The biggest problem with America today is the sin of rebellious wives! God
hates rebellion. It was Eve's sin of rebellion that dragged her husband into
sin, ruining Paradise, and ultimately led to Cain murdering his own brother
Abel. The Scriptures tell us that Jezebel stirred her husband Ahab to do
evil. 1st Kings 21:25, “But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell
himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his
wife stirred up.” 1st Peter 3:1, “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection
to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without
the word be won by the conversation of the wives.”
We find in the Old Testament that the strongest man in the world became powerless in the lap of a woman. Judges 16:18-19 and 21, “And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he hath shewed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand. And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him ...the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.”
In a prolific and Christ-honoring work, Evangelist John R. Rice (1895-1980) wrote a helpful book in 1941 called, “Bobbed Hair, Bossy Wives And Women Preachers!” Brother Rice calls chapter three—WIVES TO SUBMIT THEMSELVES TO, BE SUBJECT TO, OBEDIENT TO THEIR HUSBANDS. In chapter three, beginning on page 29, Dr. Rice states:
AGED WOMEN SHOULD TEACH YOUNGER WOMEN TO OBEY HUSBANDS
Titus, the younger pastor, was instructed by Paul how to teach sound doctrine. In Titus 2:3-5 the Holy Spirit had Paul to write down the following:
“The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.”
Older women sometimes are responsible for breaking homes. When trouble comes up in the home of a young married couple, the mother of the wife may say, “You don't have to put up with his mistreatment!” Get your things together and come back home if he doesn't treat you right! Stand up for your rights! And the neighbor women take it on themselves to offer advice. But here we are told just the kind of counsel that the aged women should give to young women. They are to “teach the young women . . . to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, OBEDIENT TO THEIR OWN HUSBANDS, that the word of God be not blasphemed.” When a Christian women's influence leads another woman to be rebellious and disobedient at home in her attitude toward her husband, then she sins against God and causes the Word of God to be blasphemed. Any kind of Christianity that does not make a woman into a good wife brings reproach on the cause of Christ. So older women must teach young wives to obey their husbands, and thus Christianity will be in repute, and God will be honored by the happy homes that Christianity brings!
Once I was asked to marry a young couple whom I loved very dearly. The young bride-to-be asked me, “You are not going to put obey in the marriage ceremony, are you?” I answered back that of course I would not want to make up my own kind of marriage ceremony. “But,” I said, “if I leave it out, God has put it in. It is in the Bible that wives are to be 'obedient to their own husbands.' You don't want me to leave out what God put in, do you?” And since she was a good Christian girl, she agreed. Preachers, to please a modern world, may leave obey out of the marriage ceremony. But God puts it in just the same and preachers ought to too, and no Christian wife pleases Him who does not take the solemn vow to obey her husband and who does not prayerfully, with God's help, seek to fulfill that vow. ...
WHAT IF WIVES ARE WISER THAN HUSBANDS?
Wives sometimes say, “But I have a better education than my husband. I am a better manager. I have better judgment in many matters. Why shouldn't I have the deciding voice? I think the wiser of the two should have the authority in the home.”
Well, no doubt children often think they are wiser than their parents. Laborers are generally wiser, in their own sight, than their bosses. And no doubt the devil thinks himself wiser than God. That does not prove it is true.
However, children are often better informed, better trained, better equipped, in some matters, than their parents. Many a farm boy under the supervision of his county agent has learned to grow more corn to the acre than his father could, has learned to grow prize winning pigs by a feeding schedule with which his father is unfamiliar. But the farm boy still should not boss his father.
A girl in high school may learn how to make curtains, how to make lovely dresses, how to set an exquisite table, how to plan a balanced meal better than her mother ever knew. But God's plan is still for the girl to be subject to her mother.
I may be a better man than the policeman at the corner, who directs traffic, and yet if I am a good citizen, I obey his whistle. I may be a better man than the judge, but I respect the court.
God's way is still the best way, and wives are to be subject to their husbands. It is the way of peace and happiness and prosperity.
