2 Corinthians chapter 6. Paul
has been telling the Corinthians of those things that he's endured
in their behalf. And in verse 4 we begin reading,
it says, But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of
God in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,
in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings,
in fastings, by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering,
by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word
of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness
on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor,
by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as
unknown and yet well known, as dying and behold we live, as
chastening and not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing,
as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing
all things." Without going through every one
of these phrases that Paul puts here, we can look at the overview
of it and see that what it is that he is telling them is, it
has not mattered what befell us, we have sought to proclaim
the Word of God in the midst of it all. As he said, we went
forth in order, he says, giving no offense in anything that the
ministry be not blamed, But in all things, showing ourselves
approved as the ministers of God in all of these various trials
and troubles that came along, whether, he says, by honor and
dishonor. Now, you know, sometimes people
praise the preacher and sometimes they don't praise him. They say, well, you don't know
what you're talking about. He says, I've been in both cases. He says,
I've been patted on the back and kicked in the behind. by
honor and dishonor. It doesn't make any difference.
He said, by evil report and good report. He said, we've had some
go forth and say good things about the things we've said.
He said, we've had others that go forth and they spread and
say evil things. They say, well, Paul, he's preaching
this stuff so that we might go out and sin, that grace may abound.
That's an evil report. Paul never said that. You know,
there are those, even many who claim to be the followers of
Christ, who bring evil reports against the Word of God because
it doesn't fit their narrative. Now we have to be careful about
that, that we don't fall into the same trap when somebody comes
along saying something that the Lord may use to smite us in the
heart, but we say, oh, well that doesn't fit. according to my
little thought process here about this particular word of doctrine
that I believe. Now that's not to say we throw
off the word of doctrine, but dear brethren, the whole point
of sound doctrine is that the Spirit of God might teach us
in heart that we might by desire be the followers of Christ, to
be like Him. I mean, that's the point. of
salvation is that we might be brought out of darkness and into
the light, not just so we might go to heaven when we die. Now
that's kind of how a lot of people view what they call getting saved
is. Well, you need to get saved.
Well, what they mean is you're on the path to hell and you need
to get off of that path and get over here on the path to heaven.
That is not really what the picture is. The work of salvation, of
course, we know is accomplished by Christ from beginning to end.
And He is bringing His people out of darkness and into the
light. He does that initially, but He is constantly doing that.
He is teaching us. But the reason He is teaching
us is so that we might be knowledgeable of what it is Christ would have
us to do in this world. Now he's able to do that, and
he does do that, and so we don't have to worry about whether or
not it's going to be done, because he is going to do that. Now,
the Scripture we read, I believe it's in the book of, it's in
the Gospels, I think, the Lord said those things that can be
shaken are going to be shaken. In other words, the tree is going
to be shaken so that those things that are approved might remain.
Those things that cannot be shaken will remain. And those things
that can be shaken will be shaken off. And that is why, as Paul
speaks here about these many strikes and troubles that he
went through, the Lord used these things to demonstrate that Paul
was approved of God. Because he came through these
things. He didn't cast it off. How many times could Paul just
say, that's enough, I've had it, I'm not going back there. I mean, he was shipwrecked, he
was beaten, he was left for dead. And yet in all these things,
he said, it doesn't make a difference to me. He said, because I'm a
dead man already. He says, I'm already, he says,
I die daily. He says, I'm not worried about
that. He says, I've got a mission to accomplish that the Lord has
given me, and that's what he's speaking about here. He said,
giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed.
He said, I will do anything that would be detrimental to this
one cause that I have. As unknown, well, he says as
deceivers, and yet true. Now, there are those that would
say, This is especially true when men preach the gospel of
grace. There are those that will come
along and tell men, well, don't follow that because they'll deceive
you. Well, the Word of God is the
Word of God, and it doesn't deceive anybody except those who are
going to be deceived. And so the truth of God is its
own friend. And when we look at the Word
of God, whether we like it or not, it is what it is. Now, there's
a lot of things in there that I don't like. A lot of things
that really smite me in the heart. But nonetheless, the Word of
God is true whether you like it or whether you don't. And
so, there are some who are going to say that Those who preach
the truth of God are deceivers because it does not line up with
the natural thinking of men. And of course, you know, there
are certain truths that men have ingrained in their mind that
it is hard for them to turn loose of. One is that they have the
ability and the power to seek God whenever they get ready.
