Read Contenders

THEY ARE NOT ALL CHILDREN

JULY 1983

TEXT: MALACHI 4:5-6

I DO NOT EXPECT EVERYONE WHO MAY HEAR OR READ THIS MESSAGE TO BE OVERJOYED BY WHAT WE WILL SAY, BUT I FEEL THAT AFTER 18 YEARS OF UTTER CONFUSION AMONG PEOPLE WHO CLAIM TO BE FOLLOWING A MESSAGE OF TRUTH, SOMEONE NEEDS TO SAY SOMETHING THAT CAN HELP ESTABLISH THOSE WHO DO DESIRE TO FOLLOW A TRUE REVELATION. THEREFORE I COVET THE PRAYERS OF GOD’S TRUE CHILDREN, AS I ONCE AGAIN OPEN MY BIBLE TO MALACHI 4:5-6, TO READ A VERY FAMILIAR TEXT AS A FOUNDATION FOR WHAT WILL BE SAID. NATURALLY YOU WILL HEAR ME SAY MANY THINGS THAT I HAVE SAID BEFORE, BUT IN ADDITION TO THAT, I BELIEVE YOU WILL HEAR SOME THINGS THAT WILL CAUSE YOU TO EXAMINE YOURSELVES, TO SEE IF YOU TRULY ARE FOLLOWING THE MESSAGE OF GOD’S 7^TH CHURCH AGE MESSENGER.

ONE MORNING LATELY, I HAD BEEN PRAYING AND READING THE SCRIPTURES, AND HAD ALREADY CLOSED MY BIBLE, WHEN SOMETHING WITHIN SAID, “OPEN TO MALACHI 4, AND READ.” NOW WE HAVE ALL READ THOSE FAMILIAR SCRIPTURE VERSES MANY TIMES, AND MOST OF US COULD QUOTE THEM, BUT I OPENED MY BIBLE AND READ THEM AGAIN, AND WHEN I CAME OUT OF THE ROOM, I SAID TO MY WIFE, “HONEY, THERE IS A MESSAGE COMING TOGETHER WITHIN ME, THAT I MUST PREACH SHORTLY.” I COULD SEE HOW WE HAVE BEEN READING RIGHT OVER THE VERY BASIC TRUTH OF THOSE TWO LITTLE VERSES. WE HAVE SEEN THE ELIJAH FULFILLMENT OF BOTH PARTS OF IT, BUT WE HAVE FAILED TO EXAMINE THE CROP OF B-E-L-I-E-V-E-R-S, OR MAKE BELIEVERS THAT HAVE ATTACHED THEMSELVES TO THIS LAST DAY MOVE OF GOD. WHAT DID THAT ELIJAH MESSAGE PRODUCE? TO WHAT EXTENT WAS THIS SCRIPTURE FULFILLED, AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE? IT IS A VERY SHORT LITTLE SCRIPTURE, BUT THAT JUST LETS US SEE THAT GOD DOES NOT HAVE TO TALK ALL DAY TO GET SOMETHING SAID. SCHOLARS CAN WRITE VOLUMES FROM WHAT GOD SAYS IN ONLY A FEW SHORT WORDS. IN OTHER WORDS, ONLY THE HOLY GHOST CAN REVEAL THE DEPTH OF TRUTH THAT IS ACTUALLY HIDDEN IN THE WORD OF GOD WRITTEN BY HOLY MEN OF OLD INSPIRED BY GOD FOR THAT PURPOSE. MALACHI WAS THE LAST OLD TESTAMENT WRITING PROPHET ISRAEL EVER HAD, AND HE CLOSED HIS WRITINGS WITH THE WORDS WE ARE USING FOR OUR TEXT.

Let us read the scripture now, Mal. 4:5-6, and begin our message. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to THEIR fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” There are two things that stand out, both in the first, and the last advent. It is FATHERS, and CHILDREN, then CHILDREN, and FATHERS. I believe the best way to approach this subject though, is to see what God had prophesied even before this was to be fulfilled, concerning the man upon whom this spirit was to rest. But first of all we must settle something within our own heart and mind. Is this Bible we carry, the sole source of authoritative scripture, or are there many books, all equal in authority with the holy Bible? Much to Satan’s delight, there are a lot of people claiming to be following this message of truth, who hold many books equal with, or even above the Bible. These are those who stir up confusion everywhere they go, and Bro. Branham’s name suffers reproach because of it.

