2 Corinthians 6, verse 14. We'll read through
the rest of the chapter, Lord willing. Last week
we saw Paul making a defense for his character
and trying to get the people of Corinth to listen
to him and to follow him and to... Pay attention
to the example that he has left and not be led
astray by other false teachers or people who
may be leading them in the wrong direction. That's
what we saw in the passage last week. Tonight
we will start in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14. Let's
pray and we'll get started. God, we come to you
and I pray, God, that your words tonight, we
would take them to heart. that we would learn
from them, that we would grow from them, dear
Lord, that we would pay attention to them, dear
Lord, that we would make good decisions in our
life. And any kind of relationships we build,
dear Lord, we desire that they would be good
relationships. And we desire, God, that our relationship
to you would be a strong and a good relationship,
God. So I pray that you would just help us as
we look at these words. I pray that your Holy
Spirit would be with us, that you would hide
me behind the cross as I preach and teach, Everything
that is done will be for your glory, that you'd
be with these words tonight. And I ask these
things in Jesus' name. Amen. 2 Corinthians 6,
verse 14. Do not be mismatched with unbelievers.
For what partnership is there between righteousness
and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light
have with darkness? Belial, or what does a believer
have in common with an unbeliever? Now, some
of your translations may say some language that
maybe you've heard before. Do not be unequally
yoked. That's something that we've probably heard.
Mine says do not be mismatched with unbelievers.
But that's what it means there. He's talking
about being... unequally yoked or being connected
a believer to an unbeliever in some relationship,
in some partnership, and in some way in which
it is going to be unhealthy. Now, a lot of times
these verses are used in relation to marriage.
Now, he's not really talking about marriage here.
That would be a little out of the context of
what he's saying. But nevertheless, it does fit
because marriage is a pretty important partnership.
It's something that you're making a covenant
with another person. And so his point here being
is that as believers, we need to be careful that
we are not unequally yoked or that we are not
mismatched or that we do not enter into any kind
of partnership, so to speak, with an unbeliever.
That comes with a lot of... a lot of difficulties
now i like that translation unequally yoked because
it gives us some good imagery there a yoke is
something that is that is placed on animals probably
a couple of animals side by side and they're
going to work together to pull something usually
and you need animals that are about the same
size and about the same strength you wouldn't
have uh you wouldn't have a a big old ox and
a small donkey you wouldn't yoke those two things
together one is going to be much stronger than
the other it just wouldn't work out But you need
both things to be kind of the same so that they
can pull together equally in the same direction.
And there won't be any tension on the yoke. There
won't be any tension on the parties that are
connected. But things will go smoothly. Well,
as Christians, when we are unequally yoked, that
is to say, if we are a Christian and we are in
a relationship, be it a marriage or a business
relationship or whatever it is, With an unbeliever,
that's going to cause tension. Why is that? Well,
as a Christian, we hold the Word of God to be
true. We want to live by the commands of God.
But for an unbeliever, they're not held to that
same standard. They don't live by that same standard.
They don't care what God's Word says. They don't
care about the commands of God. And so while
you may want to do right in the relationship,
Somebody else may not have trouble cheating or
causing troubles. Let's say you enter into a
business relationship with somebody. Say you
and a buddy want to open a donut shop. Well,
ain't nothing wrong with opening a donut shop,
but if you want to run that donut shop... with
Christian ideals and in a Christian way and to
try to do right and to try to be fair, but your
partner, who is an unbeliever, is really just
greedy and want to make money and don't care
about the employees and don't care about sticking
it to the customers and don't care about the
product, just whatever they got to do to get
whatever money they can out of the business,
well, then your values there are different. Now
that's just in business. That's a good lesson
here we need to pay attention to. We need to
be careful who we go in business with. We need
to, I think sometimes maybe we just look at this
passage and we just always equate it with marriage,
and there's nothing wrong with that, but I think
that this expands far beyond marriage with all
of our relationships. If we're going to get involved
with somebody, there's going to be tension there
if both of you aren't pulling in the same direction.
So Paul says, Do not be unequally yoked. You
don't want to be a righteous person and a lawless
person. Boy, they're going to clash. The lightness
and darkness, those two things, they have opposing
ideas, opposing desires. Darkness wants things
that are evil. Light wants things that are beautiful.
And so you can't have this opposition and this
tension in your life. And he said this is what
it's like. between a believer and an unbeliever.