Now, if you ask most people, can you seek the Lord, they would
say yes. But you see, it's only when a
man learns what he is by nature, by the work of the Spirit of
God, that he says, I can't do anything unless the Lord helps
me because I'm in a sad situation. He said, when the Spirit of God
moves in a man's heart, he will desire to seek the Lord, but
he knows what an uphill thing that is. He sees, well, Lord,
if you don't help me, I'm going to perish. Now, a lot of people,
they just figure, well, they'll just make a little decision,
they'll join the church, they'll do whatever, and everything will
be alright, and they'll just go on and live their life, and
they'll have a little place over here set aside for their religious
life, and they'll go on. But you see, when Christ saves
a man, He doesn't make things that are following Him to be
an optional thing, but He burns that into the soul of a man,
and he becomes like Peter, When the Lord asked him, when many
of the disciples went away to walk no more with him, he asked
Peter, or he asked the disciples, he said, well, will you also
go away? And Peter answered in the words
of true faith, Lord, to whom shall we go? That is the words
of eternal life. Now you see, those who believe
in Christ are in that situation. We are between a rock and a hard
place. I mean, we know that we don't have any power to do anything,
and our whole hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. We dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. That's the only thing we've
got. And as Paul told these Corinthians over there in the 15th chapter,
he said, unless you have believed in vain. Now these things that
we are telling you, and these things that are in the Scripture,
and these things which we come to know to be true, if these
things are not true, then guess what? We have believed in vain. But he said, we have not believed
in vain. Because these things are true. These things have been
testified to, not only by the Spirit in our heart, but by many
men who walked with Him and saw Him and testified to us, He said,
of these very things, that these things occur. And so, this is
a glorious thing as Paul sets forth here. He says, as deceivers,
it's almost a good thing. when men accuse you of being
a deceiver, if what you're telling them is what the Word of God
says. Because it cannot be that you
would deceive a man if you tell him this is what's true, regardless
of what he thinks about it. I remember hearing, I think it
was John Reisinger was talking about, he was in a meeting, or
it might have been, I don't remember who it was, but anyway, He was
in a meeting and there was a real outcry against what he was preaching
as he was preaching the truth of God, what some people call
the doctrines of grace. And he was in a Baptist church
and they weren't really wanting to listen to what he had to say,
but they had a bunch of questions and so they had a question period. When he started off the meeting,
he got up and he read the ninth chapter of Romans. And one of
the deacons got up and said, I don't believe a word of what
he said. And he said, well, I didn't do anything but read the Scripture.
He said, well, I don't believe the way you read it. You know, that's how it is when
men rebel against the truth. That's the natural way of men.
If things don't sound just like they think they ought to sound,
if they don't empower men. See, the humanist concept that
permeates the minds of men by nature is that man has this intrinsic
worth and value that causes him to be valuable to God, and God
is just trying to do something to help him out. Now brethren,
if you've got that view of things, then you are in trouble. Because
you will never come to an understanding of the truth apart from the grace
of God opening your eyes to see that man, as David said, what
is man? How mindful of him. He said,
why on earth are you concerned, why on earth would you take notice
of men? Because men are like the dog
that bites the hen that feeds it. And at every overture of kindness
that the Lord shows to men, they turn away from Him. And they
don't listen to Him. And they harbor ill will in their
heart towards Him. And they raise their clenched
fists against God. And they say, we don't want this
man to rule over us. Now why would the Lord be mindful
of such a thing? because of His love and grace
and mercy to those people whom He has loved in Christ from the
fourth foundation of the world. That's the reason. And you know,
a man can't ever understand that and he won't want to listen to
that. He doesn't want to hear that. They don't want to hear
that God loves everybody the same and just giving everybody
a chance. You've got one chance. You've
got a chance. Today is your chance. Brother,
we're in trouble if we've just got a chance. Because how many
chances have you had in your life to do the right thing and
you did the wrong thing? How many? I mean, can you count
them? So what makes you think that
you would ever be saved if it was left up to chance? But by
the grace of God, it's not left up to chance, it's left up to
the mercy of God, who is great in mercy and kind in all of his
dealings with the sons of men. And so it is that we will often
be considered as being deceivers. And sometimes people will say,
well, I believe that's true. It's unknown and yet well known.
