WEBVTT 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:16.800 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14. We'll read through 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:21.899 the rest of the chapter, Lord willing. Last week 00:00:21.899 --> 00:00:24.559 we saw Paul making a defense for his character 00:00:24.559 --> 00:00:28.800 and trying to get the people of Corinth to listen 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:32.500 to him and to follow him and to... Pay attention 00:00:32.500 --> 00:00:35.560 to the example that he has left and not be led 00:00:35.560 --> 00:00:39.320 astray by other false teachers or people who 00:00:39.320 --> 00:00:42.640 may be leading them in the wrong direction. That's 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:47.020 what we saw in the passage last week. Tonight 00:00:47.020 --> 00:00:52.359 we will start in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14. Let's 00:00:52.359 --> 00:00:56.240 pray and we'll get started. God, we come to you 00:00:56.240 --> 00:00:59.740 and I pray, God, that your words tonight, we 00:00:59.740 --> 00:01:01.670 would take them to heart. that we would learn 00:01:01.670 --> 00:01:03.509 from them, that we would grow from them, dear 00:01:03.509 --> 00:01:06.150 Lord, that we would pay attention to them, dear 00:01:06.150 --> 00:01:08.170 Lord, that we would make good decisions in our 00:01:08.170 --> 00:01:11.209 life. And any kind of relationships we build, 00:01:11.290 --> 00:01:13.930 dear Lord, we desire that they would be good 00:01:13.930 --> 00:01:16.790 relationships. And we desire, God, that our relationship 00:01:16.790 --> 00:01:20.409 to you would be a strong and a good relationship, 00:01:20.650 --> 00:01:23.489 God. So I pray that you would just help us as 00:01:23.489 --> 00:01:25.510 we look at these words. I pray that your Holy 00:01:25.510 --> 00:01:27.409 Spirit would be with us, that you would hide 00:01:27.409 --> 00:01:30.980 me behind the cross as I preach and teach, Everything 00:01:30.980 --> 00:01:34.299 that is done will be for your glory, that you'd 00:01:34.299 --> 00:01:36.879 be with these words tonight. And I ask these 00:01:36.879 --> 00:01:42.599 things in Jesus' name. Amen. 2 Corinthians 6, 00:01:43.159 --> 00:01:49.359 verse 14. Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. 00:01:49.579 --> 00:01:52.140 For what partnership is there between righteousness 00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:55.519 and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light 00:01:55.519 --> 00:02:02.370 have with darkness? Belial, or what does a believer 00:02:02.370 --> 00:02:06.090 have in common with an unbeliever? Now, some 00:02:06.090 --> 00:02:08.750 of your translations may say some language that 00:02:08.750 --> 00:02:11.530 maybe you've heard before. Do not be unequally 00:02:11.530 --> 00:02:13.949 yoked. That's something that we've probably heard. 00:02:14.110 --> 00:02:17.050 Mine says do not be mismatched with unbelievers. 00:02:17.250 --> 00:02:20.330 But that's what it means there. He's talking 00:02:20.330 --> 00:02:23.840 about being... unequally yoked or being connected 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:27.340 a believer to an unbeliever in some relationship, 00:02:27.620 --> 00:02:30.919 in some partnership, and in some way in which 00:02:30.919 --> 00:02:33.659 it is going to be unhealthy. Now, a lot of times 00:02:33.659 --> 00:02:36.620 these verses are used in relation to marriage. 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:39.219 Now, he's not really talking about marriage here. 00:02:39.259 --> 00:02:41.020 That would be a little out of the context of 00:02:41.020 --> 00:02:43.740 what he's saying. But nevertheless, it does fit 00:02:43.740 --> 00:02:47.520 because marriage is a pretty important partnership. 00:02:48.439 --> 00:02:51.560 It's something that you're making a covenant 00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:55.340 with another person. And so his point here being 00:02:55.340 --> 00:02:59.719 is that as believers, we need to be careful that 00:02:59.719 --> 00:03:02.819 we are not unequally yoked or that we are not 00:03:02.819 --> 00:03:05.960 mismatched or that we do not enter into any kind 00:03:05.960 --> 00:03:09.419 of partnership, so to speak, with an unbeliever. 