Now our lesson begins in 2 Corinthians
6 and verse 11 where Paul says, O ye Corinthians, our mouth is
open unto you, our heart is enlarged. He tells them my mouth is open
to you. I'm telling you the same thing
that later on Paul will tell the Ephesian elders. I'm keeping
back nothing that's profitable unto you. I've not shunned to
open my mouth to declare unto you all the counsel of God. My
mouth is open to speak freely to you of the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And I'm willing to continue opening
my mouth to continue preaching to you because I love you. My heart is enlarged with love
for you. I truly desire your eternal good. So I'm not going to hold back
anything that's profitable to you because I love you. And that's
what a true friend does. A true friend will tell you what
you need to know. Even if you don't want to hear
it, a true friend will tell you because it's better to hear it
from your true friend who loves you than find out about it later
in some other way and be embarrassed about it. That's what a true
friend will do for you. And that's what Paul says. I'm
willing to tell you these things because I love you. But he says
in verse 12, you're not straightened in us, but you're straightened
in your own bowels. There's room in my heart for
you. But something happened here and now there's not room in your
heart for me. And we know why that is, is because
these false prophets had come in and they tolerated them. They
let them come into their presence. And they caused the people there
in Corinth to start questioning Paul, to question his methods,
to question his motives, and most importantly, his message.
And he says, you're in a strait. You're in trouble because you
entertained these fellas and listened to them. And they've
caused you heart trouble. and they've caused you doctrinal
trouble. But despite all this, and you
know that's what false prophets always do, to come in and cause
a wedge between God's true servants and the people. But Paul says,
despite all this now, my heart's enlarged to you, I love you.
So he tells them in verse 13, he says, now for a recompense
in the same, and I speak as unto my children, be ye also enlarged. Paul says, all I want in return
for my love for you, is your love for me. I don't want your
possessions. I don't want your things. I don't
want your praise. I just want your love. And I'm
speaking to you as a father speaks to his children. Now I know something about a
father's love for a child. I know something about that.
How deep it is. How consuming it is. That's the way a father ought
to love his children. That's the way Paul is saying
he loves them. And children in response. ought to love their
parents, ought to love their father. And it's a very sad situation
when that's not the case. I know two men, father and son,
two men, grown men, and they fight all the time. I mean, the
awful things they say about one another. They just impugn one
another's character and their conduct. And I just want to wring
their necks. Just tell them, would you two
straighten up? Do you realize what it is you're
doing? Just awful. Well, Paul says,
I don't want that to be the case with us. Now, I want us to have
this genuine affection for each other. And like all fathers do,
whether children want it or not, Paul has some words of wisdom
for them and some words of correction. Look here in verse 14. He tells
them, being not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For
what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what
communion hath light with darkness? Now Paul uses a metaphor of oxen
being yoked together. And those oxen have to be yoked
together evenly. You know, one can't be ahead
of the other one. One can't be pointed this way and one this
way. They have to be yoked together equally so they can pull together
to get the job done. And that yoke has to fit them
both evenly so it doesn't chafe them and rub them. And those
yokes were made specifically for those two oxen. And if those
two oxen are not pulling in the same direction, if they're not
equally yoked, there's going to be serious problems trying
to get the work at hand done. Well, Paul says now as believers,
you be very careful not to be unequally yoked together with
an unbeliever because you have different natures. You have different
goals. You have different ways. You
have different ideals. You want to walk in totally different
directions so that you cannot walk together in harmony if you're
yoked together. Now I taught a group of middle
school kids this lesson a number of years ago. And I went down
to the hardware store and I made me a yoke. I got me a piece of
pipe and I got two pretty good sized dog harnesses and screwed
them to that pipe and I made me a harness. I brought it into
the class, and I got two of those boys and I yoked them together.
I said, now you're yoked together. You can't get separate from each
other. I pulled out of my pocket two king-size Snickers bars,
and I told one of these boys, I said, this is yours if you
get it. And if you get it, you don't
have to wait to eat it. You need it right now in Sunday school,
right now in front of everybody. You don't have to wait. You don't
have to share it. It's yours. And I set it over on one end
of the room. I told the other boy the same thing. I said, it's
yours. You can eat it right now if you want to, if you get it.
