The Parables of Christ no. 24
The
Bride and Her Ten Pieces of Silver
Rev. Brian Kocourek
Now, this Morning we will
continue in our study of the parables, and we will study the parable found in Luke 15:8-10 concerning the Bride and Her Ten Pieces of Silver.
Now, before we read this parable, I want you to
understand that the central character in this parable is a woman, and the scene
that takes place concerns this woman’s frantic and the painstaking measures to
find a missing piece of silver. We are told that she had ten pieces of silver
and she has lost one of them. So let’s open our Bibles and read this parable for
ourselves of the woman and her ten pieces of silver. Now, you will notice as we read this parable
that I have broken it down into 12 points to consider in understanding this
parable.
LUKE 15:8 What (1) woman having (2) ten (3) pieces of
silver, if she (4) lose one piece, doth not (5) light a
candle, and (6) sweep the house, and (7) seek
diligently till she find it? 9 And when she hath found it, (8) she
calleth (9) her friends
and her neighbours (10) together, saying, (11) Rejoice with me; for (12) I have found the piece which I had
lost.
Let’s us pray. Dear
Father we have come again to Thy word this morning to know Thee better and to
receive a better understanding of the conditons that surround us in this hour,
for your Prophet William Branham said “the entire new Testament speaks of this hour”.
Therefore Father, we know that these parables were spoken by your Son Jesus and
since they are a part of the New Testament, therefore as your prophet stated, they
must speak of this hour. You yourself declared to Moses, “I am that I am” and you have told us
in the Book of Malachi that you are God and you Change not. And we know that you
are The Word. Therefore you are the ever Living Word, and not the Word for days
gone bye, but you are the Word for the Day in which we live. The Ever Present
water from the Rock. You are the Living Word, and we desire Father to see Your
Word Living Itself out before us in this hour. Therefore, Father we ask that
your Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of Yourself would open to
us the understanding of this parable that we are studying today and make it
live to each and every one of us, that we might be like those who were on the
road to Emmaus, as their tesimony was, “did not our hearts burn within us as He opened to us the
Scriptures.”,This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ Thy Beloved and
Obedient Son. Amen.
Now before we go any further, I want you to
understand that this parable speaks of the second coming of Christ.
SECOND COMING OF THE LORD 57-0417
17 Now, in the blessed Word, I wish to read
just a verse, or a line or two, out of St. Luke's Gospel, and the 15th chapter,
the 8th verse: Either what woman having ten pieces of
silver, if she shall lose one piece, does not light a candle, and sweep the
house, and seek diligently until she has found it? And when she has found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors
together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. 18
Now, that may seem like a very odd Scripture for the second coming of
Christ, but it's speaking of the second coming of Christ
Now if we are to understand this parable in the light
of today, first of all we need to know who this woman is, because that is what
Jesus is asking here. He is asking a question. “what
woman having ten pieces of
silver, if she lose one piece, does not light a candle and sweep the house, and
seek diligently until she finds it?”
Now, notice in your Bible that there is a question
mark showing us that this is a question Jesus is asking. Therefore, in reading this sentence, we must
also ask the question, “Who is this woman?” and “What does she represent?” Because that is exactly what Jesus is asking
us. He says, what woman or who is this woman that would act
out this scene given this set of circumstances?
Therefore to understand this parable, I have broken
it down into 12 points to consider.
NUMBER ONE: We must Know who this woman is, who she represents?
For if we do not understand who or what she represents, then we can not even
begin to understand the parable itself, and how it might apply to this hour.
Number 2: We understand that she has ten pieces of silver and therefore we must understand why she has
ten, and what that means? What is so significant about that number ten that
Jesus purposely used it in this parable concerning the pieces of silver.
Number 3: Since We know that she has silver pieces, therefore
we must know what these silver pieces represent?
NUMBER 4: Since she has lost one piece and has become
painstakingly diligent in her search for it, we must ask ourselves the
question, what does the missing piece of silver represent, and why is she so
desperate to find it?
NUMBER 5: In her search for this missing piece of silver, she
lights a candle. Therefore, we must ask ourselves, What does lighting a candle
signify?
NUMBER 6: and in the course of searching for this missing
piece of silver we find her sweeping out her house, and so we must ask
ourselves, What does sweeping the house mean to us in this hour?
