SNT 0890 Birth of John the Baptist
Birth of John the Baptist
Expository teaching from Luke 1 about the announcement of John the Baptist’s birth; gives the scripture references in chronological order regarding the events of Jesus’ birth.
SNT – 890
December 4, 1977 - Cyberblessed Podcast 08-29-2024
Format: audio
Publication Date: 12-04-1977
Victor Paul Wierwille was a Bible scholar and teacher for over four decades.
By means of Dr. Wierwille's dynamic teaching of the accuracy and integrity of God's Word, foundational class and advanced class graduates of Power for Abundant Living have learned that the one great requirement for every student of the Bible is to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Thus, his presentation of the Word of God was designed for students who desire the in-depth-accuracy of God’s Word.
In his many years of research, Dr. Wierwille studied with such men as Karl Barth, E. Stanley Jones, Glenn Clark, Bishop K.C. Pillai, and George M. Lamsa. His formal training included Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Theology degrees from Mission House (Lakeland) College and Seminary. He studied at the University of Chicago and at Princeton Theological Seminary from which he received a Master of Theology degree in Practical Theology. Later he completed his work for the Doctor of Theology degree.
Dr. Wierwille taught the first class on Power for Abundant Living in 1953.
Books by Dr. Wierwille include: Are the Dead Alive Now? published in 1971; Receiving the Holy Spirit Today published in 1972; five volumes of Studies in Abundant Living— The Bible Tells Me So (1971), The New, Dynamic Church (1971), The Word's Way (1971), God's Magnified Word (1977), Order My Steps in Thy Word (1985); Jesus Christ Is Not God (1975); Jesus Christ Our Passover (1980); and Jesus Christ Our Promised Seed (1982).
Dr. Wierwille researched God's Word, taught, wrote, and traveled worldwide, holding forth the accuracy of God's "wonderful, matchless" Word.
(Chronological scripture list - Luk 1:5-25, 26-38, 39-56; Mat 1:18-25; Luk 1:57-80; 2:1-20, 21, 22-24, 25-35, 36-38, 39; Mat 2:1-23; Luk 2:40, 41,
42-52); Luk 1:5
Exo 6:23; Luk 1:5-7
Luk 1:8-11
(Eph 2:6); Luk 1:12-15; (Gen 16:11; 17:19; 1Ch 22:9; 1Ki 13:2; Isa 44:28; Chapter 45; Luk 1:31)
Luk 1:15-17; Joh 3:34; (Joh 14:12)
Luk 1:17-24
snt-0890 birth-of-john-the-baptist(vpw) DRAFT
Have you got any idea what I have in the front of my Bible? I'll bet most of you think my name. I don't. I have something in the front of my Bible because this is the thing I never allowed to get away from me because in my research and in our years when we worked the integrity and accuracy of God's Word regarding certain things, this became so significant and so dynamic to me that I had it cut out of a whey magazine and put in the front of my Bible.
And this is the order of the events relative to the birth of Jesus Christ. They're all in the front of my Bible. Second page, I think I've got my name and God's telephone number.
That's why I thought about God's phone number. But on the first page, I carried this. And I'm going to give you this again tonight.
For those of you, perhaps, who have never sat under the whey ministry and seen the way in which the Word of God really fits together regarding the birth of Jesus Christ, I'll give you the order of this, which has been published in previous issues of the whey magazine. And if you want to write it down, it's a good time to get it. And if you'll read it in this order, then you'll get all the information that's available from God's Word regarding the birth of Jesus Christ and those incidents that surround that birth.
The first record is in Luke 1, 5 to 25. That's the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist. The second record is Luke 1, 26 to 38, the announcement of the birth of Jesus.
The third record is Luke 1, 39 to 56, Mary and Elizabeth. The fourth is Matthew 1, 18 to 25, Mary, Joseph, and the angel. The next record, the fifth, is Luke 1, 57 to 80, the birth of John the Baptist.
The sixth record is Luke 2, 1 to 20, the birth of Jesus. Luke 2, 21, circumcision. And then Luke 2, 22 to 24, purification and sacrifice.
And then Luke 2, 25 to 35, Simeon. S-I-M-E-O-N, Simeon. Then Luke 2, 36 to 38, Anna, A-N-N-A, the prophetess.
And then Luke 2, 39, return to Nazareth. Then Matthew 2, verse 1 to 23, the coming of the wise men. And Luke 2, 40 and 41, Jesus to the age of 12.
And the final record is Luke 2, 42 to 52, Jesus, age 12 and beyond. Tonight I'd like for you to go to the first one in Luke 1. Verse 5 is where we begin. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea.