I put it on the other side of the room. I put them in the middle
of the room. I said, OK. Well, you know what
happened. And they fought against one another
hard until one of them got that Snickers bar. And they had to
fight hard. I mean, they're breathing heavy.
And I asked them, now, do you want to go through life like
that? That's being unequally yoked together, yoked together
with someone that's pulling as hard as they can to go the other
way. In Amos 3.3, Amos said, can two
walk together except they be agreed? Can two walk together,
be yoked together, except they be agreed? Well, no. So that's
why Paul is telling a believer, don't be yoked together unequally
with an unbeliever because their nature will never agree with
your nature. You always be fighting against
them. Now, Scripture is not teaching
anywhere, here or anywhere, that believers can't have contact
with unbelievers. Of course, that's not so. How
else could you go be the salt of the earth, or the light of
the earth, or witness to people, or be an example to people? So
we have to have contact with unbelievers, of course. But you
have to work together, you have to live together, but you don't
have to be yoke to them. so that you adopt their activity,
so that you're pulled their way, to their way of thinking, to
their way of doing things. You have to be agreed. Don't
seek an unnecessary partnership. That's what this verse is teaching.
Now, many times people use this verse to refer to marriage, and
that absolutely fits. Absolutely. But Scripture Let's
understand this. Scripture does not forbid a believer
from marrying an unbeliever. That's not forbidden. John's
message last Sunday night from 2nd or 1st Peter about the unbelieving
husband being won by the conversation of the believing wife. So it's
not forbidden. But Scripture's playing in this
way. That's very unwise. It's very unwise for a believer
to be yoked together with an unbeliever, because you've got
different natures, you've got different desires. You know,
Janet and I, we enjoy talking about our lessons with one another.
I'll tell her about my lesson here, and then she'll tell me
about her lesson back there. I guarantee you we'll do that
today or tomorrow. It's what we always do. We talk
about it. We enjoy these things. We enjoy
talking to one another about Scripture. We enjoy talking about
John's message. We just talk about them. Why
wouldn't I have that blessing if I was married to an unbeliever?
If I was married to an unbeliever, she wouldn't have a slice of
clue what I was talking about, and she wouldn't care. And if Janet
was married to an unbeliever, she couldn't talk to him about
these things because he wouldn't care. This is a blessing that
we have because we're equally yoked together with one another,
with believers. And people also use this verse
to refer to business partnerships. If a believer has a business
partner, an unbeliever, There would just, I guarantee you,
be problems with deciding how to operate the company, what
direction to take the company, because you're unequally yoked
together with someone with a totally different nature and ideas and
ways of doing things than you do. But the context of this verse,
what Paul's teaching here, is worship. This is the primary
context. Don't be unequally yoked together
in the worship of God and the worship of idols. You cannot
mix that worship. You cannot yoke those two together
because everything about idolatry and the worship of God are totally
opposite, 180 degrees opposite. And Paul's warning us here, we
cannot make allowances in worship for idolatry, for unbelievers.
Even though I know they don't understand, they don't like it,
it's not something that they can tolerate, but you cannot
make allowances for that because the worship of Christ in any
way, you take any part of that away, it's idolatry. The worship
of anything other than Christ, even if it's Christ plus something
else, is idolatry. You can't make allowances for
it. That's why Paul says, how can righteousness and unrighteousness
have any fellowship? How can the righteousness of
Christ and self-righteousness have any fellowship, any agreement? It can't be. They're polar opposites. A believer has been made righteous
in Christ. Righteous through the righteousness
of Christ imputed to us. Any other religion is self-righteous. It's doing something to make
yourself righteous. It can be obvious or it can be
subtle, but anything else is self-righteousness. You know,
it can be accepting Jesus, accepting his sacrifice, accepting his
blood. Well, that's self-righteousness because you had to make it effectual.
You accepted it. So that's self-righteousness.
