Romans 116
Brian Kocourek
Good morning everyone, I hope and trust that all
you mothers in here this morning are having a pleasant morning so far, and also
I hope that your children will decide that one day a year is not the way we should
honor our mothers, but that everyday will bring about honor and respect for your
sacrifice and unending service that you daily enter into as you set about your
homes to make it a better place to dwell in for your family.
Now, in honor of you mothers, and in line with
our studies in the Book of Romans, (I just love the way the Lord works all
things together for the Good of those who love Him and the elect according to
His own Purpose) and therefore, we will examine the next verse of Romans 13,
and we will find for our text some words perhaps you mothers have used
over the years, as we find in verse 11
the Apostle Paul saying the following words…
KJV Romans 13:11
¶ And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep:
How may of you mothers have said to your
children, It’s
High time that you wake up and get up out of bed? Well, if that
isn’t a motherly thing to say I don’t know what is. And therefore we are going
to look at the role of the mother this morning as we find it in the Scriptures.
And remember, you children, there is actually one of the ten commandments that
commands you to respect your mothers, and so we find that the word of God has a
little something for everyone of us.
The Fifth Commandment which is the first commandment with a
promise, tells us that if you do this you will have long life upon earth. " EXODUS
There is a saying among the world that says, “For every great man, there is a great woman behind him. And the women’s lib movement wants you to think the great woman in the man’s life is his wife. Now, that may be true in part, but where you have had great men, it is because there stood behind him a great mother who raised him up to be what he becomes. And the Bible and History is full of these unsung heroes who took their role as mother to be a very important accomplishment. I think today we have had the world try to dictate to us what is considered an accomplished person and what is not. But let me say that I can give you some women in history that by today’s standards would not be considered accomplished and much more likely would be considered nobodies. But I want you to understand this, the Bible and history is replete with stories of the great women behind the great men and those great women have been their mothers.
Look
at Moses, and how his mother raised him up and taught him that he had been
chosen by God to deliver God’s people. FAITH COMETH BY HEARING 54-0320
E-53 How Moses... How could he, after being
indoctrinated down there, and all that stuff poked into him, by those Egyptian
scholars (how to embalm the body, and how to do this, and eat garlic, and
everything else they had down there, and all the cures, and put-ons they had
down there in Egypt), how could he ever get that, all of that out of him? You
know why? Because he had a godly, little mother that set him on her knee, down
there off from one side, from all them scholars, and said, "Moses, you are
chose of the Lord. God gave you to me, and your promise. We see God on you. And
someday, you will deliver your brothers." Hallelujah. Faith cometh by
hearing, hearing from the Word of God. And he did it?
INVASION OF THE
Remember, when
Moses was a little boy, it was a mother who give him his instruction. It was a
godly mother who took little Moses on her knees, and said, "Moses..."
taught him all. He was her teacher or... She was his teacher, rather, under
Pharaoh, and said now these things. Said, "Moses, someday you're going to
deliver the children of
And what
about John Wesley? PHILADELPHIAN CHURCH.AGE
60-1210 John Wesley was born on
JEHOVAH JIREH 61-0209
E-52 A woman said,
"Well, I just can't find time to read my Bible to my children." Why,
Susanna Wesley, she had seventeen children and she spent three hours a day,
with no modern convenience... She didn't press a button, wash her dishes. She
didn't turn on a tap and get a little water out, like that. She packed it from
a spring in an old wooden bucket and a gourd dipper, packed it from the spring.
And raised seventeen children and could spend three hours a day in prayer. What
did she raise up out of it? A John and a Charles (Hallelujah. Yes, sir.
Certainly.), men that shook the world in their days.
UNCHANGEABLE GOD 62-0120 E-16 You
notice most of the women today has wash machines, and electric ironers, and
push button dishwashers, and everything like that; and yet they got less time
to pray than they ever had. You know, Susanna
Wesley had seventeen children. And she--with them seventeen children, packing
the water from a spring, and washing on her hands, and yet she could find two
or three hours a day to pray with her children, with seventeen little fellows.
And out of there come a John and a Charles. That's what's the matter today, reason our
schools are letting down, no ministers coming in, young men interested. We
have... need some more praying fathers and mothers is what we need to make our
schools fill up. Young men's hearts burning with zeal to take the Gospel is what
we need. But things are changing.