I have no doubt that many of the curses on our land come from sin in the home. Children do not obey parents, because there is disunion and no respect for authority in the home. The crime wave that plagues America is a part and parcel of the rebellion against authority in which every woman who does not obey her husband has a part. Wives who do not submit to their husbands may expect their own children to scorn their authority. And such women need not be surprised if their husbands' love grows cold and all the horrible train of evil comes that follows rebellion against authority—quarrels, discontent, lack of trust, and then broken homes and broken hearts! And when such women come to pray, they may expect to be treated by their dear Lord as rebels, not only against the authority of husband, but against the authority of God who commanded wives to be subject to their own husbands as unto the Lord.
I had a letter the other day from a brokenhearted wife. She had tried many, many years to win her husband to Christ. He would not hear her. She had heard me preach over the radio at Grand Island, Nebraska. She had found how she had failed in her rebellious way, trying to have her own way. And now she said, “I have tried my way and I have failed. Now I am going to try the Lord's way. It is my last chance to win my husband.” Why don't you try God's way, dear wife who reads this?
In Oklahoma City by a book table in revival services, a woman pointed to my little booklet, What Must I Do To be Saved? and said, “That booklet won my brother to Christ!” A man who stood nearby heard it. He pointed to the little booklet on Rebellious Wives and Slacker Husbands and said “My brother and his wife were separated, had been separated two weeks, and were applying for a divorce. I got this little booklet for them and both of them read it. They went back together, confessed their sins to each other, and now their home is wonderfully happy.”
Some years ago a woman wrote me in greatest distress. Her husband, she said, was so mean to her that it was impossible to live with him. She was having to give up her home and go back to her mother's. Yet her heart was broken about it and she wanted me to pray and wondered if there was anything she could do. I did pray and wrote to give her the Scriptures that I have given in these chapters about women being in subjection to their own husbands, and I sent her a little booklet on the subject. Soon she wrote to tell me that her home had been happily re-established. “I was as much to blame as he was,” she said. “I was rebellious and bitter and wanted my own way. Now everything has been smoothed and and I love him as never before. Our hearts are, oh, so happy!”
Dear reader, God's way is the only way to bring real happiness in your home, permanent happiness. It is not much to do for one who loves the Lord, to be subject to your husband for Christ's sake. And oh, how rich are the rewards for any godly woman who obeys God through surrendering to the authority of her husband.
SOURCE: Dr. John R. Rice - “Bobbed Hair, Bossy Wives And Women Preachers,” pages 29-32 and 35-37; Sword of The Lord Publishers ©1941.
I would like to repeat a very important section of what you have just read, emphasizing the dire consequences of a wife's rebellion. Brother Rice knows what he is talking about from the Word of God. America is being destroyed by rebellious women, who insist on having their own way, instead of submitting to their own husband's authority. Kindly, this is why my own adult children dishonor me, because their mother does not honor me, who cruelly divorced me in 2006 (like Evangelists Charles Weigle's wife divorced him). Still after 13 years, my former wife points fingers, blaming other women and blaming me for her failures, refusing to submit herself as Dr. Rice talks about in the following important words...
I have no doubt that many of the curses on our land come from sin in the home. Children do not obey parents, because there is disunion and no respect for authority in the home. The crime wave that plagues America is a part and parcel of the rebellion against authority in which every woman who does not obey her husband has a part. Wives who do not submit to their husbands may expect their own children to scorn their authority. And such women need not be surprised if their husband's love grows cold and all the horrible train of evil comes that follows rebellion against authority—quarrels, discontent, lack of trust, and then broken homes and broken hearts! And when such women come to pray, they may expect to be treated by their dear Lord as rebels, not only against the authority of husband, but against the authority of God who commanded wives to be subject to their own husbands as unto the Lord.
SOURCE: Dr. John R. Rice - “Bobbed Hair, Bossy Wives And Women Preachers,” page 36; Sword of The Lord Publishers ©1941.
Amen Brother Rice! Amen!
Change of Attitude is the First Step to Rebuilding a Broken Home
Our churches are filled with rebel females, who
hide behind a cloak of religious devotion, pointing fingers at their
imperfect husbands in a sinful attempt to hide their own sins and failures
as wives. God pity the rebellious wife who drags her husband into court,
while she wipes her own mouth saying, “I have done no wickedness!”