Dying, behold, we live. Chastened, not killed. It doesn't
make a difference to us. Whatever happens to us. Sorrowful,
yet always rejoicing. This is a veil of tears, is it
not? And when we speak about that,
some people say, oh, well, we don't like that. That's negative.
We don't want to talk about it being a veil of tears. Well,
it is a veil of tears. It is a veil of sorrows. And
if a man is acquainted with his sin, he will know that it is
a place of sorrow because the greatest place of sorrow that
will ever exist in any man is not the things that happen to
him when somebody dies or when somebody gets sick or all of
these things that the world calls to be sorrowful things. That
will not hold a candle to the sorrow that exists in the heart
of the man that knows himself to be a sinner and has a desire
to walk in a manner that is pleasing to God. That causes him to be
sorrowful, does it not? But the world does not know anything
about that sorrow, and the natural man cannot understand it. He
cannot grip it. He would rather raise his fist
in anger because God takes someone that he loved away, or whatever. And he says, well, why did God
do this, and why did God do that? He even said, that's what Job's
wife was saying to him, wasn't it? Why don't you just curse
God and die? I mean, the Lord, He's brought
all this stuff on you, and what did you do to deserve it? Job
said, you're a foolish woman. You're a foolish woman. He said,
shall we receive good from the hand of the Lord and not evil? He said, naked came I, From the
womb and naked shall I go back. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Now dear brethren, you see that is the work of grace in a man's
heart. Because he comes to the place
where he knows that the Lord is the Lord. And as sorrowful yet rejoicing. We have much suffering in this
world, but oh! There is great rejoicing because,
you see, the sorrow is not that which overwhelms us. Even to
the grave, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is
thy victory? For the strength of sin is the
law, but the grace of God hath delivered us from all of that.
Because, you see, Christ is that one who has blunted the sting
of death in our behalf. O ye Corinthians, he says, Our
mouth is open to you. Our heart is enlarged. He said,
we have given of ourselves to you. Our mouth is open. Our heart
is enlarged. He says, we love you. We desire the best for you. We
have given to you. We have sent forth for you. But
he said, but you are not straightened in us. He said, you are not hemmed
in by us. That's what the word straightened
means. It means hemmed in. He said, you're not hemmed in
by us, but listen to what he said here. You are straightened
in your own bowels. He said, you're not following
Christ because of me. He said, you're not caused to
desire the things of God because of me. He said, but you are straightened
in your own bowels, that is, in your heart, in your soul.
He said, it is the work of God in you. You see, we are not trying
to get the people of God to do something. What Paul said is, look, the
work of grace is the work that God performs in you. He works
in us. Isn't that what he said? If any
man be in Christ, He's a new creature. Old things are passed
away. Behold, all things will become new. Has He not been laying
this upon them and showing them? He's saying, don't serve the
Lord because I told you to. Don't say, well, you know, we
need to do this or we need to do that because this doctrine
says to do it. He said, you are not straightened
by us. You are not hemmed in by us. You are hemmed in by your
bowels, that is, by the work of God in you. This is that which
constrains you. Is that not what He said? For
the love of Christ constraineth us? Is that not what the message
that He has been bringing to them is? But you are not straightened
in us, you are straightened in your own bowels. Now for a recompense
in the same, I speak unto my children. Be ye also enlarged. Same thing he said to the Romans.
