Let's turn in our Bibles to 2
Corinthians chapter 6. Our subject is cleansed for the
ministry. Cleansed for the ministry. Now
Paul and faithful ministers of the gospel are here addressing
airing believers. These are professing believers
who had aired very greatly. And Paul and some faithful ministers
are addressing them. He says in verse 11, O ye Corinthians,
our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. You read the word our here, that's
Paul and Timothy. And you find that in the first
verse of the letter, that's who it's from, it's from Paul and
Timothy. Later he mentions throughout it, he mentions Silvanus, he
mentions Titus. He's speaking of himself, he's
speaking of faithful ministers with him and faithful brethren,
other faithful Corinthians that stood with him. He's saying our
heart, Our mouth is open to you. And then when you read ye here,
or you, he's talking about those erring believers at Corinth. The first two verses in the letter
tell us Paul and Timothy wrote this and they wrote it to the
church of God at Corinth, the saints. To the saints. So these folks he's writing to
profess to believe Christ, they had erred greatly. When we read
on further later, we're going to see, in maybe another message,
we'll see they actually repented. These were believers he's writing
to. Now the mouth and the heart of Paul and these faithful brethren,
they were open to these erring believers in love and in affection. They had to rebuke them, but
they were ready to receive them. As soon as they repented from
their error, they were ready to receive them. Now we see Paul's
heart back when he began the letter. Go back there to the
first chapter. I'm going to do a little review
so you can see this. I can't show you all the places
where it's obvious that there was trouble at Corinth and Paul's
addressing it all through the letter. But I'll just show you
a few places. He began this letter talking
about trouble, about trouble that believers have. But being
a faithful apostle, he also said, knowing they were saints, he
said, but, verse 7, our hope of you, our hope of you is steadfast,
knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you
be also of the consolation. He said, God sent us to comfort
them that are in any trouble. And He says here, you partakers
of some trouble, but we are steadfastly hopeful that you will be partakers
of consolation too. And His mouth was open in love,
telling them they needed to be rebuked, is what they needed.
But He wanted to spare them some time, give them some time to
repent. He said in chapter 1 and verse
23, look down there, He said, moreover, I call God for a record upon
my soul that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth. Not
for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of
your joy, for by faith you stand. But I determined this with myself,
that I would not come again to you in heaviness. He didn't want
to have to come and rebuke them in a heavy way. And He said,
verse 4, ìFor out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote
unto you with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but
that you might know the love which I have more abundantly
unto you. But if any have caused grief,
he hath not grieved me, but in part, that I may not overcharge
you all.î He did not want to charge everybody there because
everybody there wasn't guilty of this error and he didn't want
to charge them with causing him grief even though they did cause
him grief. So there was some trouble there. Now go to chapter 5 with me.
This is the best place to catch us up to where we are in our
text. It was not to believers that
Paul was writing chapter 5. It was to these, I mean not to
unbelievers. It was to these erring believers.
John Gill said in his commentary that verse 20, 2 Corinthians
5.20, when he says, Be ye reconciled, he said he wasn't talking to
unbelievers, he was talking to professing believers. And after
you, let me read this, you'll see that that makes sense. Look
here, verse 12. He said, ìWe commend not ourselves
again to you, but we give you occasion to glory on our behalf
that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance
and not in heart.î These erring believers were glorying in appearance
and not in heart. Thatís what we tend to do when
we get in our flesh over something. We tend to be glorying in appearance,
not in heart. And so he was saying to the brethren
there that you talk to them, they've been influenced by these
unbelievers, by these ungodly folks that have come in and they're
glorying in their flesh. Look at verse 14. For the love
of Christ constraineth us. He's telling them this is how
you ought to be constrained. Because we thus judge that if
one died for all, then we're all dead, that Christ, our old
man was crucified with Christ, and that he died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
Him which died for them and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know
we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after
the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more." You see,
these erring brethren were using fleshly wisdom, they were using
fleshly doctrine, fleshly Gloring in the flesh, and in the natural,
in the earthy, and Paul reminds them that this ought not to be.
That's what he's doing here. Verse 17, Therefore if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away, behold,
all things are become new, and all things are of God. This is
another constraint we have. All these things are of God.
