Let's take our Bibles now and
turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. This is kind of a continuation
where Paul is writing to this church who are just filled with
troubles. And they were filled with troubles
because their preachers were busy glorying in their own wisdom
and not preaching Christ. And they, of course, I know by
experience what they've done. They elected some councils and
committees and they got together and they formed a doctrine that
they were going to watch over and everybody was going to teach
this doctrine. And they just kind of put Christ
on the shelf. And they started glorying in
their own wisdom. I know this and you don't. And
they just gloried in themselves. Well, the church just went to
pieces. Because without Christ, we lose
our motivation, we lose our wisdom, we lose everything when we lose
Christ. People say to me all the time,
you need to teach on marriage. I do. I do teach on marriage,
but not apart from Christ. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church. You can't teach marriage to a
believer apart from bringing into that doctrine Christ. Because this is our motivation.
This is our wisdom. Without Christ, there'd be no
need of marriage. Marriage is a picture of his
union with the church. And this union with the church
was first formed and purposed, and then marriage. come later
on to demonstrate that to us. And so this is kind of a continuation
of last week's lesson on marriage, and not every marriage. We're
not talking about lost men and women out there who are following
after the philosophy of this world and stuff. We're talking
about believers, believers, and that's This is what Paul's concerned
with. He wasn't concerned with those
Romans who practice rank immorality and stuff. He wasn't concerned
with them. He's concerned with this church and the condition
of this church. And so he's talking to us here
about believing men and women. And sometimes it's God's will
to save an unbelieving man and woman at the same time. The Philippian
jailer, His whole house was baptized that same night. Not just him,
but his wife and his whole house was baptized. God was pleased
to reveal Christ to their hearts at the same time. And sometimes
He does that. And sometimes God saves a man
or a woman while they're single, and then they marry one of like
precious faith. That's what the Bible teaches.
Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And then sometimes
one is called and the other is not. Sometimes believers in ignorance
marry unbelievers. And whichever it is, you're in
for trouble. Somebody said this years ago.
They said, if the child of God marries the child of the devil,
it's a sure thing you're going to have trouble with your father-in-law.
And that's so. That's so. And here's where I'm going with
this. It's the tendency of believers in this situation to try to fix
it. We want to fix it. This is broken. We can see it. We have eyes.
We have lights. So let's fix it. We want to fix
this situation. And then if they can't fix it,
then they want out of it. Let me out of it. Let me tell
you something here. First of all, Christ runs the
show, not you. He runs the show. He alone gives
direction to where his gifts are to be bestowed. Why did he raise up a gospel
church here and not in Magnolia? Why did he raise up a gospel
church here and save men and women here and not in Little
Rock? You ever think about that? Why
me? Why did God reveal to me His
grace? And I have a big family. There's
nine children in my family. And there's only one other one
out of nine in our family that believe anything about the grace
of God. Why is that? because he bestows his gifts
where he will. He's sovereign. He's sovereign. And he alone gives direction
to where his gifts are going to be bestowed, and it's his
to order and send his servants wherever he will. He does that. Faith is the gift of God. It's not of him that willeth,
the scripture said, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. If mercy is to come, and that's
the only way you can be saved, is by the mercy of God. And if
this mercy is to come, it's the gift of God. It is the gift of
God. It's of God that showeth mercy.
And I know that you know the truth, and I know that you see
and know something of the darkness and ignorance of this world.
But that don't mean you have the power to transfer what you
know to your wife. Only God can do that. I can witness
to her. I stand up here every time we
come together and I try to point men and women to Christ, try
to point you to Christ, try to teach you that. But it's not
mine to give. It's just mine to point. He can
give you eyes to see. Blessed are your eyes. There
they were. out there following the Lord
on that day. And here's men who had devoted
their lives to theology, to the study of theology. They knew
this book forward and backward. They could give you who begat
who, and they could go all down through that. They could tell
you who was relative to who. And they knew all the history
and Israel and the Gentiles and Egypt. And they could tell you
anything you wanted to know. in this Bible except how to be
saved. And our Lord preached to them. He taught them and taught that
whole outfit that was sitting there. But these men didn't understand
anything he said. And here was this bunch of ignorant
fishermen, spent their life in a boat. Out on the river, out
on the lake, fishing. They didn't study the Bible.
They didn't know any of these things. And God revealed these
mysteries to them and passed by those Pharisees. And our Lord told them when they
asked Him some questions about that. Our Lord told them, He
said, blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they
hear. It's His to give. And I know
it's frustrating. I know it makes you angry at
times. I know how difficult it is, how difficult this makes
your life. And you might share a hundred
common interests, but you'll never share any spiritual interest
until Christ opens his or her heart. And that's just the way
it is. So just settle down. Just settle
down. Make them know you'd like for
them to come, but don't try to shove it down their throat. Quit
trying to make something happen and quit being angry at them
and ask God to do for them what He did for you. You know, somebody
shoving it down your throat ain't how you received it. You received
it by revelation. You wasn't even seeking it. You
didn't plan that trip to the church that day. You didn't plan
to hear this speaker or that speaker. You didn't plan these
things. God planned these things. And He ordered His providence.
And He called you and brought you to here. And that's the same
thing that's going to have to happen to her. Verse 12, But to the rest speak I, not
the Lord. If any brother hath a wife that
believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not
put her away." Don't put her away. Don't run her off. If she's
pleased to stay there, she's pleased to cook for you, and
take care of the children, and take care of household tasks,
and she wants to dwell with you. There's some reason why y'all
got married. And if she's pleased to do that, if she's pleased
to stay there and not stir up a strife, not rip and tear and
turn the house upside down, if she's pleased to stay there and
dwell, then let her stay. That's what he said. Leave her
alone. Just leave her alone. And the
woman which has a husband, believe it not, and if he'd be pleased
to dwell with her, let her not leave him. Or what if they won't
come to church with me? What if they won't even listen
to what I believe? What if they won't submit themselves
to the Word of God? What if they cling to that religion
of their fathers, that traditional religion? What if they hang on
to that and won't listen to anything I'm saying? As long as they faithfully
discharge their duties, the duties of a wife to a husband, and the
husband fulfilled it, he's working, and he's taking care of the house,
and he's paying bills, leave him alone. Leave them alone. Quit trying to fix it. That's
what Paul said. Quit trying to fix it. Personally,
I believe we make the situation worse than it really is because
we expect something out of them that we couldn't do ourselves.
Huh? And just because it's your wife
or your husband don't mean God saves them differently from anybody
else. He saves them the same way. Faith
necessitates a new birth. You must be born again. Faith
is a result of a new creation. Faith is brought to pass when
the sovereign spirit of grace enables us, makes us meet to
be partakers with enlightened saints. That's the only way you
can be enlightened, the same way they was enlightened. And
that same thing goes for your wife or your husband. By grace,
Paul said, are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves? You didn't drum it up. You didn't
figure it out. God gave it to you. He gave it
to you. And true saving faith is not
born of the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God. And it's not your will or their
will, but God's will that makes this thing come to pass. Isn't
that what Paul said of himself? When it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace. When
it pleased Him. Not when it pleased me. When
it pleased Him. And I tell you, when it pleased
Him, it pleased me. And it will you too. So if they
are willing to dwell with you and not turn your house upside
down, let them continue. Verse 14. For the unbelieving
husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife
is sanctified by the husband, else were your children unclean,
but now they're holy." Now this verse is not teaching that your
wife and children are saved because you are. That's not what this
is saying. Or that they're more savable
than somebody else because of your faith and your standing
with God. All this is saying is that in
the eyes of God, your marriage is legal. It's sanctioned under
the law of God. That's what he's saying here.
Just because she's an unbeliever doesn't make your marriage unsanctified. Your marriage is sanctified in
the eyes of God and under His holy law. You two came together
exactly as that law commanded. You were joined together, and
you've been faithful to one another. It's sanctioned. And if it weren't
sanctioned, if you were living in open idolatry, then your children
would be illegitimate. You don't have to be saved to
be married. I don't know if you know that or not, but you don't
have to be saved to be married. There are lots of folks married
out there who don't believe anything. If we leave our spouses over
spiritual difference, we have spiritual differences with them.
And they're just not going to see it your way. And we say,
all right, I've had enough. I'm leaving. You threw them to
the wolves is what you did. You were the one thing, the one
source. And we'll get into that here
in a minute. But you were the one source who could have been
beneficial to them in the saving of their soul. There's lots of
people that's come here that their wives come strictly because
they do. Strictly because they do. But
when they're here, they're here. Don't they? They wouldn't have
heard if they'd stayed home. They wouldn't have heard if they'd
been over at some anti-Christ church somewhere. They wouldn't
have heard anything. But they came. And they heard. And it's up to God whether or
not they believe. And I tell you, we throw them
to the wolves when we walk out the door. You just throw them
to the wolves. Verse 15, but if the unbelieving
depart, not because of your attitude
and spirit, but because of theirs. If they depart, let them depart. A brother or a sister is not
under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to be.
There's some men and women who can't be reconciled. They just
cannot be reconciled. They cannot ignore the spiritual
life and walk of their spouse. It's just like rubbing alcohol
in a wound to them. It just turns them inside out. They don't want to see it. They
don't want to hear it. And the more they hear it and
see it, the more angry they get. It's like a splinter that you
can't get out. It just festers and hurts, and
it's a constant source of irritation. And it's a constant source of
embarrassment to them, a constant source of disagreement, a constant
source of debate and argument, and a constant source of guilt.
And they get where they just can't stand it anymore. And they
said, I've had enough. I'm leaving. I'm leaving. What
should I do? What are we supposed to do? Should
we go chase them down, try to compromise our faith, say, now,
honey, if you come back, I won't go to church quite as much as
I've been going. I'll just go once a month. And
we'll take rest on Sundays, and we'll go to the beach. Or we'll
go out on the boat. Or we'll go to the horse races.
We'll go somewhere. Should we run after them and
beg them to return and cut down on these things and compromise
our faith? Compromise our Bible reading
and prayer, our time off to ourselves? Should we do that? Paul said,
let them go. Let them go. Let them depart. If the hog pens
where your heart is, let him return to the wallow. If you
want to run with the pack, go back to your vomit. But God has called us to peace. He's called us to peace. We want
to live at peace. I don't want to argue. Nobody
in here wants to go home and argue with their spouse day after
day after day after day. You just don't want to do it.
I don't want to argue. God called us to peace. And believers
have found peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I just
don't want to argue and fuss. We desire to live at peace with
all men. And we're not out here trying
to pick a fight. God called us to peace. Verse 16, For what
knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband?
You might be. It just might be that you're
going to be the instrument that causes her to come on that Sunday
morning, that Wednesday night, and God gives her ears to hear.
Just might be. Or how knowest thou, O man, whether
thou shalt save thy wife? We might be the instrument. Verse
17, but as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath
called every one, so let him walk, and so ordain I in all
churches. The all-wise, all-knowing God
orders His providence for the glory of His name and for the
good of His sheep. Do you believe that? I mean every
detail. Everything that happens. Do you
believe that? It's ordered. It didn't happen
by accident. It was circumstantial to us,
but it wasn't with God. He ordered that thing. He ordered
that cancer. He ordered that disease. He orders
these things. If I really believe that, then
be satisfied with it. I didn't get married by accident,
and that's the way we act. God ordered that. He ordered
that. Now walk in it, if you can. And
if they will, then walk in it. And obey His instruction concerning
yourself and your situation. Verse 18. Is any man called being
circumcised? This thing ain't just altogether
about marriage. This has to do with everything
we do. Is a man called being circumcised?
Let him not be uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision?
Let him not be circumcised. God saves a man who's a Jew He
is not going to gain anything by changing his heritage. And
if he is born a Gentile, let him not seek to be a Jew. You
don't have to be a Jew to be saved. Circumcision is nothing, he says,
verse 19, and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of
the commandments of God. These things were given and plainly
declared in the New Testament to be patterns and pictures and
symbols of that which God does in the heart. They're dead to the law. Believers
are not under the law. We're not under the law. They're
dead to the law, being crucified in Christ and having satisfied
the demands of God's justice and fully, fully keeping the
law in Christ. They're free from the law as
a curse, demanding from them what they could never produce. Now, I'm going to tell you something.
If you seek to be under that law, Paul said, do you hear what
it says? Do you know what it commands?
Do you know what it demands from you? Perfect, continual, spiritual
obedience from birth to death. It demands perfection from you
that only God can produce. And in the gospel of Christ,
we are free from that law as a curse. And in the gospel of Christ,
the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. The righteousness
of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all
them that believe. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. I'm not going about day by day
trying to establish righteousness. My soul, all my righteousnesses,
Isaiah said, are as filthy rags. And if I'm going about ignorantly
like Israel was, Paul tells us about that over in Romans. They're
ignorantly going about to establish their own righteousness and wouldn't
submit to the righteousness of God. Well, then all I'm doing
is producing more and more and more filthy rags is what I'm
doing. That's all I'm doing. But Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness. We no longer walk in fear of
punishment but out of gratitude and love for Christ. And keeping
of days and ceremonial rituals have no spiritual value to the
believer whatsoever. Nothing. All these things were
fulfilled in Christ. People out here trying to keep
a holy day. Christ is my Sabbath. He is my
rest. How else could God have rested
on that day If he didn't rest in Christ, he trusted in Christ. Isn't that what it says over
in Ephesians chapter 1? Who first trusted in Christ.
Talking about God Himself. And that's what that day is all
about. And then Christ came and fulfilled that day and manifested
that wisdom to us. And we rest in Him. I don't rest
on a day. I rest in Him. Let every man abide, verse 20,
in the same calling wherein he was called. Our calling is to
Christ. Our position in this world has
no effect on that whatsoever. If I'm a servant, I'm a servant.
But I serve Him. I serve Him. And whether I'm
President of the United States or I'm a nobody doesn't affect
that in any way whatsoever. Are thou called being a servant?
Care not for it, but if thou mayest be free, use that too. Are you a servant? One sold into
servitude? Then be the best servant you
can be. Be the best servant out there. And if your master sets you free,
and an opportunity comes along for you to pay your debt and
be turned free, do that too. But do it under the same conditions.
You become God's free man. Don't be troubled or anxious
about your position. God knows where you are and what
you are. On the other hand, if you are
able to gain your freedom and better your position, do that
too and serve God in that respect. But don't have anxious thoughts
about it. Verse 22, For he that is called in the Lord, being
a servant, is the Lord's free man. Likewise, also, he is called
being free. He is Christ's servant. The reason
for our contentment in whatsoever position that we're called is
that we are the Lord's. We're the Lord's. You see, the
Lord sits on the throne. And all of this out here, everything
that you see out here is His kingdom. He rules. He sits on
the throne. And this employer that you have
out here, the only reason God let that ungodly man survive
is to be your employer that you might be taking care of on this
earth. That's the only reason God raised him up and put him
in that position. God said to Pharaoh, for this
same purpose have I raised thee up. Why? Because Israel was going
to be in bondage under him, and then Israel was going to be delivered
from him, and Israel was going to walk out with everything that
man had in his kingdom. Everything that he raised there
in all those years of glory, Pharaoh willingly handed it right
over to Israel and they marched out with it and never raised
a sword. And it's that way with the church.
This world, the elder serves the younger. And this world serves
us. And you know that no matter what
position you're in in it. We serve Him. We serve Him. And if He wanted to, He could
make you king tomorrow. if he wanted to. If it served
his purpose, he could make you king. Paul said, I've learned in whatever
state I am therewith to be content. That's Philippians 4.11. And
again, he said this, godliness with contentment is great gain.
Now here's a scripture, you've heard that scripture, and here's
another one that you heard Quite often, but you never put these
two together. They come together. Godliness
with contentment is a great gain, for we brought nothing into this
world, and it's sure we ain't going to carry anything out.
Huh? Now be content. You didn't have
anything. God gave you everything you have.
And what things you have are just temporary, and you're not
going to take them with you. So be content. Be content. He has a reason for you being
where you're at. He has a reason. Be content with
it. And so what is this godliness
he's talking about? Well, this godliness is that
attitude of spirit that walks in Christ, that rests in His
righteousness and shed blood, that submits to His present reign
and glory, that walks on the tiptoes of faith looking for
His return. That's godliness. Godliness. You thought godliness was how
long you wore your skirt, or how short you cut your hair.
That's got nothing to do with godliness. Godliness is that
spirit and attitude that walks in Christ, content no matter
what state they're in, glorifies Him no matter what comes to pass.
That's godliness. That's a godly man. May the Lord
be pleased to teach us that, not only in our marriage, but
in every thing that we do.