00:03:09.460 --> 00:03:11.669 That comes with a lot of... a lot of difficulties 00:03:11.669 --> 00:03:14.569 now i like that translation unequally yoked because 00:03:14.569 --> 00:03:17.270 it gives us some good imagery there a yoke is 00:03:17.270 --> 00:03:19.889 something that is that is placed on animals probably 00:03:19.889 --> 00:03:22.610 a couple of animals side by side and they're 00:03:22.610 --> 00:03:24.949 going to work together to pull something usually 00:03:24.949 --> 00:03:28.409 and you need animals that are about the same 00:03:28.409 --> 00:03:30.710 size and about the same strength you wouldn't 00:03:30.710 --> 00:03:33.870 have uh you wouldn't have a a big old ox and 00:03:33.870 --> 00:03:36.129 a small donkey you wouldn't yoke those two things 00:03:36.129 --> 00:03:38.270 together one is going to be much stronger than 00:03:38.270 --> 00:03:41.039 the other it just wouldn't work out But you need 00:03:41.039 --> 00:03:44.439 both things to be kind of the same so that they 00:03:44.439 --> 00:03:47.500 can pull together equally in the same direction. 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:50.039 And there won't be any tension on the yoke. There 00:03:50.039 --> 00:03:53.159 won't be any tension on the parties that are 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:56.439 connected. But things will go smoothly. Well, 00:03:56.599 --> 00:03:59.919 as Christians, when we are unequally yoked, that 00:03:59.919 --> 00:04:03.180 is to say, if we are a Christian and we are in 00:04:03.180 --> 00:04:06.240 a relationship, be it a marriage or a business 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:09.979 relationship or whatever it is, With an unbeliever, 00:04:10.020 --> 00:04:13.879 that's going to cause tension. Why is that? Well, 00:04:13.919 --> 00:04:16.240 as a Christian, we hold the Word of God to be 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:19.339 true. We want to live by the commands of God. 00:04:19.959 --> 00:04:22.779 But for an unbeliever, they're not held to that 00:04:22.779 --> 00:04:25.839 same standard. They don't live by that same standard. 00:04:25.939 --> 00:04:28.699 They don't care what God's Word says. They don't 00:04:28.699 --> 00:04:31.300 care about the commands of God. And so while 00:04:31.300 --> 00:04:33.579 you may want to do right in the relationship, 00:04:34.350 --> 00:04:37.329 Somebody else may not have trouble cheating or 00:04:37.329 --> 00:04:39.430 causing troubles. Let's say you enter into a 00:04:39.430 --> 00:04:41.769 business relationship with somebody. Say you 00:04:41.769 --> 00:04:44.370 and a buddy want to open a donut shop. Well, 00:04:44.410 --> 00:04:46.129 ain't nothing wrong with opening a donut shop, 00:04:46.250 --> 00:04:50.430 but if you want to run that donut shop... with 00:04:50.430 --> 00:04:54.629 Christian ideals and in a Christian way and to 00:04:54.629 --> 00:04:57.550 try to do right and to try to be fair, but your 00:04:57.550 --> 00:05:00.509 partner, who is an unbeliever, is really just 00:05:00.509 --> 00:05:02.649 greedy and want to make money and don't care 00:05:02.649 --> 00:05:05.050 about the employees and don't care about sticking 00:05:05.050 --> 00:05:07.009 it to the customers and don't care about the 00:05:07.009 --> 00:05:09.170 product, just whatever they got to do to get 00:05:09.170 --> 00:05:11.430 whatever money they can out of the business, 00:05:11.629 --> 00:05:16.089 well, then your values there are different. Now 00:05:16.089 --> 00:05:18.269 that's just in business. That's a good lesson 00:05:18.269 --> 00:05:20.529 here we need to pay attention to. We need to 00:05:20.529 --> 00:05:22.649 be careful who we go in business with. We need 00:05:22.649 --> 00:05:25.589 to, I think sometimes maybe we just look at this 00:05:25.589 --> 00:05:28.569 passage and we just always equate it with marriage, 00:05:28.629 --> 00:05:31.550 and there's nothing wrong with that, but I think 00:05:31.550 --> 00:05:34.329 that this expands far beyond marriage with all 00:05:34.329 --> 00:05:37.350 of our relationships. If we're going to get involved 00:05:37.350 --> 00:05:40.209 with somebody, there's going to be tension there 00:05:40.209 --> 00:05:42.670 if both of you aren't pulling in the same direction. 00:05:42.670 --> 00:05:46.740 So Paul says, Do not be unequally yoked. You 00:05:46.740 --> 00:05:49.319 don't want to be a righteous person and a lawless 00:05:49.319 --> 00:05:52.439 person. Boy, they're going to clash. The lightness 00:05:52.439 --> 00:05:58.000 and darkness, those two things, they have opposing 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:01.240 ideas, opposing desires. Darkness wants things 00:06:01.240 --> 00:06:03.839 that are evil. Light wants things that are beautiful. 00:06:04.100 --> 00:06:07.100 And so you can't have this opposition and this 00:06:07.100 --> 00:06:09.019 tension in your life. And he said this is what 00:06:09.019 --> 00:06:11.860 it's like. between a believer and an unbeliever. 