LONGSTANDING PROPHECIES FULFILLED

Let us look into the writing of Isaiah now, and read this prophecy that was recorded 700 years before Christ. Before Malachi, Isaiah looked down through the scope of time, in the Spirit, and prophesied these words, 40:3, “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: (It sounds like someone is going to build a super highway right out through the desert, doesn’t it?) And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Brothers and Sisters: I hope you will notice that verse 5, in particular. It says, The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, but you have to realize that this is all tied to the voice of verse 8. It is those who are drawn to that VOICE, that will see the glory of the Lord together; not all flesh of all mankind. It is the voice, that does the preparing of the way, and not everyone will hear that voice. Furthermore, God gets in no hurry. It was 300 years between Isaiah and Malachi, and another 400 years before the actual prophesied event ever took place, and almost 2000 years more before Malachi 4:5&6, would be completely fulfilled. Let us read Malachi 3:1 now though, for we are laying stepping stones that should lead to a true revelation. What Isaiah called, a voice, Malachi called, a messenger. Notice now, “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: (or look for) behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.” That one verse spoke of two different messengers. The first was John the Baptist sent to prepare the way of the second which was Jesus the Christ. Jesus was the messenger of the covenant of grace that opened up the plan of salvation that included us Gentiles. We have been made partakers of all that was wrought at Calvary. That is what Paul was referring to in Ephesians 2:11-13, when he said, “Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision in by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made right by the Blood of Christ.” In other words, Before the advent of Christ, the Jews had a way to approach God, but Gentiles did not. That is why Paul wrote those words; he was reminding them, that before Calvary, Gentiles were without hope in God, for the covenants of promise were only to the Jews. But now, Praise God! We all have access to God through the messenger of the covenant of grace, Jesus Christ. When Jesus was born, the spiritual state of the Jews who had the promises of God to look to, was just like the spiritual state of Gentiles today. There was one race of people, one little nation, all under the same covenant, yet they had ever so many different beliefs concerning the law of Moses, and that caused divisions among them, just like it is today, in the Gentile church world. They had the Pharisees and the Sadducees, which were the two major religious bodies. But they also had the Zealots, the Herodians, and the Essenes. The Pharisees were the most strict adherers to their interpretation of the law of Moses. They are the ones that enjoyed the great revival under the leadership of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and those coming out of Babylonian captivity. You read how they built the platform, and would stand up, and read the word of God, and the people would weep and repent. It lets us see that God was seeking to restore them back to His word, and in that particular generation, there was a zealous fervor generated in that direction, but future generations did not have that same zeal. Oh yes, in the flesh, they perfected certain religious rituals, but spiritually they were cold. They had their own interpretation of the scriptures that spake of the Messiah which was to come, the Elijah, and the certain prophet which would be like Moses, and they loved to sit in their synagogues and read about them. They had a very strict view of what true holiness was according to the law, and they loved to be recognized as a holy people, but their holiness was external. That is why Jesus and John always had to rebuke them publicly. Externally, you could not lay a finger on their lives, for they exerted every effort to be looked upon as a holy people. Saul (the apostle Paul) was a Pharisee, and by his own testimony, according to their interpretation of the law, blameless. But he later said, All those things that were gain to me, I now count them loss for Christ. In other words, when you have the true Spirit of holiness in you, you do not have to work so hard to appear holy. True holiness just automatically shows up on the outside.

TRUE HOLINESS IS WITHIN

Sometimes I just get to thinking of what those carnal minded Jews did to true holiness, and then I cannot help but compare it to what religious systems are doing in our very age of time. Starting right with the Methodists, to the Nazarenes, to the Pilgrim Holiness, the Church of God, the Assemblies of God, Free Pentecost, Pentecostal Church of God, and right on up to the Jesus name Pentecostals, they have all done the same thing to true holiness; they have murdered it, and made themselves a holy shell to wear externally. They put it on, and they take it off at will, but if you break that shell, you will find underneath it, something that is as carnal and mean as the old nature itself. They are religious, but they know absolutely nothing about true holiness. They claim to believe the word of God, but the sad part is, many of them are just like the Jewish Sadducees. They do not believe in the resurrection of the dead, nor anything else of the supernatural. Some of these Church of Christ preachers have publicly offered a thousand dollars to anyone who would heal certain people of their ranks. No, they are not offering to pay for healing, a lot of people would gladly do that; they are just trying to convince poor unstable souls, that there is no such thing taking place in our day. They even claim that the baptism of the Holy Ghost was only for the apostles of Christ, and all miracles ceased when the apostles passed off the scene. I do not know why such people even bother to read the bible. What benefit could such unbelievers possibly receive from God? Surely they do not believe that they will ever enter into God’s eternal rest. Hell is awaiting all such as deny the very hope of true believers. These modern day Sadducees shall not escape the wrath of God, for they go to great extremes trying to destroy the simple faith of those who believe that the word of God means exactly what it says. We do not try to build our lives around the supernatural manifestations of the Spirit of God, but we most certainly do believe that God still uses supernatural means to accomplish certain things of His plan and purpose. We leave all of this to God’s sovereignty though, realizing that we have no right to demand supernatural manifestations in our daily walk with Him. Neither do we look upon ourselves as being so holy that we must hide out in a cave somewhere, to keep from being contaminated by the world. The Bible teaches us that God called us to be a light in the world. We are not to hide that light under a bushel, but rather let it shine as bright as possible in this old sin cursed world. These “so called” Christians that separate themselves completely from the world, are worse than a soldier that is AWOL from his post of duty. God cannot even talk to them. Any religious extreme will put you out of communication with the Lord. That is why God had to send that Elijah Spirit before the first advent of Christ; most of the Jewish society was so set in their ways, that it took some preparation ahead of time, in order that any of them would be in a condition to receive Christ. Oh, there were a few such as Zacharias, Elizabeth, Mary, and certain others, that God could talk to, but they were certainly in a minority category; they were not in the main stream or religion. God looked upon the humble attitude of Zacharias, and saw something in him that He could not see in the other priests of that hour. Therefore He sent Gabriel to him, to announce something that was getting ready to take place. When Zacharias went into the temple to burn incense, there stood Gabriel the angel of the Lord, at the right side of the altar of incense, and he was afraid. But the angel said to him, “Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.” He said some other things to Zacharias, but verse 17 carries the main thought of what we are dealing with. “And he shall go before Him (the Lord) in the spirit and power of Elias (Elijah) to turn the hearts of the FATHERS to the CHILDREN.” Brothers and Sisters, please notice that Gabriel stopped quoting Malachi 4:6, right in the middle of the verse, and added a different statement, leaving the last half of verse 6, to be fulfilled by another man that would have that Elijah anointing upon him. Instead of saying, “And the heart of the CHILDREN to their FATHERS,” as Malachi did, Gabriel concluded his statement by saying, “And the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Saints: There is a picture of the grace of God. He sent John out to get the attention of the people of his hour, both the religious as well as the sinners, and when a bunch of those publicans and harlots and other such sinners believed John’s message, repented, and was baptized, (Hallelujah!) They were justified before God. They were then, wise children, ready to walk with God, ready to enter into a new dispensation of time; for John’s ministry was before Calvary, and the New Covenant required the shedding of that innocent blood to put it into effect.

