<TITLE>11. Par 100-113</TITLE>L-100   Now, if you notice there, there's a great lesson. John was the greatest man on earth, at the time. Jesus said, "There never was a man borned of a woman as great as he," to that time. And he was a prophet. You believe that? Now, remember, if the Word of God will come to anything in the land, it'll be a prophet. That's always God's way. Do you believe that Jesus was the Word manifested in flesh? So there's only one way He can come to be introduced; not by the priests.

L-101 He didn't go up and say, "Caiaphas, will you introduce Me?" If He did, He made the same mistake that David did in our lesson the other day; see, if He went up to the church, and said, "Will you introduce Me?"

L-102   Just notice when He was borned, even. When He was borned, He was borned in the shadow of the church. And they was probably rang the bells and everything, but it was shepherds that recognized Him, and Magi. See?

L-103 And here He is now, on... ready for His ministry. And if He is the Word...

L-104 According to God's great plan, the Word can only... "The Lord God does nothing until He first reveals It to His servants the prophets." That's always His pattern, has to be; when the Seals were opened, when anything else. Any major event taking place in the earth, God reveals it to His prophets.

L-105 And John was the prophet, for he was prophesying "He'd come."

L-106 Then down off the side of a hill one day... when a discussion was going on, a bunch of priests standing around. And they said, "Do you mean to tell me that you call yourself a 'prophet,' and stand over there in that mud?" (not in a church, because they wouldn't have him) "Stand over in that mud, and tell me that the hour's coming when the great Jehovah who ordained these sacrifices, when great Jehovah who built this temple, who came into it as a Pillar of Fire, 'the day will come when that daily sacrifice will be taken away'?"

L-107 He said, "There will come a Man, and He's among you now (somewhere out there), and He will take away the sin." The priest was disgusted with him.

L-108   John looked up! Now, what is he? The prophet! And here is the Word, there comes the Word coming right straight to the prophet, right to the water. John said, "Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. There He is, that's Him." Jesus never spoke a word, walked right out into the water. And I can see there, standing in that water (think of a drama), two of the greatest that ever struck the earth: God the Word, and His prophet.

L-109 Notice, the Word come to the prophet in this dispensation of grace, in the water (uh-huh). I thought you'd catch it (uh-huh). In the water! The first revelation of the Word was in the water. Now you see where the Bride started, the Evening-light Message? In the water! The Word, true Word not mixed up with creeds, but come to the prophet in the water, by the water.

L-110   Notice! Could you imagine the eyes of the Word and the eyes of the prophet meeting in the water? Oh, that's too much for me. There stood the prophet, there stood the Word, looking in each others' eyes. And the prophet said, "I have need to be baptized of Thee, why comest Thou unto me?"

L-111 And the Word said... It has to be true.
Now let me give a drama here:

L-112 "John, you're a prophet, you know the Word." See? "You recognize Me, you know Who I am."

L-113 "I have need to be baptized of Thee," John said.


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