Unequally Yoked - part 3
Today we also remember that since 1932, we have existed as a local fellowship of believers. For 74 years, God has been faithful to the New Hope Baptist Church fellowship and I can say that I have seen His many blessings and I know that He did not bring us to this point for nothing or to leave us.
Let us return to 2 Corinthian 6:14-7:1 and listen. My subject today is “This is what God says!”
Read the passage slowly. 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1.
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 (we) 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.
Listen again to that first verse of chapter 7. (Read it again)
As the result of having these promises, verse 14 and the rest of verse 1 is possible. We need to be clear about these promises, New Hope. So, I too will adjust my subject to, ‘This is what God promise!’
In general, a promise is a declaration that something will or will not be done. It is an express assurance on which expectation is to be based.
Listen again to how Paul expresses these promises in verses 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”
First point, what can we say about God’s promises in general? Paul has done that earlier in this letter; turn to chapter one of this second Corinthians and listen to verses 18-20;
2 Corinthians 1:18-20. But as God is faithful, our word to you was not Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
Brothers and Sisters of New Hope, when God makes a promise, it is in the affirmative and it is even more so in Him, that is, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. If He says something will be in Him, to make it plan and simple, IT IS, because, all the promises of God in Him are yes, not maybe, not might be, but will be! And, I like this part of the passage, ‘and in Him Amen’ in Jesus Amen. We may use this word, amen, a lot but it means and imply, it is so; so be it; it is a very solemn ratification, approval or sanction. Amen means there is agreement. And with God’s promises, in Christ, heaven and earth is in agreement.
God promise that He will never leave us or forsake us and the church can say, AMEN!
The word says in John 5:24. “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. That’s a promise and the church can say, AMEN!
When Jesus says in John 14:2-3, In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. That’s another promise, New Hope, and we who love the Lord can say, AMEN
The verse doesn’t stop with amen, it says; “to the glory of God through us.” There is praise, worship and adoration because of what God has done and what He has promised that He will do for the church of Jesus Christ. New Hope His promises give me a new hope.
So how do I apply this to myself? Here are the words to just one of many songs based on the promises of God. “Never alone, I don’t have to worry cause I’m never alone. He walks besides me every day; He guides my foot steps all the way. It is taking time to reflect on where he has brought you from and recalling the words of David; “I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.”
Too many times I am focused on what I lost or separated from instead of who I am attached to. I am crying over the family lost or that I wish I had instead of rejoicing with the family I’m blessed with. Do you hear me, my brothers and sisters of New Hope?
If all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him amen, to the glory of God through us, then that surely apply to these promises in 6:16; “I will dwell in them and walk among them, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” And I just want to say, yes Lord, amen to Your Word and glory to Your name!
Look with me at two passages of Scriptures, both from the Old Testament; the first is Leviticus 26:11-12. I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.
And Ezekiel 37:26-27. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
These are the two passages that most scholars feel that Paul is quoting from in 2 Corinthians 6:16.
This verse starts off with a question that we know the answer to; there is no agreement between the temple of God and idols. Paul supports the declarative statement that ‘we are the temple of the living God’ with Old Testament promises from God.
Adding and providing evidence that the church is part of the Old Testament and we should be happy and inspired to look there for some vital teachings and illustrations. And that the God we serve is an unchanging God and awesome God saying what He means and means what He says!
I quoted this last Sunday; these saints of the church at Corinth were not always the sanctified brothers and sisters of the church but were actually the gutter-most. Listen; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. (Before finishing, brothers and sisters, that’s another promise, amen) The passage goes on to say; and such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
The old things and the old ways have passed away; they are now a new creation and all things have become new even being under the promises of God made to His people in the Old Testament because God identifies them with the Old Testament Israel, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and God’s own special people. I will dwell in them; setup an abode within them, in other words God with us. And walk among them. This brings to my mind two settings again from the Old Testament
Amos 3:3. Can two walk together, unless they are agreed? And the situation in the garden in Genesis 3; the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden. It speaks to my heart about being in harmony with God. In a city of idol worship, evil all around and temptation every where you could imagine, God in this environment makes the promise that He will be their God and they shall be My people. Truly His promises in Him are yes and in Him amen!
We today, New Hope, my brothers and sisters can identify with our brothers and sisters of Corinth in so many ways. Our background, our playground, where we come from and where we live, and look at what He has done for us! Can we say amen, can we say praise the Lord?
In another letter to the saints at Ephesus, Paul writes Ephesians 2:19-22. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, (Old and New Testament) Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. When we just focus on our local fellowship, The history of this New Hope Baptist Church, there is just 74 years, but when we realize that we too are built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles, the history is amazing.
Leviticus was written around 1446 B.C., Ezekiel around 565 B.C. and 2 Corinthians around 56 A.D., we are looking at over 3,400 years, from Leviticus to present, of history and the promises of the living God that is applied to us here in 2006 A.D.
And we are living witnesses that the promises have been kept. Look at what God has done dwelling in us, walking among us and being our God. Has He been with us in the court room? Yes He has! Has He been with us in the sick room? Yes He has! Has He been with us in the prayer room? Yes He has! How about our living room and our bed room? Yes He has! There are times He was with us even when we thought there was no room for Him to be there or we did not want to make room for Him to be there, amen!
But just as important and amazing is the other promise ‘and they shall be My people’. God took strangers and made a people for Himself. Based on the world standards, what are the chances for a person from Chicago, from Arkansas and St. Louis coming together, agree and become friends? What is the chance of teenagers from the 1980’s, who we knew when we were younger, from another fellowship (Chuck, Mike, and Angie) being part of this same fellowship two of the three with families of their own, two decades later?
And just like what we see in Corinth we see here at New Hope, the entire fellowship at Corinth was connected to the entire glorious past of God dealing with man and the promises that he has made. I see the promises being fulfilled here today, listen. Some of you here I can remember when we started pasturing and others the Lord has graduated from this life to the life of glory. Not many are left who remember the old days of New Hope and my how I miss my sister Estelle Young. But God has blessed this fellowship with our children and with new members because He promise to dwell in us here and He has, He promise to walk among us here and He has, He promise to be our God and He is, and He promise that we, you and I, shall be His people and we are! And the church can say amen!
You see the church, the local church and New Hope in particular, will always have three types of people, the elders, the young people who are our children and grandchildren, and the new members that the Lord brings to us at various times.
Allow me to illustrate from the plant world let’s say you are given a strong vine, deep rooted, healthy and growing by the river of waters. Grafting can take place with this plant because of its proven endurance. The branch that has been grafted is judged to be successful because it is indeed abiding and budding. As that abiding branch continues to gets stronger and stronger and grows, there is a new hope that it can become the parent branch for additional grafting along with it budding. We, New Hope is that abiding branch grafted into Jesus Christ the true vine with a new hope a new expectation in His Father as the husbandman, who knows how and has the wisdom to prunes, graft and take care of the new budding.
So the promise is being kept in this present reality. God does dwell in us; the presence of the Lord is here! God does walk among us; the power of the Lord is here! God is our God; the spirit of the Lord is here! And we are His people; I can feel it in the atmosphere. The Lord is here!
I am going to ask the choir to come one more time and while they are coming let us pray for our fellowship keep telling the story about the goodness of the Lord!