<TITLE>06. Par 56-67</TITLE>L-56 And not one time did ever a person or a group of people ever organize theirself together upon a message but what they died and went on the shelf and never raised again. There is no history. The Lutherans, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Baptists, the Pentecostals, and so forth, never raise again, when they go to grouping It.
God deals with individuals.

L-57 Notice, He is so unusual to the way of thinking. See, we get off in a trend, and we have to believe It this way. And then God comes around with His Word that He has promised, and identifies Himself in that Word. This group can't go to It, because it don't believe in It. See, it's done cut itself off from It.

L-58   Like Joseph, he was a son of David, and a good man, Joseph the husband of Mary. He was a good man, and no doubt read the Bible, the scrolls, continually, because... and was looking for a Messiah to come, and should have knowed what the Scripture said that would take place. Isaiah said, "A virgin shall conceive."

L-59 Well, now, he was going with this young girl, Mary, probably eighteen years old, and he was probably a bit older. And then when they were engaged to get married, she shows up to be mother. Now that was kind of hard for Joseph to kind of settle on that. No doubt but what Mary told him the visit of Gabriel. But we notice, the way his character was leading him, he doubted it.

L-60 Now she was found to be mother before they were wed. And, in the Bible, that punishment is death, by being stoned. A unwedded woman being becoming mother, she had to be stoned. There was no prostitution in Israel. It was put out. So we find out, in Deuteronomy, it tells us that.

L-61   Now we find that, Mary, looked like she was trying to use Joseph just for a shield of some act that she had done. Because, if she was found already to be mother before they were married, then she must be stoned, and she must have someone now that could stand as a shield for her. And that looked, whole lot, like it was what she was trying to do.

L-62 But Joseph looking into her big pretty eyes, and she would say, "Joseph, Gabriel said to me, 'The Holy Spirit shall overshadow thee, and this Thing that will be conceived in thee--in thee is of the Holy Spirit. It's God. That's what it's going to be called, the "Son of God."'" And, Joseph, he--he--he wanted to believe that, but it was so unusual. That never happened before.

L-63   And that's just the way today. If we could only... If I had some way of getting the people to see that the unusualness of anything, if it's identified by the Word, then its characteristics proves what it is. It's God in action.

L-64 Joseph should have knowed this. He should have knowed, "A virgin shall conceive." But he was honest about it. He didn't want to put her away, privily, but he--he was thinking on doing it.

L-65 And then the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. Did you ever wonder why He appeared in a dream? There was no prophets of them days. Their dream was so simple, it needed no interpretation. Said, "Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." See, then, that settled it. See, He come to him in a dream, secondarily. But, you see, there was no prophet there to identify that Word, that, "This is the virgin that shall conceive." See? So, therefore, He appeared to him in a dream, because he was honest and just and a good man.

L-66 And I believe God will come to any good man, in some way, and identify His doings to that good man, for the age, if that man is called of God for that age.

L-67   Now, but it was so unusual, they just could not hardly grasp it. But, always, the appearing according to the promised Word for the age, all this unusualness.
Now there is some people might go around, and say, "Well, this is unusual, that's God. This is unusual."


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