Questions And Answers -Pastors Series #07

Transcript in progress. Audio is available now.

Shall we pray.

Heavenly Father, again we want to voice our gratitude and our love to You, Lord, today. We only wish, Lord, we were more grateful and more loving, and more of Thee, Lord, and less of ourselves, more of Your Word and less of our own ideas and understanding.

So, Father, we just pray today we’ll be the fortunate people to be so anointed in our spirits to get ourselves out of the way, Lord, that You can have the full control, Father.

And just touch our minds, Lord, and touch our hearts. Touch our very beings, Lord, and though we might have already had preconceived ideas, and I might already had what I considered the anointing that is for this service, Lord, as the prophet said, “The minister gets it ahead.”

But, Lord, we’re willing to have that all changed that You might give us truth that, if any way we are in error, Lord, that it might be one hundred percent correct with the Word Itself mechanically, and then, dynamically so.

So, Father, we want to be fed by You today, the Great Shepherd; we want Your help. We admit it, Lord, we’re not too obedient, but we want to be obedient, Lord.

So, bless us today, Father, to learn to just give way to You.

In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.

You may be seated.

Now, just before I bring this number 7 on what we call “Question and Answers”, which are really my thoughts on some questions that’ll come up, because Brother Branham made certain statements concerning the pastor and the people…

[Brother Vayle goes through some local announcements.]

Now, continuing then with this subject of the pastor and the people, last night we were mainly examining the disciplines the Word laid down to govern our conduct as to our own personal life styles and our dealing with others.

Now, what I’m looking at there is that we all have our own personal life styles by the way we, perhaps, are born. We have a tendency to be, you know, more cheerful perhaps than others are.

For instance, you know, some people love music and laughter, and they are very gay. And some people are quite dour.

And you know, even parts of the country are different from other parts, although I’ve never found it that way. They say you go to New England the people are starchy and frozen.

I found them great fun up there. I didn’t find a bit of problem at all. I thought it was great.

Then, years ago in Canada before I ever came down, when I was a kid, was I was always told how marvelous the people in the States were. These Yankees were so marvelous.

I mean they just did everything for you, and they, you know, they put the oil in the car, and they washed the windshield, and they, you know, very happy you know, they were happy to take your money, sure, but they’re very happy people.

And I come down, and they’re pretty sour, you know, to what I had been told.

So, life style, you know, there’s certain disciplines in the Word of God, and they are laid down in order to help us with our life style, so that we may improve where we lack, as the Bible says, “He that would have friends, must show himself friendly.”

And, you know, It mentions too, that you’re to help others, lest, you know, find yourself tempted, and then, maybe nobody is going to help you to pick you up and things like that.

And then, also, it deals with our dealings with other people, which means ‘how do we really act with people’ in order to give them the proper breaks that they should have according to the Word and the proper help. How do we conduct ourselves?

We looked at that, and especially we were concerned with 1 Corinthians 5, where the church membership seemingly approved gross immorality, which they did.

And they also had a very slack and common acceptance of sin in the church. And you’ll take a look and see this: they’re the church that Brother Paul said were divided.

And they were divided first of all by the preachers. You’re going to find that the preachers do more dividing than the people do. And yet they’re both culpable.

Now, in 1 Corinthians 5:1, Paul says here:

Now, the report was common; the fornication wasn’t common. Everybody wasn’t living in this free love type of stuff that some of the Pentecostals got into, and they called it soul-mating… made the church a house of prostitution, you know, which is quite common.

Now, Paul said, “You know, you’ve got to stop that thing, and you’ve got to stop it or get rid of the guy that’s doing it.”

You see, Brother Branham said gross immorality is the place where he drew the line on Communion and things like that.

1 Corinthians 5:

The physical part could even be carted away and put in a casket. He could die, or go through suffering that he’s wish he never tasted the sins of the flesh like he was doing.

But he would have done it legitimately by getting his own wife, married, settling down and working and raising a family. But he would be destroyed. See?

Not annihilation, but he’d have to pay the price here, because the spirit would be saved. Now, this is the process that’s handed down.

They’re puffed up. They’re glorying and they’re acting as though this thing is okay. “And we’re not legalist, bless God. We believe in eternal security. So it’s okay.” Hogwash, you know.

Now, he said:

Now, in other words, you’re not going to win the world to Christ. So, if your neighbor lives like the devil, let him live like the devil. You might caution him; you might give him a witness, but you can’t control him.

The Church was never meant to control the world. Let them go; let them fry. That’s their business. The Church is meant to control the church.

We keep the business right in the local assembly. And this is a pitiful mess when you consider all the assemblies were really local and indigenous at the time of Paul.

The Nicolaitan spirit was merely there in a form of a spirit that had not yet really taken captive people, but man alive, they sure spread around the country: that Corinthian church, if you want to live in sex and sin, go on down there, because they don’t seem mind.

The girls are loose evidently. The men are loose. Man, that must have been a horrible testimony of a local church.

The Ephesian church didn’t have that. Now, if you’re smart, you’re catching something. If you’re sitting there kind of dumb, it’s over your head, and I’m sorry for you.

You catching what I’m trying to tell you? Church’s reputation gets around the country. What the people and the preacher does gets around the country. What we do here gets plumb around the world. Don’t think it doesn’t.

That’s why we’re taking this serious what this church stands for, and I don’t care two bits what anybody else stands for. It’s their business. I preach what I believe to be the truth.

Now, he said, “Here,” he said, “you’d have to get out of the world.” He says, “Forget it.” See? That’s why the church is so confused about Communism.

Communism doesn’t have a thing to do with the church, it’s a benefit to the Church. It brings about martyrdom. It gets the people whether they really want to believe God or not. It’s the church you’ve got to watch out for.

Brother Branham said, “It is not Communism; it is Rome.”

The church can let Frank Sinatra, because he’s got money, annul his first marriage, which is one hundred percent legal in the eyes of Almighty God.

The church doesn’t have any authority except the Word of God. And the church had better keep its nose in the Word of God. And the church had better keep its nose in its church, and don’t have a thing to do with the world out there.

Let them die; let them burn. I’m not hard and tough. I’m telling you what God says is going to happen. And He warned us that we had better “grow up as calves in the stall,” or we find ourselves in trouble, too. All right.

1 Corinthians 5:

In other words, disassociation, and disassociate, and there’s no fellowship there. Now, look; he says here that you mustn’t keep company with a man that says I’m a brother and he’s “a fornicator.” You cut him off. You drop him like a hunk of lead.

“…or covetous.” Now, you know the Word of God, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s horse and his cows and his farms and his money or his wife.” Wife coveting.

“Oh, Brother Vayle, heaven forbid.”

Ha! Yes heaven forbid, but human sensuality doesn’t forbid. And so, if a man has got his eyes on women in the church, the Bible says, “If your eye offend you pluck it out.”

You better have something done with these eyes. He’s an idolater. Well, you know, an idolater.

Actually a person that’s given to money is an idolater, or thinks too much about physical things in the natural, but an idolater also is off the Word of Almighty God, spiritual idolatry.

“…or railer.” A railer is a person who is abusive, he’s always attacking people, especially by speech. He’s a low type of person.

“…a drunkard.” You know what that is.

“…an extortioner.” He always threatens to violence, “I’m going to poke you in the nose,” or do something. He’s ready to fight.

You know something? I can tell you right now. I’m not going to preach too hard on this. We’ve got a church here that just simply doesn’t shun people like that. It just kind of walks away; leaves them to themselves.

It’s like the old lady, I told you about it many times. Old Bishop Lye told this joke. It’s not a bad joke. It’s a cute joke.

“There’s an old lady in the Church of England, back in England, she’s a crippled old lady. She had a nice apple tree out front. So, when the kids would climb the tree and steal the apples, she could never get there in time to grab them. It used to infuriate her. And Johnny was the ring leader.”

