Good morning and welcome in today. Today we are going to take a look at some scripture from 1st Corinthians chapter 7 but before we do that I wanted to tell you a little story that happened to my son and I not too many years ago.
We were working out in the woods one day cutting some firewood in the middle of the winter. After we got a good load on the old pick up we started to head for home. Eventually we got home and we started to unload that old pickup but then we realized that something was missing. We had left our chainsaw out in the woods.
After we finally got unloaded we took the ten mile trip back into the woods to our cutting spot. Andrew and I found that faithful chainsaw exactly on the snowbank where I had left it.
When you leave something it means to go away from.
Have you ever left something before?Perhaps you left your wallet or purse somewhere. Maybe you left or quit a job. When you leave it means to go away from or to choose a different direction. That is what it means to depart and that is what we are going to talk about here today.
1st Corinthians 7:10 the Apostle Paul teaches and on to the married I command not I but the Lord, let not the wife depart from her husband.
Obviously on the world this happens all the time but it’s not supposed to happen in the church. If she’s been baptized and she’s had Holy Communion and she’s learning from the scriptures, she is not supposed to depart from her husband for any reason, it’s absolutely wrong. Remember, others may leave you but you don’t want to ever leave them. Those who leave don’t understand the meaning of the word commitment. Commitment to those whom you married and a commitment to Christ.
A wife is to obey her husband in everything.
Eph 5:22 says wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body therefore as the church is subject of the Christ so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
Being in subjection means to obey them. There are so many sins in the scriptures that come from a woman who departs a husband. She’s no longer there for his physical needs. She’s no longer there to be a mother to the children or abandons being a homemaker because she is more concerned about a career in the world. Everybody suffers in a family when these kinds of things happen.
All the jobs that I’ve had in society, I realized one main thing. I always progressed when I obeyed those who were my superiors.
This is a simple lesson that a wife needs to learn. Obey your husband.
A Christian woman does not do these kinds of things and the reason why won’t is because love is the end of the Commandment. Marriage is an institution of God.
God is love. If a wife departs from her husband she shows in that one act that she doesn’t have love inside of her heart. She’s denying everything that Jesus teaches us in the scriptures. When somebody doesn’t love, the scriptures teach that their heart is defiled.
Whenever you commit a sin you need to remedy the situation. The Apostle Paul was once trying to prevent Christian churches from developing. Later on he tried to remedy the situation by helping to build them. There’s a cause and effect in sinful behavior.
What did my son and I do when we left our chainsaw out in the woods? We went all the way back out there. We went to get the chainsaw that we had left and the problem was remedied.
It’s a sin to depart from a husband, and there are so many things that can arise out of that disobedience.
I’ve always told our children to love and obey. If it’s not love and obedience then it’s a sin. That is the simplicity of the Gospel my friends.
We have Grace to help us out in time of need. If we do sin we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous, but just like a brother who you have wronged in the church or sinned against, God requires you to go and to be reconciled unto them.
Things need to be remedied if you truly love others in your heart. If a wife truly loves Christ and her husband, what she will do is return to him.
If you truly care about a brother what you will do is to confess your sin and apologize to them.
That act shows that you love them. It shows that you care about them. Those who can’t do that, certainly do not have the love of God in their hearts.
I might sound corny but I’m the kind of guy who probably says that I’m sorry five times a day. The reason why is because I don’t want to offend other people. I’m quick to apologize.
Being incapable of apologizing shows that you are really not a Christian in your heart.
When a woman departs from her husband she’s simply showing that she does not love him. She is displaying disloyalty and unfaithfulness. No woman in the Christian church is supposed to treat her husband this way whether he’s a believer or an unbeliever. That is absolutely wrong in the eyes of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To really believe that this is acceptable behavior from a wife is to believe a lie.
If she departs she enters into a perpetual state of sin. The sin continues on each and every day. When you are married the husband becomes the property of the wife and the wife becomes the property of the husband. You belong to each other.
In the church we are not our own but we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, so much a wife to her own husband.
When she departs from her husband she takes power of her own body and leaves. He’s no longer in control of her body, she is. The wife is supposed to render to the husband due benevolence which has to do with relationships in the bedroom.
When she leaves she commits yet another sin against him.
