Turn with me if you would to
2 Corinthians chapter 6. 2 Corinthians 6. When the apostles wrote these
letters, we know that they did not put
chapter divisions in the letters. And what that means is, this
is one letter. This is, it's like one message. As though a man stood up here
and gave one message. This is one letter. This is one
statement. He says many things, they say
many things throughout these letters. But this is one letter. And I just want to point out
that everything he has to say in chapter 6 is coming right
after what he said in chapter 5 with no chapter division. He's going right into it, continuing
his thought. And he told them in chapter 5
verse 21 the root of it all. He told them the entire gospel
in one verse of scripture. Chapter 5 verse 21, it says,
For He hath made Him sin for us. God made Christ to be sin
for us. God made the one who knew no
sin to be sin for us. He said that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. That is the gospel. That's the gospel. That's the
message. That is the good news. Now everything
he has to say in chapter 6 is in light of the good news. At
the end of chapter 6 verse 2, he said, Behold, now is the day
of salvation because of what God made Christ to be. The declaration of that is going
out right now. Right now. God uses the declaration
of what God made Christ to be to save men and women. This is
the amazing thing to me as someone who stands and declares, this
is amazing, God made the declaration of what God the Father made Christ
to be. God made that what saves men
and women, that declaration. And the good news is God has
not yet stopped the Declaration. There's going to come a day when
God says that's it. That was the last time the Declaration
was made. How glorious is it? that the
declaration is still going out. He says today is the day of salvation. Right now is the day of salvation
because God in kindness has not put his foot down yet and said
no more. Isn't that great? It's going
out today. The preaching of Christ crucified
is still being preached today. So he said in verse 3, let's
don't give any reason to hinder this glorious message. He said
giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed. And he's going to finish out
this chapter saying let's do everything in the ability that
God will give us to guard this message. And don't mix it with
anything. Don't mix it with anything. Let's
not let anything influence the message of God's Word and let's
all receive it with meekness. Let's all receive it with meekness.
Alright, now we're picking up today in verse 11. 2 Corinthians 6 verse 11. He said,
O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you. Our heart is enlarged. You are not straightened in us. Now we have clearly seen that
the Apostle Paul has done a lot of rebuking and correcting to
the church at Corinth. We went through first Corinthians.
We are now in second Corinthians. And it has been much rebuke and
correction to the church at Corinth. They were believers. He opened
both letters by acknowledging that. Saints. Those in faith,
they were believers, but they were erring believers. Completely taken up with error. Too much flesh. That was the problem. Too much
flesh. And he had to tell them over
and over again, this is not okay. That's what he kept saying to
them. Your conduct is not okay. This is not how God's children
act. He told them over and over and
over. If you look at the middle of
verse 13, he said, I speak as unto my children. He said, I'm
having to rebuke and I'm having to reprove and I'm having to
exhort. But this is what he's telling
them. He's saying, I want you to know that it's all in love. It is all in love. It's because
I love you so much and I care about your state before God.
And I say two things about that. Number one, I pray some man will
tell me that. Because I love you and I care
about your state before God. I pray some man will tell me
that and I pray God would give me the love to tell others that. I pray he'll give me the love
to tell you that and anybody I can tell. this word, God's
word, because I care about your standing before God. He said
in verse 11, Oh, you Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you. Our heart is enlarged. You are
not straightened in us. I don't have ill feelings in
here. That's what he's saying. I'm
not angry. I'm not mad. And he's telling
them, if you think that I am through this, that's your own
mind telling you that. Verse 12, you are not straightened
in us, but you're straightened in your own bowels. That's your
own heart convincing you that I'm angry with you. I'm not angry
with you. This is all in love. Verse 13, now for a recompense
in the same, I speak as unto my children. Be ye also enlarged. He said, I am enlarged to you. My heart is for you. He said,
be ye enlarged toward me. Have a heart toward me. He uses
the example of a parent and a child, and this is what he's illustrating.
And this is, I believe this is a really important Bible study. I believe this is a very important
Bible study. This is what he's illustrating.