JOHN’S MINISTRY BEGINS

All right now, we have John the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth in the picture, a promised son, to an old couple that was childless up until then. God gave them a son, but they had to give him back to the Lord, for he had a work to do in the redemption plan of God, and when that work was finished, so would John’s life be finished, for King Herod had his head cut off just to please his wife, simply because John had said to him, It is not lawful for you to have her. But let us look at John for a few minutes, for I believe the picture of his life has been terribly distorted by your great theologians through the years. Most of them speak of him as though he grew up out in the wilderness alone. I cannot accept such a picture of his life. Of course, the Bibles tells us that he was filled with the Holy Spirit from his Mother’s womb; therefore I do believe that God instructed him in many things as he grew up, but I also believe that he grew up, in the home of his parents, just like other boys did. He knew there was a work for him to do, and I believe he knew when the time was getting close, for that work to begin. I believe that is when he somehow just got to feeling like, I have just got to get alone for awhile. So he went down into the Jordan Valley, out into the wilderness, and when he reappeared, he was clothed with camel’s hair, and a leather skin, and eating nothing but locusts and wild honey, and he had the word of the Lord for those that went out to hear him preach. Now some of these Bible scholars have projected the idea that John joined himself to that bunch of Essene Jews, that lived down by the Dead Sea, but that theory will not stand the test, for John’s manner of life, and the way he dressed was completely opposite to them. They were vegetarians, and John liked those grasshopper legs. Actually, in my opinion, the only good thing those Essene Jews ever did was make copies of the scripture scrolls, and hide them in those caves where they remained until a few years ago, when a little Arab boy looking for his goat, came across them. But as I said earlier, those Essene Jews were two pious and holy, and self centered, to have anything to do with a wild looking character such as John. They lived in a holy shell, thinking that would put them in the will of God, but God had nothing to do with them. He just left them there in their little shell until the Roman army ripped it to pieces, and layed their camp waste. Now, do not misunderstand me. They were law abiding people. They were even stricter than the Pharisees; but they were a minority group, and many of their doctrines were completely contrary to the word of God. There was absolutely no marriage among those people, and if they managed to convert a family to their beliefs, they would break up that family in order to assure their celibacy. They also detested animal sacrifice at the temple, an ordinance of God. They were like a lot of people are today; they didn’t believe in killing anything, for any reason, so when you look at the whole picture, there was no way they were going to allow a character like John to lie down in one of their huts. He just simply did not match up with their holy standards. To most people, he probably looked like a wild man. But I assure you of one thing; he had a revelation, and he had a commission to preach it. Therefore when he stepped out into the midst of some people one day, preaching repentance, he was the voice of Isaiah 40, verse 3, the messenger of Malachi 3, verse 1-13, and the Elijah of Malachi 4, verse 5, to turn the heart of those religious Jewish fathers to the children. Now, did that mean that those fathers would repent, and follow the instructions of John as he prepared the way for the Lord Jesus to come on the scene? No. But their attention was centered upon what was taking place down there by the Jordan river. They either had to go themselves, or send someone, to find out just exactly what was taking place. Those that went themselves did not fool old John though, for he looked to a bunch of Pharisees and Sadducees one day and said to them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? You bring forth fruits that demonstrate repentance first. (That is not his exact words, but that is what he was referring to.) He said, Do not bother to say anything about Abraham being your father, for I say unto you, that God is able of those stones to raise up children unto Abraham. He didn’t stop there; he really got them told before he stopped. “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” Do you think John was speaking of the natural fruit trees that stood there? No. He was using that terminology to speak of those great ecclesiastical trees that stood so tall. They knew what he meant. This is all a part of preparing the way for the Lord. Isaiah referred to it as a highway in the desert, and we all know that when you build a highway, you have to take down some trees that stand in the way, so just give this a spiritual application, and you will see the kind of trees that had to be cut down to prepare the way for the Lord.