Proverbs 30:20, “Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and
wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.” A wicked woman
makes excuses for her failures, blaming her husband and magnifying his sins
instead to whitewash hers, which God hates! I feel the same way as actor
Bruce Willis (whose 13 year marriage to Demi Moore failed in 2000), who said
he felt like a failure as a husband and a father. I think any good man would
feel that way.
Kindly, for 18 1/2 frustrating years of marriage, my wife refused to open her mouth when I went to kiss with her, because she said she “didn't like germs.” How do you deal with something like that as a man who likes passionate kissing? It didn't matter if I used mouthwash, she has a disgust for kissing. Indeed, I was lonely all those years, without a real partner and lover for a wife. I am not saying she is a bigger sinner than me, but no man should have to be denied a kissing partner for a wife. That is the way of the slacker wife. We had romance problems since day one in 1987. God knows that I finally asked her to order some books about—“How To Physically Love A Man,” to help her, but she wouldn't order them. So I went and ordered the books myself for her, but she wouldn't read them. My parents went through Hades on earth, but they toughed it out, and stayed married for 36 years until my mother went to Heaven in 2001. I so much wanted to beat my parent's admirable 36 year record, but my spouse quit. Today, if she hadn't divorced me, we would have had 32 years together as husband and wife, but she quit in 2006. If you are reading this ladies and are married, learn from it! The sinful word “divorce” ought not even be in your vocabulary! YOU OBEY YOUR HUSBAND, AS UNTO THE LORD, AS THE HOLY BIBLE COMMANDS!
I love something that Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001) once said that I'll never forget—“First Baptist Church will become a great church when we stop saying, 'He has sinned!' and 'She has sinned!,' and we start saying 'WE HAVE SINNED!'” Yes Sir, that is my attitude too, as was also the psalmist in Psalms 106:6, “We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.” Notice that three times the psalmist David acknowledged that WE HAVE SINNED! David did not esteem himself as being better than his ancestral fathers who went before him. David understood that we ought not judge others because they sin differently than we do. We are ALL woeful sinners! Romans 7:24, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
That has always been my attitude toward my former wife, who sadly divorced me in 2006. Unfortunately, 13 years later she still esteems me as being a bigger sinner than herself, which hinders us from reuniting. One of my favorite sermons by Pastor Jack Hyles is titled, “The Good Man Versus The Spiritual Man,” about this very subject. I have tried repeatedly to get my former wife to listen to this sermon, but she refuses. I am a big sinner like anybody else, so I point no fingers. I always feel like I am the worst Christian on the planet. I love Brother Hyles so much for teaching me truths from the Bible that have helped me so much over the years. Dr. Hyles once said something (while I was sitting in the First Baptist Church of Hammond, on the back row, to brother Hyle's left—“The best Christian in this building tonight probably feels like the worst Christian here!” He got my attention with that statement, because it was exactly how I felt, and still do thirty years later! Who Is The Best Christian?
I love what Brother Hyles says in the preceding sermon. He says that no one who has an inactive H.I.V. infection in their body, has a right to condemn someone who has full blown A.I.D.S.! That is such a great illustration. Another example Pastor Hyles gives is cancer. A person with cancer in remission, has no right to condemn someone who has active cancer. In other words, I have no right to condemn you for the sins you have committed, because I am inherently a sinner by nature and by choice. The best Christians still have the cancerous sin nature in remission, still capable of committing the worst sins. I am just as bad as you are, and you as me!
You'll never be spiritual if you are merely a good man, because you won't grow unless you are as concerned about the source of your sin, as you are about the sin itself. No spiritual man thinks he has arrived. The good man thinks he is a good Christian because he lives up to a certain standard of Christian living (i.e., going to church, reading the Bible, praying, et cetera), but the spiritual man always feels guilty because he knows that he is a woeful sinner by nature. The good man repents of a sin he has committed, but the spiritual man repents of his sinful nature! I hope you will listen to this sermon dear reader, because we all need this truth so much! You'll not grow in grace until you get rotten in your own sight, and you'll not get rotten in your own sight until you transfer repenting of what you do to repenting of what you are! The good man wants forgiveness, the spiritual man wants purifying! Please hear the sermon.
The only difference between myself and the worst sinner upon the earth is the sin-cleansing precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that imputes God's righteousness to me through faith in 'THE GOSPEL' (1st Peter 1:18-19).
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