You know, they can tell you, you've got to go live a holy
life. And scripture tells a believer, live a holy life. But that's
not what makes you righteous. You live a holy life because
Christ made you like that. And saying anything else is self-righteousness. You know, they can tell you,
you've got to accept the right doctrine. But again, that's self-righteousness
because you accepted it. All those things, whether they're
obvious or whether they're subtle, are conditioned on man. And that's
self-righteousness. And self and Christ are in opposite
directions. You cannot yoke those two together.
And we cannot allow our worship of Christ to be yoked to self. It'll chafe and cause problems
every time. So what communion do light and
darkness have? They never do. Light and darkness
never have communion because where light exists, there is
no darkness. Light and darkness never touch
because where light exists, it drives the darkness out. They
can't have communion if they don't touch. Well, Christ is
the believer's light. We have light in Him. The unbeliever
doesn't have Christ, doesn't believe Him, doesn't want Him.
Well, he's left in darkness. And what does Scripture say?
Darkness loves darkness rather than light. They love the opposite
of everything that you love. So you can't have communion.
You can talk about the weather and sports and politics, but
you don't have anything in common. They have no idea what you're
talking because they're in darkness. In verse 15, I'll show you how
serious this is. And what concord hath Christ
with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? The difference between righteousness
and unrighteousness, in light and dark, is as great a difference
as there is between Christ and the devil. That's how great a
difference this is. That's how important what we're
talking about is, is the difference between Christ in Satan. And there can be no agreement
between those two. Nothing is more opposed to Christ
than Satan. And what Paul's referring to
here, Belial, is a term used in scripture to refer to a very
wicked person, a person who's in Satan. When he talks about
Christ here, he's talking, he's referring to someone who's in
Christ, someone who's in Christ and someone who's in Satan, someone
whose father is God and someone whose father is Satan. And those
two are at perpetual enmity between each other. And if you try to
yoke them together, one's going to kill the other. They can't
stand each other. Look back at John chapter 8.
This is exactly what our Lord told the Pharisees. John 8 verse 37. This is just yoking two enemies
together. And you know what kind of trouble
that would cause. He says in verse 37, I know that you're
Abraham's seed, but ye seek to kill me because my word hath
no place in you. I speak that which I have seen
with my father and you do that which you have seen with your
father. Two different fathers. And they answered and said unto
him, Abraham's our father. Jesus saith unto them, if you
were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.
But now you seek to kill me. A man that hath told you the
truth, which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham. Ye
do the deeds of your father. They said unto him, We be not
born of fornication. We have one father, even God.
Jesus said unto them, If God were your father, ye would love
me. For I proceeded forth and came from God. Neither came I
of myself, but he sent me. Now why do you not understand
my speech? Why don't you understand what I'm telling you? Because
you cannot hear my word, you're in darkness, you're dead. You
are of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father you
will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and a boat not
in the truth, because there's no truth in him. When he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he's a liar and the father
of it. And because I tell you the truth,
you believe me not. See the difference? The difference
of those who Satan is their father. They're going to go one way.
Those whose God is their father are going to go the other way,
and the two can never be joined together in union. It's just
an utter impossibility. So Paul says, well, how can a
believer worship together, be yoked together in worship with
an infidel? An infidel, that word means one
who is faithless, one who does not believe. One infidel who
doesn't believe Christ hates the one you love, hates the one
who is your life. Well, the believer's part is
Christ. He's our part in our portion.
Well, the infidel's portion is condemnation. How can those two
share any common ground and have any communion? Well, they can't
because they don't share any common ground. Because what we're
talking about is not things that are similar, but that are polar
opposites. Look at verse 16. And what agreement
hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God, and God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk
in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. You see, you can't worship, this
is so obvious, you can't worship idols in the house of the Lord.
There's no agreement there in worshipping idols with worshipping
the living God. Worshipping the living God and
dead idols at the same time, together? What communion does
life and death have? None. Look over at 1 Samuel chapter
5. This is interesting. It illustrates
this point perfectly. You cannot bring idolatry into
the worship of God. The two cannot be yoked together.
And if you do, this chapter shows us the problems that's going
to be caused. You talk about the yoke chafing. 1 Samuel 5, verse 1. And the Philistines
took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod.