In our verse today remember that this is not just the Apostle Paul speaking this this is a commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ. If someone truly professes to love the Lord Jesus Christ they’re going to keep his Commandments. In a home the man represents the Lord and the woman the church.
In the church we’re not supposed to depart from Christ Jesus! If she departs she’s sinning not only against her husband, but ultimately the commands of Jesus Christ who died on the cross to deliver us. Departing a husband is forbidden, but just because it’s forbidden doesn’t mean that a wife is going to obey if she has a rebellious streak. (A dad might tell you about your wrong behavior, but you disobey anyway.)
The obedient Christian woman will remain with her husband. If she were to depart there are numerous sins that will follow. She’s usurping over his authority, she’s rebelling against his authority, she isn’t loving him, and if there’s children involved, her sin is multiplied many times over.
This is a terrible sin that I would advise married women to keep away from! You can always work things out.
I think of the verse that I read the other day in Proverbs 14 verse 1 says every wise woman buildeth her house but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.
God does not reward disobedience he is not going to reward the sin of departing from your husband. Things are not going to get better, they will get progressively worse.
It’s foolishness.
I know a lot of you out there have been in the military. What’s it mean to be a.w.o.l. ? Away without leave! What happens to somebody if they’re going to be a away without leave in the military? I guarantee you they’re going to be punished.
The Lord Jesus Christ gives a commandment to a married woman not to be AWOL from her husband It can result in numerous other sins because of her disobedience to Christ and her husband. Look at what happened to Farroh. He lost his own son because he mocked God.
I have always thought in my own heart that sin is kind of like pulling a rock or a boulder out of a dam that is on a river. What happens when you pull out one of those boulders? All of a sudden you’ve got a big leak. Then all of a sudden other boulders start to come flying out from the water pressure that is created. It’s like being in an old submarine when they go down deep into the ocean and the pressure starts popping out rivets in the boat and in the pipes. When you try to plug up the hole three or four other sins can show up next to it. That’s is why one sin can result in a hundred more sins.
It can progress into all different kinds of directions. Personally, I don’t want that to happen to anybody else that’s why I’ve always told my family obey obey obey.
We always want to make an attempt in the church to do what God wants us to do because he knows what’s best for us. Do you remember the old TV show Father Knows Best? The Lord Jesus Christ knows what’s best for each of us and we have to trust his teachings.
The Christian wife is not supposed to leave her husband. If she does it reveals the true state of her heart towards God and to her husband, a lack of love and obedience.
Love and Obey love and Obey love and obey. Love is not Grievous. If she wants to be faithful to Jesus Christ who died on the cross for her, she’s not going to rebel against his commandment.
Obviously obedience comes down to your own decision. As we talked about yesterday I can’t make your decisions for you, you have to make them for yourself. You can advise guide and lead people into the truth but only they can choose the way of Jesus.
What’s the old saying two wrongs don’t make a right. No matter what happens a woman is never to leave her husband. In that very act she’s going against everything that the Christian faith teaches about love. That my friends is the truth.
In a marriage you’re supposed to stick it out through the good times and bad times in sickness and in health or whatever happens to come up.
If my girls were married and happened to depart from their husbands and came home to me with her children I would immediately turn them right around and march them right back to their husbands.
I would probably apologize to their husbands for their behavior because I wouldn’t want to offend him and I wouldn’t want the girls offending him either. Welcome to marriage counseling 101. Work it out with each other! If you profess to be a Christian, this is the way that God wants it to be.
Reconciliation shows love. If there is no reconciliation, love was not present. If you love and forgive others you are going to want to be with them again. No reconciliation, no love. He that loveth not knoweth not God because God is love.
I’ve said this many many times I’ve seen more love out in the world sometimes then people who profess to be Christian. Sometimes I think about how God turned to the Gentiles. I’ll call them beloved who weren’t beloved. Christianity is more than reading a Bible it is about believing what the Bible teaches with all your heart. It’s learning to love others, to care about them and ultimately a marriage is the definition and the example to the world of divine love. A woman needs to submit and obey her husband and everything. She is never to usurp over him.
What God has brought together let no man put asunder, that includes a woman who departs.
Paul was involved with the ministry of reconciliation. I’m sure he would tell you the same things that I’m telling you today,… be reconciled and go home.
That’s it for today everyone. Love you all. Lord willing we’ll talk to you some more later on bye-bye.
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 