I begin on a rather somber note. I included the quote that I'd like to begin with in your notes this morning from a pastor, Stephen Butz. The real irony, he writes, is that we have assumed that growing church membership means that the ranks of the Christian army are growing. whereas the number of combat troops is, in fact, shrinking. Churches have become hospitals where sin-sick souls are given aspirin and entertainment to distract them from the diseases of their souls. God forgive us. We are more concerned with numbers than with holiness. The church's growth is largely a cancerous growth, and we do not even know it. The topic of holiness is not something that is new to this pulpit. I have talked at length about that desperate need for God's people to be a part of our lives. What I have tried to do over the months, over the past years, is to lead you into the throne room of God. I want to take you arm-in-arm right up to the threshold where you gaze into that place where God's glory resides. And I want you, as you dare look around the corner of that door, I want you to sense His holiness, His distinctness, His otherness, In so doing, we will realize our own sin. It will humble us tremendously. Indeed, just to see the glimpse of His glory, to see nothing of God Himself, but just the glimpse of His glory will drive us to our knees in utter desperation, realizing that we deserve to be sent far away. It is His light and His glory, His radiant splendor that forces us to see us for who we really are. Imagine, if you will, we're walking together on a city sidewalk at night. It's raining, and as we are walking, a car comes very close to the curb and we feel a little water on our clothing. We look down and in the darkness it doesn't look like there's anything but water, but once we get under a street lamp we look down again and we see that that's not just runoff water, no, there is mud in that water and we are by necessity needing to change our soiled clothing. So it is when we enter into the holy presence of God that we are then, by His light and glory, seeing our sin for what it really is. It keeps us from His presence and yet God in His mercy and His glory has offered us that cleansing so that we can remain there at the threshold, gaining even a small glimmer around the door of His glory and brightness. John Calvin writes, Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, and I might add, of our sin, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God. We have before us this morning a passage of scripture that dares usher us to the throne room of God and invite us to get just a glimpse around the door of God's glory and His wonder. My friends, this is a passage of scripture that calls us to reflect the holiness of God as we find it behind the throne room door. We're in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 this morning. We're going to be dealing specifically with verses 11 through chapter 7 verse 1. But I'm going to read chapter 6 verse 11 through chapter 7 Verse four. As I read, I want you to see the connection of chapter 6, verses 11 through 13, with chapter 7, verses 2 through 4. You'll see a direct connection there. We'll spend a little bit more time looking in depth at those verses next week. I want you to see the whole context. But what we'll spend most of our time at is chapter 6, beginning at verse 14, through chapter 7, verse 1. I'll begin reading. with verse 11, chapter 6, 2 Corinthians. Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians. Our heart is open wide. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. Now, in like exchange, I speak to you as children, open wide to us also. Do not be bound together with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. Just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean, and I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, Make room for us in your hearts. We wronged no one. We corrupted no one. We took advantage of no one. I did not speak to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. Great is my confidence in you. Great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am overflowing with joy in all our affection. In verses 11 through 13, and then again in chapter 7, Paul talks about our committed relationships to redeemed people. Look at verses 11 through 13 again. Paul writes, Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians. Our heart is open wide. They haven't hidden anything from them. He has been very transparent, very vulnerable. In the passage that we looked at last week, Paul described how much he had suffered. How deep was his affliction on behalf of these people. And he says to them, we have given you everything that we've got. We have given, and we have given, and we have given, and we haven't stopped giving to you, O Corinthian people. We have opened wide our hearts. And so he pleads with them, open wide your hearts now to us. He says, it's right for you to do this because we are brothers and sisters. We are of the same spiritual kind. We are like-minded. We are partners together in this work. We are fellow partakers. We share in common what God has entrusted to us. So it's out of this context that Paul talks about holiness and purity. He begins with this exhortation in verse 14. Do not be bound together with unbelievers. Now we need to define a couple of terms here first. When Paul writes, do not be bound together, it's more commonly understood and translated, do not be unequally yoked. The Greek word is a compound word beginning with the word heteros, meaning different. He said it is not right for two animals That's the context of this particular word. Two animals to be joined together in a yoke in order to do common work. Paul has just talked about the common work to which every believer is called, that work of ministry, taking the Word of God by the Spirit of God to accomplish the work of God through me, in other people, that's the common work that we have. And Paul says, it's not right for two animals to be joined together in a yoke to do common work. Deuteronomy chapter 22 verse 10 prohibits two animals of a different kind, like a goat and an oxen, two animals of a different kind to be joined together to do common