Perfect Faith #07

Shall we pray.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we realize as the prophet preached to us so many times that this is what he had in mind to get across to us.

That You were here in the form of the Holy Spirit, visiting the Gentiles as You were obligated to do, doing the same things that You did back there 2,000 years ago.

Proving that You can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities, and not just by the feeling, but by us, ourselves, and can have a response from You, a natural display of the power of God in whatever the need may be to remit transgressions, to heal bodies.

Even Lord, to the place we know that You healed maimed, and we realize that can happen amongst us today; even so, though the prophet isn’t here.

We know that You are here, that Same One leading us into the Millennium. That’s been told us by a prophet.

Knowing he wouldn’t lie, we realize as never before how under the influence of the Spirit that he was to bring us this Word so wonderfully.

And we thank You Lord, for It, for we know that there’s nothing remiss, there’s nothing out of time, everything is just exactly right, even as we are right with You, and Lord, by Your grace, right with each other.

May we realize that perfection has come Lord, and it’s a complete finishing off; it’s a complete conclusion; and it’s going to be Lord, a presentation of which we are part of that presentation, a glorious Church, without spot and without wrinkle.

And we thank You for that this morning Lord. May we study Your Word, and may the Word be rich to us. May It actually feed us, O God; may It become a part of us; may the life in It be released to us.

In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.

You may be seated.

Now this is lesson 7, or message 7 on Perfect Faith, delivered by Brother Branham at the Branham Tabernacle, and in this message, Perfect Faith, Brother Branham used the Scripture in Mark 11 you’re all aware of that wherein Christ tells the apostles of mountain-moving faith.

Almost all Christians have taken this illustration to mean the removal of problems, no matter how great they are, and they could be terribly, terribly great.

The trouble is that most people stop at the miraculous, but nonetheless, theologically, scripturally, most people just look at this and they sing songs, such as “Got Any Mountain You Can’t Tunnel Through,” and so on, so basically it’s looked at as a great problem solver.

True. Now no doubt this is true but in Brother Branham’s experience it went beyond dispelling a problem or solving a problem, or simply getting an answer to a need for it thrusts him into the realm of revealing God in this hour in His creative power.

And thereby confirming two things, both of which dealt with him, Brother Branham but can, and must, be used of us in what we call the ‘trickle down’ principle, or the principle applied is the same, though not in the magnitude, or to the extent and nature of the prophet.

Number one: God recognized the prophet’s position which caused the prophet to recognize it.

Now that’s not wrong, that’s a hundred percent correct. God recognized the prophet’s position, which caused the prophet to recognize it.

Let’s take a look at that so we know we’re on perfectly Scriptural ground before we get into Brother Branham’s message, because this is what he said, “Recognizing your position.”

Now, this is a great man of God, and this is not necessarily humility, although it is humility, but it’s kind of stupid, in retrospect; not at the time, but in retrospect. This man’s arguing with God. That sure shows the grace of God.

Now God recognized the prophet and this caused the prophet to recognize himself. Right? Okay, you understand, this is the principle, recognition. So it caused the man to recognize himself.

Now that’s the truth also of Moses, if you want to go to Exodus 3, and Moses is a good one, and we read verse 4.

Now Moses is recognized by God, authenticated as deliverer, and so Moses now recognizes who he is because no doubt he had an understanding stirring in his soul.

The third one we can look at is John the Baptist in the Book of Luke, and this is the testimony concerning John the Baptist, identification before he is even conceived. And the angel said unto Zachariah, verse 15.

Notice that the people that are already prepared of God must be made ready. Now that’s something that people can’t understand for this hour, but it’s true. You all know about that. All right.

Then John the Baptist himself tells, he says, “I wouldn’t know who it was except the One who talks to me, the Pillar of Fire, told me, “The one upon whom you see the Holy Ghost descending, that is the One.”

So, all right. You’ll see in all these cases that God recognized the position of these men, which, in turn, caused them to recognize it, to know who they were.

Number two: it placed William Branham in the Scriptural fulfillment of his position, even as it did Moses: Moses, the deliverer; William Branham, the prophet; John the forerunner.

William Branham was not the forerunner; his Message was the forerunner, although the man and message are identical.

God doesn’t use the wind, the sun, or the rain, He uses a man. But William Branham was not told by God, “You are the forerunner,” as many people try to say.

At this hour they want to twist it. Why? I don’t know.

It is ‘the Message’, because I talked to Brother Branham, when he said, “Brother Vayle,” he said, “I want to tell you, you’re getting something wrong in my introduction.”

I said, “What is it, Brother Branham?”

Well, he said, “It is neither me, or my ministry that foreruns the Lord Jesus Christ; it is my Message.”

I said, “All right. You mean as John the Baptist was the true forerunner, John the Baptist is a personality absolutely as a person was a forerunner, you are not.

Neither is a ministry a forerunner, but it is a Message, so we bypass the man and bypass the ministry, we are looking at a Message.” That’s pretty well my words.

He said, “Now you got it.”

So look, unless William Branham is a liar, which he isn’t, I have no time for foolishness. It is the Message. So William Branham was the seventh church age messenger, absolutely identified in this hour by God Himself.

And so therefore that structured his position of faith. You saw where we’re looking at something here which structures your faith, and that’s what Brother Branham said. All right.

It placed Brother Branham in the Scriptural fulfillment of his position even as it did Moses and John the Baptist, and especially Jesus Christ, as Brother Branham spoke of him, he said, “Look, the Scripture speaks of Me,” and we are going to use Scripture shortly, “I am identified.

Show me one place I have not fulfilled it.” See? All right.

So Brother Branham is speaking then concerning this chapter 11 in the Book of Mark, and he’s talking about the mountain being moved, so he says on the top of page 17:

[93]  See, “… if you say to this mountain, ‘Be moved’, and don’t doubt, but believe in what you’ve said, then you shall have what you’ve said.

[Now watch trickle-down.] When you pray, believe that you receive what you ask for, and you shall have it, it will be given to you.

[And he makes a little comment,] “Time, space, nothing else will ever change it.” You know it’s done; it’s already over with.”

Now look at the thought there, “You know it is done; it is already over with.”

In other words, this is a reverse, or this is what we do according to what God has done for us. In other words, God imputes to us righteousness. And in 2 Corinthians 5:21, it says that:

The thought of imputation, the thought of definitely ascribing to us that which at the point is even now nebulous in this particular sense, you cannot put your hand on it.

There’s nothing that you can do about it, you believe it. And therefore you have taken the stand that absolutely, ‘I am righteous with the righteous of God’.

I will even go so far as to make the bold statement, whether anybody likes it or not, and I cannot prove it, the devil hates it, and I can’t say I like it, but it’s true so I’ll say it: “I am the righteousness of God.” All right.

That’s what you and I do toward God when we believe that God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.

