....(audio/transcription not available)...Corinthians chapter six. We will continue our verse-by-verse exposition of this epistle. And this morning we will be in verse 14 and go through chapter seven and verse one. And I've entitled my discourse to you "The Damning Consequences of Being Unequally Yoked." Follow along as I read the Word of God to you, Second Corinthians chapter six, beginning in verse 14. "Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, 'I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,' says the Lord. 'AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,' says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness, in the fear of God."

I have experienced a progressive alienation, especially over the last year, from some of my distant family members and friends and even other pastors; perhaps you have experienced the same thing. In fact, recently, a Christian friend felt he needed to confront me on my stand against the whole social justice movement, the social justice gospel. He rebuked me for not being what he called woke, and you're familiar probably with that term. He lectured me on the fact that I was blind to systemic racism, that I was blind to my white privilege, that I was blind to the needs of others to be somehow compensated for the way they have been abused over the years. He rebuked me for denouncing Black Lives Matter as racist, Neo Marxist, frankly, a satanic group. And as he proceeded and kind of gained steam, I finally said, "Brother, we need to stop here. Because I find everything that you have just said utterly reprehensible, and blasphemous. It is contrary to the Word of God, it is certainly a misrepresentation of what I believe, and with all due respect, I want to hear no more of this." And then I took him to this passage. Friends, this is a very important passage of Scripture, very instructive.

Obviously, there are cultural issues that are dividing our country today. And even dividing people in the church. To be sure, truth and error cannot coexist. As we are going to see there can be no partnership between righteousness and lawlessness; light and darkness cannot coexist. There is there is no harmony between Christ and Satan. And whenever the church embraces the things of the world, Christ is dishonored; Satan is exalted. And the church is weakened and divided. Now to be sure, America is in an ideological civil war right now that threatens the very survival of our country. Conservatives believe in individualism and personal responsibility. They believe in limited government, that's kind of at the heart of capitalism. Whereas liberals believe in a socially owned economy that requires broad government control to promote egalitarianism, which is really at the heart of democratic socialism that is gaining so much steam these days. They believe that individualism, that is inherent in capitalism, empowers the rich to oppress the poor. They believe that a white, patriarchal society, where white men enjoy power and privilege has disenfranchised other people. Now, here's the problem with this, our country was founded on Judeo Christian ethics that are inscribed in the Constitution of the United States. And since the Constitution holds sacred the doctrine of individualism that ensures, for example, private rights, and ownership to citizens, like you would read in the Fifth Amendment. This means that biblical Christianity is considered oppressive. In a current book that I'm writing entitled "Why America hates Biblical Christianity" I say this, quote, "The democratic socialists envision an egalitarian utopia that requires all social, gender, economic and political inequities to be eradicated. Practically speaking, this means the government must be in charge of defining what is fair and unfair. The government must determine what is morally and socially acceptable, then the government must equally distribute wealth opportunities, outcomes and privileges for the citizens; a subjective and arbitrary system of justice based solely upon the moral authority of man, not God. Obviously, Republicans or capitalists, and Christians believe this political ideology will not only infringe upon the rights of those the state deems morally and socially unacceptable and oppressive, it will also continue an aggressive, cancel culture and legal campaign to silence and eradicate all who oppose them. Especially those people who oppose a woman's right to dismember her inconvenient baby in her womb. Those who find the LGBTQ agenda morally reprehensible and those who believe gender is based upon biology, rather than personal preference."

