I want to just read here in verse
29 and 30 and 31, 1 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 29. But this
I say, brethren, the time is short. It remaineth that both
they that have wives be as though they have none, and they that
weep as though they wept not. and they that rejoice as though
they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed
not, and they that use this world as not abusing it, for the fashion
of this world passeth away." If you've read this chapter,
you've realized that it's concerning marriage, different aspects of
marriage. I can't imagine what the heathen
world was at this time, especially here at Corinth. And the Lord
had sent his gospel here among these heathen, many of them immoral,
many of them idolaters. He had saved them, and they had
so many questions regarding marriage. You can almost imagine the state
of marriage in this city and in Greece itself. And here in
verse 1, we're told that they had many questions. In chapter
7 and verse 1, the Apostle said, Now concerning the things whereof
you wrote unto me. And then he begins there in verses
2 through 5 Teach them of the marriage bed. That's been something
that's bothered the conscience of the Lord's people, and they
need to be enlightened upon it. And the Apostle Paul was telling
them there that the bed is honorable. God has ordained the marriage
bed, not only for procreation, but for the pleasure of the husband
and the wife. He tells them that. there and
let every man have his wife and let every woman have her husband
in verse 2. And let the husband render unto
the wife due affection, due kindness, benevolence, and likewise also
the wife unto the husband. And then in verse 7 through verse
9, he gives advice to the unmarried and to widows. He tells them
that it is better off if they remain that way. Look what he
says in verse 7. For I would that all men were
even as I myself. But every man has this proper
gift of God, one after this manner and another after that. I say
therefore to the unmarried and widows, it is good for them if
they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain If
they cannot control their own selves and their desires and
needs, let them marry. It's better to marry than to
burn in your lust, to go around lusting. And then he says here
in verse 12 through verse 13, they had another question that
he was going to answer for them. One spouse is a believer, he
says here in verse 12, and the other is not. How do they handle
that? And he deals with that in verse
12. Look what he says, And the rest speak I, not the Lord, if
a brother in Christ hath a wife that believes not, and she be
pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And the
woman which hath not husband, which believeth not, If he be
pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him." That was
a big question in their day. If we were both unconverted,
and the Lord saves me, the husband, do I leave my unconverted wife
now? Do I abide with her? That was
a question, wasn't it? They needed answered, and Paul
said, if your wife be pleased to abide with you, then don't
leave her. Don't put her away. If you're
a wife that has an unbelieving husband, don't you leave him. And then they had another question,
of course, that arose on the heels of this. What about our
children? What about our children? And
they had this question. If one of the spouses is a believer,
they're a Christian and the other is not, is our marriage legitimate? Or is it illegitimate? And Paul
is going to tell them here that marriage is ordained of God. And no matter what nationality
you are, no matter what race that you are, what's your position
in life, if you're a believer or an unbeliever, if you are
joined together in the holy bonds of marriage, then you are one. Before God you are marriage.
You may be an unbeliever and a believer, but your marriage
is legitimate. And that's why he says here in
verse 13, in verse 14, that the unbelieving husband is sanctified
by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Else were your children unclean,
but now are they holy. They're not illegitimate. He's
not talking about holiness of heart now. But he's talking about
their truly legitimate children. They're not bastards, as he calls
them in another place. And here in verse 13 and 14,
he tells them to abide with him. To abide with him. And then he
says something here in verse 16. He puts before them something
that may take place. Abide with your unbelieving wife,
husband. Abide with your unbelieving husband,
wife. For he says in verse 16, What
knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? Or how knowest thou, O man, whether
thou shalt save thy wife? Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing,
he said to them, if you are a believing wife and God uses you to convert
your husband? Peter talks about this, doesn't
he? that the unbelieving husband may be won, won from his prejudice
against Christianity, his prejudice against the Lord, his prejudice
against the gospel, won from that prejudice by the conversation
of the wife while he beholds her chast conversation, her submission,
her graciousness unto him. And here in verse 25 through
verse 28 they had another question. about virgins. Should a virgin
marry or should she stay single? Look at what he says in verse
25. Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord, yet
I give my judgment as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord
to be faithful. I suppose that this is good for
the present distress. They must have been having trouble,
persecutions in the early church. And he said it's good. for a
virgin not to marry because of all the trouble that we're having.