You see what I’m saying? We impute to God, we give back to God in imputation; we say, “The Faithful God,” and He is faithful Who promised.

The 11th chapter of Hebrew is definitely composed with all the illustrations and the principle doctrines in order to make us to see we can say and give back to God the same imputation He gave us; the same honor, because He said, “If you don’t honor Me, I will not honor you.”

He tells you that, and “He that likely esteems Me, I will likely honor, and he that turns from My Word, even his prayer is going to be an abomination.”

So therefore there is an identification here. See? The identification in this respect, as Brother Branham said, “It’s already over with.”

Now, what I said about imputation and righteousness is absolutely proven in the Word of Almighty God, chapter 8, and nobody can get by this one:

Now it shows you right there. Now every one of these steps, previous to glorification, is an imputation to you, and you impute back to God and say, “Yes, Lord, that’s a hundred percent, because You said it,” and, like Job, you can scream, “I will see Him in this flesh and stand upon this earth in the latter day!”

Now that’s what you’re looking at. See? Now faith can bring us to that position. In other words, we have within us the power, and we have within us the Holy Ghost to spark it, to bring it to that place.

Now let’s keep reading:

[94]  Now, watch! He said to us, “If you abide in Me, and my Words abide in you, you can ask what you will, it’ll be done.”

Now, of course, we know the word ‘abide’ means ‘to go on’; it means ‘to stand fast’; it means ‘to go on being’; ‘just keep on’; it means to ‘stick with it’; it means ‘submit to’. That’s what it says. Now:

[94]  You can ask what you will, it’ll be done if you abide. [Now watch what he said.] Then, recognize your position in the Scripture, as a believer.

Now, look, the thing is this: we can stand back and say, “All right. Brother Branham had it good. God came in a Pillar of Fire,” I wish you could have been there sometime and saw what I saw, you wouldn’t want the Pillar of Fire. He looked like a hunted animal.

If you think it’s all roses, I’ve said for many, many years, not knowing what I was saying, “If God came in this room, we’d hide under the rug.” I mean… you know, people treat God too casually.

We have never learned true sincerity, true humility, and understood what is is to stand in the presence of Almighty God.

So we could say, “Well, it’s all right for Brother Branham, because we’ll still take our stand that it was easier for him than for us because, boy, at least he did get scared!”

Now you know I’ve often told you teaching is based on two principles: you make people remember by making them laugh or you hit them so hard they’re afraid to forget.

Now, believe me, God is no laughing matter, so you get hit so hard you’re afraid to forget. See? Really, people get too casual. All right.

You say, “Well, Brother Branham got hit so hard, so therefore he would certainly recognize more than I’m obligated to recognize.”

That’s not true! All of these things the Bible says concerning faith are examples to you and me. So therefore, Brother Branham stood here in that position, perfectly relaxed. Why?

Because he knew what the Holy Spirit was doing under those conditions. But other times, when He visibly appeared, he would not know what He was going to do.

And the point is, was it a blessing or rebuke, for God says, “See what I come with, shall I come with blessing or rebuke?”

God has two mountains Ebal and Gerizim. One for blessing and one for cursing. Why? What’s God going to do? It’s not just the easiest thing to fall into the hands of the living God, though we all have got to do it.

So, what we see here and what we know of the dynamism and the influence of God on a prophet, the shattering experiences within the man’s soul and his spirit, and his body, and his mind, and what we saw manifested in those great and tremendous acts, were examples for you and me to understand.

God does this, and He’s doing it for you and for me, because, listen, everything that God identified the prophet for, and everything we saw in identification and every single thing pointed to, was salient to the point that God wanted to bring across: there is a Message that you are to believe in, so, therefore, when you hear this Message and see how It was brought, and understand It, you can take the principles, I don’t care what, and turn them right into your benefit in divine healing, putting food on your table and clothes on your back, and hair on your head yes!

There’s an old king over in Sweden, years ago, I forget… Bolsie… his name was… no, Bolsie was the man that prayed for the sick.

And the king, you know… Bolsie didn’t even know who the king was. When the king saw this was many, many years ago in early Pentecost, and when the King saw people getting miracles, he said, “You think God could put hair on a bald man’s head?”

He said, “Yes, certainly He could do it on a bald man.”

Or, was it Bolsie just turned and said, “God, do you think you can put hair on this bald man’s head?” I think that was it, not even knowing it was the King of Sweden in there. Well, he got hair on his head.

I’ll never forget a young man I met down there in Florida. He was under the ministry of the late Dr. Garr, outstanding minister.

Here was a man emaciated with cancer, absolutely dying, no hope, a Baptist minister. One day, lying in bed, he said, “O God,” he said, “if You were…” He was ahead of his time.

“If You were only here,” he said. And he said, “I could touch You and I’d be well.”

And a Voice said, “You couldn’t touch Me, you couldn’t get to Me.”

There’s no way he could have got to Him. But He said, “I’m here to heal you anyway, regardless.”

And he said the coils of the bedspring got hot to his touch as the power of God surged his body. He got out of bed and dressed himself. He had a housekeeper he was a bachelor had to have a nurse, he was bedfast. She couldn’t figure it.

He said, “Woman,” he said, “fry me some bacon and some corn pone,” and he said, “I want some buttermilk.”

She said, “O God, poor Dr. Garr, he’s out of his head now. He’s going to die.”

He slugged this swill all down, felt like a million, asked for more.

“Bring me some branch water,” like Brother Branham said, you know, little branch out there, little creek. Man went to India great healing ministry. All right.

We’re looking at the fact that these things in the Bible that Brother Branham is saying are relevant to you and me, and not to the ministers themselves.

It is God’s way of dealing with us. So, all right. What’s he say?

[94]  …Then, recognize your position in the Scripture, [and what are you in the Bible?] a believer.

Why? Because you believe and accept this, that this is your life. This is the conduit of your life, because the life is in the Word.

So now what we’re looking at then is the constant application of our days to this Message of all the facets and all the intricate channels not through anything, but the channels that lie in there, and those channels are literally boats bearing us, those ‘good carrots’ that Brother Branham saw stored up, the beets, the fruit… apples, and all those things.

In other words, supplying us our needs, just as the Scripture says, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done. Give us this day our daily bread.”

So here’s what he’s telling us: “I have been positioned, and I am authenticated. The authority of God is upon me to tell you people, you sitting here and believe me, you are believers.

Therefore, you can have whatever is in the Word of God as a promise, and what God whispers to your heart, or lets you know what you can have.”

I threw that in there because that is true, because in the Bible, it doesn’t say if you pray for a car, you’ll get a car, but car comes under ‘anything’.

I’ll never forget… I told you the time I was praying before I was… in the Baptist church, many years ago now… thirty years ago or so… yes, thirty years ago, it is a long time.

And, anyway… well, it’s longer than that… anyway, I needed a car to go on… I got a car, I was going to go on the road. Well, I didn’t have the car at that… it was another prayer I was thinking of.