Of course, Jesus fought for none of this. None of this has anything to do with the gospel. Who would have thought that a nation founded on Judeo Christian ethics would stray so far that by the year 2020, as some research indicates, only 6% of Americans hold a biblical worldview? And here we are. And what is even more unimaginable is that many Christian churches not only support many of the things that I've just described but are co-conspirators with them. And it's heartbreaking to me. Oh child of God, please understand, Satan is far more lethal when he joins the church than when he attacks it. This is at the heart of the text that we have before us this morning. Remember the context, Paul is defending his apostolic authority and his character against the scurrilous, slanderous attacks of false teachers that had infiltrated the church. They were wolves in sheep's clothing. They were predators in pulpits. They were teaching a mixture of Jewish legalism and pagan mysticism. And frankly, we have similar things today. We have legalists and sacramentalists and pragmatists and health/wealth charlatans and all kinds of other characters that are out there in churches. But theirs was a very appealing message to the very immature believers there in the church of Corinth; many of them still caught up in the worldly ways that they had been saved from. In fact, if you were to take the most depraved parts of the most immoral cities around the world and mix them together, you would have Corinth. Imagine coming out of that kind of culture, all the baggage that you would have that you would bring into the church.

They had temple prostitutes that roamed the streets at night. The sexually transmitted diseases were rampant, especially syphilis. Idol worship was a part of their trade guilds and their workplace environment--you think we have canceled culture today, it's nothing compared to what they had back then. But friends, this passage of Scripture is not demanding, that we as believers, be separated from ungodly people in the world and not have any social contact with them. That's not what this is about. However, I might add that there are other passages that warn us against not being conformed to this world like we would read in Romans 12 two. James four and verse four tells us that "friendship with the world is hostility toward God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world, makes himself an enemy of God." And we read likewise, in First John two beginning in verse 15, "Do not love the world nor the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." That said, we must remember that Jesus was "a friend of tax collectors and sinners," Luke 7:34. We must remember that we have a great commission to go into all the "world." So the people that are opposed to God, that are opposed to us, warrant maybe our pity, but they do not deserve our contempt. We should love them for the sake of the gospel.

You will recall in First Corinthians five beginning in verse nine, Paul says, "I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people." "Associate" means to keep intimate close company with--I don't want you to keep intimate close company with immoral people--"I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world." Evidently, some must have broken off all contact with unbelievers; he's not advocating that. Verse 11, "But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolatry, or a reviler"--which means an angry verbally abusive person--"or a drunkard or a swindler--not to even eat with such a one." By the way, that's not a representative list. That's not the intention here. We read, for example, in Second Corinthians three that we're not to associate with people that are lazy people that are unteachable, Titus 3:10, tells us that we are to reject a "hairetikos"--a factious man, and so forth. But he goes on in verse 12 of First Corinthians five and says, "For what have I to do with judging outsiders?" And the point is nothing. I mean, we evangelize the lost, we don't judge them for the purpose of maintaining purity in the church. They're not part of the church. He goes on to say, "Do you not judge those who are within the church?" Well, of course we do. You simply cannot allow persistent unrepentant patterns of sin and heresy to infect the church. Verse 13, he says, "But those who are outside, God judges. And then he adds this, "REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES." Dear ones, like an enemy spy embedded in a military, or like a terrorist living in your neighborhood, there is nothing more dangerous in a church than a person that holds beliefs that are contrary to the Word and to the will of God. There's nothing more dangerous than a person who calls Jesus "Lord", but refuses to do what he says. In fact, Jesus said that in Luke 6:46 "'Why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?'" Tolerating this kind of unrepentant sin in a church will actually cause three things to happen. First of all, when you tolerate these things, it will cause the church to grow like crazy. Secondly, it will cause it to become more like the world and finally it will cause that church to lose its power and to lose blessing. Ichabod will be written across its doorway--the glory has departed.

And here Paul helps us see the damning consequences of being unequally yoked. Ignoring the Lord's commands will betray five frightening characteristics. Let me give them to you, and then we'll discuss them. It will betray a depraved mind, a dead faith, a defiant heart, a divisive spirit and a defiling religion. Once again, this is a very instructive, very important passage of scripture and I hope the simple outline will help you to grasp the great truths here in.

Notice again in verse 14, he says, "Do not be bound together with unbelievers." You see, Paul understands that unless the people in Corinth make a clean break from the false teachers attacking him and his inspired message, there will be no reconciliation; he understands that. "Bound together," translates a participial verb, "heterozygeo" which means "to be unequally yoked"; that's where we get that term. It could be translated "Do not be harnessed in an alien yoke with unbelievers." And Paul, no doubt, drew his analogy from Deuteronomy 22:10, where we read, "You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together." Obviously, such a mismatch of disparate species would be disastrous. Their temperament, their natural instincts, their gait, everything about their physiology would prevent them from working together.