00:06:11.939 --> 00:06:14.860 He even says of Christ, he says, what agreement 00:06:14.860 --> 00:06:18.459 does Christ have with Belial? Now, that's a word 00:06:18.459 --> 00:06:20.750 that's hard to... really know exactly what it 00:06:20.750 --> 00:06:22.610 means. Some have said it means Satan, and maybe 00:06:22.610 --> 00:06:25.490 it does, or maybe it just means some evil spirit 00:06:25.490 --> 00:06:28.629 or a demon of Satan or an antichrist. You'll 00:06:28.629 --> 00:06:32.370 find different words there. But it doesn't matter 00:06:32.370 --> 00:06:34.370 which one of those it means. It means that there 00:06:34.370 --> 00:06:36.410 is Christ who's pulling in the right direction, 00:06:36.529 --> 00:06:39.910 and there is some other force that's anti what 00:06:39.910 --> 00:06:42.769 Jesus Christ wants that's pulling in the opposite 00:06:42.769 --> 00:06:45.509 direction. And so those two things aren't in 00:06:45.509 --> 00:06:48.230 agreement. Those two things can't hang out. Those 00:06:48.230 --> 00:06:50.449 two things can't be in a partnership together. 00:06:50.529 --> 00:06:53.629 Those two things can't be in an agreement, in 00:06:53.629 --> 00:06:56.529 a relationship together. And Paul says that's 00:06:56.529 --> 00:06:59.250 what it's like for believers, that we need to 00:06:59.250 --> 00:07:02.569 be careful that we are not mismatched with unbelievers, 00:07:02.629 --> 00:07:05.149 that we are not unequally yoked. Now this is 00:07:05.149 --> 00:07:08.709 certainly important. In regards to marriage, 00:07:08.850 --> 00:07:11.310 we look at one aspect of it, business or whatever 00:07:11.310 --> 00:07:13.850 other relationships, but even though he's not 00:07:13.850 --> 00:07:16.810 speaking directly of marriage here, there is 00:07:16.810 --> 00:07:19.550 no doubt that this is applicable for us. If you're 00:07:19.550 --> 00:07:22.209 not married, young folks, when you get married, 00:07:22.310 --> 00:07:25.560 you need to find a man. In y 'all's case, or 00:07:25.560 --> 00:07:29.160 for young men, need to find a woman that is a 00:07:29.160 --> 00:07:32.560 Christian man or a Christian woman with the same 00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:35.939 values. And so many times people will say, oh, 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:38.180 well, he's a good person or she's a good person. 00:07:38.259 --> 00:07:40.259 And yeah, they don't believe in God, but they 00:07:40.259 --> 00:07:42.459 don't hate God or they're not opposed to God 00:07:42.459 --> 00:07:45.199 or they're not evil. But the fact of the matter 00:07:45.199 --> 00:07:48.160 is this, is those who are not in Christ do not 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:50.800 have the same values and the same morals and 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:53.620 the same ideas and the same thoughts as you do. 00:07:53.699 --> 00:07:56.399 So no matter how cute the boy may be or how hot 00:07:56.399 --> 00:07:59.000 the girl may be or whatever it is, you don't 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:01.420 want to enter into a relationship where the foundation 00:08:01.420 --> 00:08:04.259 of what's important, which is Jesus Christ, is 00:08:04.259 --> 00:08:07.899 not there. And so Paul would say, look, if you're 00:08:07.899 --> 00:08:11.360 a believer, you need to be aware of the relationships 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:14.029 that you're entering into. and the commitments 00:08:14.029 --> 00:08:16.649 that you are making. And you want to make sure 00:08:16.649 --> 00:08:19.829 that you are in relationship with other Christians 00:08:19.829 --> 00:08:22.990 so that you have the same values. And those values, 00:08:23.089 --> 00:08:25.949 first and foremost, are serving the Lord, that 00:08:25.949 --> 00:08:28.529 all glory would go to the Lord, that you love 00:08:28.529 --> 00:08:30.949 Lord and you love the other people, and everything 00:08:30.949 --> 00:08:33.870 else can come after that. But if your main concern 00:08:33.870 --> 00:08:36.509 with your partner is they're worried about greed 00:08:36.509 --> 00:08:38.940 and money and success, and you're worried about 00:08:38.940 --> 00:08:41.299 using the business to glorify God, well, maybe 00:08:41.299 --> 00:08:44.340 your business glorifying God will be very successful. 