So I prayed and prayed: I wanted a car. Our Lord said… I was complaining… the Lord said, “You can have it.”

And I felt cheap. Here I’m trying to bamboozle God; I’m trying to storm heaven; I’m trying to work up a good case. phtt! No case. “Anything in My Name.”

Do you ever feel like a jerk at times? You can feel like a jerk before God. He doesn’t womp you on the head with anything. He recognizes our frames are dust. O God, what dust… right out of the garbage tin.

You say, “Where did your body get from?”

Well, I think I got mine out of the city dump.

“Where did you get your brains?”

Well, that came out of the cesspool, in the first earliest stages of decomposition. He understands our frame is dust. I didn’t get rebuked. He didn’t say couldn’t have it.

I got a car… just like that. Then I had my car, supposed to go on the road. So I’m grumping. All right, while I’m on the road, I’ve got bills and debts.

You know people better be careful how they go on the road… you better know what you’re doing or you’ll find you get off the road, too.

I put about thirty years in… tough. You say, “Well, what about my car? I need money to pay for it.”

“You’ll get it.”

Forty eight hours I had it. Twenty seven hundred dollars. That’s not in the Bible. The head donkeys are horses and camels. I never liked horses that well.

I’m not used to donkeys, and camels I would abhor. Yeah. You know Dr. Kenyon got me going to get my first car, on signpost to the road to success.

He said, “Don’t borrow somebody’s car. Get one of your own.”

I did, and had one ever since, sometimes two, sometimes three… always get back to one… I prefer one… and I’ll borrow your truck. Yeah.

So we are established as believers. I am a believer, therefore, I believe.

William Branham, “I am a prophet, therefore, I prophesy.” Not little prophet now, he’s a Word prophet. Okay.

[94]  …Recognize your position [in the Scripture.]

What is your position in the Scripture?

“Well, I think I’m probably a hand.”

Who said so?

“Well, I think I should be part of the eye.”

Who said so?

You know, unless you’re part of the five-fold ministry, you’ve got one rough time figuring anything out, because you know what?

You may think you’re too high… heh, heh, heh, little pride there, [Makes gesture and sound of slitting the throat], or you may figure too low because you’re too humble, you think.

How do you know? Do you know the best you can do? Male and female is the best you can do, and then do what comes naturally in Christ… is to love, be kind, instruct, witness, and you know what you’ll find?

You’ll find that somehow you’ll be doing certain things more than other certain things. That’ll be your ministry. Some people love to give. Let’s look at that.

Hey, we’re never going to get through this for the next two years, I want to get… well, you know that’s an exaggeration, that’s a lie. I was going to get this done by next Saturday, Sunday night.

Forget it. I’m going to go on a vacation anyway, I might as well tell you: I’m trying to get away for a few days. I love getting away for a few days; I get feeling so much better.

I miss you all but… of course, if we sit around like this, I could stay… wouldn’t go anywhere. Who’s ready for church seven days a week? All right!

Romans 12, and it says here everybody’s different, the 4th verse:

Do you know that the very things which you’re doing because you love the Lord, you’ve been given grace to do it?

You wouldn’t do it normally. Ha! I think of some of you guys… some of the men… you work yourselves to death for people.

I’ll even say, hey, you know, I think that Bill Graham’s nuts… the way he works. Why doesn’t he do something for himself? Work, work… He’s got grace to do it… he’ll get Godly rewards.

The energy he spends down here, he’ll likely have so much energy in the Millennium he’ll run circles around us guys, have a hard time finding him. Serves us right.

Serve some of you folk right, too, if you let him get all the… If John is supposed to do it… Brother Branham said, “If John doesn’t do it, George, step right in.” Bill, take over.

I’ll be nice to the guys that are nice in this church… well, you are all nice, I told you this morning, I love you all, but I tell you what, I’m going to give honor where honor is due when people exert themselves, when they put an effort out.

Come on, now, everybody could… Now, there’s a bent, now there’s a bent, you know, where I see these other bents coming along…

You say, “See, there’s a bent,” but there’s also… some people are going to have the same bent, but one guy can let down, and the other guy do it all.

Do you follow? Now, I’m not going back on what I said this morning before this message. Don’t think for one minute I haven’t got this all figured out, because I know what I’m talking about.

So, in other words, I think there is more than just, you know, one or two people in the church. Now that doesn’t mean everybody’s not in the same category Bill is, I’m just using it.

Over the years… because Bill has done so much work in this church and worked and worked and worked in his family, that I think if people don’t understand that and honor that, I think maybe it’s time I just put it on the blackboard, so I’ve done it. All right. Good, good, good.

Others are doing a great job, too. Now let’s watch the bent here now, we don’t get bent up double. Get the b-e-n-t right.

All right.

Now, look it: there’s a gift of prophecy and you prophesy according to the grace given you, and according to your measure of faith.

Now that’s a tricky one, but it simply means this: if you really have that gift, you won’t be making a bunch of foolish errors and saying things that don’t come to pass, because you’ve got the faith that’s going to absolutely cause you to say that and the thing will come to pass.

And you’ve got the grace that means you’ll put yourself on the spot. And I might as well tell you something else about it, too.

You won’t even know how it’s going to come, it’ll just be there and you’ll say it. I’ve done it many times… not once, but many times, and it’ll come to pass.

Now what you’re doing normally, you’ll just draw back and say, “Well, you know, if that’s the Lord, like I do, it’ll come, but if it’s not, well, it won’t.”

I’ve done it in the pulpit time after time. I’ve done it privately with people sitting there… doesn’t fail. That’s not my ministry, no, not my ministry… little gift is all. All right.

Now that’s my ministry right there on teaching, that’s a five-fold, but notice to this point, where do you find the gift ministering anywhere in the five-fold or any place else?

You can’t find it. Ministering means ‘doing a service’.

See that’s what I mentioned a while ago, all of these things are here in the Scripture, and I have mentioned to you before, and I will no doubt mention again before I’m through preaching… not today, but another time.

To keep letting you know that these things are there, and you’ve got them, and you will have an inclination or a bent, not a drive, not a drive, but I’ll tell you something: as Paul had ‘Woe is me if I preach not the gospel,’ and every five-fold minister must have that or get out of the ministry.

Don’t think you’ve got it, don’t pretend you’ve got it. If you haven’t got it, I’m sorry, but you qualify maybe as a deacon or an elder, but you’ve got to put that above every other thing in the world, and you don’t change horses in midstream, you stick it out.

Now I’m talking blunt, because that’s the way it is. I don’t think we’ve got anybody here that’s out of line, but you may run across somebody sometime and wonder what’s going on.

I’m answering your question right now. Okay? So we don’t have to worry about that.

Now, you’ve got a bent towards things. Okay. It said he’ll do it with simplicity.

Now, some will do some things with greater vigor than others, and you will become more and more proficient in the way you’re going, so you’ll know you’re making your calling and election sure. See?