NUMBER 7: Since she seems to be so diligent in her search for
this missing piece, we must ask ourselves what is so important about this piece
of silver that she turns the whole house upside down in her searching for it. Why
is she so diligent about searching for this missing piece of silver? What are
these circumstances that cause her to go into what would appear to be a panic condition,
trying to find this lost piece of silver.
NUMBER 8: Once she has found her missing piece of silver, we
must understand the significance of her calling her friends and neighbors
together. Why does she cal them?
NUMBER 9: Then we must ask “Who are these neighbors and
friends that she calls?”
NUMBER 10: and why did she cal them together? Why together? What
does this signify, calling these people to gather together?
NUMBER 11: What does rejoicing signify in this parable?
NUMBER 12: What is significant about these words, “I have found that which was lost?”
Now, that we have laid out so many questions that
need answering, let’s begin our study with point number ONE: which is, “Who is this woman?” Now, that is a good question,
and since Jesus does not tell us her name, we must assume that she is mentioned
in type to represent some group.
Now, last week in our study on the Ten Virgins
we read where Brother Branham told us that woman or women throughout the scriptures always
represents a church.
From the sermon, WHY WE ARE NOT A DENOMINATION? 58-0927
31 William Branham said, “Now, a woman, in the
Bible, represents "church." How many knows that? We are a Bride; the
Church is a Bride.” And being that this woman Jesus is speaking of
in this parable is a church, we must then ask ourselves, “what church does she
represent here,” because there is a true church and a false church. One is
called a Bride, while the other is called a whore, because she is unfaithful to
her husband. And thus we begin to get a clue as to the peculiar behavior of
this woman and why she is so diligently searching for this piece of silver.
If you will remember last week when we studied the
parable of “The Ten Virgins”, We found those Virgins represented the church in it's purity with no man
made creeds among them. They believe the Bible alone. They Believe Sola
Scriptura as Martin Luther put it.
And we found in that parable that there were ten
virgins, and so we examined the purpose behind the number ten concerning the
virgins, and we found it to represent the coming to completion of an entire
system.
Number 2: We know that she has ten pieces of silver and therefore we must understand why she has
ten, and what that means? Why does Jesus
use Ten Pieces of Silver for his parable, and what does that mean?
Now as we stated last week, the number ten is one of
the perfect numbers and it is significant because it represents the entire numerical system coming to a completion.
Therefore the number ten signifies the whole cycle is now complete.
The number ten is used throughout scripture to depict
the end of a cycle, such as God completed the cycle of man in the antediluvian
age with Noah. Noah was the tenth Generation from Adam bringing in a new
covenant from God, and Abraham, was the
tenth generation from Noah bringing in a new unconditional covenant from God.
Then, there are the ten commandments, and of course
the ten spies Moses sent to spy out the
land. And there were ten rows of ten
silver talents which made up the base or sockets for the tabernacle in the
Wilderness.
Tithes is a tenth, that represents the whole which is due God, showing
His claims on the whole, and there were ten plagues upon Egypt which brought the
cycle of world power in Egypt to its end.
Therefore as we saw last week the number ten
represents a conclusion, and refers to coming into a full cycle. And here in
this parable we see there are ten pieces of silver that Jesus refers to.
Now, ten speaks of the end, so we see again in this parable that Jesus is
speaking of the end of something. And since the number ten refers to the pieces
of silver in this parable, we must understand what silver signifies in order to
know what is coming to its full cycle, and thus to its end.
Now, since the ten pieces of silver concerns this
woman, we must understand whatever it is, it is so important to this woman that
she becomes obsessed with finding that missing piece. And since it has to do with the woman, we
must find out what silver represents so we can understand her reaction to not
having it. Because if ten represents the conclusion of something, then this
concerns the woman and it may tell us why she is so desperate to find it. Now,
remember, she (a woman) represent the church.
Number 3: We know that she had pieces of silver, and
therefore we must know what these are and what they represent? Now, in the Scriptures Silver represents redemption
by refining. Now, redemption means to bring back to its original condition,
and refine means to bring to purity. And refining represents the process
whereby the dross is removed from the silver that it may be displayed in its
purity. The dross is that which is not a pure part of the silver. It is the
impurities that are found in silver or any precious metal. And dross then represents
sin, in our life. Those things which make us impure.
