesn’t… He’s smarter than a doctor. The doc says,
“Hey, don’t go out there and run your fool head off; you will drop
dead.” 

	God doesn’t take you out there and slam the works at you. Like a
child He trains us and brings us up. He hardens us. He deals with us.

(7)	If you endure (this training that God gives you, and sometimes it is
very rough. It’ll like take the skin off you.) God is dealing with you
as sons (that He loves) and what son is he whom the Father (doesn’t
correct and bring up right?)

(8)	But if you be without the (training) whereof (we) are all partakers,
then (you’re) bastards… (You’re just a bunch of illegitimate kids
unto God.) 

(9)	Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and
we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection unto
the Father of spirits and live?

(10)	For they verily for a few days chastened us after their pleasure.

	That’s true. We correct our kids, because they get in our hair. We
don’t say, “Hey, what does that kid need at this time, for he should
do a thing like that? Well, a big whop in the seat; stimulate his
protoplasm, his posterior protoplasm especially. Maybe it will get to
his head, in reverse fashion. Well, it works. You can’t just let kids
get away with murder. Sometimes they need a whipping, but they need
first of all correction.

 38.	(11)	Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but
(watch; it’s) grievous; nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable
fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. (Get your
exercise spiritually this way, brother/sister.) 

	Wherefore, you people who know this, always be on the alert to help
people who are down in the dumps, like hypochondriac, spiritually…my
Lord! (We’ve seen those, too. Forget it.) But legitimate cases that
need help. And, remember; twenty-five cents will dry a kid’s tears,
and one hundred bucks may help somebody in the church feel good, but
tomorrow or the next week he will feel twice as bad, because now he
wants two hundred dollars off of you. Set them down and talk with them,
say, “You know what? Let’s face this with the Lord. What you really
need is a good job.”

	 Don’t borrow somebody’s car; get your own. You know Doctor Kenyon
said that? And you know what? I was already 30 years old. I owned a car
before, but I gave it away. I just let it go, because it was such a
clunker. I said, “No more cars that are going to be clunkers.”

	In his little book, Signpost on the Road to Success, he said, “Buy
your own car.” 

	I said, “Well, hallelujah. Why not?” I didn’t have any money
hardly; they took a few bucks down. I paid for it. God paid for it. Get
your own things. Don’t be a hitchhiker. Bro. Branham used the term
‘hitchhiker’. You learn to be a stalwart person. Now some of you
people, you know that I have bore with you quite a while. You snapped
out of it. I won’t look at anybody. I’ll close my eyes. You know
that to be a fact. Now it is your turn to help people. Go ahead.
That’s nice. I mean it for your well-being, too, because that’s how
it is. Sit down with people, talk with people, be nice with people, let
them unload on you. You couldn’t tell when Bro. Branham was sicker
than a dog and people would unload on him. 

	So, listen; I want to tell you what: The worst time in my life I’ve
been sick, I’ve had people unload on me. Sometimes it just was too
much. I broke under it, but I’m still living. 

	You say, “Well, I’ve got enough trouble of my own.” 

	Oh, no you don’t. You’re lying. If you’re a certain child of God,
and you’re trying to live for Him, and you believe this Word, you
don’t have too many. You are… What are you doing? What’s that word
they use? You’re just passing the buck or something. There is another
word they use, but I can’t remember right now. But anyway, you’re
just not living up to it. Now it’s grievous, but it is the only way to
get the peaceable fruit of the Spirit, by this exercise.

39.	(12)	Wherefore (You) lift up hands which hang down, (Your own and
others.) and the feeble knees; (You watch how you’re doing.)

(13)	And make straight paths for your feet. (Lest the lame be turned
aside.)

	What does that tell me as Christians? A fundamentally, energetic,
God-filled church that’s doing His Word.

	You know something? What’s a little clue? How many of you…? Aw,
look; you all went to high school. Somebody came by; you know, they use
to call me all the time about math, because they knew I could do math,
and I could do English and things like that. I was good in math and
English both. I could have majored in both and did; in fact, I would
have quite easily. But I liked both.

	But anyway, they would come by and say, “Well, look; how did you do
this?”