work. So that's the bound together to which he refers. Another word that we need to define is the word unbelievers. Now that may seem kind of silly for us to have to define that word, but you know, we sugarcoat that word to mean, well, that person, let's call him Harry, Harry is not yet a believer. And Harry is a good person. And we love Harry. We have a respect for Harry. We want Harry to know Jesus. Harry doesn't know Jesus yet. And so we often put that word unbeliever in that kind of a context. But what is an unbeliever? They are, my friends, enemies of God. They are estranged from God. They are alien to God. And when we compare an unbeliever with a believer, we are talking about two completely different kinds of people spiritually. So Paul gives us this exhortation, do not be bound together with unbelievers. Remember the context in which Paul is writing this book. He's writing on the one hand to commend the Corinthians for repenting. They were in sin, Paul confronted them, they repented. Praise God, Paul says. The second thing that Titus reported to Paul, giving Paul the impetus to write this book was, there are false teachers, charlatans, frauds, that have taken over the leadership in that church, Paul, and they are leading people away from truth. These people are now antagonistic toward you, Paul, and antagonistic toward the gospel. And so Paul writes to rebuke these false teachers and to remind the Corinthians, true believers, of whose they are. that they might be united to Paul and the true gospel and not united in any way with these false teachers and what they preach. So Paul says, do not be bound together, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Don't be harnessed with other people that are spiritually different from you. Now, the context here is with people in the church, those who profess faith but do not possess faith. But we can easily translate this same concept to marriage or to a business partnership. This is why we encourage, exhort young people not to even date unbelievers. because that leads toward a view of seeing that person in a marital relationship. God says there is no place for unbelievers and believers to be yoked together, to be joined together. I want you to look at the next beginning in the middle of verse 14. I want you to notice the contrasts that Paul uses to emphasize his point. He says it in a series of questions. He says, what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? He doesn't say the righteous and the lawless. He says righteousness and lawlessness. That is the principle of what is right and what is wrong. They have nothing in common, he says. Next question. What fellowship has light with darkness? Verse 15, what harmony has Christ with Belial? It's a name for Satan. It means worthless and wicked. There's no harmony. What has a believer in common with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? There is no agreement between the worship of God and the worship of idols. That's his point. There's no harmony together. There's nothing bringing these two together. Let me make a distinction here. What we are talking about is not a casual relationship, a casual friendship or acquaintance. We're not talking about avoiding public transportation because we might sit next to an unbeliever. We're not talking about working beside a person who is an atheist. We're not talking about any kind of casual friendship or relationship like you might have with your next door neighbor. What we are talking about are close, intimate, one-of-a-kind, sharing the intimacies of life together kind of relationships. That's what we're talking about. So we're talking about a marriage. We're talking about that kind of a relationship where you enter into a contractual work with another person that is an unbeliever. Paul says it's not right to do that. We're trying to mix oil with water. And my friends, they never mix. He wants us to see that stark contrast. And then he talks about the kind of relationship that sometimes we want to force together between believers and unbelievers. He talks about, underscore these words, verse 14, he talks about it as a partnership. He talks about it as a fellowship. Verse 15, he talks about it as harmony. He talks about it as in common. In verse 16, he talks about it as an agreement. There is life together. There is shared experience together. There is commonality together. Paul says that's not the kind of life to which we as believers have been called. We've been called to a different kind of life. Charles Hodge in his commentary on this particular passage of scripture writes, the attempt of Christians to remain Christians and retain their inward state as such and yet to enter voluntarily into intimate fellowship with the world is as impossible as to combine light and darkness, holiness and sin, happiness and misery. Why? Why does Paul give us this kind of an exhortation? In the middle of verse 16, he says, Oh, there's our signal. He's going to answer that question. Now, before I develop that a little bit, I want to back up and ask you a question. Let me make a statement first. The kingdom of God has always been, always will be, a spiritual reality. All of national Israel was not spiritual redeemed Israel. Never has been, never will be. It always is, God's kingdom always is a spiritual reality. Question, so why did God instruct the Israelites to build a temple? A temple is where God dwells. So why did God have them build a temple? The kingdom is a spiritual reality. Why did he have them build a temple? Did God only dwell in that temple? No. Did he dwell in that temple? Yes. Why did he want to limit it to their understanding in a physical realm? The physical taught them about the spiritual. The physical temple was there where God dwelled in a physical sense, pointing them to the reality that God dwells in His people. So in this dispensation in which we live, God dwells in my mind and in my soul. in my body. And all of that is God's dwelling place. It is His temple. And so it is in my very life that the throne room of God exists. We don't have to die and wait to go someplace else. No, the holiness of Almighty God dwells in me. As incredible and seemingly impossible as that might