WHERE JOHN PREACHED

Now let me say this, John did not give to the children, the faith they were to have; he just introduced them to the One that would give them the foundation, and the faith. That is why John kept saying, I am not the one you are looking for, but He is coming, after me. John was not trying to be anything himself; he was only fulfilling something he was born to fulfill. He was a voice in the wilderness. Let me try to give you a little mental picture of the setting here. The summit of Mt. Zion in Jerusalem is 2700 feet above sea level, and when you leave there, going to where John was preaching and baptizing, you go down, down, down for about 16 to 18 miles winding around crooked roads which in John’s day were nothing more than caravan routes from Jerusalem to the Jordan Valley. By the time you reach the Jordan River you have descended approximately 4000 feet, for the Jordan Valley, or where the Jordan River flows into the Dead Sea is 1287 feet below sea level. Therefore we understand that John was not sent to literally build a natural highway over those mountain peaks from the Jordan Valley to Mt. Zion. He was building a spiritual highway in the hearts of some people. But how did he get the attention of the people? How did he get the first ones to come where he was? It is very simple; every stream of water always had (before bridges) a shallow place where it could be crossed by wading, or by ox cart, or whatever. That place was called the ford, meaning, a place where the river is crossable. The roads would always wind around through the terrain to that ford, and that is where old John went to begin his ministry. He would preach to the people as they crossed the river, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and he had the water right there, to baptize them. Now some would say, If the river was shallow, how could he baptize them? The Jordan was just like all other streams, in that way. You could have a shallow place where the water was only a few inches deep, and a few feet away it could be over your head. I guarantee you one thing, there were pools of water in the Jordan River that were deep enough to fulfill the purposes of God, and that is all that really matters. Furthermore, do not try to visualize a great crowd of people out there listening to John preach the first few days he was out there. In the beginning it was probably just one or two, or a half dozen at a time, but as they went on their way, and began to tell about him, that caused others to come, until people were coming from every direction to investigate this strange occurrence. Of course, there were a few Jews looking for John all along, for they knew what the angel had told Zacharias, but you have to remember, this is 30 years later. Many of those that knew first hand of the prophecy, had already passed from the scene in death. Nevertheless the Bible says that they went out to hear him from Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan. Among those who went to hear him, you could have heard many reasons why they came, but from among those that came, there were enough sincere ones to fulfill God’s purpose in it all. These truly repented, confessed their sins, and were baptized, and they looked for the One that John had said would come later. They were ready to receive Him, when He came. That is why John’s disciples came to him one day, and said, (John 3:26) “Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.” Did that disturb John? Absolutely not; it pleased him. He knew his purpose had been fulfilled. Notice how he answered them. “A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him.” He showed no jealousy, nor disappointment, as you might find among preachers in our day. He was glad to know that the Messiah was on the scene for he looked for Him too.