Now, remember, he's a Roman, appointment by Rome. A certain priest, named Zacharias, of the chorus of Abiah. And his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
It's a very enlightening verse of Scripture. This priest's name was Zacharias, and he was of the chorus of Abiah. There were 24 choruses of priests that served in the temple class, 24 of them.
I can't recall exactly, but I think only 4 or 5 of the original choruses returned from captivity. And after captivity, they took out of those 4 or 5 and divided them again, and ended up with the 24 choruses. Now, those 24 choruses, the priest would serve a period of 7 days in the temple.
Then they'd go home. And when the order, you know, it just kept rotating around the whole year, with the exception of the 3 major feasts. I think it's Tabernacles, Pentecost, and the Passover.
The 3 great major feasts, all the priests served in the temple, because it was required of the men of Israel that they had to appear at the temple on those occasions. Now, this priest's name was Zacharias. He was of the chorus of Abiah, that was one of the choruses of the 24.
And his wife was of the daughters of Aaron. Every priest that served before God came out of the bloodline of Aaron. Aaron was Moses' mouthpiece, remember? Aaron, his brother spoke for him, stood with him.
And all the priests were out of the bloodline of Aaron, the priest that served in the temple. Served as priests, now that's what I mean. Other people that served in the temple were the Levites.
And you will remember that when the division of the land was made, the Levites got no land. They were to live off of the tithes that were brought in by the other tribes. Levi is the third child, the third son, of Jacob and Leah.
And of course, Jacob was the man who had his name changed to what? Israel. The word Jacob means supplanter, one who beats everybody at everything. Right.
But God saw his heart, and instead of allowing him to continue to be called Jacob, God said, I'm going to call you Israel. And the word Israel means one favored of God. So Levi, the third son, is the man out of whom, out of the bloodline of which came all the Levites.
The Levites served in the temple to keep it clean, to keep it warm, to keep the electricity on. And all these things. That's what the Levites did.
They took care, when the people came to worship, that the place was in order. Remember when Jesus Christ sent his disciples into the city of Jerusalem and asked them to get him that ass on which never man sat? He said, when you get to the city, you just tell them, the Lord hath need of this. The Levites kept those temple animals that had been given by the other tribes as their offerings.
And if the Lord had need, you see, the Lord had need. These men said that to the fellow, and he immediately gave them one, because in his mind he figured that a priest was asking for it, and it was to be used in the temple service. These were temple animals, belonging to the temple.
That's why the disciples got that animal for the Lord Jesus Christ to ride into Jerusalem with. They were in charge of every phase of activity that happened in the temple or the temple area. The Levites were.
But the children of Aaron were responsible for ministering the word, as we would call it today. They did the sacrifices. They burned the incense, these kind of things, according to the requirement of the law.
Now, Zechariah was a priest of the bloodline of Aaron. His wife was of the daughters of Lot, too, Aaron. It was not an essential requirement that every priest marry in the bloodline of Aaron.
But Zechariah did marry into the bloodline of Aaron, and he married a woman whose name was Elizabeth. And it's interesting that Zechariah's wife's name, Elizabeth, is the same name that Aaron's wife had originally. If you'll flip to Exodus 6, Genesis, Exodus, it's a little different spelling here.
It's the old Hebrew spelling here. The Septuagint spelling has it in Elizabeth. Same word.
Exodus chapter 6, 6, 6, 6, 23. And Aaron, 23 of Exodus 6. Do you have it? Genesis, Exodus 6. And Aaron took him Elishabah. Elishabah.
Elishabah is the Hebrew word. Elizabeth is what you would call English transliteration. Same name.
His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was what? Elizabeth. Verse 6. And they were both righteous in the presence of God. Oh, what a tremendous thing.
Both Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous in the presence of God. And the reason they were, among others, is walking in all the commandments and ordinances. The word ordinances is legal requirement of the Lord blameless.
These two were righteous before God because they were walking in all the commandments and in the legal requirements of the Lord blameless. The word Lord here is the word Jehovah. The word Jehovah is used in the Bible and translated Lord many times.
You can check all this in a concordance if you desire to do that. The word Jehovah is used of God in relationship to his people. Whenever the Bible speaks of God as a creator, this way down, perpendicular, it's always the word Elohim.
Elohim. Whenever the word God is used in relationship to that which he has created, it's Jehovah. So God is our Elohim because of the Christ that he created within us, but he is our Jehovah because he stands with us day by day, today, just like in the Old Testament.
