You may turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. 2 Corinthians chapter 6. This larger context, chapters 1 to 7 of 2 Corinthians, Paul explains his conduct and his apostolic ministry to the church in Corinth, chapters 8 and 9. He exhorts the church or summons the church. to complete the collection, to take up money to give to the suffering saints in Judea, and then chapters 10 to 13 is Paul's defense of his apostolic ministry. That's sort of the flow of the book as a whole.
We're going to consider this evening very specifically chapter 6, verses 14 to chapter 7, verse 1. unfortunate chapter divisions in the Bible. Chapter 7, verse 1 certainly goes with what precedes, verses 14 to 16. I'll just begin reading in verse 14 of 2 Corinthians 6. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people.
Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Amen. Let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Father, we thank you for this passage. We thank you for the promises that you have given to us. God, even as we see in the reading of this passage, the promises of God promote responsibility on our part. We pray that as those who have been saved by grace, and that grace through faith alone, and that not of ourselves but the gift of God, may we see that you call us nevertheless, to pursue holiness and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.
God, we don't do this to earn our salvation. We do it because You have saved us freely. We just pray now for the ministry of Your Spirit so that we may have the mind of Christ. We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Introduction
Well, there are promises given in this particular passage, as Paul relates, chapter 7, verse 1. Therefore, having these promises beloved, which we'll look at first, the promises we possess. Secondly, there is a duty in the text that we are to cleanse ourselves, chapter 7, verse 1. Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. and then perfecting holiness, and then there is a disposition that we are to possess, and that is in the fear of God.
So, those three things concern us this evening, promises, duties, and disposition. But
The Promises We Possess
notice, first of all, the promises that we have. There are three indicated in verses 16, 17, and 18. And the first is the nearness of God.
The Nearness of God
the nearness of God. Notice in verse 16, And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. There has been a shift in redemptive history.
No longer do the people of God go to a specific temple in order to worship God. But because of Jesus Christ and His redemptive work, In Christ, we, the people of God, are now the temple of God. And notice what he says in verse 16, As God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk among them, I will be their God, and they shall be My people." That is a choice promise that is ours. The nearness of God.
This is something the Old Testament spoke of very often. I believe Paul here is specifically quoting from Leviticus 26, verses 11 and 12. The blessings for faithfulness with reference to covenant keeping. God pronounces this upon them.
This promise comes up again in the prophet Jeremiah. It comes up again in the prophet Ezekiel. It is that blessing of having God among us, of us being His people. And it's consummated according to Revelation 21, verses 1 to 4, in the new heavens and in the new earth.
But let's just back up to the first instance where this is mentioned, in Exodus chapter 25. Exodus chapter 25. I want us to see the flow of the argument here and how it is so wonderful that God has made this promise to His people. Notice in Exodus 25, beginning in verse 1.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart, you shall take my offering. And this is the offering which you shall take from them. Gold, silver and bronze, blue, purple and scarlet thread, fine linen and goat's hair, ram skins dyed red, badger skins and acacia wood, oil for the light and spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense, onyx stones and stones to be sat in the ephod and in the breastplate. and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them." If I were to hand you a piece of paper tonight and give you a pencil, I don't expect you to write in your blood, and ask you the question, what is the book of Exodus primarily about?
I suspect some would say, Exodus is primarily about the Exodus. that grand deliverance of God, wherein He brought His people out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, through mighty miracles, and He put them into the wilderness. Some might say, well, the book of Exodus is about the law, for God, in Exodus 20, gave the Ten Commandments. Do you realize that the bulk of the book of Exodus is about worship? Chapters 25 to 40 are all dedicated, and to us sometimes it's a bit tedious, you know, reading about ephods and reading about, you know, various types of wood and various pieces of construction and materials going into the tabernacle and how the high priest was to deck himself.
All that is concerned with worship. The book of Exodus tells us of a God who delivers. The book of Exodus tells us of a God who demands. He gives us law.
But it also tells us about a God who dwells. He loves to be with His people. That's what verse 8 is all about. Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell with them, that I may be in their midst.
This was the promise from the outset. God being our God and calling us His people. So in the context of 2 Corinthians 6, what was enjoyed in the Old Testament by believers But what was prophesied to be more fully experienced has now been made good through our Lord Jesus Christ. For it's through His death and His resurrection, it's through the blessedness of Calvary that we have God dwelling among us in all of the glory that He has.