I have to smile as a former horseman. I know the difference between what cattle can do, what horses can do; what mules can do and what donkeys can do. And believe me, you do not want to hitch them up together, or you will have a Chinese rodeo. Moreover, according to the dietary laws, the ox was considered a clean animal, but the donkey was unclean. Very interesting, the distinctions between that which was considered clean and unclean, was God's way of teaching great spiritual lessons with respect to being set apart from those things that God rejects. That which was clean was considered holy or set apart unto the Lord and therefore were worthy of God's blessing. That which was unclean symbolizes a state or a condition of being unclean, unholy, separated from God. I suppose the unclean donkey is a fitting mascot for the Democratic Party that embraces virtually everything that God abhors. So, Paul's point is simple, believers and unbelievers are two radically different species. And any intimate religious association between them is impossible. So do not be bound together with unbelievers in the spiritual religious realm, as you will see.

Now Satan wants just the opposite, right? How often do we see the little "coexist" bumper sticker on cars? I cringe every time I see that. And I pray for the poor fool who proudly affirms such deception. Again, Satan loves to join a church, he loves to fill it with unbelievers who have no discernment, who considers the things of the Spirit to be foolishness, who cannot understand them, because he's spiritually appraised. And then a church has no discernment, and they begin to believe anything and everything.

Politically and biblically speaking, we are to separate, or to refuse to have intimate fellowship and collaboration with believers essentially on two things, the gospel and the authority of Scripture, to put it real simply. Not personal preferences that have no legitimate basis in Scripture. We don't break fellowship with believers because they don't use the version of the Bible that we do or because they wear different clothes or they, I don't know, they have a different style of music, or they have tattoos or they drink wine or all of those types of things. We separate on matters pertaining to the purity of the gospel, and the authority of the inspired, infallible word of God. This is why I will not join in the local ministerial alliance. This is why I will not be a part of any of the ecumenical associations--I get these things all the time wanting me to be a part of those things. Because too many of the people in those organizations preach a false gospel and they have no respect for the authority of Scripture. I'm not going to join in with lesbian pastors and women pastors and people that embrace all of these crazy things that are out there. This is why evangelicalism frankly, today, is kind of an amorphous amalgam of Christians in name only. In fact, I was reading a recent article by John MacArthur, "Is the Evangelical Movement Really Evangelical?" I'll give you a little sample he writes, quote, "Recent surveys reveal that a large percentage of people who self-identify as evangelical do not understand even the most basic principles of gospel truth. In a recent poll of self-styled evangelicals, 52% said they reject the concept of absolute truth. 61% do not read the Bible daily. 75% believe people are basically good. 48% believe salvation can be earned by good works. 44% believe the Bible does not condemn abortion. 43% believed Jesus may have sinned. 78% believed Jesus is the first being created by God. 46% believed the Holy Spirit is a force rather than a person. 40% believe lying is morally acceptable in certain circumstances. 34% accept same sex marriage as consistent with biblical teaching. And 26% reject Scripture as God's word. And 50% say church attendance is not necessary." Folks, we're not to be bound together with people that believe those kinds of things. We can be kind to them, cordial to them, but we're certainly not going to pursue spiritual ends with them. And to do so makes a person a co-conspirator with them. Moreover, it provides them with a false assurance that somehow all is well between them and God, when in fact it is not.

We're not to join together with unbelievers in any kind of a spiritual cause, or union, by the way, including marriage. Marriage is to be a sacred covenant, one that God ordained to illustrate God's covenantal love for his bridal church. And you're gonna marry somebody that rejects Christ? To do so will result in disaster and you'll forfeit God's blessing and initiate his chastening. So such disobedience betrays these five frightening characteristics. Let's look at them for a moment here this morning.

