Greatest Battle Ever Fought #18

…we are of Your goodness and Your grace Lord, that You saved us, and we see continuously Lord, not only have You given us the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, but with Him You’ve feely given us all things, Lord.

And we pray this morning we may be a people who learn how to receive, because that’s what really counts. A people that learn how to get out of the way and let You do it Lord, to receive of Your salvation Father, we’re grateful, but we need to receive more and more of Your help Lord, and that kind of help that doesn’t need any help added to it, so that we can be bearers of the Lord Jesus Christ in a ministry that is His.

And so therefore the glory might be unto You Father, we really desire that. Teach us Your way this morning Lord we pray, because as the prophet said, anybody’s hands could open the Book but only You Lord can open the Book to us.

We are well aware of that Father, we’re well aware of how easy it is for us to get in the way, to be carried away, that once You start moving Lord we want to add our two bits worth and we want to get in on the scene, Father.

Help us to just be shuck of all that this morning Lord, to be clean cut away from it, that we can be as Your messenger Lord, and Your people here, Your hearers, and together we might go down that highway, be instructed of You Lord, all of us together with Christ our great Leader and we following Him.

Be with us therefore in this service we pray, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

You may be seated.

Now we’re at number 18 in The Greatest Battle Ever Fought, and from the study of this message by Brother Branham it is very evident that the Word of God is synonymous, or actually the will of God.

So many people constantly ask in bewilderment, and I know that’s a common thing, they say, “What is the Will of God?” And the answer is simplicity itself: the Will of God is the Word of God.

Now that’s not a cliché, that’s a statement that I’ve been familiar with for many, many years, as every Bible student and every Christian is, that the Will of God is the Word of God and the Word of God is the Will of God and to know one is to know the other. The inquiring mind can find all the answers in the Word.

Now Eve knew God’s mind. She knew His will. But Satan caused her mind to question that Will of God by altering the Word. Believing one altered word puts one entirely outside the Will of God and therefore also outside the promises of God.

Now that statement is a very true statement. It’s one that is not received by many people, because the common understanding is the same that Eve had, that you can still have the will of God, and the promises of God, even though you don’t abide in the Word.

Now Satan planted in her mind the horrible thought that God’s command could be disobeyed, and in its disobedience she could actually gain a position superior to her position which she was in at that particular time that the will of God designated for her.

Now think that over. And you’ll understand why organization is so rotten. You’ll understand why it is that nobody will make any way with God until that person understands sovereignty and the inescapable judgment that goes with sovereignty.

The inescapable Word, which is you will notice always a promise and a judgment. That’s the law of the parallelism of Scripture. You can never see a promise but what you see a judgment. You can never see a negative, but what you see a positive.

That is something that you must understand or you can err in the thought we’re going into this morning here, or you can err in the promises of God that always parallel the judgment of God, Ebal and Gerizim, the blessings and cursings are hurled back and forth and they resound and echo back and forth until you can get lost in a web of legalism, where you don’t know that you’re one upon whom the blessing devolves.

And you cannot operate faith because you’re worried that you’re outside of the promises of God. Now once you’re with the Word of God, the promises are literally inescapable. They really are. Then other words, the Bible mentions that God overtakes us with His blessings.

Now you can see that we are not fully as founded in the Word in this church as we need to be. But we will be by the grace of God. Brother Branham said, “That sweet spirit of Christ will come more and more into the church until all the people are healed.” And they will be; that’s what we’re looking at. See?

So all right, he put in her mind the horrible thought that God’s command could be disobeyed. And in its disobedience she could actually gain a position superior to her present position, which was of course the will of God for her.

He made her think that God’s way for her was bringing her a loss, or a diminishing in the sense that there was something better than what she had, and she was kept from it. Now he made her think she was missing something that she was entitled to.

And the simple truth of the matter was that God did have something better for her than she had at that time, and His restricting command was not to keep her from the glorious state that He had for her, but to ensure her that she would receive it. That glorious state was immortality, and she forfeited it for death.

Now you know how she did it. His will for her was immortality. And you know that by the fact that He said, “I’m going to put a bar to the Tree of Life so they can’t have it.”

It was standing there for her, and the Word of God was, “Don’t touch this, but do touch this.” Because you can’t have a negative without a positive, it’s impossible, brother/sister. There could not be a Tree of Life without a tree of death, there couldn’t be a tree of death without a Tree of Life, there couldn’t be a negative without a positive.

So the Tree of Life was standing there, and it’s there today in the Eden conditions that exist. His will for her was immortality; His Word and His Will were the same.

Now the Word, “Thou shall not eat of it,” did not sound at all like His Will for her, so she let her senses and her conscience, which is her moral reasonings, and reasonings take over and she lost out.

And so today the great battle rages. Can we let the Word of God settle the Will of God? Well that’s all there is to it. The Will of God is still that a people on earth at some time literally eat of the Tree of Life and become immortal.

Immortality is therefore the Will of God; it is now and always has been. Which is proven by the fact there’s going to be a whole group of people immortalized. Now everybody else has to go by way of death. Then there comes a resurrection, which is a miracle working power of God, a re-creation.

Now what is the Word of God that we receive to bring this to pass? This is the will of God, immortality. What is the Word of God that comes to us concerning immortality?

All right, we go to 1 Corinthians 15, because it’s written right out in front of us, so we simply take it.

All right. It will be, as we said here, set forth before us, immortality is in the picture. Now. And whatever that is will bring 54-55. In other words, whatever is up here we read, concerning immortality, it will bring on 54 and 5.

Now it’s not destroyed, it’s merely swallowed up, as a wild animal hunter takes a net and captures a wild beast. The beast isn’t dead, he’s just stopped in his tracks. So death is going to be stopped in its tracks. See?

In other words, God pronounced a victory to the earth, you came out of the earth, the earth’s going to swallow you up again. Well the earth’s not going to swallow me up again. So:

All right, now the Will of God is distinctly 1 Corinthians 15:51. “We shall not all sleep.” That is the Will of God. See?

And you notice that this being the Will of God in the beginning supercedes the Will of God, which had to be judgmental and punitive, it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment. No way, we don’t die, and we’re already judged!

Now if you don’t understand the Presence and the Judge, and I’m sorry for those that say they believe this Message, you can’t get the Word across. All right. We’re not going to sleep; we’re going to be changed. And the Word of God, now that’s the Will of God, and the Word of God happens to be.