I PETER 1:18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition
from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot:
PSALMS
12:6 The Words of the LORD are pure
Words: as silver tried in a furnace
of earth, purified seven times.
PSALMS
66:10 For thou, O God, hast
proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver
is tried.
So we see that this woman had these pieces of silver
which represented purity and refinement. They represented all that she was to
her husband and in losing one, would have a great significance to her
relationship to Him. If He came home and she was missing just one of the coins,
He would not receive her as His own. So these coins represented not only he
refinement but her redemption. And the word redeem means to buy back or to
bring back to its rightful position. And when He came, her having the ten
pieces of silver represented her making herself ready to be brought back into
his presence and to receive her rightful position at his side. But to be
missing one piece of silver meant rejection, dishonor and separation.
SECOND COMING OF THE LORD 57-0417
54 It's later
than we think. We don't come to church to occupy a pew; we do not come to
church to hear a good sermon, or come to church to hear good music. They all
got their place, but what we better come to church to do is check up with God
and our souls salvation, for the day of
redemption is near. Jesus Christ God's
Son likened this, He said, to a woman. And in our subject tonight we find
this woman, her husband had gone,
and she had lost one of the coins out of her tablet. Now, I will try to explain that.
56 Today, if a woman is married, she should wear a
wedding ring as a sign that she's married. That's to keep other men
from having anything to do with her. They look and they see she's a married
woman. In those days, they didn't have wedding
rings; they had a tablet They call it "tablet." they put on their head. It
had ten coins, and it went around their head. And that was a sign they were
a married woman, and no man was to
fool with them; no boys was to flirt with them. They were married.
61
Oh, if there ever was a time that the church ought to take inventory to find out if you've got all the coins on, it should be now. It's
getting dark. The very haunts and clouds of destroying civilization is hanging
over the earth, sin and debauch on every hand. We're living in a tremendous
time, when there's wickedness, people who go to church just for a sham, people
who go to church to try to hide from their meanness,
people who go to church and profess Christianity and live like the rest of the world, drinking, smoking, gambling; women immorally dressed, wearing clothes
that they oughtn't to wear in their own dressing room, out on the streets
before public. And brotherly love is a thing that's passing, almost. We have not lost one coin, but we've lost
practically every one of them.
62 And it was getting night, and remember, her husband would return. And if
he found her with one of those coins out, it showed she had been marked a
harlot. And if she had defied, or defiled
herself in any way, and it was seen by the people, they brought her before the
priest and brought witness that she'd been found such, and the priest seen that
she was a married woman took the coin out of her tablet that she'd been
doing wrong by. If she had marred her
virtue, they took that out. If she had been flirting, showing that she wasn't true to her husband, they
took that one out. Whatever it was, they took it out. And when her husband
returned, he found that she had been marked, and he would divorce her
immediately and have nothing to do with such a woman. He did not want such a
woman. So it was getting along towards dark when she realized that she had lost
something, time for her husband to come, and it's getting late.
…
70 And look, the church is
lollying. The church has no conscience
no more. You can hardly wake them up. The Bible said they would come in
that condition when they'd say, "'Lo,
our Lord delays His coming.' And they'll be devouring and biting one
another, and so forth, and fighting
around." It's just exactly that hour. Everything's ready. The pages is
turned, as it was like that, and it's ready, the coming of the Lord.
In the Old testament there
was a law of the jealous husband, and if the husband came home and had a
suspicion that his wife had been unfaithful while he was away, there was a
certain thing he that he could do, and we find this in Numbers chapter 5.
