Alright, let's take our Bibles
now and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. We've been on this
chapter now for a while and I'm going to try to finish it up
this morning. The title of the lesson this
morning is Good Advice. And that's what Paul says he's
going to give you. He said this is not a commandment.
You're not going to find this under the Law of Moses somewhere.
Not a commandment. He said it's my advice, it's
my opinion. Now he begins this with this
statement in verse 23, Ye are bought with a price, be not ye
the servants of men. Now there's a sense in which
the Lord Jesus Christ bought this whole world. He bought this
whole world. Turn with me over to Romans chapter
14. Let me see if I can show you
that in the Scriptures. Romans chapter 14 and verse 7. For none of us liveth to himself,
and no man dieth to himself. Your servants. Your servants. And you're either the servants
of Satan or you're His servants. But you're servants. And you
don't live to yourself. For whether we live, we live
unto the Lord. Now, the Lord is the one who
orders even Satan and his fallen angels. They're not running loose.
They're under His thumb. He's the Lord. Whether we live,
we live unto the Lord. And whether we die, we die unto
the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or
die, we are the Lord's. Now watch this. For to this end,
Christ both died and rose and revived that He might be Lord
both of the dead and the living. He bought the whole shoot match.
He bought this world. Everything that goes on in this
world. He is the Lord. And then again
in John 17, verse 2, it says, The Father gave to the Son, by
virtue of His person and work, power over all flesh, that He
should give eternal life to as many as the Father had given
to Him. So this world belongs to Christ. And every man, though he is oblivious
to it, He serves the King of glory. Pharaoh in all his rebellion
and wickedness served the Lord. He did exactly what God raised
him up to do. And then in Acts 4, verses 27
and 28, he tells us that concerning the death of Christ, Herod and
Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and all the people of Israel
did exactly what His hand and His counsel determined before
to be done. He is the Lord. And He owns this
world and everyone in it. And in the great and final judgment,
it says every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ, now watch
this, is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That is, that
He has done Everything that he has done will have been done
without compromising the glory of God. All his lordships and
all his orderings of those who are unbelievers, all those passing
by, men who never hear the gospel, all his using of the pharaohs
and the Pontius Pilate and the nations and all of these things,
you are going to see all these things exactly how they are and
you are going to glorify God. in the Lordship of Jesus Christ. You're going to say He didn't
compromise His name. Every tongue is going to confess
that. But here in 1 Corinthians 7,
verse 23, He's not talking about the buying of this world, but
to buying His people with His own precious blood. He's talking
to believers here. And this is talking about men
and women being bought out of their servitude and slavery,
all their debts being paid for. There's a story back over in
the Old Testament in the book of Ruth about a man named Limelech. And old Limelech and Naomi, his
wife, they were big landowners. Limelech was somebody. He was
somebody. And he had all this land that
was given to his fathers by the Lord. And it was his. He had a great inheritance. But
there come a day, and you can just imagine, Henry one time
in a message, he went into detail about how they'd come in and
they'd usher them up to the special seat and let them sit there and
all this kind of thing. He was somebody. He was somebody,
a limerick was. But there come a famine. And
a limerick lost all his holdings. And he and Naomi, they packed
up all their precious heirlooms in a wagon and they headed down
to Moab. And when Naomi left and Limelech
left, they were still in their finest clothes and finest suits.
They were somebody. And away they went. And they
got down into Moab and Limelech died. He died. And her two sons, took to themselves
more about women. You remember Orpha and Ruth. And his two sons died. His two sons died. And here is
Naomi with two heathen daughter-in-laws and no inheritance and in a strange
land. And all that pride went away.
All that pride is gone now. Now she's a beggar. Now she's
a pauper. And she tells her two daughter-in-laws,
I've got nothing for you. I'm not able to raise up another
son. And even if I did, you'd be too
old for it. And you're just going back to
your folks, and I'm going to go back where I come from. I'm going home. So she packed up and took off.
And you can just imagine. Now Ruth went with her. Orpah
went home, but Ruth, she said, where you go, I go. And your
God be my God. And she went with her. And they
came up to the... Here they are, back home now.