That is one of our promises.
The Favor of God
Notice secondly, in 2 Corinthians 6, the favor of God. These aren't just little things here. These are great things which add weight to the imperative of 2 Corinthians 7.1. In light of all these benefits, therefore, the Apostle says, let us cleanse ourselves.
Let us perfect holiness in the fear of God. You need to keep these promises before your mind's eye. You need to think on them. You need to dwell on them.
I like what Ralph Davis says. He says that amnesia produces apostasy. You know what amnesia is? Somebody gets conked on the head and they forget everything.
Well, Christians can develop amnesia, not getting conked on the head necessarily, but forgetting. And that forgetting then goes into promoting laziness. And that goes into promoting apostasy and defection from the truth. We work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.
We perfect holiness in the fear of God because we are fired up and animated by the promises of God. We must dwell on them. We must consider them. We must roll them around our minds. and our hearts, so that we will indeed do what the Lord calls us to do.
The second, as I said in verse 17, is the favor of God. It is a quotation from Isaiah 52, 11. And in that quote, or in that context, the people are told that when they go into Babylon, they are not to partake in Babylonian practices. They are not to engage in the wickedness of Babylon, something the people of old found out.
When you don't dispossess the land of Canaanites, when you accept them as friends and you entertain them as equals, it won't be long before you're worshipping their gods. And so the quote says here in verse 17, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean. Now notice the promise, and I will receive you.
I will receive you, the favor of God. We need to understand this verse, though, with reference to 1 Corinthians. Paul in 1 Corinthians tells us that when I wrote to you, I did not tell you not to associate with the sexually immoral, the ungodly, the wicked in this world, but from those who name the name of Christ. So on the one hand, this tells us to be separate from them, but it doesn't mean to avoid sinners.
Jesus received sinners and He ate with them. We need to shock and jive with sinners insofar as we can extend the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I think B.B. Warfield hits the nail on the head when he says, we see then, The apostles' urgency here is against, not association with the world, but compromise with the worldly.
You can't leave the world. You cannot be a monk. There's no Protestant monastery. There is a sense where you work with people that are not Christian.
What is in view here is a yoking together with unbelievers. whether it be in marriage or in some other very close and familiar setting where we are yoking together with unbelievers. And yet the promise is there, and I will receive you. The favor of God is our blessing. And
The Fatherhood of God
then the third promise is in verse 18, the fatherhood of God. Isn't that great? We have Him near us, we have Him favoring us, and we have Him fathering us. Those are three wonderful promises that we currently enjoy.
Not because we're good, but because God is good. Not because we perform, but because Jesus lived, died and rose again and shed his precious blood so that these things would be true of us. God is our Father. This is a quote from 2 Samuel 7.14.
The promise in the context there is to Samuel that he would have descendants who would follow on his heels. There would be one ultimate descendant who would sit upon his throne and reign over a new heavens and a new earth, which is of course Jesus Christ. But that promise made in terms of Christ now includes us, the seed of Abraham, by grace, through faith, in our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1, 3-14, Paul develops the whole doctrine of our adoption as sons by Jesus Christ into the family of God.
Those are the promises, His nearness, His favor, and the fatherhood of God.
The Duties We Owe
Notice, secondly, the duties we have. There are two.
Cleanse from All Filthiness
The first, we are to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness. Now Paul is speaking in ceremonial language. The whole idea of us being the temple of God dictates, or not dictates, but causes him to move in that same way, that same language of cleansing ourselves from all filthiness. He doesn't mean physically, because he says, of the flesh and spirit.
He is using metaphorical language. He is telling us to put off sin. And He is telling us to put off sin of the flesh and of the spirit. In other words, Christianity isn't about only moral reform.
It's not just the flesh that's in view. Stop this, don't do that, don't go there, and you'll be fine. No, Christianity extends to the heart. It extends to the spirit.
That's why Paul says we are to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. The outward activities described as lusts of the flesh, Galatians 5, 19-21. Those things which are indicative of an ungodly heart. Again, it's not enough for us to just not murder someone.
We don't cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit by not taking a gun and going out and shooting people. We need to promote love and harmony and unity and blessedness to our brethren. We're not to hate them. Jesus told us the spirituality of the law.
You've heard that it was said of old, you shall not murder. But I say to you, anyone who says fool or calls his brother an empty-headed knucklehead, a rock-up, you've broken the law. You've broken the law. He's not saying that, you know, I'm elevating the law.