EFFECTS OF JOHN’S PREACHING

I have stressed a certain point in other messages, that I also want to stress in this one. Jesus was not born, the incarnate God. He was the Son of God. He was perfect in every way, but for the first 30 years of His life, He was just that. He only became the incarnate God after He came to John to be baptized of him. When He came up out of the water, and the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove, and remained, He was then, the incarnate God. The Father was then in Him, but not before. Naturally some will say, But the angel appeared to the shepherds and told them, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” What about that? You have to realize that in the mind of God every prophecy is as a finished thing. Everything was spoken from the positive point of view, for with God, there is no doubt, nor hope so. It is just like Isaiah 9:6. Many who read that verse immediately apply all those titles to the little baby Jesus, when actually He was 30 years old before they were rightfully applied to Him. Nevertheless we have John at the river preaching, and baptizing repentant sinners, and this strange occurrence has caught the attention of the Jewish religious leaders in the headquarters at Jerusalem. The temple was at Jerusalem. All the records were kept at Jerusalem, and that is where the fathers were, the fathers that Malachi had spoken of some 400 years before. Now just exactly who were these fathers? Saints, you must see them from the standpoint of their spiritual identity. They were not just some Jewish men who had some sons. They were Scribes, priests, and elders who stood in the ranks of the multitude, but were spiritual overseers and guides to the rest of them. There is no genetic relationship included in the term fathers, as we see it used in these scriptures. Stephen used the term, and so did Paul. Men, brethren, and fathers, was the way both of these men opened up their defense before the Jews that questioned them. It was a term ascribed to a man in office. Therefore let us continue now, and see what effect John’s preaching had on those fathers. We have to look at these scriptures very closely to get the true picture of what Malachi’s prophecy covered. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children.” That is as far as John fulfilled this scripture, so we will hold the rest of that verse 6, for the proper time. We just want to think at this time, about what the first part of this verse really amounted to. First though, let me say this, many of those Jews that looked for Elijah, failed to understand that it was only the Elijah anointing that God was going to send. This anointing always dealt with apostasy. It was a God identifying spirit that always led men to repentance from out of apostasy. But let us look at the words heart, and fathers. We all know that the physical heart in man is only an organ that pumps the blood of life through the physical body, so it is not turned to anything. But on the other hand, have you ever heard anything with your ears, that just seemed to have a quickening effect within your innermost being? I am sure you all have at one time or another. I am also reasonably sure that you have experienced the opposite of that. You would hear something that would cause a little feeling of fear or fright within you, something of a negative nature. Either way though, you hear it with your natural ears first, and your mind must then decide whether it is of a benefit to you or not. In other words, your mind is like a transmitter, transmitting something that your whole being is affected by, and that is why those Judiastic fathers reacted as they did. I believe you are beginning to see what John’s preaching did to those old Judiastic fathers. For hundreds of years they had been on the same old repetitional merry go round, spiritually speaking, and all the time they were getting farther and farther away from God with their traditions, and their interpretations of the scrolls. But then word came to them, that there was a wild man down by the river, preaching about the kingdom of God. This caused their ears to prick up. What they were hearing was not necessarily a joyful report on their part, for they would first of all, question the authority of any man who would do what John was doing. Naturally the most prominent ones hesitated to go themselves, to investigate, but they did not hesitate to send others of their number to stand in the crowd as spies. Day after day, John stood at his post of duty down by the Jordan, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (The writers did not give the full text of John’s sermons, but I am sure he had many things to say to those who came out to hear him; good news for some, and rebuke for others.) As time passed, and the news spread, they were coming by the droves, and John was baptizing them right and left, as they repented and confessed their sins. Now, who was being baptized? It was not the fathers, yet. It was the down and out class of Jewish society. Spiritual dropouts, you might say. Jesus spoke of how publicans, harlots, and sinners believed John’s preaching, repented, and was baptized, and entered into the kingdom, and said to those others, But you are left without.

A HIGHWAY FOR THE LORD

We do not want to leave you with the idea that only prostitutes and that class of people came to John for baptism, but we do need to realize that it was not the Judiastic fathers that first came to him. It was the down and outers, that had just about lost all hope, spiritually speaking. Because of apostasy, spiritual death had set in, so God made the first move. (He always makes the first move.) He sent John with a message to restore something, and that something was spiritual reality, and hope in God. I can just see a lot of those poor souls, as they stood there with tears streaming down their cheeks, waiting for their turn to be baptized. John built that highway for the Lord while standing right there in the old Jordan River. It did not matter how high, nor how low they were, according to man’s standards, nor how crooked their lives were before. When John raised them out of the water, the high ones were made low, the low ones were elevated, and the crooked lives were straightened out. That is how the mountains and hills were made low, and the valleys lifted up, and the crooked made straight. It was a highway in the hearts of repentant sinners, where the Lord would have full right of way. God was not coming down, to ride up and down a highway from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea; He was coming to dwell in the hearts of a people that had been made ready to receive Him. Who were they? They were the children of Malachi 4:6. It is true that they were the children genetically, of that Jewish society, but that is not what gives them that identity in Malachi’s prophecy. Their Malachi identity, is that they were going to be children of God. Potentially they already were, in the mind of God, but the manifestation of it came about there at the Jordan River. Now John did not make them children, but he prepared the way for them to become children of God, and they came from far and near; it was not just a little group of local people from the immediate vicinity. That is what got the attention of the fathers. They just had to find out what was really taking place down there. Up until this time, John had been elevating the valleys, and straightening out the crooked places, but when those Judiastic fathers began to come into the crowd, he started blasting the tops off of the those mountains. With one huge blast he brought down a bunch of them; “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” In the churches of what the world looks upon as Christianity, they take plenty of time to honor those religious big shots. We will have Dr. So and So to read some scripture, and Bishop This and That to lead us in prayer, and all such like, but John could not have cared less about honoring anyone but God. Therefore He said also, “Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance; and think not to say within yourselves, (Be sure you get this point here.) We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” John knew that because of their natural heritage, these Jewish fathers were depending on the fact that they could say, We are Abraham’s seed. We believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We keep the law of Moses. But who are you? I’m just a voice. Hallelujah! The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. You hear the same spirit speaking in our day. I have heard people say, My mother was a saintly old Methodist, and so was my grandmother. Therefore I was born a Methodist, and I will die a Methodist. What was good enough for them is good enough for me. Listen to me, people, No born again child of God will say that, for we know that God does not judge us, nor favor us, just because our parents were a certain way. This is an individual walk with God. Your genetical background does not mean anything to God, as far as your soul’s salvation is concerned. Yes, those fathers came out to look John over, believing all along that they were children of God, just because they could trace their heritage back to Abraham to whom God promised a blessing to him and his seed after him. Saints, do not ever forget what the scriptures say about Abraham; He believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, and that is the only was any of us can stand before God, righteous simply by believing His word. We do not inherit righteousness from our parents, and neither do we earn it by any of our works; it is imputed to us when we believe properly. Not just any old man made doctrine, but the revelated word of God. So John called those big shot religious leaders exactly what they were, a generation of vipers. They did not know the first thing about the new covenant that was ready to be put into effect. Only those that were truly repenting, and being baptized, would be receivers of that new covenant. The only way any of those Judiastic fathers could ever become children of God, was to repent, and be baptized, for just simply being able to say, We are children of Abraham, would no longer be looked upon as having any spiritual benefit. There was a day when God would honor them as believers, if they wrote the law upon little emblems, and hung it on the door posts, and so forth, so they could see it both going in and coming out of their homes, and they honored it as God had instructed them to do. But here is a new dispensation coming into effect, with a new covenant that will replace the old one, and now God will only honor it. Notice what Paul wrote to the Hebrews about it, chapter 8; verses 6-13. We will not read it all now, but you can later. In verse 6, he speaks of how Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” On down farther we read, “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.” Now, notice verse 13. “In that he saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first one old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” In other words, God took His law down from the door posts, and was putting it in through the door of man’s heart into his innermost being. But it has to pass through the mind before the heart can receive it, and that is what God was preparing this lower class of people for. They were to be the children of the new covenant, when the old covenant was cut off completely. What do you think John meant when he said, God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham? He was talking about revelation faith from among those stony hearts.

