Faith #01B *

Transcript In progress.

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…the Lord, not only is that so, but we are a decided liability, we know, my God, that without Thee, nothing can be done for except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who would build it.

This morning, O God, we admit our complete reliance upon You, and it is a good reliance, Lord, for now, O God, our weakness can be turned into strength, and our inability, O God, can be capstoned with Your capabilities, and thereby Lord, we can become more than conquerors through Jesus Christ who loved us.

Grant unto us, O God, this morning that Your Spirit bring every thought into captivity, every spirit under control through the Holy Ghost, and Lord, I pray, that not one Word shall be uttered except it be Your Word.

For You have said, “If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God.”

And, Lord, I pray, therefore, also that every ear shall be anointed, so that none shall hear what they want to hear and none shall hear except what is said exactly and then by the Holy Spirit be able to understand It.

Lord God, I pray that not only should every Word be of You but also the very intonation of the Spirit shall not be of man, but truly by the Spirit of God. Lord, this morning, we know that the only measure of success we shall have is if in fact if God be dealing in us and with us.

And so Lord, we humbly beseech You this morning to have full control, to have right away that Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven, that You who rule in the armies of heaven, now rule in these armies of the earth.

We give ourselves unreservedly over to You Lord, knowing that Thou art our sufficiency and we claim it in the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

In the 11th chapter of the Book of Hebrews and chapter 1; we have a verse which we will use as our text. Depart from it and use scores of other Scriptures which dovetail with it.

Paul in speaking concerning faith says, “The faith is the assurance of things hoped for; it’s the conviction of things not seen.”

Now I do not use the words ‘substance’, although that is a good word, but its meaning has changed over a period of years.

So, we use the more scriptural term, that faith is the ‘assurance’ of things hoped for, and not evidence but the conviction of things unseen.

Now, concerning this subject I may say that there is hardly a more important subject in the whole Bible than of faith toward God. Because the Scripture declares in the same chapter, but in verse 6 that without faith it is impossible to please God.

Now if I were to ask you a question this morning and I am more or less convinced that we’re all born again believers here.

If I were to ask you and say, “What do you feel is the most important thing in this life as a Christian?” Now you would have to say, “To please God.”

Because to please God is the one and important thing that we as Christians ought to entertain as our heart’s desire and it is the one important thing that God entertained as His heart’s desire, that His people please Him.

But the Scripture says this morning, “That without faith you cannot please God.” Now this makes it then of the utmost importance to us because if the Scripture says, “Without faith you cannot please God,” then you are not pleasing to God without faith. It is just that simple.

Now this would be negative if I were to leave it there and I could cause you great confusion and perhaps, great anxiety.

If I were to just leave it there and say now, “Look, if you are not in faith; if you are not walking in faith, then you are absolutely unpleasing to God. You must be in the faith. You must be walking in faith.” But let us read the 6th verse the way it is written.

Now a little exiguous here or a little analysis will help us. Now the thought is that God wants a people to please Him. They cannot please Him without faith. Now, to what end is the faith reposed in God? To the end that God may reward him?

Now why does God want your faith? Because God wants to do something for you. So this puts an entirely new light upon a relationship of faith and God, than perhaps we have previously seen.

It is no longer mankind attempting to persuade God to do something for him, but it is God being displeased if man will not let God do something for him. You follow me?

Now, that this is a Scriptural revelation based upon God’s revelation of Himself to the faithful is found in Genesis where the Lord appeared to Abraham and said, “Abraham, I am Thy shield and exceeding great reward.”

Now what does a shield and reward mean? A shield is a weapon of defense or protection and a reward is a provision. So God said to Abraham, who is the father of the faithful, and the first dynamic revelation that God gives to Abraham is; “Abraham, I am your Protector and your Provider.”

Now let me ask you a question. If you had a protector and a provider; what more would you want? Sure, it’s enough. That’s exactly why a woman is supposed to marry a man, strange enough it’s working opposite these days.

But a woman marries a man because he is her protector and that’s the important one, and provider. Most people think women marry a man because then she will be provided for. That’s where you women went haywire.

You wanted provision, not protection. See? Isn’t that strange? I don’t mean you as a people here this morning, women; I mean women in general all throughout the world.

God said, “I am your Protector and your Provider.” Now the reason protection comes before provision that is supposing you’re provided for but not protected, somebody can take away your provision.

See, you notice God never makes a mistake the way He does things or says things. And God is our Protector and our Provider. And if you’ve got that I say; what more do you want? See, we lack a revelation of what faith is all about.

Faith is God’s assurance whereby you can receive from God, so that God makes sure that you can get, whereas we’re all the time hoping maybe God will do something for us, we cross our fingers right, or hold our mouth just right or say, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, fifty times in a row and jump a little higher than the next fellow.

Work ourselves up and maybe get something. That’s wrong! The furthest thing from the truth is that God is withholding anything from you.

He says, “I am not pleased with you, unless or until I am doing something for you, by way of protection and provision.”

So I say this morning, when do you have the last prayer answered? When did God protect you the last time? When did God provide for you the last time? You see, the evidence of God’s good pleasure is; is God, God to His people?

Now if God is not God to His people, then He’s not God at all. So this morning if God is not protecting you and providing for you then there’s something wrong. You see?

