Mf June 04 2018 It's a Great Mystery

[Background music] Church aims fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God waitly desires a godly home from. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Talk Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] The natural man, man by nature, I mean by this nature that fell into sin, is conceived in sin. He cannot accept it. He cannot accept what it means to run marriage. There must be a God intervention. And some of the things we're looking at that, this matter of marriage, this thing you call marriage, for me as a single person, I saw marriage as a distraction to spirituality. What I even mean by that is that I saw that once I marry, I will not be free to serve God the way I want. I must share that time between that. If I have 24 hours in a day, I've been sharing it between me, my activities, and God. I will now share it again further: me, my activities, God, my wife, my children. So I just felt, no, this thing would not. But the point is, the fact that Jesus did not diminish what the disciples said. Honestly, it's a matter that's been with me for a long time, it's been a running issue in my heart. And the reason why he did not diminish it is because I want to go into, it's a great mystery. Like I said, we'll go into a great, we could not take it that last time. But still too, the issue of the marriage at Cana was just a burden the Lord gave me that afternoon, and I said I will share with us, and I shared briefly before 9:00 today the discussion for that day. And what he said is what actually was the Lord was emphasizing in my heart. That the problem in marriage is not about the wine finishing because the wine will always finish. Even when we invite Jesus at the beginning, when we bring everybody, the wine will finish. In other words, there will always be times when you don't just feel good. The person just does something and you just feel like, what if I give this person a slap? do you understand? When you are outside and we are saying it now, it looks as if it's not possible. Fumni, have you ever felt like that about him? Have you ever felt like that about him? [Speaker 2] What keeps coming to my mind is an episode when we were in Jethro, your house in Uvairo. Bonzo was a baby, I was in your house then, Bonzo was a baby. So you were studying, you were in your study. It's vividly in my mind. You were in the study, you were studying that morning, that wonderful morning, and you were having your wonderful time. And the woman was struggling with the kitchen and baby and. I just saw her, she just carried the baby, [Background noise] she opened the door of the study. "You are now a daddy!" [Speaker 1] I've never forgotten. I don't know whether you remember. But when I was looking at this, it is, "Abby, this is not good to marry." I remember. And the young man would have loved to just stay with his God and be enjoying himself. But he's a daddy, he can't. So it's something to read before you know. Normally when I wake up in the morning, I wake up at 4:00 and normally till around 8:00, 7:00, 8:00, except I'm going out, I'm just there. And when I'm back again, when you are home in the evening, I can be in another moment of fellowship from 5:00 till 11:00, just. I enjoy my, what I enjoy most in life is to be alone. That is what I enjoy most, that's my best moment in life, is when nobody is around me. Those are my best moments. So I was looking at, that has been my life. I've run that life for close to 17, 18 years. So you were wondering, so I just said, "God, I stand under your covenant, I'm not marrying. This thing would take it away, it will take this wonderful fellowship away." But what was saying that, look, you need to understand, marriage is not a distraction for those who marry. For those who I give to marry, it is a godly yoke to raise life. "Ah, the Lord, let me just be alone with you. Let's just continue this fellowship." But the point I'm making is honestly the matter of understanding that marriage is something God wanted to carry. And that too, the matter we left very important last week, that the wine, always understand that the wine will finish. Like when they brought the child and put before me, maybe you want to react madly. You say, "Don't you know I'm praying? Can't you respect God?" And then how do you take that? You get the point I'm making. Those who are outside marriage, when you are looking at the sisters looking like angels, you won't know that she can shout on you. When you look at the brother exposing Bible, "Ah, spirit man!" But by the time he enters and he does something inside the house, you just look at him again and you almost say, "And you say you're a Christian!" But the reality is that the wine, even if you invite Jesus at the foundation, the wine will finish. What it simply means is that it is a wrong, it's an unfair and a wrong expectation in marriage to think that the wine is permanent. The permanency of the wine is a constant yielding to the counsel of Jesus. It's a constant yieldedness. Let me give you some instance where my wife does some things and you just feel so hot by what she has done. And then you are just there thinking of how to handle the matter. And then you say, "Okay, maybe from now on, maybe what I will do, we'll do like this, we'll do like this." And then you hear the Lord saying, "No, listen." Every decision that comes under situations of hurt and grief is not me. I'm not with you. "Okay, Lord, so