He said, Reckon ye yourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive
unto God. Same thing he said in the 8th
chapter of Romans, where he said, There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. And then the second part of that
verse is glorious. Or the second verse, he says, The law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
We are not laboring along trying to fulfill a law, but by the
grace of God, He is constraining our hearts to love Him. And because
we love Him, we love His way. We love His law. See, we don't
have the law hanging out here for us, and we're saying, well,
we love Christ, but here's the law and we've got to serve the
law. No, we serve Christ. Christ is the law unto us. And if He says, I want you to
walk in this manner, what are we going to say? Oh no, Lord,
we're not going to do that. No. Would we really love Him
if we said that? Of course not. No. The work of
the Spirit in us is to cause us to desire to walk in His way. If Christ said, love your neighbor
as yourself, do you say, well, Lord, that's good advice for
somebody, but not for me? If He said, you don't need to
go take something that belongs to somebody else, You say, well,
that's okay for him, I'm not under the law, so I'm going to
go take something from somebody. No. It doesn't have anything
to do with the law, does it? I mean, do you wake up and read
the Ten Commandments each day? It won't hurt you to, but I mean,
that's not the purpose. That's not the thing that we're
called to do, is to guide our lives according to the Ten Commandments. Now, if you're running contrary
to the Ten Commandments, you better look out and watch out
and see what it is that's constraining you. Because who gave those Ten
Commandments? The Lord Jesus Christ. And so
we don't disregard these things, but that's not the rule of our
life. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me
free from the law of sin and death, and that's what he says
right here. I speak unto my children, be ye also enlarged. And then he gives them an exhortation.
And he says, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
Because what do unbelievers say? Oh, and when I'm saying unbelievers,
I'm not necessarily talking about somebody maybe that is an atheist. And that's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about those who claim to be believers, but
who are unbelievers. And he said, don't be unequally
yoked with them, because you see, those who believe what he's
saying here, you don't need to be yoked up with somebody who
is saying something different than that. But you're not unequally
yoked with those who are in bondage, who are in darkness, who set
up rules and regulations for you to follow and say, if you'll
do these things, you'll be blessed in the sight of the Lord. Now
isn't that primarily what we're hearing on every side of us?
Is you do this and God will do that. Dear brethren, that's not
the message Paul was preaching. His message is Christ has taught
us to follow Him. You are constrained by love to
do so. It is the work of the Spirit
in you who works in you, both willing to do of His good pleasure.
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? How can two walk together, it
says in some place in the Scriptures, except they be agreed? How can
they walk together? Light and darkness do not mix. And so it's impossible to have
fellowship. Now that doesn't mean you can't
speak to somebody or whatever. It's not talking about that. But fellowship is communion,
it's close. a close bond, is it not? That's
what fellowship is. We have fellowship with Christ.
We have fellowship with one another. But we can't have fellowship
with those who deny and despise the truth of God, can we? I mean,
how can we? If a man says, well, that's a
bunch of baloney, how can I embrace him and say, well, man, that's
great? I can't do that. That is what
he says. Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. Now I am not saying that everybody
has to have the same doctrinal understanding that we have. There
is a difference in having doctrinal understanding and believing the
truth of God. Now I see it all the time. Yet
when a man who is constrained by the love of Christ, when he
hears the name of Christ exalted, do you know what he will do?
Even if it's a doctrinal message that he doesn't agree with every
jot and tittle of it, do you know what he'll do? He'll praise
the Lord. He can't help it. If you hear
Christ exalted and man abased, it doesn't make a difference
who says it or what their doctrinal leaning might be, does it? See,
we have fellowship with one another in Christ. And we can't be unequally
yoked with those who despise Christ. I mean, if a man comes
saying, I wouldn't listen to none of this stuff, then I wouldn't
have nothing to do with the Christ who would die on the cross for
His elect people. Now, how are you going to have
fellowship with such a person? How could it be? Now he might
not be able to completely understand it, but when he hears that Jesus
Christ died for sinners, whom he loved with an everlasting
love, and he does not rejoice in that, what's wrong with him?