He even says of Christ, he says, what agreement
does Christ have with Belial? Now, that's a word
that's hard to... really know exactly what it
means. Some have said it means Satan, and maybe
it does, or maybe it just means some evil spirit
or a demon of Satan or an antichrist. You'll
find different words there. But it doesn't matter
which one of those it means. It means that there
is Christ who's pulling in the right direction,
and there is some other force that's anti what
Jesus Christ wants that's pulling in the opposite
direction. And so those two things aren't in
agreement. Those two things can't hang out. Those
two things can't be in a partnership together.
Those two things can't be in an agreement, in
a relationship together. And Paul says that's
what it's like for believers, that we need to
be careful that we are not mismatched with unbelievers,
that we are not unequally yoked. Now this is
certainly important. In regards to marriage,
we look at one aspect of it, business or whatever
other relationships, but even though he's not
speaking directly of marriage here, there is
no doubt that this is applicable for us. If you're
not married, young folks, when you get married,
you need to find a man. In y 'all's case, or
for young men, need to find a woman that is a
Christian man or a Christian woman with the same
values. And so many times people will say, oh,
well, he's a good person or she's a good person.
And yeah, they don't believe in God, but they
don't hate God or they're not opposed to God
or they're not evil. But the fact of the matter
is this, is those who are not in Christ do not
have the same values and the same morals and
the same ideas and the same thoughts as you do.
So no matter how cute the boy may be or how hot
the girl may be or whatever it is, you don't
want to enter into a relationship where the foundation
of what's important, which is Jesus Christ, is
not there. And so Paul would say, look, if you're
a believer, you need to be aware of the relationships
that you're entering into. and the commitments
that you are making. And you want to make sure
that you are in relationship with other Christians
so that you have the same values. And those values,
first and foremost, are serving the Lord, that
all glory would go to the Lord, that you love
Lord and you love the other people, and everything
else can come after that. But if your main concern
with your partner is they're worried about greed
and money and success, and you're worried about
using the business to glorify God, well, maybe
your business glorifying God will be very successful.
It may very well be. But your focus can't be
on the things of the world. It has to be on God,
and God will sort the rest of it out. So Paul
says, look, don't be one who is unequally yoked
with an unbeliever. Verse 16, and what agreement
does God's sanctuary have with idols? For we
are the sanctuary of the living God, as God said,
I will dwell among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God, and they will be my
people. Now what was the problem that we see
in the Old Testament? Here he's fixing to quote
several Old Testament passages, kind of allude
to several different ones in these next couple
of verses. But we see a big problem in the Old
Testament, and that is God delivered his people.
It is God who had established Abraham and brought
forth the nation of Israel from Abraham. It was
God who had provided all of their needs. It was
God who had brought them out of slavery. It was
God who provided their food. It was God who fought
their battles. It was God who gave them everything
that they ever needed and wanted. God was their
God, and they were to be his people. They were
a people who were set apart. They were unlike
any other people in the rest of the world. There
were lots of people in the world, and no doubt
they worshipped lots of other gods. You can look
at Egypt. They had plenty of other gods. But
God said, I'm making a people that I'm going
to set apart that will be my people to seek me
and to live for me. And I will take care of them,
and they will follow me, and I will be their
God, and they will be my people. And that's what
God called his people in the Old Testament to.
But what was their problem? Well, those idols
were mighty tempting. Now, you may remember it
wasn't long after God brought the Israelites
out of Egypt and Moses was up on the mountain
and the people started complaining, where is
this Moses who brought us out of Egypt? We need
a God. And so they got their gold. They melted
it down into a calf. And what did they say? They
said, this is the God who brought us out of Egypt.
This calf that they had just made with their
hands. Now they made a God out of their hands,
but they failed to realize that a God had delivered
them that had made them with his very voice.
Now what do we want in our life? Do we want a
God that we have made? Or do we want a God who
has made us? And so there's that temptation of
idolatry. Now we're not turning any gold calves
probably, but are there things that we turn to
in life that become our God? There may be. Maybe
it's our money. Maybe it's alcohol. Maybe it's
drugs. Maybe it's fame. Maybe it's popularity.
Maybe it's our success. Whatever it may be, there
may be these things in our life that we begin
to depend on. Now, we may not say, this is my
God who has delivered me. We probably don't open
up our saves every night and look at our piles
of money and say, this is the God who has delivered
me. We may not say those same type of words that
the people of Israel said. It doesn't matter
if we say the words. What about our heart? Is
our heart focused on the things of this world,
saying, oh, this is the thing that is delivered.