Marriage life, and we know it, don't we? I tell you, it can
be burdensome, can't it? Can you imagine in some countries
where the believers were being persecuted and they had not only
themselves to be concerned about, but they had their wives to be
concerned about? And then they had children to
be concerned about. Some of these people had to leave
their homes. Their properties were confiscated. They had to
run for their life. Having myself to be responsible
for was enough. But having a wife and children? But Paul said, I say that it's
good for a man or a woman so to be. Are you bound unto a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Are you
loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife. But, and if
thou marry, thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin marry, she hath
not sinned. But I tell you, in these times
of persecutions, he said, you're going to have trouble in the
flesh from these persecutions. A question I would have loved
to ask Paul that I don't think he answers anyplace else, what
did he do in these cases? And we know from history that
it happened often. Polygamy. If you had a man who
had four wives, And the Lord saved that man? And maybe saved
his wife? What did He do in a situation
like that? Did He put away all of them but
one? Can you imagine the dilemma they were facing here in the
early church? The gospel had invaded the heathen
world. But it was not an immoral world. It had given itself over to open
and profane sins. It had not any respect for life,
for dignity. It took the gospel a long time
to establish itself, to take root and bring these heathen
out of their heathenism and out of their open and profaneness.
It did that, but it took a while. And you know, brothers and sisters,
as we lose the gospel, as we lose the power of the Holy Spirit,
you know what's going to happen. We're going back into situations
like this, where men not only have any regard for the gospel
of God, they have no regard for the sanctity of life. We talk
about homicides today that's only increased. Suicides are
at a record high among young people. Feticide. How many unborn
babies have we killed in the last few years? We're going back
into heathenism. The unmarried couples living
together, shacking up and everything's fine. When we lose the gospel, that's
what we'll have left. But concerning this advice here,
the Apostle Paul gives some principles to help these people, to answer
their questions. He seems here somewhat out of
his element. You'll notice this about this
man. Boy, when it comes to doctrine, even practical things in life,
he was in his element. But the Lord had given him permission
here to give his judgment. He said, the things I'm speaking
to you, some of these things, I'm speaking by permission and
not by commandment. Some of these things, he said,
the Lord has permitted me to give my judgment on. And then
he says, I suppose. Like, I really don't know. Is
that what you take from that? It seems almost like he's out
of his element. I suppose that it's good for
the time being. And then he seems to say this. He seems to say this. I'm going
to give you these principles. He comes here to some principles. Boy, this apostle, he was a man
that loved to lay down principles. He knew that if he gave us a
book of instructions to fit every situation that we found ourselves
in, you'd have to have a truck to haul the book around in. And
every time you got in a certain situation, you'd be turning pages
trying to find. So he says, here I'm going to
give you principles to help you. And he's saying, whatever may
be the answers, which I ought to have given you concerning
these questions, this one thing is sure, and you live from these
principles. Whether you're married or whether
you're unmarried, whether you weep or whether you rejoice,
whether you buy or whether you sell, as you use the things of
this world, here's two principles that I want you to apply. The
first one is, the time is short. The time is short. And the second
one is, the fashion of this world passeth away. Now these are two things the
world sure don't want to think about. It's too much of a burden
to think about the shortness of time. That's a load upon the
conscience of a lost man. to meditate about the shortness
of his time. And the world cannot endear to
think that in all their situations, in all of their relationships,
the most intimate relationship, in all of their buying and selling
and matching and dealing with man, all of these things is only
temporary. All of these things that we see
and know and do in this world is passing away. This is the
two principles the Apostle Paul has given us. And I'm sure though
these things are a burden to the world, I'm also equally assured
of this, that if you and I as children of God will meditate
upon these two principles, they will help us in our life. In every situation that we face,
they'll help us. First of all then, let's look
at this. Let's look at the shortness of
time. The time is short, he said. And consider first of all this,
the shortness of our own lives. Brother Bob just read to us,
didn't he? Man that's born of woman, he's a few days and full
of trouble. Just a few days and full of trouble. James says it like this. James
says, what is your life? It's a vapor, and it appears
just for a little while, and then it vanishes away. Every one of us is making definite
plans. six months ahead or a year ahead. Are we not? We are. If we live to be 90 years old,
in our minds we'll be making definite plans what we're going
to do next year. And we don't even have the promise
of next year. What is your life? It's a vapor. And the context of James' statement
is this. There were those who were saying,
let's go into the city and let us continue there a year and
buy and sell and get gain. And James says, you should say,
if the Lord's will, because you're not promised next
year. Your life's a vapor, and the
Lord can blow on it, and it vanishes away. We're not even promised
tomorrow, are we? I wonder how many last night
went to bed planning what they were going to do today. And the
Lord whispered to them this night, Your soul shall be required of
thee." And today their plans are fruitless. Today someone else is making
plans for them. What is your life? As you and
I consider ourselves living in this world, we can't get our
hands around it, can we? Even though the Bible tells us
it's a vapor, it's a little time. And then it's gone. Brothers and sisters, our relationships
are most intimate relationships. And in every circumstance we
find ourselves in, in all our affairs, in all our dealings
in this present life, remember this, the shortness of our time. The time is short. Let's consider
also this, the life of this world. We talk about our own lives,
but the life of this world, the history of this world, we think
of this world sometimes as being so ancient. But it's not. I personally believe that this
world and the universe is very young in my own understanding from
the Scriptures, 6,000 years old. And it won't live and exist much
longer because Peter said the end of all things is at hand. The end of this world is at hand. The coming of the Lord draweth
near. A little while, and He that shall
come will come. Just a little while. If you and I could reach back to the generation
before us and talk with a person of that
generation. And they could reach back and
remember talking to a person in their generation before them,
and that person could reach back. Do you know it wouldn't be long
until we got all the way back to the cross? We would be all the way back
to Moses' day, and in the beginning, where God made Adam and Eve. Some of you gave me a picture.