One of the worst things that can happen in a family, one of
the most horrible, heartbreaking things that can happen in a family
is when a parent and a child drift apart and lose their heart
for each other. The same thing can be said about
a pastor in a congregation. It is heartbreaking. It is so
heartbreaking. One of the worst things that
can happen in a congregation is when the pastor and the people
drift apart and lose their heart for each other. My heart is for
you. I mean, I could close all my
notes right now. I don't need notes to say this. My heart is
for you. By God's grace, I'm enlarged
toward you. God's pastors are forced to stand
up and declare everything that God has commanded them to declare
to his people. They're forced to. If it rebukes,
it rebukes. If it corrects, it corrects. He has to do it though. Woe is
unto him if he does not stand up and declare every single thing
that God has commanded him to declare to his people. He has
absolutely no choice in the matter. When a man is called to it, he
didn't ask to be called to it, he's just put in it. And once
he's put in it, he has no choice in the matter. He must do it.
But, he must do it in love. He must do it in love. I must, I absolutely must, rebuke
and correct and discipline my children. I must. God says, I must, and here's
the shocking word, God says, I must spank them. And I know we're not allowed
to use that word anymore. You just can't go out in public
and use that word anymore. I mean, that is the taboo word. Regardless, God says, I must
do it. If I don't spank them, God will
spank me through them. I must. I have no choice. I must
do it. But I must do it in love. I must do it in love. I want
to make sure, absolutely, I want to make sure that they know that
I love them. I'm not angry with you. I'm not
mad. But God commanded me that I have
to do this. I want them to know that I love
God and I love them. And do you know what happens
every single time? Hannah and I have talked about this. It
happens every single time after it's all over. Terrible. We hate it so much. There's probably
nothing I hate worse in this life having to do than that.
After it's all over, all finished, they see their error. They know.
They know. They know exactly why they got
a spanking. They know what our Lord has to say about it. They
know that I have to do it. After it's all over though, do
you know what happens every single time? Their heart is enlarged
every single time. Every single time. Love thrives
every single time. They're ready to hug it out.
They can't get close enough to us. They want to be unified again. to be in good standing and good
graces again. For the sake of time, I'm not
going to give you the long version, but everybody in here has heard
the story of Walter Groover and that little girl that showed
up at their door begging for food, and Betty fed her. And she kept coming back, and
she found out who her mother was. And her mother had all these
children and couldn't afford to feed them. And she said, can
we just take her with us, and we'll feed her? And her mother
said, yeah, that's fine. So she was kind of adopted by them for
a number of years, quite a few years. But Cody was telling me
when he was here at our conference last year that they were all
kids and he said it was clear it was different. There was a
difference. We were Walter and Betty's kids
and she was, it was different. And we always got in trouble.
We'd tussle, and she'd be right in there with the rest of us.
And Walter'd come in and line all of his children into the
bedroom, and she'd wait until we were done. And you know what
happened. She threw a temper tantrum one
day in the living room floor, screaming and kicking and hollering.
Walter came in and said, what are you doing? And she just kept
getting after him. He said, if you don't stop, I'm
going to spank you. And she just got after it harder. And Cody
said, we were all watching, thinking, this is it. It's on, you know?
And so he said, head on back. And after he spanked her, she
crawled up in his lap, crying, hugging him, saying, now I know
you love me. And it happens every single time. every single time. And Paul is
telling them, and we relate that to ourselves, even as adults
before our Lord. Paul is telling them, we all
have to receive these rebukes and these corrections from our
God, but let's not let that drive us apart. Not at all. Let's not leave the
fellowship of each other and try to find comfort in the unbelieving
world. We're never going to find it
there. We're never going to find it there. Not only that, the
gospel that we believe is never going to thrive and grow in us
if we do that. So he says in verse 14, 2 Corinthians
6, 14, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. It is unwise for believers to
yoke themselves with unbelievers. It's unwise. A yoke is what ties
two horses together or two oxen together. If a believer yokes
himself to an unbeliever, they will never go in the same direction.
Never. They will never. There are two
separate natures. There are two separate goals in life. There are two separate end goals
in life. They will never agree on sin.