00:08:44.600 --> 00:08:47.679 It may very well be. But your focus can't be 00:08:47.679 --> 00:08:49.879 on the things of the world. It has to be on God, 00:08:49.899 --> 00:08:52.320 and God will sort the rest of it out. So Paul 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:55.559 says, look, don't be one who is unequally yoked 00:08:55.559 --> 00:09:00.240 with an unbeliever. Verse 16, and what agreement 00:09:00.240 --> 00:09:03.899 does God's sanctuary have with idols? For we 00:09:03.899 --> 00:09:07.980 are the sanctuary of the living God, as God said, 00:09:08.279 --> 00:09:11.700 I will dwell among them and walk among them, 00:09:11.860 --> 00:09:16.440 and I will be their God, and they will be my 00:09:16.440 --> 00:09:19.279 people. Now what was the problem that we see 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:21.039 in the Old Testament? Here he's fixing to quote 00:09:21.039 --> 00:09:23.600 several Old Testament passages, kind of allude 00:09:23.600 --> 00:09:25.480 to several different ones in these next couple 00:09:25.480 --> 00:09:28.580 of verses. But we see a big problem in the Old 00:09:28.580 --> 00:09:31.919 Testament, and that is God delivered his people. 00:09:32.250 --> 00:09:35.409 It is God who had established Abraham and brought 00:09:35.409 --> 00:09:39.049 forth the nation of Israel from Abraham. It was 00:09:39.049 --> 00:09:42.009 God who had provided all of their needs. It was 00:09:42.009 --> 00:09:44.470 God who had brought them out of slavery. It was 00:09:44.470 --> 00:09:47.370 God who provided their food. It was God who fought 00:09:47.370 --> 00:09:50.070 their battles. It was God who gave them everything 00:09:50.070 --> 00:09:54.509 that they ever needed and wanted. God was their 00:09:54.509 --> 00:09:57.350 God, and they were to be his people. They were 00:09:57.350 --> 00:10:00.169 a people who were set apart. They were unlike 00:10:00.169 --> 00:10:02.769 any other people in the rest of the world. There 00:10:02.769 --> 00:10:04.769 were lots of people in the world, and no doubt 00:10:04.769 --> 00:10:06.889 they worshipped lots of other gods. You can look 00:10:06.889 --> 00:10:09.289 at Egypt. They had plenty of other gods. But 00:10:09.289 --> 00:10:12.429 God said, I'm making a people that I'm going 00:10:12.429 --> 00:10:16.009 to set apart that will be my people to seek me 00:10:16.009 --> 00:10:19.389 and to live for me. And I will take care of them, 00:10:19.470 --> 00:10:21.529 and they will follow me, and I will be their 00:10:21.529 --> 00:10:25.610 God, and they will be my people. And that's what 00:10:25.610 --> 00:10:27.929 God called his people in the Old Testament to. 00:10:28.090 --> 00:10:31.090 But what was their problem? Well, those idols 00:10:31.090 --> 00:10:33.370 were mighty tempting. Now, you may remember it 00:10:33.370 --> 00:10:36.149 wasn't long after God brought the Israelites 00:10:36.149 --> 00:10:38.570 out of Egypt and Moses was up on the mountain 00:10:38.570 --> 00:10:41.149 and the people started complaining, where is 00:10:41.149 --> 00:10:44.049 this Moses who brought us out of Egypt? We need 00:10:44.049 --> 00:10:47.149 a God. And so they got their gold. They melted 00:10:47.149 --> 00:10:49.509 it down into a calf. And what did they say? They 00:10:49.509 --> 00:10:52.710 said, this is the God who brought us out of Egypt. 00:10:53.319 --> 00:10:55.620 This calf that they had just made with their 00:10:55.620 --> 00:10:58.580 hands. Now they made a God out of their hands, 00:10:58.720 --> 00:11:01.419 but they failed to realize that a God had delivered 00:11:01.419 --> 00:11:03.919 them that had made them with his very voice. 00:11:04.279 --> 00:11:06.440 Now what do we want in our life? Do we want a 00:11:06.440 --> 00:11:09.100 God that we have made? Or do we want a God who 00:11:09.100 --> 00:11:13.580 has made us? And so there's that temptation of 00:11:13.580 --> 00:11:17.059 idolatry. Now we're not turning any gold calves 00:11:17.059 --> 00:11:20.139 probably, but are there things that we turn to 00:11:20.139 --> 00:11:24.710 in life that become our God? There may be. Maybe 00:11:24.710 --> 00:11:27.029 it's our money. Maybe it's alcohol. Maybe it's 00:11:27.029 --> 00:11:29.169 drugs. Maybe it's fame. Maybe it's popularity. 00:11:29.710 --> 00:11:32.789 Maybe it's our success. Whatever it may be, there 00:11:32.789 --> 00:11:35.950 may be these things in our life that we begin 00:11:35.950 --> 00:11:39.889 to depend on. Now, we may not say, this is my 00:11:39.889 --> 00:11:42.029 God who has delivered me. We probably don't open 00:11:42.029 --> 00:11:45.169 up our saves every night and look at our piles 00:11:45.169 --> 00:11:47.769 of money and say, this is the God who has delivered 00:11:47.769 --> 00:11:50.629 me. We may not say those same type of words that 00:11:50.629 --> 00:11:53.340 the people of Israel said. It doesn't matter 00:11:53.340 --> 00:11:55.899 if we say the words. What about our heart? Is 00:11:55.899 --> 00:11:57.960 our heart focused on the things of this world, 00:11:58.019 --> 00:12:00.740 saying, oh, this is the thing that is delivered. 