NUMBERS 5:11 ¶ And the LORD spake
unto Moses, saying, 12 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If
any man's wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him, 13 And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband,
and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her,
neither she be taken with the manner; 14 And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his
wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be
jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled: 15 Then shall the man bring his
wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part
of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense
thereon; for it is an offering of
jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing
iniquity to remembrance. 16 And the priest shall bring her near, and set
her before the LORD: 17 And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen
vessel; and of the dust that is in
the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water: 18 And the priest shall
set the woman before the LORD, and uncover the woman's head, and put the
offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the
priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse: 19 And the priest shall
charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee,
and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy
husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse: 20 But if thou hast gone aside to another
instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with
thee beside thine husband: 21 Then the priest shall charge the woman with an
oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The LORD make thee a
curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to rot,
and thy belly to swell; 22 And this water that causeth the curse shall go into
thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: And the woman
shall say, Amen, amen. 23 And the priest shall write these curses in a book,
and he shall blot them out with the bitter water: 24 And he shall cause the
woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the water that
causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter. 25 Then the priest
shall take the jealousy offering out
of the woman's hand, and shall wave the offering before the LORD, and offer it
upon the altar: 26 And the priest shall take an handful of the offering, even
the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the water. 27 And
when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if
she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that
causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman
shall be a curse among her people. 28 And if
the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall
conceive seed. 29 This is the law of
jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and
is defiled; 30 Or when the spirit of
jealousy cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set
the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law.
31 Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her
iniquity.
Now, notice here that the
water is bitter and in the king James Version it is said that the water is to
cause the curse. But what actually causes the cruse is whether the woman is
guilty or not. For the water does not cause the curse, but only is the
catalysts that brings into manifestation what is already there. If the woman is
innocent, then there is no curse upon her, but only blessing. Just like the
waters of the flood. The same waters that destroyed the wickedness of man from
the earth, and washed clean the earth from man’s sinful ways, is the same water
that lifted Noah up and above the earth and away from the death and destruction
that lay below.
And the Bitter water
represents the washing of water by the Word, just as the bitter scroll that the
prophet ate also represented the Word of God, sweet to the taste but bitter to
the stomach.
NUMBER 4: What does the missing piece of silver represent, and
why is she so desperate to find it? Why is she concerned that she only has nine
of them? Brother Branham also said from SECOND COMING OF THE LORD 57-0417
Each one of
those coins... If we only have time
but I haven't, I'm going to try to keep my word as close as possible, I could
tell you what each one of those coins meant. It was placed in there, and each coin meant a certain virtue
of that woman. The first, meaning her love to her husband.
Second, her pledge of virtue to live clean for him. And the third and
fourth and fifth, on to the ninth and tenth...
59 If you want to look it up,
look in Galatians 5. You'll find out
that that woman represented the Church,
and the Church is an espoused Wife to
Christ. And the tablet that the Church is supposed to wear is found in Galatians 5, which is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
goodness, meekness, gentleness, patience. That is the tablet that's supposed to
be wore in the Church: brotherly love,
kindness, fellowship. And this woman, when it... It must have been along about dark that she realized that she had
lost one of those coins.
GALATIANS 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is (1) love, (2) joy, (3) peace, (4) longsuffering,
(5) gentleness, (6) goodness, (7) faith, 23 (8) Meekness, (9) temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and
lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Now, this is just
nine fruits of the Spirit, but the most important fruit, the tenth fruit of the
Spirit is missing here. And without that fruit, you could have all nine of the
fruits of the spirit that are that are listed in Galatians chapter five, and
still be found to be an adulterous, just like the woman in our parable feared.
Brother Branham said
in his sermon Paradox 64-0206BP:78 We Pentecostals put
our evidence upon speaking in tongues, and how bad we've been fooled in that.
And how many of them says the fruit of the Spirit is the evidence, how badly
you're fooled by that. No, sir.
This woman had 9 silver coins, she had nine fruits of
the spirit, and yet she was still fearful that the one missing coin would show
her to be an adulterous woman. And how
many soft spoken meek mannered peace loving gentle spirited people have turned
down the very God from heaven who has come down with a Shout. They did it when
He manifested Himself in His Son and they do it still today.
From the sermon, SIRS WE WOULD SEE JESUS
64-0304 38 Brother Branham said, Those
Pharisees could show ten times the fruit that Jesus could. Did you know that?
God
identified by characteristics 64-0311 P:23 Some of them said, "The
fruit of the Spirit's got It." And it's wrong. The only evidence is, is
when the a-vindication, when God Himself identifies Himself in the promised
Word of the hour. There it is. Who had any more fruits of the Spirit than them
kind old priests, circumcised the children, and blessed them, and everything
else? And here this guy Jesus was, come around, kicked over their sacrifice
blocks, looked upon them with anger, beat them, run them out, no identification
of nothing. The Scripture is His
identification. He had no fellowship card; He belonged to no organization.