Beggars. Beggars. Is that Naomi? Is that
Naomi in that wagon? Where is that fancy dress she
had on when she left. Where's that furniture and stuff
she had in the wagon? The wagon looks a little light
now. And who is that with her? And here they are. They're up
there and her daughter-in-law goes out for her and gleans in
the field. They go out to pick up what the
gleaners left behind. I've done that. I've actually
done that before. I went out in the cornfields
with a burlap sack and picked up corn. I tell you, it's a long
way from one corn to the next when you're gleaning. They get
most of it. But here's old, the kinsman redeemer,
Boaz, and he looks down and he sees Ruth and he tells his servants,
those who are gleaning, those who are taking in the crop, he
said, now you leave handfuls of purpose for her. Well, to make a long story short,
Boaz redeemed Naomi's whole house when he took to himself her daughter-in-law,
Ruth. He bought her out of servitude. He bought her as a pulper. She had nothing. And this is
what Paul is telling us here when he is talking about you
are bought with a price. He bought us with his own precious
blood. And he didn't buy us while we
were doing great. He bought us as pulpers. He bought
us as nothing. He bought us as slaves, servants
to Satan in this world without God. Oh my soul, think about
it. He bought us. He redeemed us. He redeemed us. We serve Him who has redeemed
us from poverty. Christ our Redeemer, it says,
was rich. He was rich. Yet for our sakes
He become poor that we through His poverty might be made rich. That's 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. We owe Him everything and so
gratitude and love makes us bond slaves to him. You reckon if
old Boaz told Naomi, could you fix me some breakfast? You reckon
she said, you fix your own. I don't think so. I don't think
so. I don't think there would have
been any task too much for that woman who was redeemed from her
poverty. All right, verse 24. Brethren, let every man wherein
he is called therein abide with God." Be satisfied. This is what Paul is saying.
Be satisfied with the station which is yours by the providence
of God. Now, this doesn't mean that you
shouldn't try to better yourself, but to not leave your jobs because
you think it's dishonoring to God. If you're a prisoner and
God saves you, be the best prisoner. Be the best prisoner. Be the
prisoner. Paul said he was a prisoner of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Be a model prisoner. And if you
are a servant, be the servant of Christ. And honor His name
by doing the best you can. Are you in a difficult marriage?
Because that is what this chapter is all about. Are you in a difficult
marriage? You see where Paul is going to
this? Then give yourself to it and honor His name in it. And
if there's any dishonor, you let it be of her or him, not
of you. Verse 25, 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. Now,
virgin here means an unmarried woman or an unmarried man. And
he's addressing young men and women in the church who are coming
of age and will be soon confronted with marriage. Verse 26, I suppose,
therefore, that this is good for the present distress. I say
that it's good for a man so to be, that is, to remain a virgin. And I want you to key in on this. He said it's good under the present
distress. What in the world is he talking
about? What distress? What distress? Let me read you something over
here in Hebrews chapter 11, down about verse 36. And the others
had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings. yea of bonds and
imprisonment. They were stoned, sawn asunder,
slain with a sword, wearing sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute,
afflicted, and tormented, living in dens and caves of the earth."
Now this was in reference to those before him, but it was
also a description of the very times in which he was living
in. He refers to public baptism in 1 Corinthians 15, 29, as being
baptized for the dead. That is, I baptized several of
you in this baptistry up here and this would be a public baptism
out in a creek or a river or something and you go out there
and this man confesses Christ in baptism. He marked himself
out for the dead. He marked himself out for martyrdom. That's how serious it was in
the days of Paul. You just marked yourself out,
especially if you were a Jew, you just marked yourself out
to be stoned. To be stoned. And then in the very next verse
there, we're in 1 Corinthians 15, it says, And we stand in
jeopardy every hour. Every hour. Paul spent most of
his life in a prison. In a prison. And marriage would
only make prison and death a more sorrowful act. You see what Paul's
telling them? So in what he calls their present
distress, his advice was not to marry. And then I'll give
you another thing. Let's just forget those days.
Let's come to these days. You're going to have trouble.
You're going to have trouble. If you get married, you're going
to have trouble in the flesh. And we're talking about in the
light of serving God. Not in the light of the marriage
itself, but in the light of serving God. You're going to have trouble.
You can't give what you want to give because you have a wife
and kids to take care of. You can't do what you want to
do because you have a wife and kids that demand your attention. Verse 27, "...Art thou bound
unto a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Art thou
loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife." He wants to
be clear on what he is saying here. He is not just saying that
married people need to separate to serve Christ, but that unmarried
people might serve Him better unmarried. Verse 28, But, and
if thou marry, thou is not sinned, and if a virgin marry, she is
not sinned. Nevertheless, such shall have
trouble in the flesh. But I spare you." In other words,
I'd spare you of this, if you'd listen. I'd spare you of this. It's not a sin to be married,
but being legal doesn't take away the trouble. Being lawful
doesn't take away the trouble. Believers have troubles. Brother
Don pointed out, he preached out there on Mark chapter 6 on
the disciples' crossing of that troubled sea, and he said the
believer's life in this world is the crossing of a troubled
sea. You've got troubles, troubles, troubles. And some prefer to share those
troubles with another, but Paul would spare them of the pain
of it, and especially in their present distresses. That's one
thing for you to bear, sharp words of a disputer and it's
quite another for you to stand by while your wife suffers the
same. Huh? You might bear that if this
disputer is sitting there and he's got his finger in your face
and he's up on his soapbox and he's calling you everything but
a milk carton, you might sit there and take it. But boy, when
he starts in on your wife, you're going to pop him right in the
jaw. That's what Paul is saying. You're going to have trouble.
