I always think when we come together
like this, that the one thing to pray for, and I try to be
careful in praying, because there really is one thing to pray for
when we come together, and that is to be able to worship God.
Because this service is totally meaningless if we do not have
the spirit of worship. If we do not worship Him in spirit
and in truth, this has been a useless service. And that's why I always,
most of the time, I like to just pray, Lord, enable us to worship,
amen. You know, we pray at home and
we pray, you know, we pray for one another, we do pray for one
another. But the most important thing right now is that the Lord
instructs us and we're able to worship Him in spirit and in
truth. Now in 1 Corinthians 7, We will start in verse 25. We
left off in verse 24 last week. In these verses, Paul is going
to now deal again and stay on the same subject of marriage. This whole chapter basically
has to deal with this, this matter of marriage. And he's going to
deal with this And he's gonna deal with, in this remainder
part of this chapter, he's dealing with those who are married and
those who are not married. And he's given his opinion. He
said, we shouldn't give our opinion on things. Well, if you're an
apostle and you're writing under the spirit of Christ, under the
power of the Holy Spirit, then yes, you can do that. When Paul
says here that he does not and is not giving a commandment here,
he's not reaching and getting a hold of a commandment and saying,
the Lord commands you to do this. He's saying, this is my opinion,
this is my advice. Now when Paul says that, I understand
this, this is what I understand, is that no part of the Word of
God is a man's personal opinion. any of the men whom God used
to write the scriptures. We know that every word of God
is inspired. We know that. And so knowing
that, I'm gonna give great attention to what Paul is saying here in
these next few verses. And he says in verse 25, now
concerning virgins, that is, whether this is the unmarried,
he's talking to the unmarried right here, and this is man or
woman. This is a man or a woman. But he says here, Now concerning
virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord, yet I give my judgment
as one that has obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. And
he says in verse 26, I suppose, or my opinion is this, I suppose
therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say that
it is good for a man so to be. And he's saying here, I'm going
to give you my opinion on this, that because of the present distress,
the present persecution, they were heavily being persecuted
at that time. And he's saying that because
of the present afflictions, and the distress, and the persecution
that's going on, it's better if you are unmarried to stay
that way. He said it's better to stay that
way because of what's going on. Because it's going to be very
difficult on those who are married, this present persecution that's
going on. Believers were put in prison.
They would take a husband or a wife, but take a husband, put
him in prison, your wife's at the house, and you know, I mean, how distressful is that? And that particular day, the
husband was what you call the breadwinner in that particular
time. And when the husband was taken
and put in prison, what a distress it put on that whole family,
on the children at home. So Paul is saying, in the present
distress here, it's better off to remain unmarried if you're
unmarried. And then he says in verse 27,
but now, listen, he says, Are you bound to a wife? Don't seek
to be loosed. Don't seek separation because
of present trouble. Because of the present distress
and the trouble and the tribulation that you're going through over
the gospel, don't seek to be separated. If a husband is taken
off to, they put him in prison, in a dungeon, he's saying, you
still remain married. You don't seek separation. Seek
not to be loosed. Are you loosed from a wife? Then
don't seek a wife. because of the present trouble
that is going on. He advises those who's married
to stay married, and if they're not married, he said, you might
remain as you are. Don't seek a wife in this trouble. But if you marry, if you marry,
you've not sinned. There's nothing wrong with that.
If you marry, If a person who has never been married or one
who's been freed from a wife, if the husband has died, or the
wife has died, and they think it fit to be married, he said,
they've committed no sin. You've not done anything wrong.