God’s people must be the center of the abundance of the Lord; not the periphery, somewhere out there getting a few drops as the balls spins around.

This is no, what they call, that cotton-taffy situation with God. You are in the center, the vortex, the very center of God’s blessing, because you see, you are a child of Abraham.

And the promise… then the revelation to Abraham was “I am your Protector and your Provider.” And God cannot be pleased with the people, and here’s where we’re going to get it right now.

And here’s where Lee Vayle gets it all the time, God is not pleased with the people who fight their own battles. That’s the number one trouble with every last one of us, the whole kit and caboodle.

It’s the one thing that nobody understood about Brother Branham. See, I bring it all in; don’t worry. They never could figure why William Branham let any man come in and do what he wanted.

Just come in and take over, shove out somebody else, take his love offering, hug him around the neck and say, “Oh, I love you, Brother Branham give me a meeting.”

And all the time putting a sword into his bowels and he knew they hated him. But he said, “God bless you, brother. Sometime I’ll be glad to come,” and loved them all.

He was the only man who could walk through the cesspool of iniquitous mankind and come out smelling like the lily of the valley. Why? Because he let God fight his battles. Hey, that’s the truth. I lived with that man.

I was with him more than any other man in the public eye, and that’s the truth. I know what I’m talking about, except for his son, Billy Paul.

And it’s a high test when a young man like Billy Paul can say, “Lee, I knew Daddy had a great ministry, but when you live with him and I lived with him and knew him as the man that I knew him; that’s something different.” That’s exactly true.

There are a lot of men today with ministries, brother/sister, oh, they lengthen legs by the power of God, they get rid of tumors, they do. They saved thousands of lives and they’re rotten to the core.

They live in sin and they fight like a bunch of tom cats with their tails tied together and hung over a clothesline. That’s not God, brother/sister.

You know Paul let them know about that when he preached at Lystra, he said, now he said, “Look, I’m not… Jupiter or we’re not Jupiter and Mercury. “Why,” he said, “we’re… just men.

“Why,” he said, “you don’t understand,” he said, “you heathen,” he said, “there’s a good God who gives good rain and gives you fruit, and does good things for you, he heals your sick and blesses your body, and takes care of your …?… does a million things for you, but that doesn’t mean you’ve got God.”

Fighting your battles, that’s the one thing that God wants above anything else. And that’s the one thing He instructed Israel in, when thou goest to battle and you see horses and chariots and soldiers fighting you, do not fear because I am going to fight your battles.

And God is not pleased with a people who fight their own battles.

The last word of exhortation Brother Branham gave to the churches was this: he said, “If people of yourselves do not rise up to cause the people to be hurt or confused or destroyed, the devil will send somebody in pretending he is accepting the Word of truth. And when he’s been there long enough to gain confidence then he will rise up.”

But he said, “Remember this, do not be drawn away with any type of in-fighting, do not be drawn away with any altercations, treat everybody sweetly and with love and let God handle it.” You see, it’s too late now.

There’s no use going out in the grain field today to chop the tares out. They’re ripening. The farmer doesn’t go and pull up the ripened tares. He kills the green tares. Let them alone till harvest, God said, “I’ll take care of the binding.” We must learn to let God fight our battles.

And God is not pleased with anybody who’s got enough strength to fight his own battles. God wants you weak. That’s what Paul said. “In weakness, (my strength) His strength (my strength) is made perfect because of His strength.”

I could never understand why people don’t believe in divine healing. Because if it weren’t in the atonement, so what? It’s in the Word. I don’t care if it’s not in the atonement. I believe it is. But I wouldn’t care if it wasn’t. It’s in the Word and He’s been doing it.

God wants to heal people. He wants to provide for them. He wants to give them the necessities of life. Many people don’t realize that.

They think, “Well now, let’s see, I work forty hours a week, I get a dollar and a half an hour, that’s sixty dollars a week, and there it is.” No, it isn’t there at all. What are you cutting God out for?

You say, “But I don’t see where it will come from?” What do you care? Now I bet there’s not one of you this morning sitting in this congregation if you knew that suddenly in your pocket would be five hundred legitimate dollars, all yours.

You wouldn’t give a rap where it came from. But hallelujah, you’d sure spend it, wouldn’t you? Huh? Well, that’s the thing I’m talking about. Forty hours a week; I don’t care about your forty-hour week.

I don’t have anybody behind me but God and that’s been plenty. Oh, I’m so glad I learned that. Because I can actually get more of my life’s goods provided for me and a better living just trusting Him than ever trusting the church or anybody.

Years ago they say, “Brother Vayle, I’m going to help you.” I’ll believe it when I see it. I’m like old Luke Rader.

A fellow came to him one day, and said, “Brother Luke,” he said, “I’ve got a gold mine and when I make the money,” he said, “I’m going to give you a million dollars because I believe it’s there.”

And Luke said, “Have you got a nickel?” he said, “Yeah.”

“Give me one,”

He said, “Thank you, I know I got this much, forget the rest.”

Listen, the thing is that God wants to provide. You think I don’t know what that is.

Listen, I’ve preached in Canada with no food in the house and patches on my patches. I don’t have patches on my patches now; there’s lots of food in the house. But there was a time when I had patches on patches, The Hungry Thirties, and no food in the house.

