I'll speak on the subject of
Paul's judgment. 1 Corinthians 7.25, now concerning
virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord, yet I give my judgment
as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. Now Paul's judgment, as we've
mentioned before, is no less the inspired
word of God than any other scripture. Clearly, it's included in the
Bible. And it's important to know that.
But it's also an important lesson that Paul gives us here. We must
differentiate between the two, between God's word and our opinion.
So as Paul's opinion here clearly was included in the word of God
and is inspired just as much That's what he says he has commandment
from the Lord on. He teaches us nevertheless that
it's important to differentiate as preachers of the gospel, as
witnesses of Christ, as preachers and parents. We must plainly
say so when we're given our opinions as opposed to speaking on the
authority of God's word. And this is not in my notes,
but let me just say, there's a lot of things that should be
qualified as opinions that are not, that people say. They should say, this is what
I think, I don't have this from the scriptures, but this is what
I think, when they're passing it off as being from the scriptures. My opinions are not divinely
inspired. and they're not included in God's
book. Does that mean we shouldn't ever
give opinions? They're worthless anyway, they're
not inspired by God. We're taught better than that
here, aren't we? Paul says, I don't have a commandment from the Lord
on this, but here's what I think. And he teaches us that that can
be good, that is good under the right circumstances, which are
stated in the last part of the verse. We just need to be clear
about it being an opinion when it is. I personally, as you know,
don't give my opinions very often from the pulpit. I may do so
when we're in conversation. Very rarely, I'll give you my
opinion, and you're my witnesses that when I do that, I plainly
state, I hope I always have, that it is my opinion. And I'll
give you an example of that tonight, but let's be clear. about the
three things implied by this verse. The word
of God is inspired by God himself and is to be received as such.
It's the embodiment of truth. This is the truth. And you can't
say that about anything else in the same way that you can
say it about this. It's the embodiment. Everything
else can be said to be the truth if it's according to this. It's the revelation of God's
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And as such, it is priceless. It is priceless. It's written
by God so that his elect will believe on Christ and be saved.
We're told that in the book of John, just as plain as can be.
That's why God wrote it. to set forth his son to the end
that you might believe on him and believing you might have
life. It's the power of God unto salvation through faith in the
Lord Jesus. It's the only authority upon
which we have to speak for God. Paul's opinions that are given
in the word of God are also inspired by God, but not legally binding. He says so right there. There's
no, I don't have a commandment about this. We're not bound by
the law anyway as believers, but these opinions are important
nonetheless because we do want to please God. I don't want to
have to keep the law to be saved, do you? But I do want to obey
the law. What believer would say that
they didn't? What person who loves God wouldn't want to say
with Paul, the law of God is good. And I desire to keep the law. Now Paul says to those of you
who would obey the law, don't you hear the law? But I do want to please God who saved me by grace
alone. So these opinions, that's where
that helps us. I wanna know God's will in these
matters, don't you? Well, God put Paul's opinions
in his book to show us that. They're important. They're divinely
inspired. And though what he's writing
about here, you might say, well, he's like going back and forth
on it. No, he's not. He's just telling
you that either way is fine. But there's a caveat, and we'll
see that. In the very expression now, we
wanna walk in God's light, but in the very expression of Paul's
judgment on this, he says that both are fine. Celibacy and marriage
are both fine. With the one caveat that marriage
will bring trouble under the present circumstances. Always
look at the context. I've heard people deal with this,
and make it sound like Paul was some weird eunuch that thought
marriage was a bad idea. That's not what this says. My opinion, and we'll see that
in this text. My opinions are personal judgments.
That's the third category. Our opinions that aren't in the
word of God. But when a pastor of the gospel,
a preacher of the gospel gives opinions that very rarely like
this, and Paul has taught us that's okay to do. Shouldn't
be the basis of any message. Because it's just our opinions.
But they're not divinely inspired. There's no obligation whatsoever
to follow them or act upon them. None. Unless you're my child
and under my, then the Lord says, children, obey your parents and
the Lord. That's another matter. But there's no obligation to
follow our opinions, not divinely inspired, understanding that
if what I say is what God said, then it's not my opinion anymore. If clearly stated that it is
my opinion only, also though, understand this, what Paul said
about being faithful, Though Paul's own opinions expressed
here are the word of God, what he says about it coming from
a man who by God's mercy is faithful, that's valid. And let me state it plainly.
If it comes down to taking advice from your friends who don't worship
God, and that's not hard to figure out whether they do or not, or
taking contrary advice from your pastor whoever he may be, you
have clear direction from God's word here on which way to go.