sound, God dwells in me. So the question begs to be answered, so why can I not marry an unbeliever? Why can I not have close, intimate relationships with unbelievers? Why not? Because in me is the dwelling place of God. And in an unbeliever is the antithesis of that. They are enemies of God, strangers from God, alienated from God. I, as a believer, because of who I am in Christ, am by nature different, distinct. Now this is not something that is new. I have a passage there. I'm not going to read it in Ezra chapter 9. It's a little lengthy. One illustration there in the Old Testament. There are a number, but from way back in the Old Testament, God has called his people to be separate and to be holy because They are distinct. They are unique. They are different from unbelievers, pagans, heathens around them. Turn in James. We'll look at a couple of passages there. James chapter 1, verse 27. Pastor James writes, pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Separate, distinct, different from. Turn over to chapter four, James Epistle. Here you would think his pen was on fire as he wrote these words in verse 4, chapter 4. You adulteresses. I'm not sure you're going to find that word in Dale Carnegie's book, How to Make Friends and When to Fluence Enemies. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. There is no second guessing what the Lord tells us in 2 Corinthians 6, when He says, do not be bound together with unbelievers. He tells us to be separate, distinct. As a matter of fact, He says it in so many words. Look at the middle of verse 16. We are the temple of the living God. Just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord. And do not touch what is unclean. And I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you and you will be sons and daughters to me. says Almighty God. Alan Redpath in his commentary on this passage of scripture points out that there are two reasons why God calls us to be separate and distinct people. The first is that separation preserves us from the ways of the world. You know, we get this cocky, arrogant attitude so often, thinking that we are strong. And we quote, greater is he that is in me than he is in the world. And that's true. But we sometimes fail to realize how weak and vulnerable we really are. This last week for me was one of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad weeks. And as it usually does, it comes in the form of car problems. Oh God, blow up every car on the planet. Oh, thinking I'm strong, invincible, on the top of my spiritual game. I got together with one pastor this week and he said, Rob, how was your walk with God? I said, man, top notch. I'm on top of it. And then all this stuff comes down. And I realized how weak and vulnerable I am. As much as my wantor is right here, I am so weak. I am so vulnerable. and I'm not strong, and I'm not separate, and I'm not distinct, and I'm not different. Separation from this world and its system preserves me. This passage of scripture in Revelation chapter 18, I invite you to look there with me. Revelation 18, look at verse 4. John writes, I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out from her, that is Babylon, my people, come out from her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive her plagues. My people, you are weak, you are vulnerable, and that kind of separation preserves you. Second reason Alan Redpath pointed out why God calls us to be separate and distinct people is that God's love demands separation. God's love is exclusive. God loves us completely and absolutely. He poured himself completely empty so that there was nothing left but love. What do you think he requires in response to that? Would it be what we see from some people who wear the name Christian, a kind of half-hearted love? Kind of love when it's convenient? No. The kind of love to which we are called is an all-consuming, give-it-up-all-you-have kind of love. God's love demands a reciprocating kind of love. It is exclusive. We read in Deuteronomy chapter 6, among other places, that God is a jealous God. He is jealous for His own glory, and He is jealous for His own people. And He realizes that any kind of relationship with the world, in any form, shape, or fashion, will weaken us, cause us to compromise, and we will not reflect His glory and His likeness. That's the kind of life to which we're called. The opposite bookend of this passage, a fitting conclusion, is found in verse 1 of chapter 7, where Paul says, in conclusion, therefore, having these promises, what promises? You look back in verse 16, and we have the promise of God indwelling His people. We have the promise at the end of verse 16 of God's favor, calling us His people. We have the promise, verse 18, of being identified with God's family. These are the promises he's talking about. Therefore, having these promises because of the great and powerful glory that has been poured into our hearts, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. Sin is defilement. Sin is pollution. We're polluted in our flesh, in our body, by a variety of things, among them drunkenness, sexual immorality. We are polluted on the inside of us by means of a variety of things, among them pride, envy, unrighteous anger. Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilements of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, out of reverence for God, out of loyalty and love and single-hearted devotion to the Lord. Perfect holiness, he writes. What he is saying is, put that as your goal. the object of your attention in your relationship with the Lord. Sink your heart and your mind's attention right there. Perfect holiness out of reverence, fear, honor, loyalty, love to the Lord. Now what does all that mean? To say that we are to have holiness as our goal, the object of our attention, is not to say that we're not to consider and have our eyes on Jesus. No, they are one in the same. Because to have our focus on holiness is to have our attention and our focus fixed on the character of Jesus. What does it mean to be separate? What does it mean to be distinct? I invite you to turn to John chapter 17 as we begin to answer that question as we conclude here. John chapter 17, in Jesus' high