Relationship Series, #4
The Church as a Type of Marriage
This morning I would like to continue our series on
relationships. For the past couple weeks we’ve been looking at isolation and
it’s effect upon relationships. It doesn’t matter if it is in a marriage or in
other relationships such as a church or any Group of people who have a common
bond. When someone in that group, or marriage, begins to become depressed, they
will begin to lose hope, and when they have lost hope, they begin to isolate
themselves from their spouse or from the body of believers, and before you know
it they will leave that group of believers.
A couple years ago, we studied this process which brother
Branham told us was happening in the world today. We saw that isolation or
“dis-association”, was the last stage in
the neurotic condition before the person became totally a neurotic. In the
message Christ Revealed in His Own
Word. he had said, , 20 Men now and people today are in such a neurotic condition, the whole
world..
Now, in order to understand more deeply how to keep a
marriage relationship healthy and full of life, we need to know what things cause
it to fall apart. As I said last week, I believe the same stages that we saw in
the development of neurosis also apply in the death of a marriage, and the
death of family, as well as the death of any other relationships, including
church relationships. And families die by the vine, and friendships die by the
vine because the people loose their focus on why we are placed here on earth.
We found in our study of neurosis that the main thing which causes the process
of neurosis to start, is the people are
not focused on the right things.
Jesus commanded us to “Seek ye first the
And once you let your job or your wife or your children
or whatever get your focus off God’s promise for you, then it’s over, and
you’ve lost. YOU then become depressed and once depression sets in, hope takes
it’s flight and then your gone.
Remember, the process goes from depression to isolation.
Depression, then isolation, that is the order of the falling away. Brother
Vayle called it attrition. A wearing away. You just get tired of it all. You
wear out and lose hope, and when hope is gone you die. For Hope maketh alive.
In the Magazine Psychology
Today, Dr. Philip Zimbardo,
professor at
PROVERBS 13:12 ¶ Hope
deferred maketh the heart sick: but [when] the desire cometh, [it is] a tree of
life.
MIGHTY
CONQUEROR You're... Not only is He here
alive, but you're alive with Him. The great hope that you have within your
heart makes you alive.
WITNESSES And we who were once dead in sin and trespasses
has he quickened us. And the word "quick" means "resurrect"
from our old forms of life to a new and living hope that lies within our
hearts, waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus the second time in glory.
So we see that hope maketh alive. It is a living hope we
are talking about.
I PETER 1:3 ¶
Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope ( That means a living
hope) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead,
Now, last week we spoke of how close
the early church seemed to be. We read in the scriptures how the early
church did everything together. This kept the rires burning in their hearts. In
the Book of Acts we found the key to this intimacy was a four step process of
Doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer. That’s what is lacking
today in the home and in the church. It’s not having all four of these elements
working together.
These four important elements begin with having the same
Doctrine, because how can two walk together lest they be agreed. Then this
doctrine brings fellowship which means association,
community and sharing, participating together to the point of intimacy.
ROMANS 5:1
¶ Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2
By whom also we have access
by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of
God.
I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK 57-1208 He's
got to have access to every room in
the house, every compartment. All the little secret things of life, He's got to have access to every bit
of it. Then He becomes Lord. What does He want to come in your heart for? Is to
be your Lord. He's knocking at the door to be your Saviour. And if you hold
selfishness, and pride, and malice, and all these things in your heart, He
can't be Lord, though you accept Him in, He can't be Lord. When He's Lord, He's
Lord over all. And that's what He's knocking for. [Brother Branham knocks--Ed.]
Oh, Lord...?... Let Him in. "I want to come in and sup." What supping
is, is fellowship, when you got fellowship one with another. How that the--the
Lord and you are buddies. You're partners. And whatever you have, He has too.
Whatever He has then, you have too. You see, He becomes you, that you might
become Him. And everything is in common.
Notice
brother Branham is quoting from the book of Revelations here, REVELATION 3:20 20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if
any man hear my voice, and open the door,
I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. He said, ." What supping is, is fellowship, when you got fellowship one
with another. The Jesus is calling
out for us to just open up to Him that He might have access to fellowship. That
is all He is asking. He wants access to fellowship with you. And how does He do
that? Through His Word? And how does He present His Word to you? Through men.
Men having access with Men. Brother getting together with brother and talking
the Word and fellowshipping around the Word, and praying together.
Access
into fellowship. That is what a church is all about, and that is what a
marriage or any relationship is all about.
Access into fellowship. That is what the Church needs more of today than
at any other time. Access to sharing. Access to caring, access to loving.
Access to one another, as a family of God. But what have we done? We have let
our jobs, or our schedules, or our other associations cut in on the fellowship
of the saints. We have become a reclusive world and we wonder why we starve for
affection and someone to love us.
In GENESIS 2:18
¶ And the LORD God said, [It is] not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an
help meet for him. GENESIS 2:21 ¶ And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall
upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh
instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken
from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23
And Adam said, This [is] now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh:
she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they
shall be one flesh.
Now this word cleave means to stick together, to
cling, stick, stay close, cleave, keep close, stick to, stick with, follow
closely, join to, overtake, catch So
we see it was God Himself that said, it is not good for man to dwell alone,
therefore, I will institute marriage for the purpose of having someone by his
side always.
But what causes this isolation, this separation, this
exclusion or alienation that takes place in marriages today? When you are excluded you have a feeling of
distance, a lack of closeness, and very little intimacy. Your in the same ship, but have no fellowship. Your in the same
church but don’t really know each other. You eat the same spiritual food, sit
at the same spiritual table, and yet isolated, alienated and cut off from one
another. Why? You come together to
worship together, to believe together, because you have the same Loving Father,
and yet why are we so distant from one another? You were not created to live
alone. Then why do we try to live out our Christian life alone? YOU couldn’t
isolate yourself and keep your family together, and more than you can isolate
yourself and keep your marriage together. You need to be loved, and you need to
love.
