<TITLE>06. Par 31-38</TITLE>L-31   We could stop here and speak of John. We could stop and speak of Elijah. Nobody knows where Elijah come from. All they know, he just appeared on the scene. The prophets back through the ages, they were nobodies. But God took that to... and bypassed the--the ethics of the church, and the teachings, to make... show that He is God. He takes something that's nothing, to do something with it. He shows His wisdom and His Godhead by doing so, that He takes the nothings. When He first made a man, He just took a ball of clay and made a man out of it. Where it was nothing but clay, but He made a man. And God takes the nothings now, to do the somethings with. And as long as we think we're somethings, then we cannot be used in the hand of God. We must forsake all we ever knew or learned, become parting. Like the great Saint Paul, he said he had to forget all he ever learned, that he might know Christ.

L-32   All their schooling, all their teachings and so forth, was working out to the worst for them. It finally denied Him! The very schooling that they had had for Him, to believe Him, turned around and become His most critical enemy, and crucified Him!

L-33 Do you know that history repeats itself every so often? It's a noted fact. It could happen again right by the side of us. "Oh," you say, "If I'd a-lived then,..." Well, now, if you want to know what you'd a done then, look at your present state now; and you can see what you'd a-done then, because it certainly is revealing.

L-34   Trained to believe His Word, and then when His Word was vindicated before their very eyes, they denied the Word that was made vindication. When God proved what He would do, and said what He would do, and proved what He would do, then they turned around and called this man an "evil spirit" (which cursed them all). Think of what taken place! Think of what caused them; their training caused them not to recognize the very Word made flesh for their day; the very training that they had in their schools, with the very best of teachers.

L-35 And you say, "Well, we wouldn't do that today." Their teachers were far supreme to ours today (superior, rather, to our teachers), and they failed. They didn't have nine hundred and ninety-six different organizations as we have today. They had about three. And in the three, follow down to three, and none of the three recognized It! Just goes to show that what man does is foolishness to God. See?

L-36   Now, they failed to recognize It. Now... And they'd do the same thing again.

L-37 Man... Intention is good, it always is good. And man never changes his posture, he never changes his ways much; I'm talking of the man of the world. Man is always praising God, religious man, for what He done, and always pointing people to what He's going to do, and then ignoring what He's doing! See? That's just man, he's made that way, he's always been that way. And you Bible readers tonight know that that's according to the Word, "right." They always praising God for what He has done, saying what He will do, and ignoring what He's a-doing. That's just a habit of man.

L-38   The reason that they had did this, the teachers, to my opinion now: they had interpreted the Word, 'cause they all believed in a coming Messiah. All Israel believed it, they do yet today. But the reason that they didn't recognize Him, His Message wasn't according to their ecclesiastical fit. They... their interpretation that they had of the Word, the Messiah never manifested Himself in the way that they had interpreted that He would do it. So, and therefore, they did not recognize Him because It didn't fit their interpretation. As I have said before, and say again, "God doesn't need anybody to interpret His Word. He is His Own interpreter."


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