And we simply got down and we had a baby daughter and we had a friend staying with us and he used to kind of sing a few songs or something. He wasn’t really in the ministry, but he was a nice fellow.

We kind of took care of his food problems, too, and we get down on our face before God and pray and God would bring the food in. We never had a failure. God wants to provide for His people.

And I want to tell you this is the sorriest, and the sickest mess in this world in the eyes of God is to find a bunch of people who say they believe God, love God, are born again and then they don’t have enough virility to have their prayers answered where God is doing something for them.

That’s what you’d call some kind of a dead fundamentalism. And believe me it’s dead and it stinks. And it does because we are to be a sweet incense or savor in the nostrils of God, not an… apothecary’s ointment, you know, full of flies.

You see the little flies spoil the apothecary’s ointment. And God wants a people to use their faith, because it gives Him great pleasure to do things for them.

Now, the first thing then this morning, I want you to learn is God wants to do something for me. He wants to heal my body. He does, too. You may not believe that; but He does.

Now if you’re in sin and therefore you’re sick this morning because of your sin: He wants to not only heal your body, but get rid of your guilt complex.

Because the Bible says, “The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord will raise Him up. And if he’s done any sin it will be forgiven him.” See. God wants to do things for people. That’s what He does.

Not you begging and pleading, but God wanting to, that is the basis of your faith. That God wants to and God is not pleased with a people that He cannot bless. The blessings of the Lord are myriad. “The afflictions of the righteous are many, but the Lord delivereth out of all.”

“Healing all of our diseases, see? forgiving all our iniquities.” As David said, “I’ve been young, now I’m old, yet I’ve not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”

I remember years ago I was preaching in a town in Indiana, and there’s a fellow there hadn’t had a job for a long time. I don’t know why, I guess jobs were kind of scarce.

Had a little bit Eisenhower lull at that time, before we had a Kennedy comeback, and I wish to blame it on them anyway, because I don’t think God was too worried about the situation. He couldn’t get a job.

He got up one morning and I said, “Now look here, the Word of God distinctly said, ‘If the man doesn’t take care of his family, he’s worse than an infidel.’”

Yet the Bible teaches that. Man doesn’t provide. Now I said the Word of God also says, “That if a man doesn’t work he can’t eat.”

Now the point is this; if you don’t have a job, then you can’t fulfill the Scripture that says, “You got to provide for your family, you got to eat your own bread.”

So that means God is obligated to give you a job. Did you ever think of it that way? He said, “No.” He went out and got a job. Then he quit that one and got a better one.

Last I heard he’s making money hand over fist for a fellow like him because he never had many capabilities. But he saw the truth that God wanted to do something for that fellow.

Now can you see a God this morning doesn’t want to do something for you? I believe like Dr. Bosworth, you say,… Did you ever meet old Doc Bosworth? Oh, he was priceless.

There was a… I tell you when he died, I wanted to bury Miami. That’s what I thought of that town, when Doc was gone. He was priceless. Ned knew him… Ned knew Doc Bosworth.

But Doc said this and I thought it was so wonderful, he said, “I would sooner have a God who would say ‘I’d like to do it for you if I could,’ than to have a God say, ‘that I can do it for you, but I won’t.”

You see, God can and God wants to but folks, there’s a condition laid down and you if you’re going to give God credit for being God, then you’ve got to admit that He is omniscient, He is all wise, and in His wisdom, He said, “I want to see your faith in Me and I want to do something for you.”

I don’t care what your problems are this morning. You’ve got a problem; I’ve got a problem. Folks, it’s just as sure as you and I are here today, that God can and will do something about that problem if you just give Him a chance.

You say, “Brother Vayle, there might be a condition to me.”

Who cares about conditions? If you knew at the end of the road down there was a pot of gold, don’t you think you’d go down to the end of that road? You’d say, “Man, I’d swim through tar to get there.”

Well, all right, God’s Word’s bigger and better than a pot of gold at the end of the road down there. He… won’t lie. He can’t lie. You know something that God can’t do? He can’t lie. Now you and I can. That’s pretty shady talk but we can.

We’re sneaky but God’s not. See, God’s God. You’re dealing with the infinite. The ‘can do’ and the ‘can’t do’ God. The ‘can’t lie’ God, but do everything else but lie. See. So God wants us to do things for us and we can have things done for us.

Now, not only is God displeased when we won’t let Him do things. Now remember that, just say to ourselves; God is not pleased unless or until I let Him fight my battles and provide for me.

See, He said, “Without Me you can do nothing.” And we are very nothingness people to what we should be. That’s why he said, “Shall the Son of man find faith when He cometh?”

Good question, well He will, but maybe not as much as He ought to. There’ll be faith here. See, but God wants to be good to me. See. God wants to be good to me. He wants to do good things for me.

Now, not only is this true but let’s turn to Ephesians, the 6th, 5th or 6th chapter, somewhere in there… Yes, the 6th one. It says here, in verse 11 reading.

The word ‘wiles’ is the word we get our word ‘method’ from. Does that ring any bell with any Methodists? I don’t mean to be vulgar or crass, I’m just bringing out a thought in the Greek: the wiles, the methods of the devil.

Now, God gives us a picture of the armaments with which we are equipped for our protection, both offensive and defensive in our warfare which is not against flesh and blood.