When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into
the house of Dagon, and they set it by Dagon, their idol. And when they of Ashdod arose
early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face
to the earth before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon,
and set him in his place again. And when they arose early on
the morrow morning, Behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the
ground before the ark of the Lord. And the head of Dagon,
and both the palms of his hands, were cut off upon the threshold.
Only the stump of Dagon was left to him. Therefore, neither the
priest of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon's house, tread
on the threshold of Dagon and Ashdod unto this day. But the
hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod." This is what
happens when you try to unequally yoke these two together. The
hand of the Lord was heavy upon them. And he destroyed them and
smote them with emeralds. He smote them with hemorrhoids.
That's how much this is going to chafe. It's like the pain
of hemorrhoids. Even Ashdod and the coast thereof.
And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The
ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us, for his hand
is sore upon us and upon Dagon our God. And they sent therefore
and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them and
said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And
they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried
about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of God
of Israel about thither. And it was so that after they
carried it about, the hand of the Lord was against the city,
which was with a very great destruction. And he smote the men of the city,
both small and great, and they had emeralds in their secret
parts. Therefore, they sent the Ark of God to Ekron. See, no
matter where you go, no matter how you yoke these things together,
look at the chafing, the problem that this yoking causes. So they
sent it to Ekron, and it came to pass as the Ark of God came
to Ekron that the Ekronites cried out, saying, they have brought
about the Ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.
So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines,
and they said, send away, let's just un-yoke ourselves from this
thing. Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go
again unto his own place, that it slay us not, and our people.
For there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city, and
the hand of God was very heavy there. Even these unbelieving,
heathen Philistines could see, we don't need to be yoked together
with this thing. This is causing us too much pain
and problem. And that's what happened to us
if we attempted to make some sort of compromise with idolatry. It just caused the chafing under
this oak and the destruction from God. So you cannot worship
an idol in the temple of God. You know, every one of us would
be very, very careful. how we handle the temple of God,
wouldn't we? How we handle this building,
you know, we'd be very careful about that, that we don't want
to defile the temple of God. Well, that is the strongest reason
that Paul gives us here for a believer not to be unequally yoked together
with an unbeliever. Don't defile the temple of God
because you are the temple of God. You are. The temple of God's
not a building over in Jerusalem that everybody's fussing and
fighting over. The temple of God is people, believers. The temple of God is where God
dwells, right? That's what God told Moses. You
build this tabernacle, that's where I'm going to dwell. That's
where my presence dwells. That's the temple where God dwells.
Well, that's what God says here. God hath said. This is not something
Paul thought up or Peter thought up or some, you know, theologian
thought up. God hath said, I will dwell in
them." Look back at 1 Corinthians 3, I will dwell in them. That
makes God's people, that makes you the temple of the living
God. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 16, Know
ye not that ye are the temple of God? You are. And that the
spirit of God dwelleth in you? Now if any man defile the temple
of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy,
which temple you are." You are the temple of God. God dwells
in the hearts of his people and makes his people his temple. Well, that's the new man. Now,
there's no mistaking what God's saying here, right? You are the
temple of God. And the flesh and the spirit
cannot be yoked together because they can't find agreement about
anything, particularly the worship of God. And individual believers,
the church is the temple of God, just like Solomon's temple. Solomon
built that temple, that glorious building to show the glory of
God. Well, God made you his temple
to show his glory. You're the one that shows God's
glory when you got to the workplace because you're the temple of
God. When you go out to the store, you go out walking through your
life, You're the temple of God, showing God's handiwork, his
glory, what he's built. Solomon's temple was built with
those great stones that they cut to fit together. And everybody
was so impressed, even the apostles and the disciples were so impressed
with those great stones. Well, you're lively stones, fitly
framed, cut together to fit together exactly, cemented together with
the love of Christ to form the temple of God. Solomon, you cedar
trees that wouldn't rot. That new man that's in you is
not going to rot because he's born from the incorruptible seed,
the Word of God. That's God's temple. And Solomon's
temple and you, believers, are set apart by God for God's use. The temple is the place where
worship happened, where prayer was made, where the sacrifices
were offered. Now, we don't offer sacrifices
of blood like they offer in Solomon's temple. Well, we offer sacrifices
of praise and thanksgiving, don't we? You're the temple of God
made for the worship of God, to offer prayer and for the sacrifices
of God, because God's made you his temple. I will dwell in them
and I will walk in them. The Lord's active in his people. He's not just lounging around.