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and has given
to us the ministry of reconciliation." He put this gospel in our hands
to preach. Now when he says us there, given
to us and reconciled us, he's speaking to these erring believers.
And he says, God has reconciled us, including Himself, and God
has given us this ministry to preach the gospel of Christ,
to preach Christ in Him crucified. He is saying, preaching Christ
is what we should be focused on. Preaching Christ is what
we should be focused on, not earthy, fleshly things which
are not pointing centers to Christ. That is not what we should be
focused on. We should be focused on this ministry of reconciliation
that God has given us. To wit, he said, this is what
God has given us to preach from all Scriptures, nothing else,
right here. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the
world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. We are to
go preaching that God was in Christ, reconciling His elect
from all over this world to Himself, and He will not impute their
trespasses to them anymore because He made Christ sin for us and
He put away our sin. And He says, now then we, we,
He is talking about Himself and Timothy and Silvanus and Titus
and the faithful brethren that stood with Him. He said, now
then we, because we have been made ambassadors, because we
have been given this ministry, He said, therefore we are ambassadors
for Christ. as though God did beseech you,
erring brethren, by us, we pray you in Christ's name, be you
reconciled to God. Paul is saying to these erring
believers, he is saying, you be reconciled to God. He is saying, repent from this
error, be at peace with God, be at peace with your brethren.
You know, when we are not at peace with our brethren, we are
not at peace with God. Christ said, as much as you have done
it to one of these, the least of my brethren, you have done
it unto me. So he said, be reconciled, come out from this error, turn
from it, repent from this, and be at peace with God and with
your brethren. Watch this now. Watch this. Here is the greatest
constraint of all. For he hath made him sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Then he says something else,
verse 1. We then, as workers together with him, beseech you
also. In addition to beseeching you
to be reconciled to God, we beseech you that you receive not the
grace of God in vain. Don't receive this ministry that
God has given us. He said not only has God reconciled
us, He said so you be reconciled to God. He said God has also
given us this ministry to preach this reconciliation accomplished.
And He said that don't receive this ministry given to us by
grace, to preach the grace of God. He said, don't receive this
ministry He has given us in vain. Now brethren, listen to this. If we become taken up with insignificant
doctrine, insignificant doctrine, with doctrine that saves no one,
with doctrine that nobody is mad about, Or if we're taken
up with works or with other means, then what we're saying is, it's
vain only to preach reconciliation by God in Christ. That's exactly
what we're saying. If we get taken up with some
idle doctrine, some meaningless doctrine, though it may be true
from God's Word, But it's not the issue. It's not the ministry
of reconciliation. It's not what we're sent to preach.
When you take it up with that, we're saying we think the ministry
of reconciliation is vain. It's vain just to preach that.
Now something of that nature is what they were doing. Verse
2, He said, For God, when He said for, He has given us a because
here. Why not say this ministry is
in vain? For God saith, I have heard thee,
speaking of Christ, in a time accepted, in the day of salvation
have I succored thee. I saw something this week. He
said, y'all, you are saying we receive that this ministry is
in vain. Don't, don't, don't. Don't receive
this ministry in vain. Don't give the impression that
it's in vain just to preach Christ and Him crucified. And this week,
I was noticing in Isaiah 49, when Christ was condemning Israel's
rejection of Him, He said, I've labored in vain. I've labored
in vain. And Paul said here, don't think
that this ministry of reconciliation is in vain because that's not
what Christ meant when He said, I've labored in vain. That's
not what he meant. He was condemning Israel for
not receiving Him. And he said, and proof that he
didn't minister in vain is, God said, I've heard thee in a time
accepted, and I've helped thee. And so Paul says, neither is
our ministry in vain. He says, so now, behold, now
is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation.