Paul said in the Book of HEBREWS 10:24-25, And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Not forsaking the assembling of
ourselves together, as the manner of some [is]; but exhorting [one
another]: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
PSALMS 133:1 ¶ How
good and how pleasant [it is] for brethren to dwell together in unity! 2 [It
is] like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard,
[even] Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; 3 As the dew of Hermon, [and as the dew] that
descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the
blessing, [even] life for evermore.
EPHESIANS 4:1 ¶ I
therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith ye are called, 2 ¶
With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one
another in love; 3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace. (what does it mean to endeavour to do
something?) It means to be diligent and to exert oneself on behalf of that
thing. ) 4 [There is] one body, and one Spirit,
even as ye are called in one hope of
your calling; 5 One
Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who [is]
above all, and through all, and in you all.
7 But unto every one of us is
given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Now, this is the key. There is one body, not two, but one
body period. And the same thing applies in marriage.
Jesus said in, MATTHEW
19:5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall
cleave to his wife: and they two shall be
one flesh? 6 Wherefore they are no more two, but one flesh.
What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
And this is also the key to a close knit church.
Realizing we are not a bunch of individuals, but we are one body. Why? Because
God made us that way. I guess, this is
one area where we all need to learn to grow together.
I am sure that in every marriage there are things that
the husband does that just drives the wife insane, and there are things that
the wife does that just drives the wife insane. But the rub comes when the
things that drive him insane are the same thing that drives her insane, and yet
just the opposite.
Therefore, where we need to come together and recognize
that we are not two but one means that we must have a meeting of the minds to
work out those areas. Just like when a couple are different in their money
matters, maybe he is real free with the buck, and she might be a real saver.
Now, in a situation like this both he
and she will usually try to get the other one to convert over to their way of
thinking and then you’ve got troubles. If we would realize that God does not do
anything with out a purpose, then we might understand if we believe that the
Footsteps of the righteous are ordered of the Lord, then we should also know
that God had a purpose in our marrying the person we did.
God has a way of
getting you to look at your faults, and he could find no better way than
to give you a spouse. The same applies in the church. If we were all the same
then God could not perfect us by rubbing us together and knocking off all the
nubs. But God has a purpose in what He does and it is no secret that He has
placed us together to work within each of us a rubbing in order to bring us to
the place that He wants us to be.
QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS 64-0830E 1149-30 018
How can I take a cocklebur and make a grain of wheat out of it? It's
impossible for me to do it. The only way it can be is because inside that
cocklebur has been transmitted from a cocklebur wheat--a cocklebur to a germ
called "wheat life." Then you bury that cocklebur, and it'll produce
a grain of wheat (That's right. See?), because there has been a life of wheat
put in the cocklebur. And the life of the cocklebur has been taken out; but the
nature of the cocklebur is still sticky (See?), and it will be until this new
life has fully been developed out of the ground and raised up again. When it
comes forth, then it's no more cocklebur, but wheat--but wheat. But while it's
here on earth and the--in the--out of the earth... And a cocklebur, it's still
sticky, but it's got the nature on the inside of it of wheat. And as long as
you're in this life, you're going to be sticky and have a carnal nature that's
going to bother you as long as you live; but the inside of you, you're borned
again. And when you're raised up, you're in the likeness of Christ and all the
sin is gone from you. See? That's--that's the thing.
1151-36
023 Somebody told me he had one,
one time was converted, received the Holy Ghost, and he said to him, "How
you getting along?" He said, "Pretty good and pretty bad." He
said, "Well, how do you mean pretty bad and pretty good?" He said,
"Well, since me receive the Holy Ghost," he said, "there's been
two dogs in me, and one of them a black dog and one of them a white dog."
And said, "They argue all the time." Said, "They growl and fight at one another." And said, "The
white dog wants me do good; the black dog wants me do bad." Said,
"Well, Chief, which one of them wins the fight?" Said, "That depends on which one Chief feeds the
most." So I think that's a good answer here. See? There just depends
on the warring of the body that's in you; it depends on which one you cater to,
which nature you cater to, the carnal nature after the things of the world, or
the spiritual nature after the things of God. That does it.
Now, the reason the chief had a struggle after He
received the Holy Ghost is because, before He received The Holy Ghost, there
was only one direction he was going, and that was to perdition. And if you are
not born again, then there is no battle within. But when you receive the Holy
Spirit, that is when the battle begins. It is a battle for the mind to take
possession of your being.
There are only two powers in this world. God and Satan.
And before you were born again, you just drifted along with the world and the
cares of the world. YOU might have been happy go lucky, because you didn’t know
better. But when God enters your heart by the Word, you begin to understand and
it is this understanding that brings conflict. And this conflict is the
greatest battle ever fought and it is being fought in your mind by God and
Satan for the right to control your mind, and thus your entire being.
But in marriage there is another kind of confrontation
that awaits you, because you and your wife are used to being two people, and
now you have been made one by the Law of God in marriage. Therefore, you are no
longer two, but you are one, and you have to think like one, and work together
like one if you are to succeed in your marriage. And whenever you have two
coming together to make one, you will have conflict. But I is how you resolve
that conflict that will determine the results.
You should never handle your conflict based upon emotion.
Your conflict should never be based upon unwarranted fears. Either you trust
the Lord in your life or you do not. Either the cares of this life guide you or
the Word of God guides you, but you can not be guided by both.
And so I would like to examine this conflict in marriage,
this conflict of two becoming one, this conflict where many come together to
become one body, and thus live in harmony and unity as David said. PSALMS 133:1 ¶ How good
and how pleasant [it is] for brethren to dwell
together in unity!