First of all, to embrace these things, to ignore what God has commanded in this regard, betrays number one, a depraved mind. And I'm using this in the sense that it was used in Romans 1:28. You will recall there, Paul describes those that do "not see fit to acknowledge God" are given over to a "depraved mind to do those things that are not proper." "Depraved"--"adokimos" in the original language--means "worthless," it means "irrational." Morally reprehensible, despicable. And here's why I would say that, and Paul gives us a series of questions here to prove his point. First of all, in verse 14, he says, "For what partnership," literally what fellowship, "have righteousness and lawlessness?" Obviously, the answer is none. They are opposites. Righteousness marks the heart and the life of a believer. Lawlessness is the mark of an unbeliever. God has imputed his righteousness to believers. We see this in the new nature of a believer. First John three beginning in verse four, "Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness." He goes on to say, "Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil; and the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he's born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God." And Paul tells us in Romans chapter six and verse 19, that unbelievers are "slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness." And we know that the unbeliever will one day stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and hear that dreadful sentence "Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness," Matthew 7:23.

So, the question is, why would anyone want to participate in a spiritual endeavor to honor God, when that person, who in truth, rejects him and is destined to eternal wrath? What kind of depraved mind even considers that kind of thing? Secondly, he asked another question, "or what fellowship has light with darkness?" I mean, think about it, light is the absence of darkness, and darkness is the absence of light, the two cannot coexist. Light in Scripture is always a metaphor, for truth, and for holiness. In fact, in John 8:12, Jesus said, "'I am the,'" what? "'The light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in darkness but will have the Light of life." And we read in First Thessalonians five, beginning of verse five, we are "sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do but let us be alert and sober." And we know that our eternal destiny will be the ineffable and glorious light of heaven, where, according to Revelation 22, verse five, "there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever."

Now, contrast that with darkness, a metaphor that describes evil and deception, and Satan's kingdom of darkness. We see this all through Scripture. We know that Satan, at times, will disguise himself as an angel of light to deceive people in churches and seminaries and Bible colleges and Bible universities, and every other influential world system that he controls. Jesus said, in Luke 22:53, that Satan has the power of darkness. Why would you want to be a part of somebody that's a part of that. Ephesians 6:12, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers against the world forces of this darkness." And tragically, we know that sinners love darkness, rather than light. John 3:19, we read, "This as the judgment, that the Light has come into the world. And men love the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his the deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."

I think of Paul who in Acts 26, in verse 18, was sent by God, quote, "to open their eyes, “referring to the Gentiles, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me." So, what Paul is saying is, really are you going to dialogue with other faiths that reject Christ, that reject his Word? Are you going to join together in an interfaith initiatives for global peace and climate change and social justice and same sex marriage and transgender rights and radical feminism and all of these kinds of things? Really, you're going to do that? We're told in Ephesians 5:11, "Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them."

He asks another question, number three in verse 15, "Or what harmony has Christ with Belial?" "Symphonesis"-- harmony; it means "agreement." We get our English word "symphony" from that word. "What harmony has Christ with Belial?" Belial was an ancient word for Satan. I mean we serve Christ, we're not part of Satan's kingdom, we've been delivered from that. It's an opposing kingdom. Colossians 1:13, "He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Causing us to, according to Acts 26:18, "turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God." And my friend, I would ask you this morning, "to which kingdom do you belong?" To the kingdom that is accessed by repented faith in the living Christ, or to the kingdom of Satan that opposes God and seeks your eternal destruction? Don't be deceived. One day, every single person in here, every single person who has ever lived, will bow before the Lord Jesus Christ and will do so either in humble adoration or defiant trepidation. One or the other. If you reject Christ, you will hear him say "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master," Matthew 25:22. But if not, you will hear him say throw out "the worthless slave into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And my friend, your response to the King's provision of saving grace, set forth in the gospel, will determine your eternal destiny.