There's nothing wrong with that. It's not a sin, he says, to be
married. at all, especially under that situation. Because Paul's
saying this, he's saying you're better off to remain unmarried
because of the present distress. But now, if you marry, there's
nothing wrong with that. This is not a commandment I'm
giving you. You're not breaking a commandment. He said, this
is just good advice for the present time. Those who choose married life,
he's saying here, but I want you to know this. I want you
to understand this. If you choose to marry, if that's
what you choose, you're going to have trouble. You're going
to have trouble in this flesh. You're going to have earthly
troubles. It's just going to happen. There's a set of troubles
that come with that, that you don't have being single. And he said, and I would spare
you. I would spare you of this trouble right now. This is particularly
in this time period. He said, I would spare you this
trouble that you're gonna have to deal with if you come together,
because he's writing here to believers. And at that time,
they could come into the home and you take two people that
just got married and next thing you know, next week, they come
in and take one of you off to jail over the gospel. And he
said, I'd spare you this, this kind of trouble. And what he
says in verse 28, Nevertheless, such shall have trouble in the
flesh, but I spare you. I would have you free from this
kind of trouble by staying single. But this I say, here's my advice. He says, Brethren,
the time is short. Isn't life short? I cannot believe
I'm 64 years old. And in June, I've been here,
what, three years already? I mean, that's unbelievable. It's already been three years.
It'll be three years in June. Time is short. It doesn't matter
if you live to be 80, 90, it's still, if you live to be 100,
it's still short. Time is short. We have very little
time on this earth. I said to my pastor once, I said,
I said, Henry, I said, one thing I've learned about the time we
really know something, it's time to go. I said, it's time to go. You know this on jobs. I was
a machinist for a number of years and owned a business there for
a number of years. And when I really felt comfortable that I knew
what I was doing, it's time to go. It's just like next. Next one,
come in and take my place. The time is short. It's short,
Paul says. And it remains that both they
that have wives be as though they had none." Now he's not
talking about loose living here or anything like that, you know
that. But what he's saying here, and this is interesting, Paul's
saying to them that our days on this earth are very short. And as Job said, they're full
of trouble. A man that's born of a woman is a few days and
full of trouble. And an unmarried state, he's
saying, is preferable because of this trouble. But for those
who are married, it would be wise for them to give themselves
first, now listen, first to the worship of God, to the service
of Christ, than to be overly taken up with
the wife or the husband. Because he's going to say here,
those who are married, the husband, he cares for the things of his
wife, so he has to be more involved in the world. And the wife has to take care of the husband,
so she's going to be more involved with that. And so what he's saying
here, he's saying, so even though we're married, even though we
have a husband or wife, we never put them before the gospel. That's
why he's saying it. You don't put them before the
gospel. You don't put your children before the gospel. You don't
put them before the worship of Christ. You don't do that. That's why he's saying it. Christ
first, family second. I think of it like this. Christ
first, wife second, children third. That's how I think of
it. I think it goes that way. Now,
you have to keep in mind, we're talking to believers here. We're
not talking to the ungodly and those who are abusive and talking
to God's children. It's always Christ first. That's
why he says, they that have wives as though they had none. In other
words, there's a part that we take care of the wife. The husband
takes care of the wife, but I tell you what, when it's time to go
to the worship service, it's time to go. And the same way with children.
You have your children, and we do what we do, but when it's
time to worship, we worship. Christ is always first, because
He goes on to say here, "...and they that weep," here in verse
30, "...and they that weep as though they wept not, and they
that rejoice as though they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though
they possessed not, and they that use this world as not abusing
it, for the fashion of this world passes away." I try to put this in our language.
When I read this, and then I try to put it in language that you
and I can understand. If I can understand it, I know
you can understand it. What he's saying here, all our worldly
relationships, all of them, the ones that bring sorrow, the ones
that bring joy, all that we possess, all of our possessions, all the
care that comes on us, Paul is saying this, is fading away. It's fading away. It's just like
when I look in the mirror, I see a man that's fading away. I see
a body that's fading away. And the world, the fashion of
it is fading away. And so he says here, we may weep,
But what does scripture say? That joy cometh in the morning.
And Paul saying, don't let your weeping be excessive. Don't let your weeping be excessive.
What's come upon you is under God's control, it's in his hands.