00:12:00.899 --> 00:12:03.740 This is what I'm going to. When times are hard, 00:12:03.799 --> 00:12:05.820 what do you go to? Do you go to the Bible or 00:12:05.820 --> 00:12:09.139 do you go to the Bible? These are the types of 00:12:09.139 --> 00:12:11.159 things that we struggle with. We may not make 00:12:11.159 --> 00:12:14.179 the golden calf, but what do we run to in times 00:12:14.179 --> 00:12:17.820 of trouble? Well, maybe the answer to who our 00:12:17.820 --> 00:12:21.820 God is or what our God is. can be found by answering 00:12:21.820 --> 00:12:26.379 that question. But what does Paul say here? He 00:12:26.379 --> 00:12:29.100 says, in what agreement does God's sanctuary 00:12:29.100 --> 00:12:31.740 have with idols? Okay, if we are the sanctuary 00:12:31.740 --> 00:12:35.740 of God, if God dwells among us, and he is to 00:12:35.740 --> 00:12:38.820 be our God, and we are to be his people, then 00:12:38.820 --> 00:12:40.899 what kind of relationship should we have with 00:12:40.899 --> 00:12:43.700 idols? It should be zero. We shouldn't have any 00:12:43.700 --> 00:12:46.679 relationship with idols. You can't worship God 00:12:46.679 --> 00:12:49.080 and worship idols at the same time. It's not 00:12:49.080 --> 00:12:52.740 possible. You cannot worship two gods. Now, if 00:12:52.740 --> 00:12:55.080 we say, oh, yeah, I'm a Christian. I'm a sanctuary 00:12:55.080 --> 00:12:58.299 of God. The Holy Spirit dwells in me. Well, how 00:12:58.299 --> 00:13:01.360 can we say that in one breath and then worship 00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:04.179 our idols in the next breath? It doesn't line 00:13:04.179 --> 00:13:07.080 up. It doesn't work that way. What Paul wants 00:13:07.080 --> 00:13:09.700 his people to do here is to get rid of those 00:13:09.700 --> 00:13:12.539 things, to separate themselves from the things 00:13:12.539 --> 00:13:17.100 of the world to God. That there's all these temptations 00:13:17.100 --> 00:13:19.320 that whatever teachings are going on there that 00:13:19.320 --> 00:13:22.039 are pulling them away from Jesus Christ. Paul 00:13:22.039 --> 00:13:25.600 says, look, you need to pay attention to what's 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:28.639 going on here and you don't need to give in to 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:32.320 all of these different idols. These unbelievers 00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:33.899 that you've been hanging out with, you better 00:13:33.899 --> 00:13:35.639 be careful of the company that you're hanging 00:13:35.639 --> 00:13:40.519 out with because they will pull you from God. 00:13:40.600 --> 00:13:43.549 And that's true in our life. We have to be careful 00:13:43.549 --> 00:13:46.470 of the company that we hang out with. Now, as 00:13:46.470 --> 00:13:49.370 Paul here, when he says don't be mismatched or 00:13:49.370 --> 00:13:51.629 unequally yoked, is he saying that we're not 00:13:51.629 --> 00:13:53.950 to have any relationship at all with somebody 00:13:53.950 --> 00:13:56.769 that's an unbeliever? Well, I don't think that's 00:13:56.769 --> 00:13:59.169 what he's saying, but we do have to be careful. 00:13:59.710 --> 00:14:02.370 Those closest relationships in our life, when 00:14:02.370 --> 00:14:04.470 it comes to marriage and business relationships 00:14:04.470 --> 00:14:07.350 or other really close relationships, we have 00:14:07.350 --> 00:14:10.590 to guard those. We have to be careful who's influencing 00:14:10.590 --> 00:14:15.230 us and who we're paying attention to in our times 00:14:15.230 --> 00:14:18.210 of trouble. Whose advice are we taking? Now, 00:14:18.230 --> 00:14:20.730 Paul says in 1 Corinthians, I believe it's in 00:14:20.730 --> 00:14:23.690 chapter 6, maybe chapter 5, I don't recall, but 00:14:23.690 --> 00:14:25.690 he had wrote to them, obviously, at some point, 00:14:25.730 --> 00:14:28.190 and had talked to them about associating with 00:14:28.190 --> 00:14:30.750 unbelievers. and they had misunderstood what 00:14:30.750 --> 00:14:33.129 he was saying. They had taken it, it appears 00:14:33.129 --> 00:14:35.409 to mean, that he was saying, don't associate 00:14:35.409 --> 00:14:38.389 with any unbelievers. But then he goes back and 00:14:38.389 --> 00:14:41.210 he clarifies what he says. He says, look, I gave 00:14:41.210 --> 00:14:43.549 you a list of some people to avoid. He said, 00:14:43.590 --> 00:14:46.490 I'm not saying avoid all these sinners, all these 00:14:46.490 --> 00:14:49.850 unbelievers. He says, what I'm telling you is, 00:14:49.950 --> 00:14:52.789 you need to be careful of those who profess to 00:14:52.789 --> 00:14:55.470 be Christians and are doing all of these sinful 00:14:55.470 --> 00:14:58.350 acts. He said, those are the ones that you need 00:14:58.350 --> 00:15:00.950 to be aware of. He said, don't avoid sinners. 