And
Abraham Lincoln, after his own mother died when he was young was raised up by
his step mother Sarah Bush Johnston who taught him to reed and guided his early life through home schooling
him and seeing to it he had the right kinds of books to influence his life. She
selected such books as The BIBLE, Pilgrim’s Progress, and the Biography of
George Washington, and William Grimshaw’s History of the
Now, the
role of a mother is a very important one, and we know that brother Branham
taught that the mother is the first teacher to her children. She has the first
influence on what that child is going to be when it is raised up. And the Bible
tells us the way we raise them up is the way they will be. That’s PROVERBS 22:6 ¶ Train
up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from
it.
Therefore, we can see the importance of the role that mothers have in the fashioning the minds, intellect and the condition of their children’s hearts. And this works in both directions. A mother can nurture up a child to become a great man who lives a godly life, or she can create a monster that affects society in a very devastating way.
Let’s
take at Sadaam Hussein for example. Soon after he was conceived, his father was
killed and his brother died, and so his mother blamed him while he was yet in her
womb, saying, “he already wants to be the
ruler of the house”, and so she tried to abort him by running her belly
into the walls and doors, and she hated him and never nurtured him. Therefore
without love, and a nurturing mother to guide him, he became a renegade at a
very early age, learning to steal and because there was no love and guidance
from his mother, he killed his first victim at the age of ten. Now, contrast
that mother with the mother of Moses, who nurtured him up in the ways of the Lord, and he went forth with great
character in bringing forth the children of
The
bible also speaks of the mother as the first to train the child in the right
ways of God.
PROVERBS
What a role a mother can play in shaping of the future of a nation. What a contrast between the mother of Abraham Lincoln, and William Jefferson Clinton. The first, Abraham Lincoln, a godly man who was truly a great leader and yet remained very humble and obedient to the Word of God. And the other, mr. Clinton, a scoundrel that was more concerned with having illicit sexual affairs than governing the nation. Abraham Lincoln’s step mother who raised him was a godly woman who placed before his little mind words in book that would shape his mind, his intellect and his heart to always honor and fear God. On the other hand, Mr. Clinton’s mother was an ungodly woman who had several live in boy friends, and who was of such a shallow character that she painted her fingernails with the image of Elvis Presley on each finger nail. And thus the lack of character of little William Jefferson Clinton was shaped by the lack of character of his mother.
William Branham, God’s vindicated Profit to our generation said, “the role of motherhood is a sacred trust that God has given to her”, and yet what is she doing with it?
INVISIBLE.UNION OF
THE BRIDE 65-1125 16-1 What a sacred trust, what a responsibility
to a woman. Now, see why she is a type of the church, which has the same
responsibility as a woman has a sacred responsibility to her motherhood, to her
virtues, to her husband; the church has a sacred responsibility to prayer, and
to the Word, and to Christ, just the same as the woman has. And as a woman
drifts off with another man; when the church goes off on these institutional
programs, and building programs, and schools, and so forth... I have nothing
against them.
INVASION OF THE USA 54-0509 244 To you little mothers here this morning,
that's been real mothers, and I know there's many of you; I think, every one of
you. Let me tell you something. God bless you. You're the fifth Gospel, I
think. Let me tell you what's in there for your children, just a little thing.
'Cause, Brother Neville will probably preach on the--about mother tonight, or
whoever, one of us that preaches, all right, about mothers. But, listen, let me
ask you something. Remember, when Moses was a little boy, it was a mother who
give him his instruction. It was a godly mother who took little Moses on her
knees, and said, "Moses..." taught him all. He was her teacher or...
She was his teacher, rather, under Pharaoh, and said now these things. Said,
"Moses, someday you're going to deliver the children of
248
Here the other day, I was talking to a mother on the telephone. And the
mother said, "Oh, Brother Billy," she said "my poor boy's in
trouble." Said, "Oh, what a trouble he's in." I said, "Yes,
I know about it, sister, dear." And she said, "He may be wrong. I
don't know." Said, "One says this and one says that. I don't
know." But said, "no matter whether he's wrong or right, I love
him." There you are, "I love him." He said to his mother, said,
"I've been so deceived by this and that." Said, "Mother, I
believe you're about the only sweetheart I really have, a woman that's true to
me, and sticks to me." That's mother's love. That's a real mother that'll
put her arms around her baby, regardless whether he's right or wrong, she goes
right on to him. And if God... If a mother can think that of her baby, how much
more will God think that of His. You see? You stay right with Him. Go right...