We always call him Johnny, naturally, or it’s George, or Bill.

“So anyway, one day the old gal goes to church and she sits right in the front by the way the little boys choir comes down.” You know, the boy sopranos.

“And Johnny was singing in the choir. As he came down she grabbed him, she said, ‘Johnny you looks like an angel, you sings like an angel, but I knows ya.’” So does this church.

That’s nice, isn’t it?

1 Corinthians 5:

Now, the church and the individual must learn to forgive these people who are doing this but, at the same time, refuse to tolerate their conduct. Now, let that sink in.

The reason is that, to hold an unforgiving spirit, we usually give way to vindictiveness if we don’t forgive. We begin to demand more than the person will produce.

So therefore, the only sensible thing is to censure the conduct, if necessary, to take something which we will not do around here, except a person is in gross, immoral conduct… to put them out.

We wouldn’t do that, but the conduct of such people is censured, and it cannot be tolerated. But the person must be forgiven. Now, that sounds strange, but it’s the only thing that I can look at in this respect.

Now, forgiveness can restore the offenders, but only after, or only on the grounds that, the offender quits offending, otherwise forgiveness cannot go on to restoration but can only develop the right spirit that can eventually restore and keep things right in the Church.

Now, I hope you got what I said there. The restoration does not come simply because the person is forgiven. In other words, we don’t hold things against people.

We must not… Although we view things in the light that they are not tolerable, and the people doing them, therefore, are not necessarily shunned, or even put out of their church, but they’re actually evaded.

That sounds strange doesn’t? To ‘shun’ is to ‘evade’. No, it isn’t. It’s not a principle here that you are going to try to abuse anybody. It’s a principle that you just simply don’t have fellowship with those people.

And actually, if you’re going to do the right thing by them, you’ve got to bring to their attention that those things are not right, period. And if they keep on doing, what are you going to do? You just keep on praying.

What Brother Branham did, I think, as a secret, was to turn them over to the Lord, not to the devil because Brother Branham told me, when I asked him the question… I said, “Brother Branham what happens to those if they’re turned over to the devil even amongst those that are sinners.”

“Well,” he said, “It’s very true that you do that, because you don’t know who is who in the church, but [he said,] eventually the devil will get them.”

That’s the extreme case. But Brother Branham just turned them over by prayer. I’ve heard that people try to tell me that Brother Branham did this often, but in my books Brother Branham never did.

We never discussed it as though he ever did. He might have done it in one case. I’m not sure. But his attitude was one of prayer.

So therefore, you’re seeing what I’m saying here: when these things are done in the church, forgiveness is a qualification, and also the admonition, and the attempting to raise the person is always in order.

But there is no such thing as a true restoration of that person until the person quits those things.

Now, I hope you’re not too confused here, because I don’t want to get in too involved in this, because it’ll get too involved, and we come right down to the place where, then, people who are refusing to actually line with the Word and with the church order are placed outside the church, outside the sanctuary of the church, where God can judge them, where Satan can have a way.

Although that’s in the Word, Brother Branham took a course which is also in the Word that, “Love can conquer and do all things.”

But when you’re talking of love conquering and doing all things, you are also required to apply the Word. You cannot do it apart from the Word of God.

You cannot say, “Hey, fellow, you’ve got to quit drinking.” You’ve got to give a reason for it. It’s got to be by the Word.

You say, “You cannot do this thing over here; the heathen do it. You cannot do it and be part of the Church. You cannot be a part of the true Body of Jesus Christ.”

You can admonish but something must always be done. We cannot leave it in abeyance, and I say particularly if the time ever comes where there’s a gross immorality.

And I would say even this: If there was a person who began getting drunk… If there was a person we knew began working some plan of extortion in the church, and that was done…

This is a strange thing about Jessica Hahn and the Bakker case. It’s a known case of extortion. Yet to this point there hasn’t been a grand jury called, and there’s been no one rise up in the church to condemn her and the people who worked the extortion.

Now, I’m trying to tell you here, you just can’t wink your eyes at one thing and say it’s not okay for another thing.

You can’t meet the Word of God with a winking eye, with a blinded eye. You’ve got to hit it wide open.

And there comes a time if the people who claim to be Christians are extorting and doing this or that, then there’s a church procedure which we’ll not discuss this morning, that has to be taken through, and to the point of even putting them out, because you cannot tolerate certain things.

But I say, in the meantime you’ll hear me say different things why this church doesn’t do these things at this particular moment. And I don’t think ever we’ll have to.

Now, let us note that, as soon as the offender desires restoration and shows a contrite spirit and has abandoned his ways, at least he’s trying very hard, then we must unequivocally restore that person.

Now, you can’t hold grudges. You’ve got to forgive, and you’ve got to go the extra mile, which is one of restoration, and be very glad to do it.

In,

Now, he’s talking about the man they put out of the church, because he was engaged in a nefarious relationship with, I believe, was his step mother.

In other words, when the discipline has taken place and the man says, “Okay, look; I want to be part of you again.” You cannot refuse him.

You cannot deny the person repentance. Now, you hear what I’m saying? because I’m saying it for a reason.

You say you love him, then do something about it. You say you want a clean church, do something about it. You say you love people, do something about it.

Everything has actually legs on it if you want to know. So, this then, is perfect forgiveness where the man is finally restored. In the meantime, don’t keep things in your heart. Get them out.

And the Lord’s helped me wonderfully, and I know He’s helped you.

From that time of restoration the sin can never be taken from under the Blood.

I’ve never run across the statement, but I understand Brother Branham did say, “If you take any man’s sin from under the Blood, then you become guilty of it on judgment day.”

So therefore, we are to remember, “We do not judge another man’s servant. Unto his own master he stands or fall. God is able to make him to stand.

So therefore, we’re looking at a church which tries to help people. And if the people refuse help, then he may have to be helped out, right out of the church, which is what we do not look for. We believe the Word of God in this hour is greater than all of that.

Now furthermore, here’s another issue to consider. There are problems that are real and damaging to the church. But they are quite vague; they are usually spirits that create an atmosphere within the church.

And they can lead, not all, but can lead to division or some type of chaos or some type of puzzlement which divides the church and causes the church problems.

Now, since the first requirement of an elder is in 1 Timothy 3:2, that same requirement is required of the pastor to forestall what lies in a spirit that could come into the church.

Now, watch:

The word ‘blameless’ is not what you think it means. The word ‘blameless’ is ‘a boxer who knows how to parry a blow. He knows what’s coming. He sees what’s there. He knows the effect’.

And so therefore, this pastor, or the elders, whosoever is in charge, must be in this category… can read what is lying dormant and yet not so dormant. Kind of like a sleeping situation.

You see, it’s like an infection in your blood stream or something in your body. We’re all full of everything, cancer, tuberculosis, everything is there. We are a walking grave yard.

But the door has got to be open for the cancer to take over. The door has got to be open for TB to take over. And the door that opens to cancer won’t bring about TB, vice versa, and so on.

Now, the good ministers are holistic in their approach. They want to see that the church is healthy, inside and outside.

So, as good diagnosticians, and this can be hard, of course, to diagnose, they should be able to know if they’re in touch with the Lord, the Word, and the people, if there’s a spirit that’s coming up within the Church.

So, we take an example: it might be a man or woman who makes it a career in the church to take people aside and fellowship them and start inquiring into their lives and counseling them in the Word. That’s not right.

But this church doesn’t have any problems, because we have an open session on Friday nights, or whatever nights you can get together, and you talk the Word.

And anybody that comes to church here is invited to those meetings, not to somebody’s home privately. If they’re going to be invited to any home to talk, it’ll be my home because the pastor has that right.

According to Brother Branham it is his right and not only his right, but it must be done that way.

