Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
This fall, we're studying the book of Second
Corinthians. Second Corinthians is a heartfelt
and practical book calling us back to the life
of the cross. We, like the Corinthians, so often
pursue glory, admire eloquence, shun suffering,
hide hurt, and hoard our goods. And yet the gospel
of Jesus tells us that resurrection comes after
a cross. that comfort comes after being crushed,
that the way up is the way down, that the way
to glory is through suffering, that his strength
is made perfect in our weakness. We'd love to
meet you and we hope you'll consider coming and
joining with us each Sunday morning at 10 a .m.
in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You can find
us online at SecondCityChurch .org and on Facebook,
Instagram, and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this
sermon. God bless. Word in heaven pray that we
would have a posture towards you that is one
that desires you to speak into our lives. That
you would speak the foundational words into our
lives. That we would find our life hidden with
Christ and God. God speak now. We desire to be
taught by you. But I pray that so many of the
words and thoughts that cloud our minds constantly,
maybe just thinking about the concerns of our
coming week or the joys of our past week or what
games might be on today or whatever would go
to the wayside, that we would hear your voice
this morning. Now may the words of my mouth and
the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in
your sight, O Lord our rock and our redeemer.
Amen. All right, let me address the elephant
in the room. Some of you are wondering why this
soup strainer is above my lips, this crumb catcher
right here. So let me talk about it for a second.
You want an explanation? I'll give you an explanation.
Okay, so whenever I have been shaving recently,
I have these three little people that reside
in my house, and these three little people have
been begging me and coming to me, oh, don't shave,
you're a mustache dad. And I have been strong,
resisted such foolish talk. been successful in
my resolve, but they won the battle. Until this
week, I was strong. Their voices, their cute
little faces, pleading won me over. And part
of it was that these past few weeks, we have
given some of our attention to the Seattle Mariners.
Amen, amen. Thank you for wearing that shirt,
Will. Because the Mariners have made it to the
postseason, they are currently in the American
League Championship Series. They haven't been
for 24 years. The Mariners have been a franchise
for 48 years. They've never made it to the World
Series. They're the only team that has never
made it to the World Series. And if they win
tonight, y 'all know this. I'm not hearing any
cheers. I can see Will smile. Henry knows what's...
They're gonna make it to the World Series! Woohoo!
So, anyway... Anyway. I saw all these baseball
players. We watch more baseball than normal,
and a lot of them have mustaches. And I'm like,
well, maybe that is cool. Maybe I need to heed
the voices of these three little people. So I,
the other night, left my mustache, and then...
We were at Lily's volleyball game on Friday,
and we saw some friends, and they said, oh man,
your kids were encouraging my husband to not
shave his mustache, and they were saying, quote,
Mr. Rowan has a sick stache, Dad. But then I
should let you know that as soon as I emerged
from the bathroom with said stache, The most
important human voice in my life spoke to me
saying, when are you gonna shave that? Okay,
so a few things are happening here. I listened
to the pressure of those around me, the cute
little voices. I felt the pressure, the social
pressure of my surroundings. The media I was
consuming became a louder voice than it had ever
been. Go Mariners. And isn't it amazing how quickly,
I mean, just very, this is a silly example, but
it is amazing how quickly we can pick up on that
which surrounds us and have our life shaped out
of that. It's incredible how it happens. It's
amazing how our surroundings can so influence
us that we can forget who we are. You and I both
know probably the truth of that famous quote
that's attributed to the motivational speaker
Jim Rohn. You are the average of the five people
you spend most of your time with. It could be
modified, of course. Let's admit it today, these
people don't have to be people that you know.
They can be a baseball team that you grew up
following. Maybe it should be you are the average
of the top five social media accounts that you
consume. I have no doubt that most of us sort
of discount probably to our harm how influential
the media consume that we consume is. We think
I'm an independent person I do me But we all
know how much of how we live is just simply the
reality of what we've taken in The voices that
are loud in our ears How we've learned to think
and how we've learned to talk and how we have
learned to feel and behave and all the rest is
so often formed by what we listen to and what
we watch in our TVs and our computers and most
of all that box that just is persistently in
our pockets. We're not much different than the
Corinthians. Sure, they were not carrying around
all the tech that we do, but they had friends
and they had business partners and they walked
streets that were lined with temples and businesses.