251
And now let me just tell you another mother, right quick, in the Bible,
before we close. There was a mother called Herodia. She taught her daughter to tap dance. She wanted her to be popular. And she danced before the king, and
required the head of John the Baptist. We have record of seventy of her offspring,
this damsel that danced before... Herodias'
daughter danced before Herod; seventy of her offspring, they either died
prostitutes or on gallows. One
mother taught hers the things of the world; the other mother taught hers the
things of God. One became a great leader and a conqueror, immortal
among men today; and the other is botched and in hell, and taken thousands
times thousands with her. See what I mean? "Bring up a child in the way it
should go."
253
And I certainly sympathize with you poor mothers setting here with your
white roses on. There's a heaven that a mother's gone to, today, where a good
old fashion mother that lived for God, probably has passed beyond the veil.
She's waiting for you to come. That's right. I respect and honor you there with
your red roses on. Your mother, if you want to do anything for her, do it three
hundred and sixty-five days a year. Go to her house and offer prayer, and live
for God. That's the thing to do. And bring up your children. And when your
children come up, they'll call you "blessed," after you have passed
on beyond the veil. That's the real spirit of motherhood, and the real spirit
of mother's day. Mother's day is three hundred and sixty-five days a year.
255
This is the day they sell flowers and pass presents. The world does it.
If it passes, if the world should stand another twenty years, they'll have
son's days, and daughter's days, and, or cousin's days, and uncle's days, and
all them things like that, just enough to get the world in a commercial
glamour. That's just where it's going, right into hell, just as hard as it can
go to destruction. But, you, God bless you, is my prayer.
Notice that even in Scripture we find the two covenants represented by two mothers.
GALATIANS
And the two covenants are represented throughout Scripture as the church and the false church. One is the Mother of Free Born while the other is the mother of those born into bondage. One is called a Lady, and in fact to be more precise she is called the elect Lady, Precious, while the other is called the great whore that is the mother of harlots as seen in revelations chapter 17. and the scripture tells us…
EZEKIEL
Now, in closing I would just like to name some other mothers in the scripture that we have not yet mentioned an I would like to point your attention to the attributes that the Scriptures hold up to us as those qualifying characteristics that God has placed on display for all to see and to keep before us ion our memories as to what a true mother really is.
First of all let me mention those that we are all so familiar with. We all know the story of Ruth and how she was taken in by her mother in law Naomi. And we are well aware of the great sacrifice Naomi made for her daughter in law. And we also familiar with the story of Rachel who was loved dearly by Jacob and truly we are drawn to this story because it is one of the classic love stories in the Bible. As was the story of Isaac and Rebekah. But even in these stories we are more familiar with the love story between the Bride and Groom than we are about the roles these women played as mothers. We are also familiar with the story of Abraham and Sarah but in these beautiful stories of Love between Groom and hiss bride, there are also less talked of stories of women who also were married and mothers and who suffered greatly because they did not have the love from their husbands that these other stories possess.
We talk about Sarah but what about Hagar? In many ways the character of Hagar Far out-shown that of Sarah. Sarah at times was controlling, doubtful and manipulative, and yet we find Hagar obedient, longsuffering, and faithful. In Genesis 16 we find the story is that Sarah, doubting the promise of God gave her handmaid to Abraham to be his wife so that they could have a family through her. But when she conceived, she looked down on Sarah and this got her very mad and so she went to Abraham and asked what to do, and He basically told her that Hagar was hers to deal with as she pleased. I think basically he told her that’s your problem, take care of it yourself. And so Sarah began to treat Hagar very badly to where Hagar just fled. But going away from the family, out in the desert where she had fled, she met with God and He assured her that all would be well. You know, It’s one thing to be a mother with a loving husband, but here is a mother who knew not the love of her husband. And yet she remained so faithful to her child that she had brought forth by her husband who did not even love her. She was the mother of Ishmael, and when Abraham and Sarah brought forth Isaac, she who had been part of the family, and loved so much by Sarah, at one point that Sarah had offered her to Abraham to begin the family God had promised, and yet after bringing forth the child, she was cast out along with her child that she had by Abraham as his first born child. NO wonder the Arabs to this day hate the Jews.
Then the grandson of Abraham comes along and we see the same seen unfold itself all over again. This time it is Jacob who wishes to marry a beautiful young girl Rachel. But the father sends Leah to the tent at night and Jacob in the dark does not know that he is making love to Rachel’s sister and when he finds out the next morning he is very, very angry with Laban.