So, if a person goes in where the group is talking… As Lloyd said, and I say it’s so true, you can snow anybody, except those who really understand this Message and the Presence.

So, anybody sitting in our group of men talking will know positively without a doubt who it is that really understands the Word. So, I’m not worried about that.

But there is always that possibility, because innate within us there is a desire for leadership. And brethren, you can take an office, and so on. Women are not, period. They’re out of the picture entirely.

If you ever get miscued by the devil on this, you are in serious, serious trouble. And you notice, that is why the pastor has every right to pick the slate that the people can vote on.

Now, the people, first of all, will pick the slate and the pastor will say, “All right, from what I gather, these men are good men. We’ll leave it in your hands, then, to go ahead and vote,” because he’s satisfied that there will not be that particular position.

Now, remember; that came right out of the Word of God. John, the Beloved, had a problem with Diotrephes who wanted to take a preeminence away from the man that was ordained by God.

And nobody’s trying to hold this position jealously, but remember; I said, “If I’m going to have to give an account for you, then you leave me give the account, or you’re on your own.” Now, it’s just that simple.

And I’m adamant about it, and so must every minister be, or he’s going to wreck his ministry. And when he wrecks his ministry, he will wreck the church.

Now, so therefore, to those who sort of want to be someone in the church, that would destroy the church… And of course, we here do not have that problem, because of our meetings.

But let us say a person is doing some counseling and advising and questioning, etcetera, to those unrelated or related in families and this would make them a sort of an elder in part, to a part of the flock.

Now, this is easily done where we have a family situation, which we do not have here, but I know some churches do have it, and certainly there are some in Canada.

And I’m going to tell you, I guess I should weep day and night for the pastors because you don’t dare mention Rinehart, but you’ve got Steinbrenner that’s related, and you don’t dare mention Steinbrenner, but ABCDEFGHIJKL, are also related.

And you’ve got a whole church of relatives, and it’s a tough situation because all it takes is one person, Pete knows what I’m talking about, to rise up and cause problems, problems, problems, because they will not stick with the Word. They will stick with the blood of the relative or the good friend, and you will have murder in the church.

So, there is that spirit that can come in. And they’ll sort of act as a sub-pastor, and, of course, it’s for your good.

If anybody tells you that in this church, I’ve got news for you, you’re just a liar if you tell the people that, because there’s only one source of authority.

I’m going to be honest with you: it’s right up here.

And your source of authority being one depends on what is up here, and that depends on what is up here, whether my ministry is of God or not, because it’s going to be ‘like father, like son’. It’s going to be ‘like pastor, like sheep’, or ‘like pastor, like goats’, or whatever it is.

Now, listen; that’s standard, and that’s the way it’s got to be because you’ve got to have one mind, and we’ve got to see a church set in order.

Now, what is there, then, if there should be in the Church, these relationships that should not be in there?

Well, I’m going to tell you: I’ve got one answer, that’s simply Church order the way that Brother Branham did it. Preach the Word of God the way Brother Branham did.

All doctrines and basic Word counseling comes from the pastor. So, there are no other teachers in the church.

So thus, the people simply know to refuse any advice unless they know the advice has been passed on from the pastor for their own good.

Now, that’s the way you’ve got to look at that, because it can’t be otherwise.

Now, let’s go a little further. And this is a little touchy point here, but we’re going to deal with it because this church has its own understanding how these things are done.

Even in family relationships within the church, as I mentioned awhile ago, the whole church gets the same teaching. Now, watch what I’m saying.

I do not take any family in this church aside. I do not take any families in this church aside. I do not deal with anybody in this church on the side. I deal with everybody from this pulpit.

Now, that’s the truth, except where people come to me and they want to ask questions, which is their rights. But what I’m talking about this morning now is this spirit that gets into the church.

And I understand that there are churches that claim that spirit is there. And to a degree, I know, in some churches, it is there.

So, family relationships within the church: the whole church gets the same teaching. So, mother, father, sister, brother, aunts and uncles, and cousins, etc. etc. etc., know where their headship lies, and it is only a weak spirit that will call for intervention by their relatives, or allow it to happen.

Catch what I said? Okay.

Now, listen carefully: because this is a grievous point, and it’s a personal point with some of you. And I don’t pull my punches, and this tape goes around the country, and I couldn’t care less. We’re indigenous here.

I don’t care what any preacher preaches. I don’t care what any pastor does. I do what I want to here, and nobody has to listen outside this church. But you have to listen.

Even family relationships within the church. The whole church gets the same teaching. So mother, father, sister, brother, aunts, uncles and cousins by the dozens are already warned.

Everybody sitting there is warned. They know where headship lies. And it is only a weak spirit in anybody that will call for some intervention by a relative, or somebody else, instead of going to the source which God laid in the Church.

Now, let me illustrate exactly why I say a weak spirit. And a wrong spirit can be there, too.

Brother Branham told that he was in a restaurant one day with his wife eating, and a lady was eating with him, or she came over. I forget what it was.

And she said, “Brother Branham, I’m having trouble. That man over there is trying to pick me up.” And she said, “Why is it, that so many men are trying to pick me up?”

He said, “Because there’s a spirit on you.” But he said, “I’m going to break that spirit.”

He began concentrating on the man who was trying to pick this woman up in this public place. After a while the man began to fidget. He dropped his napkin. Pretty soon his cutlery began jangling around.

Pretty soon he got so nervous, he couldn’t sit any longer. Though his food was ordered, he suddenly jumped out and went out. Are you getting what I’m trying to tell you?

Are you people here so weak in the Word that if any woman tried to bring in a matriarchal spirit, or any man a patriarchal spirit, or anybody came here, that you would be sucked in?

Now, I want you to absorb what I’m saying and get this flat. I’m not teaching here for nothing, and I’m not holding a tight rein for nothing.

I’m paying my dues, and you’re paying your dues. We’re trying to get there, brother/sister.

Is this Word in this pulpit so weak that people could get sucked in? This is a rotten tape to get out of certain areas, I admit.

I don’t believe that there is any devil in hell big enough to come against the true Word of God with true people.

Now, we’re not all one hundred percent real believers. Brother Branham said, “There’s got to be a mixed multitude.” We’ll deal with that.

But I’m going to tell you something, “Greater is He that’s in our midst and He that’s in us, than we ourselves or in all the world.”

And if this Word cannot deal from this pulpit with what I’ve just been talking about, I’m terribly sorry for you and for me and everybody, because I simply don’t believe that some of the things that are being said about this subject are accurate.

A good, hard look and a good, hard concentration drove the spirit out of that man. So, it can be stopped. And a good, solid Word from this pulpit which you’ve heard on and on and on.

I am responsible, and if you do not want me to be responsible, you let me know and you try something. Nobody will try anything. Nobody is going to try anything.

And I’m very good natured this morning, relaxed and happy, because I believe that you get sheep food, and I believe you’re sheep. And until the judgment day, you don’t know and I don’t know.

And I believe here, I’m not going to fool you, and you are not going to fool me, because the Life in this Word is being released so that, if I had a mother who wanted to come in here and be a matriarch, I’d say, “Ma, look; I left your skirt a long time ago and the apron strings, so please don’t try to strangle me.” Just be ma; just be pa; just be brother; just be sister.

No… How would a church handle it? Ostracize people? Would they attempt to prove something on somebody? Not this church. I’m not interested.

In fact, I should be more interested, but I’m to the point: look; if you’re not grown up by this hour, after about six solid years of my teaching and trying to do everything I can for you, to show you everything possible in the Word of Almighty God, the Blood’s not on my hands anyway.

And I’m not being casual and mean about it. I’m just trying to get something across to you. Look! You are now responsible citizens in the Kingdom of God.

So, you neither fooled nor are fooled. In other words, you’re not like out here the deceived and deceiving.