called for their attention. Actually, if you
were in a business with another person, it was
very common that your business dealings would
be actually done in the rooms of the temples
that were reserved for eating the food that had
been sacrificed to idols. You were called to
live a certain kind of way. Here in our text
this morning, Paul's telling us, that there is
a fundamental voice in our life and that fundamental
voice, that fundamental reality is what has to
give shape to all others. And he's speaking to
this fact that we are so often pulled into these
other things. This other dynamic that shapes
us, saying that there's a more fundamental reality,
there's a more fundamental relationship than
these others. and they inform the others, they
shape the others. Because of this, we who have
found our life and put our trust in Jesus, we
are called to live actually as a distinct people,
living in distinct lives in a lot of ways from
those about a separate, holy lives. Here is the
truth, okay, in the Bible. We are called to live
in the world. We are called to live for the world.
for the life of the world. And yet, we're called
to live distinct from the world about us. As
the people of God, as people who have found their
life hidden with Christ in God, what this text
is telling us is that we are actually to not
pursue unholy unions and to find our life in
the Holy Union, okay? So that's kind of my two
points, the unholy unions and the holy union.
So here's how our passage begins this morning.
If you open up 2 Corinthians chapter six, starting
in verse 14, just the first sentence there, do
not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. It means
those not of the faith. That's literally what
it means, not faith. That's the word unbelievers,
not of the faith. Interestingly, the words together
that we have unequal yoke, that's one word in
Greek. It's just the word heterozyguntase. And
that does mean two coming together, but some
translate it, pull the yoke in the opposite direction.
Which makes a ton of sense why why would you
actually be connected yoke together with ones
that are going in the opposite opposite direction
Pulling in different directions. So you all know
probably the image of of a yoke It's a farming
instrument. It's a farming tool that's placed
over different animals to enable those animals
to pull something together To work together towards
a certain end This command actually comes from
the old testament there's a passage in the book
of deuteronomy in chapter 22 verse 10 says you
shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together
and uh it's kind of interesting this has kind
of two big reasons one's theological one's practical
the ox was a clean animal the donkey was an unclean
animal in the old testament law and so Partly
what's taking place is this prohibition of this
unequally yoked dynamic in Deuteronomy was to
be a reminder to the people of God of how it
just, the clean, the unclean, they're not supposed
to go together in this way. There's a theological
reminder that's taking place. The people had
bound themselves to God and it just went, you
can't then bind yourself to that which is not
of God. They found their fundamental relationship
with the one who had saved them. How can they
then be united in such a way with those who don't
follow that God? So there's this theological
dynamic at play, but there's also very much this
practical dynamic. If you just think with me
about the ox and the donkey, does that work very
well? I mean, donkeys are known as stubborn animals.
Ox are known as very strong, hardworking animals.
That's not gonna be a union that is actually
just practically very helpful. So you have this
theological and you have this practical dynamic
that play there. The yoke was an imagery in agrarian
society that was, of course, very, very familiar
to the people of that society. And I think it's
this reason actually why this yoke image has
brought up quite a bit in the Bible, actually.
So Israel, when they're said to be in slavery
in Egypt, were under the yoke of Pharaoh. There
was a theological thing that was going on. There's
a practical thing that's taking place there.
When they're freed from Egypt, actually, there's
three different passages in the Old Testament
when the people of God go back and they worship
Baal, particularly Baal of Peor, and they're
told to be under the yoke. Three times they're
said to be under the yoke when they're worshiping
a different God. There's a theological dynamic
that's at play, but it's also a practical dynamic
that's at play. The prophet Jeremiah talks about
how God broke the yoke of slavery. He broke the
yoke that the people were carrying also when
they were under the idols around them. So Jeremiah
pits these ideas together. There's this theological
idea of being under yoke. There's also this practical
thing that's happening. That's in Jeremiah chapter
2 verse 20. Of course, if you think of yoke,
You might think of actually the words of our
Lord Jesus himself right in Matthew chapter 11
Jesus says these words come to me all you who
labor and are heavy laden and I will give you
rest Take my yoke upon you Interesting that he
actually speaks the idea of labor and rest in
the context of a tool that was used for labor
He says take my yoke upon you and learn from
me for I'm gentle and lowly in heart and you'll
find a rest for your souls." And then he says
again, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
The Lord is connecting this theological reality
of coming to him with the practical reality of
gentleness and lowliness and an easy yoke. Jesus
is also pitting in this idea that you're going
to carry a yoke. Whose yoke are you going to
carry? He knows this sort of history in the Old
Testament, the yoke mentioned in light of other
gods, the yoke mentioned in light of slavery
and hardship. He's saying, which yoke will you
put on? One brings freedom, the other servitude.