priestly prayer, He says these words, beginning at verse 14, I have given them, that is, His people, Your word. And the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Verse 15, I do not ask you, Father, to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. So to be separate from the world does not mean to be taken from or out of the world. Warren Wiersbe has said it eloquently, I put it in your notes. Separation is not isolation. Separation is not insulation. Separation is contact without contamination. Now we could look at this exhortation negatively, that is, to be holy, to be separate, is to avoid sin. And that's true. There is that aspect of it. But when we look at it only in that light, holiness is then defined as a list of do's and don'ts, which can easily slide into legalism. People from other generations had their list of what a sanctified Christian looked like. These were people that didn't go to movies. These were people that didn't even touch a can of beer. These were people that never played cards. And the list goes on and on ad nauseum Now, God calls us to not be contaminated with sin, not to come in contact with it. So we are only doing a halfway job to say we are to avoid sin. Yes, that is true. The other side of that is to focus on that which pleases God. so that all the decisions that I make, every opportunity that comes along to me, passes through a particular grid. Does this thing please Christ? Does it honor Him? I put these questions in your notes this morning as a guide, as principles to help you build that grid So that you, when coming upon a decision, an opportunity, a certain set of circumstances, these are the kinds of questions you might ask in order to discern, am I honoring, am I pleasing my Master? 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31 says, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all to please Him. Does what I'm doing or what I'm anticipating to do have even the appearance of evil? I love the King James translation of 1 Thessalonians 5.22 that says, abstain from the appearance of evil. Sometimes we want to get so close, we want to see how much hair we can singe by getting so close to that flame. God says, don't even get close to the flame. Avoid even the appearance of evil. Another question, does what I'm doing or anticipate doing encourage one weaker in the faith to sin? Does it cause another brother or sister in Christ to stumble? Does what I'm doing lay a weight of oppression on my soul? I'm not talking about the oppression of responsibility. I'm talking about a haunting oppression where my conscience is pricked and I realize this is not right. And what I'm doing is what I'm doing making prayer more difficult for me. Does what I'm doing steal my attention away from the Savior? Can I ask God to bless what I'm doing? My friends, we must take God's exhortation to be holy and a distinct people Very, very seriously. Why? Because of who we are. Because of whose we are. We are different people of a different kind. We must act, think differently and distinctly in such a manner that other people are aware of our distinctness, our differentness. The great historian, church historian, Honeck, wrote these words. The church never had so much influence on the world as when she kept herself separate from it. A church conformed to the world will never lead it. She must be separate. You don't have to go very far up and down Sunnyside Road to find other churches, other pastors leading those churches, where they look and they sound and they smell like anything else you might hear on the radio or see on TV. There's this crazy thought that we have in our mind that we have to be like the world in order to win the world. And God said it's completely the opposite. We are not to be bound in any way with unbelievers. I remember very distinctly standing down here in the entryway to our building with Camille probably about two years ago as materials came out for the Portland Festival that was in August of 1999, the first one. And I remember looking at one of those flyers that advertised the different bands that would be playing at that festival And Camille and I talked with one another saying, there is no difference between these pictures and anything else you might see advertising any other kind of group that might play secular music. Yet God calls us to be different and distinct in every way. I close with this quote that I included in your notes at the end. Robert Murray McCheyenne is one of my heroes. preacher that died at 29 years of age, Scottish preacher, lived in the early 1800s. He received a letter from a fellow pastor who had purposed to invest a good deal of his time honing and perfecting his ability to speak the German language. He wrote these words back to his pastor friend. I know that you will apply hard to German, but do not forget the culture of the inner man. I mean of the heart. How diligently the cavalry officer keeps his saber clean and sharp. Every stain he rubs off with the greatest care. Remember, you are God's sword, His instrument. I trust a chosen vessel unto him to bear his name. In good measure, according to the purity and perfection of the instrument, will be the success. It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. My friends, our success spiritually is not found in our method. It is not found in the order of our church service or the programs that we have. Our spiritual effectiveness is located Let me start that sentence again. Our spiritual effectiveness is found to the degree that we are a holy people. Does holiness characterize your pursuit? Perfection is God's standard What God calls us to is the direction of holiness. Father, I thank you for your Word and its clarity to us. God, I am very, very much aware of my own sin, my own limitations, my gross inabilities, My brothers and sisters, if they be honest, we'll say they share the same. Father, I thank you for that passage of scripture. It says, if we confess our sins, you are faithful and just. on the basis of the shed blood of Christ to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You call us to purity, to holiness. Oh God, would you find in us a people hungry for holiness. In your name we pray. Amen.