And so he urges them then, he says, now, return to preaching
this reconciliation by Christ and Him crucified. Go back to
preaching this and he says there in verse 3, giving no offense
in anything that the ministry be not blamed. We don't want
to bring reproach on Christ, especially because we've made
out like preaching Christ and Him crucified is a vain thing
because we started preaching something meaningless. We don't
want to do that. That's giving an offense and
bringing a reproach upon the gospel, bringing a reproach upon
other pastors that would be associated with us. We don't want to do
that. But in all things, approving
ourselves as the ministers of God. Look down at verse 7, what
he includes in that list. By the word of truth. Get your
message out of this book, he's saying. by the word of truth,
not by this world's teachings, by this book, by the power of
God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the
left. Now come to our text in verse 11. Oh, you Corinthians,
our mouth is open unto you, our hearts enlarged. You're not straightening
us, but you're straightening your own bowels. Paul says, our
hearts are wide open to receive you. There's not any narrow place
in our heart towards you. He said, the problem is you're
straightening your own hearts. They were pressed. That's what
the word straightened means. To be pressed, to be pressured.
So these Aaronian believers at Corinth had no peace. They had
no peace. I know they didn't have peace
because when you're walking contrary to Christ, and contrary to your
brethren, and not being faithful to the ministry that God's given
us, you don't have any peace. Christ is our peace and He's
the only one that can give us peace. I can tell you this, they
were under such pressure by this, they didn't have any peace. They
were pacing the floor, they were wringing their hands, They were
thinking of every argument in the book how they could rebuttal
against Paul and against these brethren and trying to defend
themselves and justify themselves and going over everything in
their hearts and their minds they could about how they're
right and Paul and his brethren are wrong. They didn't have any
peace in Christ. No sir, they didn't have peace
in Christ. And they were pressed so narrowly in their hearts thinking
themselves right, thinking Paul wrong, that they had no room
to receive the very man that God had used to preach Christ
to them by which He saved them. They couldn't even listen to
the man God used to preach the gospel to them because they were
so intent on being right. Now, that's my introduction.
Here's what I want you to see tonight. The only cure when we
fall into error is to hear the minister God has sent to us to break every yoke with unbelievers
and to flee to Christ to cleanse us. That's the only cure for
error. Hear the minister God sent to
you, break every yoke with unbelievers, and flee to Christ for Him to
cleanse us. Now first of all, we need to
hear and obey that faithful pastor that God has given to minister
to us. He says in verse 13, now for
a recompense in the same, I speak as unto my children, be ye also
enlarged. Be ye also enlarged. Our hearts
open, you open your heart. What does he mean here by this? I guarantee you that since these
brethren were glowing in their flesh, they were in the flesh,
right now their inward man was being reigned over by their flesh,
haughty, arrogant flesh. And they thought now that by
making this stance against somebody like the Apostle Paul, and Timothy
and Titus, they thought they were proving to everybody that
they were strong in the faith, that they were mavericks standing
tall and alone for God and for truth. That's what they thought
they were showing everybody. And yet by refusing to humbly
receive this wise counsel given by their Father in the faith, and by many faithful brethren
that were standing with Paul, by refusing to receive this counsel
from them, and by the way, who had far, far more experience
than they had. Paul is sitting here telling
me, this man's been all over the world preaching Christ and
dealt with sinners all over the world preaching Christ. He knows
where this thing's going better than they know where it's going.
And by refusing his counsel, they proved themselves, rather
than proving themselves wise, they proved that they were novices,
lifted up with pride, fallen into the condemnation of the
devil. That's what they proved. That's exactly what they proved.
But being the faithful apostle he was, Paul said, now to recompensate
me, that's what the word means, recompense, to recompensate me,
He is saying, I speak unto my children. He says, for I recompense,
since God used me to labor tirelessly, to travel the way I did, to come
to you and preach the gospel to you, by which God saved you,
since that was the case. And since I, by God's grace,
have been faithful here to try to save you the sorrow that I
know this thing is going to end in. And since I'm here with my arms
open ready to receive you, he says, for a recompense, be ye
enlarged. You don't have to pay me monetarily. He probably used that word recompense
because the church there hadn't even given him a dime. He said,
you want to recompense me? You want to recompensate me for
what I've done for you? Just receive me. Just receive
the gospel I'm trying to tell you right now. Brethren, when
a faithful, experienced pastor rebukes me from Scripture, especially
if all my brethren are in agreement with it, wisdom is for one younger
in the faith to entreat him as a father. That's wisdom. As one
who's looking out for my best interest, the interest of Christ
and the interest of the whole church at large, sometimes younger, Folks younger in the faith, they
don't understand the damage that can be done by whatever their
error is, which I doubt very seriously these Corinthians understood
the damage that was being done by what they were doing. All
they saw was something they thought that in their heart, in their
mind, they were convinced they should stand for and they were
standing for it. But it caused them to reject
Paul, caused them to reject their brethren. It was putting this
great emphasis on them, and it was taking all the emphasis off
Christ. Now brethren, when we receive
rebuke from a faithful elder, we ought to heed that. Rebuke
not an elder, Scripture says, but entreat him as a father.