All of these things are in here. So what we’re looking at then, as Brother Branham mentioned here, “You can recognize your position in the Scripture, and that is, ‘I am a believer’,” and I am functioning in the body of Christ.

Like those members, I am going by a headship; I am being led as others are being led; and together there will be a presentation to God of a sweet incense and an odor of the sacrifice of our praise, and what we wish to try to do for others, because we have that inclination. See?

Now you’ll have a bent toward it. Now it won’t be any big forceful thing. With Brother Branham as a Word prophet, he was under that compulsion to prophesy.

I’m never under that compulsion if anything comes, it’s just suddenly ‘there it is’, and I say it. There’s the big difference. You’ll be doing the same thing. You won’t necessarily have a compulsion.

The difference might be between implicit and explicit, see, force and motivation somebody grabbing you by the neck and making you do something, and yet, my brother/sister, when it comes to God, you will literally be grabbed by the neck and forced to do it, and you’re not even recognizing it, because there’s a gentleness and a naturalness.

See? But you’re under God “in Him we live and move and have our being” see, like the body operating together. See?

You know… look it, let’s put it this way: these gifts, we don’t have much in the church, we don’t go for it, but because we were silent in our… how would you put it… we’re a little bit recessive in our approach.

We go for gifts and walk backward, looking to see if something may be coming.

But, you know, those gifts could be amongst us. You know why? The eye is an eye gate; optic nerve goes to the brain which is a mass of tissue, and in there is the mind which is in the spirit.

And that spirit put life in our body, body-life, not soul. Soul little germ had to have a theophany, a soul around it, to come in then to a body that had to be out here in order to have a spirit, to work together watching that man in there.

All right. Let’s just bring it to the physical. Okay, I’ve got my life in me then and I’m intelligent, and my eyes see a snake. Right away it tells your adrenals: “phtt! Out of here!” Bam!

Oh, you talk about speed… you thought you could run, but you never knew you could run like that. You didn’t know you could make…

I’m going to tell you something: inside, without that eye, does not know that, because you know, that cobra, or that rattler, could be sitting right there, and if you didn’t see it, unless you had a warning innately, or some sixth sense tells you, you don’t… I was down in Florida many years ago, preaching.

There’s scorpions down there, they hold their stingers back… oh, they’re ugly looking things, like Cancer, the crab.

Well, I was praying for the sick one night, and just as sure as I stand right here, I kid you not, and I tell you the truth, my eyes were closed and suddenly I knew, like something walked between my two feet, a scorpion, he wouldn’t have hurt, you know… he had to sting me first, and a little ammonia would get rid of it. But you know what?

That’s right, it would do it… a sixth sense. Faith realm operating the spirit. All right. Recognition, then, that I am a believer, and I am in this category. All right.

“Oh, happy to forgive… ”

“Uh, I’ll forgive you this time.”

That’s more like Lee Vayle. Should be more like my wife, she didn’t… I don’t even have to ask for forgiveness. She knows what I like, of course. That’s the way the Lord is, too. We’re already forgiven, not we’re going to blunder. Okay.

Now,

See? Now, I can tell you something: if you learn to honor, prefer, God will bless you, and I’ll tell you: woe betide the person who defiles him.

I could tell you things this morning, I’ve told you many things already, so I’m not going to tell you any more, but I know what I’m talking about here.

If you don’t think I know, you’re wrong, because I know.

I’ve lived through it, and I haven’t taken half of it to where I should have taken it, because these are commands.

So Brother Branham says, “Now, look, you know your position has been authenticated to you by my ministry? You are believers.”

And Latter Rain says, “Well, look it, what part am I, the body?”

And so they had us prophesying over… big, long, streak… “Sure this, sure that,” and ninety-nine percent of it is hogwash, just wishful thinking.

Yeah, I don’t care what Pentecost you come out of, let me tell you flat: get out of it! Get out of it a hundred percent, have nothing to do with it, the same as you’d shun the Baptist, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, or anything else.

You’ve got to have your minds renewed in this Message. You have been already authenticated! The White Throne, for all intents and purposes, is past! You’ve been judged, the same time the world is.

These are hard things to assimilate… sure, very hard. I’m trying to get it across this morning. I hit these things so hard you might think, you know, that I’m looking down my nose at you for taking a rough stand you’ve got to take a hard stand, too.

No, I’m trying to get it across where it sinks in our being: we just know that we know that this is it. Look, this is a Bible. What am I supposed to do? Chew it up and change it?

That’s zinnias. Those are dahlias, larkspur, and what have you… snapdragon, beg your pardon. That’s an organ. What am I supposed to do? Change it? I live, knowing it. It’s a part of my life.

This, also. I accept that as an organ. Yeah. I have no problem with that. I accept this as a picture on the wall, and I accept exactly what the picture is.

Now you see, it’s rougher to accept this and what it is, than just this. Ha! Most of them never accept what that’s all about. Now it’s easy to accept the organ, but to accept the organ as an instrument that I want to play forget it.

I can accept Brother Branham as the prophet, but trying to be William Branham forget it. But I can sure live with it, and I’m happier living with it, than I am with myself, because I haven’t got what it takes.

You see where I’m trying to lead you this morning? To this place of recognition. Look, I’m a believer!

You say, “Brother Vayle, I blew it!”

So you blew it? Ha, ha ha. I’m sorry for you. I blew it, too. I get fed up with people… not like you. If I’d have known you years ago, we’d have had a good time, because you’ve got some compassion and some love.

These other guys were… forget it. They didn’t have a clue if anybody had a clue hardly so I said, “I’ll quit.”

But, you know, I had something they never had happen. They’d like to have started it, but God didn’t. He made food come on my table just the same; somebody always had a little love, little compassion.

Funny thing is that the people who gave me the food, too, at that time, brought it in over snow-bound roads and all, the old sleigh, what have you, way back there in Northern Canada, way up there.

She always worried about me, she said, “Brother Vayle,” she said, “I fear for you, but you’ve got a ministry, but I fear for you.”

She didn’t know I was going to blow it, see. But she felt I would blow it. I blew it. But, see, God brought me back. You think I’d quit now? There’s no way to quit.

You say, “What would you do if they were going to crucify you?”

That’s not a nice thought, but I’m going to tell you something: He giveth grace. If He didn’t give grace for whatever’s going to come He’s done it so far who said He’s going to quit?

So the prophet stood there with all of this to let us know we are positioned, and he said, “It’s a natural ministry, so to speak, each one of us would have.”

So where you’re being called, just move that way. And you know Paul said, “If God wants something else for you, He’ll show you that, too. It’s right here in Corinthians… not in Romans now, Corinthians.

So, all right.

Now:

[94]  …See, you’ve got to recognize your position, as Jesus recognized His.

See? Believe and accept what He did for us, and what He says about it, and us. You can agree that Jesus had to accept his. Why did he do it? Why did William Branham?