	Now, every time you explained it, you got better yourself by doing it,
and I found a way to lick any problem in geometry, especially. It’s a
cinch; it’s a cinch. You get a problem you can’t work, and nobody
else but the teacher can work. And that problem is suited to a certain
number of theorems that you have already studied. Let’s just say
you’re in number seven theorem —whatever book you’re in. Now you
get a question, and it is a tough one, and you look at that question,
and you apply every theorem and you turn your geographical structure;
you turn it this way [Bro. Vayle illustrates.] and that way and upside
down; you look at it backwards, you add a line and you take away to get
angles. You use every theorem and every trick of ingenuity, and you
solve the problem. You will never have another problem in geometry that
you can’t lick! You’ll have them, but you’ll lick them, and
you’ll be happy.

	When they first give me geometry—algebra, not like you guys got it;
you got it lucky. I’m an old guy. So, I got it back only in grade
nine. You get it when you start as kids. It is fun to go into it as
kids. You are more versatile. So, they threw the book at us. Why, this
is stuff we never seen it. Well, I got stuck at it. I said, “I like
it. I like it. I like it. I love it, I love it, I love it.” Blah! I
hate it, but “I love it. I love it. I love it.” And I said to
myself, “I love it. I can do it! Hey, this is duck soup.” (I hated
duck soup, too. I liked chicken soup.) “I can do it. I like it,” and
I sat there grinning. In three weeks time, I could do it backward and
forward—one of my joys. If I would only have had a little adding
machine in those days just to make it easier, where, if I had a whole
sheet of paper with figures, with these twin questions… I loved
it—logarithms, the whole thing. 

40.	See, psychologically, I don’t care what law is in this Bible; I
can take it and show you that in the human, normal, natural life, people
are doing this outside of God. And they become successful, respected 
citizens. Cousins laughed his way to health. In other words, “A good
spirit doeth better than medicine.” What about the joy of the Lord?
You know what? People say, “I get turned on by God.” Well, I don’t
buy that the way they say that, but I buy it the way that it is true.
You will get help, but you’ve got to go through the processes. And
then, you start working with others that they may have it, too.

41.	Now I’m going to close, because there is no use trying to get back
to the sermon. I’m sorry about that. I had a nice time with you. I
hope you had as good a time as I did. Love you all, appreciate you. Come
back again. I’m going to read out of the Revelation 3. This is us
today. Well, before I read this to you, let’s go back to Hebrews 12.
I’ve got enough time for that. Okay, now then, It tells you here:

(14)	Follow peace with all men…

(15)	Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any
root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be
defiled.

	 It tells you right here that your own grouchiness, that your own
disrespect to God, that your own failures —failing to go through the
trials of your faith, can eventually, and will, bring trouble in the
church. Bitterness, starting in you against God, will spread till you
find something that you don’t like in the preacher, or somebody else,
and you’ll get bitter. You will cause a stink in the church and a
trouble in the church, and many people will be defiled. Who wants to
defile people, when you can lift them up? 

42.	Now, look; I’m a very blunt preacher, pragmatic or anything else
you’ve got, and I can call a spade a spade, sex, sex and dirt, dirt.
You think I haven’t had my times when I’ve looked at a young woman?
One thing comes: Why would I defile her? Give me one reason.

	You say, “Well, Bro. Vayle, you love your wife.”

	Well, that’s true. I love her too much. But I’m looking at your
hearts and men’s hearts around the world, and I’m saying: Why would
you defile a woman? What kind of person are you? Why would you defile a
man? Why would you murder? Why would you kill, when you can do something
decent and nice? Look, the same energy to bring you a poison letter, I
can bring you a love letter. James condemned the mouth that had bitter
and sweet water from the same source. Why? Because it takes the same
energy. That’s all it does.

43.	I don’t fear this church. We operate funny here. I’m kind of a
funny guy. I’m not worried. If you are a true seed of God, well, you
can be buffeted; nobody is going to get to you. If you’re not a true
seed of God, you can try all you want to stir us up and try to destroy
us. You will get to us a little while; it won’t last. You are wasting
your time. Why don’t you go some place else and do it, or stick around
here and find out we’re right? Go ahead. No problem. We don’t ask
questions, snoop around the corners. No we don’t. You know why?
Because we believe this Word, and we have seen It proven. I believe
before it’s over, there is going to be a lot of people here,
brother/sister, that by the grace of God, we are going through some how.
What else can we do but go through?