No question about that. And I say, pastor, it's not just
your pastor, and we're gonna talk about that. But this is important too, though
not to be conflated with the word of God himself. Never, don't
ever conflate the two. But I'll give you an example
right now. This is my opinion, my judgment, my, Advice. My advice on advice is for everybody
to take advice, counsel, direction, whatever you want to call it.
Every one of us need it at times. If it's not dealt with specifically
in the word of God and your pastor can't stand up and say, thus
saith the Lord, that doesn't mean don't listen to it. That
doesn't mean don't ask him. If your parents can't say, look
what God said, because he didn't deal with something specific,
that doesn't mean don't listen to them, that you just have no
direction on it. God gave you parents. And bless God if he gave you
godly parents. Take advice, direction, and counsel
from someone who meets these qualifications. Very simple,
there ain't but two of them. Some of you have heard me say
this over the years probably a few times, some of you not. And it's not one or the other,
it's not if they meet one or the other of these qualifications,
they gotta meet both of them. And I honestly wouldn't take
any advice from anybody else. I'm talking about life advice
here, you might wanna You know, if you need advice on how to
fix your car or something, don't ask me, I don't know. Ask somebody that's qualified
for that specifically. But don't take life advice from
your mechanic. Don't take advice like we have
outlined here that Paul is giving, though his is inspired. But he's
saying it in a way that teaches us that even when it's not, by
God's mercy, it may just be from somebody who is given mercy of
the Lord to be faithful to the word, to be faithful to the gospel,
to be faithful to God. And that's not to be ignored. So both of these, and this is
my opinion. Let that be clearly stated. This
is my opinion, but I will say with Paul in verse 40 of the
context, he said, I believe I have the Holy Spirit on this. I do
too. I believe I have the Holy Spirit
on this. I think the Spirit of God has taught me this. And here
are the two qualifications. Number one, they love God. It
needs to be somebody that loves God. that believes on the Lord
Jesus Christ. What they say to you will be,
as Paul said, as someone who has received mercy. What somebody
who loves God will say to you will be as someone who is jealous
for the glory of God, knows the word of God, and proves by their
faithfulness to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that they
do, and they are. And I don't mean just faithful
to hear the gospel. I mean faithful to live it. Now,
nobody wants anybody examining them and seeing if they're following
the word of God as they should. Nobody wants that, nor should
you be doing that. I can think of some men off the
top of my head that I go to for advice without reservation. Without reservation. Not just
men. They love God. I don't mean they love their
God. Everybody loves their God. I don't mean somebody that preaches
a false gospel and you're just thinking, oh my, you get emotional.
You say, well, he just loves God. You can just tell he loves
God. He loves his God. That's not what I'm talking about.
And then the second qualification, also very simple. They love you. They love you. Don't take advice from someone
who does not love you. Don't do it. And I'm not talking
about buddy, buddy, not my friends. You know, I would have said back
then, yeah, my friends love me, you know. Really? You be the judge now. Your friends
may love you. And I do have friends that love
me now. But love is not warm, fuzzy,
feely emotion. Love is defined in 1 Corinthians
chapter 13 on what it does and doesn't do. It's action. You should know who truly loves
you and who don't. That's valuable information.
If you're not sure, think about it. Do something that's unspeakable
in this day and age. Sit down and think about it. Can't be 100% sure in all cases. You're not gonna be able to be
100%, but in some cases you can be. As sure as you need to be. And on that subject, let me say,
a godly parent is a treasure like no other. Don't forget this. A godly parent is a treasure
like no other. They fit the bill. a godly parent. They love God and they're jealous
for his glory. They know his word, they hear
the gospel and they believe it. They believe on Christ and they
love you like nobody does. Right there, that's who you wanna
listen to. That's why God said listen to him. But there may
be other examples of that. Your parents may be A disaster,
the Lord may give you an aunt or a grandparent or somebody
like that, a treasure, a treasure. Obeying a godly parent is not
my opinion. That's God's word. And notice
that the reason that Paul met these qualifications in this
case and in whatever case, Might have been true was by the mercy
of God. You see that? I've obtained mercy
in such a way that you just might want to listen to my opinions. Is that what he said? That's true of anybody that does
meet these qualifications. It's by the mercy of God. Nobody
getting any glory out of this but God. but he gives these gifts for our good, for his glory. Verse 26, let's look at this
for a minute. I suppose that therefore, that
this is good for the present distress. I say that it is good
for a man so to be. Now here's the opinion that he's
been leading up to. He said, this is my judgment. I don't have a commandment from
God on this, but this is my judgment, my supposition, I suppose. I
suppose. that this is good for the present
distress, that it is good for a man so to be, and what he's
been talking about is celibacy, to remain unmarried if you are
now, if you are now unmarried. He says in the same context,
if you're married, stay that way, stay that way, thank God
for it. But if you are unmarried now
because of the present distress, Listen, the whole Bible encourages
and speaks of marriage as the wonderful ordination of God that
it is. It's a great blessing of the
Lord. It's a picture of our savior and his relationship, his infinite
love for his bride, the elect. And so Paul is not saying here
that marriage is inadvisable, all things being equal. If there
were a terrible war taking place in this country and we've had
to fight as men, as they did, if we had to fight on our own ground
or go somewhere to fight, it might be an example of when marriage
is best avoided and comparable to what Paul is dealing with
here. So you understand the context
of that. You don't want to have to worry
about a wife and children if you're worried about yourself. It's more pain, it's more suffering,
it's more trouble. But look at verse 27. Are you
bound unto a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Are you loosed from a wife? Then
seek not a wife. This goes back to what Paul said
about remaining as you are in the previous verses. Remain as
you are. As God has called you, remain as you are. And this is
similar advice included in that. He's making clear that this new
advice about virgins maybe not marrying right now, during the
present conflict, he's making it clear that that advice does
not conflict with what he said about remaining in what case
you were when you were called. It doesn't conflict that. There's
no sin either way. Nevertheless, you're going to
have trouble. And that's obvious. There will be trouble in the
flesh. Now don't put away a wife in order to avoid that trouble.