That's what we ought never do. is publicly rebuke an elder,
and treat him with disdain, and treat him with contempt. That we ought never do. Thou
shalt rise up before the hoary head, before the gray haired
man, and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God. I
am the Lord, God said. but against an elder, receive
not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. I tell
you what we ought to do before we decide we want to rebuke an
elder. We ought to go over and let Korah teach us how unwise
that is. We'll go over and read Korah
and let him teach us just how unwise it is to stand up in haughty
arrogance and make our boast and say, you take too much up
on yourself, we're all holy. How did that turn out for Korah?
God swallowed his little rear end up in the world when he did
with him. Left him without anybody with him. The least I could do,
if there are any boughs of mercies, any shred of humility in me,
as a recompense for the faithfulness of an elder pastor, is to open
my heart to his instruction and obey his word in the Lord, because
God sent him for my good. That's the least I could do.
So first thing is, the only way out of error, brethren, is to
receive the minister God's given to minister to you and hear what
He's saying. Look at it according to the Word.
I'm not talking about some lame brain that comes along that's
preaching something that's not in the Word of God. I'm talking
about somebody that's been faithful to you, you know he's been faithful
to you, he's preaching the Word of God to you. Now secondly,
the cure for error is to be not unequally yoked with unbelievers.
Verse 14, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers? He is saying this all in the
same context. Now, open your heart and receive
us. Hear what I am telling you. Be
not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, Paul said.
For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion
hath light with darkness? What concord hath Christ with
Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? Obviously, this is what they
had done. Obviously, this is what somehow
they were being influenced by unbelievers and were being united
with them. Not yet yoked with them, and
Paul is hoping they won't yoke with them. And he's pressing
them right now to don't be yoked with unbelievers. You see, only
God in Christ can give a sinner fellowship and communion and
concord apart with God or our brethren. Only God in Christ can do that.
Only God in Christ can make us righteous through the righteous
obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ who obeyed God to the death of
the cross apart from any works we've done. Only He can give
us fellowship with Him in the righteousness of Christ our righteousness.
Only God can do that. Only God can make us light by
putting Christ the light in our heart. so that we have some light
from God. And only God can make us one
with brethren when He gives us a new heart and gives us this
fellowship and this accord, one mind and one spirit by His Spirit
bringing us into unity with our brethren. Only God can do that
and God only does that He only does that through the preaching
of Christ and Him crucified. He only does it through the ministry
of reconciliation because that's the doctrine that gives Him all
the glory from A to Z. He only does this through the
preaching of His Word. That's all He does it through. Now, when He says here, be ye
not unequally yoked with believers, this applies to marriage, this
applies to who we assemble to worship with, this applies to
business, this applies to friendships. We can't go out of the world
and we got to be in the world, we got to work with unbelievers
but you don't go in business with them and things like that.
And for somebody that was an unbeliever and they married an
unbeliever and God saved you but He didn't save your spouse,
Scripture says you conduct yourself in such a scriptural way around
them that you win them to come hear the gospel preached and
perhaps God will save them. But there are other things this
applies to, but I'll tell you what it applies to right here.
It applies to our ministry. It applies to our message. It
applies to the word we preach. In these two epistles, Paul dealt
with this so much. In that first epistle, he said,
Our brethren, when I came to you, I did not come with excellency
of speech. or of wisdom, declaring unto
you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." And
concerning how he looked when he was there, he said, I was
with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And he said, my speech and my
preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. but in
demonstration of the Spirit and the power, because he said, I
want your faith to stand in the wisdom of God and the power of
God and not in the wisdom and power of men. You know, they said in this epistle
later, we're going to see, they said his speech is contemptible.