No, that's always been the intent of the law. God's law regulates not only our external conduct, but our inward disposition. And so Paul says, in light of these promises, cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Notice, and get this in your head, it's not cleanse yourself in order to receive these promises.
The Bible is very clear. The command of God always follows after what God has done for us in our Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't command in order to then bless or satisfy. He commands because He's already blessed.
He commands because He's already made these promises. He commands because He's already redeemed us by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness, all filthiness. We're not to make peace treaties with certain sins.
Well, I don't actually want to go kill people, but I got some lust. You know, maybe that will weigh out in the balance and God will accept me anyway. No! It must be a universal application.
It must be whole soul. You don't pick and choose. Well, I don't actually commit the sin of lust, but I'm a gossipy wretch. You can't do that.
Holiness is to be pursued universally. The Christian man or woman or boy or girl doesn't pick and choose. Well, I'm pretty good at this, so that's where I'll be holy. I don't really do too well over here, but you know, God will forgive me.
You know, God does forgive, but we are not to engage in what Owen says is the high-handed sin. Engaging in sin, knowing the Lord will forgive us. That is to turn grace into disgrace. It is to trounce upon the Word, of the living God.
We are to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. We are not to be picking and choosing what areas we will cleanse ourselves from. Now, in God's wisdom, and in God's plan, in sanctification, things when you're initially converted, the big things you get rid of. Later on, maybe 20, 30 years, oh wow, I didn't even think about that.
Well, that doesn't mean, okay, well, I don't have to deal with it. No, you deal with it then. It's not like we come out of the womb of regeneration being a Paul. That just doesn't happen.
There is growth in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But as students of the Scripture, we ought to see God's aversion to all of our sins. We need to seek to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. And then notice secondly,
Perfecting Holiness
he says, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Paul does not believe we can achieve sinless perfection in this world. That is not what he is saying.
Paul understands his Bible and his own heart better than that. He is, however, saying we ought to actively pursue it. In Hebrews 12, 14 we read that we are to pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord. We are to pursue it in such a way that it is important to us.
It's not just a Sunday activity. Well, today is the Lord's Day. I'm going to seek to perfect holiness in the fear of God. The perfection of holiness here is not living this life in sinless perfection, but rather so pursuing holiness that we are seeking to bring it to a goal, an end, specifically Christ-likeness.
And this shouldn't surprise us. Hopefully nobody's going, wow-ee. Therefore, beloved, having these promises cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." This is logical. This makes sense.
This is what we ought to be about. Knowing that God has done what He's done in saving us, in preserving us, in giving us everlasting life, His call to our holiness is very, very consistent with who He is and with what He's about. Paul says in Philippians chapter 3, just to show you that he does not believe in a sinless perfectionism. Paul was not a Wesleyan Arminian.
Paul was not a Phineite. Paul did not believe in sinless perfection on this side of glory. In Philippians 3.12 he says, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on. This is the essence of his command in 2 Corinthians 7.1.
Press on. Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Persevere. Don't give up.
Don't make peace treaties with your sin. Don't meet in Switzerland, exchange some chocolates and watches, talk about the weather, and make a peace treaty with your sin. That is unacceptable. Notice what Paul goes on to say.
Verse 12, I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. See, he understands fully the grace of God. Christ has laid hold of me. Because Christ has laid hold of me, I press on to lay hold of that." He goes on in verse 13, "'Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do.
Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Whenever I picture this text, I picture Paul running like there's no tomorrow, running like an Olympic sprinter, running like a Kenyan at the front of the pack, running with every vein popping out, with every bit of desire to come across that line first, forgetting what's behind. Can't go back. I'm going forward. Jesus has taken care of what's behind.
A lot of Christians, we get in that mode, man, if I'd only done things differently 15 years ago. You can't fix that. Jesus has forgiven that. You need to press on.
You need to reach forward. You need to run like there's no tomorrow. You need to press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God. in Christ Jesus, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
The Disposition: Fear of God
And then thirdly, there is a disposition, as I just said, in the fear of God. Charles Hodge says, this is the motive which is to determine our endeavors to purify ourselves. It is not regard to the good of others, nor our own happiness, but reverence for God that is to move us. Your husband or your wife may be on you about cleansing yourselves from all of the filthiness of the spirit and the flesh.