It's one thing for you to be marked out an enemy in the community,
and it's quite another to see your children suffer the same
thing in the schools. But to those who do marry, it'd
be wise for them, this is a quote from Brother Mahan, it'd be wise
for them to give themselves to the worship of God, to give themselves
to His gospel and His glory, both publicly and privately,
and not so much taken up, that is over much taken up with family
and personal cares. Be careful how you spend your
time. Be careful. Don't get so involved in family
benefits and preparations. You get so busy in those things
that worship gets tossed aside. Now I'm telling you, I drove
all the way over to Wichita Falls And all the way over Mississippi
and all the way over other places to preach and get there and people
said, well, I'd have been there, but we had a family reunion.
That's what I'm talking about. Let's just take worship and toss
it aside so we can keep up face with our own families. You're
going to be in trouble if you do that. Don't get so involved in family
benefits and preparations that worship gets tossed aside. Houses,
education, and retirement, security, they just go so far. But the
gospel is the means of real wisdom, of real security, and real peace. Verse 29, but this I say, brethren,
time's short. It's short. Winston, you're in
your 80s now. Last week, you was in your 20s.
That's just how fast it goes. And I tell you, the older you
get, the faster it goes. I don't know. It must get steeper
or something. I don't really have a concept of time, but it
seemed like the older you get, the faster you're going. Yeah,
you're going downhill. It's short, and it remaineth
that both they that have wives be as though they didn't have
wives. Being married should not affect
our obedience to God. You'd be surprised. You'd be
surprised how many times you compromise what you know is right
because your wife wants to do something or your husband wants
to do something. Huh? I'm just telling you the
truth. Well, Paul said when it comes to these things, you'd
just be like you wasn't even married. Well, don't you know Aunt Sally's
coming to visit today? Well, you tell Aunt Sally I'll
be home about 12.30. That's right. Well, your uncle, you haven't
seen him in 15 years. He's coming to visit. Well, as
soon as I get out of my study, we'll sit out here and talk. Just be as though you were free
of all obligations. That's what he's saying. It's
not a sin to be married, but you know this. If you are married,
you better be as though you weren't. You see what Paul's saying? I'm
giving you some good advice, he said. It's not going to be
a sin if you marry. It's not going to be a sin. And
if you can't restrain yourself and you can't control your will,
that's fine. You're going to get married.
But when you get married, know this, you're going to have trouble.
you're going to have trouble. We should walk by faith and obey
God as though we had no one else to answer to but Him. 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 possess not. And they that use this world
as not abusing it, for the fashion of this world, passeth away.
Now, I want you to listen to me for just a minute. Nothing
about this world is permanent or lasting. You hear me? Nothing. Nothing. Every relationship,
every emotional attachment, Even our joy and sorrow is fleeting. Job went from having everything.
I love the way it's worded there. Donnie Bell wrote a thing on
it. I think it's in the bulletin
today. I liked it so well. You know what it says about Job? There come a day. There come
a day. Your day's coming. My day's coming.
Coming a day. And there came a day. And Job,
who was the wisest, wealthiest man in the East, he was somebody. He went from having everything
to having nothing in a short, short time. All of his holdings, all of his
children, all of his health, and at last, even the respect
of his own wife. Brother Mahan used to tell us
all the time. He said to hold these things
with a loose hand. Don't get a firm grip on them.
Just hold them with a loose hand. Be ready to turn them loose.
Don't be too depressed by the sadness of this world and sorrows. And don't get too elated with
its joys. Be moderate. Be moderate. When he's talking about moderation,
a lot of times that's what he's talking about. Life's joys disappear
quickly, and its sorrows are soon forgotten. Oh, I tell you,
things happen and our heart breaks. Oh, I'm never going to get over
this. Pretty soon you're over it. You're over it. Verse 32, But I would have you
without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for
the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord.
But he that is married careth for the things that are of this
world, how he may please his wife. Now, to be without carefulness
here doesn't mean to live haphazardly. That's not what he's telling.
Or to live without thought. But to be without anxious cares. That's what he's telling. And
married folks want to please their mates. Married folks have
anxious cares about food, and raiment, and shelter, and houses,
and cars, and clothes, and it goes on, and on, and on. He said,
don't do that. And then Paul winds this thing
up down in verse 30, saying that this was his judgment, that is,
his opinion, and that he was convinced that it was from the
Spirit of the living God. He said, I'm not just another
man with an opinion. Somebody said, opinions like
noses. Everybody's got one. Well, everybody ain't got the
Spirit of God. And that's what Paul's telling
them. This is my opinion. This is my judgment of this thing,
having thought about it and prayed about it. And you know this,
that I have the Spirit. He said, I'm convinced that I
have the Spirit of the living God.