His bodily presence is weak. These things were true, they
were saying to Paul. He wasn't just saying, He was
saying, this is how I really am. He would not have been impressive
to you and me to see him. I guarantee you. You wouldn't
have picked him out in a line-up. And said, oh, I think he would
make a good preacher. No, he'd probably been the last
one. And in this epistle in chapter 4, 2 Corinthians 4, he said,
seeing we have this ministry, as we've received mercy, we faint
not. We've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. Not walking
in craftiness or handling the Word of God deceitfully. Something
about that has to do with what was going on with these erring
brethren. That's why Paul is saying that. He says, but by
manifestation of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man's
conscience in the sight of God. And what did he mean by that?
We preach not ourselves. We don't preach man. We don't
preach man's wisdom and man's words and what man's come up
with. We preach Christ Jesus our Lord and ourselves, your
servants. A servant serves. A servant doesn't
sit around and depend on others to serve him. A servant doesn't
sit around on his behind and say, do this, do that, do the
other, go there, go this place, go the other. A servant serves.
A servant leads by saying, come, not go. A servant is right there
in the trenches. A servant is right there putting
his hand to the work. That's a servant. And we do this
for Christ's sake, he said. Now go to 2 Corinthians 1.12.
This is where I think we really see something that was taking
place here at Corinth. He says, our rejoicing is this,
the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity, Christ only,
in godly sincerity, truth according to God's Word alone, not with
fleshly wisdom, not using the wisdom of man, but by the grace
of God, receiving our message by God's grace, preaching it
by God's grace, and waiting on God's grace to bless it. By God's
grace, we've had our conduct in the world and more abundantly
to you. For we write, now watch this,
for we write, none other things unto you than what you read or
acknowledge. And I trust you shall acknowledge
even to the end, as also you have acknowledged us in part."
that we are your rejoicing, even as you also are ours in the day
of the Lord Jesus." God was giving Paul the Scriptures as he wrote. This wasn't just like me writing
you an email or me writing you a letter. What Paul was giving
them, he's talking about what we write. We write none of the
things, but what you're reading and what you acknowledge, what
you profess to believe. God was giving them His Word. That's what they were writing.
Don't you know those people that lived in that day who rejected
Paul and called him a false prophet? Now they know! And don't you
know they feel stupid? We rejected this man and he was
preaching God's Word to us. They know it now. But Paul said
this, he said, some of you, a part of you, a part of you, have read
and you've heard what we've preached, and you've believed it, you've
acknowledged it, and you've told us that you rejoice in us as
we rejoice in you. But that other part, that other
part, they profess to believe, but this other part, they had
been influenced in the message that they were preaching. Their
ministry had been influenced somehow. And this is what Paul
was addressing in chapter 6 when he said, Receive not the grace
of God in vain. Give no offense in anything that
the ministry be not blamed. Do it by the word of truth, by
the power of God, by the armor of righteousness. Their ministry
had been influenced somehow. Now listen to me. This is my
point. The vain babblings of the world, whatever they say,
be it in the news, be it in politics, be it on the internet or anything
else, that should never be where we get our message. Never. Never. I don't care even if they
use the Word of God. That's not where we get our message.
They're using the Word of God for vain purposes. I'm talking about worldly, causes
and worldly men writing something that's just popular with the
world and using scripture to do it. That will not affect our
message in any way. Whether it's politics or whatever
it is. that are not entering into our
message. God did not give that word to us if I stand up here
and start preaching that. God didn't give that. God blesses
His word. God sends His ministers to His
word and He blesses His word and He gives you a message from
His word. Yeah, you can use commentary. You can look online for faithful
men. I'm talking about, but God's
not in this work of unbelieving, ungodly, unbelievers, writing
junk on the internet and that's not where you go get your message. And to do so, now get this, is
the principle of what was taking place here at Corinth. These
fellows here had only part of the church at Corinth acknowledged
Paul, that he was writing of God and they believed him. This
other part was leaning to what some ungodly, unbelieving influences
were saying to them and it was affecting their ministry. Either
the message or the methods they were using, or the manner in
which they were preaching, but something came from outside from
unbelievers. But the principle here is the
same. If I let the world influence my message, my methods, my manner
of preaching, if I let the world influence me on that, I'm yoking
myself unequally with unbelievers as much as I would if I stood
up and preached the lie of universal redemption or if I stood up here
and preached the lie that man's salvation is by his own will
and his own works. I'm yoking myself with unbelievers.