Now the Word of God unequivocally states here that the Will of God is brought to pass with the Word of God, which is the last trumpet. That’s going to do it.

Now what is the last trumpet, which is going to bring immortality? Now categorically Jesus told us in Matthew 16 and 17. So let’s look at it, 28 of 16.

Now this is concerning the Kingdom, and the Son of man in it. This is a preview; this is a vision. It’s more than a vision; it’s a literal preview, one of those strange things you can’t account for.

Now you see, Jesus said up there in verse 16, “You are going to see the Son of man coming in His Kingdom.” Now Peter starts rattling off at the mouth. Here is the picture, the actual Son of man in the Kingdom. Now watch Peter mouth off, change the whole thing.

You know people just are stupid. Don’t sit here this morning and think you’re smart, you’ve got some spirit going to tell you something. You ain’t got nothing, anymore than I got. Peter blew it!

What do these men got to do with the Kingdom? Oh they’ll be servants and part of it. “We’ll build three tabernacles.” One tabernacle! So he blows it right here.

Well it doesn’t matter, because God’s going to have His way. So God just booms out of heaven, “This is My beloved Son.” A Voice, rather, boomed out. “Hear Him; this is what I’m pleased with.”

Now they’re afraid of this, which they’re told were going to happen, and now it happens. Well you’d think if they were really part of the scene they’d be quite comfortable. Come on; let’s get thinking about these things.

You’re not here to be made discomfortable if you’re part of the Kingdom of God. We don’t sit at ease in Zion as though you know we’re a bunch of backslidden kooks or something. But neither are we fussed up. There’s peace in the valley, on the mountain top too.

Before this? Before the transfiguration, which is the involvement of immortality. So this was a picture of the glorified Christ, the literal Kingdom in physical form coming upon the earth, the preview.

Now the 11th verse is the important verse:

Now if you look at the Book of Acts, you’re going to see the very same thing there, that Peter and James and John, all the disciples understood, and they preached it after the day of Pentecost, the 3rd chapter, the middle of the 19th verse, it says:

Now you’ll notice in here, it tells you categorically that before Jesus Christ can come, something has got to happen. Now you know what’s got to happen before we meet Him in the air. We have got to be changed.

If we aren’t changed we won’t meet Him in the air. If we aren’t changed, we won’t come back and reign with Him. No marriage supper, no nothing. There’s got to be a change.

Now it tells you that something is going to happen alongside of that. And what is it? Elijah is going to come, and he is going to restore the Word, “All that spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets.”

In other words, he will be a historian to catch us up to where we belong and then take us through what we belong in our hour. That’s what John the Baptist did.

So the prophet Elijah is going to be here to do it. He’s the one that’s going to have to have the trump. Because it’s the last Word you’re going to get. You’re not going to get anymore.

So therefore there is a Message, there would have to be a Message that is going to be responsible for the literal changing of the atoms within our body. Now I know theologians don’t accept that and churches won’t accept it, I care that much for that. We have the Word of God.

Now as John the Baptist was a forerunner to the literal Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the body of God, and the Scripture says that John shall go before the Lord God of Israel in the power of the Holy Spirit. But you notice the two were there. All right.

At this particular time the Spirit of Elijah once more is upon a man. And if there’s going to be a distinct parallel, which there must be, then there must be a Presence of God. And the Lord God of Israel always was Spirit.

Now that’s found in the Book of Ephesians. And every theologian can read this and the most of them just close their eyes and blank out. Some say, “Well something’s got to happen, what it is we don’t know.”

After the baptism with the Holy Ghost runs its course, which it has run its course and will complete its course perfectly, so there’s no more to be baptized with the Holy Ghost. See? There comes a time.

Now at that particular time when it’s running its course, it’s all but over, you notice what it says here, to the people full of the Holy Ghost, and these are all full of the Holy Ghost in Ephesus. Paul says in verse 15:

They evidently do not have that. But they’ve got to have it. See? And what is it? The Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him? That’s the Holy Spirit Himself in the church. Not in the individual, but in the church.

And He comes to the church; He does not come to the individual. This is not somebody coming to a prophet, for the sake of a prophet. This is God coming to the church, and a prophet is involved. But that’s all. That’s what you got to watch.

In other words as Brother Branham said, “I must decrease, He must increase,” it is true.

Now there will be a revelation of this God:

Whatever this one teaches will tell you all about the One that lived here, died, rose again, went away, and is interceding. Reveal Himself completely, so therefore the revelation will be of the Father and of the Son. Now what happens at that time?

Now Paul prayed that he might have it, but Paul knew he couldn’t have it! This people will have it! This is the trump! The last trump. And this brings immortality, because it says it does. Because you cannot be caught up in the air unless you’re changed.

So therefore whoever is here with a message is responsible to the end that the dead will come out of the ground, we are going to be changed, we’ll all be caught away to where Christ is. Now that is what you’re looking at.

Now it will be that Spirit, the Spirit of God on earth at the time of the last or Seventh Church Age. Now the Bible categorically tells us that every church age has a messenger. And the last messenger has to be the seventh or the Laodicean.

Now you’ll notice that that messenger is spoken of in,

Now what is the good news? You can have immortality. That is the good news. Now you may differ, but your differing is wrong, you’ve been taught wrong, you’re being taught right this morning! And there’ll be two resurrections encompassing it.

We’ve had one half of the first already, the second coming up, there’ll be those allowed to go into it. But you see this is of the Seventh Seal that was sealed in the Garden of Eden, where man could not come and take of the Tree of Life and be immortal in the condition he’s in! So what did God want? God wanted immortality, and what God wants, God gets! Because God’s sovereign!

You say, “I don’t think so!”

Well you’re just carnal, stupid person, that’s all. He took the raging apostle Paul and got him where He wanted him. Poor old Saint Augustine got all messed up. “Well,” he said, “If God took the apostle Paul raging against Him, then the church can do it!”

Yes, and you’ll get a bunch of church members! That’s what Augustine did, brought on the tribulation, brought on the great massacres, the Catholic church, they made him a saint. Well wonderful, so much for your saints.

If God rages and pulls somebody, that’s a different story you and me doing it. In the meantime I won’t stand here and pull my punches of what’s been wrong in the world, there are plenty of wrongs still in the world, and plenty wrong with me, nothing wrong with God.

