The Fashion of this World Passeth Away

Now, in this chapter, 1 Corinthians
7, Paul is writing about marriage. Now, in ordinary times, marriage
is honorable, and the blessings of God are upon it, providing
it be in the Lord. Believers are to marry believers,
not unbelievers. I heard a preacher, about a preacher,
talking to a group of people recently, down in the deep south,
and there was some objection to interracial marriages, marriages
between black people and white people. And this preacher made
the comment, which is absolutely true, absolutely true. It would be far better for white
believer to marry a black believer than for a white believer to
marry a white unbeliever. There's no command in the scripture
against marrying a person of another race. There is no command
in the scripture. In fact, according to God's word,
Moses had a black wife, and Miriam, his sister, got awful upset about
this, and God God bested Miriam with some unhappy circumstances
because of her criticism of Moses' wife, who was a Canaanite or
Cushite. But there is a definite command
in God's Word against you marrying an unbeliever. Be not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers. Now, you girls and boys, I'm
not saying you shouldn't date unbelievers. There are some preachers
who would say that. I would not say that. In fact,
some of the girls in this church have met boys, religious boys,
unreligious boys, and started dating them and brought them
to the house of the Lord, and God's been pleased to save them.
And afterwards, they were married. And I will warn you of this.
And I warn you, and you say, well, Preacher, have you practiced
what you preach? I absolutely have. I sought a
believing wife. I asked God to give me one who
knew the gospel and loved the gospel. And I say this to you,
I warn you. You may date an unbeliever, but
if you deliberately, if you are a believer, and if you're not
a believer, you do what you want to do. If you don't know Christ, that's
your business. You do what you want to do. I
have no advice for you. But if you know the Lord, if
you know Christ, if you're one with Him, and you deliberately
become one with an unbeliever, what fellowship has Christ with
Baal? What fellowship has the temple of God with the temple
of devil? You deliberately become one with a person that does not
know the Lord. And I promise you, God will visit
you with his judgment. God's not going to bless that
kind of union. Oh, but I'll make him a Christian after I marry
him or her. You're showing your ignorance
there. But to some people, marriage
is honorable. It's blessed of God. It is blessed
of God, provided it be in the Lord. Now listen to me. There
are some people who seem to imagine that there's a peculiar holiness
about an unmarried life. There are a lot of priests, churches,
religions, individuals who seem to think, who seem to put some
sort of unusual holiness upon an unmarried life. That's a perversion
of God's Word. That's not true. That's not true. That's contrary to God's Word
completely. Turn to 1 Corinthians, 1 Timothy
chapter 4. 1 Timothy chapter 4. We'll read this scripture, and
then I'm going to give you some examples. In other words, some
people seem to think because a person is unmarried, because
they're not married, they're holier than people who are married.
They're more pure than people who are married. They're more
godly than people who are married. That is a perversion of truth. That is not so. That is not so
at all. In 1 Timothy 4, verse 1, Now
the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirit
and doctrines of the devil. Listen. Speaking lies and hypocrisy,
having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to
marry. That's a doctrine of the devil.
And commanding to abstain from meat. Don't eat certain meats
on certain days. That's the doctrine of the devil.
God has created these things to be received with thanksgiving
of them that believe and know the truth. Marriage and eating. Now listen to me. Illustration
number one. Even in the sinless garden, even in the sinless garden of
Eden, before man fell, God said it's not good for a person to
be alone. Do you hear God speak? That's not some Catholic priest,
that's God speaking. It is not good for man to be
alone. So what did he give him? He gave
him a wife. There's God saying that marriage
is beautiful and honorable if it's in the Lord. If it's in
the Lord. It's blessed of God. It's honorable. The bed is undefiled, the scripture
says, in the Lord. God said that in the sinless
garden of Eden when there was no sin. It's not good for a man
to be alone. And yet these preachers, Brother
Barnard, you said ought to put a bounty on them, $25 a head,
you know, a scalp bounty. But they'll get up and try to
impress people with the holiness of the unmarried life and the
purity of the unmarried life and live alone and live with
God. Well, God didn't let Adam live
alone. He said that's not good. God said that's not good. The
closest walker with God in the Old Testament was whom? Enoch. He walked with God, and he walked
with God so closely that he didn't even die. God just took him on
to heaven. Well, let's read about Enoch. Turn to Genesis 5, verse
22. Genesis 5, verse 22. Listen to this. Genesis 5, 22. And it says, Enoch, Enoch walked
with God. Enoch walked with God. After
he begat Methuselah 300 years and all that time, he begat sons
and daughters with man. And he had, his wives had children. He begat sons and daughters 300
years. He walked with God and all that
time. He begat sons and daughters.