Somebody gave me a photograph the other night. And it was a
photograph of Alvin C. York. I forgot which one of you
gave it to me. He was the most decorated hero
of World War I. He lived in my county. I lived in his county. And in
that photograph, standing next to Alvin C. York and all of his
friends around him with their old muskets and the cars up on
the hill, was a young child. He looked to be 10 or 12 years
old. I knew that child. His name was Ernest Criswell. He was a friend of mine. Joe
and I went to school with his children. We graduated with his
daughter. And he was a personal friend
of a man who was the most decorated hero in World War I. That seems
ancient, doesn't it? But it's not. There's a gravestone that I passed
by in the cemetery where I walked. And when I passed by, I noticed
this lady's date of her birth and the date of her death. Her
name is Allegra Huber, and she was born in 1877. She was 15 years old when Charles
Spurgeon was preaching and lived there in London, England. Ain't
that amazing? She could have very well known
Charles Spurgeon. And here's what I'm getting at.
I was 25 years old when Allegra Hoover died. I could have known
her and she could have known Spurgeon. See what I'm saying? We think that everything is ancient,
but it's not. When I was a boy, there was all
kinds of Confederate money still floating around that was printed
all the way back when the South succeeded from the Union. This is not even an ancient world. When the Lord comes again and
all is dissolved and all passes away, Surely we're going to say
how quickly, what a short history the fallen world has. But consider
this, if you will. The time is short when you consider
it in the light of eternity. If we had a scale, an eternal
scale, that reached from everlasting to everlasting, How would you
mark time? If this world stands for 7,000
years, how could you find a dot small enough to mark it on the
eternal scales? It would be impossible how short
time is. If a man lived many days and
rejoiced in them all, the wise man said, let him remember the
days of darkness. for they shall be many." Paul
said our light afflictions, which are for a moment, just a moment,
works for us a foremore and exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Our afflictions are just for
a moment in the light of eternity and its glory. Won't that help
us to bear our afflictions? Won't that help us to live our
present life with a childlike trust upon our Lord and our Savior? While we look not at the things
which are seen, he said, for the things which are seen are
temporal. Everything we see is temporal. Our marriage with our wives. Even though it's an intimate
union, it's temporary. Enjoy it. Make the best out of
it. Serve God in it, if God gives
you grace to do it. But remember this, it's a passing
thing. It's not an eternal union. The
time in that relationship is short. Weeping, he says. What about
our weeping? Dear child of God, your weeping
is temporary. Don't despair because of your
weeping. Weeping may endear for a night,
but the day is coming, and is coming soon. The night is far
spent, is it not? The paths of the just are as
the shining light that shines more and more unto the perfect
day, and the perfect day is shortly away. The sun is ready to rise
upon our eternal day. when God Himself shall wipe away
your tears. And it will help you to remember
that. Or maybe this morning you're rejoicing in your marriage. The years of struggle have passed. You've got over the humps and
the bumps that we often have in our first year or two. And
you've been successful. And you can buy and you can possess
these temporal things. Well, thank God for that. But
remember this, it will be short-lived. It will be short-lived. All our relationships, all our
weeping, all our rejoicing, All our buying, all that we possess
is only temporary. Only that union between the soul
and Jesus Christ is eternal. Only those treasures that are
laid up in heaven will never pass away. The time is short. Life is too short, someone said,
just to give up. Life is too short to spend it
fretting and complaining and holding grudges, someone said. Life is too short to live with
a thought of self-revenge. Life is too short not to simply
trust the Lord and do what is right in His eyes. Life is too
short not to simply rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Oh, there are things that give
us great joy in this life, is there not? And there are things
that bring us much sorrow. There are things in our life
that seem so right. And there are things in our life
that seem so wrong. But this will help us as we struggle
through it all and seek to find our way in it. Just to remember
this principle, life is short. The time is short. That's the first principle. Let's
consider the second principle found here in our text and in
verse 31. The fashion of this world passeth
away. What's he saying? Well, I've
said here this morning, our most intimate relationships as husband
and wife and all our circumstances and our state and all the things
that pertain to this life, it's changing. It's a fleeting thing. It's substantial. No, it's unsubstantial. The fashion of this world passeth
away. I was studying this week and
sometimes you land on a word and you have no idea when you got down to the true
meaning of it, what it entails. And this word fashion is one
of those words. I've never seen it before. I
read a message by Mr. Spurgeon on it. And I started
doing some word study on it and the commentators on it. And this,
they said, is the message behind this word fashion. They said
it's taken, the word itself, the concept of it, is taken from
the shifting scenes of the drama play. It's taken from the shifting
scenes. How many of us have been to a
play? Remember the old high school plays? where they would bring
the curtains together or the curtains would lower. They'd
raise it up and there would be a scene. And then the curtains
would come down and raise and the whole scene had changed.