And He’s going to have a glorious church without spot and wrinkle, and don’t you think He won’t. There’s going to be a lot of people on the outside looking in, brother/sister. And a lot of people think they’re in and they ain’t in either. Don’t have the wedding garment on. See?

Now it says right here, this man, he’s got the last trumpet. The seventh messenger. Whoever this fellow is right here, is the fellow that’s got the trumpet of God, the Voice of God, and remember, the trumpet blown in the city has to do with the prophet, Amos, read in Amos. It’s right on the walls. See?

Now this fellow here:

So this fellow’s going to be a prophet and he’s going to wind up the entire gospel! So there’s where immortality comes in. No doubt about it.

Now then when that happens, how will it be received? When this takes place! Just as it was with Eve! She wanted what God had for her, but she disbelieved the Word of God about it, and she changed the Word, allowed the Word to be changed to her!

And the question is: did she get it? She did not get it… yes, she got it right in the neck. And she brought every one of us down with her.

Now I ask again, when this trumpet sounds, when Elijah comes on the scene, ha! They don’t even believe Elijah’s going to come on the scene. The theologian’s Scripture and the history will tell you flat, “There are no Gentile prophets.”

Aren’t they clever? Where did God say that? So they’ve added to the Word. So now the tribulation faces them. And not just tribulation, but the tribulation in the Lake of Fire until they’re annihilated.

I’m not vindictive, just telling you. You can’t fool with a sovereign God. I can fool with you, you can fool with me, and we can kid each other and dance around our little old maypole and think we’re going to make it, hallelujah, ain’t we the nicest folk, glory to God. Bunch of spiritual idiots.

It isn’t what we say, brother/sister, it’s what God says. And remember we’re working on a vindicated Message, and if this isn’t vindicated, let me tell you, you show me something that is. A bunch of Pentecostal hogwash?

I was born into Pentecost, eighteen years of age! I’ve seen their folly, and know their folly! It’s a bunch of Tammy Fay Bakkers and Jim Bakkers, and now Robertson running for President. He’ll get clobbered so bad, it will be pitiful. Won’t work.

What happens? How will this Message be received? It won’t be. Just like with Eve, disbelieved, take her own word for it, wasn’t even her word, it was the devil’s.

Israel did the same thing, they believed in a coming Messiah, oh yes they did. They knew the time was ripe. They wanted Him and His Kingdom. But they couldn’t believe God’s Word on it and they lost out.

The Word of God is the Will of God, the Will of God is the Word of God, and if you want the Will of God, you’d better have the Word of God, and if you miss the Word of God, you miss the Will of God. It’s just that simple.

You say, “Well just a minute, we’re on a spot.” You bet we’re on a spot. You bet we’re on a spot. That’s why I look for some kind of vindication. You say, “Well Brother Vayle, what if something came along after that?”

Now just a minute, always number one is the original, anything two is counterfeit. Don’t give me any hogwash, brother/sister, you’re listening to a Moses and Balaam message this morning. Balaam could prophesy right on the dot, but he was a lying prophet. He led Israel into sin, and he died in battle fighting Israel! He was a money maker.

They couldn’t believe God’s Word on it, so they lost out, as Brother Branham said they believed that God was coming, the Messiah was coming, but they didn’t believe how He was going to come according to revelation, just their own dogmatics.

Now watch, the very Son of God was made manifest as the temple of God Himself at the River Jordan, because God came into it. Remember he was the attribute that manifested God.

In other words, just like I keep telling you, there is a spirit, and that spirit is life, and that life is contained in the sperm, and it goes into the egg, and it begins to develop.

And what is in the two of them begins to come forth, and you see the chemical processes that manifest that a spirit is there! So God had a manifestation to put His Spirit in! Simple as ABC. Not three gods. One God. Absolutely. Don’t ever get confused.

The very Son of God was made manifest as the temple of God at the River of Jordan. He went out to the desert and fasted forty days and nights. The devil came and tried to bend his mind away from the Word of God to get what God wanted for His Son Jesus the Christ.

Satan appealed to Jesus’ senses, he was the man. He said, “Why don’t you make stones into bread?” He appealed to his power to make a choice and to act on it. “Take to the top of the temple and jump down.”

He appealed to his God ordained position, ruler of the universe. “Why,” he said, “I’ll just give it to you.” He appealed to everything that God said concerning His Son. “Take a shortcut, do it a different way.”

Let’s just go to Hebrews. We’ve got lots of time. What’s 1988? Pbbt. Six months we’ll finish The Greatest Battle Ever Fought. We’ll never finish it or get out of here. What I want to look at here, all right, here it is in Hebrews 1, concerning Jesus:

That was the Will of God! And the Word of God was Isaiah 53! And Satan says, “Now look it here, you can have the Will of God! And I’m going to tell you how it’s done!” And the church is doing the same thing right today! “Millions now living,” they say, “are going to live!”

They are not going to live, they’re going to die! Don’t tell me, brother/sister, I am not a fool. And I prayed to God to watch my language and what comes across this pulpit and I’m getting my answers from God. I believe God. You do what you want with what I say.

But let me tell you, as it was in the days of Noah, eight people. And according to statistics, historians, there was five billion people at that time in the earth! Same as we got now. Yeah. Serpent seed flourished. As it was with Lot, four people tried to get out, one turned back. That left three. See?

So that’s what we’re looking at. He appealed to Jesus to take a shortcut. Jesus said, “I’m going to do it the way it’s written. I’m going to get it the way God said.” And that’s true, or he wouldn’t have gotten it!

That is where we are today. Will we take the Will of God, the promise of immortality, only to say no to the way that God gives it? And everybody’s looking for the promise.

They all want it; they’re all screaming they’re going to have it. “Millions now living never die. California’s not going to go down. No, no, there’s not going to be any great things…”

Oh come on. Listen to Matthew 6:15. Wrong one. Let’s take 15:3-6, get them both at one time. Save me reading back a few verses, but pick up what I want in Matthew 6, because it’s in there.

All right, here’s what he said in the 3rd verse:

You’ve made the Word of God, the promise of God of none effect. So what I’m trying to tell you here this morning is the same thing that happened to Eve! She made the will and the promise, the desire of God to her of none effect! Because she disbelieved the Word! Had she not disbelieved the Word, she never would have made the promise of none effect!