what are you saying?" "This is not the time to take any decision until when both of you are happy again, you can now decide how you want to run the matter." You understand? Sometimes when people annoy you and you want to take a decision, "Okay, henceforth this will not happen again." Because those things happen in marriages, and those men or the sister did not listen to Jesus's counsel. "Ah, normally we used to sleep together, it was one year like that, this one happened, since then I decided." Have you ever heard people talk like that before in their marriage? The wine finished, but they took decision outside the Master. You need to understand what the Lord said is not that, "I hate divorce." Go and check the original word. That word that they call divorce in Malachi is a generic word, just like that one in Matthew that can be fornication, marital infidelity. As some might say it's fornication, some say no, it's a generic word that captures any kind of immorality. That same word used for divorce, if you also check it, it also means "putting away." That's why King James used "putting away." Putting away is stronger than divorce. Divorce is the ultimate end of several putting away. Do you get it? You would have been putting away: "Okay, henceforth we won't talk together again," you've put away. "Okay, from now on I'll stand my money alone," you're already putting away. If that is the case then you'll be paying for the children's school fees, now I'll be paying the house rent. Probably it was together, you've put away. You start gradually, you don't know you already. What God hates is not divorce. Divorce is the ultimate one. What God really hates, that word is putting away, that is, inability to resolve matters. Inability to resolve, that you have to take decision, if that is the case then let it be. And then you've changed the pattern. And you keep changing, you keep changing. Then one of the days it will lead to, "If that is the case, let me live separately, you live separately." But some other Bible translate it as divorce. And so while several people would have put away so much in their marriages, they will say, "We are not divorced." Do you get the point I'm making? So you need to look at the generic meaning of that word. What happens in your marriage that leads to putting away? It's just that the wine finished, and the wine will always finish. Do you know why? Why will the wine always finish? Who can tell me? Why would the wine, why is it that it's only in yielding to his counsel, that is what the permanency of the wine is? Why is it not in us? No. Not when you break fellowship with God. Even if man has not sinned, even if there was no sin, if Adam did not fall and he continued in that glory, he still need help. So it's not a simple man that need help. Help came before the fall. So people think that marriage is about, we'll get to all those points later. Even if a man who don't have any sin is perfect, is going well, as long as God don't give him celibacy, it means without one woman, you can never achieve God's purpose for your life with all your perfection. You need her. Except if God give you celibacy. So what I'm trying to say is that's what I want us to look at. What makes the wine to finish? Let's just look at it, a very simple thing. Go back to where we started from. Why did the disciples say, they were telling Jesus, "If the case of the man with his wife be it is not good to marry"? What were they responding to? That he that put away his wife, except it be for marital unfaithfulness, except this one, and marry another, that person commit adultery. And anybody that marry that woman that is put away in that situation also commits adultery. "Ah!" They said, "If the case of a man and his wife be like this, it is good not to marry." Why did they say so? And Jesus did not say, "Ah, no, it's not like that." What I'm trying to say is that he said, "Look, this matter, not everybody is given, but those who are given will stay in it." Once you are married, you are married, you can't come out. Why did they say so? Why did they say that it is not good? Is it a matter of unfaithfulness? No. That could be one. Why did they say so when he said the thing is permanent? Jesus was just trying to describe something. The disciples themselves were looking at it from this angle. Jesus, he's God who became man. Christians are what? Men trying to be God. In what are they conceived? What they were looking at is that see, the motion of sin, the wickedness of man, the selfishness of man, the nature of man. What if you marry somebody and that person did not give you peace, so you cannot go away? What if you marry somebody and that person is a killer, so you cannot go and remarry another one? What if... They were looking at the motion of sin in man. The second one is that even if there is no motion of sin, a woman who is barren, is she a sinner? No. What if you marry and along the line the man used to be very viral and okay, but along the line there was an accident and then he now becomes sterile? They were looking at the uncertainties of life, they were looking at the weakness of man. Man is subject to so many things, so many things really control man. Now, leave that one, even man, if he's not sinning, have weaknesses. There are times he can misunderstand you, there are times he can misinterpret you. The reason why the wine will always finish is because the two people that comes together in marriage, even though you are saying