This is what I'm going to. When times are hard,
what do you go to? Do you go to the Bible or
do you go to the Bible? These are the types of
things that we struggle with. We may not make
the golden calf, but what do we run to in times
of trouble? Well, maybe the answer to who our
God is or what our God is. can be found by answering
that question. But what does Paul say here? He
says, in what agreement does God's sanctuary
have with idols? Okay, if we are the sanctuary
of God, if God dwells among us, and he is to
be our God, and we are to be his people, then
what kind of relationship should we have with
idols? It should be zero. We shouldn't have any
relationship with idols. You can't worship God
and worship idols at the same time. It's not
possible. You cannot worship two gods. Now, if
we say, oh, yeah, I'm a Christian. I'm a sanctuary
of God. The Holy Spirit dwells in me. Well, how
can we say that in one breath and then worship
our idols in the next breath? It doesn't line
up. It doesn't work that way. What Paul wants
his people to do here is to get rid of those
things, to separate themselves from the things
of the world to God. That there's all these temptations
that whatever teachings are going on there that
are pulling them away from Jesus Christ. Paul
says, look, you need to pay attention to what's
going on here and you don't need to give in to
all of these different idols. These unbelievers
that you've been hanging out with, you better
be careful of the company that you're hanging
out with because they will pull you from God.
And that's true in our life. We have to be careful
of the company that we hang out with. Now, as
Paul here, when he says don't be mismatched or
unequally yoked, is he saying that we're not
to have any relationship at all with somebody
that's an unbeliever? Well, I don't think that's
what he's saying, but we do have to be careful.
Those closest relationships in our life, when
it comes to marriage and business relationships
or other really close relationships, we have
to guard those. We have to be careful who's influencing
us and who we're paying attention to in our times
of trouble. Whose advice are we taking? Now,
Paul says in 1 Corinthians, I believe it's in
chapter 6, maybe chapter 5, I don't recall, but
he had wrote to them, obviously, at some point,
and had talked to them about associating with
unbelievers. and they had misunderstood what
he was saying. They had taken it, it appears
to mean, that he was saying, don't associate
with any unbelievers. But then he goes back and
he clarifies what he says. He says, look, I gave
you a list of some people to avoid. He said,
I'm not saying avoid all these sinners, all these
unbelievers. He says, what I'm telling you is,
you need to be careful of those who profess to
be Christians and are doing all of these sinful
acts. He said, those are the ones that you need
to be aware of. He said, don't avoid sinners.
If we avoided sinners, how would we ever be able
to reach anybody for the gospel? But he says,
look, I'm not telling you to avoid everybody
who's a sinner, but I am telling you to be careful
around those who claim to be Christian and are
living in the sins of the world. So I don't think
Paul's advice here when he says do not be unequally
yoked or mismatched, I don't think it's just
a blanket statement of, hey, don't associate
with any unbelievers at all. But he's saying
your closest relationships, you need to be careful
of what's going on in those things. So who do
we take advice from? Well, we want to make sure
we're taking advice from good Christian men and
women. First, we want to seek God. We want to
seek God's word. And we want to seek brothers
and sisters in Christ. We don't want to get advice
from an unbeliever because they're not going
to give us the same type of advice that God's
Word would give us always. Maybe sometimes they
will. But maybe if we're honest, maybe sometimes
we do want the advice of the unbeliever because
maybe they're going to tell us what we want to
hear. Because sometimes in our evil hearts, we
want to do the wrong thing. and we just need
somebody to justify it for us. We want to be
mad at somebody, and maybe we ask a brother or
sister in Christ, and they say, hey, you know
what? Jesus says you need to love that person
and pray for them. Maybe we don't want to love
them and pray for them. Maybe we want to be bad
on them. So we go ask Jim Bob down there that
we work with because we know he don't care nothing
about the Word of God, and we ask him what we
should do because we know he's going to say,
you ought to go pop him in the nose. So sometimes
maybe we don't want to seek the advice of believers.
Maybe we want to seek the advice of unbelievers.
That's not a good place to be. So we need to
be careful of who we surround ourselves with.
And that's what Paul is saying here. You need
to be careful who you surround yourself with,
especially who you marry and who you have close
relationships with. And you need to remember
that you are a sanctuary of God. So you can't
have it both ways. You can't live for God on
Sunday and live for the devil Monday through
Saturday. And Lord knows there's plenty of people
that try that, probably some of us even in our
life. But there's no blessing in that. There's
no joy in that. And so Paul says you need to
remember that you are the sanctuary of God, that
you are God's people, and He needs to be your
God. Therefore, verse 17, Therefore, come out
from among them and be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch any unclean thing, and I will welcome
you. I will be a father to you, and you will
be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.