They'll never agree on salvation. They'll never agree on what is
truly God's ultimate glory. They'll never agree on the gospel.
All that they will have to agree on is the things of the flesh. It's all that will thrive between
them. the things of the flesh, the
things that are contrary to the glory of God in the gospel. And
the believer will end up losing every single time. This is so
important. Here's why. The unbeliever does
not have a new nature that can lean toward the believer. It
cannot happen. It's impossible for that to happen. But the believer has an old nature
that would love to run and line up with the unbeliever. That's
all that can happen. That's all that can happen. For the gospel's sake, for the
ministry's sake, for our own sake, let's not be unequally
yoked together with unbelievers. Not in marriage. For sure, not
in marriage. It is so unwise. Let's teach
our children, honey, it is so unwise. to marry an unbeliever. Unless you want to have a struggle
on your hands for the rest of your life, it will be two opposite
directions for the rest of your life. Don't marry an unbeliever.
Wait on the Lord. Beg Him to send you a believer,
if that's His will. And when we went through 1 Corinthians
7, we saw exactly what our Lord had to say about believers being
married to unbelievers. Generally speaking, the Lord
opens the eyes of one of them and one has not yet had their
eyes open and he said, if they're content to stay, stay, you're
married. But to fall in love with a person
who has not yet fallen in love with Jesus Christ is a dangerous
thing. Guard your heart. Guard your
heart. Let's not be unequally yoked
with unbelievers in business. Let's not form companies with
unbelievers where we have an equal say in the matter. I guarantee you, I'm telling
you from experience. We will constantly feel like
we are compromising the glory of God. If we go into a business
partnership with an unbeliever where they have an equal say
in what I do concerning this business, we will constantly
feel like we're compromising the glory of God. Let's not be
unequally yoked socially in our off time. Is there not anything
better than spending time with God's people? Isn't it so fantastic? Let's not be unequally yoked
in our off time. While we spend our down time,
while we spend our vacations, nothing profitable will come
from it. Nothing profitable will come
from it. There's only potential for harm to the believer. That's
all there is. Let's not be unequally yoked
in worship. Well, I tell you what, if you'll
come to my church, I'll go to yours. Don't do it. Do not do
it. Do not send your kids. They might
bear with them. Don't do it. There's potential
for so much danger. This is the one I pray the Lord
would truly let us get a hold of. Let's not be unequally yoked
with unbelievers in what forms the belief of this heart. We all believe certain things
about certain things. We all think certain things about
certain things. Let's not be unequally yoked
with unbelievers in what forms the belief of this heart. Here's
an example of what I'm talking about. I know this is a very tender
subject. I know it is. I want to be very tender with
it. I believe we would be hard pressed to find, and I'm not
trying to pick out any profession. I used to get on to lawyers,
but then I started realizing I have a lot of believing brothers
who got their degree in law. I'm not doing it anymore. That's
not across the board. So I'm not trying to pick out
any profession, but I believe we'd be hard pressed to find
somebody who's in the field of psychology, a psychologist. who believes that we ought to
discipline our children in the way we just described. I believe
we'd be very hard pressed to find that. They believe it's
nothing but psychological harm and cruelty. What does God say
about it? Turn with me over to Proverbs
23. Proverbs 23 verse 13, Proverbs
23 verse 13, withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest
him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with
the rod, and shall deliver his soul from hell. Now, now our
Lord does not, is not saying the same thing we're not saying
when we use the word spank. He's not saying we don't beat
our children, but he's making it very clear what he means by
correcting our children. And he said, don't withhold it
from the child. If you beat him with the rod,
he's not going to die. She's not going to die. Thou shalt
beat him with the rod and deliver his soul from hell. What does
he mean deliver his soul from hell? What he's saying is you're
going to teach that child that there are consequences for sin. From an early age, that child
is going to know there is a punishment coming for sin. Sweetheart, God
says, Sin must be punished and sin is going to be punished.