that they are one, the reality is that they are two different people. They are becoming one. The oneness is a becoming, they have to, and so many things are involved. And that's why I was giving practical example for those of us who are married. Brother Sabry, will it not be time you feel mad about her? Is it because she's a sinner? That's why I asked Fumni, if Brother Azzan, will not be time he's not just been so perfect. You fight like. You fight and resolve. So you understand what I'm trying to say. So the wine always finishes. But what keeps this wine permanent is yielding to the counsel of the Lord. And that is what is bringing us into this matter that I want to raise today. When the Lord said in Ephesians chapter 5, can we see it? Ephesians chapter 5. It's a very popular scripture. I want you to note this scripture, later we will come to "Wife, submit to your husband," those ones are later later. Let's just touch the fundamental things first. But let's read from that place. We are not sharing those ones for now. "Wives, submit yourself to your own husband as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and he's the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let wives be to their own husband in everything. Husbands, love your wife even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it." "That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word. That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own body. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the church." Immediately he finished that. Do you follow something? Immediately he said, "For no man ever hated his own flesh, but he nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the church." What does it say in verse 30? "For we are members of his body and of his flesh and of his bone." Please follow something. Let me take another translation. "No one ever hate his own body, but feeds and care for it just as Christ cares for the church. For we are members of his body. For this cause a man leave his father and mother and be joined unto his wife and the two shall be one flesh." Amplified: "For this reason a man shall leave father and mother and shall be joined to his wife and the two shall become one." NLT: "As the scripture says, a man leaves father and mother and is joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh." Go back up. What did he say in 29? "No one ever ate his own body." When he got to 30, what did it change to? "We are members of his body." He said "no man hates his own body but cares for it just as Christ the church." Then he reverted to say, "For we are members of his body and of his flesh." Then he came back again to us, "For this cause a man shall leave father and mother and be joined to his wife." Do you get something? What are you seeing? Do you know immediately after he said that in 32, he now said, "This is a great mystery." Which mystery? What is the mystery? The oneness of the body of Christ and the marriage of man and his wife. So what is the mystery? Not just a mystery, but a great mystery. You're not seeing it? I've tried to point your attention. Don't forget where we left the matter. The wine will not but finish. The disciples were afraid when he said they cannot go out. Because they were looking at so many things in their head. Now we are looking at "this is a great mystery." Anyway I'm talking concerning Christ and the church. What is the mystery? Jesus, he is God who became man. Christians are what? Men trying to be God. In what are they conceived? What they were looking at is that see, the motion of sin, the wickedness of man, the selfishness of man, the nature of man. What if you marry somebody and that person did not give you peace, so you cannot go away? What if you marry somebody and that person is a killer, so you cannot go and remarry another one? What if. They were looking at the motion of sin in man. I'm trying to make you understand this matter of this mystery. I'm drawing a line. He said "no man ever hate his own flesh, he nourish and cherish it even as the Lord the church. For this reason a man leave father and mother and join to his wife and become one flesh. This is a great mystery. Anyway I'm actually talking about Christ and the church. Nevertheless." Why "nevertheless" again? "Nevertheless" is a contradiction to the idea. "This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every man love his own wife as his own flesh." That's 33. "And nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife as himself. I speak about Christ and the church, but in any case, let the man so love his wife as himself. Let everyone of you in particular so love his wife as himself and wife see that they reference their husband." What is the mystery? Look at where we are coming from. The wine will always finish. The disciples don't want it, they were wondering if the case be like this, it is good not to marry. She has tried to touch, the door is open but she don't enter the house. You notice that there seems to be a parallelism, that is a connection between what happened physically and what is going on spiritually. That there's a physical symbol. Let me give you a good example. When they kill the lamb in Egypt, is it about the lamb? No. It is about what? Christ. How do we know it's Christ? Because in 1 Corinthians he says what? "Christ, your Passover Lamb, has been crucified." So when they said don't break the bone of the lamb, why? Because none of Jesus's bone will be