But God spoke of Him; that was His identification. That's the genuine identification of God in any hour, is His
identification. That's what it is, the Scriptures that's promised made
identified by the characteristic of the promise which is God, and God is the
Word. And the characteristic of that promise being identified, that makes the
believer. Jesus said so, and that settles it. Amen. Notice, now we find out,
the characteristics identify Him. As He said, "If it doesn't do it, then
don't believe Me." Now, Jesus spoke that it would identify Him.
What
shall we do with Jesus 64-0126 P:48 Christian Science said,
"Love, and you got the fruit of the Spirit," but they haven't. They
deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ. What is the evidence of It? When that spirit
that's in you can punctuate every promise with a "amen," and God will
confirm it. That's exactly the way it was with Jesus Christ. Oh, yes. They had
more fruits of the spirit. They had all kinds of evidences. You can't pin any evidence down to anything
but God Himself manifests His Word. That's the only true evidence that there is
that you're a Christian.
Who do
you say this is? 64-1227 P:103 The evidence of the Holy Ghost is
believing His Word, always been, every age, if you can receive the Word. Those
priests had Jesus beat a million miles when it come to fruits of the Spirit:
gentle, and peaceful, and meek, and lowly. He tore up churches, kicked them over,
and tore the people out, and called them snakes in the grass, and everything.
See? But He was that Word. He was that Word. That's it: believe God. God is the
Word. Believe It.
Now, we have shown you here that to have nine fruits of the spirit still
does not mean anything when the Groom comes for His Bride. If she is found to
be lacking that last fruit, then she is still turned out, divorced as a harlot
and separated from His presence forever.
So then what is that tenth fruit
that is so crucial, that without it you have not the One that has come
for you? It is a Fruit of the spirit but not one of those mentioned in
Galatians chapter 5.
Anointed
ones at end time 65-0725M P:42 Notice. But it's what they produce that
tells you the difference. "By their
fruit," Jesus said, "you shall know them."
And then he said, What is
the fruit? The Word for, the fruit for the season; that's what it is, their
teaching. The teaching of what? The teaching of the season, what time it
is, man's doctrine, denominational doctrine, or God's Word for the season.
In other words, man’s doctrine? Denominational doctrine? or God’s
Doctrine! Then what is the tenth fruit, or the tenth piece of silver that
refined who this young woman was? It is the doctrine of God, the doctrine of
Christ! It has to be because this woman knew if her Groom came home and she did
not have it, she would be put out from His presence, and she would not have him
any longer. He would say to her, “I used to know you
as my wife but I do not know you as my wife any longer.” And the Apostle John told us
in 2 John 9, He that has the doctrine of Christ has God. 2
John 9 Whosoever
transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that
abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
And he also told us, in 1 John
Look, they say we blaspheme because we call Jesus the Son of God. But
they also said Jesus blasphemed because of the very same thing. John 10: 36 Say
ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou
blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
John 5:23 That
all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that
honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
John 5:26 For
as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in
himself;
Now, we know it is the doctrine of Christ because it is the doctrine that
Jesus received from His Father and taught us. John Chapter 7:16 Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine
is not mine, but his that sent me. And
he also said, John
Now, if you are not sure what this tenth fruit of the spirit looks like,
brother Branham tells us in the sermon SIRS WE
WOULD SEE JESUS 64-0304 P:28 where he says, “You want to see what the
fruit of the Spirit is? Watch what the
Bible promises for a certain hour, then watch for that to be vindicated.
That is the evidence.”
There’s the evidence
that you have received the fruit of the Spirit. To be able to see the Word of
God manifested in the hour that you are living. And you hath He quickened who were dead in
trespasses and sin.
NUMBER 5: What does lighting a candle signify? 65 The
church better be examining their self by the Word of God, our purity, our loyalty, our devotion.
We've become tattlers, tale-bearers, cigarette smokers, backbiters, painted-up
Jezebels, everything in the calendar that the rest of the world does; the
Christian church is associating in those things today till you can't hardly
tell the one from the other. It's time we took inventory. It's getting late.