CHILDREN FIRST - FATHERS LATER ON

Now, coming back to Matt. 3:10, let us watch John cut down that old family tree that was so precious to those religious fathers. “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” That was like saying to them, You have trusted in your Jewish racial heritage until now, but God is going to cut that old family tree down, and from now on, only those who come through the baptism of the Holy Ghost will be children of God, and there is only one way to do that; you have to repent, and be baptized in water. Of course we understand that John was not the Holy Ghost baptizer, he was just the forerunner of the one who would do that. This is the reason he said, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” But that is not all that He would do, for, listen to that next verse, Matt. 3:12, speaking of this one who is coming after John. “Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” This was John’s way of saying, I am not establishing the faith. I am not making a new covenant with you; I am simply announcing that the time is at hand for God to do it. John was not seeking to make a name for himself; he was only fulfilling something that God had raised him up to do. Now that did not keep some of John’s followers from trying to make him something more than what he was, but John himself did only what he was anointed to do. Those religious fathers who had always been in charge of every religious activity resented John, and resented what he was saying. No, let me rephrase that. They hated John, and they hated what he was saying even more, but there were some tender buds standing there, that would soon spring forth into life, taking the place of those trees that were being cut down. They did not know that, but God knew it. God knew what was going to be said that day, even before He ever created the world. Therefore to those Jewish fathers John was saying, Until now, you have read Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Psalms, and all the law of Moses and you have twisted everything to fit into your traditions, but from this day on, you will have to submit yourselves to God in a different way in order to be accepted to Him. Did they do it, you may say? No, because they had another spirit on them. It was not the Spirit of Jehovah that had led them into all those religious traditions. It was not the Spirit of Jehovah that caused them to have murder in their hearts. They washed their feet and hands, and went through all those Levitical purification exercises, but their hearts were far from the God that gave those laws, therefore their religion was vain. They had clean hands and feet, clean pots and pans, and they said all the right things, but God was looking for some people whose hearts could be made clean also, and those fathers were too proud of their traditions and accomplishments to humble themselves, so they rejected God’s new covenant, and pronounced their own destination by doing so. That left the way clear for God to raise up some other men who would one day be looked upon as fathers, but first, they would be “the children” of Malachi 4:6, in the first advent of Jesus Christ. The only one of those fathers that we have any reason to believe might have been counted among the children, was Nicodemus, the Pharisee that came to Jesus at night, to avoid being seen by the other fathers. That in itself showed the pride of those Judiastic fathers. They loved being referred to as Dr. So and So, Rabbi So and So, and all of that, and you believe me, Saints: Religion is full of that sort still today, but not true Christianity. We are living in a new era of time. God will never call another young man to enroll in a Bible school to study theology. As a matter of fact, God has never called anyone to do that, but I will have to say, We have passed through an era when God worked through such men, allowing some of them to be carriers of certain Bible truths that were to be restored to His true body of believers in due time. This gospel did not start out being preached by the great learned men of that first age, and it will not end up being preached by that kind either.