And what you enjoy, don't be overtaken up with it. You know,
when I was younger, when I enjoyed something, if it was something
I was doing, I enjoyed it, I wanted it to last forever. I tried to
recreate it. You ever do that? You ever try
to recreate something you've enjoyed? And you just can't do
it, can you? Learn, we need to learn this. When sadness comes, weep. But there's a time to let that
go. When you really enjoy something, Enjoy it for that time, and when
tomorrow comes, let it go." Let it go. And that's what he's saying
here. Those who weep, they weep, but
there's a time to let it go. And those who joy, there's a
time to enjoy it, but let it go also. Let it go also. And those who have possessions,
enjoy what God's given you. But if the Lord taketh, Let it go. Henry used to say,
hold loosely to the things of this world and the Lord won't
have to break your fingers getting them out of it. Just hold loosely
to them. Because the Lord giveth and the
Lord taketh. And what we buy and sell, if
you buy it, enjoy it while you have it. If you sell it, let
it go. My dad, And I know he's not going to listen to this because
he's not on the internet. They don't have a computer or
anything. So I can say what I want to say. I'm going to get him
while he's not around. But my dad sold a farm. I said,
when was that? I was 14 years old, 64. So what, 40 years ago? Something
like that, 40, 50 years ago? 50 years ago? To this day, every time you sit
down and talk to my dad, now they're wanting to try to come
down here in March, and I guarantee if you stand around and talk
to him long enough, he gonna tell you about that farm he sold.
He can't get over it. He absolutely cannot get over
that farm. That's 50 years ago. It's like
he sold it yesterday, and he just moans and groans on it,
and he goes, I was so stupid Last time he told me, I said,
okay, you're stupid, so get over it. I said, quit crying about
it, it's been 50 years. You buy it, you enjoyed it, now
you sold it, now let it go. Let it go. He can't do it, I'm
telling you the truth, he can't do it. But Paul says here, using
this world and the materials of this world using them, not
abusing them, and not letting them use you. I learned this when I had a business. There's a time, and this just
takes time to learn it, but there's a time when you own the business,
then there's a time when the business owns you. And you try
not to let that time come when it owns you. Where you just,
it's got you. It's got you. I know, I've been
there. It's got you. And that's a miserable time.
That's a miserable, that's the worst, I've learned this, that's
the worst boss I ever had. It demanded, I had, at one time
I had 40 customers. And I thought when I got in business,
I'd be my own boss. I ended up with 40 of them. I
ended up with 40 of them, and I thought, wow. I saw a plaque one time in a
store that said, the two most overrated things in America is
mom's apple pie and owning your own business. I thought that
was a good plaque. I thought, somebody has owned
their own business. But anyway, Paul's saying here,
he's saying, Hold all these things with a loose hand. Don't be too
much depressed when sadness comes. And don't be too much elated
when joy is over with. You know, when you have joy,
don't try to hang on to everything. He says, For the fashion of this
world is passing away. So whatever it is that has come
our way is passing away. except what? Our relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's not passing away. And
that's what we are to cultivate. Now, let's see, where am I at? Verse 32. But I would have you
without carefulness or without anxious, that's what he's talking
about, I would have you without anxiousness, that you would not
be entangled and get emotionally involved with the things of this
life. That's hard not to do, to get
emotionally involved with what you're doing. It doesn't mean
you don't, you do it, you know, nonchalant. He's not talking
about that. He's talking about you don't
get so absorbed at it that it owns you. It owns you. but I would have you without
anxiousness. He that is unmarried cares for the things that belong
to the Lord. He's got the time, this person
has the time to be dedicated to the service of the Lord Jesus
Christ in whatever capacity the Lord puts him in. He that is unmarried cares
for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the
Lord. But he that is married cares
for the things that are of the world, how he may please his
wife, how he may take care of his wife. Husbands, love your
wives like you love yourself. And as Christ loved the church
and gave himself for it. Now, if you're giving yourself
to taking care of someone, somebody else is getting what? Neglected. Something else is getting neglected.