You know where our Lord worked his first miracle? At a wedding. The master went to the wedding.
He attended the wedding himself. And therefore he worked his first
miracle. We've got so many hang-ups about this thing of marriage
and weddings. You don't have to be married.
You know, Dick was telling me about a friend of his, he doesn't
mind me telling this, who's very ill and he's dying. And the priest
came in to see him. And he said to him, were you
married by a priest? And the dear man said, well,
nothing. And the priest said, well, perhaps I'd better marry
you and your wife. Now this man's old as I am. Been
married as long as I have. Perhaps I ought to marry you
and your wife because it'll make points for you in heaven to be
married by a priest. Now listen to me. You may have
been married by a priest or a preacher in a church, you may have been
married in a county courthouse, in a justice of peace home, that
has no effect whatsoever on your marriage. It's not who marries
you, it's who you marry in the Lord. It's not who says the word. The word, it's not who pronounces
it. I think it's fine if you can
gather the people of God around you and your minister, your pastor,
fine. But if he's not convenient and
not able and it's not so you can, He married by justice of
the peace, or a captain on a ship, or anybody else, but be sure
of this, some people are more careful about who marries them
than who they marry. I'd rather walk into a justice
of peace home with a saved girl as my bride than to walk into
the biggest cathedral in the world with the highest ranking
ecclesiastical power with an unsaved rebel on my arm. All right, so let that be established
from God's Word. Marriage is honorable. God bless
you. It's not good for a person to
be alone. We need a companion in the Lord. All right, secondly,
Paul says there are times when it's better to be unmarried.
There are times. That's what he says here in verse
26. I suppose, therefore, that this is good for the present
distress. It's good for a man so to be
unmarried. He's talking to the unmarried,
the virgins and the unmarried. In this present distress, he
said, it's better to be unmarried. This is sensible, he said. This
is reasonable. Paul was involved in a time of
distress at that particular time. A time of distress. For him,
it was better to be unmarried at that time. There are times
when it's better to be unmarried. It's personal times when it's
better to be unmarried. There are national times. There
are world crises. Here a young man is, we're in
war, World War II, and a young man is going off to war. It's
not sensible for a girl to marry that young man who's getting
on a ship, going out to face bullets and bombs and cannons.
That's not sensible. Not sensible at all. Here Paul
was a missionary, an evangelist, a traveling preacher on the road
all the time. He didn't need a wife. That's
what he's saying here. This present distress, it was
a time of persecution. It was a time when Christians
were being slaughtered and killed and put in prison. Why bring
children into the world? That's what Paul is saying here
at this particular time. Use your judgment. Use the sense
God gave you. Because God says a man's not
good to be alone, a man ought to have a wife, a woman ought
to have a husband. It's honorable, it's blessed that God don't run
out and get you a wife. You're in the university studying
and you've got work to do and those things, you're better off
without a wife. Time of distress and national crisis and time
of personal conflict, you're better off without a wife. That's
what Paul's saying. But look at verse 28, but even
in that time, it's all right to marry. Now if this young man
is going off to war, and he and his girlfriend want to get married,
Paul says it's perfectly all right. If there's a time of national
crisis and famine and depression and recession and all that, okay,
that's all right. But, verse 28, if they marry,
they have not sinned. He says they'll have trouble
in the flesh. That young man may be killed. She may be a widow,
very young. And he said, I'd like to spare
you that. I'd like to spare you that. You may have obligations
you can't meet, responsibilities you can't keep. There'll be trouble. I'd like to spare you that. I'd
like to spare you that. That's what he's saying. In times
of distress, in times of crisis, in times of persecution, in times
of depression, in times like these, it is better to remain
unmarried for the sake of the times. But he said if they marry,
they have not sinned. If a virgin marries, she has
not sinned. Nevertheless, they'll have trouble
in the flesh. They'll have trouble in the flesh.