Now, in order... It was so late till she
had to light a candle. And she got a candle. Not only did she get a candle,
but she got a broom and she went to
house-cleaning. Oh, brother, if there ever was a need of a time of a lighting
of a candle, the sending forth of the Gospel Light, the Holy Ghost back into
the church... Not so much for emotion, not for some fantastics, not for some
emotional workup, not for a jump for joy, but for a heart-searching experience
when men and women get right with God. Right. We're at the end time.
68 And she lit a candle to give her light. And, brother, every little
candle in here ought to be lit tonight. ... Brother, we the Church of the
living God, in these great hours that we're now living, it behooves us to check
up, go before God, light the candle of
the Word of the Gospel, and examine ourselves, and find out if we're not
falling short, and especially when we see all these things coming. We're at the
end time; the coming of Christ is at hand. There's not another hope in the
world for the Church.
71 The Lutheran church lost her
light. The Methodist church lost her light. The Baptist church lost her light. The Pentecostal
church lost her light. Every light
seems to be gone. The Pentecostal people, the Holiness people is acting just
exactly like the Methodists. The Methodist is acting like the Baptists. The
Baptists is acting like the Lutheran. The Lutheran is acting like the Catholic.
And it's all gone back to one great big conglomeration of sin. That's right.
We're in the end time, the coming of the Lord.
NUMBER 6: What does sweeping the house mean? SECOND COMING OF THE LORD
57-0417 68 Not only that, but she
got the broom, and the neighbors could see the dust flying. She had a real house-cleaning time, for
her husband was about to come. And if he
caught her with that one coin out, she was "a harlot."
71 Now, she had a
house-cleaning time. She scrubbed the floors; she swept the walls; she took
down the cobwebs; she kept on until she
found what she had lost.
82 That is husband and wife,
which is type of Christ and His Church. And when you go to your church, you may
have the best pews in the city; you may have the highest steeple there is in
the city; you may have the best pipe organ; you may dress the best; you may
sing like a mockingbird; but all of that, if you're kissing and flirting with
the world, that kiss on the cheeks of Christ is a Judatarian kiss. He doesn't
want nothing to do with you. He looks upon your wedding engagement ring, and He
finds the tablet moved; He finds love
has gone; it's a form. He finds loyalty is gone. You've committed
fornications with the world. You go to dances, and boogie-woogie parties, and
watch old dirty television programs. You are committing adultery with Christ,
on Him, as calling Him your Husband. The Bible said, "You say, 'I am rich,
I have need of nothing.'" But He said, "You don't know that you are
naked, miserable, blind, poor, and don't know it." It's time we lit a
candle and swept the house. The coming of the Lord is at hand.
NUMBER 7: Why is she so diligent about searching for this
missing piece of silver? What are these circumstances that cause her to go into
a panic mode to find this lost piece of silver.
Enticing Spirits 55-072435 Last Wednesday night I was preaching on
the woman that had the tablet over her head, or she lost one of her pieces of coin, and she was sweeping the house
and trying to find it 'fore her husband come. And come to find out that that
woman was an Oriental type woman and she represented the church. And the
wedding band used not to be worn on the finger, it was worn across the head,
with nine pieces of silver in it. And
when a woman become a prostitute they took out one piece of silver and showed
that she was a prostitute. And so this woman has lost one of the pieces, not a prostitute, but her husband had
been away, and she was trying to hurry to find that piece to put it back in her
tablet for when her husband come he would know that she has been caught in
prostitution and it would mean a breaking up of home and so forth. And I
applied that for a few moments to the church; lost a lot of great things. And
it's time for Father to come, so we've got to hunt them up.
NUMBER 8: What
is the significance of her calling her friends and neighbors together. Feast of the
trumpets 64-0719M P:108 Now, as soon as this Church, the Bride is drawed together,
she's taken up; in that mystery of the Seventh Seal, or the Seventh Seal, the
mystery going.
Satan's
NUMBER 9: Who are the neighbors and friends she calls? I
believe that is all those people around the world that have been called by the
tenth fruit of the spirit which is the doctrine of Christ, the teaching of the
hour. They have been called to the wedding supper and are coming forth with the
same excitement as the woman (church) who has found that which she thought she
had lost. And they are rejoicing as though they too had lost their own piece of
silver, and have now found it.
Luke 14:23 And
the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel
them to come in, that my house may be filled.