00:15:01.610 --> 00:15:04.710 If we avoided sinners, how would we ever be able 00:15:04.710 --> 00:15:06.509 to reach anybody for the gospel? But he says, 00:15:06.590 --> 00:15:09.149 look, I'm not telling you to avoid everybody 00:15:09.149 --> 00:15:11.970 who's a sinner, but I am telling you to be careful 00:15:11.970 --> 00:15:14.309 around those who claim to be Christian and are 00:15:14.309 --> 00:15:17.490 living in the sins of the world. So I don't think 00:15:17.490 --> 00:15:20.129 Paul's advice here when he says do not be unequally 00:15:20.129 --> 00:15:23.450 yoked or mismatched, I don't think it's just 00:15:23.450 --> 00:15:25.529 a blanket statement of, hey, don't associate 00:15:25.529 --> 00:15:29.049 with any unbelievers at all. But he's saying 00:15:29.049 --> 00:15:31.350 your closest relationships, you need to be careful 00:15:31.350 --> 00:15:34.169 of what's going on in those things. So who do 00:15:34.169 --> 00:15:36.169 we take advice from? Well, we want to make sure 00:15:36.169 --> 00:15:38.490 we're taking advice from good Christian men and 00:15:38.490 --> 00:15:40.909 women. First, we want to seek God. We want to 00:15:40.909 --> 00:15:43.610 seek God's word. And we want to seek brothers 00:15:43.610 --> 00:15:46.279 and sisters in Christ. We don't want to get advice 00:15:46.279 --> 00:15:48.600 from an unbeliever because they're not going 00:15:48.600 --> 00:15:51.600 to give us the same type of advice that God's 00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:53.659 Word would give us always. Maybe sometimes they 00:15:53.659 --> 00:15:57.360 will. But maybe if we're honest, maybe sometimes 00:15:57.360 --> 00:15:59.659 we do want the advice of the unbeliever because 00:15:59.659 --> 00:16:01.200 maybe they're going to tell us what we want to 00:16:01.200 --> 00:16:04.700 hear. Because sometimes in our evil hearts, we 00:16:04.700 --> 00:16:07.220 want to do the wrong thing. and we just need 00:16:07.220 --> 00:16:09.220 somebody to justify it for us. We want to be 00:16:09.220 --> 00:16:11.299 mad at somebody, and maybe we ask a brother or 00:16:11.299 --> 00:16:13.539 sister in Christ, and they say, hey, you know 00:16:13.539 --> 00:16:15.480 what? Jesus says you need to love that person 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:17.720 and pray for them. Maybe we don't want to love 00:16:17.720 --> 00:16:19.360 them and pray for them. Maybe we want to be bad 00:16:19.360 --> 00:16:22.200 on them. So we go ask Jim Bob down there that 00:16:22.200 --> 00:16:23.919 we work with because we know he don't care nothing 00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:26.200 about the Word of God, and we ask him what we 00:16:26.200 --> 00:16:27.500 should do because we know he's going to say, 00:16:27.539 --> 00:16:30.370 you ought to go pop him in the nose. So sometimes 00:16:30.370 --> 00:16:33.129 maybe we don't want to seek the advice of believers. 00:16:33.450 --> 00:16:35.570 Maybe we want to seek the advice of unbelievers. 00:16:35.669 --> 00:16:38.190 That's not a good place to be. So we need to 00:16:38.190 --> 00:16:40.350 be careful of who we surround ourselves with. 00:16:40.429 --> 00:16:42.450 And that's what Paul is saying here. You need 00:16:42.450 --> 00:16:44.570 to be careful who you surround yourself with, 00:16:44.610 --> 00:16:47.590 especially who you marry and who you have close 00:16:47.590 --> 00:16:50.950 relationships with. And you need to remember 00:16:50.950 --> 00:16:54.029 that you are a sanctuary of God. So you can't 00:16:54.029 --> 00:16:56.669 have it both ways. You can't live for God on 00:16:56.669 --> 00:16:58.490 Sunday and live for the devil Monday through 00:16:58.490 --> 00:17:01.259 Saturday. And Lord knows there's plenty of people 00:17:01.259 --> 00:17:03.360 that try that, probably some of us even in our 00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:06.039 life. But there's no blessing in that. There's 00:17:06.039 --> 00:17:08.700 no joy in that. And so Paul says you need to 00:17:08.700 --> 00:17:11.220 remember that you are the sanctuary of God, that 00:17:11.220 --> 00:17:14.519 you are God's people, and He needs to be your 00:17:14.519 --> 00:17:19.380 God. Therefore, verse 17, Therefore, come out 00:17:19.380 --> 00:17:22.559 from among them and be separate, says the Lord. 00:17:22.859 --> 00:17:26.420 Do not touch any unclean thing, and I will welcome 00:17:26.420 --> 00:17:29.630 you. I will be a father to you, and you will 00:17:29.630 --> 00:17:33.650 be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. 