That's what this word means. It's the shift in scenes of the
drama play. Remember this, all the world
is a stage. And men and women are merely
players. Remember that old poem from Shakespeare? They all have their exits and
their entrances, and in a man's time he plays
many parts. Is that scripture? Is the world
really a stage? Are we all just actors? Will
the Scriptures bear that out? Well, listen to Psalms chapter
39 and verse 6. Surely every man walketh in a
vain show. Our life is a delusion. It's
a phantom. It's a play. We walk on the stage
and the curtain goes up and there they behold us in the scene.
It goes down and comes up and we're in another scene. It's
like a play. The great Edmund Burke, the great
statesman said, what shadows we are and what shadows do we
pursue and like shadows all soon pass. Bob just read it to us,
didn't he? He fleeth as what? As a shadow. David went ahead to say in that
Psalms, every man walketh in a vain show. He is disquieted
in vain. He heaps up riches. He burdens
himself with the cares of this world. He has plans. He has purposes. And he puts his hands to accomplish
it. He wants to get rich. And he's
so concerned about it, he worries about it, until finally he's
masked all of this money. He's masked all of this property. He has all of this equipment. Then like a shadow, he's gone. And he don't know who's going
to use it after he has left the stage and the next man follows
him on. our lives, the fashion of it. It's like a play. Look at the scenes. Let me see
if I can quickly narrate the scene. There are six of them. The first act is this. Here we
sit in the audience. And the curtain goes up and you hear some excitement
go through the crowd. The oohs and the ahs. Oh, the people are getting excited.
The audience even stands and they
clap. What's the scene? What's act
one of this drama of our lives? And I think John and Alicia has
given us something this morning that we can use. The curtain is going up, and
what do we behold? Well, we see a little one, don't
we? We see a newborn. We see little Annabelle. Annabelle
Burkhardt, and there she lays with her chubby little cheeks
and her black hair and her little shiny eyes. Oh, what a scene! What a joy! Can we just set here and look
at this? How pleasant it is! In every
move of the baby's hands, they laugh and ooh and ahh. But we can't stay here, can we? No, life is like a shadow. The curtain falls, but it quickly
comes back up. And there we see a beautiful
young lady. We see a beautiful Annabelle. We see her dressed in a beautiful
gown with a long train. And they're the man of her life,
her love that she's going to be united to for the rest of
her life. She walks to Him and they're
united in the holy bonds of matrimony. And He lifts the veil and He
plants the kiss upon her lips. And oh, what does the audience
do? They plow and they rise and they throw their rice. Oh, how
beautiful this is. What a beautiful bride. What
a handsome, handsome groom. Can we just stay here? Can we
enjoy the scene? Oh, this is too beautiful to
leave. No, we can't. Why? Life is a shadow. It's passing away. You never
hold one scene very long. So the curtain goes down, and
now we come to what? We come to Act 3. And the curtain
arises, and there is sweet Annabelle and her husband. But what's wrong? Oh, her chest is heathen. Eyes. filled with tears even flowing
down her cheeks. Her husband is trying to comfort
her. Who is that young child laying
lifeless upon the hospital bed? What happened? Has there been
a terrible accident? Has there been a terrible disease?
Oh, we don't want to look at this scene, do we? There's a
child that's lost. And our hearts go out to little
Annabelle because her heart is broken and we feel her weeping.
Would we please just let the curtain go down upon this scene? Yeah, it goes down. And it quickly rises upon another
scene. Act 4. There is a beautiful beach. Oh, look at the white sand. Look
at the beautiful blue sky. And look at the older couple.
Who is that laying there on the beach? Well, that's Annabelle. That's Annabelle and her husband.
And look what a beautiful mobile home that's setting up there
just off the beach. And it's theirs. And we listen
to them talk. And they've obviously been successful. They've been blessed in their
finances and their labors. They've been able to buy and
possess. And they're talking about their
home and their farm and the car that they plan to buy. Well, Annabelle, I hope that
you've used these things and not abused them. I hope that you've used them
for the intent that they were giving you. for God's glory and
the good of His people. Oh, what a comfortable scene.
Don't you love this scene? Some of us are there, aren't
we? Yeah, some of us are there. What a comfortable, quiet scene. The children are raised. The
grandbabies are with their parents. We're free. We can go. We can
travel. We can buy. We can sell. We can
possess. Oh, let's just stay right here.
I love this town. You take the grandbabies and
send them home after you've spoiled them for a couple days. You want to go somewhere, you
up and go. You've saved a little. You want something, you can buy
it. You can possess it. Let's don't leave this scene.
Okay, let's just stop right here. No, we can't. We can't. Life is a stage and we're players. And the curtain has to come down
and the curtain has to go up. So let the curtain go up on Act
5. Who is that elderly lady living
alone in a nursing home? Look how bent over she is. Look
how rankled. Look how weak she is. Look how
short her steps is as she goes down the hall on her walker,
taking time to gather her strength. Poor thing, who is that? Why
are you even opening the curtains on this scene? We were looking
at Annabelle. This is Annabelle. stooped, wrinkled, weak lady
that had just a few scenes ago came into this world that had
us oohing and aahing and clapping. The little rosy cheeks and the
shiny eyes and the beautiful countenance. That's her. What
is your life? But what's happened to her? Oh,
the fashion has changed. Her fashion has changed. Well, I want you to wait. There's one more act. There's
one more scene to this play. The curtain goes down, and then
it quickly rises. And there in a little room are
gathered a few family members and a few friends and it's quiet
and it's solemn and soft music is playing. People are paying their last
respects and there lies Annabelle. Her soft breasts that nourished
her children are now as hard as a stone. Her lips that kissed
her husband, that brought so much cheer to others, are now
silent in death. The warm body that her husband
cuddled with on a cold winter night is now cold as winter itself. Annabelle is gone. That quickly? That quickly? She changed from this beautiful
little infant that we were looking at and rejoicing in to this woman
laying cold and hard and dead in a casket? Yes. The fashion
of this world passes away. All flesh is grass and all the
glory of it is as the flower of the grass. The flower withereth. It withereth. If you and I don't possess something
that is real and lasting and substantial, then we'll soon
lose all. We'll chase our shadows. only
to find out in the end that's all they were. Look at one more scene with me
right quickly. Let the curtain raise once more,
never to be lowered again. And what do we see? We see a
new heaven. We see a new earth. And all that's
there is righteousness. All that's there is life eternal. The fashion of the old world
had changed. Fire had cleansed it. The works
of the first world had been burned up. The elements had melted. And now it all had been changed,
and never to change again. And what's that the angel says? Come hither and I will show you
the bride, the lamb's wife. Oh, that's something that's substantial.
The union between us and our wives is temporary. But all of this union between
Jesus Christ and His church is eternal. When there is a new
heaven and a new earth, this union abides still. Come here
after there has been a new heaven and a new earth made. Come here
now and look what is left. Look what abides. The bride and
her husband, Jesus Christ and His church, His blood-bought
ones, His family, His loved ones, His wives. And look at their
bodies. Oh, look at their bodies. No aging, no sickness, no pain,
no tears, no loss. They are as the angels in heaven.
Look at them. They shine as the sun in the
kingdom of their Father. Christ Himself has changed their
vile bodies and, listen, has fashioned it, has fashioned it
like unto His glorious body. And the fashion of that glorious
body will never pass away. That's substantial, brothers
and sisters. That's what's lasting. This life
is not real. It is a play. It is not an illusion. It shatters. We are shattered. And what we seek are shattered.
And it is all passing away. But that life is substantial. It is real. It is eternal. It is lasting. Oh, what a comfortable
scene it is. What a joyful scene. What a desirable
scene. And upon this thing the curtain
will never fall. It shall never fall. The Lord giving you a good hope,
as the Lord delivers you from seeking your shadows, that you found the real thing,
that you found the substance, the real life. May God grant
us grace. Let's pray.