I'm associating myself with unbelievers. It will divide me personally
from Christ. It will divide me from my brethren.
And it will turn my brethren from Christ. And may possibly
divide them. That's what it will do. There's
too many ways, brethren, that the gospel of the righteousness
of God is being attacked in this world. for us to preach any other
message but Christ's name crucified. We don't need some nonsense that
we get our sidetracked on. The message is Christ's name
crucified. God only blesses His Word which
He alone must give us. And He only blesses it and He
alone gives it and He is going to give it in the singleness
of Christ and Him crucified. That message that declares that
God chose His people in Christ, God sent Christ who redeemed
us and who made it so that God sees no record of sin towards
His people anymore. His people are righteous in Christ
so that God imputes the righteousness of Christ to them. Won't He impute
sin to them? And He must call us out. He must call us to Christ
because His justice demands it. And He must keep us and preserve
us and lose none of us. And this He shall do. This is
the message that we never cease preaching. And don't get off
on anything else. No other source but the Word
of God. No other message but Christ crucified. And no other method but the preaching
of the Gospel. And be not deceived, Scripture
says, evil communication. Evil associations. Wherever my
heart is, that's where my treasure is going to be. Wherever I start
giving my time and focus and attention to, that's going to
become my time and my focus and my attention. Be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good
manners. There's a river where I grew
up and it's a muddy river. It's called the Ouachita River.
O-U-A-C-H-I-T-A, Ouachita. An old Indian word, Washita.
And this river is muddy most of the time. And there's a creek
that comes into this river, and that creek's clear. And when
this creek meets this river, for about 100 yards, they flow
downstream, and you can see the muddy water, and you can see
the clear water. They're distinct. You can see them both. But in
a little while, the clear water blends right in and becomes muddy,
and you can't tell the muddy water from the clear water. That's
the danger. God prohibits every kind of union
in which the character and the interest of the believer loses
our distinctiveness and our integrity. God has separated us for a reason.
God's given us a message this world hates for a reason. God
said, if you were of the world, the world would love His own,
but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates
you. We have a distinctiveness that God makes, that we can't
make. God makes it. But God says here,
you start blending with them and yoking yourself with them
and you're going to lose that distinctiveness. You know, we
think, oh, I can be an influence for good and I can turn them
and they'll come out of that. No, they won't. Listen to what
God says here. No, they won't. You'll lose your
distinctiveness. will change you. You won't change
them. Brethren, don't ever be yoked with unbelievers in what
we believe, in what we preach or what we practice. Don't even
give the appearance of evil. Not even the appearance. If we
do, we will absolutely lose our witness because we've lost our
distinctiveness. We've lost the thing by which
God made us special. By which God made us light in
a dark place. We've lost it. Now here's the
third thing. So first, receive that pastor
that's coming and rebuking you and telling you this. And secondly,
break every yoke with unbelievers. Don't go on in it. Break it.
Because if you don't, not careful, you fix to be unequally yoked
with them. And then finally, the cure for error is to flee
to Christ for cleansing. Go down to chapter 7 verse 1.
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, Let us cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of God. There's one way sinners are going
to do this. That's by Christ fulfilling God's promises in
our heart. You remember where all the promises are fulfilled?
Earlier in the letter, Paul said all the promises of God are yes
and amen. Where? In Christ. By Christ fulfilling
them. Well, he just talked about some
promises. You know how these promises are going to be fulfilled?