Now this is a quotation in verse 17 here. This
is a quotation from Isaiah chapter 52. Now at
that time, the people were in Babylonian captivity.
And God was saying, you need to come out from
there. He was going to deliver them. He was going
to bring them out, and he did. And his word has
come out from all the uncleanliness and all this
evil. You need to separate yourself, come out
from among them, and be separate, says the Lord.
So as Christians, we need to separate ourselves
from the world. We need to be able to look different
from all of the rest of the people in the world.
If we're in a lineup and people can look at us
in that lineup and imagine they could see all
the things you do and the way you live, would
the things that you do and the way that you live,
would that stand out any way possible from an
unbeliever? Would that look any different? Or
if people look at you, do you just look like
all the rest of the unbelievers in the world?
And so we need to be separate. We need to pull
ourselves out. There needs to be something different
in our life, something that's more attractive
than what the world has to offer. Chapter 7.
Therefore, dear friends, since we have such promises,
let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity
of the flesh and spirit, completing our sanctification
in the fear of God. So he gives them this instruction.
You need to watch who you're going to hang out
with. You need to remember that you are God's
people, that he has promised to be your God,
and you are going to be his people, and you need
to separate yourself from the things of the world,
and you need to live for God, and you need to
focus on him, and you need to trust him, and
you need to look at the promises of God. And
that's what he says in chapter 7. Since we have
such promises, let us cleanse ourselves from
every impurity. Well, that's good instruction
for us. There's very likely some impurity in
our life. There's probably some sin there, some
things we shouldn't do, some things we shouldn't
say. Maybe our thoughts aren't always good. Maybe
our attitudes aren't always good. There may just
be areas in our life that sometimes need to be
corrected, and God's Word is good at that. The
Holy Spirit is good at that, of convicting us.
And so he says here, look, we have the promises
of God and we need to live on the promises of
God. We need to live for God and not for the
things of the world. So let us cleanse ourselves
from every impurity. And then at the end of the
verse there, he says, completing our sanctification
in the fear of God. That fear of God we talked
about that Sunday. That should be a powerful
motivation. If we fear God, then we should seek
to live by His commands. It talks about sanctification.
What does that mean? That's the idea of being
set apart. Remember, He just called them that
you needed to be separate from the rest of those
people. You recall that passage from Isaiah,
from the Babylonians, that they were among a
sinful people and they needed to be separate.
They were God's people. They needed to separate
themselves. We as God's people, We need to separate
ourselves. We need to be set apart. We don't
want to live like the world. We are to be set
apart because we are God's people. And so this
idea of being sanctified, set apart, to be made
holy. Now, some Christians would argue that you
can reach a full sanctification in this life,
that you can be perfectly holy in this life,
and as a result, you can be perfect. Now, I would
disagree with that. I don't think that we can
be fully sanctified in this life. I think we
will reach a full sanctification in the presence
of God, but I think in this life we're probably
just going to struggle. There's always going
to be those temptations. There's always going
to be those failures. It would be great if we
could go a day, a week, a month without sinning.
But that has not become a reality in my life.
So I won't say that you can't be fully sanctified.
I'll say that I'm not, and I'll say that it's
probably a difficult process. But we need to
be those that are in the process, that are in
the process of being set apart and made holy
by God through Jesus Christ, that we are continually
growing in Him. Let's pray. God, we come to you.
We thank you for these good words, and I pray
that you would help us to... examine our lives
and to be careful of those that we enter into
close relationships with, dear Lord. We, one,
want to make good decisions on those we enter
into a marriage covenant with, God. That's about
as serious as it gets. We want to make sure that
we are joined with somebody that is a Christian.
Dear Lord, in our relationships, our business
practices, whatever it may be, I pray that you
would help us to... not find ourselves in trouble
by being unequally yoked, dear Lord. I pray that
you would just help us to be aware of the people
who are having influence on our life and the
people who are advising us, dear Lord. Are these
Christian people or not? We need to think about
these things, God. We need to remember that you
call us to be your people. If we are yours, if
we've trusted in Jesus Christ, then, God, you
don't want us to live like the world. You want
us to be separate from the world. And so, God,
I pray that you would help us to... continue
to grow in you, that you would continue to help
us to be made holy in you and set apart in you,
dear Lord. And I ask these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.