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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.
Committed & Consecrated.1
Series 2 Cor.-Ministry in a.com World
| Sermon ID | 620192316197922 |
| Duration | 47:41 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 2 Corinthians 6:11 |
| Language | English |
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