Because there’s your parallel, because He wants us to accept what He says about us, and that position, and then obey Him where there’s something to be obedient.

But, remember, the obedience of faith is the number one important thing: you believe what God has done and said in this day concerning you.

Then you can go from there. And remember, He’s not trying to make your life difficult; He’s not trying to give you great, big gifts; He’s not trying to give you great, big ministries.

He’s talking about a body, and this body of mine, and your body, is the living example, and as that life in there can trick the eyes, and the eyes can apprehend, and the mind can comprehend, and the ear can apprehend, and the mind can comprehend, doing the body good. So we can as a Church.

We can determine this morning by our faith in Christ, which is a mutual faith, to live not only Godly in Christ Jesus as individuals.

As Brother Branham said, “You and God alone in that Kingdom, but with each other,” not striving in any other way, but our striving is the pulling together, in honor preferring and helping each other.

Personally, I don’t care what anybody here has done. phtt! You haven’t done any worse than anybody else has done, and you ain’t going to, either.

The thing is, like Brother Branham… we’ll talk about this, right in a few… we’re not going to get to it today, let’s forget… yeah, we are, we’re lucky. I might should have time… talk about repentance, making things right. Okay

Recognizing we have to recognize that we are stuck with, abiding in, the Word that says, “We have become the righteousness of God.”

What are you going to do about it? Are you going to accept it or not? Are you going to accept the fact that that’s what God says? And you accept the fact also that God accepts us on the terms, and demands it? “Without faith we cannot please God.”

We give back to Him that recognition. All the way through Brother Branham is hitting us with Scriptural recognition. Scriptural recognition is God recognition, and God recognition means everything. All right.

Do you follow now? This is a major principle of faith: recognition. I am a believer; therefore, I believe. I have what it takes.

Ninety-five:

[95]  “Is it not written that Christ shall come, and what all Christ should do?” He said to Cleophas, [Now notice he takes us into the resurrection,] and them that morning, “Isn’t it written in the Scriptures that he must suffer and then be killed and raised the third day?” “Why are you slow in understanding?”

Now, let’s look at this a little bit. Here this is written here now. Brother Branham, in this case, is referring to what was written of Jesus, and of course, there was something also written concerning him.

Now, referring to the fact that the ministry of Jesus Christ, returned to earth here in the form of the Holy Ghost in a Pillar of Fire, using a prophet, William Branham, explaining and paralleling this very hour that Jesus was risen from the dead, in that Brother Branham always said, “If He’s risen from the dead, He’ll do the same as He did.”

That’s part of it; there’s more to it than that. What is written concerning you and me? Let’s take a look at this now.

Here again we’re bouncing back and forth on the thought of simple faith to get things from God, and this great faith which we have in God, the faith delivered to the Saints once and for all, but is coming to fruition now.

On what conditions? The mind has been liberated, the spirit of soul, are in harmony now with what is going on. So…

Now what is this he’s talking about? He’s talking about the transfiguration that is going on in this hour, which we mentioned the other day, reading to you, that you become the Word of God by simply receiving the Word of God. Now that’s tough.

Now, you know as well as I do, that that’s something that you’re glad to grab onto, because it opens the door to a specific grace that comes upon you, not because you even asked for it, but God wanted to give it to you. You become the Word of God by simply receiving It.

Brother Branham said, “You become the Word of God in your flesh,” in another place, “by receiving It.” He, himself, said, “The prophet was the Living Word of God made manifest.”

You cannot find that in any theological book under God’s high heaven, unless Paul had something we don’t know about, or Irenaeus, and I’ve got his works and I don’t think he said there either… he or Polycarp, or any of them, Justin Martyr, none of them, to my knowledge.

Go back to the Anti-Nicene, you can’t find anything, or maybe something there we’re not aware of. This is something that is entirely different, and he’s telling you exactly how the resurrection is going to take place contingent to the Bride that is living and standing here.

And he said, “It is going to take this Message, presented to a people, before the dead can come out of the ground.” This Message has to come at the time of the Appearing according to 1 Corinthians 15. We’ve gone over it many, many times.

So what we’re looking at is in here. He’s telling us… what’s he telling us? That Jesus Christ, Himself, had to tell the apostles what Scripture was fulfilled and what impact It had on them, and the harmonizing of the entire Scripture.

Christ harmonized the entire Scripture and placed the entire Scripture for that hour, and the people had a revelation of It. And do you know what that brought them to? That brought them to Bride status, where they could come right and receive the Holy Ghost and be placed the way God wanted them to be placed.

All right.

So this brings us to Romans 8 which I read to you already, but notice what it also brings us to, what you’ve been doing here in this church for some time, and it seems not too many people believe the way we believe, but that’s perfectly okay by me. Everybody has his own church…some can’t make it work. It seems our church can make it work.

It says at the time that you’re talking in a manner to each other that is pleasing to God. That has to be restored Word, because Brother Branham said, “You ain’t got a thought coming!”

That says they’re Bride people, and they’re chewing Bride food. I’ll show you later on Brother Branham said, “Bride food.”

I’m going to tell you something: I’ve preached this for years, 1977, and prior to that; you cannot find one place I made a mistake, and you’re not going to, and I’m not boasting, I’m just telling you the truth. I stand on it.

There’s no way I can have a Spirit of prophecy, testimony to Jesus Christ, and then have this thing loused up. Every place it shows this Message is cohesive, coordinated, and we are one, or we are not one. We’re one. See?

[95]  Now, he said, “Why are you so slow of understanding?”

In other words, the Judging Word has swept through and a people couldn’t figure what side they’re going to get on God’s or otherwise.

It’s not, ‘Whose side God’s on’, it’s ‘Whose side are you on’. Are you on God’s side? See? All right. Now, the impact of verse 95 here is again, ‘stick with the Word; don’t move from It.’ Christ didn’t; that faith of Abraham came to perfection under Jesus our Lord.

[96]  And they thought “My, this Man speaks a little different from other men.” [Why do you think Brother Branham put that in there? For his own ministry, more than somebody… more than Christ.] “This Man speaks a little different from other men.”

Why? Because Brother Branham was a prophet like Christ and like John and Moses, who could, in the power of God, demonstrate that they were the spokesmen for God, vindicated so, then explain it, and adapt it to them.

Nobody else could do it. Now you show me anybody today can do what that man did under the power of the Holy Ghost. And if he can do it, I’ll tell you something: I’ll go and listen for five minutes.

You say, “Why do you say that?” Because that is the original. Who needs a counterfeit? You can go snorting around the country,

“Well,” they said, “bless God, Moses was pretty good, but we’ve got a few more rabbits in our bunch over here, and we’ll pull a few out and take Moses off the scene!”

Yeah, good, go ahead. They died for it. And Israel thought they were so smart killing Jesus and Jerusalem fell a thousand, and thousands of blood fell like water in the streets.