00:17:33.950 --> 00:17:37.029 Now this is a quotation in verse 17 here. This 00:17:37.029 --> 00:17:41.549 is a quotation from Isaiah chapter 52. Now at 00:17:41.549 --> 00:17:43.529 that time, the people were in Babylonian captivity. 00:17:44.470 --> 00:17:46.769 And God was saying, you need to come out from 00:17:46.769 --> 00:17:48.529 there. He was going to deliver them. He was going 00:17:48.529 --> 00:17:50.890 to bring them out, and he did. And his word has 00:17:50.890 --> 00:17:53.210 come out from all the uncleanliness and all this 00:17:53.210 --> 00:17:56.470 evil. You need to separate yourself, come out 00:17:56.470 --> 00:17:58.849 from among them, and be separate, says the Lord. 00:17:59.309 --> 00:18:02.230 So as Christians, we need to separate ourselves 00:18:02.230 --> 00:18:06.289 from the world. We need to be able to look different 00:18:06.289 --> 00:18:08.230 from all of the rest of the people in the world. 00:18:08.289 --> 00:18:11.470 If we're in a lineup and people can look at us 00:18:11.470 --> 00:18:14.789 in that lineup and imagine they could see all 00:18:14.789 --> 00:18:17.369 the things you do and the way you live, would 00:18:17.369 --> 00:18:19.710 the things that you do and the way that you live, 00:18:19.869 --> 00:18:24.170 would that stand out any way possible from an 00:18:24.170 --> 00:18:26.970 unbeliever? Would that look any different? Or 00:18:26.970 --> 00:18:28.630 if people look at you, do you just look like 00:18:28.630 --> 00:18:30.630 all the rest of the unbelievers in the world? 00:18:31.109 --> 00:18:33.349 And so we need to be separate. We need to pull 00:18:33.349 --> 00:18:35.809 ourselves out. There needs to be something different 00:18:35.809 --> 00:18:37.950 in our life, something that's more attractive 00:18:37.950 --> 00:18:41.690 than what the world has to offer. Chapter 7. 00:18:42.630 --> 00:18:47.150 Therefore, dear friends, since we have such promises, 00:18:47.369 --> 00:18:51.130 let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity 00:18:51.130 --> 00:18:55.369 of the flesh and spirit, completing our sanctification 00:18:55.369 --> 00:19:00.049 in the fear of God. So he gives them this instruction. 00:19:00.519 --> 00:19:03.039 You need to watch who you're going to hang out 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:06.279 with. You need to remember that you are God's 00:19:06.279 --> 00:19:08.720 people, that he has promised to be your God, 00:19:08.900 --> 00:19:11.279 and you are going to be his people, and you need 00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:14.000 to separate yourself from the things of the world, 00:19:14.039 --> 00:19:16.880 and you need to live for God, and you need to 00:19:16.880 --> 00:19:19.579 focus on him, and you need to trust him, and 00:19:19.579 --> 00:19:21.720 you need to look at the promises of God. And 00:19:21.720 --> 00:19:24.480 that's what he says in chapter 7. Since we have 00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:27.500 such promises, let us cleanse ourselves from 00:19:27.500 --> 00:19:29.900 every impurity. Well, that's good instruction 00:19:29.900 --> 00:19:32.960 for us. There's very likely some impurity in 00:19:32.960 --> 00:19:35.599 our life. There's probably some sin there, some 00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:37.579 things we shouldn't do, some things we shouldn't 00:19:37.579 --> 00:19:40.319 say. Maybe our thoughts aren't always good. Maybe 00:19:40.319 --> 00:19:43.700 our attitudes aren't always good. There may just 00:19:43.700 --> 00:19:46.599 be areas in our life that sometimes need to be 00:19:46.599 --> 00:19:48.740 corrected, and God's Word is good at that. The 00:19:48.740 --> 00:19:51.539 Holy Spirit is good at that, of convicting us. 00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:54.599 And so he says here, look, we have the promises 00:19:54.599 --> 00:19:56.859 of God and we need to live on the promises of 00:19:56.859 --> 00:19:59.579 God. We need to live for God and not for the 00:19:59.579 --> 00:20:02.539 things of the world. So let us cleanse ourselves 00:20:02.539 --> 00:20:05.839 from every impurity. And then at the end of the 00:20:05.839 --> 00:20:09.460 verse there, he says, completing our sanctification 00:20:09.460 --> 00:20:13.670 in the fear of God. That fear of God we talked 00:20:13.670 --> 00:20:16.509 about that Sunday. That should be a powerful 00:20:16.509 --> 00:20:19.150 motivation. If we fear God, then we should seek 00:20:19.150 --> 00:20:23.009 to live by His commands. It talks about sanctification. 