Your husband or your wife may be encouraging you to perfect holiness in the fear of God, because they'll benefit. But the primary referent is God. That's why we seek to live holy life. That's why we cleanse ourselves from all filthiness.
It is because we love, value and supremely prize God. It is our Father who has called us to this. Hodge says, it is not in regard to the good of others nor our happiness, but reverence for God. We are to be holy because He is holy.
That is perceptive. That's what Paul is doing. You've got these promises. Here's what you're supposed to do in light of these promises, and you're to do it with an eye to God.
You're to do it working out your salvation in fear and trembling toward God, by reverence for God, by living in awe of God. Some wonder, it's an instrumental here. We are to perfect holiness in the fear of God by this instrument, by reverencing our God, by esteeming our God, by living in awe of our God. It's in that disposition that we are to do what Paul calls us to do in cleansing the flesh and in perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Now certainly there are a whole host of texts in the Bible that teach us that we are to fear God. This is not a concept simply restricted to the unbeliever. It wasn't only the Ninevites that were to learn, according to Nahum, that God was a glorious God and He was a wrathful God and He was going to judge them. Nahum wrote for his contemporaries as well, Judah, fear God.
Fear Him. Reverence Him. Exodus chapter 20, God appears in great pomp and glory, in the giving of the law, and the people are afraid and they're trembling. And God says, they are to fear me.
Proverbs 8.13 says, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Right? If you don't fear God, you're not going to hate evil. You're going to love evil.
You're going to desire evil. You're going to want the filthiness of the flesh if you don't fear God. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 31 tells us that our God is a consuming fire. Why?
To promote holiness, to promote righteousness. Fear is a great motivator. Don't let anybody kid you. Oh, why do you preach that antiquated concept of the fear of God?
Because it is thoroughly biblical. It is repeated over and over and over again, and we are so wayward, we are so hard-headed, we are so obstinate that a good, healthy dose of fear oftentimes will soften us unto pliability for God's purposes.
Application to the Church
Well, with reference to this text, we need to see the application of it as a church, as a church. These promises are ours, the duty is ours, and the disposition must be ours as well. We are corporately, as a body, to be consumed with our God, to hold Him in awe, and to seek by His grace to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and we are to perfect holiness. The church, not only here, but the church at large must comply with this text as well.
I was mentioning to someone at lunch today, I hate to be in this position of an us and them. Oh, everybody else is jacked up. That's not a positive way to promote the cause of Jesus Christ. It's not godly.
It's not righteous. However, there is a sense, brethren, where there is some things amiss in Zion as a whole. Lloyd-Jones writing several years ago, 20th century, said this, and things had not gotten as bad at the time of Lloyd-Jones as they have today. And by bad, I mean things going on in the life and context of the church that really are not what we're supposed to be about.
You know, ponies, programs, puppets, things of that nature should not define the church of Jesus Christ. Lloyd-Jones said this, our Christianity has the appearance of being an adjunct or an appendix to the rest of our lives, something we add on. We like a couple bucks worth of gospel, is what I think the good doctor is saying. We like enough gospel to keep us out of hell, but it has not consumed us the way it ought.
So he says, our Christianity has the appearance of being an adjunct or an appendix to the rest of our lives instead of being the main theme and the moving force in our existence. We seem to have a real horror of being different. The world expects the Christian to be different and looks to him for something different, and therein it often shows an insight into life that regular churchgoers often lack. See, at times the pagans expect, you know, typical, traditional, reformed worship.
Juggling acts and clowns serving the Lord's Supper even strikes the pagan as odd. He goes on to say, the church organized, or the churches organized, whist drives. I think Whist Sunday is a specific day in England, so there's a little bit of a cultural difficulty with that one. A fete, F-E-T-E, kind of like a fair, kind of like a little bazaar and the church grounds.
He says, the churches organize wits, drives, fates, dramas, bazaars, and things of that sort, so as to attract people. We are becoming almost as wily as the devil himself. But we are really very bad at it. All our attempts are hopeless failures, and the world laughs at us.
Now when the world persecutes the church, she, the church, is performing her real mission. But when the world laughs at her, she has lost her soul. And the world today is laughing at the church, laughing at her attempts to be nice and to make people feel at home. My friends, if you feel at home in any church without believing in Christ as your personal Savior, then that church is no church at all, but a place of entertainment or a social club.
For the truth of Christianity and the preaching of the gospel should make a church intolerable. and uncomfortable to all except those who believe. And even they should go away feeling chastened and humble." Praise God. Even they should go away feeling chastened and humble. What do you think the good doctor would consider about or think about what goes on today?