 44.	(15)	Look diligently, (Consider Him. Consider Him and look
diligently that you may find someone that you may help.) 

	(16)	Lest there be (a) fornicator, (one of these guys off the Word
playing around here in organization and all) or profane person. (You
know? You know, when you profane something it means you mess things
up—messed his life up; messed people’s lives up.) as Esau, (a messer
upper,) for one morsel of meat (he) sold his birthright.

	 Is it worth that one slug of booze, that one cigarette? Is it worth it
that one wild time, that one shot of cocaine? Sure, go ahead. You will
find out. But that man couldn’t inherit anything. There was no place
for repentance. You know, you can come to the place where there is no
place for repentance? 

	Now, listen; this is following up here, for the Seventh Church Age. You
don’t want to grow in love and in grace and faith; you don’t want to
follow this path. So, what do you do? You find evidence to complain.
Nothing suits you; you’re an individual. Ha, Ha! There are millions
like you. But you are fooling yourself.

45.	(17)	Afterward (he wanted the blessing. He couldn’t get it. He was
rejected. That’s Hebrews 6: the end-time Message. They turned It down.
They will be looking for it—too late.) 

(18)	(Now It says, but) you are not come to (a mountain) that (cannot)
be touched, (That’s Mount Sinai.) that burned with fire, nor unto
blackness, and darkness, and tempest.

(19)	The (voice) of trumpets, (words that they heard…)

(20)	(Commands) they couldn’t endure, (even) beasts (were killed).

(21)	Moses said, (“I’m quaking; it’s horrible.”) 

(22)	(No,) you’re come unto Mount Zion the (beautiful holy) city of
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of
angels, (—messengers, those that keep you from falling)

(23)	To the general assembly and the church of the first-born, which are
written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all. 

	Right to the Judge that said, “You’re the pure, spotless Bride of
the Lord Jesus Christ.” Then said, “Let’s act like it.” Nothing
to stop our faith now. Yep, let’s ask God to make this sermon
waterproof, that is, our vessels waterproof, so that they don’t leak
out on us.

	One old fellow, years ago, he said, “Lord fill me; Lord fill me.”
He had been up to the altar so many times, and he would rejoice, then
come back and say, “Lord fill me.” An old grandma said, “Oh, Lord,
don’t do it; he leaks.” Don’t go away and let it leak out. It’s
too easy, too easy. See? 

(23)	(Come to him,) the spirit of (the) just (who has been) made
perfect.

(24)	To Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of
sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. (We are far
beyond Abel. But, notice; He takes us right back to Abel. The first man
that became a martyr to God. Takes you right back to the beginning; puts
you right there with the greatest of all. (He) gave his life. Puts you
right there, and we are beyond it.)

(25)	See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. 

	That’s what we heard this last time—the prophet of God. They
didn’t escape back there; they won’t escape now, because it’s all
over. All right.

46.	Now we go back to Revelation, and I’m finished. Now he says here:
[Rev 3:17]

(17)	You say (you are) rich and increased with goods, (but you are not.
You are) miserable and (you’re) wretched, blind, naked. (Now, verse
19:)

(19)	As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and
repent.

(20)	Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.

	Now, I’m looking at it this way, through the prophetic Message: The
Judge came on the scene, [Bro. Vayle points to the Cloud picture on the
wall behind him. Judge.] That’s absolutely right. And He made the
judgment, the assessment. He laid it out, and He told us the truth,
which is the truth. Now it became a rebuke and a slap in the face to us
who thought we really had everything under control and right, and we
found we were utterly rejected, unless God did something for us. Now
‘rebuke’ comes with the Word. ‘Chastening’ comes by following
the Word—going in the training period that God gives us. We should all
be trained. 

	Now the next thing: “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” He is
saying very plainly, “Do you want fellowship with me?” This is how
you get it. I never knew the fellowship of God, as I know it, from years
back and now. When I was first saved, I was saved in the Pentecostal
Independent Church, which was fine for the day. And my joy was saying,
“Praise the Lord, hallelujah, glory to God, hallelujah. Glory to God,
feeling good, halleluiah, glory to God, Oh yes, bless God, love you
Jesus, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!—hour after hour. And I did
feel good! But I never heard anything from God; I didn’t get off the
ground. 

