Good evening brethren present and those in different countries, ministers, co-workers and brethren in different congregations. Receive a very special greeting from myself and from all the brothers here in Puerto Rico. Also, greetings to Dr. Miguel Bermudez Marin, and may God bless you and use you greatly in His Work in this end time. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
On this occasion, we have the introduction for the Bible study of next Sunday’s Bible School at the Great Tent-Cathedral. Therefore, let’s read a Biblical passage in Saint Matthew chapter 11, verses 1 and on… verses 1 to 19. And the Scripture says the following:
“And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.
Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,
And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see:
The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.
And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.
But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.
For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
May God bless our souls with His Word and allow us to comprehend It.
Our subject of introduction for next Sunday is: “THE MISSION OF THE FORERUNNER AND THE FORERAN FOR THE FIRST AND SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.”
A forerunner announces the things that are to come. The forerunner of the First Coming of Christ and the forerunner of the Second Coming of Christ are ahead of time, they appear before the one that is foreran; they appear preparing the way for the anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ who is to come. They come showing the things that the One whose path is being prepared will do. And when the one that is foreran appears, the entire testimony which the forerunner had given is fulfilled in the one that is foreran, He comes carrying out what the forerunner said that the One he was preparing the path for would do. That is why the forerunner comes forerunning the Word that will become flesh and will fulfill the Coming of the Messiah, the anointed One, the Christ who was promised to the people under the Covenant in effect at that time.
That’s how it was with John the Baptist who came forerunning the First Coming of Christ, the First Coming of the anointed One, in whom the Word would become flesh, and that would be God visiting His people of the Covenant, of the Dispensation of the Law, and that was God visiting His people in human flesh: Emmanuel, God with us, as Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14 says.
Then, after John the Baptist, Jesus appeared fulfilling everything that John the Baptist spoke of the One he was preparing the way for would do; and everything that the prophets said about the coming of the Messiah as the Lamb of God, as the Lamb, to take away the sin of the world. This was being fulfilled by Christ; and therefore, the One John was preparing the way for was Jesus Christ, he was forerunning the Coming of Jesus, Jesus Christ, and the ministry He would carry out. And the forerunner of the Second Coming of Christ, the Messiah, the anointed One, would do the same.
John the Baptist fulfilled Malachi chapter 3, verse 1 and on. And it says:
“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: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.”
Who was he preparing the way for? Who would John the Baptist, the forerunner, prepare the way for? For the Lord, the Angel of the Covenant, the One would become flesh and become the promised Messiah, the promised anointed One. When John appeared, preaching, he was preparing the way for Him.
Now, the forerunner of the Second Coming of Christ, the anointed One promised to come at the end time, will fulfill Malachi chapter 4, verse 5 to 6. And it says:
“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.”
This Elijah promised here, will forerun the Second Coming of Christ, the coming of the Messiah, the anointed One, for this end time, before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, before the Great Tribulation, during which, plagues and Divine Judgements will fall upon the human race.
Therefore, this is the forerunner of the Second Coming of Christ who comes with the Spirit and power of Elijah. The ministry of Elijah has five manifestations: the first one was in Elijah the Tishbite, the second one was a double portion in Elisha, to whom the spirit of Elijah came as he asked, because when Elijah said to Elisha: “Ask for anything you want,” Elisha replied: “Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.” [Second Kings 2:9.] Then the manifestation of the ministry of Elijah came for the third time in John the Baptist, that is when John appears forerunning the coming of the Messiah in the midst of Israel; and Jesus Christ bore testimony that John the Baptist was the Elijah that was to come at that time.
Then, in the midst of Christianity, the people of the New Covenant, the ministry of Elijah appears for the fourth time manifested in Reverend William Branham; he is the forerunner of the Second Coming of Christ. When he was preaching and baptizing at the Ohio River, there in Indiana, in Jeffersonville, Indiana… He was baptizing the seventeenth person when the Pillar of Fire descended from Heaven and spoke to Reverend William Branham, saying: As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the First Coming of Christ, your Message will forerun the Second Coming of Christ.
Reverend William Branham explains: “Since down on the river, when that same Light came down here in Jeffersonville, in 1933, and spoke those words, ‘As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming of Christ, your Message will forerun the second.’” [Page 3, paragraph 17 of the message: “It is the Rising of the Sun” preached by Reverend William Branham on April 18, 1965 in Jeffersonville, Indiana.]
The forerunner foreruns the Word that will be incarnated, the Word made flesh, in the fulfillment of the Coming of the Lord. That is how it was with John the Baptist: the Word that was made flesh was foreran by John the Baptist; and that is how it is at this end time.
What did Reverend William Branham foreran? The coming Word which will become flesh and fulfill the Coming of the Lord. That is the mission of the forerunner: that is the mission of the forerunner of the First Coming of Christ, and that is the mission of the forerunner of the Second Coming of Christ.
May God continue to open the Scriptures to us and open our understanding in order to comprehend.
May God bless you and keep you, and we will see each other next Sunday at the Bible School to have our subject for the Bible School: “THE MISSION OF THE FORERUNNER AND THE FORERUN FOR THE FIRST AND SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.”
May God bless you and keep you, and continue having a joyful evening filled with the blessings of Christ our Savior.
“THE MISSION OF THE FORERUNNER AND THE FORERUN FOR THE FIRST AND SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.”