Christ is going to fulfill them. Just like He does all the rest
of it. He is going to bring His child out of this world and bring
us like that man that came to Christ that said, Lord, if You
will, You can clean me, You can cleanse me, You can make me whole. And every time He brings one
of His own to His feet like that, He says, I will be Thou clean. But He's the only one that can
do it. Now here's the promises Christ fulfills. Look back at
chapter 6 and verse 16. As God has said, I will dwell
in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they
shall be my people. Christ comes like a miner and
He hews out of this earth and separates out of this earth dead
stones. And by His grace, He makes us
living stones. And then He builds us up together
just like you put stones in a building. He builds us up together, not
the building, His people. And He makes us a habitation
of God, a place that God dwells in through the Holy Spirit. And
that one who dwells in us is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And He dwells in us. And so we
become the temple of the living God where God dwells and where
God walks. And then Christ our King, when
He's done this, He commands us in our hearts. When He's done
this, He takes command. This is what it means when we
call Him Lord Jesus. It means He's got the command
over me and in me. And what does He do? Chapter
6 verse 17, He says, Wherefore, come out from among them, and
be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.
Christ grants us repentance. We read that about the Prince
of Life granting repentance in Acts. How does He grant you repentance?
You ever thought about that? How does He grant repentance
to a sinner? He speaks into your heart and
He says, come out. And that's it. He's granted you
repentance because you're coming out. When He says that, you're
coming out. Come out from among them and
be ye separate. And He says, touch not the unclean
thing. Don't bring any of the world
and its doctrines out with you. None of it. Now, He does this
for us in the first hour, brethren, when He regenerates us through
the Holy Spirit and calls us out of darkness into light. And
we're holy from then on. We're out of darkness into light.
It's perfected. It's done. You've come to the
end. You're holy now. But every time we become defiled,
every time we become defiled, we don't ever leave that state
of holiness, but every time we become defiled and join back
in with the world, become associated with the world, and start looking
to the world in the flesh, Christ comes and says, come out, come
out, come out, and He brings you right back out. And He separates
you out so fully again from it that it's perfected. He brings
you out. When it says perfected, perfecting
holiness, that means I'm going to perfect being separated from
this room to that room when I go completely into that room because
I'm in that room then. I'm not in this one. Holiness
is being brought out of darkness into light. Out of the world
into Christ. And we don't ever, once he's
done that, we're always holy. We don't become more holy. You
either are holy or you're not holy. But once he makes you holy,
and you become defiled, and you try to go back into the world
because of your flesh, he just comes and says, come back out,
and brings you right back out. Now, he says, don't touch the
unclean thing. Don't bring any of it with you.
Now, I don't want you to turn there, but in Isaiah 52, that's
where this is quoted from. And what the Lord was saying
there, literally, He was telling the priests there that bear the
vessels. He was saying, Be ye clean that
bear the vessels of the Lord. The vessels of the temple. They
were the priests. The only ones that could handle
those vessels were the priests. He said, Be ye clean that handle
the vessels of the Lord. Well, Babylon came, you know,
and took them and carried them captive. And they went into Babylon.
And there they were in chains in Babylon. They couldn't do
a thing to get out of it. That's us when we fall into these errors
and become defiled in sin. That's us. We're in Babylon.
The great horse got us. Oh, we think we're a maverick.
We think we're preaching the gospel. We think we're a stalwart
for the gospel and we're standing for the gospel when all our brethren
are saying, No, you're not! You're not! Come out! But we
can't make it effectual. There they were in Babylon. They
couldn't get out of those chains, but the Lord sent a king in there. And that king Cyrus came in there
and he broke those chains and he brought them out. And all
those priests cleansed themselves and they took all those vessels
that belonged in the Lord's temple and they carried those vessels
all the way from Babylon back to the Lord's temple in Jerusalem
and put those vessels back in the temple. And we're in Babylon
and we're called the great whore Babylon in Scripture. And there
we are drinking the wine of whore fornication and we can't get
out. God sends His King Christ Jesus and Christ Jesus comes
and He says, come out from among her and be ye clean that bear
the vessels of the Lord. And He washes us in His blood
and purges our conscience from dead works to serve Him. And
then He loads us down with these invaluable priceless riches of
His gospel. Because only those He makes priests
unto God can preach these riches, these vessels of the Lord. And
we use these priceless riches to bear His chosen vessels of
mercy, those He's calling out with this gospel, and we're bearing
them all the way back to heavenly Jerusalem out of Babylon. That's
the picture here. So when we fall into sin, He
comes and He brings us out of Babylon again, He washes us,
He reminds us we're priests unto God, He loads us with these riches
again, and He says, now you have a responsibility. You have a
ministry. I've given you a ministry. I've given you a ministry. Don't
get sidetracked on this stuff. I've given you the riches of
Christ in your hand to be preaching Christ. Don't bring any of that
out with you. That's not going to benefit my
people. That's not going to glorify me.