Now you see right away the first part of the message comes out true. Don’t ever fight your own battles. Let God do it. See. Why? Because your battles are not with Mrs. Smith with her big fat long tongue. No sir.

And it’s not Mr. Jones with his vitriolic crude rough spirit and his tight stinginess. Nope. You may think it is but it’s not. It’s not flesh and blood. That’s why you need God to fight your battles.

Because, how would you like to tangle with… how can you fight with your wife if your wife goes downtown? …?… wait till she gets home. Well, she may not get home.

How can you fight your husband if he goes out the door and goes to work? “Oh, he gets home tonight.” He might not get home tonight. Now you can’t fight if somebody is not there to fight; can you?

Well, the Bible says, “You don’t war against flesh and blood.” So don’t waste your time. You need very special weapons to fight which is not flesh and blood.

You fight… What do you fight? “…principalities, powers, that’s governments and governmental institutions by the devil, powers, authorities, rulers of darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness. Where about? In high places; right up in the hierarchy. Ho, ho.

Did you get that one? You didn’t catch that? Why do you think Brother Branham’s teaching against organization for?

There’s where your spiritual wickedness is, in your organized churches, where men lay down their creeds and dogmas and said you stick by it, or we’ll take away your pensions and the poor preachers grovel.

I don’t have any pensions. Ha, I may wish I had, but I haven’t got nothing and I’m not losing any sleep either. I believe in Ebenezer. Is Ebenezer going to help us hitherto, in fact Ebenezer …?… Ebenezer high…

Now it says here, that you wrestle in this particular arena against spiritual factors and therefore you take the whole amour of God. Now, what’s the important part of your armor?

Well, someone says, “I’ll tell you what’s very important about that armor of God; I tell you I believe in having my loins gird about with truth, because you can do nothing against the truth before.” Well, that’s very good. Well, I appreciate that sentiment.

“Well, I think the breastplate of righteousness because when you get identified with righteousness then you lose all your guilt complexes and bless God, then you stand in His righteousness complete; that does it.”

Well, that’s very good thinking, too. I’m complimenting myself with your thoughts.

Then the next thing it says here, “Have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” You say, “Now that preparation: get to know that Word. That’s really the thing to do, go off to a good Bible college and a few things like that and that’s got it.”

And somebody says, “I’ll tell you what I believe. I believe the helmet of salvation, because you know you get that helmet on there and after all the top part of the man is the head and you get that covered with salvation.”

You’re really going in the right direction. You got the thing solved. I’ll take that helmet of salvation any day.

Then somebody said, “No, you missed the whole point, because even Jesus Christ took the Word of God to defeat Satan and I’ll take the Word.”

But you see they’re all missing it; because it says, “Above all take the shield of faith.” The most important part of your whole armor is faith.

What the Bible says. It says, “above.” Now if you put things above, it’s superior to. I’m telling you a bit of a fib, but hold on, because I’m not going to lead you astray with it.

But normally speaking when if I’ve said to you there are seven things I want you to go to the store for, but above all don’t you forget to bring back the half and half.

You’d say, “Well, Brother Vayle must be wanting a cup of coffee.” So, that’s what he really wants but the other things, of course, they may be used in the house later on, but he’s going to miss that cup of coffee without the half and half, so it means I got to get it.”

But you see the Bible although it sounds it’s saying that, and though that’s good, that’s good that won’t lead you astray; it’s not really saying that.

Because you see, when I start dressing I first of all put on, well, you put on undergarments, I put on my socks and I put my shoes, then I put my… well, I put my trousers on, I guess after my shoes, I think I dress that way, sort of sloppy and then I put on my coat on, then at the last, over it all, over it all, I put my top coat, and that’s what this is saying.

It’s saying over all the rest of your armament, over the helmet of salvation, over the breastplate of righteousness, over the girdle of truth, over the sword of the spirit, over the preparation, take faith or not one works. You know that?

That’s Bible. That’s what it says. See. See, too many people have been majoring in the wrong field. “Oh, bless God; I’m going to get to know this Word.”

You can memorize It; what’s good it going to do? It will do you a certain amount of good, but it will not take the place of what the Word mixed with faith does.

Now I’m going to prove this to you because it says in Hebrews, the 4th chapter, and in verse 2.

Do you know the Bible is just about as dead as the Koran unless you put faith in It? You know that’s the truth. Let me show you.

Do you realize that Noah had the message that could have and would have saved the world if anybody would have believed it?

You know… Is that the truth or is it not the truth? Could it have saved the world? You know it would have saved the world, but they didn’t believe it. But was it the Word of God?

Now was it the Word of God regardless if men listened or not? It was the Word of God, but it didn’t amount to that, except It condemned, but the only person It did any good was Noah and his seven because he believed It.

And today this Word here has been preached by William Branham, the prophet of God more thoroughly vindicated than a Noah, or an Enoch, or a Elijah or even the apostle Paul for the existing records of which we have concerning his ministry or even multiplied men put together.

And people still say, “Well, you really don’t have to believe It all, you see, because, well… because…” Because what? What of you got to show that you know something? Where’s your vindication?

The Bible said, “The then known world perished because they didn’t believe the prophet, the prophet Noah.”

“And only the hearts of the children will be turned back to the father.”