And they followed Brother Branham, and they’re fattening up for the slaughter. Let me tell you something, brother/sister: I either believe this or I don’t believe it.

Thinking today, coming in the car, just driving over, “What’s the matter? Am I getting too hard-hearted? Why am I thinking of all these guys who are going to perish… shouldn’t I be crying or something?”

The prophet Jeremiah… took an inkhorn and he put a mark on everyone… how many ink marks did he have… sighing and crying over sin? How deep did his sorrow, did Daniel go the night he condemned Belshazzar?

Why he should have ripped his garments, put on sackcloth and ashes, and said, “No, King, no, no no!”

He let the king put the robes on and the golden chain, then put him over a kingdom that didn’t exist anymore. “Go ahead if that’s what you wanted to do. Go ahead.”

I thought when all these things happen, we’re supposed to look up and rejoice, our redemption drew nigh. I’m not bloodthirsty. I want to tell you something: Cain couldn’t repent!

And he didn’t. He hated his father, but I want to tell you something: Jacob had a brother called Esau and he wept bitterly. He could have been foolish virgin but I’m going to tell you: Cain sure wasn’t.

You know there’s something missing with people that are going to die at that White Throne.  You better believe it, brother/sister, or you don’t know your Bible.

Jesus said, those Pharisees… said, “You’re children of the devil; you’re serpent seed.”

He said, “You ain’t got a thing unless you take My Word.”

Now they’re going to leave here the shape they left it… they’re going to be there in the shape they left in. They had no use for it then, how are they going to have use then? Well, think of Cain.

God said, “Abel illustrated, he showed you what it’s all about.”

“Hah! Phooey on that!” he said, and walked off.

Do you know I’ve got an idea of something? I’ve got an idea at the White Throne it’s going to be as the Bible said, “Hide us from the face of the Lamb.” They’re going to say, “Let’s get it over with. We didn’t want it in the first place, evidently can’t have it now.”

Do you see how we want to think in our minds, “Well, we heard a lot of theologians say, ‘When they look on this’, and they’re going to say, “Oh, look what I missed!”

I don’t know one Scripture for that, but I know the Bride and the Saints are going to look upon Satan… and say, “Uh? Was this what made me tremble? Oh, boy, was I fooled by that! Shee!”

You find your Bible and show me where I’m wrong. I’m not trying to be hard to blood suck or something like some kind of vampire, just the truth here. What are we doing? Are we believing God, or are we not believing God?

[96]  “…this Man speaks a little different.” Come to find out, when they got to the inn, it was He.

See, their eyes were withholden from Him. See, they knew that He kept laying to that Scripture, and they knew it was He.

All right. Let’s look at that. Now we know that John brought understanding, we read it. So did Jesus, and so now. This is a revelation that Brother Branham brought us that contains our faith.

He spoke different; Word is still different today; you can’t change It, but it’s the Word that counts. Now, you’ll notice back in the time of Jesus here, and this is in his resurrection, there was nobody there to hear him but Bride.

He never appeared to anybody else… well, the five hundred saw him but they would have to be Bride that came in, so all of the apostles saw him.

So in this hour only a true Bride is going to go for this Message and when William Branham comes back, and he will be back, he’s got to be back last down or first up each messenger with his own age.

Making presentation, there’s no doubt in my mind, he will follow the steps of Jesus Christ and make himself known to us only, there’ll be nobody else.

So don’t ever sell this business, because people, as I said last Wednesday or Sunday, because people are all the time looking down the road and saying, “Well if you don’t… Brother Branham’s got to come back.”

Sure, he’s got to come back. When they try to tell you everything he’s going to do and just how it’s going to be, they’ve gone too far.

You better wait for that hour. This is the farthest you can go, because we’ve got Scripture that Jesus was seen of the apostles, and he was seen of some others, too.

They’d have to be Elect of some kind, might have been foolish virgin, or whatever it is, I don’t know, but you’ve got to keep your Scripture where it is. Right. Everything must follow in line.

Now, we’re going to 97:

[97]  Now, you must believe what you ask for. If you are a believer, recognize yourself as a believer.

In other words, I positively am a believer and therefore I am a receiver. You cannot say, “I am a believer,” then knock out the receiver.

Now, what I’m trying to show you, Brother Branham is trying to lead us to the place where believing was receiving, that the emphasis on believing had to be correlated with identical emphasis on receiving, because unless you were convinced that you are a receiver, as much as you are a believer, you cannot get what you’re asking for.

Do you follow what I’m saying? Okay. That’s what you’re looking at. All right.

[97]  Now, believe what you ask for. If you are a believer, recognize yourself as a believer. [That’s your position heir to the promises.] Recognize that these things are for you.

See? You and your sonship, as a believer, “They’re mine; I claim them; I want to receive them; and I will receive them.” See? All right.

Now, many people, of course, have doubts, and Daddy Bosworth said… “Don’t ever doubt your faith; if you must doubt, doubt your doubts, they’re unreliable.”

These promises are all reliable, every single one given of God. Now in other words, Brother Branham is bringing out this truth: you must believe what you ask for. In other words, do you really believe it to the extent of going after it till you get it?

That is Mark 11:22-24. “If you believe in your heart, stick with it, stay with it. The Word must abide there; you must stick with the Word, and the Word stick with you, and just hold on until it comes”.

In other words, a process of building up your faith, day by day, as you look for the answer.

Now, many years ago I made a little proposition to the people: I said, “I don’t believe any one of us has the right to go to God and ask for anything unless we’re prepared to believe for it and stick and get it.”

In other words, don’t waste your time going to God, making a fool out of yourself, and trying to make a fool out of God by just saying, “Hey, I kind of wish this would happen, but I won’t think it would, but maybe I can sort of do something about it.”

No, you’ve got to just say, “Hey, I am not going to ask unless I am prepared to receive it, and it may take me a while to get it, but I must be prepared.”

See? The continuity of faith… we’ll talk about that in the “Trial of Faith” later on… we won’t get past this page but it’s all right.

Now watch what he says here:

[97]  …If there’s condemnation in your life, straighten that first. See. [If you got condemnation, condemnation in your life, it must be dealt with] Or you might have Oral Roberts or a dozen more people who have faith to come here and pray over you, jump up and down, pour oil on you by the gallons, but it won’t move. That’s right.

[98]  What falls off from Oral’s meetings to that? I checked them in the prayer line. You hear him say that he was prayed for before.

[99]  And I would say, “A man with dark hair, kind of a big fellow, big jaw.” That’s Oral Roberts, see. “And that was at a certain city; called a certain, certain thing.”

[100]  “Yes, that’s right.” See?

[101]  “You were prayed for by such-and-such a man.” See, like that. “But here is your trouble.” See? “Go and make that thing right. Go out there and confess that sin to your husband, to your wife. Go do this thing.”