Don't bring any of Babylon out with you. You go forth now and
preach what I've given you. You see that? So that's what
he does and he don't ever stop and look at verse 17. And I'll
receive you, and I'll be a father unto you, and you shall be my
sons and my daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. How did God
say, this is a family He's describing here, a father and sons and daughters.
How did Christ say that all men are going to know you're my disciples?
If you have love one for another. That's what He said. If you have
love one for another. While we are defiled and we are
in our sins and we are lifted up in our pride, while we think
we are standing for the gospel and whatever it is that the world
has influenced us on, we are dishonoring God our Father and
we are disrespecting our brethren. Every time. There is no love
involved in it. Whatsoever. Hardiness, arrogance,
pride, flesh, no love toward God our brethren. When Christ
comes and does this work and cleanses us, the love of God
is shed abroad in our heart through this tribulation He said in Romans
5. And when that love of God is shed abroad in our heart,
you know what we do? We come to God our Father crying, have
a Father. Like a little baby. Oh, Father,
Father. And He says, and I will be a
Father to you. and you'll be my child. And then we desire
to honor Him and we don't want to honor ourselves anymore. We
don't want ourselves to be looked at as being strong for the faith. Then we say, no, I'm just weak,
that's all I am. Thank God, He don't leave me
to be the maverick for the gospel. Thank God for that. And likewise,
the love of Christ constrains us in our hearts and we start
loving our brethren again like obedient sons and daughters.
You know what dishonors me most and makes me most displeased?
It's when my children fight with each other. I don't like that.
I don't like that. That's dishonoring to me when
they do that. But Christ works this in our hearts and He makes
us no longer want to disrespect our brethren, no more want to
dishonor our brethren, no more want to separate ourselves from
our brethren and try to beat them down with the word we think
we've got. He makes you want to come now
and be reconciled and edify and comfort. Look there in chapter
7 verse 2, Paul says, receive us. We've wronged no man, we've
corrupted no man, we've defrauded no man. Paul, he wanted this
love of brethren. He didn't want to be at odds
with these fellows. And so when He's done all that,
He makes you quit hurting your brethren. With haughty, arrogant
spirit, He makes you come now and receive one another with
an open heart. Then by this work Christ's done,
Christ says, this is how all men are going to know that you're
my disciples. That I've taught you in your
heart. Because you have love, one for another. For God your
Father and for your brethren. And we say, Lord, you did every
bit of it. You did everything. You cleansed us. And you keep
cleansing us. You ever notice the word is He
cleanseth? That's an old English ETH. It's old English meaning
you don't ever stop doing it. He cleanseth us. Now I pray brethren
that Christ might speak this word and cure some erring brother
or sister. The point of the gospel is never
to build a wall up so tall that the brother that differs with
you can't ever get over that wall again. The point of the
Gospel is to break down the middle wall. Paul here wasn't trying
to build a wall. Paul was trying to break it down
and saying, our hearts are open to you. If there's any straightness,
if there's anybody that won't receive another, it's not us
not receiving you. I pray the Lord will make somebody
hear this and cure us. Make us hear and obey your faithful
pastor. Make us be no more unequally
yoked with unbelievers, but make us give offense in nothing. Don't
give any reproach to this gospel or to our brethren by what we
are doing in our so-called stand for the gospel. Make us break
every earthly tie. No more listen to the world to
get our message. And thirdly, make us flee to
Christ that we might be cleansed by Him, so that we might truly
love our Father in heaven and love our brethren. This is how
men are going to know that Christ is the one that has been teaching
you. Love. Love to God, love to brethren.
As long as men are popping off and talking big and, you know,
I'm on this and that to you and I'm so good with doctrine and
this and that. No. It's love. That's how Christ
said you're going to know. Man can't fake that. Christ does
it in the heart and it's manifest, but man can't fake that. That's
one thing he can't fake. And I pray God will make it real
in somebody's heart. Amen.