He asked the fourth question in verse 15. "Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?" You've probably heard what I've heard many times, "you Christians are from another planet." You ever heard that? Or something along that line? And you know, at some level, they're really right. I always laugh when I hear that. Jesus said in John 17:14, "'they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.'" And boy, the more you are around ungodly people, the more you realize you're just a freak. You're an alien. I just don't belong here. Jesus said in John 15:19, "'If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you." So to be unequally yoked with an unbeliever in a spiritual enterprise to honor God, betrays a depraved and irrational mind. God asked apostate Israel in Amos three three "Can two walk together unless they are agreed?" And of course they can't.

But not only does this betray a depraved mind, but secondly, a dead faith. Notice verse 16, "Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? We are the temple of the living God; just as God said, 'I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.'"

Here Paul harkens back to the numerous examples of Israel mixing pagan, idolatrous practices with the worship of the one true and living God. And sometimes they even did this inside the temple, which is inconceivable. In fact, the kings of Judah, you will recall, had erected, according to Jeremiah 7:31, "the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom." That is an East West Valley at the south end of Jerusalem. The term "Topheth" comes from the Hebrew word "tof", which means drum. It was in that valley of Hinnom, where the ancient Israelites would sacrifice their children to the idol of Molech, by throwing them alive into the fire, and the drums would be pounded loudly to drown out their screams. In Jesus' day, the Valley of Hinnom was also called Gehenna. A garbage dump where fires burned continually, and it was a place of massacre and now a place of perpetual flames that became a symbol of the eternal fires of hell. In fact, Jesus described it in Matthew 5:22 as "pyrho geenna" which means fiery hell. Dear Christian, this is where spiritual compromise and being unequally yoked will take you. This is why we have to guard it in our in our lives, in our heart, in our families, in our church. As believers, we are the temple of the living God. Think about that. He has redeemed us that he might inhabit us; the triune Godhead dwells within us. Anyone wishing to bring some blasphemous counterfeit into God's sanctuary betrays a dead faith that cannot save.

Thirdly betrays a defiant heart. Verse 17, he says, "Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,' says the Lord. AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN.'" In other words, make a break from all that defiles the temple of the living God; all of the false religious beliefs; all of the unclean false teaching described in the New Testament, doctrines of demons. I know of churches that have embraced, for example, evangelical pragmatism, this idea that you've got to become more like the world in order to win it. If they like us, maybe they'll like Jesus. So they removed everything that spiritually dead sinners that walk in the futility of their mind that are darkened in their understanding, might find defensive. They present some phony gospel that will appeal to everybody. They avoid sound biblical doctrine. They think it's too divisive. They dumb everything down to a point where people don't know anything; they have no spiritual discernment. They never discipline sin and as a result, they become nothing more than a religious country club. You know, people today are empty. We see this so often, we're seeing it more and more. People are crying out for truth. They listen to the media, and even to many of the politicians and they know they're being lied to. We are drowning in an ocean of deception. Here, tickling preachers have banished their congregations to an island of spiritual infancy at best or spiritual bankruptcy at worst. Because they won't preach the truth. Oh, if you do that people are gonna get mad and leave your church, let them leave. Give them the truth of the gospel. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation. I talked with a prominent teacher in a large evangelical church just recently. I was fascinated that he did not understand the phrase, "the doctrines of grace." Didn't know what I was talking about. And he also admitted that he knew nothing of the Protestant Reformation. And he also believed that Roman Catholicism and Mormonism are Christian denominations. Dear child of God, avoid being in close fellowship with these kinds of people. As nice and as friendly as they might be. They are to true believers and to the church. What Round Up is to grass--a little bit will make you sick and a lot of them will kill it. It will kill a church; it will kill your family. Avoid reading their Facebook pages, unfriend them. I think I know what that means, I'm not a Facebook person, but I think that's kind of a Christian cancel culture, right? You can punch a little button and unfriend them. You don't have to put that poison in before you. I've read some things...Nancy will call me, "Honey, you gotta read this thing. Okay, what is it? She says, "look what's so and so said." And I read this godless venom and we both just kind of roll our eyes. Can you believe that person goes to such and such a church? Can you believe this person calls Jesus Lord? Incomprehensible.