Huh? Can you have fellowship? Be not
unequally yoked with unbelievers. What fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness?
Now usually this is cast in a morality standpoint. And I'm not saying
they're not some of that. You know, if a brother comes
in and he's saying, man, all the right things, but he's walking
over here in darkness as far as conformity to the way of Christ,
he's got a lifestyle that's contrary to the Word of God, can I have
fellowship with him? No. I don't have to hate him.
But I can't have fellowship with him. I can't embrace what he's
doing. I can't say, well, that's fine
if it's contrary to the way of God. So that's what he says. What fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with
darkness? It simply cannot be. And we can't ever approve of
that which God does not approve of. That may never be what it
is. or where it happens, or if it's
in us, or whatever. We can't approve it. We can't
say it's fine. What concord hath Christ with
Belial? Or what hath he that believeth
with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God. It is God that said, I will dwell
in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. Now, he defines who his people
are, does he not? Pretty straightforwardly. He
said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their
God and they shall be my people. How did he get to be his people?
He said, they will be my people. And he said, I will walk among
them. Now, if the Lord doesn't walk with us, dear brethren,
we've got no reason to think that we're of the Lord, do we?
I mean, if we despise the way of God and we go contrary to
the very things that He has taught us in His Word, what reason do
we have to believe that we're walking with Him if we have no
regard to them? Now, Paul said in no uncertain
terms, you know, I often find myself doing the things that
I don't want to do, but I do want to do some things. See,
the man that doesn't care whether he walks with God or not has
no evidence of the Lord working in him. But the man who desires,
to be conformed to the image of Christ, to walk among men
in the fashion that He said, to be as harmless as doves, wise
as serpents, to be full of mercy and kindness, gentleness, goodness,
meekness, temperance. You see, that's the work of the
Spirit of God working in us. Now, we don't always see those
things in ourselves, do we? If you always do, then you're
probably not looking real close. But we desire them. We're not
opposed to it. We're not saying, oh, we don't
want nothing to do with that. No, we want to be compassionate
people. We want to be merciful people. We want to be kind people. We
desire it. Not just everybody would say,
if you ask somebody, do you want to be kind? Well, what would
they say? Yes. But I'm talking about you desire
it in the inward part. You don't want to just do kind
things. You want to be kind. You want
kindness to rule in your mind. You want to be that, not because
you want to fulfill some religious obligation or so that somebody
will pat you on the back or put your name on a plaque down at
the courthouse. None of that stuff. Paul said,
it is known and yet unknown. He said, I don't care if anybody
ever knows my name. You see, there is nobody left
on earth but you. Are those the things that you
desire? Then there is reason to believe that the Spirit of
God works in you because He said, Ye are the temple of the living
God. As God has said, I will dwell
in them. He didn't say, I may dwell in
them. He didn't say, I will dwell in them if they let me. He didn't
say, I'll try to dwell in them. He said, I will dwell in them. and walk in them, and I will
be their God." He said, I will be. I'm not going to hope to
be. I will be. And they shall be
my people. Wherefore, if this is true, we
always need to know what the wherefores and the therefores
are there for. And they are summing up. This
is not the end of the argument, but this is a very important
thing. He said, If these things be true, wherefore, come out
from among them, be ye separate, saith the Lord, touch not the
unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto
you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Almighty. A quotation from the Old Testament,
Isaiah 52, which the Lord spoke through the prophet, and He was
saying to the people of Israel that if you would come out from
among these people and be a shepherd, people, excuse me, I will walk
among you. Now, if we left it at that, these verses right here,
then there would be grounds, I suppose, if that was the only
two verses that you had, that you could build a case for men
being able to be received by the Lord. Because that's what
it says, doesn't it? It says, Wherefore come out from
among them, be ye separate, saith the Lord. Touch not the unclean
thing. And if you will do these things, I will receive you. I mean, pretty straightforward,
is it not? And we'll be a father unto you, and you shall be my
sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. So if we just
pull that verse out, we don't say anything else, we don't know
anything else about what the Scripture says, and we don't
read any more verses, then we could build a case for, alright,
here's what you need to do to be the sons of God. Don't touch
the unclean things. And you've got it. I mean, it's
a pretty well set-up, isn't it? But then look at what he says
in verse 7. Now remember, he had a wherefore
and now he's got a therefore. He said, wherefore, and now he
says, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved. Well now, what is the promise?