It's a fantastic truth. He didn't walk in all the commandments and the ordinances or the legal requirements of Elohim. He walked in the requirements on a horizontal level, Jehovah, in relationship to his creation, walking in all the commandments and legal requirements of the Lord blameless.
It doesn't say faultless. It says what? Blameless. And I think it was this morning or sometime today I talked to some of our people.
Our people need to do a good piece of work again in understanding the difference between being blameless and being faultless. We need to work words like perfect, good. Remember the fellow said to Jesus, he said, good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? In the gospel of Mark.
And Jesus looked at him and he said, sir, there is none good but God. And yet this man had called Jesus good. Jesus corrected his wrong theology and said, sir, I want to tell you nobody's good except God.
And that word good again needs to be researched in the light of which I'm speaking because you will discover that it's absolutely perfect without any impurity in it. But mankind, you and I will never live that we do not have faults. But you can so live having even faults that you can live blamelessly before God, people.
Boy, they've just never worked the word. If they ever get around to working the word, be a new day on Sunday or something. Boy, that thing is just fantastic.
Someplace in the epistles, I forget where it is. It talks about us being without blame. The day is not coming that you and I are not going to have some faults.
But boy, you can have faults without blame. Well, I can't handle all that for you tonight. But boy, I'll get you to think about it anyway.
Study the word because here it says they were blameless. And I've just lived long enough and read enough of the word to know that there's no man or woman ever listed in the word who didn't have some faults, including Abraham, including David. And it was of David that God says he's a man after my own what? That's right.
And old David sure had a few faults. Paul had a few. You see, people, if we never had any faults, we would never need a God as our Savior.
We would never need him as Jehovah. The reason we need a Savior is because we're in such a poor shape we couldn't save ourselves. Man cannot raise himself by the bootstraps into being saved.
He cannot work his way into salvation. Why? Because the word says he's dead in trespasses and sins without God and without us. Now, how is a dead man going to walk around helping himself? You figure it out.
I have no problem with it. He just has to get born again. God has to act.
God has to act. And here God's getting ready to act. As Vince told you, anybody with an iota of brains knows Jesus Christ was not born at this time of the year.
And we know that. Everybody knows that. That's right.
All the theologians know it. All the basic clergy know it. But you know something? We can't afford to change because in the United States it makes too much money.
Christmas is the greatest time of the year to capitalize. If you don't believe it, just watch TV on Thanksgiving parade. They already got Santa Claus there.
They play nice little music, you know, to get you all in the groove. To buy, buy, buy, buy, buy. The greatest time to buy is the day after Christmas.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. I guess. I don't know.
You see, the date of the 25th of December for the birth of Christ was set by the Roman Catholic Church because it was a pagan festival and they wanted to baptize that paganism into Christianity. So they just set the date and everybody's been following it ever since. And if you don't follow it, you get your throat cut or something.
Well, I don't expect to change it because it makes too much money and so forth. But I'm not interested. I'm interested in the integrity of God's word because I stand to prove before God only if I rightly divide the word.
It says so in the book. And I have nothing against giving a present. It wouldn't hurt, you know, if you give a few, get a few.
That's okay with me. But boy, the word, the word, the word. Ha, ha.
One of these years, I was hoping we'd do it this year, but didn't get to it again. But if the Lord carries and I do and a few others, we may get out. But we have a fantastic piece of work documenting it from astronomy as to the time of the birth of Christ.
And we're ready to put it in print. Just need some more work. Document it from astronomy.
And we document, they've argued for years about the star of Jesus Christ. There is no question about it. We've got it documented.
You can go to any astronomer and check it out yourself. You can go any field of astronomy or what do you call those places where they roll the stars? Yeah. Go yourself.
Be there. We'll come out with it one of these times. It won't change anything for most people, except for those of us who really love God, love his word.
It'll change the truth in our head. And that's what's important anyway. Not whether you observe one day or another day, says so in Galatians.
We're not observers of times and stuff. So it doesn't matter. All I want you to know is the truth of God's word.
It's the truth that sets men and women what? Free. And boy, you see, that gives you a real wholesome respect for the integrity of God's word. Just like this Zacharias and Elizabeth deal here.
That they were both righteous before God. And they were blameless. Not without fault, but what? Amen.
Verse 7. And they had no what? Child. Because Elizabeth was barren. And they were now well stricken.
That means way advanced in age, in years. Verse 8. And it came to pass that while he executed the priest's office. That means while he carried out his week's responsibility in the temple.
Because Zacharias was a priest before God. In the presence of God. In the temple doing it as unto the Lord.
In the order of his course. The course of Abiah when it came up. Verse 9. According to the custom of the priest's office.