broken. When he told them, "Do not do any work on the Sabbath day for that day God rested from his work. Anybody who work that day will be cut off, will be killed." What is he pointing to? If anybody don't rest from his labor, what will happen? He will be permanently cut off from God. Why? "Come unto me and I will give you rest." So if anybody don't enter that rest of God. You know the rest of God is salvation. When God brought rest, rest from every work. So you rest from every work to become righteous. Everybody is trying to be righteous. As long as you try to be righteous, you will never be acceptable to God. You must enter his rest. You must accept his righteousness. Are you seeing some physical symbols? But the actual reason. Imagine that anybody break that bone, that Passover Lamb. If they break the bone, what would have happened? It would not have served the purpose for which it was intended. What was it intended to be? To be a replication of what Jesus was coming to do. Until it's exactly like that, it has failed. Until a man can choose to die for his wife to live, as far as God is concerned it is not marriage. It has not replicated what God want. God, as long as a woman, you see, there's something God want to replicate. They may have children, they may do well, they may have riches, they may have money, they may whatever they may. but that is not the thing. God want a replica. There's something that God want. God want a replica. The same way, if a woman don't particularly revere her husband, of course they may have children, they will do every other thing, they may have money, they prosper in their career, they may build their houses. But as far as God is concerned, a mystical dimension of that thing is lost. Mystical. The marriage looks like something physical, something just between a man and wife. Just like I'm telling you about that lamb. The lamb is something, is it not ordinary lamb you just went to pick and kill? They should, but they take the lamb, they said they should use bitter herb. Why bitter herb? Because they are going to give him vinegar. I'm just trying to show you a replication so that you can understand what we are bringing out. They said they should use bitter herb, they should not use leavened bread, they should use what? Unleavened bread. Why unleavened bread? Without yeast. You know the bread they sell around they are leavened. What does yeast do to the flour? It will blow it up, creating holes in between, so that the bread will look very big. But the actual size of the flour if you don't put the yeast. That's why leavened bread, that is big like that, the actual size if you don't put yeast may be like this. So the bread with yeast is not the actual picture of the life of the flour. It's hypocrisy. But Christ is truth. There's no hypocrisy in him, he's the truth. So the bread should be unleavened. The herb should be bitter herb. The bone should not be broken. Now, does God have anything to do about the lamb? Is there special about the lamb? What does God just want in that place? God wants to replicate what is to come. He was looking towards what is coming. He was looking towards that, that was why he did that. Now imagine that somebody took that lamb, the person break the bone, the person used leavened bread, and he use sweet wine to take the Passover Lamb. What is the problem? He has changed the eternal ordinance. If you really know why some of us were running, that is not the thing. Jesus had one child. The real thing, all those other things about marriage, if this one don't fall in place, so many other things will not fall in place. That's why it will be difficult to raise godly children. Because you remember, what did Jesus say? He said, "I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified." What did Paul say? "I purify myself for the sake of you." What does not happen mystically cannot also. When you talk about children become born again, children know God, children grow in God, it's also a mystical thing. Salvation is not in the hand of the father or the mother. Salvation in our hand? Nothing guarantee that because you're a Christian your child will be a Christian. God must save the child too. If God don't come and save the child, nothing can save the child. Do all the teaching, all the things, the Holy Ghost must take a step. God must take. nobody can come to me except he draw him. Is that not the truth? That's the truth. Now you see that the mystical representation of matters with God are the realities of our existence. The reality of marriage is in that a man can love a woman as Christ loved the church. When that love is not like that, mystically the marriage has failed. A woman can make up her mind to submit to a man in everything as the church submit to Christ. When that attitude of submission is not there the marriage has failed. It has not served. God want a replica. That's what God want, he want to replicate. He wants something. So that when he looks at the man he see a man who loved, when he looks at the woman he see and that is the mystical thing. That is the kingdom we should first seek. And I'm telling you, if you first seek that kingdom, all other things will be added unto you. You will find joy in it, you will find satisfaction in it, you will find happiness in it, you will find fruitfulness in it. These other things will be added unto you, brother. It will be added unto you, sister. It will be added. It's a mystery. What makes the wine not to finish is