And that's why he's saying here, the married man or the married
woman, they have someone they've got to take care of. It is their
responsibility. It is our responsibility, if
we're married, to take care of one another. But if you're not
married, that responsibility is gone. There's a real freedom,
he's saying here. There's a real freedom. And Paul's
saying, be like he is. He was unmarried. There's a real
freedom in that. There's a difference also here
says in verse 34. 33 and 34, let me read them together. But he that is married cares
for the things that are of the world, how he may please his
wife. There's a difference also between a wife and a virgin.
The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord. See,
he's writing here to those who believe. That she may be holy
both in body and in spirit. In other words, that she may
be totally dedicated to him. her whole self, totally dedicated
to the Lord Jesus Christ. But she that is married cares
for the things of her husband, how she may please her husband.
She's got to take care of him. And the Lord tells us to take
care of one another, husband and wife. We've already looked
at that here a week or two ago. Now, this I speak, he says here
in verse 35, I speak for your profit. It's for your benefit. It's not a commandment. It's
not a snare. It's not something that I'm putting
on you. It's not a constraint I'm putting on you that you can't
bear. In other words, if you're unmarried and you don't have
self-control, then get married. That's what he's saying. There's
nothing wrong with that. Then go ahead and marry. Because he said, this is not
restrictions here I'm putting on you. It's good advice. All I'm trying to do, he says,
is promote your comfort and promote your well-being right now, especially
in the present distress they were in. But if any man think that, in verse 36, if any man think
that he behaves himself uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass
the flower of her age and need so require, let him do what he
will, he sins not, let them marry. I had to read a lot on this.
Like I said, I read and read on this. I've read, I couldn't
tell you how many translations on this. And all the men that
I count as solid men in the Gospels, I read on this passage of Scripture. And what he's talking about here
is this. He says, if any man think that
he behaves himself uncomely toward his virgin, And you have to realize
the custom of that country at that time. If a man's daughter,
he's talking here about a father and his daughter. If a man's
daughter reaches the age of marriage and she desires to get married,
he says, then let her marry. He's telling the father, let
her marry. Don't take the advice that I'm
giving right here and use it against her. You let her get
married. See, back in that day, the father
had the power to say she could get married or she could not
get married. He had the power to do that. Many of them had
prearranged marriages. But he's saying here to the father
that if she reaches the age of marriage, and in that day, it
was between the age of 16 and 20, If she marries, he said,
Father, let her marry. There's nothing wrong with it.
Even though maybe you've determined at that present time that you're
not going to let her marry because of the present distress, the
trouble, and all that she'll have to face. He said, no. If
she wants to marry, let her marry. There's no sin. There's no wrong
on either party's part at all. He should let her marry. No one
sins in this regard. Neither the father nor the daughter
sins. Verse 37, Nevertheless, he that
standeth steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath
power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart
that he will keep his virgin, doeth well. where there is no necessity for
them to marry. The daughter wants to stay unmarried,
say she wants to stay unmarried. And back then, back in that day,
it's not like this in our day, but back then, they just felt
like if you weren't married, there's something wrong. But
we don't, our culture doesn't have that. But there, they did. But he's saying here, if the
daughter or the man, the young man, if they have no necessity
to marry, if they have this, they have self-control and they
don't wanna get married, he said, it's not a shame, father, for
her to remain unmarried. He said, don't think of it as
being a shame for her to be unmarried. He said, there's nothing wrong
with that. Nothing wrong with that at all.
Let her remain single. There's no reproach on that. And then he goes on here to verse
38. So then, he that gives her in
marriage doeth well. This verse, verse 38, shows that
he's talking about the father in those last two verses. So then, he that giveth her in
marriage, he does well, he does no wrong. That's what he's saying.