Look at Luke 23. Turn over there a moment. in
Luke chapter 23. Let's look at verse 28. Luke
23, verse 28. But the Lord Jesus, Luke 23,
28, the Lord Jesus turned to them and said, daughters of Jerusalem,
weep not for me, weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold,
the days are coming in which they shall say, Blessed are the
barren Blessed are the wounds that never bear and the pats
which never gave suck. The day is coming when a woman
wish she didn't have any children. Wish she'd never born a child.
Wish she'd never given a child nourishment. That day's coming.
And that's what the Apostle Paul is saying here. He says you'll
ever have trouble in the flesh and I seek to spare you in times
of distress and these times it would be better not to have a
marriage. But he said, if they marry, they
have not sinned. All right, now look at the next. But I say,
this I say, and here's my text. Brethren, the time is short. The time is short. From the cradle
to the grave, it's a short time. This life is so short. Let me
read you some scripture. Psalm 90. Turn over to Psalm
90. And you know, I've used a lot
of scripture. I do it deliberately. I want
you to get acquainted with this book, because when you get acquainted
with this book, you'll get acquainted with the author. And whatever
I try to teach, whatever I try to preach, I want it to be according
to God's Word. I want you to be able to turn
and read it. Now, the time is short. Psalm
90, verse 10. The days of our years are three
score years and ten. And if by reason of strength
they beforescore yield, yet is their strength labor and sorrow,
it soon cut off, and we fly away. Time is short. All flesh is grass. The flower of the field, as the
man's flesh is the flower of the field, the grass withereth
and the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth
upon it. James says our life is like a vapor. Job said, My
days And I sat and thought about this yesterday. He said, my days
are swifter than a weaver's shuttle. Have you ever seen a weaver work
as that shuttle comes down like this, you know, making the rug
or whatever he's doing? He said, that's the way my days
are, just like that, just going like that. I thought one time
I'd never get to be 40 done, but boy, I'll tell you, once
I rode by 40, the years go by like a picket fence. That's the
truth. Time is short, God said, time
is short. I wish I could impress, I wish
I could impress you and myself with the shortness of life. I
know some of you realize this. Most of us don't. I've read in
Spurgeon that he had two neighbors. One was 71 and one was 82. And the one 82 wanted to buy
a piece of land from the one 71 and he wouldn't sell it. The
182 wanted to buy a piece of land, 171, he wouldn't sell it.
And you know what the 82-year-old man said? The old codger's gonna
die someday and then I'll buy it. We act the same way, don't
we? We act and live and speak as if we're gonna be here always.
And that's such a tragedy. I hope God's pleased to reveal
this truth to you and to me, that we need to number our days. You know, it doesn't say, so
teach us to number our decades or our years, our days, that
we may apply our hearts to wisdom, the wisdom of study, the wisdom
of worship, the wisdom of seeking God, the wisdom of loving Christ,
the wisdom of prayer, the wisdom of fellowship with God, the wisdom
of rejoicing. The wisdom of living for the
glory of God. Teach me to number my days that
I may apply my heart to wisdom. And all of us, now listen, turn
to Job 14. Let me show you something. Did
you know all of us, our days are numbered? God has already
numbered our days. God has already set our bounds.
God has already fixed our death date. The grave plot is already
picked where you and I will lie. And you know something? It may
be that the disease that'll kill you is already working in your
bloodstream, or not. It may be. The instrument of
death already, our days are numbered. Look at Job 14, verse 5, Job
14, 5. Seeing man's days are determined,
the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed
his bounds. He cannot pass. The time is short. That's what
Paul is saying here. The time is short. Go ahead and
marry. Go ahead and bring children into
the world. Go ahead. God blesses it. God's mercy and
blessings upon it. That's what God wants you to
do. That's what he told Adam to do. But remember, the time
is short. Just a little while and the day
of grace is going to be over. Remember that the preaching and
praying will soon be over in a little while. We're gonna be
lying in the ground The time is short now. All right, first
Corinthians 7. Let's go back to our text I know
you want me to get to this and quit quit dragging it out. All
right, it remains and You've read this a hundred times both
that they that have wives be as those that had none And somebody
says that to sleep in the other room It's amazing to me how people
can take the Word of God and and make such fools out of themselves.