You say, “Brother Vayle, you base too much upon a man.” No, I base it upon God. Because God sent the man and He put His Words in his tongue altogether.

You take your history books as I have had pleasure reading a few of them; read your Ante and Post Nicene Fathers and read all you can, and I challenge you that you will not find one book of one hundred pages to tell all that is recorded in history concerning what God’s men have done through the ages.

And I will challenge you this morning that I can and will write a book if necessary, of three hundred pages of what’s happened in Brother Branham’s ministry which are a hundred percent phenomena.

The Word of God, my brother, my sister, has got to be believed. No Word is void of power. But unless that Word is believed, it becomes an instrument of condemnation.

It’s time we learned to use our faith, brother/sister. Jesus put the emphasis upon faith, at the end time, not love. Strange, but He did. The parables indicate the emphasis upon faith at the end time, not love.

Because at the end time he says, “As many as I love”—they’re not loving Him—“but as many as I love I rebuke and chastened.” But when He comes back, my brother, my sister, upon His breast is written, faithful and true witness.

We’ve got a very important subject here; very important. I just want to start believing God like I never believed Him before. I don’t mean I’m going to have to tear down buildings or rip apart bricks or do something else, I mean it’s going to have to stand still and see the salvation of God.

Stop fighting my battles. I don’t provide my own way; God’s done that. He’s done it liberally. I’ve learned one thing; give tens you get tens; give twenties you get twenties, give hundreds, you get hundreds, give thousands, you get thousands. It’s just that simple.

I wish I could translate all of my life in faith in just that simple rule of knowing how God provides. I’d have a ministry that you’d love and I would love and God would love, He’d adore because it’s all based upon faith. But sometimes it’s difficult, but it shouldn’t be because we are children of faith.

It’s not difficult for the robin to sing like a robin because it is a robin. It’s not hard for the little nightingale to sing like a nightingale because it is a nightingale. It would be hard for you and me because we’re not robins and nightingales. But the Bible says we’re believers.

So it shouldn’t be hard to believe. Yeah, the Word teaches us, ‘above all’ none of these instruments that are given to you will work apart from faith. When you use that Word you’ve got to use It in faith.

Let me tell you a story. I don’t know if it’s going to fit in later on or not, but I just feel led to tell you a story. Preparation of the gospel of peace; let the Word of God.

There’s a young kid around Portland, Oregon somewhere, I don’t remember where it was exactly, but he got… a revelation from God and God said, “I want you to go to a certain town and open up a work for My Name.” Well, you know that kid didn’t even know that town existed.

He shook his head and said, “That’s funny, I never heard of that place.” He looked on a map and there was the place on the map. “Why,” he said, “hallelujah, this is… phenomenal. It’s super phenomenal.”

He called the people together and they said, “Praise God.” and he went down there. It was during the ‘Hungry Thirties’.

Well, he looked around town and couldn’t find a building; at least he thought he couldn’t. And after sort of being around town; his funds got low, “Well,” he said, “I guess it couldn’t have been God after all.” And he went back. He went back.

But you know, and this won’t gall anybody here in the south but we’re a little bit too far south to make this too good of a story.

But the next God talked to was a little colored boy. The white boy missed it and He saw the little colored fellow and He said, “You go to that town and open a work for My Name.”

And the little colored boy went down there and perhaps being a little more humble or whatever it was, he looked around and found an old garage building with grease on the floor and the doors waving in the wind and he said, “Well, I’ll just ask the fellow if I can use this building.”

He said, “Of course, I haven’t got any money but he said it ain’t worth no money. Ain’t nobody in it anyway.”

So he went and knocked on the fellow’s door and said, “I wonder, sir, if you’d let me use your building.”

“Well,” he said, “What for?”

“Well,” he said, “for the gospel.” He said, “I don’t have any money, but,” he said, “your building is sitting idle and I could improve it for you and then when we get a little bit of money, we’d be glad to pay you rent and so on.”

“Well,” the fellow said… I think as far as I know the story it was pretty much like that. And the fellow said, “Well,” he said, “you go ahead take… it over; it’s all right, we’ll work something out. You know, you fix the building up…”

And so the kid got in there and he got an old scraper, he got some lye and some hot water and he was in there scraping and messing around. You know, it was winter time, but up there it’s not too cold, you know, but they still… the women would still wear fur coats which I don’t blame them.

Well, that’s got something to do with the story.

But anyway, here he was working away, scraping away, cleaning up this old garage, getting ready to move in and a lady came by, and oh, she was dressed fit to kill, mink coat and all, no less. And she was kind of nosey that day and she looked in and she said, “What… what’s going on here?”

“Well,” he said, “Madam, I’m cleaning the building up,” he said, “and intend to move in,” he said, “I’m going to… start…”

And she said, “What?” before he got finished, she said, “What are you going to do in the building?”

“Well,” he said, “Madam,” he said, “I’m going to preach the gospel.”

“Oh,” she said, “the gospel. Well, and what gospel do you preach?”

“Why” he said, “Madam, just the full gospel.”

And she said… she didn’t know but she …?… “Well, hallelujah, I’ve been praying for years for someone to preach the full gospel to come in here.” she said, “Son, could you use some money.”

