<TITLE>20. Par 207-217</TITLE>L-207   Now, we find out it happened... Jesus... To finish my quotation here, this Matthew 11. See, He didn't give John... He say, "Now, wait, I'll give John a book on how to conduct himself, A Believer In Jail." No! He said, "Stand around and watch what happens. Go back and show John what happens: the lame walk, the blind see, the dead's raised up, and the Gospel's preached to the poor." Just exactly what the prophet said would come to pass. "And blessed is you who's not offended in Me."

L-208 And his disciples started across the hill, He turned, said, "What went ye out to see when you went to see John? Did you go to see a man that's cattering in soft raiments, and so forth, the turned-around collars, and all this, you know?" Said, "They're in kings' palaces, they kiss the babies and bury the dead, he don't know how to hold a two-handed sword." See? Said, "What'd you go to see? A--a reed that's shaken by any wind, 'Come on, John, I'll give you more money if you come over here'? ("Well, bless God, I ain't Methodist no more, I'll be Pentecostal, I'll be Presbyterian, I'll be this, that, the one with more money.") Said, "You never did see a reed shaken with the wind." Said, "What did you go to see there, a prophet?" He said, "Yes, and more than a prophet."

L-209   John had just paid the poorest tribute he could to Jesus. Know it had to come that way; asked Him after he introduced Him and seen that Sign above Him, he said, "This is the Messiah," then he comes and asks, "Are you He, or do we look for another one?"

L-210 But, look, Jesus knowing that, He turned and give him a tribute, said, "What did you go to see, a reed shaken with the wind?" Said, "There's never been a man borned of a woman as great as John, till this day." That's right! What a compliment to pay the man!

L-211 But, you see, there it was, that prophecy had been fulfilled right before their face, with a forerunner coming, exactly what Malachi said. Now, that's Malachi 3, not Malachi 4.

L-212 John the Baptist was Malachi 3, Jesus said so. When they asked Him, said, "Why does the scribes say..."
Said, "He's already come. They did what they said."

L-213 But, remember, Malachi 4, immediately after the Malachi 4 prophet, the fourth coming of John the Baptist in... or the... of Elijah. The fifth coming will be the Revelation 2, the witnesses, when he comes for the remnant of the Jews. But God has used that same Spirit five times: grace, J-e-s-u-s, it's all been Jesus all the time; f-a-i-t-h, g-r-a-c e, and so forth. You see? The number five is a grace number and He used it. Won't use just three, won't use just two, three, four. It's five times He uses it.

L-214   Now, notice quickly now, as we finish up. He said, "This is he who was spoken, 'I send My messenger before My face.'"

L-215 But in Malachi 4, immediately after that prophet prophesied, the whole earth is to be burnt over, and the righteous walk out upon the ashes of the wicked. See? Exactly! See, that's the Malachi 4 prophecy.

L-216 And notice in Luke 17, where He said, "In the last days, it'll come like Sodom and Gomorrah again." Have we got it? We got Sodom and Gomorrah again? The whole nations, look at it. Look what he just said about England, the whole thing is perverted. Even the food is perverted. And looky here what science... You see in Reader's Digest, I believe it's last month, they said, "Little boys and girls go through middle age between twenty and twenty-five years old." I meet them in the meeting, little girls in menopause, and twenty, twenty-two years old, in menopause. What's it lotted to? The perversion, hybriding. That's exactly what corrupted, the whole thing's corrupted the body. We're nothing but a mess of--of... just like a hybrid plant.

L-217   You take a hybrid plant and set it out there, every germ will run right to it. But a genuine, original plant, a germ will go away from it, he can't stand on it. And that's what's the matter with the church, we've hybrid it.


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