	Now see, you folk didn’t have this, so I can tell you all about it.
And you can know certain things that don’t work; so, don’t get
enticed, and don’t get fooled by charismatics. Don’t get turned
away, brother/sister. Don’t get turned on by that stuff. It’s all
right if you want to go that way, but I prefer not. But I tell you, when
I went down the path, and I said, “Lord, there is no turning back. If
I die, I can’t do it.” There were times I got in such hot water, and
I did and didn’t know I did. I was sitting around blaming other
people.

47.	 I remember I was in one church, and I was preaching the Word of God
hard and doing a good job as far as I was concerned. They were
Pentecostal. I said, “Lord, they have turned on me, and they are
wrong.” 

	And I heard an inner voice saying, “On the contrary, they are right,
and you are wrong.” 

	I said, “Lord, how do you mean, I am wrong?” 

	And He showed me a picture of a baby in a crib with a bunch of toys,
and He said, “You took away their toys.” He said, “You take away
nothing until first of all you give them something.” And they
couldn’t receive. So, if I took away what they had, and they
couldn’t receive what I had, I am in their debt; they are not in mine.

48.	 I boo-booed bad another time, and things went real sour. And I
said, “Lord what’s wrong?” And again I heard the same voice say,
“You are wrong. You made three mistakes.” He named them, one by one.
Now all the screaming, that’s good. You know, sometimes we need to
scream, just scream, like Bro. Branham running around that tree
screaming, “Hallelujah.” That’s all right. He could do it, because
he was hearing from God and walking in the light. But, if you think that
takes the place of it, you are wrong! You are on the wrong track. You
got to gear down. 

	I love the Lord this morning; really I do. It might not sound like it,
but I do. He has been good to me. I haven’t been in very many hard
places. I just think they are hard, because I’m a softy. You know
what? I would sooner be hard. I would sooner have a back like a saw log
and a heart like a piece of mush, rather than a heart like a saw log and
a back like a piece of mush. I don’t know which I’ve got for sure.
Maybe I’ve got a little of both in there, but there is a place for a
tender heart, a firm mental attitude that doesn’t bend, but looks to
Him, a backbone that’s strong, a heart that is vigorous, but as big as
a hotel. It takes everybody in. Let’s have a heart as big as the
convention hotel —the Sheraton. What? Six hundred rooms; four hundred
people going to turn out! We will take care of them. Have a heart that
takes them all in. Don’t be a legalist. Naw, there is no place for
legalism. You can’t be a legalist and do this, brother/sister. It
doesn’t work that way.

49.	 Well, I hope you caught what I was saying this morning, that love
and faith work together. And there is a pattern that God has laid down
in His Word, whereby we increase and enhance our lives of faith and love
in God. And, in my understanding, there is no other way, because, if you
and I were to say, “Oh God, give me patience. Oh God, give me
patience.” He would say, “I already gave you the full potential. All
you got to do is learn to stand still and take it, and even act as
though you’re wrong, when you’re right.” [Bro. Vayle pauses, looks
at congregation, and nods head slowly several times.]

	You see, I hear something tell me these things; it’s like a voice in
my mind. You couldn’t get it from me if you tried. You can come with
another voice; you can come with your brass band, itt wouldn’t do any
good. That voice is still there, because I heard it; I know what it
said. Never has proven wrong yet. Up to the age of sixteen, you could
put in four circuses and eight brass bands in the room I was in, and I
could sit there and not hear one thing, but know just what I was
reading. That isn’t in the physical anymore. That’s been gone for so
many years, it’s pitiful. I’m not interested. But I tell you, you
can put four brass bands and eight circuses in this church this morning,
you are not going to change what’s in here, [Bro. Vayle points to his
head.] what I got from God. There is no way It will ever do it—what He
said. 

	You say, “Bro. Vayle I want that.” 

	I can’t guarantee you will ever hear that. I don’t know what to do
for you. But I can guarantee He will do for you what He did for me, if,
when you, going down that road and you’re tired, and you say, “Well,
I’m quitting this now, and I’m going to move over here.” 

	You turn your car around in the middle of the road, you face all the
issues with your wife and your kids, (if you’ve got them) something is
going to happen to you. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It’s up to you. I’ve
tailored all this to my ministry. You see, I’ve left all this out here
behind me. It’s tailored to a ministry. I’m going to tell you
something: This Word is tailored to every single one of you. It will fit
you. It will get results. What I’ve said, I will stick with, because I
know it is true. 