Why, of course, he could use some money. So she reached in her purse and pulled out a hundred dollar bill and she said, “You use this to start the work of God.”

Now you see what I’m telling you. One kid was as prepared as the other and it came to the fundamentals of the knowledge of the mind but when it came to faith, there was only one who used his preparation with faith and that’s exactly what we got wrong today with our Bible schools and our seminaries and everything else in life.

They have robbed the people of faith. They organized them and today you can go any place in America and feed on the bushes with the Baptists and the Presbyterians and the Nazarenes and they all come tumbling out like a bunch of little chipmunks, or nuts falling off a tree.

They’re in there by the thousands. You can go anywhere and start a church as long as you got an organization behind you and it will work. But God’s not in it because it doesn’t take an ounce of faith; all it takes is energy.

Preparation, my brother, my sister, you’ve got to put faith behind it, just like Jesus Christ. He was prepared by God, not only His body, but He was actually prepared in the crucibles of this life through faith.

So, if you want to have the armaments of your warfare working you must use your faith.

Again the Scripture says in 1 John 5:4 “…and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” Why do people lack victory today? Because they won’t use your faith.

What is victory? You can’t fight your own battles. God’s got to fight them, you can’t provide for yourself. God will bring you down. So what is it? It’s got to be faith.

Why aren’t people victorious? They live under complexes. There isn’t any victory. There can’t be. Why? “There is no rest, saith my God to the wicked.”

And what’s wicked about this? Because it’s the law of unbelief and all sin has it’s origin in unbelief. There isn’t any sin but unbelief. All the rest are merely what you call, categorizations or departmentalizations of the one great sin which is unbelief.

And the Scripture says, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” People today would be victorious if they let God come in on the grounds of faith. If you can’t let God fight your battles, you can’t be victorious.

The very thing that you and I scream the most for and cry the most for and fast the most for and look to God the most for is based upon this one thing, we just don’t let God to it. Why? It shows we don’t use faith because if we let God do it; it shows we believe God is going to do it.

You know what I got to thinking the other day and I wondered why Brother Branham let God fight all his battles. I talked to Brother Branham and said, “Well, Bill, the Bible says turn them over to Satan.”

“Well,” he said, “Lee, you better be prepared to do just that, if you’re going to do it because then don’t you dare put your finger on it when the going gets rough, because if God’s going to hold you to it.”

But he never would turn people over to Satan. And I couldn’t figure till after he died why he didn’t do that. And I thought suddenly one day, “My God, what would be worse than to have God for your enemy.”

You say, “I’m going to turn him over to Satan. He’ll do a good job.”

You turn him over to God and God will do a better job. Did you ever think of it? Well, start thinking about it. What would you do if God became your enemy today? You’re finished; you’ve had it.

The devil, well, he’s fine. He always was your enemy; that’s good, because God can handle him. But who can handle God? See, this is the victory that overcomes the world. Want to overcome the world? Got to start using faith.

There’s no other refuge, there’s no other way to do it. It’s a faith proposition. We don’t get victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil except by the… Spirit of God intervening on the grounds of faith.

Again, it says in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “We walk by faith and not by sight.” Don’t you know the Bible says, men’s hearts are going to fail with fear in these last day.”

Don’t you recall what Brother Branham preached on ‘Knoweth It Not’, because women cut their hair they’re going to see locusts as it were by hallucination with long hair. But it’s nothing but a hallucination.

Already there’s a girl up north claims she saw an ape-like animal come out of the… forest and beat on the car and tried to turn the car over, nothing but hallucination.

What about those so-called bear tracks of that Abominable Snowman and all? Nothing but hallucination. It’s already here. Go to your institutions; there’s hallucination on every hand. The world is full of it; hallucination, hallucination.

I don’t think hell could be any more of a ravaging fire than hallucinations. When God turns the wicked into the lake of fire, to me that’s a hallucination. It would be as terrible a stream of fire as anything could ever be produced.

Maybe that’s what it is. I don’t know that God is going to burn with a literal fire. I don’t know just what point there’d be in that, maybe there is. He says fire, let it go as fire. But there’s a lot of things that fire could be typified.

And what today is that fire burning in people, it’s that place where they are walking as it were by their senses and everything today encourages to walk by our senses and not walk by faith. You say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Not if God didn’t say so.

You say, “I’d sooner have one beef steak in my fridge than hope to get three more later on.” Not if God didn’t say so. See, no. We’ve got to stick with God.

Why do you walk by faith and not by sight? You walk by that Word, if that Word said so you do that Word. The Word says a certain thing then you stand on that, not because I said, not because you said, but because God says it.

And don’t ask questions. I used to question God about many things. The smarter I am in the spirit, the more I find out that my smartness is just one thing; don’t question God, just believe God. See.

Again it says, “The just shall live by faith.” Live by faith. How many are living? Most of us are about half dead. Right? Barely creeping through.

You know what we’re coming to? We are fast approaching the day when we say, “Would God it were morning,” at night; and at night we say, “Would God it were [morning].”

We get up in the morning and say, “My, I have a day ahead of me; I wish it were night, I go back to bed.”

And then night time come, “Oh my, I wish it were already morning, because I just don’t know what’s going to go on, I don’t know if I can’t stand it.”

People go to bed and they say, “You know it’s funny I woke up this morning, I feel I’ve been dragged through a knothole. I feel worse than when I went there.”

Now is that the way that God’s people should feel? That’s not living. That’s dying. That’s sick. God said for you and me …?… the true Christian shall not say, “I am sick.”

God wants something else for His people. And what’s the trouble? They are not walking in faith. They are not using their faith. What is more…

Listen, let me show you something. What book thrills you? The book written by Dr. Robertson and let’s pretend that he’s a great bishop in the Methodist church. I don’t know if he is or not, nor care less. I’m just making up names about people.

Now Dr. Robertson said, “I was raised in a very lovely home; my… father was a fine man. He owned the distillery, but he was still a fine man.

And my mother was very sweet and she saw that he paid twenty percent of his net income into missions and into orphanage and all. She had sort of guilt complex, but she was very sweet and they reared me up to be very nice child.

And I was a very nice child and I went through childhood, not too happy that my dad had made liquor, but it sure was nice the way the profits came in.

And we did our best to give them out in a nice way to help people, you see. And then I went to college and my mind was stirred that I ought to serve God.

So I went through college and I got my… PhD and my ThD and I was very happy with it and now I’ve been promoted to the head of the organization and I go around the nation and I go to Methodists and I build churches and I have… Oh wonderful, boy, …do you …?… and clap your hands.

No, you read the story about a man like Dr. Lake who quit a fifty thousand dollar year job, gave it all away, gave every cent away that he had, then said, “Now God if I’m to go to Africa, take me and my wife and thirteen kids there.”

And next morning a telegram comes with money from California saying, “God woke me up last night at twelve o’clock and said, “Send Dr. Lake fifteen hundred dollars.”

You’re thrilled with a missionary when you know there’s nobody behind him and saw converts by the acres, you’re thrilled with the man who had nothing but God and saw him do the works of God. That’s what thrills you and that’s what’s wrong with us today.

We’ve got so much of everything but God, we stink. And we think a dollar bill and a program will do it. Let me tell you I don’t care how sincere you are, you’re wrong because, “Except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it.”

Anything you’ve done a part from faith this morning and I mean strict absolute faith in God is a bastard kind of faith and it will never stand before God. It must be a pure and unadulterated. Huh?

Now you love Him this morning? He’s quite a taskmaster, but I love Him because He’s a good one. I’ll tell you one thing; He’s a whole lot easier than the devil. He’s a whole lot easier than a lot of people I know and very understanding, too.

And I’ll tell you one thing; He must have been very wise to figure this thing out. And if He’s as wise as I think He is, He did the best job possible. And He says here, “The just shall live by faith.”

If you’re a child of God this morning, you’re going to demand of yourself that you live by faith. You’re going to take things out of your way that you will live by faith not put things in way of your faith.

I’ve seen many a preacher destroy himself because he said, “When I get enough money I’m going to go preaching.” I believe if God puts a call in your heart, you better go, but if God didn’t put that call in your heart, you better shut-up and stay out of the pulpit.

I remember a couple people back home, this is a true story. When I was a kid, raised up in this town in Canada, they… were going to a certain undenominational church. They were to the best of my knowledge Christians.

They were supposed to have the Holy Ghost; I don’t know that they really did. I can’t say because God is their judge, not mine, but I’m telling you the story. This brother said, “I am going to go preaching.”

And so we said, “Why don’t you go preaching?”

He said, “Because I haven’t decided to leave the farm yet, and I don’t think I’ve got quite enough money when I get a certain amount of money I’m going preaching.”

In other words, he… didn’t want to just lay it all aside and go out and trust God. Now I can’t see that, not because that’s what I did because I didn’t really do that, I had nothing to lay aside in the first place.

I just went out trusting God with nothing to get there, and not knowing where I was going and I got there and I’ve been doing it and it works. See.

But this poor fellow, he said, “When I get enough money…” And he was quite a wealthy farmer, he said, “I’m going to go preaching.”

And he kept on saying that, but one night he went to bed, he and his wife and the peculiar thing was that nobody knew that the flue in the chimney, the flue you see, was clogged up and they turned the gas on; they woke up on the other side, whatever the other side was.

You see, if you’re going to live by faith and serve God by faith, you better make sure that it is faith. Don’t get your emotions mixed. Don’t get your ideas mixed. If it takes faith then let it be faith. See, because God wants us to live by faith. “And the just shall live by faith.”

And the last day into which we are entering we’re going to wish we had used our faith and maybe that’s why I’m here to try to inspire you to begin to use that faith, because it is useable.

I wondered many a time why it was that certain things never came my way but I learned later on, it was because God wanted me to trust Him. And I learned it; had Him fight all my battles. That’s the most important thing I believe all of us just the same.

And in Romans, the 14th chapter, verse 23. It says very distinctly, “…whatsoever is not of faith to him it is sin.” You know that ought to really do something to us this morning. You say, “This thing done in faith.”

Paul said, “Don’t even eat without faith. If you can’t eat in faith then don’t eat. If you can’t drink in faith, don’t drink. If you can’t do a thing in faith, then don’t do it, but it must be done in faith.”

In other words, you must have that clear conscience. You must know that this thing is right. And when you know the thing is right, because it is based upon the Word and you step in faith and don’t worry about the dark corners, just keep pressing on.