He's active walking in his people. He rules and reigns and directs
our steps. That's why it's impossible to
be yoked together with an unbeliever who's left himself, because my
ways, God says, are not your ways. You're going a different
way than the way God's going. And he's walking in you, leading
and guiding your steps. In Philippians chapter two, verse
13. Paul says, For it is God which
worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. That's
him walking in you. And he says, I'll be their God.
And they shall be to me a people. Now that's union. I'll be their
God and they'll be my people. That's loyalty to our King. The
subjects are loyal to the good King. And we're not going to
seek out an unnecessary partnership with the enemies of our King.
Not going to do it. Because being yoked together
with them is just going to cause trouble. Now verse 17. He says, 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 ye shall be my sons and daughters,
saith the Lord Almighty. Now, Israel was God's chosen
nation. God chose them out of all the
nations of the earth, and he commanded them to be separate
from those heathen nations around them. Don't start mixing with
them, because if you do, what's going to happen is you're going
to start adopting their ways. You're going to start adopting
their ways of worship. and be drawn away from the Lord.
And every time Israel let down their guard, they allowed idol
worship to come in, and God punished them for it. Now, believers are
the elect of God, chosen out of the sinful lump of mankind.
God chose us to salvation, to righteousness, to holiness, to
eternal life. And the man or the woman who's
elect of God, been redeemed by the blood of God's They will
separate themselves. They'll separate themselves from
will worship. They'll separate themselves from
false religion. They'll separate themselves from
superstition and matters of the soul. They'll separate themselves
from wicked people and evil practices because they've been called by
God to righteousness. You'll separate yourself naturally. You won't have to think about
it. It'll happen naturally, just like oil and water. Just put
oil and water in a container and shake it up real good, mix
it together, and then sit down and watch it. That oil and water
is going to separate naturally because of two different natures.
And that's what he's saying. You separate yourself from the
world in that way. You avoid being like them. Avoid wickedness and false religion
with the same energy that you would avoid embracing a leper. Touch not the unclean thing.
You know, swine flu is a huge issue in our day. I mean, it's
on the news every single day. It's on the news every time,
you know, you hear about somebody sick. Chancellor, I hope they
don't have swine flu. You know, people she works with are all sick.
I hope they don't have the swine flu. And they got antibacterial
stuff everywhere. Well, you'd be more diligent.
I mean, we're diligent not to touch that thing. We don't want
to get that, right? Be more diligent not to touch
and embrace the unclean spiritual things. Because it'll defile
your soul. Keep your children away from
the unclean spiritual thing just as diligently as you try to protect
them from the swine flu. You teach them to wash their
hands so they don't get the swine flu. Well, teach them to stay
with the Word. But touch not the unclean thing
to protect their soul. Don't let them defile their soul.
And God says, I'll receive you. I'll be your father to you. Now,
he doesn't receive us because we separate ourselves and because
we've been good boys and girls. We separate ourselves because
God's our father. Every day after school, Savannah
comes to my house and I receive her. I don't receive her because
she comes to my house. She comes to my house because
she's my daughter. I love her. That's why she comes there. We
separate ourselves and come to the house of God because he's
our father out of response for his love for us. And we desire
to walk as loving, obedient children, not going out and seeking alliances
with rebels. And last, I want you to see this. Notice who said all this. Saith
the Lord Almighty. Capital A. Almighty. Our Father is so mighty. His name is the Lord Almighty. The Almighty. has saved you. The Almighty has redeemed you.
The Almighty has called you. The Almighty has made you righteous. Then in loving response, don't
be yoked to the world. The world's yoke is hard. For
the believer, the world's yoke will chafe and rub and make you
miserable. The Almighty's yoke is easy and
His burden is light. So don't be unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. All right, Lord bless you.