It amazes me. This goes right along with all
these other things. They that had wives, the time
is short. It remaineth that both they that
have wives be as those that have none, those that weep as those
that weep not. Those that rejoice as those that
rejoice not, those that buy as though they possess not, and
those that use the world as though it's not abusing it. So all of
this means the same thing, whatever it means. And you know what it
means? It's what Paul says, wait, listen to me. He says, brethren,
the time is short. I'm writing to the married and
the unmarried. I'm writing to all believers.
The time is short. Sit loose, sit loose to all the
things in this world." That's exactly what he said. Sit loose
to all the things of this world. And then he begins to name those
things. As far as your relationship with Christ is concerned, it's
the most important thing. Sure, you've got a wife, you've
got children, you've got a job, you've got sickness, you've got
sorrow, you've got all these things, but these things are
nothing compared to your relationship with Him. This is what's important,
and this is what Paul says. Sit loose to these things. He
says, sit loose to the dearest objects of this world, those
that have wives. Who's the closest to you? Your wife. If the scripture tells us, Husbands,
love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself part. Husbands, render unto your wives
due benevolence and so forth. But our relationship to Christ
is to be such that we are as those who have no wife. You see
what he's saying? Your mother and father, honor
your mother and father. You can't be too good and too
gentle and too kind to your parents. Be kind to your mother and father
and be gentle. God commands you to do that.
To obey your parents in the Lord. And to be kind and gentle. I
tell you children that speak harshly to their parents and
sass their mothers, there's not a hell hot enough for them as
far as I'm concerned. children who have no respect
for their parents and who mistreat their mother and father, the
people who brought them into the world, who clothed them and
cared for them and loved them and taken care of them, and they
speak disrespectfully and irreverently and hatefully to them, there's
not a place in hell that's too deep enough as far as I'm concerned. Love your parents with kindness,
gentleness. But as far as your relationship
with the Lord is concerned, be as though you had none. That's
what he said. Love your children. Care for
your children. Here's another thing. We need
to be gentle with our children. We need to learn to be understanding
with our children. We need to remember back when
we were children. We need to remember back when we were bucking
the traces and all of these things, when we were making mistakes
and when we were doing the things we ought not to be doing. We
ought to be gentle with our children. You ought to be kind to them
and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and
try to understand them and try to enter into their struggles
and into their conflicts and into their temptations and into
their trials and don't be abusive and don't be harsh with them
and don't mistreat them and don't try to make them perfect. They're
not perfect, they're human beings. If they were perfect, they wouldn't
be our children. They have to be somebody else's. We need to
be kind to them and love them. But I'll tell you this. Here's
what he's saying here. Sit loose to the dearest objects
of this world. Sit loose to the dearest objects. I want you to turn to Matthew
10. Matthew chapter 10. In the 10th chapter of Matthew
verse 37. Now watch this. This is what he's saying right
here. Same thing the Lord said. He that loveth father and mother
more than me is not worthy of me. He that loveth son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me. He that taketh not his cross
and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth
his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake
shall find it." Here's what Paul is saying. You who have wives,
she must not be dearer to you than Christ. You who have parents,
they must not be dearer than Christ. You who have children,
they must not be dearer than Christ. Sit loose to these things.
The dearest objects of this world. Don't build your hope and don't
build your happiness and don't build your nest on earthly trees
because God's going to sweep them away. God's going to take
them away. Pass through the world, someone
says, and enjoy smelling the flowers but don't sit down beside
them and try to build your house because the flowers with them.
And Christ is first. That's what it says. All the
way through here. Those that weep as though they
wept not. Sit loose to the grief of this world. Now there's nothing
wrong with weeping. It's right to weep. Christ wept. But there's a sinful sorrow.