By the way, Be especially careful interacting with apostates. Their lies are like an opiate that clouds the mind and corrupts the soul. In fact, Jude tells us to handle these type of people with "much apprehension lest you be contaminated by them." We've all been around some notorious false teachers before. Jude 23 says "snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear." But he says "hating even the garment polluted by the flesh." They are a contaminating influence. That's the point. By the way, false teachers are demonic, you must understand that they are demonic. But their counterfeit truths are both brilliant, and compelling to the naive and to the ignorant. And often they know error better than Christians know truth. Dear church family, young people in particular, guard your heart and your mind with the truth of the Word of God. Fill your heart and your mind with God's wisdom, not man's wisdom, Peter says in First Peter 1:14, "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, 'YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.'" And folks, refusing to come out and be separate from these kinds of people, even if they're in your family puts you in a place of contamination and pollution, and it betrays a defiant heart. God has told you not to do that. Do you really think you're somehow excluded from that command, because of your unique situation?

Number four, it betrays a divisive spirit when you do this, notice, verse 17, God says, "'And I will welcome you.'" The term, "eisdechomai" in the original language; it carries the idea of finding favor from God as a result of obedience to His command; to be separate from phony worshipers in the church. That's the context here. To disobey, therefore, betrays the divisive spirit. It betrays a person that says, you know, God, this doesn't really apply to me. I'm not really worried about being cut off from intimate fellowship and blessing that you would like to lavish upon me. So I'll kind of do my own thing. But he says, "I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,' says, the Lord Almighty." You know, I am sure I speak for all of you, there is nothing I wouldn't do for my children and for my grandchildren. I love them, I would give my life, just like this, for them. There is nothing that would cause me to not love them. But boy, there are things that even our children can do that can break fellowship.

Paul was probably drawing his analogy here from God's unconditional covenant with David in Second Samuel seven. You remember there he made an irrevocable pledge, that a king from the line of David would rule forever--that will be fulfilled ultimately in his millennial kingdom. We read about this in Ezekiel 37, and Zechariah 14 and Revelation 19. And then Second Samuel seven, verse 14, God speaks of a coming descendant of David, and he says the same phrase, "'I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me.'" Same phrase that Paul uses here First Corinthians 6:18. Now, the immediate reference was Solomon, although the ultimate reference is the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. But indeed, we know that when Solomon obeyed God, and remained separate from their idolatrous practices of the culture, God blessed him, but when he disobeyed, God judged him. That's why in the last half of Second Samuel 7:14, we read, "When he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men."

And you will probably remember the story of Solomon. Solomon was supposed to be the wisest man, and I'm sure he was, but he still had an evil streak in him. And he disregarded God's command. He had a divisive spirit; he preferred his own pleasure over God's blessing. So he decided to have fellowship with idolaters and God judged him severely. We read about this in First Kings chapter 11. He says, "Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the sons of Israel, 'You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.'" And then we read this, “Solomon held fast to these in love." He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem. And for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon." I described that to you with some of their child sacrifices. The text goes on to say this, "also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. Now, the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord had commanded. So the Lord said to Solomon, 'Because you have done this, and you have not kept My commandment and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant.'" Beloved, this is what happens when you ignore what God has commanded. This is what Paul is saying here, Second Corinthians 6:18, that he wants intimate fellowship with us. He wants to bless us, but if you spurn his commandment, and you refuse to separate yourselves from those who are even a part of the church who call themselves Christians, who believe things that are an abomination to the living God, you will forfeit blessing in your life and God will chasten you. And we see evidence of this everywhere today.

Well, you notice he closes this passionate section of admonitions by saying, chapter seven verse one, "Therefore having these promises." What promise? What's he referring to? Well, those that he just described in chapter six, verses 16, through 18..."THAT I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; I WILL BE THEIR GOD AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE...I will welcome you. I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me." By the way, all of you, who know and love Christ, and who walk with Him in obedience, understand the soul satisfying joy, that exhilarating reality of the presence of the living God within your soul. Because you're walking in harmony with Him, you're being obedient to Him. And it's for this reason he tells them, "Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,' says the Lord." Those are the promises.