So, I want to clear the air once and for all finally where I stand. I don’t buy a lot of things that are said and done. I don’t find anything in this church that’s matriarchal or sisterarchal or brotherarchal or patriarchal or anything else.

I feel by the Word of God, the Word of God is supreme by the Holy Spirit and the people are going on, and they will stay united as long as they keep their minds on this Word.

And you will have the proper love in your heart. You will have the proper grace in your heart, which you cannot get apart from this Conduit.

Now, this Conduit, the Word, is in your mind and in your heart, and you’re struggling to grow, you pose no problem to me, or to anybody, but together we pose a tremendous threat to the devil. And that’s the way it should be.

Brother Branham’s own vision showed how that he could crystallize the devil right there and just let him shatter… then say a word, the devil come right back… letting you know, and me know and all of us know, the devil can walk in and out of this building, and there isn’t any way that he can get a toe-hold in here, unless somebody opens himself to him.

There was no way the devil could even incarnate Judas, though absolutely it was his destiny, until Judas opened the door.

Now, so that’s settled. That’s how discipline in this church goes. We simply preach the Word of God, and then we see what happens. You say, “That’s not nice.” That’s very nice.

You know, I make a lot of things and one of them which is called ‘spaghetti sauce’. It’s not Italian, because I know that Italians don’t make it the way I do. They’re too cheap. They make a watery kind of tomato sauce that’s sour. Forget it.

Mine’s loaded with good things; you know how it is. But I never know how it’s going to turn out until I start eating it.

So, I don’t know what the recipe is going to do here, the cake I’m trying to bake in the name of the Lord until the eating of it, till we see where it’s going with you.

And what I’ve seen today, I’m very satisfied with, very satisfied. There’s nothing here but good in the name of the Lord.

Now, if such a thing should exist, as it’s claimed to exist, it can be removed simply by preaching the Word of God, setting the church in order by the Word so they get their minds and hearts centered on the Spirit which is in the Word.

And then, you turn right away to the Lord, and let the thing just die plumb out, because maybe it wasn’t even there in the first place. Because this is the hour of repentance.

Now, it’s in the mind repentance takes place, and then, it gets right down in the heart where it begins to work out.

So therefore, how are we going to work this church here and help this church? Anytime anything comes up, we will address it with the help of the Lord, God warning us, God showing us.

Although I must say this morning I haven’t had warnings… I’m just bringing up things that have been brought to my attention. And we bring it before the church, and this church now is either in a condition to have Church order, or I simply say, “Forget it.”

So therefore, encourage yourselves in the Lord, and say, “God…” I’m doing it all the time, “God, this Word in me has got to do the work, or I’m sunk, because I haven’t got It myself. There’s no way I can do it.”

And you know something? That’s the stand we’ve taken, and I’ve seen a growth in the people here that I’ve never seen in my fifty-five years being a Christian.

I have not… everything ever hoped for and dreamed for. Everything I’ve kind of put to one side, and said, “Well, I guess it never could be.” God Almighty in His sovereign Word never fails.

So, and I tell you, if God never gave me the ministry I have to just waste it here. He never told me to speak within the wind.

Let the wind carry the voice into silence somewhere across the earth. His Own Word absolutely said, “Wherever His Word is sent, It’ll bring forth fruit.”

And I’m demanding a fruit in this church here. Whether you know it or not, I believe it, and I will see It. You bet. I’ve seen too much now to turn my back on it.

All right. That concludes that little part of it.

Now, there’s another statement along with the pastor’s ordained to see you through, and he is; he’s obligated; he’s commanded.

Therefore, he is not obligated to boot you out, leave you be. He’s obligated, if necessary, to discipline you and see if you get back. Aw yes, it’s not good riddance to bad rubbish.

Down in Florida one time we had some people that really were a pistol. It was women. That’s why I’m so happy to see the men come in, then the women tag along. When I see the women come in and the men tag along, yi, yi, yi, yi, yi, I’m not happy.

I’m not saying a woman can’t, you know, talk to a man, and the man come in on her testimony. Absolutely, that’s perfectly legal. That’s the way Brother Branham said it should be.

Testify to the milk man and post man and everybody, and they could come right into Christ on the Word. That’s a good thing.

I’m talking now of people taking their real position in the church, you know, men strong the way they should be.

Now, the pastor’s ordained to see you through. He’s also the supreme authority in the church.

Now, the reason I think Brother Branham made that statement was to get rid of Nicolaitanism, which means that… you know, look; that’s a spirit.

Who do you think that spirit is going to get on? Preachers. It’s not going to get on the people. It’s getting on the preachers.

So therefore, Brother Branham was letting us know that no church had any authority over any other church. The church is obligated to settle its own problems according to the Word.

And if the pastor has been correct in teaching, the church will know what to do, even in the time when the pastor cuts the people’s throat, usually by adultery.

…nice silent group. You should be, because that’s a serious thing.

I’ve seen it on different occasions, and the church gets very, very concerned, and, of course, they’re sending out bleeps for help, which I don’t blame them.

They’re looking to somebody that may be of a like mind as they are, and that’s not against the Word of God.

But you know, even before they send out an S-O-S, the church people should know exactly what to do with the situation. It’s right in the Word of God.

And I tell you, when you find a man in that condition, there’s no necessity for that man to be ever your pastor again, because he betrayed the people.

You talk about gross immorality. I tell you, the young man having his father’s wife is not to be compared with a minister that cohabits with a woman in the congregation.

No matter how hard you might pull for that person, the church should know what to do.

You could say, “Well, brother, I tell you, you can sit on the front seat as long as you want. The church ever comes to the place of confidence restored…”

And adultery is not the only thing that’s bad. It can lead you into plumb [full] of false doctrine, or something else. Lead you this way, that way.

“You sit in the front seat.”

“But we’re going to look around for a pastor we’ve got confidence in.”

All right. He is the supreme authority on the grounds the church is indigenous.

Now, let me just give a little something here that may help you. Now, you know Jack Bell and I are very close. So, I’m going to use Jack as my whipping boy, but not really. We’re very, very close.

Now, let’s say that Jack has some problems in his church, and you say, “Well, I’m going to tell you one thing, I’m going to stick with Lee Vayle.”

Now, you see, that would be the wrong statement to make.

Now, if he were to say, “Now, Brother Lee and I believe the very same things, and you know what he’s taught, so you know what I taught, and you know what I teach, and you know what he teaches, so therefore, we’re capable here of settling every single thing amongst ourselves,” he doesn’t need anybody called in.

Now, you may want to call somebody in as a matter of course to teach and do various things. That’s all right, because that’s found in the Word of Almighty God.

But I’m just trying to show you something here: it is not necessary to call another person in, because the pastor himself is the authority, and he must settle those problems, not somebody else, although he could lend a helping hand.

Neither could he say, “Well, I align with this person, this pastor, and I’m coming in [his] congregation.”

Now, listen to me: the pastor doing that would make a grave mistake, because Brother Branham said, “Pastor be subject to your congregation, and congregation be subject to your pastor.”

So therefore, the pastor and the congregation there must work things out for the glory of God, or they’re failing as the Bride of Christ.

Now, if there’s a refusal on the part of anybody to make anything right and to get those things ironed out, and the church splits, that’s your tough luck.

But I’m going to tell you: one thing’s demanded of the people is ‘honesty,’ absolute honesty. When things are being traced down, where things are awry, where things are remiss, where they’re wrong, the people must be one hundred percent honest.

To hide behind a refuge of lies will not do any good because we’re at the White Throne right now, and there’s condemnation on those things. See?

But the pastor must take his place with the congregation at all times, and the congregation with the pastor. You’re looking at that.

Now, I think there’s enough on that statement. I could give you natural illustration here, but I’m not going to do it, because I’ve ran across it just recently.

Now, Brother Branham made this as a categorical statement that the pastor is the supreme authority.