Now the Will of God is the Word of God, vice versa. We cannot separate the Will of God from the Word of God. And on page 51, Brother Branham has just been talking about the temptation of Jesus the Christ, and how he caused Satan to be set at naught and lose the battle.

And in that fifth paragraph, which is about a paragraph down, five down, part of four, four and a part:

[51-2]  Oh, my. What did [Jesus] do? He defeated [Satan] with the Word of God. The tactic of the devil is to get you to disbelieve God’s Word, and the Chief Captain said take God’s Word and do it. “In My Name they shall cast out devils.”

Now how many people believe in that? Well I know today in most churches devils don’t exist, they’re just little, you know, funny ideas, but they’re not even real.

Now:

[51-3]  Oh, Satan, their chief captain, oh, my, you know, some of those denominations try to get you believe he’s got a forked hoof, you know, and split tail, and stuff like that. Don’t you believe that. No, no. That isn’t that way.

No, Brother; he’s a slicker. Don’t you believe he’s got [any hoofs and tail like that]. They just do that to scare you away; that’s not the devil. The devil doesn’t have a hoof to begin with. I doubt it very much. [Why?] He’s just a spirit; [spirit’s don’t have hoofs.]

What about the time this Pentecostal fellow, Sumrall, over there in the Philippians, said that this devil possessed girl that was constantly harmed by devils, beaten and everything else, I don’t know too much about it, but then she was grappling with the devil, or something, and don’t you know, according to what the Pentecostals tell, she got a handful of hair. Devil’s have hair?

Now if you’re Pentecostal or Charismatic along that, you’ll believe it, because you ain’t got a choice, because that’s the way they’re going. How would a devil have hair? There’s no sense to it. There’s no truth to it. They don’t have hair or color or anything else.

They would have to have some substance whereby they materialize, and they can’t do it. That’s why Satan got in the serpent. Ever seen a hairy snake? I’d like to see one. The beast wasn’t some four-footed beast, clunk, clunk, clunk, attacking Eve.

Looked just like a man. Handsome and prettier than a man. Brother Branham brings that out. See? No, devil’s a spirit. God’s Spirit, God is a Spirit, the devil’s a spirit. See? Now, he doesn’t have a hoof, he’s a spirit.

[51-3]  …the devil is a spirit. He doesn’t have forked hoofs [or cloven hoofs, what he should have said,] things like they try to picture him. Oh, no. But he’s wise. Brother, he’s real wise man, educated to the spot [always has been] but in worldly wisdom. Oh, yeah.

And he’s beautiful. Organized his army with the worldly wisdom, till, brother, don’t you try to speak your words. [Jesus didn’t speak his own words. He spoke the Word of God.] You better know what you’re talking about when you meet one of these guys saying, “The days of miracles is [over.”]

Now Brother Branham is talking concerning himself, with the trickledown experience. That he was the one that bore the brunt for this end time. Where they said, “Oh, miracles are past.. Devil’s there, nothing to them. These things cannot be.” But they were.

Now you’ll notice in here that the devil runs a perfect parallel with Christ in Hebrews 13:8, he doesn’t change either. No way, shape, and form. As Christ was the truth and stayed with the Word, the devil is the lie and he perverts the Word.

And the tactic is so successful that he doesn’t drop it. And the tactic that Jesus used was so successful he doesn’t drop it! And God’s crowd finds it so successful they won’t drop it! And the devil’s crowd finds they’re so successful, they won’t drop it!

So you’ve got two peoples. One will stick with the Word of God and one will fool with the Word of God. Now there was a time when God winked at error. He winked at ignorance, He doesn’t do it anymore. Because this is White Throne judgment.

Now, keep reading:

[51-4]  He hasn’t got a split hoof. He’s right out of the seminary; and polished, brother; I mean he’s smart: Ph.D., L.L.D., Q.U.S.D., [whatever that is, he just made it up,] and all the rest of it. See? Oh in there just as smart as he can be. Wise? Sure he is, the serpent, “sneakiest” one of them all. Hair slicked down, brother, I mean dressed and not a wrinkle in his coat, smart, just wise and shrewd as he can be. That’s right.

Don’t you fool with him unless you know what you’re talking about. That’s right. [In other words, unless you really know the Word of God and debate it, you don’t fool with those fellows.] Oh, but we know his old tactics. We know what he’s trying to do: get us to disbelieve God’s Word. And he hasn’t got forked hoofs [either to do it]. No, no. No.

Now in other words, no man is a match for the devil unless he uses the Word of God exactly as Jesus Christ did. And Brother Branham warns us argument is of no use. You’ll know that Jesus did not argue.

He just said, “Look this is the Word of God and I’m stupid enough to stay with it.” Said, “I’m not smart at all like you guys.” But he had something nobody else had. That wasn’t just because he was God, though the truth of the matter is that God was the One that did it.

Because men down here, called prophets, like Brother Branham, was more than a match for the devil, and any seminarian or anybody else in this world, because he had the vindication. In other words these people could talk, but remember Jesus began to do before he taught. You simply don’t teach until you’ve done.

Now just remember what Brother Branham said about the serpent as he came to Eve. And he said he was a better man than Adam was.

Now let’s just take a look at Ezekiel 28:12-15, and you’ll begin to see the very Word of God and what Brother Branham was talking. Now notice, he says:

Now the thought here is that this king of Tyrus, the great potentate, the greatest warrior in the greatest kingdom of that time was typical of Satan. Now watch:

Now notice that he’s got an ephod covering him like the high priest of Israel, but not exactly. It’s just out enough to be phony. As the high priests of Israel were the high priest unto God and to the people through the prophets, this one here also is in a position to act as the high priest of God!

Do you understand what I’m saying? He did! He said to Eve, “Listen, you’re wrong about what God said. I’m the one that’s the intermediary between you and God. Where is God? He’s not here, I’m here. I will tell you.”

Now if you can’t think for one minute what some people are saying, living men in certain churches, you don’t even know what I’m saying this morning. I’m going to have to get a blackboard and spell everything out, and use a trumpet.

You’ve got people right in this ministry to act as though they’re speaking for God, and unless you go word by word with the prophet, brother/sister, you’re in the wrong camp. That’s why you’ve got guys rise up, and they say, “Well you know, I’m Michael.”