He's doing no wrong. There's no sin in it if he does
that. But he that gives her not in
marriage does better. If he doesn't give in to pressure,
to the peer pressure and the pressure of that custom at that
time, he says he does better. If his daughter says to him,
I don't want to get married. And I'm just not interested in
getting married. And he said, father, you do better
to leave her alone and let her remain unmarried. You do better. The wife now in verse 39, we
wind this down. The wife is bound by the law.
Now listen, that's not a state law. That's God's law. That's God's law he's talking
about. The wife is bound by the law of God as long as her husband
lives. But if her husband is dead, she's
at liberty to be married to whom she will, only in the Lord. Only in the Lord. If she's been
married, if she's married and her husband dies, she's completely
free from that commitment. And that vow she took, she's
completely free from it. It's gone. He's dead. It's gone. That commitment's gone. And she
can marry, if she wants to marry, she's at liberty. There's no
sin, there's nothing wrong if she wants to marry again, but
only in the Lord. And what he's saying is don't
expect, don't expect God to bless you if you go out and marry an
unbeliever. Don't expect God to bless you. I know a case years ago, I remembered
it this morning, There was an I thought elderly couple, but
there's only in her 50s I was 20s and then of course that was
elderly meet to me in 50s were I Realized now that's not so
But anyway the husband Got sick he got sick and He died He went
through a battle about a month or months months of it. He had
cancer and then he died and And they both were as faithful as
could be, faithful as could be. And they were there every service.
And he passed away, the Lord took him. And a little while
she started, I don't remember how long it was, but she started
dating another man and didn't believe the gospel. Came maybe
just a few times, and then she never came back no more. And
to my knowledge to this day, she's never sat back under the
gospel. God is not going to bless when
he says, don't do something and you do it. Paul says, you're
at liberty to marry only in the Lord. But, but she is happier if she
so abide that if she, if she abides single after my judgment. And I think also that I have
the spirit of God He said, I think she would be happier, especially
in that present circumstance in that day, but she'll be happier
if she's free from the law of her husband. You know, me and
Dick used to talk about this one day, and I was telling her
my opinion on it, as Paul did. I told her, I said, you know,
it's like this. The scripture says, wives, be
in subjection to your husband. I said, if I'm gone, that's over
with. I said, that's over with. You're
not going to get a phone call and say, what time's supper?
You're not going to sit down and say, what do you want to
eat the rest of the week? She makes out the menu. You've tried
to make it out for all week long. I don't know what I'm going to
eat three days from now. But when she goes to the store,
she wants to make sure she gets what she gets. That keeps you
from so many trips to the store. But anyway, I said, you know,
I said, I agree. I do. I agree with Paul. And
I agree with him on both sides. But I said, I agree that you're
free from that law. You're free from that commandment.
You're free. If you want to just get in the
car and go visit the family, you don't have anybody to call.
Nobody to say yes or no or whatever, you know. I said, you're free. And, you know, as I said last
week when I was looking at Henry, marriage brings with it a heavy,
heavy, heavy responsibility. And, of course, I say things probably a little more bluntly
there at the house, me and her, than I'm going to say from this
pulpit. But I said, you know, and I said, you know, women on
average outlive men by 10 years. So if you marry somebody around
the same age, you're going to bury them again. I'm just being blunt. I was just being blunt with her.
I said, you got to deal with that again. I said, I don't know, free sounds
pretty good. When you consider, especially as you get older,
I said, when you consider it, I said it, I said, I understand. I understand what Paul's saying.
Paul says, but she is happier if she so abide after my judgment.
And I think also I have the spirit of God. But now, if not, if she
marries again, if he marries again, that's perfectly all right. Perfectly all right. And I've
even said to her, I said, I'll be gone. I won't know anything.
What's that matter? We're not going to be looking back on this
place. I'm not going to be looking back here and see what's going
on. This place won't even come into mind. The scripture says
the former things won't even come into mind. then we'll come
into mind. All right.