And this is without a doubt based upon Ephesians 4, that he becomes the literal mouthpiece of God under the prophet to the people.

And in Hebrews 13:7 and 17, he speaks the Word of God, he teaches the Word of God, and that’s what’s ruled by. And there’s no pastor can ever do anything, and no congregation can ever do anything, unless the Word of God is abided by.

It must be the Word of God in season. It must be the Word of God for the occasion. It must be perfectly applicable. It cannot be perverted, or twisted. It must be just what the Word of God says.

And when the people say, “Yes, this is true. We believe this, and we’ll stand by it,” and, if necessary, something must be brought out, it is brought out, from that point on the church can go ahead, or I’ll tell you what happens: you’ll go into a place where you’ll pay a price, and then God will begin to work the thing back again. But you’ll pay a price. Everybody pays a price. There is nobody that doesn’t.

And that’s beside the price we pay to make our lives disciplined to the Word of God, which doesn’t mean we’ve sinned, it just means God is testing our meddle and seeing how we’re going to conduct ourselves in the race of life.

Now, this has to be so, for Brother Branham categorically also said, “There are no holy fathers, there’s no bishop’s over us, but the Holy Ghost. In the midst is the Holy One.” That’s right.

“The One Who gave the Word has come here to interpret the Word,” according to Brother Branham, which brings to pass Revelation 22:18-19, which is effective, “You cannot take or add a word.”

And the pastor’s obligated to bring the whole counsel of God as much as he knows It.

Let us understand this: Brother Branham said, “The only one who could not be judged was the prophet, who is a part of Hebrews 13:8. The prophet cannot be judged.”

Now, a sub-prophet, a minor, like in a five-fold minister prophet, can be judged. The pastor can be judged. Anybody can be judged in this respect: Is that person preaching the true Word of God? But you better be careful what filter you’re using.

I remember years back, a certain brother came by and he said he wrote a little article. He wrote a book, and he absolutely disproved by his own theory what I wrote in the Church Age book for Brother Branham.

When he got through writing it, I said, “But brother, you’re wrong, and I’m going to tell you why you’re wrong.”

…because I had a Pentecostal boy, and brother, he irked me. I can be irked. You know that. It’s one of my weaknesses. And I can get hotter, you know… Saturday night special, one of those two dollar Berettas… what you call them? …because people don’t know what they’re talking about. So, don’t come to me, because I’ve been with the prophet. I was already angry.

I phoned Brother Branham, I told you, at my expense, when the prices were low in those days. You know, twenty five years ago, more than that. Let’s see what was it? Back in 1963 starting… twenty-five years ago now.

I said, “Brother Branham, I’m getting some flack on what was written,” And this kid got the manuscript. Like a fool I let him read it, maybe not a fool. “I’m getting flack on the manuscript. You read it. Did you really know what was said?”

He said, “Sure.”

Now, I said, “Brother Branham, I’m going to read it to you, and I’m going to explain it to you so you know exactly what is in my mind, so that nobody has to guess.” And brother, I broke it down for forty-five minutes.

And he said, “Why, certainly, Brother Vayle, you’re perfectly right, and furthermore, here’s some more Scripture.” And It was tougher than mine.

All right. You’ve got to recognize there, then, there’s such a thing, of course, as the prophet alone is part of Hebrews 13:8. He’s the absolute final authority.

But also, you must realize that the pastor must line up with what Brother Branham taught.

And he cannot use it through the filter that he was used to, which is what I was going to tell you about: This man was pulling everything that Brother Branham taught through his own understanding, through his own filter.

And it wasn’t too long until this man fell for a guy from India who called himself “the successor of Brother Branham,” and that God was now in him.

And you talk about hogwash and junk. I read some of his stuff that I’ve never heard anything in my life like it. …completely deceived.

So, questions may be asked, and questions should be asked. Remember, until you get truly repented in your mind, and you get rid of all your dogmas and all your Nazarene, Pentecostal, Methodist, Baptist, various types of Catholics… in other words, all denominational thinking, and it’s a tough one, but God will help you, you’ll never understand what Brother Branham was saying.

This was the key to my first understanding the prophet, when I realized Brother Branham was not talking my language. If I had not understood that, I never would have gotten anywhere.

And when the going was tough, if I had not said, “When did he ever make a mistake? The prophet’s right. I believe what he said,” I never would have got the things that God had for me.

You cannot have a mind that is contradictory to the prophet, or to the people, teaching. You must have, and can have, an inquiring mind that can be taught.

Now, you’ve got the Holy Spirit; you’ve got the Word given by the prophet to know if I’m pulling something on you in this pulpit. And there’s nobody teaching like I teach.

I take sermons word by word with what the prophet said and compare them back and forth so that you know that I would cut my throat in no time if I wasn’t lining with the Word of God.

So now, everyone must line with the Word of the prophet. That’s Revelation 22:18-19, Hebrews 13:8. There’s no way you can get around it. That’s Malachi 4:5-6.

If the prophet does not, then he will lose his effectiveness, and the people will look for new leadership, and he can be replaced.

Now, some preachers will tell you, “I cannot be replaced.”

This church was built like Brother Branham’s, as a founder of a complete new sect of understanding with the Word of God here, and understanding which I believe to be of the Holy Ghost, I recognize that there is no way that you can vote me out.

Yet in order to quell any thoughts whatsoever that I had any whip-hand over you, I said, “You can vote me out anytime you want, and it won’t bother me at all,” because I’ll know one thing: you’ll think I am a goner, and as far as I’m concerned I’ll think you are. That leaves us even.

Like the guy that wanted to count the horse’s teeth, and the horse wanted to count his fingers. No problem. I’m not tough this morning. I feel relaxed; I feel good.

I just believe I’ve got a church here that is mature. That can listen to me talk and understand I’m trying to help you, to get you out of these things that maybe preachers got you into a bind.

And if I’ve got you into a bind, I want to get you out of that bind, because I want to be out of the bind. I want to be God’s free man. I want you to be God’s free people.

I want us all to be mature, because one of these days we’re going to sure need it.

To be ordained to see you through and being the spiritual husband and the supreme authority is not an office that one picks up like a job, but it’s a life that is gifted and qualified by God, and people of like spirit will recognize it.

Now, there it is right there. You’ll notice how that, just somehow, people fit in with the pastor. Yup. They fit in. They love the errors of his ways, or they love the truth of his ways. But it’s no big deal.

It’s just a, what? A unity, a growing together. It is an empathy. It is an orientation. It is God working in nature. And He does it with other churches; does it with ours.

You can go to churches, one hundred percent serpent seed. They’re doing great. You can get a whole church that blasphemes the Holy Ghost, the anointing of God will be on them, they’ll do great. They just fall right in line with the preaching, the teaching, and all.

So, you see, when I expect the teaching, which I believe to be of God, that you will fit in with and be a part of it, I am not kidding you. I believe it. I know that it is true.

You won’t be little planets orbiting around me as your gravitational point. That’s not true. But together we’ll be moving together, and with whatever is taught. See?

God’s ordained shepherd and sheep will flow together. If you want to, you can read again, John 10:1-5 and 27-31, concerning the shepherd and the sheep.

And read again Ephesians 4, how you grow up into Christ to the very Headship under a ministry that’s ordained of God.

A true pastor is not responsible for goats. And true sheep don’t have to follow an off-the-Word, or goat, preacher. See?

I never tell you people that you’ve got to follow me. You don’t ‘got to follow me’. You don’t have to stick with me. You listen to me.

I ask you one reason, why are you here? Why, you’re here for one reason, and that’s the Word of God. If you’re here for me, you’re going to miss it. And if you think I’m the only one that teaches it and you’ve got to hear me, you’re wrong.

There are people right now that say, “Well, you’ve got to hear this brother here to make the Rapture.”