that we have. See, he brings up the Old Testament
scripture where the Lord said, if you'll do these things, then
you'll be my people. To show them, to illustrate to
them what he just told them in verse 16. He says, as God has
said, I will dwell in them. walk in them, and I will be their
God, and they shall be My people." Now, if we took 17 and 18 out,
and then we come over here, having therefore these promises, what's
the promise? God said, I will walk among them.
They will be My people. I will perform a work in them.
I will draw them unto Myself. I will cause them to love Me. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Because you see, the Lord is
the one who performs the work, and He draws His people unto
Himself. And so the man who is going out
here and he says, okay, well, we don't want to touch the unclean
thing. Well, brethren, let me tell you something. Everything
in this world is unclean. There is not a thing in this
world that you could ever touch that would not be in some fashion
tainted with sin. It is not talking about that,
it is showing. what it is that God has called
His people to. Now, some will accuse us if we
say that, oh, well, we are just telling the people of God they
can just go off out here and do anything. Well, I can tell
you this, there is not one thing on earth that can ever bring
you into condemnation before Almighty God if you belong to
Him, and if Jesus Christ paid the price for your sin. I can
tell you that beyond a shadow of a doubt. That is the absolute
truth. But I can also tell you beyond
a shadow of a doubt that verse 16 of chapter 6 is absolutely
true, and God has said, I will dwell with them. So you see,
the work of God is to perform that which He demands. Jesus
Christ has done it, and the Spirit of God does perform it in the
people of God at the present time according to the good pleasure
of His will. Now, does that mean that we always
do the right thing, the good thing,
or even the thing that we know to be good or right? And the
Scriptures proclaim the full of truth that shows that that's
not the case because of this sinful flesh. But, dear brethren,
this sinful flesh cannot, does not, and will not ever prevent
the Spirit of the Living God from working in us, through us,
according to the good pleasure of His will, as He sees fit.
Can we explain all of that? Absolutely not. Can I look at what somebody does
and say, well, that was a good thing? Or I can say, well, that
was predestined, so it was good. No, there are a lot of things
that are predestined that to me just seem like terrible. I
mean, if a man, you know, goes off and leaves his wife and children,
is that a good thing? I don't think it's a good thing. But was it predestined? I mean, if God's God, it was.
Now, you see, what men want to do when they're talking about
predestination is excuse themselves. Well, predestination doesn't
excuse anybody from anything. We see that with what you've
been talking about, about Pharaoh. Pharaoh was hardened by the Lord.
He was predestined to be destroyed. Yes, he was. Now, was Pharaoh
guilty? Yes, he was. Could he say anything
in the Day of Judgment? No, he can't. So you see, the
Lord constrains His people. He works in His people. That's
what the Spirit of God does. And the people of God, you see,
we're called not to be those that serve God and run around
here like rats fearful of the cat coming. A lot of people,
that's the way they serve God. They're like, they'll not do
that. God will be here any minute. He'll give us if we do it. Listen,
we fear God. If you don't fear God, then you
don't know Him. Our gods are consumed in fire. But you see,
we don't serve Him out of that sort of slavish fear. But we're constrained. Paul said,
you're not stranded in this. He said, we can't cause you to
do anything. I mean, I can tell you what you
need to do and I can give you a book tomorrow and take it home
and memorize this and do all these things and you'll be alright.
It wouldn't do you any good because you're not straightened by us.
You're straightened by your own bounties, by the work of the
Spirit of God in you. For it is God which worketh in
us, both the will and the do of His good pleasure.