It is going to be punished. Look back at Proverbs 13. Verse 24 says, He that spareth
his rod, hateth his son. But he that loveth him, chasteneth
him every time he needs it. God says not only is it not psychological
harm and cruelty, He said it's love, it's good, it's love. Well yeah, but they've done all
these studies and they've put out all of these These reports
on, you know, what should we believe about all this? What
does God say? What does God say? Let's not
allow our hearts belief to become unequally yoked together with
unbelievers. Does that make sense? Whatever
it is, Lord, what would you have me to do? What would you have
me to do? Go back to our text, 2 Corinthians
6. Verse 14 says, Be ye not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? What he's saying is you can't
mix the two. That's what he's saying. You
can't mix the two. You cannot mix unrighteousness
with righteousness. You cannot mix sin and holiness. They don't mix. It's impossible to mix light
and darkness. That's an impossibility. They
do not mix. One will always drive the other
one out. As soon as light comes, darkness
is gone. And as soon as darkness comes,
light is gone. You can't mix the two. Verse
15, And what concord hath Christ with Belial, or what part hath
he that believeth with an infidel or an unbeliever? He said what
part does Christ have with the adversary? This is not just a
difference of opinion, it's a difference of ruling masters. Christ is
in the heart of the believer and the adversary of Christ is
in the heart of the unbeliever. And why would we want to mix
them together? We're not going to turn but 1 Corinthians 10
talks about the fellowship of the adversary's table and the
Lord's table. He said, you don't want to mix
the two of those. The danger is so much deeper
than we can imagine. Our Lord said to believers, you're
born of God. He said to unbelievers, you're
of your father, the devil. You don't want to mix the two
of those. He said in verse 15, What concord hath Christ with
Belial? What part hath he that believeth
with an invidel? And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For you are the temple of the
living God. As God hath said, I will dwell
in them and walk in them, and I will be their God. And they
shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean
thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you.
And you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
Now, this is important. This is important. Our Lord,
in all of this, is not forbidding us contact and dealings with
unbelievers. He's not. We do have social connections
with unbelievers. We do have job-related connections
with unbelievers. We have to. We have to. Our Lord said in John 17, I do
not pray to take them out of the world. I pray to keep them
from it. We have to. Our prayer through
these dealings that we have to have with them is that God would
open their eyes and show mercy to them. Cause them to become
believers. We were all unbelievers at one
time. Every single one of us. All of us. And in closing, go
over to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 verse 2 says, Wherein
in time past you walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversation in time past in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But
God had mercy on us. Isn't that right? And our prayer
is that God would have mercy on them. And our Lord said, you
are the light of the world. He said, you go preach the gospel
unto all the world. And how are they going to believe
if they never hear about him? And how are they going to hear
about him if we don't go preach to him? But there is a difference
in that. and causing ourselves to be vitally
joined together in heart and in relationships with those who
do not believe in love and worship and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a difference. There's
a difference. There's a heart difference. Our
Lord has caused us to love men and women. This is why we preach
the gospel. This is why we preach the gospel.
I'm not trying to exclude anybody. Come one, come all. If you'll
come hear this message, please come. I'm not begging anybody,
but please come. We love people. We love people. We're not proud of the fact that
God chose us. It humbles us. Lord, our prayer
is that you've chosen many. Call out many, Lord, if it would
be your will. Call out many. Let us, every
time we have the opportunity to come across somebody, open
a door. We do have to have relationships
with unbelievers. We were cut from the same lump.
I'm an unbeliever saved by the grace of God, made to be a believer. So help them like you've helped
me. Have mercy on them. And our Lord said right here
in Ephesians 2 verse 19, look at verse 19. He said, Now therefore
you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints and of the household of God. And you are built upon
the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ
himself being the chief cornerstone. in whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in
whom you also are builded together for a habitation of God through
the Spirit." Our Lord said, come out and be separate and I'll
receive you and I'll be a father to you and you'll be my sons
and my daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. And this is what we
say, Lord, if you will draw us, we will come. And as we come,
we'll obey your word and preach this gospel to everybody who
will hear it. And our prayer is that men and women will come
with us. Make all of us unbelievers, believers. Help us. All right,
you're dismissed.