00:20:23.410 --> 00:20:25.569 What does that mean? That's the idea of being 00:20:25.569 --> 00:20:27.950 set apart. Remember, He just called them that 00:20:27.950 --> 00:20:30.529 you needed to be separate from the rest of those 00:20:30.529 --> 00:20:32.930 people. You recall that passage from Isaiah, 00:20:33.109 --> 00:20:35.529 from the Babylonians, that they were among a 00:20:35.529 --> 00:20:37.410 sinful people and they needed to be separate. 00:20:37.490 --> 00:20:39.769 They were God's people. They needed to separate 00:20:39.769 --> 00:20:42.920 themselves. We as God's people, We need to separate 00:20:42.920 --> 00:20:46.279 ourselves. We need to be set apart. We don't 00:20:46.279 --> 00:20:48.200 want to live like the world. We are to be set 00:20:48.200 --> 00:20:51.500 apart because we are God's people. And so this 00:20:51.500 --> 00:20:54.400 idea of being sanctified, set apart, to be made 00:20:54.400 --> 00:20:58.000 holy. Now, some Christians would argue that you 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:01.640 can reach a full sanctification in this life, 00:21:01.720 --> 00:21:04.160 that you can be perfectly holy in this life, 00:21:04.220 --> 00:21:06.700 and as a result, you can be perfect. Now, I would 00:21:06.700 --> 00:21:08.890 disagree with that. I don't think that we can 00:21:08.890 --> 00:21:12.269 be fully sanctified in this life. I think we 00:21:12.269 --> 00:21:15.730 will reach a full sanctification in the presence 00:21:15.730 --> 00:21:18.789 of God, but I think in this life we're probably 00:21:18.789 --> 00:21:21.549 just going to struggle. There's always going 00:21:21.549 --> 00:21:23.750 to be those temptations. There's always going 00:21:23.750 --> 00:21:26.490 to be those failures. It would be great if we 00:21:26.490 --> 00:21:29.250 could go a day, a week, a month without sinning. 00:21:29.929 --> 00:21:32.710 But that has not become a reality in my life. 00:21:32.809 --> 00:21:35.069 So I won't say that you can't be fully sanctified. 00:21:35.470 --> 00:21:37.809 I'll say that I'm not, and I'll say that it's 00:21:37.809 --> 00:21:40.670 probably a difficult process. But we need to 00:21:40.670 --> 00:21:43.329 be those that are in the process, that are in 00:21:43.329 --> 00:21:45.690 the process of being set apart and made holy 00:21:45.690 --> 00:21:48.750 by God through Jesus Christ, that we are continually 00:21:48.750 --> 00:21:53.869 growing in Him. Let's pray. God, we come to you. 00:21:53.890 --> 00:21:55.690 We thank you for these good words, and I pray 00:21:55.690 --> 00:21:58.910 that you would help us to... examine our lives 00:21:58.910 --> 00:22:02.730 and to be careful of those that we enter into 00:22:02.730 --> 00:22:06.009 close relationships with, dear Lord. We, one, 00:22:06.009 --> 00:22:08.609 want to make good decisions on those we enter 00:22:08.609 --> 00:22:11.250 into a marriage covenant with, God. That's about 00:22:11.250 --> 00:22:13.589 as serious as it gets. We want to make sure that 00:22:13.589 --> 00:22:17.589 we are joined with somebody that is a Christian. 00:22:17.670 --> 00:22:19.930 Dear Lord, in our relationships, our business 00:22:19.930 --> 00:22:22.849 practices, whatever it may be, I pray that you 00:22:22.849 --> 00:22:26.599 would help us to... not find ourselves in trouble 00:22:26.599 --> 00:22:29.460 by being unequally yoked, dear Lord. I pray that 00:22:29.460 --> 00:22:32.500 you would just help us to be aware of the people 00:22:32.500 --> 00:22:35.339 who are having influence on our life and the 00:22:35.339 --> 00:22:37.480 people who are advising us, dear Lord. Are these 00:22:37.480 --> 00:22:39.980 Christian people or not? We need to think about 00:22:39.980 --> 00:22:42.740 these things, God. We need to remember that you 00:22:42.740 --> 00:22:45.039 call us to be your people. If we are yours, if 00:22:45.039 --> 00:22:47.200 we've trusted in Jesus Christ, then, God, you 00:22:47.200 --> 00:22:49.799 don't want us to live like the world. You want 00:22:49.799 --> 00:22:51.880 us to be separate from the world. And so, God, 00:22:51.900 --> 00:22:54.990 I pray that you would help us to... continue 00:22:54.990 --> 00:22:57.630 to grow in you, that you would continue to help 00:22:57.630 --> 00:23:00.470 us to be made holy in you and set apart in you, 00:23:00.549 --> 00:23:03.970 dear Lord. And I ask these things in Jesus' name. 00:23:04.450 --> 00:23:04.890 Amen.