You do not have to hear Lee Vayle to make the Rapture. You have got to hear God’s Word for the hour. And if I have that Word, you are fortunate to be hearing It. But it doesn’t mean because I’m here you’re getting It.

I could be making mistakes right this morning and leading you wrong. You better check it out. Being in this meeting does not guarantee you anything. No way, shape, or form. No.

There can be false preachers, false teachers, false evangelists, false pastors, false everything.

Furthermore, “Only a hypocrite.” says Brother Branham, “will use the Word of God as a club.” That’s right.

I’ve been a little hypocritical at times. Recently the Lord’s helped me. I’m not a hypocrite. I tell you the truth. I know my failings. I don’t care about yours. I care about mine. I only care about yours in so far as I care about mine.

In other words, I want us both to be right. I want us both to live right before God. But I’m not here as a hypocrite to club you with the Word of God. I don’t want to do that, and by the grace of God, I will not do it.

And your spirit will help me not to do it, because you’re here to get food. And I tell you, you do not call a dog or a sheep or anything else to eat and hit him with a club. That is a dirty trick.

But I’ve seen little kids entice animals and then womp them. Like I’ve done that myself. I think I did, anyways, as a kid. I wasn’t good to animals, when I was a kid. I’ve learned to love them since, and be gentle and kind with animals.

You know something: I believe that reflects upon preachers, too. If you’re gentle with animals, you could be gentle with people. If you’re not gentle with animals, you’re not gentle with people either. There’s something wrong with that person.

In other words, everything counts. You keep your eyes open. Everything has a purpose; everything has a type. So, only a hypocrite will use the Word of God as a club.

The Word of God is a sword to cut off unbelief and trim and firm up the saint in the spiritual; not to destroy him, not to cripple him, not to cut his head off. The message of restoration is not intimidation, mutilation, or devastation.

Now, if I’ve intimidated you, I’ve got to apologize to you. I don’t mean to intimidate you. I only mean to… There is one thing when I talk about you and me in the ministry: just don’t fool with me that’s all. And I can laugh… but I tell you, it ain’t going to work.

I don’t go to your job and tell you how to run it. I don’t go to your homes and say this and that. Neither will I allow you to come between me as individuals and the people and the ministry.

I know what goes out and change people’s lives and homes and everything else. Someday, I just may copy some letters off, which I’ve never done to this day, pass them around the congregation, and let you know: if you’re not getting help, somebody else is.

And it’s the same Word, the same Spirit, the same man. It’s the same everything.

Now, I know you’re getting help. I’m not using that as a club. I’m just telling you exactly how it is. I’m not here to intimidate you, though it may sound like I am. I’m not intimidating. Look.

No, it’s too late to intimidate. I’m not here to mutilate, to devastate. Some of you have been torn and devastated. That’s not the preacher’s job. It’s to restore, find out what’s wrong, where it’s wrong, do something about it.

You don’t say, “Be ye warmed and fed and, then, do nothing.”

The Bible even says, “Let him that stole, steal no more.” Don’t do it. What’s he supposed to do? Labor with his hands; doing what’s good, in order to, what?

Help the people that don’t have anything. Why, this guy evidently didn’t have much of anything and was stealing it.

And God said, “Now, listen, fellow, you stop stealing. Get your hand out of somebody else’s pocket. You get a job and you work and you make enough to help somebody else.”

Now, that’s why I think that’s the way this church is built here. That’s the way we’re going to do it. See?

Now, I saw a picture the other day, a National Geographic. And in there this shepherd had a crook. I really never understood too much about that shepherd crook. I thought that he kind of leaned on it, he did this and that.

And I found, you know what that guy did? When a sheep… he just reached in and grabbed her right by the neck. Well, then, I thought maybe you should grab him by the toes or the hoof or grab him by the shank and all, or the leg.

He grabbed him right by the neck. And the thing wasn’t hurt. He had enough wool up here. And he just pulled the sheep back and did what he needed to the sheep and let the sheep go, and it was fine.

So, the shepherd does not grab the sheep to strangle him with the crook, no, or to hurt him, but to help him.

And Brother Branham said, “Now, don’t choke on this.” And they did. And he said, “Don’t spit it out.” But they did.

Now, the shepherd, the pastor, the teacher, whatever it is, may give you and me some things…

Oh, I’ve got a lot from the Word here. It’s tough. I told you there’s some things I choked on. Some pretty well I was ready to spit out.

And I said, “Now, hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it. It can’t be what you’re thinking, because Brother Branham’s not that kind of a guy. He’s here to help, help, help, help, help.” See? Love, love, love, do, do, do.” I said, “okay.” Boy, it was hard. “So, I’ll read that sermon over again.”

Hey, you know that Message on “Perfect Faith”? I heard that time after time. It bored me. It confused me. It made me go negative.

But one day, I said I’m going to take It Word by Word. I never had so much fun in my life, spiritually speaking.

The Word of God is a shepherd’s crook. If I grabbed you by little bitsy necky to give you an adjustment, so it gets up here in the brain and down in the heart… but you’re not to choke on it.

It’s not meant to choke you. It’s not meant for you to spit it up. It’s meant for you to do you good.

No preacher should use Scripture, one Scripture verse against another Scripture, to divide the people, because all the Word of God is in harmony, and It applies to all of us.

He must never divide the Word in such a way that he will get his own ends met to the detriment of the people. You follow what I said? He must never do it to the detriment of the people.

We’re so careful in this church here concerning building funds… every single thing, that we don’t want anybody stumbling. We don’t want anybody hurt.

I would sooner pay the price and the whole price myself and stand in jeopardy before God that I’ve done a wrong thing with the money that I’ve been asked to handle.

Now, you live with that, brother/sister, you sitting in the pews. I want you to live with that. Look everybody in the eye. I stand in jeopardy.

You didn’t ask for it. No sir, I put myself there. So, I want you to know we’re trying to be sincere in this pulpit.

If five minutes from now I was going to cut your throat, believe me, I would cut it good. But not in this pulpit. Hope you get what I’m saying. I don’t intend to cut your throat. I hate blood. That would stop me right there. All right.

The Scripture is used as light to show where the problem lies, and the same Scripture as food to give you strength for the trials of your journey. Follow what I’m saying? Understand what I’m saying?

You all listen: the muscle that you tear down, “Ooh, growing… Ooh, pulling those… that weight, Ooh, my.” I couldn’t do it if I tried. Build stronger and greater muscles. Yep!

Your body… I wish I knew the terms. I’m not a physician. I don’t know physiology worth a plug nickel. But there’s certain terms.

And one term is this: You’ve got a problem in your body, so you begin taking something to rectify the problem. There must be, first of all, a tearing down of what doesn’t belong there, and then, there’s the building up of what should be there.

It’s the same with this Word. The corrective Word is food. The Light is food. There is no food without light. Photosynthesis is the basis of all food. Without light, there is nothing… cold and death.

So, if you want to eat you must have light. At the time of the Exodus, God gave both Light and Manna to the people.

Listen; you’ll understand now clearer why I talk about so much the possibility of being a mixed group of people.

And you know we’re not looking at anybody saying, “This one, this one, this one, and this will make it.” Look, forget it.

I don’t even know myself till the Rapture takes place and the Resurrection. Even the mixed multitude benefited by the grace of God, and they were dealt with only at times of insurrection.

But Moses even pleaded for them all and left them alone until they died off a natural death.

As Brother Branham said, “Love them until they come in or go out.” That’s all.

Nobody worries. Nobody worries. If you’ve been defrauded, ha, join the crowd! It’s not the last time you’re going to be.

If you lean down humbly to lace somebody’s boot, and all you get is a kick in the chops for it, join the crowd. It’s not the last time. Just get used to it; that’s all, “knowing God on the other side.”

As Brother Branham said, “if you’ve got the wrong wife on this side, you get the right one on the other side.” Hallelujah.