He's clear about that. Don't desire to be unmarried
if you're married. Just because there's gonna be
trouble, that would be wrong. But otherwise, there's no sin
in marrying or remaining unmarried with that one caveat, there's
gonna be trouble. I've given the exact same advice
to people. You probably may well have to
a child or a friend to say, you know, you do what you want to
do, but when he says here, I spare you,
he's simply saying that in his opinion, there's no legal burden.
There's no legal bondage here at all. I'm just telling you
what I feel. would be most wise. Verse 29,
but this I say, brethren, and look at this beautiful passage.
Oh, this is the blessing. Pretty clear what he said so
far, right? Pretty clear. But this I say, brethren. Notice
the but, but this I say, all of that withstanding, not withstanding,
all of that, being true, all of that being established, all
that being clear, the time is short. What does that have to
do with this? Well, let's read it. The time
is short. It remaineth, what's gonna happen
in this short amount of time is that both they that have wives
be as though they had none. It's gonna be like it never happened.
And they that weep, as though they never wept, and they that rejoice as though
they rejoice not, and they that buy as though they never did,
and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion
of this world, pass it the way. All of these things we're talking
about, Paul is saying, all these situations, these specific situations
that we're dealing with, this is just for a little while anyway.
Important to understand that. Whichever way you choose, this
passage is not a reason to not marry. Again, I've heard that
now, but listen, he's saying that in either case, he's saying
he's putting perspective on all of these considerations, whichever
way you decide. The time being short applies
to those that would marry in that before long, it's gonna
be as though you didn't. You're gonna be married for a
little while in this life and then, I hate to say that, but
that's not gonna matter anymore. There's no marriage or giving
of marriage in glory. Now, I used to think, well, that's
kind of a bummer. You ever think like that? I would
never say that out loud, except I just did. But you ever think like that?
That's kind of, you know, I guarantee you this. It ain't gonna be different,
worse. It's gonna be different, better,
ain't it? It's gonna be different, better. So I'm not worried about
it. But listen, he said, you might
take that as a reason to not marry. It's gonna be before long,
it's gonna be like you didn't and you might think, well, he's
saying don't marry. No, he's not, look at the next phrase.
If you do marry and there's trouble because of it, that's not gonna
last long either. your trouble, your tears, if
you do marry and you end up kind of in some sense regretting it
because you can read Hebrews chapter 11 and see what they
were going through at this time. See what believers went through
in this world. People were put in prison and
killed for preaching the gospel. People's families were taken
away from them. Horrible things happened while
the men were fighting. But if you can't, If you can't
not marry, that's why I'm married. How about you? I could not. I could not. And you end up weeping because
of it. It's just for a little while. If being married brings tears, And weeping, that weeping only
endureth for a night. Our joy cometh in the morning
when we'll see our Savior and be caught up by Him in the clouds. And so shall we ever be with
Him. So don't stress too much over these decisions either way.
If you needed to have clear direction from God on what to do, He'd
have given it to you, right? We're gonna be with Christ soon.
That's what Paul's saying. The fashion of this world passeth
away. Aren't you glad? By God's grace, I don't much
care for the fashion of this world. Why do I say that? Because of him. God forbid that
I should glory and saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom this world is crucified unto me, and I unto this world. Because of the Lord Jesus Christ
and what he did for me, this world is not my home. I have
here no continuing city, and I don't seek one here. But we do, by his grace, seek
a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.