So here in 2 Corinthians, Paul is saying that
you can't be unequally yoked. Don't do it. Don't
do it. It doesn't work. And the fact is that
the Bible bears this truth out in different stories
and different commands. When you are yoked with
unbelief, the sad fact of history is that often
actually unbelief tends to steer the ship. When
you find a fundamental relationship in your life
is with somebody that's not following Jesus,
it's often the case that that begins to sphere
the relationship. And actually this is why when
I say do not be unequally yoked, what is the
relationship that you're most likely to think
of? What relationship? Marriage, yeah. Most of
you will probably think of the relationship of
marriage. Interestingly, marriage is not necessarily
the main thing that's being talked about in this
passage. Actually, if you'll remember, this is
in the context of false teachers who have yoked
themselves to the traveling teachers about them,
bringing their resumes and all the rest. They
are yoking themselves with the way of the world.
And yet we properly apply this to the institution
of marriage because it's a fundamental relationship
that you yoke yourself to somebody else in. Marriage,
you can say, is the closest human yoke that you
can share with another. And it's true. The Bible
tells us actually, don't marry somebody that
doesn't follow Jesus. Don't marry somebody that's
not committed to the Lord. And you can make positive
arguments for this. for marriage only to be among
fellow Christians. Think about Jesus' argument
that we just heard in Matthew 19. He calls the
people back to the beginning. He says, God is
the one who makes this institution. And this
institution is actually seen as two walking together
with the Lord. That's the ideal. Not hiding from
the Lord, not one of them hiding from the Lord,
not one of them hiding from the other person,
but two walking together, man and wife. husband
wife, with the Lord. Okay, so right from there,
right from the very beginning of chapters of
Genesis where Jesus sort of builds his theology
of marriage off of we can have that sort of positive
argument. We also heard from Proverbs 31 that
it says, a woman who fears the Lord is to be
praised. So you can make different positive arguments
for... marriage to be between two Christians,
but then actually you can make a significant
sort of negative argument. There's some prohibitions
in the Bible. You can find them in Deuteronomy
and Joshua and elsewhere, where it just says,
don't marry those people who are not following
the Lord, very specifically. But then actually
some of the worst and most detrimental stories
in all the Bible have to do with a leader deciding,
I'm going to marry somebody who is not following.
the Lord. And so we can think of kings like Solomon,
like Ahab. And then we can also think, if you
actually kind of come a little bit closer to
the New Testament, when the people of God are
returned from exile and they're confessing their
sin, in the book of Ezra, there in the later
chapters, in chapters 9 and 10, one of the main
things that they are confessing is how they intermarried
with people that were not following the Lord
and that led them astray. There's all kinds of
things in the Bible that come down to this fundamental
idea that your fundamental relationship with
the Lord influences the others. It's just unwise,
it's theologically wrong, it's practically foolish
to be yoked to unbelief. So, Paul goes on to
say verses 14 to 16, says this. Let's go to these
questions. For what partnership has righteousness
with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light
with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial?
What portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
What agreement has the temple of God with idols?
Okay, let's think back on marriage for a second.
We say in our world, if it feels right, it must
be right. I feel so good though. We connect.
But then think about this. Your marriage relationship,
if you're married, is the relationship that you
have to figure out some of the biggest questions
in life that are going to impact you on so many
levels. Where are we going to live? What kind
of questions are going to help you address that
question? Is the Lord going to guide you? Are
you going to seek his face in that? Do we have
kids? How do we train those kids? Do we train
those kids, as the Bible tells us to, in the
fear of the Lord and in the admonition of the
Lord, in the ways of God, or do we not? How do
we spend our money? How do we give our money?
How do we spend our time? Just big questions,
just practically speaking. It's a very foolish
thing to say, you know, I'm going to have this
foundation for my life, the Lord, and I'm going
to unite myself to somebody who has a totally
different foundation. It's going to approach
all the main fundamental questions of how I'm
going to live in my life from a different place.
How do you have a fundamental partnership when
the foundation from which you make your big decisions
of life is different? Suggesting that at the
very least, there's a theological argument to
be made, but there is a practical argument to
be made. This is a foolish way of engaging in
the world. OK, so Paul asked these questions.
Well, partnership has righteousness with lawlessness.
Well, righteousness has to do with right relationship
with God. It also, righteousness in the Bible
is not just being right with God, but righteous
living actually has to do with the right relationship
with those about you. So he says, well, how do
you do righteousness and lawlessness? Lawlessness
would be the exact opposite. It's not having
a right relationship with God and not having
a right relationship with others. And he says,
these things don't work together. I mean, one
is this defined, one is this defined. They don't
work. What fellowship has light with darkness?
Of course, the Bible, this is the common thing
that is pitted against each other in the Bible.
Darkness is almost always in the Bible an image
of being morally corrupt. And lightness in the
Bible is the very presence of God pressing into
the world. I think of John chapter one. The light
shines in the darkness. And the darkness can't
overcome it because these two things are so separate.