We're not to weep as the heathen who have no hope. In Christ all
is rejoicing. We're not to give way to sorrow. We're not to give in to grief.
We're not to let this earthly grief and sorrow take us down
into despair and hold us there. Those that weep as though they
didn't weep. And those that rejoice as though
they didn't rejoice. The things of this world God
has given us to enjoy. But it's not going to last. And
we're to live as those who are mindful of that fact. Be thankful
for good health. But don't put your stock in it,
because someday you're going to have bad health. Be thankful
for happiness, but now don't build there, because someday
that happiness is going to turn into sorrow. This church fellowship,
it can't go on. Now we've got to someday, I'll
be gone, most of you are going to be gone. Now let's, we rejoice,
but remember, that the things in which we rejoice here on this
earth are going to be taken away. That's what he's saying here.
Rejoice as those who didn't rejoice. All of this is fleeting. And
then he says, they that buy as though they possess not. Now
you work, but someday you won't work. You have a job, someday
you won't have a job. You've got property and you've
got things that you enjoy now, but someday you're not going
to enjoy them. Just like that fine automobile
you drive out there, one of these days it'll be an old wrecked
Jeep sitting in somebody's junkyard. It's nothing but a piece of equipment,
that's all it is. That's all in the world it is.
These are only temporary means that God has given to us. Don't
build your hope in these things and put your happiness in these
things and rest your life in these things. Rest in
Christ. And that's what Paul is saying
here about, he says, about marriage and all these other things. He
says, those that are married are those who have no wife, as
far as Christ is concerned. My relationship with Christ,
I have no wife. My weeping and grief, I grieve
here, and God has brought some solace into my life, but He's
going to bring some more. But it's going to pass. My happiness,
he brought me some happiness, that's gonna pass. He brought
me some possessions, but I've got to lay them down too. We
use this world, but we don't live here. This is not our permanent
dwelling place. We're strangers, we're passing
through. We're just passing through. We're walking through somebody
else's garden, and we enjoy what's here. We're walking through the
garden, there's the flowers, and there's the beautiful waterfall,
and there's us. We enjoy these things. We enjoyed
it. So we're passing through. So
we're going to an inheritance that's undefiled, that fadeth
not away. We're going to be with Him who is our King. We're going
to be with Him who is our brother, our mother, our father, our husband,
our wife, our everything. And all these are just means
that God's given us to use. And that's what that means. Sit
loose to the things of this world. Now, some of you are going to
have to give up your children. But God didn't give them to you,
he loaned them to you. Now don't, when you, when that
child dies, now let me warn you, don't you go into a, into a fit
of depression and don't you go into a, a, a, a, a, a fit of
rebellion against God and, and, why'd God do this to me? I quit
church, I quit reading the Bible. You're a fool. God may take them all. Still
the Lord let him do what he will. Now you people, God bless you. Somebody's been blessed. You've
been blessed with a good job, a good home, a good car, and
you've been blessed with education. God blessed you with it. Don't
make too much of it. Don't get uppity up, you know.
Don't get proud of that. Don't get haughty with the Lord.
Don't get to the point where you look down on other people
and you get a proud attitude. You know, God knows how to bring
you down. Don't put any stock in that junk. That's all it is,
junk. That's just paper money. That's all it is. It ain't worth
the paper. Actually, the value of it's not
worth the paper, as far as God's concerned. And if you got a wife,
thank God for her, but now she's just a human being. Or a husband,
that's just a human being, just a mass of clay, that's all it
is. Tomorrow, God may blow on it and take it away. Now, don't
get upset. Don't get upset. That's what he's saying here.
That's exactly what he's saying. Sit loose to the things of this
world. They're yours, Lord. Anytime you want to take them,
you take them. Anytime you want to take them. And then he says,
the fashion of this world passeth away. Let me give you a good test,
and I'm applying this to me too, it's not just for you. Value
nothing, now listen to this, value nothing here, any more
than you'll value it in eternity. The dearest relationship you
have on this earth, physical relationship is going to be dissolved.