GOD WORKS IN SIMPLICITY

Let me read you a few verses from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, and we will see what he had to say about the wisdom of learned men. (1:19) “For it is written. I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believed.” The preaching that gets men saved is something more than just a bunch of theories hatched out in a seminary someplace. Divine revelation is not something that can be published in three, or six month courses, and sold for so many dollars. It is free to all who will receive it, and it is preached by some of the most uneducated men upon the face of the earth, and no matter who preaches it, nor how much anointing they have, it still takes the Holy Ghost to make it a revelation to you. Notice verse 26. “For ye see your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” Why did God choose to work through such simplicity? Verse 29, tells us exactly why. “That no FLESH should glory in His presence.” If God allowed degrees of education to have any bearing on the effectiveness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, then men who attained to certain levels of achievement in life would have somewhat to glory in aside from the pure grace and mercy of God. Hallelujah! I am so glad that God is no respecter of person. If He was like we have a tendency to be, then all the educated and important people in the world would have first chance at God’s bountiful gifts, and the rest of us would just simply have to get at the end of the line and beg for crumbs. That is not to say that there is not enough of God for everyone, but I think you know what I mean. It just simply comes down to the fact that God receives more glory working through weak and seemingly unimportant vessels. Praise Him! No wonder Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Notice that next verse, (Matt. 18:4) “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” That lets us see why those ecclesiastical fathers could not become children of God. They just simply could not humble themselves and come God’s way. They could not accept the idea that God would speak to the people of Israel without going through them first. I can just see some of them, with their head high, and their chest puffed out, “Who does this wild looking critter think he is? We have gone to school for many, many years to learn all the law and precepts of God, and this fellow, with no educational background, comes walking out of the wilderness claiming to be the voice of God. What kind of fools does he take us for? Does he really think anyone will believe him?” Brothers and Sisters: You have probably heard that very kind of boastful talk in some of the places God delivered you from. They still do it. The blind will lead the blind, as long as this dispensation stands. But let me ask you something at this point before going on, How many of you can see who the fathers of Malachi 4:6 were, in the first advent of Christ? How many can see who the children were? If you do not see who the fathers, and the children were in that day, you will never be able to receive a true revelation of who they are here at the end of the age. I will say this also; If you do not know what the faith of the apostolic fathers was, you will never know whether you have been turned back to it or not. In other words, you just simply cannot pick up a few remarks here at the end time and be looked upon as a revelated son of God, if you are void of understanding concerning all that proceeds a true revelation. John the Baptist knew what he was looking for. He also knew what he was doing, and why he was doing it, and you certainly have no reason to believe that he was trying to establish the faith that those children of his day were going to partake of . No. He was only carrying a message sent forth to separate them from apostate religion, and get them ready to receive the one that would initiate a new covenant with them. That was God’s way of rescuing a spiritual seed from an apostate system of death. John separated them from their old religious system, washed them up, got their minds open, and their spiritual eyes cleared up so they could begin to look forward to a greater unfolding of the purpose of God.