It’ll never do you any good, no matter who prayed for you, till you make that right. Condemnation, if condemnation is in your heart, God will not come into that heart condemned.

In other words, God can’t move on a heart that’s condemned, you see. Why? Because how could you have faith that God’s going to do some good thing for you when you know God is displeased with you. A little child would know better than that. See?

God doesn’t dwell in that; [He won’t work with that, see?] you’ve got to make that right.  Then when you do, you must have faith. [Now, I like what he said there:] “Then when you do that, you must have faith.”

It’s faith to do it, and it’s also… still… you still got to use your faith. Don’t say, “Well, hey, I did that, so, therefore, I’ve got it.”

It doesn’t necessarily work that way. It’s faith to do it, and it’s also… still… you still got to use your faith. Don’t say, “Well, hey, I did that, so, therefore, I’ve got it.” It doesn’t necessarily work that way.

Ole Birem, Gospel Trumpet, way back in the old Indiana bunch, Church of God, he… God spoke to his heart one day, and a friend he worked with, another man, very wonderful man of God, and the Lord said, “You have a gift of healing.”

So he said, “Hey! That’s great, so we better prove it.”

He took a tent on the road and said, “I’ve got a gift of healing.”

So he prayed for everybody… nobody got better. “Well,” he said, “bless God, I’ve still got a gift of healing.”

I liked that old boy, he had yet what it takes. And so he just plugged along until he began getting healings just like that. All right. One time this old fellow gets sick. Well, he knew what to do.

He sought the Lord… wasn’t getting anywhere. He searched his heart everywhere with a fine comb; confessed every single thing in his life, got it all straightened out.

He’s still lying there dying. And he said, “Lord, I don’t understand.” He said, “Here, I’ve done what you said.

I’ve been a faithful preacher; I confessed every sin, everything under the blood; made everything right, and I’m dying.”

And a Voice said, “Yes, and you will die unless you get out of bed and act your faith!”

So he, grunting and groaning, you know, miserable, hard getting out of bed, finally got one leg over… got to get sitting up a little bit, reaching down getting his trousers, laboriously pulling them on, dressing himself completely, finally got staggering around.

No time he was a hundred percent… never got sick again as long as he lived, never had one more day of trouble. So Brother Branham is telling you the truth here.

Now look, not just because this happened to Birem… I’m illustrating and telling you what these things are like, see, how they do it. See? “Don’t be afraid.”

Now let’s go to 1 John there and let’s take a look at 1 John and get this whole sin question out of the way, once and for all.

No big deal, really. Like, as I said, suppose you were dying of cancer… you really had problems, and you’re wasting away here, and you knew that you could exercise your faith on the grounds that you confess that sin.

Tell me: what sin is too big that you’ve done that you just couldn’t go and make that thing right?

“I think I’d sooner die with mine.” Well, that’s just what’s going to happen to you. I’m sorry, but that’s the way it’s going to be.

Everybody sits back and doesn’t think it’s done. You’re still a dirty dog. That was a good one! I said that one just right, didn’t I?

Do you know why? Because we’re prone to be that way.

We’re prone to be judgmental. Oh I say, “Bless God! If he’s really forgiven, I’ll see to it that he suffers to make sure he knows. Hallelujah!”

Do you know they did that in that Pentecostal church in 1 Corinthians, and this guy wasn’t doing as naughty as you think because he didn’t have his mother, incest, in incest.

She was no doubt a young woman that his father had married, or she preferred young men, which is sensible.

So therefore they were having lots of intercourse illegally. And so Paul said, “What is this, you birds, bringing that in your church? Turn him over to Satan if he doesn’t clear up.”

The kid wouldn’t, so they turned him over, and they got so happy that they turned him over, watching him suffer… didn’t want to bring him back and make him happy when he repented.

Oh, I love human nature! It stinks! Eee… yuck! Oh, we want to make a big thing of everything except the grace of God, the love of God, restoration, and all these things.

That’s why people can’t take this message of restoration, because they’re looking for big gifts and things and big hurrahs out there.

Brother Branham said, “Take the Message for your healing.” Get with It, let It get with you, stick with each other, watch it happen.

1 John 2:

Thank God, not the church… the Roman Catholic church and, “We have an advocate with the Father,” even the Pope and the Holy Roman Empire.

And they are the ones that will propitiate your sins by getting money out of you for a grease candle and a few more things, or putting peas in your shoes and walking on your elbows and knees, like Luther.

Is that the way the Bible reads? Then how come we read it, maliciously? You know something? Let me tell you something: we have been so legal and judgmental for so long, we cannot take these Scriptures today the way we should.

We got to be ‘infors’…? Do you know what the infors are? The ‘getinfors’? They get in for people whether they deserve it or not, and we have a right to, or not.

We got a bad case of the ‘getinfors’, getinfors, get-in-fors, a three-syllable word. You got a bad disease there, brother/sister. We have… I’m not pointing my finger at you, I’m just telling what’s going on in the world, in the church, we got to… now look it here:

It takes a long time for people to get to the place where they are really forgiving anything. Whew! I admit it. But you know what? If you do it yourself, you’re mighty happy.

You know, Booth Cliburn, he’s the fellow Brother Branham talked about. We’ll quit here at this point. He talked about him all the… Booth Cliburn… I met him one time fantastic person.

He’s the one that wrote the words to “Down From His Glory,” “O Sole Mio,” the song, you know… played the violin tremendously. Every one of Evangeline Booth’s children were geniuses, and he was a genius… preached seven languages.

He’s the guy that crippled those Church of Christ guys over the Hebrew and Greek he just demolished them till Brother Branham began to feel terribly sorry for these infidels that’s what they were.

Maybe they got converted later. But anyway, great old man, and here’s one of his favorite sayings, though I don’t know it’s original.

He would say to the self-righteous person sitting there, “Look, you say you don’t need God because you’ve lived so good, then get out there and sin and sin until you can come back and admit it, that you’re a sinner.” True.

You know the old Laodiceans, no, Nicolaitans, were supposed to have been a group of people that said, “You can’t know forgiveness for every sin until you’ve sinned every sin.”

Oh boy. Skeee! Right between the eyes with a sawed off shotgun, and you can think of the rest of it.

Nope, that’s not it, but here’s the thing about this verse we’ve got to be careful with to really forgive people and restore them, knowing that we also can fall, and already having judged somebody, when we should have been there to restore them, and let it go at that our judgment and our sin could be a whole lot worse.

I remember years ago I went through a little corn of a battle in church back down in Florida, and I found the people there were more anxious to crucify this woman before she did anything, because they knew she was going to do it.

I won’t tell you the whole story; I think they were partly right. The church got into a mess over it, and I found they weren’t interested in restoring; they were interested in crucifying.

So when they pulled the same thing… I was there, I was caught into it, like a jerk, didn’t pray hard enough. So, they came to the Baptist church, the last church I pastured till now, fourteen miles west of Lima… they came to me about a certain woman.