Well wonderful, Michael, great, great, what do you mean? I don’t recognize you. “Well I’m Caleb, I’m Joshua.” Well, we’ve got a couple of Joshua and Caleb’s in our church, nice little kids. [inaudible]

Notice what it says:

Till he went to fooling with the Word. There is your smart man you’re dealing with! Your seminarian! Your theologian! Your elders! Your bishops! Your men that appoint themselves! And no, I’m not hard on these men as you just because I stand up here and say these things.

When I read what Pope John said, the one that was a shepherd, that lovely old boy that died so soon. And I read his own story, how humble he felt and thought it was the will of God that the College of Cardinals had made him what he was, just literally dripping tears, I could have cried for the man.

A hundred percent wrong! I don’t care whether he’s pope or anything else. I don’t care who elected him. Let the present pope raise the dead. He bustles around the world like a tornado. But I will say this; he stays home a whole lot more than the Protestants do.

If you want to know the truth. They’re the ones that are whirling dervishes, I think it would be very good if the pope went around the world and the Protestants stayed home. At least he’s got some clout politically. I think they all should stay home.

But it says right here this is the fellow that’s got the wisdom. And he’s standing right there like a high priest! You hear what I’m saying this morning? God’s His Own High Priest, brother/sister. He made His Own body, and there’s a man, one man called Christ Jesus, he’s the only intermediary, there’s nobody else.

You know something? You and I can’t even pray worth a hoot or a hot dog. See unless the Spirit of Christ is praying within us with groanings which cannot be uttered, then we’re getting somewhere.

We haven’t been left alone nor on our own, but most people got a wrong idea about that, they think they’re left alone or with God so they manipulate God. God cannot be manipulated.

[52-1]  Now, we find out that if he hasn’t got forked hoofs, then he must be something else. [What is he?] He’s a slicker; he’s [wise,] educated, organized. Brother, he’s got an army… [just like him.]

You think he doesn’t have? Let’s go over here to 2 Corinthians 11. Now let’s read it brother/sister the way it’s written! Let’s not kid ourselves. Paul says in the 1st verse:

Now there’s a double emphasis here. He said, “You think I’m all screwed up in my thinking. You think I’ve gone awry,” he said, “on these things, and I haven’t.”

He said, “Just bear with me! I’m stupid, sure. You’re smart.” But he said, “Bear with me. Going to tell my side of the story.”

That’s a law of jealousy in the husband, he thinks his wife is fooling with somebody, but he hasn’t caught her! In other words it’s a covert action, it is not an overt action of absolute explicit disobedience and rebellion and chicanery against God! It’s the old sneak coming in the garden again, to seduce Eve.

Now he said:

God said it, He meant what He said! The will of God is the Word of God, the Word of God is the will of God! If you want either one of them, they’re synonymous. You can’t fool with one or the other. Now:

Who was Jesus? In no time at all the Gnostics made Him a different person entirely than what He was. And they loved their own thinking, “We have discovered something.” People do that with this Message! Ha! The prophet discovered everything to us, just follow it.

Now in other words if somebody came on the scene and he was vindicated as the apostle Paul was, all right! You could look into this thing. If he was the only man vindicated, the only man that had it right. Now what’s he say?

Now he’s telling you something here. These are big time operators that are coming along here! Seducing the Bride. Not some little Bo-hunk out there in the valley.

That’s a good statement right there to missionaries. You might have a missionary board, or write out, send their letters out, like these guys do around the country, from Michigan and Illinois, send out letters.

One guy told me he was going to send a letter out years ago, I said, “You’re going to cut your throat, boy, it’s all over.” He sent the letter and he cut his throat, it was all over. Begged for money, begged for this.

Paul the apostle said, “Why,” he said, “you folk wouldn’t do a thing, but God had saints over here that did.”

You see why I take such a tough stand in this church? I’m not brought or sold God’s taken care of me all these years, better care than I’ve ever had and ever will have.

Nobody I appreciate everything everybody does, I love people for what they do and all, I appreciate that. I try to do for people too. But listen, this is not a market we’re dealing in.

Let’s say about the church, God knows a nice little church, but it can’t make it too nice, it would be silly if we have to have a little something happen, maybe the roof blow off or something. You know you get carried away with stuff. Just be honest and forthright.

Now he said here:

In other words he said, “Look,” he said, “they’re wrong, but I hope they get right.” Now watch:

The two spirits at the last day are so close; you’d better know which one you’re following. I’m sorry, but that’s the Word of God. And I’m not going to try to change it.

[52-2]  Look. [Look here.] Now he’s going to illustrate the figure of Jesus Christ and himself to let you know what has been bought for you and what is yours.

[52-2]  Look. One time over in Switzerland (I just can’t stop here, folks.) over there in Switzerland, there came that German army–the aliens coming in. Why, it looked like a brick wall, every man trained, every spear setting out like this, eight and ten feet in front. They came up to the poor little Swiss up there. What’d they have?

They were armed with the blades from their sickles, and sticks, and rocks. And there they stood; they backed them up. [In other words the Germans had them backed up.] Right across the hill were their homes. Here the Swiss army went out to meet them. They hadn’t done anything to [the Germans]. They just came to take their land.

Then he talks about the little kid down there. Said:

[52-3]  What in the world has this child done, just a kid? Satan, that’s who it is that would take her life if he could. Certainly. Prematurely [take it]. [Now it’s all connected. What you need, what I need, in here, what was given to us.]

[52-4]  See? The Swiss hadn’t done anything. They were good people; trying to defend their homes, they stood out there to defend them. After while there was one by the name of Arnold von Winkelried.

Now he sort of regresses, kind of, he doesn’t keep too good of continuity here, so don’t worry about it.

[52-5]  Here came this army; they were [surrounded,] all surrounded. [They asked], “What can we do?” Everywhere, just oceans of men, well-trained. That’s the way Satan does it. Well-trained, his spear pointing right out, each man in step, one-two, one-two, just pulling on this little army.

Just keep walking, that’s all they had to do and just pick them, every one, on their sword, and spears, go right through them. That’d end of the Swiss army; that would have been all over.

[52-6]  Right over the hill were their homes and loved ones. The women had been ravished, and raped, young daughters and children killed and homes burnt, everything, food taken, cattle and stuff gone. There they [were.] What happened?