JESUS BAPTIZED BY JOHN

Let us go to John 1:15, now, and notice what was written of John there. This is the apostle John writing his record of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He starts out by showing that in the beginning, before there was anything else, was the WORD, and the WORD was God, and all things were created by the WORD. Even the cell of life that lay in the womb of the virgin Mary for 9 months, and was then birthed into life to be known as the only begotten Son of God. Then in verse 15, we read this. “John bare witness of Him, and cried, saying, This was He of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for He was before me. And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” That simply means that the old covenant, the covenant of law, was given through Moses, but the new covenant, the covenant of eternal life is coming by Jesus Christ. Notice now. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” John was not afraid to call Jesus, “the Son of God.” He did not have to be afraid that such terminology would destroy his revelation. That is why I say, it might do some of those apostolic Jesus Name people a lot of good if they would just call Him “the Son of God” once in awhile. It seems that once they saw the oneness of God, and that He truly was manifested in flesh, they were afraid to mention the Son any more, lest they lose the impact of that revelation. Listen, Saints: When we have a true revelation of who Jesus Christ really was, we do not have to be afraid to refer to the flesh man as the Son of God, for that is exactly what He was. Nothing can change that. The incarnation could never be any stretch of the imagination, make the flesh of Jesus the Father of creation. The Father is Spirit. That is why it could be said that, “No man hath seen God at any time.” You just simply cannot see a spirit. Therefore John was not afraid to say that Jesus was the Son of God, Peter was not afraid to say it, Paul was not afraid to say it, and neither am I. No wonder some of these people are called “Jesus only,” they only have part of the revelation of who He was. Alright then, no man has ever seen God at any time, only the Son hath declared. That means, revealed Him to those who had eyes to see. Verse 19, “And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? (This was their big officials.) He confessed, and denied not: but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? (Meaning Elijah) and he saith, I am not. (He was not the literal Elijah, so he did not lie about it, even though he did know that it was the spirit, or we should say, the Elijah anointing upon him.) Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. Then they said unto him, Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. And they which were SENT were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? John answered them saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoes latchet I am not worthy to unloose. These things were don in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Right here is where we see Isaiah 40; verse 5, fulfilled. Let us read that verse at this time. “And the glory of the Lord hall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” How was it fulfilled? Turn back to Matthew 3:18. This will pick right where we left off, in John 1:29. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of Him.” He was immersed, not sprinkled, and it did not take place where the cart wheels were crossing; John had a hole of water somewhere close by that was deep enough he could bury those repentant sinners in water, and when Jesus stepped out there to be baptized, He was immersed the very same way as all the rest, but not for the same purpose, for He had no sin. Now John had already seen the sign that he had been looking for, so that is the reason he backed off, and said, “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” But Jesus knew that He must be washed ceremoniously according to the law of Moses before He entered into the ministry that was set before Him, so He said to John, “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he baptized Him, and this is where Isaiah 40, verse 5, comes in. Notice what it says. “And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am pleased to dwell.” It matters not, how it was translated; for we know that it was at that exact moment, that the Father incarnated Him. From that moment on, the Father walked upon earth in human flesh, the flesh of His Son. Not only was there a voice heard from heaven, but there was another manifestation also; a dove descended from heaven and lighted upon Him. We say it like that, but what the scriptures actually say, if you caught it, was, He saw the SPIRIT OF GOD descending LIKE a dove, and lighting upon Him. The trinitarians grab that verse, and say, Here comes the Holy Ghost, thinking of it only from the dove view point. Now I assure you, it was the Holy Ghost, but you must always keep in mind, the Holy Ghost is the same Spirit that the Father is, so this was just the way that the Father chose to manifest Himself to the vision of those who witnessed the whole episode while hearing the voice from heaven. This was the glory of the Lord that was to be revealed, and all those Jews that had been out there listening to John preach, witnessed it together. They saw out there in the desert, what those Scribes and Pharisees thought could be seen only at Jerusalem, the glory of the Lord revealed. In other words, While they were out there picking on John for doing what he was ordained to do, God did an even more glorious thing among that gathering of people, and those religious leaders missed every bit of it, as far as any spiritual benefit is concerned. They just simply could not see God doing anything that seemed so ridiculous.

ALL ATTENTION TURNS TO JESUS

Those Jews could not see their great Jehovah dwelling in a human vessel of clay, yet that is exactly what He is redeeming His lost children, and restoring them back to, a time when He can dwell fully in every one of them. When you read the last chapters of Revelation: that is exactly what you see. “I shall be their God, and they shall be my people.” That will be the last phase of redemption when God finally places Himself fully, in all of His redeemed children. I want to take you back to the first chapter of John now though, and pick up John’s account of the events after Jesus was baptized. He did not go into the details of the baptism, as the other gospel writers did, he just picks up where Jesus comes off of His forty days and nights of fasting and testing, saying, “Again the next day after (I know that sounds like it applies to the next day after He was baptized, but we must remember that the other writers declare that the Father drove, or led Him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil forty days and nights, so this is the next day after that testing has ended.) John stood, and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as He walked he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.” When John fulfilled his part of Malachi’s prophecy, he turned all attention to Jesus, and those who were truly looking for the one John was point them to, followed Him, when they found out who He was. But there came the day when some of John’s disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.” That is when John began to rejoice for he knew that he had fulfilled his calling. He told them, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” This is what makes Malachi 3:1 really stand out, for this is the messenger of the covenant, that John was preparing the way for. He had come to preach, and now all men went to hear Him. How long did He preach? 3 ½ years. Who followed Him? Those who had repented and been baptized by John. Those Judiastic fathers did not get their lives changed, but there were some children that were cleaned up, and ready to follow Jesus, ready to walk with truth. It doesn’t take too much to get a large crowd of people following some man, but the question is, How many of them will follow the truth he stood for in life, after he is gone? That is the question, and that is where the problems arise. Some will turn back completely, others will try to find some other man that they can follow, and usually, only a few will actually keep their lives straight, and walk with truth. We will say more about that a little later, for right now I want to call attention to something Jesus prophesied to the city of Jerusalem.

DESTRUCTION AND DESOLATION FORETOLD

In Luke 19, beginning with verse 41, we read this, “And when He (Jesus) was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” This will let you see what can happen to people who hang on to their traditions so tight that they fail to take heed to the message of truth for their hour. When you go on over into chapter 21, you find Jesus telling His disciples what they can expect as they take their stand for truth. He tells them how they will be hated, and persecuted, and abused, and so forth. Then says, “In your patience possess ye your souls. (Some people never learn to have patience.) And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter there into. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” He tells them of a time of great distress, and wrath upon the people, and how they will be led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem will be trodden down of the Gentiles, until their time is fulfilled, and such like, but let us see who actually benefitted by the warning and instruction He gave them.