The fairest face is going to fade. The finest garment is going
to rot. The greatest house is going to
fall. The highest fame will come to naught and the healthiest
body will die. You know what we need to value?
We need to look upon everything we have here in the light of
eternity. What will it be worth to me in glory? What will it
be worth to me? Now you might apply that to the
way some of you men, the way you're having to work. What's
it going to be worth to you in glory? The way you drive yourself,
and the way you discipline yourself, and the way you give yourself
to the things of this world and neglect the things of this world.
What's it going to be worth to you in glory? Now you just, some
of you women, just kid yourself to your children. They drive
you and they oppress you and they keep you upset all the time. Now what are they going to be
worth to you in glory? Swift to its close ebbs out life's
little day. Earth's joys grow dim as glories
pass away. Change and decay and all around
I see. O thou that changest not abideth
me. Somebody said, this life is a
dream, and it is to show that that bright world of which I
go hath joy substantial and sincere, O God, when shall I wake and
find me there? What are the things? Now look,
let's stop, let's think a moment as I close. What are the things
that are valuable to me in each present moment? My soul needs
to be in Christ. I need to have a personal faith
in Christ. I dare not take this soul and
commit it to some religious organization and tell that religious organization
to take care of this for me and make sure it's all right. No,
sir. I'm going to put my soul in the hands of Christ the Lord.
I commit it to him. Paul said he's able to keep that
which I commit to him, my soul, my body. My body is going to
be raised. My family. What family am I talking
about? I'm talking about the family
of believers. I know what family you're talking about. I know
the Mahan family is not going to be enclosed. But the family
of Christ is. Now the Roach family is not going
to be enclosed. Now if we sing us an old silly song, will the
circle be unbroken? No, sir, it sure won't. Every
one of God's children will be enclosed. All of yours may not
be there. But that's not the family. You
see, that's they that have wives as though they had none. Of course we want our children
to be saved. Our hearts are broken when they're not, and I'd feel
sorry for us if we couldn't weep over them. But I'll tell you
in glory, those families do not continue. It's not going to be
meet mother in heaven. Christ is my mother, and my brother,
and my father, and my wife. It's Christ. My relationship
with Him, that's what's going to last. That's what's important. So, here's what we are, where
we are, and what Paul is saying. The time is short. Your time
on this earth is short, however long it is, it's short. And the
time, it remains as brethren that every one of us, We that
are married and you that are unmarried and we that weep and
we that rejoice and we that buy and sell and work and possess
and use this world as if this were nothing but means of enjoyment
or means that God uses in his predestinated purposes of bringing
us to Christ. He is the important one in my
relationship with him. And I'm to look upon all these
other things and all these relationships as being nothing in the world
but God's means. To bring me to know Christ. My
relationship with Him is Christ. You hear that old saying, first
things first? Well now, you think about that.
What is first with you? And that'll determine who your
Lord is. Whose servant you are, He's your Lord. That's what Paul
said in Romans. He said, to whom we commit ourselves,
servants to obey, He's our Lord. or my wife, or your husband,
or your wife, or my children, or your children, or my parents,
or my job, or my possessions, if these things dominate my life
and control my life, then they're my God. They're my God. And they'll be my God throughout
eternity. But if Christ is my Lord, and whatever he brings
to pass, I can say to the Lord, let him do what he will. He removes
this one, or that one, or the other one, Thank you, Lord, for
the time we've had. Thank you for the joys we've
had. Thank you for the blessings we've received. But this is my
day with the Lord, and I'm going right on down this journey with
Him. I walk with Him. Our Father in Heaven, we thank
Thee for the promises of the Word, encouragement and assurance
of the Word, instructions of the Word. We need not be in darkness.
We need not bow to tradition. We need not listen to the voices
of foolishness when we can hear thy word, and we can be taught
by thy Holy Spirit. O Spirit of the Living God, be
our teacher. And O God, most of all, help
us to learn. Give us ears to hear, and hearts
to understand, and eyes to see the things you've taught us,
and the will to walk in thy ways. For Christ's sake we pray, amen.

The Fashion of this World Passeth Away

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The Fashion of this World Passeth Away

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About Henry Mahan

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