a mystery. When the Lord begins to tell me that I need to marry, it has a very serious question. He said, "Willy, can you love this woman as Christ loved the church?" I wasn't married. As Christ loved the church! How can a man to myself? I'm a man, I'm not Christ. That is why he said "nevertheless." He said, "But I speak about Christ and the church." However, nevertheless, let every brother love his wife as his own body. He's saying that look, this is a great mystery. But I speak about Christ and the church, that this is the standard. This is what God wanted to achieve. God want to replicate. And go and check it, God have always been replicating. He made man in his image. God have always been replicating. That's how God have been dealing with man. It's by replication. Let us pray this together. Let us pray. I want you to just talk to the Lord. What is the score in your marriage? And those of us who are not married, I'm just showing you why I was afraid to marry. When these things were coming to me, I was getting afraid. But I saw the Lord, the Lord was telling me, "Son, if you will surrender to me, if you will understand that you cannot do it without me, if you will constantly look up unto me, I will help you." No man can run marriage successfully in the. I mean successfully. The mystical thing is off. In the Christian home we want to talk about it. But the Christian home, any man who is not constantly drawing resources from the Lord cannot do it. A sister who is not drawing resources from the Lord constantly cannot do it. It takes a constant renewal of strength. It takes the strength of the youth will fail, but those that wait. it takes a constant renewal. That of yesterday you can just forget, a fresh one today. So that your brother can sin against you 70 times seven times and it's still a fresh note the following day. These are things that you can only draw resources from the Lord. If you don't draw from him it's not possible. That's why normally we say that a sister or a brother who is not having a close walk with Jesus cannot be successful in marriage. And I know what I meant by success. They may have money, they have children, they do all, they do everything. But the real success, to submit as the church submit to Christ and to love as Christ loved the church. That is what God want to see first. That is the mystical thing. Representing that. Why not if you are not inside begin to say, "God, if the matter be like this, God help me." And if you are inside look at areas where it has not been like that. Look at areas where the love you are not looking at Christ. You are looking at the sister. Instead of you to be looking at Jesus. Oh, the church denied Jesus, Jesus was praying for the church. The church betrayed Jesus, Jesus was praying for the church. Men were busy killing him, he was praying for them, he was dying for them. Instead of you to be looking at Jesus, you are busy looking at the sister and so bitterness is filling your heart, anger is filling your heart. And for the sister instead of looking at the church, no matter what the church submits to Christ, the church knows that Christ love the church. So the church submits in everything. The place of the church is to follow the Lord. You don't need to lean on your understanding. You just need to trust the Lord and follow him. Instead of you to be looking at that you are busy looking at the brother and so bitterness is filling your heart, this brother, in fact. And before you know it, instead of you to take the instruction of Jesus, just pour this water into the jar and drink it. Go and serve it. You are busy analyzing the Word of God. You are busy analyzing the scripture. You are busy analyzing truth. Instead of you to submit to this truth, instead of you to agree just follow Jesus and you will see that the wine, that water will be wine. What looks as if you are foolish will become wisdom. What looks as if ordinariness will become wisdom. What looks as if they are cheating you will become wisdom. You will just see that these things they are wisdom. It is just wisdom to pour into the jar and just go and serve it. It is a great wisdom. But ordinary looks foolish. It looks, "Don't you know what you are doing? Won't you taste it first? Won't you be sure?" So many things will be going through your mind. But if I do it, what if the man do like this? What if the sister do like this? What if the brother do like this? These are the things that preoccupy your mind. Please, let your mind be renewed. It is a great mystery. Make your marriage a success. The success is that it should be a replica. That is the true success. It should be a replica. You want to replicate. You want to be sure you are measuring it with Jesus and the church. You are looking, you want to make it a replica. You are not concerned whether somebody hurt you or did not hurt you. You are not concerned whether somebody do or did not do well. You are just concerned, you are seeking first the kingdom of God and I'm telling you, when you seek first the kingdom of God, these other things will be added unto you. You will find joy in it. You will find satisfaction in it. You will find happiness in it. You will find fruitfulness in it. These other things will be added unto you, brother. It will be added unto you, sister. It will be added. [Music] Thank you Father. Thank you Holy Spirit. Thank you Jehovah. Blessed be your name. Thank you Father. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray.