Mf May 21 2018 This is a Hard Saying 2

[Music] Church and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God weightily desires a godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Ten Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] As we come again today for the second edition of the marriage forum, we trust the Lord again to help us journey a little further beyond where we stopped the last time. I was discussing with somebody who is a missionary this afternoon. He was telling me that he comes from a country where the sanctity of marriage has been seriously bastardized. Where you can’t find a good example of marriage, it’s very scarce. He said it’s scarce. He is from Mozambique, the eastern part of Africa. We were discussing this afternoon by WhatsApp. He said he heard about me from somebody and he wants to learn about marriage and family so that possibly—but he is not on ground, so we’ll be doing it by—I’ll be sending messages to him. He said he wants to learn so that he’s trusting God that he is seeing God sending him to his own country to do what we are doing here. As we gather for this evening forum, I just want to call our attention to a small exhortation before I take what we learned from the last one, then we journey from where we left the matter. Let’s just look at this marriage at Cana again. The marriage at Cana. Just a brief exhortation from that place. John 2. I believe we are familiar with the scripture. John 2. "And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. And when they wanted wine," I’m reading the KJV translation, "And when they wanted wine," NLT says "the wine supply ran out during the festivities." KJV says, "when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." A short exhortation before we go into the workshop proper or the forum proper. If you look at the verse two, something just rose in my heart as a brief exhortation for us. It says, "there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage." Many times when people are getting married in the church, and they address themselves as Christian, maybe they are believers, possibly they are believers. And normally when the believer wants to get married, when they want to enter into marriage, they are concerned about Jesus. They are concerned about everything that concerns Jesus. Whatever is of Jesus. Jesus, the mother of Jesus was there, disciples of Jesus were there, Jesus himself was there. They want to gather as many things that concern Jesus as possible. They want the wedding to be in the church. They want it to be according to Christian standard. They want it to look Christian. They want pastors to pray. They want church blessing to be there. They want to be sure they are seeking the will of God and all of those things. That’s the normal scenario. However, even in that scenario, after all those concerns about Jesus, about the will of God, about the purpose of God, about the things that concern Jesus, the Bible still says that they ran out of wine. And it takes my mind back to what Jesus said, that the person who built on the rock and the one who built on sand, they went through similar experiences. For the one who built on the rock, the rain came. The one who built on sand, the rain came. The one who built on the rock, the flood came. The wind blew. The one who built on the sand, the wind blew. The one who built on the rock, the flood came. The one who built on sand, the flood came. So even though everything about Jesus was called into this thing, the inevitabilities of life still came up. There’ll be times when things will look awry. "I don’t like this about this person. I don’t like this this person has done." But as they ran short of wine, something was said. The first instruction I want to give us is that please always understand that it is not a strange thing when the wine begins to go out. Marriage is not a bed of roses. Don’t think that everything will just be straight. It’s not a strange thing that the wine—it doesn’t mean that Jesus was not invited. It doesn’t mean that you did not pray. It doesn’t mean that it’s not the will of God. That’s not what it’s saying. That the wine is going out should not make you think something strange is happening to you. Gather a hundred successful marriages, bring them together, they will tell you that they had their times of—do you agree with me? I was listening to some old people speaking about eight different marriages. I don’t know if you saw it on WhatsApp. One person said they have been married for about 40 years, another one 38 years, another one—maybe I will place that thing on the Family Ten group so that we can have access to it. And common to all of them is the fact that we have come to see that we need to learn to understand each other more and more. The point I’m making is that the wine runs out is not strange. But the Lord just point my attention to something in this scripture as we exhort ourselves this morning. Those of us who have not entered, please note. That marriage is not a bed of roses. Don’t think that there will not be time when the man will offend you or you will offend the man. Don’t think there will not be time when you will step on the toes. Don’t think there will not be times when it will look like, "Oh, what is wrong with this my wife?" Don’t think there will not be times like that. Don’t enter into marriage with that kind of mentality, it’s a wrong one. But there was something that was there. Verse four: "Then Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. There were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of purifying of the Jews, containing two to three firkins apiece. Jesus saith," let me read a more recent thing, "Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial cleaning. Each could hold up to 30 gallons of water. Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up with water. And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bear it." Please, do you know what happened here? What did the mother say? Whatsoever he saith to you, just do it. What did he tell them? Fill the waterpots with water. Have you filled it now? Take from there, go and serve the governor. How many of us will do that? I want us to be frank. Fill with waterpot with water, then carry the water, go and serve the governor. How many of us will do? [Background noise] I want us to be frank. [Speaker 2] If at all I fetch the water, as I’m going, I’ll be doubting that will the governor not give me a heavy slap? [Laughter] [Speaker 1] They didn’t taste. He said, "Go and give the governor." How many of us will go? It always depends on the person who gives the instruction to perform. Are you following me? The Lord just opened my eyes to something. He said the struggles that people have in marriages today and the reason why the want of wine persists in several marriages is that when my counsels come their way, they don’t take it. When my counsel comes their way, they don’t take it. The problem with this ceremony would not have been that they wanted wine. The problem would have been that they didn’t listen to Jesus. Why many of us are saying that the problem is because the man refused to do that, the woman refused to—it’s not because they wanted wine. What would have made that problem to become a problem would have been what? They didn’t do. If they failed to do what he asked them to do. If he had said, "Fetch the water, go and give." I know many times the counsel of Jesus about what to do when the wine is going out is always not agreeable with human wisdom. It’s always not agreeable with the way you feel. It’s always not agreeable with some things you want to take revenge, for some things you want to—it’s the other way. You want to, "No, don’t let them think I’m a fool. They can’t take me for a ride. They can’t." There’s another one that is stronger inside. But there’s a gentle voice that is saying, "Why not this?" "No. No. No." And it just came to me like the flash of a light as we were preparing for this. That’s around 2:00, 3:00 this afternoon. That just exhort us before we go into what we began two weeks ago. That first be careful, those of us who have not entered. I hope you will not enter into the place and begin to run your marriage leaning on your own understanding instead of doing what the Bible says. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. They trusted him with all their heart. The reason would have been that "Did you say we should go and give him? Wait, let’s first taste this thing." If I taste and the thing is water, I don’t know if you understand me. "What if I do it and then he thinks I’m a fool? What if I agree and then he—" No. "If I do this, it will look as if—" And many times we reject godly counsel. Many times we refuse godly counsel. We question the counsel of Jesus. We question his instructions. We question his wisdom. We prefer our understanding. And the Lord just spoke to my heart. He said, "Son, there are several marriages today that the want of wine have not only lingered but have also brought the marriage to the point of breakage. But tell my people that the problem is not because there was a want of wine. The problem is because the servant in this case in these marriages now, they refuse to just put the water and go and give the water." No. "Let us first taste. Let us see how it is. Jesus, you go and give them so that at least at least—" Nobody want to bear. Nobody want to look take the wisdom. It says we speak the wisdom of God, it looks foolish. But by that foolishness, God is ready to save those that will believe. I came to exhort us today. If the wine—if there’s no want of wine, praise the Lord. But there’s a want of wine, remember it only persists because the servants in those marriage, they refuse to take the counsel of Jesus. The want of wine should not persist. It will occur, but it should not persist. It should not be dragged into what will bring bitterness. People have it, it has dragged into so many things in so many marriages. We need to make repair in our homes. Let’s go back home and make repair. Is there a want of wine somewhere? The Lord said it’s not the want of wine that is the problem. It is because the servant in that marriage, they refuse godly counsel. I pray when the counsel of Jesus will be coming again, I don’t know who—it may even be speaking to you for specifically now in some areas. Please go and make—don’t lean on your understanding. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Set your understanding apart. If you listen to him, you’ll be surprised. By the time the governor takes that wine that you are bringing, he will say, "Ah, when did you get this one?" And then everything turns around again and the celebration continues again. May we celebrate our marriages. May we not endure it. Marriage is meant to be celebrated even though it involves two imperfect creatures. What did I say? Marriage is meant to be celebrated even though it involves two imperfect creatures. We have things, but it’s meant to be celebrated. I pray that our life will not refuse his counsels in the name of Jesus. So we now go back. That was just the brief exhortation I said the Lord laid upon my heart for this meeting today. So let’s go back to where we left the matter. Those of us who were not at the last meeting, don’t worry, you will get benefit as people talk from what they learned from the last meeting. So those of us who were in the last meeting, what did you take home from? Before I remind us, let me tell my brothers can remember. I told you that you must pray very well now, it’s two weeks. So what can you remember? What did you take home from our last meeting? Let’s begin with Brother Samson from here. I know you are navigating around—we don’t want the topic oh. What you learned, what you took home. That’s what we want. [Speaker 3] Okay, I should leave him to talk. Okay, so if I should leave you to do all the navigating and all the piloting. Don’t fill my name first. [Laughter] [Speaker 1] He is still booting. Brother Iyorore, were you around two weeks ago? No, mother and child now. Last week no, before our last week. [Speaker 4] Okay, Olaonrola, I jotted something down. Okay, I’m the next person. Praise the Lord. That sister there was not around, but another sister was there. He talked about, I think what I took home, the hardness of marital—that made Moses to provide an off-marriage, different from what God had instituted. And when Jesus came, that’s God himself, he insisted on what was the institution from the beginning. [Speaker 1] We thank God for the various contributions. And like I said, I said something that two weeks ago. Maybe we did not properly notice what I said. When somebody made a contribution that except for fornication or for adultery, and then I gave from expansion on the matter of except for adultery. The matter of that Jesus was not giving an escape root but was saying that because if there is adultery and the person you are thinking about is that you are going, it means that the marriage—you have been—it’s just a means you have been looking for how to get out. Marriage cannot be going on sweetly and when such a thing occur, the first thing that should come to you is forgiveness. It’s how did this happen? How do I bear you up? Two are better than one, they have a good work for their labor. If one fall, the other will lift him up. But I now make reference to when you’re talking about adultery. Was talking about a situation of reprobacy in adultery, when somebody is not repenting, when somebody is seen extramarital affair as a normal way of life. It’s not as if the person fell into—I hope you get the point I’m making. I said we will later come to address that matter very clearly. The matter of reprobacy, the matter of hardness in extramarital issue, particularly adultery itself. I said we will later come back to properly address it. We have not addressed that, we are going to still take it to be addressed. I want us to note that. The reason why I want to leave it is because it’s a critical issue to address. I still want to take all the preliminaries. What I want us to see in that place is that in Matthew 19 for now is that Jesus said that a man cannot leave his wife for any reason except this. And so the disciples began to look at the fact that there are a thousand and one things for which marriage is not acceptable. Somebody said, "What of if the woman deceived the man into marriage?" And we said it is not possible. It’s not possible to—God cannot—let us explain it. Let’s explain it for you. Let’s show you what we used that two weeks ago because it came up and those questions and I said let’s go into scripture. You see, we must take time to when we come into troubled water. Like I was listening to a program on the radio. He said many times when people find themselves in troubled water, to get out of the troubled water, they quickly do certain things. Many time what they use to get out of the water, they now enter into a water that is more troublesome than the one they came out. Do you get the point I’m making? And we said that last week. We said that last week that two weeks ago. I hope you are with us so because you’re the one that—so we want to answer it again today because it’s coming up again today. What we said is this. We took ourselves to a similar example in the Bible where there was—I hope you know that marriage is a covenant. It’s a covenant ordained of God that involves that once a man leave father and mother and is joined to his wife, he say God has joined. That is the process of the covenant. We now went to see the process of another covenant. The process of that covenant is when people swear to people in the name of the Lord. That was when Israel was migrating and they entered—they conquered Jericho, they took over Ai. The Gibeonites were afraid, that these people will take them. So they put off certain masquerading and they came to meet the elders and Joshua and they showed them their visuals. They looked at it. The Bible noted something very strong, and I want us to see it. Can we all just go there together? Let’s go there together. I want us to—it is good for us to see that scripture. It’s very important. Joshua 9. Are you there? Chapter 9. Verse 14. "And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD." Another translation, "Joshua and the other leaders finally believed them. They did not bother to ask the LORD but went ahead and signed a peace treaty with them." They didn’t bother to ask the Lord, but they went ahead and signed the treaty. Another thing that brings it out, Joshua 9:14, "The Israelites examined their food, but they did not consult the LORD." They did what? They did not consult the Lord to do what? They signed the agreement. They went into the covenant. Now look at what the verse 15 say, "And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league," an agreement with them, "to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them." Verse 16: "It came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a league with them, that they heard that they were their neighbours, and that they dwelt among them." Do you see it? Now turn to 2 Samuel 21. I want us to see something about—are you there? 2 Samuel 21. Let me read from a simpler translation, the NLT. From verse one: "There was famine during David’s reign that lasted for three years. So David asked the LORD about it, and the LORD said, The famine has come because Saul and his family are guilty of murdering the Gibeonites." So the king summoned the Gibeonites. And there is something in a bracket there, are you seeing it? In KJV no bracket. In the New King James there is bracket in verse two, "Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah." He did it in his—he was their king. He did it out of a good heart, but God brought famine for three years. And God said because of the bloody house of Saul, he murdered those people. Now so the king summoned the Gibeonites and they were not part of Israel but they were all—let me go to three or let me go to four. "And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you. And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel, Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And the king said, I will give them." So they went, they got seven people. David took seven children of Saul. Move to the verse nine. "The men of Gibeon executed them on the mountain before the Lord. All seven of them died together at the beginning of the barley harvest." So what now happened? Somebody went there and was crying, one of the wives and whatever, she was crying and was doing whatever she wants to do. But that continued. Eventually what I want to show you is that eventually when that was done, the Bible says that the famine ended. The covenant, was it based on deceit? Did God defend the covenant? Yes. The question I want to ask you, this have been one—I’ve heard a minister preach that if the situation ever starts by deceit, you can throw it away because it doesn’t have the utmost good faith. I said this man don’t know God. The minister preaching don’t know God. They don’t understand God. God was married down in the church—I mean, under God’s ordinance. What makes God ordained is not church that makes God ordained. The Muslim that married the Christian—what makes God ordained is that there is a father, there is a mother. Let’s stay with the Bible. The real marriage is father and mother that concerned. You want to know about church, even church itself began when the church went into darkness, church marriage. It was a struggle for power that led to church marriage. What God says is a man leave father and mother, not pastor and brethren. Leave father and mother. It’s not wrong to bring your brethren, it’s not wrong for your pastor to pray, but we must stay by what the word of God says. What make God ordained is that the two parents are there. Even if they’re in the sitting room. The parents of the so-called deceiver, parents and they pray, "May God help you, may God bless you." Even what they say is not even "amen", it’s "ashe". Even if that is what was said. And the man went and joined himself to his wife. There’s marriage, there’s a covenant established. There is marriage. So whether by whether the person turn you around—and that is why you notice that one thing Jesus warned first about the end time, he said "take heed that no man deceive you." And I ask the question. The people that go to hell, were they deceived or not deceived? Why didn’t God say, "No, Satan deceived them." It was Satan that blinded their eyes from seeing the gospel, let them enter hell. What I want to make you see is that when it comes to the matter of what a man do, responsibility falls on who? On the person. It falls on you. And I wonder today why believers are deceived? Can we look at something in the Bible again? First Kings chapter 14, not Second Kings. First Kings chapter 14. Are you there? Please read from verse one. "At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick. And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam. We don’t want—" I hope you are following the story. "Don’t make yourself look like the wife of Jeroboam. And get thee to Shiloh: behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, which told me that I should be king over this people. And take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and a cruse of honey, and go to him: he shall tell thee what shall become of the child." So let’s—please read on, let’s see what happened. "And Jeroboam’s wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see by reason of his age; for his eyes were set." Ahijah could not see. He could not see because his eyes were set by reason of age. He could not see. Okay, but what happened? "And the LORD said unto Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask of thee a thing for her son; for he is sick: thus and thus shalt thou say unto her: for it shall be, when she cometh in, that she shall feign herself to be another woman. And it was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why feignest thou thyself to be another? for I am sent to thee with heavy tidings." All right, I’ll prompt you to stop there. I’m showing you something. This man, what happened to his eyes? He is blind, he cannot see. And yet he could not be deceived. So where is blindness? True blindness is in the spirit. True blindness is in the spirit. You get the point I’m making? True blindness is in the spirit. Not because somebody came and wore hijab and then whatever. True blindness is in the spirit. Let’s take another story. Let me just fast phase this from here. That of Eli and Hannah. Eli’s eyes were not blind. He was seeing. Hannah was praying. That prayer, what’s the nature of that prayer? It was a deep prayer in which heaven was connecting properly with earth. There was a meeting point. God was responding to the question of a nation, there is a need for a prophet that will replace Eli. Eli opened his eyes like this, and all he could see was a woman that was drunk. "Put away your wine." Somebody else that was blind could see through the mind of a man. Somebody else that was opening like this, "Why are you drunk?" He could not. True blindness is in the spirit. So what are you telling me? I’m showing you deceit in the days of our fathers, and yet they were not taken by deception. Does it mean that Joshua cannot see too? The Bible said he did not ask counsel. At that time he acted blindly. He did not ask counsel. That’s why the Bible put it there, that they entered into the agreement but they didn’t seek counsel. At that point in time, Joshua erred in judgment. He should have—he said "in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your step." People came and he looked like, "Ah, it must be true." He should have said, "Baba, look at this case, they came." Baba would have said, "Ah, don’t mind them. In fact, kill these ones that are coming. You are going to kill the remaining three days later." Baba would have told them. So my own point is this. For you that are still single, the singles among us, I put it back to you. Are you spiritually blind? Even though your eyes are seen now, you may be a blind man. Blindness is in the spirit. All this two by four by five that can only see container that cannot see content is blindness. Be able to see the content, and that is true spirituality. So I believe we have—this matter of by deception, by whatever—I said there are more complex things. I have a case, the lady was about six years older than the boy. Afraid that the boy will not agree, she now told the boy a younger age than the son. The boy went somewhere to greet and he was introducing his wife. They said, "That’s Auntie Bose." He said, "No, it’s not Auntie, she is—" They say, "No, it is Auntie Bose." They now went and bring her picture. "Auntie Bose." He said, "No." They said, "No, she is the elder sister of this this." The boy realized she is six years older than me. Six years older. He was now asking that what do they want him to do? She is still married. I said, "Young man, there’s no way out." There’s no way out. We should know that. That’s why they said, "Ah, if the case of a man and wife be like this, it is better not to marry." That is why the Bible say this is a mystery. We are still turning this one matter of last week. Better we turn it over and over. But are we rested on this matter? Brother Iyorore, are you rested or something is still agitating? [Speaker 2] There’s no escape route in this matter. [Speaker 1] So the other matter in that scripture that we have not treated, why did Jesus say except for adultery? We have not treated that, it’s going to be a topic we will sit down with. But what I thought we would have entered into today is just looking at the preambles, the opening chapter, what Jesus said on opening up marriage. Jesus gave some preambles. Because of time, I’m thinking we should stop. Maybe I should not open the other chapter. We should stop for today. Are we able to pick anything today? Are we able to learn from lessons today? Are we able to see some things through and through? Maybe we should stop here today. What I thought we would also further into today is that why did the Bible say again, it is a great mystery? Why did the Bible say this is a mystery? It said this is a great mystery. A mystery itself is problematic. When you now add great to it, it makes it more complex. Why did the Bible say that? We’ll look at that vis-a-vis "nevertheless". nevertheless. We’ll look at that vis-a-vis that and then gradually we’ll move on in this our discussion. I want to beg you, I’ve been particularly inviting people, I’m particularly drawing people because I know that God want to address certain things in homes with this meeting that starts very small like this. I believe God wants to address things, so please pull somebody, pull a young couple, pull a mature single, pull somebody that’s looking forward to marriage so that we can all be blessed together. Let us pray for this evening. Let us pray for this evening. There is something that was said when some of us were recapping the things we learned. That see, the first thing about truth is to accept truth as truth. That is when you receive the help of God. But once you begin to fight truth, you cannot get the help of God. The first thing about truth is to accept truth. Until you accept truth, truth cannot break you. It says "as many as received him," what did he then do? He gave them power. Nobody can become a child of God by himself, it’s not possible. But you must first receive him. He say "as many as received him," he then gave. Even becoming a child of God, you forget that it’s not by your power. Did you get born again because you wanted to? No. What changed you was that somebody gave power and then you became a child of God. But you first receive. You accepted that you were a sinner. You accepted that Jesus is the only way forward. You accepted that. Once you were saying that and you were accepting it, there was an intercourse between your spirit and the spirit of God and then you became a child of God. He gave you power, that’s the truth of the matter. Until we accept truth, truth cannot help us. We must first accept truth. And that’s the problem of the church today. The church is not accepting truth, so the truth cannot break the church nor help the church. Truth is a person, the truth is Jesus. You must first accept him before he gives you power. There must be an acceptance of truth. We must first accept truth. I want you to listen, God may be speaking about other dimensions in your life. Are you accepting truth? The more you are like that, the more truth cannot break you nor help you. But truth want to help you. Truth want to break you. Truth is a person, the truth is the Savior. Truth is the Redeemer, truth is your helper, truth is your refuge. Truth, this is what you must understand. Truth is a person, but you must first accept it. You must accept truth, you must look at it, you must accept it. Don’t forget the exhortation the Lord exhorted us before we started. The wine ran out of wine, but we saw that the problem was not because they ran out of wine. If they did not obey Jesus, if they did not obey Jesus what he said, "whatever he tells you to do, do it." Fetch the water, go and do it. That problem would have persisted. That problem persisting in your life, in your marriage, in your career is that there is a counsel you have not accepted. There is a truth that you are fighting. There is a truth that could not help you, that could not break you nor help you. But truth want to break you, truth want to help you. Truth is a person. [Speaker 1] Thank you Jesus. Thank you, blessed Father. Blessed be your holy name our God. Thank you Lord. [Music]