I said, “Fine. We will do this the instant that you want to restore her, rather than shed her blood.”

I said, “In the meantime, I’m not interested, because you’ve got an axe to grind and that’s true.”

Now I think this woman had done everything in the book, maybe except commit adultery, and she was so self-righteous that she stunk with it. I didn’t tell her but my inward advice was this, “I wish she would commit adultery, to come back and find some grace.”

Now you know what I’m saying. I’m not suggesting anybody commit adultery; I’m not suggesting anybody kill anybody; I’m not suggesting you rob or tell lies or one single, solitary thing.

But if you think, and I think that we have any right to judge anybody concerning the grace of God, we better hear what Brother Branham said, because he said, “If you take it out from under the Blood, if that person’s really put it there, then you’re guilty.”

Repentance is simply repentance. What can you and I do except take people by their word and testimony.

The little kid says, “Mommy, I won’t do it again.”

Look at Brother Branham… talk about a pushover.

Joseph gets into mischief and poor Meda just ready to scream and go out of her mind, “Bill, you’ve got to do something about this boy!”

Joseph: “Daddy, I won’t do that. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

Brother Branham cried worse than the kid cried. Hey! Joe would know he’s going to go out and do it over again, and Meda would know, too.

It didn’t phase Bill, because he loved the boy. That’s the way God is. Do you think that God didn’t know that Adam was going to sin when He said, “She’s going to be your downfall”?

Look, I’m not a champion of sin… I’m just saying, “Look, you tell me that your flesh isn’t dust, and I will tell you my flesh came out of the manure heap, came out of the mortuary, the tomb, the dump yard.

I think I was hatched from a rotten egg.”

If you were honest, you would admit the same thing. See? The pot and kettle, you know, the pot calling the kettle black, visa versa. So, look it, we see, what I want you to know is this: we’ve all done things we shouldn’t do.

I want to tell you, I was in my deepest despair, even over things that I thought I’d done, were basically a whole lot worse off in my mind than they could have been done physically.

The devil can attack you any way to get down with sickness, but I’ll tell you: riding in that car, depressed as I was, with Harold Marconda driving, the sickness and the mental torture and the hell I was going through physically, you don’t know until you get there.

And in there, like a Voice said, “I’ll see you through.” And I’ve been banking on it.

When hands are laid on you by the elders, It says, “Ye shall in any sins shall be forgiven,” that’s why it’s necessary to use the Word of God, and forgiven is forgiven.

I want this church to know that this is what this pulpit stands on, at least this morning before Almighty God, as my witness, I’m telling you the truth. If I leave here, and go back on my word, this is still the Word of God.

Lee Vayle’s word never was any good anyway, and his promises weren’t worth a hoot, but His is different, “Let every man’s word be a lie, but Mine.”

So, you see, the door is open for everyone to use faith, and to be natural in his Christian life, to know that “in Him we live and move and have our being,” that there’s hope for us, and there’s hope for all of us.

The Bible says, “Everyone that names the Name of Jesus.” We’ve got a special attachment to that name as no other group under high heaven; “Let him depart from sin.”

I want to depart from sin. I say, “Lord God, don’t let sin have a thing to do with me, and me have a thing to do with sin.”

I know sure as I’m standing here the day I’m transported I’m going to have a problem with it, and I’ll be doing bad things then with you, and you’ll be doing bad things to me.

I know that… I’m not a fool anymore than you’re a fool, but I’m going to tell you something: we can grow in grace and we can do better, and we can learn and we can apply ourselves to the wisdom of just getting away from this stuff.

Plow a little bit of love. Love ourselves in the love of God; love our brothers and sisters in the love of God; and build up and help.

You know… look here, let’s look at the marriage and divorce question: you know that I don’t fuss with any of you… some of you are married and divorced, married again.

I don’t fuss with you, and I never will fuss at you. If you feel you’ve got the will of God, I’ll take that word, you answer to God, but I’ll treat you as my brother and sister.

You’re no less in my life than anybody else. And if you show a good spirit, well, you could be further ahead than some folk that may sit around sour… “I’m married, bless God. Heh, heh, heh.”

But you’re wishing you weren’t! Ha! I wish I’d have gotten married five years before I did. I married at twenty-five; I should have gotten married… six years… nineteen.

Yeah. I was ready; I was saved and ready to go preach the Gospel. Amen.

Let’s rise. Lovely people, love you, come back, bring your friends with you.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your grace and mercy, Your kindness that You show us, the consideration Lord.

That You weave into our lives when we are inconsiderate ourselves, and judging ourselves less than the grace of God.

Help us this morning to be melted, to know what true love is Lord, real true love, which is Word, Word-Love, which is God, and know it Lord, by something working within us on these lines.

We just bless Your Name Lord, for the wonderful time we’ve had together as brothers and sisters, looking to You Father, looking to each other.

And we know there’s nothing on earth sweeter than the fellowship of Saints, and there’s nothing greater in all the world than Your people getting together.

Either hearing Your Word, or talking It back and forth, and You listening, and You, being the approving Father, saying, “These are My jewels.

I’m going to spare them at the end time; their hearts are turned back. They are the ones that know the difference between righteousness and wickedness, righteous and unrighteous those that serve and those who don’t.”

And they just go on talking to each other, and we know Lord, that if we’re going to be talking to each other, it means we’ve got open communication, and Father, we know that if the talk got obstreperous, there soon wouldn’t be any communication.

So we know this is a happy people who love You, love Your Word, love each other, and have communication, going down the road, satisfied and happy with the ministry, ministers, or what they can do themselves as their ministry… whatever You gave each one together.

Father, we know that that’s wonderful to just even think about it, and it’s marvelous to know that we actually have it here, and it’s growing and growing, and one day, Lord God in Heaven, everything is going to just be perfect, because these lovely people here we all know we’ve sinned one day we’ll sin no more, not a feeling, not an urge, not an anything, changed in the twinkling of an eye, caught up to meet the Lord in the air to the Wedding Supper.

Father, then we’ll say, “Worth it all the while.” There’s nothing we went through means anything. Then one day that’s all forgotten. Lord God, what could we ask?

Nothing… nothing. We know Lord, Perfection has come. It’s all come down upon us, O God, and we admit it.

Help us Lord, as You and Your resurrection turned those people, those disciples, to Your Word, then filled them so full of the Holy Ghost, it was just, just like a boat going down the river on a full steam… nothing could stop it, heading for the wide ocean open to God, and they made it.

Now Lord, today we’ve got that river, waters to take us over we recognize it, realize it Lord, and may there not one of us ever, ever…

Oh God, this is a tough one, I know, because it’s the thing the prophet despaired about, or at least he worried about… may not one us hold anything more important than this Word, but take time, let It be our life.

Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the Only-Wise God, be all power and honor and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

‘Take the Name of Jesus With You.’