[52-7]  Inspiration struck one by the name of Arnold von Winkelried. He said, “Men of Switzerland, this day I die for Switzerland.” Amen. “This day I die for Switzerland.”

They said, “What’ll you do?” He said, “Just follow me and fight with all you’ve go!” He stood up there, threw down his spear (little stick he had in his hand like that); he screamed out with his hands up, like that, and ran towards them, [in other words with a stretched out movement of the arms,] “Make way for liberty.” [He was hollering.]

He ran as hard as he could go right to the army; and when he did, he grabbed every one of the spears that he could [in his arms embrace, and staggered to catch more, see?] threw them right into his breast like that, and died.

[53-1]  [Before that] he told them, “There’s a little home over there yonder, a wife, and some babies. I’m leaving a home that I’ve just bought. I love them, but today I die for Switzerland.” He said, “I give my life to save the nation.” And that was a hero… They haven’t had a war since; that ended it.

It routed that army, with that heroism so displayed, the army was so confused, the Swiss rolled rocks on them, and [ ran] them out of the country; and they’ve never been back since. That’s been hundreds of years ago. And see? Why?

Now the truth of the matter is, they tell me this to be true. It was either Goering or Himmler or one of them, before the Second World War, approached the General in Switzerland and said that they were perhaps going to invade the country, “What would you do?”

And he said, “We have a hundred thousand trained men.”

And the man Goering or whoever it was, said, “What if we bring in two hundred thousand?”

He said, “In that case, they will have to shoot twice.” And that stopped it. The same spirit. Some have it and some don’t. See?

Now Brother Branham goes on in that same picture, and the same picture holds today. The same devil can be repulsed by the same people that’s got the same fight.

Like he said, “It’s not the size of the kid,” he said, “it’s the size of the fight in the kid.” It’s not the size of the kid that wins the fight, but the size of the fight in the kid. Now:

[53-2]  That was a great deed, but, oh, Brother, one day when the ignorance, and superstition, doubt, and frustration, and fears had God’s people backed into a corner, there was One named Jesus the Christ [who] said, “This day I die for the people.” That’s right.

[53-3]  What did He say to His army? “Follow Me and fight with everything you got. If you got a club, fight with a club; don’t be afraid. If you got a stick, fight with a stick. If you got a rock, fight with a rock, [David did.] whatever you got.”

That’s what our Chief Captain says today. “I’ve taken the Word of God, and I defeated the devil in his power.” [Jesus] chopped [the devil] to ribbons with that Word. [Amen.]

Now, let’s take a look at 1 Corinthians 11:1.

Paul said:

What did Paul say to the people? “I’m persecuted because I worship God according to what you call heresy, but what I call a revelation.”

In other words we must follow William Branham, who followed Christ by revelation, because Christ said, “Flesh and blood does not reveal it,” and the church is built upon a revelation.

Now what I see here when Brother Branham says, “Take a stick or take a club or take a rock or take anything you’ve got,” to me it simply means this: find the Word of promise, and what is contingent to it, and then stay with that promise, but don’t forget that with that promise there is always temptation and the trial of our faith that brings patience.

Those are not denials, and if you will notice, everything that is said here, a trial was set concerning a promise. Eve had a trial of her faith, “Will I simply believe the Word of God and stay with it?” Now that’s the big thing right there, and we have the Word revealed to us in this hour.

[53-4]  Now, whatever you’ve got, if you got just one Word, [and that Word is one verse:] “I am the Lord thy God, that healeth thee.” [Take that and chop the devil to pieces.] Follow [Christ with that Word,] follow your Captain. [The same as He used the Word. Just chop up the devil.]

In other words remember we’ve got Hebrews 13:8 positive, we’ve got Hebrews 13:8 negative, the devil’s side. He doesn’t change, not a bit. Christ doesn’t change, not a bit. You and I are the battlegrounds.

What way we going to go? Go to the Word and there’s only one Word, real or perverted. Remember, a lie can never be a lie unless there’s first of all a truth. See?

“Well,” you say, “I saw Mr. Jones steal the neighbor’s hen.” That’s a lie. Well it’s got to be based on a truth. First of all there’s got to be a hen that can be stolen and a man that can steal the hen.

You don’t say, “I saw a gremlin come in and pick up a swootchycooch.” Nobody knows what a swootchycooch is and there’s no gremlins.

So there’s go to be a truth, a lie is a truth perverted. Just like Brother Branham says adultery is a right act perverted. All of these things, you see, there is no power but what is of God! It depends on what you do with it!

Our life and breath is of God, what are we doing with it? In Him we live and move and have our being! All things are made by Him and all things are maintained by Him! We’ve got to recognize those things, brother/sister, which way we going to go.

[53-5]  Satan with his big beautiful kingdom, and more beauty, and everything, all up-to-date doesn’t have anything to do with us. That’s right. He’s still the most subtle of all the beasts of the field.

But it’s become a field of war now, and a battlefield. You say, “Well what do you mean?” I mean simply this. We’re looking at everything but the real enemy. That’s the truth. We are looking most of the time at everything but the real enemy. The real enemy is Satan perverting the Word.

Now if we didn’t have perverted Word, do you think for one minute we’d have any problem of bearing some trials? No! Now listen to what I’m saying. If there weren’t a perversion, would we have any trouble bearing trials? The answer is no! Because we know we’re going straight through!

May lose a little skin, but it will grow back on. We’re just not convinced. That’s why I keep saying the vindication theorem is the biggest thing in the world to you and me. And we’ve got to come to that, brother/sister, and we are coming to it. You might not think so, but you’ll come in.

At least you’re getting it up in your head here, you’re getting something in there. Give the Holy Ghost a chance to work on it, it will get down in our hearts, you know, let’s face it.

All right, let’s go to Isaiah 53 and look at this thing called beauty. Let’s begin to look at what the prophet said, because the prophet’s giving us nothing but the sheer Word of God. Beginning at verse 1:

Now everybody that ever studied that little verse of Scripture knows positively that nobody who does not believe the report, there’s nobody, if he doesn’t believe it, he’ll never have the arm of the Lord revealed to him.

Now what’s the arm of God? Jesus the Christ. If you can’t… there’s somebody’s got to tell you about it. Today we have been told what is based on vindication. Now sure, listen, let’s get this flat, before I read anymore. Well okay, let’s read this now, and then I’ll talk about it.