We’ll talk about that later on. But this is just an introduction this morning is why your faith is important.

Why is faith important? Because without faith you cannot please God and that’s the one thing you better do.

You don’t please your children, you don’t please your family, you don’t please the business world, you don’t please the devil, you don’t please anybody; you please God.

That’s what they said to Peter, they said, “Just a minute now, you just better knuckle down.” Well, said. “Look here, we’re called to please God, not please men.”

They said, “We just may kill you.”

“Then you just may go ahead and do it. We don’t know what you’re going to do or what God is going to let you do because that’s the thing. What God let’s you do is okay by us, but there’s one thing we know we’re going to do; we’re going to please God.”

That took faith. They had faith. That’s where you could say that cripple man, he said, “In the Name of Jesus rise up and walk.”

They said “What we have we give unto thee.” What did they have? They had the Name of Jesus in faith. That man was healed by the power of God, because of that.

Without faith you can’t please Him. There’s no weapon of your warfare prospers without faith. None will work. Your best efforts will fail without faith. The Word of God Itself won’t work without faith.

That Word can be preached and preached and preached and preached and memorized.

Listen to me, don’t you know that Jewish children right today memorize whole books of the Bible. Don’t you know there’s a fellow in Canada, I forget his name now; he’s one of the biggest crooks in history. He’s a Jew.

He can quote you all of Isaiah, all of the Psalms, all of the Proverbs, and other minor prophets and he’s so far from God it’s pitiful.

I know of man in Denver, Colorado you name the verse and he’ll tell you what it is and you quote the verse and he’ll tell you where it is.

And he believes at the North Pole there’s a hole in the ground where little brown men live inside the earth and believes in reincarnation. Huh?

Sure, I’m not lying to you. I’m telling you the truth. I know these things for a fact. See, I’ve read the fellow’s books. I know what I’m talking about. Yeah, that’s not it.

It’s faith. That Word in faith; I believe it, God said so. See. You overcome by faith. Defeated? Don’t fight it. Let God do it. Let God make you an overcomer.

How did Paul say you were an overcomer? Because of your union with Him; you can’t overcome. I can’t overcome.

We’re like the old colored maid; she used to like her bottle. She liked it a little too well and she was mostly tipsy rather than topsy.

And she wasn’t tip top either, she was tipsy. Tipsy-topsy was what she was; she got to the place where she staggered home most day and night.

Finally one day she heard of the Lord and she got saved, but that liquor craving hadn’t all gone out. So one day the devil presented himself at the door with a bottle, but she was stubborn.

She said, “Lord, I can’t handle this fellow but I think You can. You come over and help.” And He come in and took over.

Like the fellow used to be a drunkard, alcoholic, he said, “You mean to tell me you can go by those beer parlors and not…”

“Jesus and I go by those beer parlors every day, no trouble at all.”

Faith, faith. God never said we could do it. In fact, He said we couldn’t do it. It’s that faith. Turn your faith loose.

You say, “Brother Vayle, it might not work.” Look it, don’t you understand, that you’ve already got all these weapons here with faith.

The devil can’t get you as long as you hold that shield up, stand behind it, stand behind it, that’s what God said, “Walk by faith, not by sight.” Live by faith, whatever is not of faith is sin. That’s what it is.

Well, that’s all we got time for this morning. It’s after twelve. But that’s just the thought of the importance of faith. We haven’t even touched the subject yet. I just… to let you know that we got ahold of something. See?

Now we want to explore it and see what can happen. And believe me; things do happen. What? I don’t know what God might do.

But I know one thing I’ve seen them… well, that’s one reason I don’t pray for sick like I used to and try to exercise the gift although I think that’s all right, I’m for it, if it’s done right.

But this is why I teach the Word, because I feel if you can get this Word you’ve got what it takes. See, you got it.

Because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word. Does faith really come by hearing? The direction of your faith, in other words, you direct your faith according to words.

Let’s suppose today you got a million dollars. You say, “Brother Vayle that’s a lot of money.” I know. But supposing I don’t invest it wisely? You say, “I could lose it.” That’s exactly right.

So what do you do? You go to a man who knows. But you say, “Nobody really knows.” That’s right. But you see the Author of this Book really does. So when He tells you, you can direct your faith. See. See, what I mean.

How could it be otherwise? You’ve got to garner it. See. You’ve got to garner. You’ve got to harvest. Follow me? All right.

God bless you.

Let’s rise and be dismissed. We’ll start early tonight and be a little longer service.

Father, we thank You for the privilege we’ve had of ministering to this people. We believe, Lord God, that exactly as we prayed, it’s come to pass, that every Word Lord, was the Word which should have been spoken.

And every thought Lord, was Your thought, and every ear to receive it. Now Lord, because the ear received it and the mind has received it, now let the Spirit do the work which he was given to do. Take over and that is to retain in each mind that same Word until the Word becomes a part of it.

God, grant it that spirit now will cause Satan so that he cannot touch it, the conditions in life cannot touch it, Spirit of God, make it now, that the Word cannot be touched but become a part of each believer this morning until we become Word Bride in order to be united to Him, who loved us and is our Bridegroom.

In the Name of Jesus Christ we pray this, and unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God be all power and honor and glory through Christ living out His life in ours. Amen.

God bless you.