Everything you lose here will be laid up in heaven for you. Don’t worry about it. Even the mixed multitude, their clothes didn’t wear out. They ate the same food. Everybody had a great time.

Now, what I’m trying to show you here, you can go to your little churches that’s not a mixed multitude; they’re one multitude; they’re false; they’re phony.

They’re the chaff that Brother Branham told us, the Word of God told us, proven, they can have every blessing, every sunshine, every anointing, but they are going to miss it on the other side.

Now, what I’m trying to tell you is this, brother/sister: there is no need for glumness amongst us. There is no need for lacking anything in this church. There is no need for somebody to say, “Well, I could be a false one. I won’t get it.”

Everybody in this church can claim, “I am an anointed child of God. I’m going to get it.”

Everybody today can claim every single promise in the Exodus the way Israel did, and only death is the final answer.

Who goes where, nobody knows. And even the Rapture, nobody will know, except when we get there and face each other.

I’m not preaching any hard deal here where we’re going to do a certain thing, and we’re going to make it by the preacher, this or that or the other thing.

I’m trying to give you the Word of God to show you what the Word of God says, and what you can do with It, and what It’ll do with you—what the Almighty Himself stands behind in this Exodus.

Brother Branham categorically said, “Claim your whole family under the Token.” Who knows if they’re going to come in? Act as though they will.

Now, you don’t stand for their nonsense… going to make your house some kind of den of thieves or something. But you can stand with them on the Word of Almighty God and encourage them.

A good pastor will give a warning by the Word. He will water that Word. He will keep it before the people, until anyone amongst us sent by the devil will lose his power and get saved or go away.

Now, you know that’s one reason we talk the Word, while we strive about the Word here, and always want to go into the Word, is because you must know what that Word says. That’s the idea.

Now, Brother Branham gave us Church order, but it has to start at the top. And it did.

He came back with the Shout, to put the Church in divine subjection to the Holy Ghost by the Word of God ordained in the mouths of those that God ordained. Yes sir.

We’re right on the trail, brother/sister. It starts right at the top.

Well, let’s read a bit here. I haven’t got time to read 2 Timothy 2:1-26 and all of those. But you can read them for yourselves there.

1 Corinthians 15:20, because we’ve got to hurry up. We want to get you out of here in time.

Now, coming close to the end of this series here. Brother Branham said, “You need a Church to go to and pay your tithes.” That’s what he said.

That’s an easy statement to be perverted by pride and greed. But if you read 1 Corinthians 9:1-18 and, then, 2 Corinthians 12:13-14, you will find that he speaks of two different types of giving. One is the tithe, and one is to help your fellow men. We might just read that.

Because people do need a church to go to and pay their tithes. Some people are not fortunate enough to have a church to go to, and there’s no way that they can go, perhaps because their faith has failed them and they don’t make a step. I don’t know.

Paul says:

So, that’s what Brother Branham taught. People said, “Well, Brother Branham, should a Christian pay tithes?”

He said, “If he’s a Christian, he will pay tithes.”

They said, “Should a Christian work?”

He said, “If he’s a Christian, he will work.” How is he going to get by?

1 Corinthians 9:

In other words, the pastor does not have to take wages. He doesn’t have to take tithes. But the people are obligated to pay tithes, whether the man [the pastor] will do it or not.

But if he’s going to live his whole life for God, it’s better that he does because it’s too hard otherwise.

Now, he said:

So, there’s the thing right there that minister’s got to waken up to. Just because they preach and Brother Branham said, “You need a church to go and pay your tithes,” the tithes is not the big thing. It’s the understanding and the spirit behind it.

Let’s go to 2 Corinthians 12:13-14, and see what he says there. He’s talking about himself here, as I understand it.

Now, he said:

Now, this reverses the whole picture again. Though Paul said, “You were an inferior church, because you didn’t tithe.”

And he said, “I’m coming one more time, and I still will not take anything from you, because the pastor is like the parent.”

Now, the pastor is the parent to the church; he’s got children. And the children do not lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

In other words, the sacrifice always begins at the top. That’s the way it is. The minister does not preach for tithes, although the tithes will come in. But he will be responsible for the handling thereof. I’ve got to face it; so does every minister.

But you simply do not build a church for tithe-sake. Nor do you have people come to your church simply for tithe. We have people send tithe here because they get the tapes and never come here. And that’s legitimate. What else can they do? They do with Brother Branham. See?

Now, if we read in 1 Corinthians 9:1-18, which we did not do, we read some of It in 2 Corinthians there, we’ve already read that.

But we listen in here, Paul, as a preacher, left a note here for all the other preachers to follow, and I won’t read it. But we read part of It here in verses 13 and 14.

But you’ll find what Paul tells about his own ministry in Christ, his own experience, his own revelation. And then he tells them I never did charge anybody, nor will I charge.

And then he says here in,

Now, that’s the thing right there: the pastors got to get their eyes onto, that many times the congregation never returns the measure that they could return for the Word preached and the example set.

They will just sit there and not do it anyway. I’m sorry for them, but that’s the way it is. And no preacher can expect one hundred percent.

Now, here I do. I hope for one hundred percent, but I know I have no right to expect it.

Now, watch what he said:

He said, “Could I send someone to try to give my cause and get money and all.” He said, “No, I never did that.” But he said, “The people that came to you, walked in the same spirit that I came to you on.

So, we see here when Brother Branham makes a statement about tithes. You simply cannot jump on to it, like one man began preaching tithing, and he said, “Now, if you don’t pay your tithes, you won’t make the Rapture.”

I can’t buy that. He even boasted that one man got so scared that he sold his car and gave it to him, or gave him his car. He said, “At this rate I may even get some houses.”

I want to tell you something, brother/sister, and I’ve warned you before, and I’m warning you again, that when you get into this Message the way I go into It, and you cut and dry It the way I do It and explain A-B-C-D and 1-2-3-4, and I show you what Brother Branham showed you how God deliberately did things, you soon get away from all that great enthusiasm that you had a free choice in this and that and the other thing that you were taught erroneously, and you get down where you see the sovereignty of God, and it’s just about like you’re eating cardboard instead of cake with icing on it.

And I preach and tell you what goes on in this end time with a mixed multitude. And I let you know, absolutely, that men have conned women in the audience, and women have conned men, and everything else. And despicable things have been done in the name of the Lord.

I’m going to tell you something, and I’ve warned you all along and showed you, that a minister that’s off the Word invariably is caught in adultery, and you’re seeing more and more of it. And you’re going to understand that what a man sows, he will reap.

And you better get used to this: that there are two vines growing together, and the spirit is so much alike it could invade this church here, and like a razor edge it could fool people, unless you’re elect of God and you’re schooled in the Word of Almighty God.

And you might get hard within yourselves and say, “Hey, that brings it down to a place: ‘What is there left?’” I’m going to tell you what’s left. The Resurrection and the Rapture is left.

So, you be careful what you’re hearing and what you’re doing about it. Don’t you be deceived and think, “Hey, this thing is so rough and so tough, I’m going to leave it behind.” I’ll tell you, you leave it behind, it’s going to get rougher and tougher.

I want to tell you, Brother Branham categorically said… I don’t know, I cannot prove what was written by the Knights of Columbus. I don’t know.

I haven’t got any idea, because I wasn’t there when it was written, but it’s supposed to be authentic, which I cannot prove.

I’m of the opinion it is pretty authentic having known the history what went on with the Jesuits and what went on with the churches and their establishments in this world here.

Brother Branham said, “I would sooner have all of that committed onto me than just five minutes in the Tribulation.”

You’d want to read what happened during the great purges, the great times of destruction, the martyrs. I’ve got the Martyrs’ Mirror, about over a thousand pages you can read. I’ve got Fox’s Book of Martyrs. I’ve got others.

And Brother Branham said, “A repeat of all diabolical cunning.”