His lot was to burn incense. His work was, his responsibility was to burn incense. When he went into the temple of Jehovah.
That was his responsibility. You see in the Old Testament times. If the people were present like on those feasts that I told you about.
That God demanded for the men to be present. At those feasts. If they were present there.
And if the priest carried out the commandments. And the legal requirements that God demanded of him. And the people were present there.
The people got the results and the benefit of what the priest did for them. That's why they would wait outside for this priest to come out. See on the day of atonement for instance.
The high priest would go into the Holy of Holies. And when he would come out he would lay his hand on the goat. On the head of a goat.
And that goat then was sent out into the wilderness to die. And the laying on of hands on the goat. Indicated before God that the sins of those people had been laid on the head of that goat.
And God it says in the Old Testament reckoned righteousness unto them. He reckoned righteousness. He reckoned it.
And reckoned means he simply said it to their account honey. They could not cash in on it but he said it to their account. Later on with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The account was paid in full and anybody could go up to the cashier's window and take it out. Get his return back. All the people had to do is to believe that what God had said he was going to do.
Via the priest would happen. Then the high priest would go in. He would do his job.
He would come out and lay his hand on the goat. The goat would go into the wilderness to die. And God said I'll cover your sins.
He'll cover them. That's what he said to them. And he reckoned righteousness.
That's how you got the word scapegoat in your vocabulary. Came from that historic background of what I've just given you. The man became the scapegoat.
Remember? It's out of that background. Just the laying on of hands. And he reckoned righteousness unto them.
And he covered their sins. People that's absolutely something. If we didn't have these beautiful flowers in here.
Then that vase would be empty. And if I laid this card over the top of that beautiful vase. It would be what? Covered.
All the stuff inside would still be there. But it would just be what? Covered. So nobody could look through.
People the simplest thing I know to define it with is a garbage can. Just a garbage can. Got all the stuff in it.
All the stinky stuff in it. And you just put the what on top? The lid on top. And as long as you've got the lid on top and nobody takes it off.
You can't see the junk that's in there. Nor can you smell it. That's Old Testament.
That's why the word in the Old Testament honey. Says God covered it. God covered it.
But God does not cover you. He cleanses you the way God says. Through Jesus Christ.
God doesn't cover your sins. He cleanses you of all unrighteousness. And baby that's washing you inside and out with luck sir.
Whatever makes you clean, clear through sir. In the Old Testament he just what? Covered. Today he cleanses.
Boy what a savior. What a tremendous thing to be a Christian. It makes you smell sweeter than Chanel number 5. Yeah.
Really beautiful. He executed the priest's office. In the presence of God.
According to the custom. He went in the temple of the Lord. The whole multitude was praying without.
Outside of the temple as he burned the incense for them. You see they were not shooting pool. Playing golf.
These people were there as believers. Believing. Believing that what God had promised the priest would do for them.
The priest would do and they believed it. They were outside praying. Verse 11.
And there appeared unto him unto Zacharias. An angel of the Lord. And that angel was Gabriel.
It is Gabriel in the Bible that always carries the new message. That shakes up people. He is the carrier of the message.
Gabriel is the carrier of the message. Michael is the old warrior. Those two are mentioned time and time.
You see there are only three archangels. Lucifer, Gabriel, and Michael. Or whatever his name is.
Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer. Michael carries the fight. Gabriel carries the message.
And Lucifer, he tripped out. He became the adversary known as the devil. Satan.
The Lord, the angel of the Lord, look at verse 11. Standing on the right hand of the altar of incense. Boy, what a tremendous thing.
He wasn't standing on the left hand. The angel of the Lord was standing on the right hand of the altar of incense. Right where I'm standing.
If this was the altar of incense, he was standing on the right hand. Because the right hand is the hand of blessing. The left hand is the hand of cursing.
If the angel would have stood on the left side of the altar, all the people would have been cursed. But he stood on the right side. That's what it means.
That's why in the Bible, the right hand is the hand of blessing. When God really wanted to lay it on somebody at one time, he got himself some left-handed men. That's right.
It says so in the Word. And they could hit a bull's eye. I don't remember.
300 yards or something. They would have made good deer hunters, wouldn't they, fellas? They could hit it. And they were all left-handed.
It says so in the Old Testament. Can you imagine what happened when those 600, I think there were 600, left-handed archers appeared? You see, they carried the arch in their right hand. And the enemy out there said, ah, we're just as strong as they are.
We'll get them. But boy, the moment they got in order, they turned it around, put it in their left hand. I'll bet you that enemy freaked like nobody's business.
Because they had never seen 600 men, left-handed men, armored with that great... Oh, that must have blown their sacks. Freaked them. Well, their story is they really mopped up on them real quick.
