The Call to Separation

Introduction: The call to separation is not one of isolation. The Lord Jesus Christ never intended for His followers to be walled off from the rest of the world, as Nuns in Convents and Monks in Monasteries. We are called to carry our Lord’s Gospel throughout all the world, while remaining separate in our beliefs, behaviors, and aims. We are to be in the world, but not of the world (John 17:11-14).

🧠 Memory Verse: 2 Corinthians 6:2 - “2 For He says: In an acceptable time, I heard you, and in the day of salvation, I helped you. Look, now is the acceptable time; look, now is the day of salvation.”

7 Divine Calls From God

Call to Salvation Call to Sanctification Call to Service Call to Separation Call to Sonship Call to Subjection Call to Suffering

Selective About Unions (6:14-15)

Believers And Non-Believers Cannot Align (6:14) - “Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?”

Exodus 34:16 (HCSB) - “16 Then you will take some of their daughters [as brides] for your sons. Their daughters will prostitute themselves with their gods and cause your sons to prostitute themselves with their gods.”

🔑 Leviticus 19:19 (HCSB) - “19 “ ‘Keep my decrees. “ ‘Do not mate different kinds of animals. “ ‘Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. “ ‘Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.”

Deuteronomy 7:1-2 (HCSB) - “1 "When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, and He drives out many nations before you-the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you- 2 and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you and you defeat them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy. 3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,”

🔑 Deuteronomy 22:10 (HCSB) - “Do not plow with an ox and a donkey together.”

Note Deuteronomy 22:10 - This passage was intended to demonstrate the problem that arises when plowing a field with two different types of animals. They will pull at different paces and paths. The same holds true in life, when we are not aligned with the person with whom we have been matched.

Psalm 106:34-40 (HCSB) - “34 They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord had commanded them, 35 but mingled with the nations and adopted their ways. 36 They served their idols, which became a snare to them. 37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. 38 They shed innocent blood- the blood of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; so the land became polluted with blood. 39 They defiled themselves by their actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds. 40 Therefore, the Lord's anger burned against His people, and He abhorred His own inheritance.

Psalm 139:21 (HCSB) - “21 Lord, don't I hate those who hate You, and detest those who rebel against You?”

Proverbs 22:24 (HCSB) - “24 Don't make friends with an angry man, and don't be a companion of a hot-tempered man,”

Believers And Non-Believers Have Different Agreements (6:15) - “What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?”

1 Kings 18:21 (HCSB) - “21 Then Elijah approached all the people and said, "How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If Yahweh is God, follow Him. But if Baal, follow him." But the people didn't answer him a word.”

Ezra 4:3 (HCSB) - “3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the other leaders of Israel's families answered them, "You may have no part with us in building a house for our God, since we alone must build [it] for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.”

1 Corinthians 10:20 (HCSB) - “20 No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons! 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the Lord's table and the table of demons.”

Selected As God’s People (6:16)

Selected For God’s Praise (6:16a) - “And what agreement does God’s sanctuary have with idols? For we are the sanctuary of the living God,”

Illustration The Ark in the tent with Dagon (1 Samuel 5:2-4) -

Exodus 20:3 (HCSB) - “3 Do not have other gods besides Me.”

Deuteronomy 4:23-24 (HCSB) - “23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that He made with you, and make an idol for yourselves in the shape of anything He has forbidden you. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”

🔑 Joshua 24:15 (HCSB) - “15 But if it doesn't please you to worship the Lord, choose for yourselves today the one you will worship: the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord.”

🔑 Matthew 6:24 (HCSB) - “24 "No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money.”

Note (6:16b) - “For we are the sanctuary of the living God,” - This statement speaks to God’s Spirit indwelling His people, and making his habitation among the believers in His name.

Ephesians 2:19-22 (HCSB) - “19 So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God's household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. 21 The whole building is being fitted together in Him and is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for God's dwelling in the Spirit.”

1 Peter 2:4-5 (HCSB) - “4 Coming to Him, a living stone-rejected by men but chosen and valuable to God- 5 you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Selected as God’s People (6:16b) - “as God said: I will dwell among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Leviticus 26:12 (HCSB) - “12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.”

Psalm 90:1 (HCSB) - “1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations

John 6:56 (HCSB) - “56 The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood lives in Me, and I in him.”

1 Peter 2:9 (HCSB) - “9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

🔑 Romans 8:11 (HCSB) - “11 And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through His Spirit who lives in you.”

1 John 5:20 (HCSB) - “20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true One. We are in the true One-that is, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”

Separate Yourselves for God (6:17-18)

Separated to God (6:17) - “17 Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord; do not touch any unclean thing, and I will welcome you.”

Illustration Korah’s Rebellion (Numbers 16:1-50): During Moses’ leadership of Israel in the wilderness

Numbers 16:19-21 (HCSB) - “19 Meanwhile, Korah had stirred up the entire community against Moses and Aaron, and they all gathered at the Tabernacle entrance. Then the glorious presence of the LORD appeared to the whole community, 20 and the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 21 “Get away from all these people so that I may instantly destroy them!”

Psalm 1:1 (KJV) - “1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”

Proverbs 9:6 (HCSB) - “6 Leave inexperience behind, and you will live; pursue the way of understanding.”

🔑 Acts 2:40 (HCSB) - “40 And with many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, "Be saved from this corrupt generation!”

Separated as Special Children of God (6:18) - “18 I will be a Father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty.”

Jeremiah 3:19 (HCSB) - “19 I thought: How I long to make you [My] sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations. I thought: You will call Me, my Father, and never turn away from Me.”

John 1:11-13 (HCSB) - “11 He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. 12 But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.”

Galatians 3:26 (HCSB) - “26 for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

1 John 3:1 (HCSB) - “1 Look at how great a love the Father has given us, that we should be called God's children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn't know Him.”