Now
the story of Leah is full of mixed emotions. It is tragic in the sense that we
see this woman who is rejected, unloved and unwanted, and yet she is
predestined by God to bring forth more than half of the tribes of
We find out a little about her in Genesis 19:16 that describes Leah as simply being "tender-eyed",
which probably meant that she was weak in her eyes with some sort of eye
condition that perhaps caused her to squint or perhaps she was cross eyed, or
had an "lazy" eye. She had plain features in comparison to her
younger sister's beauty, as the Bible tells us Rachel was well favored, which means she was no doubt very beautiful. Leah had no probable
suitors and no doubt was past the age in which women normally married, and so Laban
thought he could get rid of his responsibility to support his “old maid”
daughter and get seven more years of free labor from Jacob as well. It must have been a very difficult burden to
bear for Leah being constantly overlooked, but character is molded in the
furnace of trials.
To make matters worse, Leah was stuck in a marriage in
which her husband loved her younger, prettier sister. Leah, like most women, it
would have only been natural for her to dream of marrying the love of her life.
How sad it must have been for her to be forced to marry someone who had no love
for her. And although this is a message about motherhood I want you young men
who hear this and those of you who read this on the net to get this one point. If
you plan to marry some young lady in this message, someone who has been brought
up right, to live a descent life, then you had better do the same, and you had
better tell her that you love her, and tell
her that she means the world to you. Notice after each of her sons were born,
Leah hoped this would earn Jacob's love and the names she gave her sons reflected
this craving to be loved.
Leah, was unwanted and unloved. But God loved Leah, and He loved her so much that He purposed in
her to bring forth Reuben and when this
happened we hear her say, "Surely my husband
will love me now" in Gen. 29:32. Next she brought forth Simeon
and at that time we hear her say, "Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he
gave me this one too" in Gen. 29:33. and next came Levi and we hear Leah say, "Now at last my
husband will become attached to me" Gen. 29:34), showing that she still
felt left out from the love of Jacob. And then she bore Judah at which time we hear
her say to God, "This time I will praise the Lord" Gen. 29:35,
and it is apparent by this time she is learning to live with this lack of love
from Jacob, because she truly knows that although she does not have his love,
she is loved by God and is truly being blessed by Him. And then as she is getting older, and cannot
have any more children herself, she offers up her maid servant to Jacob to
continue having children, and when Issachar
is born, we hear her thanking God for this child, "God has rewarded me
for giving my maidservant to my husband"
Gen. 30:18. Now the character of
Leah is quite a bit different from the jealous character of Sarah. Now, a
miracle takes place with Leah and she again bares a son to Jacob, and his name
is called Zebulon and we hear her prayer to God saying, " God hath endued me
[with] a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have born him
six sons: and she called his name Zebulon Gen. 30:20. 21 And afterwards she bare a daughter, and
called her name Dinah."
Here is a woman who was faithful, loving and never
complained, and yet was despised and rejected, and never did seem to gain the
love of her husband, and yet how faithful she was always patiently looking for
the promise of a Husband that would love her. This story is so often overlooked,
because its not the love story that we so love to hear. But rather it is the
story of a faithful woman who despite having a husband that apparently did not
love her, yet she remained a true wife and mother of her children. . She was
predestined to bring forth half of the twelve tribe of
If
we look at other genuine mothers in the scriptures we find women like Elisabeth
that her only claim to fame was that she was a humble woman and the wife of a
minister. She made no pretenses to be somebody, but must have trained John to
see through the politics that had evolved within the church circles. Elisabeth, never
sought out attention or fame, yet her son was the forerunner of the Messiah. All
the scriptures speak of her is that she was righteous, LUKE 1:6 And they were both righteous before God,
walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7 And
they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were [now]
well stricken in years.
Another attribute that we see in her is obedience as when
it came time to name the child, Cultural expectations led people to assume she
would name the child after a relative. But the Lord had directed her to name
him John, and she obeyed. She was intent on pleasing God rather than man.
LUKE
She was humble, and thankful, and had an attitude of praise
and was obedience to God. All these attributes which are nothing extraordinary,
and yet these are the traits that God ordained to raise up the child that would grow up to become what Jesus
would describe in the following way.
MATTHEW 11:9 But what went ye
out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.
10 For this is [he], of whom it is
written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy
way before thee. 11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there
hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist:
If God had a purpose and a plan for such an ordinary woman
as Elisabeth, then certainly he has a purpose and plan for you in your life.
But to find that way takes the greatest gift of all, and that is to get
yourself out of the way. JAMES
Let
us pray.