<TITLE>08. Par 29-32</TITLE>L-29 Now, we could stay a long time on these few little Scriptures and things I wanted to refer to. But to hurry along, let's begin now and start back in the Book of Isaiah, and begin with John's first being called "a voice of one crying in the wilderness," some 712 years before his birth.
And when... Zacharias, his father, a priest in his day, was a minister in the temple of the Lord. And he and his wife, Elisabeth, was well-stricken in age. And the Holy Spirit came to Zacharias, and blessed him, and told him about the child, as we all know. But it must've been a strange thing, and a feeling in the heart of that aged couple, when this promised son arrived. And his speech--he'd been dumb until the time that he gave his name, according to God's Word.
See, God's Word is so perfect. And because that one little jot or tittle can in no wise pass out, it cannot pass away until it has been fulfilled. Jesus is coming, and He's coming for a church without a spot or a wrinkle. And not one Word, or one Iota, of That will ever fail. The church will be in that shape when Jesus comes. They're waiting on us.

L-30 Now, notice that Zacharias and Elisabeth... As they were well-stricken in age, they knew that they would not be able to live out the span of life to long enough to see their son--what God had for him in store. But they knowed that God was with him, because the Holy Spirit had promised that promise, and they knowed God would take care of their son. Now, according to the history, they're--they died when he was about nine years old.
And John... How strange these fellows are. Now, it looked like that John, being out of the home of a priest, that he being a religious man, and knowing there was a call in his life, he would've went right straight down to the school and become a priest like his father. Now, that would've been the natural run of thought. When a boy gets a call in his life, the first thing they think about is run over to the seminary somewhere (See?), run to the school, or something on that order: wait till you get your degrees, and so forth, before you preach. And now, John did just vice versa to that.

L-31 Instead of going to the school that his father came out of... He knew there was a call in his life, and he knew that he was to announce--he was to introduce to the world the Messiah, because he was to go before Him, and there couldn't be a mistake in it.
So, instead... He knowed if he went down to the school and told them, "Many of you don't understand it here, but I'm the one that was born of Zacharias, the priest, who got his schooling here in this school of theology. And I've--I... You know my mother, a righteous woman, and you know who I am. So I come down, Bishop, Archbishop, so forth, to--to learn what this Messiah will look like, because I'll have to know what He looks like. I'll have to be sure, because He's going to be a Man. And I'm going to have to know what He looks like so I can truly introduce Him to the world."

L-32 Now, that's an important office. And my brethren, you know we got that same office? Right: truly introducing to the people the Messiah.
So he knowed that if he went down to the school that every man would have a different idea about it, and it would only cause confusion. But John at the age of nine years old went to the wilderness to be alone with God, so that he would not make a mistake. He wanted to know what this Messiah would be, how he'd find Him, what He would look like so that he could introduce Him.
And we find that instead of going to take all of his degrees and come up as a priest as his father was, and follow in the footsteps of his father, he went as far away from the school as he could go, plumb out into the wilderness, alone with God.
I have nothing against the schools. I have nothing against that at all. They're very fine. But sometimes after you have got your degree in school, you still have to go out in the wilderness somewhere to find the will of God. That's right. It is true.


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