Said:

You don’t get plants out of dry ground, the root just sits there. Unless there’s some underground source of living water. So everything about this fellow is nil! He is the least likely candidate to succeed. Everything’s against him!

He’ll never get the prize for waltzing, or for singing, or being handsome. He isn’t even really dedicated, as some people call dedication. According to history his mother thought he was very lazy and he should have been doing more for the family, he had those great gifts and didn’t use them.

And the great people in society were very disturbed because he didn’t do the things that they knew he could do, and he wouldn’t listen. He just… He certainly wasn’t a member of their society. He wasn’t charming. He didn’t have enough brains, except let a prostitute wash his feet.

Now listen to me, if your church is not in the same bracket as this one here, you ain’t got nothing. I’m sorry for you.

Now you can do a lot of stupid things and bring it on yourself like the apostle Peter said, and get your fingers rapped, because you deserve it. But this man didn’t open his mouth and didn’t do one thing you could put your finger on.

Now study the history of the churches. You Nazarenes, pshew. You tell me that you came out of Wesley? You came out of somebody else’s loins. I’ve read what Wesley stated. You Lutherans, where do you stand? I’ve got Luther’s books.

Show me he preached the junk that’s preached today. And Pentecost? You never ever had anything. Because you never ever had the Word. No one man ever came with the Word, none. Hybrid to the whole system. Every table is full of vomit.

If God didn’t raise up somebody, His words are a hundred percent correct, “If I don’t send Elijah, it all dies.”

People don’t believe that. They’ll scream rapture, everything else, they don’t believe it. “Oh I believe the Word of God, and look for the will of God.” And you turn down revelation? Come on. They can’t even read their Bibles.

They tell you right now, “When He appears we’re going to see Him because we’ll meet Him in the air.”

And the Bible says you don’t get your change until you do see Him. Brother/sister, when you and I are so blind we can’t even read the obvious, it’s pitiful.

Let’s go further. The Bible distinctly says, “There’s one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.” Yet the theologians will tell you that Jesus is God.

The theologians will tell you Jesus came back as the Holy Ghost, and they’re right. But they still got three gods. I thought that just made two of them. But the Holy Ghost is God; that makes just one. Because the man, is the man Christ Jesus. Where are you going to go?

Say, “Brother Vayle, despite of that, you see I’m going to make it.” Hey, listen, isn’t anything getting across this morning? Isn’t anything getting across this morning? You can’t take the devil’s word and get God’s divine will.

What is a curse? It’s a negative blessing. It’s like the lie is to the truth. What are people talking about? They can’t believe the report, so God can’t be revealed; they’re blind to it all.

Now listen, he says here:

[53-5]  Satan with his big beautiful kingdom… up-to-date… That’s right. The most subtle beast of the field. [He’s made a war field.] Yes, sir. Jesus said that the children of this world were wiser than the children of the Kingdom of God. [They’re wise with this stuff, but not with the Word of God.]

[53-6]  Now, these two great conflicts, these two great conflicts are coming together [together] right now. Right now in the hour when sickness and things have struck the world, till medical science is stumped, and everything stumped… And the army, the little army of God is being backed into the corner and everything. Brother, it’s time for another Arnold von Winkelried.

Now he’s speaking of himself. He’s been speaking of Jesus, now he speaks of himself. And he says:

[54-1]  It’s time, time for another man of God to stand forth; it’s time for an Elijah to appear. It’s time for something to take place; God’s army, close up your mind; don’t stop for a moment to think of anything the devil’s got to offer you through your senses. But remember, God’s Word can never fail. These two great armies…

Now we’re looking at a crucial point in history. This cannot be simply people are dying because they’re sick! They’ve been dying for six thousand years because they’re sick. This is crisis. What is the crisis? Everybody’s going to die, unless something happens. God’s going to blot them all out.

Listen, that’s what it says, “Except I send Elijah, I blot them out.”

And the blotting out of those that do die in the Great Tribulation, by the wrath of God, not by the hand of man, that’s the foolish virgin, but by the wrath of God, let’s get this straight, they go right to the Lake of Fire, because He doesn’t leave root or branch at that time.

So the White Throne is immaterial. They’re already souls in prison and judged. Do you follow me? The same as we’ve been judged.

So don’t get your chronology mixed up, brother/sister, or your understanding mixed up, it’s too important. It’s over, souls are now in prison. You can talk Jezebel religion all you want and we will talk about Jezebel religion.

I don’t care that much for it, and I care that much about its influence. It’s already judged. Yep. You say, “It’s not.” Where’s your vindication kid? Because you believe something? I don’t care what you believe.

The wicked old witch believed she’s the prettiest woman in the kingdom too. Been looking in the wrong mirror, honey. Start looking at the Word of God. Give me some vindication.

I can out-vindicate all of you put together, and I haven’t got any vindication. I got the people to prove it too. They’re still living. There isn’t any vindication, outside of one. God vindicates Himself.

He vindicates Himself to the prophet, vindicates the prophet to us, we know where we’re going. Time for an Elijah. Does that mean Elijah hasn’t come? No, he just said this is the hour for one, and he’s it. See?

Now listen, for almost two thousand years the church has been without vindication. Revelation chapter 3, the church today says:

The church has boasted what it is! William Branham came on the scene, and they literally died at that moment, because nobody could duplicate him, still can’t duplicate it. But they’re still boasting. For the first time in two thousand years we’ve got vindication.

When Elijah comes there’ll be vindication. The army will have something to move on. The devil will get the answer he deserves. It’s the epical season, with the epical ministry, with the epical promise we’re in at this minute.

When Brother Branham speaks of Elijah, and he speaks of the devil, and he speaks of the identification of the Bride with Christ and the others with the enemy, organization, all these things, and he talks now as I say of Elijah in this hour, there’s only one place you can go in Scripture, and that is 1 Kings 18, and you’ll see the thing that Brother Branham is talking about.

All right, let’s look at America here, going down the tubes. Been a Protestant nation for many years. Finally turned Catholic. Wasn’t the Catholics messed her up, the Protestants messed her up. For they follow right in the Catholic’s footsteps.

Let’s go to South America and down here in Mexico, Cuba, where they’re all Catholics! What messed them up? The religion. Say, “I don’t believe that!” You’re lying, here’s the Scripture. You’re still thinking in politics, you’re not thinking of the Word of God!