Like what MacArthur says, if jugglers and midgets and circus acts will attract people, let's bring it on. Certainly the church has to be different than that. Certainly the church must define herself in terms of these promises, of these duties, and of this disposition. We don't fear God when we dress men up as clowns and have them serve the Lord's table.
We don't fear God when we subjugate His worship to our entertainment. We don't fear God when the measure of our happiness becomes primary and God's glory is secondary. We are not fearing God when those things have taken place. I think the good doctor is absolutely right.
Application to Individuals
That's in volume one of his biography, page 142. A summary statement concerning this particular text is this. In Paul's thought, the Christian life is in essence an advance in holiness, a bringing to maturation of our consecration to God. This process of sanctification involves first and foremost a sense of awe and dread before the omnipotent Lord. but also a repudiation of evil in every form, especially the avoidance of close, permanent alliances with unbelievers.
That's the context. And that brings us to consider, secondly, this text and us as individuals. Individuals. There is an unequal yoke. spoken of here in verse 14 of chapter 6.
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. I remember several weeks ago, preaching out of 2 Samuel 4 through 6, a study in archaeology, the study of the Ark, how we observed that when things got tough for Israel, her theology went out the door. As soon as things got rough for her, she sacrificed her theology for what would work. We'll just get the ark and we'll bring it into our camp and it'll be our holy horseshoe and our lucky star to protect us from these bad Philistines.
God will not be manipulated. God allowed them to suffer defeat on the field of battle and to have His Ark of the Covenant taken by the Philistines. One of the places where I've observed, and this may bother you, this may hurt you, this may offend your delicacies, but one of the places where this unequal yoke, where our theology goes out the window, is in the issue of marriage. I am a wholehearted believer that God was absolutely right.
It's not good for a man to be alone. I would amen that a hundredfold over and over again. I sympathize with those who are alone. My prayer is contentment.
My prayer is that Jesus would be so sweet, Jesus would be such a delight, that you would be able to deal with that contentment, or deal contentedly with your station in life right now. I don't believe anywhere there's no holy tea leaves where God has said, you'll never get a spouse. But one of the areas where our theology goes out the door is when we begin to be governed by our emotions. We begin to be governed by our feelings.
Worse yet, we begin to be governed by our genitalia. And then we have fallen prey to stepping into the very thing God says, don't do. When you contract a marriage with an unbeliever, you are violating this text. You are violating God's holy law. and you are bringing irreparable damage upon your own head.
God knows what's best for us. God is gracious. God is good. God will see you through it.
Take the theology, bring it into your head and in your heart, and think theologically. Don't think emotively. Don't think experience. Don't think, well, I'll be this, or I'll be that.
You cannot rush God's will. Again, I don't want to dismiss the genuine difficulty it must be. I pray and I ask and I hope and I beg for the Lord to grant you contentment or a spouse whenever that time may be. But one of the areas where this is a violation is in the marriage ceremony.
Unequal Yoking: Litigation
Another place is litigation. These are all coming out of the Corinthian correspondence. Litigation. What's Paul saying in 1 Corinthians 6?
Don't take a believer to the civil court. You don't do that. You don't do it. Well, I got ripped off.
I got jipped. Don't do it. Paul's very adamant, very clear. Church, brethren, counselor, somebody within the context ought to be able to help you sort out your differences.
You don't do that in civil court.
Five Questions on Separation
And then the five questions posed in verses 14 to 16. Did you see that? Five questions are asked by Paul to the Corinthians that we as individuals need to consider. What fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?
Again, brethren, not we shouldn't be friends with sinners so that we can win them to Christ. That's not what this is telling us to avoid. It's talking about fellowship. It's talking about union.
It's talking about closeness. It's talking about participation. Notice, he goes on and says, what communion has light with darkness? There's two different vantage points going on.
How could you give your heart to that man or woman when there's darkness in your light? How could you enter into this most close association with somebody when there's darkness in your light? How could you do that? Notice he goes on thirdly, what accord has Christ with Belial?
Interesting, that term Belial shows up in the prophecy of Nahum. It's spattered all throughout the Old Testament. Only time that it's used here in the New Testament by Paul. The idea is somebody that's a contemptible person.
It actually became a title for Satan in the intertestamental period. The Sibylline Oracles referred to