Light, dark. Christ and Belial. You're probably
scratching your heads, what's that? Belial is
the Hebrew word. It refers to wickedness and
worthlessness. It's a word that sometimes refers
to the enemies of God's people and sometimes
it's a reference to Satan, the enemy of God.
But the point is that you can't, these things
don't They're not compatible. They don't work
together. So what Paul is getting at here is
that believers and unbelievers, they have different
moral values, righteousness, lawlessness. They
have different spiritual spheres within where
they work, light and dark, Christ and Belial.
They have different masters that orient their
lives, that give direction to their life. And
he also says they worship different things. What
portion does a believer share with an unbeliever
was most likely a reference actually to that
food that is sacrificed in the temples? We can
think of actually the sacramental meal of Christians.
It's saying this is our identity. That says what
agreement has the temple of God with idols? Temple
of God and a temple of idols. How can you be
a temple of the Lord and unite yourself fundamentally
to that which is not united to him? They worship
different things. Here is a truth. Let me go
back to it. We pick up quickly to the voices
and the values of those who are around us. We
do. You do. I do. Our kids do. This is reality.
And this happens in the church in Corinth, and
Paul's calling them out. Of course it happens
to us today. We might actually, very likely,
we don't see how this is happening to us today.
But it's happening. It's happened. And some of
you may know that much of higher criticism as
it approached the Bible came out of Germany in
the late 19th century. They approached the Bible
and they said, you know what, this is the part
that we probably, this probably isn't really
true. We'll take this part out. Take that part
out. There's a history of that. We talked actually,
in the adult science school, we talked about
the Marcionites in the early church this morning.
Come next week, you'll learn more. So people
have done that, but in German higher criticism
in the 19th century, that was the approach to
the Bible. And this actually pushed into the
early liberal fundamentalist controversy in the
early part of the 20th century in the United
States. But this was a huge thing in Germany,
particularly. And let me tell you about something
that happened in 1933, it's actually the day
after Martin Luther's 450th birthday. And that
day on the 450th birthday of Martin Luther, there
was a German pastor who spoke and said, actually
speaking out, you may know that Martin Luther
had some anti -Semitic stances, and he spoke
out against that in 1933 in Germany. And he said,
we must worship the suffering Jew, Jesus. Jesus
himself is our hope. And the next day, 20 ,000
Christians gathered together in the German evangelical
church, led by their church leaders. They gathered
together in the Berlin Sports Palace. And one
of the things they did actually is they renounced
and that man was defrocked actually. The man
who spoke the day before, a well -known pastor
in the German church. But after they sung, now
thank we all our God. What a great hymn. This
pastor Joachim Hassenfelder got up and he announced
that he was implementing the infamous Arian paragraph
in his diocese. What that did, it had dismissed
all Christian Jews from holding any office. and
it was effective immediately. The Bible, at that
meeting, was re -examined and all of its non
-German and pro -Jewish elements were said to
be non -authoritative. And Jesus was placed as
a proud Jesus and not a suffering servant. And
again and again it said that that speech was
interrupted. By the 20 ,000 people he was speaking
to with applause Fundamental dynamic of who they
were Had been so yoked to the world about them
But you could say that the fundamental idea of
who Jesus is was discarded And the fact is there
is story after story in church history about
things like this. Fundamental relationships being
formed by that which is not Christ and the gospel
being lost in political alliances, in marriages,
in friendships. There's no question the primary
people you spend your life with that you give
your ear to, you give your heart to shape you.
And they can bring you closer to the Lord Jesus
or they can take you farther away. Our passage
warns us against unholy unions. It also encourages
us to a holy union. This is a little shorter
if you're looking at your time as I just did.
So a holy union. I hope that as I say some of
this, some of you are asking, well, Pastor, what
do we do? We're called to be in the world. And
wasn't Jesus himself partly scandalous and he
was disregarded by many of the religious leaders
of his day because he was a friend of sinners
and he dined with them, lived life with them.
Or maybe, maybe, you have been reading your Bible
and you remember back in 1 Corinthians chapter
5 when Paul, to the same community, wrote this,
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate
with sexually more immoral people. Not at all
meaning the sexually immoral of this world or
the greedy and swindlers and idolaters. Since
then you would need to go out of the world. Then
Paul is very, very clear. You can't just leave
the world about you. They need to know Jesus.
