Revering the Word
2 Corinthians 6 Evaluating the influence of the world in your life.
Good morning, everyone. This morning we are in 2 Corinthians chapter 6. As we close chapter 5, this was the focus. Listen to what it says here in verse 20, "Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us." And then he says these words, which really tie in chapter 6, "We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." He's trying to make sure that these people he's writing to in Corinth, that even though it's a church, that everyone has given their life to Christ, that they've become born again, that they indeed have been reconciled to God through faith in Jesus, so that they can be a part of the ministry that God has given them, the ministry of reconciliation. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God. That is such a fantastic verse. We taught on it last time, but man, I wish everyone knew the full measure of that. Jesus Christ became our sin, so that by taking our sin we could become the righteousness of God. Hallelujah. Verse chapter 6, now verse 1, "And working together with him will also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain." And what that's referring to is that now that we have come to Christ, let's live for him, let's not receive it in vain, let's make sure it has the kind of impact on our lives transforming us to be God's people and not just receive it, but be the same old person in a sense, then receive it in vain. Verse 2, "For he says at the acceptable time," I listen to you, "on the day of salvation I helped you." And he's quoting Isaiah 49 there, and the point he's making, listen to what it says next, "Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation." And Paul is bringing a measure of urgency to accepting Christ, and really, now is the day of salvation, and that is in two different ways. So one, listen, we don't know how much time we're going to have left, right? I mean, we could die tomorrow, it is possible, and as a result of the fact of not knowing how much time we have, there's no time to waste, let's get ourselves right with God today. In addition, there's future dispensations, there's future end times things that are going to happen. I hold to a pre-tribulation rapture, and what that means is that Jesus Christ is going to come get His church before the seven-year challenging time of tribulation that's going to take place on earth. And as a result of not knowing when that's going to happen, meaning it could happen at any time, we're in a season of history right now where God is holding out His hand and everyone has an opportunity to accept Him, but that time is going to come to an end. And then people are going to enter a new time. And what you want to do is make sure you come to Christ before the future end times things happen so that you receive the blessing that God has promised for His bride, the church. So as a result, Paul is saying now is the time of salvation, like don't wait. Don't wait, receive Jesus Christ today. Now in verse three, we have a shift, kind of a shift back. And in 2 Corinthians, the context is that the apostle Paul was being undermined. His credibility was being undermined. There were false teachers that were saying that Paul wasn't teaching the truth and that they were teaching the truth, which is not true. Paul is giving the correct message of salvation. And he's the one that he should listen to, but he's fighting for his reputation and for and for really for them, because if if they don't listen to him and they don't listen to his version of the gospel, which is, you know, now the word of God, they're going to be lost or not receive what they could. So what he's saying in verse three is he giving no cause for offense and anything so that the ministry will not be discredited, meaning he's seeking to live his right life honorably before them, even though he's being persecuted, even though people are saying false things, he's trying to live his life in an honorable way so that they will listen to the message that he is giving them, that his credibility will be strong. And he wants them to to believe what he's saying. So what he says in verse four in ongoing, but in everything committing ourselves as servants of God, he's saying, listen, we've proved to be servants of God. We I have Paul is saying, stayed in the faith amidst very difficult things. And I hope Paul is relaying to them that that's evidence to you that you can trust me in the message that I'm giving you. And he's going to bring those up now. Listen, he says, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in to molds, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God, by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report, regarded as deceivers. That's what they are saying about them. And yet true, he was speaking the truth, as unknown yet well known, unknown by others, but well known by God, as dying yet behold, we live punished, yet not put to death, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things and possessing all things in Jesus. And man, what a remarkable man. I mean, the kind of difficulty and hardship and persecutions and beatings and jailings that the Apostle Paul went through. And he continued to live for Christ. And you know what, sometimes he was even abandoned. You know, he would be in prison and he felt very abandoned, he felt very alone, even his closest allies at times he felt were not on his side. But yet what he did is he stuck with Jesus all the way to the end. And what a, what a great example he is, you know, in life and especially in ministry, you're going to go through things, you know, it's not going to always be easy. And, you know, we talked about that in a prior chapter that Paul was saying don't lose heart. And that can be a hard thing. You know, when, when, when ministry and when life is challenging, when bad things happen in your life, it could be easy to lose heart. But the Apostle Paul is a great example of being steadfast and renewing his relationship with God in no matter what, serving him faithfully to the end. And man, I hope to learn from Paul's example, I hope to follow his example. I hope for me and for you, and all who are listening, that no matter what happens in our life, and there's going to be hills and valleys, that no matter what, we'd stick with the Lord all the way to the end. Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus, help me and help all of us God to serve you all the way to the end, no matter what we face, help us to not lose heart, God. Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is open wide. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections and again, that's why understanding the context of the letter is really important because he's basically saying, you know, if you follow these false teachers, you're going to be restrained in your own affections. And he's saying, listen, our hearts are open to you. We're giving you the truth. We're giving you our lives. And he doesn't want them to be restrained by the false things that are being said about him. Now, in a like exchange, I speak as to children open wide to us also, he's wanting them to trust him. He's wanting them to trust the message that he's giving. And he's like open wide to us because I want to bring forth the truth of God to you, but you've got to be open to what I'm teaching you. Don't allow these people who are trying to hinder what I'm teaching you to have an impact. Please listen to what I'm saying, the Apostle Paul is saying, because he wants them to be firm and sound in the gospel. Now, we have a little bit of a change of topic, but not not entirely because what he's saying is, is there's people that are troubling you and they're not even in the truth. They're not even believers in some cases. And they're troubling you, Corinthians, they're troubling you from the truth. And at times you got to be separate from people who are teaching the wrong thing. You got to be separate from unbelievers when they're leading you astray. Now, we have unbelievers in our lives because we want to lead them to Jesus. But if unbelievers are leading us astray, we need to separate ourselves from them. And this is what the topic he's going to now 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 Bileil. Bile is some kind of, you know, capital, or not capital, low G God, you know, thing that he doesn't want them to follow and he's sharing with them. Listen, there's no harmony between the two, you know, follow Christ, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever. And you know, and this is, this is also used to a certain extent in marriage, you know, in all things, I mean, whether you're partnering in a business, whether you're in marriage, and you know, you want to make sure that you are with believers who are encouraging you and not unbelievers who are turning you away. Now listen, we do need to be of the world, excuse me, we do need to be in the world, but not of the world, meaning, yes, we do have relationships with unbelievers, but we have to evaluate in those relationships, are we encouraging them to be more like us or encouraging them closer to Jesus, or are they leading us away? And if we're not strong enough to be with them, and as a result of being with unbelievers, we're being led away, that wouldn't be a healthy place for us to be. But being amidst unbelievers when we are strong in faith, and hopefully then we can be a positive influence, that is a good place to be. But we have to be evaluating how we're doing in our journey and in our walk. And at times we do need to separate if we're being influenced negatively. Verse 16, or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. Now that's such a powerful statement, you know, in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit resided in a temple. And now the Holy Spirit resides in us and we are a temple of the living God. And we have nothing to do with false temples. Just as God has said, and now he's going to quote several fragments of Old Testament passages to make his point. Remember, that was their word of God at the time was the Old Testament. So even though they were in a new season, a new dispensation in the church age, they still looked for the New Testament, oh, excuse me, the Old Testament for advice and for the word of God. And we still should too. But now we have even a further light of the full revelation of the New Testament word of God. And we view the Old Testament through the New Testament length. So anyways, he's quoting Old Testament passages, several of them here. I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And what a glorious verse that is. And that could be in reference both to the tabernacle of the Old Testament, but also to the promise of the new covenant that we have today, where God is on our minds and hearts through the spirit today. Verse 17, therefore come out from their midst and be separate says the Lord. And really that's such a and do not touch what is unclean. And I will welcome you. It's really an interesting thing, you know, and we've talked about it over time that there's a dual mandate in the Old Testament that although Abraham's family was supposed to be blessed so that they could be a blessing to everyone else, they also are supposed to be separate from the sins and false worship of the people around them. So it's kind of a dual mandate, be a blessing to them, but don't entertain their gods, be a blessing to them, but don't become like them, you know, lead them to worship me, don't start worshiping what they worship. And sometimes separation was necessary in order to do that. And when we do separate from sinfulness, and then it says this in verse 18, and I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me says the Lord almighty. So God is clearly reminding us through the apostle Paul in this word here that we need to be careful about who we're partnering with or how the world is influencing us. You know, it's a challenging world we live in, it's a in apostate world really that's falling away from the living God and we want our faith to be strong and we have to evaluate our associations and who we're spending time with and Lord willing, you know, you can be a part of a church and part of your own spiritual habits to remain strong in God so that as you live in this world and interact with people of the world, you can positively encourage them towards Jesus versus them, you know, leading you to to walk more towards the world's way. So God strengthen our resolve to live for you, help us to know God when we need to be in the world for a ministry's sake, but when we also need to remove ourselves, God, from worldliness to be strong in you. Thank you Jesus and Amen and God bless you all.