That’s right; I’m totally honest with you. You’ve got politics on your mind. Never mind your politics. Get to where the worm is in the apple! It isn’t politics. It’s religion, because religion went political. See, that’s the trouble.

Like Brother Branham said, “You sing the song,” he said, “how did the goats get in? You left down the bars!” Now he said, “You’re doing it, you the leader have defiled the sanctuary, destroyed the literacy of the Word of God, you’ve violated the spiritual precepts, look where your nation is.”

Now come on, all America, all of Europe, “Hallelujah Jesus, hallelujah Jesus. Oh glory to God.” If it was just that and that was truth, God would be blessing this nation right now in spite of the guys in government. So where are the people? Who put those men in? The people.

The big district superintendent of the Nazarene church goes haywire. Shall I tell you a real dirty story about one of them? I won’t bother. You can get that in a soap opera and one of these R-rated movies. I want to ask you a question: who voted the men in? Who voted the man in? And that’s just one of many, many stories. See?

All right, we’re reading:

So they gathered them, and you know the story. But Israel still didn’t turn back to Almighty God. What’s Brother Branham saying here? He’s saying, “Look, I have a showdown through God with all religions in the world.” 

He went to India and sat there with the Jannes and the Sikh’s and how many Buddhists, and God knows how many others.

And he said, “Now if this man who is made completely blind, the eyes gone out because he worshipped the sun, you’ve seen him in the city here for year after year, the mayor knows him, they all know him. If my God in the Name of Jesus Christ heals this man, giving him his eyesight, will you admit then that this is the true God?”

“Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.” Half a million people. The man got his sight instantly. They didn’t care that much about the true God, they just thought Brother Branham had a trick up his sleeve, “If I just touch him then I’ll get healed.”

Where are those Jannes, those Buddhists, Mohammedans? Didn’t do a thing. What happened to South Africa? When they took truckloads of canes and wheelchairs down the road and thirty thousand people gave their hearts to Christ at one time, what happened? Nothing. Nothing.

I ask you a question. Did Jesus ever have a showdown with the Pharisees? No. No. Did Paul? No. Uh-uh. John the Baptist? No. This is the only showdown by the Pillar of Fire with any group of people past the day of Moses, and it didn’t even occur with Jesus Christ, and it didn’t occur with Paul, what makes anybody think it would occur now? You got no Word for it. You got no Word for it.

But this is the same thing, the showdown in this hour. In other words, if you want the gist of this, it is one man, and one man only in a showdown. Always. Because if you had two men, how would it work? Couldn’t work. We don’t have too much time, do we? Seven?

All right, we’ll read a paragraph, why not finish it?

[54-2]  When the enemy comes in like a flood, like it’s coming in today, what did God say He’d do? [What did God say He would do for us? He] would raise up a standard against it. Are you one of them? Yes, sir.

One of the army? Or one of a standard? What’s a standard? I used to just kind of think a standard was something like, you know, put in a flag there. A standard is not that at all. A standard means ‘to cause to put to flight’. It is active and not passive.

So the prophet asks the question, “Will God do something to put the armies of Satan to flight?”

In other words, will there be a vindication over the Word? Let’s find out if we can. We’ll have to go to Isaiah 59 where the word ‘standard’ is used, so that’s about all we can do is go there.

I think that’s what I wanted here, because it’s verse 19. Now we won’t read it all, but you can see if we read it all it’s a troubled time just like ours. And it says in verse 14:

You know folk, we’re going to get out of here, and it ain’t going to be bad at all. Oh there’s tough times coming. We may die for our faith. I don’t think that’s going to be too bad. We have this in our favor, they do not any longer believe in cruel and unusual type of punishment.

They may just cut our throats, pbbt, like that, or shoot us. Not half bad. I don’t think they’ll boil us in oil. I get very cheerful about these things. Heh. I do, because listen, I’ve suffered a lot of pain in the last while. Sometimes I sleep at night like last night, couple hours.

What I do today I don’t know. But you know something? I’m living, I’m not dead yet, and we can take it. It may be cruel and unusual, because you’ve got a bunch of birds out there, crows, hawks, magpies, buzzards. They can eat dove food, but the dove can’t eat their food.

They’ll be closing in, going to come. We’ll give a nice little church, as an offering. Hope we use it awhile, we will no doubt.

But you know, as he stood up and God vindicated, got pictures, science can’t figure it, we don’t care, we know it, they don’t know, He’s going to see us through, because He raised up a standard, and the standard means on the offence.

Now remember the Word of God is both defense and offence. We have already learned the defense; let us now go on the offence. I don’t mean to try to win souls and bring people in, I’m not saying that.

I’m just saying, let’s get into this Word and make it everything it ought to be, which from the rising of the sun till the going down thereof, in our mind and on our lips and our whole life, because we are the conduit of the Word and the Word is the conduit of the Holy Ghost, that links us right up with God. And God leading His army on.

Lord bless you.

Let’s rise and be dismissed.

Gracious heavenly Father again we thank You for love, mercy and grace, the time we’ve had together, Lord, we know that it’s haven’t got hardly anywhere again today. We thought we’d get many pages done, but it’s all right, we know we can maybe do a little better next time.

But we’re in no rush Lord, because we know You’re not in a rush, and there’s something in here we could see and be helpful Lord in this great hour of the standard, the great hour of the offence, we’re marching on, where you took all the brunt, where the prophet took all the criticism for the Word to begin with and now we’re called the fools that come along behind them.

Well we’re glad to be fools Lord for the sake of the Message, but Father we know there’s one thing about it, we are not yet completely steeped and one with the Word as we want to be O God, there is still too much of the other.

Perhaps not of a perverted word Lord, but we’re a little bit like Eve, before she got messed up, we just kind of nosing around and just walking around and she shouldn’t have associated with the enemy the way she did and get caught in a trap.

And I think Lord maybe we’re a lot just like that at this hour, where we’re just sort of messing around, we’re just not aggressive Lord within ourselves to be cautious and watchful and fruitful, Lord God, and we know we need to be.

So now Lord in this closing hour of lukewarmness, we just pray that You’ll get us out of the warmness into the hotness Lord, just real hot, be fervent in spirit but righteous in life.

Father, we’ve asked it, and we’re believing that You’re helping us, and You’ll carry it through. Because we ask it in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

The Lord bless you.

‘Take the Name of Jesus with you.’