<TITLE>06. Par 55-64</TITLE>L-55 He could thoroughly identify himself in God's Word. He said, for remember, he identified himself in Malachi the 3rd chapter, see, as the messenger to forerun the coming of the Lord. He knowed the coming was so close until he--he had to come out. Well, the people thought he was a wild man, just a--a--a--a fool. See?

L-56 "A nut," we'd call it today. Reason I chose that word "nut," it sounds flat. But, yet, it, it's a good word for what I want to use it for, because that's the way the street expression would, will use it today. "Just a--a common nut," we'd call him.

L-57   Well, here is John the Baptist. He just simply staying out there in that wilderness, preaching his little sermons, up-and-down there, on--on the Jordan, walking up-and-down that banks of the river, crying, "The--the hour is at hand! And come out and separate yourself. The Messiah is coming!" Why, I'd imagine the priests and all them, he had become just a regular nut. That's all. See, that's all he was, just a oddball. And them that followed him become oddballs, just simply fools.

L-58 Do you know our Lord was declared the same thing when He come, a mad man? See? He didn't go over into the cities and--and in their great, or--or join in with the great organizations, and things. He was calling a people. He was calling out. And He was considered, by the religious, his day, a regular nut.

L-59   Just like Paul was in his day, a trained man, and yet would--would do such a thing as he did, separate himself from the rest the world, and from the denominations, and--and try to call a people. He was an apostle to the Gentile church. He is our apostle, we--we know that, to the Gentile church. He was the nut that brought the Gentile church out of Roman heathenism, and pagan worships of the day.

L-60   Martin Luther, he was a nut to the Catholic church. See? Could you imagine a priest that had--had throwed his, all of his teachings, away, of the church, and refused to give this communion because the church said, "It is the body of Christ"? And he knowed he... the--the nuns and them had made that kosher up in there. He--he knew that wasn't Christ. That was a piece of bread, see, a little sugar wafer. And he knew that, that that wine was no literal Blood of Christ. It only represented It. So, he--he--he threw it down, in--in his--his honest conviction, and he wanted nothing more to do with it. See? He--he--he was through with it.

L-61   Now, probably, the Catholic church said, "Oh, let him alone. Look what a--a little group he's got out there. What is he? He's got just a--a false. And us, a big church. That's all it is. It's just a thing." But, you see, he was the nut, see, that was holding it together, see, in the reformation. He brought forth the reformation.

L-62 How about after he organized and got to a place... And--and after his death, and the--the message that he preached had finished, then the church got so cold and starchy again, till God raised up another nut, uh-huh, called John Wesley. That's right. Well, he was a nut to the Anglican church. See? But what did he do? He--he saved the world, the world, the Church that was in the world, may I say. He saved the Church that was in the world. Why? By becoming a nut. That's right. He saved.

L-63   What then? And now, then, we come along after his time, and the great Wesleyan age passed over, and then we had the Baptists from John Smith, then they had Alexander Campbell, and--and then we had Buddy Robinson of the Nazarene. And finally it just kept waving off, away from the real spin.

L-64 And then God raised up another bunch of nuts: Pentecost. And they become a nut to the people. They're crazy, to the world. But what did they do? They did a great work. They certainly did, the Pentecostal age.


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