The right hand's the hand of blessing. The left hand's the hand of cursing. That's why to this day, in Bible lands, especially in the Far East, you never give a gift with your left hand.
You are an insult. They'll know you're an American if you do that. It would be an insult to a man in the Far East if you offered him a gift of a million dollars in the left hand.
It would insult him. Because the left hand is the hand of cursing. That's why, sir, every gift that is received and given in the Far East is always in the right hand.
When they eat physical food, they put their left hand in their lap, and they eat only with their right hand. To this day, 1977. It's only in the Occident you use both hands and stuff it in.
This angel was standing on the right side, or the right hand of what? The altar. In the Old Testament, there are two mountains. One is called the Mount of Blessing, and the other is called the Mount of Cursing.
You can read about it. The one mount is called Ebo, E-B-L, and I think the other one is Gezerim. G-E-R-I-Z-I-M They're both on your maps in the back of your Bible.
They're both recorded in the Word of God because of a situation that had occurred. And whenever they wanted to curse somebody or a thing or something, they went on Mount Ebo. It had the left mountain.
Whenever they wanted to bless, they went on the right mountain. This angel of the Lord stood on the right hand, a hand of blessing. And people, every time you read, standing on the right hand, it's always blessing.
Acts. Remember Stephen stoning? When they were just about ready to stone Stephen, he looked up and he saw Jesus standing at the what? Right hand of God! Ladies and gentlemen, that means Jesus could not be God or he'd been standing on his own hand. Sorry.
You've got to be absolutely way off to believe Jesus is God. It says in Ephesians, he ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. Now how can God sit at his own right hand? Man, you've got to be an American stupefied in the falsity of the religious teaching called Christianity to believe that poppycock.
And the reason we believe it is because of what we've been taught. No man can believe beyond what he's taught. But even if you believe error, that doesn't make it truth.
No more so than running a wheelbarrow into a garage mixing an automobile. Still a wheelbarrow. He looked up and he Stephen looked up and he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
And ladies and gentlemen, whenever Jesus Christ stands, whenever God stands in the word, whenever an angel stands at the right hand, it always means something fantastically great is going to happen. Something wonderful, something absolutely magnanimous is coming to pass. And here we are with Zacharias, his wife, Elizabeth, stricken old age, no longer capable.
She's gone way through the menopause period by 20 years. She's not going to have any baby. And we're going to have a surprise.
And when Zacharias, verse 12, saw him, the angel, he was troubled. The word troubled means he saw that in a vision. He saw it.
You know, it's like a TV show. He saw it. It was his private own TV show, spiritually speaking.
He saw this angel in a vision. When he saw him, golly, what's he doing here? What's he doing here? And great fear, reverence, respect, awe, not negative fear, but, well, what would happen to you if the angel Gabriel stood up in front of that microphone? It might give you a little moment of excitement, right? That's what it did to him. And the angel said unto him, don't freak out, verse 13, fear not.
Right. It's first lesson in the class on power for one living, too, remember? Look, the negative side, sure, it comes in when something happens. It's just the nature of man's self-preservation is involved.
Man, he just, the angel said unto him, fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard. It's a present tense verb here. The original has it in real past tense.
Why do I know? Because, look, Zacharias, his wife Elizabeth was way past the age of ought. He had quit praying for a child. Used to pray for one, you know, when she was 34, 36, 40.
He said, God, a child, a child. After she got to be 60, he quit praying about it. That's why the word says, and what, man, a shocker that must have been to Zacharias.
When the angel said, your prayer long ago was heard. Not now. He's not praying for a baby now.
He prayed for it in years past and his prayer was heard. Now God's going to what? Fulfill it. Boy, oh, what a record.
What a tremendous thing. I have prayed for people 15 years ago and last year they finally got around to believe in God and get in sight. So, and I quit praying for him later on.
You wouldn't listen to a lousy thing. You witnessed to him twice and all that stuff. I just left him.
God must have heard that what? Even as he did here with old Zacharias. Bless his heart. And thy wife, Elizabeth, shall bear thee a what, son? Ha, ha, ha, ha.
She never had to buy any pinks because she was in the blue. From the very announcement, she knew it was going to be a baby what? Boy. Yeah.
You know, Barbara Nixon had a baby boy this week. Mrs. Ware wanted me to announce it. But if I announce all the babies in the way ministry, I never get through with teaching the word or to it.
And everybody, you know, having babies anyways, that's wonderful. And I praise the Lord. But anyway, how'd I get on this? Oh, I remember.