	Well, that’s enough. Time’s gone. 

	Lord bless you.

	Let’s rise and be dismissed.

	Gracious, heavenly Father, I want to thank You again for Your kindness
to us this day, Lord, when we can talk about these things which we know
to be true. And Lord, I know them to be true, but I also know the
stupendous fact in my life is also true in this negative, Father, that I
haven’t kept up some of these things and persevered as I ought to have
done—to have persevered in your Word in a little measure, Lord. I know
that’s just simply because that You have given a ministry, and I thank
you for it—a little gift. It is certainly no credit to me; it is not
mine. It is Yours, and it is for the people. But Lord, so often I have
failed. Perhaps, most of my time, Lord, I’m simply failing in the
rudiments that You have laid down, whereby we do increase in faith and
love, this love shed abroad in our heart. We know why, because every
time we stand still and see Your hand move in our behalf, that we allow
ourselves to get out of the way, and You, Lord, to come forth victorious
in these hearts, minds and souls of ours, oh God, then You shed that
love abroad more and more, we esteem Thee more and more, Lord, glorify
you more and more, love You more. 

	 Help the people here, Lord, no matter what is happening in their
lives, to take a real firm hold of You, and to consider You and nothing
else —to consider You. You, Lord, Who strove against sin, until Blood
broke out upon Your body. Lord, help us to realize what it is to strive
against ourselves and not against others, not even against
circumstances, because they are going to go. But, Lord, according to
Your Word, we are going to go on forever. Help us, Lord, to present
ourselves with material that You sent down from heaven here, and built
into our fabric, to present to You up there. Here, we are living
sacrifices; up there, not sacrifice’s any more: living trophies of
Your grace. 

	Lord, mellow us down this morning, we pray, oh God. Take out those
carnal, critical lumps in our hearts, oh God. Father there is too much
mud in my blood; I want all that stuff out of there, Lord, just the life
of God in there. I don’t know how it is going to be done. Maybe I’m
trying to overshoot myself. I don’t know, but Lord, I know one thing:
that I’m certainly not satisfied with what I am, and down the road I
simply can’t be satisfied. I’ve got to have something, Lord, in my
life that I know you have already supplied, and I am to work with for
Your grace, until more of the same comes, for more of the same benefits.


	I know that is the truth for all of us this morning here, Lord. We are
all hungering and thirsting within ourselves to be what Your Word has
set us forth to be, in the potential, through the program that You have
put forth in Your Word for us. There’s none of us lacking, Lord. There
is not one of us lacking in anything. There is not one of us hampered or
hindered in any one thing, Lord. There is none of us. Paul doesn’t
have to come by and tell us that our trouble is ourselves and nobody
else. We know that. We know that, Lord, that’s all it is. And the man
that didn’t come to the feast; it was his own fault, when You said
“Come and dine.” We of us that are not feeding and nurturing
ourselves in this Word, Lord, and just looking at You continuously,
it’s our own faults. We admit that this morning, Lord. We’re the
carnal ones. We are wondering why people are getting into mischief all
the time, (we ourselves included) it’s because of this very thing. 

	So, Father help us this morning, oh God, we pray. And, if You’ve got
to use stern measures, which sometimes You have to use, and we may
regret what we say with our mouths here, Lord, so we are not going to
put it too strong. But Lord, if it takes a little more pressure, and
that pressure will make us to conform, so we won’t get hard or
foolish, (You knowing our hearts, Lord.) we open ourselves this morning
for You to apply the right pressure, in the right place, in the right
way, at the right time, all in Your care, Lord, because we do want to
further our lives as servants of God, not trying to be a real credit to
you, Lord, because we don’t know how that could be, but we do know
that You would look upon us favorably if we just humble ourselves and
get out of the way, even though that’s going to cost something, (which
it will, which is good. It’s very good for us, Lord.) so that You
might have preeminence. 

	This is what we want, Lord, from the youngest to the oldest, we believe
here, just simple people, all of us together, nothing big amongst
us—no big ones, no little ones, except maybe in size—but inside of
Your sight, Lord, just one little people here. And we’ll give You the
glory, Lord, as You help us along these battle lines. For we pray in the
name of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen. 

	The Lord bless you.

	“Take the Name of Jesus with You.”

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