Very clear. I think Paul actually addresses in
some ways this question even to the Corinthians
in the following verses. So let me read them
again, okay? Starting verse 16. Therefore go
out from their midst be separate from them says
the Lord And touch no unclean thing then I will
welcome you and I will be a father to you and
you shall be sons and daughters to me says the
Lord Almighty I Think he answers this This unholy
the dynamic that is at play with saying don't
have unholy unions and yet don't leave the world
Which by the way, isn't that sort of the temptation
we others say let's you can do whatever you want
or let's just live in a ghetto That's how Christians
tend to do grab it all flee at all. How do we
do this? I Think the answer Paul is giving us
is that there is a holy union That is so foundational
to our lives that if that is the yoke which with
we are bound to, the yoke of Christ. And if that
really is the fundamental relationship, the foundation,
then, and only then, can we press into the world
about us. So Paul here actually quotes from quite
a few passages, Leviticus 26, Isaiah 52, Ezekiel
20, Ezekiel 37, 2 Samuel 7, he does all that
in that quote there. And he says, This is who
you are. This is who you are, and if you get
this, then the other things come. So who are
we? Paul quotes Leviticus 26, and he says, we
are God's temple. All right, that's how that
began. We are the temple of the living God. Leviticus
26, we are the place where God resides. I mean,
that's what Christians actually believe, that
the Holy Spirit is so present in us that it can
be said of you, you're a temple of God. God finding
his home within you. And as surely as an idol
or anything unclean was prohibited from being
in the temple in Jerusalem, the same is true
with Christians. We can't follow idolatry, we
can't follow sin. We have this fundamental identity
that God is within us. Then Paul goes on to quote
Isaiah 52, and what he says is, you're God's
people, you're God's temple, you're God's people.
I will be their God, they shall be my people.
And then he says, therefore go out from their
midst, be separate. Which is saying, how can
you live for yourself anymore? How can you live
in this other identity? God's people. Now practically
this is what one person I read said this the
Christian might choose to be part of his or her
corporate corporations family picnic But to refrain
from participating in the daily water cooler
gossip session You know what I mean by that this
idea that you can live and yet you you live you
live differently Separate And Paul goes on to
quote 2nd Samuel and Isaiah 43, and he's saying
this in both of them, you are God's children.
The temple of God, the people of God, actually
the family of God, loved by Him, found our life
through Him. We're also protected by Him, we're
disciplined by Him, we're provided for by Him,
and we're cherished. by Him. This is the fundamental
reality of who we are. This is how Paul addresses
this question. Who are you? You're God's temple.
You're God's people. You're God's children. So
there is a holy union that is the foundation
for all of your life, all of your being. What
does holy mean? Holy means set apart. What it's
saying is that if you are set apart as the temple
and as the people and as the family for God,
then how could you possibly be yoked, bound together
in such a way that influences your life and directs
where you go with something that is not connected
to God? That is the point of this passage. Let
me give you a couple of quick questions and then
I'll end. I want you to reflect on some of this
today, maybe over lunch with a friend or a spouse
or maybe sometime this week. What does it look
like for you to live a wholly separate life for
God? Can you ask each other that? What might
you need to do to actually distance yourself
From that which is not in union with Jesus Let
me ask this is a similar question what ditch
do you fall into? The total separation ditch
or the assimilation ditch, what's your inclination?
How can you live deeper into the life of Jesus
how can he be the foundation What might you need
to put on or take off that that relationship
can be your foundation? How about this? What
are the five voices that are loud for you? They
can be your friends, they can be your parents.
Maybe they are relationships on your phone, not
in -person relationships. What are the five relationships
that are loudest, whose voices are loudest? And
then are they pointing you to Jesus? Are they
doing that? Okay. For real. So I'm gonna end.
I'm not keeping this mustache. I'm not. If the
Marys win tonight, let's be honest, I'll probably
keep it on during the World Series. But it's
going away. Why? because there is a voice in
my life that is more important than kids' friends
saying, Mr. Rowan has a sick stash. And it's
my wife's relationship. Her voice is the loudest
human voice in my life. This most foundational
human relationship for me. And I think at least
that invites me to ask, and I hope it invites
you to ask, is the Lord the foundation. Is he
the voice? Is he the yoke that directs and steers
your life? Let me pray for us. Lord, thank you
for your word. We pray that we would hide it
in our hearts. God, we feel the tension of living
in the world and yet being yours in the world.
God, would you deepen our relationships here
in this church that we might speak to one another,
encourage one another towards following you?
God, would we be circumspect of the voices that
are influencing us and that are shaping us? God,
would we be very cautious to bind ourselves to
that which is not directing us towards you? And
would all of our life, our whole being, Be offered
to you in worship as temples of God, as the people
of God, as the very sons and daughters of God.
In Jesus' name, amen. God bless.