Oh, she called on the phone this evening and just talked to me before the service. And she said, I was so excited to find out it was a boy. You know, Elizabeth never had that problem.
Because usually it's going to be a boy or girl, right? Okay. Elizabeth didn't have that problem. Because she knew or Zacharias knew before she ever conceived it was going to be a boy.
Not only that, the angel said to him, you call his name, John. And the name John means Jehovah shows favor. Jehovah shows favor.
The word favor is the same word, ma'am, as the word grace. Jehovah shows great favor. Verse 14, and thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth.
In the Bible, there are seven births where the people are named before they're born. I'll give you all of them tonight. Not going to look them up.
You can look them up this week. A man by the name of Ishmael in Genesis 16, 11. A man by the name of Isaac in Genesis 17, 19.
Solomon, 1 Chronicles 22, 9. A man by the name of Josiah, J-O-S-I-A-H. 1 Kings 13, 2. The prophecy. Now, here we're going to find out in Zacharias that shortly after he gets home, and Elizabeth is going to conceive, and nine months later, she's going to have a baby.
The record in 1 Kings where it's said about this boy or this child, Josiah, to be born was given 325 years before he's born. A man who became a great king called Cyrus, C-Y-R-U-S, under whose administration and government the wayward children of Israel were permitted to go back to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and the temple. 175 years before that king was born, the prophecy was given, and the child was to be named Cyrus.
The record of it is in Isaiah 44, verse 28, and in chapter 45. The sixth one is John the Baptist that we're studying here tonight. The seventh one is Jesus Christ in Luke chapter 1, verse 21.
I guess, where is it? Maybe it's 221. Where is Jesus mentioned? 221. Luke 221.
His name was called out. It ain't it. What? 3131.
I read it someplace. Yep, 3131. Thou shalt conceive and bring forth a son, thou shalt call his name Jesus.
Those are the records of the seven that were pre-named. Now we go back to Luke, verse 15. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord.
It doesn't say he's going to be great in the sight of Herod or of Salome. He's going to be great in the sight of what? That's right. A lot of the people are not going to like this, John, but there are others who are going to rejoice at it.
You see, and many shall rejoice at his birth. All the believers rejoice. When they heard, golly, because people, the last prophet, the last prophet before John the Baptist was a man called Malachi.
The last book in the Old Testament, Malachi, a prophet of God. The next one on the scene is John the Baptist. And ladies and gentlemen, there are 400 years between Malachi and John the Baptist when there wasn't a man of God upon the face of the earth.
Now to you, that's just a head hit. You know, the United States is only 200 years old. No man of God.
And for the next 200, no man of God. Ma'am, I want to tell you, when you start getting that gray matter working up here, that's a long time, sir. There was no man of God because God knew they didn't need any because nobody believed anymore anyways.
And he had things written out in the book. If they wanted to believe, they could find it. But there was no man of God to lead between Malachi and John the Baptist.
No wonder John the Baptist is going to cause no small stir when he gets born. That's right. And he's going to be great in the sight of us.
Remember that. Because most people are concerned about being great in the sight of people. Do the people salam you? Do they respect you? Do they say nice things about you? And do they do so and so? That's all secondary.
The question is in your life, are you right on with God? Are you walking with God? Are you in the groove with him? Going to be great in the sight of God. And shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. In other words, neither intoxicating wine nor other alcoholic beverages.
Boy, oh boy, in this next phrase. And he shall be filled with Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb.
Whenever I read that in a word, it just sends chills up and down my spine. I've got years and years and years and years of work in that last phrase. I could not understand how a man like John the Baptist could be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb.
And Jesus Christ, God's only begotten son, who had to be better than John the Baptist. Came from his mother's womb empty. And only after he was about 30 years of age or so, did he get filled with the Spirit.
Here's a man born, got it from the time of his birth. And the years of work I put into those are just unbelievable. You see, in one sense, in straight logic, this would make John the Baptist bigger than the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because he was born filled with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's what? Jesus Christ was not born filled with the Spirit. And the remarkable thing about the verse is very simple when you finally get it all settled and worked down. John the Baptist was not our Redeemer, our Savior.
He was just a prophet or a man of God. Jesus Christ was our Savior. And in order to save us, Jesus Christ could not come from the womb filled with the Spirit.
He had to be born like as we are, so that he could redeem us even unto the uttermost, as the word says. Jesus Christ, the word says, suffered all things like as we suffer. It says he was tempted in all things like as we are what? Tempted yet without sin.
And you and I are not born filled with the Spirit. We are born empty. We got to get born again.