Matthew 22:9 Go
ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the
marriage. 10 So
those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as
they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
Brother Branham said, “Now, she
had a house-cleaning time. She scrubbed the floors; she swept the walls;
she took down the cobwebs; she kept on
until she found what she had lost. And when she did, she called her little sister churches to come now. I don't care if
you're a Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, come, let us rejoice together. When that
time come, when the church finds its brotherly love, when the church finds its
holy decency, when the church finds its place in Christ, it'll call to the
other members of the body, "Come and rejoice with us." God wants the
church to love Him.”
NUMBER 10: Why together, what does this signify, her call to
gather together? It signifies a oneness of mind, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:10 ¶ Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no
divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind
and in the same judgment.
NUMBER 11: What does rejoicing signify in this parable? REVELATION 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for
the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the
righteousness of saints..
NUMBER 12: what is significiant about the words I have found that
which was lost?
Remember, in Alpha she lost
something too, and Alpha must become Omega. And what had she lost in that first
church age? She lost her first love. And so too the Church has lost her first
Love. And when God has come with a shout in this hour and restored to us that
first Love, we couldn’t hold our peace
and we have called together the Bride from around the world to know what we
know, to see what we see, to hear what we hear, and to share in finding our
First Love again.
LETTING OFF THE PRESSURE 62-0518
E-102 Our heavenly Father, we can see, Lord, that
the church has lost its first love.
We can see that the church in full, all over the nation, has dropped, not only
the nation, but the world. We realize that You spoke the other morning and said
the seeding time is over here, that the
only place to sow seeds is in the foreign fields. This is a gleaning over
the stubble. And, O God, truly them words was right.
368-1 RESUME OF THE AGES -
CHURCH AGE BOOK CPT 10 In that age, the true church had lost its first love. That love was
typified as the love of bride and groom at their marriage and early years of
wedded life. There was a cooling of that complete love and abandonment to God.
77-1 EPHESIAN CHURCH AGE -
CHURCH AGE BOOK CPT 3 The very name,
88-2 The fervent desire to please God, the
passion to know His Word, the cry for reaching out in the Spirit, all begins to
fade and instead of that church being on fire with the fire of God it has
cooled off and become a bit formal. That is what was happening back there to
the Ephesians. They were getting a bit formal. The abandonment to God was dying
out and the people weren't too careful about what God thought of them as they
began to be careful about what the world thought of them. That second
generation coming on was just like
89-1 That cycle of revival and death has never failed. All you have to
do is recall this last move of God in the Spirit when men and women dressed
like Christians, went to church, prayed all night, took to street corners and
weren't ashamed of the manifestations of the Spirit. They left their old dead
churches and worshipped in homes or old store buildings. They had reality. But
it wasn't too long a time until they began to get enough money to build fine
new churches. They put in a choir instead of singing unto God for themselves.
They put gowns on the choir. They organized a movement and ran it by man. They
soon began to read books that weren't fit to read. They let down the bars and
goats came in and took over. The cry of joy was gone. The freedom of the Spirit
was gone. Oh, they kept on with a form; but the fire had died down and the
blackness of ashes is about all that is left.
89-2 A few moments ago I mentioned that John understood what it was to
love God. That great apostle of love would certainly see it when the church
began to lose that first love of God. In I John 5:3, he says, "For this is
the love of God, that we keep His commandments (His Word)." One little
deviation from that Word was a step away from Christ. People say they love God,
they go to church, they even shout and rejoice and sing and have a great
emotional time. But when it is all over, watch and see if they are in that
WORD, walking in it, living in it. If they go through all the other and then
don't walk in that Word, they can say they love God but their lives tell another
story. I wonder if John didn't see a lot of that before he died; people saying
they loved God but not obeying His Word. Oh,
89-3 But as usual people don't
heed God's warning. That revival fire built upon the sacred Word is so
wonderful, and the manifestation of the Spirit so blessed, that a little fear
creeps in and a whisper in the heart says, "How can we protect this truth
we have? What can we do to see this revival goes on?" That is when the
"antichrist spirit" comes in and whispers, "Look, you have the
truth now, see that it doesn't get lost. Organize and set up your creed of what
you believe. Put it all in a church manual." And they do it. They
organize. They add to the Word. And they die just like Eve did for taking One
wrong word. It's God's Word that brings life. And it's not what we say about
the Word that counts, but it's what God said.