It not only betrays a depraved mind, a dead faith, a defiant heart and a divisive spirit, but finally, a defiling religion. Any religious alliance with unbelievers is an insult to the Most High God, because it defiles. The word "defile" means "to corrupt," "to pollute." It defiles you, and it defiles your family, and it defiles your church and as a result, you forfeit God's blessing. Worse yet, you've sacrificed the joy and the power of having an intimate communion with God. O dear Christian, come out and be separate from professing Christians who advocate things that are unbiblical. Yes, love them, be kind to them, present truth to them. But don't join in with them. Don't be a part of their church. Don't sit under their teaching. Don't read their books, don't read their blogs. Again, separate on the purity of the gospel and the authority of Scripture. Because to embrace these things, or have close fellowship with those who do, betrays a defiling religion, that is frankly a stench in the nostrils of God.

"Therefore, having these promises," he's going to bless us and those who fail to take this seriously know little of the joy of his presence in their life because they grieve the Spirit of God, they quench the Spirit of God in their life. And that begins to manifest itself in how they live their life. They begin to have a secret life that is morally reprehensible to God. Their marriage, reversed to kind of a roommate status, at best, divorce at worst. Their children do not walk with the Lord because they get no shepherding in the home, and on and on it goes. They have chosen division over unity. They have chosen estrangement over fellowship, and how ungrateful for we as believers to embrace these kinds of things that God finds have abhorrent. And therefore, in essence, say, "God, thanks for all the wonderful things that you've done in my life and all of the things that you want to do, but you know what, this is really important to me. I really like these people. I don't want to cause any disunity. I don't want to rock the boat. I mean, after all, we all need to get we want to love everybody, right? So we just need to be tolerant here." No, dear friends, you've got to be careful with that. We need to be separate. We don't need to be unequally yoked with ungodly hypocrites.

"Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves." "Ourselves" is a reflexive pronoun, we call it in Greek grammar, and in this context, it acknowledges God is the one who does the cleansing. Nevertheless, it also reveals that we, as believers, are required to put forth effort. "Let us go cleanse ourselves from all defilement of," notice, "flesh, and spirit." In other words, let's be clean on the inside and on the outside, any of us can put on a good show but God sees the heart. Then he says, "perfecting,"--could be translated "completing" or "finishing"--"holiness in the fear of God." In other words, we do all of these things because we have a reverential awe of his glorious person and work in our life. Maurice Roberts said, quote, "If society is to be awakened one day from its deep slumber, it will only be done by Christians who have first woken up themselves to the full splendor of their privilege, and who have taken seriously the call to live holy and entirely for God."

Well, dear friends, providence has placed these truths before you. The question now is, what will you do with them? What will you do with them? I challenge you to take these things seriously. May I plead with you to take these things seriously. I have lived long enough and worked so many hours with so many people. I know, horror stories, by the 1000s, of what happens to people who ignore what God has said here. Spiritual, doctrinal compromise is a slippery slope. And once you go too far, the gravity of evil will overpower you and pull you into a life of untold misery. And so because of my love for you and my love for the Word of God, I warn you, this is the damning consequence of being unequally yoked. But for those who are willing to cleanse themselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in the fear of God, the outcome is very different. That person will be marked by the fruits of the Spirit. And I'm so thankful that I can honestly say, what I have preached today is basically preaching to the choir, because you are these people, and I rejoice that you love the truths of the Word of God and you're willing to separate yourselves from things that are an abomination to Him. May God's Spirit plant these truths deep within your heart and cause them to bear much fruit for the glory of Christ Jesus, our Savior and our coming King. Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for your Word, it speaks so practically to us. But I plead with you that by the power of your Spirit, you will help us to live out these great truths. I pray as Paul did that, you will grant us according to the riches of your glory to be strengthened with power, through your Spirit in the inner man so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. And then each of us being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that we may be filled up to all the fullness of God. I pray that you will grant all these things in Jesus name.