And Jesus Christ came to redeem even to the uttermost. This is why he was not born filled with the Spirit. Had he been born that way, he could not have redeemed mankind to the uttermost.
He could have only redeemed those who had, like John the Baptist perhaps, who came from his mother's womb with the Spirit on him. Well, in many, verse 16, many of the children of Israel shall he turn to Jehovah their God, the Lord their God. It was the ministry of John to the children of Israel to turn the children of Israel to the Lord their God.
John the Baptist was not the forerunner of Jesus Christ. He was the forerunner of Jesus because he came before. That teaching that God just sent John the Baptist that he would prepare the way for Jesus is not true as the forerunner.
He was the forerunner of Christ only because he came before. But so did Malachi, so did Isaiah, so did other prophets. His ministry was to the children of Israel to turn the children of Israel to the Lord their God.
And he shall go before him, him as God, the Lord their God. He shall go before God in the spirit and power of Elijah. Elias is here, that's King James, the word is Elijah.
Spirit and power of Elijah. He is not Elijah, he is going to go forth in the spirit and power of Elijah. He was filled from his mother's womb.
Spirit and power of Elias, or Elijah, is a figure of speech called Hendiodes. Two words used, one thing meant. That's the figure.
It literally means that he went before God in the powerful spirit, spirit and power. The powerful spirit, like Elijah. Class, if you filled this thing with water, it would be full.
If I had a five gallon bucket here and you filled it with water, it would be what? Full. Different types of fullness. John the Baptist went forth with that type of fullness that he was born with in the powerful spirit like what? Elijah.
That's what it says, that's what it means. In the days of Elijah, there was a young man called Elisha. And the only reason I ever can keep him straight is J becomes before S in the alphabet.
But when Elijah said to Elisha, what would you like me to do for you? Because Elijah knew that Elisha was called to God to be the next man, he anointed him and all that. Elisha said to him, I'd like to have a double portion of your spirit. That's right.
So you've got that fullness of the spirit, whatever it was, upon Elijah. You've got it on Zacharias. You've got a double amount on Elisha.
You have in the book of Numbers, it's called the spirit that was upon Moses. It's Moses' portion in the book of Numbers. And then there's an interesting record.
And until the day of Pentecost class, this is the biggest I know. It's in John chapter 3. Oh, bless your hearts. Verse 34.
For he whom God hath what? Sent. That's Jesus Christ. I mean, John 3, 34, get it real straight.
For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of whom? For God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him. Unto him is properly supplied, even though it's an omission, properly. God did not give the spirit to Jesus by measure.
To Elijah or to Moses, he measured it out. To Elijah, he measured it out. To Elisha, he measured it out, double portion.
To Saul, he measured it out. Because in the Old Testament, it was God's prerogative to put his spirit in the proportion of the amount he wanted to give. But when it came to Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, he gave him everything that was available at that time.
That's what verse 34 means. He didn't give it to him by what? Measure, which means he didn't measure it out. He gave him everything that was available.
And as far as I know the Word, class, there are only two things that Jesus Christ did not manifest in the Word. He did not speak in tongues, and he did not interpret. Why? It was not available.
That's why on the day of Pentecost, there came something even bigger than what Jesus Christ had, and that's the greater works of John, where Jesus said, the works that I do, you shall do also. And greater works than I have done, ye shall do. And ladies and gentlemen, if Jesus Christ is God, that paragraph or that verse has to be blessed.
Everything that God had available, he gave to his only begotten Son. But God could not give to his Son that which was not yet available, which Jesus Christ, by his ministry, came to make available. And after the ascension, eight days after it, it was given for the first time, the record is in Acts 2, that it was poured out upon man.
And they spoke in tongues, magnifying God. Boy, oh boy, what a Word of God. I'm backing Luke.
Boy, what verse did we leave? Okay, we got through with the 18. Oh no, 17, we got to go on. To turn the hearts of the fathers, to the children, and the disobedient, to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for Jehovah, not for Jesus Christ, to make ready the people for Jehovah.
And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? For I'm an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. And the angel answered and said unto him, I'm Gabriel, that settled it. Who stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad ones.
Isn't that beautiful? A man of God had quit praying, and God said his prayer had been heard, and God sends old Gabriel directly from heaven, stands on the right side of the altar, and while that little old priest is carrying out to the best of his ability, the burning of incense, all at once he looks up and he sees old Gabriel standing there. Wow. And he says that rhetoric.
I'm Gabriel who stand in the presence of God, and I've been sent by God to tell you something. And what I'm going to tell you is glad tidings. And those words, glad tidings, are the word evangel, or evangelism, good news.