I don’t know what lies ahead for us. I’ve got no idea, but I know this one thing: that the true Bride is going to get out of here. The foolish virgin will suffer, but she will make it. We don’t want to be in that category.

Now, I’m going to conclude here without going back to a lot of Scripture that I might go into by reading Ezekiel and some of these portions to you, that you can read Ezekiel 34 yourself concerning pastors and all.

But in conclusion, let me say just that I can’t endorse the recent statements made by various ministers that you as people and individuals must have a revelation of who your pastor is.

And that saying, if modified, could be taken, which means, simply to me, that the sheep will recognize the true Word and, thereby, recognize that man is a pastor that they could go to and get help from. I can take that, but I can’t take the other. I cannot do it.

Now, I say this: if it’s required of the sheep to have a revelation of your pastor… One person said that he had a revelation of his pastor; it was his before the foundation of the world.

I won’t dispute those statements, brother/sister, but I can see where they lead. And I’m very unhappy with him, because that spirit gets on the church and pretty soon you begin taking issue.

As one man once said, he went to one fellow, he said, “Brother,” he said, “if an issue came between Brother So and So, and Brother So and So, who would you stand with?”

He said, “I would stand with Brother So and So.”

That man, who is supposed to be a preacher, made a terrible mistake. He should have said, “I’ll stand with the Word.”

Not standing with Lee Vayle or somebody else. Let’s get that flat… Sincere as I am, and as much faith as I’ve got in what the prophet said that I have, what I believe by the grace of God of what I have, I’m not infallible.

Trouble could happen right with me as your pastor here doing what I can. I’m not truly a pastor, but I can pastor.

If it’s required the sheep to have a revelation of their pastor, then do the pastors have a revelation of their sheep? This would, then, open the door for a man to come in and say, “Well. I have a revelation.”

He said, “You should be in my church.”

Well, if you receive it, I’ll help you get there. We’re not so broke we can’t do it. Now, these things are kind of funny, but they’re tough because I’m not about to be sucked in by anybody trying to bring any influence in this church outside of what’s in this pulpit here.

Nor do I have any hope to be in anybody else’s pulpit and influence them. It’s strictly the Word of God, and not anybody putting himself in a position that you have to be in tune with that person and that position and it’s going to do you some good.

You only can put yourself in a tune with that, if you are confident that that is a source of the Word for you.

It is also said that you cannot get a revelation; it’ll take your pastor to give it to you. I do not believe that. I don’t believe that for one minute here. I believe I’ve helped you; there’s no doubt about it.

But, you really didn’t need me; you needed the Holy Ghost, because Brother Branham himself with the full authority, manifested by God, could not give anybody a revelation. Only the Holy Ghost can do it.

And the funny thing is there the dozen people sitting there had dozens of different revelations on the same statement.

I remember one time he preached a sermon, and it was a toughie. And the people came out of the church saying this, that, and the other thing. They said roughly five or seven different things.

Soon as I got the tape, I played it. I said, “Roll her back. Play it again. Roll it back. Play it again.” I listened. I listened.

I wrote down exactly what I heard. I took it to Brother Branham.

I said, “Brother Branham, different friends of mine are saying this, this, this, this. Here is what I say you said.”

I was right on every single count. You could have twelve preachers sitting there, one hundred people with one hundred different ideas. The big thing is: Are you full of the Holy Ghost? That’s what really counts.

Is the minister full of the Holy Ghost? If that minister is, there’ll be one Word coming from him which came from that man, and you’ll be hearing it one way: the way he heard It from him, the way he heard It from God; the way you hear It from me or the man that’s ordained to help you and you will have no problems.

Now, you’ll have problems that are little sketchy things… You know what I mean. But as for getting there, you will not have any problem. God will see that you get here.

Now, listen here: our doors are open to people who claim they are sincere, and they are wrong. We give them welcome, absolutely.

And we’ll see what the Word of God will do for them. Simple as A-B-C. If they need help, they will get help. If they’re past help, there’s nothing I can do for them. Simple as A-B-C.

I will not take the stand that many people take. And I say this tape goes out. And I don’t care whose hand it goes into—no problem.

This is how this church operates. I’m through hearing voices anywhere in the world. I have one voice which came from God by a vindicated prophet. I trust every preacher takes the same stand.

Because in the long run I am going to account for you whether I want to or not, and I will account for everyone who gets those tapes to get help. I must answer.

If I find something different than what I taught, I am obligated to come back and re-teach it.

That’s why I say, time and time again with the prophet, the church is strictly autonomous. It’s indigenous. We do not have anybody telling us what to do and how to do it.

The people are growing. If I were to depart here tomorrow, I’ll leave Thursday, the plane could go down; I could be killed. I may never get back.

But I can tell you this one thing: this church will go on. You will not divide. You will not split. You will not fragment. You will wait. I’ve got that confidence that you will wait and God will send you the man that he wants you to have, and he will be a man with that Word.

So, that leaves us pretty solid here as far as my faith is concerned and what my trust in you is. And I believe that trust is completely mutual that we have a church that is Word-oriented.

As time goes on it’ll be even more so, because I don’t believe the half has even yet been uncovered. I believe we have barely looked at some of the good things.

Some of those great deep things Brother Branham taught are here waiting for every single person sitting here.

And I want you all to count yourselves as benefactors of the living Word of God that is able to take you, and will take you, right through.

Don’t look around and say, “Well, I know this kind of believer and that kind. Could I be one?”

“You,” Brother Branham said, “you believe you are one.”

And if only one person is going to make it in that town, you are the one, and you don’t point your finger and say, “Well, you can’t make it, because I’m going to,” because he’s going to believe that he’s one, and together you’re both believing you’re that one.

So, that ought to make you strong in this Word and strong to go ahead, to move along with the things of God. I believe it will.

The Lord bless you.

Let’s rise and be dismissed.

Gracious, heavenly Father, we’ve taken some time now, seven lessons. We haven’t covered it even as we should cover it; tried to cover things, Lord, without covering too much.

Yet, Lord, we might come back with Your help to say things a little different, to make it a little bit stronger, so that we know just how to work with each other, love each other, help each other, forgive each other… just go right on, knowing that anyone that asks forgiveness must be positively restored.

Anyone stumbling, Lord, must be helped… straighter paths made for the feet.

In other words, buoy him up, help him along, help her along, and not listen to any comments that other people make that’s concerning the defamation or the reprobation of anybody, and say ‘this person cannot repent, this person cannot do so and so, this person that.’

Lord, we don’t go for that here, by Your grace, Father, because in our hearts, Father, we don’t believe that we have any kind of a final say over anybody’s destiny whatsoever.

We can only preach the Word and see what happens. And, Father, that’s how I feel this morning to just preach this Word and see what happens with people.

And by Your grace, Lord, encourage them, and anything I can do to strengthen them. Not to see the Word happens to them, but to see that which has already come into their lives grows more fruit than they’re capable of at this time, because they’re being helped.

And, Lord, I know that You’re helping me, and the people are helping me, so why shouldn’t we be helping each other and go on in this great wonderful exit out of this world, knowing the Holy Spirit, the Pillar of Fire is leading us right into the Millennium, that He Who has descended is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the form of the Holy Spirit, taking Headship of the Church, getting ready now to raise the dead, as Headship goes into full authority.

Lord, God, we are a tremendously, blessed people. And we know those Pharaoh’s armies may be behind us and may be threatening to destroy us.

They’ll drown in the Red Sea the same as they did before, Lord. We’re not trying to hurt anybody, but, Father, we’re trying to get out of here, and You’ve told us how to get out of here.

And if we obey You, Father, love You, and work with You, and You work with us, then we know that everything is just exactly right—the Lord our Shepherd leading us right through this valley of sorrow and tears and all. Father…

[Tape recording ends.]