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Pioneers Memorial

W.D. Frazee: Preparing for Marriage

W.D. Frazee

Preparing for Marriage, Part 1

Our opening text this evening will be found in the 15th chapter of John.

I want you to notice what the purpose of the Lord's instructions is, Why God tells us something.

John 15 verse 11, these things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full.

Well, if we're full of joy, then we're joyful.

And oh, I hope that every 1 of you, as the result of studying these wonderful principles, will have more joy than you can.

No matter how much you have, you can have more, for your heart can expand and get bigger.

If you can hold a quart tonight, the day will come when you can hold 2 quarts, and on and on.

Now with this, I'd like to put this statement in Ministry of Healing 363, just 1 short sentence.

The gospel is a wonderful simplifier of life's problems.

Are there any problems in the world today?

The world is full of problems, and a lot of them are concerned with this question of marriage in the home.

The fact that 1 marriage in every 4 ends in the divorce courts, in some parts of the country 1 marriage in every 3 ends in the divorce courts.

That fact is eloquent on this point, and that is that there are not so many happy homes.

But Remember our statement here, the gospel is a wonderful simplifier of life's problems.

The wisdom of this world makes things more and more complex.

Some years ago, The wisdom of man found out a way to take the wheat berry and separate the bran and the shorts and the middling and the germ and give us the beautiful white product, white flour.

Well, it was only a matter of time until certain problems began to arise.

Well, the simple answer would be for everybody to go back to doing what?

That would be the simple answer, but that's too simple for this sophisticated modern age.

And so, through the decades, all sorts of things have been invented and prepared to keep adding to and enriching that white flour.

As I sometimes say to audiences when I'm giving a series of health lectures, if a man stole 10 dollars out of your pocket and gave you 5 or 6 back, would you say he had enriched you?

The fact is, dear friends, that no matter how many chemicals they add to that white flour, they never quite get it back to the superior quality of what God put into the wheat berry when he made it.

And so I might go on with many other illustrations.

But remember, the gospel is a wonderful simplifier of life's problems.

The way to find the best answer to any problem, the way to find the best plan concerning anything in life is to go back to God's original creation.

Now when we go back to Genesis, the first chapter, we find the home.

You know, it's an interesting thing that when God had made this world in the 6 days, filled it with plant and animal life, and then made man.

The last thing he did before he rested and made the Sabbath, the first thing he did in the life of man was to create the institution of the home.

But when this was done, everything was completed.

And this is included in that wonderful statement in Genesis 131, and God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was what?

Now to show that the home is a direct and deliberate creation of God, we note in the second chapter of Genesis that when Adam was created, He was given dominion over all the earth.

And then as he looked upon the whole creation, God arranged for him to feel his need of a companion.

And the record here, Genesis, the second chapter, verses 21 and 22, is that the Lord caused Adam to sleep and took 1 of his ribs and from it made the woman.

Notice the 22nd verse, and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man.

Who was it then arranged that first marriage?

Now, That was the beginning of human history.

Let's come down now 4, 000 years later and turn to the Gospel of John, the second chapter of the Gospel of John.

Here we find the Lord Jesus beginning his public ministry, and he begins it where?

In Cana of Galilee at a marriage ceremony.

Jesus had come to this world to restore man to the original perfection, and he began his work by performing a miracle of love and mercy here at this wedding feast.

I want to notice a comment on this in the book Adventist Home, page 28.

The presence of Christ alone can make men and women happy.

All the common waters of life, Christ can turn into the wine of heaven.

The home then becomes as an Eden of bliss, the family a beautiful symbol of the family in heaven.

But when you get down to the actual living of life, It isn't quite that pretty.

I want to tell you something, friends, and I know what I'm talking about.

A Christian home can be happier than anything that can ever be written about it.

It can be more wonderful, more blessed, more a fountain of joy, a haven of rest, a heaven on earth, far more than anything that can be written about it.

Now somebody says, Brother Ferzee, you're dreaming.

No, I have a vision and it's an inspired vision.

The problem is simply this, friends, that few people are allowing the architect of the universe to plan their homes.

The better the architect, the better the plan.

If it weren't so tragic, it would be plain laughable how people who have never had a Christian home, never been married, know so much about what they're going to do and how to do it, so much that they want no 1, much less God, to direct and plan for them.

I say if it weren't so tragic, it would be plain laughable.

This is a road that most of us go over only once, and therefore any planning that is done for it in advance needs to be done by someone who knows the road.

And you and I do not know the road in advance, only God does.

He's promised to guide those who want his guidance.

The problem is, as I say, that so few are seeking divine guidance.

Now in Volume 4 of the Testimonies, page 504, I read this challenging statement.

There is not 1 marriage in 100 that results happily, that bears the sanction of God and places the parties in a position better to glorify Him.

We started out with a verse where Jesus says that he's told us these things in order that we may be what?

But of course if we don't listen, then we won't be happy.

And there isn't 1 marriage in a hundred that results happily.

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Series

W.D. Frazee: Preparing for Marriage

Preparing for Marriage, Part 1

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Marriage and the Home- Part 1

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Relationships Week 2006

God’s Purpose in Marriage

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The Sacred Circle

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Sound Doctrine