You know evangel, gospel, the word gospel is evangel means good news. Glad tidings, good news. Boy, good news.
I guess it's good news. Wonderful. Behold, verse 20, you will notice, I see things here and then I forget, but you'll know the many ands, verse 16 and, verse 17 and, verse 18 and, verse 19 and, verse 20 and, verse 21 and, verse 22 and, verse 23 and, we just and and all along, right? That's the figure of speech, polysyndeton, meaning many ands.
Poly means many. Syndeton means ands. Many ands.
It's like a fast commentary. You know, you don't stop just hardly to breathe. Just read, read, read, read.
That's what he's saying. Building him up just one thing after the other. Behold, verse 20, thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed.
And the reason was because thou believest not my word, that God heard your prayer long ago. Now you tell me you're an old man and your wife's an old woman. What's the matter with you? Because you don't believe, you're unbelief.
His unbelief gave the devil an opportunity. He's dumb, not going to be able to talk. Says, believe it's not my word, which shall be fulfilled in their season.
In their what? Season. Season. Here we have a miracle of a woman who is past the age of bearing children.
That the miracle is she's going to have a baby. But when she has that baby, she's still going to have it how? In season, 280 days or approximately so, nine months. And the people waited for Zacharias.
They'd been praying. They quit praying and hung in there, wondering what was going on. And they marveled.
They were amazed that he was so long in the temple. Because, you know, it's like a 20-minute sermon. You go home.
Or something. Ordinarily, the burning of the incense and doing his little job didn't take that long. And he did it every hour.
As he did it every hour, people could wait. They'd wait for him to come out. But they marveled that he tarried so long.
And when he came out, he could not speak unto them. Why couldn't he speak unto them? Because he was dumb. His mouth was sealed up.
He couldn't talk. He could not speak unto them. He could not speak unto them.
Or in the original text, couldn't bless them. He couldn't speak the words of blessing. Having just represented God's people, he couldn't come out and say unto them, in the name of the Lord, your sins are covered.
Go walk in peace. He couldn't say it because he was lost. That's why it says he couldn't bless them.
Couldn't bless them, ma'am. Couldn't talk. And he came to pass.
When he came out, he couldn't. And they perceived that he had seen a what? A vision. He saw it, I told you, in full color on his private TV in the temple.
But he beckoned unto them, and he remained speechless. He beckoned unto them. To beckon unto them is simply to make signs, really.
I can see what he did. What he did is he lifted his right hand, and he couldn't speak out loud, and he moved his right hand, and that's when the people went home. That's beckoning.
He came to pass at it soon, verse 23. As the days of his ministration, that administering in the temple that he was responsible for in the course of Abijah, were accomplished, he departed to his own what? And after he got back home, in those days when he got home, his wife Elizabeth conceived and hid herself five months. And the reason she went into seclusion is because she too was just fantastically shook.
She was just so blessed. She was just so, so, so that for five months, she just said, I'm not going out. No, I'm not going to tell anybody.
She secluded herself. That doesn't mean she didn't buy groceries, other stuff, but she just refused to go visiting and doing things. Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among men.
It was a reproach upon a woman not to have an offspring, and this reproach was so heavy upon a woman who was married to a priest. And she was not only married to a priest, but she came of the bloodline of Aaron. And I know that little woman in her mind a million times must have condemned herself and said, Oh my God, why can't I have a baby? Other women have a baby.
I'm a daughter of Aaron. I'm married to a priest. I'm a disgrace to my husband because I'm not pregnant.
I don't have a child. And yet I think it's one of the great teachings of grace in the Word that here was this Zacharias, even though, you know, everybody would say in the neighborhood, look, he's a priest of the bloodline of Aaron. He burns incense and all that stuff, but his own wife hasn't got a baby.
What's the matter with him? Why don't he believe God? Why don't he get with it? Never taught. You see, even though she didn't have a baby and in the sense of the culture at that time there was a reproach, he still ministered God's Word. People, he still ministered God's Word.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's still God's Word if nobody believes it. No matter what any man says or what they do, it's still God's Word. It is God's will to deliver.
If nobody gets delivered, it's still God's Word. And we men of God and women of God have to stand and keep the Word if it never comes to pass, just the Word. And old Zacharias did that for years and years and years.
And one day God sent Gabriel and he said, ha-ha, you're going to have a baby. And she hid herself for five months. She was just flabbergasted.
Well, ha-ha, I guess that's the record of John the Baptist and stuff, and I think that's all I'm going to do tonight. But what a tremendous record in God's Word. And that's the first record that begins dealing with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ because John the Baptist was born six months, approximately six months, before Jesus Christ was born.